Changes
By Ms. Tommy Lawless and Dema Crassy
THE LOVE & RAGE ANNUAL Conference in Atlanta, November 26-29, was a veritable hotbed of actions, parties, workshops, forums, and caucuses. NOT! It was a seventy-two hour sweaty meeting marathon. But many changes were agreed upon: changes in the paper and changes in the direction of the Network. As the new co-facilitators for Love and Rage, we're here to tell you a little bit about those changes.
CHANGES IN THE PAPER
Like any radical project, Love & Rage has had some financial difficulties. Because we couldn't gauge when or how much money we would have, it was hard to come up with an accurate production schedule. Naturally, that hampered coming out monthly: seven issues the first year, ten issues the second year, seven issues the third year. In an attempt to keep on an accurate schedule this year, the paper will be coming out every two months, and will be twenty pages long, rather than sixteen.
You've probably already noticed that the cover page has changed to magazine format. This gives an extra page for text and potentially allows the newspaper to be carried by more distributors (because of the way it sits on a magazine rack).
The Production Group (PG) will be more aggressive about soliciting articles from a wider range of people. We'll be in contact with the supporting groups, the new Regional Contacts, (more on those later in the article), and anybody we know, to get a better representation of the type of work that goes on in the Network. Also, a zany new box will go into the paper each issue, begging you to please, please, please send us info, articles, photos, and graphics.
The On Gogol Boulevard (OGB) page, which was produced by Neither East Nor West (NENW), will no longer appear in the paper. Instead of OGB, we'll be running an International Page, which will seek to cover
news from our contacts all over the globe, including continued coverage
from the East. Members of NENW plan to continue contributing to the
paper and working in the PG. [Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed will
carry the OGB feature. See page 14 for their address.]
At the conference, Anarchist Youth Federation (AYF) members outside
of New York complained about their lack of representation on the (New
York produced) AYF page in the paper. Therefore, the AYF feature has
been temporarily suspended. There is an open invitation to the
Federation to take up production of the page again, as soon as they come up with a process they're happy with.
Although the New York-Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) group, which has
been producing the ABC page in the paper, will be taking a six month
vacation, the page will continue. This issue's ABC page was produced by the NY group, but, for the next two issues, the page will be produced by the PG. ABC chapters in other cities have agreed to contribute to this feature.
News coverage will broaden to include more world events and anarchist
analyses of them. The Spanish section of the paper will carry more articles from Spanish-speaking communities, some of which will be translated for the English section. Groups in Mexico have already committed to send in a lot of material and are working towards autonomously producing a Spanish edition of Love & Rage, and perhaps the Spanish section.
Last year's Political Statement has been suspended. We acknowledge in the paper that we are currently debating the future of the Political
Statement. This debate includes questions of whether or not to have a
statement, the content and scope of our statement, what kind of statement (if any) should go into the paper. We are making available a set of working papers, which include all previous years' statements, all new proposed statements, and all dialogue around this published in the Disco Bull on an ongoing basis. For a copy of these working papers, write to the Info-Share Coordinator. Send a small donation if you can. [See page 8]
CHANGES IN THE NETWORK
We, Dema Crassy and Ms. Tommy Lawless, have been elected as
co-facilitators for the Network this year. We bid a fond farewell to Matt
Black, who did a superb job these last eighteen months. Although a
similar arrangement for two facilitators was attempted in 1991, the
second person didn't work out. So this is the first year with two people
doing the facilitator job, and this is the first year with WIMMIN in
the job.
Out of the conference came a general commitment to decentralize the
Network. This, in part, means creating regional structures that would
both strengthen local groups and provide a means for sharing resources. There was a sentiment that the regional structures should grow naturally and be self-defined. For this and other reasons, no concrete proposal was adopted at the conference as to how this decentralization process would occur. Proposals and processes will be discussed and developed in the Disco Bull over the next year. Nine coordinators were elected to help us communicate better as a Network and to help share the burden of work.
Four of those nine elected are located outside of the NYC area. The positions include: International Communications, Network Communications, Interorganizational Communications, Fund-Raising,
Finance, Disco Bull [Discussion Bulletin two people], Info-Share, and
Regions. Also, an informal group of people volunteered to be temporary
Regional Organizing Contacts for their areas. [See sidebar.]
We need more. How 'bout you?
The Coordinating Group (CG) of (now) eleven members, including one political prisoner Ojore N. Lutalo was elected. The CG is continuing this year for immediate decision-making, but with the goal of the Network Council (NC) becoming the main decision-making body for the following year. The NC, made up of two delegates from each supporting group, will meet in Washington DC this April 23 - 24. If you belong to a supporting group, send us the names of two voting delegates who will attend. (Everyone with a genuine interest in the project is welcome
to come.)
An Urgent Response Network (URN) phone/fax/e-mail tree is in the process of being established in order to mobilize people in the Network quickly in emergency situations. If you're interested in being a part of the URN, contact the Network Communications Coordinator. The CG is empowered to decide when the URN will be activated. If you wish
to activate the URN, call any CG member with the information.
The Disco Bull, our internal discussion bulletin which comes out every six to eight weeks, has been an effective means of communication
for the Network and will continue this year. In addition, a Network
Bulletin will be dashing out hot and timely newsflashes every two
weeks! (Several issues are out already.) The Network Bulletin
really speeds up communications and saves on phone bills. Individuals
and groups who send in a monthly pledge receive both bulletins, periodic mailings, and a year's subscription to the paper.
Unfortunately, all this paper and postage costs money. The Disco
Bull costs about $600 an issue to produce and mail out. People who don't pledge, but want to receive these bulletins and other periodic mailings, will be required to pay a sliding scale communications fee of $20 - $50 per year.
The Network adopted quite a few strategy and action projects for
this year. The Wimmin's Health Tour will happen this year. [See page 4.]
We will endorse and have an open anarchist contingent to the Queer
March on Washington in April. [See page 3.] A proposal to produce a
Direct Action Manual was supported and endorsed [See page 9.] A
working group is contacting ABC groups, with the goal of
forming an ABC Network. An Info-Share project is underway to
act as a clearinghouse and to compile information for possible
publication and internal education. Send any info you'd like to share to Jodi, the project coordinator.
In addition to the above projects, suggested topics of ongoing discussion for the Disco Bull this year include: queer issues and politics, strategies for anti-fascist organizing, political statement ideas and controversies, and debating the structure of the Network.
The next Love and Rage Network Annual Conference will be in San Diego this summer.
For more complete information and further discussion about these
projects, proposals, and ongoing debates, subscribe to the Disco Bull and Network Bulletin. [See page 9.]
Thanks everybody, for stopping by.
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@ _Love & Rage_ is a Revolutionary Anarchist newspaper produced
@ by the Love and Rage Network. The Love and Rage Network is a
@ continental network of groups and individuals in Canada, Mexico,
@ and the United States. Subscriptions to the newspaper cost:
@ $13 for first class (fast, envelope), $9 third class (slow, no
@ envelope), $13 international (outside of United States), free for
@ prisoners, GI's, published bimonthly.
@ Please write to us at POB 3, NY, NY 10012
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