Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy (AK Press)

Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief (AK Press)

If you’d like to snag one or more of these books, email at cbmilstein [at] yahoo to work out the simple details.

#TrashFascismNotBooks
#ReadWriteRebel
#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom
#AnarchistHoliday
#HonoringOurDead
#FightingForOurAncestors
#FightingForTheLiving

It’s been such a special experience to collaborate with @firestormcoop on dreaming up #BannedBooksBack and then engaging in months of work to make sure that many thousands of books removed from Florida classrooms are put directly back into many thousands of kiddos’ hands into that not-so-sunshiny state. So few antifascist actions these days feel successful, much less heartwarming, but our #TrashFascismNotBooks has been both!

Indeed, I could (and someday, maybe should) share countless stories of all the sweetness that Banned Books Back has generated, from the cutest and queerest Girl Scout troop eagerly helping to package up books, to community members drawing adorable pictures on the book bundle packages that we then shipped as #SolidarityBeyondBorders across state lines, to being reminded by so many folks in Florida that they are (and were) resisting book bans and all the ways such “book burning” ends up burning ideas, spaces, and people. (This is just a tiny sampler!)

And while it’s not a “contest” over which moment in the Banned Books Back saga has been the tenderest, I’m feeling especially proud, in a #BeGayDoCrime sort of way, of our latest creative scheme for our second-to-last volunteer book packaging party: #PledgeAgainstPrisons. In partnership with @BlueRidgeABC and @tranzmissionprisonproject, we’re connecting the dots between book bans in prisons and schools, and how fascism harms people in both, by encouraging folks—near and far—to make a pledge per book bundle packaged (up to 250 bundles) on June 11, the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. (See @june11 and @supportmariusmason.)

Come in person to Firestorm to learn about June 11 and the anarchist freedom fighters who are incarcerated, eat some yummy free food, and package a bunch of books! And/or no matter where you live, pledge 5 cents, 25 cents, a dollar, etc. per book bundle sent, and we’ll donate all funds raised to anarchist prisoners.

See pledge form at http://bit.ly/j11-pledge

Free minds, free them all, until all are free!

#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom
#BooksNotBombs
#BooksNotBars
#AlwaysCarryABooks

After spending some 4 days in a big “liberated zone” that was managed by self-appointed leaders who announced “direct democracy” loudly on a microphone but didn’t actually let people autonomously self-govern, much less truly self-organize, it was tender indeed to be at the smallish, intentional, and highly participatory start of an outdoor solidarity space on the grassy quad at UNC-Asheville today.

What struck me was the way it lead with care—not pushing people past where they were ready to go, but engaging in lots of conversation, sharing, listening, and hearing. Knowing when to ask for support from others. Collectively wrestling with questions and co-education.

That care was especially evident, though, in the first two actions: setting up a free food and first-aid area; and spending hours reverently and beautifully chalking out the names of too many Palestinians murdered in Gaza, honoring the dead.

Who knows what will come of this relatively tiny solidarity space being opened up in a relatively tiny town. Yet as one student noted, they’re skilling up for the long haul.

#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom
#FoodNotFascism
#CareNotCops
#MourningOurDead
#MendingTheWorld

This little bookish anarcho-kitty wants to remind you that tabling applications and event proposals are due this Wednesday, March 15, 2023, for the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair / salon du livre anarchiste Montréal!

By events, it can be anything from a talk, panel, structured debate, or facilitated conversation to a performance, skills share, hands-on activity, or kids-oriented workshop—in French, English, Spanish, and/or a combination. Events by engaged authors and organizers are highly encouraged, including intro to anarchism workshops as well as ones on relevant, provocative, or playful topics relevant to the hellscape we inhabit and the world we dream of (and already prefigure).

The bookfair itself, one of (if not the) largest in North America, happens during the “Month of Anarchy” on the weekend of May 27-28, 2023.

To apply, see:

http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca (English)
http://www.salonanarchiste.ca (French)

#AlwaysCarryABook
#ReadWriteRebel
#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom

(photo: sticker for Bibliothèque DIRA as spotted on the streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal on a wintery day—keeping most cats indoors to catch up on their reading)

Since I seem to be in a space of not feeling inspired to write my usual picture-prose pieces for social media—call it winter or perhaps pandemic numbness—and as a way to encourage myself to do so again, I’m catching up on sharing some old writing. Or rather, some old talking that Sarah Lawrance kindly curated into a zine years ago, and then Kai Schmidt stumbled across it years later and surprised me by creating a new edition of the zine.

Truth be told, I haven’t had the heart to read my old words here, in the new and improved “Educating for Freedom” zine. Since I gave the talk that became the original zine at the unSchooling Oppression conference in Ottawa in 2007, there’s been much beauty, and yet also so much loss, and so much has shifted in the world, making it wrenching to revisit the “old” one via my musings here. But Kai asserts in the intro that one shouldn’t “be fooled by [the writing’s] age”; that the zine is “sharp, relevant, and generally incredible.” You can be the judge, of course!

And of course, I’m grateful to Kai for putting so much “labor of love” into this new version, from editing and design, to getting full consent from both Sarah and me, to hosting it on Kai’s website (www.ratpokes.com) and uploading it to internet archive. I’m grateful, too, to the good folks at Sprout Distro for making readable and downloadable/imposed versions available on their website, including for freely and widely distro’ing.

As enticement to check out this zine, here’s what Sprout says,

“The zine begins with a brief segment titled ‘why anarchism?’ that situates the rest of the talk, with an emphasis on the notion that a key aspect of anarchism is educating ourselves and inspiring others to question the way things are. For anarchists, education reminds us things haven’t always been like this and gives past, present, and future examples of alternatives. It also helps us to understand complexity and to remain vigilant about the work we are doing. The majority of the text focuses on anarchist projects and how they contribute to an ‘educating’ process within and alongside the anarchist space. The projects explored are local collectives, nonhierarchical institutions, and social movements. In these areas, anarchists educate themselves through practice and interplay with others.“

Excerpt from the zine:

“Because anarchists are interested in this idea of education for freedom, anarchism as an idea, and a huge percentage of the work that anarchists do – despite the stereotypes of anarchism – is actually about education. And some of it we don't even see as education because it's not how we've understood education to be.”

For the zine itself: https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/organizing/educating-for-freedom/

#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom
#ReadWriteRebel
#TryAnarchismForLife