Presentation & Discussion of Don Hamerquist’s “A Brilliant Red Thread” in Brooklyn, NY

WHAT IS IT: A free presentation and discussion about the recently released book entitled A Brilliant Red  Thread: Revolutionary Writings of Don Hamerquist

WHERE IS IT: The Word is Change Book Store, 368 Tompkins Avenue (at Putnam), Brooklyn, NY

WHEN IS IT: Wednesday, June 21, 2023, 7pm to 9pm

WHO SPEAKS AT IT:

Luis Brennan (Editor of the book)
Amelia Cates (Portland organizer)
John Garvey (Hard Crackers Magazine)
Mike Morgan (Hard Crackers Magazine)
Any willing audience members

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT: Hard Crackers Magazine www.hardcrackers.com

A BRILLIANT RED THREAD: REVOLUTIONARY WRITINGS FROM DON HAMERQUIST (KERSPLEBEDEB 2023)

Don Hamerquist has been a revolutionary activist since the late 1950s. Over the course of more than sixty years, Don has been a working-class militant, a leader of organizations, an important strategic thinker, a considerate comrade and a prolific political writer.

The collection of essays in this book is the first attempt to collect Don’s writings in a format that would make them available to a larger public readership. To make the collection into a reasonable length and to focus on issues of the greatest current relevance, all of the essays date from 2000. Nonetheless, they bear the imprint of Don’s political origins, as the child of iconoclastic members of the CPUSA, as a member of the Communist Party in his own right and then, most importantly, as a founding member of the Sojourner Truth Organization in 1969.

Don’s writings have not secured widespread readerships because he always had a different focus in mind. He intended his writings to be read by individuals in political collectives, almost always ones that he knew well, that were organizing collective political projects to challenge white supremacy, the rule of capital and the threat of the far-right. To make his writings as valuable as possible for those readers, he played close attention to the ways in which familiar realities were being transformed and wrote carefully and precisely about what he thought needed to be understood.

This new collection creates an opportunity for more people to read and appreciate the revolutionary contributions of Don Hamerquist.

The book is available now at The Word is Change bookstore. Copies can also be ordered at LeftWingBooks.net.