==================================== PART II: Description of PACH Project ==================================== - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --> [Send the 1-line message GET PROJECT PACH-2 ACTIV-L to ] [LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ] --> [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ] [listing with brief descriptions of other files available] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In order to fulfill goal (5) above, and in working towards the other goals, we need a central network for communication and cooperation among peace groups, for sharing and disseminating information and resources, and for the coordination of activist projects; a Progressive Alliance Clearing House (PACH). The PSN-EN Project: =================== As part of this overall project, we would link electronically (and otherwise) Progressive Student Newspapers (PSNs) and form a PSN-EN (PSN Electronic Network). The advantages for the PSNs are clear, and include the sharing or articles, ideas, and advice among editors, and a massive increase in the amount of information available to PSNs, as via PeaceNet and other components of PACH to be discussed below. However, the greatest benefits of this project will come from the information access made available to potentially millions of students, as well as activists without access to computers, who currently are effectively insulated from receiving vital information by the mainstream news media; vital information which the PACH network, through the PSN-EN, could provide. In addition, the PSN network would go a long way toward linking campus peace groups with each other, and with the activist world at large. While one of PACH's purposes is the coordination of activism in general, the PSN network could facilitate the planning and carrying out of campus activism, -- a higher-quality, more effective, more informing campus activism at that. This includes national campus activist drives and themes (e.g. "X-Week"), speakers' tours, and informational tours, e.g. national campus tours of videos like "Voices From Panama" and "COVERUP: Behind The Iran-Contra Affair," etc, which could be put together more quickly and efficiently, at a lower average cost, and with a higher overall quality due to access to more organizations and resources. On the financial side, to which we later return from a wider perspective, cooperation between the PSN network and national progressive newspapers/publications (NPNs) like The Nation and In These Times, would clearly promise substantial benefits to both parties, in terms of revenue (and possible re-running of NPN articles) for PSNs, and additional subscription revenue for the NPNs. Perhaps most importantly, this would facilitate increasing substantially the number of students getting quality alternative (i.e., what the mainstream censors out or distorts) information. So along with PSN-EN, we've alluded to a second component of PACH, namely these NPNs. I should mention here that Charlie Forcey has interned at The Nation this past summer, and has contacts there, e.g. Neil Black. This idea is not new; Activist Mailing List (AML) member Charlie Forcey, editor of Princeton's Progressive Review, gives an overview of the Network of Alternative Student Papers (NASP) and New Liberation News Service (NLNS) in the appendix, and the Progressive Review is now part of a network of over a hundred PSNs. But this idea needs support. The Info-coop ============= A database of PSNs' articles, NPN's articles and other resources (see below) would be the informational heart of PACH; this "information coop" (info-coop) would allow an activist -e.g. someone writing an article for a PSN- to ask for a variety of different categories of information, for example for: "FAIR's report `The Media Goes To War..."; "Greenpeace's [latest] calendar of upcoming events", "LADB's Central America Update, 10/3/90"; "Amnesty's '88 report on `death squads' in El Salvador" "Zeta Magazine's [or WOLA's or..] address"; "What legislation is/upcoming in the House/in committee re..?" "Details of covert operations `reform' bill" "Contents of CoverAction Inf. Bulletin's [or..] latest issue" Etc; the key role is to get vital, otherwise censored information to millions of students (and eventually, to the public at large) There are other categories of information which are useful for activists; in the AML library, I have compiled the following resource files: * American Friends Service Committee catalog of publications/videos * Fairly large file of progressive publications * Fairly large file of progressive/peace groups * File of quotes (e.g. Dom Helder "When I gave food to the poor,..") * File w/various ill-publicized but important statistics (e.g. stats of reverse robin-hood of the 80's; application of DP) * File describing "Socially Conscious Investments" from Working Assets Money Fund and other groups; plus related items * Files with government tels/addresses; media and Senate label-ready addresses, etc. * File with AI and other independent/peace groups' videos * We will be scanning in [thanks->Dave Ratcliffe] the entire Amnesty International '90 catalog of publications, which includes a comprehensive listing of over 100 country reports; also, South End Press's catalog of publications; list of speakers on issues, etc. * File of Advertisers from progressive publications, for advert-coop. Between PeaceNet and UseNet and the PSN-EN, one part of the nuts and bolts of the info-coop would be a moderated UseNet newsgroup "misc.peace.pach," making available to the PSN network, to the UseNet, PeaceNet, and other on-line activists, resources from: these components; plus items from the AML library, especially resource files; and articles from PSNs and eventually from NPNs; finally, AML and or alt.peace.pach would offer a human resource: the technical support necessary to build the PSN-EN, helping PSNs get on line, etc. Two bits of technology would be very useful here: first, an archiver which would enable instantaneous "replies" to the list of questions above, and to obtaining resource files; an activist, e.g. someone writing a PSN article, could send the archiver a command like "send nader.tax.stats" or "send AI.rprt.ES" to receive these files. A second piece of technology to be implemented would be an automatic poster which would periodically post resource files; indices of AML/info-coop files; and introductory files "about PeaceNet" or "about PSN-EN" etc; these posts would automatically go not just to the proposed PACH newsgroup but also to alt.activism and other groups when appropriate (e.g. soc.rights.human; soc.culture.l-a) So PACH (or, it's electronic component) would include: (1)The PSN-EN; (2)PeaceNet, EcoNet, UseNet, etc; (3) NPN's; (4)Linking electronically with national peace groups (creating UseNet access/audiences for groups on PeaceNet, putting "on line" groups which are not, etc) (5)A Central database with info from (1)-(4); (6)A clearinghouse for progressive advertisers as a financial base. As to this last item, it would encompass more than just agreement between the PSN-EN and various NPNs; here's an excerpt from a recent letter: ...Ms. magazine's no-advertising decision is exactly the wrong solution to the right(ly defined by them) problem... what the Left needs is a good source of $, which the Right has because they promote agendas beneficial to those *with* $, hence, to belabor the obvious, they are given $ by these elites to publish, put things on TV, etc; so PACH comes in by having a centralized clearing house of names and addresses of progressive advertisers, both national and the many, many small locals (which will have to provide much of the sustaining $-blood; few multi-billion-$ corp.'s are likely to advertise with PSNs/NPNs). Left publications help them grow as we get PSNs to improve, cooperate, and so, expand audience; they help us grow w/$.. This is clearly necessary if we're serious about the goals at the end of the introductory file, e.g., a national progressive cable channel. We conclude with a diagrammatic sketch of PACH, followed by a table of short-, medium-, and long-term goals. A D i a g r a m m a t i c S k e t c h o f P A C H ========================================================= work together (millions of students) <--- [PSNs] <-----------> [Campus Peace Groups] ^ information | v _______ ________ ___________ /PeaceNet\ tech/ \ articles / \ | EcoNet |<->[misc.pach]->| PSN-EN | <-------> | Nat'l PNs | \__etc___/ ^ asst\________/ $ \___________/ / | | / |$ |$ _/ | | [UseNet] <- ##############|######################|############## | # [Network of Progressive Advertisers] # | # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - # v # * I N F O - C O O P * # [other] # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - # [people] # Resource File Libr.; Archiver; Automatic Poster # #################################################### ------------------------------------------------------------------ [There should be dashed lines of "info" from PeaceNet etc box, via misc.pach, to PSN-EN and NPNs; lines from Resource Library (and Info-Coop in general) to various components, etc. Eventually we want to reach tens of millions of Americans, having linked not just with PSNs but with local/regional progressive newspapers/TV stations.] ================================================================== Short-, Medium-, and Long- term goals: ====================================== Short Medium Long ------------------------------------------------------------------ Create misc.pach at UseNet Create PSN-EN finish PSN-EN; Automatic posting software with:NASP/NLNS; work on PACH, Quality/organized archiver PeaceNet,EcoNet; electronic&non Build contacts with NASP/NLNS Work on: Reach out Build contacts with PeaceNet Database software to all U.S. Build contacts with Nation,etc $-coop peace groups Contact Institute for S&C Dev. start reaching out: National [who do Zeta;NLNS;SouthE Press] to campus groups; cable & groups not "on line" newspaper AMLers advertise project, and PeaceNet,AML,misc.pach ??? use their contacts to bring people use contacts ??? people in to bring people in ??? ################################################################## APPENDIX: Re Institute for S&C Change; NLNS; NASP; FAIR project: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [From inside front cover of Fall 1990 South End Press Catalog:] "South End Press is part of the non-profit Institute for Social and Cultural Change. Related projects include: *Zeta* Magazine, a monthly political publication; the Publishers Support Project, a vehicle for sharing publishing experience and equipment with progressive media in the U.S. and around the world; Speak Out!, a speakers bureau presenting 50 knowledgeable activists and writers; and the New Liberation News Service, providing articles, photos, and graphics by and for the student movement. If you would like more information on any of these projects, please write to us at our editorial office, 116 Botolph Street, Boston, MA 02115" [Also contact FAIR re speakers, media/PSN advice, and cooperation on the whole PACH project itself -- contact (and self-descriptive info as below for Institute) FAIR with David Ratcliffe [dave@sgi.com || dave@ratmandu.csd.sgi.com] -- Harel] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [CBFORCEY%PUCC.BITNET (Charlie Forcey)]: ..The Nation internship went well and gave me some strong contacts there. These may be useful for your project if you can specify exactly what you want from the Nation and it doesn't cost them much. Neil Black [general manager of The Nation -HB], who you mentioned, is extremely nice and will do whatever he can to put more of the Nation into our hands.[..]Part of my internship was to continue and finish a manual for student journal(s/ists)[..]working on the manual brought me into close contact with NASP people[..]and NLNS people. My paper is part of the network (now over a hundred papers strong) and is working to computerize the article sharing - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Network of Alternative Student Papers (NASP) was founded in 1985 (or so) by students working for a vigorous student and community paper in Vermont called The Gadfly. It has floated around for a number of years (California, etc) in an effort to keep it decentralized and build national members. For those years, its primary function was to maintain a mailing list of alternative student papers that would, in theory, mail their issues to each other using the list. Money and disorganization prevented most papers from doing so. Recently, NASP has moved to Boston and the THISTLE, MIT's radical student bi-weekly. There the network took a more serious turn, recruiting more actively, purging the mailing list of defunct addresses, and organizing national meetings that got things rolling in new directions. Proposed projects include: BITNET mailings of issue copy to member papers, advertising syndicate to pay NASP's expenses, a large national conference in the winter, and last but not least, The New Liberation News Service (NLNS). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NLNS was conceived by this group and a number of other NASPers around the country, but it was actually brought into being this summer by Jason Pramas who is their single paid staff member. The idea, as you all may have read elsewhere, was to revive the concept of the old Liberation News Service, and produce timely, reprintable, and important packets of articles which are then sent to all the member newspapers. The first packet is out and another one is on its way soon. I can't judge too well what the quality of the articles are going to be like since I am reluctant to judge their first one. There were several good articles, in my opinion, and a number that I don't think should have been included. The idea is excellent though and the school year is just beginning. There is talk, but so far no action, on a BITNET version of the packet which would be much faster and cheaper for all. NLNS Contact: Jason Pramas, NLNS // P.O. Box 41 // MIT Branch // Cambridge, MA 02139. (617) 253-0399. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Jason may be reached electronically at: dmstern@ATHENA.MIT.EDU --HB - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The FAIR media campaign is just beginning this Fall with Princeton planned as one of their first campus visits sometime in November. I will, of course, know more about their effectiveness then, but for know I can outline what they hope to do. They plan to provide two things to campuses: 1) a number of speakers on issues of media bias and media strategies for activists. These events are intended for general audiences (hopefully large), though they are willing to work in a workshop format with a sponsoring student newspaper. 2) financial and logistical assistance for student papers in desperate need or just starting up. Funding is apparently coming through by January and will support a few papers a year with small grants. They have a comprehensive packet that explains all of this in more detail. Contact: FAIR, Renu Nahata // 130 W. 25 St. // New York, NY 10001. (212) 633-6700. ################################################################## "Those who wish to play a meaningful role in influencing public policy or changing its institutional base must begin with honest inquiry, in community with others if it is to be effective. [...] "There will be little hope for further progress unless the means to carry out these first steps are preserved and enhanced: networks of local organizations, media and publishers who do not bend to state and private power, and so on. These first steps interact: the organizations will not function without access to information and analysis, independent media and publishing will not survive without the participation and intellectual and financial contributions of popular organizations [...] "There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the costs of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionsment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future. --Conclusion of Turning the Tide, by Noam Chomsky.