Posted on May 19th, 2011 in Uncategorized
We are already super excited about Jared Ball’s new book, I Mix What I Like: A Mixtape Manifesto. (So is the San Francisco Bay View, and so are all of these very smart people!)
It’s already a great book, and we’re already offering it at a 25% discount, so we know you don’t really need another excuse to buy it… but just as an extra special bonus: order a copy of the book now, and you’ll get a free copy of the author’s brand-new mixtape, FreeMix Radio Presents: I Mix What I Like vol. 1! The new mixtape (actually in CD format) features tracks from Head-Roc, Treble Army, Precise Science, Burni and Wasun, Skipp Coon and Mr. Nick, Godsilla, Amari, and more!
This offer is good for all preorders and orders within the first month of publication, or while supplies last. And not to worry, if you have already preordered, you will get one. We’ve just gotten word that the book is shipping from the printer, so don’t delay—preorder today and get your free mixtape (and a really good book).
Posted on May 18th, 2011 in AK Authors!, AK News, Happenings
Freedom Bookshop is hosting the UK book launch of Property is Theft! A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology.
This is the new comprehensive anthology of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s writings published by AK Press. Proudhon was the first person to call themselves an anarchist and his ideas on property, state, exploitation, workers self-management, federalism and anarchy defined anarchism as a socio-economic theory. We’ve been just thrilled by the response to this massive project; the book is selling faster than expected, and everyone who picks it up seems to be equally impressed by the breadth and volume of the material included. Plus, it’s got an awfully snazzy cover! You should probably go ahead and buy a copy today!
Join Iain McKay, the editor of Property is Theft! and author of An Anarchist FAQ, to discuss Proudhon’s ideas and why they are still important today.
Property is Theft! book launch:
Saturday,
2pm to 4pm,
21st May 2011
Freedom Bookshop
Angel Alley
84b Whitechapel High Street
London
E1 7QX
Extracts from “Property is Theft!” are on-line: http://www.property-is-theft.org
Proudhon’s ideas are discussed on the Property is Theft! blog
Property is Theft! is available from AK Press in UK and USA.
Posted on May 17th, 2011 in AK Allies, Events
As the “do-it-ourselves” revolts and revolutions that recently swept across the globe from Cairo to Madison are proving, self-organization is not only effective in the process of resistance but also the basis for new communities. The ethical practices that anarchists advocate are becoming powerful “everyday” experiences, with people self-managing everything from child care to civic defense to trash collection. Anarchism has always held up the ideal of a free society of free individuals–a world without hierarchy or domination. But what exactly does this look like? Cindy’s talk, based on her book Anarchism and Its Aspirations (AK Press, 2010), will provide an accessible overview of an often-misunderstood political philosophy and living tradition, highlighting its principles, reconstructive vision, and prefigurative praxis.
Cindy is an Institute for Anarchist Studies board member, Station 40 events collective member, and a co-organizer of the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference. She has long been involved in community organizing and anarchist projects, including the New World from Below convergence at the U.S. Social Forum, the “Hope from People not Presidents” and “Don’t Just (Not) Vote” efforts, Black Sheep Books collective in Vermont, and the anarchist summer school known as the Institute for Social Ecology. Currently, she’s also collaborating on another book, Paths toward Utopia: Explorations in Everyday Anarchism, with Erik Ruin (PM Press, 2012).
This talk is a fund-raiser for the Institute for Anarchist Studies (donations appreciated, but no one turned away for lack of money)
Posted on May 17th, 2011 in AK Authors!, Uncategorized
“Emancipatory journalism is simply a theory of journalism that says that those in the hood should determine how their community is covered and who the experts are.“
We’re as happy as clams that Jared Ball’s new book I Mix What I Like!: A Mixtape Manifesto is at the printer, and we hope you are too. If you were wondering about emancipatory journalism and what it has to do with the hip-hop mixtape, find out from Jared himself in this great interview from the San Francisco Bay View. And make sure to get your copy of I Mix What I Like! at akpress.org!
View the original interview here.
by Minister of Information JR
Jared Ball, Ph.D., has been on the forefront of Black revolutionary radio on the East Coast as long as I can remember, with his work on WPFW, the Washington, D.C., Pacifica radio station. I used to run into Jared Ball all the time at the many radio conferences across the nation where he would usually be on a panel talking about his work alongside other progressives of his generation like Davey D and Rosa Clemente.
He recently wrote a “theory and philosophy” book called “I Mix What I Like,” which is now available at AK Press. It is an interesting read because it reminds me of Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” which discussed education from the perspective of a freedom fighter teacher; this book discusses doing radio from a freedom fighting journalist perspective. I dug it. Check out author Jared Ball, Ph.D., in his own words.
M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us about your new book and the essays that comprise it?
Jared: “I Mix What I Like” is the theory and philosophy behind FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show and the concept of “mixtape radio” or the application of Hemant Shah’s theory of “emancipatory journalism.” FreeMix Radio is a project we’ve been running on and off since about 2004.
It is a freely distributed mixtape cd that contains the kinds of cultural, journalistic and political expression kept out of most news and media operations in any format around the country and globe. FreeMix Radio is an attempt to blend the traditions of the hip-hop mixtape, radical media and journalism and, particularly, the tradition of radical Black radio and to develop the mixtape as an underground press for the 21st century.
“I Mix What I Like” takes its name from Steve Biko’s “I Write What I Like” and argues that the mixtape be put to the same journalistic purpose as Biko’s essays, a form of journalism that encourages political organization and revolutionary change. So the book argues the following: that the mixtape, as hip-hop’s original mass medium, its national medium, is itself an extension of and response to the continuing colonization of African America. And to the extent that there is a “hip-hop nation,” it too is, naturally, an internally-held colony.
The book also serves as a critique of popular scholarship, particularly that of hip-hop and media studies. It is a critique of the societal role and function of media and a way to theorize media more as those who have constructed their technology and institutional study, that is, as ideological weapons equal to that of any other in their military arsenal.
And given that view, even the new and hot technology of the internet and so-called “social media” are exposed as insufficient tools for the development of the kinds of organization and response to the conditions we face that I think we need. So the book is a manifesto; it is a direct, side-taking political statement and one intentionally meant to distance itself from more popular forms and discussion.
M.O.I. JR: Why do you think emancipatory journalism deserves discussion?
Jared: Emancipatory journalism deserves discussion precisely because it aggressively argues that we need radical community-based journalism that, while professional, organized and researched, is clear about its bias in favor of oppressed communities and their political organizations and struggle. EJ starts, as a concept, from the perspective that we are not free and equal and that “objectivity” is a myth – and worse, has been used to prevent real investigation into the kinds of inequality that continue to exist and worsen.
EJ is also a concept of journalism that centers the experience of the colonized and calls on them to produce their own journalism and redefine who are the “pundits” deserving of attention. It is an activist journalistic concept and one we desperately need and need implemented.
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Posted on May 16th, 2011 in Events
A launch event Marshall “Eddie” Conway’s new book, Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther!
Featuring co-author Dominque Stevenson, and a call-in from Eddie Conway himself.
Posted on May 16th, 2011 in Reviews of AK Books
Paul J. Comeau over at the Political Media Review has admirably tackled the job of reviewing our entire Working Classics series. Check it out below, and be sure to checkout PMR’s web site too.
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AK Press Working Classics Series
Reviewed by Paul J. Comeau
Anyone looking to educate themselves on the history and principles of anarchism should look no further for a starting place than the books in AK Press’s Working Classics series. The series as a whole represents some of the finest writings on anarchist theory and practice ever published, reprinted in small and relatively inexpensive volumes, making the ideas of anarchism accessible to a modern audience. These reprints offer something for everyone, with clean and easy to read layouts making them inviting to first time readers, and convenient for readers already acquainted with the works by allowing easy searching of favorite chapters and passages.
The four volumes in the series (so far) are:
Vol. 1. What Is Anarchism? – Alexander Berkman
Vol. 2. Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice – Rudolph Rocker
Vol. 3. Post-Scarcity Anarchism – Murray Bookchin
Vol. 4. The Conquest of Bread – Peter Kropotkin
What Is Anarchism was one of the first books on anarchism that I ever read. Re-reading it for the first time in several years, it’s easy to see why it made such an impression on me, and why it continues to make an impression on readers everywhere, over eighty years after its’ first publication in book form. Writing in plain language, and in a conversational tone, Berkman not only elucidates the principles of anarchism in ways that are easy to understand, but he provides concrete examples to which readers can relate. The book is divided into three parts (frequently published separately in pamphlet form). In the first part, Berkman attempts to explore the structure of society in which we live, and show readers how this structure is unjust by highlighting the disparities that exist between the social classes. Berkman emphasizes how the social classes can never live in harmony with one another as their interests are opposed. “There can be no justice as long as we live under conditions which enable one person to take advantage of another’s need, to turn it to his profit, and exploit his fellowman”(42), Berkman writes. In part two, he explores anarchism in earnest, both what it is, and what it means for those who are part of it. Berkman does not shy away from the criticism of anarchism as a violent ideology, but tackles it head on. “It is capitalism and government which stand for disorder and violence,” Berkman counters. “Anarchism is the very reverse of it; it means order without government and peace without violence” (138). Part two concludes with a discussion of the distinction between communist anarchists and non-communist anarchists. Communist anarchism – anarchism based on the principle of “social ownership and sharing according to need” (169), according to Berkman “would be the best and most just economic arrangement” (169). Non-communist anarchists, individualist and mutualist anarchists, don’t agree on the concept of “social ownership” as Berkman sees it. They prefer a system of individual private property that Berkman takes to task, identifying private property as “one of the main sources of injustice and inequality, of poverty and misery” (169). After taking the individualists and mutualists to task, Berkman turns in part three to outlining the chief aim of communist anarchism: the Social Revolution. The Social Revolution is the situation that will bring about the realization of the aspirations of the communist anarchists, and lead to the state of anarchy. Berkman outlines how such a situation could be brought about, and how it could and should be defended by those who would oppose it. What Is Anarchism outlines both the ideology, and the methodology of anarchism, as envisioned by one of its’ greatest thinkers and practitioners.
Though published in 1929 and in a second edition in 1937, by ‘37 Berkman’s emphasis on communist anarchism, and his focus on the Russian Revolution had become dated by recent developments. The chief among these developments was the Spanish Revolution, and the concurrent interest in anarcho-syndicalism, anarchism with an emphasis on radical trade unionism, both as a basis of organization, and as the direction towards which the social revolution could be brought about. The English publisher Secker & Warburg approached Emma Goldman, one of the best-known anarchists in the world, who was then living in London and organizing on behalf of the Spanish anarchists, about a book on Anarchism and the situation in Spain (Rocker vii). Though she had just written an introduction to the second – and posthumous edition – of Berkman’s book, it was she who realized that a new work was needed to explain the Spanish situation, and the ideals and practices of anarcho-syndicalism to the masses clamoring to understand developing events in Spain. To that end, she tapped German-born anarchist Rudolf Rocker, then living in the US, to write such a book. After a back and forth correspondence, Rocker agreed to the project, and Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice was first printed in March 1938.
Anarcho-Syndicalism is a great addition to this series, acting as a perfect companion to Berkman’s What Is Anarchism. Reading Rocker’s concise and calculated explication of the principles of anarcho-syndicalism acts as a temper to some of the exuberant idealism expressed by Berkman, and serves to give the theories expressed in What Is Anarchism on how a social revolution might be brought about, a more concrete direction. Rocker begins by tracing the history of anarchist thought, and some of its’ basic principles, from William Godwin to the present in which he wrote. He follows this with a section tracing the development of the labor movement, from the industrial revolution and the birth of capitalism as we know it, to the influence of socialism, particularly libertarian socialism (anarchism) on the labor movement. This co-mingling of labor and anarchism sowed seeds that would later sprout into movements towards anarcho-syndicalism, and embodied Rocker’s assertion that “New worlds are not born in the vacuum of abstract ideas, but in the fight for daily bread, in that hard and ceaseless struggle which the needs and worries of the hour demand just to take care of the indispensible requirements of life,” (Rocker 33). This understanding of the connection between the current struggle and the building of a future anarchist society is a theme that Rocker returns to when he explores “The Objectives of Anarcho-Syndicalism” (54), which he explores in the context of a then current real-world example, the syndicalism-in-practice of the CNT and FAI in the Spanish Revolution. Rocker demonstrates here and in the chapters that follow how the methods and practices of anarcho-syndicalism are not simply meant to address economic – bread and butter – issues, but that they are political issues as well, though more significant than any one party or platform under existing systems. Indeed, what Rocker describes is a new form of politics, replacing all previous forms, where all political and economic life is managed by the productive classes through the organs of the local, regional, national, and ultimately international unions and syndicates into a loose federalism, “an alliance of free groups of men and women based on co-operative labour and a planned administration of things in the interest of the community” (72). Rocker traces developments in syndicalist practices apart from Spain in the closing chapters, and the original ending closes on a hopeful note with the full possibility of the situation in Spain waiting to be actualized. That ending is not the ending of this reprinted edition however, which also includes Rocker’s epilogue to the 1947 reprint of the text. In this epilogue, Rocker laments the defeat of the Spanish anarchists, and indeed the destruction of organized labor everywhere, counting the labor movement among the casualties of the Second World War. Despite the destructive effects of the war on the movement, Rocker retains an optimistic view of the future, and it is this belief in the validity of the ideals of anarcho-syndicalism that readers will take away from the reading of this book.
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Posted on May 11th, 2011 in AK Authors!, AK Book Excerpts, Happenings
AK Press author Jim Miller co-hosts an event this Saturday at Purple Haus in San Diego to celebrate and honor the 100th anniversary of the anarchist invasion and commune in Tijuana; find out more about the event here. For our part, we’re happy to offer up this excerpt from Jim’s novel Flash, which we published last Fall. It’s a great book, and it’s just been listed as a finalist for the San Diego Book Award! Congrats to Jim, and we hope you enjoy the excerpt. It’s a great novel. You should buy a copy (and don’t forget: it’s also available on Amazon, Kobo, eBooks.com, and Apple as an ebook!).
I looked up at a bunch of teenage kids jumping on board in National City. What kind of future would these kids have? It was hard to say. There were dark clouds on the horizon, but sometimes it was times like these that made people stand up. At the next stop, a pair of soldiers got on board in their white uniforms complete with hats. They were talking loudly about sex with prostitutes. I picked up the book on the Magonista revolt and flipped to the middle to look at a black-and-white photo of Ricardo Flores Magón and his brother, Enrique. Both men had thick curly hair and identical handlebar mustaches. Ricardo’s serious expression and little round glasses gave him the aura of a philosopher.
The desert revolution was an international affair, inspired by the Magón brothers who ran the insurgency from their exile in General Otis’s Los Angeles, just after the LA Times building was bombed by a pair of angry AFL labor activists, the McNamera brothers. That bombing led to a wave of anti-labor hysteria in Southern California, thus making the Magonista’s assault on the sparsely populated border region improbable. The fact that both Otis and Spreckels had extensive land, water, and railroad holdings also assured that the odds were against them. Nonetheless, in January 1911 at the IWW headquarters in Holtville, California, a group of mostly Mexican rebels loyal to Magón planned an attack on Mexicali. Soon afterwards, the rebel band captured Mexicali in a predawn raid, killing only the town jailor. Poor sap.The initial success of the raid led to a wave of support from famous voices on the left like Jack London and Emma Goldman, who spoke in San Diego to help rally workers to the cause. The rebels’ biggest backers in the US were the Wobblies and Italian anarchists, both of whose philosophies were in line with Magon’s mix of Kropotkin, Bakunin, and Marx’s. Simply put, Magón called upon the workers to “take immediate possession of the land, the machinery, the means of transportation and the buildings, without waiting for any law to decree it.” Brutally treated by the Diaz dictatorship, and deeply committed to a utopian vision of communal society, Magon’s idealism made him both admirable and seemingly unable to reconcile his dream with political reality. This last malady was something I had a soft spot for.
Go figure.
Soon after the success at Mexicali, the rebels took Tecate, where they held off a lackluster attempt by the Mexican army to retake Mexicali. Despite this early success, factional squabbling broke out, and several leadership changes took place in the field. Many of the Mexicans who began the revolt left to fight with Madero, who was also challenging the Diaz regime. This resulted in the odd fact that a majority of the Magonista army was comprised of American Wobblies mixed with a few soldiers of fortune. With Magón permanently ensconced in Los Angeles, sending more anarchist pamphlets than bullets, the leadership ultimately fell to Caryl Rhys Pryce, a Welsh soldier of fortune who had fought in India and South Africa. A surreal pairing, I thought. Pryce fashioned himself a revolutionary and joined the Magonistas after reading a book on the murderous Diaz regime. His biggest victory came when he disobeyed orders from Magón, who wanted him to march east and fight the Mexican army, and instead turned westward to take Tijuana on May 9th 1911. After a fierce fight, a rebel force of 220 men won a battle in which 32 people died. So the big victory had been an accident of sorts. You had to love it. I turned the page and glanced at a picture of Pryce standing with his hands on his hips, looking like a character in a TV Western. There was a crowd of men at his side, but their faces were indistinguishable. Could one have been Bobby Flash?
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Posted on May 11th, 2011 in Events
On Saturday, May 14, we’ll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Magonista anarchist invasion and commune in Tijuana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Tijuana <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Tijuana> ) with a book release event for Flash by Jim Miller and an acoustic show. All proceeds raised will go to the Seccion 22 teachers’ union in Oaxaca. Dinner starts at 5 pm, book reading and Q & A with Jim Miller at 6 pm, Prairie Tenor String Band (Labor Folk) at 7 pm, Elektra Thunderbunny does old IWW songs and stories at 8 pm!
Purple Haus, 2561 44th Street, San Diego, CA
Here’s what the celebration’ll look like:
5 pm – Vegan Indian food will be available for purchase for $5. There will also be home-brewed wheat beer.
6 pm – Jim Miller will be doing a reading and taking questions about his new novel, Flash, that deals with the radical history of SD and contemporary struggles (http://www.jimmillerauthor.com/_i_flash__i__88050.htm <http://www.jimmillerauthor.com/_i_flash__i__88050.htm> )
7 pm – Prarie Tenor String Band (Labor Folk) (http://www.myspace.com/prairietenorstringband)
8 pm – Elektra Thunderbunny willl regale us with old IWW songs and stories.
Posted on May 9th, 2011 in Events
Please join author Andy Cornell and former members of Movement for New Society for a talk and lively discussion about the new book, Oppose and Propose: Lessons from Movement For A New Society (AK Press and Institute for Anarchist Studies, 2011)
Where do the strategies, tactics, and lifestyles of contemporary activists come from? Movement for a New Society, a Philadelphia-based radical pacifist organization active in the 1970s and… 1980s, pioneered forms of consensus decision making, communal living, direct action, and self-education now central to anti-authoritarian movements. Brimming with analysis, interviews, and archival documents, Oppose and Propose! recovers a missing link in recent radical history, while drawing out crucial lessons on leadership, movement building, counterculture, and prefigurative politics.
MNS served as a crucial organizational link between the movements of the 1960s and the post-Seattle global justice movement. Yet the group’s political innovations created tensions of their own. Members found their commitments to “live the revolution now” often alienated potential allies and distracted them from confronting their opponents, while their distrust of leadership and rigid commitment to cumbersome group processes made it difficult to keep their analysis and strategy cutting-edge.
In this talk, the author and former members will place Movement for a New Society in the broader history of post-1960s radicalism, while offering an assessment of the strategies and conceptual tools it left to current movements.
Posted on May 9th, 2011 in Events
Please join author Andy Cornell and former members of Movement for New Society for a talk and lively discussion about the new book, Oppose and Propose: Lessons from Movement For A New Society (AK Press and Institute for Anarchist Studies, 2011)
Where do the strategies, tactics, and lifestyles of contemporary activists come from? Movement for a New Society, a Philadelphia-based radical pacifist organization active in the 1970s and… 1980s, pioneered forms of consensus decision making, communal living, direct action, and self-education now central to anti-authoritarian movements. Brimming with analysis, interviews, and archival documents, Oppose and Propose! recovers a missing link in recent radical history, while drawing out crucial lessons on leadership, movement building, counterculture, and prefigurative politics.
MNS served as a crucial organizational link between the movements of the 1960s and the post-Seattle global justice movement. Yet the group’s political innovations created tensions of their own. Members found their commitments to “live the revolution now” often alienated potential allies and distracted them from confronting their opponents, while their distrust of leadership and rigid commitment to cumbersome group processes made it difficult to keep their analysis and strategy cutting-edge.
In this talk, the author and former members will place Movement for a New Society in the broader history of post-1960s radicalism, while offering an assessment of the strategies and conceptual tools it left to current movements.
We are already super excited about Jared Ball’s new book, I Mix What I Like: A Mixtape Manifesto. (So is the San Francisco Bay View, and so are all of these very smart people!)
