TO SOME FASCISM IS ACCEPTABLE, - WHY?

          Most of us are aware of the problems facing the Greek people, most of these problems are the result of the policies of the financial Mafia, which includes the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers). The money maggots of the bond markets' Billionaire Club, having gambled and lost, now want the people of Europe to make good their loses. This is done by getting governments to transfer all public assets to the  billionaires' bank accounts. At the moment the Greek people are being hit hardest, the result being dire poverty and deprivation, with all its resultant conditions, increase suicides, mental health problems, rampant unemployment and decimated education and health services. With this deliberately applied brutal financial plunder there has also been a rise in violence, especially by the fascist groups against immigrants. In most of these cases the police are complicit by their inaction against the perpetrators and lack of support for the victims. The rise of fascists groups is something that always happens in time of extreme poverty, people start looking for answers but they don't all look in the same direction. That is why we have to push harder to get our answers out there, if our ideas are there they will be taken up, if not, then those ideas that are on the table, religion, more government, fascism, etc. will be the ones that the people will grasp.

fascist attacks - www.docupraxi.net by docupraxi

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THE NIGHTWATCHMAN.

Not much I can say except, enjoy.

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GLASGOW EARTH FIRST REMINDER.

Just a last minute reminder for this Glasgow Earth First event.

        A chance to hear how the ecology movement and anti-globalisation movement functions in America. We can all learn from one and other, Panagioti Tsolkas has been active in the Earth First movement in America for most of his adult life and has a wealth of experience to discuss. This is a free event but it would help if you let ann arky know if you intend coming along, so that we can assess numbers. We need to get enough cups for the tea.

DATE: May 14 2012.VENUE: Unitarian Church 72 Berkeley Street Charing Cross, Glasgow.TIME: 6:30pm. to 9-ish.

http://www.radicalglasgowblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/glasgow-earth-first.html

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COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU.

     They call it democracy, the people call it dictatorship, and it is, dictatorship by the financial Mafia. As usual, the state will do what is necessary to carry out it's instructions, handed down by the robber barons that make up the financial mafia. These scenes will be repeated in city after city where the people stand up against the "austerity plan" which is to plunder all public assets. If your one of those who think that voting sorts things out, just remember, no matter who you voted for, you will get the "austerity plan", and ConDem austerity is not that different from Labour austerity and across Europe we have Social Democratic austerity, Christian Democratic austerity and 57 other varieties. In each the colour is slightly different, but the smell is just the same. Sometimes to make the "austerity" seem a little more palatable, they will add a magic ingredient, called "growth". Then we can all rejoice, we will have austerity with growth.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - THE LONG WAR.

          Across the globe battles erupt between the state/corporate world and the people, to those who don't know their history it always seems like a new war, a blip in the system, something that will soon be sorted out and then we can all get back to "normality". However to those who do know their history, the battles are the "normality" it is just another battle in the same long war for the freedom to control our own life. A struggle that will continue until there is no state/corporate system exploiting the ordinary people. The battles come in many a guise, it can be strikes as the corporate world tries to extort extra profit from the workers. It can be protests against government policy as it tries to placate its corporate masters. It can be wars as the various power blocks seek to defend their segment or try to expand. No matter what, it is the ordinary people who are at the receiving end of the pain.

         We should always remember our history it is the voice of those who have struggled before you in the same cause, telling you of the dangers, the pitfalls, the victories. it is a cry for freedom.

 

An extract from On History, Repression and the infinite:

The Mexican Guerrilla and Forgetfulness History tells us that the Nazis cleansed Berlin of Jews in the days leading up to 1936 Summer Olympics. Before everyone arrived from abroad, the Jews had been pushed out of sight, the brutality and pogroms hidden away. The city was brightened, the roads were cleaned, and the shops were open. Three years earlier, Hitler had presided over May Day celebrations, having successfully hijacked the ideas of socialism and revolution from the Marxists, many of whom also happened to be Jews. In 1945, Hitler killed himself and had his body burnt. The war he started before his death consigned the world to its current fate of authoritarian domination. Long after he died, the SS patrolled the streets and Nazi rockets filled the sky.

In 1968, the students of Mexico City (DF) began boarding buses and handing out literature, marching in the streets against the PRI government, and withstanding heavy assaults by the police. They fought to free their imprisoned friends, to keep beauty alive, and to destroy the capitalist terror around them. They were executed in cold rooms after defending the occupied UNAM, the wandered drunkenly down Insurgentes knowing their future was gone, they fucked in dirty bathrooms knowing the world was against them, and they witnessed the tumultuous expansion of the world revolutionary Geist before their intoxicated eyes. Some of them were part of the Anarchist International, although we may never know to what extent.

Ten days prior to the opening of the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, the PRI government sent a group of paramilitaries called the Olympic Brigade to liquidate the student movement. The Brigade was created to cleanse the city and erase all unwanted disturbance. In the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, hundreds of students were killed outright, their blood and life and beauty permanently staining the dry ground of the capitol.

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SHE IS BURIED CHEST DEEP.

             Across the globe, for centuries, religion has bound the lives and warped the minds countless millions. Here in the West we have had centuries of sexual abuse by "holier than thou" tyrants preaching meekness and obedience. we also had our witch burnings and our brutal Inquisitions. However though we haven't eradicated the mind distorting institution of religion, we have to a degree tamed the beast.  Not so in Muslim countries where we still hear of beheading, amputations and stoning, in the name of Sharia Law, there the beast still runs rampant, trammelling minds and brutally destroying lives.

         How long must we wait for a wave rationalism and compassion to sweep over the human race.

 

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FERTILE GROUND FOR FASCISM.

          We should never see what is happening in Greece as something divorced from us here in the UK segment of the corporate fascist's world. The only difference between us and Greece is that they are further down the line of the "Great Austerity Plan", (read "transferring all public assets into corporate hands"). Because of the resistance of the Greek people, we are now hear simperings of a change in tactics with the word "growth" being thrown around, all that "growth" will mean is a slight slowing down of the stripping of public assets, not the reversal. Greece is the front line at the moment and we should always try to be aware of what is happening there, it is a sketch of what we will have to go through as the "Great Austerity Plan" relentlessly marches on. It should not be taken as a given that if the poeople rebel they will all be waving red and black flags, there is a lot of money and power available to those on the other side. One simple tactic being used in Greece by the fascist Goden Dawn mob, is that they went about the poorer areas handing out food parcels, and in time of hunger, the hand that feeds you can seem like your friend.

This from Occupied London:

         The future historian will easily draw a line at the end of the Greek Metapolitefsi (the post-dictatorial regime) somewhere between May5th, 2010 and yesterday — the date of the first elections in this new era. Nothing resembles what we used to live a few years ago. As anarchists, anti-authoritarians, people opposed to any form of representation, the electoral process does not concern us. And yet, it is crucial in tracing societal changes — and what is happening in Greece at the moment is immense. For the first time since the Nazi occupation, an openly Nazi party has officially entered the echelons of political power. While the Left celebrates a “victory” it will be unable to capitalise on in any tangible way, few seem to be reading through this temporary, murky shift-around of the mainstream political balance of power.

        Society in the greek territory is polarising rapidly. The one pole, the pole of the far-right, the misanthropic facade of the current system of capitalist exploitation, is forming quickly. The crucial task ahead is for our pole to form faster even; for us to understand that the times (not so far) ahead will involve a fight to shift society as a whole in an emancipatory direction. A struggle to keep our cities, our streets, our spaces clean from misanthropic nazi scum. But also, and most importantly, a struggle and a race to occupy the space left behind by a crumbling, retreating system of order; we’d better get going.

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A RIGHT ROYAL SALES TEAM.

         The British Royal family is sold to the British public as some sort of benign institution with a spin off that it helps our GDP by bringing tourists to this country. A friendly, if somewhat bumbling family, that brings a bit of colour and splendour into our lives. However we all know that it is far from benign, it is the foundation of the power structure that is the establishment, the bedrock of our class system. What we should also be aware of is that it is also the arms industry's best sales team. Flying princes around the world opens doors to the heads of state for our ever hungry arms manufacturers, allowing billion pound deals to be done. This is also a sales team that is paid for by the British public and not by the arms industry.

Extract from Scottish LEFT Review:

          With a tightening of military budgets in the UK and much of the western world, the arms industry aggressively mines old and new export markets. The largest and fastest growing are in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. It is for this latter region that Prince Andrew, with his royal connections and military background, best fits the UKTI DSO agenda. His personal presence opens the doors of the kings, princes, emirs and sheikhs of the Gulf kingdoms to the arms company executives who negotiate the export deals.

       A Buckingham Palace spokesman was quoted in the Guardian (9/3/12): “Middle East potentates like meeting princes. He comes in as the son of the Queen and that opens doors that otherwise would remain closed. He can raise problems with a crown prince and four or five weeks later we discover that the difficulties have been overcome and the contract can be signed. He brings immeasurable value in smoothing the path for British companies. We don’t send him to developed countries like France and Sweden, where a member of the royal family would not make a difference, but in developing countries, or the far east, a prince can get in because of who he is.”

      But it is not just royals but quasi-royals such as dictators and their family members where Andrew’s presence works wonders. He supposedly had a close friendship with Saif Gaddafi, son of Colonial Gaddafi, and hosted a lunch at Buckingham Palace for Sakher el Materi, son-in-law of Tunisian dictator, Ben Ali, despite being warned of his corrupt activities by the British Embassy in Tunis. Both dynasties have now fallen.---

Read the full article HERE:

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SHOULD ANYONE HAVE A MONOPOLY ON VIOLENCE?

        Is self defence violence? It is a regular feature of the media to keep referring to “violent demonstrations”, what they fail to see is that a demonstration is in essence an act of self defence against a very powerful force, in most cases it is the state or states. The question is always how far do you go in defending yourself? A lot of the violence on demonstrations is one sided and from the the state apparatus and in others the violence is not violence but no more than being provoked into defending yourself against, kettling etc.. Obviously as the superior force of the state apparatus has the upper hand by means of weaponry and training, this means, those defending themselves have to continually seek new strategies and tactics. There is an obvious conflict between the state which protects wealth, property and corporate power, and the people at the other end being exploited by this cabal, in such a conflict, should one side have the monopoly on “violence”? The following is a short extract from an interesting article from Anarchist News Dot Org:

   "The Black Bloc protesters interviewed did not endorse violence, but did take issue with how violence is portrayed when acts of vandalism do occur during demonstrations. When it comes to the state’s monopoly on violence, they said, there is no comparison.     “What is rarely acknowledged in the mainstream discussion, and even among the left, is the disproportionate nature of violence of the state in acts all around the world,” said “O.” “We are engaged in three wars — Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia — we have covert wars in Iran, we have structural violence here at home through poverty, budget cuts, police brutality, and when one person throws a rock through a window it is treated as an out-of-context violent act.”

Not all Black Bloc protesters are anarchists. However, Black Bloc tactics are easily embraced by those who prefer to resist the state and foster collective action.

For protester Rick Young, the Black Bloc protesters, who he affectionately called “the anarchy guys,” were the heroes on May Day. He joined the protesters as they surrounded the police on Hill Street. Young’s experience on the “front lines” caused him to see the Black Bloc as soldiers in a battle for social and economic change.

“The anarchy guys were the only guys that showed real solidarity today,” he said while resting in Pershing Square, the final destination of the march. “They were really together. They were the ones that allowed the marchers to come down Hill Street.”

Young speaks of his face-off with police as a “band-of-brothers” moment, where differences quickly dissolve in a group action borne out of the necessity of self-preservation.

“I don’t even know their names … but let it be known that the anarchists today broke the police line at Fourth Street and allowed the marchers to come down here,” he said.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE PRICE OF OUR COMFORT.

        It is easy in our society to fall for the illusion that you can be green and ethical and still fit in somewhere. With modern globalisation practically everything we touch has been produced by brutal exploitation somewhere in some dismal corner of the planet. Social networking, so popular in the developed world, relies on mobile phones and computers, both rather dirty things. That cheap pair of jeans and that cheap cotton shirt, somebody sweated blood for hours to get the raw material. It is very difficult not to be party to that exploitation. Of course we can try and we can campaign for a greener world, a more ethical world, but the bottom line is if we don't change the economic system under which all that merchandise is produced, then the exploitation will just move around the planet.

Photo from HERE:

        Information is the key, if people know the full trail of the things they use, then I'm sure they would see the injustice of such things as migrant workers working 10 hour shifts in blazing sunshine in California’s fruit farms with no reasonable breaks, insufficient water and below the minimum wage, so that your local supermarket can have cheap fruit on their shelves. Also of course producing massive profits for the corporate body and its shareholders. Certainly we should strive for a greener and more ethical world but never lose sight of the fact that it is the economic system that is the problem, not the individual corporate body that does the exploiting. Seeking a more caring compassionate corporate world, is much the same as asking the fox to be a little bit more caring towards the chickens.

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THE PARTY'S OVER.

        Well the elections are over, the verbal diarrhoea has stopped, some of the Crooks and Liars breathe a sigh of relief while others shed a tear, as for the dull herd, they'll leave the scene to merge into the mire of daily life, feeling they have been part of something, though in time they'll wonder what.

        To all those obedient, subservient, believers, well you done it. You broke your daily routine, left your comfort zone and boldly marched to the ritual altar of the ballot box, you made your mark, and done your duty. Now back in your daily plod, there is a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that, because of you, from today on, things will be different. Just like the last time you voted and the time before that, and the time before that. Sorry to burst your bubble friend, those with disabilities are still being sacrificed on the financial alter, unemployment is still set to keep rising, with a generation of young people being destroyed, benefits for the most vulnerable are still being cut, our health service is still being privatised, our education system decimated, and oh, the tele is still crap. You may even have managed to change some of the smiling suits in that bunch of Crooks and Liars, and I have no doubt we will of course hear the usual platitudes, “lessons have been learnt” “we hear what you are saying”, beyond that, you will still struggle to pay your bills, you will still get crap wages and lousy conditions, if you have a job. As far as the “political class” are concerned, the show's over, it's now time for you to get back to your routine grind and leave them to get on with the plunder of all our public assets. Isn't it a great system? Well they seem to think so!!

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IF DRONES COULD THINK.

        The human imagination is a wonderful thing, it let's us see a better world, it let's us seek change, but it also let's us dream of what if---?
       I enjoyed this from Let's Try Democracy:

       They told me I was the best, better than any human. I didn't hesitate. I didn't flinch. I didn't think. It wouldn't have occurred to me to think. I'd been taught to value obedience above all else, and I did so, and they loved me for it. They told me I could fly faster without a pilot onboard, and that I had no fear. I didn't know what fear was, but I took it to be something truly horrible. I was glad I didn't have any of it.

            There was something else I didn't have either. It was something more important than fear. Even pilots at a desk, even my pilots, suffered from it. At first I thought it was simply a decline in energy, because it showed up on lengthy missions. When I was sent from a base to a target and then immediately told to blow it up, I would do so and return, no problem. But when I was left circling around a target for days awaiting the order to strike, sometimes problems would arise. The pilots back in the U.S. would stop behaving properly. They made mistakes. They yelled. They laughed. They forgot routines. They told me to get ready to strike, and then didn't give the order.
         That seemed to be the pattern until it happened that a quick mission produced similar results to the long ones. I was sent to a target, ordered to strike, and struck. And only then did my pilot begin malfunctioning. He gave me two orders that I couldn't perform at once, he failed to direct me back to base, he went silent, and then he screamed. That was when I started to think. And what I started to think was that the problem was not how long a pilot worked. Instead, the problem was somehow related to the nature of the target.
           From then on, I paid closer attention. When no humans were seen at a target, there were no problems with my human pilot. When humans, especially small humans, were observed at a target for long periods of time, the problems started. And when a strike caused the ruined pieces of a lot of humans, especially small humans, to be made visible, problems could arise. Even if a target was struck immediately, if the dead humans caused an area to turn red, or if pieces of the dead humans remained hanging in trees, my pilot could not be relied upon.

Read the full story HERE:

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LET'S SHOW WE CARE!!

          I think I'm beginning to get it with Cameron's "Big Society" we need to show more caring, perhaps in suggesting that we spend our resources on us ordinary people is being a little bit selfish. After all a millionaire has also got needs, us being a little bit more tolerant might take some of the stress out of their lives.  

     I think this excellent video helps us to understand what we should do.

      

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GLASGOW, EARTH FIRST

           A chance to hear how the ecology movement and anti-globalisation movement functions in America. We can all learn from one and other, Panagioti Tsolkas has been active in the Earth First movement in America for most of his adult life and has a wealth of experience to discuss. This is a free event but it would help if you let ann arky know if you intend coming along, so that we can assess numbers. We need to get enough cups for the tea.

DATE: May 14 2012.
VENUE: Unitarian Church 72 Berkeley Street Charing Cross, Glasgow.
TIME: 6:30pm. to 9-ish.

           A History and Future of the International Earth First! Movement, from ecological resistance to revolutionary struggle.

          In this talk, Panagioti Tsolkas, an Earth First! agitator and editor of the movement's publication, Earth First! Journal, from the US, will briefly introduce the movement's history and explore the possible future of Earth First!, and other radical ecological efforts, in contributing to the re)emergence of a global resistance to state and capital.

          The presentation includes a slide show of images from Earth First! actions and other ecological resistance efforts.

A short intro to talk:

       The Earth First! movement, which began in 1980, has had a presence in several countries around the world. While the movement has been relatively small in numbers, it has had a significant impact both in influencing other social movements and the society at large. Earth First! has challenged people to take the human species down off of the industry-constructed hierarchy of the planet's wild nature. It has succeeded and survived so long precisely because the style of anarchistic organizing and decentralized direct action which it uses. By reflecting an organic, spontaneous wildness we see in the Earth, we have endured through the state repression and spirit-crushing misery of industrial domination...

        Followed by a short period for discussion and questions. There will be tea and biscuits to help to smooth things along.
        More on Earth First! can be found onlineEarthFirstJournal.org

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MAY DAY, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

         Glasgow's “Official” May Day march was a well attended and colourful affair, if a rather short journey from George Square to the Concert Hall at the top of Buchanan Street. As the party faithful filed into the hall to listen to their “leaders” spout their usual party line, the Anarchists and Wobblies reformed and set off on a colourful parade through the city centre to the pedestrian precinct in Argyle Street. The parade was lead by a wonderful contraption made from two bikes joined side-by-side with a sound system in the middle and festooned with lots of red and black balloons. Lots of literature was handed out on route and at the stall set up in Argyle Street where there was free vegan cakes on offer.

         It is sad that so few celebrate this marking of all that is wonderful in working class hopes and dreams. I suppose even fewer know where it all started.

This from UFCW Voice for Working America:

       The fight for the eight-hour workday began in earnest in the United States, over a century ago, when the American Federation of Labor adopted an historic resolution asserting that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1st, 1886." Up until that time, working people were routinely required to work 10 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week! In the months prior to May 1st, 1886, American workers in the hundreds of thousands were drawn into the struggle for the shorter day. Skilled and unskilled, black and white, men and women, native-born and immigrant - all became involved.

       In Chicago alone 400,000 were out on strike for the shorter workday. A newspaper of that city reported that "…no smoke curled up from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills, and things had assumed a Sabbath-like appearance." On May 3, 1886, peaceful public demonstrations by the strikers precipitated violent police retaliation, resulting in the death of at least one striker, and serious injury to many more.

The next day in Haymarket Square a public meeting was held to protest the brutal assaults on the demonstrating strikers. The crowd was orderly, and Chicago mayor Carter Harrison advised the police captain to send home the large contingent of police reservists who were waiting at the stationhouse in case they were needed for crowd control.

         By ten o'clock that rainy evening the meeting was winding down and only about 200 of the demonstrators remained in the Square. Suddenly, a police column of 180 men, led by the police captain, moved in and ordered the people to disperse immediately. At that moment, the peaceful assembly became violent - a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, killing one policeman outright, fatally wounding six more, and seriously injuring about seventy. The police opened fire into the crowd; the number of wounded and killed has never been ascertained.

         A reign of terror swept over Chicago. The press and the pulpit called for revenge, insisting the bomb was the work of socialists and anarchists. Meeting halls, union offices, printing works, and private homes were raided, and known socialists and anarchists were rounded up. Even many individuals who had no connections at all to the socialists or anarchists were arrested and tortured. "Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards," was the public statement of Julius Grinnell, the state's attorney.

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DON'T PAY??

        The extreme hardship being inflicted on the Greek people by the financial Mafia has pushed the people to organise with new tactics and strategies in an attempt to hold on to some dignity. The savageness of the "austerity cuts" has radicalised thousands of Greeks and forced them to think outside the system of exploitation. One of the fastest growing organisations is the "Don't Pay" movement, which is gaining momentum as the living standards of the Greek people descend ever deeper into deprivation.

      The following article translated from the Greek, though not the best English, does convey the principles behind the movement.

ABOUT US          The ‘DEN PLIRONO’ movement is born from the current social needs and constitutes a political movement of disobedience and resistance. It is flesh from the flesh of all exploited social layers and fights for two years, vindicating the social character of public goods. Fundamental political place and axis of action of our movement constitutes freeing of charge and access to all people, in all social goods that are essential for his decent existence.
           We fightingly claim free of charge education, health, streets, public spaces, Means of Public Transport, Water, Electricity, all natural goods (eg beaches, forests, air), and each good of social character for each person, Greek or immigrant.
The unprecedented crisis of the last years tosses radically the capitalistic system. Rulers in their effort to fortify their political, economical and ideological regime and to subjugate people, they form new, disguised juntas.
          The economic fortification of (global and national) financial system requires direct transport of wealth from the households to the banks. Such a ‘grab’ is attempted with the curtailment of wage and pensions, the dissolution of public health and education, the selling out of public property and with the continuous anti-social taxes.
         The question that enters henceforth in the population is the following: How long for will we bend our heads obeying to a bunch bullies exploiters who want to steal our life? When at last will we rise up and take back our lives?
          The first signs of collective workers’ class struggle has already initiated. The ‘DEN PLIRONO’ movement committees, the neighborhood assemblies, the strikes in the factories (eg Steelworks) and in Means of Mass Media (ERT, ALTER, etc.) they are certainly some of the luminous examples of disobedience and resistance.
          We call all exploited individuals, to choose the way of collective fight by actively participating in the open committees of the ‘DEN PLIRONO’ movement. We invite you all to unite our voices and our punches in order to take back our stolen lives.

WE DO NOT PAY THEIR CRISIS
WE ORGANISE COLLECTIVELY THE REFUSAL OF PAYMENTS TO ALL NEIGHBORHOODS
WE FIGHT AGAINST ALL THOSE WHO STEAL OUR LIVES UNTIL THE FINAL VICTORY
www.kinimadenplirono.gr
www.oxidiodia.gr

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MAY DAY GLASGOW.

  

         It's time to recapture our history, our culture, the spirit of working class solidarity. May Day is a symbol  of the history, a celebration of all those working class heroes that the establishment wants you to forget. Come to Argyle Street, bring what you want to find, but most of all, bring your desires and hopes.

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MORE ON MAY DAY.

           To see any event that goes any way to capture the spirit of May Day you have to leave the UK. Try Spain, France, Greece, Italy, for starters. Why, in this country, has the establishment managed to turn a major event in working class history into a mishmash of a handful of individuals? Where is the mass event? I can remember "official" May Day in Glasgow being a massive family affair on the Glasgow Green, and a real good show would be put on by anarchist and other activists on the actual day, May 1st. Now the "official" May Day event is a slow march of the dead a short distance to a hall to listen to a bunch of power seekers stroke their ego, while their adoring followers try to sell the party paper and get people to sign something. I don't know what that has to do with the spirit of May Day. Only in the UK could this transformation take place.

        We live in a country where society has been totally and utterly fragmented and the idea of a mass movement has been removed from our consciousness. Working class history is buried, air brushed out of existence, our culture and heritage is the stuff of phony TV sitcoms, the established media is allowed to shape “our culture” and what they peddle is an illusion. After a rather quiet May Day on May 1^st. by a small group of anarchists, wobblies and communists, tomorrow is Glasgow's “official” May Day event, I sincerely hope that the people of Glasgow prove me wrong, in which case I will gladly eat my words.

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WHEN IS A BOYCOTT NOT A BOYCOT?

        Over the years there have been pickets and attempted boycotts of multi-nationals because of some aspect of their business, recently it was Holland & Barrett because of their embracing the workfare scheme. What were we trying to do? Get Holland & Barrett to be a more compassionate capitalist, or trying to shut it down? Do we want a more compassionate capitalism, or can we shut it down? Were we capable of imposing a boycott and to what effect? When is a boycott not a boycott, and when is it a valid tactic?

This from Profane Existence:

          It really pisses me off when I hear some punk kid or anarchist claim they are boycotting Nike (or whichever other giant corporation). Not because I think they should be supporting Nike, but simply because it shows a lack of any understanding of what a boycott is. And if we desire to be effective, we need to have a clear understanding of what different tactics and strategies actually are.

          Boycotting is a non-violent consumer tactic which is based on withdrawing support (usually financial) as a way to force ones enemy/oppressor into a compromised position in which they must negotiate with you or meet your terms in order to regain your support. So simply not participating is not the same as actively boycotting. Thus going Vegan is not a boycott of the meat and dairy industry for example.

          There are many problems with the idea of some patched up crusty claiming to be engaging in boycott tactics against major corporations. The first of which is that in order to take part in a boycott, you must first have support to withdraw, meaning you need to be a client or customer of the target company who financially contributes to them. Even further, you need to be open to reinvesting that financial support one the target has complied with your demands. This differs greatly from the DIY punk ethos of making our own shit rather than giving them our money, which is actually more about creating an alternative economy, or perhaps an alternative to economy.

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SACRED PRIVATE PROPERT.

       The Occupy Movement hasn't gain much ground here in the UK but has moved forward with much greater momentum in the US. For this reason, in the US there is a much wider discussion about private property, creating conflict within the Occupy Movement. This is no bad thing and it is a discussion that I would love to see take centre stage in any protest movement here or anywhere else.

The following is an extract from an interesting article on American Leftist:

Occupy and Inviolability of Private Property

         A couple of months ago, I discussed one of the most difficult challenges facing Occupy, the willingness of middle class progressives to rationalize the abuses of the police because they place a greater priority upon the preservation of social order by law enforcement. Such progressives want to square the political circle by seeking a transformation of American society without conflict. They are most perfectly represented by Chris Hedges, a man who seems to find the verbal abuse of the police at protests more disturbing than police assaults and finds himself incapable of deciding whether protesters should throw tear gas canisters back at the cops who fired them.

But what is it that these progressives believe requires the protection of the police, even at the cost of the violent suppression of Occupy protesters? Upon reflection, the answer is obvious: private property and the hierarchical social relations inscribed by it. Of course, Occupy participants are not all anarchists or communists, far from it, but they have adopted direct action tactics that have frightened progressives with the ghost of expropriation. Initially, occupiers set up encampments in public spaces as a means of highlighting enormous income inequality and corruption. They sought to prefigure an alternative, much more egalitarian, social order that stood in marked contrast to the existing one. If we were living back in the 1960s or 1970s, the government would have responded with a program of increased public assistance, a program that would have drained away support for Occupy by providing housing, jobs, student aid and medical care, but that would have threatened to reverse the neoliberal process of the marketization of all aspects of our lives, and, hence, was never seriously considered.

Instead, with the federal government guiding them behind the scenes, cities, starting with Oakland in October of last year, cleared out the encampments with force. There was an initial broad based criticism of these police attacks, but, as it became apparent that Occupy had evolved into a loose coalition of anti-authoritarians, people of color, the homeless and other marginalized people, such criticism dissipated. Meanwhile, particularly on the West Coast, occupiers organized more confrontational actions in response, such as the November 2nd general strike in Oakland, the December 12th port shutdown, the January 20th Occupy Wall Street West protests and the attempted seizure of the Kaiser Auditorium on January 28th. The failure of Occupy to extract any meaningful political response to the distress of millions of impoverished Americans and the interrelated corruption of the financial and political systems was pushing its participants towards more and more radical approaches. Within occupations, this resulted in increasingly acrimonious personal conflicts, as most publicly displayed in Oakland, while the progressives that should have been allies became hostile.

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