Latest News: Author Archive

“Full of complications… nuanced and shaped by existential crises and displacement and exile” — Ariel Dorfman’s CAUTIVOS reviewed in CounterPunch

Tuesday, January 18th, 2022

“Dorfman neatly amplifies the element of Cervantes’s story-telling I’ve always liked: The action of the hero, the counterpointing one man chorus of Sancho, the reader attuned to both, in a neat little cohabitation of souls in soft collision.”

Read the full review here.

 

“[An] excellent collection of Glen Ford’s journalism… Deeply impressive” — THE BLACK AGENDA reviewed in Tortoise

Monday, January 17th, 2022

“Ford, who died in July aged 71, had been a radio journalist and activist since the Seventies, bringing the perspectives of a Vietnam veteran, Black Panther and avowed Marxist to bear upon the unfolding history of late 20th-century America. The range of subjects in this anthology is deeply impressive – from Malcolm X and James Brown to US foreign policy and Barack Obama (‘not the lesser of evils, but the more effective evil’). It is worth reading for the fascinating final section alone, which addresses Black Lives Matter, reparations and the American Left to bracing effect.”

Read the full review here.

 

“An essential tool in the campaign for Assange’s life” — JULIAN ASSANGE IN HIS OWN WORDS reviewed in Morning Star

Friday, January 14th, 2022

“Mobilising support for Julian Assange has been an uphill struggle against lies, smears and distortions from a fearsome array of politicians, the mass media and judges…

A rebuttal to such character assassination comes in this small book, a collection of short extracts from Assange’s many writings, interviews and speeches published before he was imprisoned in Belmarsh two-and-a-half years ago.

What emerges is a man to be admired for his integrity and humanity, an intelligent and considered thinker…

Karen Sharpe’s painstaking collection should become an essential tool in the campaign for Assange’s life. At the 11th hour that campaign is gathering pace.”

Read the full review here.

 

“A fable about the fate of humanity” — Ariel Dorfman interviewed about THE COMPENSATION BUREAU on The Zero Hour

Thursday, January 13th, 2022

“Presents a world of sober analysis and penetrating insights” — JULIAN ASSANGE IN HIS OWN WORDS reviewed by WISE Up Action

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022

“The recently published ‘Julian Assange in His Own Words’ presents a world of sober analysis and penetrating insights. This almost-pocket-sized book consists of very short, pertinent extracts from Assange’s many writings, interviews and speeches published before he was imprisoned on remand in Belmarsh two and a half years ago. These allow a deeper understanding of the outlook of a person described by Edward Snowden as ‘one of the most far-sighted thinkers in technology…consistently ahead of the curve’… The book acts as a powerful antidote to the ignorant lies about Assange’s character.”

Read the full review here.

 

“[Andrew Cuomo’s] name deserves to live on in infamy, an example of what New York suffered but never deserved” — THE PRINCE author Ross Barkan writes for Jacobin

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

“It now looks as if Andrew Cuomo will never be held legally accountable for his crimes — neither his acts of harassment against women nor his cover-up of COVID nursing home deaths. But in both New York and national politics, his name will forever live in infamy.”

Read the full article here.

 

“Books to tide us over into the New Year, and beyond” — THE ART OF ACTIVISM recommended in Compass

Friday, January 7th, 2022

“Steve Duncombe is the author of one of my favourite books on the very necessary fusion of politics and culture, Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy. First published in 2007, and recently republished in a most welcome new and updated edition.  This new book, co-authored with Steve Lambert, is a how-to guide to practicing what they describe as ‘artistic activism’. Lavishly illustrated, the text mixes ideas on how to ‘do’ politics with creative application to change the ‘look’ of politics too. Neither have the imprint of a corporate makeover, this is a process from below. Please, please, please would the US-based authors come to the UK to run a training event?”

Read the full article here.

 

“[Can] the chaos of our times be a catalyst for progress?” — HEAVEN IN DISORDER author Slavoj Žižek interviewed by Al Jazeera

Thursday, January 6th, 2022

“An undying interest in Conspiracy Theory as the ultimate hidden influencer of our times” — OPERATION MINDFUCK author Robert Guffey interviewed in VoyageLA

Saturday, January 1st, 2022

“Keen journalists I’ve known personally have long been fascinated by the paranormal as well as the persuasive and propagandistic aspects of conspiracy theories… Studying conspiracies and the paranormal… doesn’t require a PhD from a well-respected Ivy League University. It only requires an intense desire to pierce the veil between the quotidian world and the hidden world, between Main Street and Wonderland, between the L.A. Times and Cryptoscatology. Upon piercing this veil some will lose their minds. Others are able to navigate these realms with a certain detachment and dark sense of humor.”

Read the full article here.

“A mesmerizing mix of Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, and Philip K. Dick” — CHAMELEO author Robert Guffey interviewed on Night-Light Radio

Thursday, December 23rd, 2021

Listen to the full interview here.

“The Challenge of Chile” — THE COMPENSATION BUREAU author Ariel Dorfman writes for The Nation

Tuesday, December 21st, 2021

“I have seen what the men and women of Chile can do when they are called to a noble cause. I can only pray that now, yet again, my country will be a shining example of liberation for a turbulent world that is crying out for some light in the midst of so much darkness.”

Read the full article here.

 

“How Right the Left Was” — HEAVEN IN DISORDER author Slavoj Žižek interviewed on Bad Faith

Monday, December 20th, 2021

“Why activists need art to create social change” — Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert interviewed about THE ART OF ACTIVISM in Waging Nonviolence

Monday, December 20th, 2021

“In a new book, an artist and an academic share their experiences in bringing about social change by integrating the emotive power of the arts with the practical efficacy of strategic activism. ‘The Art of Activism’ by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert compiles knowledge the authors have gleaned from training hundreds of activists and artists around the world over the last 12 years…

‘The Art of Activism’ is more than a nuts and bolts ‘how-to’ guide. Duncombe and Lambert also deliver thought-provoking discussions on the theoretical underpinnings of artistic activism, drawing on fields as diverse as marketing, cognitive science and pop culture. To help clarify theories and inspire creativity, the book is packed with a diverse selection of case studies.”

Read the full interview here.

 

“A useful, even essential history… Makes it clear how much remains to be done on the US Left to address the role of white supremacy” — RELUCTANT REFORMERS reviewed in CounterPunch

Friday, December 17th, 2021

“The United States has a long history of white supremacy. This phenomenon has played itself out in the courts, the workplaces and the streets of this country… Most tellingly—at least as a means of illustrating just how deeply this system of white supremacy is ingrained in the psyche of our nation—it rears its ugly head frequently in US social movements ostensibly designed to make the country a more progressive place.

It is this latter case that is the subject of a recently-republished text by Robert L. Allen and Chude Pamela Allen titled Reluctant Reformers… Even though this text is almost forty years old, reading it now makes it clear how much remains to be done on the US Left to address the role of white supremacy in the modern world.”

Read the full review here.

 

“Chile’s Future at Stake: Runoff Election Pits Leftist Student Leader Against Far-Right Pinochet Fan” — THE COMPENSATION BUREAU author Ariel Dorfman interviewed on Democracy Now!

Wednesday, December 15th, 2021

“Is the Situation Still Excellent?” — Slavoj Žižek’s HEAVEN IN DISORDER excerpted in Sri Lanka Guardian

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

“One of Mao Zedong’s best-known sayings is: ‘There is great disorder under heaven; the situation is excellent.’ It is easy to understand what Mao meant here: when the existing social order is disintegrating, the ensuing chaos offers revolutionary forces a great chance to act decisively and take political power. Today, there certainly is great disorder under heaven, with the Covid-19 pandemic, global warming, signs of a new Cold War, and the eruption of popular protests and social antagonisms worldwide naming but a few of the crises that beset us. But does this chaos still make the situation excellent, or is the danger of self-destruction too high?”

Read the full excerpt here.

“The West has political prisoners” — JULIAN ASSANGE IN HIS OWN WORDS reviewed by the New York Journal of Books

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

“Almost the same day as the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two investigative journalists, Julian Assange suffered a legal defeat that may result in his extradition to the U.S. for violation of the Espionage Act. During this same historical moment, Julian Assange In His Own Words by Julian Assange, compiled and edited by Karen Sharpe, was released by OR Books.”

Read the full review here.

“Full of paradoxes” — HEAVEN IN DISORDER author Slavoj Žižek interviewed on Leonard Lopate at Large

Monday, December 13th, 2021

“[An] indispensable collection” — JULIAN ASSANGE IN HIS OWN WORDS reviewed by The Prisma

Monday, December 13th, 2021

“It is now more important than ever to hear what Assange has been saying to the world and a new book helps make this possible… This indispensable collection, with the source for every quotation meticulously documented, spells out what Assange stands for.”

Read the full review here.

 

“I lived through the darkness of the Pinochet era. Is Chile heading back there?” — THE COMPENSATION BUREAU author Ariel Dorfman writes for The Guardian

Friday, December 10th, 2021

“There is not only the hope that millions of living Chileans will vote in the upcoming elections not to go back to an authoritarian past, but also, perhaps, that the dead will inspire those they left behind not to betray their pain and memory. Perhaps those guardians of my country’s dignity, the ghosts of those that Pinochet banished from this world, will protect their compatriots as we decide the fate of our beloved and besieged land.”

Read the full article here.

 

“One of the country’s most insightful political commentators and radical journalists” — Ajamu Baraka interviewed about Glen Ford’s THE BLACK AGENDA on On Contact

Friday, December 10th, 2021

“The Pervert’s Guide to Podcasting, Pt. 2” — HEAVEN IN DISORDER author Slavoj Žižek interviewed on Red Scare

Thursday, December 9th, 2021

Watch/listen (with subscription) here.

 

“[A] fascinating novella-cum-parable” — Ariel Dorfman’s THE COMPENSATION BUREAU recommended by Morning Star

Wednesday, December 8th, 2021

“Ariel Dorfman describes his fascinating novella-cum-parable, The Compensation Bureau, as ‘love in the time of Apocalypse.’ The High Commission that controls the universe needs to do something to deal with that little rock in space, the Earth, whose unruly inhabitants have descended into a plague of self-destructive violence.

One of the Actuaries whose task involves compensating those multi-millions who throughout human history have been deprived of their full lives through physical deprivation or savagery, unfortunately falls in love with one of the victims he seeks to award with a digitally researched afterlife.

A fantasy, yes. But when the Commission decide to call time on this troubled world – a decision Dorfman fears may be at hand – who, with our daily news diet of largely self- inflicted crises, can dismiss this as fanciful self-indulgence?”

Read the full article here.

 

“Heaven: Out of Order” — Slavoj Žižek interviewed on Chapo Trap House

Tuesday, December 7th, 2021

“Riveting… Should be required reading” — ALWAYS RED featured as one of The Guardian’s best politics books of 2021

Friday, December 3rd, 2021

“It’s that eye for a deal that makes Always Red, [Len] McCluskey’s own juicy, take-no-prisoners memoir, so riveting. The former Unite leader has a reasonable claim to be the architect of Corbynism, having supported the rule changes under Ed Miliband that later helped the left break through in a leadership election, and then supplied funding, staff and strategic nous to an inexperienced Corbyn operation… The final chapter on how unions can best exert leverage should be required reading for anyone in politics (or business).”

Read the full article here.

 

“Accessible and alarming… Offers some much-needed context on our current circumstances” — THE MONSTER ENTERS recommended by The Oberlin Review

Friday, December 3rd, 2021

“Activist and author Mike Davis revisits his earlier book The Monster at Our Door to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in his 2020 book The Monster Enters. Davis writes an accessible and alarming account of the incidents that lead up to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the series of zoonotic influenza outbreaks that have occurred in the last 20 years. This read is not for the faint of heart; Davis shares an unspoken history of assisted disease evolution and sheds light on the disturbing and often lethal consequences of global capitalism, but his book offers some much-needed context on our current circumstances.”

Read the full article here.

“An entire generation of writers is being sacrificed” — THE DEEP END author Jason Boog interviewed by Chris Hedges on On Contact

Friday, December 3rd, 2021

“Offers an inspirational structure for the concept of artistic activism” — THE ART OF ACTIVISM featured in The Village Sun

Wednesday, December 1st, 2021

“[Steve] Duncombe, along with co-author and artist Steve Lambert, offers an inspirational structure for the concept of artistic activism, and displays how individuals can use this mechanism to create real-life change. In essence, Duncombe takes the theory of a marriage between art and activism and puts it into practice…

As he prepares for his new venture, Duncombe hopes that this book will inspire change among a broader audience. Moreover, he hopes that the book’s intended purpose — to serve as a learning guide on how to use the fusion of art and activism — sparks change all around the world, regardless of one’s background.”

Read the full article here.

 

“The peculiar pathology of the rich and our oligarchic state” — RICH PEOPLE THINGS author Chris Lehmann interviewed by Chris Hedges on On Contact

Friday, November 26th, 2021

“Glen Ford Carves Up the American Empire” — THE BLACK AGENDA reviewed by CounterPunch

Thursday, November 25th, 2021

“[The Black Agenda] is a lively book, full of thought-inspiring data and polemic.  And it’s sure to goad intellectually broadminded readers into adding Black Agenda Report to their regular political parsings.”

Read the full review here.

Verified by MonsterInsights