About

Known as an activist information hub for the Twin Cities for over ten years, the Arise! Collective provides works of resistance by Marx and Engels to Audre Lorde, John Zerzan to bell hooks, Annie Sprinkle to Noam Chomsky.

HOURS
Arise! is open every day, 11 AM to 9 PM.

DIRECTIONS
Arise is located at 2441 Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis. You'll find Arise! in the Whittier neighborhood near The Wedge Co-op, the Leaning Tower of Pizza restaurant, Muddy Waters Coffeeshop, Caffetto's, Rudolph's BBQ, and the Loon Grocery convenience store.

From the East or West, take the Lyndale Ave. exit off of I-94 (near downtown) and head south. From the North, take I-35W or I-35E to I-94 and take the Lyndale Ave. exit south. From the Bloomington strip (Mall of America, Airport), take I-494 to the Lyndale Ave. exit (west of both the Airport and the Mall of America) and follow it north to the 2400 block.

WHO WE ARE
In the spring of 1993, members of the Arise! collective made the decision to create a bookstore and resource center that would serve the community in the following ways:

* As a bookstore carrying alternative books and periodicals for people involved in South African, Irish, Native American, and other liberation struggles.
* As a library of books, periodicals, files and videos -- both for in-house use and for lending out.
* As a space for public events, including speakers, group meetings and discussions, film/video showings and cultural celebrations.
* As a space for the Arise! collective, and for projects undertaken by collective members and friends, including the publication of the Arise! newspaper.

CONSIGNMENT
We take zines, CDs & tapes, patches, and many other handmade items on consignment. Our terms for consignment are 60% seller / 40% Arise.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

1) We support the struggles of oppressed and colonized peoples for self-determination. Self-determination is a fundamental right to be obtained through whatever means necessary, including armed struggle. Imperialism and the nation-states’ militarism which permits and encourages it must end.

2) We support the right of all people to vote and organize political parties without censorship or fear of reprisals.

3) We support an end to economic inequality. There can be neither peace nor freedom in a world where millions starve while a few live in luxury. All individuals must have access to the necessities of food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare. People have the right to control their own workplaces and working conditions; the products of work must be directed toward the social good, not corporate profit.

4) We support an end to all racism, including anti-Semitism, and to discrimination based on ethnicity, language or religion. The forced assimilation or acculturation of minority groups is cultural genocide.

5) We support the equal rights of women in all areas of life: political, economic, social and domestic. Discrimination against women, violence against women, and the denial of reproduction choice to women are incompatible with human freedom.

6) We support the equal rights and equal protection of lesbian and gay people in all areas of life. All domestic partnerships (not just heterosexual marriage) must be given equal legal status, and all laws which criminalize sexual activity between consenting adults must be eliminated.

7) We support the preservation of the environment, in a reasonable balance with the needs of humans. This means establishing a decent and sustainable standard of living for all, while guarding and maintaining the earth for our descendants and the other species which share it with us.

8) We support the right of people to practice their religious and cultural traditions without interference, except when a particular practice is incompatible with basic rights.

9) We support free inquiry and free expression, limited only by fundamental considerations of human rights. Neither states nor economic nor religious powers have the right to censor.

10) We support the liberation of all people victimized by our society, be it due to their age, ability, class, race, gender, or sexual preference. Human diversity must be respected and cherished, not suppressed.

Arise! as an organization has three aims for our work in support of our beliefs:

Providing information and education about efforts worldwide toward national liberation and social justice.

Creating and maintaining the means for exchange of information and assistance with other groups involved in these struggles.

Taking action locally and nationally to defend our principles. We believe Americans must work to extend genuine democracy from grassroots organizations to local and national government, from the local community to U.S. foreign policy. We must not allow our neighbors to be oppressed and exploited, nor let our government, acting in our names, fund and support oppressors abroad.

The fight for justice begins in ourselves, though it must not end there. Arise! believes that, while allowing for human failings, we must try to live and work in accordance with our beliefs. We support the creation of a society based on solidarity and community, rather than on isolation, competition and consumerism. We seek to overcome the artificial separation between the personal, the social, and the political.

In this spirit, Arise! tries to function in a truly open and non-authoritarian manner. We have no organizational hierarchy; we reach our decisions by debate and consensus. We are non-sectarian and have no “party line” to impose on our members—we ask only general agreement without principles and aims. Solidarity, not tyranny—this is the overwhelming principle and goal of the Arise! members.