angiewoot

it can be effective, but it must be very planned out and technological in order to suceed. Some needs:

-large number of people to occupy trees so some can leave without leaving trees vulnerable to attack

-support network to bring supplies and to alert of news of treesit progress, to and from the media

-constructions of support systems, treehouses, pulley annd harness systems and rope ladders and swings 

I think prisoner support is very important.  I think that it's important to break out of that common mindset that everyone who is in prison is dangerous and deserves to be there. Yes, some people in prison have done very unethical things, but many have done things that I consider to be illegal but not unethical. I think that rehabilitation, though it is much more expensive, is the only real solution sometimes and that it doesn't usually do much good to lock up prisoners as if they were wild cats threatening to maul civilization.

 Most of my prisoner support work is related to prisoners. I don't endorse or support the action of firebombing car lots, blowing up logging companies, etc, but I do feel that all people have rights and ought to be treated with a certain level of respect and kindness, regardless of how they treat property. People who mistreat other humans are a different case and can be looked at much more cautiously. However, I think that the amount of people being send to prisons for political crimes is completely out of line, and that we need to support people who have been jailed because of more radical green-crimes. I think that some mediums work better than others, and so I often don't agree with the prisoners on the necessity of an action, but I do feel that it's dehumanizing to put someone in a cage for anything, and especially not fair when the crime, if not political, would just be considered be property distruction, not terrorism. Whether or not a prisoner has acted ethically in the past, I think it's still important to write to them and let them know that people out there realize the sentencing isn't fair and that they're being kept in peoples' thoughts.

I prefer the gift economy over money (on a small society level) for a few reasons:

-people can still generally get what they need

-less greed: the haves aren't lusty over useless products

-advancement of goods for people, not for profit

-less division of people over economic/social class

-more community-building in the sharing of creations/things made

-less people exploited in monetary affairs (whether it is the consumer or producer) 

I feel like this is a complex that distances people.When people get all uppity about their status as radicals, they are putting down others who aren't as radical as them and people who are unsure what to think of radicalism.

The best way to solve this is to make it into a joke! Whenever someone starts bragging about being more radical than another individual or group, such as saying their house is "higher profile" or that they're getting more radical things done, verbally award them anarchopoints. Sarcastically say, "100 Anarchopoints for you! You are so radical! You're such an anarcho-radical-state-smasher anarchist!". It takes all the fun out of it for them so everyone else can just get on with their productive business! 

I still am not sure where I stand on polyamory. I really like the idea that people don't have to repress their feelings for each other (based on the common idea that if you're in a relationship, you can't hit on or sleep with anyone else) and can love more freely in that way.

Maybe one of the reasons I'm not sure where I stand on poly is that it didn't work out perfectly for me. Nothing in life ever works out perfectly, but the thing about polyamory that really threw me for a spin was not knowing if everyone involved had good communication and were talking openly about the relationships. I'm not feeling eloquent right now, but I want to express that everything in a polyamorous relationship can feel fine, until one day you all realize that x wasn't said like it sould have been, or x wasn't done as it should have or could have.

I think that polyamory has a really great potential for working out if everyone involved wants it to work out. Poly will never work if people use it as an excuse to mindlessly sleep with multiple people at once, but will only work if the people involved are partaking because they want a new way of being romantic and relating to their lovers. Polyamory can't be used as a front for cheating, and I've discovered that if it is, everyone is left much more devestated that they thought was possible for them. Poly is based on consent, and until everyone in the relationship learns what that is and how to put focus on it, there will not be a healthy relationship.

I'm also much more in favor of loose polyfidelity over just plain polyamory. Polyfidelity means some sort of accountability, where everyone can be with multiple partners if that's what they need, but that it doesn't turn into some sort of orgy. Polyamory can mean to some that you can be with whoever, whenever, however. Polyfidlity seems to refine it and say, hey, you can be with another person, but only that other person unless we talk and you let me know that there's someone else involved. Polyfid is a way that partners can also feel a lot safer about STDs- when you're in some sort of webbed love connection to multiple people, you want to know that everyone's been tested or using condoms or whatever necessary so you all wouldn't be affected by one person's STD.

I don't think I'm ready to settle down into one real relationship right now, and my inabiltity to pinpoint why is agitating. Ever since I was a kid I've had crushes on a whole bunch of people at once, and I still do, but this doesn't mean I'm polyamorous by nature, I think. I want to find out for myself whether I want polyamory so I can express these feelings to multiple of those crushes, or if it's just some way I'm using to let myself not get too attached to any one person and risk being heartbroken. Polyamory is never a good solution to problems that are already there, like the inability to commit or having iffy self-esteem.

In general, I have a lot more praises than complaints on polyamory as a concept. I think I might want to experience this again to figure out if it's what I want and what I can do well with, but it's difficult because I also can't just get into two relationships so easily- many people have too much jealousy or hesitations to want to even try polyamory out.

 The hardest part of polyamory is communication, and when there are 3+ people all involved that closely in each other's lives, evry little tension seems magnified. I really respect people who can sustain healthy polyamorous relationships since it seems like it takes much more time, talking, and acceptance than most people are willing to give.