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'This striking book reveals collective memories of freedom struggles, despite attempts to distort or steal our inheritance' Joy James, editor of
Beyond Cop Cites'As more and more people are mobilizing against war, genocide, poverty, and extraction, this book is right on time' Dean Spade, author of
Mutual Aid'Peter Gelderloos reminds us that for our survival, we must keep the flame of memory alive, ensuring that the radical roots of our movements are not whitewashed by the gatekeepers of history' - Franklin Lopez, anarchist filmmaker, founder of subMedia
How can we resist oppression in the face of ecological crisis, police violence and white supremacy? In this subversive account, Peter Gelderloos puts forward a radical critique of nonviolent movements. Weaving history, vignettes, interviews and personal reflections, he shows how we suffer from an inability to pass on lessons from one generation to the next, and explores why.
Learning from the failure of antiracist rebellions triggered by police murders from Minneapolis to Bristol, and the climate campaigns that forget their colonial histories, Gelderloos shows how nonviolent protest is a symptom of social amnesia, an inability to remember what we have learned from our past. Cautioning against future waves of pacification and forgetting, he urges us to collectivize memory and develop the methods we need to fight for our survival.
Peter Gelderloos is a writer and social movement participant. He is the author of
The Solutions are Already Here,
How Nonviolence Protects the State,
Anarchy Works,
The Failure of Nonviolence, and
Worshiping Power.
List of contents
Introduction: Memory, Disembodied
1. They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us
The Tipping Point
Statues
Sparks
2. They Will Promise a Future They Can Never Deliver
The Snare
Regeneration
The Reset
3. But We are Here, Surviving, Remembering, Passing On the Torch
Accompaniment or Loss?
Learning From Our Ancestors
Conclusion: Surviving Together
About the author
Peter Gelderloos is a writer and social movement participant. He is the author of The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below, How Nonviolence Protects the State, Anarchy Works, The Failure of Non-Violence, and Worshiping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation. He has contributed chapters to anthologies Keywords for Radicals and Riots and Militant Occupations. His books have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Russian, German, Greek and Serbo-Croat.
