AK Press
By Abel Folgar
Friday. Jul 01, 6:53 PM
15 years of fighting the good fight: an interview with Josh Warren-White.

Just a little idea about yourself and the AK Press in general…

Clearly I think (and as a collective we agree) that there are some pretty large, fundamental problems with how our society is structured, and those problems result in the daily misery and exploitation of a great majority of the world's population. This is what we publish books about, as tools to help people understand and change the world. From my understanding, the main failings of our current society revolve around capitalism, racism, imperialism, patriarchy, and state control. I'll explain what role I think they each play:

1. Capitalism
I understand Capitalism to be a system of domination that creates wealth and power for the ruling class through the exploitation of land, waged and unwaged labor, and the oppression of working class people. By working class, I mean people who do not own or control the means of their own production, so they are forced to sell their labor.

It's clear that we live in a Capitalist society, where basically there's an entire class of people who become rich from stealing the labor and resources of another class of people. That's not cool. And frankly, it pisses me off.

I am an anti-Capitalist, fighting for a society in which the goods and services are distributed equally, according to people's needs, and where workers own and control the means of production. In these terms, my politics come out of the Socialist and Communist traditions, in the true sense of the words – in that I am fighting for a society free of any and all classes – but I (and the rest of AK Press) reject the totalitarian state as a vehicle toward a liberated society (as was attempted in communist Russia, China, Cuba, etc.). As Mikhael Bakunin said "freedom without Socialism is privilege. Socialism without freedom is tyranny." This makes me an Anarchist. And as I'm sure you're aware, we are an Anarchist collective.

2. Racism
I understand racism as a hierarchical power relationship based on the social construct of "race.” In the context of the United States, this is a vertical power arrangement with "Whites" at the top and all other peoples lined up below. Those at the top manipulate and exploit those at the bottom to their material and psychological advantage. They institutionalize racial oppression to provide for, and defend their own class domination. This relationship developed historically, at least in part, to divide the working class, and cement White workers to the White ruling class, as opposed to their class allies, the oppressed people of the world. I can flush out this history more if you like… it's pretty central to my politics…

A similar dynamic of oppression and privilege exists within all systems of domination such as Capitalism (based on class), patriarchy (based on gender and sexuality), the state (based on political power), and many others. Whenever one group of people assumes absolute power over others, privilege is perpetuated and freedom denied.

I feel like this part is so central because the development of Capitalism in the United States has been intrinsically tied to the development of White supremacy and colonialism. I think this historical understanding is central to understanding the relationship of race and class in U.S. society, and for trying to understand a strategy to build a revolutionary movement among the American working class.

Racism has historically divided and neutralized left movements for radical social change within the United States, and thus I see it as a high priority to be creating multi-racial movements for fundamental change which can forge attacks at the institutional foundations of White supremacy, getting at the cracks within capitalism in the United States.

3. Imperialism
This one is pretty important today… I understand imperialism to be a higher stage of Capitalism: the drive for colonial conquest and empire. This process includes the development of an oppressor nation through the systematic and violent underdevelopment, looting of resources and exploitation of the "Third World." Imperialism is a system that feeds off piracy abroad (i.e. a group of thugs coming in and jacking another nation's shit [natural resources, labor, land, etc.]) while colonizing people of color and working class people at home.

U.S. imperialism is currently ravaging much of the "Third World" through globalization and war, and people's movements are actively combating its forces the world over. Clearly, we are anti-imperialists, and place ourselves within those global social movements.

4. Patriarchy
I understand patriarchy to be an economic, political, cultural, and social system of domination of women that privileges men. It permeates our whole society, radical circles, punk circles, and all... and generally is not cool in the least. It is based on binary definitions of gender – male/female – with strict gender roles. It also has rigidly enforced heterosexuality that places male/straight as superior and women/queer as inferior. I draw heavily from the tradition of radical feminism, and within this, identify strongly with women of color and third world feminism. I can elaborate more on why this is, but I'm likely boring you to death as it is… so I'll stop there on this one.

5. The State
From my understanding, the State developed side by side with class society, and its primary function has been to defend the interests of the ruling class. To basically say that it's cool and okay for rich people to jack poor people's shit. It is, has been, and always will be, an instrument of class rule. In part the State is the set of institutions and bodies through which government is exercised. It provides the legal and regulatory framework for civil society, and through the only force it deems legitimate, provides the necessary repression (i.e. cops, prisons, military, etc.) to save it's own ass.

The way I see it, the State is the pure antithesis of people having political control over their lives. And in that sense, I'm not a friend of the state, and really wish it didn't exist, and instead I hope someday people are able to make decisions about their society and lives within some sort of accountable, democratic fashion like neighborhood and workers' assemblies.

So, now that I'm done boring you with what I think is so fucked up about our society, here's the answer to your question: I'm at AK Press because I think our work here can play an important role providing people the tools that are necessary to overcome these failings. Specifically around making available analysis and history which can aid people in building mass based, popular social movements to fight the systems and institutions which are exploiting them, their families, and their communities, and begin to build a free society. Books play an important role here, especially in propagating ideas. And AK Press’ role in trying to popularize opposition to all this shit is, I think, an important one.

I personally know about AK Press from the punk rock scene and tabling at shows, as well as from small record stores and bookstores. What efforts do you take to reach people who may not be involved in, say, "subcultures" but share an interest (a few years ago, I lent a coworker my copy of Alternative Tentacle’s Mumia Abu-Jamal/Man Is The Bastard split record and he was blown away by Mr. Abu-Jamal. We talked about Mr. Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, but lord did he hate Man Is The Bastard!)?

Punk rock has been important to politics, especially to the growth and popularization of anarchist politics among this generation, but clearly it has its limitations. AK Press grew out of the punk scene, just as you pointed out, through tabling at shows and distributing material through various outlets, but is clearly trying to reach a broader audience. We think the politics (not wanting rich people to be stealing the labor of poor people, to counter oppression in general, and have people be in control of their own lives, etc.) clearly speak to people outside of the punk scene.

While our name is certainly the most well known amongst the punk milieu, we've been able to branch out pretty far. We spend a lot of time tabling at all sorts of events, including academic conferences (trying to convince professors to use our books in their classes so that their students are exposed to the ideas), hip-hop concerts, anti-war marches (in the Bay Area where we are, these can draw upwards of 200,000 people), community events in Oakland, churches, community centers, schools, parks, etc. We really are able to get out there pretty far. And everywhere we go people are thrilled to see us… they're really yearning for media outlets who are saying the things we're saying, and making available the resources we do. There is a huge demand, both within the punk scene and definitely outside of it.

I know we hear "member owned and operated" a lot (my credit union loves to throw that one around), but how exactly does this work for AK Press? Has the plan been followed since day one, or has changing times allowed for changes to the infrastructure?

Certainly things have changed and shifted over our history, mostly because of huge growth within the collective. For many years, AK Press was one person, Ramsey Kanaan, operating out of a bedroom. When it officially founded as a collective (15 years ago, in 1990), it was three people. Now we are nine (soon to be 10) in the United States and two in the UK. So we have quadrupled in size since our official and legal birth, and clearly have had to go through some shifts in our infrastructure and how we operate.

Those changes have largely been pragmatic. As in: how do we divide all the work of such a large organization? But, as it stands now, every member of the collective has full decision-making control over all aspects of the collective's work. You can imagine how inefficient democracy as thorough as this can be… but it is worth it. We have a collective meeting every work day (five days a week). As a group we all decide what we are going to distribute, what we are going to publish, how our time and jobs are going to be structured, who to hire, etc. We all are paid the same wage, and ideally carry the same work burden.

We have specific job responsibilities (some people do mail order, some people do shipping and receiving, someone does accounting, someone does marketing and publicity, someone does tech work, etc.), but we all share equally everything from changing light-bulbs sweeping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, to coordinating publishing projects.

Joel Andreas' Adicto a la Guerra… is now in print. You've distro-ed Spanish titles before, but this is your first published. What has prompted this decision? Is it too early to tell if there will be more? Is the changing cultural climate of the U.S. and a growing need worldwide for these materials to exist a factor?
This book in particular, Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism, has done really, really well for us. It's sold tens of thousands of copies, and has been widely picked up for use in classrooms all around the country from universities to high schools. It's really been extraordinary.

We want to reach as many sectors of society as possible with our books, and the demand for the Spanish titles we distribute has been growing and growing as more people come to see us as a resource of radical Spanish language material. With this book in particular, clearly much of the Spanish speaking population is some of the most targeted by the repressive hand of the state, through military intervention, economic policies, and the INS and U.S. border policies, so this book should be a good fit… and the demand for it should be there.

So it is somewhat of an experiment to see if we can do well in this market, and see if we can get word out that AK Press is a spot where you can find these kinds of resources. And if it goes over well, and the demand is there, I'm sure we'll continue. We'd certainly like to… we'll just have to see if we can move enough books to make it possible.

AK Press addresses close to 50 topics, some obvious and some surprising. How does an Anarchist collective arrive at cookbooks, kids/education/family, and what factors determine inclusion? How strong are the efforts on the collective's side to pursue a broader audience? What has been the reader's response?

A number of factors weigh in on what we decide to pick up for distribution. First usually is “do we think it is politically important?” Do we think that this book (or CD, DVD, video) will be helpful to people who are trying to build a free society? Of course we are a collective made up of individuals who have somewhat different understandings of what "politically important" is, and we debate and vote. The second factor usually is “will it sell?” Though we are a leftist political project, we are still a business constrained by having to pay the rent, keep our doors open, etc. So there are lots of items which we pick up for distribution that we think are vitally politically important, but don't sell very well. At the same time there's a bunch of things that sell really well, that we don't find offensive, but we also aren't very politically excited by, but that we carry because they pay our rent. That's the nature of it. Cookbooks may not bring about a social revolution, but its clear that people want them and they sell well. So we carry the best of them.

What mainstream stereotypes has AK Press run afoul of? What kind of resistance have you met in retail/academic environments? What is the attitude toward detractors? Any situations come to mind?

Of course most people we run into think that, since we're Anarchists we're going to eat their children. Just joking… we are advancing efforts which force academics to take us seriously as a press. We are taking on more efforts to get our books picked up as course texts in universities so the politics get out to a wider body of people, and can hopefully get drawn into the intellectual training of America's youth. This hasn't been very difficult. When we find like-minded professors, they are often thrilled that we exist, and see us as a strong resource for their work. Sorry I have no funny stories here…

On that note, what is the significance of 15 years? Aside from tabling and word-of-mouth, AK Press has obviously done something extremely well: hard work, labor of love… sure, but what else has contributed to your success? What has your competition been during the years? What events are planned in celebration of this 15th year? This one gets more than just a pat on the back, I'm sure.

I think our 15 years is marked by a strong resurgence in the interest of Anarchist ideas from the late ‘90s until today. Of course we're not going to claim credit for that, but clearly AK Press has played a role in popularizing Anarchism as a body of political thought within youth culture, and by providing rigorous theoretical tools (books), helping to bring Anarchism's influence on youth culture beyond a style choice or lifestyle politic.

AK Press was the first to introduce spoken word CDs into the book world, flooding the area with radical activist/intellectuals critically engaging with society. Before us I'm not sure that you would go to punk shows and see CDs of Chomsky, Mumia, Howard Zinn, Angela Davis, Alexander Cockburn, Ward Churchill, etc. sitting on merchandise tables next to band CDs.

In celebration of our 15 years of blood, sweat, tears, and social struggle (not to mention the packing of boxes, sitting in meetings, reading endless manuscripts, etc.), we'll be throwing a blow-out party, The Weakerthans will be playing an anniversary show for us in San Francisco, we'll be having a night of epic radical speakers in Oakland (it's not finalized, but likely Ward Churchill, Alexander Cockburn, Utah Phillips, and Kathy Kelly), and we've released snazzy new AK Press 15 Year Anniversary t-shirts and hoodies.

Oh, and folks (like you) are running articles on our history and work. Clamor Magazine just released a cover story on us.

What is the relationship with the European office? Are both sides of the Atlantic considered during collective meetings? How important is it to the press to have a European wing active? In comparison with your U.S. office, how is AK Press doing in Europe? Given that almost of your entire catalogue targets a worldwide audience, have there been instances in which a particular publication is aimed at a particular zone/demographic?

In terms of the operational relationship between the UK and the U.S., we have separate distribution efforts. Where we act in unison, and coordinate heavily is in the realm of publishing. We all release the same books. We have annual meetings where we plan our publishing schedules and debate different projects.

There are definitely publications that we've released which have been specific to one of the regions. We published a book a couple years ago, called Beat the Heat, that is a "know-your-rights guide." Clearly your rights are different in the UK than in the U.S… so this is a title that we only sell in the U.S. This has been the case on a few occasions.

We can't get through a Q&A session without mention of the past elections... what does AK Press do during an election year? What efforts do you put forth when the political machine unleashes its merciless onslaught on the media and Everyman's psyche?

We continue to put out books which make it clear that Bush is the enemy of working class and oppressed people, and so is Kerry, or which ever figurehead the Democratic Party sticks on there. Books which point to the fundamental contradictions within representative Capitalist Democracy, and which point to communities having complete political control over their lives in a non-Capitalist society, as being the only way toward freedom.

This election year, while the market was being flooded with books declaring Bush the enemy of the world (which he is, let’s be clear), and at times heralding the Democratic Party as the world's saving grace, we released a book edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair called Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils, which argues that the Democrats are in fact just as much not our friends, pointing to the overhaul of the welfare system (as an attack on working class communities of color) and economic sanctions against Iraq (and the 500,000 dead children which resulted), as prime examples of the Democrat's "friendly" policies of economic warfare.

They are different beasts, but neither are friends of oppressed people.

So to answer the question, in an election year we do what we do every other year, which is to point out the inherent contradictions of a social structure which gives power to the few while exploiting the many.

How involved are you in voting awareness and how do you feel about Fat Mike's punkvoter.com and/or P. Diddy's vote or die campaigns? How effective and longlasting do feel these efforts are? Do you back this kind of activism or do you consider it a trendy way of trivializing politics? What comments/advice would you give?

I'll just say that it's not our focus, and clearly we have political disagreements. Encouraging people to continue thinking that the sole way they can (and should) participate in politics is to passively cast a vote every four years, as opposed to building powerful social movements is somewhat problematic. That's not to say that voter registration drives have not played an important role within social movements (see SNCC in the Civil Rights movement). And not to say that people shouldn't vote. Voting is a tactic, and one that – in my opinion – can't be ruled out… but people have to be prepared to engage in other forms of social struggle in order to build the kind of movements that it will take to change society. I think the emphasis should be on the social movements themselves, not on the tactic of voting.
www.akpress.org

Abel Folgar

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.