Category: Updates

“Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they cannot trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves.” This week’s Pandemic Book is Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This is almost certainly the… read more Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Pandemic Books

This week: three zines about direct action. These are all open-copyright publications that discuss movements or strategies that function outside of electoral, regulatory, and legal systems to seek justice. Standing on the Land to Stand Up Against Pipelines was published in 2013 by the Unist’ot’ten Camp; Fuck Abuse in 2018; and What Will it Take to Stop the Police from Killing? was published this year. All three can be downloaded freely from the crimethinc.com website,… read more Three Zines about Direct Action

This week’s Pandemic Book is a pamphlet from 1995, Neo-Nazis and the War Against Women’s Reproductive Freedom. Reading this account of the links between fascism and anti-choice harassment and violence, it occurs to us that the names may have changed, but the methods remain the same in our current moment. Fascist organizers latch on to not only misogyny, but racism, homophobia, transphobia, and poor-bashing in right-wing movements, and are now often given support by politicians… read more Neo-Nazis and the War Against Women’s Reproductive Freedom (1995)

Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was born in the Kingdom of Benin, and was enslaved as a child, eventually purchasing his freedom and becoming a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. This book has extremely small print by contemporary standards; it is an early-19th-century edition of his memoir, first published in the 18th century. If you’re interested in picking up a copy of this… read more The Interesting Narrative of Gustavus Vassa or Olaudah Equiano, the African

Here is the ninth publication in our series of Pandemic Books: Sowing for Others to Reap by Carrie Williams Clifford. This started as a something that I could do in the studio for a few hours every week, namely to make a very short run of a public domain, open copyright, or publicly owned work that we haven’t made before and probably won’t make again. It has also been an adventure in reading and research,… read more Carrie Williams Clifford, Sowing for Others to Reap

After skipping a week, Pandemic Books is back with a very short run of the life story of Sojourner Truth. She is probably best known to many people for her speech on feminism, usually titled “Ain’t I a Woman?” However, she was a lifelong activist for freedom and equality, with many accomplishments. Born into slavery around 1797 in New York, she escaped from bondage in 1826, later saying “I did not run off, for I… read more Sojourner Truth: Narrative and Book of Life

For the seventh week of Pandemic Books, we’re making copies of Black American anarchist Lucy Parsons’s book The Life of Albert R. Parsons, with Brief History of the Labor Movement in America. Albert Parsons, her husband, was a newspaper editor, and was arrested following the Haymarket riot in Chicago, and sentenced to death along with five others for the bombing of a police station, even though witnesses said that none of the “conspirators” were responsible… read more The Life of Albert R. Parsons with Brief History of the Labor Movement in America, by Lucy E. Parsons

It has been a difficult week all around: eruptions of racist violence everywhere, and now a racist President of the US saying “start shooting” at Black protesters. Doesn’t he know that the shooting, the killing, started a long, long, time ago now, and never seems to stop? Or that Black lives are more valuable than a Target store? (Those are obviously rhetorical questions.) This week, we’re making copies of Mary Weston Fordham’s Magnolia Leaves, a… read more Magnolia Leaves by Mary Weston Fordham

We’re now in the fifth week of our pandemic book project. To recap, what we’re doing is producing a public domain, open-copyright, or bootleg edition we haven’t done before and don’t plan to do again in a short run each week, selling it for $10 +shipping, and after paying our costs sending whatever money is left over to an organization that serves vulnerable people in our city. This week we are examining the social and… read more Pandemic books week 5: AIDS Conspiracy Theories (update: Sold out!)

This week’s short-run book is a facsimile of Saving the World from Democracy, a publication made by the joint Defense Committee of several labour organizations just one year after the brutal suppression of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. The book contains eyewitness accounts, court transcripts, speeches, and newspaper articles that retell the formation of a coalition of activists, rank and file workers, unemployed soldiers returning from the First World War, and others. Among their demands… read more This week’s book is “Saving the World from Democracy”, documents from the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike