________________________________________________________________________________ "mailradek" project is a non-regular posting of subjective commentaries on political themes. texts have no copyright and can be reprinted, translated, distributed without a special authors' permission. All previous issues (in English and Russian) can be found at the new site WWW.MAILRADEK.REMA.RU There are also many info about the latest events in radical culture and the regularly changing large texts on actual themes. Now it's a Larisa Shiptsova's letter, which is to be replaced by an article on zAiBI group soon. Everybody who doesn't receive it can send a "subscribe english mailradek" or "subscribe russian mailradek" (a more often and full version) e-mail to kireev@glasnet.ru, and I'll include him into the mailing list. Address: Russia 117333 Moscow, Vavilova 48-237, tel.: (095) 137 71 31, e-mail: kireev@glasnet.ru text no. 82 1.09.1999 Pros and cons of hitch hiking. Roger Waters Everything is flying hither and thither, my boy. Kurt Wonnegut You don't have to pay when you go hiking; if they ask you to pay, you just shut the door (from the outside). That is why they are the part of the society, where sincerity and confidence exist, when a stranger's smile is not necessarily a merchant's smile or bought politeness of city service. There's no surprise that hitch hiking only exists outside the sity, and you have to walk a few miles along the road. In hitch hiking there is no authority, there is only confidence: the driver who picks you up for absolutely nothing is beforehand sure that you are in no way bound by contracts or obligations, and he is free to pick you up or not, and you are as well free to stay on the road and choose the car you like. The driver and the hiker hardly ever exchange addresses, for it's an instantaneous and free connection, and there's no use for meeting outside it anymore. Those who pass by are excluded from these relations. Many drivers, whose car is filled up or those who leave the road make apologetic gestures to the hiker, they're feeling sorry about their exclusiveness. Truck drivers pick up more seldomly. When driving about Russia, they often have the hiker tell them stories to prevent from falling asleep. When you cross the border together (the hiker must do that in a car, there's no way to do it on foot), you share the sweet taste of illegality, for instance, when the driver himself is smuggling (and you can meet 90 per cent of those at Belorussian-Polish border). The European frontier guard is looking at you suspiciousy or scornfully when you aren't as respectable as that one in a fashioned car next to you, but we are to be proud of our misery. Neither the frontier guard nor the man in an expensive car can feel the joy of hitch hiking. It's not you who were thrown away from the respectable society, but they who never were inside the Culture. It's not shameful either to hike or to beg at German streets, or to steal, or to refuse to pay, just the opposite, it's a matter of pride, it's the thing that grants us our uniqueness. In our everyday life we must also reject any kinds of commodity-money relations, and not to lend, but to give, and if you give something to the man of "your kind", he will give it back hundredfold. Hitch hiking is a communism on the road fulfilled. It was created by the men of the sixties. But the regrettable end of the sixties' revolution (common accusations of the bought generation) cannot discredit their achievements. We must win back and restore all their achievements, including hitch hiking, drugs, sexual revolution, aggressive social disobedience, and to treat them better than the people of the sixties used to. Grigory-the-Jumper INFO: There was a terrorist action at the Manezh commercial centre, which caused some injuries to people present. A note of revolutionary content signed by Dmitri Pimenov and The Union of revolutionary writers, was found at the site. Since that moment the official media are full of messages about this hero of the day, though barely anyone suspects Pimenov of being responsible for the explosion, and his actions are expected to be mere self-advertisement. Even if thus, the social activities of the radical politics has now caused even more attention, and that's fine, isn't that? Pimenov has recently called from Warsaw, then from Prague. His apartment had been searched and his computer was confiscated, and he "fled". A case alike this one took place the other day - Vladimir Slivyak, director of the Antinuclear campaign was arrested on the 6 of September when leaving his own house, and after examining his ID documents and questioning him about Slivyak's work, ecological organizations and his ecological activities in general, 1st police lieutenant of Section 6 of Moscow Criminal Investigation Office Kosterov A.S. announced that he is "leading the case of the terrorists", including the investigation of Manezh square explosion. Right during the arrest Kosterov was threatening the director with "discovering" a packet of marijuana in his bag if he fails to cooperate with the court. The MCIO officers appeared to be looking for Jacov V. Kotchkarev, who, as they had found out after eavesdropping his telephone talks, is about to appear soon. (Kotchkarev was a defending witness during the Krasnodar case). At the same time the FSB officers called Alexei Kozlov (Voronezh) and said that "if Kotchkarev isn't found in the nearest time, he can think himself arrested". Another thing about the Krasnodar case: A. Shunko, who come from Moscow to support Larisa in the court, was arrested at the end of august. He's still kept in the investigation cell, and he's charged with producing drugs. The sixth signal issues of the legendary anarchic magazine "Grass and freedom>, its former publishers - the married couple of Larisa Shiptsova and Ilya Romanov - are in jail now. The magazine was charged with . used to be the best and the most non-compromising magazine amongst many radical culture publications. Unlike many traditional fanzines, it's printed in offset (not on a xerox or a resograph), its texts appears to be of high quality and the illustrations are exceptionally good. Everything begins with Nechaev's . After it the materials follow, and also the campaign, and various other materials, An "Anti-nuclear campaign" ecological camp was taking place from august 17 to 27 at Novovoronezhskaya nuclear power plant. The main demand was concerned about prohibition of use of MOX-fuel for feeding into atomic reactors and was addressed to the authorities of Voronezhski region, the chairman of which is also the president of the Union of atomic and nuclear plants of Russia. MOX-fuel is a most dangerous component of defunct nuclear warheads, the whole world is looking for safe ways of disposing it, and here they are trying to use it as fuel for nuclear power plants. The camp activities included gathering signatures, street picketing, and ended in a not very successful action in front of the regional administration building. A protest camp took place at Czech-Polish-German border, at German side, as a part of the "Kein mensch ist illegal" campaign. More that 500 people were participating, there were live shows of rock bands, theatrical groups, films, a local pirate radio station was broadcasting. The proclaimed purpose of the campaign was to change the social attitude towards illegal refugees from South and East, against whom the state exercises an extremely repressive policy. It has been the largest initiative of the German leftist, antifascist, anarchist and intellectual groups in the last few years, but its effectiveness is doubted. Rioting punks, who throw paint and tomatoes at chauvinist burgers, hardly seem able to shake their hate towards refugees; we certainly support their actions, but we must look for more effective ways. ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org