News & Reviews

In the last issue of the FE, we reported that Cienfuegos in the United Kingdom had closed up shop. What we failed to mention was that the U.S. branch, Cienfuegos/Soil of Liberty, is still going strong publishing their own books and distributing Cienfuegos books. This group has two new publications, the latest Anarchist Review, and a book entitled With the Peasants of Aragon, by Augustin Souchy. Both are available from Cienfuegos Distribution, 3512 12^th Avenue S., Minneapolis Minnesota 55407. Cienfuegos UK will continue under the name REFRAC. For more information, write REFRAC Publications, BCM Refract, London WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom...

The Match! has reappeared after printing its last issue in February 1977. The publication’s acerbic and polemical editor Fred Woodworth minces no words in his chronicle of his and his paper’s travails which led to its demise. Never modest, Woodworth claims that in the interim between publishing he saw “no replacement at all” for the views he so vehemently and articulately espouses. Although one can only cringe when he refers to the U.S. as “the center of the world’s major language,” and when he makes an incredibly intemperate remark smacking of the worst ageist prejudices about an individual with whom he has had a long-standing disagreement, he is probably correct in his assessment that his is one of the few (he says that it is the only one) publications which links itself philosophically to traditional anarchist thought. Such it has always been with The Match!—a storm of controversy within a sea of vitriol. The paper will now appear quarterly instead of monthly as before and is printed by the editor since no local printers will handle it. Copies are available for $1.50 per issue from Box 3488, Tucson AZ 85722...

A small collective of anarchists in Greece have founded an alternative publishing cooperative, Anagram, and have printed a first issue of Black Sun: A Public Utility Anarchist Review. This issue contains a debate on anarchism and organization; an historical essay, “The Problem of Organization,” articles by John Clark, Murray Bookchin, Malatesta; a collection of Greek surrealist and anti-militarist manifestos; and leaflets by anarchists from other Greek cities. Their address is Black Sun, P.O. Box 2809, Exarhia, Athens, Greece...

Also received was the first issue of Notes from the Margin (P.O. Box 373, Burlington, Vermont 05401). This is a newsletter in which the editors state, “We find ourselves living on the margins. We are poor, unemployed or underemployed, but educated, most of us have been to college. We live in the city. We find ourselves in this position of weakness and wish to make it our strength, albeit not a glorification of poverty. We wish to approach this situation with creativity, humor, even joy. This is the space for tactics to operate in everyday life. ‘Tactics must seize the possibilities of the moment in flight...It is possible for them to be where no one expects. Tactics are ruses, trickery, dodges. In short, tactics are the art of the weak.’—Michael de Certeau. On multiple levels, personal, physical, social and political, tactics open lines and disrupt the smooth surface of territorial powers.

“This newsletter wishes to open lines of communication and possibility for people to come together and talk. We need to make room for ourselves, push back despair and inertia. We have ourselves, music, books and love. We can find a way to play.”

Left Bank Books & Friends have received a grant which will pay postage on books sent to prisoners by their “Books for Prisoners” project. Anyone interested in donating books, money or help can contact the project at Left Bank Books, Box ‘A,’ 92 Pike Street, Seattle WA 98101...

Space considerations made it necessary to leave many announcements and mentions of publications until next issue...