News & Reviews

The Clydeside Anarchist is a new quarterly publication from Scotland. They can be contacted at Box 3, 488 Great Western Road, Glasgow 12 Scotland. Black Bairn, an anarchist newssheet, can be contacted at the same address.

The May/June issue of Overthrow includes articles on South Africa, Chile, women’s struggles in India, and more. Write P.O. Box 392, Canal St. Station, New York NY 10013.

The Gentle Anarchist is a small newsletter from Kansas. They have produced four issues, and admit that they are “getting desperate.” Somebody writes, “Is anybody out there?...Is there any subversive life in Lawrence (anti-authoritarian that is)?...If you’d like to put some joy in my heart and a smile on my face, please write, draw, or photograph something and mail it to: the gentle anarchist, PO Box 1313, Lawrence KS 66044.”

Occasional FE contributor Sam Colman has published two skits on Grenada in a single pamphlet available for $1.95 from Dawn Press, P.O. Box 137, Lincoln Park MI 48146.

A new issue of Open Road has appeared. They write, “We’re the first quarterly to come out on an annual basis.” They have acquired new equipment, but are broke again, and need support. Write them at Box 6135, Station G, Vancouver BC V6R 4G5 Canada.

From Greece comes the second issue of Anarchos (in Greek), which includes articles on the industrialization of small towns, conditions in a psychiatric hospital near Athens, ecology, work and minorities in the USSR, land rights in Tasmania, and more. Write the Anarchos Collective, ZOODOCHOU PIGIS 17, T.K. 106 81, GR-111 42, ATHENS, Greece.

“Vote for Nobody” and “No Government” stickers are available from Bound Together Books, 1369 Haight St., San Francisco CA 94117. Bound Together also produces an occasional newsletter which is beautifully printed and worth looking at.

The Social Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (SRAF) is announcing the formation of a new SRAF Bulletin production group based in Medford, Mass. Their address is 41 Lawrence St., Medford MA 02155.

The Riverrat Reporter, a poetry and newssheet, is available from The Bait Shop, Rt. No. 1, 399B, Mountain View MO 65548.

For even more scary documentation on the present and future state of the Police State Canadian style, check out The Bulletin of the Civil Liberties Action Security Project, published bimonthly. Letters, submissions and subscriptions ($9 for six issues) should be sent to CLASP, P.O. Box 65369, Station F, Vancouver BC V5N 5P3 Canada.

Also from Canada comes Grub, a small journal of poetry, short stories, essays and local news from the province of Ontario. They are looking for people to help produce future issues. Write to Arlene Wilkinson, R.R. 1, Maynooth, Ontario, Canada.

Troubles at Freedom

With the June issue of Freedom comes an explanation for the major split in the collective and the perilous infrequency of publication, along with the good news that they will continue to publish, though for the time being as a monthly rather than as a biweekly.

A letter in the last issue from long-time contributor Alan Albon states that his resignation from the collective had to do with “the use of financial power and the general intolerance and lack of understanding that we have to start where people are, before we can hope to develop anarchist understanding...” None of this is exactly clear to us, but we are glad to hear that Alan, along with other former and present members of the Freedom collective, will begin a publication called The Green Anarchist, “which will appeal to all those who are concerned with the effect an exploitive society has had on the natural world, and to relate those concerns to anarchist thought.- Meanwhile people at Freedom hope that future contributors will take a more active and complete role in the publication process by including graphic and lay-out ideas and suggestions with submitted articles. To contact Freedom, write 84B Whitechapel High St., London El, England.

Publications in Spanish

Ideas, from Catalunia, has a libertarian anarchist and anti-militarist focus. Serious, concise articles on a variety of subjects with an international perspective, and a diversity of contributors from other countries. Contains information you may not see elsewhere on subjects as the Spanish Revolution, the anarchist movement and workers’ struggles in Brazil and other Latin American countries, the abortion debate in Spain, along with theoretical queries on the nature of anarchism. Write: Apartado de Correos 1355, Barcelona, Spain.

Comunidad is a bi-monthly, new left/libertarian publication published by Latin American exiles in Sweden. News on workers’ struggles in Europe and Latin America, articles on the social and political currents in various countries, as well as local news from Stockholm. It is a fine production visually, and looks like one of the most interesting Spanish publications we’ve received. Write: Box 15 128, S-104 65, Stockholm, Sweden.

Germinal is a youth-oriented publication with anti-militarist and ecology concerns. Articles on nuclearism, the greens, utopia, along with local news on alternative events sponsored by libertarian and feminist groups in Madrid. Their address is Apartado 150.165, Madrid, Spain.

Adarga is an anarco-syndicalist magazine which covers news on the CNT and analyzes, among other things, the ecology movement and the need for genuine community. There is the usual naivete in some articles towards science, technology, progress and the future, and as a result, anarchy gets undermined. To contact Adarga, write Jose L. Gonzalez Coronado, Apartado de Correos 47.109, Madrid, Spain.

Cenit is a bimonthly publication from France put out by the CNT in exile. It describes itself as a magazine of sociology, science and literature. Much reanalysis of the Spanish Revolution and the principles of anarchism. Write: 33 Rue de Vignoles, 75 020 Paris, France.

Another publication produced by libertarians in exile is Ruta: Publicatión Acrata, which has published many monographs on the history and philosophy of anarchism, on such themes as violence, utopia, Spanish anarchist writers, Bakunin today, the impact of Kropotkin, the frustrated revolution of Paris 1968, and many more. Contact them at Apartado 61.881, Caracas 106, Venezuela. (Actually, there is another Ruta in Spanish and Catalan, published from Catalunia, but we have misplaced the address. If someone sends it, we’ll publish it here in a forthcoming issue.)

If, as Errico Malatesta once said, “Almost all the anarchist literature of the nineteenth century was impregnated with marxism,” Etcetera: Correspondencia de la Guerra Social, from Barcelona, reflects a tendency among some currents of twentieth century Marxism to be at least influenced by libertarian perspectives. Etcetera is produced by a circle of libertarian marxists whose perspective is similar to that of Echanges et Mouvernent and Root and Branch. In their first issue (Number 0) they write that they are continuing their correspondence “with the same concern and the same intention as ever: to advance the struggle for communism, or for world human community, trying to avoid activism-at-all-costs, be it reformism or terrorism; as well as total passivity, be it ludic or lucid.”

Despite serious and honest attempts to clarify the differences between marxism and communism, there is too much marxism in Etcetera.

Their radicalism tends to be diverted by their self-confinement in marxist categories and historical teleology (one unfortunate article reprinted from the French marxist publication Guerre Social, in the most mystical-eschatological terms, describes humanity as “an historical animal,” whose evolving history has its meaning in communism, “the enigma of human history resolved, said Marx”). When I hear communism defined as the end of history and the essence of human community, I am reminded of an Eastern European joke, “Under capitalism it’s dog-eat-dog; under communism it’s the reverse.”

Etcetera brings to mind Daniel Guerin’s comment on the Malatesta quote (in his Anarchism & Marxism), that “Marxism and anarchism are not merely influenced by one another. They have a common origin. They belong to the same family.” The publication reminds me more of those common origins (with their flaws and contradictions) than what marxism was to rapidly become. The “etceteros” are influenced by radical and libertarian currents such as Paul Mattick and the council communists, and even published a luscious facsimile edition of the Friends of Durruti materials (unfortunately now out of print). They are also beginning to explore the problem of technology, which has been treated in issue number 1. (More on this in the future.) The second issue also includes articles on the present social-economic-political situation in Spain. Etcetera has published many pamphlets in Spanish which they would probably send gladly for postage costs. Contact them at Editorial Etcetera, Apartado Correos 1363, Barcelona, Spain.

We have received the following publications from Australia: The Libertarian Workers’ Bulletin is an anarcho-Syndicalist paper with lots of information on workers’ struggles and the anarchist movement in Australia and elsewhere. Write: P.O. Box 20, Parkville 3052, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Affinity, a quarterly, also publishes information on the international anarchist scene, and has lists of contacts and news from Australia as well. The paper is attractive, but has its share of Muddled ideas. A cartoon in a recent issue, for example, makes a statement against work by acquiescing to the power of machines. A worker replies to the worries of others about losing their jobs to automation by declaring, “I say let robots do the work—fuck wages.” Nowhere does he suggest how these robots will be built or what kind of society they imply. We would like to see more space given by both publications to the struggles of Australia’s native peoples. The Affinity collective wants contributors and correspondents as well as subscribers. Write: 215 Victoria Parade, Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Australia.

Jail News covers Australian prisons. Contact them at P.O. Box 215, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia.

Everything is an anarcha-feminist monthly. We’ve only seen one issue, the summer 1983 issue, a special on women and mental health. Write to P.O. Box 131, Holme Building, Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.