Interactivist

Institute for Anarchist Studies Grants, 2010

Grant Application Deadline - January 15th, 2010

Twice a year, the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) awards grants to writers and translators worldwide for essay-length works. The IAS grants $4,000 annually to essay writers and translators treating themes of significance to the development of contemporary anarchist ...theory and practice. One to four essays are awarded between $250 and $1,000 in each of our two funding rounds. The IAS also provides editorial assistance to the grant recipients, who generally commit to completing their projects in the six months following their award. Moreover, the IAS publishes many of the finished essays in Perspectives on Anarchist Theory or, in the future, as part of a forthcoming book series to be published in collaboration with AK Press.

read more

Luca Tornatore, Copenhagen Detainee, Petition Online

Please sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/freeall/petition.html

Luca Tornatore isn’t only our friend. He is a scientific researcher at the Department of Physics at the University of Trieste. He is a scientist, one who combines passion and a desire to change the world to his scientific skills. These are the ingredients that pushed him to go to Copenhagen together with hundreds of Italian environmentalists. Luca is in Copenhagen to demand climatic justice, to participate in the Climate Forum and to network with others who believe that the environmental emergency must be faced beginning from a democratization of decision-making and not through delegating the question to those who started the problem in the first place or to those who are worsening it.

read more

Announcing the 4th Annual NYC Anarchist Book Fair
April 17, 2010 11am-7pm
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, Manhattan

New York City, a center of anarchist life, culture, struggle, and ideas for 150 years, will host its 4th annual NYC Anarchist Book Fair, a one-day exposition of books, zines, pamphlets, art, film/video, and other cultural and very political productions of the anarchist scene worldwide, on April 17, 2010, at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan. In addition there will be two days of panels, presentations, workshops, and skillshares on April 17 and 18 to provide further opportunities to learn more and share your own experience and creativity.

read more

Capitalism The 'Real Culprit Behind Climate Change'
Faranaaz Parker

“The best thing about Copenhagen is its failure. What I most dread about Copenhagen is that the public relations apparatus will manage to patch together propoganda or some sort of token agreement,” says Joel Kovel, a proponent of eco-socialism.

For Kovel and others, including top climatologist James Hansen, who referred to Copenhagen as a “disaster track”, the negotiations – which stalled primarily over emission reduction targets and financing for developing countries -- are a forgone conclusion.

“There really is no answer to this process because [countries] are not interested in saving the planet. They want to make money and they want to keep their power. So Copenhagen has got to fail because it’s inevitable but also because it will reveal to the world the need to get to the next stage.” That next stage, according to Kovel, is a world without capitalism.

read more

Stronger than ever: The student movement in Croatia
Marimer Berberena

For the past two weeks, over 800 students have participated in the blockading of the filosofski fakultet, one of the main university buildings in Croatia's capital Zagreb. Just over two weeks ago, a plenum was held with the decision made to occupy this building, where much of the social sciences and arts/humanities teaching takes place, and to block all teaching taking place there. This might seem short-sighted at first glance, as students themselves are the first to feel the ill-effects of no teaching. But the decision was made, and was necessary to highlight how seriously students oppose the current government's attempts to create a market in education, and to make students pay for this 'privilege'. Two weeks of tuition lost to this generation of students is nothing compared to the years of university level education which many future potential students will lose as a result of not being able to afford to go to university. The blockade was impressively well organised. Students made sure the building was kept clean. The consumption of alcohol and smoking were forbidden inside the building during the blockade, and students organised themselves into groups of redari (monitors) who kept tabs on what was going on in every classroom in the building. I volunteered as a redar almost every day and it was interesting to see just how much the blockade had polarised the students and the professors. Whilst the majority of professors were in favour of the blockade, a few departments had a majority against the student action. The most significant department voting against being unsurprisingly (to those who know a little about the history of Croatia), German studies, who persistently tried to hold classes on a day to day basis. An alternative lecture programme also took place, with 3-5 guest lectures taking place on a daily basis. I gave a workshop on the commericalisation of education in the UK, with special focus on Manchester University, and how students have organised themselves against such neoliberal impositions, and crucially, how the struggles currently taking place in Manchester, Croatia, Serbia, Germany among others are connected.

read more

December 2009 Autonogram

Greetings Autonogram Subscribers,

Here we find ourselves in December, with winter approaching and the days growing shorter. But thankfully this does not just mean the end of the year, but also the start of another, and with that the release of the 2010 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints. Here’s to another year of radical media making, occupying and subverting from California to Copenhagen, and general trouble making and mischief! So without further ado, here’s some recent developments:

read more