Hardcore Preamble 'If you are that uncritical
of hardcore, you do not love the scene. You accept it.' -Robyn of Alice
is an Island zine
Introduction Good stuff Bad Stuff Someone once wrote that without
men the world would be full of fat, happy women. They had a point.
Most days I go to a gym as part
of my physiotherapy. This is a womenªfs only gym and therefore the only one
I have been to where women were not a very small minority confined to the
step machines and ab-cradles. There is a pretty right-on atmosphere there.
When you join they ask you what you want to use the gym for and give you a
personal exercise programme to follow so you get a pretty thorough workout.
If you say you want to ªelose weightªf, they kindly correct you by saying
ªeOh, you want to get fitªf.
Whenever I go I see all sorts
of people, obese young women from the local afro-caribbean community who tend
to spend lots of time on the walking/running machines, well fit very young
white women who tend to use free weights a lot, bulky but very fit young black
women, muscley lesbians with lots of tattoos and unnatural tans, harassed-looking
white middle aged mothers whose husbands probably told them they had 'let
themselves go'. A couple of times every day there are various classes including
the early-morning aerobics that some people take before work and the evening
kickboxing classes that are populated by a young clientele (yes, I did go
once but I really did not enjoy it at all).
Apart from the awful music from
the crap pop radio stations blasting throughout, there is a fairly positive
atmosphere in my gym. There is a noticeable difference in this one than all
my previous gyms, which seemed to be dens of testosterone. Some people are
actually put off going to gyms when they know they will be full of these lads
strutting about and being territorial over the equipment. I once asked the
manager why my current gym is women-only. Someone else said it is because
men smell, but I donªft think that was very significant. One thing was the
availability of machines because a man will tend to monopolise the machine
he is using so that even when he is finished he stays at the equipment to
rest. The equipment is also pretty specialised. There arenªft many free weights
and instead lots of cardio-vascular and lower-body stuff. The truth is that
women tend to want to go to gyms to get smaller legs rather than bigger biceps.
My experience is that men at gyms are very possessive and territorial about
equipment so that if you go towards some that seems to be free they will tell
you off not very nicely. Of course there is also that general awful atmosphere
of competition and machismo at gyms with men in them.
This is something genuinely discouraging
if you want to just go and do your exercise the best you can in a relaxing
atmosphere without feeling judged or pressured or harassed. I believe absolutely
that most of the members here would not join a gym at all if it were not women-only.
There is something more welcoming and inviting and less daunting about a women-only
gym. But mine is dominated by female rather than male energy, and that female
essence is sometimes one of palpable self-hatred. Walking into the cardio-vascular
area, one can feel various degrees of misery, frustration and loathing that
makes up many of these womenªfs experiences of their bodies. So few seem contented
with their bodies.
The staff are far from being the
most fit-looking people there, but they donªft seem to be bothered; they know
they have the ability to instruct the members in their exercise programmes
and that one does not need to have a ªeperfectªf body to exercise properly.
The one or two butch lesbians there tend to have a real and deep confidence;
like an unoffensive arrogance, that is such a rare and wonderful thing to
see in a woman. Then there are the much older women. I wonder if some of them
took up exercise to recover from stroke. They donªft exert themselves much,
but are probably fitter since joining the gym than they had been for the previous
30 years. They are doing it for their health, they know it is making them
more healthy, and they are satisfied with that; they are long past worrying
over having the perfect body.
At the other end of the spectrum
from these unconcerned women; I once saw a young, tall, blonde, white woman
who clearly was or has been starving herself. However the saddest thing I
ever witnessed was in the changing room. At first I found the changing room
quite shocking, because I donªft much like seeing strange naked people running
about. And here were complete strangers holding conversations while one stood
there dripping from the shower. All sorts of ages and usually with body 'imperfections
abounding, yet no one seems to feel the need for modesty. However much I was
embarrassed by it at first, I eventually found it really empowering that these
women didnªft feel ashamed. This was except for one. I had seen her on the
walking/running machines several times. She was probably in her mid-30s, very
fat and almost completely round, black, and always seeming awkward. Then one
day I walked into the changing room and saw her preparing for the sauna by
wrapping cling film around her whole body; evidently hoping to sweat it off
that way. She had obviously done this before. I wondered how she felt after
her visits to the gym.
Incredibly, even now women are
still led to believe, and often do believe, that we have to value our physical
beauty and femininity (which are usually equated with each other) above anything
else. Consequently, if you are female and not attractive to men, you are worthless.
I wonªft give you all those statistics about models and real women, statistics
donªft reflect the real experience of the beauty myth on womenªfs lives.
I was embarrassingly skinny at
age 14 and embarrassingly overweight at age 19, and it seems like I have always
had men trying to destroy my self-esteem. It happens in the usual misogynistic
way, with them telling me Iªfm not sexy enough, not feminine enough, not pretty
enough for their friends or whatever. Sometimes they say this deliberately
because they think it is the worst possible insult to a woman. I even used
to let a boyfriend get away with shallow, sexist criticism. At first I pretty
much laughed it off, but when I would think about it later I was disgusted
with myself for not telling him what a shit attitude that was. Iªfm a feminist,
I know better than to put up with that crap, but it is hard to get over a
perspective that is so fundamental in our culture. We are used to tolerating
it, or at least letting it slide, every day of our lives.
Shame is an extremely powerful
weapon for domination. It can be used actively, but often is internalised.
Sometimes it seems as if in our society the very possession of a female body
is reason enough for shame. And because of this, we have to always be striving
for perfection. But we never reach it; so many women do find it so difficult
to be happy, satisfied, or even just not unhappy with their bodies. The particular
obsession with physical beauty in our culture will continue to make women
hate ourselves as long as we allow appearance to be the overriding estimation
of a womanªfs human value. But there is no indication that we are going in
that direction. Instead of positive sexual equality, we are going in the opposite
direction so that many men too are increasingly concerned with their personal
appearance to almost the same extent as women. We live in a culture of self-loathing
that only serves to make some people rich at the cost of anorexic teenagers
and general misery. What are you doing about it?
(For a boy's-eye view of male
body image, read I Hate The World That I Think Hates Me from Andreas Hagberg,
Sörgårdsg, 67 1tr 58 46, Linköping, Sweden, please_dont_kick_me@hotmail.com)
In the introduction to Screams
From Inside 7 (the punk girl issue) Carissa begins with this declaration:
ªeLet me start off by saying this is not an anti-male zineªc Just because
something focuses on females doesnªft mean itªfs anti-male.ªf As many feminists
can tell you, it is unfortunately necessary to produce such statements and
sometimes to back them up with more such as, (Carissa again) ªeªcOtherwise,
most of the zines I read should be considered anti-female since they rarely
mention womyn.ªf
Straight Edge has been in the
media again. Following the murder of some drunk jocks in Salt Lake City by
some fanatical straight edge jocks, incompetent American parents are being
frightened by the trashy American media into believing that ªestraight edge
gangsªf will turn their kiddies into murderers. Anywhere you go of course,
the media does tend to be at its most moderate pretty conservative, preserving
of the status quo etc. A considerable proportion of the mass media is also
very reactionary, and the fact that sensationalism sells leads print journalism
in particular in this direction. So naturally the mainstream folks who find
out about straight edge/hardcore/punk through mass media channels will have
a deliberately negative picture which has been skewed to represent anything
ªeotherªf as a threat. More often than not the issues being covered will be
completely misrepresented. Partially this is through journalistic/editorial
desire to slap down any hint of challenge or nonconformity and partially it
is through ignorance. Since journalists are usually summoned to write about
things they know absolutely nothing about and naturally get things wrong,
for instance when an article in the Observer newspaper listed ªeToo Drunk
to Fuckªf as a straight edge song. Yeh.
Iªfll bet that you found out about
hardcore (and veganism) first hand from another individual involved in the
scene. You probably did not read a column by some ossified retired headmaster
and Leader of a Hunt in which he said young people ought to be beaten until
they eat their boiled beef. You were probably also not raised hearing jokes
being made by crap comedians on telly about how frustrated straight edgers
are always trying to take away everybodyªfs fun by protesting against vivisection
and the manufacture of beer. On the other hand, I also bet that you did find
out about feminism from a negative representation in a reactionary mass media.
Many, many people are convinced that they know precisely what feminism is
about. Yet when I hear their descriptions, it is clear that their idea of
feminism is equivalent to the Popeªfs.
Even hc girls who are intelligent
and critical enough of mainstream values that they should know better will
come out with some outrageous remark about feminism being automatically ªeextremeªf
or having something to do with ªehating menªf or even with making women better
than (rather than equal to) men. Is every non-meat-eater you know ªeextremeªf?
Are you sxe because you hate people who drink? Has fighting for gay liberation
meant oppression for straight people? Has fighting for racial equality meant
making minorities ªebetter thanªf the majority colour? Has the extension of
the rights of disabled people done any harm to the able-bodied? So why do
we give in so easily to hostility toward feminism? Why do men react so defensively
and believe that fighting womenªfs oppression means replacing it with menªfs
oppression? Why do people imagine that being pro-girl means being anti-boy?
Why does womenªfs liberation/equality remain as such a hard fight?
Words Upon Words Obviously it is a problem when
we feminists have taken a great deal of responsibility and put a great deal
of energy into the project for women and for society in general that the project
for men has remained stagnant; or even been ignored. We have had a great deal
of work to do, and we can only keep so many pots on the boil at once! But
feminism has failed to achieve many things, and now we are realising that
tactics may be a large part of this. The Australian/British feminist writer
Germaine Greer recently pointed out that a lot of the remaining failures of
and hostilities to feminism are a direct result of focussing perhaps too exclusively
on women, feminine roles etc. It seems that men fight harder to defend the
idea of masculinity than women fought against the limitations of feminine
roles. According to Greer, feminists have encouraged this stalemate to a large
extent because although we critiqued feminine roles and forged new directions,
for masculinity we only provided a critique.
A consensus is forming that the
new direction of feminism seems to be ªeworrying about menªf or the ªecrisis
of menªf (see Faludi, 1999 among others). In the industrialised West, being
a man is no longer a guarantee of status and the traditional security bases
for men – the family and employment have been completely eroded. Menªfs
identities have stayed wrapped up in these things because they seemed to provide
the sorts of social status that men were taught to find important. Even as
the world is changing around them however, men are still not questioning the
fact that the sort of status they are seeking has no intrinsic value and serves
no purpose other than carrying on hierarchical power relationships throughout
society. Feminists figured out a long time ago that hierarchy and gender roles
are crap, and as women they were in an ideal position to observe this. They
sought for equality between the genders but only gave men the task of assisting
women with their liberation. There were obvious ways that men could change
themselves, but how to go about encouraging them to do so? We just had to
go about making the world more woman-friendly.
So we got some laws changed and
we got a couple of generations of women who were more confident and better
equipped to stand up to patriarchy. In this society, girls now outperform
boys even in traditional ªeboys subjectsªf at schools. People often point
to increases in numbers of women in what are called ªetop positionsªf such
as management in big companies. The reality is that every woman has to deal
with patriarchy and sexist limitations throughout her life whether it is harassment
in the schoolyard, dealing with the majority of childcare and work in the
home or negotiating her role in masculine work environments. Even if feminism
has got as far as it could go for women themselves in their own lives, we
still have barely made any progress in providing new options for men.
So men are clinging to these increasingly
ludicrous decrepit ideas of masculinity and masculinities are being packaged
and sold by cynical profiteers who have successfully convinced men that if
they buy this magazine and the products advertised within they will be more
of a man. This is stuff that women fell for decades ago. And now, as with
women then, men are being taught that their appearance is intrinsic to their
value and to the fulfilment of their masculine role. You must have these muscles,
these clothes, no flab, makeup, no unsightly hair etc. etc. Eating disorders,
once an exclusively female bastion, are increasingly common among young men.
If men do finally stop being so
dependent on gender roles shaping their universe, it will be difficult. There
is no quick fix to social problems. Any major disruption will have its resistance
and repression followed by a backlash followed by a settling down to the benefits
of the progressive choices that people have made and the new options that
have been created. We have seen this process with many social developments
from vegetarianism to environmentalism (and feminism is on a constant cycle
of progress and backlash). Social commentators are already saying that society/
families/ individual men are being harmed by the decline of masculine role
models or some such rubbish. Thatªfs the resistance. In some countries today
politicians are gaining votes by calling for men to regain patriarchal stature
in traditional families. Thatªfs the backlash. The scariest development I
know of at the moment is the upsurge of interest in an approach to evolutionary
biology that attempts to find that gender roles were developed when people
lived in caves and that they are now inevitable.
The thing to remember always is
that everyone is suffering from sexism, patriarchy and fixed gender roles.
There is no way to justify these things when they are causing so much unnecessary
unhappiness, it doesnªft matter whether men or women have a worse time of
it. Are there any men out there who are fighting these things? Any men who
support feminists? Who see what can be learned from feminism? Who know that
womenªfs liberation is not a threat to anyone except the people who want to
keep us submissive? Who challenge other men who are sexist and homophobic?
Who are more willing to show their own emotional pain than they are to cause
someone else physical pain? Who admire women? Who have genuine friendships
with other men that are not based on competition and point-scoring? Who have
genuine relationships with women that are not based on impressing other men?
Who are aware that their value as individual human beings does not depend
on their fulfilling esoteric tenets of ªemasculinityªf? Are you brave enough?
I have seen and experienced the immense empowerment, liberation and just
indescribable emancipation that comes from finding other womyn who take control
of their own lives, who are not afraid to be outspoken whether it is about
sexism or anything else, and who know what is really important. I wonªft list
them all here, but I hope to be soon distroing a UK riot grrrl listings zine
and you can get a good contacts/zine list from: Rachel Kaye, 37 Longlands
Road, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, HD7 5DN, UK. We are lucky in the UK to sometimes
have fairly effective public debates and public awareness of important issues
and 1999 saw a revolution in British public awareness and concern almost overnight.
For several years, green campaigners, organic farmers, and consumer rights
campaigners have been working to inform people about genetic engineering of
food and to pressurise politicians in the UK and EU to pass policy to keep
the producers of genetically engineered products in check. Genetic engineers
have been experimenting with various plants and animals in laboratories and
experimental farms that are springing up all over Britain. In one particular
laboratory experiment, mice had been fed with genetically modified (GM) potatoes
to see if the potatoes would be safe to market to humans. The miceªfs immune
systems were reportedly damaged by these potatoes and luckily for us the British
media gave this particular story some decent coverage.
The result was the sort of public
panic and media frenzy that happens quite often in a tightly-knit country
like this one, particularly when fed by Britainªfs sensationalist tabloid
press. Suddenly people who never before cared about what they ate, or at least
not since the BSE scare, were asking questions. What is GM food? Is it unsafe?
How much of it are we already eating and how much more is going to be put
in our food in the future? Most importantly, how can we stop this huge experiment
on our health and environment? Is this the next BSE/Mad Cows' Disease?
Over the following days and weeks,
the resistance to GM food increased. Public pressure brought supermarkets
and even fast food chains to adopt anti-GM policies and food producers and
sellers began to label and produce information about what foods are GM or
GM-free. At the same time, the useless coward of a Prime Minister refused
to acknowledge the public concern because he had been lobbied by the President
of the United States who had of course been lobbied by the American GM food
producers.
But in spite of the strong resistance
from the leaders of two countries and from the GM producer Monsanto, WE WON!!!
The fight is not over yet, but I have never seen so much progress so quickly
in any progressive campaign as I have with the anti-GMO campaign. Here are
some of the things that happened:
Progress Accomplishments Know the Enemy Monsanto: American transnational
corporation. The same company that developed and produced Agent Orange, the
notorious defoliant used in the Vietnam War. They are the creators of the
Roundup Ready soya bean which was created to resist the weedkiller Roundup
which, surprise, surprise is also made by Monsanto. Monsantoªfs latest project
has been ªeterminatorªf plant technology – sterile seeds. Throughout
the history of agriculture, farmers have taken seeds from their crops to sow
in the next year. Monsantoªfs plan was to force growers to buy their seeds
again every year. In the developing world, this technology would have been
economically devastating for farmers.
Bill Clinton: As we all
know, the main function of the US Government is to promote the interests of
US corporations. Clinton has effectively lobbied British Prime Minister Tony
Blair to allow Monsanto to carry on with its experiments in the UK and to
ignore the huge public resistance to GM foods.
The EU: Brussels usually
gives in to the interests of big business, and there are indications that
this will be the case with the GM foods debate. Even if Britain for instance
passes a policy against the import of GM foods, the EU may override that policy.
All the same, public pressure looks likely to bring some regulation of GMOs
in the EU. But Brussels has so far given some resistance to Monsantoªfs technology.
Other GM companies: Ciba-Geigy,
Switzerland (transgenic corn animal feed), Astria/Zeneca Plant Science (GM
tomatoes), Du Pont, Novartis, Aventisªc Some of these have produced terminator
technologies and it is hoped that they will be forced to follow Monsanto in
withdrawing this.
Companies that still use GMOs
in their food: Nestle, Lindt
[Information taken from: SuperHeroes
Against Genetix website, Greenpeace True Foods Campaign literature, Green
World magazine, and lots of underground publications]
The Resistance What You Can Do Examples of genetic engineering Implications of genetically
manipulating food
Genetic pollution through
pollen or seed dispersal - plants
Scientific findings in this area
include the following:
Genetic pollution - micro-organisms
OK, first of all say thanks to
Laura for leaving me this space to express myself.
The Uruguay scene is obviously
small because there are just 3 million people living there. Anyway weâve got
all that a hc punk scene should have: bands, zines, distros, collectives,
fights, friends, enemies, gigs, activitiesªE We can say that this scene is
split into two groups; by one way the NYHC scene and by the other the emo
scene. Using a really fashionable word, Iâm taking part in the 2nd. It is
really small, even more this year, last year we did things together with the
@ punks and it meant that there were more bands, zines and people, but now
we are less each time.
This scene is political, there
are many guys but sadly not enough girls (girlfriends ofªE sisters ofªE. About
bands there are just 4 or 5, the oldest is HABLAN POR LA ESPALDA; I play the
bass in this band. Musically we can label it like screaming pop with personal
& political lyrics. Weâve got a few releases; a split cassette with DEPRESION
ADOLESCENTE (rip) and a brand new 7ªErecently released . Another old band
is SWITCHSTANCE; this band is really good. I love them, they play ãEnglish
popªEpretty interesting. Theyâve just got a cassette split released by the
Uruguayan label ãJe tâaimeªE It is a split with XPUPURAX; the first and only
Uruguayan SXE band. This band split up early this year and they released (besides
the stuff with SWITCHSTANCE) a tape released by the Argentinean band CIVILIZACION
VIOLENTA. FARADEY is a new band with ex-members of XPUPURAX, AGARIA (rip emo
metal) and SWITCHSTANCE. They play screamy metal with melodic parts, they
are really intense. More bands are CRECER, NOT FOR SALE and ANTI MUSIC LIG;
the last one is French emo like Fingerprint.
We also have some zines in the
scene, but sadly all are in Spanish (?!!Why!!??). MI PEQUENO GOVENADOR is
a personal zine and very funny, NEGACION is another personal one by the Faradey
guitar player, ADQUIRIENDO IRONIA from the Faradey singer is more political.
I write one called MI NARANJO EN FLOR; with politics and personal issues.
There are two distros; one called
ESOTERIC run by the HABLAN POR LA ESPALDA guitar player, itâs a worldwide
emo music distro, it has a lot of stuff. The other one is called EN FLOR and
it is run by myself. It is a reading stuff distro; mostly @ stuff, books,
zines, newspapers in English and Spanish.
Finally, there is also an @ collective
called 1937 that releases a bimonthly newsletter and a puts out a radio programme
on a communitarian station.
OK, this is a summary of the Uruguay
scene; itâs a group of friends that enjoy to meet to play music, write, dance,
go to the cinema, eat, go campingªEThat is, basically a group of friends.
If you want to know about my zine,
distro, bandsªEget in touch with me.
See you, Victor
Victor Borras, Benito Blanco 1094/401 CP 11300, Montevideo Uruguay, enflor69@hotmail.com Elisa: guitar+vocals/Debora: drums/Isabella:
bass+vocals
Tell us a bit about the history
of the band. Who does what? When and why did you start? Did you play music
together and become Riot Grrrls because of frequenting the HC/punk scene?
Or were you feminists before being musicians and wanted to spread that message
through playing in a band? E: We started the band in early 1996 because we
wanted to express ourselves as girls and as individuals. I play the guitar
and do half of the vocals, my sister Isabella plays the bass and sings too;
Debora plays the drums now. Estella who was on the 1st CD left the band. Elaine
used to play 2nd guitar but she wasn't able to manage both Dmx and her other
band Pin Ups. Weªfre not Riot Grrrls, we're part of Riot Grrrl. Whatªfs the
difference? E: It means that itªfs not an ªeabsolute truthªf. I know some
might be confused by this. We see Riot Grrrl as a collective thing, not as
a limited club. We think itªfs not necessary to say, ªeI'm a Riot Grrr1ªf,
it's not a 'membership thing'. We have our vision of it. It's a personal choice
to label yourself as such but I'm not saying that I don't want to be part
of the movement. I know girls that call themselves Riot Grrrls that are intelligent
and do amazing things; so I don't have anything against people that label
themselves, I don't prejudge them because of their labels and I appreciate
all good things they do...
What do I think is being part
of something? Being active, sharing experiences and ideas with others. I don't
need to call myself a Riot Grrrl; it's inside of me, I don't need to tell
everyone. I have the desire to do what I want, to help people, to give and
get education. The point is: it's counterproductive to fight for the label
itself, we should fight for the cause.
I did not become politically engaged
because of the HC/punk-scene but because of the daily suffering I'm obliged
to swallow every day; with diseases like sexism, elitism, ageism, homophobia,
etc. When I first wanted to get involved with all the revolutionary stuff,
I didn't even think about what a ªescene' means, I didn't know what HC/punk
was. It all came a little later. Feminism came first. How did you get in touch
with it? I was unsatisfied with my situation as a woman (in my family, school,
on the streets, etc.). I wanted to know what women, during the centuries,
did to resist patriarchy. I wanted a direction, examples, ªelessonsªf, experiences...
Many people told me I should read about this thing called feminism, they told
me it was the ultimate thing in girl-rebellion. I started looking for definitions,
authors, literature in general, etc,. I constructed my own feminism, not different
from the original ideas but based on my life.
Has anyone ever said they thought
your name was intimidating? Did you choose it deliberately, realising that
it questions the traditional gender-roles (men assuming to be ªein chargeªf)?
E: We took the name from a Bratmobile song and thought it was a good one.
I looked up the definition in a dictionary but couldnªft find it. Later I
found it comes from Latin and means 'woman who controlsªf. For some people
who don't know: dominatrix - in English is the woman wearing leather and using
a whip in S.M.-relationships. Itªfs not perceived as intimidating that much
in Brazil because hardly anyone knows what it means exactly. It's rad that
it questions the traditional gender-roles, as you said.
What backgrounds do you girls
have? Are any of you studying? Working? What are your goals in life? E: I
wonder if it will be clear to the readers (due to different definitions of
the classes in other countries) but anyway... My sister and me are so-called
'lower middleclass', our drummer is 'working-class'. I've completed high school
and I'm studying to get into college (arts). Our drummer Debora and my sister
Isabella are still in high school. Of course we have different backgrounds
but we have some things in common. All 3 of us, like every girl in this fucked
up world, suffer under sexism and elitism almost every day. My goals in life
are to live in peace, have new and good experiences, learn as much as I can
and help people as much as possible.
You have a CD out on 'Teenager
in a Box', which is - as far as I can tell - a DIY label. Is that a deliberate
choice? Do you want to have your music in the shops? Is working for an alternative
to the capitalist music industry a part of your struggle? E: Yes, it's our
choice to have a record on a DIY label. And we wanted it to be out on Teenager
because we thought it was the best DIY label at that time, in terms of distribution
and divulgation: both done in the most honest and sincere way. It was a huge
goal for us to be on the Top 10 of the best records of 1997 in the second-biggest
rock-magazine of the whole country. Are you serious about that? I'll tell
you why it was a goal for us, especially me. I'm not only interested in the
HC/punk-scene in terms of spreading messages. This is my opinion, people discuss
with me a lot on that. I do pamphlets on abortion and AIDS, and give them
to people outside the scene. Therefore it's our goal also that our music/message
gets huge public recognition as a DIY band. It encouraged many girls (in-
and outside the HC/punk-scene) to get into politics and express themselves.
It means we broke down some walls; we made people think, even if it was only
for a while. It was positive and we never sold ourselves. We are not on MTV,
etc. We don't have video-clips and 'Girl Gathering' was not played on any
radio and we don't have our pictures on the CD. Some people say that's because
we're an all-girl band and it's a novelty and blah, blah, blah,... But Dmx
is not the only all-girl band in Brazil; there are other bands that started
even 1 or 2 years before us and sing in Portugese (which makes it more popular).
I'm not trying to devalue other all-girl bands' work - actually, we're all
strongly united here, all the Grrrl-musicians - but I want people to see beyond
that simplistic rhetoric of "It's because they're a girl-band.". There's so
much more to show, not only our gender. Some people in the HC/punk-scene have
this phobia for big audiences and they can't even explain why. You can be
DIY and spread your message to a big audience; I don't see a problem in that.
The most important thing, in my view, is: we don't use our public recognition
to make money, we sell our records for $6, period. I'd also like to add that
it's very expensive to put out a record in Brazil. We're selling some things
to put out our second record (I sold my guitar and raised some money selling
T-shirts, Nenê of Teenager in a Box - we put the album out together
- sold his computer). That's just to raise a little money and that's it. I
have my own label now, it's called Chlorine recs. It's a big conquest for
a third-world band to put out a record. I'm not just talking about Dmx but
about all bands in all poor countries.
Do you play a lot of concerts?
Also out of your city or out of your country? What kind of places do you play?
Are there any squats in São Paulo, and if so do you do concerts there?
E: We do one show per weekend nowadays. I myself organize many benefits (for
Campaign Against Domestic Violence, Women's Resistance Against Homophobia,
HIV Positive Women, Food & Action Collective, etc.) and Dmx plays at these
events so that's why we play a lot. We play all over the country but never
got to play outside of Brazil; because we lack the money, it's too expensive.
We play in clubs and bars. Nowadays we only play in just one place in São
Paulo: in what we call an alternative bar. In the other places (where bands
get to play) the entrance is $4 or more but that's against the policy of our
band. In the bar where we play, the entrance is less than $3 and it's an all-ages
space. The shows start a 4 o'clock and ends at 9 o'clock (on Sundays) so that
the kids can catch the last bus to get home. Yes, there are a few squats in
São Paulo but I don't know why we never got to play there. I don't
even remember if any band ever did, I don't think so. It used to happen a
long time ago but nowadays it doesn't. Aren't squats political? Yeah, pretty
much, specially in Brazil's land- and home-distribution context. We've got
a lot of neglected buildings, abandoned houses that are not used; it would
be no problem if the government would allow people to occupy neglected public
buildings. It should be OK, especially because it's in the law. But the police
doesn't agree: they want to show their superiors that they are working hard
("take the punx out of the buildings 'cause they're doin' drugs blah blah
blah"). And also: the government sells it's buildings to private corporations
who consider having to deal with homeless people living there as a pain in
the ass. It's pathetic.
You wrote you "support the personal
choice of a drug-free, vegetarian or vegan lifestyle". Quite a few straight-edgers
here are sexist, homophobic, violent, anti-choice and/or xenophobic machos.
Is that similar in Brazil? What's your idea about hardline? E: There's contradiction
everywhere. I know some anti-men feminists too and they fucking irritate me.
It's stupid to use a label like SxE or Riot Grrrl and act totally against
the philosophy of the movement. It's very clear that these people don't have
any interest in changing anything in society. They only judge others and bother
us with all those fascist clichés while they have food/money/security
and don't need to think about the lack of responsibility of the authorities
concerning the poor people and land-distribution-politics or anything that
is "out of their reach" or "none of their business". I absolutely hate the
whole concept of hardline. "Feminism negates all natural roles of women and
destroys the family-structure; in a natural and moral vision of life, homosexuality
can be seen as nothing more than a detour of nature so it has to be destroyed.",
these are the words of the "wonderful" band Vegan Reich. They also claim that
an "anarchist vegan society ruled by vegan dictators" is needed. Sorry, sons
of Hitler, but 'anarchist society' doesn't match with 'ruling' and 'dictator'.
There are like 8 hardliners in Brazil, 8 fucking stupid motherfuckers. The
saddest thing is that some (only some) SxE-ers even talk to these arseholes,
allowing them to distribute homophobic/sexist material at SxE-shows; claiming
that the hardliners must have "freedom of speech". WHAT THE FUCK!?! Freedom
of speech to express prejudice? No, no, no, not at my show!
Is there a lot of division between
the different sub-scenes (crust/punk/emo/SxE) in your country? Are there any
'mixed' shows? Do you play them? E: People tend to go to shows that interest
them more than others. But we don't limit ourselves, we go to different shows
of different subcultures. I have to admit that it could be more mixed. Dmx
always tries to play with all-girl bands to help them and encourage other
girls and other bands that sound different. We play with SxE (metal or not),
crust, grind, melodic, emo, old-school and psychobilly bands most of the time.
Our shows are very mixed (in the sense of gender, class, race, sexual orientation,
etc.) 'cause girls feel safe and they encounter little "violent" dancing.
Of course there are more girls and black people than homosexuals. That's why
we're concentrating more on queer issues now. Like I said, a while ago I organised
a festival called 'Women's Resistance Against Homophobia' with 3 more girl-bands.
We did spoken word, handed out pamphlets & zines; all about queer issues.
We're also focussing on a direct anti-homophobia speech (amongst others) during
shows now. We want to force people to think of the scene as a place where
all kinds of people are welcome. We want queers to feel safe at our shows,
we want them to have a strong voice in our community and they will. We encourage
girls (and boys) to denounce violence and threats against them during shows
so it's almost impossible that violence occurs.
What's the situation of the average
woman in Brazil? Have you got an idea about the frequency of rape and abortion
compared to North-America or to Europe? Are there big differences between
the different social classes? E: We live in a society where women got decisive
power in some sectors. You can find women in charge of big companies. But
there's also patriarchy in some sectors. It leads to the continuation of the
old chain of oppression: the shadow of sexism still lays over these sectors.
What I'm trying to say is that women are invading into high positions of the
"hierarchy" (I hate that word but I have to use it) but still they're being
disrespected as individuals. People usually don't recognize women's goals
in occupations appropriately and say shit like "Women can work but they were
born to be at home and take care of their children.". They just can't take
the idea that we're capable and strong as well. I don't know the frequency
of rape in Brazil compared to Europe but I know the number of rapes per year
here is 10% under that in the USA. This doesn't give us a basis for analysis
though because both populations are drastically different in terms of contingent.
I'd have to say the same when you ask me about abortion. We would have to
work with complex calculations and my interests are other ones so... Here
in Brazil, most abortions are undergone by working-class/poor women with no
information about contraceptives; but there are almost as many abortions in
other social classes. And between the different races? For abortion, the situation
for black and indian women in Brazil is in general more or less the same:
both suffer under poverty and lack of education. And everybody knows that
a lack of education leads to little knowledge concerning contraception. Nowadays,
there are many abortions amongst women of the middle- and higher classes;
in many cases that is because of a lack of responsibility. Dmx is pro safe/legal
abortion. Concerning rape I can say the following. There are more domestic
rapes in the lower classes. I have this theory that working-class men work
under a higher amount of pressure than those on higher social levels because
there is a strict hierarchy of 'intellect'/education and salaries. Working-class
men, who need to vent their anger, create their own little hierarchy at home
because they think it's their only way to have power over others. They need
power; and rape is about power, not about sex.
In some Western European countries,
domestic violence isn't even in the penal code. What about Brazil? Are Brazilians
religious? Are there a lot of marriages or is there more 'un-official' living-together?
Do most young girls there wanna get married and get kids? Or do a lot want
to stay independent and aim for a career? Are there any women in parliament
and in the government? Are there some positive role-models for women in Brazil?
Do you think the Spice Girls are? E: The Spice Girls? They could be a role-model
for dumbness!!! About domestic violence: yes, it's in the penal code but,
no, as we all know the law isn't enforced fairly in most cases. Most Brazilians
don't know but there are some horrible archaic things in our penal/civil code
that should be changed as soon as possible. I can't believe anyone hasn't
noticed them yet. For example: there's a paragraph on marriage in the civil
code which states that if a man finds out that his wife was not a virgin by
the time they got married, he can annul it. It's there but I never saw it
happening during my lifetime. A girl whose sister is a lawyer, told me a story
of a girl that was about to be raped and she asked the rapist if he at least
could use a condom. Do you know what the judge said? He considered what the
girl did - ask the rapist to please use a condom - as consent and because
of that it was "not considered as rape". And there's much more stories from
where this comes from, it's a never-ending list of absurdities. Brazilians
are pretty religious - there's too many beliefs to quote here. There's a lot
of marriages and living-together relationships. About girls wanting to get
married and have kids: it's pretty diverse. A lot of girls want to be independent
but they always talk about having a family as well. There are a few women
in the government but we never had a woman as president. Once the governor
of São Paulo was a woman. The role-models for most of the girls are
intellectually empty and visually deceptive. The 'Baywatch-style' role-models
are created according patriarchal values and morals that are buried deep in
our subconscience, and moulds us to standards. These standards tell us to
be dumb, beautiful and narcissist so we can buy beauty-products without even
realizing what effect these standards have on our health and mind. These stupid
role-models turn into a dream for each girl that lives by these values but
each day it becomes harder and harder to reach the standards. It's very difficult
to deprogram and purify your head from this crap. Capitalism knows that. You
have to respect yourself the way you are and set your own goals (that are
positive to your body and mind, and to other people) in life. The great, intelligent
women don't get any attention from the mass-media so that leads to a lack
of identity in terms of a good and significant source for examples and intellectual
background for Brazilian girls. That's why they're so dumb. There are some
good examples though. In the literature e.g. we have Clarice Lispector (she
was born in Ukraine but came to Brazil when she was a year old), Raquel de
Queiroz, Cecilia Meirelles, etc. In arts (painting, sculpture, etc.), we have
Tarcila do Amaral, Anita Malfatti, etc. We don't have too many women in politics
but from the few I know I a have some admiration for Marta Suplicy from the
Workers Party (PT; - in their own words - has a socialist base in terms of
strategy and and actions. They became too elitist and disorganised, they do
nothing for workers. It's kinda like the first communists in Brazil.). I like
some of her ideals but let it be clear that I don't like her party as a whole
'cause I think there are too much corporative middle-class interests that
blur ideal social change - but that's not what we're discussing here. Most
people don't care about these great women and what they have done because
we live in a patriarchal society that tends to devalue women's conquests (arts,
writing, politics). This devaluation leads to a lack of attention (from the
media, in schools, etc.) for women's achievements so most girls don't see
examples and don't realize of what they are capable; they end up limiting
themselves.
Do you believe prostitution and
pornography are intrinsically bad? Is there a huge sex-industry in Brazil?
Does one see a lot of nudity on TV and in advertisements? Is Brazilian society
in general prudish? What do you think of 'Feminists Against Censorship'? E:
Both issues deal with freedom. I think prostitution should be legalized. If
a woman wants to use her body to earn money, she can. She's exploiting herself,
her body is hers. Why do people who earn money by exploiting others don't
go to jail? 'Cause "whores are immoral"!?! Ha, ha, ha, redneck arseholes!!!
A six year old child working 14 hours a day is less immoral than prostitution?
I'm talking about the free will of a grown-up woman. The traffic-thing is
another chapter... My opinion on pornography is quite the same as with not
using children/animals and not forcing anyone to do anything against her/his
own will. The sex-industry is there, you cannot deny it. If you don't like
it (like me), then educate your children and teach them to be critical. I
totally support F.A.C. 'cause it's a goal for us feminists to fight against
censorship, it's basis of traditionalism and the muting of sexual/artistic
expression. There's a lot of nudity on Brazilian TV. Our culture is fundamentally
based on nudity; it's a shame. Brazilians encourage this emptiness.
Some people here see Brazilians
as exotic/'oversexed'; is that realistic? E: In some cases it is kinda realistic
but not totally of course. Foreign people tend to exaggerate. If you come
here at the time of the Carnival, you'll see people listening and dancing
all night long to 'sensual' sambas (about the female body and other sexist
shit), and girls dressed in bikinis. People think that there is naked dancing
all day long! Brazil has this 'sensual' image for foreigners mostly because
of the climate and the Carnival but it's not all about that. They also think
that when you come to Brazil someone will attack you the moment you get of
the plane...
Do you consider yourselves a multi-issue
political band? Or do you concentrate on women's rights? E: We talk a lot
about women's rights 'cause we're girls and it's a part of us. But we also
focus on other kinds of prejudices (as I said before). Dmx is made up out
of 3 very different people; we have different ideologies. My sister is a vegetarian,
I'm vegan and drug-free (not SxE). So, I cannot speak for the whole band all
the time.
Do you girls attach to a certain
ideology (anarchist, socialist, communist,...)? You use the circled A as a
symbol... E: I sympathise with the three but I can't say I'm part of any of
them. I can imagine a utopian society but even if we make an effort to adopt
it into our personal relationships and everyday-life, I think we're never
gonna know if it's going to work when applied to a whole country/the world.
It's impossible to know because we live in a world of constant changes, different
ways of raising children and spreading values. We would have to raise children
in a way they feel comfortable in this system. That's my main concern about
believing entirely in a certain theory/ideology. Of course, I don't want power
over anyone and I hate patriarchy and neoliberalism. I do love cooperation
and autonomy. I guess my various ideas are close to libertarian communism
but I'm not a part of a movement. It's hard to be part of something if you're
not sure what's it going to be like.
What do you say to boys/men who
claim that women who wanna have women-only spaces (parties, concerts, etc.)
are "sectarian or separatist" and who compare this with racism? Is that where
'My New Gun' is about? E: It's kind of funny 'cause boys have always been
in all-boy spaces. When Dmx first appeared, they told us we were separatists
'cause we're an all-girl band; it was so idiot and contradictory. I think
we must have some autonomy as a marginalized group. It's the same thing if
you say that the Black Panthers were separatist because they're made up out
of only black people. We girls need to gather to find our identity to reach
gender-equality. Boys won't accept us out of nowhere, we have to show our
strength. We're not gonna say "excuse me boy, can I be heard?". NO! We have
to shout, we have to gather and struggle. We don't believe in an all-girl
scene but neither in an all-boy scene. 'My New Gun' is about being accepted
as girls who fight for their rights in a scene that calls itself libertarian.
This song is about creating another scene to combat this hypocritical situation.
It's all about the real fight, not about which boy/girl has the most CDs.
Any good bands from over there
we should hear? Fanzines we should read? E: Good bands here are: Dance Of
Days, TPM, Again, Small Talk, Pudding Lane, Default, Auto, Sell Outs, Page
4, Left Anchor, Mukeka Di Rato, Execradores, Abuso Sonoro, Adjustment, Hitch
Lizard, Whodunit, Baby Scream, Same, etc. Zines I like: Anti-Mídia,
Punto de Vista Positivo, Gumption, Káostica [Brob: Elisa & Isabella's
own zine.] Violent Playground, Libertação Feminina, Libertárias,
Needle, The Crew, Sarcastic Smile, Riot Grrrl Eject, Friendship, Agua, Hypoglós,
Iconoclasta, etc. Our scene is not as big as some think; we don't have a million
zines and a zillion bands but we're getting bigger. What makes these special
to you? E: Gumption was the first political zine made by girls. I like it
a lot 'cause it confronts lots of contradictions in the HC/punk-scene like
homophobia and pro-life. It made me feel I'm not alone. One of the girls did
another great zine called Alethéia, which is just amazing. Her address
is: Bianca, rua Domingos de Morais 1372-apt.304, cep 04010-220 São
Paulo - SP, Brazil. Anti-Mídia is done by Nenê (ex-Personal Choice/-Dance
Of Days, Bastard in Love). It contains a text by Max Stirner, a part of the
Unabomber-manifesto and some reviews. You can reach him through Teenager in
a Box (C.P. 205, cep 01059-970 São Paulo - SP, Brazil). Sarcastic Smile
is done by some anarcho-punk girls here. I find it very bright and they're
good writers. Address: C.P. 12143, cep 02098-970 São Paulo - SP, Brazil.
Auto is a terrific band. They sound so different, it's hard to define. Some
people compare them with Minutemen but I don't know. Write them: C.P. 4885,
cep 01061-970 São Paulo - SP, Brazil. TPM is an all-girl band that
has a great singer that screams like hell. They sing in Portugese and they
draw a punrock crowd like no-one else. The address: rua Campevas 686-apt.11,
cep 05016-010 São Paulo - SP, Brazil. Abuso Sonoro is a well-known
band [Brob: They toured Europe in autumn 98.] that plays very good crust-core.
They have a girl singing too. Their address: C.P. 2098, cep 11060-970 Santos
- SP, Brazil.
Something Laura (Synthesis-zine)'s
curious about... Do you consider Bossa Nova to be native (South-) American
music or the product of (North-)American cultural influences? And why don't
you sing in Portuguese? E: I really can't see Bossa Nova as the "product"
of any influence nor as "native" South American music. I don't see music in
that way. Bossa Nova would exist anyway, with or without North American influences.
There's a bit of a jazz-beat in 60s Bossa Nova - like in the music of the
well known composer João Gilberto. B.N. has this 'jazzy' drumming because
various musicians listened to jazz at that time. But they used to listen to
other stuff from other countries too. So we really can't say that it's a product
of USA-influences. There are samba-sounds to be found in it as well. In the
very beginning, we preferred writing in English and ended up liking it a lot.
It's a matter of taste. I played in other bands, singing in Portuguese and
liked that too. But with Dmx, it's different. I don't know exactly why but
I prefer our sound with English lyrics. We have all our songs translated into
Portugese in the cd-booklets for anyone who doesn't understand English, so
they can get our message.
There is a plethora of hardcore
festivals out there these days. We can choose from good bands, good locales,
accessibility and so on. However, in Europe year after year the VortNVis festival
in Ieper, Belgium has tended to be the focus of straightedgers in particular.
The transport connections are not ideal, until this year the venue has been
a gawdawful rust-infested nightmare, the distros tend to be greedy and the
bands are rarely the cream of European hardcore. But itÁøs the one festival
where we are most likely to see the most people we know from several countries
all in one place. Basically, everybody goes there because everybody goes there.
I donÁøt much like making these
sorts of comparisons, but in my mind I could not avoid the completely different
experience at the annual More Than Music festival in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
I first heard about MTM from Spectacle zine. It sounded a bit like a hippie
emoboy experience but certainly far different from other hc festivals I knew
of. What really intrigued me though was the way people who had been talked/
wrote about their experience. It just didnÁøt compare at all with other festivals.
Accommodation MTM Not good; tents
in the car park, dozens of people crashing in the gardens of the local hc
kids or over-priced, faraway American hotels VNV Good camping fairly close
to the town centre
Childcare MTM I was a bit worried
about the creche based on the badly-run ones I've seen at some anarchist events,
but here was a good creche run by the collective, varied activities for the
children and a general welcoming atmosphere for the children by the adults
and the children were obviously happy and comfortable at the festival. VNV
As if! Maybe that's why the festival-goers tend to be so young?
Transport MTM Awful American lack
of public transport VNV Centrally located in small town so everything is walkable
but Ieper is far from being Belgium's most accessible city.
Organisers MTM Cool hardcore collective
(mostly Á‰) who had worked out the philosophy and approach of the festival
before hand and they were wearing tags to indicate who to go to for questions,
etc. VNV Supposedly a collective although it comes across as a product of
the big commercial '¨hardcore' record label Genet Records supported by shitworkers.
Venue MTM Changes every year because
the collective is always told never to come back by venue owners. This year
it was at this big, rambling club place with lots of different-sized rooms.
Unfortunately the only thing outside was the carpark. VNV Usually every year
same decrepit warehouse behind a pub, but in 1999 it was a specially constructed
outdoor venue which gave the unmistakable feeling of the festival being no
different from any boring mainstream music festival.
People MTM Wow, I wish I had time
to meet and talk to every single person here! They are almost all straightedge
but all different! Everyone is having so much fun in the gigs! Wow, cool dancing!
That band is awesome! And that one! Look at that 4-year-old walking on the
stage looking so confident! Everyone is so nice and the distro people are
wonderful and the organisers are so responsible and the workshop facilitators
are so together and helpful and incisive and supportive and funny and clever
and unintimidating. There is so much excitement and energy here! A girl/boy
ratio of 1:2 !! Quite a few out queer kids as well and far more punks of colour
than I've seen at any other hc event. VNV Oh my god, I don't want to be straightedge
anymore. There are 500 straightedgers here! And they are all arseholes! What
is that violent dancing going on? Christ, people are stagediving feet first!
What a nasty atmosphere. Don't continental Europeans have a sense of humour?
They all take themselves so seriously. The young ones just look really suspiciously
at everybody and the older ones are just cold. What are there, like 50 girls
here? The bands have such an attitude. Those Americans think they are rockstars.
What a lot of macho, competitive posturing. Yuk.
Workshops MTM This year's festival
was women-centred which meant money would be raised for a local abortion access
fund, bands tended to have at least one female member and workshops included:
(girls only) GIRL ARMY -self defence course and WOMEN IN BANDS -a chance for
womyn musicians and any interested others (girls only) to discuss the sexism
which exists within the male-focused male-dominated band aspect of the scene'
etc. (boys only) MEN TALKING TO MEN ABOUT RAPE -a discussion including topics
of male privilege, rape culture, dealing with rapists, redefining consent,
redefining rape, and learning to make it so that we are never perpetrators'
and MALE BODY IMAGE (mixed) THE RADICAL POLITICS OF MAKE UP - a woman-positive
discussion of revolutionary/radical make up wearing', WELFARE REFORM - the
impact of reform on recipients, focusing on womyn and children
I went to the women only discussion
on SEX WORK. Some people had direct or indirect involvement in the sex industry,
some people were interested in how we can support women who do sex work, some
people discussed the politics of sex work etc. There was concern about how
womyn doing sex work might perpetuate negative male attitudes and behaviour
towards womyn. Many testified to the fact that some of the strongest, most
awesome womyn they knew had been sex workers and one talked about the experience
of having power over these pathetic men who contact her for phone sex. Another
woman in the industry said that every day she hated men more, and it wasn't
just her phone sex job but even being at the festival made her hate men more.
This seemed to be a familiar and paradoxical feeling for many. What many of
us wanted to know was just how sick and disgusting these men were who used
this particular aspect of the sex industry, but the facilitators always seemed
to steer the discussion away from that area. We talked about how prostitutes
are stigmatised, misrepresented, and divested of basic rights in our society
and how there is a particular need to find ways of supporting them for instance
by designating safe spaces for when they are under threat. The sex workers
there established that their working lives are a completely separate thing
from their personal sex lives. But I think a lot of us could identify with
the girl who said at the beginning that she found it really hard to comprehend
sex work when even without that aspect she found sex and relationships with
men a complicated and difficult matter to deal with. The workshop ended too
soon, but it was overall a really positive and supportive experience and not
as scary as I expected.
My chum Ryan and I also went to
the BARBIE LIBERATION workshop. You may have heard a couple of years ago about
the Barbie Liberation Army who switched the voice boxes of Barbie and G.I.
Joe dolls so that G.I. Joe said things like 'Let's go shopping!' and Barbie
came out with things like machine gun fire. We were shown the BLA's own info
video as well as several local news programmes on the resulting consumer crisis.
At the same time, we got to work on our own barbie dolls provided in the workshop
along with cloth, glitter glue, clay for making fat etc. Ryan made Pocahontas
into some goth glam nightmare and I made 'bitchy butch xbarbiex' complete
with chain wallet, skateboard and a tattoo saying 'toy terrorist'. We told
childhood stories about playing barbies. The most memorable of these was one
girl's childhood friend who always had the Ken doll molesting the doll that
was supposed to be his daughter. At the time of course she didnÁøt think anything
of her friendÁøs particular obsession. Eventually some of the little girls
from the creche came in from playing outside and joined in the workshop. Some
boys wandered in but didn't stay. My little brother seemed distinctly uneasy
(but then he's not even a punk). So the only boy taking part was Ryan (and
he's gay). An awesome workshop and even though my barbie didn't turn out very
well (I spent too much time trying to pierce her eyebrow); I have her proudly
displayed on my windowsill. VNV Don't be daft. More rock, less talk is the
order of the day in Ieper. There are showings of documentary videos, but that
is still somewhat passive, and this took place in a different venue and with
very poor notice being given about these events. Did they actually expect
anybody to turn up?
Other Discourse etc. Music Stalls Controversy If these things seem petty to
you, you need to understand the importance of having a safe, positive, supportive
atmosphere and to explore the ways we can achieve it in the hardcore scene
and beyond. The mainstream world is about domination, discrimination and the
majority trampling on the minority without caring. Challenging these things
is a big contribution to the festival as a dynamic and inspiring experience.
I don't think anybody expected the safe space policy to alleviate all problems
from the festival, and in fact the exclusions are likely to draw a lot of
criticism to the festival organisers. If there is more controversy at MTM
than at other festivals (such as the VNV), it is pretty obvious that this
is not because there is more to criticise about MTM, rather it indicates that
MTM has succeeded in encouraging critical thinking and challenge. VNV Last
year a band got away for the whole festival with being misogynistic, homophobic
bastards but the big boss of their record label did ultimately kick them off
¤¢ because they borrowed a guitarist from a band on a competing record label!
That's priorities for you. There was direct action against violent dancing
(rife in the Belgian scene) as well as some verbal confrontation and the more
responsible bands did criticise violent dancing during their sets. In previous
years there has also been unchallenged homophobia from the stage. ItÁøs the
sort of stuff that makes you think there is no hope for the European scene
as a challenge to mainstream values.
And soÁÐ I would expect people
to go away from VNV feeling completely disenchanted with and alienated by
hardcore. I certainly would not expect anyone to be inspired or energised
by their experience in the festival. I do think that 1999 was somewhat better
than the year before ¤¢ a better and more interesting range of bands musically.
Perhaps the fact that it was a big open venue cut down on the violence a bit
too. Personally, when I have gone to Ieper IÁøve had an awesome time seeing
friends from all over the world and meeting new people. Actually, this year
I got thoroughly manic and exhausted from it all. But then again I had as
awesome a time in Columbus where I knew far fewer people to begin with. It
would be awesome to be able to have all this socialising in Europe at a festival
with a more positive atmosphere. I would like to propose the Monte Paradiso
festival in Croatia as the new Á¨biggest hardcore festival in EuropeÁø. Come
on folks, letÁøs all go there next year! Contact: Monte Paradiso (Maske),
M. Oreskovica 68, 52100 Pula, Croatia, 00385 52 32671
What people have said about
More Than Music: 'Ðit was one of the best experiences of my life'Ð "THE COLLECTIVE HAS BEEN CRITICIZED
FOR BEING TOO POLITICAL, SERIOUS, PC YADA YADA YADA. UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S A
LOT EASIER TO CONDEMN AND DISMISS THAN TO FOCUS ON WHY THIS ENDEAVOR MAKES
THEM UNCOMFORTABLE." -from the MTMF zine
(What people have said about Ieper:
'We arrived at the Vort'n Vis while the third band was still playing. We didn't
see them though, 'cause I was outside buying some more stuff (man, I spent
a small fortune). The first band I saw was Pray Silent. I was looking forward
to seeing them, since I really liked their MCD (on Genet). Live they are also
quite impressive and already some people started to dance. Cool. After this
it was time for yet another highlight: Clouded. This was simply great. If
you don't know this band you should get their MCD/7"...'Ð [more in the same
vein])
We must demand more of our
festivals! BACKGROUND This is a story of
police corruption, Government antipathy, and the farce of the British legal
system. The baddies are typical then, but the ones who pulled together for
justice, liberty and eventual triumph over adversity were the eco-animal rights-anarchist-punk-direct
action movement in the UK and its world-wide networks, the international human
rights community, and just a few individuals who transcended victimisation.
The GAndALF (Green Anarchist and Animal Liberation Front) trial has been one
of the most important tests for civil liberties, free speech, freedom of the
press and the underground movement that we have seen in Britain over the past
several years.
In recent years the British police
had been increasingly cracking down on the Green Anarchist newspaper including
office raids in which computers etc. were stolen and never returned. Finally
in 1994 five people with GA/ALF connections were arrested by police in Southern
England. This case was intended to send a message to the whole eco/@/underground
publishing/activist movement in the UK. After a farce of a trial, three defendants
were given outrageous three-year prison terms; sparking an international outcry
from human rights and freedom of speech/press advocates. Five months into
the sentence however, the defendants were given an unconditional and unexplained
release from prison. One of these defendants was a vegan straight edge punk
named Saxon Wood.
After various attempts to get
ahold of him (I wrote to him in prison not knowing he had just been let out!),
I finally met Saxon in person at the 1998 Anarchist Bookfair in London. I
didnÁ‚t really know what to expect, but I certainly didnÁ‚t expect this sweet,
rather charming and positive guy who didnÁ‚t seem at all hardened or disheartened
by his prison experience. It is a rare and wonderful thing to meet a straight
edger who is sincere, committed to real action and ultimately a tremendously
inspiring person. Saxon isnÁ‚t preaching to the converted in a hardcore ghetto,
he has been an activist, a prisoner of conscience and an all-round good bloke.
They say the best bits of an interview
are what is said after the recording has stopped, and this was true when I
met Saxon. Both before and after the interview when we were walking from and
to Waterloo Station in the rain we talked about various aspects of our political
views and we have so much in common. We both see straight edge as a personal
choice that helps you put the other things into perspective and get on with
addressing them. And we agreed that the real test of a movement is not whether
Government policies are changed, but how real people interact with the movement
and its ideas. Saxon is just one person, but he really gave me more faith
in straightedge, punk/hardcore and the underground political movement than
I have probably ever had before.
The setting: The foyer of the
Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London. A bossa nova act is playing a free
show in the background. Out the window is a huge bust of Nelson Mandela. We
are both wet from the bad rain that day. Saxon is pale and skinny with dark
hair with a light, friendly voice and a bit of a southern counties accent.
INTERVIEW YouÁ‚d be forgiven for
thinking his parents were some radical pagan hippie types. To begin with,
Saxon Wood is his real name. Saxon explains, Á®The thing is my mum named my
brother, and he got called Scott. And my dad named me, so he just had a particular
sense of humour I think. I was at school with someone for several years and
she just thought Saxon was my nickname that everyone called me.Á‚ Did he have
trouble with his parents when he went punk? Á®Not really, they were quite
concerned though, when they wanted to throw me out of school. I think my parents
were incredibly proud of me that I made my stand. Neither of them are anarchists,
but they know what I was doing was what I believed was right and honourable
and it was for a better world.Á‚
GREEN ANARCHIST And the story
of SaxonÁ‚s arrest and eventual imprisonment begins withÁ€ Á‚You know, it
was one of those things, you get into punk musicÁ€ I blame the Sex Pistols,
itÁ‚s all their fault. If they hadnÁ‚t written Anarchy in the UK I would never
have gotten into this sort of troublemaking. I was this 12-year-old punk rocker
sort of thing describing himself like, ÁéOh, IÁ‚m an anarchistÁƒ. And then
after a couple of years the moniker tended to stick. And there was a magazine
called Crisis, I had already read Green Anarchist before and Crisis was this
comic by the people who did 2000 AD. Chumbawamba produced pictures of starving
children talking about ÁéWhatÁ‚s going to happen when the Third World take
their land back?Áƒ. Yeh, I started to think, basically we have been living
off the backs of the Third World since the days of colonialism. When the revolution
comes, whatÁ‚s gonna happen? Á®Green Anarchist (GA) was going along these
sorts of points. GA was originally set up with the help of the Poison Girls,
so itÁ‚s that punk influence as well. The Poison Girls did the benefit gig
for the first GA to come outÁ€This was about 1984, the days of Stop the City
[a mass demonstration in the financial district of London –ed] and London
Greenpeace really setting the ball rolling. And I was always interested in
London Greenpeace, so I would have described myself as a Á®green anarchistÁ‚,
so of course a magazine of that name would be of interest to me. So I got
a copy and started selling them at punk gigs from about the age of 15. As
things progressed I sold the magazine and bumped into various people at demos
who also sold the magazine. I was distributing anarchist books where I lived
so I went up to the London Anarchist Bookfair and got a load of books and
someone mentioned that theyÁ‚d quite like a review of a particular book I
had for the magazine and from there it grew on. I started writing for the
mag. Á®Richard Hunt who was the main Editor for GA back in Á‚91 sort of left.
We were going on peace marches and stuff and he was pointing out that Á®You
should support the Gulf War and support our boys in the GulfÁ‚, so that was
not only not green but he was also not anarchist. He was kind of biffed out
of the paper at that stage and there was a reshuffle and I got involved through
that.Á‚
GREEN FASCIST? Á€Which leads us
to the dodgy reputation of GA and some of its editorials. Is GA really a fascist-sympathising
publication? Á®Unfortunately GA would generally print anything; which is a
bit of a problem. GA to me was always a broad church of ideas: you had the
greens, you had the animal right people, you had the Quakers, you had the
pagans. GA was sort of a melting pot for it all. Unfortunately of late, I
think certainly since the arrests and everything itÁ‚s unbalanced a lot of
people to say the least and any cranky comment or weirdness that they can
turn into the magazineÁ€ I think they do either because they donÁ‚t think
these things through orÁ€ I think itÁ‚s the shock value more than anything.
Á®Particularly Steve Booth has certainly dragged the name GA through the mud
which is a bit of a problem. Actually a bloke I know was saying Á®DonÁ‚t support
the GAndALF 3 because theyÁ‚re dodgy fascistsÁ‚. He had to admit that he actually
knew me and that he knew I wasnÁ‚t a fascist, and he spoke to another one
of the defendants, Noel Molland on the phone and he realised that he wasnÁ‚t
a fascist either. Steven Booth unfortunately is a bit of a wordy philosopher
type, and unfortunately he doesnÁ‚t think terribly deeply about what he says
and I have particular problems with what Steve Booth says most of the time.
Read the next GA for my response to what he says.Á‚
FREE PRESS Direct action publications
in the UK usually print disclaimers as a defence mechanism against the sort
of thing GA has gone through. But GA apparently has not been intimidated into
caution by the recent persecution, and according to Saxon the magazine has
Á®tried to prove the police absolutely right that we were this evil conspiracy
of mad bombers.Á‚ But the magazine has gone through some changes recently.
Á®GA was a broad church, unfortunately the pacifists and the good guys have
generally been alienated a hell of a lot. Certainly what Steven Booth has
written, and IÁ‚ve discovered that Paul Rogers is a very hard bloke to work
with. I donÁ‚t want to be horrible about him, but perhaps he could have handled
things slightly different. This tour is very important because hopefully we
can get some new contributors and stuff and dilute some of the madder elements
at GA. Unfortunately Steven Booth is always going to write for GA. Personally
I donÁ‚t consider him a green anarchist, heÁ‚s more of a nihilist. I think
Steve should find out what anarchism is all about before he starts spouting
off about it. Á®The good bits are still there, but unfortunately with the
case itÁ‚s polarised everyone so that a lot of people want to embrace the
case. TheyÁ‚re proud that weÁ‚ve cost the police four million pounds and we
really did do everything they said which is untrue, but again we all consider
it a feather in our caps that theyÁ‚d go through all this madness just to
shut us up.Á‚ GA avoids being ideological and establishing strict rules about
who believes what. Á®That was the choice of GA and I think itÁ‚s a lot of
what people missed about it. We can have two opposing articles, I remember
years ago we had a censorship debate. We had the Cambridge Anarchists saying,
Á®Pornography terrible, ban itÁ‚, and then you had the Gay and Lesbian Freedom
Movement saying, Á®Pornography is great and beautifulÁ‚. We had a picture
of a naked man on it and the magazine sold really well that issue I donÁ‚t
know, perhaps that says a lot for GA readers, they actually want to see pictures
of naked men in it.Á‚
ARREST: Was it true that the three
defendants only met when they were arrested? Á®Well, IÁ‚d actually met Steve
twice before in the Áéfive year conspiracyÁƒ period, but the really weird
thing is that we were all taken to a police station in the south of England.
Actually it was the second time we were arrested and we finally met up because
the three of us were taken to Lyndhurst police station and the other three
were at Lymington police station. We were actually charged at about 11.00
in the evening after being picked up in our homes at 8.00 in the morning.
So we were all kicked out into the foyer. I knew who Robin Webb was, IÁ‚d
seen him speak once, and there was another bloke sitting there. So I got chatting
to Robin and this other bloke piped up and he was actually a member of the
editorial group as well. So, you know, ÁéHello, co-conspirator, I donÁ‚t know
you from Adam and it was good enough to get us charged unfortunatelyÁƒ.Á®
Á®When I came out of the police station I had my leather bikerÁ‚s jacket and
a big pair of Doc Martens. Not exactly what he was expecting to see from somebody
involved in GA. I love my bikerÁ‚s jacket, IÁ‚ve been vegan for 10 years now
but itÁ‚s really warm and BritainÁ‚s such a cold horrible country, you need
that comfort. So unfortunately I still wear leather these days.Á‚
STRAIGHT EDGE: When asked how
straight edge feeds into all the other things he is involved in, it is clear
from the start that he is very aware of the relevance of straight edge to
his activities and general perspective. Á®IÁ‚d always considered anarchism
was personal and you look at the anarchist groups and perhaps if theyÁ‚d spend
less time drinking and doing other stuff that they would perhaps do more.
I have no problem with people drinking, but it tends to come to a means to
an end sort of thing. I went through that as well, I used to drink quite a
bit of Special Brew in my time and I really had to knock it on the head. I
think thatÁ‚s how I got into straightedge. Á®IÁ‚m the sort of person who is
into all or nothing, so I stopped drinking and my record collection just doubled
as well, it was great. It really freaked me out, I was 15 years old and I
was spending so much on alcoholÁ€ So thatÁ‚s how I got into straightedge.
It wasnÁ‚t really a musical thing, of course being a punker I knew about straightedge
and Minor Threat and that sort of thing, but I was more into Crass and Conflict
and that sort of thing and at that time there was bands like RDF and the more
dub-y thing and heavy into their drugs. But it just didnÁ‚t appeal to me and
I just thought straightedge was the way to be.Á‚
SPIRITUALITY: Maybe itÁ‚s that
awesome name again, or maybe itÁ‚s the way Saxon seems so at peace with himself
and with life in general even after all he has been through, but I find myself
wondering if he is spiritual at all. Á®I guess I am. IÁ‚m a great believer
in the human soul and spirit, to rise above it all, and other things like
drugs tend to dull that as well. Perhaps IÁ‚m religious with a small 'R' rather
than a big 'R'. ItÁ‚s a personal thing more than anything. I have great respect
for Quakers, well not only that, but because they also stopped me being thrown
out of school. Between the ages of 13 to 18 when I finally left school I used
to have a rather large mohican which the Powers that Be and the Headmaster
of the school didn't like. The Quakers and the Marxists made sure that I didnÁ‚t
get thrown out of school, so I have a deep-seated respect for them for sticking
their neck out for me. They saw that I was an individual and a rather nice
person. I like to feel that I was one of the good guys in this world. Perhaps
thatÁ‚s how IÁ‚d like to be remembered.Á‚
PRISON: In the UK, there is an
excellent, and considering all the hunt sabbing & ALFing that goes on; essential,
small charity organisation that looks after vegans who are sent to prison.
Did the GAndALF defendants have any contact with them? Á®Oh, the Vegan Prisoners
Support Group were great, my hatÁ‚s off to them. They really came through
for me. When we first went to Winchester there was no problem getting vegan
food, theyÁ‚ve always catered for vegans, quite a few animal rights people
had been there. GuyÁ‚s Marsh [Prison -ed] was good as well, there was me and
Noel who were both vegans. The chef there was pretty good, though he did occasionally
slip us the dodgy meal with eggs in that I found out later. But once we reached
Lancaster, thatÁ‚s when the Vegan people really came through for usÁ€e-mailed
and faxed the prison saying ÁéYou have two vegans comingÁƒ.Á‚ What about prison,
was it just all the evil and hierarchy in society all concentrated in one
institution the way we see it portrayed in the media? Á®I think a lot of people
viewed it that we were all in the same boat. There was a Áéthem and usÁƒ between
us and the prison guards. It was pretty relaxed, but horrible things do happen
in prison unfortunately that is all there. I expect prison to be really racist.
That elementÁ‚s there, but very quiet and in the background.Á‚ They didnÁ‚t
have Warders murdering people in their cells then? Á®No, not when I was there.
I went to some really relaxed prisons. A lot of us were old people who had
been in prison before and they couldnÁ‚t handle it because they werenÁ‚t used
to such a relaxed regime. I spent one night in Wandsworth, which was probably
the worst nick I ever went to, I mean they are seriously hierarchical. I came
out of my cell in the morning and I was tucking my shirt in and they were
saying, ÁéYou have to tuck your shirt in before you get outÁƒ. London prisons
are probably far worse than the ones out in the shires.Á‚ Prison threw up
its share of fun though, as Saxon explains after I notice a bit of tattoo
peeking out from under his shirt. Á®Oh, that was the joys of prison. People
werenÁ‚t terribly interested in politics in prison, people were very interested
in my tattoo. [He takes off his shirt to reveal a back covered in a huge and
very nice design with an A in the middle] Á®It was very strange, youÁ‚re getting
ready for showers, you take your stuff off and, ÁéWow, thatÁ‚s a really large
tattooÁƒ, even the prison guards mentioned it. I am straight edge and I actually
said, donÁ‚t worry, youÁ‚ll have no problem with me taking any drugs, look
I donÁ‚t even drink tea. They always strip-searched me coming back from my
visits. I think they realised it was a pretty safe bet that I wouldnÁ‚t have
any drugs on me because I donÁ‚t touch drugs. ItÁ‚s good for their routine
to say ÁéOh, we strip-searched so many prisoners and we found no drugs because
weÁ‚re running such a tight regime they canÁ‚t smuggle any inÁƒ. Which is
complete rubbish, you can get any thing into prison, you really can, apart
from alcohol because thatÁ‚s too big. Any soft or hard drugs you can get into
prison no trouble. But they strip-searched me and when you take off the shirtÁ€
even one of the prison guards asked me if I did it in prison. ItÁ‚s like,
oh yeh, I had a mirror or something, yeh, I can put a tattoo on my back.Á‚
GANDALF 2 Although the GAndALF
3Á‚s convictions were quashed, he is still technically a Á®co-conspiratorÁ‚
with two other GA colleagues whose trial was about to begin. Á®Our case was
the GAndALF mark two which was the conspiracy to incite criminal damage, so
we believe thereÁ‚s probably going to be a GAndALF mark three because they
generally want to shut GA up and shut Robyn Webb up. So IÁ‚m leaving the country
for awhile so my door isnÁ‚t knocked down early in the morning. But the next
one we believe is going to be something to do with the ÁéJustice DepartmentÁƒ[a
direct action group]; a Áéconspiracy to incite GBH [grievous bodily harm]Áƒ.
Basically the Justice Department were sending postal bombs to huntsmen and
vivisectors, so we thought this trial was going to be about that. But they
thought it would be an easier conviction to get us for Áéconspiracy to commit
criminal damageÁƒ because of the lists in GA. That was actually in the ProsecutionÁ‚s
closing arguments, ÁéOf course these people want to incite criminal damage,
itÁ‚s all listed in their magazine.Áƒ! And unfortunately the jury bought it.Á‚
Considering the fact that newspapers report crimes and wars every dayÁ€ Á®Absolutely.
Just before our trial started there was a columnist in the Observer [leftish
Sunday newspaper –ed] who actually wrote some of the stuff that was
down in the GA list of actions and he said, ÁéHow does it make you feel? Does
it actually make you want to go out and commit criminal damage?Áƒ. But we
had a seriously biased judge, and some of the juryÁ€ we wanted to make sure
that no one was a huntsman or knew anyone that could have been attacked by
the ALF, or generally anyone threatened by anarchism. Unfortunately we had
at least five members who had connections to the armed forces, so these people
had pledged allegiance to the Queen. One of the things in the case was the
ALF attacked a dairy in Hampshire and one of the jurors actually knew one
of the milkmen who made a statement to the police! Á®Hopefully PaulÁ‚s trial
will be quashed in the first couple of weeks, but I canÁ‚t really see it happening
because the judge who thought we were terrorists is also taking RobynÁ‚s and
PaulÁ‚s trial. I believe that their trial is going to go all the way and the
judge is going to push it as far as he can. This judge has spent 33 years
in the military. HeÁ‚s been doing civilian courts for about 5 years, so of
course he wasnÁ‚t going to be overly happy with a bunch of evil anarchistsÁ€Á‚
I think it sounds like a stitch-up. Á®Yeh, subtle comments he made, I was
going to put certain things in evidence and heÁ‚d say, no he didnÁ‚t think
that would be a very good idea because I probably wouldnÁ‚t see it for a very
long time, i.e. he was gonna put me in prison for a very long time because
he believed I did it.Á®
ORGANISATIONS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT
The GAndALF case was too political for some organisations to get very deeply
involved in, since following a British law from the Thatcher years, registered
charities are prevented from any form of political activity. Á® Liberty [the
British civil liberties organisation -ed] did a press statement for us, but
they didnÁ‚t want to get involved with us because we were political, which
was also a problem with Amnesty International [AI], but they also came through
in the end. I think they helped secure us to get out on bail. AI were taking
a very close look at our case. The police put up this huge smokescreen that
we were terrorists, in spite of the fact that they couldnÁ‚t prove that I
wasnÁ‚t a pacifist, but the jury bought the idea. Á®Fortunately in the appeal
court they actually mentioned that I was a pacifist and that I did what I
did because I believed in free speech. So I was saying that I was doing 3
years for my first arrest, unfortunately it takes 3 years for these things
to come out, 4½ months in prison. But itÁ‚s all part of growing up.
It probably proves that I was doing something right. If the police want to
spend 3 years and 4 million pounds prosecuting a magazine with a circulation
of only a few thousand, it proves how much of a threat they considered us.
ItÁ‚s something to tell my grandchildren.Á‚ There was word in the underground
that the GAndALF 3 were released because Amnesty were going to list them as
Prisoners of Conscience; something not usually done in the UK. So far the
actual interest taken by AI is unclear. Á®There was a letter-writing campaign
run by London Greenpeace. The London GAndALF supporter people wrote to AI,
my parents wrote to them. AI is a very large and bureaucratic thing, the wheels
grind really rather slowly. So just after I was released my parents got a
letter from AI saying that, Á®WeÁ‚ll look into the case really closelyÁ‚.
There was rumours that the New York AI were actually going to list us, but
whether they did or not I canÁ‚t be sure. ItÁ‚s very flattering that they
thought that I was a Á®prisoner of conscienceÁ‚ for awhile.Á‚ As for MPs or
anyone in establishment politicsÁ€ Á®Noel MollandÁ‚s MP and Steve BoothÁ‚s
MP were very interested in their cases. My MP was going to raise it with the
Powers that Be, and he helped get me moved closer to home. I had met him once
before and he actually claimed that, oh, you know, ÁéDonÁ‚t worry son, we
donÁ‚t put people in prison for publishing stuff in this countryÁƒ. Bernard
Ingham, who was Press Secretary of the Conservative Party during Mrs. ThatcherÁ‚s
years actually went on Radio Four, and he was saying if he was judge he would
have given us six years cause we were these evil anarchists. ItÁ‚s another
a feather in our cap that we could so insult tories, basically weÁ‚re paperboys
doing our
Go Back to Synthesis Zine
Home Page
Introduction - New Cross, London,
Summer 1999
In the past year I have moved back
to London, started my doctoral research, heard lots of great new music from
Austrian, French, and South American bands, attained a certificate of German
proficiency, got a nice sunburn a cool henna tattoo and a nasty case of poison
ivy, read thousands of zines and made thousands of tapes for friends (so it
seems), put on my first gig, contributed to more zines than I kept count of,
distro'd 500 copies of Synthesis 4, missed seeing Jello Biafra's speaking tour
(twice) and seeing him at my local pub (once) but I did see bell hooks speak
at my college, learned how to ollie after more than 8 years trying (thanks Alex!!),
went to too many gigs, distroed scores of zines to dozens of kids, protested
against capitalism, the arms trade and animal exploitation, watched a solar
eclipse (97% in London), climbed a tree, played with a baby donkey, started
a vegan society at college with lots of nice art students... London has had
a 3-month heat wave and been bombed by a neo-nazi, the Metropolitan police got
away with bungling the Stephen Lawrence case, Iraq is still being bombed, Britain
and the US have bombed the buggery out of Serbia, and as usual whoever may be
said to have won it is women who have lost, Prime Minister Tony Blair is trying
to enforce more curfews on children, Hillgrove (cat vivisection) Farm has been
closed by UK direct activists, and East Timor is gaining independence. The second
millennium is coming to an end and who really gives a dome? Pinochet is being
extradited...
I get fed up with hardcore sometimes. but Like Andreas wrote in I Hate the
World That I Think Hates Me 2, 'this is my home and I'm not a quitter'. Actually
I found some invaluable insight about that in Retrogression zine. The editor
pointed out that anywhere you go, whatever type of people you meet whether
it's in the hardcore scene or outside, 95% of those people will be crap and
only interested in consuming and being entertained. But we don't have to do
anything for their benefit. It's that 5% of sincere folks that make our involvement
worthwhile. I see a lot of things in the scene and in the world in general
that need improving. I am not defensive about it and I hope nobody gets defensive
about my perspectives and that everyone can take it in the spirit in which
it is meant. If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well and with the
highest possible ideals, the best possible intentions and with the most benefit
for everybody.
Recently I've been learning how small London really is. Everywhere I go I
run into people I know. Then there is this rather cosy way the various corners
of my world have closed in on each other. I used to think I moved in all these
different social circles, but now I see them all converging. Even all the
new people I meet, in whatever situation we happen to meet, end up knowing
or even being related to everyone else I know. It has become inevitable that
people I come across will have strong connections to my college, my part of
town, punk, veganism/animal rights, cycling, the quakers. anarchism... Not
just one of these, but almost all of them at once! I've spent all my life
moving about and I got used to the process of settling into a new place, getting
to know people and making new friends few of whom I would have much in common
with and few of whom I would manage to keep in touch with as we move on to
new towns, Universities, countries... This may be a surging metropolis, but
I'm now on friendly terms with the folks at the local shops and have gotten
used to greeting strangers as just friends I haven't met yet. After five years
in London, I guess this is what it is like to really be settled in a place.
And I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
Julie Burchill's Guardian columns
Radio 4
Powell & Pressburger films
Oscar Wilde's De Profundis
Charity shops
Hackney
Soyacchinos (xdecafx of course)
Cycling to Blackheath and Shooters Hill
My new cookbook from the national vegan festival
Repeats of The Good Life on BBC1
Getting my new hand-made touring bicycle
Bicycle repairs
Getting fined for cycling through a t-junction
Ferries
(Home Secretary)Jack Straw
The man who hangs around outside our flat harassing the female residents
Girls! Love Your Bodies!
(it doesn't matter if anyone else
does)
The *F* word
One correspondent (a feminist) recently pointed out to me that the word ªefeminismªf
can put men off being able to engage with the movement because it does have
the same sort of exclusivity as those decrepit old terms like ªeMankindªf
or ªeChairmanªf. Other movements have thought through the pros and cons of
using a new vocabulary. For instance, in some places campaigns by black people
against racism have become campaigns for ªeracial equalityªf, and the result
of course is a different type of movement with a very different focus and
with different possible effects. I have to say though, that any time I have
seen a move to start a ªepro-gender-equalityªf campaign, it has always been
initiated by very sexist men (and sometimes even women) as an attempt to destroy
a strong campaign by feminist women. I have yet to be convinced that equality
can come before women actually work towards their own empowerment while encouraging
positive attitudes in men along the way.
Girl Zine Explosion!
A year ago I predicted a new wave
of punk feminism/riot grrrl and I think I may have really precipitated something
there. These things tend to move in waves and it was about time for a rise again;
especially to counteract the surge of male machismo in the scene over the past
few years. Every day now Iªfm finding more active girls in England and there
are feminist hc kids appearing in other countries too. It can take a lot of
bravery to stand up to patriarchy and to challenge gender roles whether you
are a girl or a boy and whether you are doing it within a counterculture or
not. Nobody succeeds completely of course, but it is a fight we have to keep
up every minute of every day.
Come Out Wherever You Are...
If you are QUEER you should come OUT.
It may seem SCARY but your queer SISTERS and BROTHERS are doing it every day.
Even as you read this a QUEER is leaving the CLOSET.
If you are QUEER you should FLAUNT it, SHOVE your SEXUALITY down someone's throat.
STRAIGHT people do it ALL of the TIME. Promoting your own PERSONAL sexual AGENDA
is every HUMAN being's right.
If you are QUEER you should come OUT and show the WORLD how NUMEROUS queer folks
are. Then HOMOPHOBES will be too SCARED to BASH people. POLITICIANS will not
be able to pass LAWS that HURT queersªf lives, and maybe people will stop assuming
that everyone they meet is STRAIGHT. If you are QUEER you should come OUT. THIS
is your LIFE. CLAIM IT.
Frankenfood!
In July and August 1999, nearly all of the farm-scale as well as several smaller
plots of GM experiments in the UK had been disrupted/destroyed by protestors.
One of these was a Greenpeace action involving hundreds of people from the
local farming community who attacked a field of GM maize. The ªede-contaminationªf
of genetic crop sites was dramatic as a spectacle as well as a new type of
activism, and of course the almost daily actions kept the issues in the public
mind.
*The statistics vary, but they consistently show that the majority of people
in Britain do not want GM crops or commercial foods in Britain.
*In the three years up to Spring 1999, the proportion of supermarket products
in the UK containing GM soya had gone from 0 to 60%, but throughout this summer,
one by one, all the major supermarkets announced that they were phasing out
all GMOs in their own-brand products. It was at this point that the campaign
became international.
*The consumer boycott spread throughout Europe.
*American farmers began to boycott Monsanto's soyabeans since Europe was no
longer buying.
*Activists in Mexico City hung banners protesting against 'Genetic Imperialism'
after the USA sabotaged the Biosafety Protocol.
*In San Francisco, Activists from FABRAGE (Fabulous Resistance Against Genetic
Engineering) stripped off their clothes and disrupted a conference panel on
genetically engineered cotton featuring a speaker from Monsanto. 'We'd rather
go naked than wear genetically modified cotton' they declared!
*Food producers in the USA and Japan refused to continue using Monsanto's
GM soya.
*The British Government dropped out of the GM debate; leaving Monsanto to
go it alone.
*British farmers dropped out of hosting experimental crop sites due to the
potential dangers of the technology and the inevitability destruction by activists.
*The UN Food Safety Agency supported the EUªfs moratorium on Monsanto's GM
hormonal milk (yuk!).
*Monsanto, who had long since become synonymous with the evils of genetic
modification, realised the public resistance to GM technology would not go
away. The company announced a huge climbdown - they would not produce 'teterminator'
plant seed technology (see under 'Monsanto' below).
*The British Government adopted the 3-year freeze on commercial GM food production
while further research is carried out.
*GM food producers agreed to limit the number and scale of GM trials in the
UK.
The profits from GM go to the multinational companies who are developing these
organisms and/or manufacturing food from them.
Direct action - Consumer pressure - The media
Greenpeace True Food Campaign Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN, UK, info@uk.greenpeace.org
www.greenpeace.org/truefood
Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk - a good contact for finding your local
GM cropsite Smash Genetic Engineering Defence Campaign c/o CRC 16 Sholebroke
Avenue, Leeds, LS7 3HB, UK -supporting direct actions against cropsites
Super Heroes Against Genetix (SHAG) – They dress up as superheroes and
pull up GM crops!
Physicians and scientists against genetically engineered food – www.psagef.org/indexgen.htm
Five Year Freeze, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/gealliance/
-FYF is the most mainstream of the anti-GM campaigns and is supported by several
organisations and MPs. This campaign calls on the UK Government to stop growing
GM crops for any commercial purposes, importing GM foods and crops and patenting
genetic resources for five years until more research has been done and a decent
public debate can take place to let us decide whether genetic modification
is beneficial, ethical and what we want.
Find out where GM experimental crop sites are and dig ªeem up! Raise money
for the Smash Genetic Engineering campaign Boycott GM products and buy organic
Ask your local supermarkets what foods are GM free Asking local shops, restaurants
etc. to provide GMO free food Tell other people – propaganda available
from the above organisations and from Synthesis distro
Uruguay Scene Report
Interview - Dominatrix
By Brob Tilt!
I was very positively surprised when a correspondent sent me the 'Girl Gathering'
CD by Dominatrix. Not only because the music was really good (very enthusiastic
uptempo melodic shout-along HCpunk) but even more because it showed that in
a traditionally macho-society as the Brazilian one, there were women fighting
patriarchy. I thought letting them speak about what they think and do might
encourage girls/women here (I donªft mean to be patronising here) and teach
some sense to the machos in our scene. Elisa answered the questions (not everything
is necessarily the whole bandªfs opinion) and if you want to write here the
address is: Eliza (Dmx), rua arizona 198 casa 4, 04567-030 São Paulo-SP,
Brazil
PCemodykes
vs. MACHOGREEDCORE - HC festivals at war!
MTM When you first enter the venue, the table where you pay entrance has a
free zine with information on the theme of the festival, the collective, the
workshops and gigs, where to get good & veggie food in Columbus, directions
to nearby useful places, a message from the men in the festival collective
about 'What it means to be an ally to womyn' and other discussion on the festival
in general etc. Also on the table is a notice saying that anyone displaying
behaviour that makes other people feel uncomfortable will be removed from
the festival and not re-admitted. More about this under 'Controversy'. VNV
Come to Ieper, rock out, get punched in the pit, get ripped off at a music
& t-shirt distro stall, go home. Any political approach to the festival was
thrown out long ago and now itÁøs exclusively about music. This year there
was a decent booklet produced with all the info a festival-goer needs including
where to get vegan food. There were also adverts for the local businesses
that sponsor the festival. And these sponsors adorned the festival pass bracelets.
Inside there was even a huge banner advertising a local supermarket that had
a drinks stall. Advertising is what hc is all about right? I guess it was
necessary for that expensive-looking stage and equipment. Still the festival
and the food being sold inside were very expensive. There was a door policy
as well as a sign at the entrance says no weapons and no drugs allowed.
MTM I was only there for one day, but the bands were varied and good and some
were even extremely awesome. Many people had brought their children and on
the day I was there the bill included a band consisting of 4 of the little
girls who performed their own songs to the delight of the rest of us. At one
point there was also some acoustic performance taking place in the distro
stall area (I thought it was naff). The last band of the day was Anti/Product
who started out with the Latino Á‰ singer doing a monologue inspired by her
grandmother and about scalping a white man while the drummer sat beside her
doing some tribal beats. Then they went on to tear the place down with their
political (feminist, indigenous, etc), dual-vocalled, raging, storming, energetic,
fun and generally amazing hardcore. The sound and the performance were awesome.
Wow. VNV The monopoly of vegan mosh metal is ending and the bands now do vary
in style, substance and enjoyability. The tendency for days to be labelled
as 'emo day' or 'metal day' though is a bit discouraging. This year there
were a couple of bands whose singers did actually talk between songs, but
it was usually to say crap like 'buy our cd motherfuckers' and that so-and-so
are 'pussies'. There was some really bad macho and metal posturing on the
stage and a general encouragement from these bands of that violent dancing
crap that Belgian kids like to do just to proveÁÐwhat? Over the whole three
days there was only ONE band, just one that was brave enough to challenge
this violent shite that was going on throughout the weekend. That band was
Leiah from Sweden and although I wasnÁøt tremendously taken by their music
(it was ok standard emo) they certainly gained my respect for comments like
Á¨I thought straight edge was supposed to be about tolerance' and for criticising
all the violence. The thing was, that when they did talk about violent dancing,
everybody applauded! I'm told that even the windmilling idiots there were
clapping. So why wouldn't any other band speak out? It all reminded me of
when I went to conferences as a student unionist. These conferences were completely
stage-managed and stitched up by one faction who managed to create the illusion
that they had democratic credibility and were the standard-bearers of consensus
in the students' movement. Of course if one actually talked to the average
individual attendant at these conferences, they tended to see right through
the stage-management. But when you got 1000 delegates all together inside
the spectacle of the conference hall, they tended to go along with those in
the positions of authority. Why do hc kids check their critical faculties
at the venue door?
MTM Stallholders were not allowed to set up until after the workshops had
finished. Lots of really excellent literature stalls including Tree of Knowledge
Press, AK Press, a benefit bookstall for the Abortion Access Fund, lots of
free literature and girl-run zine distros, also many t-shirt and patch stalls
and only a few with music. Some bands had set up little stalls with info about
themselves and the great California positive sxe band Former Members of Alfonsin
gave out their zine to people passing through to or from the venue space.
VNV A big hardcore shopping mall full of outrageously overpriced boring cds
and t-shirts of awful bands from the big hc businessmen. Also this year for
the first time there was a charge per metre of stall table. The sensible people
got around that though.
MTM The festival has become synonymous with controversy since a couple of
years ago when Felix of Code 13 was accused of rape while the band was onstage.
This started a discussion that is still growing in the scene and that has
certainly contributed to women-themed projects like this festival. This year
may be remembered for the big race discourse. Some kids were thrown out for
making some stupid possibly racist comments in front of some African-American
kids. There was then a big discussion (followed by a smaller one) on what
& how it was said, whether the kids should be let back in, whether the festival
was a comfortable atmosphere for the non-white kids there etc. At one point
the perpetrators were defended by a woman of colour, but most of the people
of colour there were completely uncomfortable with the idea of letting those
kids back in. I wasnÁøt able to find out what if any resolution came of this,
but the punks of colour had a long meeting in their safe space. I was glad
to see something stirred up to see some principles put into practice. I also
felt sorry for the collective because they obviously bear a heavy responsibility
when controversy comes up. It was obvious there was no easy solution to the
issues being brought up. At least some drunk punx there had the bright idea
to Á¨help break the tensionÁø by playing spin the bottle outside after the
last band. There was also a residual controversy from the previous year when
Scott Bloodlink was thrown out. He came this year only to be thrown out again
because of last year.
'it's a really great experience. it changed my life (and outlook on life)
both years i've gone. if you give it a chance, it can do the same for you.'
To find out about More than Music: http://members.tripod.com/~morethanmusic/
, e-mail: morethanmusic@hotmail.com, or girlmilitia@hotmail.com
Are there any festivals in Europe that are positive, and socially and politically-relevant?
The Newland Collective in Belgium (c/o Olensweg 151, 2260 Voortkapel, Westerlo,
Belgium) sometimes puts on one-day events.
Italy has the annual festival with girl punk bands (Veruska, c/o Fioritto
V.O. Da Gubbio 2370, 00146, Rome, Italy)
The 1 in 12 (PO Box 169, Bradford, BD1 2UJ, UK, 1in12@legend.co.uk) and Armed
With Anger (PO Box 487, Bradford, BD2 4YU, UK, awa@ndirect.co.uk) in the UK
are interested in putting on festivals with more diverse stuff happening.
Kate Princess (47 Glenbervie Dr. Herne Bay, Kent CT6 6QN, rebel.girll@virgin.net)
will hopefully be putting on a feminist punk/indie fest in SouthEast England
soon.
Saxon Wood - Fighting the Dragon
with GAndALF