Join Mizue Aizeki, Matt Mahmoudi, Harsha Walia, Migrants Organise and Books Against Borders in this virtual discussion of Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence on September 12, 2024, at 7pm UK time. This event will also act as the launch for a new, in-person reading group for organisers in London, starting September 18th

Our current moment has witnessed, with greater clarity than ever before, the complicities and collaborations between tech companies and the violent systems of dispossession, displacement, and exclusion inherent to global racial capitalism. These systems - and the surveillance companies, tech giants, and arms manufacturers that proliferate and profit from them - stretch across borders, linking states in global regimes of extraction, exclusion, and genocide. From Palestine, to Kenya, to Britain, to the US, we have seen an acute interplay between surveillance technologies, the suppression of rights and the extension of state power.

As Israel, the ‘homeland security/surveillance capital of the world’ uses AI to target Palestinian and a whole host of technologies in the ongoing genocide being perpetrated in Gaza, fascist lynch mobs on the streets of Britain have been answered with a push from the government for expanded use of facial recognition technologies.

Yet throughout this moment, campaigns have consistently identified key targets: the companies complicit in the development, sale, and expansion of these technologies. The wealth of targets for resistance have become increasingly clear - albeit widespread. Now, more than ever, it is vital that we come together to strategise, organise, and reflect on how we resist.

“Our job … through reading, learning, and acting together, must be to politically and radically imagine a world void of the border- and surveillance-industrial complex; void of racial capitalism. We impart cracks in these structures, in part, by chipping away at violent technologies and their political economy wherever we find them. We must interrogate and understand exactly how the structures we wish to undo are upheld, obscured, and reinforced by these violent technologies that promise greater efficiency, convenience, and security.”

--Mizue Aizeki, Matt Mahmoudi and Coline Schupfer, from the introduction

***Please note: This discussion was recorded on September 12, 2024.

Speakers:

MIZUE AIZEKI is the founder and Executive Director of the Surveillance Resistance Lab. For nearly twenty years, Mizue has been organizing to end the injustices at the intersections of the criminal and migration control systems—including criminalization, imprisonment, and exile. Mizue has led multiple policy and individual case campaigns to end the entanglement of local law enforcement and ICE policing, and has also built community defense programs to combat ICE raids. Mizue is a co-editor of Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence (Haymarket Books, February 2024). Mizue’s photographic work appears in Dying to Live, A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid (City Lights Books, 2008) and Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter (Verso, 2016).

MATT MAHMOUDI is a lecturer, researcher, and organiser. As well as helping form the No Tech for Tyrants collective, Matt leads Amnesty International’s “Ban the Scan” campaign against facial recognition technologies from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories. He is Affiliated Lecturer in Sociology and was the inaugural Jo Cox PhD scholar at the University of Cambridge. Alongside his forthcoming book, Migrants in the Digital Periphery: New Urban Frontiers of Control (University of California Press), his work appears in The Sociological Review, International Political Sociology, and Digital Witness (Oxford University Press, 2020).

HARSHA WALIA is active in migrant justice, anticapitalist, feminist, abolitionist, and anti-imperialist movements and is the award-winning author of Undoing Border Imperialism and Border and Rule.

MIGRANTS ORGANISE is a UK-based platform for refugees and migrants to organise for power, dignity and justice. The organisation combines advice and support for individuals subjected to hostile immigration policies with grassroots organising, advocacy, research and campaigning to dismantle structural racism.

BOOKS AGAINST BORDERS is an abolitionist, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist political education collective. We view collective education as fundamental to our organising, and aim to bring together theory and practice to ensure that we approach our work with clear principles, working towards socialist and abolitionist futures.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxv9nqkuN5E

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Join David Correia, Kim Kelly and Judah Schept as the discuss Corriea’s latest book, Set the Earth on Fire: The Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 and the Birth of the Police.

The book is an eye-opening account of the Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, showing how the strike—and the violent backlash that ensued—reveal the genesis of modern policing. As John Sayles said of the book, "David Correia has excavated a trove of forgotten or little-known history from the hard coal of Pennsylvania, culminating in the question that remains with us today— just who are the police meant to protect and serve?"

***Please note: This discussion was recorded on September 17, 2024.***

Speakers:

Judah Schept the author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia (New York University Press, 2022) and Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion (NYU Press, 2015, and co-editor of The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration (Verso Books, 2024). He has been active for more than two decades with organizations and campaigns fighting for decarceration and abolition and is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University.

David Correia is a Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of Properties of Violence (University of Georgia Press, 2013), co-author with Tyler Wall of Police: A Field Guide (Verso, 2018), and co-author with Nick Estes, Melanie Yazzie, and Jennifer Denetdale of Red Nation Rising Nation: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation (PM Press, 2021). He is a co-founder of AbolishAPD, a research and mutual aid collective in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Kim Kelly is a Philadelphia–based journalist and organizer who writes about labor, politics, food, music, and culture. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Esquire and The New York Times. She is the author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0jTPdj-bbA

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Join Linda Sarsour, Noura Erakat, Yosra El Gazzar, and Aline Batarseh as they discuss Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation, Edited by Jessica Anderson, Aline Batarseh, and Yosra El Gazzar and Created by Visualizing Palestine.

The book is a striking collection of more than 200 full-color infographics is a vivid portrait of Israeli settler colonialism and the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

The infographics present more than just data: colorful, accessible, and thoughtfully arranged, the oppression they document in stark detail dovetails with stories of perseverance and strength. From the history of Zionist settlement to the depopulation of Palestinian villages; from the construction of an apartheid wall to the destruction of olive trees; from hunger strikes to mass protests to boycotts, Visualizing Palestine’s graphics are powerful, comprehensive, and demand our attention. In the words of Arundhati Roy, Visualizing Palestine is "The anatomy of an occupation laid bare."

Speakers:

Aline Batarseh is Palestinian from East Jerusalem. She joined Visualizing Palestine as executive director in 2021. She has more than 20 years of experience working with several Palestinian and international nonprofits at the intersections of gender equality, reproductive justice, children’s rights, mental health, and social justice. Aline has a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a B.A. in Communication Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College. Aline is co-editor of Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation.

Yosra El Gazzar is a visual artist and designer based in Cairo, Egypt. She has been working as an information designer with Visualizing Palestine since 2016. Yosra has a B.A. in Applied Science and Arts from the German University in Cairo, she was also a fellow of Moutheqat/Women in DOX fellowship in Tunisia., and a fellow of CEC ArtsLink in the US. Her work has been presented in various venues including: The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, Dar El Nimer for Arts and Culture in Beirut, MED International Film Festival in Rome, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in Germany, FESPACO Pan African Film Festival in Burkina Faso, and Dubai and Beirut Design Weeks. Yosra is co-editor of Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation.

Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and Professor of Africana Studies and the Program of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the Palestine Book Award and the Bronze Medal for the Independent Publishers Book Award in Current Events/Foreign Affairs. She is co-founding editor of Jadaliyya and an editorial board member of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Noura is a co-founding board member of the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival and a Board Member of Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights. In 2024, she served as the Co-Chair of an Independent Task Force on the Application of National Security Memorandum-20 to Israel, which submitted a report to the White House recommending suspending U.S. weapons transfers to Israel.

Linda Sarsour is an award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, seasoned community organizer, direct action strategist, and mother of three. Ambitious, outspoken and independent, Linda shatters stereotypes of Muslim women while also treasuring her religious and ethnic heritage. She is a Palestinian Muslim American and a self-proclaimed “pure New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn!” She is the co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPower Change and co-founder of Until Freedom, an intersectional racial justice organization focused on direct action and power building in communities of color. Until Freedom is best known for their work on the Breonna Taylor police murder case in Louisville, Kentucky.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4KUlxpY0Bo

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Join Bao Phi, Terisa Siagatonu, George Abraham, David Mura, Saba Keramati and other special guests for a live celebration of their poetry anthology We The Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word.

A rich anthology featuring some of the brightest voices in contemporary poetry who challenge, expand, and illuminate the meaning of the label “Asian American and Pacific Islander” (AAPI) in today’s world.

Exploring the range of experiences AAPI people endure in a world shaped by colonization and white supremacy, the poems in this collection confront American militarism, reimagine lineage, celebrate queer/trans life, and reclaim indigeneity, refugeehood, and more. Drawn from a range of schools and movements, We the Gathered Heat highlights the vitality of oral traditions in contemporary AAPI literature. Intergenerational and fiercely loving, this path breaking anthology honors our literary ancestors and makes space for AAPI literary futures.

***Please note: This discussion was recorded on September 25, 2024.***

Speakers:

Bao Phi (he/him/his) has been a performance poet since 1991. A two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, Bao Phi has appeared on HBO Presents Russell Simmons Def Poetry. He has two collections of poems, both published by Coffee House Press, Sông I Sing and Thousand Star Hotel, the latter of which was nominated for the Minnesota Book Award, named by NPR as one of the best books of 2017, and was chosen as 2017’s best poetry book of the year by San Francisco State’s Poetry Center.

Terisa Siagatonu is an award-winning poet, teaching artist, mental health educator, and community leader born and rooted in the Bay Area. Her presence in the poetry world as a queer Samoan woman and activist has granted her opportunities to perform and speak in places ranging from the White House (during the Obama administration) to the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris, France. A Kundiman Fellow and 2019 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 List Honoree, her work has been published in Poetry Magazine and has been featured on Button Poetry, CNN, NBCNews, NPR, Huffington Post, KQED, Everyday Feminism, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, and Upworthy.

Carol Ann Carl is a Native Pohnpeian poet. In 2023, she was the Poetry and the Senses fellow at the University of California–Berkeley’s Arts Research Center. She lives in Honolulu.

George Abraham is a Palestinian-American poet and memoirist who was born on unceded Timucuan lands (Jacksonville, FL). They are the author of Birthright (2020), which won the Arab American Book Award. They are currently executive editor of Mizna and teach at Amherst College.

David Mura’s most recent books are The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives and A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity & Narrative Craft in Writing. His poetry books are The Last Incantations, Angels for the Burning, The Colors of Desire, and After We Lost Our Way.

Saba Keramati is the author of Self-Mythology, selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series (University of Arkansas Press, 2024). She is a Discovery Poetry Prize winner. For more, please visit www. sabakeramati.com.

Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, sound producer, and recovering social justice lawyer with Hyderabadi Muslim roots. She is the author of the poetry collection, City of Pearls (Upset Press, 2019) and has released two musical albums, City of Pearls (2019) and Moti Ka Sheher (2023), featuring self-composed musical interpretations from her book. Sham-e-Ali is the recipient of the 2022 Leeway Transformation Award, the 2016 Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship, and the 1997 echoing green fellowship. Follow Sham @sham_e_ali_nayeem.

Get the book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2221-we-the-gathered-heat

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV6wUOag1Yg

Join Rae Garringer and special guests Neema Avashia, Kijana West, and David Rodriguez for a virtual launch and celebration of Country Queers: A Love Letter.

Part photo book, part memoir, part oral history project, this volume paints a vivid portrait of queer and trans experiences in rural areas and small towns across the US.

After years as a DIY, minimally funded, community-based oral history project, the work now takes a new form in Country Queers: A Love Letter—a book of full-color photos and interviews with rural folks from Mississippi to New Mexico and beyond, with Garringer’s account as traveler and interviewer woven through the pages. In these intimate conversations, we see how queerness—shaped, as all things are, by race, class, gender, and more—moves in rural and small-town spaces, spotlighting how country queers make sense of their lives through reflections on land, home, community, and belonging. While media-driven myths suggest that big cities are the only places queer folks can find love and community, Country Queers resists that trope by centering rural queer and trans stories of the joys, challenges, monotony, and nuances of their lives, in their own words.

***Please note: This discussion was recorded on October 8, 2024.***

Speakers:

Neema Avashia is a West Virginian-born Indian American who writes about her identity, culture, and politics. She is the author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place.

Rae Garringer is a writer, oral historian, audio producer, and goat farmer based in southeastern West Virginia, where they were raised. They are the author and editor of Country Queers: A Love Letter.

Kijana West is the founder of Safe Space Cumberland, a home for the LGBTQIA+ family in Cumberland, MD working in intersectional partnership with other historically marginalized communities.

David Rodriguez is a goat farmer from Lane City, Texas. He and his husband run Country Q's: a goat milk soap company.

Get the book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2439-country-queers

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2gY7BWTkF4

Join Rebecca Vilkomerson, Rabbi Alissa Wise, Omar Barghouti, Nyle Fort and Stefanie Fox as they discuss the new book Solidarity Is the Political Version of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing

The book asks What does the politics of solidarity look like in practice, and how can left-wing organizations grow—in numbers and power—while remaining accountable to the broader movements of which they are a part?

Against the backdrop of rapid and often devastating political developments, Solidarity is the Political Version of Love explores how JVP grew larger as the organization shifted to the left and helped to alter the public narrative about Palestinian liberation, while also navigating the tensions of organization-building and creating a space for Judaism liberated from Zionism. Their insights help contextualize the intense suppression of activism for Palestinian freedom, while illuminating the roots of today’s flourishing Jewish solidarity with Palestinians worldwide.

In addressing their shortcomings and failures no less than their inspiring successes, Vilkomerson and Wise deliver an account of JVP’s organizing during the 2010s that offers crucial strategic lessons for anyone engaging in the collective work of building organizations and fighting for justice as our movements evolve over time.

***Please note: This discussion was recorded on September 26, 2024.***

Speakers:

Rebecca Vilkomerson has worked in social justice movement building for several decades, as an organizer, fundraiser, organizational development consultant and strategist. From 2009-2019 she was the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace. In 2022, the Solidaire Network published her report “Funding Freedom: Building Support for the Palestinian Freedom Movement in Philanthropy.” She is currently the Co-Director of the Funding Freedom project.

Rabbi Alissa Wise is an organizational consultant, community organizer, educator, and ritual leader with over two decades of movement-building experience. Rabbi Wise co-founded the JVP Rabbinical Council in 2010. From 2011-2021 was Organizing Co-Director, Deputy Director and Interim Co-Executive Director of JVP. She is currently the Lead Organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire which she founded in October 2023.

Omar Barghouti is a co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, NY, and is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy (ethics) at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of, BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket: 2011). His commentaries and views have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, among others.

Stefanie Fox (she/her) is the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a U.S. based, grassroots membership organization mobilizing Jewish communities into the movement for Palestinian rights and freedom and towards a vision of Judaism beyond Zionism. Stefanie joined JVP in 2009 as the organization’s first National Organizer, and played multiple roles over the past 15 years growing the organization into the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. Prior to joining JVP, Stefanie spent a decade in racial and economic justice work as a grassroots community organizer, public health practitioner, and policy researcher and analyst. She has written extensively for print media with publications in outlets like Time, Boston Review, The Nation, and has appeared on MSNBC, Al Jazeera English, CNN, and more.

Nyle Fort is a minister, organizer, and scholar. He is currently an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.