Revolution by the Book The AK Press Blog

Call for Papers: North American Anarchist Studies Association

Posted on August 17th, 2010 in AK Allies, Happenings

CALL FOR PAPERS!!!
North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

Toronto, Canada
January 15-16, 2011
Deadline for Proposals: November 1, 2010

The North American Anarchist Studies Network is currently seeking presentations for our second annual conference to be held at the Steel Worker’s Hall in Toronto, Canada. We are seeking submissions from radical academics, independent researchers, community activists, street philosophers and students. We invite those engaged in intellectual work within existing institutions, such as universities, but also those engaged in the production of knowledge beyond institutional walls to share their ongoing work. From the library stacks to the streets, we encourage all those interested in the study of anarchism to submit a proposal.

In keeping with the open and fluid spirit of anarchism, we will not be calling for any specific topics of discussion, but rather are encouraging participants to present on a broad and diverse number of themes- from the historical to the contemporary to the utopian. For inspiration, we have included a number of suggested themes that have been of interest us; we invite you to suggest and submit your own topics, papers, themes, panels and workshops:

• Theorizing Anarchism: Perspectives on Anarchist Studies
• Greening Anarchy: Anarchism and the Environment
• Bridging the Marxist/Anarchist Divide: Is Black and Red Dead?
• Race, Class & Solidarity: Migration Politics
• Indigenous Rights and Politics in (Occupied) North America
• Expanding the Anarchist Canon: Non-Western Anarchism(s)
• The South American ‘New Left’ and Anarchism
• ‘Queering’ Anarchy: Anarchism and LGBTQ Issues
• ‘Revolution’ in the 21st Century:  The Meaning of Social Change Today
• Militant Research: Connecting Activism and Academia
• Practicing Anarchy: Organization, Insurrection and Anarchist Social Movements
• Envisioning Alternatives: Anarchist Utopias
• Anarchism and Radical (Dis)ability Politics
• The Greek ‘Crisis’ and Anarchist Responses
• Post-G20 Toronto: Learning from Toronto’s G20 Mobilizations
• Anarchist Cultural Perspectives and Practices
• The Post-Anarchist Challenge?
• Anarchists and Academia: The Perils, Pitfalls and Potentialities of the University

It is our sincere hope that this conference will, to the greatest extent possible, accurately represent the diversity of North American anarchist politics and thought; to that end, we encourage submission(s) in English, French, Spanish and in any other language or on any other topic you feel relevant to this experience and this community.

Send your proposal, including a short abstract, a working title and three keywords that describe your project to the Toronto NAASN Crew at naasntoronto@gmail.com.

For more information on the North America Anarchist Studies Network check out our website at www.naasn.org.

We look forward to hearing from you, organizing with you and, of course, learning from you!

Emory Douglas limited-edition print to benefit Eddie Conway

Posted on August 16th, 2010 in AK Allies, AK Authors!, Happenings

The legendary Panther artist Emory Douglas has designed a new print honoring the life & work of Marshall “Eddie” Conway! Emory will be appearing in person in Baltimore tonight (August 20 | 7PM | at the Cork Gallery, 1601 Guilford) to sign copies of the new limited-edition print, and help raise funds for Eddie’s defense fund. If you’re in the Baltimore/DC area, please come out for the event! You can call 410-323-7200 for more info or to inquire about advance tickets ($10).

AK will also be co-sponsoring an advance event at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance for Eddie’s new memoir Marshall Law on September 23, as the kick-off to the Radical Bookfair at the Baltimore Book Festival, organized by Red Emma’s & friends. Local authors, artists, and activists will give live readings of some of our favorite passages from the memoir, accompanied by original music from some of Baltimore’s finest musicians. It should be a *great* event, and it’s something we’re hoping to replicate in other cities when the book launches in February of 2011, so if you’re dramatically inclined, and interested in organizing a staged reading from the book to promote awareness of Eddie’s case, let us know! More info on this soon … plus video from the event when it happens.

In the meantime, here’s two things to keep you up-to-speed on what’s going on with Eddie, if you’re unable to make it out to either of these great events: audio from our quarterly call-in discussion group with Eddie at Red Emma’s, at which we discussed Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” AND an update from Eddie himself.

Eddie Conway Call-in at Red Emma’s | July 16, 2010

A Letter from Eddie Conway

Greetings to everyone,

I wish you all well and hope that this letter finds you in good spirits. The past few months have been full of good and exciting news as well as some that was saddening. I honestly don’t know where to begin.

Jack Johnson, the other BPP member who was held on the same charges as me was released from prison in May of this year. This was news that I found both good and bad. I was pleased to see the brother gain his freedom after forty years of fighting this corrupt and racist criminal justice system. However, I am still being held illegally after four decades and nothing can make right the destructive actions of the COINTELPRO operations. This does however push me to work even harder for my release.

The saddest and hardest time of this whole prison ordeal just recently hit me. My mother, Eleanor Conway passed away in early June. Though she died peacefully in her sleep, her transition has left the family sad and in pain. This was due in part to my inability to start the grieving process by viewing mother as she made her final rest, or attending her funeral. While I recognize that my mother has made her transition to join the ancestors, the loss is still too profound for words because my mother was so dear to me. During this time, I fasted and reflected upon her life, and eventually found some degree of spiritual comfort. I thank all of you who faxed letters, sent email messages and made calls to the secretary of public safety on my behalf.

(more…)

New Discount for Reading Groups!

Posted on August 16th, 2010 in AK Distribution

There has been a lot of interest lately in using AK Press books for reading groups. We’ve had requests for Uses of a Whirlwind, Come Hell or High Water, Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution, and Black Flame just to name a few. Given the interest, and to encourage others to do the same, we decided to offer a special discount for folks who want to order multiple copies of our books.

We’re offering a 30% discount off any of the titles we carry, as long as you order at least three copies of the same item (and you prepay for the order).

Distro Top Ten — August

Posted on August 13th, 2010 in AK Distribution

Survival Without Rent Rough times have always been upon us. Tools such as Survival Without Rent are useful for displaced communities and individuals left homeless by the government or property-hungry businesses. This handy DIY squatting pamphlet contains chapters on forming a group, finding a building, getting in, heat, light, makeshift toilets, and more, concluding with a list of organizations throughout the U.S who have allied themselves with various housing struggles.
	Cesar Chavez : A Photographic Essay Ilan Stavans Independent publisher Cinco Puntos Press has released a great education piece on the life and accomplishments of Chicano activist Cesar Chavez. Crisp, clear, B&W photographs are accompanied with short biographical pieces chronicling Chavez’s’ life and radicalization from birth, youth, adulthood, to death. A wonderful tribute.
Viva Vegan! 200 Authentic and Fabulous Recipes for Latin Food Lovers Terry Hope Romero As a non-vegan omnivore who enjoys a daily dose of animal fat injected straight into my veins, I must say we have a pretty tasty collection of vegan books. I took a copy of this one home myself. These authentic blends are satisfying to any lover of Latin food. I am going to recount some of the recipes: Creamy Corn-filled Empanadas, Cuban “Ropa Vieja” Style Latin Shredded Seitan, Portobello Feijoada, Brazilian Braised Shredded Kale, Red Chile-Seitan Tamales, Savory Fresh Corn Pancakes, Pupusas Stuffed with Black Beans and Plantains, Crepes with Un-Dulce de Leche with Sweet Plantains, Cafe Con Leche Flan. Ok, I’m leaving work and coming home to my kitchen now.
	Speed-Speed-Speedfreak Mick Farren If you’re an information junkie or just a junkie who loves information check this title just in from Feral House. You will learn of all the politicians, musicians, Nazi leaders, eccentric authors and other social icons whom, without a speed addiction, may have otherwise been unknown. This book will also familiarize you with the cultural history and chemical make-up of amphetamines from its inception to present day. Speed-Speed-Speedfreak is in the shape of a pill to pay homage to the Dextroamphetamine capsule. If easily triggered, please approach with caution.
When There is No Doctor: Preventive and Emergency Home Healthcare in Challenging Times Gerard S. Doyle This is a guide to emergency home health care. We have all complained about the uselessness of health care systems; the bureaucratic paperwork, sterile staff, endless wait, and costly bills. Turns out educating oneself about the diagnosis and treatment of some basic and common health problems can help you avoid a trip to Kaiser all together! Learn how to control infections, prepare a first aid kit, making herbs into medicine and even cough etiquette (you know who you are!)
	Cuba : A History Oscar Loyola Vega and Sergio Guerra Vilaboy I am stoked to read these next two titles. This first one steps beyond the stereotypical images of Cuba delivered by popular media and distorted tales offered up by Fox News to offer the reader a concise, accessible history of Cuba. Starting with the pre-Hispanic period, traveling through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and ending with Fidel Castro’s decision to step down in 2008, this is a great overview for anyone interested without too much knowledge of Cuba’s history. It’s less than 100 pages. You can read it on your daily BART commute.
The Men With The Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Deah Camps Heinz Heger The Men With The Pink Triangle is an account of the nightmarish experiences of gay men during the reign of Hitler and his Third Reich. History ignored the Nazi persecution of gay people. Only with the rise of the gay movement in the 1970s did historians finally recognize that gay people, like Jews and others deemed “undesirable,” suffered enormously at the hands of the Nazi regime. Of the few who survived the concentration camps, only one ever came forward to tell his story.
	The Bomb Howard Zinn During the war, Zinn had taken part in the aerial bombing of Royan, France, and in 1966, he went to Hiroshima, where he was invited to a “house of rest” where survivors of the bombing gathered. In this short and powerful book, the back story of the making and use of the bomb, Zinn offers his deep personal reflections and political analysis of these events, and the profound influence they had in transforming him from an order-taking combat soldier to one of our greatest anti-authoritarian, anti-war historians.
Henry & Glen Forever Igloo Tornado This is some funny shit. It’s so funny it’s graduated from a pamphlet to a laminated pamphlet.
	Scam : The First Four Issues Erick Lyle Hmm. Trainhopping, house shows, and cross country tours that sought out swimming holes, angst, stealing electricity from lampposts, squatting in Miami, selling plasma, tagging freight trains, wheatpasting, spraying salt water into vending machines, returning stolen merchandise, and dumpstering as seen through the lens of a young punk.

Join the Conspiracy…at AK Press and Station 40

Posted on August 12th, 2010 in AK Allies, Happenings

The Conspiracy Tour 2010 is making it’s way across the country, raising legal defense funds for the RNC 8 and Scott DeMuth. They’ll be in the bay area on August 14 and 15.

On the 14th, they’ll be at Station 40 in San Francisco (3030B 16th Street, at Mission), from 7pm to 9pm. As they put it, the event will feature

presentations and workshops filled with up-to-the-minute info on the cases and upcoming trials of the RNC 8, Scott DeMuth and Hugh & Tiga, as well as information on state repression, how to support people facing it and how to protect your community from it. Learn about current legal struggles, and get some insight about how to deal with future ones! Come find solidarity, strategizing, resistance, and community that the state could only dream of. This will be a roadshow to remember even before you read about it in your FBI file.

On the 15th, they’re part of an all-day legal forum at the AK Warehouse, along with UA in the Bay, Copwatch, the National Lawyers Guild, and others.

Below is the info on the AK event, followed by the Tour’s statement and national schedule.

—–

Attention organizers, activists, demonstrators, anarchists, community members, schemers, protesters, action planners, and concerned individuals!!!

If you have been arrested for political activity in the last few years or …consider future arrests a possibility, then come out for our Legal Forum! If you’ve been represented by the NLG or Midnight Special in the past,
you’d better show up sukka!

Location: AK Press Warehouse
674-A 23rd Street
Oakland, CA 94612
Time: 12 noon to 5 pm with BBQ to follow

…hosted by UA in the Bay with:

Cold Snap Legal Collective
Copwatch
National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG)
The RNC 8 Conspiracy Tour
…and some folks from the now disbanded Midnight Special Law Collective

The forum will include speakers, workshops, and discussion break outs.

Ideas for Forum Contents (not totally figured out yet):

*Content Ideas*

Possible Discussions
1) Round Table Legal Discussion, from those who’ve had your back – discussion
2) Community Bail and Bond strategies – discussion
3) Better strategies for solidarity and collective building with
“non-activist” arrestees, mass arrests – discussion
4) Affinity group focused legal discussion

Possible Workshops
1) How to get your lawyer to behave, based on your politics and values workshop.
2) Grand Jury Defense Workshop
3) Copwatch workshop

Possible Speakers
1) History of radical legal representation – speaker

…Plus more! (maybe)

To be followed by BBQ and drinks!

—–

Conspiracy Tour 2010 Slinking Into Your Town This Summer!

Celebrating the Life and Work of Marilyn Buck

Posted on August 11th, 2010 in AK Allies

We at AK Press were saddened last week to learn about the passing of longtime political prisoner Marilyn Buck, just a few weeks after her release from prison (after serving 25 years of an 80 year sentence).

Many of her friends and comrades have already written excellent tributes to her, like this one on The Rag Blog—check it out to learn more about Marilyn and her inspiring work.

In addition to her activist work, Marilyn was also a poet. You can listen to her poetry on the Wild Poppies CD, or hear them online via the Freedom Archives website.

The First Bay Area Anarchist Salon!

Posted on August 10th, 2010 in Happenings

The First Bay Area Anarchist Salon! BE THERE!

.

Uses of A Whirlwind at AK Press

Posted on August 8th, 2010 in AK Authors!, Happenings

Here’s a couple pics of last night’s event for our new title Uses of A Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States.  (l to r) Kevin Van Meter, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Chris Carlsson, and Stevie Peace. Wish you could have been there…

Risks to “New Journalists”: Americans Held in Iran

Posted on August 7th, 2010 in AK Authors!, Current Events

A recent article by Kari Lydersen in The Progressive. Shon Meckfessel, friend of the three independent journalists still held in Iran, is the author of Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans. Go to www.freeourfriends.eu to learn more…and to help out.

——————————————

Risks to “New Journalists”: Americans Held in Iran
By Kari Lydersen, July 31, 2010
http://www.progressive.org/lydersen073110.html

Journalist Shane Bauer made his friend Shon Meckfessel promise that he wouldn’t let him work during their vacation in the mountains of Kurdistan in northern Iraq last summer.

Bauer, 27, and his partner Sarah Shourd, 31, had been living in Damascus for almost a year. Bauer was studying language and reporting for The Nation, Mother Jones and other outlets.

Shourd was reporting, blogging and teaching English.

Their friend Josh Fattal, 27, had just arrived in the Middle East as part of a teaching fellowship with a Boston-based honors comparative global studies program, for which he had already been based in China, South Africa and India.

Meckfessel was studying Arabic and working on his dissertation on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The four decided to take a 10-day trip as a break from the emotional and intellectual intensity of their work.

One year later, Bauer, Shourd and Fattal are still in Iran’s infamous Evin prison, and Meckfessel, who would be there too if it weren’t for a fortuitous head cold, spends most of his time working for their release. He hopes a website (www.freeourfriends.eu) he recently launched will help show the public — in the U.S. and internationally—that his friends are accomplished journalists and dedicated solidarity activists, not just the “hapless hikers” much media coverage has made them out to be. And he hopes this message will ultimately help obtain their release.

Contrary to the Iranian government’s contention that they were spying, Meckfessel says he and his friends had no intention of gathering information or doing anything more mentally rigorous than enjoying the scenery and local culture in Kurdistan.

But even so, he sees their ordeal as underscoring the important and growing role of independent, open-minded freelance journalists in today’s changing media landscape.

It was their dedication to hearing and amplifying the voices of Iraqi refugees, Yemeni women, Palestinian youth and others that brought them to the Middle East. And the type of solidarity and media work they were doing is crucial to creating bridges between cultures alienated by war and foreign policy, Meckfessel contends.

So, he wants the world to see his friends’ plight in this context and push harder for their release.

Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon, who wrote to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanding the three be released, said in a statement he is “gravely concerned that the hikers are being used as political pawns in a frightening game of nuclear diplomacy.” He noted that while this is not a “traditional press freedom case” since the three were not reporting when captured, they all were practicing journalism and photography in the Middle East. He called Bauer an “accomplished journalist with some prominent bylines.”

“We wanted to make very clear he was journalist, in case the Iranians in their paranoid way really did believe they were spies,” Simon said.

The four had arrived in the city of Suluimania in Kurdistan on July 29, and asked locals about the best way to enjoy the surrounding mountains. The region has been relatively safe during the Iraq war, and in the past few years aggressively promoted as a tourist destination by government officials. People recommended they go to a waterfall in a place known as Ahmed Awa.

The next day Bauer, Shourd and Fattal set out to hike there. Meckfessel, fighting a cold, stayed behind and planned to join them the next day. That evening and the next morning he talked to Bauer by cell phone, and heard they were having a great time.

Meckfessel was on the bus to meet them when he got a terse, nervous call from Bauer telling him they were being detained…in Iran. Meckfessel was shocked, as they had no idea the trail was near the Iranian border, and none of the locals had even mentioned it was anywhere near Iran.

Now Meckfessel has devoted his life to working for the release of his friends and educating the public about who they actually are, the work that brought them to the Middle East and the irony of they’re becoming enmeshed in the U.S.-Iran stand-off.

He is currently on a 30-city grassroots tour of Europe speaking about his friends’ journalistic and solidarity work and trying to bolster an international movement for their release.

The new website showcases their work and lives and features statements from Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, the parents of slain activist Rachel Corrie, and others.

Meckfessel hopes the tour and website will counter images of his friends—all University of California at Berkeley graduates—as “clueless REI types” who were oblivious to the political minefield they’d stumbled into.

Online comments on news stories have indeed shown much public confusion and condemnation. A June 2010 comment on a news story in Montgomery, Pa. said: ” Perhaps these hikers should have picked another mountain (Colorado or Utah have some good ones) to hike. Being within pissing distance from Iranian border is not wise regardless of what one says they were doing there. One has to be paid or be out of their minds to pull a stunt like they did. This puts US National interest in trouble and puts a spark in the powder keg of Middle East.”

Meckfessel thinks it’s important for the public—and the Iranian government—to appreciate the in-depth, empathetic but professional, nuanced journalism that had brought Bauer and Shourd to the Middle East.

Though news stories have periodically called them “freelance journalists,” Meckfessel and other media colleagues say such passing references hardly do justice to the work Bauer had done for The Nation, Mother Jones, New American Media, Al Jazeera and other high profile outlets. Bauer had exposed secretive and lethal Special Operations forces in Iraq and corruption in funding the Iraqi Awakening Councils, among other intensive investigative stories.

Shourd had written about gender roles in Yemen, everyday life in Ethiopia, the killings of women in Juarez, Mexico and the resistance in Chiapas.

Esther Kaplan, director of The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund, describes Bauer as “extremely fearless,” adding that his fluency in Arabic allows him to report in ways that few other Americans can.

“He’s willing to be a truly un-embedded reporter,” she said. “He’s chased down incredible stories in Iraq.”

(more…)

Bay Area Action Assembly of Anarchists and Comrades

Posted on August 5th, 2010 in AK Allies, Happenings

This Sunday at the AK Warehouse
[click HERE for a much nicer, downloadable, 11×17 PDF]

—–

INTRODUCING
BAY AREA
ACTION ASSEMBLY
of Anarchists and Comrades

After the second round of Oscar Grant Rebellions in the streets of Oakland on July 8 some atrocious events unfolded that made our recently powerful movement against the police feel weaker than ever.

• July 9th, 15-year-old Traveon Avila, unarmed, was the THIRD person murdered by ONE police officer in Bakersfield, CA.

• July 14th, Verna Lisa Hollins, a gun shot victim, was left with no medical attention while the San Jose police “secured the crime scene.” She was dead by the time the paramedics came half an hour later.

• July 17th, Fred Collins was shot 50 times by Oakland and Bart Police just blocks away from Oscar Grant’s murder.

• July 21st, youtube video shows San Francisco Police knock out woman with baby. She’s unconscious through the duration of the video. Police have not released her name, well-being, or whether there were charges filed against her.

• July 22nd, 16-year-old James Rivera, also unarmed, was murdered by Stockton, CA police.

ANARCHISTS MUST NOT BE CONTENT WITH ONE NIGHT OF RIOTS,

as that alone does nothing to put a stop to the police’s war on the oppressed. Our lack of action in the wake of the police’s newest bout of complete disrespect for human life reveals nothing but our complacency. The Bay Area has the largest population of anarchists in the nation, therefore it is incumbent upon us to develop praxis on how we can both be in solidarity with those most negatively impacted by the police and judicial system and how we can be agents in strengthening the anti-police movement.

YOU ARE HEREBY INVITED
to participate in an experiment in anarchist organizing.

Without the presence of an agenda nor an expectation to make decisions as an assembly we hope a wide array of critiques and ideas are toyed with, given room to breathe, taken into consideration, and ultimately solidified into actions outside of the assembly.

No agenda, no decision-making so as to leave room for a wide array of ideas

Determine our capacities to act in terms of innovation, resources and confidence, but also a space to increase those capacities.

A multitude of anarchist analysis and tactics is favorable to a united front of one anarchist analysis and tactic.

Debate is encouraged. As long as we maintain solidarity with one another against our common enemies, the presence of internal conflicts could be just the substance necessary for us to truly become a movement.

It is not a requirement for participants to identify as anarchists, but is expected that everyone present respect the tone and direction of the assembly to be one that is in opposition to the state, capital, and the police, and a space for self evaluation and inspiration for those who wish to take action in an anarchistic fashion. This assembly will be much more about verbs than adjectives. We should all feel accountable to one another to come together to share thoughtful analysis, critique, inspiration, and especially ideas to move forward in ways that build solidarity and make us all more free from the police.

Although any actions that come out of this assembly will be on people’s own initiative – whether they do so alone, through small affinity groups, or in more formal meetings – we should all feel compelled to make a mark on the world we inhibit and not passively let history pass us by!

674-A 23rd. St Oakland, CA
AK PRESS WAREHOUSE
BETWEEN MLK & SAN PABLO