Introduction - The current crises that are happening in the queercommunity within the United States are absolutely astounding. It painsme to see such an acceleration in terms of the threats that ourcommunity is facing. When I published Queers With Guns,[1]I had no ideaabout the sheer amount of reactionary violence and bills related to thetrans community, but also the queer community in general, that wouldhappen in the months that followed. It has also been painfully obviousthat the current way that the LGBT+ community has organized itselfwithin the US empire is not equipped in any capacity to deter thefascist threat that is on the rise, something that I had written aboutin my first essay. Within the essay itself, I had only given a broadidea as to what we can do outside of the current liberal order to defendourselves and our community. It would be greatly recommended that Queerswith Guns be read before reading this essay, as the ideas that areexpressed here are not as accessible without the context of reading theprevious essay. There is clearly a hunger within our community for awell-defined political framework from which the queer community canorganize itself in a new direction against the fascist threat, whilealso building the new world we wish to create in the here and now. Thisis exactly what will be explored further in this essay.More specifically, I will be laying the groundwork for a Queer SocialAnarchism, as opposed to the more atomized and purely negative queeranarchisms that have dominated queer anarchist organizing and radicalqueer communities for at least 15 years from the time of this essay'swriting. It is clear that the queer anarchist community needs a newdirection in terms of its theory and practice, and needs to regain whatespecifist anarchists call the "social vector" of anarchism that made itso famous and infamous in the first place. In other words, anarchistsneed to get back with the public and the social fabric. In order foranarchists to be popular again, we need to start building positiveprograms and structures that can positively, as well as negativelycombat the current regime that occupies our communities.I intend to help introduce this lost side of anarchist politics topeople within the queer anarchist community and queer radical spaces ingeneral with the writing of this essay. This essay's purpose is not toexplain every minute detail of how a queer social anarchism or socialanarchisms in general work. Its purpose is simply to help juxtapose thisideology against the previous iterations of queer anarchistorganizations and ideologies within the US, and help make clear a modernconstruction of social anarchism that also intersects with the queercommunity's context and fulfills our collective needs at this time. Iwill reference sources throughout this work, and at the end of thisessay, that talk more in depth about social anarchism that I highlyrecommend looking into.Part 1: Overview of Queer AnarchismBefore getting into any particular social anarchism, let us start byvery broadly going over the vast, complicated landscape of QueerAnarchism. This is being done so that we can have a better idea as tohow a Queer Social Anarchism could fit within the broader QueerAnarchist movement. Most would assume that there would be a subsequentlist of different tendencies within Queer Anarchism in a neat, orderedlist with clear and distinct explanations and definitions. The realityof how different frameworks of theory and practice interact, intersect,and contradict one another within the umbrella of Queer Anarchism issadly not that simple. The best description I can give is one thatinvolves broad categories. These broad categories are not necessarilymutually exclusive, and often intersect in different ways depending onwhich Queer Anarchist you read or talk to.Just like Queer peoples' lives, ideological beliefs within QueerAnarchism are very often interconnected, messy, and confusing on thesurface to most people. One should take note that these broad categoriesare not an exhaustive list within Queer Anarchist writings ororganizations. These categories are drawn for the sake of simplicity andclarity for those who are not familiar of this landscape. They come fromthe most popular and widespread tendencies within this umbrella asinterpreted by the author of this essay. One should be encouraged toread the sources within Queer Anarchisms beyond the description laid outbelow.The first major category to be mentioned is Queer InsurrectionaryAnarchism. This is the most popular category within the queer anarchistmovement as a whole. Queer Anarchism would not be where it is todaywithout the involvement and development of insurrectionary anarchismwithin the queer context in the late 2000s to early 2010s.Insurrectionary Anarchism is an anarchist ideology that is orientedaround the joy of struggle within the present moment, and havinginformal horizontal organizations called Affinity Groups independentlycollaborating on attacking the current system. These affinity groups aremostly focused on fostering quality over quantity when it comes toorganizing around certain actions or goals. One of the main reasons forsuch affinity groups is that they are formations that do not seek toperpetuate themselves. Insurrectionary Anarchists have a much greateremphasis on organization based on goals achieved within the present.They tend to focus on direct attack against the systems of capitalismand the state as their primary course of action, seeing this as moreeffective than building social organizations, which they think focus toomuch on creating popular support for anarchist ideas and projects. Asstated in the essay "Archipelago:""We think that archipelagos of affinity groups, independent one from theother, that can associate according to their shared perspectives andconcrete projects of struggle, constitute the best way to directly passto the offensive. This conception offers the biggest autonomy and thewidest field of action possible. In the sphere of insurrectionalprojects it is necessary and possible to find ways of informallyorganizing that allow the encounter between anarchists and other rebels,forms of organization not intended to perpetuate themselves, but gearedtowards a specific and insurrectional purpose."[2]Another major category that is very influential within this network isQueer Nihilist Anarchism. Nihilist Anarchism is often interconnectedwith insurrectionary anarchisms because a lot of their conclusions comefrom the same philosophical foundations. Many insurrectionary anarchistsalso consider themselves nihilist anarchists, and vice versa. Not allinsurrectionary anarchists are nihilist anarchists, and not all nihilistanarchists are insurrectionary anarchists. Nihilist anarchism as acategory takes what insurrectionary anarchists promote - organizingwithin the present, building organizations that don't seek to perpetuatethemselves, attacking/negating the current system as the primary goal -and takes them to their furthest extent. Nihilist anarchists believethat anything outside of pure negation with the express goal ofdestroying the current structure is not enough to truly uproot it. Theybelieve that any attempt to try and anticipate or prefigure the newstructure would inevitably be influenced by the current structure andtherefore turn into another form of that structure's oppression.Social Anarchism is a category of anarchism that is not broadlyunderstood within the queer context. Social Anarchism as an ideology hasthese three words as their foundation - Freedom, Equality andSolidarity. None of these words are given individual priority over theothers, and are all emphasized together. Social anarchists are nottrying to extend freedom to the greatest extent for the sake ofexpanding it. Neither do social anarchists want to extend equality norsolidarity to the fullest extent for their own sake. Rather, socialanarchists seek to emphasize all three values to their furthest extentat the same time and build organizations and a future society thatreflects that.Part 2: The Basics of EspecifismoBefore undertaking the task of trying to connect social anarchist ideasto the needs and context of the queer community, we must start with atleast a basic understanding of the kind of anarchism that's beingdiscussed. This will outline a very broad overview of what especifistanarchism is, where it came from, and how it works. This is not anexhaustive layout by any means, and more clear details can be foundwithin the sources cited throughout and at the end of this essay.The basic ideas surrounding what is called "especifismo" (translated to"specifism" in English) comes from Brazil and Uruguay around the turn ofthe 20th century. It is an ideology that places emphasis on what iscalled the Specific Anarchist Organization (SAO) and the PopularOrganization. These two concepts work in tandem with each other, takingthe concept of the SAO that has been implemented by social anarchistsfor decades and seeks to help integrate them back into the fabric ofsocial movements, something that previous social anarchists (platformistanarchists in particular) have been criticized for losing touch of inthe past with their SAOs.The SAO, to put it simply, is a political body that upholds, shares andbelieves in a clear set of anarchist principles laid out within acharter and in points of agreement as well as having a unity in strategyand tactics. This is not unique to especifist anarchism by any means,but what makes this formation different is how this organization isstructured in a reciprocal relationship between the minority anarchistorganization and the broader social movements. The main structure of anSAO consists of different levels of committed militants and supporterswho participate in actions done by the anarchist organization.There are three groups that are considered when talking about the SAO:Committed Militant, Militant, and The Social Movement. An especifistgroup in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Scissortail Anarchist Organization usesthe terms: Radical, Adherent, and Collaborator. The Collaborator is themost outward of the categories laid out here. These folks aren'tconsidered members of the organization, but they have shown interest inthe group's principles and social work and participate in theorganization's public events. Because they are not members of the SAO,they do not have voting power within it, but they can seek to enter theorganization after showing interest by whatever metric the organizationdeems fit for membership.The next level that an SAO may have is Adherent. These are newlyinducted members of the organization who would likely start the processof entering via interview with Radicals within the org, as well as afull recognition of the points of agreement. In some organizations, itmight not require full commitment to the points of agreement to becomean Adherent, but with disagreement an explanation of their differing orcritical points can come forth and the existing Radicals can decidewhether or not that perspective falls in line with the goals andstrategies of that organization.The innermost level within the organization is the Radicals. They areconsidered the most committed members of the organization who are themost able to effectively understand and promote the ideas and principlesof the SAO. They are expected to help interview prospective Adherentswho are interested, as well as mentor new Adherents. The aspect of whohas voting power in what bodies and where pertinent decisions should bemade is something on which different especifist groups can differ. Thisis an area of experimentation at the current moment. I advocate that therole of Radical should have equal voting power within the organization,it should entirely be a category of delegation and commitment. This rolewould most likely be fulfilled by people who voluntarily commit to moreparticipation within meetings or events, people with more experience inthose matters in both theory and practice alongside regular commitmentsthat Adherents make, or people with both a higher commitment alongside amore clear understanding of the organization's goals and ideology.This clear choice to make Radicals and Adherents have equal individualvoting power within the organization reduces the risk of such an innergroup of Radicals becoming a top-down power in its own right. This issomething that can be seen within other organizational models like aparty cadre, for example. Anarchists should not seek to create anothercadre or vanguard structure, even if it is done inadvertently oraccidentally. I believe there is flexibility in how organizations can berun in regards to anarchist practice. This general model isintentionally very loose in how things can be done from place to placeand time to time, but that cannot mean that anarchists should put theirprinciples at risk by not putting clear checks in place againsthierarchical power forming in the organizations we build.We have had enough cadres, vanguards, parties, and "advanced sections"that try and fail to activate working class people from above to buildthe communist society they seek to promote. They do nothing but alienatethemselves from working class people and put freedom even further out ofour reach. We cannot reproduce that same logic in our organizations. Bydoing so, we both morally and organizationally become no different thanthem, a vanguard party with anarchist aesthetics.Minimizing and seeking to eliminate hierarchical power buildinginternally is not enough to separate ourselves from those parties,however. If we build these organizations and only do actions amongstourselves as if we are fundamentally separate from the working class, wealso fuel another key component that causes vanguard structures to fail.This is where working groups and social insertion come into play.The way in which these SAOs organize and interact within the largersocial fabric is just as important as how the organization isstructured. You may have a sound organization ideologically or evenpractically, but if you do not apply that organization in an effectiveway and do not sufficiently integrate that organization in the broaderpopulation's lives then it would be completely wasted. Working groupsare a wonderful way to allow members of the organization to strugglewith the masses and practice what is called social insertion withinbroader social movements and organize on that basis internally. Beforewe start talking about working groups and how they are used to helpfacilitate social insertion, let's go over what social insertion is andwhat especifist anarchists call the Popular Organization.Social insertion is one of the more novel developments within especifistanarchism. To start with the definition, let us begin with what socialinsertion is not. Social Insertion is not entryism. Entryism usuallyseeks to control or engulf other social movements or organizations fortheir own organization's political gain. This is often done by top-downpolitical organizations or parties when they start to join and gaininfluence within the power structures of social movements surroundingbroader social issues. By gaining ever more influence within thesesocial movements, they seek to take over that organization within itsleadership or lead people towards their political organization and awayfrom the original organization they were a part of. This often drainsthe organic life from a movement by sputtering it to a halt for the sakeof another organization's numbers. This is not what social insertionseeks to do. Social insertion does not seek to create social movementsor make existing social movements overtly anarchist in ideology, nordoes it seek to try and drain social movements of its numbers to pourthem into the SAO from the top-down.Social Insertion seeks first and foremost to work with the masses withinthese social movements as equals and offer our services and help. Wecannot and should not see ourselves as higher than our fellow humanbeings who are also struggling against the consequences of the systemsthat we as anarchists seek to abolish. Although we do not seek to takeover or co-opt a social movement into an ideologically anarchistpolitical program, we do openly discuss our anarchist principleswhenever possible and when asked, help these broader social movementsorganize in a more anarchistic direction. This could be done byobserving how these social movements are organized, how decisions aremade, what values they seek to promote or what kind of practice themovement engages in. This is all in an effort to help facilitate orcreate what is called a Popular Organization.A Popular Organization is an organization, usually within a largersocial movement, that can be either created or influenced by members ofthe SAO. It has neither the same structure nor the same ideology as theSAO. It may concur on a lot of practical and political points such asdirect action, confrontation with the state, direct democracy, mutualaid networks, lack of top-down leadership, etc. These movements would beorganized by and for a multitude of political ideologies coming togetherfor the sake of a certain intersection of struggle. Things likeprotecting the homeless from violence, squatting, LGBT rights, feministcauses, disability justice, abolishing the death penalty, etc. ThePopular Organization can be a place where anarchists help promote theirideals and practices, while also not imposing the ideology of anarchismfrom above onto the population through dishonest entryism. Especifistanarchists fundamentally do not believe that social movements, in anyform, can be of any single ideology, whether it be Marxist, anarchist,liberal, or any number of ideologies. There will always be some mixtureof ideologies, experiences and backgrounds that will have peoplesynthesize their ideas and practice to help solve broadly felt problemswithin society. This is where anarchists help to contribute in this process.Now that we have a broad framework of what social insertion and thePopular Organization are, we can get into detail about how the SAO canemploy what are called Working Groups and how they relate to the broadersocial movements as a whole. Working groups are subsections within theSAO that are dedicated to discussing and organizing efforts of socialwork in regards to a specific social movement. There is no set number ofworking groups necessary within an SAO, nor any preset criteria of whatthose working groups are that will work in every situation or at anytime. For example, an SAO in Los Angeles might need a housing justiceworking group while one in Kansas City might not necessarily have orneed such a working group to function effectively. I will be exploringpossible ways in which SAOs can better involve themselves within thequeer community, and will advocate that they have a queer self defenseworking group and other ways SAOs can better involve themselves andintertwine with the queer social fabric later in this essay. For themost part though, working groups are an interchangeable node oforganizing within the SAO and can be formed and dissolved at any pointby the members of those groups. In many instances, actions by members ofthese working groups may require no approval by those outside of theworking group in order to be executed. This grants these working groupsa level of autonomy from the rest of the organization at large, andfollows the principle that many anarchists promote: Those that areaffected decide. This autonomy can have its limits, however, if theactions that these working groups do make collectively or individuallyinvolve the promotion or involvement of the organization as a whole,those things would likely have to be voted on in the same way that otherbroad decisions would have to be made.Part 3: A Queer Social AnarchismHow can especifist anarchism be intersected with the needs of the queercommunity today? We will start to use the tools laid out previously tohelp deal with the current situation that will be explained in thefollowing paragraphs. We will also contrast these tools with the toolsused by previous queer anarchisms to better understand why this newframework is necessary. We need to talk about the previous queeranarchisms because there are problems that we face today that theirframeworks are not equipped to solve, or solve effectively.One of the main ways in which especifist anarchism could very clearly beintersected within the struggles that queer people face is with havingnot just a working group dedicated to social insertion within LGBTsocial movements, but to help build queer self defense organizations asPopular Organizations. These could be something as simple as Gun Clubs,Group Workout Sessions, Group Self Defense Courses, De-escalationGroups, Queer Partisan Militias, or any pertinent groups and combinationof those listed. Building Queer Self Defense organizations is criticalto the survival of our community in the coming years within the UnitedStates. As the rise of overt fascism continues to become more apparent,especially on the streets, people need to know in some sense how todefend themselves. These skills are sorely absent within the queerpolitical sphere, and anarchists have a keen responsibility to helpthese skills become more prominent within the broader social movements.As I have said previously about Popular Organizations, these selfdefense organizations should not be ideologically anarchist as they needto appeal to a broader spectrum of queer folks outside of anarchistsocial circles. Again, with this in mind, we should help influence howthey operate either in conception or in discussion. By doing so we canreally help prefigure these self defense organizations into somethingmore than hobby groups and into a social and political force againstfascism.Other Queer Anarchists have approached this issue quite differently. In2019, an online campaign started to gain traction within social mediaunder #ArmTransWomen. This campaign has been started by trans women whoare more individualist anarchists, whether they be egoist, post-left orinsurrectionary. The goal is quite simple, popularize this hashtag asboth a slogan and a rallying cry to have trans women (and other transpeople) start the process of community defense by individually armingthemselves.Many of the advocates' approaches to organization have been to refuseany political prescription or prefiguration in regards to this campaign.Many folks within this movement have said when asked that the questionof organization would be dictated entirely by the conditions of thatarea and that prescribing anything would be pointless and even exposerisk to authority counter-intelligence. Although it is true thatprescribing examples will not apply to every place and time, this doesnot mean that anarchists should refuse the work of advocating aframework in their opinion and discussing it with others. Theexperimental work that is organizing as an anarchist cannot be doneentirely spontaneously or individually within a certain context. At thevery least, you need to start with a hypothesis if you can't findfunctioning examples in the physical world. You do not impose anythingon others by advocating a clear set of theory and practice.Do folks who have this mindset view all people as so ignorant andincapable of thinking for themselves? Do they see a person's frameworkand mindlessly apply it to the letter with no adjustment for their owncontext? This is a gross misunderstanding of how top-down structurestake hold within people's minds and thinks that having an ideology initself imposes some sort of unjust power over people convinced by it.This infantilizes them in my view. We cannot reject the practice ofintroducing other people to anarchist ideas, as influencing othersthrough discussion and debate can be incredibly healthy when done wellin social spaces.Not having any political prescriptions can have disastrous consequencesfor the campaign and organizations that spawn from it. As a result,these organizations could be co-opted by right-libertarians for theirown purposes. There is a real risk of this very simple hashtag beingreduced to "Trans People Get Guns," and stopping right there. The selfdefense organizations that arise from the campaign would be breedinggrounds for more of the same kind of gun clubs that have been prevalentwithin queer gun culture for decades. I have talked about the issueswith how groups like the Pink Pistols and those like them perpetuate avery hyper-individualistic view of gun culture in regard to defense andownership. I don't see this campaign doing much to deter such a conception.Having popular organizations and social movements with a variety ofpolitical views does not mean we should let anyone co-opt our strugglesin opposition to the goals that anarchists have. If thisright-libertarian streak were to metastasize within this socialmovement, it would be much more difficult to join in struggles forblack/POC liberation, indigenous liberation, disability justice and manyother issues that right-libertarians are comically bad at addressing.This rejection of co-option is not one for the sake of ideologicalpurity as some might suggest, but is on a practical basis for howcoalitions would need to be built between marginalized social movementsin order to survive.On the topic of ideological diversity, this is an opportunity to addresssome of my suggestions for an organization to queer gun culture at theend of Queers With Guns. When I was speaking about how an organizationcould do all of those things, I did not have an especifist anarchistperspective in mind and didn't have as much knowledge about organizingas I do now. My initial conception of a single, overtly anarchistorganization akin to the Black Panthers hosting not just self defensebut also queer health clinics, safe houses for homeless queers, etc. issomething that I wouldn't agree with now. I would still wish to createan armed self defense organization as well as the aforementionedprograms. However, I would say that those organizations and servicesshould be provided by popular organizations within social movementsinstead of being made an overtly anarchist organization, as I hadpreviously thought and alluded to in Queers with Guns. Theseorganizations should be gateways towards anarchist practice and ideaswithin the general public as much as possible, not made into an overtlyanarchist ideological program.With that being said, the service that could be next on the list ofimportance is access to Hormone Replacement Therapy outside of thecurrent market in preparation for or in response to the repression oftrans healthcare. It is a proven fact that one of the cornerstones forthe survival of the trans community is access to hormones. With theshadow of state repression of these drugs looming over our community, weneed to start preparing for when, not if, the state starts to hammerdown on legal forms for all trans people to have affirming healthcare.The foundations for an underground trans healthcare network needs to bebuilt now in order to be the most effective when current conditionsbecome drastically untenable. Of course, when dealing with thispossibility, you are going to have to work within very precarious legalgrounds. In order to build and maintain this kind of serviceeffectively, a much tighter security culture is going to have to be putin place to keep you and the people you're helping safe. For moredetailed context on security culture, I would recommend "What IsSecurity Culture" by CrimethInc.[3]Many of the prescriptions made bythis pamphlet can not only be applied to these actions, but to allactions you do to keep you and your fellow organizers safe.Another way in which these organizations can help work within thestruggle for queer liberation is participating in the housing ofhomeless queer people. The rate at which trans people especially havebeen made homeless was already bad enough. With this current spiral ofviolence and fascist mobilization against queer people in general, thereactions towards newly realized queer people is going to be moresevere. This will likely cause an increase in homelessness within thequeer community due to rejection by their families and friends. Thiswork, like the work related to HRT, is going to involve preparation fora tsunami of despair and need. Before we can think of laying thegroundwork to help address a drastic increase in queer homeless people,we must involve ourselves within the work associated with housing peopleright now. We cannot possibly seek to prepare for an intensified crisisof homelessness within our communities without working with currentsocial movements for the homeless. Gaining those essential skills willbe necessary to address much bigger issues later.All of these prescriptions are not an exact guide that SAOs shouldfollow or implement in that order. Although I stress the importance ofbuilding the foundations of queer self defense first, the context ofyour situation might not allow for such building to form a foundation.One might have to start off with a simple reading group or some othersmall project within the queer community as an anarchist organization.One might not even be in the position to make an SAO, and can onlysocially insert themselves into social movements and do the ground workof finding those that have common values, talking to them aboutanarchist ideas and practice. I only hope that whatever you plan ondoing, you can do so with a better understanding of how you can organizeand connect with the people around you.ConclusionRegardless of your context, what I hope for folks to take away from thisessay is that there is a different path to anarchist organizing withinthe queer community than what other queer anarchisms had already laidout for the past few decades. I hope some of my suggestions and examplescan help shine a light as to how we can not only queer gun culture, butqueer all of society towards our collective liberation through socialrevolution. In more clear terms, us and us alone, within the mostmarginalized, can truly be trusted with the responsibility of building abetter tomorrow, together. We must oppose the current system at everyturn not just out of negation, but out of defense of a positive systemof care, love, and struggle. We must attack the current system not justfor the goal of its destruction, but to also cultivate the better worldwe seek with the seeds that we have planted. As the FARJ explain in"Social Anarchism and Organization:"[4]"[...]destruction alone is not enough, since 'no one can wish to destroywithout having at least a remote idea, real or false, of the order ofthings that should, in their opinion, replace that which currently exists'."We can't be certain that we will even see the world that we want tobuild, nor can we know what it would fully look like once we destroy thecurrent structure. We must have hope that through our actions this newworld can be given room to arise from the ashes of the old one. Assomething a friend of mine[5]once said:"I do not know whether it is reachable or not...but I will do what isnecessary to achieve it."We are the agents within this time who must safeguard and spread theseeds of this new world until the time is ripe for them to sprout in aspirit of freedom and resistance against this death machine. This meatgrinder is chewing us up every day, and as queer people this will likelyget worse. We must not only keep our community safe here and now, but wemust also prepare for the coming time in which overt fascism might trulyovertake the United States Empire and seek an exterminationist campaignagainst us. No amount of ballot measures, canvassing, voting, or postingon the internet will change this course. We must build the structures ofcare we need now before our entire community is backed against the walland crushed, before liberal NGOs and nonprofits are shut down, beforeour healthcare is denied coverage by insurance companies, and we arechased back into the shadows of public life: we must act. I only hope weare ready for this total war against our existence. We have no choice:it is either total freedom or complete destruction.Further ReadingQueer AnarchismCriminal Intimacy - Mary Nardini GangGender Nihilism - Alyson EscalanteGender Nihilism - Automatic WritingMy Preferred Pronoun is Negation - Bash BackQueering Anarchism - C.B. Daring, J. Rogue, Deric Shannon, and Abbey VolcanoQueer Insurrection - Lex BToward the queerest insurrection - Mary Nardini GangWhore Theory - Mary Nardini GangSocial AnarchismAn Anarchist Programme - Errico MalatestaAnarchy - Errico MalatestaAnarchism and the Black Revolution - Lorenzo Kom'boa ErvinWhat is Communist Anarchism? - Alexander Berkman[1]Queers with Guns - Elisha Moon Williams[2]Archipelago - Anonymous[3]What is Security Culture? - CrimethInc[4]Social Anarchism and Organization - FARJ[5]Hope - Anarkhttps://www.yeryuzupostasi.org/2024/01/23/queer-toplumsal-anarsizm-elisha-moon-williams/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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