On Saturday January 28th, 2012, well over a hundred people from all walks of life, protested on the steps of the Austin Police Department for solidarity of the victims of police abuse on January 1, 2012. This was the second rally that was organized to protest police abuse in Austin, the first was Occupy Austin Courts on J19 at the criminal courthouse. I helped organize both of these events and was happy to see the support from Occupy Austin, anarchists, Ron Paul supporters and moms who were previously non-activists. The is a great example of how people in the community can come together and support each other for a noble cause. Activists took part in street actions stopping traffic with their signs and many speakers rallied the crowd with the use of a bullhorn. The support of the community was evident, with all the honks in support from all the vehicles passing by. We also had different local news media show up and shoot interviews, similar to the first protest. The police left us alone for the most part, although we did notice some on a roof observing, it was a peaceful rally without any trouble. It seemed as if everyone had a camera that day to capture this historically and for personal protection. We also had live coverage of the rally online that day with gonzo journalist, Kit O’Connell, live tweeting and I livestreamed video with my smartphone. The rally ended with a march through the streets of downtown around APD headquarters. It was an empowering experience exercising our rights and showing solidarity for the NYE 3.

Stay up to date with case on the Free the NYE 3 and Free Antonio Buehler Facebook pages.

Below is my interview on the Freezone with Freeman, talking about the events that happened on NYE and the Occupy APD protest. Also below is a great video compilation by Mike Hanson Archives and a photo slideshow from various attendees of the rally.

During a DWI stop on January 1st, 2012 police violently assaulted a woman for informing a friend about her right to refuse a sobriety test. A bystander, Antonio Buehler, who saw the violence (and captured it on film) was then also assaulted and arrested on trumped-up charges. The entire incident was caught on video and shows the officers’ version of the events is untrue. Recently police Corporal Hipolito stated to Keye news, that he did not see evidence on the dash cam video of Antonio spitting on the officer.

This is a Rally to protest the APD for adding additional charges to the female victim and withholding the dash cam video that would further exonerate Antonio of the felony charge.

Demands:
*All charges against the victims dropped.
*Police officers Patrick Oborski and Robert Snider immediately fired, and criminal charges filed against them.

Bring:
*Yourself and at least one other person.
*Cameras
*Signs

Free the NYE 3 Facebook page

Occupy APD Facebook Event page

Occupy APD .pdf flier

Click on image below and ‘right click save’ for this image below.

Come out and show support for Antonio Buehler and the other victims of police abuse on January 1st, 2012. This is a peaceful showing of solidarity. All you really need to bring is some friends and cell phones/cameras. Learn about the incident here. Click on the image below to maximize then ‘right click’ and save it. For better quality download the pdf through the link below.

Occupy Austin Court pdf file

Occupy Austin Courts Facebook Page

The New Years Day incident in Austin involving police officers Robert Snider and Pat Oborski abusing peaceful citizens has reached nationwide media coverage. It all began with a DWI traffic stop in front of a 7-11, while the driver was out of the vehicle with police, the passenger Norma Pizana was informing her friend her rights. She is quoted in an interview here, “Yelling out of the car to my friend her rights is not interfering, it’s telling her rights,” said the woman. “And sitting in the passenger seat, never opening the car door, I’m not harming myself, I’m not harming others.”

Apparently officer Pat Oborski didn’t like her shouting to her friend about her rights, so he approached her sitting in the car and warned her to stop. Antonio Buehler was parked getting gas at the 7-11, he and his friend were watching the driver perform a field sobriety test in heels. He was the designated driver that night and was driving his friends truck home from a party. Pizana continued her 1st amendment speech and was yanked out of the car violently, causing bruises on her arms and legs. At this point she began to scream for help, as she was being pulled up from the ground by her arms over her head.

Shocked at what he saw, Buehler began to take pictures of the girl being manhandled by the two officers. Then officer Oborsky leaves the woman and begins to confront Buehler for taking pictures, “‘What the hell are you taking pictures for,’ or something along those lines,” said Buehler. “My response was, ‘I am allowed to. Public official in a public place.’” Then things turn for the worst as the officer accused him of interfering with an investigation (a charge that isn’t listed against him) and began to push him in his chest. Buehler has his hands up in the air, seemingly complying but asking why he is being assaulted.

While  pushing Buehler’s back over the tailgate, Oborsky declared that Buehler spit on him and then proceeded to take him down hard. It was at this point that Buehler said he feared for serious injury, the officer began to twist his arm back unnecessarily in order to inflict pain. Although he was complying and not resisting on the ground, he heard another officer state that he was going to taser him, he then yelled out “don’t taser me”. They picked him up and dragged him to the BAT mobile for a breathalyzer test, in order to pin some  DWI or public intoxication charge on him. Buehler states that while in custody, officer Oborsky told him that he was going to teach him a lesson for messing with the police. He was then charged with harassment of a public servant (a police officer), which is a third degree felony and resisting arrest.

Thankfully the police spectacle was being filmed by a witness from across the street using their cell phone. Miraculously, through public pleas across the internet, he was contacted by the witness and received the video from a post on Craigslist. The witness also stated that they are willing to testify to what they saw. It seems that the police are the ones getting a lesson about the power of smartphones and social media. They also learned that they can’t judge people by appearances and that they should treat us all with respect when performing their duty. This serendipitous moment, could be the tipping point that will allow for positive change in Austin’s police culture.

Buehler’s bio speaks for itself, and illustrates that he is a man of integrity who seeks to help others:

Antonio Buehler is a Westpoint graduate, Army Ranger and graduated from Stanford with a MBA. His philanthropic activities have focused on education and helping disadvantaged youth. He currently serves on the Board of Governors for the West Point Society of New York. Antonio covered Congressional Districts NY-8 and NY-9 as a Field Force Representative for the West Point Department of Admissions. Antonio coordinated all college fairs for West Point in the five boroughs of New York City. He also served as a liaison for both West Point and Stanford University at various college fairs in New York City. Previously he has served as Treasurer and board member of A Caring Hand, a New York based non-profit focused on child bereavement. Antonio ran a program to clothe children in war-torn Kosovo, volunteered at a Bulgarian orphanage, coached high school football in Germany, mentored children in the United States, and has sponsored three African children for the past eight years.

Similar past behaviors of the police in different cases, lends credence to the theory that the problems at APD are more than a few bad cops, its institutionalized. The lawyer that Pizana retained went through something quite similar herself. Attorney Mindy Montford was arrested for public intoxication in 2009 after giving legal advice during a traffic stop to a friend who was driving. The false charges were thrown out by a judge, but the detective just filed it with another judge, got another warrant and started it all over again. This is called “judge shopping”, and is a tactic they use to retry people in order to skirt double jeopardy. So it seems we have another instance of APD seeking to silence and arrest anyone that is trying to advise someone of their rights. Again, they made the mistake of messing with someone who could fight back and expose their corrupt behavior.

It also seems that APD has an aversion to citizens filming them. On December 4th, 2010, John Bush And Matthew Medina were arrested for not complying with a lawful order. The two activists were performing a cop watch that night and the arresting officer is shown at the beginning of the video grabbing Bush’s arm. They continue to observe the officers from a distance and then that same cop comes up to him and demands that he leave. It’s strange that he is so visibly upset about them, considering the other cops around seem not to care, because they are busy doing their job. The cop then tells Bush to go behind some pole, he complies but the officer keeps advancing towards him. The officer continues to close the distance while telling them to get behind a pole that they are actually standing near. Although they are clearly away from the location and not interfering, the officer decided to arrest them for not complying with a lawful order.The situation could have been handled differently by the officer, he could have diffused the situation by going back to whatever he was doing once the two backed up. Watch video of the incident here.

A recent First Circuit court ruling, affirms citizens rights to film police officers performing their duties in a public space. The three judge panel also concluded that citizens have the right to gather information about public officials to protect and promote the free discussion of governmental affairs.

The First Amendment issue here is, as the parties frame it, fairly narrow: is there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative. It is firmly established that the First Amendment’s aegis extends further than the text’s proscription on laws “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” and encompasses a range of conduct related to the gathering and dissemination of information. … The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles. Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting “the free discussion of governmental affairs.

The courts ruling makes it very clear that we have the right to film public officials in public, especially if you feel that they are abusing their authority. As pointed out in my interview of Buehler on Stranger Advice:

“I’m very fortunate and blessed because I’m a Westpointer, a military guy, a Stanford MBA, people tend to give my story a listen, hey he’s got credibility. This cop was wiling to send me to jail for a very long time just because he didn’t like me taking pictures. If I was a black or Hispanic male, or a white person from a very poor neighborhood, I think things would have turned out very differently.”

This is a very true statement considering the history of APD and their use of deadly force against people of color in East Austin. The Austin police department is currently fighting a lawsuit by the Carter family for wrongful death of their son Byron Carter Jr., who was shot dead as a passenger in a moving car. After 7 months, the debate still goes on due to the fact there isn’t video evidence, and the testimony of events by police are questionable.

Buehler’s story has been covered by the media very well to my surprise, local Austin news KVUE filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any other complaints about officer Oborsky. The media and others are also demanding that the on board camera video be released. The footage is apparently being held by the department because of their ongoing investigation. Buehler plans to take the case all the way to jury trial if he has to. He has also filed a report of police abuse through the Police Monitors office. Pizana has also stated to the media that she also seeks to file charges against the officers for abuse.

The public has rallied behind Buehler, a Facebook group was launched in support of his heroic action, with many lending support in anyway they can. Others have stepped forward to tell their own stories of abuse, some that even involve officer Oborsky. A donation fund has been setup for Buehler, Pizana and the other woman driver, as well. This incident has been a catalyst for people to work together in order to take action against police abuse. The first court date for the Buehler and Pizana is on January 19th at the Austin Criminal Court building on West 11th street downtown. We will keep covering this case as it progresses.

Occupy Austin Courts January 19th Flier pdf

Occupy Austin Courts Facebook Page

___

Help support a driver who was coerced into a breathalyzer, a passenger who endured police abuse – and former Army Ranger Captain Antonio Buehler, who was fraudulently arrested upon questioning and photographing the abuse. This fund will be split three ways equally to help defray legal expenses for Antonio Buehler and two other victims of police mistreatment in an incident that occurred early New Year’s morning in Austin, TX.

https://rally.org/APDvictimfund/donate

Related Links & Info

News & Blogs

West Point Grad Arrested For Defending Woman Abused By Austin Police
APD officers accused of abuse during New Year’s arrest (KVUE)
Two APD officers accused of abuse during New Year’s arrest (KVUE/Yahoo!News)
Man Accuses Two APD Officers Of Abuse During New Year’s Arrest (MyFoxAustin)
Austin DWI Stop Leads To Abuse Allegation (KSAT)
West Point Grad Arrested For Defending Woman Abused By Austin Police (DailyPaul.com)
Chivalrous Veteran Confronts Abusive Austin Police — Gets Assaulted and Arrested(LewRockwell.com)
Republic Magazine, Police Abuse in Austin: Iraq Vet Antonio Beuhler Assaulted, Falsely Charged for Photographing Brutal DWI Arrest
Austin Man Facing Felony After Photographing Cops Making Arrest (Pixiq.com)
Veteran Arrested for Attempted Chivalry (or spitting on APD officer) (Daily Kos)
His Name Is Pat Oblarski (CopBlock.org)
Video: Antonio Buehler Covered On Freedom Watch
Video: Austin Police Abuse Victim Speaks Out & Shows Bruises – Will File Formal Complaint Against Officers
Alleged victim of APD police abuse retains attorney Mindy Montford (KEYE coverage on female passenger)
Woman involved in a controversial New Year’s day arrest talks (KVUE)

In-Depth Radio Interviews: Antonio Buehler

InfoWars Nightly News (01/06/12, footage mark 59:23)
Liberty Talk Radio (01/06/12)
Stranger Advice (01/06/12)

The Occupy movement, shouldn’t be a movement, it should be a paradigm shift of thinking based on breaking their chains and becoming self-sufficient. Assume your power and create the system you want instead of asking for the system to change itself. The globalists behind the system, that can’t be voted out, have been in control of governments for generations and will not yield control willingly.

Since we are dealing with a hierarchical system, the best way to defeat it is to stop consenting and withdraw. We the people are the bedrock that the bricks of the pyramidal control system lays on. The different pillars of control are stacked on top of us, and if we stopped supporting it, the mechanisms of control will fall. We need to shake the very foundation of the system, and let the bricks fall where they may. Then we can seek out ways to rebuild that will benefit us individually and collectively.

Our focus needs to be shifted towards competing government institutions, personal protection agencies, dispute resolution agencies, mutualism and voluntary exchanges. The idea of working together and creating community based solutions independent of government is revolutionary. This means using counter-economic actions like barter, borrowing and untraceable currency are peaceful ways to withdraw economic consent to the State.

Everyone in Occupy has a skill, talent or idea that can be used to help them manifest the reality they want. Working on yourself, then organizing with others to build new ways to exchange goods and services are the key. Decentralized peer-to-peer non-coerced mutually beneficial voluntary exchanges was the model of the past, and is the emerging model now. With access to relatively cheap high level technology, we can build the Agora online that will help connect and foster Agorism in real life.

Check out our site based around “crowdfunding” each other instead of politics, PostPolitical.us.

Currently we are working on the online Agora of exchange, so stay tuned!

During Houston’s 2011 End The Fed Rally, attendees were fortunate to have their minds expanded by the revolutionary strategy of Agorism by John Bush. John is a hard working activist and inspiring speaker based out of Austin, Texas. John is not only spreading the message of true freedom, he is also working on numerous projects based on mutual aid and voluntaryism.

H/T CopBlock.org

More on the ideas:
Agorism.info http://agorism.info
Voluntaryist.com http://voluntaryist.com
Private Defense Agencies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_defense_agency
“Justice Without the State” video with Bruce Benson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN34fUtpJkg
Edward Forchion “NJ Weedman” Modern Day Hero http://copblock.org/9588/edward-forchion-nj-weedman-moden-day-hero
Anarchy & the Law: The Political Economy of Choice edited by Ed Stringham http://amazon.com/Anarchy-Law-Political-Economy-Choice/dp/1412805791
“Ed & Elaine Brown: Property Rights Advocates Jailed for Life” http://libertyontour.com/2011/06/13/browns/

More from John and his crew:
Liberty Bell http://lonestarsmart.net/libertybell
Lone Star SMART http://lonestarsmart.net/
Operation Defuse – http://operationdefuse.com
Black & Yellow Pages http://indigoagora.com/black-yellow-pages
DEA & FBI Agree: Drug Prohibition is Futile http://libertyontour.com/2010/10/09/dea-fbi-agree-drug-prohibition-is-futile

Sheep “mow” an orchard. This relatively inexpensive livestock will eat both grass and tender weeds, and can be rotationally grazed using movable electric fencing. PHOTO: DEBORAH RENDON

Sheep aren’t the only livestock that can serve multiple purposes. Each type of livestock has natural habits with potential uses around your homestead. Pigs are nature’s plows. Geese feast on grassy weeds. Ducks eat slugs and bugs.

Though using working animals on your homestead has many benefits, it involves some work, too. Unlike gas-powered equipment, animals can’t be put away in the garage until the next time you need them. They need food, water, shelter, fencing and occasional veterinary care. So, why keep them?

Multipurpose Livestock

Integrating working animals into your landscape makes your backyard more of a natural ecosystem in which flora and fauna interact. John Hayden, who runs an integrated farm called “The Farm Between” in Jeffersonville, Vt., raises plant crops and livestock. He manages his livestock to reduce the amount of labor and fertilizer he puts into his plant crops. He refers to the technique of using animals for more than one purpose as “stacking functions.”

“We use our animals for their animal purpose — for meat — and we have draft horses we use for work, but we also use them for their manure or to work the ground, control weeds or graze cover crops,” Hayden says.

Matt Elston and Kirk Fackrell own Cascade Meadows Farm, a diversified farm in Sandy, Ore. Their livestock consist of Dexter cattle, pastured poultry, American Guinea hogs, Icelandic sheep and miniature dairy goats. They recently had piglets from their pair of Guinea hogs, and they plan to use this small breed of swine to remove unwanted vegetation. Elston and Fackrell find their miniature dairy goats to be especially effective at blackberry control, and they provide tasty milk, as well. “What we’re trying to do here is bring together a new understanding of old techniques, to have our farm work holistically with as few outside inputs as possible, and get as much as we can out of each individual on the farm,” Elston says.

Sheep Shear Shrubs and More

Though he no longer keeps sheep, Hayden found them useful for controlling vegetation. “We had some stone walls that were overgrown and brushy, and we mobbed sheep on them and let the sheep kill everything there,” he says. “Now we have nice stone walls to look at again.” (“Mob” grazing means confining a group of animals in a small space so they feed on vegetation that may be less desirable to them.)

(Continue reading page 2 at Mother Earth News) >>

About This Talk
Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that’s only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000).

About Marcin Jakubowski
Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing a set of blueprints for 50 farming tools that can be built cheaply from scratch. Call it a “civilization starter kit.” Full bio and more links.

H/T to Brad Spangler for the link:

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Coffee in a Post-Collapse Society
By James Wesley Rawles

I have read many articles stating that if you have any addictions to nicotine, caffeine or alcohol that now is the time to change your habits so that your dependency on them in their absence are easier to tolerate. My coffee habit is less a habit-at least that’s what I tell myself-and more of an enjoyment of life. That being said, in moderation coffee actually has an anti-oxidant property- justification is always a sign of a habit I know – not to mention the benefit of assisting in staying alert during a night watch task.

As a previous specialty coffee shop owner-prior to the commercialization of the industry by Starbucks -no I am not bitter- the storage of “freshly” roasted coffee has always been an issue. In fact, there is really only one method for long term storage of coffee since once the bean is roasted the oils and converted sugars begin to deteriorate and go rancid very quickly. Most off the shelf coffees that you buy in vacuum sealed containers or bags are actually made stale so that they can be vacuum sealed. Otherwise the bag would burst from the off gassing of the beans. Vacuum sealed freshness is a marketing term that actually means vacuum sealed staleness. I would always tell my customers you would never buy stale bread, why do you insist on paying a premium for stale coffee?

As I said there is a method for long term storage, unless you plan on rotating your roasted/ground coffee on a regular basis-eventually the coffee you have stored will become undrinkable. Or unless you live in the very narrow band of coffee producing countries that are 20 degrees on each side of the equator and 3,000 feet above sea level- coffee in a post-collapse society will disappear quickly. The answer is to purchase green coffee beans. These are the natural unroasted beans. There are many sites available on the internet where you can purchase anywhere from one pound to fifty pound bags. One advantage is that you will save 50% on your coffee budget paying anywhere from $5-7 per pound by purchasing green coffee beans. The prices of coffee have been escalating just as other commodities and the anticipation of future inflation on coffee is expected to continue. If ordering by the internet and paying shipping costs are to be avoided then you could also check your local coffee roaster in the yellow pages and inquire, they may sell you coffee thus avoiding the shipping costs. Most however will make you pay a small fee above their costs to account for their lost profit, it never hurts to ask though.

Now that you have purchased a twenty five pound bag of beans it will arrive in a burlap bag, long term storage in a five gallon bucket and Mylar should follow your preferred method. You may want to store in multiple smaller Mylar bags for extended storage times. At this point the beans are not off gassing so vacuum sealing with oxygen absorbers is possible. Stored in this method your beans will stay fresh from 2-5 years until you decide to roast them. Some Columbian Estate coffees are actually aged prior to roasting and command premium prices.

The fear of roasting your green beans is not scary at all. In fact, I would expect readers of SurvivalBlog to see it as a challenge to learn how to and master it. It should not take any longer than fifteen minutes on the stovetop or in a Dutch oven over a fire if necessary to roast enough beans for a week. I roasted our coffee for the week this Sunday in a Panini Pan (a pan with ridges on the bottom to help distribute the beans and heat) but any pan will work. To roast coffee, start by placing a layer of beans on the bottom of the pan with medium-high heat. As the pan begins to roast your beans, continue to stir your beans slowly, your technique will develop over time, just don’t leave the beans unattended, continue to stir or move the beans around or you wont get an even roast. You may need to decrease or increase the setting on your stove accordingly, but you will start to get the feel of the right setting after your second roast of beans. The oils in the bean will begin to heat up and caramelize, as they do you will hear them begin to crack open, this is the first of two pops you will hear during the roast.

The color will change from green to yellow to a light caramel and finally to a dark brown to black depending on how dark a roast you like. Also, the chaff from the beans outer coating will start to smoke, if you are inside on the stovetop, turn on the exhaust fan-trust me. About ten minutes into your roast and continual stirring you will have a mix of color ranging from light brown to dark brown and the second crack will begin. The last five minutes the colors change over very quickly to dark brown to black and you will need to monitor the color. Unless you like an espresso roast where you have now burnt the sugars and oils you will need to stop the roasting process just prior to the desired roast or color. As the second crack subsides remove the pan from the heat store and continue to stir. There will be a lot of chaff, you do not want this in your beans so I put mine in a colander and toss them out side and either let the breeze remove the chaff or blow across the beans to remove as much chaff as possible. Let the beans cool before grinding. Once you grind your first truly freshly roasted coffee you will be amazed at the depth of flavors. In some coffees you will not have to add milk or sugar. Bitterness that is in brewed coffee comes from staleness not the true nature of brewed coffee. In a post-collapse society a hand operated coffee grinder will be necessary and can be found online as well.

As for brewing your coffee in the absence of an electric coffee brewer, the Cowboy coffee and French press coffee methods work great and both make a great cup of coffee.

Cowboy Coffee
Over a campfire
Fill coffee pot with cold water.
Add one rounded tablespoon of ground coffee for each two cups of water.  (Add the coffee directly to the water.)
Bring the water just to a rolling boil.  Take off heat.  

Add a splash (a couple of tablespoons) of cold water.  This is to settle the coffee grounds.  Allow the coffee to set for a couple of minutes for the settling to take place.

French Press Coffee
Over a campfire
Heat water in a container
Place ground coffee in French Press, about 1tbs per cup

Pour hot (almost to a boil) over coffee
Put lid back on the press, leave in the up position
Steep for about four minutes
Slowly press down plunger after four minutes
Pour coffee to strain grounds v

Post-Collapse Coffee Equipment and Costs

I always appreciate sources for procurement so I will make mine that seem to be the most affordable. Some items-camp coffee pot, heavy bottomed pan, Dutch oven, and coffee press-you can locate at your local big box store. I would still recommend doing your research for the best product for the best price.

• Green Coffee beans $5-7 per pound (Guatemalan $143 for 25# plus shipping from Coffee Bean Corral)
• 5 gallon pails with Gamma Seal lids
• Oxygen absorbers (I always order from HoneyvilleGrain.com along with other items)
• Mylar bags, include smaller sizes for use as a barter item (your favorite supplier)
• Manual Coffee Grinder (such as a Kyocera Ceramic Coffee Grinder Model CM-50 CF $49.99 #1678)
• Camp style coffee pot or French Press (Primula 6-Cup Coffee Press – Black  Item # PCP2906 $9.99)
• Heavy-bottomed pan or Dutch oven for roasting

My last thoughts concern bartering coffee. During the Civil War the Northern states had coffee for their soldiers in the field because of their ability to import from coffee producing countries. The South was not as fortunate and had to rely on Chicory as a substitute–a poor one at that. Southern troops however had an abundance of tobacco, which the Northern Troops lacked. And through barter each side would arrange for a truce to trade, in fact there are many stories of agreements being yelled across the lines- where soldiers much to their officers disapproval would make unapproved but look the other way arrangements of tobacco for coffee. I can envision trading some scarce freshly roasted coffee for rice/beans or bullets. As a bartering item that contains one of those things that can be habit forming, in the grand scheme of things, coffee is less destructive than alcohol or tobacco.

Having coffee in your provisions could be a very valuable commodity from enjoyment, staying alert and to use as a barter item for other needed provisions.

———————

Post image by cgfan on flickr.

Ben Godwin from the awesome website: JustLive.us joins us for a chat. Ben talks about the sites origin, design and goals. We discuss agorism, mutual aid, self-sufficiency, Direct Action, diverse groups moving into agoric activity, the building of alternate systems to replace the Failed States and the Snake Oil they have been peddling, people looking for and building systems to solve their real world problems – now.

Check it out, and listen to the other episodes while you’re there — it’s a great show. Topics covered so far have ranged from Bitcoin, to Loom, to Hawala, just to name a few.

Grace Lee Boggs says she would like the chapter titles of her new book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, written with Scott Kurashige, to become buzzwords for progressive activists.

So I imagine “Detroit, Place and Space to Begin Anew” or “We Are the Leaders We’ve Been Looking For” on T-shirts, trying to fit them on for size in the coming era of struggle to rebuild Detroit and Michigan.

More than just buzzing around, Boggs wants people to really ponder the meaning and implications of those words. “What does it mean to start anew? What does it mean to say we are the leaders we’ve been looking for?” she asks me rhetorically. “I think instead of growing our budgets, we need to be growing our souls. What are the economics of happiness instead of gross national product? People of every race are beginning to think differently. They’re beginning to recognize that life isn’t just about making a living. It’s about making a life.”

Boggs is a political philosopher whose thought and activism have been reaching around the globe from her modest home near Mack and East Grand Boulevard. Last week, I sat down with her and Kurashige, a Boggs Center board member and director of AC Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies at the University of Michigan, to ask how her ideas relate to some of the tumultuous events taking place these days. The large, though not fancy, brick house is filled with books and papers. It’s not an advertisement for the electronic age and predictions of a paperless society. Boggs, the daughter of Chinese-American restaurant owners, earned a Ph.D from Bryn Mawr in 1940, became a leftist, and married black autoworker-activist James Boggs. The Boggses collaborated with the Marxist historian and theorist C.L.R. James during the 1950s, and, starting in the 1960s, set their own course, writing several books either separately or together. These days, Grace, a widow recently turned 95, is the leader of the nonprofit Boggs Center, headquartered at her home, which is the hub around which a number of efforts — Detroit Summer, the Allied Media Project, Detroit City of Hope, the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and others — maintain their philosophical grounding and connection to a broader, growing movement in Detroit.

Boggs’ revolution is not a call to seize political power from the government. “A cultural revolution has begun to take place,” says Boggs. “It’s a phenomenon as historic and as far-reaching as the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, and from agriculture to industry. Now we’re at the heart of a change from industry to a world where people work not so much at jobs. Work is something that we do to develop skills as much as to produce goods and services. We’re so used to the idea that we work in order to make money, but that’s not why people have worked throughout history and that’s the kind of way we’re going now. It provides a very different perspective of revolution. It’s not about seizing state power to plan the economy. [...continue reading at MetroTimes...]

Here is the first issue of Gonzo Times for Print. We ask that you print not only one for yourself but others to distribute in your area. Coffee Shops, Libraries, Campuses, Book Stores and Community Centers may be some places you can do this. Please tell us how many you publish and where you have distributed. I would love to know.

You can order copies here at Gonzo Times. We will be selling copies in bulk seeking only to cover printing costs starting March 10th. This is a publication supported by mutual aid only. This is not a for profit publication. We will however offer ad space in the next issue for people who order certain quantities this will be to fund continued printing only. Take part in this mutual aid publication by distributing all around your area.

There are currently three PDF’s available:

• The Full Print Version (includes crop marks ready for publication)
• The Print Version (no crop marks best printed on 8 sheets of 11×17 to make all 36 pages)
• The Web Version (slightly smaller and easier to download)

The publication was designed to be printed on 11 x 17 both sides 8 sheets folded and side stapled to create a 36 page publication. You can print on 8.5 x 11 if those are your only printing capabilities.

Be sure to check the link for ways to help spread this zine far and wide.

Much of the radical left subscribes to some version of “Dump the bosses, put the workers in charge.” Brian Edwards-Tiekert tours a bakery in Oakland that went out of business — until its workers brought it back. Melissa Hoover describes how worker-run businesses adapt to a bad economy. And Gayle McLaughlin discusses her plan to create jobs by following the model of the cooperatives in Spain.

(Audio at the link)

Wally Conger posted this review in praise of the work when it came out in scanned-PDF form:

Roderick T. Long’s “Toward a Libertarian Theory of Class,” which first appeared in Social Philosophy & Policy (Summer 1998), is finally available for download as a two-part PDF…

I think this is a seminal work in the ongoing struggle to build a hardcore radical Libertarian Left movement from three disparate strands — libertarian capitalism, libertarian socialism, and what Long calls “libertarian populism.” If you consider yourself a Libertarian Leftist, you should really read this. If you consider yourself a serious Libertarian Left activist, you should really study this thoroughly and add it to your intellectual arsenal.

Original PDF (combined into one file, 47 pages, 8.1 MB)

OCR’d PDF (40 pages, 512 KB) — In this version, the footnotes have been moved to the end of the document.

The OCR has been gone over, but we’d appreciate hearing about out any errors, missing text, etc.

Meg joins Alex Himmelbaum who shows us how to shape hot steel into a rustic paper towel holder for the kitchen. More info: http://bit.ly/gH7YgI