PRDCESSED Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010

http://www.archive.org/details/processedworld30proc . PRDCESSED LUDRLD Winter/Spring 1992-93 • Issue 30 ISSN 0735-9381

footers- . ^ ^ \^ Line AT *'''*P»e6Ve ^

The material ^Processed World

reflecti tbe ideas and fontasies of

the spedik authors and artists, necessarily those of other ^'^ and not k5h(i contributors, editors or BACAT.

Processed World is a project of

the Bay Area Center for Art t Technology (BACAT), a non-

profit, tax-exempt corporation. BACAT can be contacted at 1095 ?MCiSSef> Market St. »209, San Francisco, SHIT' ^i'^l CA94103;P»' or BACAT may be phoned at (415) 626-2979 or CAflTMISM,

faxed at (415) 626-2685. /^ocessei/ World is collectively edited and RACISM f eNTRoPi^ 30 produced. Nobody gets paid n (except the primer, the post officey UPS and the landlord). We wel- cooK comments, letters, and sub- missions (no originals!). Write us

at 41 Sutter St. #1829, San Francisco, CA 94104. Processed

World is indexed in the Alter- native Press Index.

J)O^JNT-; > HC / ^ CJ^ o- A /- "3'

ROiTsetT AKcHieetAGo ?"

Other Contributors to Processed World MO:

Jennie, Aunt Muriel. Ace Back-

words, Doug MinkJer, I.E. Nelson. Tom Tomorrow, Joven K.,

Angela Bocagc, S. Devaney, Cory Pmu, Hugh D'Andrade, Social Club, Typesetting Etc., Totally

Normal, J.F. Batdlier, Solly Malulu, Komoilon for the great benefits, M.N.,—Francesca, Med-o, Bret, ' — y others. . ^ S^— U<4^ blocks away from the "political" riot; in other places an orgy of looting was in SHITTINQ HEADS progress. By the next day the mood had shifted — more fear, more condemna- After two centuries of na- On April 30, 1992, San Francisco tion, more footage on the violence tionhood and four decades of underwent an abrupt sea change. Re- against passers-by in Los Angeles, more sponse to the Simi Valley acquittals of portrayals of the rebellion as racial cold war and hysterical mili- the cops who beat Rodney King blazed thuggery. But people were still talking. tarism we've become one sick across San Francisco too. There had At least some of the racial barriers had society. The military empire been a continuous flow of rumors and eroded — black and white people talking coffee breaks that day; on May 1st work about race and rebellion! Together! built officially to combat for- almost ground to a halt while people There was much excitement about a eign threats has produced a talked about the verdict. Discussion of demonstration planned in the Mission domestic society committed to looting led to talk of poverty and District (a neighborhood of Latinos, police, prison, and control as racism — topics usually off-limits in cor- Asians, and students) that night. porate America. The late afternoon The police swept the Mission, netting its solution to social ills. From financial district was spookily quiet and hundreds of people, hauling them off in the rapid proliferation of "se- empty. The public transit system had groups large and small, then processing curity" jobs to the increasing closed early. Bay Area "Rapid" Transit them in a pier warehouse. Most were criminalization of ever wider had locked its gates to "immobilize released 36 hours later, after being looters." hauled to another county and subjected groups of people, the militari- Confrontations with police erupted to standard prison abuses. It was an zation of our daily lives pene- around the Civic Center and spread eye-opening experience for many, a trates deeper than ever. through downtown. Scattered looting, civics lesson not included in your "good some planned, some random, began citizen" curriculum; police are petty- minded thugs and inept bureaucrats. One angry white protester, threatened

with arrest if he didn't stand on the side-

walk, screamed back, "This is a fascist SAN FRANCISCO state!" A young black woman wryly com- ments, "Welcome to America, honey."

Across the bay, Berkeley is in a chronic state of alert. Last year the

University of California renewed its 25-year assault on People's Park and built a swank volleyball court — allegedly for the students, but clearly with an eye towards removing street people, con- certs, and other unwanted disturbances to public order. Since then there have been many clashes, some sabotage, and a little bit of volleyball played in what the county sheriff called "the world's largest catbox." Police helicopters over- head announce confrontations louder than the media. Telegraph Avenue,

judging by its copious plywood barriers

over windows and squads of riot cops, is prepared for low-level insurgency. The authorities demonstrate once again that a heavy police presence can "maintain calm." Recent civil disturbances — a. k. a. "ri- ots"— are the steam escaping from the pressure cooker of modern urban life, ^as Vegas (notably), Toronto, New :'ork, Seattle, Atlanta, and Washington )G have all erupted. In San Francisco

lere was rage, much of it misdirected, ONE NEAT CITY lost of it inarticulate, but not blind, /hite people did not fear attack at the mds of a "wilding" black mob as the

Pi=M=IEZE55EE] hJJCIF^h_D 3C3 .

n /I. media would have us believe; anger was PROCESSING

directed where it belonged, at the cops. As the disparity between worlds ("1st" and "3rd," rich and poor) grows we will "need" more police and jails. "We" will explore new dimensions of the national security state. "Our" Army, too, may find its greatest use at home, even while

the Pentagon is lusting to be Texas Ranger to the world. This militarization of everyday life — surveillance cameras, new technologies, US army raids on marijuana patches, loss of basic rights (most notably, 4th Amendment protections against search and seizure) — affects us all. Fearing theft and assault, people become suspi- cious of one another. We are driven regimented factory of the post office. of sex magazines. Our "Downtime" apart when authority is internalized. "Avon Calling" is a factory Tale of Toil section introduces the Time Thieves The old joke about "Help the Police: which looks at a slightly different role Corner, and more. Our excellent let- Beat Yourself Up" is closer to reality that "temps" play in the modern econo- ters—thanks all you writers — offer a than fantasy. Pressure to snitch on my. "God's Work" examines the world glimpse of the connections percolating neighbors, family and co-workers will of paid care for the elderly and resis- out there. Also from our mailbox is a continue: because they have a TV they tance to work abuse in Jeff Kelly's Tale paean from The Chicago Surrealists didn't have before the riots, because of Toil. Group to the recent Chicago floods. An they smoke funny stuff, because they Dehumanizing and pointless work expanded section of poetry utilizes di- have unapproved sexual preferences. (illustrated on our cover by JRS — verse styles in exploring equally diverse And at any minute the police may returning from his "Vacation" on issue topics, ranging from old women to arrive. Even the wrong address, or a #25) is also analyzed at some length in People's Park to the office — and beyond. lying call from a vindictive neighbor can other articles. Chris Carlsson's "What And Primitivo drags the Old Crow into bring the "innocent" into abrupt — even Work Matters?" calls for a new ap- the (almost) 21st century in his parodic fatal — confrontation with the forces of proach to organizing, moving from an "The Ravin'." Law 'n' Order. attack on traditional unionism to a Thanks to the great response by

The people of Rio know what it is to reevaluation of the work being done. He readers to our pleas and improved be confronted by such forces; the tanks also reviews "American Dream," the circulation at the newsstand, PW is were called out to protect Ecocrats from documentary on the '86-'87 Hormel almost not broke! Note our increased rccility at the recent "summit" confer- strike in Austin, MN. Mickey D's size — a direct reflection of the wealth of ence. In addition to soldiers lining review of "The Overworked American" printed material we have received. roads, the government literally swept up also probes the weak points of "labor" Many thanks to adl who contributed to

many of the street children that inhabit critiques: which work is worth doing? this issue through work, money, word- Rio, who are subject, even in "ordinary" "91 1" gives a fictional (we hope) account of-mouth, or general subversion! We

times, to death squads. Giving us in- of how overwork stymies "family val- couldn't do it without ya! sight on the June '92 Earth Summit is ues." "The Rustbelt Archipelago" (by Jon Christensen and associates, who P.M., the author of Bolo-Bolo — see issue It looks like "Education" is happenin'

voyaged there carrying PM^ credentials. #17) looks at the reinvention of former in our next issue . . . we've got a number He has also provided reviews of "Books factory cities, with particular attention of educational articles and short stories, that won't save the earth." He and to the former Soviet Union and "time on and are hoping for more analyses and

Primitivo Morales cross words in an the job." Tales of Toil . . . Write to Processed World, exchange on Intellectual Property Adam Cornford's "Processed Shit," a 41 Sutter St #1829, SF, CA, 94104 Fax Rights and their utility in the "develop- trenchant dissection of American racism us at (415) 626-2685 E-Mail us at ing" world. and cultural definitions of good and [email protected]. Future issues On a related ecological front we bad, reveals that the recent LA riots are might also include Voluntarism and the interview Judi Bari, long-time labor not some isolated event, but part of our Service Economy; The 21st Century: A agitator and Earth Firstler in "A Shit legacy. The "Martian View of Looting" Two-Tiered Future; Millennial Blues; Raiser Speaks." Those who ponder the lightheartedly looks at consumerism, the Urban Utopia — what kind of city possibility of death squads in this coun- work and deprivation. In "Thrifters: would we like to live in? What changes

try might consider the vicious bombing Second Hand Shit," Marina Lazzara would we make? Past topics are still very (and press campaign) directed against takes us into a surreal Sunday sidewalk much alive — comments, rebuttals and her and Daryl Cherney, a bombing still sale. new explorations of sex, biotech, exile, unsolved but clearly linked to her politi- Iguana Mente's "Confessions of a "The Good Job," etc., are all welcome. cal activity — as she explains. In addition Sperm Donor" recounts one of the more Write! Draw! Enjoy! to exploring her current organizing, she curious jobs we've reported on. D.S. talks about her time served in the Black proffers a double-fistful of reviews — Primitivo Morales, et. al.

PF^OEZEaSECJ kJJClFSk_El 3CD heartening features oiPW is the letters page: it's so good to see that there are people out there trying to

fuck over "the system." I thought I might add a new voice to the saboteurs' chorus.

I moved to the U.S. from Liverpool, England in 1987, after spending most of my time since leaving

school in dead-end jobs: factories, clerical etc. In

1990 I returned to Britain for a few months,

reluctantly in search of a job. All I could find was a

temp job sending out the first Poll Tax bills. Along

with about ten other people I was expected to take addresses and ID numbers off a computer printout,

and copy it onto the forms which would then be sent WHY NOT HERE? and with full cooperation of blacks and whites, rich to the victims. The recipients of the forms were and poor, anyone who's sick and tired of what our advised to quote the ID number in future correspon- Dear Editors: system has become (and don't fool yourself into dence. I happily spent seven hours a day writing the I am only in the middle of my second issue of thinking a vote for Ross Perot is truly an attempt to wrong numbers on all of the forms whilst getting Processed World. Oh how I wish I had foimd your overhaul the system!). paid. Toward the end of the contract I went for a few magazine earlier! Maybe I could have escaped my This country is a powder keg ready to erupt, and I drinks with some of my co-workers, and discovered materialistic consumerism-driven middle class (max- am ready for it. It can't happen soon enough for me. that they had been doing the same thing. Our ed out on my credit cards) existence a little earlier. I've been watching the events in Eastern Europe, combined efforts must have created about 50,000 But to do what? I hungrily devour everything in your wondering why it can't happen here. Citizens sat future problems for the poll tax system. This one magazine, but all it does is come back up in a kind of back for too long while their leaders ran amuck, could run and run...! wet burp- I've read the letters from people of my oppressing them by instituting controls over every- I'm now back in the U.S. and trying to destabilize generation—yes we're all aimless, seemingly apathe- thing they saw, said, did, heard, while at the same everything. tic, brain dead from years of watching the Brady time bestowing special favors on themselves (look at Yours frater(mi)nally, Bunch and thinking life's problems would always be the Congressional check kiting scandal) and breeding M.L.—Lewiston, Maine solved by mom and dad's neat little catch-all phrases corruption (see Contragate, the S&Ls, BCCI, (Mom always said, "don't play ball in the house!"). Clarence Thomas hearings) JUST AS OUR OWN MASTER ELECTRICIAN: HIGH PROLE We should have known better— I mean, did you ever GOVERNMENT IS DOING NOW. Finally the see Mike or Carol Brady actually working at DearPff, corrupt Communist governments got their comeup- anything? Of course they were good parents, not hke What a delightful magazine! From it I discovered pance. Just because we live in a so-called "Democra- our own that slaved away to provide us with our how un-unique I am. It seems I've stumbled into a cy" don't think "It can't happen here." I'm hoping Barbie Dolls and our G.I. Joes, then took their beehive of malcontents, that is, frustrated artists and that Processed World can go further than you do work frustrations out on us without realizing that intellectuals. What a treat! Bohemia is alive and well, now (and I know this is an awesome responsibility Barbie Dolls didn't spiritually satisfy us, anyway though processed through the postal system. for one publication to bear—/no kidding!—eds.]) (they were too busy thinking the swimming pool in I'm a blue-collar worker by accident. After and help organize the revolt when/if it comes. the backyard and the station wagon in the driveway attending a college prep school, with four years of Grumbling about your crappy jobs and the state of would make them happy). All of this throbbing Latin, French, and English, I wanted to be an our society is fine, but when push comes to shove pulsating energy, all of this dissatisfaction just eating interpreter. After a couple years in college, I joined you'd better be ready to make a change. away at our insides—can't we channel it somehow? the navy with the hopes of more schooling and I just quit my job last Friday. I spent a year (any Are we that impotent or have we just been eventual duty hobnobbing in global circles as a more and I would have been brain dead) working for brainwashed by the powers that be to believe we are? translator. Instead they decided I'd make a better a big business trade association, doing things like The government wants to get rid of radical art, electrician, and, 26 years later, I'm still an xeroxing memos to business owners telling them why eradicate mind-expanding drugs, abolish anything electrician. However, I'm a high prole, or as Paul they needed to support the styrofoam industry (never that will actually make us more aware and wake us Fussel described us in Class: "...they're not mind that if the environment goes, we all go with it, up to how we're being screwed, but the question is: consumed with worry about choosing the correct and then where will you relocate your business? To Will anything wake us up? status emblems, these people can be remarkably the moon, maybe?) and lobby against national health Let's look at L.A. and the recent riots. All of the relaxed and unself-conscious. They can do, say, care, etc. At first I thought it didn't matter that I pent-up frustrations, the anger, the fear that these wear, and look like pretty much anything they want didn't believe in anything my employer represented, people have been living with, the disempowerment without undue feelings of shame, which belongs to but the constant stomach aches, headaches, and depres- they've had to deal with erupted with one foul swoop their betters, the middle class, shame being largely a sion I felt told me otherwise. Your job can be of an unjust verdict. But instead of channeling that bourgeoisfeeling." detrimental to your health—I'm living proof. I'm not anger towards the people and institutions that As a master construction electrician, I have certain sure what I'll do now but I do know I've never felt deserve it, the rioters and looters destroyed their own liberties not found with lower proles and middle better in my life. community! I bet Buchanan, Bush and the fascists class, namely, I don't have a supervisor. I supervise I almost didn't write this letter. I had to overcome that run our country got a big chuckle over that one. myself. Nor do I go to the same building every day the fear that now the FBI will put my name in some For years they've been allowing guns and crack to and punch a clock. I wire buildings and leave when kind of "radical" file and when they implement the circulate freely through big city minority communi- I'm done. Two years ago, for instance, after wiring a internment of radical thinkers (like some kind of ties, just waiting for them to wipe themselves out. district educational building for neariy a year, I left Soviet gulag), I'll be the first to go. But I've realized now they make a token effort by pouring money, for Eastern Europe for a month. that that kind of fear will accomplish nothing. 1 say, ever the capitalists' solution, on the problem. You I get no benefits, such as medical insurance, sick more power to Processed World and its readers—go can't buy self-esteem. The children of the middle days, paid vacation and the like. Instead they forth without fear, my children. class learned that lesson the hard way. A very wise begrudgingly pay me $27.09 an hour. On the other S.W.—Richmond, Virginia friend of mine believes L.A. was just the foreshad- hand, I tell the boss for how long and when I'm

owing of a future civil/race war. To me, that would going on vacation. Sometimes I don't show up for POLL TAX SABOTEUR be a misdirected revolution! How would those of us work; maybe it's simply too cold outside, or perhaps

who are white and therefore represent the power Dear Process Worid(ers), I have a bad hangover. I never use an alarm clock.

structure let the other side know, "Hey! We're with I've been impressed by several back issues which a For eight years, from 9- to 17-years-old, I delivered

you\" Any full-scale revolt needs to be organized friend lent to me. One of the most interesting and the Chicago Tribune at the beck and call of an alarm

PE^OCESEiECI LJJCIi^h_E] 3CD just babysitters. Most of these guys are harmless drunks and drug users." Yours Truly, ••IN YOUR FACE BRUTAUTY! J.A.—Portiand, Oregon ,)

To Whom It May Concern: "A POWERFUL FILM THAT'S NOT BASED ON ONE Please cancel my subscription to Processed World. Your magazine has a good premise- TRUE STORY, IT'S BASED ON MILUONS OF THEM." alienation—but the execution falls short. It's the -SISKKI- & EBEHT Revenge idea that bothers me. I'm experienced

enough to know that in revenge, make sure the

screwing that you give is worth the screwing that you

will inevitably get.

It's hard to be optimistic in modem society- managers that don't, friends that aren't, take-home

pay that can't, but JESUS why make it worse? If you

hate that job so badly, quit. If your boss is a jerk, welcome to the club.

Your 'zine shows a lot of talent. Too bad it's hard

to see it through all the weird, existentialist whining about wage-slavery. Sincerely, C.H.—Aspen, Colorado

SURVIVING THE DULL HOURS

Processed Dudes— You guys & gals are so great—you've been such an inspiration to me. I'd never have survived my

dead-end job at the University of California without your moral support. During the dull hours—the especially dull hours —I cranked out propaganda, such as the sticker

[reprinted below]. I then used UC's campus mail

system to send them to Regents, university presi-

dents, cafeteria dishwashers, and executive secretar-

ies. For a while they sprouted like beautiful weeds on campuses from San Diego to L.A. & beyond.

Keep it up! R.F.—Berkeley, Caiifornia

clock. In snow, sleet, and darkness, I delivered like of the jail as both an inmate (ten days for drunk clockwork. I promised myself that when I became an driving), and as an electrician wiring a new guard adult I'd never use an alarm clock, and I don't. If station within the laundry facilities. The contrasting

I'm late for work, I readily explain that my body viewponts exhibit a vivid portrait of class distinction. refused to wake up at the anointed hour, sorry. They There were no lawyers, doctors, accountants, or get used to it in a short time. They learn that I'll advertising executives in jail. I was processed through show up, eventually. the system with other drunk drivers—overwhelmingly

More importantly, however, is not what I do, but blue collar workers—and drug dealers. We're rather where I've been and what I've seen. My work considered the scum of society and treated as such. has not only taken me into the homes and offices of The guards, or corrertion officers as they like to call every strata of American society, I have also themselves, display tyrannical attitudes and enforce witnessed first-hand the daily bowel movement of petty rules, such as proper bed-making, with the America, the sewage treatment plant. And then utmost seriousness.

there's work that I simply refuse to do, wire a house To enforce their rules, there are a half dozen jails

for a wealthy person, for example. I find wealthy in town, each one worse than the next. The already people obnoxious and consumed with conspicuous bad food gets worse as does the confinement and

gluttony. To install a $5,000 fixture from the 20 foot rules. People who consistently violate the rules are

ceiling in the entry of some lawyer's palatial sent down the ladder till eventually they're in solitary

mansion, while poor people fill the jails, goes against confinement with little more than bread and water. UP AGAINST IT! my grain. The incarcerated paid for that dangling A few months later, as an electrician going to jail brass and crystal with 60 some flickering candle-like every day to do construction, the view was much DearPff,

I really want you to know bulbs (the bulbs alone are over $300). Of course different. Instead of inside looking up, now I was I just picked \ipPlV and Unfortunately, my partner there's also the hot tub, pool, sauna, and the dumb outside looking down. The guards, no longer masters how much I enjoyed it. IT." I spent most of waiter to carry firewood to the second and third floor of my destiny, became bottom of the barrel unskilled and I are truly "UP AGAINST about whether to engage our fireplaces, to name but a few of the luxuries. proletarians. As one guard told me after I asked him yesterday agonizing in teeth of federal and state bureaucracy Interestingly, in the past year, I've seen the inside if he experienced much inmate trouble, "Naw, we're family the

F^E^ClCESBiEE] hXIOG^h-D 3C3 continue holding my breath! celebrating my ability to land what amounts to an and apply for aid at Social Services. We don't want But seriously... thanks for one of the most entry level position in a new field, at a salary level

"aid," we wantyote, but. . .oh hell. uproarious and xeroxable fonts of wit, wisdom, (20K) which would be considered low end for a After reading several of the articles in PW, I mayhem, mischief and subversion that I've ever BRAND NEW college graduate with no work noticed that I was feeling things I hadn't felt since blundered upon by happy happenstance. You might history. High School! There was an idealism about changing be curious to know something about my situation Still, a lot of people would kill for the relatively our society that existed within me when I was much (Tough tuna. . .I'll tell you anyway!): modest job I finally managed to land. I mean, shit, younger, and I guess I've lost it along the way I have two college degrees, including a graduate in the crumbling cities, people kill for SNEAKERS without even realizing it. (Scary!) So I stand in your degree in literature from Yale, and I spent the last and JACKETS—never mind what they'd do for a debt for turning my consciousness upside down and twelve years working as a professional typesetter and job. backwards (towards my own past) although I can't freelance writer. 15 months ago, my full-time paying Into this challenging frame of reference in my life, say yet where this might lead. Survival presses and gig with a once-pohtically-alteraative newspaper, your book suddenly drops, like a sinister angel leaves little room for any thought or feeling about the where ten years ago we used to smoke pot on lunch appearing on my left shoulder. And it sets me to Bigger Picture, at least for now. break, but which now supports itself by running thinking about the degree to which your political My favorite PfV item remains Tom Tomorrow pages of phone sex ads, finally fell apart. I spent the message pertains, or does not, in these horribly cartoons, especially the one on page 38 (#29), with following year trying to get a simple clerical position, depressed times. the guy's watch beeping. I laugh, but it hurts. preferably at one of the five colleges here in Although I enjoyed your book immensely, it also Anyway, here's to the future, however dark, and depression-wracked western Massachusetts. bemuses me. In the office where I work now. Bad thanks again for allowing me to plug into PW. I With two college degrees, 100 wpm typing, high Attitude makes no sense. When you're treated with applaud your efforts. computer literacy, and 12 years full-time office genuine decency and respect, and as a valued Faye Manning—Springfield, OR experience, I was nevertheless LITERALLY UNA- member of a team effort, what possible incentive can P.S. If 75% of PfV's budget comes from subscrip- BLE TO LAND A JOB-ANY JOB WHATSOEV- there be to sabotage this feeling of trust? tions, where does the 25% come fTomll /distributor/ ER—for 15 months. We're talking about hundreds Am I going to blame this attorney for the fact that bookstore sales, the occasional donation and of custom tailored resumes filed, with about six I'm only making 20K, when I should be making 60? loan—Many thanks to the 5 people who recently interviews actually obtained for all that wasted effort. Hell no. I made a choice to bypass the high-pressure bought $150 lifetime subscriptions. It made a big My most memorable interview was with the lady career track, and opt for a human-sized lifestyle, difference in financing this issue—eds.J who runs the Hampshire County Registry of Deeds. many years ago. I stand by my decision, even though She had advertised for what amounted to a the upturned corporate economy of the New World

"gofer/photocopier" position. Embarrassed, she Order (didn't Hitler call it "Mein Karapf?") now

held up a huge stack of more than a hundred makes it likely that I will end up penniless and bereft

resumes. of support in my old age.

"I really felt I owed you an interview," she said. I'm certainly not the only one though. Just wait

"But I'm embarrassed to be talking to you." Almost until all the hell-on-wheels poUtical activists of the

all of the applications in her stack were from college '60s reach retirement age, and discover how badly graduates. A minority were from starving Ph.D.s, they're being screwed and shoved around by their

clamoring to become gofers in the photocopy room. government. I predict here and now that we wiD see a

Needless to say, this profoundly harrowing and sudden wrathful last-burst-of-glory rekindling of

sobering experience has re-colored my political their youthful social agitation, activism, and organi-

complexion from PC pink to deep burning red. I am zational savvy, turned against an entirely new set of

furious as hell about the way we're all being pushed social grievances in the year 2010. Count on it! The and shoved and drawn and quartered by the baby boomers are not about to trudge meekly down leverage-driven corporate restructuring of our planet. the path of impecunious oblivion plotted for them by

If I believed in the death penalty, I would have no the junk bond bandits who looted our treasury.

trouble arguing that Ronald Reagan ought to be shot There will be blood in the streets when they find

for high treason. themselves 65 and starving.

Just to provide some closure on my personal Finally, from my own office experience, past and

Odyssey, I was rescued from the brink of ruin at the present, I think I can say that the impulse to assume ABSOLUTE SILENCE last possible minute. I managed to land a job as an Bad Attitude lies not in the inherent nature of administrative paralegal, for an attorney who process work itself, but in the particular quality of

specializes in transportation law, with a large one's human relationships with both employers and Ave., from Adbusters Quarterly. 1243 W. 7th national client base. It's all civil and contract law, peers. Vancouver, B.C. V6H 1B7 Canada. it's a completely clean practice, and the dude himself What I hear again and again, as I read through The liquor company threatened to sue for this is a distinguished old school gentleman with a Bad Attitude, is the degree to which the contributing subversion of their advertising campaign, but GREAT attitude toward his three paralegals. It's workers are treated abominably by fellow humans, has not done so as yet. more like a family office than an adversarial who insist on acting as though they were robotic

battlefield. There is absolutely no backstabbing agents of some extraterrestrial force. The problem of

RESPONSIBILITY. . .A Winning Solution politics going on among the staff, and we even have alienation is not inherent with the new technology.

Yo, Fellow PoMo Proles! paid medical insurance and profit sharing! The problem is inherent with human beings who have

I came aciois Bad Attitude: The Processed World So I lucked out. My humanist background, Yale simply forgotten how to ACT like human beings—if

Anthology while browsing in a local alternative degree and exceptional computer skills put me on top they even learned that human role as children in the

bookstore. I knew instantly that it was some kind of of this particular stack. But it still took 15 months first place.

chop-busting satirical masterpiece, cast in the blithe for me to get there. And the year I spent pounding Human beings at their best are irreverent,

spirit of the Church of Bob. But it took me a couple the streets among the jobless has permanently humorous and caring, as well as justly proud of their

of leavings and retumings before I finally got a fix on changed my life. It's not only deepened my natural competence, and hungry for a community of

your politics, and it all made sense. compassion for the folks who are getting screwed to mutual support. When any or all of these tendencies

A week later, I heard an editor interviewed on the death out there, but it's given me a new resolve to try are crushed by the debased nature of an employment

radio. That interview nailed it. I took a deep breath, to DO something about it, to the best of my ability. situation, that situation becomes diabolical. And if

coughed up the $20, and reeled in this queer fish, still There is the further telling irony that at a point in Bad Attitude is the most natural, gut-gratifying

heaving and panting on the deck. I've discovered that my life cycle when a typical Yale grad should be response, I hardly think it's the most fulfilling or

as long as I store it in the freezer, I don't have to making a salary in at least the 50 to 60K range, I'm productive approach to making this planet human

F^PiOEZESSEE] kJJITIE^lL-E] ^C3 MILESTONES IN EVOLUTION #31 IN A SERIES CONFIRMED MEDICAL REPORTS FROM SAO PAULO, SHANGHAI, CALCUTTA, and whole again. LOS ANGELES, MEXICO CITY, BUDAPEST, WARSAW, and numerous cities! I do find it at once supremely ironic, and supremely hopeful, that so many of your contribu- BABIES BEING BORN WITH tors who find themselves stuck in "dead-end" or "meaningless" jobs turn out to be such gifted and eloquent writers, in so many different genres—from acute political analysis to side-splitting, pants-wetting comedy! It's clear that your contributors are not bubble-gum-snapping functional illiterates, conde- mned by paucity of wit or genetic endowment to a life of minimum wage slavery. There is just an ENORMOUS pool of creative talent in this nation, begging to be put to work on a worthy human enterprise.

It seems as though we're waiting for the charismatic leadership we badly need to turn this

American community around. We are all leaders, of course. As a devout Buddhist myself, as well as a humanist-oriented bisexual man, I might find it somewhat easier than a Marxist ideologue to see the lurking potential for human personhood in even the most mind-numbed bureaucratic buttfuck, if one can just locate the resonant frequency where his or her humanity can be accessed.

I'd say your book is a clarion call to our troubled humanity, sounding an alarm on all known hailing frequencies! I'm glad I found you. And I'm glad I PARENTS! Protect your newborn with the amazing revolutionary Human Tissue Filterl bucks in finally found a job that put the 20 my Snaps on in seconds! Lasts for Hours! Order Yours Today! Don't Delay! pocket, which I could spend on such a guilty and DIAL 1-800-WAA-COUGH unjustifiable piece of discretionary pleasure, in these editorial letters and "APAzines" or drone-work for like you. My machine happens to be shinier than a depressed and starving times. The Corporation. I'm known for the speed at which I lot of others I know, and believe me, I'm happy Bad Attitude, of course, would prompt a bitter get my job done, and through my nine years here about that. It's nice not to have a totally shitty job, prole to "Steal This Book." And how, pray tell, I've been given steady raises and more diversified to get four weeks plus sick time plus medical bennies would you folks feel about being ripped off like that, responsibihties (i.e., not just mindless typing) as well plus "stolen back" time. It's not cushy, it's not considering what you invested to write and publish as perks (free books, free invites to various earth-shaking, but it's a decent living. When I hire a Ml [Well, we're more interested in people reading it yuppie-affairs, etc.) and a credible reputation. I'm temp to help me or sub for me, I'm the one who has than payingfor it, if we have to choose—eds.J usually relatively discreet about my hobbies, which to "clean up" after her/him. If he/she fucks up the You see, that's my point. Bad Attitude solves has let me get away with a lot without pissing system, they're not fucking the corporation, they're nothing in the long run. Responsibility for each anybody off. I come from a frugal family, and I'm fucking me. My corporation may be paying for a other, and for the consequences of our actions, and anal-retentively organized, which means I've saved good time (i.e., an 8-hour day) from Stella Slut, but for the quality of our commitments, has got to be the the company lots of money on things like office and I'm the one getting abused in the end. winning solution that brings us home to our household supplies (all of which I'm now in charge) It's hard for me to attempt common courtesy with humanity. and can therefore splurge on supplies for myself now someone apparently out to treat her peers as shiftily In the meantime, and on your own terms, you're and again (I'm not a conspicuous consumer, so there as she expects (and wants?) to be treated herself, but one of the best reads I've encountered in years. Your aren't a lot of material things I crave). come on, Stella. I'm not your enemy. I'm not a book is a wonderful meal to nourish the spirit of I'm also in charge of hiring temps, sometimes to bureaucrat, I'm a flesh and blood person just like compassionate mischief that keeps our humanity replace me if I take a mental health or actual sick you. I don't treat temps like dirt; when I call a temp alive. Write on! day, which brings me to the main reason I'm writing: agency, I expect intelligent people with common In love and solidarity, the story in your DOWNTIME! section called sense to help me out with my overflow. If I'm in, I'll D.D.B.—Amherst, Massachusetts "Paperslutting" by Stella. This really pissed me off, give temps a tour of the house, sometimes I go to

and started me to wondering, if her Bad Attitude is lunch with them, and I don't assign people A TIME THIEF VS. THE PAPER SLUT what PW readers are supposed to admire and monumental tasks (I leave those for myself). A temp

DearPffCrew: emulate, maybe PW and I have grown apart in isn't working for me, she/he is working with me.

I'm (still) a secretary in a sales office located in a recent years; the thought saddens me. You, however, are working against me, and it's just

beautiful brownstone building in Lx)isaida (Lower Stella is correct in thinking of herself as a paper not fair for me to, say, come back from vacation and

East Side, or "the East Village"as the trendies term slut. Despite the good folks at COYOTE [Call Off have to clean up your shit. I don't deserve it. And

it), Manhattan. I'm not compartmentalized in a Your Old Tired Ethics, a prostitute's rights group], you, Stella, deserve a better self-image. But do all us

cubicle, I mostly work on my own (though not and people like Jane in your Sabotage section, I workers with civility a favor—get out of temping

always at a leisurely pace) and, although I work long would think many prostitutes have rather low images first.

hours, I manage to "steal back" enough time and of themselves, and this, obviously, contributes to the Thanks for letting me say my piece. resources (use of my computer, the fax and already-low image others have of them. Perhaps E.W-C—Brooklyn, New York photocopier, etc.) to make up for a somewhat fair Stella was attempting to "reclaim" a word that

but (subjectively) low salary. I manage to put out commonly has a negative connotation, but it didn't JUST GO OUT OF BUSINESS! various 'zines for four amateur press alliances seem like it to me. It seemed like she just didn't give

(A?As) to which my husband and I currently belong, a shit about anything other than pride in what she DenT Processed World,

and I put out two newsletters—one for ten years, one could get away with by being nasty and "subversive" Thanks for PW, which made good holiday

for six—largely on "office time." to some faceless corporation. reading. I regret, however, that I must turn down

I was raised with a good work ethic, which means I Let me tell you something, Stella—I'm not a your appeal for a subscription, since I note that PW

take care and pride in everything I do, whether it's faceless corporation. I'm a cog in the machine just makes no provision for paying writers.

r>E^OEZE55ED kJJCIF>bh_EI 3C3 more likely to enable us to survive drought, storms, etc.—and the human-made disasters (famine, flood

damage) they often trigger—than ignoring or trying to ^sfe^ simplify (in the guise of transcending) such complex, l^. subtle and powerful forces. Developing urban v>>' ^t' examples of sustainable and appropriately scaled ^^6^^-^^ technologies, economies, cultures and the like is a \^ ^:^^<'^ wonderful challenge to our collective ingenuity and \%ic^2 0^ power. It requires stubborn hope and fierce determination, something quite different from the despair that Garlsson reads into Questioning Tech- nology.

Best, T.L. Hill for New Society Publishers, Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania

TALK ABOUT THE VOID DearPfF,

So many things I have on my mind are in your

^^^*^''^ magazine—i.e. biotechnology. I especially liked the ,^o^« pieces by Kwazee Wabbit. The circular reasoning and step-wise exaggeration in "Sleazy Research Tricks" just made me laugh out loud. One hideous

responsibility of the editor at a pharmaceutical ad

agency (which I sometimes am) is to fact check the If you and your collective wish to go unpaid, I faxed this while at "werk" ((sic)k) at a government articles, which means obtaining the original articles have no objections. But, as one who must struggle think-tank. Keep putting out the best damn magazine the writer and company neglected to obtain, reading constantly to make a marginal living with his pen, I around about modem work and me and my friends them, only to find great leaps of faith, inaccuracies, will not, on principle, send any of that hard earned will keep buying it. or references to previous articles published in foreign cash to a publication that has no money for its Good luck to you, senores! countries in 1969, or completely unrelated data. writers. I have been doing this work long enough to B.E., Process Resistor, EUicot City, Maryland There is only so far you can go in this thankless task, know that writers seldom receive large sums, but the with everyone wanting you to give the OK without notion that they are to give their services for nothing, TL HILL FIRES BACK taking the time to do the job. I knew the facts in the while printers, postmen, landlords, etc. are paid, is Times were approximations—merely Dear friends at Pff; New York simply unacceptable to me. arranging the requires point Thanks to Chris Carlsson for reviewing our information a of the other hand, I certainly wish On you and PW view— that were biased even Questioning Technology in #29. While he seemed a and photos more than well. I found the magazine worthwhile, but, as a news stories, but I thought statistics were inviolate! little too bent on slamming Zerzan for past wrongs to member of the National Writers Union as well as the Little did I know what an existential horror they can always read what's there, I thought the review useful, I I feel unable to go against principles in WW, my be. Talk about the Void. especially his reminder (which Zerzan and Games this matter. Perhaps an issue oi Processed World on process is would fully agree with) that choosing how we hve, Sincerely, in order—the process involved to put forth the final including what technology we depend on, is J.G.—N. Miami, Florida ultimately a collective decision—in fact a matter of

collective power OBSCURE, CONFUSING, DISTURBING stmggle. As the writer of the much-mahgned publisher's '^€\q Processed World, note, I'm pleased that Ghris was provoked to Your publication is obscure, confusing and respond, if also sad that my note and the brackets

disturbing. In short, I love it. experiences with a My were so annoying that he missed my points. They sporadical demonstrated the difficulty of APM were (to try again): producing worthwhile material of a periodic nature. 1) that like patriarchy, the "logic" of the At any rate, you guys do it well. I'm glad to see you technology we all depend on is largely invisible, the

don't pay for your material. I agree. It's the only result of some historical choices (of the powerful) way to get anything that's worth something. I know and pernicious. The sort of technology we hve with is it may seem untrue sometimes, but there really are in no way inevitable, but it does have lots of still people who read. What you have reassured me momentum and power behind it—and one of the first

is that still write. about there are people who can steps towards collectively choosing what technologies Smiling Holocaust—P.O. Box 3297, Berkeley, we want is to recognize the pervasive logic and California 94703 powerful proponents of the current dominant form.

The brackets were chosen precisely to provoke and

AUCTION BLOCKS IS THE FUTURE! reveal (not remedy), just as Questioning Technology

Yk2i\ Processed World: provokes and reveals . . .and

Loved issue 29! An especially fine and trenchant 2) that organic farming is a well-developed

selection of toons. My favorite was on p. 4 by J.F. example of a different, richer, more liberating and

Batellier—the workers on the auction blocks—this is more human relationship with both technology the future, baby! Also enjoyed the Wobbly-PfF and the natural world. It is an example of a way of dialogue—won't get that in any damn Time-Life living that acknowledges limits, that sees humans as

pubs! But the best, the very BEST thing of all was part of the fabric of life, not somehow free of or superior

the piece on Sabotage in the American Workplace. to hfe. Using our human ingenuity to understand (how-

I'll have you know I proudly word-processed and ever dimly) and to work with natural forces is much

F'F^aEZEaSEC] LJjaF^h_a 3C3 airwaves that belong to us. THIS M«»fclll W«IL» by TOM TOMORROW With the incredible advances in technology of the WITH OUR ECONOIYir COMT1NUIN6 TO FALTEK, things v^ere certainly different last last decade, and the equally swift advances in the OUR iNFR^STPUCruPE COLLAPSING, AMD OUfi. year; the nation was swept up in a monopolization of the media industry, the time may LEADERS UMABLETO DiSriNOUiSH 3Er\*JE£M wa>je of self-(on&ratolatory euphokia be upon us to start thinking of how we would like to SOONO BIT£$ AND SOLUTIONS, THESE AK£ in the aftermath of the gijlf war'. UNDENIABLY DIFFICULT TIMES IM AMECiCA... see our media landscape progress. The networks have lost much of their power and many of their \Ti ALL THE F'AULT OF THE LIBERALS departments—most notably, news departments—are IN C0N&RES5.' in decline. Is it really that far out to consider public access to the broadcast airwaves? Why should

General Electric, Westinghouse and the rest of those

big bad companies control our major communication

arteries? They told us in elementary school that this was a democracy, so we ought to demand that they allow us to inform one another, the way that

participants in a democracy must.

Yours truly, later Tot—San Francisco, California

NOBLE EFFORTS DcarPW:

I just picked up #29 and especially liked the excerpts from the Sabotage book. How creative

people at work can be! I've worked as an underling

in so many capacities, I definitely find that working

class jobs are more humane than office jobs. When I

was working a printing press, all that counted was

my skill and output. Now, in my present job, I must dress and act "right" which really drives me up the

- wall. It's almost like skill and output are secondary

- in the office worid. Well, you've heard it all before.

Luckily, I have and have had many fine managers

who think like I do on this point. Thanks for your often noble efforts. Sincerely, L.M.—San Francisco, California documents at law firms, ad agencies, government regardless of our assets, we have been taught that we

departments, and corporate offices, including termi- have certain inalienable rights, like free speech, the SEEKS ALTERNATIVE WORK nal meetings and bins of word processed paper, to pursuit of happiness, Hberty, all that. hear the internal process temps develop to make it through Well what good is free speech if nobody can DearPff;

the day, i.e. stolen paper clips, long-distance phone me? And how can I ever pursue happiness if I don't I'm seeking an alternative work environment. I

calls, clandestine xeroxes, printer time, and mental have enough money for a new car? And liberty? We was working downtown doing temp work, word remains: notes made in spare moments. The creative process is won't even get into that... The fact processing, etc. (which I detested, but the pay was gotten to included too, which is perhaps the strangest and most television is warping me and it's already decent). I decided to get away from that type of work

interesting of all. most of my friends. situation entirely and got a job working in a cafe. I

Your friend from the East Village, It is only through ongoing struggle by educators liked the cafe job very much at first and in contrast to serve L.W.-New York, New York and other early activists that the imperative to the other work I had been doing, because, although the "public interest" has been considered in the work was demanding in different ways and the broadcast regulation in the U.S. The creation of PBS pay was low, there seemed to be much more freedom TATER RAVE #1 COUCH and the allocation of radio stations for educational to just be myself and not to have to dress up and play Dm Processed World, use was the result of people organizing and a role that wasn't authentic. But, unfortunately, I

It's not something that comes immediately to mind demanding that the airwaves be used constructively. had to quit that job recently due to sexual

as I sit on the couch watching the latest network It was, again, through people organizing at the onset harassment from the owner and other unfair and

rerun or the Lawrence Welk show on my local PBS of cable television that public access television came humiliating practices. So I thought this would be a

station, KQED. I'm even less apt to consider it while into being. And it will be, again, through people good time to write.

checking out the late night sex shows like Studs or organizing that we, as a public, will have the right to Thank you.

Love Connection. And I'm much too busy studying decide what is going to come at us through the B.M.—San Francisco, California the newscaster's receding hairline during the nightly

news to remember this little piece of trivia. But it's by Ace Backwords ©w" written into the law books, and I should be thinking Cn the WftKE OF THE RODNEV ''^Ti A TOTAL BREflKDoWM (Presidemt bosh reaches out Meanwhile, America comcluks

: ro about it a lot more; for that matter, everyone within KllJfr VERDICT, RloriMfi. ANt> OF lM Mb ORDER/.'" OPINED with a heartfelt appeal THAT TT4E BEST WAV DEAL flMON&ST WITH THE RA&E THAT 6LflCIC5 tOOTINlG SOftST OUT JOE CITIZEU, AS WALL STREET PUT earshot of any broadcasting outlet should. The ,^WE MUST AN END TO "N KIN& POLICt MftRftUDlNG S*L BANKERS, AT JONK Bond HOotiSAigs kapeE FEEL ABOOT TWE 7HE a\J\L DISOBEDIENCE BEFORE OF COURSE, TD COST OF 6ILLI0KIS TO THE AND PlLLAGEDTOEJCWOMV/' BEATING- 15/ airwaves are public property. ft INTO 50METHl^J& POLICE PUBLIC IT ESCALATES N& IN MORE ftMERICflM THE SLAUSHTEI? Of This place we call America, where the bonds are DRhSTlC LIKE HUNDREDS Of THOUSANDS of ftR£l6NCfSj OIL breaking down faster than a commercial break, and TO CONTROL TWAT COUHTW'S 'j/, people are frustrated and ignorant (unless they make

an extra special effort to find information, and who's

got the time?), lest we forget, this place is the only one most of us have got. Regardless of how we got

here, most of us have nowhere else to go. And

PF^OEZESSECI kJJOF^h_C] 3CD AITBHTION MART/AN INSTITUrE. for social rcsearchf this is Flyinc 3Auce:r captain zorcH ke.p(?rtin€i oh mass o^^ct^ SBiTiNCi IN i^rtu American m^i ^AFTH CtriBSf 'i^ ^ ^

From April 29 to May 2, 1 992 (Earth calendar), my Earth society is peculiarl The inhabitants produce earthlings seizing in their factories and famis, crew and I observed thousands of everything they need and redistributing goods from public display stations, but these products are not simply passed out especially in the Los Angeles cityplex. to everyone.

Instead, the goods are enclosed in stores whose front walls The earthlings also spend five hours every evening are made of windows (thin, transparent membranes). viewing images of their objects on televisions (thin, opaque membranes), which keeps them further tantalized between visits to the windows.

The windows separate the products from the creatures while Iceeping them continually tantalized.

LCD PF^bOiZESiSEEJ kJjai^lL.CI 3CD ,

The creatures engage in a roundabout lifelong ritual to obtain the goods from the stores, instead of simply breaking the \A/indows, which are made of the most brittle material on the planet I They typically spend sixty years at Jobs (repugnant involuntary activity) in exchange for money (thin cellulose strips) to trade for the things in the stores.

Eariier Martian expeditions had observed infants in However, during the festive events of April 29 to May 2, stores grabbing for objects until a parent earthling the creatures reverted to a sensible form of tDehavior— trained them with bizarre vocal spasms about the they communal^ seized the goods through the windovy^^ universal money-object relationship. instead of submitting to money-shopping.

In conclusion, the creatures are gradually creating, as Jb&S'MOHef'SHorpiNei sociau TWe PRBSEHT our VUlcan friends would say, a logical existence. ORDCR HAS TURHEO THB SARTH INTO AN AUBN PUAfiBT WHBt^e. THE fAKTHUtfCiS ff£VSR Feeu AT HoMel me. looting fb^tivals WHAT TH£ £YE SECS AND cov^erSy L£.r 4KE A f^ATtONAL, NATURAL. CHALlBNC^S- THE HANV^CiRASpL TO mPATIONAL, f AH ONNATVRAL SOCIETY onuL. IVmvi A i UIQU W,' Y'MA 'U '-^ '^: \a 1H ^ ^' V,v \:iiVi.iii'iiV>^

1 ^ IP'

This space message was intercepted and decoded by

the Social Club. Send two first-class stamps to us at 2 1 40 Shattuck Avenue, Box 2200, Berkeley, CA 94704 for copies of our other outbursts.

E^F^OEZESSECI kJUCHF^h-EJ 3CD lifted my wallet. It was a crash refresher course in street walking in Rio de Janeiro.

I'm up late watching looters emptying our OF LINE supermercados on TV news. "We are hungry," says one, "we have to sack." Children are waving pistols at the AT THE EARTH SUMMIT camera. The guns have names, says one teen with a revolver in each hand, and they have killed many times. What will the environmentalists who are here for the big U.N. Conference on A Processed Diary the Environment and Development have to say about all this? What do the environment and development mean in a city like Rio or Los Angeles, cities of the future? People want what they see on TV. And they are willing to riot to get -Saturday, leading to the beach. RIO DE JANEIRO their rights — not necessarily at city hall, The Special Agent got on the horn. May 23: Having forgotten he but at the mini-mall. Television is Our first order of business was a needed a visa, the Special Agent beaming this message 'round the globe. powwow with Indian leaders over at the The Blade Runner just called from a had a hard time getting past Bra- Hotel Novo Mundo. When we got pay phone. He is on his way over. So zil's at airport. there, they demanded fax machines, policia federal the we're all here now. The Special Agent, computers and printers. Lucky for us Two $20 bills tucked in his pass- the Blade Runner and me, the Scribe. the Special Agent had been authorized port didn't help. But a wake up Oh yeah, and the Bodyguard. He to bring cash from the Friendly Gov- call to the consul general cleared ernment. We would be welcomed to the things up. Then it was "Sim senhor, Indian village, Kari Oca. We went over to the Hotel Nacional right this way," after that. The to adjust our gut microflora by immer- Special Agent was on a special sing ourselves in a grand "feijoada," Nobody talks about mission for the Friendly Govern- Brazil's national dish of black beans and ment. all the pork that's not exported, rice, movements anymore. kale, yucca, and above all, caipirinha, The latest line in After he got out of the shower, we cane liquor with lime juice, the key had a few beers and watched Copaca- digestif. social engineering is bana roar to hfe on the streets below the As night fell, we strolled along the apartment we had rented for the dura- beach. Suddenly we were surrounded that ecological tion. A thin spray of surf was visible at by three whores. One started rubbing the end of a deep chasm, the avenida my crotch. While I protested, another principles should organize the economy.

watches over us so mercifully, I almost forgot him. Our assignment: the Earth Summit. Like everybody else here, we are on a self-inflated mission to the greatest meeting in human history, and our handles were chosen accordingly. The Blade Runner got his from the ease with which he cut through the set of

Rio, just like it was his very own movie. Monday, May 25: We finally had to get down to business today. The Special Agent asked us to cover him while he ran money to the Indians. And we had to get credentialed. First, we learned how to walk the streets again. The Special Agent showed us his urban gunslinger wzdk, mental

La F'E=^aE:E55ECI UJOFSh_i3 3CD pistol in the shoulder holster, eyes from Processed World. "It's a tranquil We wondered why the Indians set up roving like a cool lazy radar dish, taking place. You can even relax there among camp on the outskirts of town in a in everything while slinking around the the confusion," said I. mental asylum. "The Indians and pa- city like some kind of post-ecological I find myself agreeing more and more tients have a lot in common," explained

Billy the Kid. Soon we were all doing it. with a bumpersticker we saw here the a nurse. "They are both marginalized. The offices for the Worldwide Indi- other day: Everybody has to believe in They don't have their liberty. They are genous Peoples Encounter and the offi- something. I believe Fll have another beer. It wards of the state." cial United Nations conference were in could be the unofficial motto of Brazil. But the Indians also seem to have the same government tourism building The usually fresh, even if only slightly marginalized and folklorized themselves downtown. At the UNCED office, cool Antarticas slide down our throats one here, mainly it seems to satisfy their Bronx-speaking guards and interna- after the other as we reflect on Zoo 92, supporters who want to feed their own tionally accented secretaries ushered us as one wag dubbed this happening. "Eco fierce primitive images. Maurice quickly through the steps producing 92," as most people call it here, is a many Strong, the oilman who heads UNCED, small white laminated photo ID cards. ring circus. Everybody is putting on a came out to smoke a peace pipe and get For the Indians, we had to run down the big show to demonstrate their power. his picture in the paper with the block to get photos, have lunch at a It's like Amazon headsmen who vie to Indians. nearby bar while we waited, and finally throw the biggest party. They have to be We heard the Yanomami took one we were issued a big orange medallion. here to be heard, to command resour- look at Kari Oca and said no thanks.

Anybody who is somebody here it ces in the New World Order. The roles The so-called last stone-age people in seems has at least three different cre- are set in advance. What remains is to the world preferred to stay in a hotel dentials hanging around the neck. Every meeting has its own symbolic totems of access. Like crossing borders, you need a passport. At the consulate of the Friendly Government this morning, when the Special Agent stacked money for the Indians in a raggedly old bag given to him years ago by an Amazon shaman, a consular functionary intoned like a robot: I've never seen anything like this before. Neither had we. We rented a car and drove out to the Indian encampment on the edge of town. Every couple of blocks we asked directions and finally found the site in an unused corner of a mental asylum, tucked in a lush forest under the sur- prising granite monoliths that rise around Rio. At the insistence of the

Indian leaders, the city is stringing electricity out here so that indigenous people from around the world can meet, party, and type their agendas and statements into laptops late into the play them out. downtown. night. It is a local demonstration of their Our first view of this was the stockade Tonight we were invited out with our global clout. fenced replica of an Indian village they informants among the upper class cari- I retreat to the Kari Oca bar to jot call Kari Oca, a play on carioca, the ocas. They took us to a chic new down notes. Desperately seeking any nickname for the urbane residents of restaurant, Mistura Fina, the first stop on new angle, like most of the 7,000 Rio, and oca, an Indian word for lodge a rarefied view of Rio. The rich are journalists here, a Brazilian friend stops or hut. The Indians are on display at nervous these days. Not only has the by and gets after me for a quote about Kari Oca. They have built great Presidente been denounced as a corrupt, the scene. It is a favorite shortcut, thatched lodges where they meet and drug-sniffing. megalomaniac by his own quoting other journalists. rest in hammocks during the heat of the brother, shaming all who voted for him, "What are you doing here?" she asks. day. But later there is plenty of feathers but the Little Prince has been kidnapped I try to explain Processed World but there and folklore for photographers with from Petropolis. The heir to the Brazil-

is no adequate translation. "Processed" frequent dances and war party whoops. ian monarchy, if there still were one, is in Portuguese is beneficiado, benefitted or A blonde woman dressed like Jane being held for $5 million ransom. The

improved. But what if a process does not parades with her Tarzan-like Indian country can't pay. (Brazil is scheduled to improve? sidekick, a painted exotic dancer who hold a national referendum in 1993 on Thursday, May 28: I was in the has toured Europe and America, who what type of state they will have:

Jornal do Brasil yesterday. It seems the hands us his business card. When it presidential, parliamentary, or mon-

Kari Oca bar is the hottest new spot in comes time to eat, the reputedly fierce archy!)

town. The proof: your faithful Scribe Kayapo are always first in line. "This is Brazil," said the daughter of a

PF^aczEsaEEJ kjjaphh.ci 3C3 L3 problems during a weekend in Rio? Caught with thousands of other cars in a tunnel on the way back into town, we started making up headlines for the big event. Traffic Jam at the Earth Summit. Green Gathering Produces Global Gridlock and Greenhouse Gases. UNCED: Better Left Unsaid. We turned off at Ipanema Beach and decided to escape even further with those lightning bolts. Then we headed for the Universidade do Chope, the university of draft beer, and the Acade- mia de Cacha^a, the academy of cane liquor, to get in shape. We left our car in the care of the Guardian of the Universe until we were primed to race with the rest of Rio. We roared down the beachfront like Emer- son Fittipaldi, belching alcohol out our tailpipe. We dined late with the Queens of Copacabana in a little trattoria by the Rio newspaper magnate, "Just today, I were afraid we would be shot at. beach. We closed down Caligula and was robbed of my purse at gunpoint It turned out the orange liquid in the went vainly in search of a late night while stopped at a red light." jugs was ayahausca bound for the Sami, Bossa. We followed a tip about a Dada Yet when one of us innocently agreed the blonde, blue-eyed indigenes from 'n' Zen bar to a curtained door in an that you have to stay on your toes in Norway who were dressed in red and anonymous office building. Inside they Rio, she protested vehemently. blue wool outfits and sweating profusely were showing urban pastoral animation "Everywhere is violent! The same when we arrived. Last night, they said, on the wall, cities turning into butter- thing could happen in St. Moritz or some of the Indians had hopped around flies, and mixing passion fruit caipir- Monaco! My poor country," she sighed, clucking like chickens. They wanted to inhas. We ended up back at the apart- as if the burden of the image was even try some of whatever that was. ment, trying to stay out of trouble, greater than that of reality. I was about to do the same when the listening loud to world music and

' We ended up at a party thrown by the Special Agent pulled me aside and dream-like pop that sounded like the last youngest member of the Brazilian parli- showed me the little pieces of paper wave played backwards until the dawn ament. We looked down on the swim- printed with lightning bolts that a friend rose over Copacabana. ming pool of the Copacabana Palace had slipped to him in trade. "Berserker Tuesday, June 2: We've been and debated how much smoked salmon medicine," he said, "for the beer and shopping for a better world. The future to eat, as champagne was poured down wool tribe." We decided to get out of of ecology is on scde at the Global our gullets by waiters in black and town and leave the indigenous people to Forum, a huge flea market of eco-gear white. We had hoped that the bowls their own hallucinations. and ideology. Outside Flamengo Park, circulating through the crowd might We headed south along the coast past street vendors hawk everything from contain some of Rio's famous Brizola, the Club Med to a hotel on a bluff with a nylon bags to beach towels emblazoned the state governor's name which has chairlift descending to the beach below. with Eco 92 and pictures of parrots and become slang for cocaine. We were Prevailing on a waiter to keep the bar scantily clad women. Inside environ- about to dip in when the Special Agent open, we sipped caipirinhas and stared up mental organizations sell everything reminded us just in time about the stur- at the stars. We couldn't find the from t-shirts and books to crystals and geon general's warning about inhaling Southern Cross. We're becoming dis- rainforest powders. caviar. It doesn't matter. We're starting oriented. Or maybe we never had our Dubbed an Eco-Woodstock by the to ride a current of energy that seems bearings. local press, the diversity reflects the like the pulse of this city. Monday, June 1: Dawn over Copa- inclusivity and relativity of ecology. Not Saturday, May 30: We woke up late cabana. We're barely holding on at our only are the predictable environmental- to find that the Army has occupied Rio favorite juice bar on Nossa Senhora de ists and developmentalists here, from with 6,000 soldiers posted every 100 Copacabana as Rio starts a new week- Greenpeace to the Global Environmen- meters along the beachfront avenues. day. The Blade Runner turns from his tal Fund, but scientists, technocrats, And today we had to carry more money orange juice, nods adeus, and disap- businessmen, and spirituadists are in on and jugs of hallucinogens to the Indians. pears into the cacophony. the action too. It is a view of the new The Specieil Agent's mission is getting We spent the morning yesterday ecological global village where every- out of line. We crammed into a bor- sitting by the pool like experts analyzing thing is seen through green lenses. Here rowed car with a few friends we have the Earth Summit, which begins today. everything seems open to debate in picked up along the way and drove out "The name itself always struck me as ecological terms. to Kari Oca. The car smelled of alcohol a little pretentious," said the Blade "Still there's more talk about preser- fuel — even the machines run on cane Runner. Could you really expect 128 vation than about cities," complained liquor — and backfired every block. We heads of state to solve the Earth's Silvia Barbosa Muniz, a social worker

LI-. F^FNOEZESSEE] LJjaE^h_C] 3C3 who like us was touring the more than eral theories and some very small spe- poverty, the more pollution." I was 600 booths. "The worst degradation is cific findings is still mainly a rhetoric getting confused. Did he say something in big cities," she said, seeming to sum easily appropriated by many ideologies? about steak? I was reminded of Maurice up Rio's message to the Earth Summit. It sounded like survival of the fittest Strong's wish for us all to live lives of

"And it has to do with misery. How can to me. And there is no doubt that elegant simplicity. Would we all be able we improve the environment unless we eco-pundits will survive. While the au- to have our Chateaubriand and eat our make human relations better? The thorities talked, beer, orange juice, desserts too? world can't equilibrate until there's mineral water, and guarana (the Coke of We ducked out after lunch and went more of a human equilibrium. Our Brazil) were free-flowing. A buffet table to catch the opening ceremony of the problems are not separated. People can't was laden with platters of roast beef, Global Forum. On the beach, we met be. Nature has us intimately tied." quiche, pate, eggplant, fresh salad, up with a friend from the World Bank, I wanted to get together with her on papaya, guanabana, kiwi, pineapple, and which also has a small stand here, too. that. But the Bodyguard pulled me away strawberries. "This is great. It's wonderful," he en- just in time. Who is he watching out for Meanwhile Lester Brown was saying, thused. "All these little groups getting anyway? I'm beginning to think it's my "Chateaubriand said forests come before together." wife. civilization, deserts after. The equation But didn't he feel awkward or threat- Wandering around, we came across a is simple: the more people, the more ened, walking around with a World blue-and-white tent where the World- watch Institute was holding an opening day press conference. The blue-blazer- khaki- slacks- loafer-and-open- shirt ADAPTING YOU TO THE crowd seemed to be assembling for a news feed. It looked like a gathering of BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT the new ecocrats of the global village, presumably the future rulers of the world. We couldn't miss out! "This is a turning point in history," proclaimed Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Norwegian prime minister and chair of the commission that led to UNCED. WorldWatch head Lester Brown claimed no less modestly, "This is an event that will separate two distinct eras. What the future will be like will be decided here." The Worldwatch cadre appears to be an especially assertive crossbreed of environmental doomsayers and eco- policy wonks eager to sit in the driver's seat and save the world — or at least make the obligatory warnings from the back seat. "We must reverse direction in the next decade," said Brown. "Or we will face a spiral of economic and environmental decline. And future gen- erations will have no chance. Whether this conference leads to the social mo- mentum to bring about the necessary transformations will be the measure of its success," Brown allowed. The dream of conference-goers and think-tankers like these is that by par- laying with the media and policymakers Many hands makes they will be able to build social momen- tum for change. Nobody talks about movements anymore. The latest line in less workers social engineering is that ecological principles should organize the economy. "To reconcile human activities with FREE APPLIANCES the laws of nature, nothing less is what must be done," said Bruntland. But IF YOU REGISTER NOW! what are the laws of nature? And do we really want our social life organized NEW WORLD ORDER INC. according to the science of ecology, which aside from some very large gen- Bio-engineering for business

fF^acESSEa kjjciF^h-a 3C3 The Earth Parliament is sponsored by THIS M«»fctH W«ILB by TOM TOMORROW The Body Shop. Posey is pushing a LAST N\ONTK, SOUTHEKN CALIFORNIA WAS ROCXED FOR A FEW PATS AFTERWARD, THE AlRWAVE^ line of perfumes BV TWO POWERFUL EAKTWqo^kES-- • WERE FILLED WITH 5C1EMT1ST5 PI$60^i'N& new androgynous THE COMPLETE UNPREt)iCTA9iLiTy OF S\iCH made from jungle ingredients and EVENT3... named for Indian tribes. Now you, too, WE JUST DOMT HA-JE any WAY OF

1 IN6 WHAT CAUSES THESE THINGS. When we asked where this latest rainforest marketing idea came from, Posey replied, "Well, I'm an anthropol- ogist and a botanist." But before he could continue, the Special Agent said, "Well, I'm a man and a gardener. So what?" I had to pull him out of there before they got into a fight. Over at the National Museum, where the intellectuals were meeting, we so OME 'MENTIONED -rWE FACT T^^PO" VJEEC POS- A "BECAUSE. OF COOWE, MoW COOLD THERE picked up some hard numbers. From a PRIOR T6 THEaOAKES,THE U-S. OOVERNMENT S/BLY 8E ANY roNNECTiON BETWEEN UNCett- CEVlDENUY UNAWARE IWAT THE COLTi WAR UA^ GROOND MUCLEAe EXPLOSIONS AnO 5U8SE- linguist we learned that only half of the SNOeb) EXPIC&ED TWO 20-KlL0Tt)N MU CLEAR (30ENT EARTHOUAICE ACTIVITY OK NEAR.SY WEAPOMi ONDEUGRoUNfi IM NEIGHBORING PAULTtlNES.' world's 6,000 languages are currently being taught. Only 300 languages are •m^^^^Mi THftTi Tj XlGfiT- Kfier IMPORTMT Foe 0^ T^ KEEP IT'S 51MPLY sure of being in use a century from now. SL0WIN16JJPJWESE S0M8S... Not SctiHTlfiC! While everybody is bemoaning biodiver-

sity loss, he said, there is little being heard in favor of cultural diversity. Back at the Global Forum's Interna- tional Press Center, we decided to play journalists and spend the rest of the day at press conferences. "The greatest ene- woRar- my of the environment is poverty," said an economist of the World Bank, re- Bank name tag on his chest? "I haven't on the sidewalk to get at the white meat flecting the new universal line. "Envir- been attacked yet," he rephed cheerful- inside. The Special Agent offered his onmental damages are not inevitable. ly. "What are you doing here?" he Swiss Army knife. "What are you doing Governments have it within their hands asked. "Sounds like processed cheese," here?" we asked. to turn these unwanted results around. he laughed, when I told him of our "I came to participate in the process," We believe in a win-win policy." assignment. he glowered. "But business and govern- "There will be problems," acknow- A helicopter circled overhead as we ment are up there screwing each other ledged another official. "But if we make waited in a huge crowd for the arrival of and we're here wallowing in the muck. errors we will remedy them."

Gaia, a replica Viking boat carrying This is the biggest farce, totally paid for "The World Bank is greener than the messages from the children of the world. by Coke, 3M, and Arco," he averred, trees," the Special Agent whispered. So

But Gaia seemed to be stuck offshore. waving the coconut at the stands and is big business these days. The Business Brazilian girl scouts were whining tents all around the Global Forum. Council for Sustainable Development through an unintelligible song about the "They've got the right to put their label has come to Rio to announce its strategy Earth when the crowd started getting on this thing," he said. "It's gone a step for internalizing environmental costs. unruly. A mob of journalists rushed the beyond greenwashing, you know. They're Of course they didn't mention passing celebrities on stage. I pushed my way not just putting a facade on it. They're on the costs to consumers. Greenpeace through the commotion. owning it." counterattacked with a slick press kit of

A couple of ruddy hippies were its own denouncing the greenwashing of standing in the waves with a big banner big bad business. official strung between them. "GAIA GO Wednesday , June 3: A day of The Indians too, held a press confer- HOME! 5 MILLION S RICH MEN events began in darkness at the Earth ence. "Yanomami is people too, gente, SHO W OFF. Give the Money to the Favelas Parliament. Somebody was blowing a povo, " announced Davi Yanomami. (& solve ecological problems there), " the panpipe while a monotone voice droned "Yanomami knows how to talk, to think. banner read, with each phrase diminish- something about his mother earth and I'm talking here without a paper. I'm ing across its length. "I am Bruntland's another body danced in the shadows. talking from my own knowledge. You green warrior," shouted one of the pro- This was the show Darrell Posey organ- can't find my path." testors from the Society of Nature Con- ized to demonstrate the wisdoms of He had a warning for Bush. "Don't serv'ists of Norway. Soon a group of street tribal people. come to town with a bad heart." kids jumped in on the action with a ban- Posey has been credited with pointing "If the market is the new religion," ner reading "The children of Brazil are out in recent years that indigenous said the Special Agent, "then I'll stick to " abandoned. knowledge is just as valid as western my animist guns." We decided it was time to clear out. science. But this show seems designed to Next we learned that the Global

Heading for the exits, we ran into an an- blur the idea into an insipid blend of Forum is bankrupt. Since we arrived, gry young American smashing a coconut new age spirit pap. there have been noises that the event is

F>i=^aEZE5aECI hJJCIFSh_CI 31CD $2 million short. Now they're threaten- the Brazilian delegation was persuaded ing to pass one of Bella Abzug's hats to make us a copy. around. We decide to apply the law of More than any other document at the supply and demand and make ourselves summit, the treaty on biological diversi- scarce. ty reflects the thicket of controversies Friday, June 5: We ran around town confronting any attempt to equitably all day looking for the ballyhooed bio- administer global ecology. And the diversity treaty. None of the environ- biodiversity treaty has become an in- mental groups in their public relations stant rhetorical battleground between trailers at the International Press Center North and South, the presumed poles of had a copy of the treaty they were the New World Order. "By making excoriating the U.S. for refusing to sign. Third World countries buy clean tech- So we took our first trip out to the nology from the First World," a Third official UNCED conference for the World journalist explained to us later signing. that night, "the First World maintains The road to Riocentro, a new con- its domination in the name of ecology." vention center built especially for the Oh, now we get it, we nodded. Earth Summit, shows the whole story The biodiversity treaty attempts to here. The route goes by the famous make the First World countries share beaches and high-rises, past the infa- technology, patents, and profits with mous Rocinha/aw/a [slum]. Army tanks Third World countries. Nevermind that are poised with turrets trained on the it's hard to tell who's on first and who's hillside shantytown said to be controlled on third, not to mention what n«rth and by druglords. Although Rio has been south have to do with it. Late into the spruced up para Ingles ver (for the English night, we get into arguments defending with a human face. to see), the ragged edges are always the refusal to sign such a mess, on the apparent. grounds that perhaps mutual respect of "eco-wimp," they taunted. It's beginning

Riocentro is a big warehouse-like property rights, as the Indians insisted to grate on us that Americans are always structure built on marshes south of the at their meeting, is a better place to so insistent on taking the lead, even if city. A favela has already sprung up start. they have nothing to lead with. So what across the street and tapped into the But everybody is getting burned out did they expect? And why can't they just water and electricity lines going to the on arguments already. They want shut up and follow the rest of the world convention center. These neighbors things to move. for a while? have complained that sewage from the "I was waiting for this moment," said Later at the Circo Voador, at a official delegates is discharged into their a young Brazilian reporter at the Rock performance club called the Flying Cir- front yards. and Roll Bar. "How do you feel now?" cus, the Earth Parliament held its clos-

When I asked at the U.S. delegation we asked. "Empty," she sighed. ing ceremony. After Indian leaders for a copy of the biodiversity treaty Monday, June 8: At the Earth Walk made long speeches, the press exploded President Bush has refused to sign, a protest on Copacabana beach yesterday, with elbows and glee when the U.S. delegate intoned, "that would not be the Americans took the front row with Congressional delegation entered for a appropriate," but finally, a diplomat at their trenchant critique of George Bush: powwow. Congressman Porter, of the House Human Rights Subcommittee, told the Blade Runner that he became aware there were human rights violations in the world when his wife was strip searched at the Moscow airport. The

delegation had its picture taken with the Kayapo, naturally, whose macaw feather headdresses make them the most photogenic. Al Gore had his own film crew documenting this culmination of his transformation from Mr. Military Appropriations into an environmental

visionary. It was a vision we found hard to believe. We had to get away. At dusk, we crossed the bridge to Niteroi, the Oak- land of Guanabara Bay. In a small garden house, we joined a gathering of Indians and rubber tappers who were passing around whiskey bottles filled with that bright orange acrid liquid — the vision vine of the iorest — ayahausca.

F'F^OEZESSEE] kJJOE=Nk-C] 3C] fcV A Kaxinawa shaman calls the spirits Sting, rode shotgun. His wooden lip

Hey, come back ! I to the ceremony. As he chants softly, disk and bottle-glass prescription glasses have sole

rights to Historical Truth ! dogs at the far end of the town begin to gave him the curious look of a modern bark, the sound coming closer. Soon primitive. But the Indians remained on every dog in town is yapping. Suddenly, the bus, while anthropologists and ac- a giant anaconda appears across a night tivists answered questions about them sky of neon colors. Later a rubber from the press. Just like in the good old tapper sings a soothing vision into our days. brains of an orange tree loaded with Later back at the Global Forum, we beautiful orange fruit shaking in the run into chief Mario Juruna, an Indian breeze. Then he sings of his niece, she's elected to Congress to represent Rio a daughter of the stream, pretty Janaina, during the waning days of the military still a little girl, nearly a woman. dictatorship. He was arguing with offi- Then the Santo Daime people, urban cials of the government's environmentzd adherents of the jungle juice, begin their protection agency who were insisting ethereal ballads. In minor keys, they that he take down a jaguar-hide hung by sing us into quiet green groves, to see one of his tribesman on the side of a tree the light and secrets of the imaginary hopefully to sell to a tourist. forest. We go deeper and deeper into a night lit like day. As dawn comes, we "What are you so concerned about?" talk of the visions we shared over a quick Juruna protested. coffee and then head back into the "This skin will turn to dust. It is maelstrom strangely revived. nothing. Meanwhile you whites are

Tuesday, June 9: As the days go by killing all the trees, all the animals, all there are more people in our apartment. the fish. You are also killing Indians.

We wake up beside strangers and Yet you worry about this skin, which is ecology and ecology is the future of the scrounge through the fresh fruit for. already dead." market." breakfast. We're sleeping less and less. On our way home, we stopped by the

We stay up late and get up early. But it The nongovernmental organizations juice bar. doesn't matter. CNN's camera com- here have started acting like govern- "Here there's no ecology," the owner mandoes are here, therefore the whole ments. They're meeting late into the told us. "It's all artificial. This city, the world is here, therefore this is, at least night, composing their own alternative capital of ecology, is all screwed up. For for now, the center of the world, treaties on forests, biodiversity, and foreigners they make it easy. But for therefore there is no time to sleep. And cooperative agreement. No doubt they patriots not. It's a big bureaucracy." the less we sleep, the more this becomes will fare at least as well as the official "Ecology, what does ecology mean?" obvious. treaties. Not that is. asked his friend who owned a bookstore. Today, a busload of 50 Brazilian The official organizers of this thing "We'll still work 12 hours a day." Indians drove, with military helicopter have set up a people's newspaper called "Brazil is a rich country," the juice escort, to Riocentro to deliver a state- Da Zi Bao. We're starting to compose man said. "But the administration is the ment to the official U.N. delegations. messages for it like "I M N NGO, U R worst." Raoni, the Kayapo chief and friend of N NGO," "The market is the future of "We need a dictator," the men agreed. "A Fujimori. A Perot!" they laughed. Friday, June 12: We have begun to hear ominous stories of reality returning

to Rio. A story is going around about two policemen who dropped a bag of grass in an American environmentalist's lap. One of the cops pointed a gun at the criminal's head and ordered his friends to hurry to their hotel and bring back $1,000 if they wanted to see him alive. The terrified environmentalists hastily complied. To make Rio safe for ecologists, police reportedly have rounded up street kids for the duration of the Earth Summit. Everybody wonders what hap- pened to them. Even so, each night we step over the bodies of sleeping people OH our way here and there. The facade of order seems to be

crumbling before the big event is even over. Today, after witnessing the third car accident in the morning, we decided

F^FNOiZESSEED lLJjai^h_E] 3C3 it's time to bail out. The driver of the s^-Moof Silly ^oc'ai- first car was bumped by a truck. He , ToRtcrcL^ v/,\Y,>./»W took a tire iron to the truck's windshield, Jpc^iOMq ALL T>\e, 'i^\'l- then sped away. Meanwhile, our cab op ^ST* ran into a bus. FReeLoAOeJ^S o^r To iJ\f\\)FxU-! We're beginning to think too much like Rio taixi drivers ourselves, making TA«f Af.T^'^^LX left hand turns from the right lane and vice versa. We're starting to take our- selves too seriously, believing our own monikers, and acting like rhetorical QOOi/ gunmen shooting down absurdities. We got into a verbal duel with a man from RAN, the Rainforest Action Network, over dinner tonight. We were cruel. We made him admit that he had never been to a rainforest. Then we revealed that the rubbertappers could use them to the motto of the Earth Summit. Rio is in the midst of a rainforest. locate their territories in space. The The Worldwatchers say they can see The Blade Runner came back from Blade Runner said he would have to the future. "We can actually see what an the bathroom announcing that some check with them next time they met on ecologically sustainable global economy guy had asked him to take some space the astral. "Guns and Roses!" our cabbie will look like," said Lester Brown. "And age navigation devices to the rubber- yells at the top of his lungs as he squeals we could build it now with available tappers. The hand-held receivers in- through a red light into the night. technologies. But time is running out." stantly calculate a position on earth via Monday, June 15: Some things have You've got to believe it to see it. As satellites orbiting above. The guy said to be believed to be seen. An Inuit wise the millenium approaches, people seem they were used in the Gulf War to man said that on the cover of the Earth to be obsessed with deadlines for the end pinpoint bombing targets and maybe Parliament brochure. It could have been of the world. Not us. At Eco 92, we felt

gutted. The ongoing adaptation of Agenda 21 to Nine Guides to Saving the Planet (Not!) political exigencies was captured on-line by Econet. Also available are the Rio Declaration (a short Reviewed by Jon Christensen model promoted here is global governance. The homily to U.N. cliches), Forest Principles, Treaty on Commission enshrines Public Hearings as its trade- Pity the poor soul who embarks here. You could Biological Diversity, and the Convention on Global mark. But one gets the worrying feeling that all of spend the rest of your life reading about saving the Climate Change. this might be a mere sideshow to the real planet. I only wasted a summer. consolidation of power under green regimes, not 3. BEYOND THE LIMITS: Confronting the In these books, the reader floats uneasily in the unlike the relationship of the Global Forum's Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future. ocean of facts that make up our ever more crowded eco-bazaar to the Earth Summit in Rio 92. Donella Meadows et ai Chelsea Green: Post Mills, world, with its temperature rising, its ozone layer Vermont, 1992 balding, its biological and cultural diversity vanish- 2. THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP: A Guide to

Twenty years ago, in The Limits to Growth , the ing. Remarkably, for such a complicated and Agenda 21. United Nations Conference on Envi- authors predicted that we only had 20 years to controversial subject as the future of the world, these ronment and Development. United Nations Publi- change our ways. Now the sequel to the international books share many of the same views, with a couple of cations: New York, 1992. bestseller proclaims that we only have 20 years to notable exceptions. Maybe that's why we need a sea UNCED's megaglobalmaniac agenda for the 21st change our ways. Would it be safe to predict that 20 change in environmental consciousness. century was to be signed by world leaders at the years from now the dire predictions will continue? Or The school of global ecological management rules. Earth Summit. This guide to Agenda 21 boils the will millenial fever die down when the planet soars What it is. lofty goals down to seven priority areas: Revitalizing past the year 2000? It seems unlikely. We've already Growth with Sustainability (The Prospering World!), overshot our limits, warn Meadows and company. 1. OUR COMMON FUTURE. The World Sustainable Living (The Just World!), Human And don't say we didn't warn you. This is the basic Commission on Environment and Development. Settlements (The Habitable World!), Efficient Re- premise behind the whole worldwide debate for which Oxford University Press: Oxjord, 1987. source Use (The Fertile Worid!) , Global and the Earth Summit was supposed to be the apotheosis. This was the document that enshrined the notion Regional Resources (The Shared World!), Managing The word comes from a computer program called of sustainable development and set the tack for the Chemicals and Waste (The Clean Worid!), and Worid3. In computers, we trust. Tellingly for the Earth Sunmiit. It reflects the positivist perspective of People Participation and Responsibility (The Peo- times, however, the number crunchers conclude that believers in the United Nations. Chaired by the ple's World!). It sounds like an overly stimulated saving the world will require changes in conscious- vice-president of the Socialist International, Gro cross between the Comintern and Exxon. No doubt ness and spirituality. This is the mantra of the New Harlem Brundtland, the commission reports that there are some good ideas here. But when it came Age Order, which seems destined to be ruled by poverty is the principal cause of environmental down to negotiating the actual 800-plus-page agenda, ecotechnocrats using the rhetoric of religion. degradation. Equity is the answer to the tragedy of all the controversial parts were simply bracketed. the commons. But we must face the limits to growth. Finally, the document was adopted by acclamation 4. ONLY ONE WORLD: Our Own to Make and

It is all there, the entire basic argument for ^ans controversial sections and any budget commit- to Keep. Gerard Piel. W.H. Freeman: New York, worldwide solutions to the crisis of the environment ments). Hailed as a blueprint for the planet, the 1992. and human misery. Comprised of blue-ribbon vacuously wordy result goes to show that the future is The author was the founder oiScientific Ameri-

is representatives from 28 countries, the commission not likely to be decided by consensus. What can . His earnest balancing act strives for the middle eschews confrontation. It is not that there is one set interesting about this huge undertaking is what has of the road, carefully weighing historical evidence, of villains and another of victims, they say. While been taken out since Our Common Future. Sections tendencies to environmental hysteria, and the giving good lip service to public participation, the on population and the military were essentially apparent limits to management. But in the final

F>i=^aEZEEiaEa kxiaF^h_a =bCD k<=i we could live forever and never have to sleep. But our bodies said fuck you. After the Earth Summit comes the global hangover. While the new ecocrats ride the green wave we all hope will never break, post-Earth Summit ecology seems to have become not a new way of thinking that will save us all but a somehow familiar terrain for old struggles. The security forces took a day at the beach today. The street kids were back on the

streets. And it seemed the Earth Sum- mit would quickly fade into that cate- gory of megaspectacles and events pop- ulated by Earth Days past, Live Aid, and Hands Across Whatever. As Eco 92 broke over Rio, we wondered whether ecology might be spent. These ecologists were. The Bodyguard rounded us all into a cab to the airport and what seemed like the last flight out. like they owned it, yet mortally terrified trees. This was the vision that he took The Special Agent woke from a of the local mice they were squashing from the Earth Summit. He knew which nightmare haze somewhere over the underfoot. Hyenas yapped from the side he was on. Amazon. He had dreamed of global sidelines and vultures craned their necks —Jon Christensen, with Jeremy Narby and elephants, stomping through the jungle at the scene from their perches in the Glen Switkes

analysis, Pie! demonstrates how the scientific estab- not let the security forces handle it? Gung-ho military Sustainable Development. MIT Press: Cambridge,

lishment has been the driving force behind the effort men can now embrace their new mission: saving the 1992. to enshrine ecological management as ihe ne plus earth. That way we can save the military too. The This is the new face of green capitalism. While the ultra of global governance in the future. Naturally, peace dividend should be invested in the environ- stereotype continues to be of industries keeping costs

since scientific technocrats have much to gain in that mental-security agenda, the authors argue. Prins, a low, the smart money bets on passing on costs and

revolution, if we may be so bold as to call it that. security don at Cambridge, imagines a Green War garnering profits from environmental regulation. The

Piel eschews the spiritual dimension in favor of hard Room, monitoring environmental crises worldwide. themes of this new business environment: the polluter

facts. And he is more optimistic than many of the A computer program called CASSANDRA tracks pays, open markets are crucial for sustainable

others. He puts his faith in economic growth and these security threats. And a Green Police Force development, environmental costs are internalized human development so he fears not a doubling of under the United Nations is deployed to enforce and reflected in prices and within the evaluations of world population, projected for the end of the 21st rules. This book was designed as a companion to a capital markets. The report analyzes how these

century. But then we will have reached the limits, he TV show by Ted Turner's Better World Society. And changes can be managed, and what the implications

asserts. We have not much more than a century to it reads Uke a TV show, with lots of pictures, graphs, are for production, investment and trade. The BCSD

find our way to the steady-state, Piel warns. Listen computer screens and boxes. calls for broadening and deepening the relationships good now. between buyers and sellers and long-term partner- 7. EARTH IN THE BALANCE: Ecology and ships to boost both economic development and

5. SAVING THE PLANET: How to Shape an (he Human Spirit. Senator Al Gore. Houghton environmental standards in the developing world. So

Environmentally Sustainable Global Economy. Mifflin: New York, 1992. this is s'posed to be the new worid?

Lester Brown et al. W. W. Norton: New York, Here, the wanna-be environmental vice-president 9. ENVIRONMENT AND DEMOCRACY. Or- 1991. lays out his vision for the new age in excruciatingly ganized by Henri Acselrad. IBASE: Rio de Janeiro, Today's politically correct policy wonk hews to the earnest prose. Talk about family values. Gore 1992. WorldWatch line. The Institute seems perfectly analyzes the world as a dysfunctional family that This collection of essays by the Brazilian Institute positioned for the next think-tank wave inside the must heal itself to save itself. He seems an apt of Social and Economic Analyses—the country's Washington belt way. /4;7rej I'American Enterprise personification of this moment in ecology. He seems preeminent NGO—was produced to reflect the Third Institute, nous. Worldwatchers were the darlings of to have fashioned his line in an encounter group of World, and more specifically Brazilian, perspective the Earth Summit circuit (and they had the best the worid's trendiest environmentalists. He rubs on the Earth Summit. It is an excellent example of lunch for the press). It all seems so simple when they elbows with Ted and Jane, Shirley and the Dalai. the adaptation of the left-wing, anti-imperialist, speak. For the most part plain spoken and relatively This globe-trotting parliamentarian's bottom line is popular movement line to the changing times. In an jargon free, Worldwatch is widely read and quoted. personal change. And his Global Marshall Plan for era when the rhetoric of ecology reigns supreme, this We can see the future, they say. Best beheve. Place saving the environment is a market basket of hip book and the Brazilian experience show that your bets. As advertisers are fond of saying, they proposals including carbon taxes, virgin materials socialists are not going to be left out. The right is not say, this is a limited time offer. It will soon expire. fees, full life-cycle costs, efficiency standards wrong in pointing out how quickly red has turned throughout the economy. Look at how Mr. Military 6. TOP GUNS AND TOXIC WHALES: The green. Shifting rhetoric and jargon included in these Appropriations has transformed himself into the Environment and Global Security. Gwyn Prins and essays provide a trenchant Third Worid take on Green Candidate! Robbie Stamp. Earthscan: London, 1991. current environmental debates about poverty and Another popular line for the most up-to-date 8. CHANGING COURSE: A Global Business development, energy and timber, Indians and the pundits sounds more than a little like ecology for Perspective on Development and Environment. Amazon, GATT and free markets, global govern-

Rambo. If the environment is a security issue, why Stephan Schmidheiny with the Business Council/or ance and the grass roots.

aczi PE=SaEZES5Ei3 LJJIZIFSh_i3 3C3 OWNING IDEAS: A Debate

TREATY FAVORS TNCs

Despite being cast as the lone villain in a global for profit, indigenous people say they should have U.S. objections to the treaty cover only half of the village, the United States had a surprising ally in just as much right to a patent for "intellectual equation—the "intellectual property rights" of opposing the controversial biodiversity treaty at the property rights"—knowledge of how to use or biotechnology companies. The other half involves

Earth Summit. Indigenous people from the tropical process a plant—as the pharmaceutical companies recognizing indigenous people's demand to those

forests of the world took a similar position against now enjoy. same rights.

the treaty in a meeting just before the official summit. To be successful, a treaty on biodiversity would Respecting the patent rights of both would provide Like the United States, the Indians want a have to include not only the governments of the a financial incentive for conserving and developing guarantee of respect for "intellectual property North and the South, but also indigenous people and biodiversity at the ground level in the South. And rights" or patents. This convergence highlights a companies that use their biological resources and royalties on patents would provide the return flow of fatal flaw in the convention on biological diversity. knowledge. By giving all the power over biodiversity hard cash from the North to the South that new

The treaty will be signed by governments seeking to governments—many of which, like Brazil, have a markets for genetic wealth will generate.

control of burgeoning markets and profits in dismal track record of honoring either patents or Many delegates protested that it is too late to

biotechnology. But it will bypass the only players indigenous property rights—the biodiversity treaty is amend the biodiversity treaty. But a fundamentally

who really count in the production and marketing set up to fail. flawed treaty should not have been siped in a rush process—indigenous people who know how to tap

the great diversity of the tropical forests, and

industries that can bring forest products to market.

Treaty advocates in Rio cited what they call a clear-cut case of "bioiraperialism." The multina- columbuste; tional pharmaceutical giant, Merck & Co., manufac- tures a treatment for glaucoma based on an alkaloid

extracted from jaborandi, a bush found exclusively in the Amazon. Kayapo and Guajajara Indians, who

first used the plant as a medicine, now harvest and

sell the leaves to Merck under conditions some anthro-

pologists describe as "near slavery." In Germany, the

alkaloid is refined and made into eyedrops that Brazil, among other countries, imports.

The most effective way to undercut this bioimperi-

alism would be to make sure that those who first brought the jaborandi to the attention of interna- tional chemists—the Indians—receive patents and

royalties. Instead, the biodiversity treaty compels the

industrialized nations to compensate Brazil and other governments of developing nations where the raw materials are found.

Advocates portray the treaty controversy as

another round in the battle between North and South. The North seeks to protect biological patents

and profits while insisting that the South preserve its tropical forests. And the South protests attempts to

lock up its genetic resources in patents and preserves while insisting that the North share the wealth generated from these raw materials.

Ironically, what this debate ignores is the new common ground that has emerged between the "North of the North"—the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries of the developed world— and the "South of the South"—the indigenous

people of the tropical forests.

Roughly three-quarters of the compounds in the modem global pharmacopoeia originally derived from plants "discovered" through research on the Cholera infected blankets meant use of plants by indigenous people. The value of such C®LUMBUSTERS tor native people kills all your soldiers genetic resources is predicted to reach $50 billion by nULcSC Spin Columbus, move to designated color Ak;ohol meant to stupefy native peoples the year 2000. Yet it is estimated that only 2% of the intoxtcates crew, your ship sinks ^H Gtve back all native land plants in the Amazon alone have been studied by SSc Forced on white reservation for own good. '"^y:^l Lose all slaves scientists. The indigenous people of the tropical GOAL; Try to get from 1492 lo 1992 keeping the Receive molten gold throat treatment to forests hold the keys to much of the rest. Mjl mythical viston of brave Columbus Ihe discov- ^^ relieve treasure lust Ethno-botanists and pharmacologists have only erer locked in your mind The winner receives an American flag, and a Support Ihe Troops Busted lor incompetence Go back to Spam begun to tap the complex data base of indigenous bumper sticker

empirical knowledge. When their knowledge is used

PF^OEZESSEa hJJOFSh_ED ^CD aL to save the appearance that something was being because of proposed restrictions on patents of not members of various treaty conventions on

accomplished at the Earth Summit. Mutual recogni- pharmaceuticals derived from plants. Curiously, copyrights and the like (India, China, etc.); and the

tion of property rights would do more concrete good however, the advocates (e.g. the anthropologists of use of "sampling" in music and "reverse-engineering"

than all the high-minded rhetoric about preservation Cultural Survival) are not limited to the profit- in manufacturing have made a mockery of the exten-

and equity in the current biodiversity treaty. hungry corporations; there are those who see IPRs as sion of property relations into the realm of intellectual

—Jon Christensen a possible tool in giving indigenous people more creation.

control over the use of traditional lands. Even within the United States there is much

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RITES It is not an auspicious time for the idea of conflicting law and practice. The original concept of

There has recently been a flurry of discussion intellectual property. Computer programs and data copyrights has its origin in the idea that ideas must around Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs, in the which can be copied and distributed electronically; not remain the exclusive property of the "inventor," jargon of the day). At the recent Earth Summit the the ubiquitous copy machines and faxes; audio and for, as Jefferson wrote, "one may take another's

United States refused to sign a treaty on biodiversity video (re-)recording devices; and countries which are idea without leaving the first poorer" (his analogy of one candle lighting another comes to mind). Such

They say the '90s will make the '80s look like the '50s, but what with the '80s also "ownership" was limited to the author's life plus a looking like the '20s, which inandof themselves were quite similar to the '10s (which fixed number of years; patent law explicitly requires

were nothing at ail like the '50s), we say the '90s will start out looking like the '60s, the public statement of the invention and (often) the best way of producing the object, and allows the begin looking like the '40s after just one year, then wind up being just like the '70s. So . . . inventor a limited period of control. Some of the THIS IS WHERE THE NINETIES BEGIN! basic concepts of patents included denying patents

for natural products, for inventions which were obvious or commonplace, and for other people's

creations. Recently, however, there has been a burgeoning of US patents and copyrights on more subtle concepts: processes and methods, as well as naturally occurring chemicals and substances. People (usually corpora-

tions, or their proxies) have recently been awarded patents on algorithms (which previously have been regarded as "discovered" rather than invented), and on "new" biological organisms and species (which

are, in fact, only new combinations of previously

existing genetic material). The relentless drive for

profit and control has even led to such absurdities as

the "look-and-feel" law suits of Apple and Microsoft dealing with concepts of controlling computers which neither party devised (Xerox's Palo Alto Research

Center has that distinction). And in an apparent

reversal of the idea of not patenting natural products, two corporations have been granted patents on chemicals (one derived, one synthesized) from the

Brazilian Neem tree. Many of the uses of chemicals ft'om such plants have long been known to natives of the area for exactly the same reasons; granting patents

would seem to violate the principle that common- place uses may not be patented. Although the US has

always regarded the rest of the planet as its hunting

ground, this usurpation of indigenous discoveries would also seem to be patenting someone else's work. Some recent advocates of IPRs argue that because many of the biological products are derived from plants known by indigenous people (and sometimes used by them for the same purpose) the original "discoverers" (and often inventors, for the use of

these drugs is often the result of generations of A CALL FOR FREEDOM RIDERS TO effort) should be rewarded commensurately. Some have also argued that food crops may be seen this THE GRAND CANYON way: the result of centuries of refinement and experimentation by indigenous people around the This summer, students, civil rights activists, environmentalists, ranchers, Tupper- world. Some even see this archaic legal concept as a ware activists, workers, computer programmers, colorists, post-modernists, possible reinforcement of these people in their fight industrialists, labor leaders, retired army generals, insurance fraud detectors, truck for survival and control over their lands. Perhaps... but this begs the question of whether drivers, yuppies, and everyone else for that matter, will be piling into busses, such "rights" are legitimate. It can be argued thai freight trains, tractor trailers, and cattle trucks to make that ultimate symbolic and even as such ideas are being hailed in the "third'' final direct action statement. In an ultimate act of coalition building, we will all world, they are being shown as outmoded impedi- unite to become one, one whole cosmic entity, one whole mass of metal and bodies ments in the techno-sphere: information moves in pile at the of the greatest canyon on earth. So let's shoot our war guns a bottom faster, and with more ambiguous ownership all the

'91 '92, . . in , send Columbus to Timbuktu in and let's make North America . time. Indeed, given that human knowledge is such an Human-Free by '93! enormously socialized (and historical) creation, no invention can be said to be independent. The need REPLY TO PRIMITIVO MORALES Now they seek recopition of their knowledge, which

even as it has for capital to harness such creations to maice a profit Maybe this is not a very auspicious time (or place) until lately usually has been devalued

is indisputable, and we should never forget the to speak in favor of intellectual property. Of course, been used by profiteers. crucial question: ''quo vadisV ("who gains?"). the argument could be extended. Across the political Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies such as as Costa Rica Nor am I hopeful about the possibilities of spectrum, we seem to be facing the 21st century with Merck and national governments such enforcing such putative rights as may be won by ideas inherited from the 19th century. It's fun to run are quickly cutting deals leaving out the local people

whatever collective group. The ability to enforce in ideological circles, dancing with romanticism, who live in the tropical forests that are the sources of The such contracts is a precise measure of social power; communism, anarchism, nihilism, capitalism, post- much of the worid's biodiversity. And why not? groups with no power will find those rights this-and-thatism, careering from optimism to pes- messy world of people vying for life in some

insupportable. Countries like Brazil, with its long simism and back again, and throwing up our hands backwoods is really just so much trouble. You're so

history ofmistreatment of indigenous peoples, no less right. There are too many practical problems with than the US, which has a long and almost unbroken identifying the "inventors" of traditional knowledge, fractious record of ignoring its treaties with North American "Sampling" in music and not to mention compensating often commu- Indians, are not promising arenas for indigenous "reverse engineering" in nities. people to play out power relations. When one side But indigenous people have an inconvenient way of writes the laws, owns the courts, and licenses the manufacturing have made a asserting themselves, especially it seems as we lawyers, as well as allows the vast budgets of the mockery of the extension of confront the millennium with such an intense corporations free play, the other side, ev^n if it is love-hate relationship with technology and the nation able to buy a few attorneys, cannot be said to be an property relations into the state. Even as many late 20th century thinkers indigenous people somehow repre- equal. Bakunin's comment is relevant: "The law, in realm of intellectual creation. continue to see its majestic impartiality, forbids the rich as wellas the senting a state of society outside the market system, poor from sleeping under bridges, begging, and their demand for property rights presents a nagging stealing bread." when pressed for direction. But have we learned problem.

Casting the importance of nature in terms of anything in the 20th century? Perhaps something Perhaps global positions—such as worshipping or property relations strengthens the abhorrent concept about pragmatism. demonizing the market in all cases—attempt to reach that wilderness and primal nature deserve protection In the first place, the argument in favor of too far. Property rights can be a basic means of are because they are—or might be— useful. recopizing the intellectual property rights of indi- preserving local control. But property rights

There are further problems with imposing this genous people was made by them, not us. Of course, clearly not a panacea, as history shows. all kinds of western model on traditional societies: just as some one can trace the concept's history to the door of Information—and for that matter they like to say in North American tribes were never granted recogni- capitalism. But it is a system most indigenous people property—may want to be free, as tion by the US government because they had no have trucked with quite extensively over the last Silicon Valley at the end of the 20th century. But if you're leaders, the requirements of marketing and legal century or more. property has costs and consequences and writer, representation of IPRs will impose unique stresses on Intellectual property rights may be an argument of lucky maybe benefits and profits. As a of indigenous communities. Given movements towards the moment. More likely, indigenous people see marketing my words, I stand on the side write control of traditional music and copyrighting mate- property as a tool they can grasp to increase their intellectual property rights, even though I will things than rials, etc., the only aspects of traditional life that will own power. In any case, the demand for intellectual for free. There are more important have survive may well be corporation's names, and a few property rights emerges logically from their demands money and property. But that doesn't mean we patented commodities. Imagine a scenario in which for recognition of their property rights in land as to turn our backs on them.

some village elder sues another for copyright well, which have also been an inconvenience to some. —Jon Christensen violations for performing a traditional song; perhaps

in the name of ancestral spirits.

Such talk of "rights" also ignores some crucial questions about what the concept means: such "rights" are certainly not immutable things handed to us by nature; to the extent that there are any

rights, it is because the common folk have fought for

them. They were not, and never will be, given to us

by benevolent masters. Those rights have always

proved to be worthless in the absence of people willing to defend themselves (often outside of any

legal process). To frame our thinking about the exploitation of

the other parts of the world in terms of ethics among

property owners is to ignore the imperative of

business: to make money. To try to use the very tools

of business (law, property rights) to stop business, can't work.

It seems most unlikely that the road to human freedom and dignity passes through a courtroom and

patent office. I regret that I have no better ideas for helping the poor people of such "developing" parts

of the world as Brazil, but the idea that the concept of

property, extended to more parts of the world, and

to new "objects," will help preserve the parts not yet

destroyed by the world capitalists, is not a sensible

one. Perhaps this can be a tool of limited use, but to

present it uncritically does us all a disservice. M£LSoN © ,.^ —Primitivo Morales ,^

See Cultural Survival, Summer 1991, "Intellectual Property graphic by I.B. Nelson Rights" for more on IPRs.

PE^aszEsaEa kiJOE=sh-a 3CD Judi Bari was born in Baltimore in 1949. working as a carpenter building yuppie houses (and colleague Darryl Chemey) for the bomb- She attended the University of Maryland, out of old-growth redwood. It was this ing, saying that it was their bomb and they where she majored in anti-Vietnam War contradiction that sparked her interest in Earth were knowingly carrying it. For the next eight

rioting. Since college credit is rarely given for First! weeks they were subjected to a police orches- such activities, Judi was soon forced to drop As an Earth First! organizer, Judi became trated campaign in the national and local out of college with a political education but no a thorn in the side of Big Timber by bringing press to make them appear guilty of the degree. She then embarked on a 20-year career her labor experience and sympathies into the bombing. Finally the district attorney declined as a blue collar worker. During that time she environmental movement. She built alliances to press charges for lack of evidence. To this became active in the union movement and with timber workers while blockading their day the police have conducted no serious investigation the helped lead two strikes — one of 1 7, 000 grocery operations, and named the timber corporations of bombing, and the bomber clerks in the Maryland/D.C. /Virginia area and their chief executive officers as being remains at large. (unsuccessful, smashed by the union bureau- responsiblefor the destruction of theforest. Crippledfor life by the explosion, Judi has crats) and one (successful) wildcat strike In 1990, while on a publicity tour for returned to her home in the redwood region and against the U.S. Postal Service at the Earth First! Redwood Summer, Judi was resumed her work in defense of the forest. She Washington D. C. Bulk Mail Center. nearly killed in a car-bomb assassination and Darryl are also suing the FBI and other police agencies In 1979 Judi moved to Northern Califor- attempt. Although all evidence showed that the for false arrest, presumption of nia, got married and had babies. After her bomb was hidden under Judi's car seat and guilt, and civil rights violations. Judi now

divorce in 1988, she supported her children by intended to kill her, police and FBI arrested her lives in Willits, California with her two children. A SHIT RAISER SPEAKS! An Interview withJudi Bari

Chris Carlsson: Where do you your being to go and put yourself in one "would the end result of organizing stand on the Work Ethic? of these stupid jobs, [laughter] under capitalism be an enjoyable job?" Judi Bari: Totally against it: It is CC: And workplace organizing? — No! We have to completely rearrange absolutely sick! JB: Hey it makes work fun. I only the way we work and what we call work

CC: What do you think of as had one job when 1 actually liked the job before it would be enjoyable. But what "human nature" when it comes to itself and that was being a carpenter. I do we do in the meantime while we're work and useful activities? How does enjoyed the job, I enjoyed being able to waiting for the revolution? The only the existing order encourage or ob- build something that was beautiful and I way to be able to stand a job is to raise struct this "nature"? How does work- was proud of myself for being able to shit there. That's just personal experi- place organizing tap into this "na- read the plans and figure it out. But all ence, that's not political theory, [laugh- ture"? the other jobs I had I hated. Physically ter] JB: I think people like to work if work standing at a cash register, or unloading I [had] a job at a post office factory. is not alienated, not artificially con- a truck or whatever, or standing at a Everybody worked under one roof and

strued by the system that makes it pure bottling line, making the same motion the conditions were outrageous. It was hell, that goes against every instinct. over and over all day long. The jobs 85% black, mostly from the inner city, But I think that work, meaning like totally sucked, but organizing was really right across the Maryland line in the what you need to do to provide suste- fun. It gave me something to think inner suburbs. We didn't even bother nance, that in itself as a concept is not about and do at work. I'm not saying with any of the three different unions or something that people mind. I think that their meetings. We did direct action on working ridiculous amounts of hours the workroom floor, put out an outra- including 8 a day or 40 a week is not geous newsletter [Postal Strife] that was

"natural," but I think working is some- real funny, lampooning management. You have to suppress every thing that's natural and enjoyable and I We weren't allowed to strike against the think that without any work people in instinct ... to put yourself government, that was illegal and we'd general would not feel comfortable. But get fired, so we had a "walk-in" where in one of these stupid jobs . . work needs to be completely redefined we met on both shifts and wcilked into . . Working ridiculous num- from what it is right now. Now it is pure the manager's office. We had sick-outs oppression. What did you say, 80% of bers of hours, including 8 a and slow-downs and trash-ins and sabotage days, and we got control of the work is unnecessary? Absolutely day and 40 a week, is TRUE! Not only is it absolutely unnec- whole factory — it also took about one- not "natural." essary, but the method by which it's and-a-half years. It peaked in a wildcat

organized is horrible. It goes against strike which was actually successful. everything, you have to suppress every [Postal Strife] wasn't just reporting on things. instinct of enjoyment that you have in things. . . it was instigating

SL. F^S^aEZESSEE] hJjaEbh_E] 3CD power, at give When we first started to get Take Stock you an extra 5 minutes, but it'll be one point "Miz Julie" decided to be under the table." We said we can't talk generous and offer us all a Xmas party. in America! for people on the shop floor, and we had So on company time we were forced to i to talk to them and see what they would weren't allowed to say. So walk attend this party. We O'rli- we out. Then she discovers go outside and smoke pot or to go out to that she's made another mistake: it's lunch, and this was her big generous totally illegal to bargain with us when thing. Then it turned out that it was there's an exclusive bargaining agent. illegal, because on company time she So she's pleading with us not to tell wasn't allowed to do that because we anyone, and we wrote the whole story would have to work all this overtime up and drew a picture of her crying, because the machinery didn't work, so "please give me my hour back!" [laugh- she was going to get in a lot of trouble. ter] We really began to erode their power So she changed her mind and decided it and gain power way before we gained was off the clock, and she was going to official power. dock us all for two hours because she CC: That's a question I always find had forced us to go to this party. People interesting. Don't you think there's were really pissed. She called in the actually more power at that moment union to break the news to them, to tell than what you had with formal con- them "this is the problem, and what can trol? we do about it?" and the union rep said JB: No, the most power we got was "oh, it's ok, you can have the hour." But afterwards, because first we did this then Miss Julie realized that that actual real work — there was a peak and wouldn't mean anything. So she did an ebb — first there was this peak of real something completely illegal in a plant live worker control because — We had a with a recognized bargaining unit, she quote of the month in the paper, which

called in the leaders of Postal Strife [our was "the way I look at overtime, is the

newsletter/group] because she knew first 8 hours I got to put up with them,

that if we didn't agree to it that it wasn't going to give us? How about 15 minute the last 2 hours they got to put up with going to fly. We came in as dirty as we breaks?" We had no authority to bargain me." That really was the truth. They could and sprawled on her white at all. So she said, "OK, I can't officially couldn't get anyone to do any work on couches. She said she wanted her hour give you 15 minute breaks but unoffi- overtime, and not much the rest of the back, and we said "well, what are you cially we won't make you go back, we'll day when they were giving us overtime.

Counter-demonstrator at July 21, 1990 Redwood Summer rally in Fort Bragg, Calif. CC: Did you keep in touch with this place after you left? Did they go through a big wave of automation and restructuring?

JB: I still have some friends there,

but no, it's still the same old machinery. They combined some of the functions,

but it's basically the same structure. All of the gains that were made were all lost. The bulk mail wave of restructur- E VEHICLES ONLV ing was in the '70s, I don't know what happened in the '80s except that we lost all the gains. All the bulk mail centers had these really bad working conditions, and throughout the history of them there were lots of spontaneous walkouts, that never led to better conditions. The difference was that our effort did. There were 3 places that went on strike when we did: New York, Richmond Califor- ,fto mm- :a ^m nia and us, and we were the only ones that didn't get fired. rest of them all One time the safe was locked (with our less radical. I knew, the manager didn't The got fired. They lost their demands. paychecks) and we were on night shift, know, but I knew that we no longer had Since even part of a larger and the only key was at Miss Julie's the support on the shop floor. So I was we were not postal group, weren't even part of a house, she lived in Virginia, so we living on a shell, I could get this guy to we formed a posse in the middle of the give up grievances because he thought TDU [Teamsters for a Democratic Union]. were just a single factory, workroom floor, and we were about to that I could mobilize the workroom floor We we communicated with the other ones walk out and drive to her house at 1 1 :30 with the snap of a finger. The fact is I that strike, but there wasn't any at night, and they suddenly found the couldn't anymore, because people had went on all, there wasn't key. [laughter] We had real raw power, gotten way conservative because work- larger organization at even a way of spreading it throughout OK? When we had the strike and after ing conditions were better. I quit to the postal workers, much less expanding we walked out on strike the union fell move to California before he figured out apart and we got the control of the that we didn't really have rank and file it to larger demands. 1 think that's one of union. That's when we really got power. power anymore. But we really did, and the reasons why it was so easy and successful, is that it such a small Then we had the official power, and the the peak was when we assumed official was with limited demands. But respect of the workers, which was based power after the strike, before it got so movement that doesn't it wasn't a good thing on real direct action and real self- soft that people got conservative. mean empowerment, so we started substan- to do because it gave people the experi- CC: In retrospect, do you imagine ence of successful collective action, tially changing the working conditions, you should have gone in a different including sneaking a Jack Anderson probably the first in their lives. direction after you got official power reporter in, and got two national articles CC: their last. to avoid this "bourgeois-ification"? Maybe written about the place. is JB: I don't know. The problem that it's this legend, I didn't have to work anymore. I used JB: Yeah, right. Now our goals were limited. It doesn't matter to spend my whole day on the shop this thing that happened in the past, and how good we were, the biggest thing we to the way it floor. I used to have to sneak out to do everything settled back were asking for was better working . . . the postal workers these little things, but then when I was used to be and conditions for our factory that employed lot of ground. postal Shop Steward I could spend the whole have lost a The 800 people. We weren't asking to over- workers a nationwide wildcat strike. day, 8 hours a day, raising hell, it was had didn't have a throw the wage system, we It the most recent nationwide wild- great! I got paid for it! We really was political context in which we were changed the working conditions, we cat and that's when they won collective operating, other than using very radical changed the personnel, and they weren't bargaining rights, believe it or not, it was tactics to win workers' demands. Maybe integrated getting away with shit. And what hap- 1970. They didn't even have it would have moved someplace else, in Post Office had a pened is that the working conditions got unions 1970. The US maybe another factory that we were better. black union and a white union! Isn't that working with, or maybe it would be a spontaneous rebel- I was the Chief Shop Steward and the amazing? There was another issue, but we would have had to coalition began settling for things and lion against really bad conditions, but have some kind of thing that went lot selling out and things began to fall back in 1970 the postal workers had a beyond those narrow demands. apart, so now we worked 40 hours a of power, a lot more than they knew, week instead of 60-80, the supervisors CC: Because those are satisfiable, because at any one time 25 % of the U.S.'s tied up in the weren't as nasty to us, it wasn't as essentially? monetary supply was dangerous and the new people that came JB: Yeah, without changing the basic mail, OK? When they called in the in started to be more conservative. problem, y'know, which is this whole Army to break the strike (the postal Some of the real radicals started to be industrial organization, etc. workers have an inordinate number of

Pi^aEZESSED hJjaFSlL.El 3C] .

Army veterans because they give you a this is wrong. We know that this is NOT THIS M*»fctH 10 point preference on the test if you're a it, whatever it is, it's not this, [laughter] veteran), a lot of them were sympathetic And I think people can relate to that, by TOM because of the other Army people that and it gives them room for their own TOMORROW worked there. So the Army people that creativity. I think 1 have a problem with THE U.S., WITH 5* OF THE WORLDS PoPVLATlOM. were brought in — well, the workers organizers feeling like they have to have uses air. OF TME WORLD .» ENeROr AMD EMITS 22'> of sabbed [sabotaged] the stuff as much as all the answers, NOW. Part of the ALL COi PROOUCeo. . they could, and a lot of the Army people problem is that we have to think collec- contributed to sabbing it, and fucked tively and figure it out, and it has to be PRoFLISATt CONSUWPTIOM OF THe PLANETS NATtiBAL everything up. they got really fucked based on our collective experience. And So PESO0RCE5 1^ one. BIRTH- up in a very short time, it was like a one we haven't even had that experience yet! RIGHT! week strike, and the whole mail was tied CC: How do you feel about the up in knots, and a big piece of the average person's ability to participate monetary supply, so they had to settle in a process like that? I think every- the strike, and they recognized bargain- body's got a great capacity for ing power in 1970 for a national union. thought, but I don't think very many

I don't know of any other national union people have much experience or that was first recognized in 1970, or practice or natural native talent for even anywhere near that. Now, with fax cooperative group processes. machines and electronic funds transfer, JB: Well, I don't know about native t>CSP\T£ TVESE F/Kas, PRESIDENT BOSH RE the postal workers have much less FUSED To talent, it's certainly been bred out of us. EVEN ATT£ftD T>^E RIO EARTH iVHf economic power than they did in 1970. mir UNTIL PUNS FOR A TREATY PUTTING It's a problem trying to organize in this SPECIFIC CAPS ON C0» E/AISSIONS WERE They wouldn't even have the capacity to SeuTTLEO... society — 1 don't think there's ever been a pull off such a strike if they wanted to. society as brainwashed as this one. The CC: Get ready for the privatization whole workplace, the way it's set up is of mail. designed to make you into an automa- JB: Oh, absolutely! ton. It's hard but those little glimmers CC: The fact is that most of what that we do get ARE so much more fun we do is a waste of time. Our politics and so much more fulfilling than any- has to really emphasize the useless- thing anybody's done in their life. ness of work. That has to be upfront. CC: A lot of time the things that JB: We really do our political work in cause people to band together in different cultures. Yours is one that is at union, whether it's a legal institution the forward end of the techological or not (I personally favor the infor- bullshit, in the evolution of the society mal approach) — I think a lot of times RATMER THAN A5X AMERICANS TO SACRIFICE, from industrial to technological. But I'm the impulses that get people motivat- MR. BOSH VJOULD PREFER THAT UNDERDEVEL- OPED TM/RP WORLD COUMTRIgS 6EAR THE working with retro, with what's left of ed to take that kind of action are ECONOMIC eRuKT OF &REENWOUSE GAS REPOC TlONS... the old industrial proletariat. So 1 think somewhat conservative. They're there's different value systems at play. worried, they're afraid, they want to WELL, ir mAK£5 The work ethic is very important. One defend themselves. They're not really [SENSE!. of the reasons why the timber workers looking at the big picture, and saying will relate to me more than most "well, jeez, this whole way of life is AFTER ALL, THEIR, STANDARDS Of environmentalists is because they know ridiculous and some bigger change LIVING ARE L0WE2 TO BE- I blue collar worker. The has to happen." I'm not saying am by career a Now GIN VtlTH' idea of not working is really offensive to some kind of religious transformation them, in fact, that's the big thing they has to take place across the planet — always say to the hippies, "why don't all of a sudden everybody agrees that these people get a job?" So what do we it's all bullshit and let's stop and do say? "Cut your job, get some hair!" something else, but I don't see much

[laughter] 1 live in a place where they hope for a political movement based ...LEAVING C\T1IEN5 IN THIS COUNTRY FREE shaved hippies' dreadlocks in jail, I on worker organizing that doesn't TO LIVE IN THE fftANNER TO ^^»\CH THEY ARE. ACCUSrOMED... mean, what year is this? We're living in have at least its eyes set on that goal. a time warp. Really, we're talking about JB: Yeah because the whole way we jrp L IKE SowE M0)^£ Tf//M6S, P>LgASE ' I * different centuries here, certainly dif- work is ridiculous. People are really \r ferent decades. alienated from the way that they work

Med-o: Chris and I have talked about because it's ridiculous. this a lot: How do you organize CC: People are pretty afraid to people to get rid of their jobs? How embrace that kind of vision. do workers get organized with their JB: Because you don't just start from main purpose to eliminate their jobs? that. You have to start where people JB: There needs to be some other are. You have to have one eye on where vision of what there is to do. 1 don't people are and one eye on where we really see us at that stage yet. We know wanna be. To try to start from way

PE^OiZESSEC] LJja(FSh_D 3(Z) av here, that may scare people oft. But a "process" around that, and that's on restoring the forest. In the process of after they have a Uttle experience with going to lead to a day when they have restoration there's some products that self-empowerment through a move- a broader, more assertive life. . . I can come out of it, but I don't think ment, then more broad ideas come up don't see why one would lead to the there's enough to base an economy on. and begin to be discussed, and people other at all. But some kind of alternative economy become more open to more ideas when JB: OK. Well, let's look at it up here, — Willits calls itself the Solar Capital of they start seeing change and start seeing because this is a different situation, it's the World, and they have all these little that they're able to make change. It much less a traditionzd workerist kind of solar experiments, and solar cars. Then doesn't mean you have to start within thing. What we have is this dual there's the marijuana economy, and the these little narrow confines, but you economy and dual culture — marijuana, hemp movement. So now we're at this can't be so miles out in front of people timber, hippies, stompers, so we have juncture where it can either go the that they can't relate to what you're these two kind of parallel things. The traditional way of moving into gentrifi- saying. most significant thing that this small cation or we could seize the initiative particular to turn CC: I agree with that, but often group that I work with has done is to here at this juncture times an idea as simple and direct as link the two. We've got this back-to-the away from the traditional capitalist "most of the work we do is a waste of -land movement grown up 20 years, a model and try to find another way to do time and no one should do it" is whole generation older now with adult it. Then I think it could be theoretically treated as an out-of-bounds idea. kids. People have experimented with possible. I think the only way it could in I I almost killed JB: No, people love it! Everybody "simple lifestyles," and ended up happen, what think got agrees. But after that idea comes, you hippie palaces. There's kind of this for, is you've got all this timber land have to ask "can we do anything about vision of ecotopia, of a society that lives that's totally trashed out, and if it isn't it?" in harmony with the earth and with each held in trust for a long time the whole CC: Right. other, and offers a new way of relating ecosystem is going to collapse. The only of society, the into trust] JB: I guess that's where it's an and organizing the whole way that [getting land out-of-bounds idea, it's that they don't right? It's a larger vision. The shorter could happen would be if the county anything they can do thing we've fought life and death battles used its power of eminent domain to think that there's — about it. I think that's because people over is the survival of the ecosystem seize all the corporate timberlands. . . haven't experienced collective action. really trial by fire out here. We've won Well, I guess they'd come in with the CC: You said that we have to go to some really important victories, but by tanks, it would never happen, would it? where people are. Now that's often a and large the county's been clearcut. CC: So what's going to excite peo- code expression for bread and butter Now what's happening is that the timber ple now? Certainly it's not because issues. companies are leaving, they're done, they're workers that they're going to anything. On the JB: No, I didn't say we have to go they're packing up and leaving. Nor- get involved with perfectly where people are, I said we have to keep mally what happens at this stage is other hand, as we know one eye on where people are and one eye gentrification comes in, the wineries well, the real social power that exists on where we wanna be, that's different and the yuppies, and all that stuff, and to really fuck with the system is found than saying we have to go where people marching behind that comes real estate in the workplace. So there's strategic are. development. power there, but it's not necessary iden- CC: You're still in a perspective So now we're at a turning point, and I that there be this psychological where you're making certain analyti- am absolutely not predicting that this is tification . . . It's basic to Wobbly cal judgments about where people going to happen because we're up philosophy and to most proponents of are, and trying to reach to that against tremendous forces, including labor organizing, that you have to position from another position that the fact that they're willing to kill and somehow act on your social function you don't think they're ready for yet. use sophisticated psychological opera- as a worker, as opposed to thinking other stuff. So now taking advantage of the strate- JB: No, it's not that I don't think tions and all this about they're ready for my vision of a perfect we're at this place where the timber gic power at work as a part of — world, since I don't even know my companies are leaving, and what is something else vision yet. I gotta interact with the there in their place? Well there's this big JB: We worked with the workers on people to find out WHAT we are movement now for some economy based workplace issues, and we formed alli- collectively capable of doing. It's not just on restoration. The money of course is ances on broader issues, and pretty soon my ideas to be imposed on the group, going to have to come from outside, the workers that we were defending on spills defending us on the it's that we're gonna get this group because our resource base has been the PCB were together and see where our collective removed via clearcutting. There's lots of destruction of the forest. So the people ideas take us. poverty pimp money being thrown for in Earth First! who say I'm a sell-out for CC: The incredible power of recu- other things, they're talking about wanting to work with workers in extrac- million to buy forest tive industries, well, I call it the "Future peration. . . That's why I keep stum- spending $200 bling around these questions of vi- parcels from Hurwitz, and we say he Ex-Logger Coalition" because by the sion, what's going to inspire people in doesn't own it, he crashed an S&L to get time that they're ready to work with us, a passionate way to get out of the the money to work with Michael Milkin they've had it with the job. box? The logic of immediate issues, to take over Pacific Lumber, so debt- - CC: So do you think they really whatever they might be, tends to be for-nature swap — don't give any money embrace an ecological agenda? rooted in a conservative impulse, a to Hurwitz, the same money you've got do, yeah. defensive strategy. The notion that to pay off Hurwitz should go to the JB: Oh well they certainly ... when I inter- people are gonna somehow engage in community to fund an economy based In fact, interestingly

F^F^IHiZESaECl LUaFSh-D 3CD viewed workers I asked about working timber workers won't be displaced. Right ance with workers based on workplace conditions. But what made them begin to now we're controlled by out-of-state issues has been translated into a larger question the company in many cases were corporations. question of the resource base, and the sentiments like "I went out to my favorite CC: I wonder how you imagine height that it got to was demanding the spot and it was gone. You know I used to controlling the outside capital that eminent domain seizure of the timber take my son fishing, and now there's no might be coming in? industry by the county. more fish." One of the episodes at the JB: I don't think you can solve all the CC: Socialism in Mendocino Coun- Fort Bragg rally was the famous dramatic problems without a revolution! We ty! confrontation in the middle of town when advocated for the workers who got PCB JB: You know what happened after the Earth First! rally comes face to face dumped on them, we advocated for the we did that, besides that they tried to kill with the yellow-ribbon-waving-crazed- worker who got killed in a Ukiah mill me for it . . . We started from workplace drunk-alcoholic-abusive ranting and and got criminjd charges brought problems, we went to resource destruc- raving, and we offer them the micro- against Louisiana-Pacific, we inter- tion, and then we started to demand phone. These three loggers get up there viewed workers about their working eminent domain seizure. That was cer- and the first two just rage, and then the conditions, but that's the narrower tainly taking it into a broader context! third one gets up, and he's 5th generation thing, and we're also talking about this with the whole accent, and the whole trip, broader thing of resource destruction, of by Chris Carlsson and Med-o, April 20, (we didn't know him, he was not a plant, out-of-town evil corporation. The alli- J 992 in Mendocino County. he was somebody we'd never worked with before), and he said "You all know me,

I grew up with you." He addressed the loggers, and he said "I used to log in the summer and fish in the winter, and now there's no more logs and no more fish. I never wanted to put my family on wel- MY JOB: fare, but I put my family on welfare be-

cause I can't do this anymore, I can't keep destroying this place I love." And he

said he was going to dedicate his life to opening a recycling center, so he can have right livelihood. There is a group of ex-timber workers who want to do some kind of reparations and right live- lihood. The coalition of people who criti- cized us from the environmental move- ment, who criticized us for advocating the interests of extractive industry work- ers, they don't understand what we're

doing at all. Not in any way, shape or form are we advocating traditional unionism, even though we had Georgia Pacific workers wearing IWW buttons to work. These [logging] companies are almost done, they're outta here. Right now Georgia Pacific's redwood section is

less than 1 % of the overall operation. It's basically a pulp and paper company, primarily based in the south. Then they

have this little Western Division up here

that does redwood, and it consists of one big mill. Before they would recognize a Wobbly union they would definitely close the mill. There's just no question that we don't have a single chance in organizing for traditional labor goals. We're looking

at an industry that's on its way out. What

we're talking about is what we're going

to do after it leaves, and how we're going to seize control of our community so that we CAN do what we think needs to be

done after it leaves. That's the broader question that we're working on, is com- munity control of our community so that it won't be turned into yuppies, and the WHAT'S THE POINT?

PF^CIEZESSEO kJjaPbh-D 3CII PROCESSED SHIT: Capitalism, Racism and Entropy

vergence of vileyn with "vile" through the themselves that they were the civilized this is dedicated Dedicurse: essay Latin i;27z5, cheap.) and that the Arabs and Persians, despite

to the hope that, if there is an afterlife, This cultural complex allowed Euro- their splendid architecture, literature, peans to enslave and slaughter African's science, Daniel Moynihan, Mickey Kaus, and and mathematics, were the and Native Americans with a clearer barbarians. Encountering the tribal all the other "black underclass patholo- conscience than would otherwise have peoples of West Africa, Eastern North gy" demagogues will spend it on been possible. Of course the expansion- America, and Mexico, who neither used welfare in a public housing project, ist and exclusive character of institu- the wheel nor smelted iron, the Discov- tionalized Christianity was the ideologi- erers could feel sure of their superiority trying to find a job and to avoid getting cal linchpin of the "Age of Discovery," as and God-given right to exploit. Better beaten or shot by the police. it had been of the Age of the Crusades. yet, these peoples were possessed of

(In fairness, it is worth remembering more melanin in their skins than most The Heart of Whiteness that during the Crusades Christian Europeans, and so could be fitted into culture was fighting a severe challenge the cultural slot labelled black or dark Judeo-Christian culture has long had by another expansionist and much more — which meant at best chaotic, ignor- a problem with dirt and darkness. White- sophisticated culture, Islam.) Christi- ant, dirty, and impure, and at worst ness has been Europe's symbol of purity, anity divides human beings into wheat menacing, vicious, and evil. goodness, life, order, and the divine. and chaff. Saved and Damned, allowing The wealth looted from the land, (By contrast, consider classical Chinese them no middle ground once the Word artifacts, and bodies of Africa and culture, in which whiteness symbolizes of the One True God has been preached America provided the fuel for the lift-off

death, and is worn at funerals.) Black- to them. This absolute division of the of commerce in Europe. The gold and ness or darkness, on the other hand, has world, with its own white/black symbol- silver mined by Indian slaves in Mexico traditionally connoted impurity, evil, ism, was superimposed on the aristo- and Peru, the cotton, sugar, and tobac- death, disorder, and the satanic. cratic dualism of white noble, dark co harvested by African slaves in the For centuries, the dominant Euro- base. Caribbean, created the wealth that was pean ideal of human beauty stressed Underlying the Christian and aristo- used to buy pale-skinned wage labor. It white skin. The most obvious reason for cratic dichotomies was another more was in the seventeenth century, when

this is that reddened or tanned skin ancient one, the Graeco-Roman divi- the slave trade was soaring, that the meant exposure to sun, wind, and rain. sion of humanity into civilized versus notion of Europeans as white first Since feudal society was agrarian, such "barbarian" or "savage" peoples. (The appeared. The aristocratic signifier had exposure in a young person (or in a derivations of the latter put-downs are, been spread to include all Europeans, woman of any age) implied work — respectively, people whose speech whether noble, base, or in between. commonly in the fields. The arbiters of sounds to us like animal noises and Thus, alongside capitalism, twinned

taste were aristocrats, for whom the people who live in the forest instead of with it, was born modern racism. absolute avoidance of work was crucial cultivating fields.) For several centuries As Europeans and Euro-Americans to class self-definition. The aristocratic before the Age of Slavery, the European lived with African slaves — and fought ideal of beauty, still current today, was ruling classes had been convincing Native Americans for undisputed con- shaped by all the signs of distance from trol of the continent— the process of work — the build athletic rather than stereotyping and otherizing advanced massive in a man, narrow-boned yet rapidly'. By the middle of the nineteenth voluptuously fleshed in a woman, the Capitalist accvunulation produces century Euro-Americans seem to have hands small or at any rate narrow, with order at one pole and entropy been almost incapable of seeing Afri- tapered fingers, and so forth. Distance can-Americans, slave or free, as human at the other — or else organized from work in a mainly agricultural beings. Even Mark Twain, conceiving a shit (capital) at one pole and society also meant distance from dirt, sympathetic figure in Jim, can only from contact with the soil. To this day, disorganized shit (misery and show the runaway slave as a pathetic

"soi'ed" means dirty, just as dark means pollution) at the other. The victim. Jim's very speech is misrepre- evil or threatening. (Signifiers of class symbolic shittiness of wealth is sented, and by the writer who first set wealth still underlie our aesthetic down varieties of Euro-American ver- and the dirty secret of white- and moral values. Consider the terms nacular with such care. Yet describing capitalist-patriarchal culture. "noble" and "base" as applied to human the episode when Huck listens to the conduct, the derivation of our word white raft-men talking. Twain gives the "villain" from vileyn, serf, and the con- game away. Its the raft-men's game, a

3CD F'B^incEsaEci iLijai=Nh_a 3cd Miles Davis translates Nat Turner.

ritual of trading hyperbolic and poetic ture. . .is, regardless of all the hysterical development: Africans are childlike and boasts, and it comes straight out of West protestations of those who would have it must be ruled by whites for their own Africa. The repressed returns, an- otherwise, incontestably mulatto." good. They are not feared or loathed as nouncing that Twain's blindness and In his White Racism: A Psychohistory, such, except when they get "uppity" and deafness are willful; they are necessitat- Joel Kovel has shown how U.S. racism "don't know their place." Racial contact ed by guilty awareness of slavery's bifurcates between North and South. In pollutes in only one way: through sex. intimate and inextricable role in the the South, where whites grew up in Euro-patriarchy must not be chal- founding of a "free" nation and — by the intimate daily contact with black slaves lenged, either by the legitimation of fact that, as Albert Murray observes in and servants, the signifier of difference mixed-race offspring (though children The Omni-Americans, "American cul- is supposed relative intelligence and from a long-term liaison with a female

F'i=^aEIE55EE3 LJjai=^h_a 3CD slave may be treated with the kindness dl activity like writing poems or playing from silicosis to carpal-tunnel syn- due pets) or above all by sex between a music for one's friends, and of course drome, the cancer clusters blooming black man and a white woman. In the unpaid domestic work. around refineries and nuclear plants, North, where despite the historically "Activity that gives rise to profit" has join the traditional diseases of malnutri- better legal status of black people the evolved as capitalism has developed. To tion and overcrowding triggered by races have actually had less contact, a begin with, such activity was virtually three centuries of market forces shoving subliminal fear of dirt and pollution is synonymous with the production and people off their land or out of their jobs. characteristic of what Kovel calls aver- distribution of material goods. Marx, And as everyone knows, the disorder sive racism. Studies of Northern racist however, was quick to see that produc- spewed out by the frantic global search whites reveal bizarre fantasies of black tion for capitalism means above all the for profits is ripping huge holes in the skin color rubbing off on them when production of capital, which in turn ecological fabric — holes in the ozone touched. The psychodynamic connec- (and more profoundly) means the re- layer, holes in the rainforests, holes in tion between these two forms of racism production of capitalist social relation- the webs of animal and plant species, can be intuitively grasped when we ships: paid work and the universal and holes in the census figures around remember that "dirty" in Anglo- market. What is more, said Marx, places like Bhopal or Chernobyl. American culture is a synonym for because profits plateau and decline as Beyond these, capitalist economifcs openly erotic. industries mature, this reproduction also generate behavioral and social depends on "growth." It cannot main- forms of energy unavailable for "work" Social Thermodynamics tain itself in a steady state. Growth for in the other sense of social reproduction. I have said so far is new. Nothing capitalism means more profit for capi- These include property crime from car Less easily recognized is the relationship talists, more work done, more com- burglary to securities fraud; violent how European or Euro- between modities sold — but this depends on crime caused by poverty and frustra- culture understands "dirt" American more people being wage earners and tion; and, in a feedback loop with these, and the thermodynamical principle of commodity consumers, more areas of drug and alcohol addiction. Shifts in entropy as applied to political economy the world and of sociad existence being land and labor prices also engender and culture. brought into the cycle of work-pay-sell- forced migration and homelessness — Thermodynamics defines entropy as buy-profit. Capitalism must, therefore, immense disruptions in demographic a measure of the disorder in a closed convert more and more kinds of human patterns and in people's daily lives. The thermodynamical system. Since no sys- activity into work. other immense disruption, of course, is is 100% efficient, some energy tem While constantly redefining work, war, whether fought directly over mar- eventueilly become unavailable for must capitalism also constantly strives to kets and resources, or over some ethnic (meaning here the self- work reduce the amount of work-time taken rivalry with economic shock and stress reproduction of the system's order). to produce any given commodity — and as a contributing cause. that is not available for work Energy to shorten the time capital needs to maintain order, Yet any thermodynamical system ac- causes disorder. To circulate from work done, via merchan- therefore, system must expel this tually has two options in regard to a dise sold, to profit taken. Consequently disorder. For example, exhaust prod- energy that becomes unavailable for capitalism is, as its publicists never cease ucts (carbon monoxide and dioxide and work: dumping it, or recycling it. ^ Just to remind us, always creating techno- heat) are entropy expelled by a now, capitalism is not doing very well at waste logical revolutions. This technologicail engine to maintain its recycling much of its entropy, especially working auto dynamism means that capitalism con- living the chemical varieties. At recycling order as a system. The human tinually redefines energy as well, which as heat, as excreta people, however, capitalism has always body sheds entropy in a thermodynamic sense means not been unsurpassed. In the fifteenth, (carbon dioxide, sweat and urine), as only power sources but raw materials. carrying dead bacteria and other sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mucus A global system that must perpetually skin cells, and rich English landowners turned many of rejected matter, as dead expand and change in order to survive, of course as shit. their tenants loose because the shift from that is continually creating new techno- societies are organized self- diverse farming to the more profitable Human logies, and that defines work at once so reproducing systems. In principle, then, monoculture of sheep required more narrowly and so broadly, is likely to can be range and fewer workers. They also this thermodynamical model generate many forms of entropy. Most extended to cover any society. What expelled freeholding peasants from tra- obviously, this means all sorts of indus- changes from one to another is the mode ditionally common land they had en- triad waste: "traditional" emissions like therefore what each one closed for their own use. This dumped of order, and heat, carbon dioxide, and soot, an energy. Capitalist surplus population wandered the coun- defines as work and ever-widening rainbow of toxic chemi- industrial society, which engendered tryside as beggars and thieves, causing a cals, and various radiation hazards. in the first perpetual problem for the rural social thermodynamical theory Increasingly such pollutants are rivalled place, defines "real" work as activity that order. Some drifted into the towns, in destructiveness by consumption gives rise to profit and is performed in where they were likewise experienced as waste such as packaging and disposables exchange for money. Activity necessary entropic. But gradueilly, nascent manu- of all sorts, carbon dioxide and nitrous/ for social reproduction that fails to meet facturing began recycling them as nitric oxide from car exhausts, and toxic or of these criteria is experi- wage-workers. Once capitalism in both one both household cleaners. enced as a drain on the system. This agriculture and industry got off the

includes all the work of government, aW This entropic Niagara produces ground in the late eighteenth century, paid nonprofit work such as public other lethal disorders, not least in the the flow of work-energy from the land to education or health care, unpaid cultur- human body. Work-related illnesses the cities became a flood, which contin-

F^PkaCESSECl hJJi:]FMi_ED 3CD ues to this day. differ as to the inner cause of these new cycle starts, moreover, there is a

Capitalism is so effective at recycling crises. All of them, though, appear as a large pool of labor available for new work-energy because it treats work as a situation in which there is plenty of ventures and for expansion. But if the commodity and therefore as abstract. plant and equipment on one side and crisis becomes too deep and prolonged, Kinds of work are interchangeable, plenty of workers on the other, but in like the Great Depression of the '30s, the valued solely according to their ability to which the liquid capital cannot be found human energy made unavailable for produce profit. (Thermodynamics, as to bring the two together. The result is work becomes violently entropic. The the Midnight Notes group has pointed very high rates of both unemployment unemployed and the poor demonstrate out, originated during the same epoch and corporate bankruptcy. and riot; and if they form alliances with as Frederick Taylor's "scientific man- If the crisis is short enough, the effects the employed, as they did then, there is agement," which aimed to break indus- for the system can be quite beneficial; potential for mass strikes and even trial work down into small, mindless and today, governments are able insurrection. Keeping the entropic en- units for greater efficiency.) In fact, through fiscal and monetary policy to ergy of the unemployed and the poor Harry Braverman, David Noble, and manage crisis to capital's advantage, from contaminating the employed others have shown how the whole his- even to bring on recessions at will (as the working class is a continuing project for tory of capitalist technology and man- Federal Reserve did in 1979-82). Per- the system. agement techniques is the effort to make haps the most important benefit of a Dealing Dirt & Getting Shit labor more interchangeable — and controlled crisis is its disciplining of thereby to make workers more dispens- workers. High unemployment makes Having outlined something of the able and less powerful. However, capi- resistance to intensified exploitation dif- range of socially generated entropy and tal's recycling of work-energy runs afoul ficult, and wages can be reduced be- the ways capitalism deals with it, I of the system's periodic crises. Theorists cause workers are desperate. Once the would like to stretch the notion a little

Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington riff on surplus value. further to cover the re3dms of cuhure Sex between men is an abomination. money even if they had the incentive. and the personality. Once again I must Since the accumulation of property is Poverty and forced migration in search retrace some famiUar ground. Capitalist the chief goal of life, lack of respect for of work disrupt familial and communal culture, as the likes of Max Weber and property, such as trespass, is crime on a ties and drive people to theft and R.H. Tawney have demonstrated, rests par with violence against one's betters, prostitution. Drunkenness and senseless on the Protestant revolution of the and theft must be savagely punished. violence are consequences of depriva- sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, The flouting of hierarchy (once feudail- tion and despair. Unlicensed forms of which adapted the basic structures of ism and the Church of Rome have been sexual behavior offer some of the few Judeo-Christian patriarchy to fit new defeated) is likewise a dire threat, as is pleasures that can be had without mon- psychosocial needs. Protestantism, es- the unlicensed use of violence. ey- pecially Calvinism, exalts thrift, the One common way for cultures — and This unruly proletariat, mostly only accumulation of wealth, and hard work. individuals — to deal with anxiety about one generation removed from the coun- into stable That is, it favors the exchange of living forbidden traits or behaviors is to pro- tryside, was only converted a time for congealed dead time in the form ject them outwards as defining attri- and respectable working class through a of commodities and money, which are butes of some demonized Other. As long acculturation. It also involved then accumulated. As a corollary. Prot- capitalism developed through the eight- enormous State violence. In the end, estantism preaches sexual continence, eenth and early nineteenth centuries, relative stability was only achieved by the conservation of erotic energy. Patri- the European and Euro-American introducing machinery that made it archal cultures have often been anxious possible to squeeze more production out about the release of sperm — the Hindu of workers without lengthening the

theory oi prana is one example. But in working day. bourgeois-Protestant culture, sperm is Once the "respectable" working class viewed as a form of capital, which must, was established in the U.S. during the in the seventeenth-century phrase, be last third of the nineteenth century, the "spent" productively in begetting chil- same entropic characteristics were pro- dren. And if sperm is capital, the womb jected onto other Others: onto the for patriarchy has always been land, the lumpenproletariat or criminal classes; realest of real property. By making the onto the Irish; onto immigrants from womb-soil fruitful, the Protestant bour- Southern and Eastern Europe;' onto geois not only continues his bloodline Indians and Mexicans; and above all

— the aim of all patriarchs — but invests and continuously, onto black people. in the future, founds or continues a And, as in the case of the earlier family firm. projection onto the poor, the projective All this requires strict discipline. fantasy was partly self-fulfilling, a mat- Thus, mainline Protestant culture from erialized ill-wish or exorcism. Luther on inculcates hierarchical obedi- There is one cruciad component to ence to one's elders and betters, begin- this exorcism that I have not mentioned: ning with the State — so long as the State dirt. As we have seen, feudalism defined permits one to worship the Protestant dirt (at least on face, hands, or clothes) God and accumulate a Godly fortune. It as a signifier of low social status. The also demands, as Freud saw, deferral of rising capitalist class, by its nature, had gratification to a degree rare in precapi- to be a lot closer to work than had the talist societies, and thus much emotional aristocracy — and it had to reverse the and sensual repression and rechannel- polarity of the aristocracy's disdain for ing. The personality created in this money-grubbing. It developed an even

image is controlled primarily through more passionate aversion to dirt,

guilt, though shame is also an important bourgeoisies came to project entropic summed up in the famous Victorian spur. To inculcate and reinforce self- characteristics onto the poor of their maxim "Cleanliness is next to Godli-

discipline, violence is often necessary. own cities as well as onto the peoples of ness." But feudal dirt differs from capi- As in most patriarchies, death and Africa and India they were colonizing. talist dirt. Feudal dirt is the sign of mutilation are a State monopoly, but "Half devil and half child," Kipling closeness to work and the earth. Capi- lesser violences such as beating are the would call these peoples in "The White talist dirt, being mostly industrial ef- prerogatives of every father-husband. Man's Burden"; but nineteenth-century fluent or the grime of destitution, is

For this configuration, which I will manufacturers said much the same of likewise associated with work — but also call "accumulationist," cultured entropy their workers (many of whom up to the with poverty, waste, and the absence of

consists first of all of "wasteful" or 1860s were actual children). Poor people Protestant bourgeois values. It is, one "unproductive" behavior: free spending were viewed by the propertied classes as might say, visible entropy. Like the rather than saving, sexual promiscuity lazy, promiscuous, larcenous, drunken, poor themselves, dirt is a product of and sensuality, the open expression of and spendthrift. capitalist accumulation that the capital- passionate feeling, and of course lazi- There was truth, of a kind, to the ist class does not want to see or smell. ness. Female sexuality is viewed with stereotype. Long hours of repetitive toil The dirtiest dirt, of course, is shit.

fascinated dread, since it can lead to all produce boredom, exhaustion, and Shit's meaning in capitalist culture, the other forms of cultural disorder, consequent sluggishness. People who however, is profoundly ambiguous. In beginning with illegitimate children. live from week to week cannot save their The Ontogenesis ofMoney, the psychologist

3L. E='i=>h[nc:E5SECI lOJIUF^h-EJ 3C3 Sandor Ferenczi suggests that the anal culture is, notoriously, the behavioral the African traditions they were able to retentive stage of infancy lays the foun- and stylistic norm of the suburb, to retain, created the country's most im- dation for the accumulationist, ex- which even the older, run-down exur- portant—some might say only — change-oriented bourgeois personality. ban developments aspire. It is, besides, indigenous musical forms. When the child being toilet-trained ambience of the modern corporate the Recycling In Mass Culture: The deliberately holds her shit back, she office, where niceness rules — or rather, Case of Black Music gains attention and rewards for releas- is the means of rule. In the white-collar vast ing it at the set time. Thus she learns to workplace everyone must act white: There is no need to rehash the retain, to delay gratification, and to quiet, polite, cheerful, emotionally and continuing expropriation of Afri- exchange one pleasure for another. She masked, sensually numb, perpetually can-American music to the profit of also becomes more self-contained, more busy, willing to tolerate any humiliation (mostly) white-owned capited and for the aware of her own desires as distinct from as long as its done with a smile. entertainment of white audiences. Any- those of others. To the bourgeois un- Controversial topics are rigidly avoided, one with the slightest knowledge of U.S. conscious, then, shit is wealth — but only and the ultimate taboo is discussing music history can cite examples, from when you can't see it. salaries. The excremental significance of the bleaching of Ellington's and Basie's

Bourgeois wealth grows out of shit, money is apparent from the fact that orchestral jazz into bland Glenn Miller- and produces shit. Capitalism, Marx good corporate citizens would rather tell style big-band pop in the '30s and '40s says, creates wealth at one pole of you how much they get laid than how to the endless recycling by white guitar- accumulation and poverty at the other. much they get paid. ists of blues riffs lifted from Robert One could paraphrase this by saying The truth of wealth, however, is Johnson or B.B. King. White baby- that capitalist accumulation produces made historically manifest in the prolet- boomers howl with outrage when the order at one pole and entropy at the ariat, the class of shitworkers. These are rock anthems of their adolescence are other — or else organized shit (capital) at the people who are supposedly only fit converted into commercials; but this is one pole and disorganized shit (misery for what the sociology texts call super- much the same experience that black and pollution) at the other. The sym- vised routine tasks, which means musicians and audiences have been bolic shittiness of wealth is the dirty numbingly dull, frequently health- having for nearly a century. (Michael secret of white-capitalist-patriarchal damaging drudgery — not only in the Jackson represents the paroxysm of this culture. Milan Kundera, in The Unbear- factory but at the keyboard and behind process: an African-American who tries able Lightness of Being, says that kitsch is the counter. Their energy is made to eradicate from his face and body the the denial of shit. In the Stalinist available for work only by fierce eco- traces of race while producing a color- Czechoslovakia of which Kundera was nomic compulsion backed up by a blind dance music ingeniously con- writing, "shit" meant secret police, po- never-ending bombardment of ideolo- structed out of all the hot pop trends of recycling it litical prisoners, few choices, shortages, gy, beginning in schools whose function the moment — and then stupid jobs, pollution; "kitsch" meant is to convince them they are incapable of almost immediately into ad jingles.) red flags flying, patriotic songs and anything else. You ain't shit, the Amer- Viewed from a cultural-thermo- icons of Lenin, hymns to industry and ican insult goes, meaning you are the dynamic perspective, this expropriation progress. In market-capitalist societies lowest of the low. Eat shit and like it. appears if anything even more horri-

"shit" means violence, apolitical prison- Shit is processed or disposed of by fic. We see a dominant culture and ers, meaningless choices, poverty, stu- inferiors who are contaminated by it, political economy that imported Afri- pid jobs, pollution; "kitsch" means who metaphorically eat it, and who cans as slaves, worked them to death, shopping malls, sitcoms, blockbuster metonymically (by association) become bred them like animals, tortured them comic-book movies, advertising, telec- it. in every conceivable way for two cen- toral pseudopolitics. In either case, No surprise, then, that black people turies. Then for another century and a kitsch — formulaic, sentimental, one- have always been at or near the bottom half this culture and politicad economy dimensional, cosily reassuring even at of the proletarian heap in the US. systematically exploited the descendants its sexiest or most brutal — serves to Occupying at best the next level up — or of the slaves as the lowest shitworkers, conceal shit, which is why it is one- in many places the same level — are denying them economic opportunity dimensional. Indians, Mexicans, Central Americans, and political rights wherever possible, Besides the usual late-capitalist shit, and Puerto Ricans, also in the racist meanwhile projecting onto them its own white kitsch in the United States is also, mind shit-colored. Just above them are repressed fears and furies, loathings and as noted earlier, a denial of original the poor white trash, another entropy- longings. At the same time, this social crime — genocide and slavery — and of word. All are to this day routinely order extracted from African-Americans the fact that, as Harold Cruse put it in represented as dishonest, loud- the brilliant music and language they "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual," mouthed, lazy, lustful, stupid, booze- created as a way of surviving their "the white Protestant Anglo-Saxon in and-drugsodden brutes. The psychic misery. It is as if the Nazis had, while America has nothing in his native consequences of this projection onto gassing the Jews and extracting their American tradition that is aesthetically working-class people, and especially gold teeth, sold off the artwork they had and culturally originad, except that onto women and African-Americans, created in the camps, and marketed which derives from the Negro presence." are devastating. Yet these despised recordings of the string quartets they White (not European) American accu- creatures have been a prime source of had formed there to entertain the

mulationist culture is defined by its utter capitalist wealth. guards.

blandness and avoidance of controversy This wealth is not only economic but But how did African-American cul-

or risk, by its cleanliness-as-absence. cultural. To give only the most familiar ture become — at least in watered-down This blandest-common-denominator example: black people, working from forms — not merely acceptable to U.S.

F>G=sac:Ea5Ea LuaFSk-Ci 3C3 commercial mass culture but central to behind the phobic prose of contempora- tue. As Stewart and Mary Ewen have it, its semi-occult driving force? As I ry conservative and neoliberal pundits. shown, advertising between the wars have tried to show, the accumulationist Yet the image is also vitally important to (and well into the '50s for some prod- personality structure is profoundly hos- African-American tradition — and has ucts) played on the insecurities in this tile to "Blackness" as white people read been attractive to a minority of whites. social personality: anxiety about dirt into/project onto ?/ — shamelessly sensual Numerous versions of the Staggerlee and pollution, work ethic, desire to and hedonistic, incipiently violent and tale appeared in blues of the '20s. emulate the next income level up, need uncontrollable. It is also hostile to the Muddy Water's classic urban blues to conform. Ford cars (always black) culture black people have themselves "Rolling Stone" represented a less vi- were initially sold as a more efficient experienced and created. This culture is olent version of this character, inspiring form of transportation, refrigerators a far more complex amalgam of traits, not only the name of one of the most (always white) as promoters of hygiene one that varies widely by class, caste, famous bands in rock history and that of and order. and region and that includes distinct the pioneer counterculture-corporate But already another set of buttons was patterns of emotional revelation and fusion magazine, but also numerous being pushed. In The Road to Wigan Pier, concealment, anger and tenderness, lesser rock songs of the '50s and '60s, of published in 1937, George Orwell noted community and individuality, reason which "The Wanderer" is as good an how English working-class youth were and intuition. One major factor under- example as any. Greil Marcus points opting for colorful, stylish, if shoddily lying its common differences from out in Mystery Train that Staggerlee- made clothing rather than the somber Euro-American cultures may be the Rolling Stone appeals positively to but durable uniforms worn by their preservation of African cultural traits, whites as well as blacks because he is a elders. Though they wore out quickly, in particular the communal and ecstatic crudely antithetical but powerful image such glad rags were cheap enough that character of West African religion. But of freedom both for adolescent boys and new and fashionable ones could be black culture is not simply — or even at for shitworking, shit-eating men of any bought easily. Like their U.S. counter- this point primarily — transplanted Afri- color. The popularity of ultraviolent, parts, these young people liked to can-ness. As Stanley Crouch has con- misogynistic "gangsta" rap among white dance, mostly to jazz and big-band troversially pointed out, it is, like U.S. suburban teenage boys probably stems swing, and their dancing was becoming culture in its entirety, a mulatto phenom- from analogous causes, including the increasingly wild. They went to the enon.* excruciating boredom of their milieu movies and did their best to imitate the Black culture has been created under and the dismal future most face as images of glamor and romance they saw the pressure of African-American peo- adults. there. ple's situation within the within U.S.— Breaking Loose vs. Hanging Tight The new consumption and leisure whiteness. Under this pressure, exerted habits growing among late Depression- at first through slavery and later Such sensational use of negatively era young people foreshadowed the through institutions such as schooling, signed images of black life merely tips direction merchandising was to take African-Americans have continually an iceberg. Blackness, in the dual sense after World War II. The sober accumu- transformed what they have been able to in which I have employed the term, has lationist consumerism of the previous preserve of their own heritage: for been appropriated more broadly by the generation was no longer enough to example, shifting African linguistic culture industry. In my view this is absorb the vast output of increasingly forms into English to create black ver- owing to a profound and deepening automated mass production, which had nacular. At the same time they have contradiction in capitalist culture and learned unprecedented efficiency while absorbed influences and materials not economy since the '20s. In order to making weapons. To achieve the neces- only from Euro-America but from Na- expand after World War I, U.S. busi- sary speed of turnover, consumer goods tive people and from Mexico and the ness needed new mass markets for generally had to become matters of Caribbean, producing one of the richest consumer goods. To create these mar- fashion, as they had always been for the and most complex cultures in the world. kets within the U.S. it had to stimulate aristocracy and the upper reaches of the The pressure has also taken commercial in huge masses of people what John bourgeoisie. By the late '50s, this meant form, the more so as institutional racism Maynard Keynes, the great economic the application of planned obsolescence, has become subtler in its strategies. strategist of mid-century capitalism, previously confined to items like nylons, Countless black musicians, dancers, ac- called the "propensity to consume." The light bulbs, and razor blades, to durable tors, and even writers have had to flavor most immediate aim was to sell the goods like automobiles and vacuum their work to white tastes in order to consumer durables that could now be cleaners. At the level of advertising, it survive, often concealing subversive turned out cheaply en masse using the meant that desire of all sorts had to be content through a "signifying" process. assembly-line methods developed by stimulated. Accumulationist repression A complex and revealing example is Henry Ford. This strategy, known to was loosened, and the exploitation of the various uses made of the myth of many analysts as Fordism, aimed at a hedonist impulses, begun cautiously in "Staggerlee," the footloose, fearless, de- car in every garage and a refrigerator in certain market sectors before the war, fiantly individualistic black man who every kitchen, bought with the wages accelerated. hustles his way through life, loving earned producing the cars and refriger- This hedonist ascendance can be women, siring children, and dealing ators. viewed as a partial reappropriation of ruthlessly with his enemies — including, At first, Fordist consumerism could shadow characteristics banished from in later variants, the white sheriff. This be consistent with the accumulationist the white accumulationist social person- figure, of course, is the ultimate racist social personality (as it still is to some ality—more open sexuality and sensual- nightmare and justification, the specter extent). Every worker could assume the ity, orientation toward immediate looming over a thousand lynchings and trappings of Property, hallmark of vir- rather than deferred gratification.

P'F^CICEaSEED kJjaFSk_Cl 3CD '

"flaunting" rather than reticence in per- sonal style, propensity to spend and consume rather than save and acquire. But such tendencies were in sharp contradiction to the accumulationist values that still dominated political, religious, and civic discourse as well as much advertising. The collision between accumulation- ist and hedonist messages helps to explain the sheer weirdness of later '50s mass culture: the heavy, finned cars like space fortresses in pastel colors; the demurely sexy TV moms mopping the kitchen floor in tight sweaters and high heels; and of course Elvis on the Ed 't> Sullivan Show with his gyrating hips blacked out. Another indicator of the change was the literally Biblical circula- tion enjoyed by Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, which advocated accommo- dation to the child's own physiological "I LOVE THE SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS and developmental rhythms in toilet training rather than the rigid timeta- tion. They also consistently projected created the counter-culture. To some bling practiced by previous generations. their own hedonist values onto black extent the transmission was direct, via A large minority of the generation of culture, in a partial inversion of the the white student veterans of the South- whites that grew up in consumerist psychic shit-dumping practiced by the ern voter registration campaigns. For (relative) abundance partly absorbed the majority. The '20s Bohemians who many more young middle-class whites, hedonist messages but by and large flocked to Harlem saw jazz as exotic, it came via the televised images of rejected the accumulationist ones. That wild, primitive, an image of the escape thousands of black people standing up to is, they synthesized from pleasure- they sought from white bourgeois clubs, dogs, firehoses, bullets, and fire- oriented advertising and the "imaginary" mores. In the '50s, the Beats who bombs and refusing to back down. of rock'n'roll a notion of freedom that congregated around bebop musicians These images, contradicting everything implied the absence of hierarchical ac- admired the spontaneity in their impro- they had been taught, not only filled countability (say, to a parent or a boss) visations, but often failed to recognize them with anger and a desire for social or customary commitment (say, to a the mastery of an entire musical lan- justice, but offered them, however va- spouse). Perhaps even more important, guage developed over generations that guely, a model of revolt, oi another way to they absorbed images of satisfaction that made the spontaneity possible. be. Even where this revolt took off in focused on abandonment to experience At about the same time, working- quietist (Orientadizing-meditative) or rather than acquisition of goods, on the class Southern whites like Elvis were self-destructive (drug-abusing) direc- present rather than the future. To blending with white country music the tions, it was given much of its initial paraphrase the old ad-man's saying, jump blues they heard in black juke kick by African-American rebellion — they wanted the sizzle without buying joints — while still talking about "nig- anticipated and transmitted in the mu- the steak. In the context of the times, gers." As Greil Marcus puts it, "Even if latto music of rock'n'roll. this hedonist gestalt fused temporarily Elvis' South was filled with Puritans, it From the early rock'n'roll period with social idealism and a will to was also filled with hedonists, and the through about 1970, the two curves, experimentation in daily life to help same people were both." Rock'n'roll was hedonism and black influence, moved create what Theodore Roszak called the born. Black-derived music (and music intermittently close together, exchang- counter-culture. by actual black performers) was provid- ing energy via figures such as Chuck Alongside the ascending curve of ing the soundtrack for hedonist market- Berry, Elvis, and later Jimi Hendrix hedonism rose another, in complex ing strategies; and the soundtrack itself and Sly Stone. Yet despite its partial relation to it. Ever since the Jazz Age, was becoming a hugely lucrative com- rejection of white accumulationist val- the appropriation of African-American modity in its own right. ues and behavior — and much superficial music and style into U.S. mass culture The new energy of post-World War II admiration for "spades" — the counter- had been on the increase. This appro- black popular music, though, was in culture remained overwhelmingly priation, to be sure, was mediated by part political, or at any rate prepolitical. Euro-American. Its music, while still

the culture industry, which bleached it Even as rhythm and blues evolved in blues-based, was leagues away in feeling for Euro-American tastes. However, complex feedback loops between Mem- from the black pop of the period, significant minorities of whites always phis, New Orleans, and Chicago, the typified by Motown, which smoothed managed to gain access to the real thing. ground was being laid for the Mont- out Gospel into sweet, danceable cross- In this way they served unwittingly as gomery, Alabama bus boycott of 1955 over tunes. Sly and the Family Stone feeders of new trends to the industry, and the decade-long explosion that fol- were virtually alone in synthesizing the rather as Bohemian types open up lowed. This explosion, the Civil Rights two strains of cultural energy, in a string marginal neighborhoods to gentrifica- movement, was the other force that of hits that carried the band to Wood-

F'F^aiZESSECI LJjaFNk-E3 3(3 a*? stock in 1969. sabotage, absenteeism, and wildcat Hedged in by new legislation and hostile Then, in 1971-3, fueled by the last strikes spread through the U.S. econo- courts and bureaucracies, strikes were surge of Black Power and the politiciz- my. These waves were initiated espe- made virtually illegal. The centers of ing of the white counter-culture via the cially by black workers, who had formed industriad power that Fordism had anti-war movement, black musicians their own semilegal shop-floor organi- created were scattered one after anoth- briefly took over the pop airwaves with zations to resist the racism of both their er, as the Smokestack Belt became the exciting, chzdleriging, politically potent supervisors and their unions and the Rust Belt. Second-wave feminism, songs: Edwin Starr's "War," Marvin superexploitation to which they were which had started out with radical Gaye's "Inner City Blues," War's "The often consigned. They were increasingly criticisms of the ruling order, had World Is A Ghetto," to name a few. joined in their rebellion by newly urba- already been sidetracked into opportu- Among these songs was the Tempta- nized "white trash" workers, as well as nity ideology for professional-class tion's grim, eerie "Papa Was A Rollin' by urban working-class freaks who had women on the one hand, and "cultural Stone," which brilliantly critiqued the drifted back into the factories. Hedonist feminist" separatism on the other. Now Staggerlee myth even as it acknowl- mass culture and its counterculturcil the brief surge of woman-oriented of- edged the myth's basis in reality. In the offshoots had combined with African- fice-worker organizing that began in the songj a black mother gathers her chil- American revolt and the weakening of late '70s was hcdted. A ferocious assault on "entitlements" and social programs

was launched. Real wages fell, even as The history of black people in the U.S. also teaches housing prices soared. The shift of capital from industrial investment to Euro-Americans that their whiteness is not an "ethnicity" frenzied speculation began. Capital's but a dominance category and a denial mechanism; in bipolar shit-machine went into high gear, spewing money and obedience out other words, that it is empty of everything but power of one end and every sort of entropic and forgetting. foulness and horror out of the other. Cultural control was also being re- established. A version of the accumula- tionist social personality was set up as dren at the grave of their absent father, economic compulsion to make more and the norm by closing the loop between and they want to know more about him. more social and cultural energy literally accumulation and pleasure, by making "When he died, all he left us was sdone," unavailable for work. Fordism was shat- the process of accumulation the supreme she replies. At a cultured node where tered. pleasure. Like the miswired psychopath white notions of "Blackness" and white The early-to-mid-'70s, in fact, in The Terminal Man, who gets an men's escape fantasies fed on actual marked a point of real danger for orgasmic rush from the implant in his black experience and black men's fanta- capitalism in the developed countries. brain whenever he murders, the looter- sies about themselves, the Temptations But crises are the ether thing capitalism heroes of '80s casino capitalism shud- were cutting one pipeline while pouring has always been good at recycling. The dered with ecstasy as they made killings truth down another. Hitherto, the cul- threatening entropic energy of the oil on the market. Most white proletarians, ture industry's selective appropriation of shock and the Third World debt crisis in their solidary links with fellow-workers black culture had mostly been limited to 1974-6 was turned, with the aid of weakened, terrorized by the prospect of those features that could be fitted, computers and telecommunications, homelessness, fell easy prey to vertical however incompletely, into the hedonist into a global reorganization of the identification with the rich and with the gestalt. The cultural-political surge of system. The oil-price recession of 1974 nation-state. The Reagans presided the early '70s both allowed black artists began the process of restoring work over this Scheissjest as the wish-dream of to speak and perform more freely and discipline, especially through the hys- the ageing white suburban middle class opened a channel wide enough that their terical atmosphere of scarcity created by — old but looking good, rich but re- newly undiluted music directly touched the mass media and by such measures as laxed, stylish but virtuous. more whites than ever before. gasoline rationing. Meanwhile, U.S.- This breaching of the cultural fire- based multinationals intensified their The Global Dump walls was preceded and accompanied by export of capitzd — and of what had been The new phase of capital accumula- a massive breakdown of work discipline. high-wage manufacturing jobs — to the tion that began around 1979 is charac- The postwar boom was the first (and Asian Pacific Rim and Latin America. terized, as theorists like David Harvey only) period in which capital had tried to Still, inflation, bane of the accumula- have noted, by its great flexibility and manage labor under conditions of gen- tionist mindset, continued to eat away at unprecedented global reach. These are erzdized abundance, in which the spur of U.S. capital assets until the Federal made possible by the new power and destitution was softened by near-full Reserve raised interest rates in 1979, cheapness of computers and by the employment and by social welfare pro- causing unemployment to soar as sever- speed of worldwide telecommunica- grams. The experiment failed. From al jolts of recession shot through the tions, as well as by the breaking of about 1967 on, the colorful revolt of the economy. working-class power in the developed counter-culture. Black Power, and the The result was that millions of work- countries. Capital, in the form of mon- mass movement against the Vietnam ers, especially black ones, were tossed ey, materials, and product specifica- War both concealed and helped propa- out of the factories while the remainder tions, can be switched around the planet gate a revolt on the job. Beginning were bullied into line, their already so fast that no existing worker strategies mainly in the auto industry, waves of sclerotic and corrupt unions broken. or organizations can keep pace. As

F>FM=IEZE5SiEEl LJjaE^h_a 3C3 Harvey puts it in The Condition of they are bribed to become disposal sites W.E.B. Dubois on sax Postmodernity, "The same shirt designs for toxic waste. More subtly but just as can be produced by large-scale factories devastatingly, they have been victims of in India, cooperative production in the the economic entropy dumped on them 'Third Italy,' sweatshops in New York by a global system convulsing itself in and London, or family labor systems in the effort to boost profit rates and locate Hong Kong." capital for investment — as artificizilly Capital's new freedom of action gen- depressed prices for raw materials, as erates unprecedented amounts of social mountains of debt, and finally as IMF- and ecological entropy. Developing imposed "austerity" plans. This trans- countries have not been able to afford lates to the dumping of millions of much in the way of environmental or former peasants into the shanty-towns worker protection, because their indus- that ring Third World cities. tries have lacked the economies of scale Each of these excretive processes has and technologically based productivity its analogy in poor African-American that would allow them to compete and Latino neighborhoods. Not only are successfully with transnational corpora- toxic-waste sites and polluting factories tions even in their own markets. Now, concentrated in or near them, but the desperate for investment, they are per- misery and poor education of many of mitting the transnationzils to draw on their residents is being exploited by drug their pools of underemployed cheap merchants legal and illegad, who are labor while benefiting from the lower dumping their merchandise — operating costs imposed by their largely principally tobacco, alcohol, and co- unregulated economies. The result is caine—there as middle-class suburban the pollution and hopeless overcrowding markets soften. Meanwhile, with the cities — shit jobs. of places like Mexico City or Sao Paolo exception of the "Great Society" period All this, following on other adapta- on one side, and the deforestation of under Lyndon Johnson, these neigh- tions forced by the history of slavery and Southeast Asia or the Amazon Basin on borhoods have been systematically then by the constant brutal pressures of the other. starved of resources — as Federal hous- poverty and discrimination that fol- Both the sale of toxic or hazardous ing-loan policies virtually bribed whites lowed, has allowed white projections a commodities and the disposal of wastes to abandon the inner cities while delib- limited basis in reality — the materieJ- are often referred to as dumping — m the erately preventing blacks from doing so, ized ill- wish I spoke of earlier. To grasp U.S., also a slang term for shitting. as industry followed the whites into the this idea, suppose a woman's face has

Dumping is a central process of post- suburbs over the next twenty years, as after repeated beatings healed with a Fordist capital.' The developed coun- financial institutions redlined the neigh- bent nose, accretions of scar tissue, and tries' relationship to the periphery (in- borhoods into slums, and as social broken veins. Suppose also that unde- cluding their own "underdeveloping" programs and public education have rstandably, her habitual expression is regions and populations) is not merely been sliced to ribbons over the last one of bitterness and anger. Then exploitative and extractive, but excretive. decade. Finally, it is much of the black suppose that the woman is forced by her Peripheral countries are used for partic- and Latino working class itself that has abuser to wear a translucent mask that ularly hazardous kinds of production, been dumped, flushed down the toilet, grotesquely exaggerates every result of like the pesticides Union Carbide was as its unreliable work-energy has been her injuries to create a laughable and making at Bhopal. Also, they are sold expelled from the wage system. Now frightening caricature, obliterating the "discount" merchamdise no longer salea- these workers are recycled as low-octane beauty and strength that persist under ble in the countries of its manufacture fuel in the sweatshops that bring one the scars. because of toxicity or other hazards; and final excremental insult to the inner One example of this caricatured

TWISTED IMAGE -y AceBachwords

f^iOO -SHOULP BE GRAT£F<;i> THIS IS AM EXCELLENT ^ ^VA'KHOW... S0KIETIK1E5 I > WfRE GWlNlG So) THIS JOB OPPOjnuMirV FOR 4oU TO THINK THESt BLACKS JUST THE aEf\NirJG OP OUR MESSES!!^ Efim SUBSISTENCE IA/A6ES HAVE NO RESPECT ^0^ MA|£^ With 2ER0 Possibilities AMERICAN WORK ETHIC, For promotion/ or securitv'

PF^aciEsaEa kJjae=sh_D acD '

TWISTED IMAGE by Ace Dackwords m^ VOU'U BE QOtm HAPPV TO KNdW VdO have MV CoMftETT SUPWTT IM YOOR STROeOE A5 AN OPPBESSEP BUWCftNERlCA -m Oimoi^ THE IfJSlDlOOS EFFECTS of RWAL STIOO; -rVPfNd A5 VteU Y«RH 78 B£ FRFf./^

semi-reality is black extended family revived "Staggerlee" image of the ruth- organized revolt, typically provoked by networks, in which children have been less, sociopathic black criminal, most (and provoking) economic and political somewhat more likely than their white recently personified in Willie Horton, crisis. But even this energy can be counterparts to be raised by a relative has proved a reliable way to drill white harnessed, if its own interned organiza- other than their biological parents, and working people into alliance with their tion and scale does not carry it beyond in which fathers have (supposedly) been exploiters and to suppress the possibility the terms of capitalist social relation- more often absent. This difference is of a cross-racial class alliance. Audi- ships. The long and bitter struggle of routinely inflated by racist demagogues, ence-participation "verite" cop shows like nineteenth-century wage-slaves to starting with the liberal Daniel Patrick America's Most Wanted, whose viewers shorten the working day proved a huge Moynihan, into the irresponsible, licen- work as snitches to turn in alleged spur to mechanization, which in turn tious "pathology" of the black family, criminals, promote vertical identifica- made possible the opening up of vast responsible for most ills of the "under- tion with the State and the police. The new markets and, arguably, the survival class." Yet as similar sorts of prolonged LAPD trial, depending as it did on a of the system for another century. economic dislocation, insecurity, and negrophobic and authoritarian reading Likewise, the containment of the indus- hopelessness hit white working-class of the Rodney King tape, can be seen as trial revolts of the '30s within the CIO people, their family structures and child- an extension of these shows into the unionization drive facilitated the shop- rearing practices have begun to alter in courtroom. In the stop-motion ritualis- floor discipline needed to produce for the same ways. (There are certainly tic dance video the prosecution made of World War II and the Fordist deal that more white deadbeat dads than black the tape, violence was slowed down until came after, in which intensified work ones.) What's more, the "pathologist" the viciousness of the cops faded and and longer hours were traded for wage commentators make little mention of the was replaced by the threat conjured increases. evident familial loyalty and devotion of from King's every movement. The case of the black rebellion of the black alternative childrearers like aunts 60s and 70s is more complex. To some Conclusion: Fucking Shit Up and grandmothers. extent, the U.S. capitalist class has been

Another example is the higher per Where a margin of profit or political able to channel the rebellion's energy capita rates of crime by black people, gain is foreseeable, capitalism tries to into a spectacle of "equal opportunity" asserted by these same apologists to be reabsorb or recycle energy that has and tolerance built on the civil rights part of the "underclass pathology"; a become unavailable for work. The waste legislation passed between 1959 and more reasonable explanation is the de- recycling and pollution cleanup indus- 1975, with additional use being made of crepit public education in the inner tries are the most obvious examples, but a suitably edited icon of Dr. Martin cities and the catastrophic levels of the ways deviant subcultures are "recy- Luther King Jr. But this spectacle unemployment faced by young black cled" into commercial fashion are prob- masks a vicious if politically useful men. (At the height of the Civil Rights ably more economically important. division of the African-American popu- movement in the early to mid-1960s, in When recycling does not seem desira- lation into "middle-class" workers on the a surge of hope and social solidarity, ble, capitalism does its best to make the one hand and "ghetto" poor on the other, crime fell by as much as half in many energy unusable for any alternate sys- most of whom are still working for black communities.) tem or order — that is, an order outside wages, but much lower ones. Also, of

Both the fatherless or matriarchal the circuits of corporate power and course, money is being made off the black family and black criminality have money value. This tendency is visible in resurgence of Black Nationadist ideology been the raw material for countless a thousand petty and gross acts of waste, among rap groups like Public Enemy. movies and TV shows during the last from tearing the covers off unsold books But by and large it is the second twenty-five years, in what Ishmael Reed to destroying "surplus" agricultural tendency that has been followed: to aptly calls "black pathology entertain- commodities that could feed tens of make surplus African-American prolet- ment." This is how poverty-entropy and thousands of hungry people. arians unavailable for any other order crime-entropy are recycled by capital as The single most dangerous form of by allotting them social conditions so social and ideological terrorism. The entropy for capitalism is large-scale intolerable that they collectively self-

PB^aEZEaSED hJJOi^k_E] 3CD destruct through addiction, alcoholism, bodies exist to enforce, and this choice is and hope, an emblem of the fruitful psychosis, hypertension, internecine vi- what we must collectively refuse. disorder to come. olence, and imprisonment. Both the How can we refuse it? The history of —Adam Cornford success and the limits of this strategy can black people in the U.S. also teaches to Shit be seen in the L.A. uprising. Euro-Americans that their whiteness is Footnotes

As various black radicals have long not an "ethnicity" but a dominance 1. See Marlon Riggs' excellent documentary Ethnic Notions for a powerful introduction to the stereotypes. pointed out, the system's treatment of category and a denial mechanism; in 2. The biosphere can be viewed as a vast web of is black people is the extreme case — and other words, that it empty of every- recycling loops, centered on plants' recycling of atmos- pheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. The chief testing ground — of what it is doing to all thing but power and forgetting. This form in which entropy is dumped from the biosphere is been doing to all forgetting really only benefits the few at of us, and has heat radiated into outer space. working-class people for generations. the top of the social pyramid, and must 3. Only thirty years ago, as Micaela DiLeonardo Conversely, African-Americans provide be reproduced by a constant blizzard of points out, pundits and sociologists were describing working-class Italian-Americans in almost identical examples of how "white noise" in the mass media, as well countless brilliant terms to those in which they describe working-class people can recycle the shit dumped on as by every mechanism of geographical, African-Americans today. 4. This may appear to contradict what I said earlier them into an ailternate order for them- educational, and economic segregation about white accumulationist culture; actually it confirms bring to bear. Whenever selves, as speech, as art, and as strategy. the system can it. All over the Americas, light skinned elites that can African America's unabsorbed, vivid, whiteness starts to break down, as it did pass for "pure" European are hysterical in their desire to separate themselves in every way from Blackness; their rich, poor, damaged, surviving pres- during the "Sixties," danger looms for negative self-definition as un-black is part of the mulatto

ence is a constant reminder that capital- the system, because new forms of order, experience — as is, sadly, the Black middle-class desire to assimilate. ism depends for its daily perpetuation involving the refusal of work and the J 5. Check out, for example. Chuck Berry's "Too Much conceiv- direct assertion of collective need, tend on brutalizing people in every Monkey Business." able way — and that this brutalization to appear. The young "whites" in their 6. The "Murphy Brown" affair is instructive. Hysteri- cal conservatives like Dan Quayle view the tendency to can be resisted. Capitalism's central reversed baseball caps and baggy shorts single-parent families and deadbeat absentee fathers as streets brutality consists in forcing people to who ran furiously through the an infection bubbling up from the Black underclass choose between giving up most of their after the LAPD verdict was announced, sewage. Some liberal and even "feminist" commentators, on the other hand, distinguish "responsible" white upper- lives to mind-numbing, body- who cheerfully looted supermarkets middle-class single parents like the fictional Murphy destroying toil or scrabbling for scraps alongside their black and Latino neigh- Brown from irresponsible, pathological underclass ones, breeding at the taxpayer's expense. Evidently parenting like rats in a garbage heap. This choice bors, had for the time being ceased to be is to be another right, like most rights in the U.S., that white. To me they are a source of pride is what the LAPD and all its kindred only money can buy.

Bud Powell's spirit laughing at the Big Stick, Birmingham AL 1963.

F*i=SaE::E55ED kUOF^k-O 3CD L.L everyone out of your way, I thought.)

Blocked by her hyperactive pace, I loaded my camera: THRIFTERS: "The shape, the size, that color," she began in a staccato Spanish accent which made me pay more attention

simply because I liked the sound of her Second-Hand Shit words. "It reminded me of one my grandmother kept next to the wicker hamper in her first-floor bathroom. My

grandfather tossed loose change into it while cleaning out his pants pockets

after long days at the deli. I had to have

it! I found it at a garage sale down the We take shelter in the glory of our the one I wanted. There was a table block from my house where almost beneath it with baskets of cosmetic weekly a tye-dyed couple sets up for rage because sometimes the remedy is jewelry, moldy hardback how-to books, sale. I noticed it as they were filing in worse than the disease. and boxes of old board games: Monop- folded chairs and card tables, boxes of oly, Shoots & Ladders, Life. I glanced books, t-shirts and china dolls. My little I have no excuse to be here, at my watch and cut the browsing. find rested on top of a box of bleached Again, I was running late. Locating the sheets. I was so excited I pointed at it but I hold the camera that, for t-shirt, I asked to pull it down and and screamed. me, brings it back to me. pinched its bottom hem as I pointed to "How much, huh? How much ya

In the dark now, sweepers pick up it. From behind my right shoulder, a want for that there?" their last piles, toss them shovel over woman pushed ME down and back, her Her voice became more charismatic arm into black plastic trash bags and hand snagging the shirt from its hook. as her body narrated along. Her passion leave, yawning. gave her syllables more stress. She stretched

I snap sporadic candids. A faint throb out her arm, forefinger pointing like the where pulses meet . . . conductor of some psychedelic orches-

I did have a foreboding a few months tra. "How much, huh? How much ya ago. Once, at a co-op health food store, want for that there?" I can see her now. two women pulled each other's hair in She continued: "I must have fright- my peripheral view. I found them I began to wonder if ened them a bit because they jumped arguing over a used plastic bag fallen at there was a sign on and turned around to catch their bal- our feet. Each claimed she had carried it ance on the bannister. But I was from home for the ten-cents-a-bag dis- my back that read determined, and they could tell." count for reusing plastic. She had that thrifter's look which "I've reused mine nine times." "I shop "Tell me your made her eyes drift frantically from here every week — they know me and my table to table. It was as though a bags." "Oh yeah? Prove it!" favorite consumer perfect-purchaser's-wind-up-knob was Today brought up deeper impressions story today!" wound too tightly on the back of her cutting to the heart of reason. As a head. Those eyes justified a necessary photographer, I am caught in that world purchase with some fabricated historical where conflict is focusable. significance. Those eyes were the voy-

Still, I'll plead extenuating circum- euristic casualties of shell-shocked con- stance. sumerism. She was determined, I could

At first, three were there besides me. tell that much. I sat down on my feet I found the garage sale by mistake, "That's mine!" she insisted. She was in and watched. having exited one street too soon in a brown polyester bus driver's uniform, "They said they promised one another search of a friend's new apartment. I apparently on a break. "I want that for they wouldn't sell anything past four. noticed a long wall of draped t-shirts in my nephew. I saw it first." What was left over this week they various colors. As I parked to the wall's No problem, I thought, and raised wanted to donate to the Salvation

far right side, I spotted a shirt I had my arms in surrender. I asked the man Army. 'You have too much stuff, I been looking for since the shoot in the behind the table if he had another said. They have too much stuff. I park last summer, a free concert in somewhere, but he just shook his head, offered $15.00 although between you

celebration of Black History Month. I not in a "no" gesture or a "yes" gesture and me, it was only worth 5 or 6. They

decided to check out the price and for that matter, but kind of a yes/no-all couldn't refuse. As they wrapped it in possibly find a tacky but nostalgic gift as -around-the-neck movement. Then he paper, they said the only use they got

a house-warming treat. walked away. The woman with the shirt out of it was for burning incense. The

The t-shirt was black. Pitch black. continued her shopping attack on me by layered ash did give it some antique look

Like tar. The only design was on the walking around in circles, back and until I cleaned it and had it appraised. front: a red star circling red lettering forth in front of the table. She began to that read: "Rock Against Racism." tell me stories of other shopping adven- "It took me a week to decide where to

I wandered the wall before asking for tures and bargains. (Yeah, by pushing place it. It was too tall for the coffee table.

L.2 F>FM=IC:E55ED LJJOE^h_ED ac3 The beige patio furniture matched its "Hey!" I lifted my head and yelled often do in crowds: I snapped the coloring but there was always the chance behind her. "What IS IT anyway?" She camera. of rain. It didn't match my kitchen's couldn't hear me. Or didn't want to. She I snapped their hands, their arms, orange-and-green fruit-basket wallpa- walked on chatting to herself and touch- that reaching, their excited eyes. I per, and my bedroom, which I like bare ing everything in her reach. snapped until I bumped into a tall mam and uncluttered, was out of the ques- Objects piled in her arched arms. in a blue pin-striped suit, with dread- tion. No one would see it in there. So, When I looked up, more people had locks that hung like cigars over his finally, after a week of placing it here, surrounded the table and wall. Various shoulders. putting it there, even hanging it from a people with various looks touching, "Excuse me," I stuttered. plant hook in the ceiling, I decided a feeling, even smelling and turning "Oh — no problem," his voice an- more subtle approach would work. I things around and around, checking it swered in a giddy high but a light- figured that every guest pees on the all out at different angles, bartering with hearted change from the noise anxiety I average of at least once in a two-hour the man behind the table whose eyes felt. visit. So, I put it on the back of the toilet gradually sunk above the flimsy brown- He pointed to a "Share the Earth" when entertaining male friends and to ing circles beneath them. t-shirt with lettering sketched to resem- the right of the door if female friends I couldn't tell if I was delirious from ble branches and ivy projecting outward arrive. If the guests are a little of each, I printing late into the night, or if there toward the shirt's edge that veered place it according to whom I want to was some hidden agenda or theatrical slightly to the back. "Isn't this great?" he impress." She takes a deep breath, performance about to begin. The set asked. smiles, and curls the t-shirt into her seemed unnatural. Staged. Robotic. "Nice," was all I could get out. folded arms at her chest. Hands and arms reaching. People "I think I'll buy it now to give to my

I couldn't help but ask: "What hap- watching without looking at each other. niece this Christmas. I always complete pens when you're alone?" Hustling. Shoving. Holding their deci- my shopping by Thanksgiving. And "Oh!" she perked up, excited at my sions firmly in the closed curve between you?" I interest. "I shift it with my moods. Yes. their biceps and ribs. Their sometimes Before could answer, he rolled off I It's nice that it moves. So, finally after a simple movements grew into militant into Storyville. began to wonder if week of that, I returned to work." aggressive actions. I became paranoid, there was a sign on my back that read She said this as she walked down the nervous that someone would get hurt, or "Tell me your favorite consumer story table, glaring up and down, back and the silent man behind the table would today!"

forth. I sat back on my ass, put my chin lose all patience and fall beneath their "The first time I picked it up, it was as to my knees, and thought about leaving. feet. Almost instinctively, I did what I though no hands ever held it. The next

E=F^OC:EEiSEEl hJJOE^h_E3 3CD time, all the fingerprints of time had was exhausted. I began to think some- Heads and arms ceased meandering gathered as a small fraction of its body was playing a trick on me. That a as buyers. Attention now haloed above composition. I adored it." He became photographer friend finally called Can- the confrontation between them and the increasingly dramatic. "It seemed like did Camera out on me as she often shirt, and I again failed spontaneity any slight wind could cast the thing to threatens to do. That maybe I walked because suddenly my mind went epic. the ground by tipping it sideways over into an afternoon field trip from the Thrown from the signal of agitation, its top-heavy stance. If it's placed prop- nearest psychiatric ward. That. . . I my sword broken and confused, my erly under light, it stretches a shadow never even got from him what that mind told me to snap, my eyes to move over its bottom half, silhouetting itself THING actually was . . . back from the bodies who were herding on top of itself, an endless spiral echo. From their arms, everyone's choice of toward them. I wished I had for once

"I bought it for my mom for Christ- purchase advertised itself through the been early; or maybe I was, for some mas a few years back — a holiday, mind anxious look in their eyes. strange reason, needed here. Here, in you, that encompasses the three things I I wobbled around, heading for my car the midst of a Sunday afternoon, our have the most problem with: religion, at the other end of the table. Conversa- luxury turned over on top of itself like consumerism, and sentimentality." tions were few, but when they occurred, the shadow of the statuette.

I looked up from cleaning beneath my it was shopping philosophy in grand, As things developed, the man, the nails. I heard what he said but couldn't elaborate monologue: "I try to always woman, the shirt became a loud shaky focus on how or why he said it. He kept take mother's advice at these times in arena. The longer it continued unre- up. I shook my head. my life." A green-eyed girl in her teens solved, the more spectators participated

"So, I figured my mom would really to a younger, adolescent blue-eyed by cheering, or walking forward into dig this statuette-something-or-another friend. "If I feel down, hurt, inferior, or them. Others paid for their things, or to put on her shelf for some Avon friend afraid, I jump right out and buy myself dropped them quickly and walked to the to admire. She'll raise that chubby peach something pretty. 'Cause I'm worth it." grey stones that led to the cars. hand of hers, brush it across her right Something pretty. Some thing pretty. "There they go," I heard to my right. cheek, grin (but not too much), giggle I kept snapping film, looking for some- "See how we are?" (but not too sweet), and say, 'Yes, my thing pretty in the square. Something I turned and she looked at me. I youngest gave that to me. Isn't he old. Something new, borrowed, or that leaned further into the gap between us thoughtful?' And the Avon-giddy will "Rock Against Rascism" shirt that se- and acknowledged her with slight say, 'What is it?' And mom will give duced me here, and to my left, she smiles. some far-fetched story of me traveling snooped through a box on her knees. "How are we?" I asked. from city to major city with my She threw them over her head in haste "Bored. And addicted to it. Every- briefcase full of accounting files, meet- as though she were being timed. They day." ing major bank executives for lunch and were variously colored scarfs, leather, I inhaled and giggled a bit as I often passing by the city's many souvenir elbow-length gloves, elastic belts and do out of nervousness. Her insight was shops, thinking instantly of my mother. hair bows falling, falling from above her as poetic and melodramatic as it was sliding the shirt that objective and shy. I placed my thumb Because that's what good sons do. . . head and down 'Oh,' the friend will reply, casting her dangled from her purse in her arm! My on the film advancer knob and turned. oblong eyes to the ground and turning initial reaction was to snag it quickly "Bored?" I asked. "Are we really? to the expensive fake gold watches and enough so she'd fall back onto her box Seems like too much, don't you think?" eye-wear made from sand and melted with its skewer set sticking out from the I anticipated a wise and witty re- ear wax. (Giggle. Giggle.) top. I felt I had failed unless I left there sponse but instead she reached up at "Yes, yes, yes. I took great pleasure in with it. I focused in on the shirt with my me, eye-to-eye momentarily, and purchasing that thing. Seeing mom lens to not lose her in the crowd and turned back again, pointing to new

open it. It had the oddest shape I'd ever headed forward. movement in the crowd as she raised her seen. Nothing near an average geome- A black-haired arm entered my view. bony body on tip- toe.

tric shape. I couldn't find a box to fit it I automatically followed its round, "Now what are they doing?" She said in. But why a box, I thought. Why not choppy knuckles unbending to point to more to herself than me. "What's going

drape a sheet over it. Let the wind get my own goal, hearing: on? I can't see over."

up underneath to it. It's old. It's used. "Hey! Hey lady — Do you really want I looked up and over to fill her in,

Let the elements touch it. that shirt? I'll pay you and the man for motivated by the prospect of her ob- "Through the airport, my right hand it. What 'cha say, huh? Can I have it?" servant response. I rattled off moves. held up the heavy top half while my left "No, definitely not!" She barked. "Go "A teenage boy, maybe fourteen or hung on to the bottom lower platform on — get away from me now. You hear?" so, just entered and is pulling at the by the top notch of my middle finger as I "Ah — come on lady. What ya want bottom of the shirt. Looks like he's being that's his mother balanced it to the rhythm of my wcilk. from that shirt? I'm a musician, man. A held back. Oh. Maybe

People gawked at us, the thing and I. black man. A musical black man. behind him. Wait. Wait. I can't quite — forward again. They giggled at it and snarled at my Means something to me. Come on see. Everyone's moving

shoulders as I tried to fit us comfortably Pleeeeeeze!? Please lady, give it up. I've There are three or four surfer-type guys in restaurant booths or through airplane been looking everywhere for one like .exiting to the right. Oh shit! They're ." snagging aisles. Having it made me suppress my that for. . going for the wall. Wow — natural urge to overpack. So I ..." Out of nowhere, she wailed: "Help! those shirts while the others are preoc- ." He went on and on until I finally Help! This man's trying to rob me! cupied. Huh. . I had to laugh. It was found enough nerve to excuse myself. I Help!!" becoming an obstacle course of move-

PFSdEZESSECI LJjaE=Nh_D 3,C3 graphic by Cory Potts ments both predictable and full of ground looking for landing in case he running in circles except for me and suspense. Suddenly, I thought of the fell. I felt caught in the grass beneath Miss What's-her-name here. I was feel- man behind the table. Where was he? I me. Here and there, I pointed my ing pressed to get involved, but I couldn't focus in on him anywhere. I camera. Missing only pom-poms and couldn't figure out how many sides there clicked my lens to macro and searched saddle shoes. Wise Woman clapped at were anymore. My maternal instincts around the foreground. The back- my side, cheering on the jester-like rose up. I wanted to find the table man ground. I stood on a milk crate and movements of Table-Man. in the crowd, clear away all small pointed directly into the circle's center. "Here we go!" she cheered. children and pregnant women, which No table man in sight. "Shouldn't we call someone or some- seemed to be numerous here, maybe "Oh no you don't," came a tiny voice thing?" I asked, my voice rising with the find a phone, dial 911 from behind. The table man was run- crowd noise. ning past us now toward the wall "Oh — this happens here every Sun- SUDDENLY... looters. "Buy up or leave!" Wow — he day. The cops will be here in about [she talks. glances at her wrist watch] oh, I'll guess It began as a small flame until the There were too many things going on ten minutes. The sweeping crew will heat of the day and the heat of the spark at once by this time. I didn't know where follow shortly after them. I hear they get and the heat of flying language branded to look, what to shoot. Like most sports, paid overtime for this. This is why I MY CAR as bombfire material. I saw

I didn't know if I should keep my eyes come here. Best Sunday afternoon en- that shirt on my way in and parked as on the ball or the strategy of the defense tertainment I can think of. And you? closely as possible with my lazy self, and on the other side. The table man Don't worry honey — if you don't want to so here, on the verge of a decision, my became the ball. He became the object get hurt or involved at all, just don't car, my prints in the back seat, my glove to throw for a possible score. walk any closer. You're in the safe compartment with exposed film from He jived back and forth from the zone." the past two weeks of work, all grew into w£ill, the table, the people, the circle. If I don't want to get hurt or any- one wild burgundy-blue decision right

His neck shifted back to the street as thing? What the hell? I definitely took a before my very eyes: MY CAR! MY though in search of help, then to the wrong turn somewhere. Everyone was FUCKING CAR!

F'F^OEZESSEO hJJlnF^h-C3 3CZ) .

I ran for it. From behind, Wise Woman yelled, "Go get 'em Honey! Break a Leg!" And she was laughin' and hootin' and a'hollerin', cheering on my sudden participation. I felt sick with anger and ran.

As I reached the back bumper, an- other explosion set off on the front hood, loud enough to scare the people who'd begun to cheer on the fire. They had forgotten their angry ordeals with each other, and now my car in flames provided a unifying spectacle.

I was shaking. Whenever I get this angry, I throw everything from my

person. I threw off my camera, my jean jacket, my bracelets and rings. I tossed my earrings into the fire, untied my sweater from around my waist and

hurled it over the crowd catching the potpourri of eyes on ME now. Some expressionless, others curious, antici- pating my next move. From the middle, someone yelled:

"Take it off, baby!" And then from somewhere else: "Yeah, lady — take it off. Go for it!" They were whistling and staring and clapping in unison.

My hands were clutching the bottom of my shirt, which unconsciously I meant to disrobe. My stomach held heat from the fire. My left hand covered my navel as the right pulled down my shirt.

I reddened and warmed with embar- rassment. In shock from unexpected

attention, I squatted to the ground, limp, when both my arms were taken up by two policemen who not only threw me into their car, but proceeded to shovel the rest of us into other vehicles. We were held for three hours with no fine. While waiting out the time, I was told that's average for these Sunday

charades. It all depends on the officers moods and the amount of mess left by sunset. Last week, the time was only one hour. My car provided more debris. Now, the sweepers are jellyfish hitting against the glass of an unkempt aquari- um, wrinkling their flabby collarets, fraying the near-ending natural light.

Me? I guess I do have an excuse to be

here. I snap sporadic candids until the sun falls down.

Next week I hear there'll be

Marina Lazzara

r^S^OCESSEEJ LXJaE=Sh_D 3C3 . —

A LITTLE CRITICISM IN THE ALIEN WORLD

When this society finally finishes In the alien world, lamp posts are shaped like needles, eyes bright the job and the rest still lit but paler. Beings nod in greeting, and drags me off to the madhouse rarely talk, grow flowers which they cut and give as gifts I'm not going to fight or even which then take root automatically. Each house operates swear at the officers that tai

If there's any justice in this They put me to work at a train station, sweeping.

country it will be in the marrow of my bones —Muriel Karr and since escape will probably be impossible

1 can at least wrestle with the goons on the ward ELREY kick the nurse in the shins throw food on the floor and at people Where's thick hair on the sidewalk mats n greased I, piss on the walls to the festering buildings clothe my eyes, asleep scribble obscene words on the lavatory walls in their vacant swarm, where the coffee in the gutters and other such rebel acts streams, could I be there and clearly catch a bus? that come to mind Or's severing, like the gravel pants 1 wear so I sit,

And . . but lurch but never sit, just stand under a rain of

the reason why is 1 would hate dust (where the roofs dissolve, and the windows fill for the state that it had anything with chain) Could I sceptre there, with this rod like a human face and were actually through my neck, where that whined jaw in the doorway helping me "talks?"

—Dale W. Russell —John M. Bennett

VIDEO WOLF

He moved through the abstract city, speaking in tunnels of chrome, his body outlined by the pressure of light.

On the street he was preceded by an empty jacket filled with wind.

It protected his thinking. Waking far behind again, he returned to the wall of circuits:

The woman in hospital clothes escapes, killing the janitors. The cars blow up. INFRARED EYES Pock faced men hit each other harder and harder until If at the end of the day one of them falls we find ourselves the only Empire dead. The surgeon emerges still standing, see from a successful implant. The womb now harbors ... if our day is followed by record night the perfect child. dark beyond our design but our making yes In the deep deep oceans, purse-seine nets ... if we dream ourselves pull up everything avenging angels with forked tongues in their boundary. civilized —with infrared eyes . . . —Richard Osbom Hood —D.S. Black

PF^OCESSECl LJJCIF^h-E] 3CD PEOPLE'S PARK '91

I have thrown myself into battle to forget you;

1 carry my fat belly like a purple heart.

1 have staggered across the sand to rescue a fallen manikin;

I dodge saliva of policemen who resemble your brother. REMEMBER THE NAME

1 have raised the flag of refuge over the ruins of my castle; (Excerpted from P.S. for Personal Secretaries)

1 free prisoners who have neither history nor hope.

I have made the sun rise on a leaflet as the sun set; When you cannot remember your hand you are perceived

I build a camp in the city to house emptiness. When you cannot remember

1 have sipped icy blood in the shade of television cameras; When you cannot remember your hand p^hysical self 1 dodge the saliva of policemen who resemble your lover. You identify 12 inches of your

1 have inquired for the reasons behind lies and other sacred mysteries; When you answer the telephone professional when it's 1 write you letters just to say hello. "I'm Sally Jones nice to see you again"

1 have thrown myself into battle to remember you; It projects competence and your worth as well I carry my fat belly like a purple heart. — I have committed my spirit to the future; Richard Wool

I die and am buried on the same planet you call home.

—Daue Linn

DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW, IF YOa VISUALIZE A RICH RELATIVE (WHO LIKES YOU) DYING REAL SOON NOW

Let's talk data. You're dBased. All sorted out. All out of sorts. More debris from the Information Age Scattershot rattletrap ricochet all the way home. The usual chew on this, buddy. Very infotaining. The word "networking" has acquired so many meanings

It now means everything. So give it up, give in to it. There's twelve steps out there somewhere That address your particular problem. graphic by S. Devaney As opposed to that dweeb over there, Who imagines himself an information surfer in mid-dude-ism, PREPPINGTHE PREPOSITIONS But in a parallel reality he's just a guy with an ulcer for a job, A flycasting wannabe catalog for an imagination. This is a reminder that With a Sharper Image coincident with Watch the undertow, buddy. Watch the undertow. the theft of We didn't make this world, so we'll have to lie to it. a computer from Is it resume time? We'll let you know. the office where News is not reported, it is released as a spitball. Write a personals ad: the desk is where Wicked the special keys for Desperate seeking insanely desperate. Someone the special areas of Who will take me. security, the special keys were also taken. Upload it to the on-line service. She'll buy it. not? She's consumer. This is a reminder that Why a any keys which Dinner, drinks, dancing, and maybe later, you do not keep on Date-rape. your person should That's the way business is done. It's a career. over. be kept in Not your life or anything. Now bend a safe or a locked cabinet that's screwed With enough coke it can even seem like pleasure. securely down. But don't forget to count them beans. Keep your receipts. The top drawers of The city is just a conduit for business. an unlocked desk Plug and play. Plug away. Spelunk your synapses for the next innovation: stars are the first places that a thief will look. Misfire or mismanagement. Rising go nova, In view of the above Down on the carpet, then out on your ass. Resume time! Jerk your fingers to the known. You've got connections. it is hoped you will remember that within reason. Sincerely and in confidence Work them puppies! So there it is: with your cooperation The state of the art, the art of the state. All wired up and nothing to know. I feel sure we can within reason protect We'll get back to you. our fund of prepositions. —David Fox —Edward Mycue

L.^ PF^aCZESSEE] hJLjaf^k_a 3C3 WHOLE

you walk down the street and you see the people staring at you, faceless and loud, gaping holes where the heads are supposed to be, yawning wide, big holes, little holes, hell, they're covering their entire

bodies, soon it looks like one big hole, the more the merrier, the better to swallow you up with my

dear, and i pause to think about how we're ingested then spit out every day

of our lives, i keep looking for plugs to stop them up, but all

i seem to find are tongues, and they are just a little bit distorted.

—Scott C Holstad

TT>\*

OLD WOMAN graphic by Man Bianca

to scrub the filth from the bottom You have seen the old woman of an idea. Old woman who puffs smoke seen her crumbling silhouette from her dead husband's pipe between two buildings immense as she watches the tides rise and fall where there is just enough room in the privacy of an imaginary bathtub. for her and her possessions Old woman who catalogs lace. Old woman and the night that rots who guides eggs to paradise. Old woman who in the morning sky. And you passed cackles in the corridors of history, burned her on another sidewalk and reviled—condemned to psychiatry. emerging from her behind abyss To drugs named after dead gods. Old woman the laundromat. She did not follow

of flesh, of hair, of bone and bone but you walked faster. You did not know and bone. Old woman who suffers eruptions or care that she has had the perfect answer of light from her forehead. Old woman burning in her head for fifty years ground fine by the seasons. Old woman and will die still waiting to be asked. like powder in the wind, blown into Old woman who hears bees shudder. eternity, unseen, unseen. You have passed Who can hear the teeth in the roses this woman by, but you will come to her. gnash, forecasting winter. Old woman When your ruptured life spills dust who carries heaven in one plain brown on the empty page. When the air you breathe bag and hell in another. Old woman tastes thin and sour as the air who raises generations of spiders forced into brain dead patients, strapped in the space between her fingertips. to terrible machines. When the mangled fruit Old woman who cradles a broken clock. of youth lies fermenting and rotten Old woman who paces outside the room on the sidewalks of city after city. Then of her son, the dollmaker (he keeps you will come to her, and she will float pink fingers in a blue jar). Old woman

two beads of oil in a glass of clear who comforts her other son, the mathematician water, and when the two join together you will (he has dreamed again of the number one know her as your mother, your sister, your whipping the number two into infinity). wife, your self, and then and only then Old woman who plucks hairs from the nostrils will she kiss and make you better. of a statue. Old woman who tries vainly —Jack Evans

F>F^CIC:E55ECI kJUOFMi-D 3C3 l.^i dark, but we made a fatal mistake. One

day the organizers and I met in a local diner and discussed tactics and new in- formation. Unfortunately, a boss from a similar company was at the next table and overheard everything said. By the

QOD'S I arrived WORK time at work the phone was ringing off the hook and I was asked to make an appearance at the office the

next day. I was identified as the culprit I'M A SUPERVISOR of a group home for mentally handi- and questioned about my role. I denied everything but by then it was too late, the capped people. Don't let the supervisor title fool you, I'm company began churning out anti-union just an hourly wage slave with a title. Interspersed with memos and support for our effort faded. As an example of their good will I was not I've various a four year stint at a state college, done work fired. to survive: concrete laborer, dairy plant worker, data Failing that I joined the IWW and proudly pay dues even though it doesn't entry person, janitor, salesman, stagehand, liquor store clerk. In between I hitchhiked in Europe, living off my savings and the hospitality of people I met along the way. When I returned to America I started my present occupation.

Basically I believe that work is an just as they were being loaded on a truck. oppressive rather than uplifting aspect When the truck reached its destination of life, taking time away from more in- the sweet whey had turned into a con- teresting pursuits. The time spent slav- gealed mess. Working a cash register ing for someone else could best be used creates endless possibilities. The easiest to expand your own horizons. If your thing to do is have friends buy various whole day is filled with mindless repeti- items and then charge them for only one tious work you are bound to become item. Or if a customer is looking for an brain dead in the process. The work item, inform the customer that the same done by millions of people in America item can be bought at another store for could be done by thousands, thus free- a cheaper price. ing people to better society, educate I've continually tried to unionize ev- themselves and pursue their own indi- ery workplace I've been in because in the vidual interests. workplace there are no rights. The

I don'tjudge my life by my work. I'm present business unionism practiced by not a good soldier. I've participated in the AFL-CIO is a sellout, but unions still sabotage on almost every job. Sabotage give workers a small chance at equality in can be extreme or it can be as simple as the workplace. Every effort on my part to cheating your boss out of time. organize has resulted in colossal failure.

Ultimately, for it to be effective it Usually I'm shown the door or the effort should be done in a way that allows you dies because of lack of interest. Many to keep your job. Any act of sabotage is workers are afraid and labor laws make it worthy. Remember, the clean fingered next to impossible for workers to orga- business types are stealing millions and nize. It is coming to the point where even anything you can do to stop them is workers who want to unionize can not. positive. I tried to organize my presentjob with

As a concrete laborer I was required to SEIU organizers. The process is long and do specialized jobs. Sometimes a septic involves inside information gathering and tank orwater container was being formed. above all the ability to maintain stealth. Each needed openings so that pipes could You must have the ability to choose people be run through once the form was who are fed up with their jobs and then poured. On a few occassions I conve- use their discontent in productive ways. niently forgot to place the inserts in the Occassionally this yields some surprises,

form. Once it was poured and hardened as when the most right-wing person sup- the bosses realized there was no pipe ports you and the progressive type ig-

inlet and outlet out ofthe tanks. I feigned nores you. Our effort had evolved to the ignorance and received a tongue lashing point where we had gathered informa- but the hulking piece of concrete was tion about the company and employees.

scrapped. In a dairy plant I stacked bags We began going door to door and talk- of sweet whey and tiien stabbed the bags ing to people. The company was in the

SO PE^aEZESSEGD hJJOE^h_D 3C3 i

affect mywork place. Their talk ofworker control (even if it is only talk) is the kind THIS M«BktU W«IL» by TOM TOMORROW

of talk I want to hear. Other unions may IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER LOOK AT HO'*J TH£ NCV/S PO.LSTERS THEN PROCEED TO ASK A SMALL w»/?/r5...piRsr, the media report the OAY'S 6R0UP OF PEOPLE A SET have big memberships and loads of OF QOESTiONS CARE' OFFICIAL PRONOUNCEMENTS, GIVIM& SELF-SERV- FJLLY WORDE.D TO PRODUCE A DESiRED f~£- money, but they are mostly full of shit. ING LIES AND SPIN-CONTROL EFFORTS THE LE" SOLT. WITH NO W\AR6iN FOR AfY^BlGUlTY. GlTlK\ACT OF ACTUAL HVtiS--. They sold out years ago and are paying the price now. TWt PRESIDENT TOOAT BLAMED THE FAL- TEfJlNO EOSMOMY ON FANATiCAL COCAiNE' I I supervise a home As mentioned, CRAZED LIBYAN TERRORISTS WORKinO SE- for handicapped people. When I tell cetTLY TO SA80TA6E OOR. FREE-A^ARKET 5V5TEM .' people what I do their reply is always the same: "Oh that's great, you are doing God's work! "or "You don't make much money do you?" Wanting to bash their

brains in, I tell them it's not "God's work", it's the dirty work of the state and system which regards human needs as secondary. The politicians like to have TME RESULTS OF THESE POLLS ARE THEN RE- ...WHICH THE ADf

No I don't make a lot of money! How the fuck could I? Group homes are spread across the

state. The area I work in has 13 homes and a day program. The concept of a thieves group home may look good but it doesn ' t are able to stay alive. they do. Other times small time work. Homes were set up so that higher The workers are supposed to be an are hired, copy the keys and rob the site functioning clients (our word for the idealistic type willing to work for slave of appliances and money. Most people people we work with) could attain skills wages, even though they are generally are doing the job until they find some- needed to integrate into the commu- not the social welfare types. If they are, thing else, so they say. Because of our nity. Instead, clients are dumped in sites they eventually decide to work in other rotten economy, more people like my- regardless of ability. Some sit in chairs fields once they get a taste of group self are staying. This bothers the com- drooling and staring at television. Oth- home work. We get a cross section of pany because they may have to pay us ers have so many medical problems and displaced workers from every walk of pensions one day.

are so medicated you wonder how they life. Many sincerely believe in the work I am a "supervisor." I'm paid by the

hour. I have no power to hire or fire. I ROVING BANDS OF DELINQUENT PROOFREADERS "supervise" 2 workers and 3 clients. I'm proud to say that my co-workers and I have completely rearranged the work place according to our own needs. We come to work when we want and leave when we want. We cover for each other in everyway and recognize that our loyalties are with each other rather than manage- ment. As supervisor, it's myjob to do all the mindless paperwork, feed and medi- cate clients, take them to appointments, meetwith case workers and family, create behavior modification programs, handle finances and if someone shits in their

shorts I have to clean it up. My guys are a fun group. One man has a fetish for calendars and menus. He can tell you the day your birthday falls on in a given year. He has a history of running out of the house and terroriz- ing diners or supermarkets. My favorite

F>FM=IEZE5aEC3 lLUCIF^h_CI 3CD story was the time he burst into a church demanding holy calendars in the midst of a choir practice. Because of him we have to lock ourselves into the house lest he run wild. Another man is a clean freak who only cares about doing chores. The third man in the group is a non-stop talker who idolizes Lawrence Welk. His passion is coffee and if you don't give him his daily ration you are in for some heavy shit. Given all the craziness, the job is extremely stressful. The turnover rate is high and some people have had breakdowns on the job.

The company I work for is your typi- cal hierarchical outfit. The President is the sole shareholder in the company. She sits like a grand poobah over her empty bureaucratic domain of accoun- tants and useless middle managers. We are one big happy family working to- gether in peace and prosperity. Family style management is the most mislead- ing, unfair and ultimately ridiculous at- tempt at making workers powerless. The company tries to include us in decision making but once we complain they do whatever they damn well please. When we point out the humanitarian need for our work and just pay, they call it a business. When we call it a business they call it humanitarian. Recognizing that unionization is a threat to their MY NATION! moneymaking scam, they have given SUCK workers like me the title of supervisor, thinking that we will believe we are man- wear. They eventually gave up. you for being on welfare. People con- agement. Once a year they dole out We do get 2 months paid vacation a standy say, "Why don't you quit if you pitiful raises of 25 cents an hour and year, but every second of it is needed don't like it." or "Find a better job." lump sum bonuses that amount to 1 2 to since you are usually on the verge of I don ' t subscribe to the quitter school. 15 cents per hour. Of course all this is insanity by the time a vacation comes In the American economy there are no incumbent on whether or not the state arouncl. As for medical benefits, we pay "betterjobs."The high paying manufac- has any money. Of course, there into the insurance company each pay- turing and technology base has eroded shouldn't be a profit making middle day plus there is a large deductible. The and even if Japan and other countries person standing between the state and plan only helps you if you have a serious opened their doors to trade what would workers to begin with. Those that do the problem. At one time the money was we sell them? America makes great mili- work should get the money. deducted according to your salary. But tary weapons but when was the last time

Because I work in a house, my boss the higher ups "democratized" the pro- you bought a surface to air missile? expected me to do repairs and yard cess by making it a flat rate for everyone. So the options are few, you can hop work. I explained to her that since I do Thus someone who makes $50,000 a from slavejob to slavejob or you can stay not own the house it was not my respon- year pays the same as someone who in a job and try to radicalize the work- sibility. Every week the grass grew taller makes $15,000 a year. Because lower place. I have chosen to stay. It is fine to and taller. The rebellion spread to other scale workers are more numerous they theorize and complain about the work sites and they had to hire a maintenance wind up paying for the less numerous place. But it seems to me that words

man. So not only did I decrease my higher scale people. I don't even call must eventually lead to action. Change workload by standing up to the assholes, the higher ups workers since I've never never has been easy in this country, but

but I helped someone else get a job. been able to understand what they do, it happens when people take a prin-

Another time my boss informed me that besides sitting on their fat asses. cipled stand. I don't profess to have all

I would have to dress the part. Anyone in So having said all this, why do I do it? My the answers, nor can I be a guide for

their right mind knows that working occupation may seen benign because it others who must make an individual

with handicapped people is not the seeks to help the disadvantaged, but I'm thoice. I know one thing: I'm staying for cleanestjob. I told her that I would only still a worker and I'm still getting screwed. the long run and I'm going to be a pain comply with company policy if the com- I dislike being a slave but recognize the in the ass until they carry me away kick- pany gave me a fat raise to pay for all the need to support myself Imagine trying to ing and screaming. luxurious clothing they wanted me to live off the meager crumbs the state gives -JeffKelly F>e=^aEZE55EC] kUOi^h-CI 3C3 CONFESSIONS ••nisi OF A SPERM DONOR

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, THE mid 1980s. A deep malaise saps the energy of this once-proud nation. Everything is gray. And ejaculate into a small plastic jar (I had a damp. The next General Election is an eternity away and there's bag of them stashed under the bed). Undoubtedly the hardest parts of the precious little hope of a Labor victory anyway. Thatcher survives a job were: a) having the presence of bomb attack, bouncing back with renewed popularity. The miners are mind first thing in the morning to have the jar handy, and b) making sure it was on strike forever, and with every passing day seem less likely to achieve angled correctly to receive the valuable

fluid. This achieved (and I missed more their demands. Unemployment is up, public health care down, public than once) , all I had to do was screw the housing being sold off. For students (of which I am one), cuts top on the jar and place it in one of the white plastic pouchs supplied by the rich. I increasingly make higher education a sport for the Everyone sperm bank, taking care to keep the jar upright. Each pouch had a tag on which know is on the fiddle, "freelancing" at some menial cash-in-hand job I wrote my code number—everything to supplement their unemployment benefit or student grant. anonymous, no names. From the point ofejaculation the clock was ticking, since

This then is the stark background ing off for £7 a shot seemed like a very a condition of employment was that the

against which I became a professional civilized way to make ends meet. Admit- sperm be delivered within one hour of wanker. tedly, £14 a week wasn't much, but it its production, while it was still fresh. On and off for about two years I covered my weekly food bill; besides, I The clinic which housed the sperm supplemented my paltry student grant thought, right now most of my sperm bank was an institutional red brick build-

(and later, once I had graduated to the just ends up on the sheets—why not get ing, the sperm bank itself part of an dole queue, my unemployment ben- paid for it instead? annex that was nothing more than a efit), by donating my sperm: £7 a sample, Unfortunately, my first test sample glorified prefabricated hut. I delivered two samples a week, Tuesday and Thurs- was rejected. "They all died," the female my pouch to an office staffed by three

day mornings. To write of it now is doctor said unkindly of my sperm when middle-aged women who were always in

liberating since I never get to mention it I called by phone to learn the results. the middle of a conversation. At first this on my resume. Silence. "Look, why don't you try again was a source of some embarrassment,

There I was, strapped for cash and next week," she said, sensing my dejec- but it quickly became a financial trans- work-shy, faced with the harsh reality of tion. I did, as much out of anxiety as out action like any other. I would hand over having to find some source, however of a need to make money—if my sperm the pouch (which they gingerly placed modest, of income. It was while I was was defective I wanted to know about it. in a shallow cardboard tray, along with

working Saturdays in a toy store that I Second time lucky. Thus began what any other recently-arrived samples), and heard from a friend about the sperm was to become for me a Tuesday and give them my code number. In exchange bank. To someone like me—earning Thursday morning ritual. First thing, they paid me £7 cash. The transaction £1 .25 an hour selling play-dough—jerk- before I even cleaned my teeth, I would took about two minutes and was usually

F>F^I=1C:E55ED LJjaf=ML.El 3CD the desk consulted her list to find a filled The position could be notation against my number. "Have a by anyone with a dick, rest, dear," she said with a tone of con- cern that made me suspect she knew an average sperm count, something I didn't. "Come back in a month," she said. I left crestfallen. and a desperate need One day out of the blue I was asked to give a blood sample, and they asked me i.e. a for money, I questions about my medical history, and segment of if I smoked marijuana. I hed. That they bothered to interview me makes me town's pop^Stio; uspect that I am a biological father at .^Jkast once. '^4 How does it feel being the possible ^^er of an indefinite number of prog- tChy? Actually, it doesn't feel like any-

thing. I don't lie awake at night A*2wondering about the child (ren) I will never know, contemplating a gallant quest against all odds to discover their

identity. I have barely given it a second

thought. I was, you might say, profoundly alienated from my labor.

Even if I wanted to, there's no way I can ever find out if my sperm was even used for artificial insemination, let alone the identity of the child (ren) that may be my biological offspring. Nor, I am assured, is there any way they can find me. Strangely this has never really made me anything more than slightly curious.

The one time I did feel uneasy about the idea of someone profiting from my accompanied by pleasantries about the sperm of every Tom, Dick, and Harry, bodily fluids (after all, £7 is not much weather. and the pressure of performing under for a life), I rationalized that it was a What kind of qualifications does one such conditions would doubtless dimin- National Health Service, i.e. free, clinic, need to be a sperm donor? Contrary to ish the quality of our product. For that and persuaded myself that I was helping popular mythology, donors were not reason we kept it our little secret. give the miracle of life to unhappy young required to have the body of a Greek Until that time I'd never given my couples who, for whatever reason, god, the brain ofEinstein, and the sperm sperm much thought. It had always couldn ' t have biological children oftheir count of a prize bull. In fact, on the seemed the right color and consistency, own. contrary, it seemed the position could and the quantity seemed about right. But really it was just the easiest way I be filled by anyone with a dick, an aver- Now I put it in ajar and scrutinized it knew of at the time to make money, the age sperm count, and a desperate need twice weekly. I was amazed at how much path of least resistance. At £7 for ten for money, i.e. a large segment of the it varied in quality and quantity one minutes work, prorated it still works out town's population. week to the next. Sometimes, when it as the best hourly wage I've ever made. Because the semen market was lim- was thick and creamy, I affected a manly And what's more, I loved my job. clinic; other ited, there was, in the interest of avoid- swagger as I entered the —Iguana Mente ing competition, a tacit agreement times it was transparent and thin, like

amongst the donors that information runny snot, and I would make a hasty about the sperm bank be given spar- exit before my meager offering was dis- ingly. Although contact with other do- covered and someone from the clinic nors rarely amounted to more than a came chasing after me, demanding their comradely nod as you crossed paths moneyback. Such inferior samples could

entering or leaving the clinic, it was usually be explained by a drinking binge, instinctively understood that we were having a cold, being stressed out, too on to a good thing, and that our inter- much recreational wanking, or (more ests were best served by keeping quiet rarely) having got laid the night before.

about it. To those hundreds of young Nor did the erratic quality of my men toiling away in drudge jobs paying produce go unnoticed at the clinic. Sev-

less than £2 an hour, the idea of getting eral times during my career I was "laid paid £7 for having a wank would've off' for periods of a month at a time. On seemed too good to be true. If word got one occasion when I went to deliver my around we'd be competing with the morning offering, the woman behind

PF^aCIESSED kJJaF^h_D 3C3 ,

write in with tales of paradise lust and sundry indiscretions. Angela Bocage has some "Major Fun" telling comicstyle the "unrepentant confessions of a baton twirler." Laura Miller defends female E energy REVI WS conservation in "Girl Sloth." Wicked, wonderful stuff $2.95, 4/$ 12. "" 2060 Third St., Berkeley, CA 94710. The Let's Qet No Longer Silent .'#4/ 5. After a couple

Press Department of years' hiatus, this digest-sized zine is back with a vengeance. Editor Eliza At first blush, it might appear that dark, but it manages to be both hilari- Blackweb takes issue with the sympa- Bay Area zine pubUshers are obsessed ous and mordant, with a sprinkling of thetic attention shown elsewhere in the with sex. In even the best of times one recipes ("GET FAT, don't die!"), re- anarchist press for NAMBLA and other might ask, well, who isn't? views of books (Derek Humphry's F?na/ sexual outlaws she views as abusive. There never were any good old days. Exit, a how to commit suicide manual) Both NLS! and Frighten the Horses pro- The recent interminable, empty debate reviews of dildoes, a centerfold boy, vide crucial information on"Regaining over '"family values" and the bone-chill- another advice column ("Ask Aunt Control. . .Taking Health Care Into Our ing cynicism it betrays are all part of the Kaposi"), and in this recent issue, a Own Hands" with "Guerrilla Abortion moral bankruptcy in this "moaning of flexi-disc ("Songs of DPN"). c/o Men's in the Post-Roe 90s." Pretty wide cover- America. "With Sarajevo and South Cen- Support Center, POB 30564, Oakland, age, ranging from Rodney King, bill- tral L.A. but a channel-hop away, we see CA94604. $3;4/$10. board alteration, "Radical Women in the spectacle of cities burning some- Frighten the Horses #8-9. "My dear, I the Sex Industry," a Lester Bangs re- where beyond that horizon, behind the don't care what these affectionate print, and some very fine color graph- phosphordot screen which is a window- people do, as long as they don't do it in ics. POB 3582, Tucson, AZ 85722. substitute. $3, the streets and frighten the horses." 5/$10. "Gossip is the new pornography," This line from the Gay Nineties well Michael Murphy says to Woody Allen in describes this "document of the sexual Manhattan. One doesn't have to be a revolution." A melange of social com- Fergie or a Mia or Woody, however, to mentary, news, reviews, fiction and po- see in this daynage privacy besieged. etry, these issues include a reprint from Anyone who doesn't buy into these cut- Valerie Solanas' SCUM Manifesto, a rate "family values" risks being branded Michael Botkin article on the recent a sexual outlaw, the new pariah. NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy In an information economy, the body Love Association) witch hunt by local more than ever is in question, with death, media opportunists. Kim Addonizio pleasure, freedom and responsibility tells a nasty "Bedtime Story." Cris locked in a nightmare embrace. Sex as a Gutierrez ruminates on rape in "Men represents commodity "the world's old- Are Dogs," and tells how learning that est profession" yet it is also natural — a male orangutans rape females yielded law imperative of lovers and libertines new insights into the male condition, which, leaving aside the procreative urge while Kris Kovic has an idea or two on to survivevidi one's offspring, is one area "WTiat to Do with Rapists." On a lighter Prisoncamp Reality, by Bob Z. This is a of human experience most resistant to note, Susan Carlton takes us behind ghoulish but elegant pocket chapbook official injunction. Attitudes to and ex- the scenes at Disneyland to a fantastic of about 40 poems by the singer, pressions of sexual necessity are as good orgy island. Editor Mark Pritchard sets posterer, publisher oiBadNewz, and all- a barometer of the state of things as the tone, both playful and deadly seri- round dangerous dude. Hard to resist Anything That Moves #4. This mag, ous, in a cautionary column linking the with titles like "You're a Miserable Cog subtitled "beyond the myths of bisexual- high mortality rate of walk-on charac- in the Wheel,Johnny" and Hues that run ity," is really omnisexual, "creating a ters in Star Trek (often dead before the "whether or not we consent we get movement for acceptance and support opening credits run) with the searched/by bureaucrats filled with con- of human diversity." With articles on bis marginalized poor, female, people of tempt for humanity/more and more in Germany, media criticism of the Brit- color, and queer, warning that "Your frequently driving us in/to the dark ish press 's post mortem trashing of guest appearance is likely to be very recesses ofprisoncamp reality. " The tape Queen singer Freddie Mercury, an ad- brief." Provocative, and once read, in- is about an hour in length, and Bob's vice column "What Your Mother Never dispensable. $4, 4/$ 14. 41 Sutter St. razor rasping brings out the best in his Told You" and much more. $6, 4/$25. #1108, SF,CA 94104 fugitive rhymes and repetitions. Panic Checks to BABN, 2404 California St. Button Press. POB 14318, SF, CA941 14. Girljock #5-6. A fun, spunky mag for #24, SF,CA 94115. $3.95 book; $5.95 tape; $8.95 both ppd. jockettes and wannabes—"fuck the well Diseased Pariah News #5. Talk about of loneliness; we're here to have fun." Real Girl #3. This one's a winner. yer bad attitude, what could be more Susie Bright talks about life after On Our Edited by Angela Bocage, this twisted than gallows humor by and Backs, and how she isn't really a jock, comiczine features some familiar about People With AIDS? DPN may be being the child of nerds. Lotsa readers names—Tom Tomorrow, Kris Kovick,

PF^OEZESSEED kJJOF>bb_C] B,0 and of course Angela—as well as some pose the wage cut, e.g. the local bank. welcome discoveries, covering every- Kopple's camera is everywhere thing from "The Psychobabology of throughout the two years of the organiz- Women's Humor" (about dyke stand- ing leading up to the strike and through up comedians) to an amusing S & M the strike itself. We go to Washington coming of age story by Judy Becker. DC and meet Lewie Anderson, director Available from Fantagraphic Books, of the United Food and Commercial 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seatde, WA Workers Union's (the parent union) 98115. $3.50 meatpacking division. He represents Taste of Latex #6. The current issue 1 00,000 workers in 95 companies, and is might just as aptly be titled "Taste of quick to declare that "they're [P-9] not Leather," focusing on S & M. Plenty gonna win through the Corporate Cam- here to whet the appetite, with photos paign... it will cost them their jobs." We by Mark Chester, Charles Gatewood, find Lewie meeting with a small faction Michael Rosen, and Fakir Musafar; in- ofP-9 workers who are unhappy with the terview with dyke dominatrix (and Ray Rogers approach, and are worried bitchin' writer) Pat Califia, submission about losing their jobs. They seek help fantasies by local performer Divianna from the International to try to change Ingravallo. Very educational, with "The the direction that their local is taking, Practicing Pervert: Negotiation 101, "by but the support for Guyette and Rogers Michael Decker. Considering how raw is too strong.

the eroticism, this is a pretty slick pack- The main line of attack by Anderson is age, for the kinkier coffee tables. . .on or ZoeNoe and the International to claim that off the rack. SF, since the Corporate Campaign is fi"ank $5, 4/$20. POB 460122, A public speakout at the union hall about the failures of mainstream union- CA 94146. lets us see middle class Americans (that —D.S. Black ism and vehemently opposes the is to say, workers) decrying the impend- International's advice to accept a con- ing wage cuts—one fellow reads off three cessionary contract, they are "anti- American Dream different wage stubs from the past years: union." Lewie Anderson is quoted $690 a week, then $475 a week after the several times to the effect that "anti- Video. 1 hour, 45 minutes. Produced & incentive/bonus program was elimi- unionism is oozing from the ranks," Directed by Barbara Kopple nated, and finally $325 when the first when the workers are loudly disdainful American Dream is a gripping docu- wage concession took hold, and he's of his concessionary advice. The pro- mentary about the epic mid-'80s strike working harder than ever (sound famil- International dissidents try to ask ques- against the Hormel meatpacking com- iar?) . It's clear there's no more room to tions of Rogers in a union meeting bul pany in Austin, Minnesota. As a detailed cut if these people are going to maintain are aggressively ridiculed and berated dissection of the plight of organized their vaunted American standard of liv- from the podium by Rogers himself. labor in the current period, the film ing. In a kitchen scene with two wives, serves brilliantly. As a reflective look at one is saying "I don't begrudge anyone Food support and money are pour- the underlying causes within the union making $30- $40- $50,000 a year, but let ing in from workers and unions across "movement" and within workers them- us live in our $32,000 house!" Hormel the country. A P-9 caravan is out raising selves, it comes up considerably short, workers living in the surrounding com- money and solidarit)'. One can't help and the viewer is left to sort through the munities with mortgages of only $200 a but be inspired by the energy and cohe- depressing outcome to try and under- month are worried about keeping up sion among the P-9 strikers and commu- stand why on one's own. their payments. nity. Even the conservative dissidents The film opens with excerpts from Jim Guyette, president of Local P-9, concede in a private meeting that people early 1 980 's newscasts about the PATCO voices over the obvious truth that U.S. are at the union hall, playing cards, strike, bankruptcies and tinion contract labor has been taking a beating, and pool, talking to each other, and so on. concessions. Cut to meatpackers going something new has to be done. Enter "People are sharing... opening up... cry- door to door in the small company town Ray Rogers and his consultancy, Corpo- ing... "Local leaderjim Guyette says 'The of Austin, Minnesota — your quintessen- rate Campaign. He promises to win a union hall has become a fun place to tial community in the American heart- big victory in Austin, notjust for Local P- be—families come there." land. Hormel, in spite of making a $30 9, but for the entire U.S. labor move- In the middle of the film, spirits are million profit on its bacon, spam, dev- ment. People's spirits rise as Rogers' still running high, solidarity is incred- iled ham, etc., is demanding the work- charismatic promises strike a respon- ibly strong, and Hormel workers from ers take a 23% wage cut, from $10.69/ sive chord. Rogers promises "experts" the nearby factory in Ottumwa are hold- hr. to $8.25/hr.—a familiar situation on political and community organizing ing a solidarity rally. A fellow says "I see (see PWs lengthy account of the who will help the local, while the cam- forty guys and girls who used to look Watsonville Cannery strike in issues 15- paign will attack "irresponsible" corpo- dead, and you've resurrected them to 19). Incredible scenes from inside the rate behavior through a negative media life! " In a crucial moment the camera is factory show the casual brutality of pro- campaign. Additionally, the Corporate showing us an exuberant dance party at cessing pigs into "meat products," the Campaign reveals the links between dif- the union hall and Guyette is explaining kind of footage meatpacking compa- ferent institutions that invisibly support how meatpackers who were "amateur" nies prefer we don't see. the Hormel Company as it tries to im- carpenters fixed people's homes, "guys

F>F>aEZEaaEEJ LJjaF^h_C] 3CD who like to work on cars are fixing each locals who have been without work for concessionary bargaining position. Ray others' cars—they [the workers] did anywhere from one to six years are scab- Rogers went on with his Corporate Cam- what they hke to do—they did their bing at the plant. After the factor)' has paign, conducting campaigns against hobbies. " Filmmaker Kopple thankfully been reopened for 10 days, 75 workers Eastern and American Airlines and some included this exciting glimpse of a radi- have returned to work and 400 replace- other companies too.Jim Guyette moved cally different way to approach life, but ments have been hired. to New York and got a job with a union seems to have missed its importance, At an open union meeting, workers there. One of the former conservative perhaps because of her own political discuss the pressure they're feeling to dissidents who crossed the picket line biases toward (relatively) uncritical sup- cross the picket line. An older worker became the new head of Local P-9. port of unionism. Here, in the midst of gets up and states what should have American Dream is fascinating cin- what became a crushing defeat, were been obvious months earlier: "We have ema verite labor history. Its strength lies the seeds of a radical break with the to shut down ALL the Hormel plants, or in how well it takes you inside the pain- Economy and the wage-labor/money else all go back in together!" The P-9 ful reality faced by each of the labor nexus: people following their inclina- executive board votes unanimously to protagonists, from the workers' wives to tions and proclivities and freely sharing dispatch roving pickets to other plants, the International representative. In their skills without any concern for re- in spite of the worries that some express showing the Corporate Campaign and muneration. A further exploration of about forcing other workers to support the militant rank-and-file unionism of the psychological impacts of this part of them (they themselves supposedly were Local P-9 in such detail the film empha- the story is sorely missed. striking "voluntarily"). Other strikers sizes the bitter choices faced by workers Seventeen weeks into the strike, were quick to point out that they had and their unions in a brutal world mar-

Hormel shifted most production to other been forced to strike by the company's ket . As a document ofa symbolic struggle plants and management workers were assault. 571 workers lost their jobs at and a crushing defeat, 1 wish the film- turning out thousands of cans of spam other Hormel plants for honoring the maker had included some reflections at the Ausdn plant. Lewde Anderson roving picket lines. on what happened and why. knew that a bad contract imposed on P- The UFCW International cut off $40- Curiously absent from the film were 9's workforce would wreck industry wage a-week strike benefits and ordered an any overt leftists. Given the socialist roots standards, but was more interested in end to the strike. In March 1986, the of many working class families in Min- getting them back to work on company 25th week of the strike, Hormel an- nesota, I couldn't help by wonder if they terms. No International effort was made nounced the plant was full and no jobs had been edited out, possibly to appeal to mobilize support from other were left. In June '86, the UFCW put to preconceived notions of what would meatpackers throughout the industry Local P-9 into trusteeship. Quickly they "fly" with middle America. In the liter- in order to tip the balance in favor of P- settled with Hormel. They agreed to a ary journal Caliban, Kevin Magee de- 9 strikers. Anderson advises instead "if contract that provided $10.25 for the scribes a large mural painted on the side you want a job, you have to take it" [the scabs who broke the strike and no am- of the Austin Labor Center by P-9 strik- concessions]. nesty for strikers. Ultimately only 20% ers and supporters. In the picture, a line At the strike's 20th week, Hormel of the strikers went back to work for of faceless workers in colorless clothes reopened the plant, and 7 workers re- Hormel. In 1989 Hormel leased half the enters a factory, which has a giant snake turned to work. A spirited, militant car plant to a non-union company who hired wound around it. From under the blockade circles the plant at 4 a.m., with meatpackers for $6.50 an hour. snake's bleeding head (which has been Ray Rogers making sure that if anyone In a (deliberately, unintentionally?) cut by a woman in a butcher's smock was stopped by the police, "no one is in ironic conclusion, Kopple takes us back with a blade labeled "P-9") another line charge here—there's just been a lot of to an earlier scene of a rousing rendi- of workers emerges. They have faces, cars breaking down [in the sub- zero tion of "Solidarity Forever" at the union defined features, and wear colorful temperatures]." Minnesota's then-Gov- hall, while post-mortems run up the clothes. They carry banners that read: ernor Rudy Perpich calls out the Na- screen. Lewie Anderson was fired by the "International Labor Solidarity: Abol- tional Guard to "keep order," and soon International in 1989 for opposing the ish Apartheid," "Farmers and Labor

jE^ESjnoBErxtiiJLi juob: fit;jBaHcvje: urorvjB: F

PE^CICIEaaECl LJJOF^h_D 3C3 ST» a

Unite," "Families Fight Back," and the month of work—but its a novel observa- she puts it). Although she demolishes bottom righthand corner has a picture tion for academia and the media, where the neoclassical argument that capital- of Nelson Mandela. At the top of the all talk of work (except to call for more ism gives people the work and goods wall hangs the an anonymous quote of it) is forbidden. Schor proves conclu- they seek, by locating the source of over- from a 19th century meatpacker: "If sively that there's too much work; not work in overconsumpUon she accepts blood be the price ofyour cursed wealth only are there more and more workers the same supply-and-demand argument. good God we have paid in full." (particularly teenagers and women) For consumers with diminishing pay- But maybe there really weren't any working longer hours at more and more checks, she advocates Buddhist auster- leftists involved in the strike, and this (low-paying) jobs, but professionals are ity economics and "less is more-ism." mural was completed long after the film- also being worked ragged. Yuck.

ing was finished. I don't know. Ray Using government and business While Schor recommends that we

Rogers is shown during a New York statistics, Schor shows that a huge renounce our share of the goodies in Times interview at the end of the strike amount of the work presently being favor of free time, she is very concerned (and film) trying to put a positive spin done serves no purpose in terms of that productivity levels be maintained on the whole thing, refusing to acknowl- contributing to productivity levels. ("there are effective productivity-rais- substitutes for long hours"). Even edge the fact of defeat. It is unfortu- However, she still ties workers' gains ing historical of nately typical of labor activists that it's (specifically, shortened work hours) after an analysis housework very hard to admit a defeat and draw to increases in productivity. This rings that shows that "productivity" as it's cur- pretty rently measured is a scam that overlooks lessons from it. (See the earliest Pro- hollow given the dismal legacy cessed World's #1 and 2 for a similar of collective bargaining. most work (because it isn't translated occurrence after the end of the Blue into wages), she considers productivity Shield strike in 1981). to be a sancrosanct category and a legiti- indicator of living standards. But I suppose I should thank Kopple for mate sparing us academic or union talking production for what? For its owti sake? heads, but why not ask participants to Shouldn't a discussion of shortening useful- deliver post mortems? If the Corporate work time address work's social Campaign's claims to nationwide sym- ness? Nowhere in the book does Profes- bolic importance were accurate, surely sor Schor deal v«th the possibility of there are working class intellectuals who eliminating work-producing industries might offer some analysis of the defeat, that are not only counterproductive so- a critical look at the weaknesses of both cially but highly destructive as well, i.e. the Corporate Campaign and traditional real estate, finance, the law, advertising, trade unionism, both brightly illumi- military, etc. nated in this story. The point of The Overworked American —Chris Carlsson is to convince management that a well- rested and less-stressed work-force is good for productivity ("In the interna- The Productivity tional market, what matters in the long Work-Over run is not how many hours a person works, but how productively he or she The Overworked American: The Unexpected works them") . Schor seeks nothing more "We could now reproduce our 1948 Decline ofLeisurehy]\i\\e\.^. Schor (Basic radical than "a transformation of the standard of living (measured in terms of Books, 1991,121.00) corporate culture." Her proposals for goods and services) in less than half the No one would accept two daily hours of escaping the work treadmill (overtime time it took in 1948. We actually could slavery. To be accepted, slavery must be of swaps and stuff) sound okay but pre- have chosen the four hour day. Or a such a daily duration as to break something serve things as they already are, leaving working year of six months. Or imagine in a man. us voxlnerable to the same old shit. So this: every worker in the United States " what's Schor's goal? "If a workplace re- —Simone Weil, "Factory Work could now be taking every other year off form is done right, a company can gain Harvard professor and Z magazine from work, with pay." Putting aside the loyalty and productivity from its em- columnist Juliet Schor argues that the question of whose "1948 standard of ployees at no cost.. .It is clear that money U.S. is overburdened with ever-increas- living," there's some problems with bas- can be saved if people are managed ing work and that it's way past time to ing an argument for less work in terms better." In fact, she boasts that many of reduce work. She presents a great deal of a producdvit)' level that by its very her proposals are already being imple- of interesting research to show the hu- nature must expand exponentially. mented by many "enlightened, forward- calls failure of working man and social costs of the daily grind, Schor the looking companies," including to keep pace with increases in auto- but backs off from making any time Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo and conclusions. mation and capacity a "producdvity defi- emancipatory As lefdst pop Xerox! " sociology', The Overworked American is a cit. " She argues that "we made a mistake As overdue as a discussion of reduc- schizo recipe of ideas. when we traded shortened hours for ing work may be, doing it in the name of Schor's unhumble discovery should more money thus trapping us in a — productivity' and renewed competitive- be obvious enough to most people— "cycle of work and spend" which is re- ness is just bullshit. I'd feel just as over- speed-up of the social factory over the sponsible for the current overload of worked at Schor 's six-hour day company. last to an extra work ("keeping up with the Jones," as two decades amounting —Mickey D.

F*F^OEZE5EiEE3 hJJI=IE=^h-El 3C3 . A RIVER'S REVENQEI Surrealist Implications of the Chicago Flood

so-called "lesser evils" gives way to the Thanks to the flood, some 250,000 "This isn't funny."— Mayor Richard creative anarchy of desire. "every- workers enjoyed at least one extra day Daley, 13 April 1992, in his first The — off, with pay, and many of the homeless statement to the press on the flood. day" begins however fleetingly — to fulfill the promise of poetry and our savored their finest meals in years (with "As the offices emptied, there was little sense wildest dreams. refrigeration turned off, restaurant- of the alarm or panic usually associated with owners found it cheaper to give food major disasters — More typical was the hu- II "Poetry is neither tempest nor cyclone. It is a away than to pay for its removal). mor and even giddiness with which many majestic river. "— Isidore Du- and fertile From the start this "different kind of greeted the unexpected holiday. " — Chicago casse. Poesies disaster," as someone dubbed it, was Tribune, 14 April 1992, page 1 "I knew there were big problems perceived by everyone but the ruling "Ifeel like a kid getting out school because of fish in base- when we got reports of as image or symbol of their own "— telephone worker, class an of snow. a woman Superinten- ments."— Chicago Police latent urge to revolt. quoted in the Tribune, 14 April 1992 13 April 1992. dent Mat Rodriguez, In the river's subterranean fury every I Any sudden end of "business as usual" For an entire exalting week, with the rebel against unfreedom has sensed a ushers in possibilities for everything that whole world watching, the Chicago kindred spirit. business is neither business nor usual. Every River had the city's central The river's refusal to stay in its interruption in the "normal functioning" district at its mercy. The rising of this manmade cage will long remain an waterway of government and commerce reveals tormented, much-maligned inspiration for all who reject domestica- glimpses of a new society that is the very revealed the fragility and precariousness tion and other forms of unnatural negation of such sorry afflictions. Mo- of the foundations not only of a city, but confinement. In the rising of the river mentarily freed of the stultifying routine of a whole society, an entire civilization. we recognize the eruption and triumph With the power off and the lights out, of "making a living," people find them- of all that is forbidden, outlawed, sup- selves confronted with a rare opportuni- the unruly river showed us how much of pressed by the enforcers of a racist, lives is dark ty to live. what affects our and sexist, exploitative, militaristic and eco- and hidden from view. In these unmanageable situations, the underground cidal Law 'n' Order. Like the Great This "freak accident" demonstrated that absolute superfluousness of all "man- Snow of '67, the Flood of '92 is a grand monolithic agement" becomes hilariously obvious. the seemingly vast and pow- moment in the struggle to resolve the Uninhibited by the presence of bosses, er of this society's repressive forces is contradiction between nature and hu- largely illusion maintained by the supervisors and other agents of hierar- an man nature. As long as nature is chical power, those who have rarely ignorance and disorganization of those enslaved, humankind cannot be free. victims of a who are accustomed to being repressed. been more than exploited An injury to one is an act like free In passing, the Great Flood exposed slave system begin to injury to all! The majesty in cases yet again the utter worthlessness of all human beings, relying — many and fertility of the river is as statism in solving any for the first time since childhood — on bureaucracy and irrepressible as the desire for their own initiative, their own resourc- fundamental problem. The raging tor- freedom. Dreamers of the world, rents of the river's waters thus es. murky dream like the flood! With the chains of authority broken, brought only clarification in their wake. inequality or at least in disuse, the wonders of In a social set-up based on — The Chicago solidarity and mutual aid are rediscov- and exploitation, "natural calamities" Surrealist Group ered as if by magic. Long-time prisoners generailly victimize the poor. The Chi- of the insufferable workaday world revel cago flood, however, hurt only the May 1992 in the inexhaustible pleasures of not prosperous and powerful. Businessmen, working. Spontaneously and joyfully, cops, bankers, politicians and officials of those who have always been "bored to the Board of Trade called it a "tragedy" death" reinvent, starting from zero, a and a "nightmare," but just about every-

life worth living. The oppressive ty- one else had a grand old time. Many ranny of obligations, rules, sacrifice, described it as an adventure that they obedience, realism and a multitude of wouldn't have missed for anything.

F'S^OEZESSEO hJJClF^h_C] 3C3 .

',t

i

"Hello, how are ya? You "Rita Hoffman's office. I'm away "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. This is have reached the Hoffman res- from my desk. Leave a message." one simple: Start talking!" "Hi, dear. It's me. Casserole was "Hello, Mr. Hoffman. I'm going to idence. I bill my time at two great, really it was. Those correspon- leave a message on your machine. It's hundred dollars per hour. All dence cooking lessons really paid off. five thirty, Mr. Hoffman. We close at my time. So knowing that, if [laughs]. Oh yeah, too bad you couldn't five o'clock. I thought we came to an make it to the game. Rog hit a understanding you have anything worth say- Junior about this once before. ." two-run homer. You shoulda. . This is the last time. I'll wait here with ing, wait for the beep and leave Jenny until six. See you at six, Mr.

a message. . . Hey, wait a min- Hoffman." "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. ute, don't hang up, only kid- "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. This one is simple: Start talking!" This one is simple: Start talking!" ding. If you are not mentally "Hi, hon, it's me. Love your new "Hon, Mrs. Mitchell called. She left a tape. Really, Roger. Cjould you pick up ill, contagiously sick, or a message on my machine. I'm sure she Jenny at daycare? I'll be late again member of the Communist left one at home, too — I mean on your tonight. God, I hope you're home before own machine. You were supposed to Party. . . beeeep." after-school gets out. I'm counting on pick up Jenny, remember?" "Roger, this is your wife. Cute, real you, Roger. You ^z

E.C3 C^F^OEIEaaEEl UJai=^h_D 3C3 graphic by Hugh D'Andrade

"Rita Hoffman's office. I'm away have to be on the coast for that merger. me up. I don't know where I am, from my desk. Leave a message." Plane outta here at nine o'clock. I Daddy." [Pause.]

"Rita, I just picked up the messages don't have time to stop at Mitchell's. You "Mr. Hoffman, this is Sergeant ." off the machine. I did not, repeat, did take care of it, O.K., hon? See you Beard. Call me at 642-8001 not agree to pick Jenny up. That is your Tuesday. Counting on you; see you "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. interpretation. An expansion, really an Tuesday." This one is simple: Start talking!" expansion of our exchange of messages. * * * "Damn, I hate that tape. I landed, I will not be blamed by you, by Jenny, honey. Hope this doesn't wake you. "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. by that Mrs. Mitchell. Do you hear me, Jenny all right? Oh yeah, I ordered the This one is simple: Start talking!" Rita? Let me ..." car phone. Love ya!" "Folks, this is Mrs. Mitchell calling. "Rita Hoffman's office. I'm away Jenny is at Protective Services. That's from my desk. Leave a message." Protective Services. You'll find it in the "Rita Hoffman's office. I'm away "Mommy, why don't you ever pick up phone book under California, State of. from my desk. Leave a message." the phone? It's six thirty. I got your You still owe me a check for October. "Mommy, where are you?" message at school that Daddy's picking This is Mrs. Mitchell. 'Bye now." me up, but he isn't here. I'll be at the "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. Mitchell's. Can one of you please pick "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. This one is simple. Start talking!" me up?" This one is simple: Start talking!" "Roger, how dare you!" "Rita Hoffman's office. I'm away "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, "Rita objected to yesterday's tape. from my desk. Leave a message." where are you?" This one is simple: Start talking!" "Hon, it's me. Roger. It's seven "Daddy, you were supposed to pick fifteen. Look, something came up. I — David Alan Goldstein

i='i^aEZE55EE3 LJJI=lF^h_D 3C3 E>L " .

much they've misjudged you. 9. Make faces at people you talk to on the telephone. DOWNTIME! 10. Make faces at your boss behind his/her back. 11. Stare blankly out the window hours you spend creating profit tedious (assuming you have access to one. If you people. With regular practice for other don't, the wall will do almost as well.) methods, and steady application of these Hold a pen thoughtfully and purpose- able to turn to your you should be fully in your hand: done correctly, this number of work situa- advantage any will deceive your boss into believing that rather not be at tions that at best you'd you're actually thinking about your job. worst you despise down to the and at 12. Invent time-saving efficiency nuclei of your blood cells. Please very working techniques to give you more of these techniques involves note: None time in which to fuck off. developing a good attitude, cultivating a 13. Invent new ways of making your commitment to the company, genuine personal projects look like company seriously. or taking your job business. 1 Have sex fantasies (if you work in 14. Have even more sex fantasies. (1 sex industry, castration fantasies the really can't emphasize strongly enough effective for you). may be more the importance of this technique. Keep- e? 2. Go into the bathroom and mastur- How To ing your libido alive is probably the bate. most fun you can have subverting the o with just how much Actually 3. Experiment dominant paradigm. If you're bored a personal phone call you can make with the Crusades, try the one about the o like company business. Enjoy Your sound FBI agent and the bootlegger's lover.) friends with the people you 4. Make 15. Experiment with just how far you work with. It may not be a great idea to Incredibly Inane can push the dress code. people you work with, actually /w^ the 16. Experiment with just how far you but having genuine friends at your job and Stupid Job can stretch your breaktime/lunchtime/ can make working there somewhat less arrival-and-departure time. perhaps even marginally fossilizing and 17. Experiment with just how Now and Then it waste pleasant. It also makes easier to drunk/high you can get on your lunch valuable company time. Without hour without fucking up your position. 5. Impersonate your boss. (It is es- If you are an addict, it will most likely sential complete step 4 before that you have very limited entertainment value. Becoming A attempting this technique. Failure to do 18. Go into the bathroom and mas- severe embarassment so may result in turbate some more. (What are they of your job. Brainwashed and/or loss going to do, give you grief about the life. This will help 6. Talk about your amount of time you spend on the have one. Zombie you remember that you crapper? Well, okay, they might. If this sake of your intelli- However, for the happens, explain that you have stress- as well as the gence and imagination related constipation, and issue vaguely please sev- sanity of your workmates, threatening hints about workman's time spend erely limit the amount of you compensation, rising insurance costs, shows. discussing television and/or possible lawsuits.) sex fantasies. (Yes, we 7. Have more 19. Use the word processor to write said this already, but it's an know, we letters to your friends. Use the postage important technique and is worth re- machine to mail them. peating. If you haven't had a good sex 20. Find new and ingenious ways to last hour, it's time for fantasy in the annoy your boss that you can't actually the one about the 13th another. Try be fired for. and the Ara- century French Crusader 21. Have another sex fantasy. Don't bian aristocrat.) "If there's something you've got to do and a be shy — you owe it to yourself! Always 8. Have non-sexual fantasies. Make way to enjoy it, you'd be a fool to do it any in other way. up an elaborate imaginary world Thomas Disch, "On Wings of Song" which you are brilliant and fearless and noble and wise and charming and Hello, and welcome to the Creative passionate and gifted and graceful and Employment Opportunity (CEO) hauntingly beautiful to boot; a world in School of Employee Empowerment. which everyone you touch is changed The following techniques will help make forever, even your enemies grudgingly

it possible for you to actually enjoy a admire you, and anyone who ever reasonable portion of the long and sneered at you finally realizes just how

F>f^OEZEaaEE3 kJJaF^h_E3 3CD remember that you are a beautiful and assistance, please consult our second- unique liuman being, no matter how level instruction manuals, How To Look crummy your job makes you feel. You Industrious And Responsible While Doing deserve to have dozens of sex fantasies Your Own Creative Work On Company Time every day of your life. and 101 Sex Fantasies To Keep You 22. Plan your evening. Entertained During An Otherwise Tedious 23. Plan your weekend. Workday. 24. Plan your next vacation. I 25. Plan your life after the workers' — Greta Christina revolution comes and you don't have to work at this stupid fucking job anymore! 26. Plot the workers' revolution. Many thanks to Marian If you feel that this lesson has been , PhillipsJor her valuable helpful but are in need of further assistance, invaluable companionship, and

really weird outlook

on life.

MACotage »^f> '%%' ^^ '9' f' ^^^^^^^^^x

As long as we're slave-labor drones, Fun with mail and communica- we might as well take what we can. tions: QuickMail will allow you to Fun on file servers: It's remarkable Following are some ways in which Mac "attach" documents to whatever mail just how forgetful, careless or ignorant users can appropriate software and message you're sending. If you're at a system administrators and other net- computer use resources for their own large organization or university, you've worked users can be, even when it amusement and gain: almost certainly got Internet access. comes to important or confidential data. Using QuickMail's "Address Book — Depending on your level of access, you Special Address" feature, you can create can move things around, copy things to Fun with networked printers: Since your very own address book with Inter- your hard drive, rename files, or move printers are tied in to computer net- net e-mail addresses. Then you can send folders inside folders. Fun huh? Some works, and those networks are net- mail and/or attachments to yourself and organizations (such as universities) ac- worked, you can print on printers other your friends while at work. You could tually have file servers with shareware than in your own office. even e-mail confidential financial docu- archives that anyone can freely copy. ments to your inside contact at a competing company. Fax software such a MaxFax will allow you to fax most any document to any fax number.

This is a short excerpt of a longer document. For the entire document, or more information, please contact: How Do You Spell It Produc- tions, PO Box 460896, San Francisco, CA Employees 94146-0896, U.SA. F^G^dCESaEa LJJOF^h-E3 3CD Time theft is common enough ducing in the first place. Of course we

,_ on most jobs. When we come to then pay more than the goods "cost" to ^^^^ y ^^S / '^ work late, leave early, extend our produce, because the companies that breaks and lunch hours, conduct pay people to make, ship and sell them, ^^j l(^C V / ^ ^^ ^ \ ^ '^^^i / S^ "personal business" on the clock, to keep track of the money, pensions, ^ J^^* ^ j^W / .c?" we expand the time dedicated to taxes, and so on, all have a "right" to enriching our own humanity. At the make a profit. Somewhere between the same time we make off with bits of crea- bottom and the upper-middle echelons

-•^ tive human energy, stealing it back from of business life almost all of us are ' WH. X ^'^ all-devouring machine of The Economy. toiling away in this web of absurdity, while OUT right to a life is buried To The Economy, most of us are no good beneath powerful "rights." TIME more than employees of companies and more During the last century there's been consumers of goods. The premise of this THEFT? an incredible increase in the productivi- arrangement is that during our time on ty of human labor, to the point where the job we will help create wezdth in ISN'T almost in sight of self- excess of what we are paid. This we are reproducing robots. Since 1948, labor THAT additional wealth is the profit that The productivity has more than doubled, yet -_ in fact requires, flyy -ry g->i Ay Economy demands, today we are working an average of five AAjJ-

this. The Economy is actually an in-

credible work creator. The Economy is QUS! a self-perpetuating way of "life" that depends on growth and profit. Human goals like good relations between peo- ple, deep and satisfying emotional and sex lives, or anything not reducible to economic numbers, are at best inciden- tal to our work lives. Having thoroughly streamlined industrial production, re- ducing humans to animate machine parts in the process, economic logic is invading every part of the globe and our lives. From the search for cheap biogen- etic materials in the deepest tropical jungles to the emergence of new prod- ucts and services such as "career coun- seling" or new variations on fast food, less and less human activity goes on outside the realm of the marketplace. Paid-for "professional services" medical- ize family and personal problems that often have their roots in the overwork, financial stress, and hopelessness pro- duced by The Economy. Time thieves recognize this dynamic

and combat it every way we can. The most direct resistance available to us is to take back as much time as possible from the logic of the marketplace, E9Lp6i!@ "msNm sold your life to bu beginning immediately on our own How manf hows of YOUM Ufo havo boon ponnanoiitlly^wattid? jobs. We need to alter the pace of work to Ufa! Join Rodaim your the Union of Tima Tiiiavaa! suit our own needs. Sometimes we can secretly eliminate unnecessary activi- TIME IS MONEY! STEAL SOME ties, other times we may pull a slow- graphic by Chris Carlsson down. Psycho- wars between groups of divided workers Jind often led workers and their managers are essenti- to self-defeat. But a union of gradually (or abruptly) changing al to time thieves naturally unites kindred productivity expectations. spirits across the artificial control our worktime, we When we boundaries imposed by can structure our activities to increase The Economy. free time, hiding our efficiency to retain A Union of Time Thieves restores the original meaning of the usefulness word "union." of most of Once again the work we do it becomes for this society. a practical — The second indicates association what percentage of our time among individuals we are willing to leave under seeking a common the control of people and goal — in this case the institutions other than ourselves. expansion of autono- mous time under our own control Won't you join us? while on the job. Combat the ravenous and insatiable appetite To systematically of The Economy which attempts to subject all increase free, creative time aspects of human life to the dictatorship of its takes cooperation and logic! collaboration, hence the need for a union TIME IS MONEY! of time thieves. STEAL SOME TODAY!

Why Local #00? Union of Time Thieves Local #00, ^ ^ zero has its Each c/o 41 Sutter St. #1829, San Francis- its benefits for ourselves. Why shouii.. own meaning: co, CA 94104. our ingenuity strengthen The Econo- — The first represents the my? When such efforts become organ- ized across the boundaries of workplac- ^>JXJX^>^.^ ^X ^^ ^ ^ ^^'^> ^^^^^> ^> ^^ ^^ ^ .^ ^ >^ ^^ es, occupations, industries, and finally i; national borders, we will be approach- Moms Don't Want Jobs! Only 15 percent of mothers were "very keen" to return to work, ing a new way of life in which people w 40 percent freely choose and creatively pursue the Two out of three mothers would "quite keen," 24 percent "not very keen" work that together they decide they w choose to stay at home with their and 20 percent "not at all" keen. Even want done — the only work worth doing. children and not work if they could though a large number of women said Why A Union? afford to do so. But 40 percent went they would rather be at home, half of all Unions have become ineffective and back to work within three months of the mothers who worked believed their generally corrupt institutions designed their baby being born. According to a ability to be a parent was enhanced by to facilitate the sade of our time to an survey, a third of working mothers feel the change in environment, mental stimulation and social contact. Economy over which we have no con- 'I guilty about being away from home and trol. They have failed to challenge the 60 percent say that child benefit pay- absurd and inhuman division of labor ments are "very important" — 9 percent from The Times, London that has grown up under 200 years of more than a survey found last year. capitalism. Unionism must address the bald fact that most work done today is so wasteful and harmful that it has to be eliminated, not simply reformed through improved or less brutal condi- tions, or even workers' control. Time thieves already know that their "real lives" happen outside of what they do for money, i.e. work. The pursuit of ree time and less work is a continuing statement about the basic uselessness of most jobs, and our need for greater meaning and fulfillment. Unionism based on specific jobs or industries has I

F>E=^aCEaSED ULiaPSh-Cl 3CD time to arrive at the factory that Mon- day. Olson had stressed showing up fifteen minutes early to convey a "posi- AVON CMM tive attitude." As I headed toward the factory, the gray-toned cover of early dawn prevented me from getting a very good look at the other drivers barreling life took an abrupt turn for the $1.5 billion- worth of junk bonds that My down the expressway. They all looked had been used to finance its construction worse after I graduated from Miami the same: silhouettes taking gulps of University in on a couple hundred acres of former the spring of 1987. A coffee from spill-proof containers, look- liberal arts with I corn and soybean fields. Its combination major poor grades, ing for another radio station or just of highly polished marble, loud, abra- couldn't maintain a set of accounting staring ahead while negotiating the sive music, and flashing lights had given books, design hair dryers, or trade umbilical cord between home and job. half a dozen children epileptic fits. commodities. The help wanted ads Humans are alone when they're born didn't look very Forest Fair Mall is Fairfield's largest promising. There was a and when they die, and also when they large demand for nurses, engineers, cost minimum-wage employer, and Olson drive to work at 5:40 Monday morning. accountants, security guards, little Temporary Services is strategically and The Avon factory sat on an expansive else. of it placed within it, right between the Jiffy None interested me in the plot of land skirting two major inter- least, but I had to apply for something. Lube and the State Farm Insurance states. It looked more like a vast office office. The mall's architectural style is A few small-to-medium-sized facto- complex than the traditional factory ries "lowest common denominator" — as un- were advertising for unskilled la- replete with smokestacks and water inspiring as possible, particularly if borers, and I certainly fit the bill. After towers. Of course, most funeral homes I failed to get a thirty cents can be saved, and Olson's job by applying with also conceal what actually goes on them direcdy, a "friend" office is a perfect example of it. When suggested check- behind their closed doors. ing out temporary agencies. Another I walked through Olson's door, I noticed The parking lot was already quite full "friend" referred me to Olson Tempo- a small waiting area with eight people in when I arrived, with newer cars safe- rary Services, claiming it has the "best" the typical uncomfortable plastic chairs. assignments. Olson had placed his girl- A few of their occupants were leafing friend at General Electric's jet engine absentmindedly through People and w plant in Cincinnati and she ended up Reader's Digest; some just stared out into getting into GE's executive management space with dead chicken eyes. My three-hour wait was thoroughly horri-

ble. Making people wait needlessly is How to sell the petty bureaucrat's means of exerting your soul Like most factories, Avon's a modicum of authority over the power- In six easy steps:// workforce was composed of less. '11 two classes: the non-pro- Although I passed the basic skills and M HW^ word processing tests Olson gave me, ductive managerial and they didn't have an immediate job clerk class, most of whom assignment, and told me to call the next day to check for openings. Being anx-

dressed like appliance sales- ious to get out of the Olson office, I persons at Sears, and the played the obedient, ignorant worker and left without asking any questions. workers, many also non- This was neither the time nor the place productive, who dressed to be antagonistic. That would come later. like people who purchase Following my instructions to the let- appliances at Sears. ter, I called Olson at around 2:30 the following afternoon. After being on hold for half an eternity, subjected to the

trainee program. I didn't believe I was drone of a "light rock" station, a human capable of landing such a position owing voice informed me of a potential assign- to a basic defect of character — a com- ment at a nearby Avon cosmetics fac- plete lack of the work ethic, at least a tory. The assignment would last for two

positive one. But at this point, anything to three weeks, and I was informed that

would do. it was considered "choice" because it The nearest Olson office was in didn't require you to wear a hard hat

Fairfield, a Cincinnati suburb in the and steel-toed shoes. I accepted the Forest Fair Mall, the largest mall in the assignment, which was to begin the next United States, probably containing al- Monday, giving me one last weekend of most as much concrete as the Hoover freedom. Dam. A monument to consumer excess, Not knowing what the early morning its developer went belly up and wrote off traffic would be like, I allowed plenty of kSPy.."'^^^'^ grapbic by deuce of clubs

E>E> F>F^DCE55EE] hJJOF^k_GD 3CZ1 guarded in its outer periphery to pre- THERE'S NO LEGS LIKE vent being scratched and bumped by the many don't-give-a-damn jalopies parked SINGAPORE LEGS! closer to the employee entrance. Proba- bly half of many employees' weekly earnings went out the exhaust pipe of monthly car loan payments and repair bills. Which comes first — the job that necessitates having the car or the car that necessitates having the job? Either way, it's a vicious circle. By this time, the sun was on the job, turning shades of gray into colors. As I parked my car I could see the faces of the people sitting in the relative safety of their cars, savoring those last few min- utes of freedom. Not knowing where to report, I followed the herd heading toward an entrance, hoping to figure things out without having to ask ques- tions. Like most factories, Avon's work- force was composed of two classes: the non-productive managerial and clerk class, most of whom dressed like appli- ance salespersons at Sears, and the workers, many also non-productive, who dressed like people who purchase appliances at Sears. Taking note of a few other confused people congregated ziround the security desk, I went over to try to glean some information from listening to their questions. One of the disinterested guards told a confused temp to sign in and take an identity badge, to be worn "in a prominent CALL NOW FOR OOR CATALOG OF place" whenever on the factory floor. DEVELOPING WORLD DEALS ON PARTS & ORGANS! On my way to the assigned break area where the temporary employee orienta- CALL 1-800-HARVEST! tion was to be given, I took a long look at the factory floor. It was clean, ment of tenured employees with a large pany person who'd worked her way up well-ventilated, and amply lit. Its large pool of temps who would be trained to through the ranks. Walking a few feet south-facing window overlooked a well- perform an elementary assembly line behind was a substantially younger manicured lawn. Avon certainly defied function in less than fifteen minutes — woman who, while looking just as the factory stereotype. and summarily dismissed if they ever official (i.e., hollow-eyed and manne- It was early October, and a produc- questioned the status quo. The remain- quin-faced), possessed the body of an tion increase was in the works to meet ing tenured employees were, in the aerobics fanatic who lived on yogurt and the large influx of orders expected from meantime, pacified into a state of bo- diet sodas. Her face was much more taut Avon's legion of salespeople. From a vine docility and quite frankly didn't than that of the marshmallow- business standpoint, hiring temporary give a hoot in hell how the temps were complexioned woman in front. I could workers to meet peak production needs treated. tell immediately that the young woman makes perfect business sense — after all, A group of twenty to thirty temps sat was all business and saw her current temps receive rock-bottom wages and or stood around, nervously spouting the position as a necessary evil to be marginal benefits, if any. With that mindless chatter of parrots or appliance tolerated only until something better attitude, it should have been no surprise salesmen at Sears. Many of them knew came along. The older woman probably when most personnel departments one another, having worked together on looked upon her current position as a changed their names to Human Re- other temporary jobs in the past. career pinnacle, the fruit of twenty-five sources. Others, such as myself, didn't know years with the company, something to Early in the history of this "modern" anyone and just stood around looking as brag about during Saturday morning factory, the workforce went on a long dumb as the machines to which we appointments with the beautician. and bitter strike that cost Avon a lot of would soon be chained. The employee orientation was con- money and taught its management the Everyone shut up as soon as two ducted on much the same infantile level importance of minimizing the possibili- official-looking women walked into the as the one at Olson: very structured, ty of future strikes. Central to this new break area. The first was frumpy and very authoritarian, and very boring. managerial philosophy was the replace- well into middle age, probably a com- Among the items stressed was the need

F>E=^OEZEa5iEC] kJJOF^h_CI 3CD E.? ' "

to sign in and out at both the guard five minutes. I too was less than eager to station and supervisor's desk, to return to that godforsaken assembly promptly return from breaks, and to line, which was now being speeded up to display a positive attitude at all times a minimally acceptable production owing to the large number of "dignitar- speed. ies" who tour the factory on a daily In front of each of the nine assembly basis. The orientation broke up after lines was a desk. Behind each desk was a fifteen minutes, and we were split up machine supervisor, whose job it was to into teams of five temps each. see that production quotas and quality After fifteen minutes of "training," my control standards were met. As long as team was assigned to a machine that was everything was within acceptable pro- operated by a tenured employee behind duction ranges, they didn't have to do a control console and watched over by a very much, and indeed didn't do much machine repairman. Our job involved besides standing around trying to look snapping one plastic piece onto another necessary. They didn't convince me. as it passed our respective work stations Sure, one of them would take periodic highly indifferent, late-middle-aged on a conveyor belt to another temp who walks around the line, write on a clip- woman controlled the assembly line's neatly arranged them in boxes. The board, and occasionally inquire how speed and initially kept it down to what assembly involved a simple pump that everything was going. I wasn't asked, was considered an inefficient pace while would eventually be attached to a per- but wouldn't have told the truth any- the temps acquired the basic rote skills fume bottle on another assembly line. A way; they didn't want to hear anything and machine-like rhythms to accomplish other than "OK." the task at hand. Snake Oil Video Brings You By 1:30 I was working like a robot After less than five minutes, it was The Laugh Riot of the Year! and paying no attention to the quality of painfully boring and I was looking for a my workmanship. Quality control was a clock to mark the time until the first luxury I hadn't the time or inclination to break, still two and a half hours away. engage in. Frankly, I displayed the The two temps sitting on either side of finesse of a drunken Russian coal min- me were engaged in some inane conver- er. If the correct fitting was made, OK; sation through which they could perhaps if the incorrect fitting was made, OK. make things go by more quickly. They With the buzzing of the end-of-shift covered such well-worn topics as missed signal, both tenured and temporary daytime dramas, planned shopping ex- employees dropped everything and cursions on the upcoming weekend, and dashed for the exits with a reason for anticipated purchases from the Avon living that they otherwise lacked during Employee Store. the course of the working day. While In spite of the finite nature of such leaving the Avon factory did signal the conversational topics, they were able to attainment of a degree of freedom, it sustain their chitter-chatter for a full two- also meant driving through bumper-to- and-a-half hours until the final break, bumper traffic, preparing the evening somewhere around 10:30, although I meal, washing dishes, taking children to had completely lost track of empirical sports practice, watching four to six BUSINESS ETHICS time. The temps sitting in the break of television, thinking sex — You'll split a gut as you hear a heartwarm- hours about area closest to my assembly line were ingly sincere speech about how business really maybe even going through the mo- acting like shell-shocked soldiers. The cares for its "family of employees!" tions—and falling asleep on the couch tenured employees didn't look any bet- You'll roar as they tell you businesses really by 10:00. By 9:30, I was thoroughly lost ter, and in fact, looked shell- shocked all do compete, despite ail appearances! in dreamless slumber land. the time — both on and off the job. You'll pee yourself sopping as real-life execu- While earning almost double per hour in the tives confess they're not really in it for the Morning came around much money, but rather to make America great!! what the temps earned and having same way it had twenty-four hours slightly You'll laugh yourself blue as a CEO looks you better jobs, they had the distinct earlier, only I was more tired, two cups straight in the eye and proclaims, "Honesty disadvantage of having done it for years of jet black coffee notwithstanding. is always the most profitable corporate policy. if not decades and wore the effects like Arriving five minutes later than yester- "Even better than the Dan Quayle fashion models wear skin-tight clothes: day forced me to park further back in speech on moral ethics!" puffy faces, cream-cheese complexions, the parking lot and walk what seemed Shalit —Gene raccoon-like rings around oil-slick eyes, like half a mile to the employee en- "Two thumbs in the eye!" atrophied muscles, poor posture, de- trance. As for my state of mind, I didn't — Siskel & Ebert formed hands. really have one the second day, most of 'We're proud you chose our corporate The temps returned from the break which was spent filling boxes with ' with the reluctance of cattle jars of facial policies as a model for all! being shampoo bottles and cream — H. Ross Perot herded into a slaughterhouse killing coming off a conveyor belt with the line. The tenured employees who knew velocity of machine gun bullets. Falling TO ORDER YOUR VHS COPY TODAY CALL what was in store were the last to come behind within fifteen minutes of the 1-800-1 M SLIME! back, extending the break for another beginning of my shift necessitated work-

E>^ E=>i^nE:E5i5EE3 kJJCIB^h-a 3CD ing like mad to avoid being the "weak classifications: repair (men) and opera- get paid by Olson anyway owing to

link" in the chain. I shouldn't have given tions (women). Because being a repair- some silly breach of contract clause in

a damn, but did — a major character man was deemed more "difficult," they the employment forms. So be it!

flaw I hope to eliminate soon. were paid more than operators, who, The first object I noticed upon getting This was only Tuesday morning, but while earning more than the temps, out of Avon was an enormous oak tree the concept of weekends had lost its earned about one-third less than the towering over the parking lot. Perfectly

significance in my struggle to keep up repairmen. The supervisors were pre- proportioned, it must have been seventy with the mechanized beast. Unlike the dominantly female, but earned little years old and possessed a dignity denied two assembly lines flanking the one I more than the repairmen, who mainly to the people bound to the hum-drum was bound to, mine wasn't breaking stood around drinking coffee and mak- life inside. I marveled that it hadn't been down very frequently; it just kept on ing sexist remarks. bulldozed during the construction of the

going. The two temps working near me Once the machine was unclogged, it parking lot, probably a concession to had long since ceased talking and in- ran smoothly — except when I sabotaged '70s environmentalists designed to pro- stead just concentrated on the task at it by creating a jam. But this provided ject a "good corporate image" while hand, trying to survive until the next only the most temporary relief. I could Avon's products filled up landfills across break. By quitting time I knew why only break the machine down for about the nation and much of the ocean floor Fred Flintstone shouted "Yabba Dabba 15 minutes an hour without giving off the New Jersey coast. Doo!" when his shift ended and he could myself away to management; this meant As I walked towards my car, granted, get away from his drudgery. having to work for 45 minutes an hour, I had almost no money and few pros- Once home, riding my bike was still which was intolerable as far as I was pects for getting any in the near future, possible, but I mostly thought about the concerned. So as soon as the half-hour but I was free for the afternoon — and job while biking and didn't really enjoy lunch break began, I casually gathered that was enough for the time being. myself. Reading was entirely out of the up my jacket and bag and took one last question. Watching television was look around the place. There was really stretching my capabilities, but was no need to sign out. I didn't believe I'd — Donald Phillips made possible by having a remote control unit within arm's reach. I fell asleep by 9:00; my night was once again dreamless.

Early Wednesday morning, while as- sembling lunch (the food in the Avon cafeteria was truly wretched) and dreading my appointment with yet an- WITH MORE COPS AND MORE TAILS THAN BVCtK BBFOrE.^ POIN^ Ot/R TO tHSURE. THAT THE POUce. other machine, I realized that this we're B£Sr ARe A CONSTANT FRE'SSNCE IN THg. INNER. Cir/es.. couldn't go on much longer if sanity my 3VT CONS Alone ARE NOT EHOOCH TO CONTFOC AN CNnRE- were to be preserved. At the same time, however, the alternatives seemed to be equally unattractive. There was really CfTITEN ALERT f CiriZEH /iLERT/ only one alternative — another shit job. Wednesday morning actually started out OK, because I was pulled away from the assembly line and assigned to help a tenured employee construct box- THE LAW es. The machine had broken down, and she told me to just act like I was working NEEDS YOUR in the meantime. My holiday lasted until the first break, after which I was chained to the machine for which I had previously constructed boxes. This new HELP! job involved screwing lids onto jars of cold cream. It was another situation in V/tTHOOT roOK. CO-OP£l!tATtON,I.A\J Af/O OHPeR\ IS MSANINCt-e.^Z, YoO CAN HELP OOP BorZ. which I immediately fell behind and had (N BLUe. coHTPou fOVR C^HHONlTY Bt to bust ass to avoid falling behind even fouuowiNC THEse stMPt-e. comma*/©*: further. As luck would have it, the machine broke down again when one of • fceep roup t?ooPs Loct the jars got caught in a chute and AHO yoOP TCLEnStON ON AT Al-L. T/ATCST' created a substantial traffic jam. After • WATCH roup NEiCHBons roR S/<;a/5 op Vtiuc, carefully listening to the repairman use 0« COMMONirr OPdANIXtN^. explain to the machine operator why the BE NtCC PAlLuPe TO svBMir rt> PouicC PeauEsrs may hort feei-»ncs op jam occurred, I made a mental note of the THE. OPPlcep IN\/OL\/E0, his instructions. Only then did I notice the sexual REf^EMBEK OBEDIENCE IS NINE TENTHS OF THE LAW composition of the factory floor's two job

PF^OEZESSED hJjaF^h_a 3C3 RUSTBELT ARCHIPELAQO

As the dust of the so-called tended collective household with the the collapse of gross national output and collapse of communism settles, typically high productivity that house- smelling the immense possibilities at its holds have always had. (Especially in own disposal once it could pry the it's become clear that this is agriculture: 50% of all Soviet food was bureaucratic lid off the pot. Into this only one of international capi- allegedly produced on 2% of all Soviet miasma of theft, corruption, shadow talism's minor adjustments. farmland — the "private" patches owned "economy," "stagnation," and "Brezh- by agricultural workers.) However, the nevism" (Brezhnev takes the credit The last living myth after the full use of this productive capacity was without deserving it!), the authorities death of socialism is the Free hindered by the stranglehold of the aimed the light of glasnost (Russian for Market, or as it is more popu- Communist Party and state bureaucra- transparence) and perestroika (getting the larly known, The Economy. cy—the only real capitalist structures. households out of the factories). From Maintaining tightly knit workforce the perspective of the world market (and State-Taylorism in the East a surveillance network absorbed huge the communists have always operated and Post-Fordism in the West amounts of productive capacity and was from this perspective, beginning with are looking for new ways to tap immensely demoralizing. And com- Lenin's "Taylorist" coup d'etat), an in- people's social productivity, pared to control by the money system, it competent, overpaid, and socially "en- was so ridiculously expensive and inef- tangled" generation of old executives their natural ability to work fective that its prolonged existence can had to be replaced by a sharper crew together to produce for them- be considered one of the "economic that would dare to cut into social selves. It no longer makes sense miracles of socialism" — no other system productivity with tougher instruments. idle Soviet Union was certainly a to call this situation a "crisis" could have afforded so many mem- The bers. capitalist society, but not run on money — capitalism is always in crisis. "Socialism" was a deal with capital, (only its overall output for the world By its very nature, capitalism but never a workers' paradise. If the market was monetized, as the big mul- is a clumsy, precarious way of Soviet workers could have gotten rid of tinationals do). To stop a proletariat this repressive grid, its "productivity" that wasn't controlled by the Party (the transforming people's natural might easily have risen tenfold. real equivalent of money), that had not social productivity into work The current adjustments demonstrate yet submitted to monetary circuits, and and the conditions that ensure that by the end of the '80s, even the that would suddenly have been one of more work. Communist Party's extremely terroristic the richest and happiest on the planet, and debilitating regime was unable to only a radical international emergency The transformations of "Eastern extract sufficient surplus out of an program would do. The bureaucracy capitalism" reveal the relationship be- expanding "swamp" of direct appropria- sabotages productivity for the workers' tween capital and social productivity tion. The proletariat had become dan- use wherever possible and then proposes quite clearly. The stagnation of state- gerously concrete, surviving in spite of the "free market," with the most dedi- capitalism under Brezhnev was mainly cated of the workers as the new capiteil- caused by the rampant "exploitation" of ists, as the only salvation. For example, capitalist structures by the workers. The "Socialism" was a deal with there has never been and there is no Soviet factory had many uses and was food shortage in the ex-Soviet Union, extremely productive but unfortunately capital, but never a workers* but all the old channels of distribution wasn't profitable. The buildings provid- paradise . . . To stop a have been blocked by the bureaucracy. ed shelter during the day and at night, con- The drying out of the swamp is a as well as space for conversations, proletariat that wasn't necessary first step in the introduction of private tinkering, card games, and so (the trolled by the Party a system in which a direct connection forth. Factories organized food distri- real equivalent of money), between work and living is made via bution through barter deals with agri- real money (U.S. dollars, at the mo- cultural enterprises (no lines required). that had not yet submitted ment). Russian workers cannot pay for They guaranteed medical services, to monetary circuits, and their living by working 10 easy-going cheap vacations, and child care. The hours a week and expect to compete factory itself was a source of materials that would suddenly have with world-market levels of productivity for private barter deals (theft). These been one of the richest and like those of Taiwan or Japan. functions were only slightly disturbed by A monthly wage in the former Soviet market-oriented production, which happiest on the planet, Union is now about $12. How rich must consumed about 10 hours a week of each only a radical international a society be if it can keep its members worker's time. alive, even on the most miserable terms, In fact, the factory was not a strictly emergency program for $12 a month! There must still be market-oriented enterprise but an ex- would do. reserves of "hidden" productivity! What

VCD F^E^nEZESSEa UJaF^h-CI 3C3 we observe at this moment is a desperate the Russian proletariat the factory, but justments" in the West. Although there race between the Russian proletariat "taking" the "village" (obshtina) away. A is a lot of social productivity ready for reconstructing and rediscovering its Russian factory always looked like and market exploitation in the East, it has productivity on a new basis and inter- operated like a traditional village com- vanished or become inexploitable in the national capital creating an archipelago munity. If you now take the factory West. This productivity is one of use of (initially subsidized) full-time capi- away, the Russian workers are in a real values and is objectively "high" when talist production to exploit their pro- squeeze. They'll be out in the open, everybody feels "comfortable." It can be ductivity. The problem is that because ready to accept any deal. This, of high in a technically and energetically of active sabotage by the old bureaucra- course, is what "international aid" simple community like the South Sea cy, most factories cannot be centers of means. islands, and low in the housing projects social productivity any more without If only an attack on the Russian of the most sophisticated capitalist sys- specific efforts to make them useful to proletariat were on the agenda, interna- tems. Even in an advanced capitalist the market again. Russian households tional capital wouldn't make more of a society, the social productivity is always are extremely poor, small, and vulnera- fuss than in past decades. But the predominant, and must be. Simple ble, and even less productive than ours. dismantling of the Russian workers' czdculations of hours worked in the The Leninist "deal" consisted of "giving" power base correlates with decisive "ad- extremely crippled 2.5-person U.S.

F^F^agZEBiaEa kJJCIi^h-a 3C3 7^ capitzd's strings are household show that 50 % of the work is The "socied costs" (caused by time, government's purse ferocious work rhythms), the repair capital pays less into the done within it. Add services and deals own tied and profit-generators, have of among friends, invitations, small vege- bills for the common social pool. Reductions table gardening, consumption on farms, risen so high that the required wage social costs via wage cuts or state budget below bearable in the West gifts, the shadow economy, spontaneous would reduce profits to cuts have been under way cooperation in the workplace, unpaid limits. The capitalization of real estate for some years now. There are cheaper union and party meetings, midnight made housing costs rise. Health care, workers available. revive notes and so on, and you can easily see pensions, child-rearing costs including It would be easy for capital to industrial and that capital can only exist if most of the education, etc., have made social productivity even in the West old capi- workers. 2.5- yNork — even on the job — isn't regularly production unprofitable in the get potentially cheaper A enough expensive and accounted for. Capital feeds on the talist zones. Workers don't work person household is very "just in It seems that "social body" like a leech on a water and live too long— they aren't desperately unproductive. is possible buffalo. The subversive/instructive time" like other factors of production. the highest social productivity sense of a slogan like "Wages for Only where the hinterlands supply in a village-like, well-structured, "dem- provide acces- of about 500 peo- housework" is based on this fact. cheap, fresh workers and ocratic" community (East Asia) can could reduce Actually, if you look at use values, sible dumping grounds ple. Living in such units

still produced. Only as . Capital capitalism is one of the crudest and most material goods be social costs by as much 80% wasteful and brutish attempts to make a where workers come "for free" can would be happy to get workers at such a exist. work full time and the problem is that such living (and it has nothing to do with the capital Even if we price; however, levels of desire to make a living, either). It could payfor everything, we cost too much. communities develop high only survive because the worldwide level But what if our social costs could be political power and independence and of spontaneous production was so im- reduced to those of the new arrives their members usually can't understand mensely high that only the dumbest took from Russia and other points abroad? why they should work at all and pay so capitalism seriously. Especially what we In a certain sense, cheap socialist work- much. They become cheap but useless. To with expen- need pure call the Third World was such an ers are already competing get them back to work, you inexhaustible reservoir of human and sive western workers, although the fac- pre-capitalist terror (money alone or the cultural resources that the capitalist tories they will work in have not yet even the Chicago Boys won't do nonsense experiment could be looked at been built. One of the mechanisms is the job.). of capital's with a contemptuous smile. It accounted transfer of capital: huge masses In part, this will be one of special eco- it could be for maybe 10% of real human dealings money are invested in the roadblocks in the East. And reflections on on the planet (wage labor). nomic zones in the East (not all of the the starting point of our be made profita- capital's newest and most Now this is over. People are seriously ex-Soviet Union can how to ruin impatient with capital almost every- ble), emptying the credit-markets in the global readjustment so far. The geogra- where. Two hundred years of continu- West and thus pushing interest rates up. phical area where most of the readjust- ous exploitation and sabotage of social The "softest" western companies then go ments will happen is the Rustbelt. It productivity have put us and capital in a bankrupt, unemployment rises, and stretches from Northern California squeeze. In the West, for example, the workers become cheaper. Rents, linked across Detroit, New Jersey, New Eng- reproductive capacity of households has to interest rates, rise and skim away land, Old England, and Middle Europe, a railroad and been damaged to such an extent that 30% of a wage versus maybe 20% along the Trans-Siberian even capital must pay more for the upkeep of few years ago. Inflation without com- into parts of China and Japan rest. At the same aging lately, too). If we the workers than it can profitably afford pensation does the (Japan's been look at the planet this way, we can forget the old ideological myths of Eastern and Western blocs and national boundaries and just see empty industrial areas with groups of workers in different but interdependent squeezes, with different experiences involving struggle, machin- ery, bureaucrats, and "corruption" (i.e., social productivity). We recognize that

life in this zone of destruction, roughly between 30 and 60 degrees of latitude North, could still be possible without further disturbing the South. Of course our criteria would be different from those of the current capitalist renovat- ors. Although we don't exactly love factories, even less rusty ones, and there

is massive pollution in some of these areas, they represent a common possi- bility for action. They're empty and can be invaded and recycled. Workers are skilled in how to use them. The real

va E='E^[ZIC:Ea5EEJ UJaf^h_EJ BiCZ) graphic by Angela Bocage

estate they sit on is mostly cheap, and spots, and reasonable proposals that them as bases for a new, matriarchal the areas are centrally located and could help to put imagination on dan- civilization. linked to railroads. Spaces are big and gerous paths to action. • Focus on three concrete projects, often ideal for communal structures. In a larger context, the transforma- ideally one in the R.S.A. (Rusty State of Instead of following capital's ambigu- tion of the Rustbelt into a kind of Archi- Amnesia), one in Middle Eurusty, and ous offers of emigration, we could pelago Pandora could end 5,000 years of one in the ex-Rust Union. emigrate collectively into these spaces patriarchal anomaly and neutralize the • Create schemes for appropriating and link them to a kind of Rustbelt Northern domination of the Southern industrial areas: squatting, creating

Archipelago. Then all workers would be Hemisphere. Mining the Rustbelt can state subsidized housing, forming coop- able to travel around the planet from only be one aspect in the struggle eratives or public corporations. social] factory to social factory without against the patriarchal planetary Work • Disseminate existing knowledge serving in capital's army of wage- Machine, but from the point of view of regarding the re-use of industrial areas.

undercutters. Instead, they'd always be practical opportunity, it could be a OF THE RUSTBELT, coming home. viable first step in this big task. WORKERS UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO The Economy tries to impose condi- The Rustbelt movement is just one tions on us that combine the worst of aspect of the planetary struggle against LOSE BUT YOURJOBS! both worlds — eastern wages and west- the stranglehold of capital. Cooperation — P.M., Zurich, Switzerland ern work discipline. The answer to this with all movements throughout the is worldwide collaboration on the com- world is crucial, but especially with the mon project of producing for ourselves. Southern Hemisphere (there are lots of Although we have better equipment rusty spots there too). The need for such than the Russians, they could teach us cooperation transcends all barriers of how to use factories in other ways. In race, color, income, sex, and nationali- creating the new industrial villages of ty-

the Rustbelt, we need all the social and Why not use industrial areas in the technical know-how we can get. context of movements that fight for Of course, because food distribution other than economic solutions to life? In

is one of the instruments of political many urban areas such movements are repression and social sabotage, we must looking for spaces to meet, organize, also connect these Rust Spots with the and test new lifestyles. At the same

surrounding farmland. Without direct time, there is an immense lack of control over food-production, the capi- housing space for the homeless, mi- tadist "joke" will never end. (Supermar- grants, young people and the victims of kets are ridiculous!) the present crisis in general. Huge office There is immense power and pleasure buildings, assembly-line halls, ware- in social productivity controlled by the houses, storage areas, port facilities are proletariat, or just people once you get theoretically available now everywhere,

rid of capital's criteria, and now is the and capitalist planners can't offer profit-

moment to organize the struggle for it. able proposals for their reuse. What we Periods of adjustment are always risky propose is a transcontinental movement for capital. There are "leaks" now, soft that appropriates these spaces and uses

E>g=HaEZES5EE3 LUaF^k-O 3C3 Ta Once upon a midnight bleary, while I suffered, weak and weary. Over many a quaint and curious program hacked of yore ~

While I nodded, nearly sleeping, suddenly there came a beeping. As of something creeping, softly creeping, near my disk drive door. -- "Tis some malfunction," said I, "beeping at my disk drive door Only this, and nothing more." *

Yet the silken, sad, unrolling of each screen of code downscrolling Thrilled me -- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before,-

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating, "Tis some hardware error clattering at my disk drive door -- Some errant bug creating an annoyance at my disk drive door --

That it is, and nothing more."

Deep into directories peering, long I sat there, wondering, fearing Dreaming, doubting doubts no mortal ever dared to doubt before,- But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the single word there spoken was a whispered "Qremlinsi"

This I whispered, and an echo whisp'ring answered, "Qremlins!" Merely this, and nothing more.

Back unto my keyboard turning, all my soul within me burning.

Soon again I heard a beeping, somewhat louder than before.

"Surely," said I, "surely that is something in the tape drive,- -- Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore - Tis a bug and nothing more." 133 I backup, when, with many a fart and hiccup. Swiftly accessed the A Itw •xplanatlont of bits of obscure w*lrdn«is: out flakey Ravin' from the mystic days of yore,- Alan Turing (1912-1954} vvas a pioneer in modern There wafted some computer theory and mathematics He was hounded tor his homosexuality until he committed suicide. Not a clue as to who'd made it,- no Escape key stopped or stayed it. - A raster scan is a technique used in computer termmals But, determined to invade, it perched above my disk drive door and TVs to display an image on the screen. A Daemon is Turing just above disk drive door -- a computer program that is available to Upon a virtual bust of my users but which they don't have to call (eg programs Perched, and shat, and nothing more. that control printers). A pointer error is a mistake In a computer program that results In extremely unpredictable behavior; they are essentially errors In writing or reading information in memory.

A process table is a list of all the programs running Then this ebony doofus jiggling my sad fancy into giggling. on a computer. System files are computer programs and data which it By the crufty cartoon crudeness of the countenance wore, are required to operate the machine. "Though thy resolution's murky and thy animation's jerky," - Said I, "Qrim and ancient Ravin' floating from this frightful bore Tell me, tell me thy full pathname in the system's hallowed store!" Croaked the Ravin': "NEVERMORE."

Much I marveled this ungainly hack to synthesize so plainly. Though its answer little meaning - little relevance bore,- For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was cursed with seeing such an image 'bove his door -- Qlitch or bug upon the windowed screen above his disk drive door. A software error - nothing more.

But the Ravin', spouting lonely from the placid bust, spoke only That one phrase, as if its soul therein it did outpour. - Nothing further then it uttered -- not a raster then it fluttered

Till 1 scarcely more than muttered, "Other bugs have flown before On the morrow this will leave me, as such code has flown before. "FATAL ERROR: CAN'T RESTORE."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store

First repeated and repeated as some dweeb trying to delete it

Was defeated and defeated till his songs one burden bore - Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of ABORT OR RETRY, OR IQNORE?"

Now the Ravin' was befouling my glad fancy into scowling,-

Straight 1 wheeled a cushioned seat in front of screen and bust and door,-

Then, upon the dacron sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous fraud of yore -- What this grim, ungainly, gnarly, gross, and gubbish fraud of yore Meant in grunting "DUMP THE CORE!"?

"Prophet!" said I, "Thing of evil! - prophet still, if bug or daemon! - Whether programmed, or a terror grown from unknown pointer error. Freak, undocumented, in this office unenchanted -- -- In this shop by deadlines haunted - tell me truly, I implore -- Does this — does this machina hold a deusi tell me, I implore!" "DEAD LABOR-- NOTHINQ MORE."

"Be that phrase our sign of parting, bug or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting "Qet thee from my process table, and my system files restore! Leave no icon as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! ~ Quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from off my screen, and take thy code from out my core!"

Croaked it: "RUNTIME ERROR 104." PFSOEZESSEO hXICIE^k_a 3CD TS WHAT WORK MATTERS?

The Labor Movement has of unionization. They imagine that they crats who have helped pursue the im- will someday be allowed back in the club perialist policies of the U.S. through the stopped moving. Institutions, and once again enjoy a piece of an American Institute for Free Labor De- trade unions, primarily AFL-CIO expanding economic pie as they did velopment (AIFLD) and campaigns for long ago replaced workers as the during the post-war period, when they "democratic unions" have contributed "active" part of the "movement." played an important role in crafting to a process which has already greatly U.S. foreign and domestic policies by increased "Third World" conditions in In the past two decades unions purging radicals and communists and U.S. cities. and organized workers have been becoming ardent cold warriors. The reduction of high-wage industrial completely outflanked by the Labor-management cooperation suc- work in favor of low-wage, part-time widespread restructuring of ceeds when there is increasing wealth service and information work was in to divide up at the bargaining table, and response to the equalizing forces of the work through automation and workers are content to exchange control world market. As capital flows to areas relocation. This institutional over their work for increased purchasing of optimal profitability, living condi- legacy of earlier struggles is in- power. Those days are gone forever. tions worsen in its wake, creating a The U.S.'s much-vaunted "high stan- two-tiered society that signals misery for capable of reconceptualizing the dard of living" — the trough at which the majority. It is a process that cannot of social opposition; to nature trade unionism has fed its formerly fat be derailed by an "honest" or even expect otherwise is naive. face so voraciously — is sinking fast. "progressive" government enmeshed in Falling living standards are no acci- the unforgiving world market. Union What do we want and how do we get it? dent. The effect of expanding interna- leaders who campaign for "jobs" are tional trade is to gradually equalize either cynics or genuinely myopic. They back our labor. It's We want to take wages and working conditions world- know as well as anyone who reads the decide what ours, and we want to wide. The demise of union strength, daily papers that the wave of restructur- strategically disem- society does! It is attributable in part to the emergence of ing that helped produce this "downturn dare I say "stupid" — to begin powering — this world market with its billions of in The Economy has permanently the premise that our revolutionary from low-wage workers, is also in part a result reduced the number of workers needed. subordinate activity must rest on our of unions themselves. Union bureau- Today people band together as work- positions. Trying to get improved wages or conditions within an absurd, toxic mariiet pimps iinown as A trail of theft, protection raciiets and sordid corruption—the droppings of the job and wasteful division of labor over unionists"—led to a ghoulish cul-de-sac: which no one has any meaningful "official HOUSE OF LABOR control is to pursue a future of childlike THE HAUNTED dependence on either rulers or the abstraction known as The Economy.

What is The Economy? It is all of us doing all this work — a lot of it a waste of time! But the media tells a different story: we are chided for lacking "con- sumer confidence" and scolded for "hurting The Economy," or perhaps we are counseled that "it's bad right now," as though The Economy was suffering a transient medical problem that will pass just like a cold.

Government as we know it is a major part of the problem, not because it stands in the way of business and the

market, but because it offers them the ultimate guarantee of force, and has

proven its willingness to act. Unions are also part of this. They have clear legal responsibilities, primarily negotiating and upholding legal contracts with large companies, ensuring "labor peace"; they cling to the law, hoping that eventually the government will change the laws and then enforce them to allow a new wave

PE=M=ic::E5aEa tojoi^h-C] ^cd Work is war. If it's only a game now, it's collective appropriation of the means of because it's so difficult to seriously chal- production. In other words, "taking lenge the power and designs of the over" this messed-up world and running owners and their representatives. it "democratically" is neither truly pos- Many people already pursue activities sible nor desirable. A more thorough- and "work" that they rarely, if ever, get going transformation of human activity paid for. In spite of the lack of "demand" and society will be required. To look at for this "work," they put serious com- institutional solutions at the state level

mitted energy into developing various or its opposite, is to gaze into the past. talents, skills, or tendencies because Those ideas were born embedded in a their engagement with life demands division of labor and social system that it — the satisfaction of their full humani- has consistently promoted extreme cen- ty depends on it! What if the passion tralization, stratification, and hierarchy that leads us to become musicians or based on power, wealth, race and gen- artists, or to pursue "second careers," or der.

"pay our dues" in the fields we are If it is hopelessly anachronistic to interested in, were unleashed to rede- believe in the possibility of One Big sign life itselP! Union, or even a good government, As the people who "have better things how do we democratically organize our to do than work," we have to develop lives? What does democratic organiza- our sense of self-interest, in stark oppo- tion really mean? How come when we sition to the consensus for a "strong "talk politics" we don't talk about real They had made a perfidious pact with the economy." Tactics to expand our free- issues like what do we do and why? How EVIL ONES!... dom RIGHT NOW will become clearer can we "freely participate" in a system of

ers and t£ike action when they are attacked and enraged, or desperately The target of a new social opposition should be a good life frightened (and not always then). By the for everyone. An ecologically sound material abundance, time they are pushed to this extreme, a large team of lawyers and managers has based on non-mandatory but widely shared short work already been planning for months or shifts at democratically determined "necessary labor," is years on using management's strategic power to increase control and profits. possible right now!

Workers' actions under union (and le- gal) control invariably correspond as we share what we already know about highly socialized labor and creatively closely to the script being written by the points of vulnerability, openings and redesign the fabric of our lives at the company lawyers. spaces, creative obfuscation, unfettered same time? Of course no one expects radical ideas self-expression, Utopian fantasizing, and The marketplace and wage-labor im- from union leaders, whose primary living well now. Sometimes we'll find pose a fatail break between our inclina- concerns are personal survival, pen- allies at work, other times the pursuit of tions and duties. We are objects cast sions, their kids' college tuitions, etc. As our goals may need "outside help." about in the rough seas of the market. every wave of layoffs, automation and Given the sweeping changes of the concessions hurls more people into the past two decades (computerization and What can you say about people who's motto is: daily transience and uncertainty that just-in-time production to name but two "Proud To Be An Office Worker"? increasingly characterize daily life in the examples), the fear of losing increasing- U.S., union bureaucrats merely seek ly scarce jobs, and the thorough amnesia long-term guarantees for themselves as that afflicts U.S. workers, liberals, and institutional players at the Table of even radiczds, it seems unlikely that Consensus. Any contract will do, as social movements that break with the long as the dues keep getting checked logic of the marketplace will arise on the off. they'll Maybe have to "tighten their job. However, such movements will still belts," lay off a secretary or two. face the question of work. For these reasons a new wave of social opposition must identify its strategic THE DUALISM OF WORK concerns as distinct from those of uni- ons. Those that do the work should The French writer Andre Gorz has assume comprehensive control, through argued that the extreme socialization of their own activity, of their (our) work, modern industry and its reduction of their purposes, and organization. human labor to completely controlled Workers have to begin thinking beyond machine-like behavior has eliminated the logic of the system in which they find the once radical vision of true workers' themselves entrapped. control of industry and society. The way Time at the paid job is akin to "jail" most work is structured in the global versus the "freedom" of time after work. factory precludes the possibility of a

PF^aEZESSEED kJJOF^h_0 =kC3 W .

These ghouiish workerists attempled to pass themselves as living humans! activity can be drastically reduced, al- tered or simply eliminated.

Imagine how easy it would be to take

care of medical problems if there were no money or insurance, merely the provision of services to those who need-

ed them. There would still be medical

record-keeping, but it would only track information for health needs, not infor- mation to be used for the pernicious ends of insurance disqualification or other stan- dard business crimes. Hospitals would take care of people, not process insurance forms, imagine! With the elimination of so imagine! With the elimination of so much wasted effort and resources, real needs become much easier to meet.

Material security is guaranteed to all. Vincent Vanguard — SECT; Wevilutionary Lurkers (There's plenty to go around already Plague Mike Old-Doff but thanks to the market most of us can't SECT: Laboriously Struggling FRONT GROUP: Solidarity with SECT: Anachronist-Syndicalist Worken Party afford much.) the Industrial Workers of FROI^ GROUP: "The Oiganizm' Antarctica Organizing Conference" With this kind of revolution the wrong-headed demand for "jobs" van- rather than thoughtful subjects consid- Calling what we do as work now ishes into thin air. Instead we are ering the zilhons of ways in which our "necessary labor" is a confusing mis- overwhelmed (at least at first) by all the Hves could be better immediately, and nomer in our society since millions of work we need to do to create this new organizing ourselves to help bring it jobs are a waste of time at best. But if a free society — a great deal of it involving about. We are locked into "careers," or social movement arises with enough the development of many new forms of perhaps vicious cycles of underemploy- strength to create new ways of social life, social decision-making and collective ment, unemployment and bad luck, then the activities that belong on the list work. instead of choosing from a smorgasbord of "necessary labor" could ultimately be When we get things more or less the of useful activities needing attention, decided upon by a new, radically demo- way we like them our "necessary labor" from cooking, cleaning and caretaking, cratic society. Once these tasks are will fall to something like an easy five to planting and building, along with a identified and agreed upon, we can go hours a week each. Our free time then variety of well-stocked workshops for about the business of reducing unpleas- stretches out before us with almost easy "self-production" of essential items. ant work to a minimum, making it as unlimited possibilities. Most of us will

Why isn't it a common discussion enjoyable as possible, and sharing it as get involved in lots of different things. among people that life is so dismal when equally as possible. As people begin "working" at all the it could be so fine? Such a new society would eliminate things they like to do, under their own Perhaps we can get something from billions of hours of useless work re- pace and control, society discovers the Gorz's concept of dualism at work. It's a quired by The Economy, from banking pleasant surprise that "necessary labor" dualism we already face, but relatively to advertising, from excessive packaging is shrinking since so much of what unconsciously. On the one hand, there to unnecessarily wide distribution net- people are doing freely is having the are certain basic tasks that must be done works, from military hardware and effect of reducing the need for highly "efficiently" to accommodate basic hu- software to durable goods built to break socialized, machine-like work. man needs worldwide — clean water and down within a few years or even Juliet Schor has discovered some sewage treatment, sustainable agricul- months. Hundreds of areas of human interesting statistics in her book The ture, adequate shelter and clothing, and so on. On the other, are the countless KI0TE6O0K UNION MCMBEK, CARRY A f ways humans have developed to satisfy tORlTE DOlUN EVe^y TIME themselves and improve life, from cul- SHrtOVi IS MEAVJ TO -iO\)\ I'M A ture and music to home improvements LA\A)yffR SO In today's so- and do-it-yourself-ism. 1 5H0ULO ciety, this dualism is experienced as cin KWOtu! unavoidable division between what we do to "make a living," and what we do when work is over and we are "free." Of course, that "free" time is most often defined by the flipside of alienated work,

i.e. shopping, or other forms of silie-

nated consumption. Nevertheless, it is outside of work that most of us construct new meaoing to the identities that we really care about The slindard creaky oral reporte on "sacririce" and "suffering with dignity" gave

"Boring From Within". . and that give us our sense of meaning.

'P^ F>FMZIi::E55ED LJJCie=Sh_Cl 3CD THEIR REAL JOBS ARE: some people make so much more money not attack hard work. Without doubt, a than others? More interesting still, in a free society will be a great deal of work, stand-up comedian society freed from the mass psychosis involving both the free, creative and fun &Poet Singer & known affectionately as The Economy, stuff, and a fair share of the grind-it-out Dancers & Sculptor what relationship do we want to estab- rehabbing, reconstructing, and reinha- Soup Kitchen AIDS Hospice lish between work, skill, initiative, lon- Volunteer, biting of our cities and countrysides. Volunteers '^ Anthropologist gevity, etc. and access to goods. People are not afraid or incapable of & sex-club patron Obviously I'm not arguing for com- hard, worthwhile work. Even the most / parable worth, or any strategy that gears onerous tasks can be made more enjoy- itself to simple wage increases as a goal. able. Many, if not most, enjoy work, in In the exchange of wages for work we reasonable and self- managed doses. But lose any say over what work is done and few are able or willing to give that why; at this point in history we must passionate extra effort when they are redesign how we live, and we have to do being paid to do a job all their lives. it intelligently or we will surely not Degradation accompanies being left out survive as a human civilization (it's of basic decisions about how you spend barbaric enough adready!). your life, and perpetually being told A prosperous global society that is not what to do. dominated by a world government and is Most of us go through life without fun to live in, and doesn't require an finding meaning or satisfaction at work, abstract devotion to work for its own or if we're really lucky, we get some in Overworked American (See review on page sake, is within our grasp. We have to small amounts now and then. The good 1978 Dept. of study 58). A Labor showed think about the social power that still lies things that happen at work in this that of respondents would willingly 84% at work in spite of our desire to society are almost invariably IN SPITE exchange some or all of future wage transform it into something quite dif- of the organization, its activities, and increases for increased free time. Nearly ferent. If we are not organizing our- the way it's run. When real human half would trade of a ALL 10% pay selves on the basis of our jobs, how do connections are made and real needs increase for free time. Only 16% refuse we begin to make real an alternative fulfilled, that is the essence of what all free time in exchange for more money. movement based on what we do value? work should be. Of course it will be In spite of overwhelming sociological How can this new "labor movement" difficult to feel that way about lots of evidence of a preference for widespread grow organically out of our efforts to important things, like tending toxic less work and fun, people more many subvert the current system? waste dumps. But society's goal, and the still fervently clutch the work ethic. For The unions, from conservative to target of a new social opposition, should them the connection between working "radical," still believe in and insist on the be a good life for everyone. An ecologi- getting paid, earning your and own centrality of the work ethic. They can- cally sound material abundance, based living, is deeply ingrained as a basic not conceive alternatives to the work- on non-mandatory but widely shared element of self-respect. This sense of and-pay society because as institutions, short work shifts at democratically de- self-respect is extremely vit2il knowledge unions are embedded within and de- termined "necessary labor," is possible for human happiness, but somehow fined by that society. Radicals clinging right now. to link it to capitalism managed wage- to the security blanket of "workers' The forms of our political activity and labor. They want us to express our organizing" (especially in the hopeless direct resistance must take seriously the self-respect through our ability to do direction of rank-and-file trade union- basic questions of social power. It's their work, on their terms. We deserve ism) are embracing a dying society and pretty obvious who's got the guns and respect, others ourselves, from and from its obsolete division of labor. Why that they're comfortable using them. but not because we can do stupid jobs pursue at this late date the stabilization We'll never win a military conflict. well. When that happens our self- and maintenance (let alone improve- Pleasure is our strongest weapon. Life respect has been bought and sold back to ment!) of a deal with capitalism, when could be so great! Symbolic efforts may us as a self-defeating ideology. it's clearer than ever that we need deep, be useful at first, but if we are serious Nobody ever does anything that is systemic change that goes beyond mere about radical change we will eventually truly "theirs." Every part of human "economics"? have to grasp the levers of power found culture and daily life, especially work, is Never has it been more appropriate to at work. a product of millions of people interact- place on the front burner the classic — Chris Carlsson ing over generations. The fact that some critiques of wage-labor and capitalist individuals invent "What positive steps things or "have ideas" society. The work ethic is a perverse that become influential, doesn't make holdover from the worst extremes of the can WE take to organize those breakthroughs any less a social narrow puritanism that contributed THEM? product. That inventor's consciousness greatly to the founding of this culture. is very a product of the lives much and The compulsion to work — for its own work of all those around him or her, sake and as an ideological cattle prod — present past. and is the battery acid that keeps this society If this is true, then is the basis what afloat even while it leads to widespread for enforcing the link between specific corrosion within our hearts, relation- kinds of work and specific levels of ships, and neighborhoods. Who are access to goods? In other words, why do Although I attack the work ethic, I do those 500,000 people..

* genuine quote from organizers' follow-up bulletin! .

GET THE BEST OF PROCESSED WORLD'S OTHER GOODIES AND UNDERGROUND 1ST 20 ISSUES ALL IN ONE BOOK! VIDEOS FROM B.A.C.A.T.

VIDEOTAPES D ProcoKd World pmler I7"x22" glossy - $5

Law Order in San Francisco D BOILING POINT: & D Processed World Radio Miguine 30 minutes, VHS $25.00 Episode 1: "Attitude Adjustment Seminar" Tiger documents the intensity of the Paper TV-West 30 minutes $6.00 events in our city following the Rodney King verdict. D Procnsed World Index It investigates the very bad behavior of the police and Covers first 25 issues J2 City Hall, cutting through corporate propaganda.

American Heretics' Dictionary a ACROSS FROM CITY HALL, 30 minutes, VHS. ... $25 Featured in PW 29, these hilarious definitions This half-hour video documents the extraordinarily are accompanied by PW's own JR Swanson's articulate residents of "Camp Agnos," a homeless unique illustrations. The perfect Xmas gift! $7.95 encampment in SF's Civic Center Plaia, 1988-89. D SAN FRANCISCO SAYS W TO THE NEW WORLD POETRY CHAPBOOKS ORDER, 30 minutes, VHS $30 The remarkably creative and independent movement from Thumbscrew Press

in San Francisco against the Persian Gulf War in a Carbuncle 2 $5.00 early 1991. Features material fro the weekly half D Carbuncle 3 $6.50 hour Paper Tiger TV "Gulf Crisis Update." From End of the Century Books D DEUTSCHEMARKS UBER ALLES; The Failure of

East Germany's "Silent" Revolution, VHS, O Things 1 Don't Remember $4.00 57 minutes $30 by Barbara Schaffer An intimate look at several generations of East O Calling In Sick $5.00 German activists. Older anti-Hitler resistance mem- by Wilham Talcott bers to the current generation that brought down D The Good Neighbor Policy $5.95 the Wall, they now struggle to build a new oppo- by klipschutz

sition in the "greater" Germany. D A Sea Change $3.00 by Barbara Schaffer D BRAZILIAN DREAMS: Visiting Points of Resistance, 54 minutes, VHS $50

Winner, Best Documentary 1991 Humboldt State Univ.

Festival. A hybrid narration exploring cultures of

opposition in present-day Brazil, combines travelogue,

political reportage and personal reflection. Graffiti

counler

Sao Paolo's slums, Black Pride in Bahia, an Indian

protest against dams in the Amazon, and the rubber-

tappers' struggle for a sustainable life in the rainforest.

D TRIBULATION 99: Alien Anomalies Under America, VHS, 48 minutes $19.99 With book, S2S, book alone $6.66 This damaged, detoumed "pseudo-documentary" on

alien mutants, UFOs, and the Hollow Earth con-

volutes into a psychotronic satire on U.S. covert

action in Latin America, from the post-War years to

the impending millenium. Based on exhaustive factual

research, the historical material masquerades as

paranoid prophesies in 99 apocalyptic episodes.

D BAD ATTITUDE $20

Check off items desired, add $3-5 postage, Calif, residents add %*/*% sales tax, make check to "BACAT" and mail to BACAT, 1095 Market Street, Suite 209. San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

AS A LABOR OF LOVE, PROCESSED WORLD DEPENDS HEAVILY ON SUBSCRIPTIONS. A $150 LIFETIME SUB WILL GET YOU EVERY ISSUE WE EVER PUBLISH-$300 GETS YOU ALL 30 ISSUES, THE ANTHOLOGY, ALL FUTURE ISSUES, AND OUR UNDYING GRATITUDE!

PROCESSED WORLD SUBSCRIPTIONS Name (for issues over two years) 4 Address n$ 15 Regular City, State, Zip D$ 10 Low Income

n$ 18 Libraries Country

n$ 25 Out of US surface Start my sub with PWtt n$35 Out of US air/libraries Also send me back issues: n$i50 Lifetime sub.

D$250 Corps. & Gov't. Agencies

D$ 5 BACK ISSUES (ea.)

D$145 Full Set q»Wl-30) some early issues are photocopies

PROCESSED WORLD, 41 Sutter St. #1829, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA

Get us into your local bookstore/newsstand! Our distributors are Last Gasp (San Francisco), Armadillo (Culver City, CA), Desert Moon (Santa Fe), Inland Book Company (CT), Ubiquity (New York), Daybreak (Boston), Don Olson (Minneapolis), Small Change (Seattle), Fine Print (Austin, TX), Ingram (Knoxville, TN), Marginal Distribution (Toronto), AK Distribution (Scotland), A Distribution (London), Jura Books (Sydney, Australia).

PRDCESSED UJDRLD 3 = S 5.

Politiciansi Civic Leaders! Aspiring Spoicespeopie!

You W2int to move people . . . GET THEM BEHIND YOU! You need tHe all-purpose scapegoat maker:

Just sprinkte Hberally over stereotyped representattons of ethnic and lifestyle subcuttures, and before you know it, you'll be RIDING THE WAVE! Once you've successfully Ottnerized. you'H need our fotlow-up treatment

Our bulging wanehouses in Serbia, Palestine, Uganda, and Azerbaijan are standing by. CALL 1-800-SPARKLE Free personal facial scrut>foer included with each order!