"After years of doing our part to undermine Wall Street, the darned thing fell on us!"

Graphic design used on a t-shirt used in many union actions...

Northland Poster Collective dedicated itself to placing art and humor at the center of organizing strategy. I just learned that it is no more, as of June, after 30 years and three months.

We don't have to tell you that maintaining a small, insurgent political art organization, without institutional backing or grant funding for thirty years in a capitalist economy is a struggle. That we did it for so long is an achievement we can celebrate. A couple of years ago we engaged in a major fundraising effort that retired a mountain of old debt and set us -- or so we hoped -- on a course toward long-term stability. Given a few more years of steady growth without any global financial meltdowns we may well have gotten there. We didn't get an opportunity to find out. After years of doing our part to undermine Wall Street, the darned thing fell on us!

One of the original members, Ricardo Levin Morales, has a gallery of work here. He will be selling his work online sometime in the future. If you're on facebook, you can view many of the posters here. And some of the website was saved by the the Internet Archive. (If you reach a dead end, you can sometimes do a google search on the name of the poster and artist to find it elsewhere on the internet. You can buy buttons (and soon bumper stickers) from River City Buttons. You can buy t-shirts (minimum order of six) from Aztech Graphix. Email edup1972@hotmail.com.

For other political art distributors, still in business, see:

• Labor Heritage Foundation www.laborheritage.org/
• Labor Notes http://labornotes.org/
• Donnelly/Colt http://donnellycolt.com/catalog/core.shtml
• Syracuse Cultural Workers http://syracuseculturalworkers.com
• Northern Sun Merchandising http://www.northernsun.com/
• Progressive Portal http://www.progressiveportal.org/

No Impact Man at the Lyric

Tonight, for the 7:00 show of No Impact Man, the President of Virginia Tech, in honor of sustainability week, bought any student a ticket and a drink. 200 took him up on in. The 9:15 show was slower, but Matt, Shawn and Mark were among the folks I sold popcorn and drinks.

Forget the snarky review in the NYT. The movie is worth seeing, even if you have to pay to get in. It's a candid look at the experiment one writer and his family make to lower their environmental impact, all while living in NYC. It includes a look at the need for political action beyond individual action and the health ramification of our consumerism on, for instance, low income neighborhoods which are often the sites for landfills and the worst traffic.

The filmmaker's blog is here.

EPA Protest goes to Texas, thanks to Charlee

What I've been doing today. Charlee is handing this out tomorrow at the Mountain Justice Road show in TX. With my thanks to Scott Parkin at Rainforest Action Network for the map.

Mark-up for Local Community Radio Act of 2009

Graphic from the Future of Music Coalition.

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My friends at Prometheus Radio are leading a campaign to get the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H. R. 1147) passed to local communities to set up low-cost radio stations.

Boucher's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet issued a media advisory Wednesday, 07 October 2009 09:42 a.m. that it would be meeting at 10 am October 2009 to consider H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Sure doesn't give folks much time to weigh in, if they hadn't already. I had written Boucher April 7, but he's still not a co-sponsor. So, dear readers, weigh in if you will. Especially if you are represented by someone on this subcommittee.

I didn't think that Rick, given his stances, would favor new media outlets for those who want single payer health care or a stop to the destruction of mountains by MTR. So, instead I decided to advocate for old time music:

Dear Congressman Boucher,

As a fan of old-time music and your constituent I'd ask that you co-sponsor the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H. R. 1147), introduced by Congressman Doyle on February 24. This bill will implement the recommendations of the Federal Communications Commission report to the Congress regarding low-power FM service (LPFM.) LPFM has enriched this country's cities and towns- and has yet to reach its full potential. This bill has bi-partisan support and backing from the FCC, and responds to the conclusive results of the 2003 MITRE study which found that concerns of interference are not an issue.

As you noted in your address in Wytheville in 2007 at the "Putting Southwest Virginia's Unique Heritage and Culture to Work Conference," communities along The Crooked Road including Fries, Floyd and Galax "share a common musical heritage, each of them possesses a unique and interesting identity and heritage." Access to a locally-owned and locally-controlled radio station will enhance culture and public engagement in our community. More LPFMs in Southwest Virginia will mean more opportunities to introduce citizens to a wide range of Virginian artists, musicians, religious groups, cultural and business leaders, and government officials. Local broadcasting can also provide on-the ground content in the case of local emergencies, when on-the-ground content is essential for a rapid response.



The FCC established LPFM radio in 2000, when schools, arts organizations, churches, municipalities, and thousands of other organizations advocated for new radio licenses. The FCC began licensing 100-watt, noncommercial, local radio stations to churches, schools, local governments and community organizations across the nation.

WKJV-LP, licensed to Belle Meadows Baptist Church, and WRKE-LP, licensed to your alma mater, Roanoke College, are examples of community radio stations providing opportunities to learn the art of broadcasting, and an important forum for news, sports, culture and community. Unfortunately, two-thirds of the applications for LPFM licenses in Southwest Virginia remain unapproved, leaving out many such as one requested by Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, which hoped to include a student and community radio station in its new Learning Resources Center. Your support of The Local Community Radio Act, could drastically impact the community media landscape in our district, and beyond.

April 2, The Daily Yonder published Kate Blofson in an article, "Low Power Radio Turns Up Local Pride." Blofson quoted Shawn Dakin, a community member involved in a LPFM station in Newcomerston, Ohio: "As far as local news and sports coverage, we’re a forgotten step-child in this part of the county. Too often we only get coverage only if something bad happens, and then that's the only impression that people get."

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, you are in a unique position to advance Local Community Radio Act of 2009, moving towards a mark-up, hearing, and vote. I hope that this letter helps you consider the value of the LPFM radio service for communities throughout Southwest Virginia and across the nation and that you will co-sponsor this measure to utilize and enrich the radio airwaves.

Sincerely yours,

Beth Wellington
(address)

Wondering how to raise $50k for Energy Justice Network

Illustration by Linda Zacks from Orion Magazine for Ted Nace's article on Energy Justice Network, "Stopping Coal in It's Tracks."

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Can you spare $10? (Or more, if you have it...)

I'm trying to figure out how to provide financial support to Energy Justice Network. Thjs shoe-string operation hosts the No New Coal Plants list which is so helpful to us here in Appalachia (plus lists and fact sheets on biomass, natural gas, ethanol, nuclear energy, incinerators and more). It also provides organizing help to a myriad of local activists fighting polluting energy industries.

The goal is $50,000. All deduction are tax deductible. Online, you can charge a donation Action Center, Inc., Energy Justice Network's 501 (c)(3) umbrella. The link is: https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=30-0246999 There, you'll be able to donate once or sign up for a recurring monthly donation. Willing to tweet about donating or post a request to your facebook or myspace feed? The short link is: http://tr.im/give_Energy_Justice.

It's a good investment. I'll quote from the funding request Mike I sent out earlier this year:

Since 2001, Energy Justice Network has provided activists with web pages and fact sheets on the hazards posed by a variety of energy and waste technologies. We've linked the most-threatened communities with the resources and energy of students and with the wisdom of hundreds of hard-to-find grassroots leaders with whom we furiously network. Rather than take the NIMBY approach (Not In My Backyard), we always fight for NIABY: Not In Anybody's Backyard. We've done more with less money, and based our assessments on the grassroots realities so many of us face, not a compromised sense of what will make it easy to get foundation funding or earn us the admiration of industry collaborators.

If you'd rather write a check, make it out to Action Center Inc.and mail it to:

1434 Elbridge St
Philadelphia PA 19149

I've already chipped in and hope you'll join me. If all of us donate and ask our friends to join us, we can continue to build this resource for our fight against polluters and their suporters. Remember, "Not in ANYbody's backyard!"