Roland "Commander" Sykes
June 1st, 1953 - March 10th, 2008
Wizard, Bit Twiddler, Philosopher, Teacher, and most fun of
all...
The Bus Driver for ADAPT
From: Mouthmag and Lucy Gwin
Mouth's 2001 Boot Camp Series, which Rollo called his "product" as in, "On my revival tour, I gotta have these to give to people. They're the only product I have."
The series originated when Teresa Torres told us she held a Boot Camp for new activists once or twice a year at her center. Rollo loved that idea and naturally had strong feelings about what should be preached to newbies.
The bunch of us — Kathleen Kleinmann, Rollo, Teresa & I — started to kick around the idea of a boot camp Mouth series in 2000. Rollo promised he'd write lots of stuff for it, and described exactly what it would be like, then didn't get around to actually putting it on paper.
So there I was a week from press with a mass of empty pages. I told him I'd have to fill them in with stuff that was banging around my head and my desk. Which I did. So the first Boot Camp issue was a demonstration to Rollo rather than his product. He did contribute the quotes on the front covers, and of course the spirit, of all three.
His "Field Commander's Manual" is one of the top ten articles Mouth has ever run. One of the other top ten is Kathleen's "Front Line Tactical Manual (Part One)." I don't wanna seem egofied, but I'd also nominate my "Field Manual for Monsters." All three are way ahead of their time, it seems, with fund-sucking having won out as the proper function of CILs.
The four of us originally thought we'd publish a series of four Boot Camp/War Zone issues. The final issue was to have been published in November 2001, right after 9/ll. We put it off, wishing not to be seen as in synch with our nation's rush to war. The nation has been at war since, and our Front Line Tactical Manual (Part Two) still waits in the wings. Someday.
Thanks for doing this.
xxx
Lucy Gwin
Attached are PDF's to the documents - Warning, these are LARGE!
Mouthmag#66.pdf - Large File (2.2mb)
Mouthmag#67.pdf - Large File (6.3mb)
Mouthmag#95-96.pdf - Large File (5.5mb)
