Author: 8420a707a8099321768f84ad8b407c7c

This spring, Native activists will walk across the United States together. The Longest Walk 2 will mark the 30th anniversary of the historic Longest Walk — the last major event of the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement in which several hundred Native Americans marched from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to symbolize their forced removal from their homelands and to draw attention to continuing problems plaguing the Indian community. Longest Walk 2 will take two routes from the Bay Area to Washington, DC to raise awareness about issues impacting the environment, to protect sacred sites and to clean up Mother Earth. The five month journey will conclude July 11.

The original Longest Walk in 1978 was conducted in part to protest proposed legislation that would have dissolved Native Treaties which protected Native American sovereignty. As a result of The 1978 Longest Walk those 11 bills were defeated and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 was passed.

“In 1978, our communities faced many hardships such as non-existing religious rights and criminalization of our people who fought for cultural survival, this is why the Longest Walk was necessary. As Indigenous Peoples in the United States, our environment and our cultural survival are directly correlated and are still imperiled today; this is why we must walk once again” states Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council.

The Longest Walk 2 is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to environmental disharmony; it is part of many communities’ ongoing commitment to protect sacred sites, preserve cultures, and create awareness about the environment. The message from the Longest Walk of 1978 will be carried and continued: “The Longest Walk is an Indian spiritual walk, a historical walk; and it is a walk for educational awareness to the American and the world communities about the concerns of American Indian people,” according to American Indian Movement Co-founder Dennis J. Banks.

The Longest Walk 2 will take two routes. The Northern route will travel the original route of 1978 across 11 states and 3,600 miles. The Southern route will follow the 2006 Sacred Run route across 13 states and 4,400 miles. Both routes will visit sacred sites across the Nation and promote educational awareness for sacred sites protection and preservation. The Southern route will be launching The Clean Up Mother Earth Campaign where Longest Walk participants will work together to clean up our country’s highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route.

For more information please visit: www.longestwalk.org

El 1ro de Abril, muchas personas alrededor del mundo tomarán acción directa contra el imperio de combustibles fósiles, declarando este día tradicional de bromas, como el «Día de Inocentes de los combustibles Fósiles». Rising Tide (Marea Creciente), Rainforest Action Network (Red de Acción de los Bosques Pluviales) , Global Exchange (Intercambio Global) y Earth First! (¡Primero La Tierra!), como también amigos y aliados, están convocando a que ustedes hagan una broma que pega fuerte contra las industrias que son las más responsables por el cambio climático . Ahora es el momento para aumentar el nivel de resistencia.

Nuestro mensaje es simple: para tener alguna esperanza de evitar un cambio climático catastrófico, tenemos que dejar de quemar combustibles fósiles. Todos los cálculos de «neutralización de emisiones de carbono»y palabrería de reducir un X porcentaje de emisiones para 2010, 2020, o 2050 no significarán nada si los combustibles fósiles todavía se utilizan. Pero esto es exactamente lo que promueven los políticos «progresistas», empresas, e incluso algunas de las grandes organizaciones verdes . Mientras engañan al público con su discurso hábil de «carbón lavado», con autos híbridos, y compensaciones de carbono con lo que harán que las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero desaparezcan mágicamente las empresas de energía están ocupadas construyendo nuevos oleoductos y gasoductos, explotando nuevos pozosy desarrollando una nueva flota de centrales eléctricas de carbón tradicionales.

Incluso si hubieran maneras de capturar y guardar permanentemente los gases invernaderos producidos por el consumo de combustibles fósiles (que no existen, a pesar de mucha exageración acerca del secuestro de carbono), todavía rechazaríamos su uso continuo. Desde las montañas antiguas de los Apalaches que están siendo sopladas a pedazos para el carbón barato hasta los tributarios de la Amazonía que están siendo envenenados por la extracción del petróleo. La industria petrolera ha traído solamente terror, muerte, y destrucción a la tierra y los pueblos que los ocupan.

Está bien claro que los gobiernos y empresas del mundo no resolverán la crisis del clima. No queda mucho tiempo. Tenemos que tomar acción inmediata y directa para parar la pesadilla de combustibles fósiles en que vivimos, haciendo frente de tamaño y escala del problema con una respuesta apropiada a la misma. Puesto que lo único que las corporaciones que gobiernan el mundo no quieren es parar la producción de combustibles fósiles. Necesitamos obstruir el imperio de combustibles fósiles hasta que la extracción y consumo de petróleo, carbón, y gasolina no serán mas empresas provechosas.

El Día de Inocentes de los combustibles Fósiles es una invitación para tomar tal acción. Estamos llamando a los pueblos alrededor del mundo a tirar una llave inglesa en el macanismo de las companías que producen, distribuyen y venden combustibles fósiles. Ideas incluyen, pero son de ninguna manera limitadas a: cerrar gasolineras, bloquear centrales eléctricas, ocupando minas de carbón y pozos de petróleo, Home Depots, paseos en bicicletas de Masa Crítica (Critical Mass), perturbar la construcción de nuevas carreteras y ocupar oficinas, concentrandose en bancos como Bank of America y Citi Bank las cuales invierten en carbón.

Desafortunadamente no podemos solamente resistir los combustibles fósiles y pensar que estamos seguros. Empresas de energía ya están persiguiendo una multitud de nuevas y también viejas tecnologías para alimentar el hambre insaciable de energía para la sociedad industrial. El poder nuclear está viendo un renacimiento en plantas nucleares, estas compañías reclaman ser “cero emisiones” no es así, ya que cada año ellos botan toneladas de desperdicio atómico tóxico. ¡Empresas de petróleo están poniendo sus ojos codiciosos en “combustibles agrícolas”, las consecuencias son desastrosas como el uso de más pesticidas, más contaminación, y lo peor de todo, menos alimento! Y por supuesto hay estafas dudosas llamadas “compensaciones de carbono” en las que uno puede pagar empresas para plantar algunos árboles o instalar molinos de viento, prometiendo “neutralizar” su emisión de carbono.

Estas compensaciones de carbono que uno compra hacen muy poco para reducir las emisiones de carbón. Algunos están basados en el modelo colonial del “desarrollo verde o ecológico” en los países de tercer mundo que no les importa la autonomía de las comunidades, roban la tierra de los indígenas, y destruyen comunidades ya autosuficientes. Por ejemplo, las plantaciones en Brasil, que son los llamados en el esquema como los mayores compensadores de carbono, son referidos por los locales como “desiertos verdes” Ya que esa tierra fue originalmente selva o bosques lluviosos, donde había diversidad biológica fue transformada a monocultivos de árboles exóticos, pagado por gente millonaria del norte supuestamente para compensar las emisiones de carbono han sido transformadas en tierras donde no hay animales para cazar o alimentos para recolectar, por lo tanto estas comunidades han desaparecido. Por lo tanto estos sistemas de compensaciones de carbono, no solamente están destruyendo la diversidad biológica pero también la habilidad de comunidades para vivir autónomamente. Quizás lo peor de todo, los modelos mentirosos de compensación de carbono perpetúan la noción que nosotros podemos luchar el calentamiento de la tierra sin parar el uso de combustibles fósiles.

A lo mejor, estas intrigas aflojan ligeramente el desplome inminente del clima, pero en realidad esto acelera las emisiones, la continuación nuestra de dependencia en combustibles fósiles, amplifican las desigualdades actuales, y crearán nuevos problemas sociales y ambientales. Si luchamos exitosamente en el cambio del clima tenemos también que resistir estos tecno-fijares rápidos que buscan solo cebar las carteras del elite del mundo.

El futuro depende de nosotros. Hasta ahora, el movimiento global para justicia del clima no ha enfrentado la urgencia de la crisis del clima con igual intensidad de la problema. Esto no quiere decir que no han habido ejemplos inspirados de resistencia. Activistas en Australia han cerrado repetidamente la fábrica de exportación de carbón más grande del mundo. Granjeros en Irlanda están usando desobediencia civil para luchar un oleoducto de gas lo cual Shell esta construyendo en su tierra. Tribus indígenas por toda la Amazonía bloquean físicamente el acceso de las empresas de petróleo a la tierra. En los EEUU ha habido fuerte resistencia a nuevos centrales de carbón. En 2006 organizaciones como Tierra Primero! (Earth First!) y Marea Creciente (Rising Tide) bloquearon un central de carbón en Virginia. En el noreste de Nuevo México gente del tribu Dine’ han ocupado el sitio de una central de carbón propuesto por más de un año.

Es este tipo de acción que esperamos ver estallar alrededor del mundo el 1ro de Abril y más adelante. El mundo ya ha visto suficientes activistas vestidos como osos polares con letreros y celebridades posando en glaciares derretidos. Es tiempo para que vayamos más allá de la acción simbólica e interrumpamos negocios inocentes de combustibles fósiles. Varias acciones ya han sido planeadas en los EEUU e Inglaterra. Tenemos una multitud de recursos en la red de internet como revista y carteles que pueden ser encontrados en www.fossilfoolsday.org y www.risingtidenorthamerica.org. Si usted está planeando una acción abierta, por favor déjenos saber y le ayudaremos en divulgarla. ¡Si usted está planeando una sorpresa grata cuéntenos como les fue! Contactenos a: fossilfools@hushmail.com

Exclamation Point In New Zealand

Photocopied 24 pages.

Contact www.myspace.com/helladubc to order.

This sporadic zine is from the suburban town of Walnut Creek, just over the hill from Berkeley. We get what you expect from a zine made from an army one: hand drawn graphics and text, typos, and stories that end right as they get started. This issue the writer takes us with her to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and shares with us the revitalizing urge to make things happen in her home town. An eight page comic shows us the story of how simply visiting a contact in the Slingshot resource list made a boring tourist experience into one with squats, protests, and a deeper understanding of the indigenous Maori struggles. There’s also a page on slang used on the island as compared to the slang used in the states. Apparently the phrase “bro” is universal. From the looks of it expect more to come.

By Give Me Back, $1.50, 56pgs.

PO Box 73691Washington D.C. 20056

This is the third issue of this music zine focusing on independent punk and hardcore thought. Intelligent columns get feature space and the rest is for the latest bands, either through interviews, ads, or reviews. Some topics include a harrowing experience trying to get work from a sleazy porn collector and the ABCs of Fuck MySpace, which focuses on their corporate ties and punks’ lack of motivation. Also, a handy how-to guide on getting into Canada, and practical tips on caring for your tour van. This zine is starting to get respect for its efforts and not rely on or try to live up to the legacy of its predecessor Heart Attack zine. Give Me Back is providing an up-to-date physical document in the continuous fight against apathy.

Thanks to everyone who bought a 2008 Slingshot Organizer — their sale pays to print this paper and for other radical media projects. Sadly, we ran out of organizers in November — about two months before we’re usually out — and as a result, some bookstores and projects couldn’t get organizers they ordered. We’re currently getting some copies returned from stores that ordered too many. If you didn’t get an organizer and you want one, check our website for distributors that have organizers in stock. We’ll print more copies next year so this doesn’t happen in again. (If you are a bookstore and you have returns, please send them now.) We also have a few seconds available (damaged or slightly defective copies) — let us know if you would like to order some of those at a discounted price.

We’re already thinking about publishing the 2009 Organizer. If you have ideas about things that we should include, contact us now. We’re in search of radical historical dates, radical contact listings, feature ideas, articles, doodles and graphics for the calendar, etc. In particular, we are seeking cover artwork — every year it is a huge, (often last minute) struggle to find cover art. If you think you could draw better cover art than we have, you may be right — stop talking and start drawing!

Many people contact us because they notice that we didn’t include a particular historical date on a particular day that they think should have been included. Keep in mind that we have a huge list of historical dates for each day – about 10-30 per day. We thus don’t have room to print each date each year. We like to print different dates (and informational features) each year so the organizer isn’t precisely the same each year. So, if we missed a date in a particular edition, the chances are we printed it the previous year or the year before that. Or maybe we don’t know about it and you should send us the info.

We’ll start work on the 2009 organizer in June, with most of the work happening the first two weeks in August. The deadline for radical historical dates is June 1. The deadline for art for the inside of the calendar is July 1. The deadline for cover art, features, radical contact listings and all other submissions is July 31.

If you are in the bay area during the first two weeks in August and want to work on the organizer — even if you have no publications experience — join us for the fun! Contact us — many hands make light work and we like to incorporate new energy into the project. We’ll have the organizer back from the binder on October 1, 2008.

We’ve created a little zine making space in the loft where we make Slingshot. If you’re looking for a place to make your zine in the Bay Area, the Slingshot zine loft has everything you need for (non-computerized) cut and paste layout and design. We have a typewriter, copy machine, box of graphics, paper, saddle stapler, pens, scissors, light table, and razor blades. (The copy machine is for making graphics — once you make your original in the loft, you need to take it to a copy shop to make copies of your zine. Then you can staple it in the loft.)

The loft is open during Infoshop hours Monday – Thursday 6-9, Saturday 3-6 and Sunday 3-11 at Long Haul: 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley — just 2 blocks from the Ashby BART station. We’re going to have a zine-making workshop on February 23rd at 2:00 PM. Drop by to learn everything Slingshot knows about making a zine, i.e. the workshop will only last about an hour! We’re also willing to schedule a zine-making workshop for your organization or for schools, youth groups, etc. — contact us.

Long Haul — a radical community center in Berkeley that hosts an infoshop — is in the midst of big changes. After 10 years of being open only limited hours because of the security needs of a previous tenant, Long Haul has the opportunity to extend its hours and expand the scope of its activities. Long Haul is reaching out to the community for new energy and new ideas about what to do with the space. There are also two low-cost office spaces open for non-profit projects.

A dream scenario would be to massively expand hours with a ton of new projects, events and energy. Right now Long Haul is open 6 days a week but only a few hours a day. Picture being open 20 hours a day 7 days a week. For example, Long Haul could open at 6 a.m. for morning yoga, meditation and calisthenics, serve punk breakfast from 7-9 am (oops – that would actually be at 3 pm – ed.), then host theme hours and workshops all damn day. Now is the perfect time to let your mind run wild and imagine a gazillion possible uses for the space and time: activist support groups, art classes, author readings, beer brewing workshops, beginning mushroom identification, bike repair zone, book group discussions, bread-making workshop, button making hour, critical mass after-party, disco dance party, economics classes, fiddle lessons, garden seed swaps, group process workshops, herbalism workshops, kids’ story time, meetings, midnight cabaret, mobile free store, movie nights, needle exchange, out-loud James Joyce reading hour, Pilates, poetry readings, political discussions, potluck lunch, pre-protest sign making party, quiet study hall, sign language hour, silkscreening classes, song trading circle, Spanish immersion hour, Stencil cutting, traveling variety shows, website design classes, women’s self defense classes, working on Slingshot, zine making workshops — Hell yeah!

All that it takes to turn dreams to reality is for people to plug in, host the events, staff the shifts, make fliers, and participate. Creating community takes many forms. In the past, people built community in unions, churches, farmers co-ops and with neighbors. In modern society, many opportunities for community have been obliterated by capitalism — more and more things people used to do for themselves are now done by huge corporations — media replacing social interaction, McDonalds instead of shared meals, isolated commuters on freeways displacing people passing each other and chatting on the street.

Infoshops like Long Haul seek to rebuild community that has been lost, and go beyond the oppressive social rules of small towns by welcoming diversity and opening space for grassroots, anti-authoritarian action.

This is a call for new energy, new volunteers, and new visions. If you’re in the East Bay and have three hours a week to make something happen, let us know. Long Haul is just 2 blocks from BART on a vibrant radical block across from La Peña and the Starry Plough. There are available hours during the day if you have a project that needs a place to operate. Contact Long Haul at 510 540-0751 / 3124 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley.

Slingshot will award its third annual Wingnut Award for Lifetime Achievement at its 20th birthday party on Friday, March 7 at 3124 Shattuck in Berkeley (8 pm). This year, Slingshot will award two prizes: the “East Bay is pig Latin for Beast” East Bay prize, and the Intergalactic Wingnut Citation. Both winners will have their biographies featured in our next issue, and will receive a wingnut trophy and wingnut super-hero outfit. Slingshot created the Wingnut prize to recognize direct action radicals who have dedicated their lives to the struggle for alternatives to the current rotten system. Wingnut is the term some of us use to refer to folks who walk on the wild side of reality — rejecting social, political and economic norms while fighting for a different world. A wingnut is more than just another boring radical, and more than just a nutcase — he or she is a blend of the best parts of both.

We’re looking for nominations for both the East Bay and the Intergalactic prize. An individual has to be currently alive and must have at least 25 years of adult “service” to get the award, so recipients have to be at least 43 years old. Recipients of the East Bay prize have to exist in the East Bay while Intergalactic nominees must exist somewhere in the universe.

Please send your nominations by 5 p.m. on March 1 along with why a particular person should be awarded the wingnut title for 2008 to 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705 or slingshot@tao.ca. By the way, we’re serious about this — write to us!

There’s recently been a victory for the San Francisco 8 — a group of former Black Panthers who are being framed for the 1971 killing of San Francisco police Sergeant John Young as well as participating in a conspiracy to “kill police” which allegedly occurred between 1969 and 1973. The conspiracy charges against five of the eight defendants have been dropped, meaning that one of the 8 now faces no charges, while the others still face murder charges.

The same murder case was originally dismissed in 1975 because the only evidence was based on the “confessions” of three men — two of whom are being re-charged now — which were extracted through severe and extensive torture. The defendants from the 1975 case produced the video “Legacy of Torture” which describes their case including their torture by the New Orleans police using cattleprods, slapjacks, beatings, and various forms of water torture.

In the 1970s — and still today in 2008 — the SF8 are being targeted because of their involvement with the Black Panthers, which the government has always sought to destroy. The post 9-11 War on Terror has ushered in a new excuse to continue the COINTELPRO tactics of yesteryear, which used warrantless surveillance, harassment, intimidation, assassinations and keeping organizations swamped in court cases based on manufactured evidence, coerced testimony, and perjury to neutralize radical groups. Sound familiar? The SF8 include Herman Bell, Jalil Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom), Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Henry Watson Jones, Richard O’Neal, Harold Taylor, and Francisco Torres.

In another development, while SF 8 member Harold Taylor was back home in Florida, he was arrested as part of a cocaine drug sweep. Harold was accused of attempting to buy cocaine and the prosecution in the Bay Area immediately demanded that Harold Taylor’s bail be revoked. The charge was bogus and just an excuse to persecute the former Panther. Harold had no money in his possession at the time of his arrest (when he was supposedly on his way to buy drugs?) and has never used cocaine. This is the only time that this writer can think of when it paid to be broke. The DA’s motion to have Harold incarcerated failed.

There has been a huge outpouring of community support for the SF8. It is simply a matter of time before all of these charges will be dismissed or the SF8 will be acquitted. What you do matters! Please do anything you can to help these brothers. For more information, contact the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights at www.freethesf8.org

February

February 11 – July 11

The Longest Walk 2 begins from Alcatraz Island, SF, CA to Washington, DC. www.longestwalk.org. (see page 5)

February 16-17

Convergence to Fight the RNC – Pittsburgh, PA.

February 22 – 23

Detroit Conference on Immigration Rights. www.latinoscontralaguerra.org

February 29

Global Leap Day Action Night (see page 3)

March

March 7 – 9

National Conference on Organized Resistance. American University Washington, D.C. NCOR2008.org

March 8

International Women’s Day

March 9 • 4 pm

Slingshot new volunteer meeting – 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley

March 13 – 16

Soldier Gathering – Iraq Veterans Against the War- Washington DC. www.ivaw.org

March 19

Protest the occupation of Iraq. Join an action against a government or corporate target, or carry out your own! In Bay Area: (510) 984-2566 takedirectaction@riseup www.bayareadirectaction.wordpress.com

March 22-23

San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair. County Fair Building, 9th & Lincoln in Golden Gate Park. Free.

March 23

Bay Area Anarchist Theory Conference on Anti-Religion. Sponsored by BASTARD (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research and Development) Location TBA. www.sfbay-anarchists.org

April

April 1

Fossil fools day. A massive day of action on April 1st calling for an immediate halt to the burning of fossil fuels (see page 6)

April 5-6

BashBack! Radical trans / queer / anarcha-feminist consulta Chicago, IL bashbackchi@riseup.net

April 11-12

International Call to Action for Squats and Autonomous Zones. april2008.squat.net/

April 12 • 3 pm

Slingshot article deadline issue #97

April 25-27

Finding Our Roots Conference-Chicago, IL chicagoanarchisttheory@riseup.net.

April 27

Celebrate People’s Park’s 39th Anniversary. Berkeley, CA (see page 4)

May

May 1

International Worker’s Day

May 3

PRE-RNC 5.3 Planning Meeting. Minneapolis Minnesota (see page 5)

May 17-18

Montreal Anarchist Book Fair. www.anarchistbookfair.ca