From Little Black Cart

This was a difficult quarter, and year, for Little Black Cart, with sadness at the end of relationships, misrepresentation by those who are supposed to be comrades, and frustration at the misdirection of many friends and allies. Happily though, the year ended with anticipation for an exciting new time of renewed vigor and opportunity.

We ended 2017 with
The East Bay Anarchist Bookfair, which continues to be thought-provoking and engaging. This one included remembrances of Ghost Ship and others, workshops that spanned a variety of topics from cyber-nihilism, Stirner, community, and the hermetic left, and tablers from the new to the usual.

2017 is also the end of LBC's big push (or, great experiment). We said, five years ago, that we were going to build a catalog of books by publishing a new anarchist book every month for five years. We have done just that. In addition we have published and helped start (as of this writing) at least seven new journal projects (Atassa, Attentat, BASTARD Chronicles, Dangerous Constellations, Hostis, Insurgencies, and LBC Review). We continue to help make large print-run newsprint papers available, and there are at least two projects planned for 2017. Now we are starting some new experiments. We hope that by June we'll have something to show you.

We have
a new PDF catalog available. We are looking for an Intern for later this year. If spending three months in the Bay, while making books, interests you Email us at info@lbc.And a big thank you to our out-going intern, Wil, new master of the prepress process!

New Titles

Anarchist Speculations: The works of John Moore

Ardent Press

John Moore was a UK green anarchist author who considered his work to be a series of anarchist speculations. This is a collection of his work and includes the long essays Lovebite, Anarchy & Ecstasy, and the Book of Levelling. Also included are shorter essays like The Primitivist Primer, Maximalist Anarchy, and Anarchism and Poststructuralism.

But unbeknownst to those immersed in classical anarchist traditions, a new, second-wave of anarchism (akin and indeed roughly contemporaneous with second-wave feminism) was stirring. The Situationists represent a convenient marker of the transition point, and serve as origin for the remarkable efflorescence of second-wave anarchism that is currently underway. Second-wave anarchism is still frequently not even recognised by anarchists and commentators who still cling to the idea that classical anarchism is the one and only true form of anarchism, even though first-wave anarchism was seen as moribund by Woodcock forty years ago. As a result, many outside the anarchist milieu are given the misleading impression that a) classical anarchism is anarchism, b) anarchism is therefore an historical phenomenon, and thus c) there are no current manifestations of anarchist praxis.

For more information - Anarchist Speculations - The writings of John Moore

Anarchy & Nietzsche - by Shahin

Elephant Editions/Ardent Press

As publishers we believe that anarchism is the lens by which the rest of the world is examined. This means that all of the ideas that are otherwise owned by the bourgeoisie are ours. To do with what we will. To consume and make our body and mind strong. Nietzsche is a figure that is both owned by our enemies and entirely ours for the taking.

This book, freely available on the Anarchist Library, attempts to do what I am not Man, I am Dynamite failed to do, integrate Nietzsche firmly into the anarchist tradition. This is a project we approve of unconditionally.

Scratch a political ideal and you can uncover a view of human nature. Many of the stories these enlightenment philosophers told are now deeply embedded in the “common sense" of capitalist culture. One is the idea that humans are “economic agents", citizen-consumers who spend our lives pursuing comfort, wealth, or profit – our “self-interest". Even more basic is the idea that we are “rational subjects" at all, individuals who can, or at least should, make decisions by consciously calculating from a range of options, and can be held responsible for those choices. Revolutionary movements against capitalism have also used these “enlightenment" views of psychology, developing them in their own ways. For example, Marxist strands of socialism took on the same ideas of economic self-interest, and also the idea that work or productive labour is fundamental to our being.
Nietzsche's psychological investigations attack many of these conventional myths. He says: if we look closely and honestly at how we are, we see that we are very far from being coherent rational subjects dedicated to the pursuit of peace, happiness and economic accumulation.

For more information - Anarchy & Nietzsche

For the freely available text

Feral Consciousness

Repartee

The Repartee imprint is books that integrate ideas that are normally owned by the academy into the anarchist tradition. This book, Feral Consciousness, is a furtive attempt towards a new (anarchistic) understanding of both Freud, especially his attitude in
Civilization and Its Discontents and the Dionysian Nietzshe. Unlike other books that have covered similar topics in the past this one begins with a glossary of terms.

This is a solid attempt to build a bridge between the ideas of a set of dead European men and build a "Dionysian relationship--or what I call a rewild-feral, non-domesticated psychological state."

This book describes a way to retain/regain/reclaim what is Dionysian (instinctual, natural, passionate, joyful, authentic, free), using a method that is Apollonian (rational, unnatural, analytic). Language, first and foremost for example, is Apollonian in its structure. I hyper-exploit the Apollonian, which reveals itself as nihilist (I'll cover this more later), and arrive at the Dionysian. This journey is as follows, and I hope you find it as exciting as I do.

For more information - Feral Consciousness

Atassa: A Journal of eco-extremism

For many readers the first question they may ask upon picking up Atassa is "Where is the anarchy in this?" This is not the anarchism of an evolutionary (or revolutionary) transformation of this cold, bureaucratic world into a nicer, better world. It isn't about ideas. It is about something a lot more uncomfortable. It begins in the moment when Industrial Society and Its Future was translated into Spanish. The premise of that writing, much like the eco-extremist movement that Atassa journals, is that Civilization should be fought. The example of Ted Kaczynski is of what that fighting looks like: it isn't social, it isn't popular. It will probably end in failure and imprisonment.

ITS and other eco-extremists have denounced anarchism. But they have denounced it FROM within and not from the outside of anarchism. Their Wild Nature is similar to most other expressions of anti-civilization perspectives. Their anti-anarchism is an attempt to do what they did as anarchists better. Their anti-anarchism is similar to what post-left, second wave, and anti-state communists, are trying to say when they complain that anarchists often act as moralist, failure-as-a-form-of-life, close minded, parochial position. Often the position is the enemy of the goal and this is especially true as the failures of old strategies meet new (uncomfortable) approaches.

Eco-extremism is violent resistance that mimics the reflexive reaction of Wild Nature itself against what seeks to alienate and enslave all living and inanimate things. It is against the artificiality of modern society, and all that subjugates human instinct to a “higher end."

For more information - Atassa: Readings in eco-extremism

Elpis: The power of laughter is terrible and awful

This is a journal of pessimistic writing for an anarchist audience. It contains writings by pessimists and pessimist sympathizers... Pratt, Battaille, Zapfe, Noyes, Cioran, Leopardi, Popa, and Flueres explore the ramifications of, if not believing that things will get worse, then at least certainly not believing that things will get better. (Remember Virginia, pessimism is not the same thing as depression.)

The power of laughter is terrible and awful: anyone who has the courage to laugh is master over others, in the same way as anyone who has the courage to die.

For more information - Elpis Journal

Recent LBC Titles & Distro items

1. Killing King Abacus collection
2. Reprints from the UK Do or Die - Cracks in a Grey Sky
3. 100 years of anarchist attacks - Smert Za Smert
4. A collection of essays seeking the abolition of work - Abolish Work - Edited by Nick Ford
5. Ardent Press Coloring Book
6. To the Customers - The first severe critique of the Appelistas
7. Blessed is the Flame - A great introduction to nihilism set in the context of concentration camp resistance
8. Is Space the Place? Yes/No - A book that asks and answers the question of man & space travel

New LBC t-shirt

After several years we have finally got ourselves a silkscreen setup. Here is our first shirt.

Become an Intern

We have a living space (and good company) to offer someone who wants to intern with us and work on exciting anarchist projects for three months starting in late 2017. Contact us at
our primary email for more information and logistics.

Our new catalog

This year we decided to eschew a paper catalog (and have since changed our mind). All of our original titles, imprints, cover art, and descriptions are now available in
a nice and shiny PDF. Enjoy!

The rest

Want to help?

Are you in the Bay Area and would you like to help make LBC projects happen?
Drop us a line.

Are you a writer?

Send manuscript proposals to us at
info@lbc

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Politics is the enemy of anarchy, and it knows it.