Germinate

Germinate is ASEN’s twice yearly zine and this is the Germ’s blog where you will get updates, information, sneak previews, reviews and the opportunity to comment on stuff. Read more about Germinate.

Send submissions, questions and anything else to germinate@asen.org.au

• Download Past Germinates
• Go to the Germinate Blog!

Newsletters

Every 3 months, ASEN puts out a newsletter about what’s been happening round the continent . If your collective, state network or working group has been up to something cool, send an email to info@asen.org.au telling us all about it.

• Past Newsletters

Zines

We also create a bunch of one-off zines on things ranging from inclusivity to climate activism. Check em out, use and reproduce freely.

• Go to zines page

Dear beautiful creative friends,

First of all, we would like to say THANKYOU for your artworks and
offers. The life and vibe of Germinate is created by the artworks that
grace its pages.

If you have any existing artworks you think might be appropriate for
the zine, we would love to see them. Or, if you have any time over the
next couple of weeks, the following is a list of topics we are
expecting to receive articles on that we hope might inspire your
creative minds : (note – artworks don’t need to accompany articles,
but we would love article illustrations if that is up your ally)

Insects as human food
Coal seam gas
On-campus vegie gardens
The Politics of Money
Reflections on SoS Albury
Impacts of carbon trading on farmers in Honduras
Review – Coal Seam Gas protest cd
Coal Seam gas interviews
ANFA convergence
How to become a French environmental activist expatriated in Australia
Footprints for peace – write up of WA Walk against Uranium mining

Other regular spaces that we would love to illustrate are:
Acknowledgement of Country
Introductions to ASEN and Germinate
Editors note
Contents page
News section – Australia
News section – International
Call-out for submissions for the next Germinate (towards the back)
Upcoming events
Thankyou page for contributors and supporters
Call-out for the 2012 Germinate editorial collective – short job
description, offer support if needed

If any of these articles interest you and you want more info, we can
send them to you when they come in.

Although our first deadline was on November 11th, this date is
flexible, and we would happily receive artworks and illustrations
after that date – just let us know what you would like to work on and
how long you think you will need.

If you have any questions please shoot us an email or leave us a
message on the facebook page.

Love,
The Germs.

Help Support Germinate

Germinate is the free bi-annual zine which we publish and to keep it free we need your help.

To make Germinate more accessible and to be able to distribute it to as many collectives as possible we need to raise $1500 by the end of December.

If you’ve ever received a copy of Germinate before and enjoyed what you read, please consider making a donation by visiting our page on GiveNow. You can access by point your browser to http://www.givenow.com.au/asengerminate, or by clicking on the link below.

SUPPORT GERMINATE

If you would like to view past copies of Germinate, please head to our publications page and follow the links.

Germinate your Summer, Edition 2012

Greetings fellow earth dwellers!

Your favourite enviro publication editorial team here with a quick Germinate update.

As we retreat from the beating sun to convene beneath shady expanses of surrounding gumtrees, attention once again turns to the persistent question of entertaining reading material for those long afternoons on the sand, picnic rug or hammock.

In anticipation of this seasonal dilemma, we are calling out for submissions to the Germinate zine. Collectives big and small, supporters active and interested, newcomers to the enviro network, we want your insightful input!  Write about anything going on around you, something for which you feel passionate, be it local, national, transnational, transportational or topical! Collaborate with a friend (s), old or new, take a metaphorical or literal walk through bush, familiar or foreign.

Perhaps a successful campaign you have been involved in, an environmental initiative that has caught your interest, a persistent and problematic inequality you have witnessed. Below are some questions posed in a previous edition of Germinate. Perhaps you might write one and send it back to us?

Germinate is distributed around the country during January, principally at the ASEN training camp (of which you can find further details on this site) and the submission deadline is November 11, 2011! So hop to it! Our recommended article length is between 600 – 1000 words, but we will happily accept any length.

Contact us with any question or comment at germinate [at] asen.org.au

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Cheers,

Your Germinate team

“An overwhelming majority of ASEN members are privileged university students. We have access to education, resources and power that most people do not. We also talk a lot about ‘inclusivity’ and ‘anti-oppression’. But what do those terms really mean in our context? Should we be trying to make ASEN more ‘diverse’ in itself or should we be honest about who we are and where we organise and attempt to form better alliances between ASEN and other groups less structurally privileged?.”

“ASEN will simply fail to attract people if we view what we do as ‘work’. Activism can and should be fun, playful and dynamic. We do not have to copy the methods of work we learn from bourgeois society, but unlearning them can be difficult” – What is your view of work and play in activism and life?

“We have been asking if our current actions are the equivalent of trying to stop a tank coming to destroy our house by throwing styrofoam at it and asking it nicely to stop. Do we need more effective tactics, or will more of the same do?”

“Safe(r) Spaces may be impossible to achieve through workshops, formal discussions and written agreements alone as these can create a culture of fear for ‘fucking up’. The only thing that will create real safer spaces is a commitment to community building in the long term.” – Discuss, drawing on your experience of activists and radicals trying to create safer spaces.

“Breaking down oppression is both the responsibility of the oppressed and oppressor(s).” What are the implications of this statement? Draw on personal experience.