Check out the info. below, on CAE's new book and Claire Pentecost's
'Reflections on the Case by the U.S. Justice Department against Steven
Kurtz and Robert Ferrell.'

Marisa

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ben at Autonomedia <ben@autonomedia.org>
Date: Jan 18, 2006 9:18 PM
Subject: [Autonogram] Mid-January Autonomedia report
To: autonogram@lists.interactivist.net


Dear Autonogram subscribers –

Here's a mid-January update on some of what's been going on around
Autonomedia.

* * *
1. Critical Art Ensemble: trial update, new book
2. Shut Them Down!: New book on the G8 protests in Scotland
3. 50\% off 2006 Autonomedia Jubilee Saints calendars
4. Some highlights from the Interactivist Network
* * *

1. Steve Kurtz (and by extension, the Critical Art Ensemble) was denied a
motion to dismiss his trial last week in Federal court. Critical Art
Ensemble are the collective authors of a series of Autonomedia books
analyzing the authoritarian uses of science and technology, particularly
where these mechanisms operate with a positive, "everyone's a winner" face
(the full-stomached promises of food genomics, for example, or the
healthy-and-smart-kids promises of the reproductive industries). Not
content to be armchair critics, the CAE also produce art and performance
that brings their analysis to museum and gallery audiences and into the
public sphere, demystifying the spectacle of what they've called the
"military techno-security cineplex."

Of course, this got Steve in big trouble with the security-happy
administration, and for close to two years now he's been under
investigation for an artwork found in his home at the time of his wife's
death. The absurdities of the case seem apparent to nearly everyone except
the court itself, which insists on draining everyone's resources to pin a
mail-fraud charge on him.

There is good news, though. Despite these many months of strain and
stress, CAE has another book in the pipes, scheduled to be published in
the early Spring of this year. It's called "Plague March", and rips apart
the fear economy at the foundation of bio-warfare alarmism. That's all
I'll say about it just now, except that one of the appendices to the book
comes from Claire Pentecost, of the CAE Defense Fund, analyzing the real
reasons the State has chosen to prosecute Steve's case. This text is well
worth reading online at our Interactivist site, at the following address:
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/05/30/2348202

Also, please read the forwarded email at the bottom of this Autonogram,
from Lucia Sommer of the Defense Fund, and check their website from time
to time: http://www.caedefensefund.org

* *

Autonomedia has recently collaborated with the Dissent Network in the UK
to produce "Shut Them Down! The G8, Gleneagles 2005, and the Movement of
Movements", a new collection that takes as its starting point the protests
in Scotland last summer. Not content to just rehash what went on there,
the book addresses issues fundamental to the globalized resistance to
capital, such as the nature of openness and "horizontality" and
limitations of the "activist" identity. More on the book, including a
table of contents and list of contributors, is at
http://www.shutthemdown.org, and you can order the book from our new
online bookstore at
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main\_page=pubs\_product\_book\_info&products\_idG3
We'll be shipping these books as soon as they're received from the UK.

* *

50\% off Saints calendars! Another tradition of mid-January around here
(aside from hot buttered rum-soaked toboggan races across the East River
with Team Autonomedia) is trying to sell off the remaining Calendars of
Jubilee Saints still in our inventory. $4.98 gets you a fresh copy at
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main\_page=pubs\_product\_book\_info&cPath=5&products\_idF9
.

* *

Interactivist Info Exchange: Recent Headlines

Please make a regular visit to our online Interactivist Info Exchange.
Read a story, leave a comment, engage, debate, illuminate! Here are some
recent hotties:

http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/01/17/2225239 is a recent
interview with Italian Autonomia philosopher/agitator Paolo Virno,
discussing his history, immaterial labor, etc. (and
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/12/27/0513241 for Steve
Wright's discussion on some of the same)

http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/01/07/1727205 on the
recent death of Zapatista Comandante Ramona (and
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/01/03/1459209 for Marcos'
transition to Candidate Zero)

http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/12/13/1414210 for an
analysis of Chomsky's anarchism.

http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid/01/03/199257 for efforts
by WalMart employees in Florida to use collective action and mutual aid to
deal with problems on and off the shop floor.

* * *
that's it, and please feel free to change your subscription options using
the links at the bottom of this email. And please read the following! It's
important!

bests,
Ben / Autonomedia

*

-PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY-


January 17, 2006


Dear supporters of Steve Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble,


Your support is needed now more than ever.

Whereas the hopes for dismissal of Steve