The 15-M publishing explosion
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/23/inenglish/1337784945_635135.html
An exhibition to mark the 15-M movement’s first anniversary at Madrid’s Ateneo arts and sciences foundation. / GORKA LEJARCEGI
“We were in a cultural dictatorship and now we are smack in the middle of a cultural revolution,” claims Guillem Martínez, a journalist as well as the author and coordinator of CT o la Cultura de la Transición (or, CT or the Culture of Transition). It’s the latest book spawned by the 15-M protest movement and joins around 20 others that have also jumped on the bandwagon, enough to warrant their own specific table in a major bookstore such as Laie in Barcelona.
It took the Spanish publishing industry little more than a month to respond to the 15-M phenomenon. By June 2011, Las voces del 15-M (or, The voices of 15-M) was the first book to go on the shelves “and one of the ones that got the most word-of-mouth recommendations,” says Martínez.
Just three months later, the protest movement against the political class and its mishandling of the economic crisis had reached comic book format, with titles such as Revolution Complex and Yes, we camp!
Then, the trend appeared to peter out somewhat.
“Things calmed down, and now I’m surprised that there is no first stocktaking being done for the first anniversary,” notes Lluís Morral, of Laie.
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I know since Occupy started last fall I've been getting into reading alot more. Picking up some stuff I used to read when I was younger and also some new stuff.
I've read most of this:
http://www.akpress.org/2004-items-chomskyonanarchism.html
Also this:
http://www.naomiklein.org/no-logo
Also been reading magazines alot.
I imagine Occupy has had this effect on alot of people so I bet it's been good for people who sell books. Even though I try I get most of mine used or from the library.
is power. The NYPD destroyed one third of that library when they forced the occupiers out of Zuccotti Park.
This week, OWS sued the NYPD and Bloomberg/NYC for the destruction of their library:
Occupy Wall Street Library Sues City, NYPD For Destroying 2,800 Books
The OWS Library in happier times
NYPD destroying propert at Zuccotti Park ~ "The one's destroying books have never been on the right side of history."
Today Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Wall Street Librarians filed a federal lawsuit against Mayor Bloomberg, the City, and the NYPD for compensatory and punitive damages totaling $47,000 for the roughly 3,600 books that were confiscated—nearly 2,800 of them destroyed— during the raid of Zuccotti Park on November 17. "This is an important and potentially historic lawsuit," attorney Norman Siegel, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit says. "It not only addresses the seizure and destruction of the books, but it also seeks to show why, how, and who planned the raid on Zuccotti Park."
Siegel says the information on the planning of the raid should come out in discovery, and adds that the city should have been subject to a court hearing before seizing and destroying the thousands of books that made up the library—including Bloomberg's own book. "Every other city did it before they raided encampments, but not here. The city violated the civil rights of the librarians. The Bloomberg administration had the power to do what they did, but not the right."
Emphasis mine. I agree that aside from the value of the books, this lawsuit will force information into the public domain that the NYPD and Bloomberg would rather we never see.
Book Burners, how sad that we had to witness such a thing, such an awful symbol of oppression throughout history. NYPD and Bloomberg should be ashamed.
