Practical Anarchy magazine is about people putting the ideas of anarchism into practice every day. Anarchism is not just some utopian idea or a set of books about the Spanish Civil War. Anarchism is a practical philosophy whose ideas can be put into motion by ordinary folks. Practical Anarchy magazine is also branching out to cover the wider issues of politics, culture, statism, authoritarianism, racism, and much more.

Important Update! Practical Anarchy has suspended publication

December 21, 2006

The Alternative Media Project / Infoshop collective decided last summer to suspend publication of Practical Anarchy magazine. Our plan is to publish a new quarterly magazine of news, opinion and analysis called Infoshop News & Views. The first issue of the new magazine will be published in late January or early February 2007. The new magazine will focus more on news and analysis of current events than Practical Anarchy, although our new direction was evident in the last issue of Practical Anarchy. The new magazine will also include articles on culture, reviews, interviews, columns and lots of fun stuff. If you had a subscription to Practical Anarchy, or recently ordered a subscription, we will fulfill those subscriptions with issues of the new magazine.

Practical Anarchy has ceased publication for now, although there has been some talk about it being revived as a newsletter or zine with a more DIY focus. Think MAKE magazine combined with CrimethInc's Recipes for Disaster. We have no plans to continue Practical Anarchy, since our focus is on launching our new magazine, but we would be tickled if another group would continue Practical Anarchy in another format.

We'd like to thank all of our readers and supporters. It's been a long journey since the zine started in 1991. We apologize for our scarce publication schedule, but we have every intention of publishing a kick-ass successor to Practical Anarchy.

From Practical Anarchy #14

Anarchism and Confederate Flag Culture -- by Prolecat
If you are someone who displays a Confederate flag out of overt racism, this text is not for you. In fact, we will fight you in the streets.

If, however, you are someone who insists that he is not racist, but you have at some point in your life displayed a Confederate Flag out of a general sense of rebellion against the government, the boss, parents, pompous Yankee liberals, or just against modern society in general, then this text is addressed to you. Especially, if you are a working class southerner who flies the Cross of St. Andrew as an in-your-face act of protest against the mass production of national “culture,” a McDonaldized product that has the effect of smothering and burying authentic local cultures that (some feel) are symbolized by the Confederate flag… especially, then, this brief sketch of one man’s odyssey from the glorification of southern heritage to an appreciation of anarchist ideas and values, may have something to say to you.

POPULAR ARTICLES FROM THE ARCHIVE

Food for Thought -- Editorial by Joseph Heathcott
We live in a decisive moment in the history of our species. We have to make profound choices about how we will sustain ourselves into the next century. In most cases, the choices require that we take a close, intense, and introspective look at ourselves and our world. What kind of lives are we living? What sort of world are we fashioning?

Coffee, Capitalism and the State by Joseph Heathcott
My favorite beverage on this good earth is coffee. In fact, this essay is largely powered by lengthy, energetic caffeine molecules, bundled into drop after drop of the caustic liquid. And while I might take small comfort in consuming organic beans purchased through Equal Exchange (a fair-trade marketing co-operative), that hardly effaces the fact that coffee is deeply embedded--like so many foods--in the history of colonialism.

Internetworking and the Threat of Democracy
There's been a move among think tanks (particularly RAND) and policymakers to come up with ways of dealing with the "problem" of the Internet. It seems they are concerned about decentralized, popular, democratized media, and want to get busy finding ways of bringing the Internet under control, like the other mass media: newspapers, radio, film, and television.

Food Not Bombs and Anarchism
This paper was originally written 11.29.95. as a result of discussions that we were having in San Francisco Food Not Bombs about our politics and how we represent our politics in literature. In a meeting on 11.09.95. we embarked on a rather in-depth and thought provoking discussion about anarchism and FNB.

Practical Anarchy #14
is now available! Want to subscribe or order a sample issue?

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Practical Anarchy magazine is published by the Alternative Media Project

Practical Anarchy @ Infoshop News

Building the new world...
by Anarcho
For some reason anarchists have a reputation for lacking practical, constructive ideas. This is nonsense of course. Anarchism is full of ideas on how anarchists can apply its principles in the here and now. We can point to actual developments which embody, to some degree, our ideas.

Punk Parenting: The Future Generation Interview
by Jeff Bagato
As with other aspects of underground culture, “punk parenting” has caught on as a hot topic, most prominently in Bust’s motherhood issues, Ayun Holliday’s East Village Inky, and the print and web zine Hip Mama. But back in 1990, these resources weren’t available to a young, single welfare mom named China – if they had been, she never would have started her own zine, The Future Generation (TFG), to create a network of like-minded parents. She couldn’t have known back then that her need to document her own experiences as a mother and to share parenting resources would lead her on such a long run through the underground press – an accomplishment that makes her a kind of grandmother to lots of new punk mommies.