From a presumably final press release:
Catamount Tavern News, founded over 7 years ago in August of 2002 by the new defunct Green Mountain Collective, is, perhaps, the longest running ‘underground newspaper’ in Vermont history. The publication saw its first print edition of 350 copies in the winter of 2003. The paper initially billed itself as an “anarchist publication”, and was the official Vermont newspaper of the Northeast Federation of Anarcho-Communists from 2003-2006. For a time, it was the only statewide newspaper in Vermont. However, over the years, the publication evolved into a broader platform for left wing social and political perspectives, be they anarchist, anti-war, socialist, Progressive Party, or counter culture in nature.
Xavier Massot provides these final credits in an “obituary”:
I guess some names should be mentioned as notables to the CT News effort, they are (in no particular order): David Van Deusen the monomaniacal editor guy, Jeremy Kaplan who was there in spirit if not occasional form, Jeremy Ripin the good natured photo dude, Lady the original editor and crossword puzzle gal, Sean West for editing for a while, Beth Cate for copy editing, Wes Hamilton for generally making the NEK deliveries (even if he did miss a few), Traven Leyshon for all the articles he was roped into writing, Jonah Banis who wrote the hunting column for a spell and was good to drink beer with, the three girls who lived in a shack on the compound and managed to neither kill each other nor escape the CT News communal stapling and folding process, and Thor the dog who provided emotional support even while sleeping.
Is this a sign that the era of printing or photocopying, stapling, and setting independently made publications by the doors of friendly institutions is over, replaced instead by a proliferation of websites? Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing?
though sometimes I do worry that the blogosphere is becoming the equivalent of satellite radio where the diversity can be found while “the commons” (the newsstand, broadcast radio) becomes increasingly uniform and vapid.
This doesn’t even need to be “a thing”. This could be a simple matter of the normal boiling and bubbling into and out of existence that goes on in the very small business world.
I’ve been musing starting some sort of Green-Left publication out of UVM/Burlington for a while now. I feel like the lefty blogs are so affiliated with the Dem party its hard to give as radical a critique as is sometimes necessary. Not to say the VT liberal blogosphere isn’t awesome and needed but I think we def need media outlets like CT News pushing the permitters of debate that are both accessible and sharp in their criticisms.
Climate change/healthcare/corporate influence/militarism/regressive economics are out of control and the public debate is taking place in some wacky alter reality where “facts” are rubber stamped before entering regardless of their empirical heritage… And the right-wing mania isn’t being countered with progressive ideas but rather ideas that progressives think can sway some leaning conservatives, and that really gets me going.
I think a lot of people are ready for a sharp and deliberate break from the old polemic, beginning with a radical 21st century critique of capitalism, ecology, and consumer society, topped with fiery leftism that is both participatory and nonhierarchical.
Okay, I don’t know the publication or the cadre who published it, or whether the “three girls who lived in a shack on the compound” is some kind of ironic reference, but does it not bother anyone else, this phrase so reminiscent of the days before second wave feminism when the men embraced “free” love and ejaculatory revolution, while the “girls” made coffee and stickered and stapled newsletters? Until they got fed up with being ignored and used as receptacles, that is.
“Three girls who lived in a shack on the compound” are apparently unworthy even of names or acknowledgment of adulthood (if they’re over 18). Nice work Xavier Massot.
Right. And, as Robin Morgan wrote a long time ago:
And BTW, here’s why they shut down, according to anarkismo.net:
Aurora Borealis