Radical Bookstores in North America

Many thanks to the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop whose infoshop directory has been hacked up to make fertilizer for this page. The M.A.I., for those who don't know, is one of the best activist sites on the web (I strongly encourage everyone to check it out at http://www.infoshop.org ). I should also mention that Garrett County Press maintains a very good list of independent bookstores in the United States at http://www.gcpress.com/find/gcpress.html .

For ages now the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop has provided the addresses of a number of infoshops around the world. The only problem with this fine list is that several of the addresses were always no longer valid, some of the projects haviong folded or moved years ago!

Their directory also had a specific focus on infoshops, and didn't have much in the way of bookstores. Furthermore, being an anarchist project, the MAI neglected several excellent stores which are run by Leninists and such.

Now, being an anti-Stalinist myself isn't going to stop me from listing some commie stores. Some will get in and some won't. Ditto for feminist, nationalist and queer stores. In theory, my criterion will be whether or not the space in questions provides a useful resource for radicals and revolutionaries in the area. The Revolutionary Communist Party, for instance, operates a number of excellent bookstores across the USA. While i may disagree with some of the RCPs politics, their bookstores tend to carry an excellent range of radical publications, including non-Marxist and even anarchist publcations. So they get in - for this reason also, the Pathfinder "Bookstores" run by the Socialist Workers Party will not likely ever get included, because in every city that they have a branch all they stock is the same very limited selection of SWP-approved works.

Similarly, many gay/lesbian bookstores carry loads of liberal or "self-help" stuff that certainly does not suit my tastes. Same goes for many feminist bookstores. Some, however, go out of their way to also stock left-wing and radical analyses, and in fact in some cities i have found the local women's bookstore stocks more revolutionary, class struggle and anti-imperialist literature than the local "anarchist" space.

(BTW, i have a less discriminating directory of GLBT, feminist and other bookstores elsewhere on my site if you're interested!)

I imagine the main thing that will determine whether or not a place gets listed is if i hear about it. So please, everyone, drop me a line and let me know where you go to buy your favourite anarchist, communist, revolutionary anti-patriarchal books and 'zines!

Enough of the bla bla.... here's the list as of today:

Midwest

Illinois

New World Resource Centre: 1300 N. Western Ave, Chicago, IL
Puerto Rican Cultural Center: 1671 N. Claremont St., Chicago, IL 60647

Revolution Books: 1103 N. Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60622; tel: (773) 489-0903; fax: (773) 489-0984; Hours: Tues.-Fri 2-7pm, Sat. 11am-7pm, Sun. (occasionally open, call first)



Michigan
Revolution Books Detroit
406 W. Willis, Detroit, MI 48201
tel/fax: 313-33-7310

Minnesota
Arise! Bookstore: 2441 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN. 55405; Web: http://www.arisebookstore.org/; E-mail: paarise@mtn.org
Mayday Books: 301 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404

East Coast

Maryland & D.C.

Cafe Mawonaj
624 T Street NW, Washington D.C. 20001 / tel: 202-332-4480
email: mawonaj@yahoo.com
web: http://www.voxunion.com/cafe/

Massachusetts
Lucy Parsons Center: 549 Columbus Ave, Cambridge, MA 02118 / PHONE: 1-617-267-6272; web: http://www.tao.ca/~lucyparsons/

Revolution Books: 1156 Massachussetts Avenue, Boston, MA


New York
ABC No Rio: 156 Rivington Street, NYC 10002 / (212)254-3697; web: http://www.abcnorio.org/
Bluestockings

May Day Books: located in Theater for a New City, 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets); New York, NY 10003 Telephone: (212) 254-1109 / Fax: (212) 979-6570; E-mail: info@theaterforthenewcity.org; Volunteer-run with inconsistent hours. You can call the theater and they will give you the infoline for the actual bookstore.

Revolution Books: 9 W 19th St., New York, NY / Tel.: (212) 691-3345; i believe this is the largest Revolution Books outlet in the United States (all the RB stores are run by the Revolutionary Communist Party) - a large non-sectarian selection makes it well worth checking out


Ohio
Revolution Books
2804 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118

Pennsylvania
Wooden Shoe Books: 508 S. 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147; (between South and Lombard streets); 215-413-0999; Web: http://www.woodenshoebooks.com/; Email: sabot@woodenshoebooks.com

West Coast

California

Bound Together Books: 1369 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94117 / (415) 431-8355

Flor y Canto Centro Comunitario: 3706 N.Figueroa Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90065 / (323)276-8350; email: mail@florycanto.org; website: http://www.florycanto.org; Tuesday-Thursday 2-7 pm
Friday 3-8 pm
Saturday 2-7

Long Haul & Infoshop Berkeley: 3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 / tlf: 1-510-848-6466; email: resist@burn.ucsd.edu

Revolution Books
Washington
Left Bank Books: 92 Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98101 / (206) 622-0195
Florida
Civic Media Center & Library, Inc.: 1021 W. University Ave., Gainesville, FL 32601 / (352) 373-0010; email: civic_media_center@hotmail.com; web: http://www.gator.net/~cmc/
Stone Soup Collective: 1020 S. Orange Ave., P.O. Box 720418 Orlando, Florida 32872; *Hours of Operation are 12noon-9pm* Every Day!; phone: 407.719-6639 or 407.999-7700; email: us@stonesoupcollective.org; web: www.stonesoupcollective.org

North Carolina
The Internationalist Bookstore & Community Center: 405 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516 / ph: 919.942.1740 / fax: 919.932.7911; ibooks@internationalistbooks.org; www.internationalistbooks.org


British Columbia
People's Co-op Bookstore: 1391 Commercial Drive, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C.
Manitoba
Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House: 1A-91 Albert Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 1G5 / Tel: (204) 946-5241; E-mail: mondragon@a-zone.org

Ontario
Octopus Books

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Radical Bookstores in North America

North America

Midwest | East Coast | West Coast | Deep South | Southwest | Canada

Midwest

East Coast

West Coast

Deep South

Canada

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