August 24, 2001
More fun than being seated behind a flowing mullet at the McDonald's in
Needles California, it's... The Epitaph Weekly Newsletter!
Don't laugh; I really was seated behind a clean-ass mullet in Needles, CA
this past week. That was my vacation: Oakley Blade sunglasses, fluorescent
swim trunks and frayed southwestern styled t-shirts... That's right, I went
to
the river! Anyway, I need to catch up a much as you do so here we go...
PENNYWISE
I can't tell you enough about our flyaway contest...can I? Well for those of
you folks new to our mailing list we want everyone to know that we are
sending two people to Japan for a Pennywise show...all expenses paid of
course! If you've entered thank you, if you haven't...what is you problem?!
Hit the link below and be warped to the contest page-
http://www.epitaph.com/contest/pennywise/flyaway.php?ln=epi
ALL
ALL's new record "Live + One" is coming at you on September 11th. Like I
said: It's a full-length live ALL record and you get a full-length live
Descendents record for free! How could anyone pass on that? I've heard both
in full and the recording quality is insane! It was recorded this past March
30th and 31st at the Starlight in Ft. Collins, CO. So if you were there then
consider yourself a part of ALL history! We'll have a free mp3 up for you
real soon!
TOURS
Hot Water Music is about to finally bolt-out on the road for the Plea For
Peace/Take Action Tour. This thing has been planned-out to a T for months
and the only thing left to do is play it. It's a powerful line-up featuring
Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, Cave-In, Selby Tigers, Thrice, Mike Park and
The Eyeliners. If it's in you town, don't miss it! You can get all of the
dates here-
http://www.epitaph.com/tourdates/index.html?Band=Hot+Water+Music
Deviates are also gearing-up for another road stretch. These guys got such a
sick response from the Warped Tour crowds that they want to get right back
into the swing of things. From California to Canada and everywhere in
between, see all the dates here-
http://www.epitaph.com/tourdates/index.html?Band=Deviates
Death By Stereo is also on the road as we speak. The Death will be heading
to Europe for the first time and from what they tell me they are so excited;
they are about to piss themselves over it! Check their schedule here-
http://www.epitaph.com/tourdates/index.html?Band=Death+By+Stereo
They are also keeping a road journal with photos on their official site and
you can see that here-
http://www.deathbystereo.net/frames.html
Finally Randy will be on the road with none other than Propagandhi. These
guys haven't hit the U.S. dirt too much, but now is their chance to make
their own mark. Dates are below-
http://www.epitaph.com/tourdates/index.html?Band=Randy
Painfully short I know and sorry no contest this week, but hey: Monkeys need
a break too!
P.S. I like the Cro-Mags!
I'll hit you off again next Friday
Your Chum
Matt Heinemeyer
Epitaph Web Monkey
THE PUNK ROCK EDITORIAL
A guy named Matthew Strugar wrote this and he tours around with The
(International) Noise Conspiracy. He describes himself as "the guy who likes
to get naked." Need I say more?
Franco smiled in his grave this week in Spain! The fascist
tradition of the Spanish state attempted once again to crush anarchist
resistance to state and corporate power. And much like in 1936, the
police may have battered and beaten us, but the spirit of our struggle
remains.
The great institution of global capitalist interests, the World
Bank, had scheduled a meeting for June 25 and 26 in Barcelona, Spain,
quite possibly the one city in the world with the most impressive
anarchist resistance history. In accordance with their historical role,
the organizers of the protest to resist these meetings did such an
incredible job that the World Bank cancelled their meeting a month
early.
One meeting cancellation is not enough to appease us, and to prove
we are not simply reactionaries to the polices of these international
financial institutions, our convergence continued. Only now it had a
newly defined duel purpose; to put forward a platform of the new world
we desire, and to have an international celebration in the streets
Barcelona, eulogizing the fact that we had the capitalist pigs running
from their get-togethers.
On the 24th of July we met in conferences to discuss various
problems arising from a corporatized, globalized world, from
militarism to immigration, ecology to labor rights. Conferences
collectively drafted and approved declarations of global problems and
put forth forward thinking proposals for their correction.
The 25th we met for our celebration in the streets.
Anarcho-syndaclist red and black flags were flown high, and a British
Samba band led the march. Decor determines gestures, and Barcelona´s
beauty demands passion. Over 40,000 people showed their disgust with the
policies of the World Bank in the streets of Barcelona that day. Masked
anarchists ripped stones from the pavement and smashed the windows of
banks and multinational corporate stores. For a moment it looked like
there might be the return of the Durrudi Column, the anarchist army from
Barcelona that went from city to city in 1936 killing the capitalists
and politicians and informing the workers they were now in control of
their own lives. The majority of the protestors urged caution, however,
chanting ¨nonviolence¨ and knowing that property destruction is often a
pretext for police attacks.
After marching only one kilometer, we all assembled in the Placa
Catalunya to listen to speakers, enjoy music, and bask in the sun,
reveling in our small but important victory. But power will never
allow a victory power against itself! It must assert itself at all
moments. And in this case, it was in the form of thousands of riot
police amassing on the edge of our (now entirely) peaceful gathering.
After their lines had been completely formed, two ¨masked anarchists¨
starting fighting each other, and using the excuse that they needed to
break up a small scuffle, the police charged the protest, firing rounds
of rubber bullets into a peaceful crowd and beating anyone in their way.
The crowd of 40,000 people fled in terror. People fell to the
ground after being hit with rubber bullets and were trampled by
stampeding crowd. The police beat the fallen demonstrators.
Demonstrators would come together at different meeting places
throughout the city, only to be further terrorizes. One such meeting I
was a part of at the Placa Universitat. After about 500 of us gathered
and were simply discussing the horror of the police state, they charged
again. This time a group of approximately thirty police fired rubber
bullets and beat people with batons to disperse the crowd. As we ran
vans full of crazed pigs chased down unarmed fleeing people. The police
would throw open their van doors, and jump out of still moving vans,
pounding people with their batons, laughing an oily laugh the entire
time. In one incident, a demonstrator ran into a cafe to hide, and
the police ran into the cafe and beat a woman on the head who was
simply having espresso, having mistaken her for the demonstrator. She
lay on the ground bleeding and crying.
Attempting to take pictures of the police resulted in further
beatings by the police. Nonetheless, many pictures were taken and are
available on the Barcelona indymedia website (barcelona.indymedia.org).
A few hours into the police beatings, news camera footage
was released that showed that many of the masked anarchists breaking
windows during the march were actually police infiltrators. The police
put their own people into the march to incite property destruction, so
as to have the demonstrators look like thugs on the television camera.
The two masked men who began the scuffle in the park were also police
infiltrators, and their fight was only to give the amassed police for an
flimsy excuse to charge the protest. The police were even forced to
admit to their infiltration; a practice which is hardly new, but is
often hard to prove to mass media. The people of Barcelona and Catalonia
were outraged, the city is planning an investigation, and the fallout of
this brutality is just beginning to pan out.
The mayor of the city allowed the protestors to take back the
Placa Catalunya, our original meeting place, and barred the police from
entering. Sound systems were driven in, we danced and recovered, and
free vegan food was distributed to all, reminiscent of the People´s
Cantinas in 1936. The next day we marched on the stock exchange, that
great symbol of globalized capitalism, and the police seethed with rage
that they were not permitted to attack our peaceful march.
There is much more information available on the World Bank and the
demonstrations here in Barcelona at barcelona.indymedia.org . Letters to
the Spanish embassy in your country condemning the police violence
would also help the activists here very much.
With love and rage from Barcelona,
matthew strugar.
"this century has seen a few great incendiaries. today
they are dead, or finishing up preening in the
mirror... everywhere, youth (as it calls itself)
discovers a few blunted knives, a few defused bombs,
under thirty years of dust and debris; shaking in its
shoes, youth hurls them upon the consenting rabble,
which it salutes with its oily laugh."
"and yet everyone wants to breathe and no one can
breathe and a lot of people say 'we'll be able to
breathe later.' and most people don't die, because
they're already dead."