butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Platypus lite
What magazine/paper/periodical most shaped your political thinking?
- Thread starter chilango
- Start date
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Sea Star
have you ever explored your dark side?
in chronological order, and by no means exhaustive:
The Daily Mirror in the early Thatcher years (i was very young)
2000 AD/ Crisis
NME in early to mid 80s
New Socialist magazine
Guardian around mid 80s
New Internationalist
SchNews
(what i read in the 90s was a variety of publications - things that floated my way - some already mentioned by others - but out of all that I started reading Chomsky around 91/92 and his books rocked my world at the time)
Lobster in more recent years
The Daily Mirror in the early Thatcher years (i was very young)
2000 AD/ Crisis
NME in early to mid 80s
New Socialist magazine
Guardian around mid 80s
New Internationalist
SchNews
(what i read in the 90s was a variety of publications - things that floated my way - some already mentioned by others - but out of all that I started reading Chomsky around 91/92 and his books rocked my world at the time)
Lobster in more recent years
Chomsky is the best.
Snap. He was the biggest influence in my political development .
Snap. He was the biggest influence in my political development .
chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
...a few others that I forgot to include:
ContraFlow
Collective Action Notes
Love & Rage (which in hindsight kinda sucked)
Live Wild or Die!
Fifth Estate
Fighting Talk
...more recently I sorta liked Kittens and BAMN, but I'm a bit old and cynical to get enthused by them. Was in Housemans the other day browsing and didn't bother to pick up a single rag
.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
That was great. News and also snark!
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
Spare Rib
Gay Times
Pink Paper
Various feminist/lesbian newsletters
ID
Square Peg (ok not very political, but very arty filth)
Gay Times
Pink Paper
Various feminist/lesbian newsletters
ID
Square Peg (ok not very political, but very arty filth)
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Beano
Red About Town
Well-Known Member
AP/RN
Red Action/Fighting Talk
A number of different football fanzines.
All the above are now finished in paper format unfortunately.
Red Action/Fighting Talk
A number of different football fanzines.
All the above are now finished in paper format unfortunately.
Grump
Well-Known Member
Daily Express on the bus to work at 16 because my dad read it.
Daily Mirror on the bus as I realised the Express was crap.
The Guardian on the bus as my politics changed, that was 45 years ago.
The Observer till my politics drifted rightward and I started reading the Sunday Times.
On and off, Socialist Worker, Private Eye, New Statesman.
Now back reading the Observer.
Daily Mirror on the bus as I realised the Express was crap.
The Guardian on the bus as my politics changed, that was 45 years ago.
The Observer till my politics drifted rightward and I started reading the Sunday Times.
On and off, Socialist Worker, Private Eye, New Statesman.
Now back reading the Observer.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
you're all over the place!
Grump
Well-Known Member
Just open to new ideas .
chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
stereotypical
hospitality king
Likewise. Growing up in Liverpool in the 1980s was enough of an influence (still is).
Yer, I had a rough time growing up too.. but without the access to anarchist circles and literature... fuck ... I could have ended up a fash! It is the combination of being traumatised by poverty + anarchist literature/circles which made me radical.
ska invita
back on the other side
Ive heard that Tribune have gone bankrupt (again) and that Jacobin is planning a takeover...second hand info but sounds plausible
not-bono-ever
meh
Class war , new society and viz
ETA an Irish republican academic family friend started giving me new left reviews after he had finished with them but you know....
Eta2 random strike pamphlets during the miners strike - usually roneostated local ones from the picket lines I went to
ETA an Irish republican academic family friend started giving me new left reviews after he had finished with them but you know....
Eta2 random strike pamphlets during the miners strike - usually roneostated local ones from the picket lines I went to
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
Never really got into the zine scene. But I was a bit of a weird teenager in that I was really into news and current affairs when others were into drinking cider in the park and stuff. I used to watch Question Time and Newsnight on top of news bulletins and the Sunday politics programmes.
In terms of reading, though, it was mostly newspapers, mostly the Guardian through the week and Saturdays and then the Sunday Times, which I used to lie down on my belly and read it spread out all over the floor (except the sports section). And also the Manchester Evening News. I often read others though, I had no blind loyalty, would pick up others depending on the front pages and if the teasers tickled my fancy, but those were my defaults.
I also read Private Eye and the Economist from a weirdly early age.
And then came across Red Pepper when I was a student. I've been through phases reading that.
Also New Internationalist and Ethical Consumer magazine.
And more not-print stuff via SchNEWS and IndyMedia websites.
But my reason for posting was really to mention something that's not a periodical but was eye-opening and thought-provoking in terms of shaping my political thinking: Peter Gelderloos' How Nonviolence Protects the State, a copy of which was given to me by a friend after a discussion in which we disagreed about protesters rioting/damaging stuff and I was firmly in the pacifist/nonviolence camp.
I was convinced by it, it completely changed my mind in terms of previously believing that rioting and violent direct action was bad, unconscionable, reflected badly on the 'good protesters' and whatever cause was being supported/protested against. But there were so many examples of people only winning their hard-earned rights not through politely asking for them or writing letters or signing petitions, but by demanding them and kicking off, using violence (against police and/or property) - sometimes as a direct response to State violence, a reaction to being physically attacked, but other times as a tactic.
For example, the Suffragettes, the US civil rights movement, Stonewall riot, etc.
It was a bit of a lightbulb moment.
So now instead of blanket and outright condemnation, which used to be my knee-jerk response, I now think it can be a valid reaction/tactic. And fuck, the State uses it all the time to oppress people, and sometimes you've got to fight fire with fire.
In terms of reading, though, it was mostly newspapers, mostly the Guardian through the week and Saturdays and then the Sunday Times, which I used to lie down on my belly and read it spread out all over the floor (except the sports section). And also the Manchester Evening News. I often read others though, I had no blind loyalty, would pick up others depending on the front pages and if the teasers tickled my fancy, but those were my defaults.
I also read Private Eye and the Economist from a weirdly early age.
And then came across Red Pepper when I was a student. I've been through phases reading that.
Also New Internationalist and Ethical Consumer magazine.
And more not-print stuff via SchNEWS and IndyMedia websites.
But my reason for posting was really to mention something that's not a periodical but was eye-opening and thought-provoking in terms of shaping my political thinking: Peter Gelderloos' How Nonviolence Protects the State, a copy of which was given to me by a friend after a discussion in which we disagreed about protesters rioting/damaging stuff and I was firmly in the pacifist/nonviolence camp.
I was convinced by it, it completely changed my mind in terms of previously believing that rioting and violent direct action was bad, unconscionable, reflected badly on the 'good protesters' and whatever cause was being supported/protested against. But there were so many examples of people only winning their hard-earned rights not through politely asking for them or writing letters or signing petitions, but by demanding them and kicking off, using violence (against police and/or property) - sometimes as a direct response to State violence, a reaction to being physically attacked, but other times as a tactic.
For example, the Suffragettes, the US civil rights movement, Stonewall riot, etc.
It was a bit of a lightbulb moment.
So now instead of blanket and outright condemnation, which used to be my knee-jerk response, I now think it can be a valid reaction/tactic. And fuck, the State uses it all the time to oppress people, and sometimes you've got to fight fire with fire.
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LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Have you read Pacifism as Pathology by Ward Churchill? That argues a similar case.
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
No, I haven't, I'll check it out, thanks.
imposs1904
Thread Killa'
What was Crowbar?
Btw, I see a few people have mentioned New Society. A few years back I got a hold of photocopies of most of Ian Walker's New Society articles, scanned them in and put them on the net. He was a journalist from the 70s and 80s, who started at independent radical magazine, The Leveller, moved onto New Society for a few years and then worked for The Observer in the second half of the 80s. He only published the one book, Zoo Station, which was about his time living in West Berlin in the early 80s.
His New Society articles covered everything from Skinheads, New Romantics, Anarchism in the UK, Toxteth Riots, infiltrating the National Front (by someone else) and much, much more. If nothing else, his articles are interesting snapshot of the times and the various sub-cultures.
Anyway, here's the link to his articles: New Society's Ian Walker.
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