Kristian Williams

 

Excerpt

My Introduction to Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency was recently excerpted in Toward Freedom.

 

East Coast Tour

Over the next several days I will be touring a few cities on the east coast to promote Life During Wartime and discuss political repression. I will outline the basics of the counterinsurgency approach and consider the implications for social movements. 

 

November 13 (Wednesday) — Buffalo, NY

7pm; Burning Books (420 Connecticut Street)

 

November 14 (Thursday) — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

7pm; Wooden Shoe Books (704 South Street)

I’ll be joined by two of the book’s contributors, George Ciccariello-Maher and Layne Mullett. They’ll discuss counterinsurgency as it relates to the Occupy movement, and the ways that fighting repression can build stronger movements.

 

November 17 (Sunday) — New York, New York

7pm; Bluestockings (172 Allen Street)

 

November 19 (Tuesday) — Baltimore, Maryland

7:30pm; Red Emma’s Books and Coffee (800 St. Paul Street)

 

Study Groups

Discounts of 30% are available for study groups reading Life During Wartime.

Go to akpress.org and use code “LDWGROUP.”

 

I’ll be giving two talks in Sacramento this week.

The first, on Wednesday, November 6, is a panel discussion on solitary confinement. I’ll be speaking alongside Bo Brown, Sarah Shroud, and Shane Bauer. I’ll offer a short argument that solitary confinement is a form of torture. Bo (formerly of the George Jackson Brigade) will speak about her experience as a political prisoner in the U.S. And Shane and Sarah (both journalists) will speak of their experiences in solitary in Iran, with Shane also discussing his reporting on American prisons for Mother Jones.

Here are the details:

“Cruel and Unusual Punishment”

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

7 pm

at the Sol Collective

2574 21st Street, Sacramento

Sponsored by Sacramento Prisoner Support

 

Then, on Friday, I will discuss Oscar Wilde’s politics, briefly arguing that he was an anarchist, and considering the few occasions when he referred to himself as such.

“Born to the Wilde: Exploring the Anarchism of Oscar Wilde”

Friday, November 8, 2013

7:30 pm

at The Lavender Library

1414 21st Street, Sacramento

 

Two of the editors of Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency — Will Munger and myself — will be speaking about the book at Reed College (Eliot Hall, room 314) in Portland, this Wednesday, October 9, at 7pm.

 

I’ll be presenting on the basics of counterinsurgency, and considering some theoretical questions it poses. Will is going to discuss the origins and the scope of the book and relate it to the present repression of the environmental movement. Discussion to follow, of course.

 

The event represents a homecoming of sorts, not only because Will and I both graduated from Reed, but also because Life During Wartime grew out of a conference there a couple years ago.

 

Life During Wartime is now in stores, and I expect I’ll do some more touring to promote it.  If you want to bring me or other contributors to speak at your store, school, church, union hall, or local pub, please write me at:

info -AT- kristianwilliams.com.

Meanwhile, here’s an interview on counterinsurgency I did with KPFK.

And I wrote a review of The Terror Factory for Toward Freedom.  It’s about the FBI’s entrapment strategy, so you might enjoy reading it alongside my essay “Profiles of Provocateurs.”