French people don’t give a shit about lifestyle politics. Okay, it’s a generalization, but—despite my short residence and limited language skills—there’s some truth to it. I saw it on May Day, among the anarchists selling Coca-Cola products and candy bars, and I saw it at a “zero waste” conference where the attendees couldn’t manage to… Continue reading Should the Revolution Have a Vegan Option?
I had only been going into New York to hang out with freegan.info for a month when I featured in my first media story. A Dutch journalist was quite taken with the incongruity of a Princeton University student going through the garbage, and despite my protestations that there were way more knowledgeable people in the… Continue reading Fool Me Twice
“Has anyone here ever been part of a union before?” No hands go up. “Does anyone here think they’ll be in a union after they graduate?” Still no hands. “How about this: who thinks they’ll someday be on the other side of a negotiating table from a union?” Finally, hands go up, along with a… Continue reading Solidarity
The reports are just rolling in, and boy, has it been enlightening. A few weeks ago, the University of California Police Department released a report determining that the real source of problems at Berkeley on November 9th was that police weren’t allowed enough “force options”—particular, pepper spray. Shortly thereafter, a quasi-independent review board at Davis… Continue reading November 9th and the Changing Repertoires of Activism
After a fall spent trying to make some social change, this spring I’ve withdrawn into my more comfortable habitus: reading about social change. I’ve been particularly drawn to stories about the Civil Rights movement, perhaps because I’ve been desperate to remind myself that change does in fact happen every once in a while. Most recently,… Continue reading The Long Haul
With all the time I spend reading Marx with other graduate students and talking revolution with other activists, I occasionally forget that my world is largely populated by people who don’t share my particular line of leftist politics. I’ve been reminded of the political diversity of my friends during conversations about the open letter which… Continue reading “I Don’t Actually Hate Bankers” and Other Thoughts on the Open Letter (Part 1)
After the tigers of Occupy Princeton mic-checked recruiting events for Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, a few concerned alumni collaboratively drafted an Open Letter to Princeton Community to send to the Princeton Alumni Weekly and the university administration. If you are an alum and want to sign it, shoot me an e-mail (also, let me… Continue reading An Open Letter to the Princeton Community
A few Mondays ago, I saw my future. No, not a vision of being arrested and thrown in jail—this was a more long-term vision. It was a premonition of my future as a college professor: standing in the front of a lecture hall filled with bored-looking undergraduates, their tired faces half hidden by laptops (open… Continue reading Apathetic Apologetic
I didn’t really sleep the first few nights after my arrest. Exhausted as I was by a night spent in jail—coming on the heels of several nights where academic work and organizing meetings had kept me up late—I felt a profound sense of disquiet, and returned to that most familiar and comforting of behaiors for… Continue reading Gentle / Strong
Yesterday, I was beaten, arrested, and jailed for participating in an act of civil disobedience against the privatization of education and criminalization of dissent in California. I’ve spent the last day trying to process what happened, and writing this is an attempt to get it out of my mind and on to paper (having spent… Continue reading Arrested
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 