Luke Hauser is author of several novels as well as a lifetime of activist journalism. Books at DirectAction.org / Journalism at ReclaimingQuarterly.org
“The movement was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman who was allegedly beaten into a coma by morality police for wearing her headscarf the wrong way. But it has since morphed into the biggest civil uprising for years, with Iranians expressing their rage over decades of oppression, misogyny in the name of religion, and international isolation.
“Authorities have responded with force, firing at and beating protesters. The UN office of the high commissioner for human rights has said more than 300 people have been killed in the crackdown, including at least 40 children.”
FILE PHOTO: Protesters shout slogans during a demonstration following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Istanbul, Turkey, October 2, 2022. REUTERS/Dilara Senkaya/File Photo
Signed/inscribed copies ($25 US, $50 outside the US) benefit Reclaiming Quarterly and support copy-editing and chants production.
Here’s the back-cover blurb of A Fool Such As I
The owner of Arcane Wisdom Magicke Shoppe is dead. His revolutionary new deck, the Trismegistus Meister Tarot, is missing.
Could the culprit be one of the locals on Oracle Street? Perhaps gnostic sage Madame Bluebloodsky? Self-promoting raconteur Alabaster Crockley? Or maybe feminist maven Wendy Womansdaughter, owner of the Wiccan Wonderland?
Did the shifty mountebank from the esoteric street faire have a hand? And what about millionaire Cornelius De Roquefort, founder of the Headstone Eclectic Metaphysical Outlet chain?
Will the Universal Pan-Pagan Interfaith Council – UPPIC, the highest authority in the brave new Pagan world of the Great Return – succeed in hushing up the affair?
Worse yet, is UPPIC looking for a convenient scapegoat?
Join detective and resident custodian Jeff Harrison as he immerses himself in the minutiae of Tarot, taxing all of his intuitive and janitorial skills in a desperate attempt to clean up the messy affair – before he faces trial by ordeal!
A well-written article on the disastrous new interest in nuclear power by Serhii Plokhy, from the UK Guardian – click here.
Plokhy speaks of “the hazard inherent in all nuclear power. In order for this method of producing electricity to be safe, everything else in society has to be functioning perfectly. Warfare, economic collapse, climate change itself – all of these increasingly real risks make nuclear sites potentially perilous places.”
Great! As long as we can guarantee world peace and security for the next 10,000 years – not to mention solve all of the environmental crises – then nuclear power and waste make total sense.
In case you missed the thrilling news, a group – or more likely a single, friendless man calling themselves “Jane” – fire-bombed an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.
Is this our plan for changing the world? Not mass action. Not electoral organizing. No – we need lone heroes to save us.
Nothing says “I have no faith in my fellow citizens” like running off by yourself and setting off a bomb. Or a fire. Or a rock through a window.
This isn’t about ethics. It’s about strategy. You know, like having a plan and finding other people to work with. Damn hard, isn’t it?
You might actually have to talk to other people who don’t entirely agree with you. You might actually have to reach consensus.
And guess what? You don’t get to be the hero. Sorry, “Jane” – I’m outing you as a white male techie who hates your life, has no friends, and dreams of being a hero.
(February 24) The UK Guardian reports 1700 arrests in the Russian Federation in protest of Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth report from Moscow:
“Vladimir Putin has said there is broad public support for the invasion of Ukraine that he announced just before dawn on Thursday morning. But by evening, thousands of people in cities across Russia had defied police threats to take to central squares and protest against the military campaign.
“Police had made at least 1,702 arrest in 53 Russian cities as of Thursday evening, according to the OVD-Info monitor, as they cracked down on the unsanctioned protests. Most of the arrests were made in Moscow and St Petersburg, where the crowds were largest.”
Image: Moscow protester, February 2022 – by Konstantin Zavrazhin
Our old activist comrade and my close friend Steve Nadel passed away in early December 2021. Steve was 68, and had been in good health until a stroke in October.
In my circles, Steve marched with Teen Earth Magic in the 2011 Solstice in the Streets event. We traveled together to Nevada Test Site several times for actions in the 1980s. He helped defend Peoples Park in the 1990s, and organized around Richmond Oil Refinery in recent years. He was also the Funky Nixons’ number one roadie!
Some folks from the old days knew Steve from Livermore Action Group, a 1980s Bay Area anti-nuke and anti-intervention coalition. The character Mort in my book Direct Action is based on Steve – http://DirectAction.org/book
The decades-long effort to limit logging in Northern California’s Jackson State Demonstration Forest, which contains Mendocino Woodlands, is currently facing vast areas of active and proposed new cuts.
Mendocino Woodlands is home to four Reclaiming witchcamps as well as dozens of other grassroots camps and retreats.
