Anarchoblogs in English

Charles Johnson is both inviting participants and raising money for the Southern Nevada branch of ALL to have a presence at the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair next month. This is an outreach-to-the-antistatist-left event, to complement the outreach-to-the-antistatist-right event we’ll be involved in a month later.

I wish I could go, but I’ll be in Prague. But – want to go to San Francisco and hang out with anarchists? Or want to donate for this worthy cause? Details here.

Well, no. I’m not really lost. But I’m in the Andes alright. And my computer cable is lost, although lost isn’t the right word. Swiped is. As in, swiped by some blighter who grabbed it out from me while I was, of all things, trying to check my stuff into the left luggage. May it blow up [...]

His "public asset fund" has very similar intentions, I think.

Let me comment on the concept as you have presented it:

For what it is worth, government ownership is not going to be very popular, and is unnecessary. Why do we need the government to own the assets? If we can turn the property and capital over to the government why can we not instead turn those assets directly over to workers' cooperatives with funds collected by the government. Why do we need the government to administer? They merely need to facilitate.

Secondly, we must be vigilant and careful about Capitalists selling or otherwise ceding obsolete capital assets to workers. ESOPS are a good idea for workers, but have disadvantages. They don't deal withe physical/economic realities of local disinvestment and they do not address the issues associated with Corporate/Union partnerships in damaging sectors such as military contracting, alcohol and tobacco production and distribution, etc.

Let me clarify, if not reiterate, the definition of a Bank is that it is investor owned. By contrast savings banks and credit unions are depositor owned.

Among the purposes of an equity union is to evolve us away from an investor "class", non-workers who live off capital gains and dividends. Rational and purposeful (for meeting community needs and reasonable wants) Equity participation, sharing, and granting would replace speculative equity investing, equity trading, and lending (usurious by definition and certainly in practice).

In essence, the main purpose of an Equity Union system would be to evolve the private sector into a quasi-public One.

We also need to abolish the Federal Reserve. Let the Treasury make direct allocations to community equity unions instead of allocating financial capital to Investor owned banks.

Please pass this communication on, if you deem such appropriate.

Let me know what Dave thinks of my ideas, and by all means encourage him to contact me directly.

Thanks for writing.

Take good care.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
wiserunion@earthlink.net

• Anarchists in Space. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-02-07). Paul Raven reviews Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novel The Dispossessed, a tale of the confrontation between an anarcho-syndicalist culture and a state-capitalist culture. (CHT François.) Though Le Guin’s personal sympathies were with the anarchists, she doesn’t stack the deck (unlike most political science fiction): the anarcho-syndicalist culture is actually... (Linked Monday 2010-02-08.)
• Comment on Anarchists in Space by Roderick. Roderick, Comments for Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-02-08). Back in 1980, when Broach came out, perhaps Kolko’s Triumph of Conservatism or Railroads and Regulation, and then follow it up with stuff from Left & Right and the early years of Libertarian Forum. If it were nowadays, Kevin Carson’s books would obviously be essential. The crucial point is this:... (Linked Monday 2010-02-08.)

50 women incarcerated in Yarl’s Wood detention centre have been on hunger strike since Friday(5th Feb) in protest at the disgusting manner in which they and their children are being treated by the British government. The detention centre holds 405 women and children who are guilty of no crime other than fleeing their homes in [...]

Resolved, fucked up, resolved, fucked up, resolved, fucked up, resolved, total annihilation and digital nuclear winter. Hardware failures are preventing us from providing regular updates and currently we are coordinating funds to finally just get a new computer.

It really makes us saaaaaaaaad paaaandaaaas.

Mild Long Beach, CA climate allows for year round growth. Yet, I am always dumbfounded to hear many gardens are dormant this time of year. Fall crops go by the way side – red headed step child to spring’s bounty.

Embrace seasonal eating! There is still time to sow an abundance of cool season crops including Lactuca sativa (Lettuce) and many Brassica oleracea varieties like, kale, mustard, broccoli, cabbage and lots more!

Why should you grow salad greens? Organic salad greens are a big-ticket item at farmer’s markets. As much as $3.00 per half a pound! Plus, home grown always tastes better, duh.

It’s super easy to grow salad greens. I start seeds in soil blocks and transplant but direct sowing is acceptable.

Direct sowing: sow seeds 1/8 inch deep about 1 inch apart. Cover seeds lightly with soil and firm gently.

Thin seedlings when they are a few inches tall or 2-3 leaves have formed. I do not have enough garden space to thin seedlings 10-16 inches apart, depending on lettuce type so I thin seedlings about 3-6 inches apart instead and harvest outer leaves frequently.

Don’t forget to keep seedlings evenly moist.

Pests? Lettuce is mostly pest free except for the occasional slug. I’ve never bothered with slug baits or traps I simply pick them off. However, make sure greens are thoroughly washed or you’ll end up spitting out a slug like I did. You’ve been warned.  

Other Stuff I’m growing: Bok Choy White Stem, Tat Soi, Celery, Collards Georgia Southern, Flashy Trout’s Back Lettuce, Gourmet Salad, “Asian Baby Leaf Mix”, Kale Red Winter, Kohlrabi Purple & White Vienna, Mesclun Asian Salad Mix, Mustard Red Giant, Rucola, Spinach Baby Leaf, Spinach Early Prolific, Summer Lettuce Euro Red & Greens, Valmaine Lettuce, onions and garlic. 

Frost kissed True Siberian Kale and Catalina Baby Leaf Spinach for green juice

Speaking of love, Valentine’s Day is around the corner and I couldn’t care less but for those that fancy cut flowers I encourage you to consider a more sustainable, local source for blooms.

If it’s a night on the town you’re after Compassion Over Killing will be hosting a Valentine’s Party in Los Angles on Sunday, February 14^th. Advanced tickets are available until February 12^th for $15.00 ($20.00 at the door) and include a drink ticket plus all the delicious vegan food you can eat from Cinnamon, The Spot, SunPower Natural Café and vegan cupcakes by The Fakery Bakery.

All proceeds benefit Compassion Over Killing. Join us!

Gratuitous cute doggy pictures

Chickens at Long Beach City College Horticulture Gardens

The Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair is going to be held the weekend of March 13-14 in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park. It’s a great time; it’s also one of the largest annual Anarchist community events in North America. And I’m in the process of organizing a table for A.L.L. at the bookfair.

In addition to a great lineup of speakers, panels and workshops, the main event (this is a bookfair, after all) will be the space in main hall with dozens of vendors with tables to show off their Anarchist books and materials from 10:00am–6:00pm on Saturday, March 13 and 11:00am–5:00pm on Sunday, March 14. Among them will be us — members of the Alliance of the Libertarian Left from Vegas, California, and around the Western U.S. I’ll be there, along with fellow Anarchists from Southern Nevada ALL. We’ll have books, journals, buttons, and more from the Southern Nevada ALL Distro available for sale as fundraisers, along with a lot of free pamphlets, smaller pieces to give away, and information about ALL as an organization and what we do back in our hometowns.

This will be Southern Nevada A.L.L.’s third appearance at an Anarchist bookfair (after appearances at last year’s Bay Area bookfair, and this year’s Los Angeles bookfair). These bookfairs are a real blast to work: partly because the bookfair a great opportunity to make connections with fellow Anarchists and to get the good word out about individualist anarchism, market anarchism, mutualism, counter-economics, to an audience of engaged radicals and movement anarchists. And also because, for a dispersed, Internet-coordinated network like the A.L.L., working the bookfair table is great opportunity to posse up with ALLies from many different towns, meet folks you’ve only known online, have some great conversations, and work together on some practical counter-economic outreach. (It’s also a good opportunity for local organizing on the ground — since we can put out a sign-up sheet and get contacts for people who are interested in ALLiance in the Bay Area.)

Anyway. If all this sounds like something you’re down with, interested in, excited by, here’s three things you can do:

1. If you’re in the Bay Area, or will be around March 13-14, drop on by the table and say hi and see what we’re doing.

2. If you’ll be there and you’re interested in selling books or merchandise for your hometown Alliance of the Libertarian Left local — or if you’re interested in hanging out with ALLies from other towns and helping with the table — then get in touch with me to coordinate. We’ll definitely have space for you, and it’d be great to posse up.

3. If you want to help support the A.L.L. presence at the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair (and other bookfairs in the future), you can help us out by covering the costs of the table and the transport. Bound Together Books just recently boosted the cost of reserving a table (last year it was $100 for both days; now it’s $150). We’re doing this on as thin a shoestring as possible. With support from y’ALL, we can make the most of these opportunities to do local organizing, make connections between our locals, and put the word out and about among our fellow Anarchists.

   Here’s the shoestring, for reference.

   ALL @ Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair 2010 shoestring budget

   Cost	Description
   $150	Table reservation (Saturday and Sunday)
   $87	Car rental for transport from Vegas (driving up Friday; returning car Monday).
   $86	Cheap hotel in Bay Area (Friday and Saturday night)
   ~$0~	Gas costs will be covered by carpooling ALLies and our allies from Vegas up to the Bookfair and to the Empowering Women of Color conference, which is being held at UC Berkeley the same weekend. Food costs will be covered through Food Not Bombs.
   $333	Total costs

Hope to see y’ALL there!