Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times

"Absolutely what we need in these days of spreading gloom. A very well argued case for joyful militancy, and against the dead hand of puritanical revolution. Read it, live it!”—John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism

Why do radical movements and spaces sometimes feel laden with fear, anxiety, suspicion, self-righteousness, and competition? Montgomery and bergman call this phenomenon rigid radicalism: congealed and toxic ways of relating that have seeped into social movements, posing as the “correct” way of being radical. In conversation with organizers and intellectuals from a wide variety of political currents, the authors explore how rigid radicalism smuggles itself into radical spaces, and how it is being undone

Interviewees include Silvia Federici, adrienne maree brown, Marina Sitrin, Gustavo Esteva, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Walidah Imarisha, Margaret Killjoy, Glen Coulthard, Richard Day, and more.

ISBN-13: 9781849352888

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: AK Press

Publication Date: 12-05-2017

Pages: 220

Product Dimensions: 4.40(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.00(d)

Carla Bergman: Carla Bergman has worked with youth in alternatives-to-education projects for over fifteen years. She co-directed the film: Common Notions: Handbook Not Required and co-edited the Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook For Youth. Nick Montgomery: Nick Montgomery is an organizer and writer currently finishing a PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University. His work focuses on alternatives to the capitalism, gender violence, settler colonialism, and ecological degradation. Hari Alluri: Hari Alluri, an award-winning poet, educator, and teaching artist, is the author of Carving Ashes (2013), The Promise of Rust (2016), and The Flayed City (2017)

Table of Contents

Introduction
— Intro to intro
— Questions
— Affirmative theory
— Joy and the Spinozan current
— Joyful militancy and emergent powers
— Beyond optimism and pessimism
— On anarchism
— The beginning of a conversation
— Structure of the book

Chapter 1: Empire, Militancy and Joy
— Resistance and joy are everywhere
— Sadness and subjection
— Joy is not happiness
— The power of joy
— Militant about joy
— Starting from where people find themselves

Chapter 2: Friendship, freedom, ethics
— Introduction
— Friendship is the root of freedom
— From morality to ethics
— What can friendship do?
— Solidarity begins at home
— The ethics of affinity in anarchism
— Connecting Spinozan current to Indigenous resurgence
— Friendship and freedom have sharp edges
— The active shaping of our worlds together

Chapter 3: Trust and Responsibility as Common Notions
— Trust and responsibility as common notions
— (Mis)trust and (ir)responsibility under Empire
— Empire’s radical monopoly over life
— Towards conviviality
— Emergent trust and responsibility: three examples
— Indigenous struggles
— Anti-violence and transformative justice
— Deschooling and youth liberation
— The power of baseline trust
— Infinite trust and responsibilities?
— Holding common notions gently

Chapter 4: Rigid Radicalism
— Introduction
— It’s those people
— The paradigm of government
— Decline and counterrevolution
— The perils of comparing
— Having good politics

Chapter 5: Sources of Rigid Radicalism, Sources of Joy
— Introduction
— Ideology
— Ideology in Leninism
— Ideology in anarchism
— Critique of ideology as such
— Undoing ideology
— Morality, fear, and ethical attunement
— Christian origins of morality
— Morality in movements
— Warding off morality with common notions
— You’re so paranoid, you probably think this section is about you
— Lack-finding, perfectionism, schooling, walking
— Radical perfectionism and paranoid reading
— Holding ambivalence
— The limits of critique: from paranoia to potential
— Towards new encounters

Outro
— Rigid radicalism can be hard to talk about
— Three modes of attunement
Appendix 1: Feeling Powers Growing Within Yourself: An Interview with Silvia Federici

Appendix 2: Breaking down the walls around each other: the transformative power of trust - An Interview with Kelsey Cham Corbett

Glossary of Terms

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

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