Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 14:30:11 -0500
From: Uncle Dimitri <chelovek-AT-mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Report from San Francisco Part 2




Chuck Munson wrote:

> Ok, this is going to be a chatty account of my recent trip to S.F.
> Suitable news accounts and photos will be available soon. PLEASE do not
> post this to other listservs without my permission. If you do so, you
> will go on my permanent shit list.
>

What the hell do I came about your shit list? I am on gods shitlist.

>
> Details about certain things mentioned here will go out in Part 3
> (including events).
>
> I just got back from a week in San Francisco, the primary attraction
> being the 4th Annual Anarchist Book Fair. But I also met with a range of
> anarchists, friends, and combinations thereof.
>

what fun.....

>
> I was able to meet several anarchy-listers, including several for the
> first time. Now I can put a face with the names of Ian Mayes and David
> Hayman. Unfortunately, I missed Keri at the fair. I stayed with Freddie
> Baer, who it is rumored will soon return to this list.

What did you do with him?

> On Monday night I
> had dinner with Ramsey from AK, Jerry from the Anarchist Archives, and
> Liz Highleyman and Jan Brittensen. The latter two are anarchy-list
> veterans from way back. This dinner was mostly a reunion of Boston
> Anarchist Drinking Brigade veterans, The BAD Brigade just broke up after
> many years of existence. Their farewell statement is worth checking
> out--it's an altered version of the Love and Rage breakup statement.
>
> The Book Fair went off pretty well. Many thought the attendance was
> down, but it didn't seem that way to me. The organizers admitted to me
> that they could have spent more time on local outreach.

I didnot know that the locals liked us.... They have shot at me.

> Still, several
> thousand people attended. The only ugly incident worth mentioning is
> that somebody from the PLP (or similar authoritarian commie group) had
> the audacity to set up at an empty table inside the hall. Once they were
> discovered, they were removed from the hall. Another typical example of
> how the authoritarian commies try to slag on all the hard work done by
> anarchists.
>

yes.... They looked ugly too..

>
> I was pretty busy staffing the table, so I didn't have a chance to see
> much of the art show or any of the speakers. Speakers included Eli
> Rosenblatt (prisoner support), Stephen Dunifer (Free Radio Berkeley),
> Lawrence Ferlinghetti (beat poet), Harry Britt (ex-S.F. supervisor and
> now avowed anarchist), Roseanne Dunbar-Ortiz (wrote book about growing
> up in a leftist Okie family), John Zerzan (Future Primitive), a person
> from the Biotic Baking Brigade, and several others. I did catch a few
> minutes of "Nestor Makhno" from the Mission Yuppie Eradication Project.
> This session had an attendance of over 500 and focused primarily on how
> to fight back against gentrification in the Mission district of San
> Francisco.
>
> By the way, my table featured the following groups and publications:
> Spunk Library, Practical Anarchy, Atlantic Anarchist Circle, Anarchist
> Soccer League-DC, and Anarcho-Syndicalist Review (formerly LLR). I had
> some new pamphlets about Anarcho-Syndicalist Review which I can mail
> anyone who is interested. They are changing their name and redesigning
> the magazine. They will feature a new interview with Chomsky in their
> next issue.
>
> My table was sandwiched between Earth First! and that press which
> published "The Best of Temp Slave." The Earth First! table was also the
> headquarters for John Zerzan and some dude from Green Anarchist. On the
> table was a new glossy magazine called "Feral" (details later).
>

dont complain. I got jammed between two gay men on the bus.... The boner was
from the blond that was in front of me. (i hate people who put there hand on
my crotch without permission)

>
> I didn't spend much time at other tables,

You should have

> but other exhibitors included:
> Bound Together Books, See Sharp Press, AK Press, IWW-SF, Emma Goldman
> Papers, Unamerican Activities, ICC (Los Angeles), Red and Black
> (Lorraine Perlman), Left Bank Distribution, Bureau of Public Secrets
> (Ken Knabb), Free Radio Berkley, Slinghsot/Long Haul infoshop, III
> Press, Bolerium Books, Reading Frenzy, Women's History Project (IWW),
> Common Courage, Black Badger zine, Anarchy magazine and Alternative
> Press Review, Autonomous Zone (Chicago), City Lights, a queer liberation
> group.

VERY queer

>
>
> The Autonomous Zone has done several, very professional looking
> pamphlets. There is a new issue of Anarchy magazine out.
>
> Met some guys from Pensacola, Florida who have set up a new radical
> bookstore (infoshop?).
>
> On Wednesday last week I attended a benefit for the Fair which included
> the Tom Brooker Band and J Church. Excellent music and a decent turnout.
>
> If you live in New England you should try and attend the Book Fair
> happening there in May (I can't make this one, but next year for sure).
>
> Howard Besser, who is the remaining defendant from the 1997 S.F.
> Critical Mass arrests, won his suit against the city. The court awarded
> him some money, but we'll see if the city pays up.
>
> On Friday I got to go to the S.F. Museum of Modern Art with Freddie and
> Lorraine Perlman. The highlight of our visit was a special exhibition on
> Women Surrealists. Quite excellent. They also had an exhibit of "New Art
> from China." Our favorite artist in that one had to be the performance
> artist whose work was photographically documented. One was a picture of
> himself being married to a mule. My favorite was the ice sculpture that
> he did for the opening of a shopping mall in China. He took consumer
> items and froze them in ice blocks. Then he built a wall 300 feet long
> and ten feet high. The public was allowed in and before the ice could
> melt the crowd attacked the wall and liberated all of the consumer
> items.
>
> I dropped by the offices of AK Press and talked to Ramsey and staffers
> including blurd (who is on this list). The staff there was working
> pretty hard at getting orders out, contrary to the nasty opinions of
> those who don't appreciate the fact that we have a good-sized anarchist
> distributor/publisher these days. I always enjoy wandering around the
> shelves of their warehouse and looking at all the stuff. AK has plans to
> release a new Makhno book sometime this year and they are hoping to
> release a collection of Gee's collages (from CRASS). The latter will
> take some money, so please donate to AK if you can.
>
> Was privileged to share several dinners with Lorraine Perlman (widow of
> Fredy Perlman who wrote Against History, Against Leviathan) and Ken
> Knabb who compiled the Situationist International Anthology. Lorraine
> was not what I expected, so I was pretty inspired to meet her. It was
> pretty cool to hang out with an older anarchist woman who is so involved
> in life. BTW, there are plenty of Black and Red titles available. If
> your bookstore doesn't have any, you are missing out. Ken Knabb is
> working on his website mostly these days. Trying to get more Situ texts
> online.
>
> Met up with Deke from the S.F. IWW and took a tour of their offices. I'm
> pretty jealous of what they have going there. Deke helps maintain the
> IWW web effort and had some pearls of wisdom concerning email flame
> wars.
>
> Let's see, I also got together with my anarchist and radical librarian
> friends and we did our usual stuff, i.e. drink, eat, gossip, and plot.
> Some of us are planning to raise a stink about Colin Powell being the
> keynote speaker at this summer's ALA convention.
>
> Saw lots of posters for the Mumia March next month in San Francisco.
> After asking around, it's become clear to me that the event in
> Philadelphia will be really huge. The anarchists in the Bay Area are
> distributing a flyer promoting a black bloc at the S.F. event.
>
> The weirdest incident at the fair was the guy claiming to be from the
> Wall Street Journal who dropped by and chatted with me. He claimed that
> he was working on an article on young people and anarchism. Don't know
> if he was on the level or just a police agent.
>
> Boy, I need to catch up on some sleep...
>
> Chuck0

you talk too much