Black Flags and Windmills
Subtitle: Hope, Anarchy, and the Common Ground Collective
By: Scott Crow
Edition: Second edition
Publisher: PM Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Oakland, USA
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781604864533
Other titles: Banderas Negras y Molinos de Viento: Historias rebeldes de una tormenta llamada Katrina
Description: When both levees and governments failed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective was created to fill the void. With the motto of “Solidarity Not Charity,” they worked to create power from below—building autonomous projects, programs, and spaces of self-sufficiency like health clinics and neighborhood assemblies, while also supporting communities defending themselves from white militias and police brutality, illegal home demolitions, and evictions.

Black Flags and Windmills—equal parts memoir, history, and organizing philosophy—vividly intertwines Common Ground cofounder scott crow’s experiences and ideas with Katrina’s reality, illustrating how people can build local grassroots power for collective liberation. It is a story of resisting indifference, rebuilding hope amid collapse, and struggling against the grain to create better worlds.

The expanded second edition includes up-to-date interviews and discussions between crow and some of today’s most articulate and influential activists and organizers on topics ranging from grassroots disaster relief efforts (both economic and environmental); dealing with infiltration, interrogation, and surveillance from the State; and a new photo section that vividly portrays scott’s experiences as an anarchist, activist, and movement organizer in today’s world.
Notes: CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported
Table of contents: title: Glossary
pagenum: xi; title: People and Organizations
pagenum: xiv; title: Foreword to the second edition by John P. Clark
pagenum: xvii; title: Foreword by Kathleen Cleaver
pagenum: xxiii; title: “Even before the thoughts occurred…”; title: Introduction: Waking up from Oblivion
pagenum: 3; title: Prologue: It Takes a Spark to Start a Prairie Fire
pagenum: 7; title: Against Forgetting
pagenum: 19; title: Black Flags and Windmills
pagenum: 37; title: A Battle in Algiers
pagenum: 46; title: Barbed-Wire Hopes
pagenum: 59; title: Of Anarchists, Panthers, and Zapatistas
pagenum: 71; title: “Like concrete…”; title: Like Flowers in Concrete
pagenum: 91; title: With Thunder in Our Hearts
pagenum: 126; title: Raising Common Ground
pagenum: 146; title: Postscript: An Ending and a Beginning
pagenum: 167; title: “Dream the future…”; title: Photographs
pagenum: 184; title: Interviews; title: Shifting Culture without Government by DJ Pangburn
pagenum: 190; title: Black Flags and Radical Relief Efforts in New Orleans: An Interview with Scott Crow
pagenum: 198; title: Appendices; title: Common Ground Communiques (2005–2009)
pagenum: 203; title: Common Ground Documents
pagenum: 229; title: Outline of Common Ground Activities and Programs
pagenum: 232; title: Notes
pagenum: 239; title: Acknowledgements
pagenum: 245; title: Further reading
pagenum: 251; title: About the authors
pagenum: 255