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 T i i it i mmfi. ¥i i sl r u R il mhmwm_bmm.mwh..m _.._E_..._.H__.._mm_ 1 it e b il m 1 4 3. mm i mm ;_am_fi ? M: .m_fix il i F» m.r ._ ;_ . __: 1is _mw r w—m .“E. “ . :Z ] m u.W: z “_« o_.m. _ m .w m:r. il 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