Author: Slingshot Collective

As horrifying as the prospect of the United States launching a pre-emptive strike war against Iraq is to millions of people, one has to wonder if we’re not all falling into precisely the trap that Bush and Company are laying for us.

This war is being conjured up out of thin air, timed during a major economic downturn, with “debate” and Congressional approval of the war conveniently scheduled a month before mid-term elections. People are hurting financially all over the country. Under these circumstances, Bush’s war talk appears to be a cynical attempt to divert attention from domestic problems, in hopes of gaining a short-term political advantage. The chance to diminish the United Nations, flex unilateral US military dominance, and increase world oil supplies are gravy. The pretext of making the world “safe” from Iraq is at best laughable.

If the only ripple effect of Bush’s war strategy was securing Republican control of the Congress, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. Whether Congress is controlled by Republicans or Democrats is essentially irrelevant since both stand for the same earth destroying, worker exploiting, world dominating policies.

But the ripples haven’t been limited to the mainstream political reality. In the US and around the world, people involved in popular movements that had been starting to challenge the economic assumptions of the ruling order — generally known as the anti-globalization movement — have shifted their time and energy to opposing the approaching war. Time that could have been used for positive action has been consumed on reaction — playing defense, not offense.

If those in power are able to divert activism that would have been directed against their economic domination into defensive single-issue activism narrowly focused against war, the war will pay much greater dividends than mere control over vast oil resources.

For our part, it’s crucial that we don’t lose sight of the real war while we’re opposing Bush’s manufactured war against Iraq.

The real war is waged every day, receives little media coverage, and isn’t the subject of countless marches and rallies by well-meaning liberals: its the war of the powerful against the weak, the north against the south, industrialism against the earth, cold economic rationalism against life and freedom.

This daily war systematically causes far more destruction, human misery, death and environmental destruction than Bush’s contemplated war against Iraq will. Bush’s war may kill a million Iraqis, a terrible, unacceptable, horrendous cost.

But how many people are dying day in and day out because of this capitalist/industrial system? How many are living lives as walking dead, their spirits crushed, serving a machine? How many live without food, clean water, a dry place to sleep, any hope or future? Between 1 and 2 billion people worldwide live below the subsistence threshold. Even in Western industrialized countries, millions live hopeless, powerless lives.

As terrible as war against Iraq would be, and as vigorously as we must oppose, disrupt, and if possible prevent the Iraq war, the everyday war must not be permitted to continue. If the war on Iraq can be prevented, it won’t be time to sit back in satisfaction and declare that everything is now “A-okay.” The day before a war on Iraq begins, and the day after it ends, the daily war will continue.

The daily war concentrates the power and weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the United States that makes a war on Iraq possible. Only when the daily war is ended once and for all will the need to oppose this and that military adventure off into the future finally cease.

Fortunately, opposing the war against Iraq and opposing the daily war against the earth and its people are not totally incompatible. While its certainly possible to oppose the war against Iraq in such a narrow way that the everyday war is not simultaneously opposed, there are numerous opportunities to use the struggle against the Iraq war to promote understanding of the struggle against the everyday war.

The horror, the waste and the brutality of war can focus attention on the gap between the rhetoric of our rulers, and the reality of this system. People who believe in the system — who believe that the US is a kind nation which promotes democracy and peace — are ripe to be radicalized when they see how the system operates in practice. In September and October, polls showed a majority of citizens opposed a preemptive attack against Iraq in the face of international opposition. Folks wrote thousands of letters, lobbied their representatives, and got nothing. Now they sit, opposing the US regime, feeling increasingly alienated from the system.

Our opposition to the Iraq war can promote greater awareness of the everyday war by emphasizing the failure of liberal methods and assumptions. The approval of congressional resolutions in favor of the war shows that the system doesn’t care what citizens think. The whole affair demonstrates that the United States government relies, not on the promotion of democracy and peace, but on naked military superiority in international relations.

People who turned out by the thousands to anti-war demonstrations have been confronted with the reality of the corporate media — these demonstrations were largely ignored.

From the liberal perspective, war against Iraq seems an aberration — a violation of the liberal conception of the United States’ role in the world. This is an opportunity to point out that the war isn’t an aberration — its an honest expression of a society that promotes power, violence and domination over self-determination, cooperation and human life. In short, the war unmasks the death culture that is the capitalist / industrial system.

Each speech given by Bush demonstrated the gap between rhetoric and reality: Bush and the US government are guilty of most of the “evils” that Bush charged against Iraq:

• The US attacks and threatens to attack its neighbors without provocation.
• The US is the world’s leader in weapons of mass destruction.
• Bush emphasizes the danger of Iraq acquiring nuclear weapons, when the US already has thousands of them. The US is the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons in war, and its war plans contemplate their use again, including preemptively.

If these actions are evil for Iraq, how are they good for the United States? Nothing distinguishes the US’s military domination of the world scene from Iraq’s much weaker attempted military domination of their local scene.

The task of the radical community goes far beyond working to publicly oppose the war against Iraq. It’s crucial to prevent Bush & Co. from using the war to distract the world from a critique of economic domination. Moreover, it’s up to us to use our struggle to oppose the war in a positive way — to build a movement against the everyday economic war all around us.

The old Albany landfill is a modern free state. Fennel, trash sculptures, and shacks cover this mound of trash and construction rubble sticking out into the San Francisco bay, an antisocial realm where people do practically whatever they want. Now East Bay bureaucracy is gearing up to subdue the Landfill into a municipal park. While some folks have organized to protect the Landfill in its current state, they are missing the point, as they advocate for free space in the name of public art and dog runs. The landfill cannot exist as a state-sanctioned space. It is inaccessible, dangerous and toxic, a complete liability. The Landfill represents the messy regeneration of life on top industrial collapse, and, for those who can appreciate it, it is beautiful. Because it is completely unorganized, anti-social, it can only exist outside of society. No amount of compromise with the state will allow the Landfill to continue as itself. The state must be forced to relinquish control. The land will be free.

Anarchists, crackheads, speed freaks, punks, partiers, weird creators, solitary souls, hippies, and any one else who gives a shit will form a militia to keep the organized state out of the landfill. Walls will be erected, the neck blasted out, and ferry lines run between the Berkeley Marina for transportation and supplies. While anarchists fight for community organization in the rest of the East Bay, here the chaotic, wild, free nature of anarchism, of life, will be demonstrated in a grand display of creation and force.

Dog walkers, ‘artists’, and other such liberal mandy-panderers will have to choose their side. They must realize that the reason their dogs run free and their paintings show unrestrained, perverted sex is not because the landfill is a dog run or an open-air Mapplethorpe gallery, but because both free dogs and free art are obvious indicators of wild, unrestrained life.

Liberals cannot bargain with the state and retain freedom. Both dog runs and sculpture gardens exist within the organized State, but they are regulated, and the spirit of the landfill will wither as soon as the state sanctions activity there.

The State believes the landfill will be a pleasant addition to the still-developing EastShore Regional Park, a native plant and wildlife sanctuary with paved paths and sports fields. But the landfill is acres of toxic fill, off-gassing PCBs, and heavy metals. The natural state of the landfill is, first, water—and second, the way it is now. Plants and wildlife native to regenerating polluted fill live there already, as do people. The landfill is a necessary result of western civilization. It is not pristine Bay shoreline, almost completely destroyed by the 1950s as developers dumped huge amounts of fill into the bay. (One of the few pristine East Bay beaches is south of the landfill—try focussing on that, fuckers!) It is not friendly to folks sensitive to toxins, to folks reliant on the friendly accoutrements of modern western civilization—paved paths, bathrooms, blue light telephones, drinking fountains, doggie poop collection bags. The State, however, must ‘disappear’ their trash, pretend that their industrial trash can be transformed into a social environment, in order to continue creating crap. Liberal Berkelians insist that modern society is completely and benignly recyclable – piles of refuse are really parkland, and pristine shoreline, art galleries, and purebred dog runs at that. This trash pile is worthwhile, but not because it is recyclable back into society. The landfill is an illustration of beautiful life beyond modern society, and as such, the State must destroy it.

If the State were smart, it would realize—as many governments already have—the benefits of this societal pressure release valve. Raucus stadium concerts, rowdy sports games, and raves all release social energy, but in places like the Landfill folks can make peace with their need to be away from society. Pristine and natural areas show land without people, but the landfill shows land and people in recovery from western civilization—subconscious yet necessary therapy for folks warn thin by the capitalist grind. This is why so many yuppies are drawn to the landfill, not only for their dogs, but for themselves.

Even as new IKEAS pop up, western society continues to overextend and decay. The Albany landfill is a particularly beautiful scene of anarchic regeneration, but even it the landfill itself is let alone, the whole ambiance will change as the proposed Target store and hotel/conference center are built a few hundred yards away. A massive off-ramp leaving I-80 has already been constructed, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, for these development projects. The landfill can’t simply be ‘left alone’—it must succeed from the United States.

Speed freaks, bottle-throwing disenfranchised youth, maladjusted loners, and antisocial wingnuts are joining ranks of regular anarchists to force this succession. As this is written, supplies are being amassed and catapults built. The People’s Park riots of the 1990’s are our inspiration, and we will take the fight one step further, to complete cessation of ties to the state of California. We will dynamite the land bridge, creating the island Landfill Free State. Natural cycles of degeneration and rebirth will continue, untouched by the bureaucratic hand of organized, enforced suffocation. Long Live the Landfill!

The war at home has escalated. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the big shipping companies, attacked the country’s most militant labor union on September 27th, locking out 10,500 longshore workers along the west coast and successfully obtaining a federally ordered 80 day cooling off period under the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act. It was a test of PMA’s newest union-busting strategy: seeking justification under the war on terrorism.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s contract expired in July, and the union had been in contract negotiations with the PMA since spring. But months before that, the PMA had been scheming to destroy the ILWU. In May, a new “bosses” organization was formed. Called the “West Coast Waterfront Coalition”, the organization was a coalition of slave labor retailers that included Mattel, Home Depot and the Gap, together with shipping lines Maersk and American President Lines. In this age of sweatshop labor, the dockworkers are the last group of workers in the shipping lines’ food chain who are paid fairly. The PMA would like nothing better than to reduce them to sweatshop labor as well.

The coalition used the “war on terrorism” to try and destroy the ILWU. This spring, the group held covert meetings with the Bush Administration’s task force that was set up to monitor ILWU contract negotiations. Early in those talks, Homeland Security adviser Tom Ridge called James Spinosa, president of the ILWU, and told Spinosa that any strike would be considered a threat to national security and that the Bush Administration would act to stop it.

The PMA, apparently too impatient to wait for a strike so they could have the government step in to facilitate their union-busting, came up with a most devious plan: The PMA could lock the workers out, and by doing so force the government to do their dirty work for them. The government’s rarely-used Taft-Hartley Act allows for government intervention in union/management negotiations, by enforcing an 80-day “cooling-off” period during which the union workers are forced back to work. The PMA knew that if they stopped goods from coming in they could ensure that the Bush Administration would favor the PMA by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act. That way, when the bosses lock out the workers and freeze commerce, they can also reap the benefits of

the negative image of ungrateful dockworkers on strike.

The fairly paid dockworkers know that the sweatshops stop at the West Coast ports. The PMA knows that too, and they would like nothing better than to ensure that from beginning to end all their slaves are paid the minimum.

The 80-day “cooling-off” period is more like a simmering period. Tensions are still running high between the union and the PMA, and nothing has changed in negotiations. And if the workers do strike, the president has another tool at his disposal—he can replace striking dockworkers with the Navy and the National Guard.

But there may be a problem for the union busting bosses — other dockworker unions around the globe are already confirming their solidarity with the ILWU, and won’t unload ships if they are not loaded by the ILWU in America. The ILWU has a history of international solidarity; they took a stand against apartheid and refused to unload Nazi ships before World War II while Henry Ford was still selling them arms. The ILWU has stood behind every dock strike from Liverpool to Japan and those workers will return that solidarity.

If the PMA and the government are allowed to keep the union from organizing contracts coast wide or to replace the union workers with the military, we may see the most vicious international labor battle in history. As Slingshot goes to press, the 80-day cooling off period is still in effect and negotiations are continuing. There can be no war abroad without a war at home, and this has never been clearer with this attack against the ILWU. Support the ILWU, because this battle will affect workers the world over. The ILWU has taken stands for social justice and will continue to do so; they will not be cowed.

Strange World Department: Critical Mass Studied As Military Tactic

The Washington Post recently reported that the US Defense Department has been studying Critical Mass bike ride’s swarming of bikes as a military tactic: “The U.S. military has been one of the earliest institutions to both fear and see the possibilities in swarming. John Arquilla co-authored ‘Swarming and the Future of Conflict’ two years ago for the think tank Rand Corp. and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He sees swarming – ‘a deliberately structured, coordinated, strategic way to strike from all directions’ – as spearheading a revolution in military affairs. ‘The military has much to learn from Critical Mass,’ he writes in an e-mail, ‘I used to go up to San Francisco regularly to see this leaderless swarm of bicyclists bring traffic to a complete halt for two hours. Once I asked a police sergeant, as he stood observing the Ferry Building, what he was going to do about this. He shrugged his shoulders and asked me back, “What would you have me do?'”

Little did we know that the US government was snooping while we were whooping.

ALF member’s house raided

On Tuesday July 30, 2002 in Courtenay, British Columbia, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada’s national police agency raided the home and office of David Barbarash, Animal Liberation Front member.

The search and seizure was carried out on behalf of law enforcement from two counties in the State of Maine, under the auspices of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaty. The incidents being investigated actually took place three years ago and were relatively minor actions. Barbarash was neither charged or under investigation for any actions or crimes in Maine’s Kennebec and Sagadahoc counties. On November 13 a hearing took place in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, discussing the warrant and its execution.

Meanwhile all of David’s seized property is being held until an order is passed for it to be sent to Maine. He is fighting to have the stuff returned.

The ALF Press Office is seeking monetary donations to help cover legal expenses and the cost of replacing computers and software seized in the search. Donations and requests for more info can be sent to: P.O. Box 3673 Courtenay, BC V9N 7P1 Canada E-mail: naalfpo@tao.ca

Baltimore Anti-racist 28

On August 24, 2002, 28 anti-racists were arrested in Baltimore while attempting to protest a meeting of the National Alliance, one of the larger neo-nazi groups in the U.S. Some two hundred racists were gathering there to meet before caravanning to their march and rally in Washington, D.C., later that day.

As the anti-racist activists entered the parking lot of the meeting site, they were confronted by several police cars and eventually brought to the Southeast District station, where they were held for hours with no charges then transferred to Central Booking and kept for twenty-four hours, before receiving their papers. After being interviewed they were charged with rioting, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, and possession of a deadly weapon. Some were released on their own recognizance while others received bail amounts upwards of $10,000. None of these activist had committed any crime.

Since the arrests the State Attorney’s office has decided not to prosecute, however these bogus charges remain on record and will need to be expunged. The 28 are trying to cover legal expenses and are seeking financial support. Please send legal support donations to: Black Planet Books 1621 Fleet St. Baltimore, MD 21231-2931 E-mail: antifalegal@hotmail.com

BASTARD (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Reseach & Development) presents the 3rd annual BASTARD Anarchist Theory Conference. The conference will be Sunday, March 30th, the day after the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair. This tear the emphasis will be on anarchist economics with an entire track dedicated to analysis of economics today, visions of future economics, and theories of anarchist economics that differentiate it from market, utopian, and Marxist theories of economics.

Proposals for other topics will also be considered. Please send workshop proposals to bastard@angrynerds.com or mail to: ASG c/o the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705

For Artistic purposes only – do not try this at home!

Come to the Long Haul’s Second annual Anarchist Crush Night on Valentine’s Day 2003! There will be sexy party games, music, and food plus our exclusive matching service which allows you to anonymously see if that certain crusty someone might like you too. The first Crush Night last year took a few days to recover from, after horny party-goers smeared all our free lube on each other in an outrageous display of . . . what was that all about again? At least one couple who hooked up last year is still together, and they both even work in the Slingshot Collective!!! Please keep in mind that you must work out your polyamory issues before Crush Night. Better get to work on that right now! The party will start at Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley right after Critical Mass (about 8 p.m.).

A Scene Critique

The anarchist Do-It-Yourself ethic has succeeded in creating a flourishing counterculture. The scene excels at developing low-tech solutions to the consumerist, petroleum-based mainstream, simple designs based on recycled materials that aim at being user-friendly.

However, I think this success comes at a price: passionate activists put so much time into specific projects that little thought is devoted to critiquing how the entrenched countercultural lifestyle actually meets – or doesn’t meet-people’s needs. This scene is, undoubtedly, a scene, and it is not particularly open or inviting to new people. The scene takes on mythological proportions, and people feel they have to live up to certain standards in order to participate. Everybody is different, but people censor and mold what they show to a scene in order to fit in. This perpetuates the myth of homogeneity, and turns off people who can’t or don’t feel like doing the work to fit in.

Many people don’t want to take on the emotional trip of feeling like the odd one out. It is a struggle to attend events where you feel like you’re the only person representing, where you are perceived as ‘different’ and either fetishized or considered dangerous, scary, complicated, and thus ignored. It hurts to feel like you have to put on an act, to go into the closet, in order to be comfortable in a group. A scene where people feel bad for not fitting in is little more than a mimicry of the mainstream, one subculture out of many. The folks closing people out of the scene are the same folks who are shut out of some aspect of mainstream culture. At some point, everybody puts on an act in order to fit in.

In reality, all kinds of people are doing all kinds of different things, whether they are underground or out about their actions. People are much more complex than this model of homogenous subcultures. People do take risks, make decisions and go places they’re not ‘supposed’ to. Unless you talk to somebody and they choose to tell you, you can’t always see that ‘white’ boy’s Mexican dad, that ‘straight’ girl’s lesbian parents, that able-bodied person’s disability, that suburban punk’s welfare childhood. Perhaps you have not ‘seen’ that person of color within ‘the activist scene’, even though they have been at every major protest for 20 years.

The energy and time required to (re)build organizations and physical infrastructure from the ground up means that this type of revolutionary actions comes most easily to certain people, who are able bodied, young, frequently white and from middle class backgrounds, and with few commitments other than this radical lifestyle. Many do-it-yourself activists do recognize the limited potential of a homogenous scene-but people seem to be forgetting that homogeneity is the very nature of a countercultural lifestyle!

Sharing a lifestyle, particularly one based on political convictions, is a way of finding support in the midst of a callous world. What is a lifestyle, but simply a set of actions folks take to meet their living needs; a radical, political lifestyle gives political purpose to fulfilling this particular set of actions. However, everybody has different needs. Placing too much importance on living a lifestyle as a political act means that folks are judged as ‘less revolutionary’ when they make decisions that aren’t in line with the political rhetoric– or simply that there is no room for them within the scene.

Overt judgments come down hard when people are open about making decisions not in line with prescribed do-it-yourself anarchist rhetoric. People are judged for the kind of healthcare they use, the kind of job they get, the projects they take on, where they choose to live. Few decisions are easy when you’re trying to balance political connotations and personal needs. To me, it’s important that people question the models they’re given-whether within the mainstream or within the counterculture-and make decisions that truly reflect their needs, rather than struggling to fit their life into a box. Talking about motives behind a decision may lead to positive, even revolutionary personal change (for everybody involved), while dissing a decision will more likely piss somebody off and make them feel unwelcome.

Other folks struggle within the DIY scene, or are simply not there, because the entrenched DIY lifestyle doesn’t meet their needs. People running the scene engines are too self-focused, too passionate about the current state of things, or to politically rigid to think about changing course. For example, flier-makers rarely think about noting whether an event is wheelchair accessible-and resource-poor DIY organizations end up holding events in inaccessible back rooms or fixer-upper houses, rather than prioritizing accessibility. In a culture where few own cars, many ride bikes, and parties often happen up rickety stairs or in the middle of an abandoned factory, people with different mobility situations going on have to put more effort into getting to a DIY event. If events are not accessible, some folks might not even want to go to them.

Even with lipservice supporting the working class, families, and immigrants, the culture is not set up to meet their needs. People are often surprised to hear that somebody is working long hours to support their family or because they don’t have the financial cushion to take on major financial investments (transsexual surgery, overseas travel, equipment costs, etc.) while still “living for free”.

Events are not always child-friendly in the traditional sense, and coordinating getting a sleeping child home on bike is difficult! With creativity, energy, and good humor, so many things are possible. But people have only so much energy to devote to ‘creative struggles’ like getting themselves or their kid to some far away place in a rickety bike cart.

People who do have options should carefully consider their actions. Folks have certain backgrounds, certain abilities, etc., that make some things come easily to them, in the counterculture and without. In other words, people have privileges that go hand in hand with the mainstream hierarchical social system. These privileges give options and choices-the option to be sexist, the option to shop at Walmart, the option to fit in and be ‘cool’. Not exercising your option is only half the process of breaking down the institution. The pressure to fit in, the option to be sexist, is still there-you’re just not participating. Privilege and social hierarchy will exist as long as the system that perpetuates them exists, and attacking the root of the privilege, the system, is necessary to eradicate the privilege.

Everyone fits into both mainstream and the DIY counterculture differently. People change, and lives include contradictions. There are no perfect anarkoids. When we are open to hearing about what other people are doing, we see that the ‘scene’ is actually a lot less homogenous than we perhaps thought, and we are more relaxed about hanging out with people who we thought were different than us. At this point the scene changes into a movement.

Sonik resistance at the Nevada Test Site

Underground dance parties often take place in unusual locations – underneath highway overpasses, inside boxcars, under bridges – anywhere we can get away with it. However, until now, none had been held at the gates of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) where the United State tests its nuclear weapons of mass destruction. On October 11, DJs and musicians from S.P.A.Z., 5lowershop, R.A.T.S.T.A.R., Havoc, Katabatik, and Subversive Soundz gathered for Unchained Reaction!, an elektronik, anti-nuclear resist.dance party at the Nevada Test Site to resist nuclear weapons testing and nuclear dumping on native lands. The dance party was part of the Action for Nuclear Abolition, a larger gathering which included the Family Spirit Walk, an 800 mile walk from Los Alamos (the birth place of the atom bomb) to the NTS; an anti-nuclear weapons conference in Las Vegas; and a six day gathering at the Test Site that included trainings, ceremonies, and direct actions.

The 500 people who went to the Nevada Test Site for the Action for Nuclear Abolition (ANA) were there to oppose testing of nuclear weapons and the dumping of high-level nuclear waste, as is proposed at nearby Yucca Mountain. Indeed the proposed shipping and dumping of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, a sacred site for the Western Shoshone, instigated Unchained Reaction!

Many who participated in the ANA view these anti-nuclear protests as part of the struggle for the rights of indigenous people in the United States. Author/activist Ward Churchill has challenged “the Left” to work with indigenous peoples in the United States to resolve the Native American land question. The colonization of indigenous peoples must be addressed in order avoid the duplication of the colonialist/settler mentality in social relations between Native Americans and white radicals. This land question, which can be understood in terms of a colonial relationship between a subjugated nation and a colonial power, is at the heart of the struggle over reclaiming the Nevada Test Site as part of Newe Sogobia, the traditional land of the Western Shoshone.

The conflict over land began with the discovery of gold in California in 1849, which prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans to head for the west coast. In 1849 alone, over 60,000 Americans traveled through Newe Sogobia, depleting food sources and instigating conflicts with the Shoshone. The Shoshones retaliated against the invaders by raiding the wagon trains to take weapons and horses.

In order to facilitate the appropriation of natural resources by settler society the United States government negotiated the Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed on October 1, 1863 which affirmed the Newe’s title to their ancestral land, Newe Sogobia (‘the peoples’ earth mother’), which extends from the Snake River in Idaho, across most of Nevada, and into Southern California. This title legally remains in place; however, the combination of a phenomenon called “gradual encroachment” and presidential orders have pushed the Shoshone off their land. The establishment of the Nevada Test Site provides an excellent example of this process.

President Franklin Roosevelt originally set aside part of Newe Sogobia as an artillery and gunnery range through executive order 8578 in 1940. Of course, nobody bothered to ask the Newe (Western Shoshone) people, within whose treaty-guaranteed territory the entire facility was established, whether they felt this was an acceptable use of their land, or whether they were even willing to have it designated as part of the U.S. “public domain” for any purpose.

Instead, in 1952, having designated 435,000 acres in the Yucca Flats area of Nellis as a “Nevada Test Site” – another 318,000 acres were added in 1961, bringing the total to 735,000 – the Atomic Energy Commission and its military partners undertook what by now add up to nearly a thousand atmospheric and underground nuclear test detonations. In 1973 the United States government offered the Western Shoshone $26 million for the land that includes Yucca Mountain and the NTS. The Western Shoshone national council has refused this payment, and the money has sat in an Interior Department trust account since.

The Western Shoshone have fought against this encroachment in many ways, including lawsuits in U.S. courts, by sending a delegation to Geneva, Switzerland, to speak with members of the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and, when necessary, through armed resistance. The annual Action for Nuclear Abolition is another example of Shoshone resistance.

UNCHAINED REACTION!

But the question remains: was it a great party? Well it was great for us. Everybody turned in great sets of inspiring music, even if much of the audience had never heard electronic music before, let alone breakcore. Katherine Blossom, a native elder said of us, “I don’t pray like anybody else I know, it is good to see that these people pray in their own way as well.” Music is our alchemy, and after we heard the extremely banal new age earthdance prayer for peace on Saturday we knew for certain that we can only be a part of prayer for peace that we make on our own terms. Our prayers shake the earth with bass.

We heard many stories and attended a sunrise ceremony as part of the direct action trespass on the NTS. Listening to Shoshone cultural stories, we were inspired to think of the stories that guide our lives and history that we share within our subculture. They prayed for the simple things every sunrise: the air, water, earth, fire, and all the animals that once walked the land, both thanking and honoring their energies in our lives. This is one of the things that they wanted us to take from them, a consciousness about the life energies that our dominator culture takes for granted.

The two nights of music were not without problems, some of which arose well before it ever happened. Getting out 10,000 flyers and trying to reach out beyond our normal spheres of influence was really hard and made us wonder at times if it was worth it. But maybe if the ideas touched some people, or challenged people to do some self education about the issues on the flyer (whether they came out or not), then that is something that you cannot place a value on. Almost every time we were out flyering, someone thanked us for doing this and seemed to be deeply touched by our intentions. Although not many people came to attend the dance party itself (it was in the Navada desert, after all), the soundsystems brought between 75 and 100 people to the event, which was close to twenty percent of the total number at the peace camp.

In terms of conflict with our hosts and with other Peace Camp protestors we happily report that it was minimal. After the Friday night concert, the native elders (who we were afraid we were keeping awake) sent someone down to tell us that they loved what we were doing and to turn it up, to let the NTS know that we are there and that we are not going away. There is an open invitation for us to return next year, and even discussion about an occupation party on Yucca Mountain. Start building bassbins now!

As Slingshot goes to press, Congress has authorized Bush to go to war against Iraq, although the bombs haven’t actually begun to fall. Action on the political field within mainstream channels — calling one’s congressperson, lobbying, writing letters — has been attempted and has failed. At this point, there are really two options: turn on the TV and watch the cool video of the smartbombs blowing up Iraq, or prepare to resist and disrupt the war in the streets however you can.

Its easy to get discouraged and figure there’s nothing anyone can do to stop the war. Maybe the war will be like the Gulf war, which happened so fast, and with so few (visible American) casualties that it was over before anti-war activity could really be widely felt. Then on the other hand, even during the long years of the Vietnam war, the war appeared impossible to stop. Yet we know now that those in the seats of power were blocked from fighting the war as vigorously as they wanted, and ultimately forced to pull out, because of the treat of domestic disruption and unrest.

If domestic opposition to the war is to play any effective part in Bush’s decision making on whether or how to wage the war, the opposition must take the form of disruption of the operation of American society. In the period leading up to the actual attack, Bush needs to come to fear domestic chaos and disruption should he invade. He could care less about polite, legal rallies on sunny Sunday afternoons in which liberals stay within the police lines and threaten . . . nothing.

Disruption must be aimed not only at the progress of the war itself, but at any economic activity that contributes to the ability of this country to function. People around the world understand that once the United States, with unquestioned global military superiority, adopts a policy of unlimited military preemptive strikes, as it has now done, a Third World War pitting of the US against the rest of the world is a real possibility. The US is run by an un-elected regime accountable to no one. Its up to those of us here in the belly of the beast to avoid this disastrous outcome by impairing this country’s ability to wage war.

In the context of the war on terrorism, traditional methods of disruption carry increased risks. Typical window smashing, rioting and arson are likely to result in a very short period of disruption, since the practitioners of these methods are likely to be quickly apprehended and imprisoned. Likewise, polite “sit in the road” civil disobedience actions are very limited in their ability to cause economically damaging disruption, because they are over so fast, followed by months of court hearings.

The above tired methods, which emphasize self-sacrifice, danger of state repression, and worst yet, boredom, aren’t sufficiently disruptive and should be avoided. Instead, its time for a burst of creativity. The anarchist milieu has a crucial opportunity to contribute disruptive surrealist actions which sustain and amplify disruption, making the disruption ever increasing in its size and economic damage.

In particular, these actions burst the bounds of the expected — permitting self-expression, exploration, discovery, creativity, freedom and fun. Such actions, rather than burning activists out as we trudge through the valleys of tired obligation, have the potential to attract thousands of people new to radical political action. These surrealist actions are effective beyond traditional tactics because the state doesn’t know how to react to something that’s never been done before.

When disrupting business as usual, our main alley is chaos, confusion and uncertainty – the uncertainty of the authorities about what we might do next. If they know what we’re going to do next, our disruptive capacity has already been isolated and limited. Maybe we can block a certain street — but the police are expert in knowing how to reroute traffic around any given street. Maybe we disrupt a whole city — but if pressed, the authorities can just decide to concede us that city until we grow tired.

But when the authorities don’t know what could happen next – where we’ll be next, what we might do next – then they have no ability to make decisions to limit our disruption. Instead, the authorities may panic and amplify our disruption out of fear about what could happen next. Like when the cops seal off a freeway entrance, blocking hundreds of cars, just in case people might try to get on the freeway. The cops just did our work for us. Except with surrealist actions, the ripples of the authorities fears can be far greater.

Logically, practicing disruption where the authorities don’t know what might happen next implies that perhaps even we don’t know what might happen next. If you’re in a group of people participating in a disruptive action and none of you know what’s gonna to happen next, but you’re mobile, militant, fluid, disrupting whatever is at hand in the most creative, joyful, liberated fashion possible, you’re probably being very effective, indeed. You’re running amok.

Here’s some examples of unexpected yet disruptive actions we hope will become popular in the next phase of the struggle. Please think of many, many more yourself.

West Side Story Surrealist Threat

In this highly car-dependent society, blocking major roads is always an excellent disruptive tactic. But things have been getting harder and harder when it comes to taking the streets. New creative thinking is called for.

A few years ago, British activists devised the brilliant Reclaim the Streets tactic of holding a rave in the middle of the street. RTS actions disrupt traffic, and because the blockage is a party, cops have a harder time reacting violently like against a standard blockade. Plus, RTS is fun and beautiful, attracting lots of party-goers/blockaders and embodying our vision for a society based on life and freedom, not money and machines.

The West Side Story Surrealist Threat (Theatre with the letters rearranged) is a theater troop in Berkeley which stages fully costumed performances of the musical West Side Story in the middle of major intersections during rush hour. Like RTS, traffic is immediately blocked and replaced with drama, singing and dancing. A bike-drawn sound system pipes out the songs from the musical without the words. Performers sign karaoke style. Because WSSST emphasizes participatory drama, parts are rotated during performances, and performers have crib sheets with the words to the songs to help them along. Since so many people know West Side Story, commuters are invited to spontaneously throw off their chains and join in the musical! WSSST is even developing rolling, bike-drawn sets (picture the balcony scene on wheels) that can be locked down with bike locks to further block intersections for the duration of the performance, which last about 2 hours plus intermission. Food Not Bombs may eventually be enlisted to serve a hearty meal with home brewed refreshments during the intermission.

WSSST performances literally blow the police’s minds, and they don’t know what to do. Official looking casting directors and directors negotiate with cops once they show up, telling them the whole thing is the newest Americrops project to keep underprivileged 20 somethings out of trouble. If all else fails, the whole cast can break into a rousing rendition of “Officer Krupke” before dancing off snapping their fingers in unison. Cool, Daddy-O!

This tactic, and the resulting severe damage to America’s capitalist / industrial economy should it be replicated all across the country, is just one possible idea for disruptive surrealist anarchist actions. A whole touring drama movement could develop, performing the greater works of Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams plays, and lots of other groovy musicals — from Guys and Dolls to Grease to Hair. See the “Cut Bush” section, below, for ideas to try during the nude scene
during performances of Hair.

This is cultural enrichment at its best, not limited to the richest classes of society who are usually the only ones who can enjoy live theatre.

Critical Mess

San Francisco just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the first Critical Mass bike ride in the world. As 10,000 of us rode through the narrow downtown San Francisco streets whooping and cheering in celebration, auto traffic came to a standstill. The ride stretched for 40 blocks, crossing and re-crossing major streets.

The ride started at 6 p.m., permitting most commuters and business traffic to escape before the ride. If Bush invades Iraq, folks could scheduling critical mass bike rides in downtown financial districts around the country, with a small difference — the rides would start at 9 a.m., and proceed throughout the business day. Day after day.

You don’t need 10,000 cyclists to seriously disrupt auto traffic in central business districts. Such auto traffic is normally slow at best, just verging on the edge of gridlock under the best of circumstances. As few as 50 or 100 bikes, carefully obeying all traffic laws and therefore taking only minimal risks, will push these kinds of dense traffic conditions over the edge.

As above, such rides are a perfect way for a tiny portion of the civilian population to disrupt the economic foundations of the war machine way out of proportion with their numbers. Whereas a small street march will be quickly broken up by the police and arrested, a small bike ride, going with the flow of traffic, obeying all traffic laws, and moving from place to place, is much more effective. Because a bike ride can move quickly and easily, its possible to circulate around a business district, tying up lots of it even though the ride is only at a particular location for a few minutes and then moves on. This kind of mobile action is particularly frustrating for the authorities – they don’t know what could happen next, or where.

It is possible police will arrest such a ride even though it obeys all laws, as recently happened in Washington DC. The key will be finding the balance between being disruptive and staying together, and appearing to just be out for a ride on one’s bike. “Hey, its not my fault if there’s a lot of bike traffic today!”

Cut Bush!

Despite the fact that human sexuality is a beautiful, natural experience that connects us all, public sexuality has a vast disruptive capacity that shouldn’t be ignored by those seeking to shut down business as usual. We can think of countless ways in which a small group or people (or even a single person) could create chaos using nudity, public sex, or related actions.

The techno-industrial system relies on moving cargo, workers, raw materials and information quickly and smoothly. Actions should focus on locations, times and situations where disruption and delay can cause ripple effects costing the system millions of dollars in lost productivity. Key freeway interchanges, ocean terminals, rail stations, airports, power plants, water supply facilities, military bases, etc. are all highly vulnerable. Cells engaging in these types of actions don’t even need to identify themselves as protesters or call attention to specific demands. It may be safer or more effective to take action without an overt political message. Even police have been disrupted or distracted by sexual actions. If the cops realized that these acts weren’t merely self-expression (or lust or depravity), but were part of the resistance movement, they might be better able to focus on carrying out their duties.

We have a particular action in mind that could be replicated in communities around the country: pubic shaving or trimming. The message – cut Bush – is implicit in the act. Moreover, your average member of the regime, the economic elite, or the military finds the idea either distracting and titillating, or disturbing and disgusting, hopefully both at the same time, creating a critical moral / sexual contradiction that could cause a spontaneous mental breakdown.

Without checking it out too carefully, we do not believe the government has enacted a law preventing one from mailing one’s pubic hairs to the President. We suspect he would quickly get the message once thousands of pounds of the stuff starts spilling out on the desks of his mail opening staff. From a public relations standpoint, he’s stuck – if he complains, the story will get out and everyone will start doing it, while the whole world laughs its head off.

With advances in DNA technology, its probably better to be careful about this sort of thing. Therefore, we’re proposing that each neighborhood would have collection stations which would mix the hair from various people into less than 1 pound packages. Such packages can be mailed with stamps anonymously from any postbox. Use gloves and other precautions when mailing. Just to spice things up a bit and confuse the DNA folks, mix in some hair or other bodily coverings from your pets (dogs, cats, rats, reptiles, maybe a few bids) and include all of this in your package.

Good luck!