The following zines were published in the broad anarchist space over the past month. We encourage folks to read, discuss, debate, and circulate the zines they find relevant. We have heard of folks using these round-ups as a way of staying informed, as the basis for sending mailings to prisons, and for reading groups.

Note: It has been a while since we have done one of these, but we will be publishing these monthly again. If you have suggestions for zines to include, please contact us.

Zines and Pamphlets - April 2021

Without Police: Community Safety & Accountability Alternatives in Three Examples

This zine collects stories of communities who have developed working alternatives to police with an eye towards expanding conversations around abolishing police. It provides brief overviews of experiments in community safety occurring in in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava), Michoacan, Mexico, and those by the Zapatistas in Chiapas. The brief outlines here can help us expand our understanding of what a world without police could look like. The examples also serve as a reminder that the transition to a world without police would also mean a fundamental shift in the nature of society.

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Making Sense of Fascism

This zine presents an edited version of an essay by Matthew N. Lyons aimed at sharpening our collective analysis and understanding of fascism. The author argues that many people understand fascism very narrowly and that this limits our ability to understand and respond to fascists. Lyons writes:

“Fascism is a revolutionary form of right-wing populism, inspired by a totalitarian vision of collective rebirth, that challenges capitalist political and cultural power while promoting economic and social hierarchy. This definition—with its twin focus on ideology and class rule—offers a fuller, more rounded model of fascism. In the process, it gives us a more powerful tool to map divisions, relationships, and changes in right-wing politics, and to understand how these dynamics relate to changes in capitalism.”

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Settlers on the Red Road: On Indigeneity, Appropriation, and Belonging

This zine addresses the phenomenon of an increasing number of anarchists claiming indigenous identity on dubious grounds and the role that this can play in undermining solidarity with Indigenous communities. It discusses the problems of using the blood quantum approach to determining who is Indigenous, the role of kinship, the emergence of race-shifting, and the ways in which settler claims of “being native” often bolster the state’s goal of reconciliation. Running through the text is a critique of identity politics and its limits. While the conversation is primarily centered on experiences in Canada, the discussion is relevant to the United States.

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Face to Face with the Enemy

With the subtitle “a brief overview of last year’s attacks against power in France 2020-2021, this zine collects reports of attacks in France by anarchists and others against the system of power. It documents the emergence of “a broad wave of sabotage” that targeted “the veins of domination: its networks of telecommunication, transport and energy.” There are reports of a large number of attacks on cell phone towers, Internet cables, and other such targets that are essential pieces of infrastructure in the technological era. Alongside the brief action reports there are several essays highlighting anarchist agency and analyzing the current period.

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Earth First! News – Spring 2021

The latest edition of the Earth First! newsletter features the usual report backs of eco-action across the world alongside articles covering continued conversations around the future of Earth First!, ongoing campaigns, and a report on the Midwest Climb Camp. There is also a list of political prisoners that are in need of support.

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Anathema – April 2021

The recent issue of this anarchist periodical from Philadelphia (occupied Lenape territory) features writings on recent events in Philadelphia and the United States as a whole. There is a chronology of actions in Philadelphia, reports and analysis of local struggles, a discussion on the merits of the black bloc vs a so-called “light” or “grey bloc”, trends in repression, and an article on the January 6 riots at the US capitol.

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The Baldies & Anti-Racist Action: A History of Anti-Racist Skinhead Organizing

This zine documents the history of The Baldies, an anti-racist skinhead crew that formed in the 1980s in Minneapolis. In these conversations, participants reflect on their experiences fighting neo-Nazis in the streets, organizing community resistance to white nationalism, and offer lessons learned for those in the thick of the fight today. The group played a pivotal role in the formation of Anti-Racist Action (ARA). The interviews presented here were originally conducted for the “It Did Happen Here Podcast".

Download PDF: Imposed

215 Rioters: Heroes Forever

From the editors: “This zine is a compilation of analyses and reports from the 2020 Walter Wallace uprising in Philadelphia. The authors have revised their pieces and written an introduction to give context to their thoughts. Two anonymous action reports are also included to bring to light some less publicized aspects of the rebellion. As the police make it clear that they will continue to kill Black people it is our intention that these kinds of reflections and histories help us sharpen our struggle to free ourselves from the forces of anti-Blackness and social control.”

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Return Fire – Vol. 6, Chapter 2

The Winter 2020-2021 issue of Return Fire features its usual assortment of essays critical of civilization and technology. In this issue authors address the COVID lockdowns and the role that cybernetics play in making them sustainable, campaigns in the United Kingdom, a chronicle of actions, discussions on the ramifications of anarchists retreating from the streets over the past year, the potential for a new Luddite current, and more. There is also an interesting article on anarchism during the Spanish Civil War and the actions that women took in resisting the collective work projects mandated by the anarcho-syndicalist and Marxist forces.

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Another Word for Settle: A Response to Rattachments and Inhabit

This zine presents a critique of two texts – Reattchments (Re-attachments in English) and Inhabit – that have circulated recently in the radical milieu in Canada and the United States. The two texts are heavily influenced by the Invisible Committee and are associated with what is often called the Tiqqunist, Appelist, or autonomist current. The zine critically analyzes the texts’ calls for a project of “inhabiting” territories, which in the absence of an anti-colonial grounding, can be a call for settlers to take land on which they have no claim. The points within are worth considering when it comes to deepening our understanding of what it means to be anti-colonial.

Download PDF: Imposed