Category: Articles

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

Often when working on the paper we are faced with the dilemma of deciding what is news and will be relevant for the three months an issue is on the streets after we print it. For example, we published a long article about Oaxaca even though the situation there could change dramatically the day after the paper comes off the press, because the events there are inspiring and underreported in mainstream news. We hope the Oaxaca phenomenon will spread throughout Mexico and inspire people in the US, including the immigrants’ rights movement.

On the other side of the coin are important but complex, detailed articles like the update of the Green Scare arrests. The gauntlet of information can leave those “not in the know” feeling a little lost. Because it is a frequent feature in our paper (like the Iraq debacle or People’s Park) readers may conclude there is nothing new to say. But that is the nature of prolonged struggles as opposed to sensational news. The recent Green Scare coverage in Rolling Stone was good at describing characters, but then framed them as idiots. By contrast, if you look at the beautifully written obituaries in this issue, we hope you’ll feel the real and funky people who inhabit our world of resistance.

We apologize for not having a Spanish page in this issue. Disculpenos por la absencia de la pagina en español. En el futuro, necesitaremos articulos en español.

As usual, we had a hell of a time getting people to send us articles and art. Ironically, our most responsive contributor-base is our prisoner readership. We would love to have first person narratives and radical social/political analyses. We are still working on better ways to accept unsolicited contributions. All too often, people send us unformed outlines posing as articles or just rants.

We also need more black and white art for covers and article graphics. We’ll do more original posters if you send them, and we thought that “First the dishes, Then the revolution” would be a great slogan for the next one we feature.

Slingshot is always looking for new writers, artists, editors, photographers, translators, distributors and independent thinkers to help us make this paper. If you send something written, please be open to working with the editorial collective.

Editorial decisions are made by the Slingshot collective, but not all the articles reflect the opinions of all collective members. We welcome debate, constructive criticism and discussion.

Thanks to all who worked on this: Artnoose, B (for lunch only), Eggplant, Jessica, Hefty Lefty, Kathryn, Maneli, Melinda, Molly, PB.

Slingshot New Volunteer Meeting

Volunteers interested in getting involved with Slingshot can come to the new volunteer meeting on Sunday, November 26 at 4 p.m. at the Long Haul in Berkeley (see below).

Article Deadline and Next Issue Date

Submit your articles for issue 93 by January 6, 2007 at 3 p.m.

Volume 1, Number 92, Circulation 15,000

Printed September 28, 2006

Slingshot Newspaper

Sponsored by Long Haul

3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705

Phone: (510) 540-0751

slingshot@tao.ca • www.slingshot.tao.ca

Back issue Project

We’ll send you a random assortment of back issues for the cost of postage: send us $2 for 2 lbs or $3 for 4 lbs. Free if you’re an infoshop or library. Or drop by our office. Send cash or check to Slingshot to: Slingshot 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705.

Circulation Information

Slingshot is free in the Bay Area and is available at Long Haul and Bound Together Books (SF), plus lots of other places. Contact us or come by if you want to distribute Slingshot for free in the Bay Area.

Subscriptions to Slingshot are free to prisoners, low income and anyone in the USA who has a Slingshot organizer, or cost $1 per issue. International is $2.50 per issue. Back issues are also available for the cost of postage. National free distribution program: Outside of the Bay Area, we’ll mail a stack of free copies of Slingshot to distributors, infoshops, bookstores and random friendly individuals for FREE in the US if they give ’em out for free.

People all over the world wrote in to tell us about new infoshops and radical spaces we should list in the 2007 Slingshot Organizer. No sooner had we typed in all the information and taken the Organizer off to the printing press than a bunch more people contacted us with more information — which will have to wait for the 2008 Organizer.

We’re always looking for information about new spaces or changes to existing places so that people traveling around can find places and so activists can network informally to cooperate on projects. If you’re traveling around and find mistakes in info from us or find out about more places we can list, please let us know. We’re trying to post information we receive on our website: slingshot.tao.ca.

Jack Pine collective – Minneapolis, MN

A radical community center / free space / youth hangout. 2815 E. Lake St. Minneapolis, MN 55406, 612-729-2837, www.thejackpine.org.

Rocktown Infoshop & Freespace – Harrisonburg, VA

A new radical space, they feature an infoshop with books, CDs, zines, etc., a radical library and a free store. Open 1 pm – 4 pm Sun-Tues & Thursday and Fri-Sat. 12-6. 85 E. Elizabeth St. Harrisonburg, VA 22802 (540)437-0577

Castle Olympus – Columbia, SC

It is a new collective space with a free library and a show space. They host workshops and punk rock potluck picnics. 119 South Parker St. Columbia, SC 29201, 843-618-4759.

Belfry Center for Social and Cultural Activities – Minneapolis, MN

They are a new space with a book and zine library host the Bat Annex Free School. 3753 Bloomington Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55407, 612-724-4293, belfrycenter.org.

Swords Into Plowshares Peace Center – Kalamazoo, MI

They tell us they are a “hub of youth activism and organizing in Kalamazoo, mostly serving Western Michigan University students.” 2101 Wilbur Kalamazoo, MI 49006 (269) 344-4076 Organize@KzooPeaceCenter.org

Mendocino Coast Environmental Ctr.

I was biking down the coast and happened upon this place in the very tourist-y city of Mendocino. The volunteer at the desk didn’t know the street address but it’s right on the main street. PO Box 1125, Mendocino, CA 95460, 707 937 -1035.

Sedition Collective – Houston, TX

They have a lending library, a small retail section, free broadband internet/wi-fi and a “free box,” as well as serving as a drug/alcohol-free hangout spot. They are open 4 pm – 7 pm, Wed-Thurs, 1-7 Sundays, and are available to be booked for meetings/events/etc. on Fridays and Saturdays. 4420 Washington Ave. Houston, TX 77007.

Media Island International Olympia WA

They host Food Not Bombs, Indy Media, have meetings space, computer access, a library and movies. 816 Adams St. SE, Olympia, WA 98501 360-352-8526.

Bikehouse – Salt Lake City, UT

A bike library open to travelers and radicals. 519 E. 600 S. Salt Lake City, UT 84102.

People traveling around sent us lots of new international contacts – we don’t always have a lot of information about what they are precisely. Hopefully someone will visit these places and give us info about what they are.

Biblioteca Social Reconstruir – Mexico City

Someone wrote in to say they’re not gone – they’re just moving. They are at Dolores #16 Despacho 401 near the Bella Artes metro station. Not sure of the postal code or phone.

Biblioteca Social Praxedis G. Guerrero

A cool new space. Open Wednesdays and Fridays 4-8 pm at Gobernador Curiel 2133, colonia ferrocarril, Guadalajara, Jalisco. cooperativa_regeneracion@yahoo.com.

Ernst Kirchweger Haus – Vienna, Austria

An awesome autonomous center/squat with an infoshop. Wielandgasse 2-4/A-1100 Wien/Austria, www.med-user.net/infomaden

Infoshoppe kasama – Zurich Switzerland

An infoshop (?) at militarstrasse 87a Zurich Switzerland

Centre internationale de recherches sur l’Anarchisma – Switzerland

An infoshop (?) at Beaumont 24 Lausanne 1012 Switz.

Infoladen Rabia – Switzerland

An infoshop (?) at Bachtelstr. 70 Winterthur 8400 Switz.

KTS – Freiburg, Germany

An infoshop (?) at Baslerstr. 103 79100 Freiburg Germany

Krtkova Kolona – Czech Republic

An infoshop and cafe that has been open since 2001. Socharska 6, 170 00 Praha 7 Tel: +420 604 247 218.

Alternative Information Center – West Bank, Palestine

An infoshop (?) at Building 111 Main Street – Beit Sahour, occupied Palestine – 00972-2-2775444

Alternative Information Center – Israel

An infoshop at Queen Shlomzion Street 4 (2nd floor) – West Jerusalem PO Box 31417, Israel – 00972-2-6241159, alternativenews.org/

Daila – Israel

An infoshop (?) at Queen Shlomzion 4, West Jerusalem, Israel, www.dailazoo.net/

Young Communist League of Israel

An infoshop (?) at Koresh 14, entrance 5, apartment 8, West Jerusalem, Israel, www.banki-shabiba.net

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

An infoshop (?) at Ben-Yehuda 7, West Jerusalem, Israel, www.icahd.org/eng/

Kafé44 – Stockholm, Sweden

An infoshop and coffeehouse. Tjarhovsgatan 44, Metro; T-Medborgarplatsen, Stockholm, Sweden, +46-8-6445312 info@kafe44.com

Anchor Archive Zine Library – Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

They are a year-old zine library. Check ’em out: 5684 Roberts St. Halifax, NS. B3K 1J6 Canada. 902-446-1788.

Changes / mistakes in 2006 organizer

• The Urbana-Champaign IMC is now at 202 South Broadway, Suite 100 Urbana, IL 61801, 217-344-8820

• Third space in Norman, OK has a new phone #: 405-307-8379.

• Mat Hatters Infoshop in Danbury, CT has closed.

• Behind the Rocks Infoshop in Hartford, CT closed.

• Burning River Infoshop in Cleveland wrote in to say they are, in fact, gone but folks can contact the following addresses in Cleveland: Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross, PO Box 602543, Cleveland, OH, 44102 or FNB at veggies@clevelandfoodnotbombs.org. A new infoshop is scheduled to open in January, 2006.

• Black Star Books in New Zealand has new information: their new address is Corso Building, 111 Moray Place, Dunedin, New Zealand. Their postal address remains the same (p.o. Box 812 Dunedin, New Zealand). Their contact email address is now info@blackstar.nihil.nz and website www.blackstar@nihil.net.nz

Changes / mistakes in 2007 organizer

• We printed the wrong phone # and postal code for Haymarket Books and Cafe in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The correct info is T2G 2M8, 403 -234-0260. The street address published is correct.

• The address for Utopia Infoshop in Prague has changed to Karlova 25, Praha 1, Czech Republic. Note: someone from the Czech Republic wrote to say they had “changed their politics” and shouldn’t be listed anymore – other communications from Europe didn’t agree.

• Someone wrote to say that the La Comuna Libertaria in Guadalajara is not really operational anymore.

• Better than Television in Charlottesville, VA does not appear to exist anymore – we have had mail returned from them and their phone number is disconnected.

As the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into virtual civil war over the past several months — with 140,000 US troops presiding impotently over the carnage — it is more clear than ever that the US has lost in Iraq (no matter how one may define the vague US mission there) and that it is only a matter of time before US troops pack-up and head home defeated. After three and a half years and over 2,700 American military deaths, the clumsy US occupation has brought little reconstruction or political reconciliation. Instead, the situation on all levels — economically, in terms of health and education, from a human rights perspective, and with respect to public safety — is worse than it has ever been in Iraq’s history. There is still not sufficient electricity, water, employment, medicine in the hospitals, etc.

Sectarian groups and militias on all sides are operating death squads and torture chambers that make even Saddam Hussein’s gross human rights violations look at least more orderly if not more tame by comparison. According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue collected by the United Nations, 3,009 civilians were killed in sectarian and insurgent violence in August, 3,590 in July, 3,149 in June, 2,669 in May, 2284 in April, 2378 in March, 2,165 in February, and 1,778 in January — a total of at least 21,022 so far for 2006. And those are the ones whose bodies have been located and who have been counted — many people have simply disappeared. Wounded civilians and military members — often permanently disabled — total several times the number killed.

The catastrophe in Iraq is a continuing waste of lives and money on all sides. Over $316 billion has been spent by the US alone on Iraq to date according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office — for what? The US occupation — rather than containing the sectarian violence and insurgency — has only fueled these trends. It is becoming increasingly clear that healing and peace in Iraq are impossible with US troops there. Peace and stability in Iraq may be impossible for years given the mess that the US occupation has made of Iraqi society. The only silver lining may be that Bush is somewhat less likely to invade Iran or other countries in his remaining two years given the way the US military is tied down in Iraq.

As the situation in Iraq gets worse month after month and the bodies pile ever higher, the key question is whether there is any way to stop the occupation while Bush remains in power. At the outset of the war, Bush totally ignored huge international and some domestic opposition to the war. His administration has consistently been in its own world, unconcerned with facts that run contrary to their ideological positions. Early opponents of the war became dispirited as it became apparent that Bush would simply ignore our demands to stop the slaughter. Now, with a majority of the public turning against the war, Bush still seems unmoved and the situation seems particularly hopeless and depressing.

It is, however, a mistake to conclude that those of us living in the US should rest in our armchairs just because Bush has been able to ignore us so far. Social cracks are developing that are constraining Bush’s options and bringing closer the day when continuing the occupation as it has been will simply become impossible. To the extent more and more people refuse to accept the war and break the silence and depression surrounding the war disaster — in lots of small and large ways — the popular illusion that the Iraq quagmire is inevitable will further erode.

Increasing numbers of US troops are refusing to go along with the war. US generals just announced that they will have to maintain or even increase current troop levels for another year. It is getting harder and harder to find troops to send to Iraq without breaking the US military. Some military officials are even discussing offering citizenship to foreign nationals if they’ll go to Iraq to fight for the US first. Such a step is not symptomatic of a population united behind the war. Rather, it represents desperation on the part of government officials trying to maintain an unwinnable occupation that has lost public support.

Most of us aren’t soldiers, but we can publicly and strongly support military people who refuse to go or youth who refuse to join the military in the first place. There are all kinds of small ways to help advance a ground swell of opposition to the occupation: printing, distributing and wearing “stop the occupation” shirts, hanging up lawn signs, writing letters to the editor, bringing Iraq into conversation, turning out for anti-war marches and protests, etc. The only hope of ending the occupation sooner rather than later is shaking off our disempowerment and depression and refusing to let the occupation go on in silence.

While biking down the Oregon/California coast this summer, I rode into the tiny fog shrouded town of Albion. At the tiny market there, someone had set up a trailer filled with small wood crosses — one for each solder killed in Iraq. Now is not the time to forget Iraq and hope it will go away. The occupation is lingering on because the majority of Americans who oppose it haven’t translated their private opposition to public resistance. This time, the silent majority are those against the occupation. It’s time to end our silence.

People’s Park in Berkeley, California — located between Haste Street and Dwight Way above Telegraph Avenue. It’s still there. And it’s still a trouble-maker embodying our dreams, society’s problems and the University’s attempt to control it. People’s Park is one of the few places in this country with a claim to being Common Land. Though the University of California, Berkeley (UC) holds a paper title to the land that they obtained by abusing eminent domain and calling in police and the national guard to quell protests 38 years ago, they really don’t control this land. Their attempt to build volleyball courts and convert the Park into a student sports playground in the early 1990’s failed. The resistance that sprang forth was spirited and powerful. The coalition of people who resisted the volleyball court birthed a whole community that includes East Bay Food Not Bombs (FNB), CopWatch and nourishes Slingshot. The Park seems to rise to its glory in conflict, but how is it today in its daily existence?

First, it is good to recognize its very existence as success. The Park has resisted plans to build dorms, sports courts and parking lots. Currently the University says that it wants to keep it as a park. That’s good. Now there is a dynamic tension about what kind of park that is. One of the looming issues is about “homeless services” in the Park — FNB and numerous other groups serve free food at the park and many groups and individuals bring clothing and other items to share with others at the park.

Also the new People’s Park Community Advisory Board has initiated a “comprehensive planning process” for which the University agreed to provide $100,000 for the hiring of expert professional planners, or at least those professionals who plan how to plan. This is completely against the nature of the Park and the concept of User Development — wherein park users decide what should be done and then do it themselves — that People’s Park embodies.

The Community Advisory Board is hand selected by the University to “advise” them. There is nothing democratic about the process. Currently the board includes three conservative neighbors from the Willard Neighborhood Association (WNA) which sued and caused the demise of UC’s coolest student co-op, Le Chateau. Now these WNA board members are after the Park. One is challenging incumbent city council member Kriss Worthington who has consistently been supportive of People’s Park and user and community development of it. George Beier, Kriss’s challenger, made his quick fortune selling software to corporate banks and now has plenty of time to work on raising his property value. He talks sweet but anything said to him goes in one ear and out the other. His plan is to make People’s Park more of a lawn (like Willard Park), get the University to redesign it, install spy cameras and build a cafe on the valuable open space. If any cafe goes into People’s Park it would have to serve FREE food!

Besides threatening to “redesign” the Park, the challenge to “social services” is in full force. The most obvious attack is the repeated removal of the Free Clothing Box by the University. People’s Park has always been a place where people can share and help others. The Freebox stood for many years to assist in our community’s exchange of used clothes until it was arsoned. UC police have prevented numerous attempts by volunteers to rebuild the box. People still bring free clothes to the park only now, the clothes are distributed in a pile on the ground in front of the dumpsters. Even this method provides clothes for an amazing amount of people. The University is interested in removing services to make the Park less attractive to “those people” — homeless people, street punks, poor people and freaks. It has placed an outspoken UC Berkeley Architect professor on the advisory board who wants to remove the serving of free food and other services.

The Park has a fair amount of resiliency to official planners and changing anything successfully will require cooperation with the people who use the Park. In the meantime the Park has been really nice this year. Despite claims that the Park is under-used there are actually lots of people in it: playing chess and basketball, sleeping, sharing food and conversation, or playing frisbee. It also remains a refuge for the homeless and mentally ill. It is a surprisingly healing place, where people who may not be accepted in most realms of society can find peace, support and community. Most of this is provided by the community itself with no taxpayer services.

Truly the fate of People’s Park lies with you. It can only be a common land of sharing, a place cared for and improved through user-development and a joyful testament to the thousands of people who have in some way contributed to this dream, if you carry it on. To complain about the Park to some authority totally misses the point. Be the Park you want to see. If you want it to be a comfortable place to study or picnic, grab a few friends and go there. If you’d like to go to more music shows, organize one. If you want it cleaner, pick it up. The Park was born by people deciding to cooperatively create beauty out of an injustice and an eyesore in their neighborhood. It is much too rare in this country that we have both the opportunity and obligation to participate in such creative action.

I have hope. There are beautiful young people serving lunch, there are student groups volunteering to fix the free speech stage, there are homeless people who are gardening, there is kindness and sharing among society’s forgotten, there is basketball, chess and puzzles, there are many churches and groups who bring food to share, there is a generous flow of donated clothes, there are tomatoes and birds and lots of different people who would not meet if not for this special park. No, it’s not paradise, there are also still fights and littering and people so broken it’s tearful. But if you brave it, if you claim People’s Park as yours, as it is, you just may feel its embrace, a gift from someone before, that manifests as a sweet apple, new shoes, sunlight on a flower or that nugget of truth from a stranger’s lips. Go there.

This August, Camp Trans and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival announced changes in a 14-year struggle over the explicit exclusion of transgender womyn from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF) is the largest and longest-running women’s separatist music festival in the world, started in 1976 in rural Michigan. MWMF emerged from the radical women’s community of the 1970s and encompasses a wide range of women and a wide range of political views. In recent years, MWMF has been criticized for what some see as regressive ideas about gender, self-identification and separatist space.

In 1991, a trans woman was kicked out of the music festival in an event that would become historic. The MWMF created an official policy specifying that the festival is for ‘womyn-born-womyn’ only, and asking that anyone not identifying as a ‘womon-born-womon’ not attend the events arguing that women who were born and raised as women share a common experience and thus need separate space. Since 1994, Camp Trans has been staging protests and cultural events directly across the road from the entry gate to the MWMF, with the explicit goal of changing this policy. Camp Trans believes that all self-identified women should be welcome at the festival. Camp Trans’ tactics have ranged from direct education work with festival attendees, to a national boycott campaign pressuring artists and performers not to play at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Camp Trans has also emerged as its own yearly festival, drawing 100-200 participants each year for music and workshops focused in transgender communities. A variety of artists and activists have spoken out in support of trans inclusion in recent years, including the Indigo Girls, Emi Koyama (www.eminism.org) and author Michelle Tea.

This past August, two transgender women bought tickets at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival gates, stated that they were trans women, and were permitted into the festival by the women working at the gate. Camp Trans responded to this event with a press release proclaiming the struggle to be over, and celebrating unity between Camp Trans, and supporters of trans inclusion within the festival. (see the release at: http://camptrans.squarespace.com/latest-news/2006/8/21/camp-trans-press-release.html) The festival responded with a press release contradicting Camp Trans’ message. According to MWMF owner and proprietor Lisa Vogel, “if a transwoman purchased a ticket, it represents nothing more than that womon choosing to disrespect the stated intention of this Festival.” Vogel’s basis for continued exclusion of trans women is also articulated: “I ask that you respect that womon born womon is a valid and honorable gender identity.” (see the release at: http://www.intraa.org/story/mwmfpolicyrebuttal)

It is unclear which of these naratives will end up being more accurate regarding the festival in the coming year but the understanding of gender in radical communites is changing According to Camp trans organizer Jessica Snodgrass, “this is not about winning. It’s about making our communities whole again. The policy divided people against each other who could be fighting on the same side. We want to be part of the healing process.”

This was originally composed as a letter to members of my extended transfeminist community to fill them in on the events of Camp Trans/Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF) this August. I was at both festivals this year, and this was my eight year attending either Camp Trans or MWMF. These views do not represent the views of Camp Trans.

For the first time since official trans exclusion began at the festival in the early nineties, an out transsexual woman purchased a ticket and went into the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival without resistance from festival organizers or attendees. Across the street, Camp Trans had its own cultural festival of workshops, musicians, poets, trans and non-trans attendees of all genders, and celebrated its 16th year of protest and culture!

Did the trans exclusion policy of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival change? Is trans exclusion over?

I am sure in the year to come that much discussion will ensue within the broader queer and feminist community connected to Camp Trans and the MWMF about the festival’s longstanding policy excluding trans people and specifying MWMF as a space for ‘womyn-born-womyn’ only. Here is what I believe to be the bottom line:

Trans womyn attended the festival this year without harassment, and the policy is no longer being enforced, by Festival organizers or participants. An out transsexual woman also gave a workshop on trans inclusion inside the festival for a group of about 60 womyn and the “Yellow Armbands”, a group of feminist trans allies at the MWMF, organized within the festival all week for visibility of trans issues and inclusion of trans women. As far as I know, Camp Trans will no longer be explicitly protesting the policy. Trans people and allies will be at both the Festival and Camp Trans next year because the majority of the womyn at Festival are open to the presence of trans folks at festival, open to the fact that the times are a-changin’, and open to a deeper dialogue about feminism, transfeminism, oppression and inclusion in womyn’s spaces. It won’t be easy, but it is happening. After all these years of fighting and debating, the transphobic status quo that once supported excluding transwomyn from womyn’s spaces is no longer as powerful. The written policy, the word of Lisa Vogel and the potential vehemence of a few transphobes at the festival, simply do not matter as much as they once did. Transphobia in this womyn’s community holds less weight now, and the tides are turning in this small corner of the radical world. A weight is slowly being lifted and this is a gift to all of us who have invested time and energy into building feminist space for so many years. Trans womyn are womyn, and we hope they will finally be welcomed as such in the coming years at the Festival.

I think it’s important not to frame this issue in terms of a Camp trans victory over the Festival, or an end to the Festival as it has been. This change represents a positive advancement in the ability of different sectors of queer and feminist community to work together. It represents something positive for the future of both camps. It’s time to celebrate that together.

Okay, so why does this whole thing matter?

1. The festival matters: The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival is the largest and longest-standing radical, feminist, womyn’s separatist space in the world. Festival leaders have been consciously excluding womyn who identify as trans from their space for about 15 years, leading to a huge and divisive controversy in feminist and queer communities all over the US and some parts of the world.

2. Trans people matter: We are strong, amazing, influential people just looking for a place to be. Trans people negotiate a painful and direct marginalization on a daily basis to varying degrees in this culture. For most of us, just as many lesbians have experienced, there is no place to go, very little support, and no such thing as ‘trans-friendly-anything’ in the daily world we walk through. We are forced to isolate pieces of our identity and hide pieces of our past and present at almost all times, for many reasons. We spend so much time trying to prove our validity it’s virtually suffocating. Transwomyn experience oppression from multiple angles as womyn in the world who also have a unique and marginalized experience as trans.

3. Unity matters: Spaces like Camp Trans and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival are meant to be a breath of fresh air for people who live lives that are stifled by this kind of marginalization. Ideally, they give us strength to go back out in the world and engage in our fights for survival and justice. Many of us are part of struggle in various sectors of a left-wing progressive or radical movement to change the conditions of our lives and of many people’s lives globally. Feminism and a struggle against heterosexism and transphobia are an integral part of building strength in this movement, and unity amongst womyn, trans and queer people and all feminists is about as important as it has ever been. We are living in a politically devastating time, fighting an uphill battle. It is desperately important right now to be fighting racism, transphobia, sexism, classism, and all forms of oppression that divide us within our movements, in order to build stronger unified fronts against the people who truly hate us, and hate all of us. The right wing in this country wants us to be divided, and they love that we fight with each other as much as we do. The divide between Camp Trans and the MWMF has long represented an extremely painful rift experienced by many womyn and trans folk, and the bitterness that is born out of never having a place of calm or a space to be slightly safer from everyday harassment. It is far easier, sadly, to tear each other to shreds than it is to build inclusive, radical safer spaces, even for a week out of the year. The growing ability to build feminist space together and to challenge and overcome transphobic fear within this space is hugely important in a broader political context. This doesn’t mean that oppressive attitudes within radical feminism are over, but it allows an example of a time when oppressive attitudes have been challenged and changed. The spaces we’ve been building for so long exist intact, and we grow stronger every year.

4. Healing matters: Even those who are uncomfortable with the idea of trans womyn at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival must understand that this moment is a positive one, and one of healing. This uncomfortable moment will invariably mean growth. This piece of land and community of people in Western Michigan will support that growth to happen, for all who are involved. After seven years of participating in this fight, and ten years of connection to MWMF, I can say for the first time that I feel an immense amount of trust in Camp Trans and in the Festival. All I want is a space that is larger than a closet to chill in for a week. Gimme a field. Gimme some woods. Give it to me on my beautiful home turf of Michigan. And give it to my friends, who ARE WOMYN, who are feminists, who are part of this community.

What should we be talking about in our communities and preparing for next year?

The rumor mill works fast and a number of contradicting stories are in circulation regarding the events of this year. Please don’t focus too hard on the details around the two trans womyn admitted this year–very few people were present and therefore very few people can speak accurately to those details. Take my personal recommendations instead!:

Let’s talk about how Camp Trans, the Yellow Armbands, and a large amount of MWMF workers and attendees are looking forward to welcoming trans people onto the land next year, and beginning to truly work together to support the existence of another trans-inclusive womyn-only space. Let’s t
alk about how happy this coalition of womyn and allies are, to be creating a more inclusive version of womyn’s community that no longer excludes some of the most invisible and marginalized womyn who walk this planet. This is part of our path to healing, radical, feminist community.

If you have been boycotting the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival because of its trans inclusion policy, next year is the year to GO BACK TO THE FESTIVAL! For MWMF to work towards a genuine, grassroots trans inclusion, trans people and allies need to be there in full force, starting next year, from now on. The policy didn’t go away, but its message is no longer the most important message. Folks with a better message need to be there to push this change along.

If you have participated in Camp Trans in past years, or always wanted to go, GO BACK next year! Camp Trans needs feminist, anti-racist trans folks and allies to continue building a space in those woods that can support political development, cultural festivities, and a continued relationship with the MWMF as the Festival’s gates open up to the people who’ve been camping across the road. These coming years have been a long time coming and they are going to be some of the most challenging, and most celebratory years these spaces will see. Come on down and get a piece of the action.

Congratulations everyone, we are real!

Five years ago at Camp Trans I think it was hard for most of us to imagine that things were really going to change, and change so fast. Many people gave up or stopped participating for personal or political reasons. If you are not able to be in Michigan for any number of reasons, celebrate. Talk it up. Start talking it up now and talk it up until next year. Camp Trans and anti-transphobia allies at MWMF have ushered in a turning of the tides, through a lot of real, concrete work. It didn’t fall out of the sky; boycotts, educational campaigns, media work, and endless heartfelt conversations for many years have built this change. Tell everyone how proud you are that people in your extended feminist community have pushed a true paradigm shift in the last fifteen years. Keep on working for change in your communities and keep on believing that change is going to come, and it won’t fall from the sky (how nice would that be?) it will be created and cultivated by real people like us.

The August 25, 2006 San Francisco Critical Mass commemorates Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing destruction of New Orleans. It was exactly one year ago, on August 25, 2005, that Katrina reached hurricane strength, beginning the process that led to New Orleans becoming “the worst disaster in US history.”

But as we mourn the destruction of New Orleans, those of us in San Francisco can’t help but remember that before Katrina it was our own city that held the title of “worst disaster”–and may yet again! Of course we all know that an active fault line rumbles beneath our feet, threatening to shake our city into rubble. But we also face looming disaster in the form of rising waters, as global temperatures (due, in no small measure, to the global car culture) raise the shoreline, and no one really knows how high it will go.

To acknowledge this fact, we propose a route along our current shoreline southward and through what was once Mission Bay before turning north and tracing a route along the FUTURE shoreline at a line approximately 15 feet above the current sea level. Many times we will traverse the original shoreline too, long ago filled in with sand and soil from San Francisco hills that are no more.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Manipulation Agency, is blamed for flubbing the relief effort in New Orleans. But FEMA has done its job perfectly! It has channeled billions in relief funds directly to the same businesses that have profited so handsomely from the destruction of Iraq. No doubt the same insider corporations–like San Francisco’s Bechtel–are now lining up for a chance to “rebuild” the birth clinic of the “new Middle East” in Lebanon.

FEMA’s job is to preserve and extend class divisions in the U.S. Disasters like Katrina are opportunities for radical social engineering on behalf of society’s owners. It’s not incompetence when FEMA makes the disrupted lives of New Orleans’ poor and black population into a story of permanent displacement, bur rather it’s a long-cherished goal of the city’s wealthy owners. FEMA is the federal government’s velvet-gloved fist to smash communities that have ideas of their own, dividing people to ensure confusion, isolation and dependency. The next step is to blame the victims for their condition. After months or years of delay and inadequate support, the dispersed and atomized victims are abandoned to their fates, urged to get on with their new lives.

When we bicycle together in Critical Mass we’re engaged in a very different kind of radical social engineering. Critical Mass is a monthly practice of spontaneous collective cooperation and self-direction, just the opposite of a militarized bureaucracy like FEMA. More importantly, Critical Mass is an actively maintained social vaccination against the kind of isolation and despondency FEMA creates and enforces. Communicating in the heat of the moment, solving problems face to face, cooperating with people we otherwise haven’t had much contact with, are all practical skills in disaster preparedness. And let’s face it, when the streets are filled with quake rubble, the bicycle will become the transportation of necessity, just like it was in 1906.

We cannot delude ourselves about how bad the world is, how much worse it’s gotten since we started riding before Clinton’s first election. In this age of cynicism, an unforgiving world is made meaner and colder by the haughty self-righteousness of venal government and business leaders, unapologetic profiteers and brazen war criminals who think they can escape justice forever. They won’t, but no thanks to Critical Mass cyclists, who don’t address this larger drama. We don’t leave, or haven’t yet, our self-defined limits of a rolling monthly seizure of the streets (a mere bike ride? hardly!) to contest the larger culture in other ways, but maybe that’s OK.

Few of us are passive witnesses to this madness. During our daily lives we discuss and imagine alternatives all the time. We help each other live better lives through mutual aid and cooperation. Many people are tinkering in the growing mountains of waste to invent new homegrown technologies that anticipate the problems facing future post-oil survival. With a growing embrace of a broader ecological agenda, our small acts of resistance and renewal are already shaping the world to come. Our common wealth will be based on locally produced organic foods, wind and solar electricity, bicycling and recycled biofuels, restored habitats and daylighted waterways, vibrantly creative and diverse artistic cultures of free expression and easy-going tolerance, new combinations of urban and rural, and a media renaissance providing unprecedented breadth and depth in proliferating forms and outlets. Freed from the rigid limits imposed by profit-seeking, scientists could address problems they consider “unrealistic” today. Medical care can open up to many of the world’s traditions, leading to new ideas about health, sickness and treatment. We can decide together what work is worth doing and what stupid and destructive work should stop immediately.

Who knew that riding home together once a month could open the space to imagine such a different world? How many of us realize that we’re already pedaling in the right direction?

The rainbow gathering — that is where I spent two and a half weeks this summer, eating zuzus in the middle of the night, making music, making love, having sex, trading crystals for tarot cards, and running around like crazy.

I heard someone say that if you get depressed when you leave the gathering and go to the city, remember that one part of the gathering is, instead of escaping, healing, so you can bring some of that woods consciousness with you wherever you go. Today I picked up my pen and journal to write an article about the beauty I saw at the rainbow, and what lessons there are to learn from it. I want people to think about how they relate to the earth and each other, and how those things are the same.

I came back into the cities with a further developed animal consciousness. I look around me and see what is alive — plants, hills, rocks, birds, water, humans naked under their clothes. I saw and understood a lake nestled in the foothills of the mountains on the edge of a desert, without the words I just used to describe that place. That lake transcends the sign some Bisy Bakson (reference: The Tao of Pooh) put up next to it that reads “Topaz” and underneath that word, the elevation in number of feet above sea level. It transcends the word ‘lake’ and even transcends the word ‘water’.

Through my animal eyes, I see some humans as animals who got very carried away in building their colonies — like ants on speed, or something. Now when I do things to help flow peoples’ houses, I see the absurdity of it all. Today as I was helping my aunt in her backyard, I imagined, if there were no houses here, no fences, cars, roads, if I had no clothes on, what would I be? A crazy fucking girl sitting in the middle of the desert sawing a piece of wood to a shorter length. Pointless. Insane. Never trust white man’s tools, I’ve heard.

Here I am in this podunk little town, learning how afraid people are. I came here to see my family, my friends from way-back-when. I am doing that. I am watching my friends live in ways that seem like a game to me: work, school, boyfriend, rent, drama, obedience.

People are scared. My friends tell me they wish they had my life. It is so obvious to me that it is everyone’s life. “You can have the whole world!” I am screaming inside. “You can have today, you can have tomorrow. You can create opportunities with every breath!” But…

…people are scared. Scared to hitchhike, scared to live above the illusory law, scared to make friends, to take risks, to trust that the world will provide. People are scared of instability, scared of Now, scared to share; share a loved one, their bodies, their thoughts. I see it, I hear it. I watched a girl accused of cheating on her jealous boyfriend for participating in a consensual threesome. I listened to a friend say she would never go skinny-dipping, while I’m thinking, “How else do you go swimming?” It was unusual that I walked in front of a window naked, and that I peed while someone else was in the bathroom (at the gathering, you pee next to any random tree that is far enough away from any tents, trails, or kitchens, and there are plenty of people around).

I am learning how important it is to be related to people, to relate to the earth, to be real, and to share what I am learning in the best places possible. I’m learning the more I live in anarchy, the more important it is to develop my spirituality, for I have an amazing, peaceful spirit. I’m learning to be humble, because I know there is still a part of me that wants to go down in history as a revolutionary, or a dreamer, or maybe just a poet. I also know I’d rather go down as compost then go down in history, or herstory. I am part of our story.

Hi, story! That is what this is, more than a newspaper article. It is a story about me, and about you. Here is a story about dancing naked in the rain, and hugging people for three full breaths, and being the animal you really are. This is our story. It is about watching buildings crumble (they are compost too!), and grass growing in the sidewalk cracks until there is only crumbles of sidewalk in the cracks of grass. It is a story about burning textbooks, holy scriptures, and down, dead wood to warm ourselves, as we sit around the fire on a cool, starry night, knowing we are one. Our story is about happiness, and our story is about freedom.

The federal green scare trial of Jonathan Paul, Daniel McGowan, Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher — charged with involvement in a series of arsons claimed by the Earth Liberation Front — has been moved from October 31 to mid-March, 2007 after a summer that saw numerous other defendants in the case take plea deals and agree to cooperate with the government.

The four remaining defendants, plus Briana Waters who currently faces a separate May, 2007 trial date, now face trial with several of their once co-defendants preparing to offer up dubious testimony against them, while the government raises the specter of “terrorism” over alleged property damage allegations in defense of the environment. No one was injured in any of the arsons that form the basis for the case. Block, Zacher and McGowan face charges that carry a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence, and maximums of life plus 300 to 1,015 years. All remaining defendants also face a “terrorism enhancement” under federal sentencing guidelines, which carries a maximum 30 year sentence.

These five non-cooperating defendants are in urgent need of support for their resistance to the federal government’s attempt to railroad them.

Background

Chelsea Gerlach, William Rodgers, Kendall Tankersley, Kevin Tubbs, Daniel McGowan and Stanislas Meyerhoff were arrested and charged with various arsons December 7, 2005 as part of the FBI’s “Operation Backfire.” Within days of the first arrests, it was revealed that informants, including Jacob “Jake” Ferguson of Eugene, were the sole basis relied upon by the feds in making the arrests. Meyerhoff quickly agreed to cooperate with the feds. On December 22, William “Avalon” Rodgers was found dead in his cell in Flagstaff, Arizona, from an apparent suicide.

On January 20, federal prosecutors, the head of the FBI, and US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales held a press conference announcing a sweeping 65-count indictment, including two conspiracy charges, against 11 individuals relating to 17 different incidents in Oregon, Washington and California. In addition to the six people arrested on December 7, the Oregon indictment also named Jonathan Paul, Suzanne Savoie, Joseph “Joe” Dibee, Rebecca Rubin and Josephine Sunshine Overaker.

The Oregon indictment charged certain defendants with arson, attempted arson, and using and carrying a destructive device. The destructive device charge, 18 USC 924(c), carries a 30-year mandatory sentence and a life sentence for a second conviction of the charge.

In the weeks that followed, five individuals were revealed as “confidential sources” for the government’s case. Subsequently, on February 23, Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher were arrested in Olympia and were charged with involvement in the 2001 Jefferson Poplar and Romania II arsons.

On March 30, Briana Waters was arrested in connection with an alleged arson at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001. Her trial is scheduled for May 7, 2007. She staunchly maintains her innocence to the charges and is free awaiting trial. On May 10, a superseding indictment charged Waters with the destructive device charge and added Solondz, Tubbs and Rodgers to the UW arson case. Named informants in this case include Jennifer “Jen” Kolar and ex-Earth First! Journal editor Lacey Phillabaum, both of whom walk free as uncharged co-conspirators as of this writing.

On April 6, an indictment in connection with a 2001 horse corral fire near Susanville California charged Justin Solondz, Joe Dibee, Rebecca Rubin and Darren Thurston. On May 18, a federal grand jury indicted Chelsea Gerlach, Stanislas Meyerhoff, Josephine Sunshine Overaker and Rebecca Rubin for alleged involvement in the 1998 arson of the Vail ski resort.

Plea Deals Aplenty

Without any notice to the codefendants or the public, on July 20 and 21, formal change of plea hearings were held in the Oregon court for Darren Thurston, Kevin Tubbs, Kendall Tankersley, Stanislas Meyerhoff, Chelsea Gerlach and Suzanne Savoie. These six pled guilty to a variety of conspiracy, arson and attempted arson charges — none of them pled to the destructive device charge used as a hammer by the feds in coercing these people to become informants. The US attorney’s office recommended sentence for Stanislas Meyerhoff is 188 months imprisonment for pleading guilty to 54 charges; Kevin Tubbs, 168 months for 56 charges; Chelsea Gerlach, 120 months for 18; Suzanne Savoie, 63 months for 15; Kendall Tankersley, 51 months for three; and Darren Thurston, 37 months for two.

The above terms of imprisonment are recommendations that the feds will make to the Court at the time of sentencing and are contingent upon these cooperating defendants continued full and complete cooperation for the rest of their lives. This term applies to ALL of the defendants who have pled out so far.

During this hearing, the government seemed especially keen on connecting the ELF and the ALF to broader environmental efforts and movements. The state stressed that Stanislas Meyerhoff and other defendants allegedly attended an Earth First! party directly after performing a sabotage, and also that the Vail arson followed unsuccessful litigation and grassroots campaigns against ski resort development in the area. The government also made a point of stressing that these defendants used the term “direct action” in reference to the arson incidents.

For the first time, new allegations were disclosed at the change of plea hearings disclosing additional arsons that allegedly occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, and the eastern district of Michigan.

Upon motion by the cooperating defendants’ attorneys, all of the plea petitions, cooperation agreements, and even the transcripts of the public court hearing for all six, were sealed, making them unavailable for public scrutiny. (However, the judge unsealed some portions of these documents at an August 22 hearing — read them at cldc.org.)

The government announced that it would pursue upward enhancement of sentences for the six taking pleas, arguing that the federal terrorism enhancement guidelines apply to their sentences as well. This enhancement, normally only utilized in cases where human lives were lost in incidents such as 9/11, carries up to an additional 30 year sentence. The government indicated that the defendants were free to argue against the terrorism enhancement, however, it would appear that all of the defendants who entered pleas in July stipulated to the prosecution’s “facts” underlying the plea petition. These “facts” included the verbatim definition of a “federal crime of terrorism,” thereby reducing the amount of work the feds will have to do to convince a judge that the enhancement applies. The definition of terrorism read in open court by the prosecutors is: A crime calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct. Under this broad definition, historic acts of nonviolent civil disobedience could be construed as terrorism. It is confusing and troubling that these defendants would permit the feds to potentially brand them with this over-used and inappropriate label.

Lacey Phillabaum was expected to enter a plea in Seattle in exchange for her cooperation. It is unclear which of the many jurisdictions informant Jennifer Kolar will plea in as a result of her extensive cooperation with the feds. Numerous other people have been contacted and have voluntarily agreed to provide information to the federal government about these cases, their political ideologies and their associations.

As Slingshot goes to press, Suzanne Savoie, Kendall Tankersley, Daniel McGowan, Jonathan Paul and Briana Waters are all out on pre-trial release. All other persons indicted in Oregon who have been located, are currently in custody. A number of people charged with crimes have not been captured and may be living overseas.

Without the inform
ation provided by Jake Ferguson, uncharged informants such as Jennifer Kolar and Lacey Phillabaum, as well as the parroted statements made by the cooperating defendants thus far, there would be no federal case. Ferguson and Stanislas Meyerhoff have admitted to their participation in most of the alleged arsons, yet Ferguson remains free and without charges (and according to a Rolling Stone article, $50,000 richer). To date, no other hard evidence exists linking the defendants to the alleged charges. The snitch statements all vastly contradict each other and have changed and evolved as the government changes it’s story. These informants will face cross examination at trial and vast amounts of resources are being utilized in defense of those defendants who continue to assert their innocence before a jury of their peers.

Misuse of Grand Juries

On March 21, Camilo Stephenson was subpoenaed to a Denver grand jury and questioned about the 1998 Vail ski resort fire. Jake Ferguson told the feds that Stephenson would substantiate his story that attempted to rope in additional people. Stephenson denied any knowledge of any of the incidents and was able to inform the jury as to Jake’s reputation as a drug addict, thief, and untrustworthy individual.

Jeff Hogg and Burke Morris were subpoenaed to testify in front of federal grand juries on May 18, Jeff in Eugene and Burke in Denver. Jeff refused to testify before the grand jury and was held in contempt by Judge Michael Hogan and sent to jail. Jeff is still in and could remain in jail until the grand jury’s expiration, which may be extended until March, 2007.

Burke answered limited questions asked by the Denver grand jury, questions about his personal life, but denied any knowledge of the incidents about which he was questioned. Burke also ended up in this position as a result of Jake Ferguson trying to use him to corroborate untruthful statements that Ferguson made to the feds.

On June 27, Jim Dawson of Olympia received a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in Seattle. His appearance has been postponed since he consented to be questioned by the FBI in lieu of his scheduled grand jury appearance. His partner, Heather Moore, also of Olympia, had earlier agreed to be voluntarily questioned by the feds regarding her community. The extent of their disclosures to the government is unknown at this time. As a result of their voluntary cooperation, additional subpoenas are possible.

The fact that the feds are continuing to subpoena people would normally lead one to believe that the government continues to search for additional defendants in these cases — it is either that, or a grave abuse of the grand jury system at work. In the Oregon court hearing on June 28, Jonathan Paul’s attorney told the court that he was putting the government on notice that he was deeply concerned with the unlawful abuses of the grand jury system by the government. Grand juries are intended only to decide whether or not to bring indictments. In this case grand juries are being used to gather evidence to prepare for trial, an illegal use of the grand jury.

Support Information

The next status hearing for Jonathan Paul, Daniel McGowan, Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher is set for October 31 in Eugene, Oregon federal court. The court will further consider the defendants’ motion for the release of National Security Agency wiretaps and FISA surveillance of the activist community in Eugene and elsewhere for the past decade or more. At an August 22 hearing, federal prosecutors said they didn’t have “clearance” to discuss the issue.

The government continues to monitor and scrutinize media discussion of the green scare cases including on-line sources such as indy media sites. Many of the court filings include voluminous pages printed from the internet comment sections, personal email communications, and other documents that make it obvious that the government continues to spy on political groups and their activities. There is nothing illegal about doing prisoner support or discussing current events, but the feds continue to manipulate and misconstrue these communications to their own benefit. Please think of this before you write and post on the internet.

To stay informed about the latest goings on related to the Green Scare, visit cldc.org or portland.indymedia.org. Don’t forget to write to and support the non-cooperating defendants and talk to your friends and neighbors about the Green Scare cases.

• Nathan Block #1663667, Lane County Jail, 101 W 5th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401

• Joyanna Zacher #1662550, Lane County Jail, 101 W 5th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401

• Jeff Hogg #1065518, 1901 N.E. F St., Grants Pass, OR 97526

• Daniel McGowan www.supportdaniel.org

• Briana Waters www.supportbriana.org

If anyone has information they are willing to share on any of the cooperating witnesses, background, history, etc., to help in the defense of the non-cooperating defendants, please contact attorney Lauren Regan at lregan@cldc.org. Your opinion or anecdote could save a brave person many years in jail.

The Civil Rights Outreach Committee is a media working group regarding the Green Scare: civilrightsoutreach@gmail.com.

Thunder, Rafael Donner, a long time activist was found dead in his car on the streets of West Berkeley. Spending years working to free Leonard Peltier by coordinating monthly prayer circles infront of the Oakland Federal Building. He was a DJ on 104.1 doing a Pirate radio show entitled “Earth First, Corporations Last” on both Free Radio Berkeley and Berkeley Liberation Radio. He was also a dedicated advocate for People’s Park and worked on keeping the general peace between park users. He often recited the opening prayer during Park celebrations and could be found at numerous Native American powwows Sun Rise Ceremonies and other functions.

A Memorial was held July 30 starting at the Ho Chi Minh Park and proceeded four blocks north into People’s Park. There loved ones held an open mic event, some sharing stories and pain.

He is survived by two children, their mother, mother, nephew, and the larger community of friends and projects that he gave so much to.