Why do radical movements and spaces sometimes feel laden with fear, anxiety, suspicion, self-righteousness and competition? The authors call this phenomenon rigid radicalism: congealed and toxic ways of relating that have seeped into radical movements, posing as the ‘correct’ way of being radical. In conversation with organizers and intellectuals from a wide variety of currents, the authors explore how rigid radicalism smuggles itself into radical spaces, and how it is being undone. Rather than proposing ready-made solutions, they amplify the questions that are already being asked among movements. Fusing together movement-based perspectives and contemporary affect theory, they trace emergent forms of trust, care and responsibility in a wide variety of radical currents today, including indigenous resurgence, anarchism, transformative justice, and youth liberation. Joyful Militancy foregrounds forms of life in the cracks of Empire, revealing the ways that fierceness, tenderness, curiosity, and commitment can be intertwined.
Interviewees include Silvia Federici, adrienne maree brown, Marina Sitrin, Gustavo Esteva, Tasnim Nathoo, Kian Cham, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Sebastian Touza, Walidah Imarisha, Margaret Killjoy, Glen Coulthard, Richard Day, Melanie Matining, Zainab Amadahy and Mik Turje.
Includes full interviews of Silvia Federici and Kian Cham
All images by Pete Railand at Justseeds
*Visual description of the cover: A large red thistle or teasel flower head and stem takes up nearly the entire cover, slanting to the right, with motion lines going outward from the flower. The background is 3/4 yellow with a stripe of blue down the right side. The title of the book and the authors’ names are at the bottom right (Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times by Nick Montgomery and carla bergman; Foreword by Hari Alluri).*
