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Another Politics

Talking across Today's Transformative Movements
by Chris Dixon (Author), Angela Y. Davis (Foreword by)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $27.95 / £24.00
Publication Date: Aug 2014
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 355
ISBN: 9780520279025
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 10 b/w photographs
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About the Book

Amidst war, economic meltdown, and ecological crisis, a “new spirit of radicalism is blooming” from New York to Cairo, according to Chris Dixon. In Another Politics, he examines the trajectory of efforts that contributed to the radicalism of Occupy Wall Street and other recent movement upsurges. Drawing on voices of leading organizers across the United States and Canada, he delivers an engaging presentation of the histories and principles that shape many contemporary struggles.

Dixon outlines the work of activists aligned with anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-oppression politics and discusses the lessons they are learning in their efforts to create social transformation. The book explores solutions to the key challenge for today’s activists, organizers, fighters, and dreamers: building a substantive link between the work of “against,” which fights ruling institutions, and the work of “beyond,” which develops liberatory alternatives.

About the Author

Chris Dixon is an activist, writer, and educator who received a PhD from the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His writing has appeared in We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation, Anarchist Studies, Clamor, the Earth First! Journal, Left Turn, Social Movement Studies, and Upping the Anti. He has been involved in transformative social movements for more than two decades.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword by Angela Y. Davis  
Acknowledgments  
Introduction
  
Part 1. Politics
1. “Fighting against amnesia”: Movement Histories of Another Politics  
2. “Defining ourselves in opposition”: The Four “Anti’s”  
3. “Organizing now the way you want to see the world later”: Prefigurative Politics 

Part 2. Strategy
4. “Do you want to have a chance at winning something?”: Developing Strategy  
5. “In the world but not of it”: An Emerging Strategic Framework
 
Part 3. Organizing
6. “Bringing people together to build their power”: Anti-authoritarian Organizing  
7. “Leadership from below”: Taking Initiative and Building Capacities  
8. “Vehicles for movement-building”: Creating Organizations 

Conclusion: “Imagining ourselves outside of what we know”  
Resources for Movement-Building  
Organizations and Projects Mentioned  
Biographies of Interviewees  
Notes  
Bibliography  
Index

Reviews

"An excellent distillation of what Dixon calls 'another politics,' a shared political orientation that unites grassroots organizers working from similar principles in the United States and Canada across issue, movement, sector, strategy and identity. . . . Like a good organizing mentor, Dixon (and his interviewees) gives us insight without 'right' answers, helping to deepen our understanding of commonalities and remind us of the deep roots of the 'another politics' leftist lineage."
— Waging Nonviolence
"An invaluable snapshot of the North American left today. . . . To understand the state of the left in North America, in all its aspirations and its limitations, Another Politics is an important book."
— teleSUR
"With such widespread challenges and injustice facing our society, combined with the shifting energies and momentum of people power, the 'another politics' Chris Dixon documents in Another Politics: Talking Across Today's Transformative Movements offers perhaps the most promising and exciting approaches to collectively addressing these problems while simultaneously moving us into the world in which we wish to live."
— Rabble
"Gripping and politically productive . . . impressive and important . . . A compelling work of social and political theory."
— Race & Class
"One of the most engaging books on activism that I've read in a long time . . . Another Politics is inspiring and thought provoking without being naive. A must read for anyone into activism and grassroots politics."
— We Were Raised By Wolves
"Chris Dixon exposes the teeth of anti-authoritarian organizing, and captures--with rigor--the emergent possibilities in this new spirit of radicalism . . . This book serves as an invitation to activists and organizers to struggle better, more wholly, and more effectively for collective transformative change."
— Make/Shift
"Remarkable... [Another Politics] accomplishes [a] complex task... by strategic inquisitiveness...[a] unique contribution."
— Labour/Le Travail
"Another Politics is a major new work.... a vital learning tool... [and] a must have."
— New Political Science
"Dixon is an extremely generous scholar as he weaves his text around interviews with movement participants. The book offers readers a meticulous account of these organizing cultures in addition to the thought processes, decision-making mechanisms, and application of historical reflections and theoretical concepts in a contemporary social movement."
— Cultural Geographies
“Another Politics is a much needed and indispensable exploration of the roots of efforts to develop radical politics leading up to Occupy Wall Street and beyond. With the collaboration of dozens of those involved in this process, Chris Dixon provides guidance for transformational change.”
—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

“The product of a major research effort, based on more than two hundred interviews and conversations with organizers from contemporary social movements, Chris Dixon’s Another Politics is an invaluable book. It is a map to a new world of struggles and organizational forms, outside the logic of traditional political parties and unions, written with great clarity, insightfulness, and ability to listen to the new voices of our time. All those aspiring to be part of a broad process of social change should have Dixon’s book on their shelves.”
—Silvia Federici, author of Revolution at Point Zero and Caliban and the Witch

"Another Politics is an insightful, much-needed contribution to US and Canadian movements working for transformative change.  Chris Dixon provides a clear framework for interpreting the methods being developed across our local experiments and contextualizes them in the longer trajectories from which they developed.  Another Politics is revealing and energizing—it will be a great tool for scholars of social movements in activist reading groups and university classrooms.  It will also help activists engaged in vibrant local work learn about each other’s projects and approaches.  This book helps us understand what we’re doing, how we came to be doing it and why."
—Dean Spade, author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law