Daring to Struggle, Failing to Win: the Red Army Faction’s 1977 Campaign of Desperationby André Moncourt and J. SmithIn 1970 a small group of West German revolutionaries decided to go underground, to set up safehouses, and learn the skills of the urban guerilla. They were the Red Army Faction. Seven years later, almost all of the original combatants were in prison or dead, yet, through their example, they had inspired a militant and illegal support movement, comrades willing to take up arms in defense of the prisoners. 1977 was to be a year of reckoning. Through daring attacks and devastating errors, the West German guerilla brought their society to the brink, mounting one of the most desperate and incredible campaigns of asymmetrical warfare ever waged in postwar Europe. That they failed is no excuse to not learn their story, to see who they were and what they fought for – and, most tragically, to bear witness to the lengths the state would go to silence them, to make sure no one would ever again make such an attempt to free the prisoners. Later this year Kersplebedeb and PM Press will be publishing the first volume in a documentary history of the RAF by Moncourt and Smith, but in the meantime this pamphlet is a modest introduction to this story.a joint Kersplebedeb-PM Press publication ISBN 978-1-60486-028-3 43 pages $5.95 |
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Death by Regulation & A Message from a Death Camp
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The Radical Roots of Divers/Citéby Sketchy ThoughtsIn 1990 police attacked the Sexgarage party in Montreal’s warehouse district. In retrospect, the subsequent political mobilization looks like the “coming out” of queer politics in Montreal, and as such is commemorated every year in that city’s LGBTA march, “Divers/Cité”. This short pamphlet looks at the context and previous political mobilizations which laid the basis for people feeling empowered to fight back against police violence - the Mohawk Nation’s conflict with the Canadian state, the AIDS activist movement, and previous responses to homophobic violence in Montreal. A previous version of this text appeared on my blog, Sketchy Thoughts.Kersplebedeb Publications ISBN 1-894946-28-6 17 pages $2.00 |
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May
2008 - 204 pages
Yet another issue of this great radical journal from Canada - includes
interviews with Mutulu Olugbala (M1 from Dead Prez), Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz and George Katsiaficas, as well as two roundtable
discussions with activists from across Canada - one about Organizing
Against the G8 and the other about Anti-Poverty Organizing in Halifax.
Articles by Joshua Kahn Russell & Brian Kelly (“Giving Form to a
Stampede: The First Two Years of the New SDS”), Eric Newstadt
(“Accounting for the Student Movement”) with a response from Caelie
Frampton, as well as a look at political repression by Jeff Monagham
& Kevin Walby (“The Green Scare is Everywhere”). |
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The weakness of a lot of
anti-violence politics is its reliance on the State and its police,
courts and prisons. The weakness of a lot of revolutionary movements is
their failure to engage with problems of interpersonal violence and
anti-social behaviour amongst and between the oppressed.
South End PressColor of Violence doesn't just untangle this knot, it takes a chainsaw to it, elaborating strategies of radical community intervention and grassroots movement building that avoid the trite while zero-ing in on the experiences of the oppressed. Glimpses of what anti-violence strategies that are anti-cop might look like, of what feminism imbued with anti-racism and anti-imperialism can give us. Anti-violence strategies which acknowledge the fact that the State is itself a major source of abuse and oppression for women in the united states and around the world. Interventions, arguments and strategies dealing with how women can protect themselves and their communities both from interpersonal and systemic violence. A groundbreaking contribution. The best book i read in 2007. Seriously. ISBN-13 978-0-89608-762-0 325 pages $20.00
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Free Comrades: Anarchism and Homosexuality
in the United States 1895-1917, by Terence Kissack. Examines the opinions and positions of anarchists towards homosexuality at a time when the topic remained taboo, even for many on the left. Subjects covered include the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, the life and work of Walt Whitman, periodicals including Tucker’s Liberty and Leonard Abbott’s The Free Comrade, and the frank treatment of homosexual relations in Berkman’s Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. By defending the right to enter into same-sex partnerships free from social and governmental restraints, the anarchists posed a challenge to society still not met today. AK Press
ISBN 9781904859116 220 pages $17.95 |
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Granny Made Me an Anarchist: General
Franco, The Angry Brigade and Me, by Stuart Christie. The author became Britain’s most famous anarchist in 1964 when he was arrested for smuggling explosives in a plot to assassinate Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Charged with “Banditry and Terrorism,” he served three years of his twenty-year sentence before international pressure secured his release. Five years later, he stood trial in London for alleged involvement with Britain’s Angry Brigade, an urban guerilla group, but was this time acquitted. He is the cofounder of Anarchist Black Cross, Black Flag magazine, and Cienfuegos Press. This is his autobiography. AK Press
ISBN 9781904859659 400 pages $19.95 |
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Making a Killing, the Political Economy of
Animal Rights, by Bob Torres. With a focus on labor, property, and the life of commodities, an examination into the broad nature of domination, power, and hierarchy. Making a Killing explores the intersections between human and animal oppressions in relation to the exploitative dynamics of capitalism. Combining nuts-and-bolts Marxist political economy, a pluralistic anarchist critique, as well as a searing assessment of the animal rights movement, the author challenges conventional anti-capitalist thinking and convincingly advocates for the abolition of the animal industry. AK Press
ISBN 9781904859673 185 pages $17.95 |
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My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting
Guide for the Rest of Us, by Jessica Mills. Written with humor, extensive research, and much trial and error, My Mother Wears Combat Boots delivers sound advice for parents of all stripes. Amid stories of bringing kids (and grandparents) to women’s rights demonstrations, taking baby on tour with her band, and organizing cooperative childcare, Jessica gives detailed nuts-and-bolts information. A clever, hip, and entertaining mix of advice, anecdotes, political analysis, and factual sidebars that will help parents as they navigate the first years of their child’s life. AK Press
ISBN 9781904859727 260 pages $16.95 |
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Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy,
Rebellion, and Desire, by David Graeber. In this collection, David Graeber revisits questions raised in his previous book, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Employing an unpretentious style to convey complex ideas, these twelve essays cover a lot of ground: the origins of capitalism, the history of European table manners, love potions and gender in rural Madagascar, the phenomenology of giant puppets at street protests, and much more. But they’re linked by a clear purpose: to explore the nature of social power and the forms that resistance to it have taken—or might take in the future. AK Press
ISBN 9781904859666 400 pages $22.95 |
| Anarchy and Art, From the Paris Commune to
the Fall of the Berlin Wall, by Allan Antliff. Exploring art’s potential as a vehicle for meaningful social change from an anarchist perspective, this survey begins with artist Gustave Courbet and writer Emile Zola’s activism during the 1871 Paris Commune, and ends with an examination of anarchist art during the fall of the Soviet empire. Other subjects include the Neo-Impressionists and their depictions of the homeless in the 1890s; the Dada movement in New York City during World War I; the decline of the Russian Avant-Garde during the 1920s and 30s; the West Coast Beats of the 1940s and 50s; the Modernists of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s; and anarchistic responses to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by visual artists. Arsenal Pulp
Press
ISBN 9781551522180 213 pages $26.95 |
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| Flights of Angels, My Life with the Angels
of Light, by Adrian Brooks. The Angels of Light were a genderfucking hippy performance troupe in the 1970s, growing out of the equally legendary Cockettes in San Francisco. Adrian Brooks was a pivotal member of the Angels; he was the author of many of their shows, and appeared in almost all of their productions during their heyday from late 1974 to 1980. In this vivid memoir, San Francisco in the 1970s comes to life as Brooks recounts the amazing stories of the Angels from behind closed doors, a book that is much about the politics of hippie experience in North America at the time. He also describes his early years as a Pennsylvania youth whose life is transformed by social and political activism: as a radical anti-war Quaker, as a volunteer for Martin Luther King, and later in New York's gallery scene, passing through Andy Warhol's circus before heading west, where the Angels made perfect, beautiful sense of the world. A memoir of the queer seventies counter-culture. Arsenal Pulp Press
ISBN-13: 9781551522319 272 pages $27.95 |
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| How
It All Began, The Personal Account of a West German Urban Guerrilla, by
Bommi Baumann. The author was a member of the West Berlin Blues scene, out of which emerged the anarchist guerilla 2nd of June Movement in the early seventies. While this book represented Baumann’s turn away from the guerilla (the last chapter is entitled "Terror or Love"), it remains an important document from the period, a glimpse into what it was like to be a working class rebel in the freak counter-culture of the sixties, and how one section of the armed resistance in West Germany emerged from this scene. First published in 1975, the book was immediately banned in Germany - nevertheless, at the time some comrades considered Baumann a traitor, and this book a counter-insurgency work. In retrospect, this seems incorrect, for while the author was clearly moving away from a certain kind of revolutionary politics, he remains honest and sympathetic as he tells the story of his life and struggle against the state. With commentary by Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Heinrich Boell. Arsenal Pulp Press
ISBN: 9780889780453 131 pages $19.95 |
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| Only a Beginning, an Anarchist Anthology,
edited by Allan Antliff. Drawing on a wide-range of anarchist publications, this is an excellent overview of anarchist publications in Canada from 1976 to the present, but with an emphasis on the 1980s. Publications prominently featured include Open Road, BOA, Demolition Derby, No Picnic, Anarchives, Demanarchie, Reality Now, Bulldozer/Prison News Service, Enless Struggle, Resistance and Kick It Over, though at the same time dozens of smaller publications are also looked at. Profusely illustrated with pages reprinted from the newspapers and magazines in question. Arsenal Pulp Press
ISBN 9781551521671 405 oversize pages $29.95 |
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| So Long Been Dreaming;
Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy, edited by Nalo Hopkinson
and Uppinder Mehan. Imagined futures from the perspectives of nineteen writers associated with what might loosely be termed the “Third World,” with stories that are bold, imaginative, edgy, stories that are centred in the worlds of the “developing” nations, stories that dare to dream what we might develop into. Ranging from the dystopian to the poetic to the hopeful, it does was science fiction is supposed to do, stretching the mind in ways you may not have considered before. Arsenal Pulp Press
ISBN 9781551521589 270 pages $24.95 |
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Becoming the Media, A Critical History of
Clamor Magazine, by Jen Angel. This analysis is presented as a case study on how movement projects and organizations deal with vital but rarely discussed issues such as management, sustainability, ownership, structure, finance, decision-making, power, diversity, and vision. Jen Angel was one of the people behind Clamor Magazine, which existed between 2000 and 2006, covering radical politics, culture, and activism. PM Press
ISBN 978-1-60486-022-1 44 pages $5.95 |
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Black and Gold: The Story of the Almighty
Latin King and Queen Nation. In 1994, the Latin Kings — the largest and most powerful street gang in New York — became the Latin King and Queen Nation. They claimed to have abandoned their criminal past and to be following in the footsteps of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords. In 1997 Big Noise Films became the only media group ever given unrestricted access to the Nation. For two years they ran with the Kings and Queens in New York City, filming on the front lines of their everyday struggle for survival. This film is the result, a mix of interviews with members, touching on questions of anti-Puerto Rican racism, police brutality. gender dymamics amongst the Kings and Queens. From the outside, this is an informative if somewhat uncritical look at a very interesting Puerto Rican NYC street organization in the 1990s. DVD 80 minutes - Big Noise Films
$19.95 |
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Deserter. The journey of Ryan and Jen Johnson — a deserting soldier and his young wife — as they flee across the country to seek refugee status over the Canadian border. As they move from safe house to safe house, we get to know Ryan and Jen — two, shy, small-town kids from the Central Valley who joined the military because there were no jobs, and find they must make a heroic stand in order to escape an illegal and immoral war. Deserter is a political road movie with one of the few happy endings that this war has given us. DVD 30 minutes - Big Noise Films
$14.95 |
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English
Rebel Songs: 1831-1984 (Chumbawumba). This album was originally recorded in 1988 when Chumbawamba was determined to stir up a rout in the tiny anarcho-punk community by swapping guitars and drums for a capella singing. The songs were discovered in songbooks, in folk clubs and on cassette tapes, chopped and changed and bludgeoned into shape with utmost respect for the original tunes. Fierce, sweet and powerful, English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 contains ballads not included on the original album. It’s guaranteed to sway the listener, break hearts and encourage hope... just as those who inspired the songs by changing history. Compact Disc 42 min. - PM Press
$15.00 |
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F-Word: A
Feminist Handbook for the Revolution
#3. The third issue of this zine is all about "Outlaws".
Interviews include radical historian Howard
Zinn, author and activist Loretta Ross, artist Cristy Road, and gender
outlaw Kate Bornstein. A fascinating history of the pre-Roe Vs. Wade
underground abortion service, JANE, articles by Mos Def and Mattilda
Bernstein Sycamore, underground comics, music/film/book reviews and
more all viewed through a radical, fun, feminist lens. PM
Press
ISBN-12: 978-1-60486-042-9 48 pages $5.95 |
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Geek Mafia, by Rick Dakan. A technopirate crime novel following a disgruntled video game designer as he tries to take personal revenge on corporate america. PM Press
ISBN 978-1-60486-002-3 330 pages $15.95 |
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Geek
Mafia: Mile Zero, by Rick Dakan. Dakan's heroes Paul and Chloe continue their fun in what has been described as a geeky version of The Sting. Another crime novel from Rick Dakan. PM Press
ISBN 978-1-60486-006-1 296 pages $15.95 |
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Get On With It: Live (Chumbawumba). Pop, folk, a capella, politics, humor, four-part harmony and five-part anger, sing-alongs and hymns, throwaways and big choruses, old favorites, covers and unreleased songs, including two tracks only available on this North American release. Formed in a squat in Leeds, England in 1982, the media-proclaimed "anarchist pop group" Chumbawamba has been anything but a typical "pop group." They've been criss-crossing genres and raising hell via their benefit shows, topical lyrics, and general activist ways in a most "unpop" manner for over 20 years. Never mind their improbable fame that came about from their international hit "Tubthumping" in 1997... Whether they are in electric or acoustic form, this group remains true to their beliefs and still graces their audience with their righteous message, all intertwined in those instantly familiar Chumbawamba four-part harmonies and catchy choruses Compact Disc 53 min. - PM Press
$15.00 |
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The Jena 6: Narrated by Mumia Abu-Jamal. In a small town in Louisiana, six families are fighting for their sons’ lives. Two nooses are left as a warning to Black students trying to integrate their playground, fights break out across town, a white man pulls a shotgun on black students, someone burns down most of the school, the DA puts six black students on trial for attempted murder, and the quiet town of Jena becomes the site of the largest civil rights demonstration in the South since the 1960s. The Jena 6 is the story of hidden racial inequality and violence becoming visible. It is a powerful symbol for, and example of, how racial justice works in America — where the lynching noose has been replaced by the DA’s pen. DVD 30 minutes - Big Noise Films
$14.95 |
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Slingsot - 32 Postcards by Eric
Drooker. Radical artwork by graphic artist Eric Drooker, touching no
themes of oppression and love, misery and resistance. Quite beautiful. PM Press
ISBN 13: 978-1-60486-016-0 32 postcards $14.95 |
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The War of 33: Letters from Beirut. An intimate, personal and powerful telling of the story of the 2006 war in Lebanon. A series of letters written by Hanady Salman — a mother living through the war in Beirut — carve a narrative arc through the intense and haunting images of conflict. She tells the stories of her family and the people she lives the war with — the refugees, the wounded, and the everyday Lebanese, struggling to maintain their sanity and their humanity during a time of war. DVD - 35 minutes - Big Noise Films
$14.95 |
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Venezuela: Revolution
from the Inside Out.
By longtime Latin American solidarity activist Clifton Ross, this
documentary is a look at the people at the base of the social upheaval
in Venezuela, known to many as the "Bolivarian Revolution". Ross
travels the country, visiting schools, rural lending banks and
cooperatives, showing the strengths and weaknesses, the warp and wood,
of the "Socialism of the 21st Century". 85
minutes DVD - PM Press
$20.00 |
| Against
Freedom: The war on terrorism in everyday New Zealand life, by Valerie
Morse. In 2001, the United States launched the ‘war on terrorism’ in purported response to the September 11th attacks. This book, written by a New Zealand anarchist, provides both a quick and accessible look at what the “war on terror” is all about, and also shows how this global campaign is experienced in a small faraway country. 168 pages – Rebel Press
$20.00 |
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It's been one whole year since
my last catalog - shameful, i know. The latest Kersplebedeb catalog is now online as a PDF: you can view or download it by clicking here. If you would like me to mail you a hardcopy, just email me at info@kersplebedeb.com |
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