Welcome! Newsletter number 68.
No new review on the blog, but I reviewed a brilliant English-language book for the German-language junge Welt: A.M. Gittlitz’ Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team. Sports writing at its very best!
Considering the FIFA and Trump evils involved in the Men’s Soccer World Cup, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s follow-up ideas about inviting private investors to determine the game’s future, there’s been a bit of writing about soccer. I penned a long commentary on the World Cup for junge Welt, and a short one of Infantino’s investment plans. An earlier article about the relationship between Infantino and Trump was republished on the website of the legendary Norwegian anarchist magazine Gateavisa. Meanwhile, the Italian edition of Soccer vs. the State seems to receive good feedback. There were a few presentations in Italy with Pierpaolo Casarin, who wrote the preface to the Italian edition, and favorable reviews in outlets such as Fata Morgana and Pallonate in facia.
While the presentations in Italy seemed to turn out well, few people showed up during a discussion about the Soccer World Cup at the Tamarack community space in Oakland. I was invited to join online at 6 am my time. Lucky that I’m an early riser.
There was good attendance at a talk about sobriety at Stockholms AIF, a boxing club with roots in the Swedish workers’ movement and a left-wing contingent among its membership even today. (The talk already took place in June but I’m getting forgetful these days.)
I did more positive soccer writing for junge Welt as well, namely about the qualification phase for the European club competitions, which features games between teams from the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Kosovo, and so on. Fuck the rich clubs and the monotony of the competition’s final stages!
I also reviewed Jan Mohnhaupt’s book Der geteilte Rasen, which looks at post-German-reunification soccer in the east of the country, for junge Welt.
Other sports writing for junge Welt: a comment on the scandalous Olympic end of Nordic Combined; a commemoration of the 1936 Barcelona People’s Olympics that, tragically, never came to be; and a commemoration of the 1931 Worker’s Olympics in Vienna.
Deutschlandfunk did a broadcast of the Formula One radio feature that my friend and colleague Sebastian Friedrich and I did in 2024. It has now been broadcasted by various outlets.
In terms of soccer, my own, very short, stint with professional soccer was featured in the latest issue‘s main article of Ballesterer, Austria’s alternative soccer monthly. The article was about how to decide when to finish a career, and, alongside many real professionals, I got to stand for those who ended their career before it even started. Made me feel a little like an imposter but it was an honor to be included.
More articles have been published related to the trip to North Calotte in May: a text about militarization in the north of Sweden for Proletären; a long article about Kirkenes for junge Welt; and a travel diary of sorts for Haparandabladet – historically, a conservative paper, but if you find Haparanda on the map you’ll understand my excitement.
The German original of a short interview I did with Helge Döhring from Bremen’s Institut für Syndikalismusforschung about his book on anarchosyndicalist women for the Swedish-language Arbetaren has now been published by anarchismus.de.
The fundraiser for Comrades, Not Friends: The Revolutionary Front, Antifascism, and Class Struggle went through the roof. The USD 3000 goal was reached within a few days and, in the end, far more was collected. Excited for the book to come out. It’s now a PM Press and Working Class History co-publication. (I translated from the Swedish original.)
Speaking of the radical movement in Sweden, Ninïan Sassarinis-McGowan and I criticized the coverage of the far-left and pro-Palestine movements by the popular left-liberal magazine ETC. Not sure if we should even care, but with the articles being hurtful to the movements it felt that something ought to be said.
More next month. Stay safe!