The 30 Free Press “Libby” Award winners

It takes a radical activist community to raise a newspaper. While most of its underground predecessors are moldering in the grave, the Freep proudly lives on. Much to the paper’s credit, it was recently barred from raising funds at Ohio State University. And these 30 people are key reasons why we’re still around to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. A list of winners is on page 9.

THE FREE PRESS SALUTES

Dan Cahill and Ida Strong

Two key members of the Prisoners Advocacy Network (PAN) are the main organizers of the “Critical Resistance: Stop the Prison Industrial Complex” Statehouse rally on September 28, 2000. Their hard work has brought together a large coalition of activist organizations from Art and Revolution to the Cincinnati Zapatista Coalition and has raised essential issues concerning human rights and social justice. Slated to speak are Staughton Lynd, Pam Africa on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal and there’s a statement of support from Leonard Peltier.

Ohio Green Party

They played an important role in placing Ralph Nader’s name on the presidential ballot in Ohio and have now spun off a successful OSU Campus Green organization. The Freep appreciated the choice of an actual progressive candidate. Of course, there’s much to be said of the good old days of the two party system, particularly the fact that it’s only one more choice than a dictatorship. Well, maybe in the case of Bush and Gore, it is a corporate dictatorship.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE

Carla Wren, 610WTVN “personality”

This adopted Catholic girl who, by her own admission, drank too much between 1976 and 1987 before entering the “nuthouse,” is now hellbent on restoring the good old, old, old days. Recently, the weekend talk show host claimed the “founding fathers” were right when they denied women the right to vote. She’s not kidding, either. Her ideology places her in the mainstream of male mullah thought in Afghanistan. We seem to have located her problem – no, not her admitted “lost decade” – rather the fact that she quit “listening to rock and roll and began listening to talk radio in 1988. Why is it when right-wingers spew out reactionary garbage and suggest we repeal the 19th amendment, it’s just entertainment? Right. And that Goebbels was a funny guy too.