Activist Micah M. White an ex-Adbusters editor, is releasing a new book on modern protest. The new book explains the principals behind Occupy Wall Street founder Micah White’s protest strategy that launched a global movement of public dissent, marching and modern creativity. White is famous for his fiery language of revolution, recently claiming “I am a free radical now; my allegiance is with The People alone.” According to his bio:
The American creator of the Occupy Wall Street meme; inventor of the debt-activism tactic behind Rolling Jubilee, former editor of Adbusters and popularizer of the critique of clicktivism… Micah White is one of today’s most innovative social activists. Micah lives in rural Nehalem, Oregon where he operates Boutique Activist Consultancy. His first book, THE END OF PROTEST, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada in Spring, 2016.
In a recent “Letter to the People” on the Occupy Wall Street website, White explains his belief in a coming people’s revolution:
To sustain innovation in the long term, we must heed the warnings of Snowden and migrate from the clearnet (the monitored commercial Internet) to the darkweb (the anonymous and encrypted parallel Internet of Tor, i2p and Freenet). The Snowden revelations, the Brazil Uprising and the lockdown of the Internet in Turkey are already increasing the number of political militants on the darkweb looking to get organized.
Learning to navigate the darkweb is not just for techies anymore. It is a survival skill for everyday people and activists who are dreaming of democracy. Download the TorBrowser and let’s learn to use these emergent anonymous spaces as a safehaven for candid strategic and tactical discussions. Right now the darkweb is dominated by unsavory elements, let’s reclaim it for the good instead.
The new book was announced in the press release titled, “Alfred A. Knopf Canada to publish new book by Micah White, Driving force behind the Occupy Movement”, by the book’s Canadian publishers, Random House of Canada Limited. Here is the press release in full:
Alfred A. Knopf Canada is pleased to announce that it will publish Micah White’s new book THE END OF PROTEST in Spring, 2016. White, former editor at Adbusters Magazine and “[one of] today’s most innovative social activists” (CBC Radio) was the driving force behind the Occupy Movement, which became a global phenomenon. World rights to the book were acquired by Random House of Canada’s associate publisher Scott Sellers.
“We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Micah on this book,” says Amanda Lewis, associate editor at Knopf Random House Canada who will be working closely with White on the project. “From economic collapse to climate change to the breakdown of society, there has never been a more important time for a book about how we make true revolution. Micah is one of the strongest voices to guide this resurgence, and his vision for a renewed future—combining philosophy, spirituality, critique of social movements, and practical steps for actually making change—is unlike any other I have read.”
In THE END OF PROTEST, Micah White offers readers a provocative playbook for harnessing the creativity and optimism of the people in order to transform the existing social order. The paradigms underlying contemporary protest are in a period of crisis. The global forces that impact our ability to determine our collective future—capitalism’s collapse, catastrophic climate change and the existential crisis of ultramodernity—stand outside the reach of traditional forms of democratic dissent. Occupy Wall Street was a constructive failure, according to White, that exposed the limits of protest and inaugurated a more potent paradigm of social action based on contagious memes. On the horizon are increasingly sophisticated and dynamic movements that emerge in a bid to break through the political stasis and establish a global people’s democracy.
THE END OF PROTEST is a populist cri du couer that introduces a daring and original new thinker.
Here is a video of a Micah White discussion from Thursday, November 7, 2013 that was filmed at the Marry Harris Auditorium at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. The discussion explores visual culture in social change, the importance of artists and designers in political protest, and what White calls, a “creative re-imagination of how we relate to the world and others.” Take a look:
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