iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

My two new albums of the year so far are Apes of the State's "Nothing Makes Sense Anymore" and Bambu's "Bass Building." These reflect my two main musical interests: anarchist folk punk and communist hip-hop (there is also a secret third thing: post-hardcore/emo).

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

I wrote an article in @truthout.org arguing this point a few years ago: "Defending Democracy Through Elections Won’t Be Enough to Stop Fascism: The left must present a radical alternative to both fascism and capitalist democracy" 3/3 truthout.org/articles/def...

truthout.org

Defending Democracy Through Elections Won’t Be Enough to Stop Fascism

The left must present a radical alternative to both fascism and capitalist democracy.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Even though the Dems are generally an ineffective opposition party, a big Dem victory in the midterms would present a real challenge to some of the worst of Trump's agenda. I'm certainly voting accordingly. But we should never be fooled that voting will be enough to stop fascism. 2/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

I generally think that Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin: capitalist parties with different approaches to managing capitalism (tbf Trump's GOP may now be on a different fascist coin). Even so: when you flip a coin, you prefer one side to come up. I sure do. 1/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

eco-anarchism, punk anarchism, and revolutionary social anarchism. Ultimately, the article argues that anarchism was revitalised in the late twentieth century because it provided compelling answers to the new problems posed by the neoliberal counterrevolution and the crisis of state socialism. 5/5

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Marxism-Leninism and popularised the anarchist analysis and principles that provided the foundation for the anti-globalisation movement. The article discusses five examples of the development of anarchist theory and practice: Black/New Afrikan Anarchism, anarcha-feminism, 4/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Part one investigates how the New Right’s post-1960s counterrevolution defeated the New Left and remade US society, including by recuperating potentially liberatory elements of social movements. Part two examines how a new generation of radicals critiqued the failures of 3/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Abstract: After almost a century of Marxist predominance, how did anarchism develop from a marginal phenomenon into a force at the centre of the anti-globalisation movement? This article explores how anarchism was reborn in a counterrevolutionary age. 2/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My first academic journal article came out in Anarchist Studies four years ago. It has long since been posted on the Anarchist Library where you can read it for free: "From the Ashes of the Old: Anarchism Reborn in a Counterrevolutionary Age (1970s-1990s)" theanarchistlibrary.org/library/spen... 1/

Photo of my hand holding a copy of Anarchist Studies Volume 30, Number 2, from 2022. The cover has a picture of Lenin on a coin. Next to the journal is my adorable cross-eyed black cat named Frida, who is a natural anarchist.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

You can buy the book "Anarchisms" directly from Dog Section Press now, or wait until it is available in the US distributed by AK Press... but if you can't wait, it's also available as a free PDF from Dog Section Press! www.dogsection.org/product/anar...

dogsection.org

Anarchisms

“The characteristic function of anarchism is to encourage the blossoming of different types of anarchists, of diverse anarchist milieus, dissimilar in operation, di ering over the ways to best use li...

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"Anarchisms" includes a chapter by yours truly on "Anarchist Institutions," which discusses the history and function of institutions like infoshops and lays out five characteristics of successful anarchist institutions.

Photo of a book spread of my chapter, "Anarchist Institutions," with a beautiful illustration of an anarchist bookshop.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"Anarchisms" is out today from Dog Section Press! It's a wonderful collection of chapters by Ruth Kinna, Benjamin Zephaniah, Peter Gelderloos, Spencer Beswick, Zoe Baker, Seth Wheeler, Jessica Thorne, Koshka Duff, Carne Ross and Lorenzo K. Ervin www.dogsection.org/product/anar...

Cover of the book "Anarchisms" which has a black cover with yellow writing. It's on an illustrated background with a lot of people's faces.

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

The Anarchist Library @anarchistlibrary.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The text that is featured as a "Conversation of the Week" on the ANews Podcast can also be read on the library here: "Building the American Anarchist Movement" by Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social text: theanarchistlibrary.org/library/spen...

theanarchistlibrary.org

Building the American Anarchist Movement

Spencer Beswick Building the American Anarchist Movement Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s 2026 Journal for the Study of...

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Pleasantly surprised to see that the latest ANews podcast features a long conversation on my recently published article "Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s." I'm so happy when people find my writing useful. Check it out!

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I really enjoyed listening to the conversation on my article! Glad y'all found it useful.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor dust will devour—your capital. The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your alienated life—the greater is the store of your estranged being." 2/2

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Marx: "The less you eat, drink and read books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save— 1/2

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I really enjoy teaching these things and hearing students' reactions. The Sixties student movement offered a bracing critique of the academy and their fellow students -- but also had great hope in the ability to remake the university and use it as a site of social change.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This week in my Sixties class I taught SDS's Port Huron Statement (1962) and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement (1964). What students wrote then about the complicity of university administrators in social evils and the need for reform rings true today. Looking at you, Cornell.

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Rita, antifascist🏴 @oldsquida.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

this quote sometimes helps “Action, not just hope, is the antidote to despair.” ~ Margaret Killjoy

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's so hard not to despair reading the news. I used to think we could change the world. Now, it feels like all we can hope for is the Dems winning the midterms to put a check on fascism. Is this me getting more conservative as I get older? Maybe. It feels more like losing hope.

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Rita, antifascist🏴 @oldsquida.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

how did local anarchist groups meet each other & exchange ideas pre-internet? the ‘Revolutionary Anarchist Federation’ that shaped the movement's direction occurred in through a series of 4 continental convergences that took place from 1986 to 1989 in Chicago, Minneapolis, Toronto & San Francisco.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Through this process, anarchists transformed what had been a diffuse milieu characterized by small-group action and countercultural institutions into something approaching a coordinated continental movement." 3/3 Read more in my new article: scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsr/art...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s

“Bowl a strike, not a spare—Revolution everywhere!” Members of the Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League (RABL) chanted bowling-themed slogans as they marched against President Ronald Reagan's threat...

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"In the pre-internet era, these gatherings provided essential spaces for anarchists from different backgrounds to encounter each other, engage in political debates, and take collective action in the streets. 2/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Went for an admittedly slow run today and had a random woman shout loudly at me from her porch with voice dripping with scorn: "YOU LOOK STUPID! YOU LOOK STUPID! YOU LOOK STUPID! Imagine running home to your wife and maybe you'll run faster!" Thanks, lady.

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Rita, antifascist🏴 @oldsquida.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“A rising generation of young people encountered anarchism in mosh pits at punk shows and in street fights against fascists and police. A core group of anarchists across the country began to build a continental revolutionary movement.”

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

and laid the foundation for the explosive growth of anti-authoritarian activism in the 1990s that culminated in the turn-of-the-century anti-globalization movement. 6/6 Again, you can read the full article for free here: scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsr/art...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

milieu began to cohere into a movement capable of coordinating strategic action across the continent. Drawing on accounts from anarchist newspapers and zines, the article argues that these anarchist collectives and convergences revitalized the North American anarchist movement 5/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

of committed activists. It also weaves in a review of several key radical groups that became connected through the gatherings and together transformed anarchist theory and practice during the neoliberal era. These collectives formed a pole around which the diffuse anarchist 4/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This article explores how these gatherings in Chicago, Minneapolis, Toronto, and San Francisco provided crucial spaces for anarchists from diverse backgrounds to encounter each other, engage in political debates, test their mettle in the streets, and organize networks 3/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Abstract: In the midst of the Reagan Revolution and the decline of the Soviet Union, North American anarchists organized a series of continental convergences from 1986-1989 that connected and revitalized the anarchist movement. 2/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I have a new article out today in the Journal for the Study of Radicalism called "Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s." 1/ Access it for free with my author link: scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsr/art...

Screenshot of the beginning of an article called "Building the American Anarchist Movement: Radical Collectives and Continental Convergences in the 1980s" by Spencer Beswick. Text reads:

“Bowl a strike, not a spare—Revolution everywhere!” Members of the Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League (RABL) chanted bowling-themed slogans as they marched against President Ronald Reagan's threat to invade Nicaragua in 1988. Acting within a broad progressive coalition, RABL helped shut down major sections of downtown Minneapolis for three days in an outpouring of rebellion against the Reagan administration's covert wars in Central America. Events reached a dramatic climax when a masked protester threw a bowling ball through the window of a military recruitment office.1 The crash of the broken glass marked the beginning of a new era of anarchist militancy in the United States. The rage of a generation of young people raised in Reagan's America threatened to explode.

Reflecting this mood, the pilot edition of what became the Love and Rage anarchist newspaper (published from 1990 to 1998) was simply called RAGE! The pilot, which was distributed at an action at the Pentagon in 1988, reflected growing anger at the Reagan administration's wars at home and abroad, including the war on drugs. Promised a “new morning in America,” a generation of disaffected young people raised in the alienation

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 10/05/2024

Howard Zinn: "The reward for participating in a movement for social justice is not the prospect of future victory. It is the exhilaration of standing together with other people, taking risks together, enjoying small triumphs and enduring disheartening setbacks — together."

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

and to build new structures (what Bookchin calls "forms of freedom") that enable a different kind of social organization. OWS transformed my life and so many others. At the time I thought we were living in the revolution. It didn't come. But it did, indeed, change everything. 2/2

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Occupy Wall Street began 15 years ago today. My experience of encountering occupied Dewey Square in Boston was like entering a new world shaped by different values, practices, and organizational forms. It proved in practice that it is possible to live differently 1/2

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just looked on youtube for a video to show in class on the rise of penny press newspapers in the 1830s and it's full of AI-generated "shorts." Thanks I hate it.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I don't want regulation of AI (written by OpenAI and Anthropic, naturally). I want to unplug it.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Michel Foucault: “Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable.”

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Book cover just dropped for Anarchafeminist Horizons at the End of Gender and it's rad AF. Coming January 2027 with a chapter by yours truly: "'To Repulse the State from our Uteri': Anarcha-Feminism, Reproductive Freedom, and Dual Power."

Book cover for Anarchafeminist Horizons at the End of Gender: Praxis Across Movements, Solidarities Across Borders, edited by Nathan Poirier and Zane McNeill. The art is funky and colorful and hard to describe.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"Ultimately, our institutions should support anarchist organizations and mass movements that can resist and overthrow the state and capitalism. In the meantime, we are building a new world in the shell of the old." 4/4 From my forthcoming chapter in Anarchisms: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/anarchisms

crowdfunder.co.uk

ANARCHISMS

Help us to pay for the printing costs of our next publication: Anarchisms

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"Crucially, these institutions also enable us to live better (and more anarchistic) lives in the meantime. . . These institutions can then coordinate and confederate with each other, building alternative networks in which it is possible to live in an increasingly autonomous manner. 3/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"Durable institutions persist past peaks of activity, keeping anarchism alive and building power oriented towards the long-term. When new movements arise, older anarchists are well-positioned to share lessons from the past with new generations. 2/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"Anti-organizationalists have long decried institutions and organizations, arguing that they ossify the necessarily fluid forms of anarchist revolt. But in order to build long-lasting movements, we need a dialectical relationship between ossification and renewal. 1/

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Each institution should stress internal democracy, self-subsistence, meeting communal needs, intervening in the surrounding world, and contributing to a broader project of social transformation." www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/anarchisms

crowdfunder.co.uk

ANARCHISMS

Help us to pay for the printing costs of our next publication: Anarchisms

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

My chapter is on "Anarchist Institutions." "Anarchism needs infrastructure to maintain itself and offer a base from which anarchists can shape (and be shaped by) mass movements ... Anarchist institutions can take many forms, but successful ones typically share some common features.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I'm excited to have a chapter in Dog Section Press's forthcoming collection ANARCHISMS. Eight days left in the book's Crowdfunder. Hitting the stretch goal will let them "add a fancy embossed cover – because there's nothing too good for the working class!" www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/anarchisms

crowdfunder.co.uk

ANARCHISMS

Help us to pay for the printing costs of our next publication: Anarchisms

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

After finishing my postdoc at Cornell's Humanities Scholars Program, today is my first official day as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Union College in Schenectady, NY, where I will teach modern US history and finish writing my book on late 20th century US anarchism.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It is the last day of my postdoc at Cornell's Humanities Scholars Program, and what a joy it was. When much of academia, especially the humanities, is under attack, it was lovely to be in a space that unabashedly celebrates the role of the humanities in higher ed -- and in life.

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