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Revision as of 14:11, 14 October 2008 by Plasticup (talk | contribs) (fixing the "date=" fields to allow wiki-magic using AWB)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Chuck Munson (born 1965) is an American anarchist in Kansas City, Missouri who currently runs the Alternative Media Project, Infoshop.org (an anarchist website), and a weblog, "another blog is possible." He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting/Sculpture) from University of Kansas in 1988 and his Master of Arts in Library Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990.
Activism
Munson is active on many issues, ranging from media activism to prisoner rights to anti-globalization. He became radicalized at the University of Kansas (Lawrence) in the mid-1980s, helping organize protests against apartheid in South Africa and U.S. government intervention in Central America. At one point he was the president of the K.U. Committee on South Africa.
He was a co-founder of the Mutualaid.org ISP.
He is involved as an activist in the library profession on issues such as intellectual freedom, alternative media, and censorship; he ran two online projects, Stop Filtering and Censorware in Libraries and Anarchist Librarians Web in the late 1990s, and in 2004 was one of the founders of the Radical Reference project.
Infoshop.org
Munson founded Infoshop.org, a popular anarchist website, in January 1995 as the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop. Munson had been working as a system librarian at University of Maryland-College Park, one of the perks of which was a free web account. Having previously co-founded an online archive of anarchist texts, the Spunk Library, in 1992, Munson established Infoshop as a general resource on anarchism, moving to the domain name Infoshop.org in 1998. Munson reorganized the website as a collective project in 2001, and it is currently run by a core of seven people, supplemented by regular writers and volunteers.
Thought
Munson considers anarchism to be the only sustainable way forward for humanity, claiming that "raditional political ideologies have led the planet to ruin (capitalism and imperialism) or have prevented freedom (authoritarian communism)." He considers anarchism to be a syncretic political movement, not limited to a "linear history of ideas". Munson identifies as an anarchist without adjectives, describing himself as "an anarchist who is open-minded about anarchist ideas." In an interview for The New York Times during the Republican Party political convention in New York City, published August 29, 2004, Munson compared anarchism to other radical movements, saying:
... we are a lot more anti-government, anti-state. We say that because we think people should have control of their lives at the individual and community level, a sort of radical participatory democracy." Asked about violence he replied, "I subscribe to a diversity of tactics, so I don't disavow violence. But I like to see nonviolence as much as possible."
Publications
He has edited or published several zines and magazines, including Praxis (Lawrence, Kansas, 1980s), The Gentle Anarchist (Lawrence, Kansas, 1986-88), The Journal of Disjunctive Librarianship (Madison, Wisc., 1990), Practical Anarchy (1991-present), and Alternative Press Review (1997-2002). In 1992, he co-founded the Spunk Library along with Mikael Cardell, Jack Jansen, and Ian Heavens. The Spunk Library is an online collection of anarchist and alternative texts, and one of the first digital archives of any kind. In 1992 Munson, along with Cardell, started Practical Anarchy Online, which was one of the first e-zines during its brief existence. Munson has also contributed to CounterPunch.
Articles
- “What do radical librarians do? or, Which way to the black bloc?” in Revolting Librarians Redux: radical librarians speak out. edited by Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West. North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2003.
- “WIPO: Have We Been Whipped by New Copyright Treaty?” Internet Trend Watch for Libraries, vol.2, no.4, April 1997.
References
- ^ Archibold, Randall C. (2004-08-29). "Ideas & Trends– Heartland Radical; Anarchy Explained". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Kirn, Walter (2000-04-16). "The New Radicals". TIME. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - "about chuck". Another Blog is Possible. Mutualaid.org. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- Leiby, Richard (2000-04-04). "Anarchy, Anyone?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- Staff (1998-02-02). "Anti-filtering Web Site Founder Fesses Up". Library Journal. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- "Making the News: Anarchist Counter-Public Relations on the World Wide Web". Lynn Owens and L. Kendall Palmer. Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol.20, no. 4, December 2003, pp. 335-361. "Run predominantly by an individual anarchist activist in Washington D.C., the Infoshop offers frequently updated features on contemporary activism and social struggles"
- ^ "Alasbarricadas interviews Infoshop founder, Chuck Munson", Infoshop.org, 2008-02-20.
- ^ Munson, Chuck. "why I am an anarchist". Another Blog is Possible. Mutualaid.org. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- Munson, Chuck (2004-11-30). "Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization Movement". CounterPunch. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
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External links
- Another Blog is Possible, the blog of Chuck Munson
- About Chuck - short autobiography, including current projects, academic activity and activism
- Press cites - list of press citations of Munson
- Writing - list of Munson's professional, activist and future publications
- Infoshop.org
- Spunk Library
- Radical Reference
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