Affinity – issue #4: patriarchy

This is the fourth issue of Affinity, exploring the importance of challenging patriarchy in our struggle against the dominant culture. Many thanks to the contributors. The pdf can be found here.

Please be warned, this zine includes descriptions of sexual and physical abuse.

Affinity – issue#3: mental health

The third issue of Affinity explores the complexities of mental health, providing two personal perspectives on how the struggle to maintain a healthy mind can affect our battles for dignity and freedom against a sick society.

A pdf copy can be found here.

Dangerous Conversations

Dangerous Conversations is a project born out of the struggle to end systems of domination. Our involvement in movements described as anarchist, activist, horizontalist, and so on has been at times inspiring and at other times disillusioning and frustrating. This zine is not aimed at Anarchists or Activists but at anyone who struggles against the many forms of domination that blight our lives: ableism, ageism, authority, capitalism, civilisation, caste and class systems, heteronormativity, islamaphobia, male privilege, speciesism, transphobia, white supremacy (and others still unrecognised).

Dangerous Conversations is intended as an intervention in business as usual. We hope to collect texts and viewpoints that challenge the status quo in a way that, rather than (or perhaps as well as) provoking hostility, provoke constructive responses and discussion. We hope that, as mush as possible, the zine becomes a place to converse and to deepen affinity. By showing solidarity with others who also see the struggle as their own struggle, even when we differ on the details, we can become stronger as a movement. Ours is a strength that comes through diversity and empathy for different viewpoints rather than the imposition of dogma and distrust.

These conversations are dangerous to oppressors because they threaten their privilege. They sometimes seem dangerous to us too because they threaten our own privilege. Because of this, they are important conversations to have.

This first issue  (‘What next?’) is to be a collection of different viewpoints on where this struggle should go next. We are inviting a range of contributors who we think have interesting and sometimes conflicting ideas on how we should proceed.

We hope that readers will want to respond to and involve themselves in the project by contributing to this conversation in whatever way seems appropriate.  There are no guidelines for what is and isn’t an appropriate way to express yourself here. Submissions for future publication, participation in the editorial collective, criticism and ideas are all very welcome. Contact us at dangerousconversations(at)riseup(dot)net.

Please submit your articles for the first issue by the start of March 2011.

A pdf of the completed zine can now be found here.

Affinity – issue#2: violence

Here is the second issue of Affinity, exploring the role of violence in resisting the dominant culture from three different perspectives.

Subsequent issues will cover the topics of patriarchy and mental health. We very much welcome contributions which can be sent via email to blackirispress@riseup.net

Affinity – issue #1: privilege

The first issue of Affinity, an irregular zine providing space for analysis and critical reflection on strategies for resisting the dominant culture, is now available in both print and online formats. A pdf of the zine can be found here . If you’d like to be sent a print copy, please email blackirispress@riseup.net.