3 Comments
Jun 11·edited Jun 12Liked by Peter Gelderloos

I haven't decided how to address this comment since it's mostly intended for other readers but some of it directly responds to the article. So instead of deciding, I wrote this awkward introduction.

Nomenclature: "amerikan" (the continents) & anglo (the linguistic culture) people are so generally ignorant about the South Pacific that it's not a surprise radicals have been using "new caledonia" instead of Kanaky, but it's still worth pushing back against & hopefully this article has enough reach to help with that. I wonder how many in the 1970s referred to Zimbabwe as "rhodesia"…as an aside, usually Palestinians refer to the israeli-occupied desert as the Naqab, with "negev" being the colonial preference. (I understand quite well that we can't know everything or use all the right words all the time but think it isn't bad to introduce people to more alternatives.)

Perhaps also many substack readers aren't aware of "counter-information" or anarchist practices to spread the word about events, actions, & narratives that are ignored or mangled by mainstream & even social media? anarchistfederation.net is an aggregator which includes a lot of counter info sites, so it could be used as a tool to find more specific media outlets or you can just follow everything they post, though that's probably overwhelming for a lot of people. (Counterinfo seems to be the contemporary incarnation of the underground press of the 1960s/1970s alongside older traditions of seditious, anti-status quo media.)

There is a lot to learn from the history of anarchists' rather tortured relationship with [anti]colonialism—so much of it not (yet?) available in English. There are some academic books in English, but for less daunting reading M. Gouldhawke has compiled a lot of resources that are probably worth looking through for anyone thinking through how to act without falling into predictable mistakes. https://mgouldhawke.wordpress.com/anarchism-indigenous-peoples/

https://mgouldhawke.wordpress.com/anarchists-on-national-liberation/

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Jun 13Liked by Peter Gelderloos

Thank you, that you have once again clarified some things. And continue to have strength in your fight against the damn tumor. Sofie. From the other side on the ocean.

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Jun 11Liked by Peter Gelderloos

Commenting on Louis Michel and the Kanak people, there is a great article that recently got posted on the Crimethinc website about this topic! I highly recommend it.

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