Within the past several months the FE has received many publications and letters from Greece trying to make contact with radicals and libertarian revolutionaries in the U.S.
At a first glance the literature of the Greek anarchists looks like a collection of American ’60s radical chic nostalgia, intellectually pureed for an ’80s Mediterranean audience. Imagine for a moment the anthologies of the hip, the pseudo-hip, and the never-hip, but the always-trying of the late ’60s and early ’70s of American radicalism thrown together in a juxtaposition of grainy photos, poetry and prose—a hodgepodge of Buddy Holly, Jerry Rubin, the Who, Detroit’s own MC5, Abbie Hoffman and Zap comics, serving as a model for revolution.
But to view the anarchist movement in Greece as simply nostalgic, for the good old days of rock and roll revolution is to miss the point. Under the heel of the junta, history was suspended and the revolutionary movement from Berkeley to Berlin was targeted for extermination. Mass arrests, torture, kidnappings and murders kept the movement at bay for the duration.
Today, many activists are back on the streets, and actually trying to tear them apart. Last November 1980, for example, 3,000 people shook the state by its fascist ass in a two day protest in which a 20 year old woman lost her life. They had taken to the streets to protest the abuses of a technology, a system of industrial and corporate plunder that has poured so much pollution into the air that the star tourist attraction of Athens, the Acropolis, is rapidly being eaten away after surviving centuries. The Greeks reason that if the acid rain can eat through marble and stone, it probably isn’t the healthiest stuff in the world to breathe. To show their contempt for the society and government which would poison its citizens, young people took to the streets shouting, “Alienation is the beginning of democracy.” Their targets were television sets, telephones, radios, and anything else that breathed of capitalism and technology.
Greek anarchists are interested in the American anti-nuclear movement, the struggle against the military, the struggle for individual freedom. They want to know how the American radical movement originally blossomed, not because they need a blueprint but because they feel the need for a solidarity that they cannot find only in their own land. They write letters expressing unity. Some come from publications, some from individuals, and some come from the many Political prisoners still in the dungeons of the state since the coup.
The Greeks continue to resist, continue to wage non-stop insurrection and revolt against the government and the system that feeds it, the system that worships high technology and praises U.S. imperialism. Perhaps their taste in anarchist literature and ’60s memorabilia is a bit ingenuous, but their appetite for confrontation and their will to resist seems limitless. These Greeks are societal shit-kickers. They mean business.
Readers can get information on Greek political prisoners by writing to Katerina latropoulou, Nayarinou 8, Athens TT 144, Greece. The anarchist magazine Anichti Poll (Open City) can be contacted c/o C. Mandilas, Thesalonikis 119, Petralona, Athens, Greece. Also, articles on the movement in Greece have appeared in Freedom, including the 20 June 1981 issue (“Prisoners in Revolt”), a letter sent by the Athens Anarcho-syndicalist Group, 21 Democritou Street, Metamorphosis, Athens.
—Freedom Lialios
Neighborhood Nukes—Nuclear Weapons in Local Communities, An Organizer’s Guide to Information and-Action by Ian Lind, is now available from the Research Group One, 2743 Maryland Avenue., Baltimore MD 21218. This pamphlet consolidates all of the information now available on nuclear storage and accidents.
Inner City Light is a NYC bimonthly anarchist newspaper which is in need of support in order to continue its project. Write them at 212 Forsyth Street, NYC, NY 10002.
Disorientation Manual, published by the New Indicator Collective at the University of California, San Diego, contains articles on the draft, anarchism, feminism, and more. Write them at: Student Organization Center, UCSD, 8-023, La Jolla CA 92093.
Cienfuegos Press Distribution has told us that Anarchist Review 2 is out of print.
FIFTH ESTATE BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE
We are now offering back issues of the paper for 50 cents per copy. Partial descriptions of back issues are below.
Vol. 11, No. 3 (#267)—The second issue of the paper after the Eat the Rich Gang took it over from the hip capitalists. Contains “Unions and the Nature of Work,” “Spain: The Continuing Revolution,” “Strike & Sabotage at Wash. Post.” (Limited supply.)
The centerfold section of this issue (pages 7-10) was-a special poster and is no longer available.
Vol. 11, No. 4 (#268)—”The Decline and Fall of Everything,” “About the Bad News,” “World Order Crumbles,” “Notes on the Death of Franco,” “Sarah Jane Moore: Mother of the Year” (poster).
Vol. 11, No. 5 (#269)—”Long Live Death!” “Chou En-lai: Death of a Salesman,” “Institutions of Repression: Education & the Family,” “Notes on the Death of Franco,” (Part II), “Nationalist Gangs Battle for Angola.”
Vol. 11, No. 6 (#270)—”Power Struggle in China,” “Sexual Repression and Authoritarianism,” “Pig Guts for Gutless Pigs,” “The Transportation Meditation Program (TM)” (poster).
Vol. 11, No. 7 (#271)—”Sex Economy: Toward a Self-Governing Character Structure,”‘ “Who Killed Ned Ludd: A History of Machine Breaking at the Dawn of Capitalism,” “Christ’s Body Found—Easter Canceled,” (poster), “The Revenge of the Clowns.’
Vol. 11, No. 8 (#272)—”Crisis in Health Care: Your Money and Your Life,” (Part I), ‘PBB: Case Study of an Industrial Plague,” “Myth of the Party,” “Haymarket Square Riot.”
Vol. 11, No. 9 (#273)—”Your Money and Your Life” (Part II), “Crimestoppers I Textbook: The Potential Criminal” (poster), “Please…Do Not Kidnap These Men!” (General Motors “ad”), “Will CP Rule Italy?”
Vol. 11, No 10 (#274)—”Self-Management and the Spanish Revolution,” “Bicentennial Salute” (poster) “Medieval Revolts Against Church and State.” “The Idea of Detroit.”
Vol. 11, No. 11 (#275)—”Unionization in ) America,” “New Wave of Legal Repression,” “The Black Sea Monster,”‘ “Polish Food Riots.”
Vol. 11, No. 12 (#276)—”Cop Gang vs. Street Gangs,” “Capitalism’s Industrial Plagues,” “Democracy.”
Vol. 12, No. 1 (#277)—”China: Financing the ‘Celestial Empire,” “On the Correct Handling of Nuclear Fallout Upon the’ People,” “Unionism & the Nazi Labor Front,” “Piss in the Voting Booth” (poster).
Vol. 12, No. 2 (#278)—”The Year of the Swine (Flu),” “Unionism and Taylorism,” “Nuclear Plants: Potential Disasters,” “Zerowork: Less is More.”
Vol. 12, No. 3 (#279)—”Indian Genocide—Brazil Has Its Custers Too,” “On Organization: Two Views,” “The Revolt Against Work,” “Un-Dewar’s Profiles: Leon F. Czolgosz” (poster).
Vol. 12, No. 4 (#280)—”Worker Revolts Belie China’s Peaceful Image,” “More On Organization,” “More on Revolt Against Work,” “Swine Flu Sham Fizzles.”
Vol. 12, No. 5 (#281)—”Reclaiming Our Bodies,” “Marx: Goodbye to All That,” “Communal Living,” “LNG,” “The Revolutionary Three Stooges Brigade.”
Vol. 12, No. 6 (#282)—”The New Family Therapy,” “Multinational Unions,” “The Last SLA Statement,” “Criticism/Self-Criticism/Germany 1936-China 1977.”
Vol. 12, No. 7 (#283)—”Prisons,” “Everyday Love,” “Nuclear Technology and the State,” “Organization,” “Maoists Become Shrubs.”
Vol. 12, No. 8 (#284)—”Work? This is Your Ear!” “The Black Rose Affair,” ‘The Cucumber Quotient (Whereby It Is Possible to Determine to What Extent You Have Become a Vegetable Through Work, Study, Politics and Sacrifice),” “Whales,” “The ‘Uses’ of Terrorism,” “NCLC Finks.”
Vol. 12, No. 9 (#285)—”Hiroshima: 1st Shot of World War III,” “On Terrorism and Authoritarianism,” “New York New York: Revolt Lives!” “Getting Off the Road: Beats & A Sub-culture of Resistance,” “Me? A Great Leader?!” (poster). (Limited supply.)
Vol. 12, No. 10 (#286)—”Back to the Stone Age?” “Ten Theses on the Proliferation of Egocrats,” “Culture Shock: Detroit,” “Workers Fought for Lives at Nuke Plant,” “Anti-nuke Demo Planned Against Edison.”
Vol. 12, No 11 (#287)—”German Industrialist Commits Suicide” (Front page spoof of death of ex-nazi Hans-Martin Schleyer and murders of Red Army Faction members in prison.) “Anarchy in the U.K.: The Power & the Punk,” “A Documented, Researched, & Polite Call for the Destruction of Civilization,” “comments on Revolutionary Violence,” “Industrialism & Domestication,” (Special Double Issue).
Vol. 12, No. 12 (#288)—”Terrorism: The State Marches On,” “More Comments -on Revolutionary Violence,” “The Revolt of the Animals,” “Punk Rock: Musical Fad or ‘Radical Kernel?’,” “A Punk’s Essay,” “Sex in China.”
Vol. 13, No. 1 (#289)—”State Terrorism in West Germany,” “Letter from Hamburg,” “Everyday Violence—Wife Beating,” “Did You Ever Want to Kill Your Boss?” (poster), “Fashionable Fascism: The Slick Misogyny of Porn,” “Worker Kills Boss,” “Ecotopia: To Nowhere and Back.”
Vol. 13, No. 2 (#290)—”Fascism & Pornography: A Response,” “The State & Nuclear Power,” “You Create the Society That Destroys You” (poster), “Star Wars: The Arms Race of the Future is Now,” “Mao’s China: From Adoration to Rebellion,” “Known Terrorists.”
Vol. 13, No. 3 (#291)—”More Debate on Pornography, Sexism & Fascism,” “Ms. Interview: Gail Garrot: Big City Cop (1st Woman in Her Field)” (poster), “Leaders, Leadership & the State: Pierre Clastres’ Society Against the State,” “If You’re Not Busy Being Born, You’re Busy Buying.”
Vol. 13, No. 4 (#292)—”QUBE TV: Push-button 1984,” “Assaults Continue on Prisoners,” “Against Realism & Its Cause,” “Technology & Capitalism: America By Design,” “Aldo No Moro,” “We Demand” (poster),
Vol. 13 No. 5/6 (#293-294) —”Pope Perishes,” “The Return of the Social Revolution, Or, Well Dug, Old Mole!” “Economic Crisis & Revolution, Or A Propos of Capital and Its Contradictions,” “An Unusual Study in American Anarchism: A Review,” “Free Benjamin Mendoza y Amor/Give This Man a Second Chance.”
Vol. 13, No. 7 (#295)—”Will You Join the Dance?” “Easy Come Easy Go/Death of a Pope,” “The Battle of France, May ’68,” “The CNT in Modern Spain,” “You May Be the Victim of an Art Attack.”
Vol. 14, No. 1 (#296)—”State Fetishism: Some Remarks Concerning the Red Army Faction,” “Death in Guyana: An Epilogue,” “Coke Adds Life…To Communism” (poster)
Vol. 14, No. 3 (#298)—”Jr. Cops and Anti-Nukers,” “Interview With Abbie,” “The Original Affluent Society,” “20th Century Technology Presents: Mega-Death” (poster), review of Foucault’s Discipline & Punish.
Vol. 14, No 4 (#299)—”Industrial Plague Widens,” “Warning to the Pope,” “Lasch’s “War of All Against All,” “Ramblings of a Narcissist,” “The Practical Marx,” “It’s Raining Stockbrokers.”
Vol. 14, No. 6 (#301)—”Carter’s Phony War Crisis,” “No Draft!” “Take This Census & Shove It!” “British Anarchists Found Not Guilty,” more articles on Lasch’s Culture of Narcissism, “Fuck the Draft” (poster).
Vol. 15, No. 1 (#302)—”Anti-Rape March Sparks Debate on Feminism,” “The Promise of the ’80s,” “Stay Where You Are…”
Vol. 15, No. 2 (#303)—”Poland: Triumphs & Defeats,” “The Refusal of Technology,” “Come on America, Dare to Think the Unthinkable!” “U.S., U.S.S.R Prepare for Doomsday,” “Draft Foes Growing,” “Salamanders for Allah,” “Towards a Citizens’ Militia: A Review.”
Vol. 15, No. 3 (#304)—”Poland on the Edge,” “Saturn & Scientism,” “Readers Debate Technology,” “Jerk, the Dog,” “On the Future of the Earth,” “Against Civilization,” review of Wartime Strikes, “A Swiss Recipe for Cucumber Salad,” “Nuclear Weapons —What They Do & How They Work.”
Vol. 15, No. 4 (#305)—”Hungry? Eat Leaden Death,” “More on Technology,” “The Land: The Need for Roots,” “Coffee Keeps Us Rolling,” special poster supplement on Iran: “America’s Incredible Day: Hostage Plane Crashes Into Inaugural Ceremony—No Survivors,” “Truth Takes A Beating,” “What a Day It Wasn’t.”
Vol. 15, No. 5 (#306)—Special Issue on Technology: “Against the Megamachine,” “Marxism, Anarchism and the New Totalitarianism,” “Indigenism and Its Enemies,” “Technological Invasion,” “Community, Primitive Society and the State.”
Groups or individuals who would like: to distribute back issues in quantity, take note: We have large quantities of the following issues: Vol. 13 Nos. 4 ” and 7; Vol. 14 Nos., 3 and 4; Vol. 15 No! 1, 2, and 3. Please send $2.00 for 25 copies to cover handling and postage (while quantities last).