Co-hosted by Burning Books & AK Press, as part of Radical May series

This conversation between Cindy Milstein and Shane Burley seeks to re-engage the traditions of Jewish radicalism that informed so much of our revolutionary history and has become the seed of a spiritual revival in the 21st Century. The questions of antisemitism, community building, modern spirituality, and the fight against nationalism are at the heart of this experience, and so the discussion will weave together different experiences and ideas for what it means to be a Jewish radical today.

If you buy either book from Burning Books (links below) you can use the code “JewishAnarchisms” to get an additional 20% off. Great way to support independent, revolutionary book stores.

Check out Cindy Milstein’s new book!

Check out Shane Burley’s new book!

Birthed largely out of necessity and shared rage, 2020 was a landmark year in the explosion of bottom-up organizing. While the pandemic only highlighted widening disparities in health care and economic insecurity, the murder of George Floyd by police struck a chord with movements confronting the white supremacist undercurrent of American law enforcement. Mutual aid organizations, tenant unions, mass street protests, occupations and strikes all became daily occurrences — part of an escalation of visible struggle that started with Occupy Wall Street and has moved forward through the years.

When we are in periods of highly-charged organizing, we often lose…

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A discussion on fascism, resistance, and surviving the apocalypse with author Shane Burley, Kim Kelly, and George Ciccariello-Maher.

About this Event

The essays in Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse (AK Press 2021), many published here for the first time, cover the shifts in rhetoric and tactics of the Alt Right since their disastrous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and the explosion of antifascist, antiracist, and revolutionary organizing that has risen to fight it. Burley unpacks the moment we live in, confronting the apocalyptic feelings brought on by nationalism, climate collapse, and the crisis of…

Shane Burley’s new book Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse is out from AK Press.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Steven Monacelli: We’re big fans of your work here at Protean. We’ve published a handful of your essays, so our readers are likely to be at least a little familiar with you. But for those that aren’t, let’s start there. What should people know about you and your work before they read Why We Fight?

Shane Burley: I write mostly about the far right, fascism, antifascism, and social movements. This…

Shane Burley’s new book Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse is out from AK Press.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

♦♦♦

Steven Monacelli: We’re big fans of your work here at Protean. We’ve published a handful of your essays, so our readers are likely to be at least a little familiar with you. But for those that aren’t, let’s start there. What should people know about you and your work before they read Why We Fight?

Shane Burley: I write mostly about the far right, fascism, antifascism, and social movements. This…

By Laura Jedeed and Shane Burley

It started last June with squatting. Quietly and without fanfare, Philadelphia activists affiliated with OccupyPHL and the Black Renter’s Cooperative broke into long-vacant public housing buildings and supported houseless families moving in. Then came the massive, barricaded protest encampment on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a tree-lined oasis in the middle of the Pennsylvania city surrounded by some of Philadelphia’s most expensive housing.

“They totally could have used the cops to disperse the encampment,” activist Wiley Cunningham of Philadelphia Housing Action remarked. “But politically, it would have looked bad for them.”

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who…

The Proud Bo ys have become a key part of Donald Trump’s base, with Trump even ordering them to “stand by” in case of accused ele ction interference in November during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. This prompted Proud Boy organizer Joe Biggs to say that Trump basically gave the group the green light to fight anti-fascists.

“For years, this anti-fascist coalition has built a c ommunity of people who pour their creativity into community defense. And the uprising has built an anti-racist, anti-capitalist community of greater strength and resolve,” says Evan Burchfield of the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists…

Over the last couple of years, the term “antifa” has been moved from its historic role describing a type of militant anti-fascist organizing to a codeword for any militant, left-wing protest by right-wing ideologues bent on manipulating white anxiety. As a new wave of Black Lives Matter protests began in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, a frantic far right in the U.S. has accused every demonstration as being orchestrated by “antifa,” despite no antifascist organization being in the driver’s seat and the protests being an organic mass uprising. Donald Trump has accused antifa “outside agitators” as…