Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherfucker: The incomplete works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea, and the Black Mask group

Black Mask book 1993 edition cover

Chronicling the history of two New York City provocateur groups—Black Mask and Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker—this account complies the complete ten issues of the newspaper Black Mask; numerous leaflets, articles, and flyers generated by Black Mask; the Up Against the Wall Motherfucker Magazine; and Free Press and Rolling Stone reports on Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker.

Founded in the mid-1960s, the Black Mask group melded the ideas and inspiration of Dada with the anarchism of the Spanish Revolution, and this volume demonstrates how they heavily influenced the art, politics, and culture of the decade as they briefly shut down the Museum of Modern Art, protested Wall Street, battled at Students for a Democratic Society conferences, and defended the shooting of Andy Warhol. This history then details how in 1968 Black Mask reorganized as Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker, which combined the confrontational theater and tactics of Black Mask with a much more aggressive approach in dealing with the police and authorities.

Libcom note: The PDF file below is a readable (but not brilliant) scan of the Unpopular Books edition from 1993. An expanded edition of the book was published in 2011 by PM Press:

Available to buy at PM Press (USA) and AKUK.

Also, the "Flower Power Won't Stop Fascist Power" PDF which was previously incorrectly included on this page, is now here.

Comments

Steven.

11 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on March 24, 2012

Great stuff, thanks for posting. I met Ben Morea in New York a few years ago, an interesting guy to say the least!

flaneur

11 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by flaneur on March 24, 2012

It'd be good to have some King Mob stuff too, they were pals with these lot.

dizzymonk

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by dizzymonk on May 16, 2017

This is an important document, one I have been awaiting for years. I was involved with UAW/MF in '68 & '69 & still consider myself, at heart, a Motherfucker. My only criticism of this anthology is the near-omission of Allan Hoffman, a brilliant theorist & a true comrade, who died in a tragic, stupid traffic accident in 1969.

Steven.

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on May 16, 2017

dizzymonk

This is an important document, one I have been awaiting for years. I was involved with UAW/MF in '68 & '69 & still consider myself, at heart, a Motherfucker. My only criticism of this anthology is the near-omission of Allan Hoffman, a brilliant theorist & a true comrade, who died in a tragic, stupid traffic accident in 1969.

hi, if you have any recollections of your involvement in the group, any of the actions you took part in and any of the people (like Hoffman), we would love to publish them! So feel free to post them up here as a comment and we could add them to our history section