[D66] Fifth Estate Books

[R.O.]

https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/354-spring-2000/fifth-estate-books/

*New Titles*

I COULDN’T PAINT GOLDEN ANGELS: Sixty Years of Commonplace Life and 
Anarchist Agitation by Albert Meltzer

We were privileged to meet Albert in Detroit near the end of his life. 
His enthusiasm for anarchy hadn’t dimmed a bit since he fought fascists 
in London in the 1930s, got bawled out by Emma Goldman for being a 
boxer, took part in innumerable strikes, participated in anti-Franco 
Angry Brigade actions, and the Anarchist Black Cross. Turning one of 
Goldman’s often quoted maxims on its head, Meltzer said, “If I can’t 
have revolution, what is there to dance about?” A wild ride through the 
lifetime of a man who knew Goldman, Orwell, Kenyatta and others.

AK PRESS 386 pp. $20

AVANT GARDENING: Ecological Struggle in the City & the World edited by 
Peter Lamborn Wilson and Bill Weinberg.

Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland want to control all the food, all 
the seeds, and all the DNA. Their goal is a world in which if the seed 
isn’t brand name, it doesn’t grow. The struggles against these monsters 
demand that we connect community gardens to struggles for peasant land 
across the globe, that we free our food from the corporate octopus. 
Essays by the editors plus Bernadette Cozart, Bernadette Mayer, Carmelo 
Ruiz, Sarah Ferguson, Joe Hollis (a reprinted FE article), and others.

Autonomedia 168 pp. $8

ROB THE RICH: Jailhouse Writings by Political Prisoner Robert Thaxton 
a.k.a. Rob los Ricos

Rob’s horrendous seven year sentence for throwing a rock at a cop during 
a June 18 [1999] demo presents a classic case of him being in there for 
us, so we should be out here for him. Rob became the scapegoat and 
poster boy for the state’s dismay about the militant activism of Eugene, 
Oregon’s anarchist community (see article in this issue). This pamphlet 
tells Rob’s story plus a sample of his engaged writing, the type of 
which has appeared in this paper and Anarchy over the years. All 
proceeds will go towards Rob’s legal defense and prison needs.

Self-Published 20 pp. $3

RED YEARS; BLACK YEARS : Anarchist Resistance to Fascism from Rivista 
Anarchica

Unlike Germany, where fascism triumphed quickly, Il Duce and his gang of 
thugs had to fight town-by-town battles throughout Italy to install 
their despotic rule. Rivista Anarchica, a long running anarchist 
publication, recounts how workers and peasants, often led by anarchists, 
fought for years against the Blackshirts. Despite a glaring front cover 
typo (“Fascism”), this translation tells the stories of communities 
fighting for their lives and freedom.

ASP 52 pp. $3.50

THE UNABOMBER & The Future of Industrial Society by T. Fulano

The FE’s David Watson, writing under the name T. Fulano, looks at the 
phenomena of the admiration by some anarchists for the bombing campaign 
of Ted Kaczynski and asks, is this part of the solution, or more of the 
problem? Reprinted from the Fall 1996 Fifth Estate.

Self-Published 16 pp. $1

ON THE POVERTY OF STUDENT LIFE by the Situationist International

This new translation of a classic Situationist text written in 1966, 
prefigured the general’ uprising which occurred in France two years 
later. It analyzes the conditions of the student in capitalist society 
and exposes university training as being nothing more than preparing 
docile individuals to manage commodity society.

The authors were hauled into court by the outraged authorities. Below is 
the statement of the sentencing judge in Strasbourg:

“The accused have never denied the charge of misusing the funds of the 
student union. Indeed, they openly admit to having made the union pay 
some $1,500 for the printing and distribution of 10,000 pamphlets, not 
to mention the cost of other literature inspired by ‘Internationale 
Situationniste.’ These publications express ideas and aspirations which, 
to put it mildly, have nothing to do with the aims of a student union. 
One has only to read what the accused have written, for it is obvious 
that these five students, scarcely more than adolescents, lacking all 
experience of real life, their minds confused by ill-digested 
philosophical, social, political and economic theories, and perplexed by 
the drab monotony of their everyday life, make the empty, arrogant, and 
pathetic claim to pass definitive judgments, sinking to outright abuse, 
on their fellow-students, their teachers, God, religion, the clergy, the 
governments and political systems of the whole world. Rejecting all 
morality and restraint, these cynics do not hesitate to commend theft, 
the destruction of scholarship, the abolition of work, total subversion, 
and a world-wide proletarian revolution with ‘unlicensed pleasure’ as 
its only goal.

“In view of their basically anarchist character, these theories and 
propaganda are eminently noxious. Their wide diffusion in both student 
circles and among the general public, by the local, national and foreign 
press, are a threat to the morality, the studies, the reputation and 
thus the very future of the students of University of Strasbourg.”

Black & Red 31 pp. $2

AGAINST CIVILIZATION Readings and Reflections by John Zerzan

You’ve Seen him on “60 Minutes!” He’s called “the anarchist guru” by the 
New York Tines! Read the book that sparked the trashing of Seattle! 
(Sorry, John; only teasing.)

Reforms be damned. They only extend the misery created by civilization’s 
institutions, this volume argues, be they the state, the division of 
labor, or representation of any type. Contrary to Hobbes, life is nasty, 
brutish and short since we left primitive life, not during it. Zerzan 
has collected 51 essays from a range of authors and scholars which 
challenge accepting the world as we know it as a starting point for 
rebellion. FE staffers, David Watson and Lynne Clive appear with Adorno, 
Rousseau,- Sahlins, Turner and the Unabomber.

Uncivilized Books 214 pp. $10

AGAINST THE MEGAMACHINE: ESSAYS ON EMPIRE & ITS ENEMIES by David Watson

These essays, most of which appeared in this paper between 1981-96, 
cover mass technics, the ecological crisis, the critique of 
civilization, reason and spirit, war and empire, including “Stopping the 
Industrial Hydra,” “Civilization in Bulk,” “Looking Back on the Vietnam 
War,” “Homage to Fredy Perlman,” a revised “Against the Megamachine,” 
and many more.

Autonomedia 334 pp. $14

ALL-AMERICAN ANARCHIST: Joseph Labadie and the Labor Movement by 
Carlotta Anderson

In this account of the man dubbed “The Gentle Anarchist,” his 
granddaughter brings to life not only the person complete with foibles 
and misjudgments, but also the era. Labor radicals and anarchists of the 
last third of the 1800s are often ignored for those of the 1930s. 
Anderson sketches resistance to capital in the earlier era and those who 
filled the ranks of rebellion. Highly recommended. See review last issue.

Wayne State Univ. Press 328 pp. hb $26

PASSIONATE AND DANGEROUS: Conversations with Midwestern 
Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists

Diverse interviews that affirm the first word of the title. It includes 
an activist/resident from Detroit’s Trumbullplex talking about the ups 
and downs of communal life, and the FE’s Peter Werbe and David Watson 
doing a little philosophizing. Also, interviews with folks from 
Chicago’s highly organized and active A-Zone, and with others doing art 
and revolution, “pleasure activism,” micro-radio projects, IWW, 
environmental and community organizing, and numerous other activities. 
There are others which reach into the personal and speak to how one 
exists in a capitalist world while organizing against it. Terrific art 
from Tony Doyle and Josh MacPhee.

Self-Published 70 pp. $4


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