I let the domain expire, allowing for the site to lapse for a week or two.
My bad, I’m sorry. I thought that was set to automatically renew.
Black and Red Zine is also moving towards an annual publication instead of biannual. Perhaps this may mean some online posts to supplement content between zine editions. However, doing a zine twice a year is quite hard to accomplish considering how small the collective is and the fact we both have pre-existing responsibilities to university, work, friends, anarchist collectives and recently, the occupy movement.
Deal with it.
You guys are fantastic for keeping tabs on this project of ours and we do appreciate you we’re just really busy. Expect some quality stuff from us.
Greetings readers, from the depths of inactivity. We’re looking to push out the July issue soon, just a taste of the issue we should be featuring articles on…
Facebook and it’s exploitation
A personal recount of how one of our editors viewed politics differently after a bout in a call centre
A revised version of Jeff Baertsch’s critique of lifestyle anarchism, analysing it using a Marxist perspective (but remaining a non-Marxist thinker!
These are subject to change of course, hopefully that’ll mean more articles rather than less.
We also might have a brief delay in the printing of our zine. We will most definitely have an online version out that’ll be in the exact same format, albeit as a .pdf.
You can see the slick cover for this issue on our website under the issues tab.
I must disclose firstly that this is a hypothesis based on my common knowledge. I have not had the time to research my predictions. I predict that journalism, following the lead of Silicon Valley, will be dominated by college drop-outs in the near future.
Sitting in a Journalism Practice 1 Lecture, my lecturer disclosed to the hall that next semester we would be taking a “Digital Media Literacies” course.This was in the context of the traditional media industry being one that’s very difficult to enter. Optimistically, the lecturer encouraged us to look towards small venues, mainly blogs, that are wholly digital and cater to small groups. It was with this parting wisdom that we were given information on next semester’s course.
The lecturer described the course as “creating our own niche media outlet.” Whether the lecturer wanted to pad her course or our egos remains to be seen. The translation of it was the creation of a blog, more than likely a simple Blogspot or WordPress.
Internally, I scoffed at this idea. It had been something that I had been doing since I was 14. To my amazement, I could hear murmurs of intimidation between students who had no experience in setting up anything outside a Facebook page (they’ll be relieved to find it’s not much harder).
The website has been re-designed. We though it might help us look a bit more unique as we were using a canned WordPress theme before hand. We’re also using Tumblr to post onto the website now. As such, you can follow us if you have a Tumblr account! As always you can subscribe to our RSS feed here.
No longer than two and a half years ago, I vividly remember sitting in American History class as a Junior in High School the day after the inauguration. I sat in the back corner of the classroom; mainly so I could do my Chemistry homework without detection from the teacher (this agitated her). As eight o’clock came, the teacher got out of her seat with great excitement, and in an almost rushed manner informed us of the monumental piece of history we had just witnessed. Wisely, she told us all to grab a paper from today to hold on to, mainly for the resale value.
For months leading up to that moment, I watched my peers around me talk amongst each other with great fervour. For once, my political activism seemed to be normal. The allure of the Obama campaign filled many with a sense of optimism, perhaps because I come from a blue town. But to be fair, the anti-Obama rhetoric was unheard of at that time most anywhere; News Corp can’t mold public opinion over night, after all. The mood and expectations followed mainly along the lines of the campaign slogans. Wall Street lobbyists would reign supreme no longer. Politicians would no longer behave as thieves. The American government would be one of compassion and transparency. Students would be able to afford tuition. We would be free from the fetters of the American healthcare industry. In many ways it’s what I imagine the atmosphere would taste like in the middle of a revolution.
I thought this was probably the best letter I’ve submitted to the editor lately. Unfortunately, I find that when I delve too deep into my socialist politics I tend to get rejected by newspapers. It’s a little late to post it, but hey, it’s somewhat relevant to us.
On Tuesday, February 22nd, as reported in the Juneau Empire, many labour unions across town gathered to show their support for the plight of the Wisconsin worker. Unfortunately, the leadership of all of these unions should come under questioning concerning their sincerity in this matter. To give a specific and local example of their contradictory policies, the local chapter of The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a member of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce, of course, has made it readily apparent of their hatred for organised labour. They have poured millions of dollars into combating the Employee Free Choice Act. They have poured even more money into the campaigns of Republican politicians who have made no secret of their deep-seated hatred for the working class. The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. Using union funds to participate in this club of elite bourgeois interests is a betrayal to all of the rank-and-file members.
However the IBEW is not alone in this matter of betraying its members. The leadership of the AFL-CIO consistently aligns itself with the Democratic Party. Time and time again however the Democrats have thrown the union members under the bus the second they assume office. This hierarchical nightmare that the AFL-CIO has become has served to severely weaken organised labour all across The United States. The bureaucracy that is the AFL-CIO of today has demonstrated it is not concerned with the greivances of its members if it does not satisfy its own lust for money and power.
By no means should this statement be construed as being anti-labour, but rather an illustration of the alienation that has taken place between the union leadership, and its members.
Jeff Baertsch Melbourne, Australia Juneau Expatriate
I come to you as a citizen who has recently “come of age.” In the last year I have registered for the draft, signed my first lease, and signed for myself upon receiving a driver’s license. However one thing I have abstained from doing is registering to vote.
As I now approach this concept of voting, I am met with a great conflict of philosophies. Guiding me is my identification as a libertarian socialist, and proponent of direct democracy. Representative democracy in my opinion is designed and practiced as to take much of the power away from the common citizen. Naturally, I hold much disdain for this system. As a member of the IWW, I agree with the union’s common slogan “Direct action gets satisfaction.” Moreover as an admirer of Emma Goldman, I hold her quote “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” dear to my values.
Behold! The online edition is finally here for those of you too lazy to request a hard copy (be warned, they’re sexy). Any donation of any size goes a long ways to helping us pay for web hosting and printing costs. Feel free to distribute this on your blog, social network, your grandmother, wherever. If you’d like an edition that’s printer friendly so you can distribute the zine yourself, please get in touch with us via email. Please remember to link back to us, or mention our name, as requested in our Creative Commons Copyright. And if you like us, we’d love a buck!
We know we’re getting hits from you guys out there all across the world. A few of us send us donations (thank you!) and we see all the pockets we’re reaching via infoshops and zine libraries. We hardly think it’s reasonable that you guys give us money, but no commentary! Feel free to add to the discussion, your readership is a part of the zine that’s just as important as our editors. Email us at editor@blackandredzine.org and tell us what you liked, what you didn’t like. What made you angry, optimistic, excited.
Thanks for your support, and each of us are looking forward to the June/July edition.
This video is a wonderful piece on the fulfilling, pleasurable life we could lead without the thorns of wage slavery or capitalism. It’s oh so wonderfully ironic how the Federal Reserve, of all places, could put out a study that discredits the common right wing retort that monetary incentive is what drives people forward and that there are millions of “lazy welfare babies” out there to try to snatch up the fruits of our labor.
One of the most recent pieces of legislation to pass through the US Congress’s eyes is the much acclaimed “Dream Act.” Heralded as a noble bill by Democratic congressman, and reviled by Republican congressman, the Dream Act has been a lingering idea on Capitol Hill for almost ten years now. The act would (without going into deep details) provide illegal aliens the chance to attain permanent residency. The conditions of this desirable goal for many, is either two years of education at a four year university, or two years in active military duty.
The reasons why this bill is a vicious element to the growing class war in the US, are not the reasons it’s bombarded by the GOP. Reasons including “giving incentive to immigrate to the US illegally” or my favorite “selling our military out to foreign nations.” Such almost comical rebuttals are to be expected by the GOP, the right wing faction of the business party in the US; the faction that still retains a highly detectable racist and intolerant undertone in its platform. The reason why this bill adds to the power of the rich in the US class war is because of its obvious strengthening of the poverty draft. By no means does that mean this should be blocked because of that. Unfortunately, bad legislation is at least better than no legislation in this case.
