BOOKS REFFERENCES

The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet

Publisher: AK Press
Release Date: 27 - 04- 2009

Overview:

Since the atomic bomb made its first appearance on the world stage in 1945, it has been clear that we possess the power to destroy our own planet. What nuclear weapons made possible, global environmental crisis, marked especially by global warming, has now made inevitable—if business as usual continues.

The roots of the present ecological crisis, John Bellamy Foster argues, lie in capital's rapacious expansion, which has now achieved unprecedented heights of irrationality across the globe. Foster compellingly demonstrates that the only possible answer for humanity is an ecological revolution: a struggle to make peace with the planet. Foster details the beginnings of such a revolution in human relations with the environment which can now be found throughout the globe, especially in the periphery of the world system, where the most ambitious experiments are taking place.

DIY: The Rise Of Lo-Fi Culture

Publisher: Marion Boyars
Release Date: 10 - 01- 2009

Overview:

A well informed study that champions the unsung heroes and heroines of DIY distribution in art, music, literary zines and culture.

This exploration of lo-fi culture traces the origin of the DIY ethic to the skiffle movement of the 1950s, mail art,Black Mountain poetry and Avant-Garde art in the 1950s, the punk scene of the 1970s and 80s, right the way through to the current music scene. Through interviews with key writers, promoters and musicians (including Bikini Kill and Bratmobile) Amy charts the development of music outside of the publicity machine of the large companies, and examines the politics behind the production of the many 'home-made' recordings and publications available today.

Amy Spencer is a former zine writer and record label founder who is part of the promotions collective The Bakery. She is currently studying for a PhD in Contemporary London Literature.

Breaking the Iron Cage: Resistance to the Schooling of Global Capitalism

Publisher: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Release Date: 23 - 03- 2009

Overview:

This special issue of the journal Our Schools/Our Selves deals specifically with the ways that neoliberalism has ravaged our schools (including privatization, cutbacks, and government influence on curriculum), and how parents, students, teachers, administrators, and communities have struggled around the deeper issues of governance, curriculum, and pedagogy. Includes essays by 16 different contributors involved in education and research all over the world.


We The Anarchists!: A Study Of The Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927–1937

Publisher: AK Press
Release Date: 10 - 09 - 2008

Overview:

Since the official birth of organized anarchism at the Saint-Imier Congress of 1872, no anarchist organization has been held up to greater opprobrium or subjected to such gross misinterpretation than the Federacíon Anarquista Ibérica. Better known by its initials, the FAI was a group of twentieth-century militants dedicated to keeping Spain's largest labor union, the CNT, on a revolutionary, anarcho-syndicalist path.
There are two dimensions to Stuart Christie's indispensable We, the Anarchists! The first is descriptive and historical: it outlines the evolution of the organized anarchist movement in Spain and its relationship with the wider labor movement and, at the same time, providing some insight into the main ideas that made the Spanish labor movement one of the most revolutionary of modern times. The second is analytical, as the book addresses—from an anarchist perspective—the problem of understanding and coping with change in the contemporary world; how can ideals survive the process of institutionalization?
Stuart Christie's analysis covers the history of Spanish anarchism and the Spanish Civil War, the affinity group organization of the FAI, and the misreadings and outright lies told about the FAI in numerous popular accounts of the period. We, the Anarchists! also provides lessons for today's largely neutered labor movement.
A gripping tale and informative historical corrective, Christie's book jumps out of history with lessons for contemporary organizations and individuals struggling for social and economic change.

Author Stuart Christie is co-founder of the Anarchist Black Cross, Black Flag magazine, and Cienfuegos Press; author of numerous books, including Granny Made Me an Anarchist; and currently publishes books and films through Christie Books. He was imprisoned in 1964 for attempting to assassinate Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco.

Earth First!: The Radical Environmental Action

The very future of life on Earth is in danger. Human activities—from hunting to habitat destruction—have already driven countless species to extinction, and the process is only accelerating. The destruction of the Earth and its sustainable indigenous cultures has led to tragedy in every corner of the globe.

Meanwhile, scientists have confirmed what indigenous cultures have taught for thousands of years: all forms of life are vitally connected. Removing even a single strand from the web of life produces a widening ripple of catastrophe. On a more spiritual level, Earth First!ers under stand that we can never be the healthy humans that we were meant to be in a world without wilderness, clean air and the howling of wolves under the moon.

It is not enough to ask politicians and corporations to destroy less wilderness. Earth First need to preserve it all, to recreate lost habitats and reintroduce extirpated predators. Earth First need to stop and reverse the poisoning of our air, water and soil, as well as the modification of life's genetic code. It is not enough to oppose the construction of new dams and developments. It is time to free our shackled rivers and restore the land.

Earth First! formed in 1979, in response to an increasingly corporate, compromising and ineffective environmental community. It is not an organization, but a movement. There are no "members" of EF!, only Earth First!ers. Earth First believe in using all of the tools in the toolbox, from grassroots and legal organizing to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching. When the law won't fix the problem, Earth First put their bodies on the line to stop the destruction. Earth First!'s direct-action approach draws attention to the crises facing the natural world, and it saves lives.

Guided by a philosophy of deep ecology, Earth First! does not accept a human-centered worldview of "nature for people's sake." Instead, they believe that life exists for its own sake, that industrial civilization and its philosophy are anti-Earth, anti-woman and anti-liberty. Their structure is non-hierarchical, and they reject highly paid "professional staff" and formal leadership.

Earth First define oppressive behavior as any conduct (typically along lines of institutionalized power and privilege) that demeans, marginalizes, rejects, threatens or harms any living being on the basis of ability, activist experience, age, class/income level, cultural background, education, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, language, nationality, physical appearance, race, religion, self-expression, sexual orientation, species, status as a parent or other such factors. Oppressive behavior comes in a wide variety of forms, from seemingly harmless jokes to threats of violence, from interrupting to verbal abuse, from unwanted touching to rape, from hitting to murder. Some forms are more extreme and irreparable than others, but all are unacceptable under the Journal’s anti-oppression policy.

CHOMSKY'S CONTRIBUTIONS

Avram Noam Chomsky yang lahir 7 Desember 1928 adalah seorang profesor di bidang linguistik dari Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). kepakaran dalam bidang linguistik ini mengantarkannya merambah ke studi politik. Chomsky telah menulis lebih dari 30 buku politik, dengan beragam tema. Dan sejak 1965 hingga kini, dia menjelma menjadi salah satu tokoh intelektual yang paling kritis terhadap kebijakan luar negeri Amerika Serikat. Buku-buku bertema politiknya kerap dianggap terlalu radikal untuk diresensi atau ditampilkan media AS.

Noam Chomsky telah terlibat dalam aktivisme politik sejak Ia menginjak usia dewasa dan mengeluarkan berbagai opininya mengenai politik dan berbagai peristiwa dunia yang dikutip secara luas, dipublikasikan dan didiskusikan. Menanggapi hal tersebut Chomsky berargumen bahwa pandangan-pandangannya merupakan hal yang tidak ingin didengar oleh mereka yang berkuasa, dan untuk alasan inilah Chomsky dianggap sebagai seorang disiden politik Amerika. Beberapa garis besar pandangan politiknya adalah:

• Kekuasaan, kecuali dapat dijustifikasi, tidak dapat dilegitimasi. Mereka yang berada dalam posisi otoritas berkewajiban membuktikan mengapa mereka bisa diangkat ke posisi tersebut dan mengapa hal tersebut bisa dijustifikasi. Jika kewajiban ini tidak bisa dipenuhi, si pemegang otoritas tersebut harus digulingkan. Otoritas pada hakikatnya tidak dapat dijustifikasi. Sebuah contoh bentuk otoritas yang dapat dilegitimasi adalah yang dilakukan orang tua ketika mencegah anak kecil berjalan ke tengah jalan raya.

• Bahwa tidak banyak perbedaan antara perbudakan dan "penyerahan" diri seseorang kepada seorang majikan untuk "disewa", atau "perbudakan dengan upah". Dia menganggapnya sebagi penyerangan terhadap integritas pribadi yang menghancurkan dan melecehkan kebebasan diri kita. Dia berpendapat bahwa mereka yang bekerja di pabrik harus menjalankan pabrik tersebut.

• Kritik yang sangat kuat pada kebijakan luar negeri Amerika Serikat. Secara khusus, dia melihat adanya standar ganda (yang dia sebut sebagai "standar tunggal") pada kebijakan luar negeri yang menceramahi tentang demokrasi dan kebebasan orang, ketika pada saat yang sama mempromosikan, mendukung, dan menyekutukan dirinya dengan negara dan organisasi non- demokrasi dan represif. Chomsky berargumen bahwa hal tersebut berakibat pada pelanggaran berat . Dia juga sering berargumen bahwa campur tangan Amerika pada negara-negara asing, termasuk bantuan rahasia terhadap Contras di Nikaragua, salah satu peristiwa yang Chomsky telah sangat kritis terhadapnya, masuk ke dalam deskripsi standar.

• Dia berargumen bahwa media massa di Amerika Serikat banyak yang berpraktik sebagai pasukan propaganda dan “keulamaan bayaran” oleh pemerintahan dan perusahaan-perusahaan Amerika Serikat, dengan tiga pihak tersebut yang secara luas saling berkait-kelindan melalui kepentingan yang sama. Dalam referensi terkenal yang merujuk pada Walter Lippman, Chomsky bersama Edward S. Herman menulis media Amerika memproduksi consent (imaji lewat media untuk memberikan sekutunya semacam hak untuk melakukan sesuatu yang salah secara hukum tapi berhak untuk tidak dituntut) ke dalam benak masyarakat.

• Chomsky pernah menyatakan bahwa Amerika Serikat merupakan “negara paling hebat di dunia”, sebuah komentar yang kemudian dia klarifikasi dengan mengatakan, “Mengevaluasi negara-negara adalah tidak masuk akal dan saya tidak akan pernah memberikan hal-hal semacam itu untuk dipakai pada istilah tersebut, namun beberapa kemajuan Amerika, khususnya pada wilayah kebebasan berbicara, yang telah dicapai oleh berabad-abad perjuangan populer, harus dihargai.” Dia juga mengatakan “Dalam banyak hal, Amerika Serikat adalah negara terbebas di dunia. Yang saya maksudkan tidak hanya dalam hal tatanan kenegaraan, meskipun itu juga benar, tapi juga dalam hal hubungan individu. Amerika Serikat lebih mendekati kondisi tanpa kelas (classlessness) untuk hal hubungan interpersonal dibandingkan hampir masyarakat manapun.