Literary Press Group

Political StudiesNEWThe Legacy of Tiananmen SquareMichel Cormier • Goose Lane EditionsWith the loosening of restrictions on the Chinese economy in the 1980s and 1990s, many observersthought that Western-style democracy would follow. Instead China has adopted its own version, with amarket-driven economy where actions that might call into question the decisions of the governing partyare strictly forbidden. In this fascinating account, Michel Cormier, CBC Television’s former Chinacorrespondent, chronicles numerous failed attempts to bring democracy to China in the last century,starting with a handful of souls who tried to move China towards a constitutional monarchy at the turnof the century and peaking with the student uprising of 1989.ISBN-13: 9780864929020hardcover / 240 pp6 x 9 / $29.95April 2013Michel Cormier was the CBC/Radio-Canada television correspondent in China from 2006 to 2010.Cormier was recently appointed executive director of news and current affairs for Radio-Canada. He isthe author of several books, including La Russie de mes illusions, which was shortlisted for the GovernorGeneral’s Award in 2007.Key words: National identity – China, Democracy, Communism, World history, Globalization,Political history of China, OppressionSlouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War on Libya and AfricaMaximilian C. Forte • Baraka BooksNATO’s war in Libya was proclaimed as a humanitarian intervention—bombing in the name of “savinglives.” Attempts at diplomacy were stifled. Peace talks were subverted. Libya was barred from representingitself at the UN, where shadowy NGOs and “human rights” groups held full sway in propagatingfalsehoods and racial fear mongering that served to sanction atrocities and ethnic cleansing in the nameof democracy. The rush to war was far speedier than Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Far from the success NATOboasts about or the “high watermark” proclaimed by proponents of the “Responsibility to Protect,” this warhas left the once prosperous, independent, and defiant Libya in ruin, dependency, and prolonged civil strifeISBN-13: 9781926824529paperback / 352 pp6 x 9 / $27.95November 2012Maximilian C. Forte is an associate professor in the department of sociology and anthropology atConcordia University in Montreal, Quebec. He teaches courses in the field of political anthropologydealing with “the new imperialism,” Indigenous resistance movements and philosophies, theories andhistories of colonialism, and critiques of the mass media. Max is a founding member of Anthropologistsfor Justice and Peace. He writes regularly for the Zero Anthropology Project, CounterPunch, and wasformerly a columnist for Al Jazeera Arabic.Key words: Africa, War, Libya, NATO, Imperialism, Africom, Muammar GaddafiInfrastructure Critical: Sacrifice at Toronto’s G8/G20 SummitAlessandra Renzi & Greg Elmer • ARP BooksMuch public debate ensued after the violence and police brutality that gripped Toronto in 2010 duringthe G8/G20 Summit. It is now being revealed how the Conservative government’s stimulus package wasfunnelled into “infrastructure” projects aimed at policing Canadians who wished to protest the summit.Renzi and Elmer argue that the Canadian state cultivated an image of the city’s financial district as a zoneat risk from domestic—or “embedded”—threats. Infrastructure Critical reveals more than the thin linebetween security and massive infringement on civil rights; it argues that progressive responses need tounderstand the logic of state governance in a global economic context.ISBN-13: 9781894037648paperback / 144 pp5 x 7 / $12.95October 2012Alessandra Renzi is a post-doctoral fellow at Infoscape Centre for the Study of Social Media where sheconducts research on the criminalization of dissent, and on the design and use of FOSS platforms forcollaborative media-making.Greg Elmer is associate professor of communication, culture, and radio TV arts at Ryerson University.Key words: Media studies, Criminal justice, Political freedom & security, Civil rights,Law enforcement, Urbanization44 Literary Press Group / Congress 2013