community

Critical Mass

Twyla
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09 Sep 2009
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0 comments

Got a bike? Think it’s a fast, cheap and environmentally friendly way to travel?

You’re certainly not the only one.

In more than 300 cities across the globe, thousands of cyclists are taking to the streets to celebrate greener transport. This global movement has gained incredible popularity under the banner “Critical Mass” since 1992.

With safety in numbers, bike enthusiasts are able to gain access to urban environments that are usually overrun with cars.

Although plans differ from city to city, riders usually meet on the last Friday of every month. On September 22, a massive ride in Budapest, Hungary will celebrate International Car Free Day. As many as 80,000 participants are expected to attend.

Find a ride in your city—or start your own!

Sharehoods

Admin
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07 Aug 2009
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0 comments

Debbie from two streets away is offering to teach cartwheels and handstands. She also wants to plant an herb garden. I’m dying to cartwheel, I’ve wanted to learn for years. I imagine myself standing at the end of a clear supermarket aisle and then cartwheeling all the way down – a life-affirming act in a lifeless store. I’m growing enough herbs to share.

Debbie and I are made to trade. But we would never have met if my next-door neighbor and I hadn’t recently started a Sharehood. We leafleted all the houses a few streets around ours, inviting our neighbors to a community BBQ and directing them to the website www.thesharehood.org. The Sharehood was started by Rachel Kitchener, a web developer and activist, in 2008. “It’s all about sharing skills and resources within your neighborhood,” she says. In her hood, neighbors are already trading garden produce for worm juice, babysitting each other’s kids, fixing each other’s cars, sharing compost heaps and chatting over tea.

The website helps neighbors meet face-to-face. It allows invited, logged-in members to see profiles of other members living within 400 meters. People post events, list things they can share and things they need. The site has its own trading system, a radical local currency to reward those who give to others. Everyone’s details are private.

We’re just starting out, but interest is high. There’s a supermarket not far from where I live. Maybe when I can cartwheel and our Sharehood is strong, I’ll visit one last time and find a clear aisle. —Michael Green

Learn More About Sharehoods and if one doesn't exist in your neighborhood, start one!

Blackspot the Police

Can we stop the increasing militarization of our communities through a movement to de-fund the police?

Micah White
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16 Feb 2009
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25 comments

Police quell anti-police riot in Oakland, CA. Photo taken by Thomas Hawk

Byron Hammick, Kendra James, James Jahar Perez, James Philip Chasse, Amadou Bailo Diallo, Julian Alexander, Bobby Tolan, Oscar Grant and Alexandros Grigoropoulos. These are the names of innocent, unarmed individuals executed without a trial by police officers (source). Of course, the list is not exhaustive and shootings seem to be occurring with greater frequency as police departments become increasingly militarized. There is even talk of developing softer handcuffs that can be used on children as young as five years old (source). The death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Athens sparked riots as did the videotaped execution of Oscar Grant in Oakland, CA. But while riots may relieve the anger of the moment, they also function to justify increasing police budgets. What if we took a different tactic and blackspotted the police by building a movement to de-fund the police and replace them with community safety patrols.

Let's take the example of Oakland, California where Oscar Grant was lying on his stomach, restrained by police officers and then shot and killed. The whole incident was caught on tape (see video below) so there is little dispute as to the facts of the case. Oakland currently spends around $194 million on police services and their total budget is a little under $950 million (source). That is about four times as much as is spent on Libraries, Parks and Museums combined. The police budget is an amazing 20% of the entire Oakland budget! In these times of economic depression, de-funding the police would directly translate into an increase of funding for the types of community quality of life improvements that decrease crime.

While we de-fund the police and pour that money into community improvement projects, we can also work to make the police unnecessary by replacing them with a Blackspot Police. Obviously a Blackspot Police would share very little in common with the State's police but would instead work to supercede the police by becoming the community's first responders. This would be something akin to the Guardian Angels who patrol "dusk until dawn, without weapons, [...] to ensure that citizens can enjoy their communities without fearing for their safety" (source). The objective would be to demonstrate that the police are overfunded and their presence is antagonistic and violent.

What have your experiences with the police been? Could a movement to de-fund work in your city?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. www.micahmwhite.com

Who are the Tarnac 9?

While we affirm new forms of blackspot community, the State reacts with fear and repression.

Micah White
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09 Jan 2009
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4 comments

Home of a blackspot community in Tarnac, France recently raided by police.

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