Online archive of The Shadow, an anarchist newspaper based in New York City focussing on investigative journalism, squatting, policing etc.
The Shadow has been published in New York City since 1989. It was founded in reaction to the way that events in the Lower East Side, including the Tompkins Square Park Riot, were covered by mainstream media.
Each issue includes excellent coverage of local struggles, but unfortunately there are also occasional forays into conspiracy theorising (especially around the World Trade Center bombing and then 9/11), which Libcom does not support.
PDFs from various online sources including shadowpress.net.
Including: Tompkins Square meeting disrupted by activists, police complaints corruption, Shadow statement of intent, Guardian Angels critique, Reagan autocracy, interview with prisoner Mariyn Buck, police brutality, where to go for food and help, etc.
Including: homestead demolition protest, yuppie go home!, NY Press rivalry, Tompkins Square Park riot cover up, urine tests, George Bush vs abortion, cop watching, squatting, etc.
Including: squat fire, police state on Avenue B, eviction thwarted, cop watching, Abbie Hoffman, May Day is jay day, no to the death penalty, etc.
Including: attack on homeless in Tompkins Square Park, flag burning outrage, skinheads attack leftwing space, Abbie Hoffman event, death of street musician Lincoln Swados, events, letters, etc.
Including: war on homeless, riot cops acquitted, fuck the NY Press, cops attack community centre, community board vs Tompkins Square Park, squatting, etc.
Including: park pigs raid homeless again, Shadow editor busted, Lower East Side corruption, tensions at Tompkins Park public meeting, sit-in a Deputy Mayor's office, ACT-UP cathedral protest, ABC community center retaken, the truth behind the Revolutionary Communist Party, etc.
Including: Revolutionaty Communist Party exposed, hatemail from pigs, planning corruption, ABC community centre raided, bike courier protest, Tompkins Square Park updates, council corruption, cop watching, etc.
Including: Shadow vs Lower East Side News, union of the homeless critique, anti-corruption, McDonalds demo, skinhead violence, cop watch, etc.
Including: cops harass Shadow editor, Iraq, pigs persecute peddlers, Mohawk nation vs army, Sabotage books closes, cops attack punk gig, community land trust, etc.
Including: Lower East Side squats threatened by "development", New York Times vs squatters, Community Board sleaze, anti-war rally, Mohawk Nation, cop watching, Bible burning event, etc.
Including: Gulf War, ant-war demos, Berlin squatters vs cops for 3 days, squatting in Central America, cop watching, arrests at needle exchange, letters, reviews etc.
Including: anti- gulf war demos, Tompkins Square Park corruption, South Bronx squatter repression, cops vs squatters in Brazil, cop watch, letters etc.
Including: proposed Lower East Side carve up, Workers World Party attack anti-war demonstrators, flag burning, CUNY students protest, cop watching, interview with anti-war Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran, etc.
Including: cops and Tompkins Square Park, death of artist Grady Alexis, anti-war protests, pot parade, cop watch, Shadow shit-list, etc.
Including: Tompkins Square Park police state, who is New York council candidate Antonio Pagan?, Mayor Dinkins exposed, methadone, etc.
Including: Tompkins Square Park bandshell demolished, Mayor evicts homeless encampment, squatters, the rise of Antonio Pagan, pro-choice and anti abortion marches, cop watching, etc.
Including: Mayday 29 riot arrestees trial, JFK movie, squatting. protests, etc.
Including: gentrification, satanic panic, Dhoruba Bin Wahad bailed, Pat Buchanan and Nixon, CIA and drugs for guns, interview with ex-DEA agent, ACT-UP demo, etc.
Including: abortion rights march on Washington, air quality and incinerator plants, pirate radio, confessions of an animal torturer, church lobby groups, etc.
Including: NYC riot after Rodney King verdict, police brutality, artwashing, bombing of Pan Am flight 103, pot parade, cop watch, Ross Perot's Nixon connection, etc.
Including: cult recruiters, police complaints reform, clampdown on Democrat conventon counter protestors, copwatch, Ice T "Cop Killer" song controversy, etc.
Including: riots after NYPD killings, "no police state" march, Democrat convention reports and protests, anti-abortionists opposed, etc.
Including: Tompkins Square Park reopens, Berkeley activist shot dead by cops, drunk racist cops protest at City Hall, incinerators considered, needle exchanges now legal?, Republican convention report, New York senate candidates exposed, cop watch, etc.
Including: Waco massacre, pigs raid homeless camp, housing board corruption, the real murderers of Malcolm X, Athens anarchists, reviews, etc.
Including: rent deregulation, Glass House squat, gay pride march, Community Board reports, cop watch, martial law in Guatemala, free Mumia, marijuna "smoke in" protest, Peter Tosh film director interviewed, censorship of comic artist Mike Diana, etc.
Including: pigs raid 5th anniversary of Tompkins Square uprising, council member Antonio Pagan re-elected, many police clampdowns, Fierce Pussy Festival, Manhattan Bridge teepee valley evicted, anarchists vs KKK in Chattanooga, San Francisco Food Not Bombs arrests, Dave Insurgent obituary, etc.
Including: Frank Zappa obituary, fascists beaten, legal squatting, cops attack homeless kitchen, ACT-UP. Rudolph Guilliani and fascism, etc.
Including: Glass House squat eviction, Subcommandante Marcos interview, ACT UP, Giuliani's daytime teen curfew, Haiti, Nixon obituary, cop watch, interview with Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney, Kurt Cobain death, women protest Grammy awards, etc.
Including: cops attack Memorial Day concert, cops attack Shadow journalists, transvestites and ACT UP Stonewall 25th anniversary protests, anti cop demo, ABC No Rio venue under threat, etc.
Including: FBI informant's role in WTC bombing, squatters protest at Community Board meeting, Antonio Pagan exposed, Clinton and the Contras, copwatch, California Food Not Bombs under attack, London and Netherlands travelogue including Claremont Road, etc.
Attachments
TheShadow_Issue_34.pdf
(16.94 MB)
Comments
It seems fairly well established that Al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.
The headline to this issue refers to the testimony and tape recordings of FBI informant, Emad Salem, who stated that the FBI were aware of the bomb being made and could possibly have prevented it from being made. It does not seem clear that the FBI knew what the target of the bombing would be either.
So in my view the headline is misleading and sensationalist and unhelpfully opens up a world of conspiracy theories.
Yeah, I'll keep an eye on that side of it all. If the conspiracy stuff becomes more prominent than the reporting on local struggles in later issues, a rethink wil be necessary!
Including: 16,300 fire alarm boxes deactivated in New York City, 13th street squatter victory, Zapatistas, DEA corruption, graffiti, police brutality, Jerry Rubin obituary, etc.
Including: twelve hour eviction battle on Lower East Side, Oklahoma bombing, militant protest against University budget cuts, ABC No Rio eviction threat, cops attack Puerto Rican Day celebrations, resistance to Criminal Justice Bill in the UK, Militia movement - enemy or pawn of the state?, interview with former Black Panther Dhoruba Bin Ward, Mumia abu Jamal, subversive electronics, the internet, etc.
Including: drug/cop shootings, East 13th Street squatters. obituary for activist lawyer William Moses Kunstler, ABC No Rio faces eviction, pirate radio, Judi Bari and the FBI war against Earth First, critical history of the Village Voice, etc.
Including: real estate developers vs the people, Steal This Radio pirate radio collective. communications bill threatens first amendment, FBI vs Earth First!, Mumia Abu Jamal, transgressive art, phone phreaking, etc.
Including: cops attack squatters,/protestors/journalists, interview with a cop, NYC rent control up for review, San Francisco cannabis buyers club, Zapatistas, Terror Bill and civil liberties, Timothy Leary, etc.
Including: Contras/Nicaragua, Disney sweatshop protests, Republican anti-tenant laws, Latin America drug war, California timber war, Linda Twigg obituary, internet privatisation, medical marijuana, etc.
Including: illegal demolition of East Fifth Street squat, yuppies, NYC to secede from New York state, ABC No Rio eviction stalled, Mexico drug war, Allen Ginsbery obituary, Judi Bari obituary, etc.
Including: Lower East Side gardens threatened by yuppie condos. police brutality, Clinton Street vs landlord, William S Burroughs obituary, Andean drug war, CIA-contra-cocaine connection, interview with activist attorney, subversive electronics, etc.
Including: community gardens destroyed for condos, Giullani police state, tenants oppose deposits, Chiapas, Anthrax and Iraq, police vs California redwood protestors, actor Al Lewis (Munsters) interviewed, etc.
Including: Mumia appeal denied, land grab threatens community centre, Rudolf Giuliani's police state, Reclaim The Streets on Broadway, clampdown on sex workers, CBGBs raided by cops, Dos Blockos squat eviction, pirate radio, former DEA agent interviewed, etc.
Including: anti-WTO protets in Seattle, community garden defenders arrested, Reclaim The Streets in Times Square, Dos Blockos squat evicted, community radio lock out, deportations of political radicals, copwatch, anti Klan protests, interview with community activist Armando Perez, making 42nd street sleazy again, etc.
Including: 9/11 fallout and the war on terror (with some unhelpful conspiracy theorising), tenants campaign for rent law reform, GM food, $4.4 million compensation for Judi Bari cover up, interview with radical attorney Lynne Stewart, etc.
Attachments
TheShadow_Issue_46.pdf
(14.61 MB)
Comments
The cover of this issue has echoes of the one for #34 on which it was claimed that the FBI bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.
It is clear that on both occasions it was Al-Qaeda operatives who bombed the World Trade Center.
Including: Operation Homeland and domestic repression post 9-11, Don Yippie obituary, end of rent control, community gardens saved, squats survive yuppie onslaught, Bhopal settlement, etc.
Including: military-industrial complex, Rachel Corrie murdered by IDF, anti-war protests in NYC, Enron and the energy crisis, US company sold anthrax to Iraq, etc.
Including: CIA shifts focus to internal security, anti-war sectarianism, power company corruption and NYC blackout, Greg Palast, rubber bullets, bodily fluid testing, Seth Tobocman comic on NYC firefighters, mad cow disease, US and Haiti, etc.
Including: Bush appoints Honduras death squad supporter to key role, US election and electronic voting, Iraq war crimes, Ukraine crisis, journalist Gary Webb obituary, Republican convention, Seth Tobocman cartoon, surveillance, etc.
Comments
great stuff, thank you!
great stuff, thank you!
I'm stopping uploading these…
I'm stopping uploading these at #50 I'm afraid. Things get a bit more conspiracy theoryish from then on, including several infamous 9/11 conspiracy theory films being sold as merch. The coverage of local struggles is still very good though. A shame.
Fozzie, I was looking…
Fozzie, I was looking through the publications tag, spotted this and came to say something similar.
I first encountered this paper sometime in 2004-2006. Some of my family and I took a weekend trip to Chicago and stopped at Quimby's, a sort of underground comic and zine bookstore. I picked up an issue and a lot of it was weird 9/11 Truther stuff.
Thanks Juan - yes it is a…
Thanks Juan - yes it is a great pity. Without pathologising conspiracy theorists too much I do wonder about the focus on weed smoking and if that plays a factor in the trajectory!
Just a bit of advice that…
Just a bit of advice that will go ignored. Instead of being hoity toity, might be worth considering why exactly the working class loves conspiracies and narratives in general and how that can be accentuated. Down with this sort of thing is also going really well though, maybe carry on.
Thanks Goff. It’s entirely…
Thanks Goff. It’s entirely sensible advice that I am already doing my best to adhere to. There are a lot of great podcasts like QAA and the work of Annie Kelly that go into this.
Texts on Libcom like How To Overthrow the Illuminati are also helpful in my view. https://libcom.org/article/how-overthrow-illuminati
The trite answer is that conspiracy theories do provide simple answers to complex questions about oppression and inequality and the communities around them are one way to reduce the alienation that people feel.
I’d say that why working class people are interested in this stuff is a more interesting question than why did one radical magazine take a turn for the worse. It seems reasonable to be dismissive of that in the context of uploading that content to this website but a wider conversation is welcome of course.
goff wrote: Just a bit of…
Why conspiracy theories are prevalent within the contemporary working class is a separate question from why did this particular anarchist publication jump into conspiracy theories.
To address the question of the latter, I'm not certain. I imagine The Shadow never made much money, maybe even barely or never broke even. It was probably produced by people who had an ideological commitment to it and what they understood as its goals. As the publication was never really associated with an organization, but more of a politicized subcultural scene what may have happened is that new people with very different ideas started doing the bulk of the work.
Fozzie wrote: Thanks Goff…
Didn’t mean to be a prick Fozzie, but it does kill me this is just uncontested ground with massive ramifications. A few things, I’m personally interested in the idea of conspiracy that provides complex answers or not any at all; many things we take now for granted like COINTELPRO or banana companies hiring death squads or GLADIO would have been dismissed as high fantasy one time or another. That they’re all now proven is almost irrelevant. Would it really surprise anyone if 9/11 turned out to be another. Speaking of Marxist alienation, explaining it to someone sounds more like a fever dream than science. And this bifurcation you and Juan mentioned of radicals and conspiracy is only a new self imposed problem, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/rebuke.html. Basically, we’ve always been weird, we need to get weirder, and the masses are weirdest still.
goff wrote: many things we…
I see where you're coming from, but I don't really agree with this. All the things that you mention, i.e. "conspiracies" which are actually true, I don't really think technically fall under the umbrella of "conspiracy theories". A conspiracy theory isn't just an idea or suggestion of a conspiracy – it refers to explaining random events normally with straightforward explanations as being caused by some overarching conspiracy.
So the idea that the FBI would have been infiltrating and disrupting radical groups in the 1960s is not some overly complex theory. One of the primary reasons for the creation of the FBI (or at least, its predecessor), was infiltrating and disrupting radical groups at the beginning of the 20th-century. So no one would have thought this was "high fantasy".
It would also have been possible – the FBI is a single organisation, with a strong culture of secrecy and confidentiality. Which pays its employees, and can imprison them for leaking, and so gives them big incentives to keep secrets. They also largely believe in and support what they are doing. So them doing their job which they believe in is also not some wacky idea.
But the idea of 9/11 conspiracy theories just doesn't make any sense on any level (framing a bunch of people from Saudi Arabia for a ridiculously and needlessly convoluted terrorist attack in order to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq). And it could only have been carried out by a conspiracy of perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of people working for dozens or hundreds of different organisations, none of whom had any kind of culture of secrecy, payroll, or any incentive to keep any secrets (for example, air-traffic controllers, firefighters, airline staff, construction workers, eyewitnesses and so on who would all have to be "in on it").
One thing which is pretty frustrating now is just the complete ubiquity of conspiracy theories which emerge around every single new story. For example even today on seeing a new story about Palestine Action protesters who broke into an RAF base and damaged planes (something which anti-war protesters have done many times), social media comments are full of people claiming this was an inside job, because it would have been completely impossible for anyone to do otherwise.
Something really seems to have happened whereby people who have almost no understanding of anything (for example, how RAF bases are set up and how they run their security), seem to think they understand it perfectly, and so the only way anything could happen which goes against their ignorant preconceptions is some grand conspiracy (normally ultimately involving "the Jews").
To be fair, I am ambivalent…
To be fair, I am ambivalent on quote unquote conspiracies and more the praxis of using these narratives for radical ends (and narrative in general), but on the technicalities, one of the responses to Daniele Ganser’s GLADIO book was “fails to present proof of and an in-depth explanation of the claimed conspiracy between USA, CIA, NATO and the European countries”. In the case of COINTELPRO the only proof came from a fluke burglary.
Trying to make this as broad as possible without defending goalkeepers seeing lizardpeople, but I do see some intuitive element in say 9/11, that nil proof, there is belief there’s no limit state(s) would sink to. Obviously this is diffuse and chaotic, but there is a kernel there that is interesting. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter to me. I see a relation in building mass radicalism, what if there was this same unshakeable belief in another world? Isn’t that something we should be encouraging?
And I think you’ve just described the terrain of where the working class is at. I neither approve or disapprove, I’m just saying what I see, but they’re openly saying they love the mystification and they revel in it. It’s either come up with more seductive stories or get played off the park.
Tried to not go full D&G schizo but hopefully this make sense in the context.
"But the idea of 9/11…
"But the idea of 9/11 conspiracy theories just doesn't make any sense on any level (framing a bunch of people from Saudi Arabia for a ridiculously and needlessly convoluted terrorist attack in order to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq). And it could only have been carried out by a conspiracy of perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of people working for dozens or hundreds of different organisations, none of whom had any kind of culture of secrecy, payroll, or any incentive to keep any secrets (for example, air-traffic controllers, firefighters, airline staff, construction workers, eyewitnesses and so on who would all have to be "in on it")."
But the Deep State intertwined with the corporate media is capable of very complex conspiracies involving huge numbers of witnesses/those who have inside info. In the case of 9/11 important motivations would be connected with of course the new US imperialist war push in the middle east eg Iraq and Afghanistan wars but also facilitating the neo-liberal strong state - massive increased surveillance in many countries also in line with other major war plans. Obviously aimed at tackling/targeting likely opponents.
In the case of the JFK assassination conspiracy many who spilled any beans or were going to ended up dying under" mysterious circumstances" or were discouraged from spilling beans by threats.
A very interesting and explosive book on the JFK assassination conspiracy is the book "Me and Lee" by Judyth Baker published by a very small US outfit, Trine Day Press. She was Lee Harvey Oswald's girl friend. It captures important aspects of its vast complexity. She kept silent for some decades due to worries about the above and associated mafia retaliation. She thought with the passage of so much time it would be safe to spill the beans. So she went ahead with the book and went on a lecture tour about it in the US. But due to mysterious death threats etc. She had to cut it short and go permanently into exile.
In the Oz context we seem to have had a little "9/11" - the Port Arthur Massacre. Also aimed at the building of the neo liberal strong State. The guy doing the "Wasp Files" youtubes has uncovered many suspicious aspects pointing to a Deep State job with definitely the Oz Govt. involved. Since talking about doing a film on the subject he started to received various threats to silence him. His research has received quite a bit of slander in the corporate media.
goff wrote: To be fair, I am…
This is true, but again COINTELPRO was an example of a highly secretive government agency doing a job that it was specifically set up to do (i.e. disrupt radical groups). This is not a wacky or far-fetched idea.
This is very different to thinking that the government somehow smuggled loads of explosives into the twin towers, blew them up, then separately abducted 2 planes full of people, killed them all, destroyed the planes, and then smuggled all of the corpses and plane debris into the destroyed buildings to make it look like planes crashed into them (even ignoring the separate attack on the Pentagon and the final plane which was crashed by its passengers). And then that they would claim that a bunch of Saudi Arabian people did it, in order to justify supporting Saudi Arabia and invading Afghanistan.
Anyway don't mean to go round in circles about 9/11, but I see what you are saying.
It is just frustrating how absolutely stupid it all is and how many people for it.
I’m with ya. But desperate…
I’m with ya. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Just as Irish peasant societies turned to myths, cross dressing and rituals during famine to fight landlordism, we’re gonna need an equally unconventional response.
Anyway, sorry to derail.
goff wrote: I’m with ya. But…
I don't really think you need to worry about derailing, because there is not huge amount of discussion going on anyway!
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your point, but if you are saying that the conspiracy theory mentality is a "response" which could be potentially beneficial to "us", then I'm afraid I just disagree. The general mentality is that everything that happens is preordained and arranged by an invincible group of powerful individuals. Therefore the ultimate consequence of it is profoundly demobilising.
See, for example, all the idiots claiming that Palestine Action activities were all part of some grand plot.
Going back to your famine analogy, the equivalent would be having a belief that all of the peasant resistance to landlordism was in reality actually just organised by the landlords or British colonial government themselves for some nefarious ends.
But anyway, we may just go around in circles from this point, because I think we probably just have different views on this.
Ha, think it’s my fault, I’m…
Ha, think it’s my fault, I’m getting this from pomo and I’m obviously terrible at articulating it. For argument’s sake, let’s say conspiracy is a loose synonym for narrative here. Your Palestine Action plot is a story just like the obsession with grooming gangs in this shithole is a story. Sure you’ve noticed facts or saying it’s stupid has no effect which does make sense in a post truth world. That would only leave different stories altogether as a response. What those are I dunno but I sense it’s on that terrain that people can be seduced. Just like the peasants turned to pretty far out stories in an emergency.
Know I’m not going to…
Know I’m not going to convince anyone on this but
“Thiel wrote to Yarvin in 2014. “One reassuring thought: one of our hidden advantages is that these people”—social-justice warriors—“wouldn’t believe in a conspiracy if it hit them over the head (this is perhaps the best measure of the decline of the Left). Linkages make them sound really crazy, and they kinda know it.”” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/curtis-yarvin-profile
Personally I think…
Personally I think conspiracy theories come from providing understandable or clear answers, where the real answers are hard to understand or don't really give a satisfying answer.
They also make people feel smart, without, usually, having to actually learn much. For example the controlled demolition theory above, when people start talking about the melting point of steel and the burning temperature of airplane fuel, they feel like they are clever, because they have some facts and a clear logical structure that gives them an answer, even if a little common sense and basic knowledge gets them out of it.
My other theory is that we like the narrative. We watch film and TV and read books full of plot twists and we expect that from real life. Although personally whenever they introduce a big conspiracy in a creative work it is usually actually terrible and doesn't actually hold up, but that's a little beside the point.
It’s funny though Jef, you…
It’s funny though Jef, you can replace conspiracy theory with the word communism and the same point holds. Common sense and basic knowledge says the dodos are more likely. Conceptually, if someone can’t imagine a basic plot, they are never going to manage another world. Don’t actually know the ins and outs of 9/11 theories, but I imagine they are more creative than https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/movie-plot-the-rock-inspired-mi6-sources-iraqi-weapons-claim-chilcot-report . The masses are already in this space, they don’t have this problem, they have ideas, it’s radicalism that has none and is in paralysis. I don’t think this is a coincidence (or is it). It can’t be all meet the people where they’re at and then getting snooty about it. Remember, it could be worse, there could be people trawling through ancient Sylvia Pankhurst texts trying to decipher some contemporary meaning applicable to our times…