Alternative Libraries and Infoshops

Download the handout given for the alternative libraries workshop at the Radical Reference Alternative Libraries skill sharing at the 2005 midwinter ALA conference in Boston, here radicalreference.info/altlib_infoshop

In addition to the RR list, you can check the Slingshot Radical Contact list here. It is updated more frequently than ours.
http://slingshot.tao.ca/rclist.php

RESOURCES FOR ALTERNATIVE LIBRARIES: an always growing list
Last updated 12/08/11

ABC No Rio Zine Library, New York City, NY
http://www.abcnorio.org/facilities/zine_library.html
Contains over seven thousand items including independent, underground and marginal publications on subjects such as music, culture, politics, personal experience and travel. The collection is centered on zines addressing political and social issues.

Alternative Press Center Library, Chicago,IL
http://www.altpress.org/mod/pages/display/4/index.php
One of the largest private collections of alternative publications in the United States. The collection also includes books. This is a library with a social conscience, offering alternative perspectives and information that are often difficult to find in mainstream libraries.

American Radicalism collection, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
http://spc.lib.msu.edu/html/materials/collections/radicalism_coll.jsp
Holds over 17,000 items, including books, pamphlets, periodicals, posters, and ephemeral material covering a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, and economic issues in America. The emphasis in the collection is on materials produced by radical groups - both left and right.

Barnard College Library Zine Collection, New York, NY
http://www.barnard.edu/library/zines
Barnard's zines are written by New York City and other urban women with an emphasis on zines by women of color. (In this case the word "woman" includes anyone who identifies as female and some who don't believe in binary gender.) The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, third wave feminism, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, and other topics.

Browne Popular Culture Library, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/pcl/
The BPCL, founded in 1969 and dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of research materials on American popular culture (post 1876), is the most comprehensive repository of its kind in the United States.

Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), Los Angeles, CA
http://www.politicalgraphics.org/
Holding over 50,000 posters, the CSPG archive is the largest collection of Post World War II graphics in the United States.

Civic Media Center, Gainsville, FL
https://www.civicmediacenter.org/collection/zines
Alternative press library and reading room. Contains over 10,000 books, journals, zines, videotapes, audio tapes, and newspapers by independent, non-corporate press on a wide variety of subjects.

Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University Library, East Lansing, MI
http://specialcollections.lib.msu.edu/html/materials/collections/comicart_coll.jsp
Over 200,000 items including comic books, newspaper comic strips, several thousand books and periodicals about comics.

Durland Alternative Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
http://www.alternativeslibrary.org/
The collection includes contemporary issue-oriented resources often unavailable in research and public libraries including subjects of social change, prison issues, women's spirituality, AIDS, Indigenous religions, etc.

Feminist and Lesbian Periodical Collection, Special Collections, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/exhibits/lesbianper/index.html
The collection contains 482 lesbian and feminist periodical titles including 36 Oregon titles and 31 international titles.

Holt Labor Library, San Francisco, CA
http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/
Supports labor and community activists as well as to students, researchers and the public. The collection focuses on labor, social history, Marxist theory and much more.

Human Sexuality Collection, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/HSC/
Holds periodicals, pamphlets and books, films, art work, unpublished short stories, erotica, legal briefs, private correspondence, and diaries concerned with gay life and significant events in the American gay rights movement since World War II.

Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC), Portland, OR
http://library.iprc.org/
Maintains a library of over 4,000 self-published and independently produced materials. Items are available to the public for circulation and for reference use.

Infoshop
http://www.infoshop.org/
Located throughout the world, Infoshops provide social and cultural space, zine archives, libraries, day care centers, cafes, bookstores etc. The Infoshop site includes a list of infoshops throughout the US and other regions as well as theoretical and practical information on anarchism and other radical philosophies.

Kate Sharpley Library, London, England
http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/
Depository library of anarchist society. Contains approximately 7,000 English language volumes and a large number of periodicals dating from the nineteenth century to the present. These are currently catalogued on an in-house database. The library also holds material in a variety of foreign languages.

Labadie Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
http://www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll/labadie/
Established in 1911, "the collection's strengths include: anarchism, civil liberties (with an emphasis on racial minorities), socialism, communism, colonialism and imperialism, American labor history through the 1930's, the IWW, the Spanish Civil War, sexual freedom, women's liberation, gay liberation, the underground press, and student protest.... Although the Labadie Collection contains 35,000 books and 8,000 periodicals (including nearly 800 currently received titles), it is justly famous for its ephemera."

L@s Quixotes Radical Lending Library/Infoshop, Seattle, WA
http://losquixotesinfoshop.wordpress.com
Opening at Pilot Books on April 1, 2010. Their call for donations requested books and zines with an anti-authoritarian slant.

Last Word Books & Press and the Olympia 'Zine Library, Olympia, Washington
http://lastwordbooks.org/

Lavender Legacies Guide
http://www2.archivists.org/groups/lesbian-and-gay-archives-roundtable-lagar/lavender-legacies-guide
A list of repositories on North America documenting the history and culture of lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered.

Leather Archives & Museum
http://www.leatherarchives.org/
The Leather Archives & Museum is dedicated to preserving a record of the Leather/SM/Fetish Community: our lifestyles, our communities, our achievements, our history.

Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York City, NY
http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/
Houses over 20,000 volumes, 12,000 photographs, 300 special collections, 1,600 periodical titles, 1,300 organizational and subject files, thousands of feet of film and video footage, art and artifacts, musical records and tapes, posters and T-shirts, buttons and personal memorabilia.

Little Maga/Zine Collection History, SF Public Library Main Branch, San Francisco, CA
http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/bookarts/zines/zinehist.htm
Created in the 1960s in response to the flourishing San Francisco Renaissance. SFPL librarians started to collect little magazines around 1966. The collection represents the documentation of literature as well as underground and popular culture of the 20th century.

Manuscript Collections Documenting Women in Society, Special Collections, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/guides/women/index.html

Moore Collection of Underground Comix, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, CA
http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/spec_coll/comix/
Underground Comix collection within the library's special collections department. A comix database is available on the Web site.

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, Oakland, CA
http://www.marxistlibr.org/
Consists of about 15,000 books, and over twenty thousand rare pamphlets, some dating back to the early 1920's. The scope of the Karl Niebyl library reflects his wide interests: including world history, economics, philosophy, Marxism-Leninism, labor history, art and aesthetics.

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, CA
http://www.oneinstitute.org/
Open to the public, this is the world's largest research library on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered heritage and concerns. Relies wholly on community support.

Provisions Library - Resources for Art and Social Change
http://www.provisionslibrary.org/
Provisions Library holds over 5,000 books, zines, dvds and periodicals that examine the intersections between art and social change. It also features a gallery space with exhibitions that provide an avenue of expression for marginalized perspectives. The website is home to the Meridians -- a point of entry for further research in a wide array of topics relating to social change. Free and open to the public!

Quatrefoil Library, St Paul, MN
http://www.quatrefoillibrary.org/
Collects, preserves, and shares material and information relevant to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other sexual minority communities. Collections include books, videos, sound recordings and periodicals.

QZAP: Queer Zine Archive Project, online
http://qzap.org
"The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities." Free pdf downloads of zines by queer authors/artists.

Sallie Bingham Center for Women, Duke University
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/
The Center houses a broad range of rare and unique primary source material on women.

Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles/
Founded in 1943 the Schlesinger Library is one of the foremost women's history libraries in the U.S. The collections include books, periodicals, manuscripts, organizational records, and audiovisual materials documenting women's lives since the early 19th century onward. It is open to the public.

Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, MA
http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/
Founded in 1941 the Sophia Smith Collection is an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women's history.

Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
http://www.socallib.org/ is a leftist library in Southern California. It is "a people's library dedicated to documenting and preserving the histories of communities in struggle for justice and using our collections to address the challenges of the present so that all people have the ability, resources, and freedom to make their own histories."

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, New York, NY
http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/
Focuses on the complex relationship between trade unionism and progressive politics and how this evolved over time. It includes archival, print, photographs, film, and oral history collections describe the history of the labor movement, history of radical politics, socialism, the New Left, communism, anarchism and more.

Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center Library, Urbana, IL
http://www.ucimc.org/library/
Supports the information needs of IMC media creators and the community at large. The library collects materials that give voice to those not portrayed in the mainstream/corporate media outlets, and has a preference for materials not available at other local libraries. Includes books, journals, zines, audio and video.

USEFUL ARTICLES ON ALTERNATIVE LIBRARIES:
(The following bibliography is adopted from Cheryl Yanek's thesis "Alternative libraries: is their existence necessary?")

Anderson, L. (2002). "From the Alternatives Library: Books in Prison." Progressive Librarian, Winter Issue 21 Page 38. Retrieved January 5, 2005 from Proquest.

Case, P.J. (1984). "An antidote to the homogenized library." In S. Berman & J.P. Danky (Eds.), Alternative Library Literature 1982-1983: A Biennial Anthology (pp.137-145). Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press Inc, Co.

Dodge, C. (1998). Taking libraries to the streets: infoshops and alternative reading rooms. American Libraries, 29, 62-65. Retrieved November 27, 2004 from Dialog database.

Munson, C. (2001). Your friendly neighborhood infoshop. From S. Berman & J. P.
Danky (Eds.), Alternative Library Literature 1998-1999: A Biennial Anthology (pp. 250-254). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc.

Schmidt, J. (2001). How to maintain an alternative library: The Civic Media Center, five years on. In S. Berman & J.P. Danky (Eds.), Alternative Library Literature 1998-1999: A Biennial Anthology (pp. 234-253). J.P. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc.

Skrbic, Mirna (2003). "Alternative library." Ithacan Accent, Ithaca University Student Newspaper. April 17, 2003. http://www.ithaca.edu/ithacan/articles/0304/17/accent/LSalternative_.htm

Smith, D. (2002). "Digital libraries for all." In S. Berman & J.P. Danky (Eds.), Alternative Library Literature 2000-2001: A Biennial Anthology (pp. 191-196). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc.

Smith, L. (1995). "Zines and Libraries." Librarians at Liberty, vol. 3 (2). Retrieved January 3, 2005, from Proquest.

Willet, C. (2000). Alternative Libraries and Infoshops: The struggle against Corporate and Government Indoctrination in American Schools and Universities, and in daily life. Librarians at Liberty, vol 8 (1&2). Retrieved January 3, 2005, from Proquest.

Willett, C. (1996). "Starting an alternative library." In S. Berman & J.P. Danky (Eds.), Alternative Library Literature 1994-1995: A Biennial Anthology (pp. 186-187). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, Inc.

Williams, M.P. (1972). "Doing it: Migrant workers library." In C. West (Ed.), Revolting Librarians (pp. 63-67). San Francisco: Booklegger Press.

Wilson, J. (December 2003). "Queer Zine Archive Project." Riverwest Currents. Retrieved November 24, 2004, from http://www.riverwestcurrents.org/2003/December/001184.html

Alternative Radio and Audio Resources

Radio

A-Infos Radio Project
Alternative Radio
Between the Lines
Centro de Medios Independientes, Chiapas: Radio
Deconstructing Dinner
Democracy Now!
Free Speech Radio News
Hard Knock Radio (San Francisco/Bay Area, CA)
Indymedia
KillRadio.org (Los Angeles)
Media Mouse Audio: Grand Rapids, MI News and Independent Media
National Radio Project
The NewStandard: TNS Radio
No One Is Illegal Montreal Radio
Pacifica Archives
Pacifica Audioport
Radical Radio
Radio Ecoshock
Rustbelt Radio (Pittsburgh,PA)
Subversity Radio (Irvine, CA)
This Way Out: The International Lesbian & Gay Radio Magazine
Uprising
Youth Speaks Out!

Archival Audio

BlackBox Radio Archives (Ann Arbor, MI)
Freedom Archives
Internet Archives Open Source Audio
Native America Calling
Pacifica Radio Archives
UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: The Black Panther Party

Media Justice

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Grassroots Radio Coalition
Media Access Project
Prometheus Radio Project
Stop Big Media
Third World Majority

Alternative Resources on the U.S. War Against Iraq

International Responsibilities Task Force.

Alternative and Independent Bookstores

Alternative and independent bookstores

This page lists a selection of alternative booksellers and infoshops across the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. Booksellers include fiction, non-fiction, comic, zine, art and technical retailers. This page is still in its infancy, and there will be much more here soon. All contributions welcome! LAST UPDATED 6/25/06

Directories

Directory of feminist bookstores

Independent Online Booksellers Association

Guide to independent bookstores in the US

Fearless Independents

Mid-South IBA
http://www.msiba.org/Links/member_sites.htm

New Atlantic IBA
http://www.newatlanticbooks.com/search.asp

Don't want to buy? Try finding a book at your local library with WorldCat

Out-of-print and second-hand and independent collective booksellers

Booksense
http://www.booksense.com/

Alibris
http://www.alibris.com/

Abebooks
http://www.abebooks.com/

Bookfinder
http://www.bookfinder.com/

United States (Only states with entries listed)
[ California | Colorado | District of Columbia |Illinois | Massachusetts |New York | Oregon | Washington | Wisconsin ]

Australia
[ New South Wales | Victoria ]

Elsewhere

[ Paris, France | Tokyo, Japan ]

United States

California

[ Berkeley | Oakland | San Francisco ]

A very good list of Bay area bookstores can be found on this list. Some of the chains are listed, but also the local, antiquarian, and progressive bookstores broken down by area and neighborhood in SF.

Berkeley

Cody’s Books (editor's note: Cody's has closed its doors in Both Berkeley and San Francisco as of June, 2008. Very sad indeed!)
http://www.codysbooks.com/
2454 Telegraph Avenue; Berkeley, CA 94704
510-845-7852
and
1730 Fourth Street, Berkeley; CA 94710
510-559-9500

Oakland

AK Press
http://www.akpress.org/
674-A 23rd Street
Oakland, CA 94612
AK Press is a worker run book publisher and distributor organized around anarchist principles.

San Francisco

City Lights
http://www.citylights.com/
261 Columbus Ave

San Francisco CA

City Lights is a landmark independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics.

Bound Together Books
1369 Haight Street (at Masonic)
San Francisco, CA 94117
A volunteer-run anarchist collective bookstore and meeting place. Organises the annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfare every Spring. Excellent range of books and magazines on everything from anarchism to education and disability activism.

Stacey's
http://www.staceys.com/
581 Market Street
San Francisco CA

Colorado

Boulder

Left Hand Books
1200 Pearl Street #10
Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 443-8252
Open Mon-Sat 10 to 9 and Sun 12 to 6
http://www.lefthandbooks.org

Denver

Tattered Cover
http://www.tatteredcover.com/
Locations include:

955 East First Avenue at Milwaukee Street
Cherry Creek North
Denver CO

District of Columbia

Busboys and Poets Books
http://www.busboysandpoets.com/books.htm
2021 14th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
tel. 202/387-7638

Kramerbooks
http://www.kramers.com/
1517 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
tel. 202/387-1462

Politics and Prose
http://www.politics-prose.com/
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
tel. 202/364-1919

Illinois

Chicago

Quimby's
http://www.quimbys.com/
1854 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
tel. 773/342-0910

Chicago Comics
http://www.chicagocomics.com/
3244 N. Clark St
Chicago, IL 60657

Women and Children First
http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com/
5233 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 6064
Bookstore featuring publications by and about women, children's books, and lesbian and gay fiction and non-fiction.

Louisiana

New Orleans

The Iron Rail Book Collective
http://www.ironrail.org/
511 Marigny St.
New Orleans, LA 70119
A non-profit reading room, lending library, and bookshop located in the New Orleans Marigny neighborhood.

Maryland

Baltimore

Alternative Press Center
http://www.altpress.org
1443 Gorsuch Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21218
Special collections library featuring books and periodicals of the left, with archives going back to the early 1960s. Open to the public. Located inside the Progressive Action Center.

Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffeehouse
http://www.redemmas.org
800 Saint Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Collectively run radical bookstore and coffeehouse. Available for special events and meetings.

Massachusetts

Amherst

Food for Thoughts Books
http://www.foodforthoughtbooks.com
106 N.Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002
A non-profit, workers' collective bookstore which hosts events, too.

Boston

Lucy Parsons Bookstore
http://www.lucyparsons.org
549 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
Collectively run radical bookstore, meeting space, events, and radical movie nights.

Minnesota

Minneapolis

Amazon Bookstore
http://www.amazonfembks.com/
4755 Chicago Ave. So.
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Founded in 1970, Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Inc. is the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America.

Arise Books and Resources Collective
http://www.arisebookstore.org/
2441 Lyndale Ave S.
Minneapolis, MN 55405
A collectively-run activist information hub. They host music, movies, zine readings, and the Women's Prison Book Project.

Dreamhaven Books & Comics
http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/
2301 E 38th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406
DreamHaven specializes in new and used science fiction, fantasy, horror, film and media books, comics, and graphic novels.

Magers and Quinn Booksellers
http://www.magersandquinn.com/
3038 Hennepin Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Magers and Quinn is an independently owned new and used bookseller located in the heart of the popular Uptown neighborhood in Minneapolis. Their collection covers all subjects and features many unusual and hard-to-find editions, as well as thousands of current releases. Titles currently in print, whether new or used, are substantially discounted.

Mayday Books
http://www.maydaybookstore.org/
301 Cedar Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Collectively run non-profit progressive bookstore, meeting space, events, and radical movie nights.

New York

Manhattan

Bluestockings
www.bluestockings.com
172 Allen St (Between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, NY 10002
Bluestockings is a radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Highly recommended.

East Village Books
buyusedbooksnewyork.com
99 St. Mark's Pl (between 1st Ave and Ave A)
New York, NY 10000
(212) 477-8647
Small used bookstore filled with potential treasures.

Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe
www.huemanbookstore.com
2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd
New York, NY 10027
(212) 665-7400
Bookstore and cafe in the heart of Harlem. Hosts many free author events, as well as book clubs and writers' groups, each month.

St Mark’s Bookshop
www.stmarksbookshop.com
31 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10003
(212) 260-7853
"St. Mark's Bookshop was established in 1977 in New York's East Village, a community of students, academics, arts professionals and other eclectic readers. Our specialties include Cultural Theory, Graphic Design, Poetry & Small Press Publishers, Film Studies and Foreign & Domestic Periodicals & Journals."

The Strand
www.strandbooks.com
12th St and Broadway (main store)
(212) 473-1452
The granddaddy/mommy of used bookstores, measured by the mile.

Shakespeare & Co.
www.shakeandco.com/
Five locations in NYC, see also Paris store.

Rizzoli
rizzoliusa.com/bookstore.html
31 W. 57th St
New York, NY 10019
(800) 52-BOOKS or (212) 759-2424
Art books and other fancy stuff.

Brooklyn

Book Court
www.bookcourt.org
163 Court St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 875-3677
Two-floor general interest bookstore in Cobble Hill. Host of many author talks, and now possessing a redesigned website that includes their events listings and staff picks.

Brownstone Books
www.brownstonebooks.com
409 Lewis Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11233
(718) 953-7328
A general and African American interest bookstore in Bed-Stuy. They host author talks, book clubs, and children's storytimes.

Freebird Books & Goods
www.freebirdbooks.com
123 Columbia St
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 643-8484
Buy a book in Red Hook. Voted "Best New Used Bookstore" in New York Press's "Best of Manhattan 2004" issue.

Harnik's Happy House of Books
www.harnikbk.com
1403 Ave J
Brooklyn, NY 11230
(718) 951-9805
A Midwood bookstore specializing in children's literature and educational resources. Their website offers some booklists, including a Jewish-themed one.

A Novel Idea Bookstore
www.novelideabooks.com
8415 3rd Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11209
(718) 833-5115
A comfortable, family-run bookstore in Bay Ridge that sells new and used books. They host a couple of book clubs as well as children's events.

Rocketship
rocketshipstore.blogspot.com
208 Smith St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 797-1348
"Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Cartoon Art." Located in Cobble Hill.

Gone but not forgotten: Clovis Press in Williamsburg and Jane Doe Books in Bushwick.

Oregon

Portland

In Other Words Women's Books and Resources
http://www.inotherwords.org
8 NE Killingsworth St.
Portland, Oregon 97211
503-232-6003
Since 1985, a non-profit, all-volunteer, collectively run bookstore devoted to social change. Offers books as well as video rentals, a lending library and free meeting space for nonprofit groups.

Laughing Horse Bookstore
http://www.geocities.com/laughinghorsebooks

3652 SE Division
Portland, Oregon 97202
503-236-2893
In Other Words Women's Books and Resources is the last surviving non-profit feminist bookstore in the United States. They offer a comprehensive and diverse collection of books by and about women including non-sexist children's books, and with a focus on feminist, queer, and trans studies.

Powell's
http://www.powells.com/
Five locations including:
1005 W Burnside
Portland, OR 97205

Reading Frenzy: an Independent Press Emporium
921 SW Oak St.
(503) 274-1449
http://www.readingfrenzy.com/index.php/

Pennsylvania

Robin's Bookstore
www.robinsbookstore.com
108 s. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-735-9600

Independently owned, with a good selection of social issues/justice kind of books. They also have good biographies, although the separate biography section has been eliminated, and these are mixed in with various subjects. Another area of focus is African-American history or issues.

Pittsburgh

The Big Idea
http://www.thebigideapgh.org/
504 Millvale Avenue (Millvale and Liberty)
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
412-687-4323

Radical bookstore in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, featuring books, zines, music, magazines, and work by local artists. 100% volunteer run.

Texas

Denton

Recycled Books
http://www.recycledbooks.com/
200 North Locust
Denton, TX 76201
940-566-5688

Over 200,000 books, 7,000 records, 16,000 CDs, and miscellaneous other goods are housed in an historic 17,000 square foot purple, yes purple, building facing Denton's courthouse. It's no exaggeration to state fresh material finds its way to our shelves hourly! Dealing with this blend of quality and quantity combined with our business hours of 9am - 9pm seven days a week makes us one of the leading independently owned bookstores in the United States.

Washington

Washington-based distro
Last Earth
"We represent an extended community of Activists across the spectrum: parents, teachers, craftspeople, blue-collar workers, students, republican farm wives, and small dogs. Our proceeds fuel our future endeavors, put locally grown and organic food in our children’s tummies, and fight for common causes in our communities. We try to support local communities wherever we travel, and we hope you’ll consider supporting ours."

Olympia

Last Word Books
211 4th Avenue East
Olympia, WA

"Last Word Books is a physical and digital bookstore located in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 2002 by several students at The Evergreen State College, we offer an eclectic collection of books ranging from radical politics to the books you love to read. We are the host and benefactor of the Olympia Zine Library, amongst other things. We are constantly filling minds and the streets with much-needed radical literature. We champion freedom of speech, human rights and equality for all, advancements in literacy and education towards a self-aware and self-sufficient populace, a government that serves its citizenry, vigorous regulation of corporations, and the protection and restoration of our natural environment."

Seattle

Left Bank Books
http://www.leftbankbooks.com/
92 Pike St
Seattle WA

Collectively-owned and operated since 1973, this radical anarchist bookstore continues to thrive in the Pike Place Market and is a hub for activists, intellectuals, and genderqueers.

Walla Walla

Earthlight Books
321 E Main St
Walla Walla, WA

"We specialize in Rare Books, Western Americana, Children’s Books, Fiction, Art, Vintage Paperbacks and Comic Books, Poetry, History, Literary Criticism, Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Political Science, ‘osophies, ‘ographies, and ‘ologies of all sorts, Philosophy, Religion, Erotica and Underground & Clandestine Books."

Wisconsin

Madison

Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative
http://www.rainbowbookstore.org/

A Room of One's Own
http://www.roomofonesown.com/

Milwaukee

Harvey Schwartz
http://www.schwartzbooks.com/
Locations include:
093 N Oakland Ave
Milwaukee

Australia

[ New South Wales | Victoria ]

New South Wales

Gleebooks
http://www.gleebooks.com.au/
191 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe NSW
and

49 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe NSW

Four times winner of the Australian Bookseller of the Year Award, gleebooks is renowned the world over for its unique mix of academic and general books and for a commitment to quality books and writing - particularly Australian writing - that has spanned more than 30 years. Two stores - one new books the other second-hand and children's.

Better Read Than Dead
http://www.betterread.com.au/
265 King St
Newtown NSW 2042
Bestsellers and fiction plus a good range of social, political and cultural books.

Jura Books
http://jura.org.au/
440 Parramatta Rd
Petersham NSW
Anarchist bookstore and library. Mostly second-hand.

China Books
81 Enmore Rd
Enmore NSW

Black Rose Books
http://www.cat.org.au/blackrose/
83 Regent St
Chippendale NSW
Black Rose carries a wide range of anarchist, subversive, interesting, useful, amusing, frightening and just plain out of the ordinary books.

Ariel
http://www.arielbooks.com.au/
42 Oxford St
Paddington NSW
Art and design specialists and a wide range of fiction and cultural studies books.

Berkelouw
http://www.berkelouw.com.au/
19 Oxford Street

Paddington NSW
and
Berrima Book Barn
Bendooley
Old Hume Highway,
Berrima NSW 257
Out of print, antiquarian and second-hand books since 1812. Book barn is highly recommended.

Co-op Bookshop
http://www.coop-bookshop.com.au/
Locations nationally, including many university campuses
Specialises in technical books, textbooks, and more.

Victoria

Polyester
http://www.polyester.com.au/
330 Brunswick St
Fitzroy VIC
Zines, subculture, comics, politics, art & design and more. One of the best.

Annares Books
http://www.anarres.org.au/
PO Box 150
East Brunswick VIC 3057
Anarchist book collective and mail order since 1992.

France

Paris

Shakespeare & Co
http://shakespeareco.org/
37 Rue de la Bucherie
Paris
English-language bookseller in Paris.

Japan

Tokyo

Kinokuniya
http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/
3-17-7
Shinjuku - Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 160-002
While Kinokuniya is a big chain with stores all over Japan as well as the US and Australia, they are your best bet for Japanese-language learning resources and English-language texts in Japan

Anti-Racism for Activists: a Bibliography

This is the beginning of a bibliography of anti-racist resources, particularly those that focus on dealing with racism and oppression in activist communities. Radical Reference members, please add to it, just keep your citations alphabetical and in the same style. Non Rad Reffies, e-mail me your suggestions.
 

Materials for People of Color

Articles | Books | Visual Media for White Allies

MATERIALS FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR

• Allen, Richard L., The Concept of Self: a Study of Black Identity and Self-Esteem. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001.


• Anderson, James A. (James Albert), The Black Enterprise Guide to Investing. New York: John Wiley, 2000.


• Bailey, Eric J., African American Alternative Medicine Using Alternative Medicine to Prevent and Control Chronic Diseases. Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 2002.


• Benjamin, Lois, The Black Elite: Still Facing the Color Line in the Twenty-First Century. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.


• Braithwaite, Ronald L., Sandra E Taylor, and John N Austin Building Health Coalitions in the Black Community. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2000.


• Brown, Jesse B., 101 Real Money Questions the African American Financial Question and Answer Book. New York: Wiley, 2003.


• Byrd, W. Michael and Linda A. Clayton, An American Health Dilemma: a Medical History of African Americans and the Problem of Race. New York: Routledge, 2000-2002.


• Cohen, Cathy J., The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.


• Collins, Patricia Hill, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. New York: Routledge, 2004.


• Daniel, G. Reginald, More Than Black?: Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.


• Dickerson, Debra J., The End of Blackness: Returning the Souls of Black Folk to Their Rightful Wwners. New York: Pantheon Books, 2004.


• Health Care in the Black Community: Empowerment, Knowledge, Skills, and Collectivism, edited by Sadye Louise Logan and Edith M Freeman. New York: Haworth Press, 2000.


• Health Issues in the Black Community, edited by Ronald L Braithwaite and Sandra E Taylor. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 1992.


• Johnson, Michelle T., Working While Black: the Black Person's Guide to Success in the White Workplace. Chicago, Ill.: Lawrence Hill Books, 2004.


• Korgen, Kathleen Odell, From Black to Biracial: Transforming Racial Identity among Americans. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1998.


• A Long Way to Go: Conversations about Race by African American Faculty and Graduate Studentsedited by Darrell Cleveland. New York: P. Lang, 2004.


• Martin, Charles D.,
  The White African American Body: a Cultural and Literary Exploration. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002
  This is about African America albinos.


• McWhorter, John H., Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority. New York: Gotham Books, 2003.


• Meeks, Kenneth, Driving While Black: Highways, Shopping Malls, Taxicabs, Sidewalks: How to Fight Back If You Are a Victim of Racial Profiling. New York: Broadway, 2000.


• Moore, Robert M., They Always Said I Would Marry a White Girl: Coming to Grips with Race in America. Lanham, Md.: Hamilton Books, 2007.


• Oboler, Suzanne. Ethnic labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)presentation in the United States. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c1995.


• Quaye, Randolph, African Americans' Health Care Practices, Perspectives, and Needs. Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, 2005.


• Vernellia, R. Randall, Dying While Black. Dayton, OH: Seven Principles Press, 2006.


• What Are You?: Voices of Mixed-Race Young People, edited by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.


• Willie, Sarah Susannah, Acting Black: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race. New York: Routledge, 2003.

ARTICLES

• Harris, Cheryl. Whiteness as Property." Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106, No. 8, p. 1707, 1993. Accessed December 6, 2006.


• Jensen, Robert. Saying Goodbye to My "Fargo" Accent. Dissident Voice: A Radical Newsletter in the Struggle for Peace and Social Justice, December 12, 2006. Accessed January 2, 2007.


• Macintosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," accessed December 6, 2006.
  "This essay is excerpted from Working Paper 189. "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies" (1988), by Peggy McIntosh; available for $4.00 from the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley MA 02181. The working paper contains a longer list of privileges. This excerpted essay is reprinted from the Winter 1990 issue of Independent School."


• Perry, Jeffrey. "Hubert Harrison (1883-1927): Race Consciousness and the Struggle for Socialism," Socialism and Democracy, vol. 17, no. 2, Sept. 30, 2003. Accessible via ProQuest, doc.#817824491.
  An article that illustrates the uneasy history of race and the left, and the equally uneasy history of class and race identity.

BOOKS

• African Americans and Whites: Changing Relationships on College Campuses, edited by Robert M Moore, III. Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, 2006.


• Burton, M Garlinda, Never Say Nigger Again!: an Antiracism Guide for White Liberals. Nashville, TN: James C. Winston Pub. Co., 1995.


• Bush, Melanie E. L. Breaking the Code of Good Intentions: Everyday Forms of Whiteness. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.


• Childs, Erica Chito, Navigating Interracial Borders: Black-White Couples and Their Social Worlds. New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2005.


• Critical White Studies: Looking behind the Mirror, edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997.


• The Cultural Territories of Race: Black and White Boundaries, edited and with an introduction by Michèle Lamont. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.


• Dalmadge, Heather M., Tripping on the Color Line : Black-White Multiracial Families in a Racially Divided World. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000.


• Davis, Michael. Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City. London; Verso, 2000.


• Dei, George Jerry Sefa. Playing the Race Card: Exposing White Power and Privilege. New York: P. Lang, 2005.


• Disrupting White Supremacy from within: White People on What We Need to Do, edited by Jennifer Harvey, Karin A. Case, and Robin Hawley Gorsline. Cleveland : Pilgrim Press, 2004.


• Eyerman, Ron,
  Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.


• Feagin, Joe R. and Karyn D McKinney, The Many Costs of Racism. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, ©2003.


• Feagin, Joe R. White Men on Race: Power, Privilege, and the Shaping of Cultural Consciousness. Boston : Beacon Press, 2003.


• Gardner, LeRoy, White/Black Race Mixing: an Essay on the Stereotypes and Realities of Interracial Marriage. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House 2000.


• Georgakas, Dan and Marvin Surkin. Detroit, I Do Mind Dying. Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press, 1998.


• Hitchcock, Jeff. Lifting the White Veil: an Exploration of White American Culture in a Multiracial Context. Roselle, N.J.: Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, 2002.


• hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
  The person who suggested this books says she comes back to this book again and again for her explanations of race in the US.


• hooks, bell. Killing Rage: Ending Racism. New York: Holt, 1995.


• Hunter, Margaret L., Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone. New York: Routledge, 2005.


• Jackson, Ronald L., The Negotiation of Cultural Identity: Perceptions of European Americans and African Americans. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999.


• Jensen, Robert. The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege. San Francisco, CA: City Lights, c2005.


• Katz, Judy H. White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2003.


• Kivel, Paul. Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1995.


• Lewis, Amanda E. Race in the Schoolyard Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003.


• Lipsitz, George. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.


• The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness, edited by Birgit Brander Rasmussen. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2001.


• McKinney, Karyn D. Being White: Stories of Race and Racism. New York, N.Y. : Routledge, 2005.


• Moran, Rachel F., Interracial Intimacy: the Regulation of Race & Romance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.


• Muscio, Inga. Autobiography of a Blue-eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2005.


• Robinson, Eugene, Coal to Cream: a Black Man's Journey beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race. New York, NY: Free Press, 1999.


• Romano, Renee Christine, Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.


• Roy, Arundhati. Public Power in the Age of Empire. Seven Stories Press, 2004.


• Sullivan, Shannon. Revealing whiteness: the Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.


• Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993


• This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa. New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983.


• This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, edited by Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  


• White out: the Continuing Significance of Racism, edited by Ashley W. Doane and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. New York, N.Y. : Routledge, 2003.


• White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, compiled by Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers, 2002.


• Williams, Linda F. The Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004.


• Wilson, Kathy Y., Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black and White. Cincinnati, Ohio: Emmis Books, 2004.


• Wise, Tim. Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White. New York : Routledge, 2005.


• Wise, Tim. White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2005.


• X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Grove Press, 1965 (and other editions).


• Yancey, George A., Who Is White?: Latinos, Asians, and the New Black/Nonblack Divide. Boulder, Colo.: L. Rienner, 2003.


• Young, John K., Black Writers, White Publishers: Marketplace Politics in Twentieth-Century African American Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006.

VISUAL MEDIA

• Banks, James, One Drop. San Francisco, Calif.: California Newsreel, 2001.


• Burley, Ed, The Politics of Love in Black & White. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel, 1993.


• Skin-deep: Racism in America. Paula Zahn Now show on CNN. Aired December 12, 2006 - 8:pm, ET. Link to rush transcript accessed January 2, 2007.


• Soe, Valerie, Mixed Blood. San Francisco, CA: CrossCurrent Media : National Asian American Telecommunications Association [distributor], 1992.


• Sue, Derald Wing. Overcoming Personal Racism What Can I Do?. Microtraining Associates, 2004. DVD, VHS.


• Sue, Derald Wing. What Does It Mean to be White? The Invisible Whiteness of Being. Microtraining Associates, 2004. DVD, VHS.

Citations provided by Radical Reference volunteers and members of the Progressive Librarians Guild. Special thanks to Monika Antonelli for her numerous contributions.

BDS: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions

Below are some links to information on the global movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. Following a unified Palestinian call for BDS in 2005, intiatives have emerged around the world to put an end to collaboration and complicity with Israeli apartheid. These have included academic, cultural, consumer, and sports boycotts, as well as campaigns to get companies to divest from Israel. Strong calls for sanctions have also emerged, to urge governments to cut off military aid to Israel. Please feel free to add resources to this list.

Introduction to the BDS movement

BDS Campaign National Committee Home Page
Call by Palestinian Civil Society Organizations for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (2005)
What is BDS? A Comic from Adalah New York
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Local Campaigns and Initiatives

Links to Local BDS Campaigns Around the World (from Electronic Intifada)
Israel:Israeli Citizens for BDS
New York: Adalah New York

Boycott Lists

Big Campaign (UK)

Articles and Analysis on BDS

"Moral Arguments and Counterarguments on BDS" by Omar Barghouti (video)

"Want to End the Violence in Gaza? Boycott Israel" by Naomi Klein, in The Nation, January 9, 2009.

Divestment

Global Exchange: Israel Divestment

General Educational Resources

think-palestine-act

US Campaign to End the Occupation

Bicycling Resources

Please contact MRM with any suggestions or comments.

last updated July 2012, minor updates February 2013

Web Sites
Books
Radio
Films
Canadian Resources
NYC Resources
Boston Resources
Resources from Elsewhere

Selected Web Sites

Advocacy and Education

• BicyclingInfo.org (Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center)
  Resources include the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT), research reports, and tools for community traffic solutions.
• League of American Bicyclists
• London Cyclist
• National Center for Bicycling & Walking
• Transport Canada (Active Transportation)
• Bicycle helmet safety institute
• Worldwide bikesharing
• World Health Organization: Transport and Health
• Bikes Belong
• Ontario's Guide to Safe Cycling
• Ride Your Bike Safely (MotoSport)

Associations

• International Mountain Bicycling Association
• International Human Powered Vehicle Association
• International Federation of Bicycle Messengers Associations

Global Movements and Resources

• Community Bicycle Programs, Bike Library, and more (International Bicycle Fund)
• Bicylces for Humanity
• International Mountain Bicycling Association
• Community Bicycle Network

Communities and Events

• BikeForums
  Bicycle discussion forums.
• Sustainable Energy in Motion Bike Tour
  A peace and sustainability community service-on-a-bike program through Oregon.
• Bicycle Film Festival
• LightWheels Festival [archive]
  "Free Speech, Bikes, Transit & Public Space"
• World Mountain Bike Festival & Conference
• World Naked Bike Ride 2006
• C.I.C.L.E.: Cyclists Inciting Change Thru Live Exchange
• Cycle Canada - Canadian bike tours
• Canada Trails Directory of Canadian trails
• Welcome Cyclists A Toronto based cyclist network that offers information on cycling in Ontario

Bikes, Riding, Maintenance, and Repair

• Bike Repair and Maintenance (Park Tool Co.)
• Wrench - Bicycle Repair
• Bicycling Street Smarts
• Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
• Helmet Use Laws (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute)
• Better Bicycling Fact Sheets (League of American Bicyclists)
• Bicycling Life: Commuting and Errands
• Car and Traffic Safety for Kids
• Bicycle Repair and Maintenance Tutorials (YouTube)
• Bicycle Repair (eHow)

Travel and Touring

• Bike Highway
• Bikes on Transit (BikeMap.com)
• Biking (GORP)
• TrailLink.com (Rails-to-Trails Conservancy)
• Travel with Bicycles

Research

• Bicycle-Related Research
• Digital Collection – Pedestrian and Bicycle (National Transportation Library)

Other Web Guides

• The WWW Bike Lane
• Bike Links (League of American Bicyclists)
• Bicycle Fixation

---

Selected Bibliography

Bicycle History

• The Bicycle: Boneshakers, Highwheelers and Other Celebrated Cycles by Gilbert King (2002)
• Bicycle: The History by David V. Herlihy (2004)
• The Noblest Invention: An Illustrated History of the Bicycle by Lance Armstrong (2003)
• On Your Bicycle: An Illustrated History of Cycling by James McGurn (new ed, 2000)
• A Social History of the Bicycle: Its Early Life and Times in America by Robert A. Smith (1972)

Collecting and Engineering

• Bicycling Science by David Gordon Wilson (3rd ed, 2004)
• Collecting and Restoring Antique Bicycles by G. Donald Adams (1996)

Writing on Riding

• Bike Snob: Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling (2010)
• Need for the Bike by Paul Fournel (2003)
• The Rider by Tim Krabbé (1978)

Bikes, Riding, Maintenance, and Repair

• Anybody’s Bike Book by Tom Cuthbertson (revised, 1998)
• The Art of Urban Cycling by Robert Hurst (2004)
• Bicycle Repair Step by Step: How to Maintain and Repair Your Bicycle by Rob van der Plas (2002)
• Bicycling Bliss: Riding to Improve Your Wellness by Portia H. Masterson (2004)
• Cyclecraft: Skilled Cycling Techniques for Adults by John Franklin (2002)
• Effective Cycling by John Forester (6th ed, 1992)
• The Guinness Guide to Bicycling by Jean Durry (1977)
• High-Tech Cycling by Edmund R. Burke (2nd ed, 2003)
• Richard's 21st-Century Bicycle Book by Richard Ballantine (2001)
• Roadside Bicycle Repair: The Simple Guide to Fixing Your Bike by Rob van der Plas (3rd ed, 1995)
• Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips by Dave Glowacz (revised, 2004)

Communities

• Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration edited by Chris Carlsson (2002)
• The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power by Travis Culley (2001)

Other Book Lists

• Bicycling Maintenance and Technical Books (Pete & Ed Books)
• Books about How to Bicycle (A1 Trails)
• General Cycling Books (Palo Alto Bicycles)

---

Radio

• The Bike Show

---

Films

• “July 25th: The Secret Is Out" (1998)
• "Red Light Go" (2002)
• "Return of the Scorcher" (1992)
• "Still We Ride" (2005)
• "We Are Traffic" (1999)

---

Canadian Bike Resources

• Canadian Cycling
• Niagara Cycling Niagara region cycling clubs and associations
• Alberta Bicycle Association

---

New York City Bike Resources

• Ride the City
  Map your route around the five boroughs.
• New York State Vehicle and Traffic Laws that apply to bicycles
• NYC Critical Mass (Time's Up!)
• Brooklyn Critical Mass (Time's Up!)
• The New York Bike Messenger Association
• Time's Up!
  "NYC's Direct Action Environmental Organization"
• Transportation Alternatives
  A non-profit citizens group whose mission is to "Encourage bicycling, walking and public transit as alternatives to automobile use, and reduce automobile use and its attendant environmental and social harms."
• New York Bicycling Coalition
• BikeBlog
  "Urban Bike Culture in NYC and Beyond"
• Bike Snob NYC
• Streetsblog New York City

---

Boston Bike Resources

• Bike to the Sea
  Promotes the development of a bicycle and pedestrian trail from the Malden area to the beaches in Lynn and Revere.
• Bikes Not Bombs
• Boston Bicycle Festival
• Boston Bicycle Planning Initiative (BBPI)
• Broadway Bicycle School
• City of Boston Bicycle Plan
• Friends of the Somerville Community Path
  "..citizens who have adopted [the] mission: to extend the well-loved Minuteman Bikeway/Linear Park 2.5 miles from its current ending at Cedar Street in Somerville to the Charles River Path."
• Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition
  Has lots of information about bike groups, rides, shops, a good list of links, etc. across Massachusetts. Has a newsletter and works to advocate bicycle safety.
• Minuteman Bike Path
  A Rails-to-Trails path that runs from Cambridge to Bedford.
• Occupational Injuries Among Boston Bicycle Messengers

---

Resources from Elsewhere

• Bicitekas (Mexico)
• L.A. Based Resources (from C.I.C.L.E.)
• GhostCycle.org (Seattle)
• BikePgh (Pittsburgh)
• Free Ride (Pittsburgh)

Civil liberties and government watchdogs

This section includes tools organized by broad subject areas and/or types of tools for radical reference volunteers and the general public.

While the USA PATRIOT ACT has been critically debated by the public, the majority of the American people have no idea what the Homeland Security Act entails, nor do they realize its effect on our right to know through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Many Americans are either unaware of the current Administration's infringement upon our civil rights or they are too fearful as a result of September 11 to realize the potential harm that these restrictions will have on our future. The following sources have been collected to serve as an aid in raising awareness on civil liberties issues such as the USA PATRIOT ACT, The Homeland Security Act, and general human rights and civil liberties issues involving our government. The sources range from government watchdogs, news blogs, organizations, metasites, etc. Please contact Radlib for comments or suggestions.

• Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• GovExec.com: Homeland Security
• OMB Watch: Information & Access
• Patriot Watch
• The Pew Internet and American Life Project
• USA Watch
• Watching Justice

Composting Resources Online

The following resources were originally posted to the Progressive Librarians Guild discussion list on February 4, 2008 and have been published here with permission from the author, Fred Stoss. It has been edited slightly, but no resources have been removed.

They are divided into Government, Education, and Organizational sites

Government Sites

• Worm Bins - How to Compost - Composting - King County Solid Waste
  
• How To Choose A Compost Bin
  Quick tips on what to look for when selecting a yard waste compost bin
  Department of Natural Resources and Parks
• Mass DEP :: MA DEP Composting: How to Control Fruit Flies and more
• How to compost your organic waste
• How To Establish Recycling and Composting Programs
• InterLinc: How to Make Your Own Compost
  Composting piles are made up by layering different plant materials together.
  Micro-organisms feed on this plant material and leave behind compost.
• Beyond Waste - How to: Composting
• How to Start a School Composting Program
  By Alpha Elementary School. Morristown, Tennessee.
• How To Compost - Text Only
• USDA: composting-- html, composting--pdf, Composting in the Yard, and Composting With Worms
• Interactive map for locating USDA-sponsored county cooperative extension programs

Education Sites

• How to Build a Compost Bin, MU Extension
  Details how to construct different types of composting units.
• Master Gardeners of San Joaquin County Learn how to Compost
• WSU Master Gardener: Stewardship Gardening - How to make compost
• How to Compost
  Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum web modules in Water Quality, Ecosystems, and Energy and Sustainability.
• Synpaedia: How To Compost
• Susquehanna County Cooperative Extension - How to Make Compost
• How to Prepare Your Own Compost: Gardeners Factsheet, No. 6, February 1979, Revised November 1994
  Dr. John M. Gerber.
• How to Implement Composting in Your Facility
  How to Win at Composting. Christine von Kolnitz, MUSC Recycling Coordinator.
• How To Build A Compost Bin
• Want compost? Here's how to get it,
  By Stephen S. Cramer, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension agent, Horticulture.

Organization Sites

• How to Compost.org
• How to Compost - Integrated Waste Management (DIV)
  Learn the elements of basic and underground composting.
• Composting: Journey to Forever organic garden
• NYC Post Project: How to Compost in New York City
• Learn how to compost and the benefits of composting
• Compost, how to use
• How to compost
  Here Are The Basics...
• Kitchen Gardeners International: How to make compost
• How to Build a Compost Bin - Environmental Defense
  Posted: 01-Jun-2000; Updated: 28-Dec-2006.
• how to compost
• Equipment & Supplies
• General Guide

Feminist Fact Checking Resources

Originally created for the Women, Action & Media Conference 2008

GLBTQ | International | Pay Equity/Labor | Rape/Sexual Assault | Reproduction | Statistics

1. GLBTQ
   • Gay & Lesbian Alliance against Defamation
   • International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
   • National Center for Lesbian Rights
   • National Gay and Lesbian Task Force thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research
2. International
   • HURIDOCS (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International)
   • JAGRITI International List of Women's Organizations by Country
   • UN's Women Watch
   • Women's Human Rights Net (Association for Women's Rights in Development)
3. Pay Equity / Labor
   • Families and Work Institute
   • Institute for Women's Policy Research
   • National Committee on Pay Equity
   • Working Life from Labor Research Association
4. Rape / Sexual Assault
   • AARDVARC (An Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence Aid and Resource Collection)
   • Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Data Resource Center
   • National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (See: Factsheets)
   • National Sexual Violence Resource Center
   • RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) -- especially statistics
5. Reproduction
   • Center for Reproductive Rights
   • Feminist Majority Foundation
   • Guttmacher Institute
   • National Center for Health Statistics
   • National Latina Institute Reproductive Health
   • Planned Parenthood
6. Statistics
   • The American Woman on the Web: A Statistical Portrait
   • GenderStats published by the World Bank
   • Institute for Women's Policy Research
   • UN The World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics
   • US Census and their American FactFinder

For a more comprehensive list of women's studies resources, see our favorite women's studies library research guide.

Free Online Filing of Income Taxes

Some Web Resources for Free Online Filing of Income Taxes.

• By filing your income tax return online, you can get your tax refund very quickly, often within a couple weeks. This can be an alternative to the storefront commerical tax preparation businesses which offer "instant tax refunds" are actually giving you a short-term loan, which they charge a substantial amount for (by not giving you your entire refund).
  
  
• Some people find that Tax Preparation Software can make it easier to fill out their tax returns.
  

Many of the commercial tax software companies will let you prepare and file your taxes online for free. Many people don't realize this, and the software companies don't go out of their way to advertise it, becuase they'd rather charge you for preparation and filing services. It is somewhat confusing, and somewhat confusing to figure out how to take advantage of free online software for preparation and filing.

Here are some resources to help figure it out.

Free Online Filing
A good concise article explaining why many online commercial tax services offer free online filing for federal income tax returns, and explaining how to take advantage of it.

File Home--
Your Link to Free Online Filing
The IRS's list of online companies providing free preparation and filing for federal income taxes. This page is more confusing than it should be. You're best bet is just clicking on the 'start now!' button. That will give you a list of websites, and what their requirements are for free usage. Note that some of the companies have income or other restrictions for their free services, but others do not.

TurboTax Tax Freedom
H&R Block - Free Online Tax Program
Well regarded industry leaders TurboTax and H&R Block both offer online tax preparation/filing for anyone, no income or other restrictions. Be careful, you need to go to these particular URLs (found on the IRS web page above) to use the free services. If you just go to these companies front pages, they'll happily charge you for the same thing you could get for free from another URL.

State Taxes

Perhaps part of the reason that these companies offer federal tax preparation and filing for free, is to try and get you to purchase state tax preparation and filing from them.

I have not found any commercial software businesses that offer free state preparation or filing. However, many state governments offer free filing services; some of them offer more help than others in preparing your tax return, but state income tax forms tend to be simpler than the federal forms.

Here is a site that offers links to state government websites from which you can get information about free online filing, if the state offers it.

Federation of Tax Administrators--State Tax Forms Page

Government Resources

The US government publishes information, statistics and data across many disciplines and subject areas. There's no way that a google search can give one access to ALL government information as much of the publicly available information is available only in the deep Web -- in databases and repositories not indexed by google.

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is a network of over 1200 libraries (public, academic, state, law etc) that work with the US Government Printing Office to help their communities access the world of govt information. The links below are but a brief list of a few of our favorite govt resources. For more in-depth help, contact your local FDLP library and check out their research guides on government information. Contact freegovinfo AT gmail DOT com to add other resources.

General information and resources:

• USA.gov: Search government websites.
• National Archives
• Federal Digital System (FDsys)
• Catalog of Government Publications (CGP)
• American memory
• Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Register
• US Code
• Statutes at Large
• US Budget
• World Factbook

Research and reference assistance:

• Directory of FDLP Libraries
• Government Information Online: chat/email reference assistance

Legislative Branch (US Congress):

• Thomas
• GovTrack.us
• Congressional record: proceedings and debates of Congress
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) is Congress' non-partisan think tank. CRS reports are great resources for legislative histories and all manner of subjects. Access them at the following sites:
  • OpenCRS
  • U of North Texas CRS Archive
  • CRS reports hosted by the FAS Secrecy Project
  • Stanford Library CRS archive

Executive Branch:

• Compilation of Presidential Documents
• The American Presidency Project

Judicial Branch:

• US SUpreme Court
• US Courts' opinions

Statistics:

• FedStats
• Federal agency statistical programs
• ALFRED : archival Federal Reserve economic data : economic data time travel from the St. Loius Fed.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Bureau of Economic Analysis
• Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Census Bureau
• FRED: Federal Reserve Economic Data
• National Center for Education Statistics
• National Center for Health Statistics
• Statistical Abstract of the US: online 1878 - present. In 2012, the Census Bureau cut the budget for the Compendia unit, the office which compiles the StatAb and other critical statistical resources. It's now published by a private publisher and what was once free to FDLP libraries now costs hundreds of dollars. For more, see the Facebook page to save the statistical abstract.

Science and Technology:

• Science.gov
• science accelerator
• DOE Information Bridge
• Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL)

Transparency and govt watchdogs:

• Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• OpenSecrets
• OMBWatch
• Cryptome

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA):

• National Security Archive: This archive posts FOIA'd govt publications and records pertaining to national security and has a helpful site for those wanting to submit their own FOIA requests.
• FAS Secrecy project
• Stanford Library FOIA archive: Stanford's archive harvests FOIA documents from Federal agency FOIA reading rooms as well as Web sites that regularly post FOIA'd documents.
• Cable Search: Search engine of US Foreign Offices' cables released by Wikileaks
• List of Federal Agency FOIA contacts

For kids:

• Ben's Guide
• Gov doc Kids

Green Scare

GREEN SCARE RESOURCES

The National Lawyers Guild has established a hotline 888-NLG-ECOLAW for individuals arrested or subpoenaed for offenses related to environmental or animal activism.

* Civil Liberties Defense Center: The Green Scare and Eco-Indictments
* Green is the New Red
* Portland IMC Green Scare Section

PRISONERS & DEFENDANTS SUPPORT

* Break the Chains
* North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
* Sacramento Prisoner Support email contact

History, Resistance

History is a Weapon is a broad collection of essays on social change from a variety of political tendencies. Sections include "What is this America?" and "From Resistance to Revolution".

Revolution in the Air is a website with resources related to the book by the same name by Max Elbaum, which is a look at the birth of what he terms the New Communist Movement[s] of the late 1960s. History and Strategy section includes a political chronology from 1954-1992.

The NameBase Directory is an index of people influential in politics, the military, intelligence, crime, business, and the media since WWII. It started in the late 1960's when New Left activist Daniel Brandt began clipping magazine and newspaper articles and collecting investigative books about the power structure. He combed each book and article for the names of individuals, groups, corporations, and countries - developing a name authority file along the way. In the early 1980's, he incorporated Public Information Research to continue the work. NameBase includes close to 100,000 names from approximately 260,000 citations. The names are drawn from over 700 books and serials, plus a handful of documents recovered using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). While the index does draw from the mainstream and right wing press, most books and articles come from a leftist perspective. (description from http://www.bowdoin.edu/~samato/IRA/reviews/issues/oct00/namebase.html) Sections include information on the CIA and foreign policy.

Marxists Internet Archive is a huge resource of essays by Marxists like Lenin and Mao, as well as non-canonical people like Gramsci. There are also resources on Malcolm X, and the anarchists Bakunin, Emma Goldman, and Proudhon.

The Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan has been digitizing anarchist pamphlets that were once held by anarchist Jo Labadie. There are also feminist and queer liberation materials.

Anarchy Archives is an online research center on the history and theory of anarchism.

The Southern California Library is a collection of materials focusing on the Left history of Los Angeles, with other general materials on social-justice struggles from around the U.S. and the world.

Lesbian Herstory Archives, the largest and oldest Lesbian archive in the world, began in 1973 as an outgrowth of a Lesbian consciousness-raising group at the Gay Academic Union. The founders were concerned about the failure of mainstream publishers, libraries, archives, and research institutions to value Lesbian culture. It became obvious that the only way to insure the preservation of Lesbian culture and history was to establish an independent archives governed by Lesbians.

The Chicago Women's Liberation Union has a website with an archive of articles on topics like: consciousness, family, sexuality, and internationalism. They also have a number of articles from the publication Womankind.

A number of issues of the Left journal Radical America have been digitized by Brown University. Part of what Max Elbaum considers the New Communist Movement, Radical America has articles from some great theorists. Radical America ran from 1967-1999 (with much fewer issues at the end).

Freedom Archives is based in San Francisco, and is a great resource for finding audio on social movements. According to their website: "8000 hours of audio and video recordings documenting social justice movements locally, nationally, and internationally from the 1960s to the present. The Archives features speeches of movement leaders and community activists, protests and demonstrations, cultural currents of rebellion and resistance."

African Activist Archive "is preserving records and memories of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s."

Human Rights Resources page

Resources list compiled by/for the academic discussion group H-Human Rights.

Hurricane Katrina and Aftermath Resources

You will find here information on socially responsible organizations and other useful resources for supporting communities in New Orleans and other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. See the links below.

Updated 10 December 2005

Jury Duty for Radicals

"...as a juror, you are one of a panel of twelve judges with the responsibility of protecting all innocent Americans from unjust laws."

If your response to the subject of this resource is "huh?!?," here's a rationale:

"Think about everyone rotting in jail because juries believe the cops, think of all of those who are the victims of not only the weight of the system, but of 12 people who believed the bullshit. Perhaps if there were people on the jury who understand that cops lie, that prosecutors hide the truth, there would be fewer people in jail."
Jessica Rechtschaffer, from the NYC Anarchists discussion list, Re: [nyc@] Jury Duty --> -- Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:49:21 -0700 (PDT). Quoted with permission

The main point here is that you should want to be selected for a jury, and once serving, you should know your rights and responsibilities, as they are, and not necessarily as they will be explained to you by the judge on your case.

Getting picked

• Keep your opinions to yourself.
• Keep your freak flag down, or at least at half mast.
• This is not the moment to make a big deal about your principles. Prioritize the prisoner.

FAQ, (Please send me more!)

Q
During the voir dire, do they ask if you've been arrested, or if you've been convicted? If it's the former, is there a way to not lie about a (civil disobedience) arrest record (no convictions), without revealing it? Can you answer something like "I've never been convicted of a crime." and refuse to get into what you've merely been accused of?

A
They can ask you if you've been arrested or convicted of a crime, they can also ask you if you've been the victim of a crime. If you refuse to do anything then you're less likely to get picked for the jury. It's better to make it a cagey pleasant answer - or an honest answer - probably your misdemeanors aren't going to get you kicked out - but being obstinate or unhelpful or unfriendly will.

Q
If I normally ask for an alternative vow (instead of "So help me God"), should I do the same before the voir dire?

A
Fight your church and state battle on your own time if you can possibly stand it. This is not about you.

Q
Won't the judge tell me how to review the case, and don't I have to follow her guidelines?

A
No and no. "You must know your rights! Because, once selected for jury duty, nobody will inform you of your power to judge both law and fact. In fact, the judge's instructions to the jury may be to the contrary." Jurors' Handbook, p. 2, continued...

"Moreover, it has been recommended that federal judges go one step further and routinely tell jurors, 'You are bound by the oath that you took at the beginning of the trial to follow the instructions that I give you, even if you personally disagree with them.'

"... But despite its tremendous popularity among judges, this argument is by far the most misshapen stone in the barricade judges have been erecting around the jury box. To begin with, it is usually false. The typical oath taken by jurors today does not forbid them from refusing to convict based on their sense of justice. ... At the beginning of the trial, jurors are typically asked to swear that they 'will well and truly try and a true deliverance make between the United States and the defendant at the bar, and a true verdict render according to the evidence, so help [me] God.'

"... But nothing in this oath would forbid jurors from acquitting if they are convinced -- based solely on "the evidence" -- that the accused's actions were morally blameless and that a conviction would be unjust.

"... If a jury refuses to convict a man because of overwhelming feelings of mercy or justice, they are returning a 'false' verdict. A verdict of 'not guilty' based on a jury's notions of justice is not affirmatively declaring that he is innocent. (The same is true of an acquittal based on their conclusion that he has only been shown to be probably guilty, but not beyond a reasonable doubt.) The general 'not guilty' verdict is merely a shorthand way of allowing the jury to express, for reasons they need not explain, 'we do not choose to condemn the accused by pronouncing him guilty.'"

Once you've been selected
The information below is excerpted from Jurors' Handbook: A Citizens Guide to Jury Duty, by James Joseph Duane, which you should really read in its entirety and bring with you to court.

• But does the jury's power to veto bad laws exist under our Constitution?
  It certainly does! ... Chief Justice John Jay said: "It is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumed that courts are the best judges of law. But still both objects are within your power of decision." ... "you have a right to take it upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy." (Georgia v. Brailsford, 1794)
• "If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused, is unjust, or that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic of passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision." (US vs Moylan, 417 F 2d 1002, 1006 (1969))
• If you feel the statute involved in any criminal case being tried before you is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant's God-given inalienable or Constitutional rights, you can affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime; for no man is bound to obey an unjust command. In other words, if the defendant has disobeyed some man-made criminal statute, and the statute is unjust, the defendant has in substance, committed no crime. Jurors, having ruled then on the justice of the law involved and finding it opposed in whole or in part to their own natural concept of what is basically right, are bound to hold for the acquittal of said defendant.
• It is your responsibility to insist that your vote of not guilty be respected by all other members of the jury. For you are not there as a fool, merely to agree with the majority, but as a qualified judge in your right to see that justice is done. Regardless of the pressures or abuse that may be applied to you by any or all members of the jury with whom you may in good conscience disagree, you can await the reading of the verdict secure in the knowledge you have voted your conscience and convictions, not those of someone else.

More arguments for serving jury duty

"I've heard radicals say that serving their jury duty would be to collaborate with, and legitimize the system, as if skipping out on it is somehow an ethical decision. Would these radicals apply this argument to protest other types of interactions with the criminal justice system, especially when doing so would create negative consequences for themselves? Getting out of jury duty is kinda like not voting, in that it is easy and no one gets penalized for it. I imagine there are fewer examples of radicals citing an opposition to cooperating with the justice system when it means risking much.

"There are all kinds of other ways in which we collaborate with the system -- we accept help from pro bono civil rights lawyers when we have serious charges against us, we show our IDs and go through metal detectors to visit people in jail or attend a trial, we report rapes to the cops, we answer the questions of customs agents, and we pull over to the side of the road acknowledging that a cop has signaled us to do so. Sure, we dirty our hands in some way by going along with any of these things; so ok, we have dirty hands. But if we ignore the justice system only when it makes things easier for ourselves, we are just being lazy, self-serving and exploiting our privilege. Jury duty gives us a chance to help others who are at risk, and therefore should be the last situation in which we pretend to be too pure to collaborate."

Nick Cooper, printed with permission.

More general info on serving jury duty

• Voting of jurors: in criminal trials generally all the jurors have to vote guilty or not guilty or the result is a hung jury. If there is a hung jury that is a victory for the defendant. Prosecutors do not always decide to retry cases or the two sides may decide to settle the cases with a plea to much reduced charges.
• Jury nullification as in the jury does not believe in the laws and votes on that basis exists and happens although not very often. An example of this might be a criminal trial for marijuana where the jurors decided criminalizing marijuana was wrong and voted not guilty on that basis.
• Jury notices in some states may indicate what type of jury. There are civil trial, criminal trials, and also grand jury investigations (think Green Scare).
• In terms of contempt of jurors I suspect this is just more of a threat by judges to get things moving most of the time. One does not hear often about judges throwing jurors in jail. If a juror answers all questions truthfully and follows the instructions of the judge it does not seem like the juror would be held in contempt generally.

Name of the author of the bulleted list above pending permission.

To be clear, Radical Reference does not advocate lying or misrepresenting yourself in a court of law.

Medical Resources

Resources for Finding Affordable Health Care
• Get Health Care - List of resources for accessing affordable health care in the US. Note that some of these options are limited to folks who are designated as "very low income," which amounts to less than 50% of your local area's median income*

  You can find out your local area's median income by looking up your city/town on the American FactFinder website, which is run by the US Census Bureau.

First Aid: Resources for Activists
• Pepper Spray and Tear Gas
• Preparing for a Demo (Avoiding Injury)
• Emergency Wound Care (Basic)
• Emergency Would Care for Health Professionals (Advanced)
• Street Medic Training Manual from BALM, the Boston Area Liberation Medic Squad
Specific Medical Conditions
• Trench foot (symptoms and treatment)
• Cholera (symptoms and prevention)
• E Coli (symptoms and treatment)
• West Nile (symptoms and treatment)
Mental Health
• Psychotherapies (from the National Institute of Mental Health)
• Icarus Project
Resources for Health Professionals/Aspiring Health Professionals
• National Health Service Corps - Places recent health profession graduates into low-income, underserved, and high-need areas. Provides significant financial assistance for paying back student loans. Please note that this program is run by the US federal government.

Mosquito Prevention and Treatment without Chemicals

TO AVOID MOSQUITO BITES
(some chemical-free DIY methods)

Remove or drain areas of standing water if possible.

Avoid being outdoors at dawn and dusk, the times of day when mosquitos are most active.

Wear long sleeves and long pants if possible, and wear baggy (so that there's a layer of air between your skin and the fabric) light-colored clothing (mosquitos notice and are attracted to dark or brightly-colored clothes).

Do not use scented soaps, deodorants, shampoos, or perfume, especially those with floral scents.

If mosquitos are around, try to stay still and do not wave your arms or breathe heavily. This will make you less noticeable to them.

Mosquitos are also attracted to the bacteria found on sweaty, smelly feet, so keep yours as clean and dry (preferably in ventilated shoes) as possible.

As non-chemical insect repellants, you can try cinnamon oil or pure vanilla extract mixed with equal parts water. Some people report that white or cider vinegar applied to the skin is effective. Others say that tucking a fabric softener sheet into their clothing works, too. The question of thiamine and B complex vitamins as a repellant is unresolved -- some medical professionals say that daily supplements of 25-50 mg thiamine (a B vitamin) works (though it takes about 2 weeks of doses for it to produce a skin odor that repels mosquitos), and others say the vitamins have no effect.

A Japanese study has shown that people who have consumed beer experience an increased amount of mosquito landings.

IF YOU DO HAVE MOSQUITO BITES

Try putting ice or a cold compress on bites to counteract the itch.

Don't scratch if you can help it. If you must, scratch lightly around the bite.

Try applying one of the following materials to your irritated skin:

• Toothpaste (in a very small quantity)
• Liquid soap (don't rinse off)
• Alcohol
• Aspirin (rubbed directly onto moist skin; do not use if you're sensitive to aspirin)
• Vicks VapoRub
• Witch hazel
• Milk
• Juice from crushed onions
• Baking soda (in a paste made with a little water)
• Hot sauce (counterirritation!)
• Echinacea tincture (if available -- apply three times a day)

New York City Tenant Resources

Tenant Research FAQs

Question: There is noisy and/or hazardous construction work being done on the property. Does my landlord have a permit for this?
Answer: You can find out which permits have been applied for and/or issued for each property in New York City through the Building Information Systems database on the Department of Buildings website: http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp. You can call 311 to make a complaint (if there's not a permit or there's a hazardous condition).

Question: Where may I obtain a Certificate of Occupancy for my building?
Answer: The Building Information System database on the Department of Buildings website allows you to view and download most Certificates of Occupancy:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp

Question: Are there any open violations on my apartment or building? What about violations on other buildings owned by my landlord?
Answer: Housing violations can be found on the New York Housing Preservation and Development Building Info Database: http://167.153.4.71/hpdonline/provide_address.aspx
For help locating other properties owned by your landlord, see the next question.

Question: Does my landlord own any other buildings in New York City?
Answer: The ACRIS database on the Department of Finance website is searchable by owner name and contains a record for every property in the five boroughs: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/jump/acris.shtml

Additional comments from a NYC housing activist:
Question does not have such a simple answer because almost always landlords incorporate and an LLC owns a building, not an individual so while the contact person's name may be the same (in your case Croman) searching for Croman via ACRIS won't get a complete list. It's fairly difficult to get a comprehensive list. You may just want to put a note so that people know that just because they do an ACRIS search does not mean they will get an accurate list.

Question: Are there any environmental hazards in my neighborhood?
Answer: A map of environmental hazards can be found in each property record on the Property Shark database (free registration required): http://www.propertyshark.com/

Question: Are there any public works construction projects scheduled for my neighborhood?
Answer: A list of selected projects planned by the Department of Design and Construction can be found on the DDC Project Browser: http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/html/pbjump.html

Question: Are there any major developments planned for my neighborhood?
Answer: PlanNYC has a partial list of planned or in-progress development projects organized by neighborhood: http://www.plannyc.com/

Question: Where can I find out the taxable value of a property?
Answer: The NYC Property Information Database on the Department of Finance website contains several years of value and tax statements: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/jump/nycproperty.shtml

Question: How can I find out about current rent increases?
Answer: Check on the Rent Guidelines Board website http://www.housingnyc.com

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News Sites

Here are links to various news organizations, both mainstream/commercial and non-commercial. There's also a section on media watchdogs, always a good read and chock full of information! Please email Radlib for comments or additions.

News sites:

• Agence France-Presse (AFP)
• A-Infos
• A-Infos Radio Project
• AIROS Native Radio Network
• Alternative Press Review
• Alternet.org
• BBC News
• Boston Independent Media Center
• CBC.ca
• Common Dreams
• Daily Brownwatch
• Democracy Now
• Free Speech Radio Network
• Free Speech TV
• Guerrilla News Network
• The Gully Defunct, but article archives remains up.
• Independent Media Center
• Independent Media Center Radio Network
• Infoshop News
• NYC Independent Media Center
• Pacifica Radio
• TheExperiment.org
• White Rose Society: Liberal/Progressive Talk Radio Audio Archives
• WMass Independent Media Center

Media watchdogs:

• Accuracy in Media
• Cursor
• Factcheck.org
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
• Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
• Mediachannel.org
• SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia)
• Spin of the Day from prwatch.org

Organizations and resources for the RNC convergence

Here are links to organizations that are working for change during the Republican National Convention. Additionally, there will be resources for activists linked here as we find them. Please contact Radlib for comments or suggestions.

Organizations :: Resources

Organizations:

• A31 Action Coalition
  
  A group calling for non-violent civil disobedience and direct action. Check out the amazing poster!
• Counter-Convention
  
  News, events listings, posters and materials, ride share and housing board.
• NoRNC Clearinghouse
  
  As the title suggests, this is a clearinghouse for various organizations,collectives and groups. Lots of resources here, including a direct action handbook, flyers and graphics, etc.
• NoRNC Poster Project
  
  "Visual resistence to the Republican National Convention." There are some really amazing posters, stickers and art work for download or purchase.
• NYC Independent Media Center
  
  NYC and converngence news, media information, and more.
• Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign
  
  Sponsoring the "March for our lives".
• Time's Up!
  
  NYC bicycling and environmental action group . Check out the bike national convention, Aug 20 - 29!
• Rant Trainers' Collective
  
  Rant works with global justice movements to train participants in "creative, effective nonviolent direct actions to dismantle unjust systems, institutions and corporations." Lots of resources and biographies of trainers.
• RNC Media Convergence Center
  
  Grassroots media community forum including advocacy workshops and panels for independent media creators.
• Still We Rise
  
  Housing, healthcare, jobs and income support are the main issues of SWR. They're a non-partisan coalition representing a group of over 35 organizations.
• United For Peace and Justice
  
  "A coalition of more than 800 local and national groups throughout the United States who have joined together to oppose our government's policy of permanent warfare and empire-building." This is the umbrella group heading the march on Sunday, Aug, 29th, 2004. Events, resources, groups, and more.

Resources:

• People's Guide to the Republican National Convention
  
  The definitive guide to the public events surrounding the RNC. Download the map for free or get it at a number of respectful outlets (no, NOT Walmart or Target).
• Maps:
  • 2004 RNC Protesters Map
    
    The map, created by RK Chin features an accurate, and up-to-date street grid, with listings of many art, and protest related events scheduled during the RNC.
  • Aug29 Protest Map
  • Midtown Maps
    
    Several maps available for the midtown area around Madison Square Garden
  • NYC subway map
  • Transportation Alternatives cycling map
• Media:
  • Advanced Traveler Information System
    
    From the NY Dept. of Transportation, 45 still or streaming cameras installed at "key traffic points". Not much help, but fun to check out live streaming media of NYC!
  • Free103point9 Radio
    
    coordinating a live 24/7 internet webcast from the protests.
  • NYC Independent Media Center
    
    coordination, breaking news etc.
  • Truthout RNC2004
    
    Audio/video reports from inside and outside the convention.
  • NoRNC Sound Coalition
    
    A collaborative project organized by independent sound makers to coincide with the protests at the Republican National Convention. Their goal is to "create a welcoming and supportive structure that sound artists, radio groups, and activists of all skill levels can plug into during the RNC. The overall project will include workshops, editing workstations, and air-time programming on a coordinated webstream."
  • NycMobalizationInfoLine
    
    Information call in line for the Anti-War mobalization in New York and affinity group clusters during the protests.
• National Lawyers' Guild
  
  An association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. The Guild unites lawyers, law students, and legal workers as an effective political and social force in the service of the people. If you are arrested or detained, call the National Lawyers Guild at 212-679-6018. They will also have 400 to 500 lawyers and legal observers in the crowds on Sunday. They are wearing green hats.
• Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press
  
  RCFP have arranged legal help for credentialed press covering the convention. Attorneys from Levine, Sullivan, Koch & Schulz, LLP will be available via the 24-hour "Media Hotline" to offer cost-free legal advice and
  representation with regard to convention access and coverage. The hotline
  phone number is (212) 850-6122. So get your press passes NOW!

Prisoner Support Resources

All of Us or None "A national organizing initiative of prisoners, former prisoners and felons, to combat the many forms of discrimination that we face as the result of felony convictions."
ACLU Prisoners Rights "The only national litigation program on behalf of prisoners."
AFSC Stopmax "To promote and support a national movement to end the use of solitary confinement and related forms of torture in US prisons."
Anarchist Black Cross Federation "In May of 1995, a small group of ABC collectives merged into a Federation whose aim was to focus on the overall support and defense of U.S. Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War."
Battered Women’s Justice Project "Provides resources for advocates, battered women, legal and justice system personnel, policymakers, and others engaged in the justice system response to domestic violence."
Books to prisoners programs in North America
Black and Pink "Black & Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and 'free world' allies who support each other."
Break the Chains "A news and discussion forum for supporters of political prisoners, prisoners of war, politicized social prisoners, and victims of police and state intimidation."
Buddhist Peace Fellowship – Transformative Justice Program "Committed to working with prisoners, their families, and all other persons associated with the prison system to address the systemic violence within the prison-industrial complex."
Campaign to End the Death Penalty "The only national membership-driven, chapter-based grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment in the United States."
Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents "Their mission is the prevention of intergenerational crime and incarceration."
Critical Resistance "Seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe."
CURE: Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants "A grassroots organization that believes prisons should be used only for those who absolutely must be incarcerated and that those who are incarcerated should have all of the resources they need to turn their lives around."
Death Penalty Focus "One of the largest nonprofit advocacy organizations in the nation dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment through public education; grassroots and political organizing; original research; media outreach; local, state and nationwide coalition building; and the education of religious, legislative and civic leaders about the death penalty and its alternatives."
Directory of State Prison Librarians "Listing of Librarians by State - Directory of State Prison Libraries"
FAMM, Families Against Mandatory Minimums "The national voice for fair and proportionate sentencing laws."
Families United for Prison Reform "Created to bring about change, not only to laws and policies, but also to public perceptions regarding prisons, prisoners, and the criminal justice system."
Fortune Society "Working to create a world where all who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated can become positive, contributing members of society."
Free Battered Women "Seeks to end the re-victimization of incarcerated survivors of domestic violence as part of the movement for racial justice and the struggle to resist all forms of intimate partner violence against women and transgender people."
Jericho Movement "A movement with the defined goal of gaining recognition of the fact that political prisoners and prisoners of war exist inside of the United States despite the United States’ government’s continued denial."
Justice Now "Our mission is to end violence against women and stop their imprisonment. "
Legal Aid Society "The nation's oldest and largest provider of legal services to the indigent."
LockedOut "Resource list for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer prisoners."
National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women "Working for justice for battered women charged with crimes."
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty "Our mission is to abolish the death penalty in the U.S. and support efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide."
National HCV Prison Coalition "Formed to bring together organizations and individuals interested in raising awareness and providing support to prisoners who are suffering from hepatitis and HIV/HCV coinfection."
National Lawyers Guild – Prison Project "Members nationwide share experiences and connect around prison law work; help fill prisoner requests for the Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook."
National Prison Hospice "Promotes hospice care for terminally ill prisoners."
National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated "The oldest and largest organization in the U.S. focused on children and families of the incarcerated and programs that serve them."
November Coalition "Working to end drug war injustice, a non-profit grassroots organization, was founded in 1997."
Prison Activist Resource Center "A prison abolitionist all volunteer grass roots group committed to exposing and challenging the institutionalized racism of the prison industrial complex."
Prison Art "Created to provide an online outlet for the sale of artwork and crafts created by prisoners. Prisoner artists from throughout the U.S. can post their works within."
Prison Legal News "An independent 56-page monthly magazine that provides a cutting edge review and analysis of prisoner rights, court rulings and news about prison issues."
Prisoner Visitation and Support "A volunteer visitation program to Federal and Military prisoners throughout the United States."
Prisons Foundation "One of the oldest and most established 501 (c)(3) nonprofit prisoner art advocacy groups in the nation."
RAPP Campaign: Release Aging People in Prisons "RAPP works to get elderly and infirm people out of prison."
Sentencing Project "Working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, and alternatives to incarceration."
TGI Justice Project "Mission is to challenge and end the human rights abuses committed against transgender, gender variant, genderqueer and people with intersex conditions in California prisons and beyond."
Women’s Prison Association "A service and advocacy organization committed to helping women with criminal justice histories realize new possibilities for themselves and their families."

Last updated August 28, 2009

Radical Reference 2008 Grassroots Media Election Guide

Radical Reference Presents: the 2008 Grassroots Media Election Guide

Librarian volunteers from the Radical reference collective
(www.radicalreference.info) introduce the 2008 Grassroots Media Election guide, chock full of all the links you’ll want to bookmark/tag. Featuring both in-depth and up-to-the-minute campaign information from outside the mainstream, this walk through the 2008 guide highlights news and primary government information sources for radical and progressive media makers monitoring national to local races. This session will emphasize sources that are freely available on the Internet, and locally accessible from your nearest public library. Come get hip to sources, and hone your research and searching techniques. The session will conclude with a brainstorming session for distributing the guide at RNC and DNC convention demonstrations and related events.

THE GUIDE:

VOTER REGISTRATION FOR NEW YORK
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/register.html

SOME BASICS

big-bro-free searching
Scroogle
http://scroogle.org/
An ad-free Google search proxy which prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google, a Firefox plugin, and tools for webmasters

What is RSS and how do you use it?
See the wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

NEWS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Alt Press Index and Alternative Press Index Archive
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*
The Alternative Press Index is widely regarded as the leading guide to the alternative press in North America. Citations are drawn from roughly 380 alternative, radical, and left publications, which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change. API indexes such important periodicals as Cineaste, Environmental Action, Socialist Review, and Women's Review of Books. Subject areas covered include African-American Studies, social theory, ethnic and racial studies, socialism, feminism, alternative organizations, gay/lesbian studies, anarchism, community organizing, prisons, ecology, indigenous people's rights, labor studies, and internationalism.

Alt-PressWatch
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*
Alt-PressWatch is a full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals from alternative and independent presses. This interdisciplinary resource provides a valuable source of alternative viewpoints and perspectives to complement and challenge mainstream media coverage. Many of these publications are difficult to locate and acquire in their printed format.

AltWeeklies.com hot topics pages, covering the national election and more
http://www.altweeklies.com/alternative/AltWeeklies/index
AltWeeklies.com brings readers the best, most insightful, thought-provoking news and features published in the 130 papers that belong to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/
Breaking news and views for the progressive community.

Counter Punch Links
http://www.counterpunch.org/links.html
List of links from CounterPunch.org

Ethnic News Watch
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*
Designed to provide the "other side of the story," this database offers additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press. Coverage begins in 1990. Searchable in English and in Spanish, and includes such titles as the New York Amsterdam News, Chicago Defender, El Diario/La Prensa and The Jewish Week.

NYC IndyMedia
NYC Independent Media Center's home page.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/index.html

New York State Newspapers
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*

A collection of major New York State newspapers, available in full-text.
You can search across the following New York State newspapers are available in full-text:
1. Buffalo News [Buffalo, NY]
2. Herald-American [Syracuse, NY]
3. New York Observer [New York, NY]
4. New York Post [New York, NY]
5. New York Times [New York, NY]
6. Post-Standard [Syracuse, NY]

BLOGS

C&E political blog directory
http://www.campaignsandelections.com/blogs/blogs.cfm?categoryid=42&startrow=1

New York-Centric Political Blogs
Includes a good list of New York political blogs and online news sources.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:New_York_and_the_U.S._Congress

Wikipedia list of prominent political blogs and bloggers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_blog#Notable_American_political_blogs_and_bloggers

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

CSPAN Congressional Chronicle
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/
The C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle is an index to the C-SPAN video recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings. The video recordings are matched with the text of the Congressional Record as soon as the Record is available. It only includes members who appeared on the floor to deliver or insert their remarks. The text included here is what the member submitted. Each appearance has a video link where users can watch and listen to the actual remarks.

FactCheck.org
http://www.factcheck.org/
Nonpartisan, nonprofit Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania examines the statements of major candidates.

Govtrak
Track the activities of your representatives via customizable RSS feeds
http://www.govtrack.us/

New York: State and Local Government websites
http://www.statelocalgov.net/state-ny.htm

New York State Board of Elections
http://www.elections.state.ny.us/portal/page?_pageid=35,1,35_8617&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

New York City Board of elections
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/index.html

Open Congress
http://www.opencongress.org/
OpenCongress brings together official government information with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress.

Portal:2008 U.S. Congressional Elections - Congresspedia
Wiki guide to national and local elections. Contains information about congressional records and links to relevant local blogs.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wiki_the_Vote

Project vote smart legislation tracking for Congress and State legislatures
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote.php

THOMAS
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Federal legislative information freely available to the public, hosted by the library of congress

Campaign Finance Information

Campaign Finance - Money, Political Finance, Campaign Contributions
Contains reports about donations to political campaigns.
http://www.campaignmoney.com/

Federal Election Commission Home Page
The official homepage of the Federal Election Commission. Here you will find a great deal of election finance reports, disclosures and data.
http://www.fec.gov/

Opensecrets.org--Money in politics data
A project of the Center for Responsive Politics, Opensecrets.org provides users with large amounts of data on national and local campaign spending.
http://www.opensecrets.org/

Historical Election Data

Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
Historical data about previous election results.
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/

NARA | Federal Register | U.S. Electoral College
The National Archives and Records Administration maintains this web page that explains the electoral college, contains historical election results and teaching resources.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/index.html

Voting and Registration Data
Historical voting and registration data from the US Census bureau.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html

SOME OTHER MAJOR ELECTION GUIDES HAND-CRAFTED BY LIBRARIANS

The University of Michigan Government Documents Center guide to 2008 election information.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/elec2008.html

ACRL 2008 Election Guide
Links to online information from the Association of College and Research Libraries.
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/january08/elect08rescrces.cfm

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Radical Reference members' blogs

Radical Reference Members: Please list your blog here, and annotate it if you like. Note: most of the entries are from 2007 and might need updating.

• Alycia Sellie
  
• Cherie Yanek
  
• ChuckO
  
• Fiona Bradley
  
• James Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo
  
• Jenna Freedman
  
• Jessa Lingel
  
• Jonathan Harwell
  
• Kate Angel
  
• Kathleen de la Peña McCook
  
• Laura Crossett
  
• Lia Friedman (and others!)
  
• LibrarianShipwreck

And check out our nifty blog aggregator.

Radical collectives and groups

Radical collectives and groups

This page lists a selection of radical collectives, contacts and other groups across the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. Feel free to add! LAST UPDATED 11/05/08

Directories

Slingshot Organizer

Alabama
Birmingham
Cave Nine
http://www.myspace.com/cave9
2237 Magnolia Ave S.
Birmingham, AL 35205
A show space, an art space and sometimes hosting workshops and classes. all-ages, non-profit.

Huntsville
Flying Monkey Arts
http://www.flyingmonkeyarts.org/
Lowe Mill, 2211 Seminole Drive
Huntsville, AL
Flying Monkey Arts Center is a not for profit community arts collective that encourages, supports and promotes events, workshops and studios featuring but not limited to music, film, theater, dance, puppetry, visual and performance art with a focus on experimental works for mature audiences.

Alaska
Anchorage
The Wasteland
http://www.myspace.com/thawastelandak

California
Oakland
AK Press

Indiana
Bloomington
Microcosm Publishing

Maryland

Red Emma's

Atomic Books

Minnesota

Arise Bookstore and Resource Center

Bat Annex Free School Library

Coldsnap Legal Collective

Extreme Noise

Food Not Bombs

Hard Times Collective

Ladyfest Twin Cities

Mayday Books

Radical Cheerleaders

Seward Cafe

Sisters Camelot

Twin Cities IWW

Nevada

Food Not Bombs Las Vegas

Pennsylvania

Wooden Shoe Books and Records

The Big Idea Bookstore
http://www.thebigideapgh.org/

Pittsburgh Food Not Bombs
http://pgh-fnb.gpacattack.org/index.php

Researching Corporations, Front Groups, and Corporate Influence on Government

These links can help you research the influence of business (aka big business, corporations, big corporations) on government, the media, and other areas of life. This information is often difficult to find as this kind of influence tends to be exerted through a wide variety of means such as campaign donations, pseudo-grassroots organizations, PR and advertising campaigns, lobbying, professional organizations, research funding (or obstruction thereof), and more.

While every effort has been made to link to sites that present accurate information, it's important to view everything you find with a grain of salt. Interaction between a corporate representative and a government official doesn't necessarily mean explicit corruption. Political scientists and other academics have debated the extent, forms, and impact of corporate influence for decades. These complex issues deserve careful consideration from the people most interested in building a more just world - activists, researchers, and other radicals. Activists and independent journalists can always post their questions on the main page to get further assistance with making the most of these resources.

For now, this guide will focus most of its efforts on US politics - but that can change if you contribute international resources (domestic ones are, of course, also welcome)!

Categories include: For Starters, Lobbying, Interest Groups, Front Groups, Funding/Tax Info, 527s, "Revolving Door", Think Tanks, Wikileaks Cables, US Government Records, Government Contracts, and Money in Medicine & Science

For Starters
Recent LA Times story regarding the failure of many corporations to fully disclose political spending
From the site: "Despite mounting calls for greater transparency, only a few of the country's 75 leading energy, healthcare and financial services corporations fully disclose political spending, according to a review of company records and state and federal campaign finance reports."

Corporate Rule
From the site: "Corporations are one of the most potent forces dictating and circumscribing how our lives are lived and undermining the survival of the world's ecosystems. Ways of effectively challenging their power and fighting for real democracy are being constricted. This project aims to explore the ways in which corporations exercise power over the decisions made in what we call a democracy, and the ways in which their ideologies and discourses facilitate this by co-opting and/or suppressing people's active democratic participation."

Lobbying
Open Secrets Lobbying Database
From the site: "In addition to campaign contributions to elected officials and candidates, companies, labor unions, and other organizations spend billions of dollars each year to lobby Congress and federal agencies. Some special interests retain lobbying firms, many of them located along Washington's legendary K Street; others have lobbyists working in-house. We've got totals spent on lobbying, beginning in 1998, for everyone from AAI Corp. to Zurich Financial."

Follow the Money's Lobbyist Link
From the site: "There's a K Street in every state capitol. Lobbyists in the halls of your statehouse can access and influence those who make the laws that affect your life. But they aren't working for you; they're working for corporations, unions and special interests who have their own agenda to pursue. Lobbyist Link helps you make the connection between lobbyists and their employers. Take it a step further and see what those employers give directly to candidates to exert additional influence over the lawmaking process."

Interest Groups
Open Secrets Interest Groups - Browse by Industry
From the site: "Which candidates is the computer industry giving to? What are the patterns in tobacco contributions over the last ten years? Where is the political money coming from within the agribusiness industries? You can answer this kind of question here."

Front Groups
Source Watch Guide to Corporate Front Groups
From the site: "A front group is an organization that purports to represent one agenda while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is hidden or rarely mentioned. The front group is perhaps the most easily recognized use of the third party technique. For example, Rick Berman's Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) claims that its mission is to defend the rights of consumers to choose to eat, drink and smoke as they please. In reality, CCF is a front group for the tobacco, restaurant and alcoholic beverage industries, which provide all or most of its funding."

Astroturfing
Note: Great collection of articles on corporate genesis of fake grassroots support (aka astroturf).

Funding, Donations, & Tax Information
Media Matters Action Conservative Transparency site: Money Behind the Movement
From the site: "Who's funding the Conservative Movement?" - Search people, funders, and recipients of money such as the National Rifle Association, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and more.

Follow the Money's Industry Donations - National and State-By-State
From the site: "Money in state politics plays a pivotal role in shaping public policy in individual states and across the nation. We track political donations in all 50 states."

Guidestar Database of Information about Non-Profits
Description on Sourcewatch: Guidestar "provides an online database with basic financial data and sometimes other information about more than 700,000 nonprofit organizations. To qualify for tax-exempt status in the United States, a nonprofit organization must be registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization. They also must file an annual Form 990 with the IRS, listing their income and expenses for the year, salaries of top employees and other information. Form 990s for the last three years for many organizations can be viewed and downloaded free from GuideStar after registering."

527s aka Political Non-Profit Organizations
Center for Public Integrity's site on 527s (aka political non-profits)
From the site: "A 527 is a non-profit organization formed under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, which grants tax-exempt status to political committees at the national, state and local level. Over the past several years, the term has come to refer to a new form of political organization operating in a gray area of the law. These groups actively influence elections and policy debates at all levels of government, but do not advocate explicitly for election or defeat of candidates."
Additional note: 527s include organizations from all sides of the political spectrum. The Sierra Club is one moderate example. The "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" (which campaigned against John Kerry in 2004) are another. Labor unions often operate in this fashion, for example the Service Employees International Union.

Open Secrets' 527 Site
From the site: "Don't just blame political candidates for all the glossy flyers cluttering your mailbox, for the in-your-face television and radio advertisements and calls at home that interrupt your dinner. Chances are, much of that electioneering is being paid for by one of an untold number of advocacy groups-political action committees (PACs), 527s and other hard-to-track organizations with millions to spend on the 2010 elections. These groups represent a variety of positions on a variety of issues, but they have one thing in common: they influence how you look at the candidates."

Revolving Door
Former government employees working for the corporations and vice-versa
Open Secrets' Revolving Door Search
From the site: "Although the influence powerhouses that line Washington's K Street are just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol building, the most direct path between the two doesn't necessarily involve public transportation. Instead, it's through a door—a revolving door that shuffles former federal employees into jobs as lobbyists, consultants and strategists just as the door pulls former hired guns into government careers."

Site Watch Revolving Door site
Note: Excellent explanation with many examples of how the revolving door works in US politics.

Project on Government Oversight Revolving Door resources
Note: News updates and links related to the revolving door phenomenon.

National Council on State Legislatures Revolving Door Policies
From the site: ""Revolving Door" Prohibitions Against Legislators Lobbying State Government After They Leave Office"

Conservative Think Tanks
Media Matters Action Conservative Transparency site: Money Behind the Movement (Listed twice)
From the site: "Who's funding the Conservative Movement?" - Search people, funders, and recipients of money such as the National Rifle Association, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and more.

Source Watch Think Tank guide
From the site: "A think tank (also called a policy institute) is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in public policy. Many think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax exempt status. While many think tanks are funded by governments, interest groups, or businesses, some think tanks also derive income from consulting or research work related to their mandate.
In some cases, think tanks are little more than public relations fronts, usually headquartered in state or national seats of government and generating self-serving scholarship that serves the advocacy goals of their industry sponsors.
Of course, some think tanks are more legitimate than that. Private funding does not necessarily make a researcher a shill, and some think-tanks produce worthwhile public policy research. In general, however, research from think tanks is ideologically driven in accordance with the interests of its funders."

National Institute for Research Advancement Think Tank Database
Excellent source of basic information & brief descriptions of think tanks from around the world. Not exactly a radical-oriented resource, but nonetheless essential for anyone researching think tanks.

Wikileaks Cables
Cables discussing economic matters

US Government Records & Info
Search through the transcripts of Congressional and Senate hearings here.
Hearings occur at many points of the legislative process (through which a bill becomes a law). These meetings are usually open to the public and are recorded mostly verbatim and published online. You can search transcripts of these hearings to see who testified on a particular bill and what she/he/they said. Be sure to search for the company name as well as any interest groups, professional organizations, or front groups that might advocate on behalf of the company/industry's interests.

Search the Federal Register (proposed rules, regulations, and comments)
In the US, Regulations are made by agencies of the Executive Branch like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. Congress passes laws with broad goals, while regulations are used to hammer out the details. These rules and regulations can become law. By searching the Federal Register, you can find out more specific information about how business is regulated in the US (and abroad). It can be confusing to wade through all of these materials so try to be specific in your search.

Government Contracts POGO Contract Oversight Investigations
POGO is an independent non-profit research organization that studies government contracts, among many other issues.

Money in Medicine & Science
Center for Science in the Public Interest Integrity in Science Project
From the site: "The Integrity in Science (ISS) Project combats corporate influence on science and science-based public policy. We scrutinize more than 200 science-based federal advisory committees for undisclosed conflicts of interest, monitor the media and scientific literature for failure to disclose, and encourage the adoption of strong disclosure policies."

POGO: Project on Government Oversight - Integrity in Science Investigations
POGO is an independent non-profit that investigates government corruption in all forms. These investigations focus on the pharmaceutical and health device industries and their impact on government-funded health sciences research.

Drug Company Payments to Doctors
This database by ProPublica tracks payments made to doctors by 8 major pharmaceutical and medical device companies. A worthwhile place to start, although it only captures payments by the companies with 36% of the market share in total.

PLoS Collection: Articles on Ghostwriting
From the site: "Ghostwriting occurs when someone has made substantial contributions to writing a manuscript but this role is unacknowledged. In medicine, ghostwriting is problematical because it often involves pharmaceutical companies (or the medical communication companies that work for them) producing articles that promote the benefits of their health-care products while playing down their harm, and then masking their involvement in the development of the articles by recruiting academic “guest authors” to lend false credibility and independence. Because ghostwriting misrepresents authorship credit and accountability, it is considered to be unethical, dishonest, and a threat to the integrity of the medical literature."

Little Sis
"LittleSis is a free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government. We're a grassroots watchdog network connecting the dots between the world's most powerful people and organizations."

Researching the US Political Right

Media Transparency

http://www.mediatransparency.org/default.php
For tracking funding of the political right, Media Transparency, which "tracks the impact of conservative philanthropy on the media, both through a database of grant information and through original research."

Right Web

"Exposing the architecture of power that's changing our world."
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/index.php
Lots of profiles of right-wing organizations and people. "Right Web, a program of the International Relations Center founded in late 2003, explores the many ties that link the main players, organizations, corporate supporters, foundations, educational institutions, and government representatives to each other in what we described as a new architecture of power. Right Web primarily focuses on the influence of this architecture of power on the direction of foreign, military, and homeland security policies. Most of the organizations and individuals profiles are now associated with the Republican Party, but this "architecture of power" crosses party lines as does the Right Web program, which also profiles such right-center organizations as the Democratic Leadership Council and leading liberal hawks." Check out their chart on the Bush foreign policy team, a who's who of militarists, social conservatives, and neoconservative ideologues.

Political Research Associates

http://www.publiceye.org
PRA is sort of a progressive think tank. Their Public Eye website provides "resources for understanding and challenging the Political Right." There are lots of articles here, on topics from Christian Zionism to Gay Conservatives, etc.

Resources on the USA PATRIOT Act

Here's some information and background on the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA PATRIOT Act or USAPA) of 2001. Additions? Comments? Please email radlib at ucimc dot org.

Here's the text of the USAPA courtesy of Thomas.gov. A good place to start on gathering information about USAPA is the Wikipedia entry on USAPA. Dan Tsang, librarian at UC Irvine, has put together a Selected bibliography of Viet Dinh, assistant attorney general under John Ashcroft, and chief architect on USAPA.

---

PATRIOT II

Please do your part to stop the PATRIOT II before it becomes law. One very easy way to take action is to send a free electronic fax through the ACLU's Stop the New Patriot Act. You can simply point, click, and type to send an electronic message to your elected officials.

For more information regarding how the PATRIOT II will effect you, see: AlterNet: Get Ready for PATRIOT II

---

From the American Library Association (ALA):

• 
  USA PATRIOT ACT of 2001
  
• 
  The USA PATRIOT Act in the Library
  
• 
  What to do about Laws and Government Actions That infringe on Civil Liberties and Privacy
  
  (PDF)
• 
  RESOLUTION ON THE USA PATRIOT ACT AND RELATED MEASURES THAT INFRINGE ON THE RIGHTS OF LIBRARY USERS
  
  (
  PDF)

From the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):

• 
  The USA PATRIOT Act and Government Actions that Threaten Our Civil Liberties
  
  (PDF)
• 
  ACLU on USAPA
  

News regarding the USAPA and Libraries/Librarians:

• Bangor Daily News: "
  Calais Librarian, Reporter Lauded by Library Group" (10/19/04)
• KOMOTV.com: "
  Small Town Library Takes on the Feds" (10/05/04)
• Wired.com: "Don't Mess With Librarians" (9/15/04)
• BBC News: "
  State Of The Union: Opposing the Patriot Act" (9/13/04)
• Ann Arbor News: "No requests for library patron records at U-M" (9/11/04)
• Boston Globe: "US lawyers say secret court could hear Patriot Act challenges" (9/5/04)

Tools for Statistics

Links to statistical sites that cover many topics and specific topics. Please contact Radlib for comments or suggestions.

General or Sites that cover many topics

• FedStats:Gateway to Statistics from over 100 federal agencies. Includes MapStats, which provide demographic, social, and economic profiles for States, counties, cities, Congressional Districts, and Federal Judicial districts. Use the A to Z Topics to locate specific subjects.
• Statistical Reference Shelf from FedStats: Provides links to the several key published collections of statistics available online including the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
• Guide to State Statistical Abstracts: Bibliography from an appendix in the Statistical Abstract of the United States includes the most recent statistical abstracts for states published since 1995 plus those that will be issued in late 200
• New York State Statistical Yearbook (2002 - present available online)
• Facts, Figures, and Statistics from New York State from the New York Government Information Locator Service (NYGILS) - which will link you to state, county and city/town/village government information.
• My Neighborhood Statistics from the New York City Mayor's Office of Operations: Lets residents know how City agencies are performing in their neighborhood by viewing locally mapped performance statistics using a street address or intersection.
• Statistical Resources on the Web (University of Michigan): *Most of the sources on this site are government produced and free, however there are some sources that are subscription based and require you to be affiliated with the University of Michigan to use.
• Data on the Net (replacement link for a discontinued site from UCSD): Aggregated searching of 363 Internet sites of numeric Social Science statistical data, data catalogs, data libraries, social science gateways, addresses and more.
• Statistical Agencies (International) from the US Census; Directory of Statistical Agencies for countries around the world.

Specific Topics

Crime

• National Criminal Justice Reference Service includes the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
• Bureau of Justice Statistics Publications (Alphabetical Listing)
• New York State Criminal Justice Statistics
• City of New York Police Department Crime Statistics

Education

• National Center for Education Statistics
• New York State Elementary, Middle, Secondary, Continuing Education

Health

• FastStats A to Z (National Center for Health Statistics)
• Vital Statistics for New Yorks State

Immigration

• Immigration Statistics (Department of Homeland Security)
• Yearbook of Immigration Statistics

Iraq

• Iraq Body Count Database
• Foreign Trade Statistics: Trade (Imports, Exports, and Trade Balance) with Iraq (US Census Bureau)
• Iraq Watch from Znet
• OPIC Investor's Information Gateway Country Links Database Information for Iraq (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) Provides a number of resources about Iraq.
• USAID: Assistance for Iraq Accomplishments
• UNICEF At a glance: Iraq

Labor

• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Labor Market Information by Subject from the New York State Department of Labor

Population & Demographics

• US Census Bureau: All kinds of numbers here. For example, check out the Census press briefing & released data mentioned in the recent Reuters story on poverty. Much more here!
• International Data Base (IDB) US Census Bureau: A computerized data bank containing statistical tables of demographic, and socio-economic data for 227 countries and areas of the world.
• Population Reference Bureau Datafinder: This database contains data on 95 demographic variables for more than 220 countries, 28 world regions and sub-regions, the world as a whole, the United States as a whole, and the U.S. states. (Not all countries have data on all variables.)

 

Tools for legal reference

Below are some tools to help with legal reference. Remember, we're not lawyers here at radical reference, but we can at least point you to some information. Thanks to Rebecca for collecting these sites. Please contact Radlib for comments or suggestions of other resources.

Everybody’s
Legal Dictionary

Created by NOLO , a company which specializes in self-help materials. Allows
search by legal term and retrieves “plain English” definition.

Find Law

All -purpose legal research site. The “For Legal Professionals”
section lets you browse by type of law (federal or state), by jurisdiction (state)
or by subject.

Know
Your Rights

Online version of a pamphlet by the National Lawyers Guild that explains your
legal rights if you are questioned by the police, FBI, customs agents or immigration
officers.

Know Your Rights Wallet Card

Print and carry this at a glance resource that advises you to say early and often, "I do not consent to a search."

Legal Aid Society

Legal services for those who cannot afford a lawyer.

Legal Information Institute

Compiled by Cornell Law School. Good collection of federal material including
U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1990 , MY Court of Appeals decisions and state
laws categorized by topic.

Midnight Special Law Collective

An independent non-profit organization dedicated to providing legal trainings and accessible, relevant, democratic and accountable legal support to a wide range of activists participating in the struggle for social change.

National Lawyers' Guild

an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. The Guild unites lawyers, law students, and legal workers as an effective political and social force in the service of the people. If you are arrested or detained, call the National Lawyers Guild at 212-679-6018. They will also have 400 to 500 lawyers and legal observers in the crowds on Sunday. They are wearing green hats.

New York Civil Liberties Union

Articles on efforts to limit police tactics and to protect First Amendment rights
at RNC. Also contains section on Civil Liberties post 9/11.

New York Courts and Law Guide

Compiled by the New York Law Journal and New York Court system. Contains links
to New York law on legal topics and to information about New York state and
federal courts.

NY: American Law
Sources Online

Menu based search for New York law. Includes legislation, court cases and regulations.
Links to NYC Charter and Administrative Code.

People’s Law Collective

PLC is operating a Legal Hotline for the RNC. Website contains information on
the ins and outs of the NYC criminal justice system., directions to the courthouse,
important phone numbers and advice on local laws, and how to handle the NYPD.

Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press

The RCFP has arranged legal help for credentialed press covering the convention.
Attorneys from Levine, Sullivan, Koch & Schulz, LLP will be available via
the 24-hour "Media Hotline" to offer cost-free legal advice and representation with regard to convention access and coverage. The hotline phone number is (212) 850-6122. So get your press credentials NOW!

Homeless Law Blog

This blog is intended to be a research guide for homeless people trying to learn about their legal rights and liabilities. It presents typical legal questions that arise in homeless life and then answers them by introducing likely areas of law to investigate, showing search terms, and giving leads to primary law sources.

Video Archives and Resources

This page has been created in response to a question about video archives that could be useful for activists (and those who love them). We hope the list will grow and welcome suggestions and additions.

Paper Tiger Television: Founded in 1981. Their website has clear links to history, mission, staff, and funders pages. Its Links and Resources page includes alternative press, radio, and websites. A 12 page Paper Tiger Curriculum Vitae includes PPTV activities and articles about the organization back to 1985. Their Catalog can be viewed as a long list or searched by title words, description, year, or by any of 22 main categories.

Deep Dish TV: Started producing alternative TV in 1986. Its Catalogue lists many individual progams under each of the main series titles. It lists many other resources, including a main Links page.

There is a rich collection of moving images at the Internet Archive, which can be searched for relevant subject terms, and then those results can be narrowed by subject, for example search "radical" and limit to "newsandpublicaffairs" gets 14 items.

There is an excellent collection of sound and video from artistic and cultural avant-gardes on UbuWeb, many of which may be relevant. Try searching terms such as "situationist" etc.

RESEARCHING ALTERNATIVE MEDIA: At large academic libraries, try searches such as "alternative media" in databases such as Project Muse (81 hits in December 2007), or JSTOR (419 hits in December 2007). JSTOR is a very large full-text database, so very specific searches also work: "alternative television" gets 35 hits. Very large libraries will have Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Search. Using the ISI version of this, A&HSearch combined with SSCI got 9 hits for the phrase: "radical media" and 4 for "alternative video"

Video.google.com is especially useful for tracing obscure or very recent videos - especially if you know the names of people or places involved. Even a rough search will get interesting results. Search: radical site:edu to try to limit to university or college related videos, for example. But such an approach is extremely crude - it might get chemistry class videos on free radicals, etc.

Voters' Rights

Quick and Dirty Webliography for Voters' Rights
by Karen Lillis, copied here with her permission
original version

I. Dear Citizens

1. You are encouraged to check your voting status before Election Day. Check with your county election office to find out if you are listed as registered.
2. Call or email your representatives:
   At Project Vote Smart, you can enter your zip code (upper left hand side of page) to find both your Senate and House representatives.

   Or go directly to the Senate and House sites.
   Find your Senators by State in the upper right hand corner. Find your House representative by zip code in the upper left hand corner.

3. If your eligibility is contested at your polling place, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT to request a provisional ballot. See more on provisional ballots at Election Protection or at the Help America Vote Act.

II. Web Resources for further information and advice on voting and voters' rights

Help America Vote Act of 2002
"Provisional Voting Requirements.--If an individual declares that such individual is a registered voter in the jurisdiction in which the individual desires to vote and that the individual is eligible to vote in an election for Federal office, but the name of the individual does not appear on the official list of eligible voters for the polling place or an election official asserts that the individual is not eligible to vote, such individual shall be permitted to cast a provisional ballot as follows:"

• Election Protection
  To find our very handy voting information for your state, including required I.D., go here:
  http://www.866ourvote.org/state

  "The Election Protection Hotline, administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, connects trained volunteers with voters in need, allowing us to successfully troubleshoot problems at the polls in real time.
  "The nonpartisan Election Protection coalition was formed to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.
  "Through our state of the art hotlines: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) and 1-888-Ve-Y-Vota (administered by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund), this website, and comprehensive voter protection field programs across the country, we provide Americans from coast to coast with comprehensive voter information and advice on how they can make sure their vote is counted."

• The National Campaign for Fair Elections
  "The National Campaign for Fair Elections is an Initiative of the Voting Rights Project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
  "The goal of the National Campaign is to foster a national movement committed to ensuring that all voters have an equal opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot. To that end, NCFFE leads Election Protection - the nation's largest non-partisan voter protection coalition including the Lawyers' Committee, the National Bar Association, the NAACP, and the People for the American Way Foundation. Through our hotline and a dedicated army of volunteers we help tens of thousands of voters access the polls and overcome the obstacles to the ballot box."
  Petition against voter intimidation
• Project Vote Smart
  "Picture this: thousands of citizens (conservative and liberal alike) working together, spending endless hours researching the backgrounds and records of thousands of political candidates and elected officials to discover their voting records, campaign contributions, public statements, biographical data (including their work history) and evaluations of them generated by over 100 competing special interest groups. Every election these volunteers test each candidate's willingness to provide citizens with their positions on the issues they will most likely face if elected through the Political Courage Test."
• Protect My Vote
  "U.S. born and naturalized citizens have the right to vote and have their votes count, but human or computer error and unfair actions may stop you from voting. ProtectMyVote.org helps you protect your right to vote. Our job to help prepare you before you go to vote to prevent problems and help you if something goes wrong. Here are things you can do to help make sure your vote counts…."
• The Voter Suppression Wiki "This site is designed to be a hub of information and action around efforts to suppress votes in the 2008 U.S.This is not a partisan effort and is not being done on behalf of any candidates for office."
• American Civil Liberties Union, Voting Rights Webpage
  "Established in 1965, the ACLU Voting Rights Project has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by racial and language minorities since passage of the historic Voting Rights Act (VRA) that same year. Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts that dilute minority voting strength or obstruct the ability of minority communities to elect candidates of their choice…."
• Demos: Democracy Program
  "Democracy reform in the United States has taken on a renewed, urgent focus as presidential, congressional and state elections become increasingly hard-fought and closely decided. From basic concerns about election procedures to fundamental questions about full and equal representation, political leaders and the American people are engaged in a national dialogue about the health of American democracy not seen in a generation or more."
• Steal Back Your Vote by Journalist Greg Palast
  "Download the Steal Back Your Vote! Investigative Comic Book - Available right now! The guide includes a warning from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and is sponsored by Voto Latino, Change to Win and Jesse Jackson Rainbow/PUSH Coalition." Requires a donation.

Voting and the November 2nd election [2004]

This section includes handy online tools and support for the upcoming election. Radical Reference neither advocates nor discourages voting, our aim is simply to put information into our users' hands. Please contact Radlib for comments or suggestions.

Most of the mainstream thought today assumes that voting and democracy are the great participatory tools for citizens to be involved in their governments. For another perspective, see "Choose and Lose", infoshop.org's evaluation of voting and elections.

Election Day Hotline Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)

For our more direct-action minded readers, check out November 3, 2004: Day of direct action in Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Houston

1) General election information: Want good election background and information? There are three good places to start:

• Project Vote Smart. Plug in your zip code and get a list of candidates, their biographical information as well as their voting records, issue positions, campaign finances and interest group ratings.
• Worldwide elections site from UC San Diego.
• Elections 2004 from the University of Michigan Library.

2) State by state election laws: Find elections information for all states, as well as ballot propositions, elections laws etc.

• Election Protection: lists certain states' voting rights (from moveon.org)
• League of Pissed Off Voters: A progressive org focused on 18-35 year olds. They've written a book called, "How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office: The Anti-Politics, Unboring Guide to Power." edited by William Upski Wimsatt and Adrienne Brown. You'll also find progressive voter guides and links to other allies like National Hip Hop Political Convention , Punkvoter, and Next Wave of Women in Power
• National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) has links to election laws and regulations of all states.
• National Conference of State Legislatures: state election laws, redistricting, term limits, historic information and more.

3) Swing states. There are 11 "swing" states, worth 135 electoral votes. According to Electoral-vote.com, they are: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire and Ohio (which Bush won in 2000) as well as Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (which Gore won in 2000). Do you want more information on swing states? Check here:

• Google news search for "Swing states 2004"
• Associated Press elections site
• The Guardian US Elections coverage. Also see their Oct 25th article entitled, "Candidates mobilise armies for final push" by Julian Borger
• NY Times campaign 2004 (free registration required). They describe swing states in their Oct 24, 2004 article,
• Slate.com's Campaign 2004
• Electoral College Calculator has an interesting interactive system that lets the user experiment and play the "what if?" game. (OK, this one's just for fun!)

4) Live voting tallies. I check Electoral Vote every day and assume that the site will be keeping a live tally. In addition, the New York Times campaign section has a nice interactive mapping feature

5) Information on ballot measures at the state (and local?) level. See the NASS site above for a good starting point.

6) election observers. Besides being observers, the organizations below have much good information on their sites about free and fair elections.

• Alliance for Better Campaigns: This org is running two projects of interest: a) "Our Democracy Our Airwaves" campaign to "ensure that broadcasters air at least a minimum amount of candidate and issue coverage in the weeks before elections, and make the airwaves accessible to more candidates"; and b) the Election News Watchdog Project where volunteers can rate local broadcaster performance and provide real-time feedback to station managers and news directors.
• Center for Voting and Democracy
• Election Line
• Fair Election
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund Election Protection
• Office of Democractic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Election Observation Mission to the United States. YES, the UN is sending a team of elections observers to the United States FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!
• Right To Vote

Young Adult Resources -- Globalization

Globalization Sources for Young Adults

*********************************************

How Soccer Explains the World : An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
by Franklin Foer
HarperCollins (July 1, 2004)
ISBN: 0066212340
for older YA's, maybe a bit controversial, but entertaining and thought provoking nonetheless.

Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World
by Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)
Publisher: Rethinking Schools Ltd (March, 2002)
ISBN: 0942961285
Curriculum planning for teachers.

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word
by Linda Christensen
Publisher: Rethinking Schools Ltd (October 1, 2000)
ISBN: 0942961250
Curriculum planning for teachers.

Hands Around the World: 365 Creative Ways to Encourage Cultural Awareness and Global Respect (Williamson Kids Can! Series)
by Susan Milord
Publisher: Williamson Publishing Company (VT) (August 1, 1992)
ISBN: 0913589659
Good for younger kids, 9-12, and teachers.

Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
by Manfred B. Steger
Publisher: Oxford University Press (May 1, 2003)
ISBN: 019280359X
Good introduction for older YA's.

Globalization : Culture and Education in the New Millennium
by Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco (Editor), Desiree B. Qin-Hilliard (Editor)
Publisher: University of California Press (April 1, 2004)
ISBN: 0520241258
For educators and older teens.

Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate
by Naomi Klein, Debra Ann Levy
Publisher: Picador USA; 1st Picado edition (October 4, 2002)
ISBN: 0312307993
This is another excellent opinion book written for adults, but appropriate for older teens.

Hey, Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People
by Anne Elizabeth Moore, Megan Kelso
Publisher: Soft Skull Press (August 1, 2004)
ISBN: 1932360352
This is a really great book! It speaks on kids' level without being condescending. Most appropriate for ages 9-14.

Steal This Book
by Abbie Hoffman
Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows (January, 2002)
ISBN: 156858217X
Another slightly controversial choice, and perhaps slightly dated, but a valuable perspective nonetheless. I read this when I was about thirteen, and it changed my life.

Stand Up, Speak Out
by Selda Altun, Jabran Ali, Tom Burke, Julien Olivier, Peace Child International
Publisher: Two-Can Publishers (December 1, 2001)
ISBN: 1587285401
Deals with global perspectives on children's rights. Great for ages 9-12. Lots of great illustrations.

Kids at Work : Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor
by Russell Freedman
Publisher: Clarion Books; Reprint edition (March 23, 1998)
ISBN: 0395797268
Wonderful pictorial essay on child labor for any age.

Take Action! A Guide to Active Citizenship
by Marc Kielburger, Craig Kielburger
Publisher: Wiley (August 9, 2002)
ISBN: 0471271322
Focus on social responsibility, appropriate for ages 9-14.

Globalize It!
by Brendan January
Publisher: 21st Century Books (September 3, 2003)
ISBN: 0761324178
A great introduction to globalization for kids, appropriate for ages 10-15.

Hear My Voice: A Multicultural Anthology of Literature from the United States
by Laurie King
Publisher: Pearson Learning (July 1, 1993)
ISBN: 0201818396
Literature addressing issues of multiculturalism for young adults.

Freedom of Movement (What Do We Mean By Human Rights)
by Catherine Bradley
Publisher: Franklin Watts; 1st American ed edition (March 1, 1998)
ISBN: 053114447X
A nicely illustrated book dealing with human rights, good for ages 9-13.

Listen to Us: The World's Working Children
by Jane Springer
Publisher: Groundwood Books (December 1, 1997)
ISBN: 0888993072
This is a wonderful and honest book that includes accounts from working children all over the world. Good for ages 9-14.

The Children of NAFTA : Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border
by David Bacon
Publisher: University of California Press (February 23, 2004)
ISBN: 0520237781
This is an adult book, but would be readable for older teens.

Is There No Other Way?: The Search for a Nonviolent Future
by Michael Nagler
Publisher: Berkeley Hills Books; 1st edition (February 15, 2001)
ISBN: 1893163164
Essays on nonviolence, good for older teens.

Hard Line : Life and Death on the U.S.-Mexico Border
by Ken Ellingwood
Publisher: Pantheon (June 1, 2004)
ISBN: 0375422439
Also good for older teens.

George Soros on Globalization
by George Soros
Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (March 1, 2002)
ISBN: 1586481258
This is not really a YA book, but I couldnt' resist adding it.

Globalize Liberation : How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World
by David Solnit (Editor)
Publisher: City Lights Publishers (June 15, 2004)
ISBN: 0872864200
Another social activism book for adults, but appropriate for older teens.

Window
by Jeannie Baker
Publisher: Greenwillow (April 26, 1991)
ISBN: 0688089186
For younger kids, but it has wonderful pictures and a great message.

Websites:

http://youthink.worldbank.org/
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/index.html
http://www.youthlink.org/us/
http://www.freechild.org/index.htm
http://www.iyp.oxfam.org/index.html
http://www.checkyourhead.org/index.html
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/
http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids/
http://www.globalizeliberation.org
http://www.sol-plus.net/peace.htm

del.icio.us links--most recent for:radical_reference