Tag Archives: organizing

Dear Alec,

13 Aug

Last week, those ALEC fuckers had a meeting at the Mariott in New Orleans.  Some folks mostly from Cincinnati and Baton Rouge staged a protest.  An anarchist local convinced me it was worth my time to go check it out.

I’m really sad to hear that these organizers are following ALEC around the country to stage peaceful and under attended demos in each city.  Where are y’alls  kids?  It’s time to try something new, boo.

It's time to try something new, my friend.

All the anarchists were chilling in front of the hotel, talking shit and waving our cutesy little flags while the liberal demonstrators marched around the block in the middle of the day in August in the French Quarter.  The conference attendees stood behind the cops and laughed at both groups of dissenters.  Pretty sad.  Bored, I managed to hit on every man in a business suit on the sidewalk that afternoon.

We're all whores--especially y'all free market capitalists.

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The CUNTentiousness of SlutWalk

29 Jun

SlutWalk is something we’ve been reading and thinking A LOT about lately, so I guess it’s time we asked what y’all think.  I just recently found out people are organizing a SlutWalk in Bmore, and I’m not convinced this is a good idea.  In fact, Gina and I, who are both self-identified sluts, find the protest problematic.

If you’re unfamiliar with the critiques, I recommend the Racialicious article, but I also think it’s worth reading what some of our friends wrote here, and here.

So please sound off!  Have you been to a SlutWalk?  What was your experience?  What kind of perception of feminism does the protest project?  What other responses to victim-blaming can we envision?

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REPOST: More Sex Workers Arrested, Charged with “Crimes Against Nature”

28 Jun

Reposted from Nola Anarcha:

Less than a month after Women With A Vision won a victory for sex workers by getting a repeal of the Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature (SCAN) law through the Lousiana legislature, a law which labels sex workers with Sex Offender status meant for sexual assault perpetrators, NOPD continues it’s racist, P.R. motivated sweeps of minor offenders by arresting 9 women and charging them with the soon-to-be-repealed SCAN law.

The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 or 14 years old. Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution. Others were “traditional wives” without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution to support themselves and their children.[1] The fact that New Orleans cops firstly failed to protect these women when they were children from the violence of patriarchy and class society, and then have the gall to ATTACK THE VICTIMS when they use a means of survival that is a visible reminder of this system’s failures is a despicable attempt at obliterating any activities which remind them of where their massive degree of power, control and wealth in our society came from, while simultaneously re-producing and furthering that inequality as these women are forced to pay money to the courts for fines and fees, as their bodies in cells mean daily money to pay the Sheriff to house them, and as they lose the money from Johns to the whiter, more privileged sex workers (“escorts”) not targeted by NOPD. NOPD’s action simultaneously attacks society’s victims, takes away more power from the oppressed and gives it to the more privileged, and blames sex workers instead of Johns for prostitution when most wealth is controlled by men in our society, re-enforcing the system of patriarchy.

The insults against the dignity of the people who live in this city just keep on coming fast and furious. 

Continue reading →

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Iron Rail Benefit Tuesday

26 Jun

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DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE!

25 Jun

Everyone's favotite Southern holiday!

I was super pumped to see the Southern Media Makers Caucus on the agenda today at the Allied Media Conference, and a little disappointed in the way it played out.

The facilitator, Jordan Flaherty (of Left Turn fame), feeling an under-representation of Southerners at the conference over the years, wanted to know how we could bring the AMC back to the South and/or how we could bring more of the South to the AMC in future.  Does the South need an AMC of its very own?

Continue reading →

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ROOTS Fest: Many communities, one voice.

24 Jun

If you’re near Baltimore this weekend, you gotta come out to the FREE outdoor arts festival that’s part of ROOTS Fest 2011.  

Even if youhaven’t been able to take part in the National Learning Exchange, or see any of the awesome performances happening all around Baltimore this week, some of the most exciting stuff is still to come- like Talib Kweli tomorrow night at 9pm!

ROOTS Fest is being held on the notorious “Highway to Nowhere” in the heart of West Baltimore.  It’s seeking to give new life to what can be, could be, would be, when the community comes together and plans development for itself.   “Highway to Nowhere” is emblamatic of what happens when outside interests shape a community, and ROOTS Fest is where art and culture imagine the possibilities for a more just and beautiful urban landscape.

Kidz City is super excited to be part of the Interactive Arts Pavilion, which is happening both Saturday and Sunday on the corner of Gilmore and Franklin.

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Finally, New Orleans has a free school.

25 Mar
teachers wanted!

They also have great graffic design!

Back in the day at FSU, Sarah SK and I were consecutive directors of one of the original and oldest free schools in the country, the Center for Participant Education. We stopped studying, we skipped class, and we missed tests to make sure that our classes ran on time, the workshops stayed open, and that our surprisingly conservative student senate was kept from writing us out of their budget each semester.  That being said, I have a bit of a soft spot for this kind of work which is why I am thrilled to have witnessed the carnation of the New Orleans Free School Network.

From their mission statement:

The New Orleans Free School Network offers quality, no-cost, volunteer-run, community-based educational opportunities for people of all ages throughout the city of New Orleans. Classes and workshops directly respond to neighborhood- and community-specific desires and needs.

Bad ass.

They are currently offering 16 classes ranging from plumbing to political theory to bounce (speaking of which, check out Big Freedia’s new AMAZING video!).  These two really appeal to my personal interests and just so happen to be taught by some personal friends.

Human Sexuality | A survey course that includes the study of anatomy & physiology, as well as the psychological & sociological aspects of human sexual behavior. 1: perspectives on & components of human sexuality. 2: female & male anatomy & physiology. 3: sexual response cycle, sexuality over lifespan. 4: STIs, HIV & AIDS, safer sex practices | Sundays March 20th-April 17th (Note: no class April 10th) @ 5-7pm @ the LGBT Center (2114 Decatur St) | contact: Marika Maypop msymmetric@gmail.com
Men & Feminism | The class is a study of critiques of men & masculinity by feminism and mens involvement in the feminist movement. | Thursdays March 17-April 28 @ 5-6pm @ Sycamore House (3111 Palmyra St in Mid City) | contact: Peter Reed ptreed@uno.edu

You may have been hearing rumors of trouble within the activist scene here in New Orleans as of late.  Both our local infoshop, the Iron Rail, and our community bike shop, Plan B, were suddenly and unexpectedly evicted from their mutual tenement, the ARC.  Many of us can’t imagine our worlds here without these two amazing resources and while those collectives are still working to relocate, it’s a great comfort to see new projects, like the Free School, emerging.

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Dear PETA, You’re irrelevant.

12 Aug

"Move Over, Mudflap Girl"

Most feminists, radicals, thoughtful vegetarians/vegans, and legitimate animal rights activists have given up on PETA long ago, so harping on them seems a little superfluous, but after their most recent “direct action” campaign, I couldn’t resist.  Not only is it completely offensive in the sense that the image is of a faceless woman whose only notable features are her breasts, butt, and high heels, but it’s incredibly sophomoric.  Why not just paint giant tits in the middle of the road that read, “LIKE BOOBIES? GO VEGAN!”

Continue reading →

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Protecting the Pretty

3 Aug

I don’t usually feel comfortable commenting on global women’s issues in part because I’m not entirely confident that I know or understand the complexity of women’s experiences outside the US.  Despite the fact that I studied Anthropology and had a thorough education on colonialism and colonial feminism, there’s just so much in the world we can never appreciate without experiencing it for ourselves, and any approach to global issues has to be done with an open heart and mind while still staying true to your gut feelings about justice and inequality.  And all that is sometimes just too fucking heavy for me.

However, I do feel compelled to comment on Time Magazine’s current cover photo and corresponding caption.  The image is of an 18-year-old girl, Aisha, who was mutilated by Taliban, and the caption boldly states “What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan”. Feministing.com did a pretty good job of critiquing Western media’s tendency to focus on women’s bodies and faces rather than their voices, especially when it comes to women as “other”.  Also, a number of people have pointed out that this happened to Aisha while tens of thousands of US troops were already in Afghanistan.

The cover offends me not only as a feminist and anarchist, but also as someone who sees war as an extension of patriarchal domination.  Aisha agreed to let Time use her photo because she wants people to see the very real atrocities being committed against women, and other Afghanis, at the hands of the Taliban (which is a political, not religious or cultural, institution that lest we forget was once backed by the US).  I applaud her courage, as well as the courage of all women who live, struggle and organize in some of the world’s most oppressive regimes.

I take absolutely no issue with her choice to pose for this photo.  What I do find appalling is Time’s choice to juxtapose her photo with a politically loaded caption.  By doing this Time is ostensibly saying that women must be protected by militarism, which in the case of the US and other military-industrialized countries, is inherently masculine.  This kind of paternalism denies women their autonomy and assumes that they do not have the agency to fight for themselves.  Although the entirety of the article is not available online, I would hazard to guess that Time doesn’t bother to investigate what kinds of grassroots organizing women in Afghanistan are doing (RAWA is great example), and have been doing for decades.  From what I could read, it focuses on the virtues of American occupation.

Time is not just using women to uphold a political and ideological view that supports militarism though.  They’re also using feminine beauty and the patriarchal fear and disgust of deformed women to sell an agenda.  Indeed, few things are more offensive to a society that privileges the visual than seeing a beautiful woman who has been horribly disfigured.  The fact that Aisha was once an attractive girl with luscious black hair and piercing eyes adds to the uncanny and disturbing nature of the cover.

Much of this goes back to early colonial “outrage” over the hijab and the West’s obsession with the most visible and superficial forms of female oppression.  In The Discourse of The Veil, Leila Ahmed details the way European men in Algeria used the veil as an example of how “uncivilized” the culture, religion and people were.  They could thereby justify continued colonization and exploitation of both men and women, eventually leading Algerian women to wear the hijab as a form of resistance.  Even in the early days of the war in Afghanistan, discussion on the plight of women focused on the burka, and not on the fact that women were starving in the streets because the Taliban prevented them from working.  We saw individual images of women covered from head to toe, but little to no images of women rallying in the streets for their right to work.

Of course it’s also important to note some other factors at play with regards to Time and its content.  Since they’re a corporately owned media conglomerate, their number one goal is to sell, sell, sell.  The more horrific, uncanny, and controversial their cover is, the more likely people are to pick it up in the check-out isle at the grocery store.  And the timing of the article cannot be ignored. It comes on the heels of the 15,000 documents published on Wikileaks exposing potential war crimes in Afghanistan.  Occupation apologists are feeling an extra push to start covering their asses at any expense.

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REPOST from Bash Back! Denver

15 Jun

AN OPEN LETTER OF APOLOGY FROM BASH BACK DENVER TO JORDAN FROM APOC PHILLY
June 6, 2010,

In the lead up to the Bash Back 2010 convergence, Jordan from APOC Philly was banned from the convergence for being a perpetrator of sexual assault due to a case of mistaken identity. Bash Back Denver is truly sorry for this, and hopes that everyone will spread the word that Jordan IS NOT accused of sexual assault. The perpetrator is Jordan Opalanie, a white person who recently moved to Philly.

What follows is a brief outline of the process that occurred around this situation and what some of our mistakes were made, and some of the most troubling dynamics present in this situation.

In organizing for the 2010 Bash Back convergence this year, Bash Back Denver (the organizing collective for certain aspects of the convergence) was contacted and requested that a perpetrator of sexual assault who was banned from last years convergence be banned again. We we’re forwarded a series of emails from Chicago organizers that had banned an individual from the convergence last year, and informed that they had not entered an accountability process. These emails were passed on to the Sexual Assault Team. Previous, BBD had decided that aggressors who are not in/refusing accountability processes were not welcome in the convergence.

That email contained Jordan O’s facebook page and old contact information, as well as identifying information within the email. One of the collective members, Ariel Attack, was in charge of double-checking the information on Jordan O. After reading the email, Ariel assumed the identity to be Jordan from Philly based upon the information in the email and never checked the facebook page. Had they done this, Ariel clearly would have seen that the perpetrator was not Jordan from APOC Philly. Ben Yager, not in the collective but in the working group, took Ariel’s word on doublechecking this information but did not doublecheck himself.

The collective was never given identifying information on Jordan O beyond TJ (the name Jordan O used to go by and identified in the email), and decided to ban them from the convergence. The collective also decided to not contact Jordan about banning them from convergence; an email was sent last minute at the urging from Ben on the grounds that it was manipulative to not inform someone that they weren’t welcome at a convergence that they may be planning on attending.

The roots in this situation run much deeper than a person and collective making a series of mistakes; these mistakes and actions were influenced by white supremacy and oppression. An assumption was made about a male-bodied persyn of color about an accusation of sexual assault. Throughout history, this has been a tactic of white supremacy to target and murder people of color, and still today is rife within our society. Radical communities, especially radical communities of color, have initiated accountability processes and community response to sexual assault in their communities as a way to escape and combat the murderous prison industrial complex and the institutional white supremacy of our society. Not only do many (including the process used by BB Denver) of these processes in largely white communities fail to recognize these dynamics, they often recreate the exact situations these processes are trying to prevent and change and make assumptions surrounding the accusation of people of color and the role white supremacy plays in communities.

Even in this process of addressing this, BB Denver has failed in addressing the white supremacy of our actions. Many of us have tried to separate our actions from white supremacy, separate our apology, and distance ourselves from what we have done. We have been concerned about our reputations, here in Denver and further away. Our actions are racist and damaging, and if we are to be truly accountable we must be honest about our actions.

As a collective, we recognize that we fucked up and in a major way. We are sorry for what we have done, and apologize to Jordan and the wider community for this. We ask that individuals, even those not connected with this situation directly, spread this letter around to ensure that the false rumors that Jordan from APOC Philly is a perpetrator are negated, and that Jordan Opalanie in this situation is called out.

Sincerely

BB Denver

bashbackdenver@gmail.com

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