Category: Articles

[Note: while the details of this article are Oakland-centric, the same (or worse) repression is perpetrated against marginalized communities daily. Wherever you are, please stand up and fight back].

During Fall of 2011 the people came out en mass to support Occupy Oakland. The numbers that were mobilized empowered us to directly and effectively confront the oppressive systems that are attacking our communities and ecosystems. Our unity, numbers and mutual solidarity created an environment of relative safety from police repression. Beautiful and creative actions I never thought possible were the norm, where we sought consent from our community, and never asked permission from our would-be masters.

While our organizing and networks are continuing to grow into the Winter, our visual presence has diminished, especially in Oscar Grant Plaza. The city and OPD have capitalized on this fact by instituting a crackdown and repression on Occupy organizers. Nearly 50 arrests and an unknown number of incidences of police violence have occurred during late January – early December The victims of this violence are by and large individuals that were not committing any crime. What the victims have in common is a high level of involvement in the movement. Media, Food, Medics and especially the Tactical Action Committee have been targeted and singled out for police violence and repression.

To help illustrate these facts, I will relate a few first hand accounts.

Member of TAC: “On January 4th, about 60 cops flooded the plaza, pointed people out then started grabbing them. I was across the street when an officer pointed in my direction. I started walking away, and when I turned around there were 3 officers walking toward me. They ran up and grabbed me. They called me by my first name and said things like “we got you again, aren’t you out on bail?”. I was booked for obstructing a ‘peace keeper’ and I now have a stay away order for the plaza. I was singled out because I have been a consistent and vocal presence in the plaza and active with various other projects.”

Leila: “I have been working within the Occupy Oakland community two months working and coordinating with the kitchen and gardening committees and in others ways such as coordinating communications for community planning, and helping to organize and advise others in their projects.

On the night of January 7th, during the march against police repression, I was assaulted by multiple Oakland police officers. I was shoved by an officer when I stopped to observe a medic get tackled and arrested. Then a second officer hit me strong enough to send me flying back. I fell and my partner ran to catch my head before it hit the pavement. Immediately the officer who hit me started to swing his baton at both of us. We attempted to pull away as multiple officers continued to aggressively pursue us, swinging batons and throwing a bike at us. No verbal communication by the officers had been made during this entire incident. I was hit on the hand; there was immediate swelling and bruising. My partner was hit on his arm; he later went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a hematoma.”

Josh: “I have been participating with Occupy Oakland since October and I have now been battered and arrested twice and beaten once by the police. Never was I acting violently or aggressively. On December 30th I was serving food in the plaza when the police moved in on the tree sit. My partner and a friend sat down near the base of the tree; within seconds and without warning the police grabbed and dragged them away. Seconds later a sergeant pointed at me and said, “Take ’em”. Three cops grabbed me, put me in a pain compliance hold, slammed me against the cruiser and arrested me. I was charged with obstructing a “peace officer”, and moved from one holding cell to another for 22 hours before getting bonded out. Others arrested that day were held for 5 days and finally released without charges.”

LA Joe: “I came to Oakland from Occupy LA. During my 2½ months here I have been arrested twice and OPD addresses me by my first name. After my second arrest, Officer Nguyen approached me at the plaza. He essentially told me that he had looked in my file (he knew my mom’s name, where I grew up in LA, and where I went to college) and that because I was intelligent and educated, I had little in common with most occupiers and that he could “help me”. It should be obvious to us all that we are in an age of counter-intelligence.”

So yes, we are going through a period of heightened repression and counter-intelligence. This is nothing new and it should not be surprising. Repression and violence is the de facto response to any threat against the current prevailing power structure, and it’s effective. So the question is: How can we resist repression?

One response has been the weekly Fuck the Police (FTP) / Anti-repression marches. Assembling every Saturday evening (usually in the plaza), the marches zigzag around downtown and by the police station, drawing attention to the repression and directly confronting police brutality. The FTP marches are also a great laboratory to experiment with a variety of tactics. Lining up against the police went bad last time; let’s try maneuvering around them. How about an FTP parade to celebrate the coming insurrection and present ourselves in a less menacing way, or an FTP kittens march where we spread out over an area in small groups so the cops don’t have an organized mass to target?

Or just call it off last minute and kick it in the plaza; which is another thing we can do to help resist repression. Having a physical presence in a central public place was the hallmark of Occupy. Taking space in an open and public manor must be a part of what we do. But it can be risky when it’s only a small group out there. It makes it very easy for the police to pick out and arrest the girl bringing food to the occupiers, or the guy with the camera. So spend some time at the plaza, eat some food, join a committee, go to GA, whatever you like, just show up. Being there adds strength and security to the movement, and maybe you will make a new friend.

Filling the courts when our allies are on trial is another good way to support the people that are putting their necks on the line so we can all live in a better world. If you don’t have the time for that, call the mayor, the DA, the police chief, everyone, and demand the release of political prisoners.

In conclusion, the world is controlled by psychopathic fascists who control armies of soulless mercenaries. Do something about it before it’s too late.

To plug in and get more info without having to stand up, go to www.occupyoakland.org (or your local equivalent). Also check indymedia.org and find your local on the left side bar.

Jan 14:Two people were arrested Saturday night during a relatively peaceful antipolice demonstration, FTP march

Jan 7: FTP march. Police charge crowd, batoning, shooting beanbags, and arresting medics, media, and observers. Six arrested and at least two hospitalized.

Jan 5: Protest at city hall to demonstrate against the repressive police action. Two were snatched and arrested.

Jan 4: About sixty police in riot gear storm the plaza, picked out and arrested twelve people, many of whom are members of the media team. The police abruptly left after “destroying everything” at the peaceful vigil. Occupiers immediately marched to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in solidarity with those in custody.

Dec 30: Cops swarm the plaza immediately snatching and arresting folks. 11 occupiers in total were arrested, many of who faced bogus charges. It became apparent on this day that the cops were deliberately targeting and harassing specific people whom they consider to be key members of Occupy Oakland.

Dec 29: OPD raided the occupa
tion of a foreclosed house on 10th and Mandela, arresting 12 people most of whom are part of the Tactical Action Committee.

Dec 28: Arrests were made during a raid of an occupation by Tactical Action Committee at an unused lot in West Oakland.

Black Hole Free Film School

By eggplant

A new group is forming called the Black Hole Free Film School, and though it saw its first meeting in a warehouse in Oakland, similar groups are taking the cue and are having meetings in L.A. and NY. The first meeting went quickly from mass dreaming to making an inventory list of resources to be shared and organized. Frankly this level of serious engagement is in no small part influenced by the Occupy Movement that swept through the land this past fall. Many of the same faces could be found there.

The group seeks to have the resources available for people to make and exhibit their works on video and film. The school will facilitate workshops and classes to give people more confidence in making their first film. Also planned is a monthly screening of new works where film makers can get feedback from their peers. Other ideas such as an online and printed newsletter look to set into motion a flurry of activity. This kind of enthusiasm over the barriers of mass communication was last seen after the WTO in Seattle, with the advent of Indymedia.

Just two days into the New Year a low-key announcement to discuss the Free School brought out over 25 people. Twenty-Five! On a Monday night… Now try to get that many people to work on a community newspaper or to fix up a long neglected community space, and it will be no argument on how people are moved by moving images. And why shouldn’t they be? There is one level of sophisticated political analysis that encourages people to follow their pleasure, and to use that momentum to dis-empower oppression. We have eyes and ears and they need to be fed too–and it’s a part of human nature to want to sit down and be enveloped in the dark and engaged in a story.

The name Black Hole has been used this past year for an underground film series that exhibits rare treats in warehouses around the Bay Area. It was agreed at the first meeting to adapt the same name for the emerging Free School. The inspiration for the name partially comes from reclaiming the technologies that have been discarded from modern consumer culture, as new technologies flood the market. Devices like 8mm, Super 8, VHS, Betamax are all to a degree still functional as tools, and they hold value to the Black Hole Theatre ethic. In fact, they are often more accessible to scavengers and the like. The Black Hole Free School intends to be able to screen movies off these devices–as well as the latest digital capabilities.

The first meeting generated some ideas as to what classes the school should offer. The goal is to get people with knowledge of film as well as those that don’t. The classes were not heavily scrutinized and this list is still at the brainstorm stage:

* Basic celluloid film production

* Sound in film: how to make recordings

* Light + sound = the relation of frequencies and patterns

* Basic maintenance and repair of gear/mechanics, proper film storage, modifications/circuit bends

* Objective vs. subjective: tendencies toward dissocation and the nature of dissociation in film (potential collaboration w/Icarus Project)

* Reading group: film theory, scripts, etc.

* Phenomenology workshop

* Improv group w/interactive film

* Filmic response to current events

Feel free to think up some cool classes and then get to organizing how would you pull it all off. Like all grassroots projects it gains from your input and support. For far too long various maneuvers have been employed to limit audiences’ access to independent media. The continuous efforts of a DIY network and the Internet have opened up a lot of space. This has done much to hasten the collapse of major newspapers, the music industry, and large movie companies. But to overly rely on the Internet is sloppy. Legislation like Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) would return us to a limited vision of the world. The flow of power will continue downward only as long as a committed people act. Since the Black Hole is in the forming stages the best way to plug in is to check the web site until a solid venue is established. Don’t resist the pull of the Black Hole.

blackholefreefilmschool.wordpress.com

It is difficult to let go of the moments that come before reading a zine – your sore eyes notice a fresh cover peaking at you from the rack across the room, drawing you in. Then there is the time spent trying to delay the moment when your hands will shakily reach out and lift the light, crunchy inked pages from the shelf – maybe you put on a record or try to finish a chapter of the book you’re reading, meanwhile your expectations grow and your mind wanders… will this collection of paper be the response to some questions you have long needed answered? Will it make you feel more comfortable in your body? Are the images within, lurking on each page, going to inspire you to continue and pursue your passion of creating crudely inked pornography? The moment before you open the pages, you may be expecting to find an energy-sucking leech but instead find a friend. Although these contemplations are an important factor in discovering a new zine, we must eventually surrender ourselves to the thoughts that come after tending to paper goods – be it bedside, stuffed between books in the library, coffee stained, under dumpstered pizza — as we lovingly or half-assedly give them time and attention. Here are some of the impressions that came afterward from a few ziney Slingshotter folks.

Twenty-Four Hours

16pgs. Small size issue 7

39 w. 30th st.#g

Bayonne, NJ 07002

Twentyfourhourszine.blogspot.com

This is the 10th anniversary of this publication (the editor also does poetry and a rag called Noise Noise Noise). I never read it before which makes it makes it hard for me to contrast it with the other issues. My first impression is that the entirety of the zine is made on a computer — both its text and its graphics. There’s lots of open space on the page — which should be a welcomed sight to tired eyes, but its readability is diminished by the font size being just above squinting level. Thankfully all the content is rather short and compelling, which makes it easier to just pick it up quickly in between other pressing matters. The focus seems to be about hunting out people who do cool things — like writers and artists, and getting a little insight into their work. I felt like “what’s the point” a few times reading it, but the subject matter would suddenly improve thus captivating me. This issue has talks with a photographer who documents the last meals by death row inmates, writers like Aaron Cometbus, and the shortest of all possible book reviews. Watch out! you may be in the next issue. (eggplant)

Later Daze #7 – The “Fight Against Monotony” Issue

734 30th St. Oakland, CA 94609 or theheist@rock.com

This new issue of Later Daze is a product of Keith’s battle against dead time. The structure consists of some cures for boredom that seem to have worked for the writer. Almost in opposition to the comic on the back-cover, Keith philosophizes on the ebbs and floods of daily life in the Bay Area. An interview with his housemates becomes a meditation on gentrification. His comics swim in curious abandon. Like the photograph inside, he stands among ruins of things past, tracing the outlines of racial tensions that have marked the United States from its origins up to the present. The most impressive piece is on the race riots in 1945 on a night that Cab Calloway was in town – blacks were denied entry to the theatre. In looking for his own cure for boredom, the writer seems to have created such a cure for his readers. (joey)

Bacon in the Beans

P.O. Box 4912 Thousand Oaks, CA 91359 or baconinthebeans@gmail.com

Visiting SoCal suburbia I came across this one at a record store. Past the egg-making hominids on the cover are the thoughts of a guy who’s been involved in the punk scene for nearly 27 years… Most of those years, he writes, have been spent intoxicated. The zine might be described as a product of his recent shift towards sober living (one week as of the publication of the zine, which is no small feat). In addition to the diary-like entries are music-related interviews (including one on Siberian hardcore!), nursery rhymes, a piece on “punk social networking from 20 years ago,” and a critique of shows at big for-profit venues (“All the amenities provided to the counterculture”). The text is unbelievably small at times, which at least says something about the amount of material there is in this thin volume. The editor collects “vintage punk & hardcore 70s & 80s demos. Get in touch if you can unload your tapes.”

(joey)

Dreams of Donuts #13

836 57th St.

Oakland CA 94608

Heather Wreckage, the dreamer of this, really gets it. She knows the issues important to the activist anarchist scene well, and can still have a good time worth writing about. It’s all largely done in a comic style. This particular issue, the characters look shaded and more rounded, making them rise up from the page and their usual state of two dimensions. The eye candy appeal of it all out shines what is easiest to criticize — the flat story telling. The events pass thru the pages almost as if Heather is just making a list of the baddest ass moments of the past couple months. If you are not part of her inner circle it may not interest you. But in some ways what she makes here are like cave drawings of our culture. She is giving honors to the rare bunch of DIY punks around her. Their sparks of resistance and fleeting experiences are reinterpreted by her hand making them concrete. She made this issue during the Oakland Commune–but unfortunately it only has a one-page representation of those heady times. In this regard she is like No Gods No Mattress — reporting on things months later. That story and more will be in #14.

(eggplant)

Oscar Grant Plaza Gazette

oscargrantplazagazette@gmail.com

A one-sheet newsletter. Generally it documents the currents events on or around Oscar Grant Plaza — the Occupy Oakland base. Some of the writing is rather dull and lacking any juicy details. Each issue asks for contributions but I’ve only seen a few pieces by someone besides the editor. Most of the (uncredited) contributor writings seem to be the most lifeless and composed without an audience in mind. Supply lists or generic protester manifestos as example. In contrast the writings from the editor that describes the General Assemblies, the protests and the police harassment is on fire. This reporting reveals a very militant anarchist perspective. Fans of Green Anarchy, Modesto Anarcho and UA in the Bay will be smitten with each new issue. (eggplant)

OtherXCore zine

#3 winter 2011(no price listed but trade OK)

PO box 391

Madera, CA 93639

Fresno is not what people think of when thinking of California. But to the young people growing up there it is a real place — dull and oppressive. The urge to change the world from where they’re standing is not taken lightly. This zine is from one such person, who is hard at work chronicling the counter culture being created. When you read this issue you will find that some of the content is designed with the locals in mind, and it may seem insular. They got it together to open an all ages music venue called The Bell-Tower, which acts as the zine’s spiritual center. There are reports on the scene in San Francisco and Portland, but in the end, home is made all the more important. Also inside are some factoids on healthy Herbs and a fat piece on body politics. This issue shows an incredible growth in content compared to the previous issues. An enlarged audience for this publication promises that what they produce in the future will be more sophisticated. Worth supporting. (eggplant)

Port Wino#2

okupanda99@riseup.net

Once there was an art exhibit with a whale rotting in a museum. People paid to experience this art piece and got pissed off. Those that paid we
re disgusted and left in a rage making it very easy to sneak in. The lumpen proletariat’s reaction was typically to laugh, puke, cry, then laugh again. If you breathe too deeply of Port Wino#2 you might feel nauseous, but its acrid stench? is necessary to our collective development.

Port Wino#2 starts with a description of how families talk about members who live house less. And then, it goes right into a ghost story, “we don’t speak ill of the dead, unless they really deserve it cause they’re always listening.” The rest of the zine talks about gang tags, punk rock, class, war, sexuality, rednecks, border graffiti, and trains. Regarding tagging and the first amendment right to do so, the author says, “it only makes sense to ban creativity especially when it is contagious.” And, “I urge you to alter your reality into a contrast of your dreams and all the beauty you know. GRAFF AINT A CriME Bomb Reality”

Family matters permeate the zine and it is always brutally honest, “we aren’t born anymore as much as we are delegated to tax zones.” When talking about reluctance to speak to rich children they say, “SUE lawyers kid knew what poor Mexicans were because while my brothers were roofing their house; her mother spewed distrust from her lips to the neighbor over a very sour lemonade.” (baked brie)

Raging Pelican: Journal of Gulf Coast Resistance

ragingpelican.COM

ragingpelican@gmail.com

The third issue of the Raging Pelican highlights the occupy movement in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. In an article titled “Against the Wind: Colonial Louisiana in the 21st Century” T. Mayheart Dardar speaks of the desecration of the bayou by the BP oil spill and over 300 years of continual colonialism, and the effects upon the Houma community, indigenous to the Gulf Coast and un-recognized by the federal government of the U.S.

In “The Elephant of Color in the Room” Ben Last relates their experience in forming a people of color caucus, “the key to the total smashing of an alienating environment rests in successful outreach coupled with keen self-awareness.”

Mona Landsberg asks male socialized individuals to give up their privilege in “If I Can’t Keep My White Male Privilege. . .”

“Tahir Here” by Joeseph R. Jones points out that asking for permits does not replicate the uprising in Tahir Square where people illegally defended their spaces against violent state repression. They also tell the story of Occupy Denver’s police raid where the Denver Anarchist Black Cross defended the camp and the initial organizers insisted that the camp be taken down to be in compliance with the law, “the rebuilt encampment is now divided between those who would obey the law at all times, no matter the consequences, and those who will break it in order to defend the principles that they stand for.”

My personal favorite moments of issue #3 are a hilarious photo of fake counter-protesters at Occupy Mobile, one sign reading, “Who needs to trade stocks when you can trade human lives!!!” and the introduction which states, “I don’t really give a shit about Wall Street. I care about our homes and lives in South Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, our peoples, culture, traditions and ways of life, all of which are being destroyed.”

(baked brie)

The politics of inclusion have always been at the core of the disability rights movement, and activists with disabilities are speaking up at General Assemblies about how to make occupations more accessible. People with disabilities are used to obstacles, and activism comes natural to many of us, because we frequently find ourselves thrust upon a soapbox simply to demand our right to access public places. But disability rights are not merely about ramps and zero threshold, the willingness to provide sign language interpreters and resources in alternative formats, or making seats available to those who need them. Building an inclusive movement means becoming aware of all of our comrades’ needs, be they obvious or invisible, and feeling the empathy necessary for true solidarity. Reclaiming the commons for all is not about tolerating each other, but accepting and embracing our differences. It’s not about accommodation, but about community. ‘An injury to one, is an injury to all’ is not an empty slogan, but describes real people, with real injuries.

People with disabilities have been called the largest minority in the world, one that each and every person can become part of at any given moment, and without warning. If you’re lucky enough to live to a ripe old age, you most likely will end up with some measure of disability. Direct action activists who stand up to the police state are especially at risk of disabling injury, but are often unprepared for the difficult realities people with disabilities face. Disability rights are currently under heavy attack by the austerity measures of the 1%. Already living in poverty, we have seen deep cuts to the social services that keep many of us alive. SSI has been reduced several times over the last couple of years. Medicaid has been stripped so bare that street medics at many occupations have more to offer someone in need of medical care. In-home supportive services are being decimated, and as a result many people with disabilities are in danger of losing their independence and of being institutionalized.

The more complex our own individual struggle for immediate survival, the less likely we are able to help in the struggle for revolutionary change, unless the movement makes room for our needs. Many people with disabilities cannot participate fully in the Occupy movement, but desperately want to. Among the invisible 99% are comrades who are isolated by disabling illnesses that are caused by the industrial civilization of the 1%. As synthetic chemicals and other toxic substances have become a constant in our lives, some of us have reached toxic loads that are no longer manageable. For us there are no ‘small’ exposures. Every exposure is another drop in a barrel that’s already overflowing. Because the toxic substances that make us sick are so commonly used, many of us can rarely leave whatever controlled home environments we can create, and we become housebound, because every outing is a physical assault on our health. We are essentially barred from participation in the community, and are in effect invisible. When we do venture out, some of us have to wear masks to help minimize exposure, and stay at a distance to avoid perfumed smokers, keeping us further alienated from our comrades.

There are a few things that occupiers can do to help make it safer for comrades with toxic injuries to participate: as individuals you can choose to use fragrance-free laundry and personal products. Synthetic fragrances are made with petrochemicals, and a slew of other hazardous chemicals. Even essential oils are often extracted with toxic chemicals, and can make people ill. Occupations could explicitly discourage smoking in the crowds, and set up comfortable smoking areas. A very large segment of the population has asthma and other lung diseases, which are aggravated by second hand smoke, including from incense and burning sage. Any ceremonial burning could be planned for specific times that can be avoided by those of us who must. For comrades injured by electromagnetic radiation, which often overlaps with chemical injuries, it would be helpful to set up an area as far from any cell towers as possible, where cell phones and other wireless gadgets must be turned off.

Why should occupations do any of this? Out of solidarity, as well as self-preservation. Because there are millions of people who are injured and sensitized by chemicals and electromagnetic radiation, many who are pushed to the margins of society by the toxic industries of the 1%. There are millions of people with chemically-induced asthma and other respiratory diseases, of which thousands die each year. Every cell phone transmission puts an increasing number of people who live near cell towers at risk of cancer. In a society where the use of chemicals and wireless technology runs rampant, such injuries can happen to anyone. It can happen to you or someone you love. Like the canaries in the coal mines who alerted miners to deadly fumes, those of us who have been poisoned already are often able to recognize toxicity sooner than those who are still healthy. Some among us were first injured by teargas on previous actions, and have vital information and skills to contribute to the movement, but we can’t approach you when your cologne is impairing our central nervous system and making it hard to breathe.

Of course people with toxic injuries are unlikely to forget that the cozy villages that are being built by the Occupy movement are also direct actions with inherent risks not everyone will be able to take. Chemically injured people cannot afford to stick around when the cops put on their gasmasks. The threat of chemical weapons precludes our involvement in certain actions. But that is not to say that we should be excluded from history because of our limitations. The disability rights movement has been involved in civil disobedience from the start, challenging the misconceptions of helplessness, and continuing today with groups like ADAPT. People with disabilities are participating in occupations throughout the world. Even as comrades with toxic injuries are housebound, they find creative ways to support the occupations from where they are, like the folks who Occupy At Home & organize online occupyathome.wordpress.com. But we shouldn’t have to stay at home, isolated from our communities at large. A movement that unites the 99% should make explicit efforts to make occupations accessible for all in whatever way we can take part. This is our revolutionary moment too, and we’re entitled to participate and fight our own battles against the abuses of the 1%.

Thanks to folks who bought a 2012 Slingshot organizer – selling them funds this paper! We still have copies available if you want to buy one or make a wholesale order. If you like the Slingshot paper, please support us financially by buying an organizer. We’re offering a special deal to any occupations that want to distribute organizers as a fundraiser or give-away. If you have ideas of ways to give free surplus copies to low-income teens or other folks who are unable to afford one, let us know. Email slingshot@tao.ca.

So far the only major error we’ve spotted is that the full month calendar on a page for September doesn’t have the days of the week in the same order as a standard calendar. Instead of being arranged SMTWTFS, it is MTWTFSS. The days of the week aren’t written in on that page, so please write them in correctly yourself. We’ll try to proofread that section more carefully next year.

Sales were down a lot this year, continuing a pattern of decreasing sales over the last few years. Aside from the effects of recession and the declining number of independent bookstores that exist to carry the organizer, it seems like demand for a paper calendar is falling off as many people get smart phones. Our cousin the War Resister’s League Peace calendar which started publishing in 1955 announced that 2012 would be their last year in response to shrinking sales. If trends continue, Slingshot collective needs to consider alternate ways to raise funds pay to print the paper.

One idea floating around is to make an organizer “app” for the iphone and other smart phones. Making an “app” doesn’t seem as do-it-yourself as making the organizer, so we need help. If you know how to develop smart phone applications and want to help make a Slingshot organizer app, let us know. Also, let us know if you think it should be free (with an option to donate) or should we charge a few pennies? The idea would be a calendar with radical historical dates, radical graphics, a menstrual calendar, and a radical contact list, plus access to helpful DIY features. Let us know if you have ideas for what other bells and whistles we should consider.

Until paper is totally dead, we’ll be working on the 2013 organizer this summer. It will be available around October 1. Let us know if you want to help us make the 2013 organizer. Here is a timeline for the work:

• In May and June, we’ll edit, correct and improve the list of historical dates. Deadline for finishing: June 22. The following dates in particular need more radical events, so if you want to do some research, email us and we’ll email you what we have so you can add to it:

• January 25, 28

• February 9, 16-18, 22, 24, 25

• March 2, 13, 17, 18

• April 6, 13, 16, 19

• May 14, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23

• June 3, 22, 27, 30,

• July 6, 11, 19, 24, 29, 30, 31

• August 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, 17, 21, 26

• September 1, 6, 10 22-25, 29, 30

• October 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 16, 29, 31

• November 2, 3, 7, 10-12, 14, 15, 24, 26, 28-30

• December 22-24, 31

We particularly like adding events from 2011/12 to the list of historical dates.

• If you want to design a section of the calendar, let us know or send us random art by June 22. Deadline to finish calendar pages or give us suggestions for 2013 is July 27.

• We need all new or confirmed radical contact listings and cover art submissions by July 27.

• If you have ideas for the short features we publish in the back, let us know by July 27. We try to print different features every year.

• If you’re in the Bay Area July 28/29 or August 4/5, we loving having help with the final organizer design — all done by hand, which is extra fun. Contact us. We especially need to find some really careful proofreaders.

To the extent the occupy movement wants to expand its focus beyond local occupations onto the national stage, exposing and disrupting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its member companies offers an amazing opportunity because of the way ALEC combines corporate economic domination with political control. ALEC is a non-profit funded by the largest corporations where industry representatives work with conservative legislators to write pro-corporate model legislation which is then introduced into state legislatures across the country by elected officials who are ALEC. ALEC’s model laws focus on deregulation, attacks on labor and immigrants, and weakening environmental and health laws. 98 percent of ALEC’s income comes from 300 major corporate sources — companies like ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Bayer. Around 1/3 of US legislators from all 50 states — 2000 in all — belong to ALEC.

Following a spirited multi-day protest and direct action against the national ALEC meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona November 30-December 3 that led to the arrest of 25 people and police use of pepper spray, Occupy Portland has called for a national day of action against the corporations that fund ALEC on leap day, February 29. They are calling for “creative direct actions” to “shut down the corporations that are part of ALEC . . . shut down corporate headquarters and stop business as usual.” ALEC member companies have corporate outposts in almost every city and village across the country, so there’s no way for ALEC to hide from the hundreds of decentralized occupations.

Occupy Salt Lake is already discussing how to protest the 39th annual meeting of ALEC July 25 – 28 in Salt Lake City. Like the historic protests against the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, WA that brought together activists from all over the continent and shut down the meeting as well as the whole city, folks from occupations across the land could potentially converge on Salt Lake City to make the connections between the way the 1% use ALEC to write laws to serve corporate interests, not the public interests.

A key feature of the occupy phenomenon has been opening up dialog and debate on subjects like economic inequality that, for too long, weren’t discussed much. A secret to ALEC’s effectiveness has been the way it has exerted so much influence with so little public attention. Exposing ALEC and the boldfaced way corporations literally write the laws that increase their power is a key in the struggle against corporate domination.

In July, 2011 the Center for Media and Democracy released roughly 800 leaked model bills developed by the Council that are now on-line and subject to public scrutiny. Everyone should check out their website to understand what an octopus ALEC really is. The proposed laws cover school privatization, green house gas emissions, union busting, industrial farming, biotech, fracking, pesticides, liquified natural gas, childhood lead exposure, health insurance, coal ash, international trade, water, banking, consumer protection, auto insurance, credit cards, tort reform, voter ID, guns, death and taxes. ALEC was behind the anti-immigrant SB 1070 law in Arizona as well as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attack on public union organizing rights there.

In many ways, in many places, and with many voices, ALEC is being exposed.

To see the leaked 800 bills, check alecexposed.org. To plug into the Feb. 29 protest, check shutdownthecorporations.org. For a report about the Arizona protest and how to support those arrested, check azresistsalec.wordpress.com. Check out Occupy Salt Lake City at occupyslc.org.

In Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins asked, “How do you make love stay?” This question is pertinent, in my view, as the occupy movement considers “where do we go from here?” Love, in the macrocosmic, can be thought of as a kind of vitality, an explosion of life energy, a sensation of unity, a bigness. As a movement in the most literal sense, moving/revolving, we are faced with the significant task of maintaining (expanding) the love/energy on whose waves the Revolution, as imagination, merely surfs.

In Jerry Rubin’s 1970 revolutionary manifesto Do It!, he suggests that an anti (anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-anything) movement can not sustain itself energetically, in effect it can only run on negative energy for brief spurts, so that eventually (in combination with ignoring, minimizing, demonizing and/or disrupting) the Powers That Be can wait out any anti movement with nervous confidence that it will, given a little time, go home.

Positive energy, on the other hand, is the Revolution’s sustainable energy. To stand in opposition to something is to be fractionalized and is by it’s nature a passive act. It is to define ourselves in opposition to a dominant, thereby contextualizing the relationship in a subordinator/subordinated paradigm and allowing the subordinator to define the terms, to draw the boundaries of the conversation. Reaction is passive-action as action is positive-action. Do we allow our actions to be guided by the actions of others or do we allow our actions to be guided by our values, our experiences, our suspicions and our imaginations?

Every passive-action functions as a mirror, reflecting the suggestion of positive-action. The anti-hunger activist who decides to stop spending their time petitioning signatures for a ballot measure to “fight hunger” and instead volunteers to help build community gardens in impoverished neighborhoods and educate people about the mechanics of growing/raising their own food source, instantly becomes pro-urban gardening and positively effects the production of food in his/her community. To dismiss this as a purely semantic argument is, I believe, to seriously underestimate the power of language in the harnessing/invoking of energy. Passive-action is abstract (holding a sign to end homelessness) while positive-action is tangible (squatting a vacant house). Passive-action waits for a revolution, Positive-action is in perpetual revolution, and performs revolutionary acts.

What we learn from the occupy movement is not that a group of people can hold signs in a park for longer than the establishment could have imagined, but that a group of people can form a voluntary association and establish imaginative models of community governance. That a group of people can come together in a circle without the help of the State or would be authorities and figure out how to provide themselves with healthcare, food, clothing, counseling, libraries and music festivals. We learn, above all, that a community is made of people and that the strength of a community is relative to the strength of it’s people. The Occupation has provided an example of radical models of social organization and our neighborhoods provide the opportunity to imaginatively explore those models through positive-action. To borrow a term from Chris Carlson, the revolution is nowtopian, and it is our charge to create the infrastructure of the future right here in our neighborhoods, to fashion a viable, alternate way of existing together as a people right now, and, by doing so, to Make Love Stay.

It is an illusion of the technocratic worldview that only through changing the macro can we change the micro. That only through petitioning the goodwill of the leaders of the free world can we effect change in our communities. It seems much more plausible that only through changing the micro can we change the macro. A number of individuals make up a neighborhood just as a number of neighborhoods make up a city and a number of cities make up a geographical region and so on and so forth until we are finally, always, citizens of the earth in solidarity, victims (or not) of the same circumstance: birth, death, and the space in between. The primary unit is one, the universe extends from there. The Revolution on the inside, through positive-action, manifests itself on the outside. And so we are left with you as the revolution and me as the revolution. We are challenged to become the Revolution we seek, to tear open our hearts, to strip away the cultural clothing that hangs on us like ill fitting, damp, and worn out rags. We are challenged to mix it up in the dirt a little (or a lot), to question everything and believe nothing until further evidence, and to add our odd fitting pieces to the puzzle, never completed.

February 19 • 11 – 5

L.A Zine Fest – The Last Bookstore Zine wemakezines.ning.com

February 20 • Noon

Occupy 4 Prisoners – National Day Of Action – San Quentin, CA occupy4prisoners.org

February 25 • 1-6

NYC Feminist Zinefest- Brooklyn Commons wemakezines.ning.com

February 26 • 4 pm

Slingshot new volunteer meeting / article brainstorm – 3124 Shattuck, Berkeley

February 29 • 6pm

Funeral for capitalism – dancing on the grave to follow – Oscar Grant Plaza (14th & Broadway) in Oakland

February 29

Leap day action night – everywhere –www.leapdayaction.org

February 29

Shut down the Corporations national day of action vs. ALEC (see page 13) shutdownthecorporations.org

March 8

International Women’s Day www.internationalwomensday.com

March 10 • 3 pm

Article deadline for Slingshot #110 – email us something! slingshot@tao.ca

March 11 – 6-9 pm

Celebrate Slingshot’s 24th Birthday party – free food, music – 3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley

March 30 • 6 pm

SF Critical Mass bike ride – Justin Herman Plaza in SF and worldwide

March 31 – April 1

Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair County Fair Building Lincoln Way & 9th Ave., SF sfbookfair.wordpress.com

April 1

Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory and Research & Development (BASTARD) conference – sfbay-anarchists.org

April 10 – 12 • 10 am

The Art of Social Justice – Tivoli Student Union – Auraria Campus, Denver CO.

April 14 •

NYC Anarchist book fair – Judson Memorial Church, Manhattan.

April 15

Steal Something from Work Day stealfromwork.crimethinc.com

May 1

Global General Strike on May Day / International Worker’s Day

May 5 • 10 am

Protest the American Psychiatric Association – Counter-Celebration. March. Protest mindfreedom.org/campaign/boycott-normal/occupy-apa

May 19-20 • 10 – 5

Montreal anarchist book fair info@anarchistbookfair.ca

June 9-10 • noon – 10

SF Free Folk Festival. Presidio Middle School 450 30th Ave www.sffolkfest.org

June 16-24

Wild Roots Feral Futures – San Juan Mountains, Southwest Colorado feralfutures.blogspot.com

July 25-28

Shut down ALEC – Salt Lake City (see pg 2)

August 17 -19

Twin Oaks Intentional Community & Cooperatives Conference communitiesconference.org

I will remember that night for the rest of my life. After an early morning police raid, supporters of Occupy Oakland converged in the streets and stood up to riot police hurling tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Despite how grim that sounds, my experience was one of cathartic elation; of being autonomous in a group of people aware of its own power; of having the lines between what I am for and what I am against rendered so clearly.

People around the world are rejecting the perceived inevitability of capitalist states and electoral democracy, citing their own needs for autonomy and community, which are not being met. Issues of class inequality and state violence have been front page news, and the kinds of conversations that it is possible to have with people in this atmosphere seem greatly expanded. Connections are being made between issues on a large scale and the energy generated is not being neatly channeled into small reforms or manipulated by hierarchical political machines.

Often, we go through life utterly surrounded by invisible systems which limit the actions and conversations that seem possible; which make any sentiment expressed outside of them seem crazy. Moments that create a rupture in this banality by making those systems visible allow us an opportunity to inhabit space and interact with each other in radically different ways; to become aware of tensions that are ever-present but often hidden and act in ways that did not previously seem possible. At their best, the Occupy actions and other demonstrations that have escalated around the world in the last year have created spaces for people to interact with each other and articulate their desires outside of established frameworks.

Useful realism

There are also tensions that arise as part of the occupation itself which are important to explore. Central to these is the tension between the beautiful possibility of this moment and the fact that we are still living within ugly and powerful systems that have trained us to think, speak and act on their terms. Thinking about what it means to be ‘realistic’ or ‘strategic’ is one way to map this particular tension usefully.

Large systems of calcified power like states, banks and corporations are very good at finding ways to make us believe that our best interest is what drives them, or failing that, that our goals can coexist harmoniously with theirs. They do this by shaping the conversations we have about what is necessary, possible and desirable; by encouraging us to abandon desires they cannot assimilate and by offering the promise of comfort, safety, and convenience in return

Appealing to realism is a tactic often used by these systems to convince people that their aspirations are too large. Any good idea or analysis that condemns systems of power or would require a radical shift in the status quo can be discredited easily as unrealistic by those who lack imagination. In this context, it is tempting to reject the concept of realism altogether; to believe that the audacity of demanding everything from our lives and nothing from established power negates any kind of rationality.

In fact, ‘being realistic’ is useful as a way of analyzing tactics and situations in light of a particular set of goals and desires. If we articulate our desires using only the narrow language of the system, “I want to make more money”, then being realistic can only include finding ways to make the system work better for us. If our goals are understood to be more expansive, “I want to be able to meet my physical and emotional needs”, then realistic options include subverting the logic of the system itself.

As the Occupy movement has gained momentum, some have claimed that the only way to be effective is with a centralized organization that can efficiently negotiate with power; they argue that having a specific set of reforms and charismatic leaders is the only realistic strategy for success.

I disagree with this analysis. The danger of making specific political demands is the danger of taking the energy of the moment and bending it to the service of something too small. The reason that the Occupy/Decolonize demonstrations have felt powerful to me is because they are leaderless and because they have not been interested in making specific demands. What is being rejected around the world is not just a tax system but the tenets of global capitalism itself and the particular brand of representative democracy that has helped it to become ascendant; not one incident of police brutality, but the presumption that a militarized police force is necessary in order to have communities that function.

Believing that the vast majority of people in our society are dissatisfied with the world that capitalism and state power has created is realistic to me but thinking that these people will be able to rally behind a single set of demands that is remotely powerful or interesting, does not. I am not particularly interested in finding ways to make small reforms in the systems that oppress us. I would rather use my energy to nurture communities that reject reformism and aren’t easily co-opted by established systems of power. For me, this means being honest about the facts on the ground and choosing tactics that allow me to keep space open where people can act on and articulate desires that are not easily absorbed by conventional political narratives.

Daring to frame the conversation in these terms is far more energizing than borrowing the limited language those in power have given us to express ourselves. In this context creating more spaces where power is decentralized and people are able to act autonomously is a worthwhile political end in itself. If our desires are grand and beautiful, then what is useful is having ways to assess risk and make informed decisions in specific situations without compromising them. This involves being honest about our emotional and intellectual reactions to the world regardless of whether or not they conform to the dominant social order or the opinions of our peers.

What are we doing here?

To think that an entrenched system can be brought to its knees quickly is totally realistic; the historical record is filled with moments of collapse. To assume that people who have been raised in and broken by that system are going to be able to turn on a dime and create better, more interesting alternatives without working through their shit and learning how to set boundaries and understand one another is not. Many people have been unbalanced and made crazy by this system regardless of income bracket.

Insisting that these camps are a demonstration of how we would like the world to function is beautifully poetic, but it does not take into account the fact that we have been cast into systems which are destructive and predatory. A city park in a capitalist police state is not liberated because it is occupied by people who desire liberation. A demonstration that prohibits commerce is not the same as a space outside of capitalism. A day when the police don’t show up is not the same as a world without police. The feeling of creative newness and possibility that has been experienced at various occupations should not be confused with the world we want. Confusing these things only sets folks up to burn out when they realize that utopia is not around the corner and learn how flawed even the communities planned and built with the best of intentions can be.

Being realistic about this situation means having realistic expectations of the work we would need to do to transform ourselves and each other into communities that are beautiful, strong, and allowed to thrive. This particular moment is part of a larger process that we cannot predict, let alone direct. A forest is more than a collection of trees; it is an interconnected ecosystem that will arise when the conditions are right. You cannot plant a field of forest, or design one with a
city planner; all you can do is encourage new growth and try to protect it from toxic elements. Life arises abundant but we should not be confused about the nature of these glorious weeds, even as we celebrate their potential.

It has been so inspiring to hear folks I have not had the pleasure of meeting before Occupy Oakland speak out about how we need to be open to hearing criticism from each other and be constantly working on ourselves. At one general assembly, some people spoke out about not feeling comfortable in the camp because they were being hit on by older men or because they were being insulted by homophobes. A proposal to section off a wimmin/queer/trans safer space for camping passed overwhelmingly, and next on stack was an older man announcing a men’s group meeting. Angela Davis came to speak at our general strike and her speech was dominated by “kill the ___ inside your head” rhetoric. This kind of thought is obvious to more people than I’d thought before and it is being spread even further. If only one thing comes out of this movement, I have hope it will be more of a willingness to work together and work on ourselves. There is a lot to work on, because behind all of this positive momentum, there are some ugly challenges.

Occupations become their own cities. The people participating find new neighbors, new local activities at the library tent or craft tent, new local cuisine at the kitchen tent, and new ways to get even more involved, with various meetings all day long, and then of course there is the general assembly. We can create our own cities and work together every day without the cops and without money. We can create our own cities and provide services for each other that the city will not provide. We can provide free education, free food, free medical attention. We can listen to our neighbors. We cannot create a utopia, a safe space, a zone free of all oppression and confrontation.

There will be violence. There will be arguments. There will be theft. There will be abuse. These things exist within all of that which we exist within: patriarchy, class struggle, gentrification, racial tension, queer- and transphobia, misogyny, dishonesty, greed, and on and on. This is the system we all live in, we were all brought up in, we all know. All we know. Welcome to the real world, in which we are poisoned every day. We can take the time to care for ourselves but we will always be interrupted by more damage, more abuse. The occupy movement does not claim to be a network of tent city islands unaffected by this real world.

The homeless are not the problem, the homeless are our family. The problem is lack of jobs and options for those who cannot work, privatized and inflated education, gentrification, and a plethora of other things which aid in one’s becoming homeless. The problem is also the media’s installation of fear and detestation of the homeless into the minds of those who have not experienced this lifestyle. The violence is not the problem. The problem is the idea implanted in the minds of young kids that they must fight to survive, living in a violent state, a desensitization to violence as seen in movies and on TV–including the news broadcasts. We are all products of a sick system. How dare this very system criticize us for not being less affected?

In the 1980s, the CIA introduced crack cocaine into low income communities of color. At the same time, a large number of psychiatric hospitals were closed and the ex-patients scarcely had alternatives to the streets. For decades, community members have been losing their housing due to the development of posh studios and condos appealing in aesthetic and available in price only to more wealthy, more white, transplants from other parts of town or other towns altogether. Recently we have seen this phenomenon reach a new level with the housing collapse, bank bailouts and foreclosures. These are the kind of things the Occupy Wall Street movement may be speaking out and camping out against.

People who are products of generations of legislation and city planning like this have already been occupying cities everywhere. Perhaps creating a space for people to exist together, laying their struggles out right in front of city hall to dry from the rain, is a good way to make the city face the problems like homelessness, illness and hunger that they ignore every day. Since city officials are not homeless people, they may not understand this like others do. They hand out eviction notices along with vouchers for and information about a local shelter, which will not open for another three days (many shelters in the bay area are only open during the more rainy months), and which requires a rent payment (How long are those vouchers good for? Long enough for the city to forget?) They may even think they are doing good. (Have you ever heard of the city reaching out to folks being kicked out of their homes like this?)

The corporate media, city officials, and internet commentators have done their best to point out how crazy and out of control those involved with the occupations are. Reports of urinating in public! People gotta piss. Reports of dogs biting reporters! Hey, we said we did not welcome the mainstream news. Reports of drug usage! Just because it’s out in the open doesn’t mean it is unique. There was even a person murdered outside of the Occupy Oakland encampment, as well as a suicide in Burlington, VT and another death in Salt Lake City, UT. These are tragic occurrences, but do not stand solely in the occupy movement. People die, people are murdered every day. This is not a problem with the occupations.

I am unsure whether I have a place writing about the things I’m writing about. I am just some white lady, but I feel it is urgent to have these dialogues. The occupy movement brings people from so many different backgrounds and paths together and few of us share the same story. I have been homeless and I have been unemployed and I have never experienced wealth, but I will never fully understand the feelings and experiences behind the racial tension present in our communities. I feel like even this racial tension is a product of the system and a tool to render us powerless, pitted against each other before a common enemy.

Is it wrong to believe the state is smart enough to put white cops in black neighborhoods and vise versa? Smart enough to portray young black men as criminal-aged violent gangbangers and young white men as college-aged upcoming entrepreneurs? Things like this can frustrate and paralyze, but communication is a beautiful thing so I may as well try my best. I believe that is all we can do.