1. Disarm! End War
2. Abolition! Close the prisons
3. Shoulders to the Wheel! Rethink the meaning of work
4. Jubilee! Cancel the debt
5. Stop the Cops! End police occupation of poor and working class
communities
6. Free Healthcare for All! Basic human rights for all people
7. Teach Freedom! Education and activism united
8. Love your Mother! Save the planet and all living things
9. Beginning Again--An American Dream: Building a People's Movement
and Making History
$5,000 marketing and publicity budget
Galleys available on request
Promotion at Book Expo in Chicago in May 2016.
Will submit for inclusion in CBSD galley box
National Print Campaign:
Send advance copies to the following publications: Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Reader, Chicago Sun-Times, LA Times, NY Times, SF
Chronicle, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, The Nation, Washington Post,
Wall St Journal, Associated Press, among many others
Trade: Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal,
Foreword
Online: Truthout, In These Times, Alternet, Truthdig, Chicagoist,
Rethinking Schools, Jacobin, The Progressive,
National drive-time news and progressive radio tour
National radio and TV interviews including Democracy Now!, The Real
News, Empire Files with Abby Martin, MSNBC Melissa
Harris-Perry,
Local Chicago radio and TV interviews: Chicago Tonight, WCIU You
and Me This Morning, etc.
Features and excerpts in progressive and Chicago media
Advertising in The Nation, Jacobin, New Left Review, and more
Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's frequent
speaking engagements
Promotion via social media: Haymarket Books has 15,000 Facebook
fans, and 10,000 Twitter followers, and 1,000 Instagram followers,
Bill Ayers has 8,000 Facebook fans, 3,000 Twitter followers
Promotion on the author's website: billayers.org
Pursuing blurbs from Bill Fletcher, Danny Glover, Kathy Kelly,
Angela Davis, Henry Giroux, Ai-Jen Poo,
Bill Ayers is a social justice activist, teacher, Distinguished Professor of Education (retired) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of two memoirs, Fugitive Days and Public Enemy.
"Demand the Impossible is more than a book, more than a manifesto.
It is a torch. Bill Ayers’ vision for a humane future is
incendiaryfire that incinerates old logics and illuminates new
paths. If we do not end the violence of militarism, materialism,
caging, dispossession, debt, want, ignorance, and global warming,
our very survival is impossible. Read aloud."
Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams
"With the beautiful idealism of a young radical and the sage wisdom
of an elder, Bill Ayers is making trouble again, and we should all
be grateful. In Demand the Impossible Ayers troubles the waters of
staid political practices, insisting that we close our eyes for a
moment and think creatively about what a better world might look
like, and then open our eyes wide and organize boldly to make that
world a reality. This is an elegant and provocative manifesto for
our time, one that honors the social justice organizing currently
in motion."
Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom
Movement
"Bill Ayers has produced a portrait of two worlds. One is a
dystopia, recognizable as the world in which we live, the other a
world that capitalism describes as a fantasy---a world
reconstructed around values that place the advancement of humanity
and the sanctity of the planet above the accumulation of wealth and
power. The two portraits stand in dramatic contrast and make Demand
the Impossible both illuminating and compelling. This manifesto is
radical less in its rhetoric than in its daring to actually go to
the roots of the barbarism of the capitalist system. Demand the
Impossible is to be read and then shared widely. It can serve as a
motivator for those of us engaged in the long battle for justice
and social transformation."
Bill Fletcher, Jr, author of Solidarity Divided
"In his many years of practicing and theorizing pedagogy, Bill
Ayers has proven himself a master teacher. Now, Demand the
Impossible is a brilliant and accessible distillation of techniques
and knowledge crafted into a powerful manifesto for our times,
expanding the horizon of our expectations."
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of
the United States
"Bill Ayers is the philosopher of the revolutionary spirit. These
are despondent times, and yet, as Bill muses - history can surprise
us. In preparation for that surprise, Bill has written a smart and
inspirational manifesto."
Vijay Prashad, author of The Poorer Nations
"Bill Ayers’ Demand the Impossible is a strong shot of inspiration
for anyone searching for deep social transformation. It is a
heartfelt, upbeat manifesto in favor of activism as an antidote to
despair. Chock-full of personal stories, real facts and concrete
examples packaged in exquisite writing, Demand the Impossible will
open your mind to possibilities you never thought existed. Ayers
will get you off your seat and into the street, fist raised, heart
full, reaching for the spectacular."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink and author of Drone
Warfare: Killing by Remote Control
Demand the Impossible is just what the world needs right now, a
manifesto that challenges us to imagine bigger, love harder, create
more expansively, and struggle toward a liberatory future in spite
of our deepest doubts. Bill Ayers wakes us up and shows us that
even the most entrenched, most permanent-seeming institutionsthe
military, the prison, the police, capitalism itselfare no match
for the creativity and determination of the universal family” and
the better angels of ourselves.” Demand the Impossible is a call
to abandon the illusory American Dream wholesale, and, in its
place, to unleash our own collective, revolutionary dreams into the
universe. I dare you to not be inspired by this book.
Maya Schenwar, editor of Truthout and author of Locked Down,
Locked Out
"This is a deeply refreshing book, reminding us of why the core
principles of socialist and anarchist thoughtpeace, justice,
freedom, equalityare grounded, not in utopian fantasy, but in the
joyous work of the creative imagination in everyday life. In large
ways (an end to the military-industrial complex and the U.S. prison
system) and small (the rebirth of community and public life in
neighborhoods) Ayers offers a program that is long on ideals and
even longer on actually existing programs, groups, movements, and
individuals working toward a humane future. By turns alarming in
its realistic assessment of the madness and stupidity of the
present global system, and inspiring in its down to earth proposals
for alternative human futures, this is a must-read for discouraged
progressives everywhere. It is a book that could be a clear and
present danger to Western civilization as we know itand in the
very best way."
W. J. T. Mitchell, editor of Critical Inquiry and author of Seeing
Through Race and Cloning Terror
"Every once in a while a book comes along that not only changes the
way one thinks, but opens a new space for imagining and then acting
to create a better world with commitment, courage, and a heightened
sense of ethical and social responsibility. Demand the Impossible
is one of those books, and it ranks right at the top of the list.
Ayers has a gifthe not only writes like a poet but he never fails
to deal with rigorous and important ideas in an accessible and
moving style. Touching on a range of issues extending from police
violence and racism to ecological destruction, Ayers raises all the
right questions and connects the dots that provide a tapestry for
energizing the radical imagination. This may be one of the best
books written in that tradition. Powerful, insightful, prodding,
challenging, and most of all hopefulif you want to understand the
problems facing a society tipping into the abyss of
authoritarianism, this book is a must-read, a kind of master text
for those of us figuring out how to change a world that seems at
time beyond our reach."
Henry Giroux, author of Theory and Resistance in Education and The
Violence of Organized Forgetting
"Demand The Impossible provides the imperative we need now. As
public consciousness and despair heighten in our various locales,
we must be willing to engage lessons from the past and present
while building a future that is reflective of our commitment to
justice. If we're serious about this, we know there is no
choice: all we got is US!"
David Stovall, author of Born Out of Struggle
"Demand the Impossible! is an ambitious, manifesto-like work rooted
in the realities of the contemporary USA. It is divided into eight
sections, each of which address a major issue, such as health care,
prisons, education and the military machine. Ayers adopts a common
approach in each case: a swift, hard-hitting identification of a
major problem, and then a detailed sketch of an alternative. One of
the strengths of the work is Ayers's consistent rooting of his
alternative in 'real', functioning radical projects." –Anarchist
Studies
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