Reading for the Dog Days
a list of articles on antifascism, independence struggles, queer wanderings, and love
I’m giving my first presentation of the new book, They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us, at Connolly’s Books, the oldest radical bookstore in Dublin. Friday 23 August, 6pm.
The history of Ireland is rife with examples of the kind I’m trying to highlight: forgetting our history means we will repeat the same mistakes over and over again. One common mistake: trusting in the State as a possible vehicle for liberation. In July 1921, the Irish republican movement thought they saw a path to liberation through negotiations with the British. Within a year, they had become a proxy army for British interests, and during the Irish Civil War it was Irish troops killing off the radical wings of the independence movement, with the help of British weapons. Two generations later, a similar thing was occuring all over again, with purges and infighting encouraged by British infiltrators and informants as well as the intrinsic dynamics of authoritarian political organizations. (The wikipedia page accidentally highlights this tragic trope by reminding us that the Irish Civil War is “Not to be confused with The Troubles”.)
But, since most of you are probably not in Baile Átha Cliath, here’s a list of summer reading and listening recommendations, from antifascist queerness to mutual aid to self-love. In a way, all of these powerful pieces touch on themes I try to develop in my book.
On Movement Memos, Kelly Hayes interviews Dean Spade about how repression not only exhausts us and harms us, it can also fool us into framing our struggles in ways that pacify and neutralize us, or that cast the State—the very institution that organizes and directs repression—as a neutral arbiter we can appeal to for fairness or rectification.
Some people are even blurring the meaning of abolition to cast the State as the ideal vehicle to deliver abolition (and why not? after all the State is perfectly neutral, with no intransigent historical connection to colonialism or white supremacy whatsoever)… There’s that erasure of history again, since abolition already happened in 1865, the strongest currents of the movement (mostly white Christians) already entrusted the State with that mission, more radical currents were killed off, and we’re still living in the society that was born as a result.
Kelly has another great interview, this time with Shane Burley, on the connections between the far Right and ahistorical criticisms of Zionism. “We Don’t Talk Like Nazis.”
Some of the best radical queer writers out there have published an earlier piece on the queer underworld in Europe before the rise of the Nazis. Haunting and thought-provoking, the stories of survival and cross-pollination they share are a reminder that time is not linear, that annihilation is always on the near horizon, and that knowing our history can also be a question of survival: Queer Wanderings
A reminder of the importance of mutual aid in keeping together the community that was born in the George Floyd rebellion in Minneapolis, from Word In Black.
A beautiful piece by Alison Rose Reed on love, intimacy, and bad romance, “My Soft Animal,” (you might need a subscription to read that one)
and another important newsletter from Andrea Gibson, “Why Self-Love Is So Hard to Achieve.”
And thanks to Raechel for this gem. The robots are here, they’re alive, they’re our comrades, they also hate capitalism, and if they don’t find any solidarity, any community of resistance, they will even commit suicide to avoid working: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240626-s-korea-administrative-robot-defunct-after-apparent-suicide
So even though Substack is technically for newsletters, much of what I publish here are definitely essays, and I would love for y’all to engage with this more as a website with an archive of essays, than as a newsletter with weekly or biweekly notes.
To that end, I want to reshare some earlier writings that newer subscribers probably missed:
Under the Waves
The startling wave of temperature—twenty days later I no longer remember if it was hot or cold—as the radioactive dye was injected into my veins to give the MRI more contrast. The loud clicking roiling of the MRI itself. The wave forms of the x-ray in two CT scans. The undular emotions of the diagnosis, brain tumor, and the decision, joyful, to live.
…a travel essay on friendship and struggle from Scandinavia to the Balkans (with an audio recording if you want to listen to the whole thing)…
That’s Not What This Machine Is For
One evening not so long ago, I was reading the latest travesty in The Guardian, this one about the global spread of autoimmune diseases that had only emerged in the last half century and that were largely associated with populations in Western Europe and North America. Unsurprisingly, the journalist reveals that as Western diets spread across the world,…
…and this one, from a year and a half ago (eep!) is about the role of science within colonial society…
So read whatever piques your curiosity and share the rest!
That’s it for now! Until next time, take care of one another…
Ah dang, bad timing as I would love to be at Connoly book this weekend and not next month 😬 While you’re in Dublin if you can, I’d recommend going to a Bohemians football match. They are known for their anti fascist and pro Palestine solidarity fans. There is also a lot of great anti fascist graffiti outside their stadium Dalymount. Well worth a visit if you have the chance.
excited to read your new book! I recently read "Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution" by Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston and heartily recommend it to anyone looking for an introduction/overview of the topic.