Left Bank Books Again Publishes Books and Pamphlets

The following announcement by Left Bank Books was posted recently on a listserv associated with the North American Anarchist Studies Network. It is presented here without further comment.

After several years of publishing silence, Left Bank Books Collective is pleased to announce the restart of its publishing project. We will be publishing books, as well as pamphlets, both repressings, and original works.

To kickoff the project, we are releasing to the world two pamphlets. The first is a repress of the first pamphlet Left Bank ever published, The Kronstadt Uprising of 1921, written in 1975 by one of Left Bank’s founders, Lynne Thorndycraft, with a cover printed on a letterpress (feels nice in your hands!) right here in Pike Place Market. The second is a new essay by John Zerzan titled The Origins of the 1% The Bronze Age, with covers silkscreened on shiny “bronze” paper. Both of these pamphlets will be available at the 2012 Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair, and of course, in our shop.

Upcoming is a new edition of Peter Gelderloos’ How Nonviolence Protects the State, which we swear will be finished before the 2012 Seattle Anarchist Bookfair.

Before long we should have our published wares available for mailorder on our website as well.

Left Bank Books
92 Pike
Seattle, WA 98108
2066220195

New Star Books Firebombing Benefit

In the early hours of March 7th, the Commercial Drive office of New Star Books was struck by a firebomb attack. New Star has long been one of Vancouver's most prolific publishing houses, having put out countless pieces of radical literature over the decades, including local Wobbly Mark Leier's Where the Fraser River Flows: The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia. To help the company get back on track, a benefit is being held from 3-5 PM this Saturday, March 31st, at the Western Front (303 East 8th Ave., Vancouver). Admission will be by donation.

Are Rich People Unethical?

Presented without further comment, an infographic which reminds us once again that the effects of inequality extend well beyond the realm of economics:

Created by: AccountingDegreeOnline.net

Autonomous and Anonymous

At our local IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) meetings, we talk in depth about the realities of what we as a branch can offer workers here in BC, and specifically how we can offer protection. We realize that without having the financial and institutional backing that a larger union in BC might have, we don’t have much to offer workers in terms of protection. It became obvious after much discussion that it would be more beneficial to find a group that cannot be represented by a bigger union in the first place. An industry where coping mechanisms are used day-to-day already to facilitate Direct Unionism, and where workers already have a sense of the industry's issues and setbacks. We unanimously decided that we put all of our energy into building awareness amongst the workers in the service industry in order to provide them with viable strategies accessible within our community, to fight bosses and self-organize.

This means spreading awareness across the board, creating relationships outside of work between coworkers, sharing stories, identifying industry issues and limits, and how workers can use their combined experience to make their Direct Unionism the most effective.

Especially now, at a time in Canada when the service industry is the largest-growing but yet remains the least protected, it might be time to focus on the dynamics of the service industry and what is allowable in terms of getting through to employees and being able to illustrate to them, through small possible actions, that there is power in numbers. In order for this to work entirely, the IWW may need to prioritize and adapt to these immediate needs.

Full Article Here: Direct Unionism in Practice: Undermining Service Industry Barriers to Worker Solidarity (via Libcom)

Hate the Rich, Love the People: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Speech to Occupy Oakland

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, an Oklahoma-born historian, feminist, and revolutionary, spoke at an Occupy Oakland rally on January 28th, 2012. Part Indian on her mother's side and true to her roots as a daughter of landless farmers, she linked the revival of class consciousness within the Occupy movement to the bold anti-capitalist stance embedded in the Preamble to the IWW constitution. She called the Preamble - from which she quoted extensively - a "roadmap" to abolishing capitalism, an exploitative system fueled by colonialism and imperialism.

In her speech, Roxanne spoke of the motivational force within directed "hate" which is often more acceptably acknowledged as "rage". She pointed out the inconsistent, selectively sanctioned manifestations of hate by the mainstream North American society towards "slavery and slaveowners, fascism, and Hitler," but shame for the same sentiment being directed towards the ruling class and the individual rich. In a short piece presciently composed a few years ahead of Occupy's birth, titled "Hating the Rich," Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz wrote: "My Oklahoma sharecropper father, son of a Wobbly, always taught me that [Roosevelt's New Deal] had rescued the rich and saved capitalism, and he was right. Passionate, organized hatred is the element missing in all that we do to try to change the world. Now is the time to spread hate, hatred for the rich."



Full Speech Transcript: "You Are Free People, Spreading Freedom" (via MRZine)