Nostr notes by Cindy Milstein (they)

[Please reshare!] Call for contributions to my next curated zine ...

2025-09-25T19:59:57Z

[Please reshare!]

Call for contributions to my next curated zine aimed at countering this christofascist era:

“Politicians Won’t Fix This: Friendly Anarchist Tips for Breaking Free of the Liberal Box”

Length: prose, approx. 75 to 250 words
Due: by or before October 1
Email: cbmilstein [at] yahoo [dot] com

As many of us anarchists are painfully aware, liberals have and still do grease the wheels of fascism, especially with their seemingly steadfast belief in statecraft, such as laws, rights, representative democracy, and so on. Yet given how “comically” absurd US christofascists are, and how their slash-and-burn strategy on all fronts is touching nearly everyone, many liberals increasingly seem to understand that “midterms won’t save us” and are eager for alternatives outside the electoral and statist box.

This “anarcho-curiosity” presents us with an opening—but only if we take it. After all, we need many more folks on the side of autonomous and collective practices, from mutual aid and solidarity to self-organization and self-governance—our proactive direct actions—if we have hopes of hindering and defeating fascism any time soon.

This zine is intended for liberals who are disillusioned by the politics of “call your senator” and “get out the vote,” and increasingly know that borders, cops, courts, Medicaid, and all other state apparatuses are not their friend—and thus are ready to hear from friendly anarchists about how we can care for each other with hierarchy and domination.

If you—an anarchist—could give liberals a piece of advice that just might convince them to finally break free of liberalism, what would you say (to your parents, siblings, neighbors, coworkers, other anarchists working with liberals, etc.)? How might you show them starting points on the path to anarchism? In what ways could you make them curious about the contradictions between their liberal worldview and the lives they dream of, so that they, themselves, have a light-bulb moment and embrace anarchism?

Pretend a liberal is in front of you, in person, asking your advice on what might work to outmaneuver fascism: What would you say?

(photo: “radical visions” aren’t funded, sticker, Athens, Feb 2025)

On many days of late—too many of them—it feels like we’re ...

2025-08-07T15:45:36Z

On many days of late—too many of them—it feels like we’re up against such monumental brutality on so many levels, it’s hard to imagine what “winning” looks like, much less even being able to put small yet well-placed wrenches in the gears of fascism. Yet each and every day, I force myself to notice at least one messy-beautiful anarchic example of what we can do and what we are doing. And on some days—like this one—my weary heart is stretched past the ugliness of this world and feels comradely warmth that no borders can contain.

I woke to beloved friends sending me this photo of a solidarity banner in Athens, Greece. The banner hangs off a balcony on a squatted social center called Zizania (“weeds”), which when evicted at one point, set up a social center on a nearby public plaza in what’s largely an immigrant and refugee neighborhood, until folks could squat the building again. This squat has a distinctly queer and feministic sensibility, and many of its projects revolve around care, from a solidarity kitchen and squatted communal garden, to free Greek-language classes aimed at those who’ve been compelled to flee their homes in other lands. Like many a liberated space in Athens—and walls in general—the exterior of Zizania is covered in rebellious street art, including the words “this building has been squatted,” but it also has an events calendar chalked on its front.

Today, Zizania’s exterior now includes this banner, aimed at raising awareness and support for anarchists and others in Texas facing state repression following an alleged July 4 noise demo outside an ICE detention facility. For the overall situation, see and follow @dfwsupportcommittee. In particular, see and follow @free.des.revol to support my beloved friend who is now also incarcerated, charged with alleged “evidence tampering” for allegedly moving some zines from one place to another. The banner, in a mix of English and Greek, reads:

“From Frontex to ICE, against detention centers, concentration camps, borders, and deportations everywhere in the world. Solidarity to the arrested Texas comrades.”

We may only have scrappy tools, but we use them well and defiantly, and especially, lovingly.

#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

Books as solidarity: a fundraiser for @gazamutualaid Examples of ...

2024-11-26T03:09:08Z

Books as solidarity: a fundraiser for @gazamutualaid

Examples of solidarity weave their way through all of the (increasingly relevant) book projects of mine pictured here, so it’s apropos that these titles, in your hands, will become a form of much-needed solidarity beyond borders with Palestinians in Gaza, thx to on-the-ground mutual aid.

While supplies last, grab a copy of one or more of the following books at the sliding scales below, and I’ll send 100% of the money raised (minus shipping in US only) to Gaza Mutual Aid.

“Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy” — $8 to $19 (or more)

“Anarchism and Its Aspirations” — $6 to $12 (or more)

“There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists” — $11 to $23 (or more)

“Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief” — $10 to $20 (or more)

“Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle” — $10 to $20 (or more)

You can find full descriptions of the first four books on publisher @akpressdistro’s website and a full description of the last one on publisher @tangled_wilderness’ website.

That said, the edited anthologies “Deciding for Ourselves,” “Nothing So Whole,” and “Rebellious Mourning” are all overflowing with stories and art about real-life examples of messy beautiful practices of remembrance, resistance, and especially, prefiguring otherworldly ways of self-determining and self-governing our lives. They all contain magical, emotional, and inspirational words (as weapons against the social order and salve for our despairing hearts), and I trust that the same is true of the two books I wrote, “Aspirations” and “Try Anarchism for Life,” which also includes an array of gorgeous drawings of circle As embodying the beauty of what anarchism is, does, and envisions.

All five books are direct counters to this fascist present, particularly in how they illuminate actually existing alternatives, and thus possibilities in the here and now.

To donate to this fundraiser and dive into reading (or gifting) one or more of these books, email me at cbmilstein [at] yahoo to work out the simple details.

#ReadWriteRebel
#UntilAllAreFree
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

Sparks of rebellious inspiration have a funny way of not staying ...

2024-11-23T23:00:14Z

Sparks of rebellious inspiration have a funny way of not staying put in one time or space. They traverse borders. They congregate without permission in all sorts of unexpected places. They defy the logics of commodification, freely sharing with and borrowing from each other, while also defying the logics of colonialism and states, offering life-giving solidarity to weather and contest their death machinery.

We never know, when we release tiny sparks into the enormous darkness of this social order, where they will end up, if they manage to stay alighted at all. Or who will see them, or where or when, much less what they will make of those sparks. Most often, we never know, and don’t really need to.

Yet we do need to remember that each and every one of us who aspires to kindle the flames of a new world does indeed put out sparks into the night via all our many gifts. And just as we find inspiration in those random sparks that we stumble on and run with, others will likely do the same with what we release into the wind to stir up social transformation.

But occasionally, we get to see and feel the fruits of reciprocal inspiration—proof positive that our liberatory strivings can soar above walls and fences to magnify resistance. Or simply to supply each other with the further inspiration to keep fighting and dreaming.

The past two days in Montreal, some 85,000 students went on strike in solidarity with Palestinians, timed to coincide with NATO meetings in that city. This student strike, in turn, finds echoes of inspiration in years of powerful student and social strikes in Montreal. And just as I was feeling FOMO that I couldn’t be there for this strike, a Concordia student texted me these photos (used with consent) of an altar they’d set up as both a blockade in their classroom and collective space of grief, inspired by the stories in my edited anthology #RebelliousMourning (@akpressdistro, with striking design by @eff_charm).

May our arts of inspiration, resistance, and remembrance burst into rebel bonfires, illuminating our ancestors there alongside us and honoring them as we journey toward freedom.

#CollectiveWorkOfGrief
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

1 new zine, 13 Jewish anarchists, 20 accessible ideas. It all ...

2024-11-20T23:25:56Z

1 new zine, 13 Jewish anarchists, 20 accessible ideas. It all adds up to “things you can do to counter fascism—yes, you! yes, now!” (whether you’re Jewish and/or an anarchist, or not).

As an added plus, there’s nothing quite like focusing on collaboratively creating a zine filled with prefigurative ideas to boost one’s spirit! Or at least somewhat balance all the despair in the liminal space between fascist election and fascist inauguration. As smart friends keep repeating of late, agency and community are what counter trauma—and as this zine highlights, also fascism.

The idea for this zine came from another one I was part of collectively writing back in the days of Trump, part 1, titled “12 things you can do instead of calling the police.” It has been widely circulated ever since, and I personally witnessed how much it opened up liberal minds in particular, nudging them to think and act in more anarchistic and solidaristic ways. (Thanks to incredible designer and friend @eff_charm, who created the look for that earlier zine, for letting me borrow his graphic vision and try my own hand at laying out this one!)

Flash-forward, and we need to encourage even more people to defy fascism and embrace anarchism—at least in their practices! That is, we need more folks to not “just do nothing” and instead realize that the only winning strategies toward a world without fascism are liberatory forms of self-determination, self-organization, and self-governance, and in the here and now (“doykeit” as we diasporic Jews put it), while offering each other communal self-defense (hence the garlic pictured here, long a form of protection among various peoples, including us Jews).

So read, print, and/or freely and widely distro this zine, made up of advice gleaned from 13 of us Jewish anarchists, and turned into a PDF with the kind help of a few others!

If you’d like both the readable and imposed PDFs, email me and I’ll joyously send them to you.

The zine will soon be hosted on anarchistic websites; DM me if you’d like to do that.

I’ll end by sharing 1 of the ideas:

“Make people soup and do not stop inviting them over for soup! Be a reason for living.”