Tensions rise once again in the streets of Greece’s major cities. Radicals and Anarchists join workers from around the country in voicing dissent. Airports, hospitals and other public services have shut down for the day as the Greek Government attempt to impose harsh new austerity measures.
Greek authorities have reacted with an iron fist. Another anarchist Lambros Foundas, lies dead after police fired upon a group in the suburb of Dafni, south Athens. Thousands of police tear gas and attack crowds of protesters. Police snatch squads roam the streets making violent arrests.
Maybe in contrast to this an interesting discussion point is the fact some police joined the strike, weakening the states power to some small extent.
But what does this all mean for the long term anti-authoritarian struggle within the country and for the international community? The backdrop of December 2008s riots,sparked by the police shooting of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos give these fresh events a more revolutionary appearance. What could be framed as simply the acts of reformist trade unions now appears as serious social upheaval. In 2008 radicals, students and immigrants set a new precedent for social rupture in Europe, however there was a clear absence of the less marginal working classes. This time around it is already clear this is not the case. The insurrection has begun to leave the old left behind, taking on a more organic shape all of its own forged by the people taking part in it.
Last Hours attempts to examine the context and actions that shape these new days in the hope that we can all apply new theory and action to our own situations, in our own communities.
This list will grow in the coming days. Please check back for fresh content.
Just to let you all know we have a load of new stock in the shop.
Titles include:
Flying Close to the Sun by Cathy Wilkerson
Flying Close to the Sun is the stunning memoir of a white middle-class girl from Connecticut who became a member of the Weather Underground, one of the most notorious groups of the 1960s.
13 Years of Good Luck
To celebrate their thirteenth anniversary, Microcosm put together this compilation of work from their authors and artists.
As The World Burns by Derrick Jensen
Two of America’s most talented activists team up to deliver a bold and hilarious satire of modern environmental policy in this fully illustrated graphic novel.
About Anarchism
About Anarchism, by Nicolas Walter, “This is a struggle which we may not win and which may never end but which is still worth fighting…” a pocket size book from Freedom Press.
Off The Map
A punk rock vision quest told in the tradition of the anarchist travel story, Off the Map is narrated by two young women as they discard their maps, fears, and anything resembling a plan, and set off on the winds of the world.
Anarchy in Action
An excellent accessible introduction for those new to anarchism. Ward gives a wide-ranging analysis, drawing on examples from housing, education, the workplace and the family to name but a few, to demonstrate that the roots of anarchist practice are not as alien or quixotic as they might at first seem, but lie precisely in the ways that people have always tended to organise themselves when left alone to do so.
This Saturday, 13th February, marks the Alternative Press Fair’s first birthday, and they’re having another small press fair to celebrate. It’s a cool free event that celebrates all things self-published and DIY. Read more…
This years Brighton Zinefest is a huge four day event. We will be taking part on the Saturday, setting up shop at the Hanover Community Centre along with over 30 other zine distros.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
1.30-5.30pm, free entry/donations.
Hanover Community Centre, 33 Southover St, Brighton
Last Hours are gonna be there with a table and we’ll have a new selection of zines and books as well as some familiar titles covering everything from anarchist theory to DIY screen printing and radical comics.
Last Hours presents:
“Excessive Force” – policing in Britain
Wednesday 24th February – 6.30pm to 8.30pm
At Housmans books, 5 Caledonian Road, near King’s Cross
We’re finally having a book launch for our comix anthology, ‘Excessive Force’, that explores the problems of modern policing. At the launch there’ll be talks about the anthology and a discussion about the state of policing in the UK today with speakers from LDMG (Legal Defence and Monitoring) and FITWatch.
It will be a fun evening and a chance to chat with people involved with the project, have a drink, and listen to some interesting talks about how people can respond to the police, and how art, and comics, can play a role in that.
This year Last Hours has a table at the international comics festival in Angoulême, France. We’ll be taking our two new books – Diary of a miscreant and Excessive Force – to the BD Alternative area. If you happen to be going to Angoulême, drop round for some politically inspired comics at our table. Also on the table will be Gareth Brookes, Jimi Gherkin and Peter Lally of Alternative Press and other UK small-press shenanigans. It should be a lot of fun!
Just a quick note to let you know the shop is now sending out orders again (and has been for a while, we just forgot to let you know!).
We are also working on getting new stock for both the online shop and our events distro. We will be at the the usual zine and small press events this Spring including the Brighton Zine Fest and the Alternative Press Fair.
In January 2009 the Israeli government and army stepped up its repression of those inhabiting the Gaza strip. A brutal military campaign resulted in the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians.
Many protests took place around the world including in London where the first riots of 2009 where seen and a wave of university occupations.
On January 18th the Smash EDO campaign is holding a national protest in remembrance of those that where killed and to question EDO ITT’s (the Brighton based arms manufacturer) involvement in the bombings.
We want to smash the war machine not only in solidarity with the people of Gaza but also in the fight for our own freedom. We want arms factories and dealers out of our communities.
The protest is taking place at an yet-to-be-announced location in Brighton.
The good people involved in the Cowley Club (Brighton’s volunteer run social center) have organised a set of talks by various radical writers. The collective that runs the bookshop in the Cowley Club have announced a set of talks by authors such as John Zerzan and John Barker, taking place throughout January and February. All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are free to members and guests.
Friday 8 January
Clive Bloom (Violent London) talks about his research into Edwardian anarchism.
Clive Bloom is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Middlesex University. He has written many books on popular culture, cultural history and literary criticism, regularly appears on radio and television and contributes to a number of national newspapers. His next book, entitled Gothic Histories will be published in April 2010. http://www.clivebloom.com/
Wednesday 13 January
Stevphen Shukaitis (Constituent Imagination) and Jack Z. Bratich (Conspiracy Panics) have a discussion entitled An Affective Weather Report
Stevphen Shukaitis is an editor at Autonomedia and lecturer at the University of Essex. He is the author of Imaginal Machines: Autonomy & Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life (Autonomedia, 2009) and editor with Erika Biddle and David Graeber of Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations, Collective Theorization (AK Press, 2007). His research focuses on the emergence of collective imagination in social movements and the changing compositions of cultural and artistic labor. http://stevphen.mahost.org/
Jack Z. Bratich is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. He is also a zine librarian at ABC No Rio in New York City. Jack uses critical cultural studies to analyze the politics of popular culture. He studies media culture as an intersection of power, knowledge, and subjectivity. He is co-editor, along with Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy, of Foucault, Cultural Studies and Governmentality (SUNY 2003). http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/directory/jbratich/index.html
Sunday 17 January
John Zerzan (Elements of Refusal) talks on The roots of the crisis and the need for a new paradigm.
American philosopher John Zerzan’s thesis is simple: civilization is pathological, and needs to be dismantled. Zerzan’s radical critique of civilization, laid out in books such as Elements Of Refusal (1988), Future Primitive (1994), and Running On Emptiness (2002) draws on anthropological research to argue that domestication of nature and domestication of humans go hand in hand. And this is accomplished primarily through technology.
This is the first appearance by John Z in the UK since 2003. A one-off event. http://www.johnzerzan.net/
Thursday 4 February
John Barker (Bending the Bars) talks about his experiences of the Angry Brigade.
Between 1970 and 1972 the Angry Brigade, strongly influenced by anarchism and the Situationists, launched a bombing campaign which targeted banks, embassies and the homes of Tory MPs. In total, 25 bombings were attributed to them by the police. The damage done by the bombings was mostly limited to property damage although one person was slightly injured. A group of anarchists from North East London, the ‘Stoke Newington Eight’, were prosecuted for carrying out bombings as the Angry Brigade in one of the longest criminal trials of English history (it lasted from 30 May to 6 December 1972).
John Barker was one of those imprisoned. John went to prison in 1971, and stayed there for seven long years. Bending The Bars is a collection of stories written then, and published together for the first time in 2007. This evening John will be discussing his experience of imprisonment, and answering questions on the Brigade’s outlook and actions.
If you want to buy that rebel in your life a copy of Excessive Force of Diary of a Miscreant through Last Hours you’ll need to order by midday this Friday 18th August in time for Royal Mail to get it to you before Christmas. Go visit the Last Hours shop to place your order!
If you don’t want to order it online, you can always get it in the real world. A brief selection of shops where it’s available are:
London
56a, Elephant and Castle
All Ages Records, Camden
Bookmarks, Bloomsbury
Freedom Bookshops, Whitechapel
Gosh comics, Great Russel Street
Housmans books, Kings Cross
Megacity Comics, Camden
Brighton
Cowley Club
Dave’s comics
Punker Bunker
Elsewhere
Kebele Social centre, Bristol
Travelling Man, Newcastle
News from nowhere, Liverpool
Krackers, Taunton
You can also order them through any local bookshop using the ISBNs from the books, or if you really must you can order them from Amazon.
Name: Last Hours blog Bio: Keep up to date with info relating to Last Hours, UK and international anti-authoritarian scenes. We will post news on new publications here was well as note worthy event and other such content Web:www.lasthours.org.uk
Name: Last Hours blog
