Defying Displacement: Confronting The Multi-headed Hydra Of Gentrification / Andrew Lee

Writer and organizer Andrew Lee joins me to discuss their new book Defying Displacement: Urban Recomposition and Social War, published through AK Press and the Institute for Anarchist Studies.

Defying Displacement grounds itself in one of the main sites of contemporary class struggle: communities facing the multi-headed hydra of gentrification. Andrew Lee directs our attention to the on-the-ground realities of urban displacement, and in turn, provides a new theory of the state and capitalism in the 21st century.

“And all of a sudden, to maintain what we have—not improve, not get benefits. This isn’t the ‘60s. We aren’t talking about, give us ethnic studies and a health clinic. It’s much worse than that. It’s: don’t displace me. Let me keep paying rent to my landlord; let me keep paying property taxes on the family home; let me keep working a bad job; just don’t make my rent so high that my community is obliterated. 

“And the people that brings us into conflict with aren’t just a local regional rich dude. More and more, they are global financial institutions and the entirety of the political system and civil society. In the places where we live, they’re bringing us into open conflict with the foundation of capitalist society, and that is what we need to navigate through. And if we can, we can win everything.”

Bio:

Andrew Lee is a writer and organizer exploring the intersection between land, home, resistance, and popular power. Their work has been published in outlets including Teen Vogue, The New Inquiry, and YES! Magazine. 

Episode Notes:

Learn more about Andrew’s work at their website.

Purchase a copy of Defying Displacement from AK Press or Bookshop.

Music produced by Epik The Dawn