This Is Hell!
unknown
2022-11-08
https://soundcloud.com/this-is-hell/the-elite-academia-experts-propgating-the-police-state-alec-karakatsanis
Alec Karakatsanis joins Chuck Mertz to discuss his piece "Warning to Journalists About Elite Academia" published at https://equalityalec.substack.com/ . Alec is the founder and executive director of Civil Rights Corps and Author of Usual Cruelty. New responses to the Question from Hell and this week in Rotten History.

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-11-08
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-why-is-the-rent-so-damn-high
Robert is joined by Samantha Mcvey to discuss what is going with the rental market. 

(2 part series)

Footnotes:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/informationtechnology/2022/10/rent-going-up-one-companys-algorithm-could-be-why/%3famp=1 

https://www.multifamilyexecutive.com/property-management/revenuerevolution-pushing-rents-becomes-the-norm_o  

https://extranewsfeed.com/a-history-of-landlords-rent-the-feudal-origins-of-a-nonworking-class-e718e6c82e2f  

https://popular.info/p/death-by-eviction  
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna52111 
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/nyregion/queens-landlordconvicted-in-plot-to-kill-two-tenants.html 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/02/worlddispatch.oliverburkeman 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.laprogressive.com/.amp/homeles sness/studies-find-rent-control-works  
https://www.housinghumanright.org/is-billionaire-landlord-sam-zellthe-quintessential-corporate-vulture/ https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/102915/how-sam-zell-madehis-fortune.asp  

https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/risk-and-reward-aconversation-with-sam-zell  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-27/steve-schwarzman-buys-80-millionenglish-country-estate   

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.com/50-most-influential-jews/article-717735/amp   

https://fintechmagazine.com/venture-capital/stephen-a-schwarzman-the-billionare-who-builtblackstone   

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/090915/how-stephen-schwarzman-built-blackstonegroup.asp   

https://www.invitationtenants.com/blackstone-profits-from-the-foreclosure-crisis/   

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b14zb99vmk6h6n/blackstones-stephen-schwarzman-onnot-wasting-a-serious-crisis 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/2118625/corporate-landlords-are-benefiting-frominflation/amp/ 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/rich-investors-make-easy-scapegoat-risingrents/606607/ 

https://archive.ph/TjPXE  

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089174630/housing-shortage-newhome-construction-supply- 
chain#:~:text=The%20Housing%20Shortage%20Is%20Significant,nearl y%2020%25%20last%20year%20alone  

https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/is-there-a-housing-shortage-or-not
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Politico
Associated Press
2022-11-07
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/08/nicaragua-sandinistas-ortega-repression-00065603
More than 200,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country in recent years.

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Center for a Stateless Society
C4SS
2022-11-07
https://c4ss.org/content/57580
We’re excited to announce that Kevin Carson’s latest book, The State: Theory and Praxis is now available for purchase on Amazon!  Adding to Carson’s large body of work, this book covers many important topics for anti-capitalists of all stripes. In this new manuscript, Carson: … examines the class nature of the state, navigates between the contending…

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Anews podcast
rocinante
2022-11-07
https://podcast.anarchistnews.org/2022/11/anews-podcast-287-11-4-22/
Welcome to this week’s podcast. This podcast is on anarchist activity, ideas, and comments from the previous week on anarchistnews.org. Notes: Nothing’s New A reading from theanarchistlibrarySilvia Federici – Caliban and the Witch (excerpt) Read & sound edited by Max Res A discussion prompted by Anti-Commuter Aktion, gentrification in Exarcheia, Ukrainian anarchists mad at European … Continue reading "ANews Podcast 287 – 11.4.22"

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Jacobin
Laura Weinrib
2022-11-07
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/laura-weinrib-interview-taming-of-free-speech-aclu-liberalism-labor-iww/
When Americans think of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), most imagine an organization committed to defending free speech regardless of its content. The ACLU will defend a leftist’s right to burn a flag, a Nazi’s right to march in the streets, and, astoundingly, even a corporation’s right to “speak” through campaign donations, as seen […]

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CrimethInc.
unknown
2022-11-06
https://crimethinc.com/2022/11/06/left-electoralism-fascist-direct-action-and-anti-fascist-resistance-the-brazilian-elections-of-2022-and-their-implications-1
The 2022 elections in Brazil offer a glimpse of the future as the far right reorganizes itself while the institutional left continues to bet on a collapsing social order.

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Arizona Daily Independent
ADI Staff Reporter
2022-11-06
https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2022/11/06/investigation-into-suspicious-envelopes-filled-with-powder-closes-kari-lake-campaign-headquarters/

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-11-06
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/crimethinc-kazakhstan?v=1667747146
Author: CrimethInc.
Title: Kazakhstan
Subtitle: Anarchist Reports and Assessments
Date: 2022
Source: Retrieved on November 6, 2022 from https://crimethinc.com/zines/kazakhstan-anarchist-reports

I. The Uprising in Kazakhstan
A full-scale uprising has broken out in Kazakhstan in response to the rising cost of living and the violence of the authoritarian government. Demonstrators have seized government buildings in many parts of the country, especially in Almaty, the most populous city, where they temporarily occupied the airport and set the capitol building on fire. As we publish this, police have recaptured downtown Almaty, killing at least dozens of people in the process, while troops from Russia and Belarus arrive to join them in suppressing the protests. We owe it to the people on the receiving end of this repression to learn why they rose up. In the following report, we present an interview with a Kazakhstani expatriate who explores what drove people in Kazakhstan to revolt – and explore the implications of this uprising for the region as a whole.

“What is now happening in Kazakhstan has never happened here before.”

“All night there were explosions, police violence against people, and some people burned police cars, including some random cars. Now people are marching around the main streets and something is happening near Akimat (the parliament building).”

The last message we received from our comrade in Kazakhstan, an anarcha-feminist in Almaty, shortly before 4 pm (East Kazakhstan time) on January 5, before we lost contact.

We should understand the uprising in Kazakhstan in a global context. It is not simply a reaction to an authoritarian regime. Protesters in Kazakhstan are responding to the same rising cost of living that people have been protesting all around the world for years. Kazakhstan is not the first place where an increase in the cost of gas has triggered a wave of protests—exactly the same thing has happened in France, Ecuador, and elsewhere around the world, under a wide range of administrations and forms of government.

What is significant about this particular uprising, then, is not that it is unprecedented, but that it involves people confronting the same challenges we confront, too, wherever we live.

The urgency with which Russia is moving to help to suppress the uprising is also significant. The Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO], a military alliance comprised of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan—with Russia calling the shots—has committed to sending forces to Kazakstan. This is the first time that the CSTO has deployed troops to support a member nation; it refused to assist Armenia in 2021, during its conflict with Azerbaijan.

It is instructive that the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan did not warrant CSTO intervention, but a powerful protest movement does. As in other imperial projects, the chief threat to the Russian sphere of influence (the “Rusosphere”) is not war, but revolution. Russia has profited considerably from the civil war in Syria and the Turkish invasion of Rojava, playing Syria and Turkey against each other to gain a foothold in the region. One of the ways that Vladimir Putin has held on to power in Russia has been by rallying Russian patriots to support him in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. War—perpetual war—is part and parcel of the Russian imperial project, just as war has served the American imperial project in Iraq and Afghanistan. War is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne put it.

Uprisings, on the other hand, must be suppressed by any means necessary. If the millions of people in the Rusosphere who languish under a combination of kleptocracy and neoliberalism saw an uprising succeed in any of those countries, they would hurry to follow suit. Looking at the waves of protest in Belarus in 2020 and in Russia a year ago, we can see that many people are inclined to do so even without hope of success.

In capitalist democracies like the United States, where elections can swap out one gang of self-seeking politicians for another, the illusion of choice itself serves to distract people from taking action to bring about real change. In authoritarian regimes like Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, there is no such illusion; the reigning order is imposed by despair and brute force alone. In these conditions, anyone can see that revolution offers the only way forward. Indeed, the rulers of all three of those countries owe their power to the wave of revolutions that took place starting in 1989, bringing about the fall of the Eastern Bloc. We can hardly blame their subjects for suspecting that only a revolution could bring about a change in their circumstances.

Revolution—but for what purpose? We cannot share the optimism of liberals who imagine that social change in Kazakhstan will be as simple as chasing out the autocrats and holding elections. Without thoroughgoing economic and social changes, any merely political change would leave most people at the mercy of the same neoliberal capitalism that is immiserating them today.

And in any case, Putin will not give up so easily. Real social change—in the Rusosphere as in the West—will require a protracted struggle. Overthrowing the government is necessary, but not sufficient: in order to defend themselves against future political and economic impositions, ordinary people will have to develop collective power on a horizontal, decentralized basis. This is not the work of a day or a year, but of a generation.

…

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libcom.org
Guerre de Classe
2022-11-05
https://libcom.org/article/anarchist-antimilitarism-and-myths-about-war-ukraine

We consider the following text from the blog antimilitarismus.noblogs.org to be one of the most important contributions of Czech anarchism against war and all warmongers, who, unfortunately, are also abundant in the anarchist movement.

Author

antimilitarismus.noblogs.org

Submitted by Guerre de Classe on November 5, 2022

Copied to clipboard

The way how the text presents the various arguments against the myths about war that prevail in the anarchist movement and how it gathers them together into an organic complex of a revolutionary defeatist position, the vigor with which it opposes various pseudo-reasons why the anarchist movement should support war or one of the warring parties, the insistence with which it advocates the transformation of the imperialist conflict into a class conflict as the only possible path towards social revolution and therefore the only real peace, all of those makes out of it from our point of view a supremely important document of the contemporary revolutionary anti-war movement, even on an international scale.

However, we would construct some of the arguments and justified some of the positions somewhat differently, although with the same conclusion: war against war. We would like here to point out the ideological categorization remaining in the text according to which the dictatorship of Capital is articulated around the poles “democracy” versus “dictatorship” (cf. myths 10 and 29), a categorization which tends to elude the deep nature of the social dictatorship of Capital which is precisely and really democracy (i.e. ITS democracy!) as the negation of class antagonism and its conflictuality.

Let us add to the text that the conflict lines of “critical” support for one of the warring parties versus revolutionary defeatism do not run only across the anarchist movement, although it is the anarchist movement that the text refers to. The same “myths”, the same attitudes and the same discussions can be found in the ultra-left camp all over the world. Even there, revolutionaries must define themselves against those “who are the first to issue countless proclamations and publications with anti-militarist themes at a time when the war is on the other side of the world, but when it comes to their doorstep, they start reproducing war propaganda”.

Therefore, together with the authors of the text, we must reaffirm over and over again “that being an antimilitarist made sense during WW1, just as it does in the case of the current war in Ukraine”.

READ THE PAMPHLET HERE:

ONLINE: https://www.autistici.org/tridnivalka/antimilitarismus-anarchist-antimilitarism-and-myths-about-the-war-in-ukraine/

PDF: https://www.autistici.org/tridnivalka/wp-content/uploads/antimilitarismus-en.pdf

Ukraine
Russia
Russia-Ukraine war
internationalism

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
stuartelden
2022-11-05
https://progressivegeographies.com/2022/11/05/parts-of-georges-batailles-library-for-sale-and-a-fascinating-downloadable-catalogue/
Parts of Georges Bataille’s library are for sale – story here. As you’d expect, things are rather expensive… A catalogue is available to buy – La bibliothèque de Georges Bataille – and to download as pdf here. petit in-4, broché, … Continue reading →

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-11-04
https://anarchistnews.org/content/new-communication-infrastructure-anarchists-0
From From Embers

Interview with the author of the PET Guide, a zine discussing secure digital communication tools from an anarchist perspective. We discuss Signal and its critics, and some new tools being released that incorporate peer-to-peer communication, end-to-end encryption and the Tor network.

Further reading:

How the U.S. Military buys location data from ordinary apps

The challenge of cracking Iran’s internet blockade

Catholic bishop / Grindr / App data scandal

Signal

Interview with new Signal president Meredith Whittaker

Signal Warning? Why Moxie’s Departure Is Not The End Of Signal

Signal Fails

PET apps

Briar Project

Cwtch

Tags: communicationinfrastructure

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Politico
Carly Sitrin
2022-11-04
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/04/threat-to-new-jersey-synagogues-mitigated-state-officials-say-00065162
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Newark office would not comment beyond the agency’s statement, which did not say whether anyone had been taken into custody.

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VICE US
Chloe Xiang
2022-11-04
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvm3k5/github-users-file-a-class-action-lawsuit-against-microsoft-for-training-an-ai-tool-with-their-code
This lawsuit represents a growing concern fr programmers, artists, and other people that AI systems may be using their code, artwork, and other data without permission.

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Ars Technica – All content
Ashley Belanger
2022-11-04
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/11/twitter-shuts-offices-for-day-as-it-cuts-50-of-workforce-staff-already-suing/
Twitter staff plans to fight layoffs in a San Francisco court.

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The Forward
Beth Harpaz
2022-11-04
https://forward.com/fast-forward/523767/threat-individual-identified-synagogues-new-jersey-law-enforcement/
The individual who threatened synagogues in New Jersey on Thursday has been identified and “neutralized,” officials said Friday. A man who holds “radical extremist views” was identified as being behind the threat and “no longer poses a threat to the community at this time,” the agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark office told state…

The post Individual who threatened synagogues in New Jersey identified by law enforcement appeared first on The Forward.

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Tom Nicholas (uploads) on YouTube
Tom Nicholas
2022-11-04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfF_EIl5Mx0

From: Tom Nicholas

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Industrial Worker
Tuck x331980
2022-11-04
https://industrialworker.org/bloody-sunday-the-1916-everett-massacre/
EVERETT, WA – On November 5th, 1916, twelve IWW members were shot dead in cold blood by a vigilante posse of drunken business owners and their flunkeys commanded by Snohomish County Sheriff Donald McRae. Twenty-seven other union members were wounded by gunfire. This was the most murderous crime committed again Wobblies in our Union’s history. … Continue reading "Bloody Sunday: The 1916 Everett Massacre"

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VICE US
Jason Koebler
2022-11-04
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7gkw8/twitter-recommends-ye-as-top-follow-on-the-jews-as-company-does-mass-layoffs
"The Jews" and "#IStandWithKyrie" are trending on Elon Musk’s Twitter.

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Schneier on Security
Bruce Schneier
2022-11-04
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/11/nsa-on-supply-chain-security.html
The NSA (together with CISA) has published a long report on supply-chain security: “Securing the Software Supply Chain: Recommended Practices Guide for Suppliers.“:

Prevention is often seen as the responsibility of the software developer, as they are required to securely develop and deliver code, verify third party components, and harden the build environment. But the supplier also holds a critical responsibility in ensuring the security and integrity of our software. After all, the software vendor is responsible for liaising between the customer and software developer. It is through this relationship that additional security features can be applied via contractual agreements, software releases and updates, notifications and mitigations of vulnerabilities…

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-11-04
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z348k3/cyber-why-concert-tickets-are-so-expensive
A vertically integrated monopoly is using an algorithm to generate dynamic prices that run up the cost of live music.

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Jacobin
Medea Benjamin
2022-11-04
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/un-general-assembly-cuba-embargo-blockade-vote-us-biden/
Immoral, illegal, archaic, coercive, intimidating, criminal, absurd, reckless, brutal — even genocidal. These were some of the adjectives used by global leaders at the United Nations as they took to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly to rail against US policy toward Cuba. Then yesterday, November 3, for the thirtieth year, the General […]

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It’s FOSS News
Sourav Rudra
2022-11-04
https://news.itsfoss.com/proton-black-friday-deal/
A massive range of discounts on Proton Mail, VPN, Drive, and more!

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
stuartelden
2022-11-04
https://progressivegeographies.com/2022/11/04/i-am-not-a-good-communist-henri-lefebvres-autobiography-from-1957-translated-by-david-fernbach-at-the-verso-blog/
“I am not a good Communist” – Henri Lefebvre’s Autobiography from 1957, translated by David Fernbach at the Verso blog Thanks to Adam David Morton for the alert to this. The original was in a collection of autobiographical sketches by … Continue reading →

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The Forward
LKeene
2022-11-03
https://forward.com/news/sports/523668/kyrie-irving-antisemitism-controversy-timeline-suspension-video/
Controversial NBA star Kyrie Irving shared a link to a film rife with antisemitic conspiracies on Twitter on Oct. 27, setting off calls from around the NBA and the Jewish community for him to apologize or face punishment. As of a week later, Irving has not apologized — though he pledged $500,000 Wednesday night to…

The post A timeline of Kyrie Irving’s antisemitism controversy appeared first on The Forward.

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FP Foreign Policy
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Zep Kalb
2022-11-03
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/03/iran-workers-general-strike-oil-protests/
Unlike in 1979, much of the Iranian working class is precariously employed—and they have more to lose than their chains by joining the protests.

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-03
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/11/starbucks-union-busting-tactics-workers-labor-wave-nlrb.html
Starbucks union-busting tactics against organizing workers will teach other companies how to crush union drives.  Slate

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-03
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/chipotle-shut-restaurant-because-workers-organized-nlrb-alleges
Chipotle Shut Down Restaurant to Defeat Union, NLRB Alleges (1)  Bloomberg Law

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Politico
Carly Sitrin
2022-11-03
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/03/fbi-credible-threat-new-jersey-synagogues-00065018
 “We are taking a proactive measure with this warning while investigative processes are carried out,” the office tweeted.

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Politico
Kyle Cheney
2022-11-03
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/03/oath-keepers-defense-seditious-conspiracy-00065021
In a pushback to weeks of evidence presented by prosecutors, defense attorneys said there was simply no concrete evidence of a conspiracy to topple the incoming government.

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VICE US
Katie Way
2022-11-03
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvm3b5/being-verified-on-twitter-actually-sucks
As someone using the platform with the “benefits” a blue check offers, trust me: Do not pay $8 for this shit.

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The Forward
BCohen
2022-11-03
https://www.jta.org/2022/11/03/united-states/fbi-reports-credible-threat-to-new-jersey-synagogues-urging-them-to-take-all-security-precautions
(JTA) — New Jersey and federal officials are collaborating after the FBI’s Newark office warned New Jersey synagogues of a “broad threat” against them. “The FBI has received credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in NJ,” the agency’s Newark office shared on social media Thursday after. “We ask at this time that you…

The post FBI reports ‘credible threat’ to New Jersey synagogues, urging them to take ‘all security precautions’ appeared first on The Forward.

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Politico
Megan Messerly
2022-11-03
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/03/doctor-who-performed-abortion-for-10-year-old-sues-indiana-ag-over-fishing-expedition-00065001
The doctors argue in the lawsuit the subpoenas are effectively a “fishing expedition” against abortion providers that violate Indiana law.

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Politico
Jeremy B. White
2022-11-03
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/03/newsom-rejects-every-california-citys-homelessness-plan-in-stinging-rebuke-00064899
Oakland’s mayor says she was "perplexed" by the decision.

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Ars Technica – All content
WIRED
2022-11-03
https://www.wired.com/story/submarine-internet-cables-egypt/
When underwater cables congregate in one place, things get tricky.

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New Politics
Brendan S.
2022-11-03
https://newpol.org/the-class-war-in-ukraine/
The Ukrainian people have a right to defend their self-determination and autonomy, the Russian state is the aggressor, and the West has taken advantage of Ukrainian politics for its own imperialist benefit.

Read more ›

The post The Class War In Ukraine appeared first on New Politics.

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Anarchism
Dycella Admin
2022-11-03
https://www.jimcarrollsblog.com/blog/2022/11/3/with-an-apple-i-will-astonish-parisnbspcezanne-starting-revolutions-in-unexpected-places

Paul Cezanne – Still Life with Fruit Dish. Museum of Modern Art in New York
Photograph: www.scalarchives.com

I recently attended a fine exhibition of the work of Paul Cezanne. (Tate Modern, London until 12 March, 2023)
‘There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.’
Cezanne painted intense, almost abstract, landscapes from flat planes of bold colour. He gave us enigmatic portraits that capture the sensation of being in the room with the sitter. He created still lifes that are hypnotically vivid and spatially disorientating. He demonstrated that infinite opportunities can be offered by a narrow range of subjects. He built a bridge between Impressionism and Cubism. And he subverted the traditional hierarchy of art.
‘The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.’
Paul Cezanne was born in 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, the son of a milliner and later banker. At the age of 22 he set aside his law studies when his schoolmate Emile Zola encouraged him to join the creative community in Paris.
Cezanne sketched in the capital’s museums and attended classes at the Academie Suisse. The city was a hotbed of social and political unrest. Zola was a republican and Cezanne’s mentor Pissaro was an anarchist. But Cezanne was a shy, introverted fellow, less obviously opinionated.
‘The world doesn’t understand me and I don’t understand the world. That’s why I’ve withdrawn from it.’

Paul Cezanne self-portrait 1875 © RMN-Grand Palais

Cezanne expressed his revolutionary zeal in his art. 
In 1870, in order to avoid conscription in the Franco-Prussian War, Cezanne moved to L’Estaque, a seaside village just west of Marseille. Over a 15 year period he made 40 paintings of the hot dry landscape, endlessly curious for fresh views and perspectives. 
‘Here, on the river’s verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left.’
Overlooking an azure sea, the yellow and brown block houses, with their shuttered windows and ochre gable roofs, create jagged, geometric patterns, intersecting with factory chimneys, telegraph poles and the grey viaduct. 
We are witnessing the first steps towards Cubism.
‘I believe in the logical development of everything we see and feel through the study of nature.’
Mont Sainte-Victoire, near Aix, featured in over 80 of Cezanne’s works. He painted it from the valley below, from his garden at Jas de Bouffan, from the roof of his studio and from the local quarry. The limestone mountain looms in the distance, a brooding permanent companion, sometimes reduced to just a few blue and white brushstrokes. Whereas the Impressionists had been interested in light, atmosphere and the fleeting moment, Cezanne was fascinated by geology, soil and timeless presence.
‘I am a consciousness. The landscape thinks itself through me.’

Paul Cezanne – The Sea at L’Estaque behind Trees

Still life was traditionally considered an unimportant genre. Great painters tended to concern themselves with historical, mythical and religious themes. But for Cezanne everyday objects represented an opportunity for subversion. Rather than precisely depicting an item itself, he would convey his consciousness of it. This was the art of perception.
‘People think how a sugar basin has no physiognomy, no soul. But it changes every day.’
Here are oranges, apples and pears; ginger jar, sugar bowl and water jug – arranged against a piece of patterned fabric, l’indienne. Cezanne presents these things in blazing, iridescent colours, in endless permutations. Sometimes his vision seems warped, the bottles, dishes and fruit at risk of tumbling off the table. A plaster Cupid stumbles clumsily onto the scene. The apples shimmer. The oranges quiver. A dazzling white sheet floats across the canvas. 
‘Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.’
Scientists have since observed that Cézanne’s woozy imagery corresponds with the way we actually see the world. Our eyes are not static when we look, but are making frequent tiny darting movements, ‘saccades’, between areas of visual interest. 
Cezanne’s portraits are like his still lifes. You get more of a sense of the sitters’ presence than of their personality. Here’s his wife Marie Hortense, whom he painted 29 times over 25 years. She sits in a yellow chair, her lips pursed, her hair parted, her hands clasped on her lap. Here’s his son Paul, a dreamy melancholy soul. And here’s his phlegmatic gardener Vallier, legs crossed, hat pulled over an expressionless face. 

Paul Cezanne – Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair (1888-90). Art Institute Chicago

‘The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.’
I was particularly struck by the thought that Cezanne’s revolution began in still life, the field of art with the lowest esteem. When I was a young ad man, everyone wanted to work on beer, cars and jeans. But it’s difficult to make an impression on a category that is already considered cool and creative; that already attracts the attentions of the great and the good. The Planners that made their name in my time did so on the roads less travelled, on difficult brands in unfashionable sectors – detergent and dog food, soup, soap and financial services. The stone that the builders rejected can indeed become the cornerstone.
Cezanne died in 1906 at the age of 67. He had always been admired by his fellow artists. Degas, Gaugin and Monet; Pissarro, Caillebotte and Renoir all kept his work. And Picasso referred to him as ‘the father of us all.’
‘Cezanne cannot put touches of two colours onto a canvas without it being an achievement.’
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Cezanne taught us to find truth in nature; to reflect on and celebrate sensation; to look and look again – because even if we cannot fully comprehend the world around us, we can at least enjoy our perception of it.
‘We live in a rainbow of chaos.’
‘I pick my friends like I pick my fruit.
My Granny told me that when I was only a youth.
I don’t walk around trying to be what I’m not.
I don’t waste my time trying to get what you got.
I work at pleasin’ me,
‘Cause I can’t please you.
And that’s why I do what I do
My soul flies free like a willow tree.
Doo wee, doo wee, doo wee
And if you don’t want to be down with me, you don’t want to pick from my
Apple tree.’
Erykah Badu, ‘Appletree’ (R Bradford / E Badu)
No. 394

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-11-03
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-two-robert-and-cody-watch-jordan-b-petersons
Robert and Cody finish watching and discussing episode one of Jordan B. Peterson’s new TV show. 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Human Rights Watch News
Human Rights Watch
2022-11-02
http://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/03/iran-thousands-detained-activists-peril
Click to expand Image
Iranians protesting in Tehran, Iran, on October 1, 2022. 
© 2022 AP Photo/Middle East Images
(Beirut) – Iranian authorities have escalated their assault against widespread dissent and protests through dubious national security charges against detained activists and grossly unfair trials, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 31, 2022, the head of Tehran Province’s judiciary said that it had issued around 1,000 indictments against those arrested related to protests.

On October 29, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Intelligence Organization accused two detained women journalists of participating in a training course from US intelligence-backed entities. The journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohamadi, had reported on the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in morality police custody, which sparked widespread protests. The authorities did not publish any evidence to support their allegation.

“Iran’s vicious security apparatus is using every tactic in its book, including lethal force against protesters, arresting and slandering human rights defenders and journalists, and sham trials to crush widespread dissent,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Yet every new atrocity only reinforces why Iranians are demanding fundamental changes to a corrupt autocracy.”

Iran has a long history of using vaguely defined national security charges against protesters and dissidents in trials that fall grossly short of international standards. Iran’s intelligence agencies and state media outlets regularly publish and promote false claims against activists and dissidents.

An informal network of activists inside Iran, known as the Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees, said that as of October 30, in addition to mass arrests of protesters, intelligence agencies have arrested 130 human rights defenders, 38 women rights defenders, 36 political activists, 19 lawyers, and 38 journalists, the majority of whom remained in detention.

These include, according to the network: Alireza Khoshbakht, Zahra Tohidi, Hoda Tohidi, Hossein Ronaghi, Majid Tavakoli, Bahareh Hedayat, Milad Fadai Asl, Saba Sherdoost, Hossein Masoumi, Yalda Moaeri, Vida Rabbani, Roulolah Nakhaei, Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, Amiremad (Jadi) Mirmirani, Fatemeh Sepehri, Toumaj Salehi, Mojgan Inanlou, Neda Naji, Marzieh Amiri, Majid Dori, and Arash Ramezani.

According to the group, authorities have also arrested 308 university students and 44 children. Over the past three weeks, security forces have repeatedly attacked university campuses with excessive use of force, including teargas, and arrested students. University authorities have barred dozens of students from entering university campuses for participating in the protests.

The authorities have also reportedly summoned, interrogated, or confiscated the passports of dozens of public figures who supported the protests, including directors, actors, singers, and football players.

Since September 16, the protests have spread to at least 133 cities and 129 universities as well as several secondary schools, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Human rights groups are investigating the reported deaths of at least 284 people, including 45 children. Dozens of security forces have also reportedly been killed, according to state media. Human Rights Watch has documented security forces’ unlawful use of excessive or lethal force including shotguns, assault rifles, and handguns against protesters in largely peaceful and often crowded settings in 13 cities across the country.

On October 24, Masoud Setayeshi, the judiciary spokesperson, told media that trials have started across the country. He said the authorities have charged 315 defendants in Tehran with “assembly and collusion to act against national security,” “propaganda against the state,” and “disrupting public order.” He said they have also charged four people with “corruption on earth,” a charge that can carry the death penalty, through “use of weapons to scare the people,” “injuring security officers,” “destruction of public and government property to disrupt national security,” and “combating the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

According to Hamshahri newspaper, 25 indictments have been issued in Kerman province, 89 in Semnan, 118 in Zanjan, 105 in Khuzestan, 55 in Qazvin, 110 in Kurdistan, and 201 in Alborz province. According to the head of the judiciary in Sistan and Baluchistan province, 45 indictments have been issued there as well.

The Iranian authorities have subjected detainees to various forms of physical and psychological torture and other ill-treatment. Two female detainees arrested during protests in Kurdistan province told Human Rights Watch that authorities tortured them, including beating them with batons, electric shocks, sexual assault, verbal assault, and threats.

Mohammad Ghobadlou, 22, and the three other people were charged with “corruption on earth” on October 29 in a court headed by Judge Abolghasem Salavati. Ghobadlou’s lawyer, Amir Raeesian, posted on Twitter that the judge did not allow him or Ghobadlou’s family to be present during the trial. Based on the indictment, Ghobadlou is accused of killing a security officer and injuring five others in a car accident, but Raeesian pointed to inconsistencies in the indictment and legal examiner’s report.

“The international community should be particularly vigilant about the situation of those who are detained and those at risk of being sentenced to death,” Sepehri Far said. “Demanding the unconditional release and ending the sham trials of all those who have been arrested for peaceful dissent should be a key priority.”

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-11-02
https://anarchistnews.org/content/responsibility-claim-attack-attiko-metro-station
From Athens Indymedia

Translated by Act for freedom now!

Full Original Title: Athens,Greece: Taking responsibility for the attack at the Attiko Metro station destroying entrance barriers, ticket machines and ATMs.

Taking responsibility by Anarchists

The use and exploitation of the urban fabric by State and capital has experienced different conditions and modes of enforcement. From metropolitan centres – factories aimed at absorbing as much of the industrial workforce as possible, to bureaucratic and decision-making centres, to amusement parks and theme parks, metropolitan centres have been points of great interest to the rulers of this world. An interest which was in turn met with resistance from the struggling sections of society. From roadblocks and barricades, clashes and demonstrations, to occupations and acts of sabotage, the social base found and continues to find ways of re-appropriating the space in which it lives, works and socialises. From the Paris Commune to the Gezi Square in Istanbul, the struggles for and within the urban fabric make up a mosaic of resistance against State and capital.

Even today, when the Athenian metropolis, with its centre at its peak, is a tourist resort reserved for the European “cream of the crop”, there are daily struggles to defend and visualise the social base. In a situation where the State with its uniformed guards is consolidating the further impoverishment and alienation of those from below, struggles such as the one in defence of Exarcheia are moments of rallying and counter-attack.

As much as the media try to conceal mass marches and clashes, or rush to characterize such breakouts in metro stations as a piece of organized hooliganism, the inability to control and suppress them proves that the metropolis still belongs to the oppressed and resisting parts of society. With a multiform struggle, we are trying to create obstacles to the plans of the State and capital.

At the same time that poverty, fascism, patriarchy and gentrification are being imposed as a natural State, we choose to disrupt them at every opportunity and send back part of the violence we experience. For this reason, on Sunday 23/11, we attacked the Attiko Metro station Ag. Ioannis, destroying entrance barriers, ticket machines and ATMs, participating our way against the increasing proliferation of the metro station in Exarcheia Square and in the struggle to defend the neighbourhood.

Solidarity with the 4 imprisoned comrades, who are being prosecuted for the Piraeus traffic police case.

Victory for the hunger strike of Alfredo Cospito.

FREEDOM TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

Tags: responsibility claimattack!sabotagesolidarity means attack!anarchist prisonersexarcheiaGreece

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-11-02
https://anarchistnews.org/content/explosive-attack-meat-industry
From Athens Indymedia

Translated by Act for freedom now!

Full Original Title: Athens, Greece: Explosive attack on meat industry – Signal of solidarity to G.Michailidis and to Alfredo Cospito , by Anarchists

With this text we take responsibility for the fire of 3 refrigerator-trucks of Davoutis SA, in Nea Ionia, Athens. All three trucks, which were parked next to the main shop-slaughterhouse of the company, were completely destroyed by the flames. This company has been active for decades in the trade of murdered animals, making it one of the largest domestic ‘meat markets’.

Our action is a signal of solidarity, complicity and comradeship with comrade Giannis Michailidis and his struggle, not only in the capacity of a prisoner with a “just demand”, but with all the perspectives and contents of struggle that as an anarchist he has put on the table of subversive fermentations.

With this action, therefore, we in turn want to put a small stone in the broadening of the struggle for freedom and the enrichment of its perspectives and practices. We want to reposition in the integral place it occupies within the resistance to the plundering of nature, the targeting and sabotage of structures that enrich themselves through the torture and mass extermination of non-human animals.

The creation of communities of resistance and direct action against development projects on remote mountain tops and rivers. The struggles for the militant defence of the few remaining urban green zones (such as those evolving in the hills, parks and squares of Athens). The collective vigilance and organisation for the protection and rescue of forests from the devastating fires of urbanisation. Our self-education on the destructive consequences of the continuous development of industrial civilization, on the evolving climate change and further radical analysis and action against the hourglass of destruction.

All of the above go together with the recognition of the importance of saving biodiversity and animal ecosystems, they go together with the struggle for the liberation of every individual, every animal from the confinement structures of the “food” industry, from the experimental laboratories of “progress”, from the hands of the “clothing” skinners. They go along with the coherent attitude of vegetarianism, to the point at which the opposition to the domination of man over other animals is completed at the individual level. An opposition that emanates from the most elementary features of counter-authoritarian thought and practice.

The connection between the causes of the incessant deforestation, the overwhelming monocultures of cereals to feed farm animals, the enormous contribution of the livestock industry to the greenhouse effect and the pollution of the subsoil and aquifer, the mass extinction of species, is more obvious than ever. It is the background of the packaging that ends up on the shelves of supermarkets and large markets like Davoutis’ and then on the plates of a connoisseurial society living in generalised indifference. A backstage characterized from beginning to end by torture, confinement, the blood of those who have no voice to speak the obvious: We are not objects, we are not commodities!

But beyond the imposed conditions and the effects of the modern dystopia of mass societies. The project of a life without imposition and exploitation is completed and acquires a comprehensive perspective when, through opposition to power as the driving force of the suffering of this world, we place at its centre, as inherent characteristics in the here and now, freedom, self determination, life itself, of all living beings. For just as was said above: no life can be sacrificed as an object, as a commodity!

Let this action be taken as an address, a call to the comrades who share a common perspective for total liberation and are in the unfortunate position of a marginalized minority, to disentangle themselves and to speak out, to act, to organize. The massive social acceptance enjoyed by all these structures that torture and murder animals and projects that destroy nature makes their infrastructures targets beyond suspicion, in many cases unguarded and vulnerable. They are everywhere, inside and outside metropolitan centres.

Finally, we declare that we are closely following the development of Giannis’s case. We do not intend to treat the prolonged torture of the comrade during his hunger strike and his continued incarceration through bureaucratic mockery as mere dots on a chronology of events. They are experiences of particular pain and cost to the life and freedom of the comrade… they are causes of intensified hostilities.

Immediate release of the anarchist guerrilla Giannis Michaelidis

Support and Victory to the hunger strike of Alfredo Cospito

Sabotage the confinement and torture of human and non-animal animals

Until the destruction of the last cage….

Tags: attack!sabotagearsonfire!Giannis MichailidisAlfredo Cospitoanimal liberationsolidarity means attack!athens

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Current Affairs
Nathan J. Robinson
2022-11-02
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/11/how-is-slavery-still-legal/
It is disturbing that there is even any debate about this. But even some Democrats have supported keeping forced labor legal.

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The Forward
Laura E. Adkins
2022-11-02
https://forward.com/opinion/523500/american-jews-defending-israel-elections-2022/
A superstorm is about to hit American Jewish institutions, and we are not prepared. As the results of the latest Israeli election become clear, dire predictions of an ultra-nationalist, Kahanist, far-right ascendance are proving correct. Three far-right parties running as a bloc commanded over 10% of the vote, rendering them the Knesset’s third-largest party. They…

The post It’s about to get a lot harder for American Jews to explain Israel appeared first on The Forward.

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Diet Soap – a podcast
Douglas Lain
2022-11-02
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dietsoap/episodes/2022-11-02T10_50_05-07_00
Urszula and Ron from the Marxist Humanist organization News and Letters discuss dialectical thinking, freedom, and the war in Ukraine. Is there an opportunity for working-class solidarity in Ukraine and Russia? 

Doug’s CGAS Seminar on Radical Podcasting
https://gcascollege.ie/radical-content-producer 

Support Us On Patreon
https://patreon.com/dietsoap

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Ars Technica – All content
Kevin Purdy
2022-11-02
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/11/dwarf-fortress-on-steam-gets-release-date-trailer-and-graphics-beyond-ascii/
Early next month, you can experience sublime subterranean chaos—with sprites.

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Anarchism
RT
2022-11-02
https://www.rt.com/russia/565827-pussy-riot-founding-member-arrested/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
Pussy Riot co-founder Pyotr Verzilov has reportedly been arrested in absentia for disseminating ‘fakes’ about the Russian military
Read Full Article at RT.com

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VICE US
David Gilbert
2022-11-02
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxnbzx/pro-trump-extremist-midterm-voter-threats
“Better tell your gramma to drop off her own vote cause no games are being played this time.”

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Phoenix New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix New Times –
Katya Schwenk
2022-11-02
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix-spars-with-business-owners-in-court-over-massive-homeless-encampment-14803689

Attorneys for the city of Phoenix and for a group of downtown property owners who live in the middle of the city’s largest encampment of unsheltered people — often called "the Zone" — filed into the Maricopa County Superior Court for a day-long hearing on Thursday. It was the latest face-off in court over the encampment, prompted by a lawsuit from property owners who are attempting to push the city into action…

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VICE US
Tatyana Woodall
2022-11-02
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5vk5q/big-meat-companies-want-to-use-smartwatches-to-track-workers-every-move
As more companies seek to monitor workers, unions are beginning to push back, citing privacy and safety concerns.

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-11-02
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7k8mwq/watching-facebook-burn
Facebook’s advertising mega-machine is faltering right as its founder bets big on a virtual reality future no one seems to want. Is this the beginning of the end?

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Scientific American Content
Lucas Berenbrok, Marian Jarlenski, The Conversation US
2022-11-02
https://theconversation.com/with-over-the-counter-birth-control-pills-likely-to-be-approved-pharmacists-and-pharmacies-could-play-an-ever-increasing-role-in-reproductive-health-care-189216
If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the first over-the-counter birth control pill, pharmacists and pharmacies could play an ever-increasing role in reproductive health care

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Ars Technica – All content
Ars Contributors
2022-11-02
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/11/video-games-invade-the-art-world-in-momas-never-alone-exhibition/
Are games art? Who cares. Exhibit is more interested in how they bring us together.

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The Intercept
Intercepted
2022-11-02
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/02/intercepted-federal-reserve-fed/
How the Federal Reserve is undermining workers’ recent modest gains.

The post The Fed’s War on Workers appeared first on The Intercept.

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Co-operative News
Anca Voinea
2022-11-02
https://www.thenews.coop/166116/topic/legal/worker-co-ops-welcome-the-california-employee-ownership-act/
The act, which facilitates the worker buyout option for business succession, was signed into law by Democratic governor Gavin Newsom

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Critical Legal Thinking
Murilo Duarte Costa Correa
2022-11-02
https://criticallegalthinking.com/2022/11/02/on-the-vanishing-of-ecologies-latour-and-global-destinies-imagined-from-brazil/
This article was written prior to the results of the elections in Brazil. Be not the one who debunks but the one who assembles, not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naive believers but the one who offers arenas in which to gather. Bruno Latour When a crucial figure […]

The post On the Vanishing of Ecologies: Latour and Global Destinies Imagined from Brazil appeared first on Critical Legal Thinking.

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/starbucks-ithaca-store-closed-union_n_631a197be4b0eac9f4d4c5cb
Starbucks Broke Law By Closing Unionized Store In Ithaca, Labor Officials Say  HuffPost

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://captimes.com/news/business/screenprinters-vote-to-unionize-but-owner-says-he-closed-their-shop/article_58927ab4-3b63-5016-909f-6a3c25c54b09.html
Screenprinters vote to unionize, but owner says he closed their shop  The Capital Times

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://www.law360.com/employment-authority/articles/1545028/union-organizing-is-surging-on-college-campuses
Union Organizing Is Surging On College Campuses  Law360

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It’s Going Down
Anonymous Contributor
2022-11-01
https://itsgoingdown.org/corporate-media-collapse/
A look at the recent takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk and the continuing collapse of Facebook in the wake of the ‘Metaverse.’ If these trends continue, will this lead to the growth of non-corporate alternatives? Last Thursday Facebook’s share price plunged more than 25 percent, drastically dropping the company’s market share by $650 billion,… Read Full Article

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-11-01
https://anarchistnews.org/content/anarchist-zines-pamphlets-october-2022
From Sprout Distro

The following zines were published during October 2022. As always, read, discuss, and have fun!

You can view past round-ups if you want more reading material. If you have something you want us to include next month, contact us. For a curated collection of zines, view our catalog.

The photo that accompanies this post is of a sticker on the streets of New York City.

Anarchist Zines and Pamphlets Published in October 2022

The P.E.T. Guide: New Communication Infrastructure for Anarchists
This zine – published by the Jewish Anarchist Salon – features resources compiled during the group’s June Judaism and Abortion Care event. The zine includes a list of abortion funds, resources for finding safe/high-quality abortion care, resources for pharmacological (medication or pill) abortion, and ideas for spreading awareness about abortion access.

Download: [ Print | Screen ]

Sacco & Vanzetti’s Revenge
This zine – published by Detritus Books – is a reprint of an essay by historian Paul Avrich. It covers the campaign by anarchists to avenge the capture and subsequent execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in the 1920s. Whereas other accounts portray Sacco & Vanzetti as passive victims, this essay situates them in the insurrectionary movement of which they were participants. The text details various efforts other anarchists took to avenge their death, including the bombing of the judge’s home.

Download: [ Print ]

“No Regrets”: Accounts and Reflections the 2016 National Prison Strike
This zines presents an overview and timeline of the 2016 prison strike in the United States alongside several first-hand accounts.

The 2016 prison strike took place on September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising. According to most mainstream media reports, an unprecedented 24,000 prisoners participated, from between 20 to 40 different facilities. The chronology in this text is incomplete, as reports of participation continued to reach the outside weeks and even months later, but it gives a brief idea of the diversity of facilities and tactics that were involved: men’s and women’s facilities; black, white, brown, native; state, federal, and immigration centers—all kinds of people and facilities worked together to make this happen.

Download: [ Print ]

An Interview with Iranian Anarchists on the Protests in Response to Police Murder of Mahsa Amini
This zine – produced by the Bellingham Alternative Library — features an interview conducted by the Black Rose Anarchist Federation with the Federation of Anarchism Era in Iran. It provides a background on the murder of Mahsa Amini and mass demonstrations in response. The interview provides some important background on the revolt and the dynamics at play within it.

Download: [ Print ]

Between Storms: Anarchist Reflections of Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Resistance
From the intro:

“We have assembled this publication in solidarity with the ongoing Wet’suwet’en resistance to industrial expansion. This struggle for Indigenous self determination and land defence has become a landmark moment of rupture across the colonial nation of Canada and beyond. We felt the need to compile this zine in an effort to take a step back and witness the breadth and fierceness of these last few years – with a particular focus on the year that has just passed since the start of ‘Coyote Camp’ and the specific battle against the attempt to drill under Wedzin Kwa. Not to produce some stale collection for the history shelves, but to inspire and learn from these events as they continue to unfold. As we go to print, CGL has just begun the drilling under the river that many have fought so hard to prevent. It’s a sad day and this part of their destruction will have devastating effects. But this doesn’t mean that this fight has been in vain, the project is not complete and opportunities for intervention abound.”

Download: [ Print | Screen ]

Anathema – November 22
The latest issue of this Philadelphia-based publication features a round-up of recent actions alongside the usual mix of articles covering Philadelphia and beyond. Some highlights include an article on the Alabama prison strike, an interview with participants in a local struggle against the development of a park, and an essay on the current state of the anarchist milieu/subculture.

Download: [ Print | Screen ]

Night Owls – Summer 2022
This is a chronicle of direct actions taken across the so-called United States during summer of 2022. It lists a range of sabotage and vandalism undertaken as part of a number of different struggles. There is also a thought-provoking editorial included along with a poster for an attack against the first colonial home built west of the Mississippi.

Download: [ Print – Laser | Print – Riso / Poster – Laser | Poster – Riso ]

The Base Among the Jack Pine: Notes on the Camp Grayling Expansion on Anishinabewaki
TIn northern Michigan (traditionally Anishinabewaki land) there is a plan by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the National Guard to expand the Camp Grayling National Guard facility. This zine functions as a call-to-action to encourage people to resist the expansion while providing a lengthy overview of the proposal and the eco-systems and wildlife that the expansion would impact. It also explores the history of the National Guard in Michigan and its role in suppressing revolt. This is a good example of how a zine can provide an overview of an issue while encouraging action. You can follow more about the campaign at @CampGrayling on Twitter.

Download: [ Print | Screen ]

Whiteness is a War Measure: Race and Racism in the Transition from Obama to Trump to Biden
This is a new text by Peter Gelderloos exploring whiteness and the need to abolish it:

“The political changes that have occurred in the US over the last decade and a half not only give us an incisive opportunity to understand whiteness, they demand that we do so. What is its role in upholding oppressive systems and how has it changed from the 15th century to the 21st?”

The zine was published by Detritus Books and is highly recommended!

Download: [ Print ]

Creeker #2 and #3
Creeker is a grassroots, anti-authoritarian zine series that aims to bring depth, variety, critique and continuity to the ongoing process of reflecting on the Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek blockade and related efforts. It’s intended for creekers themselves, land defenders elsewhere, and the land defenders yet to come.

#2 includes contributions of art, analysis, photography, history, personal reflection and poetry that were anonymously sourced from participants at the blockade. #3 features history, poetry, collages, analysis, and reflection, plus a whole section dedicated to the inspiring forest defense currently happening in Atlanta. Alongside Creeker #3, the crew has also posted an older zine from the Elaho Valley Anarchist Horde covering a blockade from 2000 that inspires the current struggle.

Download: [ Creeker 3 – Print | Creeker 3 – Screen | Creeker 2 – Print | Creeker 2 – Screen | Elaho Valley Anarchist Horde- Print | Elaho Valley Anarchist Horde – Screen ]

Tags: zinespamphletssprout distro

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Srsly Wrong
srslywrong@gmail.com (Srsly Wrong)
2022-11-01
https://srslywrong.com/podcast/270-the-future-is-degrowth-w-aaron-vansintjan/
The ideology of infinite economic growth destroys the ecological foundations of human life, produces alienating ways of living and working, gives rise to undemocratic productive forces and techniques, and mismeasures our lives,…

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://www2.staffingindustry.com/Editorial/Daily-News/Group-of-YouTube-music-contract-workers-file-petition-with-NLRB-for-bargaining-rights-63499
Group of YouTube music contract workers file petition with NLRB for bargaining rights  Staffing Industry Analysts

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://whiskeyraiders.com/bourbon/woodford-reserve-union-employees/
Woodford Reserve Employees Attempt to Unionize  Whiskey Raiders

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Ars Technica – All content
Benj Edwards
2022-11-01
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/11/metas-ai-powered-audio-codec-promises-10x-compression-over-mp3/
Technique could allow high-quality calls and music on low-quality connections.

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-11-01
https://anarchistnews.org/content/punk-veganism-culture-resistance
From DIY Conspiracy

Len Tilbürger explores the intersection between the animal liberation movement and punk.

DIY Conspiracy celebrates the World Vegan Day 2022 with this new essay by Len Tilbürger, in which the author explores the intersection between the anarchist strains of punk-rock and the animal liberation movement, thus showing how essential veganism has been for creating a vibrant culture of solidarity and resistance.

It Started With Crass

From the outset there was some crossover between punk and not eating animals. People like Joe Strummer had been vegetarian since the early 1970s—he’d also been involved in the squatter movement, so there was an existing overlap between vegetarianism and radical leftism (if not necessarily, at that stage, anarchism). The first mention of animal rights or animal liberation in a punk song was by Crass in a song called “Time Out” on the album Stations of the Crass in 1979, with lyrics making a direct comparison between the suffering of humans and other animals. From there, animal liberation became a major theme in anarchopunk and other punk subgenres. The influence of Crass, and punk more widely, has led to the spread of veganism and animal rights throughout the world, and has influenced the relationship between veganism and a variety of musical subcultures including hip-hop and techno.

The connection between veganism and punk is most strongly and consistently expressed, and most sensibly understood, in connection with anarchism. Part of this connection stems from the hippie movement—Crass’s previous avant-garde art projects are a good example of that link. They were already vegetarian before they started the band, drawing from their pacifist worldview but also from their anarchist(ic) opposition to exploitation and solidarity with all living creatures. A lot of early punks had an anti-hippie sentiment that might have made them reluctant to become veggie or vegan, for fear of being marked out as a lentil muncher, but they were won over by the moral force of Crass’s argument. Captain Sensible from The Dammed is an interesting case—he went to Dial House, the commune where Crass lived in Essex, to record an EP, and after staying there for just one week he went vegetarian and subsequently wrote and recorded some vegetarian songs (“Wot! No Meat?”, 1985). Crass played a role in creating a kind of hippie/punk synthesis, and vegetarianism was a prime concern throughout the 1980s punk scenes.

Let’s Get Militant
Conflict playing in Birmingham, 1985. Chris Davis

Things soon moved away from the post-hippie vegetarian peace vibe towards a scene that encouraged militant direct action against those who profited from the abuse of animals. The band that personifies this shift was Conflict. Conflict were a lot “spikier” than Crass, a lot less concerned with the pacifism. In this sense they were more in keeping with the wider anarchist movement of the time (groups like Class War, the Anarchist Communist Federation, Direct Action Movement, and Black Flag). They didn’t shy away from the “violence” entailed in direct action and damage to property—they were willing to throw a brick through a butcher’s shop window, willing to damage the infrastructure that exploits animals, willing to inflict an economic toll on that industry. Conflict represented a move to something much closer to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF)—and of course they had several songs celebrating the ALF’s activism (for example “This is the ALF”, 1986).

As the story goes, Colin Jerwood from Conflict was originally made aware of the exploitation of animals when working as a painter in an abattoir. Jerwood was shocked by what he saw, and then went back to the abattoir with a video camera, posing as a student doing some research, to capture footage of the horror that was going on. Conflict projected these images onto a screen behind them when they performed. The reaction of some of the punks chimes with that anti-hippie trope, up to and including taking an anti-vegetarian stance. Imagine it—even though these punks are being shown the horrific abuse that goes on every day in abattoirs they feel a sort of macho compulsion to “front it out”. That’s what Conflict were up against, they were trying to get a message across to people who weren’t already vegetarians. We take it for granted now that there are so many people, not just from punk, who are vegetarian and vegan—it’s the “norm”, it’s what people do. But Conflict were real pioneers in the spread of veganism.

It wasn’t just Conflict of course. Other bands in that anarchopunk subgenre were writing songs about animal liberation: bands like Flux of Pink Indians, Zounds, Subhumans, Rudimentary Peni, Icons of Filth. But Conflict, and perhaps also Antisect, were more thoroughgoing with the theme. And it wasn’t just bands, early punk zines that had animal rights themes included Fack, Guilty of What?, New Crimes, and Tender Mercy (Worley, 2017). Zines have continued their key role in communicating veganism and animal liberation to a punk readership—countless zines include vegan recipes, some were even completely dedicated to vegan cooking. Over the years, some of the zines that have focused on veganism and animal liberation include Artcore, Bald Cactus, Last Hours (which started off as Rancid News), Headwound, Ripping Thrash, and Meat Raffle.

Animal Liberation & Punk

The period of the late 1970s, when punk poked its ugly visage into the public consciousness, coincided with the formation and rise of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). The genesis begins with the Band of Mercy, formed in 1972 by activists emerging from the Hunt Saboteurs Association. The aim of the Band of Mercy, named after a nineteenth-century RSPCA youth group, was to engage in property damage and economic sabotage in defense of animals. They began their campaign by destroying guns and sabotaging hunters’ vehicles by breaking windows and slashing tyres. The group eventually changed its name to the Animal Liberation Front to show that it took inspiration from anticolonial liberation struggles. One of the founders was Ronnie Lee, who himself was in a punk band, as were many other early ALF activists. These two groups—the anarchist punks and the animal liberation activists—came together and were involved in the same radical milieu. It is partly the relationship with punk that saw the animal liberation movement growing in an anarchist direction. As the ALF start to develop and take part in more actions, they used the same imagery and the same logo that the punks used—Ⓐ (the circled “A”).

Sheepdog (Why Zine) & Steve (A//Solution) holding a banner at an anti-vivisection demo in Irvine, California, 1987. The slogan from the banner comes from the UK’s band Concrete Sox first album which has a very strong stance towards vivisection. Thanks to Jang Lee from Resist and Exist for the photo.

The animal liberation movement would have not have reached the heights it did if it wasn’t for this relationship with punk—over a prolonged period, activists were engaged in more actions and causing more economic damage in the UK than the rest of the revolutionary left put together. The influence extends beyond the ALF as well. For example Hunt Sabs, they were formed in the 1960s but became a radical anarchist activist group in the late 1970s with the arrival of anarchopunks (who had been politicized by the likes of Crass and, later, Conflict). What drew people to hunt sabbing was partly the same thing that drew people to punk, it was DIY Activism: based around consensus decision making, achieved through small groups of people getting together without appeal to an external authority, organizing without hierarchy. It was a sense of questioning mainstream values, and it was a recognition of “total liberation”—different forms of oppression and domination intersected and were caused by the same factors which were maintained, upheld and reinforced by the capitalist state. Hunt Sabs became anarchist and adopted many of the anarchist organizing principles and cultural signifiers precisely because so many punks joined the movement.

Food Not Bombs cooking food at Rumah Api punk house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Another common factor across anarchist involvement in punk scenes all over the world today is Food Not Bombs. In the punk scene in Indonesia, for example, vegetarianism and veganism is much less of a norm, but Food Not Bombs actions are incredibly widespread, and they are vegetarian—it provides a focal point of vegetarian and vegan outreach within the punk culture. And that goes across the world, so whether you’re in Malaysia or Indonesia, or Russia or South America, or Europe or South Africa or the US, Food Not Bombs is a punk-associated action, and it is vegan (or at least vegetarian). Animal liberation as it is practiced in “the West”, and especially the Hunt Sabs framing within a particularly English tradition of toffs in red coats chasing foxes, hasn’t transmitted as widely across the world as Food Not Bombs. It’s a really strong connection.

Punk has given veganism a massive boost in terms of awareness; so many people have become aware of the political aspects of animal rights through punk, either through zines, bands singing songs about animal rights, or through distro stalls with leaflets and information. More than awareness-building, punk has been crucial in its fundraising—benefits gigs and record releases for Hunt Sabs and the ALF. These benefits provide a poignantly material connection between punk and animal rights, turning the everyday cultural production processes of punk towards activist causes.

Up the Vegan Punx

Punk has had a direct influence on the people listening to that music, but has also provided a cultural bedrock that has supported radical activism over the decades. Veganism has become part of a punk and anarchist collective identity. It’s all very well, to say “yes, I’m going to make a personal commitment to be vegan and to fight for animal liberation”, but if you don’t have a culture that supports you in that it’s very hard to maintain. You see it all the time, friends that used to be vegetarian in their youth are not vegetarian or vegan now because they didn’t have that network, that culture of support—that’s what punk created and that’s what other cultures are now recreating in their own aesthetic molds. Veganism has been a core part of sustaining and building an anarchist punk culture of resistance around the world. A new book— Smash the System: Punk Anarchism as a Culture of Resistance, published by Active Distribution (2022)—celebrates exactly these sorts of punk cultures, and throughout the book we glimpse the importance of veganism and animal liberation to the punk collective identity.

In different political and ideological contexts, animal liberation has been a part of punk scenes around the world. For instance, in post-communist Czech Republic punk fanzines of the early 1990s, such as Hlučná lobotomie, proved their green anarchist leanings by opposing militarism and nuclear energy, and by supporting the activities of the ALF. In post-apartheid South Africa we see that the spread of veganism was influenced by anarchist punks; in (state) socialist Venezuela we learn about anarchist punks becoming part of grassroots social movements that include the anti-globalisation movement, support for animal liberation and vegan groups, and solidarity with political prisoners; in China hardcore bands like Gouride (狗日的), from Yunnan, have songs promoting veganism as well as denouncing imperialism and consumerism.

In our zine Nailing Descartes to the Wall (2015, new edition 2020) we addressed the “lifestylism” critique levelled at the punk scene by non-punk anarchists—vegetarianism and veganism are often tied into the accusation that punks are “only lifestylists” and not proper anarchists. This criticism ignores the politicising role that punk has in terms of animal rights and the cultural bedrock that sustains and supports activism. The effect has been incredibly pervasive and long-lasting—records from the late 1970s and 1980s retain that impact even now, and that’s because they’re first and foremost part of a vibrant culture that people want to be part of. It is unabashedly bound up with entertainment, with fun. That’s where the power of punk lies, after all: it’s not dry and tedious and it’s not a lecture. If you become vegan or go hunt sabbing just because it’s what the “cool kids” are doing, then great! That’s as good a starting point as anywhere. There remain some stick-up-the-arse “materialist anarchists” who can’t see past the end of their own nose to appreciate the importance of that, even in the face of the immense impact that the punk/anarchist/vegan/animal liberation overlap has had on hundreds of thousands of people.

Len Tilbürger is a guest author of DIY Conspiracy and co-authored Nailing Descartes to the Wall: Animal Rights, Veganism and Punk Culture, together with Chris P. Kale.

References:

Captain Sensible & The Missus (1985), “Wot! No Meat?”, Animus Records.
Conflict (1986), “This is the A.L.F.”, The Ungovernable Force, Mortarhate Records.
Crass (1979), “Time Out”, Stations of the Crass, Crass Records.
Jim Donaghey, Will Boisseau and Caroline Kaltefleiter (eds) (2022), “Smash the System!”: Punk Anarchism as a Culture of Resistance, Karlovac: Active Distribution.
Len Tilbürger and Chris P. Kale (2015), Nailing Descartes to the Wall: Animal Rights, Veganism and Punk Culture, London: Active Distribution (new edition published 2020).
Matt Worley (2017), No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976–1984, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tags: animal liberationpunkveganismDIY

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Jacobin
Branko Marcetic
2022-11-01
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/brazil-election-far-right-police-extremism-law-enforcement/
There’s an important lesson for Americans in the Brazilian election that just ended in the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat. No, it’s not about the fact that a less wealthy, more recently established democracy of over two hundred million people managed to get all their votes counted in a day, though this should obviously spark […]

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The Intercept
Mara Hvistendahl
2022-11-01
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/01/biosafety-lab-accident-chikungunya-virus/
By the time a researcher who pricked her finger in Missouri reported the accident, she was already sick.

The post Student Infected With Debilitating Virus in Undisclosed Biolab Accident appeared first on The Intercept.

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VICE US
Paul Blest
2022-11-01
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/93a8qp/pennsylvania-richard-ringer-assault
“He knocked me out,” the candidate, who suspects he was targeted with election-related violence, told VICE News.

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VICE US
Becky Ferreira
2022-11-01
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkgvzb/scientists-used-genetic-engineering-to-change-how-high-cocaine-got-mice-in-study
Genetically-engineered gut bacteria and other treatments mediated how cocaine-injected mice responded to the drug.

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Politico
Jordan Wolman
2022-11-01
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/01/republicans-sustainable-investing-midterms-00064326
The biggest U.S. financial firms are likely to face expanded scrutiny over sustainable investing practices.

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FP Foreign Policy
Holly Dagres
2022-11-01
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/01/iran-protests-gen-z-mahsa-amini-social-media/
They’re shaking up the aging clerical establishment to a degree not seen since the 1979 revolution.

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Politico
Nancy Vu
2022-11-01
https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/11-1-2022/arizona-shakeup/
It’s a bad development for Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly a week before Election Day.

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/52534/union-formed-game-retailer
Union Formed at Game Retailer  ICv2

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/twitter-limits-content-enforcement-work-as-us-election-looms-1
Twitter Limits Content-Enforcement Work as US Election Looms (1)  Bloomberg Law

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-11-01
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/labor-board-official-takes-aim-at-workplace-spying/
Workplace spying surged in the pandemic. Now the government plans to crack down.  CBS News

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Atlas Obscura: Articles
Blair Mastbaum
2022-11-01
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/human-echolocation
Archaeologists test how our ancestors may have used this (nearly) lost skill to navigate caves and other dark spaces. A hedgehog and her hoglets scurry across the packed-dirt parking lot where University of Huddersfield sound archaeologist Rupert Till and his team have gathered around their van. They chat casually as they check their gear: headlamps operational, mobile phones charged, helmets properly buckled. It’s a crisp fall day in the Ariège Pyrenees of southwestern France, an area renowned for its high concentration of caves containing paintings and engravings from the Neolithic and earlier periods. But Till and his colleagues aren’t here for the art.

The team hikes up the narrow trail to the large mouth of Bédeilhac Cave, which was used as a military hangar by the occupying Germans during World War II. In the years since, the cave has seen everything from impromptu raves to groups of amateur treasure hunters searching for undiscovered artifacts. But today, Till is searching for something that sometimes seems even more difficult to find in our electrified age: total darkness.

Till has come to this cave to perform an acoustic archaeology experiment on the human ability to use echolocation. “Bats use echolocation, or biological sonar, to locate and identify objects,” says Till, adding that the chirping sound bats make, outside the range of human hearing, would be about as loud as a smoke detector if our ears could pick it up. Till wanted to test echolocation with something humans could hear.

“My idea was to try this with the voice,” he says. Researchers believe that ancient humans sang ritually in caves, but Till thinks the singing may have had another use: to aid in exploring the caves both for safety and to expand the area available for them to use. “I’m curious if humans might still have some remnants of this skill intact, somehow untapped and waiting to be re-used,” says Till. “Can untrained volunteers find their way around pitch-black cave galleries with nothing but their voices?”

To answer this question, Till designed an experiment, found a cave, and enlisted volunteers. He assigned each individual a 20-minute slot, during which they would be alone in a particular cave chamber. The main area had a smaller sub-chamber accessible only through a low, curving passage that, at its narrowest point, was only two feet wide. The participants’ goal was to locate and enter the smaller chamber, using only sound to navigate. After their attempts at echolocation, the volunteers were asked to draw a map of the space. Most were way off.

Till recorded the experiment using a method called acoustic impulse response, which involves precisely measuring and locating the sounds created in the space. Directional microphones, placed around the chamber, can then pinpoint how and where the volunteers’ voices echo, essentially creating an audio map of echolocation.

Initially, the experiment had mixed results, according to Till. “There was a lot of singing, screaming at walls, bumping into said cave walls, and a fair share of spontaneous bursts of laughter,” he says. A couple of volunteers also reported feeling fear, and one had to stop because he panicked. “Dark caves can be scary. And we’re obviously not accustomed to operating in complete darkness the way our ancestors were. A lot of us have never even experienced total darkness and caves are notoriously disorienting.”

However, the experiment participants appeared to adapt quickly, at least to the basics of echolocation. “I think the volunteers got better at not bumping into walls in a very short period of time,” Till says. “You can imagine if this was your only option, you’d hone the skill much more quickly…. We should keep in mind that the ancients were essentially blind half the day, when the sun wasn’t up, and when in the dark inner recesses of caves.”

He adds: “Echolocation is like a seventh sense, which, if I had to guess, is a skill that most have slowly lost through time, maybe because of this lack of true darkness.”

Miriam Kolar, a Stanford cultural acoustics researcher, agrees that human echolocation is likely a lost skill for our species overall—but one that’s not entirely gone. “I know that spelunkers sometimes talk about echolocation as an informally understood technique for sounding out distances and seeking the presence of water,” Kolar says.

Many visually impared people use echolocation on a daily basis, creating what Kolar and colleagues call “auditory localization cues”—usually by making clicking sounds—that echo, or reflect, off physical surfaces. But echolocation is a complex process, and exactly how it works for our species is not fully understood by scientists.

“You could fill libraries with what we know about the human visual system. What we know about human echolocation wouldn’t fill a bookshelf,” says Daniel Kish of World Access for the Blind. Kish teaches echolocation workshops to both visually impaired and sighted participants, but his course doesn’t include the singing that was part of Till’s experiment. “I’ve not heard about anyone using singing to echolocate, at least successfully. I use a percussive click, using my tongue and the roof of my mouth, and this is the technique that I teach, and it seems to be the most effective.”

“What we know about human echolocation wouldn’t fill a bookshelf.”

The participants in Till’s experiment weren’t the first to use song for echolocation in caves, however. Anthropologist and musician Iegor Reznikoff of Paris Nanterre University gained notoriety in 1987 when he claimed he found cave paintings while singing and walking through unlit caverns. He says he’s able to gauge the resonance of the spaces, and therefore their shape and size, with his voice. Through this process, he figured out that the most resonant parts of caverns are where the most cave paintings are located.

Reznikoff says that people who lived in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic—from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago—spent a lot of time in caves because they lived in a very cold climate. “With only torch light available, which couldn’t be carried into very narrow passages, the ancient hunters had to use their voices like sonar to explore the nooks and crannies of a newfound caves,” he says. “Sound reaches much further than light, especially in irregular surroundings.” Singing and its reflected echoes could mean the difference between life and death for these ancient humans. “For example, strong echoes from below may indicate a hole in the cave floor, and an even deeper subterranean chamber,” Reznikoff says.

Echolocation was not a skill unique to Paleolithic Europeans, but documentation of its usage is scant. “There’s some evidence of the Navajo, the Iroquois, the Cherokee, the Acoma people of New Mexico, and the Nuxalk people of Canada using echolocation to determine ritual places,” says University of Barcelona archaeologist Tommaso Mattioli. “But there’s very little work being done on human echolocation today.”

Till has plans for additional echolocation workshops at caves in Northern Spain, but many accessible sites in the area today were also accessible during the Paleolithic—which means they’re now full of irreplaceable cave art. Getting permission to enter a cave and have volunteers possibly banging into walls full of cultural heritage isn’t easy. As a solution, he’s looking into finding unadorned caves or reproducing caves by scanning their interiors and recreating them in lab settings.

“Echolocation has a steep learning curve from my experience, but it seems like we do have some vestige of this skill in our parietal lobes. We just have to find it again,” says Till. “It’s like coming home to our own ability.”

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-11-01
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/derrick-broze-agorism-is-not-anarcho-capitalism?v=1667188211
Author: Derrick Broze
Title: Agorism is Not Anarcho-Capitalism
Date: September 13, 2016
Source: https://c4ss.org/content/46153

The goal of this essay is three-fold. First, I will identify the key concepts which outline the philosophy of Agorism and the strategy of Counter-Economics, as outlined by Samuel E. Konkin III in The New Libertarian Manifesto and An Agorist Primer. Second, I will illustrate how radicals of all stripes can utilize the strategy of counter-economics, as described by Konkin, without necessarily endorsing his philosophy of Agorism and it’s specific tenets. Finally, I will describe what sets Agorism apart from Anarcho-Capitalism and other schools of thought. I will show that although the Counter-Economic strategy can be utilized by nearly any individual, Agorism itself is not simply a strain or subset of Anarcho-Capitalism, but a unique political philosophy of its own.

Before I dive in, allow me to briefly explain the inspiration for the title of this essay and the essay itself. As I will demonstrate, the Agorist message and Counter-Economic strategy can be of use to any individual who finds themselves in pursuit of a more free, just, and ethical world. However, the reason the title focuses on Anarcho-Capitalism is because I have noticed a trend in “right-libertarian”/AnCap social media circles where individuals claim to support the ideas of Konkin and his Agorism yet also express a distaste for left-libertarianism. My goal is to help readers with this viewpoint understand the essential role Konkin and his “New Libertarianism,” or Agorism, played in developing the American Left-Libertarian movement.

Agorism As Consistent Libertarianism
Let’s start by getting an understanding of Konkin’s vision. Konkin called for the creation of a revolutionary movement lead by workers and entrepreneurs voluntarily cooperating in economic exchanges that take place outside of the State’s grasp. He called this movement The New Libertarian Alliance. Konkin based his revolutionary ideas on a foundation of Libertarianism in the vein of Rothbard and the American Individualist Anarchists before him. In The New Libertarian Manifesto Konkin writes:

“Where the State divides and conquers its opposition, Libertarianism unites and liberates. Where the State beclouds, Libertarianism clarifies; where the State conceals, Libertarianism uncovers; where the State pardons, Libertarianism accuses.

Libertarianism elaborates an entire philosophy from one simple premise: initiatory violence or its threat (coercion) is wrong (immoral, evil, bad, supremely impractical, etc) and is forbidden; nothing else is.

Libertarianism, as developed to this point, discovered the problem and defined the solution: the State vs the Market. The Market is the sum of all voluntary human action. If one acts non-coercively, one is part of the Market. Thus did Economics become part of Libertarianism.”[1]

From this, Konkin developed his views on property:

“Libertarianism investigated the nature of man to explain his rights deriving from non-coercion. It immediately followed that man (woman, child, Martian, etc.) had an absolute right to this life and other property – and no other.

All theft is violence initiation, either the use of force to take property away involuntarily or to prevent receipt of goods or return of payment for those goods which were freely transferred by agreement.” [1]

Konkin became involved in the burgeoning libertarian movement in the late sixties. At this point the lovers of liberty were beginning to recognize the potential for a national movement of anti-statist, pro-market radicals. In the midst of this opportunity Konkin saw libertarian activists being lured into “get liberty quick” schemes, such as electoral politics. In a counter-attack to the enemies of liberty, Konkin outlined a new philosophy that he believed was simply the result of applying libertarian principles to their most consistent and logical ends.

“The basic principle which leads a libertarian from statism to his free society is the same which the founders of libertarianism used to discover the theory itself. That principle is consistency. Thus, the consistent application of the theory of libertarianism to every action the individual libertarian takes creates the libertarian society.

Many thinkers have expressed the need for consistency between means and ends and not all were libertarians. Ironically, many statists have claimed inconsistency between laudable ends and contemptible means; yet when their true ends of greater power and oppression were understood, their means are found to be quite consistent. It is part of the statist mystique to confuse the necessity of ends-means consistency; it is thus the most crucial activity of the libertarian theorist to expose inconsistencies. Many theorists have done so admirably; but we have attempted and most failed to describe the consistent means and ends combination of libertarianism.

New Libertarianism (agorism) cannot be discredited without Liberty or Reality (or both) being discredited, only an incorrect formulation.” [1]

Briefly, Agorism calls for the creation of a new society by competing with the State directly, rather than relying on voting, electoral politics, or calls for insurrectionary violence. Konkin coined the term Agorism after the Greek word agora for “open marketplace”. In order to achieve this agora, Konkin called for entrepreneurs to make use of the so-called “black and grey markets”. “In short, the ‘black market’ is anything non-violent prohibited by the State and carried on anyways,” Konkin wrote. “The ‘grey market’ is used here to mean dealing in goods and services not themselves illegal but obtained or distributed in ways legislated against by The State.” [2]

…

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-11-01
https://anarchistnews.org/content/athens-gentrification-comes-%E2%80%98birthplace-antifa%E2%80%99
by Lucinda Smith, via The Financial Times

Late September in Athens, and the air is still warm. Tourists roam the area around the Acropolis. There are bumbags and expensive sandals. Manicured fingers point towards shop windows. Along the Acropolis walkway, an old man plays “Zorba’s Dance” on a lute. Twenty minutes away, in Exarchia, things look different. Three giant dumpsters are on fire in the middle of the road. A line of at least 10 helmeted police stand in full riot gear, equipped with fire extinguishers, truncheons and shields. I walk cautiously past them and hear the clamour of smashing glass and shouting from a nearby street. An acrid odour fills the air. My eyes start to smart, and a harsh prickling creeps into my throat. Tear gas.

Exarchia, a neighbourhood known as a centre of leftwing activism in Athens, has links to anti-far-right groups dating back to at least the 1890s and is sometimes referred to as the “birthplace of Antifa”. In 1973, a student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic helped overturn the ruling military dictatorship. During Greece’s decade of economic convulsions after 2008, the square became a frequent site of protest. And following the influx of nearly a million migrants to the country in 2015, tens of thousands of refugees made homes in squats around the area.

For decades, the neighbourhood was known as a place police rarely went. But recently, and especially this summer, that has changed. Following two new building projects — the construction of a metro station in Exarchia Square and the restoration of nearby Strefi Hill — the district has been flooded with police. Protests have raged in the face of what many locals feel to be an attack, gentrification as political weapon.

At the demonstration on September 24, an estimated 4,500 people have gathered to protest the metro construction. It’s just after 8pm when things escalate. Stones and heavy objects are thrown; tear gas canisters and flash bangs are set off by police. I turn away from the square and head in the opposite direction. A friend texts me not to go that way; the street beyond is filled with burning bins. Ducking down a side street, I reach the main road to the Archaeological Museum, next to the polytechnic. Banners are pinned along the railings of the university gates. They read “Burn the rich, not the witch” and “No to the metro”.

In August, trucks rolled into Exarchia Square early in the morning and turned the plaza’s core into a construction site, enveloped by a five-metre-high fence. Since then, it has been continually watched by about 50 police officers. Plans for what they are guarding have been circulating since the late 1990s. As part of the new Line 4, Exarchia metro station will connect the densely packed centre of the city with the suburbs, including Goudi in the east and Galatsi in the north. The construction has been the subject of political squabbling since it was given the green light in 2017, under the leftwing Syriza government. But the sudden appearance of a work site this summer was a turning point.

It follows what some have perceived as a push to erase the character of the neighbourhood by the centre-right New Democracy government. In 2019, during his successful campaign to become prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised a crackdown on crime, singling out Exarchia as a target. Citing drug activity in the area, he promised that he would “not let the neighbourhood become a den of illegality, troublemakers and drug trafficking”. Once his party came into power, police infiltrated the area and shut down all but one of its 23 anarchist and refugee squats. Since then, it has seen more police, more protests — and more tourists. Buildings have been sold off to short-term rental companies, rents have risen by 30 per cent and new bougie cafés and bars have popped up. Exarchia now has one of the highest numbers of listings on Airbnb and Booking.com across Athens. Stefania, an ex-photojournalist who lived in the area for 20 years, says it has acquired a new soundtrack: “The rolling wheels of Airbnb suitcases.”

A few weeks after the September protest, I revisit the square on a sunny Tuesday morning. Coffee shops are occupied by a few patrons, Greek voices mixing with American and British accents. The fence still stands in the centre, part sheet metal and part barbed wire, some of it painted with murals. I count at least 30 policemen within a 40-metre radius; it’s just after 9am. There’s an atmosphere of cautious calm.

I’m here to meet Hari, a 33-year-old architect who is a member of the local citizens’ group against the metro. About 10 of them have been coming here everyday to watch what is going on. “Otherwise they don’t tell us,” says Hari. She explains that she has been here since 7am. At 10am, many of the group will go to work, then come back after supper and continue their vigil until 11pm. They have been doing this every day since the site appeared. “This neighbourhood used to be so strong,” she says. “It was a home for so many people.” Not just anarchists, but the homeless, asylum seekers, artists and intellectuals. Now there is an atmosphere of overwhelming “hostility and fear”.

Residents like Hari oppose the construction for environmental reasons too. The square is one of the few green spaces in the district, and 72 trees are being destroyed to make way for escalators, ticket machines and lifts. Many residents have long argued there is a stronger case for building the station near the Archaeological Museum, where there is more space and because it is further from existing metro stations. There is precedent for such a change. In September 2021, a metro site was proposed in Rizari Park in the neighbourhood of Evangelismos that would have brought down 88 trees. Residents lobbied against it and, when shipping tycoon Nikos Pateras (who is also a local) spoke out against the proposal, the location was changed.

Exarchia doesn’t have access to influential connections. While the authorities argue the museum proposal is impossible due to construction problems and financial shortages, Hari feels the choice to put it in the square is a political decision. “This neighbourhood has just two public spaces,” she says. “When you’ve made a choice to build on both of them at the same time, it’s a choice to take them away from the neighbourhood.”

The appearance of the metro site coincides with another controversial development on nearby Lofos Strefi, a craggy hill with a view of the Acropolis. Tucked behind the Exarchia Steps, Strefi is a known site of late-night illegal activity, mostly drug dealing. But it is also a landmark green space in an otherwise built-up neighbourhood: a date-night spot, a place for residents to walk their dogs, a scenic viewpoint for tourists. There’s a primary school nearby and a basketball court at the foot of the hill.

In 2019, the municipality of Athens made a deal with Prodea, a real-estate investment company, to fund 49 per cent of a €2 million development here. The plans include building public toilets and installing rubbish bins, streetlights and flood protection, as well as improving walkways. Many residents see the agreement as a snub. For years, they have requested infrastructure improvements such as lighting and road upgrades and been ignored. Stefania tells me that residents have been excluded from conversations and left in the dark as to what exactly will happen to the site. “What we fear is that Strefi will become fenced off, closed to residents, and turn into a private park,” she says. Prodea did not respond to requests for comment.

I spoke on the phone to the mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, who refuted these claims. “We don’t want to change the essential character of the neighbourhood,” he told me. “We want a mother to be able to push her baby on a stroller up Lofos Strefi hill and feel safe and enjoy the area. We want young people to be able to come to Exarchia on the metro and have a coffee or a beer.”

A week or so after the metro protest, there is another demonstration aimed at the Lofos Strefi development. Again, it turns violent. A video taken at the basketball court goes viral. It shows a man, one of the parents at the local primary school, being beaten by police in front of his eight-year-old daughter. The next day, at another protest for the same cause, an American photojournalist named Ryan Thomas is attacked by police while taking photos. The beating is caught on Thomas’s camera and in a video recorded by a journalist from his balcony. Almost everyone I speak to in the neighbourhood claims to have witnessed unprovoked beatings, catcalling, racist slurs or sexual abuse by police. According to the Greek ombudsman, complaints against police violence in Greece have risen 75 per cent since 2020. A Hellenic police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Crime rates in Athens are not high compared to other European capitals but they are increasing. The crackdown in Exarchia is broadly reflective of intensified security measures across the country. Prime minister Mitsotakis has followed through on his 2019 campaign to prioritise “law and order”. Shortly after coming to power, he overturned a law that forbade police from coming on to campuses. Introduced in 1982, eight years after the militia fell, the law was considered sacrosanct in Greece. Last year, Mitsotakis introduced a police unit specifically designed to patrol university campuses, which it began doing this summer. Mitsotakis argues that the unit is necessary to combat anarchist squats and gang activity. But many students feel it is an attempt to crack down on protesters and those who sympathise with socialists and asylum seekers.

Three kinds of police currently patrol Exarchia, including the DIAS, a motorcycle unit reintroduced under New Democracy. Riot police, known as MAT, are generally unarmed (when patrolling, one officer per unit carries a firearm), but they are conspicuously dressed in military green, with walkie-talkies and gas masks, black shin pads, shoulder protectors and heavy black rubber boots. All have batons, expandable metre-long cudgels with thick rubber handles, alongside large Plexiglas shields and white helmets.

In a country that was under military dictatorship a few decades ago, swaths of armed police can trigger unnerving memories. In September, 63-year-old popular singer Thanasis Papakonstantinou held a concert in support of the protests against the university police unit. Police came in; clashes ensued. Tear gas was used on the 5,000-strong crowd.

Bakoyannis, the mayor of Athens, is a central New Democracy figure with a keen interest in security. He’s also a vocal supporter of the changes taking place in Exarchia. In September, during a Live Q&A on Instagram, he repeated some of these sentiments to his 127,000 followers: “Lofos Strefi is very beautiful. But for many years it was cut off from the neighbourhood, and it was handed over to delinquency, illegality and the drugs trade. We are enacting this project to take back the space.” On Instagram, Bakoyannis cuts a confident figure. Describing himself in his bio as a “father, doer, dreamer”, a family man, he posts pictures of himself petting dogs and pushing a buggy. With his strong dark eyebrows and slightly curled mouth, he bears a passing resemblance to his uncle, prime minister Mitsotakis.

The events of this summer came at a contentious time for Mitsotakis and his party. He has been widely credited with boosting the economy and improving Greece’s image after the 2008-18 period. But a string of recent controversies, known as “Greek Watergate”, has scuffed his reputation. In July, Nikos Androulakis, the leader of opposition party Pasok, discovered that his phone had been installed with Predator spyware. It was traced back to the Greek secret service, which reports to Mitsotakis. Subsequent reports unearthed a network of wiretaps across the phones of Greek opposition politicians, as well as that of a finance journalist. Mitsotakis has denied knowledge and involvement. “The explanations were not sufficient, and that’s why I had to fire two people,” he recently told the Sunday Times. One of them was another of his nephews, Grigoris Dimitriadis.

Nevertheless, in a country where government mistrust is already rife, it has been damaging. Amid other criticisms, including a deterioration of press freedom under New Democracy and a series of illegal, deadly migrant pushbacks, some have interpreted the police crackdown as a way of appearing tough ahead of the elections in May. “The criminals of Athens are happy,” jokes Ilias, a café worker in Exarchia Square. “Now they can do what they want; they know the police are all here [instead].”

This summer was Greece’s most successful tourist season ever, with 2022 estimated to generate roughly €20 billion in revenue. The appetite for development is high, and some business owners in Exarchia are in favour of the changes. Christos (not his real name), 44, who runs a print shop off the square, feels the metro will provide good connections to the area. He lives outside the neighbourhood and complains of expensive fees for parking (€5 a day, as opposed to €1.50 for the metro). Christos has a side career as a musician and an affinity with the neighbourhood, having spent time here as a young man. But he also feels that the new influx of customers is a positive thing. “It is time to grow up,” he says. He references the metro systems in Paris and London by way of comparison and sees the developments, including Strefi, as an opportunity for the city to join the ranks of the rest of Europe.

The comparison with other European cities is a common refrain. A 42-year-old vegetable seller who has lived in and around the neighbourhood his whole life tells me it is usual for metro stations to be built in European squares. He is generally unbothered by the metro, feeling that the argument against it is “a little contradictory”. He points out that the neighbourhood is made up of students and that it will improve access to the university in northern Athens, which currently takes an hour by car due to traffic. “Exarchia is already gentrified. It’s not like it’s a poor area. The prices are already high. That’s the case in the whole of central Athens.” He says the protesters are “making a fuss. I hope it will die down soon.” That seems unlikely. The metro is predicted to take at least seven years to build, with estimated completion set for 2029-30. Until then, the police will stay. Protests show no signs of stopping.

In mid October, a basketball tournament is held on the court in Exarchia where the primary-school parent was beaten by police. A member of the local citizens’ group tells me the aim is to “take back” the space. I arrive at 7pm, when the scene is wholesome. People sit around with their dogs. Children play basketball on the court. A group of mothers from the primary school stage a feminist play. Periodically, streams of riot police patrol the area. They look the crowds up and down and eye my recorder suspiciously. About half an hour later, five motorcycles arrive — the DIAS — each carrying two helmeted, blue-clad police. KRS-One’s “Sound of da Police” booms out of the court’s sound system. The crowd chants “Exo!” — “Leave”. The basketball continues.

On the top of Strefi Hill, the scene is quieter. People are sipping beers and watching the sunset. I approach a couple on a date. Alexandra, 29, lives just off the square and says that she’d be fine about the metro if it was by the museum. But this is the first time she has felt unsafe in the area. In July, she didn’t leave her house for three days after witnessing a man being brutally beaten by police on her doorstep. “I wouldn’t use the term occupation lightly,” she says. “Because I know the implications. But that is what is happening here.” Now and then her eyes flit behind me. Two silhouetted policemen stand a few metres away. The whole time we’ve been talking they have been watching us.

Last weekend, hundreds of children and adult protesters formed a human chain around the site in the square, shouting “free the square”. Leaflets strewn all over the pavement read: “If one tree in the square is cut down, the centre of Athens will burn.”

On one of my last nights in Athens, I’m walking from dinner past the one remaining squat in Exarchia when I see two regular police officers talking to a group of tourists. An affable blond man in a Hawaiian shirt breaks off to tell me they are from Slovenia. They’re staying by the museum, he says and, having arrived an hour ago, were alarmed by the number of police here. In Slovenia, there are only this many around during sports fixtures or if someone important is staying nearby: “Is there something to be worried about? We’re here to have fun.”

He calls over to his friend, who is still drunkenly talking to the police and ignores him. The friend throws his empty plastic cup into a bin and carries on chatting. As I walk away, he is still there, talking and smiling, as the police nod and answer, occasionally smiling back.

Tags: ExarchiaGreecegentrificationMSMcopscrimetourismprotests

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-11-01
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/victor-serge-voline?v=1666959402
Author: Victor Serge
Title: Voline
Date: 29 October 1945
Notes: Sourced from Carnets (1936–1947). Marseille, Agone, 2002. Translated for Marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor.
Source: Retrieved on 28th October 2022 from www.marxists.org

Voline (Eichenbaum) died of typhus in France a few weeks ago. He was one of the most remarkable figures of Russian anarchism, a man of absolute probity and exceptional rigor of thought, full of talent, perpetual youth, and combativeness. He’d just passed age sixty. He played a role of real importance in the Russian Revolution. In 1905 he was one of the true founders of the first soviet in Petersburg. Later a refugee in the United States and Canada, he continued his life of a theoretician and militant, penetrated with Kropotkinian idealism. Returned to Petrograd in 1917, he participated in all the revolutionary struggles, briefly directed a syndicalist organ, Golos Truda (The Voice of Labor) [1], whose influence rivaled that of Bolshevik newspapers. From 1917 he considered that the dictatorship of the proletariat would necessarily result in a regime of terror destined to paralyze the democratic forces. From 1918 he was in Ukraine with Nestor Makhno as the intellectual organizer of the vast movement of “rebellious peasants,” which Lenin and Trotsky considered granting local autonomy (this just and generous solution would have spared the Soviet regime many internal calamities), but which Bolshevik centralization ended by mercilessly smashing. Voline had split with Makhno before this bloody epilogue. He saw too well the defects and weaknesses of the libertarian movement of the peasantry, which he would have liked to cleanse and provide with a more intelligent leadership. Suffering from typhus, arrested by the Ukrainian Cheka, which wanted to execute him immediately, we had great difficulty in saving him, having Lenin personally intervene. In prison he was offered the post of commissar for public education in the Ukraine, which he refused. In 1921 the demarches of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman obtained his liberation and banishment. He would live in Berlin and then Paris the hard life of the implacably intransigent intellectual militant, that is, unpopular among his own libertarian comrades. I found him in Marseilles in 1940–1941 working as a ticket seller in a small movie theater, living on nothing, finishing the writing of his History of the Civil War in Ukraine. Though Jewish, he refused to cross the Atlantic hoping to participate in European events, about which he maintained a romantic optimism. Thin, rather short, a mobile face terminating in a short, white beard, determined gestures, lively speech, brusque repartee, he put me in mind of the old rebel Blanqui. We were rarely in agreement, but for more than twenty years we were able to maintain cordial and trusting relations. Was his precious manuscript saved? I don’t know. [2] One must hope that the future will render justice to this intrepidly idealistic revolutionary who was always, in prison, in the poverty of exile, as on the battlefield and in editorial offices, a man of real moral grandeur.

[1] Before 1914 the organ of the Union of Russian Workers of the US and Canada, it transferred to Petrograd ad the paper of the Union for Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda from 1917–1918 before being closed down by the Bolsheviks in 1919.

[2] The manuscript in question is probably The Unknown Revolution, which was published by “the Friends of Voline” in 1947 and re-issued many times since

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-11-01
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/victor-serge-a-critical-essay-on-nietzsche?v=1666959978
Author: Victor Serge
Title: A Critical Essay on Nietzsche
Date: 1917
Notes: Originally appeared in the Spanish anarchist newspaper Tierra y Libertad 359 – 69, August – December 1917. The French original was only located and published decades later, and is the source of this translation. Translated for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor
Source: Retrieved on 28th October 2022 from www.marxists.org

1. A Philosopher of Violence and Authority
Dead are all the gods: now do we desire the Superman to live. The State is the death of people. Companions, the creator seeketh not corpses – and not herds or believers either. Humanity’s goal can only be reached with the most elevated types. – Thus Spoke Zarathustra

It is through these words that this creator became dear to us. We singled him out from among the heroes of life, legend, and dreams, for in conceiving human existence as an endless ascent to a future of freedom and grandeur he showed us the way. Some chose him as teacher, saying that the poet who created Zarathustra could not have served any other ideal than anarchism. An oeuvre based on a love of life viewed as being beyond beliefs, and revealed through the thought of a bold free investigator in whom vibrates such free and liberating thoughts, could not serve another cause.

But is this so? Nietzsche often spoke differently than Zarathustra, in whom we thought we had found a guide. His oeuvre has many facets. Viewed as a whole, it is, because of one of its dominant ideas, essentially the antithesis of the anarchist ideal; it is also the only oeuvre that dared to rise up before us, strong and clear, constructing another ideal, another desire, and containing a subtle, strong, persuasive and at times brilliant argumentation.

Nietzsche was a philosopher of authority and violence who undertook to affirm them without any restraint, promising them an unlimited future.

In truth he was and, since his thought lives, is our sole and unique enemy. For our old world is used to opposing to us professors, judges, soldiers, or orators rather than men, ideas, or reasons.

Few oeuvres are as multifaceted as his. It is paradoxical, profound, as heavy as it is light, sprinkled with laughter, invocations, invectives, great shouts and confidential whisperings. It disconcerts us by its excess of life. It might thus seem reckless to want to show some of these essential traits. Is it not the product of an entire existence and a tireless intellectual labor?

Nevertheless, I will speak of it without timidity, following the example of this most energetic of free investigators. But I will resist facilities of language, for such shall be my truth, sought with the sole desire to understand and to ceaselessly progress toward greater clear-sightedness. If I don’t know how to guide myself, who will guide me? I thus have the courage to criticize in keeping with my convictions and to propose my results to my fellow-travelers, without vain pride, simply with good will.

I certainly do not pretend to present in these notes a complete critical study of his philosophy. I will leave to the side several important points of the multifaceted ideology he left to us. I will limit myself to presenting the frequently forgotten apostle of an authoritarian and vigorous ideal of life, one not without a certain beauty, but profoundly barbarous and an enemy of the progress for which we are fighting.

Nietzsche’s oeuvre has misled us because its dualism. Because of his temperament it contains two antagonistic yet complementary aspects. We usually only see one, the most obvious one, the only one that suits us in the absolute. Nietzsche is a demolisher and a builder. We love in him the destroyer, the man who denies moral dogmatism, the disbeliever, the disrespectful man, the great nihilist armed with a fervent word. We don’t take account of the fact that he destroys in order to make room for an ideal probably quite distinct from ours. If he seeks to smash the tablets of current values, it’s not in order to substitute for them a new order founded on the free development of every human personality, where the only law will be consciousness’s inner law finally sublimated and made glorious by a free life but rather to rejuvenate the old order, which he believes in and wants to be eternal. For he adores the brute force that crushes the vanquished, the decisive gesture of the mighty, the harsh struggle of man against man, the result of which is the slavery of some, and what some dare call the culture of others.

His passion for authoritarian affirmation, for victory and conquest, is so strong that he even sees it as the distinctive mark of life at its highest. The rest is only decadence, twilight, descent into corruption, the penchant for death of the weak.

A philosophy is always founded on a powerful sentiment that inspires and dominates it: it can only be the summit of an ideological structure. In Nietzsche this dominant sentiment is an absolute love of life, perhaps to a certain extent in reaction to the pessimism of Schopenhauer and Hartman.

Let us attempt to broadly outline his ideas. Painful, fallacious, weaved of illusions and errors, life is. It is beauty, splendor, force, incessant creation, miracle, and pleasure, pleasure above all. And even in suffering, for every life seems to be eternally forced to scream, there is an element of inexpressible pleasure. There exists a way of suffering that is noble. When one has acquired consciousness of this fact, one fervently consents to every effort, even if it is a torture. It is necessary to love life in its endlessly increased and refined power and to expand it with every step, utilizing all our strength in service to it. Here we find ourselves before Nietzsche’s dominant idea: “The greatest force must be placed at the service of the most intense life.”

…

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FP Foreign Policy
Christina Lu
2022-11-01
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/01/iran-protest-crackdown-university-revolutionary-guard/
For nearly seven weeks, authorities have struggled to stamp out dissent.

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-11-01
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-robert-and-cody-watch-jordan-b-petersons
Robert is joined by Cody Johnston to discuss Jordan Peterson’s new TV series, ‘Dragons, Monsters & Men.’
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It’s Going Down
It’s Going Down
2022-11-01
https://itsgoingdown.org/this-is-america-176-omni-commons-fights-to-survive-in-the-bay-area-report-from-ice-watch-nyc/
Welcome, to This Is America, October 31st, 2022. On this episode, first we speak with two organizers involved in the long-running autonomous space the Omni Commons in Oakland. Growing out of Occupy Oakland about ten years ago, the Omni has grown into a large-scale community mutual aid hub and organizing space in Oakland, California. Sadly… Read Full Article

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The Forward
RWashingtom
2022-10-31
https://forward.com/culture/523097/black-jewish-reaction-kanye-west-antisemitism/
Oy Ye. By now, the world has heard from practically everyone with an opinion on Kanye West’s antisemitic posts and rants — except the group perhaps most qualified to comment on the subject: Black Jews. Among Jewish African American leaders and activists are those who have been fans of the rapper for years, and others…

The post What do Black Jews say about the Kanye mess? Plenty — but not just about him appeared first on The Forward.

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The Forward
BCohen
2022-10-31
https://www.jta.org/2022/10/31/global/as-italys-meloni-downplays-fascist-ties-thousands-march-in-praise-of-benito-mussolini
(JTA) — Thousands marched to the grave of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Predappio on Sunday to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of his coming to power in Rome, days after the new Italian prime minister, whose party has fascist roots, decried the Italian race laws of the 1930s that targeted Jews. The crowd of…

The post As Italy’s Meloni downplays fascist ties, thousands march in praise of Benito Mussolini appeared first on The Forward.

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Existential Comics
Corey Mohler
2022-10-31
http://existentialcomics.com/comic/470

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Jacobin
David de Jong
2022-10-31
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/nazi-billionaires-businesses-denazification-de-jong-interview/
In 2019, the German tabloid Bild published shocking revelations about one of the country’s most powerful companies. Bild discovered that Albert Reimann — creator of a family business whose investment firm, JAB Holding, has majority stakes in brands from Dr Pepper to Jacobs Douwe Egberts — was a devoted Nazi who sexually abused, tortured, and […]

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-10-31
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/93a8k3/the-nations-first-right-to-repair-law-is-waiting-for-kathy-hochuls-signature
The Digital Fair Repair act would be groundbreaking legislation, provided the governor signs it into law.

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VICE US
Edward Ongweso Jr
2022-10-31
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epzkne/facebooks-monopoly-is-imploding-before-our-eyes
Competition, miscalculations, and regulatory scrutiny have all but killed the advertising giant’s dreams of diversifying its business and rolling up the digital world into its platform.

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RevolutionZ Patreon Feed
unknown
2022-10-31
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-201-right-74017236
Episode 201 of RevolutionZ has Nathan Robinson as guest to discuss responding to the right, publishing, and more…

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Scientific American Content
Tanya Lewis
2022-10-31
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/one-of-the-biggest-problems-in-biology-has-finally-been-solved/
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis explains how its AlphaFold AI program predicted the 3-D structure of every known protein

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Void Network
crystalzero72
2022-10-31
https://voidnetwork.gr/2022/10/31/my-body-is-not-your-capital-producing-machine-or-is-it-susan-rosenthal-md/
There are three basic freedoms: freedom to say NO; freedom to move away; and freedom to change what does not work. Individual freedom requires social support. To say NO, you need others to respect your choice and not force you to obey. To move freely, you need others to support your movement and not erect walls and roadblocks. To change what does not work, you need others who are affected…

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Anarchism
Paul Street
2022-10-30
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/31/revolutionary-marxism-vs-chomsky-reflections-on-a-recent-interview/
Recently The Nation published an interview with the great left intellectual Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian that first appeared on TomDispatch.com.  Below I write up some critical reflections expanded from my notes in the margins of my print-off of this interview. They are I hope instructive on some of what distinguishes a modestly accomplished revolutionary Marxist (myself) from a legendary left More

The post Revolutionary Marxism vs. Chomsky: Reflections on a Recent Interview appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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The Philosophical Salon
Slavoj Žižek
2022-10-30
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-faces-of-new-barbarism/
In Moscow, authorities began to check the condition of bomb shelters at schools. No one showed the written document itself, but management reported that the order had been received to …
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The post The Faces of New Barbarism appeared first on The Philosophical Salon.

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Anarchism
Paul Engler
2022-10-30
https://truthout.org/articles/whats-the-problem-with-taking-state-power/
As movements grow beyond the anarchist lens of Occupy, they must face hard questions of bureaucracy and cooptation.

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Jacobin
Daisy Pitkin
2022-10-30
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/daisy-pitkin-on-the-line-union-drive-organizing-unite/
Many of us know that rebuilding the labor movement is absolutely essential for winning a better world. But that’s a kind of dry, intellectual point. Unless you’ve been a part of a union drive yourself, you probably don’t know much about how such a drive looks and feels, and how it affects and transforms the […]

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-10-30
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiU2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMjIvMTAvMjgvYnVzaW5lc3MvZWNvbm9teS90cmFkZXItam9lcy1icm9va2x5bi11bmlvbi5odG1s0gEA?oc=5
Workers at Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn Reject Union  The New York Times

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anarchistnews.org
anon
2022-10-29
https://anarchistnews.org/content/angle-grinder-revolution-against-commuter-and-its-world
A new essay and zine published anonymously by Filler PGH.

The commuter is the modality through which every other identity is shaped and borne within this techno-industrial prison. The negation of the commuter is the negation of civilization and the bare life it has enforced; the negation of the commuter is the affirmation of wildness, of freedom, of possibility.

We therefore affirm again, our hearts full with insurgent ferocity: every commuter is a target.

The Angle Grinder of Revolution: Against the Commuter and its World

"There is a specter haunting the Earth; it haunts the minds of movement managers, formalists, leftists, and those who otherwise find themselves aligned with — entrenched within, even — the existent. It waits for no orders from self-appointed leaders and pays no mind to the hand-wringing of moralists. In an indomitable fury against the current totality, it seizes the opportunities that stand before it. Shrouded by the night, each u-lock is cut away from the bicycles secured by their grasp; beneath every automobile chassis, quick work is made to liberate the rare earth minerals trapped within the prison of catalytic converters.

There is a specter haunting the Earth, and it is the angle grinder of revolution — the glimmer of revolutionary horizons and the setting sun of the old regime. Without a glimmer of remorse and with an unflinching resolve, it speaks: Every commuter is a target.

From the university student peddling between gentrified neighborhoods, part-time jobs and classes, to the lowly prole whittling away the waking hours of their life in grid-lock traffic, every commuter creates the present nightmare. In every form it takes, the commuter is the primary, operative role within our present industrial civilization. Other social categories naturally cannot be ignored — the bourgeoisie, the proletariat and the precariat among them — but they are secondary to the commuter, for in order for all other identities defined by socio-economic position and relation to production to be realized, the individual must initiate the commute — the very activity that defines the commuter.

As they travel along this miserable Leviathan’s many economic arteries, colloquially known as “roads,” this disgusting way of life is animated and reproduced with the slow lurch of bare life headed towards annihilation pushed along evermore. For those of us who seek a different life than the hollow rituals of the commuter, there is a clear approach to cease the functioning of this miserable machine. With only a bit of courage, the angle grinder’s spite cuts away the regime of non-life. The commuter takes a multitude of forms, but within the context of the imperial core we write from, two forms constitute a significant plurality of commuter-identities above all others: the motorist and the cyclist. While there are nuances in the subversive methods against each respective commuter-identity, both are readily sabotaged by the angle-grinder.

The cyclist can be immobilized indefinitely once the false security provided by their precious u-lock falls away, the facade pierced with a single cut. From there, the repulsive contraption can be whisked away into the night. The cyclist who projects some false, pathetic propriety over this miserable commodity is left empty-handed. Without the material basis for the abstraction they’ve dissolved themself into — trading the fullness of life in exchange for the poverty of commuter-identity — they are left only with themself, naked and bare, alone in the night. Struck by the convulsive rage of the angle grinder’s insurrection, they are left no choice but to ponder, on foot, their uniqueness, their place in the world and the industrialized nightmare that plagues it. Certainly this constitutes robbery, but within that robbery there is an invitation, an opening for something else: a glimpse into a world beyond the commute.

The motorist and the multi-ton death trap they adore is a somewhat different prospect. Instead of targeting the locking mechanism that ensures the motorist‘s false propriety over their commodity-identity’s material basis, the target is instead the very functioning of this mechanized monstrosity. Beneath the chassis of the vehicle, an essential component is seated, exposed and readily accessible: the catalytic converter. Without it, the vehicle is useless. A skilled operator can identify, target, and extract the catalytic converter in a mere matter of minutes, disappearing again well before anyone would have noticed. In all likelihood, the sabotage would only be noticed during the following morning. The motorist, intending to step into their role as commuter via the commute as the necessary pre-condition to realize all other roles, would find the usual choke of an engine turn-over missing, instead replaced by a tremendous, startling roar. In the vacancy created by the catalytic converter’s absence, wild nature howls and the euphoric laughter of the fallen wild’s spirit fills the early morning air. The motorist is denied the ritual of the commuter‘s realization. All other identities that flow from the commuter are denied, too, aborted before coming to term in the commuter‘s absence. Like the cyclist before, in the robbery of the motorist, the gift of possibility is endowed: a life beyond economic exchange, an escape from the poverty of bare life into the freedom of self-creation.

Finally, with every subversion of commuter-identity — each stolen bike, every scrapped catalytic converter — a unique material reward is found.

The illegalists of generations past were able to fund their subversion with bank robberies and the burglary of bourgeois households; in our present condition of technological hyper-surveillance, these methods have become overwhelmingly more risky. Naturally, cybercrime remains a possible avenue in the face of this reality, but the foreclosure of this horizon, too, is well under way as repressive techniques catch up to subversive ones. In turn, subversive techniques are pushed further and further into the domain of technical specialization and the tools that follow, creating a terrain of engagement that is ever more difficult to penetrate. What we offer here, however, is a subversive technique that demands very little technical skill and is available to anyone that can obtain a commonplace tool: the battery-powered angle grinder.

Whether brought into possession through the legitimizing shroud of commodity exchange, the denial of such through shoplifting, or brought into temporary possession through a tool-lending library, very few circumstances would truly prohibit access. Once in hand, every bike and every catalytic converter that follows sustains our war against society with a trip to that ever-present ally to the criminal class, the scrapyard: cash in hand today.

We can anticipate the critics of our method, those who speak with corpses in their mouths in defense of the current miserable state of affairs. They will claim we are too extreme, that our approach is too indiscriminate, that it is alienating, ineffectual, and criminal. To them, we have nothing to say; in their moralistic anxieties, they have made their alignment clear. They have become lost within their respective commuter-identities and as such, wish to defend the commuter and the world it demands. Thus, they have positioned themselves as our enemies, despite whatever other supposed subversive affinities they declare. The commuter is the modality through which every other identity is shaped and borne within this techno-industrial prison. The negation of the commuter is the negation of civilization and the bare life it has enforced; the negation of the commuter is the affirmation of wildness, of freedom, of possibility.

We therefore affirm again, our hearts full with insurgent ferocity: every commuter is a target.

Every commuter will move through every day anxiously wondering when their time will come, peering through the blinds to check if today was their bicycle or their car’s last; every night will be spent restless and sleepless, wondering who might be lurking in their backyard or under their car, stealing away the material basis of their commuter-identity, delivering it to some faraway scrapyard. There can be no compromise with commuter society; for the possibilities of life to unfold before us in the realization of total liberation, every aspect of this world must be met with total negation, beginning with the commuter."

Imposed PDF

Tags: distroismanalysistactics

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libcom.org
Thunderbird
2022-10-29
https://libcom.org/article/polish-syndicalists-zsp-about-migration-serfdom-ukraine

Press release from picket "Honor and Praise to Deserters" held yesterday by the Union of Polish Syndicalists outside the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw and the Russian embassy nearby. Earlier in this month, some unknown internationalists protested the ban on the exit for Ukrainian men in Prague.

Please support the grassroots online newsletter in Kharkiv for continuous work on this international rubric or the campaign to restore local community through joining this fundraising. A couple of cups of coffee in your country even before the war could be equivalent in price to the daily wage of a worker in Ukraine. Many thanks everyone in advance!

Submitted by Thunderbird on October 29, 2022

Copied to clipboard

"We condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but we see that the real victims of this war are representatives of the working class of Ukraine and Russia, people deprived of the remnants of the illusion of freedom, forced by the powers that be to kill and let themselves be killed.

The class war in these countries was raging long before the invasion and will probably continue after. We are not to judge those who have been struggling to feel such a need and see sense in it. But by what law is this imposed on people who refuse to participate? For what kind of independence can a person involuntarily involved in the army fight for? This position is not an isolated voice, tens of thousands of people in Ukraine have signed petitions calling for the opening of the borders, and tens of thousands more have gathered around the channels reporting the raids. It is impossible to evaluate how many still share such views.

The authorities, ignoring their demands, deprive them of the most basic right to self-determination and the right to decide their own life and death. This dilemma does not concern the bourgeoisie, because the rich citizens of Ukraine can leave the country by paying a ransom at the border. The testimony of these people has no place in the media, controlled by nationalist and militaristic narratives, straight out of Hollywood films in which Zelensky is Captain Ukraine, the hero who personally comes into conflict with the supervillain Putin, and Russians and Ukrainians are a homogeneous mass of faceless pawns.

And yet each of these people, against their will, detained by the state, is a hostage of a repressive regime, a person of flesh and blood, like you and me. Putin is undoubtedly a supervillain, but there are no superheroes in this story, and only a pro-state narrative is accepted under the guise of giving voice to the victims. The organizing of street actions is criminalized, and signed petitions, which are currently the only legal way to convey the public mood of the authorities, are ignored. As long as the Ukrainian authorities keep people against their will, they will be responsible for the dead and maimed people.

For us, the war is terrible not because governments and borders change, but because people die. The Ukrainian authorities do not give a damn about this, they are no more worried about another mass grave than lost military property or a strategic position".

Originally in Polish

Anong wuth this, we recommend you such a story of disaster profiting – how recruitment agencies for employment in Europe cash in on the deception of Ukrainian refugee women during the war.

Also you may be interested to look at this article about how the inflow of Ukrainians enhances the labor struggle in Poland.

assembly.org.ua
Russia-Ukraine war
war
Ukraine
Russia
Poland

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Jacobin
Stefanie Prezioso
2022-10-29
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/m-antonio-scurati-fascism-mussolini-counterrevolution/
A century since the March on Rome, the “return” of Italy’s fascist past has never seemed closer. This month, the Senate elected as its new president Ignazio La Russa, cofounder of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, just weeks after he declared that “we are all heirs of the Duce.” In such a context, bringing out […]

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Jacobin
Eileen Jones
2022-10-29
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/they-live-capitalism-ideology-john-carpenter-critique/
It’s almost Halloween, the time of year when every good socialist watches They Live (1988). The cult classic about the politically revealing sunglasses that expose the monstrosity of our overlords and the brutal alien society they’ve made never fails to satisfy upon repeat viewings. Though it didn’t do well on initial release, They Live is […]

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Ars Technica – All content
WIRED
2022-10-29
https://www.wired.com/story/europe-dma-prepares-to-rewrite-the-rules-of-the-internet/
EU hopes DMA will force Big Tech platforms to break open their walled gardens.

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-10-28
https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23427577/apple-union-maryland-letter-benefits-contract
Apple’s first unionized workers say the company is withholding new benefits  The Verge

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anarchistnews.org
anon
2022-10-28
https://anarchistnews.org/content/audio-assault-mdc-john-wayne-was-nazi-hip-hop-mix
From Emergency Hearts

Tracklist:
1. John Wayne Was a Nazi (Hip Hop Mix) 05:09

Audio Assault, MDC, scott crow: Music
Sole, Mic Crenshaw, Sima Lee, Dave Dictor (MDC), scott crow: Featured vocalists
Chris #2 (Anti-Flag) : Additional Bass
Jason Yawn (Beasts Of No Nation): Additional Guitar
DJ Pain 1: Cuts and Scratches
scott crow, Mark Pistel, Wynne Martin: Production
scott crow: Cover Art
Mark Pistel: Mastering
scott crow: Executive Production

Release Date: October 4, 2022

Catalog Number: eH208

scott crow (Lesson Seven) has reassembled a music project he co-founded – Audio Assault as an anarchist hip hop and punk supergroup.
This outing features Dave Dictor (MDC), scott crow (Lesson Seven) on chorus vocals, rappers Sole, Mic Crenshaw, and Sima Lee on the verses, and Chris #2 (Anti-Flag), DJ Pain 1, Mark Pistel (Consolidated) and Jason Yawn on music and production. AA has updated and redefined this classic MDC punk rock track John Wayne was A Nazi with Dave Dictors blessing and his orignal vocal recording fromback in the day. It’s the first in a new series of political singles and remixes from Audio Assault.

This latest single by Audio Assault/ MDC features a powerhouse of anarchists old and new from the punk rock and hip-hop scenes. Mashing up samples from MDC’s classic including Dave Dictor’s original vocals with new music and vocals from rappers Mic Crenshaw, Sole, and Sima Lee, bassist Chris Dos (Anti-Flag), DJ Pain 1 on turntables, Jason Yawn on guitars and scott crow on chorus.

Listen here: https://emergencyhearts.bandcamp.com/track/john-wayne-was-a-nazi-hip-hop…

Tags: anarchist musicscott crowsoleSima LeeDJ Pain

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-10-28
https://anarchistnews.org/content/we-do-not-allow-murder-alfredo-cospito
Via Act for Freedom Now!

Full Original Title: Italy: WE DO NOT ALLOW THE MURDER OF ALFREDO COSPITO – ON HUNGER STRIKE SINCE OCTOBER 20th / CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL MOBILIZATION

WE DO NOT ALLOW THE MURDER OF ALFREDO COSPITO – ON HUNGER STRIKE SINCE OCTOBER 20th / CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL MOBILIZATION

On Oct. 20th, the anarchist Alfredo Cospito, during a trial at the Sassari Supervisory Court, made an attempt to read an articulate statement in which he was about to announce that he is starting a hunger strike against the 41 bis prison regime to which he is subjected and against the hostile life sentence. A battle that Alfredo does not intend to stop, until his own death. The comrade, who has been in 41 bis since last May 5th, under a decree signed by then Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia, is now being detained in the Bancali prison in Sardinia.

Alfredo Cospito is an anarchist who has always been at the front line of struggles, never willing to compromise or give up. He is a comrade who has been fighting since the late 1980s, a period in which he was imprisoned as a total objector (for refusing to serve in the obligatory military service) and who, after his arrest in 2012, during the trial that followed, claimed the responsibility for the shooting of Ansaldo Nucleare executive Roberto Adinolfi, an act that was carried out by the Cell “Olga Nucleus” / Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front (FAI/IRF) and occurred on May 7th of the same year in Genoa.

Alfredo has been always active in the defense of comrades affected by repression, in every corner of the world. His struggle objectively concerns all detainees, among whom we particularly remember the three militants of the Red Brigades for the Construction of the Combatant Communist Party locked up for more than 17 years in 41 bis (Nadia Lioce, Roberto Morandi, Marco Mezzasalma). In 2009, comrade Diana Blefari, from the same organization, committed suicide after her living in this harsh prison regime.

Alfredo has been uninterruptedly in prison for 10 years, which he spent in High Security sections until his transfer to 41 bis. In 2016 he was involved in Operation “Scripta Manent”, accused of subversive association for the purpose of terrorism and multiple explosive attacks. Following a Supreme Court verdict in July this year, the sentence for Alfredo and Anna Beniamino was reformulated to “political massacre,” the only punishment which means prison for life. The Italian state that has always been protecting fascist mass murderers now wants to condemn two anarchists for massacre for an attack that caused neither victims nor injuries.

Alfredo has been for many years contributing articles, editorial projects and proposals to the international anarchist debate. For this reason, he has been censored several times and banned from communicating with the outside world, being condemned for the publication of the revolutionary anarchist folio “KNO3” and the latest edition of “Anarchist Black Cross” and currently under investigation for the publication of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo.” After these measures, Alfredo was imposed to 41 bis in May and subsequently transferred from Terni prison to Bancali prison in Sassari. This blocks him from any contact with the outside world.

The 41 bis serves to totally isolate the prisoner from the outside world. The measure is imposed for four years, but in fact the only way to get out is to repent and cooperate with the repressive forces. In other words, 41 bis is torture, as it is designed to induce suffering for the purpose of extorting confessions or statements.

This prison regime implies one hour of visitation per month with glass dividing, under electronic surveillance, and with audio and video recording. Only if family members do not have the opportunity to go to the interview, a monthly 10-minute phone call is allowed as an alternative to the prison visit, but in order to do so, the family member of the detainee must go to a Carabinieri station or inside a prison. In addition, there is only one hour of air time and social time inside the section, which take place in groups consisting of a minimum of two to a maximum of four prisoners: the division into groups is decided directly by the bureaucrats’ offices in Rome and it applies for several months.

The 41 bis is a prison regime of annihilation, it is designed to cause physical and mental damage through the technique of sensory deprivation; it is a political and social death sentence designed to break all forms of contact with the outside world. Alfredo’s treatment reminds us of the words attributed to Benito Mussolini about Gramsci: “This brain must be prevented from functioning for twenty years”.

An example of the black hole into which one ends up once enters 41 bis is precisely what happened on October 20th during the hearing at the Sassari Probation Court. In this hearing, the sympathizers were prevented from entering the courtroom, the comrade was connected via videoconference from prison as prescribed by 41 bis rules, and when he attempted to read his statement, his voice was taken away by pressing a button. The statement is secreted by the judges; if the lawyers released it, they would risk a heavy criminal sentence.

The story of the Comrade Alfredo Cospito is entangled with an increasingly of dark repressive climate in the country. Outside the anarchist movement, we are also witnessing the increasingly oppressive repression against workers, students, and social movements. Let us cite the most striking case: this summer the prosecutor’s office in Piacenza opened an investigation against trade unionists accusing them of “extortion” because they were demanding, through a “radical” struggle (picketing and roadblocks), salary increases from the bosses.

We want to be understood even abroad that the repressive decline that the Italian state is adopting affects everyone personally, since a precedent of this magnitude in the heart of Europe could be a harbinger of further repressive rushes in other latitudes as well. All these are happening while the social crisis and the international military crisis are getting worse by the day. We know that these are the ideal contexts for governments to implement authoritarian turns. We have a few weeks to save Alfredo Cospito’s life, to prevent his assassination, but most importantly to give a signal of counterattack to what is happening. The state is responsible for the life and health of our comrade. Let’s mobilize around the world, let’s pressure the Italian state so that Alfredo can be released from 41 bis.

October 25, 2022

Comrades

via: lanemesi

Tags: Alfredo Cospitohunge strikeanarchist prisonerssolidaritycall to action

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The Forward
LMarkoe
2022-10-28
https://www.jta.org/2022/10/28/culture/jimmy-kimmel-sketch-pokes-fun-at-kanye-west-and-antisemitism-with-ad-for-yentanyl
(JTA) — With a sketch video aimed at Kanye West, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel joked about a “cure” for antisemitism: “Yentanyl.” Kimmel debuted the term, a mashup of the word “yenta” (Yiddish for gossiping socialite) and the narcotic fentanyl, in a video for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” viewers on Wednesday night. Or, as the generic name…

The post Jimmy Kimmel sketch pokes fun at Kanye West and antisemitism with ad for ‘Yentanyl’ appeared first on The Forward.

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Snopes.com
Nur Ibrahim
2022-10-28
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/10/28/2000-year-roman-city-spain/
Archaeologists say they’ve found “buildings of monumental proportions.”

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Jacobin
Tom Fraser
2022-10-28
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/cost-of-living-adjustment-workers-inflation-unions-cola-clause/
“No COLA? No Beer!” read the signs of striking British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) workers on the picket line this past summer. With inflation at highs we haven’t seen this century, employees in BC’s public sector — including clerks at the province’s liquor stores — reached an impasse at the bargaining table over the […]

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Amnesty International
Amnesty International
2022-10-28
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/10/israel-opt-latest-un-recognition-of-apartheid-comes-amid-soaring-attacks-on-palestinian-homes/
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing is the latest human rights expert to recognize that Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians. At the UN General Assembly today, Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal presented a report on housing rights worldwide which states that the system of racial oppression and discrimination that has led to the […]

The post Israel/OPT: Latest UN recognition of apartheid comes amid soaring attacks on Palestinian homes  appeared first on Amnesty International.

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CrimethInc.
unknown
2022-10-28
https://crimethinc.com/2022/10/28/the-billionaire-and-the-anarchists-tracing-twitter-from-its-roots-as-a-protest-tool-to-elon-musks-acquisition
Tracing Twitter from its grassroots origins as a protest tool to Musk’s acquisition—a history of the capitalist takeover of the internet in microcosm.

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-10-28
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7bkav/cyber-the-killer-robot-future-is-already-here
Why we love robot dogs, why the future of military robots have treads, and how to use lasers to bring down a drone.

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Jacobin
Clara E. Mattei
2022-10-28
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/mussolini-fascism-liberalism-austerity/
When we speak of concepts like “totalitarianism” and “corporatism,” it is often assumed that fascism stands very far from the liberal market society that went before it, and which we are still experiencing today. But if we pay closer attention to Italian fascism’s economic policies, especially during the 1920s, we can see how some combinations […]

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Schneier on Security
Bruce Schneier
2022-10-28
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/10/critical-vulnerability-in-open-ssl.html
There are no details yet, but it’s really important that you patch Open SSL 3.x when the new version comes out on Tuesday.

How bad is “Critical”? According to OpenSSL, an issue of critical severity affects common configurations and is also likely exploitable.

It’s likely to be abused to disclose server memory contents, and potentially reveal user details, and could be easily exploited remotely to compromise server private keys or execute code execute remotely. In other words, pretty much everything you don’t want happening on your production systems…

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Politico
Christopher Cadelago
2022-10-28
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/28/gavin-newsom-digital-fundraising-00063930
Christopher Cadelago is a White House correspondent at POLITICO.

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Anarchism
Ron Jacobs
2022-10-27
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/28/the-globalization-of-the-revolutionary-will/
Christina Heatherton opens her book Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution with a discussion of rope. She begins her tale with a description from an Upson-Walton company booklet describing what constitutes a perfect rope. From there she weaves a tale of lynchings of Black men in the United States and the More

The post The Globalization of the Revolutionary Will appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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Proudhon
Nicky Reid
2022-10-27
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/28/more-scary-movies-for-anarchists-to-watch-in-the-dark-2/
I’ve been compiling this twisted little list of frighteningly anti-authoritarian films for about four years now and a lot has changed during that short time for both cinema and authoritarianism. With the epoch-shattering cataclysm of the pandemic and the colossal failures of both the Trump and the Biden administrations, American power has never been more More

The post More Scary Movies For Anarchists to Watch in the Dark appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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The Intercept
Sam Biddle
2022-10-27
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/28/iran-protests-phone-surveillance/
The documents provide an inside look at an Iranian government program that lets authorities monitor and manipulate people’s phones.

The post Iran’s Secret Manual for Tracking and Controlling Protesters’ Mobile Phones appeared first on The Intercept.

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Phil Cohen
2022-10-27
https://labornotes.org/2022/10/how-win-nlrb-cases-against-union-busters
As big brands like Amazon, Starbucks, and Chipotle lash back at worker organizing, union-busting is getting long overdue exposure in the press. But while the stories graphically depict the problem, they don’t offer any solutions.

Though many of the common tactics of union-busting are illegal, there are only insignificant penalties that fail to discourage its lucrative practice. This is the only area of law where attorneys can advise clients to commit perjury in federal court without fear of disbarment or even censure.

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VICE US
Jordan Pearson
2022-10-27
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7zkj8/jim-cramer-tears-up-apologizes-on-tv-for-trusting-mark-zuckerberg-as-meta-stock-plummets
Cramer has boosted Meta during its downturn and emphasized his belief in Zuckerberg’s vision, but on Thursday he struck a very different tone.

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Agency
Jonathan Admin
2022-10-27
https://www.anarchistagency.com/critical-voices/mark-engler-and-paul-engler-whats-the-problem-with-taking-state-power/
Waging Nonviolence | October 25, 2022 As social movements move beyond the default anarchist sensibility that prevailed through Occupy, they must reckon with hard…

The post Mark Engler and Paul Engler: What’s the problem with taking state power? appeared first on Agency.

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Agency
Jonathan Admin
2022-10-27
https://www.anarchistagency.com/critical-voices/lisa-insana-to-be-ungovernable-on-the-history-and-power-of-black-anarchism/
Gal-Dem | October 25, 2022 For centuries, Black people have been fighting the systems that have always excluded them. It’s within these collective histories…

The post Lisa Insana: To be ungovernable: on the history and power of Black anarchism appeared first on Agency.

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Agency
Jonathan Admin
2022-10-27
https://www.anarchistagency.com/critical-voices/paul-messersmith-glavin-interview-with-a-comrade-from-iran/
Institute for Anarchist Studies | October 22, 2022 Paul Messersmith-Glavin: Tell us about yourself: where you’re from, and your relations with family and friends…

The post Paul Messersmith-Glavin: Interview with a Comrade from Iran appeared first on Agency.

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VICE US
Hannah Docter-Loeb
2022-10-27
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/88qe45/scientists-manipulated-peoples-nightmares-to-turn-them-into-dreams-in-new-study
Researchers used a combination of therapies to turn nightmares into more positive dreams for people with a condition called Nightmare Disorder.

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Scientific American Content
Ariel Procaccia
2022-10-27
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/citizens-assemblies-are-upgrading-democracy-fair-algorithms-are-part-of-the-program/
Math helps to randomly select the fairest citizens’ assemblies since antiquity

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Epoché Magazine
editors
2022-10-27
https://epochemagazine.org/56/the-burden-of-freedom-sartres-sleep-and-fromms-awakening/
In his essay Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre succinctly expresses how human freedom – to which human beings are truly condemned – is at the same time the basic condition of the freedom of all human beings (whereby Sartre directly counteracts the accusation that he is talking about an atomistic individualism).  Sartre assumes that

The post The Burden of Freedom: Sartre’s Sleep and Fromm’s Awakening appeared first on Epoché Magazine.

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Epoché Magazine
editors
2022-10-27
https://epochemagazine.org/56/issue-56-october-2022/
Let’s take time as a triangle: here is the familiar line of time, past and future stretching out, but now the present moment sits on that line, heavy and immobile, drawing it down. We have a V. The infinite past and future, though, are connected by what we could call the eternal, the universal, the

The post Issue #56 October 2022 appeared first on Epoché Magazine.

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Epoché Magazine
editors
2022-10-27
https://epochemagazine.org/56/the-marquis-de-sade-and-immanuel-kant-the-odd-couple/
The Marquis de Sade and Immanuel Kant both believe that we should be indifferent towards emotions involving empathy in that they can distract us from what is morally more important. Both use arguments that make use of the criterion of universalizability. However, although based on universalizability, the maxim that Sade approves of would not be

The post The Marquis de Sade and Immanuel Kant: The Odd Couple appeared first on Epoché Magazine.

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Ars Technica – All content
Financial Times
2022-10-27
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/metas-value-plunges-more-than-65-billion-amid-falling-sales-rising-costs/
Facebook parent’s earnings add to gloom surrounding Big Tech.

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-10-27
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3pxam/cyber-a-history-of-american-terror
In a new podcast, Cyber’s own Ben Makuch walks us through the history of white supremacist terror in America.

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VICE US
Becky Ferreira
2022-10-27
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4axbkd/our-conscious-reality-is-a-memory-scientists-propose
“We perceive the world as a memory," the authors of a recent paper wrote. "In other words, technically, we are not consciously perceiving anything directly."

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Scientific American Content
Wynne Parry
2022-10-27
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-predicts-what-chemicals-will-smell-like-to-a-human/
A new computer model “maps” odor molecules to differentiate among those that have meaty, powdery, sweet and many other scents

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Politico
Camila Vergara
2022-10-27
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/10/27/global-far-right-christian-nationalists-00063400
Camila Vergara is a research fellow in critical legal theory at University of Cambridge, U.K., and the author of Systemic Corruption: Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic (Princeton University Press 2020).

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-10-27
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-two-peter-nygard-the-epstein-of-fashion
Robert is joined again by Margaret Killjoy to continue to discuss Peter Nygard.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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VICE US
Keegan Hamilton
2022-10-27
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4axbjb/ghost-gun-loopholes-lawsuit-court
Even gun control groups are suing over the Biden administration’s new rules, and judges are divided on how the Second Amendment applies.

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Ars Technica – All content
Jonathan M. Gitlin
2022-10-26
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/10/teslas-autopilot-is-the-subject-of-a-federal-criminal-investigation/
DoJ prosecutors want to know if Tesla misled customers, investors, regulators.

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Arizona Capitol Times
ggrado
2022-10-26
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2022/10/26/arizona-prisoner-to-die-by-lethal-injection-not-gas-chamber/
An Arizona prisoner who is scheduled to be executed in three weeks for two 1980 killings will be put to death by lethal injection.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Patrick House
2022-10-26
https://nautil.us/the-fine-line-between-life-and-not-life-244248/
Where does a consciousness end and the rest of the world begin? Where is the line between inside and outside? Between life and not life? Between the …

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Ars Technica – All content
Samuel Axon
2022-10-26
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/apple-confirms-it-will-leave-lightning-behind-in-future-iphones/
Apple exec signaled the company isn’t happy about it, though.

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-10-26
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/introducing-internet-hate-machine
Hi, Behind the Bastards fans! Here’s a preview of a new podcast, Internet Hate Machine. Bridget Todd explains how bad actors use the internet to target and silence women, especially Black women. Excluding them from discourse and desensitizing us to sexist, racist attacks makes us all less safe. Bridget talks with women who have been the targets of coordinated attacks, activists who are fighting back, and experts to help break down the deliberate agenda behind it.

Listen here and subscribe to Internet Hate Machine on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Diet Soap – a podcast
Douglas Lain
2022-10-26
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dietsoap/episodes/2022-10-26T15_37_45-07_00
Susanna Kleeman, the author of the novel Twice, announces her upcoming podcast/video series Fatal Dates. Fatal Dates is a show about real connections in unreal times, it’s about men and women, it’s about love and lovelessness. Picking up on Baudrillard’s book Fatal Strategies, Kleeman will attempt to move beyond reason and modernity into the abyss and mystery of the symbolic, and she’ll do it one virtual date at a time. 

Doug’s CGAS Seminar on Radical Podcasting
https://gcascollege.ie/radical-content-producer

Support Us on Patreon
https://patreon.com/dietsoap 

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The Forward
Nora Berman
2022-10-26
https://forward.com/opinion/522629/the-mistake-in-equating-right-wing-and-left-wing-antisemitism/
A gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh during Shabbat morning services on Oct. 27, 2018, killing 11 worshippers and wounding six more in the deadliest attack ever on Jews in the United States. On the same day in 1938, the Nazis started rounding up and sending Polish Jews living in Germany back…

The post The mistake in equating right-wing and left-wing antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.

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This Is Hell!
unknown
2022-10-26
https://soundcloud.com/this-is-hell/suburbias-bad-bargain-for-american-immigrants-sudip-bhattacharya
Sudip Bhattacharya talks about his article at HardCrackers.com, "Socialism or Suburbia." Sudip is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at Rutgers University. He is also a writer, organizer, and you can find his other work at outlets like Protean Magazine, CounterPunch and Reappropriate, and the Aerogram.

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Human Rights Watch News
Human Rights Watch
2022-10-26
http://www.hrw.org/news/2022/10/26/us-anti-trans-bills-also-harm-intersex-children
Click to expand Image
People rally to end intersex surgeries in New York City, October 27, 2018. 
© 2018 Hunter Abrams
(New York) – The spate of anti-transgender legislative proposals across the United States in recent years also threatens to undermine the fundamental rights of intersex children, Human Rights Watch, interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, and the SOGIESC Human Rights Initiative of the University of North Carolina Human Rights Law Program said today.

On Intersex Awareness Day, observed annually on October 26th, the groups introduced an interactive map that highlights how lawmakers across the US have included clauses in their bills that allow or encourage human rights violations against children born with intersex variations. Dozens of bills with intersex exceptions have been proposed, and so far three have passed into state law.

“State legislation in the US that targets transgender youth is also harming intersex youth,” said Erika Lorshbough, executive director of interACT. “When lawmakers propose and pass explicit exceptions for surgeons to operate on intersex bodies before the patients themselves can consent, it makes it clear that these bills are about erasing bodily diversity, not protecting anyone.”

“Intersex” refers to the estimated 1.7 percent of the population with innate bodily traits that do not fit conventional expectations of female or male bodies. Also known as variations in sex characteristics, intersex traits cause a person’s chromosomes, gonads or other internal reproductive organs, genitals, and/or hormone function to differ from characteristics that are “typically” male or female.

Children with intersex variations are often subjected to “normalizing” surgeries that are irreversible, risky, and medically unnecessary. These surgeries are performed without the patient’s consent, most often taking place in infancy or early childhood. Surgeries include procedures to reduce the size of the clitoris, create or enlarge a vaginal opening, reroute a working urethra, or remove the gonads. These surgeries are justified by decision-makers on the grounds that they will reduce stigma and prevent gender dysphoria, but they often have the opposite effects, and also carry risks of scarring, loss of sensation, lifelong sexual dysfunction, urinary incontinence, psychological trauma, and permanent sterilization.

These surgeries have been deemed human rights violations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, and other authorities, but there have been only modest efforts in the US to regulate these operations. Recent legislative proposals that primarily target transgender youth often include provisions that expressly permit and sometimes encourage medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex youth.

Over the last several years, state governments across the US have been waging assault on the basic rights of transgender children and their families. Dozens of bills targeting transgender youth have been introduced in state legislatures. One form of these discriminatory bills seeks to ban or restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender young people. Some bills define gender-affirming care as unprofessional conduct, possibly affecting the licenses of physicians who offer such care, and others set criminal penalties for doctors as well as for parents who support their children in seeking the care that they need.

Many of these bills include an explicit exception for procedures performed on intersex children, usually described in these pieces of legislation as “children with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development” or “DSD,” which is a medicalized term for intersex variations widely viewed as pejorative. These provisions purport to ensure that doctors who perform genital and other surgeries on infants and young children with intersex traits are immune from prosecution and civil or professional penalties. These clauses are in the same laws that attempt to punish performing the exact same procedures on older transgender youth who are actively requesting such care.

“This map shows the cartography of legal attacks on intersex rights baked into anti-trans legislation across the US,” said Holning Lau, Willie Person Mangum distinguished professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Law. “Intersex children’s rights to health, bodily integrity, and human dignity are all threatened by this legislation.”

Intersex advocacy groups, as well as a range of medical and human rights organizations, have been speaking out in support of intersex children. There is growing consensus that these medically unnecessary nonconsensual intersex surgeries should end, and some countries have banned them. Nevertheless, some parents in the US continue to face pressure from surgeons to choose these operations when their children are too young to participate in the decision.

“Bundling the unconscionable assault on transgender children’s access to health care with provisions allowing for medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex kids is just two human rights violations for the price of one,” said Kyle Knight, senior researcher on health and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights at Human Rights Watch. “Transgender and intersex children are harmed when politicians use children’s bodies to uphold regressive ideas about gender and sexuality rather than protect everyone’s fundamental rights to bodily autonomy.”

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Snopes.com
katrinaaman
2022-10-26
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/10/26/science-based-policy-trust/
Here’s how people responded to the survey to gauge public perceptions of science by the Pew Research Center.

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Snopes.com
katrinaaman
2022-10-26
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/10/26/thoreaus-research-walden-pond/
The group assessed the quality of Thoreau’s findings to determine if, or how, they could inform modern studies.

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Anarchism
unknown
2022-10-26
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-ted-cruzs-claim-that-antifa-burnt-us-cities-year-1754884
Texas Senator Ted Cruz snapped back when challenged about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but is he correct?

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VICE US
Jules Roscoe
2022-10-26
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7gxzn/amazon-labor-union-alleges-coercive-threatening-and-retaliatory-conduct-resulted-in-failed-union-vote
The union filed its objections on Tuesday to the failed election in Amazon’s Albany warehouse last week.

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VICE US
Edward Ongweso Jr
2022-10-26
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjkxym/twitter-is-already-a-graveyard-leaked-report-suggests
Despite boasting millions of "monetizable daily active users," a leaked internal report called "Where Did All the Tweeters Go?" paints a picture of a relative ghost town for posts.

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Snopes.com
katrinaaman
2022-10-26
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/10/26/school-shootings-2022/
As of Oct. 24, there have been 257 shootings on school campuses — passing the 250 total for all of 2021, according to data compiled by criminal justice experts.

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The Forward
BCohen
2022-10-26
https://forward.com/forward-newsletters/forwarding-the-news/522585/special-report-we-spent-a-year-tracking-antisemitism-on-one-college-campus-what-we-found-may-surprise-you/
This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. What it’s really like to be Jewish on a campus called a ‘hotspot’ of antisemitism Headlines often make it seem like college campuses are dangerous places for Jews. Take George Washington University, where 25% of the undergraduates are…

The post Special report: We spent a year tracking antisemitism on one college campus. What we found may surprise you. appeared first on The Forward.

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-10-26
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-crump-anarchism-and-nationalism-in-east-asia?v=1666777132
Author: John Crump
Title: Anarchism and Nationalism in East Asia
Date: 1996
Notes: Author affiliations: Department of Politics, University of York.
Source: Anarchist Studies 4 (1996) 45–64.

Abstract
In contrast to anarchism in Japan and China, anarchism in Korea has been notable for the extent to which it has been permeated by nationalism and also for the Korean anarchists’ readiness over many years to engage in conventional politics. The immediate reasons for these peculiarities of Korean anarchism would seem to lie in Korea’s colonial subjugation by Japan from 1910 to 1945 and the division of the country after 1945. It is argued that, under the conditions which can occur in a ‘Third World’, anti-colonial setting, it is the emphasis which anarchism lays on decentralisation and local autonomy, important though these attributes are, which exposes it to the danger of degenerating into nationalism. On the other hand, it is further argued that anarchism is also equipped with principles which, if the danger is sufficiently recognised, can be invoked so as to safeguard anarchism from nationalist degeneration.

Introduction
The background to this article was the publishing of Ha Ki-Rak’s A History of Korean Anarchist Movement (Taegu: Anarchist Publishing Committee, 1986). Ha is a prominent Korean anarchist and when I obtained a copy of his book in 1987 I approached it with keen anticipation as the first full-length study in a Western language of a little known anarchist movement by one of that movement’s chief participants. The contents of the book were something of a shock, however. Here was a movement which in the prewar period, when Korea was a Japanese colony, had attempted, in the name of anarchism, to organise an administration to manage the affairs of the considerable Korean population then living in Manchuria (and hence beyond the direct control of the Japanese authorities). The setting up of this administration was justified by reference to the contradictory (and possibly Taoist) formula ‘a government of non-governing’. Thus it was asserted:

This is the very organisation that guarantees [the] ‘by the people, of the people’ principle and non-rule, non-authoritarianism, non-exploitation. And it is non-government in that meaning. Paradoxically speaking it is ‘a government of non-governing.’ Non-government means non-rule and non-exploitation, and government means the social management of human lives by the people themselves, namely independent self-government. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the two conceptions of non-government and government. (Ha, 1986, p.81)[1]

During the course of the subsequent Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) the Provisional Korean Government in exile, which had been declared in Shanghai in 1919, moved in 1940 to Chongqing, where the Guomindang leader Chiang Kai-Shek had established his wartime capital. Not only were Yu Ja-Myeong of the Korean Federation of Revolutionaries and Yu Rim of the Korean Anarchist Federation elected to the Provisional Parliament, which met in Chongqing, but the latter was also appointed to the Cabinet of the Provisional Government (Ha, 1986, pp. 112–13).

After the end of the Second World War and the dismembering of Japan’s empire, a nationwide anarchist conference was held at Anui in South Kyongsang Province in April 1946. The second day of this three-day conference was given over to a discussion on the desirability of establishing an all-Korea government. The outcome was that the conference unanimously adopted a statement which declared in part: ‘We [will] do our best to establish an autonomous and democratic united government for our independent fatherland’ (Ha, 1986, p. 143). Less than three months after this conference took place, many anarchists cooperated to form the Independent Workers’ and Farmers’ Party, whose founding meeting was held on 7 July 1946. The first item in the list of basic policies of the Independent Workers’ and Farmers’ Party read: ‘We [will] establish a democratic constitutional government that will secure equality, liberty and happiness for the people’ (Ha, 1986, p.147).

Peter Marshall has described the Korean anarchist movement as ‘still … somewhat nationalist and reformist’ (Marshall, 1993, p.528) but this is mild criticism of a movement which, in many respects, appears to have flouted the basic principles of anarchism. It is true that neither anarchists in general, nor Korean anarchists in particular, have been alone in compromising principles. Throughout the world there have been numerous instances of self-styled liberals acting in decidedly illiberal fashions, just as countless self-declared Marxists have wielded power in ways which would have made Karl Marx’s blood run cold. Hence the fact that some anarchists have in practice departed from the theoretical principles on which anarchism is supposed to be based is perhaps unsurprising and should be kept in perspective. Similarly, it would be quite unfair to focus on the shortcomings of Korean anarchism and remain silent about the failings of anarchists in other parts of the world. To mention only the most notorious cases: in February 1916 Petr Kropotkin and other prominent anarchists issued the misleadingly titled Manifesto of the Sixteen, which expressed their support for the French-British-Russian side in the First World War;[2] and in November 1936 at the height of the Spanish Civil War the anarchists Juan López, Federica Montseny, García Oliver and Juan Peiró became Ministers of Commerce, Health, Justice and Industry respectively in the Republican Government (Richards, 1972, pp. 59–72).

…

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It’s Going Down
One People’s Project
2022-10-26
https://itsgoingdown.org/fash-started-it-and-penn-state-ended-it-gavin-mcinnes-campus-event-shut-down/
One People’s Project reports from Penn State, where on Monday hundreds converged to shut-down the millionaire neo-fascist founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes.  A planned event on Monday that was to feature the founder of the neo-fascist Proud Boys was shut down just minutes it was supposed to start in the wake of escalating… Read Full Article

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Revolutions
unknown
2022-10-25
https://revolutionspodcast.libsyn.com/appendix-7-the-entropy-of-victory
The enemy of my enemy was my friend.
Upcoming live events!
Oct. 26 Boston @ The Wilbur
Oct. 27 Washington DC @ Lisner Auditorium
Oct. 29 Newark NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center

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libcom.org
Joakim
2022-10-25
https://libcom.org/article/it-starts-your-job-syndicalist-proposals

A fourth bonus article after a series of three articles about syndicalist vision, strategy, and movement building. The fourth article is about making plans for action in individual workplaces. Thus, these articles start off on the macro level of class struggle and move down to the micro level on the job.

The fourth article was first published on the US labor union website Organizing Work . The other articles were first published in the summer of 2022 on the website of US labor magazine ASR.

Author

Rasmus Hästbacka

Submitted by Joakim on October 25, 2022

Copied to clipboard

Rasmus Hästbacka of the Swedish syndicalist union SAC suggests how big and complex workplaces might be organized, using the example of a university.

Swedish and American workers face very different, yet very similar, problems. A problem in the USA is that most workers don’t belong to unions and therefore cannot use unions as a resource and tool to defend their interests. A problem in Sweden is that most workers belong to unions that are so dysfunctional that it is hard or impossible to use them as a resource and tool. I have already written a piece on why Swedish unions suck, so I won’t repeat myself here.

In both Sweden and USA, I believe we can give the labor movement new life if we train more organizers who have a clear idea of what they can do on the job, every week, month after month. For me, organizing is about co-workers developing and using their collective strength in a systematic way.

With inspiration from the Labor Notes book Secrets of a Successful Organizer, such a plan can be divided into four phases as follows:

1. Mapping and personal conversations

2. Making an action plan

3. Collective action

4. Evaluation

Mapping and personal conversations
The first phase is about mapping as many departments and other units as possible and having personal conversations with those workers. This is done by members who work at the units, not by external organizers. Ultimately, you need a list of all employees of the unit to be organized. Arrange meetings in your spare time. If it takes time to work through the staff, let it take time.

The purpose is to find good organizing issues in each place and find informal or natural leaders. These are employees who have influence because they enjoy the trust of colleagues.

The authors of Secrets of a Successful Organizer formulate what characterizes a good organizing issue:

1. Breadth: the issue engages many employees

2. Depth: the issue engages them strongly

3. The issue winnable through pressure exerted by workers; and

4. The collective action planned has good chances of making the collective even stronger.

Write down the workplace issues that colleagues bring up, what change they want to see and which methods they are prepared to use to pressure management. Note who the key people are, the informal “leaders” that others mention by name. Personal conversations build good relationships and encourage colleagues to participate in union work and education.

Second phase
Once you have found a good organizing issue and a concrete demand to gather co-workers around, then it is time to make an action plan. The plan must state how the demand should be presented and what pressure should be used if the bosses reject your demand. It needs to be made clear who is doing what and in what order. Crucial to the success of the action plan is that the informal leaders are with you.

In choosing methods of pressure, it is important to choose methods that are both effective and that many employees are willing to use. A majority of the staff should want to participate or at least support the methods. You need not be fixated on strikes or other varieties of economic pressure. There is also moral, psychological and legal pressure. I and a fellow union comrade have written an article about just that, alternatives to striking.

Third phase
The third phase is collective action. Before implementing an action plan, the co-workers should have discussed the support needed from the syndicalist section. Decisions should also have been made if you want to cooperate with other unions or act independently of them. A general advice is to be open to cooperation with other unions but clear on the conditions: that the campaign is controlled by workers on the shop floor.

It is not until organizers have talked to all their colleagues and the staff has gathered around an action plan that it becomes of great value. The planned collective methods create pressure at the bargaining table. Without a plan for collective action, it will be a battle of words and the law; such battles usually bring meagre or no results.

Fourth phase
The fourth and final phase is evaluation. The authors of Secrets of a Successful Organizer emphasize that evaluation is as important as the previous phases. To evaluate is not just to tick a box about whether your demand was met or not. Co-workers should evaluate their ability to act together, i.e. discuss strengths and weaknesses, in order to develop the capacity for the next battle. After the evaluation, the four phases can be repeated with a focus on new organizing issues and so on.

Example of a successful campaign
When I worked at the university in the city of Umeå, the staff at two departments (Law and Political Science) managed to stop a stupid reorganization and push several bosses to resign prematurely. The reorganization was about merging the two departments into one, based on the odd idea that bigger is always better. The methods we used were: petition, open questioning at staff meetings, and boycott of a series of meaningless meetings. At the Department of Law, we arranged an advisory vote on the boss of the department. The boss received very few votes and was replaced by a candidate who received a clear majority of the votes.

Two of us in the departments in question were members of SAC. We used regular meetings for syndicalists outside our departments as a coaching and sounding board. Members of other unions got no support at all from their own unions.

Even though we won the conflict, no formal structure was created. This made the conflict unnecessarily protracted and cumbersome. If we had formed a better structure, I believe we would have won quicker and had the opportunity to reflect and further develop our collective power.

Formal structure is necessary for employees to be able to make and implement democratic decisions and bridge the ups and downs of activity and of various individuals’ commitment. So in the rest of this article, I’d like to reflect on how the Secrets approach could be developed on a broader scale in Swedish workplaces where not all workers are members of the same union, using a syndicalist approach.

A syndicalist approach
Members of the Swedish syndicalist union SAC form local job branches called sections. At present, Swedish syndicalists have formed sections at four universities. On campuses, syndicalist sections usually hold meetings on at least two different levels: general section meetings for all members employed by the university, and meetings for individual departments or other units.

For a syndicalist section, it is natural to form these subdivisions at individual units as soon as the section has recruited groups of members there. The purpose of a subdivision is to promote the ability of colleagues to stick together and act together. The purpose of the section is to coordinate all subdivisions in joint action.

Let’s say we have a section that holds general meetings for members at a university, but not yet meetings at individual units. Such a section can start by arranging a meeting for all members who want to organize their own unit or support others who organize. At this meeting, the four phases of organizing can be discussed. In the continued work, these meetings can serve as support and sounding board for everyone who is organizing.

What kind of unions?
If SAC and other unions train more organizers, I hope we will build worker-run unions. More precisely, hope lies in formal unions that welcome workers in general. I call them popular movement unions.

If you want to get started with organizing, I highly recommend reading Secrets of a Successful Organizer and discussing it with your co-workers. The book is both in-depth and easy to read. The authors provide, for example, step-by-step guides for personal conversations and mapping the workplace. Readers receive solid advice on how workers can win conflicts, but also advice on how to deal with apathy and disappointments.

If workers build popular movement unions, then we have a chance to start moving towards a new society.

Rasmus Hästbacka is a lawyer and has been a member of the Umeå Local of SAC since 1997. A different version of this article was previously published in Swedish. More articles by the author on Libcom here.

syndicalism
anarcho-syndicalism
SAC
SAC
Sweden
sweden

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VICE US
Tess Owen
2022-10-25
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epzqww/penn-state-proud-boys-gavin-mcinnes
For weeks students had been demanding the school cancel a right-wing comedy event on campus. The school eventually did, minutes before it was meant to happen, as tensions mounted between protesters and uniformed Proud Boys.

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Atlas Obscura: Articles
Sarah Durn
2022-10-25
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/occult-women-history-spiritualism-witch
A new book examines how supernatural beliefs have often offered a voice, visibility, and vulnerabilities.
In Atlas Obscura’s Q&A series She Was There, we talk to female scholars who are writing long-forgotten women back into history.

On Thursday, April 18, 1985, Nancy Reagan sat down for tea with an unusual friend. In a quiet corner of the White House, the pair discussed the previous night’s dinner, and how the secretary of state tried to dance with a young starlet. Then they got down to business—the president’s schedule. Would this weekend trip to Camp David be a good one? Should they avoid, say, horses? Nancy took careful notes: when to go outside, when to be careful, what days were “very bad.”

That friend was Joan Quiggly, a psychic medium. In his memoir, For The Record, Don Regan complained how “virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with this woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.”

Quiggly was not the first medium to hold sway over American politics. In the 1920s, astrologer Madame Marcia advised first ladies Edith Wilson and Florence Harding. Mary Todd Lincoln held séances to talk to her dead son, Willie, in the White House’s Red Room. In their new book, Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, Lisa Kröger and Melanie Anderson trace the women and nonbinary people who have shaped the occult—and used it to gain personal and political power.

Atlas Obscura spoke with Kröger and Anderson about the social power of occult movements, Benjamin Franklin’s very talkative ghost, and patriarchy in the occult today.

In the United States, how were women able to gain power through occult movements?
Lisa Kröger: I think it was in Spiritualism in the 19th century, that was when we really saw a lot of women taking control of their own voices and their own ideas. But in a safe way. In that time period, “good respectable women” were supposed to stay at home. A good woman was not supposed to be a loud woman. She was not supposed to share her ideas on anything, but especially on religion and politics.

After the Fox Sisters [three teenage sisters who pioneered talking to the dead] entered Spiritualism, we saw quite a few women using the home to their advantage. They could invite or be invited into the parlor of other people’s homes to hold séances. So they’re still working in “the women’s realm,” and under the cloak of Christianity. They would say, “Oh, you know, your brother who passed away during the Civil War? He’s here. He’s with God. He’s with Jesus. He’s in heaven. And he also says, ‘You should free the slaves.’” They were able to say, especially as mediums during the Spiritualist period, that these are not our ideas, “I’m just the conduit.”

I think that’s why a lot of times they channeled Abraham Lincoln or Benjamin Franklin—people who were respected. Then female mediums could put out their own ideas that had to do with societal change or politics or religion without having them dismissed.

Melanie Anderson: When you learn a bit about the history of Spiritualism, it was there alongside these social reform movements the whole time. I feel like sometimes in history, we kind of separate the Spiritualist movement from the political things that were going on at the time, such as abolition and women’s suffrage. But one of the critical voices we use, Ann Braude, makes a compelling argument that Spiritualism did have ties to these political movements.

Why do you think women, historically, have been drawn to the occult?
LK: I think it’s because we have been shut out from places of power. This is why we focused on specifically the history of the United States. You know, we’ve never had a woman president, so we don’t have the track record of political power. I think women then are attracted to the occult—and not only women, but anyone who is not part of that patriarchal hierarchy, such as members of the LGBTQ community, trans women, women of color—when somebody says, “Hey, here is a spiritual belief system that you can not only be a part of, but we’re going to celebrate you and we’re going to let you take leadership roles.”

We talk about this idea of a “witch” and how it became an accusation and moved to something of power. The word today usually evokes power. I think that is very attractive for a group of people who have been told that they’re powerless.

MA: I think it’s also the flip side of women having been connected to negative aspects of witchcraft early on. So it’s not just looking at “witch” as a powerful thing, but also taking a term that was dangerous and making it a positive thing.

And yet these women and others involved often faced a backlash? Why is the occult still so threatening?
MA: I think it’s because we still have some of these oppressive systems in place.

LK: Our country, for good or for bad, is very much tied up with the Christian belief system and that is, in a lot of ways, an oppressive power. I think it’s threatening for some people to see something, like the occult, that so openly goes up against what we hold up as the standard. Plus, I just think that any way we, as a country, can discredit women, we will. We saw a lot of that with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. If you can’t discredit her on her past record or her beliefs, then they’re going to make up some sort of ridiculous satanic cult ritual she’s a part of. So, unfortunately, it’s a tool that’s used to cut people down when they get close to places of power.

MA: And we still have our historical narratives. Anything associated with the occult is automatically also associated with the devil, even though the occult doesn’t really have anything to do with him. We have these binaries and conflicts baked into our folklore. We may be in 2022, but those things are still here.

Are women and others still using the occult this way today?
LK: I’ll give an example of someone we ended our book with, Alice Sparkly Kat. They’re an astrologer and their book is called Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets Through Capital, Power, and Labor. Sparkly Kat looked at astrology and the history of astrology and thought, “This has really been whitewashed. It’s being looked at through a colonialist structure.” Their work is looking at astrology but taking out, as they put it, the white supremacy of patriarchy. Often we talk about planets like Venus and Mars. Those are the Roman names, the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses. It’s also a very gendered idea of what makes each planet, right? If I were to ask you, “What gender is Venus?” most people would probably say “Female.” That is shifting.

These people who are participating in the occult are not only usually rebelling against patriarchal structures, but are attempting to take everything that we have and look at it through completely a different lens.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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anarchistnews.org
thecollective
2022-10-25
https://anarchistnews.org/content/part-one-sholem-schwarzbard-jewish-assassin-who-ruled
From Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

In this special reverse episode, Miriam talks with Margaret about Sholem Schwarzbard, the radical Jewish assassin.

Special thanks goes to Anna Elena Torres. Her forthcoming book, With Freedom in Our Ears can be found here.

Thanks to Eliui Damm, whose work can be found in There’s Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart, available from AK Press, With Freedom in Our Ears and Tohubavohu, a zine available here.

Thank you to Ciarán Finlayson.

And thank you to Kelly Johnson, whose 2012 dissertation Sholem Schwarzbard: Biography of a Jewish Assassin was indispensable to the research for this episode.

Tags: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuffmargaret killjoyassassinationjewish anarchistsAK Press

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VICE US
Jordan Pearson
2022-10-25
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvmp4v/nasas-big-ufo-study-has-officially-begun-with-an-a-team-of-scientists
NASA kicked off its study into UFOs on Monday with a diverse set of 16 scientists to cover all the possible bases.

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BBC News – Science & Environment
unknown
2022-10-25
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63380157
A scientist says his recordings of 53 marine species changes what we know about the evolution of sounds.

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-10-25
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-peter-nygard-the-epstein-of-fashion
Robert is joined by Margaret Killjoy to discuss Peter Nygard.

 

(2 part series)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Chahla Chafiq
2022-10-24
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/chahla-chafiq-iranian-left-khomeini-protests-feminism/
Since the September murder of twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by Iran’s so-called “morality police” for violating that country’s mandatory hijab law, Iranians have been demonstrating in the streets and going on strike. Chahla Chafiq is a writer and sociologist who was active in the 1979 revolution, which overthrew the US-backed regime of […]

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The Forward
BCohen
2022-10-24
https://www.jta.org/2022/10/24/culture/the-nazi-history-of-adidas-the-sportswear-giant-that-hasnt-dropped-kanye-west-over-antisemitism
(JTA) — As rap star Kanye West continually refuses to back down from his antisemitic rants, some of the many institutions he has ties with have begun to jump ship. The fashion tastemakers Balenciaga and Vogue have announced they will no longer be working with him. Hollywood talent giant CAA has dropped him, and a…

The post The Nazi history of Adidas, the sportswear giant that hasn’t dropped Kanye West over antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.

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anarchistnews.org
PodcastDogs
2022-10-24
https://anarchistnews.org/content/anews-podcast-285-%E2%80%93-102122
From ANews Podcast

http://podcast.anarchistnews.org/episodes/anewse285.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Welcome to this week’s podcast. This podcast is on anarchist activity, ideas, and comments from the previous week on anarchistnews.org.

Notes:
What’s New

Written by chisel, read by chisel & grumples!

A reading from theanarchistlibrary

Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness – Propaganda of the Dead 

Read & sound edited by Max Res

A discussion prompted by
TraumaZone & this week’s reading from theanarchistlibrary

w/ Max Res & octox

sound editing by octox

Music & Samples:

MATER SUSPIRIA VISION – ANTROPOPHAGUS (2015, Album Teaser)

Ennio Morricone – Humanity Pt. 1
Mortician – Voodoo Curse  
SΛUDΛDƩ – z o m b i e (The Cranberries cover)

Tags: podcastanews podcastanews has it the togetherest

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VICE US
Edward Ongweso Jr
2022-10-24
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjkxmp/plastic-recycling-is-a-disaster-and-a-myth-report-says
Greenpeace warns in a new report that we’ve wasted decades and billions of dollars pretending single-use plastic recycling is feasible or desirable.

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Snopes.com
katrinaaman
2022-10-24
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/10/24/crime-rate-explained-2022-midterm-election/
Despite the apparently confident assertions of politicians, it’s not so easy to make sense of fluctuations in the crime rate, writes this associate professor.

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Existential Comics
Corey Mohler
2022-10-24
http://existentialcomics.com/comic/469

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Current Affairs
Current Affairs
2022-10-24
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/10/the-war-on-palestine/
Historian Rashid Khalidi explains why the Israel-Palestine conflict is best understood as a war on Palestine.

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VICE US
Trone Dowd
2022-10-24
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgpakd/kanye-white-supremacist-la-overpass
A demonstration in LA was attributed to a “virulently antisemitic provocateur.”

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Sam Thielman
2022-10-24
https://slate.com/culture/2022/10/miracleman-omnibus-review-alan-moore-marvel-watchmen.html
Years before his watershed series, Alan Moore took an obscure, all-powerful hero and stuck him in the real world. The results are still shocking.

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Daily Infographic
Lyle Opolentisima
2022-10-24
https://dailyinfographic.com/10-essential-vegetable-cuts-you-should-know
Vegetable cutting styles aren’t just a great way to impress your friends and family—they’re also a smart way to maximize the amount of food you get from each vegetable. There’s a lot to love about vegetables. They’re delicious, they’re nutritious, and they can be prepared in a variety of ways. But what if you don’t […]

The post 10 Essential Vegetable Cuts You Should Know first appeared on Daily Infographic.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
stuartelden
2022-10-24
https://progressivegeographies.com/2022/10/24/christian-schmid-henri-lefebvre-and-the-theory-of-the-production-of-space-verso-november-2022/
Christian Schmid, Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space – Verso, November 2022 This book presents an encompassing, detailed and thorough overview and reconstruction of Lefebvre’s theory of space and of the urban. Henri Lefebvre belongs to … Continue reading →

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Critical Legal Thinking
Kate Bradley
2022-10-23
https://criticallegalthinking.com/2022/10/24/the-deviant-law-student/
In a piece originally published in Socialist Lawyer, Kate Bradley reviews the Critical Legal Pocketbook, and finds it a useful corrective to capitalist legal education, perfect for socialists who study and work in law. Reposted from rs21 There are many reasons why socialists may be attracted to the legal profession. Though it is an embattled terrain dominated by […]

The post The Deviant Law Student appeared first on Critical Legal Thinking.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
unknown
2022-10-23
https://compactmag.com/article/why-gen-x-failed
Comments

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anarchistnews.org
PodcastDogs
2022-10-23
https://anarchistnews.org/content/first-international-and-birth-anarchist-movement-robert-graham
From The Final Straw Radio

I’m happy to share this interview with anarchist author and historian, Robert Graham about the split in the historic left that led to the birth of the anarchist movement. Robert published the book We Do Not Fear Anarchy, We Invoke It!: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement with AK Press in 2015 and, as I say in the interview, I was excited to have this conversation with Robert since the 150th anniversary of the first anti-authoritarian International hosted by the anarchist watchmakers in St-Imier, Switzerland. I’m definitely not a history or theory head, so I’ve been pleased to take this opportunity to broaden my horizons and areas of study. To hear about the 150th Anniversary gathering, check out the segment by comrades at A-Radio Berlin from August 2022’s Bad News podcast. And check out Anarchy2023.Org for info on next year’s gathering.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thefinalstrawradio/tfsrpodcast20221023-RobertGraham1stIntl.mp3

Part 1: [00:11:45 – 01:11:58]

Part 2: [01:14:32 – 02:13:22]

The interview begins at after Sean Swain’s segment on the protests in Iran [00:03:20 – 00:11:45]

The book is available from Firestorm at the above link, also from the publisher at AKPress.Org, and you can check out an online version from Archive.Org for free as well. Or now at TheAnarchistLibrary.Org for easy & free download.

Here’s a link to an archive of Open Road, the anarchist journal Robert participated in in the 1970’s

For a related historical interview we conducted in 2014 with Andrew Zonneveld of On Our Own Authority! on an anarchist historical compilation called “The Commune: Paris, 1871”, linked in our show notes. Also of note, Coffee With Comrades just conducted an interview Jim Yoeman on his recently published AK Press book, Print Culture and the Formation of the Anarchist Movement in Spain, 1890-1915

Next week….
Next week, I hope to air voices supporting prisoner struggle in Alabama and anarchist prisoner struggle in Italy, particularly Alfredo Cospito.

. … . ..

Featured Tracks:

The Internationale by Ani DiFranco & Utah Phillips
La Internacional (Anarquista) by anonymous

Tags: podcastthe final straw radioSean Swainanarchists in troubleanarchist prisoners

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The Institute for Anarchist Studies
IAS
2022-10-22
https://anarchiststudies.org/comradefromiran/
This is an interview with a comrade from Iran. It has been slightly edited for clarity.   Paul Messersmith-Glavin: Tell us about yourself: where you’re from and about your relations with family and friends in Iran. Comrade: I was born in Tehran. And I still … Read more

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-10-22
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/elisee-reclus-preface-to-the-conquest-of-bread?v=1666424327
Author: Elisée Reclus
Title: Preface to the First French Edition of The Conquest of Bread
Date: 1892
Notes: Reclus’ preface of Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread was originally published in the first French edition of the work. This preface was not translated into English, with another preface appearing in the first English edition in 1907. The first version of this translation was contributed by Máire McLaughlin in 2021. The second version of this translation was contributed by Iain McKay in 2022.
Source: Retrieved on 7/24/2021 from fr.theanarchistlibrary.org/library/pierre-kropotkine-la-conquete-du-pain

Peter Kropotkin asked me to write a few words at the beginning of his work, and I comply with his wishes, with a certain embarrassment in doing so. Not being able to add anything to the array of arguments that he presents in his work, I risk weakening the force of his words. However, friendship excuses me. While for the French “republicans” supreme good taste is to prostrate at the feet of the Tsar, I like to get closer to the free men whom he would have beaten with rods, whom he will lock in the dungeons of a citadel or hang in a dark courtyard. With these friends, I forget for a moment the abjection of the renegades who, in their youth, made themselves hoarse by crying “Liberty! Liberty!” and who are now trying to combine the two tunes of La Marseillaise and the Bozhe Tsarya Khrani.[1]

Kropotkin’s previous work, Words of a Rebel, was above all an ardent critique of bourgeois society, at the same time so ferocious and so corrupt, and appealed to revolutionary energies against the State and the capitalist regime. The current work, following Words, has a more calmer bearing. It is addressed to men of goodwill who honestly desire to assist in social transformation, and presents to them in broad outline the phases of imminent history which will enable us to finally constitute the human family on the ruins of banks and States.

The title of the book, The Conquest of Bread, should be taken in the broadest sense, because “man does not live by bread alone”. At a time when the generous and valiant are trying to transform their ideal of social justice into a living reality, it is not conquering bread, even with wine and salt, that our ambition is limited to. It is also necessary to conquer all that is necessary, or even simply useful, for life’s comforts; we must be able to assure to all the full satisfaction of needs and pleasures. As long as we have not made this first “conquest”, as long as “there will be poor with us”, it is a bitter mockery to give the name of “society” to this group of human beings who hate and destroy each other, like ferocious animals locked in an arena.

From the first chapter of his work, the author enumerates the immense riches that humanity already possesses and the prodigious machinery that it has acquired through collective labour. The products obtained each year amply suffice to supply bread to all men, and if the enormous capital of cities and houses, of arable fields, of factories, of transportation routes, and of schools became communal property instead being held as private property, comfort would be easy to conquer: the forces that are at our disposal would be applied, not to useless or contradictory work, but to the production of all that man needs for food, housing, clothing, comfort, scientific studies, artistic culture.

Nevertheless, the recovery of humanity’s possessions, expropriation, in a word, can only be accomplished by anarchic communism: it must destroy the government, tear up its laws, repudiate its morality, ignore its agents, and set to work following its own initiative and grouping itself according to its affinities, its interests, its ideals, and the nature of the work undertaken. This question of expropriation, the most important in the book, is also one of those which the author has dealt with in the greatest details, plainly and without violent words, but with the calm and clarity of vision that the study of an imminent revolution, now unavoidable, requires. It is after this overthrow of the State that the groups of freed workers, no longer having to toil in the service of the monopolisers and the parasites, will be able to devote themselves to attractive occupations of freely chosen labour and proceed scientifically to the cultivation of the soil and to industrial production, interspersed with recreation given to study or pleasure. The pages of the book which deal with agricultural work are of vital interest, because they relate facts which practice has already confirmed and which it is easy to apply everywhere on a large scale, for the benefit of all and not just for the enrichment of a few.

Some like to speak of the “Fin de siècle” to mock the vices and failings of the elegant youth; but it is now a matter of much more than the end of a century; we coming to the end of an epoch, of an era of history.[2] It is the entire antiquated civilisation that we see coming to an end. The right of force and the caprice of authority, the harsh Jewish tradition and the cruel Roman jurisprudence no longer impose upon us; we profess a new faith, and as soon as this faith, which is at the same time a science, has become that of all those who seek the truth, it will take shape in the world of achievements, for the first of historical laws is that society models itself on its ideal. How could the defenders of the antiquated order of things maintain it? They no longer believe; having neither guide nor flag, they fight haphazardly. Against the innovators they have laws and guns, police officers with clubs and artillery divisions, but all of that cannot offset a thought, and whole regime of arbitrariness and oppression is destined soon to be lost in a sort of prehistory.

…

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Anarchism
Emma Brockes
2022-10-22
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/22/chelsea-manning-leaked-military-documents-free-world-prison
Nihilist, anarchist, idealist, troubled young transperson crying out for help: when a 22-year-old US military analyst leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents, everyone thought they knew why. They were wrong, she says. This is what really happened
Chelsea Manning’s memoir opens like a Jason Bourne novel with a scene in which the then 22-year-old, on the last day of two weeks’ military leave, tries to leak an enormous amount of classified data via a sketchy wifi connection in a Barnes & Noble in Maryland. Outside, a snowstorm rages. Inside, Manning, a junior intelligence analyst for the US army, freaks out as the clock ticks down. In 12 hours, her flight leaves for Iraq. Meanwhile she has half a million incident reports on US military activity to upload from a memory stick to an obscure website called WikiLeaks. The military would later argue she didn’t have the clearance even to access these files – “exceeded authorised” as Manning puts it, in army parlance – but the fact is, she says, “It was encouraged. I was told, ‘Go look!’ The way you do analysis is you collect a shit-ton of data, a huge amount, in order to do the work on it.”
Everything about Manning on that afternoon of 8 February 2010 – her name, her gender, her anonymity, her freedom – is provisional and shortly to change. Three months later, she’ll be in a cage in Kuwait. Three years after that, she’ll be starting a 35-year prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Meanwhile, the wider consequences of her actions that day will, depending on your view, topple governments; endanger lives; protect lives; uphold democracy; compromise global diplomacy; change the world in no measurable way whatsoever; or – Manning’s least favourite interpretation – boil down to a cry for help from a troubled young transperson seeking the care she required. Today, sitting across the table from me in an office in Brooklyn, Manning is tiny, fierce, dressed all in black with long blond hair, and vibrating with enough nervous energy to power the lights. “Are we recording?” she says as her eyes skim the room. For the space of our 90-minute encounter, she will seem only partially present, each question yanking her back to some unseen site of contest where she must defend herself against endless and wide-ranging charges.
Continue reading…

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libcom.org
greensyndic
2022-10-21
https://libcom.org/article/profits-doom-green-syndicalist-perspective-tar-sands-worker-deaths

A central position of green syndicalism is that the destruction of nature and the destruction of workers’ lives and communities are inextricably linked and proceed together. Both are probability outcomes of exploitation and the pursuit of profit, as capital seeks to increase extractive value while keeping costs of extraction as low as it possibly can. The connection between the violence and death inflicted on nature and on workers’ bodies is given a rough measure by the fact that those jobs most directly involved in the destruction of nature are also typically the deadliest for workers (logging and mining, for example).

Author

Jeff Shantz

Submitted by greensyndic on October 21, 2022

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By Jeff Shantz

A central position of green syndicalism is that the destruction of nature and the destruction of workers’ lives and communities are inextricably linked and proceed together. Both are probability outcomes of exploitation and the pursuit of profit, as capital seeks to increase extractive value while keeping costs of extraction as low as it possibly can. The connection between the violence and death inflicted on nature and on workers’ bodies is given a rough measure by the fact that those jobs most directly involved in the destruction of nature are also typically the deadliest for workers (logging and mining, for example).

While some argue that these are simply “dangerous” jobs, the reality is that their dangerousness is not natural, but rather an effect of extractive practices carried out in a context of cost management, capital mandated labor processes and time frames, and profitability. Similarly, what are called workplace accidents are typically not accidents at all—they are reasonably expected, probability, outcomes of capital making decisions to keep costs down and profits up at the expense of workers. They happen because companies try to save money by cutting costs on equipment, training, staffing levels, protective gear, etc. They happen because of speed-ups, lack of breaks, scheduling.

The interconnected violence of extraction is powerfully displayed in the case of tar sands developments—the desperate drive by capital to squeeze some saleable amount of oil out of tarry deposits in sands, bitumen—a last gasp attempt to syphon profit out of a peak oil economy in sharp decline. While the devastation of nature resulting from tar sands extraction—consuming vast territories and turning rich ecosystems into contaminated wastelands, chemical poisoning of watersheds and rivers, annihilation of wildlife, and tailings pond wastewater leaks—have been widely commented on, the longstanding harms done to workers in the tar sands developments, including workers’ deaths, have received very little attention.

The extraction of tar sands in the Canadian state context is the world’s largest industrial project. It is also among the deadliest in Canada.

Death in the Tar Sands

On July 7, 2022, a 26-year-old contractor died after being struck by equipment at Suncor’s Base Mine near Fort McMurray, Alta. The worker, employed by Komatsu, was pronounced dead at around 3:00 AM that morning at a shovel maintenance pad in the mine. Incredibly, but in no way surprisingly, the death was the fifth workplace fatality at a Suncor tar sands site in Alberta since 2021. What is more, since 2014, there have been at least 12 deaths at Suncor tar sands sites.

This awful toll includes the death of a contractor in a truck crash at the company’s Base Mine site in January, as well as an incident in 2021 in which a bulldozer collided with a pickup truck at the Fort Hills tar sand mine. That incident killed two contract workers. Another incident in 2021 saw a worker killed when the bulldozer he was driving fell through the ice of a tailings pond at Suncor’s Base Mine. That same year the company also had a fire at a refinery that resulted in an injury in March.

Indeed, the last few years have been particularly deadly in the tar sands. In addition to the Suncor worker deaths, in June a person was killed at the Syncrude mine. Additionally, two workers were killed in December 2020 at the Fort Hills mine.

The spate of tar sands deaths recently is nothing new in the industry. In 2007, two Chinese temporary foreign workers died at Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon project near Fort McMurray when an oil storage tank they were building collapsed.

And the deaths are not only related to workplace mechanical, or material issues (link crashes or structure collapses). They often relate to issues of the labor process and scheduling. In 2020 there was a massive COVID-19 outbreak at Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon tar sands worksite in northern Alberta. At least three workers at that site died of COVID, including a 60-year-old worker who had two children and seven grandchildren. He had only worked at CNRL’s Horizon site as a pipefitter for a few months. The CNRL Horizon outbreak was the largest in Canada, infecting 1,496 workers. There were dozens of other COVID-19 outbreaks at other tar sands operations across Alberta.

These deaths and illnesses are attributable to profit-making conditions of labor and government protection of capital at the expense of workers’ health, wellbeing, and lives. Despite the extremely dangerous conditions of the pandemic, workers had no choice but to leave their lives at risk in order to meet the financial needs of themselves and their families. Even under COVID conditions, many were made to work a 12 days-on and two days-off rotation. This meant that they remained at camp even when they were off work. Workers who showed symptoms or even had tests comes back positive had to stay in the isolation wing of the camp. This left them without adequate care or follow-up assessments from health care workers.

The governmental response showed unequivocally that the state’s interests was simply with protecting capital and sustain company profits. Throughout the worst parts of the pandemic the Right-wing United Conservative Party that rules Alberta, designated tar sands mining operations and their work camps as essential services. Even when the COVID situation became so dire that the government was moved to institute a new health rule that workplaces with 10 or more infections must close, the energy sector was still excluded as an “essential service.”

The most recent death had one symbolic impact on the company as Suncor Energy Inc. chief executive Mark Little stepped down as president and chief executive officer and resigned from its board of directors just one day after the July 7 death. This was largely about responding to the wishes of investors, certainly not concern for worker safety, as prominent investors were worried about the “look” the death numbers were giving the company.

And the ploy seems to have worked, at least immediately. Nothing quite shows the intersection of profitability and playing fast and loose with workers lives quite like the jump in stock prices in the wake of workers’ deaths. And the tar sands operations are no different in this regard. Suncor’s stock price jumped 9.5 percent when management announced minimal reforms, including a third-party review and the implementation of new fatigue management and collision avoidance technology, following the 2021 deaths and is now up 40% since January. The company is currently valued at $52 billion. It is the largest tar sands operation in Canada.

Workers’ Control for an End to Death and Destruction

From a green syndicalist perspective there is a pressing need for workers’ control of the industry to stop tar sands developments and to begin ecological restoration work. This is by no means a far-fetched approach. While environmentalists have long stressed the necessity of restoration, coalitions of tar sands workers, including Iron and Earth have taken up this orientation toward restoration (while perhaps lagging on calls for workers’ control). A recent survey of tar sands workers by Iron and Earth found broad support for this approach among them, as I have detailed previously in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review.

The tar sands workers have the essential knowledge about how to shut down operations safely and as cleanly as possible. They also have many of the skills necessary to dismantle those operations, as well as skills needed in restoration work.

In a green syndicalist approach industrial workers would take the lead from and work collaboratively with local Indigenous communities on whose territories the tar sands, and connected environments (watersheds, rivers, forests), are situated. This is a matter of properly decolonial practices. While multinational companies, like Suncor, have no reason to respect Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge, which impede profit-making, workers certainly do—as a matter of life and death, individual and ecological, now and in the future. And in this we must remember that many tar sands workers are themselves Indigenous.

A serious solidarity and allyship in anti-colonial action is essential for ending tar sands developments and the destruction they inflict on Indigenous lands and the bases for survival of Indigenous communities, including wildlife habitats. It is also essential in ending the other great human harms of the tar sands, including the elevated rates of cancer among Indigenous people living on those lands.

oil
oil workers
health and safety
workplace activity
anarcho-syndicalism
indigenous
workers control
Anarcho-Syndicalist Review

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Angela
2022-10-21
https://mutablematter.wordpress.com/2022/10/21/matters-of-concern-new-materialism-environmental-determinism/
This term, I am teaching a module called Histories & Philosophies of Geography that introduces students to major debates in the discipline. In my lecture on materiality, I emphasise how science studies set out to dismantle problematic ideologies such as … Continue reading →

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-10-21
https://indypendent.org/2022/10/starbucks-workers-united-stages-one-day-strike-at-williamsburg-location/
Starbucks Workers United Stages One-Day Strike at Williamsburg Location  The Indypendent

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The Intercept
Jon Schwarz
2022-10-21
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/21/economy-wealth-pandemic-inflation/
The net worth of the poorer half of U.S. households — while still modest — is now far higher than it’s ever been.

The post The Wealth of America’s Bottom 50 Percent Has Doubled During the Pandemic Years appeared first on The Intercept.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Carla Rover
2022-10-21
https://www.alistdaily.com/entertainment/hell-is-others-brand-storytelling/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hell-is-others-brand-storytelling
Hell is Others, a new online multiplayer release by A List Games and Italy-based game studios Strelka Games and Yonder, represents a shift in brand storytelling focusing on the mechanics of user engagement through the eyes of the consumer. Hell Is Others Is A 2D PvP Multiplayer Game For The Bingeable Content Era Released on […]

The post Why Multiplayer Game ‘Hell Is Others’ May Signal A Pivot In Brand Storytelling appeared first on AList.

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Industrial Worker
Noah Wingard
2022-10-21
https://industrialworker.org/building-a-new-world-in-the-shell-of-labor-law/
The IWW, since its inception, has been an intentionally apolitical organization in regards to specific political parties or candidates, instead founding its purpose and praxis through revolutionary industrial unionism. There are two main factors for this which I, in my membership, have noticed. The first, being that we do not wish to alienate our fellow … Continue reading "“Building a New World” in the Shell of Labor Law"

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UNICORN RIOT
Unicorn Riot
2022-10-21
https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/primer-on-bitcoin-nfts-and-the-blockchain-revolution/
Over 14 years ago in 2008, an anonymous computer programmer(s) writing under the presumed alias of “Satoshi Nakamoto” developed a groundbreaking new form of digitized currency known as “Bitcoin.” This new currency uses electronic cryptography to generate random numbers, which represent the currency in digital…

The post Primer on Bitcoin, NFTs and the ‘Blockchain Revolution’ appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.

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Ars Technica – All content
John Timmer
2022-10-21
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/the-worlds-energy-situation-is-not-as-terrible-as-you-might-expect/
Europe seems to be ready for the winter as renewable growth largely offsets coal.

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Jonah Furman
2022-10-21
https://labornotes.org/blogs/2022/10/kansas-chipotle-workers-latest-launch-union-drive
Employees at a second Chipotle location are unionizing, this time in Lawrence, Kansas. The young workers are forming an independent union, and facing harsh—and likely illegal—pushback from management.

A majority of workers’ signatures were collected on a petition to submit to the National Labor Relations Board, only to have that petition thrown away by management. So now they’re filing an unfair labor practice charge as they push to form a union.

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Snopes.com
katrinaaman
2022-10-21
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/10/21/why-are-so-many-people-delighted-by-disgusting-things/
Going out of your way to get grossed out might seem like a contradiction of human nature. But it serves a strong evolutionary purpose.

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Industrial Worker
Hannah M
2022-10-21
https://industrialworker.org/north-american-wobblies-hold-2022-organizing-summit/
CHICAGO, IL – On the first weekend of October, Wobblies from across North America converged on the grounds of a Marriott hotel in suburban Chicago. The plan for the two-day summit came in the form of several workshops solicited by North America IWW’s Organizing Department Board and suggested by attendees. A total of fourteen Wobblies … Continue reading "North American Wobblies Hold 2022 Organizing Summit"

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Jacobin
Dan Smith
2022-10-21
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/jamie-martin-the-meddlers-imf-world-bank-global-economy/
How do international economic institutions justify meddling in sovereign states? As Jamie Martin argues in his new book, The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Birth of Global Economic Governance, it’s not with the language of “coercion” but of “cooperation.” Meddlers traces the history of Western infringement in the economies of non-Western sovereign states and the […]

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Tom Nicholas (uploads) on YouTube
Tom Nicholas
2022-10-21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmJcqVCsvcY

From: Tom Nicholas

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Unknown
2022-10-21
http://page99test.blogspot.com/2022/10/stuart-z-charmes-authentically-jewish.html
Stuart Zane Charmé is a professor of religion at Rutgers University–Camden in New Jersey. He is the author of two books on Sartrean existentialism, Meaning and Myth in the Study of Lives and Vulgarity and Authenticity: A Sartrean Approach, as well as numerous articles on questions of Jewish identity and authenticity.
Charmé applied the Page 99 Test to his new book, Authentically Jewish:

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Daily Infographic
Lyle Opolentisima
2022-10-21
https://dailyinfographic.com/the-location-of-emotions
The location of emotions in the body is a subject that has been debated for centuries. The ancient Greeks believed that emotions were felt in the heart, while many modern scientists believe they are felt in the brain. But where do you feel them? The answer may surprise you. The truth is, emotions are experienced […]

The post The Location Of Emotions first appeared on Daily Infographic.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
unknown
2022-10-20
http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/news/story.asp?ID=CP3B9J
The Fall is set in an Amsterdam dive bar that doubles as a Last Chance Saloon of the Soul. The protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Clamence — not his real name, to be sure, not after what he has gone through — shuffles in, pours himself a …

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Behind the Bastards
unknown
2022-10-20
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-four-mkultra-when-the-cia-tried-to-destroy-fr
Robert is joined again by Jason Pargin for the final part of our series on Project MKUltra.

Join Robert Evans, Christopher Wong, Shereen Lani Younes, Garrison Davis, James Stout and Sophie Lichterman for a live episode of It Could Happen Here and Q&A. Upon purchasing your ticket, you’ll be redirected to the show screen where there will be a prompt for you to submit a question to the hosts. Questions are picked at random, but be sure to get yours in as it may be featured in the live episode!

https://www.moment.co/ichh
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Autonomies
Julius Gavroche
2022-10-20
https://autonomies.org/2022/10/the-critique-of-the-school-in-post-68-french-thought-interview-with-jacques-ranciere/
There aren’t two sorts of mind. There is inequality in the manifestations of intelligence, according to the greater or lesser energy communicated to the intelligence by the will for discovering and combining new relations; but there is no hierarchy of intellectual capacity. Emancipation is … Continue reading →

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Politico
Meridith McGraw, Jordain Carney and Rebecca Kern
2022-10-20
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/20/parler-was-jubilant-about-kanye-west-buying-it-then-the-problems-started-00062716
Meridith McGraw is a POLITICO reporter.

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The Forward
BCohen
2022-10-20
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-20/ty-article/.premium/idf-settlers-attack-soldiers-near-nablus-throw-rocks-at-palestinian-vehicles/00000183-f2d1-dd2f-abdf-f7d1f1ca0000
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox. An Israeli soldier from a West Bank settlement near Nablus was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of participating in a widely-condemned settler attack on an IDF unit earlier in…

The post Israeli soldier arrested for joining settler attack on IDF unit in West Bank appeared first on The Forward.

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-10-20
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvmp7m/cyber-when-the-video-game-reaches-out-to-ask-you-to-spend-more-money
‘State of Survival’ and ‘Game of Thrones: Conquest’ players said they felt pressure from the community and the game itself.

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Schneier on Security
Bruce Schneier
2022-10-20
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/10/interview-with-signals-new-president.html
Long and interesting interview with Signal’s new president, Meredith Whittaker:

WhatsApp uses the Signal encryption protocol to provide encryption for its messages. That was absolutely a visionary choice that Brian and his team led back in the day ­- and big props to them for doing that. But you can’t just look at that and then stop at message protection. WhatsApp does not protect metadata the way that Signal does. Signal knows nothing about who you are. It doesn’t have your profile information and it has introduced group encryption protections. We don’t know who you are talking to or who is in the membership of a group. It has gone above and beyond to minimize the collection of metadata…

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Current Affairs
Unlearning Economics
2022-10-19
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/10/the-death-of-econ-101/
Using labor markets as a case study to show how the standard ‘econ 101’ story is misleading at best and flatly contradicted by the evidence at worst.

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BBC News – Science & Environment
unknown
2022-10-19
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63300959
Our climate editor checks out the world’s largest floating wind farm off the coast of Scotland.

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Revolutions
unknown
2022-10-19
https://revolutionspodcast.libsyn.com/appendix-6-victory-and-defeat
Every victory implies a defeat. Every defeat implies a victory.
Upcoming live events!
Oct. 26 Boston @ The Wilbur
Oct. 27 Washington DC @ Lisner Auditorium
Oct. 29 Newark NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center

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VICE US
Matthew Gault
2022-10-19
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7bxzy/new-tool-lets-you-search-tons-of-old-cds-and-floppy-disks-for-lost-media
DiscMaster lets you search and view millions of old files from the early days of the internet.

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“National Labor Relations Board” – Google News
unknown
2022-10-19
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/10/blizzard-albany-union-vote-approved
The NLRB rules in favor of Blizzard Albany union vote  For The Win

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Diet Soap – a podcast
Douglas Lain
2022-10-19
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dietsoap/episodes/2022-10-19T10_41_14-07_00
Chris Cutrone of the Platypus Affiliated Society returns in order to both defend and transcend what Moishe Postone called "Traditional Marxism." The conversation is, as always, freewheeling and covers a variety of topics. Watch Doug try to keep up as Cutrone gallops ahead.

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FP Foreign Policy
Brenda Shaffer
2022-10-19
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/19/iran-protests-persians-minorities-ethnic-language-discrimination-regime-separatism/
Non-Persian minorities, often overlooked in the West, may hold the key to the uprising’s course.

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VICE US
Becky Ferreira
2022-10-19
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akey3e/hipparchus-star-catalog-found
A 2,000-year search for Hipparchus’ Star Catalog has concluded with a new study hailing its discovery, marking “a major milestone” in science.

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Adrian J Ivakhiv
2022-10-19
https://blog.uvm.edu/aivakhiv/2022/10/19/more-or-less-than-human/
The term “more-than-human” has become a popular way of designating the “nonhuman” within the environmental humanities. Other terms used include “other-than-human,” and much less frequently “unhuman” and “inhuman,” with the latter’s negative connotations upended (successfully or not) to read positively. “More-than-human” was, to my knowledge, first used by David Abram in his 1996 ecophilosophical bestseller […]

Related posts:
Sharpening our moral clarity
NT10: Ian Bogost (& Grusin closing)
‘Do your own research’: Conspiracy practice as media virus
Thinking out loud…

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Best Infographics
cyrus
2022-10-19
https://www.best-infographics.com/50-us-cities-where-home-prices-have-risen-the-most-infographic/
It is no secret that home prices have been rising recently, more so in certain cities than others. This infographic form Decorative Ceiling Tiles covers 50 US Cities where home prices have risen the most:

The post 50 US Cities Where Home Prices Have Risen The Most [Infographic] appeared first on Best Infographics.

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Scientific American Content
Visar Berisha, Julie Liss
2022-10-19
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-in-medicine-is-overhyped/
AI models for health care that predict disease are not as accurate as reports might suggest. Here’s why

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Phenomenology and Existentialism
Clare O’Farrell
2022-10-19
http://progressivegeographies.com/2022/10/15/two-reviews-of-the-early-foucault-polity-2021-by-colin-koopman-and-jasper-friedrich-and-a-note-on-heidegger/
Originally posted on Progressive Geographies:
There are two recent reviews of The Early Foucault by Colin Koopman at The Review of Politics (requires subscription) and Jasper Friedrich at Foucault Studies (open access). They are generous and appreciative, though not uncritical. I’m grateful to both for taking the time to engage. Here’s the first two paragraphs of Koopman’s review: Stuart…

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Proudhon
Libcom
2022-10-18
https://www.anarchistfederation.net/great-anarchists-ruth-kinna-and-clifford-harper/
Originally published as a series of pamphlets, they have now been collected together into one book. The subjects are Peter Kropotkin, Voltairine de Cleyre, Mikhail Bakunin, Louise Michel, Oscar Wilde, Max Stirner, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Lucy Parsons, William Godwin, and Errico…

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The Anarchist Library
unknown
2022-10-18
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mark-bray-five-liberal-tendencies-that-plagued-occupy?v=1666137260
Author: Mark Bray
Title: Five liberal tendencies that plagued Occupy
Date: May 14, 2014
Source: Retrieved on October 18, 2022 from https://roarmag.org/essays/occupy-resisting-liberal-tendencies/

The liberal tendencies of some Occupiers severely undermined the movement’s strength; identifying them will make it easier to resist them next time.

In a country so devoid of genuinely left politics as the United States, it was little surprise that Occupy Wall Street (OWS), the most dynamic American social movement in decades, surged to the fore of national politics riding a robust wave of liberal euphoria. As I argue in Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street, OWS never would have attained historic proportions without tapping into the pervasive despair that plagued left-liberal and progressive circles after Obama’s failure to live up to the “savior of the left” hype that was so recklessly bestowed upon him in 2008.

But it was liberal support for a movement that a core organizing group of anarchists and anti-capitalist anti-authoritarians shifted in an autonomous, directly democratic, non-electoral, class struggle, direct-action-oriented direction that made OWS popular, radical, and radicalizing. Without the anarchists it would have been ineffectual; without the liberals it would have been irrelevant. By carving out space for liberals and progressives to engage with anarchist praxis, OWS made a profound contribution to the development of anti-authoritarianism in the USA and beyond.

However, some of the most debilitating obstacles that we encountered stemmed from a number of liberal tendencies infecting a predominantly radical anti-capitalist organizing network. No, I’m not talking about attempts to turn Occupy into a voter-registration drive for the Democratic Party, or run “Occupy candidates” in local elections, or morph the movement into a new, hip political party that “breaks all the rules.” No, those tendencies were always peripheral and idiosyncratic within OWS, and they were cloaked in the stench of putrefying electoralism.

Instead, I’m referring to unacknowledged, internalized perspectives and orientations infected with liberalism through their constant exposure to the individualistic, capitalist climate we endure in this country. I hope that by examining a handful of them (space and time do not permit a complete list), we can better resist them next time.

1. Liberal Libertarianism
What do you get when an activist partially digests a skewed counter-cultural anti-authoritarianism without having rid themselves of their lingering liberalism? That’s right, a Liberal Libertarian. The Liberal Libertarian is the person who has learned enough about the potentially heinous repercussions of coercion and exclusion to renounce authoritarian organizing structures, but takes this in such an individualistic direction that they also often dismiss even directly democratic structures and reject collective attempts to prevent boisterous individuals from completely disrupting assemblies, meetings, actions or any other collective endeavor.

If, at a large assembly of 200 people, one person is screaming out of turn about an unrelated topic and won’t take several offers from nearby people to step aside and discuss the issue; and this happens often enough for it to get to the point where most people would rather leave the movement than endure such excruciating experiences; and it’s known that there are myriad infiltrators and provocateurs, sent by both state and capital, among us, then most people would agree that a plan would have to be put in place to prevent one person from shutting down the work of hundreds. Not the Liberal Libertarian.

The Liberal Libertarian would rather see our collective efforts grind to a screeching halt than see one person “silenced” for any reason under any context. The Liberal Libertarian doesn’t actually care about collective power; they simply seek individual self-realization. Take this quote from Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics, in a trailer for the film Occupy Love: “this movement isn’t about the 99% defeating or toppling the 1%. You know the next chapter of that story: which is that the 99% create a new 1%. That’s not what it’s about.” Instead of expropriating a ruling class whose obscene wealth is drenched in the blood of millions, the Liberal Libertarian just wants to multiply interpersonal emotional exchanges.

When that outlook begins to infect organizing spaces, the result can be disastrous unless we have procedures and decision-making methods that can withstand Liberal Libertarianism’s corrosive effects.

2. Outcome Neutrality
Liberal Libertarianism is reactionary because it isn’t really about transforming the underlying economic or political system. Instead, it aims to enact a more authentic rendition of popular liberal principles. So while the liberals of the Democratic Party don’t really value freedom of speech, the Liberal Libertarians (in conjunction with left-liberals and progressives) often see nothing more important than creating free speech zones where traditional liberal values can be fully upheld.

This is often extended even to those who verbally derail the movement and in the case of Occupy Toronto even to the presence of Nazis. At an event in Toronto, a group of Occupy organizers explained how their encampment was split in half over whether to allow Nazis their “right to free speech” within Occupy.

…

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Ars Technica – All content
Benj Edwards
2022-10-18
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/
Discmaster lets you sift through 11 terabytes of CD-ROM and floppy disk archives.

Read More

Ars Technica – All content
Ashley Belanger
2022-10-18
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/sharing-mass-shooter-content-online-should-be-illegal-ny-ag-says/
Recommendations come after an investigation into the Buffalo mass shooting.

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Ars Technica – All content
Scharon Harding
2022-10-18
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/usb-c-can-hit-120gbps-with-newly-published-usb4-version-2-0-spec/
USB-IF’s new USB-C spec supports up to 120Gbps across three lanes.

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Proudhon
Network
2022-10-18
https://libcom.org/article/great-anarchists-ruth-kinna-and-clifford-harper

Collection of 10 short biographies of notable anarchists by Ruth Kinna and illustrated by Clifford Harper.

Author

Ruth Kinna
Clifford Harper

Submitted by Network on October 18, 2022

Copied to clipboard

Originally published as a series of pamphlets, they have now been collected together into one book. The subjects are Peter Kropotkin, Voltairine de Cleyre, Mikhail Bakunin, Louise Michel, Oscar Wilde, Max Stirner, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Lucy Parsons, William Godwin, and Errico Malatesta.

The book was made freely available by the author and published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public Licence.

Contents
Introduction

Peter Kropotkin

Voltairine de Cleyre

Mikhail Bakunin

Louise Michel

Oscar Wilde

Max Stirner

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Lucy Parsons

William Godwin

Errico Malatesta
Introduction
These short introductions delve into the anarchist canon to recover some of the distinctive ideas that historical anarchists advanced to address problems relevant to their circumstances. Although these contexts were special, many of the issues the anarchists wrestled with still plague our lives. Anarchists developed a body of writing about power, domination, injustice and exploitation, education, prisons and a lot more besides. Honing in on different facets of the anarchist canon is not just an interesting archaeological exercise. The persistence, development and adaptation of anarchist traditions depends on our surveying the historical landscape of ideas and drawing on the resources it contains. The theoretical toolbox that this small assortment of anarchists helped to construct is there to use, amend and adapt.

Educate! Agitate! Organise!

Files

Great Anarchists by Ruth Kinna and Clifford Harper_0.pdf
(6.77 MB)

biographies
Peter Kropotkin
Mikhail Bakunin
Louise Michel
Oscar Wilde
Max Stirner
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Lucy Parsons
William Godwin
Errico Malatesta
Dog Section Press

Fozzie

4 hours 37 min ago

Thanks for posting this. I just realised that all the Dog Section Press is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

So their other publicatons could be included on Libcom…

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Atlas Obscura: Articles
Paula Span
2022-10-18
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/visiting-the-edward-gorey-house
A visit to the home museum of the famous oddball artist, 30 years after meeting him there for tea. On a June day too dank for the beach, a three-generation carload of Goreyphiles—fans of the American author, illustrator, and oddball genius Edward Gorey—pulled into a small parking lot in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts.

The Edward Gorey House, a sea captain’s home the artist bought in 1979, is now a museum that welcomes visitors from April to December each year. Gorey slowly reclaimed it from rot and ancient plumbing, and lived and worked here until his death in 2000. I was the senior member of the group, and one with a history here, a history that involved Gorey himself.

“Look, it’s The Doubtful Guest!” yelped my daughter, immediately spotting a familiar figure. A metal sculpture of this favorite mischievous Gorey character stood on the lawn, complete with natty scarf. I’d call it larger than life, but what is life-size for an invented, rather avian creature in sneakers?

The youngest of our group, my five-year-old granddaughter, already raised on Gorey’s strange little books, had heard that he cohabited with half a dozen cats and wondered whether there were any still about.

I had seen them before.

In 1991—when the house was so overgrown by lilacs and clematis that its owner, providing driving directions, had warned that it might look abandoned—I had tea here with Gorey. And his cats.

I was then a Washington Post reporter, and a visiting ballet company was performing The Gilded Bat, based on a Gorey book, at the Kennedy Center. I volunteered to write a story, mainly because I wanted to meet Edward Gorey.

He had become a somewhat-beyond-cult figure, known for his intricately cross-hatched drawings of vaguely Victorian figures, often suffering ghastly fates, and for the droll stories accompanying them, often in rhyming couplets: The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Wuggly Ump, The Evil Garden.

His introductory animation to the popular public television series Mystery, featuring more ghastly fates, helped bring him a broader audience, as did his illustrated version of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (source of the musical Cats).

For years, New Yorkers looked for him at Lincoln Center, where he attended virtually every performance of the New York City Ballet— in a full white beard, sweeping fur coats, white sneakers—until he left urban life behind and moved to Cape Cod full time.

It could be argued that Gorey is even better known now, 22 years after his death at age 75.

The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, established in his will, has been archiving and showcasing his work, and striking deals for film and television. His books remain fixtures on store shelves. The Trust even launched a fans’ letter-writing campaign to honor Gorey with a U.S. postage stamp in 2025, the centennial of his birth.

His former home draws about 10,000 visitors annually and helps support that legacy-building. It’s almost as quirky now as it was then, when he hung bat houses on the trees outside, because, he told me, “I love bats. I don’t know any bats, but in principle.”

Small wonder Gorey loved bats. “It’s the house that Dracula built,” said our tour guide Gregory Hischak, who turned out to also be director of the Edward Gorey House. Among Gorey’s laurels is a Tony award for the costumes for the musical version of Dracula, which opened on Broadway in 1977, starring Frank Langella. Gorey’s royalties for the costumes and set design allowed him to buy this semi-derelict property for $84,000 and install central heat, a new roof, and modern wiring.

It looks much spiffier now. On my previous visit, paint was flaking off its wooden shingles. The floors, half-covered by enormous piles of books, had tilted in different directions. Today, the 26,000 volumes have been carted away and the floors no longer induce vertigo.

But it remains, recognizably, the lair of an eccentric, or at least a place that still steers into that reputation. In the front parlor, a pair of small legs protrude from beneath the patterned carpet. Even visitors who’ve never read The Gashlycrumb Tinies, one of his darkest, most beloved works, in which children meet untimely ends in alphabetical order (“G is for George smothered under a rug/H is for Hector done in by a thug”) grasp that this is unlike any other writer’s home museum.

The surrounding cabinets and display cases are filled with (to be charitable) Gorey’s collections: books, polished rocks, carved decoys, children’s games. He acquired “any tool that looked like it wasn’t usable because he liked the texture of rusting metal,” Hischak said later. “And X-Files action figures in their original packaging.”

With friends, “he’d go to estate sales and yard sales and flea markets and come back with boxes of stuff he’d place on top of the boxes he’d bought the week before,” Hischak said. “He arranged the house for his own delight, a sort of Wunderkammer.”

The home of a borderline hoarder wouldn’t necessarily make the most reverential museum experience, so much of his stuff has since been distributed. Gorey bequeathed his valuable art holdings— Balthus, Edvard Munch, and Edward Lear, among others—to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, acquired some letters and manuscripts, and San Diego State University took most of the books. The Trust moved thousands of drawings and manuscripts into storage in Manhattan, where it’s based.

The house feels pleasantly cluttered anyway. After a guide explained that friends and a foundation bought the house after his death and established this museum, visitors were free to roam.

There is Dracula memorabilia, and one of Gorey’s famous fur coats although, as a lifelong animal lover, he later rued having worn fur. Museumgoers can linger over cases of original drawings, while a video of Gorey’s opening for Mystery plays continuously in a back room.

Or visitors can do what we did, especially with children in tow, and go on a Gashlycrumb Tinies scavenger hunt. There’s a modest prize for locating all 26 deceased kids.

It’s easy enough to spot George underfoot, or “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs,” because look! there’s a toppled doll on the staircase. But good luck with “N is for Neville who died of ennui.”

We adults were content to tick off about half the Tinies, but my granddaughter insisted we push on. Hint: We found “E is for Ernest who choked on a peach” in the kitchen.

The kitchen, it happens, is where I had chatted amiably with Gorey for a couple of hours 30 years before. He had little interest in parsing or analyzing his singular career. “The longer I go on, the more it all sort of evades me," he said with a shrug.

Bearded and sneakered as usual, he wore a tattered sweater and a crystal frog—he had a thing about frogs—on a cord around his neck, plus assorted rings and earrings. He served tea and cranberry muffins and mildly admonished those seven cats—“Oh, Billy dear!”—if they dug their claws into his shoulder or made for the muffins.

I mentioned that part to my granddaughter: He seemed incapable of anger toward his cats, even when they knocked over an ink bottle and ruined a day’s painstaking work.

She was excited to glimpse, up a staircase labeled “Wildlife Viewing Area,” a black cat walking about behind a clear plastic barrier. Hischak and his wife live on the museum’s second floor with Embley and Yewbert, named for the characters in The Epiplectic Bicycle and these days the only cats in residence.

It took an hour, but at last we located all 26 Tinies and my granddaughter was delighted with her prize, a bookmark from the gift shop. That marked another change: Gorey was famously diffident about marketing and merchandising. Though he would have appreciated the income, the prospect of lawyers and contracts made him groan.

Today, fans can buy Gorey books, but also calendars, puzzles, mugs, T-shirts, Doubtful Guest iPhone cases, and much more, courtesy of the efforts of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.

If Gorey’s legacy endures, the Trust will be the major catalyst. As his will directs, it donates to animal-related charities; Tufts University and the Gorey House also got grants last year. It operates an Instagram account with more than 30,000 followers, publishes a newsletter, and has undertaken an oral history project.

The Trust puts its primary efforts into preserving and organizing the thousands of notebooks, manuscripts, drawings, and personal papers Gorey left behind. In climate-controlled rooms in the Townsend Building on lower Broadway, archivist Will Baker is cataloguing and digitizing the holdings.

“You find yourself laughing out loud, often,” said Baker, who might have one of the world’s better jobs. A new book or anthology might be possible in 2025, he said, to mark Gorey’s centennial. Publishers are interested; the Trust has retained a literary agent.

“My inbox is brimming with inquiries” from would-be licensees, said Eric Sherman, co-trustee of the Trust. He nixed a proposal for Gorey-themed underwear (“an easy no”) but has agreed to a movie adaptation of The Doubtful Guest, and a television series based on Neglected Murderesses.

“It’s a funny thing. When you meet someone and mention Edward Gorey, you either get a quizzical look and ‘I’ve never heard of him’ or ‘I love Edward Gorey.’ My job is to increase the latter,” Sherman said. “You never hear anybody say, ‘I know him, but eh.’”

But the place to actually channel Gorey’s presence—his Kalahari-dry humor, his childlike pleasure in objects and stories, his dedication to his art, his eccentricities—is in Yarmouth Port.

Driving away after the visit, I asked my granddaughter what she would remember: “I liked that he was never mean to his cats,” she said.

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