Hampshire College in Amherest, MA was the first educational institution to divest from Apartheid South Africa. And now, thirty-five years later Hampshire has become the first educational institution to divest from Apartheid Israel. Activists at Hampshire College have been pushing for divestment for two years and their efforts are sure to kick off a wave of divestment movements across the world.

In a press release issued today by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the student group behind the divestment push, explain that their actions targeted six specific corporations who profit directly from the Israeli occupation:

"Our group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s "institutional statement" calling for the divestment.The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex. Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation."

More information about the divestment campaign at Hampshire College can be found in the SJP Press Release and SJP Press Kit.

Hampshire was first, who will be next? Is this the start of a nationwide divestment surge?

Update: Hampshire College administration is contradicting the reports of SJP. While Hampshire admits to divesting from the above mentioned six companies, they are claiming that this was not directly focused on Israel. The Boston Globe is carrying the administration's perspective (link). The whole story is likely to emerge in coming days.

Update #2: The response from SJP is posted below in the comments.

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

Citizens in the United States, and the rest of the world, have been saddled with an inescapable amount of debt. The average US household has more than $8,000 in credit card debt, up from about $3,000 in 1990. At 18% interest, $8000 will take more than 25 years to repay and ultimately cost more than $24,000. American students are graduating already deep in debt: the average student has $20,000 in student loans (source). I propose a novel solution to the consumer debt crisis: a Blackspot Collection Agency that buys and burns debt.

What happens when a person is unable to pay their debts? After receiving a few nasty calls and letters their debt is usually written off as a business loss and sold to a third-party collection agency. The third-party collection agency then legally owns the debt and may either try to collect the debt or may sell it again. By the time the debt reaches the stage of being sold for the third time, it is worth considerably less because the capitalist's hopes of recovering the full amount are slim. For example, in the screen capture above, you will notice that $2528.67 worth of credit card debt is currently being sold for only $110.91. There is someone out there in Klawock, Alaska whose $2528 worth of old credit card debt could be forgiven for pennies on the dollar.

What if we created a Blackspot Collection Agency that purchased old debt and forgave it? Doing so would undermine the foundations of the debt society by encouraging widespread debt disobedience by people who hope the Blackspot Collection Agency will buy and forgive their debt. And by forgiving the debt of average people, the Blackspot Collection Agency would prove that the anti-capitalists are doing more for the "common man" than the mega-corporations.

Could a Debt Forgiveness Agency work? What other ways can we escape consumer society's debt trap?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

The AFP reports that 85,000 people globally lost their jobs on Monday as mega-corporations desperate for profits dump their human chattel overboard. But the ship is sinking and throwing us to the sharks won't save the capitalists. In these times of unparalleled economic uncertainty, it is within the power of culturejammers to change the course of history. This is our Blackspot moment: we start local, blackspot businesses and kick out the mega-corporations.

How many culture jammers actually know how to start a small business? It is time that we learn. The blackspot will be built through head-to-head competition with the corporations currently choking our local communities. And they won't go down without a fight. Unless we are willing to take risks by entering capitalist dominated territory, we will never be able to reclaim our culture from their grip.

Let's talk specifics, the main difficulty that we face when opening a blackspot in our community is raising the start-up capital. The fact of the matter is that bank loans are not a viable option for blackspots due to their demands for personal collateral and high interest rates. No bank (within the U.S.) will give a loan to a small business without securing the loan with your house, car, personal assets, or assets of your family. And in these economic times, that may not even be enough. However, given that accepting money from a bank is usually no different than accepting corporate donations, I think most blackspotters will agree that we should refuse bank loans outright. Without the possibility of a bank loan, we will need to turn elsewhere to fund the initial start up capital for our blackspots. It is here that I propose a slightly modified version of an idea that has already been floating around: blackspot microloans.

Unlike traditional microloans, I propose that blackspot microloans be given by individuals to local blackspots in leiu of a donation. For example, if the anticipated start up costs of a blackspot cultureshop that will employ 3 people in a rural town is $15,000 then this blackspot would solicit loans from individual culture jammers at a reasonable interest rate of 2% to be repaid over the course of three years. Although 2% may not sound like much it is reasonable when one realizes that at this very moment the stock market is hemorrhaging, banks failing and the average savings account is yielding under 1%. Funding our own local blackspot businesses would immediately shift the traditional division of power between consumers and corporations into a mutually sustaining relationship of active participation. The local blackspot benefits by receiving low interest rate loans in a time of economic turmoil, the community benefits from a truly local and unique business that provides jobs, and those who gave the loans benefit through a modest return on their investment. Those individuals who still prefer to donate their money could ask that the loan be repaid to a general blackspot start-up fund that would provide seed money to other culture jammers. As you can see, a blackspot economy could very quickly develop based upon this proposed model.

Ultimately, the future success of the culture jammer movement, the demise of global capitalism and its byproduct of mental pollution, depends upon doing away with the mentality of charity. Instead of desperately waiting for a few pennies to be donated, it is time to look around our local communities and identify potential financially viable blackspot opportunities. Each employee hired by these blackspots, each dollar of profit that goes towards funding full-time culture jamming, and each individual turned from consumer to participant will bring us one step closer to our vision of a non-corporate future.

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

A longer version of this article originally appeared in Adbusters #75 under the title "Blackspot the Future".

The massacre in Gaza has prompted many people to actively boycott Israeli products. The effects of the consumer boycott are already being felt by Israeli farmers who are now complaining that their produce is rotting in warehouses because of canceled orders. And in London, The Swarthmore Campaign, the first divestment campaign to be formed after the invasion of Gaza. Within three days we have already gathered over 60 signatures with more coming in every hour. The positive response demonstrates that the moment is ripe for divestment campaigns to sweep universities across the world. As we saw with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, divestment is an effective tool to bringing about peace.

Two aspects make The Swarthmore Campaign different from previous divestment campaigns. First, we are an alumni organization which makes our structure durable and less susceptible to pressure from the school's administration. And second, signatories to The Swarthmore Campaign open letter are not just asking our alma mater to divest -- we are threatening to withhold donations until divestment occurs. For in the midst of an economic collapse, most educational institutions are in desperate need of donations from their alumni, which provides activists with a bargaining tool for peace.

Organizers of The Swarthmore Campaign hope that divestment campaigns will spread to campuses across the world bringing an end to the Israeli apartheid.

Update on January 21: This blog post was edited to more clearly state that my wife and I aided in the foundation of The Swarthmore Campaign and continue to publicly support its efforts.

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

One of our primary concerns as culturejammers is how to build and sustain a non-corporate culture. In the domain of music, this is a question of pressing concern because corporations have managed to almost entirely co-opt our culture. One minute a band is making original music in a basement and the next their bland songs are playing in supermarkets to encourage consumption. How do we get out of this predicament?

Josh Koleszar, a Blackspot musician and member of the Jake Russell Band in Omaha, wrote the following sketch of what he thinks a Blackspot Music Label would look like. After reading what Josh has to say, please post your own ideas on the future of Blackspot Music.

"A Blackspot music label's highest priority should not be to find a sound that will sell, because what is popular constantly changes.  That leaves artists to be just as disposable as a factory worker on an assembly line.  A music label should be committed to taking care of their artists, so they should pick them very carefully.  When choosing artists, the label needs to find an artist with an original twist on the musical and lyrical worlds, not just a more refined knock-off of the latest trend. When art can repaint the world so that you can better understand it, yourself, and yourself in it, it has achieved, in my personal opinion, its highest goal."

"The chosen artist's most valuable possession is their potential.  It is the label's duty to commit itself to seeing that potential developed to its fullest.  This is in direct opposition to the current industry's directive of stripping the music down to the bare uniqueness and then simplifying everything else, so that you are blasted with the unique and "catchy".  Their purpose behind this is to get the songs rooted in your head so that you find yourself humming them and hopefully buying the album.  The quality of the song doesn't matter at all, nor the content.  The Blackspot label would work with the artist to push them and challenge them as musicians and lyricists.  They would surround the artist with people to help record, produce, mix, and master their music, but leave the final say to the artist themselves.  Another missing element in mainstream music labels is a sense of community between artists.  I think we're missing a lot of what was gained from the old school of training with masters and apprentices.  This relationship can be carried over successfully into music, as is seen in Daniel Smith and Sufjan Stevens time together during the recording of Seven Swans. "

"A third and final aspect that needs to be addressed in the concern of 'crossover' artists is the destruction of 'celebrity.'  When an artist can reach so many people with their words and impact their lives, it's hard not to attribute some sort of god-like aspects to them.  This creates the celebrity effect, which creates a distance between the listener/fan and the artist.  Instead, artists and their labels should work at breaking these walls down so that music achieves one of its greatest and most spiritual effects - that of creating a community between people who may have had nothing in common before the concert.  Music helps us share in the collective human experience and stratifying the distance between artist and fan only serves to disconnect us from the very inspiration that empowers us.  By portraying the artist in the same light as the listener, the listener is free to take part in the performance and make it his own, interpret it in his own way, possibly even making art inspired by the artist."

"Basically, the business aspect needs to be put much lower on the priority list in the music business.  If all labels followed this theory, there wouldn't be a need to emphasize the money-making aspect - it would come naturally out of the talent they have nurtured and promoted instead of the One-Hit-Wonders they have used and abused."

If you would like to respond directly to Josh Koleszar, he can be reached via email at josh.koleszar *at* gmail.com.

What do you think Blackspot music is all about?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

At the start of 2009, fury is erupting. Today, something is qualitatively different about the mood on the street. For the first time in forty years, the anger of people is palpable. The general sense of discontent that was expressed in the Greek riots is spreading. And a storm is now shaking cities across Europe as protesters galvanized by the Gaza massacre smash windows, overturn cars and confront riot police. Given the passion for resistance already displayed, it appears likely that 2009 will become a year of fury.

Global protests against the invasion of Gaza raged furiously during this, the second week, of the Israeli war. Over 100,000 people marched in France, 70,000 in Brussels, 100,000 in Madrid, 100,000 in London and protests continue to appear in cities across Europe including Athens, Berlin, Budapest, Oslo, Sarajevo and Stockholm. However, unlike the antiwar protests of the past, what is remarkable now is the widespread militancy of protesters. In each city, riot police were called in and violent clashes ensued. London protesters smashed the windows of Starbucks, in Brussels they vandalized car windows and in Yemen police opened fire on protesters, wounding five. For a complete summary of the global protests, visit The Raw Story or The Daily Mail.

Rage is one factor that marks the mood of 2009 as different. And another is the militancy of average people. Like in Greece, where the majority supported the anarchist riots, today's militant protesters are also joined, and supported by, mainstream opposition. In the UK, for example, the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, declared: "The British government and European Union have the economic leverage to stop this carnage. They must take decisive action to force Israel to end the slaughter." And in Spain, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told protesters, "It is my duty to call on Israel to implement an immediate cease-fire."

At this moment it seems clear that the mood on the street is one of riotous fury. Only time can tell whether the passion will be sustained long enough to usher in systemic change.

Do you think your friends and neighbors are furious? What do you think is behind the passion sweeping the globe?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

In a recent editorial in the Guardian UK, Naomi Klein called for a widespread Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. She wrote that, "It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa... Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions cause - even among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly 500 Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter to foreign ambassadors in Israel. It calls for "the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions" and draws a clear parallel with the anti-apartheid struggle. 'The boycott on South Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves ... This international backing must stop.'"

Naomi Klein's assessment resonates with many people who are terribly upset by the injustice they see happening in Gaza. Now is the time that we should collectively act to simultaneously reject consumerism and the war in Gaza. Getting involved is easy:

First, visit the Boycott Israeli Goods website and begin actively refusing to buy any product made in Israel. You can also download a comprehensive guide of Israeli products.

And, if you have a website, you can promote this campaign by adding a small "Boycott Israel" banner to the top left of your website. To do so, put the following code anywhere on your webpage. For an example of how this looks, visit why-war.com

Do you think a boycott of Israel can end the occupation of Palestine? How can we spread this Boycott campaign more widely?

Update: The following websites have joined the Boycott Israel campaign. We will keep updating this list as more sites join!

• http://pasembur.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/boycott-israeli-goods/
• http://www.keyvan.net/
• http://www.antiwar.co.uk/
• http://www.why-war.com/
• http://www.incidentalmedia.com/navidah/
• http://silonius.blogspot.com/
• http://mypixelarts.com/blog/

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

In the tiny village of Tarnac, located on a mountain plateau in central France, nine culturejammers have been arrested for leading a revolutionary blackspot lifestyle: they lived frugally, fostered community and shunned capitalism. Their existence has been deemed a threat worthy of a police raid, terrorism charges and arrest.

The Guardian UK explains that the "alleged ringleader, Julien Coupat, 34, is still being held in prison despite a judge's ruling that he be released. A former business and sociology student from an affluent Parisian suburb, Coupat moved to Tarnac in search of a non-consumerist lifestyle, saying he wanted to live frugally. The poor village of 350 people is home to a growing number of young people who have escaped the city for a simple life and sense of community. Together, the newcomers ran the shop, a mobile delivery service, the restaurant, a cinema club and an informal library."

How could nine people be a threat to the State of France and the whole of capitalism? Simple: they demonstrated through their daily actions that an anti-capitalist lifestyle is both possible and desireable. They fostered community and tried to work on changing the world from the local level. And their actions have already convinced their neighbors that a better world is possible.

The ordinary villagers of Tarnac are now raising their voices in defense of their unjustly arrested neighbors. A mayor of a nearby village had this to say about the culturejammers: "They were my neighbours, helping me on the farm and selling my meat at the shop. They were kind, intelligent and spoke several languages. They were politicised, on the left and clearly anti-capitalist like lots of people here, but they were people active in community life who wanted to change society at a local level first. To say that they were the descendants of Baader-Meinhof or the Red Brigades with no proof, I'm completely against that." And another villager says, "I see them at the shop every day of the year, I help them with their drains, they help me. They are people who came to Corrèze to change their lives, to help people. We don't view them as terrorists here."

The example set by the arrested Tarnac residents is inspiring others to speak out against State repression of anti-capitalist attempts at building alternative communities. For example, the famed Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has recently spoke out in support of the so-called Tarnac 9. He writes, "We must have the courage to say with clarity that today, numerous European countries (in particular France and Italy), have introduced laws and police measures that we would previously have judged barbaric and anti-democratic, and that these are no less extreme than those put into effect in Italy under fascism."

Before his arrest Julien Coupat allegedly wrote, "The Coming Insurrection", a text that may become a key manifesto of our generation's uprising. Take a look at this document and then share your thoughts here. How do you think we should overcome State repression? Will our attempts at creating new ways of being always be thwarted?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

All eyes are on the economy as startling statistics are released daily: the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 35% this year, jobless claims are at a 26 year high in the United States and over twenty-five banks failed in the US alone in 2008.

Given the constant litany of bad news, most people now understand that years of unsustainable growth based upon overzealous money lending and rampant financial speculation have pushed the world into a major economic depression. In other words, the capitalist roller coaster ride has reached the summit of a period of economic boom and we are now racing to the bottom of an economic bust.

Cries for help resound from all sides. But all these urgent calls seem to have one common assumption: that what we need is an economic recovery. Is this necessarily the case? I wonder whether an economic recovery is really in our collective best interest or whether it will simply mean the resumption of a period of unsustainable growth in anticipation of another (even worse) economic collapse.

And then there is the question of whether our weary, devastated planet can even sustain another period of economic growth.

Is it time we stopped calling for an an economic recovery and started demanding an economic rethinking?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com