Read the full article HERE:As the COVID-19 pandemic has undermined healthcare systems and economies of even the most advanced nations, mutual networks and self-organizing efforts have sprung up across the world in a show of pandemic solidarity. With the police murder of George Floyd, the U.S. has seen further spread of self-organizing: from bond and mutual aid funds for protesters to citizen patrols in Minneapolis and a police-free autonomous zone in Seattle. As the first attempt to abolish police and replace it with community-based, transformative justice are underway in the U.S., we may want to look at the communities that have been experimenting with self-organization without recourse to the states that oppress or dispossess them, such as Rojava in North East Syria, Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi and Zapatistas in Chiapas. Zapatistas, in particular, have spent the last 26 years organizing their communities autonomously from the state across all spheres of life—from police and justice system to health care, economy and education. As we witness the limits of the imaginable being radically shifted, the Zapatista experience is more relevant than ever.
We have come through the start of the industrial age and moved on to the hi-tec age, but every move into every industry comes with its on particular problems. Practically every industry is linked to an industrial disease. We have silicosis, lung disease prevalent among stone masons, potters grinders etc.. Then there is pneumoconiosis, mainly among coal miners, caused by breathing in fine coal dust and carbon dust. Arc-welders are at risk of manganism, manganese poisoning brought on by exposure to the toxic effects of the fumes from welding rods melting as the are used. Painters are at risk from neurological deficits from solvent‐exposure, which include impaired colour vision, cognitive defects, tremor and loss of vibration sensation. There are many more links with occupation and disease, but we are seldom told of these dangers when you apply for the job. Health and safety regulations go some way to protect workers from these dangers but usually these measures are re-active and only come after years of suffering and campaigning.
As a young man starting my trade in the Clydeside shipyards in the 1950’s, I was ignorant of the dangers of asbestos, and as it was widely used, all of us were exposed to the horror of death from mesothelioma, an asbestos induced incurable cancer. It was not that the dangers of this substance wasn’t known, medical papers had been written about the danger from asbestos exposure as far back as the 30’s, but it continued to be used up to and including the 60’s. The employers didn’t abandon asbestos willingly, it took campaigning and legislation to finally attempt to get rid of this killer substance. That is the pattern in most of industries, its dangers are only restricted by campaigning and legislation. The profit motive drives industry, not the well being of the employee. Most industries can be made safe, but it usually requires investment in safety equipment and training and that costs money which in turn cuts into the profit. So safety in industries will always come lower down the ladder, and as times get harder, corners are cut in safety to prevent cuts in profit. The economic system we have at present does not lend itself to the welfare and well being of the workers, only when the workers control all the industries will their well being be at the fore front of production.
There was executed the analysis of morbidity and disability rate in workers with occupational diseases (poisoning) of the Republic of Bashkortostan for the period from 2010 to 2014. There is reflected the sectoral distribution of the relative indices of the occupational morbidity. There are selected factors of labor and the labor process, promoting occupational diseases (OD). The leading place in the structure of primary morbidity is held by OD related to physical overload and functional overexertion of certain organs and systems; the second - by diseases associated with exposure to physical factors; the third - by diseases from exposure to workplace allergens. This is followed by illness (intoxications) caused by exposure to chemical factors, industrial aerosols. The share of OD from exposure to biological agents and professional tumors in total accounts for about 2.0% of all cases of OD revealed for the first time.Also:
Read the full article HERE:A third reason that Black Awakening is important, and the one I’m most concerned with here, is that it includes an invaluable discussion of ruling-class responses in the face of mass upheaval. In the broadest terms, Allen argued that“In the United States today a program of domestic neocolonialism is rapidly advancing. It was designed to counter the potentially revolutionary thrust of the recent black rebellions in major cities across the country. This program was formulated by America’s corporate elite—the major owners, managers, and directors of the giant corporations, banks, and foundations which increasingly dominate the economy and society as a whole—because they believe that the urban revolts pose a serious threat to economic and political stability. Led by such organizations as the Ford Foundation, the Urban Coalition, and National Alliance of Businessmen, the corporatists are attempting with considerable success to co-opt the black power movement” (17).Allen saw this program as emerging in the context of “several interlocked responses” to the rebellions from different sectors of the white power structure:On the one hand there was the orthodox liberal who prescribed more New Deal welfarism as an antidote to the riots… [Another was] the shrill voices emanating from the embattled metropolises–voices demanding more policemen, more troops, more weapons, heavier armor, and tougher laws…. But between these two camps, there has arisen a third force: the corporate capitalist, the American businessman. He is interested in maintaining law and order, but he knows that there is little or nothing to gain and a great deal to lose in committing genocide against the blacks. His deeper interest is in reorganizing the ghetto ‘infrastructure,’ in creating a ghetto buffer class clearly committed to the dominant American institutions and values on the one hand, and on the other, in rejuvenating the black working class and integrating it into the American economy. Both are necessary if the city is to be salvaged and capitalism preserved” (194).One of the architects of the neocolonialism program, who receives special attention in Allen’s study, was McGeorge Bundy. Child of an elite Boston family, Bundy spent five years as national security advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, then left in 1966 to become president of the Ford Foundation. With this job change, Bundy shifted from a leading role in designing U.S. political-military operations in Vietnam to a leading role in designing establishment responses to the Black Liberation Movement.Bundy quickly set a new tone as Ford Foundation president. In August 1966 he told the National Urban League’s annual banquet, “We believe that full equality for all American Negroes is now the most urgent domestic concern of this country. We believe that the Ford Foundation must play its full part in this field because it is dedicated by its charter to human welfare.” With Bundy as its head, the foundation broadened its grant-giving from relatively tame civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and Urban League to the more militant Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Allen explains that CORE appealed to the Ford Foundation because it talked about revolution but offered an “ambiguous and reformist definition of black power as simply black control of black communities,” fortified by increases in government and private aid. “From the Foundation’s point of view, old-style moderate leaders no longer exercised any real control [in the ghettos], while genuine black radicals were too dangerous” (146-47). In Cleveland, Ford financed a CORE-led voter registration and voter education campaign, which in November 1967 helped Carl Stokes win election as the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city.
System Fail #1: RIOTS ACROSS AMERICA
Website:https://sub.media/video/system-fail-01-riots-across-america/
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/433088212/
Youtube: https://youtu.be/qj-0asLNRc4/
(Note: The video has already been blocked in the US on YouTube... we'll work on getting this addressed.)
The pilot episode of subMedia's brand new show, System Fail, looks at the incendiary riots that have swept across the United States in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and the state's desperate attempts to bring things back under control.Featuring an interview with Oluchi Omeoga, co-founder and core organizer of the Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block.
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Finding the Thread that Binds Us
Three Mutual Aid Networks in New York City
Current Events
Fundamental social change involves two intertwined processes. On the one hand, it means shutting down the mechanisms that impose disparities in power and access to resources; on the other hand, it involves creating infrastructures that distribute resources and power according to a different logic, weaving a new social fabric. While the movement for police abolition that burst into the public consciousness a month ago in Minneapolis has set new precedents for resistance, the mutual aid networks that have expanded around the world since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic point the way to a new model for social relations. The following report profiles three groups that coordinate mutual aid efforts in New York City—Woodbine, Take Back the Bronx, and Milk Crate Gardens—exploring their motivations and aspirations as well as the resources and forms of care they circulate.
This is the first installment in a series exploring mutual aid projects across the globe.
Food distribution at Woodbine, a social center in New York City.
With politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for the people to engage in mutual aid in order to survive the COVID-19 crisis, those not previously familiar with the term might never guess it was coined by an anarchist scientist who advocated against central government. As economies collapse and the institutions of state and capitalism fail to protect people’s health and livelihoods, communities have been left no choice but to rely on each other. This has led to a proliferation of spontaneous mutual aid networks in communities where none previously existed, often cohering around Facebook groups and Google documents.
Many communities, particularly those of poor and working class people, have long understood that we cannot rely on governments to meet our needs and have been providing for each other through autonomous grassroots collectives since well before anyone heard of the coronavirus. Now, the question is how to use the momentum of mutual aid’s recent popularity to transform the status quo and make these principles the basis for a new way of living together. An important first step will be to establish a clear distinction in the public consciousness between real mutual aid projects, which are founded on the principles of autonomy, horizontality, and solidarity, and initiatives that promote mutual aid in name only—those based more on a charity model, which serve to supplement and stabilize, rather than disrupt, state and capital.
Death to the State – Death to the Patriarchy
On the morning of June 12, 2020, the ROS [Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale / Special Operations Group] staged yet another anti-anarchist repressive operation, this time signed by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office. Two comrades end up under house arrest and five others are imprisoned on Italian, French and Spanish territory.Some feminist anarchists
Among the accusations, as is now the practice, that of subversive association for the purposes of terrorism and incitement to commit criminal acts. Once again, the aim is to attack those who claim solidarity as an offensive practice and actively support their anarchist comrades facing the repression. As in Bologna last month, with Operation Ritrovo, the methods are repeated: cops in balaclavas, in some cases with guns, doors broken open, telephones requisitioned, searches and seizures of computers and printed material.
The state through these muscular demonstrations tries to frighten us and make us feel isolated, in line with this patriarchal society that would have us docile, locked in our predefined gender roles. It does not surprise us when, as in this case, the media emphasize the presence of women in the investigations, showing astonishment in not finding ourselves relegated to the second row. We reject this logic that is imbued with paternalism, we do not seek protection but complicity in attacking. Attempts to avoid the use of violence as a response to what oppresses us have always been and always will be rebelled against.
We do not want to have a place in this patriarchal society, which maintains and also reproduces itself through the distribution of power, in the gender socialized as feminine, we only want to dance on its rubble.
We are not interested in legal technicalities and dichotomous concepts of guilt and innocence. As feminists and anarchists we can only claim solidarity with those who attack the patriarchal system and all the ways it expresses itself.
We turn fear into anger and anger into strength. And this makes us dangerous.
Death to the state
Death to the patriarchy
For Anarchy
Complicity and solidarity with the arrested from Operation Bialystok
FREEDOM FOR ALL
Eric assaulted by guard at FCI Englewood June 24, 2020
On June 18th Eric was taken into the showers while shackled and attacked. The guard took the metal detection wand and swung at his each of his ankles and then then he would life his leg this officer would swing at the other. The guard then picked Eric up and dropped him on his head onto the concrete in the shower. He woke up after loosing consciousness for 10 seconds thinking they were pouring water on his face. But it was his own blood.
Eric was transported to Swedish Medical Center and was give 6 stitches and was diagnosed with a moderate to severe concussion. The hospital would not give him the results of the scan or release it to his family or lawyer because they told him “he is government property”.
The reality is folks have been fighting for over a month to be able to get an expert in to assess Eric. We believe he is suffering from a traumatic brain injury after officers at FCI Florence kicked him in the head for 5 minutes in August of 2018. We were so hopeful that we were going to be able to get help for him and see where he is at with the mixture of trauma and brain injury he has been struggling with. His memory has been affected as well as many other aspects of his life. Officers at FCI Englewood know this. They knew that we were trying to get a medical expert in because of a head injury concern… and then they dropped him on a concrete fucking floor on his head in the bathroom while Shackled up.
This all follows a situation where evidence that his case manager out of FCI Englewood in attempted to make a deal with a person with a WP prisoner (did not cooperate) to get Eric attacked. This information was turned over to the court before they denied his transfer to another facility. What the prosecutor chose to do with this evidence, evidence that a crime was committed at FCI Englewood was to run and tell the prison. Within a week both of them had assault shots. Both for water both in separate areas of the prison.
The guard who attacked him was the same guard who claimed Eric assaulted him with a drop of water. They attempted to refer the case to the FBI for prosecution but less than a month ago the FBI released the case back the prison. The guards attempt to have him charged criminally fell flat.
The reality at this point is Eric is not safe in BOP (Federal Bureau of Prisons) custody. Over the past two years at 5 different prisons the BOP has a pattern of placed white supremacists in cells, in fenced in areas, close to him on his tier, in an attempt to have Eric attacked.
When he returned from the hospital he discovered his entire tier was attacked and pepper sprayed after Eric was left. He was denied the ability to contact his attorney and family. It was only on his weekly allotted 20 minute legal call that we were given this news. They also denied him last week the ability to consult his counsel when he had an appellate deadline. The pattern of BOP intervention in his ability to fight his case continues.
The US Marshalls need to move Eric to non BOP Facility.
The North Central Regional Office NEEDS to open an investigation into this officer, as well as the ones that may have been standing by watching. When Eric asked for one to be opened he was denied.
The prosecutor needs to drop this fucking case.
We are very hesitant to ask for folks to call in and advocate for Eric because the last time this happened. A year and a half ago, his phone privileges were taken away. But at this point Eric needs folks help.
J Sheehan is the Director of prisoner operations for the US Marshalls. The ONLY entity that can choose to move Eric out of FCI Florence right now. Their phone number is 703-740-8400
The BOP North Central Regional Office is the officer who gets to decide if the BOP will invsitgate this *criminal* attack. Their phone number is (913) 621-3939
Eric’s prisoner number is 27090045
Eric can not receive letters
Eric can not receive books
Eric can not receive magazines
Eric can not call his family
Eric is completely isolated at the whim of the Trump DOJ right now and need folks to help keep him safe.
