The main theme of this number of the anarchist review Existence is a bit untraditional: Anarchist tabloid.

It aims in three directions – to grab attention, to entertain a bit and foremost to pose some questions to think about. We follow which are the most popular themes in anarchist magazines and websites, which print formats are the most successful. We kind of compare our observations with the practice of mainstream media. But our motivations and goals are very different from theirs. We obviously have to strive for reader friendliness but can’t be a goal in and of itself and we need to avoid such traps. We ask: How to use humour and satire? What can ties to culture bring? Can marketing methods be used for our needs? Should we try and aim at the public or give up this broad term and concentrate on particular groups? To what extent should we use simplified rhetoric and a certain kind of populism? Isn’t it against our principles to try and get into mainstream media? How to work with language in order to be comprehensible?

The theme is supplemented by the experience of the British group and magazine Class War or the Belorussian newspaper Navinky. We look to different uses of humour and satire in the anarchist movement, a hundred years ago and just a few decades ago, with a particular emphasis on the art of making fun of ourselves. This is followed by two pages of fictive news and an untraditional column – one of them is about the relationship between anarchism and the detective genre.

Furthermore you can read a report from the anarchist camp that took place in August in northern Austria, information about the Anarchist library and archive in Vienna, the work of Vadim Damier on post-war anarchism in Bulgaria, an article on anarchist cinematography in Spain during the social revolution, a reminder of the atmosphere of riots during the uprising in Oaxaca in 2006 or an interview with a Cuban anarchist about the local movement. Due to latest developments we concentrate on Turkey and Kurdistan through an interview with activists from Turkish ABC and an overview of the situation of anarchists in Kurdistan.

We also inform about the congress of the International of anarchist federations, that took place in Frankfurt and we publish two statements that the congress adopted. The ABC column talks about another trial with our friend Igor, who was first accused of terrorism to finally recieve a ban to attend anarchist events, all for recording some graffiti. This is followed by a satirical report from another trial where our friends are potentially facing very high sentences in a case constructed by the police. As always texts from the wall newspaper A3 are not missing, as well as reviews and an overview of public activities of the local movement.

Download