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I've never been drawn to serial killers or true crime, but this book was entertaining in it's study of faults in the narratives around this case by the original prosecution, questions about why law enforcement seemed to hold back from sharing evidence or leads, the overlaps between the prosecution and the entertainment industry (through Bugliosi's accepted narrative released in "Helter Skelter"), the apparent participation of government agencies (BOP, CIA, local LEA) in Manson's past who at times seemed to give him a pass on his legal transgressions prior to the Tate-LaBianca murders. The author expresses surprise to learn about Operations Chaos and MKUltra, which seems feigned but saves the book a feel of hard conspiracy theorism. I'd love to see more exploration of the details in here that seems to echo interesting overlaps in facilities and the application of hallucinagens and pressure by other former prisoners at the time in efforts to "brainwash" their captives (for instance Cinque of the SLA).

I participated in a four month reading group with the local solidarity economy study group of Murray Bookchin's magnum opus, The Ecology of Freedom. I cleverly called this the Murray Bookclub (you can use that, no attribution needed, that's usufruct). I'm really glad that I got to discuss the text with other folks, pick their brains and share the feels. The book club started with about 25 people and whittled down to about 8 tops by the by-weekly gatherings, covering about 50 pages a session with one volunteer per chapter leading the discussion and sometimes another facilitator moving the chat along. The book itself was challenging for me (and i think for others). First up he was an autodidact who grew up communist, turned anarchist, and had been writing and organizing for 5 decades by the time he wrote this book, so his rhetorical style was a bit different than what I was used to reading. His steeping in Greek philosophy and Roman history bespoke a classical education I was passingly familiar with. And it was hard at times to see past his sweeping generalizations about "organic" societies and progressivist arguments about human development. That said, once i gave him a chance, Murray nuanced his arguments and showed an aptitude to be challenged that I appreciated. There are probably some good essays out there coming from good faith critique at this nearly 40 year old book and it's shortcomings (only nods to settler-colonialism, eurocentrism, lack of engagement with anti-Black and other forms of racism in the society he at times idolized). My main criticism is that he tried to do too much at once and tried to pretty it up too much with a complicated vocabulary. It wasn't clear to me even by the end who his audience was. That said, I did get some good vocab fro the book (I have three new words for apocalypticism that I didn't have before), some new questions about rifts in the early Christian church (Paul versus James, go!). His wide argument that authoritarian tendencies and hierarchies that developed in society undid the social, spiritual and economic ties we had to the world, those around us and ultimately ourselves is well taken. And I appreciate his argument that there is no unlearning bad patterns but that our historic and current experience of unfreedom can help guide our creating of actual freedom rings of a Marxist "well, we're here now, what do you want to do" position around "primitive communism". I'm in agreement, we're carrying baggages already and most of it'll we'll have to schlep into whatever utopia we try build. A few things I was surprised to read from Bookchin (based on the anti-Bookchin perspectives i gleaned from the early 2000's anti-civ / Green Anarchist world) included: his positioning of technology within the realm of the social and reflecting social values in design and usage; his leaning at times (with caveat) on the importance of the mystical in the stories we tell ourselves about the world we live in and the place we inhabit in it; his vocal support of the aesthetic and of joy, beauty and luxury (within a system of values) that he felt had fallen by the wayside in our modern, atrophied sense of the desire. Bookchin's thoughtfulness and care is apparent as he sees what we've been and the germs of what we can be inside of us, isn't prescriptive about how to get there but just invites us to change direction. I think the book could be described as a love letter to the libertarian (in the anarchist sense) socialist (in the libertarian sense) impulse and movement. And in this way, it's quite lovely. I'm glad I read it (with comrades) and, tbh, I'm glad to put it down (once I've re-read the 75 pages of introduction to later printings (sigh).

I really enjoyed the essays in this book. The introduction by Xtn and Matthew provides a great introduction to the tendency of Three Way Fight, it included essays I'd read before ("Antifascism Against Machismo" and "Fascism & Antifascism: An Indigenous Perspective") as well as many other great contributions I hadn't come across before (like D.Z. Shaw's "Seven Theses..." and some of the historic pieces from the Sojourner Truth Organization or ARA Research Network). The perspective that fascist ideas should be understood and taken seriously to be countered and defeated, that liberal antifascism fits hand in glove with capitalist repression, and that working class and autonomous antifascist organizing needs to have a revolutionary horizon to not only counter the other two but to make a world where neither capitalism nor fascism or authoritarianism has a place... this really resonates with me at this point. Good food for thought. Though I admit, I don't understand Don Hamerquist's writing. I need to approach it again with fresh eyes.

I'm not usually a fan of poetry, I have a lot of taste in my mouth from bad, self-important and unpracticed open-mic performances over the years. But Rosenbergs wielding of words, prose and a few poems, in this book is pretty impressive. Her writing style is generally matter-of-fact but she's able to encapsulate rich emotional meaning in small moments that crack the surface.

I was enticed to read this book for a few reasons... First up, Susan Rosenberg will be speaking on a (n online) panel put on by our local anarchist bookstore alongside Herman Bell, David Gilbert and Eric King, all former political prisoners to speak about the recently published "Rattling The Cages" book (definitely worth a gander, lots of insights from former and current political prisoners on Turtle Island). Second, Susan was involved in the May 19th Communist Organization, a group I don't know a lot about besides that it was an anti-racist and anti-Imperialist organization that included Weathermen, Black Liberation Army, Republic of New Afrika and Prairie Fire Organization. M19CO was responsible for the liberation Assata Shakur and the Brinks heist (and a number of bombings of buildings associated with US Imperialism that mostly succeeded in having no casualties). Third, the experience of someone with a good read on patriarchy spending 16 years in BOP womens prisons (and jails in DC & NYC) was insightful, since many prisoner voices I run across are folks in mens prisons. Fourth, Ms. Rosenberg was also a former member of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, and as an anti-racist Jewish woman had good grounds for critiquing the systemic racism that she saw in US "Justice", but then through the rise of mass incarceration with the "War On Drugs" as well as being in a position to elaborate her experiences of antisemitism and Christian supremacy on a personal and systemic level in the belly of the beast. Fifth, and dovetailing the last point, as a queer woman she also witnessed the HIV/AIDS crisis and was one of the leftist prisoners who worked to shift policy in her facilities as well as engage in grassroots educational and health initiatives as that terrible tide swept the majority poor and Black populations she was incarcerated among. I think lastly, because of the social viewpoint that Ms. Rosenberg exuded throughout the book, her empathy and awareness of social, cultural and systemic inequities and how they distilled behind bars, she had a humanized view of so many of the people she was locked up alongside, engaged with her community behind bars to build solidarity and expressed the heavy losses of people to the cruelty of the US carceral system (through medical neglect, through active counter-insurgency tactics of divide and rule, through the attempted breaking of the spirit into subservient subjects, the criminalization of love behind bars, and through the breakdown of community people had with loved ones on the outside).

It's a heavy book, emotionally, but a really important one. And the poetry is good! I'm pretty sure the book is out of print but it had a big run in 2011 so copies are plentiful and cheap from online sellers.

This book picks up where Blowback by Christopher Simpson left off, with OSS and CIA support and funding of nazi spies and soldiers as the US and others in the Allies occupied and divided former Axis powers. The book mainly follows two saviors of the Reich who met after the failed 20 July to assassinate Hitler by competing Nazis: Otto Skorzeny and Otto Ernst Remer. Lee documents these villains survival after the war, fostering domestic (Remer) and international (Skorzeny) networks of former SS & Nazi leaders who integrated into post-colonial military intelligences, founded arms companies and fostered grassroots neo-fascist movements around Europe, North and South America. There is a lot of history covered in this book and a lot of names (some I recognize, many I don't): it feels in many ways like a cousin project joining Blowback with Blood and Politics by focusing on the some of the cross-Atlantic support between white supremacist groups after WWII and during the period around and following German re-unification. There were some portions that really peaked my interest and I'm challenged to dig a little deeper (such as the portions discussing National Bolshevism and the institutional integration (or at least allowance) of Russian Chauvanism into Bolshevik and CCCP policy from 1917 onward, the German interwar relationship with Russia, the German post-Reunification revanchism and courting of Croatian separatists and more on the NATO/US stay-behinds. A suggested read if you have the time and don't mind constant reminding of how terrible and integrated our enemies are.

What a tome at nearly 550 pages.

The main thrust of the book follows Willis Carto, Yockeyan white nationalist fuhrer of Liberty Lobby (standing in for the Mainstreamers attempting to further normalize white supremacist talking points in US politics after WWII) and William Luther Pierce, little dictator of the National Alliance (standing in for the Vanguardists who thought to agitate the white population into immediately genocidal behavior). The book covers their endeavors, their overlaps, the growth of Holocaust denialism, various iterations of the KKK and a variety of other "white-ists" in and outside of US electoral politics and paramilitarism.

Additionally, I really appreciate the insights here into Christian Identity concepts of race and citizenship that bleed into the language of Posse Comitatus-adjacent movements and the origins / shape of the militia movement.

Anyway, there's a lot here and I feel like it certainly widens my understanding of the subject matter, though stopping coverage in the years just after 9-11 and the death of Pierce and collapse of Liberty Lobby and National Alliance. Also, i really appreciate the short chapters that kept both a thematic coverage and chronological progression, allowing a more ecological read than many other history books I've read.