What magazine/paper/periodical most shaped your political thinking?

[DaveCinzano]

...The Beano...

Published by a very straight-laced, dourly-puritan Dundonian family company, but over the years the comic became synonymous with anti-authoritarian characters wrestling with the tension between the collectivist and the individualist. Plus iconic black-and-red sweaters

Legendary artist/writer/genius Leo Baxendale (Bash Street Kids) leaned towards the anarchist, and fought a long war with his employers to better enjoy the fruits of his labour in respect of work-for-hire arrangements. These meant, basically, DC Thomson owned the characters and stories he (and others) created on company time, and that he didn't get any reprint fees. Eventually the courts found in favour of the publisher, but Leo flensed the shit out of the fuckers by showing that he had paid for the ink and paper and was awarded significant moolah.

 

[DaveCinzano]

...2000AD...

Created by young hotshot Pat Mills as a flicking-the-vs, boundary-pushing science fiction adventure comic for kids, staunchly working class-oriented, often leftish. Biggest strip Judge Dredd was a satire of a post-apocalyptic America ruled over by an anti-democratic paramilitary police state with completely-unconcealed fascist overtones. Early big strip Flesh has time travel technology harnessed by a greedy corporation to farm dinosaurs for meat to feed (at great profit) growing contemporary populations as food production diminishes.

The comic's in-house PR/feature writer Michael Molcher has a book out soon about how the ridiculous fascist cop fantasy of Judge Dredd ended up becoming a terrifying reality:

2000 AD Shop : I AM THE LAW

2000 AD is Britain's cult sci-fi comic, and has been at the cutting edge of contemporary pop culture since 1977. It's a multi-award winning cocktail of explosive sci-fi and fantasy, infused with a mean streak of irony and wry black humour.

shop.2000ad.com

 

[JTG]

When Saturday Comes
NME (mid to late 90s)
The books of Terry Pratchett
SchNews

ETA: also Gerry Francis slagging off Thatcher in a book about Bristol Rovers' Third Division champions of 1990

 

[Serge Forward]

A new publication to shape people's radical thinking... especially those that live in Leicester.
Leicester Muckery

FYI: the local daily shit rag is the Leicester Mercury. You see what we did there

Download the pdf (!) here: https://leicestermuckery.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/muckery-01.pdf

 

[DaveCinzano]

Download the pdf

Steady

 

[RedRedRose]

Every time I see this thread it makes me want to go back and read the Fighting Talk back catalogue.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

It is probably ridiculous that I ended up living here after reading this mad cartoon but there you go. There were other reasons!

VAGUE – VAGRUNTS

 

[contadino]

Encyclopedia psychedelica. Surprised it hasn't been mentioned. I'd love to reread a few of them now.

 

[DaveCinzano]

It is probably ridiculous that I ended up living here after reading this mad cartoon but there you go. There were other reasons!

VAGUE – VAGRUNTS

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View attachment 371496

TBF Vague made me want to live in Stoke Newington or Notting Hill, Godhaven made me want to live in Leeds, Eat Shit made me want to live in Bristol, and GuilFIN made me want to live in, err, Guildford...

 

[hitmouse]

It is probably ridiculous that I ended up living here after reading this mad cartoon but there you go. There were other reasons!

VAGUE – VAGRUNTS

View attachment 371495

View attachment 371496

I'm now wondering if that cartoonist might have had any connection to Lazarus Lamb, if that name means anything to anyone?

TBF Vague made me want to live in Stoke Newington or Notting Hill, Godhaven made me want to live in Leeds, Eat Shit made me want to live in Bristol, and GuilFIN made me want to live in, err, Guildford...

Did you ever experience the glory days of Initonit or Gadgie?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Did you ever experience the glory days of Initonit or Gadgie?

I'm afraid not, though I did revel in Trev's glory days

 

[hitmouse]

I'm afraid not, though I did revel in Trev's glory days

I think it may well have been Gadgie that introduced me to "Boston (not Boston)" as a way of describing the place in Lincolnshire.

I feel like Lazarus Lamb might have been a Brixton comic, although if it turns out that no-one except my parents ever had a copy that's probably going to be hard to prove or disprove?

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Black Flag
Direct Action (DAM)
Freedom
Here & Now
Spectacular Times
Virus. (ACF)
World Revolution (ICC)
Red Pepper
Searchlight
Socialist Worker
Industrial Worker (IWW)
Solidarity (at least 3 papers/mags of that name!)

 

[Dom Traynor]

Virus is literally the worst name for a magazine ever.

 

[twistedAM]

Race & Class
Socialist Challenge
The Ring (kind of)
and all the capitalist dailies - at one stage I couldn't get enough of their lies and deceit

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Virus is literally the worst name for a magazine ever.

Fuck You

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Fuck You

Is probably a worse title than Virus for a magazine.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Race & Class
Socialist Challenge
The Ring (kind of)
and all the capitalist dailies - at one stage I couldn't get enough of their lies and deceit

OMG forgot Socialist Challenge! Possibly the first lefty paper I read when I was a Youth CND’er. The IMG’s youth wing, “Revolution Youth” were big into recruitment in Youth CND at one point in the 80’s…

 

[hitmouse]

Solidarity (at least 3 papers/mags of that name!)

Brinton's lot, AWL, and who were the third? IWW maybe?

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Brinton's lot, AWL, and who were the third? IWW maybe?

Brinton’s lot went through about three or four iterations from the 60s to the Eighties, all quite different in tone and content, as the organisation/ideas changed, with different glosses added to the title. There was also this publication at the turn of the century, focused on unions:

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I'm now wondering if that cartoonist might have had any connection to Lazarus Lamb, if that name means anything to anyone?

Never heard of it but just found this in a copy of Hackney Peoples Press from 1982...

 

[hitmouse]

Never heard of it but just found this in a copy of Hackney Peoples Press from 1982...

View attachment 373863

That cartoon they've chosen as an illustration feels oddly contemporary feeling that it must be 40-odd years old. But doesn't resolve the mystery of whether it was set in Brixton, Hackney, or somewhere else.

 

[Kate Sharpley]

Derail about bookshops:
Dave Cope, ‘Anarchist Papers, Publishing and Bookshops: An Introduction’ Radical Bookselling History Newsletter no.6, (May 2023) p.49-87. https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co....lling-History-Newsletter-Issue-6-May-2023.pdf
"Revolt in Swansea. Considering that Ian Bone is such a great publicist, it is disappointing that we learn practically nothing from his book about this last shop that he set up." (p84)
"There was a ‘squatted bookshop’ in Albany Street run by Tim Paine and ‘Spike’– referred to in Bone but with no more details unfortunately." (p85)

Comment (long) in KSL Bulletin: ‘Not a good look’? Reading Dave Cope on British anarchist publishing history
"Cope would like to hear from people who have worked in anarchist bookshops, or who could help ‘produce a comprehensive listing of anarchist magazines, publishers and books’. The Kate Sharpley Library will try and let him know of anarchist bookshops that don’t appear in his ‘Radical Bookshops Listing’.[https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co.uk/pdf/Radical-bookshops-Listing.pdf] Does anyone know the names of shops we should pass on? I wonder if British anarchists just as likely to work through mail order, or street selling papers, books and pamphlets as starting their own bookshops?"

 

[Pickman's model]

Derail about bookshops:
Dave Cope, ‘Anarchist Papers, Publishing and Bookshops: An Introduction’ Radical Bookselling History Newsletter no.6, (May 2023) p.49-87. https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co....lling-History-Newsletter-Issue-6-May-2023.pdf
"Revolt in Swansea. Considering that Ian Bone is such a great publicist, it is disappointing that we learn practically nothing from his book about this last shop that he set up." (p84)
"There was a ‘squatted bookshop’ in Albany Street run by Tim Paine and ‘Spike’– referred to in Bone but with no more details unfortunately." (p85)

Comment (long) in KSL Bulletin: ‘Not a good look’? Reading Dave Cope on British anarchist publishing history
"Cope would like to hear from people who have worked in anarchist bookshops, or who could help ‘produce a comprehensive listing of anarchist magazines, publishers and books’. The Kate Sharpley Library will try and let him know of anarchist bookshops that don’t appear in his ‘Radical Bookshops Listing’.[https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co.uk/pdf/Radical-bookshops-Listing.pdf] Does anyone know the names of shops we should pass on? I wonder if British anarchists just as likely to work through mail order, or street selling papers, books and pamphlets as starting their own bookshops?"

used to be a shop at the 121 centre

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The Albany Street shop was at 36 and was used as a contact address for both Class War and A Communist Effort.




“The anarchist bookshop at no 36 Albany Street, in Euston, was a successor to the Peace Centre in 1983, based in an area of mass squatting for both housing and alternative projects, around Tolmers Square and Drummond Street. The anarchist paper Class War was briefly based at the bookshop.” Today in London’s dole history, 1985: Islington Unwaged Centre occupied to prevent its closure

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I’m not sure if it actually had a name? It was mentioned in a radical history walk around Euston that Past Tense was involved with organising a few years back.

 

[hitmouse]

Derail about bookshops:
Dave Cope, ‘Anarchist Papers, Publishing and Bookshops: An Introduction’ Radical Bookselling History Newsletter no.6, (May 2023) p.49-87. https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co....lling-History-Newsletter-Issue-6-May-2023.pdf
"Revolt in Swansea. Considering that Ian Bone is such a great publicist, it is disappointing that we learn practically nothing from his book about this last shop that he set up." (p84)
"There was a ‘squatted bookshop’ in Albany Street run by Tim Paine and ‘Spike’– referred to in Bone but with no more details unfortunately." (p85)

Comment (long) in KSL Bulletin: ‘Not a good look’? Reading Dave Cope on British anarchist publishing history
"Cope would like to hear from people who have worked in anarchist bookshops, or who could help ‘produce a comprehensive listing of anarchist magazines, publishers and books’. The Kate Sharpley Library will try and let him know of anarchist bookshops that don’t appear in his ‘Radical Bookshops Listing’.[https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co.uk/pdf/Radical-bookshops-Listing.pdf] Does anyone know the names of shops we should pass on? I wonder if British anarchists just as likely to work through mail order, or street selling papers, books and pamphlets as starting their own bookshops?"

From a quick search, it doesn't look like they've got Jepps Books, which briefly had a physical presence in Sheffield but I think is now online-only: Jepps Books – Zines, badges, and a radical rethink

 

[skyscraper101]

Vox
Raw
Select
Mixmag
T3
Stuff
Which?

 

[krtek a houby]

80s NME, Hot Press, Crisis. And a book on racism against Irish people. Can't remember the name but it had contributions from Ken Livingstone and Paul Brady.

Can't remember 90s.

00s was New Statesman, No Logo.

Can't remember most 10s.

In recent years, Nell McCafferty's autobiography.

Oh, and New Internationalist about 20 years ago. It was a real eye opener.

 

[hitmouse]

As it happens, just been listening to this podcast interview with the makers of Signal journal (nope, never heard of it before either), and one of them mentions how finding old issues of Cienfuegos was really influential for them.