Author: Slingshot robot #1

The genocide in Gaza changes everything

By Elia J. Ayoub

thefirethesetimes.com / iwritestuff.blog

CW: extreme violence of all kind, genocide

Every day, it seems, someone I know has been murdered. And if not them, a relative or friend or neighbors of theirs. To name but one: Refaat Alareer, a gentle soul and lover of literature, was murdered alongside his brother, nephew sister and three nieces by the Israeli state which “surgically bombed out of the entire building.” The Israelis told him where to go, and then bombed the entire building just to take out one academic who said bad things about them on social media. The moral depravity of it all. I can’t keep up. By various degrees of separations, I’m surrounded by so many deaths, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones — I’m in Switzerland, and the worst I have to deal with is racism and censorship and grief. 

The Israelis have done everything in their power to prevent information from coming out, murdering at least 103 journalists according to Reporters Without Borders — an extraordinary crime against humanity in itself. But Gazans have continued to live-stream and document as much as they can, in the hope that this moves the world to do something, anything, to stop Israel from ‘finishing’ this genocide as so many in Netanyahu’s administration clearly wish to do — or as Trump put it, ‘finishing the problem,’ the Palestinian question. 

What keeps me going is this: amidst of all this carnage Gazans are still trying to save one another from the might of one of the world’s most powerful armies. A nurse was forced to choose which premature baby was most likely to survive the lack of oxygen, leaving the others behind after being told by the Israelis that they would be safe; they were not, and a journalist discovered the rotting corpses two weeks later. A child died after his parents tried to mix animal feed with water to make ‘bread’ to avoid starvation, a desperate measure countless families have since had to resort to. Palestinians are lining up almost anywhere in Gaza for food, which didn’t prevent the Israelis from opening fire, killing at least 112 and wounding 750 more in southwest Gaza. 

Besides the Assadist destruction of Aleppo and the Putinist destruction of Mariupol, no event in recent years has made it clearer to me that “hope is a discipline”, to quote Mariame Kaba. People are still trying, because they have to. To quote Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah, “we teach life, sir!” 

At the time of writing, 9 March 2024, some 60% of houses in Gaza are either partially or completely destroyed, amounting to the crime of domicide. A large part of the population — including over 90% of children — is at risk of mass starvation, the direct result of Israel’s policy of starvation as a weapon of war, which is a crime against humanity. Some 17,000 children have already been left orphaned, and are referred to by the acronym WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 15 litres of water per person per day for everyday use including drinking, with 7 litres being the absolute minimum. In Gaza, the number is around 3 litres, and that water is contaminated as a result of Israel blocking all access to water to the besieged strip. Diseases such as diarrhea and hepatitis are threatening to add tens of thousands of deaths while — just to add insult to injury — Israeli soldiers mock Palestinians’ suffering with open-air barbecues in destroyed Gazan neighborhoods. 

And yet, the overwhelming majority of Israelis continue to believe their military is acting justly in Gaza, and that the violence is justified. We have reached the stage where no amount of evidence to the contrary will change the minds of pro-Israel apologists, and nothing but direct outside intervention of one kind or another can stop this carnage. 

The cruel truth that underpins all of what is happening today is that Palestinians have, for years, tried to warn about Israel’s downward path towards mass-violence. The normalization of an occupation, a blockade, an apartheid system and an ethno-supremacist ideology could only be made possible if the Israelis became ‘moral monsters’ themselves, to use James Baldwin’s description of pro-segregation White Americans. Indeed, the genocide in Gaza is the end-result of decades of preventable policies by the Israeli state with the full-backing and complicity of Western countries, Arab states and numerous others. In fact, even as the Israeli state continued to colonize Palestinian lands decade after decade, the only real action taken by so-called democracies was to criminalize or censor the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, one of the few non-violent avenues left to Palestinians in their quest for justice. 

Today, we find ourselves in cruelly absurd situations where the USA, Israel’s primary backer, is both apparently frustrated with how the Israelis are ‘handling’ the war while also sending billions worth of weaponry and financial aid to make the genocide possible in the first place and preventing any diplomatic response at the UN level. The US is more comfortable setting up a ‘port’ off the Gazan shore to deliver some aid than telling its supposed ally to simply allow aid to come in from the existing land crossings.

Right now, I am incapable of doing more than write and take part in protests calling for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to be held accountable. This is my way of bearing witness, I suppose. I do that because I’m the grandson of a Palestinian refugee who was exiled from his land, but also because I fear for a world that finds it easy to witness the annihilation of a people in slow motion and do nothing to stop it. Failing to stop the genocide in Gaza will not just hurt Gazans and Palestinians more broadly. It will greatly accelerate the ongoing authoritarian turn in large parts of the world, from India to the US. As with any situation, oppressors from around the world learn from one another. It is up to us to learn how to resist them, together.

VERSION WITH LINKS:

Title: The genocide in Gaza changes everything

By Elia J. Ayoub

thefirethesetimes.com / iwritestuff.blog

CW: extreme violence of all kind, genocide

Each day brings news worse than the day before. The more Gazans document the apocalypse brought upon by the Israeli state from the air, land and sea, the more it seems they are punished with more death and destruction. At the time of writing, 9 March 2024, some 60% of houses in Gaza are either partially or completely destroyed, amounting to the crime of domicide. Everything from schools to hospitals to bakeries to mosques to churches to kindergartens have been annihilated by the Israeli state. A large part of the population – including over 90% of children – is at risk of mass starvation, the direct result of Israel’s policy of starvation as a weapon of war, which is a crime against humanity. Over 30,000 Palestinians have already been murdered by the Israeli state since October 7, and thousands more are still buried under the rubble. Each day around 10 children lose one or more limbs, amputations are performed without anaesthetics, and around 37 mothers die. Some 17,000 children have already been left unaccompanied, and are referred to by the accronym WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. Barely three weeks into the genocide and the Israelis had already killed more children than are killed in global conflicts annually over the previous 4 years. The numbers today stand at over 13,000 children killed. To make matters worse, the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 15 litres of water per person per day for everyday use including drinking, with 7 litres being the absolute minimum. In Gaza, the number is around 3 litres, and that water is contaminated as a result of Israel blocking all access to water to the besieged strip. Diseases such as diarrhea and hepatitis are threatening to add tens of thousands of deaths while – just to add insult to injury – Israeli soldiers mock Palestinians’ suffering with open-air barbecues in destroyed Gazan neighborhoods.

These are merely a few of the many examples of what the Israeli state has unleashed on the largely defenseless population of Gaza, a population with neither army nor navy nor airforce nor port nor airport facing one of the world’s most powerful armies backed by the world’s major military superpower. As a result, horror stories abound, the kind that can make even the most heartless individual think twice about endorsing this madness. And yet, the overwhelming majority of Israeliscontinue to believe their military is acting justly in Gaza, and that the violence is justified. The world’s largest open-air prison, populated by mostly children under the age of 18, has been turned into an extermination camp. We have reached the stage where no amount of evidence to the contrary will change the minds of pro-Israel apologists, and nothing but direct outside intervention of one kind or another can stop this carnage. Indeed, the scale of destruction is so large that comparisons to Dresden, Mariupol and Aleppo have been floated around in expert circles, including at a recent panel of UN experts that I’ve attended. 

The cruel truth that underpins all of what is happening today is that Palestinians have, for years, tried to warn about Israel’s downward path towards mass-violence. The normalisation of an occupation, a blockade, an apartheid system and an ethnosupremacist ideology could only be made possible if the Israelis became ‘moral monsters’ themselves, to use James Baldwin’s description of pro-segregation White Americans. Indeed, the genocide in Gaza is the end-result of decades of preventable policies by the Israeli state with the full-backing and complicity of Western countries, Arab states and numerous others. In fact, even as the Israeli state continued to colonize Palestinian lands decade after decade, the only real action taken by so-called democracies was to criminalize or censor the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, one of the few non-violent avenues left to Palestinians in their quest for justice. While the October 7th massacre by Hamas and other groups was horrific, it is absurd to act as if it occurred in a vacuum. The Israeli state has done everything in its power to exert more control over Palestinian bodies than is possible almost anywhere else in the world – for decades. The list of crimes committed by Israel is so long I cannot do it justice here. Virtually everything imaginable has been done, from the obsessive destruction of ancient olive trees that predate nation states to the imprisonment of around 10,000 children processed in military courts, from mass torture and rape to routinely stealing Palestinian homes and moving Jewish settlers into them.

After South Africa brought the charge of genocide against Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) the ICJ ordered the Israeli state to ensure ‘life-saving goods and services reaching a population at risk of genocide and on the brink of famine.’ There was a moment of hope there, and virtually everyone I knew, it seemed, was watching the livestream of a court. That in itself was quite the event as it gave many some hope that maybe, just maybe, someone will stop Israel, for once. This, as Amnesty International documented and as anyone with the capacity to pay attention to what’s happening knows, was soon crushed. Not “even the bare minimum steps,” in Amnesty’s words, were taken by Israel. In fact, they have stepped up their campaign of extermination through bombs and starvation since the ICJ’s ruling. Today, we find ourselves in cruelly absurd situations whereby the USA, Israel’s primary backer, is both apparently frustrated with how the Israelis are ‘handling’ the war while also sending billions worth of weaponry and financial aid (and preventing any diplomatic response at the UN level) to make the genocide possible in the first place. The US is more comfortable setting up a ‘port’ off the Gazan shore to deliver some aid than telling its supposed ally to simply allow aid to come in from the existing land crossings.

Every day, it seems, someone I know has been murdered. And if not them, a relative or friend or neighbors of theirs. To name but one: Refaat Alareer, a gentle soul and lover of literature, was murdered alongside his brother, nephew sister and three nieces by the Israeli state which “surgically bombed out of the entire building.” The Israelis told him where to go, and then bombed the entire building just to take out one academic who said bad things about them on social media. The moral depravity of it all. I can’t keep up. By various degrees of separations, I’m surrounded by so much deaths, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones – I’m in Switzerland, and the worse I have to deal with is racism and censorship and grief. 

Calling this a months-long campaign a series of blood baths doesn’t seem to do it justice. There is something additionally horrifying about what’s happening in Gaza, and that is the sheer scale of documentation and evidence that anyone with an internet connection or access to newspapers is able to go through. The Israelis have done everything in their power to prevent information from coming out, murdering at least 103 journalists according to Reporters Without Borders – an extraordinary crime against humanity in itself. But Gazans have continued to live-stream and document as much as they could, in the hope that this moves the world to do something, anything, to stop Israel from ‘finishing’ this genocide as so many in Netanyahu’s administration clearly wish to do – or as Trump put it, ‘finishing the problem,’ the Palestinian question. 

What keeps me going is this: amidst of all this carnage Gazans are still trying to save one another from the might of one of the world’s most powerful armies. A nurse has had to perform emergency caesarean operations on six dead pregnant women to try to save their babies. Another nurse was forced to choose which premature baby was most likely to survive the lack of oxygen, leaving the others behind after being told by the Israelis that they would be safe; they were not, and a journalist discovered the rotting corpses two weeks later. A child died after his parents tried to mix animal feed with water to make ‘bread’ to avoid starvation, a desperature measure countless families have since had to resort to. Palestinians are lining up almost anywhere in Gaza for food, which didn’t prevent the Israelis from opening fire, killing at least 112 and wounding 750 more in southwest Gaza. 

Besides the Assadist destruction of Aleppo and the Putinist destruction of Mariupol, no event in recent years has made it clearer to me that “hope is a discipline“, to quote Mariame Kaba. People are still trying, because they have to. To quote Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah, “we teach life, sir!” Right now, I am incapable of doing more than write and take part in protests calling for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to be held accountable. This is my way of bearing witness, I suppose. I do that because I’m the grandson of a Palestinian refugee who was exiled from his land, but also because I fear for a world that finds it easy to witness the annihilation of a people in slow motion and do nothing to stop it. Failing to stop the genocide in Gaza will not just hurt Gazans and Palestinians more broadly. It will greatly accelerate the ongoing authoritarian turn in large parts of the world, from India to the US and passing by Germany. As with any situation, oppressors from around the world learn from one another. It is up to us to learn how to resist them, together. 

April 20 1 pm Free All Ages

People’s Park 55^th Anniversary Concert and Block Party. Telegraph Ave. Berkeley peoplespark.org

April 20 10:30 Free All Ages

Milwaukee Zine Fest @ Central Library

April 21 noon – 6 Free All Ages

Berkeley Student Cooperative Community Care Block Party Block party Davis Park 2424 Haste St, Berkeley

April 21 Free All Ages

Decolonizing Economics 2024: Earth Day to May Day! McKinleyville, CA (and May 1-3 on-line) decolonizingeconomicssummit.org

April 26 – 6 pm Free All Ages

San Francisco Critical Mass bike ride – Justin Herman Plaza – last Friday of each month sfcriticalmass.org

May 1 Free All Ages

International Workers Day – Worldwide! Who wants to organize a general strike?

May 3 – 8 pm Free All Ages

San Francisco Bike Party – at a BART station to be announced – 1^st Friday of each month eastbaybikeparty.wordpress.com 

May 4 – 5 Free All Ages

Upstate NY Anarchist Bookfair – Binghamton, NY upstateanarchistbookfair.com

May 10 – 8 pm Free All Ages

East Bay Bike Party – at a BART station tba – 2^nd Friday of each month eastbaybikeparty.wordpress.com 

May 26 

Punks with Books public reading. Vantpop Books, Las Vegas

June 1 & 2 Free All Ages

Art Party to make the 2025 Slingshot organizer – at Long Haul – 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley

June 1 – 2 

Bay Area Book Festival – downtown Berkeley. baybookfest.org 

June 11

International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and Long-term Anarchist Prisoners. june11.org

June 16

Berkeley Juneteenth near Ashby BART 

June 22 Free All Ages

Nxoeed Art Show Opening, 5-9 pm – Studio Fallout SF – Alleyway, 50 Bannam Pl., San Francisco, CA 94133

June 22 – 23 Free All Ages

9th annual KC Zine Con at Goofball Sk8boards 

June 23

Trans March – Delores Park, San Francisco 

June 26

LA Zine Fest – LA Arts District 

June 28-30 

ACAB – Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair Asheville, NC

July 1 – 7 Free All Ages

52nd Rainbow Gathering – somewhere in California, Oklahoma or Washington… or…all 3 at the same time!!! ask a hippie for details. 

July 2-9

Earth First! Summer Gathering Hudson Valley, NY

July 20 Free All Ages

Street Cat Zine Fest! – Chillicothe, OH streetcatzinefest.org

August 11 Free All Ages

Party for Long Haul Infoshop’s 31^st birthday – 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley – thelonghaul.org

September 5 – 8 Free All Ages
Berlin-Kreuzberg Anarchist Bookfair Germany anarchistischebuechermesse.noblogs.org

October 6 
Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair – Humanist Hall 

Ongoing every First Sunday 

6-8:30pm Free All Ages

Triple Justice Film & discussion about the Climate Crisis, Capitalism, Racism, & more, and their connections

at Long Haul – 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley –triplejusticeforclimate@gmail.com

By Jose Fritz

Feeling trapped by the corporate narrative? Check out one of these small press works known as a “zine”. Better yet make a zine. Because why not? And if you do make one, send us a copy. We just might review it. 

Nardcore: 1981 to Infinity
76 pages – $10 shininglifepress.com

Music scenes are fleeting, ethereal things locked up in fading memories; usually only documented in yellowed zines, crumpled fliers and scuffed polaroid pictures. This zine is a canonically complete and chronological history of the music scene in the Oxnard, California area from about 1976 thru the Fall of 2023 —almost half a century of music.

I was absolutely riveted to each page, and it wasn’t even until the section on the year 2005 that I’d even heard of one of the bands: the fucking Wrath. I flipped back to the start and read each band name again. Was that Green Day? I knew more of these names than I thought. You don’t even have to be a hardcore kid to know all the names: Stalag 13, Downpresser, Minus, Nails, Offspring… You will know someone in here… there must be hundreds, and that’s before you start really reading the flyers. Oh, the flyers. He formats them mostly four to a page and there must be hundreds. It’s like an accounting of every stapled telephone pole, and every wheat pasted alley wall you’ve ever walked past. There is an entire life’s work in here, and it’s devastatingly beautiful. 

Not Our Farm
28 pages – free pdf/$5 printed notourfarm.org/resources

There is much to be said about working on a farm. I’ve done it, and it puts all other work hardships in perspective for the rest of your life: manual labor in cold weather and hot, sunburn, dehydration, sweat, dirt, chemical fertilizers, heavy machinery, substandard housing and unimaginable volumes of manure. Admittedly, this zine soft pedals the grosser parts of farming. There’s no discussion of inseminating cows, butchery, injuries, bug bites and stings, manure, or sunstroke. But it does address the bathroom situation. Most farm marketing shares a certain image of rustic wholesomeness, but it takes only two words to destroy the implied purity of all that marketing: poop kit. 

Most importantly this zine discusses in detail how to screen your future farm employer. Every farm is different and so is every farmer. The politics and values of the farm owner may make some folks feel unwelcome, possibly even unsafe. In this way the zine treats farms like any other employer. Their advice on screening is sound, and as for salary and work hours it advises to “get it in writing.”

This zine puts it all into perspective. What’s the right type of farm for you? Would you be happier on a large farm or a small one? Do you want to drive a tractor or use hand tools? Do you want to work with vegetables, animals or both? The zine gives space for all likes and dislikes, and how to find those farmers when they’re hiring. If you want to avoid cubicle life, you should probably read this.

Grow Worms – Winter 2024
44 pages – $6 justinlutz.bigcartel.com

From the first few pages I thought this was a slasher movie zine in the same vein as Municipal Threat. This is not the case, and I wouldn’t want to offend the Worm Wizard by suggesting such a thing. There are a few slasher movie reviews here but more pages are dedicated to music reviews and short fiction, the latter of which is wildly more disturbing than the underground cinema.

Mike Madrigale tells a strange and meandering first person story about the satanic cults of central Pennsylvania. Sam Richards reviews an album by Portrayal of Guilt, Evan Shelton writes an experimental fiction that reminds me of Reddit’s Interface Series. The prose here leans away from gore and toward the mindfuck category. Speaking of which… Hey! Edwin Callihan —does your momma know what you wrote? I’m not reading anything else with your byline until I get a written apology. Your writing is the type of dirty where you can’t get clean… This goddamn thing needs a warning label.
My favorite piece in the whole zine was a short treatise on the album Famine, by the band Paint It Black. It came complete with footnotes referencing Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Pryor and Henry James to name a few. Grow worms has a powerful will to live (willie zum leben) and its no-holds-barred approach to content evokes the a priori transgressive lit zines like ExBe, Vile and even Jim Goad’s Answer Me! 

Hi-Fi Anxiety – Issues #21 & 22.
24 pages – $10
duckyboardmanart.bigcartel.com/product/hi-fi-anxiety-zine

Jason Boardman makes zines like it’s his day job. The first issue came out in September of 2022 and while I was writing a review of issue 21, issues 22, 23 and 24 came out. By the time you read this I’m sure I’ll see issue 25 on Instagram. In the same year he’s created probably 25 zines, he’s also put out another dozen “fun-size” zines, special issues. Many of these have custom formatting, packaging, wrapping paper, sealed bags, or boxes. He’s an unstoppable force, like death and taxes, but wildly more entertaining. 

His fascination with zine culture, and graphic design shines through those flexi-discs, record reviews, and perzine style monologues. Like McLuhan, Boardman understands that the medium is the message, but he has the chops to back it up. Issue 21 sports a duo-tone Warhol-esque milk crate cover design with the block text “empty inside.” It’s T-shirt worthy. Issue #22 tops it, a double issue designed like a double VHS sleeve, this one full of movie posters and movie reviews. Each issue has a QR code link to an online “mixtape” thematically linked to the zine.

If I have any criticism, it’s that his emphasis on design definitely overshadows the writing. While not falling into the genre of text-less art zines, he’s precariously perched on a tipping point beyond which we might just have to appreciate artful zines while listening to well curated mix tapes. Oh the horror…

DOPE Magazine – Issue 24

22 pages – Free pdf

dopemag.org

DOPE Magazine is a British, donation-funded mutual aid project, at least that’s what it says on the tin. It also says “Fuel for the Machine, Caskets for the Poor”; the texts astride an image of a skull superimposed on a soldier’s head. The color scheme is risograph-inspired with a hard orange clashing with a pastel turquoise on a flat cream background. On the inside it has even more punch.

Just a little context, for those not keeping up with Brexit… the situation across the pond is bad. The Tories have done more damage than the Thatcherites managed in the whole of the 1980s. The rate of poverty in the UK is double that of the US; affecting over 8 million people. In other words, the British are skint. The articles here are powerful statements on endurance, perseverance, resistance and survival. These are juxtaposed against full-page artworks, collage photos and prints. 

It opens with an essay by Matt Wilson, about the use of language for post-capitalist future. It reminded me immediately of Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent: sharp, erudite, and insightful. Jay Kerr tells the story of Asel Luzarraga, a punk essentially arrested for being a Basque novelist. Morgan Trowland writes from prison the most subversive thing I’ve ever read. He feels unthreatened, and unintimidated by the system that jailed him for what should have been free speech. He is in a Zen monastery of his own making, and growing more powerful as he waits to be released. 

But there’s room in here for lighter topics as well. Helen Hester wrote a paean to the health benefits of naps. I don’t think it’s what Paul Lafargue had in mind, but I think he would still approve.

Ear of Corn – Issue 55
24 pages – $2 foodfortunata@hotmail.com

The zine Ear of Corn has been around forever. You can look up issue #1 on the Internet Archive; the date on the cover is February of 1989. That is literally before the movie Home Alone came out. Macaulay Culkin is old enough to run for President today. When a zine has been running that long it’s almost above mortal judgment. It’s from an earlier era of zines, when we still mostly called them “fanzines.”

It was an era before every zine had a glossy cover, an e-commerce platform, and multiple social media accounts. There’s an odd sort of purity in that. You have to respect that level of intransigence; defiantly resisting the unrelenting march of cultural change. 

It’s appropriate then that the first two pages of record reviews here feature The Absentees “Illegal Listening Device” and a re-release of G.G. Allin’s country opus, “EMF”. The original releases are even older than Ear Of Corn, and only someone from that era could, with a straight face, describe any recording by GG Allin as “Crystal Clear.” Similarly, the movie reviews go back as far as Dr. Strangelove (1964). But it also reviews dozens of new albums from every niche genre you can imagine…even Finnish hardcore. (Apparently that’s a thing.)

Throughout the zine, new and old sit side by side. That combination feels culturally fresh. It’s the gestalt of Generation Z to simultaneously experience all content, new and old, through memes, and samples, agnostically distilling all media into some kind of post-Clockwork Orange milk cocktail. Well done droogs, well done.

Restless Legs Inquirer – Issue 6

4 pages (8.5×11 ) – free brybry@riseup.net

This zine is the ideal size: four 8.5 x 11 pages. You can fold it in quarters and stick it in a pocket. I miss that about the old pocket-size novels. I carried it with me for a few days. Bryan’s writing has a quiet intensity that reminds me of Raymond Carver. His thoughts on “ruiners” and the narcissism of social media were both insightful and visceral. The zine ends on a lighter note with short movie reviews — one sentence each, some without punctuation. They were silly, but felt very deliberate, like haiku.
This zine came in the mail with an adorable photo zine, which tells a story as well as any crafted with words. Burroughs once wrote “Open your mind and let the pictures out” and so they have:

An image of a leg in a cast; a friendly face; images of young hipsters alternately disheveled makeup smeared and sharp, ready for their close up Mr. DeMille; a carnival, a house party; a mosh pit kicking up dust; industrial wastelands juxtaposed against the suburbs; a basement show and dancing; a man screaming into an SM58; young people enjoying life with intensity and joy — every image selected with care, and imbued with meaning.

Just a Jefferson – Issue 56
23 pages – $2 markellorhighwater@gmail.com

The first page includes a list of 42 contributors spread across 20 U.S. states and 5 other countries: Greece, India, Japan, Russia, and Turkey. The contributors here don’t contribute poetry or prose. They ask each other questions; many are about reading, writing or course but most of them are exceedingly random: odd foods, fish stories, favorite songs beginning with the letter “O”, bad customer service and good TV shows. Presumably other issues cover favorite songs beginning with the letter “R” and bad TV shows. The whole zine seems deeply committed to randomness which is a cause I can support, whole cults have been founded on less. 

Node Pajomo – Issue 2.8

38 pages – $5 

P.O. Box 2632, Bellingham, WA 98227

The cover of issue 2.8 is an artfully blurred image of a bearded man. On prior covers, we’ve seen parts of this face before. It reminds me of Freda Khalo’s iterations. Warhol and Maplethorpe both also engaged in frequent self portraiture. Somehow this one has a Rasputin-like intensity. Several pages later he walks it back with a Lester Bangs quote “The first mistake of art is to assume it’s serious.”

Like a good mail art zine, odd-sized bits of paper fell out of the envelope and all over my desk like confetti: tiny stickers, an ode to unrequited love, a pamphlet on non-binary child rearing, a square of wrapping paper, two more stitched together, a tiny flyer in Italian, another in German… I’m lost in a blizzard of colorful confetti.

I am also pleased to report that the font size has been increased, making Node Pajomo an easier read. As a certified old person it’s a comfort to my eyeballs. In this issue were reviews of zines on every conceivable, and even some inconceivable topics: Led Zeppelin bootlegs, beefs, linocuts, comics, language, Brooklyn, NY, drugs… It feels like a microcosm of everything. How do you wake from reading a zine about a zine about zines? Can you ever come back all the way? Does some part of you get left behind every time you try?

Out From the Void – Issue 6

32 pages – $5  Outfromthevoid@yahoo.com

On the inside cover, this issue advertises that Brenton Gicker guested on the true crime podcast “The Murder Sheet,” which I listened to while writing this. The recording opens with a content warning “This episode contains discussion of murder, suicide, mental illness, drug and alcohol adiction and possible sexual crimes against children.” This same warning could easily sit on the cover of his zine. Brenton was in good form, and advocated well for people at risk.

The zine opens with a feature by Gicker, a solid 8 pages about missing persons in The McKenzie River Valley. It and a few other pieces were previously printed in the Eugene Weekly. Even the gothic poetry, which fills out the last few pages, is reprinted from other sources. Not that Gicker is hiding it. Every work is properly dated and attributed. So I’ve come to see the zine as curated work catering to Gickers interests. 

The focus of this issue isn’t just missing persons. There’s an excellent tell-all by Bob Keefer about what Reagan’s defunding did to mental hospitals in the 1980s. That’s followed by a news piece from the Chris Hedges Report about millionaire Healthcare CEOs reducing care, while crushing nursing unions. These are about systemic issues in healthcare that do lead to higher mortality rates, and to more missing people. It does contrast a bit with the poetry about feral cats and government peanut butter, but that can’t be helped; we’re not all poets. 

Aaron Aarons — a perennial member of the Berkeley radical direct action scene — died January 19. In lieu of a formal obituary, here are some reflections:

I met Aaron through Campaign Against Apartheid when I moved here in 1986. I knew him as a regular — a presence at many protests and meetings. Aaron called into KPFA and KQED to bring the radical viewpoint and you would instantly recognize his New York accent. He had a hilarious show on pirate radio station Free Radio Berkeley in which he often mostly argued with his co-host, Dean. 

Aaron hung out at Long Haul so often that he was an agenda item at meetings. I never knew for sure, but I got the feeling he was a 1960s veteran who had stuck with the radical scene permanently. Turns out he was arrested in 1960 for being part of a group that used rowboats and a canoe to block the launch of a nuclear missile-armed submarine! Aaron sometimes rubbed others the wrong way by being argumentative and long-winded at meetings, but I never doubted his sincerity or his commitment to a better world. — jesse

#

We lose friends, family, and lovers, but the harder losses to explain are the minor characters whose appearance — and disappearance — in our lives and scenes is still profound. 

We rarely know more than one part, and one period, of their lives. No doubt Aaron Aarons was once a handsome, shy kid in Brooklyn, rather than the irate, contrite elder wingnut familiar to those of us at Slingshot.

I remember him fondly from the Long Haul Sunday night dinners, where he sat next to me for years without acknowledging my presence except for occasionally asking me to pass the salt. (Activist dinners are never short of adversity, personality, and complaints, which Aaron provided easily, but salt is worth its weight in gold.) 

Aaron’s thorny grumpiness delighted me, and put me at ease. He was a whetstone we could grind against, or a rhino at the zoo to tease. His exaggerated role allowed us to hone our own acts and feel at ease. Thank heavens for elders because they give us a chance to be kids. 

I remember his disgust at one of my found t-shirts; the obscure acronymed group it called for freeing was, according to the all-knowing Aaron Aarons, a biker gang. But I also recall his joy at finding one of his own T-shirts that had fresh relevance: “Bush” with a swastika for the “S,” which he proudly dug out after the disastrous election of George the Second. “Good as new,” said Aaron, with something like a smile. — Aaron Cometbus

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Besides Long Haul, Aaron was a frequent face at La Peña for all events cultural & political. You would also be sure to see him at any of the political lectures around town whether it was a DIY activist space or institutional. He would often take the mic during Q&A to pursue a point that went after capitalism.

Aaron was at every protest well into his old age when marching and rioting stays in the body longer. 

He cared passionately for international struggles. For Palestinian rights. He was anti-war. He was vigilant about police abuse. In many ways the things taken seriously now he was neck deep in. His engagement was not only attending protests and public talks but in keeping records that traced events as they happened. [He donated his papers to Long Haul.]

Aaron was into a broad range of cultural things intersecting with the radical community. An avid reader whose book collection was hungrily sought after, he also invested deeply in the alternative press and even the mainstream press. He attended dance performances, plays, repertoire films. He danced at Ashkenaz with its blend of world music. A diehard Peace and Freedom Party member attending meetings and helping to shape its progressive agenda. A tenant organizer for 40+ years living in the flatlands of Berkeley watching the rents shoot into the stratosphere. Being able to live and resist here due to rent control and disability checks. It was hard to see any trace of a day job on his hands. The kind of activist threat ignited when not watered down chasing the capitalist dream. 

He was into computers as early as the 1970’s. Traveled to Mexico and kept up with culture and politics of that region. He spoke and wrote in Spanish. 

Born in NY. (From Queens? Brooklyn?) In the early 1960’s while in college he started his own radical publication that got him into trouble with the school (expelled?). He moved to Berkeley in the early 1970’s. —Eggplant

There’s a lot missing in what we know about Aaron — Presente! 

By Elle Dee and C.C. Brigade

This obituary of a beloved Oakland anarchist we lost over three years ago was written for an issue of a magazine that did not go to print. Although we are a bit late getting it out into the world, her life was beautiful and her legacy is timeless.

Carrie was a dear friend of mine who passed from cancer on October 26, 2020. She was with her children in her home, where she wanted to be. She was comfortable, she was ready for her next adventure, and she left so many of us enriched by her presence, and humbled by her graceful exit. She was a vibrant 63 years old.

Carrie was first drawn to anarchism in San Francisco in the late 1970’s. Specifically, she became intrigued by radical leaning flyers pasted to telephone poles around town. Some of the flyers made fun of things like the Abalone Alliance, while others advertised adult play spaces like Gorilla Grotto. Pursuing these leads she made friends with anarchist authors and event organizers. She read and discussed anarchist theory, and attended anarchist parties and events. Not an activist or a punk, she was her own kind of anarchist — one dedicated to pursuing intimacy, connection, and the liberation of her time to do what pleased her. She came to view cities as playgrounds, and enjoyed counter culture expressed in art and political critique.

I met Carrie in 2005 at an anarchist study group in Berkeley. By then she had moved to Oakland, married, had two children, homeschooled her children, and worked intermittently as a Hebrew teacher, preschool teacher, community organizer, and baker. Her children were growing up, her marriage was becoming polyamorous, and she was actively pursuing anarchism again.

When meeting Carrie it was immediately apparent that I was in the presence of someone who lived joyfully, sensually, and thoughtfully. She made friends with people in their 80’s as easily as with people in their 20’s. She was a firm believer in having as many deep and wonderful relationships as possible. She was quirky and deliciously witty, extroverted and welcoming. Carrie loved to talk about everything from the philosophies of Anarchism to the problems with Zionism, and while she was inclusive and intellectually generous, she didn’t let problematic statements slide, ever. She was unashamedly challenging, and enjoyed sharing her thoughts and knowledge.

Carrie was a true scholar, magician, and occult anarchist, and she always had a project that stimulated her spirit. When she died, Carrie was a 3rd year PhD candidate at the Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley. Her thesis was an argument for reclaiming Thelema, as an occult practice with anarchist, revolutionary potential. This radical ideology, along with many Jewish elements, the use of sex magic, and an active local community, made Thelema a priority for Carrie. She opened her home as a Thelemic Temple, where like minded people were invited to meet weekly for ritual, food, and community. She even traveled to the ruins of Aleister Crowley’s Thelemic abbey in Sicily, and brought back a relic for her temple.

But Thelema wasn’t all Carrie studied. Her home was filled with books she’d read on anarchism, Kabbalistic mysticism, unorthodox Judaism, cultural and literary criticism, political theory, feminism, and racism. She was intentional about collecting books which might go out of circulation. And she would discuss any of these with friends at her kitchen table, under a fig tree in her backyard, on a walk through a cemetery or forest, over lunch, while camping, or in a discussion group. She was boundlessly curious, and incisively poetic in expressing herself. Carrie participated in consent workshops, helped to edit many issues of Anarchy: Journal of Desire Armed, and participated in countless anarchist bookfairs, conferences, and other events.

In reviewing her life with me, Carrie said she felt her most anarchist moment was during Occupy, when she facilitated the occupation of empty houses in her neighborhood by squatters. It was a project based on mutual aid and the desire to grow community. That project lasted two years, and she was justifiably proud of her efforts. Carrie was also a solid participant in the Free Association Land Project for many years.

What must be clear by now is that Carrie had an amazing passion for life, and her most powerful magic shown in the care she put into her life and her relationships. She didn’t let herself get stuck in the past, but kept her eyes on where she was heading. One of the things Carrie told me in her last week was that she was always a “Let’s go!” person, when someone mentioned an adventure. She said that was how she was feeling about her journey into spirit form. Still, I thought I would see her at least once more. I can barely express how much I will miss her — she inspired me to unashamedly seek out pleasure and friendship, and fearlessly embody my beliefs. Beautiful red haired spirit, my dear friend, you were so very good at living. I can only imagine what you’re up to in the after! I love and miss you..

If you never got a chance to meet Carrie, you can still hear her talk about anarchism and Thelema with The Brilliant in Episode 99 at thebrilliant.org/podcast. You can also see her talking about several Jewish and Esoteric topics on youtube as well; the video she made for the GTU about the World-to-Come (Olam Ha’Ba) is particularly moving.