Liberating spaces

The fall issues of YES! on standing up to corporate power have not yet arrived from the printer, but we're already deep at work on the next issue. Here's our thought about what the issue might involve (and a request for your ideas), and afterwards, there is a question for you.

YES! #44: Winter 2008

Liberated Spaces
or
Whose Space? Our space.
or
DIY—creating free spaces

People ask the powerful for what they already have. There exists another notion of power: the idea that the people already have it. In this conception, power has another name. It is called dignity.
-Gustavo Esteva

I believe it to be perfectly possible for an individual to adopt the way of life of the future. . . without having to wait for others to do so.
-Mahatma Gandhi

In the game of chess, you win by confronting and vanquishing your enemy. In the game of Go, you win by taking over spaces. You simply surround territory and make it yours.

The “liberated spaces” issue of YES! magazine is about taking the game of Go into the way we live our lives. Instead of waiting for the world to change so we can live as we would like to live, we create the spaces where we can make it so, now.

Instead of looking for policy changes or the right job, we create the lives we want, along with others, without waiting for permission of the authorities. This is the approach of the autonomists, the street artists, the tent city dweller. Some people are on the fringes of society because they have been excluded -- because they are poor, a sexual minority, undocumented. Some because they choose not to fit in. In either case, they can, together or separately, create a different world within which to live their lives.

Spaces that can be liberated include physical spaces, virtual spaces (on line), and consciousness spaces (the freed mind).

Examples of possible article topics:

• The Critical Mass bike rides — taking over the streets for bicycles
• Street art that creates community space
  
• Egalitarian communities
• Villages in Colombia that declared themselves peace zones
• A death-row inmate who has found inner freedom although he remains behind bars.
• Your idea here (leave it as a comment or email: editors ( at ) yesmagazine ( dot ) org. Put the word "free" in the subject line.)

OK, here's the question: Where have you felt most free? Leave your answer in the comment field below or email as above. By participating in this process, we assume that you are giving us permission to publish your response in YES! or on our website.

Taking on corporate power: it's not only possible, it's patriotic

The talented and hard-working editorial interns, Catherine and Zach, came to work last Friday wearing ugly ties. They were celebrating the completion of work on the fall issue of YES! on corporate power, which comes with an assortment of ugly ties on the page corners, each accompanied by a shocking, but true, fact about corporations.

If you're a YES! subscriber, you will soon be receiving a copy of this issue. (If you're not a subscriber, try it out for free here.)*

We worked with a team of leading activists who each have won some important victories in human rights, the environment, globalization. But each also came to see that their victories are short-lived or partial if we don't take on one of the root causes -- the overwhelming power of corporations.

As it turns out, taking on corporate power is not only possible, it's patriotic

In addition to articles on corporations, we have a piece by Barbara Kingsolver on growing her own food, a piece I wrote on the US Social Forum, humor, up-to-date news and reviews, No Comment on the latest from the YES Men, and of course, the Page that Counts.

Like the health care issue, this issue highlights an emerging movement to take on corporate pwer, which has yet to be recognized by the mainstream press -- and probably won't be recognized by the corporate press.

*(Note: You probably gathered, given the topic, that YES! doesn't get funding from corporations, and we don't take ads. We rely on you to subscribe and make donations to support our work.)