Dear friends and comrades –

This is an announcement from Tarantula Distribution and the socialwar.net website, to share some news from both the distribution project, and also current struggles several of us here feel to be important.

The distribution website ― http://www.socialwar.net ― has recently been overhauled, and now contains many new features. The earlier version of this website was the product of a novice web designer, and proved to be incompatible with many web browsers. Over the recent months, however, this novice has gradually learned more web design skills, and the site’s browser compatibility problems now appear to be resolved. So, please check out the new site, especially if you had problems getting it to display the last time around! Of course, it would be great to hear of any remaining glitches on the site, and to receive suggestions for further improving it. While Tarantula Distribution has made an effort to circulate thoughtful critiques of technological society, we do not consider sloppiness in web design to be central to our fight against this society!

One important addition to the new site is the anonymous article “Strangers Everywhere,” which discusses the recent round of raids and arrests against anarchists in Lecce, Italy. Since this article was first put together, repression against our comrades in Italy has only increased, with comrades in several other cities being imprisoned, and approximately two hundred raids over the course of two weeks. The article itself may be found at http://socialwar.net/main/free_texts/strangerseverywhere.htm. Beyond circulating this text, I encourage radicals to stay informed through looking for updates on such sites as http://www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk, and, most importantly, to demonstrate practical, revolutionary solidarity with our comrades in struggle. Even small numbers, acting with intelligence and imagination, can do a lot of damage to the state’s projects of repression right now. Beyond a clear rejection of any attempts to militarize what is fundamentally a social struggle, or to put quantitative results above quality in our actions, I have no interest in telling people how precisely to proceed or what to do.

I hope to compile and distribute more documentation about the events in Italy soon.

In another situation of state repression, the trial of the “Aachen Four” continues in Germany. The judicial torture of our anarchist comrades there has met with strong opposition, from gatherings outside the courthouse to an “International Day of Action” involving everything from flyering to sabotage, with activities in a wide range of cities (unfortunately, very little in North America). Again, I encourage everyone to stay informed ― especially through looking at http://www.escapeintorebellion.info ― to spread the word, and to deepen one’s own practice in solidarity with those arrested.

Another situation of both profound repression and also of resistance unquestionably unfolds every day in Iraq. Without entering into every complexity of events there right now, I will simply recommend Fire to the Powder Keg: War and Social Guerrilla Struggle in Iraq (trans. Wolfi Landstreicher) as one of the very best English-language books available on the subject. This book is available through Tarantula Distribution (see http://socialwar.net/main/new_titles.htm for all of our new titles) or directly through its publishers at Eberhardt Press (http://www.eberhardtpress.org).

This has been an extremely partial and selective account of important events of late; I absolutely encourage those involved in other struggles to make the resources of Tarantula Distribution and the socialwar.net site their own. These projects do not exist to make a buck ― although breaking even at some stage would be pleasant ― but to help encourage discussion, information exchange, collaboration and complicity between those fighting for an utterly transformed world. If you have a text which we may be interested in distributing through Tarantula, or perspectives that could be of interest to the readers of the socialwar message board, don’t hesitate to get in contact. Also, stacks of flyers or newsletters to pass out with Tarantula Distribution mail are always welcome.

Looking forward to a long hot Summer…

For anarchy and communism –

Dave N. Tarantula Publishing & Distribution

Tarantula Distribution 818 SW 3rd Ave. PMB 1237 Portland, OR 97204www.socialwar.net