Tuesday, May 18, 2010

"Elsewhere", independent community dedicated to fine art and social visualization



"Elsewhere" is an inpedendent community dedicated to fine art and social visualization.


According to their manifesto:


"Elsewhere" social community network is a grassroots movement and independent community project dedicated to fine art and social visualization.
We aim to motivate positive social processes in our surroundings and create a common ground for Palestinians, Israelis and foreign artists. We want to establish an international space- a venue enabling unfiltered exchange of ideas, experiences and perspectives. We wish to stimulate further tolerance and facilitate a common social awareness."



http://elsewhere.ning.com/



Saturday, May 15, 2010

OCCUPY EVERYTHING!: California Valley Miwok Tribe Occupies Foreclosed House in Stockton




OCCUPY EVERYTHING!California Valley Miwok Tribe Occupies Foreclosed House in Stockton
From the upcoming issue of Modesto Anarcho, 3 year anniversary issue!
http://www.modestoanarcho.org/2009/12/occupy-everything-california-valley.html


read more about Modesto California:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesto,_California
Modesto Anarcho: Many people do not know the history of the Native peoples in the Central Valley, can you tell us a little about the history of the Miwoks?

California Valley Miwok Tribe: Previous to Rancherias being created in California, the Miwok People's territory covered ten (10) counties. Now our Tribe is fighting to retain its Tribal Property that consists of one and one half (1 ½) acres, located in (Morada) Stockton, California.

MA: How does your tribe use the house that is located in Stockton?

CVMT: The Tribal Property at 10601 Escondido Pl. Stockton, California 95212 has a multi-purpose function. Since our tribe is a landless tribe, the piece of property, including the building, is considered to the Tribe to be its reservation, and is utilized as such. Until such time as the tribe is able to acquire a larger tract of land for the benefit of future tribal members [the house is all we have]. The Tribe conducts official Tribal 'governmental' business, day-to-day office duties, Tribal Programs, Tribal Meetings, and a portion of the building is used for housing.

MA: What brought your house to foreclosure?

CVMT: Our PL-93 638 Mature Status Contract (BIA) has been illegally withheld for two years and our Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund (RSTF) monies have been illegally stopped. Since the end of 2005. Without any funds coming in, the Tribe had no way to pay its mortgage on the only piece of property, the place the Tribe calls “home”. Please see our DOT US website for further info: http://www.californiavalleymiwoks.us

MA: Why did people physically occupy your house? How did you go about making sure that people were not going to be able to easily get into the house?

CVMT: The Tribe decided to stand its ground when it was threatened with eviction. We had no choice, where were we supposed to go? Our monies have been illegally withheld for no good reason, our jobs lost, our medical benefits lost with our jobs, we tribal members have been using own personal money to keep the Tribe going, to keep the USDA Food Program open for the people in need to still be able to get their monthly rations of food. We had to make our point clear that we were no longer going to be pushed out and forgotten like yesterday's trash!! We are human beings. We are not just names and/ or numbers on a piece of paper. We needed the Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC to take notice of what was being allowed to happen to our Tribe. We were pushed in a corner and had no other choice but to go into survival mode and stand our ground. The Tribe went into a vote and decided to go into lockdown and barricade itself in until the Dept. of the Interior would be forced to take notice of our devastating situation and agree to sit down at the table with us to resolve our immediate problem that had been ignored up until we decided to stand our ground.

I can't answer the second part of your question because our crisis isn't over yet. We are still negotiating.

MA:
How have the state and their police responded to your situation? How have other people and/ or institutions tried to hinder your efforts?

CVMT: Well, the state still hasn't released the Tribe's money. I would say that the sad part to this dilemma is seeing some of the people believing the negative stuff that had been going out on blogs. It hurts our hearts to see people say such cruel things when they don't know the whole truth behind the situation. We are confident that the truth will prevail and so we don't follow the blogs. Although we do want to thank those who stood by us and still stand with us today...

MA: In what ways have other Tribes and communities/groups offered you support?

CVMT: We are thankful for the internet radio talk shows , tv hosts, Veteran Affairs, some pocket members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), legal services, individual concerned citizens (Indians and non-Indian peoples), universities, special interest groups, Canadian Indians, doctors, Calaveras Band of Mi-Wuk Indians, Calaveras County Mountain Miwuk, Historical Shingle Springs Miwok Indians, Modesto Anarcho, Ghost Machine Group, United Native Americans Inc., WPFW Nightwolf, Onnativeground. Recently, Chairperson Burley did a presentation at the Consumnes River College in Sacramento in which they have asked how they can help show their support for the Tribe. Also, UC San Diego has passed a resolution in support of the California Valley Miwok Tribe and they have continued to be stong advocates to help our tribe get justice.

MA: Anything you would like to add?

CVMT: We (“The Tribe”) are asking for help from the General Public. Please help our tribe survive. Help us protect not only our history/culture but the native history that is a big part of California and the United States. For more information, please visit our websites at:


http://www.californiavalleymiwoktribe-nsn.gov/

http://californiavalleymiwok.com/


Monday, May 10, 2010

Zen Anarchy by Max Cafard


Zen Anarchy? What could that be? Some new variations on the koans, those classic proto-dadaist Zen “riddles”?
What is the Sound of One Hand making a Clenched Fist?
If you see a Black Flag waving on the Flagpole, what moves? Does the flag move? Does the wind move? Does the revolutionary movement move?
What is your original nature — before May ‘68, before the Spanish Revolution, before the Paris Commune?
Somehow this doesn’t seem quite right. And in fact, it’s unnecessary. From the beginning, Zen was more anarchic than anarchism. We can take it on its own terms. Just so you don’t think I’m making it all up, I’ll cite some of the greatest and most highly-respected (and respectfully ridiculed) figures in the history of Zen, including Hui-Neng (638-713), the Sixth Patriarch, Lin-Chi (d. 867), the founder of the Rinzai school, Mumon (1183-1260), the Rinzai master who assembled one of the most famous collections of koans, Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of Soto, the second major school, and Hakuin (1685-1768), the great Zen master, poet and artist who revitalized Zen practice. 

please read all article here:
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Max_Cafard__Zen_Anarchy.html

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Urban Camping: Subversive City Living from Times Square to the Car Tent

















 Urban camping means different things to different people, from living without a vehicle or electricity and plumbing to squatting in unused properties and more. However, the most popular definition of urban camping provided by the urban dictionary is: “camping in an urban setting by sleeping on rooftops, under bushes, and in public parks.”
Amid and Zach are two brave New Yorkers who picked the busiest and most high profile place they could think of to pitch their urban camp: Times Square, New York City. According to Zach,
We chose the traffic median at 44th Street because it is a wide island right in the middle of Times Sqaure with plenty of room for our tents to sprawl. It was noisy and bright, but the LEDs replaced the stars nicely, and the skyscrapers couldn’t have imitated sequoias any better. We met dozens of strangers who, whether they were just curious, drunk or lonely, were eager to strike conversation to try figuring us out.”
They were also questioned by multiple police officers, to whom they provided non-commital responses about photographing the North Face store or waiting overnight to buy tickets.
Baltimore, Maryland seems as good a location as any to pitch a tent on the sidewalk. These industrious campers managed to travel virtually for free, selling mugs and living on the street.
“With promise of a free dinner from RISD, a new city to inhabit, and galleries extraordinaire, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference in Baltimore was a must. While figuring out the budget side of this journey camping was suggested as a housing option in a joking manner, and strangely the idea began building with intrigue.”
Ultimately they were shooed away by the police, but not before sipping on hot chocolate and taking a few pictures.


The Car Tent is a rather ingenious approach to urban camping. Instead of hiding in a park or making up excuses in a public location, car tent users can camouflage themselves right in plain view.
“The car tent is a tent designed to look like a car cover, so you can go camping in the city without being disturbed. And really, who doesn’t go camping in the city? When you get hungry you just shoot a business man and cook him over an open flame.”

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Against intellectual property by Brian Martin























Against intellectual property
From Information Liberation, 
Challenging the corruptions 
of information power
by Brian Martin, 
Freedom Press, London 1998.

There is a strong case for opposing intellectual property. Among other things, it often retards innovation and exploits Third World peoples. Most of the usual arguments for intellectual property do not hold up under scrutiny. In particular, the metaphor of the marketplace of ideas provides no justification for ownership of ideas. The alternative to intellectual property is that intellectual products not be owned, as in the case of everyday language. Strategies against intellectual property include civil disobedience, promotion of non-owned information, and fostering of a more cooperative society.
The original rationale for copyrights and patents was to foster artistic and practical creative work by giving a short-term monopoly over certain uses of the work. This monopoly was granted to an individual or corporation by government. The government's power to grant a monopoly is corrupting. The biggest owners of intellectual property have sought to expand it well beyond any sensible rationale.
There are several types of intellectual property or, in other words, ownership of information, including copyright, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, design rights and plant breeders' rights. Copyright covers the expression of ideas such as in writing, music and pictures. Patents cover inventions, such as new substances or articles and industrial processes. Trademarks are symbols associated with a good, service or company. Trade secrets cover confidential business information. Design rights cover different ways of presenting the outward appearance of things. Plant breeders' rights grant ownership of novel, distinct and stable plant varieties that are "invented."
The type of property that is familiar to most people is physical objects. People own clothes, cars, houses and land. But there has always been a big problem with owning ideas. Exclusive use or control of ideas or the way they are expressed doesn't make nearly as much sense as the ownership of physical objects.
Many physical objects can only be used by one person at a time. If one person wears a pair of shoes, no one else can wear them at the same time. (The person who wears them often owns them, but not always.) This is not true of intellectual property. Ideas can be copied over and over, but the person who had the original copy still has full use of it. Suppose you write a poem. Even if a million other people have copies and read the poem, you can still read the poem yourself. In other words, more than one person can use an idea—a poem, a mathematical formula, a tune, a letter—without reducing other people's use of the idea. Shoes and poems are fundamentally different in this respect.
Technological developments have made it cheaper and easier to make copies of information. Printing was a great advance: it eliminated the need for hand copying of documents. Photocopying and computers have made it even easier to make copies of written documents. Photography and sound recordings have done the same for visual and audio material. The ability to protect intellectual property is being undermined by technology, Yet there is a strong push to expand the scope of ownership of information.
This chapter outlines the case against intellectual property. I begin by mentioning some of the problems arising from ownership of information. Then I turn to weaknesses in its standard justifications. Next is an overview of problems with the socalled "marketplace of ideas," which has important links with intellectual property. Finally, I outline some alternatives to intellectual property and some possible strategies for moving towards them. 

continue reading this chapter here: