Author: Slingshot Collective

The Millions for Mumia rally in Philadelphia, PA on April 24, 1999. Why?

– To show that the Mumia case is one of an imprisoned individual fighting against the repressive state.

– To show the anarchist movement can cooperate despite differences, different groups and tendencies.

– To be visible, fly the black flag of anarchism, to hand out fliers or newspapers giving an anarchist view of the case, to shout anarchist slogans.

9 To try to steer the movement toward more militancy.

The call is merely a general call for an increased anarchist presence. Any other/better ideas? You don’t like it? Contact us at: email: jmcintosh@wvwise.org or post: Black Bloc c/o P 563 Morgantown, WV 26507.

Honoring the Mother
Mother’s Day, May 7-10
Nevada Test Site

Western Shoshone lands were stolen for the creation of the Nevada Test Site where ongoing subcritical nuclear weapons tests are going on with regularity. On Mother’s Day there will be a gathering to demand an end to all nuclear weapons development programs and an immediate halt to the dumping of deadly nuclear waste on the land. The epicenter for the nuclear industry is at the Nevada Test Site, but many organizations are organizing local events in order to visibly demonstrate the links in the nuclear chain and show widespread solidarity and respect for mothers standing in defense of their lands, families and cultural rights.

The Spring Gathering will include a Mother’s Day brunch and rally at the Test Site gates; community building, nonviolence training, daily sunrise ceremonies and sweat lodges, Atomic Cafe, campfires and drumming.

For more information contact: Healing Global Wounds, PO Box 420, Tecopa, CA 92389. Phone 760-852-4175.

hgw@scruznet.com
http://www.shundahai.org/HGW/

The Women’s guerrilla history project is a group of women who make posters of important, inspirational, amazing women and then wheatpaste the posters all over San Francisco. The goal is to make a more visible and public presense of women’s history, to allow the everyday random passerby to learn something of women’s history and then wonder why these accomplishments aren’t really celebrated or even known about.

The project started last March to celebrate women’s history month. There have been posters of religious leaders, artists, political prisoners, family members, all sorts of women. Anyone is fair game, from Margaret Mead and Charlotte Corday to ancient goddesses and Ani DiFranco.

In a city adorned with advertisements which depict stereotypical and/or sexist images of women, it is a powerful statement to plaster the urban landscape with posters of our role models. This isn’t a “Don’t-try-this-at-home” project. Wheatpaste can be found in your local hardware store, in the wallpaper aisle.

Go for it

The 18-year-old 121 Social Centre squat in South London is in danger of being shut down by the police as Slingshot goes to press. A squat for anti-fascists, feminists, folkies, autonomists, socialists, bike enthusiasts, punks, anti-racists, disabled liberationists, prison activists and others, 121 Centre is ready for a riot. They have been occupied 24 hours a day and has been closed to public events for tactical reasons.

The Centre collective and users have produced 2 editions of “South London Stress”, a newsletter exposing gentrification of Brixton and the council’s attacks on 121. By selling the property, Brixton would be loosing its source of cheap entertainment and free advice on legal rights, only to be replaced by corporate profits and high price entertainment. The barricades are up, and 121 Centre is prepared for the probable surprise eviction.

For up to the minute info go to their website

Email to carolyn121@hotmail.com

For years, radical environmentalists, community activists, and traditionalists in England have banded together in a non-violent, direct-action movement to halt the construction of new roads. Road-building bifurcates communities, destroys open space and natural areas, and promotes ever-increasing congestion and pollution through increased car use. The Minnehaha Free State in Minneapolis represents the first major anti-roads effort in the US.

On December 20, 1998, just after 4 am, 7 Rider trucks stormed into a residential Minneapolis neighborhood at dangerously high speeds with their lights turned off. As each drove up beside a different house, men dressed in black piled out, some wearing gas masks, some carrying tear gas canisters, some touting laser-scope assault weapons. Soon an area about the size of a full city block was cordoned off. Helicopters hovered overhead. Sniper units were visible. Six hundred troopers were present in what became the largest police action in Minnesota history.

Inside the houses, young women and men woke to the horror of tear gas-filled rooms (rooms as small as 10′ x 10′ were bombarded with up to five canisters of the toxin). Those who did not vacate quickly discovered troopers penetrating their barricades. The troopers beat some people severely. One woman’s nose was pushed back so hard that it broke. One man had his head beaten bloody as the raiders carried him out of a basement, forcing his head into each stair. Many of the 37 people arrested had pepper spray applied directly and repeatedly to their open eyes. Nearly everyone was denied medical attention.

What heinous crime had we committed that won us such treatment? We had dared to oppose the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) bureaucratic plan to reroute a highway (HWY 55) through a working class neighborhood and a city park; a reroute that would pave over an old-growth oak savanna, that would destroy sites sacred to the Mdewakanton Dakota, that would threaten the last remaining cold water spring in the Twin Cities; a reroute that for 40 years the neighborhood had fought every step of the way through the legal process.

When the legal system failed them, the community resistance to the HWY 55 reroute invited Big Woods Earth First! to utilize its nonviolent direct action tactics in defense of the area. Through Earth First!, the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community and the American Indian Movement (AIM) became involved in the struggle. The Mendota were the original inhabitants of the condemned area, and were actually promised this-and much more-land by the US government in an 1863 treaty. On August 10 of last year-the day the first homes were scheduled for demolition-Earth First!, the Mendota, AIM and others began a nonviolent occupation on the condemned corridor. The Minnehaha Free State was declared.

A multi-tactic, popular campaign ensued, carried out by a broad-based, cross-cultural coalition. While members of the “Stop the Reroute” neighborhood coalition continued pursuing lawsuits and other legal means, Earth First! set up lockdowns in and around the condemned homes. Tree houses went up. The Mendota Mdewakanton and AIM set up tipis, sacred staffs and a sacred fire and began effective organizing within the native community. Supporters from all over the city brought supplies such as batteries for the radio communications system, food, clothing, tents, and blankets. An empty shed made way for a free store in order to distribute the goods, and occupants shared labor and food in the free kitchen. Late-season victory gardens replaced neatly mowed lawns.

Soon the occupation became a cultural center in the Twin Cities. A stage was erected to host open-mike coffeehouses. The Critical Mass bike ride made a point of swinging by on its monthly routes. Sweats and other Native American ceremonies were held regularly. Over 500 people attended a pow-wow where it was heartwarming to watch scores of families walking past “NO TRESPASSING” signs as if they didn’t even notice them. Our “diggeresque” presence on state-acquired land challenged the very notion that land can be owned at all, especially in light of the fact that half our camp was comprised of American Indians, from whom all land on this continent was stolen in the first place.

The encampment resurrected a repressed collective memory. On two occasions I observed passerby commenting, “This reminds me of the Peoples Park in Berkeley.” Behind the scenes of a political struggle, we were experimenting with an alternative way of living and structuring society. We practiced consensus decision-making, out of which came the Minnehaha declaration:

We came here on August 10th, 1998 to protect Minneapolis Green Spaces and to Stop the Reroute of HWY 55 through Minnehaha park.

We established the Free State on the principles of nonviolence and group consensus.

We demand that HWY 55 not be rerouted through the park and that any “safety improvements” do not increase the road capacity. More road capacity only increases traffic without reducing congestion. We must end our addiction to cars.

We demand the preservation of all current green space.

We demand the recognition as a sovereign community the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota.

We support the demand of the Mendota Mdewankanton Dakota for the repatriation of their land as laid out in the Act of Congress of 1863.

We will not voluntarily leave this site until the rerouting of HWY 55 is canceled, the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota community recognized as sovereign, and all land claims are upheld.

MnDOT made a gigantic tactical mistake when it decided to play a waiting game with us, in hopes that we would fade away. This gave us the opportunity to escalate the campaign through banner drops, rallies, door to door outreach and even a hunger strike, and most importantly this gave us the time we needed to build a stronger and wider movement to stop this ever-increasingly unpopular road project.

The urban setting gave Earth First! an opportunity to unite with other revolutionary struggles. The Free State regularly sent large contingents to Free Mumia protests, anti-police brutality marches, and rallies and civil disobedience to end the bombing and sanctions against Iraq. As a result, many of the people fighting for these causes were drawn into the campaign to stop the reroute. And as a result of Earth First! taking on a fairly mainstream community’s struggle, many seemingly extreme tactics were taken out of the fringe-while not compromising Earth First! principles. Entire elementary school classes would tour the encampment, learning not only how to lockdown to a tripod or concrete barrel, but also why someone might do such a thing.

The powers that be want Earth First! to be in the fringe. The powers that be want movements like Earth First! and AIM to be unable to work together. The powers that be want communities to be dysfunctional, unable to organize against unpopular projects. In short, the powers that be want to continue as the powers that be, and are therefore strategically opposed to the empowerment of people and communities. In the Minnehaha bioregion, we began to effectively empower communities. As a result, we faced harsh repression. The behavior displayed by police during the first raid (on October 14 to shut off the houses’ utilities), though brutal, was only a taste of things to come. Thereafter we would be heavily infiltrated by provocateurs and informants. And finally, in the cold pre-dawn hours of December 20, though not officially declared, martial law was implemented.

I have been involved in multi-issue activism and nonviolent resistance to social, economic, political, and ecological injustices for several years now. I’ve encountered the occasional overzealous police officer, but never have I encountered anything like what I experienced on that December night. The torture of the tear gas had already taken its toll on my roommate and me when we locked down to the
cement-filled fireplace in the basement. Immediately thereafter we heard what sounded like ten or more troopers storming down the stairs. The walls shook violently as they tried to ram down the wall. Frightened voices angrily shouted, “Come out NOW!!!…You’d better come out NOW!!!… You’d better not have any weapons in there!… You’d better have your hands up when we break this wall down cause we’ve got our guns drawn!” The room was dimly lit, and my partner and I felt we were in serious danger of getting shot once the wall came down. We attempted once more, in our pathetic crying voices (from the tear gas), to explain to the police (who should have known) that we were nonviolent. We then unlocked and came out of the room very slowly and very cautiously, to find laser scopes pinpointed on us. Once in custody the troopers immediately demanded, “Where are the booby-traps?” and “Where are the weapons?”.

Usually officers are trained on how to handle nonviolent demonstrators. Usually they are somewhat embarrassed at worst-never frightened. There was no reason to be frightened, unless they were purposefully being misinformed by superiors, which it seems was the case. I don’t care to speculate about the motive behind disseminating such dis-information, but people could have been killed, and many people were hurt badly, and this was the most horrible night of my life. Yet I was treated better than many of my friends, some of whom were beaten and/or had pepper spray gel rubbed directly in their eyes and mouths in order to get them to unlock.

Though the manufacturers of pepper spray say explicitly that it should only be used to restrain violent criminals, and never as a pain compliance tool, in late 1997 California police began using it as such against nonviolent Earth First! protesters. The four young women who were tortured with pepper spray (in order to force them to abandon an office occupation against Pacific Lumber) had their excessive force lawsuit thrown out just days before the raid on the Minnehaha Free State. Minnesota state troopers were acting on a national precedent, but they took it even one step further, using pepper gel on some protesters not only as a way to get them to unlock, but even after they were handcuffed and in custody. The perpetrators of this torture can’t possibly offer any justification for these acts, and probably they won’t have to because, unlike the California case where the whole scene was videotaped, in Minnesota they barred the press entirely from the raid. Independent press corps journalist Dick Bancroft was actually arrested. His camera was confiscated, and when it was returned, his film, which had captured the illegal destruction of AIM’s sacred drum, was missing.

Though the state put us through a living hell, and tried to break our spirits, and though the houses were demolished within hours of the raid, still the old growth oak savanna, the cold water spring and the sacred sites remain, and the campaign to stop the reroute continues. Only days after the raid, protesters returned to the corridor with tipis, buses, tree sits, and other various structures. Complaints and lawsuits-concerning the violations of constitutional and human rights by police during the raid-are underway. Also a judge recently ordered MnDOT to undergo federal mediation with the Mendota and other signers of one lawsuit. Minnehaha Uber Alles!

To help, contact Governor Jesse Ventura at State Capitol, 175 Constitutional Ave., St. Paul, MN 55155; 651-296-3391, and suggest he cancel this highway project. Contact police chief Robert Olson at 350 5th St., Minneapolis, MN 55415; 612-673-3383, and ask him what’s up with his decision to use pepper-gel? Contact MnDOT Commisioner Elwin Tinklenberg at 395 John Ireland Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155; 651-296-3000 and ask him who really thinks it’s a good idea to pave a sacred site of inestimable environmental and cultural value? We also need lots of money to help with huge legal costs and continued actions against HWY 55. Send donations c/o Big Woods EF!, POB 580936, Minneapolis, MN 55485.

Un-masked Biotic Baking Brigade (BBB) operatives Gerard Livernois, Rahula Janowski and Justin Gross were each sentenced to the maximum six-month jail sentence on February 25 for their November 7 pieing of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to protest Brown’s high handed, anti-poor policies. While Brown makes sweetheart deals with developers, spends millions to benefit the rich and powerful, and practices not-so benign neglect towards San Francisco renters who make up the majority of the city, the poor and homeless are literally dying on the streets.

Despite the crisis on the streets, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith found the BBB’s actions, not Brown’s and the political elites, to be criminal and deserving of a maximum penalty. The judge cited the unrepentant attitude of the defendants and the need to deter others in support of his decision to hand down the maximum sentence. BBB operatives are reportedly concerned at Brown’s unrepentant attitude as well.

Janowski and Gross were immediately taken to San Francisco County jail, while Livernois is temporarily out on $20,000 bail while he considers an appeal. The three were convicted of battery but acquitted of assaulting a public official in a January jury trial.

Despite the harsh sentences, BBB operatives consider the action against Mayor Brown extremely effective at raising issues rarely mentioned in the current climate of rising stock prices and glittering developments. Agents of the BBB have informed Slingshot that the struggle against business as usual will continue! To support BBB activities, contact Friends of the Biotic Baking Brigade, 3288 21st Street, #92, San Francisco, CA 94110, 415 267-5976. Contact the BBB by e-mailing BBB_apple@hotmail.com.

Please support the BBB comrades while they are in jail. They will probably serve at least 4 months of their sentences, and won’t be out until June at the earliest. You can visit them on Saturday or Sunday (and other times). Call the jail at 415 522-8109 to find out about visiting hours. You’ll need an ID and no outstanding warrants. You can also put money on their books so they have money to spend while they’re inside. Bring cash to the 1st floor of the Hall of Injustice, 8th & Bryant.

You can also write letters of support to Rahula and Justin in jail: Rahula Janowski, #1818075, 8EPOD, 425 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103; Justin Gross #1818071, County Jail 8, B-POD, 425 7th St., SF, CA 94103. Also, call the SF District Attorney at 415 553-1754 to express your outrage.

Albert Woodfox, longtime Black Panther Activist at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, was re-convicted in December of the 1972 murder of a prison guard. On February 23, he was sentenced to life without parole. Despite a long paper trail of evidence suggesting a frame-up by Angola autho6tes, a mostly white jury took only about five hours to convict Woodfox of the crime.

Prior to his retrial, Woodfox had served over 24 years in solitary confinement. Now that he has been sentenced, he fully expects to be returned to Angola’s isolation unit.

Fellow Panther Herman ‘Hooks’ Wallace was also convicted of the murder. Serving his 27th year of continuous solitary confinement, Wallace, without a lawyer, is still trying to win a reversal of his original conviction (as a result of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Wallace may have less than one year to submit a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus.

In 1971, Woodfox and Wallace founded a chapter of the Black Panther Party at Angola. Up to the point the guard, Brent Miller, was killed, the Panthers assembled a stellar record as inmate organizers. Among their proudest achievements was their campaign to end the rape and prostitution that dominated Angola’s inmate culture.

The Angola Panthers made a campaign against sexual slavery the centerpiece of their efforts to improve prison conditions. Realizing that disunity among inmates was the biggest obstacle to organizing against the authorities, the Panthers risked their lives to protect younger, weaker inmates from sexual predators.

Within a short time after its formation, the Angola Chapter of the Black Panther Party was attracting large crowds to its meetings on the yards. The Panthers held political education classes for their fellow inmates and organized their dormitories and tiers on a collective basis.

Of course, – the Panthers’ success in organizing inmates posed a grave threat to the corrupt administration of the prison. Angola, which is a massive amalgam of old plantations whose slaves came from the African country of the same name, was guarded by an all-white staff, many of whose families had lived on the prison grounds for several generations. Guards, or “free folk” as they are called, reflecting Angola’s slaveholding past, had devised many schemes by which to divert Angola’s resources for their own enrichment. Most notably, free folk often stole prison- grown food, which was intended for inmates’ mouths, and gave it to their families or sold it in town.

The Panthers worked to expose such graft, and, predictably, incurred the wrath of the good old boy administration. So, when Officer Miller turned up dead, stabbed 32 times, on April 17, 1972, Woodfox and Wallace were natural targets.

Only one person, an inmate named Hezekiah Brown, claimed to have witnessed the murder. Originally, he said he could not identify the killers, who were wearing handkerchiefs over their faces. However, after a few days of grilling by investigators (and, we now know,. the promise of a payoff), Brown identified’ Wallace and Woodfox, along with two other inmates, Chester Jackson and Gilbert Montegut, as the killers.

Woodfox was tried alone and convicted in 1973. The other three defendants were tried together. On the second day of trial, Chester’ Jackson returned from lunch with the prosecution team, announcing he had made a deal. After being allowed only a half hour to regroup, the defendants’ lawyer cross- examined his former client, Chester Jackson. Despite his obvious conflicts of interest, the defense attorney was forced to proceed, and Wallace was convicted. Montegut was acquainted. Even An ola’s then-warden, C. Murray Henderson, now admits that Montegut was framed for his perceived “militancy.”

In 1992, Woodfox finally succeeded in having his conviction overturned. Lacking a lawyer, his briefing was prepared by fellow Panther Robe@ “King” Wilkerson. (Wilkerson has also spent 27 years in isolation, convicted of killing a prison rapist).

When the state convened a grand jury to reindict Woodfox, it stacked the deck in its own favor. One of the grand jurors, Anne Butler, was married to C. Murray Henderson, the warden who presided over the original murder investigation. Together, the two had written a book about Angola, entitled Dying to Tell. The first chapter is about the Miller lolling, and it presumes the guilt of Woodfox and Wallace. Nevertheless, and despite Woodfox’s objections, Butler was allowed to serve on the grand jury. (in a bizarre case of poetic justice, Henderson was sentenced in January to 50 years, convicted of attempted murder alter shooting his wife, Anne Butler, five times.)

Woodfox’s December trial was marked by prejudicial testimony and an overwhelming lack of evidence. No physical evidence linked Woodfox or Wallace to the murder. A bloody fingerprint found near Millees body matched none of the defendants. Despite having on file the fingerprints of every Angola inmate, investigators made no effort to find out who the print belonged to.

Because they could produce no physical evidence, the prosecution relied on inflammatory evidence of Woodfox’s political beliefs, as well as the testimony of two inmates, both of whose credibility is in doubt. The state’s star witness was inmate Hezekiah Brown. Now dead, Brown testified at the original trials that he saw Woodfox, his face obscured, stab Miller. At December’s trial, his testimony was read to the jury. We now know that Brown was paid for this testimony. Internal DOC memoranda show that Warden Henderson promised Brown one carton of cigarettes per week in exchange for his testimony. In addition, by 1974, only five years after Brown had been sentenced to death for aggravated rape, the Warden, the District Attorney, the Deputy Sheriff, and other prosecution officials were campaigning for immediate and unconditional release for Brown. Brown finally received clemency, and was released, in 1986.

At Woodfox’s December trial, the state’s other star witness was inmate Leonard ‘Specs’ Turner. When he took the stand, Turner denied having any – information implicating Woodfox. However, the prosecution was allowed to impeach him with an unsigned, undated statement, in a guard’s handwriting, in which Turner allegedly stated that he saw Woodfox and Wallace fleeing the murder scene.

Facing the rest of his life in solitary confinement, Woodfox somehow maintains his spirit of unending struggle. Only hours after his sentencing, he said, “This revolutionary is as strong as ever, and will continue to baftle no matter what.”

For more information, or to offer support (especially legal help), contact the Angola 2 Support Committee, P.O. Box 15644, New Orleans, LA 70175, (504) 227-5946. The Prison Activist Resource Center is hosting an Angola 2 website at www.prisonactivist.org/angolatwo.

As has been demonstrated clearly since the current global pastry uprising began in October, pies fly when you’re having fun. Our brave and noble Dutch comrades of the fighting unit called TA.A.R.T, who claimed they were “inspired by the Californian based group Biotic Baking Brigade,” have struck another blow against neoliberalism and globalization.

Holland – January 4, 1999 Dutch minister receives banana-vanilla pie in his face T.A.A.R.T. strikes again!! Today the actiongroup T.A.A.R.T. (Dutch for PIE), surprised the Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm with two delicious vanilla-banana pies (100% organic) in his face. With this action we want to celebrate his contribution to the introduction of the euro: one of the most undemocratic, megalomanic plans imposed on the population this century. Also, we want to congratulate big business, that finally succeeded in creating the unified coin – euro-, after years of lobbying in shady organizations like the Association for a Monetary Union and the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT). The euro, the crown on the Internal Market – also a corporate initiative realised by european politicians.

What are the objections of T.A.A.R.T. against the euro?

1. For years now, the EMU project (Economic and Monetary Union) has been an excuse for politicians and the corporate world to annoy the European population with budget- cuts and reorganisations. Because we had to be ready for the euro and catch up with the EMU chteria! In the future, downsizing, public spending cuts and reorganisations will become structural policy, thanks to the Stability Pact. Governments have to balance their budgets according to this pact, and are not allowed to spend too much money on, for example, social secuhty and health care. If not, they will be punished by the omnipotent and unaccountable European Central Bank. The euro – we’re all going to pay for this. Or, talking in Zalm- speak: “we have to increase the safety margins”.

2. For the business world, the euro offers lots of advantages, but European citizens won’t taste the benefits. Just like always, Europeans will have to pay for using cash points, changing money and bank transactions. All the euro propaganda with which the government harassed us (tv ads, billboards, government leaflets, free info lines, newspaper advertisements etc) prove to be based on lies. The euro offers beautiful possibilities for companies to increase their monstrous profits. A strong, stable currency; a uniform, transparent market…. European politicians are trying their very best to create the most ideal circumstances for companies. Like Dutch Bank director Nout Wellink explained: ‘maintaining the Stability Pact is crucial for the trust of the private sector”.

3. Entirely according to European Union traditions, the European population was not included in the decision to introduce the euro. The euro will be for all of us, the European Commission says, but no-one voted for it! Just a few countries had a referendum on the subject. Dutch politicians must be thinking the population is too stupid to have a say in this. And now we are told -like we are little children – to be very happy with the new currency. What a shame!

4. The euro is the next in a series of megalomanic plans, thought out by euro- fanatics who only think in terms of economic growth, ideal circumstances for companies and the competing power of the EU. The European Union is beginning to look more and more like an economic- monetary dictatorship in which European politicians obediently realize the wishes of corporate Europe, at the cost of european citizens.

T.A.A.R.T. does not feel sad about the disappearing of the Dutch Guilder, but opposes a unified Europe in which monetary and economic interests prevail, without the population having any say in this. T.A.A.R.T. is in favor of true international cooperation, not based on money and corporate interests, but on solidarity, hospitality, fair trade and true democracy.

No to a europe of bankers and companies!!! International solidarity instead of euro- dictatorship!!!

Science is currently the domain of government military interests and large-scale industry. The establishment controls the funding for scientific research, and hence gets to decide what type of research is done. The ruling class maintains power by not funding projects that put science to work bettering the lives of oppressed people. Medical research supports the health concerns of rich people (plastic surgery, laser eyesight correction), while ignoring the high infant mortality rate for babies of color and the low life expectancies on Native American reservations. Lesbian health needs are not yet on the horizon of mainstream gynecological research. Geologists can often only find jobs in the oil industry; little funding is available for investigating claims of contaminated soil and water made by environmental justice organizations. “Pure science”, or research for truth’s sake, is not exempt: The Department of Defense and the Department of Energy disproportionately fund “pure” research in areas such as optics and plastics development in anticipation of new weapons materials. The current science is a vehicle of oppression.

But science can be a powerful tool in the construction of a liberated society. Converting science from a corporate puppet to a process accessible to all people will deal a major blow to the capitalist information-based economy. Science and the resulting technology have built the current exploitative “information age.” We must take science back. Science must not be seen as a force of oppression, but as a tool that can be used for liberation. We must re-channel science to clean up the social and environmental legacies of the current industrial/information society, and to support a new society where science contributes to all communities. Applied research can focus on topics ranging from public transportation to contaminated land and water cleanup to health care suited to each individual. Basic science research should be pursued with respect for the natural world it seeks to understand, and only after critical consideration of possible applications of the research.

The creation of a science that works for all people requires that people from all sectors of society understand and participate in science. The corporate elite can control science because the general public perceives science to be the mystical realm of experts. The establishment perpetuates the myth that science requires a higher level of intelligence, and that science is most easily done by people who are white and male or who “think like men.” In response to mainstream feminism and race-related civil rights battles, the military and corporate controllers of science have established several scholarship programs targeting women and people of color. However, recipients of the fellowships are frequently required to work for the military/corporate sponsor for at least a short period after graduation, and are thus sucked into the corporate science system through the promise of job security. Most people not from backgrounds of privilege are tracked away from science through racist and classist educational systems, and through media manipulation of the scientific process which feeds the elitism bestowed upon the scientist.

In fact, science can be done by anybody. The type of reasoning used in science is not inherently oppressive, male, or white, but can be used by anybody in everyday actions such as finding the fastest route to work or determining the best combination of groceries while shopping on a budget. People working on engines in shops use skills and thought processes called scientific when done by a Ph.D. Children have an innate experimental ability in their creativity, questioning, and theory-testing. The process of identifying herbal medicinal treatments is as scientifically valid as research done in the medical establishment. Indigenous and independent farmers do science as they identify the growing conditions and soil types that best suit certain plants.

Empowering people of diverse backgrounds to learn science is essential to reclaiming scientific knowledge and tools for everybody’s use. Equally important is the restructuring of the funding process. Research must no longer be funded by organizations within the military-industrial complex. Funding must be delegated by bodies directly responsible to the people. One suggestion is a committee of people chosen possibly at random and representative of all populations within an area. The committee would listen to presentations by research groups seeking funding, and would award funding after investigating multiple views on a project. The money would be public in origin, and the people would have to be generally satisfied with the research to keep contributing money. Research would then be truly responsive to the community’s needs.

Ideas for new research projects:

Birth/sperm control taken by men

Alternative sources of energy

Better mud control methods at construction sites

City lights that cause less light pollution

Studies of the ecology of all parts of the earth, and how humans have affected the ecology

Survey and remediation of contaminated water sources

It looks like the next target for corporate advertisements are the beaches of Florida, where Skippy peanut butter has already successfully steam rolled its image onto a stretch of beach half a mile long and 200 ft wide. Beach towns from Miami beach to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to Wildwood, NJ and Jones beach on Long Island are considering this tactic in return for profits made by selling “ad space” in the sand. From an ecological standpoint, steamrolling advertisements into the sand is probably more environmentally friendly and more ecologically efficient than using billboards (no paper, ink, etc.). However, from a basic human-who-wants-a-break-from-consumer-corporate-run-around-standpoint, this dream-induced marketing ploy (inventor Dori literally spruced the idea from a dream) only serves to remind us that corporate advertisements and the steady push for consumerism has risen to intolerably obnoxious heights in modern America. Who wants to think about Skippy peanut butter every time they go to the beach? What sort of state is the world in that a person’s self worth is directly linked to how well they as a worker can provide ideas for their corporation? Hopefully the human species can someday escape the strange notion that life spirals around working an 8 hour day only to buy, work again, to then again buy more consumer goods for the rest of their lives. 5000 pressed images of Skippy peanut butter jars strewn along the coastline …how many dollars are your dreams worth?