Some of the most exciting moments we have experienced in the last few years have been in the streets, getting teargassed by armored riot cops, running around corners and through holes in fences with the people we love, scattering, regrouping, and coming back stronger than ever.
The clarity of these moments is exhilarating. Realizing that the police have all the power in the world but still can’t control us; seeing the way that power can shift and reverse, even in this entrenched world; knowing, without doubt, which side we are on. Experiences like these bring everything in to focus and can become bright shining beacons with which we navigate more effectively through the rest of our lives, but our years are also filled with other moments that make us feel more alive including many experiences where the lines are far less clear and understanding subtleties serves us better than the satisfaction of moral certainty.
It is crucial to oppose the ugliness we see in the world, to name our trauma and make visible the systems of power that shape so much of our lives and undermine our ability to connect with each other. The temptation to turn the moral clarity of a particular moment into a general kind of reductive self-righteousness, however, is strong. It often relies on the logic of the very systems we are trying to oppose.
We are more interested in amplifying the moments we feel most alive, honing our skills for when we face down cops in the street, but also for when we dance and fuck and go on walks with people, when we negotiate sharing our lives and working on projects together and have expansive conversations with each other. We hope that this organizer will give you a place to take notes and make plans, conspire and record all of the moments that make up your life, definite or potential, exciting or logistical, filled with all the clarity and subtlety of life, but never dull.
This is the 22nd time we’ve amused ourselves by publishing the Slingshot organizer. Its sale raises funds to publish the quarterly, radical, independent Slingshot Newspaper. We distribute the newspaper for free everywhere in the US, often at the places listed in the Radical Contact List. Let us know if you can be a local newspaper distributor in your area. Consider sending us content for the paper. Thanks to the volunteers who created this year’s organizer: Ali, Amanda, Angie, Bernadette, Brooke, Caitlan, Claire, Dave, Eggplant, Elisa, Fern, Fil, Finn, Heather, Isabel, Jacob, Jesse, Jesska, Joey, Katie, Kelsey, Kermit, Korvin, Kristi, Lee, Lew, Lindsay, Maggie, Mel, Reishim, Rory, Stormy, Vanessa, Xander & those we forgot.
Slingshot Collective
A Project of Long Haul
Physical office: 3124 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94705
Mail: PO box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703
510-540-0751 ex. 3 • http://slingshot.tao.ca • slingshot@tao.ca • @slingshotnews
Printed in Berkeley, CA on recycled paper
Anti-copyright.
All volunteer collective – no bosses, no workers, no pay.