AK Press

AK Press (2015).

AK Press is a worker-managed independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. It is collectively owned and operated out of Oakland, California.

History

AK was originally founded in Stirling, Scotland by Ramsey Kanaan in 1987 as a small mail order outlet, named after his mother Ann Kanaan.^[1] The project soon expanded, venturing into independent book publishing, and AK Press also now has a branch in Oakland, California. Kanaan and several other members of AK Press left in 2007 to form a new radical publishing company PM Press.^[2] AK Press is organized as a workers' co-operative, which means that it is owned by all members of the collective and works without bosses, every member having equal say and equal pay. It operates online through akpress.org^[3] in the United States, and akuk.com in Europe. In the US its bookmobile travels around the country (to protests, activist conferences, etc.; mostly by request). In the United Kingdom, they run stalls at similar events. Its books - on topics including anarchism, globalization, and animal rights, among others - are often difficult to find through mainstream outlets. Works published by AK Press include reprints of radical classics as well as original works (see list below).

It also sells clothing, buttons, stickers, and various "anarchist props" like an upside down map of the world and the red and black flag of anarcho-syndicalism. AK Press has released spoken word albums by figures such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Jello Biafra, Arundhati Roy and Mumia Abu-Jamal and music by artists including David Rovics and Utah Phillips.

Notable books published or distributed by AK Press

• Martha A. Ackelsberg - Free Women Of Spain: Anarchism And The Struggle For The Emancipation Of Women
• Joel Andreas - Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism, an illustrated exposé
• Agent Apple - Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade Cookbook
• Paul Avrich - The Modern School Movement: Anarchism And Education In The United States
• Dan Berger - Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity
• Alexander Berkman - What is Anarchism?
• Steven Best and Nocella, Anthony J. - Igniting A Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth
• Hakim Bey - Immediatism
• Jack Black - You Can't Win
• Murray Bookchin - Post-Scarcity Anarchism, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years 1868-1936, To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist Revolution of 1936, Which Way For The Ecology Movement
• A.J. Brigati (ed.) - The Voltairine de Cleyre Reader
• Maurice Brinton, David Goodway (ed.) - For Workers' Power
• Mat Callahan - The Trouble With Music
• Noam Chomsky - Chomsky on Anarchism, At War With Asia: Essays On Indochina, others
• Chomsky, Noam (2003). Carlos Peregrin Otero, ed. Racial Priorities (3rd ed.). ISBN 1-902593-69-3.
• Ward Churchill - On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, Life in Occupied America, others
• Daniel Cohn-Bendit - Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative
• Harry Cleaver - Reading Capital Politically
• Dark Star Collective - Quiet Rumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader
• Guy Debord - Complete Cinematic Works
• Norman Finkelstein - An Issue Of Justice: Origins Of The Israel/Palestine Conflict
• Benjamin Franks - Rebel Alliances: The means and ends of contemporary British anarchisms
• Yves Fremion - Orgasms of History: 3000 Years of Spontaneous Revolt
• David Graeber - Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire
• David Graeber and Stephen Shukaitis - Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigation, Collective Theorization
• Daniel Guérin - No Gods, No Masters (1 volume edition; and a 2 volume edition);
• Agustin Guillamon - The Friends of Durruti Group: 1937-1939
• Agustin Guillamon - Ready for Revolution : The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938
• Ann Hansen - Direct Action: Memoirs Of An Urban Guerilla
• D.D. Johnston Peace, Love and Petrol Bombs
• Albert Meltzer - Anarchism: Arguments For and Against, I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels: Sixty Years of Commonplace Life and Anarchist Agitation
• Craig O'Hara - The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise!
• Anton Pannekoek - Workers' Councils
• Barry Pateman (ed.) - The Blast: Complete Collection Of The Incendiary San Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper From 1916-1917 That Gave Voice To The Worldwide Anarchist Movement
• Abel Paz - The story of the Iron Column: militant anarchism in the Spanish Civil War
• Rudolf Rocker, with an introduction by Noam Chomsky - Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice
• Penny Rimbaud - Shibboleth: My Revolting Life, The Diamond Signature
• Ramor Ryan - Clandestines
• Roy San Fallipo (ed.) - A New World In Our Hearts: 8 Years of Writings from the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
• Michael Schmidt and Lucien van der Walt - Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power vol. 1)
• Valerie Solanas - SCUM Manifesto
• Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn (eds.) - The Politics Of Anti-Semitism, others
• Antonio Tellez - Sabate: Guerilla Extraordinary
• Bob Torres - Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights
• Davide Turcato - Making Sense of Anarchism - Errico Malatesta's Experiments with Revolution, 1889-1900
• Various - 2/15: The Day The World Said NO To War
• Gee Vaucher - Crass Art and Other Post Modern Monsters
• Ziga Vodovnik (ed.), with introductions by Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky - YA BASTA!: Ten Years Of The Zapatista Uprising - Writings Of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

See also

• List of book distributors

References

1. Melbourne Indymedia Archived April 27, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
2. "Music, Radical Politics, and AK Press". yourbestguess.com.
3. "Home page - AK Press".

External links

• AK Press
• Revolution by the Book, AK Press blog
• AK Press UK
• Author Ward Churchill
• "Anarchy Reigns at AK Press", Publishers Weekly