Posted on May 4th, 2011 in Events, Uncategorized
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 4th, 2011 in Uncategorized
Four years ago, AK Press worked with Brian Awehali (Loudcanary.com) to release Tipping the Sacred Cow, an anthology of the best and brightest from a decade of LiP Magazine: Informed Revolt. With contributions from Vandana Shiva, Winona LaDuke, Lisa Jervis, Jeff Chang, Tim Wise, Brian Awehali, Erin Wiegand, Mary Roach, Boots Riley, Mattilda AKA Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Heather Rogers, damali ayo, Michael Eric Dyson, Timothy Kreider, Iain Boal, Jeff Conant, Neal Pollack, Jennifer Whitney, Neelanjana Banerjee, Antonia Juhasz, Bruce Levine, Kari Lydersen, Ariane Conrad, Christy Rodgers, Danny Postel, and Christopher Hitchens, Tipping the Sacred Cow was an impressive collection of “vernacular radicalism” and political intervention, many of which are still relevant today.
Editor Brian Awehali has decided that the time is right to make those essays, and the book as a whole, freely available online. We support that effort! Below you’ll find the announcement for the online launch; read the essays, you’ll find them enjoyable and enlightening. And, if you appreciate them, consider buying a copy of the print edition for yourself or for a friend!
Four years after publication with AK Press, the LiP anthology, Tipping the Sacred Cow, is being released online!
For over a decade, in print and online, LiP: Informed Revolt concocted a deeply imaginative, iconoclastic mix of politics, culture, sex, and humor that took clear, sometimes uproarious aim at mass mediocracy and capitalist miserablism. All volunteer, never for profit, and always criminally under-distributed, LiP‘s diverse crew of co-conspirators devoted themselves to imagining and articulating a vernacular radicalism unencumbered by the political deadwood of the day.
Collected herein are the finest fruits of those award-winning efforts: the very sharpest salvos from the oddly dangersome, overwhelmingly larcenous, vaguely apocalyptic, constructively negative, relentlessly persuasive, curiously unflinching, and often grossly unexpected pages of the best magazine you probably never heard of.
FEATURING, AMONG MANY OTHERS: Vandana Shiva, Winona LaDuke, Lisa Jervis, Jeff Chang, Tim Wise, Brian Awehali, Erin Wiegand, Mary Roach, Boots Riley, Mattilda AKA Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Heather Rogers, damali ayo, Michael Eric Dyson, Timothy Kreider, Iain Boal, Jeff Conant, Neal Pollack, Jennifer Whitney, Neelanjana Banerjee, Antonia Juhasz, Bruce Levine, Kari Lydersen, Ariane Conrad, Christy Rodgers, Danny Postel, and Christopher Hitchens.
“Marvelous! Nothing comes close to it in the culture today.“–Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian, professor, and author of Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie
“Tough, smart, and takes no prisoners. Read everything in it!“–Andrei Codrescu, poet, author, and editor of the online literary journal Exquisite Corpse
“Creative, with flair and substance.“–Michael Albert, editor of ZNet and co-founder of Z magazine
“A Pandora’s Box in magazine form; every issue came bearing new surprises.“–Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez, activist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient
“Original and Ambitious“–Paula Kamen, author of Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution
This book was originally produced using 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper, plant-based inks, and union labor.
Posted on May 2nd, 2011 in Events, Uncategorized
In the Vancouver area? Join local author Matt Hern for a discussion of his most recent book Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future. One of AK’s best-selling titles for 2010 and 2011!
Posted on May 2nd, 2011 in AK Authors!, May Day, Recommended Reading
Nice post on Anarkismo from Lucien van der Walt (co-author of Black Flame), Sian Byrne, and Warren McGregor on the history of May Day and its relationship to anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa. Full text below, reprinted from http://www.anarkismo.net/, originally published in South African Labor Bulletin (http://www.southafricanlabourbulletin.org.za).
Why May Day Matters: History with anarchist roots
When we celebrate May Day we seldom know or reflect on why it is a holiday in South Africa and in many parts of the world. Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor and Lucien van der Walt tell the story of powerful struggles that lie behind its existence and of the organisations that both created it and kept its meaning alive. (Photo: May Day 2006, Los Angeles. Reuters, Lucas Jackson)
Faced with neo-liberal globalisation, the broad working class movement is being forced to globalise-from-below. Working class internationalism is nothing new; we need to learn from the past.
May Day or international workers day started as a global general strike to commemorate five anarchist labour organisers executed in the United States in 1887. Mounting the scaffold, August Spies declared: ‘if you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labor movement – the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery –the wage slaves – expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.’
Anarchists stressed the self-emancipation of the masses by building revolutionary counterpower. This meant mass organisations against the state as the basis for a new participatory democratic society. Syndicalism was one approach which entailed building revolutionary trade unions.
Counterpower, plus conscientisation or revolutionary counterculture, would create a new world in the shell of the old.
In every country, May Day became a day of resistance, linking local struggles to the global picture. In South Africa, it became a powerful symbol of black working class struggle against apartheid.
Today, May Day is in danger of becoming an election rally and festival, rather than a day of struggle. May Day needs to be linked back to its anarcho-syndicalist roots with the idea that the working class in a mass movement like trade unions, can organise internationally, build counterpower and counterculture and create socialism-from-below based on participatory democracy and self-management.
Anarchist roots
While international workers day is well-known, its roots in the revolutionary workers’ movement are often forgotten.
The US of the 1880s looked a lot like the China of today with massive factories, widespread poverty, and an oppressed and impoverished working class under the heel of a wealthy elite that flaunted its wealth in the midst of suffering.
On May 1, 1886 over 300 000 workers went on strike across the country. The unions had called for a massive demonstration to win the 8-hour working day, and to roll back capitalism.
Chicago was the third largest city in the US where a wealthy financial and political elite lived side-by-side with the working poor, both Americans and immigrants. The city held the largest demonstrations, against the backdrop of decades of terrible working conditions, mass poverty and sprawling slums, made worse by two economic depressions.
The power of the Chicago movement also rested on its revolutionary ideas. The anarchist International Working People’s Association (IWPA) led a massive march of 80 000 people through the city. Over the next few days, the ranks of peaceful protestors swelled to 100 000.
By the 1870s anarchism emerged internationally as a mass movement. Its stress on popular struggle was appealing to the oppressed, and to emerging mass movements in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas. The IWPA, active across the US from 1881, included in its leadership black women like the ex-slave Lucy Parsons, militant immigrants like Spies, and Americans like Neebe and Albert Parsons.
Its Pittsburgh Proclamation called for ‘the destruction of class rule through energetic, relentless, revolutionary and international action’ and ‘equal rights for all without distinction of sex or race.’
Internationalist in outlook, the IWPA and Central Labour Union fought for the rights of all working and poor people. The IWPA published 14 newspapers, organised armed self-defence units, and created a rich tapestry of culture, music and mass organising.
It rejected elections in favour of direct action. Elections it believed were a futile collaboration with the state which formed part of the system of injustice which was bound to corrupt even the best radicals. The focus was revolution from below, through counter-power and counterculture, for a libertarian, socialist, self-managed society.
Posted on May 1st, 2011 in Uncategorized
|
|
| Here’s to a better world for all workers! |
Posted on April 30th, 2011 in AK Authors!, AK News
It’s been a year next month since we published Team Colors’ Uses of a Whirlwind: Movements, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States! Has it really been a year since we debuted it at the US Social Forum? It’s hard to believe it… but I guess the calendar doesn’t lie. In any case, this book is every bit as relevant and useful now as it was a year ago—as evidenced by several great reviews that have just been published!
If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, Team Colors and AK Press are launching a special anniversary promotion to encourage you—read on for details!
—
Here’s the “Whirlwinds at a Year” announcement from Team Colors:
“In the midst of a moment defined by international crises, community devastation, increasing injustice, and ruptures in the fabric of everyday life, winds of resistance continue to emerge and to circulate.”
As we wrote these words in the fall of 2009, there were a number of clouds on the horizon and the winds began to speak to us. Currently there are storms raging and new storms gathering. Team Colors created Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States not just to inquire into currents in the United States, but with the sincere hope that an array of social forces would utilize the lessons contained therein toward launching their own initiatives. In June of 2010 Team Colors and AK Press launched the collection at – and some might say into – the US Social Forum in Detroit, and since this time both the text itself and collective members have been circulating the country.
At this important juncture, and to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the collection’s release, we want to offer the collection as one of many tools to inform current struggles.
Toward this end, and in addition to Whirlwinds, Team Colors published the companion volume Wind(s) from Below: Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible. Both books have found their way into radical bookshops, study groups, class rooms, and community spaces as well as the arms of radicals across the United States, and both books are now available in the UK and Europe for radicals looking to understand current movements here.
Special 1-Year Anniversary Offer
To mark the anniversary of the collection’s release, we are running a special promotion: starting on May Day, the first twenty-five individuals to order Uses of a Whirlwind from AK Press will receive a free copy of Wind(s) from Below AND a Whirlwinds poster, printed by Eberhardt Press and designed by Justseeds.
To take advantage of this offer you can place your order, on or after May 1, at:
http://www.akpress.org/2010/items/usesofawhirlwind
Offer good through June 1, or while supplies last.
For additional information, reviews of the collection, and other media, visit the website for the collection at: http://www.whirlwinds.info.
Posted on April 29th, 2011 in Uncategorized
Tonight (Friday, April 29) is the Baltimore launch event for our new book, Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther. With all of the new books coming out, and all of the crazy tabling events in March and April, it’s been hard to find time to sit down and write about all of the new stuff, but this book is one I’m particularly proud of.
Since I first moved to Baltimore eight years ago, I’ve known about the case of Marshall “Eddie” Conway, a former Black Panther and current political prisoner who’s been in prison in the state of Maryland for over 40 years, for a crime he didn’t commit. Over the years, I’ve had contact with Eddie and the folks who are working tirelessly to try to secure his release, either through parole, pardon, or a new trial, but aside from organizing the occasional fundraiser and trying to do my part to raise awareness about his case, I’ve never felt like I was able to contribute to the cause of Eddie’s freedom in a concrete or effective way. So, I was absolutely thrilled when Dominque Stevenson, Eddie’s primary contact on the outside, and the co-author of Marshall Law called me and asked if AK Press would be interested in working together with them to publish Eddie’s autobiography.
One year and many edits later, the result is this incredible book. From Eddie’s childhood growing up in a still-segregated, but rapidly changing Baltimore City, to his years spent in Vietnam, to his political awakening and the birth of the Black Panther Party in Baltimore, Marshall Law is a poignant, captivating story about coming of age as a young Black man in America. It’s also a story about strength and struggle in the face of odds that seem insurmountable. From the infiltration of the Panthers and the struggle against COINTELPRO, to the sham trial and Eddie’s subsequent incarceration, and on to the years–decades–that followed, up until the present day, Eddie and Dominque have developed a narrative that’s kind of awe-inspiring. The work that they have done both outside and inside the prison, the outreach to youth, the struggle to keep kids out of the prison pipeline, to build better communities, to strengthen the organizing relationships that exist only tangentially between the myriad activist communities in Baltimore and beyond is sorely under-appreciated, and it’s my great hope that the publication of this book will help to make that work known, and respected, around the globe. And, if this encourages individuals, organizations, and anyone else to bring pressure to bear on the state of Maryland and the federal government to advocate for Eddie’s release, so much the better. As a recent Baltimore CityPaper review of Marshall Law concluded, “In this narrative, summoned from the void that is prison, a unique individual is called into being. Like many narratives of incarceration, Marshall Law is also the story of a soul that has freed itself. We should take note. Now the state of Maryland needs to let Marshall “Eddie” Conway come home.” Well said.
If you’re in the Baltimore/DC area, please do come out for the launch event tonight, which includes staged readings from Marshall Law by Bashi Rose and WombWorks Productions, music by Baltimore jazz legend Lafayette Gilchrist, a call-in and Q&A from Eddie, live from Jessup Correctional Facility, and an update on the current situation of political prisoners in the United States by the incomparable Laura Whitehorn. It takes place at The 2640 Space, from 7-10PM (2640 Saint Paul Street); donations to Eddie defense fund are appreciated, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
And, be sure to check out some of the recent media around the book, including the CityPaper review mentioned above, which includes an interview with Eddie, and the review that Ron Jacobs just posted of the book on CounterPunch. We strongly encourage review of this book far and wide, so read it, and post about it on your blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, and beyond, or submit it to any and every journal you know! And be sure to let us know when you do.
Prison Prose: A Lifer Explains His Life, Baltimore CityPaper: http://citypaper.com/news/prison-prose-1.1137774
Lifer Lessons: Marshall Eddie Conway talks about prison life, Baltimore CityPaper: http://citypaper.com/news/lifer-lessons-1.1137776
A Doomed Man? Eddie Conway’s Story, CounterPunch: http://counterpunch.org/jacobs04272011.html
Posted on April 25th, 2011 in Events
Surprising numbers of people too often accept or encourage a “collapse of civilization” as a necessary precondition for radical change. Come and discuss the 19th century visionary Paul LaFargue’s re-issued book “The Right to Be Lazy” along with our visions of a post-capitalist life that imagines a life of abundance, generosity, and cooperation.
Caitlin Manning, Bernard Marszalek
Posted on April 24th, 2011 in AK Allies, Reviews of AK Books
It’s been a while since I’ve visited the Kate Sharpley Library’s website. I checked it out again today after receiving an email announcing the new issue of KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library (no. 66, for those who are counting).
The Bulletin itself is, as usual, full of fascinating material…including the rescue of another little-known anarchist from historical oblivion. In this case, it’s Max Chernyak, a Russian barber and anarchist who became a military commander with the Makhnovists. There’s also an announcement of (and snippet from) the new KSL pamphlet Valeriano Orobón Fernández: Towards the Barricades. by Salvador Cano Carrillo…about another mostly forgotten figure from anarchism’s past.
The Bulletin also has a review of one AK Press title (Italian Anarchism, 1864–1892, by Nunzio Pernicone) and two by Black Cat Press (The Russian Revolution in Ukraine (March 1917–April 1918) and Under the Blows of the Counter-Revolution (April–June 1918), the first and second volumes of Nestor Makhno’s memoir).
Another little gem was Paul Sharkey’s translation of two sections of “The Anarchists in Paris, May–June 1968” by “Le Flutiste.” These short pieces are informative and pretty damn funny…and the KSL folks provide a link to the full (?) French version for anyone wanting more.
Check out the KSL. They never disappoint.
Posted on April 22nd, 2011 in Events, Uncategorized
Pittsburghers, take this rare opportunity to hear Diana Block’s story, right from the source! The author of Arm the Spirit will read selections from her book, discuss her seven years living and working underground in Pittsburgh and her recent work with women prisoners, and hold a Q&A session. Don’t miss it!
For more on the book, see: http://www.akpress.org/2009/items/armthespiritakpress
Diana will also be speaking at the University of Pittsburgh (David Lawrence Hall, Room 120) on Thursday, May 5 at 1:00pm.
