Radical Resources for May Day (and every day)

What, you may ask, is the best thing to do with information?

Share it of course!

Thus, in honor of May Day – also known as International Workers’ Day – and in the spirit of mutual aid, we here at the Shipwreck are happy to share with you some repositories of radical goodness to give you some provocative reading…

Marxists Internet Archive

This archive may have “Marxists” in its title but zounds do they ever have a lot of material. From the First International to the Fourth International, and from Maoism to the Frankfurt School – this archive provides a stunning amount of content. Beyond Marxism (and Marxists) this site also features impressive amounts of content pertaining to feminism, National Liberation movements, and even a fair bit of classical political philosophy.

While this is a great site to go to for a specific thinker, it’s also a great place to simply browse – you will come across fantastic stuff: like Paul Robeson’s testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities or the Autobiography of Mother Jones.

Granted, there have been some trouble on this site of late: read more.

Anarchy Archives

A great collection of works from some of the “big names” in anarchism (like Emma Goldman and Peter Kropotkin) along with a smattering of material from “bright but lesser lights” (including Lucy Parsons and Herbert Read).

Project Gutenberg

With what is the public domain filled? If you said “awesome books” than you are correct! If you’re looking for May Shelley’s Frankenstein, William Morris’s News From Nowhere, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Franz Kafka, or [insert an author whose work is in the public domain]…you will find it here for the wonderful price of “free.”

Anarcha Library

This site provides an impressive archive of articles (and other pieces) pertaining to feminism, anarchism, anarcha-feminism, gender, sexuality, and much more. A great resource on an often-overlooked topic. From the about section: “an archive of nearly all written/online pieces on anarcha-feminism and lots of radical pieces on other related topics that are marginalized because of their relationship to gender.”

QZAP – Queer Zine Archive Project

From their “about us”:

“The mission of the Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) is to establish a “living history” archive of past and present queer zines and to encourage current and emerging zine publishers to continue to create. In curating such a unique aspect of culture, we value a collectivist approach that respects the diversity of experiences that fall under the heading “queer.”

Zines are awesome! Go read some!

Luddite Bicentenary

“The Luddite uprisings in the Midlands and North of England took place 200 years ago, between 1811 and 1816. Over the next 2 years, there is an opportunity to look back at those times and learn about the events that took place and the wider context of the time.” History with a hammer!

The Anarchist Library

A robust assortment of materials from various branches of the anarchist rhizome – from Hakim Bey to David Graeber to anonymous collectives to the entirety of the “Anarchist FAQ.” And to make it easy for you these texts are all available in a range of easily downloadable formats.

Primitivism  // On-Line Luddism 

These two resources will provide plenty of reading material for those interested in a serious critique of technology and technological society. While both sites features quite a bit by John Zerzan, they also have a fair bit of other interesting content: On-Line Luddism has some works by Langdon Winner (and Thomas Pynchon’s “Is it OK to be a Luddite?”) while Primitivism has some Lewis Mumford.

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective

You can always count on CrimethInc. to put out content that will make you…well…think (or should I say thInc.?) Many of their texts, and some of their movies are online. Apropos of nothing – I’ve been highly enjoying their most recent book the “Contradictionary.”

Heathwood Press – Big Thinkers: Frankfurt School Multimedia Archives

While the fine folks at Heathwood Press have been creating lots of interesting new content advancing critical theory for the current day, they also have a great archive of past work by some of the major figures in the Frankfurt School (Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, etc…).

Bureau of Public Secrets

Ken Knabb’s site offers (excellent) translations of many of the key Situationist texts including Guy De Bord’s Society of the Spectacle.

LibCom

“libcom.org is a resource for all people who wish to fight to improve their lives, their communities and their working conditions” and their library “contains over 10,000 articles.” A great variety of great content!

Happy May Day!

See you in the streets!

 

About Z.M.L

“I do not believe that things will turn out well, but the idea that they might is of decisive importance.” – Max Horkheimer librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com @libshipwreck

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