We live in an era of a new radicalism, a worldwide challenge to global
empire that has inspired millions to flood the streets in resistance,
and to take action in their own communities. This movement of movements
is gaining momentum, even in the face of post-9/11 repression and war.
All over the world people are rebelling against a world ruled by a few
who are intent on concentrating power and wealth.
Globalize Liberation weaves together the experiences and insights of
community organizers, direct action movements, and global justice
struggles from North America, Europe, and Latin America. Thirty-three
essays provide food for thought, examples of effective action, and
practical tools for everyone to use. This book, the productof
hard-fought victories, uprisings and hopeful visions for the future, was
created to articulate, popularize, and deepen the rebellious spirit and
common sense of the new radicalism.
"New radicalism" is a term used to describe the diverse movement of
movements that
is challenging empire and corporate capitalism worldwide, inspiring
millions to
flood the streets in resistance and to take action in their own
communities. The
new radicalism is new both in how popular and widespread it has become,
and in its
original methods of organizing for change.
Globalize Liberation weaves together the experiences and insights of
community
organizers, direct-action movements, and global justice struggles from
North
America, Europe, and Latin America. It offers clear analysis of our root
problems,
new strategies and tools for radical change, and examples of effective
organizing
campaigns and popular rebellions from the popular rebellion in Argentina
to the
agricultural fields of Florida, and from the anti-prison organizing in
California's
Central Valley to the radical popular movement in Italy. Visually rich,
with over
one hundred and eighty powerful photos and illustrations, Globalize
Liberation uses
an innovative travel-guide style tab navigation and cutting-edge design.
David Solnitan organizer of the successful shutdowns of the WTO in
Seattle in 1999
and of San Francisco's financial district in 2003, and a cofounder of
Art and
Revolution, which popularized street theater in mass actions across
North
America edits the collection of thirty-three essays. His introduction
explains how
the shared principles of this new radicalism connect
grassroots
struggles across the
planet into an unprecedented and hopeful global movement.
Highlights include:
Twelve short essays answer the question, "What is at the root of our
problems?" from
a variety of frameworks: race, class, feminism,
globalization, capital,
corporations, ruling class, democracy, war, indigenous, and September
11, including
new writings by Walden Bello, Starhawk and Van Jones.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the most effective and imaginative
farmworker
movement since the United Farm Workers, explain for the first time how
they organize
and why they are winning.
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Direct-action organizing pioneer George Lakey offers an important new
essay,
"Strategy for a Living Revolution," where he outlines a coherent
framework for
understanding the stages of radical movements and the key role of mass
nonviolent
direct action, using the recent uprisings in Serbia and Argentina as
examples.
Patrick Reinsborough's "Decolonizing the Revolutionary Imagination,"
explains some
of the key tools and concepts behind the Smartmeme Training and Strategy
Project,
which has been utilized by diverse struggles from San Francisco's Direct
Action to
Stop the War's shutdown of San Francisco to native land struggles in
Northern
California to small farmers fighting GMO's in Vermont to the upcoming
resistance at
the Republican National Convention.
Several essays offer the best published English language description the
popular
rebellion in Argentina and explain the new politics, sometimes called
"horizontalism," of the most far reaching rebellion in a modern
industrialized
country in recent history.
Elizabeth Betita Martinez, Arnoldo Garcia, Naomi Klein and John Jordan
all explore
Zapatismo, applying it locally, offering lessons from the Zapatistas for
those of us
living outside of Chiapas.
Longtime community organizer Tom Knoche offers a clear nuts and bolts
model of
radical neighborhood organizing for change.
Cindy Milstein describes the possibilities of moving from reclaiming
streets to
reclaiming cities; and San Francisco Community Land Trust organizer Tom
Wetzel
shares his experience of organizing for self-managed housing and
envisions how a
self-managed city would work.
Successful organizing case studies are explained; from Rachel Neumann's
reflection
on the International Solidarity Movement's campaign in Palestine to
Argentine
puppeteer Graciela Monteagudo's use of street theater in popular
movements to Ramsay
Kanaan's story of how a small group of
community organizers in Scotland
catalyzed a
mass movement that toppled Margaret Thatcher.
Anti-prison and environmental justice organizers Ruthie Gilmore and
Craig Gilmore
describe the grassroots organizing against California's massive
prison-industrial
complex and explain the role of prisons in a corporate globalized
system.
This unique book is one of the first books on current social movements
to prioritize
the voices of grassroots intellectuals and street level practitioners.
The book
amplifies the voices of organizers from many different movements and
weaves together
a compelling, hands-on vision of how to create a better world.
Get the book at your local independent bookstore (ask them to order it,
if they
don't have it) or order the book at a 30% discount/find out more at:
http://www.globalizeliberation.org