Profit Or A Future?

       It is amazing to think that activists were fighting to save the forests in the 1990's, and here we are in 2020 and watching probably the biggest forest on the planet being logged and burnt. We seem to have learnt nothing, the corporate parasite class are still plundering and destroying the planet for no other reason than greed for profit. It is obvious that this would not be able to continue without the blessing of the various states involved. The state and the corporate body are two sides of the same coin, and dialogue and negotiations seem to have failed to stop their plundering and destruction. It will take organisation, solidarity and direct action by the majority of the people to crush this system and bring this murder of the planet and killing of the human species to an end.
     I personally have never been at ease with the policy of spiking trees, however I wasn't there fighting that particular battle, perhaps if I had been, my opinions might have been different.

       The following article is from It's Going Down:  

      This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the bombing of Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.

      The 30th anniversary of the bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney is May 24, 2020. Usually, Judi’s comrades in the Bay Area commemorate that event every year by going to the place where the bomb exploded under Judi’s car seat as she drove through Oakland, to mark the moment, as well as bringing people together for discussions of radical activism and solidarity. This year will be different in the time of the pandemic. But the date will be marked, nonetheless, as a memory against forgetting.

Judi Bari said, many years ago:

Starting from the very reasonable, but unfortunately, revolutionary concept that social practices which threaten the continuation of life on Earth must be changed, we need a theory of revolutionary ecology that will encompass social and biological issues, class struggle, and a recognition of the role of global corporate capitalism in the oppression of peoples and the destruction of nature.

I believe we already have such a theory. It’s called deep ecology, and it is the core belief of the radical environmental movement.

      Her perspective and analysis shed light on why she was considered dangerous to the corporate status quo and targeted. On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb planted in the car of Earth First! activist Judi Bari exploded, sending her and fellow activist Darryl Cherney to the hospital in Oakland—Judi with life-threatening injuries, since the bomb had been hidden directly under her driver’s seat. Judi and Darryl were on their way to a roadshow event, organizing for Earth First! Redwood Summer. That explosion, and the subsequent attack on Earth First! as well as Judi and Darryl, by the FBI and Oakland police would forever change the face of forest activism in the redwoods and elsewhere. The bomber was never found, partly because the FBI never conducted a serious investigation, choosing instead to blame and harass Earth First! activists, attempting to frame Bari and Cherney for bombing themselves. A lawsuit filed by Judi and Darryl against the FBI and OPD for violation of Constitutional rights was ultimately successful in 2002, vindicating Darryl and Judi, but coming five years after Judi’s untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 47.

       Redwood Summer was a mass mobilization of students and others who came from across the U.S. to protest the deforestation of the redwood region in Northern California, being decimated by the corporate chain saw. It was modeled after civil rights mobilizations in the south in the 1960s. The summer of civil disobedience and protest in the forests did proceed, in spite of the monumental disruption caused by the bombing and attempts to frame and tear apart Earth First!, and changed the face of direct action organizing at the time.

         There was a planned exhibit dedicated to Judi at the Mendocino County Museum that would put the bombed car and other artifacts of the time on display, to have opened May 1. The pandemic has postponed all of that, but we encourage people to watch the feature-length film, Who Bombed Judi Bari? on YouTube. It tells the story of the bombing, Redwood Summer, Earth First! and much more.

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Your Choice, inevivable Fascism, Or A Fight For Freedom.

     Today freedom, justice, equality and democracy are fast becoming a chimera, a distant illusion on a far horizon. There has been talk of America being a state governed by the secret police, the FBI, that answers only to itself, and allows the corporate world to function untrammeled by public interference. The UK is now a well developed Big Brother state, where the population is monitored in its every move and sorted out into who merits further surveillance who should be arrested on the assessment of what facial recognition and computer profiling suggest. Both systems being a draconian nightmare for the population, where the word freedom is regarded as a terrorist expression and a desire for privacy is seen as a cover for devious activity. Further to this, there is something rotten at the heart of Europe, here Fascism spreads like some poisonous deadly epidemic. Unchecked and backed by other states in Europe, states who see nothing wrong in Fascism as it keeps the population on tramlines that allow the capitalist system to flourish. The only resistance to this nightmare must be the people themselves, their is no messiah or knight in shining armour standing in the wings ready to lead us to the promised land. We the people will have to find our own way out of this nightmare of corporate and state bondage. We have to take on the whole rotten system head on, with no illusions the the powerful and wealthy who control this festering cancer will abandon their powerful and privileged positions without a bitter fight. That is the only way out of this road we are walking, a road to human bondage and destruction of humanity.

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State Manufactured Terrorists.

 

        History tells us that the case posted below is far from unique, nor confined to America, we in this country have recently had the cases of undercover police steering groups in particular directions, leading to arrests. Universal surveillance, covert police, and secret service agents, are all part of the state apparatus, and make it very simple to manufacture terrorists, which in turn leads to a call for more policing, strengthening the state's control over the population. Keeping the population in a constant state of fear of an evil enemy infiltrating the fibre of our society allows for more draconian measures to "protect" the population, in so doing slicing away at the few freedoms we have.

This from Its Going Down:

         On the Friday before Christmas, “Breaking news alerts” came out on the 24-hour mainstream news cycle that a 26 year old Modesto, CA man was arrested on a federal charge of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The alleged plan was a mass casualty attack on Pier 39, a ranking candidate for San Francisco’s most well-known tourist trap. Pressed suits full of melodramatic reporters were on hand to remind everyone to stay safe and vigilant, more aptly to remind everyone of the set of vague and ill-defined external threats that are perpetually meant to keep a population, as any victim of abuse, in anxious compliance. Even the acting mayor of the city assured San Franciscans that “our way of life,” would not be assuaged, and of course promised more police.       

           It’s a story that ties up nicely and advances the ever growing paternal and nativist narrative about mysterious dangers that the new regime, in all its clumsiness, is alone equipped to protect us from. I was sitting in a laundromat just across the water from Pier 39 when the story broke, and what struck me instantly was how razor thin the shell game was. Even the highly publicized facts of this case say something bleak and concerning about the status of contemporary popular ideology, and the State’s hunger to fuel paranoia and to target anyone who fits, even in the most tangential way, into a criminalized category.

         Lay the order of events out chronologically, add a basic understanding of FBI counter-surveillance practice, what you have is not a story of domestic radicalization and terrorism. Rather, what emerges is a story of surveillance, thought policing, targeting, and media fear mongering. Our only goal in this short intervention is to expose that layer of the story that is still in the process of coming to light or being buried, and to raise important questions that are left strategically open in the story that is being told.

 “The FBI started watching Jameson in September after becoming aware of social media activity in which he “liked” or “loved” posts about terror attacks and ISIS, the affidavit said. Undercover employees of the FBI posed as supporters of ISIS and contacted Jameson, the affidavit said.”

Here’s an example of a post that the FBI apparently found concerning. Posts like this were flagged as terrorist sympathy and made Jameson’s Facebook page the subject of surveillance, and ultimately made him the target of a months long entrapment campaign.

What We Know

           According to CNN and multiple AP and MSM news outlets, Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 26-year-old Muslim convert from Modesto, California became the subject of FBI interest in September. From CNN:
          The affidavit avoids a direct admission of this, but media sources confirm that the FBI initiated contact with Jameson. Agents were posing to be senior members of ISIS. The agent who ultimately met with Jameson in person (the only such meeting) identified himself as an immediate subordinate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. There was apparently no communication whatsoever between Jameson and any member of any foreign terrorist organization.
          Communications between undercover agents and Jameson throughout the Fall were vague at best. Jameson expresses his willingness to use or donate resources for “the cause,” the meaning of which is never expressed in any of the communications in court record. He makes vague references to Western colonialism saying things like, “the kuffar (loosely translated to “unbeliever”) deserve everything and more for the lives they’ve taken. He uses Arabic pejoratives like this against the US.
            What is being described as a “terror plot” in the media amounts to some vague suggestions that Jameson made in a single, in-person meeting with an undercover agent. He suggested a strategy in the broadest sense. Concrete plans were not reached. Relevantly however he indicated a willingness to die. We’ll revisit this.
           Jameson attempted to back out of the alleged plot on what appear to be moral and conscientious grounds two days before his arrest saying, “I also don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”

Jameson’s Family Tells a Drastically Different Story
          He and his father (a self-identified Pentecostal) would argue amiably about their respective religious beliefs. His father even quotes him as saying, “yeah Dad, we all believe in the same God.”
          Jameson’s family, in conversation with the Modesto Bee, tell of Jameson as a distraught young man. He had lost his two young children to Child Protective Services after their mother Ashley was incarcerated. They divorced in 2016, and after a long battle with CPS Jameson once and for all lost custody of their children three months ago. Incidentally around the same time he became the target of a federal investigation.
       His father reports that he was frequently suicidal. Authorities also confirmed that he was held on suicide watch when taken into custody. Despite struggling with depression, he maintained a close relationship with his family. He shared his difficulties with his father, and his religious convictions with many in his family. His faith even made him the subject of teasing. Days before his arrest Jameson and his father even attended a Raider game in Oakland.
        Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, the veracity of the facts presented in the court affidavit and in the subsequent media storm, brief though it was. Jameson is still far from a picture of a terrorist master mind. At worst a slightly unstable man, he likely saw himself as having little to lose. He was in a position highly vulnerable to the kind of manipulation that we know the FBI to be capable of. We also know that his suggestions of violence were loose, ill formed, and abstract. He assumed guidance and direction from the FBI agents who were the actual architects of the alleged plot. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, when lofty fantasizing about violence started to feel like something real Jameson easily saw that this path was not for him.
         No matter how the dots of this story connect, we are forced to recognize the shallow simplicity of seeing this man as a terrorist threat. Consider further how Islam is portrayed in the media. Consider what a white Muslim, with no family history or traditional relationship to the religion, in one of California’s most conservative counties, might come to understand about the meaning of being Muslim. As we alluded above, his family jokingly nicknamed him ISIS. Consider how suggestible such a person might be to the perception of being sought from across the globe for service to his faith.
FBI Entrapment: The Public Strategy
         This struck me as an extraordinarily obvious case of FBI entrapment. According to Federal guidelines (Section 645 of the US Attorney’s Manual), entrapment takes place when one is A) induced to commit a crime by state officials, and B) one has no prior disposition to commit such a crime. No doubt Jameson’s prosecutors will cite his hastily crafted suicide note as evidence of his predisposition, however observers must ask what would possibly have motivated him to any kind of fantasies of violence if not the interference of undercover agents. Moreover, and not to sound too conspiratorial or alarmist, speculating about one’s internal attitudes with respect to violence, and punishing those with certain attitudes basically amounts to a case of thought policing.

Read the full article HERE:

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Anarchist Ladies In Leadershiop Positions!!!

        A recent article on the Anarchist News, How the FBI monitored Crust Punks, gives a insight to the gross waste of tax payers money, as highly paid "agents" scurry about the country keeping tags on such radical threats as organic food growers, punk bands, and growers markets. If the article was not so serious it could be a good script for a comedy movie. Following unknown people driving to a place where anarchists hang out. Such major threats as two cars meeting a bus and driving to a destination and  then seen getting out carrying what looked like placards and then forming up in a protest outside a bank.

        Though you can read this stuff and smile, it is deadly serious, it is all part of the surveillance society, where if you look, act, or speak different from their accepted norm, you are deemed to be a threat. Therefore worthy of constant monitoring. Though the article is about America, I have absolutely no doubt the same thing is going on here. Remember the undercover cops in environmentalist groups etc.

         Since International Women's Day has just passed, I thought this piece of FBI information from the article was worthy of repeating:

        Finally, an October 2002 memo warns agents that Lady Anarchists can be a whole mess of trouble:

   Source advised that the females of the anarchist's movement are in leadership positions in Eugene, Oregon. These females are described as being very feminist and militant.

Anarchist Ladies or Gentlemen, in leadership positions???

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SCOTT CROW ON CIRCLED "A".

The latest from Circled A:

       Scott Crow is a community organizer, writer, strategist and speaker who advocates the philosophy and practices of anarchism for social, environmental, and economic aims. For almost two decades he has continued to use his experience and ideas in co-founding and co-organizing numerous radical grassroots projects in Texas, including Treasure City Thrift, Radical Encuentro Camp, UPROAR (United People Resisting Oppression and Racism), Dirty South Earth First! and the Common Ground Collective, the largest anarchist influenced organization in modern U.S. history to date. In addition to grassroots organizing, he has worked for regional and national organizations, including Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Ruckus Society and A.C.O.R.N. With his partner, he produced the documentary film Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation. These political activities lead to him being labeled a “domestic terrorist” by the FBI beginning in the late 90s with investigations that continued for almost a decade.

(http://thecircleda.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/circleda_20_11_12.mp3)

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THE STATE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT REPRESSION.

        We all know the the state survives by repression, and in times of heightened unrest that repression becomes heavier on those who complain most. The economic crisis of the of the financial Mafia, that crisis being their attempts to get back from the public purse, all the money they lost gambling, is creating poverty and misery among the general population. This in turn triggers greater unrest, however, the state will not try to alleviate that poverty and misery, instead it will come down hard on that unrest. It will do this through the usual state apparatus, it will do it by intimidation and finding scapegoats. Today in America the unrest is spreading across all sections of the general public, so the state has decided to to use the bogeyman of “anarchists” and is seeking out those most vociferous in their argument against the present economic system, labelling them “anarchists” and will attempt to make an example of them. The hope of course will be to intimidate anyone from raising their voice in protest. It is not a new tactic but never the less brutal for that. That is why it is important that we continually show solidarity with all those who are at the receiving end of that brutal state repression, be it this country or some other state control population.

This from Committee Against Political Repression:

        This grand jury is a tool of political repression. It is attempting to turn individuals against each other by coercing those subpoenaed to testify against their communities. The secret nature of grand jury proceedings creates mistrust and can undermine solidarity. And imprisoning us takes us from our loved ones and our responsibilities.
       But our passion for freedom is stronger than the state’s prisons. Our refusal to cooperate with the grand jury is a reflection of our own desires for a liberated world and our support for others who are working to bring that world into being. We support the efforts of all those who will be resisting this grand jury.
    If you would like to join us, please visit: http://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com. There you can find out how to sign on to a solidarity statement, donate money to our defense and support campaign, and write us should we be imprisoned.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE OLYMPICS, THE MOST EXPENSIVE TV SHOW EVER.

         The media having overdosed on the “jubilee” it is now ramming the “carrying the torch” down our throats, they get the kids out of school to make sure they have a crowd. May I suggest to all those good folk who line the streets to see the big cigarette lighter being paraded through their village/town/city, to take a good look as it will be about all they will see of the Olympics, unless they stay seated in front of a TV. What they probably don't realise is that, that television viewing will one of the most expensive viewings in their lives. They get to see the “torch” and pick up a tab of £24 billion for a television show.

      Our millionaire lords and masters spouted about the Olympics being a mere £2.4 billion which would be mainly private capital, however the price-tag rocket and private capital evaporate, leaving the tax payer to pick up the tab. By 2007 the cost was revised up to £9.3 billion, the public funding had tripled and private capital had dwindled to less than 2%. It doesn't stop there, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee now put the cost at £11 billion with the tax payer taking the hit. While a SKY Sports investigation, including the transport upgrade put the cost at £24 billion. An awful lot of money for a TV show!! Since that is all most of the people of this country will ever see.

     The other more sinister side of this billion pound fun TV show will be the militarisation of London. The city will have surface-to-air missiles, a naval battleship moored offshore, 13,500 military personnel roaming around, which is about 4,000 more than we have based in Afghanistan. Hovering overhead will be lightweight aerial drones with elite firearms response units and snipers lurking below. All of this is not enough for the US, who will be sending their own security team which will include 500 FBI agents. This security comes at a price, £1 billion and counting. Plus it will set a precedent for drones, sniper and military patrolling our streets. Yes it will leave a lasting legacy, of debt and surveillance.

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ENTRAPMENT.

From Crimethinc:

           Over the past month, the FBI has initiated a spateof entrapment operations designed to frame anarchists as “terrorists.” Significantly, they have not targeted longtime organizers, but rather people who are relatively peripheral to anarchist communities. In response, we’ve prepared a pamphlet suitable for a wide readership explaining how this entrapment strategy works, and an analysis exploring why the FBI has adopted it. Please circulate these widely.

Reading PDF [550kb]
Imposed PDF for Printing [550kb]

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BOLD NATIVE.

              Glasgow vegan society are showing 'Bold Native' at the Free Hetherington on Tuesday at 8.00 followed by a discussion on direct action and animal liberation. 'Bold Native' is a feature film and is a really good film regardless of where you stand on the issue of animal liberation and direct action and it would be good if a lot of different opinions were represented in the discussion. I'll post a blurb and link to the trailer below:

                'Bold Native' is a fiction feature film. Charlie Cranehill, an animal liberator wanted by the United States government for domestic terrorism, emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action as his estranged CEO father tries to find him before the FBI does. The film simultaneously follows a young woman who works for an animal welfare organization fighting within the system to establish more humane treatment of farmed animals. From abolitionists to welfarists, 'Bold Native' takes on the issue of modern animal use and exploitation from several angles within the context of a road movie adventure story'

http://boldnative.com/trailer/

Tuesday 10th May,
Free Hetherington,
13 University Gardens.
Glasgow.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113279282091315#!/event.php?eid=113279282091315

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