Aid & Abet

Lt. Ehren Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. His court martial begins Monday, February 5 at 9 a.m. in Ft. Lewis, Washington.

I encourage everyone who is within driving distance to attend the rally outside of the gates of Ft. Lewis on Monday. A schedule of events can be found at the Courage to Resist website.

It is essential that GI resisters know that they have support from civilians if they decide to resist this war – because ending the supply of troops through both counter-recruiting (encouraging people not to enlist in the military) and supporting active duty military personnel to resist the war is one key way that we, as individuals, can stop this war and prevent future wars.

Anyway, aside from coming to the rally at Ft. Lewis, I’ve come early to Tacoma, Washington a week early with my friend David to work with a local group of peace activists to create art and street theater for the rally on Monday. Creating amazing visuals is a way that we help make resistance exciting and engaging, and a way to help people plug in.

Want to help? We’re building puppets all week at a warehouse just outside of downtown, 1114 Court E in Tacoma. Here’s the schedule!

3:30-10 PM MONDAY, (1/29), Puppet-building
3:30-10 PM TUESDAY, (1/30), Puppet-crafting
11-5 PM THURSDAY, (2/1), Puppet-making
10-6 PM SATURDAY, (2/3), Puppet-finishing
Noon-3 PM Sunday, (2/4), Puppet REHEARSAL (everyone needed!)
1PM Monday (2/5), Performance at the gates of Ft. Lewis, Exit 119 off I-5.

See you there!

The 9th annual Allied Media Conference:
“Breaking Silence, Building Movements”

June 22-24, 2007
Detroit, MI
www.amc2007.org

Because so many voices have been silenced by corporate media. Because media should be a tool for communication and transformation and not a commodity to passively consume. Because our stories have been misrepresented, misinterpreted, and straight up missing…

We need a participatory media movement to change the world.

To all of you brilliant supporters of the Allied Media Conference: It’s official. The 2007 AMC is coming to Detroit. Block off June 22-24 in your 2007 calendars for one of the most engaging and inspiring events that you will ever attend.

Keep reading for more information, or go to www.amc2007.org.

“BREAKING SILENCE, BUILDING MOVEMENTS”

It’s getting louder and louder out there. Though much of humanity is still silenced, more people than ever are speaking out. Whether it be with high-tech tools like blogs, video cameras, and MPCs, or lo-fi tools like spray paint or the spoken word, people are voicing their truths and forging new connections. For eight years, the Allied Media Conference has contributed to that by providing hands-on trainings, accessible discussions, and a supportive community.

Now in its ninth year, the AMC will continue to provide a critical space for us to strategize on the role of media in our communities and movements. In a time of escalating war, and the daily violence of neoliberal policies, we need media that amplifies the voices of those most affected by these crises. We need media that not only breaks silence, but mobilizes people to envision alternatives and to take action.

Read the entire AMC 2007 vision statement.

HELP REALIZE THESE GOALS FOR AMC 2007

Let us know what you want to see at this year’s AMC. There is an easy-to-use form on the conference website where you can submit proposals for workshops, panel discussions, presentations, caucus, film programs, or speakers. You can let us know if it’s something you want to present or if it’s something you’d like to attend.

Propose a session. (Deadline March 15.)

ABOUT THE AMC

The Allied Media Conference is an annual, weekend-long gathering of influential, alternative media-makers and committed social justice activists. The AMC is a vital contributor to the growth of a large-scale social movement around media that centers issues of race, class, gender and other systems of oppression at its focal point.

The Allied Media Conference brings together a phenomenal cross-section of media workers: daring filmmakers, ambitious radio producers, serious publishers, skilled web designers, and artists whose work “makes revolution irresistible.” It is organized by a team of activists in Detroit, supported by many local organizations and long-time conference participants.

www.amc2007.org

Street Art Workers Releases New Poster Project:
Land & Globalization Poster Series
Wheatpasters and Distributors Needed!

The newest project from the Street Art Workers (SAW) takes a look at how corporate globalization has affected our world, how it has impacted the land, and how people are fighting back. This collection of 25 posters represents artists from 20 cities in 10 different countries. These posters illustrate specific struggles in countries like Brazil and the United States, and they also tackle international issues around poverty and gentrification. Along with a strong critique of imperialism, the posters show how communities throughout the world are resisting corporate power for a more just and sustainable world.

The two-color, 17″ x 23″  posters come in packets of 25, and are printed on easy to paste-up newsprint. We are looking for people to paste these up in their cities, and are selling them in bulk as cheap as we can get them out and onto the streets…

For example:
10 packets (250 posters): $20
or,
40 packets (1000 posters): $40

For more specifics, or to order packets, please see http://streetartworkers.org/help.html Posters can also be ordered from Microcosm Publishing and Last Gasp.

We especially need help funding overseas shipping! We printed thousands of these packets and much of it came out of our own pockets. Please help with a donation, or order packets to paste up in your city! All of the money we recieve goes into the continued distribution of this project; anything we may make in surplus will fund our next project. If you are affiliated with an independent distro or bookstore, please get in touch with us about consignment orders.

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

Who Are We?

Started in 2001 and based in the U.S., Street Art Workers (SAW) is a network of printmakers, stencil artists, graffiti writers and designers who use the streets for art and activism. As a volunteer-run group, we make street art for grassroots campaigns and post each other´s work across North America. Since 2001, our projects have talked about prisons (2002), the mass media (2003) and utopian ideas for the future (2004).

Our art is a creative tool for social change. We support community organizing by making and distributing high-profile publicity across North America. We want to inspire people who have been attacked, oppressed or ignored by the rich and powerful — communities of color, queers, women, seniors, the disabled and the working class. We emphasize connections between communities and stand against all oppression including racism, sexism and homophobia. We oppose anti-Arab violence as well as anti-Jewish attacks in the U.S.

We want our art to be thought-provoking and politically radical but not simplistic or dogmatic. We want to push ourselves as individual artists and as group to make work that is creative, complex and emotional without being abstract or self-involved.

Our website:  http://streetartworkers.org/

Contact us by email:  streetartworkers (at) gmail (dot) com

Today a friend on a listserv directed us to go to the Independent Press Association website and read for ourselves that the IPA had closed. Indeed, there it was:

IPA has ceased operations effective 12/27/2006. An Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors was executed on that same date.

If you have any questions, please contact Uecker & Associates at (415) 362-3440.

Thank you for all your past support!

–

There are several things I want to say here.  First, the IPA was very helpful to Clamor in the first few years, and I’ll always be grateful. For years, Jason and I lauded the organization and directed many people who came to us for advice to IPA. However, that doesn’t  erase the fact that over the last 1-2 years, the organization has really screwed up, including misleading and in some cases outright lying to members, especially members that used the distribution service that the IPA ran the last few years. It’s difficult to quantify the damage that they caused to Clamor and other titles.

As a parting shot, on Saturday I got a notice in the mail from the bank that the IPA had stopped payment on their last check to Clamor. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of it all.

At this moment in time, it seems that the independent magazine publishing world is in somewhat of an upheaval these days, with several magazine closures, and now the IPA. While some will no doubt interpret the IPA closing as the loss of necessary infrastructure, and though the IPA served as a useful resource and had several great programs in its heyday, the IPA was not a necessary part of the independent press movement, and magazines will live long and strong without them. As independent media makers, we should not be sitting around waiting for some other organization to step in where the IPA left off, but we should be trying many different strategies to build and improve upon what the IPA started. We can identify what programs were most useful and work to reestablish and save those, and look at this as a moment of opportunity. There are a lot of things the IPA could have done better (like serve radical publications and provide better services to start-ups).

And of course, shameless plug – the Allied Media Conference is  just one established way for independent media makers to connect with each other. Hope to see you there this year.