May 2020 Pocket books a go go!
We reprinted and published for the first time a whole bunch of titles this month. They are on their way to the Active Dsitribution crew in Bristol and will soon be available from them. Highlights include new A6 pocket book versions of Dysophia pamphlets “What About The Rapists” and “From Animals to Anarchism”. We hope you like the pocket book format as this is our preferred size for publications in the future.
2020 brings two new Great Anarchists!
Numbers nine and ten of our Great Anarchists series (co-published with Dog Section Press) are out now. We start the new decade with a look back at the anarchist activists and intellectuals of the 19th century. Godwin who inspired so many – not least his daughter Mary! – wrote the influential book Political Justice comes in at pamphlet number nine. Number 10 attempts to cover the huge input that Errico Malatesta had on the anarchist world at his time and since.
September’s mini print run!
We have just printed the 7th and 8th of the Great Anarchist pamphlets, Proudhon and Parsons respectively are their names! We also reprinted The Anarchist Teapot’s Feeding the Masses which is a guide to mass vegan catering for ethical activists which should have been done last time but wasn’t. Finally another pamphlet in our series of an academic analysis of punk is titled, Bakunin Brand Vodka: Anarchism and Early Punk (1976-1980) . This is a look at the politics of early punk before the prefix “anarcho” was commonly used before the word punk to determine the nature of the politics.
Summer releases coming soon!
We have the pride and pleasure to have helped Nicloe Rose get her long awaited “Overcoming Burnout” book published as well as her “The Prisoners Herbal”. Both books are DIY self help books written passionately from a perspective of personal experience and expert knowledge. We’ve also reprinted The Anarchist Teapot’s Feeding the Masses which is a guide to mass vegan catering for ethical activists. Beasts of Burden has been out of print for many years so we have reissued it with a brand new introduction. The European version of Desert the much discussed booklet that asks as more questions than it answers has also been out of print until now.
We bring you a new text from Peter “Cunningham Amendment” Good, his amusing story of trying to work within the English Trade Union movement, is called “Something Should Be Done”, as indeed it should! We have repressed Chav Solidarity with a few corrections and alterations from its author. Last but not least we are releasing a new cersion of Nick Blinko’s The Primal Screamer, the ‘simple’ version as Nick “always wanted it to be”.
Total Liberation Now!
Nope it’s not just a natty ‘catch all’ slogan for marches and grafitti! This is the title of our latest release specially rushed through for the summer activist and festival season. Total Liberation is of anoymous authorship and is our first co-publication with Signal Fire. The back page describes its intent thus;
“It seems every generation thinks theirs will be the most remarkable,
yet ours might just be the first that turns out to be right. To say
this century is the most crucial our species has ever faced is
actually an understatement: we’re dealing with the most significant
crisis life in general has ever faced, even amidst billions of years
of evolution.”
Total Liberation sets out an insurrectional project that draws its
strength from social ecology, deep ecology, and anti-speciesism.
Casting aside outdated methods, it proposes a holistic, multiform
struggle fought in defence of all forms of life – humans, animals, and
the earth.
A new revolutionary manifesto for the 21st century.
Look out for this on our websites and from AK Press soon.
Now available from the Active shop!
It took a bit of time but we tend to use the cheapest shipping methods inorder to keep prices low, but at last these new titles are available!l
Great Anarchists Oscar Wilde (5) and Max Stirner (6).
Gerfried Ambrosch’s Punk Matters book with its interviews and commentry from the great and the not so great of the political punk scene.
Chav Solidarity as seen at your local Anarchist Bookfair!
The Continuing Appeal of Religion by Giles DauveAn A6 pocketbook.
SCUM Manifesto by Valeri Solanas. Also shrunk to A6
Jean Barrot’s Fascism / Anti-Fascism which includes a dialogue between the author and Aufheben magazine about the text.
Dysophia 0 the Introduction to Green Anarchism, Tools for Everyday Life.
Peter Singer’s The Animal Liberation Movement pamphlet.
Lessons From Chomsky by Nathan Robinson.
It’s not just Winter that’s coming …. in May 2019
The latest Great Anarchists to be published in our series with Dog Section Press are Oscar Wilde (5) and Max Stirner (6). We finally publish Gerfried Ambrosch’s Punk Matters book with its interviews and commentry from the great and the not so great of the political punk scene. We have reprinted the Chav Solidarity book that is causing much dscussion in the activist world. The Continuing Appeal of Religion by Giles Dauve is one of several pamphlets we have turned into an A6 size pocket book along with the classic SCUM Manifetso by Valeri Solanas. Also shrunk to A6 is a new version of Jean Barrot’s Fascism / Anti-Fascism which includes a short dialogue between the author and Aufheben magazine about the text. Dysophia 0 the introduction to Green Anarchism also gets the shrinking effect as does Peter Singer’s The Animal Liberation Movement pamphlet. We are also reprinting Peter Gelderloos’s Anarchy Works again, and 23 Theses, Revolution is More Than a Word. Finally a new text taken from the website Current Affairs we have created a pocket book called Lessons From Chomsky by Nathan Robinson. All to be available from the Active shop come the beginning of June.
There’s no such anarchists…
The Michael Bakunin and Louise Michel Great Anarchists pamphlets are now available from all good radical outlets. As is our A6 pocket pamphlet version of Crimethinc’s ‘There’s no such thing as revolutionary Government’. Coming in the next month or two are reprints of Anarchy Works, The ABCs of Anarchy, Feeding the Masses a new book Punk Matters by Gerfried Ambrosch Matters, a book on Burnout and hopefully some more Great Anarchists!
More Great Anarchists.
Michael Bakunin and Louise Michel are the next two infamous anarcho’s to make it in to our Great Anarchists pamphlet series co published with Dog Section Press. These two are at the printers and will hopefully be available for all the usual disreputable outlets within a couple of weeks. We also have a pocket pamphlet version of Crimethinc’s ‘There’s no such thing as a revolutionary government’ text at being printed this week so look out for that.
Available now!
Our new titles are now available from the Active Distribution shop. The limited edition of hardback versions of Machine and its Discontents, the Fredy Perlman Anthology is there as is Lisa Fannen’s Faultline poetry book. Brian Heagney’s ABC’s of Anarchy is finally available in Europe and not printed by Amazon!
28th November 2018 Twit
Not sure how long it will last, it took me about 8 months to make the first tweet but we now have an Active Distribution Publishing Twitter Account!
Now isn’t that exciting!
13th October 2018 Forthcoming titles!
We are pleased to announce the titles of our forthcoming print run which is happening next week and these books should be available in the UK by the first week of November all being well! The ABC of Anarchy is a child friendly alphabetical break down of what anarchism is all about. It has an American slant, the author Brian Heagney lives in North Carolina so thats excusable! This edition is the first European version and a proper offset litho print using recycled paper. We will be donating 50p from each copy sold to Rebel City the London anarchist free magazine.
In a break with Active’s anti esoteric tradition (?) we are publishing a book of poetry! Lisa Fannen author of the formidable Threads book launches her spoken word career with Faultline. She will be touring in November but if you are unable to catch her… buy the book. “Faultline is a breath of fresh air in a crowded Poetry scene”
Next we have a long overdue anthology of Fredy Perlman work co-published with Theory and Practice. This collection includes the best and most relevant of Perlman’s work and came with the blessing of and indeed help from Lorraine Perlman. Titled “The Machine and its Discontents” the book includes most of the essays that have for some time only been available as pamphlets.
We are also reprinting our two “best selling” Chomsky pocket pamphlets, “Notes on Anarchism“, and “On Anarchism, Marxism and Hope for the Future” . Another 500 copies of “No! Against Adult Supremacy“ are also being printed this time on recycled paper, along with a thousand more copies of our version of Bakunin’s God and the State. Slowing down? Moi? Jamais!
12th Oct 2018 Pallets arrived!
As of last week the three pallets of newly printed Active books arrived at our Sunderland base. Please start ordering copies of the 2019 Bottled Wasp Diary and the other new titles mentioned below from Active Distribution. If you are outside the UK and interested in bulk orders feel free to get in contact with me direct too. jon(at)activedistribution.org
18th Sept 2018 Backwoods!
We have copied the first issue of the Backwoods journal from the US for European distribution. Described by its editors as “Backwoods has a focus on trying to live according to anti-civilization values here and now, with a suggested praxis of “desertion, autarky, and reinhabitation” – that is, withdrawing from civilization materially and psychically as much as is practical and possible” it is intentionally challenging. If there is enough interest we will publish issue two when it arrives.
6th Sept 2018 Forthcoming titles!
The Bottled Wasp 2019 ABC benefit diary (image below) is at the printers along with our fourth reprint of Another Dinner is Possible and the first European pressing of Peter Gelderloos’ How Non Violence Protects The State. We have joined up with Detritus Books in the U.S. for this publication, which means in this case we have used their layout and artwork for this new edition and just added our name to it! Next years Bottled Wasp diary – probably the last – has Anarchists as its theme. We also launch the beginning of a major new collaboration with Dog Section Press starting the Great Anarchists pamphlet series. The first two of these A6 pamphlets is Peter Kropotkin often called the Grandaddy of Anarchism he gets to be Great Anarchist Number 1! Voltairine de Cleyre is the subject of pamphlet number 2 in the series and will be followed by most of the usual suspects later. The short introductory texts are written by Ruth Kinna and the cover art is by Clifford Harper. Finally we have published an academic text titled “The ‘Punk Anarchism’ of Class War and Crimethinc”, which is an A5 pamphlet analysing the differing currents within anarchist punk.
3rd Aug 2018
Currently winging their way across Europe to our Northern warehouse are reprints of several of our titles. These include: Threads, The Russian Counterrevolution, Eat Like it Matters, Fuck NeoLiberalism and our co-publish with Dog Section Press Advertising Shits in Your Head. They have all been reprinted at a new printers so expect slightly differing specs and colours. And both Threads and The Russian Counterrevolution have been “corrected” and slightly altered just to compel all you collectors out there to buy second versions!
Active is moving and changing.
After 28 years of being based in Hackney, London, Active Distribution is moving to Bristol. It will now be run by a co-operative of 4 or 5 comrades. This might lead to all kind of improvements! Active will also now have an “open” office in central Bristol from where one can collect orders.
As of the 15th February 2018 I (Jon) will not be sending out any more orders. As of the 12th of February all mail and deliveries for Active should be sent to Active Distribution, Exchange, 72 – 73 Old Market, Bristol, BS2 0EJ . Active Bristol should be up and running and sending out orders from the weekend o the 24th Feb.
Emails for Active Distribution should be sent to info@activedistribution.org from the 15th onwards, but don’t worry all communication to me (Jon) that relates to Active will be forwarded to the Bristol crew.
I will be trying to agree account balances with all suppliers and customers before handing over but thats rather ambitious. The Active bank accounts and Paypal accounts will continue unchanged. But please note the Bristol crew includes a very competent accounts person so dealing with Active might be a little different from now on.
I started doing an anarchist distribution in 1986 and named it Active in 1989 when I linked up with a record distro and opened a squat bookshop in Hackney, now I’m leaving the UK. I will continue to publish books and pamphlets as Active but not be involved in the running of the distribution.
Thank you for you help and support over the years.
cheerio
jon
For the last 7 or 8 years we have been talking with Antisect about how to release their next LP. They originally asked if we would be interested and we said yes. It seemed we could do a different style release with lots of comment and politics involved and more interestingly we intended to release it for a “Pay what you want” price. Antisect spent years working on the LP and have now decided to sign to a “proper label” and “reach a wider audience” etc. Heard that before? We wish them luck.
As mentioned below we are slowly divesting ourselves of most of the “punk rock” associations with Active. (The CD’s are all about to go on sale! ) This included a cull of most of our punk badges a few weeks ago and we are now replacing them with some of the designs we never got around to putting on the website. Check out our 25mm button Badges still home made by Marta and designed – or stolen- by Jon! (30/12/16)