Posted on May 11th, 2012 in AK Authors!, Recommended Reading
We had quite an exciting delivery at the Baltimore office today! Michael Staudenmaier’s Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969-1986!
Make sure to pre-order your copy and get 25% off!
Advance Praise for Truth and Revolution:
“Michael Staudenmaier has uncovered a crucial story of the New Left, one that has escaped the attention of most scholars of the era. His skilled prose and meticulous research critically honors this history and draws lessons for us today.—James Tracy, co-author of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times
“Wow! Truth and Revolution is a guided tour of the worker militancy, revolutionary nationalist upsurge, and new social movement eruptions of the last forty years. Best of all Staudenmaier breaks it all down for today’s social movements. Truth and Revolution is not to be missed.”—Dan Berger, editor of The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism
“STO’s unflinching focus on calling out white supremacy in all its manifestations is an important reminder for today. A must-read for students of leftist politics, social movements and Chicago history.”—Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover and What it Says about the Economic Crisis
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Posted on May 7th, 2012 in Current Events
I answered the warehouse door the other day and was ambushed by a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. The resulting story and the “quote” attributed to me requires some response.
First I want to make it clear that I am in full support of a diversity of tactics when it comes to protest – including Black Bloc-type tactics. What I was commenting on was the apparent random destruction and vandalism committed on the eve of May Day in San Francisco’s Mission District. I mentioned that many who were present felt that these were agents provocateurs. If that is the case then they have succeeded in turning public opinion against Occupy – if these were real protestors then I feel that their actions were counterproductive in this instance. Smashing the car windows of the SF Gay Men’s Chorus isn’t going to create converts to your cause. That specifically is what I was referring to when I said that Black Bloc-type tactics can be counterproductive.
But it is important to understand that that is my personal opinion and not the position of AK Press. AK Press is a collective made up of individuals, and we don’t all agree on this, just like we don’t all agree within the anarchist movement as a whole on all tactical choices. When I asked other collective members about it, we all shared some amount of concern over the repeated infiltration of the black bloc by the police, and the state’s use of the “black-masked anarchist” trope to escalate violence in otherwise non-violent situations, but we differed on our feelings on the usefulness of the Black Bloc as a tactical approach, in part based on our different experiences personally with the Bloc.
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Posted on May 3rd, 2012 in AK Authors!, Current Events, Recommended Reading
What a great interview between Eric Laursen the author of The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan and Mark Miller on Retirement Revised! Eric really knows how to explain this complex issue and show why Social Security is best put in the hands of the people.
“But I think the more urgent need is to improve Social Security. Retirement is becoming hugely expensive in America, because of health care and other rising costs. Benefits need to be raised for people who work almost their entire careers in low-wage jobs. They need to be improved for widows and divorcees. Survivors’ benefits should be extended through the end of college, not just until age 18. Same-sex couples should be covered by Social Security. And there are other needs. The real tragedy of the Social Security debate, which I try to illuminate in The People’s Pension, is that a program that was set up to help working people hasn’t been updated in almost 40 years because we’ve instead been subjected to an endless, circular argument about solvency in the less-than-foreseeable future. Does it really make sense to shift more of the cost of care in old age from society, collectively, onto hard-pressed working families? What will that do to their ability to survive economically? Instead of constantly asking if we can afford Social Security, I think we should be questioning whether we could possibly afford to do without it. These questions almost never get asked anymore on Planet Washington, and I hope my book can help put them back in circulation.” Read More
Posted on May 2nd, 2012 in AK Authors!, Events
Michael Staudenmaier will be doing a reading for his new AK Press title, Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969-1986.
Libertalia Autonomous Space
May 24th 7pm
280 Broadway #200
Providence, RI 02903
Founded in Chicago in 1969 from the rubble of the recently crumbled SDS, the Sojourner Truth Organization (STO) brought working-class consciousness to the forefront of New Left discourse, sending radicals back into the factories and thinking through the integration of radical politics into everyday realities. Through the influence of founding members like Noel Ignatiev and Don Hamerquist, STO took a Marxist approach to the question of race and revolution, exploring the notion of “white skin privilege,” and helping to lay the groundwork for the discipline of critical race studies.
Posted on May 2nd, 2012 in AK Authors!, Events
Michael Staudenmaier will be doing a reading for his new AK Press title, Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969-1986.
Bluestockings
May 25th 7pm
172 Allen St
New York, NY 10002
Founded in Chicago in 1969 from the rubble of the recently crumbled SDS, the Sojourner Truth Organization (STO) brought working-class consciousness to the forefront of New Left discourse, sending radicals back into the factories and thinking through the integration of radical politics into everyday realities. Through the influence of founding members like Noel Ignatiev and Don Hamerquist, STO took a Marxist approach to the question of race and revolution, exploring the notion of “white skin privilege,” and helping to lay the groundwork for the discipline of critical race studies.
Posted on May 1st, 2012 in Events
Social Security, not for nothing do politicians call it the “third rail of American politics—touch it, and you die.” Yet a powerful, well-funded movement to phase out Social Security or even privatize it has been gathering strength since the election of Ronald Reagan. Each time it comes close to succeeding, it’s beaten back by a coalition of labor, grassroots organizers, and the elderly. Meanwhile, Social Security has only become more vital to retirees and their families as the federal and state governments slash other benefits and services—a trend that’s grown ever more troubling in recent years.
The People’s Pension is both groundbreaking history and an eye-opening guide for anyone concerned about one of the biggest issues of our times. With 95 percent of Americans participating in the program either as beneficiaries or through their payroll tax contributions, Social Security is quite literally the glue that binds Americans together as a community. In a provocative epilogue, Laursen argues to democratize, not disable, the program, suggesting that the only solution for Social Security may be to de-link it from government altogether.
For more on the book, see: http://www.akpress.org/peoplespension.html
Join author Eric Laursen for a reading and discussion on this important issue!
Posted on May 1st, 2012 in Events
Social Security, not for nothing do politicians call it the “third rail of American politics—touch it, and you die.” Yet a powerful, well-funded movement to phase out Social Security or even privatize it has been gathering strength since the election of Ronald Reagan. Each time it comes close to succeeding, it’s beaten back by a coalition of labor, grassroots organizers, and the elderly. Meanwhile, Social Security has only become more vital to retirees and their families as the federal and state governments slash other benefits and services—a trend that’s grown ever more troubling in recent years.
The People’s Pension is both groundbreaking history and an eye-opening guide for anyone concerned about one of the biggest issues of our times. With 95 percent of Americans participating in the program either as beneficiaries or through their payroll tax contributions, Social Security is quite literally the glue that binds Americans together as a community. In a provocative epilogue, Laursen argues to democratize, not disable, the program, suggesting that the only solution for Social Security may be to de-link it from government altogether.
For more on the book, see: http://www.akpress.org/peoplespension.html
Join author Eric Laursen for a reading and discussion on this important issue!
Posted on May 1st, 2012 in Events
Social Security, not for nothing do politicians call it the “third rail of American politics—touch it, and you die.” Yet a powerful, well-funded movement to phase out Social Security or even privatize it has been gathering strength since the election of Ronald Reagan. Each time it comes close to succeeding, it’s beaten back by a coalition of labor, grassroots organizers, and the elderly. Meanwhile, Social Security has only become more vital to retirees and their families as the federal and state governments slash other benefits and services—a trend that’s grown ever more troubling in recent years.
The People’s Pension is both groundbreaking history and an eye-opening guide for anyone concerned about one of the biggest issues of our times. With 95 percent of Americans participating in the program either as beneficiaries or through their payroll tax contributions, Social Security is quite literally the glue that binds Americans together as a community. In a provocative epilogue, Laursen argues to democratize, not disable, the program, suggesting that the only solution for Social Security may be to de-link it from government altogether.
For more on the book, see: http://www.akpress.org/peoplespension.html
Join author Eric Laursen for a reading and discussion on this important issue!
Posted on May 1st, 2012 in Events
Social Security, not for nothing do politicians call it the “third rail of American politics—touch it, and you die.” Yet a powerful, well-funded movement to phase out Social Security or even privatize it has been gathering strength since the election of Ronald Reagan. Each time it comes close to succeeding, it’s beaten back by a coalition of labor, grassroots organizers, and the elderly. Meanwhile, Social Security has only become more vital to retirees and their families as the federal and state governments slash other benefits and services—a trend that’s grown ever more troubling in recent years.
The People’s Pension is both groundbreaking history and an eye-opening guide for anyone concerned about one of the biggest issues of our times. With 95 percent of Americans participating in the program either as beneficiaries or through their payroll tax contributions, Social Security is quite literally the glue that binds Americans together as a community. In a provocative epilogue, Laursen argues to democratize, not disable, the program, suggesting that the only solution for Social Security may be to de-link it from government altogether.
For more on the book, see: http://www.akpress.org/peoplespension.html
Join author Eric Laursen for a reading and discussion on this important issue!
Posted on April 30th, 2012 in Events
There’s no shortage of ways to get involved with the struggle this year on May Day. In Oakland and Baltimore, AK Collective members will be out in the streets participating in the actions and rallies in our cities – we encourage you to do the same! Solidarity Forever!
We had quite an exciting delivery at the Baltimore office today! Michael Staudenmaier’s Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969-1986!