Andrej Grubacic
Encyclopedia
Andrej Grubačić is a US-based anarchist theorist, sociologist, activist and lecturer (San Francisco Art Institute
and the Z Media Institute) with a Yugoslavian background who has written on anarchism and the history of the Balkans
. An advocate of an anarchist approach to writing history, Grubačić is one of the protagonists of "new anarchism",
and a member of the anti-authoritarian, direct-action wing of the global justice movement
. A partner with Peoples' Global Action
and other Zapatista
-influenced direct action movements, Grubačić's primary political investment is in Balkan struggles. He is a co-founder of Global Balkans network of Balkan anti-capitalists in diaspora. His writings and interests range from anarchist or 'participatory' education to the neo-marxist world-systems analysis, and from the hidden history of American democracy to the history of decentralized communities and mutual aid in the Balkans
. His affinity towards anarchism arose as a result of his experiences as a member of the Belgrade Libertarian Group that derives from the Yugoslav Praxis
experiment.
network of the Balkan anti-capitalist diaspora
,
the Research Institute for the Global Movement at the University of Ljubljana
in Slovenia,
the Yugoslav Initiative for Economic Democracy, Kontrapunkt magazine, and ZBalkans–a Balkan edition of Z Magazine, where he sits on the editorial board. He is or has been active as an organizer in networks such as Planetary Alternatives Network, the post-Yugoslav coalition of anti-authoritarian collectives DSM!, Peoples Global Action, the World Social Forum
, Freedom Fight and as a program director for the Global Commons, where he works with Immanuel Wallerstein
, Katherine Wallerstein and Boaventura de Sousa Santos
. He is responsible for spreading the idea of participatory economics
in the Balkans. He is a member of Retort collective
, a collective of radical intellectuals based in the Bay Area. He is a member of Bound Together Books in San Francisco, a collectively run anarchist bookstore. He is active with the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW or the Wobblies). He is involved with the mutual aid project with five prisoners on death row from Lucasville Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
. He is one of the historians of the 1993 Lucasville rebellion, when 450 Lucasville prisoners, including an unlikely alliance of the Aryan Brotherhood
and Gangster Disciples, rioted and took over the facility for 11 days.
Patrick Bond
ranks Grubačić as a global justice proponent alongside Dennis Brutus
, Noam Chomsky
, Naomi Klein
, Ralph Nader
, John Pilger
and Howard Zinn
.
, Grubačić was based in Belgrade
, before leaving his position as a teaching assistant of History at the University of Belgrade
. Later the world-systems theorist and sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein
invited him to SUNY Binghamton in New York
, United States
. Grubačić was a graduate student there and worked at the Fernand Braudel Center
on anarchist implications of world-systems analysis. Later, he moved to San Francisco to join Global Commons Foundation and sociology department at the University of San Francisco
he authored an important theoretical and programmatic piece on Anarchism for the 21st Century. Later, he teamed up with legendary activist and historian Staughton Lynd
to write the book Wobblies and Zapatistas, which was internationally well-received.
Grubacic and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz wrote an extensive Preface for the Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, & Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States, book edited by the Team Colors Collective and published by AK Press.
He went on to edit The Staughton Lynd Reader, and offer a new programmatic proposal for the "libertarian socialism for the 21st century," inspired by Lynd's work.
His most recent book is Don't Mourn, Balkanize! Essays After Yugoslavia, published in 2010 by PM Press.
His other works include books in Balkan languages, chapters and numerous articles related to the history and utopian present of the Balkans, anarchism, and radical sociology. {As of | 2009}} Grubačić has started work on a book developing an anarchist version of world-systems analysis with David Graeber.
Anarchist circles know him for his work as an anarchist educator, and he taught this topic to generations of students at Z Media Institute in Boston
. As an anarchist propagandist and educator, Grubačić travels around North America giving talks, lectures and workshops on the history of anarchist education and on his idea of solidarity-centered anarchism
Grubacic works as a lecturer at the Z Media Institute, the San Francisco Art Institute
, and until recently the University of San Francisco. Grubačić also works as a guest host of the KPFA
radio program Against the Grain
.
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
and the Z Media Institute) with a Yugoslavian background who has written on anarchism and the history of the Balkans
History of the Balkans
The Balkans is an area of southeastern Europe situated at a major crossroads between mainland Europe and the Near East. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its common and often violent history and to its very mountainous geography.-Neolithic:Archaeologists have...
. An advocate of an anarchist approach to writing history, Grubačić is one of the protagonists of "new anarchism",
and a member of the anti-authoritarian, direct-action wing of the global justice movement
Global Justice Movement
The Global Justice Movement is a network or constellation of globalized social movements opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.-Movement of movements:...
. A partner with Peoples' Global Action
Peoples' Global Action
Peoples' Global Action is the name of a worldwide co-ordination of radical social movements, grassroots campaigns and direct actions in resistance to capitalism and for social and environmental justice...
and other Zapatista
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
-influenced direct action movements, Grubačić's primary political investment is in Balkan struggles. He is a co-founder of Global Balkans network of Balkan anti-capitalists in diaspora. His writings and interests range from anarchist or 'participatory' education to the neo-marxist world-systems analysis, and from the hidden history of American democracy to the history of decentralized communities and mutual aid in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. His affinity towards anarchism arose as a result of his experiences as a member of the Belgrade Libertarian Group that derives from the Yugoslav Praxis
Praxis School
The Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical movement. It originated in Zagreb and Belgrade in the SFR Yugoslavia, during the 1960s.Prominent figures among the school's founders include Gajo Petrović and Milan Kangrga of Zagreb and Mihailo Marković of Belgrade...
experiment.
Political activism, anarchist theory and anarchist pedagogy
Grubačić co-founded the Global BalkansGlobal Balkans
Global Balkans is an organizing network for activist working and researching in "solidarity" with Balkan social movements. Their aim is to "investigate, publicize and impact political, social and economic struggles" in Balkan region. Its membership includes indivivduals of the various Balkan...
network of the Balkan anti-capitalist diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
,
the Research Institute for the Global Movement at the University of Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...
in Slovenia,
the Yugoslav Initiative for Economic Democracy, Kontrapunkt magazine, and ZBalkans–a Balkan edition of Z Magazine, where he sits on the editorial board. He is or has been active as an organizer in networks such as Planetary Alternatives Network, the post-Yugoslav coalition of anti-authoritarian collectives DSM!, Peoples Global Action, the World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
, Freedom Fight and as a program director for the Global Commons, where he works with Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is a US sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst...
, Katherine Wallerstein and Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Boaventura de Sousa Santos is a Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra. De Sousa Santos has taught in various universities including Yale, Wisconsin-Madison Law School and University of Warwick...
. He is responsible for spreading the idea of participatory economics
Participatory economics
Participatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is an economic system proposed primarily by activist and political theorist Michael Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel, among others. It uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the production, consumption and...
in the Balkans. He is a member of Retort collective
Retort collective
The Retort is a radical encounter of about forty writers, teachers, artists, and activists, all opponents of capital and empire, which has been based for the past two decades in the San Francisco Bay Area....
, a collective of radical intellectuals based in the Bay Area. He is a member of Bound Together Books in San Francisco, a collectively run anarchist bookstore. He is active with the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(IWW or the Wobblies). He is involved with the mutual aid project with five prisoners on death row from Lucasville Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in Lucasville, Ohio, United States. The prison was constructed in 1972 and currently contains the death house for Ohio where death row inmates are executed...
. He is one of the historians of the 1993 Lucasville rebellion, when 450 Lucasville prisoners, including an unlikely alliance of the Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Brotherhood
The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as The Brand, the AB, or the One-Two, is a white supremacist prison gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with about 20,000 members in and out of prison...
and Gangster Disciples, rioted and took over the facility for 11 days.
Patrick Bond
Patrick Bond
Patrick Bond is professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he has directed the Centre for Civil Society since 2004. His research interests include political economy, environment, social policy, and geopolitics...
ranks Grubačić as a global justice proponent alongside Dennis Brutus
Dennis Brutus
Dennis Vincent Brutus was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have apartheid South Africa banned from the Olympic Games.-Life and work:...
, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
, Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
, John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
and Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
.
Academic career
Following the collapse of YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Grubačić was based in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, before leaving his position as a teaching assistant of History at the University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
. Later the world-systems theorist and sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is a US sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst...
invited him to SUNY Binghamton in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Grubačić was a graduate student there and worked at the Fernand Braudel Center
Fernand Braudel Center
The Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations at Binghamton University, State University of New York was founded in September 1976 and serves as one of the preeminent centers for advanced study of systemic history and historiography in the US...
on anarchist implications of world-systems analysis. Later, he moved to San Francisco to join Global Commons Foundation and sociology department at the University of San Francisco
Publications
Together with anthropologist David GraeberDavid Graeber
David Rolfe Graeber is an American anthropologist and anarchist who currently holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his...
he authored an important theoretical and programmatic piece on Anarchism for the 21st Century. Later, he teamed up with legendary activist and historian Staughton Lynd
Staughton Lynd
Staughton Craig Lynd is an American conscientious objector, Quaker, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer. His involvement in social justice causes has brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including...
to write the book Wobblies and Zapatistas, which was internationally well-received.
Grubacic and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz wrote an extensive Preface for the Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, & Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States, book edited by the Team Colors Collective and published by AK Press.
He went on to edit The Staughton Lynd Reader, and offer a new programmatic proposal for the "libertarian socialism for the 21st century," inspired by Lynd's work.
His most recent book is Don't Mourn, Balkanize! Essays After Yugoslavia, published in 2010 by PM Press.
His other works include books in Balkan languages, chapters and numerous articles related to the history and utopian present of the Balkans, anarchism, and radical sociology. {As of | 2009}} Grubačić has started work on a book developing an anarchist version of world-systems analysis with David Graeber.
Anarchist circles know him for his work as an anarchist educator, and he taught this topic to generations of students at Z Media Institute in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. As an anarchist propagandist and educator, Grubačić travels around North America giving talks, lectures and workshops on the history of anarchist education and on his idea of solidarity-centered anarchism
Grubacic works as a lecturer at the Z Media Institute, the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
, and until recently the University of San Francisco. Grubačić also works as a guest host of the KPFA
KPFA
KPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...
radio program Against the Grain
Against the Grain (radio program)
Against the Grain is a syndicated Pacifica Radio program of radical ideas and action. The show originates out of the studios of KPFA-FM, the flagship station in the Pacifica Radio Network...
.
Selected books
- Anarchism Reader
- Noam Comski, Politika bez Moci. Izdavac: DAF ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, 2004. ISBN 953-6956-01-2. - Uses of a Whirlwind
Articles
- "Don't Mourn, Balkanize! Interview
- "The Staughton Lynd Reader Interview"
- "Wobblies and Zapatistas Interview"
- "Don't Mourn, Balkanize! A Vision for the Balkans"
- "Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-first Century", ZMag, January 6, 2004. Co-authored with David GraeberDavid GraeberDavid Rolfe Graeber is an American anthropologist and anarchist who currently holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his...
. - "No State, No Nation: Balkan Federation", Zmag
- "Towards Another Anarchism", World Social ForumWorld Social ForumThe World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
- "In Support of Professor David Graeber", InfoshopInfoshopAn infoshop is a storefront or social center that serves as a node for the distribution of political information, typically in the form of books, zines, stickers and posters. Infoshops often serve as a meeting space and resource hub for local activist groups....
.org, May 11, 2005. - "El Encanto Irresistible del Anarquismo Global", Tortuga
- "Caligula's Horse", CounterPunchCounterpunchCounterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
, February 2, 2008. - "A Global Left: Survey of European Left Movements", Nadir
Reviews
Wobblies and Zapatistas recounts a radical history and connects activist political movements and generations.
Global capitalism has suffered a major blow in the past year, the largest economic turmoil since the 1930s fuelling political discussions on possible alternatives to the current economic model. For those seeking alternatives to mainstream historical narratives, Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History is an important read. Spanning from the Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
to the 1990s expansion of market-driven free-trade policies, this engaging book offers critical historical reflections on events that have shaped contemporary politics.
The World Social Forum, in its near decade of existence, has popularized the slogan “Another World Is Possible.” Although many on the left may agree, and there is broad agreement about the nature of the world we live in and the shape of the one we wish to create, there is less agreement on how to create that new world. Wobblies and Zapatistas, a conversation of sorts between longtime anarchist activist Andrej Grubacic and Staughton Lynd, who for the last 40 years has been one of the iconic figures of the U.S. left, is a contribution to resolving that argument—or at least turning it into a productive discussion.
More theoretical and frankly meandering is Wobblies and Zapatistas,... The conversation starts out with the Chiapas rebellion and the Industrial Workers of the World—“the Zapatistas of yesteryear,” in Lynd’s phrase—but makes brief stops with the community organizing efforts of former steelworkers in post-industrial Youngstown, the 1946 general strike in Oakland, the Vietnam-era antiwar movement, and the 1980s revolutionary upsurges of Central America. Lynd ties it all together with his concept of “accompaniment”—basically, throwing one’s lot in with oppressed, sharing the burdens and risks of their struggles.
This volume brings together two radical intellectuals from alternative political traditions for an extended conversation about theory, activism, and the state of radical politics today. Throughout their conversation, Staughton Lynd, the civil rights organizer, antiwar activist, lawyer, and radical historian, responds to the probing questions of Andrej Grubacic, the radical sociologist and activist from the Balkans.
External links
- Grubacic detained by Japanese immigration authorities
- Andrej Grubacic takes listeners on a stroll through radical historical moments and movements in anecdotal stages
- Andrej Grubacic on Organizing in the Age of Obama
- Andrej Grubačić's rousing presentation at the 2009 Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair about the ideas and issues covered in "Wobblies and Zapatistas"
- 4th Balkan Anarchist Bookfair
- Andrej Grubacic at ZSpace
- Grubačić (in German)
- Grubačić (in Spanish)
- Grubačić and the Serbian State
- Interview with Freedom Fight
- Andrej Grubacic at WorldcatWorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
Identities - Link Simon Critchley and Andrej Grubacic talk about neo-anarchism, Obama, and political mobilizations on KPFA 94.1 FM.
- Keep Andrej Grubacic at USF Student Protest
- Economic global unrest grabs the attention of CIA and US Military. What are they worried about? We'll ask Andrej Grubacic, author of Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxist and radical history