8420a707a8099321768f84ad8b407c7c – Page 7

December 23, 1988

Letters to Slingshot

What happens when history washes away?

Dear Slingshot

This letter is in response to Alec’s article in the Winter 2005 Slingshot, “Grasping the Spirit of New Orleans.”

What struck me about this article was Alec’s attempt to get to the heart of what makes home. What are all the little bits of life that converge in one space at one time to create the experience and feeling of “home”? And when a disaster like Katrina wipes neighborhoods clean of moms-dads-kids-cars-fences-gardens-stoops-motion-color-activity-stillness, what remains? And even if people return to the decimated neighborhoods they call home, what has been lost in the meantime? What is it that ceases to be?

When I first moved to the East Bay from New Mexico almost 2 years ago, I assumed the ever creepy Emeryville had been a case of sprawl, developers snatching up empty lots and dormant warehouses to create a pre-fab chain store city. Never would I have known, were it not for the lovely plaque the city of Emeryville erected in homage to the past it has eaten up, that this area was once home to speakeasies, brothels, gambling, and all the other “seedy” and rich tokens of life flush with railroad tracks. Who knew that somewhere in the not-so-distant history, there behind the Home Depot and Semi-Freddi’s Bakery Cafe, the gambling men and brothel moms lorded over Emeryville? Now the filled in marshlands, sterile suburbia built on trash heaps, is left to shoppers with a penchant for double non-fat decaf lattes and cheap mass produced Swedish furniture.

It made me think of what Alec was getting at when he tried to describe “what we, who love the city, might have collectively lost amidst all our personal losses and tragedies…”? What he described as “…the way that banana leaves sound when the rain drums against them… the people who sit on their front stoops, or if there are people on their front stoops, and what they say to you when you go by. Like what is sold in a grocery store…-organic chai for $6.99 or collard greens for 49 cents.” What makes New Orleans, or Albuquerque or Oakland a “home”, a shared experience for thousands of people? And when disaster strikes, when hurricanes or tsunamis or civil wars demolish entire neighborhoods and cities, will what is built in their place be “home”? As New Orleans regains it’s footing from Katrina, the next (un)natural disaster they face is the storm of developers vying for the decimated sweeps of NO’s cityscape. So what happens when the natural disaster is good ol’ gentrification?

Moving from Albuquerque during its first waves of widespread gentrification, I saw the old neighborhoods of downtown, home to generations of Hispanic families, breached and infiltrated to build pricey homes for wealthy transplants from California and New York seeking “culturally rich” places to live. I watched “culture” commodified and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I watched as gentrification’s mascot — the sage green, brick red and mustard yellow lofts — move in and infect whole city blocks. I watched the Downtown Action team in their sporty red polo shirts patrol the streets on shiny bikes, keeping downtown free and clean of such “eyesores” as Food Not Bombs and the local transient and homeless folks. I watched locals alienated for the benefit of tourists and outsiders with money. And since moving to Oakland a year ago, I have witnessed the same exponential spread of towering new apartment buildings and white hipster art galleries into poor and black neighborhoods.

What happens when developers eat up the history of whole city blocks, forcing out the holders of the history and supplanting neighborhoods with sterile tokens of consumption and comfort? What does happen when history is washed away? Or bulldozed away? What remains? And what is built in its place? What happens when no traces are left and all people remember are the Starbuck’s and Old Navy’s and chichi juice bars and yoga studios? When this is what becomes peoples’ history? When our history is based on the erasure of history? And what happens when generations of kids grow up historyless? Where does that leave us?

–CM, Oakland CA

Anarcho prison talking points

Dear Slingshot,

I am currently in jail/rehab in Northeast Ohio. However this is not a sob story so I’ll cut to the chase….I went to a party with a friend of mine from Philly, PA. We became quite intoxicated. She then said she had a gift she knew I would like. She proceeded to slide me a little red book called, “Slingshot 2006 Organizer.” I glanced through it, and found that I DID indeed like it.

The week that followed landed me here for four months. While I didn’t plan this “vacation.” I did happen to have your organizer with me, which leads me to my final point…I love this thing, and it has gained quite a following here among my fellow felons. The “Don’t Dream it, Be it” section has been copied more than I care to count. It has spawned many late night discussions of gov’t control, anarchist theories and so on. Discussions that may never have come about had this book not sparked interest. People who called me a domestic terrorist when I first told them what I am and my beliefs now understand and many agree with me. It was hard breaking through the commercialized propaganda idea of anarchy, but I got through to them.

Fight the good fight. -Brad M

December 16, 1988

A different ride is needed

While the regular critical mass bike ride is strong because it is leaderless and avoids specific demands or targets, the critical mass tactic has been used very successfully to gum up the works in conjunction with protests. Even a relatively small group of bikes, obeying all traffic laws and thus hopefully avoiding arrest (assuming the cops don’t violate their own laws — don’t assume too much) can create massive traffic jams. For instance, at the protest of the Biotech Industry Organization conference in San Francisco in 2004, the police kept regular demonstrators off the streets and behind huge police lines, but the critical mass rode free, providing a kind of moving blockade and harassing buses full of delegates.

With that in mind, it might be nice to have another separate, regularly schedule bike ride with a more explicit radical agenda that could focus on harassing specific targets — be they war industries, employers trying to break their unions, earth destroyers, or particularly horrendous examples of the car-oriented urban landscape.

Such an idea needs to develop organically and with a lot of discussion. Maintaining a state of leaderlessness and avoiding specific goals and politics — a bike party line — are essential for such a tactic to success. Such an effort also needs a name that distinguishes it from the regular CM.

Whereas the regular CM usually tries to avoid tense situations or areas that are totally hostile to bikes, a more aggressive ride in the East Bay might intentionally ride around Emeryville – the local leader in car-oriented, bike unfriendly urban planning. The closest Emeryville gets to a downtown is a very busy freeway exit — terrible for a regular critical mass, but a nice target for an as yet un-named ride. (Emeryville — and many suburbs — has a very small police force . . . .)

A bike ride can be extremely disruptive without doing anything illegal or even obnoxious if it goes through congested areas that are already on the verge of gridlock either because of design or timing. Whereas the regular CM generally avoids such areas, a disruptive ride could specifically seek them out.

Such a ride might put more emphasis on having some good flyers and maybe even bike signs would help get messages out. I still suspect that such a ride would conclude that having shouting matches or physical confrontations with police or individual motorists (and thus getting off our bikes and stopping the ride) would be counter-productive. I also think a ride would do best to maintain the high ground by providing a visible example of alternatives and focus on what we’re for not what we’re against.

But ultimately, these details should be subject to discussion, practice, and innovation. I hope such a ride will start in the Oakland / Berkeley area during the summer of 2006 on the third Friday of each month. Drop by the May east bay critical mass if you want to talk about it . . .

December 24, 1986

The Life & Times of People's Park

At the start of 1969, the site that is now People’s Park between Dwight and Haste Street half a block above Telegraph Avenue was a dirt parking lot. The university had bought the property using the power of eminent domain for new dorms in the mid-60s but then after demolishing the wood frame houses that had been on the lot (which had, coincidentally, formed a home base for many radicals which the University of California (UC) Regents wanted out of Berkeley) the university never built the dorms. In the spring of 1969, after the land had sat empty for some time and become an eyesore, community members decided to build a park on the lot.

Building the park mobilized and energized many of the street people, activists and regular Berkeley citizens who participated. They were doing something for themselves, not for profit or bosses. Hundreds of people worked hard putting down sod, building a children’s playground and planting trees. From the beginning the ideal was “user development” — the people building a park for themselves without university approval, professional planners or alienated workers. Seizing the land from the university for legitimate public use was and is the spirit of the park.

After the initial construction on April 20, negotiations with the university over control of the park continued for three weeks. For a while it looked like a settlement could be reached but suddenly the university stopped negotiating and in the early morning on May 15 the university moved police into the park and started to build a fence around it. A rally protesting the fence was quickly organized on Sproul Plaza on the UC campus. In the middle of the rally, after a student leader said “lets go down and take the park,” police turned off the sound system. 6,000 people spontaneously began to march down Telegraph Ave. toward the park. They were met by 250 police with rifles and flack-jackets. Someone opened a fire hydrant. When the police moved into the crowd to shut off the hydrant, some rocks were thrown and the police retaliated by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd.

An afternoon of chaos and violence followed. Sheriff’s deputies walked through the streets of Berkeley firing into crowds and at individuals with shotguns. At first they used birdshot but when that ran out, they switched to double-0 buckshot. 128 people were admitted to hospitals that day, mostly with gunshot wounds. James Rector, a spectator on a roof on Telegraph Ave., was shot and died of his wounds a few days later. Another man was blinded.

The day after the shootings, 3,000 National Guard troops were sent by then Governor Reagan to occupy Berkeley. A curfew was imposed and a ban on public assembly was put into force. Mass demonstrations continued and were met with teargas and violence by the police. 15 days after the park was fenced, 30,000 people marched peacefully to the park, and active rebellion against the fence subsided. The fence stayed up.

During the summer of 1969 on Bastille day protesters marched from Ho Chi Minh (Willard) park to People’s Park. Organizers had baked wire clippers into loaves of bread and lo and behold — the fence was down. Police attacked and a riot ensued.

The fence was rebuilt and didn’t finally come down until 1972. In Early May, President Nixon announced the mining of North Vietnamese ports. The same night as his announcement, a hastily-called candlelight march in Ho Chi-Minh Park, starting with only 200-300 people, grew into thousands as they marched through Berkeley. During the night, people tore down the fence around People’s Park with their bare hands, a police car was burned and skirmishs with police lasted into the wee hours.

In 1980, the university put asphalt over the free parking lot at People’s Park to turn it into a Fee parking lot. Students and others occupied the ground and began to rip up the pavement. After a week of confrontations between students and police, the university let the issue drop and the pavement was used to build the garden at the west end of the park.

During the late 1980s the university employed a subtle strategy to again try to retake People’s Park. Community efforts to make improvements in the park, such as installing bathrooms, were met with police and bulldozers, while police, through constant harassment elsewhere, forced drug dealers to do their business in the park. These tactics continue today.

In 1990 and 1991, the City of Berkeley negotiated a deal with the university to “save the park” by “cleaning it up.” The university agreed not to construct dorms on the land if sports facilities were constructed and the character of the park was changed. By this time, the park was being used to provide services to the growing number of homeless in the Southside area including free meals and a free box for clothes. The park continued to serve as a meeting place for activists and as a forum for political events and free concerts. It became clear that “cleaning up the park” meant eliminating freaks and the homeless.

On July 28, 1991, the university again put up a fence at the Park so that it could construct a volleyball court there, part of the “cleanup” plan. During protests that followed, police fired wooden and rubber bullets at fleeing demonstrators every night for 3 nights in a row. Hundreds of police occupied Berkeley. All the while, construction continued on the volleyball courts, which were eventually completed. The Courts stood, despite constant protests and vandalism, from 1991 to 1997, when they were finally removed by the university due to complete non-use.

December 23, 1986

SlingShot Box

We’re Back! Summer seems to have sneaked by this year, maybe because it never actually got hot here in the Bay. We do have the Organizer to show for it!! and are feeling somewhat reenergized for our fall issues.

Slingshot newspaper has been around since 1988 and has been printed consistently since. We operate as an independent collective to enact the kind of organizing absent from the mainstream.

This collective is somewhat unique in that not only is it open, but after each issue we dissolve — our work having been achieved. Then, the agreed upon first meeting for the next issue comes around and marks the temporary re-birth of the collective to carry the paper to its next print date. This allows us to avoid stasis, although every new issue meeting could use new faces!

This issue’s article deadline was the same day the freebox was being re-installed at People’s Park in Berkeley — against police orders. It turned into somewhat of a standoff, so we moved our article review meeting to the park and proceeded to read the plethora of pages of articles in the sun as the cops video taped us. A bizarre scenario.

Many of us have been feeling fucked up, overwhelmed and easily frustrated recently, and we’re not sure why. We believe that we’re in a period of transition, summer is giving way to fall after all. Fall tends to be when we move from the extroversion of summer to a more inward, reflective time of year. This fall has brought an eerie sense that things may shift dramatically at any moment. Indeed, change is already underway — while you’re in the middle of a shift however, you can’t always see the changes until later.

So, on that note, Slingshot is always looking to promote growth, change, and dialogue out in this big world and we are always on the lookout for new writers, artists, editors, photographers, translators, distributors and independent thinkers to help us make this paper. If you send something written, please be open to editorial changes. Note: because of the large volume of submissions we receive, we may not contact you back if we don’t use your submission.

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

Thanks to the people who worked on this: Artnoose, Cara, Crystal, Drizzle, Eggplant, Gregg, Jammers, Kathryn, Maneli, MisTakE, Molly and PB.

Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting

Volunteers interested in getting involved with Slingshot can come to the new volunteer meeting October 30 at 5 p.m. at the Long Haul in Berkeley (see below).

Article Deadline and Next Issue Date

Submit your articles for issue 89 by November 26, 2005 at 3 p.m. We expect the next issue out in mid December.

Volume 1, Number 88, Circulation 13,000

Printed September 30, 2005

Slingshot Newspaper

Letters

Dear Slingshot:

Got the summer issue! Loved it! However, there are a few critical flaws in PB Floyd’s article “FBI hungry for victims” (issue #87) and her advice for “non-terrorists” as follows: a) “Never talk to the police” is good advice but you should also never sign anything either, particularly an “advice of rights” form; 2) a judge does not have the authority to order you to answer questions because you can take the 5th Amendment, although s/he could grant you immunity and then order you to testify, you could still refuse and be jailed for contempt for an indeterminate period of time; and 3) if the pigs knock and claim they have a warrant, you can “demand to see the warrant,” just be sure you don’t open the door to look at it ’cause I guarantee the pigs will walk in warrant or not. All serious rookie misstatements that will cost you when dealin’ with the man.

PB should also note that John Lewis’ comments concerning ELF, ALF and SHAC “attacks” ring hollow as the FBI’s primary concern has always been to protect property. After all, property is the number one concern of capital, and crimes against property are the worst crimes of all in capitalist eyes!

Peace out, war in, –R. Gould

Mound Correction Facility, Detroit, MI

Hi, in the last issue of the slingshot (issue #87 — I think it was the July issue) an article was published titled “FBI hungry for victims.” I don’t remember who wrote it but I’m sure you can figure it out. In that article it talks about the FBI visiting my house and the article includes a graphic of my FBI file which includes my full name and address. I don’t remember if my address was also included in the article because I only read it briefly. and in fact I probably wouldn’t have thought about it ever again if I hadn’t’ started getting letters from people in jail who got my address out of the Slingshot. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind getting letters from prisoners and to be honest I don’t really care that much that my address was in the paper as you can find it easily anywhere like the phone book or the same place you probably found a graphic of my file. However I would like to make two things clear

1: I am not the only person who lives at that address and who was harassed by the FBI and so I’m not the only person who is put at risk if that information gets used inappropriately

2: regardless of my personal preference it is really disrespectful and inconsiderate to publish someone’s full name and address in a widely distributed newspaper (or any news paper even if any average john can get it as easily as you did) without at least asking me, which wouldn’t be that hard considering you had my address just like lots of other people now do. Or you could do what other people find popular which is to look my name up in the phone book and call at ridiculous hours of the day.

Point being we get a lot of calls and shit already that me and my roommates have to deal with and it would be nice if a radical anarchist newspaper as concerned with security culture or whatever as y’all are would at least give me the heads up before you released my private information to another bunch of weirdoes. (I don’t mean to imply that the people that have written form prison were weirdoes or that people in prison are weirdoes but I’m sure that are some that read your paper.)

So I don’t mean to attack your purpose or mission but just a heads up on etiquette.

thanks, Sarah Bardwell

Editor’s Note: Ouch! Point well taken and thanks for letting us know. We’ll try to be more careful in the future.

December 20, 1986

Jeff Luers' Wake Up Call

Back in ‘98 when a friend and I started the Fall Creek Treesit, we sat alone in that forest; no ground-support, no other treesits – just us. We watched from our perch high in the canopy as Grandmother and Grandfather trees were felled to build the road. I remember spilling the coffee I was brewing on our little stove as I watched. My friend, the most mean and cynical man I’ve ever known, said the first and only kind words I’ve ever heard escape his lips:

“Some will fall so that others may be saved.”

The tears streamed down my face in silent protest of what I was witnessing. Below, the loggers jeered and laughed. I donned my climbing gear and my knife. I was going to the ground, and, one way or another, this was gonna end.

My friend stopped me. I don’t even remember what he said. But I remember sitting there in spilled coffee, tears in my eyes. It is the most powerless and helpless I’ve ever felt.

I think back to that time now because I am feeling very similar. I’m sitting trapped in a cell watching the world go to shit and I can’t do a damn thing about it.

A couple of articles caught my eye the other day. One was about fish farming and the necessity of domesticating the ocean. The author, a scientist, went on to say that we have accepted the domestication of the land, now we must accept the domestication of the ocean; the days of wildness are over. The other article was about global warming. It said it was too late – not enough had been done, not enough would be done; all we can do is prepare for the consequences.

A friend sent me photos of the recent protests in Scotland. The army helicopters flying over, dropping off troops, protecting the rich – the elite – the only humans that matter. I was amazed (but not surprised) that people are still shocked by this. (I guess they don’t remember US soldiers with M-60s at last years’ G8.)

Back in the states the Patriot Act has been renewed. Bush just took away all the wilderness designations environmental reformists fought so hard to get. US courts have ruled it is legal for developers to demolish homes to build malls. And our prisons are filling with radical activists and would-be revolutionaries.

What can I do? My words cannot galvanize the masses. I can’t make people fight back. I am lost. I could write a guerrilla manifesto on how to fight a successful revolution in the US, opening myself up to more consequences, maybe even more time. But would anyone act? Would anyone organize? Would any non-militants offer aid; offer to help put society back together? Would anyone open themselves up to the risk? Would you?

I think that I can answer all those questions: No. Inaction is the price of privilege. Hypocrisy is the cost of comfort. It is impossible to inspire by inciting feelings of guilt. I know this, but, it is also impossible to inspire when I believe it is a lost cause.

Even when I take into consideration the many brave cells out there fighting, and I know why they fight; in the depths of my spirit I know and I understand. I still believe we have lost. Those are the three words no one wants to hear. The words I am loathe to write. But maybe hearing them will slap you back to reality. This isn’t a game. It sure as hell ain’t a fucking fairytale with a guaranteed happy ending.

The resistance is up to you. You can organize – really organize bringing people together. You can teach – not just your friends, but strangers. You can propagate the resistance with graffiti, stencils and flyers. You can create alternatives by squatting, guerrilla gardening, creating and using alternative energies. You can become a militant – a smart one who learns how to cause the most damage and get away.

But what you can’t do it sit on your ass and flap your gums about how messed up things are. Because if you know how bad it is and you do nothing, you are the reason we lost. And you insult and betray everyone who has fought back. You spit in the face of those who have given their lives or lost their freedom demanding something better.

If our international movement cannot mount an offensive that is more than just a spectacle, then we deserve our fate. And I deserve 22 years for being foolish enough to believe we had a chance.

There are many who will continue to fight against all odds. Because for us, it is personal. If nothing else, we will go down fighting. That’s a lot to ask of someone – asking them to fight a losing battle. But, I’m asking it of you. If we are going down, let’s go down swinging. Let’s make it the toughest, hardest fought battle this system has ever faced. And if we lose, at least we will have made them earn it; at least we won’t have just handed them the world. At least we will have made a stand.

There is no shame in losing a fight – if you fight. That’s the only thing I expect of any =/human being – when they are pushed against a wall, they fight back. I expect that of you.

*Jeffrey Free Luers* *#13797671 OSP 2605 State Street Salem, OR 97310*

December 12, 1986

Putting Down Community Roots (Local Projects Overview)

All over the country, folks are shifting their time, money and passion away from the corporate rat race and into local cooperative projects that serve human needs. Why spend your life working a boring job you hate making some fat cat rich when you can build something meaningful yourself to meet your own needs and those of your community? On these pages, we’re featuring articles about some local projects in the East Bay, plus a round-up of projects across the US we’ve heard about in the last few months. These projects provide a model for how society could be organized differently. We also hope that hearing about different projects — and how they get going or keep going — can inspire folks to start projects in their local communities.

December 23, 1985

SlingShot Box

Slingshot is an independent, volunteer-run, more-often-than-quarterly radical newspaper published in the East Bay since 1988.

This summer issue represents many synthesizing elements in transition. We are increasing our print run from 12,000 to 13,000 because of the increase in distro help all over — we have reached almost 400 distributors in the USA and around the globe.

Our old fashioned way of laying out the paper by hand is continuously threatened as we run out of and lose the ability to buy materials necessary to make it possible. If you know of distributors of tabloid sized layout paper or Rubilith, pllleeeeeaaase let us know! Then we won’t be subject to the de-humanizing experience of desktop publishing.

Our collective is always in transition — after an amazing retreat at the ocean to focus our crew, half of them left or were away for this issue but amazingly, new folks stepped in so there were still a dozen folks working on the issue. We’re always excited to have new energy and the insights of new people. Special thanks to Catherine who hung around all week-end and drew most of the art in this issue.

Perhaps the theme for our summer issue should be hope and reinvention as we continue to learn how to dream our desired new world into existence through collective expression.

The challenges facing all of us are great — to dig deep and find the most successful and meaningful modes of resistance. Theory and practice are continuously refined and integrated in the hard work of daily demands.

We express solidarity in the spirit of bright, sunny days with all the people in the world working for liberty and justice. We hope you find something that personally excites you in this issue.

Slingshot is always on the lookout for writers, artists, editors, photographers, translators, distributors and independent thinkers to help us make this paper. If you send something written, please be open to editorial changes. Note: because of the large volume of submissions we receive, we may not contact you back if we don’t use your submission.

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

Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting

Volunteers interested in getting involved with Slingshot can come to the new volunteer meeting August 21 at 1 p.m. at the Long Haul in Berkeley (see below).

Article Deadline and Next Issue Date

Submit your articles for issue 88 by September 17, 2005 at 3 p.m. We expect the next issue out in late September.

Volume 1, Number 87, Circulation 13,000

Printed June 9, 2005

Slingshot Newspaper

Letters To SlingShot

EASY TO GET FAMILY PACT

Dear Slingshot,

In response to cara’s article about HPV in the last issue. A few comments:

As an insider in the health care system, I would like to verify that Family Pact does not do income verification. (FPACT is the state funding available to everyone, not just ovary bearers, to cover reproductive health services such as paps, birth control, STD tests/treatment, urinary tract infections, breast checks, and other issues ranging from lost condoms to green discharge). It’s a one page application you can fill out at any reproductive health clinic and is available to low income folks who don’t have any health insurance (but they don’t check up on that either). Also, they ask for your social security number, but you can still get the funding if you don’t have one or don’t want to give it out. One of the fucked up things about FPACT is that it is only supposed to be available for those who are “at risk of causing a pregnancy”, totally alienating people who’ve been sterilized, older folks, queers, and trannies, while blatantly ignoring the issue of STD’s/sexual health in these communities. I’ve never heard of anyone being asked about their sexual orientation when they apply for FPACT and every health care provider I know overlooks this discrepancy when discussing practices with their patients.

Another thing about FPACT is that it does not cover abortion or pre-natal care. Once you are pregnant, you are ineligible for any services until you are not pregnant any more. If you go to a Medi-Cal office with income and pregnancy verification, social security card (if you have one), and ID, they’ll sign you up for “Emergency Medi-Cal”. Then, you can get services for abortion or pre-natal care/birth for free. You are allowed to make more money ($1850/month I think) to qualify for this since the pregnant woman counts as two people. It’s pretty fucked up that they count a little sack of cells as a whole other person, but it allows more access to women so I guess I’ll pick my battles…

The HPV vaccine is still in research stages, but so far has shown to be effective both in preventing folks from picking up new strains, as well as protection from already existing strains that haven’t surfaced yet. However, right-wing activists are on a mission to slow the research and prevent the vaccine’s release, claiming that it will encourage pre-marital sex!

Laughable but true. These are the same fuckers who are chipping away at abortion and emergency contraception access, who would rather see women die than get the services/health care that they need and deserve. So.. lets not let them gain any more ground than they’ve already stolen.

-Syddartha

WE ARE NOT ALONE

Dear Slingshot,

Being depressed most of my life, getting HPV was just another notch in my belt for battlescar experience. Because in addition to that, I also have HSV (the other unmentionable STI). It just really drives the point home that life does, and will suck.

Anyway, I think it’s really important to let people know that infected people are out there, we are not alone. The thing that needs to be done is education and testing and acceptance. Men especially need to realize, that yes they can have the virus without symptoms! What is wrong with humans that they can’t believe they have something unless they are bleeding out the mouth!!

The guy who gave me HSV probably to this day has never been tested and will keep spreading around the virus because he can’t fess up to responsibility. It’s a shame.

With your article, the veil drops, the hidden become free. More people need to stop joking, turning the cheek and realize that there are individuals who live with STI everyday and go on. We are not criminals, diseased vagrants of society and for that matter, who’s judging?

I just wish more people are willing to write down their thoughts like you did. I can’t tell you how valuable it is.

Your article made me feel stronger and ready to take steps to face the world. I’m not like everyone else and why should I be? But at least I know…

-anonymous

OCTOGENARIAN ANARCHIST

Dear Gentlepersons,

As a former Cab driver (age 84) I’d be glad to pass out free copies of slingshot to Cab drivers as they get a lot of dead time to read and pass out your words of wisdom to their “Captive Audience”, their fares. The Bay Area distributors should use this in giveaways.

I lived in Berkeley and Albany and Oakland from 1946 to 1952 when first married to a 17 year old Cutie I met while a patient – She was so good looking I left the lights on when we went to bed.

Anyway, get some sample copies into the hands of Cab drivers. They will make great advertisers for you.

Send as many copies as you wish, if too big for my P.O. Box they put them in a locker – up to you. I wonder if Haliburton Oil has a nice big helicoptor on the roof of their office bldg. in Iraq… ala the escape from Saigon??

-W. Bain

THE LIGHT WENT ON

To Slingshot;

I’d like to stress that this being the first time reading your magazine, I’m very impressed by all the things I’m reading regarding issues that have always troubled me. I am 27 now and had never heard of an anarchist movement at work. I now understand where it is that I’m standing in life. Being a foreigner in this country, I’ve gone through what many people don’t: racism, socialism, poverty and moreover, a victim of my own ignorance. I’m presently serving six years of a ten year sentence due to my ignorance ( I’ll be released next year and then deported to Mexico).

I need to get all and any information that could be of any help for someone like me. A beginner. I’m also interested in contributing en Espanol to help open the eyes of my people. Because I know and I’m aware that there lies too much ignorance and misinformation toward the Hispanic community.

I’m closing this letter hoping I’ll hear from you soon. I wish the best to everyone working on the cause. Stay strong and recognize where you belong. Love for all.

Benjamin Gomez I -TDC#883261

Neal Unit – 9055 Spur 591

Amarillo TX 79107

PS anyone willing to write to me is welcome!

REACHIN OUT

Hey there all you beautiful slingshot kids

My name is Bar-B, you know like that ugly little Matel doll, & I’m in prison at V.S.P.W. in Chowchilla for sellin weed. It’s fuct, but hey, go figure. Look at everything this fuct up society does. But any-hoo my point to writing you is that I’m a grrrl who’s a big fan of your zine. I hate this prison bullshit because I’m out of the loop with issues that I’m passionate about & I have no one to talk to about activism in here. People think I’m so weird in here because I’m covered in tattoos, I don’t shave, I don’t eat meat, my ears are stretch huge, I’m re-dreading my hair because they made me cut them off when I got here. People try & say “what are you” & I just let their feeble minds call me a “punk rocker” because every time I’ve said I’m an activist, they look clueless & I’m sick of explaining. So I just got off track…. I would love it if you could send me your zine until I get out. I get out 3-14-06. I normally pick up stacks of your zine every time I go to the Bay Area & bring them back home to Chico & pass em out at Food Not Bombs, shows, record shops & hand em out to any traveling kids that come through. Green Anarchy hooked me up with your address, Earth First’s address too. I’m trying to get put on an A.B.C. list so if you know how maybe you could help me out & put my name & C.D.C # & address on it. Well I could write forever but I’m sure you guys have enough shit to do. I was just wantin some info & so on. I hope to hear back from you soon.

Thanx,

Bar-B

December 19, 1985

BorderHack 2005

Responding to the right-wing Minutemen’s threat to begin vigilante immigration enforcement along the California / Mexico border as soon as July, activists in Southern California are mobilizing a week of action August 3-7 on the border entitled BorderHack 2005. Earlier this spring, the Minutemen sent hundreds of armed volunteers to patrol the Arizona-Mexican border and report undocumented immigrants to border patrol cops. While the Minuteman Project claims to be unaffiliated with racist groups, it is difficult to take this claim seriously given xenophobic statements posted on their website warning that the US is being “devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens” and that “future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures.” Their solution, apparently, is to send racist thugs with weapons to harass Latino immigrants entering the US.

Conflict between Minutemen and their supporters and Latinos in Southern California are already heating up. On May 25, four protesters at a speech by gun toting Mexican-hunter Jim Gilchrist were hit by a car driven by a white Minuteman type — two were hospitalized. Instead of quickly arresting the driver, police protected the vigilantes and attacked the crowd with batons and threats of pepper spray, arresting 8 people on trumped up felony charges. In response to the arrests and the possible arrival of Minutemen, activists in San Diego are mobilizing.

BorderHack 2005 is still in the planning stage — they hope to issue a Call to Action soon. Currently under discussion are a week of speakers, workshops, forums, marches/rallies, camps, media labs and agitation on and around the border. “This summer will be explosive and we must drown out the racists with our struggles for justice in border communities, and an honest conversation about globalization and migration” notes one organizer.

To get involved, contact deletetheborder.org orborderhack.org for updates