Anarchists and Space
April 7, 2009
I must admit, I wasn’t that excited when I first heard that the topic for this year’s Finding Our Roots anarchist theory conference in Chicago was going to be “space” — as in, the anarchist use of locations, territory, or idea/cultural space. Now that the conference is just a few weeks away, however, I’ve been toying with the idea of putting together a guerrilla workshop on anarchists _in_ space — as in, outer space.
An obvious starting point for a discussion of this sort would be the Association of Autonomous Astronauts, and similar groups like Red Giant, that tackled issues like the demilitarization and (non-)corporate colonization of outer space. On the more abstract/theoretical level, we could discuss science fiction portrayals of anarchists in space — Robinson’s Mars books, LeGuin’s Dispossessed, Ian Banks’s Culture books, MacLeod’s Fall Revolution, etc. — and how anarchists could play a role in expanding outward from Earth and potentially use it to claim autonomous anarchist space.
While such sci-fi and speculative fiction is often dismissed, it does open the door for anarchists to talk about these issues with people unfamiliar to anarchism.
Anyone reading this going to FOR? Anyone potentially interested in such a guerrilla workshop?
