Introductions
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Introduction
Issue 23
It has been another year since we last met, dear readers. The global COVID-19 pandemic continues apace, aided by vaccine nationalism and the impossibility for capitalist accumulation to stop for even a second—in this case to pause patents and the deepening of Big Pharma’s coffers. The people are left bewildered and adrift in the absence of the most basic of health and social welfare.
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Introduction
It has been a long time since we’ve been back in your lives. A whole year, in fact. And while we wish we could blame this delay on our busy lives fomenting revolution, lately it has felt a lot more like we’ve been fighting to keep the small gains we have won. In our home province of Ontario, Conservative leader Doug Ford won a majority of seats and has already begun a systematic attack against Left movements. The Ford government has stopped the opening of new overdose prevention sites, cancelled clean energy programs, cancelled raises to welfare rates, and scrapped the province’s updated sex-ed curriculum. And he amassed his power using a familiar right-populist playbook: avoid real journalists in favour of your own media and mobilize the language of “The People” to justify austerity. Now, in the midst of a municipal election in Toronto, we’ve seen white nationalist candidate Faith Goldy mobilize leftist tactics of event disruption in attempts to gain entry to mayoral debates and forums. While notably fringe, the degree of organization and mobilization is concerning, espcecially considering she came third in the election with over 25,000 votes. Meanwhile, the Munk Debates—named after mining baron Peter Munk—intend to give Steve Bannon one of the biggest stages in the city in order to debate the merits of populism with none other than David Frum, George W. Bush’s speechwriter who coined the phrase “Axis of Evil” to justify us imperialism. Right-wing politics is in the air and it’s suffocating.
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Introduction
Dear readers, family, fans, and critics, Welcome to Issue 19 of Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action! With the election of Donald Trump in the US, the extension of Erdo?an’s presidential powers in Turkey, the persecution of Chechnyan queers, and the election of Rebel Media’s darling A…
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Dear readers, family, fans, and haters, Thank you for your sustained love, resistance, and solidarity. We’ve been working hard to bring you some really exciting and thought provoking material to keep you coming back for more! It is with much pleasure and gratitude that we bring you Issue 18 of Upp…
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In the summer of 2015, as we prepare to release Issue 17 of Upping the Anti, there is no shortage of examples of global resistance to systems of oppression and exploitation. The Black Lives Matter movement initiated global protests and vigils against anti-Black racism, and racist police and judicial…
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As Upping the Anti 16 goes to press, we find many of the uprisings and struggles that once inspired new hopes have now been bated. The Arab Spring resulted in regime changes and a reconfiguration of imperial dynamics in most countries, while in Syria the war continues, with no clear trajectory of it…
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September 2013. Here at Upping the Anti, we have been going through a great deal of change. As some editorial members have children, some get jobs in Nepal, or some move on to graduate school, we find ourselves struggling with the workload. We struggle to do what needs to be done without enough peop…
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As this issue goes to print – almost a full year after our last – European countries boil in a General Strike, Occupy Sandy Relief challenges the US government for primacy in disaster relief, and the Strike Debt Campaign launches a Rolling Jubilee, seeking to buy up and write off Americans’ ba…
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As 2011 closes out, we can’t help but think that the current moment is ripe with opportunities. Uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, anti-austerity protests in Europe, and opposition to homegrown austerity measures like Scott Walker’s anti-labour legislation in Wisconsin prove that –...
