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Anarchy: a journal of desire armed. #38; Fall 1993
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA REVIEW
-includes Anarchist Press Review, reviews of The Final Empire,
Debord's In Girum, & Debord's Comments by John Zerzan, reviews of
Plant's Gesture, Hakim Bey's T.A.Z., On An(archy) and
Schizoanalysis, & Films of Guy Debord by Patrick Frank, review of
Baudrillard's Fatal Strategies by Allan Antiff and Alternative
Press Books.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Anarchist Press Review
Compiled by Jason McQuinn & Bob White
THE POOR, THE BAD AND THE ANGRY #1/undated (3288 21st St. #31,
San Francisco, CA. 94110) is an uncompromising new "anti-state
communist" journal with the straight-away subtitle, "A Magazine
for Power-Hungry Proletarians." This first issue announces in no
uncertain terms where the production group stands - against
reformist leftism, national liberation movements and unions - and
what it promotes - the destruction of commodity relations and the
emergence of authentic human community." Contents include
accounts of "Some actions we've taken" (leafleting and
postering), another account of "L.A. '92: The context of a
proletarian uprising," and more information on "The unknown
insurrection: The armed uprising and workers' councils in Iraq,
1991." This magazine is not for the faint-of-heart reformist set.
Well recommended, despite the heavy doses of Marxist rhetoric
which, unfortunately, come as a package deal along with the more
clearsighted, anarchic spirit. Send a contribution for a sample
copy.
SHIT HAPPY #3/undated (Adam Bregman, 11338 Joffre St., L.A., CA.
90049) is another incredibly lively, thoughtful & enjoyable issue
of this 28-page zine which shouldn't be missed! This time there
are articles including "I ran for mayor of L.A." (as one of the
24 "official" candidates on the ballot), a very personal story of
"Falling in love and watching it fall to pieces," an account of
"The Cacophony Society" (participants in bizarre adventures in
the L.A. area), and a hilarious piece titled "The clowns"
(featuring "Asswipe the Clown"). The best issue yet of this
excellent zine! Send $2 for a copy.
FIFTH ESTATE #342/Summer '93 (4632 Second Ave., Detroit, MI.
48201) is a 24-page anti-civilization, anti-tech, anarcho-primi-
tivist tabloid. This issue, featuring a colorful cover for the
first time in years, includes an opening section of articles on
"Queer anarchy," along with E.B. Maple's account of FE's unhappy
acquisition of a computer for typesetting titled "The Fifth
Estate enters the 20th century: We get a computer and hate it!"
Also included is a denunciation of the bombing of Baghdad by
Clinton this last June, a translation of Saral Sarkar's critical
"Accommodating industrialism: A third world view of the West
German ecological movement," and a pair of articles on drugs -
Jack Straw's "Psychedelics & human consciousness: Has booze
brought the blues?" and E.B. Maple's "Hemp to the rescue: Will
marijuana save the world?" FE is always highly recommended.
Subscriptions are quite cheap at $6.00/4 issues.
SOCIAL ANARCHISM #18/1993 (2743 Maryland Ave., Baltimore, MD.
21218) is a journal-sized, 96-page "Magazine of Current Anarchist
Writing." This issue includes Howard Ehrlich on "Los Angeles,
1992 - The lessons revisited," Tom Knoche's overview of anarchist
community organizing titled "Organizing communities," Mark
Leier's (unintentionally) farcical "Anarchism and
existentialism," and Kingsley Widmer's penetrating analysis of
"Eco-anarchism, unto primitivism." A selection of poems and book
reviews (one of the stronger elements of this publication)
complete this issue. Worthwhile picking up. Sample copies are
$3.50; subscriptions are $10/2 years (4 issues).
KICK IT OVER #31/June '93 (POB 5811, Stn. A, Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1P2, Canada) is a 48-page magazine now published by a new
collective. This issue includes William Alexander's case study of
"The efficiency of community and the inefficiency of hierarchy,"
several personal accounts of the war in ex-Yugoslavia, Ken Fisher
on "Men's groups: Accountable to whom? for what?" and Gary Moffat
on "Alternate societies: A brief survey of intentional community
in European history." This is one of the more interesting issues
in recent years. Sample copies are $3; subscriptions are $9/year
(4 issues).
BLACK EYE #11/Winter '92-93 (339 Lafayette St. #202, New York,
NY. 10012) is the final 80-page issue of this irreverent, often
interesting New York zine. This blockbuster issue includes Alex
Trotter's long essay on "Decadence," Paul Simons' "Book and gun:
A (rather disturbing) look at proto- and early fascist history
and ideology," and an assessment of the current situation in
South Africa by S. Thompson & N. Abraham. The cover price is $1.
ALSO RECEIVED:
RSVP #11 & #12/undated (Tad Davies, 821 Highview Ave., Manhattan
Beach, CA. 90266) is a 52-page "co-op publication of writers and
a publisher concerned about freedom issues of many different
views," with a fair number of anarchists and anti-authoritarians
involved. Issue #11 includes contributions from 24 different
writers on a variety of subjects from technology to the nature of
capitalism & socialism. Issue #12 focuses on the importance of
Factsheet Five for the "freedom issues" milieu, including an
account of FF history by original publisher Mike Gunderloy,
excerpts from an interview with current FF publisher Seth
Friedman, and Seth Friedman's own account of "the rescue of
Factsheet Five." Both issues include special sections of
reprinted articles on the theme of "Kops as Killers."
Subscriptions are $16/year (8 issues + occasional bonus issues).
THE MATCH! #88/Summer '93 (POB 3488, Tucson, AZ. 85722) is a 76-
page journal published by Fred Woodworth, whose personality shows
through on every page - he reminds me of an irritating,
cantankerous, old uncle, overly set in his ways but whose
contentious opinions can nevertheless often be fun to listen in
on. In this issue he announces that he will no longer print
reviews of books bearing ISBN numbers (which will undoubtedly
severely limit the number of new books reviewed in the future),
though he does `copyright' his writing. Also in this issue is
more criticism of "police statism," a highly amusing "Babble
study department" (quoting from a couple chapters of the
Christian Bible), continuing serializations of Kent Winslow's
"Landmarks in the desert" and Iris Lane's "The two sisters,"
along with a rather diminutive "World's largest letters column."
Subscriptions are still $10/4 issues (irregular). Freedom;
Anarchist fortnightly Vol.54,#17/Aug.21,'93 (84b Whitechapel High
Street, London E1 7QX, England) is a long-running 8-page tabloid
of news and comment. This issue includes pieces on "Media
distortion and the left," an interview with Michael Warchawski
(founder of the Centre for Alternative Information) on
"Israel/Palestine," and Colin Ward's reinterpretation of The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as "Yet another anarchist
classic." Subscriptions are =9C18.00/year (24 issues).
TROTWATCH #1/Summer '92 (c/o Box NDF, 72 Radford Road, Hyson
Green, Nottingham, England) is an amusing attempt at "an
anarchist commentary on the life of the [British] left," from "a
clear libertarian communist/anarchist perspective." This first
issue contains a run down of the maneuverings of many of the
endless trot sects up to and after last year's British Labour
Party defeat. Should be a bucket of laughs for ex-trots, but it's
a bit hard to follow for those never exposed to this socialist
perversion! Copies are $3; exchanges are encouraged with
anarchist periodicals.
RED AND BLACK #23//Winter '93 (POB 12, Quaama, N.S.W. 2550, Aus-
tralia) is a small-format, 48-page journal. This issue includes
W. Bradley's "The new political context" (an analysis and
critique of liberalism), R. Kostelanetz's amusing account of his
experience in "Teaching & the `non-standard' writer," and T.
Doyle's fairly correct (but at times tedious) account of "Dissent
and the environment: A defence of critique within social
movements" (based on his own experience in criticizing mainstream
bureaucratic environmentalism). Subscriptions are $6/year (2
issues).
NO FUTURE unnumbered/undated (Anthony Melder, 21a Warley Hill,
Brentwood, Essex CM14 5HR, England) is an unpaginated zine
exploring the topography of contemporary alienation Slogans like
"Don't be happy - just worry" and "I am not a target market" line
the tops and bottoms of each page. Check this out. Send a
contribution for a sample copy.
DEEP THREAT #4/undated (3018 J St. #140, Sacramento, CA. 95816)
is the playful 16-page tabloid successor to Alphabet Threat,
Bicycle Threat and Castration Threat. Contributions include
pieces like "Dandruff threat; Liberating my psoriasis," and
"Divorce threat." Send a couple stamps or a donation for a sample
copy. Libertarian Labor Review #15/Summer '93 (POB 762,
Cortland, NY. 13045) is a 42-page magazine of "Anarchosyndicalist
Ideas and Discussion." This issue includes articles on "Britain's
Direct Action Movement" (the syndicalist organization, that is),
and Jon Bekken's "Reforming the Teamsters." Subscriptions are
$12/4 issues (2 years).
THE SHADOW #28/Dec.'92 & #29/June '93 (POB 20298, New York, NY.
10009) is a 24-page tabloid covering alternative scenes on the
Lower East Side in New York, including updates on the Tompkins
Square Park struggle, and the squatting scene. This paper is a
model of the kind of "cop watching" coverage every city should
have. Subscriptions are $10/year (? issues).
ALARM #4/Autumn, #5/Winter '92 & #6/Spring (POB 804, Burlington,
VT. 05402) is a 24-page "Voice of Northeast Earth First!" Each
issue includes updates on Earth First! struggles, including those
aimed at Mt. Graham, the Shawnee National Forest, and many
others. Issue #6 includes "A Biodiversity Liberation Front
communique to the EF! movement" detailing why it is unable to
work with the Earth First! journal. Subscriptions are $10/year.
MOTHER ANARCHY #3/July '93 (Laure Akai, PO Box 500, Moscow
107061, Russia) is an 18-page, partly English-language, zine
dealing with current problems faced by Russian anarchists. This
issue includes Ivan Papugal's short (and somewhat misleadingly
titled) "Forgotten Russian situationists," Laure A.'s amusing "A
date with Boris Kagarlitsky," "An interview with Grisha, gay
radical," and other contributions in Russian and Esperanto. No
price listed; send a donation for printing and postage.
WIND CHILL FACTOR #9/July '93 (POB 81961, Chicago, IL. 60681)
Those folks at Wind Chill sure know how to pack a lot of info in
their 40 page zine. Issue #9 has an article on the Red Army
Faction destroying a newly built prison in Weiterstadt, Germany,
an entertaining article on sex and birth control, thoughts of a
Chicago taxi cab driver entitled "Travellin," an interesting dis-
cussion on hacking and phreaking, an article on Randolph Street
Gallery holding a graffiti discussion/party/festival, and a
3-page Anarchist Black Cross spread, not to mention anarchist
news, letters, general mayhem, and much more. $1 for a copy.
PROFANE EXISTENCE #19-20/Summer '93 (POB 8722, Minneapolis, MN.
55408) is a 48-page double issue of this anarcho-punk tabloid.
This issue features the production collective's "Anarchy, punk
and utopia," lots of anarchist news, letters , columns and
reviews, plus a new "On Gogol Blvd" section and a band interview
with Dog Faced Hermans. Sample copies are $3 postpaid.
OTHER PERIODICALS RECEIVED:
IKON #1/Nov.'88 thru #11/May '93 (Geoffrey Gilmore, 444 Rose
Lane, Apt.106, Lexington, KY. 40508) is an unpaginated zine
subtitled "An Anti-Statist Publication" in its latest issue,
containing poetry, essays and humor. Send a contribution for a
sample copy.
ANARCHIST AGE MONTHLY REVIEW #30/June & #32/Aug.'93 (Mutual Aid,
POB 20, Parkville 3052, Melbourne, Australia) is a 40-page
newsletter consisting of photocopied reprints from other sources,
along with reprints of the Anarchist Age Weekly Review. Subscrip-
tions are $18/6 issues.
THE STATE ADVERSARY #21/Dec.'92 (AAA, POB 78-104, Grey Lynn,
Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand) is a 12-page newsletter with lots
of local & international news shorts, along with commentary &
letters. This issue includes articles on "Big Mountain: The
Columbus legacy continues," and "Hemp for the future." Send a
contribution for a sample copy.
KASPAHRASTER #7/July '93 (POB 8831, Portland, OR. 97207) is an
attractive 32-page zine of poetry, comment, computer mail, dreams
and graphics. This issue includes a short account of the
Anarchist Unconvention in Portland. Send $2 cash for a sample.=20
NON SERVIAM #2/June & #3/July-Aug.'93 (POB 70551, Richmond, VA.
23255) is an unpaginated zine "dedicated to all (re)oppressed
people (i.e. all-of-us)." The cover of issue #2 proclaims "We'll
never learn"; issue #3 includes some anti-Christian material.
Sample copies are $1; subscriptions are $15/year (13 issues).=20
TAKING LIBERTIES #7, 8, 9, 10/undated (POB 446, Sheffield, South
Yorkshire, UK) is the 10-12 page Newsletter of the Anarchist
Black Cross. #7 includes articles on strip searching, women in
prison, special hospitals, poll tax prisoners, and police racism.
Issue #10 includes articles on Christine Sawbridge, legal aid,
criminalization of the working class. All contain news and
information on political prisoners. Send a couple bucks for a
sample issue.
HAG #3/undated (c/o Orissa Spire, #D-56 1720 Douglas St.,
Victoria B.C., Canada. V8W 2G7) is an enjoyable zine put out
irregularly by an anarcho/fem collective from Canada. This issue
includes "News for yews," "Looking for the revolution in my
pants," "Babes in space," "The ecology movement: Becoming
revolutionary," "Nice Jewish girls," and "Who bombed Judi Bari?"
Also info on herbs, menstruation, poetry, letters, reviews,
comics, and much more. Worth checking out. $2.50 for sample
copies.
BUTCHER SHOP #2/undated (2117 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls MN. 55405)
is a nicely done 22-page radical zine, with #2 being a special
drug issue with articles entitled "Everything you know about
marijuana is wrong," and "Fight the urine police." Also news on
Mumia Abu- Jamal, an anti-pro-life demo, and a review of Dave
Dellinger's From Yale to Jail. No price listed, but send a couple
bucks for sample issue.
GREEN ANARCHIST #32/Summer '93 (Box H, 34 Cowley Rd., Oxford OX4
1HZ, U.K.) is now a greatly more readable, 16-page tabloid, still
dedicated to creating a society of "Autonomous, self-sufficient
villages, bringing regression of technology." This issue includes
a piece speculating "Tide turns for anti-fascists?" (recounting
details of a momentary shift in police repression away from
British anti-fascists towards the BNP), an account of the
struggle to save Twyford Down from destruction to build a new
motorway, and George French's argument for primitivist tribalism
titled "A settlement with nature." Subscriptions are =9C4.75/5
issues.
READ IT! #7/undated (c/o BOX 8, 82 Colston St., Bristol, UK) is
a 24-page anarcho, crusty-punk zine. This issue includes band
interviews with Nomeansno, Blaggers I*T*A, and Corpus Vile along
with articles "Outlawing Abortion Was - And Is - a Nazi Program!"
and "No justice? no peace!" Also included are music and zine
reviews. $2 per issue.
TOTALITARIAN TIMES #2/Spring '93 (c/o Morlock Clorophyll, POB
119, 1895 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, BC, V5N 4A6, Canaduh) This
26-page photocopied zine contains articles on suppression of
dissent in Canada, U.S. imperialism in Somalia, class war in
Iraq, and ageism & disempowerment. Send them 50 cents and its all
yours.
A PRIMER TOWARDS FURTHER DIALOGUE (c/o Chuck Dodson, 405 W.
Washington #170, San Diego, CA. 92103). is a very thoughtful
question and answer piece on man/boy/dude love put out by Chuck
Dodson the publisher of I AM. This 18 page 20 question primer
dis- cusses such topics as consent/age of consent, "Is there a
difference between man/boy love and child abuse," "Why does
anyone want to have sex with boys," "What about the power
imbalance in man/boy relationships" and much more. This is an
honest attempt to discuss these topics, and would be of great use
to those interested in the politics of kids and kids-lib. 50
cents per copy.
SERF CITY BLACK BANNER #1/June (POB 7691, Santa Cruz, CA. 95061)
is a 12-page newsletter of the Santa Cruz Anarchist Movement
(S.C.A.M.). Issue #1 includes "Santa Cruz Anarchist Movement hits
the pavement" on the formation of S.C.A.M. Also "Chrystmyth;
Demotheism versus monotheism," "Class war, anti-evictionism and
the mass boycott of rent & mortgage-unto-metaviction," and a
successful guerrilla gardening action account entitled "Organic
underground radicals: Gardening the illegal way". Issues are $1.
PRACTICAL ANARCHY #7/Spring '93 (Chuck Munson, 16 N. Butler St.
#2, Madison, WI. 53703) is a 28-page zine now focusing on
anarchist news, reviews and resources. This issue includes Liz
Highleyman's account of "Anarchists at the March on Washington,"
and contributions to a discussion on "Anarchy and women" from
Lorraine Schein and Bob Black. Send $1 for a sample copy;
subscrip- tions are $5/4 issues.
CONTRA FLOW #6/June '93 (56a Info Shop, 56 Crampton St., London
SE17, U.K.) is a 24-page info-zine formerly titled 56a Info Shop
Bulletin. It carries radical news "the general media doesn't
touch" compiled "from radical journals and leaflets," with a
heavy emphasis on anti-fascist actions, including an interview
with a member of the French anti-fascist group Reflex. Send a
donation for a sample.
FREEZINE Vol.4,#2/Spring '92 (POB 1465, Troy, NY. 12180) is a
nicely-produced 16-page magazine, subtitled "social alternatives
for everyone." This issue features an essay by Jay Ou "On
rallying with the natives: Solidarity/ways of knowing." The
publication is free, but send a contribution for postage. No
Nation Bulletin #14/Spring '93 (People to People Friendship
Ass., c/o S=94ren Groth, =FEdalen, Salt=86 Arb. Skola, 15 300 J=84rna,
Sweden) is a photocopied 16-page exchange of short letters and
announcements from people living on different continents.
Subscrip- tions are U.S.$5/year (4 issues).
ANIM@DVERSE #8/undated (POB 57464, Jackson Stn., Hamilton,
Ontario L8P 4X3, Canada) is a 16-page zine covering "issues of
oppression and struggles towards the liberation and
self-determination of all beings." Subscriptions are $5/12 issues
(cash only) or trade.
BURNING ISSUE #7/Autumn '93 (POB 199, East Brunswick 3057,
Australia) is a 16-page publication of the Anarcho-Syndicalist
Federation/International Workers Association. This issue includes
"Arguing State Dept.," "Holiday in Narrungar," "Asbestos and the
Bunjalung Update," "Collingwood Youth Club Occupation," and a
short story entitled "The Building Site," and an Australian
contact list. $1.
BLACK AND RED #6/July-August '93 (c/o Hill, 160 Lefferta Ave.,
Brooklyn, NY. 11225) is an 18-page newsletter of the anarchist
caucus, CoC. This issue includes "National Health Plan Now!",
"Revolutionary socialists and the Committees of Correspondence,"
"The U.S. left, youth, & global monopoly capitalism," and
information on The Center for Contemporary Activism. Send a buck
or so for a sample issue.
ATLATL #2 & #3/undated (POB 650116, Austin, TX. 78765) Issue #2
deals with a look at the L.A. riots through anarchist eyes, and
also includes a humorous piece entitled "Bush/Dahmer in '92!:
Continuing a rich American tradition." Issue #3 includes an
article entitled "Struggle against study: How to scam your way
through college - with pay." Issues are $1 each.
THE CONNECTION #191/undated (Box 3343F, Fairfax, VA 22038) is a
68-page apa, formerly titled The Libertarian Connection,
featuring page upon page of tiny-print discussions, all
originating from reader-participants. Sample copies are $2.50;
subscriptions are $20/8 issues (checks to E. Strauss).
@-NEWS #2/Jan.-May '93 (POB 30557, 10033 Athens, Greece) is a
new 4-page "Informative Bulletin by Anarchic Intervention" This
issue contains information on the cases of anarchist prisoners
Kiriakos Mazokopos and Giorgos Balafas. Send a contribution for a
sample.
THE THOUGHT Vol.13,#4/April, #5/May & #6/June '93 (POB 3092, Or-
ange, CA. 92665) is the 24 to 32-page, photocopied publication of
the Philosophers Guild. The June special issue is the 100th
published, including publisher Ronald Tobin's "The Thought: A
look back and a look ahead," Ben Price's "What's new about the
new age or new world order?" and Robert Sagehorn on "The
alternative society's media." Subscriptions are $11/12 issues.
MUSELETTER #20/Aug.'93 (Richard Heinberg, 1433 Olivet Rd., Santa
Rosa, CA. 95401) is a 4-page monthly comment zine. This issue
consists of a very enthusiastic review of the recently published
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. Subscriptions are
$12/ year.
DISCUSSION BULLETIN #59/May-June & #60/July-Aug.'93 (POB 1564,
Grand Rapids, MI. 49501) is an occasionally interesting 32-page
assortment of letters and reprinted articles primarily from the
anti-market, non-statist radical milieu. Subscriptions are
$3/year (6 issues).
STEAL THE FIRE unnumbered /undated (Acts of Resistance, 537
Jones #1584, San Francisco, CA. 94102) is an unpaginated
newsletter focusing on direct-action resistance activities in the
S.F. Bay Area. This issue includes an update on the People's Park
struggle SLAPP suit, and an account of the police attack on the
recent Portland anarchist unconference. Send a contribution for a
sample.
=20
LESBIAN & GAY FREEDOM MOVEMENT #7/Summer '93 (BM Box 207,
London, WC1N 3XX, England) is an excellent little 12-page zine
campaigning for sexual liberation without the usual blind spots.
This issue includes a short piece titled "Bisexual, queer and
proud!" along with an excerpt from the BAD Brigade's "An
anarchist defense of pornography." Single copies are 60p (cash
only) postpaid.
THE WEB unnumbered/undated (POB 187, N. Hollywood, CA. 91603) is
a new 20-page zine subtitled "Southern California's Anarchist
Journal," including Chris Crass on "Anarchism now: Organizing
today, for the free society of tomorrow," and accounts of several
gatherings. Send a stamp for a free copy.
LITTLE BOOK OF REVOLUTION #9/Summer '93 (Brooke, 116 W. Barrett
Ave., Richmond, CA. 94801) is a 16-page zine featuring a comic
titled "No heroes" by the publisher, Brooke Terpstra, and a very
impressive centerfold collage. Subscriptions are $2/year (4
issues).
A INFOS #11/Jan.-April '93 (c/o Int. Secr. LAS, POB 61523, 2506
am Den Haag, Netherlands) is a 6-page photocopied information
bulletin covering recent events in the Netherlands. Send a
contribution for a sample copy.=20
THE MEANDER QUARTERLY Vol.5,#2/Aug. '93 (c/o Ed Stamm,POB 1402,
Lawrence, KS. 66044) is a 20-page "Newsletter of evolutionary
anarchists" consisting of letters from contributors, now in the
hands of a new (and also the original) coordinator. Send a
contribution for a sample copy.
FAU INTERNATIONAL NEWS FLASH unnumbered/undated (Frank
Richardson- Schafer, Karlstr. 11, D-3501 Fuldatal 2
Simmershausen, Germany) is a 4-page English-language summary of
the German-language anarchist- syndicalist tabloid Direkte
Aktion. Send a contribution for a sample copy.
NOISY CONCEPT unnumbered/undated (1216 Lincoln Ave., Cuyahoga
Falls, OH. 44223-2227) is an unpaginated zine resuming
publication under a new editor. Send an SASE for a sample copy.=20
COUNTER INFORMATION #37/July-Sept.'93 (Pigeonhole CI, c/o 11
Forth St., Edinburgh EH1, Scotland) is a 4-page direct action
newssheet. Send a contribution for a sample copy.
SORTE KORS #2/1992 (c/o Peter Bach, Strandvejen 93, DK-4200
Slagelse, Denmark) is a 5-page, English-language newsletter of
the Danish Anarchist Black Cross. This issue includes "The tale
of Christiania," on the history of a relatively free
countercultural community which has evolved out of a squatted
military base. Send a contribution for a sample copy.
NEWS FROM DENMARK #1/1993 (c/o Peter Bach, Strandvejen 93,
DK-4200 Slagelse, Denmark) is a 2-page newsletter. Send a
contribution for a sample copy.
A INFOS #30-31/Jan.-Feb.'93 (Humeurs Noires [F.A.], BP 79, 59370
Mons en Baroeul, France) is the 8-page French edition (in the
English language) of the A-Infos international "Bulletins
d'information" - meant for spreading news for publication in
anarchist periodicals. Send a contribution for a sample copy;
subscriptions are $6-$10/year (IMO payable to ALDIR).=20
NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PERIODICALS RECEIVED:
SOLIDARIDAD OBRERA #236/Mar.-Abril thru #239/Julio '93 (Ronda de
San Antonio, 13 pral 08001-Barcelona, Spain) is the 8 to 16-page
Spanish-language regional newspaper of the anarcho-syndicalist
C.N.T. in Catalonia. Issue #236 includes "Libertad para Leonard
Peltier." Sample copies are 100ptas plus 20ptas postage.
CNT #147/Mar., #150/Junio & #151/Julio '93 (CNT-Peri=A2dico, Apar-
tado de Correos 2.271, 18.080 Granada, Spain) is the 24-page,
Spanish-language newspaper of the anarcho-syndicalist
Confederaci=A2n Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of
Workers union). Issue #151 includes Colin Ward on "Despu=82s del
autom=A2vil," and Pablo Serrano's "Ludditas 2000: Fantasia del
mundo feliz." Sub- scriptions are 2,500ptas./year (12 issues).
W@RRIOR #3/Junio & #4/Aug.'93 (A.R.P., PO Box 57, Sakyo
Yubinkyoku, J-606 Kyoto, Japan) is a new 8-page Japanese-language
newsletter "published mainly by young anarchists who are involved
in several movements." It includes a back page in English sum-
marizing recent Japanese anarchist activities. Send a
contribution for a sample copy.
DISTURB@NCE #11?/undated (POB 31261, 10035 Athens, Greece) is an
8-page, Greek-language tabloid, with more news of current
struggles in Greece. Cover price is 150 drachmas.=20
LE LIBERTAIRE; REVUE DE SYNTHESE ANARCHISTE #137/Juin &
#138/Juillet '93 (25 rue Dum=82 d'Aplemont, 76600 Le Havre, France)
is a 4-page, monthly, French-language "review of synthetic anar-
chism" published by the Union des anarchistes. International
subscriptions are 80F/year (10 issues).
BRAND #55/Maj & #56/Juni '93 (Box 150 15, S-104 65 Stockholm,
Sweden) is a lively, 32-page Swedish-language magazine, with
consistently good photography and a fairly activist slant. Issue
#55 includes an interview with Matt Black of Love & Rage. Issue
#56 includes an English-language summary at the back. Cover price
is 20KR.
SOCIAL HARMONY #7/July(?) '93 (POB 76148, Nea Smirni T.K. 17110,
Athens, Greece) is an 8-page, Greek-language anarcho-communist
/communalist bimonthly. Send a contribution for a sample copy.=20
UMANITA' NOVA Vol 73,#14/25 Aprile thru #24/4 Luglio and #26/29
Agosto '93 (c/o G.C.A. Pinelli, via Roma 48, 87019 Spezzano
Alban- ese [CS], Italy) is the 4 to 8-page, Italian-language
weekly newspaper of the Federazione Anarchica Italiana.
Subscriptions are US $55.00/year.
EL LIBERT@RIO #25/Mayo-Junio '93 (Brasil 1551, 1154 Buenos
Aires, Argentina) is the 4-page, Spanish-language newspaper of
the Federacion Libertaria Argentina. The lead story for this
issue is "1993: Crisis y demagogia electoralista." Send a
contribution for a sample copy.
MORDICUS #10/=90t=82 '93 (BP 11, 75622 Paris Cedex 13, France) is an
18-page issue of this French-language tabloid, featuring a cover
spoof (and including an interview with and other articles) on the
spectacular schoolkid hostage-taking episode in France, which
gained an immense amount of media coverage. The cover price is
20F; subscriptions are 100F/? issues.
LIBERA VOLO #51/Junio thru #53/Sept.'93 (A.R.P., PO Box 57,
Sakyo Yubinkyoku, J-606 Kyoto, Japan) is the 6-page
Japanese-language newsletter of the Federacio Anarkiista of
Japan. Send a contribution for a sample copy.
TELEGRAPH Vol.4,#4/April, #5/May & 6/June '93 (Schliemannstr.
22, Berlin O-1058, Germany) is a 48 to 52-page German-language
publication from East Berlin covering the current situation in
Germany. Subscriptions are 34DM/year.
DE NAR #80/Mei, #81/Juni & #82/Juli '93 (V.Z.W. De Nar, Postbus
104, B-1210, Brussels 21, Belgium) - which translates as "The
Fool" - is a 4 to 8-page Dutch-language "monthly
anti-authoritarian newspaper." Send a contribution for a sample
copy.
ANARES INFO #40/undated (Postfach 229, CH-3000 Bern 8, Swit-
zerland) is the 24-page German-language newsletter of this
archive and library. Write for more information.=20
ROJO Y NEGRO #43/Marzo, #45/Mayo & #46/Junio '93 (Sagunto 15,
pral., 28010 Madrid, Spain) is the 16-page, Spanish-language
news- paper of the reformist anarcho-syndicalist C.G.T.
(Confederacion General del Trabajo=FEa split from the more
traditionally anarcho- syndicalist C.N.T. in Spain).
Subscriptions are 1,000ptas/ year (12 issues).
SCHWARZER FADEN #46/April '93 (Postfach 1159, 7043 Grafenau-1,
Germany) is a well-produced 72-page, German-language magazine,
subtitled "Vierteljahresschrift F=81r Lust und Freiheit." This
issue includes Peter Bierl on "Feindbild Mensch: =99kofaschismus
und New Age," and an account of "Libert=84re Tage: Kritik und
Gegenkritik ein Mosaik unterschiedlichster Sichtweisen."
Subscriptions are 50.-DM/8 issues.
DOTT. LEETE #0/Autunno '93 (c/o G.C.A. Pinelli, via Roma 48,
87019 Spezzano Albanese [CS], Italy) is a brand new 40-page,
Italian- language journal of "Ideazioni Anarchiche Del Dritto &
Rovescio," published as a supplement to Umanita' Nova. This first
issue includes reprints from Noam Chomsky and Mary
Wollstonecraft, along with an interview with Ernst Bloch titled
"Marx, Bakunin e lo stato." Included with subscriptions to the
weekly Umanita' Nova at US $55.00/year.
MAVRO RODO #3/Io=A3vio- 1993 (PO Box 10005, 54110 Thessaloniki,
Greece) is an impressive 100-page Greek-language "libertarian-
anarchist review for humans and their culture," whose title
translates as "Black Rose." This issue includes an account of the
attitudes of 19th century Greek anarchists and socialists toward
the Balkan Federation, along with translations, fiction and news.
Cover price is 800 drachmas, or send a contribution or trade for
a sample.
EXEGERSI #12/Nov.'92 (Anarchist Coil, POB 30658, Athens 10033,
Greece) is a 16-page, Greek-language newspaper whose title
translates as `Riot' or `Revolt'. This issue includes "State
syndicalism: The enemy is the same," and "Laws and decrees get
abolished on the barricades" (on the controntational
transportation workers struggle in Athens). Cover price is 250
drachmas.
A-KONTRA #46-48/April & #49-53/July '93 (POB 552, 17000 Praha
7, Czech Republic) is a 32 to 56-page "anarchist zine, published
by people from =FE.A.S. (Czechoslovak Anarchist Union)" which
includes an English-language summary up front. Send a
contribution for a sample.
PERSPECTIEF #32/undated (Libertaire Studiegroep, Dracenastraat
21, 9000 Gent, Belgium) is a 64-page Dutch-language journal of
libertarian perspectives. This issue focuses on nationalism and
the extreme right. Subscriptions are 300 Belgian fr or 20 Dutch
fl/year (4 issues).
ANARCHIC INTERVENTION #8/Spring(?) '93 (POB 30557, 10033 Athens,
Greece) is an 12-page tabloid published in collaboration with
Angels Mutiny. Send a contribution for a sample.
DIREKTE AKTION #5/Spring(?) '93 (A.S.O., Postboks 303, 1502
Kobenhavn V., Denmark) was a 16-page, Danish-language tabloid of
the now-defunct Anarcho-Syndicalist Organization (A.S.O.), and is
now a more general anarchist-syndicalist quarterly. Subscriptions
are 30Kr./year (4 issues).
HORS D'ORDRE #3/Juin '93 (Collectif Hors d'Ordre, 64, rue de
Maisonneuve, app.4, Qu=82bec, Qu=82bec G1R 2C3, Canada) is a French-
language publication, subtitled "Bulletin de Reflexions
Libertaires." This issue features "Le cr=82puscule de la modernit=82"
by Nicolas Calv=82, Mark Fortier & =90ric Pineault. Send $2 for a
sample copy.
MAC PARIADKA #12/June '93 (PO Box 67, 81-806 Sopot 6, Poland) is
a 64-page Polish-language journal, including articles on
education, pornography and the Polish scene. Send a contribution
for a sample copy.
THE ANARCHIST #73/Mah '93 (Y.Kastanaras, Argiroupoleos 27,
Athens 11471, Greece) is a 12-page Greek-language zine from
Athens featuring anarchist news. Send a contribution for a
sample.=20
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New electronic archive
SPUNK PRESS is a new independent publishing project whose goal is
to collect anarchist, alternative and underground materials in
electronic format and make them available free of charge.
Although our archive is located on the Internet (a worldwide
network of five million people), we want to reach out into the
world of bulletin boards and personal computers and to those
without computer access. We want to help editors and writers to
convert or produce their works in an electronic format and use
our distribution channels (electronic archive sites, e-mail
address lists, etc.). We are seeking submissions of fanzines,
pamphlets, books, articles, interviews, reviews, posters, and
other material, both in-print and out-of-print. Currently
archived selections include Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, a
history of the IWW, Practical Anarchy magazine, H. Bey's T.A.Z.,
and a Situationist bibliography. You can submit material either
via the Internet or on a PC or Mac diskette. You can receive
material via the Internet (FTP to ftp.etext.org and access
directory /pub/Politics/Spunk), or by sending a diskette. For
more information and a copy of our current catalog, contact Spunk
Press by electronic mail at spunk-list@lysator.liu.se or write
to: Spunk Press, c/o ACF Freedom Bookshop, 84B Whitechapel High
Street, London E17QX, U.K. or Spunk Press, c/o Practical Anarchy,
POB 173, Madison, WI 53701-0173, USA.
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The Final Empire
Review by John Zerzan
The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of
the Future by William F. K=94tke (Arrow Point Press, POB 14754,
Portland, OR. 97214, 1993). 401pp. $19.95 paper (+ $2 p&h).
The Final Empire is a basically meaty book; it is divided into
two parts, as designated by its compound subtitle. The first,
``The Collapse of Civilization,'' is the meatier and more valid
of the two halves.
K=94tke sets out by telling us that ``our generation is on the
verge of the most profound catastrophe the human species has ever
faced,'' that civilization, in fact, is ``a culture of suicide.''
He sees clearly how ``the earth, its life and material forms
became simply objects for manipulation and accumulation'' via
domestication, and how agriculture, the science of domestication,
represents ``the greatest ecological disaster.'' The present
crisis, in other words, follows from the very basis of
civilization; as K=94tke succinctly puts it, ``Agriculture and
herding began the energy system of empire [a word he seems to use
synonymously with civilization], rooting in the soil, extracting
energy directly out of the planetary metabolism - and growing by
the force of violence employed against the earth.''
K=94tke's strongest suit lies in depicting what has happened to
the civilized world physically - its soil, oceans, etc. With the
notable exception of many fruitful references to tribal peoples,
social existence is rather slighted. Also, when history makes its
appearance it is virtually always purely as a record of
victimization - that is, struggles and resistance are left out.
Here is a very rare exception: ``Waves of social revolution swept
Europe throughout the twelfth through eighteenth centuries. These
various and diverse movements, including the Luddites, the
Levellers, the Diggers, the Chartists, the Quakers, and others,
were spiritually- based.'' In fairness such characterization also
apparently means communalist, anti-hierarchical, and
anti-imperialist, but this brief passage hints at spacey things
to come.
The second half of The Final Empire is ``a plan of action for
us to regain paradise.'' Unfortunately, this ``plan,'' in part,
rests upon a fundamental, non-oppositional illusion. K=94tke's
version of what to do about the horrendous reality of today is a
New Age package of holism, non-violent interdependence, cosmic
perspective, flow, balance, harmony, etc. To emerge from the
``disaster of civilization'' we must practice primal scream
therapy, hypnosis, Reichian massage, reflexology, and other such
therapies, plus the ``mystic gardening'' of Findhorn, and
permaculture. The book ends with, ``If our daily lives are
substantially directed toward regaining that [lost] balance then
we are on the path to paradise.''
Having provided an informative catalog of the malignant effects
of civilized life on the planet and its surviving inhabitants,
K=94tke completely evades the essential task of destroying that
civilization. The ever-increasing gamut of therapies, ``soul
travel,'' gurus, ad nauseam, and $500/week permaculture seminars,
and their affirmative, positive vibes resolutely ignore the
inescapably necessary negative: facing and removing the entire
ugly system that is crushing us and the natural world. K=94tke
starts with domestication, but ends there; no analysis of social
institutions, dynamics and structures that constitute capital's
long, pathological trajectory. This is how, evidently, his
prescription can be so limited, even ludicrous.
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Debord's In Girum...
Review by John Zerzan
In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni by Guy Debord, translated
by Lucy Forsyth (Pelagian Press, BCM Signpost, London WC1N 3XX,
England, no copyright, undated) 80pp. $13.95/ =9C6.95 paper.
The title, a palindrome, which translates from the Latin as We
Go Round and Round and are Consumed by Fire, is only the first
striking and lyrical touch of this inspiring book. Expensive but
flawlessly executed, In Girum is the script of the 1978 Debord
film. Its visuals, which range from TV commercials, western movie
clips, and Prince Valiant cartoons, to tracking shots of Paris
and Venice, are described in small print just below the lines of
the script; the book also contains twelve pages of stills.
In Girum opens with, "I will make no concession to the public in
this film" and closes on a similarly defiant note: "As these last
reflections on violence show, for me there will be no going back
and no reconciliation. There will be no good conduct."
Basically, the book contains an acerbic dissection of society,
with its "conspicuous consumption of nothingness" and slavish
illusions, a somewhat veiled history of the Situationist
International (not mentioned by name), in the activities of which
Debord played a decisive role, and many personal reminiscences,
including elegiac and loving references to his favorite Parisian
neighborhoods, destroyed by techno-progress.
This short work combines a rich range of subject matter, the
sense of which must be even more expansive in the film itself,
with uncompromising insights and a beautiful economy of style.
Highest recommendation.
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Debord's Comments
Review by John Zerzan
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord (Verso
Press, 29 W. 35th St., New York, NY. 10001-2291, 1990) 94pp.
$14.95 paper.
Despite the limitations of some of its neo-Marxist
underpinnings, Debord's Society of the Spectacle is an extremely
valuable analysis of the contemporary commodity-developed world.
Incisive and bold enough to have been conscientiously avoided by
the predominant leftist publishing world and likewise ignored in
the recent cultural resuscitation of the Situationist
International by the avant-garde art-school crowd. Issued by the
S.I. in 1967, Society of the Spectacle's fundamental contribution
is its treatment of the erosion of life as lived experience and
its replacement by representation, life experienced as the
received effects and images of commodity culture=FEas spectacle.
Twenty years later, Debord has offered these Comments, "sure to
be welcomed by fifty or sixty people"=FEa good half of whom, he
estimates, with further pessimistic humor, in the service of the
spectacle. In this interim twenty years, he estimates spectacular
power to have "continued to gather strength; that is, to spread
to the furthest limits on all sides, while increasing its density
in the center." It has reached a stage of strength and ubiquity,
Comments tells us, as to now be known as the integrated
spectacle, a stage marked by its global spread and unchecked
reign. Concrete, everyday life no longer possesses autonomy or a
force of its own; it has been annihilated and conformist
integration fully achieved.=20
Government itself, it is argued, has been radically altered by
this triumphant ascendancy of the spectacle, such that organized
crime, business, and the state function together as a mega-
conspiracy. Secrecy, surveillance, and the always-present media
work as an ensemble in the interests of the spectacle's total
control. Debord provides as an example of conspiratorial control
lengthy and noisy oil-exploration drilling in Paris itself,
conducted in 1986 for no other reason than "to measure the
inhabitants' current level of stupefaction and submission." On
the same page (56), he goes so far as to claim that "the real
cost" of world economic production "is never calculated; and the
rest is kept secret" (italics his). It seems that the spectacle
has moved off into that rarefied space in which it exists for
itself and by itself, beyond reference points in the vulgar,
mundane sphere.
But what has happened to the commodity, so persuasively evoked
in Society of the Spectacle as the touchstone and source of
spectacular power? Only in passing does he comment that it is
"above criticism" and that those who located in political economy
"the final denial of humanity" are now seeing the truth of that
formulation; in fact, the commodity is virtually absent from
Debord's current views, to judge from the Comments. Instead, we
are treated to a paranoiac as well as totally pessimistic
outlook, full of conspiracy at all levels. "The result is," he
avers, "that under the rule of the integrated spectacle, we live
and die at the confluence of innumerable mysteries."
This strange turn by Debord is what I find mysterious, and quite
unconvincing. It may be that the heightened repressive powers
enacted in France, Germany, and Italy during the '70s in response
to terrorism, plus the popularity of Reagan and the unsolved 1984
murder of his friend Lebovici, to whom the book is dedicated,
combined to shape the bizarre slant of Comments. In any case,
this one-dimensional effort at updating the spectacle thesis is a
disappointing side-step from the historical richness and rigor of
his classic work.
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Plant's gesture
Review by Patrick Frank
The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a
Postmodern Age by Sadie Plant (Routledge, New York & London,
1992) 218pp. $16.00 paper.
This book is an attempt to drag Situationist thought into the
mainstream of recent European intellectual culture by tracking
relationships and mutual influences between the Situationist
International and postmodernist thinkers. The author, a lecturer
in Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham, believes
that the social critique of the SI "can be made to perform in the
big top of critical theory," and merits academic scrutiny on a
par with its near neighbors in cultural studies. The book is
useful and valuable, but it runs the risk of domesticating what
its author wants to nurture.
Plant considers the critique of alienation produced by Debord
and Vaneigem in comparison with those of the potentates of pomo
Jean Baudrillard and Jean-Fran=87ois Lyotard, and finds that they
share concerns both about the deadening impact of the spectacle
on contemporary consciousness, and about language as the tool of
ideology which reinforces it at every utterance. She overstates
the case, though, by saying that "all theoretisations [sic] of
post- modernist theory are underwritten by situationist theory,"
and that "the world of uncertainty and superficiality described
and celebrated by the postmodernists is precisely that which the
situationists first subjected to passionate criticism." Rather
than direct influence from SI to pomo, the two theories have
common sources in Socialisme ou Barbarie and the critique of
Henri Lefebvre and George Luk=A0cs. The differences between Debord
and Lyotard, Vaneigem and Baudrillard, hinge on differing
constructions of the possibility of consciousness to enact its
own liberating gestures within the "prison-house of language."
Plant notices this, and her discussion has the effect of bringing
this difference into fairly sharp relief, but she does not weigh
the two opposing psychologies, a task she may have considered
beyond the book's scope. Someday that will have to be done.
One gets from this book a good overview of Situationist ideas,
mainly from Debord's Society of the Spectacle and Vaneigem's
Revolution of Everyday Life. While favorably disposed, Plant is
not uncritical of the SI scheme. She wonders, for example, if the
strategies of d=82rive and d=82tournement are ways of overturning the
society of the spectacle or of finding ways to survive in it. She
notes how wrong the SI was in claiming that the spectacle was
about to fall of its own dead weight. She could be more critical
of the SI's secretiveness and its periodic purges, though these
are noted. Her discussion of the postmodernists is similarly
well-informed as far as their ideas mesh with those of the SI,
but pomo theories had other sources (such as Claude Levi-Strauss
and Roland Barthes, and the feminism of Luce Irigaray and Julia
Kristeva) which are not considered here.
While the general effect of this book will be to lend legitimacy
to the SI and its ideas by bringing it out in the open with
postmodernism, this is not the only book that one should read on
either movement. Moreover, while the two movements do share
important points in common, more work needs to be done on their
differences (for some more on this, see John Zerzan, "The
Catastrophe of Postmodernism," Anarchy Fall '91). Now that
postmodernism is waning rapidly as an intellectual interest,
trapped by its own fatalism, haunted by revelations of past
coziness with Nazis, and as the AIDS tragedy has taken away some
of its more eloquent voices, perhaps the SI can begin to get its
due as critical theory. Plant's book is timely, but "performing
in the big top" is a haunting metaphor for a set of theories that
would rather torch the tent altogether.
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HAKIM BEY'S T.A.Z.
Review by Patrick Frank
T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, and
Poetic Terrorism by Hakim Bey (Autonomedia, POB 568, Brooklyn,
NY. 11211-0568, 1991) 141pp. $6.00 paper.
Less angry than most punkers, less doctrinaire than most
libertarians, and less serious than most situationists, Hakim Bey
here weighs in with a collection of three important works which
highlight the convolutions of his extremely imaginative yet
sometimes airy mental migrations.=20
"Chaos: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchy," is a series of
short pieces which amount to a kind of postmodern shopping trip
through strategies of individualized, momentary acts of
revolution: "Go naked." "Organize a strike for indolence and
spiritual beauty." "Pick someone at random and convince them that
they're heir to an enormous, useless, and amazing fortune."
Drawing about equally from Zen, William Burroughs, and Vaneigem's
Revolution of Everyday Life, Bey urges us to activate and
experience the chaos at the root of all existence, which he says
never really died despite spectacular society's efforts to
contain and forget the fact. In the second section, "Communiques
of the Association for Ontological Anarchy," he exposes more of
his metaphysic, which turns out to be an eclectic blend of
mythologies and alchemies (Western and non-), erected over an
armature of Chuang Tzu's Taoism and contemporary chaos theory.
The title cut from this album is "T.A.Z.," and it's here that we
see Bey at his strongest, and weakest. Since the state is now
entirely too powerful, he urges the establishment of Temporary
Autonomous Zones, activities of refusal and disappearance that do
not directly engage the state, but each rather "liberates an area
(of land, of time, of imagination) and then dissolves itself"
before it can be crushed or co-opted. A TAZ can take almost any
form: a computer bulletin board, an intoxicated evening,
week-long commune. No neo-primitivist, he accepts contemporary
technology but urges TAZers to function as "thieving magpies, or
the hunter-gatherers of the world of CommTech." He finds
historical antecedents for such ventures in interesting places,
including Caribbean pirate enclaves and Gabriele D'Annunzio's
Adriatic colony Fiume. These and other possible TAZ's are
explored at some length in this essay, and he makes a convincing
argument that such gestures are real, encouraging alternatives
for liberty-loving people. Bey's work lacks the diamond-eyed
insights of a Debord, or the moral/ethical commitment of a
Kropotkin, but the comparisons are not unfair because he is
attempting something on their scale of vision and synthesis.
The problem is that "T.A.Z." reads more like an exploratory
essay than a finished product. The scholarship is quick and
dirty. Better at the flash of genius than the painstaking
research, Bey leaves much work to be done in fleshing out the
real relevance of his historical background episodes. They sound
good, but we need to know more. And the language can be
maddeningly vague. He devotes an appendix to the science of
"chaos linguistics," but this seems merely caving in to the
floating signifiers of advertising and politics. This, for
example on a positive gesture of refusal in art: "Is it possible
to imagine an aesthetics that does not engage, that removes
itself from History and even from the Market? or at least tends
to do so? which wants to replace representation with presence?
How does presence make itself felt even in (or through)
representation?" Very little of this means anything.
Some of the gestures suggested in this book seem futile and
overly spiritualized, like Alan Ginsberg chanting "Om" at Chicago
in 1968. But if you can't be a little inspired by Bey's
curiosity, imagination, and enthusiasm, there is little hope for
you.
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On An(archy) and
Schizoanalysis
Review by Patrick Frank
On An(archy) and Schizoanalysis by Rolando Perez (Autonomedia,
POB 568, Brooklyn, NY. 11211-0568, 1990) 144pp. $10.00 paper.
A guide to personal liberation, an effort to show us how to
``recognize the many faces of fascism in everyday life,'' and to
``live as a human being independent of the morality of exclusive
binary oppositions, foundations, and institutions,'' this book
sets a tall task for itself. Some interesting and valuable lines
of thought are picked up, but most are not carried far enough.
Perez takes as inspiration the musings of Antonin Artaud, the
postmodern psychoanalysis of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari,
and the later Nietzsche's rants. These sources are explored and
quoted at some length, but without nearly enough commentary.
Perez stays entirely too close to them, skimming their seductive
surfaces and jumping from one to the other in rapid- fire
succession. Perez is one of the few anarchist writers who takes
postmodernism seriously, and he is right to find support in
Deleuze and Guattari. Their decentered, schizoid brand of
analysis can be extremely helpful to Perez's vision of ``free,
uncoded individuals,'' yet this overdue rapprochement with
postmodern thought is only haltingly done and needs further
treatment. I hope he devotes his next book to this subject.
He uses Artaud, rightly, to answer Jacques Derrida and Roland
Barthes. This is not difficult to do if you mistrust the pomo
thinkers' emphasis on the text and linguistic mediation; Artaud's
primordial shrieks are a decided tonic to the pomo ``prisonhouse
of language.'' Yet some postmodern ideas are oversimplified here.
For example, nowhere in Barthes is ``the text now made God,'' as
Perez claims; this is a flip denunciation.
Perez's analysis of the capitalist state, with its constant
spectacles and appropriation of oppositional forms, is basic
post-Situationist boilerplate. His program of resistance is
thoroughly individualized, as he strongly believes that the
revolution must first occur within each of us ``desiring-
machines'' (his term, borrowed from Deleuze and Guattari). This
makes some sense, but I wonder if this focus on the individual,
while it seems a reasonable response to the oppression of the
spectacle, isn't also partly an outgrowth of the same detested
society, with its shattering of the social web into an amorphous
mass of self-gratifying individuals. Maybe his revolutionary
individuality is only a warp-speed version of today's
consumerism.
He worries about the future role of art, and hopes for the day
that art will escape hierarchical authority by ``becoming a-
signifying.'' What this means is nowhere clearly stated, and his
examples (Cage, Bukowski, cummings, Tzara) are, again, common
currency. The book concludes with a meditation on the future role
of women, and Perez rounds up the usual suspects (Freud, Sartre,
phallocentrism) and shoots them with many of feminism's familiar
bullets. Here as elsewhere, one can hardly quarrel with this
book's basic thrust; its ideas could be developed further.
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Films of Guy Debord
Review by Patrick Frank
Society of the Spectacle and Other Films by Guy Debord (Rebel
Press, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1, England, 1992)
136pp. =9C5.50/$13.95 paper.
Since Debord has ordered that none of his films ever be publicly
screened, this book is the only way to get to know the artistic
output of one of the most important social thinkers of the past
generation. Consisting of the complete scripts of his first five
films, together with notes on their associated imagery, and many
stills, this is an essential book for anyone who would get to
know Debord's mind. It shows him at his most brilliant, without
concealing his pitfalls. Before the release of this book (first
published in French in 1978), the only way one could get to know
his work was in Ken Knabb's Situationist International Anthology,
which contains scripts from two films without notes or stills.
This new book fills out the picture in what is probably the best
way possible until the opportunity arises to see the films
themselves.
Here a reader can at least partially experience the film version
of Debord's most important book, The Society of the Spectacle
(1973). Scripted with what Debord himself thought were the best
theses from his 1967 book, the film contains several
unforgettable juxtapositions of image and spoken text that reveal
the artistic strategy of d=82tournement (borrowing and
recontextualizing existing cultural material) at its most
powerful. For example, over the infamous TV news film of Jack
Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, the following narration: ``The
spectacle presents itself simultaneously as society itself, as
part of society, and as instrument of unification. As part of
society it is specifically the sector which concentrates all
looking and consciousness.'' Later, over footage of a traffic
jam, food advertisements, and an old painting: ``The diffuse
spectacle accompanies the abundance of commodities, the
undisturbed development of modern capitalism.'' Some of these
d=82tournements are hilarious, some jarring, but most express his
alienation in a profound, poignantly sad way that is pure Debord.
His films illuminate our times as clearly and brilliantly as
Goya's "Disasters of War" did his. =20
Debord's technique, which used no actors and only a deadpan
narration, yields a soundtrack with disembodied readers who seem
at times like magisterial voices of authority. This seems a
drawback, out of keeping with Debord's beliefs, but it is
difficult to imagine another way of saying what is said here. We
see also Debord's petulant side, especially in his film
Refutation of All Judgments...Which Have Been Brought to Date on
the Film ``Society of the Spectacle,'' in which he mostly whines
and complains about his narrow-minded critics. Even his decision
to withdraw his work from circulation, however understandable the
explanation in the preface, has an element of
pick-up-my-toys-and-go-home about it. Yet none of this is to take
away from the clarity of his insights, or, now that we can know
them better, the power of his films.
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Fatal Strategies
Review by Allan Antliff
Fatal Strategies by Jean Baudrillard (Semiotext[e], POB 568,
Brooklyn, NY. 11211-0568/Pluto, 1990) 192pp. $10.00 paper.
I admit it, reviewing this hapless tome was a dreary exercise
in "predestined boredom," (1) so I'll keep it short. Fatal
Strategies was originally published in 1983, and marks
Baudrillard's collapse into theory-for-theory's sake (not to
mention the royalties). From here on logging trees to publish
Baudrillard is simply unjustifiable. I refer the reader to his
flippant assessment on the eve of the Gulf war (2) ("the gulf war
will not happen") for an example of the lengths this self- styled
"gambler" (3) will go to maintain the epistemological consistency
upon which his "unscrupulous vitality" (4) in the theory-market
now depends.
The gist of the argument? Turn on a TV and make-believe you
believe it. Welcome to the simulacrum. Now, follow this logic:=20
1) The simulations of this media universe are no longer
determined by any subject or institution.
2) These simulations (objects) have a life independent of you,
me, or anyone else. They, in fact, constitute a new all-
pervasive Hyper-reality in which we (subjects) are
inconsequential.
3) Pick any category of socially-determined reality. Replace it
with the Real Baudrillardian TV Version. War for instance.
Confined to its media simulation by the High Priest, "war, like
the real, will never again take place." (5) Poof.
Alright, so what's a "fatal strategy?" Suspend all attempts
to control the Hyperreal Object World you experience rather
than create and "take up the cause of the object." (6) Each
object has its own life and eclectic logic. Striving to bend
its logic to your own subjective desires is impossible, so
capitulate. Pursue its logic to its end, and find the "fatal
and enigmatic bias" (7) lying in wait.
"I'm not joking" (8) writes Baudrillard. God (9) forbid. In
the academic world, his "strategy" is serious stuff. Its been
generating book upon book, nice fat academic pay-cheques,
entire careers, and conferences, conferences, conferences for
the last 10 years. Never mind if the "object" of adoration
shows up drunk. On with the simulacrum!
1. Fatal Strategies, 184.
2. Jean Baudrillard, "The Reality Gulf," The Guardian (January
11, 1991), 25: the witless title (Reality. Gulf. Get it?) of
this essay is indicative of its content. Of course some
academics are enthralled with such daring logic. See, for exam-
ple, the ultra-humorless Mike Gane, who froths at the mouth in
his dust-jacket description about "Jean Baudrillard, a powerful
new force in cultural and social criticism, often referred to
as the "High Priest of postmodernism." Heard any hushed
elevator conversations about a "High Priest" lately? Funny, me
neither. On the Gulf War; Mike Gane. Baudrillard. London:
Routledge, 1991, 175.
3. Fatal Strategies, 153.
4. Baudrillard, Cool Memories, Verso, 1990, 38.
5. Fatal Strategies, 15.
6. Fatal Strategies, 190.
7. Fatal Strategies, 191.
8. Fatal Strategies, 184.
9. For the High Priest's treatise on God and (you guessed it)
the Devil, see Fatal Strategies, 144=FE150.
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Alternative press books
Short reviews by R. Curtis, M. Echt, J. McQuinn, M. Sunanda &
B. White
COMPUTERS & FREEDOM
Speaking for the Unspeakable performed by Bruce Sterling (Sweet
Pea Productions, POB 912, 1673 Happy Trail, Topanga, CA. 90290,
1992) 54 minute videocassette. $55.00 + $4.00 s&h.
Bruce Sterling is the cyberpunk star of this videotaped
session from the 2nd Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy
which took place in March, 1992, in Washington, D.C. Sterling
successfully portrays three archetypal characters inhabiting
the fringes of the hacker milieu=FEat least in people's
imagination, allowing them to speak their minds and develop
their vastly different perspectives at length. As "The Truly
Malicious Hacker," as "Sr. de Policia `X', and as the Digital
Black Marketeer, Sterling uses a minimum of props and stage
devices to maintain an entertaining one-man show with some
genuine content and bite at times, making this video one of the
more worthwhile I've seen of late. -J.M.
ALTERNATIVE PRESS TITLES FOR LIBRARIES
APT for Libraries 1993 edited by Charles Willett (CRISES
Press, Inc., 1716 SW Williston Rd., Gainesville, FL. 32608,
1993) 102pp. $12.00 paper.
Alternative press books and periodicals are poorly represented
in almost all library collections. It isn't just coincidental
that critical, radical and experimental publications remain
unwelcome in many libraries while bigoted, religious, or
otherwise reactionary publications are often plentiful.
Librarians can be as biased as any other institutional
bureaucrats when it comes to the materials obtained for their
collections.
However, in some cases alternative materials remain
underrepresented even despite the presence of more open-minded
librarians. In these cases librarians can often find it hard
to redress the balance due to several other factors: the
political climate, "public relations" and censorship pressures,
or administrative opposition. In addition, most alternative
materials are harder to locate and obtain if only because most
are unavailable from the mainstream trade suppliers for the
library industry (who generally have little interest in
stocking alternative titles that won't make them as much profit
as corporate-published titles). At the same time periodicals
collections have been hit with massive increases in sub-
scription prices by academic and institutional titles that bank
on the inertia of automatic library renewals to fatten their
pockets. Despite the fact that this greatly reduces the amount
of money available to purchase alternative titles, most
librarians have quietly played along with this scam.
In this generally miserable situation the nonprofit CRISES
Press has attempted to promote alternative titles by organizing
alternative press exhibits at each conference of the American
Library Association and by publishing APT for Libraries each
year. APT for Libraries serves as an alternative press
bibliography and selection tool oriented towards titles
appropriate for "the general reader," according to editor
Charles Willett. The entries consist of titles chosen by the
Gainesville Alternative Press Group from among all those
exhibited at ALA conferences by CRISES Press. A copy of APT for
Libraries should be in every library. If your local library
hasn't yet purchased a copy, it should be encouraged to do so.
The existence of APT for Libraries means one less excuse for
the absence of the alternative press in library collections.
It's up to all of us to work on eliminating the other excuses
as well. -J.M.
NAMEBASE
NameBase database constructed by Daniel Brandt and Steve
Badrich (Public Information Research, POB 5199, Arlington, VA.
22205, 1993) IBM or Mac diskettes $79.00.
This has got to be one of the most important tools available
for assisting investigative reporting research concerning
international intelligence, political elites, U.S. foreign
policy, conspiracy theories, counterinsurgency operations and
corporate manipulations. With this easily mastered computer
database it is a snap to check on over 67,000 names of groups
or individuals compiled from over 400 books and thousands of
periodicals (143,000 citations). This prodigious work of
cataloguing enables users to ask for references to all names
associated with a particular country during a specified year
(or number of years) and then read the entire list within three
minutes. Checking on Indonesia for 1975, France for 1968 or
Israel for 1989 can be more revealing than a whole day spent
in most libraries.
And among other features, the program can graph the
distribution of entries per year over the last sixty years for
every country for which there are citations. Searches can be
read on screen, sent to files or directly printed. Leading
letter and phonetic searches can be done, and there is even
provision for crosschecking for common nicknames. The program
currently takes up 2.2 megabytes of hard disk space (though it
can also be run on floppy disk-only systems). Update notices
are provided after purchase of the database, and updated ver-
sions of the database are available to users for half-price.
There is no question that NameBase ought to be available in
every public library, and copies should be frequently used by
every author and every periodical doing serious investigative
research. Conspiracy theorists will love this database, but you
don't have to be conspiracy-theory-prone to appreciate its in-
credible value. I was actually shocked to see that it's offered
for only $79.00, which means that the publishers, Public Infor-
mation Research, truly are providing a non-profit service.
NameBase can't be too highly recommended. -J.M.
TRANSACTION
Transaction by Divided (Divided, POB 8302, Chicago, IL. 6080-
8302) $7.00 90-min. cassette/70pp. booklet.
Transaction is a 90-minute compilation of "heavy," slow
industrial music from various artists. The songs range from a
deep, serious industrial to an agonizingly slow industrial (as
opposed to thrashy or dance/pop industrial) including many
heavily sampled cuts. The cassette is dedicated to the Ohio 7,
a group of urban guerrillas in prison for "seditious conspira-
cy" to overthrow the U.S. government by force. Involved with
the United Freedom Front or Sam Melville Jonathan Jackson Unit,
the Ohio 7 political prisoners attempted to blow up U.S.
military installations and sabotage corporations in protest of
U.S. repression at home and abroad. Their armed actions were
intended to inspire others and to show solidarity with libera-
tion struggles elsewhere. Included with the tape is a booklet
by the same title containing autobiographies of the Ohio 7, a
justification for armed tactics and sabotage, and a call to
organize in revolutionary groups. Ironically, the booklet
finishes up with a discussion by Guy Debord on language and
power. -M.E.
EARLY LESSONS
Early Lessons by John Bart Gerald with graphic art by Julie
Maas (Editions Gerald and Maas, POB 252, Moody, ME. 04054,
1992) 64pp. $6.00 paper.
Early Lessons is a good book. It is one of three works in a
series of books of short stories by Gerald with art by Maas.
Gerald has the ability both to write a short story with an
interesting plot and believable characters, and to evoke a
scene in the readers head - create a reality for the reader. This
second ability is, for me, what makes a good story truly
beautiful. In the second story of the book, "The Exile," a tale
of expatriate doctors in a small tropical hospital, Gerald makes
the setting come alive to where the heat and smells of the
tropics enveloped me while reading.
The collection of very short essays at the end of the book,
"King Winter's House Arrest," are wonderfully done and add a
political dimension to the previous stories not so evident on
first reading. I especially liked the essay "Capitalism and
Wisdom" which, in the space of less than one page, Gerald makes
a number of interesting observations on the nature of truth and
wisdom in capitalist and state socialist societies.
Maas' drawings are also very well done. I loved the cover art=FE
an inversion of the Romulus-Ramus myth where a woman is
suckling 2 wolf cubs. The art works, like the stories, are
simple, beautiful, and worth the time to get to know.
By way of endorsement, I'm ordering the other 2 books of the
series - shelling out $12 of my own money. -R.C.
HOW TO SHOPLIFT?
How To Steal Food From The Supermarket by J. Andrew Anderson
(Loompanics Unlimited, POB 1197, Port Townsend, WA. 98368,
1993) 63pp. $10.00 paperback.
The author of this book, who happens to be a security guard
for a supermarket, has to some degree an understanding as to
the "ethics" of shoplifting: "Theft, of course, is a crime. But
people sifting through dumpsters behind supermarkets that sell
Cycle 3 is also a crime, ethically speaking. Which is the
larger crime" (p.2). But that doesn't discourage him from
"doing my job"; "I know how people shoplift food...I arrest the
ones who do it wrong" (p.3); "If I find something [shoplifted
merchandise], he's going to jail." (p.43).
The actual how-to content of How To Steal Food ranges from
clipping coupons out of news papers to "Full-Fledged, Hard-
Core, Stick-It-In-Your-Pants-And-Walk-Out-The-Door Shoplifting"
(p.41); However, the insight and strategies offered in this
book do not go much beyond the point of common sense
shoplifting and practicing general caution when stealing.
I suppose this book could be of some use to those who haven't
the foggiest idea of how to shoplift. As for the rest,
brainstorming with a couple friends for an hour would
undoubtedly prove to be just as lucrative, if not more so. -
B.W.
TEENAGE LIBERATION
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to quit school and get a
real life and education by Grace Llewellyn, (Lowry House
Publishers, POB 1014, Eugene, Oregon 97440-1014, 1991) 401 pp.
$14.95 paper.
I've found (asking hundreds of kids) that most students hate
school, but are resigned to attend for their parents sake. What
is the real life and education that Grace Llewellyn claims to
assist teens to discover? We know that school is business, not
the real outside world. So How? says the Indian or curious
teen. They can't get much respect in or out of school that's
so boring. So we need a new bridge between parents and teens.
Do you know that home-schooling is legal in most states now!
The Teenage Liberation Handbook is the most thorough current
guide for teens to drop out of school and into self-led
learning. Grace has a creative slant that can empower families
to do-it-themselves. Choosing learning fields, places and
pacing education, not for tests, but for life. Real learning
is lifelong as needed. She assumes each teen is unique, has
initiative and real emotions, and that cooperation is far
better than competitive schooling. It takes courage for teens
and parents to reverse their dependence on public schools, to
trust free learning, instincts and awareness.
Dropping out of school is still controversial. But it can be
more creative than we imagined, if families switch to home
education using the whole community to learn essentials. This
book is valuable for all home-schoolers, especially the new
ones. Grace was inspired by John Holt and his Growing Without
Schooling newsletter about home-education. She gives 100's of
quotes, examples and resources. The vast and growing (mostly
underground) home education movement can support millions of
students at home to explore nature, relationships and skills
valuable to self and cooperative community.
Most teen-students think about and doubt dropping out is a
real choice. But the gaps between public school rules and the
outside world of media, home and nature are so vast now that
students must deny most of reality to attend classes. Students
believe (or pretend to) that they don't know what they need to
learn to grow up aware, skilled and healthy. Then there's the
big contradiction that parents expect teens to act grown-up,
but not have any adult powers (voting, owning, driving, sexing,
learning, moving-out, drugs, etc.) of choice due to the age-of-
consent laws that restrict and/or punish youth for breaking
"safety" laws that keep adults in power over them. Grace grace-
fully details the many delicate and potential areas of self-
schooling in communities and at home with parents help.
Perhaps a growing generation of bright self-regulating
learners will lead us out of our garbage of pollution, fear and
crime into the Aquarian age of cooperation, creativity and
love. Teens can learn far faster and deeper out of school, than
in classrooms, if they want to and still have their natural
curiosity to discover the patterns in the universe. -M.S.
OTHER TITLES RECEIVED
A Goose-Step from Chains by Keith A. Dodson (One Tree Press,
3472 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA. 90808, undated) 30pp.
poetry pamphlet, no price listed.
The Poor Man's James Bond, Vol.1 by Kurt Saxon (Atlan
Formularies, POB 327, Harrison, AR. 72601, 1988) 477pp. $18.00
large format (8=ABx11) paper.
(See related review by Toni Otter under the title of "Survival
for what?" in Anarchy #29/Summer 1991, p.7.)
Educational AIDS unattributed (Plagiarist Press, 221 West
Benton St., Iowa City, IA. 52246, 1992) 12pp. mini-pamphlet
(available from publisher for two 29=9B stamps)
Pr=82cis de L'Alliance Universelle (L'Alliance Universelle, 73
Avenue de la R=82sistance, B.P. 923, 83000 Toulon, France, 1992)
48pp. pamphlet, no price listed.
Personal Recollections of the Anarchist Past by Georges Cores
(Kate Sharpley Library, BM Hurricane, London WC1 3XX, England,
1992) 18pp. pamphlet, no price listed.
Clipped Coins by Constantine Caffentzis (Autonomedia, POB 568,
Williamsburgh Station, Brooklyn, NY. 11211-0568, 1989) 246pp.
$9.00 paper.
Counterfeit Currency (Loompanics Unlimited, POB 1197, Port
Townsend, WA. 98368, 1990) 140pp. $15.00 paper.
War Tax Resistance: A Guide to Withholding Your Support from
the Military, 4th Edition by Ed Hedemann, edited by Ruth Benn
(New Society Publishers, 4527 Springfield Ave., Philadelphia,
PA. 19143; War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., New York,
NY. 10012, 1992) 131pp. paper. No price listed.
When Workers Decide: Workplace Democracy Takes Root in North
America edited by Len Krimerman and Frank Lindenfeld (New
Society Publishers, 4527 Springfield Ave., Philadelphia, PA.
19143, 1992) 308pp. $16.95 paper.
Fear At Work: Job Blackmail, Labor and the Environment by
Richard Kazis and Richard L. Grossman (New Society Publishers,
4527 Springfield Ave., Philadelphia, PA. 19143, 1991) 306pp.
$14.95 paper.
Putting Power in its Place: Create Community Control by Judith
Plant and Christopher Plant (New Society Publishers, 4527
Springfield Ave., Philadelphia, PA. 19143, 1992) 137pp. 9.95
paper.
We Gave Away a Fortune: Stories of People Who Have Devoted
Themselves and their Wealth to Peace, Justice and a Healthy
Environment by Christopher Mogil and Anne Slepian with Peter
Woodrow (New Society Publishers, 4527 Springfield Ave.,
Philadelphia, PA. 19143, 1992) 182pp. $14.95 paper.
The Political Poems by Michael Sheridan (Self-Published, MCS)
unpaginated, 8=ABx11 paper, no price listed.
The Real State of the Union 1993 by Michael Sheridan (Self-
Published, MCS) unpaginated, 8=ABx11 paper, no price listed.
Nu Wirdz by Michael Sheridan (Self-Published, MCS) unpaginated,
8=ABx11 paper, no price listed.
Boomer: Railroad Memoirs by Linda Niemann (Cleis Press, POB
8933, Pittsburgh, PA. 15221, 1990) 252pp. $12.95 paper.
Duel in Peru: A 3-Act on the Shining Path by S. Colman (Dawn
Press, POB 02936, Detroit, MI. 48202, 1993) 125pp. $12.95 8=ABx11
photocopied in binder.
Tekscourge by Derek Chisholm (Self-published, Derek Chisholm,
POB 281, Chattanooga, TN. 37401, 2nd Ed. 1993) 40pp. pamphlet,
no price listed.
Petersbourg by Michel Donnegan (c/o Actualit=82s, 38 rue
Dauphine, 75006 Paris, France, 1993) 18pp. pamphlet, no price
listed.
Tales from the Cass Corridor by S. Colman (Dawn Press, POB
02936, Detroit, WI. 48202, 1991) 248pp. $19.95 8=ABx11
photocopied in binder.
AIDS (Or Other Ills): Recovery, Prevention, the Natural No-Drug
Way by S. Colman (Dawn Press, POB 02936, Detroit, WI. 48202,
1986) 152pp. $19.95 8=ABx11 photocopied in binder.