-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 191 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --Zapatistas speak out on Pacifica crisis --They Call Us Violent Agitators --Music Pirates Busted Nationwide --Government Seeks To Put Rave Promoters In Prison --Killing Me Softly --Words of the EZLN --Quebec summit to feature more than one agenda =================================================================== Zapatistas speak out on Pacifica crisis Fri, 16 Mar 2001 JAVIER ELORRIAGA, SPOKESPERSON FOR MEXICO'S ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (FSLN), the political wing of the EZLN, speaks about the US-based Pacifica Radio Network. Interview conducted by David Adelson. ------------ DA What is your understanding of Pacifica Radio's crisis and its implications? JE What are today's problems and in what directions are the world's struggles going, right? Basically, its to build new ways to do politics, and not only has to do with doing politics in the ordinary way, as its usually done, it has something to do with a cultural question. The way of thinking and doing things must change. The struggle for power has to be removed from the left's thinking. Then, that should be reflected not only in practical aspects of politics, but above all, in the political relations between human beings. You must eradicate the idea that from above, from a certain position, one can construct and decide and do, because that idea leads people to think that the goal of the struggle is to reach that position. You must understand that politics must change, from relations of power, to solidarity relations. Capitalism is all about relations of power, that's how it expresses itself at the cultural, political, ideological, economic and social levels. We must go around that. That's what's happening with Pacifica Radio and other media outlets that at one time, they had some degree of independence from the state institutions and large corporations, and today they're seen as a prize, as an economic or political body. Why? because what they need is to destroy all collective spaces, every place that has a collective-making process, they must go in and break it. They must place the individual all alone against the state, against trade, against the bank, against the church. Why? because an individual alone has no means to defend him(her)self. What ten years ago was of no interest for them, like independent radio stations. Pacifica is quite large, but there are some smaller ones, and you may ask yourself, what does a large network care about these little radio station? They care because they must get to the very core of society, and break everything that is collective. To individualize 'til they can go no more. What can we do to avoid that? to strengthen the collective spaces, the collective decision-making processes, all forms of collective participation. And to understand that we must create a new culture that is not based on isolating the individual from the world, nor on the premise that we stay equal. We must understand that we are equal because we are different, that is based in another way to conceive democracy, social and economic relations. DA:What can anyone do when power is centralized, like Pacifica's radio transmitters, how can they be placed to the service of the community? JE:You must try to give the control of the radio station, the programming and decision-making to the community. There can be a Board of Directors for the conduction of administrative matters, but that Board cannot make decisions about the community. The community is the one who must decide and have the power to appoint and remove the members of the Board at anytime They don't have to wait for elections as it is done every four years with the politicians. Why change the Directors every four years if their performance on the job is poor after the first month? Why wait four years? Yes, you need somebody to manage the finances, to pay the electric bill, to buy CD's, right? There are people who can do that kind of work but they must be accountable to the collective. What zapatismo says about "giving orders by receiving orders" its not just a formula for politics, its a formula that works in a school in a neighborhood, in a factory, in a radio station. Who does call the shots in a radio station? The radio listeners, they are the ones that must have an option. Why? Capitalism says you can change the channel, if you don't like this one, dial another one, that's democratic. That's stupid! Democracy can be something like the people asking: why are you broadcasting that crap? why don't you air something in which we, the audience, are included? There are a few places like that around the world but their number is growing. The fight to break the monopoly in the world of communications, grows and grows and grows, and that makes them very angry. DA:What is the relation of the spaces were power is distributed within capitalism? JE: Well, it is a struggle, there are two models, not only political models, but two models of culture and humanity charging against one another. Capitalism does not tolerate collectives and it does not tolerate the community. These spaces that are being opened, these spaces fighting against capitalist enterprises and the governments at their service, are growing in number. Why? Because they are a necessity for people. If people see that they (alternative networks) can play a role within the media, they will be interested. Why? Because they don't believe in the system anymore, they don't believe in the government, the press, and television. What will they believe in? In whatever they think is theirs, where they can have participation, where someone is speaking about what they consider, its important. And that must be built from below, we must forget about the giant struggles and try to build that new relation from below, at the local level. DA: Is there something that you would like to say for Pacifica's listeners? JE: Back in early 1994, we used to have a joke that said that, the land is for whoever works in it, and later we used to say, the news belong to those who work on the news. But not in the sense that, because we are here, we're going to sell it, but because it is us, as people, the ones who are making history. Therefore, it is up to us to teach, to broadcast, to tell, what we're doing to others. Today is not the time to be taking the winter's palace and the great moments of history. Today is for understanding that we're so different from one another that we must listen to each other, to understand that the strength of our struggle is infinite. It is represented in a thousand forms, each individual can do something to fight against capital and against the system, but we don't know it. why? Because we have no control, we have no medium to broadcast it. So, anything that we can use, to tell others about our experience in the struggle its very important. We may not be able to realize it today or in five years, but its becoming evident that it is very important. why? Because we're re-capturing the past, and we're building a collective future.. Is not a future for someone to give us, its not just like dialing another radio station, because no matter which one you listen to is the same shit....(he laughs).... We must build from below, we must tell the local stories over and over, those things that seem meaningless. You might say that your struggle is not important at the global level because it failed to drop two points in the stock exchange, but without your little struggles at the local level, there'll never be a global struggle. So, we must put a lot of effort into it, this is one of the areas where we're gaining more ground, in the alternative media, I think. And you know, its very interesting, when the zapatismo came out, the internet came out and all of this. And less than a year later, some specialists from the pentagon came out with a study called the war of zapatistas network, or something like that. They developed a whole idea, a theory on how zapatismo used the internet and social networks, and came out with plans on how to counter this offensive, and ZAP! it jumped in Seattle, right at the heart of the empire who had made a study about how zapatismo caught them by surprise. They got caught right in the middle of their streets, with a horizontal communication through the internet. Then, all of those who had theorized all that stupidity, had no idea where all the demonstrators in Seattle came from, and later in Prague, did not know where the protestors came from. And it will continue the same way, we don't theorize much, we just do it. So, we must disseminate all those experiences as much as we can, so other people can do it, so they don't wait for someone else to do it, so they don't wait and say: today its an easy day. But only if you have the community on your side, otherwise, you're like the corporations, even if you're small and marginal, 'cause then you'll be a small and marginal corporation without the people on you side. If people don't understand that there's something they want to communicate, if they don't understand that through that communication its going to learn something from others, its worthless. That's what's changing. In the 60's and 70's we used to do radio, and radio speaks to people. But today is not about speaking to people, but speaking together with the people. To make a collective space for dialogue, of reflection, of experience. That's what we intend to do in the days to come. A place where people will come from all over the country and from other parts of the world, where there's struggle. For what? So they can have the opportunity to tell each other's experiences in struggle. DA: Why do you think it takes so long and so much effort for people to understand that a radio station should be part of their community. Why are they willing to see it as something separate, outside of them? JE: Because that's all they ever had. What is what we know? What it has been fed into our heads since we were children. The other stuff is much more difficult. Why? Because there's the idea that you cannot participate in that. It takes a lot of money to have a radio or television station, many millions of dollars, connections with people in power, and it becomes something far away from your reality. When you begin to produce radio programs, to make them, to broadcast them, to watch them, you discover that is not an unreachable goal. But people don't know, they think it is very difficult, that it is for someone else, that it is part of the big corporations. We must destroy that myth. =================================================================== They call us violent agitators <http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,461513,00.html> The global free traders want to make protest seem dangerous by Naomi Klein The Guardian, London, Friday March 23, 2001 "I 'm worried that free trade is leading to the privatisation of education," an elementary school teacher in Ottawa tells me. "I want to go to the protests in Quebec City, but is it going to be safe?" "I think free trade agreements have increased the divide between rich and poor," a young mother in Toronto tells me, "but if I go to Quebec, will my son get pepper sprayed?" "I want to go to Quebec City," a Harvard undergraduate in the anti-sweatshop movement says, "but I heard no one is getting across the border." "We're not even bothering to go," a student in Mexico says. "We can't afford to get arrested in a foreign country. " If you think that the next big crackdown on political protest is going to take place when 5,000 police officers clash with activists outside the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City next month, you are mistaken. The real crackdown is already taking place. It is happening silently, with no fanfare, every time another would-be protester decides not to publicly express his or her views about the largest free trade zone in the world: the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It turns out that the most effective form of crowd control isn't pepper spray, water cannons, teargas, or any of the other weapons being readied by Quebec police in anticipation of the arrival of 34 heads of state. The most cutting-edge form of crowd control is controlling the crowds before they converge: this is state-of-the-art protest deterrence - the silencing you do yourself. It happens every time we read another story about how Quebec will be surrounded by a three-meter high fence. Or about how there's nowhere to sleep in the city except the prisons, which have been helpfully cleared out. A month before the summit, Quebec City has been successfully transformed into a menacing place, inhospitable to people with concerns about corporate-driven trade and economic deregulation. Protesting, rather than being a healthy part of democracy, seems like an extreme and dangerous sport, suitable only for hard-core activists, with bizarre accessories and doctoral degrees in rock climbing. More protest deterrence takes place when we accept the stories in the papers, filled with anonymous sources and unattributed statements, about how some of these activists are actually "agitators" who are "planning to use violence", packing bricks and explosives. The only proof provided for such inflammatory allegations is that "anarchists" are organising into "small groups" and these groups are "autonomous" (meaning that they don't tell each other what to do). The truth is this: not a single one of the official groups organising protests is planning violent action. A couple of the more radical organisations, including the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, have said they respect "a diversity of tactics" ranging from popular education to direct action. They have said they will not, on principle, condemn other activists for their tactics. This admittedly complicated position has been distorted in the press as tantamount to planning violent attacks on the summit - which it most certainly is not. The position has also been a source of frustration for many activists who argue that it would be infinitely easier if everyone just signed a statement saying the protests will be non-violent. The problem is that one of the fundamental arguments against the FTAA's Darwinian economic model is that it increases violence: violence within poor communities and police violence against the poor. In a speech deliv ered last year, Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's minister of international trade, helps explain why. In the new economy, he said, "the victims are not only exploited, they're excluded. You may be in a situation where you are not needed to create that wealth. This phenomenon of exclusion is far more radical than the phenomenon of exploitation." Indeed it is. Which is why a society that blithely accepts this included/excluded ledger is an unsafe society. It is filled with people who have little faith in the system, who feel they have nothing to gain from the promises of prosperity coming out of gatherings like the Summit of the Americas, who see the police only as a force of repression. If this isn't the kind of society we want - one of included and excluded, and ever higher walls dividing the two - then the answer is not for "good" activists to pre-emptively condemn "bad" activists. The answer is to reject the politics of division wholesale. And the best place to do it is in Quebec City, where the usually invisible wall of exclusion has been made starkly visible, with a brand new, chain-link fence and crowd control methods that aim to keep us out before we even get there. =================================================================== Music Pirates Busted Nationwide <http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press nb=3D19602> WASHINGTON, March 8, 2001 - February proved to be a rough month for music counterfeiters as the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Anti-Piracy unit took their actions nationwide in a continued effort to combat piracy. Assisted by law enforcement in the Chicago, New York, San Antonio and Richmond, Virginia areas, the RIAA acted on search and seizure warrants resulting in the confiscation of countless counterfeiting devices, scores of illegal CD-Rs and the apprehension of numerous alleged music pirates. "Our ongoing efforts with law enforcement and prosecutors at the federal, state and local levels are continuing to show clear results," said Frank Creighton, senior vice president and director of Anti-Piracy. "There is not a corner in this country where we will not look. Anyone selling, manufacturing or distributing suspected illegal sound recordings will be found." On February 8, 2001, uniformed officers of the Chicago Police Department apprehended a vendor who was attempting to sell illicit CD-Rs along with another subject at the same location who was transporting approximately 1,500 alleged pirate CD-Rs. Both men were taken in for processing. Subsequent to that investigation, four search and seizure warrants were executed on February 9, 2001. The warrants resulted in the arrest of five individuals, two of whom operated a Chicago retail store. A total of 476 alleged counterfeit and pirate cassettes and 2,769 alleged pirate CD-Rs were seized. On February 12, 2001, the Chicago Police Department seized 300 alleged counterfeit cassettes during the investigation of an unrelated incident, resulting in the arrest of one subject. It was later discovered the individual was responsible for the distribution of illegal sound recordings to street vendors. Felony charges are currently being filed. On February 13, 2001, members of the New York Police Department's 33rd Precinct seized approximately 9,600 alleged pirate and counterfeit CD-Rs from a store in New York City. The location was a suspected distribution point for alleged counterfeit CD-Rs in the city. The subject involved was arrested at the scene and charged with Trademark Counterfeiting. On February 14, 2001, the San Antonio Police Department, assisted by members of the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit in Texas, raided a San Antonio store suspected of selling bootleg compact discs and videos. A search of the store led to the seizure of 374 alleged bootleg CD-Rs and 89 alleged bootleg videos. Among the artist recordings seized were pop and rock acts such as U2, the Grateful Dead, Metallica, and the Dave Matthews Band. The two owners of the store were arrested on the scene and charges are currently pending. On February 15, 2001, the Evergreen Park Police Department, with assistance from the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit in Chicago, served a search warrant at a kiosk located in an Evergreen Park, Illinois shopping mall. It was suspected that illicit compact discs and cassettes that included tracks by rap acts such as Juvenile and Big Tymers were being sold from the kiosk. As a result of the search and seizure warrant, 819 alleged pirate CD-Rs and 110 alleged pirate cassettes were seized. Charges are pending against the storeowner. On February 15, 2001, a search warrant was executed by the U.S. Secret Service in cooperation with the New York Electronics Crime Task Force, at an alleged illicit CD-R distributor in lower Manhattan. One subject was arrested and charged with Trademark Counterfeiting and Failing to Disclose the Origin of a Recording, both felonies under New York law. A total of 7,750 alleged counterfeit CD-Rs were seized from the location. On February 28, 2001, the Midtown South Detective Squad, assisted by the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit in New York, executed a search warrant at a building on West 31st Street in New York City. It was suspected that the location served as a distribution center of illicit CD-Rs. Approximately 81,700 alleged pirate CD-Rs were seized during the raid. Some of the seized recordings included Latin and Pop acts such as India, Anthony Santos, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, and Toni Braxton. Charges are currently pending against the five individuals who were arrested at the scene On February 28, 2001, a search warrant was executed by the Richmond Police Department, with assistance from the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit in Washington, D.C., at a retail location on Government Road. It was suspected that the store was involved in the manufacture and sale of illicit CD-Rs. Among the items seized were 1,068 CD masters, four cassette decks, two CD-R burners, one stereo receiver, 390 alleged pirate CD-Rs, 523 jewel cases, and 30 blank CD-Rs. 100% of the product sold from the store was pirated material. Three individuals were charged with violation of Virginia's True Name and Address statute. -------------------------- The RIAA is a trade association whose members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 84% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States. The Anti-Piracy division of the RIAA investigates the illegal production and distribution of sound recordings that cost the music industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year domestically. Consumers, retailers and replicators can report suspected music piracy to the RIAA by dialing a toll-free hotline, 1.800.BAD.BEAT, or sending email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] =================================================================== Censorship Is Latest Drug War Tactic As Government Seeks To Put Rave Promoters In Prison <http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=19540> 03/07/01 NEW ORLEANS, LA - A local music promoter and a concert hall manager who face up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines simply for staging the electronic dance music events known as "raves" said today that the charges against them amount to censorship and have asked a federal court here to dismiss the case. "The prosecution by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is part of a novel, and entirely unconstitutional -- strategy to curtail use of the drug Ecstasy, which has been associated with raves, by using federal 'crack house' laws," said Arthur Lemann, a local attorney who is representing one of the defendants. Youth culture expert Douglas Rushkoff as well as music industry professionals are speaking out against the prosecution of rave organizers as an unfounded attack on a vibrant music culture. The American Civil Liberties Union has also said that it opposes such prosecutions on constitutional grounds. "Holding club owners and promoters of raves criminally liable for what some people may do at these events is no different from arresting the stadium owners and promoters of a Rolling Stones concert or a rap show because some concertgoers may be smoking or selling marijuana," said Graham Boyd, Director of the ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project. Today's case marks the first time that the government has used the "crack house" law to prosecute organizers of raves. Prosecutors around the country are watching the case and have already publicly announced an interest in applying the same strategy in their districts, Boyd said. "If the government is successful in shutting down raves," he added, "what's to stop them from applying this tactic to other music genres, such as hip-hop, heavy metal and jazz, where drug use is known to exist?" At a hearing today in federal district court, James D. Estopinal known to worldwide fans of electronic music as "Disco Donnie" for his legendary rave parties, and Brian Brunet, a manager of the State Palace Theater here, will enter "not guilty" pleas and seek a dismissal of the case. Lawyers for Brunet and Estopinal are charging a violation of their clients' basic constitutional rights to free speech and due process. Their clients, they said, "have been targeted because of the genre of music that they promote and the unsubstantiated association of that genre with rampant drug use." New Orleans attorney Lemann, who will appear in court tomorrow with Brunet and Estopinal, noted that both men had fully cooperated with "Operation Rave Review," a joint investigation by the New Orleans police department and the DEA. But under pressure from the media and the public, according to the brief, "the DEA has revised its strategy, ignoring drug dealers, and instead prosecuting electronic music concert promoters, whom the government does not accuse of providing drugs, assisting anyone in providing drugs, or of being directly involved with drugs in any way whatsoever." Passed by Congress in 1986 to combat crack cocaine, the federal "crack house" law was designed to punish the owners or operators of houses used for the manufacture, storage, distribution or use of illegal drugs. Yet Congress specifically rejected using the crack house tactic last year when it passed the Ecstasy Anti-Proliferation Act. Passed in October 2000, the Act strengthened penalties for those caught trafficking in the drug and provided money for educational programs. Significantly, however, lawmakers eliminated a controversial provision that would have limited speech about ecstasy and other drugs. Raves are a legitimate cultural event just like rock concerts, art exhibitions and film screenings, and can be an important outlet for young people, according to journalist and youth culture expert Douglas Rushkoff, a Professor of Media Culture at New York University and author of "Coercion: Why We Listen to What 'They' Say." "In a world where most every authentic expression of youth culture is commodified by a media conglomerate and sold back to teens at the mall, rave culture stands as one of the few, relatively uncorrupted outposts for America's kids," he said. Grassroots organizing has already sprung up in response to this latest government censorship threat: the newly established Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (EMDEF), is spreading the word to rave enthusiasts and music industry professionals. William Patterson, an EMDEF activist, said that concert promoters are concerned about drug use in their community and have taken proactive steps to alleviate problems of drug use by some patrons. The Lindesmith Center, a drug policy organization working to broaden and better inform the public debate on drug policy and related issues, sponsors the group. =================================================================== [See website for lots of embedded links.] Killing Me Softly <http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/newshole1.html> While you weren't looking, Ray Bradbury took over weapons design at the Pentagon. by Brooke Shelby Biggs March 8, 2001 Last week, the Pentagon unveiled its newest weapon: the Vehicle Mounted Active Denial System (VMADS). It's being billed as a kinder, gentler weapon; " non-lethal," "less than lethal," or "soft kill" in Pentagon parlance. In other words it usually doesn't kill people; it just hurts them enough to make 'em run away. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it? Well, it makes you warm, anyway. VMADS shoots a concentrated beam of electromagnetic energy at human targets -- sort of like a tank-mounted microwave oven set on high with the door left open. According to an Air Force spokesman at the unveiling, "It's the kind of pain you would feel if you were being burned. It's just not intense enough to cause any damage." But according to scientists at Loma Linda University Medical Center, long-term effects of exposure to the weapon are unknown, and may include cancer and cataracts. "[The Pentagon's] claims are a bunch of crap," said Prof. W. Ross Adey. "We've known that many forms of microwaves at levels below heating can cause significant health effects in the long term." And that's if the new weapon is used properly. According to the Marine Times, the VMADS -- called the "people zapper" -- may be capable of inflicting far more than brief discomfort when not used as directed; that is, for no more than three seconds. "The amount of time the weapon must be trained on an individual to cause permanent damage or death is classified." (In other words, it only takes one 18-year-old recruit with a sick curiosity or a slow watch to turn the thing deadly.) In 1995, in fact, a military spokesman qualified the concept of "non-lethal" weapons: "[I]t's really less lethal ... because these weapons if improperly used could be lethal." Marine Col George Fenton, likewise, is on record in the May 2000 National Defense Magazine saying the term "non-lethal ... does not mean that they can't kill or injure." Reassuring, isn't it? Think you have nothing to worry about because you have no plans to join the army of some rogue state? You may be surprised one day to see VMADS -- or a civilian law-enforcement version of the weapon -- on a city street near you. VMADS and its "non-lethal" kin are being hyped by the Pentagon as "crowd dispersal" devices, which makes them a handy tool for quelling civil unrest, without the fuss and muss of rubber bullets and tear gas. According to the defense journal Jane's, "The 'non-lethal' nature of these weapons might ... encourage military forces to use them directly against civilians and civilian targets." Indeed: A July 2000 Army newsletter featured a section called " Civil Disturbances; Incorporating Non-Lethal Technologies." So instead of donning bullet-proof vests and gas masks, activists at the next Seattle-style protest might strap frozen HungryMan dinners to their bodies when they take to the streets. At least they'll get a hot meal while they wait to post bail. Critics also note that the US loves to export its weapons technology. In Le Monde in 1999, Steve Wright argued that the spread of non-lethal weapons like VMADS will "spawn ever more advanced techniques of repression. And if democratic countries let their arms manufacturers develop these techniques, they will be exported to places less concerned about brutalizing their populations." International law seems fuzzy on this point. Although the Geneva Convention doesn't address the science-fictionesque subject of laser weapons, an amendment added in 1949 did ban "weapons, projectiles and materials and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering." VMADS is just the tip of the non-lethal iceberg. In 1995, the Center For Defense Information listed possible non-lethal weapons under consideration by the Pentagon, including "super acids, goop guns, blinding lasers, non-nuclear electromagnetic pulses, high power microwaves, laser weapons, infrasound, computer viruses, and metal-eating microbes." Human Rights Watch has been fighting the international development of "blinding lasers" designed to cause irreversible eye damage. In 1995, the US agreed to an international ban on blinding lasers, but continued development of "dazzling lasers" or "dazzlers," another form of laser weapon targeting human eyes. (Law enforcement groups are developing applications of this type of weapon for police use, giving the high-tech toys groovy names like "The Laser Dissuader"). And then there's the Anti-Personnel Beam Weapon that can stun or immobilize humans from a distance of 100 yards by sending an electrical current through a high-speed channel of ionized air. According to one Web source, the US is also developing a sonic weapon which causes "the bowels of enemy troops to spasm and their contents to liquefy, thus reducing millions of soldiers to, as one government report says, 'quivering diarrhetic messes.'" Finally, the US military is developing non-lethal low-frequency radio technologies -- which conspiracy theorists suspect have mind-control capabilities -- such as the much-criticized High Frequency Active Auroral Project (HAARP). It's easy to forget that the US military and intelligence communities are run by a bunch of boys playing with really big toys. The Hanssen spy case, after all, revealed that even after the Cold War was over, the CIA was actually tunneling under DC streets and into the Russian embassy. Makes one wonder if Tom Clancy has been writing policy for the past 20 years. =================================================================== Words of the EZLN March 20, 2001. At the Autonomous Metropolitan University - Azcapotzalco. Brothers and sisters of the UAM-Azcapotzalco: Brothers and sisters of the neighborhoods of Northwest Mexico City: You must all excuse me, but I have not managed to prepare anything special for this event. I have, therefore, had to resort to the advice of a specialist in issues of this area, since he once, he says, worked in what was once a refinery, located close by here. Since you are, most certainly, very knowledgeable about the history of the lands you walk, you will already know that I am referring to Durito, known (he says) at that time as "Heavy Metal Durito," and not exactly because of his spectacular abilities, but because he was buying and selling barrels from the refinery and reselling them as archeological pieces to Coparmex leaders who, as everyone knows, are very knowledgeable, know a lot about history, and have always been concerned about the preservation of historical heritage. "It was really easy," Durito tells me. "They only had to see that the pieces were oxidized and rusted to be convinced that they belonged to an ancient civilization." Durito studied at the UAM, and he was a professor there, and he had to engage in these things in order to pay for his tuition and cover his salary. Durito became bored quickly because, he said, there was nothing admirable about conning imbeciles, and he thought it would be better to fight for the helpless. And so he became a university worker, and he joined the SITUAM. It was during this time that they wanted to introduce the category of "'C' Beetle, time incomplete" It was then that he moved from "AZCA", as he says, and he went to other refineries which required his modest efforts and his precocious business initiative. Durito, as everyone already knows (and if you don't know, you're spending your tuition to no avail), embraced the noble profession of knight errantry, and he learned a million and one arts there, as well as a wealth of knowledge that would put the Encyclopedia Britannica and all its cybernetic links to shame, reducing it to the category of school dictionary "The Crumbs S.A. de C.V. de R.L.", whose motto is "The street vendor closest to your wallet." And so, I then asked Durito if he knew why the "hard-liners" in the Congress didn't want to engage in dialogue with the zapatistas. And here is what he told me: "My dear and flu-ridden peanut nose..." "It's not flu, it's imecas," I interrupted him. "So be it," Durito conceded. "Don't think those scoundrels are refusing you the ear and the word because of that ghastly mask, since it's common knowledge that you'd be even more ghastly without it..." Durito paused so that all of you could start shouting that marvelous slogan which reconciles us with ourselves, and which goes: You are not ugly, you are not ugly! Since the slogan was just a slogan, and reality is reality and nothing more, Durito continued: "You must find the reason yourself in what I am going to tell you... The professional politician is accustomed to confronting life as if it were a pencil, of the kind that almost no one uses any more, with lead on one end, and an eraser on the other. Making politics has come to be like that, like a continuous writing and erasing, always trying to improve the tracing of the letters and their complex stringing together to make words, which is also how worlds are called. They try to rectify errors with the eraser, to start each page over again, to embellish the letters, to hone the word, to decorate the world. The politician always tries hard to improve his penmanship, and he makes power a magnificent pencil sharpener with which he hones his words and turns them elegant and seductive. He astonishes many, and some applaud him. But a pencil sharpener, as every student knows, in addition to sharpening the pencil, also uses it up and makes it smaller. Soon it is so small that it becomes useless, and it ends up, like everything the politician hones, in the wastebasket. Another pencil then takes its place, and the writing of politics begins again. The intellectuals call the dead letters "democratic change." But the power is always ready to offer another pencil sharpener, and there will always be a wastebasket for the sharpened pencils of politics. The history of those in power in politics only repeats itself, the words are the same, only the drawing of the letters changes, their slant, their flourishes, their size. But the words do not change, and, ergo, neither do the worlds. The problem, then, is not the beauty of the letters, but that words announce the worlds which, after being left behind, give birth to other words, and so on. For example, at times a pencil is not even necessary. At times it is enough for a hand to trace a name on the sea or the sand. A world, that is, in which there are two: the one who is named and the one who has in his hand the point which creates the mutual tomorrow. Did you understand?" Durito asked me. "Sure," I responded. "It's better to use an automatic pen, the kind that changes its answers." "Good heavens! What strange and perverse wizard has cursed me by putting you as my assistant? In truth, I have never known a companion so long of nose and so short of wit. Automatic pencil, my foot! Think, blockhead!" "A nib, then?" I suggested timidly. Durito exploded: "It's too much! I'm losing the best years of my life trying to educate a scoundrel like you! To the devil with nibs as well! And let's go, because we have to go to Azcapotzalco, and then to Iztapalapa, and afterwards to Xochimilco, where they had the idea of dividing up this university, so that it would be easier to control it, and you see now, divided and everything, zapatista it is, and zapatista it will be." "Let's go, then," I said, resignedly, but, without Durito noticing, I had taken the indelible ink marker, with which I wrote in one of the bathrooms "UAM-Azcapotzalco has two "Z's" so that, even if they want to abbreviate it, it will always be zapatista." Vale. Salud and don't think I didn't understand. The issue is not about what you write with, but the hand which dreams when it writes. And that is what the pencil is afraid of, to realize that it is not necessary. >From the Azcapotzalco Unit of the Autonomous Metropolitan University. Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Mexico, March of 2001. =================================================================== Tuesday 20 March 2001 Quebec summit to feature more than one agenda KEVIN DOUGHERTY The Montreal Gazette One month from today, on April 20, Quebec City goes prime time on the world's all-news networks as the heads of all 34 sovereign nations in the Americas and the Caribbean - except for Cuba - led by George W. Bush and Jean Chretien, converge here for the third Summit of the Americas. Heading the agenda of the leaders' meeting, which continues April 21 and 22, will be the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a proposal to extend free trade from Alaska to Argentina by 2005. For the three days, about 9,000 people - 3,000 from the 34 delegations, 3,000 reporters and electronic journalists, and 3,000 security personnel, will crowd into a 3.8-square-kilometre security perimeter in the old city. A total of 5,000 police officers will also be on hand for the event. Summit organizers are haunted by protests at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, in November 1999, when demonstrators caused $17 million U.S. in property damage. Cost of the Quebec Summit security operation is estimated at between $32 million and $35 million. Outside the perimeter, as the leaders of government arrive, the non-prime-time Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas, bringing together an estimated 1,500 dissidents from across the hemisphere April 17 to 21, will be winding up with a teach-in and a closing demonstration April 21. Drawn from about 170 groups across Canada and the hemisphere, the Peoples' Summit will attract a broad spectrum of people - from unions to church groups, and including feminists, Canadian nationalists, students and the Raging Grannies. Their interests are broad but they share a commitment to non-violent protest and grave reservations that human rights are not on the leaders' agenda. "All trade agreements should be coherent with the (human rights) obligations that states have already agreed to undertake," said Diana Bronson of federally funded Rights & Democracy, one of the groups backing the alternate summit. Bronson called the planned security measures "exaggerated, over the top." "They are prepared to violate the rights of hundreds of people because a few people want to be violent," Bronson said, adding that about 15,000 people are expected at the peaceful protest organized by the Peoples' Summit groups on April 21. Other groups, describing themselves as "anti-authoritarian and anticapitalist," plan a day of direct action on April 20, dubbed the Carnival Against Capitalism. "Our aim is to disrupt, to the maximum extent possible, the holding of the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City," says a group calling itself the Anti-Capitalist Convergence in an Internet message. Anarchists, less committed to non-violence, will also be among the peaceful protesters. "We are doing everything possible to deliver 'another Seattle,' but this is just our first major protest on the entire FTAA issue," said anarchist organizer Chuck (ChuckO) Munson in an E-mail response to a reporter's questions. "If the Quebec police and the French-speaking RCMP decide to use violence against us, we will be prepared to defend ourselves. "Their silly defence perimeter is a good symbolic example of how the FTAA is about protecting the interests of the rich from the needs of the poor and working class," Munson added. Last month the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service warned of the possibility that Black Bloc anarchists, using the ranks of moderate protesters as shields, could try to disrupt the Quebec Summit. Munson said yesterday that the Black Bloc "is not an organization, it is a tactic." It serves as "a visual example of how affinity groups can come together in a larger group and articulate common goals," according to a Web site suggested by Munson. It also allows for "escalation - a method for ratcheting up a protest movement so that it goes beyond mere reformism and appeals to the state to remedy injustice." =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ====================================================== "The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -Thomas Paine ====================================================== " . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . " -Samuel Adams ====================================================== "You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no results." -Gandhi ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ **How to assist RadTimes: An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations. If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. If you are not a current user, use this link: <https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=resist%40best.com> to sign up and contribute. The only information passed on to me via this process is your email address and the amount you transfer. 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