Posted on May 20th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
Writer and adventurer Doug Peacock has spent the past fifty years wandering the earth’s wildest places, studying grizzly bears and advocating for the preservation of wilderness.
In his talk, Peacock will draw on his experiences with wild grizzlies, his perspective as a former Green Beret medic who served in Vietnam and consequently struggles with post traumatic stress disorder, and his friendship with the late writer Edward Abbey. Peacock was the real-life model for Edward Abbey’s George Washington Hayduke. He will discuss the essential wilderness as the landscape of home in a melting world where wilderness is healing. Doug will discuss the absolute necessity of wild lands in our modern culture. Lastly, Peacock will consider the coming climate crisis in the context of wilderness, as seen through the lens of the last great period of climate change during the Pleistocene, 13,000 years ago.
The evening will include a showing of Peacock’s grizzly bear film footage from Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, a question and answer session, and a book signing of his newest book: “In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: A Renegade Naturalist Considers Global Warming, the First Americans and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene.”
He has published widely on wilderness issues ranging from grizzly bears to buffalo, from the Sonoran desert to the fjords of British Columbia, from the tigers of Siberia to the blue sheep of Nepal.
Buy Tickets Online Here
Posted on May 17th, 2013 in Uncategorized
Our friends at Upside Down World are celebrating ten years of reporting on social movements and politics in Latin America! And in order to ensure that they can keep doing what they’ve been doing for the last decade, they are running a fund drive to cover their operating expenses. We’ve come up with a way that we can all help them out—and you can pick up some new reading material in the process! From now through May 26, for each sale the following AK Press titles on Latin America (in either print or e-book format) through akpress.org, we’ll donate $5 to Upside Down World!
Titles included in this fundraiser are:
The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (Benjamin Dangl)
New social movements have emerged in Bolivia over the “price of fire—access to basic elements of survival like water, gas, land, coca, employment, and other resources. Though these movements helped pave the way to the presidency for indigenous coca-grower Evo Morales in 2005, they have made it clear that their fight for self-determination doesn’t end at the ballot box. From the first moments of Spanish colonization to today’s headlines, The Price of Fire offers a gripping account of clashes in Bolivia between corporate and people’s power, contextualizing them regionally, culturally, and historically.
Territories in Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements (Raul Zibechi)
“Emancipation,” argues Raúl Zibechi, “is not an objective but a way of life.” For the last half century, new and emancipatory social formations have worked to carve out their own territories in Latin America, experimenting in rural and urban settings with new forms of liberatory politics that challenge neocolonialism, neoliberalism, and the very basis of the state itself. Not limited to a single path, these “societies in movement” have adopted forms of communitarian relations that allow experimentation and innovation to flourish at a riveting pace. Blending case studies and history with social theory and analysis, Zibechi opens our eyes to the new world being born just outside our gaze.
A Poetics of Resistance: The Revolutionary Public Relations of the Zapatista Insurgency (Jeff Conant)
While much has been written on the history of the Zapatista insurgency and on the communiqués of Subcomandante Marcos, very little has been said about Zapatismo: the ideologies, organizing methodologies, and communications strategies of the movement. The appeal of the Zapatistas, and their survival, has as much to do with their goals as with the compelling and wildly effective language and aesthetics they’ve used to convey their vision. Jeff Conant offers an engaging and innovative tool for organizers and educators to understand how the Zapatistas’ strategy works, and to continue developing and refining their effective messages of participatory, bottom-up revolution.
Zapatista Spring: Anatomy of a Rebel Water Project & the Lessons of International Solidarity (Ramor Ryan)
Eight volunteers converge to help campesinos build a water system in Chiapas—a strategy to bolster the Zapatista insurgency by helping locals to assert their autonomy. These outsiders come to question the movement they’ve traveled so far to support—and each other—when forced into a world so unlike the poetic communiqués of Subcomandante Marcos—a world of endemic rural poverty, parochialism, and shifting loyalties to the movement. The quiet dignity of the local compañeros and echoes of B. Traven, Conrad, and Camus, round out this epic yarn.
More about Upside Down World, from their appeal for support:
“Ten years ago U
pside Down World began as a website with a small group of writers scattered around the hemisphere, reporting on the emerging leftist politicians and burgeoning social movements that would go on to reshape the region. Neoliberalism had dug its own grave, and grassroots struggles and socialist policies were paving a new path for Latin America. Foreign corporations were ousted in popular uprisings, and presidents were elected across the region on anti-imperialist, progressive platforms. Upside Down World was there from the beginning, reporting from the ballot boxes and inaugurations, and later when the celebratory confetti turned into teargas and protests. From the victories and failures of the left and the everyday struggles of social movements for a better world, Upside Down World has reported on the roller coaster of the past decade without stopping. And we need your help to continue the ride…
From the Andes Mountains to the shores of the Caribbean, Upside Down World works hard to bring you regular news and analysis on grassroots politics and social change across the hemisphere. Our reporters are based on the frontlines of struggles over mining, soybean cultivation and human rights. Our site breaks stories long before they hit the pages of the New York Times. And Upside Down World always puts the actions, demands and voices of social movements at the top of our concerns.”
You can read the whole appeal here.
Posted on May 16th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
We’ll have a couple readings and performances and will also be distributing and selling books! they are $20 bux!
More details to come soon!
for more details about the book check out the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StaySolidARadicalHandbookforYouth
Cafe Deux Soleiles has been audited by RAMP for accessibility:
http://buildingradicalaccessiblecommunities.blogspot.ca/p/accessibilities-audits.html
*all proceeds from the book go to supporting the Thistle*
Posted on April 17th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
Jared Davidson will be presenting his new AK Press title Sewing Freedom in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jared Davidson is an archivist at Archives New Zealand, a member of the Labour History Project, and author of Sewing Freedom. His first book, Remains to be Seen: Tracing Joe Hill’s Ashes in New Zealand, was published in 2011.
Barry Pateman is an anarchist historian, Kate Sharpley Library archivist, and Associate Editor of The Emma Goldman Papers (USA). A prolific editor and writer, he has been involved in a number of projects and publications, including Chomsky on Anarchism, A History of the French Anarchist Movement, Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, and Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.
Mark Derby is the Chair of the Labour History Project and an extensively-published writer and historian, having worked for the Waitangi Tribunal; the PSA; Te Ara, the online encyclopedia of New Zealand; and as South Pacific correspondent for Journal Expresso, Portugal’s leading newspaper. His books include The Prophet and the Policeman: The story of Rua Kenana and John Cullen, and Kiwi Companeros, on New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War.
May 15th, 5:30pm
The Boardroom
Museum of Wellington City & Sea Queens Wharf, Jervois Quay
Wellington, NZ
Refreshments Provided
Posted on April 11th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Reviews
Jared Davidson’s new book is a history of both an influential figure – Philip Josephs – and a movement: anarchism in New Zealand. It is a beautifully-written and impeccably-researched volume that brings to our attention an often overlooked aspect of our political history.
Sewing Freedom traces the journey of Josephs and his family from Latvia to Scotland and then to Wellington in 1903, where he ran a tailor’s shop and distributed anarchist literature. ‘Between sewing machines, pulleys, pressing irons and a button-hole machine, workers could converse, browse anarchist pamphlets … and measure up for a custom-made suit’. Over time, Josephs helped to spread anarchist ideas from one end of New Zealand to the other, including the work of key international figures: Pyotr Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin and Emma Goldman, among others. The indefatigable Josephs also took part in protests on behalf of workers and against the tyrannies of governments and bosses.
Davidson clearly situates anarchism in relation to wider transnational labour movements over the first two decades of the twentieth century, and demonstrates the relationships between anarchist thinkers and activists both here and overseas. Along with Josephs, we meet Christchurch chemistry professor Alexander Bickerton as well as several immigrants: English doctor and eugenicist Thomas Macdonald – an acquaintance of Kropotkin – and German billiard table maker Johann Trunk. The reader gains a clear sense of international connections as well as Josephs’ ‘key role in the establishment of a distinct anarchist identity and culture’ in New Zealand.
(more…)
Posted on April 4th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
Hannah Dobbz will present Nine-Tenths of the Law: Property and Resistance in the United States. How does “property” fit into designs for an equitable society? Nine-Tenths of the Law examines the history of squatting and property struggles in the US, from colonialism to 20th-century urban squatting and the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s, and how such resistance movements shape the law. Squatting is defined by Dobbz as “occupying an otherwise abandoned structure without exchanging money or engaging in a formal permissive agreement.”
Saturday April 20th, 7:30
Hotmess/RCA Compound
656 West MacArthur Blvd. (@ MLK Jr. Way)
Oakland, CA
Posted on April 4th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
Hannah Dobbz will present Nine-Tenths of the Law: Property and Resistance in the United States. How does “property” fit into designs for an equitable society? Nine-Tenths of the Law examines the history of squatting and property struggles in the US, from colonialism to 20th-century urban squatting and the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s, and how such resistance movements shape the law. Squatting is defined by Dobbz as “occupying an otherwise abandoned structure without exchanging money or engaging in a formal permissive agreement.”
Tuesday April 16th, 6pm
Blood Money
1725 E. 7th Street, Unit C
Los Angeles, CA
Posted on April 4th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
Hannah Dobbz will present Nine-Tenths of the Law: Property and Resistance in the United States. How does “property” fit into designs for an equitable society? Nine-Tenths of the Law examines the history of squatting and property struggles in the US, from colonialism to 20th-century urban squatting and the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s, and how such resistance movements shape the law. Squatting is defined by Dobbz as “occupying an otherwise abandoned structure without exchanging money or engaging in a formal permissive agreement.”
Tuesday April 9th, 4:30pm
MPR (Multi-Purpose Room)
Tulane University NLG
New Orleans, LA
Posted on April 4th, 2013 in AK Authors!, Events
Wayne Price will present his new AK Press title The Value of Radical Theory at the New York Anarchist Bookfair.
The Value of Radical Theory achieves two main goals: It explains Marx’s economic theory, providing readers with a solid foundation in his critique of capitalism. Wayne Price’s political insights also offer a framework through which anarchists can understand and use Marx, while remaining anarchists.
Saturday April 4th, 2pm
Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, Room #202
107 Suffolk St
New York, NY 10002
Posted on April 1st, 2013 in About AK, Events
AK Press is coming to New York! We will be tabling both days this year at the NYC Anarchist Bookfair. Be sure to stop by to say hey and check out the newest AK published and disto’d titles.
Saturday April 6th
12pm-9pm
Sunday April 7th
Noon-7pm
Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
107 Suffolk St
New York, NY 10002
