Plastic in Utero #4 is out!

Dec

15

2024

comments

By Artxmis GrahamThoreau

Note: Sorry for poor image. --- Issue #4 has arrived!

For those new, Plastic in Utero: a journal of anti-civ anarchy reborn from the compost of wasteland modernity (from now on, PIU) is an extension of the Uncivilized Project, which encompasses the Uncivilized Podcast and Uncivilized Distro. It centers the idea that anarchist ideas/theory can be fun and provocative, not dry and orderly. PIU contributors don’t participate to make a system of thought or propose a blue-print for the masses (well hopefully not, because we won’t encourage that here).

Issue #4 centers on the topics of strategy and tactics, generally. Maybe these debates have been beaten to death, but I think there’s a constant relevance and tension that needs exploration. The conversations are happening anyways. Unfortunately, these conversations are usually boring, basic, and a simple repetition of old ideas.

See CrimethInc’s recent piece, “The Case For Resistance”:

“But we don’t know how the first Trump era would have gone if not for the ways that millions of people engaged in various forms of resistance. Difficult as it was, it could have been much worse. We didn’t topple capitalism or abolish the police, but we kept fascists from taking over the streets, and we prevented Trump and his supporters from accomplishing a great deal of their agenda. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to conceal our collective power [...] If we play our cards right, we should be able to force Democrat-controlled local and state governments and agencies to refuse to cooperate with at least some of Trump’s programs”

Is this the sort of liberal-activist mentality we want? Thinking that anything less than the total end of this homogenizing, flattening, planetary death/work machine is a win? That Trump is a uniquely evil and dangerous President, so much so we ought to be a pressure group upon the Democrats? Give me a fucking break!

Issue #4 has contributions concerning the nature of victory and how anarchists must differ our conception of success from those of authoritarians, contemporary writings on colonization, an anarchist view on self-discipline, and more. We invite discussion, debate, maybe even a sternly worded letter to the editor!

Any orders, inquiries, or non-Kaczyski inspired packages can be sent to (PIU#5 to be announced soon!)
Uncivilized Distro
PO box 72
Seymour, IL 61875

PIU accepts the following:
Essays, reviews, and interviews, and fiction writings (2,500 word limit)
Art and photography (keep to one page, but feel free to submit several)
Poetry (keep to two pages, please be clear on formatting requests)
Letters (350 word limit)
If text submissions are mailed, format at 9 or 10 pt font, Times New Roman, landscape, two columns.

Uncivilized Distro currently has the following (all are free to prisoners; otherwise, zines are free at bookfairs and meet-ups). We are always expanding our line-up and welcome the opportunity to distro your zines or turn your works into zines!:
1. PIU #1, 34 pages. $3/copy
2. PIU #2, 42 pages. $3/copy
3. PIU #3, 38 pages #3/copy
4. Anarchism in Review #1: "Leo Tolstoy (1828-1919)" by Luigi Galleani, including a biography by Artxmis Graham Thoreau. $2 if ordered alone, free if requested with a copy of PIU.
5/ Religion is killing the earth, only spirituality can save it a zine created from a presentation given by Artxmis Graham Thoreau at the 2023 Lawrence, KS Anarchist Bookfair. Created by civfucks distro. $2/copy
6. Anti-Semitism and the Beirut Pogrom by Fredy Perlman ($2) Fredy recounts how encounters with racism in Central Europe, Bolivia and the U.S. heightened his perception and prepared him to denounce American “cheerleaders for Israel.” He is astounded that potential victims of Nazi extermination can accept, even support, Israeli massacres of Palestinian refugees. (Copy and description from Detritus Books)
7. Liberty over Labor: A critique of Bakunin’s Productivism and Hegelianism by Artxmis Graham Thoreau* ($2/Free if ordered with other texts) This essay by Artxmis is a critique of some limits on Bakunin’s liberatory project, including determinism, scientism, and a belief in Progress
8. If An Agent Knocks: Federal Investigators & Your Rights (In English and Spanish) ($2) What are my rights when a federal agent knocks? What should I do/not do? This gives some insights! Stay safe, stay dangerous.
9. Fragments Against Servitude Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 by VOF ($4/set) Volume 1: A short text tackling several topics such as anthropological dependency in Primitivism and science-as-religion. Volume 2: Exploring ecology, technology, and the nature of modern control. Is ecology the grid of contemporary domestication? Volume 3: Thematically similar to Vol. 2, more emphasis on the nature of ecology (no pun intended!) From bumfucknowhere WV.
10. Armed Joy by Alfredo Bonanno ($4) A foundational piece in the insurrectionary milieu. Bonanno (RIP!) explores the failure of Marxism (and Leftism generally) and acts as a call for playful, affirming action!
11. What is Security Culture? ($2) Excerpt from a larger CrimeThinc piece. A bit dated, but well worth the refresh or introduction, if needed! From Sprout Distro.
12. Racism, Nationalism, and Revolt by Julian Langer ($2) From Julian Langer, this short anti-essentialist, anti-racist text explores, much as Perlman does in “The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism” the limits of a nationalist framework, applied to Israel and Palestine, especially.
13. Random shit that we have at any given time.