Posted on July 3rd, 2014 in Uncategorized
The New Significance recently posted this nice interview with author Mark Bray about his contribution to the book The End of the World As We Know It?
TNS: Hi Mark, and thanks for taking the time to respond to some questions. Before we begin, can you tell readers a bit about yourself and the various projects you’ve been involved in over the years?
Mark: My pleasure! Well, I’m from New Jersey and I’m a member of the new Black Rose Anarchist Federation, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a PhD Candidate in Modern European History at Rutgers University. Over the years I’ve been involved in the global justice movement, the anti-war movement, student and immigrants’ rights work, labor organizing, and other campaigns. I was also an organizer with the Press and Direct Action working groups of Occupy Wall Street in New York City. I recently published Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street about the role of anarchism in the movement based on my experiences and 192 interviews with organizers in NYC.
TNS: In your contribution to The End of the World As We Know It? (AK Press, 2014) you talk about the “strategic presentation” of the politics of Occupy Wall Street that you and others tried to mobilize as organizers within the Press Working Group. Can you describe what you mean by that?
Mark: Essentially the article discusses how organizers involved in framing the politics of Occupy attempted to transcend popular disdain for the words and language of radical left ideology (such as ‘anarchism’ or ‘communism’) while maintaining their anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian politics and attempting to target the underlying affinity that many Americans feel for the content of anarchist politics when understood without its often cumbersome ideological baggage. In other words, many working class Americans distrust the federal government, reject the notion that politicians are looking out for the interests of everyday people, understand that the banks and corporations have played a destructive role in the economy over the past years, are very sympathetic to the concepts of local autonomy, participatory democracy, etc. but when they’re initially presented as components of ‘anarchism’ or more broadly anti-capitalist politics the conversation often ends there.
So those of us in the Press Working Group, for example, framed talking points and wrote press releases that presented an anti-authoritarian message that focused on issues and values that people already shared in order to get them involved and expose them to opportunities for further radicalization.
TNS: One of the tropes that you point out that is used to justify austerity, in particular, but also capitalism generally is the idea that we need to “live within our means.” This is a genius talking point for liberals and conservatives, who argue for cutting social spending all the while syphoning wealth upwards (indeed, the top 7% of earners actually got richer during the crisis, while the rest of us were told to tighten our belts). But you and the organizers you worked with repurposed this slogan creatively. Can you describe that for us?
Mark: So in the article I focus on four axiomatic, ‘common sense’ political/ethical perspectives that many Americans hold that OWS organizers had a fair amount of success mobilizing in order to redirect away from their reactionary popular usage toward a much more radical direction including: “Shining City Upon a Hill,” “A Fair Day’s Wage for a Fair Day’s Work,” “You Will Always Have the Poor Among You,” and, as you mentioned, “Living Within Your Means.” The right mobilizes around the concept of “Living Within Your Means” in order to capitalize on the commonly held belief that individuals and families should balance their budgets and apply that adage to the affairs of state thereby glossing over the vast differences that separate the two examples. This rhetoric has the effect of silencing protest because it makes people think that their sacrifices are shared across class and strengthen their character.
But Occupy organizers continually emphasized that the ruling class was not enduring any sacrifices, despite the fact that they were to blame for the crisis, while working people suffered although they ‘played by the rules.’ So, as the well-used Occupy slogan went, “Banks got bailed out/We got sold out.” The financial institutions got rewarded for living beyond their means while working people got punished for living within them.
So the potential strength of these kinds of arguments is that they start with already shared premises to demonstrate how the rich habitually thumb their nose at them.
TNS: It was also interesting that you note that the term “austerity” never really gained traction in the US, particularly in press reporting on the economic situation after the market collapse. This is fascinating for a couple of reasons, not least of which is that the US has definitely seen similar trends as Europe, where “austerity” is a common signifier for a certain set of political priorities (i.e. state-sponsored supply-side economics, where wealthy elites are given massive amounts of tax dollars because their operations are deemed “too big to fail”; funding for those bailouts provided by the evisceration of social spending and the repurposing of those dollars as handouts to the rich; etc.). Why do you think the terminology never took hold in the States?
Mark: Yeah, definitely. Well I’m not entirely sure, but I think a part of it has to do with a well-orchestrated effort to drain the financial crisis of any historical context and portray the issues it raised as essentially eternal questions of the role of government in the economy. The politicians and talking heads present the issue as a continual tug of war between liberals and conservatives over how much the government should ‘interfere’ with the free market. From their perspective, this struggle sometimes sways one way, sometimes another, but it transcends historical eras. Therefore, this outlook is at odds with the more historical interpretation of the recent crisis having ushered in an era of austerity that, to one extent or another, has affected many different governments around the world especially in the global north.
Therefore, government cuts are portrayed as victories for the right in this morally charged battle rather than concessions to a broader historical ‘mandate’ to cut back on social services. Also ‘austerity’ is just not a well known word in the United States, relative to many other places, so that may have something to do with it also.
TNS: And would you mind telling us a bit about your recent book, Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street? You catalogue some of these issues in the book, correct?
Mark: Yes, Translating Anarchy is a political analysis of the organizers of Occupy Wall Street in New York City based on 192 interviews with organizers and my own experience. Based on the interviews I document the fact that approximately 72% of organizers had explicitly anarchist or implicitly anarchistic politics despite the mainstream media claim that Occupy was a liberal movement whose aspirations were limited to reforms such as campaign finance reform or a millionaire’s tax.
So the book documents this contrast between the anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian organizers that made the movement happen and the larger liberal base of support that generated so much hype for Occupy with a focus on how the radicals at the core of the movement managed to bring people into the movement by orienting their radicalism in accessible language. Ultimately Occupy Wall Street was successful because it brought together this revolutionary core with a liberal support base, and so moving forward those of us serious about transforming society need to put more effort into promoting our ideas outside of left circles. Translating Anarchy reflects on the successes and failures of that project in New York and situates Occupy within a larger historical context of previous social movements and revolutionary struggles.
Posted on June 30th, 2014 in AK Book Excerpts, Current Events
“The story of land in Detroit is the story of people re-imaging productive, compassionate communities. The land, poisoned and abused by industrial capital for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, holds the relics of mass production. As technologies advanced and capital became more mobile, Detroit and its people were abandoned. Yet within this devastation, people began to see the opportunity to create something new. Calling on the deepest resources of memory, spirit, and imagination, abandoned land is being reclaimed as urban gardens; old factories hold the possibilities of aquaponics, art studios, and bicycle production; neighborhoods ravaged by drugs and violence are organizing to create peace zones where people take responsibility for public safety and personal problem solving. Detroit, once the symbol of industrial mass production, holds the possibility of becoming a new kind of self-sufficient, productive, creative, and life-affirming city.” [from “A Detroit Story”]
When you read mainstream media accounts of the “options” available to Detroit, remember those are generally only the options that take capitalism as a given. Matthew Birkhold, Grace Lee Boggs, Rick Feldman, and Shea Howell contributed a great chapter to our new book Grabbing Back…which offers a different take on the historical and present-day options available to Detroit, and the rest of us.
Read their chapter, “A Detroit Story: Ideas whose Time Has Come,” here.
Get the book here.
Posted on June 15th, 2014 in Events
The annual AK Press anti-state event is here again. Tons of sale books priced between $1 and $5…and discounts on everything else! Snacks, refreshments, and friendly anarchists. Come for the books, stay for the scintillating conversation.
WHERE: 674 23rd Street, Oakland (between MLK and San Pablo)
WHEN: Wednesday July 2, 2014
from 4pm to 9pm.
WHY: Because you can never have too many great books.
You can RSVP on Facebook, if you do that sort of thing!
Posted on May 27th, 2014 in Uncategorized
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We’ve got eight amazing books scheduled for the upcoming Fall and Winter seasons. We’ll share more detailed news in the future, but for now, here’s the list:
Dispatches against Displacement: Field Notes from San Francisco’s Housing Wars, James Tracey
Drug War Capitalism, Dawn Paley
I Belong Only to Myself: The Life and Writing of Leda Rafanelli, Andrea Pakieser
Militant Anti-Fascism: A Hundred Years of Resistance, M. Testa
Educating for Insurgency: The Roles of Young People in Schools of Poverty, Jay Gillen
Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848–2011, Jesse Cohn
Storm in My Heart: Memories from the Widow of Johann Most, Helene Minkin
Complete Works of Malatesta, Vol. 3: A Long and Patient Endeavour—The Anarchist Socialism of L’Agitazione, 1897–1898, edited by Davide Turcato
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Posted on May 16th, 2014 in AK Allies, AK Distribution
Dismantle, the new collection we’re distributing from Thread Makes Blanket Press, has been getting some great press these last couple weeks. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, do yourself a favor! Contributors to the book also have a handful of events lined up—maybe in your neck of the woods—and we encourage you to check them out.
The new book is a collection of writing from the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop, which is a program that supports and mentors young writers of color.
Junot Diaz, one of the founders of VONA, explains in his introduction to Dismantle (an abridged form of which was just published by The New Yorker!):
“I became a published writer and one of the first things I did with that privilege was join some comrades to help found a workshop for writers of color. The Voices of Our Nation Workshop. A kind of Cave Canum, but for all genres and all people of color. Something right out of my wildest MFA dreams, where writers of colors could gather to develop our art in a safe supportive environment. Where our ideas, critiques, concerns, our craft and, above all, our experiences would be privileged rather than marginalized; encouraged rather than ignored; discussed intelligently rather than trivialized. Where our contributions were not an adjunct to Literature but its core.
We’re on our fourteenth year now and the workshop has become a lot of things. We’re a thriving community of artists. We’re a space of learning, of personal growth and yes, at times, of healing. For many of our participants we’re a much-needed antidote to the oppressive biases of mainstream workshops.
But the workshop is deeper things too. Silent things we almost never talk about. For me it’s an attempt to do over that lousy MFA I had. To create in the present a fix to a past that can never be altered.”
Dismantle got this praise from an Afropunk reviewer, too:
“It is important that we feel as though our experiences are represented in the things that we read and Dismantle does a great job of sharing the pure, unadulterated art of writers of color and allowing their work to shine.”
Besides Diaz, contributors to the book comprise a great cast of VONA alumni and instructors including Chris Abani, Nikky Finney, Maaza Mengiste, Minal Hajratwala, Justin Torres, Cristina Garcia, Mat Johnson, Laila Lalami, Mitchell Jackson and many more.
Check out the book HERE, and also at one of these upcoming events if you can:
May 15th, NYC, La Casa Azul Bookstore, 6pm
May 17th, Philadelphia, Wooden Shoe Books, 7pm
May 30th, San Francisco, Modern Times, 8pm (Broadcast live on KPFK!)
June 8th, Seattle, Columbia Branch of Seattle Public Library, 2pm
July 26th, NYC, Bluestockings, 7pm
Details of these events (and up to date event info) can be found HERE.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Eddie Conway, author of Marshall Law (recently released from prison!) will be speaking about his experiences and discussing the two books he wrote while incarcerated as a political prisoner in Maryland for 44 years. Join us for a conversation around his memoir, Marshall Law: The Life & Times of a Baltimore Black Panther and his exposé The Greatest Threat: The Black Panther Party and COINTELPRO. This event will also be a fundraiser to help Eddie pay his legal expenses and get back on his feet in Baltimore.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Visit the AK Press tables in the exhibition area! And go to http://www.leftforum.org for more information and a schedule of sessions.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
The GUIDE TO KULCHUR DIALOGUES series proudly welcomes author Cindy Milstein for her presentation “Ghost Stories: Tales of Displacement from Gentrifying Metropolises,” followed by an open forum discussion of the dynamics of neighborhood redevelopment and gentrification in the modern American city.
“Capitalism is again reshaping the landscape, this time forcing inner-city residents to the suburban and rural peripheries as it (re)appropriates the major metropolises for the ultra-rich. Today’s gentrification—neocolonialism and/or class war—is not only violently destructive of lives, homes, and cultures; it erases memory of what came before.”
In the wake of the financial crisis and thirty years of depopulation and deindustrialization, economic recovery in the American city is an open question with competing visions. On one hand is the attempt to generate real estate investment opportunities through large-scale condo projects and initiatives to attract new, wealthier residents to urban neighborhoods. On the other is a rejection of this vision as a form of enforced displacement and redlining, preferring to focus on the qualitative aspects of these neighborhoods and the history of the spaces.
Cindy will share first-person tales of displacement and resistance, especially in San Francisco, and then frame questions for an open forum evening of dialogue. All attending are welcome to participate.
For some related reading, see “The Power to Stay: Magical Realism from SF’s Mission, http://cbmilstein.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/the-power-to-stay-magical-realism-from-sfs-mission/.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Join Howl Arts Collective for a panel discussion that explores the intersections between artistic practice, social movements and anarchism. Taking place as part of the Festival of Anarchy 2014.
presentations by
* Cindy Milstein
Cindy Milstein, currently a collective member with both the Institute for Anarchist Studies (www.anarchiststudies.org) and Station 40 (a collective social center) as well as engaged in anti-eviction organizing in San Francisco, is author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations (IAS/AK Press) coauthor with Erik Ruin of Paths toward Utopia (PM Press), and blogs at http://cbmilstein.wordpress.com/
* Freda Guttman
Freda is a native of Montreal, has been a practising artist for over 45 years. In the 1980’s she quit teaching art in order to situate her work into the realm of the political beyond art galleries for a participatory and broad range of viewers. She created two very large installations which toured Canada extensively for several years, in artist-run centres: “Guatemala: The Road of War” and“The Global Menu”. She has also created several small installations about the Palestinian struggle.
In 2003, she co-curated an exhibition, “Artists Against the Occupation”, with Rawi Hage in Montreal and has shown her work in numerous “Artists Against the Occupation” exhibits all over the world. She recently completed a continuum of five installations globally entitled, “Notes From the 20th” which was a ten year project.
Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/434268863384141/.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
For more information and schedule, visit: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/montreal-anarchist-bookfair-2014
Visit us at the AK Press tables, and see AK author Cindy Milstein speak on “Death on the Commons” (Saturday at 11am) and “Everyday Anarchism” (Sunday at 3pm). Plus lots more excellent speakers and workshops!
The New Significance recently posted this nice interview with author Mark Bray about his contribution to the book The End of the World As We Know It?
