Christmas evening...

Well it is Xmas evening and we are in San Francisco, 4 days before we head for home on the 29th. We have spent the day walking across Golden Gate Bridge and through Golden Gate Park, which was great.

However, as our departure date gets closer, Holly and I have been reflecting on our travels over the past 9 months and have simply been blown away by the impact that this experience has had on us. As we return home, we bring with us new priorities and ideas which we are determined to stay true to. We both have goals to focus on community building (both in regards to establishing a community space and a community house), Holly is extremely enthusiastic about her teaching and I am looking forward to focussing on activism and having that define me, instead of some mundane job. And as a general rule, we both want to continue to 'work less, and live more'!

As well as taking a lot way from this travel in regards to life lesson etc, we also take a lot away from the time spent with both new and old friends. Our friends in the Pacific really made our time there what it was (The Vutis, Roxanne and Michael, Dave and Tina, Nick et al). The time spent in the Beehive in Vancouver, with Elisa, Michael, Solena, Miguel, Tasha and Garliq, we both agree, were three of the greatest and most meaningful months of our lives. And the chance to see old friends again (Val in New York, and Sam and Mike in Tucson) and the opportunity to make new friends (Kelly and Gwen in Winnipeg, Roger and Julie in Saskatoon, Jose in Chicago, Chris and Ed in Washington DC, Cheney and Michelle in Austin, and Mark and Tracey on the ride between Tucson and San Francisco) is what makes travelling worth while, so thank you to you all for your hospitality and company!!

And to all of my friends and family back home, all I can say is 9 months is too long to be away from such an amazing community of people and I am looking forward to struggling alongside you, laughing with you, and having the opportunity to spend time with you all. You are all wonderful people and I love you very much.

That's it for this blog. Thanks for coming along for the journey and keep in touch.

Ryan

Harper's Ferry...

We're currently in Washington DC checking out a number of sites, the most interesting of which thus far has been Harper's ferry. There, in 1859 a 60 year white man lead an assault on the federal armoury in an attempt to seize the 100,000 guns stored within in order to arm slaves in the surrounding area. This he, and the 21 men he fought along side, hoped would lead to an armed uprising resulting in the abolition of slavery, a system of labour he found morally reprehensible.

He failed however, being apprehended and killed by the same state that one year later would wage a large scale war for what they now highlight as similar reasons to what motivated Brown. Of course, unlike Brown, Lincoln's concern was only ever one of northern economic dominance and in turn, opposition to slavery due to the economic advantage it provided the southern states. The memory we have of him is purely a construct to help create a national identity which serves the purpose of those within the power structure. The same thing is done in Aotearoa and in any country where those in power want the masses to remain obedient and docile.

However, I digress. The site itself today is reminiscent of Akaroa or Arrowtown, being sleepy and peaceful. However, on site their are plenty of things to remind you of the events that took place including the shed in which John Brown and others in the group he led were holed up for several hours facing attacks from federal troops, Brown's gun and the foundations of the armoury which he took for a short time, unfortunately before he could get the weapons to the slaves so they could teach 'masser' a thing or two.

Needless to say, Holly and I found this site to be inspiring and interesting and something we will endevour to learn more about. Speaking of which - follow this link if you would like more information.

Thanks for reading. We are leaving DC tomorrow on a 37 hour bus ride bound for Austin, Texas so will be in touch from there. After Texas we are Tuscon bound and then back to the west coast. Also, we have decided to come home on 26th Dec now , a little earlier than initially planned, so looking forward to seeing ya'll soon!!

Take care,
Ryan

Photos relate to the building in which John Brown and co were holed up in while facing attacks from federal troops. Top photo is at the original site, lower photo is me beside the relocated building.

United States...

We are in the USA now, having left Canada on Nov 14th. From Canada, and more specifically Winnipeg (where we spent some time with some lovely local anarcho folks and checking out some cool stuff going on there) we traveled down to Chicago. This was a 22 hour bus ride, so basically tip to tip of Aotearoa. Needless to say, we were wasted by the end and a little scared as we were sitting behind someone telling those around him of his time in jail after shooting someone 8 times in the torso and then once in the head 'cause the mother fucker was still alive.' However, we made it to Chicago in one piece and spent the next 5 days checking the place out.

Chicago was an interesting town with so much history and so many things going on. We checked out the site of the Haymarket Affair (see the photo to the right), which is an extremely important site in the historical consciousness of any radical. This was the site of an event (a bomb being thrown at the cops) which was used by the state to kill a group of political dissidents, not because any evidence existed to indict them but purely due to their revolutionary ideas. More information here.

Now that event happened in 1886 so many dismiss it as something from a different error. Which is easy to do if you are happy living with wool over your eyes, but skim the surface of history, and in fact take a 15 minute train ride from the spot where the bodies of those murdered in 1886 now lay (beneath the monument pictured below), and you will get to the site where the state murdered another inspirational radical, this time in 1969.

Fred Hampton, the chair person of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers was a passionate and inspirational young man who managed to create cease fires between major street gangs in the Chicago area by highlighting to their members that gang warfare would only serve to keep them in poverty as well as raising the consciousness of the black community around issues of class and the nature of the capitalist system.

As a result of his membership in a group which attempted to empower a population oppressed since the first slave ship arrived in west Africa, he was a victim of the FBI's counter intelligence programme, known as Cointelpro. This programme was organised to disrupt, discredit, and destroy a variety of movements in the 1960s and 70s which posed a threat to the wealth and power of the ruling class.

So on the morning of December 4th, after being drugged by his body guard (actually an under cover cop), the police raided Fred Hampton's house killing Hampton and another Panther, Mark Clark. Clark fired one shot as he woke up to the police smashing the door open and was subsequently filled with bullets. That one shot amounted to the total number of shots fired by the Panthers that morning, while the police fired between 83-99 rounds. The following morning the newspaper represented the event as the brave police 'defending themselves from the vicious panthers'.

It was extremely emotional to visit these sites, being such gross miscarriages of justice as they are, and also seeing as though the victims of the crimes are people who I recognise as ancestors in a theoretical sense. As well as getting a chance to pay my respects, visiting these sites really highlighted an important lesson which relates to those who dismiss they Haymarket Affair as irrelevant today; namely that it is not the time period which will determine how the state will deal with those that challenge it, but rather the level of threat one poses to those who hold power.

From Chicago we traveled to New York which is where I am as I write. We've checked out some interesting things since we've been here, including the site of Malcolm X's murder, Emma Goldman's house, central park and the Stonewall Inn.

This Inn is in fact the site of a riot in 1969 which spawned the gay liberation movement. On June 28th as police attempted to close the bar down in what was typical police harassment of the time, the customers at the inn refused to cooperate which, following police trying to force cooperation, incited a riot. This event is often recognised as the first time in US history when homosexuals fought back en mass against government sponsored persecution and holds an important place in the minds and hearts of the homosexual community. The event is summed up well in the following quote from one rioter:

When did you ever see a fag fight back?... Now, times were a-changin'. Tuesday night was the last night for bullshit.... Predominantly, the theme (w)as, "this shit has got to stop!"

More information here.

Over the next week we will continue to spend time with Holly's friend Val, with whom we are currently staying. There's a few community spaces I want to check out, a few museums Holly wants to check out and a bunch of other things to do.

From here, we will head down the coast to Philly and DC and then turn west to start the long trip back to the west coast.

Cheers for reading and I'll check in again soonish.

Ryan

Saskatoon, SK...

Well we are back on the road again and have so far made it as far as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where we are having highs of 0 and lows of -11 degrees celsius, which is officially the coldest temperatures I have ever experienced. Before we got to this freezer we spent a few days in Banff National Park where we hiked around alpine, glacial blue lakes and got a chance to see some amazing wildlife - we saw a black wolf as it sprinted across the highway which was something else.

From Banff we spent a day and a night travelling to get to Saskatoon (via Calgary and a place called Drumheller, famous for Dinosaur excavations) where we went to the Anarchist Bookfair put on by the local anarchos. Tomorrow we make our way to Winnipeg, Manitoba and from there we are United Snakes, and more specifically Chicago Illinois bound.

The photos are of Peyto Lake (the source of which is a glacier a few hundred metres away - the colour, we have been told is a result of the sun reflecting of rock particles that are so finely crushed that they are suspended in the water), Holly and I at Lake Louise, Wanuskewin Heritage Park (a millenia old First Nations camp site, the ridges of which were used as bufallo drops) and freedom in a bottle.

By the way, I guess I talk a lot about Anarchy on this blog, which is hardly suprising since I am an Anarchist. But, I figure for some of you these terms bring to mind a dude in the 19th century throwing a bomb or killing a president or a punk on a skateboard so feel free to de-mistify the term here.

Thanks for your interest and i'll update this again just as soon as there is more to say. Take care and feel free to let me know what's up at your end.

Ryan

Photo montage...

Hello Folks,
Well it has been a while since I updated the blog so I figured I would put a few pictures up to fill you in on what we have been up to this past month.

We went to Portland, OR and saw small pumpkins...

And huge ones...









We also drank plenty of beer in the sun with Michael and his friend Laura...


We went to an Iraqi Veterans Against the War event, and heard about the horror that is war. Then we were entertained by David Rovics who is a political folk singer - he is in Aotearoa and Australia for the months of Nov and Dec so if you get a chance, you should check him out... More information here!!

We also stayed in a cob house while we were there. Cob is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water and earth.

Since getting back from Portland, Holly has been admiring the Autumn foliage ...


And knitting with friends...






And we've both been spending lots of our time with our wonderful house mates. From left, Miguel, Tasha, Garliq, Solena, Me, Elisa, Holly and Michael...

We leave this Saturday (Nov 1st) so the next blog will be when we're on the road!!

Ryan