Could you do this in your community? It only takes a few people and a space to get it started.Published on Jul 27, 2015This collaborative ethnographic film is about Skoros, an anti-consumerist collective in Exarcheia, Athens, that run a space where people could come and give, take, or give and take, goods and services without any norms of reciprocity. Soon after came the Greek "Crisis", a new kind of "here and now" focusing less on trying to do things differently and more on urgency, a need to provide solidarity to an increasing number of people that were nearing and falling below the poverty line.
Read the full article HERE:After nearly six years in exile holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in the heart of London, Wikileaks founder and publishing visionary Julian Assange has suffered another body blow; Assange, who has been absolved of all accusations, has now been rendered incommunicado inside the tiny embassy in the Knightsbridge section of London.
This latest attack on Assange, this shut down of crucial communication devices, obviously challenges Wikileaks publishing activities and undermines the crucial work of this incredibly important global news and publishing service.
Meanwhile, the US and UK governments continue their drumbeat demonization of Assange, who has become part of their Russiagate frenzy towards a new Cold War and maybe World War III. Indeed, the US and UK continue to threaten him. In the US, some senators and the current CIA director [Mike Pompeo], about to become Secretary of State, want to see Assange tried for treason and put to a public death. They threaten to arrest Assange in violation of two UN rulings and their own laws, as soon as he walks out of the embassy.
Change.org said in a statement they released, as a part of a petition in support of Assange, “It is with great concern that we learned that Julian Assange has lost access to the internet and the right to receive visitors at the Ecuadorian London Embassy. Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuador’s authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian. We demand that Julian Assange’s isolation ends NOW!”
In the following interviews with noted journalist and filmmaker John Pilger and Christine Assange, mother of the WikiLeaks founder, we attempt to shed some light on the crucial case of Julian Assange and why he should finally be freed from further prosecution so that he can continue unfettered the great work WikiLeaks has done as one of the most significant publishers of government whistleblowers in modern history.
received: 6/23/18
The last G7 was held in La Malbaie, in Quebec, the 8th and 9th of June 2018 in the Charlevoix castle. If the entire area was super secured, which we don’t doubt, power also took care to reinforce its critical infrastructures, including cell phone network coverage (with a $15M contract with Bell for the installation of 13 cell phone relays), but also the installation of the fiber optic cable in this depopulate and slightly preserved zone of La Malbaie (with a $6M contract with Bell), so that the heads of state can enjoy high speed internet during the summit.
Anyway, everything was supposed to go fine on this side, and yet… and yet a fire overcame during the G7 against a fiber optic cable “making certain communications along route 138 leading to Charlevoix impossible,” according to a local paper. “The outage has affected the wireless service of Telus Mobilite and Bell Mobilitie between Beauport and Baie-Saint-Paul following a cutting of the fiber. Twelve wireless sites were affected by the outage.” The Integrated Network of Multimedia Telecommunications of the Quebec government (RITM), that allows the sharing of services and information between public organizations throughout Quebec, was also affected in Baie-Saint-Paul, as well as the ministry of transportation, durable mobility, and the electrification of transports. The damages were such that a plan B had to be activated during the G7: a solution of rerouting, via the deployment of a new fiber.
Of course, because it must not be blabbed too loudly, and show the vulnerability of the mechanisms always within reach of audacious hands, the state speaks of an accident. All the same the odds are incredible, the type of crucial fiber optic catches fire alone in the middle of the G7 in the red zone, a fiber optic made of glass or plastic, who’s properties do not tend toward spontaneous combustion. Whatever they say, hypothesis for hypothesis, we prefer to think that it is either a divine fire, or an anonymous hand angered by this summit of the powerful that is the origin of this fire. And since God does not exist…
source: sansattendre.noblogs.org
The humanitarian situation is dire. More than 13 million Congolese need humanitarian aid, twice as many as last year, and 7.7 million face severe food insecurity, up 30% from a year ago, the United Nations said in March. Many humanitarian officials complain that global attention has been diverted to more heavily reported crises in the Middle East.
More than 4.5 million people are displaced, the highest number in the DRC for more than 20 years, latest figures show. There are outbreaks of cholera. The fighting is, as Kapitu feared, getting worse.
It says a lot about our present economic system when you look around the world and find that countries with the richest natural resources have some of the poorest people on our earth. The Middle East is a wash with oil, which transfers into unbelievable wealth, but you can't say its people are all very rich. This pattern is repeated across the planet, another example is the Democratic Republic of Congo. A vast country, the second largest in Africa, the 11th largest in the world. As well as having coal, oil and diamonds, it is also the richest source of cobalt in the world. That rather dull looking material produces unimaginable wealth for the corporate world, but little for the people of the that country. In fact it is the opposite, this immeasurable wealth is probably the main cause of the suffering of the people.
Because of the economic system that prevails today, blood will be shed to get control of that wealth. Sadly that blood is shed for the end product of things like mobile phones and laptops, and these are products that the vast majority of the people who produce that raw material will never see.
If it was just dreadful working conditions and poor pay, that would be bad enough, but we are talking about millions dying and millions more suffering unimaginable violence. Since its bitter struggle to be free from the Western colonialists, the country has been blighted by violence, and at the root of that, is the fact that it is very rich in raw materials like cobalt.
The Second Congo War, sometimes referred to as the “African World War”, as it involved around twenty armed groups and nine other African countries started in 1998. No doubt all eager to get a slice of that wealth. Although “Peace Accords” were signed in 2003, fighting continued in the east of the country through 2007. In this region the prevalence of all manner of sexual violence and rape is often described as the worst in the world. Since 1998 this conflict has claimed the lives of more than 5.4 million people. Though this was a brutal conflict, more than 90% were not killed in combat, they died from such things as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition, brought about by the usual companions of war, displaced populations ending up living in unsanitary, over crowed conditions, combined with lack of shelter, clean water, food and medical care. What is even more tragic, 47% of those deaths were children under five.
The country also has great agricultural potential but this is being stifled by this conflict, which still continues. It is the struggle to control those vast mineral resources that drives this most brutal and savage conflict. Is your mobile phone worth it?
Surely we have the imagination and the ability to devise a economic system whereby natural resources do not equate with misery, poverty, deprivation and bloodshed for the many, and unbelievable opulence for the few.
Greetings!Download the PDF HERE:
We are excited to announce that we finally published the 9th edition of Words of Fire, our semi-regular ‘zine of writings, drawings, and poetry by people in prison!!
It was actually completed in May 2017 and we’ve been sending it into prisons for the past year. We’ve just been slow to post it on our website. It includes some great poems and essays, along with beautiful drawings!! Although many of the submissions are from North Carolina and nearby states, our cover images was drawn by someone from a prison in Oregon!
We are incredibly grateful to all the authors for sharing their work with us. We also owe a huge thank you to the dedicated students from Criminal Justice Awareness and Action at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They spent the 2016-2017 school year typing up, proofreading and then laying out Words of Fire 9. Check CJAA out on Facebook as well.
Check out past issues of Words of Fire, along with a print-ready version of WOF 9 on our projects page.
The Truth Is
By M.J.B.
They say the truth will set you free
But nah... not me..... I disagree
say tha truth is a disease
& it could kill you..... like a terminal illness.
Especially when the truth is not the truth at all
& who’s 2 say the truth is what you saw
& who knows who was involved
& who knows... you know... you don’t have a clue at all
but ‘chu act like you do.....
but ‘chu never even knew..... The few... Minor details
& gossip is so rude & it’s sumthin’ you should not do -
unless you’re a female.
For the we’ll make an exception.
because today my friend... I’ve had a recollection
AN inception..... That tha truth is not tha truth anymore
& tha youth..... is not tha youth anymore.
They are but yet A vessel
A personification of everything you saw fit.
& what ‘chu see is what ‘chu get
but what ‘chu see is not legit
A minor misconception of a misfit.
Because tha truth is not tha truth anymore
& tha youth..... is not tha youth anymore
The truth is... the youth is....
A reflection of what ‘chu did..... it’s useless
When it eats away at your tissue like the bite of a brown recluse
does.
& it’s all because.....
the guardians that were put before the guardians -
that were put before you... Never knew... Luv..... That’s why you do
the thangz you do -
because you just don’t have a clue... Luv
but who does..... The truth was _
this world doesn’t luv you... At all.
IT Loves what ‘chu have 2 offer,
it luv’s what ‘chu have 2 bring 2 the table
& when they use that all up you’re disabled, you’re labeled -
As a liability.
& tha truth is.....
That I don’t know the truth at all
I’m just giving my perception of what I saw
My opinion about the I..... in dominion
so don’t ask why... when you’re descendin’
open your eyez... cuz they’re pretendin’
& tha truth is.....
only you are held accountable for what ‘chu did
So whether tha truth lives... or truth lies
Society only believes in tru Lies
deceptions that’re deeper than tha bluest tides
Tha Bluest Eyes.....
Couldn’t see through tha deciever
So if you died they won’t cry
& the truth.....
Nah it won’t come out neither.
In Vain
By M.W.
Butner, NC
After all the protesting,
Shouting and wailing around
town
U entered their establishment
And sat down
Ordering a drink
And Resting your feet
Frustrated over Mike Brown
Lying in the street
What you all are doing
Is righteous an I respect your
minds
But did U think about
Who you were spending ur
money with
When U made them signs
My daughter seen the Protesters
And fell in love wit shorty boots
I refuse to purchase Timberlands
Because Darren Wilson chose to
shoot
They refuse to recognize evidence
And pursue the Case B
They even follow you around in
Macy
You witness what Walmart done
to Tracy [Morgan]
Yet U continue to spend money
At these places
While consciously knowin they
are racists
Damaging Property
This must STOP
No more Homemade cocktails
And Throwing rocks
If U want their attention
Then We must boycott
Those who choose not
That’s a shame
It only means
Renisha McBride, Jesus “Chey”
Huenia, Ezell Ford, Omar
Arneco, John Gnawono, Eric
Ganner, Tamir Rices, and Mike
Brown
DIED IN VAIN
The article starts with:The anarchist Flores Magon explains why land is crucial to anarchism:“We want bread for all. We consider it absurd that a few people should possess the earth, and the many not have a place to lay down their heads for rest. We want, then, that the land be accessible to all, just the same as the air, the light, the warm sun rays are there for all creatures on earth. We consider it absurd that those who neither toil nor produce should enjoy all at the expense ‘of those who till and toil and have a life of misery…”However, Magon made it clear that land was directly linked to liberty:“We think that political liberty is a beautiful lie so long as it has not for its basis economic liberty and towards the conquest of that liberty our steps are directed… We demand that the proletariat of Mexico organize and by doing so enable itself to take part in the tremendous struggle that alone will liberate the proletariat of this world, the struggle which someday — maybe in the near future-will place all the goods of this earth within the reach and power of all human beings.”Expropriation is essential if the workers are to be free. Magon:“In short, I see a society of workers economically free; owning themselves, because, at every step, they own the material on which they work; the land where the potatoes grow; the trees they fell and strip; the timber they fashion into lumber; the houses into which the lumber goes, and so “ad infinitum.” A society purged of tribute to the parasite.”
Read the full article HERE:
The slogan ‘Land and Liberty’ has long been an anarchist slogan. It was the name of the Russian revolutionary organisation ‘Zemlya i Volya’ in 1878 and was used by the peasants in the Russian Revolution. When women marched in St Petersburg on the 8th of March, 1917, helping to kick off the revolution, the slogan was Bread, Land and Peace. ‘Tierra y Libertad’ was prominent in the Mexican and Spanish Revolutions and is still used today as the name of the Iberian Anarchist Federation paper.It is not surprising that land is a key demand. Rural land workers represented the majority of the working population well into the 20th century in much of the world. Land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a few large landowners and people struggled to survive under this semi-feudal system. And it is still an important demand for many peasants and agricultural labourers around the world.
It is difficult to grasp the state of the world that we have created. A world where there is an abundance of almost everything conceivable and yet to the vast majority of the world’s population it is all out of reach. A world where a small elite live a life of obscene and wasteful wealth while millions die of starvation and millions of children die from the lack of clean drinking water. In this capitalist made world there are small enclaves where the rich, in safety, play games with their expensive toys, private jets, luxury cars, yachts and several holiday homes in “exotic” locations. While just over that financial apartheid wall there is the stench of squalor and death for countless millions living in total deprivation and endless wars,
In this capitalist created world, 8 million people die every year from poverty, One billion children live in abject poverty, 640 million do not have access to appropriate shelter, 140 million have never attended school, 400 million do not have access to clean uncontaminated water, 500 million do not have basic sanitation, 270 million have no access to health care, and 90 million are severely food deprived. Approximately 12.3 million people worldwide live in conditions of “modern slavery,”while over one billion people live on less than one dollar of income per day and over three billion live on less than two dollars per day. Then there is the strata in between that manage to scrape a reasonable existence that seems to keep them from revolt.
All this misery in spite of the fact that the world economy actually produces one and a half times the amount of food necessary to provide the entire human population with adequate and nutritious meals. The fact that the capitalist system will not allow this to be shared out to those in need tells us that it is not a natural problem but a political problem. Perhaps the words of Derrick Jensen come close to capturing something of that world.
“We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means—all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity ... What this means is that corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have...I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that they can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host ... For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.”
