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.
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).
So if you and your friends decide that you’d like to start a Book Club or a discussion group or whatever you might call it and you’re interested in using some of the titles we carry here at AK Press please get in touch! We’ve set up a special email just for reading group orders. It’s readinggroup@akpress.org. And we’d be happy to suggest titles if you’re having a hard time deciding where to start.
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.
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.
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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!
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Conspiracy Tour 2010 Slinking Into Your Town This Summer!
Tour to Raise Support Has the State Up in Arms
The State of Minnesota alleges that organizing a convergence space for protesters to have meetings, eat free meals, and check the interwebs (on computers that an FBI informant helpfully set up!) makes the RNC 8 guilty of conspiracy. The Federal government claims that Scott DeMuth’s writings and associations suggest that he is an anarchist and therefore a domestic terrorist, making him guilty of conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.
We say organizing resistance to state repression isn’t conspiracy. It’s survival. We say living our lives according to our principles isn’t terrorism. It’s our right. We say we’ll continue organizing no matter how much the state tries to destroy us and our communities.
So if this is conspiracy, we say to you…Join the Conspiracy!
This summer, the Conspiracy Tour is going on a whirlwind, month-long excursion across the continental United States to raise awareness of and solidarity for political activists from Minneapolis, MN who are facing severe state repression. Come join us in raising political support and much-needed legal defense funds for the RNC 8 and Scott DeMuth.
It’s been alleged that the Tour will include a musical puppet show, a scintillating presentation on the charges the activists are facing, and various (some would say nefarious) ways you can join the Conspiracy to support targets of state repression. In addition to the usual perks of joining a conspiracy, co-conspirators will be learning ways to strengthen and protect their communities from future incidences of state repression. You know, just in case.
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.
About the RNC 8
The RNC 8–Max Specktor (who will be speaking on the West Coast stops of the tour), Erik Oseland, Eryn Trimmer, Garret Fitzgerald, Luce Guillén-Givins, Monica Bicking, Nathanael Secor, and Rob Czernik–were preemptively arrested in a series of raids by heavily armed SWAT teams and other targeted arrests on the weekend before the Republican National Convention in 2008. The criminal complaints are based on the allegations of confidential reliable informants and an undercover Ramsey County Sheriff’s deputy, who infiltrated the RNC Welcoming Committee and conducted surveillance on the activists for about a year. Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner initially slapped them with “terrorism” enhancements in the first known use of Minnesota’s version of the PATRIOT Act. After a successful pressure campaign against Gaertner’s gubernatorial bid, she dismissed the terrorism enhancement charges. The 8 still face felony charges of conspiracy to commit riot in the 2nd degree and conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property in the 1st degree. Their joint trial will begin on October 25, 2010 and could last up to two months. More info at http://rnc8.org.
About Scott DeMuth
In November 2009, Scott DeMuth and Carrie Feldman were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in Iowa investigating a 2004 Animal Liberation Front raid at the University of Iowa. Though they had no information about the incident, they both refused to cooperate with the grand jury on principle and were jailed for civil contempt. Carrie was held for four months before being released, and will be speaking about her experience on this tour. Two days after being jailed, Scott was indicted for conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. He has been released with conditions pending trial and has been re-indicted twice in response to his attorneys’ motions to dismiss. In March 2010, the Utah house of well-known animal rights activist and former political prisoner Peter Young was raided on a federal search warrant from Iowa. The raid happened only days before Carrie’s release and lists Scott and others by name. More info at http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com.
Tour Schedule (more updated info with locations on our website)
Winona July 25
Madison J26
Milwaukee J27
Chicago J28
Cleveland J29
Pittsburgh July 30 + 31
Buffalo August 1
NYC A2
Philadelphia A3
DC A4
Carrboro A6
Asheville A7
Louisville A8
Bloomington, IN A9
St Louis A10
Omaha A11
Denver A12
Salt Lake City A13
Bay Area A14 +15
Santa Cruz A16
Portland A18
Tacoma A19
Seattle A20
Rock Island A23
Iowa City A24
Minneapolis A26
This tour is part of the We Are Everywhere campaign, a month of decentralized anarchist activities and events to promote visibility and outreach in August 2010.
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.
Where: Station 40, 3030B 16th Street (at Mission), San Francisco
What: The Station 40 Events Committee is pleased to announce the first Bay Area Anarchist Salon, a new monthly facilitated conversation by and for anarchists. Our aim is to encourage critical yet constructive dialogue and comradely debate concerning the difficult strategic questions that we face as we try to engage in social transformation; to develop a culture of reconstruction and vision alongside a culture of resistance; and to bui…ld more trust and understanding among the diverse anarchist perspectives. Our hope is that through ongoing discussions related to contemporary organizing dilemmas–discussions that focus on ideas not people, and strive to develop a culture of kindness in how we grapple with key strategic issues–our various projects and organizing efforts, within and outside anarchist circles, will become stronger, smarter, and more effective.
The format each month will be as follows: we’ll announce a question for each Bay Area Anarchist Salon in advance. At the salon, we’ll do a go-round for people to quickly introduce themselves. Then one or two people, chosen in advance, will kick off the conversation by offering their thoughts on the question for five to ten minutes each. Two moderators will then facilitate a participatory conversation, striving to ensure that the discussion stays on point, and that everyone feels comfortable to speak, no one speaks too much, and all feel heard and respected. Each salon will last two hours, and we encourage folks to bring food and/or drink to share.
Our first Bay Area Anarchist Salon will address the question, “What is an anarchist vision of justice in the current context of police violence in the Bay Area?” The conversation will be initiated by Josh (Station 40) and Melissa Merin (Oakland 100), and then facilitated by Cindy Milstein (Institute for Anarchist Studies) and Dan Spalding (most recently, Midnight Special Legal Collective).
$3-5 donation, for the Oakland 100 to spring people from jail (no one turned away for lack of funds)
.
Date for the second Bay Area Anarchist Salon: Wednesday, September 8.
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.”
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
Well, friends, another month has come and gone and I’m so relieved I am no longer in elementary or high school or I’d be sooooo depressed that summer is half over. (“It’s not fair!!” *tears*) Anyway, to help you all with your midsummer depression, here’s some new things to buy on the Internet!!! That always helps, no? These little beauties are all 50% off during August!
David Berry’s study is the first English-language evaluation of the development and lessons of the French anarchist movement between the wars. Using an impressive array of archival sources and personal interviews, Berry’s original research explores the debates and growing pains of a massive, working-class, revolutionary movement facing great obstacles and uncertainty. Focusing on the organized wings of the movement—the anarcho-communist and syndicalist groups—it offers a ringside seat to the legacy of the First International, the upheaval of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Bolshevik treachery, and the fight against fascism.
This popular, well-researched book opens with the Italian Anarchist Fanelli’s stirring visit to Spain in 1868 and traces the movement’s checkered but steady growth for the next seventy years. Intimate portraits are vividly juxtaposed with striking descriptions of events: peasant revolts, labor unrest, the saintly Fermin Salvochea, official repression, the terrorists, and the evolution of exciting organizational forms. Bookchin weaves his way geographically through the whole of Spain, revealing the shadings and subtleties of each small section. From the peasants of Andalusia to the factory workers of Barcelona, the Spanish people—and their exuberant belief in and struggles for freedom and self-determination—come alive.
Another Dinner Is Possible is not your average vegan cookbook. It’s a guide to developing a healthier relationship with the food we eat and the planet we inhabit. And it is an exploration of how food affects us on all levels and how we can improve our practical and political relationship to it.
The recipes use easy-to-find and easy-to-prepare ingredients combined in unexpected ways. All the basics of everyday cooking are covered for those just starting out in the kitchen (with detailed instructions and essential tips on everything from sharpening knives to choosing the right variety of potato), but even more seasoned chefs will find a surprising number of must-try recipes for original concoctions and vegan versions of old favorites.
In 1937, at the behest of Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958) penned this political and philosophical masterpiece as an introduction to the ideals fueling the Spanish social revolution and resistance to capitalism the world over. Within, he offers an introduction to anarchist ideas, a history of the international workers movement, and an outline of the strategies and tactics embraced at the time (internationalism, federalism, anti-militarism, direct action, sabotage, and the General Strike). A prolific writer and speaker, Rocker was one of the most beloved and dedicated anarchists of his time.
Valerie Solanas gained underground notoriety when she shot, and nearly killed, Andy Warhol. Her classic Scum Manifesto went through several self-published and small-press editions before sinking into obscurity. Valerie Solanas gained posthumous international celebrity status with the release of the film I Shot Andy Warhol. Wonderful advocation of the overthrow of the government, elimination of the money system, and the destruction of the male sex. A truly awesome polemic. An essential text. Includes a biography of the author by Freddie Baer.
On March 20, 2003—the day after the Iraq war started—San Francisco was brought to a grinding halt by thousands of activists who occupied the streets to oppose the war. It was a mass uprising that forced the police to declare the financial district “shut down.” The planning and outreach coordinated by Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW), filled downtown San Francisco with approximately 15,000 people clogging traffic, stopping business as usual, communicating with passersby, and creating a pandemonium that lasted for several days. But neither DASW nor the mass resistance outlasted Iraq’s occupation. This DVD chronicles how DASW successfully organized to shut down a major US city and how they failed to effectively maintain the organization to fight the war machine and end the occupation of Iraq.
Now just $7.50!
Also, while I have your ear I’ll let you know that all books by Arbeiter Ring will be 25% off through the month. Check it out!
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.
There has been a lot of interest lately in using AK Press books for reading groups. We’ve had requests for 
The 
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).
Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice 
Scum Manifesto 