The new book, Ungovernability, has been officially released! !
The text, published by Rupture Press an Active Distribution, ended up being three distinct essays, a sort of small collection.
Ungovernability is an examination of the modernist concept of revolution, that we overthrow some old order to construct a new society based on clear ideological visions of the future, and the ways that this concept fundamentally creates the conditions for its own demise, and often descent into atrocity. We then discuss ways that, when we jettison the concept of some true utopian future for some singular concept of "society", new political horizons can emerge around denying the state the ability to operate, breaking down the structures of policing, and defending these ungoverned areas, whether physical, technical, social, intellectual, etc., and why this means forming political spaces outside of the traditional Left.
Collapse: A Strategic Proposal focuses on a reading of the moment. Often in radical circles we portray the state, capitalism, name-your-object-of-derision-here, as a structure that always operates at the peak of its power. But, that is far from the situation we find ourselves in today. Whether this is massive cuts to government programs, the retreat of capital from the Rustbelt and its concentration on the coasts, or the inability of powerful nations to hold together spheres of influence, what we are seeing is a dynamic of retreat and concentration. In this retreat margins emerge, places where the former structures that governed life are no longer fully hegemonic, and in which other alternatives have to emerge, and it is in these places where we may find the new planes of engagement.
The final piece in the collection is A Call for New Lines of Conflict: Confronting the Second Trump Era, which was published earlier this year (https://www.rupturepress.org/blog/a-call-for-new-lines-of-conflict-confronting-the-second-trump-era) and discusses the use of the margins that are emerging in the early Trump era as spaces to anchor strategies of area denial, or denying state forces the ability to operate in a space.
You can find the vertical PDF of the book free for download here:
https://www.rupturepress.org/ungovernability
If you would like physical copies, they are available here:
https://www.activedistributionshop.org/product/ungovernability-a6/
Shipments are on the way to the US from Active Distribution, and will be available through Active's page on the PM Press site: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=166
I will also be doing a limited, and irregular, series of events around the Rustbelt/Midwest as time allows. So, I might just get a chance to see you if I come to your town, looking forward to it!