Z Books
Recent Z Books
Burns: The Vanishing Individual:
Jan 16, 2012
Confronted with such an impregnable, all powerful, all devouring System, individuals have no choice but to take evasive measures. And if they choose some version of parasitic anarchism they can, Burns maintains, find all kinds of encouragement and help in books -- more particularly in the great novels of the past and near past.
Bradley: Women, Violence and Tradition
Sep 01, 2011
Taking FGM and other practices to a secular state
Becker: José Carlos Mariátegui
Jul 09, 2011
José Carlos Mariátegui is one of Latin America’s most profound but overlooked thinkers. A self-taught journalist, social scientist, and activist from Peru, he was the first to emphasize that those fighting for the revolutionary transformation of society must adapt classical Marxist theory to the particular conditions of Latin America. He also stressed that indigenous peoples must take an active, if not leading, role in any revolutionary struggle.
Becker: Pachakutik
Jul 09, 2011
This authoritative book provides a deeply informed overview of one of the most dynamic social movements in Latin America. Focusing on contemporary Indigenous movements in Ecuador, leading scholar Marc Becker traces the growing influence of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), which in 1990 led a powerful uprising that dramatically placed a struggle for Indigenous rights at the center of public consciousness. Activists began to refer to this uprising as a 'pachakutik,' a Kichwa word that means change, rebirth, and transformation, both in the sense of a return in time and the coming of a new era. Five years later, proponents launched a new political movement called Pachakutik to compete for elected office. In 2006, Ecuadorians elected Rafael Correa, who many saw as emblematic of the new Latin American left, to the presidency of the country. Even though CONAIE, Pachakutik, and Correa shared similar concerns for social justice, they soon came into conflict with each other. Becker examines the competing strategies and philosophies that emerge when social movements and political parties embrace comparable visions but follow different paths to realize their objectives. In exploring the multiple and conflictive strategies that Indigenous movements have followed over the past twenty years, he definitively documents the recent history and charts the trajectory of one of the Americas' most powerful and best organized social movements.
Brown: Ballot Box China
Feb 24, 2011
This book looks at the history of the experiments in grassroots democracy in China, how they arose, what they have achieved and where they might be going.
Bayoumi: Midnight on the Mavi Marmara
Nov 16, 2010
Eastern Mediterranean, Monday, May 31st, 2010, 4.30am: Israeli commandos, boarding from sea and air, attack the six boats of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla as it sails through international waters bringing humanitarian relief to the beleaguered Palestinians of Gaza. Within minutes, nine peace activists are dead, shot by the Israelis. Scores of others are injured. The 700 people on board the ships are arrested before being transported to detention centers in Israel and then deported. Within hours, outrage at Israel’s action echoes around the world. Spontaneous demonstrations in Europe, the United States, Turkey, and Gaza itself denounce the attack. Turkey’s prime minister describes it as a “bloody massacre” and “state terrorism.” Lebanon’s prime minister calls it “a dangerous and crazy step that will exacerbate tensions in the region.” In these pages, a range of activists, journalists, and analysts piece together the events that occurred that May night, unpicking their meanings for Israel’s illegal, three-year-long blockade of Gaza and the decades-long Israel/Palestine conflict more generally. Mixing together first-hand testimony, documentary record, and illustration, with hard-headed analysis and historical overview, Midnight on the Mavi Marmara reveals why the attack on Gaza Freedom Flotilla may just turn out to be Israel’s Selma, Alabama: the beginning of the end for an apartheid Palestine.
Baillargeon: Find Your Inner Chomsky
Oct 15, 2010
What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful?
Baillargeon: Find Your Inner Chomsky
Oct 15, 2010
What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful?
Baillargeon: Find Your Inner Chomsky
Oct 15, 2010
What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful?
Baillargeon: Find Your Inner Chomsky
Oct 15, 2010
What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful?
Blunden: Ethical Politics
Sep 22, 2010
This book, written by long time political activist Andy Blunden, introduces the concept of ethical politics and presents an analysis, for both Marxist and non-Marxist readers, of the conditions under which ethical politics arises. Part 1, offers an overview of the political terrain of the current period; Part 2 traces the changes in forms of radical political subjectivity since the early 19th century; Part 3 reviews the problems of alliance politics, and Part 4 pulls together topics such as the intersection of ethics and politics, liberalism versus communitarianism, redistributive justice and recognition and offers a concise statement of ethical politics and theory. An added feature of the book is a set of review essays by the author which critique major works by Fukuyama, Rawls and others. For Ethical Politics is an original and challenging contribution to the literature which warrants broad discussion.
Baker: Equality
Aug 20, 2010
Co-authors: Kathleen Lynch, Sara Cantillon, Judy Walsh. How can egalitarian ideals be put into action? Integrating normative questions about the ideal of equality with empirical issues about the nature of inequality, this book it applies a new framework to a wide range of contemporary inequalities.
Becker: Indians and Leftists
Aug 20, 2010
In this richly documented account, Becker chronicles a long history of Indigenous political activism in Ecuador, from the creation of the first local agricultural syndicates in the 1920s through the galvanizing protests of 1990. In so doing, he reveals the central role of women in Indigenous movements and the history of productive collaborations between rural Indigenous activists and urban leftist intellectuals.
Brecher: Strike!
Aug 12, 2010
Originally published in 1972, "Strike!" describes the story of repeated, massive and often violent revolts by ordinary working people in America.
Bello: Dark Victory
Aug 12, 2010
As we enter the 21st century, many countries of the South are in a state of economic crisis, with once optimistic visions of the future cruelly dashed by rising mass poverty, inequality, and hunger.
Bookchin: Post Scarcity Anarchism
Aug 07, 2010
Considers the connections between ecological and revolutionary thought, presents arguments that the world had newly arrived at conditions of post-scarcity and technological efficiency that offer liberatory potentials for industrial and agricultural workers to institute self-management,
