AntiClockWise was a pro-Situ anarchist zine that ran from to 20 issues from c.1989-1992. It was very much a punk collage production in the days before the internet became omnipresent and omnipotent, and when home computers were a rarity. Images were cut from magazines and newspapers, or were drawn by supporters; text was typed on a manual typewriter; headings were produced by Letraset kindly supplied by a friendly stationery shop in Liverpool. Production was a literal cut and paste approach using ample glue sticks (with tongue doggedly sticking out of the mouth) and sneaky out of hours abuse of photocopying machines in various workplaces. After stapling together, issues were posted out to interested groups and individuals, and were sold in left wing bookshops. The number of copies produced for each issue ranged from 250 to 600, so it was hardly a threat to the Murdoch empire! Most of all, it was great fun to cobble together and I was able to meet some wonderful people ... some of whom I still know 23 years after the last issue.
As I limp past being 50, the fire still burns and the modern world strikes me as more spectacular than ever. The recent election and the fallout for the Left has made me want to revisit AntiClockWise, and the Situationist spirit, to develop some of the themes it embraced - football, sexual identity, architecture and unitary urbanism, working class culture, commodity fetishism, the cult of personalities, transport, art, work, holidays, glamour, intellectual property etc.
Alas, the heady days of collage, photocopying and posting out publications seem have passed me by, but perhaps a blog is one way to continue the critique of modern society and also seek out alternatives.
The blog will host general thoughts like this and more detailed articles will be written as a Communique (Communique #1 was about why I do not vote).
I would welcome contributions and will be happy to promote like minded publications.
AntiClockWise - the zine that doesn't know where it's going ... and doesn't really care!
For anyone wanting to find out more about Situationism there are lots of books readily available (but generally quite expensive) or the texts can be found free on websites such as this one:
http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/
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