Wildpunk: Black Against Civilization

“Wildpunk: Black Against Civilization” is the first English-language translation of writings by Elany, a Black anti-civ anarchist from Switzerland. Her 2021 book Schwarze Saat collected first-time German translations of 85 diverse Black and Indigenous anarchist texts previously available mostly in English. The collection also included several German-original essays written by Elany herself as well as her late dad, Samuel B. Elany and Samuel B’s works tackle the brutal reality that we must demolish industry and civilization rather than attempt to separate them from colonialism, capitalism, and the state. They also examine the inspirations and practices of a decolonial, decivilized anarchism. This zine hopes to make a small contribution to the task of translating essential anarchist thought by bringing these German-original works into English for the first time. Elany and Samuel B may now enter into direct conversation with the movements they helped to translate. "What white anarchists have often only theorized was and remains practice for Black and Indigenous peoples. Colonialism, historically and presently, has a strong technological component. Today’s entire framework of fundamental technologies stems from military research. It is based not only on the exploitation of people in the Global South and their lands, but has always been unleashed against the “enemy” or tested in the colonies, until it finally makes its way into the empire itself. Anarchists who only struggle to free industry from capitalism must finally face the brutal reality. Down with industry, down with work."