Category: Organizer Essays

Too often, we are forced to live in a mindset of scarcity: our time feels scarce from having to work shit jobs to earn wages, our access to space has been systematically limited, from colonizers’ original theft of land from Native folks to the ongoing treatment of land as a commodity. When we talk about “the system”, we are indicting a way of life that is fundamentally premised on non-consensually taking the wealth and beauty of this world, and enclosing, commodifying, and ruining it. And making us miserable in the process. 

Yet, in actuality, we still inhabit a “sacred web of abundance” (SWoA): an interdependent ecology of beings that supports life, which long predates – and lives on despite – “the system”. The more we leverage and lean into that web, the stronger we are, the less we rely on the system we want to overcome, and the more we show others that another world is indeed possible. 

While perhaps too abstract for some, the SWoA concept was offered recently by friends in the Stop Cop City movement, who saw real world benefits in tapping into wild nut trees, backyard food production, reclaimed Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, and mutual aid networks that skim wealth from the excesses of consumer society. When we witness the abundance we hold and offer, within human communities but especially that of our nonhuman kin, we reframe our struggles to survive, and start to see greater possibilities. 

At a time of deep depression, loneliness, poverty, and learned helplessness, the sacred web of abundance can help us focus our energies on building the new world in the shell of the old, but also shed the productivism and ecological ignorance of past radical movements. We learn about our actual places, our actual homes, and the way they hold us. We partner with our nonhuman kin to increase mutual abundance, care, and place-fulness. We leverage that abundance to feed, house, clothe and help people in other ways. And in generating an upward spiral of abundance in a shifting, disaster-prone climate, we build the resilience we need for our struggles to come.

To learn more see Defending Abundance Everywhere at crimethinc.com

Our world is currently held hostage by a political system where resources and power are wildly concentrated, leaving most of us feeling vulnerable, stressed out, and disempowered. While a few live with impossible wealth, everyone else is told that resources are scarce — that to achieve health, security, comfort, and happiness we must compete with one another. We are told that the way to find the safety we seek is through submissive participation in this economic system — even when this experience is exhausting, diminishing, and often humiliating. The state has always been a vehicle for the consolidation of wealth. Even so-called ‘socialist’ states aim to concentrate resources, usually under the guise of fair distribution down the line. Regardless of intention, this means that everyday people’s ability to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves becomes dependent on the whims of a governmental body — this level of power is dangerous, and easily wielded against us. 

The stakes could not be higher. We are talking about the material conditions of our lives, our ability to access resources we need to survive and to support our loved ones’ survival. But, when you look a bit closer, it is clear that the security offered to us by employers is brittle and liable to fail — what happens when money turns back into paper, when health care and housing and healthy food are impossible to access with the wages you earn from a job that is killing your body and quashing your life-spark? When ‘saving’ is a relic of decades past? 
It is time to take a step back and identify other, more reliable, support systems. 

We have seen how networks of mutual aid serve as a lifeline for communities experiencing crisis. What if we chose to emphasize this resource sharing in advance, on purpose? Not as an afterthought or a stop-gap in case of emergency, but a central component of how we think about our daily security. The more we share, the less we need, and the more able we are to make life decisions from a place of security rather than scarcity. We can choose to work at a job we like that pays less or work fewer hours and divert that time to even more sharing, which then will come back around when we have needs our friends can help with.

This is quite actionable right now, on the scale of your friendships and family. Are you a dentist, plumber, preschool teacher, mechanic, food grower, or good at mending clothes? Do you know how to cut hair? Can you help paint a house, harvest apples, preserve dumpstered veggies, construct a deck? Do you have extra space in your house or extra clothes you don’t wear anymore? Your friends and neighbors all have helpful skills and resources, too! Maybe your household has someone who works at the farmers market (produce), while another gets food stamps (high-calorie staples), while a third loves to cook? What habits or structures can you set up to share more often?

There are also interesting examples where this idea has been brought to a bigger scale. To reach that bigger scale, we will need to think big, and act big. But the only way we’ll get there is rooted in a robust and networked community of folks who can and do share essential goods and services, who together form the basis for that bigger thing. So start where you are, but don’t just stay there. The abundance is here, and an even more abundant future awaits us!

No matter what, we’re not going back. As the american empire crumbles around us, we’re focused on shaping whatever will take its place, not losing ourselves grieving for the old world that’s being destroyed. Mass despair, resignation and apathy only serve to empower our oppressors, enabling their reckless profit seeking and abject cruelty. The future belongs to communities organized around pleasure, abundance, equity, cooperation, beauty and sustainability. Building those communities is the project of our time. We need to get off of the screens and onto the page; off of the page and into the streets. 

Are you a Slingshot organizer? The world struggling to be born needs your creativity, diversity, passion and wisdom. When we gather face-to-face, stand side-by-side, and march arm-in-arm, hierarchical structures can’t stop us any more than they can rule us. Liberation starts by killing the bosses and cops in our heads — and then dreaming wild dreams. 

The current moment rests on centuries of struggle back-and-forth between regular folks and the greedy few. Our ancestors made it through before, and we’ll make it through now. Community that’s inclusive and broad, not tribal or homogeneous, is essential since the system seeks to divide us. Solidarity, mutual aid and love are acts the system cannot commercialize or even comprehend. Strengthening relationships with each other and the land builds autonomy as well as delight. They want us lonely, isolated, dependent and scared, but we’re done playing by their crazy rules. 

We’re filled with gratitude and wonder that you’ve picked up this little book. You’re part of us, now. We’re creating this world and this organizer together, and there are a million ways everyone can contribute and collaborate. We’re making stuff for ourselves, by hand, filled with meaning, art and color. We’re dissidents — we’re the underground. Laughing at the overlords’ absurdity, insecurity and stupidity. See you at the barricades or the carnival or the library. 

This is the 31st year we amused ourselves by publishing the Slingshot Organizer. Its sales raise funds to print the radical, independent Slingshot newspaper. We distribute the newspaper for free everywhere in the US, often at the places listed in the radical contact list. Let us know if you can be a local newspaper distributor in your area. All the content for both the paper and this organizer are made by people like you. Thanks to the volunteers who created this year’s organizer: Ana, Anka, Annalisa, Antonio, Anya, Carolien, Christy, Dakota, Daya, Destany, Detti, Edith, Eggplant, Eliza, Elke, Fern, Flossie, Geo, Gina, Giz, Hayley, Isabella, Jake, Jasmine, Jesse, Jhesu, Jodi, John, Kai, Katie, Kermit, Kristen, Layla, Leah, Lew, Madeline, Manasa, Marie, Marlow, Mei, Melinda, Molly, Nadja, oJosé, paXen, Percy, Piper, Pippin, Reid, Renuka, Robin, Rowan, Ruby, Sadie, Sakiya, Sean, Sidney, Skye, Soren, Trinh, Umi, Violet, Weaver, Yang & those we forgot.

Slingshot Collective

A project of Long Haul

Physical office: 3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

Mail: PO box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703

510-540-0751 • slingshotcollective.org 

slingshotcollective@protonmail.com

@slingshotnews • @slingshotcollective

Printed in Berkeley, CA on recycled paper

Anti-copyright.

All volunteer collective – no bosses, no workers, no pay.

Non-Fiction:

Congo:
The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History
by Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

Sudan:
Sudan’s Unfinished Democracy:
The Promise and Betrayal of a People’s Revolution
by Raga Makawi, Willow Berridge, Justin Lynch & Alex de Waal

Palestine:
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine
by Rashid Khalidi

For Healing & Realistic Optimism:
Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley
How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power by Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

General Non-Fiction
Conjunctural Mapping of People’s Park by Gregory Woolston & Katharyne Mitchell
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
Down To Earth by Bruno Latour
Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta
In The Wake by Christina Sharpe
Seeing like a State by James C. Scott
Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron
Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici
How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley
Mutual Aid by Dean Spade
Inflamed by Rupa Marya & Raj Patel
Red Skin, White Masks by Glen Coulthard
From Urbanization to Cities by Murray Bookchin
Recollections of My Life as a Woman by Diane Di Prima
Anarchist Popular Power by Troy Andreas Araiza Kokinis
Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War by Lisa Brooks
Whites, Jews, and Us by Houria Bouteldja
The Ghetto Fights: Warsaw 1941-43 by Marek Edelmann
Urban Indigenous Youth Reframing Two-Spirit by Marie Laing
Conflict is Not Abuse by Sarah Schulman

Fiction:
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Blue Clerk by Dionne Brand
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
The World We Make (a sequel) by N.K. Jemisin
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.

Speculative / Historical Fiction:
Everything for Everyone by M.E. O’Brien & Eman Abdelhadi
Begin the World Over by Kung Li Sun
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
The Fa**ots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell

We might broadly define consent as a wholehearted and mutual ongoing agreement between parties and/or individuals towards a common goal. Consent lies at the crux of radical imaginings: both anarchist and communist. Practicing consent is all the more important since we did not consent to Capitalism. We did not consent to wars that murder thousands upon thousands of people. We did not consent to the erection of buildings that cage us. We did not consent to the devastation of non-human life as other greed-mad humans poison our home. We must maximize consent where and how we can, whenever possible. In a world of non-consent, consent becomes radical.

But what is consent? We often hear about consent in terms of sexual praxis. Consent is saying “yes,” asking/waiting for the emphatic “yes,” and listening to “no.” It is practicing boundaries, both towards oneself and other(s). However, consent is more than that. Consent is an ongoing and nuanced conversation. Consent can be ephemeral and allows itself to be invoked, revoked and tailored to complex, evolving situations. Consent is a conversation and demands a dialectic. Consent challenges us to lay our desires bare at the feet of our lover(s) and comrade(s) while centering their desires with our own.

It is strange we live in a world in which most would hesitate to take someone else’s property yet many do not hesitate to violate the sexual or relational consent of another. It is particularly important we practice consent with lovers given the wounded, imbalanced nature of our existence under Capitalism. Intimate partner violence and sexual assault are microcosmic versions of colonialist violence, and they are common– perhaps especially so within radical communities. 

Consent may best be defined as a harmonious understanding between all parties involved. Some things we can do to be better at consensual, harmonious engagement include:

• Being honest about our own desires and limits,
• Sticking to our own boundaries,
• Honestly acknowledging the boundaries of others,
• Sticking to their boundaries,
• Thinking about things in advance,
• Predicting changes in boundaries when possible,
• Asking for continuous feedback,
• Giving continuous feedback,
• Being open and enthusiastic about receiving feedback!

Consent is at heart, an extension and elaboration of active participation, free association and mutual aid, and provides a model of engagement that can be applied to all social relations. Practicing consent does not prevent the possibility of doing harm– rather it allows us to reduce harm, understand the harm we might do, and learn from it, in order to become better lovers, friends and comrades. We can practice these principles anywhere, anytime– not just with lovers. Consent and its practice allows us to reverberate within pleasurable, harmonious and truly revolutionary moments, rather than to become trapped within our individual mental prisons. Consent dares us to imagine affinities that encompass yet surpass sex. The revolutionary possibilities are endless. Consent is merely the beginning.

There are many genders around the world beyond the stereotypical two. Below is a non-exhaustive list of just some of the diverse genders you can find on Earth that defy the lie that gender is binary:

• The five genders of Burgis society in Indonesia. Burgis society continues to recognize its five traditional genders—makkunrai, oroané, calabai, calalai, and bissu. Bissu are regarded as a gender of spiritual practitioners believed to have the ability to harness the powers of other genders, while Calabai and Calalai somewhat resemble the Western concepts of transwomen and transmen.
• The muxes gender of Oaxaca Valley, Mexico. Muxes (pronounced “mu-shay”) are still recognized as a traditional, ancestral gender in Zapotec Culture in Mesoamerica. This gender is often associated with pageantry, and it is considered lucky to have one in the family. 
• The femminielli of Italy. An ancient gender that can be traced back roughly 2 millennia, associated with luck. Featured in Renaissance paintings.
• The hijra gender of Old India. A surviving traditional gender in India. Gained legal recognition in Pakistan in 2009, Bangladesh in 2013, and in India in 2014. Problematically called a “3rd Gender” by mainstream media—this term being problematic because it implies there are only 3 genders. According to researcher Gopi Shankar, there were over 20 distinct genders in India prior to British colonization.
• Isangoma in Zulu culture. Recognized as a spiritual gender, their gender identity shifts depending the ancestor they are working with. They often serve a social role as healers.
• Burrnesha in Albania. The burrnesha gender might be compared to (but doesn’t neatly fit into the categories of) “asexual” and “transman.”
• Two-Spirit gender on Turtle Island (North America). Two-Spirit (2SQ) refers to Indigenous people of a variety of genders outside of the imperial binary. A person might identity as two spirit, as well as other gender identities specific to their tribe. Early European settlers on Turtle Island documented over 80 tribal nations with genders unknown to them. Many Indigenous groups were later forced to give up their traditional genders as part of negotiations with the U.S. government or risk further land loss and harm, as explored in the research of Mark Rifkin. Many colonial projects operate through what has been called “gender theft” by 2SQ poet Joshua Whitehead (Oji-Cree), in which colonizers steal 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, and fluid genders from Indigenous groups.
• 5,000-year-old transgender burial site found in Czech Republic in 2011. Genders that defy the imperial binary have been around since time immemorial! There is currently a movement in archeology to identify remains based on gender signifiers associated with the body rather than modern imperial ways of conflating sex with gender. 

Acknowledging without appropriating. It is important to know about genders of cultures outside of our own so we can avoid the harm of erasing them. But also, two-spirit activists including Michelle Cameron (Dakelh) and Joshua Whitehead (Oji-Cree) have pushed back against settler attempts at gender appropriation, reminding us that it’s important to avoid claiming to be a gender that isn’t part of our own culture—this can cause harm to that culture. 

Rebuilding gender diversity. If your culture’s many genders have been dismantled, you can become part of the movement to rebuild gender diversity—both by authentically expressing yourself and by supporting others in their gender expression. Gender diversity is like a phoenix—no matter how hard the empire tries to destroy it, our ways of knowing and expressing the truth of who we are will always rise from the ashes.

You hold in your hands a tool you can use to fight homogenization and hopelessness. We invite you to take your eyes off the screen and plan stuff you care about with people you love. Capitalism breeds economic misery and wrecks the Earth while we get nothing — plastic, lonely, meaningless cubbyholes. 

And yet folks are pushing back everywhere — not doing what we’re supposed to do. Operating outside the gatekeepers of the status quo, we are thinking new thoughts and creating events, spaces and lives off the grid organized around pleasure, beauty and cooperation. In this year of 24 hour hype about elections, it’s easy to forget what’s in front of us. We all vote with our actions every day — no administrative body counts the vote. Welcome to the underground — outside the institutions and non-profits. Rather than management and centralization, we prefer a collective grab bag that is passionate, artistic and wild. Our hand-drawn homemade medium is the message — a world where every day is different and not wasted. Disorganized yet united around giving a shit and never being bored or isolated. 

The historical dates we include can help connect us with struggles from the past to give us inspiration and perspective. It’s up to us to create this year’s action that echo for the next seven generations. Even though the system can seem unstoppable and permanent, empires always crumble eventually. When people organize, we can win.  You can use the contact list in the back to get outside your bubble and build community. Use the blank pages as a launching point for your dreams and for art. Make your own zine, organize a festival, plant a garden; start a band, share food, squat land, riot, be happy, be free. 

This is the 29th time we amused ourselves by publishing the Slingshot Organizer. Its sales raise funds to print the radical, independent Slingshot newspaper. We distribute the newspaper for free everywhere in the US, often at the places listed in the radical contact list. Having a physical document like the paper and this book seeks to nurture a community of freaks and co-conspirators. Let us know if you can be a local newspaper distributor in your area. All the content for both the paper and this organizer are made by people like you. Let’s create news and realities that are overlooked and marginalized in the mainstream press where people can feel as well as resist. Thanks to the volunteers who created this year’s organizer: Aaron, Alex, Ameilia, Amy, Ana, Anka, Antonio, Ash, Becky, Chloe, Christy, Danger, Danny, Elke, Ellie, Emily, Fern, Finn, Gale, Giz, Helia, Henry, Imani, Ingrid, Isabella, Jacob, Jayme, Jasmine, Jax, jesse, Jhesù, Josh, Karly, Kate, Katie, Kei, Lew, Lola, Lukas, Madi, Marie, Matteo, Nadja, Nat, Rachelle, Ren, Robert, Robin, Safear, Sarah, Sirkka, Sidney, Skye, Sophia, Stone, Sunny, Tessa, Tracey & those we forgot.

Slingshot Collective

A project of Long Haul

Physical office at least until mid-2024*: 3124 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley

* our landlord is threatening to tear down our building – check back for details

Mail: PO box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703

510-540-0751 • slingshotcollective.org 

slingshotcollective@protonmail.com

@slingshotnews • @slingshotcollective

Printed in Berkeley, CA on recycled paper

Anti-copyright.

All volunteer collective – no bosses, no workers, no pay.

Support for people in prison ranges from books-to-prisoners projects that mail free books to individually becoming pen-pals with a person in prison. Some people focus on political prisoners while others see the entire prison-industrial complex as illegitimate and criticize the way that it targets marginalized communities. A key way we can support people inside is by communicating with them. In an email-dominated world, writing an old-fashioned letter on paper can be surprisingly rewarding for you as well as an incarcerated person. Here are some tips.

• When writing to people in prison, you have to put their prisoner (DIN) number on the first line of the mailing address to get it through.

• Make sure to put a return address on your letter. If you are writing to a prisoner you don’t know, it may be best to use a PO box or other address that doesn’t disclose where you live.

• If you’re writing to an incarcerated person, keep in mind that the prison officials or other authorities may read your letter. Don’t discuss anything sensitive. If the person is waiting for trial or sentencing (or on appeal), it may be better not to discuss the details of their case.

• Prisons prohibit mailing items like books, food, money, etc. Ask your pen-pal for the rules.

• Don’t make promises you can’t keep like offering to find a lawyer to take their case, sending them money or expensive items, offering them housing on release, organizing a support campaign, etc.— being let down when you’re locked up can be especially devastating. Be clear about your intentions. If you’re not looking for a romantic relationship, it can be helpful to all involved to say so right off. It’s also important to stay consistent if you commit to writing to a pen-pal. For you, this may be a simple correspondence, but for a person in prison, this level of contact can be a big deal. 

• While the state locking people up is shitty, it doesn’t follow that all people in prison are angels. They are people just like everyone else, and some of them are flawed or can be manipulative. Use reasonable caution and treat them like you would another pen-pal.

• Be careful about accepting collect phone calls from jail — prison collect calls are usually absurdly expensive.

• Many prisons across the country now use a specialized email system called Jpay. You can set up a free account at www.jpay.com or using the Jpay app. Unfortunately, prisons exploit people inside and outside by charging “stamps” to send Jpay emails. They’re about 7 cents per stamp, and you can gift stamps to your pen-pal. As always, these emails are monitored, so be careful what you write.