The Autonomous Zone Infoshop

icago Saturday, May 6, 2000

The A-Zone & a Decade of Anarchy in Chicago
is work is dedicated to Gina Ross, 1974-2007, fiend and comrade from the A-Zane.

i 5 only a fraction of the story. I you have stories or materials to add o a possible future
diion, please getin touch!

outh Chicago Anarchist Black Cross Zine Distro:
ucagoabe sipod com/ynes bl

ChiABC Zine istro/ .0, Box 721/ Homewood, L 60430
he A Zone Essay Project b Alex uass, g .

ervew with Oarel G, g, 10

celings about the A-Zone by Bill Burs, . 13

Oht Just Go To the A-Zone! by @nthony Rayson, . 15.

JIVE CAPITALISM MATCHES®MAYHEM

Nay 25-27, 2001

The A Zone Essay Project

The Need for an Autonomous Zone

“The fisttime I set oot i the Autonomous Zone Ifoshop (A-Zone) was for a forum on
Anarchist economics. held in opposition o the Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD)
meeting which had just happened in Chicago. in November 2002

“The forum was originally supposed 10 be held at De Paul, but the school had retracted its
permission without explanation, and it jus may have been something prefy siniste since later
‘we found out the Chicago Police Department had indeed re-activated it so-caled Red Squad
(rcad White Squad) to monitor and infltrate the A-Zone and four other groups organizing against
the TABD.

Immediately it occurred to me the importance of having an aternative space outside of the
regular control of the stat, church, and schools.to host the forum which represented a direct
challenge o the comorations and their goverments whose inerests were heing presented in the
TABD meeting.

About three months later | moved to Chicago and became very involved with the A-Zone. |
helped organize monthly public forums hosted by the Indusirial Workers of the World (TWW)
‘which | was also a member of, though most of my fime there was spent just keeping the door
open for whom cver may drop in

“This was the Buckiown space. i 2129 N. Milwaukee Ave. Some ofthe other groups involved at
the time were Anarchist Black Cross Network (ABCN).a juggling Free School. the Anarchist
Skins and Punx Unity Crew (ASAP) and people from the South Side Punk House/South Side
Crew and the Vegan House.

Politics of the A-Zone

‘When 1 was in the A-Zone Collective, we had a pretty wide range of politcal ideas,tha | think
balanced out roughly to heing half life stylists, mostly Anarchists, and halfpoliica actvists,
again mostly but not only Anarchists. Personally, I was aready a De Leonist when 1 showed up.
and my beliefin Socialist Industrial Unionism and poliicalaction had led me into the IWW and
Green Party. But a the same time [ looked at the A-Zone as a much needed public forum, and
was wiling to work with people there with a consensus decision making process, which had
appealed to me intheory from Food Not Bombin’ (FNB) in Cleveland. though Id aiready been
disllusioned with it ther, but considered it a worthwhile compromise o be in the Collctive.

Plus I had an inside joke with at least one of my comrades from the Collective about how we
were the goverment of the A-Zone. Other people would come 10 us 0 use the space, and we
‘would ry 1o work something out. But ulimately the power was ours, and some people really
abused it People who made the A-Zone their lile fiefdom have reinforced my general dislke.
of consensus decision making. The Collective very nearly colapsed in 2003 when a number of
people let the Collective. including mysel briefly. rom various personality conflcts that were
going on. We never really fully recovered, our numbers hovering around six members when |
came hack around about a month or two aflr | 1ef for a good chunk of spring 2003. I've heard

The A Zone Essay Project

W read aboutthe carly years of the Collective when membership was between 30-50, | never

tended a Colletive meeting hat was maybe more thana dazen, nd | doub there were any
ore that were more than six afler April 2003 or s0

reen Anarchism, Queer and Trans Liberation, ati-Corporaie Globalization, Labor Organizing
Prison Abolition were the biggest focuses of the actvist types, and musie, visusl .

pecially silk scrcening,bicycles, gender, sexuality and food werethe bigges focuses ofthe lfe
ylists. There was ons of crossover, ke most of us would cook FNB a least once in a white.

narchist People of Color

¢ A-Zone had an unfir reputation for bing an al whitc, ex-subusbanite space. The only
r50n who was & member from start o finish, Darrell ., is an African American who was born
d raised in Chicago, and sill rsides i the Austin neighborhood.

metimes when | was there, 1d be the only person of color (POC),yet a other times the
Hective would be upwards of half POC, though all of our events | participated in were.

cnded by predominanily whitc crowds. Somelimes people would tell me (o my face my
flctive wasall whitc, nd it was always stunning. Did they consider me whie? Then why

| row up being called the n word and a Chink n Ohio? Plu it was abways white, Univerity
four year college educated, ex-suburbanites who would suy it 1o my face, und most of them,

re involved with even whiter, more privilged groups at the time.

s an an ex-suburbanite, but 1 e the suburbs 10 get away from acist harassment, But when
s in the Collecivethere were (wo POC comrades who were born and raised in Chicago
per. and ncarly everyone lived in town, there was one exception who fived in Lombard,

i samimes of 2003 | was invited 0 help form the first Anarchist People of Color (APOC)

in Chicago and declined. Two of my comrades from the Collective were in it and t east

excmember But et ik we had a reall grat, giimatcly mult-racia Collecive going

A-Zone, and with my other activism at the time in the IWW and the St Francis Cathelic

rher House, 1 didn't want (0 take on another project, especially onc that cxcluded whiles and
s explicitly Anarchist,

Lundlord's Goon Squad

ic posibly the nly ime | actually showed up on time for a volunteer shiln the all of 2003,
s followed in by thee rather large men. One tokd me he wanied the rent. W

e had already
n cvicted, and the etter of eviction cicaly stated that we would get our last three monhs

space ren fce if our andlord broke our Icase.

facts of the matte didatchange things with the goon squad, nd they told me they wanted
rent any way before hey left.
The AZone Essay Project

Upon reflction, it was no surprise since our landlord had alrcady tred toraisc our rent higher
than allowed by our lease, and when we refused, he evicted us. Then he tied o shake us down

for money we didrit owe him, even according {0 his own words! 1 hink it showed how even the
term el andlord. i just throwback feudalism. The capitalist pig never did gt that money!

Also upon further reflection | hink it was probably one of the nasy signs of the beginning of the
gentrification (read gentrifuckation) of Bucktown too. Being a gentrifying force was one of the
down falls of the A-Zone pretty much from the begining. When I started doing research for this
project | read in (Dis) Connection that Wicker Park was sl 70% Latin@ when the A-Zone was
there in 1994, and the Collective was well aware of how they were effecting the area. at least in
this sense.

Connection

D) Connection was * networking jouralfor
radica coflectives and infoshops.” (Emphasis
i theoriginal) The second ssue was witten
by Chicagoans, and ws fargelyabout the .
Zone. The words "Left Bank donated $50.00 10
assist in ourgoalof e i per A-Zone
member™ onthe nside cover of the Novernber
94 ssue nstanty sparked my nterest.

' only discovered this journal when my
comrade, ex A-Zoner Rachel A, lent me two,
coples o help wth my research for ths
project

Avtices i this ssue such s “Aganst Hal-Assed
Race and Cass Theory and Practic” by Ken
Wong, “Gentrifuckation and White Frontier
Collctives” and “On Boys I Collectves” were
somewhat painful reminders about how many
currentLefistactists ingeneral and
particpants inthe Ifoshop Movement in
partcutar are pretty good at re-inventingfauhy
wheels. Bringing back these past discussions
and insiehts is 2 large part o the point ofthis
project

When aked t be on 8 panelabout “Zines & Libraies” 3t Chicago Zine Fest n 2010 when | was doing.
thisresearch, | made 3 point i inviting Ken Wong and bingin the two copiesof (D) Connection with
e, and talking about how Wicker Park was sl 70% Latin at the tim the A Zone was there according
tothe journal. 1 brough this up whie taking abou the current gentication of Pisen,for anyone there
whe st might ot be taking i serously.
The A Zone Essay roject

10 theother issue ofthejournal | was sbe to check out,
3. Winter 95, one particular atic stood out to me,
“AZONEI? WHAT THE fuck?17°

(Dis ) paacstion

“Recently we decided o have an Existentisst Bles’
discussion a the Azone. We decided 10 do this
because we REALLY needed o, because we hadr't had
one na long tme, cuz we thouigh 1td b fun (ahem),
and because we were (possibly) moving 103 new
space.”

“The atice i mosty an analysis ofthe discussion, and
1t follow up, and a larger one ws produced 353
Pamphit, ExstentaitBiues. | would Love o see
copy,and possibly include t 35 an appendix t0a future
editon o thi poject,

a0 era ofso-calld “social networting websies,
10X F these oumals were a real charge to et holdof, 3nd
. m sure 1 would have ead, and re-read them f they

on o vemocnenons " ACTIVE RESISTANCE
weniion that met there in 1996. We had ; ~- ...g

whole time | was inthe Collective, and
events were th stuffoflocal legend to

ould Love to incude more information on
e Resisance i afture ediion o thi. I
partcipants would b interested in
mitting something

14 Chl Factor

-20ne in December 03, Mike D. handed -
a copy o Wind Crill Factor (WCF) and told i
twas the tine that the A Zone came out )
The & Zone Essay roject

Of. Ithinkat that point | may have lready heard the Collective used to print the journal Sandpaper,
‘which we sometimes stil ot i for but this was news to me and s excted!

Whentarted doing research for this project nd found the atice announcing the opening of the A
Zone ina W streetsheet 9.1, from the end of 1993, et ke 1 had struck gold. 1 was exacly thekind
ofthing | had come tothe Chicago Underground Ubrary tolok for!

The & Zone Essay Project

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The AZone Essay Project

The A-Zone in Exile

About two months aftr we feftthe Bucktown space, 1 started volunteering at the New World
Resource Center (NWRC), which was a non-partisan,collecively run, Leflist bookstore locaicd
atthattime a 1300 N. Wester Ave. in Humboldt Park

We started having A-Zone Collective events and meetings there, reaching a peak in June 2004
‘when dorens of people showed up to watch "Underground.” film about the Weather

Underground Organization. and partcipate in a discussion about race and class privilege with ex.
‘Weatherman cadre Bill Ayers.

Pilsen's Crypto-Tnfoshop.

“The main inspiration for this project came from my involvement with La Biblioteca Popular del
Barrio Pilsen. Chicago. Afte the A-Zone Callective had formally disbanded., though |
maintained friendships with some of my comrades from the space. t was never eally the same
spending time in Chicago.

1 tred to move to Mad City, Wisconsin in carly 2005, and the Madison Infoshop was one of the
places | hung out a great deal. Though t was very different than the A-Zone, it was stifl a reat
place to hang out, read, get ltrature. borrow films,use computers and fust hang out with people.

About a year Inter I had a somewhat disasirous frip 0 Tucson. Arizona which one of the only
00d things that came out of it was the time | sent a the Dry River Infoshop. Catehing a punk
show. a film screcning, finding out about stufT going on arcund town. reading, using computers.
and of couree jst hanging out: | even lucked inte aride all the way hack to Chicago from hoth
Infoshaps!

In October 2008 1 found out about an Infoshop opening in el barrio Pilsen, Chicago called the
Sowing Circle. and | was ecstatic! The next day | swung by. and was glad to see people workine
on geting an Infoshop going in town again. Over the next week or o | hung out there a e
times and found ot people were thinking of not caling it an Infoshop and changing the name.
ven though it had prety musch ust opened to the public

By the time | retumed to Chicago in April 2009, sure enough. the space was tll ging. but it
was called the Lichen Lending Library. I ate fal that vear | became more involved with the
space, upon returning to Chicago et again. In the midst of the discussions about transitions that
were going on at that time, such as yet ancther name change to Biblioteca Popular, | mentioned.
the A-7one a great deal. and was asked many questions about it That' when | ot the idea for
this project. and started working on i,

1 would like to thank allthe contributors! Darrell G..as mentioned above was the only mermber
of the Collective start o fnish. Our iterview came to a someswhat abrupt stop when he.
riticized Weather Thought and what he considers the polities of white

The A Zone Essay Project

i the gentifcation of Pilscn, Biblotcca Popular and the current APOC group in Chicago, |
d of drew a blank and wasn't sure where (0 go from there. Afler typing it up | felt a ltle

ter about and sent him a copy, asking i there was anything he would ke 10 4dd 1 it As with
5 whole project, maybe sometime in the fuure. He was also involved with the Sandpaper
Hlective

MUMIA'S Bill Bums and | only met once, when he came speak at one of the A-
winesrmvests - Zone events we held at the NWRC. We screcoed "Rebels With A Cause,”

CONTIMUES 4 film about Suudens for a Democratic Sacity (SDS), nd he spoke.
casually with another ex-SDSer with the ten o 50 people who showed up.
for the eveat.

Bill Bums' it has been search for freedom. He has becn a part of many
== revolutionary organizations. He is still secking revolution.

un anarchist e s still very active in social change. He is on the stcering commitice of ataxi
vers union. e i active on the defense commitice of 4 riend and cabdriver, charged with
sviding matcrial id 10 a U.S., defined terorist organization. Fially he s part of a ollective:
led RELATIONSHIP ANARCHISM. Please visit their web sie a (hencorestshore.org,

thony Rayson s a writer, editor, publisher and distributor of @nticopyright and free ‘zines. He

s als0 been involved in co-founding and organizing for grassroots citizen's groups, such 25

ut This Airpor Nightmare Down (STAND), Southside Anti-Racist Action, Southside Citizen's

alition and others. For STAND, Rayson wrole newsleters, zines and the newspaper, Rual

e Standard. He's done many interviews, mostly with conscious prisoners, such s the MOVE
nen, Sundiats Acol, Russell Maroon Shoaz, Scan Swain, Coyote Sheff, Lee Savage and

iny others. His compce ‘ine collection (over 400 tiles and counting) is housed at DePaul

iversty and his publications can be found i ‘zine libaris, lterature tables and prisoncr

dy circls throughout the vast Amerikan gulag sysiem.

hd chapierpublished i the book, gniing A
volution, pu out by AK Press. His work hs becn
bished in numerous zines and newspapers,such as
ndpoper and AREA Chicago.

s & persona fulure of mine that the gender balance of the
lectve i in no represented by this project. Pretty much
‘events and Collective meetings were roughly half male

4 half female bodied people when | was actve with the A-
nc. This is another reason | would like 0 sce another
ton with other contributors sometime in the future.

arks 10 everyone who helped with the rescarch, specially
-A~Zoners Ruchel A. and Tracy K., Rucchel Tifle, and the
icago Underground Librarians.

The & Zone Essay Project

Thanks to cveryone who helpod with the technical stll especially poople from the Strangers &
‘Guests Catholic Worker Fam, Biblioteca Popular, Wax Wing Zines, Voices for Creative Nom
Violence and the School of the Art Insttue in Chicago where | was sort of a Resident Hobo

‘when | saricd working on tis and did a ot of the initial work there with help irom couple of
students

Thanks t0 everyone who helped with the nctworki
Mess Hall

1or this espevially Seribler, Lucked Out wnd

And thank. you all for aking the time 10 read this. This s only small part of the history of the

Zone, and f there is anything you would fike 0 add 1o this history, please write South
Chicago Anarchist Black Cross!

South Chicago AnarchistBlack Cross Zine Distro:
hutpichis

00 com/zns b

5.ChiABC Zine Disro /.0, Box 721/ Homewood, L 60430.

e
RS

Inerview with Darre G

Vlew Inaen: What were the A-Zone spaces?

Yarrell G.: October ‘03 to summer *94 Division
iear Pimen. mayhe Wolcott. The second space
‘orth Ave., Damen and Milsaukee, ‘04 to late 95,
h third space was North Ave. and Claremont. late
% 0 1 think Mas "97. The fourth space was
hicaga Ave. and Damen. July 97 (o fall of 2000,
he Filh was Division. Kedzic. 2000 to sommer
001 the Bucktown space. the one vou were
avelied with, 2001 1o December 2003 was the las
ine. Then we were rening from the New World
teorce cemter in 2001

\I: What brought von f0 the A-Zone™

¥ 1 was involved with penple who were involved
it the A-Zone, some longer than others. Some |
vorked with things for vears prior o the A-Zone.
ome sehusput out the pilo issve of what became | ove and Rage, an Anarchist Collective in the
ate “%0<. The majority | met during the demonstrations against the Persian Gulf War in

hicago. Atthe time, these folks used to have Anarchist house partes. There were music
wrformances,speak outs. Fventually there was Anarchist Federation meeings. located at the
e Paul North Side campus around 1991, 1992, Later on they were in people s homes. There
s misture, a milieu of dierent Anarchists, and the idea was o get the to work together,
“hich i very difficul to this day. because people’s cgns dominate, and they don't want to work
it hers,or they e comfortable with their frends

AL L TREY]

ople involved with Wind CHill Factor were inerested in saring an Infoshop. lke in other
ities. A couple people wanied it to be co-op and lis together. | just wanted to be continually
ofved with an Anarchist milieu afler heing out of ane for ashort while

Pien T <tarted doing my History and Politics of Rhythm and Blues video narrative presentation.

the caly days of the fir<t space of the A-Zone. weekly meetings always consisied of 25 to 30
eple

A1 That has alwaye blosn my mind. Were they operated on consensus?

%G That was the original model, from the beginning. Also inthe early days of the A-Zone.
tomele<s penple would stay there. and that was not always an casy task. Because of the
ffferences in the culfure and ackground of the majority of the homeless and the backgrounds
ind cultures of the majority of the people involved with the A-Zone. Unfortunately some of the
womelees men swere Matanly sexict. and didn't reat the women from the A-Zone with respect.

10
Interview with Darel .

‘The majority of the members of the A-Zone were very young, und very inexpericnced with
working with the homeless. And this also made dealing with the Lundiord hard

Also what came out of the fist period of the A-Zone was the Free School. Initsied | thin by
carly members Kate S. and Dina.

Al What were some ofthe classes?

DG: They were various kinds of things. Discussions on things. Historical things, not necessarly
relevant to Anarchism. But of interest o people. Evenuually conflict mansgement, ilk
screcning, and it varied, with the idea that we were all leaming from cach other. There was
‘expert. It was a skill share n a non-hierarchical nvironment,

Quickly there were problems alrcady within the collectve, which was the weakness within the
A-Zone always, through out all the various spaces, an inability o resolve conflics

‘Within thisfirstperiod there were Iots of accusations and name callings of comrades within the
AZone.

AL What kind of sccusations and nam calling?

'DG: 1 think it was some people calling other people,or sveusing them of being sexist, not 1oyl
o elt they weren' listened to.

AL Whatson of work did you all do for overcoming sexism?

'DG: | think we discussed some of this stuf, but we dida't deal with stafl very well. Whe we
started the space, there wasn't cnough discussion about political unity. Then partof it was |
gucss a ot of them were very new o this sortof ctivism. Then eventually the numbers of the
collective started o drop.

Ken W. and | atempted t0 have a couple of discussions about race und class isucs, buth abuut
organizing around race and class,in un attempt 1 bring more peopie of color into the A~

Zone. The second une became a whitc guill discussion, it was taken over by people wh didn |
want 10 deal with more complen issucs.

" The firstone we atempied 1 address ot ofrcial and clas ssues hat ar ofen not el it

in Anarchist or Lefist ituations. Some people in the A-Zone t tha time were politically
influcnced by the Praric Fire Organizing Committee/John Brown Ant-Klan, Maoist politics uf
the late 60, white people should follow the leadership of people of color, and shoukd say v ot
communiies of color. That made it diffcult fo people o deal with the real issues of race and
class

In 1998 i the Chicago and Damen spac, Camille and | were frustrated becansse we though |
‘would have been a good idea for us o relatc 10 the founding congress of the Black Kadical
‘Congress. To provided lierature a UIC. What happened was the organization had to put «

n
Interview ith Darrel 6.

sl together, and there was an issue of cost. and so Camille was upset that we weren't able to
ot and 1 sccond that. hecause a< an Anarchist Collective we should be able o go hesond the
sccepted pelitic of the converted Lefl and it was a missed opportunity

In general a times. it was diffcult for me being older, Affican- American. queer, not coming out
Fihe pumk scene. ot liking punk music.

1
Felings abou the A-Zor

A3 you gt older memories become u problen but the reclings
ot that very exciting time | will communicate

“The time of the WCF and Baklava was tweaty years sgo, they
were the fore runners ofthe A-Zone. Sprite was the moving
force i thosc organizations. | remember at Sprite’s place on
Lincoln Ave. and a womyn named Judy who was very
intelligent but a some point decided t become lawycr.
that time sets and fund raisers wer held a various people’s
homes o spread the basics of Anarchism and get people 10
consider establishing a space us one choice of facilitating
Anarchism. The years of 1990-1994 | had my own taxi cab s
was driving 85 hours a week. So my participation in this
movement a this time was not full but | did write articles for
- the WCF under the pen name of PURPLE BRUISE.

“The irst A-Zone space tht | remember was on Division St. 1 remermber large numbers of
people and loud ruckus mectings. In time factional ighing 0ok place and cérain people
emerged s an informa hiarchy within s process that was ostensibly consenus. s e cuts
et o We went 1 the two spaces on North Ave. The A-Zone did not grow in numbers bur
because of the energetic leadership of Kim F., James M., Sprie, and Elecn K. the influne o
the A-Zone grew worldwide in it renown,

A T TR TYS

I time | was able 0 reduce my i hours and i 1996 1 became fully active i the A~Zonc in our
fast space on North Ave. I sbout ths time the four key people aieady mentioned bogan 1o
gravilaie 1o other projects. Vic S. came back 10 lown and together she, Tony ., Darell and |
became the principal cncrgizers of the A-Zone, and we were the ones who fiade the ecisios
felocate the A-Zone on Chicago Ave. where is stayed or the next three years. My lastyear 1o be
involved with the A-Zone was 1999,

How can we build a broad bascd Anarchist movement? One in which true consensus is
practiced? Thatcan nteract with othr communitic i unstfciive way?

1
Feclings ahout the A-7one

1 1908 Darrell my companion Camille N. and | ried to hold workshops on building consensus,
oflict resaluion, and relationship building. We were not able to effect these processes within
b lareer A-7one body

wer the fast vear Jim N.. Camille N. Darell G. Zack S., Mike D. and I have formed a group
Hled Relationship Anarchism in which we seek {0 build relationships n our inner selves and
ith cthers 2 a foundation for building an Anarchism in which real consensus and conflict
eolution i« effectively practiced. We have a web site caed The Nearest Shore. and this
mmer we will he holding workshops on building ¢fective relationships within our movement.

Anether projectthat 1 am involved inis United Taxi Drivers Community Council (UTCC). 1am
sart o the Steering Committee fo the group tha is organizing taxi drivers. | have introduced

e concepts of Consensus. Affnity Groups. and Conflit Resolution into our processes. which to
e are all Anarchist principles.

Pcently one of our members from Kashmir was arrested for giving financial aid to one of the

indivdale working fo independence; which the powers that be have deemed a terrorst person

At fellow cab driver, my. frend. wil be defended by the Defense Committee that wil emerge.
T me 3 fundamental principle of Anarchism i to show Solidarity to ellow workers.

Ihe Sandpaper came ot from December 1997 to the summer or 2000 1 believe. Some of the
jesues sou can find online. The
icles were diverse and the writing
e, A< a collective we worked well
inecther. The project ended when
Iavic Myers who had technological
il ithdrew and | decided o g0
Tk 1o schoo!. The paper was
eibuted all oxer the city o all the
horheods, and | hefieve it got
i the world.

1
“On! st Go To the A Zonel*

1rew up in the sties and was very acie 45 high schoot ki and o1 +
fewyears aftr that, but | was estrangefrom actst ivolvermen for
Quite 3 whie, rom around 1975 untl the 1990's | never gave up my
radicl beles, il wrote and ived asort of unconscious anarchis .
Then, my wi,s0n and | moved 1o the Peotone Arpor “footprint”
unbeknownst 10 us. There, | quickly got involved 1 3 roup called
RURAL - Residents Unied to Retain Agnculturalland

TAgeyaINy

't even eatize there was an “anarchat” pesence, anpwhere. |
subscribed 10 publications ike 2 Magatin, The Progressive and some.
Marist papers. 1 had a ot of books, but 1 had no connect tothe
A1t “moverment | was never 3 punk, aithough | hways loved crtain punk bands, partculrly,
Clash. 1 3w them once, 100, in Cicago.

Then, around 1995 | read an nterview wth Chicago natve Nl gnatie, who ws then a Harvard
professor and an edior of the journa, Race Traor. This was a genuine epiphany or me, a | nad bt
wresting with ths disconnectbetween my beliefs and my actual acions. Here was a man 1 could
identiy with. He was teling the truth in a mattr-offact yet thrlingly radical manner. 1 finally saw o
person n America who was for real. | wrote aette, which was publshed. A Chicago edior o Race.
Tritor, Kingley Carke contacted e, and hooked me up with 3 gr0up o tudents at the University of
Chicago, who shared these belefs. Noelcame and spoke with us. Then 5at i on a group o wites s
artsts who were working o the student paper there

15 working o a flurry of explosve essays o sotofcatch up on il th ieas hat were bottied up
my head. | got a hokd of a copy of The Match! and could immediately dentify with the pure snarchim
Fred Woodworth and is collborators were dishing. | sought any and every “underground” publication
could i, | et my material to many of them, wrote eters and sent copresof Race Taitor, 100

Ata meeting where the U.of C. writers were brainstorming up the next ssue, 1 0 them | was an
anarchistand asked them, “Where should | 010 connect with other committed anarchiss?* Almost
unison theysaid: “The A Zone.*

50,10 the A-Zone | went and found a word of wonder. Magaines, books, newspapers and ‘znes s
flesh and blood anarchists greeted me. A this time, | had also contacted the Chicago Surrealst Grou,
speatheaded by Frankin and Penelope Rosemant. S, 1wss 3o captated by the “marvelous” t the

‘They must have thought s some sortofringer because | was over fory, had o tas and v, | was.
naive 35 hell. | (hought once | contacted real anarchist, that we would organize ou 5565 off and
Blow the d off f tis whole, disgustng socety. | had a sense of urgency tha, no doub, was very
disurbing 10 some. | ubbed people the wrong way. Sometimes, ws a realerk. | wanted some.
action!

15
“O Just Go To the A Zoner

1 arted an ARA chapter in 1998, with the then secretay ofthe Chicago Greens, Lionel Trepanler,called
th Southside ARA. The Chicago ARA would sor of mentor us. AL his time, a Northside ARA also came
into istence. We met a1 the &-Zone to et our feet. Then, we would meet in Blue Island. We put on
benefit shows at 3 place called Ofthe Allyin Homewood. Wi bands ike Race Traltor and Kung Fu
ek wondd ply, and A-Zone folks would come down and soread terature around. We did some actons
inthe suburbs. Then, Chicago ARA organized an action outin Mount Prospect because a record tore up
“hors s seling acist . | came up there with 3 bunch of posters and it made the Chicago papers

Laver, we earmed the record sore n front of O the Aley, the Record Swap, lso had this nazi rap
ehin the counter. Ourgroun and other ant 25 n the south suburbs, most notably the Siaugherhouse
oo 3w them el over . Soon afer, thy shottered thei doors. The owner was also involed n the
St Dncpact hing and he was very bittr towards e, but he deserved it fo tying to proft on hate

“hicwas 3 sy e o e, 1998, 1also started my zine disro, which was orginally calied, South
hicaec APA ASC Zine Distro. Ao, in February, we started 3 new group 1o fight the Peotone Alport o
mpiart U RAL whieh | named STAND (Shut This Arport Nightmare Down ) The ady spearheading
AU AL took on job 25 3 focal reportr, 50 was a “conflctofinterest” We wanted tostep up the.
el o the fight against this momstrous des. 1ok on the roe o “Secretary” and did ot of wrting

1t while, 1 would periodically check i at the A Zone, 8010 meetings,speaking events and shows. 10
ving eraturs from my distro and STAND and bring home what they had. 1500n left ARA and began fo
ncrs on the risons,which | have continued to 4o 1o his day. 1 fgured th prsons are ground rero n
e ctruggle here at home, and that s where | wanted to pour my energes

Phnse s some memorabie experiences st the A Zone, tha had 3 bge mpact on my thinking. One in
i, ramermber. Sam Mbah came 10 speak one night. He was from the Nigeran Awarenes.
Lesgue He co-wrote the groundbreaking book, Alrcan Anarchism, which was availabie for a whie
“heoueh S Sharp Press. 1o my opinon, he along with Lorenzo Kombos Ervin, are the two mostbrifiant
smavebic hinkers of our day. 1w fascinatin to here him break down complicated world dynamics
it 2 clear.ighted anarchist analsis, o the spo. 1 thought 1o mysel: I could lsten to him answer
auestions o dayt® Aterards, gave him phone card. He was 5o personable and gracious, something

iz clf cantered, unreasonabl, paranoid and hotheaded - po 100 good. But, my heart was inthe
1o oface 3 on my cwen, | could perform excllent work. Like 1 said arir, | was nave and thought
maeohicts” would and should work ike batsout o hll | never could adust tothe sid back way of
i things. Some people | didnt trust and | reall resented what | perceive a5 3 heavy chy-centric
it of iy ks, not just anarchists. Tve been 1o thecity severaldotens of times and | can count on
o2 s the times cty people have come down to huddie with me. | guess | was looking fo rllable
Coabarator, which | fnally found a few towns over down here in the suburbs n 2004
“hern wa e cection 10 his and that was the South Side Crew. They would come down 1o Peotone

1
“On! st Go To the A Zonel”

‘o Park Forest or downtown or wherever we were staging an action, be t againt the war, s rocin
O against tis infermal sieport. They'd bang thew buckets 3nd rve our demos some et

Around 2001 or early 2002, there was s weekend of acuves,organized out of the A-Zone focusing o
women's iberation. | ic 3 workshop a the A Zone sbout women prsoners. | wiote 3 thick aine
speciical for this event, entied Women are in Prison. During my remarks, | burted out that i was.
shamefulthatthe city of Haymarket Gid ot have an ABC chapter. We then proceeded o start one o
the spot. We t00k a ot of ames that ight, but only a scant few actwlly followed through wih . Jae
D0e and , would do most all of the work

~We held weekly metings, sometimes twice monthly meetingsinthe basement o the A Zone (o work
‘on rojects. We published Chicago ABC Zine 1 & 2. Earlier, | had published the South Chcago ARA Zine
/8.2 and ARA Primer, along with countess oiher“znes. We worked with other groups, such 3 the
Mews and Leters Manuist Humarists,even the Maoists, t hold demos around th city, such 833t Cook
County Jail. We launched support campaig for prominent, mostly Midwestern actvst prsoners, such
s Richard Fiood and Khaifai Mtk Knaldun, who we wrote tick ‘zines abou.

102004 it was dscovered by Sun-Times reporters | beleve, that several actvists groups, inciucing.
Chicago ABC, had been nfitrates. Allthese groups 9t ogether to call ot this outrage n frontof
Chicago Police Headauarters on Michigan Aven. A ot ofthe organizing for that and many other
actions, events and s0 forth, were organtzed out of the A Zone.

102002, | was inited (0 paricipate i aunching the ABC Network. We had terfic kick.of conference
0 Ausin, Texas do just that.Sadl, the goup damn e imploded at the aunch pad, s volatle
personaliies in Texas dd not gt along a all - 3nd these were the main organizer! (0id anyone eise
immediately think of Brandon Oarby upon reading this? ~ditor]

50,the et year,the folks from Break the Chans put on a terfic conference in Eugen, Oregon, and
this helped keep the Network on e support. Th next year, 1 age t host the yearly conference, but
8 seemed more important o me to make it 3 “Prison Abolaion” conference and not jus a mere ABC
sathering. S0, we invied aot of igh-octane pison peopie, such a5 am and Ramona Alric, Lorenzo
Kombos Ervin, Kathy Kelly(resh out ofpison, herself for violatingthe blood:soaked grounds ofthe
5chool of the Assasins, down in Georga), RobertKing and others. We had a rousing conference thet
several A-Zone ks help make happen. Thisheped get ABCN on s feet. The nest year, Lawrence.
Kansas ABC hosted the gathering and thngs really soiiie from tht.

Whenever a comrade from outof town would i the ity i was convenient o meet them st the A
Zone. Whenever | wanted to show a suburbarite around racical circies, | would make sure we stopped
1 3t the A-Zone. It was shways a rush o pick up the atest publcations rom around the country and the
coolest sines, which often added to my own dstro. I'm sure t ws hela ot of work o make sure
t stayed open and useful, what with dealing with Nazis attackingthe space, polce haassment and
srecdy, nosey landioras.

v
ON! Just Go To the A Zone!™

SOUTH CHICAGO ABC ZINE DISTRO
P.0. Box. 721 / HOMEWOOD, IL 60430