Welcome! Newsletter number 55.
I spent half of last month in Austria. Hooray!
Back on track with the reviews. A joint review this time about two lefty books about Hamas and Palestinian Islamism (Khaled Hroub’s Hamas: A Beginner’s Guide, third ed., and Erik Skare’s Road to October 7: A Brief History of Palestinian Islamism).
Two reviews in German were also published last month: a short look at Ilija Trojanow’s latest in analyse & kritik, and a little longer look at a Thomas Sankara biography from PapyRossa in iz3w.
In Swedish, I wrote an article about the suppression of pro-Palestine protests at Swedish universities together with my union buddy Ninïan Sassarinis-McGowan. The topic, of course, is far from reduced to Sweden. In the US, my dear friend Sang Hea Kil, who has already been suspended from teaching for a year at San José State University, is now threatened with dismissal by the university. Why? Participating in the disruption of a lecture and in a pro-Palestine encampment. The university makes a big deal of an apparent violation of their “Time, Place, and Manner policy.” Cheeky indeed. Luckily, some heavyweights have come out in support of Sang Hea. Read the letter by the Middle East Studies Association.
Let’s remain in the US for a moment. Before I was banned from visiting the country in 2005 (haven’t been able to visit since, and with the current administration it’s highly unlikely that I will anytime soon), I regularly spent time there over a ten-year period, so I attentively follow the political developments. Needless to say, what I see is depressing, but there are moments of glory, like this courageous resistance against an ICE raid at a meat processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska. Video of the month!
Back to Europe. Last summer, my friend and colleague Sebastian Friedrich and I recorded material for a radio documentary about Formula 1 (yes, car racing) and its audience at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. One thing this taught me was that the production of radio documentaries takes an awfully long time, but just before this year’s race in Spielberg, the documentary was released: Ein Rennen gegen die Zeit (yes, in German).
Bringing Europe and America together, we have the fabulous Peruvian hardcore band Tomar Control embarking on their second tour of the old continent – a great excuse to chat to singer July Salazar for DIY Conspiracy!
On occasion, I throw tidbits into the newsletter, when there is something seemingly insignificant I nonetheless get great joy out of. For example, the fact that the Danish translation of Revolution Is More Than a Word: 23 Theses on Anarchism is now available at Nunatta Atuagaateqarfia, the Public and National Library of Greenland (which, I hope, Donald J. Trump will never ever gets his hands on).
Finally, a new book has been published that you don’t want to miss. Tomas Rothaus’s Another War Is Possible: Militant Experiences in the Antiglobalization Era is truly brilliant. Or, as a blurber (incidentally, me) puts it: “It is insightful, it is smart, it is funny.” Really.
More next month. Stay safe!