<nettime> Tusovka pilot issue - available on web and through e-mail

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

From: tusovka@artamis.org 

Dear friends,

F I N A L L Y ! ! ! We hope you'll feel this pilot issue was worth the
wait. Tusovka can be viewed on the Web, but also ordered by e-mail for
those who do not have Web access.

Tusovka

a rendez-vous of political ideas, analyses and experience ... and more.

Pilot Issue

Presentation of Tusovka

* Introduction and Motivation

We hope to contribute with our newsletter Tusovka to an active exchange
of ideas on the level of analysis, background information on regions and
topics, strategy and political theory across the barriers of language
and culture between activists in Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
Lately, communication and collaboration between activists of East and
West has been on the agenda of several meetings that some of us attended
(first PGA conference in Geneva, Switzerland in February; Bankwatch
seminar in Kiev, Ukraine during the EBRD meeting in May; A SEED Europe
meeting in the Pirin mountains in Bulgaria in July).

Looking back at those events, an uneasy feeling remains that except
perhaps on a personal level, during breaks and in front of a beer or
coffee, such communication has not really taken place, that all these
meetings were a failure in this respect. It is not enough just to bring
people from different backgrounds together (with Western organizations
funding their travel, room and board in order to compensate for the lack
of funds in the East) and have them discuss ideas on campaigns and
collaboration. We feel that there is a need for the activists from
various regions to better understand each other's background. This is
why we intend, with each issue of Tusovka, to present in both Russian
and English language some of the important ongoing and historical
debates which are or have been important to each movement. We hope
through this to help prepare the ground for a better mutual
understanding and a fruitful common practice of both theory and actions.

* What does Tusovka mean?

Tusovka is a Russian slang word designating a circle of communication
with room for discussion, exchanging ideas and relaxing, with a group of
people regularly participating. It is also used self-ironically to
designate the sort of political tourism which takes Eastern European
activists to Western Europe for conferences and seminars, or the
frequent participation in conferences and seminars by Western activists.
People who regularly travel to such conferences and seminars will be
called Tusovshchiki (sing. m: Tusovshchik; f: Tusovshchitsa).

* How is Tusovka distributed?

For reasons of limited budget (close to zero ;-), Tusovka is distributed
first and foremost by e-mail and through these web pages. The table of
contents including hyperlinks and instructions on how to order articles
by e-mail is distributed widely through relevant e-mail lists and Usenet
news conferences. In time, we will set up an automatic e-mail ordering
service, which will send requested articles to people who do not have
web access.

A further project, if there is sufficient interest in this option, is to
print at least the Russian version of Tusovka locally in Moscow and/or
Kiev (could be other places, too, if someone wants to help there), in
order to facilitate the further distribution of Tusovka to people with
no internet access. Contact us if you want to help with this, or if you
want to set up a mirror site of these web pages.

* What can you do to help?

The most important contribution you can make to Tusovka is to look
around your own political movement/group to see which existing articles,
either newer or historical, you think might be worth sharing with people
in Eastern and Western Europe, in order to raise the understanding of
each other's background. If you find an interesting text, or write one
specifically for Tusovka, please make it available to us in at least one
of the following languages: Russian and English. We can then do the
translation into the missing language.

We would hope this to work both ways, and Tusovka to be used as a pool
of articles: You can also take articles from Tusovka, translate them to
your language if necessary, and distribute them further in your own
media. The texts in Tusovka are copyrighted, which means you have to
acknowledge Tusovka as the source of the article, and indicate the web
site (http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka) and the e-mail address
(tusovka@artamis.org) of Tusovka. Please send us a copy of your
newspaper, or at least a note about where you published articles from
Tusovka.

* In what languages is Tusovka available?

Tusovka is distributed in English and Russian language. If the articles
presented in Tusovka are originally in another language, we try to
provide them also in the original language. If any of you translate
articles from Tusovka into other languages, please make a copy available
to us. We will put it on this web site as well. In this way we hope to
build up an archive of valuable analysis texts in various languages of
Eastern and Western Europe.

Contents of this issue

* Editorial: Why this newsletter?

* Multicolored Greens - Strategy and Action (review of Sergey Fomichev's
book)
A history and assessment of the green movement in Russia by a Russian
activist.

* A more effective industrialism -- A critique of the ideology of
sustainability (by Christoph Spehr)
The discourse on sustainability has weakened the environmental movement.
Christoph Spehr looks at its underlying assumptions, and shows how
industrial capitalism will always imply unsustainable use of resources,
and exploitation of people.

* Homosexuality in the Soviet Union and in today's Russia (by Anne
B�tikofer)
People who do not comply with the heterosexual norm imposed by society
have to find their own strategies for building a place for themselves in
this society. Anne B�tikofer writes about the historical and current
situation of lesbians in Russia.

* What did your father buy a rifle for ...? (by Elena Ch.)
Enjoy!

* Interview with Lena G. (by Anne B�tikofer)
Lena G. has made her private collection of material on lesbian and gay
life in Russia and elsewhere available to the public.

* read me -- How do we speak about bio-technologies? (by Stephan Geene &
Renate Lorenz)
This article looks at the images used in speaking about
bio-technologies, and the ways in which these technologies are being
made attractive.

* Squat in Warsaw -- A diary (by Zaczek)
So many buildings just remain empty and unused! Take them! Live there!

* Communication Guerilla (by Sonja Br�nzels & Luther Blissett)
Saying "the truth" is not enough. Especially if nobody feels like
listening. How can we communicate so that people start doubting their
assumptions about how things should be?

* Financial Warfare (by Michel Chossudovsky)
Financial crises are hitting one region after the other -- South-East
Asia, Russia, Brazil, what's next? This article shows how financial
crises are produced as part of profit-making strategies.

Where can you get the article from?

* Editorial: Why this newsletter?
Web: <http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka/en/pilot/editorial.html> (8 KB)
Or order by sending e-mail to <majordomo@zamir.net>, with command in the
body: get tusovka 0-editorial-en.txt

For the Russian version of this file see
Web: <http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka/ru/contents-pilot.html> and
<http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka/ru/intro.html>
Or e-mail to <majordomo@zamir.net>:
get tusovka intro-ru-win.txt (or replace "win" by "koi", "dos" or "mac"
for other cyrillic encodings)

We are eager for comments and suggestions! - <tusovka@artamis.org>
Back to our Homepage - <http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka>.
This page: <http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka/en/contents-pilot.html> and
<http://www.savanne.ch/tusovka/en/intro.html>.

Tusovka: Contents of Pilot Issue / tusovka@artamis.org
Last updated 1999-04-24

Order the entire Tusovka issue in English by e-mail to
<majordomo@zamir.net>:

>get tusovka 0-editorial-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-fomichev-review-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-sustainability-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-homosexuality-russia-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-rifle-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-interview-lena-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-read-me-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-squat-warsaw-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-communication-guerilla-en.txt
>get tusovka 0-financial-warfare-en.txt

>Order the entire Tusovka issue in Russian (Windows 1251 encoding) by
>e-mail to <majordomo@zamir.net>:

>get tusovka 0-editorial-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-fomichev-review-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-sustainability-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-homosexuality-russia-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-rifle-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-interview-lena-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-read-me-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-squat-warsaw-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-communication-guerilla-ru-win.txt
>get tusovka 0-financial-warfare-ru-win.txt

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