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“Today is the day least-liked president in four decades is sworn into office, the entire country — excuse me, the entire world — is preparing to protest the incoming administration’s hate-filled rhetoric and dangerous policies. Concerned citizens everywhere are starting to stand up for the human right’s the soon-to-be president and his party’s platform threatens, but as the rest of the world is hard at work organizing grassroots campaigns and establishing protests, you might find yourself wondering, what the hell can I do to make a difference?
In short, the answer is a lot, as long as you know where to start. Never been involved in social activism before, and not sure how to get involved in a meaningful way?
Forget moving to Canada or becoming a recluse in the woods, and read these 7 books about political activism and social change that can help prepare you for a Donald Trump presidency. All it takes is one voice to start a movement, so what will you use yours to say?”
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For your sister who scorned all the people who came down to Occupy Wall Street hoping to see Thom Yorke, a pocket-sized guide for revolution: Beautiful Trouble…
For your girlfriend who has a subscription to Psychology Today, and takes pride in slacking off every now and then, a cutting-edge collection on the science of being idle: Autopilot…
Read the full list at The Airship.
From the Arab Spring and Occupy to the climate justice movement and beyond, a new ethos of creative activism is emerging. All around the world ordinary people are trying out new tools and tactics to win victories where they live. In the shadow of austerity and ecological crisis, the urgency of this political moment demands creative approaches that will transform outrage into effective action. Four veteran creative activists — all of them contributors to the book Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (OR Books, 2012) — will explore the intersection of art and activism in our movements today. How do we bring about economic and ecological transformation — and what’s art got to do with it? Panelists: Andrew Boyd (facilitator/chair), Janice Fine, Andy Bichlbaum, Stephen Duncombe and Nadine Bloch
Read more about the panel at Left Forum.
Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution is an anthology of creative activism that has animated movements like Occupy Wall Street and Reclaim the Streets. It includes dozens of examples of tactics (for example hoaxing), theories, principles, case studies, and practitioners. Basically: everything you wanted to know about protesting non-violently, but were afraid to ask your militant next-door neighbor.
The book was crowdfunded on Kickstarter and now, the creators have teamed up with a German visualization artist called Marian Dörk to further bring the content to life.
Read the full article at Fast Company.
At the close of 2011 Time magazine chose the ‘protester’ as their composite person of the year cover star. 2012 saw a number of books which sought to capture the meaning and significance of the Occupy! movement that was so central to those twelve months of protest. Amongst the best was Andrew Boyd’s compendium-like Beautiful Trouble which brought together some of the most imaginative elements of a movement influenced by a mix of non-violent direct action and the public drama of situationism. Unashamedly a handbook of do-it-yourself protest. Autonomist ideas have been a key part of many such actions originating outside of the mainstream of leftist, trade union and NGO politics. Occupy Everything edited by Alessio Lunghi and Seth Wheeler very much comes from this autonomist tradition, it is a very effective challenge to left attempts to incorporate the Occupy movement into their own ways of working politically, one for those who embrace creeative tension as a plus, not a minus.
Read the full list on Philosophy Football
Kettling. A modern representation of Enclosure; a combination of innovation and tradition which has become a defining experience of social control in the 21st century. My first experience of kettling was in October 1992. A newly-elected Conservative government had announced a series of pit closures in preparation for the privatization of whatever scraps remained of King Coal. Communities already buckled by the weight of Thatcher’s war against her ‘enemies within’ faced yet more punishment. The demonstrations called by the National Union of Mineworkers in October were packed with hundreds of thousands of angry people, outraged at both the treatment of the miners and the Conservative Party’s substantial, foul-tasting victory at the May election. On the day, the police were mindful of the many strike veterans being bussed into London (perhaps also vaguely recalling the recent fate of the regime in Bucharest at the hands of miners) as well as the unleashed fury of the poll tax demonstrations, which had resulted in chaos in Central London only a couple of years previously. The authorities’ strategy at the conclusion of the rally was to pile up row upon row of riot policemen, combined with cordons, to prevent people leaving Hyde Park and heading towards Westminster. Surges from the back of the crowd squashed demonstrators in the middle and the front—thereby placing the onus upon the demonstrators to be the first to lash out. Whilst people were penned-in on three sides, the police launched a couple of cavalry charges. The aim, to large extent successful, was to isolate those willing to take on the police, from those who would be relieved to escape. The police figured that only a fraction would choose to remain in a restricted space for an unknown period, in the proximity of the police horses and their baton-wielding riders.
Read the full review in the New Left Project
It’s nearly become old hat by now to note that 2011 was a year of apparently spontaneous global uprising. Often forgotten in the awe and feeling of unity, though, is that many of the most visible successes of the past year – from Cairo to Wall Street and everywhere in between – were the result of decades of trial and error on the part of activists and communities experimenting in creative direct action. It’s fitting that the terrifically encyclopedic new book (and interactive ‘web toolbox’) Beautiful Trouble began gestating well before the occupation of Tahrir Square. And yet what better moment for this fantastic collection of ideas?
Read the full article in Red Pepper
Is it possible to learn leadership secrets from Occupy Wall Street and other activist movements worldwide? Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, a new book edited by Andrew Boyd (of political pranksters Billionaires for Bush) and Dave Oswald Mitchell (Briarpatch magazine), is a dense and highly readable guide to activist tactics and principles … that came to market via a highly unusual publishing model.
OR Books, the publishers of Beautiful Trouble, have embraced a post-print business model that centers on non-returnable books printed on demand or distributed via e-book. Boyd and Mitchell raised $12,000 for the book via Kickstarter, with the money covering research, editing, production, design, and administration costs. The book’s content–written by a host of activists and left-wing organizations–was published under a Creative Commons license which gives authors the right to republish their contributions elsewhere for nonprofit purposes.
Read the full article in Fast Company