August East Utopia News
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Time to read 7 min
Midway through August and there's plenty going on at The East Utopia Trading Company that I want to share.
We have some recent drops (pictured above) that I want to share. The 63rd anniversary of The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is this month, so there I'm putting related items on sale at 20% off for the whole month and there will be new designs rolling out until August 28, so watch for those (a good reason to sign up for SMS or Notifications). If you buy two or more shirts from those collections we'll send you a free replica button from the March.
We have changed our pricing structure and introduced a new shirt style, The Working Class Shirt that is a bit heavier cotton and is even more affordable than The Basic T-Shirt.
We have a new playlist up on our EUTC Radio on Spotify. And there is an EUTC scenario in the game app Rebel Inc. if you play games on your phone, tablet, or steam, you can help overthrow a military dictatorship while building a modern social democracy.
Finally, we've added a Facebook Page to our social media presence, so I'll give an annoying reminder of where you can follow us on social media.
—Marc Brazeau, Proprietor, The East Utopia Trading Company
Click on images to go to the product page.
THE CONCORD COLLECTION BEGINS
The first drop to highlight is part of a Concord Mini-Collection that will grow to nine designs by the end of the year. Right now there are two. This is the first.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU: ALL GOOD THINGS ARE WILD AND FREE
Henry David Thoreau’s declaration that “All good things are wild and free,” drawn from Walking (1862), has become a defining expression of the American conservation movement. It captures his belief that nature is more than scenery—it is where we recover our independence, imagination, and humanity. Best known for Walden and Civil Disobedience, Thoreau influenced generations of environmentalists and reformers, from John Muir and Rachel Carson to Martin Luther King Jr.
Pairing a restored portrait with one of his most enduring lines, this design celebrates ideas that remain relevant to conservation, democracy, and living deliberately. Whether your happy place is a campsite, a mountain trail, or a quiet afternoon with a book, Thoreau’s reminder still rings true: some things are valuable precisely because they remain wild and free.
Relaxed Fit Women's Tee pictured above and the Long Sleeve Jersey pictured below. You may not need a wool cap and scarf in August but those cold days are coming up fast.
Available in:
The Basic T-Shirt - starting at $24.99
The Relaxed Fit Women's Tee - starting at $24.99
The Working Class T-Shirt- starting at $19.99
The Long Sleeve Jersey - starting at $32.99
RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was the intellectual center of Concord's remarkable circle of writers. His ideas helped define American literature. His essays on self-reliance, individuality, and moral courage influenced Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and generations of readers around the world.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" remains one of the most quoted lines in American literature. Drawn from Self-Reliance (1841), it reminds us that integrity comes from thinking honestly—not from defending yesterday's opinions at all costs.
Featuring an oversized wall-of-text layout, this design celebrates one of Emerson's most famous passages.
Available in:
The Basic T-Shirt - starting at $24.99
The Relaxed Fit Women's Tee - starting at $24.99
The Working Class T-Shirt - starting at $19.99
The Long Sleeve Jersey - starting at $32.99
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) was one of the most influential radical thinkers and organizers of the early 20th century. Born in the Russian Empire, she immigrated to the United States and quickly became a leading voice in anarchist politics, labor struggles, and free speech fights. Goldman championed workers’ rights, women’s autonomy, and birth control at a time when such positions invited arrest and public outrage.
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution" was actually adapted by Jack Frager, an old-time anarchist to print on t-shirts for an anti-Vietnam war fundraising dance in response to a lecture on Emma Goldman's thought by the radical feminist Alix Kates Shulman back in 1973. The bumperstickerization of Goldman's take on revolution and dancing has passed into our common culture, so now you you too can have a shirt sharing this classic expression of revolutionary freedom.
Here is the full expression from her 1931 autobiography Living My Life:
At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha [Alexander Berkman, Goldman s lover], a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance… My frivolity would only hurl the Cause. I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business, I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, .should demand the denial of life and joy. . . If it meant that, I did not want it.
Available in:
The Basic T-Shirt - starting at $24.99
The Relaxed Fit Women's Tee - starting at $24.99
The Working Class T-Shirt - starting at $19.99
The Long Sleeve Jersey - starting at $32.99
EVERY BILLIONAIRE IS A POLICY FAILURE
EVERY BILLIONAIRE IS A POLICY FAILURE
As AOC has said, "No one can earn a billion dollars."
Senior advisor Dan Riffle gave us the original version. With his quote, this shirt shifts the conversation away from individual greed and toward systemic failure.
Behind every billionaire is a weakened labor movement. Broken antitrust enforcement. Tax laws that privilege wealth over wages. Stock markets turned into casinos. Fortunes inherited by the merely lucky. Extreme inequality is not an accident. It is policy. And policy can change.
Read the East Utopia Essay on 'Every Billionaire is a Policy Failure' here.
Available in:
The Basic T-Shirt - starting at $24.99
The Relaxed Fit Women's Tee - starting at $24.99
The Working Class T-Shirt - starting at $19.99
The Long Sleeve Jersey - starting at $32.99
REBEL INC: EAST UTOPIA
REBEL INC. is a military strategy, resource management, world-building game with a cult following. In the game, you are in control of fighting off an insurrection while building a stable society and the two reinforce each other. You build your army but you also need to be building out roads, highways, and infrastructure, your healthcare and education systems, as well as you economy. There are different scenarios set in different landscapes with slightly different challenges and opportunities.
One of the things that took it to the next level of cultdom is the Scenario Creator app developed by Ndemic Creations owner James Vaughan. The Rebel Inc. Scenario Creator allows members of the community to create their own scenarios. I've always played Rebel Inc. through the lens of progressive democratic values and layered on the necessity of holding elections, thoroughly rooting out corruption, and reaching certain threshold of a robust societal infrastructure to consider a win actually successful. I finally found the time to build a scenario for the East Utopia Trading Company.
Instead of playing through the eyes of a government trying to put down a rebellion, The country of East Utopia is in the hands of rebels who have deposed a military dictatorship and have called in the Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO) to help extinguish the dictator's force and help them build a mature, thriving social democracy.
I hope the scenario is fun to play but it also teaches a social democratic view of the world. All Rebel Inc institutions have dependencies, but they are usually linear. That is to get to advanced education institutions you need to build out basic and then intermediate education initiatives. In this scenario, dependencies are across categories and sectors. A key example is that you need Polio Eradication from the healthcare sector and Literacy Drive from the education sector to unlock National Citizen Soldiers in the military sector. You need Open Competitive Markets to enable the Public Development Bank which unlocks Keynesian Macro Management. Cooperatives and Credit Unions, and the Finnish-style Housing Authority, each of which has their own dependencies.
To get involved NORDEFCO insists on the creation of an environment where labor unions can thrive and the establishment of a Norwegian-style Sovereign Wealth Fund that can grow over time.
Instead of relatively generic initiatives, you will find the best social democratic institutions from around the world as options for building a better functioning society:
Open Competitive Markets
Swiss-style Citizen Initiatives
Polder Stateholder Democracy (from the Netherlands)
Costa Rica-style Public Health Organizing
Estonian-style E-Citizenship
Barcelona's Decidem
Norwegian-style Prison Reform
Finnish-style Housing Authority
Northern Italian-style Industrial Districts
The military in this scenario is a citizen army organized along civic republican lines. While two sets of intelligence and two sets of civil integration initiatives are available to build to in other Rebel Inc official scenarios, here they are bundled with all the capabilities of soldiers from the start but they require more institutions up front and cost more to train. Garrisons can sustain Vocational Night Classes, Free Children's Clinics, and Literacy & GED Classes.
So that's The East Utopia scenario for Rebel Inc. You can find Rebel Inc. in the Play and Apple stores as well as on Steam. Go to Custom Scenarios and search 'EUTC' to find it and play. If you haven't played before, I suggest playing a few official scenarios to get the hang and see what is different in the East Utopia scenario.
THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON SALE
With the anniversary of The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th, we are putting all the whole March on Washington Collection is on sale at 20% off through September 1st. If you purchase two items, we'll send you a replica pin for free. Of the 21 items currently in collection here are four highlights. Click on the image to visit the product pages.
BUY TWO ITEMS, GET A FREE MARCH ON WASHINGTON BUTTON
East Utopia Radio: Weird Old America
Everything old is new again.
The East Utopia Radio playlist for this newsletter takes us back in time while pushing forward into the present and future. This is an evocative set of sounds that combines old field recordings, new beats and electronica, and modern sounds that draw on the stylings of by-gone eras.
You can click here or on the images to go to the playlist. I hope you enjoy.
