"After the flood the people attempted to build a city, and a tower whose top would reach unto heaven. God confounded their language and thereby frustrated their designs�

- Genesis 11:1-9

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At Axis of Logic, we frequently receive many submissions and proposals from individuals and organizations of individuals each day. When we received a proposal from a group who called themselves �Tlaxcala�, our interest was spiked. We were immediately excited by an idea that has come of age. It was an epiphany. We had chewed around the edges of a similar idea for the last 2 years but were never able to condense it into a comprehensive, workable plan. This is precisely the creative genius of Tlaxcala. We knew that we were being introduced to a brilliant group of people with an extraordinary organization. E.F. Shumacher, author of the classic works, Small is Beautiful, A Guide for the Perplexed and Good Work once stated, "The greatest natural resource on earth is the human brain". Tlaxcala - the fruition of an idea with pragmatic application in cyberspace, affirms Shumacher's words.

The Tower of Babel myth attempts to understand how humankind became multilingual. After the universal flood, the survivors said,  "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." The story quotes deity, "Behold, they all have the same language ... and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them�

"They all have the same language ... now nothing they purpose to do will be impossible for them". The Tlaxcala Manifesto states, �An empire and its language always go together and are predators by definition... They reject otherness". The Global Corporate Empire concentrates its offensive against otherness in it�s war on the world.

In his 1998 State of the Union speech Bill Clinton led an attack on �otherness�:

�America must stand against the poisoned appeals of extreme nationalism. We must combat an unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international criminals and drug traffickers. These 21st century predators feed on technology and the free flow of information and ideas and people. And they will be all the more lethal if weapons of mass destruction fall into their hands.�[1]

Creating fear of the other, Clinton asserted the superiority of the Global Corporate Empire, villainizing otherness as �the poisoned appeals of extreme nationalism�. He ostensibly argued for "the free flow of information and ideas and people�. It's an appealing, but deceptive tactic. Empire�s mission is to dismantle �the free flow of information and ideas�. His words �an unholy axis� were reworked to the �Axis of Evil�, redefined by George Walker Bush. Clinton�s attack was not against �terrorists, international criminals and drug traffickers� as he said. It was an attack against national sovereignty - the last material refuge of �the other�.

Here in this massive European colony in the Americas - the United States, �Otherness" is under attack every day. The work of Ronald Unz, CEO provides a good example. Unz assaults otherness throughout the U.S. He does so by attacking bi-lingual education in public schools ... the languages of the other. Unz whips up bigotries, eliciting fear and xenophobia among the white majorities in the suburbs who in turn deny children in the cities the right to be educated in their native language. Unz� "English only" attack is in form, bourgeois democratic, e.g. ballot referendum. It is in substance a racist, anti-immigrant attack by the corporations meant to divide the working class, increase national oppression within the borders of the US, and deny the right to self-determination to people who speak languages other than Imperial English.

�Otherness� is not �nationalism�. Otherness is community - the transnational community of the people - the greatest threat to those who would rebuild the tower of Babel making God in their own image. Rather than returning to a single language, otherness is interlingual and thus intercultural. Otherness is the formation of coalitions, uniting against Tower Builders like Ronald Unz. Tlaxcala offers to help us communicate with each another and strengthen our forces ... to deliver the final death blow to the Global Corporate Empire. As the Word is holy, Tlaxcala is a holy alliance of those who volunteer their time and linguistic skills and knowledge, bringing unity in the midst of diversity.

In their Manifesto, Tlaxcala remembers two martyrs: Missak Manouchian, the leader of the first resistance against Nazi occupation in France and Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam to create the Organization of Afro-American Unity against empire. Both were martyred on this date, February 21. We place Axis of Logic with Tlaxcala "... under the patronage of those two fighters for the struggle of peoples ..." Axis of Logic celebrates the birth of Tlaxcala, a new assemblage of talent to help people of all languages communicate their common opposition to oppression, poverty and war; to break down the walls that divide us; to gain strategies and tactics from �the other� through guerilla media; to learn from one another, honor one another and to unite for economic equality and world peace.

Alcuin stated, �The Voice of the People is the Voice of God�. Rationalists attempt to gut Alcuin�s words with reductionistic, straw-man arguments. Conversely, Tlaxcala, understands the inherent wisdom in this maxim. Axis of Logic enters alliance with Tlaxcala to combat the imperial language of capitalist media � to �confound their language and thereby frustrate their designs� and to do our part to help usher in a new age of world peace, stability and security. We urge international alternative media to join our alliance and gifted translators in all languages to volunteer your knowledge, skills and time to help build oneness in a world of diversity.

[1] 1998 State of the Union Speech