Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 02:25:13 -0400
From: (sage)

The Media Collective

Jesse Hirsh

The Media Collective is an inclusive and universal organization. We are artists, activists, and people interested in reclaiming our environment. We are the expression of human liberation, we are the demonstration of freedom. We are engaging our environments at an immediate and direct level. We are opening and reclaiming our minds. The Collective itself is a conduit for change.

We are a movement towards ecological sustenance via self-determination of communities and individuals. We support international indigenous struggles, pro-democracy, pro-human and animal rights, pro-choice, food not bombs, homes not jails, and universal access.

As an inclusive organization we only exclude those who exclude. We are anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti-ageists, and against any abuse of power or oppression of individuals or identity. We are against neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, patriotism, militarism, and capitalism. We are against any system that sustains political economic power through cultural hegemony.

The term ‘Media’ does not refer to an institution, or a technological artefact, but rather to the environment in which we all live. Media are the methods in which we communicate with ourselves, each other, and the world at large. As we communicate, we forge the material reality in which we exist.

The Media Collective is a spontaneous proclamation of the self. It is an uprising of the free individual spirit, shedding the chains of mental colonialization, screaming shouts of joy with the self-realization of identity.

We are a conduit for grassroots revolution. We seek to bring various active and interested forces together to enable independent and co-operative organization. We hope to foster, support, and encourage a fertile ground for media organizing and action. We are multifaceted at being multimedia, our decentralization comes through a renaissance of expression. We are all regaining our ability to speak, and with our new found voice we are screaming, ‘The Emperor is Naked!’.

"and behind the most creative aspect of the insurrection looms a band of reality hackers, merry pranksters, ontological anarchists, psychedellic warriors, and students of mind; the bastard progeny of Toronto’s own McLuhan: The Media Collective"

We break the homogeneity of the media monopoly by expressing ourselves with our own media. We take back our media, taking back our freedom, igniting a chain-reaction of self-expression, a revolution of many minds uniting against power. We use guerrilla tactics and any means necessary to defend our freedom of speech which is not defined according to profitability.

We are the virus of human liberation. We spread through the minds of all people, spreading the desire for freedom and happiness. Everybody is the media collective, and everybody can speak on behalf of the media collective. We must all take responsibility for our future, and we must all take an active part in our future.

We are the virus of unity. All may take claim under our banner as all are subject to media, and all have an interest in controlling their own media. We seek to decentralize power by decreasing the degree of mediation between the people. Together we can all help each other help ourselves.

We are the virus of language. We subvert the institution via the medium on which it was built. Education accompanies transformation as the living language flows among free people. We spread the word and propagate the message of freedom.

We are the virus of action. We lead by example, allowing our actions to be the spark that ignites hearts and minds to strive for freedom. We are the convergence of thought and action, ideas and initiative, I and I bringing down babylon.

"And one day all the slaves ran free, Something inside of them died. The only thing I could do was be me And get on that train and ride." solution now is love and life.

We are collectively and individually involved in art, graffiti, zines, video, mirco-power broadcasting, radio, performance art, food, street theatre, cartoons, photography, faxing, fasting, civil-disobedience, newspapers, alternative news wire services, music, hacking, phreaking, luddism, gardening, silkscreening, printing, digital networks, the web, television, mysticism, writing, rapping, email, video-conferencing, elite-crashing, talking, loving, partying, meditating, squatting, non-noxious transportation, reading, reporting, ranting, telephony, protesting, analysis, and straight-out revolution.

The Media Collective manifests through articulation. All people are encouraged to organize local meetings, events, and take part in their own spontaneous actions.

The Media Collective is an ambiguous, and amorphous organization. Our members participate in activities covering a wide range of media and minds. Individuals make actions, the collective is the forum in which to share these experiences, thoughts and ideas. We lead by example and empower through warmth and open access.

Contact the media collective

Send comments, questions, reports, ideas, images, words, dreams, and love for your mother to: e-mail: media@tao.ca
web: www.tao.ca/earth (international)
www.mediacollective.com (US)
post: Media Collective
c/o TAO Communications
P.O. Box 108 Station P
Toronto Ont. Canada
M5S 2S8
phone: + 1 / 416 / 8126765