P r a c t i c a l  @ n a r c h y

                    

                            O  N  L  I  N  E 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------



//// 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 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------



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 



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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------



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 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------



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.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

         This e-zine is published on 100% recycled electrons.