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<address><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/354-spring-2000/fifth-estate-books/">https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/354-spring-2000/fifth-estate-books/</a><br>
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<p><strong>New Titles</strong></p>
<p>I COULDN’T PAINT GOLDEN ANGELS: Sixty Years of Commonplace Life
and Anarchist Agitation by Albert Meltzer</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>AK PRESS 386 pp. $20</p>
<p>AVANT GARDENING: Ecological Struggle in the City & the
World edited by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Bill Weinberg.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Autonomedia 168 pp. $8</p>
<p>ROB THE RICH: Jailhouse Writings by Political Prisoner Robert
Thaxton a.k.a. Rob los Ricos</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Self-Published 20 pp. $3</p>
<p>RED YEARS; BLACK YEARS : Anarchist Resistance to Fascism from
Rivista Anarchica</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>ASP 52 pp. $3.50</p>
<p>THE UNABOMBER & The Future of Industrial Society by T.
Fulano</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Self-Published 16 pp. $1</p>
<p>ON THE POVERTY OF STUDENT LIFE by the Situationist
International</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The authors were hauled into court by the outraged authorities.
Below is the statement of the sentencing judge in Strasbourg:</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Black & Red 31 pp. $2</p>
<p>AGAINST CIVILIZATION Readings and Reflections by John Zerzan</p>
<p>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.)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Uncivilized Books 214 pp. $10</p>
<p>AGAINST THE MEGAMACHINE: ESSAYS ON EMPIRE & ITS ENEMIES by
David Watson</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Autonomedia 334 pp. $14</p>
<p>ALL-AMERICAN ANARCHIST: Joseph Labadie and the Labor Movement
by Carlotta Anderson</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Wayne State Univ. Press 328 pp. hb $26</p>
<p>PASSIONATE AND DANGEROUS: Conversations with Midwestern
Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Self-Published 70 pp. $4</p>
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