The Confluence

The Confluence is a grassroots bimonthly journal reporting environmental and urban affairs. Founded in 1995, the St. Louis, Missouri, journal has a circulation of approximately 11,000 and covers a variety of issues, including social justice, the arts, race, gender, and sexuality. The editors describe their publication as representing an "anti-authoritarian perspective."

Distributed for free throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area at bookstores, libraries, grocery stores and restaurants, The Confluence is also available through paid annual subscriptions and several small third party distributors. Its revenue comes from advertisements and benefit concerts and it is self published. The staff are all volunteers and include student interns.

History

The Confluence began as a local environmental and social justice magazine started by Mark Berry in 1995. In the early years, The Confluence regularly covered the debate over the Times Beach incinerator, which burned soils contaminated with dioxin and PCBs from Times Beach, and in 1997, the magazine published a 40-page issue attacking the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Monsanto for their connection to the toxic contamination. “Times Beach: Image of a Cleanup or Cleanup of an Image?” had national distribution to communities fighting toxic waste. By 1999, The Confluence had evolved into a journal reporting on a broader set of issues, from labor battles to African-American issues, from sexuality to history, from art and music to urban issues and housing. Today, the typical issue will focus on a single topic, such as a "Labor and Globalization" issue in 2001 that offered a protectionist view on free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The Confluence developed the foundation for its current website in 2002 with about half of the issues archived. As part of the journal's vision of creating movements of resistance to injustice by developing a non-corporate media community, the editors co-founded the St. Louis Independent Media Center (STLIMC) in 2001. STLIMC is a web-based local news site featuring regular feature stories, a newswire where anyone can post, a community calendar and links to over 80 IMC sites around the world. * St. Louis IMC site

Also in 2002, Confluence editors were co-founders of the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP) and its purchase of a building at 3026 Cherokee in south St. Louis. This project served to start a community center that would support the neighborhood, have office space for the Confluence newsroom, and have spaces for artistic expression related to "resistance to the market economy and the state."* CAMP site

The editors and staff also made links with numerous politically active artists and has included intricate and controversial artwork in its pages. One such picture involved a collage of Mayor Slay in a bestial celebration with Cardinal’s President Mark Lamping and then Governor Holden. This picture reflected opposition to funding the new Cardinals stadium with hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds while, according to the Confluence, "the net worth of the Cardinal’s owners was over $4 billion. "

A housing cooperative (the "Bolozone") and CAMP, where Confluence and IMC offices are located, were shut down by police the same week of their opposition to the World Agriculture Forum in May 2003 as detailed in the Riverfront Times June 25, 2003 article, "Meet the Anarchists." (see link below) Biodevastation conference.

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