Posted on

Skullface

Up until recently, I hadn’t heard much about The Secret World of Terijian. However, earlier this summer, I attended an environmental gathering where a little girl asked me to read it to her. Written as what seems to be a short children’s book, it has the potential to open up the inner child in every one of us. By the end of the first chapter that morning, there were three of us sitting in a small circle, reading to each other aloud.

The magical story of The Secret World of Terijian is divided into somewhat long chapters, told in the wide-eyed romanticism one might experience in the early stages of life. It starts out as the main character, Connor, young, shy, and imaginative, meets his new neighbor, Moriko. Together, they explore the wooded area behind their homes, through games of make-believe and the real life struggles they encounter along the way.

It is in that secret forest which Connor and Moriko encounter a beautiful hawk, and her babies who have yet to learn how to fly. Further into the woods, they stumble across a monster of a bulldozer cutting down the trees to make way for the rest of the a new housing development in the children’s neighborhood. In order to save the young birds and the tree they live in, the children brainstorm ways to kill the machine before it kills any other animals.

The book follows Connor and Moriko as they disobey their parents, sneak out late at night, and make friends with the elves who also reside in the trees of the forest. Their struggle is one that will both warm your heart and fuel your revolutionary spirit. Written by an anonymous author, it provides an interesting twist to the Crimethinc. Collective’s effort to educate the masses, including those young and old alike.

The Secret World of Terijian is an enlightening look at just how the destruction of the earth’s natural habitat effects everyone, from six year old adventurers to thirty-six year old construction workers, from birds to elves and fairies. It shows just how much can be accomplished when you stand up and fight for what you believe in, no matter how insignificant you may think you are or how scared you are in the beginning. Even U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon, Karin J. Engdall, thinks so: “… The story line of this children’s book romanticizes the activities of the Earth Liberation Front and encourages children to become involved in similar criminal conduct …”

Posted on

Nicole

As I understand it, in the summer of 2006, seven young Black lesbians from New Jersey, Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, Chenese Loyal, Lania Daniels, and Khamysha Coates, were hanging out in New York City’s West Village when Dwayne Buckle, an aggressively heterosexual Black man selling DVDs on the street, sexually propositioned Patreese. Refusing to take no for an answer, he followed them down the street, insulting and threatening them by yelling things like: “I’ll fuck you straight, sweetheart!” During the resulting confrontation, he first spat in the face of one of the women and threw his lit cigarette at them, then he yanked the hair of another, pulling her towards him, and then began strangling another. A fight broke out, during which Patreese Johnson, 4 feet 11 inches tall and 95 pounds, produced a small knife from her bag to stop Buckle from choking her friend.

Some male onlookers ran over to physically deal with Buckle in order to help the women. Buckle, who ended up hospitalized for five days with stomach and liver lacerations, initially reported on at least two occasions that the men-not the women-had attacked him. What’s more, Patreese’s knife was never tested for DNA, the men who beat Buckle were never questioned by police, and the whole incident was documented on surveillance video. Yet the women ended up on trial for attempted murder. Dwayne Buckle testified against them.

It’s not easy to be sure of the facts here. For one thing, the media coverage was savage, calling the women things like a “wolf pack of lesbians.” The pro bono lawyers for the young lesbians would later have to buy the public record of the case since the judge, Edward J. McLaughlin (who ridiculed and expressed open contempt for the women in front of the jury all throughout the trial), would not release it. And as of late August 2007, the defense team still didn’t have a copy of the security camera video footage. Nevertheless, the upshot was that after the better part of one year spent sitting in jail, four of the seven women were convicted and sentenced in June 2007 to jail terms ranging from 3 1/2 to 11 years. The oldest of the convicted women was 24, and two of them are mothers of very small children.

Either it’s a criminal offense to try to stop someone from choking your friend or these women have been slandered in the media and locked up for being nonwhite, openly lesbian, unfeminine, unwealthy in a gentrifying neighborhood, and for refusing to submit to a bully. (Dwayne Buckle OR the judge-take your pick.)

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

If you are able to help with the women’s appeal (with legal research, financial contributions/fundraising efforts, doing research on the judge and district attorney on the case, stuff like that), you might want to contact FIERCE (Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment), which is a community organization for transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, queer, and questioning youth of color. This group seems to have taken on some of the responsibility for helping the imprisoned women in this case. FIERCE is located at: 147 West 24th Street, 6th floor, New York, NY 10011 (646) 336-6789 www.fiercenyc.org

As of mid September 2007, Patreese Johnson, Terrain Dandridge, Venice Brown, and Renata Hill could be contacted as below:

Patreese Johnson # 07-G-0635 AND Renata Hill # 07-G-0636

are being held at

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility P.O. Box 1000 Bedford Hills, NY 10507

Terrain Dandridge # 07-G-0637 AND Venice Brown # 07-G-0640

are being held at

Albion Correctional Facility 3595 State School Road Albion, NY 14411-9399

The most up-to-date information I’ve been able to find about this situation is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justice4newark4/

There is an on-line petition in support of the four imprisoned lesbians at http://www.petitiononline.com/theseven/.

If you have a little extra, please consider kicking a few dollars toward the appeal effort (you could talk to FIERCE about that). You might want to write a quick letter or e-mail to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, or Edward J. McLaughlin (the judge in this case), or some sympathetic politician (heh), or the DJ at a politically progressive radio station, who might help spread the word on the air. Even if all you do is inform some people who didn’t already know about this situation, it might end up helping in some way.

Posted on

Skullface

“. . . Security culture is a set of customs shared by a community whose members may engage in illegal activities, the practice of which minimizes the risks of such activities.” – Wikipedia

Creating a security culture is about understanding the destructiveness of “big-mouths” and boasting. The practice extends far beyond not talking and ensuring the confidentiality of your internet conversations. It also means watching your friends and creating an environment where lying, gossip, bragging, and indirect bragging are not welcome.

Observing security culture is not the same as being so paranoid about everything and everyone that you become paralyzed and ineffective at resisting the system. Government surveillance has two distinct purposes — actually monitoring individuals with an eye towards arresting or repressing them, and even more importantly, making everyone think they are always being watched. People who spend all their time worrying about being watched don’t do anything in the first place, and the government knows this. The government doesn’t have enough resources to watch everyone all the time. The trick to getting security culture right is not making silly mistakes, and yet not losing the spirit and courage necessary to fight the system.

Many common behaviors violate security culture and should be avoided. Nocompromise.org defines four categories :

“Liars– To impress other activists, they claim to have done actions. Such lies not only compromise the person’s security–as cops will not take what is said as a lie–but also hinders movement solidarity and trust.

Gossips– Some weak characters think they can win friends because they are privy to special information. These gossips will tell others about who did what action or, if they don’t know who did it, guess at who they think did what actions or just spread rumors about who did it when they really have no clue. This sort of talk is very damaging. People need to remember that rumors are all that are needed to instigate a grand jury. Usually gossips are also liars which only worsens the situation.

Braggers– It is possible that some people who partake in illegal direct action might brag about it to their friends in an attempt to receive respect and admiration. If someone did such a thing, it would not only jeopardize the bragger’s security, but also that of the other people involved with the action (as they may be suspected by association), as well as the people who he told (they can become accessories after the fact).

Indirect-Braggers– Indirect-braggers are people who make a big production on how they want to remain anonymous, avoid protests, and stay “underground.” They might not come out and say that they do illegal direct action, but they make sure everyone within ear-shot knows they are up to something. They are no better than braggers, but they try to be more sophisticated about it by pretending to maintain “security.” However, if they were serious about security, they would just make up a good excuse as to why they are not as active, or why they can’t make it to the protest. It is doubtful these people ever really do anything.”

Often, we break our own rules when we get too excited. Even simply reminiscing the blows we caused our oppressors is a risk; especially the blows we hope to cause in the future. Sometimes we need to step back and look at groups and individuals involved with resistance work. Not everyone can be trusted.

So how do we do this?

NEVER talk about you or someone else’s involvement with underground or illegal groups. NEVER ask someone else about their involvement in past or present illegal actions or groups. NEVER talk about you or someone else’s plans for future action. NEVER allow yourself to become vulnerable to someone asking these sort of questions or talking about illegal actions.

Affinity groups are made up of people in very small groups that you are familiar with. These groups should have full trust in each other, but you should be as careful as ever when working with others. No conversations concerning future actions should be over the internet, the phone, snail mail, or any car or home of an activist. If it is important to mention an action, protest, or illegal activity, do not mention specifics.

If you are detained or arrested, do not answer questions that could implicate you or anyone else in a future or previous crimes. It is better to stay silent, no matter what coercion is used against you. They may ask you why you were at the protest or action, who you usually meet with, what groups you’re a part of, what the times and dates of future protests and meetings are, or what your beliefs are. They may offer to let you go or to give you time off your sentence or try to pick at your weaknesses and tell you that your comrades are lying to you. If you don’t respond, eventually, they will give up.

When you encounter people with poor security skills, do not shun them immediately. Try to educate them on discussions that are not appropriate. There are cases where the circumstances are too peculiar and the people involved are too sketchy. In these cases, it is best to avoid these people and situations. It is better to criticize actions and not engage in witchhunts for suspected cops in the absence of solid information

Activists are restless and resistance is on the rise. Some people are adopting radical and confrontational tactics. The more we organize and are effective, the more police forces will escalate their activities against us. For direct action movements to continue, we need to make security one of our strengths.

To Know • To Will • To Dare • To Keep Silent

Posted on

US out of Iraq! – first person: movign the peace movement beyond the choir

When I saw this flyer calling for an independently organized peace rally at People’s Park in Berkeley, I put the date of the meeting directly in my organizer. The meeting brought me bolt upright in my seat and I set out to do what I could to help Terri and Lawrence and the rest of the gang get the job done. I ended up learning even more. Wanna hear about it?

I previously worked on the anti-war movement in a small military town in the South, where the locals organized against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq after September 11 — doing whatever seemed to stand a chance of stopping the war. I honed my skills flyering, handing out leaflets on the street, talking to active duty Navy and Marine GI’s at the Cafe I volunteered at, and enjoying the company of fellow activists at rallies and meetings. We all learned how to light and hold a candle. The climate was hostile but disorganized — the local social institutions didn’t know what to make of our shell-shock organizing. Thuggish military families sometimes confronted us, always on the verge of violence. One activist was pelted by frozen eggs from a car filled with scary black clad dudes in ski masks. We learned from it, wasted nothing, gained guts and commitment.

I used the peace organizing tactics I learned in the South in my efforts on the People’s Park peace rally, handing out fliers in all the unexpected places and to all the unexpected people that “activists” don’t usually visit.

I like inhabiting places that are shared with widely disparate groups. Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley features football players, military guys, tourists, drug dealers, thugs, college girls — there’s not much I have in common with most of these people. Take tourists, they drive me crazy — try to take pictures, “I’m not a postcard model, man.” But tourists come to check out the scene in the Bay Area — why not give them something to gape at and bring home with them that they’ll have to think about all year. Let them light your cigarette, give them a flyer, give them an exciting peace rally, a funny story, a good idea, a little street drama. They just might pay you back instead of sucking the life out of you, and it sure beats going cross-country to a far away peace rally. I am bored of that but I will if I have to. And you want to know something? At a peace rally in Berkeley when everybody’s got something to say to everybody, about everything, that’s a fucking special time and you better not miss it.

So if you want to go international and try to change the world, think about staying right here and working on changing the world here, first. Find the comfortable safe tourist destinations, the airports, the subway cars, because everybody’s gonna be there, everybody who’s not a shut-in or loaded or in a hospital or jail. Keep up the pressure — don’t lose your momentum. When I’m working the street handing out fliers against the war in Iraq, I can hear the roar of jet engines in my ears. Take the time to appreciate the company of like minded people. When you reach out beyond your comfort zone, you’re not preaching to the choir. In case you haven’t noticed the only choir we got is the Gay Men’s Chorus in SF, we need some new tunes! I mean I’m really into the bands that played in People’s Park — BACKBEAT WHISPER and ALL MY PRETTY ONES. FUNKY NIXONS — they sure got something to say but we need a new song — we need a new song — we need a new song. You better not just be preaching, they’re not a choir, they’re friends, and if you can reach out and touch people as humans, you’re keeping yourself from losing your mind.

Posted on

Global Infoshop ho-down

Here are some new Infoshops that have formed since we took the 2008 Slingshot organizer to the printer. We compile a huge list of infoshops — generally defined as not-for-profit radical community centers that often feature zines, a library, public internet, etc. — so that if you’re traveling, you can meet radical folks all over. Let us know if you know of any radial spaces we haven’t heard about. You can find a recently updated list of Infoshops and radical spaces around the globe on our website: slingshot.tao.ca.

In Our Hearts Infoshop & Freegan Bike Workshop – Brooklyn, NY

They just opened a new infoshop and community space in the Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn. Check them out at 123 Tompkins Ave #1L, Brooklyn, NY 11206.

Firebrand Collective Reading room and Free store – Nashville, TN

Firebrand Collective is seeking to create a community space to host a number of organizations and activities under one roof. They currently run a bunch of projects out of different spaces: a zine and radical literature library, a print co-op, a free school (skill share), free store, performance space, art space, bike repair shop, and Food Not Bombs. You can visit the Sin reading room open 5pm-10pm m-f at 918 Ward Street, Nashville, TN 37207 615-406-2076 or the free store at 1009 Joseph Ave. Nashville, TN 37207. Info at www.thefirebrand.org.

Edmonton Small Press Assc. Infoshop – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

They are a media activist group that tables, distributes materials, and presents films and visual exhibitions. The infoshop has zines and resources and is open Wednesday from 9am – noon and by appointment. Visit Room #9, 6th Floor, Stanley A. Milner Library #7 Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 2V4 Canada, (780) 413-0215 or (780) 434-9236 www.edmontonsmallpress.org

Emma Goldman Community Space / Anarchist Bookstore – Santiago, Chile

They have a community space and library focused on bringing together people who are interested or involved in the radical transformation of society. They’re open Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat 3-9pm. In Espanol the “Espacio Comunitario y Librería Anarquista Emma Goldman.” Check them out at: Avenida Cumming #453, Santiago, Chile (between calle Catedral y Compañía) emma@traidores.org www.traidores.org/emma .

Changes since we published the 2008 Slingshot Organizer:

• Flywheel Arts Collective in Easthampton, MA has a new address:

43 Main St., Easthampton, MA 01027

• The Redwood Peace and Justice Center in Arcata, Calif. has lost its space and is looking for another one.

• Third Space in Norman, OK is inactive for the moment – they hope to re-emerge some day in the future.

• DIRA in Montreal, Canada no longer has a physical location – they are on-line only.

• We meant to include a list of mail order distributions in the organizer that would have included: Black Cat (P.O. Box 229 Roberts Creek, BC V0N 2W0 Canada, blackcat@resist.ca) and Microcosm (222 S. Rogers St. Bloomington, IN 47404 812-323-7395).

• Oops – someone sent us a postcard saying that the @ Infoshop in Barcelona, Spain was no longer there, but the card got lost under a pile of paper so we mistakenly printed the address in the organizer. Please cross it out.

Posted on

Unconvetionally thoughtful

Slingshot received this communiqué from South Carolina some months ago. Although the discussions at this Consulta have since been superseded by the PreNC meeting of the RNC Welcoming Committee (see article page 3), we liked the thoughtfulness of this article and thought it would be helpful for others to read. We publish only selected portions here.

On May 12th and 13th, a faction of Unconventional Action hosted a Carolinas consulta in Chapel Hill, NC, as a way for anarchists and anti-authoritarians from across the Carolinas to develop strategies for resistance against the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 2008. This was also intended to deepen the broader personal and political networks of solidarity and mutual aid across the Carolinas and to share news and feedback about local struggles.

It may seem strange to organize a gathering primarily focused on mobilizations so far in advance. We believe it is important for anarchists to be developing our own strategy for the conventions right now: both so that we are not forced to act within a framework of authoritarian and/or reformist-led permitted marches, and so as to spark a new dialogue that brings the failures of capitalism and electoral politics to the forefront of public debate. By strategizing, coordinating, and organizing early on, we can seize the initiative and create a situation conducive to accessible, participatory direct action.

This cannot be a closed-door process. We believe a good strategy enables a wide range of groups with different skill-sets to coordinate and integrate a range of tactics, in a way that respects and encourages the autonomous decision-making of those groups. Past experience has taught us that it is unrealistic to expect hundreds of people from different parts of the country to be able to develop an effective strategy at a last-minute spokescouncil held two days before we hope to shut down an entire city center. Ideally, affinity groups across the country should know exactly what their roles will be many months in advance, so they will come mentally, physically, and tactically prepared to fulfill them.

Although a strategy must be publicly determined and widely known, tactically, individuals and groups of friends decide what roles they will play within it, and only they need to know the specifics of what they take on.

. . . .

Goals for the protests distilled from brainstorming early in the consulta:

• To be inspirational, energizing, inclusive, and relevant to everyday life

• To remind people of the government’s failures and manifest a viable alternative to the two-party system

• To organize actions with a clear message, that are self-replicating–i.e., that offer a model which can be repeated in other contexts

• To create sustainable structures with the momentum to continue beyond the protests

• To shut down the cities, delay and disrupt each convention and the media coverage; to deter cities from wanting to host the conventions in the future

• To respect and work with local people and movements on their issues and concerns

• To support community projects and local organizations in the host cities

• To provide awesome medical and legal care for everyone involved

• To focus on the themes of “No War,” “No Warming” and “No Borders”

• To offer space for a range of tactics to provide opportunities for all varieties of activists

• To use the media to our advantage

. . .

The Carolinas consulta was organized in part to encourage other regions hold similar events, because we believe that the process by which we coordinate strategy proposals and organizing can result in anarchist networks and infrastructure that will last long after the Democratic and Republican Parties are dead and gone. These networks and infrastructure are at least as important as shutting down the conventions. To that end, we encourage others to organize consultas in their regions, to publish and distribute materials about the conventions, and to initiate dialogues with other groups and individuals.

unconventional_action@mountainrebel.net

Posted on

Rabble Calendar – Issue #95

October

October 18-20

Anti-Corp. film festival @Victoria Theatre 16th & Mission SF www.countercorp.org.

October 18-21

World Bank/IMF protests in Washington DC octoberrebellion.org

October 19-21 • 11-6pm

Mid-Atlantic Radical Book Fair/film fest 2640 Saint Paul St. Baltimore www.redemmas.org/bookfair

October 22

11th Annual day of Protest Against Police Brutality Wear a black fish on your head

October 24 • 5:30 pm

8th Annual Brower Youth Eco-Awards Herbst Theater SF www.earthisland.org

October 31 • 4:30 pm

Capitalism gives us the Creeps – Halloween – Wicker Park, Chicago – dress in costumes that represent how capitalism destroys everything – march through the streets

November

November 1 • 6:30 pm

Mario Savio Awards – Featured speaker Angela Davis UC Berkeley Pauly Ballroom

November 2-4

Building Co-ops NASCO Institute Ann Arbor MI www.Nasco.coop/institute.

November 3 • 7 pm

Longest Walk Benefit Concert – Filmore SF www.redhotpromtions.com

November 5-11

No Borders Camp 2007 – Mexicali/Calexico www.noborderscamp.org

November 9-11

Milwaukee RNC Consulta in Wisconsin mkeanarchy.bravehost.com

November 10 • 10 – 6 pm

The 6th Annual New Orleans Bookfair www.nolabookfair.com

November 10 • 3 – 7 pm

Virginia Anarchist Conference 224 S. Cherry St. Richmond, VA easternanarchist@riseup.net

November 16 – 18

Protest the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia – www.soaw.org

November 22

Indigenous People’s Day Sunrise Ceremony at Alcatraz Island – spend three hours standing in line just to look at a bunch of people’s backs

November 23

Buy Nothing Day – General Strike to upset capitalism, free the turkeys

November 25 • 4 pm

Slingshot New Volunteer meeting for Issue #96 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley

And So on . . .

January 12 • 3 pm

Slingshot Article deadline Issue #96 Long Haul 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley

February 29 • at night

Leap Day Action Night – global, baby!

Posted on

Resist the Iraq War

As the war in Iraq drags into its fifth year, popular dissatisfaction has solidified even while the US political system has shown itself incapable of finding a way out. Recent direct action at the port of Tacoma, Washington aimed at physically blocking the war by blockading the loading of arms onto ships headed to Iraq provides a hopeful alternative to the republicrat paralysis while the bodies pile higher.

It is increasingly absurd to call US involvement in Iraq a “war.” What started as an unprovoked war of aggression — justified based on lies about non-existent weapons of mass destruction and ties to the 9-11 attacks, and really designed to steal Iraqi oil — has devolved into a clumsy occupation in the middle of a complex civil war. It’s a civil war with confusing, shifting fronts — and it is totally unclear what the US regime hopes to accomplish or which “side” US forces are trying to assist. The US fights for the Shiite controlled government, yet against the Shiite death squad controlled by it and the Shiite militias and political parties that make it up. Simultaneously, US forces try to prevent total ethnic cleansing of Sunnis, yet wage a brutal war against a popular Sunni insurgency. The US condemns Iran while aiding Iraqi forces allied with Iran. The contradictions go on and on.

In the end, the US has managed to unite Iraqis around one key conclusion — that the US has utterly destroyed their country through unforgivable incompetence and arrogance and that US forces should get the hell out. As Slingshot goes to press, a hundred thousand Iraqis were in the streets on the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad demanding “US Out!” Iraqi public opinion polls file support for the occupation in the low single digits. So much for being met with flowers. Bush’s reaction is to escalate and add troops.

Four years after the invasion and billions of dollars later, water, electricity, medical care and employment possibilities are grossly worse than they were under Saddam’s regime, even while he was under crippling economic sanctions. The most basic freedom in life — freedom to go outside without being killed — does not exist in Iraq. The US can no longer contend that its forces are “rebuilding” Iraq.

The best way to understand the war at this point is that Bush continues to fight with an eye towards his political “legacy” and not with any real hope that the war can somehow be “won.” Halliburton corporation — VP Cheney’s well connected previous employer — recently declared its job “finished” in Iraq and left the country. When Halliburton leaves, you know that Bush and his cronies have concluded that Iraq is lost.

Bush is now intent on running out the clock — keeping US troops in Iraq until the end of his presidency so that right-wing historians can later conclude that someone other than Bush lost the war. Twenty years from now, you’ll hear the Rush Limbaugh of the future blame the loss of Iraq on the media, on Democrats, on the peace movement — hell, on Jane Fonda! They’ll reason that Bush couldn’t have lost it, because he kept fighting, and troops only withdrew in disgrace after he left office. “It was someone later who pulled the plug . . . .”

The Bush regime cares more about its legacy than millions of Iraqis or tens of thousands of US solders who it has needlessly sacrificed — killed or permanently disabled with traumatic brain injuries, amputations, post traumatic stress disorder, or worse.

The mainstream US political system is broken. While the overwhelming majority of the public has reached the obvious conclusion — that the war is unwinnable and not worth fighting in the first place — this resounding public sentiment is not reflected in the formal institutions of government. The Democrats are too scared of being blamed for losing the war to take any real action to cut the funding. Instead, they debate, delay and set 2008 time-tables — playing right into Bush’s hands — permitting him to delay until he is out of office.

The only hope comes from those not in the halls of power — regular people like folks near Tacoma, Washington. In May, 2006, the Army’s attempt to load armored vehicles onto ships bound for Iraq in Olympia, Washington were met with a prolonged blockade and 40 arrests.

In March, the Army decided to avoid a repeat in Olympia and instead load 1,000 vehicles, including 300 armored Stryker vehicles from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based at Fort Lewis, at the port of Tacoma, a few miles north of Olympia. The army denied their decision had anything to do with the Olympia protests. (“The executive officer of the 833rd Transportation Battalion . . . declined to comment on why the equipment moved through Tacoma instead of Olympia, saying it was classified” according to the Olympian.) The effectiveness of last May’s tactics in Olympia are undeniable.

Tacoma mobilized overnight, organizing a round-the-clock protest at the port that resulted in three arrests. Demonstrators included members of the Tacoma Students for a Democratic Society, recently revived after a 35 year hiatus.

This is by no means the only direct action underway against the war. At least 140 people have been arrested in numerous actions around the country aimed at putting pressure on individual members of Congress. In San Francisco, activists have camped on the street outside House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s house demanding to talk to her about the war — she refused saying “my home is my home.” Huh? Around the country, there have been protests or office occupations against John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, Marcy Kaptur, David Obey, Richard Durbin and Barbara Mikulski.

You can’t wait for politicians to end a war when they and their wealthy contributors are making money hand over fist off the killed and it is other people’s sons and daughters who are dying. Five years into the war, silence is complicity with the slaughter — only physically confronting the war machine and preventing it from operating can end this war. Bush is escalating the war — it is up to us to escalate the resistance.

Posted on

Beware the biofuel hype – more tech alone won't build a sustainable world

Humans are at a crucial turning point. Will we choose to live sustainably on this planet or will we pursue the false dream that Americans can continue to drive SUVs if we just apply new technologies? The possibility of “green” technology is seductive. Increasingly, the propaganda machine is pushing biofuels — ethanol and biodiesel — as a magic way to allow everyone to keep driving their Hummers. Yet on deeper examination, if biofuels continue to be developed to the scale necessary to replace even part of the fossil fuels currently used every year, biofuels could end up being far more destructive to the planet than fossil fuels have already been.

Our extremely wasteful lifestyle is based on stored energy from generations of ancient plants which have decayed into coal and oil deposits. If we switch our society’s fuel source over to the living plants of the present, our planet will be rapidly stripped of its ability to support diverse life.

Miguel Altieri observes that “Dedicating all present U.S. corn and soybean production to biofuels would meet only 12 percent of our gasoline demand and 6 percent of diesel demand.” According to a European Union sponsored study, meeting the EU’s target of replacing 5.75% of fossil fuels with biofuels would consume 14-27% of EU agricultural land. This means that to meet the developed world’s voracious appetite for fuel, biofuels will largely be grown in the third world and exported so rich people can drive.

In a world where rich people’s fuel needs compete with poor people’s food needs, starvation caused by fuel-greed is a huge danger. Already, the expanding cropland planted to yellow corn for ethanol has reduced the supply of white corn for tortillas in Mexico, sending prices up 400 percent. This led to food riots in Mexico and peasant leaders at the recent World Social Forum in Nairobi to demand, “No full tanks when there are still empty bellies!” The average fill up of a 25 gallon SUV tank with ethanol will require the same amount of grain as it takes to feed a person for a year. For the US to continue its current rate of consumption, it would take the yearly equivalent of the grain needed to feed 6 billion people, or the entire 1999 world population! (And that’s just for the USA.) Billions of people could starve if we merely switch to biofuels and refuse to change our lifestyle.

Biofuels will also not lesson the total carbon dioxide released into the earth’s environment associated with fuel use. The same amount of CO2 is released by the burning of biofuels as petroleum diesel. The argument that the CO2 taken out of the atmosphere by the growing of biofuel crops will make this carbon “neutral,” ignores the fact that greater amounts of CO2 were removed by the rain forests and peat bogs destroyed by the crop production. According to Biofuel Watch in the UK, “A report by the Dutch consultancy Delft Hydraulics shows that every tonne of palm oil results in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, or 19 times as much as petroleum produces. I need to say that again. Bio-diesel from palm oil causes 10 times as much climate change as ordinary diesel.”

The rapid transformation of Indonesia, Borneo, and Malaysia’s rain forests into palm plantations, to provide fuel for first world nations to continue driving our SUV’s, has other great costs. The destruction of this habitat will mean the world’s loss of many beautiful and unique life forms. It could likely mean the extinction of the Orangutan, Sumatran Tigers and Rhinos, Gibbons, Tapirs and Proboscis Monkeys. As the demand for oil crops pushes agriculture into virgin habitat, other natural areas in the world are threatened as well. Rare scrub land habitats and rain-forests in Brazil and Colombia and natural lands in Asia and Africa will survive or fall based on the decisions of first worlders. The effects could also be devastating for the natives peoples around the world who live on and preserve these precious habitats.

The glorified hailing of biofuel crops saving the environment is cynical and dangerous. As giant petroleum companies and Republican leaders get excited about it, our red flags should go up. The proposed deal between British Petroleum and the University of California, at the cost of academic independence, is a frightening turning point. It would divert precious academic resources away from conservation and into a nightmare of genetically engineered crops, human and animal suffering and a public university being used to make profits for a corporation. It replaces the goal of public benefit with private profit.

According to Miguel A. Altieri and Eric Holt-Gimenez, “The only way to stop global warming is to promote small-scale organic agriculture and decrease the use of all fuels, which requires major reductions in consumption patterns and development of massive public transportation systems, areas that the University of California should be actively researching and that BP and the other biofuel partners will never invest one penny towards.”

Hoping that growing our energy needs can solve our problems completely ignores the immense environmental and social toll that industrial agriculture has already had upon the world and the U.S. The “Green Revolution” and the exporting of industrial agriculture to third world nations has turned out to be disastrous. Loss of topsoil, contamination of water and soil and human bodies, loss of successful local crop varieties and destruction of local economies have been the legacy of this “gift.” The initial increases in production quickly faded and the countries were left in debt and committed to agriculture requiring large petroleum using machinery and massive inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The same happened in this country with the loss of family farms and large swaths of land being destroyed by petroleum intensive farming. “We’ve already destroyed the prairie, and the topsoil in the Midwest is going, going gone” noted Tad Patzek, UCB professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Add to this the dangerously unpredictable consequences of new genetically engineered crops, and one could argue that modern agriculture is the most destructive environmental force on earth.

Industrial Agriculture uses large-scale monocultures and high levels of chemical nitrogen fertilizer, largely responsible for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Herbicides and pesticides end up in ground and surface water and contain toxic endocrine disrupters. It takes three to four gallons of precious fresh water to create a gallon of ethanol, threatening already strained water supplies. In addition, the creation and use of genetically engineered corn, specially designed for fuel production would surely contaminate corn grown for food. It has been shown clearly, in the brief time GMO corn has been grown, that it cannot be contained.

There are many changes people can make that really will help the world. We must stop relying on personal vehicles and only drive when a car is full of riders. Divert money from roads, parking, and medical expenses from air pollution into public transit systems. Create local economies where jobs, food sources and community are all localized, minimizing commutes and goods transport. Create community and rooftop gardens. Tear up half of the unused streets and plant fruit orchards. Simplify our life styles. Consume less. Travel locally by foot or bike. Vacation in your own home or neighborhood. Find joy in free time and community rather than things.

The solution is not a technological fix. We should know that from living in the age of cancer from the chemical revolution. Think beyond the destructive norms of the TV lifestyle. STOP DRIVING! It is the single most effective way you can personally change the world. The writing is on the wall. You are responsible for suffering every time you choose to get in your car instead of taking the bus or walking or biking.

And once we have quit cars, if we can, our lives will actually beco
me more peaceful, healthful and enjoyable.

For more info check www.biofuelwatch.org.uk

Posted on

Walking into connection

I’ve been going on a lot of walks lately, ranging anywhere from half an hour to an entire day, with other people and alone, along city streets and on footpaths through wooded hills. They are as unscheduled as possible and without a specific purpose or goal but rather an attempt to step back from the pressing demands of my day to day life in order to slow down and reconnect to myself and the world.

The Tyranny Of Time And Poverty Of Space

The dominant world view encourages us to see our lives as date books to be filled as efficiently as possible. Since the invention of the mechanical clock, ever busier schedules and ever faster technology have dictated the pace of human civilization. Sped up to an unnatural velocity, people are constantly rushing to or worrying about the next three dozen things they have to do. The result of this is that many are not present in their lives as they are living them. Most people either do not, or feel that they cannot, make time in their lives to experience the world more slowly. This is not just the result of privileged people choosing a fast paced lifestyle; in a world where most people are a paycheck or two away from losing the life that they are accustomed to and dependent on, being able to navigate rapid systems of information and transportation is an issue of survival.

Correspondingly, the way that we interact with space is limited by the constraints of modern life. As people rush through the world, public space is often only considered for its utility, how efficiently it allows people to meet goals that they do not choose; distance is an obstacle to be overcome by ever-quickening modes of transportation and telecommunication. The rich potential of common space becomes impoverished by freeways, parking lots and commercial uses. Movement, sound, light and color are extraneous unless they are being used to promote consumption. Those who are wealthy enough can buy and decorate private spaces to satisfy their aesthetic needs, but for many this ability is severely limited by economic reality. Similarly the enjoyment of being where you are is relegated to brief moments called vacation that are not equally accessible to all and even those who can afford them often find they are not fulfilling. All of this leads to a sense of isolation from self and environment that is endemic to the civilized world.

This disconnectedness is as prevalent among radicals and activists as it is among the population at large. An awareness of how deeply the world is broken and how much suffering is happening everyday often compels people to take on more and more for the Cause, to martyr themselves for the sake of an ideal. People often become so overextended that they burn out when they realize revolution is not imminent; disconnected from themselves and those around them, they are no longer a part of the world they are trying to save. Is it any wonder that when people attempt to break out of the isolation inherent in late stage capitalism, they often end up recreating systems that are just as isolating?

I find that I am able to feel the most useful when I am connected to myself and engaged in activities that are tied to my life and well-being. Any real sense of liberation can only emerge from people who are struggling to have healthy relationships with themselves and each other, valuing beauty and freedom because they want it in their lives right now, not as abstractions on a sacrificial alter but as real and present forces connected intimately to their own well-being. It is in this context that I so value the opportunity walking gives me to stay connected to myself and the world around me.

Moving Outside Of Time

One of the effects of meandering is the way that it seems to slow down time. Going for a walk, without worrying about an explicit timetable or destination offers me an opportunity to step outside of time in a certain sense. This kind of walking, by definition, happens at a comfortable pace, giving me time to take in all of the things that I am seeing. Allowing my body and mind to fall into the rhythm of a gentle walk is soothing and restorative. I find that it invites thoughts to wander in and out of my head and connect to each other in ways that are impossible when I am frantically trying to think. It is also physically invigorating; we are given these amazing bodies and hardly ever use them. Even an activity as simple as walking allows me to take joy in feeling connected to my body.

Walking also gives me a new perspective on distance, with things simultaneously seeming both closer and farther away. Closer in the sense that they are within walking distance, and farther because getting there is filled with stimuli that is lost when I use a faster mode of transportation. Learning to pay attention to these details, feeling the way that the world is teeming with life and interacting with it is powerful. It is amazing how a butterfly, or dust floating through rays of sunlight, or the earthy smell of decaying trees or even blades of grass bursting through pavement can ground and calm me when I am able to focus on them.

In order to travel this way I try to get places as slowly as possible, using planes and cars as infrequently as I can, opting instead for trains, bikes and my feet. This is not always possible, but when I prioritize planning my life in a way that minimizes the continuous hectic rush that isolates people from each other and their own experiences with the world, I find more opportunities than I would have thought.

Re-Imagining Space

Often the only time that people slow down and pay attention to the world around them is when they are traveling or exploring a new place they have never been before. What I am talking about here is not that exactly but making that sense of awe, presence, and exploration part of the day-to-day experience of life.

The situationists were a group of artists and thinkers in post-war Paris during the years leading up to the student revolts of 1968. They sought to break through the spectacle of commodity culture in order to create situations where revolutionary transformation was possible. One of the practices advocated by the situationists was the dérive [day-reeve]. The dérive was essentially a meandering walk involving several people over the course of a day or two. Participants would roam through the city and attempt to map out (either literally or figuratively) and re-value space based on the way they interacted emotionally with it. This process of psycho-geography was an attempt to change the way that people interacted with the world.

The dérive is compelling because it offers a model for re-imagining the space that we exist in. This can allow us to free ourselves, for a timeless moment, from the definitions assigned by the cold mechanistic utility of the system and allow us to more fully emotionally engage with the world. This process will look completely different for each person or group of persons but contains at its core an overt element of play; it is very much like the unselfconscious way that children interact with the world. For me shopping malls have become (remained) poisonous life sucking places, dumpsters have been re-envisioned as hidden treasure chests, pedestrian walkways between streets as portals between different dimensions of reality and skyscraper-lined avenues as echoing canyons to explore. Each of these appraisals are no less true than the more conventional descriptions, it is only the perspective that has changed, and it is that change in perspective that helps to nurture and sustain the emotionally vivid life that is beaten out of people so consistently.

So whether it is a solitary walk through the fields and rolling hills or a social and imaginative dérive in the heart of an urban center, walking can offer opportunities to escape the bleakness of modern time and space, to connect with and echo the rhythm of the world. I refer to walking specifically because that is wh
at I have been doing, but much of this can apply to any activity that encourages one to slow down and notice themselves and the world around them. This is not to suggest that taking a walk and feeling good about ourselves as we gaze at our navels is a solution to the problems of the world but to point out that taking steps to heal ourselves and remain connected to each other and the world is crucial if anything else we do is going to matter.