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Friendship as a Way of Life: Foucault, AIDS and the Politics of Shared Estrangement
Friendship as a Way of Life is a pulsing and intriguing volume. While some of the early chapters stumble through cumbersome academic prose and well rehearsed critiques of identity based social movements, the work eventually finds its stride as a conversation about friendship, queer activism, and Michel Foucault. The theme takes shape through a number of late interviews and lectures with the philosopher. The work’s title refers to a 1981 interview of Michel Foucault in the gay magazine Le Gay Pied.
Continue reading...Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power, Community Organizing in Radical Times
13. April 2012
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My mom taught in a public high school in Columbus, Ga in the mid-1950’s. These were the years after the Brown v Board of Education decision, desegregating the public schools. Many of her poorer white students clung to the idea of racial superiority, despite the federal policy doing away with separate but equal schools. Without the privilege of whiteness, there was nothing to separate them from the Black population of South Georgia, many seemed to complain. Even then, mom felt the unease settling in among poor whites who felt marginalized. It was not clear what direction poor whites were moving in as the 1960’s approached. While some embraced the Highlander Folk School and solidarity with the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, more could be seen gravitating toward Strom Thurmond. Yet, reaching out to them was not easy. “You could find yourself getting shot at,” recalled my father. Yet, where did this leave movements for change?
Continue reading...Save the Humans: Common Preservation in Action
19. February 2012
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November 14, 2011, Jeremy Brecher delivered a talk at the CUNY Graduate Center entitled, “What the 99-Percenters Learn from the History of Social Movements.” Marina Sitrin, a friend who’s organizing links the global justice movement with Occupy Wall Street (OWS), had sent out an invitation.
Continue reading...Revolt!: The Next Great Transformation from Kleptocracy Capitalism to Libertarian Socialism through Counter Ideology, Societal Education, & Direct Action
10. February 2012
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What is most interesting about John Asimakopoulos’s Revolt! is its intended audience.
Continue reading...The CNT in the Spanish Revolution, Volume 1
7. January 2012
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The Spanish anarchist movement and revolution of the late 1930s are undoubtedly the historical force and context most praised by Western anarchists. In absolute numbers, in proportion of the overall population they were part of, and in the radical transformation they accomplished in much of Spanish society, the reputation is well deserved.
Continue reading...Drawing The Line Once Again: Paul Goodman’s Anarchist Writings
6. January 2012
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While relatively unknown today, Paul Goodman was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. In books like Growing Up Absurd, published in 1960, Goodman captured the zeitgeist of his era, catapulting himself to the forefront of American intellectual life
Continue reading...So Much Pretty
6. January 2012
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I picked up So Much Pretty looking to escape the world and its many disappointments. What I found instead was a story that could very well happen in my community, to my friends, to their children...a terrifying prospect. And yet, I kept reading. As the suspense mounted, as a girl went missing, as the chapters began to be numbered as police evidence, I could not turn away
Continue reading...In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary
6. January 2012
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There is a sub-genre of science fiction called alternative history, which consists of works such as Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, in which Germany wins World War II, and Hitler becomes the ruler of the U.S. Works of this type offer a counterfactual version of past events
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16. July 2012
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