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from your editors

Fuck tradition. It's the sort of thing that jails us and keeps us from moving forward — it ties our hands with convention. It keeps women from earning what they deserve. It keeps people of color shut out from resources they need to survive. Mainstream convention tells us that we need to adhere to tradition to maintain our roots, but what traditions are we encouraged to adhere toi* Traditions that keep certain people in power while others are left to fend for themselvesJ* What about the traditions of resistance that encourage us to continue fighting for a better world for all of us? Noam Chomsky once suggested that "intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself." Being ashamed of ourselves is not something we're good at, and neither are Clamor readers. So we're bring- ing this issue to you to remind us all that we have a rich tradition (both ancient and newly established) of resistance to injustice. We're building traditions from the fires of inspiration we get from those who came before us on the ashes of outmoded mindsets that encourage us to just "trust the experts and everything will be okay."

When we're looking for traditions, we needn't look any furthur than Oakland, where AK Press is celebrating 15 years of anarchist publishing this year (p. 14). But if we did want to look fur- ther, this year's gathering of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre (pp. 30 and 63) illustrates how a relatively recent tradition can challenge the powers of the elitist World Economic Forum and its counterparts. Keidra Chaney also talked with people from the U.S. and beyond to find out how people are responding to the changes in their communities (p. 22). Ken Allen and Don Mcintosh recently debated the past and future of organized labor in the U.S. in an effort to find what has and hasn't worked for the working class in hopes of moving forward with a better. Courtney Martin takes us on a brief survey of the history of Third Wave Feminism and Rebecca Hyman examines the merit (or lack thereof) of the mainstreaming of queer culture in America in the sex and gender section (p. 38) — both invaluable discussions to be having as we look at where we've come from and where we're headed with regards to sex/gender politics in the U.S. And in the culture section, Jason Powers invites us to look at permaculture as one solution to environmental neglect — a positive, pro-active response to how we've been negatively taught to interact with the earth.

We hope you enjoy the issue. These are our traditions and the future we build with them will be ours.

Thanks for reading,

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Clamor s mission is to provide a media outlet that reflects the reality of alternative politics and culture in a format that IS accessible to people from a variety of backgrounds. Clamor exists to fill the voids left by mainstream media We recognize and celebrate the fact that each of us can and should participate in media, politics, and culture. We publish writing and art that exemplify the value we place on autonomy, creativity, exploration, and cooperation. Clamor is an advocate of progressive social change through active creation of political and cultural alternatives.

@

rP UPROAR

08 Where Clamor Readers Have Their Say

Number 32 i May/June 2005

CULTURE

10 The Problem is the Solution by Jason Powers

14 AK Press: A Tradition of Resistance by Katie Renz

1 7 The Familiarity Factor by Megha Bahree

1 9 Beyond the Monoculture by Shiipa Kamat

PFOPIF

22 Changing Communities. Changing Traditions edited by Keidra Chaney

26 Upholsterer for the People by Courtney Martin

27 Reflections on a Hippie Childhood by Rebecca Hartman

POLITICS

30 World Social Forum 2005 by Benjamin DangI

34 A New Tradition of Texas Populism by J. D. Pleucker

35 At the Edge of America by Dan Gordon

^FY Awn nFwnFD

38 Straightwashing by Rebecca Hyman

41 Born in Flames Conference by Abby Sewell

42 Basketball, Bitch, and Beyond:

Surveying the Third Wave Feminist Landscape by Courtney E. Martin 44 A Troubled Tradition by Caitiin Corrigan

MEDIA

48 You Can't Do That On Television! The Conspicuous

Absence of Abortion on TV by Rachel Fudge 52 Media and Tech Traditions: Old and New

by Mane Lamb and Catherine Komp 54 Where are all the Environmental Stories? by Brian C. Howard

ECONOMICS

58 Unite to Win! Debating Reorganizing Organized Labor

by Ken Allen and Don Mcintosh 83 WSF: Past, Present, and Future by Kent L. Laudt

MURMURS

67 What We're Talking About...

HERE

74 Ohio's Own BLUEPRINT by Blake Gillespie

A

Please address letters to letters@clamormagazine.org

or write us at PO Box 20128 Toledo, OH 43610

Letters may be edited for length.

Not all letters received will be printed.

We're Not All "Persians"

I received my first copy of Clamor from a friend him- self closely associated with another well-respected left publication who suggested that I read and per- haps write for your magazine. So it was with great surprise that I found the article "We are Persians" in your magazine (Clamor 30; Jan/Feb 2005), and I am writing to bring your attention to some of the deep mistakes and problems with that article. In effect, the ellaboration of Iranian identity by the writer of that article is worthy of a neo-con publication and not of a grassroots magazine aimed at a young al- ternative readership.

To set a few points straight: there is a de- bate amongst the Iranian community in the US as far as the use of the term "Persian." As the writer herself ellaborated, the term "Persian" has come to represent the section of the Iranian community that is associated with those who identify with the deposed dictator of Iran, the Shah. Nothing can be more surprising than to read about the Queen of a dictatorship in such a sott (white washed?) light in this magazine!

Furthermore, the term "Persian" is now being used by many in the Iranian community who wish to elevate themselves above the Muslim and Arab communities in the US. Instead of questioning the racist depiction of all people from the Middle East, these Persian-minded Iranians, buy into the racism, in effect, saying "We are Persians, so we are better than those Arabs that you see on TV!"

There is yet a third, and most concrete reason why the term "Persian" is an unacceptable term: not all Iranians are Persians. Although the Persians are politically and culturally the dominsat group in Iran, the majority of Iranains actually come from vari- ous minority communitites such as Turkish, Kurd. Baluch. Gilak, Arab. etc. etc. Equating the term 'Persian' with all Iranians negates the presence of these various ethnicities and falls into an internal imperialism than many minorities in Iran are fight- ing against.

I am not sure if the writer of that article is aware of the various sides of this discussion. Never- theless, for those of us who have struggled to devel- op a progressive Iranian and Middle Eastern politics in the US, I find it is important to bring the attention of your magazine to these questions.

o Thanks,

o

•^ Kouross Esmaeli

c New York, New York

Where's the Love for Street Papers?

I'm writing in response to your latest issue, "Mak- ing the Media that Matters." I enjoyed the issue very much, especially "Down to the wire," by Gwen Shaffer.

I was a little disappointed to see no mention of the street newspaper movement in North America, or throughout the world.

The street newspaper movement is a product of growing homeless population throughout the world, and in many communities newspapers have become credible news sources, while ottering many people experiencing homelessness a small economic opportunity.

In places like Portland, Seattle, Boston, and Washington D.C., just to name a few, papers are tackling the issues of homelessness and poverty, that unfortunately, is otten times lett out of many liberal and conservative dialogues in a real and fo- cused way.

Sincerely, Israel Bayer Forks, Washington

Open Letter to an Open Letter

Just a quick note to say that I agree with much of what Peter Gelderloos says in his letter (Clamor 31; Mar/Apr 2005) in your current issue. Certainly the bourgeois progressive media is uncomfortable with the ULA's working-class in-your-face noise and tactics; our strong embrace of contention and dis- agreement and our lavish use of free speech. They shouldn't be.

Regards,

Karl "King" Wenclas, Underground Literary Alliance

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The revolution won't be televised, but you can read

about It. Books for a better world, by Mike Palacek, former federal prisoner, congressional candidate, newspaper reporter. Please visit: iowapeace.com.

EMMA GOLDMAN REVISITED: The journal Social An- archism (publishing since 1981) presents a special supplement on Red Emma in its current issue. Also articles on Anarchism and Human Nature (Tom Martin, Lucy Parsons Park (Kathryn Rosenfeld), a lost (1893) essay by Voltairine DeCleyre, reviews by Richard Kostelanetz and Howard J. Ehrtich, poetry and book reviews. $6. Social Anarchism, 2743 Mary- land Ave., Balttmore, MD 21218

FIRE ON THE PRAIRIE: a monthly show featuring interviews with progressive writers and thinkers, brought to you by In These Times magazine. Listen to archived shows online at wvm.wluw.org.

SUPPORT PROMETHEUS RADIO PROJECT: Pro- metheus IS a microradio resource center offering legal, technical, and organizational support for the non-commercial community broadcasters. For more information, visit www.prometheusradio.org.

ART CARS WANTED! Come one, come all to "Rollie Toledo'' - The Old West End Festival Parade. We are looking for all forms of rolling artwork - cars, bikes, floats. ...you name it. We will gather in Toledo, Ohio for the Historic Old West End Festival Weekend, June 3-5. Parade will be held Saturday morning, June 4. For a prospectus, e-mail dancinpigs@yahoo.com by May 13.

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where clamor readers have their say

this issue we asked: Tell US about the new traditions you've created for yourself and your friends.

Our family and friends do a secular "giving thanks*^ before every meal. No god stuff, or airy-faerie NewAge(tm); we just hold hands and go around the table saying what we're thankful for that day. Then everyone ends with "Happy Dinner!'", and kisses the hands of the folks next to them.

Great fun; freaks out the waitstatT, and makes fundics realize they don't have the 'saying grace' market cornered. -Bruce Bui I is, Los Angeles CA

I began to use the art of calligraphy and bring it to light in a new way. I have combined my own poetry in many instances, and some wisdom from the ages in others, and created a background of art, to create a new mixed media form. My artwork is both universal and personal at the same time. People really seem to relate to it. and hope- fully this year I will have my own home web page. -Irene Konig. Autin TX

After reading Naomi Klein's excellent book \o Logo (on sweat- shop labor and the encroachment of advertisement on public space), o 1 was both disgusted by the plight of textile workers worldwide and r^ delermmed to do something about it. 1 knew, of course, that the ob\ i- c ous answer was to completely abstain from buying clothing made in ^ unfair and exploitative conditions, but that didn't seem to be enough, g A few years later, after taking a quilting class, I came up with the idea ^ of using old sweaters to make a huge, completely recycled quilt. As % my quilt ncarcd completion, I happened upon an article in Milwaukee

Magazine about a local quilt artist, Terese Agnew. who had recently completed a two-year quilt project called "Portrait of a Textile Work- er." I had been one-upped... or rather, a fe\s inillion-upped.

I was completely blown away.

The quilt, reduced to a tiny fraction of its 9' x 9' size for the photograph in the magazine, looked to be just that: a photograph. It was only after reading the article and seeing the detail of the work on the next page that I realized that .-Xgnew had created her portrait of a Bangladeshi textile worker entirely out of clothing labels. The Bangladeshi woman who labored over her sewing machine was com- posed of the logos of thousands of companies that employed millions of men. women and children just like her.

The political stateinent is like a slap in the face. The extreme quality, subtlety, and mastery of the almost-photographic composi- tion is perhaps even more awe-inspiring. But it was only after going to see the work itself, in person, at the Sharon Lynn Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookticid, \\ I that the w ider significance (and optimism) of the piece began to set in. I stood between a handful of people, our faces one foot from the tens of thousands of labels (bearing both the damning symbols of clothing companies and the telling care labels: Made in China. Made in Korea, etc ). wc all mar\eled at the handi- work and extreme dedication that was apparent in eserv stitch. But the real point, I felt, the real message, was in the medium itself: the quilt.

Ms. Agnew has made several other art quilts that are as labori- ously crafted and as politically charged as this one. But "Portrait"

hits home because its medium directly ad- dresses, and then openly defies, the objects of its message: sweatshops and the clothing companies that utilize them. Quilting has not traditionally been regarded as revolutionary, but "Portrait" leaves no option but to see the activity in that light. Quilting runs contrar>' to the very existence of the sweatshops and their exploitative labor practices in so many ways that it makes the political and social message of "Portraif almost overwhelming. First, quilts are traditionally made of recycled materials (as is "Portrait," with its perhaps 50,000 donated clothing labels). They therefore reject the throw-it-out- when-the- season-is-over mentality that all of theses companies depend upon for their very existence. Quilts are inherently time consuming (Agnew's is the product of two years of labor), thereby doing battle with the impatience and immediate gratification that clothing companies and consumer culture in general thrive upon. Quilts also foster community and friendship- as in the age- old quilting bee- and therefore they combat the notion of materia! goods being produced by anonymous workers thousands of miles away from consumers. Agnew's quilt was completed- with time quickly running out- by several members of various quilting com- munities in Milwaukee. Quilts embrace tra- dition and innovation simultaneouslv. which

is the mark of true quality and all good and lasting art- as opposed to the sweatshops that chum out practically disposable new fash- ions. They are unique where the factories spit out mass-produced clones of T-shirts and logo-infested jackets. Finally, quilts exhalt in exactly the kind of do-it-yourself ethic that puts ordinary people back in touch with the material culture from which they have been estranged and alienated, exactly the kind of pride and sense of accomplish- ment that self-reliance fosters, and exactly the independent attitude that could grind the wheels of the garment industry to a halt, were it to spread.

Agnew's quilt is not just a labor of love, not just a masterful political statement. It is a declaration of war, and, with hope, a har- binger of change. -Shannon Diigan Iverson. Milwaukee WI

1 work with a loose-knit organization of experimental poets called P.\CE. We gave guerilla readings in Philadelphia's shopping districts on Christmas Eve morning. Along with CAConrad, Linh Dinh, and Mytili Ja- gannathan, we each recited our work while handing out holiday cards & anti-war poems outside the Gallery, Liberty Place & Rit- tenhouse Square. The holiday PACE action was designed to urge shoppers to take the Iraq war discussion home to their Christmas

dinner tables. The Najaf occupation doesn,t take a holiday, & there, s no Christmas va- cation for Americans serving in Mosul. We need to keep those suffering overseas in our thoughts.

PACE (Italian for peace) is planning further poetry actions in the coming year to take our work & our message beyond the libraries, galleries & bookstores. The Christ- mas Eve street readings launched our Poems to Philadelphia Project for 2005. -Frank Sherlock, Philadelphia PA

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the Problem

is thcCoiution

Culduodng fleuj Troclitions Through Permoculture

word Jason Powers

photOi uuui leiy l Kootenay Permaculture Institute

The sad reality is that we are in clanger of perishing from our own stupidity and lack of personal re- sponsibility to life. If we become extinct because of factors beyond our control, then we can at least die with pride in ourselves, but to create a mess in which we perish by our own inaction makes non- sense of our claims of conscious- ness and morality

Bill Mollison.

co-founder of permaculture

Irresponsible traditions of waste, conquest, and over-consumption have dominated much of human history, leading to the collapse of many past societies. History has shown us that a civilization that un- dermines its land and resource base through wasteful and exploitative habits eventually will collapse. Today, the destruction hinges upon our wasteful and exploitative economy, based on perpetual growth, and the fossil fuel-dependent industrial agriculture that strips our soils and poi- sons our waters. Agribusiness corporations are consolidating owner- ship of the world's seed stock, while the genetically altered organisms they produce silently embed themselves into the wild gene pool, with yet unknown consequences for global food security and biodiversity. Oil and natural gas production, the cheap energy that our agriculture, industry, and transportation systems depend on, has most likely peaked and begun to regress. Extinction of species is drastically increasing due to pollution, ecological devastation, and weather change. Extinction of cultures due to conquest- euphemistically termed, "developmenf - and resource extraction is likewise increasing.

o o

U1

In may ways shielded from the effects of the global economy by our relative wealth, most in the "developed" world live unaware of the effects of our lifestyle, not knowing or caring where our food, water, energy, and consumer products come from, nor what is done to bring us these things. Even as we imagine progress and technological salva- tion, our systems and the culture they've created perpetuate denial.

Clearly, whether we choose to change or not, we will have to eventually. It's just a matter of when we're able to leave denial be- hind and look honestly at how we live. From this we will hopefully (re)develop skills and traditions that teach us to value and care for what sustains us: the land, our communities, and our relationships.

Pcrmaculture arose from the realization that prevailing agricul- tural systems were fundamentally unsustainable and creating world- wide catastrophe. Based on observations of the sustainable systems of nature, as well as many of the traditions of indigenous cultures, pcr- maculture was developed and applied in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison, a forestry worker and scientist, and David Holmgren, then a 20-year-old student. As initially conceived, "Pcrmaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive eco- systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-mate- rial needs in a sustainable way, "- according to Mollison 's Designers ' Manual, the "bible" of pcrmaculture.

Originally an attempt to return to systems of small-scale inten- sive gardens, pcrmaculture now incorporates numerous techniques for ecologically sustainable living: grey water, recycling, solar energy, rainwater catchment, natural building, and local food networks. "You could say it's a rational man's approach to not shitting in his bed... a framework that never ceases to move, but that will accept information from anywhere," explained co-founder Mollison in an interview with In Context. Coined in 1976 as a conjunction of "permanent agricul- ture," the word pcrmaculture has evolved to signify a "permanent cul- ture," one that has since spread into a de-centralized global movement,

adapted and implemented by peoples in nearly every ecosystem, and socioeconomic level, by rural and urban, rich and poor.

Toby Hemenway, a pcrmaculture teacher, designer and author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture likens pcrma- culture to "A toolbox that helps organize [techniques] and helps you decide when to use them." Aiding this are four simple ethical tenets: caring for the earth, caring for people, limiting growth and consump- tion, and sharing surplus (goods, energy, time, etc.). Design principles derived from these tenets incorporate no-till and perennial gardening, use of natural patterns, energy efficiency, and intelligent use of space and resources. As in nature, stability is created through diversity and the relationships between the elements in the system. "The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, na- ture; of protracted and thoughtful observ ation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and of allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions," Mollison writes. Practitioners try to integrate the different elements into harmonious relationships where cooperation and mutual support are encouraged, multiple func- tions arc filled by one element, and multiple elements fill one function. This is seen in the "guild." a permaculture-specific technique which uses vertical space to stack and layer mutually beneficial plants.

To be sustainable, a system must create as much or more energy than it consumes, so closing energy and resource loops becomes very important. Problems are reframed as solutions and waste is redirected as inputs for other processes. "I have become increasingly aware of how the outputy waste of my activities can be reused as inputs useful in other activities," admits Leopoldo Rodriguez, an economics professor at Portland State University with three years of permaculture experi- ence. "I think a lot more about the placement of different elements in the process of putting a garden together, planting a tree in the yard or building a chicken coop." Beyond understanding one's own systemic impact, pennaculture bolsters people's self-sufficiency. "Grow food or learn how to forage wild food yourself. The empowerment of this one

o o

To be sustainable, a system must create as much or more energy than it consumes, so closing energy and resource loops becomes very important. Problems are reframed as solutions and waste is redirected as inputs for other processes.

N

act will have a great effect on you," says courthouse clerk Carla Bankston, an eight-year permaculture devotee.

In addition to this focus on sustainability and DIY practicality, successful application of permaculture de- pends on continuous feedback, adjustment and involve- ment with the design. "'One key aspect is to reassess at every step and make sure that you're still in line with what your original goals were," Hemenway says. "You stay with the project for long after it's up and running because it's always going to change. It creates a long term relationship which will in the long run wind up being cheaper" He con- trasts that with how things are typically done. "Our culture does a cost benefit analysis where we say 'Okay, this is the cheapest way to do it so let's do it like that.' It makes it very difficult to [do] anything resembling what sustainable cultures do."

Always site and system specific, permaculture is in- credibly versatile. Its principles are broad enough to be applied to various systems — economics, home build- ing, human relationships, and food distribution systems. Mayans in Guatemala, post-Soviet Cubans, and villagers in rural Zimbabwe have all successfully bolstered their communities' food security by ceasing to use expensive chemical-based processes. Instead they combine produc- tion-intensive and energy-saving permaculture techniques like mulching, composting and water harvesting with their traditional farming methods, concentrating once again on subsistence rather than producing commodities for export. City Repair in Portland. Oregon, applies it to urban planning with community-guided creation of pub- lic spaces and the integration of natural building into the cityscape. The Permaculture Credit Union in New Mexico in- vests in their community rather than destructive companies, offering loan discounts for fuel-efficient automobiles and second mortgages for energy efficient upgrades on houses. "I've seen businesses and organizations where people have applied permaculture principles that have helped them get a lot more functional," says Hemenway, "It works with so-called invisible structures as well as with visible things like landscapes or buildings."

"[Permaculture] involves rediscovering a lot of things we have lost," Linda Hendrickson, a Portland weaver and recent permaculturist. says. While it is true the philosophy challenges many of our modem habits, it is by no means anachronistic. "You look at the inputs and the outputs and embedded energy," explains Hemenway. "What did it take to build that solar panel? Is there more energy being consumed in the creation of it than you're going to get back from its use? I don't rule out any technology simply because its technology, but we look at it as how much really does it cost to be using this, and who gets hurt by it." Rather than reject modem know-how, permaculture examines both negative and positive impact, a more conscientious approach than our current mass delusion of "progress" as endless and thoughtless expansion.

This broad integration of technique and application, as well as the inclusion of ethics in design originally captivated Hemenway. While leaving his job at a biotech company, he stumbled across Bill Mollison's Designers" Manual at the public library. "I leafed through the pages and said, 'This is it. This is everything I've ever wanted to do. This is ecology and appropriate technology and design and gar- dening. It puts it all together.""

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the many facets of permaculture design at first. Karen Tilou, who applies permaculture techniques to the orchard she manages, explains, "There's so much you can do, so people end up feeling like 'Wow, I'm not doing anything if I'm not doing all of it.'" To avoid this, "Find what aspect of permaculture "s ethics and principles you can apply to what you really love. It doesn't have to be about gardens or solar energy."

Websites:

A Beginner's Guide: www.gburnett.unisonplus.net/Perma ATTRA- National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service:

attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/perma.html David Holmgren's website: www.holmgren.com.au Toby Hemenway's website: www.patternliteracy.com Portland Permaculture Guild: www.pdxpermaculture.org Permaculture Credit Union: www.pcuonline.org City Repair: www.cityrepair.org Kootenay Permaculture Institute: www3.telus.net/permaculture/

Permaculture Books:

Permaculture: A Designers' Manual by Bill Mollison

Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison.

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren.

Gala's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.

Urban Permaculture by David Watkins

Permaculture in a Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield

Magazines:

Permaculture Activist: permacultureactivist.net Permaculture Magazine: www.permaculture.co.uk

Related Books:

The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future by Wm.H.Kotke. Available online at: vwvw.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka.

Ultimately, permaculture is responsible to earth and home, wher- ever that may be. Joseph & Jacqueline Freeman, who live and garden on a ten-acre farm advise, "Start paying attention to the small things, like where your water comes from and where it goes. Keep your sep- tic outflow non-toxic by using low-impact detergent when you wash clothes. Be aware of packaging when you make purchases. Develop relationships with elders and others of like mind so you can keep add- ing to your knowledge. Build community in whatever ways you can." Though nice to have the space rural areas offer, permaculture is espe- cially important in urban areas. "The cities and suburbia are theplaces where the resources are being consumed,"" Hemenway observes. "It's where everybody lives in this country. If those places can't change then we're not going to get there."

By no means the solution, permaculture offers a valuable ap- proach to restructuring our lives and counters the deleterious habits of our society by simultaneously looking forward to new technology and backward to older agricultural traditions and indigenous wisdom. In contrast to our current pathologies of short-term profit, waste, perpetu- al growth, oversimplification and reductionism, permaculture teaches us to slow down, observe, evaluate our actions and consumption pat- terns, to value the land, the local and relationships, 'ir

Jason Powers lives in Portland, Oregon, Cascadia.

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words Katie Renz pnoios Josh Warren-White

The fact that 2005 marks the 15"' anniversary of AK Press is really not that unique.

"Anarchists have always written, proselytized, printed, and pub- lished," said Ramsey Kanaan. founding member of the collectively run, worker-owned, bi-continental publisher and distributor of radical media.

Kanaan isn't exaggerating. AK Press's decade-and-a-half springs from well-trod and pas- sionate origins of do-it-yourself (DIY) publishing, something he regards as emergent of "the twin driving forces of anarchism" — working class struggle and self-organi/ation. Such liter- ary lineage has roots in the F-rcnch Revolution of 1 848, durwig which Pierre-.loseph Proudhon. whose writings form a basis for anarchist doctrine, edited four radical newspapers, all subse- quently destroyed by government censorship. Later in the 19"' century. Peter Kropotkin. an- other anarchist heavyweight, founded a magazine called FrccJom. along vv ith Freedom Press. w hich continues to chum out radical works todav. In the L'luted Stales in the earlv 20" centurv. Emma (ioldman started Stoilwr Enrilv. .Alexander Herkman had The Blast Immigrant anar- chist communities, trade unions, and writerly revolutionaries, in America and abroad, made pamphlets detailing manifestos and political v isions a common currency.

"It's kinda funnv when \ou look into anarchist historv. " says Charles Weigl. an AK Press member. "It seems like everv other historical figure vou read about was a printer or publisher, or put out a newspaper, or was smuggling pamphlets into pre-revolutionarv Russia."

AK Press, as a modem counterpart, is nothing new. Thankfully, they don't have to co- \crtlv scatter their 2.60fl-plus books, magazines and zines. pamphlets, videos and DNDs. and

audio recordings. But AK's fundamental goal — "getting as much anarchist and radical literature as possible out there into the world" — is part historical, part simple necessity.

"Persuasion and "leading' by example is really all we've got," Weigl stated. "We don't have the goal of seizing State power and imposing our views on the backward masses.

"We tend to see our main job as providing practical and intel- lectual tools to help people organize. Books aren't the only means of doing that, but they're an important part."

AK's more direct beginnings grew from another fruitful union, the coupling of anarchism and punk rock. At age 13. Kanaan was selling punk zines out of a plastic bag, already doing his DIY distro thing.

He remembered: "In 1981, I was peddling my wares at a big squat gig in London, where all the legends were playing — Crass, Conflict, Poison Girls. I was doing my thing with the plastic bag. I noticed a bunch of older dudes — in hindsight, 1 suspect considerably younger than I am now! — with beards and long hair sitting behind a table selling radical literature."

These hairy fablers worked at a radical bookstore in London called Housmans, a place that was also into publishing and distribu- tion. Kanaan's plastic bag of zines was soon replaced by a table blan- keted by political literature. His early publishing endeavors found fertile ground and mentored guidance at Housmans.

Kanaan founded AK Press in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1 990, and established a "sister" collective in Oakland, California four years later. Today, what Weigl describes as "a motley collection of very different people," consists of nine members in the United States (eight in Oak- land, one in West Virginia) and two in Edinburgh.

According to Kanaan, AK's mission as a propaganda-pusher hasn't been diluted over time. "The founding philosophy of AK remains, absolutely, first and foremost, a political project," he said. "[Publishing] just seemed the best way to direct our energies."

But their longevity isn't just about politics. As with any business in a capitalist system, AK is dependent on turning a profit. If they want to continue publishing media essentially centered on undermin- ing an economic system wholly obsessed with screwing folks over to make a buck, they somehow have to participate (money-generation) without total acquiescence (exploitation).

Weigl has struggled with this reality. "It's a weird contradiction." And one he recently came to terms with after studying Berkman's The Blast, which AK is getting ready to publish as a book format in fac- simile reprint, where every page of the paper is shown exactly how it was originally published.

Weigl commented, "One thing that jumped out at me was the fact that they had advertisements. I don't know why it was surprising. Why shouldn't anarchists have had the same economic pressures a hundred years ago?"

Having to operate with one foot grudgingly stuck in the system while stretching to hand out tools to educate and inspire the overthrow of that system is nothing new in anarchist circles. As Weigl put it, "We always have to make difficult choices under far-from-perfect condi- tions in a society organized around principles we despise."

ZNel's Michael Albert pointed out the too-often fatal difficulty of ideal-based endeavors succumbing to economic strangleholds. Re- flecting upon AK's anniversary, he said. "Providing truthful, insight- fiil, visionary content in multiple media forms is a difficult task even with ample assets; it is nigh on Herculean without them. AK Press deserves a great round of applause as they embark on more years to come."

Albert is right. Fifteen years is a long time to run any business, much less one embracing anarchist principles. Collectives and orga- nization sans hierarchy are great concepts, yet can be hard to main- tain, considering the majority of modem institutions typically only provide counter models. But both Weigl and Kanaan are quick to

1873-1893: Ezra Heywood publishes the newspaper The Word, first distributed from Princeton, New Jersey and later Cambridge, Massachusetts. Heywood serves several prison sentences for the periodical's advocacy of radical individualism, free love, and labor reform.

1883-1907: Moses Harmon edits the radically sex-positive paper Lucifer, the Lightbearer, first issued out of Valley Falls, then Topeka, Kansas, and finally from Chicago, Illinois. He serves several prison sentences because the magazine contains "anatomically correct language."

1884-1889: Albert Parsons edits The Alarm in Chicago. The journal is quickly suppressed after the Haymarket bombings because it "advocates terronsm." 1886: Kerr Publishing Co. begins in Chicago and is the longest running anarchist/socialist publisher.

1895-1897: Firebrand, an influential anarchist/communist paper published in Portland, Oregon, is suppressed for "obscenity."

1906-1917: In New York, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman edit Mother Earth, which is banned from the mail under The Espionage Act (1917) because the government finds it "treasonable."

1916-1917: In San Francisco, California, Alexander Berkman edits The Blast, a militant anarchist paper that is anti-war and pro-labor.

1922-1971: Osvaldo Maraviglia and Max Sartin edit L'Adunata del Refrattari, a fiercely anti- organizational Italian paper, in New York City.

1942-1951 : The magazine Retort; an anarchist quarterly of social philosophy and the art circulates 1969: Left Bank Books, an independently owned

bookstore, opens in St. Louis, Missouri. 1970: Black Rose Books, a non-profit book publishing

project, begins in Montreal. 1979: The Kate Sharpley Library is founded in South London; is reorganized in 1991, with an office in Berkeley, California today. 1990: Ramsey Kanaan starts AK Press in Scotland; four years later an office opens in Oakland, California. 1997: Black Flag Books begins publishing anarchist materials in Berkeley, California.

above. AK Press collective member Darcie Debolt stocking inventory in AK's Oakland warehouse.

Ul

point out that AK's tenure is hardly exclusive. London's Freedom Press, Kropotkin's project from 1886, is the world's oldest anarchist publishing house. America's longest-running anti-authoritarian newspaper. Fifth Estate, is celebrating its own anniversary — the big 4- 0 — this year. Left Bank Books in Seattle has passed the 30-year mark; Wooden Shoe in Philadelphia and San Francisco's Bound Together both opened their doors in 1 976.

Although they are certainly not alone, when held in contrast to the 1.200 Borders

chains worldwide and the nearly S6 billion in 2004 sales of Barnes and Nobles, AK clearly has the odds stacked against it. And in a book market seemingly devoted to churning out books that celebrate the next big trend in diet- ing, AK's contribution to the literary realm is a strikingly rare thing.

Author Howard Zinn, who has four spo- ken word CDs published by the collective and several books available, said he is "huge- ly impressed" by their survival. "I admire its boldness, its independence, its willingness to

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AK Press collective member and founder Ramsey Kanaan amidst the stacks

"The founding philosophy of AK remains,

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take on projects that mainstream publishers wouldn't touch."

Perhaps Zinn's sentiment is best demon- strated by this past February's media frenzy over Ward Churchill's essay on 9/11, which AK published as the introductor>' essay to his book. On the Justice of Roosting Chick- ens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality: Ward, the (now former) Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado, es- sentially argued that in order to pre\ ent future terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, Americans have to resist complacency and instead are respon- sible to pressure their government to comply with the rule of the law. His comparison of the World Trade Center's efficient "techni- cians" with Adolf Eichmann. Hitler's chief of operations in the deportation of three mil- lion Jews to extermination camps, however, instigated distortions by the right-w ing press, a subsequent media brouhaha, and death threats.

AK Press's Josh Warren-White called this a perfect example of the collective's prin- cipled reluctance to shirk from debate and controversy. "No other publisher we know of would have touched the piece with a ten foot pole." he said.

And it appears the printed page will remain a space for AK-supported radical scrawlings for a while to come. According to Weigl, the organization has never been healthier.

Kanaan pondered the past 15 years: "I guess to have existed as a viable anarchist organization for this long is pretty cool," he said, humbly, though quickly and emphati- cally added, "There's a lot more to be done!" Think about it. Along with the basic chal- lenge of distributing ever more propaganda is an even greater constant ambition, lest it be buried amidst the boxes of books or smoth- ered within long-winded doctrines. "Social revolution would be pretty nice, too," Kanaan says. "Here's to the next 1 5, and a revolution or two." "ir

Katie Renz is a voluntarily displaced anar- chist nature chick, who currently resides near Golden Gale Park and rides her hike every morning to her internship at Mother Jones magazine.

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The Familiarity Factor

A new study suggests personality

is more important than cultural

background in sustaining lasting

partnerships. So why is intercultural

marriage in the US so rare?

word Megha Bahree illustration Tom Pokinko

For most of the six years that Josephine Chan and Lucky Sandhu dated. Lucky let his parents do the traditional thing and look for a suitable bride for him in India. "Everyone knew that we were dating," recalled Josephine, 29, who moved from Hong Kong to California 16 years ago. "But they just ignored the subject and went with the tradi- tion. I knew that every time he would go home to visit his parents, there was a chance that he could come back with a ring." Yet she put up with it. "I lost touch with my parents in India when I left home to do my undergrad at Berkeley," said Lucky, a Sikh originally from Chandigarh in north India. "I thought that if 1 married out of my cul- ture, it would be yet another thing that I would take away from them. That sort of prevented me from protesting."

Dealing with family expectations is just one of many issues that people in inter-cultural relationships have to endure. Then there are the whole range of other potentially explosive issues to consider: un- examined prejudices, which cultural and religious traditions to con- tinue, and which to put on hold — a consideration that becomes all the more immediate where children are concerned.

In a recent study, psychologist Eva C. Klohnen, Ph.D., and gradu- ate student Shanhong Luo, M.A., of the University of Iowa, stated that people tend to marry those who are similar in attitudes, religion, and values. However, they also found, it is similarity in personality that ap- pears to be more important in sustaining a happy partnership. The re- searchers looked at mating based on similar or opposite characteristics

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among 291 newlyweds who had participated in the Iowa Marital As- sessment Project. The newlyweds had been married less than a year at the time the study began and had dated each other for an average of three-and-a-half years. The couples were assessed on a broad range of personality characteristics, attitudes and relationship quality indica- tors. "People may be attracted to those who have similar attitudes, values, and beliefs and even marry them — at least in part — on the basis of this similarity," the report said. "However, once people are in a committed relationship, it is primarily personality similarity that influences marital happiness."

Though intercultural marriages have increased steadily in the US since the 196()s, recent census polls suggest that most Americans are far more likely to end up with someone of the same cultural back- ground. By 1992, the last year for which this information is avail- able, 2.2% percent of marriages in the US were inter-racial, a tiny per- centage for a country as culturally diverse as the U.S. This leaves the question, are relationships between people of a single culture innately stronger or easier to maintain? Or do people in cross-cultural relation- ships have a richer experience because they have had the opportunity to examine one's accepted cultural traditions and rotes and re-examine them in terms of what they find truly important?

Take the case of Arun Sama, an Indian Hindu, and his wife Heidi, a Caucasian American. This summer will be their tenth wedding an- niversary. Their success, however, has not exactly been easy. Arun's parents live in New Delhi and through the years he has mentioned to Heidi his desire to live closer to his parents, to look after them in their old age. They have decided to settle mid-way in Singapore and are moving next spring. "On paper I liked the idea of living abroad but I'm established in my career and I have my friends and family here," she said. Heidi is a freelance writer and specializes in travel. Slightly nervous about the move, she said they have a three-year agreement after which they will re-evaluate their decision. The couple has also found inventive ways of compromising. For instance, their children have Indian first names, Kavi and Tejas, and have Heidi's grandfa- thers" middle names. Miles and Irwin. Religion hasn't been a major issue for this couple. "We discussed it and since Arun is closer to his religion than I am to mine, Christianity, we agreed the kids would be raised Hindu. I'd like my kids to learn about faith. It's not overly important to me whether they learn about faith through the Hindu story or the Christian one. I could accept Arun taking the lead in the children's religious upbringing because my feeling is that Hinduism is a very personal faith, it doesn't involve grand rituals and rites, thus it was easier to accept."

While the Samas have found a bridge across their religions, Man- uela Badawy, 31, and her fiance, Anthony Brown, are still debating it. Badawy, half-Colombian and half-Egyptian, was raised a Muslim. Brown, 32, calls himself a "typical waspy Canadian." In fact, the two had their first date three years ago during Ramadan one November evening at 4.37, the time to break the fast. Badawy no longer fasts (for health reasons she said). She defines herself as a liberal and rather Westernized Muslim who is not veiled and drinks wine. Yet she wants her future children to learn the Koran, and about the history of all reli- gions in general. Brown doesn't feel the same way. He's more hesitant about the role of religion in raising their children. "She prays more often than I do," he said. "It's something 1 would join in a perfunctory way and I'm happy to hold her hand while she prays."

For the moment he is content to explore her cultures. "I've grown to love Latin culture and appreciate her Egyptian side as well. I had stereotypical views of both parts of the world because of lack of ex- posure. Now I love traveling lo Latin America and ha\e reaii a lot of literature, because of her, about Egypt, the Mushm faith and Moham- mad — stuff that I would never have done on my own."

feel that sharing a culture, ethnicity or religion makes coexistence easier. Gabriel prefers not to date any one other than black Haitian women. "I was 2 1 when 1 had my first girlfriend and she was white," she recalled. "One day we were walking down the street and these boys were coming towards us playing with a basketball. As they got near us the ball slipped out of their hands and hit my girlfriend and she was really shaken up. Later she told me that her immediate thought had been "these niggers', and that was too weird for me. Ev- eryone has their prejudices and that's fine, but I didn't want to have to deal with them." It was also fairiy normal, she said, that whenever they were out at a restaurant the waiters would usually hand over the check to her girlfriend "because they automatically assumed that since she was the white person, she was more affluent and had a more advantageous background."

After that Gabriel, 33, tried dating other women from the Carib- bean, but each time she had to deal with the stigma attached to her native country. "Haiti has a bad rep. When you say "Haiti", people im- mediately get certain images in their mind because of how the media has portrayed it. I always have to hear some comments. I now prefer to date Haitian women because to me it's important to be accepted on many levels in a relationship. Someone can't really exclude you if you share the same ethnicity.""

There may be something innately more comfortable about sharing a similar set of culturally-defined beliefs with your partner. A common background has helped cement Cindy Manalo"s relationship with her fiance Andrew Lee. Manalo. a Filipino bom and raised in New York. never felt the need to date anyone from her ethnic background. Her last serious relationship, which was with a German man, convinced her otherwise. There were awkward differences that were as \ague as American vs. European and as basic as the fact that no one in his na- tive village, including his parents, spoke English. Three months after they broke up. Manalo. 33. met Lee. a 29-year old attorney who is half-Chinese and half-white. ""I surprised myself that 1 ended up with an Asian."" she said. "'But it"s good. Andrew grew up in Hawaii and his roots are very Asian. He"s surrounded by Asian ethnicity, there"s a familiarity and it was easier integrating into my family. I don't have to explain things at family functions and the foods are not that strange to him."" In fact there is huge variety of foods that Lee loves, includ- ing bagaong (ground up anchovies), adobo (lot of vinegar style cook- ing), panseit (Filipino \ersion of Lo Mein). .^nd as w ith food, a shared cultural perspective, he believes, has made the relationship easier to maintain. '"I've dated both white and black women."" he says, "and they are very limited in what they eat. and not as accepting of things that don"t make sense to them.""

Getting back to Josephine and Lucky Sandhu. the reason they fell in love, they say. is o\er the qualities that thc\ admired in the other. .And though differences continue to pop up, thc> think that they ha\e found the perfect partner. "Not all inter-racial relationships are going to work because of two main reasons — the husband and the wife." Lucky said. .'Ml other things — parents, relatives, cultural ditTerences — are not that powerful. We can't make everyone happ\. But as long as the main characters in a story can stand on their own feet, and the\ both are on the same page, it'll work out." "^

Megha is a Journalist based in New York. Her passion is lo write about the immigrant experience. She can be contacted at: meglui((i bahree. com

* It's because of the obvious differences in the way traditK>n shapes 3 one's perspective that there are people, like Michaelle Gabriel, who

BEYOND THE MONOCULTURE

Second Generation Hindu-Americans Examine Their Heritage in the U.S.

I

I

1

by ShJIpa Kamat

Like many Hindus in Amer- ica, I wonder what exactly I can tell people who ask me about my religion. While mainstream America abounds with lunchbox- es brightly painted with pictures of Vishnu and words like karma find their way into everyday use, most Americans seem to know little if anything about Hinduism. If there is anything about Hindus in the media, it is usually about the hyper-conservative upsurge in India and their supporters abroad. Most of the Hindus 1 know are progressive and easy-going, but their voices are rarely or never heard. Like myself, most of them find themselves floundering when they attempt to discuss Hinduism in America because so much of what they say is misunderstood by people who are accustomed to the worldview and assumptions bom of a monotheistic culture.

Since there are no set rules in Hinduism, the flexible, pluralistic nature of Hindu tradition lends itself to a broad spectrum of interpreta- tion, encouraging adaptation and personal re- flection. As "Ananta," a first generation Hindu American notes, "You can say there are a lot of gods and goddesses, unlike in Christianity and Islam. And nobody says that he's the best god and others are not, because they're all equally important." This lack of hierarchy is present not only among deities, but among everyone and everything, since the divine pervades all. And though hierarchies have shaped the prac- tices of many Hindu communities, the fact that people can find god in an ant, or place stones in the road on altars to worship demonstrates the respect among Hindus for everything as in- nately divine.

Despite the amalgamous nature of our religion, however, Hindus in America are prone to emphasize its similarities with Chris- tianity. Many Hindus stress that the gods and goddesses embody different aspects of one divine source, in an effort to clump monistic and polytheistic elements into the dominant monotheistic model. "Rohan," a first-genera- tion Hindu, told me, "religious people here have their own gods in their houses, and they take really seriously how to worship them, but when they talk to [non-Hindu] Americans, I think they'll simplify it" so that it fits within the monotheistic worldview. In truth, Hindus can be monotheistic, polytheistic, monistic, or atheistic.

above: the author (far right) and her family .

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The recent "fundamentalist" wave of Hindus in India, which parallels the Christian Coalition in the U.S. in many uays, further skews Westerners' understanding of Hindu- ism. "Geeta," a second generation Hindu- American attending Stanford, decried this seg- ment of Hindus for their 'propaganda saying that Hindus are too passive, that believing in nonviolence and that all paths lead to the same truth have made us weak, that we should rise up and fight because other religions have been oppressing us. That kind of propaganda is re- ally annoying, total and complete self-victim- ization, and leads to nothing useful."

All the Hindus 1 spoke to agree that Hin- duism is primarily picked up through osmo- sis— experienced rather than taught. As Geeta stated, "My mom and dad said, 'Nobody ever taught us rituals and prayers or what you do when you go to a temple'. There, rituals are absorbed; here they are learned." Many sec- ond generation youth, like myself, feel an intrinsic connection to our spirituality. The delicate connections that are fostered when someone grows up with exposure to a plural- istic worldview are the most difficult aspect of Hinduism for me to discuss. The subtleties that arise from a lifelong exposure to centu- ries of wisdom are not something that can be learned in a textbook or understood after studying abroad in India for a semester.

Rituals, rather than intellectual belief sys- tems, fonn the core of many Hindus" spiritual- ity. "We all revolved around our own rituals at home [in India]," Ananta comments. However, removed from a society where Hinduism per- vades everyday life, second-generation Hindu- Americans are more likely to take an intel- lectual approach toward their religion. "One thing I like about Hinduism," Geeta remarked, "is that rituals are considered an equally valid way of knowing oneself as intellectual under- standing. I think that people who are brought up here are more likely to shun ritual and my- thology and question the underlying beliefs... Those who do consider themselves Hindu of [my] generation are often more likely to intel- lectualize Hinduism rather than embracing the rituals." This intellectualization can come at a cost, however, since the act of performing a ritual, such as a puja or chanting a mantra, can hold power in the experiential rather than cere- bral understanding.

At the saiTie time, blindly performing rituals can lead to a stifling, rather than lib- erating, experience. Raised in a village in India, "Rohan" has always spumed traditions that seemed pointless or orthodox rather than heartfelt. I'nmcshed in a tight-knit religious community, however, made it hard to simply not partake. "In the apartments [in India], everybody's watching everybody all the time. F-vcrybody knows what's going on" and will gossip about anyone who deviates from the iionTi. But. he says. "here, there's no pressure

because there are not as many [Hindus]. Peo- ple do whatever they like. In India, you have to shower in the morning and do the puja in the morning. Here, you can take a shower at six in the evening an do a puja at seven."

When people are not forced to "do too much ritual, then maybe the real sentiments come in," "Rohan" suggests. As Geeta re- marked, "The only thing forcing you to be religious is your own head here, and over the years, you begin to reject all the extraneous things you never really believed." While Hindus in India may partake in rituals mere- ly because they are a part of the cultural fab- ric, the rituals that follow Hindu immigrants to the West may become a more conscious decision, if not for them then certainly for their children.

In the void that second-generation youth often face, they often may pick up Hindu practices only on a superficial level. "Dee- pa," a second-generation Hindu on the East coast, complains of this occurrence. "I think there are a lot of second generation Hindus who get sucked into [being overtly religious] to be all 'Indian'. They just do it to fit in or look good. Some of them don't even know that much about it. They're not even into practicing Hinduism in everyday life: they just go to the religious gatherings."

Hinduism in America is further compli- cated by the ways that non-Indians have been drawn to Hindu traditions. Especially among hippies and New Age movements, appropria- tion and exoticizing of Indian tradition are embarrassingly rampant. Deepa approaches the subject cautiously. "I think it's kind of strange," she admits. "Some of them are re- ally fake. They're obsessed with themselves. I just think of someone who gets into eastern spiritualism because it's so focused on the self — there arc people who just care about themselves completely. The people who can really get into it are people with money, and that's like the opposite of what these religions are about."

The lack of understanding exhibited by the way that most Westemers take in Hinduism is the result of an enormously different para- digm. "In India, religions aren't organized like here." Rohan notes. "There are swamis. but they don't try to preach and control. If people go to temple, they just go to puja and come out. There is no preaching there "

As Nceta Bijoor. a second generation Hindu-American who follows a swami in In- dia comments, "Swamis advocate particular w ays of thinking, but there are no mandates. There is a lot of room for thought. I could go to my swami and say. 'I don't believe you.' and he wouldn't really care. I wouldn't be kicked out of my community or religion." It strikes Rohan that Westerners w ho arc attract- ed 111 Hinduism "are into gurus because they are u.sed to [the paradigm of] a priest giving

a sermon every week. But in India, you just practice at home — whatever you feel like, or whatever you learned from your family."

But although "new age" ceremonies are often treated with scorn, there is something attractive about the idea of reclaiming a tra- dition and adding a freshness that makes it significant to our lives. As a second genera- tion Hindu, I often do just that. Facing gaps in my remembrance of pujas and shiokas, 1 go by what feels right to me, whether that means praying at home or going to the forest to meditate. I can always ask my family ques- tions about a particular practice, or research answers myself — which I do from time to time — but the particulars are ultimately sec- ondary to connecting with the spirit within. On major religious holidays, I might attend community or temple events. For the most part, though. I am driven by my own transi- tions rather than those in the Hindu calendar, which I cannot read. While I may not have "absorbed" as much tradition as I would have if I had grown up in India, what matters is what I (Jo know. Chanting mantras, practicing yoga, and putting together an altar in my bed- room. I piece together my own ceremonies, creating rituals and traditions of my own. if

Shilpa Kamat is a writer and yoga teacher who is currently working with homeless youth in Northern California. You can write to her at shilpa _kamat(a yahoo, com.

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As with religion, family, or cultural heritage, many of our traditions have been shaped and passed down from our communities. As neighborhoods and communities evolve over time, so do the traditions and rituals that define them. Many of the nine essays featured below deal with gentrification. Too many of us have seen our neighborhoods displaced and local landmarks like a cherished family-owned restaurant or corner grocery store closed down. But gentrifica- tion is not the only story of neighborhood transfor- mation. New traditions, like neighborhood activism and cultural revitalization emerge when individuals organize in their communities to create change. The following personal essays and narratives are from writers, activists, and everyday people who have wit- nessed the ebb and flow of tradition in their own com- munities — and a few who are creating new traditions of their own.

Keidra Chaney Spike

Uloilin9 for Iho Icincllorcl*/ Coll

When I mo\ed to the edge of the Ukrainian Village three years ago, 1 shopped for groceries at Edmar and Camiceria Jalisco. For a hot dog, 1 stopped at Odge's; for a beer, I stopped at Cleos. For a greasy diner breakfast, I could go to Lorraine's. There were more trees and fewer buildings, so my street felt both green and sunny.

These days, Camiceria Jalisco, with its butcher counter and pro- duce aisle, has remodeled into the Rio Balsas convenience store; Ed- mar will be a Dominick's in a year. I can still go to Odge's and Cleos, but now we have a Subway. A new breakfast diner catering to less greasy tastes has opened. Several new condos have gone up, and their ground floors house insurance offices, realtors and dry cleaners. On my street, trees have been cut down for no reason we neighbors can think of And when the city broke my old sidewalk to lay down a new one, they let big chunks crush my small garden. Now, my neighbor- hood feels both brighter and colder.

Sometimes I wonder when my landlord will call us to ask if we can meet him to talk about the rent. I'm waiting for him to raise it so it's competitive with the rest of the Village. I'm waiting to see if any of my predominantly Latino neighbors will move out, which would spell an end to our annual Fourth of July family block party. I'm waiting to see who my new neighbors will be in the condo windows across the street from me. I'm waiting to see if the city will chop down any more trees. Someday I won't be waiting any more; then where will I say 1 live? -Amber Smock, Chicago

U

O O fvi

Cod*/ Uncho/en Corner/lore

As a child, Sundays were a nlual tor my family. The three of us. Mother, sister and 1, would go to church, which was then followed by a visit to our local green grocer. Being a 10-year-old who was more interested in Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation video clip, the idea of go- ing to church didn't excite me the way my mother would have liked. And it seemed that the only reason I would be dressed and ready for ten-thirty morning mass each week had less to do with genuflecting and lighting of candles to save our souls and more to do with the pil- grimage to Joe & Nancy's Fruit & Vegetable Shop.

Each week, Joe, Nancy, arid their flock of hard working fruit sell- ers put on a mouth-watering array which put the lesson of temptation to shame. There were always plump strawberries, in gleaming enviro- plastic punnets ready for picking up and eating. Sometimes Joe would have washed and de-stemmed the berries so that eager shoppers could sample what was heaven on earth within deep red berry flesh.

Soon enough puberty hit both my sister and me, which brought the weekly pilgrimage to the house of JC. as well as to Joe's, to a screeching halt. Puberty may have hit the fruit shop too, as with the least ideal timing, the small business went under. It happened on what would have been any other regular Sunday, which saw the habitual act of shoulders disappearing beneath the blankets, each time my Mother would yell, "Wake up! You are going to be late for mass — again!" It was the Sunday which saw the three of us walk up to Joe & Nancy's where we were met with striking red paint across white cardboard.

The sign read, 'Because the bank refuses to help us, we can no longer help you. Thank you for your support over the years.'

This put a stop to any redemption I was supposed to be involved in at the age of twelve, and soon enough video clips on Sunday were the only fonn of soul saving for a pre-pubescent teenager angry at the system which took away the Joe and Nancy's of the world. It was so sudden than no amount of praying would have brought back the joy our ritual or the simple pleasures, which the fruit sellers brought a young girl of the Rhythm Nation. -Saffron Lux, Belmore, Australia

Don*( move. Or9<inizc!

1 used to go to street fairs and poetry readings with my Aunt Dawn Alvarado, who lived in the Mission District for two decades. Now, I have to drive three hours to go visit her. I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of people here who would trade all the new cool cultural ameni- ties for a simple dinner with their displaced friends. And yet, as a lower-middle class single guy, the damage gentrification has done to me, personally, is relatively minor.

Is the glass half-empty or half-full? If the glass is full of rancid milk it doesn't matter. The only good that has ever come from the displacement game is the good that organized communities ha\e fought tooth and nail to make happen. Last November. I took a walk through New York's Lower East Side with neighborhood activist Chino Garcia. Through the haze of a neighborhood turned into a playground there were tangible results of social struggle: many hundreds of units of permanently alfordable housing, neighbor- hood centers, bike repair co-ops. Almost every single site where Chino's community still lived or worked, he started off the story with "They were trying to kick the tenants out of there, but we or- ganized and..." -.lames Tracy, San Francisco

BiKer/uiccI Brookli|A

Some clKingcs .irc Mibilc Aiul those are the ones that seem to get to me the most when I walk around my beloved Fort Greene, Brooklyn The patisserie that's n block from my apartment. BAM Rose Cinemas

showing independent films. And of course, there's the new Starbucks. But the giveaway is the much greater number of well-groomed vanilla figures waiting for the C train at the Lafayette Avenue stop. I enjoy the fruits of the yuppie invasion, but deep down I can't help resenting \s hat brought them here.

Extreme overpricing of real estate in Manhattan has resulted in Brooklyn becoming the latest conquest for aflluent but price-minded homebuyers and renters. Brownstones that could have been purchased in the 1970"s for the cost of a Honda Civic are now topping out for pric- es as much as $ 1 .5 million. Rents have doubled, even tripled since when 1 first moved to New York ten years ago. At that time. Fort Greene was being "revitalized" from a drug and crime-torn afterthought to a mecca for .African American intellectuals, artists, and professionals. Spike Lee. Chris Rock, and Erykah Badu all lived a stone's throw from my studio apartment on Carlton Avenue. Fort Greene was the hip-yet-frugal place to live for young, free-thinking folks of all races. But what realK made Fort Greene a home for me was not just the celebrities and the beautiful architecture and the open-mic poetry night at Brooklyn Moon Cafe. In Fort Greene, lawyers and bankers shared the same block with teachers and bus drivers. Single people and families. Young adults and the elder- ly. Different races, ethnicities, and economic stratas made Fort Greene what it was, a true inciting pot.

The rising cost of living in Fort Greene has forced many of those deprived of six-figure incomes and rent-controlled leases out of the area. After losing my lease on my affordable studio. I also left the neighborhood for two years. I'm now back in Fort Greene, only be- cause I'm sharing an apartment \s ith two roommates. And 1 get my hot chocolate from Starbucks. -Faith Pennick, NYC

Keepin* Ihe Cily "Cleon**

As a previously houseless, currently at-risk resident of the Bay Area who has been gentrified, evicted, and displaced out of almost every home, neighborhood, and community I have lived in. I speak as a homeless scholar.

I am the daughter of a poor, mixed-race orphan and the grand- daughter of a poor Irish woman who worked her entire life as a ser\ ant of the rich, only to die landless, squatting on someone else's grave- site, because even in death you gotta have land.

Homeless people were not bom that way: they used to be housed So how do people lose housing, how does a community become land- less, how do entire neighborhoods becoine displaced, and finally, how does a thriving community of color become a place in need of a hy- gienic metaphor i.e.. "that area needs to be cleaned up?"

Most often the root of evictions, displacements, and destabilized communities is redevelopment and gentrification. Almost all Bay Area communities now considered "blighted" and in the process of rede- velopment were once thriving and strong. Consider the case of West Oakland; once a thriving African Descendent community w ith Black- owned businesses and the arts, it is now one of the targets for rede- velopment and high-speed gentrification. Sometime in the late '60'$ the zoning laws were changed, allowing liquor stores to be placed on every comer. Within what seemed like seconds, but really took abi>ut ten years. West Oakland was a "crime-ridden" community, blighted and in need of "clean-up."

Of course, the subversive capitalist "clean-up" process often be- gins with the moving in of the unwitting, yet most often, privileged an school studentygraduatc. Unwittingly, the artist turns the blighted area, like West Oakland, into an "accessible" area, readying it for even- tual redevelopment. Meanwhile, the remaining residents of color are slowly but surely "cleaned-up" and eventually mostly cleaned out. -Tiny, a.k.a. Lisa Garcia-Gray, San Francisco

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lomclhin* Ju/( Don*l To/le Ri9hl

When 1 was little, my father would often bring home a slab of ribs as a treat for the family on the nights that he had choir rehearsal. The South and West sides of Chicago were famous for the variety and abundance of barbeque joints. The smell of barbeque cooking is as familiar to black Chicagoans as the sounds of gospel, blues and jazz. It was the scent that brought my brother and me to meet Daddy at the door.

The ribs would be wrapped in a paper container; fries on the bot- tom, slab of ribs in the middle and two slices of Wonder bread on top. Sauce soaked everything so the bread stuck. Friendly fights began between parent and child about who would have the pleasure of eating the slice of bread with the most sauce. In the comer of the container was a paper cup of cole slaw so wet and soggy it left a trail of white rivers in the brown sauce.

Today, while driving to my job in one of the North side commu- nities where Starbucks and Gap stores are markers of gentrification, I saw a sign for Leon's, one of the city's oldest '"que" joints, painted on the side of a building. A branch of South side tradition living on the North side. Excitedly (and hungrily) I pulled over.

No smells wafted from inside of the building as I got out of the car. The people serving me were very nice but they were not the shades of brown that we call black. The food was good and was arranged as I expected (especially the bread). But the cole slaw was encased in a plastic container, no seepage possible.

Somehow it just wasn't the same. -Terri Johnson, Chicago

5lond and riQhU

Bronzeville is where the rich and wealthy and the famous live, and so do I. My neighborhood is changing right before my eyes. The Stateway Gardens' and Robert Taylor housing projects were torn dow n in 2004, making room for condos, townhouses, and single-family homes.

Harold Washington Cultural Center is in the heart of the neigh- borhood, and the Spoken Word Cafe is across the street where they have poetry readings. In the summer. The African and Caribbean Fest is in Washington Park.

Why should 1 ever want to give this up? Brick by brick, building up the community and beautifying the neighborhood, I sec improve- ments being done everyday, and 1 am glad to be a part of this change. It is only going to get better and become a safer place to live.

Black and white people live here, and people of different nation- alities are moving in every day. More business will start to open up, and that will create more jobs for the community as the neighborhood developments.

It will be harder for the middle and lower income people to stay here, because of the rising cost of rent and the increase of taxes on mortgages. Right now, there is Section Eight for low-income families to help pay for their rent, but what if Section Eight is no longer in existence? What if you don't qualify for Section Eight, because you make a penny more over the guidelines to get help on your rent? What would we do then?

1 want to buy in this area, but how can 1 afford it? Everything is extremely expensive. But I won't be pushed out or be put out of my neighborhood, because of the status of my wallet. I am going to climb that social ladder and fight for the right to live here. -Jean IM. Swanagan, Chicago

Crock/ in (he Sideuiolk

Politically speaking, Brevard County, Florida, is probably best char- acterized by its choice in representatives — Dave Weldon. Weldon is closely tied to the radical right and is largely anti-gay, anti-choice, and anti-church and state separation.

In the '90s, Melbourne pro-life activists, implementing tactics such as videotaping employees and clients, pressured the county's only abortion clinic to close down. In 1994, Palm Bay city officials and residents worked vehemently to close down the area's only Wic- can Church, the Church of Iron Oak.

Even today, Brevard still seems like the Choose Life license plate capital of the state, and I'm always astonished how many people bra\ ely boast their hatred via One Woman One Man bumper stickers.

But if you can see past the ugly history, and the fact our county reelected both Weldon and Bush in 2004, you'll find that progressive ideals are nonetheless beginning to germinate, and Brevard's legacy of intolerance is finally being dismantled. One of the pivotal periods in the evolution of our community was the buildup to the war in Iraq. A small group of us started meeting to talk about taking action to pre- vent the war. The result: two demonstrations with over 500 people in attendance — Arlo Guthrie even dropped in to play a few songs at one. Progressives were fed up and tired of being quiet.

Three years since the public erupted with outcry against the war, Brevard is ablaze with loud liberals, who are organizing, preparing to run for office, and participating in our democracy like never before.

Two days after the counter-inauguration demo, dozens of pro- choice activists commemorated the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. And, in the run-up to the election, an almost equal number of pro-gay mar- riage supporters turned out to oppose an anti-gay marriage protest in Palm Bay.

Just as many Americans joked about moving to Canada after the election, my wife Desiree and I often talk about wanting to move to a liberal community. But if we really want to take back our country, we need to be pioneers, boldly bringing our moral ideals to the very com- munities most festering with hatred and prejudice. It's not enough to simply join some haven for progressive thinkers. The only way to save our Constitution and our nation's legacy of freedom for all is fi-om the inside out. -Jeff Nail, Florida

continued next page

... if we really want to take back our country, we need to be pioneers, boldly bringing our moral ideals to the very communities most festering with hatred and prejudice. It's not enough to simply join some haven for progressive thinkers. The only way to save our Constitution and our nation's legacy of freedom for all is from the inside out.

YiYQ Chueki|!

It felt good going to a place where everyone knew me and my fam- ily, "Tu gente" (your people), as Chucky would say. Chucky owned the local boJegu across the street from my house on Ashland and Le Moyne. He had emigrated from Cuba during the Mariel exit in "59 and ended up "Chasin' a skirt," as he put it, all the way to Chicago in '7 1 .

Chucky 's spot was live. He'd play nice Caribbean music from open to close and always had something funny to say. His staff con- sisted of a butcher we all called Shank and Judy, the lady who worked the lottery machine.

Shank loved cutting meat. Sometimes he'd take my brother and me to the back and show us random animal organs, explain their func- tion, and tell us how they should be cooked and eaten. Judy was con- sumed by makeup. Every time I came into the store she was putting some on, taking some off, or touching up some part of her face. She was the first and only person I'd ever seen do her face up using only a lipstick. She used it straight up on her lips and blended it with some cocoa butter for her cheeks and eyes. It was wild!

Sometimes I'd go to Chucky 's even if my mom didn't need any rice or beans. I'd go for the show. We all knew that on Saturday morn-

ings he brewed his special Cuban coffee, which brought out all the locals. They'd sit on benches and chairs outside the store and talk poli- tics, music, and local happenings. Chucky 's was the core of the neigh- borhood. Thai's where we'd buy our food, play our numbers, and pass the time. But. things change.

Change came upon the neighborhood in the late" 80's. Chucky sold his shop to a Korean couple with a child. They were polite. He said he wanted to spend the "winter of his life" somewhere warm and sunny, away from all the noise. That's ironic because he was the one who initially brought the noise ... the music, the conversation, the in- teraction that had been missing in our neighborhood for so long. He brought us together and gave us a place to hang out, a stage.

I'm thankful to have been a part of an engaged and conscious col- lective of individuals, who really talked to one other, shared their lives and ideas, and helped elect the first Black mayor in Chicago. I've not experienced a true sense of community since the bodega closed, but I've not given up on ever finding it again. -Evelyn Delgado, Chicago "if

o o

Matthew Nafranowicz strikes a balance as

Upholsterer for the People

Illinois native Matthew Nafranowicz is a craftsperson with old-school skills. 16"- and 1 /'"-century skills, as it were.

Nafranowicz, whose upholstery business The Straight Thread is located in the Madison Enterprise Center in Madison, Wisconsin, studied the art/craft as an apprentice in France. The furniture-making techniques he learned have been passed from person to person for centuries. "The [upholstery] trade is so much more alive there, it's well received in the community and country as a whole," he commented. "[The French government] provides funding to keep the skills alive. Without trying, it's something that could be easily lost."

Onginally a biology major in college, he first got into upholstering when he responded to a help wanted ad. "I found it intriguing," he said. "I was into visual things like shape and form. I was good at using my hands."

The transition from would-be ornithologist to upholsterer occurred when he started questioning his desire to become a scientist. He decided to move to a big city and found work with a French interior designer in New York.

Nafranowicz became an apprentice in a foreign country with essentially no language skills when he went to France with his wife, a student of French history,

"That was the experience that made me realize this is what I want to do," he said. "I really physically enjoy doing it."

Most of the work Nafranowicz does today isn't the very fine traditional work he learned in France, but rather work on regular furniture people need to have done.

Among the tools and supplies in The Straight Thread's tidy workroom are cushion stuffings like horsehair and seagrass. These matehals were abandoned, at least in the United States, before World War II in favor of cheaper ones

"With furniture's mass production at a large scale, they came up with different things to cut corners. One thing that takes the space of something that costs more. They're shortcuts. Now it's like [the focus of production] is quantity and less cost These objects don't have the beauty they would if done the traditional way or last as long "

Though eschewing the mass-produced is very punk rock, there's an unfortunate inherent conundrum in any well-made item Ikea. the example

Courtney Becks

Nafranowicz mentions by name, is familiar to and extraordinarily popular with many people for the precise reason that it makes attractive, stylish furniture available to the same people who can't spend S8000 on a bureau as a unique piece of functioning art.

"[It] allows you to buy inexpensive furniture. Ifs made to be mass- produced so it can be affordable for almost anyone. Things that are hand- made are, on a certain level, only for the elite," he said.

Yikes. Not so punk rock.

But, as Nafranowicz points out, the key might be in balance, a virtue we in the United States constantly extol, yet aren't necessanly any good at maintaining; "People in this country instead of building a more modest house and [having] fewer really good items build a bigger house not as well-made, full of cheaper furniture. Its a balance of how much you really need."

Well-made furniture, he points out, is good for the second-hand market because it will last decades longer than anything made by everyone's favorite purveyor of Swedish cheap and chic

Even if everyone can't or doesn't want to buy a Louis XV settee, its still possible to support artisans and craftspeople Of course, an obvious benefit of buying a hand- or well-made item is knowing its maker and his or her working conditions. More than that, and most optimistically, it places people in a — hopefully — happy web of relationships, knowing that we can fulfill each others' needs ■A-

N

Reflections

Hippie

ChildhipJ

I am a native of an invisible culture. You probably won't recognize my cultural background if you meet me. In fact, I didn 't even realize that my cul- ture was a culture until I was an adult. My parents were homesteaders. We ground our own flour and raised goats. We spent time in "intentional communities." When I went to school for the first time at age ten, I realized that my world was an aberration. I learned to speak the language of the mainstream. 1 learned to like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. I learned not to mention certain things to certain peo- ple, not to use certain words in certain places. ("Don't mention solstice ritu- als to your normal friends. Don't tell your teachers you're 'pissed off.'") I learned to pass for "American."

,.,wo Rebecca

In high school, far from the community where I grew up, I liked to regale my friends with stories of my "hippie childhood" — no indoor plumbing, lots of naked people, a huge rubber dildo as a Thanksgiving centerpiece. Fun to be shocking, but that was about it.

Until my freshman year in college, I hadn't really come in contact with anyone outside the communities I grew up in who shared my traditions. My background was de- fined by its outsider status. We were the coun- ter-culture. Sometimes 1 told people where I came from, but it was always to point out my difference.

But in college, living in student-run co- operatives, we started to find each other. We found each other because we were not like the other coop denizens. We weren't trying to make a statement by living cooperatively. We weren't rebelling against our suburban parents. We already knew about organic food. We already knew how to cook. We were liv- ing in the coops because they were the closest thing around to the way we were used to liv- ing. We were bewildered by our housemates" ferocious enthusiasm about things that were normal for us.

yost

We began to realize that we were differ- ent. But not in the individual "shock everyone with the details of my hippie childhood" way that we were used to. We were collectively ditTcrent. One of us joked that he was in a cross-cultural relationship because his girl- friend had grown up in the mainstream. We laughed. And then we realized it was true.

Our culture is, in our generation, no longer a counter-culture. We are not counter- anything. We are natives of this terrain. Our culture has its own traditions, its own values and social codes, its own foods and food- ways. Our culture is alive and evolving as a culture, no longer defining itself in opposition to anything.

Our food traditions are possibly the best known, the most emblematic of our culture. Nutritional yeast (and sometimes tamari) on popcorn. Tamari on just about anything. Brown rice. Whole wheat bread. Big pots of soup. Big pots of everything. Always room for one (or six) more at the table. Food is cen- tral. And social. And abundant. Tastier than the food we grew up with, too. Our parents often cooked more tor the sake of theory than food. (Many of our parents, especially the

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vegetarians, cooked under the "complete pro- tein" theory: bean + grain = complete protein, therefore lentils + rice = dinner, never mind if they don't taste very good.)

Our culture is traditionally suspicious of doctors. We are more likely to reach for garlic than antibiotics, more likely to drink teas than take pills. We are fairly sure that our minds affect our bodies, but we are also suspicious of our parents' new-age "it's all in your mind" philosophy. Many of us have spiritual prac- tices, but we don't tend to advertise them. Most of us cringe at o\er-public declarations of "spirituality."

Group interactions in our culture can sometimes confuse people from the main- stream. We tend to treat each other as family, whether or not we are related. We are at home in each other's houses. We do not have cat- egories like "host" and "guest." If you come into one of our houses and ask if you can have a drink of water, we might look at you blankly and motion toward the sink. If we are familiar with host-guest relations in main- stream culture, we might explain the situation to you — that "make yourself at home" should be taken literally in this situation.

We are "at home" with each other in ways that mainstream culture might find surprising or rude. If at one of our gather- ings someone wants to sit in the comer and ignore everyone, no one will blink. If some- one suddenly announces that they're leaving early and doesn't offer an explanation, none is required. In the same way, it's perfectly ac- ceptable in our culture to drop in on someone unannounced, even if you haven't seen him or her in years. It's also perfectly acceptable for someone so dropped in on to go on with whatever they've been doing without acting as "host" for the "guest."

We are also at home u ith each other physi- cally. We tend to be close. We hug for no reason. Pile eight people on the couch. Sleep three or four to a bed. if necessary, or if we feel like it. Nudity is common. None of this is necessarily sexual, though we don't ignore sexual energy.

Sex is not taboo. We have sex, but prob- ably not more than anybody else. We tend to be pretty accepting of different kinds of re- lationship arrangements. Wc are often close friends with our exes.

Not everyone with "hippie parents" is a part of our culture. There are definitely cases of reactive reassimilation: "Oh my God I was so traumatized by my hippie childhood, now ;iil I want is a minivan and a picket fence." But I find that most of these people were ne- glected by their parents in some way. 1 can think of one family that ended up in Mexico, the parents too perpetually stoned to feed their kids. The oldest daughter was seven at the time, and she leameil to scavenge and cook and keep things together. ,\s adults, she and her siblings have had strong negative re-

actions to things counterculture, and i can un- derstand why. But most of the "second gen- eration" adults that are a part of my culture had parents who. though they may not have had it together on a lot of levels, at least fed and clothed us adequately.

Not all of our parents were hippies. Some were homesteaders, some were intel- lectuals or artists or just vaguely bohemian. All raised us with what has become our cen- tral cultural value: do what's important to you and don't worry about what people think.

Funny thing is. our parents (our culture's first generation) were really quite worried about what people thought. They worried about creat- ing themselves in opposition to the mainstream culture. They wanted people to notice that they were different, that they were rejecting one thing and embracing an alternative. Our house- mates in the co-ops were the same way.

But our culture's second generation tends to find the "difference on purpose" forced. Most of us are not interested in joining the mainstream, but neither are we interested in standing out for the sake of standing out. We stand out w hen it is natural for us to stand out and blend in when it happens that way.

In fact, our generation tends to be aller- gic to anything that feels forced, anything that smacks of trying too hard. Most of us cringe when our parents or friends want to "pro- cess" something. My old roommate says of us "If we need to talk about something, we

talk about it, we don't need to make a big an- nouncement about It."

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this. In a certain way, our entire culture ex- ists because our parents forced things. They developed a theory about how to do things, and forced themselves to follow it. With their declarations and oppositions, they created a space that we, the second generation, now inhabit. And in that space between counter- culture and mainstream, we grew into a new culture.

It's a culture that values experience over theory, shades of gray over black and w hite. It's a culture of translators, interpreters, enamored of subtlety, suspicious of hard conclusions.

As 1 am suspicious of hard conclusions, I won't make any here. If the first generation forced it and the second generation is going w ith the flow. I am curious about the third generation of our culture. My niece turns eight next month. She is a smart, self-pos- sessed girl. She eats popcorn w ith nutritional yeast and plays with Barbies. She takes echi- nacea for colds and learns about the pilgnms in school. We shall see. "ir

Rebecca Hartman grew up in Lobelia. West llrginia. She now lives in Bratllebom, Vermont with a moile}' assortment of semi-grown-up children of the "counterculture. " Reach her at reheccach@gmail. com

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2005

Maybe it had to do with the beer, or the heady mixture of languages, or the humid- ity, but it felt like something unique was growing out of the sweaty discussions and incessant drum circles. It wasn't the same energy one feels at a large protest or indoor activist conference, and it was more than a tropical version of Woodstock. There was a feeling at the fifth annual World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil that something extraordinary was happening.

In this week-long party of ideas and networking, another world seemed very pos- sible. But when such an event occurs, it's hard not to wonder what will happen when everyone goes home. What went wrong at this international crossroads? And where might it go from here?

words and photos Benjamin DangI

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A key ingredient in this globalized stew was face-to-face con- versation with like-minded people from around the globe. At a time when communication is dominated by cell phones, television and the Internet, 200,000 people congregated in one city just to talk with each other. There were Indian students sitting under trees conversing with aging members of Brazil's Workers Party. Argentineans shar- ing mate (a thick herbal tea) around campfires with Canadian media activists and North Americans listening to stories of water privatiza- tion from Ghanaians.

"You always leave the World Social Forum with more than you arrived with," Pupi Palcro, a member of a program in Mendoza. Ar- gentina that works with micro-credit for women, said. She has been to the WSF in Porto Alegre four times. "Sure, there are people who go to the forum and then just leave and do nothing. Others are in- spired to work more. Like me, on a personal level the forums gave me a lot of hope, and after going to the first forum in 2001, 1 realized I had to do something, so I began working more with organizing and activism in Mendoza."

For many participants, the forum is all about global networking. "You can run into a large amount of diversity, and people from all over with information about anti-capitalist politics, human rights and the environment and so on," Jimena*, from Cordoba, Argentina, said. "But, more than the conferences, it offers a chance to meet people and talk with them about the different themes important to thein, get to know what the problems are from their countr> and region, get con- tacts and organize for specific actions and programs."

The WSF was founded in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil to parallel the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an annual gath- ering of business and political leaders. Whereas those at the Davos forum believe the world can be improved through free market busi- ness deals, the WSF is a process of seeking and building alternatives to neoliberal policies. Four of the five social forums have been held in Porto Alegre. Last year it was in Bombay, India and this year it was back in Brazil during the last week in January. From day one of the WSF, activists of all ages arrived in Porto Alegre. Some traveled in bus or plane; others hitchhiked.

A space for the democratic exchanges of ideas and experiences, the WSF is home to panels and workshops led by intellectuals and representatives from social movements and ci\ il society groups from around the globe. Previous participants include Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, and Naomi Klein. The events are organized around the WSF slogan, "Another World is Possible." This other world is meant to be one without war. injustice, racism, and economic inequality.

For all of its colorful topics and variety, the instant gratification of the forum left some people wondering how much they were actu- ally learning. "It is contradictory that you get a lot of information, exchanges and experience in such a short time." explained Leo Kue- hberger. a PhD student from Austria and author of the book He Make Hisioiy about the anti-globalization protests in Genoa. Italy. "For ex- ample, if I wanted to understand the experience of factory workers in my town it takes months, years. So can I really understand that much in a week at the social forum?"

The 2005 WSF didn't come without its faults. For example, work- shops were often canceled or relocated without any prior announce- ment, translators sometimes ne\ er showed up. or a band played next to the tent, drowning out the speaker In spite of this, or perhaps because of it. some of the best aspects of the forum w ere not the organized events, they were the informal talks people were able to have day and night with each other on topics ranging from Bush's re-election to alternative media in Patagonia.

The forum w as comprised mainly of tents and buildings, some of them mildly air conditioned, situated along the beach of the Guaiba River. In the middle of the WSF expanse was the city's Harmony Park, home to the International Youth Camp, an event organized to provide cheap accommodation and youth oriented acti\ ities for WSF acti\ isls. Some 35,000 people stayed at the camp, \\ hich was full of non-stop discussions, debates, film screenings, partying and music.

The Youth Camp, because of its central location and festi\ e at- mosphere, was the life of the party. \'ct the energy of both events fed ofTof each other. "There are so many young people here, and the WSF produces an incredible awareness in them," Paolo*, student from Por- to Alegre commented. "They're the ones who will be the intellectuals

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'1f s not possible to continue to say 'another world is possible' if we do not make some proposals about how to reach this other world."

and leaders in the future. The forum allows youth to interact with the most imminent intellectuals of the left, who are able to pass their ex- perience and knowledge on to younger people. It is an experience that will stay with them forever."

Other aspects of the forum were more problematic. "One huge issue at the WSF was gender dynamics," Nadja Millner-Larsen, a re- cent graduate from New York's Bard College, said. "There was an enormous lack of women on the panels at the social forum. I attended this one panel on the anti globalization movement and at the end of it a lot of women stood up and said, 'How can we create another world when we don't have healthy gender dynamics in these panels?'"

"Some of the men said, 'Okay, we should pay attention to this." But others on the panel had this age-old response that been going on in the left since the sixties. They said, well, classes aren't equally repre- sented, nor race, therefore you shouldn't be so outraged by the under- representation of women."

"Tr.is is skirting around the issue," Millner-Larsen continued. "If a black person in a white audience asked why there aren't black people on a panel, the speakers wouldn't say, 'Relax there aren't any women either.' Here we are thirty years later and we are still arguing class and gender against women ... it's shocking. To allow this unequal gender distribution to be sanctioned within the official forum obviously has this kind of trickle down effect in the youth camp."

In addition to hundreds of robberies and numerous fights in the Youth Camp, rapes were reported there as well. "There was a high level of violence in the Youth Camp, Millner-Larsen explained. 1 felt more scared there than 1 really have traveling anywhere else. 1 got the sense that being alone in the camp was a really dangerous thing."

Another controversy this year was the drafting of a manifesto of demands and proposals, which was strange for an event that prides itself on not making demands. The points of the manifesto included the promotion of equitable forms of trade, the implementation of anti- discrimination policies for minorities and women and demanding debt cancellation for third world nations. It was created by 19 high pro- file WSF activists and writers including Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago, Le Monde Diplomatique director, Ignacio Ramonet, and Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano.

For some, the manifesto was a healthy step for an event many believed had been counterproductive. "It's not possible to continue to say 'another world is possible' if we do not make some proposals about how to reach this other world," said Ricardo Petrella, one of the presenters at the press conference on the manifesto.

Read more about the history of the WSF on page 63

Others believed that 19 intellectuals deciding what 200,000 peo- ple believed in contradicted the WSF principles. Brazilian Internation- al Committee member Candido Grzybowski, was unhappy with the decision to create the manifesto and refused to sign it. "The contents of this proposal are perfect, and I believe 80 percent of the forum par- ticipants would agree with it." Grzybowski said in an interview with Terra Viva. "What kills this proposal is the method with which it was created and presented ... It goes against the very spirit of the forum. Here, all proposals are equally important and not only that of a group of intellectuals, even when they are very significant persons."

Leo Kuehberger didn't believe the WSF manifesto had much sig- nificance. "The WSF is a process that cannot be controlled by anyone. I don't care what the results of the forums are. Maybe most people don't care about these proposal or points. No one looks at these things and says, 'Oh, we should concentrate on that this year.' It is not about the results on the micro-level. There may be results on paper, but most people care about results made in a personal way, a direct, person-to- person experience."

The day after the forum, the circus left Porto Alegre. .People packed up their tents, stuffing numerous pamphlets and dirty clothes into their backpacks. Artists, musicians, writers and students piled back into buses and cars for the long ride home. Sweaty activists with laptops under their arms boarded planes, some leaving the palm trees and samba to return to snow and subzero temperatures.

Next year, the WSF is scheduled to be spread out in regional forums around the world, and in 2007 it will take place in Africa. For many, it is difficult to say what the fijture might have in store for the WSF, whether its popularity and significance will fade, or whether its organizational aspects will change dramatically. "Now it is an open situation, everything is possible," Kuehberger explained. "Maybe in two years there will be no social forum, or maybe it is growing. We're in a very open situation."

Gustavo Orego works with a participatory democracy NGO in his home town of Rosario, Argentina and has been to four of the social forums. "When the forum stops being a necessity, people will stop go- ing," he explained. "The forum is not an end, it is a medium. Now it is a necessary encounter." "^

* Asked that their last name not be used for this article

Benjamin DangI is the editor of www. UpsideDownWorld.org, an on- line magazine about activism and politics

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Two years ago, on an other- wise random day in Texas, the ethnic scales finally tipped. So-called minorities became the majority in the state for the first time since Texas was part of Mexico. The Census Bureau re- ported, without much fanfare, that the numerical presence of whites was no longer as great as that of the masses of Asian, Latino, Na- tive, and African descendants in the Lone Star State.

worrit l.D. Pleucker illustration Brandon Bauer

Today, the state infamous for execut- ing the most prisoners is also poised to be- come the face of a new progressive America as blacks, Latinos, and other people of color increasingly take on positions of power in government. It would feel good to say it ain't George Bush's Texas any more — but it wouldn't be true.

Even though the population of Texas is rapidly changing, the old ways remain — and Texas-style populism has a lot to do with it. Now a folksy, down-to-earth style sported by both conservatives and progressives, Texas populism began as a multiracial, leftist politi- cal movement in central Texas farm countrv" in the late 1 800s.

A century later. President George W. Bush popularized the right-wing version of Texas populism, wearing cowboy boots and inviting European leaders to discuss world security at his sprawling Crawford, Texas, ranch. With philosophical and historical roots in the worst of Texas racial hatred, conserva- tive Texas populists like President Bush and Karl Rove are hard at work exporting Tex- as-style inequalities and biases to far-flung reaches of the globe. Their more right-wing cousins include groups like the Republic of Texas militia, who advocate for the indepen-

dence of Texas from the rest of the country, alleging that the Unites States illegally stole Texas in the 19th century.

The progressive take on Texas popu- lism is one that does not get nearly as much mainstream attention, but has achieved w ide- spread recognition in progressive circles. Na- tional figures like Jim Hightower and Mollv Ivins have managed to gain a foothold in the progressive community, projecting their own brand of what Texas is all about. They write and organize with a Texas twang, sporting cowboy hats, boots, and spurs — just like the president they despise — but recalling an earlier, extensive tradition of left-wing popu- list organizing that once made Texas known around the country for its groundbreaking progressive activism.

However, the reach of left populism has diminished over the years. "The present dav reality is that, for the most part, populism in Texas has been hijacked by the radical right; their takeover of the Texas Republican party in the late 1 980s and 1 990s w as indeed a grass- roots revolution." Dav id Van Os. a statewide progressive Democrat leader who ran for a Texas Supreme Court seat in 2004. said.

"Populism has been co-opted and turned into a brand by the right," historian Neil Folev

3 New Tradition Of

Texas Populism

is on the Horizon

added. "I don't think people think of the 19th century Populist Party when they say popu- lism. Populism today is why the first George Bush used to take his jacket off and roll up his sleeves: to look like a regular guy, at least un- til people found out he had no idea what the price of milk was or what a swiping machine was." Foley and others argue that the right in Texas has been more successful than the left at appropriating and selling the language and imagery of populism. It has become the Bush attitude, a brand to sell the Republican Party. The Bush family is able to do this even though they are not even from Texas, bom in Connecticut and transplanted to the state from the northeast in order to exploit the oil wealth of the state. They may be bom yankees, but they have managed to exploit the imagery of Texas populism for their own ends.

The Roots of the Populist Divide

In the late 1800s, populism had an agrar- ian base, rooted in the injustices that black, white, and Mexican small fanners faced on their land. Greedy banks were lending farm- ers money at outrageous rates and the railroad barons were profiting off transporting the bounty of their labor.

The Texas populist movement fought and achieved some of the first industry regu- lations in the United States. Gregg Cantrell, a historian currently writing a book on the Tex- as Populist Party of the 1 890s, said, "Many of the policies that the Populist Party advocated became Democratic Party orthodoxy — the direct election of senators, going off the gold standard, federal farm support programs. We got all of these by the time of the New Deal in the 194G.?."

Some of the most hotly debated issues, and most relevant for 21"' century mullira-

cial Texas, are the racial positions taken by those early Populists. Neil Foley, professor at University of Texas-Austin and author of the book The White Scourge, has researched the lives of poor black, Mexican, and white cot- ton farmers in central Texas during this period. "There were cross-racial alliances in this pe- riod, particularly between African-Americans and whites, that serve as a startling example," Foley said. "The alliances were very tempo- rary and fragile in part because of the power of white supremacy as an ideology and as a set of cultural practices." However, despite the chal- lenges, multiracial groups of farmers were able to, at some key moments, "Unite and Fight," as a popular Populist slogan put it.

This agrarian radical movement largely ended after 1896 when the Populist Party nationally decided to back the Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bry- ant. When Bryant lost, it brought about the demise of the Populist Party, sparking a radi- cal racial backlash. Populist leaders in Texas like Tom Watson and Cyclone Davis (who worked for racial unity in the 1 890s, going so far as to fend off lynch mobs attacking black Populists) blamed African Americans for the defeat. As Cantrell explains, "This is where we get populists like George Bush and David Duke — really the right wing populism has its roots in that backlash after the turn of the century."

Right-wing populism went on to gain a firm hold on Texas politics, but the original farmers and working people who organized and struggled for justice across color lines in the 1 890s provided the base for the Texas progressive populist tradition.

"The thing to remember is that for almost the whole 20"^ century Texas was a one-party state: Democratic," Cantrell said. This meant that the Texas Democratic Party was home to

a wildly divergent set of political ideologies — from the arch conservatives to arch liber- als — but the conservative wing of the party always remained dominant.

The minority in the Democratic Party was the liberal wing — identified most closely with the 1950s U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough, the only southem senator to vote for all civil rights bills between 1957 and 1970. "Ralph Yarbor- ough was almost the lone genuine progressive who managed to get elected to office in the 20th century in Texas," Cantrell said. "He war- rants the label of the heir to the Texas populist tradition of the 1890s primarily because of his stands for racial justice." Yarborough's cam- paign slogan summed up his egalitarian plat- form: "Let's put the jam on the lower shelf so the little people can reach it."

Texas populist traditions in 2005?

There are people working today who self- consciously see themselves as the descen- dants of Yarborough and the Populist Party of the 1890s. In addition to Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins who work as writers and media agitators, there are institutions like Texas Observer magazine that carry on the legacy. Ronnie Dugger, its founding editor, wrote about the Texas Populist tradition and described it as "part of the never-ending re- volt of people everywhere against embedded privilege and power."

Activists in the Texas Progressive Populist Caucus of the Democratic Party have fought to revive the tradition through organizing statewide since 2002. As Stan Merriman, its chairperson, said, "The con- temporary message of populism is economic justice." The caucus fights to preserve pop- ulism's legacy, but without much electoral success so far.

continued next page

At the Edge of America by Dan Gordon

How many teeth can a man lose before he stops smiling? This was the question running through my mind as I met Luis Felipe Rodriguez at the edge of America, in the trenches of Tijuana. Luis's mouth was a testament to the desperate urge for survival that only airplane crash survivors and border crossers can understand. Gaps as jagged and random as the terrain below filled his mouth, his few remaining teeth perched like Border Patrol vans on the rocky slopes of his gums.

His skin was the color and feel of an old baseball mitt as I shook his hand, and a jailhouse tattoo of his initials was fading in the space between his thumb and index finger His wiry body was straddling a boy's BMX bike that was ridiculously too small for him, causing his legs to flop over the edges and drag in the mud under him. But it wouldn't have surprised me a bit if he suddenly turned around, winked, and biked across the concrete basin below us, catching air at the basin's lip and sailing over the corrugated steel wall on the other side. Nothing could stop Luis. He had snuck across the border 15 times, and each time he had been sent back. He spent six years as a prisoner in Otay Mesa, the steel mousetrap where immigrants are held after being run down by the Border Patrol and wrestled to the ground like animals. These

days Luis lives in a concrete drain pipe that empties into the dry skeleton of the Tijuana River During the dry season the tunnel provided shelter, but on a day like today the rain turns their homes into death traps. During a storm the other week his friends fell asleep and never woke up, trapped between a grate and a wall of water The irony was that when the waters finally receded they carried their bodies to the other side. In death, they had finally made it across.

Today it is raining again, and Luis's adopted family of outcasts is huddled against the border As the rain falls harder they mumble amongst themselves, realizing that this 2,000 mile border is good for nothing, not even keeping them dry.

The others were all trudging back down the hill and piling into the heated van, motioning for me to come. With a knot of guilt I waved to Luis as he dis- appeared over the top of the ridge.

'Til see you in Americ-" he shouted, but I slammed the van door, embar- rassed that I had begun to cry. As we pulled away he waved goodbye, defiant, as he straddled the top of the hill in the middle of the downpour After all, how wet can a man get before he just can't get any wetter? -i?

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Cantrell, commenting on the Hightower- Ivins camp. said. "They are the last corporal's guard of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party." These old timers need some back up (or even replacements) if Texas is going to have any kind of hopeful future.

Fortunately, numerous younger organiz- ers and thinkers - primarily people of color m cities across Texas - are reassessing and reinventing Texas populism for the new cen- tury. There arc those who fiercely identify as Texans, reflecting the fact that their families

- Native, black, Mexican, and white - have been here for generations and even centuries. Many were reared with a tradition of Texas

— Texas history in school and Texas pride at home.

Along with the die-hard natives, there are more recent immigrants to the state who cannot identify with these traditions and bring their own history and struggles into the mix.

Together, these contemporary Texans are deciding which traditions to carry on and which to bury. And the progressive traditions they find might not be the same ones that old- school, cowboy-hat populists might expect.

The '60s race-based movements in Tex- as — including Chicano movements and ur- ban African American radicalism — brought to the surface all kinds of indigenous radical traditions. The African American movement drew on a long legacy of resistance since slavery, including the black Populists of the

1890s. The Chicano movements built on centuries of resistance, even stretching as far back as the Spanish conquest and indigenous resistance to pacification in Texas. In a new people-of-color-majority Texas, these tradi- tions can only move into the mainstream.

Diverse communities now make up the people of populism, so populism in Texas will have to change with them. "Populism is meaningless in Texas unless it is defined by the new immigrant communities in Texas, who are overwhelmingly Mexican," said Ta- mara Jones, board member for a Houston arts organization. Voices Breaking Boundaries, and a longtime progressive activist.

"If you go to the East End (a historic Latino neighborhood in Houston), how many people know about Jim Hightower's writ- ing? I love it, but it speaks to a very narrow and shrinking population — a very elite population. That is the challenge, not just the changing demographics, but also the failure to ground [populism] and redefine it in new communities," Jones said. "What it demon- strates is the disconnect between the people who know that tradition and who speak that tradition and who are most visible on the one hand, and the people who define the populist in populism."

The culture and politics of average Tex- ans have already changed and the effects are already beginning to be seen. The voters of Tarrant Countv (which includes Dallas)

elected a Democratic lesbian Latina sheriff in November. In Houston. Democrat Hubert Vo unseated a 26-year incumbent good-old-boy Republican, becoming the first Vietnamese American to win a statewide seat in Texas. He managed to win in a district that has become one of the most diverse in the state — with Chinese characters as prominent on the street as English letters. Vietnamese eateries. South Asian temples and mosques, a diverse array of Latin Americans, and a growing African population.

The new multiracial Texas will define the future of Texas populism. It will undoubt- edly draw on historic populist movements in Texas, but it will also bring new and re-dis- covered traditions to the forefront.

However, since the white minority (the Bushes in particular) controls institutions and government in the state, the majority of peo- ple still lack decisive power. As Jones pointed out, "This is a recipe either for revolution or for tyranny." The roots of populism are strong in Texas, but whether the future moves to the left or the right remains to be seen. "A'

John Pluecker is a seventh-generation Texan and a writer who is obsessed with the whole Gulf of Mexico region. He welcomes thoughts or comments atjp79(^^ail.com.

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straightuioishing

If it's not enough of an indignity to be resoundingly spanked by the passage of eleven amendments forbidding gay marriage, gay folk are now in the position of reading articles in The New York Times announc- ing that the Human Rights Campaign and other mainstream gay rights organizations are engaged in a "debate over whether they should mod- erate their goals in the wake of [their] bruising losses.'' In the face of such a rout at the national level, the mainstream press seems to expect that queers, tails between their legs, will follow the DNC in castigat- ing themselves for promoting any agenda other than that of corporate interests.

What's interesting to consider is how it became plausible for the Times and other members of the press to read the success or failure of gay marriage as indicative of the gay rights movement's relative prog- ress. Or, more precisely, why "gay marriage" has come to stand for gay rights, when historically, many of those involved in the gay rights movement have fought not only to achieve sexual freedom, but also to destroy those larger structures of power — classism, racism, and patri- archy — that contribute to the oppression of those who are different. Given the fact that some progressive queers read marriage as symbolic of the very culture they seek to transfomi, it is not surprising that they see the quest for marriage rights as inherently problematic.

words Rebecca Hyman illustratio! Allison Cole

Yet it can also be said that because the Right so successfully used the threat of gay marriage to galvanize voters in the re-election campaign of President Bush, those working in mainstream gay rights organizations were compelled to respond: the gay community was under attack. And, following the truism that "no publicity is bad publicity," it made sense for them to re-appropriate the negative attention by demonstrating that gay and lesbi- an couples deserve the rights granted to their straight married analogs. As stories about gay marriage crowded out reporting on other is- sues that could have been the central focus of the movement, the debate about marriage, either by default or by choice, appeared to be the main concern of gay people as much as the Christian fundamentalist base. At the pride parade in Atlanta last suinmer, for example, almost all of the floats focused on marriage, and participants threw intertwined rings to the spectators to remind them of the Chris- tian Coalition's efforts to pass a constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriage.

Although it makes sense that mass spec- tacles, such as Pride Parades, would respond to the dominant depiction of gays through camp and resistance, the very success of the Right in commandeering the rhetoric about marriage served to exacerbate an already existing tension in the gay rights movement. What has happened among the queer com- munity in the last two years is that the ques- tion of gay marriage has become attached to a larger debate between radical and assimila- tionist camps about the political priorities of

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the movement. Should queers focus their attention on the way they are depicted in mainstream culture, seeking dispensation from the larger straight world, or should they work to achieve rights by transforming American culture as a whole? Books like Jonathan Rauch's Gay Mar- riage: Why its Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for Ameri- ca, for example, argue that "same sex marriage extends and clarifies the mission" of marriage by "shoring up the key values and commitments on which couples and families and society depend." Others, like Mat- tilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, editor of That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation find it "ironic that the central sign of straight conformity is seen as the pre-eminent goal of the gay rights mov ement." For radicals like Mattilda, marriage is a signifier of class priv ilege. a way of dividing a particular version of gay identity from the larger queer community. Among queers, the prospect of gay moms or dads, cheerily waving from the windows of suitably bumper-stickered Volvos, seems to evoke either heartwarming ideas of social progress or the urge to vomit and throw rocks, (hee hee!)

What does a gay family look like?

The Human Rights Campaign is a nonpartisan organization devoted to advancing "equality based on sexual orientation and gender ex- pression" and ensuring that GLBT Americans "can be open, honest, and safe at home and at work." With a membership of nearly 600.000 and an annual budget of 30 million dollars, it is the largest and most wealthy gay rights organization in the nation. Its task is twofold: to lobby the federal government to include the needs of GLBT individu- als and families in national legislation, and to support state gay rights organizations in their efforts to lobby the legislature and overturn anti-gay laws and ordinances. Last year, according to Seth Kilboum, Director of the Marriage Project, the HRC gave 1.7 million dollars to state gay rights organizations and devoted 1.6 million dollars to its education and get out the vote efforts.

When the HRC decided to lobby for marriage rights, therefore, it sent a strong signal to other organizations that gay marriage should be the issue around which the gay movement should coalesce, and many, such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Na- tional Center for Lesbian Rights, followed suit. The HRC created an ad campaign as a central component of their lobbying efforts, running the ads in newspapers and periodicals with a readership potentially sympathetic to gay and lesbian rights.

The ads — black and white photographs of gay couples — are beautiful, and have a visual and textual consistency. One ad depicts a white lesbian couple sitting under a tree with their daughter, another an interracial lesbian couple who stand with their heads resting lightly against one another, and yet another a "senior" white lesbian couple who sit on a park bench holding hands. The text accompanying the photos explains that "Anna and Marion are worried about losing their house," whereas "Jo and Teresa don't qualify for full social security survivor benefits even after a lifetime of paying taxes." Marriage, the ads explain, will save these families from troubles straight couples never have to face. Implicit in this stylized representation of gay fami- lies is the argument that gay people deserve marriage rights because they are "just like you," with the implied receiver of the adv ertiscmcnt a straight, middle-class professional who is either alrcadv married or aspires to be. The tacit link between the viewer and the people m the photographs is their shared notion of what it means to be a family quite literally, of what a family looks like.

Though the ads are attuned to the multicultural spectrum of gay and lesbian couples, ihey are silent on the issue of class. The message is clear: gays and lesbians work hard, save money, buy houses, have children in short, want to achieve the American Dream and they deserve its benefits because they pay their taxes like everyone else. To be fair to the IIR( , it's important to renienibcr that the ad campaign was designed not only to persuade viewers to vote against anti-gay

marriage amendments, but also to counter the propaganda put forth by groups like James Dobson's Focus on the Family. When you're in an image war. it makes sense to fight fire with fire — for every freshly- scrubbed Christian family. HRC substitutes an impeccable pair of gay men, designer pants neatly pressed, beaming proudly at their twins.

What's lost in all this attention to the politics of representation, however, is the long-term impact these images have on the gay com- munity and the element of the straight world that chooses to valorize them. By arguing that gay couples deserve the recognition and rights conferred on those who are married. HRC and others have also cho- sen to create a particular image of gay culuire. one palatable to straight people because the realm of diflerence exists in the space of the private. Because most Americans believe in the right to privacy, and because the Supreme Court overturned Bowers v. Hardwick, making sodomy legal. HRC strategically evokes the law of the land to buttress the arguments for gay marriage. Because gay couples diflfer from straight couples only in the realm of sexual object choice, the campaign implicitly argues, they should not be subject to discrimination.

In this sense, the argument for gay marriage becomes not only a discussion about rights, but also about the distinctiveness of gay people. If to be gay is just about a sex act. and now a legal one at that, then discrimination against gay people becomes merely a matter of sexual prudery. Anyone who is hip enough to realize that sexuality is more than the missionary position, it would seem, should be able to support gay marriage, and by extension, full gay rights.

But it is precisely this argument that denies the radical diversity of queer culture, and the fact that queer identity, for most who embrace it. implies far more than sexuality.

By representing the family as a nuclear unit composed of a couple and their children, the HRC's ads tacitly reinforce the definition of the family that fundamentalist Christians have claimed is under attack. So- ciologists have long demonstrated that the notion of marriage and the family that is currently celebrated by conserv ativ es is inherently w hitc and middle-class, doesn't represent the majority of family structures in the country, and is a recent invention. While it is hardly shocking that conservatives are claiming an ahistorical definition of the family as a way to promote a very contemporary agenda, it is notable that when gays and lesbians share this definition, they erase the diverse models of the family that are one of the hallmarks of queer culture. In this sense, even as they fight for the rights for gay and lesbian couples, the HRC and others capitulate to the idea that the conservativ e definition of the family is the ideal standard to which all others hope to conform.

Rauch builds on this argument b> maintaining that established couples benefit society by making a commitment to care for one an- other Because this commitment is difficult, those who do the work should receive special benefits. To the straight eye. gay culture ap- pears to sutTer from "a case of Peter Pan syndrome." he concedes, but "marriage says . . . if you will make a commitment, you will receive the legal recognition and special status which only marriage brings. If you assume the responsibilities of adulthood, vou will get the preroga- tives." If those who are "adults" deserve special status, then bv exten- sion, those who are single or who live in communal living arrange- ments do not. Rather than arguing that all people deserve healthcare, for example. Rauch and others contend that married people, bv v irtue of their relationships, deserve more rights.

W hen I posed this challenge to Seth Kilboum, he told me that "the healthcare system is broken" and that HRC "wants to be a part of any debate" about refomiing the system. The question becomes, what would happen if all the moncv raised to promote gav marriage was instead used to lobby for universal healthcare?

Gay Sc\ Doth Not a Queer Make

For Mattilda, who quipped that HRC should stand for "homogenous ruling class." the choice to make marriage the centerpiece o\' gav

rights is "frightening" because it demonstrates the power those in mainstream organizations have to allocate resources and to choose which segments of the larger queer community will receive the greatest benefits. What has happened to the gay community, he asks, when queer residents of the now valuable Castro neighbor- hood of San Francisco protest the building of a shelter for home- less queer youth because it compromises their property values? It is only those who already have class privilege and property, he argues, who are able to attain ftiU social equality when granted the rights linked to marriage. "Why are homelessness and police bru- tality not queer issues?" he asks, and why does the movement not fight to overthrow the systems of power that discriminate against many people, rather than just queers?

Among queers, the argument for gay marriage not only im- plies a set of assumptions about class privilege and political pri- orities, but also has become inseparable from the question of rep- resentation. Because gay people lack the numbers and financial power to attain civil rights, they must petition straight culture to be recognized. Galling as this proposition is, it immediately raises the question of what it means to be gay, in the eyes of the straight world and then in the eyes of queers. To say that being gay is only about sexual object choice is to argue within the narrowest possible parameters. There is no need to engage the question of why mar- ried people deserve health benefits and those in other communal living arrangements do not. There is no need to define marriage, and there is no argument about what it means to be queer. Instead, gay people become straight people who love someone of the same sex. Those who are transsexual or who refuse a fixed notion of gender identity are not only left out of the current discussion, they would have to create a completely separate set of arguments to defend their civil rights.

If to celebrate marriage is. symbolically, to celebrate a tradi- tional notion of the American Dream, then those queers who reject gay marriage are also often rejecting a particular notion of being - — one associated with whiteness, with class privilege, with subur- bia, with monogamy, with children, with property. It is the whole- sale rejection of American individualism, in fact, that is frequently the subtext of the dissent, among queers, to the arguments for gay marriage. It is clearly inconceivable to some Americans that there are those who might not order their lives along this particular path by choice, rather than by disenfranchisement. There arc certainly many queers who Jo long for a traditional conception of marriage and the family and are denied these structures because they are different. And there are many queers who are, in most respects, indistinguishable from their straight neighbors.

But what is important is that many who embrace a notion of queer identity to queer not only sexuality but also being believe that queer culture is vastly superior to that of the straight world and is in danger of losing its voice under the marketing blitz cre- ated by the queer wedding industry. The question becomes, what would happen if all people were granted the rights accrued to mar- riage, and not just couples? What would happen if the greatest, most exorbitant fantasies of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell actu- ally came true? In what ways would American culture be radically changed not by the mainstreaming of virtually .straight couples, but by the queering of America? 1 suppose the question 1 am asking, one impossible to answer, is the extent to which the queer subcul- ture is alternative in a creative or a reactive sense. It seems that these questions have yet to be raised, precisely because those who identify as queer want no part of mainstream culture, and those who want in are willing, it seems, to sacrifice at least .some of their privileges of diflFerence. ir

Rebecca Hyman is a writer and professor living in Atlanta, Geor- gia. She can be contacted at rhyman33@bellsouth.net.

BORN IN FLAMES

Abby Sewell

In 1983, director Lizzie Borden's feminist sci-fi classic, Born in Flames, imag- ined a future 10 years after the socialist revolution, and concluded that in a Utopian state run by white men, women and minorities would still be ignored and abused. In her vision, a group of women join forces to take over the state-owned media and create their own revolution.

With this idea in mind, a group of progressive activists in Portland, Oregon are organizing the Born in Flames Conference, a three-day event dealing with sexual assault from a radical perspective. The conference is set to take place at Portland State University, from June 24 to 26, 2005, and will encompass a wide range of workshops, speakers, and discussion forums. The organizers include women, transgendered people, and men, and the event is open to all sexual assault survivors and supportive, concerned community members.

In the more mainstream circles of universities and non-profit organizations, conferences on sexual assault are not hard to find. But in the radical-left com- munity, the discussion has usually been relegated to workshops within confer- ences focusing on sexism (A Different Kind of Dudefest in Washington, DC), queer and transgendered issues, or race issues (the Anarchist People of Color Conference).

According to Born in Flames Conference organizer Lauren Hartley, there was a large upswing in organizing around sexual assault issues in Portland's radical/punk community about two years ago. At that time, activists began dis- cussing the idea of holding a conference on sexual assault. This year the confer- ence is becoming a reality.

The first day of the event will focus on defining sexual assault and dispelling some of the myths. The second day will address ways the community can support survivors of sexual assault. The third will deal with accountability. Workshop topics include consent, self defense, and survivor advocacy, among others.

Hartley said, "I feel like in the community there's a lot of lack of knowledge of basic survivor support— basic things like you always believe the survivor— which in the world of social services you would learn on day one."

One of the most difficult problems to address has been the issue of how to deal with sexual assault perpetrators who are part of the radical community, and who, in many cases, don't believe their actions qualify as assault. In the United States, the vast majonty of rapes and attempted rapes are committed by someone the victim knows— a friend, an acquaintance, a partner or former partner. The situation is no different in the insular punk and activist scenes. And, when alcohol and clouded judgment are added to the situation, the line between consent and coercion becomes very thin.

Activists who experience sexual assault are often unwilling to go to the police because of their own opposition to the authorities and, in some cases, because they fear being ostracized by their friends. In these cases, radical com- munities have to find their own methods of holding perpetrators accountable.

Portland's most vocal anti-sexual assault collective. Hysteria, some of whose members are planning the Born in Flames Conference, has made a practice of confronting accused perpetrators at punk shows and other public events. One of the main tactics Hysteria has pursued is the promotion of "Safer Space Policies." Places and events that want to be known as safer spaces post a written statement to say they will not allow discriminatory and oppressive behaviors. The policy also states, "Known sexual perpetrators are not welcome at any time."

Hartley admits the problem of dealing with perpetrators who may be our friends and fellow activists is a problem no one has yet been able to deal with effectively. "If they're ostracized, they maybe just leave the community and go somewhere else and don't have to deal with their behavior."

She and other Born in Flames organizers hope the conference can provide a space for people from all over the country to discuss issues like these in a way that is constructive rather than divisive.

"I hope this can be a space where all different kinds of people can come together and share experiences and create a place for discussion and educa- tion," said organizer Sage Dillon.

For more information or to get involved in the conference, e-mail: borniflamesconference@yahoo. com

Basketball, Bitch, and Beyond

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1972	1984	1990
Title IX miraculously passes, guar-	Madonna releases "Like a Virgin"	Feminist rocker Am DiFranco starts
anteeing equal coeducation (transla-	and giris everywhere writhe on their	Righteous Babe Records.
tion: no more "bounce the basketball	beds.
three times and pass" in gym class).		1991
	1985	Anita Hill testifies against Clarence
1978	The Guerilla Giris, a radical activ-	Thomas at his Senate Confinnation
Take Back the Night starts.	ist group of young feminists pissed	Heanngs. The riot grrri movement
	off at the sexism permeating the art	emerges out of the punk music
1981	worid, stage theatncal protests.	scene, and homemade zines touting
RuPaul first appears on "American		feminism with a tom edge proliferate.
Music Show," pushing mainstream		Naomi Wolf publishes The Beauty
America to reconsider the strict gen-	1987	Myth.
der binary.	Jean Kilboume tours the country with
	her documentary Killing Us Softly:	1992
1982	Advertising's Image of Women.	Tali Edut launches a multicultural
In a Different Voice by Carol Gilhgan		feminist magazine called HUES
argues that giris lose their true voices	1988	(Hear Us Emerging Sisters ) It fiokl|
as they ache into adolescence	The onginal Sassy launches	too soon

When I was about 14 years-old and hopelessly inept at getting my frizzy hair to lie flat or my best friend, who was already sexually active, to use a condom, 1 reluctantly started pulling feminist books off my mom's shelf I was looking for a lot of things: comfort, answers, but, ultimately, I was really looking for identity.

I didn't find it. 1 found a lot of middle-aged women writing about the ERA and the GNP and none of it meant anything to me. When I heard the term "third wave feminism," the light went on.

Lisa Jerv is, co-founder of Bitch magazine, recently wrote of the term "third wave" in Ms.: "We've reached the end of the wave termi- nology's usefulness. What was at first a handy-dandy way to refer to feminism's history and its present and future potential with a single metaphor has become shorthand that invites intellectual laziness, an escape hatch from the hard work of distinguishing between core be- liefs and a cultural moment."

Bui I can't help thinking about that frizzy-haired girl back in Col- orado Springs who discovered a movement, and in the process, herself by virtue of that name and all the newness that it suggested. "Third wave," like hip-hop. was mine, not my mother's, and at 14 that really meant something.

Certainly all third wavers, like all feminists, don't share the same core beliefs. One of my best friends is a Republican scientist, another is a Palestinian Muslim who adores Elvis and Martin Scorcese, plays a bright pink electric guitar, and is dead set against abortion. These women are part of my movement, no matter how divergent our views.

It is not our views that connect us. It is our approach, our shared cultural influences. We email, IM, blog. We are open-eyed and hun- gry. We are children of Madonna's lacy gloves and Queen Latifah's

"Who you calling a bitch?" We played sports or cheered on girlfriends who did. We search the Internet for our answers.

Is this enough common ground to constitute a country of our own? I think so.

In an effort to respond to Jervis's call to avoid "intellectual lazi- ness," I have attempted to create a survey of third wave feminism. It is intended to be a question, not an answer.

1 begin with Title IX because I believe it is the policy change that echoed most widely and most profoundly among our generation. According to a recent issue of O Magazine, 1 in 27 high school girls played sports in 1972, but today 1 in 2.5 does. I then chose what I see as the most captivating and influential cultural markers of our time

— the TV moments that became iconic, the books that reached an audience wider than Women's Studies circles, the direct action that transcended one time or place. I also try to draw on a variety of genres

— music, books, magazine, television, government, and film — and public spaces — from suburbia to the city, hip-hop to folk rock, the basketball court to the Senate floor. Finally, I end with Jennifer Baum- gardner and Amy Richard's new book. Grassroots, because I believe their message is representative of where we are headed: a movement where emailing your friend information on the latest natural birth methods is as valued as marching on the Mall.

1 look forward to seeing your additions and revisions. For what are we if not the generation that talks back? iV

Courtney E. Martin is a writer, teacher, and filmmaker in Brooklyn, New York. You can read more about her zany projects and good works at www. courtneyemartin. com.

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Surveying the Feminist Landscape

Courtney E. Martin

1993

Debbie Stohler and Marcelle Karp found Bust "for women with some- thing to get off their chests."

1995

Rebecca Wall<er, badass daughter of Alice, edits 7b Be Real.

1996

The Third Wave Foundation is found- ed. Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler start Bitch Magazine.

B T TC H

1997

The first Lilith Fair sweeps the coun- try. The WNBA tips off. Editors Leslie Haywood and Jennifer Drakes pub- lish Third Wave Agenda. Naomi Wolf and radio producer Margot Ivlagowan co-found The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. "Buffy the Vam- pire Slayer" premieres.

1998

The unstoppable Eve Ensler pro- duces V-Day, a celebrity-packed re- launch of her Vagina Monologues, to raise money to end violence against women. Time puts Clarista Flockhart on the cover and lamely asks "Is Feminism Dead?" "Sex in the City" debuts on HBO.

2000

Third wave leaders Jennifer Baum- gardner and Amy Richards publish Manifesta. Appetites by Caroline Knapp and Body Outlaws by Ophira Edut and Walker illuminate the com- plicated psychology behind eating disorders. The Burlesque Revival Association starts, and women strip down in the name of sexy empower- ment. Hilary Swank wins an Oscar for her unparalleled performance in Soys Don't Cry.

2003

Sarah Jones wins her suit against the FCC for censoring her poem "Your Revolution," an attack on politi- cal revolutionaries who hypocritically disrespent wnmpn

2004

The March for Women's Lives draws over a million to the steps of the anti- choice White House. Edi- tors Vivien Labaton and Dawn

Lundy Martin publish The Fire This Time. Global activist Jensine Larsen founds World Pulse magazine. The "I Had an Abortion" project shocks and awes.

2005

Baumgardner and Rich^irH; n ih!;.;h their second book, Gr

-^ b Caitlin Corrigan

can Irish women keep a place for peace?

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In the spring of 1996, "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland had already claimed 3,000 lives, despite numerous negotiations and ceasefire attempts. The most recent mani- festation of a centuries-old conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the time known as "The Troubles"" began after the initially peaceful civil rights movements of the 1960s turned increasingly violent, and carried on well into the 1990s. By 1996. Northern Ireland's leaders were ready for some real change, organizing elections for a round of peace talks with representatives from all geo- graphic areas and political and paramilitary affiliations. With this new. comprehensive ap- proach to peacekeeping, how then could these leaders possibly overlook a grand 5 1 percent of their constituency?

By not including any women on the can- didate lists.

Lucky for Northern Ireland, Monica Mc- Williams and nearly 100 other women were already organizing the fight for representa- tion in what would prove to be some of most productive negotiations in the peacemaking process. McWilliams and her colleagues lob- bied the major parties to include women in the talks, but after having their requests ignored, they decided to form their own party. With just seven weeks to get out the \ ote. the Northern

With a commitment to cross-party equality and mediation guiding their policy-making, the NIWC's approach at the talks was decidedly different from the often divisive and exclusionary political climate that has become tradition in Northern Ireland.

Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) was cre- ated to contest the June elections. McWilliams, a nationalist, and Pearl Sager, a loyalist, won two seats at the table, with the NIWC coming in as the ninth most popular party in elections throughout all of Northern Ireland.

Writing in The Oh.scner. Monica Mc- Williams says the defining characteristic of the NIWC is their emphasis on inclusion and con- sensus: '"We have a niche as a cross-commu- nity party, appealing to Protestants, Catholics, Hindus, atheists, and more. We are acutely conscious that some 14% of people here do not come from Catholic or Protestant tradi- tions and slill more are politically homeless."

With a commitment to cross-party equality and mediation guiding their policy- making, the NIWC's approach at the talks

was decidedly ditTerent from the often di\i- sive and exclusionary political climate that has become tradition in Northern Ireland. During the nearly two years of deliberations, the women of the NIWC introduced fi-esh perspectives and pushed for common ground. Hov\ever, gaining basic respect from fellow parties sometimes proved a daily challenge. In a 1997 article in Insight on the News, Mc- Williams responded to reports of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) members verbally abusing NIWC reps during the talks, going so far as to "moo" when the women entered the chambers or during speeches. "The violence of their tongues," she says, "has led to others picking up guns."

This connection between political sec- tarianism and street violence shows just how difficult breaking tradition can be when years of binary conflict serve to strength- en existing divisions in a community like Northern Ireland, promoting a male, na- tionalist homogeny that pervades even the politics of peace. The NIWC's commitment to breaking up some of the old ways lasted throughout the 22 month talks, which ulti- mately resulted in the Belfast Agreement (or Good Friday Agreement) in 1998.

"The NIWC played a key role in promot- ing the Agreement," writes Kate Fearon in is- sue 13 of Accord: An International Review of Peace Initiatives. After the Agreement was created, it was voted into reality by a public referendum with citizens" over- whelming approval. The NIWC played a part in educating vot- ers, demonstrating an ability "to speak simul- taneously to a number of constituencies: na- tionalist and unionist, organized civil society and individual members of the public."

The NIWC's strength comes from this willingness to defy convention, simply by seeking out unheard perspectives on the is- sues. "I thirst to hear their voice and put my- self in their shoes," McWilliams says in In- sight. "To me that is knowledge that builds for change. I have to build a new country and that means getting together w ith people w ho don't share my point of view "

As a young, fourth-generation Insh- American woman sisiting Belfast last sum- mer. I learned firsthand about the community, finding warm welcome from the less conven-

tional side of Belfast. Tra\eling with my fiiend Maura, we negotiated our way carefully at first, learning to stay away from the university area with its homogenous packs of women in skinny high heels and groups of loud men who shouted to us, inexplicably, in French. We puzzled over our newfound exoticism — did we actually look that foreign? Or was the sight of two women laughing loudly and walking alone at night so much of a departure from the social norms of a city whose buildings still show murals of martyrs killed in urban war?

The more I learned about the underlying conflict during our stay, the more it seemed we were drawn to those on the sidelines: those who, like the women and other mi- norities given voice by the NIWC. weren't necessarily participating in the characteristic sectarianism of Belfast, but were affected by it nonetheless. One night we found a group of native Londoners, two Indian girls and a slight, feminine boy who led us to a hid- den away hip-hop club after telling us more than a few doormen had turned them away. Another night we met a chatty Dublin girl whose family lived on both sides of the peace line, then a group of feisty old men playing Dixieland jazz in a traditional pub. We also made friends with an employee at our hostel, an Australian expat mother who had plenty to say about women's issues in Ireland — "Their doctors tell them breastfeeding's not healthy! Can you believe it'.'!"

Tapping into the needs and strengths of these interesting, everyday people fueled the NIWC's early success in getting a wide vari- ety of underrepresented people to seek more active engagement — or at least understand- ing — ft-om the current political system in Northern Ireland. It seemed like an unstop- pable plan. Yet despite hard work, plenty of anonymous donors, and seemingK limitless enthusiasm, the NIWC is barely viable today. Though the two majority parties, republican Sinn Fein and loyalist DUP. nov\ have more female involvement, the NIWC lost much of its funding and its seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly (one of the organizations formed ft-om the Belfast Agreement). Criticism of the NIWC also continued, from DUP members and ev en members of the media, although their harsh and unfounded critiques better serve the agenda of the NIWC by illu.su^ting how great the ideological div idc .still spreads.

On one occasion. Newton Emerson w rote in the Irish .VVu.v, "Men commit almost all the violence in Northern Ireland, but now that I'm in my 30s I've noticed something

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happening to my contemporaries. Men grow out of sectarianism. It's a folly of youth — while the giris go on pursuing their intense, unspoken vendettas for years and years." This is exactly the kind of blame game NIWC members have sought to move past. Without flinding or representation, their challenges could be daunting.

Fearon, a founding member of the NIWC herself writes that though the party was only meant to be temporary, it has had significant effects on the culture of Northern Irish politics at large: "The NIWC's involve- ment in the negotiations not only facilitated and promoted women's participation, it also demonstrated the possibility that civil society can participate in and influence formal politi- cal negotiations. It revealed that politics is not necessarily the exclusive preserve of custom- ary politicians; groups other than those advo- cating exclusively a nationalist or exclusively a unionist perspective also have a place at the decision-making table."

The emphasis on civil participation re- veals a flexibility that in itself is a kind of re- bellion, drawing emphasis away from the po- litical powers-that-be, and placing it back into the hands of community leaders, NGOs, and the everyday members of the private sphere who welcomed us outsiders so warmly to Belfast. Without the legitimacy and power of a formal party, though, might outsiders find the traditions of binary conflict still too strong to break?

Protestant Baroness May Blood and Catholic Bronagh Hinds don't seem to think so. These two founding NIWC members spoke on BBC's Women's Hour in December 2004, re-stating the importance of involving women in the peace process — a role, says Blood, they've always taken on: "If the true story of Northern Ireland during the years of The Troubles ever comes to be truly written, women will have a large part of that story to tell. 1 can think of thousands of women throughout Northern Ireland who, through

the darkest days, held their community to- gether and worked across the peace line."

"We may have an agreement," adds Hinds, "but peace gets built bit by bit, and we have to address things still within our own communities and across the communities, even things that we are denying and not ad- dressing now, and women will have a big role to play in that."

Further Reading:

Northern Ireland Women's Coalition website, www.niwc.org

Women s Work: The Stoiy of the Women s Co- alition, by Kate Fearon, Blackstaff Press.

Caitlin Corrigan is a freelance writer living in Portland, Maine. She can be reached at caitlincorrigan@hotmail. com.

FEATURED: SEX AND GENDER MEDIA

m2F: A Journey in Gender Identity DVD

Produced, Directed, and Edited by Dee McLachlan and Patricia Church

Pangaea Films, 52 minutes plus extras, 2003

Distributed by National Film Network, www.nationalfilmnetwork.com

www.m2fgendercom

m2F is an informative and powerful statement on gender dysphoria that might make some viewers smile in the end.

Produced by two transsexual women and narrated by Jon Faine, this documentary from Australia and New Zealand — and its companion website — feature personal stories, professional discussions, and contemporary de- bates concerning the lives of transgendered, transsexual, intersexual, and cross- dressing people. It uniquely combines the public and the private, the personal and the political to create one of the most provocative teaching tools on the subject of people living the struggles (and pleasures) of gender iden- tity.

Refusing to define transsexualism and transgenderism, m2F instead presents a number of personal testimonies, a large amount of new medical and psychological research, and a cross-cultural history of gender dysphoria to challenge stereotypes and encourage viewers to keep asking questions. (The website is especially helpful in this regard because it provides a set of links to help readers inform their own definitions and responses.)

Former sex worker and nominated best actress, Georgina Beyer, the world's first known transgendered Member of Parliament (from New Zealand), leads an impressive list of "ordinary" transsexual and transgendered women interviewed in this video. Father of three daughters and Naval Captain Sarah Parry, convener of Transgender Victoria and geneticist and politician Julie Peters, Human Rights Advocate Roslyn Houston, and others tell their sto- ries here. Their personal histories are inspirational. They are sometimes very similar and sometimes very different, challenging all the stereotypes. They talk of their complex sexuality and evolving professional and familial relations. They recall regrets as well as hopes. Other women talk of their struggles with schooling or the medical profession. Some discuss their difficult relationships with established religion or disastrous counselors from their pasts. Lauren, Sally, and Jay appear in the studio of their long-running radio program, "Trans- mission Time" (Joy Melbourne), where they engage in sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted discussions of gender identity.

Alongside the personal interviews, the video also features discussions with professors Milton Diamond, who has published extensively on gender and sexuality, and Frank Lewins, who has written on the sociology of trans- sexualism. Other specialized doctors, experts, politicians, activists, and church officials express a diversity of views on the issues involved with gen- der and sexuality differences.

Structurally, the feature on the DVD is made up of interviews, talking heads, a few graphics, and gorgeous shots of Australia and New Zealand. It takes its time and lets us grow to know the people it profiles. It also offers its own commentary through the doctors and experts who speak between the personal stories, generalizing and contextualizing the particulars of the ordinary voices. It shows us how wonderfully sexual reassignment surgery has gone for some. It shows us that not everyone who switches genders un- dergoes sexual reassignment surgery, at least not always completely. It also shows that some people who have undergone the surgery eventually felt it as a mistake. It shows women who are in heterosexual relationships or women who are in homosexual relationships. It lets us hear from parents, friends, and families that sometimes support and sometimes resent the choices these women have made. It shows us how complex this issue has been in history, spotlighting cultures with three, four, seven, and eleven recognized genders. And, it shows us how these issues continue to evolve today.

And this complexity is what makes the video so keen for me. It does not show only one side of any of this subject, although, in the end, it is mostly con- cerned with the happiness of men who want to live as women. The interviews with an oppositional church voice, gradually accepting parents and siblings, and one wife whose pain comes across as she explains that her children lost a father and she lost a husband did more to help me respond to this subject than any simplistic cheerleading ever could.

Most important of all, then, m2F does not intend to be the final word in any of these journeys. In fact, it does not even attempt to give a holistic look at gender dysphoria as it focuses almost exclusively on biological men who have transitioned one way or another to living as women or to living between genders. Formerly biological women do not enter the conversation here. We can hope, though, that their voices are not too far behind and that f2M will come to our screens very soon. -Brian Bergen-Aurand

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Rachel Fudge

Nicole T. Georges

On any given evening, you can turn on the TV and surf past images that not too long ago were considered too shocking, too politically contentious, or too offensive for national broadcast: interracial couples; visibly pregnant women; graphic violence; sex; homosexuality; foul language; even dancing, singing ani- mated feces. Thanks to the rise of reality TV, it's become acceptable to broadcast graphic, gruesome images of real or realistic medical procedures (rhinoplasties, gastric bypasses, and autopsies) and gross-out bodily functions (people eating bugs, wonns, and rats; people vomiting). You'll undoubtedly witness characters both fictional and real dealing with complicated love triangles, sex, birth, death, betrayal, and more moral conundrums than you can shake your remote at. You might even catch a comedic skit that openly mocks Jesus and God.

But there's one thing you're almost guaranteed not to see on TV, despite the reality of it being one of the most common medical procedures in the US: abortion. As many commentators have pointed out, as all of the old you-can't-do-that-on-television taboos — sexual content, violence, cursing, nudity, homosexu- ality — have fallen away, abortion is the one hot-button issue that simply remains too hot for TV. Robert Thompson, Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and Television at Syracuse University, describes abortion as being "conspicuous by its absence," while in a November 2004 New York Times article Kate Arthur calls it an "aberration."

While the public and political discourse around issues like gay rights has dramatically increased over the past 30 years — and subsequently become increasingly visible in popular culture — the discourse around abortion and reproductive rights has actually narrowed, to the point where it has become more difficult to introduce the issue of abortion on a TV show than it once was.

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The Debut of Reproductive Rights

Way back in 1964 — nearly a decade before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationally — a main character on the soap opera Another World gol pregnant and had what was referred to as an ■"illegal operation," which left her sterile. Shortly after the 1973 Roe decision, Susan Lucci's All My Children character had soap opera's first legal abortion, with none of the health or psychosocial aftereffects (steril- ity, insanity, murder, etc.) that would come to characterize soap abortions in the future.

But the best-known and most widely viewed pop culture abortion took place in 1972 on Maude, the All in the Family spi- noff starring Bea Arthur as the titular liberal feminist. When 47-year-old Maude, who was married and had a grown daughter, became unexpectedly pregnant, she opted for an abor- tion, which was legal in New York state at the time. (In a sign of just how different the times were, Maude's producers cooked up the abor- tion storyline in response to a challenge from the group Zero Population Growth, which was sponsoring a $ 1 0,000 prize for

bombing of an abortion clinic on C&L — to touch on the issue.

.Moral Dilemmas and False .Alarms

With the rise of the primetime teen soap {Bev- erly Hills 90210. Party a/Five. Dawson \ Creek) in the mid-'90s, it was inevitable that sexually active teen and young adult charac- ters would be confronted with pregnancy, of- ten in the guise of the Very Special Episode. Enter the convenient miscarriage. Accord- ing to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, some 1 3 percent of unwanted pregnancies end in miscarriage, but on TV that number is much, much higher The convenient miscarriage goes something like this: Sympathetic lead character gets knocked up. SLC agonizes over what to do, sometimes going so far as to visit an abortion clinic. SLC decides that although she believes in a woman's right to choose (her boyfriend or best friend most likely feels sig- nificantly different, however), she's going to keep her baby. Moral dilemma resolved, SLC spontaneously miscarries; SLC is sad but re- alizes that in the end she wasn't

appear as hallucinations or ghosts on the show all the time). And last summer, a two-part episode of the made-in-Canada teen soap De- grassi: The \'ext Generation made headlines when 1 4-year-old lead character Manny gets pregnant, has an abortion (saying. "I'm just trying to do the right thing here. For me. For everyone, I guess"), and doesn't express any regret afterward. Alas, U.S. viewers won't get to see the show: The Viacom-owned cable channel N. which airs Degrassi in the U.S., refused to air it.

Today's Four-Letter Word

While Maude's abortion was truly ground- breaking, it inadvertently galvanized the anti-choice movement. When CBS reran the episode six months later, some 40 affili- ates refused to air it, and national advertisers shied away from buying ad time, establishing a pattern that remains in effect today. Even more significantly, after the episode first aired anti-abortion leaders took their case to the Federal Communications Commission, arau-

I had a convenient miscarriaoe!

sitcoms that tackled the issue of population control.)

In the wake of Roe v. Wade, and as the basic tenets of second-wave feminism seeped into the American mainstream in the '70s and '80s, serious adult-oriented dramas like Hill St. Blues, St. Elsewhere, and Cag- ney & Lacey featured abortions every season or so, as did the occasional .soap opera. In the real world, the annual number of abor- tions steadily increased until 1985. when the abortion rate leveled off. In the late '80s and early '90s, in the face of a growing number of legal challenges to Roe, a smattering of storylines revisited the specter of illegal abortions, as if to remind us of what was at stake. On Vietnam War-era drama China Beach, a young nurse named Holly has an illegal abortion; the shows moral center, leading character Colleen McMurphy, is a staunch Catholic who disapproves of Holly's actions. Popular shows Thirtysomething and Cagney <& Lacey addressed the issue more obliquely, often using flashbacks to provide some distance from the controversial event or using an extraordinary eveni like a

really ready to be a mother anyway. (Alternatively, the pregnancy turns out to be a false alarm, an even more tidy wrap- up to the dilemma.)

The convenient miscarriage/false alann remains the most popular strategy for dodging abortion, as it allows TV producers to con- gratulate themselves for tackling the tough topics without having to take an actual stand. Recently, however, a handful of show s have approached the issue head-on, even allow- ing characters to go through with the abor- tion. But there is always a measure of conflict and moral crisis: A 2003 episode of the WB show Everwood turned the issue around, to focus on the moral dilemma of the doctor (the show's lead character) o\er v\ hether he can in good conscience perfomi an abortion; in the end, he decides he can't do it. and passes the case to a colleague, who does the procedure then heads otTto a priest to confess his sins.

Over on HBO, an episode of 5a Feet Under depicted teenage lead Claire matter- of-factly getting an abortion, without endless agonizing or moral anguish but in a sub- sequent episode her aborted fetus pays her a visit, appearing as a cute infant (a plot device that wasn't all that unusual, as dead people

ing that the fairness doctrine — which man- dated equal time for opposing views — ought to co\er not just editorials and public aflairs but entertainment programming too. Because Maude had an abortion on CBS. they argued, they should have the right to reply on CBS. They lost the case, but won the attention of the networks. In 1987, the fairness doctrine itself was struck down; but by that point, it didn't matter: The networks had established a pattern of covering their asses by presenting some semblance of balance as way of diffus- ing potentially \olatile subjects.

In the landmark episode, Maude ago- nizes over the decision, but her daughter re- assures her. speaking in the language of the growing feminist mo%ement: "When \ou were young, abortion was a dirty word. It's not anymore." But more than 30 years later, as many of the tenets of the women's libera- tion nunement ha\e become accepted parts of mainstream .American culture, abortion is a messy, if not exactly dirty, word.

Back in 1992. when the sitcom .Murphy Bn)\vn was hailed for its overt feminism and its titular character found herself unmarried and unexpectedK pregnant, tlie a-word was never uttered. Diane English, the show's pro- ducer, said in a .lunc 1992 Houston ChnmicU

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"'was talked (Hit Of It fcynapses!

article, "She would have used the word many times, but 1 wanted a lot of people to watch, and certain words have become inflammatory and get in the way of people hearing what we wanted her to say." In the end. Brown had the baby, igniting the ire of Vice President Dan Quayie and disappointing many feminists.

During the battle for abortion rights that culminated in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, public declarations were an integral tactic of the movement. In an effort to overcome the shame and silence surrounding abortion, women organized public speakouts, at which they talked openly and honestly about their illegal abortions. Abortion is a fact of life, they asserted, and it affects women of all colors, class, and religious or political belief Over the years, however, as the anti-abortion movement has grown stronger and more or- ganized, the pro-choice movement has strug- gled to regain this clarity of speech. Young women who were bom after Roe continually assert that abortion is a private decision, a pri- vate choice that needn't be broadcast — an attitude that is at once true but also extremely politically naive.

Veteran TV producer Diane English ac- knowledged this back in February 2001 , when she wondered aloud to the New York Times: "Maybe •.vomen...only had to think about their Manolo Blahniks for the past eight years under the Clinton administration, if women start to wonder if they will the lose the right to have an abortion, perhaps that attitude may change during the next four years." Sadly, it seems like it may take another four years for women to get scared and angry — enough to demand that popular culture re- flect their concerns.

the need to recognize the agony and shame that accompany abortion. Given this roil- ing mass of conflicting feelings and poli- tics, it's no wonder that an hour-long drama can't get a handle on the issue.

As Syracuse University's Thompson points out, "A lot of people strongly feel that there's too much sex on TV, but they will have no trouble watching an episode of Blinil Date or Desperate Housewives in their own home. With abortion, those feel- ings aren't so easily eliminated in one's TV viewing. No [networks] want to run the risk of powerfully offending people on either side [of the issue]."

As a result, what we see on TV isn't likely to satisfy anyone, no matter where they stand. Producers strive for a form of balance by always ensuring that there's a dissenting voice of some sort - a friend, relative, or au- thority figure who ardently asserts their anti- abortion stance. To pro-choice folks, TV's take on abortion seems unnecessarily harsh, moralizing, and punitive. With the exception of the unaired Degrassi episode, you never see a character undertake an abortion the way many v\omen you know do: With the utter confidence that she's doing the right thing in a difficult situation. To abortion foes, TV is littered with anti-fetus propaganda that leans heavily on the choice angle while refusing to come out and declare that abortion is murder. It's a no-win situation.

Out in the real world, feminists and re- productive-rights activists are working to rescue the language of moral values from the radical right, and

es. For now, it's unlikely that TV viewers will ever see one of the Desper- ate Housewives unapologetically opting for a second-trimester abortion when she realizes her fetus has profound genetic anomalies, or one of the lissome gals on The O.C. sporting an "I had an abortion" baby tee, proclaiming that ending her pregnancy was the best deci- sion she ever made.

The trashy, ephemeral landscape of pop culture may seem like an unimportant front in the battle for women's rights, given the in- justices that befall real live women and girls every day around the world. But as the 2004 election has shown, the U.S. is in the midst of an all-out culture war, in which public lan- guage and pop images are playing a crucial role in shaping the terms of the debate. In the struggle to capture the hearts and minds of Americans, the reproductive-rights move- ment — like the rest of the progressive move- ment — needs to find new ways to present its case openly and frankly. Like death and taxes, abortion is one of the world's certain- ties — no matter the legal status, there will always be unintended pregnancies, and there will always be women who seek to terminate those pregnancies. After all, of the six mil- lion pregnancies each year in the U.S., half are unintended; some 47 percent of those un- intended pregnancies result in abortion. And has histoid has shown us, not talking about it won't make it go away. "iV

Abortion in the Real World

The current state of abortion on TV reflects both mainstream American attitudes toward abor- tion and contemporary feminists' discord over pro-choice strategies. While poll after poll indicates that a majority of Americans sup- port the upholding of Roe v. Wade, it's also clear that a majority of Americans have deep concerns and moral conflicts about abortion. This ambivalence is reflected in the pro-choice movement, too, as nation- ally recognized feminist leaders speak of

"I had a wacky plot twist!

using it in this thorniest of issues to present the decision to have an abortion as a deeply mor- al one. To name just a few examples, Jennifer Baumgardner's new documentary / Had an Abortion and national news articles by femi- nist activist Amy Richards and novelist Ayelet Waldman detail their ditlcult abortion choic-

Racliel Fudge is the senior Feminist Response to Pop C

editor of Bitch: 'ulture.

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Media and Technology Traditions

at

Victor Goonetilleke, the president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka and a well-known international broadcaster, wrote these words after working tirelessly on amateur (ham) radio to help his compatriots who had been left devastated by the tsunami:

'1 wish 1 could scream aloud and tell people in some high places that when all else is dead, shortwave is alive."

Over the last decade, there have been many predictions that shortwave radio — the "old technology"— would soon die out. However, despite some cuts from various stations and the ad- vent of Internet audio, shortwave radio is still with us, as it has been since the 1920s. There are many reasons why this tradi- tional medium perseveres, and is often preferable to more re- cent forms of international communication.

One reason is that shortwave broadcasts can be heard over thousands of miles, and can reach many parts of the world where the Internet, telephones, cell phones, and AM/FM radio are not feasible. There are many places where electricity is unavailable or unaffordablc for most people, and where a simple battery-powered or crank-driven shortwave radio can be a lifeline to the world.

As many Americans found out after September 11th, or in such recent disasters as the Asian tsunami, the Internet, phone service, and AM/FM radio can be crippled or cut off entirely in times of turmoil. At such times, shortwave radio is a way to keep connected with the world, and the use of shortwave in amateur radio (broadcaster to broadcaster transmissions, which also can be heard on shortwave bands) has also been a lifesaver.

Even in a place where Internet audio is easily available, it is not always the best way to go. Radio stations that have we- bcasting can only accommodate a certain number of listeners. When a lot of people want to hear breaking news or a popular program, servers can easily get overloaded. Also, Internet au- dio doesn't always work well on laptop computers, so one is often better off with the portability of shortwave. Too, a good shortwave portable is much less expensive than a computer, and today's shortwave radios are usually easy to use even for those who are not computer-literate.

Some countries also forbid their citizens to have Internet access, fax machines, and satellite dishes that would allow them to hear outside information and viewpoints. The North Korean government, for example, only allows their citizens to use fixed-frequency radios and TVs, which only air government broadcasts. In such places, many people take the risk of secretly

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listening to easily hidden shortwave radios so that they can find out what their governments don't want them to hear.

Another key reason that shortwave continues to be popular around the world is that it offers a great \ ariety of program- ming. It allows listeners to hear viewpoints that they might not be exposed to on domestic radio or TV. Shortwave often lets one hear breaking news events before it reaches the mainstream me- dia, and events that are not covered by domestic broadcasters. The diversity of programs available on shortwave is also a great way to discover and learn about other cultures through music, art and history features, and language lessons. Many countries broadcast in English, but those in other languages can be a way to impro%e one's language skills, or to keep up with news from one's homeland. And of course music programs cross language barriers.

It is usually easier to add shortwave listening to your media diet if you have some information to get you started. Annually published books such as Passport to World Baud Radio or the World Radio TV Handbook present invaluable information about stations, programs, and frequencies. These books also pro\ide tips to help beginners learn the ropes of shortwave listening. Due to changes in propagation conditions, many shortwave stations use multiple frequencies and change frequencies seasonally, so it helps to keep on top of the latest information. International broadcasters such as the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Neth- erlands, Voice of Russia and many others post updates on their websites, or one may write to stations for schedules.

There are also a number of Internet mailing lists and Usenet groups where listeners exchange information. .Additionally, there are a number of clubs around the world, such as the North .Ameri- can Shortwa\e Association and the Danish Shortwa\e Club In- ternational. Both have printed and Internet information on what people are hearing, and they are also a great \say to connect with other short\va\e listeners and make friends around the world.

Although shortwa\e radio is nearly a century old, this tra- ditional method of broadcasting still has a lot to otTer and will continue on for decades to come, provided there are people who take advantage of it and keep it alive. As I say at the end of my ow n weekly shortwave program. "Shortwa\e lives, and the world's out there for tiic hearing!" ^

Marie Lamb has been involved in shortwave and FM broad- casting for 15 years, including hostinti and prodiicinii 'he weekly DXing with Cumhre broadcast via World Harvest Radio stations WHRl. WHRA. and KWHR and on the World Radio Network. She lives in Syracuse. Sew York.

Furthur Reading:

I'assport to World Band Radio - www.passband.com World Radio TV Handbook - ww w.wrth.com North American Shortwave Association

WW w. anarc.org nasw a Radio Netherlands Media Network Blog

medianetwork.blogspotcom I 'ni\ersal Radio, has man\ links to radio stations, clubs, etc.

www.dxing.com High Frequency Coordination Conference

w w w.hfcc.oru

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Mix one part activism with equal parts high technology and good old word-of-mouth marketing, add a dash of pop cul- ture and what do you get? The continued success of The Meatrix and the growing sustainable agriculture movement promoted by Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, or GRACE. Though only four minutes long, the award-winning Flash anima- tion film about the ills of factory fanning broke new ground in disseminating information to millions of people around the world. To explore this burgeoning form of media — a new tradition of communication and expression — Clamor went to the source, GILACE Director of Marketing and Executive Producer of The Meatrix. Diane Hatz.

What was the inspiration for The Meatrix?

In early 2003, we received an invitation from a design company called Free Range Graphics to submit a proposal for their first ever Flash Activism Grant award. Over 50 nonprofit groups submitted proposals and we were chosen as the winners. Free Range felt that factory farming was a crucial issue and that the public needed to be educated about the problems surrounding industnal agriculture. They also told us that an important reason why they chose us as the winner was because we offered a positive solution." Rather than simply tell people there was a problem, we encouraged people to \ isit the Eat Well Guide, an online directory of sustainable meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from sustainable farms, stores, and restau- rants throughout the US and Canada. It was a project we were pre- paring to launch and we felt The Meatrix would be a good way to promote the guide while educating people about factory farming.

We supplied Free Range with as much information as we could on factory farming, breaking it down as much as possible. When they read through the material we sent, they were overwhelmed with all the problems caused by this type of food production. One of them commented that it was like the Matrix and the idea was bom.

The issues covered in film are serious, yet the tone and style — from Leo the pig's voice and delivery to the pop culture references and the use of Flash animation — is funny, even hip. Why did the producers decide this was an effective way to discuss what s hap- pened to farming?

All of the issues surrounding factory farming — the massive pol- lution, the cruelty to workers and animals, the health effects, the impact on rural communities, the loss of factory farms — are very depressing issues. And it can be difficult to get people to listen to your message if what you say is too dark — so what better way to educate someone about a serious issue than through using humor and pop culture? The way to reach new audiences is through medi- ums that they can understand. Because we live in a pop culture so- ciety, the best way to reach what I call the unconverted — people who know little or nothing about the issue — is through humor and pop culture references.

Who did you want to reach with The Meatrix?

I have found a tendency in the nonprofit world to keep messaging geared toward the already converted, people who already know about an issue and who are already motivated to try to do some-

thing to change it. My goal is to reach the unconverted — in this case, people who do not know about factory farming and people who do not want to give up eating meat. We wanted to reach peo- ple who might be afraid of the V word (vegetarianism) and let them know that they don't have to stop eating meat. They simply need to look at the problems with it and switch to healthier, more sustainable options.

How has the medium — an online download that can be viewed at any time and that perpetuates through email forwards — contrib- uted to its success?

Word-of-mouth advertising has always been the most effective form of advertising. In the same vein, word-of-mouth education is the most effective way to disseminate information that people will believe. If your friend is going to forward you something, you'll be more interested in reading or seeing it, and you'll take it more seriously. The Internet has speeded up our ability to get informa- tion out to the public and to each other, so rather than build slowly. The Meatrix literally exploded online. Our server even crashed twice ft-om all the traffic!

In addition, email forwarding can lead to repeat advertising. If you want to get a message through to someone, the best way to do it is to repeat it until it sinks in. Because of the nature of the Internet, many people who viewed the film sent it to everyone in their ad- dress book. This led to many people receiving it more than once, which meant the message was being reinforced again and again. Some people told us they are still getting it in their inbox, and others ha\ c received it a dozen or more times from different friends.

Is this the beginning of a new t}'pe of media for activism? What are its strengths and limitations?

Based on the number of organizations contacting Free Range Graphics these days, wanting to have their own Flash animations created, 1 would say, yes, this is a new type of media for activism. The strengths of Flash animafion are that it's visual, colorful, short, and has the ability to reach people who might not otherwise be open to the ideas contained within the film. The limitations are that many people are still not online, there can be download problems for people on dial up, and it can be expensive for nonprofits w ith little funding. We won this as an award so we had it made for free, but we were told it cost upward of S20,000 to produce. (The Flash Activism Grant is an annual award, so anyone interested in entering should visit Free Range's website at www.freerangegraphics.com.) "sV

GRACE is currently exploring a possible sequel to The Meatrix that deals with mad cow disease, in addition to looking for way^s to combine activism, music, art, pop culture, and the Internet to create the next level of advocacy.

For more information:

www.themeatrix.com

www.sustainabletable.org

www.factoryfarm.org

www.eatwellguide.org

www.gracelinks.org

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words Brian C. Howard illustratioi Susie Ghahremani

Many cultures throughout history have had rich traditions of na- ture and environmental storytelling. In the Great Lakes region the Ojibwa Native Americans believed that the picturesque Sleeping Bear Dunes were formed by the bodies of a mother black bear and her two cubs that had tried to escape a tremendous forest fire. In an old African tale, a young Nandi boy ingeniously brings rain to his drought-stricken home by firing an arrow into the air. The 800-year- old Nigerian folktale "Why the Sky is Far Away" warns of severe con- sequences if people greedily overexploit natural resources.

Today, in most of the West, we tend to view our world largely through the lens of the scientific method, rather than through the su- pernatural and mythical creation stories (although those modes of thinking are still very much with us). And over the past few centuries, one of the cornerstones of this process of understanding our world has become journalism — from investigative muckraking to op-ed com- mentary and everything in between.

But many observers are questioning if the environment is receiv- ing short shrift in a media culture that is more corporate conglomerates than independent voices, more sound bytes and shrieking heads than in-depth analysis and back-story, more J-Lo and Scott Peterson than E.O. Wilson and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Where are all the

Environmental Stories?

^0.

Is it the Media's Fault?

Jane Kay of the San Francisco Chronicle, who has been an environmental journal- ist since 1979, argues that there are actually many more environmental stories being writ- ten now than in past decades, and that there is a greater understanding of "the whole range of issues." But some critics say many of those stories are relegated to specialty publications like Grist and Orion, and claim there is rea- son for concern.

In the winter 2002 issue of Nieman Re- ports, the maga/inc of Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, veteran reporter James Bruggers writes, "Newspapers that several years ago had four people covering the environment full time now seem to have three, or two. Those that had two now have one."

Interestingly, eight of the top 25 (and five of the top 10) of Project Censored's most underrcportcd media stories from 2003 to 2004 were environmental stories includ- ing: the Bush administration's purging and manipulation of scientific information "in order to push forward its pro-business, anti- environmental agenda;" the potentially lethal contamination caused by the U.S. military's use of uranium munitions in the Middle East; the dangerous and dirty policies promoted by Vice President Dick Cheney's closed-door en- ergy bill task force; and enormous proposed taxpayer hand-outs to the moribund nuclear industry.

Also in the winter 2002 Nieman Re- ports, retired New York Times reporter Philip Shabecoff wrote, "Unlike the assiduity with which every twist and turn of news about pol- itics, economics, business, sports and the arts is given space in the media, environmental stories have to make a special claim of sig- nificance to be given consideration for inclu- sion... Even when they do run, such stories are often treated negligently." Kay concurs, saying "1 think that many newspapers don't put important environmental stories on the front page." She suggests that one reason may be because such stories often do not fit into the traditional model of breaking news.

Peter Phillips, director of Project Cen- sored and a professor of sociology and media at Sonoma State University, argues that me- dia organizations often do not invest the ink or airtime needed to clearly explain, evaluate, and repeat all of the intricacies of environ- mental issues, "which often manifest through gradual trends. Shabecoff wrote in Nieman Reports. "The prevailing response to envi- ronmental stories among some of my editors was 'What, another story about the end of the world, Shabecoff.' We carried a story about the end of the world a month ago."" Phillips says this perception of staleness of environ-

mental issues can be a particularly high hur- dle in the independent press, which he says is often focused on newness.

Beth Parke, the executive director of Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), says the key is for journalists to take the of- tentimes abstract concepts of environmental stories and frame them in ways that clearly affect people's daily lives. "Journalists need to speak to their audience, and make it seem like they are giving the infonnation people need," says Parke. In theory, reporters should have no trouble doing that, since the environ- ment obviously affects everyone's well be- ing, from their personal health and property values to their children's future.

Parke says some of the most difficult environmental issues to cover include those surrounding human population and climate change. The former has long intersected with hot-button issues of race and religion, and the latter involves enormous bodies of highly nuanced scientific data. Scientists are notori- ously reluctant to make conclusions, explains Parke, and they often report disparate, frag- mented data. Kay adds, "Many environmen- tal stories reflect uncertainty over science, and that is just the way it has to be."

Parke also says environmental health stories can be difficult to present, since they often deal with extremely minute levels of chemical exposures, or nebulous combina- tions of exposures. Such stories can require understanding of epidemiology, science and medicine, as well as how to sort through con- flicting research and the peer review process. Phillips adds that certain ultra-controversial topics, such as fluoridation of public water supplies, the debate about remaining oil re- serves, and the question of whether chemical contrails are being spread from experimental aircraft (as some claim they have seen), are severely underreported.

Corporate Leviatlians

Phillips sees the increasing corporate con- solidation of media as an 800-pound gorilla. "The corporate media monopoly is mostly in the entertainment business, and is looking for stories with emotional charges that will scare us, or titillate us," he explains. "For example, the Scott Peterson case was a huge story, but the opportunity cost is a loss of good cover- age. The main message [of corporate media] is not to be an activist, it's to shut up and go shopping."

SEJ's Parke counters that she believes the public has always craved sensational and gossip stories, but that it has also always had a strong desire for "hard news." Media orga- nizations have to compete in the marketplace, she agrees, "but they really do believe in their product," she says.

Phillips argues that the "real culprits" in environmental issues are often corporations, and the "revolving door" by which corporate officials often go to work for government agencies, and vice versa. "[Environmental] stories are about decisions made by power- ful people that impact us, but corporate media often doesn't cover them," he says. Phillips points to the 1997 firing by Fox 13 in Tampa, Florida of reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wil- son, who claim they were ordered to make what they considered false statements in cov- erage of bovine growth hormones after major advertiser Monsanto complained to station

"The great irony of journalism is that excellent investigative report- ing really isn't all that profitable. First, it involves a great deal of overhead to pay for research costs. And even though it may attract viewers, the commercial media's buck ultimately stops with adver- tisers, who may take offense at a particular report, and nervous executives, who may cringe in the face of possible lawsuits."

management. Phillips says the enormous companies that now control much of the nation's media are heavily interlocked with corporate America, through direct ownership, controlled seats on boards and other relation- ships.

Kay of the Chronicle says she person- ally has never experienced any pressure from her employers to adjust the content of her re- porting. But she suggests, "Reporters in small towns can have it tough, especially if there is not a diversity of economic power" Kay says she knows of a "very solid reporter" who was pulled off a beat on California's north coast because of charges he was "pro-redwood," as well as similar issues at small town papers in Arizona mining towns. But in the end, Kay concludes, "Journalists' mistakes and inabil- ity to step up happen because we don't have enough space or reporters, not because the business department is changing the story."

But in 2000 the Austin Chronicle con- cluded, "The great irony of journalism is that excellent investigative reporting really isn't all that profitable. First, it involves a great deal of overhead to pay for research costs. And even though it may attract view- ers, the commercial media's buck ultimate- ly stops with advertisers, who may take offense at a particular report, and nervous

o o in

U1 Ul

executives, who may cringe in the face of possible lawsuits."

Hope for the Craft

Kay says one of the challenges of environ- mental reporting is that it can be a very ad- versarial beat. A lot of different sources have to be juggled, including industry, advocacy groups, government and the public. Still, she says, "a lot of people want to get into it, and reporters like it."

SEJ's Parke says many students are now specializing in environmental reporting at journalism schools and other programs. Phil- lips says good reporters needn't necessarily have cut their teeth in classrooms, but that it can be helpful.

SEJ is working to improve the quality, accuracy and profile of environmental re- porting through an ever-increasing variety of programs, according to Parke, from a men- toring system to annual conferences to eco- tours for journalists. Intcmcl-based learning is next on the horizon. She also says media bosses are very worried about attracting and keeping their future audiences, particularly in the age of the Internet, and she points out that young readers are typically very interested in environmental information. Parke would also like to see more interest and organization from the media-consuming

public, whom she says must ultimately drive coverage.

Phillips agrees that this is possible, but adds that legislative action on the federal level is also necessary. "We will not have environmental and political reform without media reform." He hopes fbr an explosion of independent media, bolstered by government funding, "ir

Brian C. Howard (hho\\ard(aemagazinc. com) is Managing Editor of E/The Environ- mental Magazine (online at www.emagazine. com). He has also written for Britainis Ergo Living magazine, Altemet, The Green Guide. Oceana. Environmental Defense and others

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