Today the postman brought me the latest issue of The Cunningham Amendment; the most beautiful, inspiring and downright funny political zine produced in this or any other millennium. Hand-crafted by the Good Doctor and assorted  Anarcrisps (nice, well presented anarchists who have absolutely no intention of leaving the comfort of the anarchist ghetto) at the R Supward Press, this letterpress printed thing of wonder is worth ten thousand pages of dry academic drivel… this publication, my friends, is nothing short of a rose-scented molotov for the soul.

May I humbly suggest that anyone who stumbles upon this post takes it upon themselves to acquire at least one copy of The Cunningham Amendment in their lifetime. Not from contemptible whores like Andrew Burgin, but from the Good Doctor himself, Dr Peter Good; the nicest and most dapper man who ever bought me a pint (and as a self-confessed I.O.Utopian I have been bought many, many pints!).

If the Doc deems you an Anarcrisp then you may already be receiving the TCA free of charge on a regular basis. Lesser mortals might like to send a donation of cash, bullion, objet d’art, ephemera or stamps to:

TCA, Room 6, Tangleford House, The Street, Bawdeswell, Norfolk, NR20 4RT

And don’t forget to check out The Print Project which was given life thanks to a donation from Dr Good

SOPA & PIPA: The Internet Goes On Strike, Pirates Join
On January 18, many websites will voluntarily go on strike [1] to demonstrate against the threat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) bills, pending US legislation that would restrict freedom of speech, negatively impact economies, and degrade internet security. Participation in the strike has been confirmed by Wikipedia[2], Reddit, Mozilla, and Free Software Foundation, among others. Many organizations, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have expressed grave concerns over the bills [3].
Regardless of whether its purpose is legitimate or whether it will work; the legislation is not compatible with democratic values. It promotes censorship by giving the US Government and corporations the power to block access to – and take down – websites that they consider to be infringing on their copyright monopoly, including search engines or blogs which link to such sites. This would be done by ordering Internet Service Providers to censor access to the Internet and by cutting funds to the infringing websites by forcing the advertisers and payment services to cancel their accounts [4].
These laws would make social networks, search engines, and all websites providing space for discussion and information exchange impossible to run without massive surveillance of all users and the censorship of everything they publish. A link placed by a user in the comment section of an article in a regular Internet magazine could result in the magazine going bankrupt and the owners being charged with a crime. This would not only cripple innovation and entrepreneurship, it would be a flagrant violation of the fundamental human right to free speech. The bill’s supporters refuse to acknowledge the anti-democratic aspects of the bill as a problem; instead pointing-out that the proposed filtering mechanisms have been proven to work in countries like China, Iran, and Syria [5] – nations infamous for their official suppression of free speech and expression.
Pirate Parties are joining the protest and oppose these bills on the grounds that they will erode the rights of every internet user around the world. Pirate Parties object generally to any legislation that would toughen intellectual property law, but these acts go beyond file-sharing – they harm everyone’s ability to participate and interact online, both personally and commercially.
Pirate Parties urge other websites to join the strike on the 18th.
Pirate Parties who will black out on the 18th: Australia, Belgium, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Canada, France, Germany and Young Pirates Germany, Greece, Italy, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Massachusetts and Georgia, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom

…which fueled a most beautiful idea…

The idea of ‘Rise & Root‘.

It is radical in the truest sense of the word – from Latin radix “root” to create radicalis “of roots” – at a time when radicalism is so urgently required. As Rima herself says:

For some time I have wanted to make an image with which to start a quiet revolution on the backs of service station toilet doors, on the billboards behind carparks, over the screens of insidious train-journey advertising. In deep hatred for the feeling I get when I am forced to enter motorway service station cafes, shopping malls or toilets, I wanted to rail against all that is bland and homogeneous and commercial and life-suckingly chrome-and-concrete and spreading un-refuted like a disease across our land …

I suppose I wanted to plant my revolution-seed in the dirt in the cracks of the pavements, in the dirt between the formica and polyester, in the dirt pushed to the edges of millions of touchscreens, in the dirt underneath escalator rails and hygienic hand-dryers. Like the gargoyles and marginal grotesques of the middle ages, I wanted to coax beauty in once more like a stranger to the citadels of public ugliness we all have become so used to…

And so I made this drawing for you – Rise & Root – a symbol perhaps, a waymarker for the Zapatistas of suburbia. As I drew the rooted tree-people raising their fists, I realised that they were the embodiment and representation of my dream-rune: raised fists to the fight, and roots in the earth. I give you this image to do with what you wish: download it, reblog it, print it, photocopy it, make it into stickers … It is yours. A gift to our revolution for Two Thousand And Twelve. Take it and run.

People are already trying to give meaning to the rune – with talk of Ogham, Elder or Anglo-Saxon Futhark and even semaphore (‘E’/’5′ and ‘N’ if you’re interested) – but I think it is a symbol which should remain allusive… speaking in a esoteric but universal language, saying only what the beholder needs to hear… and only when they’re ready to hear it. An object of meditation as yet uncorrupted by expectations and prejudice. Take it simply as it is, indeed take it and run. And by way of a small contribution I have created SVG and PDF files from the original artwork to make it even easier to run with…

Click here to download a PDF file of the Rise & Root Rune

Click here to download a PDF file of the Rise & Root graphic

SVG files can be downloaded here – http://permafuture.org/rise%20&%20root.svg – and here – http://permafuture.org/rise%20&%20root%20rune.svg

‘Union’ (The Brotherhood Church, Stapleton, North Yorkshire, 2011)

‘Moss Wheel’ (The Brotherhood Church, Stapleton, North Yorkshire, 2011)

‘Kettle & Corrosion’ (The Brotherhood Church, Stapleton, North Yorkshire, 2011)

‘Tom Ferris’ House’ (The Brotherhood Church, Stapleton, North Yorkshire, 2011)

It has been suggested that those of us who love the derelict aesthetic are sentimentalists, that we are somehow hankering after a lost age. But I feel that the very opposite is true. Visions of impermanence remind us that whoever we are and whatever we’re doing ‘this too shall pass’; it is vain and all too often dangerous to think otherwise. Once we have accepted  the transient nature of all things, the anal, grabbing, possessive folly of consumer society looks completely and utterly ridiculous. We do not suffer from loss, but from our inability to let go. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley knew full well that time is the great leveler…

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.

Do not hanker after things. Beyond shelter, warmth, companionship, a full belly and a comfortable pair of shoes there is only bling and entertainment; the question you must ask yourself is ‘Who suffers for yours?’

The Greenhouse (Brotherhood Church, 2011)

Caravan Door (Brotherhood Church, 2011)

Shoe (Brotherhood Church, 2011)

Caravan (Brotherhood Church, 2011)

Well Wheel (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

Knitting Room Window (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

Outhouse Window (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

Oil Drum (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

Oil Drum 2 (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

Horse Shoe (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

Weights (Brotherhood Church, Stapleton 2011)

“You may drive Mother Nature out with a pitchfork, but she always comes hurrying back!”

So said the Roman lyric poet, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known to the English speaking world as Horace. Some of us however are apt to welcome Mother Nature back with open arms.

For there is a beauty in dereliction, ruin and decay which borders on the spiritual. Some might say dereliction presents us with a timely reminder of universal transience and our own fragile mortality, but I like to see decay in a more positive light. We vainly associate decay and dereliction with death because of the corruption that awaits our  own once desirable flesh, yet these processes are life itself, key and core to every organism on Earth. It is the pristine realms of man – be they palace, palladium or shopping-precinct – which are truly the realms of the dead; like the Taj Mahal our splendid visionary vistas of steel, glass and marble are but beautiful mausoleums. Nature, life – the true miracle of the universe – inhabits the cracks in the pavements and the forgotten corners of our metropolises. Concrete may be more effective than a pitchfork, but – as Horace knew all too well – this planet wasn’t created solely to satisfy the neurological quirks of Obsessive Compulsive apes; the technological might of man is no match for relentless isness of Mother Nature. And I for one find it comforting to know that the wild is always with us.

The PermaFuture project, the Living Arts Trust and PIXIEWORKS, are helping to create HarFest, an alternative harvest festival, at The Leopard on West St in Doncaster next Sunday – 2nd October.

Why not drop by and bring something for the ‘harvest table’?

If you live in or near Donny why get involved with the next planning meeting - 7pm, Monday 26th September, @ The Leopard. You can also help spread the word by spreading around a few posters…

Click here to download a free PDF of the HarFest poster.

We’re also hoping to encourage more HarFests up and down the country, and to do things in Donny on a much bigger scale next year! If you’re interested then just get in touch with one of groups mentioned… or leave a comment below and I’ll contact you

Sometimes doubt blows through my mind like wind through dead branches.

Yes, it’s another boring day in the basement at work

Fortunately the rest of the entombed souls (workforce) seem to have forgotten I’m down here… time for some mischief I think

Click here to downlaod a free PDF of this poetry poster…