Rebel Edit

[Cuando impone el silencio.](strikethrough)
When imposed (the silence, when imposed),
the orchestral silence of kings. When imposed,
some celestial entering and exiting. My cell,
imposed, and entered.

I am not poor.
I am not alone.

But a garden seeded with whispers. I am the music
and it enters me. It populates. [Quien allanó mi casa.]
It expands inside the house of my bones. It grows.
I grow beyond your pardons, beyond the sound
of gavel, God, or country. I am lavished lightning,
spoke of air where enters
no insult, no treason. I am a wheel,

my house. My rabble. Pretending that my mind is clear.
Who smoothed down the walls of my home?
Who calls me a jackal in these fields of sheep?
They will have the same. Their names will be razed
from the darkness. The garden
of my voice will seed itself, and germinate
and

I will not listen to the men with their rings
of keys and their rifles. They are slaves,
sullen, manic. They cannot uproot the tree.
They cannot say you are not free,
when I am a bird in my memory,
when I am the arms of my woman,
when I am the laughter of my children,
when I am a saint of impossible things.

They are poor and alone. They devour
the fruit they cannot taste.

Note: Submitted by an anonymous reader via Hushmail. For more information on Vasquez Portal, go here.

...goes to New Pages: Alternatives in Print & Media, Hannah Craig's Asleep at Dawn on Someone's Couch, Stephanie Young's Well-Nourished Moon, Malcolm Davidson's Dumbfoundry, as well as his Tram Spark, and to CounterPunch for continuing to send readers this way.

Also, Google searches for things like "Iraq, editorial protest, OFAC" are up--and I think that's a good sign that word is getting out!

Please also see the letter from the Pen American Center below.

Dear Rebel Edit readers, if you have seen anything like this, could you please let me know either via the comment box or email to rebeledit at shannacompton dot com? Thank you.

Hi Shanna,

I just got pointed toward your RebelEdit site through the litmags listserv, and I think it's completely amazing. Nice job.

I'm wondering if you have any idea if there are any on-line letters for people to write to their senators and reps in protest of the OFAC rulings...just really basic form letters as to the what, where, and why. We're trying to draw something up to distribute to PEN members who are interested in taking action against these regulations, and I just wanted to see if you know of any letters already out there.

Thanks for your time, and again, congrats on the blog.

Best wishes,
---
Bridget Cross
PEN American Center
568 Broadway, Suite 401
New York, NY 10012



Hi Bridget,

Thanks for your email. I haven’t seen anything like this, though it’s a terrific idea. Part of what is so upsetting about this ruling is that because it’s coming from a division of the Treasury, the average American is likely unaware of it. Most publishing folks would be too, if not for the opposition of the American Chemical Society and others. It’s not as if the issue was debated in Congress, or on a referendum. It’s not as if one’s Senator can vote for or against such censorship. It’s the worst kind of infringement because it’s almost hidden from view. The OFAC put it’s foot down on trade restrictions with embargoed countries and now is slowly widening that footprint. It’s terrifying to think what may be next if this trend goes unchecked.

If you do find something (and I’ll post a query today at Rebel Edit, in case other readers might know), or if Pen America drafts something please let me know and I’ll put it up too!

All best to you,
Shanna Compton

...for announcing Rebel Edit to its readers this week.

E-Verse Radio is a regular weekday email newsletter with a focus on poetry, culture, and more, with entertaining top five lists, unbelievable but real film titles of the day, invaluable facts of the day, and the occasional drink recipe. To sign up, email everseradio at earthlink dot net.

...on criminal editing here (scroll down to 15th paragraph).

SEARCH WARRANT

What do these men want in my house?

Why does this bureaucrat look at me
askance with the words ambition, light,
and fragile floating between us?

What has the photo of my father to do
with the capital, with this conspirator bastard
who handles it? Father in his black guyabera.

And what of my divorces, my breaks?
Official displeasure stands at the ready
despite my grandfather's wounds from the war.

Eight policemen gawk at the doodles
and writings of my young daugthers with
obscene eyes, lusty for incriminating paper.

My folders. My asthma medication.
Each is suspect. Though no message I write
requires code. My poems are plain.

Literary critics with guns,
they frisk my books of poetry.
These eight policemen in my house.

A clean operation, a total victory.


Editorial notes: Original may be found here (second poem). This is not so much a translation as a free paraphrase and write-through.

An article by Rivero called "The Broken Wings of Oppressed Poets," first published in 2000 by the Miami Herald.

Rivero has since been jailed in Cuba. More info here.

Thanks to the following bloggers, editors & readers for sending folks this way:

Activists & Scholars in Marxist Tradition Listserv, BALASUBRAMANIA'S MANIA, Joseph Mosconi at Harlequin Knights, CP Galom at The Televised Execution, and Milford Blatti at Missives from the North American Carousel.

If I have missed you, please email me to let me know! rebel edit at shannacompton dot com.

Jeffrey St. Clair of CounterPunch alerted me to Peter Suber's newsletter and blog as places to visit for further information on criminal editing (among other issues). Below are some of the key pieces furnished by Peter.

An article from Nature, February 2004.

The AAP Professional and Scholarly Publishers Division (PSP) released a public letter criticizing the U.S. Treasury Department for applying trade embargoes to scientific publications, here.

On February 9, at the invitation of the IEEE, David Mills addressed a
"summit" of scholarly publishers on the intersection of U.S. trade law
and freedom of the press. Mills is the Treasury Department official in
charge of licensing U.S. journals to edit articles by citizens of Cuba, Iran,
Libya, Sudan, and other embargoed nations. More info here.

A story in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the American Chemical Societry deciding to lift its moratorium on publishing papers from embargoed countries and challenge the ruling.

Also, from James Lewis, via Jeffrey St. Clair:

"A friend pointed me to the Berman Amendment to the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act. It provides (it's still law) an exemption to sanctions for 'information or informational materials' and says that the government does not have the 'authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly the importation from any country, or the exportation to any country, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, of any information or informational materials, including but not limited to, publications' I would consider a restriction on editing for publication the kind of 'indirect' prohibition forbidden by the amendment. That said, enforcement agencies tend to automatically expand restrictions well beyond what was intended or what is reasonable unless they are checked by political leadership or public complaint.

Here's a link to an interesting January 2004 analysis from the Association of American Publishers on OFAC's successful effort to narrow the scope of the amendment.

Thanks again to Jeffrey, and please do check out Peter Suber's newsletter and blog.

Note: I initially attributed Peter Suber's ventures to Jeffrey St. Clair by mistake. Apologies!

The OFAC site (linked below) provides the trade restrictions and country descriptions. The ruling on this matter was made in the form of a letter to an inquiring publication--perhaps the IEEE?--also linked below under the heading "Dear [Text Deleted]. That's the only official OFAC documentation on this new interpretation that I have been able to find.

That's one thing that's so frightening about this situation. The OFAC is not making new LAWS, per se, and are not really required to publicize this new broadened interpreation of the trade restrictions. If the journal in question (and the American Chemical Society, etc.) hadn't decided to buck the ruling, likely none of us would have heard about it.

Elayne Riggs, Begging to Differ, Epidiah Ravachol, Sasha Vorse at Autobiographia Literaria, Reb Livingston at Home-Schooled by a Cackling Jackal, Rudolf Lope & Aaron Tieger at FishBlog.

Liberty of the press, historically considered and taken up by the Federal Constitution, has meant, principally although not exclusively, immunity from previous restraints or censorship. Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity. Government thus carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint. Under the English licensing system, which expired in 1695, all printing presses and printers were licensed and nothing could be published without prior approval of the state or church authorities. The great struggle for liberty of the press was for the right to publish without a license that which for a long time could be published only with a license.

Read more.

O monochrome of gray wool
smoke cloaking landscape
where snouts once berried juniper
O sky smooth as pelt proclaiming your distance

O cobalt pools once diaphanous as aloe fragrance

Here amidst the waning hours
a day of "real bullets"
penetrating storms of sand
the general promised, "We will make it painful"

O rain that nurtures by rupturing sky to wash away, wash away

O colts roaming pastures, O hoofs fleshed like pink lilacs

Over streams tree limbs did embrace, did embrace

O Americans not embraced with (80 varieties of) flowers

Soldiers changing socks regularly
cleaning feet with "baby wipes"

O fountains bombarding air with shooting stars

Once upon a time, a law of kisses on both cheeks

O lost legislation for embedding sapphires in eyes

O legions, O lost lost legions
O legions of loss
............O lost allegiance
......................O lost lost allegiance


Editorial notes: "3/15/03 news remixed with lines by 12th century Arab poets."

(And thanks for the link, Eileen!)

We are writers...

But problems which have arisen in the contemporary history of our society as well as other societies [insert THAT] have distorted the image of the writer in the eyes of the state, certain sectors of society and even in the eyes of the writers themselves. Consequently, the identity of the writer, the nature of his/her work, and even the collective presence of writers have all been subjected to undue attack.

It is our duty, therefore, as [delete writes, insert WRITERS] of Iran, to explain the nature of writing as a cultural enterprise, and the reason for our collective presence.

We are writers. By this we mean that we write our feelings, imagination, thoughts and scholarship in various forms and publish them.

It is our natural, social and civil right to see that our writing--be it poetry or fiction, drama or film-script, research or criticism, or the translation of works written by other writers of the world--reach the public in a free and unhampered manner. It is not within the capacity of any person or organization to create obstacles for the publication of these works, under whatever pretext these may be. Free judgment and criticism, however, are open for all, after the publication of such works.

When the struggle against the obstacles of writing and publishing exceeds our individual power and capacity, there remains no other alternative for us except to encounter these difficulties in a collective-professional manner. In other words, in order to achieve freedom of thought, expression and publication, and in order to campaign censorship, we have to exert our efforts together.

We believe, therefore, that: Our collective presence with the aim of creating a professional writers association in Iran is the guarantee of our individual independence, because a writer should be free in the creation of his/her work, the criticism and analysis of works by other writers, and in the expression of his/her beliefs. His/her cooperation and agreement with the common problems of all writers do not mean that s/he should be held responsible for the individual problems of other writers. Similarly, the responsibility of personal, political and social thoughts and actions of each writer belong only to that particular writer.

Nevertheless, the writer here is looked upon not because of his profession as a writer, but because of his alleged association or assumed connection with parties, groupings, or factions; judgment is passed up him/her on the basis of these assumptions. As a result, it seems that the collective presence of writers in a cultural-professional organization will be seen as equivalent to membership in a political party or advocacy of a particular political agenda.

Governments and their dependent institutions and groupings customarily evaluate a writer's work on the basis of their own bureaucratic mechanisms and policies. Relying upon these arbitrary tools, they attribute the collective presence of writers to certain political tendencies or to internal and external conspiracies. Certain individuals, institutions and groups related to the government even exploit these arbitrary interpretations in order to vilify, humiliate, and threaten writers.

We hereby emphasize that our principal goal is the removal of all obstacles on the road to freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of publication; we emphasize that any other interpretations of our aim would be incorrect and stress that the responsibility for these misinterpretations lies with those who have wrongly identified our goals.

The responsibility of any text lies with the person who writes and signs it freely. Therefore, the responsibility of whatever is written and signed and published inside or outside Iran, in agreement or disagreement with us--the writers of Iran--lies only with those who have signed such a writing.

There is no doubt that the right to analyze and evaluate all works of literature and scholarship is one that all should enjoy; the critical analysis of works by writers is the prerequisite for the promotion of national culture. Spying into the private life of a writer as justification for the criticism of his/her works is tantamount to intrusion into his/her privacy; condemning a writer on the basis of their moral and ideological convictions is contrary to the principles of democracy and the ethics of writing. Defending the human and civil rights of every writer is, under [delete al, insert ALL] circumstances, the professional duty of all writers.

To sum: Our collective presence is the guarantee of our individual independence; the private thought and action of one writer has nothing to do with the assembly of writers: this is what we mean by the democratic outlook of an independent, professional organization. Although it may seem a tautology, we reiterate: We are writers; look upon us as writers; consider our [insert US] collectively as the professional presence of Iranian writers.

Signed:

Jahangir Afkari, Masood Ahmadi, Shahim Ahmadi, Mashiyyat Alaiee, Ghazaleh Alizadeh, Maftoon Amini, Seyyed-Abdollah Anwar, Shiva Arastooee, Amir-Hossein Aryanpour, Hassan Asghari, Dariush Ashoori, Hooshang Ashourzadeh, Mohammad Baharloo, Mihan Bahrami, Reza Baraheni, Mohammad-Reza Bateni, Simin Behbahani, Bahram Beyzaiee, Bizhan Bijari, Mohammad Biyabani, Shapour Bonyad, Reza Chaychi, Amir-Hassah Cheheltan, Simin Daneshvar, Ali-Ashraf Darvishiyan, Khashayar Deyhimi, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Shirin Ebadi, Asghar Elahi, Soodabeh Fazaeli, Hadi Ghebraiee, Mehdi Ghebraiee, Koorosh Hamekhani, Khosrow Hamzavi-Tehrani, Esmail Hemmati, Hooshang Hessami, Ghaffar Hosseini, Ali-Reza Jabbari, Jahed Jahanshahi, Kamran Jamali, Hashem Javadzadeh, Mohammad Javaherkalam, Reza Joolaiee, Shapour Jorkesh, Mehrangiz Kar, Manouchehr Karimzadeh, Medya Kashigar, Bizhan Kelki, Ziyaeddin Khaleqi, Azim Khalili, Mohammad Khalili, Mohammad-Taqi Khavari, Ali-Asghar Khobrezadeh, Abootorab Khosravi, Mohammad-Rez!a Khosravi, Lili Golestan, Hooshang Golshiri, Sima Kooban, Jafar Kooshabadi, Mansour Kooshan, Abdollah Kosari, Shahla Lahiji, Shams Langaroudi, Ahmad Mahmoud, Elham Mahvizani, Shahriyar Mandanipour, Ali Masoumi, Mohsen Mihandoost, Ahmad Miralaiee, Jamal Mirsadeqi, Abbas Mokhber, Mohammad Mokhtari, Kiyoumars Monshizadeh, Shahin Moqarrabin, Hamid Mossadeq, Javad Mojabi, Mohammad Mohammad-Ali, Mahmou Motaqedi, Keyvan Narimani, Gholam-Hossein Nasiripour, Jamshid Navaiee, Saroora Nayyeri, Nazenin Nezam-Shahidi, Siroos Niroo, Mansour Ojie, Azita Qahraman, Mehdi Qarib, Mohammad Qazi, Changiz Pahlavan, Rooieen Pakbaz, Ali-Reza Panjaiee, Baqer Parham, Shahrnoush Parsipour, Hassan Pasta, Ahmad Pouri, Hassan Pouyan, Mohammad Pourandeh, Akbar Radi, Esmail Raha, Ebrahim Rahbar, Nosrat Rahmani, Fariborz Raiesdana, Morteza Ravandi, Moniroo Ravanipour, Qasem Roubin, Kazem Sadat-Eskkavari, Abdurrahman Sadriyyeh, Mohammad-Taqi Salehpour, Emran Salahi, Gholam-Hossein Salemi, Fereshteh Sari, Faraj Sarkuhi, Jalal Sattari, Sanaz !Sehhati, Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou, Ali-Reza Seyfaddini, Admad Shamloo, Mohammad Sharifi, Behrouz Tajvar, Admad Tadayyon, Farzaneh Taheri, Farrokh Tamimi, Goli Taraqqi, Masood Toofan, Mohammad Vejdani, Hamid Yazdanpanah, Ebrahim Younesi, Abbas Zaryab-Kheiee.


Editorial notes: "The blog is so great! Here's my submission. My edits don't show up that well, as strikethroughs don't register, but the ALL CAPS and brackets are mine. I also bolded the most relevant sections."

More information on this declaration may be found here.

Thanks to American Street, Will Baude at Crescat Sententia, BetaCorpo, Lance Phillips' Coursing Public Thought and poets Mike Snider, Chris Murray, and Mark Woods.