Episode 92 – A Discussion of Joyful Militancy

I made a promise to Nick the last time I was in Victoria BC. I said I would meaningfully engage (I might have even promised a review) of his book (co-authored with carla bergman who I don't know) Joyful Miltancy. There are a lot of reasons to believe that I would be hostile to this book, which we obviously discuss in some detail in this conversation, as it is a IAS/AK press joint but there are also reasons I would not be. One, I like Nick and he has been generous with me. Two, the talking point of this book is that it is about recovering from "activist burnout" which, aside from the words themselves, I'm interested in (and really experienced after the 60 book publishing spree we did between 2012 and 2017). There is also something of a critique that I can feel (at least the radiant heat from) that they call rigid radicalism. I would call it something more like "what Christian value systems have wrought" but perhaps that's a lot more blame-y than they want to sound but again back to the content of this podcast. I forced my collaborater chisel to read this book and we use this hour to talk it through. Thanks to chisel, Nick, carla, and all of you listeners. Together we can do as the authors desire which is to Fusing together movement-based perspectives and contemporary affect theory, they trace emergent forms of trust, care and responsibility in a wide variety of radical currents today, including indigenous resurgence, anarchism, transformative justice, and youth liberation. (which of course sounds like a jargon-laden nightmare but whatever floats your boat) BTW the book is available on The Anarchist Library. Check it out! Contact us at [email protected]