Introduction to issue # 100

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

This issue is numbered issue #100, which is some kind of a milestone, but we decided not to make such a big deal of it. Numbers are arbitrary anyway — if we had 6 fingers on our hands and not 5, we would probably count in base 12 and the significant issue number would be 144. Moreover, due to a numbering error when some collective members left and the new collective got confused about which issue number they were on, our numbering jumped from issue #35 to #38 — there are no issues 36 and 37.

Even if it has only been 98 issues, making Slingshot for one issue or for 21 years is a wild ride. When we write about the sense of cooperation, engagement and freedom we seek in the larger society, we’re informed in a tiny way by getting to experience life making the paper. Working in a volunteer collective where everyone is there freely because they want to be is so radically different from how the world works outside the Long Haul.

In the “real world” you work a job you hate to scrape together some money because you know you live in a cold, lonely, hostile world and no one is going to help you out unless you can pay. In a collective, we try to help each other and share. It isn’t perfect and it doesn’t always work, but making Slingshot we at least get a chance to try to live based on different rules and assumptions for a few days every few months. And the infrequent bouts making Slingshot tend to seep out and inform our lives all the time. If you want to glimpse a different world, the best place to start is doing some tiny thing differently and see how far it can go.

• • •

At Slingshot’s 21st birthday party, we gave our annual Golden Wingnut award for lifetime achievement to Gerald Smith. Gerald has spent his whole life struggling for freedom and justice and we hope to feature his biography in the next issue.

This summer we’ll be working on making the 2010 organizer calendar. Please send us artwork, info for the radical contact list, your ideas for historical dates, cover graphics and anything else you want to see in the Organizer. The deadline for historical dates is June 26 and the deadline for everything else is July 31. If you’re in the bay area in early August, join us for 2 fun weeks to make the organizer. It will be available October 1. By the way, we still have a bunch of leftover 2009 organizers — let us know if you could help us get them to folks who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them like prisoners, youth, homeless, etc.

Slingshot is always looking for new writers, artists, editors, photographers, translators, distributors & independent thinkers to make this paper. If you send something written, please be open to being edited.

Editorial decisions are made by the Slingshot collective, but not all the articles reflect the opinions of all collective members. We welcome debate and constructive criticism.

Thanks to all who made this: Aaron, Ayr, Bryan, Canyon, Chelsea, Compost, Crystal, Eggplant, Enola, Gregg, Kathryn, Kermit, Kristy, PB, Rezz, Samantha, Stephanie, Will 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, August 16, 2009 at 4 p.m. at the Long Haul in Berkeley (see below.)

Article Deadline and Next Issue Date

Submit your articles for issue 101 by September 12, 2009 at 3 p.m.

Volume 1, Number 100, Circulation 18,000

Printed April 24, 2009

Slingshot Newspaper