The Hilt Issue #4, Vol. 2 / Free / :25 / 16M / [email protected] / Reviewed 14 June 2006
The Hilt is an anarchist publication. There are just a few pieces during this issue, and they are based on trying to give individuals a true idea what anarchist is and why it is separate from ideologies like communism and socialism. At one point, the pieces do not seem as strong as they could be; most major of these pieces to fall into this rut is the conflation of rabid Americanism with anti-feminism. This is discussed in “What Does A King’s Coronation Look Like?†by Tariq Khan, when ey says that a pro-American’s pelting of a female with a snowball was an anti-feministic act. The fact is that the person, regardless of sex, would have been pelted with a snowball because of the act they were doing at the time; carrying a “No War†banner. To say that this is an act of the patriarchy is disingenuous and weakens the rest of the arguments made in this piece. Some pieces also seem to just hold another view of anarchism, and thus cause strife with anarchists of a slightly different strife. For example, “Apparently Violence is Wrong when the Government uses it, but not when we use it†attacks the popular band RAMBO as being the purveyors of a militaristic brand of anarchism without fully explaining the roots of their philosophy. This is a major problem that I feel is present throughout the magazine, there just is not enough space given to the pieces that are present in this issue. Still, this is a good magazine because it is simple and easy to get into, and strays away from much of the boring theoretic talk that most anarchist zines fall into.
Rating: 6.6/10