Posted on April 25th, 2012 in Events
Rochester Red and Black and U of R Students for a Democratic Society are proud to present “Another World is Possible: An Anarchist Day School”, a day-long series of workshops intended to provide broader access to the rich and varied field of anarchist ideas and practices…. We’re excited to be hosting authors of new releases from AK Press, including Deric Shannon, co-editor of “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics” and Maia Ramnath, author of “Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian History of India’s Liberation Struggle”.
The event will be hosted in rooms 108 and 109 in Goergen Hall at the University of Rochester. Parking will be free during the event.
– SCHEDULE –
OPENING PLENARY
12:00-2:00
Anarchist Economics
Speaker: Deric Shannon
Editor of the new book “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writing on Anarchist Economics”, Deric Shannon will discuss some of the common critiques of capitalism anarchists hold and explore the centuries-long debate about what free, egalitarian society could look like.
SESSION 1
2:15-3:30
Room 1
Especifismo: Anarchist Organization and Praxis
Speaker: Colin O’Malley
Colin O’Malley will discuss the organizational strategy used by many South American anarchist organizations (including groups like Red Libertaria in Argentina and the FARJ in Brazil) and how it can be used to shape effective anarchist organizations in the US.
Room 2
Anarchism in the Philippines, Past and Present
Speaker: Prof. Thomas Gibson
Thomas Gibson, professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester will lead a discussion about the history of anarchism in the Philippines from the late 19th century to present.
LUNCH
3:30-4:30
Food is available on campus, and some refreshments will be provided. We also encourage attendees to check out our vendors including AK Press and Thought Crime Ink!
SESSION 2
4:30-5:45
Room 1
Taking Back the Land
Speaker: TBA
Take Back the Land (http://takebacktheland.org/) will talk about its approach to the idea of “Housing as a Human Right” and why direct action is critical to expanding direct, community control over land and housing.
Room 2
Strategies for Building an Independent Media
Speakers: Andy Dillon, Ted Forsyth, and Ben Dean-Kawamura
Long-time media activists Ted Forsyth, Andy Dillon, and Ben Dean-Kawamura will lead a presentation on the history and strategies behind Rochester Indymedia (rochester.indymedia.org), a 10-year old independent media outlet dedicated to promoting community control and participation in media production.
CLOSING PLENARY
6:00-8:00
Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian Look at India’s Liberation Struggle
Speaker: Maia Ramnath
Author of Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian History of India’s Liberation Struggle and Institute for Anarchist Studies fellow, Maia Ramnath will give a presentation on the anti-authoritarian elements within India’s liberation struggle, examining the history of South Asian struggles against colonialism, while highlighting lesser-known dissidents as well as iconic figures.
Posted on April 24th, 2012 in Events, Uncategorized
Book launch celebration & reading for Eric Laursen’s new THE PEOPLE’S PENSION
The People’s Pension is both a groundbreaking history and an indispensable guide for anyone concerned about one of the biggest issues in the upcoming election. Social Security is quite literally the “glue” that binds Americans together as a community, yet in the aftermath of the debt reduction deal between Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, the 2012 election promises to be a kind of referendum on the size and role of government– including economic support programs like Social Security. Arguing to democratize, not disable, the program, Eric Laursen suggests that the only solution for Social Security is taking it out of the government’s hands altogether. Laursen is the co-author of “Understanding the Crash.”
Posted on April 24th, 2012 in Events
Pioneer Valley Zine Fest is a two day event that strives to bring accessibility to DIY zine making as well as supporting radical independent publishing. Its goal is to bring writers, activists, artists and community members together through sharing, connecting, and collaborating.
AK Press is excited to join our friends from Food for Thought Books for this event! We will be tabling with some of our latest releases (and, yes, some zines!) on Saturday the 28th. Come by and say hello! More information and a schedule of events and speakers at: http://pioneervalleyzinefest.wordpress.com/
Posted on April 21st, 2012 in Events
Join author Margaret Killjoy for an interactive reading of What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, his radical steampunk adventure-of-your-own-choosing novel. Become the drunken fop of a protagonist as he gets embroiled in anti-colonial struggle between goblins and gnomes in the undercity of 19th century France! Practice your rapid consensus decision-making skills!
Posted on April 21st, 2012 in Events, Uncategorized
Margaret Killjoy is the author of What Lies Beneath the Clocktower, multiple zines, and other creative enterprises. This event is free, but if you can, bring some money to buy some of this merchandise! More about their projects here: http://www.tangledwilderness.org/2012/04/strangers-in-a-tangled-wilderness-reborn/
The reading is interactive and is used as a light-hearted rapid consensus-building training, because the audience has to come to consensus about what path to take through the anti-colonialist steampunk adventure.
The Wingnut is located at 2005 Barton Avenue. This is a sober all ages event. Call 804 303 5449 or email wingnut_collective[at]yahoo.com for more info
Posted on April 21st, 2012 in Events
Descend into the depths of the undercity and embroil yourself in the political struggling of colonialist gnomes and indigenous goblins. Fly in air balloons, drink mysterious and pleasant cocktails, smoke opium with the dregs of gnomish society. Or dream and speak of liberation for all the races. Fall in love and abscond into the caverns.
It’s up to you, because this is an adventure of your own choosing.
From Margaret Killjoy, the founder of SteamPunk Magazine and the editor of Mythmakers & Lawbreakers comes an interactive novel of danger, drugs, and revolution.
Posted on April 21st, 2012 in AK Allies, AK Authors!, AK Distribution, Happenings, Recommended Reading, Uncategorized
Ever seen an interactive fiction reading? No? You’re missing out. But, if you live in Pittsburgh, Richmond, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Charlottesville, and basically anywhere in North Carolina, now’s your chance!
AK author & editor Margaret Killjoy is on tour to promote his new book, What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, an anti-colonial steampunk adventure-of-your-own-choosing book. Audience members participate in a consensus-based decision-making process to guide the novel’s absinthe-drunk protagonist through a land filled with gnomes and goblins, wrestling with a variety of ethical choices, and at least a few policemen too. It’s loads of fun, and a unique experience. This is definitely not the choose-your-own adventure story you read as a kid (those are trademarked anyway, so this is really not that), but it’s worth every second. Plus, as a bonus, zines and other materials from Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, Combustion Books, and AK Press on sale!
Dates
- April 21 at the Big Idea Bookstore & Cafe in Pittsburgh, PA. 5pm.
- April 23 at the Wingnut in Richmond, VA. 7pm.
- April 24 at Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, NC. 7pm.
- April 28 at the Steampunk Ball at Davenport & Winkleperry in Pittsboro, NC. 9pm.
- April 30 at Firestorm Cafe & Books in Asheville, NC. 6pm.
- May 2 at the Iron Rail in New Orleans, LA. 6pm.
- May 3 at the East Side Social Center (4202 canal street) in Houston, TX. 7pm.
- May 4-6 I will be performing as an accordionist and presenting and tabling at AetherFest in San Antonio, TX.
- May 9 at Random Row Books in Charlottesville, VA. 7pm.
- May 13 at Back Pages Books in Waltham, MA as part of the Watch City Festival. 11am.
Praise for What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower:
“If you make your way through to the end, you’ll discover that Killjoy’s not just spinning a shaggy-dog story—there’s a surprising amount of heart and adventure to be had if you’re bold enough to choose the path of heroism.”
—Cory Doctorow, author of For The Win
“In What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, the estimable Margaret Killjoy takes a story-form usually associated with younger readers and infuses it with decadence and absinthe along with delirious and dissolute fantasy. If you’re choosing your own adventure, I strongly recommend you make it this one.”
—Alan Moore, author of Watchmen
“A highly imaginative, energetic debut that’s subversive and intelligent.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, author of Shriek: An Afterword
“As I aspire to be a drunken and feckless adventurer myself, I felt great kinship with Our Hero Gregory. Well done sir, well done indeed!”
—Jake von Slatt, proprietor of steampunkworkshop.com
“Reading What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower is a bit like playing Dungeons & Dragons with a bunch of grad students while Monty Python’s Flying Circus marathons in the background. It offers the pleasure of watching someone very smart do some thing very silly, and do it with style and skill. You will laugh and while you laugh this trickster author will unleash goblins in your mind to ferment a cognitive revolution.”
—William Alexander, for Rain Taxi
Posted on April 20th, 2012 in AK Authors!, Reviews of AK Books
The Accumulation of Freedom edited by Deric Shannon, Anthony J Nocella, II and John Asimakoupolos received two great reviews this week. The first from Gabriel Kuhn at Alpine Anarchist and the second by David D’Amato at Center for a Stateless Society.
Alpine Anarchist Review
by Gabriel Kuhn
Anarchist discussions revolve around abolishing the state, capitalism, and all forms of oppression, at the same time envisioning a better future for all of us in a just and free society. Interestingly enough, some very basic questions are rarely asked. For example: How do we get our bread? How do we get our cotton shirts? How do we get the smart phones we have become so accustomed to? Obviously, these questions, and a million of others like them, all relate to a very general one: How will anarchists run the economy?
Stimulating anarchist debate on economic issues seems to have been a main motivating factor behind the publication of The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics. At the same time, the book attempts to refute the argument – particularly popular among Marxists – that such debates are entirely absent from the anarchist tradition. In their introduction, the editors, Deric Shannon, Anthony J. Nocella II, and John Asimakopoulos, state: “[A]narchists have contributed to economic thought, despite historical portrayals that write them out – reducing the narrative to capitalism and its Marxian opponents – and we do aim to remedy this despite some of these tensions. Indeed, as the libertarian wing of the socialist movements, anarchism played a key role in the development of economic analyses, practices, and visions of a future society that were anti-capitalist and non-Marxist.” (13-14) Read More
Center for a Stateless Society Review
by David D’Amato
The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics, edited by anarchist scholars Deric Shannon, Anthony J. Nocella, II, and John Asimakopoulos, treats a controversial realm of radical thought, one that has led to divisions and mutual dubiety within the anarchist tradition. In their opening essay Anarchist Economics: A Holistic View, the editors acknowledge that, for many contemporary anarchists, captive to “the assumption that ‘economics’ is capitalism,” the notion of anarchist economics itself is an oxymoron, at variance with anarchism’s commitment to opposing capitalism and therefore destined to prove abortive from the start.
In a vital collection of essays from contemporary anarchists writing in a range of academic disciplines, The Accumulation of Freedom challenges the idea that anarchists should not be concerned with economics. Divided into six parts, the collection moves from history to vision, first sketching the diverse backstory of anarchist economic thought and then both suggesting critiques of contemporary, global capitalism and advancing promising ways of resisting and escaping it, replacing it with something better. Read More
Posted on April 16th, 2012 in About AK, AK Distribution, AK News, Anarchist Publishers, Uncategorized
Intimate Bureaucracies is a history from the future looking backward at our present moment as a turning point. Our systems of organization and control appear unsustainable and brutal, and we are feeling around in the dark for alternatives. Using experiments in social organization in downtown New York City, and other models of potential alternative social organizations, this manifesto makes a call to action to study and build sociopoetic systems.
We’re so exited to announce the release of the latest project in the AK Press Tactical Media Project: a co-publication of Intimate Bureaucracies, the long-awaited pamphlet from dj readies (alter-ego for cultural theorist Craig J. Saper), with our friends at Punctum Books and Minor Composition. We’re calling this a co-publication, but really, all the thanks for the hard-work on making this brilliant new work available for free download is due to the lovely people at Punctum Books, a new publisher based in Brooklyn, NY that specializes in strange and wonderful works of theory outside of and against the walls of the academy.
dj readies and Punctum Books have several events planned this week in NYC to help launch the book, and we’re excited to be a part of the whole thing! Read more about the pamphlet below, and download a copy for your very own. Then send it to a friend. Print off copies and give them away. Sell them to make money for your distro or bookstore. All the work in the AK Press Tactical Media Series is available online entirely for free, and is there for you to use how you see fit. Please be sure to credit the author for any quotes or excerpts, and please forward this link widely!!
http://rbtb.akpress.org/ak-tactical-media/punctum-books/punctum-books-intimate-bureaucracies/
More about the events in NYC this week:
http://punctumbooks.com/uncategorized/join-us-for-book-week/
http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/43750
Intimate Bureaucracies: A Manifesto
by dj readies [Craig J. Saper]
Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, 2012. 60 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0615612034. Free download + $9.00 in print.
Download a copy of Intimate Bureaucracies by dj readies | Buy a copy of the pamphlet from Punctum Books
Intimate Bureaucracies is a history from the future looking backward at our present moment as a turning point. Our systems of organization and control appear unsustainable and brutal, and we are feeling around in the dark for alternatives. Using experiments in social organization in downtown New York City, and other models of potential alternative social organizations, this manifesto makes a call to action to study and build sociopoetic systems.
One alternative system, the Occupy movement, has demands and goals beyond the specific historical moment and concerns. This short book/manifesto suggests that the organization and communication systems of Occupying encampments represent important necessities, models, goals, and demands, as well as an intimate bureaucracy that is a paradoxical mix of artisanal production, mass-distribution techniques, and a belief in the democratizing potential of social media.
(more…)
Posted on April 6th, 2012 in Events
Join Stanford Students for Queer Liberation for a presentation and discussion with prominent transgender scholar-activists Dean Spade and Eric Stanley on the limits of the contemporary LGBT movements.
Spade and Stanley will be discussing their recent books, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of the Law and Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, which present novel interventions to our understanding of the law and the criminal justice system. Drawing from Critical Race Analysis and lessons from feminist and queer organizing, Spade and Stanley present compelling critiques of legal rights frameworks, the prison industrial complex, criminalization, and the authority of the State that are pertinent to all people invested in human rights issues and social justice.
