A MESSAGE FROM NEIL

I am 43 this year and it still feels like only yesterday that I was given the opportunity to learn &express my revolutionary thoughts.What started out in the late 70's as a fashion statement for me,PUNK,by the mid 80's had become a revolutionary idea and movement that became a part of my life, that has spawned freedom fighters that continue to this day to struggle against a system that is build on greed,profit,exploitation and murder around the world. So did I hang up my Doc martens & bondage pants like so many others that have talked the talk when on stage.After Nausea I continued doing music,with Jesus Chrust,Warning & Final Warning.I finally stop being in bands after the suicide of the guitarist,Tom outside a church in North Philidelphia while on a US tour .I had help get a record label going with Ralphy Boy called,Squat Or Rot.I then started the political punk label,Tribal War Records which carried on for around 15 years,probably besnt known for the Aus-rotten releases and for the tours by bands like,Dirt,Hellkrusher and many more. After living in New York City for 17 years I needed some other stimulant,the concrete and tarmac was not enough, I ended up in Portland,Oregon and became a member of an organization called,The Liberation collective,about 2 years after moving to portland I was helping put together my last US tour, the 4 month long,1999 Primate freedom tour.We travelled the US for 4 months,working to promote the publics awareness of these Primate Research concentration camps where primates are tortured and murdered.Some of the bands that toured were,Aus-rotten,Oi Polloi,Resist & Exist,Contravene.It was an exausting tour but planted a campaign seed that continues today.That was my last US tour. By now The Liberation collective was receiving some notiriety due to Craig Rosebraugh being a spokesperson for the ALF and ELF. It was only a matter of time before the state used all it's power to silence us.

After the Liberation collective I moved into a collective house in North Portland, where I ran Tribal War records,we done Food Not bombs,had a show space. As had happened on the Lower East Side of New York City, the gentrification process was being pushed on our neighborhood, within a short time it was looking like we were going to once again be pushed out by economic progess.But this time we decided we wanted to stand and fight.So i contacted a new no profit,Portland Collective Housing, and with their help we collectively purchased our house and the adjacent store front,where we now have a collective bookstore,which any royalties from the sale of this release will be going to:

Blackrose Collective Bookstore & Community Freecycling Center: is a community owned/serving business based on the principles of cooperation not competition.Serving the rich cultural and economic diversity of our neighborhood.Blackrose seeks to provide the tools for people to recognize and respond to all forms of oppression.

4038 N.Mississippi Ave,Portland,OR 97227 Open Tues,Wed,Thurs,Fri, Saturdays from 12 till 8 pm & Sunday 4pm till 8pm

A Thorn In The Side Of The EstablishMent

I also founded the Farmageddon Collective:

Farmageddon Collective
We are a collective of individuals who volunteer our hands and minds to
growing food on a number of parcels of ground around the Portland area.Our goals
are to help struggling farmers survive and to foster education and action about
sustainable food production.We receive only experience and fresh produce in
return.And we usually have dirt under our fingernails.

Farmageddon Growers Collective
Eat Locally,Think Globally

We are in the process of trying to purchase a small parcel of land next to our house to have a community supported demostration urban farm and pocket park. In my spare time I work 4 days a week at a People's Food Co-op where I am the produce buyer and also I do bicycle delivery,yes I finally gave up the car addiction and now ride everywhere.I just figured out,that with biking to work for the past 4 years I have done nearly 7000 miles, that's a lot of money that has not gone in the pocket of oil companies,People's Food Co-op is a community owned store with over 2500 members and is run daily by a staff collective of 20 people,we work on consensus,as does every collective I am involved in. I also do a farmers market every Saturday morning where we sell the food we grow at a local organic farm,earthshine Gardens, we have dug up all the lawn around our house and grow food,which our community is encourage to pick,we harvest rain water,we collect and re-use all waste water.I am also on the council of the Portland Alliance Of Worker collectives.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me, tribalwar1@yahoo.com. If you would like to donate money or books to Blackrose Collective Bookstore,please send to the above address.Also if you are travelling through portland and want to help out with one of the projects please get in touch.

In class struggle/Neil Robinson