Author: Slingshot robot #1

By Ryan Fletcher

Beloved long-time social justice activist, anarchist, and owner of Angel Cakes bakery, Jen Angel died on Feb. 9, 2023. Jen passed on after three days on life support following critical injuries in an apparent robbery outside of a bank in Oakland, CA. 

For over 30 years, Jen Angel was a visionary influence and pioneering participant within multiple movements and sub-cultures that have significantly informed and shaped our world today. Jen has been a tremendous inspiration to me personally, providing a model of a life well-lived off the beaten track, in pursuit of a new, better and more just world. Ten years ago, we founded an activist media project together. 

Her involvement in punk rock and independent publishing in the 1990’s helped to codify the DIY ethic that has defined radical sub-culture. This work then fueled the Global Justice and anti-war movements of the early 2000’s and infused the anarchist politic that characterized this era of activism and gave way to Occupy Wall Street in 2011. These movements were a catalyzing force behind contemporary fights for racial justice, police abolition, climate justice, economic justice, and queer and gender liberation. Jen, through her projects, passion, and drive has been a throughline in these social movements over decades. 

Jen founded the social justice event production organization Aid & Abet. Jen was the co-founder and publisher of Clamor Magazine, a bi-monthly alternative magazine published from 1999 to 2006. In 2013 Jen co-founded Agency: an Anarchist PR Project, which promotes anarchist ideas to the public through commentary, media relations, and educational campaigns. Following media relations work we did together during the Occupy movement, Jen and I teamed up and created Agency. The mission and infrastructure she made possible continues to endure. The project marks its 10^th anniversary this year. 

Anarchism was especially important to Jen, as was anarchist publishing. She was a PM Press author and part of the organizing collective for the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair for many years. She was involved in planning the 2023 book fair at the time of her passing. 

As an anarchist, Jen did not believe in state violence, carceral punishment, or incarceration as an effective or just solution to social violence and inequity. This message has been a core part of our work, as Jen’s family and friends, to respond to media interest in her life, and the circumstances that led to death — especially because her case has been classified as a homicide. The outpouring of mutual aid, solidarity, and care for Jen, her family, and friends is a resounding demonstration of the values Jen believed in. 

If the Oakland Police Department does make an arrest in her case, the family is committed to pursuing all available alternatives to traditional prosecution, such as restorative justice. This is what Jen believed in. It’s critical that stories referencing Jen’s life should not further inflame narratives of fear, hatred, and vengeance. Jen opposed the use of public resources for policing, incarceration, and other forms of state violence that only perpetuate the cycles of violence that resulted in her death. 

Jen believed in a world where everyone can live a dignified and joyful life and worked toward an ecologically sustainable and deeply participatory society in which all people have access to the things they need, decisions are made by those most directly affected by them, and all people are free and equal.

Jen Angel’s legacy is one that contains multitudes, among them was a deep commitment to safety and dignity for everyone. Rest in power, dear friend. 

Contact us by April 20 if you want to draw art for the 2024 Slingshot Organizer — you do not have to live in California to be a co-conspirator. Around 30 artists from all over contribute to each edition. 

Also please send additions and corrections for the radical contact list by May 19. We’re especially looking for contacts in under-represented areas, states and countries: cities that are NOT college towns particularly in the South and midwest — anywhere in Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming. Also especially spaces in Africa & the Middle East.

If you want to work on editing and adding to the radical historical dates, reach out between March 13 – April 20. We want to add protests or notable events from 2022 / 2023, older stuff we’re missing especially marginalized issues and movements, and we need help proofreading to try to locate and correct errors. 

If you are in the Bay Area, join Slingshot for two art party weekends to put the organizer together by hand May 20-21 and May 27-28 at Long Haul 3124 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. “It is like a 24/7 art rave — but geeky and free.” You can drop by for an hour or stay all day. 

Selling the organizer enables Slingshot to print and distribute this newspaper for free. The 2024 organizer will be available sometime in August. If you know of a store in your area that could sell the organizer, let us know. 

We have extra copies of the 2023 big spiral bound organizer — contact us if you can distribute a dozen or more copies for free to youth who wouldn’t otherwise have access — particularly in the midwest, south, and other areas outside of the hip urban bubble: slingshotcollective@protonmail.com. We’ve already sent boxes of free organizers to youth in Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and South Dakota.

If you still want to buy the 2023 organizer, there is a list of bookstores and distributors at slingshotcollective.org. 

Compiled by Jesse D. Palmer

Building community outside the narrow confines of the internet, consumerism, and alienated labor demands physical space for face-to-face interaction — forest camps, ragged artists warehouses, illegal venues, feminist bookstores and cluttered storefronts bursting with books, free piles, bike tools and Food Not Bombs. The good news is that the underground is thriving post-Covid — the following list of new spaces we’ve heard about and updates to the Radical Contact List in the 2023 Slingshot organizer is the largest we’ve published in years. You wouldn’t know it by paying attention to mainstream media, but we may be living in a golden age of counter culture. All these projects are waiting for you to walk through their door and put your time and heart into something that matters, not the dying empire. Plugging into something bigger than yourself is what makes life worth living and it’s the only path away from isolation and towards connection and love.Please let us know if you hear about spaces we should include. There’s even more info on-line at slingshotcollective.org.

Community Books – Stone Mountain, GA

A new community book store that aims to bring affordable new, used and radical books to a largely Black working class community that currently has no bookstore. They say that Stone Mountain “is at the center of antiracist struggle in the US south.” 978-A Main Street Stone Mountain, GA 30083

Wild Soul River – Williamstown, MA

An abolitionist herbal gathering space and herb / tea / healing store that hosts events. They have three free mutual aid shelves, fentanyl test strips and COVID rapid tests. 248 Cole Ave. Williamstown, MA 01267 413-597-1172 wildsoulriver.com

Source Bookstore – Detroit, MI

Independent bookstore that hosts events. 4240 Cass Ave, #105 Detroit, MI, 48201 313- 832-1155 sourcebooksellers.com

Trident Booksellers and Cafe – Boulder, CO

An independent employee-owned bookstore and cafe with Buddhist roots that hosts events. 940 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302 303-443-3133 tridentcafe.com

Solidarity Fridge – Las Vegas, NV

Community refrigerator, pantry, and garden. 5502 E. Blackthorn Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89142

The Radical Cat – Reno, NV

Feminist bookstore, cat adoption center, and community space that hosts events 1717 S. Wells Ave Reno, NV 89502 775-409-3152 theradicalcat.com 

Free Black Women’s Library – Brooklyn, NY

A library featuring 4000 books written by Black women, social art project and interactive installation that hosts events. Open 1pm-5pm Weds/Thurs, 1pm-6pm Sat/Sun. 226 Marcus Garvey Blvd, Brooklyn NY 11221  thefreeblackwomenslibrary.com

P.I.T., The – Brooklyn, NY

A community space, venue and infoshop that sells books and records. P.I.T stands for “property is theft.” 411 South 5th Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 347-763-0333 propertyistheft.org

Hella Positive – Oakland, CA

A clothing store that hosts events. 1606 7th St, Oakland, CA 94607 hellapositive.com

Fallout SF – San Francisco, CA 

An underground (literally) radical, collective, punk community art space that hosts events. 50-A Bannam Place San Francisco CA 94133 falloutsf.com

Fluid Cooperative Cafe – San Francisco, CA

A transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming owned cooperative cafe that hosts events. 332 Golden Gate Ave. San Francisco, CA 94102 fluidcoopsf.com

Medicine For Nightmares – San Francisco, CA

A bookstore with radical materials and art gallery that hosts events. 3036 24th St. San Francisco, CA 94110 415-824-1761 medicinefornightmares.com

Wild West Access Fund of Nevada – Reno, NV

A statewide resource for people seeking reproductive health services. Folks can apply for funding if they’re seeking an abortion in Nevada. NOT a radical space you can visit but still lovely. P.O Box 561 Keystone Ave #398 Reno, NV 89503 wildwestfund.org

Black Spark Cultural Centre – Melbourne, Australia

A bookshop, gallery and community hub that presents music. Open Wed-Sun 11am-6pm. 235A St. George’s Road Northcote, VIC, 3070

Catalyst Social Centre – Melbourne, Australia

A new social center operated by a federation of grassroots collectives with a cafe, radical library and garden that present events. 144-146 Sydney Road Coburg, VIC, 3056 catalystcentre.net

Platform C – Seoul, South Korea

A new activist education space. 41 Dongyo-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

The Queery – Brighton, UK

An independent, volunteer-run, queer radical bookshop and sober community space with a vegan pay-as-you-feel café. 46 George St, Brighton BN2 1RJ, UK. Thequeery.co.uk

Nordpol – Dortmund, Germany 

A not for profit and self governed bar and event space. Bronzer. 144 Dortmund nrdpl.org

Rizoma Coop – Lisbon, Portugal 

A food co-op grocery store that hosts events. R. José Estêvão 4, 1150-192 Lisboa, Portugal rizomacoop.pt

Centro Documentazione Porfido – Torino, Italy

They edit and distribute books, pamphlets and free anti-capitalist texts. They have a library with over 6000 books. “Center for the critique of capitalist society”. They also have audiobooks.  Via Luigi Tarino, 12, 10124 Torino, Italy porfidotorino.it

Corrections to the 2023 Slingshot Organizer 

• Anarres infoshop has re-opened inside Activespace at 1720 NW Lovejoy St, Unit 236, Mailbox 222, Portland OR 97209. Open 2-6 PM Friday and Sunday.

• Oops we left Flemington DIY off the list – the are at 26 Stangl Road Flemington, NJ 08822 856-431-3692 flemingtondiy.org

• Battery Street Jeans got left off – they are at 115 College Ave. Burlington, VT 05401 802-865-6223.

• Rag & Bones Bicycle Cooperative moved to 2916 North Avenue, Richmond, VA, 23222.

• Dalibom Book in South Korea has lost their space and is online only now.

• Deul Dabang has a new address: 1-131beon-ji Yuri Building 4FDongsung-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul

• Sai Church in South Korea changed its name to Okbaraji Missionary.

• Songjeong Village Cafe in S. Korea closed.

By Jack Meeks

The movement to ban cars on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley blocked traffic with live music, street art, and lively discussions January 28 to celebrate how life could be without the presence of automobiles. It was a young crowd led by Telegraph for People and there were many discussions about how transportation could work on a non-auto Telegraph with bikes, skateboards, foot powered scooters, walking, running, etc. We also discussed accessibility for all as not everyone is a bike rider, recent trips to mass transit sites such as the new Chinatown light rail in San Francisco, and how much time participants had without driving. The new heroes are the ones who have never actually driven — yes there are some. Another idea is removing parking spaces on the streets. In cities like Dallas and Houston something like 70 percent of urban land is used for parking purposes and cars are not used 95 percent of the time.

The new $7,500 tax credit for electric cars was also discussed. A big strain on the environment is fabrication, operation and destruction of automobiles, whether they be electric or not. Even after cars’ lives end, the material continues to pollute our environment. Lead, nickel, and other hazardous materials are in car parts and batteries, which leak into the ground in landfills and junkyards. About a third of US greenhouse emissions comes from transportation sources. 

San Francisco has a partial ban on cars on Market Street which prohibits private autos, however public vehicles like taxis are ok — not quite what we are looking for here in Berkeley. 

A very small minority of people here in the United Sates live without cars, like 7 percent of the population. Yet it is not just about not having automobiles, it is the safety and quality of life that is gained by not having cars on the streets. Clean air, less noise, more people getting exercise walking, no road rage, and perhaps a new sense of community as more of us get to know each other in the neighborhood. 

“Cars and Capitalism go together, destroying lives, poisoning the air, and chewing up space, all in the name of profit”

More info telegraphforpeople.com

By DD

Environmental disaster hit Pakistan in August 2022 when floods and heavy monsoons devastated the country and its people. Now, months after the news has filtered out of most press, public discussions, and social media, the effects of the catastrophe remain.

With so much going on in the world every day and a stream of new information constantly being fed to us, it can be hard to keep past events in mind. I worry that this incessant consumption of news may serve more to fuel desensitization and a sense of normalization when new catastrophes hit. So, I find value in looking at events that are considered to be old and recognizing how these events have long-lasting effects and reflect broader themes about society. 

Pakistan experiences flooding annually, however the extent of this past year’s flooding was at an unprecedented scale. During the height of the floods, 70% of the country was submerged under water. Smaller villages along the Indus River have been most impacted, and 33 million people were displaced from their homes. Fleeing from their destroyed homes, people lived in tents or unsanitary makeshift houses that allowed diseases to develop and spread. Malaria, dengue, typhoid, and skin diseases from trekking through dirty and contaminated water infected many and further raised the death toll. Pakistan is primarily an agricultural country, and the floods washing away 45% of its agricultural land has led to massive food shortages that will continue to have long effects on the country’s people and their economy. The intense diseases, starvation, and a severe lack of purified drinking water has caused nearly 2,000 (documented) deaths and over 20 million people in need of humanitarian aid. 

Leading up to the floods, the country experienced issues with double-digit inflation, a giant economic recession, unstable political leadership, and housing issues. Maintenance of the drainage systems in Pakistan was of minimal concern. Most infrastructure designed to drain potential flooding were not structurally sound and dated back to the colonial period. The government was focused on repaying debts to overdeveloped countries, and let concerns over potential future issues lag behind on the priority list. Now, the country is likely to face greater debt as it grapples with over $30 billion in losses. The cycle of global poverty continues and the economic issues that left the country more vulnerable to environmental catastrophes have only worsened.

While the foreign aid that has come in from private donors and some governments are necessary at the moment, they are not sustainable solutions to the overall issue this reflects. Our current economic system prides itself on its globalization, but this skewed perspective of a globalized economy and trade merely serves to overdevelop some wealthy countries that are profiting off underdeveloped countries by extracting resources and cheap labor. Exploitative capitalism masquerades under the guise of “free-trade” and encourages us to forget the coercive methods and imperialist tactics that forcibly opened these markets in the first place. 

Why does the ideal of globalization not extend to the environmental aspect? Where is international exchange of resources when countries are in need and suffering from the environmental consequences? When profit-driven economic modes of thought dominate, social well-being rarely aligns. 

Pakistan, like most other countries in the Global South, has contributed very little to global emissions and industrial policies that pollute and drive climate change forward. Countries in the Global South are often formerly colonized countries that suffered severe exploitation of their natural resources, land, and labor. While imperialism may no longer appear under the same guise, it plays a role in international capitalism. This global wealth disparity reflects itself in issues of environmental degradation. As of 2022, 80% of all global warming emissions originate from the world’s 20 largest economies, and the effects of this are often found in the countries with the least economic resources. The Global South functions almost entirely as export economies and benefits the least from global industrialization. Countries in the Global South have provided raw material, resources and cheap labor that are exported to countries in the Global North where consumer goods are branded, marketed, and sold for massive profit. Commercialized goods often find their way back into the Global South to be sold – generating greater profit for overdeveloped countries and perpetuating global inequality. 

Normalization of this infiltrates its way into people’s minds in the Global North. We see a little infographic on the floods (as with other global disasters), think about how horrible it is, and then swipe forward to see an advertisement on the new clothing sale happening NOW ! Never mind that those clothes are likely made for pennies by women and children at workhouses with disgraceful and unsafe conditions. Never mind the global inequality that leaves people in the Global South with no other option than working in horrifying conditions. Never mind that Western overproduction and emissions cause great economic and environmental stress on underdeveloped countries. Never mind how industry-made climate change intensifies scorching heat-waves each summer and causes drought and massive loss of crops and human life. Never mind how pollution and poor air quality drive up daily deaths and create society-wide health problems that drastically impact countries with less resources to address these problems. 

It is frighteningly easy to disregard the connection between the economy and the environment. We have been socialized to view life in fragments, in our education and in our news outlets. There is a tendency toward separating views of the [economy] and the [environment] and [politics] and [education] and so on. It doesn’t help when news is fed to us in tidy and isolated categories. I critique the social media infographics, but I’ll admit that those are how I first found out about the floods in Pakistan, as is what happens with most of the news I learn about. Still, if this is our method of receiving information, let it not dictate our habit of consuming information. Do not allow the constant flow of media to result in mindless and desensitized digestion of the world’s issues. It is capitalism’s consumer culture that drives global economic inequalities, and it is this culture that leaves people placid and indifferent to the clear issues surrounding us. Catastrophes are not meant to be bits of media to be taken at face-value, they are real longer than the duration it remains on your screen, and the effects will persist long into the future. As climate disasters intensify, countries that are economically underdeveloped will likely struggle to combat the impacts. We must maintain persistent social pressure against our unsustainable and inequitable economic system, as well as the environmental degradation it perpetuates. There are alternatives to both the economic systems at hand and the current forms of energy and fuel that exacerbate climate change. 

By Jon D Rapp

You know about the typewriter saints? They sit on the corner with a typewriter and a sign, “Poetry for sale”. What does this mean? Poetry is changing. It seems that a lot of pedestrians would rather spend $5-$10 on a personal poem rather than buy an entire book of poetry. This is great! It gives you, the troubadour scribe, an opportunity to delve into spontaneity. Channel something unique; it’s part improvisation, part performance art. 

If you’re any good at it, it’s a great way to turn words into bread.

How does one develop this ability? I started out writing anonymous love letters to strangers who inspired me. I would hand it to them and gauge the response. This helped me develop courage and wit. I spent time at open mics delivering improvised stories and poetry. I practiced for many years before I found my first typewriter.

On finding a typewriter:

Test the keys. “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is one way to use all the letters in the alphabet. Make sure you check all the keys, whether they skip or space accidentally, and make sure the margins and the carriage are responsive. Run some paper through your machine.

You’ll likely need to replace the ribbon. This is incredibly simple. I’ve found the best ribbons come from Europe. You want the ink to rub off on your fingers when you touch the ribbon. It should print dark.

Clean your machine. Use a very thin coating of gun oil or sewing machine oil and a wire brush to break through any rust. DO NOT USE WD-40. It will attract dust and gunk. Typewriters want to run dry. It’s important to wipe off any residual oil. If your machine is jammed up from debris, dirt, and too much oil, use mineral oil and wire brushes (I use bore brushes) to clean it out.

On writing and busking:

Talent is not exceptional. Dispose of the mentality of over-night prodigies. Persistence is far more important than skill. Persistence creates skill.

Figure out your costume. Bring a tip jar, a chair, a TV tray, sharpie, signage, tape, scissors. I like to type on all kinds of stuff. Money, paper bags, etc. Experiment with your medium! 

Find a busy intersection where musicians like to busk. Ask if they don’t mind you setting up nearby. I consider the typewriter to be a percussion instrument. Who knows, you may be invited to jam with the musicians! Typewriter saints and the musical buskers are often welcome companions.

Relax. Be flexible. Some people may want a therapy session. They might want help writing a difficult letter to a relative. Keep a list handy, for each commissioned poem. Take pictures of them for your portfolio, if you want. Try not to spend more than 10 minutes on each poem if you have a long line.

Be patient. Some days you’ll make some money, other days you’re just writing letters to yourself. Keep busy typing. The sound of typing will attract interest. Have fun! It’s never about the money but we all gotta eat. 

For more typewriter busking inspiration:

IG @rogueXwriters

By Eric Finley #C09900

“Where’s My Daddy?”

“He’s gone to prison.”

These words are a precursor to the destruction of yet another American family unit by the meat grinder that is our criminal justice system. While innocent children fall to the wayside in the wake of this incarceration machine, they become collateral damage in a way we are losing as a society.

Welcome to the front lines of America’s war on crime. It is a battlefield littered with confused and lonely children, who have lost one or both of their primary caregivers.

In my own lifetime, I’ve been both a victim of this process as a child, and a perpetrator of it as an adult. At four months of age, I permanently lost my mother when the criminal justice system took her away and I became a ward of the state. On January 16, 1990, my own three month old son was harnessed with a similar fate when federal agents arrived at our home with my freshly minted marijuana trafficking indictment. My son and I have not seen each other since that cold morning.

This issue was brought sharply into focus for me recently when a man I barely know approached me with a humble request for help. 

Antonio is about my age, and his metal bunk is within sight of mine. I watched him push his walker toward me, and I was surprised when he stopped next to me and remarked, “I see you spend most of your time writing.” He hesitated for a moment, then he added, “I can’t write very well because I shake so much.”

Antonio then pointed to the manuscript I was working on, and he told me, “You must be good at saying things on paper.”

I smiled at this compliment, then I listened as Antonio went on to tell me about his wife passing away, leaving him alone with two young children to care for. At that time, Antonio was already disabled from a gunshot wound he sustained earlier in life. 

As a single Black parent, he managed to care for these two children for roughly a year before becoming ensnared in our criminal justice system.

Antonio received an eight year sentence, and his children became wards of the state. Now, after more than a year spent fighting the courts, he’s just been granted the right to correspond with his children. 

He shared all of this very personal information with me, then he was humble enough to look directly at me and say, “I’m not very good at writing, and my hands shake really bad, so could you help me write a letter to my kids?”

This man impressed me with his straight forward request for assistance, so together we created a nice letter for his two children. With the aid of the Lutheran Services Organization, the letter went to the kids. 

The determination and bravery of this man has given me the inspiration to attempt locating my own son, a process made nearly impossible by a lack of funds, access to public records, or social media outlets. Many inmates like myself have no outside contacts or family, further hampering these types of efforts. I have not been able to locate a single organization willing to help.

Children of all races and ages are victimized by a cold and efficient incarceration machine that infects our society generation after generation.

Minorities are particularly victimized by this process. Once a family becomes caught in this repeating cycle of incarceration and abandonment, our dysfunctional criminal justice system just keeps grinding them up.

This means there is a very good chance my son will be incarcerated, if and when I find him. And he may have children. 

From where I now sit, we cannot bring about any change, and the madness continues, unchecked…

Write the author at Eric Finley #C09900 19000 SW 377th St. Florida City, FL 33034

By Jacque Cormier

Service dogs are like vitamins. They are not federally regulated, and not covered by insurance even when deemed necessary by a medical professional. But the role they play is crucial and many people rely on them to live. Here’s a personal example:

In my late 30’s I became too sick to care for myself and it became increasingly impossible for me to go out in public. So, I went to a doctor and had a lot of tests done before my doctors discovered that I was iron, D3 and B12 deficient. To alleviate these symptoms that prevented me from being able to live a healthy life, because yes…anemia can kill you and does kill Americans every year, they prescribed vitamins. My insurance, like most, doesn’t cover these vitamins that I need to live, even with the blood work from my doctor proving that I need them. The lack of federal regulation on vitamins, also means that the companies who make them have a lot of leeway for the quality and cost of their products. So yes, I could conceivably take an iron supplement, that I need to live, that my doctor prescribes, that doesn’t contain any iron and I will have to pay an unregulated amount of money for.

This article, isn’t about vitamins. It’s about expanding our knowledge of service dogs and their value in our beautifully diverse human society. But I would like you to keep my vitamin example in your mind as I move forward.

Because like my anemia many disabilities are not visible. And despite most of the media portrayals of service dogs being golden labs guiding an obviously impaired individual, many service tasks do not require that the dog be large. Examples include dogs that monitor blood sugar levels, heart rate, alert to allergens or can sense an oncoming seizure. Service training also does not require that the dog be a specific breed. The ADA specifically states that service dogs cannot be discriminated against based on their breed. The dogs’ breed and size is often chosen to fit the lifestyle of their handler and the nature of their work. 

I am a small person, I drive a small car, ride a small folding bicycle and often travel for work.

My new service dog is small, shocking I know. It is also easier for him to do his job if he is carried. This gives him access to my face, and prevents him from being stepped on, petted, or distracted by the well-meaning but uninformed public. Yes, he is still a service animal in a sweater, because it’s snowing. And yes, he was still a service animal when his leg was in a splint. Being a service animal doesn’t make him invincible, and he may need eye protection or foot coverings to do his job. Wearing these things in public, even if you think it’s cute, doesn’t mean he is not a ‘real’ service dog. Please let go of the idea that a service dog must look or do a certain thing for the handler’s disability to be real and valid. And please stop looking for an excuse to call out ‘fake service animals.’ And please, please, I do not want to have a conversation with my cashier that my service dog is ‘just doing it for the treat.’

I just want to buy my gluten free quick oats and leave.

Another misconception is that service animals work for free. People and animals don’t work like programs in hacker movies. There is no montage scene where we tweak the code and once done, it provides predictable output forever. The nature of service training is that it is unique to the handler’s needs and is ongoing. Successful execution of training needs or be marked to communicate to the animal that it is desirable and so the animal will continue to do the job. 

This is the long way to say yes, it is appropriate for a service animal, in public, that has just performed its task, that you probably didn’t recognize it did, to be treated or praised. Hugging my service animal in public does not mean he is not a real service animal.

To most of the public, both my disability and my service animal’s job is invisible.

If I take my iron supplement, my blood tests do not show that I am anemic. This is literally why I take them.

If my service dog is doing his job, then I do not appear disabled. 

This is the entire nature of our relationship and why I have dedicated so much of my time and money into his training. I do not want to be disabled; I do not want to be prohibited from living an independent life. The tasks of many service dogs follow this invisible example, and the public blithely assumes the animal is not working. Or that it is a pet that I have cheekily snuck in. Here’s another personal example:

In my late 30’s I became too sick to care for myself and it became impossible for me to go out in public. So, I went to a whole lot of doctors, and did a bunch of tests before my doctors discovered the names for my disabilities. This took three years. To alleviate the symptoms that were preventing me from being able to live a healthy life, because yes undiagnosed mental illness can kill you and does in fact, kill a lot of Americans every year, they made a treatment plan for me that included medication and the support of a service animal. My insurance, like most, doesn’t cover the costs of a service animal, even with years’ worth of data and studies proving the efficacy of service dogs for my disability. The lack of federal regulation on service dogs and their training means that the companies that train them have a lot of leeway for the quality and price of their products. So yes, I could conceivably pay upwards of $50k, for the trained service dog, that I need to live a functional independent life, that my doctors prove I need but to you its ‘just a pet’. 

It’s also ‘just a vitamin’, but without access to it, federal regulation or not, many people, many Americans, die every year. 

No one disputes my anemia when I’m in the Whole Foods buying wheat free vegan vitamins imported from Germany out of pocket. So why is my not-a-golden-retriever service dog so hard to swallow?

Most shoppers would not notice if my heart rate increased or if my breathing became quick and shallow or if I started to perspire or disassociate from my surroundings. Because I have not yet fainted or vomited, they assume I am fine. They also assume that, when my dog licks my nose or jumps up to put a paw on my leg, that he is being poorly behaved. And yet another uncharitable assumption is that, when I mark this behavior, that has just saved me from a public incident, with a treat or praise that he is ‘a spoiled dog.’ Comments along this theme are precisely why we do not see more service animals in public spaces. The constant micro-aggressions that accompany having a not yellow lab in a guide harness style service dog actively prohibit disabled people from public spaces in the same way that failing to provide wheelchair accessible bathrooms and entranceways do. 

Let’s change this. 

Because, like our neuro-typical counter parts, we deserve to hate shopping for all the regular reasons.

Let’s update our perception and validity of service dogs.

By Ana

I woke up at around 7 a.m. on April 21, 2022, to a flurry of desperate, messages and photos sent frantically to a Korean group chat. They all meant one thing: yongyeok, a large company of hired goons, colloquially referred to as yongyeok gangpae (gangsters), had descended on a place that I had come to love. This was the long expected sixth and final forced eviction attempt of Eulji OB Bear, the original draft beer pub of Seoul, South Korea.

The eviction and franchise pub takeover of Eulji OB Bear represents the beginning and the end of Euljiro Nogari Alley in central Seoul’s historic Euljiro 3-ga neighborhood, which along with much of the city is undergoing rapid jaegaebal (redevelopment) and gentrification. Since opening the small, cozy pub in 1980, founder Kang Hyo-geun was committed to serving the local working-class metal shop enclave with fixed low prices. Kang created a unique culture of cold mugs of beer, served with nogari (dried pollack) grilled by hand on yeontan (coal briquettes) and dipped in the family’s special gochujang (spicy chili pepper paste) and mayo.

Korea has one of the highest rates of self-employed small business ownership in the OECD, but its laws do not provide eviction protection beyond the first few years. This is how the full-menu franchise pub Manseon Hof came in and capitalized on the growth of this so-called “Hipjiro,” gradually monopolizing the alleyway with eleven stores all under the same ownership. Still, they wanted more. Though OB Bear was willing to pay a higher rent, their landlord gave them an eviction notice. Unlike other mom-and-pop shops that are disappearing around Korea, Eulji OB Bear had extensive media coverage the support of its regulars and anti-gentrification activists, and was passed down to the second and third generations. 

Eulji OB Bear successfully resisted five forced eviction attempts that occurred between November 2020 and August 2021. From the end of September 2021 until the final eviction that April morning, I participated in a nightly volunteer rotation vigil alongside the young owner and activists. On most nights, there was live radio streamed from inside the pub with music and stories. 

By the time the older owners and others could arrive, the yongyeok had already torn up the interior and taken down the blue-and-red Eulji OB Bear sign. Several of the goons had dragged the young owner out of the shop and threw him on the pavement. The police, who don’t intervene in forced evictions, maintained their usual presence as passive bystanders. 

Rather than signaling defeat, the eviction ignited the most vivid and unforgettable part of the struggle. By that same night, the street and storage and parking area across from the pub had been transformed into a highly visible, public sustained nightly resistance. From April 21 until the last below-freezing night of November 30, a diverse mix of researchers, progressive Christians, vegan animal rights militants, musicians, artists, poets, and regular folks came together to create a peaceful yet in-your-face protest, with picketing, loud marches around the alley, prayer vigils, concerts, radio shows, DJ parties, vegan potlucks. and poetry readings, inviting passersby to join in support and buy cheap cold beer in plastic take-out OB Bear cups. 

I was a frequent participant in this legal, registered protest, standing with picket signs, and engaging with passersby who didn’t understand the situation.. Night after night, we faced down drunk bar-goers, some of whom came after us for disrupting their night out.

This is far from the first such on-site squatting-style protest in Seoul but at Eulji OB Bear, there was a particularly unique element of direct standoff with the landlord and bar patrons that had not been done before. There is no way to create change without loudly resisting the erasure of places that people in the city can call home. 

Eulji OB Bear is unable to return to Nogari Alley, now unrecognizable under the haze of construction. The owners and activists are legally fighting for a place to reopen their business while battling an obstruction of business lawsuit based on the protest, and they are using the visibility of this movement to change the tenant laws and the practice of forced evictions. The process is slow and complicated, with widespread corruption in real estate and the demolition and erasure of beloved places, replaced by tower cranes and blooming high-rise apartments. As redevelopment swallows up golmoks (alleys), the representative of a part of “old” Korea, it is the new franchises like Manseon Hof that get the payout.

As for me, a white American woman in solidarity through the chance invitation of artist activist friends, I continue to support Eulji OB Bear and other such sites of struggle with complicated, mixed feelings. On the one hand, as a former patron of the Manseon franchise and a target demographic for Korean tourist attractions, I feel a deep sense of privilege and honor at being able to participate in a visceral form of resistance. At the same time, despite living here for over a decade, speaking the language and knowing people in the movement, due to the strongly group and organization-oriented nature of Korean protests, it is not easy to avoid isolation and get to know comrades and the affected communities on a personal level. In the case of the OB Bear protest, despite it being an ostensibly open-to-all, no-barrier space, as I was almost the only non-Korean directly involved, I often couldn’t help feeling like a token “global” presence on passive display in front of passersby, sometimes inviting harassment, yet only acknowledged when needed for interpretation or a photo-op. Other times, I felt like a nuisance or burden.

When I find myself feeling disillusioned, angry, or dejected about this aspect of solidarity, I try to remember that I made the full, conscience choice to participate and that whatever inconveniences I may deal with, I am ultimately shielded from the serious legal consequences faced by many of my Korean comrades, not to mention the repeated trauma experienced by them and the evictees. Yet I don’t want to completely disregard the other issues I encounter, including a heavy reliance on social media imagery, with a creeping sense of dehumanization and depersonalization of the very real on-the-ground emotional and psychological impact of the struggle. There is also the question: who leads and represents the movement? The affected community of non-activist, older merchants and regulars? Or the new group of young, educated activist organizers? In Korea as in the US and everywhere else, I believe the struggle against the forces of capitalism and destruction for a better, more joyful existence will continue to grapple with all these contradictions. We are not perfect, but we can always keep growing.

By Imma Gene

Inspired and informed by the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, a grassroots coalition in Winona, MN was able to save their town’s recreation center from being replaced by a three-story police/fire complex after months of organizing culminating in September, 2022.

Community Not Cages (CNC) is a consensus-based, horizontal community network of artists, students, researchers, teachers, parents, and dreamers. We have built mutual aid sites at reclaimed spaces, like the site of a county jail, and have committed to public research for the purpose of political education and to demand investment in our community and divestment from the prison industrial complex. Winona has a population of ~27,000, and its governance will not stop prioritizing carceral visions. Cops in our schools, a jail, a juvenile detention center, and a new police station are all priorities that have been met by our neighbors with resistance. Community Not Cages is a primarily working class femme and mother-centered network that aims to build narratives around abolition. In 2020, in coalition with other racial justice organizers, we removed cops from schools. In 2021, we stopped plans for a regional juvenile detention center, planned for construction alongside the 98-bed jail (panopticon). We hope that our most recent rural abolitionist win to stop cop block motivates other small-town abolitionist communities to attempt similar feats.

Stop Cop Block: A Timeline of Resistance

In February 2022, after the city council unveiled a plan to build an overpriced new police station, CNC hosted a “People’s Public Comment” event on the steps of city hall with more than sixty community members. This direct action was necessary, because public comment was not allowed at city council meetings at that time. The key demands at the People’s Public Comment were:

• An Alternative Response Team (ART);
• Affordable housing NOW;
• Keep cops out of community centers.

The multi-million dollar project would have demolished our town’s only free rec center in a working class neighborhood and replaced it with a three-story police/fire complex, with a gun range, a gym, and indoor parking for the Winona Sheriff and WPD’s Mine Resistant Armored Vehicle (MRAP). Cop block was branded by the city as a “public safety” building, and simultaneously we had to contend with the local nonprofit industrial complex’s liberal reformism, which manifested in tone-policing of righteous anger and cooptation of movement language. CNC reminded our neighbors that the rec center is already a place of public safety. The rec is the only free, indoor space for children, making it an integral resource for working families. It also hosts the winter farmers market, vaccine clinics, youth and adult sports, and other programming. It acts as an emergency shelter, and it maintains a space for community gardens. Preserving this space and keeping cops out was a win for our collective care!

The most historic moment of this fight was the July 5th, 2022 public hearing. Despite an attempt by some city council members to discourage attendance by scheduling the hearing directly after a holiday, more than 200 people showed up at city hall, filling the council chambers and spilling out into the hallway. During the almost three hours of public comment, 68 testimonies were made to save the rec, while only three supported the proposal. Children, moms, grandmas, farmers, teachers, and artists spoke truth to power. 

Throughout the summer, we hosted multiple pop-up community events. Members of our community shared food and educated neighbors about the campaign to stop cop block and save the rec. Nearly 150 community members were fed this summer, and together we dreamed up a people’s budget! After this sustained pressure and solidarity, we stopped cop block in September 2022.

Community Not Cages is committed to ongoing political education, as the best praxis is grounded in the strategies, wins, and pitfalls of other movements. We learned from the campaign to Stop Cop City in Atlanta, GA, which provided an analysis of the prison industrial complex’s interconnected state violence via policing, militarism, and settler colonial environmental injustices. Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.