This is our old, ugly site. Click here for the new, shiny site: http://www.freewebs.com/clashcollective/ with a new domain name soonish. - m(A)tt, 12/27/06

The site is a mess right now, but hopefully it will be updated shortly and look much more pretty. 
8/25/06 
We're coming off the heels of the first national convention of the new Students for a Democratic Society, 
initiatives for mass, coordinated direct action against the war, and a renewed effort at creating a more 
cohesive and effective anarchist movement here in CT. Our plans for the immediate future include our event
for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, which you can read about on the right 
hand column. More long term we will be striving to build SDS and the non-student section, Movement for
a Democratic Society in the hopes of creating a space for coordination and growth along anti-authoritarian,
direct action-oriented lines. And in case there were somebody out there who wasn't accusing us of nastolgia,
we're hoping to start organizing local Industrial Workers of the World activities in earnest. 
 
5/26/06 
Due to our limited resources and tangible support, the Behind the Rocks Infoshop will be leaving its 
location at 418A New Britain Ave. in Hartford. La Paloma Sabanera Coffeehouse and Bookstore is kind 
enough to allow us some room for our lending library in their back room while we look for another location. 
We are largely moved in at this point. Please see http://www.lapalomasabanera.com for more info on our 
new hosts.
 
We thank the people who made our eight-month stay on New Britain Ave possible. We have every 
intention in making the infoshop's vision of a space for marginalized ideas, communities and individuals to
organize and cross-pollinate, a reality. We remain committed to creating a revolutionary movement against
capitalism and all domination, which several of us will be pursuing through the Industrial Workers of the
World and the newly-reanimated Students for a Democratic Society. We are disappointed to leave our
location, but not disheartened. The movements for peace, freedom and dignity are clearly on the rise, and 
we intend to be a part of and contribute to them.  
 
3/30/06 
Right now, the CLASH collective in Hartford, CT and the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair folks are working 
on organizing a speaking tour of members of the Commission for Anarchist Relations (CRA -
http://www.nodo50.org/ellibertario/seccioningles.htm) of Venezuela, and possibly the Cuban Libertarian
Movement (http://www.movimientolibertariocubano.org/) throughout the northeast of North America - and 
who knows, maybe more. 
 
These groups offer unique perspectives on the rise of authoritarian Left groups and their relationship to
grassroots social movements. Chavez, and to a lesser extent Castro have been praised by the US Left 
rather uncritically as of late, and a critique from the Left of these leaders and their ideologies is important to
recieve a more clear picture of the situation in Latin America today, and to offer us alternative models of
organization and resistance.
 
That said, we are looking for people and organizations in the northeast to sponsor the tour and help us find
hosts and set up engagements. Assuming this ambitious task is not possible this year, we will definitely be
trying again for next year - so regardless, drop us a line. 
 
3/30/06 
Right now, the CLASH collective in Hartford, CT and the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair folks are working 
on organizing a speaking tour of members of the Commission for Anarchist Relations (CRA -
http://www.nodo50.org/ellibertario/seccioningles.htm) of Venezuela, and possibly the Cuban Libertarian
Movement (http://www.movimientolibertariocubano.org/) throughout the northeast of North America - and 
who knows, maybe more. 
 
These groups offer unique perspectives on the rise of authoritarian Left groups and their relationship to
grassroots social movements. Chavez, and to a lesser extent Castro have been praised by the US Left 
rather uncritically as of late, and a critique from the Left of these leaders and their ideologies is important to
recieve a more clear picture of the situation in Latin America today, and to offer us alternative models of
organization and resistance.
 
That said, we are looking for people and organizations in the northeast to sponsor the tour and help us find
hosts and set up engagements. Assuming this ambitious task is not possible this year, we will definitely be
trying again for next year - so regardless, drop us a line. 

That said, we are looking for people and organizations in the northeast to sponsor the tour and help us find hosts and set up engagements. Assuming this ambitious task is not possible this year, we will definitely be trying again for next year - so regardless, drop us a line.

3/26/06

Things are getting interesting. For the first time in a long time, I feel like progress, real progress, is being made. Our fellow direct actionists are out there experimenting with new ways to stop the war with mixed blessings. A lot is being learned, and discussion is rich. Furthermore, we are on the brink of beginning to bring our vision for the infoshop to life. We're beginning canvassing in early April, and there is a renewed sense of commitment and energy, which is definitely helped by the presence of new participants. For details, check out the new website our good comrade Franky set up: http://www.behindtherocks.info.

Also be sure to check out the Documents section on this site for new statements (bottom of Doc page) and flyers (right hand side). Free free to download and distribute.

2/26/06
The times they are a-changing. We've seen some very dramatic developments recently, which I won't comment at length here. I will however say that the good has gotten better, and the bad has gotten worse. Our antiwar direct action consulta last month went quite well, and after taking a couple weeks to recover from the stress inflicted upon this young anarcho, I'm very much back in the game. We're seeing some very exciting developments now in the department of derailing the war machine coming together in DC, Boston, and southern CT. For more on the bad, check out my blog @ http://www.iww.org/en/node/2162 .

February was definitely a slow month for the infoshop, but March and particularly April are shaping up to be highly exciting. Many good folks will be coming through the area, including members of the Zapatistas' Other Campaign, representatives of the Mexican indigenous group the CIPO-RFM, a filmmaker comrade who just got back from Iraq, and fellow infoshop-eros will be screening their film on the US infoshop phenomenon on April 22nd. Stay tuned for more info, and be sure to check out www.BehindTheRocksInfoshop.8m.net.

12/28/05
Things are beginning to pick up. We're doing well at the infoshop this month, and hopefully we'll be able to knock out this months (and last month's!) rent after our New Year's Eve Party. See http://www.BehindTheRocksInfoshop.8m.net for more info on that and lots more!

And as if maintaining and expanding the infoshop weren't a big enough task, we're also collaborating with the Hartford Catholic Worker community and the Voluntown Peace Trust to hold a consulta in January. See the right hand column for more info.

11/14/05

The infoshop project is lagging, so we're kicking it into high gear. See our new website @ http://BehindTheRocksInfoshop.8m.net for more info on the badass projects we're putting together and how you can (PLEASE) help or utilize them.

10/5/05: Due to some crappy circumstances, we need to scale back our hours at the Behind the Rocks Infoshop (what is an infoshop? check out wikipedia.org and do a search). So, for an indefinite amount of time, we'll be open Mon-Fri 6-9 PM, and saturdays, 1-7 PM.

During the month of October, we'll be going out into the community in which our storefront is located to
let people know what we're doing and to find out how we can better accomodate folks in the surrounding
Behind the Rocks neighborhood of Hartford. With any luck, we won't end up another white activist island in the middle of a community of color.

In september, our first month of operation, we did okay in bringing our share of the rent. However, mainly we brought in money from our grand-opening fundraiser and the Hope Out Loud peace festival, and
now through library memberships as we had hoped. In order to be sustainable, we are really going to be
pushing membership, which runs from $0-5 month, or for those who really want to support us but who are
financially strapped, $10-15 for 6 months, and $25/year. So please stop by when you have a chance,
take out a card, and borrow a book or video.

Our categories currently consist of: General Progressive, Peoples' History, Class, the State, Marxism, Anarchism, Alternatives, Practical/DIY, Gender, Queer Politics, Race, Media, Peace, Art, and Misc. We are of course sill accepting book donations, and right now we're pretty much all set with furniture, though if you have some nice bookcases, we'd be happy to take them off your hands for you.

For folks who want to be involved in this project or the CLASH collective in general, please come out our
next meeting on Sunday, October 9th at 5 PM, at the Behind the Rocks Infoshop, 418A New Britain Ave., Hartford, by the corner with Hillside Ave.

9/13/05

Hope Out Loud peace festival was wonderful - we sold out of all our copies of Crimethinc's new book "Recipes for Disaster," and a bunch of other periodicals and pamphlets. I gave a speech about the anti-war movement, and a bunch of people asked me to post it online. It is in the "Documents" section of this site.

Remembering the Black Panther Party
Tuesday September 26th 2006, 6:00 PM
Albany Branch of Hartford Public Library, 1250 Albany Avenue, by the corner with Blue Hills Ave.

Speakers will include:

Butch Lewis: Founding member of the Black Panther Party in Hartford.

Ashanti Alston: Former New Jersey Panther, Black Liberation Army POW, prison abolitionist and recently the former Northeast Coordinator for Critical Resistance. www.AnarchistPanther.net.
More to be announced...

In 1966 the Black Panther Party was founded to advance the cause of Black Liberation. Their Ten-Point Program
demanded “Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace,” for African-American communities, as well as exemption from military service that would use African-Americans to "fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the White racist government of America.”

The Party also started community survival programs such as free  breakfast for  students, civilian monitoring against racist police violence, and when necessary, armed community self-defense. They sought to build ties to other movements, including radical white students, poor Whites, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, and Third World movements against imperialism.

Join us on the 40th anniversary of the Party’s founding to learn what lessons this important history has to offer us today.

Sponsored by the CLASH collective
860-241-0405

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