02 CL22 Bousquet Cultural Logic: Marxist Theory & Practice 2015-2017 (Whole Number 22), p. xv Here We Come Marc Bousquet Emory University If you take a step towards freedom, It’ll take two steps toward you. —Tom Morello, “Maximum Firepower” Hoo-ee, this is one fistful of revolution you are holding in your hand right now. This is a live transmission from the wrecking crew. They are dynamiting the campus accumulation machine and sharing the video. They’re publishing inflammatory infographics and launching manifestos from the occupation. This is the full cookbook. Don’t read it. Unless you can handle the truth. Unless you are ready to conspire against the status quo. Because it is fierce in here. Nobody on this haywagon thinks it’s enough to stand around and say “I see racism” or “Sexism is bad,” or “Capitalists are mean.” Witness is essential to justice. But is second and third-hand witnessing from within a classroom enough? Or is it an alibi for inaction? An exorcism of guilt for the global executive club? All of us in here, or in kindred places, we’re up to something. We have asked ourselves: How can we keep writing history, or rewriting it, or writing it from below—and also, at the same time, in the same heartbeat, seize the means of making history itself? And we have answers. Answers that we’ve lived, for decades and lifetimes. Answers that we tested on ourselves, which sometimes blew up in our faces or left us maimed. But even in failure or self-injury: We tilt the needle toward justice. We are concrete. The one thing missing from this 400 pages? A rousing chorus of “Get Up, Stand Up” or some such peaceful ditty in honor of David Downing and Joe Ramsey, both lifetime freedom fliers. They will be your pilots today. Read on at your own risk. These people have lived dangerously. Some have been hurt. And they need you to join them. Since 1997 ISSN 1097-3087 http://clogic.eserver.org/ Editors Rich Gibson San Diego State University Martha Gimenez University of Colorado (retired) Gregory Meyerson North Carolina A & T University James Neilson North Carolina A & T University Joseph G. Ramsey University of Massachusetts - Boston E. Wayne Ross University of British Columbia David Siar Winston-Salem State University Advisory Group Robert Albritton, York University, Canada Theodore W. Allen, Brooklyn Public Library (1919-2005) Crystal Bartolovich, Syracuse University Rosalyn Baxandall, State University of New York, Old Westbury Vladimir Bilenkin, North Carolina State University Jamie Owen Daniel, Director of Organizing and Development, UPI Local 4100, IFT/AFT/AFL-CIO Anthony Dawahare, California State University, Northridge Greg Dawes, North Carolina State University Teresa L. Ebert, State University of New York, Albany Barbara Foley, Rutgers University Marcial González, University of California, Berkeley Rosemary Hennessy, State University of New York, Albany Mike Hill, State University of New York, Albany Peter Hitchcock, Graduate Center-City University of New York Amitava Kumar, Vassar College Neil Larsen, University of California, Davis John McClendon, Michigan State University Sophia A. McClennen, Pennsylvania State University Andrew Milner, Monash University, Melbourne Warren Montag, Occidental College Bill V. Mullen, University of Texas, San Antonio Richard Ohmann, Wesleyan University Bertell Ollman, New York University Vijay Prashad, Trinity College Russell Reissing, University of Toledo Modhumita Roy, Tufts University E. San Juan, Jr., Philippines Cultural Study Center Sean Sayers, University of Kent Helena Sheehan, Dublin City University David Slavin, Westfield State College and Emory University Paul Smith, George Mason University Alan Spector, Purdue University Calumet Michael Sprinker, State University of New York, Stony Brook (1950-1999) Carol A. Stabile, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Richard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University Kenneth Surin, Duke University Jeffrey Williams, Carnegie Mellon University Richard Wolff, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Michael Yates, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown (retired)