No One Is Coming To Help Us!!

 

         I have not said much about the Trump affair, as it is difficult to grasp what has happened and why. One thing we can be sure of, there is a emboldened and growing far right, not just in America, but here in the UK and across Europe. We can debate the reasons why and come to different conclusions, but what we can't do is ignore this rise. To me it seems obvious that the people would be come disenchanted with the system, as it was never intended to see to their needs in the first place. The problem seems to be that in looking for answers, people have not picked up our ideas, we have to ask ourselves, why not? Resolving that question would be a good place to start. 

       We will have to find answers in our communities  and to a degree do what the far right is doing, tap into that anger and disenchantment. The following extracts are from an interesting article by First of May Anarchist Alliance

       The surprise victory of Donald Trump this past Tuesday has quickly presented people in this country (and around the world) with a vastly different political landscape than we had expected. We are seeing a rise in right-wing attacks as the far right is emboldened by the victory, much like what happened earlier this year after the success of the Brexit referendum in the UK. The incompetence and capitulation of the Democratic Party has forced many of its former supporters to recognize that the fight against the far right cannot be won by liberal electoral politics. This new reality forces anti-authoritarians of all stripes to rise to the challenge of building strong movements for working class self-defense in this new atmosphere.

Why the turn form neo-liberalism to xenophobic nationalism?

      Another narrative states that in the rust belt as in Europe, the devastating effects of decades of austerity, neoliberal trade agreements, and an orientation towards multinational corporations have been challenged. That challenge in the U.S. and elsewhere has come in the form of xenophobic nationalism. There is a significant amount of truth to this as well, but it can’t explain much of Trump’s success without acknowledging the serious appeal that open white nationalism and misogyny has gained in this election.Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this moment is that after spending months describing Trump as a grave threat to the lives of women, people of color, queer and trans people and the disabled, the entire Democratic Party has immediately capitulated to him. They have made clear that they always held preserving their broken system to be far more important than our lives. Many among their base are for the first time seeing the party’s true colors, and are reaching out to radical organizations in the interest of carrying on the fight that the Democrats so quickly abandoned. Already we are seeing attacks on muslims, immigrants, people of every color besides white, queer and trans people. This is not abstract, it is already happening. We should expect more of this and must make organizing to oppose it a top priority.

So, what do we do?

 We are encouraged that so many have taken to the streets across the country. We hope more will do the same. Trump’s attacks in the form of policy and his supporters physical attacks and intimidation, must be opposed from day one.

Our organizations must be effective. The sense of despair many are feeling is grounded in the reality of an ascendant far right. Right now, they face little resistance. The sense of urgency many of us have felt is a recognition of the need to build that resistance. It is time for us to take up that task, to find new comrades ready to fight, and to fight. No one is coming to save us–we cannot use the electoral system to fight the far right effectively. It’s time to stop waiting and defend each other in the streets!

What Needs to Be Done: 1. No to National “healing”, working with, or a grace period for the Trump Regime 2. Take to the streets – build a militant resistance 3. Build working-class defense organizations that resist racist attacks, sexual assault, immigration and homeland security raids and deportations, police brutality and state repression 4. Agitate and organize for workers actions – including a general strike against Trump 5. No to containment of the struggle back into the Democratic Party, electoralism and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

A PDF of the full article can be read HERE:

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Permanent State Of Emergency, Permanent Revolution.

        It is approximately a year since the introduction of the "state of emergency" in France. All states jump at the opportunity to introduce a "state of emergency", if they feel that there is the possibility of increase protests against their ideology. The state of emergency in France was supposedly introduce to prevent terror. However, it has been used against all manner of protests, those protesting the new labour laws in France have come in for some very brutal treatment, with the judiciary drawing on the new emergency powers to bring down its heavy hand on those who were involved in those protest. Youth have been at the receiving end of this increased repression.Thousands of arrests, hundreds of thousands injured, hundreds of homes searched, and increased police repression in the neighbourhoods. It all adds up to more control over the population, dressed up as protecting them from terrorists. Of course France is not unique in this respect, with any state, it is always control at all costs.

This from Revolution Permanente.

Rather a poor translation from the French, but still readable: 

        Almost a year after the events of November 13 become the permanent state of emergency as it celebrates its first anniversary. A year state of emergency that Bernard Cazeneuve detailed figures on Monday during a working meeting "against terrorism and radicalization." Not surprisingly, it is in terms of the effectiveness of repression in preventing the attacks that Interior Minister wished to emphasize. War weapons seizures, number of "radicalized" expelled, everything is good to justify the state of emergency. A yet all relative efficacy to prevent attacks, but extremely effective to suppress the protesters against the Labour Law and strengthen the security noose in the neighborhoods. Here is our statistical assessment of the state of emergency. Damien Bernard Before an audience of prefects and prosecutors, Cazeneuve presented a quantified assessment of its state of emergency. More than 4,000 administrative searches, nearly 95 house arrest still in force, nearly 600 firearms seized "with 77 weapons of war." Moreover, nearly 500 arrests were carried out which resulted in 426 police custody. Nearly 430 prohibitions from leaving the country, and 54 websites blockages making "apology for terrorism" and a twenty mosques and prayer rooms closed because "radicalized" are also counted.
         Effective against terrorism. Really ? The figures announced by the Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Monday 7th November at a meeting on counter-terrorism, aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of counter-terrorism measures taken by the government as part of the state 'emergency. An address especially for reassurance about the terrorist threat. We would then be in good hands, the measures taken by the government have borne fruit. Yet to become permanent emergency, inherited his exceptional measures of the war in Algeria, the extension of police powers, the acceleration of judicial procedures, are in no case prevented the attacks, as the illustrated those of Nice, or priest murdered at the Eglise Saint-Etienne du Rouvray. In his book A president should not say this, Hollande himself confessed having used the state of emergency to rein in environmentalists during the Cop21. And to our camp, what assessment of the state of emergency? Yet while Cazeneuve completeness boasts with its "results" on combating terrorism, he fails another assessment of the state of emergency. Thus, in the June 17, according Bastamag, they are at least 753 people, including a hundred people under 18 who have been pursued since the beginning of the mobilization against the Labour Law end of March. Among these procedures, 135 were cleared away. Overall, two-thirds of lawsuits aimed violence to the police, 79 damage, 133 relate to "participation in an armed gathering." The state of emergency is also the brutal police repression during the protests, including youth, more than 5,000 arrests, and hundreds or thousands of injured, a figure at least difficult to determine as the census make invisible by the media most often injured from our side.
       Justice at two speeds. For the protesters, it is accelerating, for the police slowed down! After the police repression, it was the accelerated justice that fell on the protesters, in the form of double punishment. Under the effect of the state of emergency, justice was at least expeditious. The judicial institution has distinguished itself for its rapidity in putting the demonstrators in prison, sometimes reserving a reprieve by chance. Under police pressure, immediate appearances were legion often leading to heavier penalties, including for persons with a criminal record. On the other hand, cases involving police forces dragged on, and ended most often by non-places. Exceptionally, suspended when the aggression is too big, filmed and seen by millions of people, as for the policeman who struck the young student of Bergson. Strengthening the repression in the neighborhoods, trade union repression is not to be outdone! The state and its police forces did not wait for a state of emergency to repress young people from working-class neighborhoods. Techniques of repression that are inherited from the colonial era and structurally affect racialized people. The state of emergency resulted in an increase in the police presence in the neighborhoods, an increase in the controls on the facies, and led to an increase in Islamophobic acts, the tracking of the "radicalized" Muslims encouraging it. But it is also the trade union repression that has leapt, post-Labor law. In particular, trade union repression took place on SNCF railway workers, with the cancellation of two railway workers in Strasbourg, and numerous cases of judicial repression. They are also ex-employees of the CGT Goodyear, who are subject to two years of suspended prison. Many UL secretaries are under the patronage or judicial repression, as for Reynald Kubecki, co-secretary of UL CGT Le Havre. State of emergency until when? One year already. The "state of emergency" which was "not to last" was extended following the bombing in Nice on 14 July. On 21 July, deputies and senators voted to extend the state of emergency for six months, until January 2017. This state of emergency has become permanent and the government has reinforced it lately following the Police demonstrations, with an additional 100 million, to strengthen the means of repression of the police. At the same time, where Cazeneuve boasted his record of the state of emergency, Manuel Valls was at the same time doing everything possible to convince the tourists who deserted the Hexagon to return thanks among other things to the release of 15 million Of additional euros supposed to allow the security in Ile-de-France, notably through the installation of surveillance cameras. So that this government does not pass the relay of the state of emergency to the right, which could succeed it, it is indeed to the construction of a front against the state of emergency and for the defense of our rights Democratic processes to be organized.

Continue reading, (in French):

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Federalism.

Colin Ward. 

      Trying to make sense of what is going on, and what is possible in Brexit Europe and elsewhere, is difficult. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, pours out a spew-river of one directional doom, nonsense and exaggeration, from the pundits of the opposing camps, the Brexiters and the Remainers. producing confusion, disillusionment and boredom, among the general public.

 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

        Perhaps to get a grasp of what is happening and what is possible we should go back to 1992 and Colin Ward's "The Anarchist Sociology of Federalism".

 Peter Kropotkin.

       Needless to say, in efforts for unification promoted by politicians we have a multitude of administrators in Bruxelles issuing edicts about which varieties of vegetable seeds or what constituents of beefburgers or ice cream may be sold in the shops of the member-nations. The newspapers joyfully report all this trivia. The press gives far less attention to another undercurrent of pan-European opinion, evolving from the views expressed in Strasbourg from people with every kind of opinion on the political spectrum, claiming the existence of a Europe of the Regions, and daring to argue that the Nation State was a phenomenon of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, which will not have any useful future in the twenty-first century. The forthcoming history of administration in the federated Europe they are struggling to discover is a link between, let us say, Calabria, Wales, Andalusia, Aquitaine, Galicia or Saxony, as regions rather than as nations, seeking their regional identity, economically and culturally, which had been lost in their incorporation in nation states, where the centre of gravity is elsewhere.

In the great tide of nationalism in the nineteenth century, there was a handful of prophetic and dissenting voices, urging a different style of federalism. It is interesting, at the least, that the ones whose names survive were the three best known anarchist thinkers of that century: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. The actual evolution of the political left in the twentieth century has dismissed their legacy as irrelevant. So much the worse for the left, since the road has been emptied in favour of the political right, which has been able to set out its own agenda for both federalism and regionalism. Let us listen, just for a few minutes, to these anarchist precursors.

 

"Liberal today under a liberal government, it will tomorrow become the formidable engine of a usurping despot It is a perpetual temptation to the executive power, a perpetual threat to the people's liberties. No rights, individual or collective, can be sure of a future. Centralisation might, then, be called the disarming of a nation for the profit of its government ..."

Proudhon

First there was Proudhon, who devoted two of his voluminous works-------

Continue reading:

Mikhail Bakunin. 

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Ground Hog Day.

     So Trump wins, so one figure head of a corrupt corporate regime is replaced by another. He will of course carry out the dictate of the all powerful corporate military industrial complex that is the power in America, just as previous presidents before him have done. He may get some sweeties and toys thrown to him, just to keep him happy at the end of his leash. Remember all the yeeha and wooping, the cry "change has come" at the election of Obama, but the wars continued, the bombings went on, and the drone assassinations actually increased, Guantanamo Bay is still there, and the American people still got poorer. America continued to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states across the planet, shaping and moulding them to suit its economic plans. What do you expect to change, America has been, and still is, a powerful imperialist bully and will continue to behave like one. Iraq, Libya and Syria were public beatings of three sovereign nations that were not playing ball to the rules of the American economic policy. Others will suffer the same fate if they walk the same path. You can put a field mouse or a wolf in The White House, and America will continue to be the imperialist tyrant that it always has been.

      Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media always play elections up as something momentous, the possibility that the people are going to create some great change, your vote counts is the cry, and after all the hullabaloo, things go on in the usual capitalist/imperialist manner.  The people get screwed, the rich get richer, wars continue to suit the rationale of the biggest bully in town. One thing we can all be sure of, Mr. Trump will come out of this much richer than he went in, that will be the only real change to our Ground Hog Day. 

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Who Needs A Private Life, Trust The Government!!

       The the surveillance society is no longer something we discuss as a possibility, Big Brother is here, well and truly implanted in all aspects of our life. As you walk down the street, as you shop, as you sit on the bus, as you drink at the bar, as you enter hospital, your movement is monitored, your behaviour assessed, your mobile phone, whither you are useing it or not, is following your whereabouts, where you use you credi/debit card is logged, your profile is being built up. There is no escape, even in your home, your internet actions, your visits to social media, your phone, all logged and stored, your life is filed for further use. Even in your place of work, your employer is recording your every move. Though you may not know it, your employer probably uses Veriato 360?

      With Veriato 360 Employee Monitoring Software, You Can Record:

• Email/Webmail
• Keystrokes Typed
• Chat/Instant Messages
• User Activity/Inactivity
  

• Websites Visited
• Screenshots
• Logon/Logoff
• Social Media Sites
  

      "Veriato 360 essentially records everything employees do on their computers including Web sites they have visited, time spent looking at a site, e-mails they have sent, and more." – The Wall Street Journal

So do be careful, Big brother is watching you.

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I Wish------?

 

       If we could change our life, what would we do, what important things have we missed, on what pointless things have we spent too much time? In the final analysis, what is really important?
     I lifted this straight from, "Nut Buying Anything", perhaps it will help you answer those questions.

       No one on their death bed wishes that they had spent more time shopping on the internet, or anywhere else (except maybe the garden center). No one wishes they spent more time at work, so they could get more money, so they could spend more time shopping. When we stop to think about our brief time above ground here on this beautiful planet, shopping for entertainment loses its appeal.

       At any stage of life there is precious little time for us to engage in the activities that truly matter to us. Such activities would be those that lead to us becoming better humans, and those pursuits which help to make the world a better place.

      I like to consider as much as I can when deciding whether I need to shop for something right now, at a later date, or at all. Will buying that thing, or doing that thing, make me a better person? Will it make the world a better place?
     If not, why bother? Why waste the time, effort and money when there are so many more important things to be done? As King Canute said to his courtiers, "Time and tide wait for no one." Today he might say, "Let all people know how empty and worthless is the power of consumerism, for there is none worthy of the name, but Nature."
     While no one about to die wishes they had bought more stuff to cram into that already stuffed garage, here are a few things that they do tend to think about as their life comes to an end.
On their deathbed people tend to:

1. Wish they spent more time with family and friends.
   
2. Wish they spent less time working.
   
3. Wish they never started a bucket list.
   
4. Wish they spoke more honestly about how they felt.
   
5. Wish they chose to be happier and laughed more.
   
6. Wish they never sold their soul, and entire lives, to the system.
   

The clock is ticking. How will we choose to spend what time remains to us?

Time To Tighten The Screw On Pensioners.

 

      Anyone who lives in the world of ordinary people is well aware that the vast majority of pensioners are not rich, a considerable number of them live in poverty, some in dire poverty. However, that does not stop the well heeled parasitic politicians with their grand salaries and lush pensions from putting pensioners in the line of attack in their pseudo science of economics. They have devised a method of stripping the unemployed of their benefits through workfare and sanctions, they have implemented a system to deprive the sick of their benefits by means of assessments and sanctions, so now it is time to attack the pensioners. They started by raising the age at which you can receive your pension, now, their latest manoeuvre to comply with the ideology of their pseudo economics, it is time to destroy the "triple lock" system, by which pensioners are guaranteed an increase in their meagre pensions each year. All this at a time when inflation is predicted to shoot up.

     Piece by piece our communities are attacked, section by section they are dealt an economic blow, all done under the financial Mafia's, "austerity" banner, wafted by the breeze of illusion called "balancing the books". If by some weird twist of the mind, our lords and masters were trying to "balance the books", there is no problem, our country is awash with money. We have billions for nuclear weapons, billions for bombing Libya, billions for war in Syria, billions to subsidise the corporate greed machine, but by their reckoning, not enough to see the the welfare of the needy in this country. 

       This "triple lock" attached to pensions has, since its inception, stuck in the throat of many of those well-heeled politicians, their twisted minds were mulling over the point, "why should pensioners get some sort of guaranteed increase each year, while we are screwing the rest of the population". So it is time to start turning the screw tighter on the pensioners. 

       By any measure, this system is insane, but worse, it is vicious, savage and brutal, to those who create all the wealth there is in this land. Are we to believe the blurb put out by the billionaire owned media, that this is the only way we can function as a society? It is simply a man made system of exploitation that creates wars, spreads poverty and spawns misery, for the benefit the few, at the expense of the many. I know we have the imagination, the ability and the resources to create a better world that cares for all, that takes care of the needs of all our people. All it lacks is the will of the people to take that step and demolish this insane creator of wars, misery and poverty. As long as we tolerate capitalism we will suffer poverty and deprivation, we will endure wars, and destroy the environment. Why?  

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Only The People Will Decide The will Of The people.

 

        The people of Greece have probably suffered more from the ponzi scheme, known as the "banking crisis" that collapsed in 2008, than any other European country. They are still mired in poverty and deprivation, with a collapsed health service and a disintegrated education system. They are witnessing the fire sale of all their public assets to those very institutions that were responsible for the destruction of the fabric of their society. So it is to be expected that they are alive to the reality that "balancing the books" and "austerity" is no more than a plundering of their country. All carried out by the puppets of the financial Mafia, their government. The result of this festering marriage between the state and the corporate world, only delivers human misery and a rumbling anger.

     Their anger can only be hidden under the surface for so long, it has and will again surface, it will take many shapes, only the people have a right to determine how that anger will manifest itself. The will of the people will only be fashioned by the people. You can only take a beating for so long, then you have to hit back, harder than you assailant.

       A little piece of the background to what is going on in Greece today.  

      The armed attack of Revolutionary Struggle against riot police in Exarchia was one of the most important actions of the organization. It was a legitimate political and social action in retaliation for the murder of 16 year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the policemen Korkoneas and Saralioti, which took place on December 6, 2008. This murder was the result of the intensification of police violence in recent years, and was formed under conditions of intensive neoliberal reforms and the “war against terrorism” in the same period.

      In particular, this development took on larger dimensions in the spring of 2007, when there were violent clashes and attacks in the center of Athens between students, youths and anarchists against squads of riot police, in the protests that were against the bill of the Ministry of Education to promote the privatization of education.

      The then minister of Public Order, Byron Polidoras, when taking office truthfully addressed the police as “Praetorians”, and when after these riots followed anarchist attacks on police stations in Exarchia and Papagos, he had stated that “the police have steady nerves” and can safely pull out their guns. Essentially, this more or less gave the green light to fire against unarmed demonstrators, youths and anarchists. At the same time there was a climate promoted by the state and the Ministry of Public Order, with declarations from this same minister and also the police union, promoting the cleaning of anarchists from Exarchia, speaking of the reclamation of Exarchia for the state. A similar debate and counter-debate exists now between Syriza government and the main opposition party of New Democracy.

Continue reading:

 

I Am The Crowd.

I am the crowd
I swim in the quagmire of poverty
its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh
rupture my dreams,
I hold my breath for centuries
hoping to break through, gasp pure air.
Through the murky mire
I see bright things, shiny things sparkle
I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts,
I ask myself,
why do I swim in this cesspool?

I want the light and warmth of rectitude
to caress my labouring body,
seeds of my dreams to bloom
like wild flowers in a meadow.
One day, I will use my boundless strength
to haul this torn, battered being
out of the morass
onto the warm grassy bank,
when I do;
woe betide you, women in fine dresses
woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt,
should you ever try to get in my way,
for I am the strength of the world,
I am the crowd.

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No God No Master, Part 1.

      Worth a sit down and view. 

Anarchism: The most vilified political ideology in the history of humanity, the terror of heads of state and the ruling class worldwide, the philosophy that spread like wild fire and kick started revolutionary movements, and sent the message that property is theft, that invented the strike, that pushed for women’s liberation and well the liberation of the whole of humanity, now finally has its own documentary. No God No Master: A history of anarchism is a must see! But don’t watch it alone, gather your friends, neighbours, co-workers, your dad and even grandma, and catch a glimpse of what could be possible if self organized, and stop letting the people up to rule our lives. You can buy all three parts and support the film maker here.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Mass Action, November 15th.

      A call for support from the thousands standing together against the degradation of the land and polluting of the water by the Dakota Access Pipeline. As expected. the state's response to the will of the people, when that will is at odds with the corporate world, is to come down heavy on the people. The water protectors need all our support, either to be there, or to publicise  this one more plundering and polluting of our environment. This is not just Dakota, this is a world wide event as the corporate world decimates the planet in its ever increasing and desperate, insatiable greed for profit.

From the water protectors:

Published on Nov 2, 2016

      On Tuesday, November 15th, join a massive day of action across the country to demand that this administration and the next reject this pipeline. Join an action near you - and if one doesn’t exist, organize an action in your community.

Robert Newman- History of Oil.

     This is a few years old, but I still think it is worthwhile repeating.First published on Mar 6, 2012, Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage as the cause of all the commotion.

      As remembrance day approaches, this is one way of bring home the truth about the carnage of imperialist continuous wars for resources. Humour is a wonderful way of spreading truth. Well worth viewing the entire piece.

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Stand With The Protectors.

       More information on the struggle to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline from going through the reservation lands of the indigenous people of that area. This struggle has been going on for months, those struggling to stop this environmental disaster do not call themselves protesters, the call themselves, water protectors, as this corporate greed project risk damaging the water supply over a very wide area, all in the name of profit for the few. Like I have said before, as the protesters, protectors, gain support in publicity and support numbers, so the state will pull out all the stops with demonising propaganda, and savage militarised brutal physical repression. The state has no mercy when it comes to protecting the profits of its lords and masters, the corporate world, the financial Mafia. Victory for sanity and a sustainable world will only come if we all stand up and take part in the struggle to bring down this corporate tidal wave of destruction that is the capitalist system.

The following videos were  sent by Loam at arrezafe:

An Artists Palette.

 The main street in Killearn.

        I can't believe it, since the clock went back I have been out on the bike twice, it has been many, many years since that happened. Sunday's run was great, and yesterday, Wednesday, I decide to steal another day on the bike. It was cold, sunny intervals and a light wind, what more could I ask. However it was too cold for me, as my wee bronchial tubes started to complain, and I didn't have any answers, so I just continued to grind on my merry way. 

The top of the climb from the Aberfoyle/Drymen/Killearn roundabout.

        I ended up in Killearn, and enjoyed a lovely plate of thick mushroom soup. Killearn is a small village, where if you look hard enough, you will find a house under half  £1 million. It is at the top of a hill, so no matter how you approach it you have a fair climb. From Glasgow as you pass Glengoyne, the first right takes you up a long drag, or go further on to the Aberfoyle/Drymen/Killearn roundabout, my preferred route, you face an equally long drag up to the village. Come at it from the Stirling/Erskine Bridge road and you climb up through Balfron. There is always the route through Lennoxtown, climb the beast that is the Crow Road over the Campsies, through Fintry and join the tail end of the Balfron-Killearn climb. In spite of this, no matter how you approach it, it is a beautiful run, especially at this time of year. The unbelievable array of colours straight from an artists palette, all those rusts, golds, browns, reds, inter-spaced with the evergreens, is something to behold.

Decision time, right to Fintry, Left to Balfron?

        However, no matter how beautiful, I think I will have to admit defeat and lay the bike aside until the turn of the year. 

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Clean Drinking Water, Or Shareholders Bonuses?

        No you wont hear or see much of it in our babbling brook of bullshit that is the mainstream media, but there is a battle of resistance going on in Dakota that involves hundreds of people, has lasted for months and is still going on, in spite of a massive militarised police force doing its damnedest to break that resistance.  According to the indigenous people of the area and other experts, the Dakota Access Pipeline, apart from going through their sacred ground, will pollute the water supply of the area and further afield, as it crosses the Mississippi River. However, this is capitalism, and the welfare of the many must be sacrificed for the profit to the few. You can rest assured that the state will do the bidding of the corporate bodies who want this pipeline, and come down hard on those who will be harmed by its construction. As the resistance grows, so the state repression will morph into a brutal attack on their rights. Those resisting need all the support and solidarity that can be mustered, this is a battle for the rights of ordinary people against the juggernaut of the corporate world and its minders, the state.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

 Report Back from the Battle for Sacred Ground.

      For months, hundreds of people, including members of nearly a hundred different indigenous peoples, have mobilized to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. On October 27, police raiding the Sacred Ground camp encountered stiff resistance. We’ve just received the following first hand report from comrades who participated in the defense of the camp. Describing some of the fiercest clashes indigenous and environmental movements in the region have seen in many years, they pose important questions about solidarity struggles.

The Battle

     When we arrive on Wednesday, October 26, we can’t find our contacts, the friends and friends of friends who have been vouched into the secretive Red Warrior camp. Word around the camp is that eviction is imminent for Sacred Ground, the only camp in the direct path of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. The tribe claims this land is territory granted to them in the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, and that they were using their own “eminent domain” to take it back when they set up the camp. We decide to set up at Sacred Ground and to figure out how to make ourselves useful in stopping its eviction.

The Sacred Ground camp is located about two miles north of the main camp on highway 1806. The main camp itself is just north of the Standing Rock Reservation, where two more NoDAPL camps, Rosebud and Sacred Stone, are located. Before arriving, we had seen images of barricades blocking Highway 1806 to the north of the Sacred Ground camp.

         When we walk to that site, however, we find those barricades have been pushed to the sides of the road, the northernmost one turned into a kind of checkpoint. According to the people at the checkpoint, they were ordered to remove the blockade by the camp leaders, who plan on allowing the police to enter and evict the camp.

      The “camp leaders” are hired Nonviolent Direct Action consultants. They are utilizing a classic strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience: they hope that the images of police evicting people in prayer will win them the sympathy of the public. The people we speak with at the checkpoint are clearly not buying this. But what can they do? Their elders have hired these people to stage-manage the moment.

         After some conversation with the folks on the barricades and with the “camp leaders,” it is decided that we’ll leave the road open until the police actually arrive, and then we’ll build up the barricades quickly in order to slow their progress. This will hopefully buy time to allow the people who want to get arrested while in prayer to assemble and prepare themselves. For what its worth, this plan was crafted with the approval of the “proper channels.”

         As soon as this course of action is proposed, some new organism bursts into life, and thirty people we’ve never met are loading logs and tires and barbed wire onto trucks in the middle of the night. A plan comes together for when and how to start blocking the road. The energy is electric; the possibility of a real physical defense of this strategically decisive camp is in the air and in people’s conversations.

“I don’t know who those ‘leaders’ are,” a Native guy tells us as we throw tires on the side of the road. “They’re not my elders. I came here to defend this camp, and I’m going to do what I have to.” We still don’t know where the fabled Red Warrior folks are, but we feel that we’ve found people we want to support in this battle.

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