Author: Slingshot Collective

June 2005 marks the five-year anniversary of the imprisonment of our friend and comrade: Oregon environmental political prisoner, Jeff “Free” Luers. Jeff was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for burning three Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) at a car dealership in Eugene, Oregon, and on trumped up attempted arson charges. Jeff set fire to SUVs to call attention to climate change and to protest oil wars and environmental destruction. Jeff was motivated by compassion and a desire to protect life, not to harm it.

On June 12, 2004, social and environmental activists in the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Norway, Finland, Australia, and Russia participated in an “International Day of Action” with Jeff by organizing non-violent protests and community events to show their support for him and their disgust for his cruel sentence. The FBI responded by creating a real ‘Green Scare’, sending a memo to businesses, corporate media, and government agencies warning of planned “terrorist attacks” by the “Earth Liberation Front” on June 12. Of course, no “terrorist attacks” ever occurred.

Since the June 12, 2004 Day of Action, support for Jeff has continued to grow. People all over the world see Jeff as a political prisoner and acknowledge that his sentence is meant as a deterrent to increased resistance to oppression. Overall, however, the political climate in the US and abroad has become more corrupt and repressive. The conditions are ripe to expose the hypocrisy of the system. Opposition and dissent is needed now more than ever.

During the weekend of June 10-12th, 2005, social justice activists from across the world are called upon again to organize and show their outrage about Jeff’s imprisonment and the continued abuse and isolation of dissident prisoners across the globe. State repression is meant as a deterrent to social and environmental movements all over. Jeff received a sentence of over 22 years for an action that harmed no one except for the pocketbook of a local car dealer. Typical arson charges in Oregon result in sentences less than five years.

There is no central organizing body or group to check in with but the Jeff Luers Support Network can help by providing you with flyers, graphics, and merchandise such as videos, zines and stickers about Jeff and allies in the struggle.

Read more about Jeff’s case at www.freefreenow.org. East Coast contact: Friends of Jeff ‘Free’ Luers freefreenow@mutualaid.org; West Coast Contacts: Break the Chains breakthechains02@yahoo.com; San Francisco Jeffrey Luers Support Network reejeffreyluers@resist.ca

Alternative Press Center – Baltimore

The APC has “a really cool library full of leftist publications, and we publish a quarterly reference guide to independent media, the Alternative Press Index” according to Caroline. Visit them at 1446 Gorsuch Avenue, Baltimore MD 21218, 410-243-2471.

The Planet Infoshop – Ann Arbor, MI

They just opened and feature sweatshop-free clothes, books, CDs, free internet, zines, etc. They also feature and promote local artists and musicians. They’re open Monday- Saturday 10-10 and Sunday 12-8. 1112 1/2 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, 734-994-4545.

The Third Space – Norman, Oklahoma

Finally, a social space, safe place, and organizing venue for anarchists, radicals and other activists in central Oklahoma! They feature over 800 books: radical, revolutionary, and progressive social theory, philosophy, history, race, class and gender studies, art, literature and DIY manuals/guides. They have a collection of over one thousand zines & periodicals, as well as a small collection of audio and video material. Plus a public internet terminal. Open Sat/Sun 1-5 pm and Tues. 7-11 pm. Just a block from the University of Oklahoma—look for the rainbow flag! Drop in at 813 College Ave A, Norman, OK 73069, 405-307-8594.

Reflections Mirror-Image Bookstore – Portland, OR

This re-opened Afrocentric and community-oriented space is now hosting Books to Oregon Prisoners (BtOP) which sends new, publisher-donated books to prisoners. Drop by to browse the catalog and place an order on behalf of an imprisoned friend or to help out with mailing. 330 North Killingsworth, Portland, bookstooregonprisoners@gmail.com 503-288-9003.

Aboveground Zine Library, New Orleans

They have moved and now are located at the Iron Rail bookstore—511 Marigny St. (@ Decatur St.) in New Orleans. Open from 1-7pm everyday. Zine donations are always welcome; mail them to: Aboveground Zine Library, 6810 Bellaire Dr., New Orleans, LA 70124, 504-944-0366.

Manila-Infoshop Projekt – Philippines

After having a space that got evicted in 2002, activists in the Philippines are raising funds and gathering materials (literature, videos, audio) to create an Infoshop. “The aim of Manila Infoshop Projekt is to create a space that would cater to the needs of various kolektives/autonomous groups and individuals. In our experience of surviving in span of almost 4 years, we kept on doing activities and actions without much documentation because most of the times we lack the resources (camera/film). Instead we tried our best to release statements and create some banners, streamers and flags that are usually recycled. We would like to have a space where we may conduct meetings, workshops, indoor activities, propaganda making, Food Not Bombs kitchen, library, etc.” They’re trying to raise $600 to pay for house rental (4 months), make bookshelves and buy second hand computers. You can send them money or printed materials. To contact them, visit: www.oathmeal.proxmira.com, manila.indymedia. org, www.gaizao.org.

MORE mistakes and corrections from the 2005 Organizer!

• The Asheville Community Resource Center address is wrong —they still exist but they no long have a physical space. The mailing address is correct.

• The address listed for the Madison community coop (Wisconsin) is wrong – the correct address is 1202 Williamson St. Suite C Madison, WI 53703. The phone # listed is correct, however.

• The phone # for the Kresge coop in Santa Cruz, Calif is wrong by 1 number – the correct # is 831-425-1506.

I didn’t mean to do it. It was the summer of 2001. I had just gotten my arm out of a cast, my ex had quit his job and moved away from Oakland to get out of supporting our children. I was on disability, and was living with my two daughters in a small room in someone else’s house. In my head, I could hear Johnny Rotten, prescient little twerp, screeching “no future, no future, no future for you!” There was no music that I could find which spoke to my particular circumstance, despite the fact that being a struggling single mother in this country is hardly a rarity. I needed to speak out and be heard, and I knew the music industry wasn’t about to start spewing out single mom anthems. I had a crappy acoustic guitar. I had never written a song. So, I started a punk band. Like many other punks, I was pissed off, and I wanted to do something about it. I’m over 30, with a background in classical music, moving into a genre dominated by young men, so, naturally, I looked for other moms to work with.

The first incarnation of the band (The Lactators) started with lyrics about problems moms face: The Sleep Deprivation Blues: “My baby woke me up at 4, he just wanted to nurse some more; I’m so tired and my tits are sore, ‘cuz he never stopped from the time before!”, and there was a decided bent toward being a novelty act or a joke band. However, whining about supposed maternal martyrdom degrades the power inherent in motherhood, so I left the band to sing in a mostly-guys, political, old school hardcore punk band.

Gender

As much as I was digging hardcore punk, I missed working with women. When the opportunity arose to play again with some of the old Lactators, I was quick to join in. We chose a non-gender-specific name (Junkbox). It’s unfortunate that the music I love is marked by ingrained sexism. Women rockers are not immune from the “you___ like a girl” syndrome. This is not true of classical music. No-one ever said to me, “you orchestrate like a girl”. Junkbox wanted to be judged from the quality of our rock-n-roll, not viewed from an “aww, mommies with guitars, how cute!” standpoint. The songs we started to write as Junkbox were more feminist, stronger, and more passionate. Poison Oak: “Pray to survive this, pray for enlightenment, pray for some guidance; I just smell the scent of dog and cigarettes–because you keep dicking me around.”, Pimpin’ Bitch: “Fuck love–give me the dough”. I didn’t want to have to be “in the closet” about being a mother rocker. And, at this point in my life, I feel like I have done more than enough to prove myself as someone to be taken seriously. A mother, an activist, an educator–I don’t have to act like an adolescent boy in order to rock.

Rocker-Mom

The lead guitar player of the band, Kjetset, suggested we re-embrace our identities as mothers and rockers. Mothering is what we do, it’s who we are, it’s one thing that permeates our entire lives. Not to acknowledge that we are moms plays into the old boys’ network. We had already embraced a band mission statement about empowering women by example. Our songs were moving toward strong mother-related themes. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, by bassist The Down-Low: “Beware of the women with nothing to lose…” Mother Nature: “I didn’t bear my children to be your fallen angels…Mother Nature just don’t play that!”, Too Much Woman: “I’ve got two kids, two jobs, three cats, one dog and two rats. I can program in Unix and change my own tire, what’cha think of that?” So, minutes before we played a gig in May, we took on a new name. We chose a very strong female image that wouldn’t belittle motherhood, and that would be difficult to turn into porn–that takes the essence of what it means to be a woman and a mother, and shoves it in your face. Placenta!

A Movement

Two days later, a strange thing happened.

We were contacted by the Wall Street Journal for a story about mother rockers. Apparently, during the past few years, in New York, Dallas, Detroit, and other cities in this country (and beyond, probably), other moms have had the same idea of forming all-mom bands. As early as 1998, Joy Rose formed a band called Housewives on Prozac. In 2001, a documentary was filmed about Suzie Riddle’s band, Frump, which then inspired her friend Paige Gilbert to start a band, the Mydols. Other bands have received coverage, but most of these bands had only passing knowledge of each other.

The mainstream media has decided that all of these mother rockers are part of a movement. A movement that, at best, draws begrudging support from family, and, at worst, pits rock-n-roll novelty against the sacred trust of all-sacrificing nurturance of their children. A movement of whining moms, making music that reporters don’t even bother to listen to or review. A very cute, not to be taken seriously movement.

I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean to be in a movement.

I didn’t exactly mean to be a mother, either, to be perfectly honest. It was kind of, “Oops! You’re pregnant!” but I took on the role of mom with gusto (there’s a reason my band mates have dubbed me Mother Nature, as in, “don’t fuck with”). So, if someone from People magazine, or whatever, calls what I do a movement, then I’m perfectly willing to run with that idea. And I’m going to define it, dammit. I certainly have worked hard my whole spiked-hair-stretched-earlobes-leather-wearing life to avoid being deemed cute or whiny.

Feminism Rocks

The songwriting platform that mother rockers come from is protest songs, hillbilly laments about poverty and hardship, punk songs about the corruption of government—in contrast to big sleazy production numbers aimed at industry moguls. Far from having illusions about becoming rock stars, mother rockers write songs about events in their daily lives. What mom rockers have in common is the framework of freedom laid down by feminists, and the impetus of the current shape of feminism. For the sake of argument, if feminism was initially about being able to play with the boys, and then moved on to recognizing that “women’s work” has equal merit to “men’s work”, now we are fighting for acknowledgment of the fact that women create and sustain human life with our bodies, and that mothers are fucking powerful because the Universe made it that way. Take the strength of a mother in her prime and apply it to a drum set, amplified rock guitars and a screaming lead singer and I’d say you have the voice of a very powerful movement, all right.

Fronting a band that performs political, feminist rock songs is a conscious part of my parenting. My parents are musicians. My mother strove for feminist ideals in her parenting. In turn, my activism is something my kids have been a part of since they were in the womb. I don’t artificially separate my “real” life from my life as a mother. I do buffer what my kids get exposed to, and I do have continuous dialogue with them about life, media, politics, human behavior (including my own, good and bad), but I’m not a different person when I’m parenting than when I’m dealing with adults. Being a mother rocker is parenting through example.

Mother Rocker

Mother Rockers are creating music that fills the gap for moms, women, and basically anyone who can’t stand the current industry treatment of women. We show our children what it takes to be committed musicians, to go against the grain, to eschew traditional, safe-and-tame images of motherhood in favor of speaking from our own reality. We show other women that motherhood is not the end of coolness, and we show men that being strong women and mothers does not equate with man-hating. We show mothers that there is a voice for the job we do, and we show how owning the power of motherhood–and amplifying it–earns us even more respect.

I know that standing on a stage with a guitar in my hands, speaking about anything and everything I chose to, coming from the place of being a mother, threatens the system which specifies that moms remain perennial doormats, ever sacrif
icing, always soft and caring, always “there”. There”, for what? To be uncomplaining consumers, to devote our energies to petty PTA conflicts, to raise our children to conform to school rules and become mindless workerbees? The system wants mothers to be extensions of anti-choice philosophy. Uteruses, whose greatest accomplishment in life is to create more fodder for the capitalist machine. Mothers who make choices more significant than cloth vs. plastic diapers, who are vocal about choosing, and who band together could easily bring about the downfall of the system.

It pisses me off that the mainstream press is trying to keep Mother Rockers “in our place” by completely ignoring our music or trivializing our message. It’s a bizarre sleeping-with-the-enemy situation right now. We want more people to check us out, to hear our message, and the way that is happening right now is through exposure in the mainstream press. When we get interviewed, we focus on our message. We know it’ll still get twisted, cuz reporters have their angle, but we hope a little bit is creeping through. We think that the system is already falling apart, but quietly, quietly. We want moms, women, people to start owning their own power, and we hope to stand as examples of moms who are doing just that.

I don’t want the industry to dictate what Mother Rockers are. I want more mothers to make loud, obnoxious, powerful, screamin’, thrashin’, drivin’ rock music. I want more grassroots musicianship, taking the power away from the big 5 entertainment industry monsters. I want moms to speak about our own situations– I want my band to be one of the least outspoken bands. I want the system to topple because moms take themselves, their work, and their own power seriously, and act from that position of very real power. A critical mass of mother rockers. This is a call to arms! Mothers, get out your amps and start rockin’! This is our music! This is our revolution!

Las elecciones recientes en Irak — y todas las imágenes y retórica televisivas para hacernos sentir bien sobre la libertad y democracia — no pueden cambiar el hecho de que el ejercito estadounidense está empantanado en Irak, y no cuenta con una estrategia para salir. Es interesante recordar que Estados Unidos organizó las elecciones de 1967 en Vietnam del Sur, y a pesar de eso la guerra continuó durante 8 años. Hay más y más paralelos entre la guerra en Irak y la de Vietnam: puede que el ejercito estadounidense sea el más poderso del mundo, con fuerza abrumadora y mucha tecnología, pero en una guerrilla no hay cantidad de violencia o de muertes que pueda resultar en la victoria en contra de alguna población determinada. De hecho, se cree que la presencia de 150,000 soldados, le da vida y unidad a la insurgencia.

Aunque hay paralelos entre Vietnam e Irak, hay una gran diferencia que puede resultar ser en el tendón de Aquiles del régimen estadounidense, esto es, en esta ocasión no hay reclutamiento: el ejército es una fuerza compuesta “únicamente de voluntarios.” Aquí en Estados Unidos, aquellos que están en contra de la maquinaria imperial de Estados Unidos, necesitan aprovechar esta debilidad para encontrar maneras de corroer el poder del ejército desde adentro, al privarlo de lo que más hambre tiene: hombres y mujeres estadounidenses frescos para llenar las bolsas de cadáveres.

Al igual que en Vietnam, las tropas estadounidenses que llegaron a Irak con la esperanza de “reconstruir” y “llevar democracia y libertad,” ahora se están dando cuenta de que los iraquís no los quieren ahí, que no ha habido tal reconstrucción, sólo muerte y destrucción, y que las razones gloriosas de la guerra han resultado ser mentiras. La mayoría de los soldados esperan cumplir su término en Irak y regresar a casa con vida.

Hay muchas oportunidades para los oponentes en Estados Unidos al imperio estadounidense para cooperar con las tropas que están cada vez más escépticas sobre la guerra. Al fin y al cabo Vietnam no se pudo ganar porque las tropas se negaron a pelear — en lugar de eso, mataron a sus oficiales, desertaron, pidieron un estátus de Conscientious Objector, publicaron periódicos militares clandestinos, se fueron a huelga, o simplemente dejaron de luchar a través de un millón de pequeñas formas. La gente en casa ayudó como pudo — creando cafeterías antibélicas fuera de las bases, ofreciendo consejería sobre reclutamiento o pre-enlistamiento, asistiendo a los desertores en la clandestinidad y minando el apoyo local a la guerra.

Un mes antes de la guerra, millones de personas en el mundo protestaron — pero Bush se aferró a su poder y mantuvo sus oídos cerrados. Como va avanzando la guerra necesitamos pasar de una estrategia de corto plazo a largo plazo. La asistencia masiva a rituales de protesta organizadas magníficamente no han tenido la inteligencia de romper la capacidad de Bush para pelear. Aunque la mayoría de la población no apoya la guerra (54%, de acuerdo a la encuesta de Los Angeles Times del 19 de enero), ésta continúa. Ultimadamente son las tropas las que tienen el poder de esta situación — necesitamos apoyar a nuestras tropas al apoyar su resistencia. Los estadounideses están arriesgando sus vidas por nada: ¡es hora de que luchen!

Además para coperar con las tropas que ya están en el ejército, los activistas en Estados Unidos pueden ayudar al cortar la oferta de reclutos nuevos. La maquinaria de reclutamiento del ejército estadounidense funciona en cada pueblo, en cada escuela preparatoria (High School), en todo el país (vea la lista de estaciones de reclutamiento en página 14). La maquinaria de reclutamiento es un presa fácil. Podemos, con acciones en las estaciones de reclutamiento del ejército en todo Estados Unidos, traer la guerra a casa y crear conecciones reales entre la guerra sin sentido en Irak y nuestras propias comunidades. ¿Por qué debería la maquinaria militar estadounidense actuar sin consecuencias aquí?

Desde que el gobierno terminó con el sistema de reclutamiento, el ejército estadounidense ha dependido de una “reclutamiento de la pobreza,” para llenar las filas del ejército. Mientras que en teoría unirse al el ejército es un acto “puramente voluntario,” la falta de oportunidades económicas presiona a la gente más pobre hacia el ejército: a veces para conseguir dinero para ir a la universidad, mientras que los jóvenes de clase media van directamente a la universidad. El ejército gasta 2,500 millones de dólares en sus esfuerzos de reclutamiento que principalmente se dirigen hacia comunidades de bajos ingresos, vendiendo el mensaje de que el ejército es una alternativa para salir de la pobreza.

Como resultado, la mayoría de los reclutos proviene de las comunidades más pobres. Por ejemplo, de acuerdo con el comité de Servicio de Amigos Americanos (American Friends Service Committee), “Puerto Rico es el territorio número 1 de reclutamiento del ejército. Con una tasa de desempleo en la isla de más de 40%, las oficinas de reclutamiento del ejército en Puerto Rico reclutan más de 4 veces el número de personas que las oficinas basadas en el territorio continental, anualmente. La población negra también es reclutada de manera desproporcionada: 29.8% de soldados en la primera guerra del golfo eran negros, en contraste al 12% que representan respecto a la población estadounidense.

Pero con más de 1,400 soldados muertos y más de 10,000 heridos en una guerra sin sentido — y más muriendo cada día — el reclutamiento de la pobreza se está volviendo cada vez menos efectivo. La Guardia Nacional del Ejército no pudo complir con su meta de reclutar 56,000 soldados el año fiscal 2004, logrando reclutar a sólo 49,210. El teniente general H. Steven Blum, jefe del Buró de la Guardia Nacional, dijo el 26 de enero que la Guardia cuenta con 15,000 soldados menos que su fuerza normal de 350,000. En respuesta, la Guardia Nacional va a añadir 1,400 reclutos, y ofrecer bonos de 15,000 dólares por enlistarse. Hasta el momento el ejército regular ha logrado sus metas de reclutamiento pero en las filas no todo va bien.

Stars & Stripes, periódico militar patrocinado por el gobierno, hizo una encuesta a 1,935 soldados en Irak durante agosto del 2003 para una serie de artículos poblicados en octubre del 2003 y encontró que el 49% dijo que deseaban abandonar el ejército tan pronto como les fuera posible. Sólo el 18% dijo que “era muy probable” que se quedaran. El 55% de la reserva de La Guardia Nacional encuestada dijo que era “improbable” o “muy improbable” que se reenlistaran. Desde que apareció el artículo el ejército ha mantenido silencio sobre otras encuestas que puedan contradecir la versión de la realidad oficial de Bush.

Una manera en que el ejército ha tratado de mantener la fuerza de las tropas ha sido creando orderes de “Stop loss,” que impiden que los soldados abandonen el ejército cuando expiran sus contratos. Algunos soldados han llamado a las órdenes de “Stop loss,” “reclutamiento por la puerta trasera.”

Se estima que la tasa de deserción de la guerra o AWOL está entre 600 y 5,500 (el pentágono se niega a dar información). Canada está considerando dar refugio a muchos soldados estadounidenses que han renunciado a dar servicio en Irak.

Aún más, están comenzando a salir a la superficie reportes sobre la resistencia entre las tropas estadounidenses. El 13 de octubre del 2004, 19 soldados de La Guardia Nacional se negaron a obedecer la orden de manejar tanques de gasolina sin armadura a Baghdad (lo cual consideraron como “misión suicida”). Este fue el primer motín que se reporta en Irak y sólo salió a la luz pública porque los soldados llamaron a sus famiilias desde una carpa de detención. Probablemente nunca sabremos sobre otros motines en Irak.

El apoyo de las tropas a las polític
as subyascentes a la guerra también se han evaporado. En respuesta a la pregunta de Stars and Stripes “¿Qué tan importante consideras que es para Estados Unidos pelear en esta guerra?,” el 31% dijo que tenía “poco valor” o “ningún valor en absoluto,” mientras que el 48% respondió que era “valioso” o “muy valioso.” El 35% respondió que “no era muy claro” o “no era claro en absoluto” por qué estaban en Irak.

Debido a la guerra, hay rumores cada vez mayores de que habrá un Reclutamiento Oficial (no sólo un Reclutamiento de la Pobreza) si Estados Unidos continúa su ocupación en Irak. Un reclutamiento puede ser aún más necesario si la administración de Bush planea invadir Irán, Siria y/o Corea del Norte en los próximos 4 años, como claramente desean. La posibilidad de un reclutamiento oficial, asusta, y con razón, a mucha gente en edad de reclutameinto a quienes no les gusta la idea de sacrificar su vida por las aventuras de Bush o ir a la cárcel.

Pero mirando más allá del factor miedo, si el ejército se ve forzado a reclutar soldados, esto podría ayudar a cristalizar la oposición a Bush y a sus guerras. La encuesta de Los Angeles Times del 19 de enero, encontró que sólo el 39% de los encuestados respondió que “la situación en Irak ameritaba ir a la guerra” y el 56% dijo que no. ¿Qué pasaría si todos los segmentos de la sociedad estadounidense (no sólo los pobres) tuvieran hijos e hijas en Irak o la posibilidad de estarlo? Si el reclutamiento voluntario disminuye y las tropas que regresan de Irak se niegan a re-enlistarse, Bush se queda con una crisis real: si intenta promultar el Reclutamiento en el contexto de una guerra con tan poca popularidad, estaría poniendo en gran riesgo la estabilidad social doméstica.

Cuando vi la película sobre Weather Underground el año pasado, una frase se me quedó en la mente. Un hombre trató de explicar su estado mental al decir que por muchos años, cada día al despertarse lo primero que pensó fue que había una guerra, que la gente estaban siendo masacrada por nada, que el gobierno del lugar en donde vivía los estaba matando. Así que cada mañana pensaba: “¿Qué voy a hacer el día de hoy para parar la guerra?”

Y los últimos meses, me he estado levantando en el mismo estado. ¿Qué puedo hacer, y qué voy a hacer hoy para parar esta guerra? Parar esta guerra en particular, no sólo concierne a Irak, es sobre la gente que vive en Estados Unidos unida al mundo en contra del imperio de Estados Unidos y que busca la manera de poder sacar, del hecho de que estamos aquí, en el estómago de la bestia, la máxima ventaja. Incluso si Estados Unidos comienza a retirar sus tropas de Irak, tenemos que asumir que Estados Unidos desea reagruparlas para invadir algún otro lugar.

Me gusta la idea de acosar las estaciones militares de reclutamiento en todo el país porque cada pueblo y ciudad tiene una y no se necesida un gran presupuesto o una gran protesta organizada por ANSWER, o nada, para ir y hacerles la vida de cuadirtos. Puedes escoger un horario fijo (vamos adecir, cada sábado) y hacer una demostración con pancartas. O puedes ir cada semana a una hora inesperada para que nunca sepan cuándo va a suceder. Puedes ir sol@ o con amig@s, o organizar un grupo grande. Puedes tener una conferencia de prensa y hacer un evento público o puedes hacer la acción de manera encubierta. Puede ser con pancartas, repartiendo bolantes, colocando posters con fotos morbosas de Irak, al estilo de las manifestaciones antiaborto, hacer teatro callejero, entrar creando un poco de confusión o un caos total con sangre falsa, ataúdes y una banda. Muchos grupos sociales de una comunidad podrían molestar la misma estación en diversas formas. Tal vez un día podría haber veteranos, otro día estudiantes de preparatoria, otro día madres, otro día el clero, etc. Tal vez si en tu población hay 3 escuelas preparatorias, podrían hacer un concurso para ver cuál puede hacer la mejor protesta. Y ya que las agencias de reclutamiento van a las escuelas preparatorias y universidades de manera regular, los estudiantes pueden confrantarlos también en sus terrenos. El 20 de enero, algunos estudiantes de una universidad comunitaria en Seattle, rodearon y destruyeron una mesa de reclutamiento. La policía tuvo que escoltar a los reclutadores en su salida.

Así como cada población tiene una sucursal de Food Not Bombs y Critical Mass Bike Ride etc., ¿qué tal si cada pueblo protestara ante los reclutadores? En cualquier lugar en donde haya gente radical, punk, pensadores libres, amantes de la libertad, los reclutadores militares van a ser cuestionados. La diversidad, esponaneidad y creatividad, son nuestras fuerzas clave en dichos esfuerzos.

Bush no debe de salirse con la suya en esta guerra solo porque “sólo” la gente pobre la tiene que pelear. Si un Reclutamiento Oficial llevaría a un levantamiento nacional, ¿por qué estamos dejando que el gobierno se salga con las suyas con el Reclutamiento de la Pobreza? ¡¿Por qué no podemos tener un levantamiento nacional ahora?! Un ejército compuesto de voluntarios puede ser escudado en contra de guerras de agresión sin sentido. Para explotar este tendón de Aquiles, necesitamos apoyar a las tropas en su resistencia y terminar con el reclutamiento!

Para obtener más información o circulares, materiales, etc., contacte algunos de estos grupos:

• Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (Comité Central para Objetores Conscientes), 405 14th Street #205 Oakland, CA 94612 510-465-1617, www.objector.org; patrocinador de la línea GI Rights (800) 394-9544; (215) 563-4620.

• War Resisters League (Liga de resistencia a la guerra) 339 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10012 (212) 228-0450 fax (212) 228-6193 wrl@warresisters.org

• Veterans for Peace (Veteranos por la paz) , 216 S. Meramec Ave., St. Louis, MO 63130, (314) 725-6005, www.veteransforpeace.org

He tenido mucho sexo últimamente. ¿Pero por qué estoy compartiendo esta información contigo de esa manera? En este contexto político e histórico, el buen sexo puede ser bastante subversivo, expansivo y una manera radical de desmantelar socializaciones y de crear alternativas a la cultura convencional. Más y más los morales de la derecha cristiana están penetrando la cultura predominante. Mira por ejemplo la moda, las precauciones de seguridad, lo que llaman educación, la diversión, etc. Esta onda nausante del puritanismo y valores conservativos flota en el aire, casi desapercebidos como la nube salada y grasosa presente cuando uno pasa un McDonald’s, sutil, tóxico, soso e insalubre. Entonces, cuando yo escuché que Slingshot quería un artículo de cómo tener buen sexo. Pensé— “vamos a darle sabor y hablar de pervertir esta cultura política…es hora de chingarle — literalmente.” Tengo una advertencia: estas son nada más mis opiniones y los resultados de mis experiencias y se pueden cambiar. Si mi experiencia no te dice nada, favor de sentirte libre de ignorarla y seguir con tu vida.

Y pues otra cosa para quedar claro, no estoy hablando de modelos de relaciones: poligamia, monogamia, multi-fielidad, masturbación, promiscuidad, etcétera. Con quien lo hacemos y como negociamos estas relaciones es ciertamente parte de tener buen sexo, no digo que no. Pero estas preferencias evolucionan y fluctuan. Los intrincados son ilimitados y dependen de la experiencia individual. Por lo tanto, descubriendo cuales modelos funcionan para nosotros, quien nos atrae, como lo demonstramos y cuanto, son decisiones personales que prefiero dejar seperadas de lo que voy a hablar ahora.

Ok, el sexo. Sentirse cómodo en su propia piel, con su sexualidad, el consentimiento y el cuidado personal son partes esenciales a esta discucción. Para mi no hay manera de tener un sexo libre si no estoy activamente vereficando la comodidad y libertad física y emociónal de yo mismo y de la otra persona. ¿Si una de estas personas no está presente, está desasociada o no lo está disfrutando, entonces como la puedo chingar bien? Saber lo que uno quiere no es nada fácil debido a que nos enseñan una sexualidad limitada y aburrida en esta cultura. Parte de lo puede hacer que el sexo sea revolucionario es desubrir lo que nos guste y sobrepasar (con consentimiento) nuestos límites.

Ahora les voy a dar los cinco ingredientes que han mejorado mi vida sexual. Ojalá que esta información sea útil o por lo menos entretenida. Ultimamente he notado unos elementos que enriquecen mi vida scxual: el reirse, jugar papeles, jodiendo con el género, lubricante, rompiendo fronteras personales.

El reirse

Me rio mucho durante el sexo. Reirme es una adición nueva a mi vida sexual. El reirse puede tomar muchos formas: una risita modesta, una risota pansota, reirse de si mismo en un momento torpe o como una manera de comunicar alegría. A menudo mis amantes nuevos tienen mucha curiosidad del por qué estoy riendome. ¿Me estoy riendo de ellos? ¿Qué inspiró esa risita? Mis respuestas varian porque lo que inspira una risita depende de lo que está pasando. Sin embargo, siempre explico que no me estoy reindo de ellos e intento aliviar cualquier inseguridad y ansiedad que resulta de mi risa. En general, lo toman bien y aun puede inspirar una risa de alivio de parte de ellos. Además, la risa es contagiosa y puede contribuir a la relajación. Uno puede reirse solo o junto con su amante. Para mi, reirme con mis amantes durante el sexo es distinto de reirme espontaniamente como expresión de alivio. A veces, me rio para liberarme de la tensión y no poner demasiada atención a mi presentación — parecer sueve, habilidoso y muy sexy. De hecho, lo que estamos haciendo es rídiculo, chistoso y muy cómico. Existe el mito de que debemos portarnos de cierta manera durante el sexo: viril, coqueta, animalistico, hastiado, submisivo, dominante, como tentador, etc. La risa ayuda acallar estas—“debes ser así o así” voces en mi mente. Y neutraliza los pensamientos repetetivos liberándome de las expectaciones autoimpuestas de lo “sexy”, basadas en fuentes inspiradas por los medios de comunicación. También, reirse es una buena forma de expresar las sensaciones. El ruido durante el sexo en mi opinión es una adición fabulosa al evento y puede trabajar como un reflejo de lo que está pasando. También es como una expresión de las sensaciones experimentadas: llorar, gritar, gemir, boquear son todos adiciones maravillosas a la simfonía sexual. Algo acerca de reirse, para mi, enriquece la intimidad y la experiencia en general.

Jugar papeles

Añadir un poco de drama a la escena puede ofrecer muchas cosas: reducir los dramas psicológicos y sociales que la gente sufre a veces cuando tiene que ver con el sexo, hacer todo más interesante y creativo, ayudar a acercarse a asuntos prohibidos, y remediar traumas del pasado, solo por decir algunas. Yo noto que a veces nos quedamos estancados en roles sexuales o actos sexuales. Yo me animo y a otros a no quedarse en roles como macha o femenina, arriba o abajo, papi o esclavo. Pienso que los papeles son impresionantes, pero todo se hace aburrido si no lo cambias de vez en cuando. Es muy fácil hacer lo que hacemos bien o clavarnos en roles o indentidades de hábito o comodidad. Jugar roles puede ser una buena manera de desafiar los costumbres y descubrir perversiones ocultas en un contexto cómodo y seguro.

Intercambiar los roles es exactamente como sueña; dejarse recibir cuando antes daba, tomar turnos chupar y ser chupado, morder y ser modido, abofetear y ser abofeteado, abrazar y ser abrazado, coger y ser cogido, agarras la onda.

Contar historias es otra versión de jugar roles. Para mi, eso incluye crear personajes en un escena con un argumento. Puede ser muy detallado con guiónes, canciones o aun un baile. Lo más importante es que todos esten de acuerdo en donde nos llevara la historia. También, estas historias pueden salir de la recámera y las normas sociales. Aquí es donde se puede explorar muchos tabús. El sexo entre las generaciones y entre diferentes especies (tu serás el granjero y yo el ganadero) son unos ejemplos de estos tabús. Estos juegos podrían desafiar las normas políticas y sociales de una manera positiva y sarcastica. Para mi, es importante recordar que estos juegos representan la fantansía y que estas escenas donde se juegan roles crean espacios consensuales y seguros a donde la gente puede ir conscientemente, criticamente y con la mente abierta.

Leer en voz alta puede ser otra manera divertida de explorar los roles. Leer historias eroticas u otras en voz alta puede añadir algo al momento. Da otra actividad y enfoque y trae más oportunidades para los fetiches. Por ejemplo, leerse un diccionario de entomología, teoría política o pornografía añade cierta cualidad necia que puede exitarle mucho.

Y finalmente tranvestirse, accesorios y el sexo de disfras pueden ayudar a calentarse el momento. Jugar con disfrases e indentidades y incorporarlos a una escena sexual puede ser muy erótico. Más alla de cambiar la locación fîsica, añadir nuevos physicalidades puede enriquecer la realidad y índole desafiando de una escena. En mi experiencia, se me puede calentar mucho ver el disfras de alguien, entonces incorporar cambios de disfras hace milagros en la recámera. Imagínate, como ser la adición de un disfras de sirena, un mapa, o un utensilio de cocina puede enriquecer tu vida sexual.

Claro que todos estos ejemplos no son mutualmente exclusivos y muchas veces se mezclan todos juntos; poner disfrases, jugar roles, contar historias, leer en voz alta y cualquier otra cosa que puedes imaginar, lo mas alegre, ridículo, obsceno.

Jodiendo con el género

Un elemento de mi vida sexual, con o sin otra gente involucrada es el género fluido. Como soy una persona quien viaja a travé
s muchas identidades de género en mi vida diaria, tengo sentido que mi vida sexual es un escenario para cuerpos con género cuales no son binarios. Mientras aprender de nuevo a tener el sexo, cambié mi foco de las ideas estereotípicas de genitales y el contacto genital. (Los chabos reciben chupadas y las chabas son cogidas con los dedos.) Hay tanto para jugar, destruir, pervertir, renombrar. He aprendido que es muy respetuosa y sexy preguntar a alguien cuales nombres tienen para sus partes y como quieren que están tocadas. Mientras abriéndose al lo que consideramos zonas erógenas, podemos conversar sobre las posibilidades: imaginar de nuevo nuestros cuerpos, el género y la sociedad. Cual quiera puede recibir una chupada en cualquier parte de su cuerpo y lo mismo se aplica al ser cogido con los dedos. Intento no enfocar en los genitales y los orgasmos sino los nervios y como excitarles, igual como el efecto al nivel emocional para una persona. Este concepto me ayuda evitar las dualidades de género que muchas veces se imponen en situaciones sexuales. Expansión, redefinición, y ser consciente de los limites de la gente son claves en este reino y esenciales a mi sexo.

Lubricante

¿Por que es tan revolucionario estar mojada? Porque nos enseñan como tener sexo mal. Para mi es increíble ver cuanta gente coge sin lubricación. No importa el orificio, lo que importa es que se siente bien. Como joven, aprendiendo que hacer con mis partes, estuve inconsciente de la adición de lubricante. En mi opinión usar mucha lubricación sería mejor. Envejeciendo, mi compromiso al mantener estar mojado aumenta en audaz y por eso, con lubricante logro llegar a esta lista. A la gente les gusta diferentes cualidades de lubricante, desde pegajosa a resbalosa, chiclosa a suave, grumosa hasta cremosa. Me gustaría saber si más gente experimenta con diferentes cualidades de estar mojada. Imagino que el mundo seria un sitio más feliz si esto sucediese. Deslízalo.

Empujando Auto Limites

Igual como desmantelar el racismo, sexo puede empujarnos mas allá de las zonas de comodidad que nos llegaron por la cultura dominante. Nos enseñaron muchas cosas que consideramos peligrosas, espantosas, asquerosas, o prohibidas que pueden ser exploradas sin peligro en una situación sexual. Una parte de empujar a mi misma más allá de mi socialización es irme allá con amantes. Muchos temas pueden salir mientras empujo límites personales consensualmente; relaciones de poder, esteriotipas para desacreditar, umbrales de dolor, historias personales penosas, diferencias ideológicas, y el concepto de la zona de comodidad en general. Como gente que cuestiona las normas, encuentro el sexo un lugar maravilloso para empujar a yo misma más allá del sueño americano. Espero que podemos mantener el espacio entre nosotros suficientemente bien para expandir estos conceptos, y tal vez, podemos crear otros cambios sociales y ambientales.

Can alternative communities wake up enough to ever significantly oppose the white supremacist control of resources? Or, are hip, white revelers being trained through “outlaw culture” to be the shock troops of gentrification, the ones at the edge of their culture who establish colonies, er, communes and collectives, which eventually make it safe for the big investors to move in?

I should have known I was asking for trouble when I decided to attend Bonnaroo, which Rolling Stone called “the American rock festival to end all festivals.” Held on 700 acres in Middle Tennessee (only 50 miles from my home), the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival sells 90,000 tickets at about $200 each for its four-day event. My boyfriend and I decided to go because we wanted to see Femi Kuti (son of legendary Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti) perform and we could get in for free by agreeing to perform at what we thought would be the radical stage.

I sent Bonnaroo a description of my performance, which I told them would utilize satire, juggling and stilt-walking to explore the “racial history of Tennessee and how that has created the current white supremacist culture.” They freaked. While they assured me that they are not racist, they said they could not publicize such a description because they had to be mindful of how the festival impacted the local community and they could not risk being offensive. I should have pulled out, but I was really looking forward to seeing Femi Kuti. In the sweltering June heat, we raced back from the G8 Summit protests in Georgia to head for the festival. After the G8 I was in the mood for amazing music. In short, I placed satisfying my desires above thinking clearly about the mentality that silences discussion of racism and white supremacy. Bonnaroo accepted a more generic description of my performance (which essentially did not say anything) and we proceeded as planned.

What a shock to arrive at this farm in Manchester, Tennessee, and find an extremely open drug culture. Before our tent was set up we were offered many different drugs for sale. I have never seen so many dreadlocks in my life. We’re talking zillions of white hippies with dreadlocks.

Cool man, dreadlocks. I am aware that there is lots of debate about whether it is ok for white folks to have dreadlocks. I am not crazy for the idea of European Americans taking on the fashions of oppressed cultures. The hipeoisie reeks of too much mockery. A party held in Montreal with the theme “Cowboys& Indians & Rastafarians” showed how the dominant culture ridicules “exotic” communities. Our local weekly had another example of how dreads are viewed as cultural capital when a white person sports them: “With her dreadlocks and earthy sultriness, vocalist Sellick succeeds in bringing jazz standards to the hacky-sack crowd.” Yep, white folks with dreads can make cultures accessible. In my world of dreaming the impossible I fantasize that thousands of white folk will get together and cut off their dreads, pledging their hip hairdo energy will instead go into strengthening their efforts as allies to African Americans.

Maybe I just need to lighten up. Well, back to Bonnaroo: After less than an hour there I had serious doubts about how entertained this crowd would be by my stage explorations of race history and land theft.

There were some radical performers and people grooved on it. The first rocker we checked out was Patti Smith. She sang about remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Awake from your slumber

And get ‘em with the numbers

Get ‘em with the numbers

Long live revolution.

I wasn’t trying to be cynical, but having just come from the G8 where there were merely hundreds of protestors amidst 20,000 cops, it was hard to see how this crowd of thousands of mostly white people (I’d guess far less than 10% of the audiences were people of color) cheering on Patti Smith was going to usher in a revolution.

I paid more attention to the festival environment and its many different venues and stages. Bonnaroo set up checkpoints at certain concert entrances to keep bottles and coolers, etc. out of certain areas and to keep areas free of concertgoers while they cleaned the grounds. Tens of thousands of people walked from stage to marketplace to stage under the blazing hot sun, then waited in lines. Nearly all of the workers standing in the open sun at the checkpoints were African Americans. All day long impatient hippies agitated to get in quicker. I couldnít tell if anyone was thankful to the workers. There were lots of visible white workers there too. They were mostly driving around in shaded golf carts or working in shaded concession tents.

It dawned on me that Bonnaroo has managed to create the largest Hippie Plantation, with Black workers (largely bussed in from Atlanta, it turns out) standing in the sun sweating to serve the leisure set (substitute a joint and a homebrew beer for a mint julep and you get the picture). Although there were plenty of anti-war images, there were also plenty of visible Confederate flags and even some Bush/Cheney bumper stickers on cars. Oh, yeah, but it is a party. As they say on their Website, Bonnaroo is “Hailed among critics and fans for its near-flawless logistics, peaceful vibe, and progressive lineup.” If you drop a couple hundred bucks to get into a party and then spend more on drugs and food you might not want to give much thought to what kind of exploitation goes into making your fun possible. Or whose backs you are dancing on.

I was depressed by the contrasts. My boyfriend (who is African American), meanwhile, was tirelessly fending off white people who would walk towards him and (possibly unconsciously) expect him (being the Black person) to move over so that they would not have to alter their path. The more he noticed this the more determined he was to stand his ground, and some people literally bumped into him, rather than yield. He was saying “EWPS” (Entitled White Person’s Syndrome) out loud to deaf ears. There is this pervasive dynamic in alternative white cultures where people have become so accustomed to living in a segregated, privileged world that they cannot or do not want to examine their part in maintaining their privilege, and raising the issue of racism is just gonna be a downer on the great, alternative time people are having. People then often become defensive and complain that they are being guilt-tripped, rather than view education about racism as a gift.

We decided to spend more time over at the “political area” called Planet Roo, the place where the environmental and food activists who had invited us were based. The political scene consisted of, among other things, five environmental groups, mostly focused on liberal causes like the Sierra Club’s campaign to get more support for hydrogen cars. This feel-good carnival of activism had no tables, booths or literature focused on environmental racism, racial profiling, police brutality, gentrification, the prison-industrial complex, attacks on immigrants in Tennessee, or discrimination in land ownership patterns and resulting further displacement and marginalization of people of color in the US.

The eco-crowd we joined had built a beautiful earthen structure that housed Earth First literature and crafts for sale. Bonnaroo was a lucrative marketplace for folks with food, drugs or crafts. The joke was that you could sell anything there. One person in our group’s booth had attraction-getters described as “primitive”-inspired pottery, including “Shamanic Whistling Pots”. Another person offered a workshop on “Shamanic Plants”. I objected, explaining that people who are not shamans are capitalizing on the colonization of cultures and profiting either financially or through status attained as “experts”, while the indigenous cultures continue to suffer from the ravages of imperialism. He said the name of his workshop wasn’t important
, that he wanted to present information about mind-altering plants, and that he didn’t have to refer to them as “shamanic”. Unfortunately, months later the group’s newsletter extolled his workshop on “Shaman Plants” as one of the successes of their Bonnaroo activities, and how much they looked forward to returning to Bonnaroo 2005 with similar expectations of greatness. The write-up mentioned that their Earth First presentations were well received, but didn’t have one word of criticism about the festival’s blatant racism and appropriation, and it certainly did not link it to larger issues of white supremacy and imperialist culture. The justification of exploitation is often expressed through silent consent.

In my fantasy they will decide not to participate in the same event this year, but instead write a letter to Bonnaroo explaining that the festival needs to examine why it presents “progressive” artists in an environment not accessible to many communities. They might opt instead to share their growing, cooking, earth-building and activist skills with communities who do not normally have such access (assuming that they are welcome), places like Brunswick, Georgia where the majority African American residents are still talking about continuing hardships endured from the G8 Summit come and gone. For now, the score is Bonnaroo 90,000, G8 protests 400.

My boyfriend and I left early, before our performance (and Femi Kuti). Enough is enough. I haven’t even begun to break down the endemic sexism, homophobia and misogyny, but in this case, it was the white supremacy nurtured by hippie culture and the complicity of anarchist activist friends that was too much. Some of our friends offered their condolences about “it not working out.” I offered up some critique of the festival and saw some nodding heads and heard that, while there are problems, it is a good chance for them to explore things like “outlaw culture.” Outlaw culture strikes me as something that white folks create in opposition to the dominant paradigm, but it is more or less tolerated by the government. Sure, white folks get busted for drugs too, but “outlaw cultures” like Bonnaroo are tolerated by the government. Bonnaroo hires a private security force to keep the peace at the festival. They are not there to bust people for drugs. The police are outside, directing traffic and playing their role as community relations liaison, because the leaders of the local community want all of the money that a huge festival brings to Tennessee. Bonnaroo, in turn, strives to create an environment of comfort they perceive will not rock the boat. History is filled with the ruling class passing laws and then making exceptions for the privileged to blow off steam. It is an integral part of creating an illusion of freedom that ultimately encourages the status quo.

“Outlaw culture” is not so embraced a few hours down the road in Atlanta. That city has played host to Freaknik, an African American spring break party that has not been tolerated like Bonnaroo. New laws, such as the infamous “no cruising” ordinances, were enacted to restrict the festivities. The city’s main newspaper editorialized that it would be better for the city if they would keep their activities to Black parts of town.

***

I write this from the perspective of a white person looking for ways to actively challenge racism and undermine white supremacy. I am working on a longer writing project on white supremacy in alternative, queer, anarchist and environmental communities, and welcome correspondence on these topics (maxzine69@yahoo.com).

In the spectacle of image manipulation that surrounds the bitter conflict for justice in Palestine and Israel, suffering will likely continue unabated after the latest ‘watershed’ of the Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential elections. The election, a non-contest from the beginning without the presence of Marwan Barghouti, led to its foregone conclusion: victory for Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), the ‘preferred’ candidate of the neoliberal global network of control and its media machinery, the White House, the Israeli political and economic elites, the Palestinian oligarchy and the Fatah political machine. The cynicism with which ordinary Palestinians’ hopes for change and an end to the nightmare of the Occupation have been manipulated by discourse and hype about “windows of opportunity” is extraordinary. More important for assessing public mood on the street in Gaza was the huge victory by Hamas in the election on Jan. 28 to ten local councils, the first-ever municipal elections in Palestine, garnering two-thirds of the vote. It was a crushing defeat for Fatah. Turn-out topped 80 percent, far greater than in the presidential poll. The message to the entrenched Fatah leadership is loud and clear.

Despite the great ruse of Sharon’s ‘disengagement plan,’ it is common knowledge on the Israeli left that over the short range, Sharon may pay lip service to “the new chance for peace” while he and his cabal of generals will do everything in their power, including a continuation of Israel state violence, to eviscerate the Mazen presidency and ensure its failure or turn him into a Palestinian puppet. The Israeli political-military machine may halt targeted assassinations as a tactical move while keeping its finger on the trigger and ever tightening its grip on Palestinian lands. Above all: pay heed to the actions of Sharon and his ruling clique, not their rhetoric.

Abu Mazen is the Israeli’s puppet in that they hold ALL the strings. He has already deployed bulldozers to tear down Palestinian homes and banned civilians from carrying weapons. The ‘irrationality’ of the ‘spiral of violence’ begins to look more rational when you understand that the generals who run Israel feed on further violence. Chaos is in the ultimate ‘interest’ of the expansionist Israeli state and its ruling elite, though not of ordinary Israelis. In Palestine, Jewish nationalist strategy has been a ‘land and water grab’ for the past 80 years. It is driven by maintaining a permanent state of emergency. The generals remain poised for a single ‘provocation’ in order to unleash a massive attack on Gaza.

The new Palestinian leader may believe that if he can end the violence (= armed resistance), Sharon will face domestic and international pressure to start talking about the issues at the heart of the conflict — borders, refugees, and the future of Jerusalem. But why should Sharon suddenly do an about-face? Pressure from where? “Some people say, only half in jest, that the USA is an Israeli colony. . . . President Bush dances to Ariel Sharon’s tune. Both Houses of Congress are totally subservient to the Israeli right-wing — much more so than the Knesset” [1]. What may emerge is a kind of Vichy-ization of the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the Occupation, analogous in some ways to the German puppet regime in occupied France in WW II.

As Mid-East Realities observed: “With no real Palestinian State any longer possible west of the Jordan, the U.S. and Israel have worked long and hard to get to the point where they could force a quisling Palestinian leadership of their choosing into a kind of convoluted submission while pretending it is an agreed settlement brought about by the ‘Peace Process’. . . . Abu Mazen and the key Palestinian in the background, Nabil Shaath (the long-time PA ‘Foreign Minister’ operative working closely with the Israelis and the CIA), are poised to in effect accept the Sharon Plan for what will be called a ‘Temporary State’ with ‘Provisional Boundaries’ in about 25% of historic Palestine. Everywhere the Palestinian ‘population centers’, i.e. Bantustans and Reservations in reality, will be surrounded by the Israeli army which will continue to control all entry/exit and airspace of what is to be a permanently crippled and controlled ‘Palestinian state’. The plan is then to flood the Palestinian Bantustans with two things to give this new arrangement a chance to work — monies largely from Europe and the World Bank to make daily life a little better . . . and guns supplied by Israel along with the U.S. and U.K. so PA forces will be able to enforce an end to the Palestinian Intifada and in effect become the Israeli police-force in the occupied territories” [2].

What can stateside anti-authoritarians do?

1. For starters, lend critical support to the minimal program for an Israeli military withdrawal as laid out by Gush Shalom: “Without serious steps to end the Occupation no ‘window of opportunity’” [3]. These are short-term demands which no Israeli political-military elite, intent on furthering the long-term national Zionist agenda of Control of all of Palestine, can accede to. They include “Complete cessation of the settlement construction and extension, going on throughout the West Bank, and dismantling of all the ‘unauthorized settlement outposts,’ total cessation of the manhunt against the ‘wanted Palestinians,’ their assassinations and detentions and the nightly invasions of the Palestinian towns and villages; removal of all the roadblocks which deny free movement to the Palestinians and strangle the Palestinian economy; release of the Palestinian political leaders imprisoned in Israel, such as Marwan Barghouti and Husam Hader, members of the Palestinian Legislature.”

2. Begin to consider ways to publicize and support the continuing work of the one opposition candidate with a substantial following in the Palestinian political and public arena, Mustafa Barghouthi, Abbas’s main opponent in the Jan. 9 poll who garnered nearly 20 percent of the vote. Barghouthi is a radical democrat who believes in the power of mass non-violent resistance. As long as Marwan remains behind bars, Mustafa is the best alternative on the democratic left. Familiarize yourselves with his organization, the Palestine National Initiative (Al Mubadara), founded in 2002. A noted physician, he is head of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, and director of HDIP, the Health, Development Information and Policy Institute based in Ramallah, a grassroots formation bringing together over 90 Palestinian NGOs. Al Mubadara’s online journal is The Palestine Monitor [4]. Mustafa has been an outspoken critic of Arafat and the PLO old guard.

We also need to better understand the huge popularity enjoyed by Hamas, coupling militant resistance with social welfare and an entire supplementary kindergarten and school system. Their example, a movement deeply rooted in the people rather than party, is a paradigm worth studying [5]. In some respects they are a concrete embodiment in occupied Palestine of ‘dual power’ in the absence of a ‘state.’

3. Add your weight to the economic boycott of Israel, supporting initiatives such as www.boycottisraeligoods.org/ . In Israel itself, Conscience (Matzpun, www.matzpun.com ) is campaigning for an international boycott of Israeli goods in an effort to put pressure on the Israeli government and Israeli electorate where it hurts, namely in the pocketbook. As Matzpun notes: “We call on the world community to organize and boycott Israeli industrial and agricultural exports and goods, as well as leisure tourism, in the hope that it will have the same positive result that the boycott of South Africa had on apartheid. This boycott should remain in force as long as Israel controls any part of the territories it occupied in 1967. Those who squash the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians must be made to feel the conseq
uences of their own bitter medicine.”

4. Join the struggle against the Israeli military. One way is to support Israeli soldiers who are refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories or ‘breaking the silence.’ The organization Refusing for Israel needs international solidarity, take a look at their principles, work and call for signatures: www.seruv.org.il/english/ An extraordinary organization fighting the militarization of Israeli society, consciousness and education is New Profile, also worth checking out at www.newprofile.org.

5. Join the worldwide fight against the Great Wall of Palestine. The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign is a good place to begin: www.stopthewall.org/ And the Yahoo group Anarchists Against the Wall, join in: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ againstwall/ Along with opposition to the Wall, a new focus is the massive expropriation of Palestinian property in al-Quds (East Jerusalem) now being finessed by the Israeli authorities: “The Sharon government intends to strip thousands of West Bank Palestinians of their property in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli press quoting newly released government documents. At stake are thousands of donoms of land belonging to Palestinians who live in the West Bank and are now unable to access their land due to Israel’s separation barrier. . . . By all accounts, the Israeli ministry of interior is using land expropriations, identity-card seizure, exorbitant taxes and difficult-to-obtain building, family-reunion and residency permits to slowly force Palestinian residents out of the city…. The total land to be expropriated could add up to half of all East Jerusalem property.” [6]. This opens up a new front for struggle.

6. In attempting to build a strong pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S., consider the positions as laid out by the New England Committee to Defend Palestine. Perhaps the most radical viewpoint on the path forward voiced by an active group in the United States, they envision a unitary one-state solution for Arabs and Jews: “The Two-State Solution is not just. It is no solution to the turmoil in historic Palestine because at its core it does not undo any wrongs. It is unjust because it is premised on the continued acceptance of the Zionist claim to at least three quarters, if not all, of Palestine as being the exclusive land of the Jews. It is fundamentally flawed as it denies Palestinians the Right of Return; it abandons the Palestinians living within Israel; it does not provide Palestinians any semblance of an independent sovereign state and it allows the US to maintain its role as the main imperialist occupier of the entire Middle East.” [7]. Central is their demand for an end to all U.S. aid to Israel now — military, economic, and political. That call stateside can be a primary focus in all anti-authoritarian campaigning for a just solution. It has the support of anarchists in the belly of Leviathan in Israel.

1. Uri Avnery, “King George,” 22 Jan 2005, www.truthout.org/docs_05/012405I.shtml

2. MER, “Abu Mazen poised to accept Sharon Plan,” 27 Jan 2005, www.middleeast.org

3. Accessible at http://gush-shalom.org/pr/pr13-1-2005eng.html

4. For information on the PNI, see www.almubadara.org For links to some of his articles, www.palestinemonitor.org/archives/Article_archives_04.htm

5. See Beverley Milton-Edwards and Alastair Crooke, “Elusive Ingredient;Hamas and the Peace Process,” 25 Aug 2004, MIFTAH, www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=4591&CategoryId=21

6. “Israel plans big Jerusalem land grab,” Al-jazeera, 20 Jan 2005, http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0B317D0C-9689-43F0-B773-E6A833C8F296.htm

7. Lana Habash and Noah Cohen, “Zionism is the Issue: Building a Strong Pro-Palestinian Movement In the US,” 11 Jan 2005, www.onepalestine.org/resources/articles/Zionism_Is_Issue.html

The following US Army recruiting stations are in or near areas that have significant radical communities. Therefore, this is a reasonable initial list of recruiting stations that could be targeted for disruptive actions designed to cripple the US war effort in Iraq. A diversity of tactics is in order, ranging from protests, telephone call campaigns and informational pickets to occupations, wheatpasting, graffiti, etc. Folks may want to design theater performances wherein buzz cut potential recruits show up and ask some mighty hard questions about all those weapons of mass destruction and the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.” The recruitment arm of the military is essential to the functioning of the whole machine — they shouldn’t get a free ride here in the US while the slaughter continues in Iraq. Get together with your friends, use you’re creativity and don’t get caught!

Arizona

• Tucson: 2302 E. Speedway Blvd. # 112, Sun, AZ 85719, 520-326-6957
• Phoenix: 1647-C West Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, AZ 85015, 602-249-2320
California

• Oakland: 2116 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-835-7985
• San Francisco: 670 Davis St, Golden Gateway Common # 111, San Francisco, CA 94111, 415-433-4512
• San Diego: 4150 Mission Blvd. #. 159, San Diego, CA 92109, 858-273-3781
• Los Angeles: 2700 Colorado Blvd # 149, Los Angeles, CA 90041
• Santa Cruz: 2121 41st Ave # 204, Capitola, CA 95010, 831-464-0461
• Eureka: 3220 S. Broadway Suite A-13, Eureka, CA 95501, 707-443-3019

Colorado


• Denver: 130 Tivoli Student Union, 900 Auraria Pkwy Unit 130, Denver, CO 80204, 720-904-2174
• Boulder: 3055 Walnut St, Palm Gardens Shpg Ctr, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-442-1751

Connecticut


• New Haven: 161 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06510, 203-624-3312

Florida


• Gainesville: 3218 SW 35th Blvd, # D, Butler Plaza, Gainesville, FL 32608, 352-335-5600
• Pensacola: Southgate Plaza, 528 N. Navy Blvd, Suite C., Pensacola, FL 32507, 850-458-9996
• Miami: Boulevard Shops, 1401 Biscayne Blvd, # 1490-D, Miami, FL 33132, 305-371-8755

Georgia


• Atlanta: 650 Ponce De Leon, # 640-B, Midtown Place Shopping Center, Atlanta, GA 30308, 404-685-9994

Illinois


• Chicago: 1239 N Clybourn Ave, Suite 226, Chicago, IL 60610, 312-202-0430
• Champaign/Urbana: Plaza West, 1615 Springfield Ave, Champaign, IL 61821, 217-356-2838

Indiana


• Indianapolis: 302 Washington Pointe Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46229, 317-898-3032
• Bloomington: 327 S Walnut St # 102, Bloomington, IN 47401, 812-333-0240

Kansas


• Lawrence: 115 South Clairborne, Olathe, KS 66062, 913-764-2113

Louisiana


• New Orleans: 514 City Park Ave, New Orleans, LA 70119, 504-488-6672

Maryland


• Baltimore: 1253 W. Pratt Street # D, Mountclair Junction Shopping Ctr, Baltimore, MD 21223, 410-727-2769

Massachusetts


• Boston: 141 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02111, 617-426-6488
• Western Mass: Big Y Plaza, 485a Newton Street, South Hadley, MA 01075, 413-533-2501

Minnesota


Minneapolis: 9 Sixth Ave South, Hopkins, MN 55343, 952-935-3000

Missouri


• Kansas City: 3909 S. Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111, 816-561-0613

Nebraska


• Lincoln: Military & Naval Science Bldg, Rm 205, 14th & Vine Sts, Lincoln, NE 68588, 402-472-4602

New York


• Manhatten: 688 6th Avenue 2nd Flr, New York, NY 10010, 212-255-8229

North Carolina


• Durham: U.S. Army Recruiting Station, 3400 Westgate Dr, Westgate Plaza, Durham, NX 27707, 919-490-6671

Ohio


• Oberlin: 300 Broadway Ave, Lorain, OH 44052, 440-245-6351
• Toledo: Miracle Mile Shopping Center, 4925 Jackman Rd, Toledo, OH 43613, 419-292-0358

Oregon


• Portland: 1317 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232, 503-284-4005
• Eugene: Santa Clara Shopping Center, 65-J Division Avenue, Suite D, Eugene, OR 97404, 541-345-3877

Pennyslvania


• Philadelphia: Auerbach Bldg, 125 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-568-1921
• Pittsburgh: 3712 Forbes Avenue, 2nd Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, 412-683-1057

Tennessee


• Knoxville: 168 N Seven Oaks Drive, Windsor Square Shopping Center, Knoxville, TN 37922, 865-690-0473

Texas


• Austin: 2025 Guadalupe, Ste 258, Dobie Mall-Ut Campus, Austin, TX 78705, 512-472-7616
• Houston: River Oaks Plaza Shopping Ctr, 1432 West Gray, Houston, TX 77019, 713-942-0120

Virginia


• Richmond: Shops At Willow Lawn, Store 301d, 1602 Willow Lawn Drive, Richmond, VA 23230, 804-285-6690

Washington


• Olympia: 400 Cooper Point Rd Ste Cv6, Olympia, WA 98502, 360-943-3732
• Seattle: 2301 S Jackson St Ste 205, Seattle, WA 98144, 206-324-3437

Washington, DC


• Franklin Ct Bldg, Box 18 1099 14th Street Nw ( L St. Entrance), Washington, DC 20005, 202-761-4344

Wisconsin


• Madison: 73 University Square, Madison, WI 53715, 608-255-4684
• Milwaukee: 3133 N Oakland Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53211, 414-963-4727

Momentum continues to grow for MindFreedom International’s 2005 Action Conference April 29 to May 2 entitled, “Activism for Human Rights in Mental Health: How the Law Can Support Grassroots Action for Human Rights in the Mental Health System.” The 2005 Action Conference will bring together key leaders, activists, allies and advocates in the field of human rights for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities. It will take place at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. A protest will be held at the end of the conference at noon on May 2 at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PHRMA).

Pre-registration is required. MindFreedom Support Coalition International is a grassroots human rights non-profit uniting over 100 sponsor groups in 15 countries working for human rights and alternatives in mental health. The organization is a Non Governmental Organization accredited by the United Nations. Sometimes called the “Amnesty International of mental health,” MindFreedom is independent from any government, mental health provider, drug company or religion.

For more info, contact: MindFreedom 454 Willamette, Suite 216 PO Box 11284 Eugene, OR 9744-3484, www.MindFreedom.org