Not So Comic Criminalization

From Fifth Estate #417, Winter 2025

A review of Down By Law: Criminalization, Solidarity and Survival in Europe Edited by the CrimScapes Research Group. PM Press/Kairos, 2025

Graphic novels (GNs) and anthologies very often effect personal experiences, and for that matter, the non-fiction shelf is comparatively thin. The GN treatment of homeless and semi-homeless people, even amidst the world-wide explosion of that hard-hit slice of humanity, remains almost invisible.

Bon Appétit Ruling Class: The Anarchist Poison Soup Plot

From Fifth Estate # 417, Winter 2025

This wild account of a plan to decapitate the Chicago ruling class in 1916 first appeared on the website of the Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana’s Digital Newspaper Program. The Fifth Estate rarely publishes reprints, particularly if they have first appeared online. However, this story of extreme class warfare seems unknown to most of those interested in the history of the anarchist movement, so an exception is being made.

The Anarchist Bookstore That Shouldn’t Be!

From Fifth Estate # 417, Winter 2025

Wooden Shoe, as a publicly facing anarchist infoshop, was established in 1976 and, using capitalist projections, shouldn’t exist. Amazingly, it still does. Many visitors share stories about their parents as youthful hippies or punks hanging out on South Street in Philadelphia and coming to the Shoe to learn about the system.

Ten Little Anarchists Searching for a New World

From Fifth Estate # 417, Winter 2025

Daniel de Roulet’s novella, Ten Little Anarchists, is a masterful weave of fantasy and fact, history and histrionics, ideology and imagination. It is a blend of feminist thought, pragmatic practice, and an open dialogue about strategy and priorities for the anarchist movement. It is told through the dynamic conversations and lives of ten anarchist women who strike out on their own and leave the old world behind in their effort to create a truly anarchist community in a foreign land.

Soccer for Social Good

From Fifth Estate # 417, Winter 2025

A review of Beyond the Final Whistle, Soccer for a Better World by Vasilis Kostakis. Pluto Press, 2025

On a hot night in Houston Texas, two teams played during a social and political moment that carried more meaning than just the end result of the match. The significance was shown by supporters’ shirts depicting half split Mexican and American flags worn by those in attendance.

King Mob, The Motherfuckers & Revolutionary Art

From Fifth Estate, #416, Spring 2025

New York City, 1967. Roaming the streets in debate on the merits of the then-peak vogue art movement, Abstract Expressionism, are Ben Morea, part of a local affinity group, Up Against the Wall Motherfucker, and David Wise and Anne Ryder of the English group of cultural subversives known as King Mob.

Crazy Wisdom in an imaginary Fez: Knowing Peter Lamborn Wilson

From Fifth Estate, # 416, Spring 2025
by Jason Rodgers

Hakim Bey: Real and Unreal is the newest entry in a growing genre of literature, books about having met anarchist author and poet Peter Lamborn Wilson/Hakim Bey (1945-2022) and how it changed the author’s life.

Zines as Means for Change

From Fifth Estate # 416, Spring 2025

a review of War of Dreams: A Field Guide to DIY Psy-Ops by Jason Rodgers. PM Press, 2024

At the height of the zine movement in the 1990s, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands—what could be thought of as armies of people—would march off to their post office boxes every day to engage in an ongoing assault on mainstream culture using low-circulation publications as their weapons of choice.

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