The People’s Book Project has been ongoing for some time now. I recently attempted a fundraising campaign (aimed at raising $2,000) to support work on the Book Project for March and April. I never met the funding goal, but came very close, due to the extremely generous support of readers.

That support has led to significant progress on the project: no new chapters are being started currently. Rather, I am now focusing on finishing the existing chapters and beginning the process of editing together the first volume of the People’s Book Project, focused on issues related to the global economic crisis: the food crisis, land grabs, global poverty, slums, trade, so-called “free trade” agreements, corporate power, bank domination and profits, austerity policies, debt crises, and resistance to economic and corporate tyranny.

Over the next two months, the first volume of the book project should be nearing the first complete edit. But for that to happen, I need to again ask for support from readers to contribute to making this project a reality.

Check out the newly-designed website for The People’s Book Project!

Don’t forget to ‘like’ the Facebook page!

Please consider being a contributor and patron to The People’s Book Project. I am aiming to reach the fundraising goal of $2,000 to support the remaining research, writing, and editing for the first volume of the ‘global economic order.’

This project aims to expose global power structures in order to arm the people with enough information to try to change them. Help contribute to redistributing power by empowering the people with information and knowledge!

Contribute today!

Thank you,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

Writing for Revolution: A Crash Course in Contemplating the World

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

Are you wondering why, since we are told we are in an “economic recovery,” you do not feel as if you are in an economic recovery? Did you know that the United States has bombed the Philippines using a drone? Have you heard that France recently went to war in the West African country of Mali? Remember when we bombed Libya in 2011? And how we invaded and occupied Afghanistan for over a decade… and counting? Remember how Iraq was destroyed? Corporations, banks, drug cartels, the arms industry and oil, energy, mining conglomerates are all making record profits; how are you doing?

Have you heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), potentially the largest “free trade” agreement ever, being negotiated with 11 countries and over 600 corporations “in secret” for several years? Did you know that Obama runs an “international assassination” campaign with military drones, bombing countries all over the world, targeting those selected for an official “kill list”? Did you know that the FBI considered ‘Occupy Wall Street’ activists to be “potential terrorists”? Did you know that there is a war against whistleblowers and civil liberties, reaching far beyond what George Bush ever attempted?

Have you heard about large protests in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and across Europe? Have you ever wondered what’s going on there? Are you curious how the situation in Greece affects you here, wherever you are? Remember when there was talk of an “Arab Spring”, as people in far-away places like Tunisia and Egypt rose up against dictators whose names and state repression we never knew before? What happened with those ‘revolutions’? What’s going on in Syria? Did you hear that China is the next “rising” power in the world?

What does that mean to us, to our future?

We, who sit relatively comfortably within North America, or the West more generally, hear and see images of famine, war, death, disease and destruction all over the world. Is this really the way the ‘rest’ of the world is, or are we involved in making it that way?

Are you curious about the world, about contemplating and understanding the world? Well, I am! That’s why I have spent the past year and a half working on a book project, doing seemingly endless research and writing, to try to piece together what information I can, in a way that I am able to contemplate it, and pass it along to others in an approachable, well-documented, and understandable way. I am not saying I have “the answers”, but through time, energy, and research, I have collected enough information to begin to put pieces together, provide a general framework, for looking at the world and coming to your own conclusions.

I want to understand the world as best as I can, the way it really works, the way society, the economy, politics, war, corporations, banks, governments and international organizations really function. I want to understand the people who are in power, what they believe, what they think, say, and do. I want to know the ways in which populations all over the world react to or resist those in power. And I want to be able to convey the information I come across, the research I do, by writing it in such a way that it is understandable to as many people as possible.

I am not writing an ‘academic’ book, nor do I have any use for ‘academic language’, apart from noting its inability to communicate with others. I am certainly not writing a book for ‘policy-makers’, to “advise” governments on proper initiatives and programs to “better the world”. I have spent several years of my life, off and on, in the university system, attempting to (slowly) get a degree in Political Science and History. Degrees, I was told, provide legitimacy. And so while I began researching and writing for most of my time, some six years ago, I would also be periodically in school, getting an “education”.

I was, of course, fortunate enough to have found a few great professors along the way, from whom I learned a great deal and was exposed to different ideas and perspectives. But these were sadly the exceptions of a “good” education; the most enlightening and inspiring were the most rare, and frequently, were punished by the school – and faculties – for being such. What does that say about our “education” system?

Among the real benefits of a modern education is the access to information it provides, through classes and professors, certainly, but primarily through access to libraries and journals. The amount of information which exists in the world is immense, and constantly growing by large leaps and bounds. With information being digitized and shared through the Internet, more people have more access to more information than ever before in human history. If one truly wants an “education” the likes of which only the modern world can provide, look to that access, not the guardians of information from past eras, who so very often are called “professors” and “academics”.

For that reason, I took the skills and access of an “academic” education to truly begin my own personal education. I took a two-to-three year “hiatus” from school to focus on my own work, having landed a job as a paid researcher and writer. I left that job to pursue my book and, in doing so, subjected myself to the “market forces” of attempting to live as an independent researcher and writer, not connected to any institution, and dependent upon the donations and support of others, around the world.

It amazes me to this day – and every day – how I have been able to get where I am, doing what I am doing, all because of the support of people around the world, most of whom I have never met or known personally.

This was the start of The People’s Book Project, a year and a half ago.

In that time, I have undertaken extensive research and writing: one book became a long book, then many books, and seemingly had no end in sight. The process, while very rewarding, has been quite often terrifying, worrying and stressful. I even returned to school, in part to bring some structure into my life, and in part to pursue the degree I had not finished, worried about my own future on my present path. I returned to take one class, still focusing on the book as my priority, and then the students at my school went on strike. I paid little attention at first, as I barely considered myself a student. I was only physically at the school two days a week for an hour each time. And after a few years of pursuing research on my own, I found it exceedingly difficult to adapt to the more structured process of a “classroom,” with an itinerary of what I am “supposed” to read, and by which date it must be read.

Suddenly, I began to acknowledge what was going on around me, with students taking to the streets to fight a tuition increase, being beaten by riot police and arrested. I clearly wasn’t the only person who had a problem with the educational system. So I began to look closely at the situation here in Quebec, and I began to write about it, participate in the protests, and lend whatever support I could to the movement in the best way I know how: through doing the research and writing the results.

I had never before had such a surprising reception to what I was writing: my articles were going viral through social media and being referenced in newspapers and media across the country, and I was doing multiple radio and television interviews. I was afraid my ego or arrogance would get ahead of me, but I truly felt inspired by a social movement flourishing all around me. Everywhere you went and the people you interacted with – the student movement was becoming a wider social movement. And regardless of what people were saying or how the media portrayed it, everyone was talking about it. You could see it everywhere you went. Months prior, I would occasionally meet up with friends in a bar, but now I was meeting up with friends in protests and marches: these were the new forums for social interaction and engagement with others in my own generation. It was inspiring and drove me to write and work with a new dedication and purpose.

What came out of the experience was the necessity of not simply focusing (in the book and in life) on the problems of the world, on those in power, on power structures, on oppression and war and empire but – more importantly – on that which opposes (and those who resist) power and the problems of the world.

This radically changed the evolving nature of the book: resistance was a requirement.

And this pushed me to study Europe, the debt crisis, and the reactions of populations in Greece, Spain and beyond. In turn, I began to look more closely at the ‘Arab Spring’ and the unfinished and emerging revolutions across much of the world.

As the research for this book has moved forward, and the writing has progressed in kind, it has been a constant struggle in determining how best to present the information, understand and explain the results – deciding what to include, what to leave out, what chapter to go where, what chapters there should be, how I will break up the subjects, chronological or regional? If I break up the ‘war and empire’ section from the ‘corporate and economic’ section, does this re-enforce a superficial divide between these sectors? The questions and concerns go on and on.

When one is attempting to study a deeply interdependent world in which all matters interact and engage with each other, how can one legitimately and constructively break up these sections and still provide a realistic analysis? These questions have been constantly in mind and have led to frequent re-organization of the structure of the book, while the actual research and writing continues unabated by the whims of my own inability to create or adapt to a more rigid ‘structure’

But guidance and goals have also served a profound purpose: they have focused the work more, expanded the understanding, but limited the objective. I have been able to narrow into specific subjects as the focus of this, the first volume, in what I intend to be a series of books. I am still working a great deal on the first volume, adding only to that which I had already planned to research.

A great deal of the research and writing done over the past year and a half will not be included in the first volume. I have written varying amounts of what could amount to multiple books but each, on its own, would require significant work in order to complete. For that reason, I have intended to focus the first book in the series on that which I have written on the most: what is going on in the world today and in recent years? The research I have done in past years contributes to my understanding of the present world, and so it will inform the first volume; thus the efforts done so far in the book project will not be for nothing.

Perhaps not coincidentally, when the student movement in Quebec faded – as a new government came to power, promising to resolve the issues through ‘formal’ political channels – I chose not to return to school. Instead, I chose to focus exclusively on the book. After all, there seemed an odd feeling of hypocrisy in writing about subjects such as the failure of the modern educational system to provide a better understanding of the world, and yet simultaneously seeking to acquire a piece of paper which declared my own understanding to be “legitimate”. I do not seek to join that world of academics, where the more “educated” I am, the more incapable of communicating knowledge to others I become.

When once asked what the “science” aspect of Political Science was, my only reply was that it was “the science of B.S.”  – how to speak as if you know what you’re talking about, to talk about what you know nothing about, to ‘talk’ while saying nothing and think without feeling anything. There is a reason why Political Science produces politicians and policy-makers. A well-trained ‘political scientist’ can B.S. their way through most situations and justify any circumstance.

I spent several years getting this type of “education”, speaking this type of language and understanding these types of concepts. I do not seek to join that world of politicians and policy-makers. As I often tell friends and family: if I ever run for office, don’t vote for me.

It is a challenging thing to attempt to try to understand the world by detaching from some of its more prominent institutions. I do not seek to separate from the world, but to find a connection to the world which holds substance and meaning for me. I see this in people, in protests, in resistance, creativity and revolution; I see it in the potential for people. It’s something to which I feel is worth dedicating my life and work. Unfortunately, it is not something made easy to acquire, and less so to sustain. I have attempted to undertake a project with a large purview and limited resources, independent of institutional support and direction.

I won’t lie – it’s been a constant struggle, but worth every moment and all the effort.

There have been ups and downs, successes and failures, and lessons learned. There have been times where I felt lost, frustrated and incapable of proceeding. There have been times where I felt focused, dedicated and incapable of stopping. This is one of those times.

In the past few months, I have been getting work writing commissioned articles for other sites, even recently beginning a research project with Occupy.com. It has been a relief to develop other sources of income, and rewarding to make new connections and reach new audiences. But still, I must find the time and energy to focus on my book. Commissioned work is good, but it alone does not pay the bills, nor does it provide enough time to work on the book. Thus, I must come to find and establish a better balance in my work, also as I begin to work with new organizations, and even begin the planning process with a friend and associate to start our own.

Thanks to the recent donations to The People’s Book Project, I have been able to throw myself back into the book this last week. My focus, dedication and determination are as strong as ever, and my intention to finish the first volume in the book in the near future appears closer than before.

In the province of Quebec and the city of Montreal, the students are back on the streets, protesting and getting arrested, struggling against the state which stabbed them in the back (as governments tend to do), and my focus is back on the book, progressing and nearing completion. I do not have any illusions that it will take a significant amount of time and effort on my part to do so, but if the ability to do so exists, the inevitability of doing so will persist… and persevere.

I have a goal. I am narrowing my focus and strengthening my efforts. But as always, I need your help to get there.

Are you curious about trying to understand the world? Well, so am I.

The information and resources exist to build up a good capacity of understanding, though it must be in a constant state of adaptation and self-reflection as you come across new information, subjects, ideas and perspectives. I look at the views I have, the ones I’ve changed and how I got to where I am, and it seems clear that my own understanding is constantly changing. Therefore, whatever “understanding” I offer to others – at whatever time I offer it – is never going to be complete; there is always more information, there are always other perspectives, and there is always much more to learn than can ever be known.

So I do not propose that I “know” more than others, or that I have some sort of monopoly on defining “reality”. Instead, I only propose that as I have spent the past six years doing research and writing, and the past year and a half working on this book, I have developed and refined skills at utilizing the access and information that has been made available to me. This is simply a result of practice. The more you do it, the more you learn how to do it better. The more you research, the more you learn. The more you write, the more you communicate. I do not expect everyone to undertake the same research as myself, for all must live their own lives and follow their own passions, but I do think this information is necessary for all people, for as many people who want access to it.

Think of The People’s Book Project as a way to “outsource” your own research to me. I’ll put in the effort, and attempt to summarize the results in easily readable, understandable language, but not dumbed-down or made superficial.

I want to write a book with academic standards of research, but approachable to anyone. I think that the first major requirement for any progress to solving the multiplicity of problems in the world is to first start by engaging in open, direct and honest communication about the world we live in. This, I believe, can be reflected in one’s own individual life – though not without its problems – of learning to engage and interact with others on the basis of this same open, direct and honest communication. It’s easier said than done, both in personal life and the wider world. But I think it’s necessary, at all levels and capacities.

In the past year and a half, as I have made this book the central focus of my energy and efforts, often at the expense of other areas of my life, it has become as much a result of my own ideas and actions as my own beliefs and actions have resulted from it. In short, I am a product of this book as much as it is a product of me. For that reason, I intended to provide some information here about my own process, interest and evolution through the People’s Book Project, so that you may better understand the Project, itself.

I have attempted to be open, direct and honest with you here in assessing my progress, explaining my process and in asking for help with this purpose. Everything that has been done thus far is only because of the support I have received from others. Everything I continue to do will be equally derived from similar support. Nothing that has been – or will be – done with this Project would be possible without the support of many people, in many places, all over the world. And that is exactly the point: it is, after all, the People’s Book Project, made possible by – and for the benefit of – the people, not simply myself.

So, I thank all of you who have – at one or many times over – supported The People’s Book Project in any and every capacity. Thank you for the opportunity, the means and the possibility to do this. And now I ask you to continue helping, to continue your support and to continue spreading the word, for the more people who know and talk about The People’s Book project, the more potential sources of support would exist, and perhaps the less annoying I will have to be in asking for support.

Outsource to me your research, and I’ll provide to you results: a crash course in contemplating the world.

Sincerely,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

 

 

Fundraising efforts for The People’s Book Project are making good progress, and have raised a total of $545.00 out of the goal of $2,000 to finance the Project over the next two months. So thank you very much to the generous contributions thus far, and keep spreading the word, every bit helps! Truly.

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So where is the money going? Primarily, the money goes to covering my general living expenses so that my time can be dedicated to the Book Project, but there are also specific costs associated with monthly subscriptions to news services (such as the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times) which, unfortunately, are necessary to provide the resources for research. Online news sites typically have a maximum amount of articles which can be read for free on their sites (usually around 5-8 per month), and thus, without these subscriptions, research can be heavily curtailed, as they are valuable resources, specifically depending upon the subject matter of focus.

And on that note, what subjects will the current donations be going towards doing research on, as well as writing chapters from? Currently, the focus is on finishing the chapters introducing the subject and mechanisms of imperialism in the modern world, specifically that of the United States: the main planning bodies of empire within government (Pentagon, CIA, National Security Council, State Department), as well as outside, at think tanks and foundations (Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment, Center for Strategic and International Studies), and the main players in the American Empire over the past 60 years (Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Madeleine Albright, etc.). I will be examining the specific imperial strategies, in their own words, and briefly look at some of their plans in action.

In the chapter on Empire in the Age of Obama, I will be examining the transition from the “War on Terror” to the Obama’s administration’s “overseas contingency operations” (as it was renamed), and the specific strategies, plans, and actions of empire under the current President: drone wars, destabilization campaigns, counter-insurgency in Afghanistan, maintenance of vassal states, support for dictators and human rights abuses, arms trade, more recent wars in Yemen, Libya, Mali, and elsewhere, coups (such as that in Honduras), military bases and expansion, AFRICOM and the militarization of foreign policy in Africa, the relationship between natural resources and imperial policy, and looking at the human costs of empire around the world.

I have also started the chapter on the Arab Spring, focusing thus far on Tunisia, but which will include Egypt and Bahrain, as well as the lesser-known protests and reactions in Algeria, Morocco, and Jordan, among others.

On top of this new research and writing, I will be aiming to complete past chapters already begun, on issues of the food crisis, global land grabs, environmental devastation, and indigenous resistance. I am also hoping to begin editing previously written chapters to start putting together the first draft of the first volume of The People’s Book Project, so that the editing process can proceed in line with the research and writing itself.

These are some hefty goals for the next two months, but if I have the funds, I can dedicate the time and energy to the work. My ultimate goal is to have the first draft completed by the Summer, at which point I will begin the process of final edits and publishing.

So, please consider donating to the People’s Book Project to help this objective be realized. Thank you to all who have contributed, past and presently, and to those who will do so in the future.

Sincerely,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

The People’s Book Project is an on-going, crowd-funded initiative to write a series of books examining the ideas, institutions, and individuals of power and resistance in the world today. The first volume of the Project will be completed ASAP, and looks primarily at the world in the past few years, studying issues of poverty, economic crisis, debt crisis in Europe, banking, corporate power, environmental destruction, food crisis, land grabs, imperialism, war, global governance, anti-austerity movement, student movements, indigenous resistance, and the prospects of global revolution

To continue researching and writing the first volume of The People’s Book Project, I am undertaking a fundraising effort aiming at raising $2,000 to sustain the Project over the next couple months. Thus far, $300 has been raised, and to the donors, a great deal of appreciation is warranted. But that leaves another $1,700 to raise. Please consider making a donation below, and take a look at a brief summary of SOME of the topics that will be discussed in the first volume!

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So what is contained within the first volume?

- A general introduction to the ‘Sociopathic Society’: what is sociopathic and psychopathic behaviour, and how is it reflected in the ideas, institutions, and individuals of power within our society?

- The Culture of Criminality: prisons are full, but of the wrong people. In the upper echelons of power, whether locally or globally, criminal behaviour is rampant (and profitable), from arms dealing to the drug trade, human trafficking, sex trafficking, terrorist financing and the like, some of the world’s most powerful banks, corporations and individuals have their hands all over these dirty trades of misery-profit. I examine these trades and some of the key players within them.

- An Introduction to Institutions: what are the dominant institutions within society, how do they function, whose interests do they serve, and what forms of power do they wield? This will be a very brief introduction to the nature and role of specific institutions within our modern society, from banks and corporations to foundations, think tanks, universities, and the state itself.

- American Empire, Inc.: This section will briefly examine some of the recent history of the American/Western imperial system, looking at the state apparatus of empire (Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National Security Council, etc.), the ideologies and “doctrines” of empire (what are the actual stated goals of foreign policy according to those who dictate the policy?), and who are the key players? Enmeshed in a world of think tanks, corporations, and government officials, key players like Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Madeleine Albright, Brent Scowcroft and others, emerge as constant guiding figures for imperial planning.

- The Global Economic Crisis: What are the structural and ideological causes of the global economic crisis which began in 2008? Who are the key players? What are the role of the big banks, central banks, government agencies, corporations? Who profits? What is the result of the crisis for those in power, the middle class, and the poor? What are the “solutions” that were enacted? Will they make things worse? have they already?

- Food, Land, and Poverty: looking at the current state of global poverty, where roughly half the world’s 7 billion people live on less than $2.50/day, where over one billion live in slums, where tens of millions die from poverty-related causes each year. The food crisis of 2007 and beyond have pushed tens of millions more into poverty and hunger, and the subsequent global land grabs are fast becoming the world’s number one economic, social, and environmental crisis, as international investors push peasant and small farming populations off their land (and into hunger, poverty, and slums).

- Empire in the Age of Obama: What have Obama’s policies in foreign affairs been representative of? The “change” he promised or the continuity of past presidents? From expanding the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan, to waging global drone wars, new wars in Libya, Mali, a rapid militarization of Africa, coups and regime change, Empire in the Age of Obama is as vicious as ever. This looks at the function of the modern imperial system, the relationship between the United States and the world, the maintenance of “vassal” states, and human rights abuses.

- The Arab Spring: From Tunisia, to Egypt, Bahrain, and beyond, this examines the causes, evolution and consequences of the so-called Arab Spring revolts which began in 2010 and have continued to present day. What have been the responses from the Western imperial powers? How have the revolutionary movements changed and evolved?

- Europe in Crisis: this examines the causes of the European debt crisis, the key players and institutions, the evolution of the crisis in Greece, Spain, and Italy, as well as the massive social movements which have erupted in response to the programs of “austerity” and “adjustment” (read: impoverishment and exploitation), from anarchists in Greece, to the Indignados in Spain, protests in Italy, and new regional and global movements which have emerged in response to the crisis.

- Students in the Streets: education is in crisis, with more graduates, less jobs, and enormous debt. Students have been protesting and going on strike and revolt from Greece, to the UK, Chile, Quebec, and Mexico. This section looks at the causes of this crisis, the reactions to it, and the future of education itself.

- Police State America: Over the past decade, the United States – and many of its Western allies – have become “homeland security” states, with increased surveillance, militarization of domestic space, destruction of civil liberties, and are fast tracking down the road to “technological tyrannies.” With the emergence of social movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, we see the actual purpose of “Homeland Security”: to protect the powerful from the people.

- Environmental Destruction and Indigenous Resistance: this section examines global environmental crises with a focus on the direct interaction between modern human society and the environment, with pollution, deforestation, resource extraction, climate change, toxic waste dumping and other activities threatening the survival of the human species. The causes of the global environmental crisis are systemic: the institutions, ideologies, and structures of power thrive on environmental destruction, and on the front lines of its consequences – as well as resistance against it – are indigenous peoples all over the world: from Africa, to Central and South America, and in Canada with ‘Idle No More’, Indigenous peoples are showing the path forward in addressing issues of environmental devastation, and that we must all begin to act as if we are ‘Indigenous to the Earth.’

- Global Governance, the Future of Power: ideologies, institutions and individuals of power are increasingly global in scope, and are rapidly seeking to globalize in structure. Regional governance structures, such as the EU, which are devastating their own populations, are held up as models for the rest of the world to follow. Banking, corporations, trade, and the monetary system are increasingly global in scope. So-called “free trade agreements” are making corporations more powerful than governments, as new structures of global governance emerge, remaking the world in the ‘corporate image’, increasingly totalitarian, exploitative, and destructive.

- The Prospect of Global Revolution: as power globalizes, so too is resistance. The global movements of resistance, from Egypt and Tunisia, to Greece, Spain, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, to Canada and the United States, may be taking place in specific circumstances, and with specific demands, but they represent a change taking place in the world: the population of the world is rising up in resistance, slowly but surely. What are the common factors driving this? What are areas of mutual co-operation? What is the potential for future evolution into making meaningful change?

This is not meant to be an exact outline, but is meant to be a general look at the subjects which the first volume of The People’s Book Project is attempting to examine.

Please help this Project continue by donating today!

Thank you,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

I am attempting to raise funds to finance The People’s Book Project over the next two months, with a goal of raising $2,000.

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This will help provide the time and resources necessary to complete several chapters of the first volume of The People’s Book Project. The goal is to finish the first volume as soon as possible, at which time it will begin the editing and publishing process.

So what is contained within the first volume?

- A general introduction to the ‘Sociopathic Society’: what is sociopathic and psychopathic behaviour, and how is it reflected in the ideas, institutions, and individuals of power within our society?

- The Culture of Criminality: prisons are full, but of the wrong people. In the upper echelons of power, whether locally or globally, criminal behaviour is rampant (and profitable), from arms dealing to the drug trade, human trafficking, sex trafficking, terrorist financing and the like, some of the world’s most powerful banks, corporations and individuals have their hands all over these dirty trades of misery-profit. I examine these trades and some of the key players within them.

- An Introduction to Institutions: what are the dominant institutions within society, how do they function, whose interests do they serve, and what forms of power do they wield? This will be a very brief introduction to the nature and role of specific institutions within our modern society, from banks and corporations to foundations, think tanks, universities, and the state itself.

- American Empire, Inc.: This section will briefly examine some of the recent history of the American/Western imperial system, looking at the state apparatus of empire (Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National Security Council, etc.), the ideologies and “doctrines” of empire (what are the actual stated goals of foreign policy according to those who dictate the policy?), and who are the key players? Enmeshed in a world of think tanks, corporations, and government officials, key players like Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Madeleine Albright, Brent Scowcroft and others, emerge as constant guiding figures for imperial planning.

- The Global Economic Crisis: What are the structural and ideological causes of the global economic crisis which began in 2008? Who are the key players? What are the role of the big banks, central banks, government agencies, corporations? Who profits? What is the result of the crisis for those in power, the middle class, and the poor? What are the “solutions” that were enacted? Will they make things worse? have they already?

- Food, Land, and Poverty: looking at the current state of global poverty, where roughly half the world’s 7 billion people live on less than $2.50/day, where over one billion live in slums, where tens of millions die from poverty-related causes each year. The food crisis of 2007 and beyond have pushed tens of millions more into poverty and hunger, and the subsequent global land grabs are fast becoming the world’s number one economic, social, and environmental crisis, as international investors push peasant and small farming populations off their land (and into hunger, poverty, and slums).

- Empire in the Age of Obama: What have Obama’s policies in foreign affairs been representative of? The “change” he promised or the continuity of past presidents? From expanding the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan, to waging global drone wars, new wars in Libya, Mali, a rapid militarization of Africa, coups and regime change, Empire in the Age of Obama is as vicious as ever. This looks at the function of the modern imperial system, the relationship between the United States and the world, the maintenance of “vassal” states, and human rights abuses.

- The Arab Spring: From Tunisia, to Egypt, Bahrain, and beyond, this examines the causes, evolution and consequences of the so-called Arab Spring revolts which began in 2010 and have continued to present day. What have been the responses from the Western imperial powers? How have the revolutionary movements changed and evolved?

- Europe in Crisis: this examines the causes of the European debt crisis, the key players and institutions, the evolution of the crisis in Greece, Spain, and Italy, as well as the massive social movements which have erupted in response to the programs of “austerity” and “adjustment” (read: impoverishment and exploitation), from anarchists in Greece, to the Indignados in Spain, protests in Italy, and new regional and global movements which have emerged in response to the crisis.

- Students in the Streets: education is in crisis, with more graduates, less jobs, and enormous debt. Students have been protesting and going on strike and revolt from Greece, to the UK, Chile, Quebec, and Mexico. This section looks at the causes of this crisis, the reactions to it, and the future of education itself.

- Police State America: Over the past decade, the United States – and many of its Western allies – have become “homeland security” states, with increased surveillance, militarization of domestic space, destruction of civil liberties, and are fast tracking down the road to “technological tyrannies.” With the emergence of social movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, we see the actual purpose of “Homeland Security”: to protect the powerful from the people.

- Environmental Destruction and Indigenous Resistance: this section examines global environmental crises with a focus on the direct interaction between modern human society and the environment, with pollution, deforestation, resource extraction, climate change, toxic waste dumping and other activities threatening the survival of the human species. The causes of the global environmental crisis are systemic: the institutions, ideologies, and structures of power thrive on environmental destruction, and on the front lines of its consequences – as well as resistance against it – are indigenous peoples all over the world: from Africa, to Central and South America, and in Canada with ‘Idle No More’, Indigenous peoples are showing the path forward in addressing issues of environmental devastation, and that we must all begin to act as if we are ‘Indigenous to the Earth.’

- Global Governance, the Future of Power: ideologies, institutions and individuals of power are increasingly global in scope, and are rapidly seeking to globalize in structure. Regional governance structures, such as the EU, which are devastating their own populations, are held up as models for the rest of the world to follow. Banking, corporations, trade, and the monetary system are increasingly global in scope. So-called “free trade agreements” are making corporations more powerful than governments, as new structures of global governance emerge, remaking the world in the ‘corporate image’, increasingly totalitarian, exploitative, and destructive.

- The Prospect of Global Revolution: as power globalizes, so too is resistance. The global movements of resistance, from Egypt and Tunisia, to Greece, Spain, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, to Canada and the United States, may be taking place in specific circumstances, and with specific demands, but they represent a change taking place in the world: the population of the world is rising up in resistance, slowly but surely. What are the common factors driving this? What are areas of mutual co-operation? What is the potential for future evolution into making meaningful change?

This is not meant to be an exact outline, but is meant to be a general look at the subjects which the first volume of The People’s Book Project is attempting to examine.

Please help this Project continue by donating today!

Thank you,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, with a focus on studying the ideas, institutions, and individuals of power and resistance across a wide spectrum of social, political, economic, and historical spheres. He has been published in AlterNet, CounterPunch, Occupy.com, Truth-Out, RoarMag, and a number of other alternative media groups, and regularly does radio, Internet, and television interviews with both alternative and mainstream news outlets. He is Project Manager of The People’s Book Project and has a weekly podcast show with BoilingFrogsPost.

The People’s Book Project is a crowd-funded initiative to support the research and writing of a series of books studying ideas, institutions, and individuals of power… and resistance. The Project has been going for roughly a year and a half, and has yielded an immense amount of research and writing, all thanks to the generous donations of supporters, as well as readers who have shared and promoted the Project and articles.

While a great deal of work has been produced, I have focused my attention on finishing the first volume as soon as possible, with an emphasis on looking at the world in present day, at social, economic, and political institutions, ideas, and individuals who dominate and resist the current world order, asking the question: what is the nature of our society? In seeking to answer this question, I have set the focus of the first volume on the subjects of the global economic and financial crisis, the debt crisis in Europe, imperialism in the ‘age of Obama,’ poverty, exploitation, corporate power, environmental destruction, the encroaching police state, global governance, and conversely, resistance to all these areas: anti-austerity movements, student movements, indigenous movements, revolutions in the Arab world and beyond, Occupy, and the emergence of a global revolutionary impetus.

This book is intended to be an ‘introduction’ to the ideas and institutions of world power, to provide the reader with a better understanding of the nature of power, moving beyond mythology and rhetoric and closer toward reality: how does power actually function? Future volumes of the Book Project will aim to provide a far more comprehensive examination of our global system, its history, and the plethora of institutions which dominate, as well as the history of revolutionary ideas and actions.

It is essential, however, that the first volume focuses on present day issues, and further, that it is finished soon. In the past month or so, I have attempted to avoid overt fundraising activities, since it is very often the same generous individuals who consistently give to the Book Project, and I have instead been doing an increasing amount of work in getting commissioned articles and research projects for others, so that I may become more independently funded. While this is certainly a welcome change in my own life (getting paid to do what I love!), it adds a great deal to my plate, as time and energy spent researching and writing commissioned pieces is not spent on the book.

Nevertheless, I have been making time and putting in effort to moving as far ahead in the Book Project as possible. In the past couple months, I have written a great deal for chapters related to the global food crisis, land grabbing, global poverty, corporate and financial power, as well as imperialism (so far focusing on imperialism in Africa and the Arab world), and I have also completed a good deal of research for other chapters and areas. Progress is the name of the game, though the pace of such progress tends to sway according to financial imperatives. For this reason, I am asking for your support, dear readers, to donate to The People’s Book Project so that more time may be dedicated toward finishing the first volume in the next couple months.

I would also like to briefly touch on some ideas and plans as to where the Project may lead, since it is not merely dedicated to my own research and writing, but has a much wider objective: to help do my part in trying to change the paradigm of thought and action, to infuse individuals with information and arm them with knowledge so that they can use their own creative potential to change the world for the better. This Project is also dedicated toward the establishment of a new organizing, which is currently in the planning stages: The People’s Foundation. It’s objective would be similar, though it’s means would be much greater. It would be dedicated to research, open-source education, new media, bringing activists together, establishing exchanges and building bridges to similar organizations around the world. The People’s Book Project itself helps lay the groundwork of research upon which The People’s Foundation could be built and how it aims to function, what it hopes to achieve. Both projects are in the works, and aim to be a continuing and evolving process. One could say that it is an attempt to ‘walk the walk’ instead of merely ‘talking the talk.’ Research and writing have their place, but action is essential. My objective with the People’s Book Project is to help advance understanding and action.

These objectives are not possible without the generous support of readers, and that support is needed once again. I will continue to be providing samples from the Project as the work progresses, and am hoping to get out some pieces on the subjects of imperialism, war, and land grabbing in the very near future.

So thank you, dear readers, for your consistent and continuing support. None of this would be possible without you, and that is exactly the point: it’s called the PEOPLE’S Book Project because it does not result merely from my own research and effort, but only from what is made possible by the efforts of many, and for the purpose of benefit not merely to myself, but to many. Implicit in both the conclusions of my research and the function of the Project itself, is that nothing is possible without the combined efforts of many: the ‘individual’ is only made possible by the understanding that it is part of a collective, that the individual cannot exist without the group, without the many; the person cannot exist without the people. That is where the world’s solutions stand: in collective organization, initiative, and action, so that true individuality may flourish from the support of the many, so that the creative capacity of groups can outweigh the creative limits of single units.

The future is an exciting place. So please consider helping The People’s Book Project get there!

Sincerely,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, with a focus on studying the ideas, institutions, and individuals of power and resistance across a wide spectrum of social, political, economic, and historical spheres. He has been published in AlterNet, CounterPunch, Occupy.com, Truth-Out, RoarMag, and a number of other alternative media groups, and regularly does radio, Internet, and television interviews with both alternative and mainstream news outlets. He is Project Manager of The People’s Book Project and has a weekly podcast show with BoilingFrogsPost.

The following is a video update for The People’s Book Project

Today marks the end of an era – as the current Mayan calendar ends – and a new era begins. Mayans did not predict the end of the world for December 21, 2012, but rather the end of one cycle, and the beginning of a new, transformed era in the world. The 21st is the last day of the current cycle, and the 22nd marks the beginning of the next, and what many Mayan elders and experts say will be a positive era for humanity.

Think of it as the marking of a transformation of ‘human consciousness.’ Surely, few would argue that humanity is in desperate need of this. I find it helpful to think of the long history of humanity as if we imagine ourselves as individuals, looking back upon our lives, how we have learned from our past mistakes (or not), how we have adapted and evolved (or not), and how we direct our paths from the present into the future. In this sense, think of humanity as preparing to leave adolescence, where we have been confined to the dictates of others, told what to do, what to think, what to be, what to believe, what to want, and how to act; like children living under their parents’ roof. Now, it is time for humanity, like the young adult, to discover the world and their place within it, for themselves, to grow up, move out, and reach for that ever-elusive sense of autonomy. Humanity now must mature into adulthood, and just as it is with each individual, so shall it be with humanity as a whole: tumultuous, frustrating, problematic, not shy of challenges and frustrations and failures along the way, but ultimately worth the effort, and requiring of it if we are to ever reach self-actualizing, autonomy, and freedom.

Appropriately, on the 21st of December 2012, it was Mayan descendants and other indigenous people who are showing the path into the future. In Chiapas, Mexico, the Zapatistas who first emerged in opposition to neoliberalism on the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented in 1994, have again resurfaced, peacefully marching in the thousands. In Canada, indigenous peoples who have mobilized a mass movement – rapidly spreading across the nation and even internationally – have organized a day of mobilization against the Harper regime and the destruction it is bringing to people, peace, and the environment. The movement, referred to as ‘Idle No More‘, is leading the way for other Canadians and people around the world to oppose the rapacious policies and ideologies of those who rule over us. Indeed, the phrase is apt: the world, and its population, is “idle no more.”

Humanity is interconnected like never before, and in this interconnected and interactive world, those who rule over humanity are themselves more interconnected than before, with more power and destructive potential than history has ever witnessed. Our fates are collectively entwined: we face the greatest threats to peace, freedom, and the future, yet, we simultaneously hold the greatest potential to create meaningful peace, freedom, and a future worth struggling for. We have no other option other than to try our best to make this a better world. We have no other means than to work together, struggle together, think together, and act accordingly. The diversity of thought, purpose and action will be nothing less than astounding.

The People’s Book Project is my own small attempt to contribute to change: trying to compile massive amounts of information in an analysis which is comprehensible to everyone, to try to understand the world better, and thus, to encourage people to act accordingly, to chart their own ways forward. The Book Project itself only exists because of the efforts and support of many: those who contribute ideas, spread information, and make donations, which all allow the Project to continue. In the past several weeks, progress on the first volume has been accelerating, researching and writing about the sociopathic nature of elite circles, from the psychology of serial killers, to sex rings, human trafficking and the culture of criminality. I have been writing a great deal about free trade, resource wealth, and the great global land grabs, where international investors are essentially stealing the world’s land and resources, most notably in Africa. I have been preparing the research for my chapter(s) on imperialism in the age of Obama, the nature and structures of the American Empire and its global protectorates, the Arab Spring; the global economic crisis, anti-austerity movements, resistance and revolution.

We do, indeed, live in interesting times, and as Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So as the new calendar begins, marking the beginning of a new era, and with the New Year just around the corner, my hope is that I will be able to make significant near-term progress on the first volume of the People’s Book Project. For that to happen, like for all good progress, the efforts of many are required. I cannot complete this book without support from readers and others, no more than their support can complete the book without my own research and writing. I am only able to do what I do because others do what they do, and have done, and hopefully, will continue to do.

Please consider making a donation to The People’s Book Project, and I will continue putting my time and effort into producing the best results I can.

 

Thank you kindly, happy holidays, and may the new era and New Year bring you as much tumult, challenge, hope and progress as it brings to the world.

Sincerely,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

An update for the People’s Book Project is very much in order. It has been a very tumultuous past month or so for me, with my computer essentially crashing, getting sick, and then entering a period of what is commonly referred to as “writer’s block,” the first time I have ever had any experience with such a thing. Usually, my interest simply drives my writing, and while it is expansive and seemingly never-ending, it is consistent and takes on a life of its own. I write whatever inspires me most at that particular time. Well, a few weeks ago, my interests were all over the place, and I was researching, reading, and writing about several different subjects at once, unable to focus on one facet. Then, suddenly, I was unable to focus on anything, and lacked all motivation and inspiration. Writer’s block was not something I ever believed in, until it suddenly happened to me, and it was a new experience.

But thankfully, it is now also over, and I am back to doing what I have to do and what I do best. The first volume of The People’s Book Project is seeing progress, and I am trying to keep the focus on the years from when the economic crisis began in 2008, though I will have to include some historical analysis just to establish a little context. The real history, however, will be left for future volumes of the Project. This volume aims to examine primarily the global economic crisis, its origins and evolution, the bailouts, the banks, and the debt crisis in Europe and elsewhere, the austerity and “structural adjustment” programs of impoverishment and exploitation, the corporate and financial plundering of the world; the expanded imperial policies of the Obama administration and its NATO allies (“puppets”), and I am just about to begin work on the chapter covering the Arab Spring, its origins, power relations, conflicting agendas and ideologies, and the imperial attempts at co-optation and repression, including the war in Libya, conflict in Syria, potential war with Iran, etc. Also included in this volume will be a look at the development of global governance institutions and ideologies, regional governance institutions, trade blocs and global power networks; and of course, the growth of anti-austerity and resistance movements, across Europe, as well as the student movements in Quebec and Chile (as a few examples, there will be much more!), Occupy, and the methods of repression, police state measures and surveillance/control grids being established by the Western “democracies” as a form of repressing any attempt at change.

So there is a lot to cover, and a great deal I have already written, which is in need of editing and formatting properly within this volume. In order to continue with this work, I need your help, support, social networking skills, and donations in order to get the job finished and get this volume done and out as soon as possible!

Being an independent researcher and writer means having to ask for money a lot, which I am no fan of to be honest. But here I am, asking, all the same. It also means that I need to produce articles for publication in order to keep up traffic to my sites and generate readership which can, in turn, possibly donate or contribute to the Project. The unfortunate aspect of this is that it requires me to spend a good deal of time writing articles for posting online, time that is not used, then, for writing the actual book. This tends to delay the process. So I will attempt to focus on posting little excerpts instead of original content in the hopes of speeding up the process.

Again, thank you for all of your constant support, and if at all possible, please consider making a donation to The People’s Book Project!

Sincerely,

Andrew Gavin Marshall