AK Press

Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance

mandy — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:00:00 +0000

You may already know (and I hope you do) that zoos and circuses aren't good places for animals. But how do we know? Jason Hribal's Fear of an Animal Planet argues that we only need listen to what the animals themselves are telling us. He fills the pages with story after story of animals who "misbehave": who escape, who refuse to perform and reproduce, who attack (and often kill) human handlers. After twenty years of circus life, Tyke the elephant kills one of her captors and runs wild through the streets of Honolulu. Kumang the orangutan grounds a hot wire surrounding her enclosure and climbs out using the porcelain insulators as hand-holds. None of the orca Corky's calves survive past forty-six days, apparently victims of maternal neglect. And so on.

Key themes emerge. One: captive animals are exploited, in the full-on Marxist sense of the word. Whether performing circus stunts, entertaining zoo visitors, or breeding the next generation of performers, they create value for their human owners, value the benefit of which the animals themselves never own. Sea World is a multimillion dollar business. But it isn't using those profits to feast its whales on tuna, expand the chlorine-saturated pools, or—most assuredly—release marine animals back to the ocean.

Two: other animals can resist exploitation and slavery very much like human workers, through refusals to work, sabotage, escapes, and physical attacks. If we dare to see past species difference, and accept that animals' actions have intent, we recognize these tactics.

Three: through their resistance, animals are agents in their own history. When Tyke, for instance, was fatally was shot by police after her escape, footage of her death spurred human witnesses into activism. Two established the Hohenwald Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where elephants roam unchained and unsupervised. Protests, lawsuits, and investigations into the animal contracting company that leased Tyke followed, and most significantly, some of Tyke's fellow performers were released into the care of sanctuaries like Hohenwald. None of this could have happened without Tyke's actions.

Hribal is a student of the historian Peter Linebaugh (co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra), whose approach he shares. Instead of accepting official narratives, he inverts social hierarchies and tells history from the perspective of the oppressed and dispossessed. Here, we're seeing circuses, zoos, and aquariums from the animals' side. Alas, the accounts—taken, according to the prologue, from newspapers, government and legal documents, online databases, institutional archives and a handful of earlier histories—are not individually sourced by foot- or endnotes, which strikes me as sloppy scholarship, surprising considering the author's background. It's also a criticism I'm sure Hribal's opponents will raise.

The author also makes a brief mention of alcohol use among circus trainers. In the next breath, he describes the industry as morally bankrupt. He seems to mean that circus management is utterly irresponsible in letting intoxicated handlers have contact with animals, but the phrasing is easily misunderstood to blame alcoholics ("drunkards," he says) for their addiction. I hope later editions can amend these flaws.

I want these later editions because I want nothing to detract from the challenge Fear of an Animal Planet offers its human readers. Like the best scholarship, it invites us to reject standard narratives. Instead of chalking up their behavior to mechanistic instinct, to adolescence, gender, playfulness, or high spirits, Hribal asks us to take animals' actions seriously: to see deliberate and eminently understandable resistance to conditions that the animals themselves find unacceptable, and to recognize them as fellow sufferers in a profit-driven economy.

Written by: Charlotte Malerich, March 10th 2011

Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures, 1960s to Now

mandy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

By Josh MacPhee, Dara Greenwald

AK Press

Signs of Change is both a coffee table book and a full-color history lesson. For those who prefer an alternative to a boring textbook, this book is the ticket. In September of 2008, Exit Art began a traveling art exhibit to showcase the works of artists whose materials reflect cultural and social uprisings around the world, including posters, photographs, and graffiti. The pages are full-color and let the art take center stage, but historical context is provided in a way that is educational without being stifling.

The book itself is divided into different movements, ranging from struggles for political independence to freedom from persecution and bias to women’s rights. Like the social movements themselves, the art is truly international, representing places as diverse as Eastern Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and the United States.

Without taking sides or making moral judgments, Signs of Change effectively explores each of these critical uprisings through the art that symbolizes them. The artists are as diverse as the issues and the book comes across as a comprehensive look at the people who were involved in these social movements as well as the conflicts themselves.

If you were unable to attend any of the art shows where these materials were showcased, all you need to do in order to be awed by the talent and passion of the artists is to pick up this book. And if you want to re-live your own activist days without leaving the comfort of your couch, Signs of Change is the art book for you.

Written by: Kari O’Driscoll, March 7th 2011

Black Bloc, White Riot: Anti-Globalization and the Genealogy of Dissent

payal — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000

By AK Thompson

AK Press

My fascination with the anti-globalization movement, like my own baby steps into activism, is a late bloomer. I came of age when my peers were shutting down Seattle. I was reading Marx for the first time in college when IMF protestors took to the streets in DC. Yet throughout my extended adolescence, radical politics was background noise. I never paused to find out why globalization made people so angry. Like a lot of people growing up white and middle class, militancy was excessive and embarrassing. Admirable in heroes of the past, the world is civil now (I felt), with no need for insurrections or rage against the machine.

Yet most of the activists in the streets of Seattle also came from nice, white, middle-class homes in suburbia. In fact, this was a common critique of the anti-globalization movement in North America. Instead of multiracial inclusion, the movement seems to reproduce the same racial and class privilege so abhorrent in global capitalism.

This is precisely the criticism AK Thompson tackles in Black Bloc, White Riot. His response is not a how-to for recruiting people of color and/or those lower on the socioeconomic scale. Instead, his aim is to analyze the anti-globalization movement in its white, middle-class character. I.e., rather than complain that the movement is too white so let's find some black and brown people, he wants to account for why young white people came to the movement at all. After locating it in the particular experience of whiteness, he can proceed to the limitations of the movement's politics (as well as its strengths).

Referencing radical favorites like Paulo Freire, Audre Lorde, and Fight Club, and full of phrases like "the white experience of constitutive lack," the book reads like many a lefty intellectual's work. Whether you find this annoying or exhilarating, the arguments boil down to a few simple ideas. A key theme is turning toward a politics of production rather than representation, by which Thompson means focusing on how to get things done, not the symbolic significance of objects and images. For instance, don't worry that gas masks look monstrous in the eyes of the media; focus on the fact that wearing them allows protesters to face tear-gas-hurling police. It's about what one does, not how one appears.

Thompson also emphasizes the importance of violence. Violence, he argues, is a productive force like labor, which puts one in direct material contact with the world and explodes the representational politics that are deadly to the soul (when nothing substantial is accomplished) and deadly to the body (when unjust social structures persist in creating poverty, illness, and climate change). As force is monopolized by governments, historically it is only when groups proved capable of violence that they received political recognition and agency: colonized peoples, immigrants, and women.

In Chapter Four: “You Can't Do Gender in a Riot,” Thompson anticipates criticism that advocating violence amounts to accepting a sexist, patriarchal model. He argues the material fact that women can and have engaged in violent political struggle. Furthermore, participation in violence is one arena that allows activists to transcend gender. He quotes a female Black Bloc member, who explains how the baggy clothes and black hooded sweatshirt allows her gendered identity to disappear—a perfect example of the politics of production.

I wouldn't recommend this book as a first introduction to the movement. But if you are familiar with the stakes and the story of anti-globalization, it's an analysis worth considering, regardless of race and class background.

Written by: Charlotte Malerich, December 24th 2010

Paradoxes of Utopia: Anarchist Culture and Politics in Buenos Aires, 1890-1910

mandy — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Juan Suriano, Chuck Morse

AK Press

In Paradoxes of Utopia, social and labor historian Juan Suriano explores the Argentinean urban anarchist movement at the fin de siecle. Drawing on archival sources, Suriano analyzes libertarian theory and practice in Buenos Aires through an analysis of anarchist books, newspapers, lectures, rallies, propaganda tours, fundraisers, theater groups, songs, rites, symbols, educational projects, and union organizing campaigns.

Suriano situates the urban anarchist movement in Argentina in the context of a rapidly modernizing nation and explores the influence of international anarchist figures and publications on the Argentinean movement. Arguing that historical studies have ignored radical politics prior to 1945, he focuses on explicitly anarchist institutions and publications, distinguishing anarchism from socialist and worker struggles while still acknowledging the relationships and overlap between these movements. He shows the many ways that anarchists in Buenos Aires contested the state, legal system, nationalism, religion, army, and electoral politics through cultural and study circles, alternative schools, radical presses, social events, worker organizing, and direct action.

Suriano describes the rise and eventual collapse of the anarchist movement in Buenos Aires. He outlines the many obstacles anarchists faced, including ideological conflicts, lack of coordination and trust between anarchists, a reluctance to analyze the specifics of Argentinean society, and the eventual marginalization of libertarian politics in favor of the more reformist agenda of socialist and worker groups. He also examines the effects of state repression in the form of Residency and Social Defense Laws, which curbed anarchist groups by criminalizing many of their activities.

While Paradoxes of Utopia outlines and analyzes in detail the political and cultural practices of urban anarchists in Buenos Aires, Suriano’s analysis falls short from a feminist perspective. The book offers tantalizing evidence that women were intricately involved in the anarchist movement as workers, wives, mothers, intellectuals, and comrades, yet he fails to fully consider the effects of women’s roles in shaping the movement. For example, at various points Suriano briefly touches on anarchist ideas concerning marriage and family structure, women’s liberation, sexual equality, and the persecution of prostitutes, but he does not fully explore these aspects of the anarchist movement.

The absence of women in Suriano's analysis does not seem to indicate that they were not involved in anarchist theory and practice. He mentions in passing the existence of an Anarchist Women’s Center and newspaper (Women’s Voice), women’s involvement in tenant strikes and social events, and the renown of several female anarchist lecturers and intellectuals. While dealing with archival sources can limit the scope of analysis, it does not appear that women’s role were completely obscured from the historical record. The lack of analysis regarding women's involvement in Paradoxes of Utopia points to the need for more studies on the role of women in radical social movements.

Despite this critique, Paradoxes of Utopia has a great deal to offer readers interested in historical and contemporary radical politics. Indeed, many of the difficulties faced by the anarchists in urban Argentina a century ago sound surprisingly similar to those that arise in radical social movements today: splintering based on ideological differences, state repression, lack of resources, high turnover, and competition with reformist social movements. This well-researched study is a valuable read for those interested in Latin American history, anarchist theory and practice, and labor movements.

Written by: Traci Yoder, September 25th 2010

We Are an Image from the Future: The Greek Revolt of December 2008

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Edited by A.G. Schwarz, Tasos Sagris, Void Network

AK Press

Consider what it might feel like if July 4th in the United States were celebrated not with fireworks and barbecue but with demonstrations and occupations to achieve a further social revolution. That's what November 17th is in Greece since a student revolt on that date in 1973 triggered the end of the dictatorship. In fact, because of the role of the students in achieving this, a law was passed by the socialist government in 1981 to establish academic asylum. Although the law has since been weakened, police are restricted from entering university campuses.

I learned these facts from reading We Are an Image from the Future: The Greek Revolt of December 2008, a collage of interviews, oral history, chronologies, personal essays, manifestos, and political essays, edited by A.G. Schwarz, Tasos Sagris, and Void Network. The format is similar to that used in the INCITE! collective's The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, which tells its story in a range of contradictory voices. In both books, the format results in repetition and a difficult-to-track sequence of events, but allows DIY interpretation and wide range of views, some of them way, way beyond the political discourse permitted in the United States, even in so-called progressive media.

Here is as good a point as any to complain about how the physical book under review—a wide ten inches on a six-inch spine—was difficult to read in bed. Perhaps this is in keeping with the direct action message of We Are an Image from the Future: get up and out and do something.

For those undeterred by these difficulties, there are rewards. The editors argue that their book is not a history, but is as close to a true account as can be achieved for the unexpected and multifaceted events sparked by the police murder of fifteen-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on December 6, 2008 in the Exarchia section of Athens—a neighborhood known for countercultural and anarchist activity. A witness entertaining a guest in his apartment above the square (who calls the Athenian equivalent of 9/11), activists who admit to being frightened by the violence of the ensuing riots, radicals who experience the realization that a revolutionary moment can occur in unpredictable ways that don't match a theoretical scheme, and a veteran of the overthrow of the dictatorship who chastises contemporary revolutionaries for smashing shops all have their say.

We're definitely not in Kansas anymore—or even in New York. Greece, which experienced occupation during World War II but actually liberated itself and endured a civil war in living memory, has some far-from-tame political confrontations. In the United States, we are more likely to criticize Washington and Jefferson as hypocritical slaveholders than recapitulate their revolution with a little political rumble of our own.

We Are an Image from the Future provides an honest and unforeclosed discussion of political violence. There is room for differentiation among property destruction, self-defense, expropriation, and deliberate attacks on the authority of the state, without distinctions being lost in the mire of the ever-expanding catch-all of "domestic terrorism." After all, Washington and his comrades were insurrectionists to the British.

Written by: Frances Chapman, August 8th 2010

Anarchism and Its Aspirations

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Cindy Milstein

AK Press, Institute for Anarchist Studies

Anarchism and Its Aspirations is a collection of several essays that together offer an introduction to modern anarchist thought and its applications. The title essay, which is the first and longest essay in the book, discusses anarchism’s historical and philosophical roots, as well as its fundamental tenets. The other three essays, “Anarchism’s Promise for Anticapitalist Resistance,” “Democracy is Direct,” and “Reclaim the Cities: From Protest to Popular Power,” attempt to tease out the relevance of anarchism in the contemporary context of state consolidation and the globalization of capital.

The book is geared toward two audiences: first, established anarchists who want to renew their visions for anarchism, and second, readers curious about anarchism who are familiar with the basics of progressive political theory, but unacquainted with anarchist thought in particular. As the author states explicitly, the book attempts to present a rosy view of anarchism–an emphasis on what it strives to be capable of–more than a detailed analysis of its past or present weaknesses or distortions. However, the author does touch on her opinions about the areas in which anarchism has room to grow–in particular, she discusses the importance of getting beyond “protests against” and placing more emphasis on building popular power.

I appreciated the book’s visionary tone, as well as the clear analysis of what anarchism uniquely has to offer to other progressive schools of thought. Among the many aspects of anarchism discussed in the essays, I found the focus on unabashed utopianism particularly compelling. In a world in which even the most progressive of activists often think in terms of strategic compromise, it is refreshing to remember that it is possible to dream bigger dreams–anarchist dreams of pluralism, direct democracy, organizing for mutual aid based on true consensus, and above all, an abundance of resources, love, play, sustainability, and peace for all inhabitants of the planet.

If Anarchism and Its Aspirations has a single flaw, it is its tendency towards slightly dense prose. Overall, it is highly readable, especially given the many layers of history and politics that it explores with depth and nuance. However, a few more anecdotes and applications would have helped this particular reader immensely–the most striking example is the “battle of Seattle,” which is mentioned throughout the book as a watershed moment for modern anarchism, but which is never elucidated, not even via a brief account of the events of November 30, 1999. In this regard, the book occasionally assumes prior knowledge and familiarity (which I, for one, didn’t have) with the internal politics of modern anarchism, which renders some of the book’s detailed political discussion abstract and difficult to follow. In general, I don’t have a problem with finding myself in over my head when I’m reading about something new–in this case, though, the book states that one of its two main aims is to serve as an introduction to anarchism to those who are unfamiliar with it, so I feel that the omission deserves comment.

On the whole, though, Anarchism and Its Aspirations succeeds in painting a hopeful portrait of the relevance and utility of an anarchist framework in the context of the contemporary struggle for revolutionary social change.

Written by: Ri J. Turner, July 24th 2010

You Don't Play With Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Edited by David Austin

AK Press

This accessible and engaging collection presents eight never-before-published lectures by the celebrated Marxist cultural critic and anti-colonial scholar, C.L.R. James, who played an important part in the international socialist movement. James’ collection demonstrates his expertise in various fields, from Caribbean history and the Haitian Revolution, to Leninist political philosophy to Shakespeare. He has defined and popularized the autonomist Marxist tradition in the United States and Canada. You Don't Play With Revolution is a collection based on a series of lectures delivered by James during his stay in Montreal in 1967 and 1968 when he was invited to contribute to the practical work of people devoted to revolutionary change in Canada and the Caribbean. Thus, James’ work not only embodied his vision of the creative power of ordinary people who shape history, but the ways they do so and document their struggles. James strongly believed that without the involvement of the mass population politics is destined to fail.

This collection is significant because it provides essential, and previously lacking, information about James’ work with Canadian students and West Indian intellectuals in the late 1960s. It also includes a series of letters James exchanged with the West Indian university students who made these lectures possible, in addition to two seminal interviews with James during his stay in Canada. Those interested in social movements and, more specifically, James’ work, will find this collection to be a great contribution to existing scholarship.

James’ work is relevant to revolutionary politics today, while opening the window into the particular cultural moment in which James’ work took place. I recommend it to both the novice and the expert who wants to learn more about James and his stunning insights. As Austin summarily puts it, “James not only remind us that ‘another world is possible’ is real, but also help us to chart a course toward creating this new world in present.”

Written by: Olivera Simic, June 7th 2010

Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:01:00 +0000

By Nunzio Pernicone

AK Press

Armed with footnotes and provisioned with a healthy bibliography, Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892 is not an easy read for the casual reader, or even the casual “antiauthorian leftist.” Isn’t that the euphemism for anarchist these days? Still, I don’t regret the time I spent reading—insurrection after insurrection, congress upon congress—the nearly 300 pages of text in Nunzio Pernicone’s history of these three decades. He writes not just about heroes like Errico Malatesta, but introduces the reader to supporting characters as well.

As an Italian-American who doesn’t even know her father’s real last name, I’ll admit I checked the index first, for Rossi, Russo, Rosso, anything that might have been shortened to our “boat name,” Ross. During these years my Italian grandfather (or was it his father?) immigrated to the United States, for lots of good reasons, as cataloged by Pernicone: the brutal introduction of capitalist farming methods, famine, and a cholera epidemic. I met Giovanni Russo, region of origin unspecified, who immigrated to Brazil and started an anarchist colony. Alas, I learned also that the Calabria, where my dad’s folks originated, was generally not in the vanguard during these turbulent times in Italy. I fear my ancestors really were the backward peasants the anarchists tried to energize.

But let’s move from mere genealogy to history. Not just women’s history has been “stolen from us,” and I am very grateful to AK Press for publishing this and other works of anarchist history and philosophy. It was almost as true in my young adulthood as it was for the “anarchist prince” Peter Kropotkin that one had to read about anarchism piecemeal in pamphlets. And of course, the reports of police agents are often the only written documents for historical research, as a glance at the footnotes and bibliography in the book reveals.

If we are patient readers, Pernicone’s friendly but balanced, serious, well-documented history fills a need for those of us on the left who are not “anarchist studies” specialists. It occasionally strikes a light, even humorous and lovingly critical, tone. The story about the overweight Michel Bakunin, Russian but the father of Italian anarchism, and his extrication from a carriage on an escape from Italy made me laugh out loud.

Without getting into the learning-from-and-repeating history discussion, the gifts of this book are numerous: the reader can actually feel the pressure militants exerted on themselves and their recruits to stage insurrection after insurrection even in the face of serious repression, understand the betrayal comrades felt when Andrea Costa “sold out” to become a politician, and appreciate the contingencies of history (i.e., how things might have gone another way). After all, anarchism was once a popular movement not just in Italy, and helped set the agenda for socialist activism, but like all movements it was composed of human beings with flaws as well as strengths.

How was this powerful international movement pushed to the fringe and then outside the boundary of political discourse, trivialized as a frivolous critique of organization, or slandered as the equivalent of terrorism in contemporary metropolitan dailies? Sometimes it is easier for feminists and participants in other contemporary movements to open our minds about own activism and the way forward by reading and thinking about a history a bit more distant and “other” than the anti-globalization actions in Seattle in 2000. Pernicone provides us with a history and leaves drawing parallels with contemporary times to the reader.

Do the multiplicity of newspapers started by Italian anarchists suggest a similarity to our current reliance on the Internet? Are activists today missing the boat as anarchists of this period did with early labor organizing? Read and learn.

Written by: Frances Chapman, April 19th 2010

Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Matt Hern

AK Press

First off, let me say I am not a big fan of urban planning. Even the kindly Jane Jacobs got it wrong with her advocacy of new building along side streets—infill. The condo craze that damages communities from Brooklyn, where I live, to Vancouver, the focus of Common Ground in a Liquid City, can proceed very well along side streets to gentrification and displacement. Author Matt Hern put all my defenses on alert by his proposition early on that continuing urbanization is a given and that greater urban density is essential on a planet of diminishing resources.

Through disarming chunks of personal narrative, Hern manages to craft an argument that soothed me, a victim twice-over of mainstream urban planning, sufficiently enough to win me over. Perhaps city-dwellers can rationally and emotionally work toward a better urban future for all. Patiently, he turns up the dial on radical analysis to indict our metastasizing capitalist “growth” and help us hear its attendant liquid slosh of cash, careers, and mobility.

In both his thoughtful travelogues and his arguments, he gives the concept of place, real dirt and actual location, its rightful, well, place in society and the economy. (He acknowledges the argument that modern communities can also be based on common social and professional interests, but does not refute it here.) For Hern, place is the foundation of community, even though he travels as far as the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir to make his points. He always comes back to his neighborhood in East Vancouver.

I particularly enjoyed his account of his quick get-away from New York City in the face of his partner’s unplanned pregnancy. Not “making it” in New York is a cliched B-movie plot; it is also more often than not a rational and strategic retreat from self-destruction. His is bittersweet, and distance may allow him better to take down the Rudy Giuliani style over policing that doesn’t prevent stabbings on the subway but does drain the city budget.

A few words about the artful structure of the book: each chapter compares Vancouver with another city or town and focuses on making a point. I particularly like how he pinpoints the similarities between Vancouver and Las Vegas, puncturing the self-righteous image of his “green” hometown. Along with his geographic travels, Hern hits practically all the right notes, advocating farmers markets, bicycles and public transportation, and urban agriculture; and dissing tax abatements for stadiums, development that prices out lower-paid workers, competition among cities for the Olympics, and urban branding to attract tourists and capital.

Okay, there is nothing new in the writer being part of the story. Sunday supplement feature writers and neoliberal apologist Tom Friedman have all been doing this for years, but Hern adds one essential ingredient: an authentic commitment to structural change, not from a do-gooder platform, but also for himself, his friends, his family, and all of us. Special message to those going into “urban planning” thinking they will change the world: agitate to get this well-researched but non-stuffy book on the syllabus.

Written by: Frances Chapman, April 18th 2010

You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:01:00 +0000

By Seth Tobocman

AK Press

You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive is a collection of graphic work by comic artist and activist Seth Tobocman. The artwork dates back to 1980, when Tobocman and Peter Kuper founded the political comix magazine War World 3 Illustrated, and critical issues of this era are addressed, including Reaganomics, the AIDS pandemic, gentrification struggles in New York City, the occupation of Palestine, and the imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive was originally published in 1989 and then again ten years later. Both times it sold out quickly. This most recent acquisition and printing from AK Press is a sign of Tobocman’s work's longevity, and the continued demand for his politically conscious art.

Tobocman is a fixture of New York City’s downtown punk scene and the Lower East Side squatter’s movement. Chances are local readers have seen him in his Lower East Side neighborhood, maybe reading at Bluestockings or ABC No Rio. Tobocman, like his comics, is accessible, present, and engaged in his community. His comics have never been recognized or celebrated by the mainstream art market, which is not surprising considering his critique of bourgeois conformist politics, and Tobocman produces art for the street, not the gallery.

This latest release of You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive gives longtime fans, as well as first-time readers, a chance to enjoy Tobocman’s art and utilize his images (as activists and community organizers often have) to produce political posters, buttons, patches, and graffiti. The direct and utilitarian nature of Tobocman’s work, and of comic art in general, is so appealing because you get an immediate, straightforward, and high impact method of communication and direct action marketing. You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive is a creative, in-your-face resource and a critical tool for resistance.

Written by: Jeanne Vaccaro, April 14th 2010

Come Hell or High Water: A Handbook on Collective Process Gone Awry

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:02:00 +0000

By Delfina Vannucci, Richard Singer

AK Press

Mahatma Gandhi famously urged his followers to “be the change you want to see in the world.” It sounds so simple: Be kind, listen well, mediate conflicts, and treat all living things with respect. But as anyone who has ever worked in a community or civic organization knows, power plays are common and Gandhi’s counsel is easy to ignore.

Delfina Vannucci and Richard Singer’s Come Hell or High Water is a pocket-sized pamphlet meant to help anarchist organizers avoid the pitfalls endemic to social change efforts. The lessons are clearly written—and supplemented by hilarious line drawings. They’re also applicable beyond anarchist circles. Indeed, this practical manual offers easy-to-follow guidelines that can be applied to all kinds of situations, from the workplace to the affinity group.

For example, anyone who has ever participated in a so-called collective has seen how difficult it is to share power. Time and again, we see a charismatic leader rise to the top, becoming the de facto spokesperson and decision-maker, while everyone else scurries to assist him or her. Despite lip service about all members being equal, in practice, this rarely if ever happens. “When the ideal of egalitarianism is allowed to flounder unattended to,” Vannucci and Singer write, “it can devolve right back into the patterns that most of us knew in our lives outside of collectives: Hierarchy, mistrust, looking out only for oneself, and sometimes even underhanded scheming.”

Their solution? Pay attention to process, encourage debate, be sure all individuals and factions get a chance to air their positions, and then vote. While consensus is important, they conclude, voting allows dissenting opinions to be recorded and lets all sides vent their ideas before a final tally. They also offer a check list of behaviors that erode participation: Tolerating people who act exasperated or impatient, as if less-popular members are wasting the group‘s time with questions or contending opinions; slandering a member of the group behind his or her back between meetings; using intimidation tactics to keep opposition at bay; condoning behavior that lets a few activists act wounded or victimized by criticism; making oneself indispensable and not sharing information; treating others as though they are silly or stupid; and injecting fear by projecting dire consequences if things are not done a particular way.

While concrete examples of these practices—and how they destroyed a collective or came close—would have made the pamphlet even stronger, anyone who has attempted to plan an action, organize an event, or create something new will recognize the destructive demeanors outlined in Come Hell or High Water. Making the Diva or Dictator aware of his or her actions—and making clear that such behavior is unacceptable—Vannucci and Singer write, is key to developing a new paradigm. They also argue that collective process doesn’t mean that people have to agree with each other 100 percent of the time. Instead, learning how to disagree without rancor and engaging in civil discourse despite disagreements is a good starting point in recasting the world. As Gandhi made clear, progressive advancement requires imagination and creativity to envision alternatives to capitalism, war, oppression, and hierarchies.

Written by: Eleanor J. Bader, April 2nd 2010

2010 Slingshot Organizer

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0000

By Slingshot Collective

AK Press

It warms my heart that the Slingshot Collective is still producing this legendary anarchistic day planner. Although this is the sixteenth year that the Slingshot organizer is in print, I am pretty sure that the first time I ever saw one was after the 1999 anti-WTO protests in Seattle. Unfortunately I didn’t go to the protests (because I was in high school and my parents wouldn’t let me). Luckily, my boyfriend at the time brought one back for me as a protest souvenir. While I would have preferred to have been in Seattle getting tear-gassed with the White Overalls and Sea Turtle Defenders, it made me feel a little less left out. I am pretty sure that I had a Slingshot Organizer every year after that until the last couple of years.

There is something comforting to once again hold the classic pocket-sized Slingshot in my hands again. I love how almost everything is written and illustrated by hand. I also love that there are reminders of radical activist history, a menstrual calendar, a list of info-shops across the world, and an address book in the back.

The cover this year features a giant mushroom in a forest with a group of people overturning and destroying a car in the background. One improvement from past years is that the cover now comes slightly laminated. I remember in the early years when we would all laminate them ourselves using clear packing tape in order to preserve their utility. 2010 Slingshot Organizers come in about a dozen colors ranging from Smash the Pumpkin State (orange) to Food Not Lawns (light green). Proceeds from the sale of the organizers all go towards making sure that the Slingshot newspaper stays in production. I highly recommend the slingshot organizer, whether this is your first or your sixteenth.

Written by: Liz Simmons, January 28th 2010

Another Dinner is Possible: Recipes and Food For Thought

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0000

By Mike and Isy

AK Press

My interest in vegetables is quite young; around a year and half. Since this new found vegetarian interest, I’ve been looking out for recipes which are quick and involve simple ingredients so that I don’t have to run around super-market looking for all those hard to pronounce spices.

At first glance, I must confess that I was disappointed with Mike and Isy’s Another Dinner Is Possible. This spiral bound, black and white printed pages, with articles on food fights and how peak oil affects our food culture, was offbeat to the conventional cookbook where one would find glossy pages with colorful pictures of dishes which tempt you to eat off from the pages. But as I browsed through it, I was enticed by “encyclopedia” of recipes—simple and quick. Exactly what I was looking for.

Another Dinner is Possible is not just a cook book. It’s the style of living for Mike and Isy who volunteer with the Anarchist Teapot Mobile Kitchen, which has cooked for various events including the Earth First Summit gatherings. They cook organic GM-free food and also run a vegan Crowley café. Any surplus money from sales of this book will be donated to Brighton Anarchist Black Cross Prisoner Support.

With more than 250 recipes, this book is divided into chapters on soups, main courses, side dishes, salads, sauces, snacks, sweets, bread, and preserving. This includes a variety of vegetable burgers and recipes for international cuisines. For instance, a chapter is dedicated for Korean dishes with notes on Korean cooking and ingredients. It was interesting to know that Korean food has such versatile vegetarian options. There is also a chapter explaining procedures of brewing beers, wines, and ciders at home.

This is a no-frill book, recipes are easy to cook with minimum ingredients, the directions are straight forward, measurements are exact, and yet flexible enough to tweak in your favorite ingredients. Since most of the recipes do not ask for elaborate cooking, the taste of vegetables and its texture is retained, which I consider to be justice to the dish and to our stomach. Recipes in this book are intended to serve six unlike four in most of the cook book so as to emphasize on the more economical way of cooking.

In short, Another Dinner Is Possible is cooking simplified. Towards the end of the book, there are articles on seasonal foods, how to reduce food wastage, tips on cooking for 100 plus people. Yes, it is a practical cookbook by practical people who are not dazzled by global capitalism and connect with the food they cook and eat. I have tried a few recipes from the book like fridge cake, potato stir fry, Borscht, and found it excellent. If you love to cook good food, this book is a keeper. It will be the cookbook I will be using over and over.

Review by Sunitha Jayan

Written by: Sunitha Jayan, January 25th 2010

Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Edited by Margaret Killjoy

AK Press

When the term “anarchy” is heard, most people think of the “circle-A” graffiti on crumbling buildings and the T-shirts of punk rock kids, or else imagine a state of complete lawlessness and the breakdown of society. Popular culture does nothing to dispel these collective thoughts. In theory and philosophy, anarchy refers to the absence of a state or rulers and a society in which there is no vertical hierarchy of class, but instead a horizontal equality of societal participants. Margaret Killjoy, the editor of Steampunk Magazine and an avowed anarchist, collected fourteen interviews with varying writers in the compact book Mythmakers and Lawbreakers; the common thread between the featured writers is that each is a professed anarchist, writes positively about anarchist societies, or maintains anarchist sympathies.

Reading each of the interviews, I quickly learned that there are as many varying definitions of anarchy as there are practitioners and theorizers. There is a vague commonality of a desire to see an end to free-market capitalism and democracy (the writers interviewed are mostly American and British) and the desire for complete equality and a gift- or barter-based economy, but otherwise each author has his or her own personal philosophy as it ties in to the theory of anarchy. This is not a criticism, and it does not seem as if anarchists are so loosely connected as to not have any sense of community at all. Rather, it appears as if there are just factions within the anarchist community, perhaps comparable to American democracy's political parties. Each interview in its turn is wholly fascinating to read, as the subjects are certainly outside of the mainstream, literature-wise. The most recognizable names are feminist sci-fi author Ursula K. LeGuin, graphic novel writer Alan Moore, fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, and eco-feminist/neo-pagan author Starhawk.

Margaret Killjoy (who, despite his traditionally feminine moniker, is male) is mostly interested in learning from his interview subjects how they define the intersection of anarchy and fiction, or how anarchist sympathies have defined their writing. This may be considered the theme of the book, although each writer tends to wax tangential about choice pet subjects rather than directly answering the question asked. Killjoy is an obvious fan of each featured writer and brings his own knowledge of anarchy and literature to the fore in his prepared and improvised questions.

One common thread throughout the varying writers' remarks is anarchy and its benefit to feminism. Anarchy would necessitate a breakdown of the patriarchy and optimally result in full equality of citizens. This is a beautiful idea, but I'm perhaps too cynical to accept that this could be the case; I tend to believe that peoples' inherent prejudices would still rule the day, resulting in unequal divisions of labor and other gender discrimination. This and other queries and criticisms occurred to me while learning more about the varying schools of thought in anarchist philosophy. Its practitioners, at least within Killjoy's book, are very idealistic and enthusiastic about their ideas, but also seem to think that these ideas could easily be instituted as the prevailing societal norm. This to me seems hopelessly naive. However, the book itself, the interviewees, and Margaret Killjoy are all refreshingly intelligent and passionate about their work and politics.

Written by: Natalie Ballard, January 23rd 2010

Suffled How It Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:01:00 +0000

By Shon Meckfessel

AK Press

Suffled How It Gush is so beautiful it may as well be a novel. The confident, fast-paced prose is history, politics, memoir, travel guide, and a call to action all in one—and all seeping with deep humanity. Shon Meckfessel takes us along on his trips backpacking through the Balkans and ex-Yugoslavia one country at a time, from Slovenia and Croatia through Romania and Albania.

As one may expect from the book’s title, the author allows his anarchist leanings to shine through both in his conversations with others and his choice of lodging and cultural events (numerous punk shows, moshing, and political groups). But despite Meckfessel’s opportunity to take sides as he explores the history, ethnicities, and political activism of a vast and complex region, he zooms in on individual struggles and lays open different views to allow his audience to make up its own mind. (Note that the fact that I agree with a lot of his perspectives may be tainting my opinion.)

This multi-layered book is a pleasure to read—the anecdotes, political analyses, clashing cultures, adventures, long nights, endless cigarettes, flowing beers, jokes made between people who barely speak the same language, dance parties, and other gems are regaled in a warm and colorful manner. That’s not to say that some aspects of Meckfessel’s accounts aren’t heartbreaking and disturbing: Roma refugees ignored and abandoned by the world, racism, sexism, extreme poverty, persecution, and violence abound. We hear the stories of those entrenched in these situations first-hand.

Meckfessel makes evident his sympathy and respect for the myriad denizens he meets through the ephemeral yet intricate portraits he paints of them. There is nothing impersonal about this book. Meckfessel shreds many of the barriers often placed between reader and writer, letting us in on his intimate musings and trepidations. The book’s pages are laden with photos of parks, vendors, graffiti, refugees, his anarchist friends, and curious objects to help the reader delve deeper into his narrative.

Ultimately, Suffled How It Gush is a love story. The author reminds us that many strangers are generous, trusting people who can easily become dear friends, and that humility and love—or at least humor and good will—are everywhere despite corruption, discrimination, and suffering. In the midst of bombings, Meckfessel’s friend Andrea tells us that Belgrade was full of people partying and enjoying life in any way they could because, “You see, when you finally decide you have nothing left to lose, only then you are free!” Beauty is everywhere, the author suggests—you just have to open your eyes to see it.

Written by: Natalia Real, January 10th 2010