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Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072

M. E. O'Brien

Eman Abdelhadi

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By the middle of the twenty-first century, war, famine, economic collapse, and climate catastrophe had toppled the world's governments. In the 2050s, the insurrections reached the nerve center of global capitalism—New York City.

This book, a collection of interviews with the people who made the revolution, was published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the New York Commune, a radically new social order forged in the ashes of capitalist collapse. Here is the insurrection in the words of the people who made it, a cast as diverse as the city itself. Nurses, sex workers, antifascist militants, and survivors of all stripes recall the collapse of life as they knew it and the emergence of a collective alternative.

Their stories, delivered in deeply human fashion, together outline how ordinary people's efforts to survive in the face of crisis contain the seeds of a new world.

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Posts about this title from Fairly Queer Books

Fairly Queer Books\ \ Fareeha\ \ • Jan 7

Hello and happy new year,\ \ I hope you’re all doing well! This isn’t a long post but I was too excited not to make this. \ \ \ \ Bindery has a new feature where you can request a specific title and it comes straight to me with a cute little postcard. I had no idea this feature came out (i was very much on vacation and not looking at my email for most of December, keep an eye out for my next newsletter for more there) or I would have already answered them. If you sent in a request, the recs are below !\ \ As a former bookseller, I genuinely miss recommending randomly specific titles and it’s quite fun racking my brain for book knowledge, especially great when we find the right one. This is a beta feature so I’m not sure yet the best way to answer these. I can either do it as a post here on Bindery, or on ig stories, let me know which way you prefer!\ \ Now onto the recs:\ \ The first request was from Ezra who asked for: a banger that is also a book club crowd pleaser.\ \ \ \ A social media account was not tagged so hopefully you see this one. I have a scifi and fantasy recommendation:\ \ Project Hail Mary: A Novel by Andy Weir\ \ This one is going to be adapted later this year and from everything I hear it’s a very good pick for a book club. It follows Ryland Grace, the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. While I haven’t personally read this, my sister’s book club (that heavily reads scifi and fantasy) said this one was a great pick! \ \ A Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez:\ \ My pick is definitely this standalone fantasy which follows Jun, a guard that is full of regret of his past decisions, and Keema, an outcast that is fighting for identity and self-value. The pair end up aiding and abetting the escape of a god that has been locked under a palace for centuries and used for her abilities and magic by her own family. The ruling family consists of an emperor and his three murderous sons who have used the god’s abilities to rule with cruelty for centuries and bleed the land of resources as they oppress their citizenry. Jun and Keema end up on an adventure with this god that changes the course of power in the land and those who wield it. It’s written with such stunning prose and imagery, the descriptions alone are enough to make this a great discussion book. This was my favorite read of 2024 and genuinely the most talked about book that my club and I chose to read. There is so much action and heart packed into it, I think it definitely fits the criteria. \ \ The second request was from Kaith. ig: (@kaithisms)\ \ \ \ First of all, thank you for watching! I have quite a few recs I hope one of these stand out. I would be remiss not to mention the one that inspired the video to begin with which was of course:\ \ Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072\ \ This is one of the most unique scifi books I’ve read, as it imagines a word beyond the apocalyptic style, dystopian narrative we have been fed for decades. Written from the perspective of two activists that come from labor organizing, activist work, and trans rights organizing we are getting the perspective of two powerful voices in M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi. The novel is done in an oral history style as the title suggests, interviewing young and old people who all belong to different communes across the post-capitalist version of the U.S. This book offers a glimpse into a possibility after violence. A future that has gone through war and famine and the breaking down of systems, and asks, okay so what do we build up from the rubble? What skills can we offer each other tangibly? How do we see our relationships, our living structures, and our society as a whole and where do we need improvement? All of that and more is explored in this book and in my opinion, it feels like a novel that is in direct conversation with us, people experiencing the mid 2020s and all the horrors that have gotten us to this point. Can we imagine a future that doesn’t constantly beget violence? Are there sustainable systems we can start building the framework for now? What kind of life do we want and what are willing to do to get it? I can not recommend this book enough. It remains one of my favorite scifi novels I’ve ever read. \ \ Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction by Joshua Whitehead\ \ This anthology collection showcases a number of new 2SQ (2 spirit and queer indigenous) writers that each come up with their own utopian narratives that detail the strength of indigiqueer stories through their plight in the maw of settler colonialism’s histories. It has been at the top of my tbr for a while, I definitely think this collection will hold a few gems. \ \ Thyme Travelers edited by Sonia Sulaiman\ \ This anthology is completely unique, coming from the perspective of Palestinian diaspora writers and artists that image a future beyond occupation and the devastating effects of imperialism and zionism. Each story in this collection explores different aspects of the future from analyzing the effects of what dehumanization does over the years, to using robotics to imagine uses for disabled Palestinians, to exploring gender identity and queerness. I highly recommend it to everyone interested in post colonialism as a subject and as a broad topic of study. \ \ I hope these were fun (I had a great time putting them together) and you found something new to read. If you have any more requests, please send them in!

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new feature !

5 books

Fairly Queer Books\ \ Fareeha\ \ • Mar 21 2025

Add trans Palestinian 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 books to your tbr this year!

some recommendations for the TRR

11 books

Fairly Queer Books\ \ Fareeha\ \ • Nov 25 2024

Bookseller Recommendation Night

Hi, here are the four books from 2024 that I talked about for our shop's recommendation night. It was kind of a spur of the moment list, and generally this was not a huge reading year for me(32 is where I'm sitting right now), but these definitely stood out! My final list will probably look a bit different since an arc of Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao is sitting on my kindle at the moment and I just know, that book will destroy me (in the best way).

This is my first tiktok style video that I'm posting onto Bindery, as other social media apps get shaky, youtube is going to become the main platform where I post my recs, reviews, and roundups. I'm also on Bluesky now which I'm loving so far.

What were your favorite books this year? Leave a comment here and let me know!

4 books

Fairly Queer Books\ \ Fareeha\ \ • Sep 17 2024

[\ \ \ \ This scifi futurist novel takes place in the 2070s as two historians begin an oral history project to document the the insurrection of the 2050s when societal collapse led to a new future. Told in an interview style, the book spans the experiences of different organizers and participants of the revolution years later. We chose this as our bookclub pick for August and I’m now obsessed with finding futurist work just like it! Dystopias are not giving what they were back in 2014, truly. So much of our reality is shaped by the imagination of just a few people/ideologies. Since reading this book, I'm now really interested in what speculative fiction from the global south has to say about the future and community building. Expect some more thoughts on this soon! Here are a few discussion questions that this book in partucular sparked for me that I put in our discord chat (link to join at the top of my bindery profile):\ \

What aspect of a communized future did you find to be the most hopeful? Any favorite quotes?\ \
Was there any role in the communes that resonated? Anything that didn't?\ \
If in the year 2040 something communes were popping up all around you, what role would you gravitate towards?\ \
Would you want to communize in the community you're in right now, why or why not?\ \
How did you feel about the book's handling of indigenous sovereignty and land back? Do you imagine anything different?\ \ \ I'm still buzzing with ideas and thoughts that I may need to put into a longer video on tiktok. Pick this one up if you're in a doom spiral! It helped me a lot and I actually recommend this to people who do not read scifi at all. As the title suggests, I think there is something in it for everyone. Here's the playlist btw.\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ The moment I finished The Jasmine Throne I picked up The Oleander Sword. I was reading this at the same time I was watching House of the Dragons and I could not help but see parallels between this work and the sapphic elements they brough to that story. So much of Malani and Priya's relationship is defined by obligation and sacrifice. But their struggle and their yearming for one another is so incredibly addictive to read. They seem to both constantly be giving up parts of themselves to stay together and the ending of this book really solidified the type of characters both of them are in their given role as Elder of Ahiranyi and Empress Malani. It’s such a compelling series and definitely my favorite sapphic couple in fantasy right now. I absolutely love Tasha Suri’s writing style, her settings are lush and so vivid in my mind.\ \ I especially loved reading this while I was traveling through the expansive olive groves in the Spanish country side. That's a sentence I still can't believe I can write, but I was on trains travelling through those mountains almost every day I was there. The image above is from one of those train rides. Parallel to that, I was reading this book and watching as Malani constantly had to stay on the road, attempting to garner support from lords and ego driven men all around her rightful kingdom. It was a pretty cool reading/viewing experience.\ \ If you've come this far I assume you've definitely read both books and are eagerly awaiting the 3rd. I was lucky enough to get an arc and I just started it this week. I'll link it below in case you haven't pre-ordered yet (get on it!!). I'm like 15% in and I'm already SO ANXIOUS. Will post updates soon!!\ \ Thank you for reading <3 I'll update more frequently now that I'm reading voraciously ! (literally finished 2 books last night, who am I??) I credit it all to my mom's old kindle hd, the 2012 version that is no longer available. I may not have a kindle subscription anymore, but I can read all my arcs and library books on there. As well as all of my comics and manga. Soo I may be obsessed with that thing...\ \ ](https://fairlyqueer.binderybooks.com/item/doTwFkCGTopyUJWr7fF5/)

Books I read this Summer ☀️

Here are the whopping two books I read while on my trip to Spain and Morocco. I'm slowly getting back into reviewing books, so this post is brief. But as fall quickly approaches, a lot of content is about to come your way. The fall tbr is already lengthy! For now, I hope you enjoy my reviews, I have the titles linked below if you'd like to purchase / pre-order!

3 books

Fairly Queer Books\ \ Fareeha\ \ • Aug 13 2024

August Book Club

Just wanted to update here in case you missed the post announcements, we have our book club picks for August!

I've been in a pretty heavy dystopia mindset lately but with the world being in it's current state, I can't help but think of utopian futures. What comes after a system crumbles? These will be the questions we explore this month as we read Everything for Everyone and Little Bird. Hope to catch you on discord ! Links below <3

2 books

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