Category: Articles

New Book about People’s Park!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the construction of People’s Park in Berkeley, local author and activist Terri Compost has compiled People’s Park: Still Blooming, a 200 page full-color coffee table book that documents the Park’s evolution from 1969 to the present day.

People’s Park, located between Haste Street and Dwight Avenue, half a block East of Telegraph Avenue, is in many ways the spiritual and inspirational nexus of radical activism in the East Bay. Since a diverse coalition of activists seized a vacant lot to build the Park in 1969, the Park has been a model for do-it-yourself direct action. In the years since 1969, generations of activists have fought to permit the users of the Park to decide how it should be developed, operated and maintained — embodying the principal of user development — in the face of constant police repression. Amidst all the riots and protests, the park still blooms.

As the silent narrator, Terri weaves together interviews, news clippings and book excerpts to tell the story of the Park’s past, present and future. The book features hundreds of historical images and photographs of the Park’s present uses: as a community garden and native plant repository in a dense urban area; as a liberated zone for concerts and political rallies; and as one of the few places open to all people — rich and poor, homeless and housed — in an increasingly consumer-dominated Berkeley. Daily free food provided by Food Not Bombs and others draws a constantly shifting band of punks, travelers, artists and marginalized people to the Park.

It is fitting that People’s Park: Still Blooming is the first book published by the Slingshot Collective. Slingshot traces its roots to the Park — the ideas that inspired it and the street protests that have kept it alive. The book is not a dry historical text nor mere picture book — its conception and actualization are intimately tied to a living struggle with implications far wider than just Berkeley or just a Park. The struggle for the Park is the same as the global struggle for freedom, cooperation and ecological balance over hierarchy, corporations and a throw-away world.

Look for People’s Park: Still Blooming in your local indy-bookstore or infoshop, or order from the slingshot website: slingshot@tao.ca.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is a dramatic example of how industry groups are using the rhetoric of the War on Terror to attack activists who protest business activities. For most people, the term “terrorism” refers to injuring or killing human beings in particular contexts — perhaps blowing up a car bomb or flying an airplane into an office tower. To be a “terrorist” under AETA — and guilty of a felony — you don’t need to hurt or kill anyone. You can be guilty under AETA just for planning activities “for the purpose of damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise” (as defined in the law) — even if those activities are otherwise entirely legal.

On its face, it is clear that AETA was drafted by industry groups to target activists who have protested the animal industry. It appears to focus on protest tactics that industry found particularly annoying — or effective. Should activists trespass, damage property, or injure an individual, they could be arrested under regular laws that prohibit those acts, with penalties related to the seriousness of the crime. For example, simple trespassing is not a felony. The only rationale for AETA is to turn protest tactics that would otherwise be legal, or minor offenses, into felonies — while seeking to demonize activists by erroneously labeling these protest tactics as “terrorism.”

AETA is peculiar because it only targets protest activities against “animal enterprises.” Thus, activities that would be criminalized by AETA would be entirely legal if the target was an oil company, weapons manufacturer, or abortion clinic — just so long as they don’t in any way connect to a very broadly defined “animal enterprise.” This begs the question of whether each social movement will eventually get its own “terrorism” bill — drafted by industry lobbyists — to protect each particular industry against the most effective protest tactics employed by its critics. How about the Lumber Enterprise Terrorism Act to criminalize tree-sitting, the Mountaintop Removal Terrorism Act or the Freeway Expansion Terrorism Act?

To understand just how absurd AETA is, it is helpful to look at the precise language of the law and how the “terrorism” label on the surface of the act isn’t matched by any “terrorism” in the actual law.

The law states:

Whoever . . . (1) for the purpose of damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise; and (2) in connection with such purpose:

(A) intentionally damages or causes the loss of any real or personal property (including animals or records) used by an animal enterprise, or any real or personal property of a person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transaction with an animal enterprise;

(B) intentionally places a person in reasonable fear of the death of, or serious bodily injury to that person, a member of the immediate family (as defined in section 115) of that person, or a spouse or intimate partner of that person by a course of conduct involving threats, acts of vandalism, property damage, criminal trespass, harassment, or intimidation; or

(C) conspires or attempts to do so;

shall be punished as provided for in subsection (b).

Sub-section (C) is the loosest part the law and the most subject to government abuse since it makes it a felony just to “attempt” to interfere with an animal enterprise, or to conspire to interfere where the plan involves a violation of (A) or (B). To understand how little is required to violate AETA, one has to understand conspiracy law. Under the law, it appears that anyone “conspiring” to “interfere with the operations” of any of the “animal enterprises” where the plan involved any of the acts in (A) or (B) could be labeled a terrorist and guilty of a felony. A conspiracy can involve as little as entering into an agreement with one other person with one “overt act” (which can be totally legal, i.e. making a flier) taken to further the “conspiracy”. You don’t have to actually do an action to be guilty of conspiracy.

Since conspiracy is such a flexible charge, it is hard to say what might result in charges under the law. Would agreeing to engage in petty vandalism like spray-painting at an industry conference be conspiracy to damage property to interfere with an animal industry? Would agreeing to trespass in front of a circus in a symbolic act of civil disobedience be conspiracy to interfere with the circus, and thus be defined as terrorism? What about if you’re involved with a group that organizes a protest and someone you don’t even know damages property? What about making signs for a home demonstration against a vivisector where the resident claims to be terrified?

While sub-section (C) is the worst part of the law, sub-sections (A) and (B) aren’t much better. Both criminalize legal acts, very minor infractions, or conduct so subjective and in the eye of the beholder that it is impossible to know what might be illegal under AETA.

Under sub-section (A), any action intended to interfere with an animal enterprise is a felony if “in connection with such purpose” the defendant “intentionally damages or causes the loss of any real or personal property.” While intentionally damaging property sounds scary and bad, the language of the law is very vague. Presumably, pasting a sticker on a window during a demonstration would be an “intentional damage” to property. Or painting graffiti. Or petty vandalism. If these acts were prosecuted without AETA, they might be punishable by a fine or community service, if they were prosecuted at all. But under AETA, they become a terrorist act because of the intentions (the thoughts) of the activists doing them. Under the conspiracy portion of AETA, a whole group of people who planned a symbolic action that incidentally resulted in minor property damage could be prosecuted on federal charges as terrorists.

The penalty section of AETA links the severity of the criminal penalty with the level of “economic damage” or harm associated with a particular AETA violation, ranging from a year in jail to life in prison. The severity of the punishment hinges in part on whether a particular action “instills in another the reasonable fear of serious bodily injury or death” — a vague and potentially subjective standard as to what is “reasonable” fear. The definition of the term “economic damage” is geared right towards what industry cares about most: the bottom line. “[T]he term ‘economic damage’ (A) means the replacement costs of lost or damages property or records, the costs of repeating an interrupted or invalidated experiment, the loss of profits, or increased costs, including losses and increased costs resulting from threats, acts of vandalism, property damage, trespass, harassment, or intimidation taken against a person or entity on account of that person’s or entity’s connection to, relationship with, or transactions with the animal enterprise.”

Under sub-section (B), intentionally placing a person in “reasonable fear” “by a course of conduct involving threats, acts of vandalism, property damage, criminal trespass, harassment, or intimidation” for the purpose of “interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise” is illegal. The “course of conduct” language is vague because it mixes illegal acts with undefined and potentially free speech activities. One person’s “harassment” is another person’s persistent protest campaign. Most of the illegal “course of conduct” acts — vandalism, trespassing — would be minor infractions, not felonies, but for AETA. The government can already prosecute activists for vandalism or trespassing under existing laws, with penalties fitting the seriousness (or lack of seriousness) of the crime.

None of the acts prohibited under subsections (A), (B), or (C) rise to the level of terrorism because none of the prohibited acts involve physical violence against anyone — none of the sub-sections involve the injury or death of anyone. Which
raises the question: why does AETA use the word terrorism? Perhaps to scare the public and to smear activists? Why does the government need AETA in the first place if acts like property destruction, vandalism, trespassing and violence against individuals are already illegal? Because it is designed to prosecute activists who can’t be prosecuted for an actual crime? And why does the law only go after activists who protest “animal enterprises”? Because animal industry lobbyists wanted to portray animal protesters as somehow scarier than other activists, and they had the political muscle to get the law passed?

The definition of “animal enterprise” in the law is particularly instructive. The law defines it as:

(A) a commercial or academic enterprise that uses or sells animals or animal products for profit, food or fiber production, agriculture, education, research or testing;

(B) a zoo, aquarium, animal shelter, pet store, breeder, furrier, circus, or rodeo, or other lawful competitive animal event; or

(C) any fair or similar event intended to advance agriculture arts and sciences.

The list, undoubtedly written by industry lobbyists, is a neat summary of American animal rights protest actions over the last 30 years. Animal rights activists have protested fur farms, zoos, rodeos, factory farms, animal research labs, and national conferences like the annual Bio-industry conference. The intent presumably has always been to interfere with business operations that exploit non-human animals, and in fact to shut down businesses to the extent they exploit animals.

When AETA was enacted in 2007, it was widely criticized as overbroad. Now with the February 20, 2009 arrest of four California animal rights activists and the March 5th arrest of William “BJ” Viehl and Alex Hall in Utah, AETA is getting its first test in real world conditions. The government’s use of AETA against the AETA4 demonstrates the key problems with the entire law. The indictment filed March 12 charges that the four engaged in a conspiracy to interfere with animal enterprises by intentionally attempting to place protected individuals in fear. None of the four are charged with any crime other than the AETA charge — none are charged with trespassing, vandalism or hurting anyone. Under the government’s theory, the AETA4 are somehow “terrorists” even in the absence of any involvement in a violent act. The AETA4 case is a dangerous over-extension of government power and a reckless misuse of the term “terrorist.” It should be exposed.

For info on the Utah AETA case, visit supportbjandalex.com

The Mexican government and a corporation called Centro de Gestión Integral de Residuos S.A. (CEGRI) want to build a hazardous waste dump in O’odham territory, near the sacred site and village of Quitovac, with the implicit support of the US Environmental Protection Agency(EPA).

The proposed dump would desecrate the ceremonial site of Quitovac and devastate the culture, traditions, sacred sites and spiritual well-being of the O’odham Indigenous peoples in both Mexico and the U.S. The dump would also expose children and nearby communities to dangerous toxins and could contaminate the underground well that the communities depend on. Transport of hazardous materials through the nearby roads also causes O’odham activists concern. They point out that a spill or accident would have lasting impacts on the health of the traditional communities.

“When our sacred places are exploited and mined and lost to development and globalization we are severed from the very essence of our people and our original strength,” declared traditional O’odham activist Ofelia Rivas during the December 2008 Festival de la Dignia Rabia of the Zapatistas in Mexico City, “Our land and water rights have been depleted and privatized.”

Centro de Gestión de Residuos Integrales proposed the dump on the sacred site of Quitovac over 2 years ago. O’odham community activists, along with allies, O’odham Solidarity Project and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, were notified in July 2008 that the company was no longer actively pursuing the permit. In recent months, CEGRI reopened negotiations to build the facility. The federal government in Mexico, as well as the state government of Sonora, has already approved the project. Only the local government of Sonoyta has not issued the permits that CEGRI needs to break ground.

“The US EPA has failed to speak out to protect the O’odham who are US Citizens and would be affected by the dump,” states supporter Bradley Angel of the San Francisco-based Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. He continued, “The US EPA has the power to inform the Mexican government of the true impacts of this proposed waste facility and pressure them to stop this proposal for good.”

Take action!!

Please contact the following entities to let them know you oppose the building of this toxic dump: The Mexican Embassy Washington, DC; Tel: 202.728.1600 Fax: 202.234.4498. The Mexican Consulate in San Francisco Tel: 415.354.1700 Fax:415.495.3971. Alfonso Flores, Mexican Secretary of the Environment: Tel:+52 5556 243342 Fax:+ 52 5556 243589

For more information, contact: the O’odham Rights Cultural & Environmental Justice Coalition and the O’odham Voice Against the Wall: (520)349-5484, uyarivas@hotmail.com. The Dry River Collective in Tucson, AZ: info@dryriver.org. Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, SF: (415)248-5010, greenaction@greenaction.org

More information on the issue can be found at the O’odham Solidarity Project website, http://www.tiamatpublications.com/odham_solidarity_project.html.

Trans’ and Womyn’s Action Camp 2009 is a gathering of eco-activists, who are also working to bring down patriarchy. Come to the RRR site a week early(June 20th-26th, 2009) for a 6-day training and workshop event in the Cascadia bio-region..

This will be a safe(r) space where transgender, intersex, genderqueer, androgynous and womyn identified folk will be able to share skills in an empowering environment. We will be exploring the land before all the RRR attendees arrive, and we will also be providing skillshares on how to help set up large camps for gatherings. There will also be tons of other workshops and trainings on many diverse issues- central theme here- FUN!

We are now putting out a call for workshop presenters and trainers! If you are transgender, intersex, genderqueer, androgynous and womyn identified and would like to get involved in the organizing, or would like to give a workshop, please get in touch!

twac@riseup.net http://twac.wordpress.com”

A band of eco-rebels is crossing the US Empire to renew a fighting movement that can stop this industrial nightmare from choking the life out of the earth: the Earth First Roadshow!

The need for resistance in solidarity with the wild has never been louder or clearer than it is today; the roadshow is a tool for growing that resistance. There are countless examples to draw from in the story of radical movements before us: militant labor organizing tours, anti-fascist resistance recruitment and international speaking tours to build cross-border solidarity. The origin of Earth First! itself is credited to a few roadshows that kicked it all off in the early 1980s. We are building on this tradition; akin to a fellowship crossing Middle Earth to amass insurgents to face Mordor head-on.

Where are we going?

If you live in the US, there is a good chance that we will be coming close enough to your home for you to get involved. The roadshow started at the Organizers’ Conference in Arizona and will end at the Round River Rendezvous in Cascadia. The schedule so far looks roughly like this:

May- across the Great Lakes and the Great Plains

June-around the Wild Rockies out to the Pacific Coast

Does your community want to plan a 3-day regional weekend gathering with direct action trainings and sessions on Earth First! history, vision and strategy? Are there pending action plans that we could lend support to en route? The Roadshow will be traveling with a variety of skills, topics and resources, including: forming affinity groups and planning direct action; blockading, climbing and occupations; bioregional news from campaigns and projects around the country; tools for challenging oppression; up-to-date news on resisting the Greenscare; independent and corporate media work; community organizing strategies; and more. A primary goal of the tour is to build the skill-base of our network. If you are looking to have specific areas of interests covered, let us know and we can tailor the stops to meet local/regional desires. We are also looking to travel with an array of art and culture, including musicians, puppet shows, and merchandise (stickers, books, shirts, etc.), to promote the vibrancy and visibility of radical ecological resistance.

List-serves and websites aren’t enough

This Roadshow’s primary intention is to strengthen our radical grassroots ecological network. For almost 30 years, Earth First! has been an organized voice bridging conservation biology with grassroots community organizing, road blockading and eco-sabotage. In the past 5 years we have seen numbers and experience in the EF! movement decline drastically. Yet, our place has never been more urgent. New groups are popping up across the country, but they are detached from many of the groups, history, and skills that came before them. We can’t afford to stumble and make the same mistakes over again.

Now that the reality of climate change is finally sinking into the mainstream consciousness, the same superpowers that push so-called ‘free trade’ policies to exploit wild nature more efficiently are promoting carbon trading in attempt to make a profitable industry out of the disasters they’ve created. The spineless Big Green environmental NGOs are scrambling for crumbs and cutting deals with the industry for shallow public relations victories. Earth First! must rise and recognize that its presence is a strong component of making the broader environmental movement truly effective. As an EF! co-founder, Howie Wolke, has put it, we are the lions of a movement “ecosystem”. Our niche is critical, and its presence (or absence) is felt deeply by our surroundings.

Building a Broader Movement

We need to reconnect to the multi-generational aspect of Earth First! that has fallen by the wayside in recent years. We need to broaden our network’s base–from radical rural grandparents to revolutionary urban youth. We need to re-establish lost relationships with scholars and scientists whose ideas resonate with ours. We need to re-inspire musicians and artists to contribute their passion to our battles. When it comes down to it, solid movements are based on strong personal relationships; and real relationships don’t go very far over the internet. We need face-to-face interaction to build trust with–and support for–each other.

Fight for the Life of the Earth First! Journal

In a time where internet communication is facilitating the end of print media, including many mainstream news outlets, we are challenged to sustain our movement’s basic, primary medium of communication: the printed Earth First! Journal. Doing this means boosting the subscription/distribution base, plain and simple. And the roadshow is a chance to do that across the country. If , or when, the lights go out, we will have the inspiration of photos and stories spanning 3 decades that we can hold in our hands and read out loud to each other by fire light, and pass on to the next generations. We shouldn’t let go of that, no matter how tempting the allure of free online publishing might get. If this publication is lost, it will be a blow to all of our efforts in defense our land, our water, our neighborhoods, the animals, and the entire amazing wild process of life’s evolution on this planet.

To book a stop in Cascadia, please contact Stephanie@RisingTideNorthAmerica.org

West Coast Schedule

6/13- HQ- 528 Sinclair St, Reno, NV

6/14- Station 40- 3030B 16th Street, SF. 7-10p

6/15- Long Haul Infoshop- 3124 Shattuck, Berkeley, CA

6/16- 6/18- Arcata, CA

6/19- 6/22- Trans & Womyn’s Action Camp

6/23- Eugene, OR

6/24- Evergreen State College- Olympia, WA

6/25- Reed College, Portland, OR

6/26- Astoria, OR

6/27- Red & Black SE 12th & Oak, Portland, OR

6/28- Let Live Conference, PSU, Portland, OR,

6/29- Cascadia Earth First! Round River Rendezvous

Imagine a land with lush ancient forests, infinite shades of green, exotic creatures and a picturesque rocky coastline. Cascadia is the portion of the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascade Mountains that ranges from northern California up to the southern tip of Alaska. It is also a land scarred by a history of ongoing conflict between timber barons and grassroots environmental movements. Within the zone of an internationally recognized biodiversity heritage site (the Klamath-Rogue-Umpqua Watersheds) we are preparing for the onslaught of thousands of acres of clear-cuts and devastation this summer.

In western Oregon we are launching a forest defense campaign that will include many creative tools such as non-violent direct action (tree sits and more!), picnics, education, colorful community creation, media outreach, double dutch competitions, broad outreach, hikes, puppet shows, engaging representatives, and lobbying. We will be here fighting together for the forests we love. We will have a camp in the forest and friendly houses in the city and we’re inviting comrades young and less young, experienced and less experienced to join us for a summer, a month or just a few days.

We are currently faced with the implementation of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) enacted on Dec. 31, 2008; a last attempt by the Bush Administration to attack what remains of this nation’s ancient forests. The WOPR allows the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to completely renege on its responsibilities under Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) and increase logging by 436%! 70% of this new logging under the WOPR would be clearcuts! Of our last remaining old growth stands, 100,000 acres would be cut and existing riparian zone protections would be cut by half. With over 30,000 official public comments against the WOPR, the BLM is clearly ignoring public opinion with these plans. This summer we shall make them listen.

Unfortunately, the WOPR is not the only thing we have to worry about. The BLM has also auctioned and awarded the ‘rights’ to slaughter more than 25,000 acres of public forests this summer, altogether separate from WOPR plans. Since 2004, the Oregon BLM has been found guilty of breaking federal law by 9th Circuit federal courts in at least six separate cases involving timber sales in southern Oregon. When breaking the law becomes tiresome one can always change the law, with enough money, as we have seen with the WOPR. Another imminently threatened area, Elliot State Forest, has sometimes slipped under the radar. State forests are managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry and unlike federal forests have no public input process at all. Much of the Elliot is speckled with clearcuts and herbicides but nearly half of the Elliot has never been logged. This summer 500 acres of Elliot State Forest are set to be cut.

In the times of Oregon past, such policy changes have met with tangible, on-the-ground resistance. After Clinton passed the Salvage rider in 1996 (a 16 month suspension of NWFP protections) defenders of Warner Creek mounted the longest road-blockade in U.S. history, the largest mass arrest in Eugene since the Vietnam War. The first Cascadia Summer was organized in 2003 to confront similar erosions of environmental laws on public forest lands inspired by Judi Bari (rest her soul) and the work of Redwood Summer. This is only the latest season of resistance here in Cascadia; our heritage is rich.

In these bleak times we stand with the last 5% of this country’s old-growth. Countless sister and brother creatures and their homes in the forest are in danger. The spotted owl continues its 4% a year descent into extinction. Approximately 40,000 rural Oregonians live within one half-mile of BLM land and the security of their homes, drinking water, and local economies are already under assault. In the face of these concerns WOPR timber harvesting would further scar 1 million acres.

As long as the forests are threatened and we are able, every summer will be Cascadia Summer. The government repression of the last few years has weakened our communities, and many of our comrades are held hostage by the prison state; but our resistance cannot, and shall, not fade away. With the global economic crisis we have a window of unique opportunity: the compulsive building has slowed and timber prices are severely slumped. These companies cannot afford to deal with costly opposition. We invite you to join us in joyful resistance and ecological defense. Where will you be this summer when the chainsaws roll and the trees cry out?

Important Dates in Cascadia this 2009 summer

May 23-25 Cascadia Summer Campaign Action Camp

June 20-26 Trans and Womyns Action Camp

June 29-July 6 Earth First! Round River Rendezvous

July 8-July 15 EF! Climbers Guild Intensive Climb Camp

To contact your Cascadian welcoming committee, for more information, or to get involved in any capacity, please visit forestdefensenow.org or email forestdefensenow@gmail.com. We’ll see you in the woods, we’ll see you in town, in the legislature, on the street or wherever you frequent, there we shall meet.

Organizing in Southern Indiana against construction of Interstate 69 remains vital to combating the systematic destruction of community, working conditions, and the earth. Interstate 69 — a superhighway project already constructed from Canada to Indianapolis and projected to extend down into Mexico — is an important component of both NAFTA and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. It is slated to run from Michigan to Texas, eventually connecting to the highways of the Plan Puebla Panama to facilitate trade and exploitation of workers and land throughout the Americas.

Construction of I-69 through southwestern Indiana has just begun. With it will come eviction for over 400 rural families, destruction of hundreds of acres of land, and devastation of the habitats of countless species of plants and animals, many of them already endangered.

Campaigning has been in hibernation for the winter. What we need now are motivated folks who are willing to commit energy and resources toward mobilizing landowners and activists. Housing is available in Evansville for those ready to assist in decelerating the construction of this road.

An assortment of actions to resist I-69 have occurred to date in Indiana and around the country. We have demonstrated at the offices of companies and homes of key figures responsible for construction, including Gohmann Asphalt Company, Michael Baker Corporation, HNTB Corporation, Bernardin, Lochmueller, and Associates, Earth Tech, and Chase Bank (owners of Washington Mutual). We’ve locked down, set up a tree-sit, and dropped banners to raise awareness about and opposition to NAFTA and I-69.

The neo-colonialist powers behind NAFTA are the friends of profit and the enemies of all life and joy on this planet. Where we see people, they see workers to be exploited. We see the beauty and wildness of the natural world and they see resources to be extracted and sold in their markets. The fight against NAFTA is not just an act of solidarity, but an act of self-defense. Don’t let the cage of global capitalism be erected around you. Resisting NAFTA and the infrastructure that makes it possible is crucial to all of our survival.

For more info check stopi69.wordpress.com or email roadblockef@yahoo.com

Daniel McGowan Letter

Daniel McGowan is serving a seven-year-sentence for charges relating to two arsons, one at the Superior Lumber and the other at Jefferson Poplar in Clatskanie, Oregon. Jefferson Poplar was doing research on genetically modified trees. The experiments were centered on creating more branches on trees to increase production for pulping. Despite the fact that no human beings were harmed in these actions, the government originally sought terrorism enhancement on the charges as a part of their Operation Backfire–the Green Scare. Daniel took a plea bargain, but refused to cooperate in the government’s attempts to persecute others in the movement. Daniel is housed in the notorious Marion Prison, which saw inmat’s in 1972 unite across racial lines to challenge the “form of permanent living death” that define the conditions there. Sadly those conditions have become more oppressive since then.

By Daniel McGowan

I am writing to you today from Lil’ Guantanamo–better known as the CMU or Communication Management Unit at United States Prison Marion.

For those who don’t know, the Bureau of Prisons operates two known CMUs — one here within the medium security prison in Marion, Illinois and the other at FCI Terre Haute, Indiana. (Information is scarce and secretive–you won’t find anything on the Bureau of Prisons or Department of ‘Justice’ websites either. I have heard of a female CMU at the medical center in Fort Worth, Texas, but it is presently unconfirmed.)

I am here with 19 other men — a majority of those who are Muslim and/or with “terrorism” cases (overwhelmingly, complex conspiracy cases you have read about in the news). Despite the fact that the US considers myself and many of my fellow prisoners “terrorists” or violent, peace is the norm here.

The unit itself is completely segregated from the 900+ men imprisoned at the medium-security prisons to the point of absurdity. For instance, when we go to medical, all other prisoners must be locked out of our sight to prevent any contact. We live on four ranges with a small recreation yard. However, it’s the limiting of our communication with the outside world that is most egregious and damaging to our well-being. We are afforded one phone call a week (compared to 300 minutes per month at all other federal prisons) and one four-hour non-contact visit per month (at the last prison I was at, we got up to eight days or 56 hours of contact-visit a month. Contact with our family, friends and communities is what makes doing time easier and more bearable. It allows us to actually see a healthy future for ourselves after release. The restriction of contact–for no disciplinary reason whatsoever–is appalling. Given this, the question is “What’s the purpose of the CMU”?

It is probably safe to say that being housed at the CMU accelerates the isolation, frustration and alienation that prisoners feel. The BOP claims I am here because of my offense conduct–not my behavior in prison–and that I am here for “better communication management”, not disciplinary reasons. Is this a political prisoner or “terrorist” unit? Is it legal or appropriate to segregate prisoners based on their religion? Is my identification with the social justice, prison reform and environmental movement the real issue here? One can guess, but the BOP isn’t being clear on this (big shock!).

That brings me to my final points. As you certainly know, President Obama has vowed to close the prison for ‘terrorist’ suspects at Guantanamo Bay. The backlash occurring right now in the media is all too predictable. Yesterday I read an article about the NIMBY (not in my backyard) approach being taken by legislatures all over the country. No one wants these scary, super-evil ‘terrorist’ suspects (remember’–they are not convicted of anything) in “their” state. What was ironic is that some of politicians are from Kansas, Indianan and Colorado–which already have large federal institutions housing ‘terrorists’. In fact, FCI Terre Haute in Indiana has a CMU with 52 prisoners operating in secret for two years now. Colorado has the lone ‘Supermax’ prison in Florence which houses many prisoners convicted of terrorism charges. I wonder–are the CMUs so secret that politicians from Indiana and Illinois don’t even know they exist or are they just hypocrites? According to the director of the BOP (in testimony given before a congressional subcommittee in July 2008), the BOP houses just over 1,200 terrorists (of which 200 are international). Yet–I don’t hear anyone complaining.

The US government is operating two known secret units in their system, completely in violation of federal law. No prisoner at the CMU was afforded due process through a hearing to contest placement here nor were our lawyers or families told when we disappeared. Knowing the plan would be wildly unpopular, former president Bush and Attorney General Gonzales just went ahead and implemented these units. Will Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder live up to their promises to not only close Guantanamo Bay but also, act in a just manner and close Lil’ Guantanamo? It’s time to make amends for the mistakes of the Bush administration–please spread the word on this and don’t let us wallow in secrecy here. Thank you for your support and care.

Daniel McGowan #63794-053

USP Marion

PO Box 1000

Marion, IL 62959

PS: consult my supersite for updates www.supportdaniel.org

RIDING UP TELEGRAPH on the first day of spring, I was lost in a revenge daydream. My enemies were crowding onto a tiny boat bound for the South Seas–but just as I was leading the pink unicycle guy down the plank to join them, something jolted me out of my reverie. It was the insistent, incessant cry of a street hawker. I glanced around, expecting to find the faux biker who passed out fliers and ogled women on Telegraph throughout the Eighties, who quite recently returned from his two decade-long ride looking like he’d stopped along the way at the kind of rest areas where one spends years at a time. Much to my surprise, in place of the biker was a pair of young punks who’d commandeered his corner to peddle copies of Coupons, the newest fanzine in town. My heart was warmed by the sight: teams of dirty miscreants street-selling underground mags on the Ave., something rarely seen in Berkeley since the heady days of the Barb and Tribe. I hit the brakes, but they were none too effective, and three co-eds and the Joke Guy were forced to scatter as my rusty steed and I went careening over the curb. Coupons, however, proved well worth the crash. The rants of co-editors Hella Bekka and Rugrat acted as a soothing salve for my wounds, bringing comfort and inspiration that made me forget my physical pain. Do yourself a favor and find them on the corner, buy your own copy, and see if you feel the same. Comparisons to other new and mighty mags about town are not to be made lightly, but in this case “Asscactus with politics” is no idle boast.

MEANWHILE, the local mainstream media is a mess. The Daily Cal, not daily in ages, failed to bring out their annual April Fools edition, the only copy all year worth picking up. Instead, the Eastbay Express stole the idea, but the result was an even less laughable version of their already unreadable rag. Hopes that the recent employee takeover would make the Express a decent paper have been dashed. The Oakland Tribune also continues to limp along towards extinction, with a major merger the only real chance to save it. The question on everyone’s minds is: if the Trib weds the San Francisco Chronicle, can it keep its first name? Like the Raiders and the A’s, without the “Oakland” it just wouldn’t be the same. Oakland Chronicle, anybody? With that on the masthead of the Bay Area’s main news source, S.F. would finally have to acknowledge the cultural hegemony of the Eastbay. Yeah baby, who brought you the Black Panthers, Philip K. Dick, riots, Blatz, Sheila E., Too Short, and Fang? Without Oakland and Berkeley, the Bay Area would have just been Ferlinghetti, the Grateful Dead, and Herb Caen.

RUMOR HAS IT that DeLauer’s new owners are considering trimming the newsstand’s beloved all-night hours; also that Black Oak Books may soon be moving downtown. Somewhat more certain is the relocation of Semifreddi’s Bakery, displaced from their longtime Emeryville digs by a land grab by Pixar Studios, the giant corporation next door. Semifreddi’s plans to resettle in an offshore retirement community moored ten miles south. Their departure to Alameda will leave E-ville with not one redeeming feature, and their dumpster (literally the breadbasket of the Eastbay) will be sorely missed.

THE OAKLANDER IN ME: I took my date for an after-dinner drink at Colonial Donuts, the jewel in Lake Merritt’s necklace of lights. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven–who should we run into there but the Avengers, Bay Area punk legends! Penelope & co. sat there idling after their show at the Uptown, looking as cool as ever, and didn’t even kill us when we joined them uninvited. Thirty years of waiting in all-night dives for just such a chance meeting had finally paid off! The conversation was sparkling, with band members offering up opinions on German cultural mores, among other things. Then came the moment I’d been dreaming of my whole life: the queen of punk turned to me with a burning look in her eyes. “You of all people would know,” she purred. “Foot, where the fuck can we find food in this town after two A.M.?” Beaming with pride–but careful not to make eyes–I gave her the answer. Silly Avengers, everyone knows Chinatown is the place to go! Several restaurants there stay open till three, but Fortune at Ninth and Webster is by far the best, with reasonable prices and a staff that doesn’t care what you look like, smell like, or do. Rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, old school and new–all are equal in the eyes of Fortune, unlike anywhere else in the world. Heeding my advice, the former art school idols departed, leaving the two of us alone in the post-show Colonial glow, feeling both glazed and old-fashioned, with nothing left to hope for but a visit from the Dils.

THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the closing of UC Berkeley housing co-operative Barrington Hall is coming up in October, and discussions about what refreshments to serve at the celebration are already rekindling old divisions among former residents. Those from the second floor suggest their traditional LSD-laden punch. Third floor denizens vote for speed, while fourth floor veterans are nostalgic for the long lost lady of their youth, heroin. Old habits are hard to break. Entertainment is also an issue: an Idiot Flesh reunion or Deadly Reign? Joking aside, Barrington was the cradle from which much of the Eastbay’s present counterculture came, including the paper you’re holding now. It was a beautiful and volatile place, a factory for turning college freshmen into wingnut freaks. Drugs were undeniably a part of the mix, but so was every kind of art, activism, and sex. The anniversary celebrations–whatever form they take–should not be missed.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: On a recent trip to the neighborhood where I was raised, I was sad to see a “for sale” sign on the house on the corner, home to the only Black family on the block. Growing up, I’d known the parents and played with the kids, and my family faced some of the same problems that theirs did. The kids ended up with drug habits and jail time–as did my brother and I. But their options were not as bright and their lawyers not as good as ours; their family fell upon hard times. When their parents died, their house fell into disrepair, making them even more conspicuous in an area that grew increasingly affluent. Ours was a relatively diverse block, with two Asian families, one Indian, and two Jewish–but that didn’t change the fact that it was overwhelmingly White. And not just our block, but the whole neighborhood. Despite Berkeley’s boasts of multiculturalism, the city remained badly segregated, with the 30% Black population living almost entirely south of Gilman Street and west of MLK. In fact, I knew of not one other Black family in all of North Berkeley. Now, not even one. I’m sad to see them go, and see my old stomping grounds get less diverse and less home-like every year, one sign at a time.

FOOTNOTES: What local market has an abandoned upstairs that has been turned into a squat? Foot sources say it just may be under the same roof where Berkeley’s most famous innocent bystander was shot…510-BAD-SMUT, the hotline for local events of interest, is back up and running. Call for info on the latest lectures, protests, and under-the-radar gigs, or to leave news of your own…Rod’s Hickory Pit, “Where the elite meet to eat meat,” remains a boarded up shell on the hill by the graveyard, but Layonna Vegetarian, Chinatown’s fake meat outlet, remains a thriving Mecca (and cheap!). A contest for a counter-slogan seems in order…Wind chimes have been mounted on North Berkeley telephone poles, and interactive art on the lampposts of North Oakland, but in the downtown area of both cities the dead trees bear no leaves. A free Slingshot subscription is offered to anyone seeking to remedy this problem who gets caught (free to prisoners, we shall always be).

Got a tip for the Foot? Leave it on the Bank of America building, in dripping red paint.

Economic dislocation and pain has always given rise to creative forms of protest, direct action and rebellion. Right now, the French are showing the way with a wave of “boss-nappings” — when the boss tries to close a factory or layoff workers, the workers lock managers inside and won’t let them leave until demands for better severance pay are met. But outrage has been overflowing all over from unrest in Bolivia to Greek farmers blocking roads to riots in Vladivostok, Russia, and clashes with police in Reykjavik, Iceland. At the recent G20 protest in London, hundreds of people smashed the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The US has a powerful history of action during hard economic times — from general strikes to bread riots to widespread squatting that occurred during the depression in the 1930s. And while protest in the US often lags behind the rest of the world these days, things haven’t been totally boring in the USA. There have been marches on Wall Street and in Chicago, 300 members of the United Electrical workers seized their factory in December to protest its closing.

Given that recessions are part of capitalism’s normal functioning, it isn’t always clear whether popular uprisings inspired by economic pain can go beyond purely reformist and limited goals. While it is encouraging to see more people in the streets and less respect for bosses, corporations, and authority, it makes no sense to demand “jobs,” “more economic activity” or “more money” out of precisely the same system that has let us down. The recession is causing pain for people precisely because the economy has so much power over people’s lives — demanding that the system start working “better” so it can even further dominate our lives makes no sense.

Protests related to an economic downturn risk being myopic — addressing symptoms, but not causes, and seeking crumbs, not the whole pie. But popular eruptions don’t have to be so short-sighted.

How can we seize on capitalism’s current self-inflicted wounds — widening tiny cracks into huge breaches in its rotten facade? In the last issue of Slingshot, I suggested that the recession creates opportunities for people to build alternative economic structures outside the capitalist system that can enable us to live more sustainably during the recession and after it is over. These alternative structures can replace competition, consumption, and privatization with cooperation, sharing, and a broad re-evaluation of what we really need to make us happy and free.

The other opportunities opened by the economic collapse are exciting chances to mount direct attacks on the structures of capitalism, industrialization, and hierarchy that create and sustain material inequality and misery, and that — in the process — are wreaking devastation on the environment. Right now millions of people see banks, the stock market, and the dog-eat-dog economy as the problem, not the solution.

A boss-napping in France that forces a company to pay an extra three months severance is ultimately not very threatening to capitalism. The workers are still accepting their status as workers and the bosses’ right to own the factory and close it if they like. The extra wages can be factored in as a cost of doing business. The manager taken hostage is usually just another paid employee of a big corporation — not all that close to the people who are really in charge. Such an action fails to question the flaws in the system that run deeper than a periodic downturn leading to some layoffs, business failures and foreclosures. How can such actions be put in a broader context and make wider demands?

Even when the capitalist economy is booming and consumption is growing, all the hours spent at work, new products to buy, and technological improvements leave us poorer in the things that really matter. When the economy is healthy, we are robbed of our time to invest in relationships and community. A world in which all our needs are increasingly met through the market — rather than voluntarily by other people around us — replaces meaning, depth and intimacy with distraction, superficial interactions, and loneliness.

The gross domestic product grows as more and more people eat highly processed food transported over great distances, and fewer and fewer people have the time to grow their own food in a garden and sit with friends cooking a slow supper. The mainstream assumption that more money, consumption and higher production improves the “standard of living” or human happiness is absurd — based on manufactured misunderstandings about what really matters.

This recession is perhaps the first major economic collapse since society has become fully aware of the environmental consequences of capitalism’s model of limitless economic growth. During the Great Depression, it was clear that capitalism led to economic inequality, arbitrary displacement and misery. Capitalism meant millions would live alienated, meaningless lives based on mechanistic consumption and production, rather than humanistic pursuits of freedom, joy and beauty. In the 1930s, the scale of world capitalism and the state of environmental awareness made it difficult to understand capitalism’s even more dramatic flaw: a model that requires limitless growth cannot coexist with a finite planet.

The subprime mortgage recession of 2008 — or whatever future generations may eventually call these times — is occurring within a far different context. Now, perhaps the chief indictment against the system is on environmental grounds. The idea of restoring the economy to “normal” becomes even more sinister when one considers the health of the world’s ecosystems.

Will the failures of the capitalist economy beyond temporary layoffs be on trial during this long, hot summer of discontent? Can a factory occupation demand not just severance pay, but that the factory be turned over to its workers rather than closed? And once we own the factory, will we redirect its function away from producing limitlessly for profit and consumerism, and towards manufacturing things we actually need in a way that doesn’t undermine our ability to live on a fragile planet? Or will we decide we don’t need factories and the stuff they make at all?

Militant tactics like wildcat strikes, bread riots and neighborhood eviction defense contain within them very important seeds for a different world. Each of these actions represents people alone or in groups stepping outside the dream world of the system — a world of consumers and spectators powerless to control their own lives. To the contrary, when you’re in the streets, you are a full participant in history, not a passive observer. You’re helping to determine what will happen next and how social institutions shall be organized or transformed.