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Gabriel Kuhn

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Gabriel was born in Austria but soon began moving around with his artist parents. He grew up in various countries, including Turkey, Italy, England and the US, but returned to Austria for most of his formal education and a four-year semi-professional soccer career. In 1996 he received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck. The following ten years he spent hitchhiking and couchsurfing around five continents. He moved to Sweden in 2006.

Active in radical politics since the late 1980s, publishing projects have always been a focus. In the early 1990s, Gabriel worked with the Austrian autonomist journal TATblatt and anarchist publisher Monte Verita, before turning his attention to DIY zine publishing. Alpine Anarchist Productions was founded in 2000, and distributes pamphlets to this day. Since 2005 Gabriel has been working closely with radical German publisher Unrast. His book "'Neuer Anarchismus' in den USA. Seattle und die Folgen" was named "Book of the Year 2008" by Berlin's Library of the Free. Gabriel also contributes regularly to the Swedish anarchist journal Brand.

Gabriel Kuhn has been refused entry to the US! To read more please check out the links below:

Bang. The door to your cell is shut. You have survived the arrest, you are mad that you weren’t more careful, you worry that they will get others too, you wonder what will happen to your group and whether a lawyer has been called yet--of course you show none of this. The weapon, the fake papers, your own clothes, all gone. The prison garb and the shoes they’ve thrown at you are too big--maybe because they want to play silly games with you, maybe because they really blow “terrorists” out of proportion in their minds--and the control over your own appearance taken out of your hands. You look around, trying to get an understanding of where you’ll spend the next few years of your life.

Prison Round Trip was first published in German in 2003 as “Einmal Knast und zurück.” The essay’s author, Klaus Viehmann, had been released from prison ten years earlier, after completing a 15-year sentence for his involvement in urban guerilla activities in Germany in the 1970s. The essay was subsequently reprinted in various forums. It is a reflection on prison life and on how to keep one’s sanity and political integrity within the hostile and oppressive prison environment; “survival strategies” are its central theme.

“Einmal Knast und zurück” soon found an audience extending beyond Germany’s borders. Thanks to translations by comrades and radical distribution networks, it has since been eagerly discussed amongst political prisoners from Spain to Greece. This is the first time the text is available to a wider English-speaking audience.

“Klaus’s take on survival strategy tells us we can not only survive thusly but can as well continue to serve the cause of liberation—which are really the same thing. We can be captured without giving in or giving up.” --From the Preface by North American political prisoner Bill Dunne

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Life Under the Jolly Roger

Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy
By Gabriel Kuhn
ISBN: 978-1-60486-052-8
Pub Date: December 2009
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 272 pages
Size: 9 by 6
Subjects: History, Sociology
$20.00

Over the last couple of decades an ideological battle has raged over the political legacy and cultural symbolism of the “golden age” pirates who roamed the seas between the Caribbean Islands and the Indian Ocean from 1690 to 1725. They are depicted as romanticized villains on the one hand, and as genuine social rebels on the other. Life Under the Jolly Roger examines the political and cultural significance of these nomadic outlaws by relating historical accounts to a wide range of theoretical concepts — reaching from Marshall Sahlins and Pierre Clastres to Mao-Tse Tung and Eric J. Hobsbawm via Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. The meanings of race, gender, sexuality, and disability in golden age pirate communities are analyzed and contextualized, as are the piratesʼ forms of organization, economy and ethics.

While providing an extensive catalog of scholarly references for the academic reader, this delightful and engaging study is directed at a wide audience and demands no other requirements than a love for pirates, daring theoretical speculation and passionate, yet respectful, inquiry.

Praise:

"Life Under the Jolly Roger will appeal to anyone interested in pirates and radical practice. It brings the golden age of piracy to life and shows us the link to contemporary radical politics. I recommend this book to those who identify with pirates and seek a well-reasoned analysis of their legacy.”
—Luis A. Fernandez, author of Policing Dissent

“Piracy is as relevant in today’s world as it ever was, and if you want to understand why it happens and what it really means, this is the book to start with. While modern-day robber barons give pirating a bad name, this important book restores the balance through a lively and provocative narrative. Definitely one to read, and to treasure!”
—Randall Amster, professor of Peace Studies at Prescott College, Arizona

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Sober Living For the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics
Editor: Gabriel Kuhn
ISBN: 978-1-60486-051-1
Pub Date January 2010
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 352 pages
Size: 9 by 6
Subjects: Radical Politics, Punk Rock, Music
Edited by Gabriel Kuhn
$22.95

Straight edge has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy remains ambiguous and it is often associated with self-righteous macho posturing and conservative Puritanism. While certain elements of straight edge culture feed into such perception, the cultureʼs political history is far more complex.

Since straight edgeʼs origins in Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, it has been linked to radical thought and action by countless individuals, bands, and entire scenes. Sober Living for the Revolution traces this history.

It includes contributions by famed straight edge punk rockers like Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat/Fugazi), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused/The (International) Noise Conspiracy), Mark Andersen (Dance of Days) and Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy); legendary bands like ManLiftingBanner and Point of No Return; radical collectives like CrimethInc. and Alpine Anarchist Productions; and numerous other artists and activists dedicated as much to sober living as to the fight for a better world.

Praise:

"Perhaps the greatest reason I am still committed to sXe is an unfailing belief that sXe is more than music, that it can be a force of change. I believe in the power of sXe as a bridge to social change, as an opportunity to create a more just and sustainable world."
--Ross Haenfler, Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi, author of Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, And Social Change

“An “ecstatic sobriety” which combats the dreariness of one and the bleariness of the other – false pleasure and false discretion alike – is analogous to the anarchism that confronts both the false freedom offered by capitalism and the false community offered by communism.”
--CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective

"I want to say that I learned a lot from this book. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in political hardcore and the political straight edge scene. It demonstrates conclusively that we are not a bunch of conservatives...Far from it!"
--Stefanie Knoll, www.anarkismo.net

"The book’s success stems from the articulate and insightful interviews, thanks to Kuhn’s probing, evocative questions, and the well-written, contrarian essays that all redefine straight edge as a liberating belief system and aid in the struggle."
--Simon Czerwinskyj, www.politicalmediareview.org

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Revolution and Other Writings
By Gustav Landauer
Edited by Gabriel Kuhn
Published: March 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60486-054-2
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 360
Dimensions: 9 by 6
Subjects: Politics, Anarchism, Essays
$26.95

“Landauer is the most important agitator of the radical and revolutionary movement in the entire country.” This is how Gustav Landauer is described in a German police file from 1893. Twenty-six years later, Landauer would die at the hands of reactionary soldiers who overthrew the Bavarian Council Republic, a three-week attempt to realize libertarian
socialism amidst the turmoil of post-World War I Germany. It was the last chapter in the life of an activist, writer, and mystic who Paul Avrich calls “the most influential German anarchist intellectual of the twentieth century.”

This is the first comprehensive collection of Landauer writings in English. It includes one of his major works, Revolution, 30 additional essays and articles, and a selection of correspondence. The texts cover Landauerʼs entire political biography, from his early anarchism of the 1890s to his philosophical reflections at the turn of the century, the subsequent establishment of the Socialist Bund, his tireless agitation against the war, and the final days among the revolutionaries in Munich. Additional chapters collect Landauerʼs articles on radical politics in the US and Mexico, and illustrate the scope of his writing with texts on corporate capital, language, education, and Judaism. The book includes an extensive introduction, commentary, and bibliographical information, compiled by the editor and translator Gabriel Kuhn.

Praise:

“If there were any justice in this world--at least as far as historical memory goes--then Gustav Landauer would be remembered, right along with Bakunin and Kropotkin, as one of anarchism's most brilliant and original theorists. Instead, history has abetted the crime of his murderers, burying his work in silence. With this anthology, Gabriel Kuhn has singlehandedly redressed one of the cruelest gaps in Anglo-American anarchist literature: the absence of almost any English translations of Landauer.”
--Jesse Cohn, author of Anarchism and the Crisis of Representation: Hermeneutics, Aesthetics, Politics

"Gustav Landauer was, without doubt, one of the brightest intellectual lights within the revolutionary circles of fin de siècle Europe. In this remarkable anthology, Gabriel Kuhn brings together an extensive and splendidly-chosen collection of Landauer’s most important writings, presenting them for the first time in English translation. With Landauer’s ideas coming of age today perhaps more than ever before, Kuhn’s work is a valuable and timely piece of scholarship, and one which should be required reading for anyone with an interest in radical social change."
--James Horrox, author of A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement

“At once an individualist and a socialist, a Romantic and a mystic, a militant and an advocate of passive resistance…He was also the most influential German anarchist intellectual of the twentieth century”
--Paul Avrich, author of Anarchist Voices, The Modern School Movement, and The Russian Anarchists

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Coming 2011

Soccer Vs. The State: Tackling Football And Radical Politics
By Gabriel Kuhn
ISBN: 978-1-60486-053-5
Published: January 2011
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 240
Size: 8 by 5
Subjects: Politics-Activism, Sports-Soccer
$20.00

occer has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Professionalism and commercialization dominate its global image. Yet the game retains a rebellious side, maybe more so than any other sport co-opted by money makers and corrupt politicians. From its roots in working-class England to political protests by players and fans, and a current radical soccer underground, the notion of football as the "people's game" has been kept alive by numerous individuals, teams, and communities.

This book not only traces this history, but also reflects on common criticisms: soccer ferments nationalism, serves right-wing powers, fosters competitiveness. Acknowledging these concerns, alternative perspectives on the game are explored, down to practical examples of egalitarian DIY soccer!

Soccer Vs. The State serves both as an orientation for the politically conscious football supporter and as an inspiration for those who try to pursue the love of the game away from television sets and big stadiums, bringing it to back alleys and muddy pastures.

Praise:

"Commendable research, humour aplenty and an intelligent presentation of how the game's been almost totally stolen by profiteers of all types make for a very refreshing read."
--Christophe Huette, translator and Olympique de Marseille fanatic

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Coming 2011

Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings: A Political Reader

By Erich Mühsam
Editor: Gabriel Kuhn
ISBN: 978-1-60486-055-9
Published: March 2011
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 240
Size: 9 by 6
Subjects: Politics-Anarchism, Philosophy
$20.00

Erich Mühsam (1878-1934), poet, bohemian, revolutionary, is one of Germany's most renowned and influential anarchists. Born into a middle-class Jewish family, he challenged the conventions of bourgeois society at the turn of the century, engaged in heated debates on the rights of women and homosexuals, and traveled Europe in search of radical communes and artist colonies. He was a primary instigator of the ill-fated Bavarian Council Republic in 1919, and held the libertarian banner high during a Weimar Republic that came under increasing threat by right-wing forces. In 1933, four weeks after Hitler's ascension to power, Mühsam was arrested in his Berlin home. He spent the last sixteen months of his life in detention and died in the Oranienburg Concentration Camp in July 1934.

Mühsam wrote poetry, plays, essays, articles, and diaries. His work unites a burning desire for individual liberation with anarcho-communist convictions, and bohemian strains with syndicalist tendencies. The body of his writings is immense, yet hardly any English translations exist. This collection presents not only Liberating the State from Society: What is Communist Anarchism?, Mühsam's main political pamphlet and one of the key texts in the history of German anarchism, but also some of his best-known poems, unbending defenses of political prisoners, passionate calls for solidarity with the lumpenproletariat, recollections of the utopian community of Monte Verità, debates on the rights of homosexuals and women, excerpts from his journals, and essays contemplating German politics and anarchist theory as much as Jewish identity and the role of intellectuals in the class struggle.

An appendix documents the fate of Zenzl Mühsam, who, after her husband's death, escaped to the Soviet Union where she spent twenty years in Gulag camps.

Praise:

"It has been remarked before how the history of the German libertarian and anarchist movement has yet to be written, and so the project to begin translation of some of the key works of Mühsam – one of the great names of German anarchism, yet virtually unknown in the English-speaking world – is most welcome. The struggles of the German working class in the early 20th century are perhaps some of the most bitter and misunderstood in European history, and it is time they were paid more attention. This book is the right place to start."
--Richard Parry, author of The Bonnot Gang

"We need new ideas. How about studying the ideal for which Erich Mühsam lived, worked, and died?"
--Augustin Souchy, author of Beware Anarchist: A Life for Freedom

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Events

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Latest Blog Entries

US Travel Bans and the False Promise of Tariq Ramadan
Recently, two prominent scholars who had been banned from visiting the US for some years have been allowed back into the country. No reason to get too excited, though.

Free the Belgrade Six!
On February 17, the trial against the "Belgrade Six" begins, a group of Serbian anarcho-syndicalists accused of "international terrorism" in connection with a solidarity action for a jailed Greek anarchist.

Terrorists, US Immigration, and a Canceled Tour
Sometimes you experience the ultimate anti-climax. With three PM Press books released these months, I had been planning for about a year to come for an extended speaking tour to North America this spring. A couple of months ago, I started planning this more concretely. The anarchist bookfairs in San Francisco, New York, and Montreal provided general reference points, and I got in touch with many wonderful people who helped schedule events in twenty US states and two Canadian provinces. I was also looking forward to the trip on a personal level: I have been traveling to the US regularly since I was nine years old, did part of my schooling there, and meant to visit many dear friends. Admittedly, I was worried about immigration, as I've had problems before – one reason why I haven't visited in five years – but I figured I'll come well prepared. Little did I know that the recently introduced Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) would make it impossible for someone matching an entry on the US government's No Fly List (also known as the Terrorist Watch List) to even board a plane. I considered the process a mere formality, and it actually took me a week to check the outcome of my application. So when the words "Travel Not Authorized" appeared on my computer screen, I instantly thought of a mistake. Certainly I must have missed a letter or digit in my application form. I checked the records. I hadn't missed anything. Nonetheless, I applied again. It only took a few hours to receive another rejection.

Australia � November/December 2009
Living and traveling in the South Pacific from 1997 to 2000, I visited Australia on several occasions. I returned again in 2003. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit for the first time in six years. It was encouraging to see an ongoing radical presence in the country; next to catching up with old friends and comrades, I got to meet a whole new generation of activists.

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Interviews

Reviews

Znet interviews Gabriel Kuhn on Sober Living
February 2010

The book explores the crossroads of straight edge and radical politics. Straight edge is a hardcore punk subculture defined by drug-free living that emerged in the early 1980s in Washington, DC, and soon became a global phenomenon. In its thirty-year history it has taken on different forms and gone through a number of eras. Politically, it has often been associated with self-righteous moralism and conservative puritanism, but that's far from the whole story.

Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy – Interview with Gabriel Kuhn
By Nora Räthzel
Darkmatter: In the Ruins of Imperial Culture

In November 2009, PM Press released Gabriel Kuhn’s Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy, a study analyzing the most legendary pirate era from ethnographic, sociological and political angles. Gabriel Kuhn is a writer and translator who currently resides in Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Nora Räthzel, sociologist at the University of Umeå, Sweden, has interviewed him about his upcoming book.

Review: Life Under the Jolly Roger

Infoshop News

In Life Under the Jolly Roger (PM Press 2009), Gabriel Kuhn takes on the far flung sources regarding golden age piracy (primarily in the Caribbean at the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th) not in order to establish a definitive truth about them but to dispel myths, clarify what we can know for sure about the pirates and what realistic questions remain, and to elucidate what the pirate legacy might mean for people today who also see themselves as excluded by or at war with the developing global order.

Author Portfolio

Kuhn, Gabriel [editor/translator]. Greg Jackson: Tötet den Bullen in eurem Kopf! Zur US-amerikanischen Linken, White Supremacy und Black Autonomy. Münster: Unrast Verlag, 2009.

Kuhn, Gabriel [translator] with Stephen Bender. Gustav Landauer: Anarchism in Germany and Other Essays. San Francisco: Barbary Coast, 2005.

Kuhn, Gabriel. Jenseits von Staat und Individuum. Individualität und autonome Politik. Münster: Unrast Verlag, 2007.

Kuhn, Gabriel. Leben unter dem Totenkopf. Anarchismus und Piraterie. Wien: Monte Verita, 1994.

Kuhn, Gabriel [editor/translator]. "Neuer Anarchismus" in den USA, Seattle und die Folgen. Münster: Unrast Verlag, 2008.

Kuhn, Gabriel. Tier-Werden, Schwarz-Werden, Frau-Werden. Eine Einführung in die politische Philosophie des Poststrukturalismus. Münster: Unrast Verlag, 2005.

Kuhn, Gabriel. Vielfalt, Bewegung, Widerstand. Texte zum Anarchismus. Münster: Unrast Verlag, 2009.

Kuhn, Gabriel with Ulrike Klausmann and Marion Meinzerin. Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger. Montreal: Black Rose, 1997

Gabriel Kuhn

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