Comments on: From the Archives: Critique of State Socialism

By: Fighting in a New Terrain: What’s Changed Since the 20th Century « radoccupyphilly

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:10:13 +0000

[...] the foremost proponents of hierarchy, can employ the decentralized structures we pioneered? The 20th century taught us the consequences of using hierarchical means to pursue supposedly non-hierarchical ends. [...]

By: pfm

pfm — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:26:08 +0000

Hey Puneta, As B.Traven said above, and I just confirmed, the file is fine, it is not damaged and downloads correctly. Also, as he said above, that means the problem is on your end, most likely that you are not waiting for the large download to complete–attempting to open a file before it is finished downloading will result in error, of course. If you still have problems, I’d make sure you are using the most current version of your PDF viewer, or perhaps attempt the download on a different computer.

By: puneta

puneta — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:50:40 +0000

Yo. File is damaged and undownloadable. Any other sources?

By: Richard warren

Richard warren — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:08:34 +0000

No problem – people can do what they like with it, after all. I’m flattered.

Most of my stuff is years old, but more recently I did some pics for a volume of Stuart Christie’s reminiscences, for Pedro de Paz’s ‘The Man who Killed Durruti’ (Stuart’s Read and Noir imprint), and most recently for the Kate Sharpley Library’s translation of Ernestan’s ‘You Anarchist, You!’

That’s about the limit of my activism these days ….

Best to you all.

By: b. traven

b. traven — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:48:11 +0000

Richard–Glad you’re happy to see the comic here. Sorry nobody found you to check in about it in advance! The Frankenstein page is indeed a classic. Some of the Makhno frames also made it into Rolling Thunder #1 (p. 64, http://thecloud.crimethinc.com/pdfs/rolling_thunder_1.pdf), and maybe elsewhere.

Is anything else related of yours still in circulation?

By: Richard warren

Richard warren — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:53:17 +0000

Hello. Thought I’d visit and hold my hand up as the co-author with Bakunin (I did the drawings) of the Critique. I’m flattered you’ve put it online, and pleased that it still seems a relevant bit of work, thirty years on. Yes, the 1981 first edition was by Cienfuegos in Orkney, but printed in Belfast. Later on, someone did a reprint. Some pages look a bit confusing in retrospect, and there’s a major emphasis on the Soviet Union which is not so relevant these days. My favourite page is the Frankenstein one, which I still find a neat metaphor. The original edition had a front cover that showed the surrender of the fictional Grimethorpe Anti-Fascist Militia to a pair of tanks. The larger tank is labelled “New Labour Party”, so how’s that for prescience? The bastards owe me millions in royalties! (The tinier tank is labelled “SDP”, which was the quasi-liberal Labour breakaway at the time. In the distance, Soviet tanks are arriving to “safeguard” the anti-fascist victory.) Anyway, nice to meet you and all power to your elbows.

By: Anarchist histories « Poumista

Anarchist histories « Poumista — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:10:15 +0000

[...] Cienfuegos: Critique of State Socialism [...]

By: b. traven

b. traven — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:39:52 +0000

Jacques–

Nice name. I’m guessing your problem might be because it’s such a big file (sorry, it’s quite a few pages, all illustrations). Perhaps try again on another computer. I’m pretty sure nothing is wrong on our end.

By: Jacques Mesrine

Jacques Mesrine — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:07:39 +0000

I tried the link to the PDF and it didn’t work for me, did anyone else have this problem?
‘Cause I’d like to see it and print it out.

By: b. traven

b. traven — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:08:50 +0000

You’re right, Cienfuegos was in Okney. But the first edition of the comic itself was printed in Belfast, as it said on p. 44 (numbered as p. 43 in this edition–you can see the blank space at the bottom left where the printing information from that edition appeared).

I suppose this begs the question of who deserves to be credited as the “producers” of a work–the ones who draw it, the ones who print it, the ones who fund it? Generally the publishers get the most credit, even if they spend a lot less time working with their hands. Just this one time, however, the printers get to be acclaimed as the ones who “produced” this work.

By: blacklamp

blacklamp — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:28:02 +0000

IIRC, Cienfuegos Press was based on Sanday, which is an island of Orkney, north of Scotland…