I am not sure if this is the right place for this. Did we have a Google document going?

It is no secret that we are poised once again on the brink of a social, economic, political, and ecological crisis that has been growing for the past 1500 years as cultures have sunk more and more deeply into the patriarchal, authoritarian, dualistic, dogmatic, monotheistic, nationalist, and capitalist systems that dominate most of the world today.

Some of our class members expressed an observation that “interest in anarchy and anarchist collectives in particular is once again gaining steam.” I see this as part of an exit strategy that many of us are plotting towards an earlier model for living in an attempt to heal some of the damage that has been dealt our world. As we enter more fully into what astrologists term the Aquarian Age, we will be guided by our intuition, or our connection to Consciousness, and our need for authentic, voluntary connections with other people that can mend the extreme disconnections, inequalities, and imbalances that the ego-driven Piscean Age has wrought on humanity and the earth.

I have decided for my personal statement to make a list of what I see as some trends and practices, along with the resurgence of anarchy, that might be a part of the (new) world we are working to (re)create . . . Feel free to add things as you think of them! AND Making a list of places and groups that are doing these things would be a terrific resource for us all. I will continue to add to this as well.

• Horizontally-organized, voluntary associations: ex. Collectives and Cooperatives: professional, trades, food, social, housing, economic,  etc (we discussed a lot of these in class) . . . ;
• Consensus-based decision-making and direct democracy;
• Revival of neighborhood-based associations and community organizing, with access to social services on a neighborhood level;
• Massive, multi-level organizing and re-education towards transforming our social illnesses and deep disconnections in terms of race, class, ability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, language, ability, religion, sex, and age.
• Universal health care;
• Gardening and permaculture, community- and house-based;
• Renewable energy;
• Public transportation and pedestrian-friendly communities;
• Skill-shares;
• Local currencies;
• Experience-based multicultural education centered equally on “the basics,” trades, arts and culture, and the environment/natural world ALONGSIDE Consciousness-based education (cultivating the alertness, awareness, or true intelligence within each of us) with a focus on mystical/esoteric spiritual practices, including reverence for the earth and all life and respect for other religious traditions and beliefs;
• Herbal and alternative medicines;
• Vegetarianism/veganism/microbiotic/organic – focusing on real, natural food that is as local as possible, and nurturing biodiversity;
• Move towards multi-lingualism: Sign-language, Spanish, Chinese, and other local languages for all in addition to English;

To be continued! I offer this list up in the spirit of discussion, so let me know what you think!

Of particular note are:

Sabathani Community Center: http://www.sabathani.org/

The Minneapolis Urban League: http://www.mul.org/

Communities United Against Police Brutality:  http://www.cuapb.org/HomePage.asp

So yeah. Check it out and yeah.

I have attended a grand total of one class, but I’ve been keeping up with e-mails and interests, and I thought I’d throw out what I’ve been working on (instead of going to class).

One aspect of sharing knowledge and building solidarity in the radical community that I am passionate about is legal stuff. While we still live under a system of state repression, it is super important that we all have a basic knowledge of our rights and the legal system/process so that we can stand up for ourselves and our community when challenged. Knowing one’s rights and legal options can be super empowering, especially to communities of activists, persons of color, poor folks, immigrants, queer and transgender folks, and any other people who face state repression and rights violations. Such knowledge strengthens individuals and communities alike, as people are less likely to suffer from feelings of fear and terror when they know that they are part of a strong, supportive community that has the knowledge and the tools to fight back against state repression.

Recently, a few friends and I formed Coldsnap Legal Collective as a legal activist group to serve the radical community in the Twin Cities. We coordinate trainings on knowing your rights, the legal system and process (including options and consequences if you are arrested), and jail solidarity. We also have a jail support hotline for anyone who has been arrested, especially during large events or demonstrations such as the upcoming RNC. I added the link to our website under web resources on the right-hand side of this page so that people can access our contact information and jail support hotline number as needed, and also check out our upcoming training dates and events.

If any of y’all are interested in getting involved in our collective or for more information, please e-mail us at coldsnap (at) riseup (dot) net. We will be having an info meeting this Sunday, March 9th at 2pm (EXCO class time, sorry!) at Seward Cafe, and will post future meeting times on our website for interested persons. We are looking for people to help out with trainings, staff our jail support hotline, and offer any skills that they may have (tech, publicity, legal research, etc.).

I won’t be at class this Sunday either, but I enjoy getting updates on what we are all working on! Let’s keep working together to build the world we all envision!

Love and solidarity,

Becky

EDIT:  The correct date for the Coldsnap info meeting is Sunday, March 9th, NOT the 11th.  I edited the info above as well.  Hope to see you all there!

My task for the week was to find more information on community gardens. My brother made a great set of maps and info with all of the MPLS gardens last year using GIS, so I will try to get me paws on that.

In the meantime, GardenWorks has a great list of gardens and gardeny orgs: http://www.gardenworksmn.org/

- Also, I thought I would share a page that I found on Starhawk’s site about using consensus in decision-making. It’s been useful to me in the past. http://www.starhawk.org/activism/consensus.html

- Lastly, I did find a list also of some TC housing coops that I wanted to share at a site called Intentional Communities. http://directory.ic.org/records/?action=search_results&locations%5Bstate_prov%5D=Minnesota

See you on Sunday . . .
Matt

Food

Farm in the City   www.farminthecity.org

Youth Farm   http://www.youthfarm.net/

Sister’s Camelot  http://www.sisterscamelot.org/ Anti-authoritarians; anarchist bent

Others who are looking into community gardening, add stuff here!!

Media

KFAI Radio Without Boundaries  http://www.kfai.org/ Radically-minded programming

Alley Newspaper (Phillips Neighborhood) I just started reading this paper, but they seem to have an autonomously-oriented edge

Daybreak Collective Newspaper  http://www.daybreaknewspaper.org/ Anarchist newspaper. Inconsistently publishes; I’m not sure if the collective exists unless they’re working on a paper. Undernourished project–any takers?

Space

The Jack Pine Community Center  http://www.thejackpine.org/ Is apparently closing at the end of March, which is a tragedy. Should we be thinking about buying cooperatively to keep places like the Jack Pine open?

The Belfry  http://belfrycenter.wetpaint.com/?t=anon  Radical Community Center. Could be described as anarchist.

The Medusa  Show space, art space, educational space, also some folks’ living quarters. Underground. Many of us can connect you if you need a space.

Arise!  http://www.arisebookstore.org/  Radical bookstore collective and community meeting space.

MORE TO COME!

• Wage slavery—the fact that we have to find a job or die
• Capitalist invasion/enforced dependence—the reason why we have to work within the system or starve, all autonomous means of reproduction, commons, have been eliminated
• Capitalism—the system that creates enforced dependence and is based in wage slavery; in conditions of wage slavery people produce more wealth then they are paid, hence and that is stolen by capitalists and reinvested to produce more money, rinse, repeat

 Herod’s central critiques of other strategies:

• Failing to focus energy on building the world we want
• Putting too much trust in figuring things out in times of crisis
• Over-estimating the effectiveness of non-total strategies
• Spending too much energy on symbolic protest

 Blueprint of the New Society: Creating an Association of Democratic Autonomous Neighborhoods He sees the new society as resting on three areas of life and three types of associations:

• Autonomous neighborhood associations (1000-2000 people)—the key decision-making bodies and the ones that make treaties  
• Workplace associations (by workplace size)—self-run workplaces
• Housing associations (250 or so)— including health care, schooling, birthing rooms, some recreation activities, etc

 Each person takes part in

• One project groups (30 or so people) which can either be located in households or workplaces or neighborhoods
• One neighborhood association

 All associations and project groups are run according to:

• Voluntary association
• Direct democracy
• Face to face decision making

February 17, 2008

Topics to discuss:

1)      Bringing an anti-racist and feminist analysis to this proposal

What are the ways that this proposal excludes communities of color and low-income peoples? Does it fail to address the role of racism in our communities and incorporate current struggles for racial justice?

Do we see this text perpetuating structures of racism and misogyny?

2)      Reconciling anti-capitalist and anarchist organizing with social justice movements

Herod seems to begrudge movements based on identity politics, saying that, “Sometimes it seems that identity politics is all that remains of the left. Identity politics has simply swamped class politics.” However, if we want to build vast communities based on “practical anarchism” it is imperative we respect and honor people’s various histories and investments in cultures rooted in race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality as well as class. That said, how can we expand from this point towards a more inclusive vision of anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist organizing that actively welcomes people from diverse communities and productively engages social justice movements?

What aspects of anti-capitalist and anarchist organizing are counter-productive to community-building across difference? How can they be particularly effective at community-building across difference?

Is “wage slavery” terminology that we are all comfortable with? What are the ways in which it could further obscure historical and contemporary white privilege and supremacy? What are the ways that it is useful?

3)      Practical anarchism in our lives

What elements of Herod’s proposal to gut capitalism are particularly compelling? Which are problematic?

Of the compelling elements, how could we go about organizing for those things and working on projects for ourselves in an inclusive way that actively strives to build community across difference?

¾    Anti-racist organizing (in TC and elsewhere)

¾    Can anarchy function with people’s inherent “me first” mentality?

¾    How anarchism sees the movement from theory à action or action à theory

¾    How anarchism can contribute to personal + community happiness

¾    How can we begin to make the change in “Getting Free” in the city?

¾    How to cover the city in gardens and self-sufficient communities?

¾    How can I practice anarchy…is it possible

¾    How can we abolish capitalism and the state?

¾    How can we create a diverse anarchism rather than one composed mainly of the middle class left?

¾    How to make alliances?

¾    How can we create a social world that is non and anti-capitalist, and what roles should anarchist practices play in that world? And how should anarchy be complimented with communist and socialist practices?

¾    How do we best apply this “theory”: to our daily lives in a way that is affective—both personally and in the larger social sphere (i.e. in a way that radicalizes others)

¾    How can we raise our consciousness to a lvel that would make anarchy sustainable + non-violent?

¾    How can we use music + the arts to promote the anarchist agenda? How can we use anarchism to make music + the arts better/more interpersonal?

¾    How anarchy can help protect the environment

¾    I’d also like to learn about the history of anarchy in the US and broader world

¾    I want to know more about how anarchism works on a practical, local level.

¾    In the Twin Cities and surrounding areas: autonomous communities, farms, land reclamation projects, etc?

¾    More about each other

¾    More information about TC radical history

¾    More about different organizing groups/communities in the Twin Cities, particularly people of color

¾    More about DIY everything and politics that apply to the way I live and the ways communities live

¾    Non-dominant anarchist histories

¾    Privilege, guilt, and work—is it selfish to be parasitic? What are practical ways to avoid participating in the capitalist economy?

¾    Radical queer organizing

¾    Reconciling direct action, violence, and non-violence?

¾    Street theater

¾    The realistic, current situation of native americans, blacks, vietnamese, hmong, eastern europeans and more living in the twin cities?

¾    Ways of decreasing the cost of housing, food, and so on?

¾    What kind of identity should an anarchist subscribe (or should an anarchist constantly destabilize their identity, and define it in relation to the communities of which they are a part?)

¾    What are our ideas about “being free”?

¾    What are the potentials latent in the “radical scene/community? How can they be realized? How can we subvert systems of power?

¾    What is anarchism? (i.e. how should we think anarchism in our current conditions and struggles)

¾    Who is living cooperatively + sustainably (co-housing/coops) + how can we organize ourselves?