Author: Slingshot Collective

Bread

Ingredients:

-2 tablespoons yeast

-1 cup warm water

-1 teaspoon vegan sugar

-1/4 cup vegan sugar

-1 or 2 tablespoon salt

-2 to 4 tablespoon oil

-6 to 7 cups of unbleached organic flour

Mix first three ingredients together, let stand until foamy. About 3-5 min. Add 3 cups of warm water, sugar, and start adding flour. When mixture is very thick add salt and oil. Continue adding flour until you can’t add any ore. Turn out and let rest while you clean bowl. Knead for 10 min adding remaining flour. Place in oiled bowl and turn over to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm plate until doubled. Pouch down and divide into four equal parts. Place in oiled pan and let rise until even with top of pan.

Bake at 250 for 25 to 30 min.

Serves: 4 loaves.

 

Corn Bread

Ingredients:

-1 ½ c. cornmeal.

-1 ½ c. unbleached flour.

-3 ½ tsp baking powder

-1 Tbsp sugar

-1 tsp salt

-2 ¼ c. soymilk or water

-1/4 c. oil

Heat oven to 400. Put in an oiled 10” iron skillet in oven to heat. Mix the dry ingredients well, then stir in soymilk and oil. Mix and pour into the heated skillet. Bake 30 minutes. Test with fork to ensure done-ness.

OPTIONAL: Before putting into pan, mix in one or two apples, cut in very small pieces, OR one onion, cut very finely, OR half an onion and some diced chili peppers, OR a handful of raisin, OR some corn cut fresh off the cob!

Vegan Spanikopita

Ingredients:

-1 Tbsp sill weed

-1 Tbsp salt

-2 Tbsp lemon juice

-1/4 c. margarine for frying

-1/2 cup margarine or olive oil for brushing filo dough

-pastry brush (a brand-new paintbrush works too)

-1 package filo dough

-2 to 3 bunches of fresh spinach

-1 large onion

-1 to 2 tbs. firm tofu

-1/2 c. farina (cream of wheat) uncooked

Filo dough usually comes frozen, so first you need to set it out in its plastic bag to let it thaw. Carefully wash the spinach and remove the stems. Then chop it into pieces no larger than 1 inch, Chop the onion as finely as you possibly can. In a large frying pan, sauté the onion gently in ¼ of margarine until it is transparent. Add the spinach and allow it to cook down. You probably won’t be able to fit all the spinach in the pan at once—just keep adding it as it cooks down. Add the dill, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and farina to the spinach. Add tofu and use a potato masher to thoroughly mash the tofu into the mixture so there are no chunks larger than a pea. Taste the mixture to add more salt as needed. It should taste salty.

In a small sauce pan, melt the margarine for brushing and brush the sides and bottom of a 9 X 13 inch pan. Carefully cover the bottom with one sheet of filo dough. Very lightly brush more oil on and add another layer of filo. Continue until you have about 9 layers on the bottom. You do not need much oil on the bottom layer—save most of the oil for the top to make it crispy. Add half of the spinach mixture to the pan. Cover with 3 to 4 more layers of filo dough. Then add the remaining spinach mixture and smooth it out. Cover the top with a layer of filo, thoroughly brush oil on top and add another layer. Continue until you have about 12 layers or until you run out of oil. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Serves 6-8 people.

Tofu Jerky

-1 lb. tofu

-1/4 c. soy sauce

-1/2 c. red wine vinegar

-1 c. water

-6 cloves of garlic

-1 tsp sage

-1 tsp basil

-1 tsp oregano

-salt and pepper to taste

Freeze the tofu until solid. Then thaw and slice into 1 X ½ X 6 inch strips. Crush garlic and mix with soy sauce, vinegar, water, sage, basil, and oregano. Add salt and pepper. Marinate tofu in mixture overnight or at least for 1 hour. Pour off marinade and save for future use (up to a month in fridge). Lightly grease a cookie sheet and spread tofu on the sheet. Bake in 150-200 degree oven for 1 to 2 hours, turning if necessary, until dried.

Building a new world based on freedom, cooperation, and environmental sustainability in the face of powerful corporations and governments that seek to maintain their domination is not an easy task. To make progress, we need to flexibly embrace a wide variety of tactics and strategies—from strikes, street protests, direct action, and riots to street theater, educational campaigns, and even letter writing—whatever may help in a particular situation. These pages suggest how to effectively create disorder and disruption—because these skills are under-utilized and under-theorized. But we don’t want to disrespect or dismiss the use of other kinds of tactics that may be effective in a particular situation.

 

General Theory

In a protests, you request or demand change from those in power. Direct action is when people ignore those in power and build new forms of social interaction on their own—cooperatively organized housing, farms, workplaces, etc. Militant disruption falls between traditional protests and direct action—the common situation in which people reject the authority and legitimacy of those in power, yet don’t have sufficient social resources to just build a world outside the rulers’ control. Disruption seeks to prevent business as usual and resist social control, thereby weakening the rulers and opening possibilities for new social structures.

If you’re lucky, you and a group of friends can get together, run through a shopping mall, push some dumpsters into the middle of traffic, and generally run amok. If you keep moving, you’ll never see any police because by the time they arrive at a particular location, you’ll be gone. Tactics that evade the police are almost always the most disruptive. All too often, you see would-be militants getting caught up in the cop game by focusing on confronting the police—pushing against a police line, etc. This is often a mistake, however, if you want to maximize disorder and disruption. When you confront the police, it usually results in order, not disorder, because the police know precisely where you are. They can re-route traffic around you, maintaining productivity and business as usual everywhere else except on your tiny corner until they can amass enough forces to surround and bust your ass. If you see a police line, it is usually best to go the other way or melt away and regroup elsewhere. This keeps them guessing and confused while you’re free to cause chaos everywhere the police aren’t. The police are organized centrally, so if we can keep mobile in several different groups, their hierarchical structure has a much harder time keeping track of it all. It’s also good to keep in mind that disruption and disorder can take many forms. Sometimes, creating beautiful expressions of the world we seek to build—music, art, gardens, public sex, etc.—can be disruptive while avoiding the system’s “us and them” paradigm. The system loves a conventional war within traditional categories—like guerilla fighters, it’s our job to figure out forms of struggle on plains of reality where we have an advantage.

 

What to Bring.

To be mobile and maximize the area that gets disrupted, you want to travel as light as possible and avoid bulky signs, props, or costumes that slow you down. Carrying water in a quirt bottle for drinking and treating chemical weapons exposure is highly recommended. Use a fanny pack or bag that doesn’t get in the way in case you have to run. The black bloc uniform (black hoodies, etc) is outdated and silly—like wearing a huge target on your ass—avoid it. If weather permits, water repellent clothes protect skin from pepper spray. Layers are good because they provide padding and can e used for disguise/escape. In hot weather, dress comfortably—avoiding heatstroke and dehydration so you can run is way more important than protection from chemical weapons or a disguise. Wear good running shoes. Don’t wear contact lenses, jewelry, long hair, or anything the cops can grab. Never bring drugs, weapons, burglary tools, or anything that would get you in extra trouble if arrested. Never bring address books or sensitive information. Gas masks, goggles and helmets are almost always silly—the protection they offer is far outweighed by the extent to which they make you a target and slow you down. Those who’ve been tear gassed will tell you—it isn’t the worst thing in the world.

 

Affinity Groups/Decision Making.

Affinity groups are small action cells—usually 4 to 8 people—who share attitudes about tactics and who organize themselves for effectiveness and protection. The best affinity groups are people with pre-existing relationships who know and trust each other intimately. Decisions are (hopefully) made democratically, face-to-face, and quickly on the spot. In a chaotic situation, affinity groups enable decision making (as opposed to just reacting), while watching each other’s backs. Affinity groups with experience and a vision within a bigger crowd can take the initiative and start something when the larger crowd is standing around wondering what to do next.

Some affinity groups use a code word that any member can yell if they have an idea for what the group should do next. Upon hearing the word, others in the group yell it too until the whole group gathers up and the person who called the huddle makes a quick proposal. The group can then agree to the proposal, briefly discuss alternatives, and then move. A code word can also allow regrouping when the group gets separated in a chaotic situation. It is a good idea for everyone in the group to discuss their limits before an action. During the action, taking the time to check in about how everyone is feeling will keep the group unified. Don’t forget to eat and take pee breaks, which will be a lot easier if someone can act as a lookout while you duck behind a dumpster.

 

Non-Fiction

-The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord.

-The Function of the Orgasm, Wilhelm Reich.

-Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, Jacob Sullum.

-Water Wars, Vandana Shiva.

-Autobiography, Angela Davis.

-How I Became Hettie Jones, Hettie Jones.

-In the Shadow of the American Dream, David Wojnarowicz.

-High Risk Anthology, Vol. 1 & 2, Ed. Amy Scholder and Ira Silverberg.

-Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, Helen Zia.

-Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, Paul Pitchford.

-The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilhelm Reich.

-The Evolution of Cooperation, Robert Axelrod.

-Women´s Bodies, Women´s Wisdom, Christiane Northrup M.D.

-The Bandit Queen of India: An Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend, Phoolan Devi, Marie Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali.

-Sink or Swim:A History of Sausal Creek, Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Annie Danger.

 

Fiction

-Blanche Cleans Up, Barbara Neely.

-Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg.

-Pigs in heaven, Barbara Kingsolver.

-Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, Nawal El Saadawi.

-Tracks, Louise Erdrich.

-The Gates to Women´s Country, Sherri S. Tepper.

-The Gilda Stories, Jewelle Gomez

-The Inhabited Woman, Giaconda Belli

-Walking Back Up Depot Street, Minnie Bruce Pratt.

-Abeng, Michelle Cliff.

-Gravity´s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon.

-Always Coming Home, Ursula K. LeGuin.

-Book of Coming Prayer, Joan Didion.

Name	Plant*	Pick**	pH#	Sun##
Arugula	-6	40	6.5	F-P
Beans	-1	50-90	6.7	F
Beets	-4	50-60	6.7	F
Broccoli	-3T	45-70	7	F
Cabbage	-3T	60-110	6.4	F
Carrot	-4	55-75	6.2	F
Celery	-6T	100-120	6.5	F
Choy (var)	All year	43-80	6.4	F/C P/H
Corn	-1	65-95	6.4	F
Cukes	+4T	45-60	6.5	FA
Eggplant	+1T	60-75	6.2	FH
Garlic	-5fall	11mos	6.5	F
Kale	-3T	50-65	6.7	F
Kohlrabi	-3	35-45	6.5	F
Leek	-7T	75-115	6.8	F
Lettuce	-3T	30-50	6.4	F/C P/H
Melon	0	75-120	6.5	F
Mustard	-6T	40-50	6	F
Okra	-1	50-60	7	F
Onion	-6T	80-120	6.7	F
Parsley	-1T	75	6.5	F
Peas	-7	50-65	6.5	FA
Pepper	+1T	70-85	6.5	FH
Potato	-5	65-90	5.7	F
Radish	-7	35-50	6.2	P
Spinach	-6	35-45	6.5	F-P
Squash	0	45-55	6.2	FA
Sweet potato	+1	Bef. frost	6	F
Tomato	+1T	50-80	6.5	FH
Turnip	-5	35-50	6.2	F/C P/H

 

*Weeks +/- last spring frost to plant seeds or starts (T)

**Days to ripeness

#Ideal soil pH for crop

## F- full; P- partial; H-hot; C- cool; A- good air circulation.

—Plant beneficial flowers to encourage bees and repel pests.

—Use compost to enrich your soil before planting and midseason.

Here’s some info on keeping chickens safe and healthy!

>>You can get chickens from a hatchery in your area, search the Internet or check the phone book. If there is a factory farm nearby, toy can check on rescue birds, or just ask.

>>Chickens Kay according to the number of light hours per day. More light (Summer) = more eggs: up to 1/day. In Winter, they lay fewer eggs, and sometimes not at all. Some people put a light in the coop to keep them laying, while others think that’s cruel, average lay is 2 to 3 eggs every 3 days.

>>Chickens need fresh water every day and chicken food that you can buy from the feed store. You can also feed them grains and veggies.

>>They love snails! They also love leftover veggies– Food Not Bombs is their best friend.

>>They love to come out and scratch around for bugs, but will destroy your garden– or be your chicken tractor, if you use a movable coop in early Spring.

>>Chickenshit is great for compost.

>>Raccoons and dogs think that chickens are tasty, so make a coop you can lock at night. Some people raccoon-proof the entire pen, in case they forget to lock up. Raccoon proofing means buying fencing 6″ deep (maybe extending it 6″ underground), covering the top, and constructing a tight gate.

>>Before you set all this up, check on local noise ordinance and zoning laws.

>>Roosters are loud! (And they’re loud, too). It is a myth that a rooster is necessary for hens to lay eggs, so to save your neighborhood some trouble, just keep hens.

>>Hens make noise, especially while laying, but most people won’t be bothered– still, ask neighbors first and give them some eggs.

 

Sometimes revolution seems impossible. Focus on one thing and another fucked you thing happens. You go to a meeting advertised on a cool flyer but everybody there is weird and seems smarter than you. After a beautiful sunset, you ride your bike down to check a possible action target, but you end up running into your friend flipping out on drugs.

But even when everything seems insurmountable, there are targets within reach. Because the web of oppression is so complex, there is good work that can be done anywhere, on any scale: self-work, work with our families and friends, dismantling oppressive systems and rebuilding interpersonal relationships and physical infrastructure.

Revolution is a mindset, a way of approaching the world. It’s much more that the products of our work— the Food Not Bombs, the anarchist newspapers, demonstrations, covert actions, “living for free,” the shows and zines and reading groups. All these trapping of the “anarchist” life frequently happen in completely unrevolutionary, boring, fucked-up ways. It matters very much that all these things do happen, but it matters equally how they happen, how we relate to and care for the people we work with, including our own selves. Revolution is not a bundle of accomplishments, but a process. We can’t just run with a few black blocs and call it a day— we have to do the work of destroying and creating within a context that helps us feel fulfilled and happy now instead of exhausted and burnt.

The war we’re waging on the outside also has a front within our own hearts and minds. Sometimes the inner struggle takes more bravery than facing a line of riot cops— rooting out oppressive programming, deciphering and responding to our own needs, even when they are against the grain of the fast-paced activist life. Resting is subversive.

We can’t “get it all done,” because revolution won’t ever be finished. Nature, and therefore humanity, and therefore the system of states and hierarchy, has been changing since the beginning of time. There was not some primordial, Garden of Eden-esque state if radical perfection, from which we all fell into this pit of hierarchy and oppression, and which we might attain again someday if we open the right number of infoshops. Natural life is a process of growth and decay, and someday the United States Empire will fall, just like the other empires have come and gone. We are here now, and we have to actualize revolution now. We have to manage the change, exploiting the cracks in the state apparatus as it settles, ages, and falls apart, while strengthening our own lives and relationships against the unfriendly decay of burnout and self-destruction. Ultimately, our relationships with other people are the framework of a new world built of hope, trust, and love. This is our strongest revolutionary tool.

 

Welcome to the first-ever spiral bound version of the Slingshot Organizer! The world we’re struggling for is one in which every individual has a chance to be fully human and free— not tied down by oppressive societal structures or cultural prejudices. It involves people living for experience, beauty, and pleasure— not just owning things. We refuse to settle for a beige world of conformity— we want color and difference everywhere like a million rocks on the beach, each one unique, with the state dishing out more fear, more war, and more repression, it’s up to us to powerfully articulate what we’re for, and then start building it! We can’t afford to get bogged down in what we’re against.

Publishing this is a really intense experience that always helps us focus on the complex connections between our activism and our personal lives. It’s amazing how working this hard can make us feel so close to each other and help us endure the personal trials we all face. As we move through our lives, we’re constantly reminded of how short and precious they are and how much we need each other. Loving and taking care of each other is the definition of community, building powerful communities is necessary to struggle against corporations and the state, but it is also a goal in and of itself because it makes our lives meaningful and worth living. So many radicals suffer from burnout because activism becomes a chore— a duty like work. If we’re serious about holding a new society, activism has to be about our love for our comrades and our love for what we’re doing.

This large-print version of the organizer is an experiment for our collective. For years, the most frequent complaint we’ve heard about the Slingshot pocket-sized organizer is that there’s no space to write. So here’s a larger size for those of you who need more space— whether it’s because your life is crammed with excitement and project or just because you like to write BIG! Let us know if we should do a spiral-bound book for 2006. We tried really hard to make up a great name for this project, but after a few weeks of thinking of absurd names like “the Log,” “the Time-table,” “the Arouser,” and “the Transmorgrifier,” we gave up. If you think of a really good name, send it to us and if we use it, we’ll send you an excellent prize.

This is the 11th year we’ve created the Organizer to inspire ourselves and you to build a better world. It also raises funds to publish the quarterly, radical, independent Slingshot Newspaper. We try to distribute the newspaper for free anywhere in the USA. Contact us to become a local distributor. Thanks to the people who made this year’s Organizer: Artnoose, Bekey, Crow, Crystal, Eggplant, Holi, Jenn, John, Kat, Laura, Leticia, Lew, Lexi, Molly, Monica, Moraya, Paseo, PB, Rachel, Tomás, and Xarick.

 

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