I loved this so much!

This is a brilliant account of Chris Smalls' experience in the labor force as a part of the exploited class and his time organizing a union against the tech giant Amazon. I didn't want to put this book down. Chris Smalls is a brilliant storyteller and he knows it. He is great at placing little pieces of info at the right places that keeps your interest and also creates suspense.

Chris Smalls grew up with big dreams. But because those are increasingly hard to achieve in the US, especially when you account for system racism, exploitation, and lack of social protections, his original plans fell through in different ways. But all of those experiences culminated in skills that are perfect for being an organizer; and once he realized this, he wouldn't be stopped.

The first half of this book talks about Smalls' life with a focus on his experience in the labor market being an exploited worker. From a young age we see how corporations and wealthy people were treating him and other workers as disposable. The workforce in amerika is one that lacks humanity and it is undeniable here.

The second half of the book focuses on Chris Smalls' experience organizing JKF8, an Amazon warehouse, to become unionized. It also has critique on the capitalist system in amerika. He recognizes that amerika is a difficult place to organize as Black and Brown workers because even the leaders of unions, who are meant to protect workers, are overwhelming white and bourgeois and working with a government who also wants to protect capital and corporations over workers. It at times seems like an impossible place to be able to get anything down that would advantage the exploited workers of capitalism.

I really appreciated the critique in the second half because the first half I felt it was lacking and at times wondering where that acknowledgement was. But I think this is true to his experience. When he started to think critically about what was happening and why, he was able to make connections about corporations, govt, capitalism. So the fact that this critique is heavily only in the second half of the book mirrors his own experience. I think this also holds true to who Chris Smalls is as a person. He knows that if we are to build people power, we need to connect with each other and that includes getting to know each other and our needs. Therefore, the first half of this book also reads as an invitation to get to know him.

I recently read Revolutionary Suicide by Huey Newton and this book reminded me a lot of that. I was wondering if Chris Smalls has read it. I find a lot of what drove Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to start the BPP similar to what Chris Smalls also experienced and how that also culminated in organizing the people together. Also while recognizing that this is dangerous work. Once you bring people together, once you get people recognizing their power, you become a serious threat to the capitalist empire and Chris Smalls recognizes this, but also recognizes that we need to stand strong and united in order to create the change everyone deserves for a dignified life free of exploitation.

Highly recommend this book.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a gifted e-arc.

It took me a while to understand how I wanted to approach this review. On the one hand, I loved this book. I liked the core message of it, and I think it was an enjoyable read. I read it in two sittings, only because I started it at night and am not longer at an age where staying up past ten sounds appealing (hello 30s). This was an easy-to-read book. It flows nicely and was well edited. I think the pacing works and it never felt rush or dragged at any point. Even though this is a titled memoir, I think it is more memoir adjacent. There is very little of the authors personal life in this book. It is truly centralized on herself and the hare. The important message at the end of the book is that we need to take time to live WITH nature and not AGAINST nature. I really appreciated this and that the book was laid out in a way that showed the author didn't necessarily think that way at the beginning of her experience with the hare.

That being said, I was a bit turned off by a couple things. I will preface this by acknowledging that maybe in a way this is overthinking. But I am trying to be more conscious of the authors I support and recommend. That goes beyond whether a book is well written or interesting but also comes into if this is a decent person who is working toward a better world. I also think that because publishing is overwhelmingly white and privileged, we must be even more mindful and critical of who we support.

Alright. So, the thing was I mostly couldn't get past the knowledge that she is a political advisor. This only comes up less than a handful of times in the book and is said in passing. She has worked in places like Baghdad and Algiers. Basically, her work and her political advising seems central to SWANA countries. This means she thinks she has a right to influence decisions in other countries, meddling in other countries politics, while her country is a colonial empire. Additionally, though it is not said, I believe this experience takes place during the height of the pandemic where people where overwhelmingly working from home if they had that privilege, which the author did, or forced to risk health to continue making a living during a pandemic. So here we have a white, privileged woman in a colonial country working from home and making decisions that influences other countries livelihoods.

You might be wondering why the hell this is relevant towards this book that is a simple story about a woman rescuing and raising a hare. But really I think this is a showcase of privilege. It shows who gets published. Who actually has the time to slow down and sit with nature and start to observe it. Who can stay home to raise a wild animal while not risking their health from a pandemic yet still keep their London and countryside homes. I think the world would be a hell of a lot better if everyone had that time to slow down and sit with nature. To observe our violent destruction of it. I think also, especially when one works in politics, that cannot be separated from the context. Colonial destruction and exploitation in countries all around the world is much more harmful and impactful than anything listed in this book. Not that i think it is any less important and do not dismiss it but let us be real. So for the author not to come to an understanding that the garden/surrounding countryside is a microcosm of the world falls a bit flat and still ends the book with a feeling of mass privilege.

A short, but thorough exploration of feminism and Palestine. What is feminist liberation and how is it achieved? What aspects of liberation movements are talked about, condemned, ignored? Who is ignored during libration movements? Who decides what feminism is acceptable and not? Which feminists are silencing the Palestinian cause?

This exposes western feminism for the violence it is, and not just western feminism including white feminists but feminists of color as well; What she calls imperialist and colonial feminism. A movement supposedly for women’s rights yet cannot rally around the Palestinian cause or its women, unless it is on their terms. What are their terms? To see Palestinian, or Arab, women as victims. Not as victims of settler colonialism, but as victims of their own people, their own religion. For decades Arab and Palestinian women have tried to gather the feminist movement around the Palestinian cause, for they know that Palestinian liberation is also liberation for women and queer people.

It also discusses the women’s role in liberation. Nada Elia highlights stories of courageous and strong Palestinian women who stepped up to live against the violent settler colonial zionist project. She shows us how movements encapsulate so much more than what gets talked about widely.

The only disappointment from this book I have is the putting down of armed resistance as not feminist. To that, I counter, what about Commandante Romona? Is she not a feminist who led a movement for her peoples’ dignity with the use of weapons? Is Leila Khaled not a feminist because she hijacked a plane? The author seems to imply so as she compares Leila Khaled to a woman who started an orphanage. So, this was not clear to me from the author.

I also find it extremely unnecessary to say that armed resistance has not achieved any lasting victories. This feels like a slap in the face to all martyrs who have given their lives for the liberation of Palestine and well as those who are still fighting. Meanwhile praising those who have asked the US gov’t for more rights for Palestinians, what lasting victories has that brought on?

This is a good starting point to study what intersectional feminism can look like. It is un/learning what you have been told to believe, it is un/learning your discriminations, it is un/learning supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism.

thank you to the publisher and net galley for a copy of this book to review.