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Riot. Strike. Riot.: The New Era of Uprisings
by
Ferguson. Tottenham. Clichy-Sous-Bois. Oakland. Within capital’s core, the riot looms increasingly large within the repertoire of struggles. Rather than inchoate spasms or immiserated absence of the revolutionary idea, this book locates the riot within longue durée of capitalist transformation: facts not failures. Just as the turn to the strike two centuries ago signaled r
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Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
May 3rd 2016
by Verso
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Start your review of Riot. Strike. Riot.: The New Era of Uprisings

Materialism for insurrectionists.
Up until about Chapter 7, I felt about this book the way I imagine some people feel about Tiqqun or Invisible Committee, a good read not so much for the analysis but for the poetry of language (I'm not really a fan of either of the former's writing or analysis so I'm assuming). By the end I was broadly convinced. The main strength of this book is where so much contemporary anarchist literature fails, in not glamourizing struggle, an approach easily dismissed by c ...more
Up until about Chapter 7, I felt about this book the way I imagine some people feel about Tiqqun or Invisible Committee, a good read not so much for the analysis but for the poetry of language (I'm not really a fan of either of the former's writing or analysis so I'm assuming). By the end I was broadly convinced. The main strength of this book is where so much contemporary anarchist literature fails, in not glamourizing struggle, an approach easily dismissed by c ...more

This is one of the better and more coherent turns of the contemporary ultraleft, left communism, and/or north american anarchism in recent years. I think Clover is most sympathetic to the communization literature - Dauve, Theorie Communiste, Endnotes - while drawing out the fully racialized conclusions that an analysis 'surplus populations' demands. Clover's analysis is not without problems (most notably a kind of subterranean teleology in its historicism) and I must say I could have done withou
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Very well written, Joshua Clover has gathered a lot of interesting and diverse topics related to historic and contemporary Riots and Strikes. The most memorable and interesting parts of this book for me were the sources that was referenced by the writer to further clarify the point. Overall I recommend this book to everyone, also a great read to further understand political economy in relation to workers movements in historic and contemporary Riots.

Clover's Riot. Strike. Riot.: The New Era of Uprisings was exactly the balm of intellectual rigor and honesty I had been looking for after years and years of immature, shitty discourse with regards to protests that are accompanied by looting. I had even written my own three-part screed on social media beseeching ignorant white people to educate themselves about the history of riots, the context of them, and lastly the unspoken message underneath before saying just about anything critical, or, wo
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I read this book in the light of the increase in social movements we have seen globally over the last decade but specifically this year.
Clover argues that riots were common at the beginning of the modern era and were related to price, strikes became the primary form of dissent as wage Labour became the main form of work and now as capital is replacing Labour in many fields surplus Labour organises through riots again, particularly those that revolve around race based interactions with authoriti ...more
Clover argues that riots were common at the beginning of the modern era and were related to price, strikes became the primary form of dissent as wage Labour became the main form of work and now as capital is replacing Labour in many fields surplus Labour organises through riots again, particularly those that revolve around race based interactions with authoriti ...more

Superbly written and an expert elucidation of political struggles "from below" in the now deindustrialising West. Found that it veered a little too off piste at times into deeper engagements with critical political economy than perhaps necessary given the book's length. Its focus on the West confounds as a more thorough engagement with processes elsewhere I think would have added to, rather than detracted from, the wider argument.
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Left on hold for a while. Introduction is dizzying and all over the place going back and forth about the start of the Riot, then Strike within a specific time division per centuries, then runs on theory of Capital and returns to Riot. Initially difficult to follow but once on the Riot prime chapter things are linear and a bit more easy to follow. Will return to it later.

Analyse pointue, érudite et technique des différents contextes socio-économique, ainsi que des différents rapports au Travail, à la production et à la circulation des marchandises, à travers les siècles, qui ont pu amener les populations opprimées à se soulever, et comment. Emeute - Grève - Emeute prime

Clover's analysis of rioting and striking and how they relate is in-depth and insightful but is one of the worst examples of using unnecessarily complex language to get a point across that I've ever seen. Reading this was a chore.
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Phew, that was a tough read for me. I lack the theoretical background and as a non-English-speaking native I found Clovers poetic style of writing extrememly hard to understand.
The topic is interesting, but truthfully I didn't feel as if I gained any useful insights. ...more
The topic is interesting, but truthfully I didn't feel as if I gained any useful insights. ...more

Important read for any aspirational communist, which for any agency reading this I am not. Clover's writing is a welcome refuge from predominant forms of left-wing political prose (including my own, clearly).
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This book was not for me. This is for people who read a lot more than I do. I don't know whether or not I'm smart enough for it but I sure as shit know I don't have enough time to read all the theory I'd need in order to slot this book into the conversation it's in. Oh well. Maybe recommended if you do read more Marxism than I do?
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Mar 05, 2017
Jonathan
added it
rinse and repeat.

L'émeute est généralement négligée par les marxistes, taxée d'apolitisme et renvoyée à la spontanéité. Joshua Clover s'attache à la théoriser et à comprendre la succession des formes de contestation dans la durée. Aux origines du capitalisme, l'émeute est la forme de lutte dominante, s'attaquant à la circulation des marchandises. Puis, lors de la révolution industrielle et jusqu'à l'après-guerre, la grève lui succède, visant désormais la production. Depuis les années 1960, avec la désindustriali
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An extremely useful economic historical theory of riot-strike-riot prime.
Clover's book provides not only the tools but the provocation to engage riots and strikes much more in thought and discussion. Delineating the two while marking their relations, and thinking through their sites and associations. Riots against prices at scenes of circulation--the marketplace / Strikes against wages (albeit prices of a kind) at scenes of labor--the factory floor. ...more
Clover's book provides not only the tools but the provocation to engage riots and strikes much more in thought and discussion. Delineating the two while marking their relations, and thinking through their sites and associations. Riots against prices at scenes of circulation--the marketplace / Strikes against wages (albeit prices of a kind) at scenes of labor--the factory floor. ...more

Engaging intellectual exploration of the impetus behind, and the difference between, the riot and the strike, how they are deployed and to what purpose, and the usefulness of this tool of the people in contemporary political and economic strife.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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