My Three Favorite Anarchists of 2016

 

By: Shane Radliff

January 10th, 2017

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It appears one of the “New Year’s Resolutions” for a lot of folks has been their decision to put together Top “XX” lists of their favorite anarchists. While I think commendation for a job well done is a great thing to do, I feel like a lot of these lists are purely popularity contests, with little to no substance whatsoever.

Favorite Anarchists

Sure, some of these folks may be combating statism on the Internet, and I’m sure that has brought some folks to anarchism. That said, the goal of this short article is not to discount the efforts put forth by those individuals, but I don’t think someone’s digital activity ought to be the sole grounds for whether they are worthy of a mention in a “favorite’s list.”

Rather, I think an application of this philosophy to everyday life is what truly matters. You know, putting an ideology into action, much like how Rayo took vonu to its most radical end, and as Sam Konkin lived agorism.

Here are my three favorite anarchists in 2016 (and beyond) in no particular order:

 

1) Derrick Broze

I came across Derrick early on in my path to anarchism, and have been following his work and efforts since.

Six years ago, he started the group, Houston Free Thinkers (HFT), which is “a community alliance of concerned humans who come together to raise awareness on topics ignored by the mainstream media, the government, and corporations.” They also “place strong emphasis and focus on solutions and community building.”

Although, Derrick’s focus on solutions does not end with the HFT. He has been pivotal in promoting a promising strategy called freedom cells, which are peer-to-peer groups organizing themselves in a decentralized manner. Their activities are determined by the individual members of the freedom cell in question, but possibilities could be: combining research on organic gardening (or, whatever subject), firearms training, mutual aid co-operatives, and organizing against violent cops (is that a euphemism for civil defiance or just simply filming cops? You be the judge!).

Finally, a large portion of my respect for Derrick comes from his adamant stance AGAINST politics and his calling out of contradictory anarchists.

Thank you for your service, Derrick.

 

2) Kal Molinet

Kal was definitely the very first anarchist we had on Liberty Under Attack Radio, and for good reason.

A major aspect of his efforts are spent having face-to-face conversations with other locals in Virginia, which has culminated into what is now known as his Spreading Anarchy series. In just a few short years, him and his organization, Liberate RVA, have recruited over 100 anarchists and have driven the filthy communists out of Richmond—quite an admirable task, if you ask me.

Also, much like Broze and myself, he is anti-political to the core—I don’t know if I have ever come across anyone else that actively combats statists-in-denial like he does. Kal surely doesn’t put up with the absurd notions of “anarchist voters” or “anarchist politicians.”

Cheers, Kal. Thank you for your service.

 

3) Michael W. Dean

Michael is one of the most interesting and badass individuals I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to. Not only does he run the Freedom Feens Radio Show, but a lot of his time is spent improving the audio of others within the alternative media.

More importantly, he does what he say he’s going to do, which is getting harder and harder to find today. Two years ago, he launched a fundraising campaign to develop FeenPhone, a much better, free alternative to Skype. Not only is it fully functional, but it is still updated regularly. If you donate to him, you know it’s going to go to the cause of liberty.

He’s also very adamant about privacy, free speech, and crypto-anarchy more generally; so much so, that he brought the idea of BipCoin into fruition with the help of programmer Derrick Slopey. On top of the BipCoin blockchain, he and his developers are also working on Dot-Bip, which is “so difficult to censor, someone could use it to say horrible, untrue things about us and there’s no way that even we could take it down.”

You can help bring Dot-Bip into fruition by donating to the IndieGoGo campaign, and you definitely should.

Thank you for your service, Michael.

 

Conclusion

As you can clearly see, this list does not include folks who I think make great memes, it does not include the largely overrated celebritarians, nor does it include “anarchist politicians.”

Rather, it contains folks whose focus is solutions, or, in other words, direct action: taking the initiative in finding freedom NOW (and helping others get there too), without asking for permission.

Politics has never and will never set the slave free. It’s time for direct action.


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