The Postanarchist Moment

THE POSTANARCHIST MOMENTSaul Newman, The Politics of Postanarchism Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, 200 pp.; ISBN: 978-0-7486-3496-5Duane Rousselle and Siireyyya Evren (eds), Post-Anarchism: A Reader London & New York: Pluto Press/ Black Point & Winnipeg: Femwood Publishing, 201 1 , 268 pp.; ISBN: 978-1-55266-433-9Taken together, the two works under consideration here represent what might be regarded as postanarchism's coming of age. Having burst into life in the Noughties with all the verve and energy of youth, it is a more measured form of postanarchism that stands before us today. A reflexive, more confident postanarchism, one assured of its own status within radical political thought. Indeed, such has been its influence in some quarters that Lewis Call, in his contribution to the edited collection ('BufFy the Post- Anarchist Vampire Slayer'), is compelled to declare that 'a kind of postanarchist moment has arrived' (p. 183). A moment, if these two works are anything to judge by, which shows litde sign of abating. Pausing to take stock, these works focus not on staking out the philosophical terrain on which anarchism and poststructuralism meet, as in earlier texts, but on assessing postanarchism's impact and import. And in this respect they count amongst the most interesting and important works yet to have emerged out of the postanarchist milieu.The development that postanarchism has undergone in recent years is no more clearly in evidence than in die basic shift in tenor between Saul Newman's original foray into postanarchism, From Bokunin to Locan (2001), and his latest extended treatment of the subject, The Politics of Postanarchism. Although die rubric 'postanarchism' (now generally accepted as a shorthand for all the various, often competing, strands of poststructuralist/postmodernist inspired anarchism) received its initial airing in the former work, in reality we find that the term itself plays therein a rather muted, marginal role, despite the prominence afforded to it in the tide of the closing chapter. By the turn of the decade, however, much has changed, with 'postanarchism' now taking centre-stage, being proffered as an independent body of work with its own philosophy, tactics and ends. To the extent, even, that sections of The Politics of Postanarchism read as though Newman were proposing something of a postanarchist manifesto.Whilst perhaps best considered a companion piece to the more philosophically oriented From Bakunin to Lacan, Newman's latest book also functions as a kind of primer for those looking to engage with postanarchism for the first time. Several chapters of the book revisit predominant themes of his earlier work: there is the core postanarchist motif that anarchism needs 'rethinking', 'updating' and making 'more relevant'; a detailed account of the ontology and ethics underpinning postanarchism, this time rewritten with the aid of a notion of 'an-archy' derived in part from Emmanuel Levinas and Reiner Schurmann; and, the discussion of post-Marxism aside, a perhaps unnecessary digression charting the classical debate between anarchists and Marxists. What distinguishes this work from its predecessor, though, is that postanarchism is considered in light of, and against, competing perspectives within continental political thought, most notably the autonomism of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, and engages reflexively, but for tiie most part implicidy, with several of the criticisms levelled against the earlier book. It also brings the affinities between postanarchism and contemporary activist currents more sharply into relief and situates itself with respect to more recent anarchist theory, such as that proposed by Murray Bookchin and John Zerzan.To my mind, however, the most striking feature of the book lies in its revised attitude towards the post/classical anarchism dichotomy when compared with the earlier text. Now conceived in less antagonistic terms as a supplement to anarchism rather than its successor, postanarchism is reconfigured as a 'politics of anti-polities', as dwelling in the aporetic moment in anarchism between its political and anti-political dimensions. …

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