Full Spectrum Resistance, Volume One: Building Movements and Fighting to Win

"The more than fifty resistance movements and sub-movements featured here make this the radical's guide to restoring our rights, saving our planet, and creating lasting change. From mid-nineteenth century Chinese rebellions against colonial exploitation and ecological disasters to the Grassy Narrows' fight against mercury poisoning and colonialism to the Stonewall riots and parades for LGBT rights to Black Lives Matter, Full Spectrum Resistance's two volumes are some of the only books on activism that actually cover RESISTANCE, not just passive, risk-averse modes of activism. Author, activist, and farmer Aric McBay provides in-depth histories and case studies of social justice and environmental movements, both radical and liberal, to explain why passive resistance alone cannot work, and why we must be prepared to do whatever it takes to truly create change. In Full Spectrum Resistance, Volume 1: Building Movements and Fighting to Win, we learn why we need resistance movements, how movements--such as the Deacons of Defense of the American Civil Rights Movement--fight when they want to win, and what makes movements effective. We also learn how and why people join movements and how we can successfully encourage them--as the anti-colonial revolution in Guinea and Cape Verde did. How groups like Act-UP form and organize themselves, and rules and practices groups use to stay secure and protected from infiltration by destructive people. 'I wrote this book because we are losing,' says McBay in chapter one, and he's right. Here's how we win"--
An activist and farmer provides in-depth histories and case studies of social justice and environmental movements, both radical and liberal, to explain why passive resistance alone cannot work, and why we must be prepared to do whatever it takes to truly create change. Original.
A guide to direct action for those disillusioned with the posturing of liberal “activism.”The radical left is losing, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here is the radical’s guide to activist work—the manual we need at this crucial moment to organize for universal human rights, a habitable earth, and a more egalitarian society. Thoroughly exploring the achievements and failures of radical movements throughout history—from 19th-century anti-colonial rebellions in China and the environmental actions of First Nations and Native American tribes throughout the 20th century, to Black Lives Matter and the fight for Gay Liberation—the two volumes of Full Spectrum Resistance candidly advocate for direct action, not just risk-averse models of protest marches and call-ins. With in-depth histories and case studies of social justice and environmental movements, noted writer, activist, and farmer Aric McBay explains why passive resistance alone cannot work, and how we must be prepared to do whatever it takes to create substantial social change. In Volume 1: Building Movements and Fighting to Win, McBay describes the need for resistance movements, and paints a portrait of what a thriving resistance movement might look like today. Citing successful movements such as the Deacons of Defense of the American Civil Rights Movement, the anti-colonial revolutions in Guinea and Cape Verde, and activist groups like Act-UP, McBay deftly illustrates how to organize activist groups and encourage enlistment, while also noting the necessary precautions one must take to secure these radical circles from infiltration and collapse.