The class struggle explodes in this issue of Dance of the Skeletons, an egalitarian labour zine of the highest order. DOTS is decidedly retro, all dog-eared snips and vaguely cock-eyed paste jobs but, in this instance anyway, it works because of the subject matter. The zine contains street-level coverage of issues that matter. Writing kinda sorta in the first person, zine editor Johnny Aztec talks about his various union organizing exploits in and around Ottawa. From projectionists at his film school to the cleaning staff at an armpit shopping mall in the suburbs of the city, these stories speak of labour and management, and labour getting pissed at management, and ultimately labour doing something about it. The stories are pretty typical protectionism fare but taken from a Canadian perspective, these tales do offer a pretty neat glimpse (unfair or otherwise) into labour standards of the working class… and at just a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill, to boot. (Cameron Gordon)
Zine, Johnny Aztec and Braden Cannon, #4, $2 or trade, 48 pgs, 14-19 Happy Tree, Apt 205, Nishi 16 Minami 5, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan, 080-0027, [email protected], www.myspace.com/johnny_aztec