Read In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action By Vicky Osterweil Full Books Online in HD Quality

A radical argument for why rioting and looting are our most powerful tools of dismantling white supremacy.

Looting--a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods--is one of the more extreme actions that take can place in the midst of social unrest. Even self-identified radicals distance themselves from looters, fearing that violent tactics reflect badly on the broader movement.

However, in this deftly argued corrective, Vicky Osterweil argues that while looting is often maligned in today's society, it is, and has always been, one of our most powerful tools of dismantling capitalism and white supremacy. Stealing goods and destroying property are a direct means of wealth redistribution and a practical, immediate way of improving life for the working class-- not to mention a brazen message to the police, the state, and an unjust society. All our beliefs about the innate righteousness of property and ownership, Osterweil explains, are built on the history of anti-Black and settler oppression--meaning that belief in the right to own property is innately, structurally white supremacist.

From the slave revolts that started a social revolution in the South to the more recent #BlackLivesMatter and climate change movements, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized. In Defense of Looting is a history of violent protest sparking social change; a compelling reframing of radical activism; and a practical vision for the redistribution of wealth, a new relationship to property, and a radically restructured society.

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action

In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action

More Books

Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together

Dean Spade

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)

Dean Spade

Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative

Isabella Hammad

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Omar El Akkad

Who’s Afraid of Gender?

Judith Butler

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance

Kellie Carter Jackson

The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions

Larry Mitchell

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom

Derecka Purnell

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein

How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom

Johanna Hedva

The Road to Serfdom

Friedrich A. Hayek

Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts

Sarah Thornton