Liaisons, One year ago, the so-called United States saw one of the most brilliant and unforgettable uprisings in living memory. It began right here in Minneapolis, when bricks thrown at the police the night after George Floyd’s murder quickly gave way to an open revolt that set a police station ablaze. Unrest erupted nationwide with this burning precinct as its guiding light, the aftershocks of which we still feel to this day. The story of this uprising is better told elsewhere — if it can really be told at all — so I hope you can excuse me for leaving this summary so brief. One story that has not been adequately told is that of those who have faced legal repression for their participation in this revolt. As I write this letter, four men are in the process of being… Read More...

This is the second part of a text published in two parts, and which is featured in Liaisons’ forthcoming book, “Horizons.” In this second part, our friends consider the extent to which the ZAD (zone à défendre, or “zone to defend”) – an occupation in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, against the construction of an airport – can be conceived of as a temporary autonomous zone, along with the paradoxical nature of the movement’s victory. The first part, which can be found here, examines key moments in the ZAD’s history and addresses the movement’s composition and the temporality of the struggle, as well as the “threat of implosion” that marked conflicts at the heart of the movement itself. II: Not Losing the Victory The battle against the airport lasted forty years, and a good part of those opposed to the project gave the… Read More...

This is the first part of a text we will publish in two parts, and which is featured in Liaisons’ forthcoming book, “Horizons.” In the following text, which explores the aftermath of the ZAD (zone à défendre, or “zone to defend”) – an occupation in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, against the construction of an airport – our friends examine key moments in the ZAD’s history. They also address the movement’s composition and the temporality of the struggle, as well as the "threat of implosion" that marked conflicts at the heart of the movement itself. The second part, to be published next week, will consider the extent to which the ZAD can be conceived of as a temporary autonomous zone, along with the paradoxical nature of the movement’s victory. Victory and its Consequences: The Aftermath of the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes On the 17th of… Read More...

Liaisons received a letter from our friend, Sabu Kohso. Expanding on the framework developed in his recent book, Radiation and Revolution – an examination of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that illuminates the relationship between nuclear power, capitalism, and the nation-state – Sabu’s letter reflects on a handful of questions posed by our present: the relationship between pandemic and radiation, the significance of the recent US uprisings in a global context, and the heterogenetic silver lining that emerges with the prospect of American decomposition. Book of Catastrophe Radiation and Revolution is a project prompted by the Fukushima nuclear disaster that began in March 2011. Overwhelming manifestations of the catastrophe compelled an investigation into the ontopolitical status of nuclear power in Japan and the world, from the standpoint of people’s lives entrapped within its logic and their struggles against it. This… Read More...

This is the second of two letters we received from our friends in Kolkata, India. The first one, which explores the historical rise of the BJP and the significance of the uprising at Shaheen Bagh, can be read here. In the following letter, our friends examine the government’s lockdown (supported by the colonial-era Epidemic Diseases Act), reflect on the role of the media as a key element of the regime’s political power, and offer some thoughts on the insurrectionary memory of Shaheen Bagh.  Liaisons, In our last letter, we wanted to communicate the experience of Shaheen Bagh, but did not have the time to elaborate on what came next, in the form of a lockdown. Much after India detected its first COVID-19 case on January 30th, 2020, the Modi government showed little recognition of the issue. From January to March,… Read More...

This is the first of two letters we received from our friends in Kolkata, India. It sheds light on the historical rise of the BJP, the plight of Muslims, and other atrocities of the Indian nation-state to contextualize the significance of the mass uprising at Shaheen Bagh, which began in December of last year and lasted for several months, rapidly spreading across the country. In a second letter, to be published next week, our friends examine the government’s lockdown (supported by the colonial-era Epidemic Diseases Act) and reflect on the role of the media as a key element of the BJP’s political power. Liaisons, Long before the pandemic imposed itself on India’s collective psyche, the intolerable had already been lodged deep into the fabric of our daily lives: Islamophobic lynchings, caste atrocities, the garlanding and celebration of rapists, butchers and… Read More...

 I first saw the videos, I thought they were a hoax.  It didn’t register in my brain that an explosion of that magnitude could have happened in Beirut. It seemed like an end, like an apocalypse; everyone must be dead. Then, as I checked WhatsApp groups and called friends, I confirmed that everyone I was close to was, in fact, still alive. Even after an end it is never the end, and time keeps on going. That is what apocalyptic thinking fails to take into account. The end does not come in one fell swoop, no wiping the slate clean and starting over. There are only a series of mini-catastrophes that compile one onto the other and you have to build on top of the shit and rubble of the previous events, negotiating your way towards a hazy horizon. The… Read More...

Liaisons, I write to you from “ground zero.” South Minneapolis. Just a short walk from what remains of the Third Precinct, where just over two months ago thousands of people wore the police down, forced them to retreat under a hail of rocks, and burned their empty station. Unlike many other places around the country experiencing flare-ups in the weeks since, the unrest that shook my city at the end of May has not returned. That is not to say that nothing is happening — far from it — but that the energy that catalyzed the massive uprising we’ve all experienced has been definitively snuffed out. In the aftermath of the Third Precinct’s torching, as insurgent crowds showed no signs of slowing, I witnessed the state deploy extremely novel techniques to reinstate law & order when nothing seemed less possible. I… Read More...