Political Media Review – PMR

Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America’s Drinking Water

In mid-January, I received a mass email asking me to donate $10 for bottled water and other supplies for participants in an important immigrant rights march in Phoenix. Given the ever-repressive and cruel political climate in Arizona for immigrants (especially unauthorized ones), I was unequivocally in support of the mobilization. Nonetheless I was taken aback by a request to contribute even nominally to an effort to buy bottles of water for what turned out to be, according to some estimates, more than 20,000 people.

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Colectivo Solidario, El anarcosindicalismo español. Una historia en imagenes

Marking the centenary of Solidaridad Obrera, this extensive graphic history of the Spanish libertarian tradition is one of the most recent books published by the Confederación Sindical Solidaridad Obrera.

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The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale

Karen Davis’ The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale is a heretical book in the very best of senses. Davis challenges the firmly held beliefs of a society that systematically devalues the lives of nonhuman animals as a means of justifying their exploitation

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Rebel Alliances: The Means and Ends of Contemporary British Anarchisms

The stated aim of Rebel Alliances is to “provide a convincing, documented account of contemporary anarchism and to critically evaluate its tactical and organisational forms through an appropriate framework.”

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The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle

David Solnit asks, "who has the power and resources to define our history and thus shape what people think?" It is a premise that shapes the awkwardly titled AK Press offering The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle, a primer for activists

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Durruti in the Spanish Revolution

This is the definitive version of Diego Camacho’s (a.k.a. Abel Paz) monumental biography of Buenaventura Durruti, the celebrated activist who most embodied the heroism, resistance and spirit of sacrifice of the Spanish anarchist movement.

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Armed Madhouse

Palast’s Armed Madhouse (2007) is a witty but hard hitting critique on some of the recent political news stories in the past few years. Most of the book is spent probing the missed opportunities that occurred during President George W. Bush’s administration.

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Unstable Universalities: Poststructuralism and Radical Politics

Thanks largely to the efforts of Saul Newman, we now refer to the site where poststructuralism intersects anarchist politics as "postanarchism." The term postanarchism appears to derive from the works of Hakim Bey, via Jason Adams.

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Anarchy Alive! Anti-Authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory

It is widely recognised that these are exciting times for anarchist theory. Uri Gordon’s book is one of many by the young veterans of the varied anarchist practices of the last ten years (at least) and can only add to this excitement.

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Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism

Arguing about the nature of anarchism is a popular anarchist pastime, and Paul McLaughlin here offers a provocative intervention in that debate, in the form of a ‘philosophical introduction to classical anarchism’. While I don’t in the end find his answer convincing, he does a good deal of valuable work in the course of arguing for it.

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The Fire and the Word: A History of the Zapatista Movement

This richly illustrated and designed volume, featuring indigenous art and photographs on nearly every page and unprecedented interviews with members of the early villages, is a result of the seven years Mexican journalist Gloria Muñoz Ramírez’ spent with the Zapatistas in Southern Chiapas.

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