Edited by Michael Benton, and Alan Clinton
Editorial Statement
"Inventions of Activism" solicited a variety of work which looks to activism as a broad array of creative practices yet to be defined. We sought not to revisit debates between theory and practice, but to view activism as a form of invention which may lead to new cultural formations.
The editors wanted this issue itself to be a form of activism inasmuch as it brings together a set of theorized practices in the form of case studies from the present and the past, a community of minds in both its contributors and subsequent readers. We also encouraged contributors to look to problem areas that have not yet been addressed or not addressed sufficiently, and to propose new models of cultural intervention.
Ultimately, we hope that activists of all kinds will view this issue as a form of potlatch that may lead to new practice and theory, new activist communities. Based upon the wealth of perspectives represented in this issue, we feel that this goal has been achieved, although its trajectories remain to be seen. We would like to see more submissions to Reconstruction related to activism, and more inventions of activism occurring beyond the ken of this journal. This issue is dedicated to all the amazing inventors who contributed to it.
"In Memoriam: Howard Zinn," by Michael Benton and Michael Marchman
Special Features
Mark Nowak on Activist Poetics
Chronicles in the First Person Plural: An Interview with Mark Nowak, by Alan Clinton
Neoliberalism, Collective Action, and the American MFA Industry, by Mark Nowak. reprinted from Workers of the Word: Unite and Fight! (Palm Press, 2005
Roderick Coover's Canyonlands
Desert Interventions, by Roderick Coover, Hikmet Loe, Larry McCaffery and Lance Newman
Interview with Ken Sleight
Interview with Jack Loeffler
Interview with Jim Stiles
From Micah White (of Adbusters)
Notes toward a Future of Activism: Introducing 25 years of Struggle
Barbara Foley on Struggle Magazine, Proletarian Literature Today
Tim Hall, Editor of Struggle
Writing of Struggle: Featuring Greg Norton, Paris Smith, and Tim Hall.
Articles
Guillermo Gómez-Peña: A "New Age Shaman" in a Bohemian Theme Park, by Gretchen Coombs
Constructing the Shitting Citizen, by Deanna Grant-Smith
Fighting for Health: A Comparative Look at Disease Activism by Marcus Schulzke
From Slacker to Revolutionary: Generation X and the Rise of the Global Justice Movement, by Benjamin Balthaser
Ethical Spectacle: Memorial in a Time of War, by Jeff Nall, Florida Atlantic University
Creative Tactics and Union Politics, by Roberta Buiani
Politicising Queer Issues and Activism: Disciplinarity, Biopolitics and the Means by which Activist Issues Enter the Public Sphere, by Dr Rob Cover
Reminiscences: Locating the Traumatic Object, by Emily Leger
Activism as Fetishism: a pamphlet essay for Activists, by Ann Deslandes
How Iranians Turned Me into an Activist, by Tori Egherman
Reviews
The MC5 and Social Change: A Study in Rock and Revolution, by Mathew J. Bartkowiak. Review by Marc Ouellette
Comrades: A History of World Communism by Robert Service. 2007. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Xviii+571 pp. $US35.00. Review by Jeff Shantz
Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World by Alastair Fuad-Luke. Review by Joana Meroz
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