Jeff Shantz

A solid, insightful collection of essays about the G20 battle in Toronto has just been released from Between the Lines Press: Whose Streets? The Toronto G20 and the Challenges of Summit Protest, editors: Tom Malleson and David Wachsmuth [Table of Contents]

Jeff wrote chapter 6: Unions, Direct Action and the G20 Protests: Obstacles and Opportunities. Look for a Kwantlen Launch party/fundraiser for defendants early in the new year.

With the Conservative government in Canada pushing its omnibus crime bill which targets street crimes of the working classes for harsher punishment it is critical to address the more serious suite crimes carried out by economic and political elites which are not only routinely overlooked but actually supported by the same governments that prattle on about “public safety.” Perpetrators of corporate deviance, who profit from unsafe working conditions for their employees, the release of dangerous toxins into the air and water, the sale of faulty products and fraudulent business practices among other acts, present ongoing economic, social and physical threats. Yet those responsible for such activities rarely appear in the media or court records. They receive far less attention than deviant youth whose actions may be much less harmful.

New issue of the journal Theory in Action available today, includes this article by Dana M. Williams and Jeff Shantz...

ABSTRACT: There is no established intellectual tradition of an “anarchist- sociology”—yet. A vibrant synthesis of anarchism and sociology has yet to be generated, whether that synthesis would be mere subject matter or a subfield within Sociology, or if it were an established ideology or theoretical tradition. Here, we compare these two distinct traditions, with an eye towards potential overlap. A definition for anarchist-sociology rooted in praxis—a critique of society and a transformative vision of societies—is created. As anarchism has a strong—yet unfocused—sociological theme already, we focus on anarchizing the discipline of Sociology in-line with core anarchist values, namely freedom, anti-authoritarianism, direct action, mutual aid, and decentralization.

THIS WEDNESDAY, Oct 12, in preparation for the Surrey Economic Summit on OCTOBER 20th, the Critical Criminology Working Group invites you to:

BREAK THEIR WALLS OF IMPUNITY!
REFUSE & RESIST the Mayor's tea party with George Bush and Bill Clinton

12 October · 7 PM [Invite others: facebook event]
Conference Room A, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
12666 72 Avenue | Surrey

Featuring....
Gail Davidson,
Lawyers Against the War
Arguing that Canada must deny Bush entry OR immediately arrest him and ensure prosecution for torture

and

Jeff Shantz,
Faculty, Dept. of Criminology, Kwantlen
on Bill Clinton's crimes against humanity,
and the social movements of resistance

Some reflections (from a few years back, relevant to building in the NOW) on bridging an insurrectionary moment with the future... This article was published then, in Socialism & Democracy and again today on Infoshop.org:

"We need to be prepared not just intellectually but organizationally for radical struggles and transformation. Infrastructures of resistance serve as means by which people can sustain radical social change before, during and after insurrectionary periods."

Read the whole thing here:
http://sdonline.org/50/re-building-infrastructures-of-resistance/

Click here for this event's facebook page.

PLEASE FORWARD! ---> An invite to you & a shout out from the
Critical Criminology Working Group...
THIS THURSday (@ Kwantlen, Surrey, what?!) aN EVENing of
HIP HOP + SPOKEN WORD + OPEN DISCUSSION
on resisting state & corporate repression
featuring
music & a visit by Testament of TEST THEIR LOGIK

-==== on his 'bLiNg IS dEaD' tour ===-

The criminalization of dissent, and possible threats to civil liberties posed by this criminalization, have become central issues of debate within liberal democracies, particularly in relation to discussions of political violence and the role of law in protests. Law against Liberty provides significant commentary on the criminalization of political movements and dissent within (neo)liberal democracies in the contemporary context.

Read full back cover...

Now available: New, in paperback from Imprint Academic Publishers

• Table of Contents (Files are PDFs.)
  
• Introduction
  
• Index

+ Back Cover...
This volume examines historical and contemporary engagements of anarchism and literary production. Anarchists have used literary production to express opposition to values and relations characterizing advanced capitalist (and socialist) societies while also expressing key aspects of the alternative values and institutions proposed within anarchism. Among favoured themes are anarchist critiques of corporatization, prisons and patriarchal relations as well as explorations of developing anarchist perspectives on revolution, ecology, polysexuality and mutual aid.

A key component of anarchist perspectives is the belief that means and ends must correspond. Thus in anarchist literature as in anarchist politics, a radical approach to form is as important as content. Anarchist literature joins other critical approaches to creative production in attempting to break down divisions between readers and writer, audience and artist, encouraging all to become active participants in the creative process.

Click here to see it published in the Cloverdale Reporter

Re: "Outside activists in fore at SFPR protest camp," May 4

To the editor;

It is curious that in your report on the camp against the South Fraser Perimeter Road you chose to focus so heavily on personalities and the supposed identities of a few "activists" rather than the serious issues that brought so many people from diverse backgrounds together to oppose the road development. Indeed there are many social and environmental harms resulting from the freeway development.

[This article, written in 2003, won a Memefest Award in 2004. It is still relevant today as this war is still raging on.]
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Rather than simply encouraging, facilitating or transforming war, as Arquilla and Ronfeldt (1993) discuss, info tech is based in war. Indeed the wars over the resources of cyberwar and netwar are fought in the forms of cyberwar and netwar. The information age is rooted in the bloody killing fields of low-tech territories.