The FE Bookstore is located at 4632 Second Ave., just south of W. Forest, in Detroit. We share space with the Fifth Estate Newspaper and may be reached at the same phone number: (313) 831-6800. Visitors are welcome, but our hours vary so please call before dropping in.
How to Order by Mail
1) List the title of the book, quantity wanted, and the price of each; 2) add 10% for mailing costs—not less than $.90 U.S. or $1.34 foreign (minimum for 4th class book rate postage); 3) total; 4)write check or money order to: The Fifth Estate; 5) mail to: The Fifth Estate, P.O. Box 02548, Detroit, MI 48202
ECODEFENSE: A FIELD GUIDE TO MONKEYWRENCHING Edited by Dave Foreman and Bill Haywood, Forward by Edward Abbey
This new, revised and enlarged second edition contains everything the wilderness defender needs to know about how to disable, dismantle, blowup, tear down, break, burn, destroy or otherwise stop the machinery, equipment, buildings, vehicles, etc. of those who are raping the earth for profit. Sabotage techniques are richly detailed with diagrams, first hand accounts and “field notes.” A virtual eco-criminal’s guidebook on what to do and how not to get caught. Unfortunately, co-editor and Earth First! founder, Dave Foreman, discovered that the security methods outlined in his book are not foolproof, as he currently faces federal conspiracy charges for eco-sabotage after FBI-finks infiltrated EF! See article this issue. This volume will undoubtedly be introduced as evidence by the prosecution
Ned Ludd Books 312 pp. $12
LOMAKATSI NO. 4
A Hopi word meaning “life in balance,” Lomakatsi is a magazine put out by folks from Washington DC who are doing their best to withdraw from the dominant culture and live a life in harmony with the planet. Much of this issue is devoted to alternative means of expression. A unique mix of photographs, illustrations and articles reflects this in form as well as content.
Lomakatsi 26 pp. large format, $3
INTERNATIONAL BLACKLIST
A voluminous guide containing thousands of entries for international anarchist, anti-authoritarian, peace, animal rights, civil rights and liberties groups, publications and individuals. Think you’re alone? This text alone should be enough to dispel that notion.
Terminal Words, 8.5 X 11 164 pp. $10
WILLIAM BLAKE: Visionary Anarchist by Peter Marshall
An introduction to Blake’s world showing the light which shines beyond the cloudy mountain range of his symbolism. Blake shaped wonderous visions of freedom and love. His appeal lies precisely in his combination of the social and the sacred and what we would call today, the ecological. He was a revolutionary anarchist looking back to the gnostic anarchism of the Middle Ages who anticipated modern anti-authoritarianism and social ecology.
Freedom Press 69 pp. $5.00
ANARCHY & ECSTASY: Visions of Halcyon Days by John Moore
This sequence of speculative and analytical essays constitutes a body of visionary insights—uncovering beyond ideology, a field of infinite potentialities. Moore’s seven essays propose the development of a culture of anarchy: a culture aware of its roots in a genuinely halcyon society and confident of its future in a renewed earthly paradise. Highly recommended.
Aporia Press 44 pp. $4
SOCIAL ANARCHISM: A Journal of Practice and Theory No. 14
Several essays on education including the provocative lead-off one which states tersely, “Most current American universities, of course, are hardly appropriate places for an anarchist.” Also, poetry and lots of reviews.
Atlantic Center for Research & Education 128 pp. $4.00
ANARCHISM IN ACTION: The Spanish Revolution by Direct Action Movement
Introduction to the 1936-39 Spanish Revolution and the areas controlled by the CNT. A look at the principles of anarchism in practice and at the fact that they worked until dislodged by an unholy alliance of fascists, communists and bourgeois nations.
Aldgate Press 48 pp. $3
BACK IN STOCK
Quiet Rumors: An Anarcha-Feminist Anthology
Along with Voltarine de Cleyre’s essay “The Making of an Anarchist,” the collection includes writings by anarcha-feminists from the early 1970s which “illustrate the clear parallels existing between feminist practice—non hierarchical, anti-authoritarian and de-centralist—and the theories of anarchism.”—from the jacket.
Dark Star/Rebel Press 72 pp. $5
THE TRAFFIC IN WOMEN & Other Essays On Feminism by Emma Goldman with a biography by Alix Kates Shulman
Besides her classic lead essay, ones on “Marriage” and “Women’s suffrage” are included in this volume. Shulman’s short biographic sketch places this revolutionary anarchist within an historical context.
Times Change Press 63 pp. $3
SOCIETY AGAINST THE STATE by Pierre Clastres
Can there be a society that is not divided into oppressors and oppressed, or that refuses coercive state apparatuses? In this beautifully written book Pierre Clastres offers examples of South American Indian groups that, though without hierarchical leadership, were both affluent and complex. In so doing he refutes the usual negative definition of tribal society and poses its order as a radical critique of our own western state of power. “We conventionally define the state as the regulation of violence; it may be the origin of it. Clastres’ thesis is that economic expropriation and political coercion are inconsistent with the character of tribal society—which is to say, with the greater part of human history.” —Marshall Sahlins.
Zone Books [price omitted in original]
MARXISM & NATIVE AMERICANS Edited by Ward Churchill
In a format of challenge and counter-challenge, Native Americans and marxists debate the viability of marxism and its ethnocentric bias in politics, culture and social theory. The authors examine the status of Western notions of “progress” and “development” in the context of the practical realities faced by American Indians.
South End Press 221 pp. $12
AUTHORITY HAS NO TEARS by Gerard McCrory
McCrory was arrested in 1976 and charged with the murder of a Northern Ireland civilian when in fact the shot was fired by a British soldier. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and remains as a political prisoner in the cages of Long Kesh. This poem, of epic length, was written between 1977 and 1980.
Just Books 25 pp. $1.50
AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY: Technics out of control as a theme in political thought by Langdon Winner
Winner outlines the paradoxes of technological development, the images of alienation and liberation evoked by machines, and assesses the historical conditions underlying the exponential growth of technology. He evokes the myths of Frankenstein and Prometheus to illustrate our own inventions.
MIT Press 384 pp. $11
I… RIGOBERTA MENCHU: An Indian Woman In Guatemala
After the coming to power of the Garcia Lucas regime in 1978, her brother, father and mother were all killed in separate, horrifying incidents of savagery on the part of the army. Undeterred, Rigoberta became a leader of the struggle against the dictatorship and her words evoke the realities of social and political life in Guatemala. Also covered are the different functions of religious and superstitious belief and the development of a feminist and’ liberatory philosophy within the context of her peasant roots.
Verso 250 pp. $14
SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE by Guy Debord
Classic Situationist text which broke new theoretical ground viewing modern society as a collection of spectacles in which everything that was once lived directly had moved away into representation.
Black & Red 221 Theses $2.50
FREE! with every order a free copy of “Preface to the Fourth Italian Edition” of this text in which the author excoriates previous translations.
THE WHITE ROSE by B. Traven
Traven’s novel deals with the clash between two worlds: the centuries old rural life of the Mexican country-side and the rising power of American industrialism. It describes the destruction of the Indian hacienda, La Rosa Blanca, which stood in the way of the rapacious U.S. oil giants.
Lawrence Hill & Co. 209 pp. hardcover $10
ANARCHY by Errico Malatesta
In this volume Malatesta achieves a synthesis of his whole social concept in just a few words: “We struggle for anarchy because we believe that it must be realized immediately, that is to say, that in the revolutionary act we must drive government away and abolish property…”
Freedom Press 54 pp. $3.25
FRA CONTADINI: A Dialogue on Anarchy by Errico Malatesta
Written as a chat between two peasants, one more politicized than the other, Malatesta’s aim is to convince workers of the mechanisms of exploitation and repression. He also indicts the system of ideological and political swindling with the aim of pushing workers to rebel against their class enemies and ultimately to insurrection.
Bratach Dubh Editions 43 pp. $3.00
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE by B. Traven
Traven’s novel surpasses John Houston’s fine film version by its stinging critique of property and how ownership erodes the basis of human solidarity. Not preachy at all and creates the basis for the suspense-filled, compelling film which starred Humphrey Bogart. Highly recommended
Farrar Straus Giroux 300 pp. hardcover $7
HOW DEEP IS DEEP ECOLOGY? with “Women’s Freedom: Key to the Population Problem” by George Bradford
“How Deep…” was the now out-of-print 1987 FE essay that began the long exchange on what constitutes radical environmentalism. Its criticism of Earth First! and the fundamentals of deep ecology centers on their failure to understand the roles of capital and the state in creating the ecological crisis. “Women’s Freedom” discusses the role of reproductive freedom as being a key to both the liberation of women and our reconciliation with nature.
Times Change Press 86 pp. $5.50 (40% discount on five or more copies.)
IN SEARCH OF THE PRIMITIVE: A CRITIQUE OF CIVILIZATION by Stanley Diamond
Diamond is critical of the discipline of anthropology and of the civilization that produced it. He views the anthropologist who refuses to become a critic of civilization as a tool of it. Diamond rejects the idea of modern superiority and searches for the primitive as an alternative and superior mode of intersecting with the world.
Transaction Books 385 pp. $19
THE LAST DAYS OF CHRIST THE VAMPIRE by J.G. Eccarius
One of the most wildly blasphemous books we have seen since the classics of sacrilege. The book jacket states: “Christ the Vampire. He rose from the dead…His power grew over the ages. Enslaving minds and bodies through both religious hierarchies and direct telepathic control, Jesus Christ the Vampire promises people eternal life for the price of their minds.
“Always people have fought back, but now with the power of the Christians multiplied by TV, government and nuclear weapons, Christ the Vampire and his undead followers are preparing the Apocalypse.”
When Professor Holbach stumbles upon the truth he and his friends must flee for their lives. Can a few teens, outcasts and anarchists foil the Christians’ plan for Armageddon? “Read the book. Soon you will see the grafitti; then you will live the reality.”
111 Publishing 180 pp. $6
MUTUAL AID: A FACTOR OF EVOLUTION by Peter Kropotkin
An anarchist classic which profoundly influenced theories-of human biology. His thesis was propounded as a counterblast to the social conclusions drawn from the Darwinian “struggle for existence.”
Freedom Press 278 pp. $11
BREAKING FREE: The Adventures of TinTin by J. Daniels
A book length comic which chronicles the beginnings of a revolution as TinTin and his pals battle unions and the cops. What starts as a small labor action quickly takes on the legitimacy of the state. it rather follows the scenario of The Free in demonstrating realistically how self-organization for revolt will occur.
Attack International 176 pp. $5
MINER CONFLICTS—MAJOR CONTRADICTIONS
An account of the British miners strike. From the introduction: “…mining communities, and those who identify with the struggle, are actually beginning to discover real life outside and against the commodity-spectacle.”
B.M. Combustion 31 pp. $1.00
INTRODUCTION TO “MY DISILLUSIONMENT IN RUSSIA” by Emma Goldman
Anarchists knew the truth about the Bolsheviks before glasnost. Writing from the experience of her stay in Russia, 1920-21, Goldman shows how the Communists, starting with Lenin, destroyed the social revolution and replaced it by their own tyranny.
Phoenix Press 16 pp. $.75
BEYOND GEOGRAPHY: The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness by Frederick Turner
Traces the “spiritual history” that led up to the European domination and decimation of the Western Hemisphere’s native peoples who were as rich in mythic life as the new arrivals were barren. Beginning with the first separation from the Wilderness in the days of the Israelites, and thus from the myths that had nurtured them and connected them with the land, and ending with Buffalo Bill’s hollow triumphs over his “Wild West,” Turner follows the unconscious desire in the Western invaders for the spiritual contentment they sensed in those “primitives” they encountered.
Rutgers U. Press 329 pp. $14
THE ASSAULT ON CULTURE: Utopian Currents from Lettrism to Class War by Stewart Home
A survey of the revolutionary art movements since World War II that include not only those currents listed in the subtitle, but also the situationists, Fluxus, Auto-Destructive Art, punk, the Motherfuckers and Detroit’s own White Panther Party. The critiques remain on the terrain of culture without much indication of how these movements intersected concretely with moments of resistance, but they do suggest what is possible for artists other than subjection to the market.
Unpopular Books 115 pp. $8
IN THE SHADOW OF THE SILENT MAJORITY by Jean Baudrillard
“That whole chaotic constellation of the social revolves around that spongy referent, that opaque but equally translucent reality that nothingness: the masses. A statistical crystal ball, the masses are swirling with currents and flows, in the image of matter and the natural elements. So at least they are represented to us.”
Semiotexte(e) 123 pp. $6
SIMULATIONS by Jean Baudrillard
“The very definition of the real has become that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction…The real is not only what can be reproduced. But that which is always already reproduced. The hyperreal… which is entirely in simulation.”—from the text.
Semiotext(e) 159 pp. $6
PARIS: MAY 1968 by Solidarity
An eye-witness account of two weeks spent in Paris during the May 1968 uprising, its purpose being to inform rather than to analyse. The French events have a significance that extends far beyond the frontiers of modern France. A whole epoch had just come to an end: the epoch during which people could say that “it couldn’t happen here.”
Dark Star & Rebel Press 55 pp. $4
CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1968 by Petr Cerny
The tragedy of the Soviet invasion which conjures up images of Beijing in 1989 was marked equally by an amazing amount of self-organization and heroism. With even the worst Stalinists admitting to the crimes of “socialism,” documents such as this still remain as vivid testimony to the tyranny of all states and the desire for freedom on the part of the people. Also, included is a separate essay by Paul Avrich on the Makhnovist movement in the Ukraine which fought the Bolsheviks for an anarcho-communist revolution.
Solidarity 49 pp. $4.50
