Need some Anarchist Books!

[Donnie]

Well I’ve been a Marxist for a while now, and recently have been hanging around with Anarchists in my college (true ones!!) and recently I have been starting to think that maybe a state is not needed in order to get to communism, and so I’ve been listening to what they have to say on the matter and they seem to have an excellent idea of why we don't need a state and why it is so oppressive, I’m mean there not the usual "so called anarchists" who just say "smash the state" and have no basic beliefs on why they should get rid of the state.

Anyway i was wondering if you guys can give me any good books that are about Anarchism.
My friends say Norm Chomsky (sp) is good.

I’m off to the library tomoz to check out what they got, but good someone give me a general pointer on what books are good thanks.

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

It's Noam Chomsky. I haven't read it, but people say it's a good one. God and State by Bakunin.

[NovelGentry]

Anarchism: From Theory to Practice by Daniel Guerin, is one that I have and have read a good majority of. I wouldn't consider his writing to be all that impressive, but it does drive certain points home.

I tend to read a lot of books at the book store and never buy them.

Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction is probably good. I've not read it, but the "very short introduction" books are usually excellent for how small they are.

[RedLenin]

What Is Communist Anarchism? (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/comanarchism/whatis_toc.html) by Alexander Berkman.

The Conquest of Bread (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/conquest/toc.html) by Peter Kropotkin

Anarchism and Other Essays (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/GoldmanCW.html) by Emma Goldman

Towards Anarchism (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/malatesta/towardsanarchy.html) by Errico Malatesta (not a book just a short essay. Click on the link to read.)

Anarcho-Syndicalism (http://www.infoshop.org/library/anarchism/writers/rocker/anarchosyndicalism/as1.php) by Rudolf Rocker

[Rage]

The books I know are not really about Anarchsim but they are good reads anyway :D

Anarchsit Cookbook (http://isuisse.ifrance.com/emmaf/anarcook/indanarcook.html)

steal this book (http://www.tenant.net/Community/steal/steal.html)


/,,/
Rock on!

[{GR}Raine]

Theanarchist cookbook is the biggest pile of Bs in the world, makes me want to kill whoever made this book and gave it to angry teenagers.

[Parkbench]

I completely disagree. Entropy is a noble goal. However, the crimethinc Recipes for Disaster addresses this.

Any of the books here:

http://www.buyolympia.com/crimethinc/sid=9...8953/books.html (http://www.buyolympia.com/crimethinc/sid=931058953/books.html)

Days of War, Nights of Love
Crimethink for Beginners

“Less of a novel and more of an exploded manifesto, Days of War, Nights of Love might be just what we need. It is the type of book you'd thumb through in the store and actually want to buy (or steal). . . Topics range from anarchy to hierarchy, work to sex, alienation to liberation and technology, but every page burns with a passion for a freer life. . . . When you make it to the end, the personal testimonials about not working and the closing art pieces become an aria of voices urging you to close the book and live. Glorious, even for the most cynical reader. What more can we ask from a book?” - Clamor Magazine #6, Dec.00/Jan.01


Recipes for Disaster
An Anarchist Cookbook

Three years in the making, Recipes for Disaster is the long-awaited follow-up to the CrimethInc. collective’s notorious first book, Days of War, Nights of Love. This 624-page manual complements the romance and idealism of that earlier work with practical information and instruction. Over thirty collectives collaborated in testing, composing, and editing the book’s 62 sections, which range from Affinity Groups, Coalition Building, and Mental Health to Sabotage, Squatting, and Wheatpasting. These are illustrated with extensive technical diagrams and first-hand accounts, and prefaced with a thorough discussion of the diverse roles direct action can play in social transformation. If you’re looking for a tactical handbook for revolutionary action, look no further.

Off the Map

A punk rock vision quest told in the tradition of the anarchist travel story, Off the Map is narrated by two young women as they discard their maps, fears, and anything resembling a plan, and set off on the winds of the world. Without the smug cynicism that seems to permeate most modern radical tales, this story is told with genuine hope, and a voice that never loses its connection with the mysteries of life, even in the midst of everyday tragedies. Wandering across Europe, the dozens of vignettes are the details of the whole—a squatted castle surrounded by tourists on the Spanish coast, a philosophizing businessman on the highways of France, a plaça full of los crustos in Barcelona, a diseased foot in a Belgian train squat, a glow bug on the dew-covered grass of anywhere—a magical, novel-like folktale for the end of the world.


Evasion

A 288 page novel-like narrative, Evasion is one person's travelogue of thievery and trespassing across the country, evading not only arrest, but also the 40-hour workweek and hopeless boredom of modern life. The journey documents a literal and metaphorical reclamation of an individual's life and the spaces surrounding them—scamming, squatting, dumpstering, train hopping and shoplifting a life worth living and a world worth the fighting for.


Stone Hotel
Poems From Prison by Raegan Butcher

This is not the third 'CrimethInc. book,' rather, it is the inaugural book in the CrimethInc. Letters series. Raegan Butcher, undeniably influenced by such luminaries as Bukowski and Bunker, manages to find his own voice in these poems and uses it to avoid the clichés of prison writing while delivering a truly authentic record of his time behind bars. His simple and direct style makes his work immediately accessible both to those who shun traditional poetry, and experienced poetry readers alike, and the story told in these pages is as compelling as it is genuine. Stone Hotel is a no frills ride through one man's experience in the United States prison system and all of the lunacy, horror and meditation that entails. 96 poems are collected here in this finley printed limited first printing of 2,000 numbered copies. More information available here.

This book is a fund raiser for the ongoing anarchist outreach publishing project Fighting For Our Lives. All revenue received, minus production and shipping costs goes directly toward the printing and distribution of FFOL.

[Black Dagger]

IT's not a book, but...

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/

The anarchist FAQ, very useful source for info on anarchism/anarchists/anarchist theory, should be the first place you go to.

[NovelGentry]

I'm hoping that anarchist FAQ is not all as poorly composed as the section on Bakunin vs. Marx -- I've never read so many out of context quotes and assumptions in my life. One point they jump from the fact that a large portion of populations were still peasants and what not to saying this "clearly shows the dictatorship of the proletariat would be a minority" as the class itself would be a minority. In the context of Marx's full works this is complete and utter nonsense -- Marx points out on multiple occations the growth of the proletariat into a majority class and how capitalism itself develops the proletariat. The Manifesto is littered with such points of it's growth as a class.

Seriously, that part of that FAQ was insanely disturbing. That's not the only example of the bias either. It's funny, going into the article they talk about the distortions that Marx and Bakunin held to each other's work, yet somehow they think it's completely OK to uphold all of those distortions themselves.

[Rage]

Originally posted by {GR}[email protected] 21 2005, 11:01 PM
Theanarchist cookbook is the biggest pile of Bs in the world, makes me want to kill whoever made this book and gave it to angry teenagers.
Yea you are right. I had herd it from a friend that it was the Original Anarchist Cookbook. I had not read it and posted the link . I know somethign stupid to do.

That is not the original Anarchist Cookbook as I have now come to know.


<_<


/,,/
Rock on&#33;

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by [email protected] 22 2005, 06:30 AM
I&#39;m hoping that anarchist FAQ is not all as poorly composed as the section on Bakunin vs. Marx --
Anarchists/Marxists mis-representing each other&#33; Well i never&#33; :o
Anarchists are cappies in disguise don&#39;t forget, oh and they want chaos (&#33;), or so the last marxist vs. anarchist thread said. Although i dont support falsification such as you&#39;re talking about, it&#39;s rare to find writing/a debate that pits anarchists and marxists against each other where this doesn&#39;t happen, unfortunately.

[NovelGentry]

Anarchists/Marxists mis-representing each other&#33; Well i never&#33; ohmy.gif
Anarchists are cappies in disguise don&#39;t forget, oh and they want chaos (&#33;), or so the last marxist vs. anarchist thread said. Although i dont support falsification such as you&#39;re talking about, it&#39;s rare to find writing/a debate that pits anarchists and marxists against each other where this doesn&#39;t happen, unfortunately.

Yes, but it&#39;s also rare that I find one which points this out and then makes it blatantly clear they are doing the same.

[rebelworker]

back to the original question, For what you are looking for I would suggest staying away from crimethink, interesting fun reads but not very useful for actually challenging the current Capitalist order, mostly just trying to survive in it, mostly for middle class dropouts...

I personally find reading histories of actual events is the first place to start, personall accounts are better than most people give them credit for. I`ve come to this conclusion as someone who wants to see opressed people emancipate themselves. Used to be a marxist but it quikly became apperant(ok it took me a few years) to see that most marxist history and theory is written from the perspectuve of privaleged leaders or intelectuals who want to liberate "the workers". They just use predeytermined theoretical throuths to justify the fucked up shit they do.

I have come to anarchism thorough practice, seeing the mistakes of revloutionary movements of the past and moving forward from there, it became clear to me that states are an insterment of centralised authority, nothing more, they are always followed by lots of opression, often killing or imprisoning the same people who set them up.

I read alot of 60&#39;s histories by former marxists, Rebel Woman by Roxanna Ortiz Dunbar is good(AK Press), try and find speaches by Ashanti Alston on line, he&#39;s a former black panther turned anarchist(tonnes of Panthers who are still active and didn&#39;t convert to islam came to anarchism through their negative experiences of centralised leadership, unfortunatly many are dead or still in jail). He has a web page and publishes a zine called the anarchist panther out of New York, personnally not super stoked on the zine but his accounts of panther history are invaluable. Lorenzo Kamboa Irvin is another expanther turned anarchist who gives brilliant speaches, he&#39;s based out of Detroit.

READ ANYTHING BY NESTOR MAHKNO, Anarchist communist ukranian Hero, fought of the Bolshies and the white army for two years with his Inserectionary peasant army. You can find his stuff through AK Press Aswell. Might also wanna check out contemporaryt theory and history inspired by his later political writings. Platforamist anarchist Communism, Check out www.nefac.net we have lots of good readings, and links to organisation the world over in the same cschool of thought, the ZABALAZA anarchist communist federation of South Africa in Particular aswell as the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland both have a wealth of good free online readings.

Also Council Communist readings, go to your local anarchist bookstore and find their pamphletes on Russian factory commities, or Hungarian rebellion in 56, good anti statist communist accounts of revolutionary history.

Anyway Im at work and have to get too it but I hope this will help you out a bit.

In solidarity,

One of many,
Rebelworker

[rebelworker]

Check out shit on the CNT/FAI in the spanish revolution, also George Orwells Homaga to Catalonia will put a good distrust of the State and Vangfuardist Parties in your heart...

[SpeCtrE]

Emma Goldman is good.

[SonofRage]

A New World In Our Hearts: 8 Years of Writings from the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation is a good one

http://www.akpress.org/2002/items/newworldinourheartsak

[Turkish Marxist]

have been starting to think that maybe a state is not needed in order to get to communism,

GET OUT HERE

[Turkish Marxist]

have been starting to think that maybe a state is not needed in order to get to communism,

GET OUT HERE COMMUNISM RULES &#33;&#33;&#33;

[Djehuti]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2005, 07:51 PM
Well I’ve been a Marxist for a while now, and recently have been hanging around with Anarchists in my college (true ones&#33;&#33;) and recently I have been starting to think that maybe a state is not needed in order to get to communism, and so I’ve been listening to what they have to say on the matter and they seem to have an excellent idea of why we don&#39;t need a state and why it is so oppressive, I’m mean there not the usual "so called anarchists" who just say "smash the state" and have no basic beliefs on why they should get rid of the state.

Anyway i was wondering if you guys can give me any good books that are about Anarchism.
My friends say Norm Chomsky (sp) is good.

I’m off to the library tomoz to check out what they got, but good someone give me a general pointer on what books are good thanks.
Check out North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists
http://nefac.net/ - It is great actually.

Also, check out: http://www.prole.info
It is a GREAT site, with a excellent load of texts. It is more left-communist then class struggle anarchist, but you would probably like it never the less. Show your anarchist friends this site, I think that they would find it usefull.

Anyway, check out the prole.info links at: http://www.prole.info/links.html
Quite i nice collection, some good links to class struggle anarchist organisations too.

[GhostSoldier]

A Capitalist society cannot switch directly over to Anarchism without significant loss of life... Reaching a state of Anarchism is a process
ie. Capitalism -> Socialism -> Communism -> Autonomous living (Anarchism) ...

No offense to Anarchists - but with my experience with Anarchists - They want too much too soon and dont realise that a process is needed...

None the less - this website has PLENTY of information...

http://www.marxists.org/subject/anarchism/index.htm

Again, I&#39;m all for Anarchism - but it doesn&#39;t happen straight after the over-throw of Capitalism - its the end product of a process known as a Revolution...

[Black Dagger]

. Reaching a state of Anarchism is a process
ie. Capitalism -> Socialism -> Communism -> Autonomous living (Anarchism) ...

With a particular emphasis on &#39;Socialism&#39; right?

[GhostSoldier]

Socialism is the biggest step to be made - once international socialism catches on - it is only a matter of time before anarchism becomes the norm...

[Morpheus]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 03:43 AM
A Capitalist society cannot switch directly over to Anarchism without significant loss of life... Reaching a state of Anarchism is a process
ie. Capitalism -> Socialism -> Communism -> Autonomous living (Anarchism)
Just because you say something is true doesn&#39;t mean it is true. You gave no evidence to support that claim.


None the less - this website has PLENTY of information...

http://www.marxists.org/subject/anarchism/index.htm

Why is Blanqui listed on that site? If they&#39;re going to put Marxists on an anarchist page they could at least put Marxists who are closer to anarchism, like Anton Pannokek or Rosa Luxemberg. Blanqui, DeLeon & Debs definately weren&#39;t anarchists.

[GhostSoldier]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 03:43 AM
A Capitalist society cannot switch directly over to Anarchism without significant loss of life... Reaching a state of Anarchism is a process
ie. Capitalism -> Socialism -> Communism -> Autonomous living (Anarchism)

Just because you say something is true doesn&#39;t mean it is true. You gave no evidence to support that claim.



I would of thought history would have proved that lesson - its pretty much common sense when you think about it - If someone all of a sudden lifted ALL the capitalistic opressions off society what do you think would happen?

Do you think all of a sudden we would be in a state of bliss? - of course not - The world as we know it would be in Chaos...

Where as through a gradual process, it is more likely to take a footing, and alot more people are going to be able to make sense of the world around them...