Ahni writes:

InterContinental Cry for Unity

Inspired by Noam Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival, the Movements of South America, the World Social Forum, and the Continental Cry of the Excluded, a website called the InterContinental Cry For Unity has recently been created.

The website is among other things, a response to the need for more dialogue in a number of areas fundamental in our common walk. For instance, while there is no shortage of declarations, protests or clear voice about what we do not like or approve of (e.g. what Governments and corporations are doing) there is very little about just what our goals are, or what exactly we need to do for ourselves — after all, our work is not to benefit Empire, but each other.

LAUNCHED! Target: WTO |
Derail, Dismantle, Destroy!

http://targetwto.revolt.org

Submit news, articles and events now directly to the website!

An autonomous group of direct action activists have launched Target: WTO | Derail, Dismantle, Destroy! across the world to unite and destroy WTO, one of the most powerful instrument of capitalism. The 6th WTO ministerial conference is taking place in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from Dec 13th to 18th.

ben@autonomedia.org wrote:

"Zapatistas, Cheap Books, Passage of Time"

Autonogram

Greetings Autonomedia list subscribers, and many apologies for the lag
between emails. As usual, we've got more going on here than we can handle.
Here's a quick breakdown:

1. New books: Subcomandante Marcos, Conversations with Durito; Richard
Kostelanetz, Film and Video: Alternative Views; 2006 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee
Saints; Data Browser vols 1 and 2.

2. New online bookstore, and 20% discount on all Autonomedia books
(bookstore.autonomedia.org)

3. NYC events in December: Richard Kostelanetz, Peter Lamborn Wilson

4. Recent headlines from the Interactivist Network

Announcement of mayflybooks

Today, at one and the same time, scholarly publishing is drawn in two directions. On the one hand, this is a time of the most exciting
theoretical, political and artistic projects that respond to and seek to move beyond global administered society. On the other hand, the publishing industries are vying for total control of the ever-lucrative arena of scholarly publication, creating a situation in which it is increasingly hard to publish works grounded in research and in radical interrogation of the present. As a result, as publishers become fixated on the textbook market and academic books become ever more expensive, with many books only ever being sold as hardbacks these days, which means that they are more likely to get dusty on university library shelves rather than read, and rarely read by those that authors might hope to reach.

In this context, a new book publishing press is being established: mayflybooks. This press draws on the most exciting contemporary theorising concerned with organization, its theoretical and political consequences and presumptions. It specifically seeks to publish works that are currently excluded by the publishing industries, either because of their progressive politics or their apparent lack of a mass market. mayflybooks will draw on the now available new technologies for distribution, specifically, distribution of downloadable PDFs via the internet and cheap paperbacks published in very short production runs. mayflybooks will publish
high-quality books that are available either free of charge (as PDFs on the internet) or as easily affordable paperbacks. This press is a truly not-for-profit operation. It will publish books that matter, and at present this involves bypassing the 'publishing' industry, which is no longer in public hands and hence fails to represent any public.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION!

THE THIRD ANNUAL NEW YORK CITY GRASSROOTS MEDIA CONFERENCE

FEBRUARY 11, 2006

Brought to you by the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition. A project of Paper Tiger Television
Hosted by the Department of Media Studies and Film New School University

The fight for media democracy will not be won by academics, or lobbyists, or people representing one race, class or gender working separately. In order to
effect change in the control and access to media, grassroots leadership is needed from diverse constituencies who understand that access and fair representation in the media is essential for realizing victories in social justice.

Since 2004 the Grassroots Media Conferences have convened thousands for a weekend of workshops, skills-sharing, dialogue, debate and strategizing sessions about media making, media policy and how to use media to support grassroots organizing efforts.

This year we are looking for innovative and collaborative panels as well as action oriented projects to keep attendees motivated and active long after the
conference.

The Third Annual New York City Grassroots Media Conference is now accepting workshop proposals:
http://nycgrassrootsmedia.org/proposals
advertising requests and table reservations:

http://nycgrassrootsmedia.org/2006promotions
endorsements and more: http://nycgrassrootsmedia.org/2006endorse

Szymon Niemiec writes:

"Poland's New Government Cracks Down on the Powerless"

Szymon Niemiec

POZNAN, POLAND — A demonstration held in the city of
Poznan today disintegrated into violence as police moved in on
peaceful protesters. According to organizers including civil rights,
LGBT and other left-wing organizations, the demonstration was held to
protest Poznan Mayor Ryszard Grobelny's decision to ban organizers
from holding an Equality march, and to demonstrate against
discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender, race, and
disability.

The police initially surrounded the demonstrators to
separate them from opponents of the march and militiamen, who
outnumbered the activists approximately ten to one. After about two
hours of peaceful protest, one activist was dragged out of the circle
by the police while his companions cried "We're in Poland, not in
Belarus" and his fellow activists sat down to protest his removal.
Police thereupon began detaining marchers, only stopping when police
cars grew too full.

According to witnesses and protesters, those detained were dragged
face-down along the pavement; some were bludgeoned by police or struck
open-handed on the kidneys. In all, some 80 activists were detained for
questioning, while those from the opposition crowd who were heckling and
assaulting protesters were allowed to continue their activities
unmolested. In a slogan reminiscent of Nazi era propaganda, one placard
carried by the opposition group proclaimed "One leader, one faith, one
truth."

el Journal de Aesthetics and Protests writes:

Journal of Aesthetics and Protest

Issue 4 Available Online

With a creaky call, issue #4 of the LA based Journal of Aesthetics and Protest is now available.

http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/4/iss ue4.php

We are dancing in the dark. Tough luck kids. In January 2005, we held a dark mass and wailed. We are now dark energy. Darkness has shifted with this ever-expanding fucked-up system. Our dearly held agendas and assumptions- once truisms- are now suspect. How can we work in this glue gloom?

On May 13, 2004 cultural production in 5 cities in the Center of the United States just stopped. The towns themselves didn’t seem to notice, their TV’s still brought in moving images, their radios still played the programmed music. It was unclear if the disappearance was a coordinated act of refusal, or if the producers were taken away. It is unclear whether similar events have occurred elsewhere. Are they dead? Have they disappeared, are they dead or are they in hiding?

This fourth issue of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest has been most difficult to put together. We conceived the Journal when all things felt possible: just a few years back the Bush Administration was impotent, everyone was high on Hardt and Negri and activists of grassroots globalization were infecting everything with “possibility.” Insurgent action was metastasizing into a holy universal of Zapatista inspired world dance revolution party. Locally, nationally, and internationally, activism was beginning to affect policy. Journal issue number two came together as we were touching on concepts of the grassroots as “Second Superpower…

But now we are unable to hide behind dreams of possibility – there simply is no sublime to buoy our relationship with the current US regime. Some of our previous forwards seem now funny. We, and the movement have changed. What recently seemed achievable now feels impossible: currently the strongest freak-culture is not an anarchist collective but the Bush cabinet.

In piecing this issue together we looked at several contemporary models of resistance from the United States and abroad. From the States, it was difficult to find something not developed in relationship to the recent presidential elections – replaying themes of carnival, intervention, pop-culture dissent. These models are inspiring and locally effective, but few of them leave hints of how to work broadly in the current political context.

Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS)
Speakers Bureau

The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) is pleased to announce our new
Speakers Bureau. The Speakers Bureau is a project that arranges speaking
engagements for many diverse and dynamic thinkers drawn from our network
of scholars and activists.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Multitudes, Creative Organisation and the Precarious Condition of New Media Labour

Fibreculture Journal

Edited by Brett Neilson and Ned Rossiter

Broadly speaking, this issue of Fibreculture Journal is interested in the problem of political organisation as it relates to the overlapping spheres of labour and life within post-Fordist, networked settings. It's becoming increasingly clear that multiple forms of exclusion and exploitation within the media and cultural industries run along the lines of gender, ethnicity, age, and geography. New forms of class division are emerging whose locus of tension can be attributed to the ownership and control of information.

The mobile capacity of information corresponds, in many instances, with the flexible nature of work across many sectors of the media and cultural industries. And it is precisely the informatisation of social relations that makes political organisation such a difficult – even undesireable – undertaking for many. Without recourse to traditional institutions such as the union, new technics of organisation are required if the common conditions of exploitation are to be addressed and transformed.

Precarious labour practices generate new forms of subjectivity and connection, organised about networks of communication, cognition, and affect. These new forms of cooperation and collaboration amongst creative labourers contribute to the formation of a new socio-technical and politico-ethical multitude. The contemporary multitude is radically dissimilar from the unity of “the people” and the coincidence of the citizen and the state. What kinds of creative organisation are specific to precarious labour in the era of informatisation? How do they connect (or disconnect) to existing forms of institutional life? And how can escape from the subjectification of precarious labour be enacted without nostalgia for the social state or utopian faith in the spontaneity of auto-organisation? These are some of the key questions the articles gathered here set out to addresss.

"goscilo" writes:

Stalinka Digital Library Online

The University of Pittsburgh team of Susan Corbesero, Helena Goscilo, and
Petre Petrov takes pleasure in announcing the launch of their STALINKA, a
comprehensive digital library of Staliniana for educational purposes.
STALINKA comprises both visual and verbal texts. The latter, currently
under construction, includes biographical history, annotated bibliographies
of Joseph Stalin's works, a "Who's Who" of individuals and organizations
central to his activities, and critical scholarship on Stalin/ism. The
visual part of the collection (now approximately 370 images) encompasses
representations of Stalin in various genres: portraits, sculptures,
graphics, photographs, and material objects. Hosted by the DRL (Digital
Research Library) within the University Library System (ULS), these images
may be accessed here.

We welcome anyone and everyone to the site, but emphasize that all the
images are copyrighted and may not be disseminated or used outside the
classroom without permission. Enjoy!

Helena Goscilo for the S-Team