Radical media, politics and culture.

Announcements

Metropolis in Motion announces

an open-air dance and participatory movement event to bring attention to the antiquated & restrictive NYC cabaret laws

date: july 22nd

time: 2-4 pm

location: 79th & fth (at the corner of Mayor Bloomberg's house)

cost: free

contact e-mail: info@metropolisinmotion.org

www.metropolisinmotion.org

Why we're doing this:

In 1926, New York City sought to limit interaction among the races and control "public lewdness" by clamping down on the jazz scenes found in Harlem and West 52nd Street (and later in the bohemian Greenwich Village). To this end, the City established Cabaret Laws that limited dancing to specially licensed public spaces serving food or drink where three or more persons congregated, and stipulated that only musicians "of good character" could be licensed to play. Over the years, musicians won the right to forgo licensing, but laws regulating dancing remain on the books. As part of his "Quality of Life" campaign, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani used the laws to crack down on bars and clubs without a license that allowed people to dance. Venues were fined, or worse, padlocked and closed forever. The laws continue to be enforced under Mayor Bloomberg, while his Administration gives lip service to repeal or reform. According to the Department of Consumer Affairs, there are currently only 244 actively legal places to dance in New York City, including strip joints and clubs.

Why are these laws still on the books? Some people say it's to enforce a vague notion of the "quality of life." Other people know it's to keep property values high, club owners with cabaret licenses rich, and ordinary people, otherwise known as the citizens of New York, "in line." And we don't mean a kick line."

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Male Bodies / Global Cinema"

Call For Papers


Contributions are sought for a new volume on the representation of the male body in global cinema.

Essays on any nationalities or ethnicities are welcome, but the following will take priority:


Australian cinema;
Chinese cinema;
Cinemas of Western and Southern European countries (especially France, Germany and Italy);
Post 1989 Eastern European cinemas;
Cinemas of the states of the former Soviet Union;
Cinema from the Indian subcontinent;
Latin American cinemas (especially Argentinean, Brazilian, Cuban and Mexican);
Middle Eastern cinema.


Contributions can focus on specific countries or ethnicities and can analyse key actors, directors or films or offer a more diverse overview, but the emphasis will be on cinema produced in the last twenty years.


Please send proposals including title, 500-word abstract, provisional bibliography and short bio by 1 December 2006. Accepted contributions (of around 7,000 words) will be expected by July 2007 for publication with a well-established publishers in the field in late 2008/early 2009.


santiago.fouz@durham.ac.uk

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Launch Art Groups Networking Project

Temporary Services


The widely known Chicago-based artists' group Temporary Services has launched a new historical networking project. Here is the pitch:


Dear enthusiasts of group work and collaboration:


Please help us build a database of people working in arts and
arts-related groups, collectives and movements.


Temporary Services has worked as a group since late in 1998. We are
interested in the cultures of collaboration and collectivity within group
practice.


While much recent attention has been given to these ways of working,
few substantial documents have been produced that reflect the amount of
work that has been accomplished. There is also a need for more writing
on the inner dynamics of the group process: how collaborations are
formed, how decisions are made, how conflict is resolved, and so on.


We are compiling the names, locations, and dates (when available) of
art and arts-related groups, which can include those who work as
curatorial collectives. We would like your help!


The list will be published in a book we are working on titled Group
Work.
The book will include interviews, quotes about working together,
lists of words used to describe the numerous ways in which we group
ourselves, and a list of historic and currently active groups.


The list will also be a part of a larger initiative called Groups and
Spaces that several people have contributed to. Groups and Spaces
includes groups of one person (who still chooses to work under a group name),
couples who work as a group, groups of three or more people, and open
networks that are named, but aren't necessarily a collective or more
circumscribed group.


We would like your help to develop this list and make it as
comprehensive as possible. Please visit http://www.groupsandspaces.net to see the
list of groups and to submit names of groups not listed, corrections to
information already posted, or any suggestions you have to make the
list better.


The list is still under construction, but is public and accessible to
all. A more sophisticated, searchable database and sets of research
tools are planned for the site after this preliminary list making is over.


Thank you,

Temporary Services

(Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin, Marc Fischer)

http://www.temporaryservices.org

http://www.groupsandspaces.net

mh writes:

Journal of Aesthetics and Protest

Submisson Call

(Note: Spanish language call below)

Cut from a mass-culture, we so rarely directly address ourselves and one another. As such, it’s the loudest, richest and oldest voices that carry the day. So, we experience wars and Walmart instead of talking about "who am I" or "who are we" and figuring out "what can we do?"

We are interested in finding out “How do we say we?”

Proposals are invited for The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest’s Issue 5 for either examples of historic speeches, amazing contemporary speakers or created speech that resonate or cause dissonance: Speeches from stages, podiums, music clubs, soapboxes, etc...

ABC No Rio Acquires the Property at 156 Rivington Street

On June 29 ABC No Rio took ownership of the property at 156 Rivington Street from the City of New York, following several years of planning and negotiations.

While the purchase price was $1, ABC No Rio must raise the funds necessary to renovate the building. To date we've raised over $290,000, enough to begin and complete the first phase of construction.

Envisioned for the site is a multi-use community arts center with darkroom, silk-screen printing facility, small press resource center, computer center, expanded space for art, music, performance, educational and community activities, and meeting and office space.

We achieved this great milestone through the efforts, participation and support of many, many hundreds of artists, activists, musicians, performers, patrons and supporters, yet our future fundraising challenges remain.

ABC No Rio's 'culture of opposition' goes back over twenty-six years to our founding. We'll need your help to continue this tradition.

Thank you for your support.

Stop Media Consolidation in New York

Robert McChesney

The Federal Communications Commission and industry lobbyists are trying to let huge media companies get even bigger by resurrecting the same rule changes that millions of Americans rejected in 2003.

Recently, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin began the process of relaxing ownership rules. If he prevails, we will see the further demise of local news, independent voices and critical journalism.

In 2003, your letters and calls stopped this nonsense. Now we need to do it again.

Tell the FCC that Big Media is Big Enough

Anonymous Comrade writes:



DIY Guide to Santa Cruz, California


Hey there,

        There's a couple new and interesting projects happening in Santa Cruz, that we would like to let y'all know about...

New(ish) Artspace/Infoshop!
The Playing in Sand Collectiv presents:
Werkshop Museum & The Galley @ 293 Squid Row (Downtown) Santa Cruz, CA.
Hours: 2:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. most days
email: playinginsand@gmail.com

This is a great d.i.y. art space/infoshop/showspace. Werkshop Museum has been open since October 2005. In January 2006 they acquired an adjacent space (the Galley) with a music room/show space and a d.i.y. art gallery to raise funds to support the project. They host a variety of regular freeskool classes, for example: figure drawing, music jam sessions, stencil making, block prints, and yoga. They have allocated a section for anarchist books and zines to be sold. A really fucking good selection. This a place that should definately be visited upon your arrival to Santa Cruz.

From the Playing in Sand Collectiv on their space:

"The P.S.C. maintains two facilities on Squid Row Alley;

        Werkshop Museum: classes/workshops, presentations/discussions, independent practice. Within is a permanent collection of local artwork, a cache of creative materials, and an infoshop with radical literature.

        The Galley: textile workshop, sound-lab, trading post. The P.S.C. offers opportunities to learn classical techniques as well as sharing experimental approaches using salvaged materials. On the second Sunday of every month we come together to host an event with workshops, food, and performances to represent these concepts and build creative momentum."

Quiver Distro & Press
POB 993
Santa Cruz, CA. 95061
quiver@anti-politics.net
www.anti-politics.net/distro

"We have recently put up a web update that includes pdf. links or text files to many of the zines we carry. This has been done in order to make it easier for those who want to get copies of these publications for distribution and reading."

DIY GUIDE TO SANTA CRUZ
(an incomplete list of independent local projects)

Meaningful projects begin with people who are motivated to put into action their desires for the kind of world in which they want to live. The more we create our own projects that are apart from and in some cases pose a direct challenge to the dominant institutions, the more vital and meaningful our world(s) will be for us. Here is a short list of some of these kinds of projects in Santa Cruz.

Anarchist Library
Need a good radical history book to curl up with in the rainy winter months? Or a great book on anarchy to take with you to the beach during the summer? Visit the Anarchist Library where you can check out radical books that might not be available in the local library. The collection covers such diverse subjects as anarchy, Situationists, history, politics, fiction, ecology, indigenous studies, feminism, psychology, and a small collection of zines. Also, current grassroots and radical events are posted. At the Sacred Grove, 924 Soquel Ave.

The Bike Church
Community Bike Shop and Tool Cooperative
http://www.santacruzhub.org/bikechurchfrm.html
You need not be a mechanic to use the Bike Church's do-it-yourself repair facility; people of all aptitudes make use of the shop. Church ministers (mechanics) are there to help and get as involved in the repair of your bicycle as necessary. We encourage people to learn by getting their hands dirty - familiarize them-selves with the machine that they rely on to get them from place to place. The Bike Church is part of The Hub at 703 S. Pacific, Downtown. 425-2453.

Food Not Bombs
http://www.geocities.com/santacruzfnb/
Food Not Bombs offers community meals open to all, as an opportunity to build community, reclaim public space, protest hunger, poverty, militarization, and all forms of oppression. Serving two days a week: Sundays 4pm @ San Lorenzo Park, & Wednesdays 4pm @ the south end of the Farmer's Market.

Free Radio Santa Cruz - 101.1 FM
http://www.freakradio.org
Free Radio Santa Cruz has been on the air for over 10 years without a license. We broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, in defiance of federal regulations. We go on the air to produce & broadcast a diversity of programs that are simply unavailable on corporate controlled stations, to bring local control & local accountability to our community media & to challenge corporate control of the airwaves. FRSC is part of a growing micro-radio movement. On the air at 101.1 FM & live stream link at website.

Free Skool Santa Cruz
http://santacruz.freeskool.org
Free Skool offers a variety of classes in homes, open spaces and community centers all over Santa Cruz. Free Skool is a decentralized and completely grass-roots effort, a collection of locals who’ve decided to act collectively and autonomously to create a skill-sharing network, a school without institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from others and share what we know, to help create self-reliance, vital communities, and beauty in the world. Free Skool calendars are distributed widely in various public places around Santa Cruz and at the website.

Guerilla Drive-In
http://www.guerilladrivein.org
Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In is an outdoor movie theatre under the stars that springs up in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is to help reclaim public space and transform our urban environment into a joyful playground. GDI also lends support to other projects. Every other Friday. Summer series at the railroad tracks at Fair Ave. on the Westside & Winter series at the Bike Church.

Santa Cruz Indymedia
http://indybay.org/santacruz
Web-based local news and info source, focused on local issues and the direct impact of larger issues on our community. The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate telling of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwilling-ness to cover the efforts to free humanity. Santa Cruz Indymedia is an autonomous chapter of the Independent Media network. Online.

Of course there is much more going on around town than this short list encompasses. Keep your eyes and ears open; talk to others (word of mouth is the best way to learn about what’s-going-on) and look for flyers around town. Let’s joyfully tear down the world around us and create something wonderful in its place.

Subcommandante Ricardo Flores writes:

We're Looking for a Few Good Clowns

Rebel Clown Army

CALLING ALL THOSE WHOSE INNER CLOWN IS DANCING AND WIGGLING AND TRYING TO GET OUT

Are YOU tired of humdrum protests and bored of capitalism?
Do YOU enjoy working in a team and ridiculing authority?
Do YOU long for extremely silly adventures?

JOIN THE CLANDESTINE INSURGENT REBEL CLOWN ARMY
To join, email circa-sd@riseup.net
For more info, see http://clownarmy.org

Join our anti-citizens brigade to help repel the invasion of the fascist Minutemen and similar anti-immigrant groups from our country! Our country of Laztlaugh, of course. We have seceded from both the US because of its genocidal colonial adventures all over the globe and from Mexico for its complicity in the plans of the US through free trade treaties such as NAFTA. We have created our own autonomous rebel clown territory, Laztlaugh here in the borderlands, but is is now being invaded by the endlessly dreary seriousness of the Minutemen. Join us and help us repel this invading menace from our precious country!

Of course, we are an anti-citizens brigade, and not a citizen's brigade, because until everyone can be a citizen, we don't want to be citizens. In fact, we want no one to be a citizen so that everyone can be a citizen and then we'll all be able to be treated humanely, with hugs and ice cream.

We will repel the invasion of the Minutemen with our powerful laughter, dangerous weapons such as feather dusters and with lots and lots of silliness.

Although, we really may just end up joining them. Clearly, what better example of a clown army has the world ever seen than the Minutemen and their tiny battalions? The Minutemen are truly an army of clowns and we could never hope to outdo them at what they do best, stupidity and idiocy.

Join us! If we want to defeat the Minutemen, or if we want to join the Minutemen, clearly we're going to have to do a lot of training! We have to do some serious training in being completely un-serious.

Of course, there are many battles for a good clown army to fight, so once our brigade is well trained, we can move on to fighting valiantly against the many other facets of capitalism that are oh so boring.

For a world where many worlds fit into a single clown car...

Justice! Dignity! Bubbles! Giggles!
From the anti-citizens brigade of CIRCA — Border Faction

To join, email circa-sd@riseup.net
For more info, see http://clownarmy.org

The Batko Group writes:

Dissident #2: Insurrection and Anarchism

Swedish Batko Group

The Swedish journal Dissident has now published their issue about Insurrectionary anarchism in English on their website: http://www.batko.se/en_index.php

Insurrectionary anarchism is an attempt to formulate a tendency within the revolutionary movement, a perspective that is always present in the class struggle and emerges from it, and how we as revolutionaries should relate to this.


What the insurrectionary anarchists have contributed with, and what makes them so interesting, is that they with a point of departure in the classical principles of anarchism (direct action, propaganda by the deed, an undogmatic view on theory etc.), and derived from their own analysis of the contemporary reality, have tried to cast the whole of the formal workers movement overboard, and with it everything it implies of ideological prejudice, traditions and alienating structures.

Instead they have initiated the incredibly ambitious project of formulating a completely new coherent theory for the totality of revolutionary practice, something that actually can bring us closer to the revolution, not just talk about it. They try to formulate and rationalize the spontaneous perspectives that constitute the driving force of the class struggle and they have actually come quite a long way.

The Batko Group

Tarantula Distribution writes

Now available from Tarantula Publications:

THE NEW STATE REPRESSION

“Today’s political repression differs fundamentally from the repression practiced here and around the world in the past. The most basic difference is on the level of strategy [...] the general approach of the state, the outlook of the ruling class.

“In the past, the rulers and their security forces believed that the normal condition of society was stability and calm, while insurgency was thought to be a quirk, an oddity, a pathology. [...] The difference today is their belief that insurgency is not an occasional, erratic idiosyncrasy of people who are exploited or oppressed, but a constant occurrence—permanent insurgency, which calls for a strategy that doesn’t simply rely on a police force and a national guard and an army that can be called out in an emergency, but rather a strategy of permanent repression as the full-time task of the security forces.”

—Ken Lawrence

“Our rulers need repression because they know how brittle their legitimacy really is, and how weak their grip on power. This sense of vulnerability always provides the premise for their plans, the motive for repressive action. ‘The New State Repression’ shows us this, often from the state’s perspective and largely through the words of its own strategists.

“We cannot afford to underestimate the state. But we should not fool ourselves into believing in its omnipotence, either. Ken Lawrence has offered a guard against each type of error.”

—Kristian Williams

Ken Lawrence’s classic essay on strategies of counter-insurgency has now been reprinted with a new introduction by Kristian Williams (author, Our Enemies in Blue and American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination).

Three dollars postpaid, or ask your local bookseller to place an order.

(Pamphlet, June 2006, 24 pages with silver/blue cover.)

Order online (U.S. / postpaid copy) here.

Please contact Tarantula Publications for bulk distribution rates, or for information on our other titles:

Tarantula / 818 SW 3rd Ave. PMB 1237 / Portland, OR 97204

www.socialwar.net

Promotional flyer (.pdf format) here. Spread the word—print and distribute!

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