We’ve already started work on the 2003 Slingshot Organizer which will be out around October 15. If you know of an Infoshop, community space or radical contact that should be listed in the radical contact list, please let us know by August 1. Only contacts that have a physical location or a phone number will be listed — no internet only entries. We usually want both an address and a phone number to list a contact. Please let us know any corrections you have to the 2002 version.
If you have historical dates we should include, please send ‘em to us by June 30. Keep in mind that we now have so many that only a fraction of the historical dates for any particular day get used in any particular edition of the Organizer. We don’t publish death dates unless the death was interesting in some way. We like birthdays and especially dates for uprisings, protests, rebellions, strikes, etc.
2002 Organizer Round-up
The 2002 Organizer was the first edition to reach all continents on earth other than Antarctica. We received orders from Australia, Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and North America. As we now have a large distribution in Canada, we’re looking for Canadian contacts and relevant Canadian info.
The biggest controversy about the 2002 Organizer was our inclusion of ACT-UP San Francisco in the contact list. They were included in the 2000 version, were dropped in the 2001 version, and were added back in to the 2002 version at their request.
ACT-UP SF questions the mainstream Western medical understanding of the causes and appropriate treatments for AIDS. We got a ton of letters, calls and emails criticizing us for including ACT-UP SF in the 2002 version, including a large Infoshop on the East Coast which almost returned 300 Organizers over the issue, before they decided to go through each copy with a magic marker to cross out ACT-UP SF. In response, in the last issue of Slingshot Newspaper, we ran one of the critical letters with a notation that we would not include ACT-UP SF in the 2003 version.
In response to that note, we have received a huge number of critical emails and letters from supporters of ACT-UP SF.
At this point, our tentative feeling is that its our job to publish an Organizer with a wide range of radical contacts. We may not agree with each contact listed — its up to our readers to decide. We want to avoid having a “Slingshot party line” about who gets included. Passions on both sides of the ACT-UP SF debate are strong, and both sides are convinced that if people either do mainstream AIDS drugs or don’t do mainstream AIDS drugs, premature death will result. We’re confident that anyone facing these difficult decisions will thoroughly investigate the matter and make their own choice, regardless of the contacts that may be printed in the Slingshot Organizer.
Ordering Information
Prices for the 2003 Organizer will be the same as for 2002: $5 for one copy, $16 for 4 copies and $30 for 8 copies (postage included) ordered direct from Slingshot. Please don’t send orders until October. Infoshops, bookstores and distributors should contact us for wholesale rates for orders of 20 or more copies. We still have copies of the 2002 edition ($4 each includes postage or seconds (slightly damaged) for $3 each.) Send checks, money orders or well concealed cash to:
Slingshot Collective
3124 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
510 540-0751 ex. 3