Speaking and organizing......

As I get closer to retiring from my full time position as a library worker, I am looking for other ways to supplement my retirement check. One of the things I am hoping to do is talk to groups more. My talks are usually informal presentations/discussions of radical political and cultural history, considerations of the present and potential futures. If your group, class or whatever are interested, please contact me via Messenger. Here is a link to a talk I gave in Boston about 3 1/2 years ago....just an example

youtube.com

Ron Jacobs presents: Revolution in the Air? The 1960s Become the 1970s and the S**t Hits the Fan

The end of the 1960s saw the intensification of…

Divest From the Business of Incarceration

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/21/divest-from-the-business-of-incarceration/

What's So Bad About Peace, Man?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/15/whats-so-bad-about-peace-man/

Petulance as Statecraft--Trump Does Canada

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/12/petulance-as-statecraft-trump-does-canada/

Jim Brown-Superstar/Superman

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/08/jim-brown-superstar-superman/

Badass Tragedy--Country Music

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/01/badass-tragedy/

A Photographic Revenge

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/25/a-photographic-revenge/

Gina Haspell: She's Certainly Qualified for the Job

Please donate to Counterpunch....ten bucks, fifteen...anything

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/21/gina-haspell-shes-certainly-qualified-for-the-job/

Liars Club: Ollie North and General Kelly

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/14/liars-club-ollie-north-and-general-kelly/

An Ideology of Self-Righteousness

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/11/an-ideology-of-self-righteousness/

Korea--An Alternative History

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/04/korea-an-alternative-history/

A Warning Likely to Be Unheeded: A Review of Norman Pollack’s Final Book

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/27/a-warning-likely-to-be-unheeded-a-review-of-norman-pollacks-final-book/

Resisting the Military-Now More Than Ever

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/24/resisting-the-military-now-more-than-ever/

War is Just F**kin' Wrong

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/16/war-is-just-fkin-wrong/

Venturing Into the Slipstream

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/13/venturing-into-the-slipstream/

Racist Mural in Liberal Vermont

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/06/racist-mural-in-liberal-vermont/

for more info and a picture

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2017/10/09/burlington-activist-takes-aim-at-white-supremacist-mural

Sous Le Pave, Le Plage--May '68

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/30/sous-le-pave-la-plage-may-68/

Flashing for the Refugees on the Unarmed Road of Flight

A Review of Ramzy Baroud's The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/23/flashing-for-the-refugees-on-the-unarmed-road-of-flight/

Trump and His Tariffs

Any benefits workers obtain in a capitalist economy are the result of struggle, not the gifts of the owners and financiers.  Supporting the tariffs because of some imagined short term gain is merely buying into neoliberal capitalism’s con game.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/16/trump-and-his-tariffs/

Acidhead on the Run

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/09/acidhead-on-the-run/

The Geography of Marxism--David Harvey's The Ways of the World

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/02/the-geography-of-marxism/

Stamping Out Hunger

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/21/stamping-out-hunger/

R.I.P. John Perry Barlow

https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/5-lessons-john-barlow-taught-world/

Re-visiting Gonzo....

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/16/re-visiting-gonzo/

In the Spirit of the Tsar: FBI Informants on the Central Committee

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/09/in-the-spirit-of-the-tsar-fbi-informants-on-the-central-committee/

A History of Resistance--A Review of An African-American and Latinx History of the United States

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/02/a-history-of-resistance/

Still Tripping....a New Essay Collection

If you have never read any of my essays or would like to have some of them in a bound paper version, here's your chance (such as it is....)  Click here

Art is a Hammer

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/26/art-is-a-hammer/

Whiteness and Working Folk

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/19/whiteness-and-working-folks/

The Vietnamese War: a Different Take

A review of Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/12/the-vietnamese-war-a-different-take/

All You Fascists Bound to Lose

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/05/all-you-fascists-bound-to-lose/

Johnny Appleseed Gets a Comic Book

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/29/johnny-appleseed-gets-a-comic-book/

From Ginsberg to Gonzo

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/22/from-ginsberg-to-gonzo/

Sinking in the Swamp

The swamp is not being drained. It is becoming more toxic by the day. It is now ebb tide at the pig farm and the sewage is in the pool where your children go to swim.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/15/sinking-in-the-swamp/

Two Books, Two Recordings: Four Reviews

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/08/two-books-two-recordings-four-reviews/

Books to Consider-A Modest Promotion

 

For sale via online booksellers or through special order at your favorite bookstore......

More Than Just Symbols: The Chicano Resistance Movement

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/01/more-than-just-symbols-the-chicano-resistance-movement/

Private Property Does Not Equal Freedom

A review of Negri and Hardt's 2017 title Assembly...

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/17/private-property-does-not-equal-freedom/

New York Panthers--A Legacy

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/13/new-yorks-black-panthers-a-legacy/

Review of All the Sinners Saints by Michael Schiffmann

translated from the German

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B01dj5QyuLDeZDNsM2FVUUxraExLMkV3YlEyMTVObE5yRFNR

The Missouri Compromise and General Kelly

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/01/the-missouri-compromise-and-general-kelly/

Rebel Music

A look at the Liberation Music Collective's latest release....

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/27/rebel-music-2/

Stop the Idiocy! Stop the Mattis-ness!

The (revised) toll in lives was: 36, 546 US soldiers, an estimated 1.5 million Koreans on both sides of the parallel (mostly civilians), 200,000 Chinese soldiers, and another 4000 soldiers from armies that allied themselves with the United States.  In addition, there were more than one million wounded and/or missing.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/20/stop-the-idiocy-stop-the-mattis-ness/

Can NATO Still Make America Great?

The link below goes to an article I wrote for the previous print edition of Counterpunch magazine.  I am sharing it in the hope that some of you who read it will then subscribe to the print version of Counterpunch.  Why should you do that since you can read Counterpunch online for free?  Because most of the articles in the print issues are not reprinted online is a good place to start....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01dj5QyuLDed0gtT1JRREhod3NjeXRFRXZxOWZiUFdJOGVz/view?usp=sharing

If you want to subscribe, here is a link to do that.....
https://store.counterpunch.org/subscribe/

Thanks,
Ron

Riding the Dog

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/13/riding-the-dog/

Ain't No Equal Justice

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/06/aint-no-equal-justice/

Sharpening the Contradictions from the Fifty Yard Line

When I used to watch Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath throw the ball back in my earlier years, it seemed most NFL players were white.  They were also assumed to be very patriotic and supportive of the US war on Vietnam and in favor of the more conservative side of US politics.  Whether or not this was as universal as it seemed to be is hard to say since NFL players were not known for expressing their political views in public.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/27/sharpening-the-contradictions-from-the-fifty-yard-line/

Colonialism Never Gives Away Anything for Nothing

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/25/colonialism-never-gives-anything-away-for-nothing/

The Year of the Hippie Dream

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/15/the-year-of-the-hippie-dream/

If You Oppose Fascism, You Have to Oppose Fascists

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/08/if-you-oppose-fascism-you-have-to-oppose-fascists/

Gregor Samsa's Twentieth Century Blues

Renaissance man Marc Estrin publishes the director's cut of his 2002 novel.....

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/05/gregor-samsas-twentieth-century-blues/

White People Must Destroy White Supremacy

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/29/white-people-must-destroy-white-supremacy/

Bicoastal Beauty, Bicoastal Disgust

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/24/bicoastal-beauty-bicoastal-disgust/

Eve of Destruction...Or Revolution?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/08/eve-of-destructionor-revolution/

We Want the World and We Want it Now!

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/31/we-want-the-world-and-we-want-it-now/

Dylan and Woody: Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/24/dylan-and-woody-goin-down-the-road-feelin-bad/

Enforcing the Red Scare—From the FBI to the VA

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/14/enforcing-the-red-scare-from-the-fbi-to-the-va/

I Was Born Here, So What?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/04/i-was-born-here-so-what/

Gonna' Have to Face It, You're Addicted to War

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/28/gonna-have-to-face-it-youre-addicted-to-war/

Andrew Jackson and the American Psyche

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/23/andrew-jackson-and-the-american-psyche/

Nazis and Racists I Should Have Punched

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/14/nazis-and-racists-i-should-have-punched/

A Century of Socialism

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/09/a-century-of-socialism/

The Deep State is the State

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/26/the-deep-state-is-the-state/

Killing the Monsenor

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/killing-the-monsenor/

McMaster’s Civilized War for Civilization

Just because a general has a new way to fight a war doesn’t mean that war should be fought. The war in Afghanistan is not being incorrectly waged. Instead, it is the war and occupation of Afghanistan that is wrong.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/mcmasters-civilized-war-for-civilization/

Housing for People, Not for Profit

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/08/housing-for-people-not-for-profit/

Interview: US War Industry Profits from a Long War in Syria

http://www.muslimpress.com/Section-opinion-72/107815-us-war-industry-profits-enormously-from-long-war-in-syria

Hate Speech as Free Speech, How Does That Work Exactly?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/28/hate-speech-as-free-speech-how-does-that-work-exactly/

One Hundred Years That Shook the World

It’s as if John Reed, author of the classic piece of revolutionary journalism, Ten Days That Shook the World, woke from a decades-long sleep to tell the story of 1917 once again.  Although there is less personal detail, the sweep of Miéville’s story is equal to Reed’s in its breadth while matching it in passion.  It is Reed’s contention that the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers were at the front of the revolution.  One hundred years later, Miéville’s telling agrees.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/27/one-hundred-years-that-shook-the-world/

Syria: Beyond Western Myths and Half-Truths

A book about history that is ignored by so many....not meant as an endorsement of Assad and his army but certain to be taken that way by those unwilling or unable to look at the broader picture...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/11/syria-beyond-western-myths-and-half-truths/

Is There Anything Left to Us But to Organize and Fight?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/07/is-there-anything-left-to-us-but-to-organize-and-fight/

Mad Dog, Meet Eris, Queen of Strife

This isn't reason.  It is madness.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/28/mad-dog-meet-eris-queen-of-strife/

Music is Love, Music is Politics

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/24/music-is-love-music-is-politics/

Sharp Mind, Sharp Pen: Stuart Hall in Retrospect

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/17/sharp-mind-sharp-pen-stuart-hall-in-retrospect/

Islam: A Conversation on Paper

"Mourad and Anderson recently published a book titled The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson. It is a text with a grand mission: to introduce and inform non-Muslims of the history, and philosophical underpinnings and debates that make up the Islamic religion.Despite its rather small size, the book manages to succeed in its task."

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/islam-a-conversation-on-paper/

Empire in Crisis: “I Did Not Have a Meeting With That Envoy!”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/empire-in-crisis-i-did-not-have-a-meeting-with-that-envoy/

The Realist: Irreverence was Their Only Sacred Cow

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/the-realist-irreverence-was-their-only-sacred-cow/

U.S. Imperial War Personified

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/u-s-imperial-war-personified/

Revolution and the Color Line

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/10/revolution-and-the-color-line/

Fomite Interrogations

Fomite Press, which published my novels (so far) has begun a political pamphlet series.  Here is their explanation of the project:
"Given the exigencies of the time, Fomite would like to step outside its normal literary publishing practice, and add to its offerings a series of bound pamphlets on urgent political, social, cultural, and organizing issues from a radical, anti-capitalist viewpoint."

The titles are interesting and provocative.  My contribution to the project is titled Capitalism: Is the Problem...

Here is a link with more information and ordering details:
http://www.fomitepress.com/Tracts.html

Trumpism's Gleichschaltung?

As far as Bannon is concerned, a better comparison would be this: Steven Bannon is to Donald Trump what Josef Goebbels was to Hitler.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/03/trumpisms-gleichschaltung/

Sanctuary Status a Human Rights Issue, not Financial

If we don’t stand up for the rights of immigrants, who will be the next target of the forces now in control in Washington, D.C.?

https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/30/ron-jacobs-sanctuary-status-human-rights-issue-not-financial/

A Scheme is Not a Vision

If the bedrock of Trumpism is total allegiance to his version of the American state, the bedrock of our politics should be total opposition to Trumpism.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/27/a-scheme-is-not-a-vision/

Singing the Body Electric Across Time: A Review of Rebel Crossings.....

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/20/singing-the-body-electric-across-time/

Striking in Reagan Time

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/13/striking-in-reagan-time/

Warm San Francisco Nights

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/06/warm-san-francisco-nights/

2016 What Have You Wrought

Darkness at the Break of noon....
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/30/2016-what-have-you-wrought/

Democracy is Gone in the USA

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/23/democracy-is-gone-in-the-usa/

Bargaining for Salvation in the Devil’s Arena

According to the legend, Jes’ Grew comes and goes. Its peaks in the past one hundred years include the jazz age and the age of Rock and roll and Rhythm and Blues. One might argue that certain dance music of the current period might also be a hearkening of the Jes’ Grew infestation, but I think its insistence on mechanization renders its inclusion unlikely. However, Jes’ Grew will never die. And it gestates in festivals like Warren Haynes annual benefit show in Asheville, North Carolina. If it doesn’t save your soul, at least it makes you feel like living for another day.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/16/bargaining-for-salvation-in-the-devils-arena/

Surviving Hate and Death: The AIDS Crisis in the 1980s

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/09/surviving-hate-and-death-the-aids-crisis-in-1980s-usa/

Selling Racism--A Lesson From South Africa

The movement against South African apartheid was perhaps the most universal and popular movement in the western world in the 1980s. Hundreds of thousands protested in a multitude of ways—from letter-writing campaigns to shantytown occupations of city squares and college campus greens.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/02/selling-racism-a-lesson-from-pretoria/

The Monstrous, the Sublime and the Plainly Wondrous

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/25/the-monstrous-the-sublime-and-the-plainly-wondrous/

Alice D. Millionaire—Owsley and the Counterculture

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/14/alice-d-millionaire-owsley-and-the-counterculture/

The Flim Flam Man

It's so damn American. The settler class of white Europeans living away from the big mean city get conned by a loudmouth bullshittin' big city con man who has never made an honest buck in his life. He plays into their fears; of brown skinned foreigners, angry black people still pissed about their ancestors being enslaved, uppity women who misuse the rights they got, and big city banks and financiers who just want to take their money and their land.  Promising to keep the scared people safe, the film-flam man goes back to his rich friends, laughing to himself about how he loves the uneducated. 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/09/the-flim-flam-man-does-pennsylvania-avenue/

The Greeks, the Troika, Resistance and History

As we head into 2017, the world seems to be heading towards even greater uncertainty.  The nationalist rejection of the EU in Britain, the uncertain meaning of the US election and future (at this writing) results, a seeming desire by western capitals and Russia for greater war in the Middle East, and various artificial bubbles created and maintained by the gamblers in the financial markets; all of these seem to point to more of the same for Greece with an ever growing likelihood that the next burst financial bubble will take down more than just those economies considered on the fringe of the central markets.  This uncertainty alone is reason enough to read this book. 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/04/the-greeks-the-troika-resistance-and-history/

Death to the Fascist Insect! The SLA and the Cops

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/28/death-to-the-fascist-insect-the-sla-and-the-cops/

A Theory of Despair? The Frankfurt School Gets a Biography

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/21/a-theory-of-despair/

STFU About World War Three Already

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/14/stfu-about-world-war-three-already/

A Brief History of the Last Fifty Years in This Nation of Swine

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/11/a-brief-history-of-the-last-fifty-years-in-this-nation-of-swine/

Studs Terkel--Interpreter of America

A review of Alan Wieder's new biography...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/07/studs-terkel-interpreter-of-america/