Firestorm Books

"What often gets lost or overlooked in the conversation about book censorship is prison censorship… [Which] forces a much harder look at America’s history and legacy… The prison system is part of the legacy of slavery in America."

Booksellers and indie publishers take note! ⚠️ Elizabeth Soto is appealing a 50 year sentence connected to the publication and distribution of anarchist literature in Texas.

Our website is down while we run security updates related to today's PHP vulnerability announcement. Be back soon!

Last chance to register for Saturday's virtual panel discussion on historic and recent strikes in Appalachia, including the West Virginia Mine Wars of the early 20th century! Featuring @pmpress.bsky.social authors Mitch Troutman and Gordon Simmons.

"The union plans to offer access to legal clinics, media training and support for people facing state or federal prosecution under the president’s NSPM-7 memorandum, which directs the FBI to investigate 'violent and terroristic activities' associated with 'anti-fascism'."

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

In short, it's not them and the city they've created that's driving precarity, anxiety, and abandonment. And when the resulting misery threatens the stability of their own profits, the solution is jail cells, zero tolerance, ALPRs, drones, private security, better response times, and camp sweeps.

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

The Asheville Chamber of Commerce has done more to shape our city than almost any other unelected body, which is why it has to fight so hard to convince us that someone *else* is to blame for Asheville's enshitification. It's not hotels, it's that guy who sleeps in a tent...

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

The euphemism "hot spots" is used here by the authors to avoid saying what they really mean. APD deploys this language to justify the use of LRAD and pepperballs against patrons of Black clubs, council members regularly argue that disproportionately Black housing residents should be surveilled, etc.

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

"Identify up to three things government leaders are currently doing that are working well." Two thirds of the suggested responses are just variations on "policing and surveillance," because that's what the Chamber of Commerce is hoping to reinforce.

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

And which nonprofit service providers should face "consequences" for not providing security? The Chamber of Commerce is stoking a narrative that harm reductionists and shelters are driving social decay, and should be acting (more) like extensions of the policing and surveillance apparatus.

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

Safety concerns that don't make the cut: underfunded social services, lack of affordable housing, bike and sidewalk infrastructure, NC's deadliest jail, de facto cooperation with ICE, insufficient disaster preparedness, racial disparities, etc. They don't appear because they don't serve the agenda.

Yesterday we received a "public safety survey" being circulated by the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and it's a doooozy. It's also worth taking a closer look at since it shows how the crime panic propaganda sausage is getting made...

"How has crime or public safety affected your business during the past 12 months?" Survey questions provide leading answers and conflate safety with law and order. In this one, there's no clear way to disagree with the authors' perspective; even the outlier option is qualified by "directly."

NPR giving fascism the neutral journalism gloss, exhibit #98765

This October, in collaboration with @pmpress.bsky.social, we'll be hosting an evening of conversation about resistance and resilience in rural places with three authors: Ian Byers Gamber, Mitch Troutman, and Gordon Simmons!

Register to attend the panel discussion at app.hi.events/event/9080/r.... Not able to join the event live? Sign up anyway and we'll send you a recording to stream at your convenience!

This October, in collaboration with @pmpress.bsky.social, we'll be hosting an evening of conversation about resistance and resilience in rural places with three authors: Ian Byers Gamber, Mitch Troutman, and Gordon Simmons!

Listening to a veteran of the Black Panther Party—whose comrades were imprisoned, tortured, and killed—talk about how much worse repression in the US is now 😮‍💨