Gabriel Kuhn is a political writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and translator

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

 based in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

Background

Kuhn lived in a variety of countries during his childhood and youth, including Turkey, England and the USA. Following post-secondary studies in Austria and the USA, Kuhn lived in the Middle East and the South Pacific Islands.

Since 2005, Kuhn has lived in Sweden. Kuhn holds a Ph.D. in philosophy with a speciality in poststructuralism. His thinking has been influenced by classical anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 and Anglo-American Cultural Studies

Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...

. The key focus of Kuhn's political activity has been on bridging the gap between theory and practice. Kuhn's conception of community is one based on solidarity with oppressed peoples. Alongside his political and social involvement, Kuhn has in the past played soccer semi-professionally.

In 2010, Kuhn was forced to cancel a three-month speaking tour of the USA after being denied authorization to travel by US authorities, who informed him that he had been placed on the "No Fly List

No Fly List

The No Fly List is a list, created and maintained by the United States government's Terrorist Screening Center , of people who are not permitted to board a commercial aircraft for travel in or out of the United States. The list has also been used to divert away from U.S. airspace aircraft not...

."

Work

Kuhn has been politically active since 1989, and his written work, developed in that context, is directed towards left-wing activists and scholars. In the 1990s, he worked for the Austrian autonomist journal TATblatt and with the Vienna anarchist publisher Monte Verita.

In 2000, Kuhn founded Alpine Anarchist Productions (AAP), a DIY publishing project that has released numerous pamphlets, many authored by Kuhn under different pseudonyms. The Anarchist Football (Soccer) Manual became the series' most popular work.

Since 2005, Kuhn has published extensively with German radical publisher Unrast Verlag. Tier-Werden, Schwarz-Werden, Frau-Werden. Eine Einführung in die politische Philosophie des Poststrukturalismus (2005) has become a standard left-wing introduction to poststructuralism, and the book Neuer Anarchismus in den USA. Seattle und die Folgen (2008), an annotated anthology of contemporary US anarchism, with translations from David Graeber

David Graeber

David Rolfe Graeber is an American anthropologist and anarchist who currently holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his...

 and the CrimethInc.

CrimethInc.

CrimethInc., also known as CWC , is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front, and began operating as a collective in 1996...

 Collective to John Zerzan

John Zerzan

John Zerzan is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of prehistoric humans as an inspiration for what a free society should look like...

 and Ward Churchill

Ward Churchill

Ward LeRoy Churchill is an author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government...

, was named "Book of the Year" by Berlin's
Bibliothek der Freien. In Tötet den Bullen in eurem Kopf! Zur US-amerikanischen Linken, White Supremacy und Black Autonomy (2009), Kuhn also made texts by Greg Jackson and the Black Autonomy newspaper project available to a German audience.

Since 2008, Kuhn has been collaborating on various projects with PM Press

PM Press

PM Press is an independent publisher that specializes in radical, Marxist and anarchist literature, as well as crime fiction, graphic novels, music CDs, and political documentaries...

. Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy (2010), continues his work on piracy. Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics (2010), is an anthology documenting the radical currents within the straight edge hardcore scene. Revolution and Other Writings: A Political Reader (2010) by Gustav Landauer

Gustav Landauer

Gustav Landauer was one of the leading theorists on anarchism in Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of communist anarchism and an avowed pacifist. Landauer is also known for his study and translations of William Shakespeare's works into German...

 is a collection of writings by the influential German anarchist. Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics (2011) explores the political dimensions of soccer from a left-wing perspective.

In addition, Kuhn has contributed to various zines and journals, from Germany's Direkte Aktion

Direkte Aktion

The Direkte Aktion is a German bimonthly newspaper by the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union. It exists since the union's formation in 1977....

 to Sweden's Brand

Brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

.

Selected bibliography

• Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger With Ulrike Klausmann und Marion Meinzerin. BlackRose, Montreal 1997 ISBN 978-1551640594 TB ISBN 978-1551640587
• Prison Round Trip by Klaus Viehmann. Translator. PM Press & Kersplebedeb, Oakland & Montreal 2009 ISBN 978-1-60486-082-5
• Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy PM Press, Oakland 2010 ISBN 978-1-60486-052-8
• Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics Editor. PM Press, Oakland 2010. Editor. ISBN 978-1-60486-051-1
• Revolution and Other Writings: A Political Reader by Gustav Landauer. Editor and translator. PM Press, Oakland 2010. Editor and translator. ISBN 978-1-60486-054-2
• Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics PM Press, Oakland 2011 ISBN 978-1-60486-053-5

External links

• Unrast author page
• Interview with Gabriel Kuhn about Sober Living for the Revolution (video)
• Alpine Anarchist Productions
• PM Press author page