Randy "Prole Cat" Lowens Obituary
Southern Anarchist Passes
Don Jennings passed away March 8, 2012, in Richmond, Kentucky. He is best known to many of us by his pen name, Randy "Prole Cat" Lowens. In lieu of flowers the Family request contributions to any public library in Don’s memory.
Don was a former Workers Solidarity Alliance member, a founding member of Atlanta's Capital Terminus Collective and a supporter of Common Struggle Libertarian Communist Federation. He was a prolific anarchist writer.
![Click on image to see full-sized version Randy protesting Mountain Top Removal](/web/20120317080109im_/http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/mar2012/randywhichside.jpg)
Randy protesting Mountain Top Removal
Don Hamilton Jennings
Randy Lowens
"Prole Cat"
May 2, 1960 - March 8, 2012
Don Jennings passed away March 8, 2012, in Richmond, Kentucky. He is best known to many of us by his pen name, Randy "Prole Cat" Lowens. In lieu of flowers the Family request contributions to any public library in Don’s memory.
Don was a former Workers Solidarity Alliance member, a founding member of Atlanta's Capital Terminus Collective and a supporter of Common Struggle Libertarian Communist Federation.
From our mutual friend and comrade Shafik: "Very sad to hear the news of our comrade Don Jennings recent death. Don was a steadfast fighter for justice, a prolific writer, a founding member of Atlanta's Capital Terminus Collective, a student of life, adventurer, philosopher, loyal friend and companion to many and a true mensch. May his memory remain to encourage us in our struggles to create a better, more beautiful world. RIP dear comrade."
North Eastern Anarchist #15 2011 published his interview with bell hooks: "How Do You Practice Intersectionalism?"
http://commonstruggle.org/bellhooks
For anarkismo.net he wrote this manifesto for his homeland about opposing Mountain Top Removal coal mining. : "An Anarchist Communist Strategy for Rural, Southern Appalachia"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/2170
He also wrote:
"Postmodernism in Literature and Politics: Experimental Fiction and Post-Left Anarchy"
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/4800
"Noble Gestures and Effective Boycotts: Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and the Struggles Ahead"
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/5793
"The Bogeyman Under Bush's Bed: Islamic Extremists or Organized Workers?"
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/6888
The Mortgage Crisis in the USA
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/9157
"The Periodic Crises of Market Economies"
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/10197
"Connecting the Privatized Dots: a review of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine"
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/7526
As "prole cat" he wrote:
"Anarchism and Confederate Flag Culture"
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Prole_Cat__Anarchis....html
"Hurricane Katrina, and the Good Churchgoers of the U.S. South"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1850
"Ruminating On the Likelihood of Conscription in the USA"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1748
"Making the World Safe for Fascism: Free Speech and the Worship of Civil Liberties"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1222
"Towards More Effective Political Organizations"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1272
"The Million Workers March in Washington DC, October 17, 2004"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1273
"FLOC and the Mt Olive Campaign: an Anarchist Perspective"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1274
"What does it mean to be an anarchist communist?"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1115
"Honkie America Redux: The Plight of the Latino Immigrant"
http://commonstruggle.org/node/1133
His stories have been featured in "Wrong Tree Review", "A-Minor", "Dew on the Kudzu" and elsewhere. More of Randy's writing can also be found at
http://todaysdeepsouth.blogspot.com/search?q=Randy+Lowens
and
http://oaknpine.blogspot.com/2011/02/randy-lowens-greatest-hits-compilation.html
Randy was reared in the north Georgia hills where he worked as welder, machinist and air conditioning repairman. Enraged by the abuses of employers, he began writing for leftist journals. He resided in eastern Kentucky, home schooled his daughter, cooked gourmet meals and composed fiction informed by all these experiences.
Randy received the Tacenda Literary Award for the Best Short Story of 2007, illuminating social injustice. His writing has been featured in JMWW (literary fiction); Fifth Estate (a counter cultural/anarchist journal); Clockwise Cat, Wanderings and Blue Collar Review (poetry); Cherry Bleeds (transgressive fiction); Thieves Jargon (drug lit); Pemmican (working class fiction); Unlikely Stories 2.0 (an insider's look at The Left); Dogmatica (Small Town Taboos Flagrantly Flouted); Word Riot and elsewhere. Most recently excerpts from a novel-in-progress appeared on Fried Chicken and Coffee and Dew on the Kudzu.
![Click on image to see full-sized version Randy and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee](/web/20120317080109im_/http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/mar2012/randyfloca.jpg)
Randy and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee
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Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2I am so saddened by this news. Although I never met him in person, I did know him through internet and over the years had many occasions to talk and discuss ideas. Randy always struck me as being a gentle person, a man very much at peace with himself who was able to transmit that to others. I could always imagine him somewhere in the middle of Georgia, walking through the woods, maybe fishing, enjoying the good things this world gives us. We will all miss him.
n.
The North American and international anarchist movement have just lost a committed militant, a brilliant thinker and a good person altogether. As part of the anarkismo editorial committee in its early stages, he played a part in developing this site. I will remember him for his critical contributions, for his wit and fine sense of humour. Solidarity and love to his relatives, comrades and beloved ones.