L.A. Anarchist Bookfair: Actions + Conversations + Intersections 2010

From sowhatifallthecollegesburndown

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall...
Over the last 72 hours, two actions on Arizona State University’s West campus were taken; both of which were almost rendered invisible to everyone other than the accused oppressors. The actions while direct, were intentionally temporal in nature in order to instigate a test of reactionary censorship. Our expectations were not only fulfilled, but exceeded. Within only a few hours time, they ripped the tape holding the written iteration of an active dialogue straying from the norm of placating pacifist vomit from the walls. They brandished their knives, shredding ropes holding banners with messages thicker than the ephemeral echos of ‘hope’. The validation that our ideas transcribed into words can instill fear in those we hope they would, gives reason enough to spread them in ways that better stick. If our verbal blueprints are taken as a threat, when the attack lashes out, imagine the swift blow effect.
Can you hear the foundations begin to creak?

Humpty Dumpty had a Great Fall...
Just as they are blind to their privilege, it is their privilege that blinds them. The pedestal from which they work leaves them to be the last one to hear the rumbling of the ‘subversive’ voice, the last to see the products of hands continuously creating, the last to smell the smoke from our sparks. This arrogance allows them to believe that they can put all fires out by sprinkling one flame with water, gives them the illusion that by shredding what they don’t want to be read, they can contain anything.
The higher you sit, the farther you fall.

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Translated from Non Fides

Last February 15th, at six in the morning, seven people were arrested and their houses searched, for an investigation concerning the agitation around the Vincennes detention Center revolt and trial, and against the deportation machine. Several details on these arrests and their immediate consequences…

House-Search and waking up at 6 o‘clock

No doors were broken, and in general, it has been possible to gain time before cops entered ( and before they threatened to use their ram). All in all, fifty Antiterrorist Section cops(SAT), of the Criminal Brigade ( followed with the DCRI-secret information police-, Financial Brigade, computers specialists…) were mobilised for this arrests raid. Mainly, they were looking for specific clothes ( scarfs, hats, jackets, sweat-shirt, shoes), but also flyers, brochures and posters- about all subjects, and especially those against deportation machine. Of course, they seized computers, mobile phones, diaries and other notebooks, and spray cans and banners ( „November 2005-December 2008, the arson is spreading“; “ No NATO, nor Taliban, let’s desert the powerful war“) as well. Cops took many pictures of different documents and books. Finally, cigarets and tooth-brushs were seized for DNA sample; some people were „asked“ for their underwear, but in vain. And, being over zealous, cops passed „DNA“ cotton buds on the bed sheets.

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“Perhaps he has secrets for changing life? No, he’s just looking for some, I told myself.”
(Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell, 1873)

1.

It is a brutal fact that the defining quality of proletarian life at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the foundation on which the everyday thought and action of ordinary people rests, is a craven acceptance of the separate commodity economy and the state as unchangeable givens. This practical submission exists everywhere in the advanced capitalist countries. It is not just a matter of the unthinking obedience of the many good children (of all ages) who have nearly always confined their thoughts, actions and desires to the obviously submissive conventions of their times. It is equally ubiquitous in the endless impotent complaints about fragments of social life, in the many varieties of contemporary cynicism that sneer as they obey, in the swaggering search for status and money of the urban gang member or the petty criminal, in the myriad campaigns for the reform of this or that unseemly fragment of everyday life, in the search for the cool, the spiritual or the perfect state of wasted oblivion; and in your life and mine, amongst many others.

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An autonomous cell of Bash Back! is calling for solidarity with sea criminal Tillikum, the orca responsible for killing a trainer at Sea World Orlando at the end of February. We consider the attack on Dawn Brancheau to be an act of social war, as Tillikum gave new breadth to the waves he monotonously created through his awe-inspiring splashes. Tillikum destroyed what destroyed him by transforming his commodified body into an organ of the war-machine; thus, enacting an orcan-strike. For too long he had been confined as a spectacle for the American populus to consume. The affect of his bodily revolt has aided in helping us all realize the potentiality of reifying our underlying desires. Members of the American Family Association have come out in favor of stoning Tillikum to death for this strike against systems of domination. In response, the nonhuman political prisoners at Sea World Orlando have organized the first chapter of Splash Back!, an insurrectionary tendency of sea animals dedicated to destroying all forms of oppression. Bash Back! must be allies in the struggle for animal liberation, as well as against the religious right which has sought to criminalize the bodies of queers and orcas for so long. We are calling for solidarity actions with Tillikum across the country to support animal autonomy and resistance. Orcas have been criminalized for too long; the time for sea animal liberation is now.

Solidarity with all Trainer Killers!

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From Liberty Unchained

So, this past weekend the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver came to an end. This is, no doubt, the only certain ending for a variety matters that have coalesced around this year's games. Future iterations of the olympic games will continue to serve as a spectacle to celebrate the state and an occasion to expand global capital. And, perhaps equally depressing, is the prospect that the next sizable mass protest will inevitably touch off another round of the circular firing squad that seems to accompany any radical demonstration nowadays.

Broadly speaking, our internal discourse tends to break down in three ways: militancy (destroying and/or taking), pacifism (obstructing and/or occupying), and conciliation of the prior two positions. Alongside the obvious political messages found in the signs, costumes, and chants of the demonstrators, the tactical approaches themselves convey political messages. The militant seeks direct physical confrontation with the oppressor both to undermine his power and force him to exert it, though there is the danger of validating the power he possesses and thus the "order" he provides. The pacifist attempts to demonstrate (prefigure?) a response to the oppressor that will provide a stark contrast to his naked power, unfortunately the pacifist's "tactics" do not confront the oppressor at all and actually respect his power. The conciliatory position is that of respecting a "diversity" of tactics (i.e.: allowing and promoting militant and pacifist action).

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AmRen found another hotel to host their biennial hatefest. We're gonna shut em down again.

SHUT DOWN THE RACISTS!


BOYCOTT THE CAPITOL SKYLINE HOTEL!


IF IT IS NOT CANCELED, THEN ACTIVISTS WILL CONVERGE ON SATURDAY!
The white supremacist newsletter American Renaissance (AmRen) is
holding their ninth biennial conference at the Capitol Skyline (10 I Street, Southwest Washington, DC.) In response, the Self Described Anarchist Collective (SDAC) is asking for everyone to call the hotel and demand that it cancel the conference. If the conference is not canceled, activists will converge on the hotel this Saturday, February 20.

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Youth Intimidated by MJC Security

Today while engaged in passing out fliers at Modesto Junior College for the campus' first-ever General Assembly for Students, Faculty, and Staff to talk about the Budget Cuts and the International Day of Action for Education on March 4th, a youth was approached by several security guards (failing to identify themselves as such), who then proceeded to question the youth about their intentions, what the fliers said, etc. The primary guard eventually threatened the student: Ok [name withheld], now I know what you look like, and if I ever see you here again I'm going to arrest you."

An observer was told by security that the administration would not allow the general assembly to happen, as it wasn't sanctioned. They then asked one of the security guards: "Well what about you guys? Aren't you facing budget cuts too?"

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From the LA Anarchist Weekly blog:

On Saturday February 13th 2010, some friends and I organized an Anarchist Picnic at Memorial Park in Sierra Madre. We scheduled the event to be from Noon to 5 PM and organized it as a potluck with a few workshops/discussions and acoustic performances.

We organized the event for a number of reasons. First, we wanted to initiate monthly anarchist events in the town where the majority of us, the organizers, live. Second, we wanted to see how many local anarchists we could bring out and discover. Third, we wanted to start building an anarchist movement in the area. And fourth, we wanted to find people that we could develop tight affinities with so we could pursue bigger and greater projects and activities. It was for all these reasons that we decided to choose the medium of an Anarchist Picnic and promote it as an event to bring together local and not-so-local anarchists and the anarcho-curious.

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After a long heated arguement, a Calgary, Alberta Anarchist walked out of their local school with another student following in solidarity.

Originally starting when a student approached a teacher asking them to turn off (or to relocate the screen to an area where students aren't trying to study)the Olympic events being projected onto a large screen, a furious argument broke out between the student and several (over 5)teachers. With the threat of security and police to escort them out for "foul language" and disobeying their instructions to move to a different area and "stop disrupting the other students", they planted themselves in their chairs and refused to leave quietly.

Upon an agreement with the principal and the two students, they vacated the premisis with a free day off school and no repercussions. Rest assured, force will be absolutely necessary to escort them out during the remaining days of the Olympics, if they continue to air it in the student work area.

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Police in the Greek capital say a bomb has exploded at the offices of American financial services firm JPMorgan Chase & Co., causing no injuries.

The blast occurred early evening Tuesday in an upscale area of central Athens, following a warning telephone call to an Athens newspaper.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
No injuries were reported.

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From 8 days of Anarchy

This year we are breatheless in anticipating the unveiling of the most advanced technology in anarchist events yet. i8daysofanarchy launches on March 9th and ends on March 16th. It is in a variety of locations around the Bay Area.

We look forward to having you join us

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From After the Fall

Introduction to After the Fall

I. Like A Winter With A Thousand Decembers

In Greece, they throw molotovs in the street. For every reason under the sun: in defense of their friends, to burn down the state, for old time’s sake, for the hell of it, to mark the death of a kid the cops killed for no reason. For no reason. They light Christmas trees on fire. December is the new May. They smash windows, they turn up paving stones, they fight the cops because their future went missing, along with the economy, a few years ago. They occupy buildings to find one another, to be together in the same place, to have a base from which to carry out raids, to drink and fuck, to talk philosophy. The cops smash into packs of their friends on motorbikes. They hold down the heads of their friends on the pavement and kick them in the face.

In Ssangyong, one thousand laid-off workers occupy an auto factory. They line up in formation with metal pipes, white helmets, red bandanas. Three thousand riot cops can’t get them out of their factory for seventy-seven days. They say they’re ready to die if they have to, and in the meantime they live on balls of rice and boiled rain. Besieged by helicopters, toxic tear gas, 50,000 volt guns, they fortify positions on the roof, constructing catapults to fire the bolts with which they used to build cars.

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From Occupy Central Valley

Across Stanislaus County - and the state of California, School Boards are laying off teachers, shutting down schools, and placing workers on furlough (unpaid) work days. In Salida, the School Board is considering shutting down Salida Elementary school, laying off teachers, and possibly placing them on furlough days. Workers at Modesto City Schools are facing a round of layoffs, and since March 3rd of 2009, the District has OKed $11.3 million in education cuts, despite internal and public protest. Meanwhile, 50 positions at the Sylvan Union School District that are also up on the chopping block while in Atwater, up to 30 teachers have been laid off in recent months. In Empire, Teel Middle School was closed down in 2009, which was home to 542 students. Also, substitutes, councilors, custodians, yard duties and others all are having a harder and harder time finding work - if they can manage to keep their jobs at all.

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From CTVBC

They go by the name Black Bloc, but even the masked, black-clad protesters who trashed store windows during an anti-Olympic march on the weekend wouldn't call themselves an organization.

The self-appointed "ninjas" of the anarchist movement have been a factor in European radical politics for decades but appeared spectacularly on the radar in North America during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle.

Police cracked down hard and a peaceful march and blockade by 50,000 anti-globalization protesters degenerated in a cloud of tear-gas and pepper-spray.

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Valentine's day 2010, Calgary's finest Anarchists smashed up a local McDonalds establishment in solidarity with comrades in Vancouver. Olympic sponsors all over Calgary have been targeted in acts of comradeship with the protesters in Vancouver. At approximately 1:30am at 4th street and 23rd ave NW, a group of Anarchists ran up and destroyed the establishment leaving it in shambles. We're McLovin it on Valentine's day!

Kickin'it old school and keepin' it real in Cowlgury!

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From Phoenix Class War Council
Last Sunday was our biggest Beer & Revolution yet. Somewhere around seventy people or so managed to come out, pack themselves into the upstairs at Boulders on Broadway and listen to Eugene's John Zerzan and Tucson's Dan Todd speak on primitivism and the many problems with anarchist practice and presentation in the era of mass society. I'd like to thank John for coming up and delivering the goods, and for being, as expected, such an uncompromising, provocative speaker. I'd also like to thank Dan for both making the night possible, but also for being a supportive comrade and presenting such an interesting talk. We'll have our audio up soon (along with, hopefully, the audio from last November's B&R with Crudo from Modesto Anarcho) so others can appreciate the insightful comments and questions that, as usual, came from B&R's thoughtful anarcho-population.

In a way, it was a great climax to what has been a little more than a year of organizing under the Phoenix Class War Council banner. Has it been only a year?! Many people expressed to me their excitement at the event and the sense that, after the stress of the last few weeks, something like this was needed. I find myself in that same camp. Sunday was a good time and a great success and it was wonderful to look around the room and see so many comrades, both old and new -- people I've shared the pen with, people I've taken the streets with, people I've handed out flyers with, people I've faced down the cops with, people I've traveled with, people I've talked with, people I've read books with and people I've tasted pepper spray with.

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From BANA - by Andrew Yeoman

There comes a time in the career of every activist when they want to give up. Luckily I was somewhat prepared for these feelings of resignation from my experiences with activists in the anti-globalization movement who devoted years to protests and organizing to see not one of their issues being successfully implemented. I knew what the dejected distant look of a persons eyes whose enthusiasm for life has been all but burned out. I felt that what we were trying to do was going to be just as useless as the anti-globalization movement. At most it would be a letting out of steam of peoples conscious, aware but hopeful that one day a critical mass would care about these issues and change would happen.

That, essentially, we were casting pearls before swine and if our truths had no one capable of actively supporting us then damn it all to hell.

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From The Spectator - by Harry Mount

We are so overwhelmed by petty laws that it has become impossible to get through the day without committing a crime, says Harry Mount

If Gordon Brown really wants to start appealing to the middle-class vote, he could start by picking up my rubbish. The bin bags outside my flat in Kentish Town, north London, weren’t collected for four weeks over Christmas because of the snow. When the foxes started to rip them apart and left a trail of chicken carcasses and half-chewed bread across my front garden, I cracked.

Patching up the most damaged bag and strapping it to my handlebars, I pedalled along the snowy roads — if my bike could negotiate the streets, so could a rubbish truck, by the way — to my local park. There, I poured the rubbish into a large, metal-mesh bin. As I did so, a plump, unshaven man in an official council fleece stopped casually scattering grit on the park footpaths and accelerated towards me.

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From Matt Weidner Law

Courts Are Overwhelmed With Foreclosures

Across the country, circuit court judges and their staff are becoming overwhelmed and frustrated by the total avalanche of foreclosure cases that have been dumped in their courtrooms. In Pinellas County, Circuit Court judges who used to handle like 400 foreclosure cases are now handling something like 3,000.These judges still have one judicial assistant and the same limited resources the had before the crisis. When the judge’s loan JA sits down to start the day, they are bombarded with phone calls and mail and people in their face every single second….it’s chaos, its a burden and it is completely untenable for the long run.

Things have gotten so bad for the judges that I’m told at least two Circuit Court Judges in Pinellas County (Linda Allan and Douglas Baird) have announced they were no longer going to hear Motions to Dismiss filed by Defendants in foreclosure cases, but were going to start just denying them across the board without even having a hearing on the matter. Now that’s one way to deal with the crisis. It’s an unconstitutional, unfair and totally biased approach that completely ignores the law and the rights of the citizens these judges took an oath to serve, but it is one way to deal with the crisis. (Look for Appeals To Come If This Practice Really Begins to Take Hold.)

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From Yorkshire Anarchist - by Peter Good

The launch of the Yorkshire Anarchist Group was held on 6th February 2010 in Bradford’s 1in12 Club.

In what has become known as the “Bradford Manner” people were invited to take part in a gourmet meal. White table cloths, wine glasses, red and black serviettes, complimentary beer-mats, YAG badges and little black flags flying from the olive dishes. 19 bottles of red wine were consumed.

The meal was created and served by a catering collective taken from the para-military wing of Age Concern, Hebden Bridge Class War, The Cunningham Amendment and the 1in12 Club.

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