Most Recent Additions
Fifth Estate Collective
Interview with Abbie
Grippies plan Hot Reception for 1980 Republican and Democratic Conventions
Abbie Hoffman, fugitive Yippie, has been on the lam for over three years following a New York City cocaine deal set-up by the police. Abbie has had plastic surgery to alter his appearance and has managed to elude the authorities even while popping up at protest demonstrations, rallies held in his behalf and he once even appeared as the guest chef on a Toronto TV cooking program.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
anon.
Jr. Cops and Anti-Nukers
The article which follows was originally produced as a leaflet and distributed at the Monroe anti-nuke demonstration on June 2nd, 1979. The Monroe demo was itself even more frustrating than the Midland gathering, and has solidified for many of us involved in it our determination to undertake our own anti-nuke activities in our communities, outside of the context of the increasingly paralytic mass organizations.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Searching for the Culprit
Introduction to “The Original Affluent Society”
“Without government life is nasty, brutish and short.”
—Thomas Hobbes
Every person gazing even casually at the sordid history of government realizes that the Hobbesian dictum is nonsense and, in fact, just the opposite is true: with government, humanity has thusly had its life defined.
Viewing the organized political state as the culprit in human affairs for the presence of universal misery is standard fare for the anarchist and libertarian tradition and as a theory is not without merit as far as it goes. Certainly, other attempts historically to locate the culprit in evil spirits, the Devil, human nature or even capitalism, are much more shortsighted as they fail to deliver an explanation of the daily mechanism through which people have been subjugated during the epoch of Civilization.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Staff and Contributors
Alan Franklin
Ralph Franklin
E.B. Maple
The Entire Nachalo Family
Mr. Venom
Primitivo Solis
Marilyn Werbe
Peter Werbe
Michael Scrivener
Buster Brown
The Fifth Estate Newspaper (ISSN-0015-0800) is published bi-monthly at 4403 Second Ave., Detroit MI 48201; phone (313) 831–6800. Office hours are sporadic, so call before coming down. Subscriptions are $4.00 for 12 issues; $6.00 for foreign. Call 259–1888 for retail sales outlets. Second-class postage paid at Detroit, Michigan. No copyright. No paid advertising accepted.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Texas Anti-Nuke Activist Murdered
The ambush-style shooting death of an anti-nuclear activist in Houston, in April, has sent waves of alarm through the Texas anti-nuclear community. The victim of the assault was 28-year-old Michael Eakin, who was formerly the editor of the University of Texas newspaper and founder of the Austin Sun, a weekly alternative paper.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Marshall Sahlins
The Original Affluent Society
How we used to live before the rise of the state, technology and government
adapted from Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics
The following essay, “The Original Affluent Society,” is written by Marshall Sahlins and was taken from the book Stone Age Economics published by Aldine-Atherton, Inc. We have liberally edited Sahlins’ important investigation into societies prior to the rise of what we generously call “civilization” but hope we have maintained the author’s clarity and purpose. We would suggest a reading of the original piece if at all possible.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Various Authors
Letters to the Fifth Estate
Bon Jours Cinque Etate:
Allors!—as France’s leading Anarchist & Public Enemy Number One, I wish to offer my congratulations on your fine paper. As a revenue generating device, may I suggest an idea for a t-shirt: on the front a picture of padre Jim Jones w/logo, “He died for your sins” & on the back the picture of Sid Vicious with logo, “I died for mine.”
Sep 24, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
FE Bookstore
The FE Bookstore is located in the same place as the Fifth Estate Newspaper (?) [sic] and can be found at 4403 Second Avenue—telephone (313) 831–6800. Our hours vary quite a bit, so it’s always best to give us a ring before coming down.
HOW TO ORDER BY MAIL:
1) List the title of the book(s), amount wanted and price of each;
Sep 23, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Free Readers’ Ads
Though we do not accept commercial advertising, this Unclassified ad space is free for our readers’ use. We do not accept ads over the telephone, so please send your ads in writing to our office at: 4403 Second Ave., Detroit, Michigan 48201.
WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF STARTING a collectively run non-profit natural foods restaurant-coffeehouse-community center here in Binghamton. We are looking for considerate, responsible, hard-working, open-minded people who are not into power tripping but who are willing to take initiative. No experience is necessary, however this is a heavy long-term commitment. If anyone is interested, please contact us as soon as possible.
Sep 23, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
March on the Midland Nukes
The only good thing the Three Mile Island accident has provided is a needed kick in the butt to the anti-nuclear movement. Or rather the small, dedicated groups across the country which have been waging mostly losing struggles against nuclear energy may be at the point where the movement will take on mass proportions.
Sep 23, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Prison Notes
A couple of quick prison notes: Revolutionary prisoners at Washington State Prison in Walla Walla have published Vol. I, No. 4 of the Anarchist Black Dragon, a newsletter. Written by the locked-down brothers from the collective of the same name, the publication features articles of both prison news and general anarchist interest. The Dragon is printed on the outside by supporters and is available from Countdown, PO Box 1163, Madison, Wisconsin, 53701; a small donation would be appropriate. However, the Anarchist Black Dragon Collective may be written directly at Box 520, Walla Walla, Washington, 99362.
Sep 23, 2018 Read the whole text...
anon.
Save the Seals—Skin the Rich
On March 19, 1979, several of us reached into the dustbin of history to resurrect the old Eat the Rich Gang and the Workers Revenge Group. The occasion was a Greenpeace anti-sealing demonstration in downtown Detroit that, as it turned out had as its demand only a one year moratorium on the Canadian hunt, to determine whether or not these beautiful creatures were an endangered species. The trap of this sort of logic is so bountifully clear that it’s surprising that even these weepy-eyed reformers fell for it—the Canadian government counts the seal heads, says, “Nope, not endangered,” and the slaughter begins anew next year, to provide furs for the rich. The ETR/WRG prepared the following leaflet which was distributed at the rally.
Sep 23, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
World Sports Roundup
This issue’s sports roundup shows radical changes in fortune for many players.
Finishing last was Ali Bhutto, former prime minister of the “Islamic Republic” of Pakistan. Despite the pleas of other government leaders around the world, Ali just didn’t make the finals. Calling for leniency in his behalf were such ideological opponents as Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter, which proves once more that birds of a feather flock together. No matter what their line, politicians in general are not enthusiastic about such precedents being set. To All we can only say, you plays the game—you takes your chances.
Sep 23, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
A Footnote And A Warning
The Safe Energy Coalition (SECO) is a broadly-based, loose coalition which meets in private homes and encourages the formation of local groups, some of which have been established in places such as Allen Park, Romulus, Westland and other areas. There is no real leadership and little organization. SECO supporters advocate every possible strategy for an anti-nuclear struggle from direct action and occupations to inviting sleazy politicians like Coleman Young to speak at their public forums. Political hacks, such as the Socialist Workers Party, have (in their own jargon) “intervened” in the movement undoubtedly in hopes of transforming such a movement into an SWP-led “peaceful, legal” pressure group and a recruiting ground for their party along the lines of its activities within the U.S. anti-Vietnam war movement. So far its results have been minimal and unimpressive.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Bits of the World in Brief

But you died in comfort, perhaps surprised that you were not, after all, immortal. Attica went unavenged. I think of you and I spit, happy at least that you are dead and gone!
—Mr Venom
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Detroit Seen
1979 Telephone Codes
Although we got a lot of positive response to our last issue (as well as our fair share of abuse), no one noted a major error in our Hungary poster which attributes the date of the events to being “13 years ago” (making it 1966) rather than 23 years ago. Every one of us must have looked at the layout twenty times and never noticed the obvious blunder. Oh, well, we can tell people it’s a reprint of a ten-year-old poster...
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Primitivo Solis (David Watson)
Eight Theses on Nuclearism
This special section of the Fifth Estate Newspaper was produced shortly after the April 1979 disastrous events took place at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant at Middletown, Pennsylvania.
The first two articles were composed in response to the accident. “Eight Theses on Nuclearism” discusses what confronts us as a species, while “Progress and Nuclear Power” traces the history of the destruction of this continent by industrial technology. The remaining material was compiled from past issues of this newspaper and aptly describes the threat which nuclear power represents in any form.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Liberation News Service
Feds Plan Ahead for Atomic Disaster
NEW YORK (LNS)—While fervently minimizing the danger of nuclear accidents, the federal government is busy making plans in case accidents do occur, according to a recent New York Times report.
A 43-page draft has been written by the Federal Preparedness Agency—a 700-member group within the General Services Administration. It details a plan to “cope with the casualties, property damage and loss of civilian control that might be caused by a serious accident at one of the nation’s 58 nuclear reactors.”
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Peter Werbe
Hiroshima: First Shot of World War III
Reprinted from FE #285, August 1977.
The barbarity of the nation-state since its emergence 8,000 years ago has only been limited in its intensity by a lack of the technological means needed to perpetrate horrors upon humanity. By the advent of World War II, science and industry, joined together in wedlock by Capital, achieved the breakthrough in destructive methodology and allowed a carnage of a staggering 30,000,000 dead.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Zodiac News Service
Nuclear Death Cover-Up
A Washington, DC, research group contends that, despite industry claims to the contrary, the. U.S. nuclear industry has been plagued by worker deaths, plant accidents, acts of terrorism and other serious mishaps during the last three decades.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest alleges that a careful study of government atomic energy records reveals there have been more than 300 worker deaths, no less than two dozen “meltdowns” or other serious accidents, dozens of threatened and actual terrorist acts, and numerous cases of lost nuclear material and human error.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Bob Nirkind
Nuclear Plants: Potential Disasters
Government Hides Facts Of Dangers
Reprinted from FE #278, November 1976.
When the Fifth Estate first undertook this series, we had in mind the discussion and analysis of a few isolated, yet significantly noteworthy, incidents of nuclear and chemical mishaps. Over the past two-to-three months, however, more and more of these “isolated incidents” have come to light, especially those involving the release of radioactive elements.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
anon.
Nukes and Civil Liberties
Reprinted from FE #285, August 1977.
The spectre of a nuclear police state has frequently been raised by atomic energy critics as one of the threats posed by the evolution of a nuclear energy based economy.
Those critics have theorized that such basic liberties as free speech and freedom from unreasonable search would be lost as the nation found it increasingly necessary to protect itself against theft of nuclear materials or acts of terrorism directed at nuclear facilities or using nuclear fuels.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
T. Nachalo (Fredy Perlman)
Progress & Nuclear Power
The Destruction of the Continent and Its Peoples
This special section of the Fifth Estate Newspaper was produced shortly after the April 1979 disastrous events took place at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant at Middletown, Pennsylvania.
The first two articles were composed in response to the accident. “Eight Theses on Nuclearism” discusses what confronts us as a species, while “Progress and Nuclear Power” traces the history of the destruction of this continent by industrial technology. The remaining material was compiled from past issues of this newspaper and aptly describes the threat which nuclear power represents in any form.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
anon.
Report from W. Germany
Politics of the “Nuclear State”
The following was sent to us by a friend of the Fifth Estate living in West Germany and lays out the political implications of the “Nuclear State,” and gives a report on several mass anti-nuclear actions.

It is important to point out an aspect of the nuclear energy program which lies—independent from the deathly danger of nuclear energy—in the danger of the loss of personal freedom of each individual. Nuclear power plants do not only imply poisonous radiation, but also inevitably lead to the establishment of a totalitarian “nuclear state” and in the end to a complete control over the individual. Only in this way, argues the state, can the danger of sabotage be prevented. A recent example is the Traube case.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Trots and Nukes
Reprinted from FE #284, July 1977.
Apparently there is honor among thieves and the anti-nuclear power struggle has exposed the totally reactionary tendencies of several marxist groups as they line up behind the governments of totalitarian regimes and mouth the same pro-nuclear statements as its most strident capitalist proponents.
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Bob Nirkind
Turn on the Light and Say Goodnight
Nuclear Technology and the State
Reprinted from FE #283, June 1977.
“A nuclear power plant is infinitely safer than eating, because 300 people choke to death on food each year.”
—Dixy Lee Ray, former head of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), now governor of Washington
“You can’t have a riskless society.”
—Nelson A. Rockefeller on the leakage of radioactive water from the two million cubic feet of buried radioactive trash and 600,000 gallons of highly radioactive liquid wastes at the West Valley, New York nuclear waste recycling plant
Sep 22, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Anarchist & Anti-authoritarian Publishers
[one_half padding=“0 0 0 30px”]AK Press
370 Ryan Ave. #100 Chico, CA 95973 USA
(510) 208–1700
info@akpress.org
akpress.org
AK Press (AKUK)
33 Tower St., Edinburgh EH6 7BN, UK
+44 131 555 5165
ak@akedin.demon.co.uk
akuk.com
Autonomedia
autonomedia.org
Black & Red
P.O. Box 02374, Detroit MI 48202
Sep 18, 2018 Read the whole text...
Rui Preti
May Made Me (review)
May ’68 Participants Look Back on the Events that Changed Their Lives Forever and Almost Changed France Completely
a review of
May Made Me: An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France by Mitchell Abidor. AK Press, 2018 akpress.org
May Made Me joins thousands of other books published over the past fifty years dealing with the insurrectionary events in France during May and June 1968. Unfortunately, most of them are quite superficial, inaccurate and often highly distorted by authoritarian presuppositions.
Sep 18, 2018 Read the whole text...
Gracie Forest
Against the State; Against the Grain
a review of
Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott. Yale University Press, 2017 yalebooks.yale.edu
In his latest book, James Scott continues his exploration of the relationship between domestication and the development of hierarchies of power in pre-modern and modern societies. He is particularly interested in examining the situations of people who resisted being incorporated into states. Against the Grain rejects the view that human history is a story of linear progression leading to the conveniences of contemporary civilization.
Sep 17, 2018 Read the whole text...
Quincy B. Thorn
Becoming Masterless
A Myth for Our Time
a review of
In Search of the Masterless Men of Newfoundland by Seaweed & Ron Sakolsky. Ardent Press, 2017 ardentpress.com
Seaweed and Ron Sakolsky have put together a book to inspire current and future rebels. Much more than history, it relates a myth with the potential to nurture hope for freer ways of life.
Sep 17, 2018 Read the whole text...
Various Authors
Letters to the Fifth Estate
Note: Last issue’s article on “State-Fetishism” has again given rise to the much debated question of revolutionary violence. We invite further reader response in this matter.
Dear Fifth Estate,
This is an answer to the article “State Fetishism” [FE #296, January 19, 1979].
The article points out many mistakes in the conception and carrying out of revolutionary violence in recent years.
Sep 15, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
On Having Nothing to Say
The long delay between this issue and the last one published at the end of January resulted from our being confronted by a bout of cerebral paralysis which left us feeling empty of words and ideas. We mostly articulated this feeling to one another by stating rather aimlessly that perhaps “we no longer had anything to say,” which carried with it the vague suggestion that maybe we should even close up shop.
Sep 15, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Russ Little
Remiro, Little Appeal Heard
Legal Thicket Continues for Ex-SLAers
Joe Remiro, Russ Little, Bill and Emily Harris remain prisoners of the state as a result of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) urban guerrilla activity in 1973–74. All have been sentenced to long prison terms and have been subjected to continuing harassment and abuse while in custody. (See past FEs.) The following is a report from Russ on the legal and penal status of the four and centers on a recent judicial appeal of his and Joe’s conviction for the 1973 assassination of an Oakland, Calif. school official.
Sep 15, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Staff & Contributors
Alan Franklin
Ralph Franklin
E.B. Maple
Tina Nachalo
Mr. Venom
Primitivo Solis
Marilyn Werbe
Peter Werbe
The Fifth Estate Newspaper (ISSN-0015-0800) is published bi-monthly at 4403 Second Ave., Detroit MI 48201; phone (313) 831–6800. Office hours are sporadic, so call before coming down. Subscriptions are $4.00 for 12 issues; $6.00 for foreign. Call 259–1888 for retail sales outlets. Second-class postage paid at Detroit, Michigan. No copyright. No paid advertising accepted.
Sep 15, 2018 Read the whole text...
Craig O’Hara
PM Press
Ten Years of Literary Molotovs
Bay Area-based PM Press celebrated its tenth anniversary of publishing in May with a bang-up party in Oakland, Calif., where staff, authors, and well-wishers howled at political sketch comedy, smashed a captured Amazon delivery drone, and danced the night away to punk rock.
PM was founded at the end of 2007 by a small group of people with decades of publishing, media, and organizing experience. At the outset we strived to create and distribute radical audio, video, and text releases through every available channel in all possible formats. True to one expanded variation of our name, “Print Matters,” however, we’re biased in favor of hardcopy books as the best format in which to communicate ideas for social change.
Sep 13, 2018 Read the whole text...
Jason Rodgers
What does it mean to be human or transhuman?
a review of
The Transhuman Future: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. Tor Books, 2003
Cory Doctorow has a clear vision of the future. In a way, I hate him for that, because it is not a future in which I want to live. But he is probably right.
He extrapolates current situations and trends to create a realistic vision of the future. Often these include business trends, making them even more fleshed out visions. However, he is not a world builder. He writes humanistic stories, but about transhumanism, the idea that people can evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology.
Sep 13, 2018 Read the whole text...
Rui Preti
Exploring the Past & Present of Anarchists in New York City
A review of
Radical Gotham: Anarchism in New York City from Schwab’s Saloon to Occupy Wall Street, Tom Goyens, ed. University of Illinois Press, 2017
New York City is well known for its radicals, past and present. The lives and deeds of some noteworthy anarchists who have lived there (including Emma Goldman, Paul Goodman and Murray Bookchin), and the high points of local movement history have been discussed extensively in articles and books. Yet there is a shortage of bottom up histories describing and exploring the lives of non-famous anarchists of earlier times or currently.
Sep 12, 2018 Read the whole text...
Bill Weinberg
Impossible Revolution
Review
a review of
Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh. Haymarket Books 2017
This book is a necessary corrective to the dominant perception—left, right and center—that the opposition in Syria are all jihadists and dictator Bashar Assad the best bet for stability.
Sep 12, 2018 Read the whole text...
Matthew Lucas
Black Panther
Breakthrough or More Hollywood Marketing?
a review of
Black Panther; Director: Ryan Coogler 134 min.
On the list of watershed films of 2018 will be Black Panther, Marvel Studios’ astronomically budgeted blockbuster, which raked in critical plaudits as well as ticket sales on an unprecedented scale. The film has struck a chord with both black and white audiences.
Sep 11, 2018 Read the whole text...
E.B. Maple (Peter Werbe)
Isn’t All Money Fake?
a review of
Counterfeit Currency: How To Really Make Money, M. Thomas Collins, Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend WA 98368, $15; $3 shipping.
Money is a fairly curious substance. Its official function is to represent value, but once said, you can immediately challenge all the assumptions inherent in such a formulation: Value?; its representation? Since value itself is a representation of abstract worth, money operates within economies as a representation of a representation! No wonder its properties seem so inscrutable.
Sep 11, 2018 Read the whole text...
Various Authors
Letters to the Fifth Estate
To the FE:
Cuban Greens/anti-authoritarians need our aid. Orlando Polo and Mercedes Paez of Cuba’s anti-authoritarian/ecological/ anti-Militarist Green Path group have been touring the U.S. recently.
Arrested many times in Cuba, they are being repressed again as Cuban authorities are refusing to allow them re-admission to the country.
Sep 11, 2018 Read the whole text...
Carrie Laben
The People’s Republic of Everything
Review
a review of
The People’s Republic of Everything by Nick Mamatas. Tachyon Publications 2018, tachyonpublications.com
Nick Mamatas, who first entered the radical literary scene two decades ago as one of the translators of Jae-Eui Lee’s Kwangju Diary, has been a consistent yet consistently surprising voice since.
Sep 11, 2018 Read the whole text...
Margaret Killjoy
A Brief History of Anarchist Fiction
Eccerpts
Excerpted and reprinted from Fifth Estate #385, Fall, 2011.
Without even knowing it, you’ve read anarchist fiction. There are literary greats like Leo Tolstoy (“The Anarchists are right in everything ... They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by revolution.” [“On Anarchy,” 1900]), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Henry Miller (”[An anarchist] is exactly what I am. Have been all my life.” [Conversations With Henry Miller, 1994]), Dambudzo Marechera (“If you are a writer for a specific nation or a specific race, then fuck you.”), Ba Jin, Carolyn Chute, J.M. Coetzee (“What is wrong with politics is power itself.” [Diary of a Bad Year, 2007]), Jorge Luis Borges, and William Blake, and other popular fiction authors like Alan Moore, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, Robert Shea, Norman Spinrad, B. Traven, Kurt Vonnegut, Ethel Mannin, and Edward Abbey.
Sep 10, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
FE Bookstore
The FE Bookstore is located at 4632 Second Ave., just south of W. Forest, in Detroit. We share space with the Fifth Estate Newspaper and may be reached at the same phone number: (313) 831–6800. Visitors are welcome, but our hours vary so please call before dropping in.
HOW TO ORDER BY MAIL:
1) List the title of the book, quantity wanted, and the price of each;
Sep 10, 2018 Read the whole text...
E.B. Maple (Peter Werbe)
France ’68: A Society Explodes
a review of
Worker-Student Action Committees: France ’68, R. Gregoire & F. Perlman, Black & Red, PO Box 02374, Detroit MI 48202, 1969 (reprinted 1991). Available from B & R or FE Books, $3 plus postage.
This is a pamphlet written almost a generation ago when revolution not only seemed possible, but imminent. The enthusiasm generated from the authors’ direct participation in the 1968 events almost leaps from the pages as they pen lively critiques of the successes and failures of the movement which almost toppled French society.
Sep 10, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
News & Reviews
The Fifth Estate office receives a large number of anarchist and environmental newspapers and ‘zines from the U.S. and the rest of the world. After we look at them, they rarely get much farther than a growing pile under a desk.
We feel this is too dismal an end for publications with so much information and creativity, so we are hoping FE readers would like to see them. We will send them out with book orders or on request if you send postage. Please indicate country of interest or language (including U.S., England, Australia, etc.). If you’re in the neighborhood, the papers can be picked up at our office or the 404 W. Willis space.
Sep 10, 2018 Read the whole text...
Eric Laursen
Repression & Resistance
From RNC 2000 to Trump
a review of
Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 by Kris Hermes. PM Press, 2015 pmpress.org
Crashing the Party was published three years ago, but it couldn’t be more timely in the age of Trump and Sessions. Kris Hermes’s book is an in-depth account of the legal saga that began with the repression and mass arrests of activists at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
Sep 10, 2018 Read the whole text...
Jesús Sepúlveda
The Animal Hungers
The animal hungers
for light and strength
He hungers
.
Killing himself while hunting
Groaning
fatally and the last
.
Hunger springs
Sleepless
.
There are beasts without burden
that dance / grow fiery
They warily drink water
.
Famine distorts
Tea or sugar or bread
or fuel
or a tender hand?
.
The animal hungers
for goodness
.
The famished grow fat
leaving scraps for neither him
nor her
who remained with her cubs
.
The animal hungers
Tramps through trenches
.
up slopes
Sets out
.
He rears up on both paws and ransacks a beehive
Spreads his wings and throws himself from a cliff
.
The animal hungers
when he moves with the flock
or sells his lungs, his eyes
his goodness, his fury
hangs from meat hooks
.
There is no slaughterer without slaughterhouses
there is a journal. a story. a bus
.
and the barrio where he who writes grew up
.
There are massacres
.
Slaughterers dressed as generals in plastic aprons
or doctors in white coats
the chemists the priests enrobed
.
Or gold buttons / stripes
or suits
Bare-chested
or sweaty
.
When the animal hungers
Everything trembles
Books crumble
The earth quakes
.
Autumn flowers bloom in the garden
In the gazebo unreal and necessary
the breeze rushes
people stroll by
.
Home is one
who smokes sitting in the patio of his house
or in a hotel
or silently waits in the corner of his
infancy
or lingers outside
until they open the door
.
Hunger squeezes through crevices
Cuts grooves
Breathes
Climbs fences
Feeds
.
But the animal doesn’t wait
grows weak or devours
He is hungry
and cold
.
He doesn’t know how to live
with pain and anguish
but tries
.
He prepares tea / bathes
or doesn’t
.
He has had enough
.
Slurps
Dips his bread
.
Sits still a moment
Sep 10, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Anarchy on the Air!
Want to learn how to turn off GPS on your phone? Hear the latest from the pipeline blockade? Or, how to support pipeline resisters near you? The Final Straw Radio (TFSR) is a weekly anarchist radio show and podcast based in Asheville, N.C. TFSR has produced programs since 2010, airing on stations across the country, and offering free downloads at thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org.
Sep 8, 2018 Read the whole text...
Steve Izma
Explaining Anarchism to a Parent Can Be Tough!
Review
a review of
Anarchy Explained to My Father by Francis Dupuis-Deri and Thomas Deri; Translated from the French by John Gilmore. New Star Books, Vancouver, 2017
Any set of ideas whose name defines it in terms of negativity has a lot of explaining to do when it speaks about the future. Proponents of anarchism—in plain English, “against authority”—tend to be adamantly against formulae or against determinism and quite legitimately refuse to describe the perfect, future anarchist society. Nonetheless, anarchism’s critique of oppression leads logically to a set of ideas that explicitly lay down principles for moving forward.
Sep 8, 2018 Read the whole text...