Author: Slingshot Collective

A few years ago, I moved to a new town and decided to volunteer at the local radical infoshop in order to connect with like-minded folks. Despite my best efforts to engage with others in my three months of volunteering, I only befriended one person, and left feeling bitter and confused about my experience.

Towards the end of my stay, I found validation at a political action where I got to know a fellow protestor. As we spoke of our reasons for being there, we discovered that we shared a lot of the same frameworks, though we used different words to describe them. However, he was really surprised when I self-identified as an anarchist; despite being curious about the ideology and making several efforts to engage with and learn about the community, he had never met a friendly anarchist before. I responded by reassuring him that friendly anarchists did, in fact, exist, though I was also struggling to find them in this town. We went on to have an awesome afternoon of political (and non-political) conversation, and I’d like to think we both learned a lot and had a good time.

My experiences sparked my interest in the question of inclusiveness. Was I right to expect the infoshop’s community to be more welcoming? What does inclusiveness even mean? As a small experiment, I emailed a number of my friends and asked them what they thought about the concept.

Together, their insightful responses sketched out a rough theory of inclusiveness. In spaces with a purpose, inclusiveness means the minimization of barriers to involvement for those with whom the collective is striving to connect. As such, the standards that determine whether or not a collective space is inclusive are not universal; they depend on who the collective wants to include and in what capacity they want to include them (or, for that matter, whether they actually can include them. A radical mental health collective, for example, may not be equipped to accept folks with severe emotional distress into the team of organizers, but may be interested in listening to their needs and supporting them with resources.) Once a collective has reached consensus on these questions, it is possible to construct a plan for inclusiveness.

Such a plan should be thorough and specific. Deeply inclusive spaces go beyond avoiding obvious deal-breakers like racism, transphobia, sexism, violence, homophobia, ableism, classism, and other acts which erode participants’ safety and foreclose on participation. They also go beyond taking thoughtful steps like ensuring unisex bathrooms, providing wheelchair accessibility, and offering childcare. At a queer anti-racist collective meeting, being inclusive means noticing when the couch spots next to transgender folks fill up last, and taking steps to reverse that tendency. In multi-lingual environments, it means providing adequate translation and conversation spaces. Furthermore, inclusiveness doesn’t just mean knowing who your audience is, but taking steps to be an audience for others. Inclusiveness means listening carefully to peoples’ needs so that they may include you in their spaces; it means stepping back from leadership roles to provide supportive services like dishwashing or childcare.

With this definition in mind, I returned to my infoshop experience. As I understand it, infoshops traditionally strive to distribute resources (meeting spaces, theory and ideas, local information, coffee) among those who are interested in anarchism. Staffers at infoshops help visitors make sense of the resources and the space while maintaining basic boundaries around what is and isn’t acceptable in these environments in order to ensure safety in these spaces.

When I asked my friend Samara why she thought folks were so aloof at the infoshop that I visited, she replied that many staffers come from customer service backgrounds which enforced happy demeanors among employees. She elaborated, “When your ability to perform happiness becomes more important than your own happiness, acting happy can become a very painful thing. In response to this, many of us are trying to weed an oppressive type of faked happiness out of our personalities, and figure out how to reclaim the performance of happiness for ourselves”.

I agree that the pressure to act happy could be corrosive to the social fabric of any radical space. However, while I would not like to see our communities force their members into insincere, artificial inclusiveness, the lived reality is that whether I’m working the register at a collectively owned business, staffing an infoshop, or opening up my home for a meeting, folks will feel more comfortable if my friends and I engage with them in a kind and welcoming fashion.

There is a middle ground between faking happiness and alienating visitors. The problem with customer service culture is that it commodifies and sterilizes happiness, joy, and connection into artificial friendliness and feigned concern. For me, a backlash against customer service culture would transform the artificiality of it, not the friendliness.

For example, when I worked the register at a collectively-run business, I challenged myself to practice honesty and empathy with customers in an effort to subvert the saccharine alienation of traditional capitalist workplaces. In my interactions at the counter, I never lied about my feelings, but also maintained a genuine interest and investment in the well-being of the folks who visited. When I wasn’t feeling interested or invested, I would ask my shift-mate to work the register while I worked in the back. This way, I was able to meet my needs for open and honest expression and personal space while still creating an environment where visitors felt acknowledged and connected. While my anecdote is in no way a one-size-fits-all prescription, I hope it communicates one of the many ways in which we can collectively and individually support the missions of our spaces while also meeting our own needs.

At its core, inclusiveness depends on listening to others’ needs and being available for input, feedback, and requests. In practice, standards for inclusiveness may evolve as individuals’ needs arise and intersect, and while total inclusiveness may not be possible, taking active steps towards creating inclusive spaces will establish a foundation for creative, diverse, and deeply meaningful radical projects.

The concept of neurodiversity is largely unknown within the anarchist community, or any community, for that matter. Neurodiversity is the idea that people with neurological differences should be recognized as equals to neurotypicals, or those who are considered neurologically “normal.”

Police brutality is a huge problem facing the neurodiverse. Instances like the death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless schizophrenic man who was beaten to death by police in Fullerton, California, sadly aren’t that rare. I personally have faced such discrimination on a (much) smaller scale, having been harassed by police who think my nervous tics and sometimes odd behavior are “suspicious seeming.”

Society’s attitudes towards the neurodiverse are just as badly misinformed and negative. There have been a multitude of incidents of bullying towards the neurodiverse, especially common with schizophrenics. On top of experiencing bullying, many schizophrenics are often homeless due to the lack of services this post-Reagan regime provides. Being both homeless and schizophrenic puts these individuals in double jeopardy; they are seen as wandering goons. The rates of bullying for those with Autism Spectrum Disorders are also very high. Harmless stymieing and narrow interests make this society angry towards the neurodiverse.

Negative attitudes towards the neurodiverse stem from an oppressive mindset. Capitalism has taught us all that those who can’t produce profit have no inherent worth whatsoever. Since capitalism and class society itself is incapable of seeing the forest for the trees, those with a different mindset from Neurotypical people are not a demographic that can be sold to, and sometimes our neuroses make us harder to hire. Instead of getting the help we need from our government, we are instead forced to live on the streets or in an oppressive home where we will be treated like farm animals.

It’s time for the neurodiverse, from the homeless schizophrenic man to the Star Trek loving Aspie Womyn to the suregeon with Tourette’s syndrome, to realize that statism and capitalism produce hierarchies that are inherently operating against them. Its time for the Neurodiverse to get prepared to bash back against bigots and goons. It’s time for all people who don’t fit the upper-class, straight, neurotypical WASP mold (and them too if they want to join us) to rise up and create a better world for us all. We could start by trying to educate the masses about the neurodiverse, and how they are capable of living lives as good as anyone else. The situation with police can only be solved like we’ve always known: direct action! Together we can all make this world a nicer place for everyone.

*IN PRAISE OF RICE AND BEANS*
By Violet

For the past 5 years I’ve lived in radical community. I’ve lived on queer land projects, in squats and cabins in the woods. I’ve slept in tents, attics, couches and huts. I’ve been a resident, guest, and traveler. On the most intimate level, my involvement in radical community has come primarily through THE KITCHEN. I’ve cooked for hundreds, if not thousands, of people. I’ve cooked in chaotic communal cook spaces, on propane camping stoves in squats, cast-iron wood-stoves, and over an open fire.

Over time and with experience I’ve observed that liberated cooking spaces are remarkably consistent in many ways:

* They serve as an open kitchen and feeding ground for many

* they are mostly stocked with items that are either dumpstered or bought on food stamps

* they incorporate food from backyard gardens

* cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, nuts and meat are the first things to be eaten, often in a frenzy of scarcity mentality and greed
* there is usually an ample supply of condiments, notably Bragg’s liquid aminos and Sriracha pepper sauce and nutritional yeast

* people regularly don’t do their dishes much to collective chagrin

In other ways radical kitchens vary wildly. Land projects formed before the 1990’s are frequently vegetarian spaces. Squats NEVER are.
THE DANGERS OF DUMPSTERING

There are certain patterns with dumpstered food. The big “scores” of cheese and prepared health food are usually infrequent, at most periodic i.e. the second Sunday of the month. Produce can be secured almost everyday. Sometimes it’s only a few half rotted green bell peppers other times hundreds of bruised organic apples. Often there is both great abundance and variety of fruits and veggies.

Ungodly amounts of bread are always available somewhere close by. ALWAYS. And have you ever noticed how much dumpstered bread radicals eat? Bread with cheese. Bread with butter. Bread with peanut butter. Eggs and toast. Jam on toast. Toast by itself. Not that there’s anything wrong with bread or anything, in moderation. But have you ever noticed HOW MANY PUNKS HAVE GLUTEN ALLERGIES?? Allergies are caused BY OVEREXPOSURE. They grow worse over time. One of my uncles worked in a bakery. He developed gluten allergies after being around wheat flour every day. I’ve heard anecdotally that this is a fairly common experience. The dominant culture has a certain attitude towards health that is so ubiquitous it is almost invisible, even in radical community. The basic assumption goes something like this: “the primary importance in life is PRODUCTIVITY and INCOME. To achieve this end it is totally okay to sacrifice the health and well-being of your body. When the body starts to fail there are HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS that will take care of you making your PRODUCTIVITY AND INCOME absolutely necessary to pay for medical care.” This is of course ADDICT-LOGIC that doesn’t really make any sense. I’ve seen gluten-allergies play out in ways where people feel alienated within community. They need their own separate cast iron. They are frequently inadvertently poisoned by other people’s carelessness. THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE. On the same level as black mold in residential space, bike accidents and drug abuse.

BODY POLITIC

Diets are inherently political. “Apolitical” or “apathetic” is still a form of political engagement

What we choose to consume has long-term consequences, both for ourselves and for the larger social order. Boycotts have been an effective means to create change. Our food choices create a collective momentum. This collective momentum creates, in part, our reality. Freeganism is political. Veganism is political. Eating local is political. Likewise buying factory-farmed meat is political. Shopping at Walmart is political. Going deeper, how we care for our bodies is of the utmost political importance. Do we treat ourselves as THINGS to be USED and then DISCARDED? Do we lavish ourselves with love and treat our bodies as sacred objects, as universes onto themselves? Do we treat our bodies somewhere in between? If so, where on the spectrum? How do you treat your body? This question is of the UTMOST SIGNIFICANCE.

Your body is the fundamental unit of who you are. What is the point of radicalism that doesn’t incorporate self-care and love into its ideology?

RICE AND BEANS AND GREENS

Have you ever noticed how excited everyone gets about eating rice, beans, vegetables and tortillas for dinner? They are one of the easiest and cheapest meals to make. They are at the most basic vegan and gluten free. They meet almost everyone’s needs and are healthy and delicious to boot. Dry beans can be intimidating. To cook them well one needs either to plan well in advance or have a pressure cooker. This is a different rhythm than instant convenience, but is not without its charms. I’ve seen it as breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Who was the first anarchist? Nitpickers and academics will happily bicker over this question for hours at a time, but few would dispute the claim that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first person to call themselves an anarchist. While working as an apprentice in a printing press, the mostly self-educated Proudhson encountered many ideas from the European enlightenment, which suggested that all people had the ability to use scientific reasoning, and that this ability to reason could and should be used to challenge conventional wisdom and advance human freedom (though for most Enlightenment writers, this admittedly only meant freedom for white middle class men). After several failed ventures in the printmaking business, Proudhon took the advice (and money) of his friend Gustave Fallot, and went to university to study philosophy. From this point on, he wrote prolifically and unrelentingly: he continued to publish books as he fought off various sedition charges, as he built barricades during the 1848 revolution in France (while he published newspapers with readerships in the tens of thousands), while he was imprisoned by Napoleon III (where he continued to write for two newspapers), as he fled France for Belgium to avoid further persecution, as he organized massive anti-voting campaigns, and even as he died: his final moments were spent dictating one last book.

The centerpiece of his philosophy is probably found in the answer to the title of the book that first launched him to fame, What is Property? (1840). He argues that property is despotic (tyrannical) and, more famously, that property is theft. This is more than a slogan to him, it’s a fundamental thesis in his vision of capitalism. The Enlightenment philosophers that Proudhon had grown up reading generally considered property a ‘natural right’, meaning that humans deserved access to property simply because they have the capacity for scientific reasoning. Proudhon pointed out that whether or not property (especially arable land for agriculture, and factories for industrial production) was a ‘right’, the institution of property itself was precisely what denied access to land or industrial production capacity to the vast majority of people (It’s worth noting here that there is an important distinction between personal possessions [i.e. your toothbrush] and property [i.e. a toothbrush factory]). Instead, owners force workers or peasants to grow food or labor in factories to survive, giving them wages or food worth far less than what they had actually created, and keeping the rest (called “surplus value”) to themselves – Thus, property is theft. The ability to hold the basic necessities of life hostage allows property owners to control nearly all aspects of the social and political existence of those without property – thus, property is despotism. But because of the human capacity to use science, “a system of knowledge in harmony with the reality of things, and inferred from observation”, those without property are able to recognize the farce of their condition, and champion the cause of scientific socialism for their release from their current state in society. All of these ideas will probably sound familiar to those familiar with Karl Marx, an early admirer and correspondent of Proudhon who decades later made scientific socialism and surplus value the basis of his theory of political economy. But not only did Marx go ahead and claim these ideas as his own, he went ahead and wrote an entire book primarily devoted to mischaractarizing Proudhon’s work, often brazenly misquoting the Frenchman to appear as though he were making the case for capitalism that he spent his entire life writing against. And it seems to have worked: few people read Proudhon nowadays, and Marxists have been feeling smug about their leader’s supposed ‘discovery’ of the pillars of capitalism for over a century and a half (although Marx’s theories were certainly built on more the Proudhon alone).

But if this is the case, why do we call Proudhon an anarchist, rather than simply a communist? Could Proudhon not only be the first person to identify themselves as an anarchist, but also the first person to mis-identify themselves as an anarchist? One could be forgiven for thinking so. (For that matter, most contemporary anarchists will probably also find it strange that the famous critic of parliamentarianism ran for and was elected to a term in the French National Assembly, or that the man who claimed to fight for “the absence of a master, of a sovereign” expressed virulent and even violent prejudice against women and Jewish people). But while Proudhon at times held equivocal views on the state, the failures of the French Revolution of 1848 convinced him that governments – even revolutionary governments that allegedly represented workers – were incapable of committing suicide (as Marx never fully understood). He insisted, as many continue to insist, that governments exist chiefly to violently enforce the capitalist class system, and that liberty is thus achieved not by “reducing big government” (as modern right-wing libertarians believe), but through the immediate abolition of government itself.

In it’s place, Proudhon advanced the cause of a pre-existing concept called ‘mutualism,’ which he had encountered during a visit to a silk-weaving cooperative in Lyon made up of workers who co-owned their operation, living as laborers but not serving bosses. Mutualists argue that if everyone has the means to their own production, without capitalist property-owners and tax collectors who claim any surplus value, goods could be exchanged to mutual benefit rather than through exploitation. Proudhon’s mutualist vision also involved (and here’s where most anarchists will turn up their noses) a Bank of the People, which would use an extremely small interest rate to cover basic administrative expenses (whereas typical interest rates basically amount to rent paid to banks on the money you use), and in return would assist in providing the cheap credit necessary to end capitalism. His attempts to make such a bank, however, were cut short when he was imprisoned for insulting Emperor Napoleon III, and the while the world has seen more than a few credit schemes orchestrated by nations to topple rival economies, and even the abandonment of the gold standards (which has led to widespread inflation), we haven’t seen a genuinely widespread execution of Proudhon’s specific plan to take down the financial system with the intention of ending capitalism forever, so it’s hard to measure how well it would work. Today, institutions like the FBI police financial crime not simply to stop fraud and traditional white-collar crime, but also to help shield the vulnerable financial organs of capitalism from would-be saboteurs like Proudhon.

For a forerunner to anarchist theorists who better understood the role of social revolution, rather than reform and financial tricks, Proudhon has an astounding level of understanding of the way that capitalism robs the working class, and he’s definitely worth a read, if you can stomach his sexist views on the importance of traditional family structures. Here are some suggestions for further reading, both big and small:

For light readers: Marx and Anarchism (1925), by Rudolf Rocker (free online)

For intermediate readers: What is Property?, by Proudhon (free online)

For advanced readers: Property Is Theft! A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology, ed. Iain McKay (AK Press, 2011). 823 pages,.

Nine Tenths of the Law
by Hannah Dobbz
AK Press (2012)
$21 300 pgs.

The last several months have held many victories for the radical squatting movement in the United States: in Oakland, Steve DeCaprio gained legal ownership of his squatted house, in New York City the MUseum of Reclaimed Urban Space has become the first American squat that is also a museum of the Lower East Side’s squatting movement. In the literary world, Nine Tenths of the Law, the first history of squatting in America, has been released by AK press. The author, Hannah Dobbz is an Oakland-based squatter and filmmaker of the 2008 documentary Shelter: A Squatumentary. In NToTL, Dobbz chronicles the activity of squatting in America, retelling American history as a series of European squats made on Indian land, moving forward in time to the Occupy Movement, which, in many areas, did not vanish after it was forced out of public squares, but instead moved out of sight and into abandoned buildings.

NToTL is chock-full of excellent stories of police raids and the creation of new houses, as well as a smattering of legal tidbits and advice. Also, there is a hearty section on the co-op movement, detailing the dynamics of radical collectives who feel peevish about trespassing, and work to gain their houses through legal means. As we attempt to build amazing lives liberated from bosses and authorities, we need resources and space. Hannah’s book is a guiding light as we work towards housing this movement. It is also an excellent investigation of an underground cultural movement, and is great fodder for any US history nerd. (hayley)

We Must Bleed: A Germs Pocket Reader

mcshamrock@gmail.com

$.50 – $1

All hail the mini zine and all hail Darby Crash!

This pocket reader is a tribute to the Germs’ front singer and tells the story of his final performance and his final moments before he overdosed and left this world forever. Although this zine is small, it is very well researched and very well written. A must have for any Germs fan! Carry this zine in your pocket and have a piece of Darby wherever you go. (vanessa)

Purple Haus Erotica Vol. 1

la.pequena.mort@gmail.com

Erotic but not smutty, Purple Haus Erotica is a collaborative zine that has short stories, poetry, and drawings about sex and sexuality. The introduction states that “this zine is an experiment in what sexuality is and can be.” I found the pieces to be tasteful and non offensive, but that doesn’t mean they are tame. The poems and short stories are very descriptive and imaginative and managed to turn me on, which is usually the goal of any erotic tale. The layout is very clean with cut and paste pictures of the human body and other clip art that fits with the text on each page. The cover and back cover are beautifully silk-screened and make it worth having in your zine library. (vanessa)

The Anvil Review #4

The Anvil Review

PO Box 3549

Berkeley, CA 94703

theanvilreview.org

The Situationists are at it again. The latest issue of the Anvil Review, the free twice yearly print edition of theanvilreview.org, features anarchist writing by old-school situationist Isaac Cronin, Wolfi Landstreicher, and newer anarchist theorists like Alejandro de Acosta and Critila. We should note that peeps mostly consider themselves “Post-Situationists” now, with good reason: the tactics of the early Situationists have become so thoroughly co-opted by the bourgeoisie that you practically have to be a Situationist to sell your abstracted labor these days. Fuck that shit. But yeah, the Anvil Review is worth checking out if you like critical essays tied to culture and informed by an anarchist sensibility. Issue #4 is focused on the idea of “the city” and includes 9 critical essays that attempt to expand the ways we think about the psychical, social, and mythical space of the city. (rye)

The Authoritarians

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Recently, I read Bob Altemeyer’s book and it made a lot of things make a lot more sense. Previously I had looked at certain segments of the voting population and went, “They can’t be serious, can they?” Sadly, they can. Many authoritarian people are raised in environments where they are told that something is true “because I said so,” and are surrounded by social groups who reinforce that view. The end result is adults who have heavily compartmentalized minds because they were never encouraged to reconcile all their ideas together into one unified mental model. Thus they tend to lack self-reflection, uncritically accept things told to them by authorities without examining them, believe contradictory things and hold double standards because those ideas are never brought into mental contact, and have a desperate need for continual validation of their beliefs both in official authority and by surrounding themselves only with other people who share those beliefs. This also allows prejudice to flourish because they avoid people who would call them out on it or force them to reexamine their generalization. (colin)

Les Carnets de Rastapopoulos #9

2-7 Larch St

Ottawa, Ontario

Canada K1R6W4

Les Carnets is French for The Notebooks. I’m not clear about the Rastapopoulos part. In this issue the author reflects on his pen pals from 20 years ago. On a whim he made an effort to find those from long ago and far away and documents those who wrote him back. The results are interesting if not a little heart breaking. It’s not very political, yet nor is it worthless. You can see ordinary people address an extraordinary facet of their lfe. It’s a fast read with each scenario written in eyeblinking vignettes. The whole thing reads like a Jr. College school assignment. The simplistic perspective cataloging many stories makes for an impressionistic 20 minute read. That leaves time to write a letter to an old friend afterwards. (aubergine)

Detained

eryon.franklin@gmail.com / eryonfranklin.org

What is it like to be in jail and not know if you will ever be released? This beautiful zine describes the indefinite detention faced by undocumented immigrants who have become immersed in the American legal system, and, the design of the zine itself attempts to physically demonstrate it. It is a 26-foot-long accordion book printed on a single sheet of paper — a long, continuous image of the

Shards of Glass in Your Eye #7,8,9

$2 +postage

PO box 7831

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

The L.A. Zine Fest this year boiled over with people not phased by the so-called “death of print.” I unearthed Kari Tervo’s publication there, and it’s evident that she seems to be in a state of Zine Fever. She started this title in the mid 90’s but has recently given it a kick in the ass with a renewed focus on humor. The main content seems to be observations of the life around Beverly Hills, which often includes the most recent celebrity sightings. It’s not very counter culture. In fact, it even has an icy hostility to current P.C. trends such as veganism or fix gear bikes. But it’s wicked intelligent. There seems to be an awareness of an actual audience reading it — and that there exists with them a reachable tickle spot. Kari touches that spot with reckless abandon. (eggplaid)

Moira Scar in the Parallel Universe Comic #3

http://moirascar.blogspot.com

A sci-fi comic recounting the adventures in dystopia with this hard to pigeon band. Oh wait the comic’s mutant clones does it for us “they always played lap tops in easy listening style”. A police state populated by robots and clones work to destroy the fun being sought by Moira Scar. Humor and a dedication to creating art boldly challenge the ugly world we inherited. (eggman)

Node Pajomo #13 $2+postage

PO Box 2632

Bellingham, WA 98227

Underground directory to trade anything from letters, zines, Cd’s, tapes, mail art, post cards, photos, collages. Running strong for 5 years now. This issue highlights include a guy in Pensacola calling himself The Masked Claw who wants photo copies of people’s feet so he can “see into your sole.” Also someone in the Netherlands is collecting To-Do lists and a vending machine in Iowa looking for zines. Each issue has attached mail art throughout it all. We got a stamp from Japan and some alternative currency with our copy. As headboggling and randomly fruitful as reading graffiti in a bathroom stall. (eggfad)

Hawai’i 510 (aka No Gods No Mattress 18)

PO Box 3936

Berkeley, CA 94703

$2+2 stamps

When I first read the “Haole Go Home” article by enola d in Slingshot #111, it brought up many memories for me. I had people in my life who had the means and time to spend time traveling around Hawai’i. These people were punx who I had loved and yet, after hearing that they were traveling/moving there, I always wished I could tell them to check their privilege and reconsider. I didn’t feel like it was my place (an excuse perhaps) and they went anyway and often came back with what I felt was disappointment and sorrow and possibly some positive experiences. enola helped me to remember the sobering reality vs. idealistic images of “paradise” in places that were once perhaps “paradise” before imperialism/capitalism swept through, salting the land. Resistance is fertile though, as many of enola’s encounters with native Hawai’ians seem to suggest. I remain more committed to staying the hell out of Hawai’i after this ish of NGNM. To paraphrase/borrow from enola, maybe I’m just getting older and being more of a jerk too. Whatevs. (j-tronn)

Stowaways#13 $2+postage

52 Windover Rd.

Yorba Linda, CA 92886

romancandlemusic@gmail.com

This large size zine is packed with a shit ton of info on the underground music scene around L.A. One person seems to be doing all the work. The editor Chris is tirelessly here logging dozens of shows, reviewing new releases and interviewing a couple bands. The writing quality is akin to radio news in that it gives just the barest details of an event then its off relating accounts of the next event. For someone not familiar with the region or the music scene it might hurt your head to read. This particular issue aids in that endeavor by displaying several obvious typos–but perhaps it was a rush job to have it in people’s hands by the recent L.A. zine fest. There’s not much in the way of graphics with just a few photos and lots of open space. But when I read Stowaway a little more closely I did appreciate the writer’s passion for his subject. Through his perspective one can start to see a community existing in a place where most radicals throw away as being populated by materialistic plastic people that is dominated by car culture.

The Invisible War is a new film worth your attention. The premise is simple: The US Military has been opened up to include women soldiers and a serious epidemic of rape can be found there. Any complaints to officials in charge prove that the patriarchy doesn’t appreciate feedback.

This documentary by Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick plays well, and even has a narrative feature device in the opening twenty minutes. Slick television ads segue into glorious images of flags and military weaponry, that come across the screen as in a procession before top brass. In likewise pace the viewer is introduced to a half dozen women subjects (one male) and rough sketches of their biographies. Women Soldiers like Kori Cioca believed in the integrity of the military and sought to find there a life of duty and a future. Then suddenly their stories recount the transgression they received while in the hands of the various branches of the service. This is the first of a series of shocks to come for the 97 minute running time. There was even a couple sitting behind me that would occasionally go into vocal shock as the content gave the brutal truth in dismal details. I would guess we all knew what we were paying for. I for one follow activist news a lot and also study horror movies — deadening my vocal chords to atrocities reflected on a screen. Most mainstream people though will be like my friends in the theatre, and have a response that will resemble being slapped with cold water.

I had the occasion to absorb this new work at a benefit for Bay Area Women Against Rape at the Elmwood Theatre in a well to do part of Berkeley. Sadly the attendance was less than a dozen people — but the door price and the cost of resources to get us there was worth it. Seeing these ex-soldiers who were enticed, abused and thrown away on a screen twenty feet tall made for a brave show. It’s vital for the community to come together and give space to witness what is being hidden. The movie also briefly goes into the issue of man-on-man rape.

There are several scenes when the government takes the stage as it sings and dances around any accountability. Instead of punishing offenders with any kind of substance, such glib displays of reform can be seen with the info commercials the military has produced to silence complaints. The commercials are directed at potential victims (not potential perpetrators) to do shit like not walk alone at night, don’t get drunk and other such magic tricks.

I wish the film did more to indict the military, war culture, and the indoctrination that happens here in America into a competitive frame of life. Let’s face it — the American military encourages soldiers to kill, torture, abuse and rape. It actually does not matter if the target is a frail person with a foreign tongue and different tint of skin, or even a fellow soldier. In fact what is imperative to the Military mind is that the soldier follow instructions — to kill on command. This film’s distribution in places like NetFlix substantiates the feeling I get that it will play with less currency in radical spaces working to destroy the present system. Its greatest impact can be counted on in the quiet and clean living rooms of Middle America. Radicals can visit their parents and view it after a well-meaning (but heated) discussion on topics around the military during dinner. Then perhaps Americans can be persuaded to question the machine that we’ve been suckered into maintaining — to our own visible detriment.

Ex-Soldier Kori Cioca gets lots of screen time in physical pain left over from her assault. To add insult to injury she spends countless hours to get the coveted government assistance — only to be denied. The film did inspire some policy changes once it was screened to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. May be films like this is what’s needed to get more people angry to challenge the current practice of military affairs since real change happens in people’s hearts first. But I’m a little afraid of the blowback to this kind of public disclosure. The war pigs seem to like to employ intimidation and faceless harassment of dissidents. The film never names the names of offenders but the victims are open for scrutiny — or in our case hope.

Director Kirby Dick already did a great Doc exposing the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) with his This Film Is Not Yet Rated. This agency was created shortly after John F. Kennedy’s murder (headed by a man who’s in the photo with Johnson as he was being sworn in on the plane) with practices that make it resemble a cabal. That Doc goes into the make up of the MPAA and how they are a self-appointed unaccountable people with a Republican, Christian bent. It also catalogs their harsh ratings over sex in films (as opposed to violence) and a tendency to be favorable to major studios productions over independents. All of this ultimately affects where films are exhibited. Anyways my point is that one could make an argument that the MPAA acts as an arm of propaganda and censorship in this country. Squashing voices of dissent often gets credited to exist rampantly in dictatorships — except it’s being done here in a way that’s invisible to the people star gazing at the flag. But there is also a behavior being subtly promoted that is confusing sex for violence.

The news emerging as we go to print is of similar rape epidemics and cover-ups happening in the Peace Corps as well as at Occidental College in Southern California. Even the head of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention unit, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, was arrested for sexual assault of a civilian. For anyone really watching what’s going on they know that patriarchical organizations like the US military operate with as much as a put-on as a Hollywood movie. (robber eggplant)

June 8

Zine Festival – Scranton, Pennsylvania

June 14

They Owe Us – a week of action against the G8 – London, England www.theyoweus.org.uk/

June 14th to 18th

Redwood Coast Earth First! Rendezvous – Humboldt County, Calif. – info; contactefhum@gmail.com or 707-234-5257

June 15 • 2 pm

Occupy march & occupation – Union Sq. San Francisco

June 15 – 23

Wild Roots, Feral Futures direct action camp – Southwest Colorado feralfutures.blogspot.com

June 27

Trans March – Dolores Park, SF transmarch.org

July 1-8

Earth First Round River rendezvous – North Carolina earthfirstnews.wordpress.com

July 4

Rainbow Gathering – somewhere in Montana

July 7-14

Creative Maladjustment Week – events world-wide www.cmweek.org

July 21-28

Utah Tar Sands Action Camp – stop the first tar sands mine in the US from breaking ground beforeitstarts.org

July 21-28

Eastern Conference on Workplace Democracy – Philadelphia east.usworker.coop

July 23 – 29

Trans and Women’s Action Camp for folks who identify as women, transgender, transsexual, genderqueer and gender variant – Eugene, OR twac.wordpress.com twac@riseup.net

July 27

Deadline to finish calendar pages, turn in radical contact info, submit cover art, or give Slingshot suggestions for the 2014 Slingshot organizer

July 27/28 and August 3 and 4

Join Slingshot to make the 2014 Slingshot organizer – 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley.

August 7 – 11

Earth First! Summer – Hastings area near the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road, UK summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk

August 7 – 9

Protest the American Legislative Exchange Council annual meeting – Chicago alecwc.org

August 10 – 11

Portland Zine Fest portlandzinesymposium.org

August 11 – 17

Free Cascadia Witch Camp freewitchcamp.org

August 17-20

Reclaim the Power protest & camp – West Burton power station, East Midlands, UK www.nodashforgas.org.uk

August 18 • 4 pm

Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting – 3124 Shattuck Berkeley

August 24-25

5th Annual Seattle Anarchist Bookfair at the Vera Project – seattlebookfair@riseup.net

August 24

Grand Rapids Zine Fest – Grand Rapids, MI

August 26-September 7

Trident Ploughshares Summer International Disarmament Camp – Burghfield, UK

August 30 – September 2

Twin Oaks Communities Conference – Louisa, VA communitiesconference.org

September 14 • 3 pm

Slingshot article deadline for issue #114

by Hayley Steele

Each year, hundreds of people lose their lives crossing the desert from Mexico into the United States. In response to this tragedy, members of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab have designed the Transborder Immigrant Tool (TBT).

To create the TBT, they took a Motorola i455 cell phone and cracked the GPS applet to create a simple compass-like navigation system. Motorola i455s can be obtained for less than $30, and are even cheaper on eBay. Besides assisting with basic navigation, the TBT shows where to find water left by Border Angels, where to find Quaker help centers, how far you are from the highway – things that could save the life of someone making the crossing.

Besides being a practical navigation tool, the TBT is also a work of art, and includes recordings of poetry on sustenance and survival in multiple languages written by poet Amy Sara Carroll, a member of the group.

As Amy explains, “…often—rightly enough—conversations about crossing the Mexico-U.S. border refer to disorientation, sun exposure, lack of water. The Transborder Immigrant Tool attempts to address those vicissitudes, but also to remember that the aesthetic—freighted with the unbearable weight of ‘love’— too, sustains.”

The design-phase of the TBT was completed two years ago.  In November 2009, the group was preparing to distribute the device through NGOs, churches, and other communities south of the border. However, the mainstream media – with Fox News at its forefront – threw a fit, leading to investigations of group members, three of whom are professors at the University of California in San Diego. “Can public funds be used to break the law?” was the premise of these investigations. But since when was it illegal to save people’s lives?!

Ricardo Dominguez, a spokesperson for the project, recently did a brief interview with Slingshot member Hayley Steele, revealing the latest news.

Hayley: How has distribution been going? Has it been difficult getting the Transborder Immigration Tool into the right people’s hands?

Ricardo: Due to the intense investigation of the project during 2010 by both my own institution (UCSD) and the call by three Republican Congressmen to have the project stopped – we (Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab) were not able to move forward with the distribution of the project. Our/my legal counsel advised against doing this part of the project till the investigation was over.

Hayley: A few people at the Slingshot Collective expressed concern about Border Patrol agents finding a way to track people who are using the TBT through the surveillance devices embedded in cell phones. How was this issue addressed in the TBT’s design?

“…often—rightly enough—conversations about crossing the Mexico-U.S. border refer to disorientation, sun exposure, lack of water. The Transborder Immigrant Tool attempts to address those vicissitudes, but also to remember that the aesthetic—freighted with the unbearable weight of ‘love’— too, sustains.”

Ricardo: TBT is a single-bounce GPS device, only to be turned on once at the start of the journey and then turned off—and not to be turned on again until it is needed. This single bounce activates the database of locative wave-points to current water caches left out by NGOs in Southern California. From that point on TBT does not attempt to connect to any GPS signal or any other signal. This disallows any triangulation to take place—unless the user who is lost in the desert turns on the cell phone function and is lucky enough to reach a signal to dial 911 and allow for possible triangulation.

Hayley: Is it possible for individuals to independently download the TBT onto their own cell phone? If so, would they need to disable certain surveillance devices on their phone to prevent being tracked?

Ricardo: As I mentioned, it is a database, so it can be altered to create any kind of walking tool. Brett Stalbaum, a new media artist and co-founder of EDT 1.0/2.0, has a website where you can download the code (without the water cache location wave-points). This will allow anyone to develop a TBT-like gesture for any border situation or for any type of locative art project.

Hayley: If someone is interested in assisting with border-disturbance technology, how might they best get involved?

Ricardo: We always need cell phones, so if you have a working cell phone of any type and want to send it to us – that would be great. Just contact us: rrdominguez@ucsd.edu. Or if you want to download the code and work on expanding it in other ways. Also if you speak and write in another language, we welcome translations of the poems on TBT. Or if you have extra funds—please donate to Water Station Inc.  or Border Angels, they are really the core of what is the most important aspect of TBT. Of course if you have the time to come down on the weekends to help fill up the water caches around the Imperial Valley Desert, Anza Borrego Park and the surrounding areas that would be of great help.

The members of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab are: Micha Cárdenas, Dr. Amy Sara Carroll, Elle Mehrmand, Brett Stalbaum, and Ricardo Dominguez. Check out their website at: bang.calit2.net or www.walkingtools.net for the code.

by Samara Steele

A few years ago, I was given a prescription for Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SRIs) for a seizure disorder. Like cocaine (which is technically an SRI), pharmaceutical-grade SRIs prevent your brain from reabsorbing serotonin (“the happy chemical”), causing old serotonin to float around with nowhere to go, creating a sort of pleasant “hazy” feeling. SRIs are usually used to treat depressive disorder, but my neurologist explained that they sometimes prevent seizures.

For my first year on the drug, it seemed to be helping my epilepsy. But after two years, I started having problems. My thinking got fuzzy, it became difficult to use language, and for the first time in my life, I found it nearly impossible to make new friends.

I spent another year feeling like a zombie before I realized the SRIs were to blame. I stopped taking them, and after a painful period of withdrawal, I started feeling like I could think again. Recovery has been slow, though, and in the two years since I’ve been clean, I’ve had to gradually rebuild the skills I lost. Everything from my balance to my body-awareness to my short-term memory is still screwed up.

Sadly, I am not the only one who has been royally screwed  over by psychiatric medication.

In his latest book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Rise of Mental Illness (2010), journalist Robert Whitaker shows how each type of psycho-pharmaceutical drug has its own unique way of damaging and debilitating its user. According to Whitaker, before psychiatric drugs came into mainstream use, 85% of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder could return to their jobs within a year of diagnosis, and suffered no long-term brain damage. But now – with drugs being prescribed to a majority of bipolar patients – less than 30% can return to work, and most of them suffer from long-term cognitive impairment!

Whitaker’s book contains a bounty of scientific studies that show how the drugs used to treat “anxiety,” “depression,” “bipolar disorder,” and “schizophrenia” cause more harm than good. The author has made these studies free to the public at the Mad in America Website.

The bottom line is: Psycho-pharmaceutical drugs are not safe. They prolong the illnesses they are supposed to treat and cause long-term brain damage. (Not to mention the “official” side effects: liver damage, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, kidney failure, birth defects, increased risk of suicide among children – the list goes on and on!) Yet, today, 1 in 8 Americans is on a psychotropic medication, with these dangerous drugs being prescribed to children less than two years old!

This creates a bit of a mystery: if these drugs are so bad, why are people taking them?

I believe the foremost cause is the rise of an idea/practice of the treating the brain as self: treating yourself as if you are nothing more than a passive brain.

For the last two decades, pop-science writers and have been working relentlessly to convince people that they are their brains. The goal of these writers often is connected to opposition to religion. They think that, by convincing people they are simply brains, the idea of the soul will disappear and religion will vanish.

A good example of this kind of writing can be found in The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (1994) by geneticist Francis Crick. On the opening page of the book, Crick writes: “you, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” The book goes on for several hundred more pages, promoting the idea that the “self” is completely isolated to the brain.

In contrast, cognitive theorist Alva Noë is an adamant opponent of the idea of the brain-self, and in his book, Out of Our Heads: Why You are Not Your Brain (2009), he explains, “Consciousness is not something the brain achieves on its own. Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body, and world. ….consciousness is the achievement of the whole animal in its environmental context.” Alva also says that the idea of the brain-self is dangerous to individuals who use it.

But Alva’s words often fall on deaf ears. For decades we have been conditioned by “educational” magazine articles, books, and TV programs to think of ourselves as our brains. This leads us to believe that our thoughts, feelings, and urges are the results of “brain chemistry” over which we have no control.

So, when a believer in the brain-self has behavioral problems, unwanted thoughts, or uncomfortable moods, she observes herself passively and does not feel empowered to change. She is locked out of her own internality. Furthermore, traditional aspects of human culture like “love” and “free will” come into doubt. “If these things exist,” the logic goes, “they must already be hard-wired into my brain.” So the individual stops working to cultivate these things – she stops developing her personality. And she begins to feel miserable. Then she sees an advertisement…

The 40-billion-dollar psycho-pharmaceutical industry has hired a small army of advertisers and lobbyists to manipulate people into believing that their drugs will provide happiness, completeness, and a quick fix to all of one’s problems. And when someone believes they are their brain, these drugs seem like their only hope.

Many drug ads are also designed to make people think they have a mental illness when they don’t.

So the individual makes an appointment with a “psychiatrist” (they really should just be called “dealers” now…or maybe “priests” would be a better term).

Just as the Catholic Church stole the Platonic soul by claiming that their priests were the only ones with access to it, the institution of brain-based psychology has co-opted Freudian terms, (the word “psychology,” for example) and claimed that their agents are the only ones who can access an individual’s internality. Just as the Catholic priests held souls hostage, these new psychiatrists hold brains hostage.

Unlike Freudian psychiatrists of the past, these new brain-based psychiatrists do not talk to patients about their thoughts and feelings. Instead, like a Catholic priest in a confessional, a brain-based psychiatrist asks for a list of “symptoms” (sins) for which she administers a “medication” (absolution/communion). And, like medieval peasants on communion, patients fetishize these drugs (“These pills are saving me from my brain disorder!”), developing a deep emotional attachment. But unlike communion wafers, these drugs alter a person’s basic ability to think, express emotion, and feel desire – making it even more difficult to get away.

So, instead of dismantling religion, the idea of the “brain-self” has given rise to the Cult of the Psycho-pharmaceutical, with both patients and psychiatrists sucked into this oppressive structure of beliefs and rituals.

That’s right, the psychiatrists are believers themselves. One reason for this is that many “trusted” leaders in the field have sold out. For example, Dr. Joseph Biederman, a full Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, received 1.6 million dollars from drug companies from 2000 to 2007. In exchange, Dr. Jo authored dozens of “scientific” papers promoting the use of ADHD medications. Countless other field leaders let the drug companies buy them out, creating a sea of mis-information disguised as science.

On top of this, drug companies market directly to psychiatric practitioners, using even more intense propaganda than what the public sees. Additionally, a majority of psychology professors have been converted to pharmaceutical psychiatry, so most psychology students are only exposed to the doctrine of medication.

And it’s hard watching someone suffer. Who can blame psychiatrists for wanting there to be a quick fix for their patients’ problems? In their desire to help patients, they are led by their emotions to believe that the drugs work. The neurologist who put me on SRIs, for example, was also using them herself.

But the reality is, we have problems no pill can fix.

The global economy has entered a phase of Late Capitalism in which individuals are becoming increasingly isolated, environmental conditions are disintegrating, and the majority of the populace is working harder and harder for the benefit of a handful of elites. Then, when people are unhappy in this shitty situation, they are told they have a “brain disorder.”

By blaming our emotional problems on our own biology, we fail to look outside ourselves for alternative causes. Reality disorders – problems with the environment, social order, and workplace – go ignored while people obsessively drug their brains into oblivion.

Thanks to the idea/practice of the brain-self, the capitalist mode of production has infiltrated our bodies and penetrated our core beings. Our moods, thoughts, and emotions have been transformed into commodities to be sold back to us. And, as Late Capitalism slouches towards Neo-feudalism, we are stripped of our revolutionary potential.

Michel Foucault once wrote, “The body is the prisoner of the soul,” but more than ever, the body is becoming prisoner of the brain.

Lately, I’ve started seeing an acupuncturist once a week. Besides the needlework, she prescribes herbs and helps me plan my diet. My epilepsy has gotten much better, even though she isn’t specifically treating it: she and I are working together to take care of my whole body.

In the meantime, I’ve been obsessively reading real scientific articles about the brain, trying to get a better idea of what it actually is.

One thing I’ve learned is that the brain doesn’t just “stop learning” at some stage in development. The brain can actually stay “plastic” throughout adulthood, meaning you have the ability to learn new things your whole life. No matter how old you are, your brain isn’t written yet. You always have the power to change.

The brain is just part of the nervous system, which is just part of the whole body. Whatever you do with your body is going to have a direct effect on your brain. If your body receives healthy levels of exercise, wholesome food, sunlight, fresh air, and frequent human interaction, the brain remains healthy and “plastic.” But if the body doesn’t receive these things, the brain becomes “depressed,” impairing the brain’s ability to make new connections. This makes it harder for the person to learn new things, and can lead to other disorders.

Our Late Capitalist system keeps most people too busy to engage in the healthy lifestyle needed to keep the brain “plastic.” If, as a culture, we had time to prepare and eat healthy food, exercise at least three times a week, hang out in the sun, breathe fresh air, and actively socialize for an hour or two a day, most of the “illnesses” psycho-pharmaceutical drugs treat would be cured.

Ultimately, the brain is the tool of the spirit. Whatever we strive to become, the brain will re-wire itself to support us. If we practice love, our brains become better at loving. If we cultivate free-will and practice making educated decisions, our brains will become better at that. The active-brain is a reminder that all of our thoughts and actions matter in this huge task of forming our identities as liberated human beings.

The Slow Mood Movement

It is not enough to merely reject the brain-self. New ideas of the self must develop to take its place. The Slow Mood Movement is all about re-thinking the way we think of ourselves. Inspired by the Slow Food Movement’s rejection of fast food, Slow Mood aims to resist the buying and selling of “fast moods.”

Here’s an excerpt of their manifesto: “We are taking it slow. Slowly learning to feel our inner states. Slowly developing the cognitive tools needed to make healthy decisions for ourselves, our communities, and our world. Slowly learning to expand our emotions to connect with other people as people, not functions. We know these things can’t be given to us instantly. We have to build these things ourselves, over time.”

To get involved, see their website: http://slowmoodmovement.wordpress.com