About Us

The Alexander Berkman Social Club is a group of anarchists who want to talk about what anarchism is, how anarchists see things and what anarchy could look like. Named after the editor of San Francisco’s mighty The Blast, we hope to have continual monthly meetings that are open to all. If you come you’ll get a membership card, the chance to win thousands of dollars (alright – the odd book or two) and hopefully something to think about and act on. You failed the audition for “So You Think You Can Dance,” and you just don’t seem with it. Don’t worry. The ABSC will have you. See you there!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Lucio, the movie. This Thursday!


"The banks are the real crooks, they exploit you, take your money and cause all the wars."
-Lucio Urtubia

The next ABSC meeting will be a screening of the recent documentary Lucio
For more about the film check out the official site Lucio, the move
or the Internet Movie Database listing about the film

Plus, as always, there will be snacks, drink, camaraderie, discussion, and radical musical wallpaper by the Hippolyte Havel House Band.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thursday, February 26, 2009
7pm
@ 522 Valencia
San Francisco, CA
$5 (or $4 with your membership card!)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Up Against the Wall Motherfu**er


Osha Neumann at Bound Together this Saturday evening!

Up Against the Wall Motherfu**er
; a memoir of the sixties with notes for next time

Osha Neumann reads from his new book about life in an anarchist street gang on the Lower East Side of New York in the 1960s. In addition, Alfonso Texador will provide poetry and there were be rare archival footage of the Motherfuckers.

All this on Saturday, February 21 at 8:00 pm


Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore

1369 Haight Street (near Masonic)
San Francisco
415 431-8355

(bus lines 71, 6, 43, 33 and 37 all stop nearby)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Lucio, the movie

"The banks are the real crooks, they exploit you, take your money and cause all the wars."
-Lucio Urtubia

The next ABSC meeting will be a screening of the recent documentary Lucio
For more about the film check out the official site Lucio, the move
or the Internet Movie Database listing about the film

Plus, as always, there will be snacks, drink, camaraderie, discussion, and radical musical wallpaper by the Hippolyte Havel House Band.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thursday, February 26, 2009
7pm
@ 522 Valencia
San Francisco, CA

Friday, February 6, 2009

Film Event at Bound Together Books

Saturday, February 7 at 8:00 pm

Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore
1369 Haight Street (
near Masonic), San Francisco
Bus Lines 6, 71, 43, 33, 37 & 7 all stop nearby
415 431-8355 / www.boundtogetherbooks.com

Two Short Historical Films on Palestine and Lebanon

followed by Q&A and discussion


The Sons of Eilaboun

A New Film* by Hisham Zreiq. In 1948 the Israeli army marched into the Galilee village of Eilaboun. The Sons Of Eilaboun is a documentary film about the massacre, and the expulsion and eventual return of survivors. In the film the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe will introduce the history behind the Nakba events; the Eilaboun (Eilabun) people tell the story--www.sonsofeilaboun.com.
*(The film is in production, with a full-length version to be released in the future. We'll be showing a short version--about 24 minutes--which has been released in advance.)

The War of 33
In July 2006 Israel invaded Lebanon. The War of 33 is an intimate, personal and powerful telling of the story of the 2006 war in Lebanon. A series of letters written by Hanady Salman--a mother living through the war in Beirut--carve a narrative arc through the intense and haunting images of conflict. She tells the stories of her family and the people she lives the war with--the refugees, the wounded, and the everyday Lebanese, struggling to maintain their sanity and their humanity during a time of war. (For additional info on this film, visit PM Press website, www.pmpress.org ) The War of '33 is more than a document of a particular historical experience. What emerges is a universal story--a complex picture of love, pain, resistance and survival in the face of uncertainty and violence. (Big Noise Tactical Media is a collective of media-makers dedicated to circulating beautiful, passionate, revolutionary images.)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Anarchist movie party!!

The ABSC will be showing the exciting film:
Lucio
(Directed by Aitor Arregi and José María Goenaga)

Thursday, February 26, 2009
7pm
@ 522 Valencia
San Francisco, CA

This wonderful documentary is a great gateway drug into working class anarchism for the uninitiated and circle @ curious, as well as a shot in the arm and a humbling inspiration for already convinced anarchists.

Plus snacks, drink, camaraderie, discussion, and radical musical wallpaper by the Hippolyte Havel House Band.

Lucio Urtubia's life is the stuff of legend. A bricklayer by profession and an anarchist by conviction, as an activist in 1950s Paris he counted André Breton and Albert Camus amongst his friends, worked with anarchist guerrilla Francisco Sabate in attempting to bring down Franco's fascist regime and carried out numerous bank robberies to fund the struggle to free Spain. In 1977, after having his earlier scheme to destabilize the US economy by forgery rejected by Che Guevara, he put his plan into action. Lucio successfully forged 20 million dollars of Citibank travelers checks to fund guerrilla groups in Latin America, bringing the bank to its knees in the process. In between he helped organize the kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie from his hideout in Bolivia, aided the escape of Black Panthers from the US and not surprisingly was targeted by the CIA. Lucio has defended his life's work saying…'we are bricklayers, painters, electricians - we do not need the state for anything'.

"The banks are the real crooks, they exploit you, take your money and cause all the wars."
-Lucio Urtubia