Alexander Berkman

The People-the toilers of the world, the producers-comprise, to me, the universe. They alone count. The rest are parasites, who have no right to exist. But to the People belongs the earth-by right, if not in fact. To make it so in fact, all means are justifiable; nay, advisable, even to the point of taking life. The question of moral right in such matters often agitated the revolutionary circles I used to frequent. I had always taken the extreme view. The more radical the treatment, I held, the quicker the cure. Society is a patient; sick constitutionally and functionally. Surgical treatment is often imperative. The removal of a tyrant is not merely justifiable; it is the highest duty of every true revolutionist. Human life is, indeed, sacred and inviolate. But the killing of a tyrant, of an enemy of the People, is in no way to be considered as the taking of a life. A revolutionist would rather perish a thousand times than be guilty of what is ordinarily called murder. In truth, murder and Attentat' are to me opposite terms. To remove a tyrant is an act of liberation, the giving of life and opportunity to an oppressed people. True, the Cause often calls upon the revolutionist to commit an unpleasant act; but it is the test of a true revolutionist-nay, more, his pride-to sacrifice all merely human feeling at the call of the People's Cause. If the latter demand his life, so much the better. 

 http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/prison/toc.html

Herbert Marcuse - Reason and Revolution (1941)

 Reason and Revolution: An Introduction to the Dialectical Thinking of Hegel and Marx (1941)  was Marcuse's first major work in English. It focuses on critical reason and dialectical thinking. You can read it here:
 http://archive.org/stream/reasonandrevolut029499mbp#page/n5/mode/2up

Jean Meslier

How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. Meslier

                                                                                              

Every honest man should have Meslier's Testament in his pocket. Voltaire

                              

 Jean Meslier (1664-1729) was a Catholic priest from the Ardennes. Upon his death it was discovered that he had written a book promoting atheism and denouncing religion, which he described  as his Testament to his parishioners. Organized religion, stated Meslier, was but a castle in the air.
Meslier also advocated a rural proto-communism, based on common ownership and mutual cooperation between autonomous communities.
Most prominent among the writers who produced their own (illicit) adaptations of Meslier's lengthy and literally cumbersome work was Voltaire, whose Extraits des sentiments de Jean Meslier (1762), whilst bringing Meslier into the public eye, also did him something of a disservice: Voltaire's book presented Meslier as a deist (like Voltaire himself) rather than an atheist.

 Colin Brewer's 2007 article in The New Humanist is well worth a read:

Historians argue about who was the first overt, post-Classical atheist but Meslier was arguably the first to put his name to an incontrovertibly atheist document. That this important event is largely unrecognised  is due partly to Voltaire who published a grossly distorted “Extract” that portrayed Meslier as a fellow-deist and entirely suppressed Meslier’s anti-monarchist, proto-communist opinions.

Diderot's  famous And [with] the guts of the last priest let's strangle the neck of the last king (from Dithrambe sur Féte des Rois- c1780) is drawn directly from Meslier's man who ...wished that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of the priests.
This sentiment, Meslier held, was motivated by the  love of justice and truth.

 Voltaire's take on Meslier can be found here.

An English translation of  Testament is available. 

Paul Theroux

Raymond Williams

Why not have a read whilst the music is getting sorted? 

Raymond Williams

  Acknowledged as perhaps the masterpiece of materialist criticism in the English language, this omnibus ranges over British literary history from George Eliot to George Orwell to inquire about the complex ways economic reality shapes the imagination.

I lifted that blurb from Google books -  Acknowledged as perhaps the masterpiece- what the fuck does that mean? Oh yes! I tell you there is a masterpiece of materialist criticism in the English language and perhaps this is it?
Anyway, It's worth a read and it's here:

http://ia700300.us.archive.org/2/items/culturesociety17001850mbp/culturesociety17001850mbp.pdf
Credit to the original poster.

The World Won't Listen

Johnny Marr later revealed that the back cover was Morrissey’s intentional visual joke; a portrait of four teenage girls whose faces bore an uncanny resemblance to the individual members of The Smiths. Left to right, the girls supposedly represent Joyce, Rourke, Marr and Morrissey. ‘We didn’t discuss it,’ said Marr, ‘but I understood'. 
From Songs That Saved Your Life by  Simon Goddard

 The sleeve was designed by Morrissey, using a photo by Jürgen Vollmer from the book Rock 'N' Roll Times: The Style and Spirit of the Early Beatles and Their First Fans.

Here's a link to a lossless download of the LP.  a selection of  funky FBI / Ministry of Justice / IRP  badges.

http://sradams777.blogspot.com/2011/10/smiths-world-wont-listen-2011-remaster.html

Rendezvous In Black...

In Cornell Woolrich's 1948 noir thriller JOHNNY MARR  is on a mission to avenge the death of his sweetheart- there are 5 suspects and he tracks them down in turn- number 4 is Bill MORRISSEY!

Photographs from An Illustrated Casebook of Victorian Psychiatric Patients in Bethlem Hospital

By Hering.

In the 1850's Henry Hering photographed patients at Bethlem (see Richard Dadd), his work being used for diagnostic purposes.

By Galton.

In the 1880's Francis Galton photographed patients, motivated by his interest in eugenics.

This fascinating book , showing photographs taken from the mid 1880's to the mid 1890's by Alfred Barker, Herbert Parker, Carbutt Fairbank and Horace Pring (all of whom were on the hospital staff) is going for a hundred quid on Amazon. In the book the photographs are accompanied by case summaries .


Presumed Curable: An Illustrated Casebook of Victorian Psychiatric Patients in Bethlem Hospital- Colin Gale & Robert J Howard
Wrightson Biomedical Publishing Ltd (2003)
ISBN-13: 978-1871816488

Malatesta

It is abundantly clear that violence is needed to resist the violence of the adversary, and we must advocate and prepare it, if we do not wish the present situation of slavery in disguise, in which most of humanity finds itself, to continue and worsen.
Errico Malatesta- Anarchism & Violence

For (Malatesta) anarchism was not a philosophy for a future utopia which would come about one day as if by magic, or simply through the destruction of the state without any prior preparation. On the contrary, Malatesta was, throughout his life, concerned with a practical idea. His anarchism was something concrete, to be fought for and put into practice, not in some distant future but now. It is in this aspect of practical anarchism that gives him a special place amongst anarchist theorists and propagandists.
Dave Poole, reviewing Malatesta, Life and Ideas, edited by Vernon Richards (Freedom Press) in Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review #4 (1978).

Available to read here, with thanks to Mona.

Black Flag # 4- EZLN & Subcomandante Marcos

EZLN...
Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) originated in the Chiapas region of Southern Mexico in 1983.
I'm not going to write a lengthy history of the EZLN- more skilled and knowledgeable writers have already done so- but briefly, The Zapatistas (they take their name from Emiliano Zapata) came to international attention on January 1st, 1994, when they declared war on the Mexican government in order to promote the rights of indigenous peoples in the face of globalisation.
Although defeated after a dozen days of combat, the EZLN have maintained their resistance.

Subcomandante Marcos...

A prominent figure in the EZLN, Subcomandante Marcos is anonymous but instantly recognisable in his balaclava, smoking his pipe.
An urban intellectual , Marcos is a prolific writer who combines sharp analysis with the Latin American magic realism tradition.
He champions the causes of all oppressed minorities.

The Fourth World War Has Begun.

If the Third World War* saw the confrontation of capitalism and socialism on various terrains and with varying degrees of intensity, the fourth will be played out between large financial centers, on a global scale, and at a tremendous and constant intensity.
The Fourth World War Has Begun (1997)
An English translation of this work is available to read here.

* ie. The Cold War

Our Word Is Our Weapon.

Subcomandante Marcos reads in English from his most widely known work.

The KLF- Ultra Rare Trax (1993)

All You Need Is Love.
It's Grim Up North (For Love Nor Money Mix)
What Time Is Love (Techno Scam Mix)
3am Eternal (Blue Danube Orb Mix)
Last Train To Trancentral (Remix 1)
Kylie Said To Jason (Full Length)
What Time Is Love (Power Remix)
Doctorin' The Tardis (Gary Glitter Mix)
Justified And Ancient (Tammy Mix)
3am Eternal (Top Mix- feat. ENT)
What Time Is Love (Wandaful Mix)

Like it says: rare tracks from The Kopyright Liberation Front. Geniuses.

Part 1:http://d01.megashares.com/dl/lGGuC5x/The KLF- Ultra Rare Trax.part1.rar
Part 2: http://d01.megashares.com/dl/BtBznIX/The KLF- Ultra Rare Trax.part2.rar

Recommended:
The Manual.
The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid.

Skinhead - Nick Knight (1982)

Nick Knight's photographs of Skinheads in the East End of London in 1981. Includes a history of the fashions associated with skins from the sixties onwards and a discography.

History of the Makhnovist Movement, 1918-1921 - Peter Arshinov

Peter Arshinov (1887 - c 1937) first met Nestor Makhno in Butyrki prison in Moscow.

Arshinov was serving 20 years for smuggling arms into Russia, having earlier escaped whilst awaiting hanging for the shooting of the boss of the railway workshops of Alexandrovska.

Makhno was serving life imprisonment with hard labour (commuted from the death penalty) for political assassinations. Both men were liberated by the Revolution, and in 1919, Arshinov joined Makhno in Ukraine, where he became involved in cultural and educational work in the area controlled by the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine. He was also the leader of the Confederation of the Anarchist Organizations of Ukraine.

He wrote his History of the Makhnovist Movement in 1921.

Here's a link to the text , courtesy of Libcom:
http://libcom.org/history/history-makhnovist-movement-1918-1921-peter-arshinov

Spectacular Times- Larry Law

With the egocentricity of youth- when I was about 17 - I thought that I'd practically invented anarchism, and with a narcissistic smugness I'd go on about it to anyone who'd listen. To be honest about it I wasn't looking for kindred spirits or sympathetic ears, I wanted the outraged responses of the ordinary Joes.
Then, when I started college I met a lot of old heads from the sixties who had seen it all before. In 1983 1968 seemed to me an impossibly long time ago, but to these guys it was just the other day.
So I came to be aware of The Situationists, and stuff like this.

I don't know much about Larry Law ('writer, publisher and anarchist'). I do know that his series of 'pocket-books' Spectacular Times was started on April 1st 1979, with the aim of assimilating Situationist ideas (so often steeped in obfuscation) into the anarchist movement. The title is a reference to Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle.

Larry Law died on July 22nd 1988.

Copies of Spectacular Times are available to read online here...

George Orwell

This site has on-line texts of Orwell's complete works.

http://orwell.ru/

Nat Tate

My local library's copy of Nat Tate, An American Artist 1928-1960 by William Boyd is still in pristine condition. The last time I checked I think it had been taken out four times, and it's glossy spine occupies an almost permanent position amongst the books on Modern Art.

I moved it once , into the fiction department, but some fastidious librarian, guided by the coded sticker, had moved it back by the following day.

Boyd might be pleased to know that twelve years after the publication of his now celebrated hoax, that there is a corner of Wales in which the deceit endures.
Of course, when the book was launched, (readings by David Bowie, no less...) not one art critic actually came out and said 'Nat Tate? Never heard of him...'

I can imagine them all laughing with a measure of relief when the book was revealed to be a hoax.

The Emporer's new clothes, my friends...

Yarbles!

In 1961, convinced he was dying, the English author Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) wrote five novels in an attempt to guarantee a future income for his wife.
one of these books, which Burgess later described as being knocked off for money in three weeks, and largely ignored at the time, was A Clockwork Orange.
Various filmmakers (including Warhol) had toyed with the story during the 1960's.
In 1970 Burgess heard that Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) was going to film the novel, news he received with some trepidation: I foresaw a dangerous situation for myself and I was right to do so...
Burgess and Kubrick, as befitted two geniuses, had an interesting relationship.

Burgess had earlier written a screenplay of the novel for a proposed adaptation to star The Rolling Stones. For the Kubrick production there was no screenplay per se; using the novel as a guide Kubrick had the actors improvise the scenes. Burgess (along with leading man Malcolm McDowell) resented Kubrick being credited with the screenplay. In terms of financial reward Burgess collected a relatively small sum from Warner's in an out of court settlement (whereas Warner's had paid the lawyer who owned the option on the novel $200,000). Burgess however, collected awards on behalf of the reclusive Kubrick, and worked with him on an unrealised Life of Napoleon.
Even though Burgess had no involvement in the film's production , the way in which its notoriety forced him into the spotlight obliged him to defend it.
Some elements of the novel are more disturbing than those of Kubrick's film. For example, in the book the gang members are only 14 years old. On the other hand Burgess' Alex (from the latin A Lex- without law) renounces the thrills of 'ultraviolence', whereas Kubrick worked from an American edition of the novel that lacked this final, redeeming chapter.
Amid the media hysteria in which crimes perpetrated by people who had never even seen the film were attributed to its influence, there was one event that stands out for special consideration. I've never seen it, but in what must have been a truly bizarre piece of television, the BBC asked Burgess to defend the film in front of an almost unanimously hostile audience. And who did the BBC choose to host this? Some expert on modern literature perhaps, or an eminent criminologist? Someone who was in a position to comment on the causal link between viewing or reading habits and maladaptive behaviour?
I'm not making this up. They chose (Sir) Jimmy Savile (OBE), the famous disc jockey.

Burgess: Ow's about that then?

The scapegoat Burgess was not allowed to put his case across or to effectively challenge the views of the audience. He did manage to get in the great argument that if indeed there was a causal relationship between literature/ drama and violence then having seen or read Hamlet millions of people would have been incited to kill their uncles.
Burgess would comment years later: If they can give Jimmy Savile a knighthood, well, the honours system is so dishonoured that one wouldn’t want it.
For all the tribulations that the scandals surrounding the film caused Burgess he must have taken some comfort from the fact that when Penguin reissued the novel in the wake of the film's release it sold 50,000 copies in two weeks.
Horrorshow!

Further reading:
Stanley Kubrick; A Biography by John Baxter (1997).
You've Had Your Time, Being the Second Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess by Anthony Burgess (1990).