What Would it Mean to Win? Turbulence Book

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN? TURBULENCE BOOK

Our book, ‘What Would it Mean to Win?’ is published by PM Press in April 2010. It contains all the articles from the now out-of-print first issue of the magazine, our collective text ‘Move into the Light? Postscript to a Turbulent 2007’, and a previously unpublished extended interview by PM Press author Sasha Lilly with Turbulence editors Michal Osterweil and Ben Trott. John Holloway has written a Foreword.

BACK COVER BLURB: “Movements become apparent as ‘movements’ at times of acceleration and expansion. In these heady moments they have fuzzy boundaries, no membership lists – everybody is too engaged in what’s coming next, in creating the new, looking to the horizon. But movements get blocked, they slow down, they cease to move, or continue to move without considering their actual effects. When this happens, they can stifle new developments, suppress the emergence of new forms of politics; or fail to see other possible directions. Many movements just stop functioning as movements. They become those strange political groups of yesteryear, arguing about history as worlds pass by. Sometimes all it takes to get moving again is a nudge in a new direction… We think now is a good time to ask the question: What is winning? Or: What would–or could–it mean to ‘win?’”

REVIEWS

“Where is the movement today? Where is it going? Are we winning? The authors of the essays in this volume pose these and other momentous questions. There are no easy answers, but the discussion is always insightful and provocative as the writers bravely take on the challenge of charting the directions for the Left at a time of ecological crisis, economic collapse, and political disillusionment.” – Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South

“Turbulence presents an exciting brand of political theorising that is directed and inspired by current strategic questions for activism. This kind of innovative thinking, which emerges from the context of the movements, opens new paths for rebellion and the creation of real social alternatives.“ – Michael Hardt, co-author of ‘Commonwealth’ , ‘Multitude’ and ‘Empire’.

“The history of the past half-century and particularly the last decade is as easily told as a series of victories as defeats, maybe best as both. Sometimes we won–and this is what makes the ‘What Does It Mean to Win?’ anthologysuch a powerful vision of the possible and the seldom-seen present. The authors of this book connect some of the more remarkable events of the last decade–in Oaxaca, in the banlieus of Paris, in the crises of neoliberalism– into aconstellation of possibilities and demands, demands on the world but also demands on the readers, to think afresh of what is possible and what it takes to get there. As one author begins, ‘The new movements embodied and positeddeliberate reactions to the practical and theoretical failures of previous political approaches on the left.’ This is the book about what came after the failures, and what’s to come” – Rebecca Solnit, author of ‘Hope in the Dark’ and ‘A Paradise Built in Hell.’

CONTENTS

‘Preface’, by Turbulence Collective

Foreword: 'Hope Moves Faster than the Speed of Thought’, by John Holloway

‘Are We ‘Winning’?’, by Turbulence Collective

‘Politics in an Age of Fantasy’, by Stephen Duncombe

‘Enclosing the Enclosers’, by Gustavo Esteva

‘Singularisation of the Common’, by Sandro Mezzadra and Gigi Roggero

‘A New Weather Front’, by Paul Sumburn

‘Money for Nothing’, by Max Henninger

‘Walking in the Right Direction?’, by Ben Trott

‘Organise Local, Strike Global’, by Valery Alzaga and Rodrigo Nunes

‘Solidarity Economics’, by Euclides André Mance

‘Compositional Power’, an interview with Todd Hamilton and Nate Holdren

‘‘Becoming-Woman?’ In Theory or in Practice?’, by Michal Osterweil

‘Politicising Sadness’, by Colectivo Situaciones

‘Commonism’, by Nick Dyer-Witheford

‘The Crazy Before the New’, by Kay Summer and Harry Halpin

‘Move into the Light? Postscript to a Turbulent 2007’, by Turbulence Collective

‘An Interview with the Turbulence Collective’, by Sasha Lilly with Michal Osterweil and Ben Trott

BOOK DETAILS
Author: Turbulence Collective
Publisher: PM Press (Oakland, CA)
ISBN: 978-1-60486- 110-5
Published: April 2010
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 160
Dimensions: 9 by 6
Subjects: Politics, Philosophy, Activism

ORDER A COPY FOR YOUR LIBRARY

Ask your university, city or town library to order to a copy of the book. Just provide them with the ‘Book Details’ above and they should be able to do the rest themselves.

REVIEW THE BOOK
We’re looking for individuals and publications interested in reviewing the book. If this takes your fancy, drop us a note letting us know your name, address and the publication you’re considering writing for and we’ll get the publisher to send you a copy of the book.

LAUNCH EVENTS
We’ll be organising a series of events to launch the book, the first of which will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, on March 14, 15 and 16.

For more information, see: http://turbulence.org.uk/2010/02/turbulence-events-in-san-francisco-bay-area-in-march/

Turbulence: http://turbulence.org.uk

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER FROM:

PM PRESS: https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product detail&p=193

AMAZON.COM: http://www.amazon.com/What-Would-Mean- Win-Press/dp/160486110X/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266057060&sr=8-1

BOOKS-A-MILLION: http://www.booksamillion.com/product/9781604861105

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/