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Giovanni Arrighi 1937-2009
Jun 24, 2009
We were saddened to learn that Giovanni Arrighi, professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University and one of our favorite anticapitalist theorists of the world-system, passed away on June 18th, after a year-long battle with cancer. We were privileged to work closely with Giovanni in recent years, especially during the symposium we helped organize around his last book, Adam Smith in Beijing. His rigorous and inventive work on the long-term dynamics of global capitalism remains a touchstone for many us in trying to come to grips with our current historical conjecture (especially as every new bit of financial news further confirms his theses about the decline of the hegemonic role of the US in the world system). We'll miss you, Giovanni.
Links:
Obituary by Steven Colatrella (Midnight Notes)
David Harvey interviews Giovanni Arrighi in New Left Review
May 2009 conference on the work of Giovanni Arrighi in Madrid
more >>Baltimore Free School - Pilot Session this Summer!
Jun 22, 2009
Head over to the brand new Baltimore Free School Website for a major update on this new project's first steps, including an exciting summer pilot session - now accepting course proposals! Plus notes, audio, and pictures from the Free School general assembly two weeks ago.
more >>
The Big 3
Jun 14, 2009
All modesty aside, we’ve been up to some pretty rad things here at Red Emma’s lately.
For instance, I’m sure you’ve had the delicious vegan cake, muffins, and/or donuts we now sell. However, did you know all the reasons why we’re proud to serve Brunie’s Bakery? There’s more to love about vegan sweet eats than simply orgasmic and flavorful pleasure. How can that be you may ask? Well, we have every desire to elaborate on why we’re in love with vegan baked goods. Just read on and envision dancing donuts all the while.
Speaking of yummy things to put in your tummy, it’s summer and fresh produce is without a doubt one of the best things about the season. Your favorite radical baristas (us, of course) have always tried to serve food to you that we believe in. From now until the chill of late fall, we will be making weekly runs to the farmer’s market. We do this in an effort to give you local, fresh, noncommercially sold green goods. Not only that, but we are extremely honored to serve you delicious outgrowth from Participation Park, which, by the way, is definitely our favorite local, urban, community garden.
Lastly, just when you thought it couldn’t get more delectable, we are extremely excited to serve True Trade coffee from Café Para la Vida Digna. Ever since Café Rebelion closed its doors (for more details, please visit, http://www.caferebelion.com/index.html) , we’ve been rather at a loss on how to support the autonomous communities in Chiapas through our coffee buying. Yet, those concerns are no more ever since we joyfully found Café Para la Vida Digna (Coffee for a Life with Dignity). Café Para la Vida Digna is an all-volunteer-run, officially recognized cooperative/project of the Zapatista Autonomous Municipality en Rebellion, Ricardo Flores Magon of Chiapas, Mexico, that gives 100 percent of the proceeds back to RFM. Hopefully, for the rest of our days, we will be able to pour you a cup of their coffee or sell you a bag to take home.
We have many more wonderful things to say about these three projects.
So, look at the bottom of this announcement. Do you see the little red link that says ‘read more’? Oh, you do, do you? Well, that’s great and I’ll tell you why… when you click on the link, you will be directed to a page that will fill you with much more information as to why Brunie’s Bakery, Participation Park, and Café Para la Vida Digna all majorly rock!
We do hope you will stop in for a cup of ethically traded coffee. While you’re at it, please take a look at our food menu. You might be surprised with how exquisite eating-to- support-your-community can be. Then, after we’ve caffeinated you and given you your vitamins- bite into a slice of vegan cake, a.k.a. heaven, and let your taste buds soar!
more >>
The Red Emma's Free School Project
May 7, 2009
UPDATE: FREE SCHOOL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, THURSDAY JUNE 4th, 7PM @ 2640!
Red Emma's, along with a rapidly growing crew of learners, teachers, and supporters, is taking the first steps towards a new space for radical education in Baltimore - we're envisioning putting together enough community support to open up this summer. We've already got teachers ready to go to teach everything from languages (Spanish, Russian, French, and Arabic) to fighting the prison industrial complex, from pattern making and print design to the history of surrealism. We're looking for interested students and potential "faculty" who want to participate in this experiment in 100% free schooling, as well for a network of people willing to donate to make it a reality. If you've got questions, want to be kept in the loop for potential upcoming classes, or would like to pitch a course idea, get in touch at freeschool@redemmas.org. If you'd like to help us pay the roughly $500/month we'll need to raise for rent expenses for the new space, you can go ahead and set up a small monthly payment via paypal - it's not going to take much money to get this off the ground, but it is going to take some, and every little bit helps!
More info on the project's website: freeschool.redemmas.org
more >>
¡No pasarán! - Abel Paz has passed (1921-2009)
Apr 14, 2009
Diego Camacho better known as Abel Paz, has passed away as of April 13th 2009. Paz, born in 1921 in Almeria, Spain; spent his entire life in the struggle for social justice. In 1936 a young Paz was at the barricades in Barcelona with Anarchist Militias and the CNT fighting against the fascist Coup of Francisco Franco . After the fall of the Spanish Republic to Franco's coup, Paz was forced into exile in France where by 1940 he was arrested and placed into a Nazi concentration camp. Paz escaped and returned, clandestinely to Spain and joined the Maquis - a Spanish and French guerilla group aimed at liberating Spain and France from Franco and Hitler's facism. Paz was soon arrested by Franco's police and spent over a decade in Prison. Upon his release he returned to France in exile and joined the French CNT, and by May 1968 Paz was at the Paris Barricades of that uprising.
In exile Paz became a historian, author and speaker. He wrote the biography of Buenaventura Durruti (Spanish anarchist militant) called Durruti: The people armed, as well as his own autobiography that chronicles nearly a century of radical and anarchist movements. Paz was tireless in his passion for speaking and engaging about radical left social movements and continued to do so up until his death of 87 years old....a las otros barricadas.
more >>
In Memoriam: Franklin Rosemont (1943-2009)
Apr 13, 2009
We were shocked and saddened to hear today that Franklin Rosemont, co-founder of the Chicago Surrealist Group , preeminent Wobbly historian and folklorist, and managing co-editor of the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, passed away on the night of April 12th in Chicago. Franklin's involvement with the international Surrealist movement dated to his 1965 meeting with André Breton in Paris - an encounter which crystallized into over 4 decades of activity as a partisan of the radical imagination. With his wife Penelope Rosemont, he co-founded the Chicago Surrealist Group - one of the most active and politically ingenious Surrealist formations in the second half of the 20th Century. The Chicago Group's declarations, manifestos, poetry, collage, and other interventions - much of it collected in their occasional journal Arsenal: Surrealist Subversions - has without a doubt inspired an entire new generation of revolution in the service of the marvelous.
His work on the history of the IWW, and especially on it's unparalleled cultural experimentation and innovation, remains an absolutely essential touchstone for anyone interested in the underground history of American radicalism. His book Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture is the definitive text on the Wobbly bard and martyr. Other books he wrote or edited for the Charles H. Kerr Company (the oldest labor press in the U.S., which he helped revive in the 1970's) or its Surrealist imprint, Black Swan Press, include the magnificient Haymarket Scrapbook, The Big Red Songbook, Jacques Vaché and the Roots of Surrealism, The Forecast is Hot! Tracts & Other Collective Declarations of the Surrealist Movement in the U.S., 1966-1976, and many, many more.
Several of us at Red Emma's had the amazing opportunity to know Franklin well - he was always quite supportive of the project, which we occasionally dared to hope reminded him in some small way of the legendary Solidarity Bookshop he helped run in Chicago in the 1960's. Sitting down with Franklin was always an incredible experience - between the history he himself helped create and the history he helped uncover, Franklin was never without a story to tell - about the IWW, SDS, Hobohemia in Chicago, the Rebel Worker, about the past 100 years or so of radical publishing in the US, or about the international network of Surrealists who seemed to always be passing through the Rosemont's Rogers Park home. He was a comrade, a teacher, and a friend, and he will be deeply, deeply missed.
more >>Mayday Rally: Support the Sheraton Workers!
Apr 12, 2009
On Friday May 1st, at 4:00 pm, workers and allies will gather for a
huge rally in support of UNITE HERE's City Center Sheraton boycott,
and in support of worker rights and decent treatment for all laborers.
Join us this Mayday to celebrate and drive home our solidarity and
strength as a community. Stand in support of UNITE HERE workers, and
help win this long struggle to win living conditions for Baltimore
workers and strengthen one of the fastest growing industries in the
city. more >>
Human rights zone march April 18th, 2009
Apr 11, 2009
The Human Rights Zone March is a peaceful and celebratory march led by low-wage workers, community organizers, faith communities and organized labor allies of the United Workers . The march represents the first major step forward in what will likely be a long and difficult struggle to secure the economic human rights to health care, education and work with dignity for every low-wage worker at the Inner Harbor.
We're expecting our largest turnout ever. Groups have already confirmed that there will be chartered buses and caravans from Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York and Florida. Hundreds of people in and around Baltimore have already confirmed that they'll be joining us for the march.
- The march will be a powerful and direct expression of community solidarity for economic human rights
- As with every United Workers action or event, the march will be a peaceful expression of human dignity
Back in stock! Red Emma's T-Shirts
Mar 31, 2009
Thanks to local screen printers Dysphoria, we're happy to announce that Red Emma's t-shirts are back in stock! more >>
Peter DeMott Presente
Feb 27, 2009
Peace activist Peter DeMott, age 62, died in a tragic work accident on February 19th. A loving father and husband, faithful friend and committed activist, Peter was responsible for many acts of civil disobedience. He spent time in prison for numerous anti war protests and often his family was beside him during these acts of resistance. He was a former member of the Jonah House Community, Vietnam War Veteran and part of the Catholic Worker Movement.
In 2003, he was one of the St Patricks' four, where he, two of his sister in laws and a friend poured their blood on the walls, posters, windows, and a US flag at a military recruiting center in order to try to stop the imminent invasion of Iraq. The state trial resulted in a hung jury. Later unsatisfied with this act of justice, the Federal courts retried the St. Patrick's Four and Peter served four months in prison for that trial.
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