BI ANY OTHER NAME: BISEXUAL PEOPLE SPEAK OUT edited by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Kaahumanu
Rejected by both Gay and Straight worlds, bisexuals have been a community in exile. With this rich and varied collection, however, bisexual women and men step forward into their own historical spotlight. The writing here can only deepen our discussion about passion and politics.
Alyson Publications 379 pp., $12
SOUNDING OFF!: Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, Ron Sakolsky & Fred Wei-han Ho, eds.
Essays and graphics from dozens of writers who are music makers and social critics. Besides theorizing about music and social change, the authors analyze life in “The Belly of the Beast.” The book concludes with essays on “Shattering the Silence of the New World Order.” The back cover proclaims: “We are gathered here together in all our subversive beauty and marvelous diversity, and…Music is our bomb!
Autonomedia 352 pp. $15
THE IRRATIONAL IN POLITICS: SEXUAL REPRESSION AND AUTHORITARIAN CONDITIONING by Maurice Brinton
Learn the way modern society manipulates its slaves into accepting their slavery. Brinton considers the family to be the locus for reproduction of the dominant ideology. Sexual repression conditions individuals to crave authority and leadership.
See Sharp Press 52 pp. orig $6. now $4.
THIS WORLD WE MUST LEAVE AND OTHER ESSAYS by Jacques Camatte
At last, a collection of Jacques Camatte’s essays available in English. Two decades ago Camatte straightforwardly called leftist political organizations and labor unions “rackets.” We were convinced. He depicts a voracious Capital endowed with anthropomorphic needs requiring the domestication of humans. The stand-off between Capital vs. The Earth (in all its aspects) gives a context for evaluating ecological devastation. Some of Camatte’s insights originate with Marx, but he has no fear of criticizing Marxists or the “master” himself. Camatte helped us to definitively leave the Progress bandwagon.
Autonomedia 256 pp., $9
PIRATE UTOPIAS by Peter Lamborn Wilson
Wilson recounts the exploits and history of Muslim Corsairs from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Many of these pirates were renegade European Christians. The author argues that they had good reason to abandon the constricting social system of western Europe. The book entertains and makes a point about insurrectionary communities, as well.
Autonomedia 208 pp., $8
SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY translated & edited by Ken Knabb
A compendium of writings by the influential European Situationist International group. The bulk of the texts come from the twelve issues of the I.S. journal (1958 to 1969). Also included are texts preceding the group’s formation, soundtracks from Guy Debord’s avant-garde films, flyers dating from May 1968 and internal I.S. exchanges. The authors combine wit and insight in their fiery denunciations of bureaucrats, unions, politicians and leftists. Severe in their critique of society, they scorn the acquiescence of a domesticated public that allows the Spectacle to live for them.
Bureau of Public Secrets 406 pp. $15.
HISTORY OF THE MAKHNOVIST MOVEMENT by Peter Arshinov
History of the anarchist peasant revolution in the Ukraine with telling revelations about the nature of “revolutionary” Bolshevik military and social policy. Written by a participant in the movement.
Freedom Press 284 pp. $11.
MIRROR OF PRODUCTION by Jean Baudrillard
In the wake of the decomposition of working class communities in the West, Baudrillard considers how the traditional terms and referents of Marxist inquiry have lost their force.
Telos Press 167 pp., $12
SEIZURE OF STATE POWER by Michael Velli
Here is disclosed the sinister rationale underlying the advocates of an Elite ruling in society’s best interest. Quotes from aspiring Leftist Revolutionaries are integrated into the Machiavellian argument although the specific references are not appended. This is the middle chapter from the 1972 Manual for Revolutionary Leaders. Part of the text consists of memorable vignettes by Fredy Perlman on resistance to Authorities’ attempts to seize power.
Phoenix Press 121 pp., $9
FIGHTING THE REVOLUTION #1 N. Makhno, B. Durruti and E. Zapata
The introduction to this pamphlet calls these three the “unsung heroes” of history and tells about each of their lives and their battles. Men and women such as these have argued that the vast majority of the people of all nations have no material interest in the wars and conflicts of their masters, that they should, in fact, unite against their respective rulers and owners of property, strip them of their power and wealth, and make the means of life the common heritage of all, regardless of race, nationality or sex.
Freedom Pamphlets 40 pp., $2.00
FIGHTING THE REVOLUTION #2 P. Kropotkin, Louise Michel and the Paris Commune
This pamphlet contains “The Defense of Louise Michel” which she presented at her trial following the suppression of the Paris Commune in 1871. Michel was a brave member of this famous uprising who only gave herself up to the police to secure the release of her mother who had been taken hostage. In this speech, which begins the pamphlet, Michel glories in her participation in the uprising. Also in this pamphlet are essays and articles by Peter Kropotkin on the Paris Commune and other aspects of anarchism and revolution.
Freedom Press 48 pp., $2.40
FUTURE PRIMITIVE by John Zerzan
John raises provocative questions that challenge many conventional notions. Do Time, Language, Numbers, Agriculture really presage humans’ loss of freedom? Read John’s exposure of things generally considered part of nature. Essays in this collection treat primitivism, alienation and post-modernism. We have argued about these ideas with him over the years. so his swats at the Fifth Estate furnish a tolerable diversion.
Autonomedia/Anarchy 185 pp., $7
HOW DEEP IS DEEP ECOLOGY? by George Bradford
In this influential essay that first appeared in the Fall 1987 Fifth Estate, Bradford evaluates various approaches to the growing ecological devastation. He focuses on the Dave Foreman-led Earth First! and the elitist, Malthusian, and (sometimes) racist implications of the group’s theoretical foundations. By distinguishing his approach from other activists, he suggests guidelines for activists on many fronts.
Times Change Press 86 pp. $5.50
BEYOND GEOGRAPHY:The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness by Frederick Turner
A new edition of a Fifth Estate favorite, this book traces the “spiritual history” that led up to the European domination and decimation of the Western hemisphere’s native peoples who were as rich in mythic life as the new arrivals were barren. Turner follows the unconscious desire in the Western invaders for the spiritual contentment they sensed in the primitives they destroyed.
Rutgers Univ. Press 329 pp., $15.
THE MAY DAYS; BARCELONA 1937 A Souchy, J. Peirats, B. Bolloten, & Emma Goldman
These essays document the critical days of May 1937 when Stalinist counter-revolutionaries clamped down on libertarian collectives in Barcelona. The anarchists fought back. But the Communists had access to the government’s military apparatus and spared nothing to prevail over their antagonists. The book is dedicated to Camillo Berneri, an anarchist militant imprisoned and executed by the Communists.
Freedom Press 86 pp., $5.
ABC OF ANARCHISM by Alexander Berkman
This 1929 classic exposes economic and ideological blinders imposed by capitalist institutions. Still effective is his response to the stereotypical accusation that equates anarchism with violence. It contains gripping accounts of the Haymarket Martyrs, the case of Mooney and Billings, of Sacco and Vanzetti and his eyewitness account of the tragic Communist destruction of the Russian Revolution.
Freedom Press 86 pp., $5.
SOCIETY AGAINST THE STATE by Pierre Clastres
Can there be a society that is not divided into oppressors and oppressed, or that refuses coercive state apparatuses? In this beautifully written book Pierre Clastres offers examples of South American Indian groups that, without hierarchical leadership, were both affluent and complex. In so doing, he refuses the usual negative definition of tribal society and poses its order as a critique of Western society.
Zone Books 218 pp., $11.
BOLO BOLO by P.M.
This is a new edition with an “apology” from the author ten years after its first publication. Bolo Bolo ranges somewhere between a satirical sci-fi novel and a (non-violent) battle plan for the “substruction of the capitalist and /or socialist Planetary Work Machine.” Bolos are tribal sized units which group people around specific interests/ideologies/ideas/tastes or what ever sphere of commonality they choose. P.M. devises a time table and even a language necessary for the transition to a world of Bolos, and even if one refuses to take it completely seriously, there is a wealth of insight and humor to make the reading worthwhile.
Autonomedia 192 pp., $8.
AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY: TECHNICS OUT-OF-CONTROL AS A THEME IN POLITICAL THOUGHT by Langdon Winner
A useful guide and thoughtful inquiry into the relationship between technology and society.
M.I.T Press 386 pp., $11.
DRUNKEN BOAT: Art, Rebellion & Anarchy/Autonomedia 288 pp. $12
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW by Mumia Abu-Jamal
A collection of essays by the condemned journalist. See details on Page 3. All profits go to the Mumia defense fund.
Addison-Wesley 208 pp., $20
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