Smash the Church, Smash the State!
Smash the Church, Smash the State!

Author: Tommi Avicolli Mecca

Publisher: City Lights Books

Published: 2020-09-02

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0872868427

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This anthology by former members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) captures the history and spirit of the revolutionary time just after Stonewall, when thousands came out of the closet to claim their sexuality, and when queer resistance coalesced into a turbulent, joyous liberation movement—one whose lasting influence would ultimately inform and profoundly shape the LGBT community of today. Personal essays explore the philosophy and culture of the stridently anti-assimilationist GLF: the actions, demonstrations and marches; views on marriage, religion and gender; the drugs, orgies and communes; and GLF’s relationship to the hippies, the Black Panthers, the straight Left, the women’s movement, civil rights and the antiwar struggle. The collection includes contributions from Martha Shelley, Cei Bell, Paola Bacchetta, Susan Stryker, Tom Ammiano, Nikos Diaman, Mark Segal, Barbara Ruth and Perry Brass.

The Assault on the State
The Assault on the State

Author: Stephen E. Hanson

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2024-06-10

Total Pages: 109

ISBN-13: 1509563164

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What if the state as we know it didn’t exist? Our air would be poisonous, our votes uncounted, and our markets dysfunctional. Yet across the world, in countries as diverse as Hungary, Israel, the U.K., and the U.S., attacks on the modern state and its workforce are intensifying. They are morphing into power grabs by self-aggrandizing politicians who attempt to seize control of the state for themselves and their cronies. What replaces the modern state once it is fatally undermined is not the free market and the flowering of personal liberty. Instead, the death of government agencies organized under the rule of law inevitably leads to the only realistic alternative: the rule of men. In the Assault on the State, political scientists Stephen Hanson and Jeffrey Kopstein offer an impassioned plea to defend modern government against those who seek to destroy it. They dissect the attack on the machinery of government from its origins in post-Soviet Russia to the core powers of Western democracy. The dangers of state erosion imperil every aspect of our lives. Kopstein and Hanson outline a strategy that can reverse this destructive trend before humanity is plunged back into the pathological personalistic politics of premodern times.

The Future of the State
The Future of the State

Author: Artemy Magun

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-08-04

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1786614847

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The state has been a dominant political form, and the preferred model of political unity , for at least the last two centuries. However, many today speak of its crisis, which stems from two main factors: the state’s changing role in the globalizing international system and the state’s complex relation to democracy, a key normative concept of contemporary politics. Authoritarian leaders use the state to successfully reaffirm sovereignty, despite international integration; democratic movements abound but often serve only to reinforce the regimes they contest. Is there an alternative? Do we need to reconceive the phenomenon of state, with a view to the future? These are the questions that an international group of scholars explores and answers in this groundbreaking book, drawing on the history of political thought, continental philosophy, and contemporary political examples. They engage the dialectical tradition broadly understood, including phenomenological transcendentalism, the political philosophy of French public law, and German twentieth-century political philosophy beyond Weber. The result brings the state into a critical political philosophy, providing a realistic model of what a good democratic state could and should be like.

State and Revolution
State and Revolution

Author: V. I. Lenin

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2015-01-19

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1608465179

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State and Revolution is an indispensable guide to confronting the political and bureaucratic structures that protect the power and position of the world's elites and suffocate the lives of the vast majority of humanity. It has been considered essential reading for generation after generation of revolutionaries, and this fully annotated edition offers an essential guide to contemporary activists trying to work through and adapt its conclusions to our present conditions. ——— Much of Valdimir Ilyich Lenin's most famous—and most misunderstood—book was written in July of 1917 while its author was on the run and plagued by fears that the revolution would be swallowed by the forces of reaction waging a war to restore Russia's Tsar. By 1918, when this small 'notebook on Marxism and the State' was first published, the autocracy was no more, and the centuries old apparatus of repression it had used to sustain its rule had been smashed to bits by the collective power of Russia's working class and peasantry. In part because it was forged in the crucible of revolutionary foment, and in part because the state continues to be the guardian of the same inhumane systems of exploitation and oppression that Lenin thundered against, State and Revolution has offered inspiration and invaluable lessons to anti-capitalists the world over. But this small book was very much a product of its time, written for a specific context with a focus on certain questions over others. Because of this, any contemporary reader attempting to absorb State and Revolution's numerous lessons without a guide travels a perilous road. This new edition from Haymarket Books features an extensive introduction, hundreds of explanatory annotations, and an invaluable glossary of key figures and terms by Todd Chretien, all of which help place Lenin's work in its historical context. Chretien deftly offers an accessible account of the most important people, parties, and debates within the socialist movement of Lenin's time, and provides a map to navigating the book's most controversial points.

State Apparatus
State Apparatus

Author: Gordon L. Clark

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-06-23

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1000260666

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Originally published in 1984, State Apparatus contributes to the debate on the theory of the state through posing questions regarding the state’s form, function, and apparatus. The book begins by setting out the theoretical and methodological problems and reviewing the various Conservative, Liberal and Marxist theories in light of these. It discusses state activity, using specific case studies to clearly illustrate key points, such as the development of welfare systems in North America and Western Europe. It also explores the use of language under the state, the role of the legal apparatus within a capitalist system, and the "local state". The book concludes with a discussion of democracy and the crisis of legitimacy, and the issue of justice and the state. State Apparatus is a detailed and comprehensive text, ideal for those with an interest in the history, theory, form, and function of the state.

Women's Rights in the United States [4 volumes]
Women's Rights in the United States [4 volumes]

Author: Tiffany K. Wayne

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-12-09

Total Pages: 1468

ISBN-13: 1610692152

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A comprehensive encyclopedia tracing the history of the women's rights movement in the United States from the American Revolution to the present day. Few realize that the origin of the discussion on women's rights emerged out of the anti-slavery movement of the 19th century, and that suffragists were active in the peace and labor movements long after the right to vote was granted. Thus began the confluence of activism in our country, where the rights of women both followed—and led—the social and political discourse in America. Through 4 volumes and more than 800 entries, editor Tiffany K. Wayne, with advising editor Lois Banner, examine the issues, people, and events of women's activism, from the early period of American history to the present time. This comprehensive reference not only traces the historical evolution of the movement, but also covers current issues affecting women, such as reproductive freedom, political participation, pay equity, violence against women, and gay civil rights.