"Ian Rankin once explained to an interviewer (the head of the Indian Communist Party!) that crime fiction is a way of talking about social inequality. Ron Jacobs applies that same maxim to the Sixties... in his wonderfully noir trilogy of those exhilarating and troubled times. And what Rankin does for Edinburgh, Jacobs amply illuminates for the Movement. Much much more than ripping yarns (though they are that too), from a master who's been there, done that, and lived to tell a tale or two."

--Ramsey Kanaan, Publisher PM Press/noir enthusiast

Monday, March 6, 2017

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/

Thursday, February 9, 2017

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

Friday, February 3, 2017

Friday, January 27, 2017

Friday, December 16, 2016

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/

Friday, December 2, 2016

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/