I just had one of the stranger experiences in my career as a freelance computer consultant. I've been doing, now and then, little things for a local union local (heh), and talking with them about doing more. Today I came in just to go to a meeting that they were having with a rep from the company that wrote the software for their membership database and hosts the server it runs on. They're unhappy with it, but whenever they have questions they haven't felt like the guy was giving them the real deal. So my job was to just sit there and ask a few intelligent questions, provide a sanity check, and just make him uncomfortable. And it seemed to work. They said, afterward, that he was more helpful and forthcoming than he ever has been before. The fear that they may be hiring me, or anybody else, to do what his company does (and there's no way I easily could, or would want to, anyway) made him more cooperative.

What I kept wondering, and what I finally asked was, why doesn't the international union come up with a database solution that fits all the locals needs? why does each local have to reinvent the wheel everywhere? They agreed, it was silly, but evidently it's not a priority with this union. In fact, maybe all unions are like that, I don't know.

Anyway, I'm happy to be of assistance, but it sure felt weird.

Just found an interesting site about bilateral trade agreements. There's more information in one place than I've ever seen about all the different free trade agreements, separate from the WTO, that are being agreed on. They are all between unequal sides, mostly U.S. and some smaller, weaker country or countries, or the EU or Austrailia and some smaller, weaker, countries, except for China-Thailand, and even that is a pretty unequal relation. But anyway, bilaterals.org, what a great information source...

This is a silly thing, a sort of geeky pet-peeve complaint. So take with a grain of salt. Anyway, I've had this poster sitting on my desk for the last couple weeks, it's a flyer for this film screening for a group called PDX Books to Prisoners. I was actually going to try to go to the screening, which is called Born In Flames. Maybe that's the name of a film, I'm not sure, but it looked interesting, despite the linguistic error that I am about to mention. But I didn't make it to the event, so I took down a copy of the poster afterward, because it bothered me so much and I wanted to be reminded to write about it

My gripe is this: The poster has 4 equations which, at least 3 of which are obviously false. It has the following lines:

INJUSTICE =
RADICALISM


REPRESSION =
ARMED STRUGGLE


PATRIARCHY =
FEMINIST ARMY


BORN IN FLAMES =
REVOLUTION

My problem with this is that they're misusing the equals sign, such that their statements end up saying exactly the opposite of what they mean. They mean to assert a set of causes and effects, it looks like. What they really mean by "=" is "leads to" or "results in." But in math "=" means "is the same as." It does not mean "causes." So their poster is really saying "Injustice IS Radicalism," Repression IS armed struggle, Patriarchy IS Feminist Army," etc, which of course is not true. I don't know exactly what Born in Flames is so I can't say whether the fourth equation is false or not, though it probably is.

Maybe I'm just too ingrained in a math/science background, but I was actually confused for a minute when i first read the poster. Huh, I thought, are they being ironic? oh! they mean "repression LEADS TO armed struggle!" okay!

It's a silly thing to complain about but these are the kinds of things I notice a lot. I wish people were more careful with their language and their graphic design. Language means things we often don't intend unless we are very aware.

The other day someone mentioned a big Indymedia conference in Austin in February, and I looked it up and sure enough there it is, February 18 to 20. Sounds pretty cool. We need more events where people who are isolated in their own little collectives get together and compare notes, specifically about the indymedia tactic. I feel like there is a lot of re-inventing of the wheel, and mistakes being replicated....

I was planning to be in the Southwest again anyway at that time. Maybe I'll go. I think it would be wonderful to be there and meet a whole bunch of IMCistas from all over the place. As usual whether I go depends on whether I can afford it. I now have about 5 trips I want to make in the next 4 months: Chiapas for Spanish school, D.C for J20, D.C. in March for the final AFTA showdown, and the Collage Conference I've been invited to at U of Iowa at the end of March. And now this. Not to mention the fact that I want to move, probably to Tucson.

If you're planning on going, leave a comment, please.

Very good article about Bolivia in the "Rabble News" site, which I'd never heard of before (not affiliated with the anarchogeek Rabble - at least I don't think so. heh.)

Anyway, the article is a good and hopeful look at political change in Bolivia and centers around an interview with Oscar Olivera of the Cochabamba Guerra del Agua.

As timing would have it, speaking of hopeful, tommorrow (sunday) is a big election in Bolivia, and this article in the Financial Times suggests that Evo Morales' MAS party is going to do really well, at least compared to the more moderate parties. Things just keep staying interesting in Bolivia.

Today we're doing web radio to cover the AFTA ministerial and associated protests in Tucson, Arizona. Here in Portland we've got an 800 number and we're taking calls from activists on the street in Tucson and talking to them about what's happening there.
And of course anyone else could call in and offer their insights on free trade agreements and resistance to them.

the number is 1-800-939-7973. And you can listen to the stream here.

Woke up at about 5 and couldn't get to sleep again. Many would assume this is insomnia but I got plenty of sleep. I don't need a lot. Plus, I read in a book about Taoism a little while ago that the best way is to rise with the sun, it's the natural and healthy way. It wasn't quite sunrise yet, but still, in this time of year when there's only about 8 hours of sunlight it's good to be awake during as much of it as possible. For me, at least. It's nice how quiet it is in the very early morning, too, before anyone else is up.

Wow what a mundane post. oh well.

Interesting bit a friend sent me on Chumbawamba. I'm not sure where it came from but it seems to be part of a set of questions asked the group. Perhaps a FAQ on their site. Anyway, here it is:

My name is Grant. I am an anarchist in the U.S.. I
have a question, as you may have guessed. Are you guys
Individualist Anarchists or Social Anarchists? Thanx
for reading. Hit me back!

We are not 'individualists', generally it is the far
right that goes for that line, and they use it to
justify grabbing whatever the individual wants no
matter how selfish. I did not even know there was such
terminology as Individualist Anarchists and Social
Anarchists but I do think that human beings are
basically social and our lives are inter connected and
we are kidding ourselves if we think we can (or do)
exist alone. The concept of the 'self' is quite new.
Rosa Luxemburg said: "Freedom is always and
exclusively freedom for the one who thinks
differently." And I take that to mean, not that we
should act however we feel regardless of the effect it
has on society and the people around us, but that we
should respect the rights of others even if we don't
want to live in the same way.

The Andean Free Trade Agreement is the latest in a series of free trade pacts that the U.S. is trying to force on Latin America. This week in Tucson, leaders from the Andean countries, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador (with Chile and Bolivia oddly missing) will be meeting with U.S. representatives to sign away their economic souls. Tucson activists have been showing their solidarity.
The NoAFTA site is a good resource, along with the FTAA-IMC.

Here in Portland we're trying to lend a hand to help cover the mobilization and resistance, in Tucson and in the relevant countries. It will be extremely interesting to see what happens.

I wish I was still in Tucson. Not just for this but also because it's super fucking cold here in Portland, and it's raining.

The BBC reports that the Chilean government will be paying 28,000 victims of torture at the hands of Pinochet's regime a pension of about $190 a month, for life. This is about 93% of the minimum wage there.

Meanwhile Pinochet may have lost his mental faculties just in time to avoid being prosecuted for his hideous crimes against humanity. And his former spokesman is objecting to the whole thing, saying the old wounds have "already healed"!!

What a horrible, grim joke.