textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000347.txt

INFINITE ONION ten 
email me at 72500.2176@compuserve.com 

This is the e-mail version of Infinite Onion 10 and contains the text from the 
paper version. The paper version has much more stuff (visual) and is available 
for $1 postpaid in the usa, $2 elsewhere. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 
One day, during a visit to Dallas; you know the city where the Ewings live, I 
was lounging on a couch in the house of some friends. Alone in the living room 
, watching the fleas hop across the pages of my book (Guy DeBord's Society of 
the Spectacle if I remember right. read it, it's written a little strange but 
well worth it). I was wondering why no fleas had bitten me yet. The house was 
infested with them and people were complaining about flea bites, but they 
never fucked with me. I had heard body odor acts as a natural insect 
repellant. But I had also heard it repels people too and I knew that wasn't 
true. I've long boasted a powerful guerilla odor that radiates from my armpits 
and never to my knowledge has it actually driven away people. So I doubted 
insects , who are much less picky about smells and dirt than humans are would 
be bothered by it at all. For a second or so I pondered that thought which had 
sufficiently distracted me from my contemplation of commodity fetishism and 
capitalism as to make me l 

ose my place. Scott walked in the door. He stopped. He looked around. He 
aquired a slightly puzzled expression on his face ; maybe you could call it a 
squint. He exclaimed:"What smells like onions?". Knowing fully well that 
nobody had been cooking onions, I realized it was me that smelled like onions 
and almost simultaneously I took on the belief that eating onions (garlic too 
of course) daily makes one strong and less desirable eating for parasitic 
insects. This , of course, fits right in with my flimsy concept of the 
infinite onion and cyclic (r)evolution and change. Also some people call me 
Dave Onion which makes even more sense to me now. One could say, I've taken 
another brave step towards TRUTH. 

Look at me! I'm gone. I left this pathetic excuse for a culture and most 
likely am not where you think I am for all the best reasons. Don't write me. 
Vanessa will probably get your letter, read it, throw it away and use any 
money she finds to hire a real plumber and pay off her credit card bills. 

The Infinite Onion is free if you find it or its given to you or itz available 
for one dollare postage paid within the US ( $2 elsewhere in the world) from 
the elves at 

OSMOSIS 
PO Box 6445 
Colorado Springs , CO 80934-6445 
usa 
Tell them Molly Ringwald sent you! 

or from any respectable DIY distributor 

So don't send me any. If you have anything you want to submit for next issue 
(please do), send it to Osmosis (or email me) and i'll try to get it from them 
when I can. But don't hassle them with letters to me that you want answered 
within months. I probably won't make it back here for quite some time and 
don't really know where I'll be when. (that's a good thing). 

Infinite Onion is available in huge stacks to hand out or set in stores or 
give away as gifts or whatnot from Osmosis. Just send as much postage as you 
can muster and they'll send you as many Infinite Onions as they can in return. 

UK and Europe people! Current and back issues are available from DS4A (SAE + 
40p for UK rest of Europe send 90p , DS4A c/o Box 8 Greenleaf Bookshop / 82 
Colston St. / Bristol, AVON UK) as well as from BM Active ( BM Active / WC1N 
3XX / London UK). Both these distributors have some pretty impressive mail 
order catalogs you could check out as well. 

Really fun disclaimer: I don't suggest you do anything in here! If you do and 
get caught, you fucked up. Don't blame me. I'm completely innocent. I'm a 
distributor of information for the purpose of entertainment, not a fucking 
terrorist! 

CAUTION !!!! PROTECTED PRIVATE PROPERTY! 
This magazine remains the property of the sender unless and/or until it has 
been personally and materially accepted by the prisoner to whom it is 
addressed.In the event that the prisoner is denied direct access to this 
publication it must be returned to the sender with notice of the reason(s) for 
failing to deliver to the addressee. 

"Someday love will find you, break those chains that bind you."- Journey 

For inspiration and/or support over the last few years I hail: Vanessa, Marcie 
and Toast, Chris, Dan at Profane Existence, Robert Stark,the Bijou St. soup 
kitchen (yeah , even the people who call me ungrateful for being picky about 
meat content) , Mindy and the CC soup kitchen (better food than real 
reataurants) , FUEL cafe in Milwaukee, Downtown post office workers, Citizen 
Fish, Spencer, Robert Anton Wilson, Monty, Edward Abbey, Darren, Diana, 
Suiciety and other Dallas /Ft. Worth punks, Spitboy, Rachel, my parents, Arnie 
zine, Matt Duffy , Brian Circle, Sasha and Dave in Flagstaff, cool curious 
cats in Amarillo, Sonny , Gigi, Heather and Vi, Shireen and ken-e, Lisa, Mary, 
Jay, Big Mike, Mike E, Molly, Pablo and Lara, Israel Regardie, Travis, Exedra 
zine, P, Lorenzo, Durruti, Zapata, Goldman, Lorenzo, dave the destroyer, dee 
the funky homosapien, Crash Worship, Lorenzo o Kom'boa Ervin, Thoreau. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
BLERBS 

Last issue scared me. It looked too nice and professional. Also it was a 
little weird going to news print. People were patting me on the back , telling 
me how it looks so much MORE ACCESSIBLE. I suppose accessible is OK, but I 
thought it lacked a little of the personal feel of past issues. One thing I 
like about zines is that upon picking one up, one is instantly infused with 
the thought :"I CAN DO THAT TOO !!! and probably better." To me , that's what 
makes a form of media accessible. The knowledge that one can have access to 
that particular form of expression and do with it what the fuck one wants. 
Slick magazines do not do that to me. They give off the impression that the 
printed information and expression business should be left to the 
professionals with the appropriate degrees and experience. This issue will be 
layed out cut and paste with minimal use of frustrating and unecessary layout 
programs that crash whenever I forget to save everything every minute. Besides 
, computer layouts smack of legitimacy 

. 

I wrote a lot about my feelings on leaving Colorado Springs since last issue. 
However looking back on it now, I feel very uncomfortable printing it. A good 
deal of what i wrote is overly cynical and doesn't really reflect how I 
normally feel. I think most of this was a result of being frustrated with my 
living situation. I had a lot of negative feelings about being around so many 
politically conscious people who are completely unwilling to act on their 
beliefs in an outward way. I love them all , and that's probably the reason 
why things like that bother me so much. Also I had written some on black 
magick of the pigs, which I was looking forward to putting out, but I sort of 
wrote and thought myself into a corner. Maybe next time. 

There's a very liberating feeling that I'm anticipating with this move. With 
all the positive growth that's accompanied the increase in people I've been 
dealing with there's also a lot of binding "responsibility" that has kept me 
from aquiring the space I value to develop and grow in different directions. 
My unstoppable monstrous mountain of mail has taken on a life of its own. I've 
found myself using a great deal of time and mental energy pacifying the beast 
and it never seems to shrink. If I leave town to travel for as little as two 
weeks , I can easily accumulate over 100 pieces of mail. This is completely 
insane. Although most of my mail involves relatively effortless tasks such as 
filling orders and putting catalogs in envelopes, it does build up to steal a 
large chunk of energy that I used to delegate to writing real letters to 
people. I feel that even though I've met a lot of incredible people through 
the mail and have grown personally after being exposed to new things as a 
result of doing Neverending 

vegetable, most real dialogue and mail friendships have suffered. When "doing 
mail" , my head seems to sort of shift into business mode and I become more 
task oriented, so that when I finally get through the pile of orders to a 
letter from a friend , I find it very difficult to respond in a non-task 
oriented manner. In most cases my letters have probably become a lot more 
rushed, spiritless and less expressive of my feelings while they become more 
centered around what I've been up to and responding to questions. Apologies to 
everyone I've ditched in the past with real letters. I will also not be 
recieving as many zines. it may be a little strange since I do one myself and 
value zines as a way of destroying the idea of "legitimate media" and instead 
creating ones own media regardless of who approves or finances it. But 
unfortunately the bulk of zines I get are like literary pop songs for people 
with short attention spans. They have short , unchallenging articles usually 
addressing issues and ideas in a way t 

h 

at's been done plenty of times before and which I get nothing out of. There's 
really nothing wrong really with putting out a zine like that. If that's how 
you are and feel , then express it ! But I've gotten swamped with them and 
have lost a lot of the enthusiasm I used to have for them. I don't need to 
fill my head with clutter and at the moment I'm overwhelmed by a ridiculous 
barrage of information which I want to devour. But I lack the omnipotence to 
carry through with such a task. 
So after I leave, my first move will be to clear my head of clutter and 
relearn how to write "real" letters, devote more time to people I love and 
shoot myself in new directions. I'm not leaving an address where I'll be , 
partly because I'm unsure of how safe it will be to recieve the type of mail I 
do , but mostly because I want to be free of that obligation. 

It seems as if all my stupid court hassles are definitely over for the time 
being. To illustrate how much getting my summer plans of exploring the 
universe tied up in court dates and arrests bothers the shit out of me , I'll 
put it like this : If I ran into the legal system (or Amerikkka in general) 
while walking down the road one day, I would out of sheer hate and will power 
alone blow the bothersome bastard to bits probably leaving behind a sizeable 
crater to mark the spot and serve as a good reminder to anyone else who has 
ideas of fucking with my psacred pfreedom. A couple people have called me a 
cop magnet. I don't try to get in trouble, I just do sometimes. I know people 
who follow cops through the park calling them nazi pigs and just get ignored. 
I'm not asking for their attention. I don't think its cool to get arrested or 
fucked with; maybe it's cop karma. Some good did come out of my last court 
hassle, though. After being accused (falsely) of stealing a book by a bug eyed 
and high strung employee at 

Chinook bookstore, a place I once considered a decent place, I was coerced 
into taking part in a petty theft seminar where we were taught how theft 
really only hurts the poor and disposessed and when people are caught 
stealing, they wind up getting gang raped repeatedly in prison and lose all 
their friends and often their closest relatives won't t even speak to them out 
of shame of being related to a thief (as we saw on a video hosted by the sexy 
and highly intelligent Peter Falk). Luckily before the ordeal was over, I 
learned some handy tips on corporate security, met a guy who could sell me a 
brand new walkman for $10 and best of all got certified. Now I can walk into 
any store , stuff my pockets with goodies and when confronted by an employee I 
just wave my slip of paper in their face. "Pfuck you man , I'm certified". 

My KKK rally arrest as documented in last issue got dismissed. They had no 
point, the puds. 
After feeling fairly fucking free from fascists and cop trouble, I flew like a 
fairy to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, the biggest frat party I'd ever seen with 
a somewhat separatist punk contingent by the water. Unfortunately cops keep 
themselves busy by arresting punks for trivialities. I, as fate would have it, 
got hauled in as an accomplice to urinating in public. I got off easy ; since 
the paddy wagons were too full to take me they let me go after a couple of 
hours of mild torture and insults. Mary, however, ended up in jail for a 
couple days with impressive bruises. The fun didn't end there. Cops invaded a 
Crash Worship show and bashed in heads, arresting several innocent people and 
demanding $10,000 bail (I think) as a revenge statement for the redecoration 
and restructuring of one of their vehicles outside of the show. Other than the 
pig factor, it was a decent celebration. 
Osmosis , the alternative clothing and literature shop is starting to do mail 
order and has bought up all the Neverendingvegetable stock as well as my 
screens. Infinite Onion will be available through them as well. Write them for 
a catalog or info : Osmosis PO Box 

The following are news blerbs I aquired from other publications, from direct 
contacts, over e-mail or different electronic mailing lists. The idea here is 
to make news accessible which doesn't get out to people all that much as well 
as to encourage people to get involved in these struggles directly. What i've 
thrown in here is not extensive news, so by all means write to the addresses 
and get more information and act as appropriate. 

Garden of the Gods themepark: A texas millionaire named Lyda Hill put down 
some $2 million to build a visitors center in Garden of the Gods, a beautiful 
( some people claim say sacred) area which contains incredible huge red rock 
formations. From what I've gathered , a small trading post inside the garden 
will be removed and replaced by a tourist friendly visitors center directly 
outside of the rocks and visible from the road. Lyda Hill's idea is, from how 
I understand it, to improve Colorado Springs'economy by building this vile 
fishing lure for tourists. Also rumors have spread of talking signs and a tram 
to shuttle tourists and their trash through the area(although they may be 
exaggerations). Needless to say, a good number of people are pissed off. Some 
Native Americans are not enthused about digging up and exploiting what they 
say was burial grounds and/or sacred to them, others don't care too much to 
see the area raped even more for its cash value. Funny enough though, of all 
the groups involved , the l 

ocal AIM chapter (American Indian Movement) is supporting Lyda Hill and 
monitoring the digging (which started before it was even voted on) to retrieve 
any bodies that may turn up, and on occasion attempting to chase away 
protestors. They've even gone so far as to declare war on CAIR (Coalition for 
American Indian Rights) ,a group who are suing the city, for not being Indian 
enough and for their position against the visitors center. According to 
AIM,they want to work with the city to have some say in what happens with the 
new building and to be able to return artifacts or corpses to the tribes they 
came from. The e Infinite Onion position : Anti gay nazi car salesmen are not 
enough to stomp out tourism in Colorado. However, an efficient program putting 
useless and shifty rich assholes like Lyda Hill to use via mass expropriation 
and redistribution of her wealth to those who need it instead of pouring it 
all into commodifying natural beauty with gimmicky tourist traps would be a 
good first step to make Colora 

d 

o unfertile ground for other rich gawkers. ((Big sentence? Oh yeah, just wait 
for the harcore onomatopeia)) 
The Pnation Of Pnin 
The popes of Pnin have been tearing shit up. Aside from a succesful 
assasination of a PRI candidate in Mexico as a solidarity action with the 
Zapatistas, the Pnation prompted a mass dissing of property ideals and 
bourgeois boringness by throwing a massive Potlatch Potluck Picnic in a local 
park. However the gods approved not and cursed the celebration with hail and 
snow. The potlatch then moved to the closest Pninian pcultural stronghold 
where property ownership was mocked and excellent pfood was ingested. Small 
bands of Pninian pguerillas are expected to plaunch attacks on your minds and 
linear thinking in general any day now. pViva Pnin ! pHail Eris ! 
Amendment 2: Shortly after last issue hit the streets, important people 
declared Amendment 2 unconstitutional and threw it to the birds. Does that 
mean we're free and sexually liberated now? 
The prison in Florence (FCI) has been open and housing prisoners since January 
93 although it's unclear when the actual Control Unit will be open for 
torture. According to the pigs themselves, the prison which was built to 
handle 700 to 800 prisoners is currently holding about 12,000 prisoners. 
Obviously fed up with the miserable conditions in the prison , inmates armed 
themselves with makeshift tools, held off guards , carried out hunger strikes 
and a work stoppage and rioted heavily during the end of February. What really 
happened and whether anyone was injured or killed during the riot completely 
unclear from I've gathered from the sources I have (mostly mainstream press). 
There were reports of gunshots going off inside the prison , but officials 
deny it and nobody seems to know whether they came from prisoners or pigs. For 
more info on control units and activism against them contact Abolish Control 
Unit Torture (ACUT) , PO Box 1156, Boulder, CO 80306 

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) is a group of people 
advocating that we act as earth's last generation of humans. They aren't for 
war or mass murder, just a sensible deep-ecology and gleefully 
anti-anthropocentric vision of freeing the earth of the vile parasites called 
humans. They're currently in the process of setting up a no-interest loan fund 
for vasectomies. In the past they held a Valentine's Day Vasectomy drawing and 
have put out some newsletters explaining their approach. Cool shit. Write to 
VHEMT , Les U. Knight, PO Box 86646 Portland, OR 97286-0646 
graphic 
The Blast is a new bimonthly 24 page newspaper put out by the Agitator Index 
anarchist collective. looks potent. The Blast! , PO Box 7075, Minneapolis, MN 
55407 
NAZIS-FOLLOW YOUR LEADERS EXAMPLE! Infamous Church Of The Creator founder and 
author of the pathetic "White Man's Bible", Ben Klassen did himself him. He 
awoke one morning , gazed in the mirror and that was it. Good riddance. Ian 
Stuart , nazi organizer and vocalist for the white power band Skrewdriver , as 
well as another nazi scumbag from the group finally lived up to the name of 
his band and died in a drunk driving accident. So long motherfuckers! Taken 
from On The Prowl , a good newsbulletin put out by Toronto's Anti-Racist 
Action , PO Box 664 Stn C, Toronto , Ontario , M6J 3S1. 
After being turned down for parole , Leonard Peltier is still in prison for 
allegedly killing two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South 
Dakota. Although the government admits they have no idea who killed the 
agents, he is still being held prisoner. There is still an ongoing effort to 
free him, though. The Defense Committee is back to the campaign to get Leoard 
out with Executive Clemency. For support or info write to The Leonard Peltier 
Defense Committee , PO Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044. 
Mike C. Diana has been charged by the State of Florida on three counts of 
Criminal misdemeanor. The charges include: 1) Publication of Lewd or Obscene 
material.2)Distribution of Lewd or Obscene material 3) Advertising for the 
sale of Lewd or Obscene material. The material in question are his zine Boiled 
Angel issues #7 and #8 which boast a threatening circulation of nearly 200 
copies. If Mike is found guilty and convicted, he faces 3 years in prison and 
$3,000.00 in fines. Write Mike C. Diana, PO Box 5254, Largo , FL 34649-5254 
MAY 9 is the International Day of Action Against Immigration Control and 
Anti-Immigrant Violence !A Desemblar ! Tear Down The Borders ! PO Box 3606 , 
Oakland , CA 94609-0606 
Kieran Frazier , an anti-racist activist is facing two counts of felony 
assault. At an anti-fascist demonstration on October 22 a member of the 
fascist Northern Hammerskins attacked kieran with brass knuckles and Kieran 
defended himself against the shithead. The state surprise, surprise, is 
unsympathetic and wants to put kieran in prison for ten years and fine him 
$20,000 ! Kieran needs people from the region to come and support him in court 
on April 11-12. Get more information from the Anti-fascist Defense Committee 
at (612)825-9953, or write: Minneapolis ABC , PO Box 7075, Minneapolis MN 
55407, or via e-mail at : jolson@polisci.umn.edu - Love and Rage 
A women's Info-shop in Zagreb is working on providing information on women's 
issues and is working to revive the feminist movement in war-torn Croatia. 
Write them at Zenska Infoteka, Berislaviceva 14, 41000 Zagreb , Croatia or via 
email at ZENSKAINFO_ZG@ZAMIR-ZG.COMLINK.DE - Love and Rage 
Little Rock Reed who published the paper Iron Drum, and among other things was 
a legal consultant for the Aboriginal Ute Nation (which in an act of ethnic 
cleansing , the U.S. government "terminated" by an Act of Congress) , has been 
forced to go underground. Because of Little Rock's struggle for Native 
American prisoners rights and the exposing civil and criminal of the Ohio 
prison system, the Adult Parole Authority tried to force him back to prison 
for another 15 years. In prison , many people believed he would have been 
murdered as was his co-writ-writer and activist for Native prisoners rights 
Dennis Weaver. Dennis was found beaten to death after the Lucasville riot. The 
only ones who had access to his cells were prison guards and officials. For 
more info: Deborah Garlin, PO Box 53, Whiterock , UT 84085 - from Bayou La 
Rose 
Autonomous Network: Last summer , Love and Rage members chose to continue in 
the form of a more organized and structured Federation instead of a Network. 
In an attempt to increase communication and contact between anarchist groups , 
there has been a call for an Autonomous Network to go in effect. For more 
information, get in touch with Wind Chill Factor , PO Box 81961, Chicago ,IL 
60681 
Among other things, the Western Shoshone have had their land invaded by BLM 
agents who stole Shoshone lifestock, have had sacred sites and burial grounds 
desecrated, have had to deal with nuclear testing and nuclear waste storage on 
Shoshone lands (in violation with the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley) and are 
subject to general government abuse and constant violation of the Western 
Shoshone as a sovereign nation. Clifford Dan , a Western Shoshone rancher 
arrested while attempting to defend his livestock from BLM agents, has been 
released from prison although he still has two-years probation to do and a 
$5,000 fine. There is a letter writing campaign going on to: Janet Reno, U.S. 
Attorney General , The Justice Department, 10th Street and Constitution Ave. 
NW, Washington , D.C. 20530. Demand that Clifford Dan's non-jurisdictional 
conviction be removed from record! For more info : Western Shoshone Defense 
Project, General Delivery, Crescent Valley, NV 89821 
Animal Liberation Front: As part of the grand jury investigation of the ALF 
and the successful raid on Washington State Universities animal research labs 
in 1991, Deb Stout and Kim Trimiew have been imprisoned for refusing to 
testify in the case. Deb and Kim say they will never talk, though federal law 
allows incarcerating them without charges until the grand jury expires in 
sixteen months. The jail put Kim in solitary confinement as a result of a 
separation order by the judge. Anthony Miller is another imprisoned animal 
rights activist who was sentenced to ten years in 1990 for setting loose 250 
wild horses captured by federal and state agencies. Anthony managed to plea 
bargain his sentence down from 130 years to 10 and it looks mighty unlikely 
that he will be coming up for parole. He is trying to remain active from 
inside of prison , but is having a hard time getting cash for even mailings. 
Anthony can be reached at : Anthony D. Miller #40351 , POB 1059, Santa Fe , NM 
87504-1059. Both Kim and Deb can be r 

eached at Spokane County Jail, W 1100 Mallon, Spokane, WA 99260- Earth First ! 
Journal , PO Box 1415 , Eugene , OR 97440 
Coming soon, By Pass is the review and listing service for zine and pamphlet 
producers - a UK based "Factsheet Five". Send your publication in. Review is 
guaranteed and in return you get a free issue with your review inside. By Pass 
c/o 21 Cave St., Oxford OX4 1BA, UK 
The trial of the Chattanooga 8, a group of people arrested for protesting the 
murder of a black trucker by seven white cops , finished on February 23 with 
only two of the eight found guilty of "violating a public meeting". Lorenzo 
Kom'boa Ervin and Clifford Ebehard face up to six months in prison. Write to 
the judge in protest of these convictions and demand that no prison time be 
given to Lorenzo or clifford. Judge Steve Debil / Criminal Court 600 Market 
St. / Chattanooga , TN 37401 
#################################################################### 


The following article is an example of what we distribute from this account. 
If f you would like to receive our articles, a few per month at most, send us 
a message with "distro" in the subject line. You could also find them in the 
usenet newsgroup "alt.politics.radical-left". 

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NEWS FROM ZURICH SWITZERLAND 
WOHLGROTH SQUATTED SOCIAL CENTER EVICTED 
************************************************************ 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
News from Zurich: 
Wohlgroth evicted Window breaking demos downtown Occupation of Limmatstrasse 
28 Against the solutions dictated from above 
One bitter cold morning in Zurich, on Tuesday, November 23, 1993, the Zurich 
pigs accompanied by helicopters, water cannons, and a Tact team evicted the 
Wohlgroth-Areal, which has been squatted for two and a half years. 
Sixty squatters, who were still in Areal at the time of the eviction, left the 
house "voluntarily" when given an ultimatum by the police. Two o people were 
carried out by police. Resistance to the eviction was practically nonexistent. 
Even n the conservative daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung wrote: "Wohlgroth 
surrendered by squatters without a struggle." About 200 supporters stood 
outside behind police barricades and followed the process of the eviction with 
loud yells and boos. At t one point the demonstrators were attacked with water 
cannons and responded with a volley of bottles and stones. 
After charges of trespassing had been brought by the firm Oerlikon-Buehrle, 
which wants to erect office buildings there, the pigs forced their way into 
the Areal. Huge e excavators broke through the barricaded entrances. The way 
was opened using welding torches and chain saws. Employees s of the utility 
companies bore holes in the asphalt and cut gas, water and power. A fence was 
erected around the squatted Areal. The e pigs systematically searched the 
property and made it unlivable. Windows were broken, furniture and stairs 
demolished. A A case of ready to use molotov cocktails and two shopping carts 
of small cobble stones were unfortunately left unused. Posters with the photos 
and names of Zurich police adorned the walls. "Learn n to recognize them, 
before they know you, from the photo album of the Zurich police." 
*!@#%&|*!@#%&|*!@# # Shatter Shatter r %&|*!@#%&|*!@#%&|*!@#% 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ After the 
eviction, around noon, display windows of 12 downtown stores were broken out 
with hammers. The e amount of damage inflicted by this action was set by the 
police to be around 48,000 Franks ($33,600). That evening around 10:30 pm 
another 4-5 windows were destroyed. 
In addition to the 120 people who lived in the Wohlgroth- Fabrik there was a 
giant concert room, a Jaz club, a cafe, a library, a movie theater, a volx 
kitchen, a flea market, etc. The e inner houses were connected with various 
wooden and hanging bridges. (reminiscent of the Lubbi) The outer walls were 
covered with wild, colorful wall murals and sculptures such as a paper mache 
tiger head and walrus teeth. 
Until just before the eviction, Starne Profi, an illegal, but ingenious pirate 
radio station was broadcasting its radical left and provocative program on 
101.8 FM. 
Wednesday, November 24, 1993, the Limmatstrasse 28 was squatted by recently 
evicted Wohlgrothers and supporters. The e house is owned by the city of 
Zurich which gave it over to the Social Welfare Office to use. They ran a day 
center for the homeless (Taro). However r the center was discontinued after 
the closing of Platzspitz, a park for the homeless. So far it hasn't been 
evicted. 
On Thursday, November 25, two days after the eviction, things heated up, 
finally! Around 6:30 pm 200 masked demonstrators took off from Bellevue 
chanting "Wo-Wo-Wohlgroth", and "rebellion, resistance, there is no peaceful 
hinterland." One e hundred activists who had gathered at Pestalozziweise later 
joined the others, in order to be more of a fighting power. Shortly before 7 
pm the fun began: dozens of display windows were shattered, above all gambling 
parlors, boutiques, bars, and rich stores. Many y demonstrators came prepared 
with backpacks full of small cobblestones, which now came in handy. 
Construction places were also scavenged for stones. Store e owners barricaded 
their businesses and lowered the curtains. This didn't stop demonstrators from 
climbing up a McDonald's and breaking out unprotected lights. Barricades s 
were set up at Limmatquai. A scaffolding crashed into an expensive sports car, 
yeah. Even cars and taxis had to take it seriously, some of them were turned 
over. Finally y the cops came an 

d were welcomed with stones and beer bottles. Subsequently tear gas and rubber 
bullets were used by the police. Around d 7:25 pm several apparently 
uninvolved pedestrians happened into the stone throwing. A 57 year old man was 
hit hard in the head with a stone (according to NZZ). 
Should it be that this 57 year old man was injured by activists, this is to be 
condemned. Such h a thing mustn't be allowed to happen. People must pay better 
attention to unclear situations. That t is our political responsibility which 
we take on. A public apology would be worth considering. 
The Niederdorf area offered a picture of great destruction in several places. 
Alleys s were strewn with glass shards and stones. Store displays, toppled 
dumpsters, and garbage bags lay on the street. 
The damage was estimated at half a million Franks ($350,000). 
Let's spoil the dirty Christmas business for the bigwigs and capitalists. They 
y gotta know it - the chant goes: "We're all staying - or there's going to be 
riots." 
Thirty nine people in all were arrested, including 2 from West Germany, after 
they used rubber bullets, teargas and surrounding maneuvers. Those e arrested 
are being charged with disturbing the peace, property damage and participation 
in an unlawful demonstration. 
Early Friday morning in solidarity with the former squatters of the Wohlgroth 
2 mollotovs were thrown at the private security firm, Protectas which is 
securing the Wohlgroth- Areal until its final destruction. 
Several days before the eviction, on Saturday November 20, 1993 there was a 
big solidarity demo for the Wohlgroth, which couldn't change anything however. 
Three thousand five hundred people took part in the demonstration, which 
actually had a really good spirit. The e planned demo route was changed by the 
pigs a couple times - we weren't allowed to go through the Nobelgasse. A side 
mirror was kicked off a Ferrari - the demo ended in front of the houses. 
On Sunday evening, the Wohlgroth plenum decided, to our disappointment, in 
expectation of an imminent eviction, to voluntarily leave the Wohlgroth 
without a fight. Other r opinions were dismissed, such as those that still saw 
hope in building giant barricades in front of the Wohlgroth or right near it 
on the street to save the threatened houses (barricades as a negotiating piece 
in exchange for the continuation of an agreement to not evict for example) or 
to raise the political cost of eviction. Such ideas "didn't make sense, we 
would wind up arrested and ID'd... it was useless." In n fact we would have 
been unprepared for a militant defense. In addition, many were already 
resigned to the eventuality of the eviction. "The e Wohlgroth is dead 
already." The atmosphere was characterized by a mixture of resignation, fear, 
hopelessness, lack of courage and perplexity. 
In the end, all items of value were removed such as the P.A., musical 
instruments, mattresses etc. About t 5 am Monday morning after everyone had 
left, the doors were locked. Several dimwits had previously tried to set the 
Wohlgroth on fire by throwing 10-15 tires onto a campfire in the inner 
courtyard. Luckily the squatters and their supporters were able to get the 
fire under control without it spreading to the building. 
After everyone had left the Wohlgroth-Areal and a couple small fires and 
barricades had been built the pigs didn't show and the mood sunk to an all 
time low. We e didn't understand it either. Two months before the houses had 
been protected by thick barricades, and now the Wohlgroth was to be given up 
without a struggle? If f the pigs had come then, they would have found no one 
there. We couldn't have done them a bigger favor. This s was reason enough for 
us to leave Zurich 8 am Monday morning. Monday evening after the pigs hadn't 
come everybody moved back in. Tuesday, , the pigs came. 
The Buehle corporation bought the houses, had them demolished and wants to 
build there. Who o is this corporation? The Oerlikon-Buehrle Holding AG is a 
group of companies who own among other things a weapon contractor. This s 
weapon contractor sells the famous Pilatusporter PC 7 and the new PC 9 to 
governments such as Guatemala, Turkey, Bolivia, South Africa, Burma.... These 
planes are used by the governments in power to bomb popular uprisings, 
liberation movements and the civilian population from the face of the earth. 
Buerhle Senior emigrated from Germany to Switzerland in 1924. The e Buerhle 
corporation sold powerful weapons to the German Nazis in the 2nd World War. 
The company is known in Switzerland for its unfair labor practices. Mr. . 
Widmer, general manager of Buerhle fired 12,000 workers within the last two 
years from a total workforce of 27,000. 
Wohlgroth Wohlgroth h is dead - the idea lives on! We We demand a new, but 
much bigger and better Wohlgroth! 
No No No No No god, no state, no finance capital! No No No eviction worldwide 
- Hafenstrasse remains! 
Berlin, 30 November 1993 
----------------- Translated from Interim, Weekly Berlin Infos, 9 Dec. 1993 
Infoshop berkeley \o/ \o/ 3124 24 Shattuck Ave \o/ \o/ / Berkeley, , CA 94705 
U$A \o/ \o/ \o/ resist@burn.ucsd.edu u \o/ \o/ \o/ / fax: : 510-845-8816 



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

PAUL-X 

Dave: In which way has prison changed you the most as a person/your world view 
? 
Paul: To be honest, I didn't give a fuck about prison or people 'til I got in 
this mess. being in the joint forced me to look at the big picture from a new 
vantage point, i surrendered to the truth of what i saw about myself and other 
people and i'm stronger because of it. Most convicts develop a very foul 
attitude about themselves and life in general but the reverse is my case. I 
don't believe it could be any worse , so I had to make it better. hate/self 
hate is part of the programming process the screws use, and we use on each 
other. 
Dave:You use X as your last name. Where do you stand with the NOI? (not that 
this necessarily affiliates you with them) 
Paul:X is a mathematical term implying an unknown state, and in my opinion we 
are all in this state. my beingness isn't constructed on physical/material 
things, I may never find what i'm looking for, but I'm content with the 
search. 
As far as the N.O.I. is concerned, I'm not a supporter. I'm not a "religious" 
person, but I have my own spirituality, and any religion that doesn't embrace 
the sister/brotherhood of the human race. The N.O.I. are one of the more 
opinionated and discipline orientated islamic muslim groups in prisons, and 
I've never met a member of any religious group in the joint who is being real 
about their faith. As far as how they affect the structure, they have a heavy 
intimidation factor, but any gang is like that, fight one and you fight all - 
a no win situation (but why fight just to win ?). 
D:In what way has prison changed you positively? 
P:prison has forced me to live to put it simply. My choices are limited, 
conform to the convict point of view or the administration point of view. I 
didn't consider those to be "choices" , so I had to create an alternate for 
myself. my "choice" isn't popular. i'm at odds with most of the prison, the 
convicts consider me an "Uncle Tom" for not being part of the norm , and the 
screws consider me to be a "subversive uppity Nigger". Oh well, never could do 
what was expected of me. . . 
D:Do you have any spiritual beliefs? 
P:My spiritual beliefs are simple and complexed at the same time. I never 
bought into the "Father God" shit, and I don't waste time contemplating the 
nature of God. I'm a bit of a pantheist, i consider God to be the sum total of 
all things and that in our own ways we are all gods ourselves due to our 
creative aspects. I have no evidence of my beliefs except the faith that it is 
so. I study religions from a socio-intellectual point of view. All I've found 
is the words of mortal man justifying our actions with pseudo mysticism. . . 
D:You publish"We Never Sleep". What problems have you run into with this and 
the prison? 
P:Shit man, I caught the flux for doing WNS! Verbal Harassment, shake downs, 
"lost property", mail tampering. Last year i was beat up in the hole, and i 
just finished six months in the hole because of a frame up by my "fan club". I 
take it with a stronger attitude, just means I'm doing something right. The 
screws don't like it when we think for ourselves. 
D:Do you have a sex life? What sort of pressure exists as far as this is 
concerned? 
P:Do I have a sex life ? hell yes! but not while I'm in the joint. I don't 
have a hang up about sexuality but i don't like the rationalization for 
homosexuality in the joint. Dark hued convicts outnumber others 3 to 1 in here 
, so you get a lot of homosexual predators trying to squeeze smaller white 
guys for sex and justify it by sayin' they're doin' it cause of what they done 
to "our people"(whoever they are). I'm not defending the underdog in this 
situation, if "white" dudes (God I hate that word!) were the majority there 
would be a lot of black dudes fuckin' right now (to me it looks like a lot of 
black people are in prison exactly because white supremacy is fucking them in 
the macrocosm of society - ed.). Its stupid, if you're getting fucked, you're 
a "punk"(fuck-boy, sissy, fag, etc.) but if you're fucking then you're a real 
man. YEAH RIGHT! What's the difference? Punks get no respect, but punks don't 
have to do it, they let themselves get manipulated into it most of the time. I 
ain't got no hang ups ab 

out sexuality, I'm bisexual by nature but hetero by choice. I don;t like what 
is going on in here but I'm only one dude, i'm not stupid ... 

Paul-X #205398 
Chippewa Regional Correctional Facility 
Kincheloe , Mi 49784-0001 


KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK 

KLANBASHING IN PERU 
Of the various interesting things i found posted on the anarchy list on 
Internet, I found this worth printing : 

Subject: anecdote from indiana's klan history 
To: anarchy-list@cwi.nl 
i thought some of you might t be rather amused by this anectdote from 
indiana's klan history. first something general about this history: in n the 
late 1910s and through the 1920s, indiana was virtually a klan state. the klu 
klux klan, one of the most powerful national klan groupings, was headquartered 
on the circle in downtown indianapolis, one block from the state capitol. the 
e governor at the time was a klansman, as were both US senators, and numerous 
congressman. perhaps most ominously, however, was the fact that the mayors of 
most major cities and the sherrifs of nearly all counties were klansman. (the 
e exception seems to be fort wayne.) this constitues a ruling elite of 500,000 
individuals, a fair portion of indiana's population at the time. 
it is also worth recalling that the primary targets of the klan in 
indiana--and throughout the north, was not blacks, but german catholics, who 
were suspect of sympathizing with their home country during world war one. 
this s hatred then extended to catholics generally--not a puzzling idea in a 
country that is deeply anit-catholic, and finally jews and other eastern and 
southern europeans. fanatically anti-communist and anti-anarchist, the klan in 
indiana was dedicated to "law and order" and "family values and morality", not 
unlike most sectors of the religious right today. 
but there was not uniform approval for the klan in indiana. as s there were so 
few blacks in the state apart from gary and the region, to whose factories 
southern blacks had migrated in search of industrial work during world war 
one, resistance was mostly piecemeal and white-based. notably, most 
quakers--apart from some renegade sects--were thoroghlly opposed to the klan, 
and expelled members whom they found "consorting with satanic klansmen." 
one particularly interesting story concerns "heightened highram" bayers, a 
native of peru, indiana (formerly hapsburg, but renamed during the conflict 
with germany). highram m was an ex-marine who had served in cuba in 1896, the 
phillipines in 1898 (where he won the medal of honor), and in germany in 
1917-18. to date--1923--he had seen the worst fighting and misery that modern 
regimes were capable of. he e moved back to indiana to farm, and became a 
quaker and pacifist. 
one day in 1923, the klan assembled for a march down the main street of peru. 
as s elsewhere, they required no permit, and in fact the county sherrif who 
would grant such a permit was donning his hood that day. "heightened hiram" 
was incensed that the klan was marching through his town, and so he decided to 
take action. revving g up his jalopy, he drove as fast as he could down the 
middle of main street, scattering the klansmen into the muddy gutters. 
when the klansmen grabbed him from the car and began beating him, highram 
yelled "i've seen the ugliest fighting in places you fools would be scared to 
look at on a map!" with h that he broke free, grabbed a wrench from his car, 
and started braining klansmen left and right. local residents watched for a 
few moments in disbelief, and were faced with an important decision. do o they 
supprt the klan, composed of secretive and arcane rituals and powerful leaders 
of the county and region? or do they support their neighbor, "hightened 
highram" bayers in his assault against the klan? 
well, history is full of tragic stories that make you deeply question the 
foundations of the society and political order in which you live. this, , 
however, is not one of them. the townspeople joined together with highram in 
REALLY beating down the klan, and to this day there have been no klan marches 
or rallies in peru, indiana. 

joseph average 
BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION PO O BOX 3207 BLOOMINGTON, IN 47402 2 


******************************************************************************** 

INCREASE THE PRESSURE! 
Anti-fascists dig in as state tries to jail Kieran Frazier Knutson 

On April 12, a demonstration organized by the Anti-Fascist Defense Committee 
was held at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis to 
protest t the wrongful prosecution of longtime Twin Cities 
anti-racist/anti-fascist activist Kieran Frazier Knutson. Kieran n is facing 
up to ten years and $20,000 in fines for defending himself against a neo-Nazi 
i skinhead attack at an anti-racist demo at the University of Minnesota last 
October. Over er 120 people attended the loud and boisterous demo, demanding 
that the charges against Kieran be dropped and that the state of Minnesota 
stop spending g time and money supporting white supremacists. Speakers from 
organizations s such as Jewish Activist Minyan, Welfare Rights Committee, 
Committee Seeking Justice for the Minnesota Eight, Progressive Student 
Organization, , Anti-Fascist Defense Committee, M.E.Ch.A-Minnesota chapter, 
Women Against Military Madness and Kieran's mom all spoke out against the 
ludicrous s charges and in support for the years of wor 

k Kieran has done fighting racism in the Twin Cities. April il 12 was the day 
jury selection was to have started for Kieran's trial; however, the trial has 
been delayed until June 20 due to "scheduling conflicts." " This is 
disappointing in that Kieran and all of us would like to o get this thing over 
with, but it is also good in that it gives us another two months to organize 
in support of Kieran and to put the pressure on the Hennepin n County District 
Attorney's office to drop the charges. 

The State vs. the Anti-Racist Movement On October 22, 1993, the Progressive 
Student Organization held an anti-racist rally to counter an announced 
demonstration by neo-nazis at the University y of Minnesota. Over 100 
anti-racists rallied for nearly an hour when n two neo-nazi skinheads decked 
out in white power gear (patches, etc.) showed up, probably looking for their 
nazi pals. Several al anti-racists approached the nazis. Suddenly one nazi, 
Daniel Simmer, , lunged into the crowd with brass knuckles. A scuffle broke 
out between n the demo's security team and the nazis. Several people were 
hurt. The he cops brought Simmer down with a flying tackle and arrested him 
for possession of an illegal weapon (the brass knuckles). Strangely, y, six 
weeks later the state decided to bring felony charges against Kieran. He e 
faces two counts of felony assault, based almost entirely on statements from 
Simmer and his fiance Amy Foreman (the other bonehead at the demo). . The 
charge carries a minimum sentence of 36 months 

and could land Kieran n in prison for much longer. Ten years and $20,000 in 
fines is the maximum m sentence. But this is not just an attack on Kieran's 
right to defend himself. The e state uses opportunities like this to attack 
radical movements, forcing activists s to spend all of their energy and 
finances fighting bogus charges against innocent people like Kieran when there 
is so much other work to be done. . What it also means is that the state is 
making African-Americans, Jews, , American Indians, Chicanos, Asian-Americans, 
queers, and everyone else who works in the state of Minnesota pay for a 
neo-nazi skinhead's prosecution n of an anti-racist activist. 

Kieran Frazier Knutson Kieran, 22, works part time at United Parcel Service 
and is a member of Teamsters Local 638. He e graduated from South High in 
Minneapolis in 1989 and has been strongly involved in the anti-racist and 
anti-fascist movement in n the Twin Cities and nationally since he was 14. 
Kieran is a member of the e Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. 
Kieran n is a great person and it would be a complete tragedy if he were to go 
to prison. However, , the movement in support of Kieran is not a "cult of 
personality" nor is it being undertaken just because Kieran is a good guy. The 
he fact of the matter is, the attack on Kieran is also an attack on the 
anti-racist/anti-fascist movements in general. If f it didn't happen to 
Kieran, it would have happened to someone else. Because e the prosecution of 
Kieran amounts to an attack on the movement as a whole, it requires a massive, 
, organized response; in defense of Kieran, yes, but also in support of all 
peoples' rights to defend themselves 

from neo-nazi attacks. After all, , fighting racism is not a crime! 

The Anti-Fascist Defense Committee The AFDC is a loose group of organizations 
and individuals from diverse political backgrounds who are committed to 
fighting these ludicrous charges. In In addition to organizing the April 12 
demo, the AFDC has also organized petition drives, postcard drives, and a 
phone zap to County Attorney Mike Freeman's s office demanding they drop the 
charges against Kieran and stop harassing the anti-racist movement. The e AFDC 
has also organized several public forums and fundraisers to help organize 
around the case and to financially y support lawyer Keith Ellison and the 
Legal Rights Center, who have agreed to defend Kieran for free. 

Increase the Pressure The support for Kieran's case has been truly 
inspirational. Anarchist, socialist t and anti-racist organizations from all 
over the world, as well as supportive individuals, have sent letters of 
protest, signed petitions, made phone e calls, sent money, and done local 
organizing around the case. Not only y is all this activity shocking the 
District Attorney's office, who had no idea we could gather this much support 
for the case, it is also turning public c sentiment against the state and for 
Kieran. However, , we need to continue fighting these bogus charges! We now 
have until l June 20 to increase the heat on Mike Freeman's office and to get 
the word out to the larger public on the injustice of this case. That's s why 
we are urging all concerned organizations and individuals to keep on sending 
letters s of protest and petitions to the D.A.'s office, calling up their 
office demanding charges be dropped, organizing locally around the case, and 
sending g financial support, if possible. 

If you need any more info on the case, or petitions, postcards, info 
pamphlets, etc., please contact the AFDC at the address below. When n you do 
send letters into the District Attorney's office, please send a copy to us, 
too, , so we can document all the resistance to these charges. There will be 
another r demonstration in support of Kieran on June 20; if you would like to 
come up here to support Kieran and sit in during the trials, please let us 
know w and we can arrange accommodations for you. Whatever you can do, please 
do o it. We can't let the state take Kieran away from us, and we can't let the 
e state intimidate the anti-fascist/anti-racist movement! 

Send letters or phone calls of protest to: County Attorney Mike Freeman C2000 
Hennepin County Government Center 300 S. 6th St. Minneapolis, MN 55415 
612-348-5550 

Write to the Anti-Fascist Defense Committee at: 
PO Box 7075 / Minneapolis, MN 55407 
email: jolson@polisci.umn.edu u 

-joel/AFDC 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 

[by boog highberger. This s originally appeared in *The Gentle Anarchist* #15, 
Fall 1987] 
What is Money? by boog 
Thinking hinking about money in this society is like being a fish wondering 
about the nature of water. We build our lives around money, we live money, we 
breathe money, we swim in it like fish in the sea. 
Millions of people spend (so to speak) 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year doing 
nothing but playing with money--printing it, minting it, counting it, 
recounting it, taking it from here, sending it there, juggling it, smuggling 
it...sitting in offices in huge buildings making phone calls and shuffling 
bits of paper, adding & re-adding endless columns of numbers to make sure that 
they come out exactly the same...yeah, but... 
What is MONEY? 
"I don't know what money is today, and I don't think anybody at the Fed does 
either." Richard Pratt, Chairman of the Board of the Federal Home Loan Bank, 
1982 
Money is Inevitable 
Money is not an accident. Neither was it the "invention" of some particularly 
progressive culture or clever individual. Money in various forms has arisen 
independently, in different ages and on every continent, wherever the local 
economy has evolved beyond the level of subsistence. Wherever there is 
surplus, trade inevitably follows, and primitive barter economies progress 
almost inevitably to money economies, as certain articles of recognized 
usefulness slowly come to symbolize wealth and are accepted at a fixed value. 
In an area where cattle are the common form of wealth, money is born when a 
cow comes to have the value of 1 cow, regardless of its size, weight, health, 
or other physical characteristics. From there the process of abstraction 
continues: cattle come [to] be represented by tokens bearing pictures of 
cattle, the tokens evolve into coins symbolizing value in general, and on down 
to our own day where value is symbolized by marks on paper and the magnetic 
configurations of silicon wafers. And the 

inevitability of money is clear even in the present day. Wherever national 
governments have attempted to impose worthless currencies as the means of 
exchange, black markets dealing in "hard" currencies have arisen. This 
phenomenon perhaps reached the peak of absurdity in the 1970s in Communist 
Laos, where the official money of the country was the "kip", but the only 
money accepted by the Laotian government was the US dollar. 
* The Soviet Union is the only country in the world where counterfeiting is a 
capital offense (so to speak). 
Money is Inequality 
John John hn Locke thought that money arose before society, and that by its 
use people have consented to class society: 
"it is plain, that Men have agreed to disproportionate and unequal Possession 
of the Earth, they haying by a tacit and voluntary consent found out a way, 
how a man may fairly possess more land than he himself can use the product of, 
by receiving in exchange for the overplus, Gold and Silver, which may be 
hoarded up without injury to any one, these metalls not spoiling or decaying 
in the hands of the possessor. This partage of things, in an inequality of 
private possessions, men have made practicable out of the bounds of Societie, 
and without compact, only by putting a value on gold and silver and tacitly 
agreeing in the use of Money [emphasis s added]." 
Georg Georg g Simmel, writing two hundred years later, was not nearly so naive 
about the nature of money and society. Simmel recognized that money is 
"entirely a social institution", and said that "When barter is replaced by 
money transactions, a third factor is introduced between the two parties: the 
community as a whole, which provides a real value corresponding to money." 
Those who become "rich" are those who manage to monopolize big chunks of the 
social wealth for their own ends. Far from being a tacit agreement, this is 
done despite the sometimes violent resistance of those whose share of the 
social wealth is being taken away. 
The division of labor in society depends on a money economy. And so does 
capitalism. It's very hard to extract surplus value in a system based on 
barter exchange. The growth of the state has gone hand in hand with the growth 
of the money economy-- the emerging nation-states imposed taxes payable only 
in money, replacing taxes payable in kind and driving more and more people 
into alienated labor and the money economy. Like S. Herbert Frankel says, "a 
trustworthy, disciplined monetary system is indispensable for the free 
unfolding of the extended division of labor on which the growth of world 
economies depends... A reliable standard in which long-term debts can be 
expressed is indispensable for the growth of capital." 
So capitalists didn't invent money... but perhaps we can say that money 
invented capitalism. For once money has s been born into the world it quickly 
begins to recreate the world in its own image. 
* Chrematophobia: : Fear of Money. * * 
Money Is Midas 
Like Like ke King Midas, money turns everything it touches to gold, or at 
least into commodities that can be exchanged for gold. Unique living beings 
become standardized things. 
"Trade is the reduction and quantification of the world to commodity 
equivalents, the leveller of quality, skill, and concrete labor to numerical 
units that can be measured by time and money, clocks and gold." 
Murray Bookchin 
And And And as money itself becomes more abstract and divorced from concrete 
reality, so do the society and people that use it. As Simmel puts it, "The 
increasing replacement of metal money by paper money and the various forms of 
credit unavoidably react upon the character of money--in roughly the same way 
as in personal relations when somebody allows himself to be represented by 
others, so that finally he receives no greater esteem than is accorded his 
representatives...The idea that life is essentially based on intellect, and 
that intellect is accepted in practical life as the most valuable of our 
mental energies, goes hand in hand with the growth of a money economy." 
Money Is What Money Does 
Featured eatured on the back of the Swiss 1000-franc note, the highest valued 
item of currency in regular circulation in the world, is a figure of the Grim 
Reaper. 
Money Is the Secret Name of All Things 
In In In n many ancient cultures, to know the name of something was to control 
it, to have power over it. In the Christian Bible, Adam is given authority 
over the animals of the world when God allows him to name them. In the 
underworld of the ancient Egyptians, the dead had to pass through a series of 
gates to reach the Kingdom of Osiris, the Land of the Blessed. The key to 
passing through each gate was to know the secret name of the gate and the 
secret name of the gatekeeper. Today y everyone and everything has the same 
secret name: MONEY. 
Money Is White Sugar 
"What we call the primitive is a mature system with deep capacities for 
stability and protection built into it. In fact it seems to be able to 
withstand everything except white sugar and the money economy trading 
relationship; and alcohol, kerosene, nails, and matches." 
Gary Gary y Snyder 
Money Money y is electricity: power stripped from its context and refined to 
its purest form. We have created elaborate networks for its circulation. We 
have devised ingenious instruments and mechanisms to let it do our work for 
us. It jumps through hoops at our command but it is no longer clear who is the 
master... 
Money Is A Pyramid Scheme 
It's It's 's highly appropriate that there's a picture of a pyramid on the 
back of the US dollar bill, because money is the original pyramid scheme. 
Here's how it works: You go to work to help make something for the boss. At 
the end of the week you get a few pieces of paper that are a promise that 
somebody else will give you some stuff you want. So you worked all week for 
the promise of a promise. 
But where did the boss get the money to pay you? Well, either he sold the 
stuff that you had already made for him (and pocketed his share), or he 
"borrowed" it. And where did this "borrowed" money come from? From a bank. And 
where did the bank get it? From somebody like you, who had some money to save, 
who wanted to wait a while to cash in their promises. So the bank gives the 
money to the boss, who gives it back to you. And all this works just fine, 
most of the time. The only problem is when everyone wants to cash in their 
promises all at once and they find out there are more promises than stuff. 
Every pyramid scheme eventually crashes, and when a pyramid scheme crashes 
somebody always gets burned. Guess who? 
Money Is Shit 
Freudian psychoanalysts equate money and feces. Ernest Bornemann says that 
"according to ancient Babylonian doctrine, gold was referred to as the 'feces 
of hell', and Theodor Reik mentions that the Aztecs used to call gold the 
'feces of the gods'." Freudians also make a connection between money and 
guilt. Again according to Bornemann, "capital accumulation and indebtedness 
are as closely related as feces accumulation and feelings of guilt." 
Unfortunately Bornemann uses this sound base of symbolic insight as a jumping 
off point for some painfully goofy flights of imagination, as when he 
speculates that "there is no reason to assume that a desire for the private 
ownership of the means of production would have to persist in a socialist 
society with appropriate weaning and toilet training." 
"Money is like muck, not good except it be spread." 
Francis rancis Bacon 
The phrase "money doesn't smell" was coined by the Roman Emperor Vespasian who 
had taxed the collection of urine because the ammonia it contained was used by 
the Romans to do their laundry. The Roman Emperor Tiberius feared that he was 
made of feces, and forbade Romans to enter public toilets with rings or gold 
coins showing his portrait. 
Money Is A Disease 
A 1972 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found 21 
different disease-causing microorganisms living on samples of paper money. 42% 
of the bills tested carried one or more of the pathogens. 
In medieval Russia, there existed silver coins so small that it was impossible 
to take them by hand from a table. When transactions took place, the buyer 
emptied his purse on the table, the amount to be paid was separated out, and 
both parties then picked up their share of the coins with their tongues and 
spat them into their respective purses. 
Money Is Freedom, Money Is Slavery; Money Is Community, Money Is Alienation 
Yeah, Yeah, , and money is a paradox...What money gives on one level it takes 
away on another. Money frees us to realize our wildest desires--money is pure 
choice--but at the same time it binds us to a system of wage slavery in which 
we have to sell our time to survive. Money strengthens our connections to our 
fellow human by tying us into a system of production that makes us all 
mutually dependent... but at the same time it cheapens and destroys even the 
most intimate of our interpersonal relations by reducing them to the level of 
commodity exchanges. 
Locke celebrated the fact that "money... replaced the utter dependence on 
nature by a new dependence, a dependence on other individuals and on society." 
Locke looked forward to the promise of such freedom with an optimism that 
seems naive from our jaded 20th century perspective. As Frankel explains it: 
"Today we have more freedom but are unable to enjoy it properly; money makes 
it possible to buy ourselves not only out of bonds with others but even out of 
bonds with our possessions. We develop a rootless search for ever new things 
because money is our only nexus with them. Money's abstract power to command 
anything ultimately seems to command nothing." 
And again with the paradoxes: while money as an institution may threaten our 
freedom and our sanity, in the short run certain forms of money work greatly 
in our favor. In particular, banknotes and metal money are a protection 
against the people who want to monitor our every motion. Consider this serious 
proposal from a lawyer who had a friend whose wallet had just been ripped off: 
ABOLISH H PAPER MONEY AND ELIMINATE MOST CRIME 
Paper Paper r currency is the lifeblood of crime and corruption in the United 
States. Without paper money it would be virtually impossible for criminals and 
corrupt officials to profit from illegal activities. If all substantial 
transfers of money were recorded in bank transactions, nobody could conduct 
profitable illegal activities without creating highly visible permanent 
evidence of the illegal activities or of income tax evasion or both. With the 
chances of profit from illegal activities so slim, it is difficult to 
visualize large numbers of persons running the risks of imprisonment. Crime 
would be reduced dramatically to the point where today's police forces could 
effectively control it. Fortunately, technology has advanced to the point that 
today there is a substitute for paper money: a 'payment card' system keyed to 
bank accounts. 
Each person wishing to spend money other than coins, which would remain in 
circulation, would be required to have a bank account. The bank or federal 
government would issue to each depositor a U.S. payment card similar to 
plastic credit cards. In addition to the necessary codings, each card would 
contain the photograph and fingerprint of the depositor...Every business 
establishment, including taxicabs, would be equipped with a terminal in which 
the payment card could be inserted...(and) make a visual display of the charge 
so that the customer could see the exact amount being deducted from his bank 
account. . . In the event the customer did not have the amount in his account 
the terminal would so indicate... 
O O O Brave New World that has such people in it! 
Money Is Faith, Money is Power 
Non Non Non aes sed fides: not by iron but by faith. This s inscription 
formerly found on Maltese coins sums up a very important truth about money: 
that the value of every kind of money, including metal money, rests on trust. 
Money cannot be enforced, and money is accepted only when people exchange it 
for a certain amount of real stuff at some point in the future. 
This is perhaps an important point to remember in times of impending economic 
crises. In n the face of short term economic upheaval, conservatives are 
correct to insist on accepting only gold and silve as "real" money, since they 
are relatively rare and can't be manufactured out of common materials by the 
government. But ultimately the value of gold and silver as money rests on 
faith and trust in the future, just like paper currency does. When n the real 
crunch finally comes, it may be useful to remember that there are more 
calories in paper than in silver or gold. 
And here we come to yet another of the paradoxes of money: while money depends 
on trust at the personal level, that trust ultimately depends on the power of 
the issuing authority. Our currency is backed not by the gold in Fort Knox but 
by the guns in Fort Knox. The e value of money, whether gold or paper, 
ultimately rests on faith, and the value of the US dollar rests on the faith 
that the US domination of the world economy is backed by the US Army, Air 
Force, and Marines. 
For several hundred years economists have recognized that our money has value 
"to the extent of our faith in a viable tomorrow." Thus s it seems surprising 
that no economist has drawn a connection between the dawn of the nuclear era 
and the chronic inflation that has characterized the post-war economies of the 
industrial nations. Perhaps this can also help explain the willingness of both 
liberals and conservatives in this country to rack up huge federal 
deficits--what's so bad about stealing from tomorrow when there's not going to 
be a tomorrow? 
********************************************* 
MONEY Money, get away Get a good job with more pay and your O.K. Money it's a 
gas Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash New car, caviar, four star 
daydream, Think I'll buy me a footbal team 
Money get back I'm all right Jack keep your hands off my stack Money it's a 
hit Don't give me that do goody bullshit I'm in the hi-fidelity first class 
travelling set And I think I need a Lear jet 
Money it's a crime Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie Money so 
they say Is the root of all evil today But if you ask for a rise it's no 
surprise that they're giving none away 
******************************************** 
Money Is Information 
Money Money y is information--the only problem is that it's not very much 
information. Money talks, but it doesn't say much. In n the wonderful world of 
capitalism, everything--and everyone--has a price, and that price is the only 
information that matters in the marketplace. For the marketplace to work, 
reality has to be simplified and standardized. As s our everyday life becomes 
more and more characterized by exchnages, by buying and selling, many of the 
facts and observations about the objects in our lives become irrelevant and 
are no longer valued. Commodities have no history. There e are no tenses in 
the lenguage of money--prices are always now. 
Interest rates, stock prices, and commodity index futures all provide 
information about the economy and provide clues as to how to most efficiently 
organize society's resources. But as with prices, lots of information is lost 
in the translation of daily life into economic indicators. Countless facts 
about millions of people doing millions of different things get reduced to a 
few bits of data which are interpreted by economists like Chinese mystics 
prophesying from the pattern of I Ching sticks--all economics is voodoo 
economics. Through their interpretation of the magic signs, the best 
allocation of economic resources is determined--but best for who? Priests who 
prophesy against their masters usually don't have much job security... 
This development is an inevitable consequence of the increasing abstraction of 
money. When money becomes intellectualized, intellectuals control money and 
the economy. And, as always, the intellectuals are controlled by the 
governments and corporations that sign their paychecks. 
And thus the productive forces of a society are organized to maintain the 
existing power relations of that society. Simmel again: "Money is thus one of 
the great cultural elements whose function it is to assemble great forces at a 
single point and so to overcome the passive and active opposition...by this 
concentration of energies. We should think of the machine in this context." 
Welcome to the machine... 
Money Never Sleeps 
The speed of electricity approaches that of the speed of light, and today the 
speed of money is the speed of electricity. Every day billions of "dollars" 
race the sun around the globe. As one financial market closes, the dollars 
rush on to the next so that not a moment is wasted. 
"Knowledge owledge - Zzzzzp! Money - Zzzzzp! - Power! That's at's the cycle 
democracy is built on!" 
Tennessee nnessee Williams 
What Can I Do? 
Raoul Raoul l Vaneigem says that "a truly new reality can only be based on the 
principle of the gift." And many anarchists have argued the need for the 
abolition of money. But history has shown that money cannot be abolished 
before people's need for money has been abolished. Until we have created a 
society of the gift that is no longer built on a system of commodity 
exchanges, money will be necessary or perhaps even desirable. So what we need 
are some practical short term strategies that will move us in the direction of 
the type of society we want to see, and at the same time we need to create new 
monetary institutions that will reduce some of the more destructive effects of 
money in the meantime. 
Burning money is always good theater, but until we have provided ourselves 
with a permanent non-money means of sustenance, doing very much of it will be 
counterproductive. Removing as much of our daily lives from the arena of 
commodity exchange seems important, since that's how the new reality will be 
created-- by individuals consciously removing themselves from the old, 
destructive system. So freely giving and receiving as much as possible seems 
like a step in the right direction. 
And while money is still with us, we need to place limits on the money we use. 
Instead of passively accepting ever expanding and accelerating forms of money 
like they were divinely commanded by some all-powerful god, we need to raise 
the awareness that money is essentially a social relationship and d as such we 
have the right to collectively determine the nature of that relationship. 
Some anarchists in the past have argued for placing time limits on money, such 
as issuing money that expires and has no value after a certain date. What 
seems more practical is to create new forms of money that are spatially 
limited-- regional, decentralized currencies only good in a specified area. 
This may seem impractical, too, but experiments like this have worked in the 
past, and one such project is in progress right now in the United States. 
Part of the benefit of regional or local currency comes from the fact that a 
banknote essentially represents an interest-free loan to the central 
government. In the Isle of Man in the early 1800's, citizens there replaced 
all the English money on the island with their own local currency, invested 
the English money, and in a few years had earned enough interest to finance 
the construction of a new public hall. 
In the Berkshires area of Massachusetts, the SHARE (Self Help Association for 
a Regional Economy) program is currently making loans that encourage greater 
regional self-sufficiency in the production of basic necessities, and plans to 
soon issue a regional currency called "Berkshares", with a value based on the 
value of cordwood. Berkshares are designed to meet the criteria for an 
appropriately scaled currency proposed by Robert Swann of the E.F. Schumacher 
Society. Swann n says that the new local currencies should be: 1) consistent 
with customary practices (i.e. taking the form of cash and checks and being 
compatible with common accounting systems); 2) redeemable in some form of real 
everyday value; 3) based on local production but tied to a universal measure 
of value; and 4) controlled by the community, perhaps through a non-profit 
bank. It's too early to evaluate the success of the Berkshares program, but in 
its first stages it seems to be a short but firm step in the direction of 
local autonomy. 
Closing Benediction and Words of Inspiration 
Capitalists talists understand far better than the rest of us what money does, 
but with rare exceptions they seem to have little idea about what money is. 
It's the same with computers--often the best programmers have little idea of 
how their machines are built. And Beethoven didn't know how to make pianos. 
But here is where our opportunity lies. Only y those who understand their 
tools can really control them (what happens to Beethoven when his piano is 
broken?), and only if we understand the tools that are used to control us can 
we fight back effectively. So, by coming to understand the reality behind the 
shell game & light show of the current world economic system, perhaps we can 
learn to build the hardware for a new way of organizing our productive 
activities that will build community instead of destroying it and will empower 
us as individuals rather than enslaving us and reducing us to cogs in an 
incomprehensible and uncontrollable machine. 
boog boog og 
"Go "Go "Go out and fight so life shouldn't be printed on dollar bills." 
Clifford Clifford Odets 
And So, For Further Reading Regional Currencies 
For a packet of information on the SHARE program, write to SHARE, PO Box 125, 
Great Barrington, MA 01230 [editor note: this address has probably changed 
since this article was first published]. For a copy of the Robert Swann paper 
"Community Survival in the Age of Inflation" (which lays out the ideas behind 
the Bershares program) send a buck or two to the E.F> Schumacher Society, Box 
76, RD 3, Great Barrington, MA 01230. 
Some Books About Money 
The Brotherhood of Money, Murray Teigh Bloom, BNR Press, 1983 The 
Psychoanalysis of Money, Ernest Bornemann, Urizen Books, 1976 Money and 
Liberty, S. Herbert Frankel, American Enterprise Institute, 1980 The 
Phenomenon Money, Money and How It Gets That Way, Henry Miller 
And For The Intellectual Masochists Among Us 
The Philosophy of Money, Georg Simmel, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978 


ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 


INSURGENTS DECLARE WAR IN CHIAPAS 
While many of the major newspapers in Mexico awaited the count down to the 
initiation of NAFTA, on Jan. 1st a group of combatants stole the headlines. 
Hundreds s of campesinos naming themselves the Zapatista Army of National 
Liberation (EZLN) declared war against the Mexican government and the national 
elite (see their manifesto, opposite page). In the state of Chiapas, EZLN 
devised & executed the occupation of five towns, then soon took 2 more. In n 
one bold stroke the Zapatistas, for the most part indian peasants, jarred the 
conscience of millions around the world to the problems of the poorest sectors 
of Mexico. 
Close to 2000 well-armed guerrillas are believed to be involved in the 
uprising. The e rebels occupied government offices, the headquarters of the 
ruling PRI party, and sacked government archives, throwing deeds and bank 
records of the land-robbers into the street. In Altamirano, 25 guerrillas took 
sledgehammers and destroyed the government building, piece by piece. The e 
Zapatistas also took over a state radio station, broadcasting their demands 
and music. In San Cristobal the rebels stormed a local prison and freed 179 
prisoners wrongly jailed over land disputes, then left the prison to be sacked 
by local townspeople. Major r roads were blocked with cars and trees, and "war 
taxes" and sometimes cars were collected from passing journalists and the 
wealthy. The guerrillas also captured several landowners, including Absalon 
Castellanos, a brutal retired general who ruled as Chiapas' governor during 
the death squad campaigns of 1982-88, who will now face "revolutionary 
justice". Rebels s besieged the army base 

at Rancho Nuevo several times, and have shot several military aircraft. 
For years the Mexican government has not only repeatedly ignored the problems 
of many of its poorest people, but also has repressed the popular movements 
for social justice. In n the state of Chiapas alone the population, especially 
the indigenous population, suffers from the highest cases of death, 
malnutrition, illiteracy, underdevelopment of agriculture, lowest salaries, 
and crowded housing. Cultural and economic discrimination against the indians 
is constant and institutionalized. This s uprising against the rich land 
owners and corrupt government was timed to coincide with the enactment of 
NAFTA, viewed as the latest step in government attacks on the peasants' ejidos 
communal system. NAFTA has been described as a "death sentence" for indians. 
Said one Zapatista, "There is no work, no land, no education. There e is no 
way to change that in elections." 
After the initial declaration of war was issued, the Mexican Army belatedly 
recognized the threat and started to move into the area. Over r 12,000 troops 
were sent into the area, with on-site direction from the Defense Secretary. 
Immediately there were reports of severe human rights violations. On n 
Tuesday, Jan. 4th, the municipalities of Acala and San Cristobal were 
indiscriminately bombed, killing hundreds of civilians. Journalists have also 
reported evidence of mass executions and torture. After r heavy fighting in 
Ocosingo, captured rebels were lined and shot in the head; many corpses have 
also been left in the open deliberately to rot as a warning. The Central 
Independiente de Oberos y Campesinos (CIOAC) has issued a statement claiming 
the local and federal government have "lost control over the army and that the 
situation was worsening in the areas of conflicts". The e Mexican Army has 
once again shown its readiness to abuse its people. The government continues 
to cloak their actions by refusing to a 

llow the press and human rights organizations in to monitor the activity in 
the areas of conflict. As one clergy member stated, "the civilian population 
is more scared of the Mexican Army then with the presence of the Zapatistas." 
Although the EZLN has been driven out of the towns and into the rainforests 
and mountains, blowing up bridges and blocking roads to hold off troops, they 
continue to attack the army. The e conflict even appears to be spreading 
outside Chiapas. Electric power pylons have been destroyed in two states, and 
at least one car bomb has been set off in Mexico City. 
The Mexican government is protecting its international image by claiming that 
it is open to dialogue with the Zapatistas but continues to bomb civilians and 
deny access. Many y respected figures of Mexican society have called for a 
stop to the bombings and human rights violations and demanded the withdrawal 
of the army from Chiapas. 
We too must make this call. We e on the northern side of the imposed border 
must take actions to put pressure on the Mexican government to cease its 
blatant violations of human rights and implement the just demands of the 
Zapatistas. There have already been actions a dozen cities, including Chicago 
where the Mexican Consulate has been visited twice, with some interesting 
redecoration done. 
The EZLN takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the uncompromising leader in the 
Mexican revolution of 1910. Zapata a took back lands stolen and sold to sugar 
plantations that had one time been communally held by indigenous people. We 
fully support the EZLN and their refusal to have their land taken, their 
culture & language destroyed, obediently playing into the role of NAFTA 
refugees. As s Zapata said, "It is better to die on your feet than live on 
your knees." Viva La EZLN! Tierra a y Libertad! 

(portions of this article were blatanly plagiarised from other radical 
sources. Information wants to be free!) 
taken from WIND CHILL FACTOR bulletin 9.2 January-February 1994 


Jose 
Standing in a complete daze watching Spitboy, trying to get people checking 
out my box of zines and records to sign the petitions (they usually don't), 
trying to say hi to all the people I only see at shows and catch the eye of 
the people I only see while they're on tour with someone or other, remaining 
mildly paranoid of the maniacal moshers who are convinced that to have fun 
everybody in the place needs to mosh (or get moshed), while trying to find 
change for people buying stuff and enjoy myself at the same time, I meet Jose 
,Tit Wrench's drummer. He reveals to me that he had just come back from 
Chiapas where he had helped do a documentary on the Zapatistas. Wow, what a 
thing. Someone whose actually been there . It exists, the people are 
revolting! Immediately I decide to interview him, but as luck would have it 
there was no appropriate device in the neighborhood so I did it by mail. Jose 
seems pretty busy. He goes to college, plays drums in Tit Wrench, Swing Kids, 
Mesa Jazz Band and does shit w. Mecha as 

well as work a job and more of which I'm unaware. 

Onion: I'm assuming you had the chance to interact with locals in Chiapas. 
What do you feel is the general feeling people hold towards the uprising ? Is 
it really a popular uprising ? 
Jose:From what I could see , the Chiapas uprising was something that has been 
welcomed by most of those in Chiapas who dream of a different future. A future 
in which most of the population don't live in poverty and hunger. It is 
interesting to point out that while many innocent children starve in Mexico, 
Mexico produces 60% of all fruits and vegetables that are imported to the US. 
As you might see the conclusions : Four out of five children (in rural areas) 
will not achieve normal weight and height due to malnutrition (For a more 
extensive research on Mex/Latin America see : Raymond Lotta "America In 
Decline"). So why do these things (and more) occur? I don't have all answers 
but I will tell you they are out there. So go out there and do the research, 
expose yourself , expose the problem and with that, you might see a solution. 
While some comrades in Chiapas have said that negotiating with the system 
(which the EZLN is doing with Pres. Salinas) is a dead end, the EZLN uprising 
(in my eyes) has been one of t 

he most important uprisings this century. The old Chinese proverb rings true 
here :"where there is oppression , there is resistance." Just like many people 
in this country were suckered into labeling the LA rebellion into just some 
"individualist act of violence," people in Mexico (mainly amongst the middle 
class) have opposed the uprising in Chiapas. So you can see many people 
falling out in different views. One thing is clear though, history has been 
made, i.e., the Chiapas uprising has demoralized the myth that Mexico is a 
"stabile country". The stability of the US "backyard" is very important and we 
can see in the newspaper article (Washington Post, March 2, 1986) that put it 
this way:"A Mexican upheaval holds unthinkable implications for the world 
economy , ... for the role of the dollar, for NATO, for the ability of the US 
to project military power elsewhere in the world ... It could alter world 
history for a generation." And these sisters and brothers , who were the 
product of 500 years of f resistanc 

e 

, are now the "nobodies" who were forgotten by society are today the ones who 
have risen up guns in hand; and this I wholeheartedly welcome! 

I've read reports (in the capitalist press) of certain communities which have 
come across as pretty fearful of the EZLN hitting their villages and having to 
choose a side between the army and the rebels. Did you notice any of that 
among people ? 
This question kinda reminds me of the accusation by the "United Left" in Peru 
(along with Amnesty International and even groups like the Peru Support Group 
here) have argued. It is true that people are "caught in the middle" between 
the state and the guerillas (particularly the EZLN). From what I could see , 
it is the Mexican government (along with US military support) that has 
massacred people in their homes, shot guerilla prisoners in jail, bombed whole 
villages etc. etc. For those who want more specific sources on this, write me. 
I have several reports by the mainstream "capitalist press" to various human 
rights groups who have documented on this question. 

What do you feel are their biggest obstacles? 
While I'm not an "expert" on the EZLN, I think I have a pretty good idea of 
their program / agenda. I have read many of the beautiful and powerful 
statements by Commandante Marcos. While he speaks out against oppression and 
Dictatorship of the Mexican government over the people there, I would never 
see negotiating with the system as the solution. Here , I see the importance 
in stating my position: Because Mexico is a country that is oppressed by US 
imperialism, (a country which has been penetrated by institutions like the 
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank ; see Noam Chomsky, "The 
Masters of Mankind" , the Nation , March 29th ,1993), who suck dry the 
resources and economies of Mexico; it would take more than just rebellions or 
uprisings to resolve the situation. I see that a revolution is inevitable. 

How are the guerillas organized? 
At this point I don't think I should comment on this question. One, because 
I'm not so sure myself and two, because ... well many reasons. I will say that 
many of the guerillas are women . This is something of great importance, 
because not only must these women deal with the "three mountains" that oppress 
the masses 1) the semi-feudal system of landlords 2) the corrupt bureaucratic 
capitalists who control the national government , and 3) the international 
imperialist powers who continue to rob and strangle the Mexican economy; but 
also , they must deal with the "women question." That is to say, fighting 
patriarchal views amongst some of the "guerilleros". 

Talk about the video 
There are two videos that can be purchased for $20 each. They were done with 
the help of the people in the group : the Center for Constitutional Law (in 
N.Y.). If people want more info on how to purchase it, or other info, write me 
for the address! 

Do you know of ways to directly aid the Zapatistas? 
Uhh . . . .. again, I wish not to comment on this for now. But I will say 
this: Living here in "the belly of the beast" (as they used to say in the 60s) 
people in this country have a big responsibility to oppose US imperialism (in 
any form) and to side with those waging struggles against US imperialism 
(whether militarily or in the case of Mexico: economically, the US has 
historically and up to this minute has robbed its natural resources. While we 
may not see the US intervene (militarily) as it did in Vietnam, or Iraq etc.; 
we see in Mexico that US twisted the Mexican economy to serve US capital, 
turning everything it touches into profit, but untold misery and extreme 
poverty for the people. 

What affected you most from your visit? Any other heavy stuff to get off your 
chest? 
I guess I could say that for me, the uprising in Chiapas spoke to what I could 
call "historical possibilities". I guess I would say that out of all this, the 
uprising represents enormous challenges and opportunities. To paraphrase 
Lenin; (eeeeeek- ed.) whether these opportunities (of turmoil) are seized upon 
or not, has everything to do with the possibility of uprooting imperialist 
domination over Mexico once and for all. 

What would you say is the punk to poser ratio inside the EZLN? 
Punk rock.?!? 

Jose Palafox 
8540 Wade St. 
San Diego, CA 92114 

EZLN DECLARATION 

Here are excerpts of the declaration from the Lacandon jungle by the Zapatista 
National Liberation Army: 

"TODAY WE SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! 
TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO: 
MEXICAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS: 

We are a product of 500 years of struggle: first against slavery, then during 
the War of Independence against Spain led by insurgents, then to avoid being 
absorbed by North American imperialism, then to promulgate our constitution 
and expel the French empire from our soil, and later the dictatorship of 
Porfirio Diaz denied us the just application of the Reform laws and the people 
rebelled and leaders like Villa and Zapata emerged, poor men just like us. We 
have been denied the most elemental preparation so they can use us as cannon 
fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. They don't care that we have 
nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, 
no health care, no food nor education. Nor are we able to freely and 
democratically elect our political representatives, nor is there independence 
from foreigners, nor is there peace nor justice for ourselves and our 
children. 

But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the true builders 
of our nation. The dispossessed, we are millions and we thereby call upon our 
brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only path, so that we will 
not die of hunger due to the insatiable ambition of a 70 year dictatorship led 
by a clique of traitors that represent the most conservative and sell-out 
groups. They y are the same ones that opposed Hidalgo and Morelos, the same 
ones that betrayed Vicente Guerrero, the same ones that sold half our country 
to the foreign invader, the same ones that imported a European prince to rule 
our country, the same ones that formed the "scientific" Porfirsta 
dictatorship, the same ones that opposed the Petroleum Expropriation, the same 
ones that massacred the railroad workers in 1958 and the students in 1968, the 
same ones the today take everything from us, absolutely everything." 

Their plan: 
"First: Advance to the capital of the country, overcoming the Mexican federal 
army, protecting in our advance the civilian population and permitting the 
people in the liberated area the right to freely and democratically elect 
their own administrative authorities. 
Second: Respect the lives of our prisoners and turn over all wounded to the 
International Red Cross. 
Third: Initiate summary judgements against all soldiers of the Mexican federal 
army and the political police that have received training or have been paid by 
foreigners, accused of being traitors to our country, and against all those 
that have repressed and treated badly the civil population and robbed or 
stolen from or attempted crimes against the good of the people. 
Fourth: Form new troops with all those Mexicans that show their interest in 
joining our struggle, including those that, being enemy soldiers, turn 
themselves in without having fought against us, and promise to take orders 
from the General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army. 
Fifth: We ask for the unconditional surrender of the enemy's headquarters 
before we begin any combat to avoid any loss of lives. 
Sixth: Suspend the robbery of our natural resources in the areas controlled by 
the EZLN. 

To the People of Mexico: We, the men and women, full and free, are conscious 
that the war that we have declared is our last resort, but also a just one. 
The dictators are applying an undeclared genocidal war against our people for 
many years. Therefore we ask for your participation, your decision to support 
this plan that struggles for work, land, housing, food, health care, 
education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace. We declare 
that we will not stop fighting until the basic demands of our people have been 
met by forming a government of our country that is free and democratic. 

JOIN THE INSURGENT FORCES OF THE ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY. 

General Command of the EZLN 1993" 

NGNNGGHNGHHNGNGNNHGGNNNGHNGNGNNGGHNGHHNGNGNNHGGNNNGHNG 

IF TREES COULD SPEAK 
Michael Przystas 

Have you been to a museum or park somewhere, and seen a cross section of a big 
tree, with dates and captions of historical moments and whatnot tagged onto 
different annual rings ? Thinking about all the crazy , traumatic , and heart 
racking events around us today, it's so ironic to think that at some future 
date it will be diminished to captions on annual rings. 

Ponder for a moment. Don't you think this is representative of mankind's 
general attitude toward it's history? Ideally , we want to think we created 
history-keeping to learn from our mistakes and improve life for the next 
generation. Throughout history, idealists have popped up from time to time, 
scanning history for clues , groping for answers to our vexing questions of 
government and war. Despite an elaborate and impressive networking of 
history-keeping, for all practical purposes its value is only in the hoopla 
itself. It's relatively little more than a way of keeping track of time. 
Perhaps someone locked up their whole life in a dungeon needs to record the 
passing of time. The prisoner embraces history-keeping as an illusion of 
control with the only thing he has in this helpless situation -- time. 
But time passes on unfettered as always. Governments rise and fall, following 
the same paths as governments preceding them. Despite the holocaust of 
Hitler's day, we have learned nothing of all that bloody history and here 
before our eyes its happening again. And we watch like zombies , like we're 
strapped to our chairs. Fuck! What's happening! You u scream. We're all 
screaming. Why? I don't think I know anything, but here's what i think : 
We, (mankind) are prisoners of our own diseased intellect. We're beating our 
own heads, screaming to be free , but we can only temporarily pacify ourselves 
with artificial controls. Government , no matter how powerful, tyrannical, or 
good it appears without a trace with the handful of generations that created 
it . Because e it's artificial. Even America, this great optimistic and 
resourceful empire - I don't thrill on basing on Uncle Sam - but look ! It's 
showing all the typical signs of collapse that was evident in the final days 
of the ancient democracies of the Romans and the reeks. Around the time the 
Declaration of Independence was signed, Alexander Fraser Tytler (1748-1813) 
wrote a book about the collapse of the ancient Athenian Republic. He wrote :"A 
democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government . It can only exist 
until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public 
Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates 
promising the most benef 

its from the Public Treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses 
over loose fiscal policy always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of 
the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years .." Despite this 
painstakingly recorded historical trivia, it all means nothing as Americans 
selfishly follow their own noses into the rising tide of economic and moral 
collapse. One should not be perplexed at this, the human life span is 
unbearably short. Our capacity for true awareness dies before it's ever 
realized. 
A year ago I left my familiar urban lifestyle. I heard of an experimental 
community hidden in a canyon in Washington State. Drawn by words like utopia & 
peace & love - like a fish on a hook, answering a call that I'd like to think 
exists in every man's heart though how so repressed, forgotten , or by chance 
remembered. I arrived at the tail of the communities "blossoming" period. 
Desolation was all around . Indeed, the idealist rose yet again from the 
abyss, touching this canyon, trying out great philosophies, trying to o turn 
history around. Although later assessing many successes (like creating a 
wonderful world for a few dozen children , now all grown), it seemed painfully 
evident that the true victors in the Utopian experiment were the termites, the 
moss, the multitudes of bacteria. Before my eyes the great Order of nature 
continued on without blinking at the human endeavors, seen as sinking ships 
digesting into the earth. 
That night , the milky way shown as it has for billion of years, the coyotes 
screamed and howled and echoed in the canyon depths, as they did for 
generation after generation. The beavers deforested and created fresh fertile 
meadows. Older meadows gave in to fir saplings , and in the dense forests, 
branches fell with no one to hear the fall. 
I preceded one night by full moon up a side canyon to a spring surrounded by 
moss and raspberries, couldn't help but imagine I was approaching a shrine. 
Water, Life. Balance. Order. 
And me: Fear. Corruption. Confusion. Disorder. 
It's almost thinkable that humans are really extraterrestrial. I doubt it, yet 
one can't help but notice that the perfect order running nature is not running 
the humans. A number of individuals throughout history have found a measure of 
happiness by attempting top sync with nature. I say attempt, because on the 
road to being in this perfect harmony with the universe , on reaches a 
barrier. What is it? I can feel it, but I can't explain it, or define it. 
mankind, no matter how it tries, can only look at the natural universe, as 
through a glass vile with sick eyes of a subject of some animal experiment. At 
some point, long ago we became our own scientist, groping with the theory that 
we can give up and deny the balance of our inherent equality to rule 
ourselves, create a plastic reality through dominance. violent centuries have 
passed. In this cruel experiment on ourselves, we the scientist inevitably 
dove head first into a vile of our own poison, to gasp And heave in our own 
artificial creations until the la 

st breath. 
Then , only then, we cry for help ... 

Meanwhile , how many more of us will be victims of prejudice, rape, and all 
sorts of other physical and mental abuses? How many will lose loved ones to 
senseless murder? Ever so often the victims are innocent, defenseless and 
minorities. This is because in mankind's quest to rule itself, the disease 
mentality that resulted not only affects governments and wars. How about the 
men "reconditioned" to no longer be just free individuals, but instinctual war 
tools? War is the training and proving ground for dominance disease. The 
soldiers discover shocking and uncontrollable truths of their reconditioning. 
Suddenly upon the battlefield they can penetrate a village, suddenly they're 
murdering , raping, mutilating ... After the war they bring the trauma and 
reconditioning home and practice it on their wives , children and others. In 
society, the family unit is the most sacred, fundamental order. Yet, so common 
is there mental and physical beatings in these microcosms of humanity. the 
great dominance disease penetrat 

es the home, where the young are initiated. And it just spreads like plague. 
It's really something governments can likewise take 'free' people break them , 
use them ... . like giant parents of humanity, governments subject us to 
beating sessions, - wars. Like a child loosing its dignity with each 
molestation, the soul and spirit of humanity is slowly eroding. 
So if history should teach us anything, it should tell us to give up the 
control. Earlier i mentioned, the road to perfect unity with natural order is 
obstructed by a barrier. once all forms of government collapses, becomes too 
helpless to function, or is consciously eliminated, my guess is the road to 
natural order will be open to us all the way. 
What can you and I do here now? Revolution! So o often we hear the cry. We 
really just hear a lot of inflated words. It takes a lot of energy to incite 
change on society, too often (if not always) the wounds infected in the 
process undermine even the best ideologies. My message is save that energy, 
and give it to those closest to you, to your family or gang. Realize that love 
as you know it and feel it, is a glimmer of the natural order of the universe 
within you. A real revolution begins at home in your own little microcosm of 
humanity. Give your group all your heart and strength. Raise kids like what 
they are - the next humanity. NOT POSSESSIONS ! Take note of your impulses to 
control others. How about if you have no family? It's OK, because our part in 
the scheme of things is to just hang on to our own absolute freedom and 
equality with all life. Don't give your soul to anything that history keeps 
trying to tell us is artificial and temporary. Bono, in U2's "WAR" album snag 
it perfectly :"If others need 

your time, say 'it's time to go', it's your time." 

I look out my window , the old firs dominating the yard have stood through 
generations, witnessing all the crazy human dramas that played out in this 
very canyon. if only trees could speak . . . However , closer I become in tune 
with its natural rhythms, i sense something faint like distant wale calls 
miles below in the most forbidden ocean depths. But felt , not heard. 

Michael Przystas 
Route 3 Box 72 
Davenport, WA 99122 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 

" . . . to achieve Anarchy we have to unite, and fight together . . ." 

ZAPO 

In the beginning (3-4 years ago) we were a small group of punx who, in spite 
of drinking, smoking grass, listening to loud music and other hedonistic 
activities, got the idea of changing the normal life and existing system , 
which we thought was going to ruin our world . . . 

In the first time, we did A.L.F. (Animal Liberation Front) actions, because 
the meat and fur/leather industry kills much more animals than they have to. 
we concentrated our activities on fur/leather shops, because still live off 
meat (quite unnecessarily I would have to add - ed.) , but fashion stuff made 
of fur and leather are completely unnecessary. Our activities were small 
diversions, like breaking shop windows , glueing locks, writing 
anti-fur/leather graffiti , and so on . . . 

In time , after the elections, it became obvious that war is imminent, if 
someone doesn't do anything against it. We decided to organize ourselves into 
a kind of organization which would connect ideas and principles of Anarchism 
and Pacifism (we are not pacifists by all means, but there was a lot of 
violence and destruction around us) because we thought that was the best idea 
for the following time. Other reasons , not less important was to educate 
people on the real meaning of anarchism. For that reason , we made a few 
posters, just to tell people to start thinking with their own minds. 

By that time, war in Slovenia started, and we decided to organize a 
demo-meeting. We asked for a permit to organize it , but we didn't get one. 
Even though we didn't get it, we went on. First it was to be meeting against 
war, army , politicians and nationalism, but we spread it to an anti-police 
demo. It was a small meeting (around 30 people showed) but pretty successful. 
We made common people interested in our work. There were few police officers , 
but they didn't cause any problems for us, except some private security guards 
did. 

A month or two later , the war erupted in Croatia. It forced us to stop our 
work for a while (frequent air alerts and weeks of black-outs). Till August 
1992 we didn't do a single thing (we are ashamed of it) but then we decided it 
was enough "sleeping". In August we published the first issue of "Comunitas" 
zine, in which we described Anarchism (roots, aims, etc.), Pacifism (history, 
... ) and in opposite nazism and racism. 

That first helped us contact people of Anti War Campaign. They let us work in 
their office and also use their equipment. At first , our work was collecting 
anarchist literature and publications, making contacts with other anarchists 
all over the world, and of course, further work on "Comunitas" zine. 

After we got possibilities to work in better conditions, we finished a new 
issue of "Comunitas" zine Nr. 2/3. Most of the copies we've sent by mail to 
individuals and organizations, or just have given to other people. Only few 
were sold. That's a bit of a problem cos we don't have constant money income 
(the situation in Croatia is very bad and members cannot give money for 
expenses of printing, because they don't have enough money for basic living 
needs) and the only money we've gotten was fro our comrades from Italy (around 
500 DEM) and from comrades from Germany (100 DEM), which was mostly spent on 
last issue. We have about 250 DEM left, which we'll spend on the new issue. 
It'll probably be also a double nr. 4/5. The new "Comunitas" will be on A4 
format, and written in both English and Croatian language, because of big 
interest in other countries. 

At the moment we plan our further activities. We plan to write a pamphlet on 
our stands about the war which is lasting in ex-Yugoslavia (relations of this 
war with New World Order Connection and international capital which use 
ex-Yugoslavia as an experiment). We'll write it also in English/Croatian 
version. Our work is pretty slow 'cos we make our decisions by consensus and 
not by false parliamentary, like outvoting. 

This is our short story about ZAPO. If you can or would like to help our 
struggle in any way contact us! 

FAX: available 24 hours a day +3841/335-230 
PHONE: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays after 8:00 PM +3841/422-495 

Z.A.P.O. 

PLEASE NOTE ! 

We're not begging for money, but small donations would be very helpful. For 
further information, contact us. 



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

ANNOYING THE ESTABLISHMENT 

After many inspiring and usually very funny tales from Dave the Destroyer the 
Employer Annoyer, as he likes to call himself, I've found that even if 
practising petty yet purposeful and sometimes powerful , political and often 
quite poetic pranks (perhaps pulled by pantheist punks) on putrid poultry 
poking politicians, power figures and their preposterous pawns may not cause 
complete social revolution, it does drive some of the pigs out of their pea 
sized minds, as well as provide great interactive entertainment for the 
dispossessed and the bored. We are their karma. No more yawning and 
complaining about malicious and mean motherfuckers that make more money off 
murder and war and exploitation in a minute than you will ever see in a 
millennium. No, instead mobilize to mock , missile , mine and monkeywrench 
their machine to a million molecule size morsels. 

Drug Tests * some over the counter drugs which supposedly almost always give 
false positives during drug tests are listed here with the typical period of 
time can be detected by conventional drug tests : Vicks Formula 44 (1 day), 
Triaminic DM (1 day), Primatene Mist (1-3 days), Dexatrim (1 day), Co-Tylenol 
(1 dat), Benadryl (1-2 days), Midol (1-3 days) , Premasyn PMS (1-3 days). So 
if you get called in for a drug test for any reason take some of these the 
night before and/or before going in and let them know you did. The results 
will come out positive whether you did or didn't use the "illegal" substances. 
Also the breath mint "Nu-Breath" supposedly masks alcohol on ones breath, and 
supposedly can also foil less sophisticated breathalyzers. 
How To Sabotage Hunts * Go into the woods the day before hunting season and 
try to drive wildlife away from commonly hunted areas. Play loud radios and 
recordings of wolf howls, and walk with dogs on leashes. Such tactics are 
particularly important for younger animals who have not yet had the 
traumatizing experience of being hunted * Place the stuffed animal toys around 
commonly hunted areas. Hunters often don't take the time to determine if an 
animal is real. Better to have a hole in a cotton rabbit than a real one-- and 
the noise of the gun going off will help scare away real animals. * To break 
potentially dangerous wildlife habits, place deer repellent (available at feed 
and hardware stores) along deer tracks, which hunters use to stalk them. This 
will encourage the deer to move away. or, just scoop a bag of human hair from 
a barber shop and hang handfuls of it in little mesh bags about two or three 
feet from the ground, along the deer track. * Plaster the floors of hunting 
blinds with cow dung, rotten e 

ggs or other unpleasant substances. tear down tree stands. * If hunters use 
dogs in your area, try to get hold of a female dog in heat and lead her, on a 
leash through heavily hunted areas. Horny male hunting dogs will get wind of 
the female and lose their enthusiasm for chasing rabbits, foxes, or deer. * 
Soak garlic cloves in water or make a lemon juice solution and using a spray 
bottle , spray leaves and trails to throw dogs off the scent. * Hunters often 
like to ambush animals by setting out food and then hiding in blinds. Piles of 
apples or other "bait" are set out a few days before hunting season to 
encourage animals to linger in a certain area. To thwart this, remove the food 
piles a few days before hunting season. If there is too much food to carry 
away, spray it with deer repellent or human urine, and spread human hair 
clippings all over the area. * During the actual hunts, assemble a group of 
people early in the morning and use airhorns and whistles to warn animals into 
hiding. Groups of noisy peopl 

e 

are very effective in disrupting hunts of all kinds. * Funny thing: I've been 
getting Hunting magazine in the mail. They offer a free introductory issue 
with subscription n that you can cancel when you feel like it. However, if you 
don't cancel you continue receiving the piece of shit. There is a chance that 
a lot of people get their business reply cards out of hunting magazines found 
at a store and send subscription of them to other equally disrespectable 
murderous fuckerz. Thus causing mucho disturbance and hopefully financial 
grief to the exploiters of sport murder. 
DISABLING BMWs , COP CARS AND ECORAPE EQUIPMENT * Jam door and ignition locks 
with slivers of wood, super glue and/or silicone rubber sealant * Sugar and 
syrup are ineffective in gasoline or diesel fuel tanks or oil reservoirs. At 
best they merely clog the filter. A handful or more of sand in the fuel tank 
is much more effective and much easier. You also don't have to carry around 
incriminating items with you like sugar or a bottle of Karo syrup. * Pour a 
gallon or more of water or brine into the fuel tank * Pour dirt , sand, salt 
or a grinding compound (like Carborundum) into the oil filler hole * Pour 
water into the oil filler hole. Amount depends on engine size - at least 2 
quarts for a V-8. The point is to make sure to use enough, so that the oil 
pump will draw only water. the water should maintain oil pressure while not 
lubricating at all * Slash tire sidewalls. Sidewall stabs cannot be 
effectively patched, whereas tread stabs can be. On some tires, cutting the 
valve stems is an easy way to flatten them 

* Smash fuel pump, water pump, valve cover, carburetor, distributor or 
anything else except for the battery (for your own safety) or brake system 
(for their safety). Use a sledge and a steel bar for precision blows * Pour 
water and/or dirt into the air intake (the big hole usually right under the 
air cleaner). The more , the better * Pour gasoline or other fuel into the oil 
reservoir. It will break down the oil and the oil filter will not remove it * 
Put battery acid or some other corrosive into the radiator * Put Carborundum 
or other small abrasive particles in the gearbox * Pour a box of quick rice in 
the radiator. 
Stolen stinky steaks sell smoothly to supermarkets * I read somewhere or other 
about a guy who would steal the most expensive slabs of meat he could get 
ahold of at the supermarket , let them sit out in the sun for a few hours 
until they began to stink like the rotting corpse they are and then return 
them , completely disgusted for a refund. After the mere thought of consuming 
that vile smelly thing that passes as food, the criminal could no longer 
continue as a carnivore. 
Always pull up survey stakes 
Koffee krazed Kaos krushes ComPuTers that Kill * There's so much one can do to 
computers that help organize and plan such things as Real Estate sales, court 
dates, a security company's database or keep mailing lists for say, Christian 
right wing organizations that attempt to keep ordinarily quite natural and 
enjoyable things secret and taboo. For instance an easy way to damage 
important and expensive equipment is to drop it, preferably from somewhere 
high like an elevator shaft or window (the window should be at least a couple 
floors up, otherwise you might as well hand it out the window to an accomplice 
and use it to put out magazines like this) * a disk covered with Shoe goo or 
liquid plastic may cause interesting results when inserted in the disk drive * 
water may be squirted into the innards of a computer (beware:pissing into a 
computer while it is on may cause you damage) * it isn't too hard to reformat 
(read erase) a hard drive or individual disks * try (de)constructively 
altering important information 

* a magnet rubbed against a disk most probably will cause strange and 
unpredictably altering effects to information stored on it (this can be done 
pretty discreetly) * good computers are very easy to sell for decent cash * 
Aside from theft or physical damage, it may be a clever accomplishment to just 
alter information going out. Not overtly noticeable but cleverly orchestrated 
to cause chaos to capitalists cash schemes. Like drastically undercharging or 
overcharging customers, altering, adding or removing key addresses in 
databases (or switching databases). Inserting creative prose into boring 
information will probably also liven up someone else's dreary life as well as 
your own. Poetic terrorism knows no bounds 

How To Build Your Own Underground Television Transmitter 

13-Jun-88 Outlaw Telecommandos 01-213-376-0111 

yes, for some time now it has been possible to construct a clandestine 
television station, which you can operate from your Telecommando Lair, or 
modify for Mobile Media Guerilla campaigns. 

We have named this device the Snow Box, due to its cool nature, and the snow 
seen on blank television channels waiting to be commandeered. 

To put together a TV station , you will need this stuff: 
A VCR or Camcorder with video or RF outputs 
-A ham radio six meter Band Linear amplifier (this boosts the RF signal from 
the VCR for broadcasting) The Linear Amp should have a bandwidth of 6 MHz for 
best results. A cable television RF distribution amplifier may also be used. 
- Coaxial cable with UHF connectors (Connects the Linear Amp to the antenna) 
- A cable TV patch cable with an F-connector and a UHF connector (to connect 
the RF signal to the Linear Amp). F-connectors are the small ones used with 
cable TV. UHF connectors are the large ones used for Ham Radio. 
-If your VCR does not have RF outputs: 
An external RF modulator (converts video to channel 3, 6, 12 etc.) 
a cable with RCA connectors (a standard stereo chord is OK) 
- a six meter Ham radio antenna. If you don't have a pre-made 6-meter antenna, 
get ahold of about twenty feet of strong wire, 3 ceramic antenna insulators 
and another UHF connector. 

Likely places to get the linear amplifier, connectors and cables is a Ham 
radio swap meet, a Ham club newsletter's classified ads, a buy-sell-trade 
paper like the Thrifty Nickel, or at a store specializing in Ham gear. RF 
modulators are available at specialty video stores, or major VCR dealers. 


Setting up the Transmitter: 

Using a VCR with RF out: 

(VCR/RF)F--------U(Linear Amp)U--------U(Antenna) 
weak ak RF Power r RF 

Using an External RF Modulator: 

(VCR)R--R(RF Modulator)----U(Linear Amp)U----U(Antenna) 
video deo weak ak RF Power RF 

Diagram Symbols: 
U UHF-connectors (Ham radio) 
F F-connectors (cable TV) 
R RCA connectors (stereos) 
--- coax , cables, wires 
() devices (name of device in brackets) 
<I> ceramic insulator (the kind with a hole at each end) 

Building the Dipole Antenna: 

wire wire ire 
<I>--------------------+<I>+--------------------<I> 
| | | | | | | 
Short coax | | | | | | 
(U) (U) (U) UHF connector 


The antenna is set up much like a clothesline with the wires tethered straight 
out horizontally. the outer insulators are used to isolate the antenna from 
the tether lines, which should be rope or nylon chords for good results. The 
inner insulator isolates a gap between the two long wires of the antenna. 

The length of the wires used for the antenna is critical. Look up the length 
in feet for the channel you want to use in the table below and make each of 
the two long wires that length. As a rule of thumb, a wire half-wave antenna's 
length is equal to 468 divided by the frequency in MHz. 

VHF television channel data 
insert table from Iron Feather Journal 

For further information : Look in the ARRL Handbook published by the American 
Radio Relay League for detailed plans and theory for antennas, transmitters 
and linear amplifiers. The info in that book can be used for setting up an 
underground Am or FM radio station. 

Public Education: Make a videotape of each step in the process of constructing 
your transmitter. Show this tape in your broadcasts, "For informational 
purposes only", of course. 
Short-burst zipping: From a fixed or mobile base of operation , show short 
snippets of graffiti like computer graphics, quick subliminal messages, images 
and suggestions, or brief phreaker manifestos. Commercials are an opportune 
time to break into TV broadcasts. 
Live call in shows: Using a cheese box or other device for receiving 
untraceable phone calls and a video camera, do a live call in show. Encourage 
people to call in using Red, Blue and other phreaking boxes. 
Cable TV Piracy: With modifications it may be possible to feed the power RF 
signal directly into a cable TV system, overiding cablecasts or commandeering 
unused channels. 
Mobile operation:Using storage batteries and a 110-volt inverter the 
transmitter may be modified for mobile use to avoid detection by the FCC 
during long broadcasts. Battery operated mobile linear amps and portable 
camcorders are also available. 
(I stole this article from an old issue of Iron Feather Journal, PO Box 1905, 
Boulder , CO 80306 usa. I haven't heard of anyone whose done this or used 
these instructions, so I don't know if it really works. Oh yeah, I wouldn't 
actually advocate doing this, these detailed instructions with tips on how to 
use them are only for informational purposes, not to unleash your imagination 
or anything.) 


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

PUNK TRAVEL 101 

Hitchiking: 
There's a lot of scary stories about hitchiking and how dangerous it can be , 
but I'd say most of those stories come from parental types. And yeah, I 
suppose it can be dangerous , and it does include taking chances, but if 
you've taken your RDA of street smarts, you'll be OK. Some tips for those 
considering hitchiking: 
When a car pulls over , be sure to ask them where they're going before just 
jumping in. You may want to be somewhat picky about rides. For instance if 
you're at a good spot with lots of visibility , lots of traffic and where its 
easy for cars to pull over , you don't want a ride that will take you a mile 
down the road to a shitty spot. It helps to have an atlas or map handy to show 
drivers where you're going. 
Avoid: Big cities .Try to get rides through cities , not to them unless that's 
where you're headed already. Cities are the worst place to get picked up, 
since most cars are only going down a couple exits , its very difficult to 
pull over and cops are in full force. 
Standing on the road. Keep off the actual highway, stand or walk next to it, 
it may sound stupid but people do get hit by cars while standing (often 
ignorantly) in traffic's way. Keep to the side, but in good visibility. 
Dehydration. 
Trying to get picked up at night. Not that its impossible or even unfavorable 
to travel at night, but its a lot harder than during the day. I think drivers 
tend to be a little wary of dark figures on the roadside. It might be easier 
to just find a place to crash and leave early in the morning. 
Losing your bearings. Once while trying to get home from Carbondale, which 
lies deep and high in the mountains , I got a ride who took me on a side road 
(with all the best intentions , I'm sure) and got me stoned out of my mind , 
leaving me in the woods guessing which way to walk to the the highway. When I 
finally found the highway, I couldn't figure out which direction Denver was. I 
sat by a clump of trees laughing to myself and drinking water until i could 
figure out which way was up costing me a good half hour of daylight. 
Counting cars 
getting pissed off at people waving at you and speeding by 
ID:It may be smart to have an ID. Cops have regularily hassled me while on the 
road. Hitchiking is illegal in some states and they may (they have before) 
haul you in if you don't have ID. If you don't have warrants , they'll most 
likely send you on your way after kicking you off the interstate. Be prepared 
to have all your material possesions stolen by cops. 
Truck stops: It's often pretty easy to get rides with truckers. If you get 
dropped off at a truck stop, just ask drivers walking to their trucks , and 
you'll most likely get lucky. There is however a traveling prostitute scene 
which caters to truckers. If you're a woman you may want to make it very clear 
where you stand in this respect, your ride may expect some things from you 
which you aren't prepared to give. There are a lot of companies which don't 
allow their drivers to pick up hitchikers, but they frequently will anyway. 
Some truck stops have anti-hitchiking policies which may lead to grief and/or 
anxiety/anger. 
Hippies: I've counted cars and VW buses covered with grateful dead and hippy 
stickers by the thousands over the years and have only been picked up once as 
far as I can remember by these "sharing , caring , loving" advocates of peace. 
Sometimes I feel we're vaguely on the same side of the fence, but not on the 
road. Hippies don't give a shit about hitchikers. 
Women: Although its really easy for women to get rides, it's also quite 
dangerous. I suggest carrying a large threatening sheath knife on your side, 
to show you are not vulnerable. Also try to go with a partner who is somewhat 
on the ball. Common sense will save your ass if it comes down to a strong come 
on or confrontation. 
Sexual favors: It's up to you if you want to or not, although I've never 
chosen to myself. Everyone who has propositioned me before has reeked of 
sleaze and has come across to me as quite undesirable. I just say I'm not 
interested and it usually is left at that. Occasionally someone will get 
extremely pushy and then I just have them drop me off, but its usually no big 
deal. I've also only been asked for sexual favors by men, usually in their 
thirties to late fourties. Never by younger men or women. Not that it never 
happens, just never to me so far. I've heard countless stories of rides 
getting very pushy with women though. As I said before, speak firmly and carry 
a big knife (and a partner). 
Signs: I usually make a fairly large sign that looks pretty. I make them clear 
with big letters and usually put something cute on them like flowers or 
mountains when I'm heading back to Colorado. It's probably a good idea to out 
the closest big city or destination you're headed to next, or one that you 
would think would take you the right directions. 
Finding a place to sleep: If you're in a city, meet people on the streets, ask 
around be friendly and make it known you need a place to stay for the night. 
Punks can usually lead you to a friendly punk house or squat that might put 
you up. Treat everyone with respect that helps you out, no matter how grumpy 
you're feeling. Nobody owes you shit; what help you find traveling comes from 
the goodness of others (people have been incredibly generous to me on the road 
for which I'm very grateful) and its wise to show them how much you appreciate 
their help. I usually try giving something in return like washing their dishes 
or cooking them some food. If you're in the boonies and can't find shit, be 
creative. Abandoned cars, dumpsters, highway overpasses, rooftops and bridges 
all make great shelters. 
Food: I always try to leave home with lots of foodstamps and they've always 
been a blessing. When I run out or if I'm in a foreign country where my stamps 
don't count, I find myself stealing food regularily. Ask for soup kitchens or 
food banks when you get into an urban area. Of course, dumpster diving is an 
obvious source of food even at home. One has to be quite stubborn and very 
stupid to starve in this here country. Again , just ask the first hobos or 
punks you see where the action is at and you're set. 
The Spike Anarky network (as Lawrence Livermore would call it): There's a good 
number of train hopping, hitchiking punk squatter types who travel around , 
act very punk rock and are constantly fucked up. They of course hate authority 
and break 40s after drinking them. It's nice to meet people who know people 
you know from different parts of the world , but I could care less about 
stumbling through the world drunk, so I try to find more interesting things to 
do. 
Germany is hitchiker friendly as fuck. People are incredibly trusting and 
quick with rides plus there is no speedlimit on the Autobahn, so you'll get 
places much faster than you would by train or bus. Switzerland , however is 
not friendly, nor is much of the old East block. 
RESOURCES 
The Crash Network is a network of different people offering their homes as a 
crash pad for travelers on the network. There's a very reasonable "crash code" 
, sort of a code of conduct for participants that goes along with it. If 
you're interested in becoming part of the list write to Crash / 519 Castro #7, 
San Francisco, CA 94114 USA or email : crash@barn.com. They also do a zine 
called Crash which is quite good and has fun travel stories. Send them your 
travel stories and I'm sure they'll be delighted and possibly print one. 
Airhitch: If you are trying to get overseas, this will get you across the 
great pond for less than $200. You sign up at one of their offices, give them 
a few preferable destinations , pay the $, give them a number you can be 
reached at and wait till they find you an empty seat on a plane. I know 
someone who tried this and it sounds like a decent cheap way to fly. Write for 
information to AIRHITCH, 2790 Broadway , Suite 100 / NY, NY 10025 (212) 
864-2000 
UniTravel advertises $199 one way tickets to Europe (800)325-2222 
The Airline Passenger's Guerilla Handbook is supposedly a great guide to 
finding cheap ways overseas, although I've never seen it. 
Freer Places describes 20 areas having fewer taxes and restrictions, more 
tolerance, much cultural variety etc. Plus practical tips for living freer 
most anywhere. 40+ pages(some shrunk). If what I got was what they are 
advertising, it's neat ,but not all that practical for traveling but 
nevertheless you can get a copy for $1 from Apaba Freer , PO Box 759-IO, 
Veneta OR 97487 
Book Your Own Fucking Life is a great resource for traveling punks. Its 
basically a punk directory of the world (but mostly North America). It lists 
record stores, bands , labels, activist groups, crash pads, good places to eat 
veggie food, and whatever else people feel like sending in. It's done by a 
different group every year , I think the latest was compiled by Rocco 
Publishing and is available from the for $3 from Rocco Publishing -- 2427 So. 
58th Ct., Cicero, IL 60650 
Let's Go. Every young tourist I met in Europe had a copy this book. Carry it 
around unconcealed and you automatically label yourself a lost tourist. Except 
if you are a lost tourist this book will make you not so lost. I had a copy of 
Let's Go Europe which contains every halfway large city in Europe with 
listings of where to get cheap, vegetarian food, good places to hitchike out 
of, Youth hostels and cheap places to stay, bars, tips on currency exchange , 
contacts for rape crisis centers, gay centers , some usefull information and 
tips relating to the country's cultural and political situation and of course 
what sights to see , but I pretty much ignore that. Be sure to get a current 
copy, I found my copy to be pretty out of date (and it was only a year old). 

Money: I personally lug around a stack of patches and zines to sell and always 
do well. Patches are easy to sell cuz they're cheap and they don't weigh much. 
Some people actually make ungodly sums of money selling simple jewelry and 
others make fortunes selling drugs, although if you get caught with drugs 
while traveling you are basically fucked. There are plenty of money scams you 
can do on the road, some of which are in back issues of this zine. Panhandling 
is an obvious default for some people. Otherwise you can look up traveler's 
aid, hit up churches with your sob story, apply for emergency food stamps if 
you're staying somewhere a few days, sell stuff you steal etc. 

I know there's more, but for now that's all 


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

SILENCE = DEF 

(note: in the paper version , this article has gajillions of little clippings 
pasted throughout that came from my notebook which I used to converse with 
people during this week) 

It was Tuesday night at a coffeeshop , the conversation was centered loosely 
around communication and I decided to stop speaking. The little girl in the 
movie The Piano had boldly and arrogantly told the people frustrated with her 
mute mother that "most people only speak rubbish anyhow", I agreed fully. 
Especially now when the conversation I was taking part of really only 
consisted of people trying to push their own points, not really listening to 
anybody or even feeding back to people who had said anything that seemed 
important at all. People using their vocal chords to put up a front, to create 
a mask of verbal nonsense in order to shield themselves from any real 
interaction or showing themselves as how they really are, using empty cliches 
to put up an acceptible wall of complete shit which keeps others outside, and 
themselves comfortably isolated in their shell. Talking alot of shit, never 
listening , never interacting, never learning , never feeding off others, but 
nevertheless always loud , always talki 

ng and always immersed in this verbal static that makes us feel comfortable. 
We were touching on these ideas in our conversation. Someone brought up how 
some Indian tribal elders pause for exceptionally long periods during a 
conversation before speaking and then speak with incredible clarity and power 
in their words. I realized how much empty shit I talk and how much I use 
devices such as sarcasm or cutting others down to hold my ground. How I can 
babble on without saying shit and how I try to rush myself into what I'm 
trying to put into words so fast that I have incredible trouble formulating my 
feelings or thoughts verbally and come off extremely inarticulate and often a 
fool in the process. I despise doing this and decided right then I would not 
speak for a week. 
That night was Matt's 21st birthday, so we took him out to a new bar which 
brews their own beer. Matt does not believe in the natural forces of chaos. 
Chris and I do. Here is part of what I contributed to the conversation: 

Eventually Matt got both frustrated with my definition of chaos and my refusal 
to speak. At times he was down right pissed off at me for my silence. And a 
couple other friends too, just about blew me off entirely and told people how 
annoying this experiment of mine had become. I don't really understand this 
even now. It doesn't take that much patience to wait for me to put my replies 
on paper. It almost felt like people were frustrated because I wouldn't do 
something that people are just supposed to do. One of my room mates told 
people how annoying I had become ; other friends snapped at me to "just 
fucking say it!". I pulled some humour out of the situation, where I pretended 
to almost speak and then instead make peculiar odd noises with my throat 
instead , although I probably only entertained myself doing this. 

Some interesting observations: 
People reading over my shoulder tend to finish my sentences for me. I have a 
lot of half written sentences in my notebook. Does this prove how predictable 
my dialogue becomes, or how superfluous my speech is? Does it matter? 

My handwriting sucks. I usually need to rewrite keywords in my sentences for 
people to understand . Some people couldn't catch on at all to what i had to 
say and needed an interpreter to read my writing. 

Most people respected my silence and didn't view it as strange. This took me 
by surprise. The first couple days I was constantly on guard for smart ass 
comments or mockery. But I got relatively little shit. A new guy at the liquor 
store by our house thought I was mute and treated me with a sort of peculiar 
respect which seems like it's usually reserved for handicapped people. 

I didn't feel at all like I was becoming quieter. I actually felt like I was 
much louder than normal. After writing someone a note, they take extra time 
out to read it and let it sink in. A lot of speaking can just go in one ear 
and out the other, often not registering at all. In this way I've had some 
really good conversations with people where a lot more was said and where we 
would listen to each other instead of just playing verbal ping pong or 
whatnot. 

I occasionally caused near accidents while giving directions or just chatting 
to the driver of a car. 

The only time I got genuinely frustrated not speaking was when I nearly lost 
my temper was at Floyd (a dog) after he ate my walkman headphones (I paid good 
foodstamps for that walkman). After I cooled down some, I wondered to myself 
how I would talk my way out of a fight while walking down the street, or how I 
would respond to someone stepping out of line at my house. For instance when a 
visitor bounces the words cocksucker, faggot , nigger etc. around my house in 
an insulting or degrading manner I snap at them and tell them to shut the fuck 
up or get out. I've physically kicked people out of my house for invading my 
space with their sexist, gayhating , racist shit before, but how would I have 
the patience to write all this down on paper and then expect them to read my 
literary retalition while I'm still angry. I'm taking this as a sign that I 
need to work out my feelings before I shoot someone in the face with them. 

I DON'T KNOW 

Words tend to both reflect how one is and how one defines oneself. My frequent 
use of "I don't know" to conveniently end sentences , I've decided is hella 
unhealthy and I feel needs to end. It makes it much to easy for me to truncate 
my sentences without really forming a solid idea . As a result I'm probably 
developing vague and very open ended methods of thinking and developing my 
ideas. By saying "I don't know" to finish expressing my thought when it 
becomes difficult to express , I in effect stop challenging myself mentally to 
figure out just what it is I'm trying to get at or what the solution to the 
problem I'm verbally monitoring is. In conversation it's easy to step out mid 
sentence when the point proving get's too strenuous by trailing off with an "I 
don't know" and letting other arguers jump in till I mold my thoughts into 
language comprehensible enough for others to get a grasp of. This never 
happened on paper , I had the time to formulate my thoughts more solidly as I 
wrote. So when I would make m 

y statement or reply , it was there as I wanted it. The grasping for words and 
language was silent. By cutting out the "I don't know"s I'll be forced to 
develop my ability to construct my thoughts immediately instead of resorting 
to verbal crutches. 

In a similar way , I'm trying to eliminate "like" and "you know", however I 
feel completely different about my frequent use of "fucking". 


After about a week and a half I felt like I was getting less out of it. I 
chose to start speaking again. For some reason I felt a strange apprehension 
about speaking again. Everybody I deal with regularily had gotten more or less 
used to my silence and in a way I was not looking forward to dealing with 
people's reactions and jokes to hearing my voice again. Also , I had "told" a 
bunch of people that I probably would never speak again and hopefully would 
forget how. In fact i think i "told" so many people this that I nearly 
convinced myself of it. I hadn't uttered a word in a week and seemed outright 
peculiar to start again. When I did though, it seemed completely normal and I 
only got a standard remark from each person. I seem to make things into what 
they aren't . Funny. 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

The Incompatibility of capitalism and information 
by Jim Davis 

A central prop in Star Trek is Computer. Computer is capable of replicating 
almost anything the crew needs. Picard and company regularly request food, new 
machine parts , clothes, and other necessities from this remarkable machine. 
Could a society with those capabilities tolerate homelessness , starvation , 
illiteracy, and preventable diseases ? 

Four centuries separate the crew of the Starship Enterprise from today. But 
technologically , the distance is not that great. Even today, the NeXT factory 
in Fremont can produce $1 billion worth of computers a year with eight 
workers. Bioengineers deploy bacteria to produce plastics in a vat - no need 
for the labor that goes into oil exploration, drilling , building pipelines, 
transporting the crude, processing it , or for that matter, sending armies 
overseas to claim and protect it. From raw materials to finished product, less 
and less labor is required to produce more and more with robotics, 
biotechnology, "smart materials," computers, digital telecommunications, and 
new technologies on the way. 

In today's high tech production, raw materials, capital and labor are replaced 
with refined information in the form of computer programs, designs formulas, 
compression algorithms, DNA sequences, and so on. One could measure the 
changeover in a number of ways: the shrinking size of production runs that 
represent more design per unit; the rise in embedded "intelligence" in ROMs in 
products; the increase in education required to contribute in any given field; 
the percentage of design effort vs. duplication effort in a product; or the 
mushrooming percentage of people employed in information-related work (one 
study estimates that by 2000 , two thirds of those employed will work in 
education or information related jobs). This move to an information based 
economy is upsetting the social applecart. 

Toffler observed at most ten years ago that "(I)f you use a piece of 
information , I can use it too. In fact , if we both use it, the chances are 
improved that we will produce more information. We don't "consume" information 
like other resources. It is generative . . . That by itself , knocks the hell 
out of conventional economic theories." To put it more bluntly, production 
based on information intensive technology just isn't compatible with 
traditional forms of ownership and distribution. 

The incompatibility develops because information , the growing core of all 
products, can be reprocured and distributed at a tiny fraction of the efforts 
of the original. Contemporary production is more a matter of replication than 
manufacture. Economists noted 100 years ago that the value of an older machine 
(or really , any commodity) falls as cheaper but equivalent versions become 
available. This is equally true of computers, steel mills , toasters or corn. 
And so it is with information. A copy of PageMaker that costs $500 has the 
same value as an unauthorized copy made using a few floppy disks and and a 
couple of minutes of PC time. Once information gets out and about, its value 
drops to the cost of its duplication. 

For products like music , books, databases , computer programs, and films , 
that point is already approaching, because more and more manufacturing 
processes are becoming information based, whether it be digital production , 
or molecular level manipulation, or genetic code modification. To quote 
Toffler again, "Second Wave industries used brute force technologies -they 
punched, hammered , rolled , beat chipped and chopped , drilled and battered 
the materials into the shape we needed or wanted. . . The Third Wave 
industries operate at an altogether deeper level. Instead of banging something 
into shape, we reach back into the material itself and reprogram it to assume 
the shape we desire." As this situation continues to ripen, what with 
molecular electronics, nanotechnology and desktop manufacturing - to name a 
few new technologies - in the pipe , how can traditional forms of distribution 
hold ? How does one price something that effectively has no value (because its 
duplication cost approaches zero)? Much less 

profit from it ? If products (as various formations of information) face 
virtually no limits in their replicability, why not have copies of whatever 
for everyone who needs it? 

In a recent issue of Intertrek , the author Bruce Sterling ,made some 
particularly observant comments about information economy : "Information does 
want to be free - it doesn't want to be $5 a baud. There's something stupid 
about that . . . The idea of information as a commodity is just wrong. People 
say , 'if you could go into Sears and steal chairs , they wouldn't stay in 
business.' Well if you had a device that could make infinite chairs for free 
Sears would never have come into existence." 

Sterling's observation that Sears (read capitalism, and one might add 
socialism) belong to an era of scarcity raises an important question: Can 
capitalism co-exist with the information age? And can the information age 
co-exist with capitalism? Certainly, as even its most ardent critics have 
observed, capitalism drives forward the technology by demanding a constant 
revolution in the way things are made. But squeezing the square peg of 
information into the round hole of the industrial-era of economy shears off 
many of its benefits in the process. In the information economy , the old 
structures start to get in the way. 

For example, if duplication becomes trivial, and anyone can do it, the only 
way that value can be propped up is through the rigorous enforcement of 
"intellectual property" laws - erecting artificial monopolies to protect the 
patent or copyright holder. That is , only by keeping it in its myriad forms 
from reaching its full potential by forcing it through a narrow channel of the 
market, can money be made from it. 

So, as design and software - information and knowledge - become larger and 
larger proportions of goods, the economy moves onto the thin foundation of 
"intellectual property law". The precariousness of this kind of economy was 
evident last summer when Advanced Micro Devices , maker of 386 clone chips , 
received an infavorable jury verdict in its interminable copyright war with 
Intel. In one day its stock dropped by 37% - losing almost one half billion 
dollars in value. Paperback Software declared bankruptcy after losing a 
copyright case with Lotus. And the future Microsoft Windows was intertwined 
with a judges decision on arcane copyright principles. 

Problems emerge not just at the distribution end , but all up and down the 
line, starting with the most basic production decisions. When profitability 
becomes the determining factor in the knowledge production (research and 
development) and information distribution, society loses something. If 
information can't turn a profit, it won't be developed or stored , regardless 
of its social value. The president of commercial database vendor was quoted in 
1986 as saying "We can't afford an investment in databases that are not going 
to earn their keep and pay back their development costs." When asked what 
areas were not paying their development costs, he answered "Humanities". And 
our universe shrinks in the process. Pharmaceuticals (information products) 
comprise perhaps a more dramatic example - for instance , a 1991 World Health 
Organization report lamented the fact that development of new tuberculosis 
fighting drugs all but stopped 25 years ago (even though three million die 
every year from the disease) because t 

he drugs are "not a big profit maker." 

If humanities suffers, so does science. Competition breeds secrecy, and 
information not shared is information robbed of its potential (because of the 
synergistic, "generative" effect of combining bits of information). This is 
especially true in scientific research. As corporate funding of university 
research grows (estimated at $1 billion in 1989) , "the information that is 
produced in the labs and studies of the faculty is no longer available," UC 
San Diego Professor Herbert Shiller wrote recently. "It goes to the sponsoring 
company . . . it is no wonder that Science magazine finds it necessary to 
publish articles that inquire, ' Data Sharing : A Declining Ethic?' and to 
comment that , ' Commercial pressures and heightened competition (in the 
universities) are testing the notion that scientific data materials should be 
shared." 

The strict adherence to "intellectual property" concepts constricts 
information production in other ways. The "legal" production of new 
intellectual products (i.e, products which do not violate other patents or 
copyrights) become increasingly difficult. Richard Stallman , a League for 
Programming Freedom founder, has gone so far as to argue that a person who 
enforces a copyright is "harming society as a whole both materially and 
spiritually . . . Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a 
programmer as breathing and as productive." Through sharing of ideas and code, 
newer and better products develop more quickly. " Arrangements to make people 
pay for using a program , including licensing copies,"he continues, "always 
incur at a tremendous cost to society through the cumbersome mechanics 
necessary to figure out how much (that is which programs) a person must pay 
for.And only a police state can enforce everyone to obey them." Under such 
circumstances, only large organizations , with the requisite rea 

l resources can bear the risk of such a development effort. 

Or, in the struggle to conquer markets, companies needlessly duplicate efforts 
to develop new technologies. in addition , the fruits of competitive research 
efforts are often products that are incompatible with each other, wasting 
learning time, complicating the flow of data, and adding to the overall 
economic overhead . Choosing among, say, competing incompatible database 
management products means that users are effectively forced into a product 
ghetto and handicapped when communicating with others who use different 
products. 

Once the products make it to market, information companies behind the 
barricade of copyright and patent protection, may demand prices far in excess 
of the cost of research, development, and production. This pricing prevents 
their wider distribution and use. Explaining why product piracy is so 
widespread in the Third World countries, an economic professor noted, "A 
typical piece of computer software costs about as much as the anual earnings 
of an average Chinese person. An advanced textbook would cost a middle-class 
Indian a month's income." 

At the same time , the private corporate control of information challenges the 
democratic tradition. Through corporate ownership of most publishing , 
broadcasting, telecommunications, computers, software, and so on, "the 
corporate voice , not surprisingly is the loudest in the land," writes 
Shiller. "Institutions such as public libraries and the public educational 
system, which have provided free and open access to information and knowledge, 
are being brought into the corporate sphere, either through financial 
dependence or the transformation of information into a salable good. In either 
case, the erosion of equal access to equal access to information in this 
country progresses." 

The above examples suggest that capitalism has not been entirely kind to the 
information age. At the same time though, one could argue, the information age 
will not be too kind to capitalism. For bigger problems emerge than just how 
to control and price goods that have a growing information content. As more 
and more production is replaced with digitized forms of human effort and 
hyperproductive science, the information economy challenges the most basic 
assumption of our economy. 

The industrial era system of capitalism is based on the notion that people 
work in exchange for wages. These wages are then spent to purchase back 
things. the circulation of goods requires money. But if the cash nexus is 
broken - because jobs, and hence wages, are no longer available - the circle 
is broken, and the system goes into a tailspin. And this is what has happened 
. We have the awful contradiction of an incredibly productive economy, and at 
the same time at least six million homeless Americans, alarming illiteracy 
rates, and entire sections of society consigned to a life of permanent 
unemployment , drugs and prison. In the Third World the situation is much 
worse. 

The typical argument against this line of reasoning is that as old industries 
fade into historical oblivion, new ones rise to absorb the displaced workers. 
But , as Tom Forester notes in High Tech Society, high technology will not 
absorb the numbers of people cast out of industrial manufacturing. And as for 
the hopelessly optimistic government figures for the future of employment in, 
say the software industry, even that industry has been hit with stagnation and 
retrenchment over the past few years. Improvements in object oriented 
programing techniques and computer aided software engineering (CASE) are 
targeted at reducing labor-costs in software development. And the 
globalization of the labor market, sped up by computer technology and digital 
telecommunications, is hitting software production as well. Edward Yourdon 
speculates in his new book, The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer, 
that the US programmer will go the way of the US auto worker of the 1970s. 
Citing the rise of high skilled , low wage 

technology centers in places like India and the former Soviet Union, the once 
privileged American programer must now compete with fellow engineers overseas 
earning a fraction of American salaries. 

So even for work that does not lend itself to easy automation, or remains 
beyond the scope of current technology, the American worker must compete in 
the global labor market. Corporations seeking the maximum advantage are 
driving down wages to the world level. (Overall wages in the US have been 
falling for the past fifteen years.) At the same time though, they are pushing 
more and more of their goods beyond the reach of the shrinking paycheck. And 
the unavoidable compulsion to push up return on investment demands that 
companies throw even more technology at production , to drive down costs 
further ("raise productivity"). This only makes the problem worse. 

Nor is this to say that there aren't plenty of things that could be done: for 
example , environmental reclamation, care for our aging population, education, 
or the million different paths to cultural exploration. It's just that these 
areas will not generate a profit unless they can be converted into 
commodities; and if so , are pulled into the vortex. 

The problem certainly isn't, as democrats and Republicans alike have argued in 
the recent election campaign, one of productivity or "national 
competitiveness." Productive capacity well exceeds the market. Farmers are 
paid not to grow food, apartments sit empty (the national vacancy rate is 7% , 
far exceeding the number of homeless), and almost one quarter of factory 
capacity lies idle. The problem is not "productivity". The problem is the 
inability top distribute the wealth of the economy to those who need it 
because the old model breaks down in the face of new technologies. 

A 1990 San Francisco Examiner article reported on the work of computer 
scientists Hans Moravecof Carnegie Melon University and Kalman A. Toth, of 
Silico Magnetic Intelligence Corporation. They described a future where robots 
and other technologies have lifted the standard of living, and will have 
replaced most human labor. The article then asked , with typical newspaper 
understatement:" But if robots indeed are able to take the place of human 
labor, critical questions arise . . . First , how should the wealth produced 
by enterprises operated with robot labor be distributed to those who don't 
work or who work part of the time?" 

In more and more neighborhoods in the U.S. this question is by no means an 
academic one. Communities like South Central L.A., or San Francisco's 
Tenderloin, or Cabrini Green, or Detroit, or hundreds of rural towns are 
inhabited by those expelled from production (or never even given a chance to 
participate). Capitalism as a system not only offers them nothing, but stands 
in the way of their survival. These communities are the advance guard of a 
future which many of us will share, if we do not resolve the "critical 
questions.' 

The notion that big changes in the way a society produces things is somehow 
related to social organization is common currency among economic historians. 
And societies historically have reconstructed themselves (not automatically, 
and certainly not without some struggle) to correspond to new technologies - 
whether it be around the development of agriculture, the water wheel, the 
steam engine or the programmable chip. We straddle such an historical cusp 
today. Our challenge is to envision and struggle for social forms that cannot 
only accommodate new technologies, but can also unleash them for the benefit 
of all. 

What might these social forms look like> Project Gutenberg , the Free Software 
Foundation, and the thousands of public domain and free software authors 
suggest some of the possibilities. But whatever specific shape they might 
take, they would emphasize cooperation, sharing and diversity, because these 
qualities spark more information - social wealth. They would emphasize 
education, because education builds the infrastructure for creating new 
knowledge. And they would acknowledge the requirement that the social wealth 
be distributed on the basis of need, because the enormously lowered cost of 
production eliminates scarcity and wages. 

"Computer: Earl Grey tea. Hot." 

The author wishes to thank Michael, Eric and Judy for help in putting this 
piece together. Jim Davis is the Western regional Director for Computer 
Professionals for Social Responsibility. This article typed up and reprinted 
without permission from Lumen Times June 1993 who reprinted it with permission 
from Jim Davis and Intertek Volume 3.4, 13 Daffodil Lane, San Carlos, CA 
94070. two issue sub is $8 

a couple comments to The Incompatibility of Information and Capitalism 

While typing in this article it is really sinking in how much hype there is 
here concerning technology. After all he is a computer programmer . My reason 
for printing this is to put out a solid and powerful case for plagiarism and 
mass distribution of information. It does want to be free , not just software 
but all information. A large part of each Infinite Onion is plagiarized and 
some of it is reprinted elsewhere. That's great. There's so much information 
out there that selecting what one chooses to take in can be a mindboggling 
task. But it easily becomes a mindnumbing pastime when one lets the corporate 
media pick and choose what information they will feed you. I'm convinced that 
if the spread of information and access to creating the information put out 
over the media were democratized and made more accesible (omni-accesible), 
people would choose to take an active role in their world and their 
communities instead of passively and hopelessly watching it drift by. But, I 
also firmly don't believe in letti 

ng increased technology become such a big factor in our lives. Although I use 
this computer often and value it for its efficiency and the information I have 
access to, I am not reliant on it or its functions. I see a lot of the First 
World's infrastructure becoming more and more vulnerable as it appears to be 
getting more and more omnipotent because of the same technology. Our potential 
as humans lies in our spirits and hearts , no fucking technology can replace 
that part of us as much as its pushers would love that. that's all, be an 
animal ! 


====================================================================================================================================== 

the end . stealing articles from here is mandatory