Queries due March 5, 2010
This call for submissions takes as its departure point John Berger’s description of the global system of apartheid that defines our present circumstances:
“The present period of history is one of the Wall. When the Berlin one fell, the prepared plans to build walls everywhere were unrolled. Concrete, bureaucratic, surveillance, security, racist walls. Everywhere the wall separates the desperate poor from those who hope against hope to stay relatively rich. The walls cross every sphere, from crop cultivation to health care. They exist too in the richest metropolises of the world. The wall is the front line of what, long ago, was called the Class War. [ . . . ]
“The choice of meaning in the world today is here between the two sides of the wall. The wall is also inside each one of us. Whatever our circumstances, we can choose within ourselves which side of the wall we are attuned to. It is not a wall between good and evil. Both exist on both sides. The choice is between self-respect and self-chaos.”
Declaring war on walls of all kinds, Briarpatch invites submissions to its July/August 2010 issue on “Fences, walls & borders: Migration and the politics of movement.” We are looking for articles, essays, investigative reportage, news briefs, project profiles, interviews with luminary thinkers and frontline activists, reviews, poetry, humour, artwork & photography that address some aspect of the issue of migration. We are particularly interested in contributions informed by an anti-imperialist/anti-capitalist analysis of global and local power relations.
We also invite organizations who could use this issue of Briarpatch as an organizing/educational tool to get in touch to discuss opportunities for shared distribution, bulk issue orders and possible in-kind exchanges.
Possible article topics could include (but are no means limited to):
- assessing the recent changes to Canada’s immigration system;
- migrant worker programs in Canada or elsewhere;
- “No One Is Illegal” and struggles for migrant rights;
- freedom of information, net neutrality and the struggle for control of the Internet;
- gated communities;
- the rise of private security firms;
- the Israeli Apartheid Wall and the Palestinian struggle;
- privatization of public land, wealth, and knowledge;
- the struggles of environmental refugees, economic refugees, and/or other non-status peoples;
- the gentrification of urban spaces;
- the walls within: accounts of personal transformation and political emancipation;
- policing poverty;
- “free speech zones” and the geography of protest;
- urban counterinsurgency and the future of warfare.
We also welcome pitches for short profiles (approx. 600 words) of individuals, groups, initiatives, organizations and trends that are on the cutting edge of struggles and efforts to break down walls of all kinds.
Please note that the deadline for queries is March 5, 2010. Your query should outline what ground your contribution will cover, give an estimated word count, and indicate your relevant experience or background in writing about the issue. If you haven’t written for Briarpatch before, please provide a brief writing sample.
Please write for a general audience, employing standard journalistic conventions. Please review our submission guidelines before submitting. Send your queries/submissions to editor AT briarpatchmagazine D0T com.
We reserve the right to edit your work (with your active involvement), and cannot guarantee publication.
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Other upcoming Briarpatch issues:
September/October 2010: Health
Query deadline: May 3, 2010
November/December 2010: Global solidarity & the labour movement
Query deadline: July 5, 2010
January/February 2011: The soul of activism: Personal transformation & social change
Query deadline: September 6, 2010
March/April 2011: Gender
Query deadline: Approx. November 1, 2010 (TBA)
May/June 2011: Indigenous activism & the Fourth World War
Query deadline: Approx. January 5, 2011 (TBA)



