By Melissa Nathan Gerson
Finished around June 1st, 2022
- Negative talk can also be a signal that you are more traumatized than you realize. Let it be a signal for the call for care. Whatever that care looks like for you.
Author Archives: zach
Finding Meaning – David Kessler
David Kessler
Finished ~ March 31st, 2022
- Avoiding grief
- Something goes out of alignment when we try to avoid sadness and grief.
- Life gives us pain. Our job is to experience it when it gets handed to us. Avoidance of loss has a cost.
Towards Collective Liberation – Chris Crass
By Chris Crass
Excellent book on organizing and anarchism. Very practical and relatable examples.
- Organizing / leadership
- Supporting people to come together and overcome isolation and feelings of inadequacy is one of the key tasks of organizers, and we can do this by developing a systematic understanding of the problems we face, nurturing relationships of solidarity and respect, building up collective power through action, and working for social change in ways that also help us grow and live our values in the here and now.
The Barrow Will Send What It May – Margaret Killjoy
4/22/18
Sequel to “The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion”
- Anarchists stick together. Well, except when we get mad at one another over small details.
- It’s okay to let yourself love someone, but that letting yourself love someone is like letting someone have the keys to your control room, so you can share the responsibility of running yourself with someone else.
Emergent Strategy – adrienne maree brown
2/8/18
Really incredible book. Highly recommend for anyone doing social justice work.
all that you touch
you change
all that you change
changes you
the only lasting truth
is change
god is change
- What is Emergent strategy?
- Emergence notices the way small actions and connections create complex systems, patterns that become ecosystems and societies.
Lucy Parsons: An American Revolutionary
12/1/2017
- Capitalism
- As capital concentrated, it seized the means of productions from the hands of the artisans, forcing them into factories and shops owned and run by capitalists… They became utterly dependent upon the capitalists for a livelihood; they had to sell their labor from day to day to make a living.
Wasáse – Taiaiake Alfred
10/10/17
Powerful book on indigenous resistance. Though very dense. I did not read the whole book but I learned a lot.
- Government / Settler Culture
- European philosophies have always been much less concerned about the search for truth than with providing intellectual covers for the exercises of brute power by white rulers.
The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion – Margret Killjoy
9/12/17
Beautiful and fun book. Quick read. Fascinating realistic characters that I feel like I’ve met at organizing meetings. Highly recommended.
- When there’s not enough to go around, that’s when people share. As far as I can tell, it’s part of why us poor get taken advantage of so much.
Clandestines: The Pirate Journals of an Irish Exile – Ramor Ryan
9/12/17
- Mayday
- Mayday is a ritual that has been, throughout history accompanied by bonfires. As the flames engulf the abandoned riot van, the people dance around like a band of festive Celts of old. Here we are, history dancing with us, the heathens of the ages resisting the suppression of our day of leisure, our day of carnival, our merry-making.
The Big Strike – Mike Quin
5/5/17
- The first step toward changing the situation occurred in the latter part of 1032 when a small mimeographed publication, the Waterfront Worker, began to appear on the docks and in places where longshoremen congregated. Humble in format and clumsily turned out, it hardly gave the impression of a powerful influence.