They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us

This striking book reveals collective memories of freedom struggles, despite attempts to distort or steal our inheritance. – Joy James, editor of Beyond Cop Cities

As more and more people are mobilising against war, genocide, poverty, and extraction, this book is right on time. – Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid

How can we resist oppression in the face of ecological crisis, police violence, and white supremacy? In this subversive account, Peter Gelderloos puts forward a radical critique of nonviolent movements. Weaving history, vignettes, interviews, and personal reflections, he shows how we suffer from an inability to pass on lessons from one generation to the next, and explores why.

Learning from the failure of antiracist rebellions triggered by police murders from Minneapolis to Bristol, and the climate campaigns that forget their colonial histories, Gelderloos shows how nonviolent protest is a symptom of social amnesia, an inability to remember what we have learned from our past. Cautioning against future waves of pacification and forgetting, he urges us to collectivise memory and develop the methods we need to fight for our survival.