Empowering Education

Using the Medium

Aia v i coont
o A i yp

Jpun. A orss giom Y

Of Zines

October 18", 2008 Madison Zine Fest Workshop

Presented by Anthony Rayson / So. Chi ABC Zine
Empowering Education Using the Medium of Zines

“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as
one begins to become conscious one begins to examine
the society in which he is being educated. The purpose
of education, finally, to create in a person the ability to
look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions,
to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide
for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To
ask questions of the universe, and then leamn to live
with those questions, is the way he achieves his own
identity. But no society is really anxious to have that
kind of person around. What society really, ideally
wants is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of
society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is
about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of
himself as responsible is to examine society and try to
change it and to fight it - at no matter the risk.”

~ James Baldwin ~

Like everybody else in this world, I strove from a
young age to find my own identity, acquire genuine
education, live a full life and interact productively with
other members of the human family. To achieve this, I
had to totally reject the mainstream education
demanded by the system. A huge percentage of
American citizens have similarly reacted negatively to
the “education” forced upon almost every child from

age 4 or 5 until whenever they manage to get out of it -
in their teens or twenties.

Basically, they are being conditioned to function in
society, support the government, accept the
generalized accepting “arguments” of power and limit
their lives to a life of consumerism and immediate
family, vaguely “over-viewed” by some religious belief
system. We end up groping through life, dissatisfied,
not knowing what is really going on and feeling
powerless to have any real impact on an increasingly
degenerating society.

For many people, such miscrable and insulting
treatment is viscerally unacceptable and they thrash
out in a number of unknowing ways. They know
something is seriously wrong but they can’t put their
finger on it. No one has ever gone out of their way to
teach them the truth which they so need to know,
understand and blend into their lives.

The government has every reason to obfuscate the
truth from A to Z. They have committed and continue
to commit horrific crimes on people the world over.

We are supposed to accept the Orwellian Big Brother
lie that America means freedom and that there are no
“political prisoners” in this country because there is no
reason not to blindly accept things as they are.
Resistance is supposedly non-existent and otherwise
doomed to failure. This leads to alienation,
atomization and zombification through addiction.

Those who disagree fundamentally with this
aggressive capitalist system are vilified as “terrorists”
and “criminals.” The truth that Baldwin spoke about
is muffled, hard to find, and rarely provided in a down-
to-earth, useful way, people can genuinely relate to
and weave into their consciousness and their lives in a
meaningful way. Enter, an updated version of the
Francisco Ferrer School of Free Skool Education, using
the medium of zines!

Zines as Educational Tools for and with Prisoners
1. The Failure of Traditional Education
A. Education is irrelevant to peoples’ lives
Many young people are tuned out to the types of
things teachers attempt to teach them, such as

“American history” that extols the system, candy-coats
any “problems” and serves up a white settler type of
spin. Non-white students aren't taught their own |
history in any real way and often, their miserable
home lives make a mockery of the depiction of
American society that they are all too familiar with.
They're taught math and science, all the “subjects”
while their lives are being ones of subsistence,
violence, addiction, criminality, both on the streets
and by the police - cold reality. Even for so-called
“white” people, if they have any perception at all, they
realize they are being fed a huge, endless pile of
garbage.

They are not taught about the great revolutionaries
who fought the United States government, whether
they were Americans or from other countries. They are
not taught alternative analyses or the perspectives of
people in other countries. It’s more like just getting
endless truckloads of cement to try to cover up the
toxic, Chernobyl-like reality, than being inspired by
the real deal education.

Granted, some students manage to seemingly
harmlessly conform and go through the channels and
fashion oblivious to struggle lives and fill various roles
in the system, justify their lives, go with the program
and even have relative psychological health. But, they
have no real understanding nor any sympathy or
empathy of others less well-off than them. Others are
groomed to power positions and may become monsters
without even realizing their lives had been groomed to
perpetuate an evil social, political and economic
system.

B. High drop-out rates and illiteracy.

A huge percentage of people are tracked for failure,
categorized, drugged, disciplined and otherwise
drummed out of the educational system with often
frightful consequences. Others go through the
motions, get degrees and still can't read, write or
think, but may function at some level or other. S

People come out of it really turned off even by the
very idea of “education.” Many won't read books or try
to study much of anything. They just cocoon
themselves in their iPods and go in the direction that
holds their interest. They watch a ton of T.V. and play
video games, which aside from helping them pass their
lives in an addictive manner, really don't teach them
things they need to know. They do reinforce
consumerism and dull their senses and make
“violence” an entertainment, instead of the horrific
reality it is to so many. They get zombified.

Illegal drug economies fill in the huge gaps that
non-white, inner city dropouts pour through. The
police focus their drug busting energies in these
communities, even though the drug rates are the same
in all groups. Thus, many, many of these people
become prisoners and family members of prisoners.

Gangs offer affliation and the support of a group.
But, all too often, desperation, poverty, a warped sense
of “respect” and the targeting of them by the
authorities, coupled with their own non-education,
send these young men into prison.

The puritive nature of their treatment, coupled
with accelerated “tough love” - conform or else -
“education,” only serves to add to their bitterness as
they go from juvenile detention to the big house. It's a
stark reality that many of these young people find
themselves in the hells that are the prisons, before
they even really had a chance at figuring out what they
really wanted to do with their lives, let alone what
society was all about. They look to hip-hop, “gangstas”
and prisoners for direction.

Their developing years, where they go from children
really through puberty, to young adulthood to
becoming mature adults is being spent in a vicious all-
male, locked-down nightmare reality. During this vile
sacrifice of their lives to the punishing judgment of a

criminal state, is the only chance they may finally {
come across education that they can relate to, feel
respected by and can genuinely weave into their lives
to begin their journey of genuine development.

C. Poverty and criminal convictions

Prisoners do not accept their punishment as “just”
seeing as they see their conviction as race-based and
class-based, and rightfully so. They see the big
criminals (government and business) engage in
monstrous criminal behavior such as murder and theft
with impunity. The rare times a “big shot” is charged
with some crime, he or she can buy their way out of a
conviction or get a light sentence and a country club
type prison. Their “crime” was being black and poor
and getting caught.

As well, recidivism is built into the system, and like
the huge dropout rates for high schoolers (over 50% in
Chicagol) the recidivist rates are off the charts - like
75%. The fact genuine rehabilitation and drug
addiction programs, jobs programs and etc. actually
work to greatly reduce recidivism and compulsive
criminal behavior in general, is ignored. There are
powerful forces that want to see a high incarceration
rate as the companies servicing them are highly
lucrative. The profits are guaranteed as they are
extorted from taxpayers.

The punishment industry may drag Christian
religionists into the sham of “offender rehabilitation”
but that too has little effect on their real thinking and
behavior, once they are released from prison.

IL The Failure of Prison Programs
A. Punishment has replaced rehabilitation.

The incessant propaganda from government that
our problems are caused by “terrorists” and “gang 7

bangers” is taken up by the lawmakers. They have

stumbled on the formula which will more likely get

them re-elected. A public constantly whipped into a

state of fear, combined with their ignorance, as they

too have never been taught the truth, allows for “lock ‘

them up and throw away the key” demagoguery. They

pass more and harsher laws, pouring more money and

resources into mass incarceration, with lengthier

sentences. ‘
Once incarcerated, they are subjected to more and

more brutal treatment, sensory deprivation, bad food,

deplorable living conditions, lack of resources, etc.

The only thing these sick “lessons” teach is how to

embitter a man - and also how a person is driven

insanel There’s no accountability all along the line

and prisoners are degraded, humiliated and assaulted

all the time, especially if they show hints of somehow

acquiring genuine education and show the courage to

fight the system - at no matter the risk.

B. Prison Censorship Zealotry

Each and every prison has a huge laundry list of
reasons of what Kind of publications will be denied a
prisoner, why they are “detrimental” to the prison, how
they must be sent and so forth. By the mere receiving
of said “offensive” literature, a prisoner can have all
sorts of bad things happen to him or her. They can
even be punished for receiving a letter they never even
get a chance to see! They may be threatened in
various ways, assaulted, have all their possessions
stolen, be thrown into the hole or sent to other

prisons.
‘The latest ghoulish phenomenon is the proliferation

of the highly psychically toxic control unit prisons.
These, the authorities tell us are constructed for the
“worst of the worst” - the incorrigible, hardened
criminal. So, it beyond disingenuous to find that ¥
people they do have and help drive insanc are locked
Up here along with the so-called “jailhouse lawyers”

activists and educators. It’s the ultimate punishment
for the person who “thinks of himself as responsible.”

Basically, it is the modern version of a slave system
that has never stopped being a slave system. And just
like back in the day, one of the worst “crimes” you can
commit against such a system is to educate their
slaves. So, the contradictions between an oppressive,
fear and lie-based social order - the hallmarks of a
society “about to perish” and the responsible truth and
those with the highest courage to teach it, are
crystallized in the prisons.

It's the ultimate paradox - ground zero in the war
here at home. You've got the “argument” of punishing
government - lies, coercion, violence and its threat
pitted against the insight and brilliance of the most
learned prisoners, which is the source of the most
useful and profound lessons for those in prison and
those targeted for prison. The truth is revolutionary.

C. “Educational prison programs” = high
recidivist rates.

These programs are just shells of whatever genuine
rehabilitative effect they once might have had. They're
used punitively. They are tied in with privilege
granting and removal. What few activities allowed are
used as bargaining chips vis-a-vis their behavior (or
level of conformity.) They don’t pay attention to it,
much less actively work it into their mental hard drive.
And if they don’t meet stipulations that are next to
impossible to do correctly - especially from a recently
released prisoner forced through that meat grinder
and taught not how to think, but rather, how to avoid
being assaulted, how to express rage and just have a
rebelling reaction to everything they were forcibly 9
subjected to.

The system doesn’t want a person to know how to
think, overcome their fears and examine society to
change and fight it. But by denying them real
education, they also cannot deeply understand
everything else they need to know just for simple
survival. They don’t know and may not even get along
with themselves! It takes a lot of effort to learn how to
approach situations and deal with them positively on a
consistent basis. They don’t know what love means or
how to build a real relationship. They've been blinded
by the light as they get out. They're sick, broke, have
no job and nowhere to stay. They need to be able to
live and that is a learned, survival skill - especially in
this fast-forward madness maelstrom of today. They’re
nowhere near ready for the “outs” after their lengthy
and heartless, ordeal. Many soon return to prison!

I The Failure of Street Education

A. “Gangsta” culture doesn’t provide genuine
education

A lot of what these young, often genius performers
are rapping about is true! They're reporting about
what's going down in the hood! But where are the
“Hip-Hop" schools? Where is the literature that is
accessible to people? Where are the storefront
community organizations filling some real needs of
those in that neighborhood? The big names have all
gone shamelessly, Hollywood. Who's putting up big
bucks to free Zolo Agona Azania or Khalfani Malik
Khaldun? Nobody! They're afraid to really deal with
what Baldwin explained about. They're carried away -
awash on the tsunami of greedbacks! They're
unwilling to give up a hotshot go ‘round, to do the
hard, arduous work necessary to *examine society”
change and fight it. In my opinion it takes written,
well-written literature dealing with real issues, as
timely as possible, available to anybody - especially to
those who can't otherwise afford i, i.e. indigent
prisoners!

1t's kind of like sports. A lot of people get caught
up in it, its grooves and vibes and rebellious message.
That's what a lot of people aspire to become
themselves. But they're chasing a mirage and not
learning how to become themselves. They're carried
away in the great flood to prison, themselves. It’s an
industry. It's a money-making thing for some and an
expense for most. Music is great just for itself, and
insights can be had, but it needs to be developed as
education much more fully - on paper for people to
read, and made easily available. Ragging about the
man to a hip beat doesn't help a young person deal
with getting busted!

The whole drug-glorifying, women abusing, cash
and bling flashin’, hedonistic, gun-playing lifestyle is a
ticket to disaster and certainly not anything related to
genuine revolutionary education and development. If
that's the only message these vulnerable young people
in the inner cities receive, they are not being helped,
are they? They're being set up like bowling pins!

B. Failure of various religions

Religions usually have a rather extensive bunch of
dogma they try to get you to make yourself learn and
believe. Basically, they're into perpetuating their
church and beliefs, get people to support them and so
forth. An overriding belief in a “God” is usually
required. None of that stuff really has much of
anything to do with the grimy reality people are facing
on the streets and in the prisons. Some religious stuff
foisted on prisoners is in partnership with the prison
administration. Some religionists are motivated to
offer some prisoners friendship or something.
Churches help ex-offenders to a point, drenched in
religious rituals. But all that “Praise the Lord” stuff is
ill-suited to deal with everyday stark struggle these ex-
prisoners have to face. It takes a quick-thinking,
nimble and adaptive, shrewd and thinking mind
focusing on the tasks at hand. This comes as a
product of a truly and effectively self-taught mind.

Some prisoners have a lot of problems trying to
exercise their own religion - like procuring a Muslim
diet, a vegan diet, getting prayer rugs or other things
to practice their religion according to the way they
want. But religious “education” is pretty blindered.
They want you to believe in a “God.” And they make
up a whole scenario from there. But it’s not the reality
check education a person needs to deal with Earthly
living. It clouds their thinking more than anything.
And none of the religions really want to rock the
government’s boat. They work together with the
government. Like Martin Luther said centuries ago:
“Reason is the mortal enemy of faith.”

C. Failure of present day politicians

Well, politicians have always been a disgusting
collection of perverts, liars and power hungry
bastards! Today's bunch isn't much different, except
for the tactic they use, which | mentioned earlier.
They push for the ever-increasing criminalization of
the inner cities. It’s total madness! They pour gas on
the problem and act stunned at the conflagration!

This global war on what is all-inclusively labeled
“terror” is being waged against the citizens of America.
Not only tax payers, home owners, parents of soldiers,
prisoners, workers — everybody - all of us are being
menaced by this hideous government and their various.
failing systems, such as the “education” system.

Many young people feel they have no choice but to
join the military, where they are taught to obey orders
with a vengeance - to the point that if ordered to kill
people - they will do so, automatically! This type of
brutal indoctrination destroys a person’s opinion of
themselves, many a time. They have really been
brutalized by what they endured, did and saw. | =

Most people see politicians as a bunch of liars and
rightfully so. But, they are always plotting more
hardships for us and brutal treatment for people in
other parts of the world.

Even the so-called “activists” like Jesse Jackson,
Jr. have sold-out and merely voice the lame “left-wing”
of mainstream society. They don't want to talk about
the real dcal, either. A whole new slew of voices needs
to be and actually is being belted out, lately. We gotta
pick up the banner of articulated revolution, where
others have left ofl Use that understanding in the
context of what is happening today!

IV. Zines as a Means to Self-Actualization
A. Zines can provide genuine education

Zines are just self-published pamphlets. Genuine
education is out there. Often, a good chunk of
education on some topic can be found that is under
say, 76 pages. These can be made into zines. It's a
highly versatile, useful, economical and accessible
form of media. Multiple submissions from different
people can be put in the same zine. In short, any
combination you want can be used, any way you want.
It’s an open-ended media, made revolutionary by its
insistence on @nticopyright and having the zines be
free. It’s free education! The truth should be free!

So, you can learn a tremendous amount through
the reading of zines. Often, it's the only way you're
going to find a subject covered so thoroughly or with
such intense fervor. You develop relationships with
people because of zines, learn to write and appreciate
long letters and develop your understanding on an
ongoing basis. 3

B. Zines offer a voice to prisoner writers &
artists

Prisoners provide their written insight to all kinds
of publications. As well, they send graphics they've
created. Almost invariably, they were given freely and
the only “compensation” they will receive is some ill-
treatment by the screws! But, there’s a difference
between a magazine or newsletter and the unique
tomes, known as “prisoner zines.”

Perhaps as a group, prisoners are the connoisseurs.
of zines. They know what the best ones are and.often
they are written by prisoners and those who are in the
trenches with ‘em. More and more, the most stunning
Zines are being produced by prisoners. This takes
coordination through a person such as myself, due to
all the restrictions and difficulties in communicating
with each other we are faced with.

As a zine connoisseur myself, | make it my
business to make the brilliant writings and deep
graphics of prisoners actualized in strong zincs. 1t
allows for the for real language and clearest voice.

Some of the most brilliant thinkers are prisoners
and they don't have access to the internet. They focus
on the written word, which almost everyone can
understand. Those who are illiterate can be read these
zines. So, it's also important to make them very
plainly spoken and understandably written. This
insurrectionary activity will continue to catch on as an
important part of genuine free school education.

C. Exceptional prisoner zinesters.

Over the last ten years I've worked up maybe 500
zines and made them available for distribution. ) f
Perhaps 350 to 400 of them were written and
illustrated all or in part, by prisoners. Here are just a
few of these authors and the gist of their message.

1. Theodric (Tacuma) Van Smith. He talks plainly
mainly to the prison population he is a part of. He
exhorts them to realize that fratricidal warfare among
each other is a self-defeating activity. He stresses
unity, is religious (Christian) and speaks in the
vernacular prisoners readily understand.

2. Coyote Sheff. Coyote is a passionate and active
anarchist prisoner, who spearheads the Nevada ABC
(Anarchist Black Cross) prison chapter. He speaks
directly in challenge to this cruel system and details
his painful ordeal in very visceral ways that other
prisoners can most definitely identify with.

3. Kevin (Rashid) Johnson. Rashid is the most
searing political artist in the world today, aside from
being a brilliant writer and analyst. In my opinion, he
is the George Jackson of modern times. He’s
horrifically brutalized in a control unit prison in
Virginia and is the Defense Minister of the New Black
Panther Party - Prison Chapter.

4. Abdul Olugbala Shakur is a similarly ultra-
confined Panther partisan locked down in the
infamous Pelican Bay Prison in California. He
hammers away at the racist system and the
criminalization of his people. He chairs the New
Afrikan Institute for Criminology 101.

5. Russell “Maroon” Shoatz. Maroon is a legendary
Black Liberation Army fighter, locked down in
Pennsylvania. I believe he is the only person to escape
from a secured housing unit - twicel This well-known
political prisoner is a brilliant analyst, historian and
strategist.

6. Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli. Hyung-Rae is a very
talented artist, given political mentorship by Maroon.
His artwork focuses on the cruel injustice and pain of
Amerika and the lives forced to be led by her captives.
He also has a playful side as a cartoonist. His Glee
Club is the Calvin & Hobbes of prison. 5

7. Sean Swain. Sean is a very talented anarchist
writer and agitator. His collaboration with fellow
anarchist prisoner Travis Washington, entitled The
Last Act of the Circus Animals is an instant classic - a
modern day Animal Farm. His pen is ablaze with the
cry of freedom!

8. James Scott, Jr. James is an Afrikan anarchist
prisoner cooped up in a dungeon in Georgia. He's a
terrific writer and deep thinker who provides a first-
hand and personal account of how Afrikan youth are
criminalized and brutalized in Amerika, particularly
the deep South. It's so damning of this system that
such brilliant modern-day educators are treated so
vilely by this monstrous system.

9. Khalfani Malik Khaldun. Khalfani grew up in
Gary, Indiana and has spent his entire adult life in
prison, most of those twenty years in the most hideous
of control unit clinical torture chambers. He's been a
determined advocate for his fellow captives, constantly
exposing corruption and brutality, injustice, etc. He
makes it his business to help educate fellow prisoners
and help them cope with control unit repression. He is
the Midwest prisoner voice of the STOPMAX campaign.

10. Ali Khalid Abdullah. Ali has recently been
released, after twenty years of prison in Michigan.
During his incarceration he founded the PPWC —
Political Prisoners of War Coalition. He has written
voluminously about all kinds of subjects, both having
to do with prison and the world in general. He
considers himself a New Afrikan anarchist and also a
Muslim.

11. Talib Rasheed (C. Anthony Taylor). Talib is
also a terrific writer who focuses on the psychological,
spiritual and moral development of prisoners. He’s got
alot of insight concerning compulsive criminality,
overcoming recidivism and developing a spiritual 6
humanism, which he has developed into a genuine
and very viable set of ethical principles.

These are just a few of the dozens of prisoners |
work with. There are many more all over the country.
These materials do focus on the issues of utmost
concern to prisoners, mainly. These issues are
universal and anybody can learn a great deal from
these publications.

Every day we receive much mail, mostly from
prisoners. From the most illiterate to the most
studied, the response to this work is overwhelmingly
beyond enthusiastic. We have definitely struck a
chord with prisoners and have earned their trust and
respect. Many are proactive towards it and reprint
them, share them and use them in study circles. This
growing phenomenon of actually seeing the emergence
of a heightened consciousness, due greatly by the real
education delivered in these zines, has confirmed in
everybody’s mind the veracity of cut and paste reality
check zines as a fundamental tool for the type of
education James Baldwin wrote about.

V. Logistics of Creating Prisoner Zines
A. Prison (and mailing) rules of prisoner zines

Most people have no idea what goes on in prison or
that brilliant thinkers dissecting modern-day reality,
incredible artists and cutting edge writers and poets
are forced to subsist there. Theirs is a struggle and
with every real struggle, there is an underground of
literature - education and agitation.

Each prison has a blizzard of rules concerning
every conceivable type of behavior and restrictions
about what prisoners can do and read. All
publications must come directly from the “publisher.”
So, the solution to that is to become a publisher - of
zines. Simply think up a name, get a P.O. Box and |7
combine the two on a stamp. Stamp the publication
on the back page — whether you created the zine or are
just distributing it further. Stamp the envelope’s
return address with the same stamp and you are the
publisher of that zinel

1t takes a while to become recognized. You could
advertise yourself in various zines or prisoner
publications. Almost invariably, prisoner zines come
with contact information of that prisoner, others,
outside support groups and so forth. Contact these
people, check the internet and make a real effort to
connect with people who are prisoner writers, artists
and activists.

With the new rules and restrictions placed on mail
since June 1, 2008, I find it most appropriate to send
6 x 9 envelopes, which just barely are still in the size
category for “letters.” These hold digest-sized zines
perfectly. These are 8 % x 11 folded in half. The size
limit on a “letter” is % inch thickness of the envelop
and 3.5 ounces in total weight. This is 19 sheets of 20
weight copying paper. That makes a “maximum” zine
size to be 76 pages. Bigger zines are possible but get
too much more expensive to print and mail.

It's best to go right to the limit with your zines.

One ounce (4 sheets) cost $.42. Two ounces (ten
sheets) cost $.59. Three ounces (16 sheets) costs $.76
and 3 % ounces (nineteen sheets) costs $.93. Some
prisons insist on regular, letter-sized envelopes. Some
don't allow stapled zines. Some reject them if there is
more than 3 % ounces, even if the inflated postage is
correct. Rejections abound and often depend on
caprice. There’s no accountability, either.

So, it's a good idea to keep the really provocative
artwork and content off the outside covers, to help
insure it gets to who it was intended for. If you're
serious about this fascinating type of work, ask folks
who has some experience with it.
B. Becoming a publisher & running a zine |0
distro.

This type of publishing is the antithesis of what
“publishing” or any other type of money-making
venture is all about. The goal is not to “make money”
atall. The whole goal is focused on finding and then
collaborating with the most revolutionary modern-day
thinking, edit it in such a way that it is relatively
cheap, timely, legible and evocative and then get these
publications into the hands where it will do the most
good, which for us, is right back in the prisons.

This is a deep commitment, as it flies into the
teeth of the most repressive system of government. It
takes a strong resolve forged by a willed concentration
on the goals - creating powerful literature, gathering it
and providing it - free to prisoners!

1t’s nose-to-the-grindstone constant work and is
not for the faint of heart. You'll pour a ton of time,
money and effort into it but you can't expect any kind
of compensation - other than knowing that you are a
fundamentally important piece of the conscious
development of others - prisoners — where every other
form of “education” has failed them and indeed,
targeted them for failure. Its validation is its realness.

C. Building connections - networking, inside &
out.

Just as the actual crafting of these publications
takes a lot of ongoing brainwork, letter writing,
correspondence, research, exchange of ideas and all
the things collaborative projects take, so too does the
outreach to others. Placing ads in other prisoner
support newsletters, submitting articles, poems,
graphics, etc. to other publications, donations, letters,
exhibiting solidarity when they face troubles and
generally, developing a respectful, comradely
relationship with other groups and individuals inside
and out, will stand you in good stead.

Prisoners are famous for “word of mouth”
endorsements or condemnations. Reliability,
truthfulness and “delivering the goods” earn their
respect and they will be your biggest avenue of
outreach! And when other prisoner support groups
keep hearing about your projects and prison authors
receive mail from strangers who have read their zine,
then the chain reaction of genuine education that was
intended is becoming actualized.

Seek to work with others doing this distro type
work. Add powerful publications wherever you run
across them. Make them available to infoshops, zine
libraries, archivists or anyone interested in them,
Make yearly catalogs and spread them far, wide and
freely.

How do you pay for all of this stuff? You work
hard, live frugally and spend resourcefully. A lot of
former zine makers have quit publishing paper zines
due to increased costs and restrictions. Maybe their
focus was soft and took the easy, cheaper way out by
just making e-zines or doing a blog or whatever. Their
focus certainly wasn't on providing free school
education for the most abused and downtrodden. If it
‘was, these minor adjustments would be easily
overcome. That's another way people can tell the real
deal from the tepid ~ whether anything is capable of
stopping their message or not!

By forging ahead with a mindset of total
determination, many wonderful zine projects become
reality. Once a powerful zine is created, it is done —
finished! You can't just press the delete button. As it
proliferates into and through the hands of likewise
determined people, it gets duplicated. Originals and
masters are kept for reprinting. Perhaps they're being
archived somewhere - even a prestigious university,
where they end up on a shelf of a library - accessible
to anyone, even though none of them went through a

ght situation, were all self-published, have no
advertisements in them and are subject to nobody’s
censoring or mainstream “editing.” They depend solely
on the integrity and wherewithal of those who created
them. So, the message becomes undiluted.

This type of dedication and intensity does not go
unnoticed by others with a similar modus operandi.
Before long, you are a respected comrade and
collaborate intimately with the most explosive writers
and artists in the world. And so, selfless solidarity
work and the exercise of mutual aid becomes its own
reward for those who dedicate themselves to it. Others
learn like they never thought possible and repay your
cfforts by embarking on their own road to self-
actualization. It's anarchy in action through zine
education. And that my friends, is the direct action of
free school education. Educate to liberate!

Anthony Rayson - curator, editor, publisher &
distributor of

South Chicago ABC Zine Distro

P. 0. Boc 721
Homewood, IL 60430

£@A