Beginner's Kata : uncensored stray thoughts on revolutionary organization

by J. Sakai

Genres: Nonfiction

23 pages, Zine

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

J. Sakai is a revolutionary intellectual with decades of experience as an activist in the U.S. He is one of North America’s most insightful and challenging radical intellectuals, best-known for his work Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat, which remains the essential anti-racist labor history of the united states. Sakai work is grounded in Mao’s politics, anti-imperialism, and in a lifetime of hands-on activism; he has consistently focused on the relationship between “race” and “class” in the american context, from a perspective dedicated to abolishing the united states, capitalism, and white supremacy.

Beyond Settlers, however, Sakai has authored a number of other works, on subjects ranging from movement security, to the nature of the lumpen/proletariat, to the rise of the far right, and much more. Several of these have been published in book-form by Kersplebedeb, others as zines, while others have only ever appeared on the Internet.

Reviews

[Andy P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In this violent capitalist end zone of unlimited war and repression, the question of organization suddenly becomes drastically changed for us. Because there you cannot be an individual revolutionary in any meaningful sense. There a lone revolutionary is like being a lone firefighter. You can be as good as you can be, but you are outclassed in the scale of events. Then it is only complex revolutionary organization that lets our full political thoughts and intentions become sails full of reality. This is often lost right now in the garden of the imperial metropolis, where middle-class people so easily deceive themselves that agreeing with this radical idea or that one, makes you a revolutionary. No, it only makes you someone who likes ideas. And as that lesbian philosopher once said: "Theories are like assholes, everyone has one."" - J Sakai

(grammatical and spelling errors mine)

There are writers I reach for when I need to be slapped out of complacency, when I need to be reminded of what is truly at stake, and when I need to find courage. Sakai is one. Sakai has achieved some level of wisdom, and he is unsparing.

[Onda Vermelha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This is often lost right now in the garden of the imperial metropolis, where middle-class people so easily deceive themselves that agreeing with this radical idea or that one, makes you a revolutionary. No, it only makes you someone who likes ideas."

Por vezes, é necessário que alguém nos traga de volta à realidade. Por vezes, já estamos quase a acordar, mas mesmo assim precisamos de um último empurrão. Posso dizer que este ensaio ajudou, e pretendo-o traduzir.

[ben.wmv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realizing I'm a big fan of Sakai's prose. It's very acerbic, with a heaping of grumpy wit. I also like the owls on the cover. Maybe Sakai's the old grumpy owl.