This little essay was written for an early ETS! mockup in 1995--and ran in the first and fourth issues of the newsletter.

Welcome to this, an initial issue of what we intend to be a weekly, four-page forum for--like the masthead says--anti-authoritarian political opinion, research, news and humor. While Seattle already has lots of forest-eating print publications, including some very good political ones, it doesn't have one that is explicitly anti-statist (by which we mean both governments and corporations, which these days are essentially the same); explicitly activist; or published frequently enough to respond to breaking events, decode the news and publicize activist initiatives. That's what we wanna do. We also think being clearly biased in our approach is not only more honest than so-called "objective" corporate media, but lots more fun to read. Short, frequently published broadsheets, interpreting the news of the day in a way the newspaper barons would not, were a staple of the radical US labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They served to link isolated communities and provide a voice and soapbox for the voiceless. The "Democracy Wall" writings of China's student movement in 1989 filled a similar function. On a more modest scale, that's what we hope to do, too: avoid rhetoric, make the issues of the day relevant to our daily lives, get the word out, inspire, have fun, and encourage each other to think for ourselves and look beyond what self-interested corporations and governments hand to us.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

Missions were used by the Spanish to colonize Mexican California in the 18th century. Their establishment was instrumental in the genocide of California's native peoples.

We oppose them.