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It was past midnight and a gentle rain pattered against the roof of the shaman’s house, where we sat conducting a whispered interview on a pile of blankets by the fireside. The red record button of my handheld recorder blinked in the darkness. I strained my ears to catch what Taita Antonio, a shaman, ex-political leader, and land defender of the Kamëntsá people of southwest Colombia, said next: “Our fight is for life and for water.

The clock has nearly struck midnight, and the fate of student workers within the University of Oregon will soon be decided. Either we will have a union, or we will not. As the deadline to collect signed union cards approaches, the University of Oregon Student Workers has buckled down for the final stretch of the race. During this critical time, we ought to understand the implications of both our victory and defeat within this struggle.

On February 3rd, at around 9pm, a 50-car Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic materials derailed. Tons of vinyl chloride and other harmful chemicals involved in the making of plastics, spilled into the area surrounding the town of East Palestine and the Ohio River. The residents of the town were then evacuated and the EPA and local government began evaluating what kind of cleanup measures needed to be taken. It is an environmental catastrophe of epic proportions, yet all guilty parties have begun the effort to minimize it and deny that such a thing happening was inevitable.

Anthropology as a discipline may be more susceptible than most to infusion–not to say intrusion–by the political perspectives of its practitioners. This was certainly true of the outwardly colonial character of the discipline in its early days, when no attempt was made to hide the racist and imperialist beliefs and aims which underpinned its development. However, since the advent of a more critical anthropology in the early twentieth century which saw the advent of notions such as ethnocentrism and cultural relativism, and especially after the strengthening of critical trends in social science and philosophy in general in the postwar decades, anthropology has undergone considerable shifts in its political substrata.

The leaked Supreme Court opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last May sparked an increased awareness of the Court and the legislative power it holds but has since dissolved into the same general ignorance of the judicial branch evident before. With a jammed Congressional body such as the one we have now, the weight of each decision SCOTUS makes is significantly higher, as drafting a bill becomes near impossible for contested issues like religious expression, free speech, gun ownership, and environmental regulations.

As I begin the final term of my first year in Eugene and am starting my first full term with The Student Insurgent, I feel a good deal of reflection is in order. As I flew away from my life in rural upstate New York, I expected to feel the world open up to me and to be engulfed by an array of new experiences reaching out for me, but the romantic projections of my life after high school were met with the reality of the mundanity of the life I have always lived.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 17th, 2023 UO Student Workers Union uostudentworkers@gmail.com | (503) 819-0288 University of Oregon students gathered this afternoon in front of the Global Scholars’ Hall, where they charge a student was illegally fired for supporting a union organizing effort. UO Student Workers is organizing a union for the nearly 3,000 undergraduate student workers on campus – including tutors, dining hall and recreation center workers, teaching and research assistants.

What is anarcho-nihilism? Both anarchism and nihilism are chronically misunderstood words, so it only makes sense that the term would draw lots of confusion. Nihilism is often assumed to just be misanthropic and/or ‘doomer’. If one wants to get a good understanding of anarcho-nihilism, they will need to put these assumptions to rest. Is Nihilism Just Another Word for Doomerism? No — at least, it doesn’t have to be. “Doomerism,” as it’s called here, is the idea that everything and the world is fucked.

ch0ccyra1n: Alongside contributing to summerisle’s piece Introduction to Anarcho-Nihilism, I also took it upon myself to write the piece Anarchist Leaks the TSA No Fly List because it exposes the racism inherent to the security theater institution in the form of data visualization. This sort of approach to understanding institutional racism has previously been used by W.E.B. DuBois for the 1900 Paris Exposition, and I hope my article will be insightful.

Author’s note: Matt is a Sag sun with a cap moon and rising in cancer. By most reputable accounts, 2022 was the hottest year in human history, on pattern with climate trends since the turn of the century. The uncomfortable truth is that we have moved past the point of preventing a climate disaster, just preventing a more catastrophic climate disaster than the one unfolding before us. Property is no longer billed as ‘climate-friendly’ and now billed as ‘climate-resilient.

On January 17th, the ASUO meeting for NASU’s budget was packed to the gills. The tension was palpable; more and more people squeezed in and the ASUO committee members sat aligned at their table and firmly asked no one in the room to stand behind them, even as space dwindled. As the meeting convened, the NASU members sat across from the ASUO budget leadership. The ASUO Chair outlined that the meeting was closed to public comment and any filming.

The saying “print is dead” has been hanging over my head for the entire duration of my time with the Insurgent. I walk around campus and town trying to offload our thousands of printed copies, stocking the newsstands, and asking passerby “hi, would you like a free copy of The Student Insurgent?” Nine times out of ten I’m met with a stern no, untouched stacks on racks, or worse yet, vandalized ones.

The Interview With The Vampire TV show, an adaption of the 1976 book of the same name, debuted its first season on Oct 2nd. It dives into the fraught relationship between the two leads, Lestat and Louis, and their time living together in the jazz age of New Orleans. It is twisted and devastatingly beautiful, bringing the gothic genre back in full swing. Louis sits in a penthouse in the modern day, recounting the events of the past in a poetic and melancholic narration to a cynical journalist named Daniel Molloy, who had originally interviewed him fifty years before.

Feeling too hopeful? Need music to help flip the bird to whatever oppresses you, or just wallow in apathy? Look no further than this playlist! Curated by the wider Insurgent collective for your listening (dis)pleasure. Bela Legousi’s Dead — Bauhaus PANIC ATTACK — Pussy Riot Comfortably Numb — Pink Floyd Working for the Knife— Mitski When The Going Gets Dark— Quasi The Mad Man’s Laughter— Tsegue Maryam Guebrou Frail and Bedazzled—The Smashing Pumpkins God Save the Queen — Sex Pistols Smells Like Teen Spirit (Radio Edit) — Patti Smith Судно — Молчат Дома (Molchat Doma) Killing In The Name — Rage Against The Machine Miss the Rage — Mario Judah Sea Slug — Seabiscuit Restless — Annie’s Friend, Silas Haun & Lucinda Drake Much Finer — Le Tigre Lounge Act — EarthTing, Alien Cake Music Holy Shit — Father John Misty Don’t shoot — Shea Diamond City of angels — The Distillers Strangelove — Depeche Mode Night Shift — Siouxsie and the Banshees STFU!

Feeling utterly deflated? Need music to help you remember why life’s worth living, or just uplift you? Here’s The Student Insurgent’s antidote to the other playlist. South Side of the Sky — Yes Build a Fire — Pile Song 33 — Noname Help Me — Mic Crenshaw, Jana Crenshaw Movimiento Social El Deseo — Sara Hebe Utopian Futures — Kimya Dawson Here Comes The Sun — The Beatles The Times They Are A-Changin’ — Bob Dylan Sweet But Bitter Life — Possessed by Paul James New Beginning — Tracy Chapman You Must Believe in Spring and Love — Abbey Lincoln Strength — Moonchild Feeling Good — Nina Simone Brake Up Song — Foraging and the Rattling Bones Oh Well, We’ll Win — Skating Polly Let the Flames Begin — Paramore Phenomenon — ODIE It’s a Good Day (to fight the system) — Shungudzo Drama — Erykah Badu Alright — Kendrick Lamar Escribo Rap Con R De Revolución — Portavoz, Cidtronyck Which Will — Nick Drake Bodhyanga — Alvan, Velvet Years — Amelia Curran All Is Full of Love — Bjork El Amor — KeTeKalles Technicolor — Montaigne I Will Survive — Gloria Gaynor Don’t Give Up — Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger — Daft Punk Express Yourself — Madonna We Are The Champions — Queen Imagine — John Lennon Ain’t No Mountain High Enough — Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell Three Little Birds — Bob Marley and the Wailers I Won’t Back Down — Tom Petty What a Wonderful World — Louis Armstrong Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life — Monty Python We Are the World — Michael Jackson Over The Rainbow — Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole We Shall Overcome — Joan Baez Bridge over Troubled Water — Simon and Garfunkel Don’t Stop — Fleetwood Mac Smile — Nat King Cole Lovely Day — Bill Withers Yearn — Yvette Young Mr.

Social media, news media, and advertisements comprise many of the images we see daily, but many people simply accept this virtual reality instead of questioning its existence. Modern man has been moved to look through windows into many detached experiences through the mediums of social media and news that no other generation has been subjected to. The structure of this intake of information has led to a new way of consuming and producing news.

Photo by Amanita Minute For the first time in 50 years Undergraduate Student Workers at the University of Oregon have initiated the process to organize a union. Using the ASUO Street Faire as a kickoff, University of Oregon Student Workers began a card signing campaign on Week 3 of fall term. To file with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries the campaign will need fifty percent of UO Student Workers to sign a card designating the union as their legal bargaining entity.

When we talk about “Solidarity”, there often is a problem where it turns into a leftist version of “thoughts and prayers”, rather than what it was originally meant to be: an umbrella term for actions taken from one place to support the people of another. This article seeks to provide a universal jumping-off point, instead of focusing on a particular state of affairs in a particular state’s borders. The situation on the ground is always changing, and this article would otherwise become irrelevant after a month or two.

Art by Rosie In March of 2013, the Governance and Policy Committee of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education published a report titled Shared Services for the University of Oregon. Very few took note of the report’s significance and the implications it carried for the future of public university operations. The report begins on page one by citing an example from medieval Europe, “In medieval Europe, individual scholars (often former monks) had collected students for tutoring.

The fundamental truth of all human history is our striving towards ever greater freedom, prosperity, and justice. In the history of our own country, this is embodied by everything from John Brown’s attempted slave uprising in 1859, to the national protests that occurred during the Occupy movement to today, where a nationwide unionization movement is gaining momentum. But why unionize? What is the point? Simply put, to unionize is to push for economic democracy, to assert our voices as working people and to gain control over our lives.

The Kamëntsá are an Indigenous community of southwest Colombia whose ancestral homeland is the Sibundoy Valley, a mountain basin straddling the Andean highlands to the west and overlooking the vast Amazonian lowlands to the east. It is fitting that such a unique geographical position, situated between two vastly different ecological and cultural worlds, should be home to a people as unique as the Kamëntsá, who fuse Andean and Amazonian cultural elements, speak a language unrelated to any other, and whose forms of artistic and philosophical expression are singular in the world.

Climate Justice League Joins Fights for Forest Defense On October 8th, Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild hosted a flotilla on the McKenzie River to oppose the pending Trump-era “Flat Country” timber sale in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. The vast majority of the proposed logging in this sale would be in mature and old-growth forests with over 1,000 acres of clear-cut style logging, even though President Biden this year ordered his administration to prioritize conserving these forests as a crucial climate protection.

*This is the first of the web exclusive articles written for exclusive publication on The Student Insurgent’s website Introduction Elitist publications are scaremongering1 to the bosses of the world about “Quiet Quitting”, a new term that asserts working for your scheduled hours - and nothing more - is a problem. This article will provide a brief introduction to this concept, then explain why it’s dumb as fuck. The Facts About Quiet Quitting The first known mention of “quiet quitting” was on Twitter2 as a suggestion for a doctoral studies paper on the greatest leadership challenge we face today

Syndicated with Solidarity News About two dozen folks took over the UO Law center lounge on Friday Sept. 9 to escape the wildfire haze descending on Eugene and hear Nevada give a talk on their book Abolition of Law. The Abolition of Law event, hosted by UO’s Radical Organizing and Activist Resource (ROAR) center, was originally planned to take place at the Urban Farm, but chaotic climate conditions forced local organizers to occupy whatever indoor public space they could raid.

Introduction With the reorganization of The Student Insurgent over the course of the summer including the formation of this committee, it felt right to create a new website. This article discusses what to expect going in, and the philosophy that got to version 2.0 of the website, which is now live as of the publishing of this article. Don’t worry about the old site! You can still access version 1.1.5 (the last version of the old site) at https://old.

The Insurgent is back at last, comrades- did you miss us? We missed you! A lot has happened this summer, both in the community at large and within our own community here at The Student Insurgent. It’s time we check back in and discuss our progress since the April and May issues, in light of months of work that drastically altered the publication’s functioning for the better. As promised, a new editorial board has been fully instated, consisting of eight editorial members and one ombuds position to guarantee well-facilitated meetings and just decision making.

Summer 2022 in Review Outrage over the federal overturning of Roe V. Wade in early summer of 2022 peaked on the night of June 24th. Following the official Supreme Court decision declared the same morning, there was a day of civil unrest at Eugene’s Federal Courthouse where thousands of residents took to the streets to defend reproductive autonomy. Protestors gathered in the company of career politicians, non-profits such as Planned Parenthood, as well as the inevitable presence of pro-life counterprotestors.

Meme by UO Affirmations Currently, about 9,000 students a year walk through the doors of the Student Food Pantry. They are greeted by a welcoming student to pick up their free produce, bread, canned goods, frozen meats, milk, eggs, cheese, hummus, coffee, pastas, tofu, peanut butter, cake mix, cooking oil, almost anything one can think of. The pantry currently serves students from multiple schools, and no student will ever get denied access to this food.

Many words walk in the world. … There are words and worlds which are lies and injustices. There are words and worlds which are truths and truthful. … In the world of the powerful there is no space for anyone but themselves and their servants. In the world we want everyone fits. In the world we want many worlds to fit. — EZLN, “Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle,” 1996.

Forwarded from an anonymous trusted source A warm hello to all readers of The Student Insurgent and defenders of reproductive rights everywhere. As you may know by now, we are on the verge of losing reproductive autonomy nationwide. This egregious violation of human rights should shock and disgust anyone with the most basic sense of compassion. With a single unappealable decision penned by a handful of unelected, black-robed ghouls, tens of millions of people will no longer be in full control of their own medical choices.

One of the nation’s leading socialist thinkers and a key voice in the development of social ecology, John Bellamy Foster talks to the Student Insurgent about surviving capitalism, social transformation, and the importance of radical student uprisings. “We are in a very unstable period,” says John Bellamy Foster as a zoom call warbles in and out of sync giving his voice that delayed synthesizer tone of a malfunctioning robot. For many this statement would not be a stretch to claim but Foster consistently interweaves scientific reality and historical citation into whatever assertions he offers.

One of the things most abhorrent about Capitalism is the way it not only adorns our bodies in hurt and harm but prevents us from having the time, space, sense of safety, and community support needed to ever dig that poison out of our bodies. Coming together to provide room to breathe and heal is an absolute must for us to survive and process the trauma inflicted on us by fascist and capitalist formations.

There is a longstanding and possibly unresolvable debate in art criticism over the importance of distinguishing between art and artist. The school of New Criticism, developed in the mid-twentieth century, sought to isolate works of art as self-contained objects. In 1967 the postmodernist Roland Barthes declared that “the author is dead,” signaling a view of art in which the intentions and biography of the artist are not only irrelevant, but interfere with the viewer’s ability to admire and interpret works of art on their own merit.

The end of the protections enshrined by Roe v. Wade appears imminent. After 49 years of precedent, the Supreme Court is poised to roll back the constitutional right to abortion. In the coming weeks, the ruling will be officially issued by the highest court in America, leading to a spate of drastic abortion bans across broad swathes of America. While Roe is already effectively dead and has been since the Texas abortion ban last summer, the official end of a national right to abortion will have grave consequences.

Surveillance of Students Integrated Across Dozens of Administration offices and UOPD ----Original Message---- From: Rick Haught <rickh@uoregon.edu> Sent: Tuesday, November 9, 2021 12:22 PM To: Tina Haynes <thaynes@uoregon.edu> Cc: Krista Dillon <kristam@uoregon.edu>; Paul Timmins <ptimmins@uoregon.edu> Subject: UO Statement on Freedom of Speech “Hi Tina, Welcome to the messy world of Freedom of Expression.” The UO Demonstration Team is a quiet circle of administration employees and University of Oregon Police who work together to surveil social media and spy on community protests.

The draft opinion threatening to overturn Roe vs Wade is not simply an attack on women. Before tackling this nuanced subject it is important to understand the precedent set by the 1973 decision. Norma McCorvey, known under the pseudonym Jane Roe, was five months pregnant in 1970 when she desired an abortion. Henry Wade, the Dallas County district attorney at the time, served as the defendant in this case hence the name “Roe vs Wade.

Last issue, I let our readers and our contributors down. The events that followed brought insight and inspired realizations about the Insurgent’s inadequacies that would not have happened organically within our organization, for reasons I attempt to identify in writing this letter. Following President Schill’s email, the question we received most was how could this even happen? The question looming over our heads was where do we go from here, if anywhere?

Make sure to check out our Rogues Gallery! On February 28th, President Schill sent a campus-wide email, sharing that he had “exciting news to share about the future of the University of Oregon.” Many speculated what it could be about, though most rightly assumed it was hinting at a large donation. The next day, as promised, it was revealed that Steve and Connie Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft and UO trustee respectively, gave around half a billion dollars to start the Ballmer Institute.

The Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets program, also known as CAHOOTS, has been running for over thirty years. In the late 1980s, staff and volunteers from White Bird Clinic, CAHOOTS’ parent organization, came together to form the CAHOOTS model. This was one of the first programs of its kind, but recently similar models have taken up in other cities as people across the country recognize the urgent need for trauma-informed mental health emergency response.

Art by Sim Four years ago, I worked briefly as a camgirl on a porn site, and this experience gave me a new perspective on the idea of intimacy. A camgirl, for those who don’t know, is someone who livestreams themselves for the purpose of sexual entertainment. These shows span a range of nudity, content, and interactivity, with many—including mine—containing full nudity, solo sex acts, and text chat with viewers.

Wednesday afternoon April 6th students and community members rallied in front of the EMU to demand the University of Oregon move off fracked gas and electrify its infrastructure. They also continued to call on the City of Eugene to ban the use of so-called “natural gas” in newly constructed buildings, and transition to the use of electricity for all buildings. The event was organized by UO Climate Justice League’s Fossil Free UO campaign.

Marta Lu Clifford is an enrolled member and tribal elder of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. In addition, Clifford is a highly respected tribal elder within the Kalapuya and UO Indigenous communities. Over the past couple of years, Marta has joined together with Lane Community College Longhouse Director Lori Tapenhanso of Navajo Nation and UO Department of Theatre Arts Professor Theresa May to establish the Illioo Native theater group. The Illioo Native theater group tells traditional Indigenous stories through the art of theater.

The Urban Farm has been a center for community and ecological knowledge sharing at the University of Oregon for decades. Now, in the wake of a second 500 million dollar donation by Phil and Penny Knight, construction for phase 2 of the Knight Campus has brought the farm under the chopping block. The student-led organization Save the Urban Farm has been leading opposition to the project. Their main concerns lie in the use of the space known as the back 40 as a staging area during construction, and in impact on the eastern border.

In a unanimous vote, workers at the 29th & Willamette Starbucks store officially won a union Wednesday afternoon. There were 17 yes votes, zero no votes, and no contested ballots. The bargaining unit contains 28 people in total for the new union. Workers and supporters gathered at the GTFF office to watch the ballot count over Zoom. The process was very deliberate, with a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) employee opening the return envelope.

For most people not plugged into geopolitical affairs, the news about the Russo-Ukrainian War may have slowed down on the timeline. With an initial blitz running headfirst into a brick wall of resistance and operational failure, the fronts have stagnated into a grinding slog, as Russia’s military looks to lick its wounds and consolidate hold over the territory it now occupies. Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has become a media darling and a living symbol of liberal democracy to millions of people.

Art by @thosebeyonddrunk Over the past few months, we’ve seen the West come together and condemn Russia for its atrocities in Ukraine. Within days of the invasion into Ukraine, we saw sanctions introduced, travel restrictions set, and businesses pulling out of Russia. Multiple Western nations have donated billions of dollars and weaponry to Ukraine. It’s interesting to observe how the West decides which crises are worthy of foreign aid.

Originally published to Instagram Following the feedback we received today, we have been carefully considering the response to our initial publication and the following artist’s statement, and we apologize. We apologize for the harm that our actions inflicted, and we have spent much of today reflecting as an organization. We have read every single one of your comments, and we know an apology is not enough. We at the Insurgent recognize that we are predominantly white, therefore we have a heightened responsibility to dismantle racism and hold ourselves accountable when we perpetuate anti-Blackness.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE In a shocking collapse of student autonomy at UO, it appears that the EMU Student Union and its associated funding has been given over to administration control. Sources say that the decision to hand over $17 million of the I-Fee budget was reached by ASUO President Isaiah Boyd. A previous version of this release falsely stated that Boyd made the decision without Senate approval, but the minutes for the Jan.

In an emergency ASUO meeting at 10:30am on Friday Feb 18th the Senate vetoed the I-Fee budget previously delivered to senate by ASUO President Isaiah Boyd. ASUO also voted on an extensive resolution condemning a decision made between Boyd and Dr. Kevin Marbury VP of student life to remove the EMU from the I-Fee budget and dramatically decrease student autonomy. The decision was unilaterally made by ASUO President Boyd to hand control of the EMU to the administration but was rejected on the last day possible after being delivered to the Senate.

With no given public notice, no required public comment period, and without objection from the Bureau of Land Management, the Roseburg based timber company Roseburg Forest Products (RFP) is moving forward with plans to cut a road through a section of old growth forest that under any other circumstances they would not be allowed to log. In the Big Tom area, not far from Drain, the proposed road cuts between four northern spotted owl nests.

On February 8th, 2022 the Daily Emerald first reported on the decision by ASUO President Isaiah Boyd to transfer the budget and authority of the EMU out of the ASUO’s Incidental Fee budget to the University of Oregon administration. This development came out of nowhere and was not reported on until the decision was already made. The backroom deal between President Boyd and VP of Student Life Kevin Marbury had zero transparency or public discussion and surprised even the members of the ASUO Senate who were also not briefed on the move to remove the EMU from the I-Fee budget until after it had already occurred.

On January 6, workers at the Starbucks store on 29th and Willamette in Eugene filed for a union election, the first store to do so in Oregon. They joined Starbucks Workers United which has organized 100 shops across the country. This fast growing movement was sparked by workers in Buffalo, New York; that formed the first ever Starbucks union on December 9th. Workers at three more local Starbucks stores at, 7th &Washington, Oakway Mall, and Franklin & Villard, joined in by filing for union elections at the end of January.

UOSW Ballot Initiative Statement & Updates Over the past few months, UO Student Workers in collaboration with UOYDSA have been disseminating our Student Labor Survey and meeting with student workers in hopes of collecting stories and opinions about the material conditions of workers at the University of Oregon in order to produce a ballot measure that would expand worker power. Well, the results are in, and they don’t look good: poverty wages, harassment from management and customers, insufficient COVID-19 precautions, shitty scheduling, the list goes on.

This was the first show hosted by the Lorax Manor since the beginning of the pandemic, and was held with strict checking of vax cards. Masks were provided at the door for anyone who didn’t have their own, and wearing them was encouraged throughout the night. Leading the show was DR/UNK, a hardcore drag punk band. Strobing colored lights set the stage for the expertly outfitted group. The packed crowd felt the vibe immediately and began moshing and headbanging.

If you want to keep an organization white, do these things: Demand a production level that doesn’t take into account the individual circumstance and stressors a person might be facing Prioritize the outcome over the process Assume you have shared beliefs and experiences Value reason over emotion, masculine over feminine Establish the Truth From Hegel to Marx, to Engels, to Lenin. How do we decide what is true? Why theory?

The last few months there has been an outstanding amount of labor activity from workers going on strike, winning new contracts, to seeking to form new unions. It is hard to keep up, even for a seasoned unionist. It has been invigorating, but there have also been losses. In mid-December, City of Eugene workers a part of AFSCME Local 1724 won a new contract. It includes a 6% cost of living adjustment (COLA) wage increases for the first year of the contract which starts retroactively on July 1, 2021.

“I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said ‘drawn towards her’ but there was also something of repulsion. In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging.” Twenty-six years before Dracula was published, there was Carmilla. The novella, written by French author Sheridan Le Fanu, chronicles the story of a noblewoman named Laura living in Germany who receives a mysterious yet beautiful countess named Carmilla as her guest.

The recent decision to transfer the EMU from the student controlled Incidental Fee (I-Fee) budget to the Student Union fee -managed by the administration- came as a shock to all, except for ASUO President Isaiah Boyd, VP of Student Life Kevin Marbury, and the Board of Trustees. The administration believes that consulting one individual member of the student body sufficiently represents the student perspective in a deal that would impact all students and programs within the EMU.

Over 200 members of the Eugene community gathered at Washburne Park on Friday, February 4th, to participate in a strike for intergenerational climate justice organized by Sunrise Eugene. More than 100 local middle and high school students walked out from their classrooms to join the march that began at South Eugene High School. Chants could be heard from blocks away as the group of young activists approached the park.

Art by @audreytyleart Thomas Sankara was a Pan-Africanist Marxist-Leninist and former president of Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta. Sankara is oftentimes compared to the Argentine born revolutionary, Che Guevara. Many of his radical actions, ideas, and planning were inspired by Che Guevara. Born in 1949, Thomas Sankara was one of ten children to two Roman Catholic parents. Although his parents wanted him to go down a religious career path, he instead chose to join the military in his late teens.

For three days an elderly man sheltered at the intersection of Hwy 99 and Royal Ave. With the first bitter cold snap of the year on Nov 17th, he passed away. The bus stops there four times a day, yet none called for help or rendered aid. In response, on Friday Nov 19th, Black Thistle Street Aid assembled a vigil for the elderly man whose identity at the time of this printing is unknown.

Resignation rates in the so-called United States have been increasing far above the usual upper limit of 2.4% from the last 20 years. They have gone up to 3% as of November 2021 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The pandemic has made work even more miserable than it already was before, and people are sick and tired of it. It’s understandable then, why people are quitting their jobs. This phenomenon has become well-known as The Great Resignation, and could potentially be a long-term trend following the end of the pandemic.

The world is fucked, and that’s okay. This is the core thematic message of Desert, a long-form manifesto covering climate collapse and its meaning for the Anarchist movement. Written by an anonymous ecologically inclined anarchist, Desert prefaces itself by almost immediately asking the reader the question, “what if we don’t win?” It’s a hard prospect to think about, much less seriously engage with, but Desert doesn’t shy away from it. The text makes a convincing point for thinking about it; after all, lots of people come into the movement full of revolutionary ambition and zeal, dead-set on toppling the hegemonic power structures of our world and/or saving the environment from said power structures, only to burn out and give up in disillusionment.

Old News, Same Nike Joshua Hunt’s University of Nike is not a new story, but a legacy of corruption that shows no sign of changing or even slowing down. It can be difficult to come to grips with the reality that the students of UO are immersed in an active model for the privatization of public universities. So much of the institution that UO students have invested in is built upon the sweatshop labor of women and children trapped in perpetual poverty.

On the winter solstice of 2021, while many families were warm at home, a quiet group of anarchists made a showing at a candlelight vigil. The event was hosted by the Eugene Human Rights Commission, to memorialize every homeless person who died in Eugene this year. The Eugene Human Rights Commission seems to be a City of Eugene “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”-type team (DEI). This city department is designed to put on solidarity marches, present awards, and gosh darn it, make everyone feel good!

On Christmas Eve 2021, Netflix released the latest film from comedic writer-director Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up. The film, written and directed by McKay with David Sirota (a former Bernie Sanders advisor) receiving a story credit, follows two Michigan State University astronomers, Dr. Randall Mindy (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and PhD student Kate Diabiasky (played by Jennifer Lawrence), who discover a comet that will impact the Earth in six months and is large enough to cause a mass-extinction event.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent variants and surges, one thing that many people said was “it’s okay, this only kills those who are already vulnerable. It’s not That bad and we can’t let the economy die because of the threat to Them.” This, on its own, is a horrible and ableist thread of thought that inevitably leads to eugenics, but when followed by the worryingly prevalent and easily spread but false eco-fascist ideas that humans are a “disease” to the Earth, that overpopulation is actually occurring, and Covid is a solution, it paints a picture that not only are disabled people expendable but that it would be the right thing to leave them to die so that the world—or rather, the able bodied people of the world—can live on without any disruptions to their lives.

Photography by Fern We, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, make the following demands of the University of Oregon to maintain the health and safety of workers and students on campus: Increase Remote Instruction Options • Move all courses remote, when applicable, until cases in Lane County decrease to low transmission levels as determined by the CDC (50 cases per 100,000 people); • Expand options for remote classes during Spring term to allow students and instructors who feel unsafe to have remote learning and teaching options; • Eliminate requirement for instruction to be delivered in multiple, synchronous modalities (i.

Democratize UO’s Statement on the UO Administration’s Response to the Omicron Surge The roots of the current governance structure at UO can be traced back to 2010 under then-new University President Robert Lariviere. At this time, all of the public universities in the state were governed by the Oregon University System. President Lariviere advocated for UO to have an independent board1. Around this time, top UO donor and the former CEO and founder of Nike, Phil Knight, stated in an interview that Larivere’s proposals for an independent board represented UO “tak[ing] a step towards becoming a more private university”2.

Last term I had a political science class with a brilliant, yet racially insensitive professor. She’s a scholar who is very well versed in her field and extremely passionate about what she was teaching. But, during lectures, she would insert her own political commentary. When doing so, she would target one specific South Asian country, which already has a poor, inaccurate and warped image in the West. This is the same country my parents immigrated to 22 years ago.

It’s true, a lot of us love true crime. We love the mystery, we love the stakes, and perhaps most of all, we are utterly captivated by the depths of depravity people seem capable of. You may be one of those people that can’t get enough analysis of some really nasty folks. You may also have run out of satisfying podcasts in that subject area. You may simply be interested in hearing about horrible people.

In November of last year, CIA recruiters made a visit to the University of Oregon campus. In our December issue we wrote about their visit and the counterprotest that was organized against it. We had one lingering question: “who arranged for the CIA to recruit on campus, and why?” Since then, we have obtained public records that shine light on how the visit was arranged and the response that the University of Oregon had to protestors.

Photography from CNN If you identify as an anti-capitalist, you likely possess some basic knowledge of the struggles that North American Indigenous peoples have long waged against colonial and neoliberal threats of capitalist development of Indigenous land. One recent example is the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock in 2016-17. Hundreds were injured during those protests, which rank among the largest and most publicized Indigenous land struggles in recent American history.

At the end of 2021, I took on the task of organizing the archives of our previous publications. We had copies of issues for almost every single year going all the way back to the inception of the paper in 1988. While organizing these archives, I inevitably became pulled in by the radical history and scanned the contents of almost every issue within the boxes we had shoved into the back corners of the ROAR office to be forgotten.

Insofar as the rights and interests to which the student workers of University Housing are concerned, a coherent set of goals is necessary. Such goals must be of sufficient scope so as to meaningfully impact student workers and be achievable through methods practical to implement. We, as student workers for University Housing, have both a moral and practical imperative to achieve these goals. Thus I submit this manifesto, a comprehensive list of goals and ideals, so as to give us purpose and something to strive for:

On Friday Jan 21st 11:30am The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) lead a “Health and Safety speakout” with a diverse coalition of campus organizations in solidarity. The original speak out was planned to be in front of the Administration building at Johnson Hall. But organizers claimed they had received “a slap on the wrist” about a protest earlier that week in front of the admin building and acquiesced to a location change in front of the EMU.

We realized shortly before entering 2022 that we would be remiss if we did not document and discuss the Global Witness report that came out in September 2021. Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines: “Murders of environment and land defenders at record high” September 13, 2021 –The Guardian “It Was The Deadliest Year Ever For Land And Environmental Activists” September 13, 2021 –NPR Or read the report itself. Scrolling through web page after web page of search results pertaining to the report, one thing is obvious— the news coverage and media attention is nothing compared to the coverage of the infamous Gabby Petito case, which hit the headlines the same week as the annual Global Witness report.

See the original report in its entirety INTRODUCTION: The Whiteaker neighborhood is sometimes called Eugene’s “oldest and poorest neighborhood.” There is a high concentration of tenants and people living in poverty living here, and the numbers continue to increase each year as wages fall and costs rise. However, the trend will eventually reverse, not because working class people are becoming homeowners or gaining wealth, but because the working class are being displaced and replaced– unless something is done to stop it.

In the first couple weeks of November, undergraduate and graduate students across all departments received their weekly advising emails. Those of us who actually read these newsletter updates couldn’t help but notice a curious opportunity announced in fine print: Virtually any job you can imagine is available at the CIA – plus, some you can't even imagine This raised some questions: Who arranged for the CIA to recruit on campus, and why?

ASUO insider reveals Student Activity Fees funding police surveillance through Duck Rides Cops Off Campus launched their November 4th kickoff meeting to a packed lecture hall at UO. The Group has recently changed names from Disarm UO to Cops Off Campus (COC) to support a larger police abolitionist movement unfolding across the region. Despite this regional merger the group still has much of the grassroots character of its previous iteration as Disarm UO.

A regular Wednesday guest lecture on campus became an anti-logging protest when a group of activists shut down a talk given by Tyler Freres of Freres Lumber. Freres, a third-generation logger, came to the University of Oregon law school to talk about his company and the benefits of the post-fire logging practices his company employs. Freres and his company hope to salvage the land that was burnt following the 2020 Summer Oregon wildfires, particularly the Holiday Farm Fire.

Art by R. Bliss “Dune (2021) is a good movie” is not a controversial idea, and for good reason. It’s a well-made movie, and an excellent adaptation of a seemingly unadaptable book. I’m a woman of simple taste; if a movie has cool visuals and a good score, I’ll enjoy every second of it, and Dune (2021) delivered. Every shot was gorgeous, and the music added an incredible sense of atmosphere.

While communities across the West continue to rebuild from the literal ashes of fire seasons past, Oregonians are witnessing the timber industry hastily take what’s left of our fire- burned forests. Post-fire logging is the West’s brand of disaster capitalism. In the aftermath of wildfires, the timber industry turns a profit by advancing extensive logging programs in the name of “forest resilience” and “community fire safety.” Cloaked in nice- sounding euphemisms, post-fire clearcuts are still advancing on public lands and National Forests around Oregon.

Hey, you! You realize you’re on stolen land, right? Who am I kidding, of course you do. But, how do you feel about that? Seriously! How does it feel to live on stolen land? Are you uncomfortable? I encourage you to think about these questions and keep thinking about them until you die. If you’ve spent much time around the University of Oregon, you’ve certainly heard that it’s “located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people,” who were dispossessed of this land in the 1850s, forcibly removed to the coast, and whose descendants “continue to make important contributions in their communities, at UO, across the land we now refer to as Oregon, and around the world.

You know what? College is hard— shocking, I know. Everyone has something that adds to the burden of learning what we need to know for our future, be it work, family emergencies, or visa troubles, everyone’s burden is heavy and should be treated as such. Nobody deserves to struggle on the way from point A to point B. So why is my college pulling me back by the ankle even though it asks me if I need a hand?

Not so long ago Eugene, Oregon was the hotbed of the green anarchy movement: a reputation that resulted in feds kicking doors down in the Whiteaker and the Chicago Tribune declaring this small university town the “cradle to [the] latest generation of anarchist protestors,” at the dawn of the 21st century. But let’s face it, Eugene’s scene has taken a hit from the pandemic and fragmented leftist disunity. Its glory days are long over; many organizations have struggled with loss of membership and participation as Eugene’s radical rep fades to memory.

I remember the first episode of Revolutionary Left Radio that I listened to. It was released on May 31, 2020, six days after the murder of George Floyd, entitled “America on Fire.” It is 38 minutes of white- hot revolutionary anger spit like fire from the mouth of Brett O’Shea, the host of the show, who primarily conducts interviews with radicals from a global range of backgrounds and interests, engaged in every struggle being waged by the international left today: from Wobblies in the US to Palestinian activists in the West Bank and Naxalite militants in India.

I started listening to the YIKES podcast during quarantine when my understanding of environmentalism was a lot less intersectional than it is now. I believed that environmental disasters were the fault of individuals and that it was everyone’s “job” to make individual changes. Particularly, my previous beliefs surrounding environmentalism were white-centered. I thought everyone could go vegan, zero waste, or off-grid if they really wanted to. The YIKES podcast pushed me to evaluate my perspective and is continuing to help me unlearn a lot of the beliefs I had previously held.

Wes Anderson debuted his tenth feature-length film, The French Dispatch, at the Cannes Film Festival in July before it was released theatrically on Oct. 22nd. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the picture’s release to be pushed back by a year, and it was certainly worth the wait. The film, written and directed by Anderson, is an anthology of short vignettes, each of which focuses on a different reporter’s story for the eponymous French foreign bureau of the fictitious Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper as the last issue is prepared.

We’ve all heard of COPs— no, not the ones we are trying to get off campus, but the annual intergovernmental meetings held to discuss what exactly we are going to do about capitalism killing our planet. Every year it seems like climate change is at the top of the list for the United Nations and other government coalitions to tackle, and yet, every year we hear alarm bells from climate scientists warning that death is imminent.

Have you ever stopped in the shade of a towering tree, and just looked up? Have you ever felt a mystical tug to give a tree a hug? Have you ever soaked up their love? No way, same! But even if you’re totally not that type… trees love you anyway. They maintain ecosystem resilience against escalated threats and buffer the world against climate change, providing us living things with continued breathable air, drinkable water, and livable land.

GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and GMO foods have made quite a stir lately. California’s Proposition 37, if passed next week, will require all vendors of food made with GMO ingredients to label them. Even though almost every developed nation requires labeling of GMO foods, it is not currently required in any state in the United States. Genetically modified foods are meals or snacks made from organisms that have had their DNA spliced with the genetic code from another organism.

Portland, OR – On Sunday, August 5th, residents of NE Portland held a block party in the historically black Woodlawn neighborhood, to celebrate the ongoing defense of Alicia Jackson’s home from foreclosure, and to publicly reclaim the new duplex built on her land. This property is also on Ms. Jackson’s land and was taken during the foreclosure process. Community members plan to use the reclaimed duplex, which is currently the subject of a legal dispute, as a base of organizing against gentrification and police violence in the neighborhood.

“We want freedom, but we settle for sports cars.” A room full of hippies, environmentalists and student activists reflect in wonder at the articulate musings of speaker, author and neo-economic dreamer Charles Eisenstein, a well-spoken man with flagrantly optimistic notions. Both energetic and calm, the 35-year-old joyfully makes the case that a culture based on consuming goods is not spiritually fulfilling for human beings. Mr. Eisenstein recently came through Eugene on a speaking tour where he expounded on topics from his book Sacred Economics.

In addition to Reddit, Boing Boing and a few other monster sites, Wikipedia English is going dark tonight to raise awareness about the looming Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA is currently snaking its way through the US House of Representatives. The impending PROTECT IP Act is also under scrutiny. The enormous free encyclopedia site will be out for 24 hours. SOPA is a bill that threatens directly enforced action against sites that host user-uploaded content which may have been copy-righted.

We don’t exist in a vacuum, as convenient as that might be. Because we’re alive and co-habitating on earth, any disconnection we can conjure tends to be of the artificially motivated and anti-humanitarian bent. You might hear writers, thinkers and speakers articulating a particular human condition as an ‘inter-mingling of destinies.’ It’s true. Schisms turn to rifts, and erupt into chasms. Gravity has a way of working with gale-force winds, and tree-clingers fall, limbs ripped from the icy branches in an awesome display of ‘just because.

Before struggles evolve into open warfare, they often manifests themselves in the form of protests and riots. People who feel that the political system is not responding to their grievances sometimes take to the streets to demonstrate to the establishment and public at large they are unhappy with the current situation. The objective of a protest is to bring about change through a symbolic show of force. The road to political significance is long and winding for the protester.

Palestine shall be the watchword for the US empire. The creation of a Palestinian State, to be recognized by the United Nations has been the subject of some controversy. The US has never exerted such pressure to prevent human rights developments. Currently Israel is a military powerhouse and controls the borders into the shrinking areas of Palestine. Shrinking as Israeli border settlements continue develop, being defended by the IDF, pushing Palestinians deeper into the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

Pelican Bay Super-max Prison engaged in a hunger strike to improve conditions which began July 1st and was sustained until July 22nd. Thousands of prisoners across racial lines joined in and the hunger strike which spread across the California Prison system and as far as Chicago’s Joliet Prison in solidarity. “Their demands include an end to long-term solitary confinement, collective punishment, and forced interrogation on gang affiliation. The prisoners have also stated that they are willing to give up their lives unless their demands are met.

Eugene, OR - The Take Back the Tap (TBTT) campaign, a trademark of Food and Water Watch, being run on the University of Oregon campus by the Climate Justice League, finds support from President Lariviere to discontinue the sale, purchase, and distribution of bottled water. “President Lariviere has final say over whether or not our policy becomes a reality on this university, so having his support is very exciting,” says Manny Garcia, a campaign coordinator.

EUGENE, OR - Conservation groups and community members today hailed a district court decisionthat declared the Trapper timber sale illegal. The timber sale, located in the McKenzie River watershed, the source of Eugene’s drinking water, would have logged 155 acres of never-before-logged mature forest in the Blue River area of the Willamette National Forest. Federal Judge Tom Coffin ruled that in approving the timber sale the U.S. Forest Service violated a basic federal environmental law.

The Student Insurgent condemns the mainstream media. A recent story in Time Magazine was defending fracking- that process of pumping unknown chemicals into the ground to force natural gas up. The leftover sludge invariably leaks into local ground water and food. With news stories like that, the discourse is all wrong. Being forced to defend clean drinking water is like arguing for your life with someone who has a knife to your throat.

Local Timber Baron, Seneca Jones, built a ‘biomass’ power-plant. Burning lumber, from Oregon’s timber sales and converting the energy to electricity. This facility was opened today, May 5, 2011 and from day one protests reigned in any notion that this plant was a good idea. This lumber-fired generator was built with an exemption from air pollution regulation, over the concerns raised from the common knowledge: burning wood releases smoke. Despite the exemptions of Lane County, there has been wide-spread opposition from the Sierra Club to the Cascadia Forest Defense, that this plant will encourage the commodification, exploitation and destruction of Oregon forests, additionally degrading air quality.

The Sea Shepherd program is a direct action network that opposes ocean based animal exploitation and they don’t take no excuses from no one. They won a victory against whaling fleets of Japan, who are being recalled, following the Tsunami in that region.- The Nisshin Maru whaling factory ship made a pivotal course change north, as the Japanese Fisheries Agency announced on February 18th that the whaling fleet had been recalled for this season.

Insurgent reporter a union rally in solidarity with Wisconsin at the Eugene Hilton. Following a march from the University of Oregon! “There is major rally at the Eugene Courthouse, NOW”-Steve M.(5:39pm) With signs saying: ‘Wages are too damn low’ ‘you bet your ass we’re the working class’ ‘Go Democracy!!!’ ‘we’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.’ ‘Union busting is killing our American dream’ ‘Ducks for workers’ ‘We are Wisconsin’ Numbering in the Dozens (plural), with these signs and speeches on a megaphone, the workers called to defend the right to collective bargaining.

What Do We Face? Walker’s bill, if passed, will strip public-sector unions of the right to collectively bargain regarding all workplace issues other than basic wages. Workers would no longer have a legal say in their pensions, their healthcare plans, workplace safety, or any other pertinent issues. Without collective bargaining, we have no legally-recognized way to influence how we are treated at our jobs. Workers with access to a union have an opportunity to make their workplaces more democratic.

The President of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO), Vetoed the ACFC Budget (Athletic & Contracts Finance COmmittee, a budget committee of the Student Senate)- a budget that did not include funding for the OSPIRG- the Student run, Public Interest Research Group. The vote was narrow and the discussion involved threats of resignation. But OSPIRG will receive an additional hearing, almost guaranteed to receive funding. While the ACFC budget currently only contains $5,000, the committee plans to renegotiate a contract with local transportation bureau (Lane Transit District, LTD) and possibly other contracts.

“Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild are currently in litigation over the legality of the Trapper timber sale on the McKenzie Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. The timber sale was originally planned in 1998 as an experiment and proposes to aggressively log 150 acres of mature and old-growth forests above Blue River. New information not considered in the environmental review, including information about imperiled species, compelled the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are being represented by attorneys at Cascadia Wildlands and Western Environmental Law Center.

From C4SS- Center for a Stateless Society: Anarchists want to abolish the state, with all functions now performed by the state being performed by voluntary associations. So naturally, we object to “public employment” — the funding of services through compulsory taxation — in principle. The question is, how do we get there from here? Some things currently done by tax-funded government employees are legitimate functions that would still exist in some form in a stateless society.

The Student Insurgent has been following closely the protests in Madison. As the cold temperatures drop and the people simply cannot bear to remain at the protest, still an enduring crowd of around 20,000 came out and Unions talking about a general strike. The Student Insurgent’s very own KC has given us the latest of what’s going on, with secondary confirmations from demonstrator Ryan Nelson. “Right now in Wisconsin public workers from across the state, supported by private sector workers, students young and old, retirees, labor activists and more, are holding unprecedented protests in Madison against the utterly dictatorial move by Governor Scott Walker to gut their collective bargaining rights.

By picking up the Insurgent, we’ve already established that you are pretty rad. So you just might be interested in this ‘radical’ activity; riding a bike. But I’m not talking about going for a ride on a nice day or commuting to school or work, I’m talking about multi-day long distance riding; touring. So you find out that you will be having some free time coming up, it could be just a couple of days or a couple of years, doesn’t matter, and you decide that you need to get out of town and do something different.

Boston stands up for its immigrant community! On Saturday, February 12th, 2011 at 1PM, people from across Massachusetts will come together at the State House to protest the State’s intention to join the anti-immigrant and racist “Secure Communities” program (S-COM). Under the guise of public safety, “S-Comm” endangers the civil rights and security of all and is particularly an attack on immigrants and people of color. The federal program mandates local law enforcement to cross check the fingerprints of those arrested against the Homeland Security’s database in search of immigration status.

In a definitive vote, the Buffalo City Council voted to ban fracking- a move which will then not pollute local drinking water. It is odd that not doing something horrible, seems like a great victory. “Citizens and clean water advocates heralded the Buffalo Common Council’s move to become the first city in New York State—and the second major city nationwide—to ban hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. The Common Council passed “Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance” today by a 9-0 vote, following months of citizen lobbying by Frack Action Buffalo, a local grassroots group.

Eugene’s Civil Liberties Defense Center and the student Cultural Forum sponsored a showing of END:CIV a SubMedia Production. The movie, leaning heavily on Anarcho-Primitivist ideology and ethics is a must see. Featuring several premises of Derrik Jensen, noted author of the ‘End Game’ books. The Movie follows four of Jensen’s premises. This is the most profound critique of civilization to date. The movie was followed by a panel discussion with John Zerzan- local primitivist & radio host.

Yesterday, Eugene’s Black Tea Society dropped a banner, in a token gesture of support for the Egyptian Revolution, and in Solidarity with our Comrades in the Mankato Area Activist Collective. We unequivocally support the Egyptian People’s right to self-determination. We defy all attempts to demonize their revolution, and we denounce any attempts to suppress it. We are all holding our breath. Will the rebel spark which ignites a great American conflagration come from the land of the Pharaohs?

Peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of understanding. That is the understanding that it is not ideologically sound, morally coherent or politically practical to attack those around you with violence. Violence is the use of force with the intent to cause harm and can take many forms. Violence can be direct, indirect or passive. Direct violence is the form we are most familiar with, intentionally causing physical harm eg: punching someone.

University of Oregon President LaRiv. came to speak as the Faculty senate, in the Jaqua (Jock) center. The meeting was held in a classroom (in fact, the only public classroom), in the one public floor of the Jaqua center. The talk was about the Riverfront Research development or ‘how to destroy natural riparian zones’. LaRiv answered two questions, the first was about using an old plan, he says ‘it’s not old, we made, you know, some revisions’.

When people talk about ‘THINGS’, objects, ideas, or even time, these are measured in terms of value in money. All that is exists now has a theoretical value placed upon it, from the water and food we drink to the star registry. One man even offered to sell his soul for money(1). At the same time money is used, it is constantly changing value. All things are for sale, but did you ever stop to consider why money exists at all, the circumstances that created it and shape this amorphous thing which all else is relative to, how did money come to exist?

In 1952 the Cuyahoga river caught on fire, a river was burning. How did it get that way? The industrial centers on either side dumped chemicals, so many chemicals from industrial waste, the pollution killed all life in the water itself. This was a consequence of pollution going unchecked, industry being ill maintained and an ignorance of the balance between production and natural conservancy. A corporate process that exploited the workers, the citizens and disproportionately the poor erupted in a literal conflagration.

The Holiday Season is upon us once again and Eugene’s Anarchist Black Tea Society is full of the holiday spirit. As anarchists we cherish the seasonal values of gift giving and cooperation as much as that red-clad communist Santa Claus does. In fact we are so devoted to the promotion of relationships based on the spirit of generosity rather than cutthroat competition that an entire school of anarchist thought is based in the notion of “gift economics”.

‘Standing Ground’ is a phrase with two meanings. First it means to stand one’s ground-to have a defiant spirit. Second it means to have a physical space around which a community unites. The University seldom has either and needs both. The streets of Eugene become a physical place and the unruliness is an embodiment of a resistance to oppression. If you were at the riot, you were yelled at by authority figures who had neither respect for you nor your friends.

In recent news, mark Williams- noted leader in the Tea Party has been expelled from the group. The Conservative groups has gained support, by trying to be populist demagogues. The harassed politicians by bussing in people from out-of-area to ‘make’ issues in town hall meetings a tactic called ‘astro-turf’ (meaning fake grass-roots). The Tea Party is noted as a low taxation platform that also sports many ‘birthers’ (those who do not believe US President Barak Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore ineligible for the presidency).

At least 4 community organizers currently being held as political prisoners as G20 related police repression continues to increase. As the G20 meetings happen behind fortified fences, numerous long-time community organizers working on issues ranging from migrant justice to climate change to indigenous sovereignty are being targeted and arrested by police. At approximately 4:45 a.m., June 26, about 20 police officers raided a Toronto home. They entered the house without consent through the back door, aggressively dragging unclothed people from their beds, kicking others who were asleep on the floor.

In less than a month, people from across the United States and beyond will be gathering at the 2010 U.S. Assembly of Jews: Confronting Racism and Israeli Apartheid (the “Assembly”). The Assembly is an historic event intended to build relationships, political clarity and Jewish anti-Zionist organizing and activism. It takes place at a time when recognition of the brutal nature of the State of Israel is growing, and increasing numbers of people are compelled to challenge its impunity.

To whom it may concern, We members of Eugene’s anarchist Black Tea Society are shocked and appalled by the behavior of a number of reckless hooligans during the Pacifica Forum meeting Friday, May 7th! In the early evening a putrid smell, very similar to that of looming fascism, filled Esslinger Hall. The culprit: three dozen stink bombs. What these young miscreants just don’t understand is that history has proven time and again that fascists are consistently vanquished by reasonable dialogue and passive sign holding.

Brush Up on Your Knowledge of Union History What is May Day? Each year, many nations around the world honor May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day. The date is respected in the United States as the anniversary of an historic undertaking for workers’ rights. On May 1, 1886 hundreds of thousands of workers paraded through the streets of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and other American Cities demanding the eight-hour workday.

We are constantly told if we work hard we will earn more and do better in life. This is a lie. Minimum wage, a concession paid for in the blood of years of Union struggle. The 8 hour work day, 8 to rest, 8 to play and 8 to keep the bills at bay. How about the 5 day work week. Won, won by struggle and years of pushing back. These small luxuries, why were they so hard fought?

Although Angela Davis had her book Are Prisons Obsolete? first published in 2003, I find it’s contents now and for sometime into the future as text for serious study. Making a strong and relevant case for prison abolition, she plainly delivers the goods deriving from established historical record and the current realities of market driven social dynamism in her thesis. Presenting the nexus of profit and punishment as it exists she informs the reader of the reality that prisons are.

Older News is still good news. After final confirmation from Constitution Court, the resolution will effectively halt purchasing of bottled water with student fee monies. University of Oregon student government approved today the Take Back the Tap resolution, which prohibits the expenditure of student fee monies on bottled water. The resolution was authored by the Climate Justice League, a new student group on campus, as well as members of student Senate.

I heard from members of the ASUO and it was confirmed today, by Paul Shang- Pacifica Forum will no longer meet on campus but at the Baker Center. Pacifica Forum is off campus. The forum is off campus! While still on University Property, being paid for by students and community… it is a major minor victory! Or maybe a minor major victory, but in any case, the Forum has left campus, is spatially separated from the communities they target and no longer receives the privilege of academic appearance.

The Climate Justice League works to educate peers on energy-wasting effects of bottled water through visual displays and street petitions. On February 24 the group will present a resolution to the ASUO senate to discourage the use of student fees on bottled water. Show support by attending the “Take Back the Tap” bottled water educational event Monday, Feb. 22 from 11am - 3pm in the EMU Amphitheater. THe event is being put on by the UO Climate Justice League in conjunction with the national Take Back the Tap campaign.

I think most people who have seen Indubious or any other similar bands before will agree with me that witnessing them in concert is like stepping into another world. For me, every time I step into the WOW Hall for a show like this, for a split-second I always feel like I’ve just entered some giant tree trunk in a far-off mystical forest populated friendly tree-dwellers and fairy folk, which could just be one of the many reasons why this band keeps drawing me back, time and time again.

Unanimously the Student Senate voted in approval of the resolution which calls for Pacifica Forum to “[get the fuck] off the university” (some words and emphasis added). The issue was safety, as students and community members sighted violent attacks, harassment and a feeling of general insecurity from the Pacifica Forum’s presence on campus. While this meeting sent the resolution to rules committee, where it will go through grammatical not substance reform.

On Monday, January 25, 2010, four human rights advocates are scheduled to begin federal trials for carrying the protest against the School of the Americas onto the Fort Benning military base in Georgia. This school, re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is a controversial U.S. Army training school for Latin American soldiers. Each defendant faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for this act of nonviolent civil disobedience.

I am concerned about the increasing use of authority by the University of Oregon… But lets contextualize this, the Eugene Police Department defended two of its own, when they were sexually raping and abusing women. The Officer, Maganya, would demand sexual favors or give out traffic fines. In 2007, Ian VanOrnum, was electrocuted, twice, while laying face down on the ground. in 2009, a Chinese student was tazed by an officer, in his own home.

A dozen students marched from the UO Amphitheater to the University’s marketing department to demand no more UO licensed Russell Clothing. The new student group Step Up, Oregon! is raising awareness of Russell Athletic’s poor human rights record.

Originally organized by a small group of students early this year, AHA! has grown into an organization of over sixty members in less than a week of campaigning. Currently under review to become an officially-recognized ASUO student organization, AHA! was created in order to support the growing number of atheists and nonreligious students on the University of Oregon campus. “We formed AHA! with many goals in mind, but most importantly, we want to serve as a support system for campus atheists, agnostics, and religious skeptics.

What is an affinity group? An affinity group is a small group of 5 to 20 people who work together autonomously on direct actions or other projects. You can form an affinity group with your friends, people from your community, workplace, or organization. Affinity groups challenge top-down decision-making and organizing, and empower those involved to take creative direct action. Affinity groups allow people to “be” the action they want to see by giving complete freedom and decision-making power to the affinity group.

I usually don’t have strong feelings of distaste for anything, but every now and then I get really worked up about things. Such was the case last weekend when I was standing in line for food, and the guy in front of me went off on a rant about the ethical treatment of animals to the person behind the counter. He didn’t have to say more than a few sentences before it was obvious his intent was not to reprimand the shop for running out of tofu or spout out a coherent argument; rather, he was seeking self-fulfillment through the degradation of the worker.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Nov. 11th, Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky ascended a pine on state capitol grounds and began an urban tree sit in protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR). She descended on Friday, Nov. 14th in order to speak at a rally of over 200 anti-WOPR protestors on the capitol steps. The Bureau of Land Management claim on their website that the basic principles behind the WOPR include managing natural resources “for human use and a healthy environment” and management that is “focused on ecological principles to reduce the need for single resource or single species management”.

This was an excellent book, first and foremost it is an account of the May 68’ uprising in France by one of it’s leaders. The uprising was a spontaneous expression of popular discontent that started in the universities and boiled over into the French working class, nearly unseating the government. The book explains the students and workers roles in the uprising. It also analyzes the reactions of the State and the counter-revolutionary role played by the trade unions and the Communist Party.

A right-wing publication on campus recently published an article titled “The Student Insurgent loves terrorism”. We have a policy of ignoring them, however we felt it was important to correct false impressions that people who read the article may have gathered about the Insurgent’s stance on terrorism or what the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is about. We want to begin by letting the author of the article above know that we are aware that the only reason he used the title that he did was to provoke, to cause anger and bad feeling and the only reason he said the things they did was because they are ignorant.

“The purpose of the incidental fee is not to save the world.” -Sam Dotters-Katz Just before our yearly budget hearing when a committee from the student government decides how it will allocate funding to the various student groups, the Oregon Daily Emerald published an article stating that “committee members” (of the PFC) mentioned that the Insurgent mails off campus and because that “takes money off campus” they “anticipated a contentious meeting”.

The first step in recognizing security risks in a community is working towards creating a security culture. Below we have compiled some relevant materials and links that should be used in conducting security workshops and educating activists that you work with. As our direct action movement becomes more effective, government harassment will only increase. To minimize the destructiveness of this government harassment, it is imperative that we create a “security culture” within our movement.

The Sea Shepherd is a real life band of pirates. They are guardians of the ocean, shepherding marine mammals, keeping them safe from illegal whaling and over fishing. Japan kills hundreds of whales per year in the name of research and also results in selling the leftovers and making bank. Whale meat is a cash crop in Japan. However, The Steve Irwin Foundation and many research facilities in California have dedicated their time and efforts to develop non-lethal or even non-harmful ways of gathering the same data.

This world is plagued by fear. Fear of economic downturn. Fear of financial insecurity. Fear for the lack of control over the means of production. This is the fear that has inhabited the planet since the inception of the free market; as such, it is perpetuated by the fundamental structure of capitalism. The capitalist system breeds anxiety and self-loathing, and thus, all ideologies that adhere to this economic system innately oppress the masses.