Radical Activists Respond to Ejection frm Fresno Community Alliance Newspaper

After seven months of effective collaboration, a collective of radical activists has been ejected from the Fresno Community Alliance newspaper by the paper’s editorial board. Most of the content submitted by the activists for the July issue was also rejected. In response to their removal from the paper nine activists and contributors to the paper read a prepared statement condemning the board’s decision at the board’s June 30th meeting (a copy of the statement is provided below).

In an e-mail dated July 28th Mike Rhodes, the editor of the Community Alliance, wrote that “It is clear, after seeing your 7 page section, that Rancor and the Youth Collective and the Community Alliance are just not on the same page. Rancor and the Youth Collective might want to consider publishing your own newspaper.” Rhodes’ e-mail contained numerous criticisms of activists’ content but left no time or opportunity for the concerns to be addressed.

In addition, Rhodes’ e-mail stated that “Several of the editorial board members, staff, and volunteers of the Community Alliance have expressed concern that the section you sent would target us as supporters of ‘domestic terrorism.’" Activists, in response, were alarmed that, especially in these times, unsubstantiated allegations about terrorism from within the progressive community only serve to endanger activists and deepen suspicions both within and outside the left community.

The severance of ties with the radical collective occurred in spite of a November 1994 agreement between Rhodes and Stephen Gamboa. Gamboa was promised a position as co-editor with full control over the development of a youth culture, arts, and music section. Gamboa and Frank Sanchez provided layout and design work for the paper and, along with the radical culture, arts, and music section, the paper experienced a resurgence. A series of meetings to resolve emerging conflicts over editorial control were upended when the board announced their decision to remove the collective from the paper.

Below is a copy of the statement read by the activists, photos of activists at the Community Alliance board meeting where the statement was read, a copy of Rhodes’ e-mail, and a response to Rhodes’ e-mail by Doug Gilbert of the DAAA collective of Modesto (also a contributor to the activists’ section).



Response to the Community Alliance written by those involved with the culture and arts section and presented to the board at their meeting on June 30th.

These words are addressed to the editorial board of the Community Alliance newspaper and especially to its so-called editor-in-chief, Mike Rhodes.

The future of the Community Alliance newspaper is clear…It has no future. You have betrayed the fundamental principles of community and alliance-building at every turn. You have placed control and self promotion before the interest of the community. You have disrespected our work, reneged on agreements, and looked down your noses at those who are different from you. When we offered to form a collective, you rejected that. You could not accept actual equality and personal responsibility. Now you can’t even live up to your commitment to allow a space for the voices of the future, and you use pretense and hypocrisy to drive us off the paper. You truly are a whimpering echo of the advantaged and powerful that you claim to oppose.

If it is possible for you to be honest with yourselves, you know that the resurgence of interest in the Community Alliance newspaper was due almost exclusively to our work. Because of the graphic arts and layout and design work of Frank Sanchez and Stephen Gamboa, the newspaper became visually interesting. Because of the thought-provoking content of the articles and photographs submitted by radical activists, the newspaper gained authenticity. Our people, people actually committed to building a better world – Teresa Hele, Dallas Blanchard, the DAAA Collective, Nick DeGraff, Michael Becker, Shawn Putnam, Carmella Peeler, Rick Petinak, Eatcho and Josh Wigger, Stephen and Frank – made the new Community Alliance compelling because our words and photos were backed by dedicated and principled action. You held meetings; we went into the streets. You planned endlessly; we took action. You talked; we moved. The reports back from our actions opened a window for readers to historic events. Your rejection of us has slammed the window shut. Without us, you are ghosts; you have a newspaper without a future.

It’s true, we support courageous figures from the Zapatistas to Jeff Leurs. You pretend to be the Ghandis and Kings, but risk nothing. Using unfounded fear of the law as an excuse, you run away from the actual political conflict of the day with your tails between your legs. The tensions that we create spark the basis for real change; it is the same tension that Ghandi and King intentionally created. Fearing any threat to your bourgeois comfort and privilege, you won’t even write about these political realities. You thereby condemn the principles of Subcommandante Marcos, Jeff Leurs, Ghandi, and King. Not to mention the principles of those revolutionaries who won us rights of free expression, free association, and a free press. Even worse, you seek to extend your comfort and privilege from the proceeds of the paper and reject those who, lacking your wealth, contributed voluntarily. Now the paper has no future because you condemn the future.

We are filled with bitter regret when we contemplate how your venal cowardice has squandered an opportunity to form a genuine left Community Alliance in Fresno. You are diversity fakers – all for difference as long as everyone agrees with your views and tactics. You are unwilling to tolerate others, unwilling to take risks, unwilling, most of all, to recognize that those you claim to speak for are your equals. In these historic times, you do the work of the corporate state by undermining the basis of our commonality.

While you scheme about how to profit from the newspaper, we know that one of the main bases of your financial position is derived from the Vanguard Grant, written by Shawn Putnam. We will be contacting the Vanguard organization; we will urge them to revoke your grant and demand repayment of the grant monies. Just as you reneged on your agreement with us, you have violated the terms of the grant by failing to bring together progressive community groups and by stifling youth involvement.

Because of the plight facing the enslaved animals in the circus, this issue of the Alliance will remain on the news stands, but future Community Alliance newspapers are subject to confiscation in the name of the community you claim to represent. Finally, we will utilize every other form of media to expose you for the self-serving, back-stabbing, stale reactionaries that you are.

The time for lies is past; the future is our horizon; the ghosts will be dispersed.

From: "Mike Rhodes" <mikerhodes [at] comcast.net>
To: "Stephen Gamboa" <stephengamboa [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: The arts, music, and entertainment section
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 08:18:40 -0700

Stephen:

After a lot of discussion with editorial board members, staff, and volunteers, we have come to the conclusion that we can't print the 7 page section you sent. We were expecting an arts, music, and entertainment section. What you sent is a series of articles, many of which are unsigned or from people using pseudonyms that lay out the foundation for radical environmentalism and animal rights. The articles give a clear ideological justification that would lead readers to the conclusion that violence is justified to defend animal rights and our environment. To me, the section reads more like a manifesto than an arts, music, and entertainment section.

There are many problems with the pages you sent and we have concerns of legal liability. Many of the articles are personal opinion pieces, written in the first person, and are not signed or from someone using a pseudonym. Several of our editorial board members and supporters were outraged that an article was included that trivialized what happened in Nazi death camps by comparing it to what animals in circuses experience. We believe that many of our readers would also be outraged at the comparison.

Several of the editorial board members, staff, and volunteers of the Community Alliance have expressed concern that the section you sent would target us as supporters of "domestic terrorism." We are particularly concerned, because the writer of the articles are not identified, leaving us to be legally responsible for the content. If a writer believes in what she/he writes, and they want to have it printed in the Community Alliance, the writer has to use their real name.

There are also questions about who took the elephant pictures. Who took them? Do you have the photographer's permission to use them? But, at this point, the photos are way down the list of my concerns.

The bottom line is that we are not going to run the entire section. We will use Rick and Shawn's article. In future months we are open to receiving articles from the youth collective and Rancor for publication. Writers need to use their real names and the editor will decide what material is published.

It is clear, after seeing your 7 page section, that Rancor and the Youth Collective and the Community Alliance are just not on the same page. Rancor and the Youth Collective might want to consider publishing your own newspaper. You have enough material and a clear political direction. I would be happy to share with you what I know about how to make it a financially viable project.

If you are interested in discussing an arts, music, and entertainment section - we will be meeting on Thursday night, 7 PM at the Fresno Center for Nonviolence center. We want an arts, music, and entertainment section and would be more than happy to discuss it with you. This section will be one or two pages each month and will include a broad range of arts, music, and entertainment.

Mike Rhodes
Editor
Community Alliance newspaper
P.O. Box 5077
Fresno Ca 93755
(559) 978-4502 (cell)
AllianceEditor [at] comcast.net
http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/

Subject: RE: FW: The arts, music, and entertainment section
Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 12:51:41 -0500

It has come to my attention of the situation that exists now between the RANCOR collective, (or should I say former contributers to the Alliance), and also Mike Rhodes, and supposedly the other editors on the Alliance, (which I have never met however). Although I think that RANCOR has allready written a good response to MR, (and I agree with it), bellow is my response, and opinion in support of RANCOR.

"The articles give a clear ideological justification that would lead readers to the conclusion that violence is justified to defend animal rights and our environment." -

Most working people except that change will not simply come from writting letters to the editor, voting, and generally giving up your politicial power to statist entities. Further more, I don't think that any violence was acutally advocated in the work that RANCOR people handed in. The two pieces on Jeff Luers simply advocated for the release of Jeff Luers, in defense of property destruction, and also on the problems facing us from global warming.

While I don't think that any of the articles came close to advocating violence, (or violence as I understand is, as in I hit you, you hurt), I think that Mike Rhodes does a disservice to the community by assuming that readers of the paper will be angered by articles that make a clear justification of something completely different than actual violence in my mind: property destruction in the case of Jeff Luers. If Mike Rhodes and others are going to follow not only the party line of the established powers in promoting that idea that eco-radical action in the form of property destruction is violence, then they are not only doing the work of the FBI etc for them, but also not allowing the aboveground supporters of underground action to at least present their side of the story in an intelligent way for a supposed "progressive" audience.

Noone is writting articles on guerrilla violence of the revolutionary war which created America, the massive amounts of violence caused by both political parties, (one of which many Alliance readers voted for), or the violence that is transacted everyday by various industries. In this context, by not allowing space for at least the civil discussion of radical action simply because of fear of state repression, then at least in some part, we are supporting the actions of the state.

Eco-defense, ELF, and ALF actions are seen as the biggest domestic terrorist threat, (as opposed to the fact that diary farms are now the #1 polluter in the valley, global warming is a reality, and thousands of species go extict every year), and if we on the opposition are going to work to try to build a better world, we should be working to expose the real violence peretuated by a system based on private ownership of property and wage slavery, not simply condeming those that take radical action against it. ]

What angers me most however, is the typical liberal view that many of those that work on the Stanislaus Connections here in Modesto share, that people are too stupid to understand something that breaks out of convention, and that they need to be talked down to like children, and they ultimately are to unintelligent to geniuenly realize and deal with the problems that face us. For anarchists who desire community participation to the maximum, and ultimately want to create fully autonomous, directly democratic, and self-managed workplaces and communities, therefore we must have complete transparencey in our projects, non-hierarchal organizing structures, and ideas and projects that are community based organs, and not top down lofty ideas that exist outside of ordinary people's lives.

To wrap up: To not counter the FBI spin of racial eco/animal defense, to communities, is allowing the government to win to a certain degree.

"trivialized what happened in Nazi death camps by comparing it to what animals in circuses experience. We believe that many of our readers would also be outraged at the comparison." -

This is only problematic if you consider animals to be on a lower plane than humans.

"Several of the editorial board members, staff, and volunteers of the Community Alliance have expressed concern that the section you sent would target us as supporters of "domestic terrorism." We are particularly concerned, because the writer of the articles are not identified, leaving us to be legally responsible for the content. If a writer believes in what she/he writes, and they want to have it printed in the Community Alliance, the writer has to use their real name." -

Warcry is a well known anarchist activist. She has appeared on Democracy now! and several other programs and documentaries. The only other non-named people I saw was DAAA Collective, and we are an organization.

"There are also questions about who took the elephant pictures. Who took them? Do you have the photographer's permission to use them? But, at this point, the photos are way down the list of my concerns." -

Peta's website. Peta has a non-copywrite law, as long as you use them for good.

To end - the community alliance gained alot when it stopped being largely the project of Mike Rhodes. Mike Rhodes is an excellent community based activisit, that engages in alot of on the ground direct labor, community, racial justice, etc work, and should be commended for that. It should be noted however that this work was complimented well with the addition of the fine graphic arts work done by Steven and others, (which made the paper in my opinion), and the articles submitted by many people, including many anarchists.

- Doug Gilbert