New CD from Venezuela
Posted July 2, 2009 by pete in Inspiration | Comments (1)
Just got this package in the mail. Awhile back Kristine Virsis and I had been contacted about having our art used on this benefit CD put out by the anarcopunk label Cabaza De Vaca in Venezuela. They pulled our images from the site and contacted us with a mock up layout which looked great. Months later this lovely package arrived; looks like they screen printed and hand assembled all these. Check out the blog and website for Cabaza De Vaca to get your own copy.
Here's some info on the CD:
CVR-010 Dissension/Anarcolepsia "Solidaridad" Cd
Bonita edicion en Cd en caja artesanal a serigrafia en 2 colores en total beneficio del Comited de Victimas del Estado Lara. Grabado en vivo por "el coach" directo desde la ONG .
Mother Stonewall and the Golden Rats
Posted July 2, 2009 by jmacphee in Political Art | Comments (0)
I'm getting this up a little late for celebrating Pride, but my friend Sam sent me this great flyer/story made by one of the Stonewall veterans. It's an amazing narrative of the Stonewall Riot from someone who was there that night. Hopefully it'll be readable here:
Mountop Removal Banner Drop
Posted July 1, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (1)
Rising Tide activists dropped a 25 ft high banner off the Environmental Protection Agency in Boston. Image below, and the rest of the story here.
books! Books! BOOKS!
Posted June 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines | Comments (3)
I love books, the feel of them, the way they are made, how the spines bend and crack, and all of the amazing ideas and images that can fly out of them when opened. But there is some serious trouble brewing in the book industry. The problems are part current economic meltdown, but even more so they seem to be part byzantine, inane and ass backwards corporate models of publishing, distribution and retail. There is also the rising cost of printing and shipping, the collapse of independent bookshops, and the specter of everything turning digital. So, I'm seriously concerned about the future of these things I love.
All my friends involved in independent book shops seem to be deeply struggling. Some are no longer paying themselves, others are going out of business. Bluestockings, a worker-owned, largely volunteer-run bookstore in New York City, has an amazing community that has developed out of it, yet is struggling to survive. Every time I stop by there are lots of people in there, and even people buying books, but it is still a huge struggle to pay the rent. When I moved to Chicago back in 1997, there were a couple dozen used bookstores on the Northside of the city, many of which I frequented, or at least checked into once in awhile. When I moved from Chicago in 2005, there were maybe 5 left, if that. I travel a lot, on tours, tabling at events, going to conferences or speaking gigs, and in most cities I have favorite bookstores. Increasingly I go back to cities and find these bookstores gone. These spaces are not simply locations to find entertaining and/or important books, but are social spaces, locations to meet people and talk about ideas. In Europe there is a healthy social centre scene, but in the US these bookstores and infoshops are all we've got. Now is the time to support your local bookstores!!
Libraries appear to be finding themselves in similar situations. Shrinking budgets, static space, and increasing publishing schedules mean that libraries need to sacrifice
Screen printing workshop at Galeria de la Raza
Posted June 29, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Art exhibits/shows | Comments (0)
Screen printing workshop at Galeria de la Raza from Jesus Barraza on Vimeo.
This weekend Melanie and I taught a screen printing workshop at the Galeria de la Raza in the San Francisco Mission District where we have an exhibit up. We stayed in the gallery afterward to make some screen printed shirts and patches. This is an interview with a young man from the Mission who came into look at the exhibit, telling us what he liked about the t-shirt we gave him.
more mud....
Posted June 28, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Political Art | Comments (1)
Hard to resist not doing more mud stencils after the energy that came out of the Tamms Year Ten mud stencil action in early June in Chicago. Here's some new images and new themes, not connected to the campaign, but in the same spirit of using eco-art to put up messages in public space.
one by Jesse:
one by Nicolas:
more info:
mudstencils.com/
DIY Art Show--- Portland
Posted June 27, 2009 by icky in Events | Comments (0)
We're having another art show at my house, we did this last year and it was super fun!
This is organized by Thea and will include new work from the Grafic Arts Collective Cordyceps (Thea, Santiago, and Geovanni- all who have work on Justseeds), Pete Yahnke, Justseeds' allies Katie B. & Lydia Crumbley, and me. Please come, everyone is welcome (I'll be there late, I have to work!). --Icky
Sunday June 28th
7:00 PM
5205 NE 19th
Portland OR
Exsposicion Hazlo Tu Mismx de Grafica Radical
Domingo 28 de Junio a las 7:00pm
5205 Calle NE 19th
Portland, OR.
Aberdeen Poster Collective
Posted June 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters | Comments (0)
The Aberdeen Poster Collective is another UK poster group I've stumbled across online. This crew is from Aberdeen, Scotland, and appears to have had their heyday in the early 2000s. They have about 50 posters up online which you can download and reproduce. Some of them are quite simple and effective. Check them all out, and their manifesto, on their website.
Everyone do the moonwalk and say "mamasay mamasa mamakusa!" Michael Jackson is dead and the entire world is collectively grieving.
Posted June 27, 2009 by Favianna_Rodriguez in In the News | Comments (0)
Michael Jackson is dead and the entire world has something to say. MJ broke race barriers without a doubt. "He broke race barriers in the pop world which opened doors in the political world - he crossed over and back. He morphed. When the signs started to become clear, that the boy wasn’t right, that he was too isolated, underdeveloped, imperfect - we laughed, we stared, we assumed. He was our first boyfriend before he became our crazy cousin - always family," writes Adrienne Maria Brown, of the Ruckus Society.
Since yesterday, I have felt like that I am a part of a huge collective grieving process, watching folks gather FlashMob-style in London to dance to Billie Jean, watching people sing Rock With You at the Apollo Theater in unison, checking out folks post their favorite MJ songs and talk about their cheesy MJ childhood moments, even seeing folks in the markets breaking out with some 80s dance moves! It made me feel good to be alive, it made me stop and wish I could go dance Thriller in the streets, made me want to sing out with some MaMaSeMaMaSaMaMaCuSa! I have only felt once like this for a musician, and that was for the Chicana music pioneer, Selena!
Just Seeds print sale in Montreal
Posted June 26, 2009 by Jesse_Purcell
Saturday june 27th, noon till 6pm
#1202, 5334 Avenue De Gaspé at Maguire
Montreal, QC
A new co-operatively run print store is opening in the 100 Sided Die the collectively run artists studio and print shop I work at. There will be over 75 works by Just Seeds artists as well as a bunch of screenprinted works by myself and my studiomates Seripop, Jacinthe Loranger and Catherine McInnis and a lot of other folks as well.
Contemporary Wisconsin Prints
Posted June 26, 2009 by colin_matthes in Art exhibits/shows | Comments (0)
I will be participating in From One, Many: Contemporary Wisconsin Prints, an exhibition opening Sunday July 12, 1:30-4pm at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, WI.
AIR Summer Benefit Party - Seeing Red Poster Show
Posted June 26, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Events | Comments (0)
AIR is having their Annual Summer Benefit Bash this Saturday - and this year there are two exciting shows of political prints on view for the event. Check it out!
Saturday June 27th 4pm-11pm
Artists Image Resource
518 Foreland St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
412.321.8664
info@artistsimageresource.org
A Visual History of the George W. Bush Presidency
a traveling print portfolio of 15 different artists critical take on 15 different moments of the Bush Administration's tenure.
as well as selections from the Seeing Red portfolio printed at Artists Image Resource in 2006. For more information please visit http://www.seeing-red.net/
plus-
the AIR artist submitted t-shirt raffle!!
one of a kind transformed threads on display throughout the AIR gallery.
raffle tickets for $1.
winners pulled at 10:45pm that night
Spoof International Herald
Posted June 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events | Comments (0)
The Yes Men were involved in another spoof paper last week, this one is an edition of the International Herald, and the re-made paper focuses on climate change and the upcoming COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December. You can check out the whole paper and download a PDF of it here.
What If? online
Posted June 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines | Comments (0)
What If? A Journal of Radical Possibilities was a short running journal that started coming out soon after the WTO protests in Seattle 1999, and ran for a number of years, putting out 3 or 4 issues. I was always generally impressed with it, in terms of being well put together, well designed, using quality artwork (Rini Templeton, Erik Drooker) and featuring the intersection of art and politics. What If? founder/editor Christy Rodgers has put the journal online, and plans on using this new web version to continue the goals of the print edition. Check it out here. (It also looks like Justseeds artist Fernando Marti will soon have a nice image gallery up on the site as well.)
Happy Pride NYC!
Posted June 25, 2009 by molly_fair in People's History! | Comments (0)
Celebrate your queerness and nerd out at the New York Public Library with this rad exhibit:
1969: The Year of Gay Liberation
June 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009
Stokes Gallery (Third Floor)
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY
The year 1969 was a flashpoint in the history of LGBT civil rights struggles, marking a paradigmatic shift in the ways that gays and lesbians saw themselves and fought for their full inclusion within American society. In the wake of the Stonewall Riots on June 28 of that year, gays and lesbians in New York City radicalized in an unprecedented way, founding activist groups—Gay Liberation Front, the Radicalesbians, Gay Activists Alliance, and Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries—that created a new vision: Gay Liberation. This exhibition charts the emergence of this new vision through photographs and original documents that show the evolution of Gay Liberation in New York City from the Stonewall Riots to the first LGBT pride march—Christopher Street Liberation Day 1970.
From the NYPL archives Diana Davies photographs, 1965-1978, Demonstration at City Hall, New York City, in support of gay rights bill "Intro 475," 1973 April, left to right: Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Barbara Deming, and Kady Vandeurs
ACLU suit to challenge isolation prisons
Posted June 25, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
As a follow up to the piece we directed you to that Daniel McGowen wrote for the Huffington Post, here's an article from the LA Times about a lawsuit the ACLU is filing regarding the Control Management Units, one of which Daniel is being held in. Here's the beginning of the piece, click on the link at the end to go to the LA Times to read the rest:
ACLU suit to challenge isolation prisonsCivil rights activists question the transfer of inmate Sabri Benkahla to a federal facility that drastically limits outside contact.
By Dean Kuipers
June 18, 2009Civil rights activists plan to file a lawsuit today contesting the transfer of a Tunisian American prisoner to a federal prison facility that some inmates have dubbed "Little Guantanamo."
The suit by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Sabri Benkahla could be the first of many challenging the secretive units, which drastically restrict outside contact.
Benkahla was transferred to the Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute, Ind., in 2007, eight months after his conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges in a terrorism case. Prosecutors contended that he lied to a grand jury about his contact with an alleged Al Qaeda fundraiser and other terrorism suspects.
The Terre Haute unit opened in 2006. Another began operations last year at the federal prison in Marion, Ill.
read the rest here.
Brooks Golden Studio Visit
Posted June 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art / Graffiti | Comments (0)
My friend and old Chicago studio-mate Brooks Golden just had some studio shots posted by the Chicago Urban Art Society. It's great to see my old studio getting so much use, and Brooks producing so much cool shit in it! Check out these images:
Stand with Sotomayor!
Posted June 25, 2009 by Favianna_Rodriguez in In the News | Comments (9)
Ever since Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the right wing has attacked her with racist and sexist remarks, part of a coordinated strategy to tarnish her credibility. Sotomayor is a Puerto Riqueña from the Bronx, and if confirmed, would be the Court's first Latina justice, and its third female justice.
I created a poster to celebrate pride in this historic nomination in collaboration with Presente.org, a national online organizing effort that strengthens the political voice of Latino communities.
The attacks against Sotomayor from the conservatives have been vicious. On his show, Limbaugh said that nominating Sotomayor was like nominating David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK. He also said, “Here you have a racist — you might want to soften that, and you might want to say a reverse racist."
Spread this poster far and wide, download it, and invite your friends and family to do the same. Hearings on Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation are scheduled for July 13. That means we only have a month to get this poster distributed and reproduced everywhere—on web sites, in street windows, and on office walls.
Think Galactic this weekend!
Posted June 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Events | Comments (0)
I'll be at Think Galactic this weekend in Chicago! I'm looking forward to it, the schedule is packed with cool stuff. I'll be co-running a stenciling workshop, as well as on a panel about the continuing appeal of the apocalypse story in sci-fi/fantasy literature. I'll also be moderating panels on DIY and Climate Change, and having a small Justseeds table.
Here's the info:
Think Galacticon 2009
June 26-28
Roosevelt University
downtown Chicago
A full schedule, registration, directions, etc. can be found here.
Solidarity With the Iranian People
Posted June 24, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Posters | Comments (2)
Check out this new poster I've been working on...I have to say it took me a while to figure out what is going on in Iran and it seems like many places things are complicated. In the end there are many people struggling against oppression and to have their voice heard. As far away as we are from Iran we need to stand in solidarity with the people fighting for change and make sure that they have the opportunity to determine their own future.
NYC Zine Fest '09
Posted June 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines | Comments (0)
Justseeds will be tabling this weekend at the New York City Zine Fest '09. For a number of years successful zine fests have been held all over the country; they're a place for zine makers to talk shop, people to find the coolest new self-published projects, and an introduction to zines and DIY publishing for the uninitiated. This is the first zine fest in NYC, so if you are in town, come up and take part in the fun.
NYC Zine Fest '09
Brooklyn Lyceum
Sat and Sun June 27 and 28
12 - 7pm
FREE admissionThe mission of the NYC Zine Fest is to circulate and promote self-published, homemade, independent, and small publications called zines. The Fest aims to support and expand the network of creators who self-publish these zines, as well as independent publishers and distributors in and around the NYC metro area.
There will be more than 70 zinemakers, publishers and institutions participating in the Fest, including Printed Matter, World War 3 Illustrated and the Barnard Zine Library. There will be workshops, discussion groups and a screening of zine documentary '$100 & a T-Shirt' - the latter which will run at 5pm both days. As zines gain popularity and clamor, this fest welcomes a wide audience to attend, meet the artists, participate in the free workshops, and buy and learn about zines. There will be food, beer, coffee, and music!
The Fest will also include a raffle with prizes consisting of rare zines, books, gift certificates, art, and more. Raffle donors include Spoonbill & Sugartown, Printed Matter, Melissa Staiger, Picturebox Inc., Opal Massage, Microcosm, 92YTribeca and Trong Nguyen.
For info and programming schedule: http://www.nyczinefest.org
Onward Online
Posted June 24, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
The anarchist newspaper Onward!, which ran from early 2000-2002, is now digitized and up online here. A couple Justseeds artists were involved in the paper at different points, but there's no images archived on the site yet.
Dyke Rights = Human Rights
Posted June 24, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Political Art | Comments (0)
I am so happy to share the 2009 San Francisco Dyke march poster design. Since I met Ani Rivera my contact for the Dyke March committee, a few years ago, I wanted to do the design.She was a pleasure tot work with and I am really happy about being able to visually interpret this year's theme: Dyke Rights = Human Rights, Human Rights = Dyke Rights. The best part of the experience was one day when I sent a version of the poster for feed back and I could hear all the women in the background jubilantly yelling "make her fat, make her old, make her a leather butch!"Never had I heard women embrace aspects of a woman that mainstream society marginalizes so happily. It was the best feedback session I ever had.
The 17th Annual San Francisco Dyke March 2009
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Starting from Dolores Park, at 18th and Dolores
Rally and Stage Begins @ 3:00 p.m.
March Takes Off @ 7:00 p.m.
Dyke Rights = Human Rights
Human Rights = Dyke Rights
"At the San Francisco Dyke March, we gather to experience and celebrate our collected energies, to acknowledge our many communities, to learn from our incredible diversity, to respect each other, and to create new ways to share our resources. We have pride for good reason: Dykes participate in every aspect of political, social and artistic institutions, illuminating issues of social justice wherever we are. . . "
Ridin Dirty Part Deux
Posted June 23, 2009 by meredith_stern in Environment | Comments (2)
All we've had is rain up here, but the garden seems happy enough...
Check out the garlic and the flowers!
Pictured here are perennials Rue, Feverfew and Sorrel, and also annual Chamomile and Cilantro. Chamomile makes a soothing tea if you dry the flowers and then add hot water. Feverfew repels aphids! Cilantro is a great and tasty ingredient for salsa, and as a garnish on curries.
Keep reading for lots more photos!
Anonymous Iran
Posted June 23, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
Tech savvy anti-authoritarians have set up a cluster of servers for anonymous testimony and coverage of the demonstrations in Iran from inside and outside of the country, Anonymous Iran. This looks similar to the kind of tech people have been working on to allow Chinese labor organizers to communicate with each other outside China's internet control mechanisms.
Art Front
Posted June 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Political Art | Comments (0)
Marc Moscato just sent me a link to a great post he put up on his blog Whittlin' Away. It's on Art Front, a 1930s radical art publication from the US. Check it out (and go to Marc's blog to see more images and read other good stuff!):
In my research for the Art for the Millions bike ride, I came across an amazing little-remembered publication, Art Front (1934-1937). This magazine provided a fantastic resource and community sounding board for issues surrounding art and politics during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) period. Based in New York City, the magazine was the official organ of the Artists’ Union and served as a main organizing tool. Contributors included Fernand Leger, Harold Rosenberg, Louis Bunin, and Stuart Davis, among numerous others.Art Front’s mission was “as wide as art itself.” Stated its editor, H.S. Baron, “Many art magazines are being published in America today. Without one exception, however, these periodicals support outworn economic concepts as a basis for the support of art which victimize and destroy art. The urgent need for a publication which speaks for the artist, battles for his economic security and guides him in his artistic efforts is self-evident.”
Within the pages of Art Front are things you would expect from a union paper — arguments for higher wages and more jobs in the arts. But also found are a marvelous assortment of manifestos for the creation of public art centers, tracts on revolutionary art vs. art for the bourgeoisie, reviews of (then) contemporary artists and reports on censorship and red-baiting (many WPA artists came under attack for political activity and leftist organizing).
One interview with Thomas Benton struck me as particularly insightful. How would we answer these questions today?
1. Is provincial isolation compatible with modern civilization?
2. Is your art free of foreign influence?
3. What American art influences are manifest in your work?
4. Was any art form created without meaning or purpose?
5. What is the social function of a mural?
6. Can art be created without direct personal contact with the subject?
7. What is your political viewpoint?
8. Is the manifestation of social understanding in art detrimental to it?
9. Is there any revolutionary tradition for the American artist?
10. Do you believe that the future of American Art lies in the Midwest?Fascinating read if you can track it down (I inter-library loaned a microfilm copy).
Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Cultures
Posted June 22, 2009 by dylan_miner in Events | Comments (0)
As part of the 8th Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the United Nations is hosting an exhibition entitled 'Celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Cultures'. It isn't everyday that organizations such as the UN involve the work/ideas of Native people. So when I got an email about the exhibition during UNPFII, I was definitely interested. The curators liked my work and included it in the show.
Getting works to the UN in New York City, was nearly impossible, though. I sent three artworks using FedEx, as they were the curators' suggested carriers. However, FedEx made three unsuccessful delivery attempts and left my stuff sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Queens. When my brother (who lives in Brooklyn) attempted to pick the packages up to hand-deliver them, some knucklehead sent them back to me after the folks told me they'd hold it for me.
In the end, though, the works arrived. Thanks to America Meredith (Tsalagi artist, bike junkie and JustSeeds friend), we have photographic proof that the work was hung for UNPFII.
If visiting NYC, the exhibition hangs until the end of the month in the Main Gallery of the Visitor's Lobby.
Billboard at Galeria de la Raza
Posted June 22, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Justseeds/Member Projects | Comments (1)
Me and Melanie had an opening last friday for our exhibit at Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco, part of the exhibit was taking over the Billboard on 24th & Bryant...check it out!
Exhibitions Dates: Sat, June 20th - Saturday, August 15th
Galeria de la Raza
2857 24th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
Poem for the Rooftops of Iran
Posted June 22, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
Here's another short missive from Iran:
Things were extremely difficult and violent yesterday...I went, just to be a witness, and having seen what I did, I am deeply hurt and afraid for all the poor souls who will lose their lives or loved ones...the sense of shared pain on the streets is phenomenal. People care about each other, which gives a sparkle of hope in this dark dark moment.Here is something two musician friends have put together, although Youtube is filtered here (like so many other sites) and I cannot access it myself.
Outside Looking In
Posted June 22, 2009 by jmacphee in Art exhibits/shows | Comments (0)
Were coming up on the last week to see Ilke Hartmann's show Outside Looking In. Ilke is a Bay Area photographer who has captured some amazing historical moments. She was kind enough to allow me to borrow her images of the 1969 Native Occupation of Alcatraz for the Signs of Change exhibition.
Outside Looking In
Photographs of California Chinese Communities in the 1970s
May 1 - June 30
Sacramento City College
Learning Resource Center Library
3rd Floor
Open Monday - Thursday
8:30 am - 5:30 pm
"It is now almost 40 years since these photographs were taken. Waves of immigrants from many different countries have arrived since. We are living in a microcosm of the world, making our own communities here and keeping ties to our original countries.
I hope that these pictures will contribute to the memory of the Chinese people who came to the San Francisco Bay Area and made a life here, often under the most difficult conditions, a life of dignity and strength." -Ilka Hartmann
Sponsored by Sacramento City College's Cultural Awareness Center and the Library
Blanca Navidad
Posted June 21, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
We got this report in the mail the other day from independent writer, journalist and photographer David Bacon. It's a nice short piece, and a great photo essay. Bacon has a great site of his photos and stories, you can check it out here. He also recently released a new book on Beacon Press, Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. You can find more about the book here.
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - 05JUNE09 - The people of the settlement of Blanca Navidad, on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo, just south of the U.S. border. This community was created by workers looking for land to build a place to live, and was founded on December 22, 2004. They called it Blanca Navidad (White Christmas) because they say it snowed in the desert on the day they arrived to begin building their homes. The barrio is part of a network of radical communities on the border, and throughout Mexico, sympathetic with the Zapatista movement. Most of its 1000 residents work in the maquiladoras.
Local authorities tried to force people to move and even brought out bulldozers to tear the homes down. On February 1, 2006 people were forced from their houses, often with just clothes and blankets. In their efforts to recover their community, residents were supported by Nuevo Laredo's progressive daily newspaper, El Mañana, and by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. After a visit from a delegation of Zapatista leaders in La Otra Campaña, "people began to realize that, in reality, Blanca Navidad still existed as a community," says community leader Blanca Enriquez. During the May, 2006 government attack on the town of Atenco outside Mexico City, Blanca Navidad residents demonstrated in their support, and briefly shut down the "Free Trade Bridge" connecting Nuevo Laredo to Laredo, Texas.
Although the barrio still has no electricity and sewage service, residents were able to force authorities to provide drinking water. Today Blanca Navidad has a community garden, a tortilleria, a community clinic, and activists who practice alternative medicine.
Images from Tehran
Posted June 20, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (2)
This is an amazing collection of images from Iran over the past couple of days. It is extremely interesting how important these images have become to people on he ground, and the extent to which the regime has tried to suppress the creation of images and documentation of what is happening in Iran, to the extent of beating foreign journalists. It seems that now is the most important time for us to keep our eyes on Iran, to keep watching, paying attention, and aiding the movements for social transformation in the ways we are able....
According to our friends there: "These are photos that are being photocopied and handed out, held up at the demonstrations... they show the extent of repression and violence, mainly by the Bassiji...who here are finally taking some form of visual representation to the world, although the reality of their presence is beyond description."
1: A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi shouts slogans during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner by a landslide in Iran's hotly-disputed presidential vote, triggering riots by opposition supporters and furious complaints of cheating from his defeated rivals. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)
2: Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi march through Valiasr Street during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)
3: Protesters set fires in a main street in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Monday, June 15, 2009. Iran's supreme leader ordered Monday an investigation into allegations of election fraud, marking a stunning turnaround by the country's most powerful figure and offering hope to opposition forces who have waged street clashes to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP Photo)
Testure: Animal Torture, Skinny Puppy video edit
Posted June 20, 2009 by roger_peet in Environment | Comments (0)
All the talk of waterboarding, stress positions, walling, psychological assault etcetera, has put me in the mood for a little perspective. Bush endorsed "enhanced" techniques, Obama hasn't put a stop to them, oh! The wringing of hands. Folks, torture is normal. Waterboarding is for the weak. Let's have a look at some REAL torture, of the sort that culture demands. This is some of the worst shit ever.
Click here to have an unpleasant experience.
Urgent Denunciation from Oaxaca
Posted June 19, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
This just in from our comrades in Mexico City:
Urgent denunciation: aggression against VOCAL member, David Venegas
(Spanish Translation Below)
This Wednesday, June 17, at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon, the encampment set up in the Zocalo of the city of Oaxaca by the Family and Friends of the APPO Political Prisoners was attacked by a group of around 40 hired hoodlums (porros), well-known in the city as a paramilitary force that committed violent actions beginning with the
Oaxaca insurrection of 2006.
The attack occurred only minutes after several APPO members, including some of the teachers and VOCAL member David Venegas Reyes, started to give a press conference at the encampment to make their position clear about the accusations against David made by Hugo Jarquín, leader of the “8 Regions” organization.
Several days beforehand Hugo Jarquín accused David Venegas Reyes of being a “mercenary” and an “infiltrated agent” responsible for organizing “acts of vandalism” last June 14. Jarquín stated that he would form “shock groups” to put an end to the “insecurity generated by ‘El Alebrije’ and his followers.” Jarquín’s organization, “8 Regions,” and the FALP had withdrawn from the encampment on June 15 supposedly
because of their disagreement with our comrades, but they really left because of the agreement they made with the killer Ulises Ruiz’s state government to destabilize the camp and provoke its removal.
The Coming Insurrection-Release at Barnes and Noble's
Posted June 19, 2009 by k_c_ in Books & Zines | Comments (0)
Liberating Lipsticks and Lattes
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: June 15, 2009
in the New York Times
They arrived at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square in small groups on Sunday afternoon, proceeding two and three at a time to the fourth floor, where they browsed among shelves holding books by authors like Jacques Derrida and Martin Heidegger.Participants in an unruly Union Square event honoring the recent publication in English of a book written by French activists.
By 5 o’clock a crowd of more than 100 had gathered. Their purpose: to celebrate the publication of an English translation of a book called “The Coming Insurrection,” which was written two years ago by an anonymous group of French authors who call themselves the Invisible Committee. More recently, the volume has been at the center of an unusual criminal investigation in France that has become something of a cause célèbre among leftists and civil libertarians.
The book, which predicts the imminent collapse of capitalist culture, was inspired by disruptive demonstrations that took place over the last few years in France and Greece. It was influenced stylistically by Guy Debord, a French writer and filmmaker who was a leader of the Situationist International, a group of intellectuals and artists who encouraged the Paris protests of 1968.
In keeping with the anarchistic spirit of the text, the bookstore event was organized without the knowledge or permission of Barnes & Noble. The gathering was intended partly as a show of solidarity with nine young people — including one suspected of writing “The Coming Insurrection” —whom in November the French police accused of forming a dangerous “ultraleftist” group and sabotaging train lines.
