I'm glad to see they've been republished. They used to joke that they were more anarchist than us by having completely open editorial meetings. It was a worthy project, as is Westend Press, although I can't completely agreee, obviously, with their sentimentality about the early CP.
Overtime:Punchin’ Out with The Mill Hunk Herald Magazine (1979-1989)
David in Atlanta wrote:
I'm glad to see they've been republished. They used to joke that they were more anarchist than us by having completely open editorial meetings. It was a worthy project, as is Westend Press, although I can't completely agreee, obviously, with their sentimentality about the early CP.
[sardonic]Bah, you purist anarchists never recognize the compromises that have to be made by groups actually involved in the struggle[/sardonic]
Actually, it looks like a really cool book.
They prolly had a marxist bent, but there were alot more marxists of my generation and older than anarchists. Thats siad, what is important is the content, the method and means by which they approached the work/activities of MHH. In this sense, they acted very much along libertarian lines and the MHH promoted a working class libertarian culture. Would I agree with some of their politics, prolly not, but I think they were very much an important expression of a working class (steelworkers) that were just simply getting the crap kick out of them.
'The Mill Hunk Herald' was an excellent example of working class self-activitiy and culture 'from below'. I suspect the book will be filled with such examples.
Overtime: Punchin’ Out with The Mill Hunk Herald Magazine (1979-1989)
The Mill Hunk Herald was a newsletter, a journal of opinion, a magazine of the arts—an unsanctioned rebel institution in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1980s. These writings about the Homestead, Pennsylvania steel mill and its subsequent shutdown, along with the history of its people’s lives and the fiction and poetry of the working class, were lovingly culled from the remains.
While the editorial tasks were shared collectively, largely by steel workers unemployed at the time, the principle architect of the newspaper was Larry Evans, whose house was converted into a production line with every issue. The editorial committee included a number of talented writers, such as Jim Daniels and Peter Oresick.
½ x 11 inches • 208 pages • ISBN 0-931122-55-4 • $12.95
http://westendpress.org/index.htm