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Practical Anarchy Online Issue 1.3
P r a c t i c a l @ n a r c h y
O N L I N E
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Issue 1.3 November 1992
An electronic zine concerning anarchy from a practical point of view, to
help you put some anarchy in your everyday life. The anarchy scene is
covered through reviews and reports from people in the living anarchy.
Editors:
Chuck Munson
Internet cmunson@macc.wisc.edu
Bitnet cmunson@wiscmacc.bitnet
Postal address Practical Anarchy
PO Box 173
Madison, WI 53701-0173
USA
Mikael Cardell
Internet cardell@lysator.liu.se
Fidonet Mikael Cardell, 2:205/223
Postal address Practical Anarchy
c/o Mikael Cardell
Gustav Adolfsgatan 3
S-582 20 Linkoping
SWEDEN
Subscription of PA Online is free in it's electronic format and each
issue is anti-copyright and may be distributed freely as long as the
source is credited. Please direct subscription matters to cardell at
the above address.
We encourage our readers to submit articles and to send in bits of news
from everywhere. Local or worldwide doesn't matter -- we publish it.
Send mail to the editors.
E D I T O R I A L S
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EDITORIAL FROM THE USA
by Chuck
It looks like winter has finally hit Wisconsin and the local
anarchists are storing away their nutty ideas for the long winter
ahead. The stupid elections are also finally over and it looks like
the U.S. has still another president. Although this one is truly
different than his predecessor--this one can play the sax. Did I
vote? Yes, I did. I was leaning heavily against it, but a local
referendum was going to be close. I wanted to see it defeated and it
wasn't. (It was an advisory referendum on whether Madison should
build a new multi-million dollar convention center while the homeless
situation gets worse and they close public libraries). I also finally
had my chance to write in Zippy the Pinhead for President. He was the
only candidate to run a "clean" campaign. Oh, Zippy is a fictional
cartoon character. I was impressed with the BAD Brigade's argument
against elections. This was my last time (unless an obviously fascist
makes onto a ballot around here). But enough about the idiotic
american elections--I'm sure those who aren't americans must be bored
silly with this debate.
Well, the elections are over, but it's still anarchy as usual.
Anarchists around the world have a lot of work to do. We need to
network more and put our collective heads together and figure out ways
of effectively getting our ideas across to the people of this planet.
How to we get somebody in Peoria, Illinois or rural Kansas interested
in anarchy? Should we use the mainstream media or alternatives? Any
suggestions? Millions of dollars were just spent on electing
candidates to government offices. Wouldn't it be great if people
stopped financing these sham elections and started giving to anarchist
groups OR worthy organizations devoted to radical social change?
Fuck the CIA!
Fuck the IMF and World Bank!
Clinton has been elected, but it will continue to
be BUSINESS as usual for world capitalism.
Oh well. Let's get to work.
* * P@ Online * *
EDITORIAL FROM SWEDEN
by cardell
The preparing of this magazine is now conducted from the comfort of my
own closet. Yes, that's where I am -- in the closet. I'm in front of a
VT100 terminal writing this with a little help from my EMACS which both,
the EMACS and the terminal, is located in the closet with me. The
terminal on a dinner table that now is used as my desk and the EMACS in
the RAM of one of the three computers that's in here with me.
Beside the terminal on the desk there's a little lamp that gets very
handy sometimes, e.g. when the door is closed and the lights goes out
in this very closet. Can I be called an closet anarchist now? Perhaps,
but I sure as hell don't feel isolated; I feel like I'm in touch with
every reader of this magazine. I'm everywhere! You can all reach me and
I can reach all of you, without knowing who you are, what you have been
or in what closet you're hiding.
In my hand I hold a new dead trees magazine that was sent to me. It's
the result from the local anarchist gathering in this part of Sweden.
The attendants came to the conclusion that every @-zine in this country
is just too concentrated on the big cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and
the like, so they made a zine of their own to keep in touch in this part
of the country. I was at the gathering myself and have written a little
report from that one elsewhere in this issue.
What else is in this issue? Well, there's an article about the free
record label, a very exciting way of distributing music written by Tim
in Austria, a new zine review batch from Chuck as well as a report from
the Bloomington @ picnic, an article about anarchistic network and how
they *can* be by me as well as a presentation of the anarchistic side of
project Gutenberg. Ian, known from the anarchy-list, is giving his view
on the anarchy scene in the UK and lists what magazines and newspapers
are available there.
Both Chuck and I have noticed that a lot of people have basic questions
about libertarian socialism and anarchism so we decided to publish a
letter I got, from a woman that wants to remain anynomous, along with my
response to help clear out misunderstandings and state where anarchists
stand in different questions. If there's more interest in this I suggest
that you, the reader, write us and ask.
This issue became rather biggish, around 54 kB, and more mature than
earlier issues. I hope this one shows the way how P@ Online will be in
the future. If that isn't enough Ian, myself and Chuck are thinking of
publishing more anarchistic material electronically, but to do that we
would need the help from a lot of people to send in material to be
published. It doesn't have to be newly written material by yourself so
you *can* type in Mutual Help by Kropotkin if you like. Be sure to take
a copy whose copyright (c) is over 50 years old though.
Well, now on to it. Enjoy!
L E T T E R S
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//// This is a letter I recieved via snail mail that concerns basic
//// anarchistic matters. Directly after the letter my answer follows.
//// cardell
Hi Mikael!
I'm a Swedish girl from Uppsala on a long visit to London where I met
some friends of yours. Since we discussed a lot of politics, the
problems of the world and a lot of anarchism they adviced me to write to
you since you've got "all the answers". If you could answer my
questions I would be most grateful since I haven't been able to find the
answers to these questions elsewhere.
I find it strange that you anarchists, as other small organizations,
parties and such, "hides" from people's questions. While other parties
and organizations are almost fighting for attention one has to try real
hard to get some answers out of you.
I don't understand why you're not trying to spread your ideology
further. There are lots and lots of people who hasn't got the slightest
idea what you stand for. How do you expect to realize your, in my eyes
almost impossible, utopia without the help and attention from other
people? I'm convinced you would get a lot more followers if you just
tried to spread your ideas.
Another thing I've been wondering is how everyhting will be managed in
your dream society. No police, no prisons, no money, no bosses --
you're talking so good about the utopia of the whole leftish movement.
But how will it work? Is there any country that has been under anarchist
"rule"? From where do you find inspiration? Don't you see anyting
unrealistic in your dream society?
No police and no prisons must lead to no punishment. Are you saying
that brute force is what should decide who's right and who's wrong in
your society? That it's right that the strong can take what they want
and do what they like?
Do tell me more about the country that was anarchistic. Which one was
it? What happened?
How can you say that Sweden isn't a democracy (because there's a
dictature under the majority) and then say that fascists aren't allowed
to talk freely and to demonstrate?
Could you explain the difference between organized and not organized
anarchists for me? Is it right that the organized anarchists wants a
government!? Would they fight the state with violence? What differences
are there between anarchists and syndicalists?
Where shall I go to get more information? Do you have any books to
recommend? You do have some organization, don't you?
Is there ever any gatherings in the parts of Sweden where I live
(Uppsala, Sala, Stockholm)?
//// Here comes the answer to the letter.
//// cardell
Hi there!
We anarchists don't hide from people's questions; we work as much as we
possibly can to get out to people. One great example of this is the
electronic zine where I took the liberty to publish your letter along
with my answer. This zine is published throughout the world and since
the whole thing is anti-copyrighted some articles spread even longer and
gets published in other zines, e.g. Chuck's dead tree version of
Practical Anarchy.
There are a lot of other zines out there too, as well as some
newspapers. The Swedish paper Arbetaren is the organ for SAC, the
Swedish syndicalist union. I suggest you look into that one as well as
Brand, the national anarchist paper.
Every election year anarchists gets very busy spraying over election
posters, overturning and sometimes burning election houses (got those
anywhere else in the world?).
A local hero of Delsbo, Sweden, called Hallon takes his sofa out to the
election booths every election year and lies there during the voting. A
perfect example of the direct action of the anarchists.
Since some time there's a contact network of anarchists in Sweden, which
now are trying to connect each other electronically as well. The members
of this network and the readers of Brand and Arbetaren along with other
anarchistic groups sometimes get together and discuss actions to be
taken and other matters. An example of that was the local anarchist
gathering around Linkoping some weeks ago. There's also a national
meeting every year that draws some attention.
A thing that really got attention from the media was the demonstration
Mars 17 1989 in Stockholm. Some newspapers had "Anarchists attacks the
parliament", an obvious lie, as a headline after that demo. So yes, we
do get some publicity even though it isn't always that good.
The squatting movement is also a sure sign that things are going on
among the anarchists of Sweden. The movement has grown, especially in
the big cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe, and they have a
clearly anarchistic purpose.
Every year on May 1 there's a lot of demonstrations in Sweden as I
suppose you know. Among the several groups that demonstrates on this
day to remember the anarchistic Haymarket martyrs of Chicago there are,
of course, anarchists and syndicalists. I'm very surprised you haven't
noticed since you live so near a city (Stockholm) which have a rather
big anarchistic and syndicalistic movement. Besides, Uppsala had their
first anarchistic demonstration in modern times this year. I was there.
There were a lot of people so I'm even more surprised you haven't
noticed the movement in your home town.
Since you think these things aren't enough to make it out to the public
I suggest you get in touch with me again with some proposals on how to
do it. I would love to hear more suggestions on how we can deal with
propaganda issues.
You asked in your letter how everything should be organized in an
anarchistic society. Well, to tell the truth, I honestly don't know the
answer. I think this is very much up to the people that this society is
made up of.
I can tell you how the anarchistic type of economy works though:
Everyone gives up the products of their work for everyone else. It's a
contract between you and me that you can get what I produce and I can
get what you produce. It is *not* a simple exchange just between you
and me between products we think have equal value -- it is the
destroying of values!
This can work if you hold it on a small scale, i.e. in a commune.
Several communes can then form a federation and between these communes
the same understanding as between you and me exists so they can exchange
products and services needed.
You asked for examples of this economy. Well, there are some. The
Paris Commune of 1871 is one, although it didn't last that long. The
German army, which at the time was in war with France, marched in and
made the commune give up.
Another example of this type of economy is some of the northern parts of
Spain during the Spanish civil war (1936-39). In Catalonia and some
other parts free communes existed as a reality. Some worked quite good,
some didn't. Around Barcelona the workers even succeded in destroying
the power of currency. If you want to read more about it I suggest you
read George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia".
I trust you know why these anarchistic communes of Spain didn't survive
that very long either? If I say Franco, does that give you a clue? If
not, then read about how Franco the fascist crushed the Spanish workers,
because internal fighting among them made them weak, and then introduced
Spain to a dictatorship that lasted until 1975!
As you say in your letter no policemen and no prisons must lead to no
punishments. That is correct, but I can't say that you're right when
you continue to ask if the strong can do whatever they want. I do know
that some anarchists, the special brand called libertarians or
anarcocapitalists, would like it to be this way, but libertarian
socialists (what's traditionally called anarchists) as myself don't want
this to happen.
The anarchistic view concerning crime and punishment is very vague;
every other anarchist has a new solution. I say that a criminal in a
society where he can get what he wants without stealing or robbing
anyone must be sick. Such a crime is a sickness, and to sick people you
give treatment. That is what such criminals would need, treatment to
their sickness.
You ask why anarchists often say that fascists can't be allowed to talk
and demonstrate freely and find that confusing. I understand that, but
it isn't like the anarchists thinks that the fascists should be
forbidden to talk or to demonstrate. It's just that the anarchists also
want to speak freely and to demonstrate at the same time and the same
place to make people see what the fascists are saying.
You also ask if there's a difference between organized anarchists and
those who are not. Well, there is; the organized anarchists might be
members of a syndicalist union and fight for anarchism trough unions.
An anarchist that isn't organized is simply not member of a union or
any fighting organization.
Organized anarchists, i.e. such anarchists that are a member of a
union don't want a government. Not more than an anarchist that isn't
organized. The difference is in the figthing method; the syndicalists
believe in the possibility to win through taking control over the
factories by organizaing the workers.
Since you asked for books I can mention anything by Bakunin, ditto for
Kropotkin and Emma Goldmann. These might be somewhat old, but from
your question I understood that you wanted something to introduce you
to anarchism and to the ideology. If that was what you were looking
for you can find it all in the works of the above authors.
As for gatherings around your neighbourhood there's FAS (Frescati
Anarkistiska Sallskap) at Stockholm University, SA (Stockholms
Anarkister) and SAC - Syndikalisterna (Sveriges Arbetares
Centralorganisation) also in Stockholm. In Uppsala you can find UA
Uppsala Anarkister), I got the address here somewhere, but can't find
it just now, as well as SAC. I suggest you have a look in the
phonebook.
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
WE DON'T MAKE MISTRAKES!
We're sorry that the following errors got into P@ Online 1.2. Here's
the correct information:
The anarchist's guide to the Internet
by cardell
Factsheet Five - Electric
Jerod Pore <jerod23@well.sf.ca.us>
^This address is correct.
Organized Thoughts
Michael Lepore <m.lepore@genie.geis.com>
Every other address is obsolete.
* * P@ Online * *
BOYCOTT!
by Chuck
Colorado, U.S.A.
Last week, 52% of registered voters approved a referendum
that eliminates city and town laws that guarantee gay and lesbian
rights. Do not travel to Colorado or buy products manufactured
in Colorado.
Nike
Exploits workers in Indonesia. Pays them only a few dollars an hour.
Shell
Has not yet divested from South Africa
TWA
Unfair labor practices
McDonalds
Unfair practices towards urban employees
MTV
Obnoxious ad campaign urging young people to vote.
Cracker Barrel Restaurants
The chain is said to have fired at least 9 lesbian and gay
employees
Kellogs
Has not yet divested from South Africa
Castle and Cooke/Dole
Unfair labor practices
Pesticide use
Huge agricultural monopoly
City of Miami
Denounced Nelson Mandela
S C E N E R E P O R T S
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SCENE REPORT -- MADISON, WISCONSIN, USA
by Chuck
The scene here in Madison is one notch below thriving. I've met many
of the area's anarchists in the last six months and so far I've been
mostly impressed, but also a little disappointed. The group we have
in town, some madison anarchists, continues to have its weekly
meetings at the Rainbow Bookstore Co-op. Every other week we have
special "topics" which are the focus of our meetings. We had a good
turnout for our discussion on the local police. Several people were
concerned with this possible national police force that Clinton is
proposing. We agreed mostly though, that the police need to be
discredited in a creative manner for most people to be able to see the
anarchist point of view. Along these lines we discussed visual
propaganda that was designed to make people go "aha!" Look for us to
do more on this subject, for the police in this country are simply out
of control.
The turnout for our discussion on the drug war was small, probably
given that it coincided with election night. I'm very interested in
doing more on this topic. You can expect to see a series of articles
on the drug war in this electronic zine and in my paper version. One
idea we've been kicking around is to compile a list of local
businesses that test their employees for drugs. That would give us
ammunition to conduct boycotts of those businesses.
The Madison anarchists have also been working on several projects.
One project is a radio show on a local community-run radio station.
We are negotiating with them at this moment. We've also talked about
the possibilities of cable access TV. An important concern to many of
the local @s is the plight of the local poor and homeless. We are
planning to contact area neighborhood associations to see what we can
do in conjunction with them. We'd like to find a process of providing
social services with no strings attached (i.e. join our religion for
your bowl of soup or please ease my suburban liberal guilt).
We've also begun discussions on a possible "Great Lakes Anarchist
Gathering" to be held next summer in Madison. Nothing has been
decided yet, but we'll keep you all informed.
* * P@ Online * *
ANARCHY IN THE U.K.
by Ben Durruti <ian@spider.co.uk>
This is a brief overview of the anarchist organisations and
publications in the U.K. Hopefully I'll expand the detail in later
issues of P@ Online, and explore related libertarian areas such as the
peace movement and feminism. The national groupings are the ANARCHIST
COMMUNIST FEDERATION, which publishes the quarterly journal ORGANISE!,
CLASS WAR, who publish the tabloid CLASS WAR and a theoretical journal
called THE HEAVY STUFF, and the DIRECT ACTION MOVEMENT,
anarchosyndicalists who publish a monthly paper called DIRECT ACTION.
A sad loss is BLACK FLAG, which seems to have folded. The ANARCHIST
BLACK CROSS provides practical solidarity for political prisoners.
FREEDOM PRESS publishes the world's oldest anarchist newspaper,
FREEDOM, founded in 1886 by Kropotkin, Charlotte Wilson and others,
and also publish THE RAVEN, an anarchist quarterly. Particular
orientations include libertarian education (LIB ED), ecology (GREEN
ANARCHISM), situationism (FATUOUS TIMES, LEISURE, SPECTACULAR TIMES),
technology (BLACK CHIP), the animal rights movement (no known
publications). Naturally, there are lots of local groups too, to be
covered later.
News from Scotland
COUNTER INFORMATION NEWS is an occasional free sheet published in
Edinburgh. A K PRESS in Stirling has a very large stock of anarchist,
situationist and related themes. CIENFUEGOS PRESS in the Orkneys is
no longer around, I'm pretty sure. but used to be run by Stuart
Christie. Action? CLASS WAR have been flyposting about the
forthcoming visit by the EEC Ministers, so maybe they'll get a hot
reception. Scottish miners are marching from Glasgow to London in
protest against the government's plans to reduce the British coal
industry by two-thirds (there is only one pit still working in
Scotland).
* * P@ Online * *
ANARCHIST GATHERING IN LINKOPING
by cardell
Some weeks ago there was a local gathering among anarchists in this
part of Sweden. About 30 people got together in a nice house just
outside of Linkoping. The house is the Gillberga collective where some
of the organizers of the gathering lives.
Right after coming to the collective we all sat down and had a nice
vegatarian dinner. Nice food during the whole gathering, really.
Right after that we had some sort of introduction where every
participant had to introduce him- or herself to the rest of the
people. Everything was rather uptight in the beginning but got more
and more informal until we ended up chattering about various things
concerning ourselves.
Then a guy from the squatting scene in Stockholm told us a lot about
the practical issues about squatting. He talked about squatting a
house not only for the sake of having somewhere to live, but more like
a form of demonstration to make a point. The actual squatting,
planning and how to get rid of the police was also discussed. The
last item got the whole audience in a rather good mood since the
speaker recommended the throwing of stones and blunt objects. The man
also told us about his own experiences and how the police works to get
squatters out.
In Sweden it's rather popular to use large containers and get them a
couple of floors up with a crane. Inside the container the special
anti-terrorist forces of the Swedish police hide and then goes in some
floors above the ground after having drenched the building with tear
gas. Rather effective if the squatters haven't protected themselves
with a tear gas free room and has masks on. In the long run though,
their tactics is always succesfull -- the squatters has to give up
unless they use *real* weapons of course, but the squatting scene in
Sweden is not *that* harsh just yet.
After the talk we all got together in several small groups to discuss
the matter and perhaps plan something. Some idea came up to squat a
house open to the public for just a couple of hours on May 1. If this
could be a nationwide happening it would really make the enemy
worried.
In those small groups and at the later talk several actions were
talked about and some planned:
- A free university with free lectures on every subject.
- A newsletter for the region.
- Anti-demonstration in Lund and Stockholm when the racist groups
demonstrate on November 6 and 30.
- Stopping of trafic outside the court when first squatting trial to
use armed riot paragraphs will be held on October 15. (These
paragraphs enable the power to inprison squatters which haven't been
done before.)
- Start information cafes and a network connecting them.
The next day a historian from Gothenburg lectured on the subject of
anti-fascism and told us how one can work to stop their actions from
taking place. He started with telling us what fascism is, though, and
made a quick historic recapitulation stressing the point that fascism
really isn't the same as racism or even nazism. Yes, nazism has both
fascism and racism but fascism is, according to him, the idea of the
corporate state.
Even though he stressed this point he continued to talk about the
anti-fascism movement as a movement against all the racist, fascist
and nazist groups that exists. He didn't go into how these groups are
organized in Sweden but recommended several books on the subject.
What he did tell us, was how to work against them with
anti-demonstrations and, if they start their ever popular phone
terror, terrorize them with the same method.
The most important part of the anti-fascist movement, according to the
lecturer, was to inform the public of these groups widespread
propaganda and tell them what the groups really stands for.
The whole gathering closed with the exchanging of addresses and the
like. The group that was intending to publish a regional magazine
wrote down addresses to contact persons in every city of the region so
we could stay in touch.
Later I got the zine, but I can't say it was that great. But then
again neither was P@ Online's first issue. We'll see what happens.
More reports coming...
* * P@ Online * *
ANARCHY IN THE MEADOW
A weekend at the Bloomington Anarchist Gathering/Picnic
by Chuck Munson
A nice autumnal weekend was the setting in October for a midwest
anarchist get together in Bloomington, Indiana. A couple hundred
anarchists from around the midwest and points beyond got together for
fun, food, music, and workshops. The main site was Indiana
University's Dunn Meadow, a big park space on the edge of the campus,
but still in the middle of town.
Our hosts for the weekend were the Indiana anarchists who got together
to put on this fun event. A big online thank you to Trash O'Brat,
Joseph, Pat, Michael, Sid, and anybody else whose name slips my
tongue. They did an outstanding job. It was a very successful
event--one that I think many people got something out of.
I was with a carload of four anarchists who made the arduous journey
from Madison. Joining me were Mark, Jeannette, and Jordi. We left
Madison in mid-morning on Friday, October 2. On our way down we made
a brief stop at Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago to check out the
Haymarket Monument and the graves of Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman,
Voltarine de Cleyre and many other radicals and people involved in
labor struggles. It was my first trip to the cemetery since the
Haymarket Memorial in 1986. It was a perfect day to visit such an
important place in anarchist history.
My impressions of the events can best be organized in the following
fashion. I list below the main scheduled events and will discuss
those that I attended.
Friday evening
We arrive in Bloomington shortly after sundown. At this point most of
the action (hanging around mostly) has moved from the meadow over to
the Red Herring Coffeehouse / Bloomington Peace and Justice Center.
Lots of hanging around and meeting new and old friends takes place
throughout the evening. I get a chance to meet some people that until
then I had only communicated with via INTERNET or the mail. The
musical tone for the evening was set by a very under appreciated guy
who was playing old IWW and labor songs on his guitar. I hung around
for a little bit, then walked across the street to:
The Plenary on the Drug War
This was held at the county /city building (?) near the Peace and
Justice Center. It was a community hearing on the drug war and its
effect on civil liberties. Local activist Dan Combs was joined by an
attorney from the Indiana Civil Liberties Union and another guy who I
forget. The meeting room was packed with anarchists. I only saw part
of the discussion and I thought it was pretty interesting. The folks
talked about the zero tolerance policy and property seizure. We also
talked about how to fight the laws against drug use and the silly drug
war.
Saturday
This was the day with the most events and the most attendees. I would
guess that the number of participants for the day's activities was
around 150 people. Due to our setup in the Meadow we got a lot of
pedestrian traffic too. Literature tables were set up in the
mid-morning. In addition to the tables devoted to stuff from the
Indiana hosts, there were tables staffed by the folks from Anarchy
magazine (Columbia. MO), Wind Chill Factor (Chicago), Perennial Books
(Montague, MA), AYF of Cincinnati, the folks from Smile and Smut
magazine, and a table devoted to Practical Anarchy and some madison
anarchists.
Morning workshops:
"One Million Villages"
Computers and electronic mail
Women's Self-Defense
I attended the workshop on electronic mail. The "One million
villages" workshop was led by Eric of Dreamtime Village. About 25
people attended that one. I'm not sure if the one on women's
self-defense was held. The computer networking workshop was led by
Sid who has graced the anarchy-list with his posts. Other
participants included a few people who are on anarchy-list, as well as
several novices. This workshop was held in one of the university's
computer labs. Imagine if you will, a gaggle of anarchists and
anarcho-punks in a slick computer lab learning some stuff about
computer networking! A great workshop.
Afternoon workshops:
Integrated Strategies
Urban Co-operatives
Community Sponsored Agriculture
Do It Yourself Theater
Near fiasco here. Initial attendance at these workshops was sparse,
thus the facilitators decided to combine the workshops into one big
one (excluding the theater demo which was held elsewhere in the
meadow), which did not work out. I was to facilitate the workshop on
Urban Cooperatives. Eventually, some folks split off from the main
combined workshop to focus on cooperatives. The general impression
was that the CSA part of the workshop was poorly presented, which was
too bad.
Tim Sutherlin, the presenter of the strategies workshop, had a great
workshop planned, which would have been great with a smaller crowd.
We saw part of it anyway, but it was rushed due to the merging of the
workshops. Tim had us talk about several scenarios. What should
anarchists do, for example, if they were working in coalition with a
nonviolent activist group against a proposed nuclear reactor. Should
the anarchists comply with the other groups' request that the
anarchists' tactics be toned down? Another scenario was one that
involved a local race for city commission which involved three
candidates: a liberal, a progressive, and a right wing conservative.
All in all, an interesting workshop with lots of potential.
The group that broke away to discuss housing had a fruitful talk. Jim
from Wind Chill Factor in Chicago explained some various strategies to
finance alternative housing projects. I relayed my experience living
in a Madison co-op for two years.
The Picnic
The folks from Bloomington sponsored this meal which featured a veggie
sub that was made up of a great vegetable / potato curry. Excellent!
The serving line was set up next to all the literature tables. It was
great to see passers-by staying for a while and helping themselves to
some good chow. My only regret is that I didn't help with the
preparation, but I couldn't cause I had to do the workshop. I'm a
pretty good cook so the Bloomington anarchists can expect some good
grub from me if they ever make it to Madison.
Late afternoon workshops:
Home Abortion
Pirate Radio
I attended most of the workshop on pirate radio. The workshop on home
abortion and women's health was attended by over forty people and I
heard it was very productive. The workshop on pirate radio was hosted
by some folks from Detroit who ran a pirate radio station. The
discussion focused mostly on the organizational and legal aspects of
running a pirate station, but there was some discussion of technical
stuff. This was a very successful workshop with constructive
discussion and sharing of ideas.
Bands
Several bands played in the Meadow in the late afternoon, but the only
one that stands out in my mind was Bloody Discharge from Cincinnati.
This group featured two women on guitars and a guy on drums. They
played some great punk with a good dose of folksy feminist humor. I'd
still love to get a tape or record of their stuff. Later Saturday
night a regional band, Walking Ruins, played at the Peace and Justice
Center. They were pretty loud, but good.
Sunday
A day of wrap-up with fewer people around. The day was cloudy and
cooler.
Morning workshops Wheatpasting, Stenciling, Stickering, and Other
Tactics of Community improvement Anarchy and alternative criminal
justice Non-monogamy
There were some people doing silk-screening, but I don't know if the
first workshop happened and I believe the non-monogamy workshop didn't
happen. There was a large crowd for the anarchy and criminal justice
workshop. Professor Hal Pepinsky and activist Bill Bredon were the
moderators of this dynamic, stimulating, and somewhat problematic
workshop. I got a lot out of this one, but there were a few problems.
First, maybe too many people made for a discussion which meandered
down some not so relevant paths. A few people didn't know when to
shut up. I was a little disappointed that the discussion wandered
onto the subject of the drug war (which I'm very concerned about)
instead of dealing with the questions raised by prisons and a general
belief in the need for justice, police, and punishment. The
facilitators did an excellent job, but the obnoxious form of male
anarchist behavior was present in some of the participants.
Afternoon workshops
CSA
Squatting: A Practical Guide
The Politics of Food Production and Consumption
I was supposed to moderate the CSA workshop, but there wasn't much
interest and there was a similar workshop going on at the same time,
so I joined the squatting workshop. Once again this was a session on
alternative housing and was very productive. I listened in on a few
minutes of the food workshop. At that point they were talking
permaculture and everybody seemed to be getting a lot out of the
workshop.
I thought that the Gathering was rather successful overall. I got to
meet people from all over the Midwest. Jordi, Jeannette and Mark also
had a good time. I wish that more people could have made it--that
would have given the workshops an added boost and maybe we would have
seen more spontaneous workshops. It was a fun and educational weekend
of "practical anarchy."
A longer version of this report will be featured in the Fall issue of
my paper version of Practical Anarchy. Those who attended the
Gathering and would like to add something please send stuff to me!
M E D I A R E P O R T S
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Free Association Record Label
by Tim Boykett <K317370@EDVZ.UNI-Linz.AC.AT>
This is a small article about the trials and tribulations of setting
up and participating in a record "label" without the normal business
ethics and requirements. The story is a little bit of history, a few
ideas, some credit to (I hope) the right people, and a bit of a
personal perspective.
The idea arose over a period of time from a number of people on the
net who were offering recordings of their own and other bands to other
people on the net. Some people were swapping stuff, some were dropping
cash and mailorders in the mail, some music moved around, especially
demo cassettes and some compilations by such mailing lists as the New
Music List and the infamous Grunge List "Teen Spirit Collection".
There is definitely a wealth of talent in the Internet world, and the
spread of the Internet means that a lot of interesting music from
other, non-connected people, was being reviewed, commented upon, and
occasionally sent to people. So some of us began to talk about a more
definite plan, to release some of this music upon an unsuspecting
world using the resources that we had access to. People muttered and
proclaimed on various mailing lists, until, in a stroke of genius, BT
Garner put together the "label-list", and brought all these
conversations under one roof.
One of the biggest problems with much of the stuff that is discussed
on the Internet, in my experience, has been the transferal of that
(possibly) idle chatter into concrete action. This is a problem in
many realms of our lives, usually bars and coffee shops, but it seems
more acute in the Internet space. Being spread over a wide region of
the earths surface, it is not possible for people to get together and
actually beat something into shape in person, it must be done by the
individuals without any form of coercion from other members of the
list. It is _not_ possible to really coerce someone via email. So we
had to discuss ways and means of making things happen within our
possibilities, that is, a group of people, many who have never set
eyes on one another, with marginal resources, getting together to
create something significant.
The main things that a record label has to do is to first find good
music, then get it in some distributable format (record, CD etc) and
then to distribute it. In this collaboration, we have the resources to
reach many people, as we are spread over so much of the earth's
surface. This allows us a great deal of freedom in finding music, and
then distributing it. The problems are many, and the solutions that
people proffered were, I must say, ingenious.
The first and most obvious problem is, how do we get to decide what
music to release? None of us trust anybodies taste so much that we
would release what they said without hesitation. We have the nominal
solution of the demo tape, a cassette of the band, but we are too
spread out. Someone suggested a tape tree, somewhat analogous to the
telephone trees that are used in many anarchist or community
organisations to spread information and news to a large number of
people rather quickly. The idea in a telephone tree is to have a root
person that receives the news from whomever. Then the root calls (for
example) five people to spread the news. Each of them then calls five
people, and so on. Obviously, quite a few people can be reached very
quickly using this method, and the cost of the calls is spread out
over most of the members of the tree. The tape tree was essentially
the same idea, with people copying and sending out five tapes, but
some people rightly pointed out that the information would deteriorate
significantly with every new generation of tapes, with every branching
in the tree. Then Dirk in Berlin made a suggestion to use a chain
system, to remove generation loss. The idea is to have a list of
people, a "chain", ordered so as to (hopefully) minimise the mailing
times between them. The head of the chain takes a tape and possibly
some incidental information and sends them down to the next person in
the chain. Each "link" in the chain can then make their own copy of
the tape direct from the master copy that is sent down, copy the
information if they want, and then send the tape and info to the next
person. This of course takes a little longer (for mathematicians, its
linear in the number of people, not logarithmic like the trees), and
every delay holds up and effects people further along the chain, but
this is the most appropriate for this situation.
This was and is our solution to the problem of us all hearing the
music that people want to offer to the label. The next question is how
do we decide what material to release. Since the label is somewhat of
a dynamic thing, there is no way we can hope to maintain a consistent
membership, or even know exactly what our membership is. The
"obvious" solution would be recourse to our great democratic
tradition, but this is a classic example of where it breaks down. If
there was a vote, and everybody wanted to release something that I
didnt, what reason have I to do any work, to offer my services to help
release it. Noone can force me to do it, and although arguments like
"help us now, and the next thing will be something _you_ like" don't
hold much water when you think the whole thing will fold when this LP
fails to even sell 5 copies. We make no claim to be democratic, if
enough people can raise the funds between them to release a record or
whatever, then it will happen. If not, no matter if everybody "votes"
yes but wont put up some resources, then there is no way that the
release can happen.
So once we have a recording decided upon, what are our plans. We have
a number of contacts for the pressing of records, which seems to be
the most economical and popular way to go for what are usually
low-budget, independent bands. We have people who have volunteered
their services to act as national mail-order organisers, to have their
names and addresses publicised so that the record purchasing public
can send off some money and receive a slab of music in response. We
have people who can organise money, people to do graphics, all these
spread over the area of the Internet.
This cannot but make me think that the ideas behind Bob Blacks and
others concept of "No Work|" are appropriate, or at least feasible.
The people in this group have spent time and energy to make such a
thing happen and become a reality, with no further profit forseeable
than some music in the world that we are proud to release. We all
profit from this scheme of things, and it will be enjoyable.
If people are interested, in any form, whether it be finance,
distribution, discussion of hows and whys, advice, warnings or even
purchasing some of these recordings, feel free to get in touch. I can
pass on whatever information that you may be interested in finding,
and would be happy to do so. By electronic mail, I can be contacted as
tim@maths.uwa.oz.au or k317370@alijku11.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at, and by
snail mail as Tim Boykett, Marienstrasse 2/5, Linz A-4020, AUSTRIA.
* * P@ Online * *
ZINE REVIEWS
by Chuck Munson
Bayou La Rose #39
Left Bank Distribution
4142 Brooklyn Ave. N.E., Seattle, WA 98105
or
PO Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415-0464
$7.50 U.S. or $15 overseas / 4 issues
Another issue of this great anarchist newspaper. The usual roundup of
news on Native struggles and prisons. Excellent graphics--the photo
of the alligator "taking a bite out of crime" is great! Highly
recommended.
Bushwhacker #5
Jason, PO Box 3458, Berkeley, CA 94703
25 cents and some stamps
This anarchist zine might undergo a title change now that Chairman
Bill has been elected. Articles on tax resistance and anarchist
separatism. Great graphics.
Crooked Roads Vol.3: #4 Fall / Winter 1992
Wheel of Fire Press
PO Box 32631, Kansas City, MO 64111
$3 / 1 issue or $5 one year / Published twice a year
A literary zine put out by an anarchist from my hometown. Poetry,
articles, cartoons, art and zine reviews.
Discussion Bulletin #56 November/December 1992
PO Box 1564, Grand Rapids, MI 49501
$3 / six issues / Bimonthly
A theory-oriented zine devoted to discussion of topics of interest to
"non-market, anti-statist, libertarian socialists."
The Firefly #17 September 1992
Box 1077, Mission, SD 57555
$5 / six months
An eclectic anarchist zine out of South Dakota.
Free Society Vol.1: No.3 Summer 1992
Journal of Youth Greens (in transition)
PO Box 7293, Minneapolis, MN 55407
$1 ppd.
Ecological issues with an anarchist bent.
Impulse #8 Spring 1992
A Wisconsin Anarchist Journal
Jon George, Route 1, Red Wing, MN 55066
Send a few bucks
Lots of great anarchist rants here along with some great humor and
pranks.
Incite Information: Inquiry and Commentary Vol.3: No.5
November/December 1992
1507 E. Franklin St. #530, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
$10 / six issues
nrr@med.unc.edu
Nicely done zine of interest to anarchists and anarcho- libertarians.
News and commentary. Zine and book reviews.
Iron Feather Journal #12
PO Box 1905, Boulder, CO 80306
$2 ppd.
An essential zine for those anarchists interested in computers and
computer networking. This issue has lists of BBSs and INTERNET
resources. Great free form layout with gobs of cool graphics.
Noisy Concept #16 August/September 1992
"Hemp, Anarchy, Veganism, Music"
c/o Mike Thain, 621 Bassett Rd., Bay Village, OH 44140
One issue / 50 cents, $5 / 10 issues
A nice little anarchist zine which features letters, columns and
reviews.
Second Guess #4 Fall 1992
PO Box 9382, Reno, Nevaduh 89507
$2 ppd.
A well done music-oriented anarchist zine. Band interviews, zine
reviews and the best anarchist prank section being published today.
SLAM #2 November/December 1992
PO Box 22861, Alexandria, VA 22304
$2
Interview with D.C. band Party Akimbo. Reviews of zines and records.
Excerpt from Practical Anarchy. Articles on Sister Souljah and the
drug war.
Slingshot #47 Harvest Season 1992
700 Eshlecreature Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
An anarchist tabloid out of California with coverage in this issue on
the murder of activist Rosebud DeNovo, election coverage, and reports
on anti-Columbus activities.
The Thistle Vol.6: No.13 October 1992
Alternative News Collective
MIT W20-413, 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139-0901
thistle@athena.mit.edu
A student produced progressive newspaper for the MIT community.
Pretty exceptional in light of the usual run-of-the-mill student
progressive newspapers.
Western Wolves Infoletter #4 Fall 1992
18032-C Lemon Dr. #127, Yorba Linda, CA 92686
A newsletter of eco-anarchism.
N E T R E P O R T S
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ANARCHIST NETWORK IN SWEDEN -- ANARCHIST NETWORK EVERYWHERE?
by cardell
A network of anarchists is under construction in Sweden. Well, it's
allready there since quite some time, but hasn't been working that
great. Until now, I hope.
The idea is, of course, to use electronic media for the network
messages and to coordinate actions that will be taken. The electronic
media allows for a certain anonymity as well as being very fast. It's
perfect for this kind of use.
Some people at the Captain Haddock cafe in Stockholm are setting up a
BBS for everyone to call into. In that BBS there will be open
conferences that discusses ideology and where press releases will be
found from various groups. There will be other conferences, closed
ones, for the actual planning of actions and for coordination.
It isn't enough with this single BBS operating in Stockholm so there
are plans on getting the conferences distributed much like the
anarchy-list is distributed now, only to BBS conferences and not to
single persons. Well, single persons can of course join if there
isn't a BBS carrying the conference in the virtual neighbourhood. I
will, of course, carry these conferences on my, future, BBS that, I'm
sorry to say, hasn't been set up yet.
Some people will argue that this is a stupid idea since everybody
hasn't got a computer. (I heard that a lot on the local anarchist
gathering here in Linkoping.) But that would seem to be nonsence since
it's *that* easy to get a terminal and a modem these days that it's
only anti-tech people that wouldn't want to get it. Hey, I gave some
terminals away recently just to see a couple of new "faces" around.
I won't go in to a discussion about technology versus everything else
just right now, but the electronic medium is worth trying even for you
non-techie types out there.
OK, perhaps everyone doesn't even *want* to have a terminal at home.
So? Can't these anarchistic cafes (I think they're even called
*information* cafes by some people!) that pops out of nothing have a
couple of terminals available for their guests? I mean, it's not that
hard to get a feed of electronic mail and plug in some terminals to
some worn out machine.
If I can get the local syndicalists in this town to listen to this
that's just what I'll do -- set up a computer, perhaps my old 286, and
plug a couple of old terminals into it. Perhaps they would let me,
with some help from my friends (Hah!), open one of these information
cafes as well. Would be great.
Now I encourage you all to do the same in your own area. Get in touch
with me for more information and to tell me that you've opened an
activist house full of terminals!
* * P@ Online * *
PROJECT GUTENBERG -- AN ANARCHISTIC PROJECT?
by cardell
Project Gutenberg, lead by Professor Michael S. Hart, is a project
whose aim is to give away one trillion electronic texts until the year
2001. The 10,000 titles will be given away to 1 million people which
equals 1 trillion copies.
It all started when Professor Hart got an account on a computer with
$100,000 worth of computer time in 1971 (I think). So much that he
can't get rid of it all in his lifetime.
Professor Hart thinks that the libraries of the world isn't going to
go away in this age of technology, but that they will merge with the
technology and get electronic. That's why he started the project to
convert litterature into an electronic format.
Since there's a lot of trouble with copyrights and the like, Professor
Hart and his associates are concentrating on texts which are, for some
reason or the other, in the public domain. This doesn't mean that the
works has to be non-copyrighted when published, only that the status
of the work *now* is free.
The texts are published in a plain ASCII manner, not utilizing the
fancy things computer can do to texts nowadays with the word
"hypertext" hanging around in the air just above my head. There's a
reason for this though, since plain ASCII makes the texts available
for a much larger audience. Nothing stops a hacker from creating an
e-book reader program though, that can handle basic things like
bookmarks and such. Such a program would be rather nice to have when
reading e-zines like this one as well.
So, what makes this project anarchistic? I'm well aware that Professor
Hart would be the last one to admit his project having a political
aspect, but I think it has. If not political, then economical and
that's politics for an anarchist since the political system and the
economics of that system goes hand in hand.
The project is anarchistic in the way that it gives a hope of the free
information society and tries to give everyone access to all
information they want to have.
Project Gutenberg is also trying to establish the first electronic
library. A library that indeed will have one thing that traditional
libraries never can have -- the possibility to *give* texts *to* the
library instead of the other way around.
So far I heard that the electronic library will take the form of a MUD
game and that the visitors will be able to see each other, just as in
an ordinary library. The project is trying to keep that library
feeling that is so important; just to walk around along the shelves,
taking one book out and looking at it, putting it back and walk on.
This can't be done in a traditional database form, so the MUD is just
what the project needs to do it.
The electronic library is, as for now, not an open project so people
can test it out. I'll bet that they've got it running though so when I
know more I'll come back with the information in the zine.
If you would like to have more information regulary I advice you to
subscribe to the Project Gutenberg newsletter. Send mail (without
subject) to:
Internet: listserv@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
BITNET: listserv@uiucvmd
Include this in the body of the letter:
sub gutnberg Your-first-name Your-last-name
Yes, it *should* read GUTNBERG, not GUTENBERG. I don't know why, but
that's how it is. Perhaps a stupid limitation in the LISTSERV program?
If you want to get your hands on some of the e-books you can snarf
them from:
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu 128.174.201.12
etext92
etext/etext91
etext/articles
or
quake.think.com 192.31.181.1
pub/etext91
pub/etext92
The e-book titles so far is:
1991
Alice in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
The Hunting of the Snark
1990 CIA World Factbook
Moby Dick
Peter Pan
The Book of Mormon
The Federalist Papers
The Song of Hiawatha
Paradise Lost
Roget's Thesaurus
1992
Frederick Douglass
O Pioneers!
1991 CIA World Factbook
Far From the Madding Crowd
Aesops Fables
Data From the 1990 Census
King James' Bible
Sophocles' Oedipus Trilogy
Herland
The Scarlett Letter
Zen and the Art of the Internet
The Time Machine
The War of the Worlds
As you can see above I haven't included the e-books published earlier
than 1991. I don't really know the reason that these doesn't exist on
the FTP sites because I know they exists online. Among them are the
complete works of Shakespeare and I hope they will be among the other
titles soon.
My guess is that Professor Hart did this on his free time until 1991
when he became professor of electronic text and could spend all his
time on the project. I suppose that's why the publishing rate
increased dramatically after 1991.
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This e-zine is published on 100% recycled electrons.
