These
days, it ain’t easy being indy.
The last 12 months have seen the demise
of Clamor, Punk Planet, Satya and LiP. Not only have we lost a set
of publications committed to the cultivation of progressive thought,
intriguing activism and culture-jamming, but we have also lost four
great forums of initiation for the next generation of thinkers and
activists.
Thank heavens AK Press has stepped up to fill the gap. This
fall, the anarchist publishing house released Tipping the Sacred Cow:
The Best of LiP. It’s a comfort to know that LiP’s unorthodox journalistic
approach now has the potential to reach new audiences.
Tipping the
Sacred Cow is a savvy and well-curated collection of the comics, illustrations,
articles and interviews featured in LiP’s myriad print and online
incarnations from 1996-2007. Capturing the magazine’s cheeky nature,
it reads like a super-special edition of LiP—complete with illustrations
by cartoonist Eric Drooker, a “theft ethics” quiz, a glossary of culture-jamming
lingo and other useful appendices—including some exclusive, behind-the-scenes,
previously unpublished material.
Goodies aside, this collection approaches
all of the left’s sacred cows with verve—from hip-hop activism and
anti-globalization to environmentalism and radical queer activism.
Though some articles in the compilation are nearing 10 years old,
the material is still fresh and relevant. Jennifer Whitney’s “Make
Media, Make Real Trouble: What’s Wrong and Right With Indymedia” (June
2005) particularly resonates in these dark days for independent publications.
“People don’t read sloppy, unedited or disorganized stories,” Whitney
writes, referring to the profusion of poor content on Indymedia websites.
“They don’t look at bad photographs or videos. And so the potential
to have an impact is greatly diminished. Simply put, an unread article
changes nothing.”
While the Internet is a tremendous resource for
organizing and activism, our increased reliance on social networking
sites, blogs and other marginally edited transmissions thwarts the
production of inventive, imaginative and investigative articles from
the left. That decrease in quality alienates potential audiences.
Technology has shored up diverse ideas and activist networks—i.e.
the online organizing efforts for the Jena Six— but few groups attract
allies outside their niche. Well-executed and thought-out journals
can function as “spokespeople” for nascent movements, engaging participants
with the theories, activism and ideas needed to further movements.
LiP addressed
these difficulties head on. In his introduction to the anthology,
founder Brian Awehali writes that LiP’s purpose was to “spur different
conversations, generate different frames and attract people who, frankly,
feel stultified by a lot of
One
of the most intriguing pieces in Tipping the Sacred Cow is “Sweatshop-Produced
Rainbow Flags and Participatory Patriarchy: Why the Gay Rights Movement
is a Sham,” by self-described radical queer activist Mattilda, a.k.a.
Matt Bernstein Sycamore.
The essay addresses the concern of assimilation
and homogeneity within American queer culture and asks what is lost
when marginalized social groups compromise their core identities in
favor of acceptance. Abstractly, these are interesting questions,
but when used to argue against gay marriage as a symbol of oppression,
the piece exemplifies the kind of thought-provoking work that was
LiP at its best.
Similarly great entries include Lisa Jervis’ “If
Women Ruled the World, Nothing Would be Different” and an interview
with Christopher Hitchens about his book, The Missionary Position:
Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice.
