Slingshot is a quarterly, independent, radical newspaper published in the East Bay since 1988.
Just before getting to work on this, we sit and talk and eat and try to figure out the make-up of this paper. We often wonder outloud about the people who pick this up, and how much it is hated. It’s a good laugh considering how dire and unlaughable the world situation is these days. Being a DIY paper since 1988 makes for an amorphous collective. A startling difference between the first few years and now is funding. Slingshot previously had to dig deep into the collective’s pocket to publish it. Now it is largely funded by the organizer. Still we would not be here if it wasn’t for the nameless people who thanklessly carried on upholding self-imposed deadlines. What hasn’t changed much has been our home base. Ten years ago we printed our “temporary” new address at the Long Haul. Well we’re still here and if you come to town check our new leopard print facade. We can’t say much for the rest of our home town, and if you read Smash E-Ville on pg.9 you’ll get a good picture of how it is…and what we can do to it. Another hot item all over the place is the Gay Marriage debate. Obviously this affects our community closely. You wouldn’t think it but some of our Anarchist friends got gay married and no doubt they had good reasons. We hope we don’t lose any friends and can get people to consider different perspectives from the mainstream. A similar thing can be said of the Progressive Judaism piece on pg.10. Our awesome cover is the logo drawn by Becky for the new info shop in Indonesia. Check out the story on pg.4. And finally we are excited that the Biotech conference will be met with a Reclaim the Commons call to action in June. This will be in the heart of downtown San Fransico and not on some fucking island or fortress. Plus it may force people to consider the conumdrum of living in such an active conscious community, at the same time home to all sorts of awful corporations. We look forward to ample material documenting this next fight.
Slingshot is always on the lookout for writers, artists, editors, photographers, distributors and independent thinkers to help us make this paper. We are interested in reviewing books and zines again but ask contributors keep these under 200 words. If you send something written, please be open to editorial changes.
Editorial decisions are made by the Slingshot collective, but not all the articles reflect the opinions of the collective members. We welcome debate, constructive criticism and discussion.
Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting
Volunteers interested in getting involved with Slingshot can come to the new volunteer meeting May 2 at 1 p.m. at the Long Haul in Berkeley