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

[Kate Sharpley]

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.

89: Cienfuegos Press, part VI 89: Cienfuegos Press, part VI
"And finally, I’ve run out of Cienfuegos titles, but do have a pamphlet produced in 1968 by Coptic Press, Albert Meltzer’s publishing company before he threw in with Stuart Christie on Black Flag and Cienfuegos. Aims and Principles of Anarchism is laid out on a typewriter, roughly printed, and has an extremely charming cover, well laid out in a strong, naive way. It’s relatively rare to see unique and original illustrations on anarchist pamphlets these days, so this is a real treat. I’m not entirely sure how this was printed, it looks part-mimeograph, part-offset, with the edges of the ink of the cover a little fuzzy, which Lincoln Cushing says is a tell-tale sign of a Gestetner machine. I’ll have to do more research into Coptic to find out."

 

[Dom Traynor]

Vox
Raw
Select
Mixmag
T3
Stuff
Which?

Used to love Select and Mixmag.

 

[manji]

Used to love Select and Mixmag.

Select was particularly good.

 

[charlie mowbray]

Might be a Ted Kavanagh print job on Meltzer pamphlet.

 

[imposs1904]

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

View attachment 385753View attachment 385754


“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

Any info about A Communist Effort? I've never heard about that group/journal before.

I do remember the journal, A Communist Headache.

 

[hitmouse]

Any info about A Communist Effort? I've never heard about that group/journal before.

I do remember the journal, A Communist Headache.

Neil Fernandez, apparently. I was going to say "sure it's on libcom", but apparently not. Ah, dropbox collection here from Splits & Fusions: A Communist Effort

 

[manji]

Living Marxism….yeah I know. That group also produced their version of Private Eye. I remember it was quite scurrilous they targeted Portillo a lot with his sexual dalliances with male staffers. Dunno I guess fairly tame stuff now but at the time the time quite scandalous.

Scallywag just remembered the name.

For a while Soviets released an English version of Pravda. I used to buy it on the way to work at my local newsagents.

 

[Dom Traynor]

Neil Fernandez, apparently. I was going to say "sure it's on libcom", but apparently not. Ah, dropbox collection here from Splits & Fusions: A Communist Effort

Shame they didn't put some effort into the cover and layout.

 

[Serge Forward]

I expect it was done samizdat style on a Roneo or Gestetner duplicator after typing directly onto a stencil and doing simple drawings with a ball point pen.

Back then, before computers and DTP, a lot of us small communist/anarchist groups made our propaganda this way. I had an electric Roneo machine in the living room of my squat (a step up from the old hand-cranked duplicator) and was churning out thousands of flyers and bulletins. It was a thing of beauty.

 

[Idris2002]

Living Marxism….yeah I know. That group also produced their version of Private Eye. I remember it was quite scurrilous they targeted Portillo a lot with his sexual dalliances with male staffers. Dunno I guess fairly tame stuff now but at the time the time quite scandalous.

Scallywag just remembered the name.

For a while Soviets released an English version of Pravda. I used to buy it on the way to work at my local newsagents.

I think Robert Maxwell was involved in the English language versh of Pravda

 

[Dom Traynor]

I expect it was done samizdat style on a Roneo or Gestetner duplicator after typing directly onto a stencil and doing simple drawings with a ball point pen.

Back then, before computers and DTP, a lot of us small communist/anarchist groups made our propaganda this way. I had an electric Roneo machine in the living room of my squat (a step up from the old hand-cranked duplicator) and was churning out thousands of flyers and bulletins. It was a thing of beauty.

I briefly shared a house with an anarchist printer / zine producer / cartoonist known to people on here and it was great to see his little productions using various modern and older machines and methods to be honest.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Living Marxism….yeah I know. That group also produced their version of Private Eye. I remember it was quite scurrilous they targeted Portillo a lot with his sexual dalliances with male staffers. Dunno I guess fairly tame stuff now but at the time the time quite scandalous.

Scallywag just remembered the name.

What connection did RCP/Living Marxism/Junius/Informinc have with Scallywag?

 

[manji]

What connection did RCP/Living Marxism/Junius/Informinc have with Scallywag?

Jeez it’s a while ago now but I’m sure there was a connection

 

[DaveCinzano]

Jeez it’s a while ago now but I’m sure there was a connection

I've never heard of any connection, and Simon Regan's background is about as far away from Füredi as I could imagine.

 

[manji]

I've never heard of any connection, and Simon Regan's background is about as far away from Füredi as I could imagine.

OK I stand corrected

 

[hitmouse]

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

View attachment 373863

While visiting my parents this weekend, had a look through not one but two Lazarus Lamb books. You never officially find out where he lives, but my mum reckons it was based on Islington, and also claims that she used to work with the person who it was actually modelled on. Took photos of various bits I enjoyed:

Spoiler: various photos from The Adventures of Lazarus Lamb

And from the sequel:

Spoiler: various bits from Lazarus Lamb and the Riddle of the Sphincter

 

[Serge Forward]

Aww... I had that Adventures of Lazarus Lamb. Some crusty purloined it from my squat before I got to read it

 

[A380]

I expect it was done samizdat style on a Roneo or Gestetner duplicator after typing directly onto a stencil and doing simple drawings with a ball point pen.

Back then, before computers and DTP, a lot of us small communist/anarchist groups made our propaganda this way. I had an electric Roneo machine in the living room of my squat (a step up from the old hand-cranked duplicator) and was churning out thousands of flyers and bulletins. It was a thing of beauty.

Late I know, but I can smell this post...

 

[Larry O'Hara]

Living Marxism….yeah I know. That group also produced their version of Private Eye. I remember it was quite scurrilous they targeted Portillo a lot with his sexual dalliances with male staffers. Dunno I guess fairly tame stuff now but at the time the time quite scandalous.

Scallywag just remembered the name.

For a while Soviets released an English version of Pravda. I used to buy it on the way to work at my local newsagents.

I can assure you Scallywag (Simon Regan) was nothing to do with LM….

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I enjoyed this brief account by one of the people behind Timperley Village Anarchist - a small anarcho/Class War newsletter from the mid-80s:

Wake Up to Anarchy!

Twenty years ago, I’d been working in a diecasting factory in Ancoats for going on three years and had decided that my life was pretty much ...

counago-and-spaves.blogspot.com

Which you can take a look at here:

Timperley Village Anarchist / TV-AM

Online archive of this mid-1980s Class War adjacent newsletter produced in Greater Manchester.

libcom.org

 

[hitmouse]

I enjoyed this brief account by one of the people behind Timperley Village Anarchist - a small anarcho/Class War newsletter from the mid-80s:

Wake Up to Anarchy!

Twenty years ago, I’d been working in a diecasting factory in Ancoats for going on three years and had decided that my life was pretty much ...

counago-and-spaves.blogspot.com

Which you can take a look at here:

Timperley Village Anarchist / TV-AM

Online archive of this mid-1980s Class War adjacent newsletter produced in Greater Manchester.

libcom.org

View attachment 403800

 

[DaveCinzano]

I enjoyed this brief account by one of the people behind Timperley Village Anarchist - a small anarcho/Class War newsletter from the mid-80s:

Wake Up to Anarchy!

Twenty years ago, I’d been working in a diecasting factory in Ancoats for going on three years and had decided that my life was pretty much ...

counago-and-spaves.blogspot.com

Which you can take a look at here:

Timperley Village Anarchist / TV-AM

Online archive of this mid-1980s Class War adjacent newsletter produced in Greater Manchester.

libcom.org

View attachment 403800

What shadowy figure could be behind this shocking filth?

 

[hitmouse]

Blimey, apparently SchNEWS is coming back. There's a blast from the past.

 

[charlie mowbray]

Libertarian Struggle, paper of the Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Blimey, apparently SchNEWS is coming back. There's a blast from the past.

UK direct action newsheet – Issue 862 – Friday 2nd August 2024

network23.org

“This site contains the articles from the one-off issue produced for the Green Gathering in August 2024”.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Anarchists posting dense textual screeds on walls in Kings Cross is also coming back, baby!

 

[hitmouse]

UK direct action newsheet – Issue 862 – Friday 2nd August 2024

network23.org

“This site contains the articles from the one-off issue produced for the Green Gathering in August 2024”.

Impressively baffling decision to keep the schnews.org header, which takes you to a link that makes no mention of the new issue, rather than replacing it with one to the network23.org site that actually has it.

 

[hitmouse]

Libertarian Struggle, paper of the Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists.

Archived here btw: Libertarian Struggle/Anarchist Worker

 

[DaveCinzano]

Impressively baffling decision to keep the schnews.org header, which takes you to a link that makes no mention of the new issue, rather than replacing it with one to the network23.org site that actually has it.

Gotta keep steps ahead of the feds, dude

 

[Ground Elder]

Picked up a Schnews at the Green Gathering, turned around and there was Rinky Dink The good old days are back