on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1NUJgkd
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: Anarres as Description of the Communist Future (repost)
Ursula K. Le Guin’s is not only a criticism of present-day capitalism by way of science fiction but also a description of what an alternative system could look like. In the novel’s universe, there are the two worlds Urras and Anarres.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: Anarres as Description of the Communist Future
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/22vMHYe
Monday, December 28, 2015
Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: Anarres as Description of the Communist Future
Ursula K. Le Guin’s is not only a criticism of present-day capitalism by way of science fiction but also a description of what an alternative system could look like. In the novel’s universe, there are the two worlds Urras and Anarres.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: Anarres as Description of the Communist Future
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Trump's impact: a fascist upsurge is just one of the dangers
In some ways it doesn’t matter whether we call Donald Trump a fascist or “just” a right-wing populist. However we categorize him, his presidential campaign represents a serious danger.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Trump's impact: a fascist upsurge is just one of the dangers
Trump’s impact: a fascist upsurge is just one of the dangers (repost)
In some ways it doesn’t matter whether we call Donald Trump a fascist or “just” a right-wing populist. However we categorize him, his presidential campaign represents a serious danger.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Trump’s impact: a fascist upsurge is just one of the dangers
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1Sa5lAB
When We Leftists are Criticized by the Right
They see in the population’s hostility towards the left only the hostility towards the left, not the hatred against those who are socially privileged. (Red Army Faction)
Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories . (Amilcar Cabral)
It happens, often. It may be a right-wing journalist, or it may be someone we know personally, a family member or someone at work … or a complete stranger on facebook. They make fun of or relativize/trivialize something our analysis has shown to be super important and that should be obvious to everyone. Or else they seize upon something they claim “leftists” — or in more irritating contemporary verbiage, “liberals” or “social justice warriors” — are up to, belittle or criticize it, exaggerate it to the point of ridicule, all to discredit or distract from the many good things our side is doing, all of our smart insights, the blessing that we are to this world.
This is met with a response from “our side” of denouncing the person in question as racist, sexist, etc. or right-wing, even fascist. Or simply as being stupid, or not cool, or a loser. And we then think we’ve won, or at least have “stood up for ourselves”.
Wrong.
Comrades need to distinguish between rhetorical attacks on the left, and attacks on the oppressed. The latter should be met with an aggressive defense, the former often call for nuance and even introspection. When coming from the oppressed themselves, or from third parties who we may wish to win over to our side, even what feel like unfair criticisms are sometimes best met with humility (though never obsequiousness).
Or to break it down in more detail — probably too much detail, but i know it’s useful to sometimes spell it all out (indeed, that is what this post is about):
Comrades need to distinguish between rhetorical attacks on the left, and attacks on the oppressed. This is an important distinction, even when the source of these attacks in the enemy, even when the motive behind both categories of attack are probably the same. It is true, when the enemy rhetorically attacks our ranks, it doesn’t do so primarily because it cares about us, it does so as a means of attacking the oppressed. Most of the time, we are a means to that end. Right-wing criticism of feminists is meant to reinforce the oppression of all women, feminist or not. Right-wing criticism of anti-racists is meant to reinforce white supremacy across the board. Right-wing criticism of trade unionists or those who work for labor rights is meant to reinforce the exploitation of all workers, especially the most oppressed, especially those who may not be in a union or benefit from the “rights” in question. Right-wing criticism of oppressor-nation anti-war movements in meant to prepare public opinion for attacks on oppressed nations abroad. Etc.
However, those comrades who assume our enemies are all stupid … well, let’s just say that wishful-thinking approach is neither helpful, nor borne out by the facts. And those right-wingers who are not stupid, are most likely to call attention to actual problems on the left, actual weaknesses. If they have the choice, intelligent opponents are less likely to invent something out of thin air, than they are to exploit real points of vulnerability. In other words, through our own fuckups and errors, we facilitate (on the level of that mythical “public opinion”, i.e. hegemony) the enemy’s attacks on the oppressed.
That is why our response to right-wing criticism should depend on whether it is the left or leftist arguments being singled out, or the oppressed directly. If the latter, we should respond aggressively, and generally should not dignify the charges being made with a detailed response. Oppressive discourse — understood in this case narrowly as discourse which explicitly attacks the dignity and advances the subjugation of oppressed categories of people — should be denounced for what it is, period. To do otherwise is to lend it credence, and to make ourselves partners with the right in a patronizing top-down “debate” about the merits or demerits of those who we then become complicit in oppressing.
On the other hand, when it is the left or leftists, or other putative anti-oppressive forces, being criticized, we should keep in mind that the criticism may be reminding us (or revealing to us) an actual problem with what we are doing. Even in those cases when the criticism seems “ridiculous” or a blatant example of “bad politics”, we should keep in mind that criticism and response is performative, with people watching (today, with social media, this is true as never before); people who we may hope to win over to our side, but who may actually be concerned or troubled by the charges being made against us. Indeed: they don’t know us, why should they trust us? The worst thing we can do in such cases is to decide to respond in an ad hominem manner, or to simply not dignify the charges with a serious rebuttal but just drop a flippant comment or dismissive joke. Doing so may make us feel more secure, more like we’re obviously right and have nothing to worry about, but the more perceptive observers (i.e. exactly the kind of people we need to win over) are going to see that we have not answered the charges or the criticism …and that rarely impresses anyone.
As such, when we — as leftists, as anarchists or communists or feminists or anti-racists, as “activists” or “revolutionaries” — are criticized or rhetorically attacked by those we deem “enemy”, we should approach this as an opportunity to explain our politics and to explain why the criticisms being made are incorrect. If we cannot do that, then we have to face the fact that there may be some truth in the criticism, and what’s worse we have allowed our enemies and not ourselves to call attention to this. That’s a double failure on our part. How we deal with it will depend on tactical circumstances, however if only behind the scenes, rectifying the error in question needs to be a priority.
Finally, we need to be exceptionally careful to differentiate between attacks from our enemies, and attacks which may use terms or arguments crafted by our enemies, but which are coming from the oppressed and/or from people we would otherwise hope to win over to our side. Too often, the more radical one feels one has become, the more arrogant one becomes not only in respect to the enemy, but also in respect to everyone else, including even the oppressed when these are not the immediate object of one’s political activity (and sometimes even then). This is not real radicalism, in fact it is more a real mirror image of the disdain the middle class mainstream (where many “activists” come from) feels for both oppressed people and the “less enlightened”. And while not necessarily the main reason, it certainly contributes to the hegemony the middle class has on the left.
Criticisms are made using problematic terms or arguments for all kinds of reasons. In contexts where debate on the left is either too quiet to be noticed, or where the right simply enjoys hegemony in public discourse, criticisms leveled by all kinds of people — including people whose interests objectively have far less in common with our enemies than the average “activist” does — will borrow the arguments, the idioms, the catchphrases crafted by the right. They may not even associate it with, or realize, where it originated. It drives me bonkers, and i am sure i am not the only one, to hear people leveling criticism using lousy terminology like “social justice warrior”, “political correctness”, etc. or words or turns of phrase that our movements have rejected or identified as oppressive or reactionary. But in cases where the people using this lousy language are oppressed people, or people who we feel objectively should be on our side, it’s worse than useless to focus on the words being used and not the criticism being made, on the form and not the content.1
People will use the terms and words that have currency in their culture, in their milieu; to use the way they speak as an excuse to discount their concerns is a sure way to signal that they have no place as equals in our movements. That they can join, but only on our terms, we gatekeepers of “liberation”. People with self-respect and enough wits to recognize this will either decide that all politics are useless, or else will check out other quarters for a place to intervene in social developments. And the latter possibility can be more than rhetorically dangerous to us.
This is not an argument to not confront and struggle against oppressive and reactionary ideas wherever they may be found, including amongst oppressed people. On the contrary, it is an argument to struggle against these ideas, to put in the work to refute them, but to also try to understand them, to take them seriously, and to not concede terrain to our opponents by pretending that we’re so cool or smart that we don’t have to address the concerns of others. And to keep in mind, that not every idea that challenges us is a bad idea — that other people, even in their badly formulated criticisms, may have a lot to teach us.2
- OK, so obviously this isn’t cut and dried. Reality provides many opportunities for people to be both oppressed and oppressors, and it’s not difficult to think of examples of oppressed people using racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. terms and arguments. Which should of course be rejected. But care should be taken not to assume that something we analyze as implicitly oppressive is intended as such, and in these cases intention is not nothing. We may have to challenge the terminology as well as respond to the argument; what i am saying is that doing the first does not absolve us from our responsibility to do the second, and should not be used to cover up our laziness.
- In this regard, a lazy attitude to refuting people’s arguments or addressing their concerns, instead just focussing on the words or tone or form of speech they use, or what “kind” of person they are, signals a lack of seriousness on our part. After all, if our ideas are not meant to be implemented then it doesn’t really matter if there are weaknesses or flat-out errors contained within. It’s all just for show, a game, in any case. But if we are planning on putting our ideas into practice, imposing them even, then every critic who identifies our problems and our fuckups is doing us a favor, regardless of their motivations, because we can’t afford to overlook anything.
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1O7F4B2
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Un drone aurait livré une arme à la prison Rivière-des-Prairies (repost)
Des mesures d’urgence ont été prises et des recherches sont en cours au Centre de détention Rivière-des-Prairies à Montréal pour tenter de retrouver une arme de poing qui aurait été déposée dans la cour de l’établissement par un drone, a appris La Presse.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Un drone aurait livré une arme à la prison Rivière-des-Prairies
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/22cdaKm
A Racist in the Streets: Trad Youth Ramps Up Public Actions (repost)
If the rhetoric of the racist right is tweaked at the edges, with the sharp language about minority groups shifted towards a broad discourse of “white dispossession,” then it can easily go under the radar as coded racial attacks are common to Tea Party groups and Donald Trump rallies.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at A Racist in the Streets: Trad Youth Ramps Up Public Actions
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/22cdaKf
Un drone aurait livré une arme à la prison Rivière-des-Prairies
Des mesures d'urgence ont été prises et des recherches sont en cours au Centre de détention Rivière-des-Prairies à Montréal pour tenter de retrouver une arme de poing qui aurait été déposée dans la cour de l'établissement par un drone, a appris La Presse.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Un drone aurait livré une arme à la prison Rivière-des-Prairies
A Racist in the Streets: Trad Youth Ramps Up Public Actions
If the rhetoric of the racist right is tweaked at the edges, with the sharp language about minority groups shifted towards a broad discourse of “white dispossession,” then it can easily go under the radar as coded racial attacks are common to Tea Party groups and Donald Trump rallies.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at A Racist in the Streets: Trad Youth Ramps Up Public Actions
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Detroiters struggle to survive without city water (repost)
How do you survive without running water for more than two years? First, get a trash can. Put it under the roof to collect water to flush the toilet. Then, get a bucket and remember what your grandparents taught you in the early 1950s, before indoor plumbing reached all of rural America.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Detroiters struggle to survive without city water
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1T0YRlF
In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared (repost)
For months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their pediatricians’ offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an infant in their arms, they all have the same question: Are their children being poisoned?
Read the rest of this post on the original site at In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1lOwdKc
Detroiters struggle to survive without city water
How do you survive without running water for more than two years? First, get a trash can. Put it under the roof to collect water to flush the toilet. Then, get a bucket and remember what your grandparents taught you in the early 1950s, before indoor plumbing reached all of rural America.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Detroiters struggle to survive without city water
In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared
For months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their pediatricians’ offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an infant in their arms, they all have the same question: Are their children being poisoned?
Read the rest of this post on the original site at In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared
Connecting the disconnected: when South Asians accuse East Africans of cultural appropriation (repost)
On August 9th, Yasmin Yonis, a Somali-American writer, caused a Twitter storm when she started a conversation about accusations of cultural appropriation made by South Asian Twitter against Black Twitter.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Connecting the disconnected: when South Asians accuse East Africans of cultural appropriation
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1QLx8q3
Connecting the disconnected: when South Asians accuse East Africans of cultural appropriation
On August 9th, Yasmin Yonis, a Somali-American writer, caused a Twitter storm when she started a conversation about accusations of cultural appropriation made by South Asian Twitter against Black Twitter.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Connecting the disconnected: when South Asians accuse East Africans of cultural appropriation
Saturday, December 05, 2015
Not Much Time Left for Regular Shipping to Arrive by Dec. 25th!
Canada Deadline: December 10th
Just a heads up for all of you that care and who are in the united states, there are just a few days left to place your orders with leftwingbooks.net in order for us to be able to mail them off to get to you by December 25th. Any orders places after this Tuesday, December 8th may not arrive until after the 25th.
If you are in canada, you have a little bit longer, but not much: orders we receive after this Thursday December 10th cannot be guaranteed to arrive by the 25th.
Of course, if you are up to paying for express post, that will buy you a few more days. But really the safest thing is to order now!
We look forward to hearing from you soon
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1RvOXtQ
Panther Vision: Essential Party Writings and Art of Kevin Rashid Johnson
Here, collected in book form for the first time, are Rashid’s core writings as Minister of Defense of the NABPP-PC. Subjects addressed include the differences between anarchism and Marxism-Leninsm, the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the timeliness of Huey P. Newton’s concept of revolutionary intercommunalism, the science of dialictical and historical materialsm, the practice of democratic centralism, as well as current events ranging from u.s. imperialist designs in Africa to national oppression of New Afrikans within u.s. borders. And much more.
As Professor Jared Ball explains in his preface,
“Rashid represents the fear expressed by COINTELPRO’s fearful question: What happens if this radicalism reaches successive generations and then explicitly calls for the same and more in their time? He both articulates to his contemporaries and those coming behind him the context in which their art exists, the shifts in the landscape that take us from African medallion hip-hop to the bling era. He can also demonstrate with wondrous skill the power artists have in articulating those same ideas, critiques and concepts of revolution. Rashid in this sense becomes the problem he has himself warned is necessary.”
Foreword by Jalil Muntaqim, introduction by Jared Ball; afterwords By George Katsiaficas and Tom Big Warrior.
What People Are Saying
“The original Black Panther Party for Self-Defense challenged the prevailing socio-political and economic relationship between the government and Black people. The New Afrikan Black Panther Party is building on that foundation, and Rashid’s writings embrace the need for a national organization in place of that which had been destroyed by COINTELPRO and racist repression. We can only hope this book reaches many, and serves to herald and light a means for the next generation of revolutionaries to succeed in building a mass and popular movement.”
Jalil Muntaqim, Prisoner of War
“All Praise due to Brother Kevin Rashid Johnson, for his courage, determination and commitment from deep within the belly of the beast. For using his pen as a weapon to put forth his vision and perspectives, to inform and enlighten, to be discussed and evaluated.”
Emory Douglas, Revolutionary Artist & Former Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party 1967–1981
“The U.S. is a society that originally based itself on a form of prison labor called slavery. Then it based itself on a form of slavery called racial segregation. Now it sets at the core of its political culture a form of racial segregation called the prison industry, run by a judicial machine. Each of these phases of U.S. history has used its racialization of class relations to render its class exploitation extreme. As with all exploitation, there is resistance. Today, Rashid’s is one of the most powerful voices of that resistance.”
Steve Martinot, author of The Rule of Racialization
“Kevin “Rashid” Johnson’s Panther Vision is an extraordinary testimony to the human capacity to struggle against oppression. Johnson, a Virginia prisoner, who has been moved to Oregon and Texas, is a radical writer, artist, and organizer and co-founder and current Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party Prison Chapter (NABPP-PC). The theme of struggle against capitalism and white supremacy as central to revolutionary change runs throughout this collection of thirty-eight articles (written between 2005 and 2015) and fifty-five, often extraordinary, drawings – most done with only a pen. Panther Vision breaks out of the walls of physical imprisonment to treat such topics as politics, history, theory, organization, Troy Davis, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown. It discusses well-known figures such as Marx, Lenin, Mao, Angela Davis, George Jackson, Ella Baker, Huey P. Newton, Assata Shakur, Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Howard Zinn, George Jackson, and lesser known, but important writers such as Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen. “Rashid” Johnson’s Panther Vision is a remarkable achievement — the power of his writings, art, and thought cannot be jailed and will continue to reach wider audiences and grow in importance.” — Jeffrey B. Perry, author, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1N32zJV
Seven years after the riots, the suburbs of Paris still simmer with resentment (repost)
In the entrance hall of a run-down block of flats, a group of teenagers stood hanging out, smoking, track-suit hoods up, shoulders hunched, seemingly nonplussed that they were getting drenched. A storm was blowing rain into the building on the Chêne Pointu estate.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Seven years after the riots, the suburbs of Paris still simmer with resentment
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1N2m0lW
Seven years after the riots, the suburbs of Paris still simmer with resentment
In the entrance hall of a run-down block of flats, a group of teenagers stood hanging out, smoking, track-suit hoods up, shoulders hunched, seemingly nonplussed that they were getting drenched. A storm was blowing rain into the building on the Chêne Pointu estate.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Seven years after the riots, the suburbs of Paris still simmer with resentment
Friday, December 04, 2015
Inmates refuse meals to protest Innes Rd. jail conditions (repost)
Inedible food, no time in the outside yard, overcrowded cells and no access to religious or self-help programs. Muhamad Alhasi told the Sun on Wednesday that he and other inmates in the maximum-security wing — he says dozens — began to refuse meals Tuesday.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Inmates refuse meals to protest Innes Rd. jail conditions
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1YMDoR0
Towards a Radical Critique of Eurocentrism: An Interview with Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu (repost)
According to the dominant narrative, the origin of capitalism was a European process at its core: this was a system born in the mills and factories of England, or under the blades of the guillotines during the French Revolution.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Towards a Radical Critique of Eurocentrism: An Interview with Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1XEqpUe
Inmates refuse meals to protest Innes Rd. jail conditions
Inedible food, no time in the outside yard, overcrowded cells and no access to religious or self-help programs. Muhamad Alhasi told the Sun on Wednesday that he and other inmates in the maximum-security wing -- he says dozens -- began to refuse meals Tuesday.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Inmates refuse meals to protest Innes Rd. jail conditions
Towards a Radical Critique of Eurocentrism: An Interview with Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu
According to the dominant narrative, the origin of capitalism was a European process at its core: this was a system born in the mills and factories of England, or under the blades of the guillotines during the French Revolution.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Towards a Radical Critique of Eurocentrism: An Interview with Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu
Friday, November 27, 2015
Things i wish i had published
i am planning on publishing far less for the foreseeable future — this is both because it is not sustainable for me to continue at the previous rate, and also because i have other stuff i want to get back to working on. There will still be new books coming out, just not 10 a year, maybe not quite so thick, and likely refocussed on stuff produced by a particular circle of theorists.
As such, this seems like a good time to take stock of what i have neglected to publish to date, of places where my contributions are weak, of specific books or pamphlets that i wish i had been able to get out. Most of what i publish is not written by me, and in a situation where i am already turning down manuscripts that deserve to get out there, and which i would have been excited to have been able to work on except i just didn’t have the time, i have never felt in a position to solicit work. So a big part of why the following never came out is nobody ever came up to me saying “i’ve written this, want to publish it?” However, these are things people have asked me for (sometimes repeatedly) when i table, and things i myself have found lacking in what’s out there. It’s not a short list, and you know, i may come back to this post in the months to come, adding more ideas as i remember them:
- a rigorous class analysis of contemporary “canadian” society (with an emphasis on its national and regional contradictions and imperialist nature)
- a rigorous class analysis of contemporary “quebec” society, with the same emphasis as above
- a history of quebec, with particular attention (but not limited) to the rise of the ultramontane Church in the 19th century and its decline in the 20th, and also the (related) question of New France’s transformation from being an oppressor nation to being an oppressed nation (Quebec) in the 18th century, and to Quebec’s transformation back to being an oppressor nation in the 20th century, both fleshing out the details and confirming (or questioning) how real these changes were
- a translation of that booklet by that belgian group
- radical fiction (and non-fiction?) aimed at kids who are beyond “baby books” but are not yet at the “young adult” tween/teen stage
- advice on how to cope when you’re the only kid into radical politics at your high school
- a translation of that text by that other belgian group
- experiences of being radical in urban settings outside of the big cities (i.e. not “back to the land” rurality, but big town/small city blues kinda thing)
- an interview with that person about the political situation in South Asia
- an examination of how neocolonialism affects the emotional tenor of politics in the middle-class north american left
- (connected to the above), an examination of the weak and strong points of the cultural appropriation framework, and of identity politics more broadly
- a history of the radical left in Montreal in the 1990s, how and why some of its tendencies blossomed and how some went nowhere in the 2000s
- an examination of “survivor autonomy”, placing it in the context of other past examples on the radical left of there being an imperative to “take leadership” from specific categories of people
- a survey of differences between canada and the united states that often get glossed over by canadian radicals, illustrating their significance
Beyond this, i also came to realize some years ago that beyond the groundbreaking, and in fact life-changing (for me, at least), contributions by Butch Lee, the stuff i have published has been overwhelmingly by men. This is definitely something i regret, and probably reflects a weakness in both my own efforts and the circles i am working in; however, in a situation where i have not had the resources to allow me to solicit texts, i have not been sure how to remedy matters.
i’ll likely never publish most of the above — unless someone comes to me with a text they have worked on, and even then, like i said, i am refocussing. Maybe they’ll be texts “published” online? But then again, it’s difficult to do “rigour” in that format. Maybe someone else will publish them? That would be nice … if you see any such things, please do let me know!
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1RaMwww
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Inmates at Canada’s second-largest jail protest problems with hunger strike Add to … (repost)
One in five inmates at Canada’s second-largest jail are refusing meals to protest a spate of problems with the new facility ranging from mouldy showers to relentless lockdowns.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Inmates at Canada’s second-largest jail protest problems with hunger strike Add to …
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1OhuEzf
Inmates at Canada’s second-largest jail protest problems with hunger strike Add to ...
One in five inmates at Canada’s second-largest jail are refusing meals to protest a spate of problems with the new facility ranging from mouldy showers to relentless lockdowns.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Inmates at Canada’s second-largest jail protest problems with hunger strike Add to ...
Monday, November 23, 2015
Message d’une Prisonnière à Tanguay: Contre l’Austerité
Tou.te.s uni.e.s contre l’austérité !
En mettant la hache dans les services publics comme il le fait, le gouvernement Couillard fait un pas de plus dans la mise sur pied du projet capitaliste néo-libéral. Celui-ci vise à précariser les emplois salariés et à privatiser les services essentiels, tels la santé et l’éducation, en les soumettant au marché et en reléguant leur poids aux familles. Les mesures d’austérité s’inscrivent dans une restructuration de l’économie capitaliste au niveau mondial, visant à augmenter les taux de profits de la classe possédante et des investisseur.e.s. Ce faisant, il s’éloigne du modèle de développement du capitalisme québécois, qui avait utilisé l’État au tournant des années ’60, comme outil pour répondre aux nouveaux besoins de l’économie capitaliste en termes de formation de la main-d’œuvre, d’assurances pour la population (santé, de revenu) et de création d’une demande de consommation de masse. Il faut souligner que ces deux modèles de développement se basent sur l’appropriation des terres autochtones et sur leur exploitation intensive par les capitaux privés, la bourgeoisie subventionnée et les sociétés d’État, telle Hydro-Québec.
Couillard impose l’austérité, mais il n’hésite pas, par contre, à sortir de ses coffres 1 milliard pour voler au secours de Bombardier, une entreprise privée qui serait «en difficulté». On voit bien où sont ses vraies priorités. L’État condamne les travailleur.se.s à des charges de travail plus lourdes pour des salaires moindres et coupe des services de base pour lesquels se sont battues les générations précédentes. Si nous ne faisons rien face à la situation, un appauvrissement général de la population est à prévoir. C’est pourquoi une mobilisation de celle-ci dans les proportions les plus grandes possibles est avisée afin de faire pression sur le gouvernement, et ainsi espérer un recul de sa part. L’entêtement des Libéraux à poursuivre dans la voie de l’austérité et de la privatisation doit se heurter à la colère et à l’organisation des classes précaires et précarisées.
Allons plus avant dans l’organisation de la lutte contre le gouvernement Couillard et ses projets d’austérité !
Mobilisons toutes les couches de la société qui n’en peuvent plus de voir leur vies s’écrouler sous leurs yeux !
Grève sociale !
Coupures budgétaires en milieu carcéral ; les détenu.es n’en peuvent plus !
Faisant partie des couches les plus marginalisées et exploitées dans la société dite libre, nous, les détenu.es provinciaux.ales, n’avons pas à éponger personnellement les coupures budgétaires imposées aux institutions carcérales. Celles-ci qui, évidemment, se font un plaisir à nous les faire subir. En tant que détenu.e.s, notre précarité n’est que plus aiguë due à notre captivité et l’état de dépendance dans lequel nous sommes maintenue.e.s. Cependant, nous savons que nos conditions sont liées directement au capitalisme qui exploite les classes prolétaires, composées majoritairement, au niveau mondial, de personnes de couleur, de personnes migrantes ou déplacées, d’autochtones. Parmi ces groupes, les femmes sont bien souvent les plus précaires. Dans ce contexte, la prison n’est qu’un moyen de gestion des populations que le capitalisme a qualifié d’inutiles.
À Tanguay, la prison pour femmes de Montréal, nos conditions de vie se sont dégradées à un rythme effréné, au cours des cinq dernières années. Nous avons faim : les rations et la qualité de la nourriture causent de la malnutrition chez les personnes incapables de se payer une cantine pour compléter leurs repas. Nous sommes malades. Les établissements tombent en ruine. Les murs sont rongés par les moisissures. Dans certains secteurs, des reflux d’égouts sortent de la tuyauterie d’eau potable. La vermine pullule, dans la cuisine, dans les cellules. Pour couronner le tout, les produits de nettoyage sont dilués à un point où ils perdent leurs propriétés nettoyantes. Ils sont rationnés de façon telle qu’il n’est pas possible de nettoyer le secteur convenablement. L’accès aux services médicaux est réduit au minimum. Les retards dans les transferts de prescriptions mettent quotidiennement en danger la vie de nombreuses détenues sous le regard indifférent des agent-e-s correctionnel-le-s. Celles qui présentent des symptômes de manques physiques, même les plus graves, sont laissées aux soins des autres détenues qui se transforment alors en gardes-malade, et ce sans aucune formation, sans matériel médical ou produit de nettoyage, dans un environnement déjà insalubre. Sans compter que les personnes dans cet état sont fréquemment porteuses de maladies transmissibles comme le VIH ou l’hépatite B. Les femmes enceintes n’ont pratiquement aucun suivi médical, mis à part une seule échographie au cours de leur grossesse, pas plus qu’une alimentation convenable. Les fausses couches ne sont plus considérées comme une urgence. Les femmes qui en font ne reçoivent aucune aide médicale. On nous traite de façon inhumaine.
Le durcissement des peines, par exemple le retrait de la possibilité de sortir au 1/6, et des conditions de libération a entraîné un problème de surpopulation, qui ne fait qu’empirer la situation. Il faut passer environ un mois dans la salle commune, avant de pouvoir partager une cellule juste assez grande pour y entasser deux matelas, dont un sur le minuscule espace sur le plancher. On vit les unes par-dessus les autres ; les tensions sont à leur maximum.
Il va sans dire que lorsqu’on parle de coupures et de dégradation des conditions de vie, nous savons de quoi il est question. Est-ce que d’avoir commis quelques infractions au code criminel justifie un tel traitement ? Surtout sachant que la plupart des personnes incarcérées le sont pour des crimes liés à leurs conditions de vie. Nous ne sommes pas sans avoir remarqué un net changement dans les conditions de travail des agent.e.s correctionnel.le.s. Ce changement a des impacts négatifs directs sur notre traitement. Si la situation continue sur cette pente descendante, seul l’avenir nous révélera jusqu’où ira le ras-le-bol des détenu.e.s.
Ce que nous voulons :
Nous désirons grossir les rangs de la mobilisation déjà en cours dans l’espoir de lui donner un maximum de poids et de forcer un changement de direction quant aux politiques anti-sociales mises en vigueur par le gouvernement. Nous voulons qu’on reconnaisse nos revendications qui relèvent du simple respect de la dignité humaine : de la nourriture qui subvienne à nos besoins nutritionnels de base, des services médicaux adéquats et accessibles, un suivi particulier pour les femmes enceintes, une prise en charge des cas lourds de sevrage et des produits d’hygiène fournis. Plus de programmes sociaux, plus de cours qui débouchent sur des emplois, l’accès à des thérapies, de l’aide pour devenir des personnes fonctionnel.le.s : voilà ce que la majorité des détenu.e.s veulent mais ne peuvent atteindre en partie à cause du manque de ressource offertes.
Le 1er décembre, réunissons-nous pour une Vigile de solidarité avec tout.es les prisonnièr.es !
À midi (12h), devant le Palais de justice (1 rue Notre-Dame est)
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1jh1JOW
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Ottawa Feminist Fair, Sunday Nov. 29
at 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Montgomery Legion
330 Kent St, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2H3
facebook event: http://ift.tt/1HHzIeP
Back by a Popular demand….
FeministTwinsPresents: Ottawa’s 2nd Annual #FeministFair!
We will be organizing on unceded, unsurrendered Algonquin territory.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Please help us support accessibility and inclusion. We ask that participants refrain from wearing scents or from smoking at the front of the enterance.
Entry by donation, all welcomed, no one will be turned away.
There is an elevator & gender netural washrooms.
Limited street parking, please try to carpool. (it’s Sunday though so it’s free!)
Legion bar will be open for full service. The Legion does NOT have an ATM so please make a pit stop to the bank before coming!
Safe space for all, no harassment will be tolerated.
We will be gladly accepting clothing donations! TBC which LGBTQ+ group they will be given to. Please be sure to wash before donating.
We have decided to donate the funds raised to Planned Parenthood Ottawa! Give deep friends! Fine out more what they do here: http://www.ppottawa.ca/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Sponsors:
Planned Parenthood Ottawa
Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW) /#ShineTheLight
Spectrasonic
Ningoshkoz
Montgomery Legion
Venus Envy Ottawa
Rae of Light Havens
Vendors:
*Astropuke pins: http://ift.tt/1PJ12w6
*sadweekend vines: http://ift.tt/1PJ12w6
*Soaps & Such: www.soapsandsuch.ca
*Trashy Kitty Jewelry: www.etsy.com/shop/
*Painting My Roses Red Inc.
*Oh My Jewellery: http://ift.tt/1LuQwka
*Patches by: www.etsy.com/shop/
*KenzieCakes
*Country meet City blog : https://
*Amethyst Women’s Addiction Centre : http://
*Lola Murray Jewelry Line by Veronica
*The Fabricated Artist : http://
*Sew Crazy : http://ift.tt/1PJ15rE
*Left Wing Books : https://
*SlutWalk Ottawa t-shirts
– – – – – – – – – –
If you would like to volunteer for the day please contact Kayla or Jenna at feministtwins@gmail.com
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1LuQwki
Monday, November 16, 2015
Kingston Book Launch: Lumpen, The Autobiography of Ed Mead
Kingston: Book Launch: Lumpen, The Autobiography of Ed Mead
7pm on Tuesday, November 17th
At the AKA Autonomous Social Centre
(Up the ramp at the Red and Black House, Queen and Wellington)
facebook: http://ift.tt/1iZphaI
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear from author Ed Mead via Skype and publisher Karl Kersplebedeb about this exciting new text and pick up a copy! For more info contact EPIC at epic (at) riseup (dot) net. Wheelchair accessible.
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1MxKTn8
Friday, November 13, 2015
Fall Arrivals at Kersplebedeb Leftwingbooks.NET
Writing On The Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Price:$17.95 (USD)
Mumia Abu Jamal’s essential perspectives on black experience, race relations, freedom, justice, social change, and the future of American society.
From the first slave writings to contemporary hip hop, the canon of African American literature offers a powerful counter-narrative to dominant notions of American culture, history and politics. Resonant with voices of prophecy and resistance, the African American literary tradition runs deep with emancipatory currents that have had an indelible impact on the United States and the world. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been one of our most important contributors to this canon for decades, writing from the confines of the U.S. prison system to give voice to those most silenced by chronic racism, impoverishment and injustice.
Writing on the Wall is a selection of more than 100 previously unpublished essays that deliver Mumia Abu-Jamal’s essential perspectives on community, politics, power, and the possibilities of social change in the United States. From Rosa Parks to Edward Snowden, from the Trail of Tears to Ferguson, Missouri, Abu-Jamal addresses a sweeping range of contemporary and historical issues. Written mostly during his years of solitary confinement on Death Row, these essays are a testament to Abu-Jamal’s often prescient insight, and his revolutionary perspective brims with hope, encouragement and profound faith in the possibility of redemption.
Learning To Die In The Anthropocene
Price:$13.95 (USD)
An Iraq War vet’s bracing, visionary response to the challenge posed by global warming and his hope in the humanities.
Coming home from the war in Iraq, US Army private Roy Scranton thought he’d left the world of strife behind. Then he watched as new calamities struck America, heralding a threat far more dangerous than ISIS or Al Qaeda: Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, megadrought–the shock and awe of global warming.
Our world is changing. Rising seas, spiking temperatures, and extreme weather imperil global infrastructure, crops, and water supplies. Conflict, famine, plagues, and riots menace from every quarter. From war-stricken Baghdad to the melting Arctic, human-caused climate change poses a danger not only to political and economic stability, but to civilization itself . . . and to what it means to be human. Our greatest enemy, it turns out, is ourselves. The warmer, wetter, more chaotic world we now live in–the Anthropocene–demands a radical new vision of human life.
In this bracing response to climate change, Roy Scranton combines memoir, reportage, philosophy, and Zen wisdom to explore what it means to be human in a rapidly evolving world, taking readers on a journey through street protests, the latest findings of earth scientists, a historic UN summit, millennia of geological history, and the persistent vitality of ancient literature. Expanding on his influential New York Times essay (the #1 most-emailed article the day it appeared, and selected for Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014), Scranton responds to the existential problem of global warming by arguing that in order to survive, we must come to terms with our mortality.
Plato argued that to philosophize is to learn to die. If that’s true, says Scranton, then we have entered humanity’s most philosophical age–for this is precisely the problem of the Anthropocene. The trouble now is that we must learn to die not as individuals, but as a civilization.
Because We Say So
Price:$15.95 (USD)
Because We Say So presents more than thirty concise, forceful commentaries on US politics and global power. Written between 2011 and 2015, Noam Chomsky’s arguments forge a persuasive counter-narrative to official accounts of US politics and policies during global crisis. Find here classic Chomsky on the increasing urgency of climate change, the ongoing impact of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, nuclear politics, cyberwar, terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, and the Middle East, security and state power, as well as deeper reflections on the Obama doctrine, political philosophy, the Magna Carta, and the importance of a commons to democracy.
Because We Say So is the third in a series of books by Chomsky published by City Lights Publishers that includes Making the Future (2012) and Interventions (2007), a book banned by US military censors. Taken together, the three books present a complete collection of the articles Chomsky writes regularly for the New York Times Syndicate, and are largely ignored by newspapers in the United States. Because We Say So offers fierce, accessible, timely, gloves-off political writing by America’s foremost public intellectual and political dissident.
Disposable Futures
Price:$17.95 (USD)
A dazzling exploration of the seduction of violence and spectacle in politics, culture, entertainment and everyday life. Disposable Futures makes the case that we have not just become desensitized to violence, but rather, that we are being taught to desire it.
From movies and other commercial entertainment to “extreme” weather and acts of terror, authors Brad Evans and Henry Giroux examine how a contemporary politics of spectacle–and disposability–curates what is seen and what is not, what is represented and what is ignored, and ultimately, whose lives matter and whose do not.
Disposable Futures explores the connections between a range of contemporary phenomena: mass surveillance, the militarization of police, the impact of violence in film and video games, increasing disparities in wealth, and representations of ISIS and the ongoing terror wars. Throughout, Evans and Giroux champion the significance of public education, social movements and ideas that rebel against the status quo in order render violence intolerable.
Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities
Price:$19.95 (USD)
Focusing on the complicity of Israeli universities in maintaining the occupation of Palestine, and on the repression of academic and political freedom for Palestinians, Against Apartheid powerfully explains why scholars and students throughout the world should refuse to do business with Israeli institutions. This rich collection of essays is a handbook for scholars and activists.
Clara Zetkin
Price:$18.00 (USD)
BRICS: An Anticaptialist Critique
Editor:
Ana Garcia
Patrick Bond
Price:$19.95 (USD)
The emergence of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa on a global stage has upset the dominance of the United States as the world’s only superpower. But can they chart a path toward a more just global economy? This collection, which brings together leading political economists from around the world, argues that the BRICS are actually amplifying some of the worst features of international capitalism.
This book aims to fill a gap in studies of the BRICS grouping of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It provides a critical analysis of their economies, societies and geopolitical strategies within the framework of a global capitalism that is increasingly predatory, unequal and ecologically self-destructive — no more so than in the BRICS countries themselves.
In unprecedented detail and with great innovation, the contributors consider theoretical traditions in political economy as applied to the BRICS, including “sub-imperialism,” the World System perspective and dynamics of territorial expansion. Only such an approach can interpret the potential for a “brics-from-below” uprising that appears likely to accompany the rise of the BRICS.
Contributors: Elmar Altvater, Baruti Amisi, Patrick Bond, Omar Bonilla, Einar Braathen, Pedro Henrique Campos, Ruslan Dzarasov, Virginia Fontes, Ana Garcia, Ho-fung Hung, Richard Kamidza, Karina Kato, Claudio Katz, Mathias Luce, Farai Maguwu, Judith Marshall, Gilmar Mascarenhas, Sam Moyo, Leo Panitch, Bobby Peek, Gonzalo Pozo, Vijay Prashad, Niall Reddy, William Robinson, Susanne Soederberg, Celina Sørbøe, Achin Vanaik, Immanuel Wallerstein and Paris Yeros.
Boots Riley
Price:$22.95 (USD)
Provocative and prolific, Boots Riley has written lyrics as the frontman of underground favorites The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club, as well as solo artist, for more than two decades. An activist, educator, and emcee, Riley’s singular lyrical stylings combine hip-hop poetics, radical politics, and wry humor with Bay Area swag. Boots Riley: Collected Lyrics and Writings brings together his songs, commentary, and backstories with compelling photos and documents.
Before the Next Bomb Drops
Price:$16.00 (USD)
we are the boat / returning to dock / we are the footprints / on the northern trail / we are the iron / coloring the soil / we cannot / be erased
—from “Refugee”
Remi Kanazi’s poetry presents an unflinching look at the lives of Palestinians under occupation and as refugees scattered across the globe. He captures the Palestinian people’s stubborn refusal to be erased, gives voice to the ongoing struggle for liberation, and explores the meaning of international solidarity.
In this latest collection, Kanazi expands his focus outside the sphere of Palestine and presents pieces examining racism in America, police brutality, US militarism at home and wars abroad, conflict voyeurism, Islamophobia, and a range of other issues.
Doing History From The Bottom Up
Price:$17.00 (USD)
In the 1960s historians on both sides of the Atlantic began to challenge the assumptions of their colleagues and push for an understanding of history “from below.” In this collection, Staughton Lynd, himself one of the pioneers of this approach, laments the passing of fellow luminaries David Montgomery, E.P. Thompson, Alfred Young, and Howard Zinn, and makes the case that contemporary academics and activists alike should take more seriously the stories and perspectives of Native Americans, slaves, rank-and-file workers, and other still-too-frequently marginalized voices.
Rad American Women A-Z
Price:$14.95 (USD)
Like all A-Z books, this one illustrates the alphabet—but instead of “A is for Apple”, A is for Angela—as in Angela Davis, the iconic political activist. B is for Billie Jean King, who shattered the glass ceiling of sports; C is for Carol Burnett, who defied assumptions about women in comedy; D is for Dolores Huerta, who organized farmworkers; and E is for Ella Baker, who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King and helped shape the Civil Rights Movement.
And the list of great women continues, spanning several centuries, multiple professions, and 26 diverse individuals. There are artists and abolitionists, scientists and suffragettes, rock stars and rabble-rousers, and agents of change of all kinds.
The book includes an introduction that discusses what it means to be “rad” and “radical,” an afterword with 26 suggestions for how you can be “rad,” and a Resource Guide with ideas for further learning and reading.
American history was made by countless rad—and often radical—women. By offering a fresh and diverse array of female role models, we can remind readers that there are many places to find inspiration, and that being smart and strong and brave is rad.
Rad American Women will be appreciated by various age groups. It is Common Core aligned for students grades 3 – 8. Pre-school and young children will be captured by the bright visuals and easily modified texts, while the subject matter will stimulate and inspire high-schoolers and beyond.
Men Explain Things To Me
Price:$12.95 (USD)
In her comic, scathing essay, “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters.
This updated edition with two new essays of this national bestseller book features that now-classic essay as well as “#YesAllWomen,” an essay written in response to 2014 Isla Vista killings and the grassroots movement that arose with it to end violence against women and misogyny, and the essay “Cassandra Syndrome.”
Global Justice: Liberation and Socialism
Price:$9.95 (USD)
These classic works by Ernesto Che Guevara present a revolutionary view of a different world in which human solidarity and understanding replace imperialist aggression and exploitation.
Included in this book are:
- Socialism and Man in Cuba
- Message to the Tricontinental: “Create two, three, many Vietnams”
- Speech in Algiers at the Afro-Asian solidarity conference
Ernesto Che Guevara was born in Argentina and traveled through Latin America before joining the Cuban revolutionary movement that toppled the Batista dictatorship in 1959. Although best known as a guerrilla fighter, this book shows Che as a profound thinker with a radical world view that still strikes a chord with young rebels in every country today.
Che Guevara Reader
Price:$24.95 (USD)
Among the features of this expanded edition are several unpublished articles, essays and letters, including a letter from Che to his children shortly before his death in Bolivia in 1967 and an essay, “Strategy and tactics for the Latin American revolution.”
This new edition of a popular Ocean title is published in collaboration with the Che Guevara Archive in Havana. It includes:
- an expanded and revised chronology
- complete bibliography of the works of Che Guevara
- new, extensive annotation and index
Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters
Price:$17.00 (USD)
This revised edition includes a new foreword by Valenti, reflecting upon what’s happened in the five years since Full Frontal Feminism was originally published. With new openers from Valenti in every chapter, the book covers a range of topics, including pop culture, health, reproductive rights, violence, education, relationships, and more.
Chapters include:
You’re a Hardcore Feminist. I Swear.
Feminists Do It Better (and Other Sex Tips)
Pop Culture Gone Wild
The Blame (and Shame) Game
If These Uterine Walls Could Talk
My Big Fat Unnecessary Wedding and Other Dating Diseases
“Real” Women Have Babies
I Promise I Won’t Say “Herstory”
Boys Do Cry
Beauty Cult
Sex and the City Voters, My Ass
Valenti knows better than anyone that young women need a smart-ass book that deals with real-life issues in a style they can relate to. No rehashing the same old issues or belaboring where today’s young women have gone wrong. Feminism should be something young women feel comfortable with. Full Frontal Feminism is sending out the message to readers—yeah, you’re feminists, and that’s actually pretty frigging cool.
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
Price:$16.00 (USD)
This edition is fully revised with updated resources, a new foreword from sexual pioneer Betty Dodson, and a new afterword by the author.
REMEMBER! This Fall, all orders through leftwingbooks.net of $40 or more receive free shipping!
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1iZpieK
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Anarchosyndicalism against Fascism: A Response to Recent lnsinuations (repost)
There may be problems with some people who identify with anarchosyndicalism, but it is not because there is any inherent correlation between it and fascism.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Anarchosyndicalism against Fascism: A Response to Recent lnsinuations
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1ksxqpO
Anarchosyndicalism against Fascism: A Response to Recent lnsinuations
There may be problems with some people who identify with anarchosyndicalism, but it is not because there is any inherent correlation between it and fascism.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Anarchosyndicalism against Fascism: A Response to Recent lnsinuations
Monday, November 09, 2015
Anti-Prison TRIPLE LAUNCH: Certain Days, Lumpen, Escaping the Prism [Montreal]
Friday November 27 @ 6pm
1500 de Maisonneuve O. #204
Facebook: http://ift.tt/1PxKxBs
Join us for an evening of conversation, poetry, and celebration against prisons, as we launch the 2016 Certain Days calendar, and two new books from Kersplebedeb Publishing by BPP/BLA political prisoner Jalil Muntaqim, and anti-prison revolutionary (and former political prisoner) Ed Mead, who will join us by skype.
This event is FREE; the Certain Days calendar and books from Kersplebedeb Publications will be sold.
Food will be served at 6pm
Traduction chuchotée disponible de l’anglais vers le français
Space is wheelchair accessible
Childcare available on site
For more information contact info@kersplebedeb.com or phone 514-848-7585
This event is organized by the Certain Days Calendar Collective, Kersplebedeb Publications, and QPIRG Concordia
AGAINST PRISONS, SUPPORT POLITICAL PRISONERS! AGAINST REPRESSION, SPREAD RESISTANCE!
——-
Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar 2016
Now in its 14th year of existence, the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal and Toronto and three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell.
Escaping the Prism … Fade to Black
Captured in 1971 and railroaded by a COINTELPRO-type FBI operation, Jalil Muntaqim is one of the longest held political prisoners in the world today. This collection of Jalil’s poetry and essays, written from behind the bars of Attica prison, combines the personal and the political, affording readers with a rare opportunity to get to know a man who has spent most of his life — over forty years –- behind bars for his involvement in the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. With an introduction by Walidah Imarisha, and a detailed historical essay by Ward Churchill.
Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead
First imprisoned at the age of thirteen for burning down a school building and stealing cigarettes, Mead would become a revolutionary and co-founder of the George Jackson Brigade, a Seattle-based urban guerrilla group. Reincarcerated following a bank robbery gone wrong, he subsequently organized on the inside in numerous prisons, including with queer prisoners in the legendary Men Against Sexism. Released in 1991, he continues to work against the prison system to this day.
——-
This event is organized by the Certain Days Calendar Collective, Kersplebedeb Publications, and QPIRG Concordia.
For more information contact info@kersplebedeb.com or phone 514-848-7585.
——-
A NOTE ON THE IMAGE ABOVE: was taken in the segregation unit (“Big Red”) at Washington State Prison at Walla Walla in the mid-70s, when Ed was there in the first phase of organizing in that prison. As he writes in Lumpen, “The small group who called ourselves the Walla Walla Brothers [which later became the core of Men Against Sexism] did everything we could to communicate a sense of struggle to other people on the tier. One day Danny took ketchup, and using it as paint wrote “We Will Win!” in big two-plus-foot letters on the burn-scarred back wall of the tier.” This was in the context of a victorious prisoner work strike — that lasted 47 days, the longest in Washington state history to this day — backed up by the George Jackson’s bombs on the outside. The photo originally appeared in the book Concrete Mama.
on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1PxKxRG