The Park of Exarcheia (Self Organized Occupied Park in Athens / Greece) // a film by Free Art Zone & Void Network

Free Art Zone
http://zonafreeart.blogspot.com/
&
Void Network
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com/

presents
the short film

The Park of Exarchia 
(Self Organized Occupied Park 
in Athens / Greece)

Occupied Self Organized Park in Exarchia area in Athens is a creation of the power of the people. More than 1000 people participated in the occupation of this public space and the creation of a open park for all people of the city. Through the participation to the assembly of the park, the events, the concerts, the political and social talks and the gatherings the self-organized park of Exarcheia is an alive liberated public space, a public space created by the people and belonging to all the people of this world,

info about Exarcheia area:
The Exarcheia region is famous as a stomping ground for Greek anarchists.
The district of Exarcheia was created between 1870 and 1880 at the confines of the city and has played a significant role in the social and political life of Greece. It is there the Athens Polytechnic uprising of November 1973 took place. Exarcheia is a place where many intellectuals and artists live and an area where many socialist, anarchist, and antifascist groups are accommodated. Police stations and other symbols of authority (and capitalism) such as banks are often targets of far-leftist groups. Exarcheia is also an art hub where theatrical shows and concerts take place around the central square. In December 2008, the shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Exarcheia caused rioting throughout Greece

Olympia Washington / We Are an Image From the Future // U.S.A Tour 2010

It was a nice sunny afternoon in Olympia, a city with hippy atmosphere, so-called "progreesive" univeristies, drop out kids in the streets and high tense drug use problems...Our talk in Last Word bookshop [http://lastwordblog.blogspot.com/] about the Greek isurrectionary anarchist space and the social revolt in Greece created a meeting point for many different people expressing their questions and share with us their visions for political, social and cultural organizing.  The Anarchist space in Olympia is young and ready to blossom... Among them, the revolutionary artists from the hip-hop group Thought Crime Collective
 [ http://www.myspace.com/thoughtcrimecollective ], maybe one of the most important political hip hop bands on this planet today...Many people we met were participating in very interesting projects...The Free Radio Olympia is an unlicensed, direct action micropower radio station broadcasting at 100 watts on 98.5 FM in Olympia, Washington, Cascadia that have been on the air since March 2001. FRO is committed to providing a service to the community by creating access to the airwaves and bringing unregulated, uncensored media to the listeners in the spirit of free speech and freedom of the press.   [ http://www.frolympia.org/ ]. Garden-Raised Bounty (GRuB) is a grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to nourishing a strong community by empowering people and growing good food.They grow inspired, self-confident and community-minded youth through educational and employment opportunities. [http://www.goodgrub.org/index.php/page/show/home ].

Thet Media Island International is a resource and networking center for individuals, organizations, and movements working on Social Justice, Economic Democracy, Ecological Sustainability, and Peace.They gather, evaluate, and distribute underpublished information on critical issues at strategic times.

 [ http://www.mediaisland.org/ ]. The Mad Hatter's Tea Consortium is a group of dreamers in the Evergreen college that offers a good example for a conspiracy organizing cultural group inside the university [http://www.evergreen.edu/activities/groups/m-s]. GenderJam also is a not-for-profit radical community event. They recognize that we live in a society full of power imbalances along lines of race, class,gender, sex, sexuality, age, physical ability, size and other diverse identities and they celebrate the difference through festivals, parties, workshops and cultural organizing based on GenderJam [http://olyladiyfest.wordpress.com/]

Portland Oregon // We Are an Image From The Future U.S.A. Tour 2010

The days in Portland were getting more and more crazy day after day. When we arrived Peter Gelderloos gave a lecture about the book Anarchy Works in the infoshop / cafe Red & Black [http://redandblackcafe.com/red-and-black-pdx-guide/ ], a space that accomodates many activities, groups and assemblies.

In the same night we went in the most crazy party even organized by a local Portland Indymedia collective [http://portland.indymedia.org/ ]...The people got naked after sometime and the party started to be realy wonderfull for everybody... The next day we've been invited to talk about Greek social insurrection in the important infoshop, bookshop and community organizing social center Black Rose [http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/374557.shtml ]. The talk kept for more than 3 hours in a complete packed space and it was the first time in all the tour until now that the people felt the need to use the understandings and the enthousiasm of our talk and put in practice their commitment to organize, meet in assembly, prepare for social struggle, creating counter information and attack against their own limitations.
We met many interesting collectives and many activists after our talk. Among them we met people from North Star infoshop, a worker-owned bookstore and community center [http://www.northstarinfoshop.org/ ], the events guide http://pc-pdx.com/Show-Guide/ , from The Northwest Student Coalition that is a horizontally structured student led network and interactive forum that aims to bridge intercollegiate communication of student groups working for social and environmental justice : [  http://nwstudentcoalition.net/ ], Portland Collective Housing(PCH) that is a non-profit low income housing corporation : 
[ http://www.portlandcollectivehousing.org/ ], Take Back The Land [http://takebacktheland.org/ ]
and the amazing small anarchist typography and publications collective Eberhardt Press [ http://www.eberhardtpress.org/ ]. The press name comes from the 19th century revolutionary explorer Isabelle Eberhardt : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_Eberhardt

One day after our talk the Portland police assassinated the third person in the same month in this city...For many people this was enough....They came to the streets and they expressed their rage and their social ideas.You can find more info about the actions in Portland against police murders here:
http://portland.indymedia.org./en/2010/03/397973.shtml

Northern California & South Oregon // Red Wood Forest & Boone's Farm // We Are An Image from The Future U.S.A. Tour 2010

We arrive at the Red Wood Forest , the trees are so high like in our dreams , they try to touch the sky as our revolutionary spirit expands to the land of total freedom. The branches from the trees remind us to respect the Mother Earth , the damp ground, the rivers, the flowers, the song of the birds, the cold clean air is offering to us the great beauty of the nature as a warm-hearted gift. The balance of the forest screams when capitalism swallows one piece of it. In Red Wood Forest the ideas and actions of eco-activism, the wild manifesto's of Green Anarchy, the visions of John Zerzan and anarco-primitivist scene of Eugene makes sense even for techno-rave futurists. Here you understand why the people defend so passionately the Nature, why they fight against capitalist civilization. You understand the passion of all these people living on trees and defending the forest from exploitation and destruction, you understand the dreams and hopes of all people that attack against the industrialization and the economic regime. 

Through the Pacific we arrive at Booney’s Farm in South Oregon. All people here working in nature, take care of the animals and the plants, organizing educational eco-seminars, and concerts and campaigns and expressing their example of life and work in the nature day after day.

You can have an experience of their life to this video:

4th annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival // Call for Submission of Films

Void Network 
announces the participation to the creation of
4th annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival in
16 April 2010
in Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington square NYC
It will be an amazing
political, social & artistic event featuring simultaneously
projections of films on 6 screens 
and we invite all creative political aware
film makers to submit their films



WEB: www.nyanarchistfilmfest.org


Call For Entries

The New York Anarchist Film Festival is now accepting submissions. We
are seeking short films and movies from your local projects, actions
and movements. The shorter the better. Rebellious, strong,
insurrectionary and diverse. Subversive, political and cultural
content. Send shorts about the creation of autonomous non-hierarchical
communities. Send us a 30 second greetings from your collective,
squat, or project.


Due date for submissions is April 10th, 2010

To submit your films, email us links to your video. We can grab stuff
off youtube, indybay, archive.org or pretty much any video sharing
site. If the video is not online, you can email us a copy through a
file sending service like yousend it.

In case you have a very large file or would prefer to send us video in
physical format,emails for upload instructions or snailmail address.

The main submissions email is:
 submissions@nyanarchistfilmfest.org

San Francisco & Berkeley // We Are an Image From The Future U.S.A. Tour 2010

All these crazy days in San Francisco unfortunately ended sudden with a broken car and all our staff stolen… You can read more info about this here and we hope you can find some dollars to donate and help us continue our tour in U.S.A: 

http://littleblackcart.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=533 

Even though our days in San Francisco ended with all of us fucked up sad and in serious troubles,…we have to admit that until that moment we had some great time there… San Francisco is the center of the new student movement and we met many enthusiastic people, ready to continue occupations, demonstrations, d.i.y. concerts, political aware rave parties and counter-information publications. Students and cultural activists are ready to continue the efforts to connect the student struggles with the fight against racism and exploitation, ready to make the student movement a serious thread for the economic regime and the pathetic liberal amerikkkan social normality.  

You can find info and visions of the occupied California here: [http://afterthefallcommuniques.info/ ] and here Occupy California: [http://occupyca.wordpress.com/   ]

During our staying in San Francisco Void Network members and editors of the book We are an Image from the Future (The Greek Revolt of December 2008) Tasos Sagris, Sissy Doutsiou and Peter Gelderloos spoke in Anarchist Book Fair [http://sfbookfair.wordpress.com/ ] in Golden Gate park area and in B.A.S.T.A..R.D. Conference in Berkeley University  [http://sfbay-anarchists.org/conference/.]

 Both of the events were well organized, hosted many different speakers and offered a variety of Anarchist visions to the public. Anarchist Book Fair is a vast area for bazaar of anarchist books and two areas of public lectures and attracts thousands of people that wonder around the tables of all different publishers and organizations. During this event appeared also for first time our book “We Are an Image from The Future (The Greek Revolt of December 2008) “. The editors of the book met during the SF Anarchist book fair and felt a deep feeling of responsibility holding the book in their hands. Our talk in Anarchist Book Fair, possibly by an underestimation of the importance of Greek insurrection, hosted in the café area and not at the main hall….This cost a lot to the reputation of the organizers as hundreds and hundreds of people tried to pack in the café and many of them floated out of the hall, unfortunately unable to hear our talk. Also, the politic of the book fair to allow 20 to 45 minutes to the speakers for their lectures forced us to speak fast, in anxious and in no way to cover the questions of the people… Even though all the problems of good hosting of our talk by the conference, the people felt inspired by the talk, they shouted, participated with questions and a feeling of enthusiasm spread all over the places of the book fair as we tried to share with all these comrades the experiences and the methods of organizing in Greece.

In B.A.S.T.A.R.D. Conference was for sure much better. The organizers were focused on talks and workshops and not on books bazaar and this offered us a great chance to talk for 1.30 hour and speak deeper and more analytical about the Greek insurrection. Also they showed more respect to our presence, they participated in the talk and made us felt like we are in a  real anarchist event. You can find all info and audio of our talk in B.A.S.T.A.R.D. Conference in Berkeley University here:

[ http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/03/18/18641710.php ]

After our talk we met with Holly Noll. [http://supportholly.org/ ]. Holly Noll at the moment hearing about the Oscar Grant execution that occurred on January 1st 2009 (please read more about the Oscar Grant case here:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/14/oscar-grants-killer-bart-_n_157824.html) she felt a call to action. Like thousands of other Oakland residents, she took to the streets to protest this cold blooded racial killing. During the melee that occurred over the next two weeks, over 100 people were arrested on false charges. Most of the charges were dropped, save for a handful of people. Holly was in this handful. She now stands as one of the two remaining members of the Oakland 100. Please read more, express your solidarity and donate for Holly Noll : [http://supportholly.org/ ]

Peter Gelderloos also during our staying in SF he made a talk about Squatting Movement in Barcelona Hosted by the Institute for Anarchist Studies http://www.anarchist-studies.org

All days in San Francisco spent with some great friends of us wondering around in San Francisco and talking about the Global Civil War and the efforts for the building of a global anarchist movement based on the history, the needs and the struggle of each society. Among the people we met was the influential activist and writer Calamity Barucha. You can find two articles of her here:   [ about the NY New School occupation http://www.counterpunch.org/peller04222009.html ] and about Oaxaca:  [http://www.counterpunch.org/peller11112006.html]

Other people we met and having talks (and endless nights of drinking) were our friends from Phoenix Class War Council [http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/ ], the writer Andrej Grubacic [http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=andrejgrubacic], the important feminist, historian and revolutionary Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz [ http://www.reddirtsite.com/ ], people from Modesto Anarcho mag. : [http://www.myspace.com/modanarcho ], comrades from Green Anarchy magazine [http://www.greenanarchy.org/ ], our friend John Zerzan [http://www.johnzerzan.net/], Anarchy Journal of Desire Armed [http://www.anarchymag.org/ ], the U.S.A. Surrealist Movement [http://www.surrealistmovement-usa.org/], people from American Indian Movement [http://www.aimovement.org/ ], Crimethinc Ex-Workers Collective [http://crimethinc.com/ ] as also the wonderful people responsible for Ardent Press [http://ardentpress.org/ ] and the radicalization of using of internet by anarchists, by the creation of Anarchist News [http://anarchistnews.org/ ] , The Anarchist Library                 [ http://theanarchistlibrary.org/ ], and Little Black Cart : [ http://littleblackcart.com/  ].

Of course we have to specially mention the morning we spent in Oakland area speaking with our publishers from AK Press, the biggest anarchist publishing collective on this planet. 

For more info about AK Press publishing collective: [ http://www.akpress.org/ ].

Also we have to mention our meeting with the influential situationist Ken Knabb, the creator of the amazing site Bureau of Public Secrets [ http://bopsecrets.org/ ], the main translator of Situationist International in English language and the writer,  among many others, of The Joy of Revolution (visions of liberated society and how we might get there) 

[ http://bopsecrets.org/PS/joyrev.htm ]. After our talk with him we decided to distribute soon pamphlets with his writings in Greek language and start translating his work in Greek

We had also some interesting talks in City Lights Bookshop, the original center of Beat Generation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Generation] as also in Long Haul Anarchist Infoshop [http://thelonghaul.org/ ] in Berkeley, a social center hosting among others the activities of the influential collective Slingshot [ http://slingshot.tao.ca/ ] 

Unfortunately all these meetings, walks around the city and long talks stopped suddenly when we realized that all the machines, most of the books and all the pamphlets we were bringing in Greece for our comrades there had been stolen and we were under serious problems for the continuation of our tour. The mutual aid of all american comrades and the help of all our friends made it possible for us to continue the tour We Are An Image From The Future // U.S.A. Tour 2010

If you want to donate to our tour and help us cover the damages click here:

Donation for We Are an Image From The Future Tour :

http://littleblackcart.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=533