ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

Go Ahead, Say It

ETS!,

Great article on Singapore. I'd hate to say something intemperate like "Stalinist government," but it's kind of hard to avoid. It's too bad Noam Chomsky doesn't live in Seattle, the stadiums and parking garages were bad enough, but this is....well, in reality, probably harmless, but ideologically, 10,000 times worse--the whole ball of wax. Brought to us by the Liberal Democratic Establishment.

I loved (Port Commissioner) Paige Miller's quote (in the P-I) about Singapore doing their train line in only 2 years...and that democracy is great, but there's got to be a middle road! Apparently ignorant that we already have the Hallowed Middle Road, and it's called the Port of Seattle. Take out all the important economic decisions, throw it in an obscure unsexy body that sounds like Sewer Commission and presto!

--Seybold Powers, Seattle

Happiness Is...

Dear ETS!,

Your March 24 issue was a good read all the way through. But I really did a double-take when I came across the letter "The Good News." For several days I had been pretty depressed about the state of the environment (pollution, etc.), and John Chapman's letter really helped dispel the cloud. Thanks so much for printing it.

Best wishes,

--Maria Abdin, Seattle

Disengage!

ETS!,

I like what you're doing. I might wish it weren't seemingly unremittingly about grimness--but I'm glad you're doing it. I hope it's not just the choir that's paying attention.

Thanks, and keep it up! Illegitimati non carborandum!

P.S. Don't engage the dogmatic "anarchists" so much--it just encourages them.

--Kerry Canfield, Seattle

Shoot!

ETS!,

I have resisted the temptation to contribute my two cents on the "anarchist" controversy because I didn't want to give the issue more credit than it deserves. I guess I've finally had my fill of letters condemning ETS! in the glorious name of Anarchy and am ready to puke.

John and Benjamin, I am going to indulge myself much in the same way you have, although I will not be as verbose. Your attempts at defining what real anarchism is and isn't are pathetic and completely irrelevant to what ETS! does. Does your zealotry ever embarrass you? Way to strike another blow for the revolution brother, never mind it's your own nose that is bleeding. I can't properly convey how fed up I am with people like yourself who try to sabotage anything remotely progressive simply because it doesn't fit into your little (fantasy) world of black flags and Bakunin. ETS! is good and informative. Your beef with it is pointless and BORING.

P.S. For those who care, I consider myself an anarchist (libertarian/socialist/communist ...whatever...it's not vitally important).

--Brian Colwell, Seattle

Don't Shoot!

ETS!,

Dang! Now Maria flames up for no good reason! I've never called anyone at ETS! a Marxist or criticized your decision-making, but wrote "If there's no democracy" and "If there are any Marxists" involved, the paper will invariably suffer. The ultra-authoritarian behavior of the Marxists throughout history is despicable and repugnant as they've backstabbed all who collaborate with them. And no, Maria, I hardly said everyone is an anarchist; only those who advocate putting everything to a vote (and this is how all dogmas get their chance).

ETS! is a fine paper--and here's my subscription renewal to prove my sincerity. It is precisely because you do such an excellent job of reporting government/corporate crimes that it becomes more frustrating that you offer up no solutions. The anarchist tradition of syndicalism is a powerful way to punish and/or destroy the government, so it is crucial that this method be publicized. Many of us would like to Eat the State!, along with a pack of Rolaids, and any suggestions on how to do this could only enhance your glorious zine.

Yours for the Anarchist Evolution,

--Benjamin F., Seattle

Shithouse Comradery

ETS!,

The recent debates are precisely the reeason why a lot of people are turned off by the activist community here in Seattle, and generally what's troubling about the activist community in the U.S. to begin with. In countries like England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, and Canada groups like the ISO, SWP, FSP, Green Party, and the Communists work in solidarity with groups like the IWW, Food Not Bombs, EF!, AL, and various other anarchist organizations. In Dublin, the SWP, EF!, Pobal (Eire's version of ETS!, published by members of the Green Party), and FNB all share office space. They realize that we are all in this shithouse together, and if we don't work together, the system that oppresses us has won and we might as well just give up now, cut our hair, and sit behind a computer under fluorescent lighting and piss in a cup for the next 30 years.

Ben F. (whom I know and respect and happen to think that he is sincere in his beliefs) and John Persak: ETS! doesn't claim to be an anarchist weekly and frankly, I'm glad it's not. It's solicited in locations where it's picked up by people who might be turned off by an anarchist message or little obscure articles about the CNT or the Paris Commune. If you two are unhappy with ETS! and its practices, start your own anarchist weekly that focuses on the theories and philosophies of anarchism in the latter half of the 20th century.

And Maria and Geov, I consider myself to be an anarchist and I've worked with NACC, an organization you're both involved in, and I think you guys do run things democratically so I would be very surprised in ETS! was run differently. And you, too, are sincere in your beliefs. If you're going to criticize, then criticize, don't humiliate. Telling these two guys to fuck off was just plain inappropriate. This isn't the way to build community, and it's exactly what those who oppress us want.

Now let's stop the bullshit, roll up our sleeves, and destroy those neo- liberal fucks that oppress us.

In solidarity,

Justin Hanlon, Food Not Bombs, Seattle

G.P. replies: Maria and I trade off primary editing from week to week (so we aren't always sacrificing our weekends), so I didn't respond to Benjamin's previous letter, and Maria isn't answering here. I would have responded to Benjamin differently, but that's fine; Maria and I have different styles, and it makes for a stronger publication. (We're hoping to add co-editors in the coming months, to add to the diversity and avoid our own burnout.)

I suspect what struck us about both John's and Ben's letters, in essence, was that they ask ETS!, rather forcefully, to exclude people on the basis of labels, and assume that's desirable. We don't. We'd rather judge people by their words and actions. And with that, while we've gotten other letters--generally shorter ones covering points similar to these four--I'd like to bring this exchange, at least in these pages, to a close. ETS! meets to fold and collate every Monday night, with business meetings on first Mondays. We can chat more there.