: The Weakerthans I Food Not Bombs the Alinsky Legacy I Boiler Room Rainbow Grocery Co-Op ' ' "^" Rides! Clamor November/December 2004 • Issue 29 -' The ReyQJution of Everyday Life itiunil * 1 # >tudents\dgainst f^: )mm0ntrOaqurng ndymedia'^jii^j the right wing :ough decision °//,^ on your campus $4.50 us/ $6.95 Canada prison solidary 12 for women inmates "252 74 "96769" a I Ifivt KClMtNS) /,_ NEW RELEASES lO 'vX'. >WET FROM BIRTH CD/LP SINGLE 1 1 DISAPPEAR CD RRIGHT I r,!*' iTAKE IT EASY aOVE NOTHING) CD SINGLE *<" -^ LUA CD SINGLE »-;• «*- x"-, ^£ itb ALS0AVAILA6U ALBUM OF THE YEAR CD/LP LOVERS NEED LAWYERS CDEP/IO" ! FULFILLED/COMPLETE CD/LP aOEL PETERSEN OF THE FAINT) BUSINESS CASUAL CD/LP num.: cnw FALL BACK OPEN CD • KEY - FULL LENGTH CD & WAIT IN A UNE CD SINGLE WWW.SADDLE-CREEK.COM SADDLE CREEK | [email protected] I Give the gift of tliis holiday season! 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EDITORS/PUBLISHERS Jen Angel & Jason Kucsma from your editors CONSULTING EDITOR POLITICS EDITORS Joshua Breitbart Madeleine Baran & Amanda Luker Community is one of those words we use all ttie time without really thinking about it. Community orga- CULTURE EDITOR nizing. local it's Eric Zassenhaus REVIEW EDITOR Community media. "The community." We know good, but what else do we really know? Keith McCrea So we asked ourselves, our readers, and our contributors — our community — to examine the ideal, ECONOMICS EDITOR feel, and sense of community — what it is, what it should be, and what we want it to be. This issue is Arthur Stamoulis PROOFREADERS Elliot Adams, Hal Hixson also about reclaiming the word and idea of community for ourselves. All too often ideas of "community" MEDIA EDITOR Scott Puckett, are thrown around by corporations like Saturn and Wal-Mart who, despite their million-dollar ad cam- Catherine Komp Kristen Schmidt paign claims, haven't the slightest interest in building cooperative connections between people. PEOPLE EDITOR LAYOUT & DESIGN Keidra Chaney Jason Kucsma The answers here show how differently people understand it. From helping displaced people retain a SEX &GENDER EDITOR PRISON MAIL CORRESP sense of connection and dignity like Nah We Yone(p. 32), to strengthening the labor union movement Brian Bergen-Aurand Sean Jones at Brown University (p. 12), to changing the way we grow, buy, and sell food (p. 8). we've only been able to scratch the surface of where and how connections are built in our everyday lives. WEB DESIGN Derek Hogue Community building inherently involves supporting one another in our endeavors. So it seems timely COVER that we chose this issue introduce a new regular feature of C/a/nor called "murmurs." Murmurs will Brandon Constant feature reviews of print, audio, and video/dvd projects that we think are worth checking out. This sec- www.brandonconstant. :om tion allow us to expand an element that so many readers have told us is one of the most valuable things TOOLS Clamor \\as to offer. We hope you agree. Thanks to a generous donation, Clamor is designed using licensed Adobe software. Finally, this issue is going to press before the presidential election. While it's not clear who will win ADVERTISING that contest, it is clear that many of our struggles will continue no matter who is elected. The fights for Rates and deadlines available upon request. Please call 419-243-4688 or visit dignity, strength, and autonomy for individuals and communities seem more urgent now than ever. Our www.clamormagazine.org/advertise role at Clamor \s to support you in your work by providing a forum to celebrate victories, share ideas and inspiration, and remind you that another world is possible. PRINTING Westcan Printing Group Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada Thank you for everything you do to contribute to your community and to make the world a better place. Phone: 866-669-9914 Clamor is a bi-monthly magazine. Single copies And thanks for reading ClamoA are $4 50 ppd and 6 issue subscriptions are $18 ppd in the US (Outside of the US single issues are $6 and a 6-issue subscription is $25 in US Funds). Checks may be made payable to ^(MaJi\(^ Become The Media. BACK ISSUES Available for $3.50 -i- postage. PS: Each year at this time, we offer a gift subscriptions to help spread the "clamor" to the people you Visit wwwclamormagazine.org for more info. love the most. Take us up on the discount and get your holiday shopping done early! DISTRIBUTION Clamor is distributed to stores and distributors by Big Top Newsstand Services, 2729 Mission Street Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94110-3131 [email protected] Clamor is also available through these fine distribution outlets: AK Press, Armadillo, Desert Moon, Doormouse, Gordon & Gotch, Ingram, IPD, Kent News, Last Gasp, Media Solutions, Milligan, One Source. Small Changes, Stickfigure, Tower, and Ubiquity. Clamor (ISSN 1 5-34-9489) is published six times a year (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr. May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sept/ Oct. Nov/Dec) ©2004 in the US by Become The Media Incorporated I PO Box 20128 Toledo, OH 43610 I Phone: 419.243.4688. iiiiflMi^v<riiii Postmaster: Send address changes to: Clamor's mission is to provide a media outlet that reflects the reality of alternative politics and culture in a format Clamor Magazine that IS accessible to people from a variety of backgrounds. C/amof exists to fill the voids left by mainstream media. PO Box 20128 We recognize and celebrate the fact that each of us can and should participate in media, politics, and culture. We Toledo, OH 43610 publish vyriting and art that exemplify the value we place on autonomy, creativity, exploration, and cooperation. political cultural alternatives. Periodicals postage paid at Toledo, OH Clamor \$ an advocate of progressive social ctiange through active creation of and r^ ECONOMICS 8 Doing What Comes Naturally by Gordon Edgar @ 11 Democracy at Work by Burt Beriowe Number 29 I November/December 2004 13 A Right Not Yet Secure by Peter Ian Asen 15 A Call for Action from Corporate U. by Boone Shear 16 Food Not Bombs Serves Up Victory by Lara Stewart and Charles Suggs POLITICS 18 Legacies of Resistance by Jim Straub 21 Santa Anita La Union by Caitiin Benedetto 24 Up a River by Charles Winfrey 25 Unlikely Bedfellows by Nathan Berg prnoii: 28 Seeds of Power by Jennifer Vandenplas 31 A Room of Their Own by sarah contrary 32 A Community of Healing by Robert Hirschfield 34 The Icarus Project by Timothy Kelly 35 Finger on the Pulse by Kari Lydersen CULTURE 38 In Search of The Living Buddha by Michelle Chen 41 Functional Inequity by Yolanda Best 43 John K. Samson: Authenticity in Distortion by George B Sanchez 28 p. 45 Platform Projects by Daniel Tucker MEDIA 48 The Battle of the Frame by Jon R. Pike 51 Dancing with the Devil by Peter Wirth 53 The Indypendent SeWs Out? by Dave Arenas 54 What is Indymedia? by Danielle Chynoweth 55 Countdown to Putsch by Sara Tretter SEX & GENDER 58 Unlikely Communities by Victoria Law 81 Reel Democracy by Jennie Rose 82 Critical mASS byTeriDanai 84 Think Pink! by Justin Carter MURMURS We're Talking About... 66 What g. oi THE LAST PAGE | 74 Community in the Jails by Sarah Palmer g Please address letters to [email protected] or write us at PO Box 20128 Toledo, OH 43610 Letters may be edited for length. Not all letters received will be printed. COSBY-FYINGHIPHOP? decision to bring more humans into existence in WE SUBSCRIBE TO WHAT! such a benign light," but the straw man justifica- tions she proposes- hardly serve to fully explain the I know that activist have been trying to move beyond In response to the "Stop Bust)" issue very human desire to procreate. Such "holier than punk rock, but when I read some of the recent ar- On 1-8-2003 I sent you check no. #### for your thou" moralizing is reminiscent of other fundamen- ticles you published about other music scenes and magazine. I am really so very sorry. That magazine is talisms, and just as worthless. subcultures (hip-hop in particular), I wonder what the most disgusting thing I've seen in a long time. Gustin wild generalization, the point is. Maybe it's not punk-rock but the people Ms. makes another This is a public office that deals with children - a in the last two articles by j-love are just the same which reveals the limitations of her polarized view- state government office. We'll burn the ones we have overly educated, spacey, hippy activist types that point; "Raising a child reproduces your culture." She - don't send any more. You are a group of hate pub- you meet all over the activist subculture.