Recent Articles (Spring 2009)

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on May 27, 2009
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I have a short essay, “Five Theses on Violence,” included in the online journal The Body as a Site of Discrimination. You can read it here:
http://www.bodydiscrimination.com/?cat=4

I’ve also written several reviews for The Comics Journal recently: The February issue has my review of Brian Azzarello’s Joker. April featured a review of Elijah Brubaker’s comics biography of Wilhelm Reich, along with a brief historical note on anti-comics crusader Fredric Wertham’s role in Reich’s downfall. And the May issue has my review of anarchist artist Seth Tobocman’s latest collection, Disasters and Resistance. None of these are online.

Hear me talk (May 2009)

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Liberating Dissent II: Against State Repression
May 23, 2009 at 7pm
Liberty Hall, 311 N Ivy, Portland Oregon

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu58/destroyiscreate/liberatingthisentwords72psd.jpg

I’ll be speaking about the cops and political repression, alongside attorney Lauren Regan. And, a bunch of bands will play, including Resist, Adelit@s, and Coffinship.

The event is a benefit for Rose City Copwatch and prisoners incarcerated as part of the “Green Scare” crackdown on environmental activism. The suggested cost is $6 and up, though no one will be turned away for lack of money.

For more info, visit: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/05/391299.shtml

If you can’t make it to see me talk in person, you can now find recordings of two of my talks online.

Multnomah County Library has audio of my talk with Jules Boykoff on policing and the suppression of dissent (April 2008):
http://multcolib.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=436932

And indybay has a recording of my recent lecture at Oakland’s Continental Club, on policing and violence:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/01/18585333.php

Two Essays on Marriage (Spring 2009)

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As it happens, two different anarchist publications are running articles I’ve written on marriage and monogamy. I didn’t write the pieces at the same time, or try to coordinate the publishing, or anything. Sometimes things just work out like that.

The first is a long essay in Fifth Estate, examining some comments Foucault made in interviews back in 1981 and ‘82. It’s called “Sexual Liberation and the Possibilities of Friendship: Foucauldian Proposals and Anarchist Elaborations.”

The second is a review of Jenny Block’s book Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage (Seal Press, 2008). It’s titled “Saving Marriage from Itself,” and appears in the Spring-Summer issue of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed.

Those who read both will notice that I like Foucault’s position a lot better than I like Block’s.

Neither article is online.

Speaking In British Columbia (April 2009)

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on April 13, 2009
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This coming weekend I’ll be giving four talks in British Columbia — three in Victoria and one in Vancouver.

I’ll be speaking twice on the cops and twice on Oscar Wilde and anarchism:
Wilde is chiefly remembered as a wit, a dandy, and a gay icon;
but the depth of his thought and the radicalism of his politics are
often forgotten. His aestheticism was more than a flamboyant pose.
It represented an entire system of values, from which Wilde critiqued
capitalism, the state, and Victorian morality.

Here are the dates:

Victoria BC; Friday, April 17th, 6pm
“A World Without Cops”
(with Gord Hill, Olympics Resistance Network)
Camas Books, 2590 Quadra
http://camas.ca/?q=node/181
I’ll be speaking about the history of the police, and specifically
about the class-control aspects of “quality-of-life” policing.

Victoria BC; Saturday, April 18th, 6pm
“A World Without Cops”
(with Zoe Blunt of the Victoria Forest Action Network, and Gord Hill)
Camas Books, 2590 Quadra
http://camas.ca/?q=node/182
I’ll be speaking about alternatives to policing.

Victoria BC; Sunday, April 19, 1pm
“Oscar Wilde: Aestheticism and Anarchism”
(with Alan Antliff, author of Art and Anarchy)
Camas Books, 2590 Quadra

Vancouver; Monday, April 20th, 7:30pm
“Oscar Wilde: Aestheticism and Anarchism”
(with Allan Antliff)
Spartacus Bookstore; 684 E. Hastings
http://mostlywater.org/oscar_wilde_literature_anarchy

Reviewing “Torture and Democracy”

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on April 9, 2009
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In the latest issue of Make/Shift I have a review of Darius Rejali’s book Torture and Democracy. In it, I take issue with his definition of “torture.” In particular, I argue against his dismissal of the notion of “mental torture.”

This is actually the second review I’ve written on Rejali’s book. A much longer piece appeared in the International Socialist Review back in the fall. In that essay I scrutinized Rejali’s definition of “democracy.”

Only the ISR piece is online:
“Hidden Torture, False Democracy.” International Socialist Review. September-October 2008. http://www.isreview.org/issues/61/feat-torturedem.shtml

Lecture: Police and Violence (March 31, 2009)

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on March 30, 2009
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March 31 (Tuesday) at 6:30 pm
The Continental Club
1658 12th Street, West Oakland

I’ll be giving a talk on police and violence, trying to put some recent events in context. Q&A to follow.

Prison Abolition, Anarchism, and Oscar Wilde

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The March/April issue of Against the Current includes an article I wrote on the Critical Resisistance prison abolition conference, back in September. The article is not online, but you can learn about Critical Resistance here: http://www.criticalresistance.org/

Social Anarchism, meanwhile, has just reprinted a speech I gave at last year’s Anarchist Book Fair in San Francisco. Titled, “What Anarchism Contributes to Our Understanding of Torture,” it is exactly what it sounds like. It’s not online either. But you can read about the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair: http://sfbookfair.wordpress.com/

Tying these two strands together, the Institute for Anarchist Studies just gave me a grant to write an essay on Oscar Wilde’s experience in prison, his writing about prison, and his anarchism. This essay, “A Prisoner with a Noble Face,” will serve as one chapter in my book on Wilde and anarchism.

The IAS website doesn’t have anything about the project yet. But here’s a link anyway: http://www.anarchist-studies.org/

Two New Articles, Two Re-Prints (January 2009)

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The current Comics Journal has two of my reviews. One is a longish piece on After 9/11: America’s War on Terror (2001- ). The other is a short review of the first six issues of Terry Moore’s Echo. Neither are online.

I’ve also had two articles re-printed recently.

Back in October, Counterpunch ran an excerpt from my book American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination. Under the title “Torture at Area 2,” the article provides background on the long-running Chicago torture scandal, which recently resulted in the arrest of retired police commander Jon Burge.

My piece isn’t online. But for information on the Burge case, see the Chicago Reader’s archive of John Conroy’s coverage:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/policetorture/

More recently, an excerpt from my 2005 Columbia Journalism Review article appeared in the anthology Language, Literacy, and Inquiry: World Literature. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2009.)

The original CJR piece is on the web: http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2005/2/ideas-essay-williams.asp

Two Articles (December 2008)

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on November 26, 2008
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I have two reviews in the current issue of The Comics Journal.

The first is a long review of This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature by Rocco Versaci. In it, I question how much justification comics criticism really needs.

The second is a short review of The Twilight Zone: ‘The After Hours’ and ‘Walking Distance’. In the magazine the piece is mis-attributed to Kent Worcester (a mistake owing, I think, to our sharing the same initials).

Neither is online. If you want to read them, you’ll have to find the paper version.

My comment on the election (not an endorsement)

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on October 15, 2008
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The Guide asked several of its contributors to comment on the forthcoming presidential election. Four of us did, and you can find our remarks online here:
http://www.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=39D1AD1D-F48F-4E29-857A580B07471890

My piece is tagged “Expect Election Hangover,” and in it I argue that we shouldn’t pin our hopes on political parties or their candidates. (I’d also encourage people to read Yasmin Nair’s contribution, “Class in Drag,” which appears immediately following my little essay.)

In keeping with the notion that it’s what happens after the election that matters — Remember, remember: November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, in memory of the only man to enter parliament with honest intentions.

Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes