Most of the stuff is about 30 years old, so not sure if it's contemporary enough for you, but Maurice Brinton - For Workers Power (the Maurice Brinton Reader) is really, really good.
contemporary @/ libcom/ syndicalist book recommendations
John. wrote:
Albert Meltzer's I couldn't paint golden angels is ace (1996 - autobiographical), Raoul Vaneigem's Revolution of Everyday Life (70s) is good...
Another vote for Meltzer. I seem to get a lot more out of reading biographies & history than I do out of reading "theory" nowadays, tbh.
Especially when so much of it is warmed-over sub-Marxist shite. 
John. wrote:
Albert Meltzer's I couldn't paint golden angels is ace (1996 - autobiographical),
Agreed- wicked guy. The sectarian's sectarian.
Quote:
Raoul Vaneigem's Revolution of Everyday Life (70s) is good...
Good in the sense of unreadable, Emporer's New Clothes nonsense, yes.
nastyned wrote:
the button wrote:
I seem to get a lot more out of reading biographies & history than I do out of reading "theory" nowadays, tbh.Definitley agree with this.
Totally, Rev above's the only theory book I've ever got anything from.
Someone’s gonna recommend Cleaver’s Reading Capital Politically, and maybe I would too if I’d finish it 
JDMF wrote:
so basically what you guys are saying is that the libcom/@/syndicalist situation on the book front is quite crap really?Will check out bookchin as well.
I second bookchin. Post Scarcity Anarchism is a good one, big changes in his ideas since then though so worth getting something else after (the reader is good (ed. Janet Biehl), although often really expensive in the UK for some reason).
council communism by anton pankeok or however you spell that name is worth a read.
mostly though the best things Ive read recently have been articles, the Aufheben Chiapas one stood out as did their 4 part magnum opus on the USSR (though I only read two of the for articles).
Reading Capital Politically is a nice read, with a very accesible synopsis of marxist theory from the 2nd International thru the Frankfurt School and the situationists through to the automonist currents.
One of my all time favourite books though is Obsolete Communism by Danny and Gabriel Cohn Bendit even though they are cunts now.
Good recent stuff:
Everything you ever wanted to know about anarchism but were afraid to ask (Rebel Press, £3)
As an example of how NOT to do it "memoirs of an urban guerilla" by Ann Hansen is superb.
For anti-fascists, I would recommend the under rated "Confronbting Fascism - Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement by ARA/Kersplebedeb
Not that I feel duty-bound to bring him into every thread imaginable, but I really would recommend you read Foucault's Discipline & punish: the birth of the prison. OK, he's not an anarchist (even though they do sell it in Freedom ).
Even if you think, "This is shit," it's a good read, & it's good sometimes to work out for yourself why you think something is shit.
[/shameless plug]
I'd second the vote for Spectacular Times -- pure genius 8)
The Tintin book, Breaking Free is also good, basically 'Unfinished Business' in cartoon form. 
On Fire, the book of thoughts on Genoa G8 protests has some good stuff in it, from an activist and also theoretical perspective.
I'd say the best recent stuff is all articles and on the internet. IS this because of the decay of libertarian publishing infrastructure or the lack of real movements to comment on?
John Holloway (and others) book 'Zapatista! Reinventing Revolution in Chiapas' is good, and he's generalised his observations in 'Change the World Without Taking Power', but I've not read it.
Negri and Hardt's 'Empire' is a really sharp, well thought out analysis of the new forms of rule that appear during globalised capitalism.
No it's not, it's pretentious, over-written self-important bollocks that GW Bush is currently tearing up on the point of a bayonet (pace Lenin) 
PaulMarsh wrote:
As an example of how NOT to do it "memoirs of an urban guerilla" by Ann Hansen is superb.
Ha ha yeah what a bunch of morons! 
JDMF - i don't think the book situation's that bad... I didn't recommend too much cos I like histories, you seemed to be asking for theory. Obsolete Communism is the fucking damage, as they say...
Not exactly contemporary, but almost. Out of the ghetto, my youth in the east end, communism and fascism, 1913-1939, Joe Jacobs.
Rarely ever hear this mentioned, I wonder if he has been forgotten ?
Great book, gives the lie to the communist party version of cable street.
Joe Jacobs was a communist who moved in a libertarian direction in his life. He was in the solidarity group in the seventies, from which he was expelled ! he was expelled from the cp twice I think ? well worth reading
there's a pheonix press version of it available ?
revol68 wrote:
oh fuck up cockface!go wank over some 2nd international crisis theory.
noice. 
Contemporary Anarchist Books;
(none of which I've read because I'm caught up in the dark ages, but would really like to.)
Chomsky On Anarchism (June 16 2005)
Probably seen most of this before but who knows..AK Press.
Anarchism and Ecology by Graham Purchase (1997)
Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber (2004)
"pamphlet ponders what that response would be and explores the implications of linking anthropology to anarchism. Here, David Graeber invites readers to imagine this discipline that currently only exists in the realm of possibility: anarchist anthropology."
Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE to 1939) v. 1 by Robert Graham
Ok history, but it was published this year!
greets
enjoyed stuart christie's "granny made me an anarchist" (the cheap paperback edn) (unless you're loaded and then a trip to christiebooks is in order to get the three vol large pbk editions)
graham purchase (much neglected writer in uk - he's australian) "Anarchism and Environmental Survival" See Sharp press, 1994.
david watson "Against the megamachine - essays on empire and its enemies" autonmedia
fredy perlman "anything can happen" (collection of essays) phoenix press 1992
cornelius castoriadis "political and social writings" (aka paul cardan) university of minnesota press (get the local library to get these)
chris pallis / maurice brinton "For Workers' Power: the selected writings of Maurice Brinton". AK Press. 2004. ISBN 1904859070
howard j. ehrlich "reinventing anarchy, again" ak press 1996 (or the earlier one if you can find it)
richard porton "film and the anarchist imagination" verso, 1999 - really liked this one - not just about films and anarchism)
L.A Rollins "The Myth of natural rights" loompanics 1983
robert anton wilson "natural law - or don't put a rubber on your willy" loompanics 1987
Lorenzo kom'boa ervin "anarchism and the black revolution" monkeywrench press 1994
john shotton "no master high or low - libertarian education and schooling 1890 -1990" libertarian education, 1993
(plenty of food for thought there - even if you don't agree with all of it!)
mal
ok, got to the shop, looked around really hard and... bought nothing! Fucking typical
Actually i did buy latest issue of nort eastern anarchist, solidarity (the trade union mag - seems to be going strong) and freedom (and eventhough i am still pissed off about the "i spy" piece in it last years bookfair that some idiot wrote which put me off the whole newsletter, i think i'll subscribe now).
But couldn't decide on any books!
I'll try to mailorder books that were recommended here.
allright, time to get some books to keep company to my only anarchist book: Unfinished Business - the Politics of Class War.
Are there any contemporary libertarian communist/anarchist/syndicalist books you would recommend?
I rather not read books from guys who died before my grandad was born, you know the ones with glasses and big beard. Rather would like to get something contemporary, relevant to todays issues, but i am at lost of whats worth the read.
I'm hoping to get to freedom bookshop this week while in london for work reasons.