Kristian Williams

Longstanding anarchist publisher AK Press suffered a fire recently at their Oakland office and warehouse.  Much of their inventory, as well as that of smaller publishers they distribute, experienced extensive smoke and water damage.  The city government has declared the building unsafe to enter, forcing AK to suspend business operations for the time being.

This is bad news for a lot of reasons.  AK has consistently put out good material, maintained an extensive back catalog, and served as the main (if not the sole) distributor for dozens of small presses.  It is too early to tell how much of their inventory is lost, and how much of that material is gone forever.  Likewise, it is too soon to know when they will be able to return to the day-to-day work of filling orders and publishing new material.

As far as my own work goes, AK published Life During Wartime and is set to publish the new edition of Our Enemies in Blue later this year.  They are also the distributor for Fire the Cops, Witness to Betrayal, and Hurt.  With the exception of Our Enemies in Blue, you can still order those titles directly from me.

But first, I would encourage you to contribute to AK’s recovery.

In 2007, I released a 65-page pamphlet titled Confrontations, collecting short articles on what could broadly be described as the role of force in politics.

It includes an essay I wrote for Dissent on the fallacies inherent to liberal theories of deliberate democracy, some polemical responses to critics of the Earth Liberation Front and black blocs, a two-part set of articles on “The Criminalization of Anarchism” in the Pacific Northwest, and an article I wrote for Counterpunch on the history of crowd control and the Miami Model — as well as some new material written especially for the pamphlet and a substantial introduction by Ward Churchill.

I thought the last copy of Confrontations had been sold a long time ago, but I’ve recently received a box of them.  So, while supplies last, I’ll sell those remaining for $5 each.  Just send a check to:

Kristian Williams

PO Box 11112

Portland Or 97211

Two new articles this week:

The first is a wide-ranging essay about, among other things, John Constantine, Spider Jerusalem, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Promethea, the Sandman, Tarot Cards, and William Blake.  You know, the usual.

The other is a pretty ambivalent review of Chris Dixon’s book Another Politics.  The book argues that there is an emerging anti-authoritarian current within the left, and examines its ideas and practices.  I suggest that Dixon’s right about the practices but wrong about the ideas.

As you might imagine I’ve been asked a lot the past few months about when Our Enemies in Blue will be available again. It is unfortunately out of print and out of stock. I’m glad to report, however, that I have just returned the manuscript, and the new edition — revised and updated — should be out this summer. You can pre-order copies from AK Press.

In the mean time, I have two other books out. One, Fire the Cops!, collects my writing on policing from 2004 to 2014 and covers some of the same issues as Our Enemies in Blue. It includes chapters on police violence, counterinsurgency, class conflict, and the tensions between police reform and abolition. The other, Witness to Betrayal, features a long interview I conducted with scott crow, providing a first-hand account of the career of infamous agent provocateur Brandon Darby. The interview is followed by my essay, “Profiles of Provocateurs,” which looks at several recent entrapment cases and considers their commonalities.

You can order both books from me, by sending a check to the address below.

Fire the Cops! sells for $20, and Witness to Betrayal sells for $10. If you order both directly from me, I’ll throw in my pamphlet Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy for free.

Kristian Williams

PO Box 11112

Portland OR 97211