The Joy of Revolution
and Related Texts
CONTENTS
The Joy of Revolution
Chapter 1: Facts of Life
Utopia or bust
Stalinist
“communism” and reformist “socialism” are merely variants of
capitalism
Representative
democracy versus delegate democracy
Irrationalities of capitalism
Some exemplary modern revolts
Some common objections
Increasing dominance of the
spectacle
Chapter 2: Foreplay
Personal breakthroughs
Critical interventions
Theory versus ideology
Avoiding false
choices and elucidating real ones
The insurrectionary style
Radical film
Oppressionism versus playfulness
The Strasbourg scandal
The poverty of electoral politics
Reforms and alternative
institutions
Political
correctness, or equal opportunity alienation
Drawbacks of moralism
and simplistic extremism
Advantages of boldness
Advantages and limits of
nonviolence
Chapter 3: Climaxes
Causes of social breakthroughs
Postwar upheavals
Effervescence of radical
situations
Popular self-organization
The situationists in May 1968
Workerism
is obsolete, but workers’ position remains pivotal
Wildcats and sitdowns
Consumer strikes
What could have happened in May
1968
Methods of confusion and cooption
Terrorism reinforces the state
The ultimate showdown
Internationalism
Chapter 4: Rebirth
Utopians
fail to envision postrevolutionary diversity
Decentralization and coordination
Safeguards against abuses
Consensus,
majority rule and unavoidable hierarchies
Eliminating the roots of war
and crime
Abolishing money
The absurdity of most present-day
labor
Transforming work into play
Technophobic objections
Ecological issues
The blossoming of free
communities
More interesting problems
Related Texts
Our Life Is a Journey (1981 comic)
Dagwood on Détournement (1981 comic)
Public Secrets (1998 comic)
We Don’t Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!
(1998)
The World Turned Upside Down (1999)
Todd Gitlin on the Sixties (1999)
Reflections on the Uprising in France (2006)
Texts and talks on the Occupy movement (2011-2012):
The Awakening in America
A Talk at
Occupy Oakland
A Talk at Occupy
Oakland (audio)
Yesterday in Oakland
Welcome to the Oakland General Strike
The Situationists and the Occupation
Movements: 1968/2011
The Occupy Movement at Its Peak
A Talk on
May 1968 and Occupy
A Talk on May 1968
and Occupy (video)
Looking Back on Occupy
Out in the Open: Remarks on the Trump Election (2016)
Pregnant Pause: Remarks on the Corona Crisis (2020)
Trump’s Spectacular Comeback (2024)
Hive Mind Strikes Back: Collaborative
Resistance to Trumpian Fascism (2025)
INDEX
Table of Contents of Ken Knabb’s The Joy of Revolution and Related Texts (PM Press, 2026).