Recycling is a classic case of co-optation. The title of this article is somewhat misleading since I continue to recycle a portion of the waste produced daily by my household. What has changed is my previous diligence in making certain …
FE Author: Peter Werbe
Will Success Spoil Chumbawamba?
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 351, Summer 1998
I arrived early at Clutch Cargo’s, once an imposing church, but now a trendy rock joint in yuppified downtown Pontiac, a gritty, predominantly black, industrial Detroit suburb. The occasion was a concert by Chumbawamba, the anarchist pop group from Leeds, …
Two Posters
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 395, Winter 2016 - 50th Anniversary
Just as in other periods of contestation with the ruling order, not only did the Vietnam era resistance create its own periodicals, but it also published an enormous number of posters and flyers. Their subject matter didn’t only call for …
An Anarchist Cookbook That Actually Has Recipes!
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 395, Winter 2016 - 50th Anniversary
a review of The Anarchist Cookbook Keith McHenry, with Chaz Bufe Introduction by Chris Hedges, 2015 See Sharp Press, 154 pp.
Marxism: Obscuring more than it reveals
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 393, Spring 2015
“… [I]n my view, anarchism has no significant contribution to socialist theory to make.” —Eric Hobsbawm, “Reflections on Anarchism,” 1969 Hobsbawm, the late British Marxist historian, in his snobbery, unintentionally poses the question as to the function of theory of …
Marx: Good-Bye To All That
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 281, March, 1977
Inside the walled compound of a Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan, the monks who reside there have created a meditation garden consisting of raked sand and about a dozen large stones. The stones are adroitly arranged so …
Riots Revisited
by Peter Werbe, T. Fulano (David Watson)
Fifth Estate # 376, Halloween, 2007
“July1967” by T. Fulano, from FE 326, Summer 1987 It was a full scale beggar’s banquet, the return of the repressed, a surprise party. The city people, young and old, black and white, went through the pawnshop windows like meteorites. …
Sex Economy
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 271, April, 1976
Coming to grips with the totality of Wilhelm Reich’s anti-authoritarian social psychology is beyond the scope of any short article. [1] Instead, this will be a brief summation of his notion of Sex-economy, which, along with Work-democracy constitute two of …
No Dance; No Revo
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 392, Fall/Winter 2014 - Art & Anarchy
So famous is the quote (rendered in a variety of ways), “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution,” that it is even emblazoned on a souvenir coffee cup peddled by the Berkeley, Calif.-based Emma Goldman …
Sexual Repression and Authoritarianism
by Peter Werbe
Fifth Estate # 270, March, 1976
The juxtaposing of anti-sexual statements on this page by the Vatican and certain leftist leaders and groups is not meant as an exercise in cynicism, but rather to illustrate in graphic terms the role sexual repression plays within all authoritarian …