Here is an excerpt from our consensus document on how we pick zines.

Zine are a pillar of Cafe Anarquista. As such, their selection requires scrutiny and consensus. Any zine may be submitted but must be approved by the majority. This will be done at the regular meetings and not in the field. The following is a general guide for selection:

1. Relevance. Zines must be on the subject of direct action, organizing, and other tactics. Zines whose focus is only on theory or history are highly discouraged. Zines that are apolitical, just artistic or journalistic, and irrelevant are not allowed. Outdated zines are also discouraged.
2. A zine must be beginner friendly. They serve as an introduction to radical action and organizing. They shouldn’t require advanced knowledge of these subjects. They should be easy to read and understand.
3. Zines should be short. This is to meet people where they’re at and to be thoughtful of both the printers and Anarquista Baristas. Attention spans are low and as is literacy. As such, we must acknowledge that high literacy and a good attention span are privileges and not common. Zines should be short to be considerate of printer paper and ink, which is expensive, and to make sure people in the field can bring as many as they like. Some people only have access to their work or school printer, so printing large zines carries unnecessary risks.

So here are some great examples of zines we love, and some we have turned down.

Blocing Up. The current version at Sprout Distro is our gold standard. It’s easy to print, short, doesn’t overwhelm the reader, lots of images, and has a tun of references in the back for further research. It’s everything we need a zine to be.

How to Form an Affinity Group from CimethInc is another good pick we always like to carry for similar reasons. While this is a bit text heavy compared to Blocing Up, it’s still a valuable introduction to the concept.

This brings us to stuff we have to turn down. The following are zines that might seem like a good fit at first glance but actually aren’t suited to CA.

How to Organize a Protest March from Sprout Distro. The page itself gives away why we don’t distribute this. No doubt the the first thing you noticed is the yellow text reading, “This zine was added to our catalog more than 5 years ago. You may want to verify information contained within is still relevant.” Given that it was uploaded in 2012, it’s safe to say it’s not up to date.

Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism. With it’s flashy cover and short page count, this one seems like a winner. Personally, I haven’t made it more than a page in before my eyes get extremely heavy and my attention span starts to wain. This is a great example about why we don’t distribute zines that are just about theory.

A Civilian’s Guide to Direct Action by CrimethInc. Man oh man, talk about a heart breaker. This zine has it all. Easy to understand, beginner friendly, some fun images to keep the eyes busy, and a nice Q&A to dispel criticism of Direct Action. At 12 pages long – 6 per zine in printing terms – that’s just not feasible to bring this to a protest. That sounds reasonable if you’re printing a few for friends. But at CA, we’re gonna be taking dozens and dozens of zines into the field. I think we can all do the math on the paper, ink, and weight with this one. It’s tragic it can’t be in our library but it’s more important to us to get information out to as many people as possible.

What zines do you think we should carry? Reach out to us with suggestions!