328 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
328 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
|
|
The Post-Competitive, Comparative Game of a Free City
|
|
|
|
[Originally appeared in The Digger Papers, August, 1968, p. 15. Reprinted in
|
|
Ringolevio.]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our state of awareness demands that we uplift our efforts from competitive game
|
|
playing in the underground to the comparative roles of free families in free
|
|
cities.
|
|
|
|
We must pool our resources and interact our energies to provide the freedom for
|
|
our individual activities.
|
|
|
|
In each city of the world there is a loose competitive underground composed of
|
|
groups whose aims overlap, conflict, and generally enervate the desired goal of
|
|
autonomy. By now we all have guns, know how to use them, know our enemy, and are
|
|
ready to defend. We know that we ain't gonna take no more shit. So it's about
|
|
time we carried ourselves a little heavier and got down to the business of
|
|
creating free cities within the urban environments of the western world.
|
|
|
|
Free Cities are composed of Free Families (e.g., in San Francisco: Diggers,
|
|
Black Panthers, Provos [substitute "Red Guards" in Ringolevio], Mission Rebels
|
|
and various revolutionist gangs and communes) who establish and maintain
|
|
services that provide a base of freedom for autonomous groups to carry out their
|
|
programs without having to hassle for food, printing facilities, trans-
|
|
portation, mechanics, money, housing, working space, clothes, ma- chinery,
|
|
trucks, etc.
|
|
|
|
At this point in our revolution it is demanded that the families, communes,
|
|
black organizations and gangs of every city in America coordinate and develop
|
|
Free Cities where everything that is necessary can be obtained for free by those
|
|
involved in the various activities of the individual clans.
|
|
|
|
Every brother [add "and sister" in Ringolevio] should have what he [substitute
|
|
"they" in Ringolevio] need to do whatever needs to be done.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City:
|
|
|
|
An outline . . . a beginning
|
|
|
|
Each service should be performed by a tight
|
|
|
|
gang of brothers and sisters whose commitment should enable
|
|
|
|
them to handle an overload of work with ability
|
|
|
|
and enthusiasm. 'Tripsters' soon get bored, hopefully
|
|
|
|
before they cause an economic strain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Switchboard/Information Center
|
|
|
|
should coordinate all services, activities, and aid and direct assistance where
|
|
it is most needed. Also provide a reference point for legal aid, housing,
|
|
machinery, etc.; act as a mailing address for dislocated groups or individuals
|
|
and guide random energies where they are most needed. (The work load usually
|
|
prevents or should prevent the handling of messages from parents to their
|
|
runaway children . . . that should be left up to the churches of the community.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free Food Storage and Distribution Center
|
|
|
|
should hit every available source of free food--produce markets, farmers'
|
|
markets, meat-packing plants, farms, dairies, sheep and cattle ranches,
|
|
agricultural colleges, and giant institutions (for the uneaten vats of
|
|
food)--and fill up their trucks with the surplus by begging, borrowing,
|
|
stealing, forming liaisons and communications with delivery drivers for the
|
|
leftovers from their routes . . . best method is to work in two shifts: morning
|
|
group picks up the foodstuffs and the afternoon shift delivers it to the list of
|
|
Free Families and the poor peoples of the ghettos. everyday. hard work.
|
|
|
|
This gang should help people pool their welfare food stamps and get their old
|
|
ladies or a group to open a free restaurant for people on the move and those who
|
|
live on the streets. Giant scores should be stored in a garage-type warehouse
|
|
equipped with freezers and its whereabouts known only to the Free Food Gang.
|
|
This group should also set up and provide help for canning, preserving, bread
|
|
baking, and feasts and anything and everything else that has to do with food.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Garage and Mechanics
|
|
|
|
to repair and maintain all vehicles used in the various services. the
|
|
responsibility for the necessary tools and parts needed in their work is
|
|
entirely theirs and usually available by maintaining friendly relations with
|
|
junkyards, giant automotive schools, and generally scrounging around those areas
|
|
where auto equipment is easily obtained. The garage should be large enough and
|
|
free of tripsters who only create more work for the earnest mechanics.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Bank and Treasury
|
|
|
|
this group should be responsible for raising money, making free money, paying
|
|
rents, for gasoline, and any other necessary expenses of the Free City Families.
|
|
They should also organize and create small rackets (cookie sales, etc.) for the
|
|
poor kids of the ghettoes and aid in the repair and maintenance of the machinery
|
|
required in the performance of the various services.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Legal Assistance
|
|
|
|
high-style, hard-nosed, top-class lawyers who are willing to defend the rights
|
|
of the Free City and its services . . . no honky, liberal, bleeding-heart,
|
|
guilt-ridden advocates of justice, but first-class case-winners . . . turn on
|
|
the best lawyers who can set up airtight receivership for free money and
|
|
property, and beat down the police harassment and brutality of your areas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Housing and Work Space
|
|
|
|
rent or work deals with the urban gov't to take over spaces that have been
|
|
abandoned for use as carpentry shops, garages, theaters, etc., rent whole
|
|
houses, but don't let them turn into crash pads. Set up hotels for new arrivals
|
|
or transients by working out deals with small hotel owners for free rooms in
|
|
exchange for light housework, porter duties, etc. Big warehouses can be worked
|
|
on by environmental artists and turned into giant free dance-fiesta-feast
|
|
palaces.
|
|
|
|
A strong trio of serious business-oriented cats should develop this liberation
|
|
of space within the cities and be able to work with the lawyers to make deals
|
|
and outmaneuver urban bureaucracies and slum landlords . . . one of the main
|
|
targets for space are the churches who are the holders of most real estate and
|
|
they should be approached with a no-bullshit hard line.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Stores and Workshops
|
|
|
|
nothing in these stores should be throwaway items . . . space should be
|
|
available for chicks to sew dresses, make pants to order, recut garments to fit,
|
|
etc. The management should all be life-actors capable of turning bullshitters
|
|
into mud. Important that these places are first class environments with no trace
|
|
of salvation army/st. vinnie de paul charity rot. Everything groovy. Everything
|
|
with style . . . must be first class. It's all free because it's yours!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free Medical Thing
|
|
|
|
should be established in all poverty areas and run by private physicians and
|
|
free from any bureaucratic support. The Free City Bank should try to cover the
|
|
expenses, and pharmaceutical houses should be hit for medical supplies, etc.
|
|
Important that the doctors are brothers and do not ask to be salaried or are not
|
|
out to make careers for themselves (witness Dr. David Smith of the Hippie Free
|
|
Clinic in San Francisco who is far from a brother . . . very far).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Hospital
|
|
|
|
should be a house converted into bed space and preferably with a garden and used
|
|
for convalescence and people whose minds have been blown or who have just been
|
|
released from a state institution and who need the comfort and solace of their
|
|
[add "own" in Ringolevio] people rather than the cold alienated walls of an
|
|
urban institution.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Environmental and Design Gang
|
|
|
|
gangs of artists from universities and art institutes should be turned on and
|
|
helped in attacking the dank squalor of the slums and most of the Free City
|
|
Family dwellings . . . paint landscapes on the sides of tenements . . .
|
|
fiberglass stairwells . . . make crazy. Tight groups of good painters,
|
|
sculptors, designers who comfortably construct environments for the community.
|
|
Materials and equipment can be hustled from university projects and
|
|
manufacturers, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Schools
|
|
|
|
schools designed and run by different groups according to the consciousness of
|
|
their Free Families (e.g., Black Man's Free School, Anarchist's Creative Arts
|
|
School, etc.). The schools should utilize the space liberated for them by the
|
|
Free City Space Gang.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City News and Communication Company
|
|
|
|
providers of a daily newspaper, monthly magazine, free Gestetner and printing of
|
|
[delete "of" in Ringolevio] notices for other groups and any special bulletins
|
|
and propaganda for the various families of the Free City. The machinery should
|
|
be kept in top condition and supplied by any of the various services. Paper can
|
|
be scavenged at large mills and cut down to proper working size.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Events . . . Festival Planning Committees
|
|
|
|
usually involves several Families interacting to sponsor tours for the kids . .
|
|
. Balls, Happenings, Theatre, Dance, and spontaneous experiments in joy . . .
|
|
Park Events usually are best set up by hiring a 20-foot flatbed truck for the
|
|
rock band to use as a stage and to transport their equipment; people should be
|
|
advised by leaflets to bring food to exchange with their neighbors; banners,
|
|
props, balloons, kites etc., should be handled by a committee; an electrician
|
|
should be around to run the generator and make sure that the PA systems work;
|
|
hard work made easy by giving responsible people the tough jobs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cooperative Farms and Campsites
|
|
|
|
the farms should be run by experienced hands and the Free Land set- tled on by
|
|
cottage industrial people who will send their wares into the Free City. The
|
|
farms must produce vital food for the families . . . some free land that is no
|
|
good for farming should be used as campsites and/or cabin areas for [add "Free"
|
|
in Ringolevio] citizens who are in need of country leisure, as well as kids who
|
|
could use a summer in the woods.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scavenger Corps and Transport Gang
|
|
|
|
is responsible for garbage collection and the picking up and delivery of items
|
|
to the various services, as well as liberating anything they think useful for
|
|
one project or another. They are to be responsible for the truck fleet and
|
|
especially aware of the economic strain if trucks are misused by tripsters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Tinkers and Gunsmiths, Etc.
|
|
|
|
will repair and keep things going in the houses . . . experienced repairmen of
|
|
all sorts, electricians, and carpenters. They should maintain a warehouse or
|
|
working space for their outfit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Radio, TV and Computer Stations
|
|
|
|
demand Free time on radio and TV stations; demand a Free City fre- quency to set
|
|
up your own stations; rent computers to call the punches for the revolution or
|
|
use them in any constructive way possible.
|
|
|
|
[following text in original, not in Ringolevio:]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free City Music
|
|
|
|
Free Music
|
|
|
|
Where is the place that your music comes from
|
|
|
|
do you know
|
|
|
|
What determines the rest between phrases
|
|
|
|
The Interval that grows from the cluster
|
|
|
|
of sounds around it
|
|
|
|
Hanging behind the beat
|
|
|
|
Clipping the front of it
|
|
|
|
That's the gift
|
|
|
|
The thing that blows through a body that responds to spirit and a
|
|
|
|
mind that doesn't lock itself
|
|
|
|
It's that thing
|
|
|
|
We're all made of forget about, and then try to grab again
|
|
|
|
That thing that's all there and all free
|
|
|
|
The fretless infinite string banjo has invented new means of music
|
|
|
|
which it must buy from itself to sing
|
|
|
|
$ * $ * $
|
|
|
|
fat man owns the carnival and all the booths play business. he double hypes the
|
|
want glands, lets you buy in and then displays what's available to the crowd.
|
|
all of a sudden you got something to lose. he spreads the news and pays for it
|
|
by telling kids they're ugly blemished smelly unimaginative and dull . . . then
|
|
sells them cures, says to you, "here kid, change the name, change the games, do
|
|
anything you want, but don't give it away." that game's called vested interest
|
|
and it can apply to anything.
|
|
|
|
fat man runs a crumby joint, but it's the only joint right? He'll be there until
|
|
we free the goodies
|
|
|
|
Art forms and life forms interact
|
|
|
|
look at fat mans Life
|
|
|
|
look at fat mans Time
|
|
|
|
look at fat mans forms
|
|
|
|
The record industry, dance-hall promotion rackets and the artist-
|
|
star-celebrity-hero roles they support and promote are fat man forms and are
|
|
cramping the number
|
|
|
|
the dance-light show package hasn't changed since its form crystallized and it
|
|
became business. it reached the end of its evolution. kids don't dance they
|
|
watch, because the bands are pro now and you don't play with a pro. when you pay
|
|
to go to a dance the medium is business . . . the problem is to free the form
|
|
and the carnival.
|
|
|
|
Some Ideas for Liberating the Ferris Wheel:
|
|
|
|
A) Contracts could demand free cuts on all albums a name group might take one
|
|
side of an album and divide the other into sets of two tracks each of which they
|
|
would give away. give a brother a piggy-back over the business-shit to the ears
|
|
of our people. two truths don't compete
|
|
|
|
B) A certain number of records be released in plain white folders. saving all
|
|
art and printing costs and leaving free space for local artists to use. Ready
|
|
mades would cost more.
|
|
|
|
C) Scrap liner notes and "photos-of-the-band" print charts of the tunes,
|
|
diagrams of cheap amps and pick-ups so local wizards can plug in more kids, good
|
|
poems, clothes patterns, recipes.
|
|
|
|
D) Add 1% to all royalties to be used for free forms
|
|
|
|
equipment for free rehearsal rooms
|
|
|
|
sound systems for free concerts
|
|
|
|
musical communes for non-working cats.
|
|
|
|
E) Send other bands on your publicity junkets after all its not just your sound
|
|
is it its the sound you're all part of. make that clear to people. free fat
|
|
man's star trip by giving away your names. how many times can you go to Des
|
|
Moines?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|