MIM Notes 35, January 23, 1989

Sectarian Review:

BLACK FLAG: FOR ANARCHIST RESISTANCE, NO. 181, 4/25/88

BM Hurricane, London WC1N 3XX, 6 issues 5£, free to prisoners, 
non-earners pay postage

This monthly newspaper is hard-core anarchist. It calls 
for one big union of industrial workers and opposes any form 
of the state.

The statement of principle is "for a social system based 
on mutual aid and voluntary co-operation--against State 
control and all form of government and economic repression. To 
establish a share in the general prosperity for all--the 
breaking down of racial, religious, national and sex barriers-
-and to fight for the life of one world."  One also gathers 
that it opposes all Marxism.

With the exception of an article about genocide against 
Aborigines in Australia, Black Flag, like most anarchist and 
Trotskyist newspapers has almost nothing on the Third World.  
It has plenty to say about white workers and the liberties of 
people in white countries, however.

On the whole though, the paper is quite interesting.

RESISTANCE: DOCUMENTS AND ANALYSES OF THE ILLEGAL FRONT, NO. 11

$6/year, free to prisoners, checks to Friends of Durruti, PO 
Box 790,

Stn. A, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6C 2N6 

This issue is news from late 1986 and early 1987. It is 
about armed groups in Europe, Canada and Puerto Rico.  Largely 
it contains documents from various armed groups that explain 
why different armed actions were taken. In the Netherlands, 
Revolutionary Anti-Racist Action burned down three buildings 
of MAKRO because of that wholesale business's ties with South 
Africa.  RARA also firebombed a South African ambassador's 
car, bombed the offices of Van Leer Ltd. and destroyed several 
Shell stations for Shell's complicity with apartheid.  

Another group in West Germany called Revolutionary Cells 
has targeted the centralized apparatus responsible for 
deporting foreigners.  This included attacks on central 
computers and the kneecapping of the Chief of Immigration 
Police of West Berlin.

In Italy, the Red Army Fraction (RAF) explains why it 
shot Gerold von Braunmuhl, a political director in the Foreign 
Ministry.

Basque guerillas (ETA) explain why they killed a former 
member who did repentance in Spain.

Various groups in Puerto Rico also explain their attacks 
on Yankee military bases.

In general, the paper takes a communist anarchist 
approach.  It focuses on how European governments are trying 
to develop the total system to take over the lives of all 
Europeans because of their failure in repressing liberation 
movements and young nations.

 The groups are surprisingly articulate, especially the 
RARA, and Resistance helps provide pertinent facts and 
background. The reviewer--MC5--is not qualified or able to 
assess the practices of these groups, especially because of a 
lack of knowledge of conditions in Europe.

Be advised that this issue came out after a year's lapse 
and that those who write to the above address take on a great 
risk of state monitoring.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, VOL. 22, NO. 34, June 8-15. 

Free 
to pick up in Bay Area. $1.50 an issue, $24 a year. Guardian 
Building, 2700 19th St., San Francisco, CA 94110.

This is a liberal-radical weekly with the largest 
circulation of all newsweeklies in Northern California.

This issue features what it calls the top 10 censored 
stories of 1987--the information monopoly, the US contra-drug 
connection, nuclear accidents, Reagan's quest for government 
secrecy, Bush's role in the Iran-contra deal, biowarfare 
research in university labs, biased coverage of the Arias 
peace plan, dumping of toxic wastes in the Third World, 
torture in El Salvador and a shuttle to carry plutonium.

As the Bay Guardian explains, the government does not 
prevent these stories from reaching the public, but the media 
does engage in self-censorship.  Part of the reason for this 
is the ever-increasing concentration of the media business.  
In 1982, 50 corporations controlled more than half of the 
media. By 1987, 26 corporations did the same thing according 
to research done by UC Berkeley journalism dean Ben Bagdikian. 
(p. 7)

Of course, the Bay Guardian has plenty of local color 
and other things that sell ads--music, theater and movie 
reviews--concentrated in section two.

FORWARD MOTION: A SOCIALIST MAGAZINE, MAY-JUNE 1988

$2.50, PO Box 1884, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.

This issue features a useful interview with Saths 
Cooper, a former president of AZAPO, who now lives in Boston.

Cooper explains a number of common issues. For example, 
he explains why he is suspicious of whites in leadership of 
Black organizations. He says it is better for whites to join 
AZAPO at the grass roots or to lead movements within the white 
community. In particular he mentions the anti-conscription 
movement as more important than anything whites could do in 
Black organizations.

Cooper also defended the protest against Senator Kennedy 
in South Africa by saying that the distinction between the 
anti-apartheid and socialist phases of the revolution are 
false.

Finally, while noting some joint work in unions and 
coalitions like the UDF, AZAPO points out that it is incorrect 
that "much of the Left press in the U.S. would like to impose 
its own wish fulfillments, its own solutions on our country." 
(p. 6) By this he criticizes left cheerleaders of the ANC that 
do not even mention or know of other Black opposition to the 
apartheid regime.

FORWARD MOTION: A Socialist Magazine, November-December, 1988

Nothing too theoretically heavy in this issue. There are a few 
reports on the Jackson campaign. Anyone who wants to know what 
the AFL-CIO leaders were up to can read "Labor in Atlanta." 
There are other articles on scattered subjects including a 
review of the sixties nostalgia appearing in book form.

The articles in this issue show some connection to movements 
of various kinds and have a grassroots character. They read 
more as conversations than as propositions or controversies.

The Connection: Journal of the Michigan Alliance for 
Disarmament, June 1988, 530 S. State St., Rm. 4101, Ann Arbor, 
MI 48109, $5 sub.

Ho-hum, this is another eclectic radical periodical 
opposed to "Stalinist tyranny" and supportive of the 
democratic socialism of Rosa Luxemburg, Martin Luther King Jr. 
and Polish Solidarity.

The June 1988 issue has a fairly good article on 
internationalism, so at least MAD does not appear guilty of 
social chauvinism.

The magazine features various neo-Trotskyists from the 
International Socialist Organization, Solidarity and the 
magazine Against the Current.