Action Update: Onwards, upwards, and heading across The Pennines

"A few years ago, when I hitched to my first EF! Gathering with a friend, we were picked up by someone with a job at Greenpeace who'd decided to go along to Snowdonia to see what we Earth First!ers were all about. Having stumbled across some (us) before even getting there, he decided to begin his quizzing on the way… Why, he asked, does Earth First! do this? And that? And not that? And shouldn't you have a policy on such-and-such, and be making a statement about so-and-so?

We thought about that for a bit, probably for the first time. It seemed impossible to answer any of these questions without addressing some of his underlying analysis - for a start, apart from structural/philosophical assumptions, the idea that anyone within the EF! network might actually agree with anyone else about anything! But it suddenly seemed quite difficult to explain to someone with a job in a green organisation that had members, money, and official policies on just about everything. Eventually my friend decided to give it a go. "Well, you see," he said, hoping to make it all clear, "Earth First! doesn't actually exist."

I think the Greenpeace guy spent the Gathering still being confused, though I'm sure he had a good time. But I remembered that not very illuminating statement, because if you can add enough to it, it does kind of explain something unique about EF! as it exists currently: you can't join it, you just get on with it. But it has its manifestations - the Gathering, Do or Die, numerous actions - and the Action Update.

Now I could go on about EF! (supposedly) being a community or network or whatever-the-hell-it-is with unique room for diversity, change (I hope), political debate, etc, but I won't. The point is the importance of the Update, not just for the EF! network but potentially for the larger ecological/direct action/revolutionary movement. Yeah, alternative press is important anyway but the Update is a way to define and voice what it is we're doing, in a community that has, and should have, lots to say but little of the party-line definition of mainstream green groups.

We, and other people not so involved, should be able to trace the continuities and changes within the movement though reading the Action Update. We can see the challenges we face up to and try to tackle. And through our actions, and reporting them, we speak of our visions, to the wider world and ourselves. We learn about what we're all up to round the country, and build a feeling of solidarity and community - togetherness. I once heard someone from a Southern peasants' movement that spanned many countries say: "What unifies us is diversity." I'd never thought of that before, but it does, so long as we try to make a bit of time for each other and our different ways of being and acting. In all of this, too, we have to remember that however loose and disparate we are, there is this vague network linking us. Together we are more possible than they could powerfully imagine. And if we put something into this network, rather than just expecting it to continue, we are more powerful too. This brings me back to the Action Update.

The EF!AU has been going for 7 years now. It's meant to change editorial group each year, thus sharing responsibility and avoiding institutionalising power and skills in one place. This helps avoid centralisation, and of course puts a huge strain on the poor activists who take it on. I'll be glad to pass it on. I'll be able to complain about the Manchester rain, do sundances, and get rained on, stop sitting in front of this screen in a cold basement, and get stuck back into campaigning.

In a recent SchNEWS, the folk who usually put it together announced their intention of going to the beach, and on their return expecting to see all the people who valued SchNEWS in the office busy producing it. Now Manchester, which the Update is leaving, and Leeds, where it is going, both have no beach, but imagine the spiritual equivalent. The Update has got to be a collective responsibility. It can be one of the best (only?) tools we have for outreach, if we make it so, on a national and a local basis. It can be a way of affirming what we're getting done, it can be a challenge to the meaningless drivel most people get fed by the media, a way into a different vision - if we both sort it out, and get it out there."

How? Okay, list follows:

WRITE your actions up. Don't just send the press releases or leaflets, send the stories in Update size and shape, as soon afterwards as you can, and certainly by the deadline (usually end of the month, but check). Do this every time you do anything.

DISTRIBUTE copies. Take them everywhere you go - festivals, actions, meetings, university, work, weddings, funerals - you are challenging the 'reality' created by the press.

FLYPOST it everywhere, so people who don't have any contact with the movement can get informed and involved.

FUNDRAISE. We have a constant uphill struggle to ensure money from subscriptions cover costs, and right now, we're losing badly. The more money there is, the more free copies get out to everywhere. There's nothing else for cash to go on but printing and postage so you know it's doing something useful.

Write INSERTS. They're generally to provide information for action, whether they're about an issue, or are a 'how to'. Send 'em in, they'll probably be used.

Send action PHOTOS, CARTOONS, DRAWINGS - so will they, if they come out OK.

PROMOTE the Update. Get your local bookshop to sell it, sell it on the street yourself, put it in other groups' mailouts, subscribe your local library, etc.