The Center Takes the Empire: Peter Gelderloos on the Path Ahead

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On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with long-time anarchist writer and organizer Peter Gelderloos, author of such books at Anarchy Workers, Worshiping Power, and How Non-Violence Protects the State. On this episode, we look back on the last month of the Trump presidency and discuss what lies ahead now that the Democrats have won the White House and pushed for a return to normalcy on the streets. We discuss how Biden will respond to the far-Right, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the continuing economic fallout.

We then turn our discussion towards autonomous social movements, and talk about key lessons and take-aways from the Trump era, and what people fighting for grassroots change need to be thinking about in the coming terrain. We discuss how currently there are a lot of people who have been energized from the uprising that began last summer following the police murder of George Floyd, which is currently hitting a wall against State repression, declining numbers in the street, and also the reality that a section of the population is now waiting to see how the Biden presidency plays out.

We talk about how people should approach this reality as we go forward, in the midst of a still ranging COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of mass evictions.

More Info: Peter Gelderloos on Twitter, Peter Gelderloos on AK Press, Peter Gelderloos online discussion, interview on It’s Going Down here, here, here, and here.

photo: Koshu Kunii via Unsplash