Category: Issue #144: Spring 2026

By Tony W. Njoroge

Content Warning: This piece discusses homophobia, discrimination, and hate speech directed at LGBTQ+ people in Africa. It includes depictions of social and familial rejection, historical references to medical abuse, and job loss due to sexual orientation. It directly refers to suicide. Readers who may be affected by these themes are encouraged to engage with care. 

Homosexuality is a hot button in Africa today. Much of the fervour, however, is fueled by demagogic politicians who want to distract their subjects from the real issues that matter, like the runaway corruption and nepotism. Many politicians today are in office because they are riding high on the rampant homophobia they’ve created and stoked. Some use phrases such as “Homosexuals are more lethal than all natural disasters put together,” and then go ahead to implement draconian laws such as life imprisonment. 

I had a gay friend who was in the closet most of his short life. My friend Kamara (not his real name) and I were as close as brothers. Although we shared many happy times together, I noticed that many of the other children found him strange. Even in nursery school, he always wanted to be the mother when we played house. As the years progressed, I observed that he was acutely conscious of his appearance. I remember rebuking him often for spending so much time in front of the mirror.

When we got older and enrolled at the same boys’ boarding school, Kamara made the rest of us look like a bunch of greasy mechanics. His clothes were always the cleanest, and he took a shower every day. He had long, polished nails that always got him in trouble with the teachers, and he loved to plait his hair on weekends. Sometimes, when he walked, one would think he was strutting on a catwalk. Some boys disliked him at first because he was different, but they gradually came to like and appreciate him for how unique he was.

When we talked about girls, he always seemed bored. When one of the boys managed to smuggle a dirty magazine into school, Kamara was never among the hordes fighting to get a look at it. In grade eleven, Kamara and I were both appointed dorm captains. (There were ten dormitories with about a hundred students each.) He was the Kilimanjaro captain, and I was the Ruwenzori captain. Every Saturday, we did general cleaning of the dorms, and there was a competition organized by teachers to see which dorm was the tidiest. Kilimanjaro almost always won.

Being a dorm captain came with benefits. Our school had a policy of random locker searches and pat-downs by teachers. Dorm captains were exempt from this degrading ordeal. (Nothing is more uncomfortable than one’s chemistry teacher feeling his underpants while checking for contraband.) As such, many students would hide illicit goods such as marijuana, snuff, and dirty magazines in the lockers of dorm captains — for a small fee, of course. Dorm captains were also entrusted with making duty rosters, and some wealthier students bribed us handsomely to be exempted from chores such as scrubbing the dorm floors. Kamara was the only upright dorm captain who did not allow such bribes.

Kamara and I attended the same college and shared a room. Seeing that he had no interest in wooing women, I finally realized that my best friend suffered from what was called the “white man’s disease.” I went out one evening to a party and came back with two tipsy, attractive ladies, one for me and one for him. Kamara broke down in tears, and I had to kick the girls out. He finally shared with me his long-standing secret.

“Why on earth would you choose to be gay?” I asked.

Kamara stared daggers at me. “Tell me, why would anyone choose to be gay? Being gay in Africa is like living with leprosy,” he continued. “Why would I wish that on myself?”

“I just don’t get it,” I said. “We were brought up in the same village and attended the same schools. Where did you lose a step?”

“I didn’t lose a step anywhere. I have always been this way,” Kamara said. “Think about it. Who would choose to be a homosexual and go through all the hatred, danger, and ridicule that come with this label?”

Seeing that Kamara was making sense, and remembering all of the distinctive mannerisms he had shown since childhood, I did my research in the coming weeks and came to realize what a fool I had been. I apologized to him profusely.

I read how doctors in the past had subjected gay people to practices intended to cure them. In South Africa, during the 1970s and 1980s, gay and lesbian people were subjected to sex-change operations, chemical castration, and electrotherapy delivering shocks so severe that “[subjects’] shoes flew off.” These individuals were left mutilated but still gay.

After college, Kamara and I were scattered by the wind in pursuit of earning a living, but we spoke regularly over the telephone. In his mid-twenties, Kamara’s parents began pressuring him to settle down. “This Christmas, do not come home without a lady in your arms,” his mother would say, “and if her belly is protruding, all the better.”

I would visit the village from time to time, and I happened to bump into Kamara’s mother. She would whisper into my ear, “You have been friends with my son since childhood. You know how shy he is in the presence of ladies. Why don’t you introduce him to some of your lady friends, my child?”

“I will, mother,” I would lie. I knew she would cry out that demons had possessed her son if I revealed the truth to her. I tried dropping clever quotations if the subject ever came up in general, suggesting that homosexuality is not as simple as she assumed. But, generally, I held my tongue in her presence. It was not my place to shove Kamara out of the closet.

A week before Christmas 2021, Kamara’s boss got wind of his sexual orientation and fired him. Kamara went home without a woman in his arms. Everyone was disappointed but not as much as when he told them it was because he was gay and was tired of living a lie. He said he hoped they would accept him as he was. His father shouted that it would have been better had his mother given birth to a frog than to a son like him who brought such shame to the family. “Get out and never come back,” his father screamed. “The day you hear me call you my son again, take my name and give it to a dog.”

Kamara hanged himself that New Year’s Eve in a motel room in another part of the country. On that day, Africa lost a gifted young man. He would have made a fine leader—something greatly needed on our continent. But the sin of hateful ignorance has robbed us of his talents and presence.

My hope is that African nations begin to shed their draconian treatment of gay people. While progress is being made in certain nations, homosexuality is still legally punishable by death in countries such as Mauritania, parts of Nigeria, and areas of Somalia controlled by Islamist groups. (In a number of other countries, homosexuality can be punished by life imprisonment.) Regardless of the particular individual laws on the books across Africa, the widespread shame and ostracism wielded against gays has meant that Kamara’s fate is not unique. 

Homosexuals are like poetry. They are hated simply because they are not understood. Homophobic sentiment is widespread in the continent. Social discrimination, widespread violence and “corrective” rapes and murders have been documented and are widely known. This forces many LGBTQ+ individuals to live in hiding, further challenging their mental health.

We must earnestly treat each other as human beings rather than allow hatred to give way to the worst of our nature. To fail to do so will result in so much more suffering for people like my dear friend. 

Contact the author at @NjorogeWambugu

By JR

As ICE deepens its oppression at home, they continue to build upon a modern menu of riot control tools and techniques to suppress dissent. Many of these policing tactics, including use of chemical weapons like tear gas, and the use of indiscriminate force against nonviolent civilians, would violate international humanitarian law if used by an occupying army in a time of war. For those courageous enough to intentionally risk injury to speak out for freedom of ourselves and others, as well as for those of us unlucky enough to be targeted by ICE (for who we are, where we are, or what we look like) this brief guide is intended to introduce several ways to reduce risk to yourself and those around you.

Chemical Weapons:

Chemical weapons are banned for use in combat by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Although tear gas and pepper spray are increasingly normalized in domestic riot control, it’s important to remember that these are weapons-grade chemical, with poorly studied long-term effects and risk of ongoing physical and psychological harm. 

Pepper Spray is an aerosolized spray of capsaicin, the chemical that makes chili peppers spicy. This same chemical is often used as tear gas, but it can also be used at closer range or in a more directed context. It often (but not always) has an orange hue. In addition to being sprayed, it can also be deployed via paintballs-like balls shot from special guns, which bruise on impact and splash capsaicin resin over skin or sink it into clothes. Methods of prevention and response are otherwise similar to tear gas, discussed below.

Tear Gas is an umbrella term that can refer to any of a number of chemical “lachrymating” agents that cause immediate crying, mucus output, intense pain, and difficulty breathing. Most tear gas is actually aerosolized powder or smoke, that behaves like a gas but will stick to skin and contaminate clothes. Several forms of tear gas were deployed by French, German, and British forces in World War I trenches – it’s not just some technicality that makes this violate international law. Rather, these specific chemical formulas and effects were what the Geneva convention had in mind when making chemical weapons illegal. Common components include CS, CN, and Capsaicin.

Tear gas canisters can be more dangerous than the chemicals they release. Canisters are designed to be fired into a neutral area, never at people, but police forces commonly violate this protocol. Many protesters, have been killed, disabled, or permanently injured by being directly hit with tear gas canisters (including past slingshot contributor Tristen Anderson who was blinded in one eye by a tear gas canister in the West Bank in the 90s). If teargas canisters are being fired, try to take cover or protect your eyes and face from being hit by the canister. 

To prepare yourself for potential tear gas or pepper spray exposure, wear close toed shoes, and multiple layers of clothing that cover as much of your skin as possible., and which you are willing to shed and leave without if they become contaminated with tear gas or pepper spray. Don’t wear make up or lotion, which can trap the painful particles to your skin, and do not wear contact lenses.

These chemical weapons are used tactically by police forces to move and disperse crowds. If you wish to avoid being moved or dispersed, make sure you are well protected – severe or repeat exposure can be much more dangerous and medically damagin than passing contact. To protect your face, eyes, and lungs from tear gas, you need a well fitting respirator with full face shield – N95 masks and medical masks are much better than nothing, but not enough to really protect you from state chemical warfare. Make sure that any eye protection you are wearing is shatter-proof, to prevent injury if directly hit by a canister. Eye protection must seal to your face to protect against tear gas and pepper spray. An appropriate respirator will have a “P100” rating, or a canister marked “CN/CS”.

Protecting others from tear gas canisters is possible, but can be dangerous and should only be carried out by those with proper protective equipment. As tear gas comes from canisters, protecting others from exposure usually centers around preventing gas from leaving the canister in a place where others can be harmed. The traditional approach is to throw the tear gas canister back away from protesters. Tennis rackets have been used for this extensively in the middle east, and lacrosse and hockey sticks may be well designed for this task too.

Tear gas canisters can also be disabled by quenching them with water. This can be done either by placing a traffic cone over the canister and then pouring in water until extinguished, or by placing the canister in a bucket or large, wide mouthed container of water. Don’t seal the container completely, to prevent a pressure based explosion.

Tear gas canisters can be hot enough to start fires or seriously burn you, so avoid touching them directly and wear heat proof gloves. Also, be sure that what you’re about to handle is in fact a tear gas canister – handling unexploded stun grenades, in particular, can be extremely dangerous and cause permanent injury if they explode in your hand or near your face. 

If you have been exposed to tear gas or pepper spray, do your best to remain calm while seeking first aid. Try to remember that these chemicals are chosen and used specifically for the ability to induce fear and panic, and what you’re feeling is expected and temporary, but you need to get help in a safe place. If you are confused or in serious pain, do your best to get away from the gas, to a place where you can remove contaminated clothing and others can help flush chemicals out of your eyes and off of your skin.

Before helping yourself or others, make sure to wash your hands well and remove contaminated clothing that might touch their skin, to avoid exposing them to additional chemicals.

For flushing from eyes, use saline solution if possible, otherwise use any uncontaminated water, ideally for 10-15 minutes. 

There are first hand accounts that milk, water mixed with baby shampoo, or water mixed with baking soda may be more effective than water alone, but there’s not substantial evidence that any of these are better than water alone. In particular, milk’s fat and acidity may aggravate pain.

Acoustic Weapons:

International humanitarian law requires that the use of force in conflict be proportional and targeted. The entire doctrine of riot control inherently violates this principle, by applying force to an entire mass of people. While kettling, indiscriminate beating with batons, and mass arrests all violate these principles, it’s worth focusing on a few more tools that are inherently indiscriminate. While not explicitly banned for use in war by international treaty like tear gas and pepper spray are, acoustic weapons warrant some specific scrutiny. Both LRADs and Stun Grenades are included here, as both have the potential to permanently damage your hearing, are inherently indiscriminate when used against a large group, and can create fear and panic 

“Long Range Acoustic Device” (LRAD) devices are truck mounted “Sound Cannons” that produce extremely loud and directed sound. They are sometimes used to communicate messages, and other times used to project sirens or other painful and disorienting sounds. In either mode, these devices can cause permanent hearing damage and have caused several documented cases of hearing loss. 

Flash Bang Grenades (or Stun Grenades) are explosives designed to produce large amounts of light and sound when detonated. They have also been responsible for permanent hearing loss. 

In both of these cases, earplugs might offer some protection, but you should avoid putting earplugs in your ears if tear gas is being used. Ear muffs can also offer some protection, although it’s been reported that against LRAD devices ear protection feels like it does little, and holding up solid objects like trash can lids, convex riot shields, or even glossy cardboard can help mitigate the intensity of the sound.

—

It is my sincere hope that you and those you love are never exposed to any of the weapons, tools, or techniques used above. But I also hope that the mere threat, or existence of these weapons in the hands of the erstwhile war criminals willing to use them, does not deter you from expressing your rights to protest against injustice. And when you do, hopefully something you remember from this guide will help you be just a little bit safer, a little less scared, or a little more able to help those around you. And I hope that when you see others being attacked with these weapons, at a distance or through the news, you remember that these aren’t normal riot control tools, but weapons of war that would violate international human rights law if used this way. Though the atrocities become more common, let them never feel common place. 

By Jesse D. Palmer

The regime thought they could send masked goons to occupy cities, carry out arbitrary abductions, street corner identity checks and house raids against immigrants — and most people would just accept it as the new normal. Anyone who protested could be isolated, othered and brutalized. They thought ICE enforcement would be another wedge issue dividing society to consolidate power. But their macho man tactics have backfired. 

ICE isn’t about immigration. Mass deportations with detention facilities and masked agents lay the groundwork for sham elections. It’s about cameras using facial recognition and AI to create databases of troublemakers. If it’s not happening to you yet because you’re a citizen or because you’re white — it’s just a matter of time. 

But we’re not going to let it happen.  Every day we disrupt brutality, improve our networks, expand the space we have to maneuver, set up alternative communications and economic systems and build solidarity and mutual aid helps. Obedience and passive compliance is not neutral or safe — it’s active complicity and riskier for your personal safety in the long run

It’s up to me and you and millions of people everywhere from all walks of life refuse to accept the script and act out. Psychological determination to fight for freedom and reject tyranny is the most crucial thing we need to build. Obviously it’s harder to figure out specifically what each of us can do at each moment, although I try to make some suggestions below. But if willpower and intentions are strong, effective resistance follows.

Even though the most outrageous aspects of the regime’s ICE secret police tactics have backfired, so far, it’s no exaggeration to say there’s not much time to act. Every day, the bullies are trying to consolidate their power in hundreds of ways, many of which we cannot see or which are not being met with a big public backlash. We’re not out of danger just because one one of their tactics fails. Once authoritarians seize total power, it can take decades to dislodge them, so the next months may determine how we live for the rest of our lives.

What we’ve learned in the last year is that the regime will grab as much power as they can — they’re not going to be satisfied or stop on their own. They want it all. 

But what we’ve also learned is that their power is not total yet — they overreach and back down when people stand up to them. The feds have been able to dominate some big institutions and companies that have operations and assets they can control and seize, but it’s much harder to get millions of regular people and small businesses and organizations to submit. The feds don’t have enough goons or prosecutors to physically stop or punish us all. 

Instead, their plan has been to use publicized acts of brutality to inspire fear and submission. This has backfired spectacularly. Instead of everyone giving up, it seems like masked thugs kidnapping, smashing and killing have pissed off and activated millions of people, some of whom were perhaps trying not to pay attention or who were feeling overwhelmed or paralyzed. 

In cities invaded by ICE, the population has risen up with incredible courage, self-organization, solidarity and generosity towards those being hunted. It hasn’t just been a few people who can be isolated and marginalized, but broad cross-sections of the community from every conceivable walk of life. Repression has made people more committed to protecting their neighborhoods from invaders. 

As an anonymous crimethinc author wrote, “When you ask patrollers what they want people to know about what’s happening in their city, they barely mention the broken windows and bruises. They describe the feeling of connection and solidarity filling the streets. They make hearts with their hands from car to car, they blow kisses. They make dinners for one another, they drop off groceries for undocumented families that have been locked inside their homes for weeks. They tell us about how, when a skirmish broke out on a busy road, an entire café full of people stood up as one, dropping what they were doing to run towards the sound. We hear again and again about their deep love for the community in the Twin Cities and for their neighbors. Every day, people who never imagined themselves fighting ICE are participating in bold combative actions.” 

The vigorous response has been the opposite of what the feds expected based on their cynical, cruel and selfish worldview. It has proved that face-to-face relationships and grassroots community are stronger than hierarchical repressive structures, especially when they’re broad-based and extend beyond radical bubbles.  This type of mobilization requires a gigantic effort by huge numbers of courageous people. It isn’t easy nor guaranteed.

There’s wide consensus in the US that people don’t want to live in a police state. Along with the US’s roots in slavery, genocide, and colonialism, there’s also tolerance and neighborliness. There is broad commitment that people should have a voice in public decisions and that freedom of speech and fairness are American values. 

Culture and values are more powerful than government and legal structures, because culture is decentralized and personal so it can’t be revoked or so easily corrupted. Resisting the descent into autocracy depends on harnessing culture to fuel action. 

Refuse, delay, obstruct, brawl

We cannot protest, dialogue or reform ourselves out of fascism — it’s absurd to assume there will be free and fair elections or a smooth transfer of power if tyrants lose a vote. Nonetheless, it’s easier for authoritarians to rule if most of the population supports them and it’s harder for them if most people oppose them. Despots can lose control when almost everyone’s against them. That’s why the regime is so focused on optics, degrading alternative information channels, dominating the narrative and lying about virtually everything. 

It’s worth our time to expose their corruption and make fun of their stupidity so everyone can see what embarrassing bozos they are. What if instead of fearing and hating them, we laughed at them instead? 

Successful resistance can happen on a mass scale because it is decentralized — both arising from existing community connections and building new ones. Now is a good time to talk to friends, family members and people you know through work, school, church, sports, social connections or whatever — ballroom dancing. 

The most basic thing people can do is refuse to go along — in whatever form that takes and often in small ways. It’s great if you can turn ICE away from your restaurant or refuse to sell them gasoline or use the bathroom. Government workers or workers at corporations collaborating with the government can resign, refuse orders or just do work poorly, incompetently and slowly. 

The economy should not be working well while despots seize power — anything that hurts the economy and redirects resources away from regime-complicit big business fights back. Alternative economic systems like barter, gifting, mutual aid, gardening, sharing, bicycling, cooperation, and focusing less on consumption and more on relationships and experiences will shift us away from the machine. When you have to spend money, can you avoid big corporations that support the regime and re-direct to local small businesses? I’m looking at you, Amazon and Whole Foods… Purity isn’t necessary — we can all withdraw as much as we’re comfortable with, starting slowly and expanding over time. 

Europeans are boycotting US products such as tech platforms that all support the regime and are major US exports. But the biggest US export are fossil fuels — fascism and climate change go hand in hand. Every time you fill up the tank, some of your money is going to pay for the new ballroom. The US economy is global and vulnerable. What if everyone stopped lending to the US government to support its 1.8 trillion dollar budget deficit?

And why are we paying taxes for our own jail cells? Perhaps businesses could switch to a donation model like some in Minneapolis have?  If millions of people paid less tax or refused to pay taxes, the government’s enforcement apparatus are limited. Remember the Boston Tea Party? Let’s use cash as much as possible so it cannot be phased out, which is what’s happened in China where the government monitors all transactions. The government is at war with its own people but we’re not defenseless. 

Along with independent economic structures, it’s time to build and nourish independent communication and media operations that are local and person-to-person. While the regime spreads propaganda to prop up public opinion, its big tech puppets have got us addicted like junkies to their shiny toys that collect our data so we can be categorized, surveilled and followed. A few allied billionaires have recently purchased a majority of the TV and radio broadcasters and entertainment studios. Constant scrolling and mass-media garbage are mental junk food that leaves us feeling empty, lonely and sad. We can do better. 

Stepping back from a system based on tedious, meaningless jobs that concentrate obscene levels of wealth into a tiny number of hands while wrecking the environment is a good idea even beyond weakening tyrants. The less we participate, the more our our sense of agency, self-esteem and satisfaction expand as we figure out how to do stuff for ourselves and connect with real people and ecological systems close at hand. 

Building own own alternative economies, redirecting our time and resources away from our oppressors and stepping away from this collapsing mess is a creative, life-affirming adventure. It’s not easy in practice. But trying to fit into systems that are broken is what has brought us to this moment with all of its boredom, meaninglessness, loneliness and isolation, along with fascism. 

Freedom is not something you have — it’s something you do. Let’s figure out how to take up as much space as possible so as to keep space open, rather than self-limit and shrink down. 

The day Alex Pretti was senselessly shot in the back, I felt physically ill — I needed to do something right away to respond. My daughter had received a progress pride flag as a gift, so I went to the hardware store to get a flagpole to hang it up on our house to be loud and proud in devotion to a more inclusive community. I also taped an “ICE out” sign to my bicycle. Everywhere I go, it starts conversations. My wife started wearing abolish ICE t-shirts. Anyone can do this stuff. It’s harder for despots if they get booed whenever they go out in public. It builds public morale if everywhere you go, people are displaying signs denouncing the secret police. 

Going to protests isn’t enough, yet I’ve felt much better after some recent marches — they’re shared experiences that build solidarity and determination. My 13-year-old daughter walked out of middle school for the January 30 general strike, which was one of my proudest moments as a parent so far. 

Protests can be fun and disruptive. There were hundreds of Alex Pretti memorial bike rides in late January that combined dissent with socializing, exercise, fresh air and visibility. It’s been great to see all the creativity — inflatable frog dance parties, sing-alongs outside hotels so ICE agents cannot sleep, and people throwing dildos at ICE vehicles.  In addition to blowing whistles and filming, there’s many ways to help keep federal agents caught in traffic. 

Focusing on our humanity, dignity and joy can help us to overcome the regime’s division, fear and anger — which is really all they have. If you need heavily armed masked men to get your way, you’re proving how frightened and weak you really are. The future belongs to people who believe in something and who believe in each other. It belongs to people who step out of line and take risks because it’s the right thing to do and because we care, not because we’re trying to control or dominate anyone. Our strength flows from the better world we carry in our hearts.

Compiled by Jesse D. Palmer

Building communities of resistance, solidarity, mutual aid, creativity, pleasure and human connection are easier when there’s physical spaces other than businesses and private homes to gather. Community isn’t something you have — its something you do. Now’s the time to assemble, welcome others in, invest your energy, plot and plan — and then deepen those connections to it when you need them. Here’s some spaces we’ve heard about since we published the 2026 Slingshot organizer contact list. The list is online at slingshotcollective.org.

Burdock Book Collective – Birmingham, AL 

An intersectional queer feminist bookstore and community space that hosts Alabama Books to Prisons. 131 41st St. South, Birmingham, AL 35222 burdockbookcollective.com 

Punk Truck Stop – Fayetteville, AR 

Screen print shop that stocks graffiti supplies, radical books, music and t-shirts and hosts shows and events. 2002 South School Avenue, Fayetteville, AR 72701 479-225-4607

Bear Creek Social Center – Talent, OR

Third space that hosts meeting and events with a lending library, zine, and gender affirming clothing closet. 806 South Pacific Highway Unit B, Talent, OR 97540 IG bearcreeksocialcenter

Mondragon Books – Lewisburg, PA 

Community supported used bookstore that hosts events. 302 Market St. Lewisburg, PA 17837 570-523-1540 mondragonbooks.com

Autonomous Gallery – Vallejo, CA 

Community space with a small zine library that hosts mutual aid and events. “You are welcome to be your fullest self here. This is a space for creative expression, interpersonal exploration, and building alternative culture. May we all get free together.” 419 Georgia St. Suite 8, Vallejo, CA 94590 214-537-6179

Shoe Bones Collective – Salem, MA 

A queer and trans, neurodivergent leftist art collective safe space with harm reduction supplies that hosts events. 28 Boston Street, Salem, MA 01970 IG shoe.bones 

manyworlds – Corvallis, OR 

A diy community center hosting open hangouts, events, and skillshares. “We house a free fridge, radical library, tool share, and educational garden.” 1013 NW Taylor Avenue, Corvallis, OR 97330 manyworld.diy

Bric A Brac – San Francisco, CA

Infoshop and art space that hosts shows and events and has a zine library. 178 Ireland Avenue, SF, CA 94134 IG @bricabracofsanfrancisco

Firehouse Community Arts Center – Birmingham, AL 

A non-profit community learning space with classes, practice space and a DIY venue. 412 41st Street South, Birmingham, AL 35222. firehousecac.org

Area 54 – Buffalo, NY

Community based venue and events space. 3234 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214 IG: @amys_place_buffalo

Boxcar – Opelika, AL

Microcinema, music and performance space, art exhibition space and cafe. 706 1st Avenue, Opelika, AL, 36801

Letters Community Bookshop – Durham, NC 

Community-owned new and used bookstore co-op that hosts events. 116 W Main St., Durham, NC 27701 919-973-2573 lettersbookshop.com

All People’s Barbershop – Middletown, CT

A barbershop with mutual aid supplies that hosts events. 386 Main Street Middletown, CT 06457 860-333-8717 allpeoplesbarbershop. square.site

Corazón Cafe SLO – San Luis Obispo, CA 

Mexican/Chicano cafe and community/cultural space with heritage and art that hosts events and meetings. 847 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805-439-3823 corazoncafeslo.com

Community Driven – Minneapolis

Not an open storefront, but a resource for food for community events & people in need. 64 Melbourne Ave. SE Minneapolis, MN 55414 community-driven.org

Proyecto Lingüístico Quetzalteco de Español – Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala

A language immersion school that teaches Spanish and Mayan K’iche’ collectively owned by an association of Guatemalan teachers. PLQ has a long history of and a continued commitment to working in solidarity with human rights groups and social justice organizations in Guatemala in order to be a model for socially-responsible language instruction. PLQ has a sister school called La Escuela de la Montaña (escuelamontana.org), which is located in a rural Mayan community known as Nuevo San Jose – get directions at PLQ. 5a calle, 2-40, zona 1, Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala, plqe.org

Myselium – Svendborg, Denmark

An anarchist commune in the countryside generally open for people to come through. Herredsfogedvej 9, 5700 Svendborg, myselium.org

Ch’o Tinimit – Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala 

A social center and anarchist infoshop that hosts events, provides mutual aid and has radical resources in Spanish and English. “A space to share ideas, literature, art, knowledge, to continue building networks without borders or nations. A space without hierarchy, with anti-colonial force, anti-carceral ideals, against repression and cooptation, and outside of state and individual violence.” 6a Calle 4th Avenida 6-31 Zona 1, Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala IG @cho.tinimt

Corrections to the 2026 Organizer 

• The phone number for Kismet Creative Center in St. Louis should be 303-524-5729. 

• Fort Collins Food Co-op has moved to 1100 W. Mountain Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80521. 

Slingshot is an independent radical newspaper published in Berkeley since 1988. 

You can’t make a paper like this if you succumb to gloom and panic or obsess about fascism and environmental collapse all the time. We’re not looking away from the repression and suffering. We’re focused on what we’re going to do and how we’re going to live, not what the system wants to do to us. We couldn’t care less about what we’re supposed to be doing. The mainstream media usually paints radicals and anarchists as angry, and there are ample reasons to be pissed — but most of us tend towards being sensitive, cuddly, reflective and kind. In rejecting the police state, we’re rooted in awe and delight — gathering with others for music, pleasure and nature appreciation — not justICE watches or editing meetings (but those, too.)

The real question is, what’s wrong with the people in charge of corporations and governments? What kind of crazy person spends their time trying to split up families — more interested in tactical gear, prisons and high-rise towers than trees, dinner parties, soft skin and the other things that make life worth living?

In a system organized around inequality, careless destruction of the Earth, boredom, scarcity, loneliness, cruelty and cold impersonal interactions with faceless corporate profit systems, it’s only natural to rebel. Will you join the underground with us? It’s more fun being freaks and non-conformists — but oddly the so-called normal people always turn out to be weird and dark in private. We prefer being open and transparent with our weirdness — which means we don’t have to spend our mental energy pretending and hiding. 

There were LOTS of new volunteers and energy to make this issue! Over 20 people turned out at the kick-off meeting, which was a world record. Let’s hope the energy carries on through the weeks of mailing parties… If the tyrants were hoping to make us scared and depressed, they’ve failed. The psychological pressures of repression appear to be causing a lot of people to reach out for more community and seek out more life-affirming experiences. This is what happens when we stop doom scrolling.

The Long Haul building where we make Slingshot has been so crowded with events the last few months that there are often 3 or 4 things per day. What a great problem to have as a radical space! The meeting to decide what to publish was serenaded by a rowdy mob of musicians during Folk Punk Church, including an awesome saw player. Then there was a punk show during the art party. There’s energy coursing through — not just meetings and study groups, but layers of community centered on pleasure, art and music. We wish we could export all around the world the East Bay mood rooted in a freshness about life, tolerance for others and reverence for the Earth.

It’s so inspiring to witness abundant courageous generosity and solidarity over the last dark year. Mutual aid isn’t just sharing stuff with others. When you trust that others will share with you when you need it, that’s when our individual fears give way to collective freedom. We’re in this together, which is powerful and makes all this a little less scary. Doing stuff with others isn’t always easy — disagreements can arise — but it’s real and human. It’s not like staring at a screen or paying for corporate bullshit. It’s a little embarrassing to admit that in the midst of so much suffering and danger, we’re thriving anyway. 

These articles are written, edited, and published by a very loose collaborative of people, with open meetings and little structure. No two Slingshots are published by the same group. Many of us disagree with aspects of articles we publish. Each issue is an invitation, if not to work on our paper, then to engage with the problems of our day. 

Slingshot is always looking for volunteer distributors. If you can hand out papers to your friends or put a few copies into your local cafe, library, truck stop, laundromat, school or whatever, we can send you copies for free. We’re trying to reach people who’ve never stumbled across the underground press before, rather than just preaching to the choir. We’re also always seeking new writers, artists, and editors. If you send an article, please be open to its editing. 

Thanks to the people who made this: Amari, Bennett, Bri, Decay, Emily, Henry, Jake, Jesse, Kristoff, Lara, Lily, Maddie, Matteo, Niko, Paula, Rain, Robert, Robin, Seaera, Sirkka, Soren, Tiffany, Toby, Violet & all the authors and artists! 

Slingshot Article Submission Info

We’re not going to set a deadline for the next issue. We encourage you to submit articles for the next Slingshot anytime you want. We’ll make another issue when we feel like it. Check the Slingshotwebsite, IndyBay, instagram and facebook for deadline info. We also have an internal email list that announces the next deadline so email if you want to be added to the list. 

Volume 1, Number 144, Circulation 48,000

Printed February 27, 2026

Slingshot Newspaper

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Subscriptions to Slingshot are free to prisoners, low income folks, or anyone in the USA with a Slingshot Organizer, or are $1 per issue donation. International $4 per issue. Outside the Bay Area we’ll mail you a free stack of copies if you give them out for free. Say how many copies and how long you’ll be at your address. In the Bay Area pick up copies at Long Haul and Bound Together books, SF.

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By Anonymous

Start thinking about the eyes that watch you. The ones that live on the traffic lights, and the ones that live in our pockets. And the smaller, quieter ones, behind each credit card transaction and web search and unencrypted text and email and google doc. The state apparatus has always relied on its many, many eyes. But before, those eyes belonged to humans. And when they brought what they saw to be analyzed, they brought it to human brains, with papers and pens and many, many file cabinets. 

But now the eyes, they are not so human. They are produced by Huawei and Cisco and Amazon and Google and Sony and TP-Link and Arlo and ADP, the cameras of glass and plastic and silicon connected by airwaves and wires to the great, inhuman brain that sorts and sorts and analyzes and analyzes. The platform. The Algorithms. And the other eyes, that deal not in images but in ideas, in money, in words. The social-media-ears and the payment-processing-noses. These too feed in, to that great surveillance apparatus.

This was never acceptable, yet we have quietly accepted. There have always been other, more pressing concerns. More worrying injustices, more violent impositions of state power. And so that amorphous state body and its algorithmic intelligence brain keeps growing these eyes. Growing them at city council meetings where Flock contracts are approved, in corporate boardrooms where DHS contracts are signed, and on the houses of our scared, scared neighbors who install Nest and Ring cameras on their doorbells. The eyes sprout up with every no-cash business, with every fundraiser that takes Venmo with every service that requires an app. And the eyes sprout forth of our own hands too, with every tweet and blog post and Instagram picture and TikTok that brings the physical world of our friends and community into the digital world of their algorithms. Ever watching, ever searching, ever sorting.

But although these eyes keep sprouting out of the state like heads of a hydra, they are not invulnerable. Cameras are just plastic and silicon, they can be smashed with rocks or painted dark or burnt with lasers. Phones can be left at home, surveilled intersections can be avoided, cash can be paid. But to avoid the eyes, first you must notice them. Look up! Look up at the traffic lights, how many cameras are at this intersection? Look up the process for local police officers to access your personal files on whatever social media platforms you use. And look up into the eyes of the person you’re about to tap a phone for, ask if they might take cash. Say “Hi” while you’re at it. The eyes of state surveillance must be seen, before they can be avoided, let alone destroyed. So start thinking about surveillance. Because behind the airwaves and wires, in that deep mess of server racks and AI algorithms, the surveillance is already, assuredly, thinking about you.

“Whenever we try to envision a world without war, without violence, without prisons, without capitalism, we are engaging in speculative fiction. All organizing is science fiction.”

– Walidah Imarisha

By The Climate Underground

Let’s get real here. Catastrophic climate change is now ravaging the United States. Cities like Altadena, Lahaina, and Paradise have been reduced to cinders. Oklahoma is on fire. Also, as climate scientists have been predicting for decades, the Arctic Vortex has collapsed, causing winter storms to move further south. Poor people are freezing to death in their homes in Texas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Puerto Rico is still without a functioning electrical grid after being hit by a devastating hurricane nearly a decade ago. This is what climate collapse looks like. We are in it. And if we continue on this path, things are going to get much, much worse. 

Yet it is absolutely possible to turn things around. Scotland is already meeting 113% of its energy needs using renewables (there’s so much clean energy there, they are exporting it to other places). If we were to direct just 5% of U.S. steel production to the task, we could meet the entire planet’s energy needs using wind energy alone in just 5 years. (Frierson 2022). This rapid rollout of renewables could be accompanied by accelerated research into and distribution of rare-metal-free batteries (especially sodium ion batteries) — allowing us to fully decarbonize and electrify the grid while avoiding unjust forms of extractivism. 

Right now, there are seven small island nations at risk of being lost to the sea if we exceed 1.5°C of global temperature change. We still have time to prevent this. If we start working in 2028 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by just 10% a year — with complete elimination of emissions by 2038 — we would just barely avoid breaching the 1.5°C mark. If you don’t believe us, check out this simulation we made with the MIT climate simulator: tinyurl.com/EarthWinScenario. It can be done. We still have time to reverse course and save billions of human and non-human lives. 

Sometimes it can be difficult to envision a best-case scenario when we are bombarded with visions of doom by the corporate media. Even the scientific models used by world leaders to understand climate change lack feasible best-case scenarios. This has created a problem that LA-based climate educator Thomas Yount calls “doom bias.” Doom bias leads us to think we’ve already lost when we haven’t, which plays into the hands of fossil fuel interests. 

Many exciting alternative visions of the future are emerging that are aligned with a new scientific and activist movement called “degrowth” or sometimes “postgrowth.” Right now, world leaders tend to pursue economic growth at the expense of all else, but GDP growth is a horrible measure of success: it leaves human well-being and ecological care out of the equation. 

The postgrowth movement pushes back against the use of GDP measurements as a definition of success and urges leaders and policymakers to instead prioritize human and ecological well-being. Jason Hickel has defined degrowth as “a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being.” A degrowth transition means moving beyond the myth of “green capitalism,” and instead working to ensure surplus is directed towards human well-being and ecological care. 

This means scaling back useless work and overproduction, and reducing forms of inequality and inequity, while dismantling systemic forms of oppression. It also means we all get more time to spend on leisure, on building meaningful lives, playing games, pursuing life-long education, doing arts and crafts, and caring for each other and our communities — human and non-human alike. It involves ending forms of colonial and imperial exploitation through processes like democratization, delinking, demilitarization, and decolonization.

One great way to tackle doom bias in our communities is to circulate feasible visions of best-case climate scenarios rooted in social justice. Below, we’ve created two scenarios that do just that. As you read through these scenarios, you might be drawn to one scenario more than the other. That’s okay! And it’s okay if some of your friends and comrades gravitate towards a different scenario than you. An important part of movement-building is learning to understand and acknowledge that we often all have slightly different visions in our minds of what a best-case scenario will look like. Even if our visions differ slightly, it is important to find common ground, and to keep dreaming. As we’ve been saying in Berkeley since 1969: The trip belongs to whoever dreams.

༻❁༺

Two best-case scenarios for human and ecological well-being

In both of the scenarios below, humans succeed in limiting planetary warming to 1.5°C while improving human well-being and building a more equal, equitable, and just society. Here is what the scenarios look like when mapped onto an alignment grid:

Feel free to use this alignment grid and add a best-case scenario of your own. Let’s keep workshopping our visions and hold space for differently desirablebest-case scenarios. Note: The scenarios below are visions of the future rooted in the present, so they are written in present-continuous tense.

Scenario 1: Mycelial Eco-Social Healing (ecology-embracing, global cooperation is rooted in local participation). 

Following the crises of the early 21st century, localized networks of care and resistance sprout up. These movements are united by a shared understanding: The wrong ICE is melting. United by a great love of neighbors that transcends borders, people everywhere begin to listen to the voices of refugees and immigrants, building understanding about the systemic forces that forced them to flee their homes. 

A demand for “delinking and decolonization” emerges around the world, and soon all foreign debt of the so-called “Global South” is forgiven — that debt was only there because of capitalist meddling anyway. Freed from unjust foreign obligations, these regions rapidly shift towards caring for their own people, rather than letting capitalists tear up the ecology and society of the region so to pay off unjust foreign debts. 

By the early 2030s, as a systems of transnational systemic racism are dismantled, a global grassroots transformation unfolds that centers the rise of more democratic, localized, and consent-based ways of doing things. Rape culture is replaced with nurturance culture. There is a rapid uptick in worker cooperatives, union co-ops, land trusts, commons, and neighborhood farms. Work becomes slower, more meaningful, and more social. Convivial technologies like the bicycle rise to a new level of social prominence. 

People begin to focus more on living fully within their bodies, and cultivating the ability to connect deeply with others. The internet continues to play a role in supporting coordination, but communication is re-centered on face-to-face encounters: TikTok is out, storytelling at the campfire is in. The border between economics and ecology are blurred. 

Ecosystems come to be understood as commons that must be intentionally and collectively managed. The next big trans-national project becomes the work of coordinating care of the planet’s atmosphere, oceans, soil, and biodiversity. The harvesting of wind and sunlight to make energy comes to be seen as cultural practice. World hunger is ended thanks to networked Regenerative Agriculture co-ops, guided by the principals of agroecology, Indigenous wisdom, and mutual aid. 

Long-ignored treaties and agreements with Indigenous groups are finally respected, sparking the widespread return of land to Indigenous hands. Disability accommodations are prioritized, ensuring disabled voices can more easily stay active in guiding the transition. Cityscapes are transformed to be more walkable, accessible, inviting, and green. This transition occurs not because people wait around for collapse, but because they get proactive, draw the line, and build a global, mycelial economic network that is fully authoritarian-proof. They thought they could bury us, but we were seeds.

Scenario 2: Fully luxury Eco-socialism (technology-embracing, local power networked into global cooperation). 

In the wake of the crises of the early 21st century, people begin to turn away from the agendas of the corporate elite, united by shared understandings that spread rapidly thanks to networked communication technology. Social media — valued for its role in fueling resistance by allowing footage of atrocities to circulate — comes to be owned and governed by co-ops and the public, putting an end to addictive algorithms and Cambridge Analytica-style election interference. 

De-privatization unfolds rapidly: Private prisons are abolished, medical debt and student debt is forgiven, and the predatory systems at the root of all these things are dismantled. Guided by a global movement for energy sovereignty, locally-managed renewable microgrids appear everywhere — making it impossible for dictators to cut off a region’s energy supply. Patterns of strategic economic resistance unfold at every scale — led by unions and federated co-ops — giving rise to universal healthcare, free public transit, housing for all, and “library socialism.” Many regions adopt a program of “Democratically Coordinated Sustainability,” guaranteeing meaningful work for all who want it — work that often centers rebuilding public intuitions so they can truly be by the people and for the people. 

Decentralized access to real-time Earth data allows everyone actively to monitor the health of the atmosphere, soil, oceans, and biodiversity. Monitoring the health of Earth’s systems becomes a popular pastime, thanks to games and media that make the monitoring of planetary health fun and exciting. Soon, the work of coordinating care for the planet gains the same level of attention and prestige once reserved for space travel. Earth systems engineers work hand-in-hand with Indigenous experts, farmers, artists, social scientists, and ecological economists to keep the economy in balance with the ecology. 

Cities and workplaces are redesigned through participatory processes to center social well-being and ecological care, while upholding the values of infinite diversity in infinite combinations (IDIC). Disabled people are actively included, and their contributions valued. Large monocrop farms are dismantled, and Regenerative Agriculture is subsidized. Vertical farms spring up in many cities with public supermarkets on the ground floor, allowing city people to easily access fresh food, locally grown in skyscraper-sized greenhouses. The prime directive of Free and Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC) takes a central role in guiding this transition to an environmentally stable, socially just economy. 

The UNDRIP, a global declaration of Indigenous rights created as part of an Indigenous-led process, comes to bettered respected and upheld, and Indigenous people come to be better included in all spaces of decision-making, research, and creative expression. Profit incentives for war are dismantled, leading to rapid demilitarization. Exnovation, the deliberate winding down and phasing out of destructive industries, comes to be just as important as innovation.

The early 21^st century is remembered as a tumultuous time, and the memories of those who died in standing up to tyranny live on for centuries. This transition to a more logical and socially just world does not come by waiting for collapse, but by taking initiative, using the technologies at hand, and boldly steering the planet towards the best future still possible.

Further reading:

• To learn more about how we could transition the grid to renewables in less than 5 years, check out the chapter “Blowing in the Wind,” in the free, open access textbook, “Climate, Justice and Energy Solutions: Radical Visions of 100% Clean Power for 100% of the People.” 

• Energy solutions should probably be limited to wind and solar installed only with the consent of local people. To learn why this is, check out the online zine, “Hoodwinked in the Hothouse: Resist False Climate Solutions.”

• Don’t let ecofascists mess up your movement. Check out the online zine: “Against the Ecofascist Creep” by the Anti-Creep Climate Initiative.

By Mars, with input from Sprout, Hope, Lichen, and Feb 

We live in scary times. That’s no secret. In every direction there’s something so eye-poppingly horrible that turning on the news feels like drowning. So, that means it’s time to do something! Right? There are so many ways to help, so….. just go! Start! You can pull on any thread and help the whole rotten thing unravel! But….what if I don’t know what to do? I don’t know how to unionize a workplace or start a protest! There are so many people with more skills who are better equipped to meet this moment. Who am I to think I have any of the answers, or even any good ideas? I’m not sure what to do and I’m so overwhelmed. Surely, a moment will come when I know it’s my time. 

This dead-end train of thought has been circling my brain since 2016, but especially in the last year. And sometimes it’s humiliating to think about how much time I’ve wasted. How many skills have I not acquired? How far behind am I? Am I even a real leftist? 

Recently, I’ve come to understand this paralysis as a form of imposter syndrome. “There’s always someone better or more skilled than me.” “I don’t know what I’m doing so I should move out of the way and let people who do know take over.” These are not unfamiliar thoughts. I’ve had them in a myriad of life arenas, from work to relationships to art. I bet you have too. But it took me a while to recognize I was feeling imposter syndrome in regard to political activism as well. 

Partially, this is because our current political system relies on citizens only participating in the ways it deems appropriate. You can vote, you can call your elected officials, you can file lawsuits, you can protest, but only at sanctioned, peaceful ones! Actions that would more effectively center your power as an individual, such as strikes, mutual aid networks, DIY HRT regimens, and targeted direct action are looked down on and viewed with extreme suspicion. Under these hostile conditions, it’s undeniably scary to poke your head above the battlements and participate at all. The fear tells you it’s safer to let the professionals and the system handle it. Just buckle down and wait for fairer weather. 

But if we can identify that anxiety lies to us in other areas of life, surely we can figure out a way to beat it back in the political arena as well. Strangely enough, a framework that’s been helping me overcome this mental block is thinking about it in relation to AI. Let me explain. 

AI is a nightmare technology that was created by billionaires whose only goal is to solve the problem of ever having to pay workers again. It is the ultimate expression of late-stage capitalism and was built so that the worst people in the world can surveil the public, cut humans out of decision making, “more effectively” wage war, and reduce online platforms to cesspools of slop. AI loudly proclaims to have all the answers while it guzzles resources, lies, emotionally manipulates its users, and alienates labor even further from workers.

However, at the same time, the technology is advanced enough that you can ask it for almost anything and get a result that is…adequate. It will be the lowest common denominator of whatever style you requested, but you will get a result. It will not be avant-garde or interesting (except for maybe some extra fingers!). But it will be a competently rendered facsimile of the prompt you input. 

And that makes AI very appealing because it can function as an escape hatch for imposter syndrome. Insecure about your writing skills? Don’t worry, AI can write it for you. Can’t draw? Don’t worry, AI can generate almost any image you can imagine. Never got the hang of an instrument? Don’t worry, AI can produce an entire song for you in minutes. 

My friend Sprout, who wrote an essay that was the original inspiration for this article, detailed how they see this phenomenon in their students, who are afraid to write without ChatGPT because they don’t want to fail. They haven’t practiced writing enough, are too overwhelmed to start, and don’t want to bang their head against the wall for something that might not even get them a good grade. When you’ve lived your entire life in an environment that immediately and mercilessly punishes incompetence, why wouldn’t you turn to the answer the system so neatly provides? 

But as I’ve watched AI art and writing overwhelm the online landscape, I’ve felt my conception of what “quality” art looks like completely invert itself. Before AI, my imposter syndrome told me that an “artist” is a person who can see a vision in their mind and successfully translate it through a medium into an identifiable representation of what they imagined. If you can’t do that, oops!, guess you aren’t an artist. But now, with the knowledge that I can generate whatever corporate, safe, lifeless image or essay I desire in minutes, it makes me stop and think. As a human being with a brain and body, doesn’t that mean I have the unique ability to make the most fucked up, horrendous, incompetent art I can imagine? If the AI can make something look “good,” can I make something look “bad” and give it just as much value? What’s stopping me from covering an entire page in scribbles of purple and green pen and saying “Yep! That’s art baby, read it and weep?” 

My understanding of art and creativity has fundamentally changed. I now see artistry as a practice of looking imposter syndrome square in the face and saying, “Fuck you, I’m doing it anyways.” And once you can make that mental switch, there’s no such thing as failure. Did you try to draw a person and instead it looks like a cursed goblin? Congrats, your brain and eyes and hands were all communicating with each other! That’s so cool! Did you try to paint a sunset and instead it looks like mud because you mixed too many colors together? Congrats, you just learned about color theory! Are the same motifs repeating in your poetry? Congrats, those are the topics that are most emotionally resonant for you and help you process life. And what’s even cooler: my failures will look completely different from your failures, will look completely different from your roommate’s failures, etc. 

Individuality, non-conformity, and failure are punished by capitalism. So, it follows that every time you make something “ugly,” or choose a path that feels best for you regardless of societal pressure, you become part of the resistance. The systems that built AI do not see value in individuality because they view human beings as simply a resource to exploit. They are counting on you to keep finding comfort in the system and be too scared to try something new.

But they’ve really overplayed their hand. These days it seems like no one is having fun on the Internet anymore. Facebook is a wasteland and has been for years. Tiktok is an addiction machine I see more people every day making an effort to quit. Meanwhile, the larger capitalist, imperialist system funds genocides, kidnaps world leaders with impunity, executes people in the street, and sells public land to oil executives. The comfort some of us may have enjoyed is crumbling before our eyes. Soon, nothing will be keeping us tethered to the old world except our fear. 

I suspect that messiness and failure will be required to create a new and different world, and I’m hopeful because it seems like more people are embracing this concept. It might be a temporary relief to write that essay with ChatGPT, or tell yourself we just need to get through the next three years and things will sort themselves out. But as long as we continue using the same systems, we’ll get the same answers. And those answers have never delivered an equitable and dignified life for all. 

Choosing to try something new is hard! It takes courage to act on an idea, even if you don’t think it’s perfect, even if it doesn’t feel like it will accomplish much. It’s hard to introduce yourself to new people. It’s hard to look at the ugly-ass thing you just drew and not judge it. But every time you try anyways is a tiny victory. And sometimes it’s less difficult than you think it will be! After all, I went to the planning meeting for this Slingshot issue. I went to my first swap a few weeks ago and donated a bunch of old supplies to mutual aid. I wrote and submitted this article. It’s hard, but it’s time. Take the imposter syndrome out back and smash its head in.