We Can Fight with Love and Joy in Our Hearts

Anarchist #CarePackages are always, also, #LaborsOfLove. Yet in the case of the one I got in my mailbox a few days ago from my (so far only cyber) friend @scottdanielwilliams, that’s triply so.

For one, no thanks to the USPS (or perhaps the state, which has eviscerated the postal service), it took two tries to actually get the package to me, with the second effort aided by numerous stamps featuring, beautifully, Marvin Gaye and Ursula K. Le Guin (who both should be thanked for their contributions to making this world a far better place).

Then too, the tightly wrapped envelope, once unsealed, burst forth with dozens and dozens, or likely well over a hundred, assorted stickers clearly made with love by Scott.

Third, Scott penned the sweetest and most poetic note on the wrapping around the stickers, supplying me with care in the form of words—much needed at the moment.

And finally (making for, oops, care x 4!), among the many different sticker designs and slogans was one in particular that spoke directly to why, in my anarchist view, we have a collective duty and obligation to always “fight the power” and “rage against the machine,” in all forms: because struggling for liberation and freedom for all is indeed a labor of love—in the fullest sense. We don’t just seek the abolition of cops and colonialism, say, as some end in itself; we bring the presence of all we imagine can and should be in their place to what we do concretely—lovingly and joyfully—in the here and now. I rarely see us anarchists expressing that enough in the #ArtOfResistance we share publicly on walls, lamp posts, and the like, when it’s at the heart of our politics and practice, and why others might want to become anarchists too.

So here’s a glimpse of one of Scott’s stickers in the wild because I feel so grateful to be able to pass along this message as part of my labors of love (though I rarely take photos of stickers I may have allegedly put up), followed by a sampler, via Scott’s gift, of how what we fight for and embody now can always go side by side (and should!) with what we fight against.

#CollectiveCare #RebelliousJoy #LoveAndRage #TryAnarchismForLife

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