community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Call for Anarchist Solidarity
by etta cetera
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 at 10:52 AM
Don't talk to Dennis Roddey
Dennis Roddey from the post gazatte
is calling around trying
to interview Anarchists about tactics.
I would appreciate it if people didn't talk with him.
He has on numerous occasions slandered
activists. (Were going at least 5 years back)
I know his article about the breakaway block
was tame, but i would appreciate still if
y'all showed solidarity and not give him another
article he can use to further his career.
HE IS NOT ONE OF US.
WE HAVE INDY MEDIA BESIDES.
xo
etta
Yes, it's a good point
by Nathan
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 at 1:58 PM
You are right that he is not one of us and that we do have indy media. I agree that the IMC is a powerful tool and community that we should support. I did give an interview to Dennis Roddy, and I know this is controversial and it was a gamble, but it was one I felt comfortable making for a number of reasons.
First of all, IndyMedia is primarily, at this point, a medium that allows for conversation between activists and progressively oriented people. It is not 'mainstream,' and it does little to create dialogue with people outside of the 'movement.'
Second, the break away march and property destruction were front page news. There was no explanation of why the window would have been broken or what kind of people would support such tactics. Mr. Roddy approaced a group of us, some decided not to talk, but I decided that the opportunity to humanize anarchism, point out some of its more subtle points, and to seperate the tactics from the idealogy was great. The column was being written regardless of who he spoke to, but in the situation I created, we both worked together from the first draft of the article to find some common ground. We did not entirely agree, and the column is not something I would have written, but I guarantee it was not the column he would have written without my input. If I want to call myself an anarchist and be a trusted part of my community, it does not do to have negative stereotypes perpetuated unchecked. Between Jim Quinn and even Mr. Roddy's own misperceptions, there has only been a negative portrait of anarchism shown through the media. I will be the first to admit that I am nervous about what will be written and know that the interview was a gamble, but it was a risk I was willing to take, and would do again regardless of the outcome.
There is, however, the issue of Mr. Roddy personally slandering activists in a public forum. This is unacceptable, and in that case, the appeal for solidarity is more than valid. Unfortunately, I am not aware of now and wasn't before the interview of any specific incidents. I feel like my reasons for speaking the corporate media are founded good reasoning, but that is all moot if he is known for personally attacking perceived personal faults and tying them to anarchism. If this is they kind of reporter he is, I regret speaking to him, but ask everyone to realize that one can't be held responsible for knowing every minute detail of everyone's career. Without effective communication between everyone in Pittsburgh who is an anarchist (something that is basically impossible) it is virtually impossible to do anything without risking a breach of solidarity. But I apologize sincerely if I have done this and hope that through better communication and a clearer sense of community these situations can be avoided in the future.
I'd also like more info on the specifics of what Mr. Roddy has done in the past.
now I'll say it...
by pjd
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 at 4:30 PM
I held back earlier today, but now i'll say it - why the hell was the communique given to Roddy anyway???
It could have been sent to the PG via their "breaking news/comment" web page. Rody would probably never have seen it.
If a reporter inquiries me about the incident I will simply state that the decision to break the window was left to the individuals involved, and that a broken window is a small thing compared to the horror of many thousands a bomb-splatted human beings.
Don't get sucked into "agreeing" or "disagreeing" with the action - just keep refering him back to the language of the communique - it does a great job.
Remember, that corporate media reporters are conditioned to never deal with our ideas; our ideas are very compelling to any reasonably open-minded individual, and way too dangerous to Power. So, instead their news is always about the news, totally ignoring the substance.
dennis roddy
by andy
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 at 4:38 PM
andy@indypgh.org
i don't wanna come out too strong on either side of this one, but:
- dennis roddy *has* said some things about local activists that could be considered insulting (what did he call you, etta? a brillo-haired wonder, or something?)
- he's also an excellent journalist (for a mainstream reporter, of course) and isn't nearly as bad in this respect as a lot of people at that paper.
- i don't think his specific intent is to slander the movement; he generally likes to examine/profile people who are sort of "outside the mold" of normal everyday life, and he doesn't necassarily glorify these people usually but he also isn't particularly vicious
- he reads this newswire regularly, just so y'all know . . . (not that that should change anything)
The communique
by Nathan
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 at 4:48 PM
The communique doesn't actually really have anything to do with what Roddy was looking for. He was, contrary to what pjd suggests, looking for the ideas behind the movement and tactics. We'll see what the columb looks like when it's done, though.
I agree with, based on my own limited knowledge, with basically what Andy said.
Roddy
by Rovin' Workman
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 at 6:23 PM
My recent experience with Roddy is based upon this article he is writing. I e-mailed him, writing respectfully, and said I would be happy to speak with him, provided I was consulted about the content of the article and could maintain my anonymity. I also attempted to give a brief overview of different trends in anarchism today, and referred him to some resources which I thought might help if he was writing a serious article. You will see what Roddy prints of my communication with him.
I wish I had received Etta's information sooner, though first-hand experience is the best way to learn.
roddey
by steveo
Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 at 1:43 AM
darksoulstalker
yeah, roddey tried to talk to me on sunday during the march. He seemed very arrogant to me. The only thing I told him is that I live in the city and go to Pitt. I saw him being all "buddy buddy" with some of the cops arounf too that day. i don't trust him
-
by -
Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 at 10:16 AM
A local reporter being "buddy buddy" with cops? Well. I don't know, but that doesn't surprise me at all. If you cover anything at all, you're going to see cops, and if you're friendly with them, you'll get more access. Not saying I would do it, but that doesn't mean he likes 'em or would rat people out or anything. Hell, maybe he was getting quotes from them, it is his job, after all.
previous article
by etta
Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 at 11:44 AM
MY COMMENTS IN CAPS...
FIRSTLY ALL I SAID TO RODDEY
WAS THAT I DONT WISH TO TALK
TO HIM, I DONT LIKE WHAT HE'S
WRITTEN IN THE PASSED
Homefront: Some protesters were the low-salt variety
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
On the other side of the street -- a place both literal and figurative yesterday -- the Brillo-haired Minotaur who calls herself Etta Cetera met the arrival of a president with her pretzel logic.
"Pretzels for the suits!" shouted Cetera, a street anarchist who came here from Baltimore and refuses to give a real name or go away. She threw a fistful of Rold Golds onto the sidewalk.
RODDEY LIKES TO DIG UP INFO AND USE IT
WHAT EXACTLY IS A STREET ANARCHIST ANYWAY.
AND THE GO AWAY COMMENT IS REAL" great journalism"
She led a revised version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Closing lines: "Georgie, Georgie have a pretzel. We hope you choke on it."
In the space of 10 minutes, the gang on the windward side of Fifth Avenue, opposite the Masonic Temple, where the president of the United States was about to discuss the war on terror, condemned an array of evils:
1. U.S. bombings in Afghanistan.
2. Global capitalism.
3. The corporate media.
4. Jane Duffield's fur coat.
"Forty dead animals -- one fur coat!" they shouted. "Fur is dead!" another chimed in.
Neither Duffield, the spokeswoman for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, nor her coat expressed an opinion. Both went inside to hear the president's speech.
Not every protester yesterday was loud. Not everyone beat on an old gasoline can -- a can that was beaten only after a Secret Service agent had taken a peek inside. Not everyone had both the hair and politics of Bakunin.
LETS PLAY THE GOOD PROTESTOR BAD PROTESTOR GAME.
Meet Erica Nagy and Adam Claessens, she a student from Cranberry, he a student from Allentown, and both protesting the Bush administration's new hard line on the use of hemp in foods.
"It's not about legalizing anything that can get you high," cautioned the scrubbed and well-turned-out Nagy. What Nagy, Claessens and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy want is to be able to enjoy granola, cookies, nacho chips and assorted other vegetarian delicacies without running afoul of a new Drug Enforcement Administration policy that forbids the use of anything with detectable amounts of THC, the letters that give pot its wallop.
"We have to distinguish between hemp and marijuana," said Claessens.
They also wanted to distinguish between their group and Cetera's.
"We really didn't want to be this close to them, but the police said we have to be here," Nagy said.
LETS PIT ACTIVISTS AGAINST EACH OTHER..
AND WAY TO SHOW SOLIDARITY
STUDENTS FOR A RESPONSIBLE DRUG POLICY.
Truth to tell, even some of the veteran protesters seemed less than captivated by the giant pretzel cutout, the frequent gearshifts in rhetoric, the clanging and banging of companions who angrily told reporters they were on a media strike and promptly agreed to a TV interview.
"I almost didn't come when I heard they were going to do this pretzel thing," said one.
"It's not like the '60s," said Marshall Goodwin, whose bona fides in the realms of dissent were established when police removed him from atop a sphinx 10 years ago as activists tried to stop the wrecking ball at the late Syria Mosque.
Nothing like the '60s.
OF COURSE ITS NOT LIKE THE 6OS YOU ASSHOLE
ITS 2003 (WHEN THIS WAS WRITTEN) A GOOD
OVER 30 YEARS LATER) AND THE ACTIVISTS
IN THE 60S WERE SLANDERED AS WELL..
SO MAYBE THE MEDIA IS JUST LIKE THE 60'S
EXCEPT THEY ARE ALL OWNED BY A FEW
CORPORATIONS NOW.
Inside the Masonic Temple, an establishment no longer owned by Masons, Bush enjoyed a warm reception and declared that Pitt and its biomedical combine were the new Distant Early Warning line -- harkening back to the days of the Cold War system that was there to alert Americans to the arrival of Soviet bombers.
HE ENJOYED A WARM RECEPTION BECAUSE
IF YOU HAD A SIGN YOU HAD TO STAND
ON THE PITT GRASS BUT IF YOU WERE
BLOWING KISSES YOU COULD GET SOOPER
CLOSE
The protesters beating buckets and shilling pretzels were far from the minds even of Democrats.
"It's just ignorance," said Janell Clopper, a 19-year-old pharmacy student from Chambersburg. "I don't understand why people are opposed to fighting this war."
Clopper was still enjoying the afterglow of a presidential encounter. Bush signed a card for her, and she and Suneal Chandran, an 18-year-old Republican from Carnegie Mellon, joined in a bipartisan effort to decode a signature that looked for all the world like a watch spring that had come undone.
"I think that's supposed to be the W," Clopper said.
Outside, the crowd shivered its way across Fifth Avenue. Etta and the gang hammered their buckets and traded barbs with the less-enlightened. Bush never caught a glimpse of the first protest on the new DEW line.
HE HAS ALSO WRITTEN FUCKING STOOPID
ARTICLES ABOUT DIFFERENT ACTIONS THAT
TOOK PLACE AROUND INS ACTIONS.
THE TITLE BEING " THEY DONT MAKE PROTESTORS
LIKE THEY USED TO"
andy, i cant believe you wrote that he was a
great journalist. i mean, ill still love you. but
your a way better journalist then roddey will
ever be. cause you got no career motives buddy..
if yinz already talked to him there is nothing you can
do...maybe if he reads this...he will
write a nice article to spite me.
xo
etta
maybe i meant
by andy
Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 at 12:50 PM
that's he's a great writer, rather than journalist . . . i mean, i don't mean to back off of everything i've ever said about the mainstream press by calling him a great journalist, cuz it's all true. he does obviously have career motives, as they all do. he's not the tribune review but he's definitely not the imc either. sound good?
i guess part of why i said that was to get you to tease out your argument a little more, which worked. now people have concrete examples of what's up . . .
and i still love you too :]
Letter to Roddy
by Rovin' Workman
Sunday, Feb. 02, 2003 at 8:07 AM
Dennis Brian Patrick Martin Roddy,
I had genuinely hoped to have a meaningful discussion with you, but after seeing your article, I realize that I should have gone with my instincts and eschewed your request for subjects to interview. I am glad you were able to meet with Nathan Shaffer, and hope that he is satisfied with your article.
The reason so many activists (anarchist, socialist, etc.) use pseudonyms is to protect them from slander as well as state repression. Many happen to be employed in jobs where they are not able to "come out" to the general public, so to speak. I don't feel it is necessarily wise to do so in any event. Need I point out any more than the Palmer Raids and HUAC hearings? It isn't necessarily romantic to use another name; it is pragmatic.
Typical of your slanting of the facts and, dare I say it, bad journalism, is your reference to my refusing to speak with you directly. I never said I would not speak with you. I simply did not intend to meet you in person. Maybe you took personal offense to this, but I don't exactly dream of sitting-down with newspaper reporters. Furthermore, you couldn't even get my "nom de guerre" correct. Tsk, tsk.
CC:Indymedia Pittsburgh
The Article
by Rovin' Workman
Sunday, Feb. 02, 2003 at 8:12 AM
Anarchists: Can they get it together?
Sunday, February 02, 2003
One of the most visible but least-explored tributaries of the anti-war left comprises a group of people, mostly young, who dress in black, conceal their faces with masks and combine street theater with street fighting. They call themselves anarchists....(continued)
http://www.post-gazette.org/columnists/20030202edroddy02p1.asp
What??
by Junkyard
Monday, Feb. 03, 2003 at 5:32 PM
What is up with that article? Can Roddy be anymore dramatic, and paint us in any more of a "fantasy-land" light? There are a few (albeit VERY FEW) instances that was great to get into the mainstream media (like some of the quotes from Nathan, and some of the history). I'm usually a proponent of talking to the mainstream media (I even talked to this guy last week in Pittsburgh), and happy when they write about us, but this is, well, mostly terrible. What do other people think? Should we call Roddy and demand a better article? Should we call him and tell him off? Write letters to the editor? What? I don't really feel like this portrays anarchists in a good light overall, and I'll be honest, I was excited to hear he was writing an article on anarchist ideas and theory, and was hoping for much more, but this really made me angry. (What's with the whole way he describes Nathan, WTF??)
really
by andy
Monday, Feb. 03, 2003 at 6:20 PM
everyone i've talked to has been fairly happy with the article. i mean, what does everyone expect? we are a subculture. he examined the subculture and didn't make any sweeping generalizations. he pointed out that anarchists aren't necessarily violent, and he didn't insult anyone in the article. some of it is dramatic. if you read him all the time, as i bet a lot of the people outside our community who read the column do, you'd know that that's his style. did you all read the trib editorial? i think that's who we need to be calling and writing, not roddy. go back and read the columns he's written about far-right groups and look at the treatment he's given them. he's scathing with them, as he should be. he was much nicer in this article. he's not out to get the anarchists.
some thoughts
by etta
Monday, Feb. 03, 2003 at 6:57 PM
yeah, i don't think it was that bad. actually it's
probably one of the least horrible ariticles
ive seen about anarchists in a mainstream rag.
i dont really think nathan looks like che
but "chethan" has a nice ring to it. the comments
about rovin' were dumb and uncalled for.
is it that much to ask to see an article before it's
published? i offer this to anyone i have ever
interviewed. it's called respect.
but its rare to have any article about anarchists
that doesnt portray us as bomb throwers.
i think roddy is jumpin on the "wow anarchists
are pretty cool" gravy train
however, there will never be a place for him in my
heart and if i never see him again it will be too soon.
i will continue my media strike to him and marty levine,
another soul i loathe.
when i first got into activism, i was real into talking to
the press, real honest, open and trusting. ive been
misrepresented so many times that im much more
wary. tim vining gave me great advice the other day.
pertaining to T.V. "they never have the question
in the edited version so whatever question they
ask you can give any answer. politicians know this
better than anyone."
i'd be into co-hosting a dealing with media work
shop if anyone is into. " you" provide workshops on
dealing with the police, there should be equal
time with media, before an action.
the cops control the bodies, the media controls the
minds.
![[masthead]](/images/masthead_140.png)