Mark Leier

Welcome to class. Today, we’ll be learning how to become (effective) troublemakers. In this classroom, no one gets in trouble for defying authority. Designed for educators and facilitators from the union hall to the lecture hall, Roles of Resistance outlines revolutionary lesson plans on how to fight the power with people power. The thirteen lesson plans in this book created by John-Henry Harter and Mark Leier can be used independently or combined to create a semester-long course. Sections include units on teaching political economy, labour history, and social activism based on democratic, experiential teaching, including role-plays, simulations, and games. The tried and tested classroom activities in this teacher’s guide—successfully applied in high schools, universities, and union classrooms—are bound to create a vibrant learning experience, enriching debates, and providing the main tool we need to change the world: collective action.

George Lakey presents the core principles and proven techniques of direct education, an approach he developed for effectively teaching adults in groups. To illustrate how it works in action, Lakey includes a wealth of compelling stories from his vast experience facilitating groups in a variety of situations. Direct education cuts through the pretense and needless complications that can distance learners from subject matter. This approach focuses the encounter between teacher and group; it replaces scattered attention with gathered attention. Unlike in other books on group facilitation, the author emphasizes critical issues related to diversity, as well as authenticity and emotions. Step by step, this groundbreaking book describes how to design effective learning experiences and shows what it takes to facilitate them. Ultimately, it brings all the elements of the author's direct education approach together. Facilitating Group Learning also contains material on sustaining the educator, addresses working with social movements, and includes the Training for Change toolkit of group learning techniques.

Canada, boasting universal healthcare and an official policy of multiculturalism, is often seen as North America's progressive bastion, but behind these achievements lie a long, forgotten history of dissent, labor struggles, native uprisings and government oppression. In A People's History of Canada, Mark Leier tells the forgotten stories of the socialist, Quebecois movement that challenged the imperial state; the "Red Scare" that helped to dismantle labor protections; and the indigenous Idle No More resisters targeting Canada's roots in native genocide. A People's History of Canada is a riveting, impassioned tale of the sacrifices and losses that hide in the shadows of Justin Trudeau's "sunny ways."

The battles between Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx in the First International (aka the International Working Men's Association, 1864-1876) began a pattern of polemics and rancor between anarchists and Marxists that still exists today. Outlining the profound similarities between Bakunin and Marx in their early lives and careers as activists, Mark Leier (Bakunin: The Creative Passion) suggests that the differences have often been exaggerated and have prevented activists from learning useful lessons about creating vibrant movements.

The spellbinding story of both the man and the theory, Bakunin chronicles one of the most notorious radicals in history: Mikhail Bakunin, the founder of anarchism, here revealed as a practical moral philosophy rooted in a critique of wealth and power. Mark Leier corrects many of the popular misconceptions about Bakunin and his ideas, offering a fresh interpretation of his life and thoughts. Bakunin is an insightful read for all those who wish to better understand the fundamental basis of modern radical movements.