Kristian Williams

Just in time for May Day, AK Press is releasing a pamphlet comprising three of my essays about anarchism. In the first, I consider how I understand anarchism and why I adhere to it. The second, and longest, looks at the current state of the anarchist movement in the United States, the history that led us to this point, and the necessity of a thoroughgoing reassessment and renewal of our theories and our movements. The final essay then considers the prerequisites for the kind of critical re-imagining I think necessary.

April 21 I will be in Denver, speaking at the Washington Park United Church of Christ (400 South Williams Street). I will outline the history of policing in the United States, from the colonial slave patrols to our present period of militarization and community policing. A panel discussion featuring local organizers will follow. The event starts at 5:30. Further details are here.

I will be at Oregon State University in Corvallis for the Radical Imagination Conference the weekend of April 6-8, 2018. On Saturday, April 7, I will be speaking on Orwell and Pessimism, at 1:15 in room MU 211. Q and A will follow.

Here’s a description of the conference from the web site:

“This conference explores formats to address, fabricate and discuss social transformation that challenge the standard model of an academic conference. It invites participants to create a common space for radical imagination and social justice that goes beyond a skill-share for radical organizers. Radical Imagination invites us to engage in a profound critique of what seems obvious (radical = that goes to the roots of something) and to explore alternative ways of living together – producing, loving, shaping spaces and time, inhabiting the land, working, using, struggling. It is an appeal to decolonize social relations and the dominant imaginaries that justify oppression and injustice. Radical Imagination is not just about dreaming alternative futures. It lures us into embodying alternatives in practices, actions, and thinking.”

Other speakers include Walidah Imarisha, Kevin Van Meter, and Raj Patel.

I was recently interviewed on “The Final Straw” about my book on Orwell, Between the Bullet and the Lie. Most of the interview consists of a discussion of Orwell’s criticisms of the Left, and how many of them still apply today.