Eric Laursen appeared on Fire Dog Lake’s Book Salon
By christa | May 16, 2012
Eric Laursen was recently a guest on Fire Dog Lake’s Book Salon discussing his recently released title The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan.
Moderated by Ellen Schultz, she began by stating, “A real eye-opener to me was Laursen’s material on how right leaning Democrats in Congress and the Obama Administration are an unrecognized threat, given their willingness to reduce the deficit by taking an axe to Social Security. In the guise of preserving the system, they’ve called for reducing benefits by raising the retirement age, introducing means testing, and reducing cost-of-living increases. At the same time, many staunchly oppose raising payroll taxes, or raising the cap on income subject to payroll tax, which is currently $110,000. Raising, or eliminating the cap Laursen writes, would close a lot of the funding gap, and he points out, without pulling the rug out from under those who need it the most.
I’d like to start by asking Eric: What else could improve the system, and whether these moves –as well as raising the income cap—are being seriously considered?”
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David Swanson is “Hopelessly Devoted”
By christa | May 16, 2012
We’re very excited to see David Swanson’s review of Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion on his blog War is a Crime.
Hopelessly Devoted
by David Swanson
You’d never know it from watching television, but there are many thousands of people in the United States who take peace, justice, environmental protection, and government of the people so seriously that they don’t censor themselves whenever the president is a Democrat.
While many others are still debating whether it would be appropriate to criticize or protest President Obama after a mere three and a half years of disaster, the people I have in mind have been openly and honestly resisting the latest Wall Street war monger since before he was elected.
Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank have collected 56 essays from prior to, from early on in, and from quite recently during the Obama presidency. The collection, just published as Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, has a consistent approach to its topic. The authors, including Kevin Alexander Gray, Jeremy Scahill, Chris Floyd, Sibel Edmonds, Franklin Spinney, Kathy Kelly, Marjorie Cohn, Chase Madar, Michael Hudson, Medea Benjamin, Charles Davis, Ray McGovern, Dave Lindorff, Bill Quigley, Tariq Ali, Andy Worthington, Linn Washington, Jr., and many more, don’t agree on everything. A few try to urge serious progressive plans on Obama that they would never have proposed that Bush champion, not even rhetorically, not even for laughs. The book is not organized by topic; it’s a random, if chronological, ride through a catalog of catastrophes. But it’s united by the theme of horrendously bad government in the age of Obama. It ignores the mythology and treats Obama based on his actual performance.
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“May Day Matters” by Cindy Milstein
By christa | May 15, 2012
Written by our lovely author and comrade Cindy Milstein, author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations.
May Day Matters
By Cindy Milstein
Every since this occupy “movement” began, it has surprised me. Like a package I didn’t order appearing on my doorstep, gifting me some sweet little zines written by a near stranger I met long ago. And just when this occupy thing seems to stall or become tired—or as Take Back the Land’s Max Rameau put it so well recently, begins to feel like the film Groundhog Day—it surprises me yet again. Another package unexpectedly arrives, this time with hand-screened political posters from some anonymous friend.
May Day was one of those surprises.
Truth be told, though, the day itself was underwhelming.
Part of the reason for that, at least for me, lies in the fact that I had expectations. Great expectations. I went into May Day with the anarchist equivalent of “day-before-Christmas” excited anticipation, with all sorts of preconceived notions of what could or should happen swirling around in my head. Nothing ever lives up to such fantasies.
Yet the reason goes deeper than that: along with so many others, I keep thinking of occupy as a social movement—that is, an organized attempt at achieving a political goal. I’m not talking about the “What do they want?” straw argument leveled against us. I’m speaking of all the manifold hopes, desires, and aspirations that “we, as a movement,” articulate in innumerable actions and artifacts—and sometimes put into a day of action.
One of the biggest surprises of occupy, however, time and again, is that it defies categorizing or capturing, no matter how much those individuals who want to make a name off occupy keep trying to name it, or occasionally take credit for it; no matter how law enforcement, politicians and pundits, or the mainstream media try to label it; no matter how much well-meaning activists and agitators and anarchists try to give voice to it—or valiantly try to create processes and platforms to give many voices to it. Indeed, the more I dwell on it, the more I’m still not even sure what the “it” of occupy actually is, and that’s another surprise, and a beautiful one at that.
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Michael Staudenmaier’s Truth and Revolution Just Arrived in Baltimore!
By christa | May 11, 2012
We had quite an exciting delivery at the Baltimore office today! Michael Staudenmaier’s Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969-1986!
Make sure to pre-order your copy and get 25% off!
Advance Praise for Truth and Revolution:
“Michael Staudenmaier has uncovered a crucial story of the New Left, one that has escaped the attention of most scholars of the era. His skilled prose and meticulous research critically honors this history and draws lessons for us today.—James Tracy, co-author of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times
“Wow! Truth and Revolution is a guided tour of the worker militancy, revolutionary nationalist upsurge, and new social movement eruptions of the last forty years. Best of all Staudenmaier breaks it all down for today’s social movements. Truth and Revolution is not to be missed.”—Dan Berger, editor of The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism
“STO’s unflinching focus on calling out white supremacy in all its manifestations is an important reminder for today. A must-read for students of leftist politics, social movements and Chicago history.”—Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover and What it Says about the Economic Crisis
Topics: AK Authors!, Recommended Reading | No Comments »
Some thoughts on the recent SF Chronicle article …
By Bill | May 7, 2012
I answered the warehouse door the other day and was ambushed by a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. The resulting story and the “quote” attributed to me requires some response.
First I want to make it clear that I am in full support of a diversity of tactics when it comes to protest – including Black Bloc-type tactics. What I was commenting on was the apparent random destruction and vandalism committed on the eve of May Day in San Francisco’s Mission District. I mentioned that many who were present felt that these were agents provocateurs. If that is the case then they have succeeded in turning public opinion against Occupy – if these were real protestors then I feel that their actions were counterproductive in this instance. Smashing the car windows of the SF Gay Men’s Chorus isn’t going to create converts to your cause. That specifically is what I was referring to when I said that Black Bloc-type tactics can be counterproductive.
But it is important to understand that that is my personal opinion and not the position of AK Press. AK Press is a collective made up of individuals, and we don’t all agree on this, just like we don’t all agree within the anarchist movement as a whole on all tactical choices. When I asked other collective members about it, we all shared some amount of concern over the repeated infiltration of the black bloc by the police, and the state’s use of the “black-masked anarchist” trope to escalate violence in otherwise non-violent situations, but we differed on our feelings on the usefulness of the Black Bloc as a tactical approach, in part based on our different experiences personally with the Bloc.
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Great Interview with People’s Pension author Eric Laursen @RetireRevised
By christa | May 3, 2012
What a great interview between Eric Laursen the author of The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan and Mark Miller on Retirement Revised! Eric really knows how to explain this complex issue and show why Social Security is best put in the hands of the people.
“But I think the more urgent need is to improve Social Security. Retirement is becoming hugely expensive in America, because of health care and other rising costs. Benefits need to be raised for people who work almost their entire careers in low-wage jobs. They need to be improved for widows and divorcees. Survivors’ benefits should be extended through the end of college, not just until age 18. Same-sex couples should be covered by Social Security. And there are other needs. The real tragedy of the Social Security debate, which I try to illuminate in The People’s Pension, is that a program that was set up to help working people hasn’t been updated in almost 40 years because we’ve instead been subjected to an endless, circular argument about solvency in the less-than-foreseeable future. Does it really make sense to shift more of the cost of care in old age from society, collectively, onto hard-pressed working families? What will that do to their ability to survive economically? Instead of constantly asking if we can afford Social Security, I think we should be questioning whether we could possibly afford to do without it. These questions almost never get asked anymore on Planet Washington, and I hope my book can help put them back in circulation.” Read More
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People’s Pension has arrived in Baltimore
By christa | April 26, 2012
Whew! Good news folks! copies of Eric Laursen’s People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan just arrived in the Baltimore office.
Be sure to pre-order and get 25% off
Advance Praise for People’s Pension:
“Drawing on research and interviews with economists, politicians, and social scientists who shaped the early development of Social Security, Laursen analyzes how American economics and politics evolved to the point at which a program once considered nearly sacrosanct has come to be viewed as a government entitlement. He debunks that notion as well as the conservative conventional wisdom that in order to save Social Security for future generations, it is necessary to virtually destroy it by reducing benefits and raising the retirement age. Comprehensive and compelling reading on an important topic.”
—Booklist
“This magnificent history documents the hydra-headed campaign to cut and kill Social Security, conducted over decades by rightwing bankers, foundations, economists, and politicians. [The People's Pension] is utterly urgent.”
—James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State
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What Lies Beneath the Clocktower on tour: April 21 – May 13
By kate | April 21, 2012
Ever seen an interactive fiction reading? No? You’re missing out. But, if you live in Pittsburgh, Richmond, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Charlottesville, and basically anywhere in North Carolina, now’s your chance!
AK author & editor Margaret Killjoy is on tour to promote his new book, What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, an anti-colonial steampunk adventure-of-your-own-choosing book. Audience members participate in a consensus-based decision-making process to guide the novel’s absinthe-drunk protagonist through a land filled with gnomes and goblins, wrestling with a variety of ethical choices, and at least a few policemen too. It’s loads of fun, and a unique experience. This is definitely not the choose-your-own adventure story you read as a kid (those are trademarked anyway, so this is really not that), but it’s worth every second. Plus, as a bonus, zines and other materials from Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, Combustion Books, and AK Press on sale!
Dates
- April 21 at the Big Idea Bookstore & Cafe in Pittsburgh, PA. 5pm.
- April 23 at the Wingnut in Richmond, VA. 7pm.
- April 24 at Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, NC. 7pm.
- April 28 at the Steampunk Ball at Davenport & Winkleperry in Pittsboro, NC. 9pm.
- April 30 at Firestorm Cafe & Books in Asheville, NC. 6pm.
- May 2 at the Iron Rail in New Orleans, LA. 6pm.
- May 3 at the East Side Social Center (4202 canal street) in Houston, TX. 7pm.
- May 4-6 I will be performing as an accordionist and presenting and tabling at AetherFest in San Antonio, TX.
- May 9 at Random Row Books in Charlottesville, VA. 7pm.
- May 13 at Back Pages Books in Waltham, MA as part of the Watch City Festival. 11am.
Praise for What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower:
“If you make your way through to the end, you’ll discover that Killjoy’s not just spinning a shaggy-dog story—there’s a surprising amount of heart and adventure to be had if you’re bold enough to choose the path of heroism.”
—Cory Doctorow, author of For The Win
“In What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, the estimable Margaret Killjoy takes a story-form usually associated with younger readers and infuses it with decadence and absinthe along with delirious and dissolute fantasy. If you’re choosing your own adventure, I strongly recommend you make it this one.”
—Alan Moore, author of Watchmen
“A highly imaginative, energetic debut that’s subversive and intelligent.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, author of Shriek: An Afterword
“As I aspire to be a drunken and feckless adventurer myself, I felt great kinship with Our Hero Gregory. Well done sir, well done indeed!”
—Jake von Slatt, proprietor of steampunkworkshop.com
“Reading What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower is a bit like playing Dungeons & Dragons with a bunch of grad students while Monty Python’s Flying Circus marathons in the background. It offers the pleasure of watching someone very smart do some thing very silly, and do it with style and skill. You will laugh and while you laugh this trickster author will unleash goblins in your mind to ferment a cognitive revolution.”
—William Alexander, for Rain Taxi
Topics: AK Allies, AK Authors!, AK Distribution, Happenings, Recommended Reading, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Two new reviews of Accumulation of Freedom, by Gabriel Kuhn and David D’Amato
By christa | April 20, 2012
The Accumulation of Freedom edited by Deric Shannon, Anthony J Nocella, II and John Asimakoupolos received two great reviews this week. The first from Gabriel Kuhn at Alpine Anarchist and the second by David D’Amato at Center for a Stateless Society.
Alpine Anarchist Review
by Gabriel Kuhn
Anarchist discussions revolve around abolishing the state, capitalism, and all forms of oppression, at the same time envisioning a better future for all of us in a just and free society. Interestingly enough, some very basic questions are rarely asked. For example: How do we get our bread? How do we get our cotton shirts? How do we get the smart phones we have become so accustomed to? Obviously, these questions, and a million of others like them, all relate to a very general one: How will anarchists run the economy?
Stimulating anarchist debate on economic issues seems to have been a main motivating factor behind the publication of The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics. At the same time, the book attempts to refute the argument – particularly popular among Marxists – that such debates are entirely absent from the anarchist tradition. In their introduction, the editors, Deric Shannon, Anthony J. Nocella II, and John Asimakopoulos, state: “[A]narchists have contributed to economic thought, despite historical portrayals that write them out – reducing the narrative to capitalism and its Marxian opponents – and we do aim to remedy this despite some of these tensions. Indeed, as the libertarian wing of the socialist movements, anarchism played a key role in the development of economic analyses, practices, and visions of a future society that were anti-capitalist and non-Marxist.” (13-14) Read More
Center for a Stateless Society Review
by David D’Amato
The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics, edited by anarchist scholars Deric Shannon, Anthony J. Nocella, II, and John Asimakopoulos, treats a controversial realm of radical thought, one that has led to divisions and mutual dubiety within the anarchist tradition. In their opening essay Anarchist Economics: A Holistic View, the editors acknowledge that, for many contemporary anarchists, captive to “the assumption that ‘economics’ is capitalism,” the notion of anarchist economics itself is an oxymoron, at variance with anarchism’s commitment to opposing capitalism and therefore destined to prove abortive from the start.
In a vital collection of essays from contemporary anarchists writing in a range of academic disciplines, The Accumulation of Freedom challenges the idea that anarchists should not be concerned with economics. Divided into six parts, the collection moves from history to vision, first sketching the diverse backstory of anarchist economic thought and then both suggesting critiques of contemporary, global capitalism and advancing promising ways of resisting and escaping it, replacing it with something better. Read More
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Intimate Bureaucracies: A new tactical media release!
By kate | April 16, 2012
Intimate Bureaucracies is a history from the future looking backward at our present moment as a turning point. Our systems of organization and control appear unsustainable and brutal, and we are feeling around in the dark for alternatives. Using experiments in social organization in downtown New York City, and other models of potential alternative social organizations, this manifesto makes a call to action to study and build sociopoetic systems.
We’re so exited to announce the release of the latest project in the AK Press Tactical Media Project: a co-publication of Intimate Bureaucracies, the long-awaited pamphlet from dj readies (alter-ego for cultural theorist Craig J. Saper), with our friends at Punctum Books and Minor Composition. We’re calling this a co-publication, but really, all the thanks for the hard-work on making this brilliant new work available for free download is due to the lovely people at Punctum Books, a new publisher based in Brooklyn, NY that specializes in strange and wonderful works of theory outside of and against the walls of the academy.
dj readies and Punctum Books have several events planned this week in NYC to help launch the book, and we’re excited to be a part of the whole thing! Read more about the pamphlet below, and download a copy for your very own. Then send it to a friend. Print off copies and give them away. Sell them to make money for your distro or bookstore. All the work in the AK Press Tactical Media Series is available online entirely for free, and is there for you to use how you see fit. Please be sure to credit the author for any quotes or excerpts, and please forward this link widely!!
More about the events in NYC this week:
http://punctumbooks.com/uncategorized/join-us-for-book-week/
http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/43750
Intimate Bureaucracies: A Manifesto
by dj readies [Craig J. Saper]
Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, 2012. 60 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0615612034. Free download + $9.00 in print.
Download a copy of Intimate Bureaucracies by dj readies | Buy a copy of the pamphlet from Punctum Books
Intimate Bureaucracies is a history from the future looking backward at our present moment as a turning point. Our systems of organization and control appear unsustainable and brutal, and we are feeling around in the dark for alternatives. Using experiments in social organization in downtown New York City, and other models of potential alternative social organizations, this manifesto makes a call to action to study and build sociopoetic systems.
One alternative system, the Occupy movement, has demands and goals beyond the specific historical moment and concerns. This short book/manifesto suggests that the organization and communication systems of Occupying encampments represent important necessities, models, goals, and demands, as well as an intimate bureaucracy that is a paradoxical mix of artisanal production, mass-distribution techniques, and a belief in the democratizing potential of social media.
Topics: AK Distribution, AK News, About AK, Anarchist Publishers, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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