2- Slingshot issue #129 Introduction

Slingshot is an independent radical newspaper published in Berkeley since 1988.

Much ado is made of the “Slingshot miracle”, the phenomenon where friends or strangers unexpectedly show up to help with layout right when we need them. This issue, what felt miraculous wasn’t the collective push to get layout work done – even though that was great – but that we were able to gather enough worthwhile articles to make an issue.

The high point of production was possibly the moment when two collective members, one of whom had just arrived in Berkeley visiting from Brazil, used a trash can to draw a perfect circle for their page (judge the results for yourself on page 19). Later on we enjoyed groundscored pizza.

It sometimes feels like our whole operation is made out of trash – we read articles on a couch salvaged from a collective house, print Slingshot logos on freebox t-shirts and then give them away, and paste up our pages on layout sheets discarded by another news-paper. Our paper is held together by melted wax that is dispensed by these old contraptions called waxers that no one uses or manufactures anymore. In the time it took us to produce this issue, two of our friends released cassette tapes (which most people now think of as trash) that are named after the trash island in the Pacific.

And to be fair, while some copies of Slingshot are read over and over, most copies probably end up recycled at best. So we are making trash out of trash. What will future humans and other animals have to remind them of this period of human history? Our trash!

The collective decided that the theme of this issue is climate chaos and ways to respond to it. We anticipate every subsequent issue being similarly themed, at least until our climate stabilizes, which very well may be beyond Slingshot’s lifetime. Mitigating and adapting to climate chaos is complicated and hard not just to act on but also to wrap our heads around. We welcome submissions from a variety of perspectives, exploring multiple ways of talking and thinking about and responding to this global crisis. We also welcome articles and art not directly related to the climate, since, after all, this is Berkeley, and “everything is connected, maaan.”

In keeping with our theme, we have decided to list the atmospheric concentration of CO2 on the cover of each issue starting with this one. There is a laundry list of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, but CO2 is responsible for about 75% of the warming, so it is a good benchmark for global emissions. The figure is expressed in parts per million (ppm) and goes up and down seasonally about 10 PPM over the year.

Slingshot is always looking for new writers, artists, editors, photographers, translators, distributors, etc. to make this paper. If you send an article, please be open to editing.

We’re a collective but not all the articles reflect the opinions of all collective members. We welcome debate and constructive criticism.

Thanks to the people who made this: Dov, Eggplant, Elke, Fern, Hannah, Isabel, Isabelle, Jesse, Karen, Kathleen, Korvin, Stuart, Talia and all the authors and artists!

Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting

Volunteers interested in getting involved with Slingshot can come to the new volunteer meeting on Sunday, March 17, 2019 at 7 pm at the Long Haul in Berkeley (see below.)

Article Deadline & Next Issue Date

Submit your articles for issue 129 by April 6, 2019 at 3 pm.

Volume 1, Number 128, Circulation 22,000

Printed February 1, 2019

Slingshot Newspaper

A publication of Long Haul

Office: 3124 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley CA 94705

Mailing: PO Box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703

510-540-0751 slingshotcollective@protonmail.com

slingshotcollective.org • twitter @slingshotnews

Slingshot free stuff

We’ll send you a random assortment of back issues for the cost of postage. Send $4 for 2 lbs. Free if you’re an infoshop or library. slingshotcollective.org

Circulation information
Subscriptions to Slingshot are free to prisoners, low income, or anyone in the USA with a Slingshot Organizer, or $1 per issue. International $3 per issue. Outside the Bay Area we’ll mail you a free stack of copies if you give them out for free. Say how many copies and how long you’ll be at your address. In the Bay Area pick up copies at Long Haul and Bound Together books, SF.