Best Practices: Theorizing Animal Liberation With Broader Struggles

My friend Lynne sent me a great article from Thomas Paine's Corner. The article, Can We Shed Our Moral Primitivism Before It Is Too Late is an interview conducted by Jason Miller with Philosophy Professor and Animal Liberation Theorist Steve Best. Best situates animal liberation struggle alongside a number of other struggles--abolition, Palestinian Liberation, Earth Liberation, and anti-Nazi movements.

At first I was put off by Best's comparisons between animal and human slavery, his tactical evocations of Martin Luther King Jr, Anti-Nazi liberation movements, The African National Congress' struggle against apartheid, and his assertion: "Realizing that animals suffered far more than human beings in the quantity and quality of their pain, suffering, and death, I shifted from human rights to animal rights activism."

Often, when I've heard people compare human and animal oppression, the argument reinforces white, male, heterosexual privilege as follows: "If we fought racism, sexism, and homophobia, it only follows that we should fight for animal liberation" as though there was not a substantial difference between oppressed people and animals. "If we would liberate blacks, we should obviously liberate beagles."

This racist strand of rhetoric in the animal rights movement is obviously alienating and damaging to liberation struggles. In contrast to this comparison, Best argues that what allowed a culture of patriarchy and racism to enforce slavery were tools and techniques developed and perfected first on animals. He successfully demonstrates the links between human and animal exploitation and links the political economy of animal exploitation with human oppression throughout history. Rather than prioritizing animal liberation over human liberation, he argues that the struggles are inseparable.

Citing that 50 billion animals are killed each year, fueling the industrial, capitalist economy, he makes a compelling case that animal liberation is integral to anti-capitalist struggle against a culture of domination and exploitation. He advocates eloquently for the Animal Liberation Front and emphasizes the importance of both theorizing and engaging in direct action for holistic liberation.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on Best's interview, particularly regarding his analysis of animal liberation as the most holistic framework and also his analysis of animal rights in relationship to other struggles of liberation using frameworks of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, etc...

Vanguard, Subject, Rhizome?

Nia brought up a great comment regarding what I mean by the word "We" in my posts, questioning whether I was referring to a vanguard. Literally, I am referring to you the reader. Perhaps this is presumptuous. Certainly, there is no universal you. Each of you readers has a unique identity, subjectivity, and political disposition. When I refer to me, I am referring to a struggling social worker, artist, and petite-bourgeoisie, white, queer revolutionary who finds the on-the-ground struggles in various local communities, throughout the country, and abroad as inspirational.

Do I see myself as a vangaurdist? Not particularly. Rather, I identify as a Couch Potato--a passive spectator, a participant in the most grotesque cultural performance in the United States--excessive television watching. As far as I know, Lenin nor Che sat around watching TV all day.

That being said, I do view us as people who want to know about what's going on and want to be involved in it as well. I do view us as subjects who can impact history and who can collectively build power in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities. I do view us as people who have the right to communicate and act with others and influence decisions. I do see us as people who have the opportunity to advocate for and enjoy a broad variety of intersecting cultural expressions. I do view us as people who have an ethical responsibility to combat oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia, capitalism and ecological destruction. I do view us as people who should work towards building horizontal power across identities, communities, and geographies.


The image above is of a rhizomatic map. It demonstrates a model of organizing that is neither vanguardist nor hierarchical. It demonstrates a highly networked, horizontal, and energized structure of organizing that can neither be consolidated into a state nor a party nor monopolized by elites. When I imagine you, I imagine you are a node in this structure, part of a network of resistance and creative possibility. I imagine you are complicated, contradictory, and various. I imagine we can work together.

Gangs: Please Get out of the Capitalists' Bed

Eager to find reasons to police poor people and people of color, city officials, most often in bed with or inseparable from developers, have many reasons to love gang violence. Its neither their run of the mill perverse love of structural oppression nor their glee that poor people are focusing their rage on each other rather than the ruling class that wets their whistle.

No, developers LOVE cops.

They love reasons to escalate police presence and justify it in the name of "crime," a codeword for poverty and color. Now, whether cops or developers intentionally escalate gang violence is debatable. Certainly, if cops and feds are snooping around and trying on the panties of Quakers and other non-violent anti-war activists, chances are they've also infiltrated and influence the habits of street gangs. As such, it would not be unthinkable that agent provocateurs actually spur rivalries between street gangs in order to justify an escalation of militarized policing.

In Denver, as we've seen the beginnings of Guiliani style "broken-windows policing" we have also seen the media focus on the rise of gang activity. As millions of dollars are being funneled into the city to bolster police presence in time for the Democratic National Convention, reports of high incidence of crime pave the way for the bullies in blue to enter our neighborhoods. Police arresting poor people is great for developers--they win contracts for building prisons in rural communities and condos in urban communities. As people of color and poor people suffer, the rich get richer.

This scam, of course, is called capitalism. It is what we want to destroy.

In destroying capitalism, we have to determine what our relationship with gangs will be. I choose to avoid relationships with the gangs in power: the police, the corporations, and most politicians; however, street gangs may be a different matter. Building power from below requires working with all of those who are being oppressed by the contemporary society. The anti-police attitude of many gang members and gang associates should be a natural bonding point as we engage in self-defense against the perpetual environmental, military, and economic attacks on our communities from the capitalist elite and their armed brutes.

Gangs destroying each other will only aid capitalist development and justifications of militaristic presence in our neighborhoods. Gangs attacking developers, police, and agents of gentrification might be an early sign of class resistance akin to militant attacks on coal companies, developers, and gentrifying tourists that occurred in the Appalachian mountains during the seventies.

Attacking developers, state terrorists (police), and agents of gentrification will only be useful if communities take as seriously, rather more seriously, the importance of creating local economies, vibrant cultural and educational institutions, and spaces for joy and liberation that are local and connected globally to other localisms.

To sum up: gangs should stop fighting each other and pick more ethical targets. Rather than picking on gangs, we should find some targets too. In the meantime, working with all members of our community, both within and out of prison, gangs, or even more dangerously the 9-5 workday, we should create an autonomous, effective, and uncompromising culture of liberation hellbent on replacing capitalism with an autonomous, egalitarian, just, and pleasurable form of existence.

Confessions and the Denver Zine Fest

Sometimes I miss the mark. For years I was skeptical about Do-It-Yourself print projects called zines. The idea that a person would avoid editorial review, print something about their own lives, and then expect other people to read it seemed ridiculous.

I had a thousand conversations with friends about the limitations of the form and even when my friend was teaching a Zine class at a Chicago Highschool, I maintained my skepticism. It wasn't until I moved to Denver and met Kelly Shortandqueer, Anna Inazu, Nia King, and other local zinesters who patiently exposed me to their work that I began to get it.

I am always grateful for forgiving friends who allow me my skepticism, sometimes for years, before reaching an appreciation that a more intelligent person would achieve much quicker.

Now, having mostly recovered from that particular doltish skepticism I am really excited about the Denver Zine Fest put on my the good folks of the Denver Zine Library on Saturday, May 31st. The event will be filled with workshops, talks, and zine sales. Everybody should try to come down for a bit!

Saving the Men at Tamms: Tamms Year Ten

Tamms Year Ten, an organization working to stop the "shock treatment" and torture of prisoners by the Illinois Department of Corrections has finally got a bill passed to improve the living conditions of Tamms Supermax Penitentiary Prisoners. The incredible work of this coalition of families, artists, educators, and now even some politicians has the potential to change the lives of the men in Tamms from utter degradation and humiliation towards dignity and possibility. According to the Tamms Year Ten website, the issue became popular at the legislature not because of major media but because of grassroots activism, people calling their representatives, attending hearings, and countless other individual acts. The inspirational actions of Tamms Year Ten demonstrates that people can make an impact. The Illinois Department of Corrections is gearing up to fight the people's efforts. Supporting Tamms Year Ten and Bill HB 6651 will go a long ways to ensuring that the men of Tamms no longer face state torture.

American Provincialism Vs. Translocalism

Americans love to eat other cultures food, but when it comes to trying to understand geopolitics, much less engage in solidarity with oppressed people the world over, we fail.

All to often, American's only think of ourselves. We spend endless amounts of energy focusing on our own culture, political issues, and cultural productions. Even in allegedly political circles a strange parochialism persists.

How much stronger would U.S. social movements be if we engaged in regular dialog with translocal initiatives--the Zapatistas, the Korean Anarchist Movement, Irish Nationalists, Indigenous people in struggle throughout the world all connected directly with projects in our own communities.

Monolingualism and a profound lack of curiosity are dooming the bulk of the U.S. public. Immigrants are some of the few people in the United States who still have the ability to frame the debate beyond a narrow-minded patriotism and a naive self-obsession. Multilingual indigenous people and immigrants and from African, Asian, and Latin diasporas all present unique opportunities for people in the United States to connect to struggles beyond those presented in our Capitalist media.

Progressives and progressive media are guilty of xenophobia, racism, and parochialism as much as anybody. Until we resolve to erase the borders from our mind and broaden our political, cultural, and social interests while investing in our local communities, the United States will continue to stomp about the earth ignorant and hostile, lost in its own narcissism, wasteful, and destroying the possibility of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Only through a significant investment in face-to-face interaction within our own neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and streets coupled with a strong urge to network our localisms with others throughout the world can we create an alternative globalization that can over-through neoliberalism and neoconservatism. Liberating ourselves will require both local and global investments, networks, and projects entirely autonomous and hostile towards oppressive systems.

A Delicious Conversation

Last night, Hillary and I went to City O City for a late night drink and pizza (La Chagall, a delicious pizza with apricot sauce, bree cheese, green olives, garlic, and a thin crust). Pablo, the manager of the restraunt, explained his thinking behind the location and spoke with passion about politics, vegetarianism, his love of pungent foods, and delicious wines. Those who know Hillary or me know that finding us lurking around City O City is hardly remarkable--we are both drawn to the amazing food, drinks, and proximity to Hillary's house. What was remarkable was Pablo's passion for creating an atmosphere based on European Bistros here in Denver where conversation and quality food and drink are the name of the game. The fact that City-O-City is vegetarian is second to Pablo--most important, and I would agree, is the quality of ingredients, company, and atmosphere. Pablo is a Denver character well worth celebrating--a man of great passion, taste, and love for what he does. For these reasons, City O City will be a lasting space in Denver for years to come.

Blissful Sunday

Today was blissful. I woke up tired and groggy, drank bitter coffee on the couch with my incredible lover, had brunch with an old Chicago friend who introduced me to the mystic poet Hafiz of Shiraz, received life advice from Hafiz, spent the afternoon reading sex books, talking to my house-mate Nia, going with Jessi to a delicious desert oriented dinner at Mac, Chad and Chris' unknown named house, studied words, ate nachos, and slept again. Before the dinner I sat on the porch with Graves and talked about her trip to Chiapas to the Zapatista language school. There, the anti-capitalist movement seems unencumbered by the sectarianism and compromises of the U.S. Left. I spoke to my friend Lorraine who told me my friend Stacy was getting married in July. I spoke to Stacy and she confirmed the details. She called me later and said how important I am in her life. She can barely imagine how important she is in mine. We are close friends who have seen each other in almost every conceivable type of situation.

I love my friends, poetry, and possibility. A day as blissful and insightful as today comes rarely in this grotesque world. Crimson roses bloom. Furry babies pop off our peach tree. The world is incredible and well worth saving.

What Anarchists Eat for Dinner: El Sopar and CR10

Every now and then I see a film that I have imagined existed and have waited all my life to see. Pere Portabella's 1974 El Sopar was one of these films. Beautifully shot, the film takes viewers into an intimate dinner party, replete with wine, crusty bread, cigarettes, and revolutionary ex-political prisoners discussing the ethics of various resistance strategies within prison on the night of the execution of revolutionary anarchist Salvador Puig Antich. The old Spanish militants talk about sexism within revolutionary movements, the failures of martyrdom politics, and the struggles they face after surviving long prison sentences.

Portabella's films criticized the Franco regime. The filmmaker worked closely with famed Spanish surrealist Luis Bunuel on Viridiana. The Museum of Modern Art did a retrospective of his work in 2007.

For people interested in further dialog about prisoners--particularly prison abolition, you should check out CR10: the 10th Anniversary of the Critical Resistance Conference which will be taking place in Oakland September 26-28th.

The Democratic Cannibals and 2-Party Rhetorical Gas

Dissatisfied with the corporate take-over of politics, the oppressive nature of the United States government, and the war in Iraq, many people have objected to both the Democratic and Republican Parties. While Obama has raised hope for change for many and Clinton has allegedly, though not to my knowledge, been something of a policy hack, the truth is both candidates and the Democratic Party have supported the Iraq War and after spending their terms in the Democratic Majority Senate cannibalizing the people of Iraq, they are now eating each other. In this dire situation, were one candidate to step up and articulate a legitimately progressive viewpoint challenging the vast destruction of corporations, the prison industrial complex, and the racist profiling that police continuously engage in, the election might be interesting. Rather, we have an election filled with empty rhetoric and at the end of the day will be left again with an election that will change very little. I hope I am wrong. Somebody in office will have to prove it.

Stop Gang Violence: Fight the Capitalist State

Since the fatal shooting of Denver Crips co-founder Michael Asberry, Denver's corporate media has been thrilled to sell news announcing that a new wave of gang violence is sweeping our city. What the media fails to report is the consistent harassment people on Denver's East and West Side face from the most violent gang in town--the Denver Police Department. The media fails to discuss the city's failing education system, the pressures of racist employment practices, and the predatory recruitment of youth of color into the even larger gang--the U.S. military. While Asberry's death and any escalation of gang violence is tragic, these issues must not dwarf the enormous problems of structural racism, the gang violence inflicted by state and corporate power that protects white privilege and capitalist rule. My condolences to Asberry's family and friends. My encouragement to all who wish to organize against the most brutal gangs in global history--the United States Government, capitalists, and imperialists--perpetrators of genocide, mass imprisonment, torture, and slavery. Peace to the streets of Denver, to the gangs, and the community. The fight against the state and capitalism needs our attention, our organization, and perhaps our lives.

FM Magazine: Denver Art, Culture, Fashion

Lately, I've had two Denver projects on my mind: 1) a Denver based experimental cultural space bringing together people from various races, cultures, disciplines, and media; 2) a Denver-based cultural magazine highlighting what is amazing in Denver. When I got to work today, on my desk sat a copy of FM Magazine (Fucking Mountains). It does a great deal of what I envisioned a Denver-based magazine could/should do. Good job. Now someone simply has to start an intersectional, experimental cultural space, put it on my desk, and let me keep enjoying the city.

Our Vile Government

This New York Times article reveals that the FBI is complaining about harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA and the U.S. Military. According to the article:

One bureau memorandum spoke of “torture techniques” used by military interrogators. Agents described seeing things like inmates handcuffed in a fetal position for up to 24 hours, left to defecate on themselves, intimidated by dogs, made to wear women’s underwear and subjected to strobe lights and extreme heat and cold.

Clearly, the people in charge of our government act without regard for human dignity. Do they fail to recall that what goes around comes around? Bad behavior, unethical disregard for others, these never lead to just outcomes. Our government must stop engaging in grotesquely unethical behavior and must pay for its crimes through retribution to those it has harmed. Rather than soldiers, those in leadership should be held accountable for mass murder, torture, and crimes against humanity-in short, they should be condemned as war criminals and face the highest penalties of international court.

The Green Scare and White Supremacy

Last night I had an interesting conversation about the so-called Green Scare and the impact of The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Like so much recent legislation, AETA does an incredible job criminalizing those who work to defend the earth and its creatures. By criminalizing the defense of the earth, our land-base and its creatures, the Federal Government and AETA in particular aid in defending the death of millions of people and thousands of species. Furthermore, acts criminalizing the defense of the earth are complicit in structural white supremacy preventing people from dismantling the ecological weapons used to inflict environmental racism on communities of color.

Due to environmental racism, communities of color tend to be most affected by oppressive environmental policies. Places like Louisiana's Cancer Alley, the three super-fund sites near my residential Black and Latino neighborhood of Clayton, Navajo land brutally affected by uranium mining each exemplify ways Corporations informed by structural racism have created health hazards in communities of color and ultimately decreased the life-span of people of color. In 2007 The United Church of Christ put out a disturbing report called Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007 that demonstrates the various ways communities of color are drastically impacted by toxic dumping.

As the Green Scare sweeps eco-activists, the racist criminal-industrial complex continues to target and detain Blacks and Latinos, ICE attacks immigrants, and the military attacks Arabs and Muslims, resistant forces against environmental destruction, imperialism, racism, and oppression should unite forces against the true criminals--the politicians and business people profiting from dozens of genocides executed through environmental, military, and economic aggression.

Prisoners rotting in Guantanamo Bay, victims of the Green Scare, people of color targeted and incarcerated because of their race should be uniting forces with each other and with academics, media, artists, and above ground activists who can demonstrate the connections between environmental destruction, white supremacy, and capitalism and prove once and for all if we want to survive as a species we must live sustainable lives and abolish racism and oppression.

Art In Motion's Weekend Event

Yesterday, my friend Jerrilyn and I stopped by an incredible event put on by Art in Motion. The event took place at Aztlan Plaza near 8th and Federal. Families were out at the event getting hair-cuts, painting murals, eating corn, nachos and fruit. Community activists working on health issues, safer-sex, ending violence in LGBTQ community, and others were out in droves. The event did a great job bringing together art, activism, intergenerational families and community, and food! Mystic performed at the event. Sadly, I had to go to a meeting and missed her. I wish I could find the Art In Motion website to show you a link! If you have a website for them, let me know!

Community Cultural Centers

In looking at Denver, one thing we are desperately missing is a community-based cultural center--especially a place that actively brings together multiple cultures, races, disciplines, and media in a spirit of solidarity, learning, and action. In conversation with my roomie Jessi, we often talk of the East Side Cafe in Los Angeles as an example of an incredible cultural space. My own personal favorite is Mess Hall in Chicago. Hopefully, as Denver grows, we can create a space to fill this need.

Breakfast, Gramsci, Action

A delicious breakfast this morning--eggs, fried potatoes, black beans, a banana-coconut-ginger smoothie and black coffee. I enjoyed my breakfast. I enjoyed the company I was with--Hillary and Jessi. I enjoyed the warmth of the morning and the taste of the food. I am thankful for these things, these people, and the life I live. That being said, I have neither hope nor faith in the future and am fully aware that the lives of most people are abjectly miserable.

People wonder how hopeless people like me continue to act, to move forward in good faith aspiring to make the world more tolerable, safer, more pleasurable. The answer is simple: the process, the action, the experience of demanding change, of enjoying life is rewarding. A life without trying, despite the futility, is a worthless live. I enjoy my life--therefore I try. I am constantly coming back to Antonio Gramsci's notion of pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. The journey, the attempt, this is well worth engaging in. Not that I presume we will lose--I simply acknowledge all we have lost: countless species, clean water, clean air, clean soil. Together we can redeem these things through action--not hope. Together, we can love each other, support each other, heal each other--through action--not hope. Together we can build a world we desire.

Lets not hope for it--lets do it!

The Dollar Declines as Surveillance Increases

I just got an email from a European Distributor who informed me that she would no longer work with United States Dollars as the value has declined so greatly that it is not worth her time. It is a fact that the value of the dollar is low and poverty, poor health, and bad education define the current culture of the United States. In my trips to Germany and Canada it was glaringly obvious that the quality of life in the U.S. was slumping. What's disturbing is that as poverty is on the rise, so is government surveillance. Check out this article from the LA Times distributed by Free Press. Not only are we witnessing the decline of the economy and continuing to be harmed by neoliberal economic strategies that shift social responsibility away from the state, we are being spied on in the meantime. We live in a country where resources go towards snooping rather than saving lives. Gross.

Chipotle: Stop Screwing Labor!

If you don't like exploited labor to grow tomatoes for your burritos, you should check out the following action put on by the Denver Fair Food Committee:


Protest at Chipotle Shareholders Meeting
for Farmworker Justice

Join us, bright and early, outside Chipotle Mexican Grill's annual
shareholders Meeting to demand that it ensure fair wages and human
rights for the workers who pick tomatoes that fill its tacos and
burritos!

WHEN: Wednesday, May 21
7:30 AM to 8:15 AM

WHERE: Oxford Hotel
1600 17th St
Wazee St. and 17th
Downtown Denver

Coffee and food will be provided for participants.

BACKGROUND: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers--a Florida-based
organization of Latino, Haitian, and Mayan farmworkers--has called on
Chipotle Mexican Grill to ensure fair wages and human rights for the
workers who pick tomatoes that fill its tacos and burritos.

Tomato pickers in Florida earn sub-poverty wages, have no right to
form unions or to benefits of any kind, and have not received a
significant raise in nearly 30 years. In the most extreme cases,
workers are held in modern-day slavery and forced to work against
their will. Chipotle's demand for the cheapest tomatoes, without
regard for the human cost to workers, has contributed to the sweatshop
conditions in the fields.
Chipotle, however, has refused to even meet with the CIW and has even
claimed to have switched tomato suppliers in an effort to avoid
improving conditions for farmworkers.

Chipotle claims to serve ?food with integrity,? using
sustainably-raised ingredients and free-range meat. Yet, it refuses
to take simple steps to ensure that its tomatoes are not picked by
exploited workers.

Tell Chipotle that it cannot continue sidestepping the human rights -
that ?food with integrity? must in ?work with dignity? for the those
who harvest its tomatoes.

Denver Fair Food Committee
For more information: robert @ sfalliance.org, 505-980-4220

TAMMS YEAR TEN

My friend Laurie Jo Reynolds has been working tirelessly on a campaign to bring accountability to the treatment of prisoners at the TAMMS Penitentiary in Illinois. This supermax prison in Southern Illinois treats prisoners terribly engaging in behavior that only the cruelest most delusional people would not refer to as torture.

According to the website, Tamms Year Ten is a coalition of prisoners, ex-prisoners, families, artists and other concerned citizens who have come together to protest the misguided and inhumane policies at Tamms C-MAX, and to call for an end to psychological torture. We have initiated a program of cultural, educational and political events to publicize Tamms after ten years of operation.

Please go to the Tamms Year Ten website and get involved in this urgent campaign. They do not have high-paid lobbyists to win their fight. They depend on the grassroots. That is YOU!

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence Launches New Website

Some happy news in the activist front! INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, a women of color organization working to eliminate violence against women of color through direct action, critical dialog, and grassroots organizing just launched their new website and it looks hot! Now you can go check out organizing tools, videos, donation buttons, forums, and action items from this bad-ass organization! The website was designed by Tumis and looks great!

Don't forget to check out INCITE's track at the upcoming Allied Media Conference.

Notes From a Good Night

Last night a bunch of us from Free Speech TV went to Double Daughters to celebrate our co-worker Jiah's green card acquisition! After a few beers and my sweetheart Hillary's arrival, many hours of debate about the role of the media in social change, and people's struggles and pleasures with our work, we departed ways.

Hillary, who joined us later in the night, and I went to the Wynkoop Brewery for one last beer. As we left we ran into an incredible guy named Ben from Turkey. He was quick-witted and bouncy, poetic in his sensibility, frantic, and charming. Curious, I asked him if he knew Turkish video artist Koken Ergun. He both knew and loved Ergun's work. It was fantastic!

Jumping up and down, Ben spent a slice of the evening talking about the corruption of all politicians. When I made a slightly warm remark about Obama, and I'm not particularly sure what inspired me to do so as I feel chilly towards electoral politics, he bounced about firmly scolding me for my belief in politicians. He commented that all the good people, the smart people stay away from politics as they know that politics is corrupt and corrupting. Egg size drops of rain began to plop on us. Ben ran across the street and into a hotel. Hillary and I pedaled back to Clayton in the windy rainy night.

The Ethics of Propaganda

Advocates for social and environmental justice are often plagued by questions of efficacy? What works? What will win? What are appropriate means of using media to create social change? The answers to these questions, particularly the last, will influence the future trajectory of mass and local movements. Often the Left willingly acknowledges the coercive nature of the dominant media--its propagandistic impact generated by over one-hundred years of psychology, sociology, and other sciences designed to help people understand, and in a worst case scenario, manipulate human behavior. In doing so, it is left with an ethical question that will shape history for better or worse: should we traffic in coercive media strategies or should we inspire criticality through education, poetry, and non-coercive narrative forms? Should we do both? These are the questions we must answer through our praxis. Our actions will determine whether we win or lose.

A quick example can be found in the sloganeering of the election. "YES WE CAN." These three words offer many enormous hope. People feel that life might be manageable. Those who understand that in many ways after the devestation of Iraq, the environment, the education system, the economy, and ongoing wars against the poor, that the more appropriate slogan might be "Oh no we didn't" or even better "whoops,"the rallying cry of inspiration might be utter crap.

There are those who acknowledge that even if our future is grim in the shadow of post-industrial collapse, global warming, a recession, and the blowback from untold violence the world over, that it is still better to forward a message of hope rather than realism. This, to me, appears politicking, immoral, and ethically unsound.

Coercion is violent. False hope is coercive. It seems to me, hope, these days, is violent.

Many say that the dour Left will never win. Unfortunately, Right or Left, the outcome most people world over face is life with preventable or treateable disease, starvation, bloodshed, and poverty. This is not an accident. This is due to the intentional policies and politics of the U.S. and other Capitalist nations. This is not hopeful. It is apocalyptic, an apocalypse most people live daily.

Will optimism recuse us from Capitalism? Probably not. Is it good propaganda to say things feel hopeless? Certainly not. Are things hopeless? Probably.

Should we admit it?

Center for Digital Storytelling

My friend Lynne introduced me to Daniel from the Center for Digital Story Telling. We were lucky enough for him to come by Free Speech TV and introduce us to some of the incredible projects they have been working on helping people learn to use digital technologies to tell their stories. If you're interested in first-person stories, you should check out the site.

AREA Continues to Rock Chicago

Four a couple years, my friend Daniel Tucker has been working on a writing/event project called AREA that documents and sponsors events at the intersections of art, research, activism, and education. Its an incredible resource that does a great job documenting a huge amount of work in Chicago. Check it out!

Green Scare Continues: Eric McDavid's Nasty Sentence

Environmental activist Eric McDavid was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison for conspiring to destory property. No crime took place. McDavid is being convicted for something that never happened--what many are describing as a thought crime.

The background on his case below comes from his website. Please consider writing Eric a letter of support at the address below.

McDavid, Eric

x-2972521 7E128

Sacramento County Main Jail

651 "I" St.

Sacramento, CA

95814USA

Eric McDavid was arrested in Auburn, CA on January 13, 2006 as part of the government’s ongoing Green Scare campaign. He was convicted of “conspiracy to destroy property by means of fire or explosives,” despite no crime actually taking place. Eric's trial was riddled with lies and blunders on the part of the government, who are now pushing for a sentence of 20 years in prison. Eric has been held in solitary confinement at the Sacramento County Main Jail since the day of his arrest. He has struggled with obtaining proper food and has had numerous health issues. He was arrested along with Zachary Jenson and Lauren Weiner. The government’s case is based on the word of a single FBI informant who was paid over $75,000 to fabricate a crime and implicate the trio. Both of Eric’s co-defendants have since caved under the threat of being imprisoned for 20 years and plead guilty to a lesser charge. In doing so, they also agreed to testify against Eric and cooperate in every way possible, including testifying in front of secret grand jury proceedings. Eric has been repeatedly denied bail. For over two years, he has only been allowed to leave his cell for a few hours per week and receives very little contact with the outside world. He needs your support now more than ever, as he prepares to appeal this outrageous conviction.

Remembering Sean Bell: New Yorkers Shut Down Mid-Town Tunnel

Protesting the 50 shot police murder of Sean Bell, New Yorkers shut down the mid-town tunnel. Check out the video by Team Spider.

The Futility of Hip Pessimism

Hating things is easy. There are many things to hate and most of them are well worth it. Finding pleasure can take more effort, more ingenuity. People love to complain--about work, the city they live in, the cultural void, the failed schools, the collapse of the earth, political differences, the lists go on. Sometimes whining becomes hip. Haters are valued as astute, intelligent, and credible. Lovers get ignored. Progressive hip pessimism often leaves a void where pretensions of hope become persuasive and good ideas couched in whining get ignored. When lefties take too seriously Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci's notion of pessimism of the intellect-optimism of the will, they fail to look for the irresistible, the pleasurable, the desirable. Rather, they intelligently criticize almost everything and turn themselves into groaning messiahs martyring themselves to movements that they don't believe could win.

Center for Tactical Magic

Everybody should check out all the amazing projects The Center for Tactical Magic has been engaged in for the past few years. The TCM merges showmanship, interventionist art practice, creative disruption, energy channeling, and a whole host of performances from The Tactical Ice Cream Unit seen to the right to free occult services where people can curse their least favorite institutions and "learn simple magical tactics for combating the abuse of power."

The Center for Tactical Magic engages in extensive research, development, and deployment of the pragmatic system known as Tactical Magic. A fusion force summoned from the ways of the artist, the magician, the ninja, and the private investigator, Tactical Magic is an amalgam of disparate arts invoked for the purpose of actively addressing Power on individual, communal, and transnational fronts. At the CTM we are committed to achieving the Great Work of Tactical Magic through community-based projects, daily interdiction, and the activation of latent energies toward positive social transformation. From the Center for Tactical Magic website.

Nia King's Borderlands Project

Many of you are probably familiar with Nia King's zine Borderland: Tales From Disputed Territories Between Races and Cultures. Its available at The Queer Zine Archive Project. If not, not you should get familiar. And in the meantime, Nia has put out a call for submissions for Borderlands 2! The call is below:

I am currently seeking personal stories and visual art on the theme of FAMILY for the upcoming issue of my compilation zine about mixed-race, bicultural and transracial adoptee identities. Stories should be
non-fiction and no more than 800 words. No poetry please. Visual art should be black and white and replicate well in a copy machine (minimal grey tones). Submissions are not due until JUNE 1st, 2008, but please don't wait to start writing! Your stories are valuable, and it's time to bring our often neglected cross-cultural and multi-racial experiences from margin to center by telling our own stories!

Send submissions to oxette    (at)   riseup.net. -- Nia King

The Dawn of Denver

Happily, I'm back in Denver for awhile--beautiful, dry Denver. Coming back from all these travels, I feel its quite important to find whats beautiful in one's city--the people, the projects, the geography, the architechture, art, etc...So, that's what I'm wanting to do--come up with more ways of celebrating the beauty of what people here are doing--through video, art, etc...

So for starters, I want to brag about a little something we are doing tomorrow at Free Speech TV--We are shooting The Activist Studio episode about Counter-Recruitment and Anti-War activism featuring Jeff Englehart of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Jessi Quizar of American Friends Service Committee's Youth and Militarism Program.

Ashara Ekundayo, the show's host, will be digging into what exactly is going on in our city in terms of anti-war activism, organing soldiers, and students in high schools and beyond. I am particuarly excited because Jessi is my roommate and a badass organizer/activist. Jeff, someone I've know through Anti-DNC/RNC organizing for a few months now, is also qutie an inspiration. When he was a soldier he was an active blogger writing against the occupation of Iraq. So check it out at our website.

In the meantime, if you live in Denver, start thinking of badass projects and lets start finding some wasy to promote that stuff.

Proximity

Two of the people it has been fun to reconnect with in Oberhausen were Ed and Rachael Marszewski. I remember Ed from my days in Chicago as a controversial, highly prolific curator of incredible social, political, and always artistic collaborations: projects like The Select Media Festival, Lumpen, Version Fest, and other amazing events at the intersection of art and activism. Rachael and Ed are now working on a new project: Proximity.

Proximity is an art magazine focusing on Chicago-based artists and projects. The design is stunning and the content inspirational--particularly from a town as curmudgeonly as Chicago. Temporary Services' Salem Collo-Julin and Brett Bloom have an excellent artice Together: Writing About People Who Work in Groups that examines the ways people in 2 person collaborations and amorous relationships maintain collaboration after breakups and other general amorous trauma.

I've not finished this first edition of Proximiity, but it appears to bring together some of the best minds in Chicago to reflect on the positive aspects of Chicago's art/activist scene. I am eager to continue reading this on my flight home.

Leaving Oberhausen

Well, tonight is my last night at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and it has been a hell of a week watching some amazing short films, reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, making new friends, and overall being treated lavishly. Free Speech TV will be bringing home some incredible shorts to flesh out our schedule--some humor, some agit prop, and documentaries as well. Upon returning, I hope to get back to writing regularly for this blog so keep looking for more. As I am finishing up a fiscal year at work, my travel schedule will be limited for the next two months giving me more time to write. Germany has been amazing. Glad to be coming home, particularly inspired to continue looking for the cultural innovators, the artists, and activists doing amazing work in my own town of Denver.

Tipsy For Display

Tipsy and writing from Oberhausen Deutchland, I am quite glad. Glad for a life of privilege, of travel, of solitude. Though my privilege has been stolen and my life a scam, I am happy to know the sounds of my people, the German. I am horrified that these are my people, that my people have this heritage of fascism. Though, as an American, I must understand privilege from fascism: slavery--native genocide, these acts destroyed people, created people, created a nation of so-called freedom and liberty--bullshit. All freedom and liberty come at the expense of an other. Today, we Americans scam the poor, the immigrant, the global. This is how we maintain power--at the expense of the other.

So what do we do, as so-called revolutionaries, those who care?

We fight. Nothing. short of fighting--creating cultural suicide, matters. Nothing but the eminent destruction of privilege. I like my privilege. To life, to love, to the eradication of the U.S. empire. Fuck the U.S. Towards globalization of the majority and the death of empire! Love!