Joyful Militancy

"Absolutely what we need in these days of spreading gloom." -John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism "A guide to a fulfilling militant life." -Michael Hardt, co-author of Assembly "Rigid radicalism" is the congealed and debilitating practices that suck life and inspiration from the fight for a better world. Joyful Militancy investigates how fear, self-righteousness, and moralism infiltrate and take root within liberation movements, what to do about them, and ultimately how tenderness and vulnerability can thrive alongside fierce militant commitment. Carla Bergman co-edited Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook For Youth. Nick Montgomery is an organizer and writer currently at Queen's University.

Carla Bergman: Carla Bergman has worked with youth in alternatives-to-education projects for over fifteen years. She co-directed the film: Common Notions: Handbook Not Required and co-edited the Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook For Youth. Nick Montgomery: Nick Montgomery is an organizer and writer currently finishing a PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen's University. His work focuses on alternatives to the capitalism, gender violence, settler colonialism, and ecological degradation. Hari Alluri: Hari Alluri, an award-winning poet, educator, and teaching artist, is the author of Carving Ashes (2013), The Promise of Rust (2016), and The Flayed City (2017)

Introduction -- Intro to intro -- Questions -- Affirmative theory -- Joy and the Spinozan current -- Joyful militancy and emergent powers -- Beyond optimism and pessimism -- On anarchism -- The beginning of a conversation -- Structure of the book Chapter 1: Empire, Militancy and Joy -- Resistance and joy are everywhere -- Sadness and subjection -- Joy is not happiness -- The power of joy -- Militant about joy -- Starting from where people find themselves Chapter 2: Friendship, freedom, ethics -- Introduction -- Friendship is the root of freedom -- From morality to ethics -- What can friendship do? -- Solidarity begins at home -- The ethics of affinity in anarchism -- Connecting Spinozan current to Indigenous resurgence -- Friendship and freedom have sharp edges -- The active shaping of our worlds together Chapter 3: Trust and Responsibility as Common Notions -- Trust and responsibility as common notions -- (Mis)trust and (ir)responsibility under Empire -- Empire's radical monopoly over life -- Towards conviviality -- Emergent trust and responsibility: three examples -- Indigenous struggles -- Anti-violence and transformative justice -- Deschooling and youth liberation -- The power of baseline trust -- Infinite trust and responsibilities? -- Holding common notions gently Chapter 4: Rigid Radicalism -- Introduction -- It's those people -- The paradigm of government -- Decline and counterrevolution -- The perils of comparing -- Having good politics Chapter 5: Sources of Rigid Radicalism, Sources of Joy -- Introduction -- Ideology -- Ideology in Leninism -- Ideology in anarchism -- Critique of ideology as such -- Undoing ideology -- Morality, fear, and ethical attunement -- Christian origins of morality -- Morality in movements -- Warding off morality with common notions -- You're so paranoid, you probably think this section is about you -- Lack-finding, perfectionism, schooling, walking -- Radical perfectionism and paranoid reading -- Holding ambivalence -- The limits of critique: from paranoia to potential -- Towards new encounters Outro -- Rigid radicalism can be hard to talk about -- Three modes of attunement Appendix 1: Feeling Powers Growing Within Yourself: An Interview with Silvia Federici Appendix 2: Breaking down the walls around each other: the transformative power of trust - An Interview with Kelsey Cham Corbett Glossary of Terms Acknowledgements Bibliography