Fires never extinguished: A blog of the Phoenix Class War Council

When Growth is More akin to a Tumor: The AZ Republic Stumps for the Loop 202 Freeway

2012-01-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

The frame-up of the Akimel O’odham and Maricopa communities of the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is in full effect. For over thirty years, city and state planners have tried to fund a section of the Loop 202 freeway that would extend from Chandler to Laveen on the south side of South Mountain. They did this knowing full well that the communities in Gila River have opposed the construction of any freeway on or near the reservation. In particular, the residents of District Six, who would be most impacted by a freeway due to their immediate proximity to the proposed Loop 202, have already drafted a resolution against any freeway construction, as did the tribal council back in 2005.

Now GRIC residents and tribal members have to go to the polls on February 7 to show that, for the third time, the tribe wants no freeway. There have been three proposals for the freeway, an alignment through Ahwatukee that would mean for the destruction of some of the western side of South Mountain; a path through GRIC that would place the freeway, the toxic pollution, and the noise near villages; or the “No-Build” alignment which, despite the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT)’s best effort to conceal, is still a viable option. It is still possible that the freeway will never be built.

The belief held by the business, political, and civic leaders is that this growth is good, it’s unstoppable, and everyone can benefit. Pay no mind to the major implications the freeway and accompanying development will have on the air, the land, the wildlife, and the people who live not only in Gila River, but nearby Laveen, Chandler, and Ahwatukee.

With just under one month until the proposed Loop 202 freeway extension goes to a vote in GRIC, the Arizona Republic editorial board has written one of the most unabashed attacks on the residents of GRIC. In an editorial titled “Gila River tribe should vote to allow freeway on its land” the Republic’s board contends that the benefits of the proposed 22 mile, eight lane, 1.9 billion dollar project outweigh any of the perceived drawbacks. If the Republic editorial is a rallying call to the Akimel O’odham residents of GRIC, and the original inhabitants of this land, it is an utter failure. However, if the editorial board is trying to cast the O’odham communities as villains if the freeway is voted down, then they may have succeeded with this slimy piece of pro-freeway propaganda.

In their own words:

“It may seem like a no-brainer for tribal members to approve the freeway on their land. Economic-development projects typically follow freeways, and this one would provide more access to casinos. But tribal members are well aware of the benefits. Their concerns center on increased traffic and air pollution, and loss of more land, especially after the state promised but neglected to build interchanges and frontage roads years ago on Interstate 10, which cut the reservation in half.”

The editorial board moves on to congratulate longtime freeway booster, Phoenix City Councilman Sal Diciccio, for uniting enough of his constituents in his district of Ahwatukee to force the vote in GRIC. Likewise, the Republic applauds Governor Brewer, ADOT, and the Maricopa Association of Governments for their part in pressuring tribal leaders to accept the freeway plan.

So, what I’m hearing the editorial board say is that they acknowledge that people in GRIC don’t want a big stinking, noisy mess in their community, not to mention (since the editorial board conveniently left this out) that the tribe had been told by ADOT that they can only choose between the on reservation alignment, or ensure the destruction of a sacred site by keeping the freeway off the reservation on the Ahwatukee alignment. Neither ADOT, nor the tribal government acknowledged the third option of “No Build” until they received pressure from grassroots groups of Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham who are organizing in the GRIC communities against the freeway.

Those organizing in Gila River are joined by a coalition of friends and allies from outside the community who are also concerned about the effects of yet another road or freeway project that will negatively impact the valley’s environment and people. Some of us have been organizing against the freeway for a few months, others for many years now, just as we are facing off against a revolving door of bureaucrats and moneymen who have been pushing for this project for over 30 years.

We are determined to defend South Mountain and to put a stop to any extension of the Loop 202. We want to live free from toxins in the air, the ground, the water, and our bodies. We want these things because of our respect for the Akimel O’odham people, the original inhabitants of the land (before the colonial theft by Spain and subsequent dispossessions by Mexico and the United States), and because we ourselves desire a world where we are free from the bonds of capitalist "progress" and "growth."

These are never concepts that are synonymous with our individual or collective well being, rather it’s the growth for the rich and powerful, it’s the new roads and expressways for their goods to travel faster on. It’s their capital that accumulates at a quicker rate than ever before, progressing leaps and bounds beyond last years projections. These concepts are so in contrast with the balance required for human life in the desert that rooting them on is like cheering for the growth of a tumor, as it progresses to a terminal stage.

Shutting this freeway down is a first step towards the undoing of the damage that has been done to the valley for over a hundred years, it is also a step in the right direction in letting our neighbors in Gila River know that they are not alone in this struggle, nor will they be in their next.

Phoenix Anarchist Winter General Assembly

2011-12-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

Phoenix Anarchist Winter General Assembly

    Saturday, December 17, 2011
    3:00pm until 6:00pm
    At The Fixx
    11 East 7th Street, Tempe, AZ 85281

We will have discussion, food and social events after!

During this time of crisis it is essential that we get together to formulate strategy, have debate and plan for an ever increasing uncertain future. Our ideas are spreading faster than ever, let's fan the flames!

Proposed topics with more to come include:
- Anarchism, The Global Crisis and Resistance

- Items to act on such as teach ins, social events, demonstrations

- Looking towards to the future, a participatory discussion on what may be coming down the road

We invite all anarchists to come, endorsers so far include:

The Phoenix Class War Council (firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com)
Anarchist Anti-Authoritarian Caucus (At Occupy Phoenix)
www.phoenixanarchist.org
Survival Solidarity (survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com)

PCWC presents a discussion on "Whiteness and the 99%" with Joel Olson

2011-11-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

The Phoenix Class War Council presents: "Whiteness and the 99%", a discussion at Occupy Phoenix.

Where: Cesar Chavez Plaza/Occupy Phoenix, on Washington between 2nd and 3rd Ave in downtown Phoenix.

When: 2 PM this Saturday, November 26

Joel Olson, member of Bring the Ruckus and the Flagstaff Repeal Coalition (which demands the repeal of all anti-immigrant laws in Arizona), will be discussing his recent essay "Whiteness and the 99%".

In addition to the general focus of the essay, the talk will place a particular emphasis on the attitudes of white people towards police historically and what that means for the current occupy movement. In addition Joel will be engaging the question of how the other largest social movement of our time, the immigrant movement (which called a general strike in 2006), remains largely unnoticed by -- and unconnected to -- the occupy encampments, and what that means for the trajectory of white and non-white movements fighting against economic dispossession and state repression.

From the essay:

"Occupy Wall Street and the hundreds of occupations it has sparked nationwide are among the most inspiring events in the U.S. in the 21st century. The occupations have brought together people to talk, occupy, and organize in new and exciting ways. The convergence of so many people with so many concerns has naturally created tensions within the occupation movement. One of the most significant tensions has been over race. This is not unusual, given the racial history of the United States. But this tension is particularly dangerous, for unless it is confronted, we cannot build the 99%. The key obstacle to building the 99% is left colorblindness, and the key to overcoming it is to put the struggles of communities of color at the center of this movement. It is the difference between a free world and the continued dominance of the 1%."

Read it here:
http://www.bringtheruckus.org/?q=node%2F146

Rundown of local struggles and events for the remainder of November

2011-11-17T02:30:00.000-08:00

After an interesting October that saw the emergence of the Occupy encampments across the globe, including one here in Phoenix, and the level of struggle generalize to incredible lengths with the General Strike in Oakland, and inspired by the possibilities of open revolt against the rich, we have been engaged in debate and discussion with other anarchists and comrades over the challenges facing a potential anti-capitalist movement in Phoenix.

Primarily, we have debated whether this is simply a moment of crisis for the many whose jobs and homes seemed safe bets just a few years back, or if this is the beginning of a movement of people challenging the fundamental beliefs of American capitalism. Simultaneously, we have our deep concerns over some very conservative positions held by some in the Occupy encampments who have expressed near total adoration for the police and other authorities who have used extreme force and violence to attack the various encampments.

As anarchists, we are interested in what possibilities exist for a broader critique aimed at the many institutions of power and authority that could materialize from the initial Occupy groups, and the various responses to the crisis we hope to see emerge in the months to come. While we have had a rather infrequent presence, in terms of PCWC's participation, anarchists have been a regular sight at the Phoenix camp, but with no organized voice. To rectify this, a group of Phoenix anarchists called for a "Anarchist & Anti-Authoritarian Caucus", this group held a meeting at the Occupy site on Monday and additionally organized a series of events which begin tonight. The events are to coincide with the two big days of events at Occupy Phoenix, including two discussions tonight and a call for an anarchist section in the march and park re-occupation on Friday afternoon. The Anarchist & Anti-Authoritarian Caucus will be meeting again at 9PM next Monday, November 21, at the Occupy Phoenix encampment at Cesar Chavez park in downtown Phoenix.

In addition to the events this week, we want to remind everyone that the ongoing struggle against the proposed Loop 202 freeway extension is ongoing, and supporters are attending ADOT meetings this week to advocate for a "no build" option. For more information on what's going on with the freeway, or how to take action check out their website (No South Mountain Freeway).

At the end of the month a lot of people will be coming to Phoenix to shut down the ALEC conference being held in north Scottsdale. We support the fight to get these rightwing lawmaker-lobbyist organizing sessions shutdown because we are against all laws and all lawmakers, not just the particularly obnoxious ones. Stay up to date with the many events and actions at their website (AZ resists ALEC).

The Caucus' events, times, and summaries are listed below.

Thursday, November 17:
8:00pm - 9:00pm: Discussion on The Revolutionary Moment and What Anarchism Has to Offer
This is an open discussion, lightly moderated to discuss the current moment and what it means to us.

Are we in a revolutionary situation, locally and/or globally? Occupy movements have organized in anarchistic ways, is this a natural progression from the top down structures that have failed? This is not a reformist movement, so what else is there? Can we push forth the way we organize into other parts of society? Invite your friends and be prepared to discuss!

9:00pm - 10:00pm: What are you gonna do if "_______" happens?
The purpose of this teach-in is to approach direct action tactics from, well, a tactical standpoint and not a moralistic or philosophical one.

The question, What are you gonna do if _______ happens? is asked to elicit a consideration of the best practical outcomes of a given situation that could come up within a political demonstration, direct action, march or protest rally. The point is not to legislate what people should do in advance, but to get people to start thinking tactically about what they are doing within an action.

Some very general questions to consider:
+ What immediate goal needs to be reached?
+ What possible resistance and confrontations might be encountered?
+ Are the people around me also ready to react to various situations?
+ How should we communicate changing goals within an ongoing direct action should the previous agreed upon goal become unattainable?
+ Are we physically prepared for foreseeable events that may occur?

Additionally, how can we keep direct actions imaginative and open to modification? (The world doesn't stand still and even the best plans don't anticipate every possible encounter.)

And last, but definitely not least, how to think differently about the role media representations play in relation to the development of a movement, especially with regard to the concern over controlling media representations of a movement.

Friday, November 18

3:30pm - 11:30pm: Mass Gathering and March to Support the Re Occupation

Gather at 3:30 PM to create the revolutionary section of the march. Stay till nightfall to party in support of the re-occupation.

Bring banners, boom boxes, flags, awesome chants and whatever else to make the march and party enjoyable. Make a float if you'd like.

Gather near the black flags!

#Occupy Phoenix reading roundup for 10/30

2011-10-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

The text of the Oakland general strike solidarity statement approved by the Occupy Phoenix General Assembly, 10/28/11

The latest news of interest in our continually updated readings regarding the #occupy movement:

Oakland on Strike! For a Radically Democratic Oakland without Cops, Politicians, or Bosses! (Counterpunch)

Three Nazis Kicked Out of Occupy Seattle (The Stranger)

Phoenix police chief: Occupy Phoenix demonstrations cost city over $200,000- Councilman Sal DiCiccio to suggest charging protesters (Arizona Republic)

Portland police arrest 25 Occupy Portland demonstrators overnight (The Oregonian)

Denver Anarchist Black Cross update from 3 weeks of social war in Denver, Colorado (Denver ABC)

Don't Assume those who confront the police are agents provocateurs (Joaquin Cienfuegos)

Occupy Denver: Police using rubber bullets and teargas (Censored News)

Our Lives Are Not Negotiable!

2011-10-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

OUR LIVES ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE!

Weare at the beginning of a great shift.  We are in motion, all of us,experiencing new ideas, trying out new ways of living, organizing andrelating to each other.  The old ways of doing things, which have hadthe feeling of going through the motions for some time now, arefinally fading away.  Soon they will all be gone.

Thetruth is we have been tired of this world for some time.  It isn'torganized for our benefit, which makes sense because it isn'torganized by us.  It's organized by capitalists andbureaucrats, politicians and technicians.  So-called “experts”. The institutions, all of them, have revealed themselves as servantsof power, not broken but functioning normally as part of a giantprofit- and power-driven machine.  It hasn't changed, it's justeasier to see it now.

Americandemocracy isn't broken, we are witnessing the logical conclusions ofits internal nature.  Likewise with American capitalism.  We don'tneed to “fix” it because it isn't broken.  Neither was it evermeant to respond to us.  In capitalism we produce and consume, butthe profits go elsewhere.  In democracy we validate capitalistdomination over our lives.  This is the normal functioning of thesystem.

Thiscrisis goes beyond “corporate greed” or “getting corporatemoney out of politics”.  It wasn't some character flaw that led tothis calamity.  And it isn't any particular  mechanism by which elitepower influences politics that is the problem.  It's that elite powercontrols politics regardless.  This is because we live in adictatorship of money, of capital.  Just like you can't get money outof capitalism, you can't get capitalist power out of governmentbecause government exists to perpetuate capitalist power.

Thiscrisis goes deep.  It's not just foreclosures, it's also the vacuoussuburbs themselves.  It's not just unemployment, it's themeaninglessness of our jobs.  It's also being worked to death in anera of massive technological advancement.  It's a system that movesso fast that we never get any time to slow down.  We exist for thesystem, not the other way around.  Meanwhile the system throws somany of us away, locking us in prisons, poverty or powerlessness.  Iteats up the Earth with an insatiable appetite, foisting the costsunto us.

It'sa system determined to eat up everything in sight, invading andcolonizing everywhere, including our minds and relationships to eachother.  Always accumulating at our expense, and backed up by the armyand the police, it's a system that doles out petty privileges to somewhile it systematically attacks others, all the while keeping thelion's share for those at the top.  And, as we have seen, if it wantsto it can take those privileges away.  The laws do not protect us sowhy should we respect them?  In this system we have very littlecontrol over the fundamental questions of our lives.  Picking betweenbrands of ketchup isn't freedom.  And neither is working in theketchup factory.  Nor studying at ketchup university.

Atsuch an important point in our history, now is not the time to seekto restore normality.  Now is no time to be conservative.  Do nothold back!  We must resist the temptation to try to return to the waythe system functioned in the past.  Not only isn't it possible, butit would be a betrayal of this amazing moment.  And things weren't sogreat back then anyhow.  Don't beg for reforms.  Insist on yourdreams.  Think big.  Look around you for inspiration of how thingscould be.  Now is the moment to ask yourself how you wouldlike the world to be, not what you would settle for.  It canbe different.  It can be totally different.

DEMAND EVERYTHING, INSIST ON YOUR DREAMS AND RESIST THE URGE TO COMPROMISE IN THE STRUGGLE!

#Occupy Phoenix reading roundup for 10/28

2011-10-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

PCWC's continuously updated news that we think should be of interest to #occupyphoenix.

Postal workers occupy TD Bank on Bay Street (rabble.ca)

Activists dropped a banner at a downtown parking garage Wednesday morning to protest Mayor Menino's recent statements concerning anarchists (Boston Indymedia)

Anthropologist Graeber Turns Radical Side Loose in Zuccotti Park Protest (Bloomberg)

On the Previous Few Days, And What Is to Come… (Bay of Rage)

SFPD: Massing of Police Was Training Exercise, Readying For Oakland Protesters (KQED)

Occupy Oakland makes plans for citywide general strike (Mercury)

Behind the Barricades at Occupy Oakland (Mother Jones)

“Anonymous” Shuts Down Oakland P.D. Website Over #OccupyOakland Battle (Pat Dollard)

Occupy Movement Not Ready for General Strike, Says Duke Labor Historian (Duke)

Getting to the Roots of Capital (Articles on the Occupy movement from an anarchist perspective)

This Saturday at Occupy Phoenix, a discussion on "Defending Self-Defense from Militant Nonviolence"

2011-10-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

"I am not the 99%! I am me, you are you. In different ways the rulers of this society have screwed us over. Each of us, in different ways, autonomously (but perhaps interweaving what we do), have to respond. To hell with moralistic condemnations of other people's choices in this regard. To hell with imposed guidelines and programs. That guarantees a "movement" that cannot move!"
-Apio

As seen last night in Oakland and Atlanta, police agencies continue to clamp down on the surge of anti-capitalist, anti-bank, and anti-corporate protests around the country, and Phoenix has been no exception. Phoenix police made dozens of arrests during the first night of Occupy Phoenix, as people sat down in the park after it closed at 10 PM and refused to leave. Many of those arrested chanted that they "love the police" and reaffirmed their commitment to non-violence, while riot cops methodically pulled them behind their lines. Notably, one person was grabbed by her head and yanked behind the police line, while another person reported that he received a light beating after he was snatched. Still loving the police?

Anyone in the park who shouted back at the police advance, who had the nerve to challenge the state's attack on a peaceful gathering, was labeled as being "violent", or accused of trying to "provoke the police" by some of the "non-violent" protesters.

There's already a couple of other posts on here in the last few weeks about the role of the police as antagonists to social movements amidst all the cop loving going on, as well as the dead end of a non-violent movement that polices anyone who oppose the presence of armed white supremacists and neo-nazis at Occupy Phoenix. Furthermore there have been a number of different groups and individuals advocating for some type of "peace police" that will marginalize and even physically isolate any person(s) who may be engaging in "violent" behavior, like defending oneself from a physical attack, or yelling at a cop who is being violent towards others. The Occupy Phoenix encampment will not survive if militant non-violent advocates continue to insist on a "head down" mentality that shames individual or collective self defense, the politicians, cops, and/or nazis will make sure of that.

In addition to some of the problems with the organized non-violence presence, there is also a popular, if factually inaccurate, narrative of non-violent movements (Gandhi, MLK, the civil rights movement) that says they were victorious simply because of the virtuousness of their non-violence. This one sided understanding of social change throws history and facts out the window in favor of a mythologized interpretation of struggle, one that ignores any context that becomes inconvenient or clashes with the dogma of non-violent protest in the United States.

So, with all the contention over the question of tactics in this current struggle, I was happy to see that a friend of PCWC has organized an event for this weekend to challenge the dogmatism of militant non-violence, and to invite attendees to explore the histories of direct action, movement self defense, and diversity of tactics through a public discussion. This event will take place this coming Saturday from 2-5 PM, at the Occupy Phoenix camp at Cesar Chavez Plaza (201 W. Washington Street) in downtown Phoenix, I encourage all interested to attend. The summary for the event is reproduced below:

"Defending Self-Defense from Militant Nonviolence"

From day one of Occupy Phoenix it has been made clear that Kingian nonviolence is the acceptable means of protest, demonstration and direct action.

Nonviolence is a tactic, but it is one of many. It is important to remember that those who defend self-defense as a tactic are likewise not discounting the efficacy of nonviolence.

The purpose of this teach-in is to give a historical account of self-defense and direct action from the abolitionist movement and the Civil Rights era through to the present day.

It would also be extremely important to listen to our Native brothers and sisters, whose land we continue to live upon, on their ongoing struggles against U.S. state oppression and the tactics they employ.

It is also for the purpose of pointing out what Joel Olson has recently described as the "left colorblindness" of the Occupy movement in pointing out the historically different relations that people of color have had with the state and with the police. It seems easy to dismiss self-defense as a tactic when the community you are a part of has never felt oppressive state violence through exclusionary legislation, racial targeting, criminalization, slavery, prison and the dispossession of land.

Also, it is a hope that a discussion regarding the protection of private property rights above human values under nonviolence principles can occur.

	Saturday, October 29 · 2:00pm - 5:00pm

	Cesar Chavez Plaza 201 W. Washington Street Phoenix, AZ

#Occupy Phoenix reading roundup for 10/26

2011-10-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Today's continually updated collection of articles we think should be of interest to the Occupy movement.

Letter from an Anonymous Friend: The Morning After the Attack on the Oakland Commune (Anti-Capital Projects)

Reports from Occupations: Oakland, Atlanta, Philly, NYC (BtR)

To the Occupy movement – the occupiers of Tahrir Square are with you (LibCom)

Occupy Wall Street's Race Problem (American Prospect)

What Police Should be Learning From the Occupy Protests (Security Debrief)

A Look at the Occupy Movement In a Manner Neither Forceful Nor Foolish (Counterpunch)

"Corporate greed," or just plain old capitalism? (LibCom)

Inside the Shocking Police Crackdown on Occupy Oakland: Tear Gas Used, 85 Arrested (Alternet)

#Occupy Phoenix reading roundup for 10/25

2011-10-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

The latest news of interest in our continually updated readings regarding the #occupy movement:

Occupy Tucson protesters launch satellite camps (Associated Press)

Occupy Tucson costing city thousands (KVOA)

Screw the PiggyBackers (Occupy Los Angeles)

Beyond Occupy Wall Street: 11 American Uprisings You've Never Heard of That Changed the World (BeyondChron)

Dear, Occupy Oakland: A letter on strategy (Occupy Oakland)

On #Occupy: Ryan Harvey (AK Press)

Chemical bomb tossed into Occupy Maine encampment (Portland Press Herald)

Occupy Albany: Under pressure to make arrests, police and troopers push back (Times Union)

Occupation Movement: Hactivists expose police and police brutality (Censored News)

Toward a Radical Strategy in Decolonize/Occupy Seattle (Black Orchid Collective)

Seattle: The Anarchist Anxiety (The Stranger)

Is Madagascar the model for Occupy Wall Street? (Globe and Mail)

Occupy Oakland's diversity is strength, challenge (San Francisco Chronicle)

Occupy Denver: 4 busted in police raid on squat (Denver Westword)

UPDATE: DPD Raids Squat, Support Needed (Denver Anarchist Black Cross)

#Occupy Phoenix reading roundup for 10/22

2011-10-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

There might not be much more added today since we're going to be at the #occupyphoenix general assembly all day.

WHY (RE)OCCUPYING WON’T WORK (Stronghold)

Despite eviction warnings, Occupy Oakland protesters revel into the night (Oakland North)

On Immanence and Occupations (Ian Alan Paul)

Occupy Oakland, Day 12, Morning of Looming Forcible Eviction by Police, 10/21/11: photos (Indybay)

#Occupy reading roundup 10/21

2011-10-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Today's continuously updated list of recommended readings for the #occupy movement:

Mike Davis : No More Bubblegum (The Rag Blog)

David Graeber: On Playing By The Rules – The Strange Success Of #OccupyWallStreet (Naked Capitalism)

Whiteness and the 99% (Bring the Ruckus)

Occupation in Philly, Day 13 (Outside the Circle)

Why I support Occupy The Hood by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin (Joaquin Cienfuegos)

The Occupy Wall Street image that marks the end of the global consensus (Guardian)

A Letter To The Occupy Together Movement (Racialicious)

OWS Pepper Spray Cop Says I Would "Do Things The Same Way" Again (BI)

Police attack Occupy Melbourne:

#Occupy reading roundup 10/20

2011-10-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Our continually updated list of recommended readings regarding the #occupy movement:

Occupy PHX: Reach out to The People before the police (Prison Abolitionist)
Wall Street protesters divided over Occupy movement's demands (Infoshop News)
What ‘Diversity of Tactics’ Really Means for Occupy Wall Street (ENews Park Forest)

Occupy Toronto; Why I could not participate in a movement to restore democracy (Ms. Marx)

Occupy Rome. The Day After (Struggles In Italy)

Occupy Wall Street takes lessons from The Yes Men (Wash. Post)

Anarchist opinion of Occupy Denver (Anarchist News)

(Un)occupy Albuquerque Connects Corporate Greed to Fight for Native Land (Colorlines)

From Occupation to Liberation (Truth-Out)

#Occupy reading roundup 10/19

2011-10-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Our regular and continuously updated throughout the day collection of articles we think are useful to the #occupyphoenix movement.

#OccupyOakland – One Week Strong at Oscar Grant Plaza (Bay of Rage)

Tijuana Police Arrest Occupy Tijuana / Ocupemos Tijuana Protesters

Process is politics at Occupy Wall Street (Salon)

A few words spoken on October 15 at the state capitol in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street (benbrucado.com)

Representing the Native Presence in the "Occupy Wall Street" Narrative (Unsettling America)

A Letter to Phil Gordon (Mayor of Phoenix) About the 46 Arrested at #occupyphoenix (That Blog About That Queer Kid)

Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe: Movement's Principles Arise From Scholarchip on Anarchy (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Occupy movement in New Mexico finds new name out of respect for Native Americans (American Independent)

Wall Street's Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State (Alternet)

NYPD: "Militarized to its bones" (benbrucato.com)

#Occupy reading roundup 10/18

2011-10-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

A collection of articles that we think should be of interest to #occupyphoenix:

Reflections for the US Occupy Movement: From Barcelona's Neighborhood Assemblies (Counterpunch)

The Awakening in America by Ken Knabb (AK Press)

#Occupy Phoenix: Radicals, Police, Nonviolence and Conservative Leaders Oh My! (Infoshop.org)

Woman taps into 'occupy' movement to avoid foreclosure (MSNBC)

One Man's Address To The Crowd Went Beyond Slogans And Directly To The Core Of The Movement (Modern Times)

A History of Georgia's 1%: Why You Must Face Race to Occupy Atlanta (Colorlines)

We Are Anarchists (Anarchist News)

Occupy Phoenix: Police Showing Silent Solidarity? (OP-NAT EYE)

Joshua Fattal at Occupy Oakland on Oct. 17, 2010

Police raid #occupySF on the morning of October 17

A short primer on jail support for #occupyphoenix from my experience (PCWC)

2011-10-17T00:40:00.000-07:00

Here's how jail support goes from my experience:

(0) Get some money together. Have a house party. Rob a bank. Organize a car wash. Whatever.

(1) Get a land line that someone is going to sit at and wait by in case arrests happen. That's their job. It's not exciting but it's fucking important. It's gotta be a land line in Maricopa county because Sheriff Joe is an asshole and you can't call cell phones from his prisons. Let everyone at the action know the number to call. It should be someone you all agree on and that you trust. Reliable.

(2) Ask people who might get arrested what name they want to use when they call and who they want you to call for bail money, help, support, a ride, someone to cover for them at work tomorrow or whatever. People might want to use fake names. That's okay because fuck the cops. Write that shit down so you get it right.

(3) It's gonna take a few hours for people to process out. Maybe 24 hours even or more. That's just how it goes because the pigs want to keep people out of the game while they protect rich people and the status quo. That's why they sometimes arrest you and don't charge you. They're pricks.

(4) Call all your fucking friends. Have your friends call their friends. Get your asses down to the fucking jail. Call your friends who are musicians. The cops or idiot lawyers may tell you that if you stay that people in jail can't see friends, families or lawyers. This is bullshit. No one sees family or lawyers before their first appearance before the judge. The asshole judge is not going to ask about guilt or innocence so lawyers don't really fucking matter at that point. Don't fall for this shit. Stay outside the jail and wait for your friend. They will be happy you did. If you're loud enough they might hear you. They'll like that.

(5) Your friends are going to call you. Do what you agreed to do in step 2. They will really fucking appreciate it. Being in jail, especially if your friends are alone, injured, or of a marginalized identity, can really suck. It can be deadly. They want to talk to you and to know they are getting out. Help them with all your heart but don't lie. Never lie about release prospects. Don't talk about illegal shit. The cops are listening.

(6) Pack the room where they are being read their charges. These days because the fucks who run shit are afraid that we will liberate our friends like we used to back in the day, this mostly happens via video. Your friends who are locked up probably can't see you, but they will be happy to hear you tell them you were there when it counted after they get out. So be there.

(7) Bail your friends out if you can. Really fucking important.

(8) Be outside in large numbers when they get out. They are going to be so stoked to see you. They might want a beer, too, so buy it for them because jail fucking sucks. Maybe buy them two.

Others should chime in if I forgot something. This shit always meant a lot to me. And I'm a fucking militant, not a lawyer, so there's your disclosure. Lawyers should advise but not tell you what to do. Their job is to get your ass out of jail after you do what you do, not to tell you not to do it.

Whose side are you on? Oh, wait, we know!

2011-10-16T05:02:00.000-07:00

Photo via Downtown Devil

This doesn't make you angry?

Do you have a free bone in your fucking body?

Could it be any clearer what side the police are on?

People were peaceful, they rejected the radicals, they carried the American flag around, they negotiated with the city, they sang all the old peace songs and the national anthem, too! Politicians showed up... and yet, look at the result!

And we anarchists did what we were asked to do. We didn't riot, we didn't overwhelm you with our weird dress and odd ideas. We didn't speak to the media. We didn't cover the space with our flags and banners. We didn't tag everything. We didn't fight with the Nazis who showed up.

And yet, isn't it obvious?

The cops are our enemies. They are the defenders of the rich and powerful -- the very people we are opposing! Look at what they do when we just try to take a little public space for a few hours to have a discussion about what we think this world should look like as opposed to how it is.

They are not part of the 99%. Look what they do.

Until everyone is free! We know who locked them up!

A call to defend Occupy Phoenix!

2011-10-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

A few of the anarchists active in the Occupy Phoenix events have put this call out in response to police threats of aggression towards anyone planning on staying in Margaret T. Hance park overnight.

All who find themselves in solidarity are encouraged to come downtown tonight.

Occupy Phoenix is moving from Cesar Chavez plaza to Margaret T. Hance park, next to the Burton Barr Library in downtown Phoenix. The move is being made because the Chavez plaza is shut down by the police at 6 PM, whereas Hance park is open until 11.

People are planning on occupying the park tonight, which officially closes at 11 PM. However, the cops have said that there is no way they are going to let anyone stay past that time, nor allow camping gear, nor would they commit to not cracking down violently when pressed by a participant at the Occupy Phoenix gathering today.

In response to the possible attack by the authorities, participants are organizing a party at the park to commence after the thousands arrive from Chavez park to Hance park. There is now an open call out for all interested to come down to Hance park this evening, and into the night.

The new movement challenging the destruction and greed of capitalism must have a space to organize from, which is why we must protect our movement from state and police repression. The wealthy and powerful want to crush the grassroots opposition before we can build our own decentralized power that could potentially change and transform society.

Come down to defend the occupation in Hance Park this evening, and stay all night!

No more banks, no borders! An end to the era of loan officers, and police officers!

The National Socialist Movement scum show up armed to counter protest #occupyphoenix

2011-10-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today at the first mass general assembly of the #occupyphoenix movement, neo-Nazi members of the National Socialist Movement showed up, armed and in their "Arizona Border Guard" militia fatigues, to counter protest. Sporting assault rifles, they posed flanked by dozens of cops. Recognizing key NSM organizers in their midst, several people confronted them and set about informing the generally ignorant crowd that before them stood actual fascists, armed to the teeth.

Ignorant liberals behaved in a variety of idiotic ways. Some contending that the Nazis were part of the 99% as well, if only confused. Others were actually intrigued by the word "socialist". "I kind of like socialism," one old lady said. Other confused liberals mistook the fascists for soldiers, forgetting their self-assumed pledge of non-violence (which apparently exempts the military as well) and posing their children for a cool shot with the army guys.

One liberal pacifist came up to confront people speaking loudly about the Nazis, telling them that the protest was supposed to be non-violent and that by using loud language we were being "violent". She made no such attempt to approach the Nazis, highlighting the deep contradictions and blindspots in the ideology of nonviolence as practiced by this movement, which so far has only deployed this ideology only inwards to control participants rather than outwards towards the genuine threats.

This attitude towards the NSM scum played out, quite predictably, along racial lines, with whites being the only ones to express attitudes of tolerance towards them. This points to the continuing importance of addressing racism and the continual appeal and relevance of racial privileges within the movement. Indeed, we can expand this argument to the whole attitude of the bulk of the white movement towards the police. Experiencing policing in quite different ways than people of color in general, white middle class liberals mistake their own experience for that of others, and routinely attack anyone who questions the alleged 99% status of the police, or points out their quite obvious tendencies towards violent action, as violent themselves. To question the violence of the police is to be violent, according to this backwards analysis.

The presence of an armed fascist street-level opposition to our movement, in the form of the National Socialist Movement and it's "Arizona Border Guard" front group, is one major reason to reject dogmatic pacifism and poorly thought-out nonviolence. Instead, what we heard from protesters speaking during the general assembly were declarations of the most naive nonviolence imaginable. Arizona is a right wing state and the forces of reaction are huge and easily overwhelming if they want to be.

#Occupyphoenix organizers should not kid themselves about their numbers or power. This movement clearly has capability to attract large numbers, as evidenced by the several thousand that showed up today for the general assembly and will march later to set up camp at Margaret T. Hance park. But we need to be honest about our political circumstances and the forces of reaction arrayed against us. Today is a reminder for those who are paying attention.

When the fascists finally departed, one man in a motorized wheel chair came up to me to ask me who they were. When I told him, a cheer went up from the crowd mocking the vacating Nazis. He looked at me and said, "They're gone, but don't mistake their absence for the absence of fascists in general." Standing behind him were the cops. Another lesson the #occupyphoenix movement has yet to learn.

New PCWC poster for #occupyphoenix

2011-10-06T01:54:00.000-07:00

Build the general strike.

Occupy PHX: Two new posters -- spread far and wide!

2011-10-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

New posters for #OccupyPhoenix! Blast these out there! Courtesy of the Phoenix Anarchist Movement. PCWC will have something up soon about how we see things currently. Until then, see you at the gallows! Don't let the liberals bore this movement to death in its crib! Let's contest this shit!

Southeast Valley Libraries Are Burning Books

2011-09-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

It may be a stretch in these internet times to remember back that far, but perhaps some people will recall a distant July 2009, when Amazon made the literary gaffe of all gaffes late one night by reaching virtually into Kindle users' libraries, located on machines these users had paid for, and deleted titles such as "1984" and "Animal Farm". This happened when Amazon found out that a third party that had claimed rights to the books in fact did not own them. And so, with a mouse click from a remote location, buried deep within the bowels of the Amazon book tracking behemoth (do not be afraid that Amazon maintains a database on all your book purchases, citizen) -- and without a sense of irony -- the titles were deleted from users e-readers.

The deletion causes quite a controversy, with people justifiably citing censorship, invasion of privacy and even theft as causes for their outrage. But another issue didn't come up at the time that definitely struck me as curious. It is one of the, perhaps few, redeeming qualities of the electron age that when I give you a copy of something I have on my computer, my copy doesn't go away. Indeed, not only doesn't it go away, but the quality of your does not diminish.

Love at first sight.

Now, if we can sidestep the question of analog versus digital quality, not only isn't the grade of your copy reduced compared to mine, but when I share a copy with you, it costs me nearly nothing. So close to nothing we would never think of keeping track between us. And one thing I would never do would be to ask for it back from you. I would never call you up and say, "Hey, man, are you done with those Propagandhi mp3's that I gave you? I need 'em back." When I give you a copy, thanks to the magic of electrons, we both have one now. Perfect, right, because there are two of us?

And so this brings me to the just announced deal that Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Queen Creek libraries, through the Greater Phoenix Digital Library, a consortium of Valley libraries, have struck a deal with Amazon.com to allow for digital downloads to Kindle devices through the library system. Even though books, music and other files have been available for other digital devices, Kindle users have had to pay for access. This in itself is funny, because if I loan you a book from my library, the book works just fine whether you are reading it on the couch or on the toilet. And, to keep with our digital theme, the music I gave you earlier works just fine on your computer, whatever kind you have.

Now, this deserves a little commentary before I move on to the final point. Pretty much anyone who uses devices but does not represent a manufacturer of devices would notice that what is happening here (aside from a direct attack on the library as a public, physical institution, since library patrons can now download the files 24/7 from home with their library cards) is that form is dictating access to content.

At the height of the hysteria and crackdown (2003), people still supported file sharing overwhelmingly

So, let's step back a few more years, if we can. When my friend gave me a VHS copy of Star Wars, it didn't matter whether you had a Sony and I had some crappy American VCR. Why the hell there needs to be a separate agreement for me to download Marie Gabriel's new book, "Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution" on two formats? Especially since we know that it is mere proprietaries -- as in limiting access for profit -- that is at the root of the division? This is a library after all. A library I have already paid for with taxes, if I may strike a right wing note for a moment.

But it gets worse! The Republic reports, bafflingly, that there is a waiting list for Amazon titles. A waiting list?! Why? The great thing about digital files is that you and I can both have them at the same time. If for some unexplained reason I am waiting for that newest John Grisham book and so are you, why should I wait just because you were a few keystrokes faster than I am? It defies logic.

Successfully deleted.

But here's what really makes no sense. When you "borrow" a digital file from the "library" under this new deal, it self-destructs in 14 days, thus "freeing" it up to be available for the next person in line. So, the library, dedicated to the spread of free knowledge and public access, is actively destroying books, serving as Amazon's willing executioner of information. Information that wants to be free, with the only stumbling block being Amazon's desire to make a buck.

But make a buck how? Well, aside from the licensing deal, it turns out that embedded in each "loaned" file for Kindle will be a link to Amazon where you can opt to purchase the book you got from the library via download. Wait a minute. I'm going to buy something I already have? Naturally, the only way I'm going to do that is if Amazon and library conspire to destroy the copy of the book I already have! Imagine that with a real book. Back in the day, if I didn't return the book, maybe there were fines I had to pay, but at least the firemen didn't break into my house and, "Fahrenheit 451"-style, set fire to the book. And yet that's what the library is doing now, electronically.

Carson Daly is torn not just between styles of music, but also modes of media production and distribution

I think some people may remember in 2000 when Napster founder Shawn Fanning introduced Britney Spears ("singing a song that's older than she is") while sporting a Metallica shirt. Metallica, of course, was busy suing Napster for file sharing. After Carson Daly remarked, "Nice shirt", Fanning famously joked, "You like it? Actually a friend of mine shared it with me. I'm thinking about getting my own, though."

Of course, it was nonsense, at least for a lot of people. We might buy the shirt, but we weren't going to buy the album. Not after what at that point was 20 years of what has become a 30 year stagnation or decline in wages. Who could afford it? Napster, and the programs that followed, were a godsend to those of us dedicated to music and yet scraping by. And to the extent that it wasn't nonsense was only because enough of us were still prisoners to dial-up or other slow connections so that sometimes it was too much of a pain in the ass to download a whole album when you were relying on some other person you didn't know to do the same. Many people can probably remember the phenomenon of setting up files to download while you were sleeping. All problems that have been solved now.

The thing about electrons is that they are, setting aside the externalized cost to the environment, essentially free to the consumer, at least on the level of the individual file. Costs are so low, access so easy, reproduction so simple and distribution so effortless that it reveals the contradictions within the capitalist organization of the economy. And, it must be said, that it is capitalism itself that has set up this contradiction. Through our own self-organization and desire to be free, we have leapt into it like prisoners facing a blasted hole in a prison wall. We always wanted out, and now that we can, it is only the force of law that that can push us back in, because we can see the other side.

I'm not a technophiliac, but the most powerful lesson that the relatively new electron based production system reveals is the tenuousness with which commodity production clings to life. We see it in the riot. We see it in gifts between friends, in rides to the airport, in knit caps from mom and in our backyard gardens. And we also see it in the files we share. And, most importantly, we see the absurdities of the system in its attempts to corral, limit, prosecute and impose proprietary relations on escaped commodities that defy remuneration.

A system that turns librarians into book burners.

Paradise Lost! Westgate City Center development thankfully collapses under a pile of bills.

2011-09-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

Too beautiful for this world! All beauty fades eventually and every dream must end. And stuff like that.

Rebekah L. Sanders over at the Arizona Republic reports that another bloated, gaudy consumer/workers paradise has lurched into bankruptcy and repossession. This isn't the first one in Phoenix since the crisis began to get into trouble and it probably won't be the last considering where the economy is headed. But if you've ever been there, you'll know that this place in particular is hilarious.

I used to deliver there for work and it was big on this artificial, corporatized "live, work and play" nonsense. "I can see my loft from here," said the giant wall-sized youths on the signs, conveniently plastered over the windows of empty, dust-gathering chain stores. This place was a cheap corporate facsimile of a copy of a sketch of the old neighborhoods of old, just with everything that made those kinds of neighborhoods interesting and worth living in stripped out.

With the piped in easy listening mall music reaching up to the balconies of the "loft-style" apartments, surrounded as they are by one crap corporate chain after another and their zombie-like patrons most days, Cardinals fans eight days a year, and shitty arena rock douches on the other weekends, I often wondered just what kind of crap demographic they hoped to attract, and just how they intended to cut them down from the balconies before 10 AM business hours when they finally were overcome by the vacuousness of their surroundings and hanged themselves.

Good riddance.

Part of Glendale Westgate City Center repossessed by lender

The developer who launched Westgate City Center, the landmark sports-and-entertainment complex that helped transform Glendale, has officially lost ownership of the major part of the development.

The core of the Ellman Cos.' project, outside University of Phoenix Stadium and Jobing.com Arena,was repossessed Monday by the lender, iStar Financial, after it failed to sell at a foreclosure auction for a reserve price of $40 million.

The 33-acre property, which features restaurants, shops and an AMC movie theater along with Bellagio-like fountains and Times Square-style billboards, was designed as a suburban sports, entertainment and commercial hub to rival downtown Phoenix.

The remaining land owned by Ellman Cos., 95 acres of mostly parking lots slated for future development, is scheduled for foreclosure auction in November by lender Credit Suisse.

The auction is the latest blow to Glendale's prestigious sports district and another example of how the city has been shaken by the economic downturn.

The Phoenix Coyotes went through bankruptcy two years ago and still have no permanent owner. Now Westgate, at Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue, has been taken away from Steve Ellman, the city's development partner for more than a decade.

Westgate's opening in 2006 was like a launch party for the West Valley, with excitement brimming about the region's future as the flashy complex rose out of farm fields.

The Coyotes played next door, and the Arizona Cardinals had just moved in nearby.

Ellman, the chief executive of the company, called Westgate his favorite project.

At the time, a planning expert had cautioned the project was a gamble that relied on synergy between sports fans and shoppers.

...

Announcing the first issue of the new PCWC broadsheet, "The Crisis"

2011-09-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

Governor Brewer lets out a mighty class war cry of sheer victorious glee after signing the corporate tax cut earlier this year.

So it is with the bad news that Arizona has fired more than 10,000 public school employees -- more than 6,000 of them teachers -- and the good news that one in every ten bosses who dies on the job is murdered, that we announce what we hope to be an ongoing agitational broadsheet aimed at regularly stoking the fires of opposition here in the Copper State, Phoenix in particular. We're calling it, simply enough, "The Crisis" and it is intended for hand to hand distribution in the city.

Since the last year's struggles against both the reactionary rightwing attack and the wishy-washy leftist recuperation, we have become more and more aware that no one in the state is addressing the increasingly perilous and precarious economic situation of so many workers and excluded people in Az. Lines at state social service agencies stretch for hours in the 110 degree heat, jobs have not come back, wages have fallen and the economic situation of more and more people every day seems to sit on a knife's edge.

The successful division of the working class created by the racist right has limited the ability of the class to find ways to fight back against the attack, as well as to envision new ways of organizing life that go beyond merely calling for increased intervention into poor and working class people's lives. In Arizona this is particularly an interesting question because there is such hostility to government solutions, even among the working class.

Nevertheless, it is impossible to ignore the obvious class assault that is the imposition of austerity. Vital services are disappearing. Take for instance the recent decision by the state to throw more than a hundred thousand poor and working class people off the state's health care plan. Beyond that, people making more than $920 a month have been disqualified from eligibility, at the same time that the state weekly unemployment benefit pays out about 210 dollars a week. Given that payments in Arizona top out at $240 a week, that average means substantial numbers of unemployed people who once could count on health care while out of work no longer have it.

In addition, the state currently runs a budget surplus, largely made on the backs of the foreclosure crisis, as formerly working class folks ejected from their homes have lost the mortgage deduction, boosting income tax revenues. And never mind that the arguments for austerity coming from the political and business class were built on dire -- even catastrophic -- budget projections. Meanwhile, the state passed a corporate sales tax cut, further shifting the tax burden onto the poor and working class with a whopping $1.5 billion dollar giveaway to the rich over the next seven years.

At the same time, the legislature continues to contemplate a flat tax, which would cut taxes on the rich even more, with a resulting rise in tax payments at the bottom. And, if it couldn't get any worse, this summer the state rejected Federal money for unemployment extensions, potentially stranding thousands of unemployed Arizonans when their state benefits run out. With an unemployment rate of 9.6%, and an average length of unemployment steadily creeping up towards a year, that's guaranteed to leave some very marginalized people hanging.

As usual, we don't find these conditions depressing, we find them interesting and worthy of intervening in and experimenting with. Potential exists for some interesting organizing and possibly for a breech in normal politics. So, look for copies of the new broadsheet soon. Once more into the breach we go!

A call for action to halt the destruction of the San Francisco Peaks

2011-08-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

Our friends and comrades from Flagstaff are calling for a week of action in the struggle to save the San Francisco Peaks from the ongoing destruction wreaked by Arizona Snowbowl. At issue is the new construction by Snowbowl to bring reclaimed waste water from Flagstaff up the mountain for snowmaking so that the resort can expand operations for more skiers. Obviously, the use of reclaimed waste water ought to be raising a few eyebrows, especially when it comes to the effects that chemicals and human excrement could have on the health of human visitors to the mountain, not to forget the animals and wildlife that live there all year round.

For years the Save the Peaks Coalition tried every avenue to halt Snowbowl, and was caught up in the courts with legal fights for years. The federal government had made it clear though that public health and respect for indigenous peoples were no match for profit and economic development, and so the Ninth circuit court denied an injunction to halt the construction a few months back. Snowbowl began pipeline construction in late May, after years of broad opposition from indigenous people, environmentalists, and residents of northern Arizona had failed to stop the proposed snowmaking desecration.

I say "desecration" because the reclaimed waste water is not just a hazard to all forms of life on the mountain, it is also a desecration of a site that is sacred to thirteen indigenous nations in northern Arizona. Efforts to protect the San Francisco Peaks (in the language of Diné people, Dook'o'oosliid) have stepped up in the last few weeks, most notably back in June when a group of six people chained themselves to the machines used to tear up the earth for the waste water pipes. The group was joined by a dozen others who blocked the road into the Peaks, these actions halted the destruction for hours as workers were unable to enter. As explained by one of those who took action against Snowbowl:

“What part of sacred don’t they understand? Through our actions today, we say enough! The destruction and desecration has to end!” said Marlena Teresa Garcia, 16, a young Diné woman and one of the six who chose to lock down. “The Holy San Francisco Peaks is home, tradition, culture, and a sanctuary to me, and all this is being desecrated by the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort. So now I, as a young Diné woman, stand by Dook’o’osliid’s side taking action to stop cultural genocide. I encourage all indigenous youth to stand against the desecration that is happening on the Holy San Francisco Peaks and all other sacred sites”, said Garcia after being arrested and released.

Snowbowl is constructing a 10,000,000 gallon storage pond to hold the treated sewage water, cutting down trees to install sewage pipe to bring more waste water up the mountain, and clear cutting over 74 acres of trees. While construction is going down every day and the news is troubling, it doesn't mean it's time to give up and walk away, now is actually a good time to get out of the heat in the valley and head up north to cool off and take action. Dozens of people have set up protest base camps up on the Peaks, and have a working food kitchen that has been feeding campers for a month, despite harassment from the authorities. A banner drop in Flagstaff kicked off the week of action earlier this week, and a list of events is posted up on True Snow, and if you and yours can't make it up to Flagstaff this weekend, there are other ways you can support.

As outlined in "call for a Diné, O'odham, Anarchist bloc" (DO@) statement, our basis of solidarity and support for projects of resistance around the state is rooted in our understanding that the colonial attack on indigenous people has not ended. It is not a history lesson to be read about, but an ongoing struggle against cultural genocide and dispossession from one end of the state to the other.

Stand with indigenous resistance to colonialism, and against the destruction of the earth for profit and recreation.

For more information, make sure to check out the sites below for more news and updates on the Peaks:
True Snow
Indigenous Action Media
Survival Solidarity
Taala Hooghan Infoshop

A banner up at the base camps

A historical fragment- Dispossession and control in occupied O'odham land

2011-08-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Phoenix, 1898

A reconstructed selection from an invaluable resource of local history, Bradford Luckingham's PHOENIX: THE HISTORY OF A SOUTHWEST METROPOLIS:

As Phoenix entered the 1880s, violent language and racist laws were common when it came to the white settlers and their treatment of the people indigenous to the valley. The federal government had recently enacted the policy of indigenous peoples' containment to reservations, and the seizure of lands for the interests of business and Euroamerican/white settlers. Akimel O'odham, Pii-posh, Maricopa, and Apache people were regularly scapegoats for white politicians and citizen groups as the cause of social unease, crime, and vice in Phoenix. White settlers, while newly present in the region, organized a mass meeting in Phoenix in September 1881, hoisting a banner which read "Removal or Death for the Apache." The violent and genocidal attitude of whites wasn't just aimed at the Apaches, who had been in anti-colonial armed conflict for thirty years at this point, but even the local people from the Akimel O'odham and Maricopa communities, who were not engaged in armed conflict with the Phoenix colonial occupation, were also treated with hostility and contempt by the state and citizenry.

The presence of Akimel O'odham and Maricopa people who ventured into the new cities was detested by the white population, who complained that "lounging about the streets are a great many Indians." In addition, whites gave violent physical and verbal abuse to indigenous people who were perceived as hanging around local landmarks such as city hall, or the train depot. In May 1881, racist and colonial legislation was passed by the city making it illegal for any indigenous person to be on city streets "without sufficient clothing to cover the person", or to be in the city after dark unless employed by a white Phoenix resident. The white settler enacted criminalization and banishment as a response to any resistance to the Anglo-colonial mentality that the early founders of Phoenix sought to impose on the original inhabitants of the region. Similarly, Scottsdale was also a "sundown town" for O'odham people who were coming from the neighboring Salt River reservation.

Reflections on a Crucifixion: the Arizona Immigrant Movement's Slow, Steady March to Oblivion

2011-07-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

Or, "The Smartest Guy In The Movement Revealed"

As we approach the one year anniversary of the passage of SB1070, we naturally tend to look back. As I've pointed out in other articles, the year leading up and and since then hasn't been the easiest one, as we have fought off recuperators, reactionaries and straight up Nazis in the meetings, on the internet and in the streets. No one has yet written a comprehensive analysis of that period of heightened struggle, which for me stretches from the first Inglourious Basterds Bloc through the DO@ Bloc, on into the hot summer of 2010 with its student walkouts and the Border Patrol occupation, and then culminating with Inglourious Basterds II. I for one would welcome it if an anarchist would take on the job of documenting and analyzing that struggle, although I don't yet feel up to the task.

Although that larger project remains incomplete, in a recent discussion, we at PCWC decided that it might be worth tackling it in smaller, bite-sized portions -- reflections on the interesting moments, those lightbulb-going-off-in-your-head instances, and those things that weren't perhaps clear at first but became so over time. There were a lot, even for us veteran militants. The terrain of this struggle became so complicated over time that we were bound to come out of it wiser and, of course, surprised, as one always is when the working class is in motion.

In July of last year, we saw the last gasp of the mainstream migrant movement. It had marched us to death, sign-held us to death, and fund-raised us to death. Will it return? The prognosis is not good, as the political rump that remains clings to its dirty non-profit money and celebrity contacts like a Titanic refugee to a bit of driftwood.

No new or creative ideas emerge from that bottomless whirlpool, that navel-gazing vortex. All the interesting things happen outside the movement, and have for some time. The Border Patrol occupation. The resistance around the new freeway and Snowbowl desecration. Interestingly, all these actions operate within the analysis developed within the militant anti-state, anti-capitalist wing, with its assertion of "free movement for all" and "no to dislocation" as its main guideposts.

Meanwhile,"Boycott Arizona" remains the mantra of the defeated movement. This is a movement that celebrates year after year it's never-ending protest outside Sheriff Joe's office with cake, music and party favors. Another year of failure, another year of using the same bankrupt tactics to no avail. Failure, increasingly, is the goal of the movement. Implicit in the slogan is its desperate cry for outside help.

Because the movement leadership was at war with creativity and critical thought, in the end it was the Arizona Chamber of Commerce that answered that plea and stopped the march of anti-immigrant legislation. Capital re-evaluted its relationship with the reactionary white working and middle classes and blocked further regression, much as the Libertarian right had nearly scuttled SB1070 before that. The movement is a sham, and it wouldn't be so terrible if it hadn't had such terrible consequences for so many.

So it's in the spirit of reflection that I share with you the smartest man in the immigrant movement. This is a person who really understood what was going on, long before any of us did, with our flyers and our sweaty and tired participation in the mainstream miles-long marches. I mean, we came around eventually: at first we just started skipping the marches and showing up at the end to handout literature. Then we gradually returned more and more to doing our own things, playing with contradictions, fucking with the Libertarian right, provoking reactionaries and designing actions and events with ideas and composition that the mainstream leadership could not ignore. Our "fractures and fissures" theories developed in the midst of this phase of the struggle and we deployed them. And it was during this time that we organized the neighborhood assemblies, actions and marches in Tempe, for instance, a deviation that movement leaders and the sycophantic non-profiteers they surrounded themselves with found hard to countenance.

But at first, there was us, with years of showing up at these protests, supporting, holding signs, playing nice and watching movement leaders one after another peel off to the right, towards conservativism in action and thought, terrified of their own rank and file. Not that they ever had our allegiance, but one is polite at first, especially as white militants. One waits to see what develops and what can be supported, without compromising one's views, and one hands out a lot of flyers. One organizes her friends and breaks up Minuteman rallies in front of the Mexican Consulate. That's what one does.

It's hard to really remember now how before things exploded with the general strike, the rallies had only twenty, fifty, a hundred, maybe two hundred attendees. We were all opposing the early wave of reactionary laws, although we didn't know it for sure then -- it seemed apocalyptic even then. Now, with a tiny shadow of what had come before remaining, the movement leaders are surely more comfortable with a few dozen activists and non-profiteers than they ever were with several hundred thousand wildcatters waving Mexican flags, like in those early days. We know they are happier with a handful of dedicated student activists rather than the thousands and thousands of students who walked out a day earlier than their "responsible adult" leaders had prescribed, occupying the capitol lawn and finally rioting in an explosion of righteous anger when the law was signed despite their protests.

So, let me get back to this seer of the movement, the man who saw with total clarity before anyone else the purpose of those long -- many, many miles long -- hot, summer marches. Before I even figured it out, when I was just stoked at seeing so many people in the streets of Phoenix, even if we anarchists had to fight for them to be open to us. It's easy to forget the blistering heat of those marches, which repeated every so often, leaving from the same park and heading to the same, distant destination. People collapsing of heat stroke all around. The ritual of the march, the self-sacrifice of the struggle -- it all looks so obvious in hindsight, now that the excitement of the working class in motion has worn off and that same working class has been out-maneuvered, bored, exhausted and beaten down by movement leaders. But one man got it right from the get-go, from the minute we set foot to blacktop (or sidewalk, as the leadership tried so desperately -- and sometimes unsuccessfully -- to limit it).

I present to you this man.

This man showed up every time, along with others from time to time, dragging this ridiculous cross with him march after march, mile after mile. He understood that these marches were a punishment, a self-sacrifice, not intended to stop the raids, not intended to mobilize the people, but instead meant to tire them out, to discipline us like a teacher punishes a student. These marches were meant to kill the movement, literally. Where the heat couldn't do it, boredom would, as we literally took the same route month after month. It must have made filling out the permits easy as hell, as well as routinizing the police response, as the plan is put into action time after time, refined and redeployed again and again. This guy understood that he was a martyr and that, as a movement, we were marching up a hill to be crucified.

Making Money, Making Change (Impossible)

2011-07-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

I want to draw everyone's attention to a very useful essay over at Chaparral Respects No Borders, an always interesting blog analyzing the border, the migrant struggle and various other related elements within that fight. The essay, "Beware the Funders of Immigrants’ Rights", tackles something that bedeviled many of us last year during the whole SB1070 buildup and aftermath: the funding of the mainstream movement and the way it changes the terrain of struggle in Arizona and limits outcomes. And as such, it is a good opportunity to look back at some of the troublesome dynamics that came into play that summer.

This research provided in the essay puts weapons in our hands as we continue to maintain our autonomous position apart from both left and right, i.e., against both recuperation and reaction, in the struggle surrounding migration and freedom of movement. While anarchists should not be surprised by the recuperative and disruptive motivations of large capitalist funding sources like the Ford Foundation, knowing about it (since it is often hidden from view) allows us to point out the way it is messing up the movements we participate in, especially with the rise of the profession non-profiteer activist, so often recruited from radical circles.

Many of us here will remember two of the interesting and at first baffling contradictions of last summer. The first was the failure of many radicals outside of Arizona to support radical initiatives against SB1070. In this I would also include radical bands (and a certain radical frontman), some of whom signed onto the Soundstrike pledge of artists dedicated to boycotting Arizona and that thus helped to further isolate Arizona radicals through denying us opportunities for gathering, fund-raising and sharing strategies at the same time that the mainstream money funnel was in full effect for movement liberals. Fund-raising even by anarchists was often targeted towards liberal groups that had de facto or openly professed anti-radical agendas, even to the point of having collaborated in police attacks on anarchists.

At the very least, those organizations to whom the money was sent were not proposing anarchist or even radical analysis or solutions to the problem. While, the essay at CRNB is clear that the "Revolution Will Not Be Funded", it is important to separate foundation funding from the solidarity that anarchists and radicals engage in. While foundation funding is obviously top down and with strings attached, solidarity is free, supportive and egalitarian. It is important not to confuse the two, which is part of why it was so frustrating to see so much of anarchist and radical support paralleling the general trend of foundation funding, traveling the same channels created by the flows of capital, in essence. I know several anarchist projects centered around the migrant and indigenous struggle that could have used some solidarity and instead that money and materiel went to liberal groups. That's too bad and worth reflecting on by everyone involved, including those of us who were not able to make that distinction and need clear enough.

The second frustration was the constant tendency of out of state radicals who parachuted into Arizona to marginalize and ignore radical voices and actions, especially those of longtime in-state militants. Professional radicals flocked to Arizona by the hundreds, with their plans and pre-fabricated analysis. The worst of these organizers were the non-profiteer white "allies" who, dropping all pretense of sticking to their supposed radical politics, steadfastly defended liberal groups over anarchist ones, even though their information was limited in the extreme, having just dropped into a fight that had been ongoing for several years. Rather than turning to anarchist and radical comrades for analysis and advice on where to plug in and who needed support so that anarchist and other anti-authoritarian radical voices and projects could be heard and advanced, these organizers instantly tried to turn the tables on us, lecturing us in their own naive way about the conditions of our own struggle and informing us in often patronizing ways that our analysis of the groups composing the landscape of struggle was incorrect, despite our long experience.

In retrospect, these particular liberal-radicals served a very important function for movement leaders in terms of hemming in militants and inoculating the broader movement from potential infection by anarchist ideas. At times, when movement leaders were forced to make certain concessions in terms of the form of organization (for instance, when leaders reluctantly permitted mini-assemblies to be set up at one rally so that people could discuss face to face about their problems and solutions) or actions (when it became inevitable that direct action of some sort, in this case civil disobedience, would have to take place on the day SB1070 went into effect), these out of state white liberal-radical "allies" served important spoiler and management roles, sanitizing actions and debate. In the case of the assemblies, for example, white liberal-radical "allies" joined other mainstream leftist reformers in deliberately injecting themselves into discussions among those composing the base of the movement, making sure the conversation was limited and redirected in the movement leadership's overall electoral strategy.

That created quite a few problems for anarchist organizing when the out of state tendency combined with a liberal protest establishment that elevated the maintenance of respectability in its donors' eyes and the lens of the capitalist media above all else, was mired in an ethic of sacrifice and moral suasion, and remained determined to keep an iron grip on a movement that had threatened (and had indeed managed) to get out of its control on several occasions, from the huelga general to the student walkouts. Rather than viewing such outbreaks as promising new avenues of struggle and sources of energy for a movement in bad need of it, instead such explosions were treated by movement heavies as threats to be controlled.

When considering these supposed white "allies", it's worth pointing out that since they brought with them resources badly needed in the fight, they were actually serving as the choosers of winners and losers among the various groups and individuals of color that would get support or be rejected. They were the deciders. In many ways, this white "ally" relationship, in its liberal form, looks a lot like the white patriarchalism one sees in many white activists in general, especially when it serves to discipline those militants and radicals who stand against the liberal movement leadership that these "allies" have anointed with their blessed non-profit dinero. Indeed, if we can psychoanalyze for a moment, there appears to be something in the mindset of this kind of white "ally" that seems to believe that their ally-ship is a necessary component of successful struggle when it comes to people of color. It's an interesting kind of alliance that retains the white "ally"'s central and privileged role in struggle at the same time chastising those militants who do not toe the mainstream line.

But somehow we all managed to make it through those long months, emerging a little beaten up physically and mentally, but still determined to move forward. Eventually, most of those out of state struggle touristas made their way home after the spotlight faded and the glory diminished, leaving us locals to deal with the aftermath, naturally. So it was with more than a little cynicism that we laughed our asses off when we at PCWC were tipped off that one of the groups behind the money pipeline, previously unknown to us, was an organization called (and you can't make this up) "Making Money Making Change". No, seriously. Say it out loud and try not to laugh.

What is MMMC? According to its website (emphasis mine),

Making Money Make Change (MMMC) is Resource Generation's annual 100-person gathering for young people with wealth (ages 18-35) who believe in social change. MMMC is a confidential space to explore issues related to wealth, privilege, philanthropy, and participation in grassroots movements for justice and equality. Through workshops, discussions, and community-building activities, participants support, challenge, and inspire each other to align their resources with their values and work for personal and societal transformation. While participants are young people with wealth, social movement leaders and nonprofit practitioners from other class backgrounds are invited to speak, facilitate sessions, and attend the entire retreat.

PCWC has learned that this group came to town some months ago and met with those local leaders who met the group's seal of approval, scouted out as they were by some of the liberal-radicals who had parachuted into town last summer. These local projects and leaders then had the "just and equal" opportunity to go hat in hand to the rich people begging for money. Sounds like a real reversal of the typical relationship under capitalism, doesn't it? I tell you, in my just and equal society I'm not forced to go begging to any rich person for money.

MMMC would have you, and maybe their donors, believe that they are merely facilitating the benevolent hand of the class traitor who seeks to help us out in our quest for that ever-vaguely worded "more just and equitable society" (note, not "a just and equitable society", just moreso) -- secretly and anonymously behind the scenes, of course. In reality, as we've seen from the sorts of projects they support, in fact they are the hand of the state and capital reaching into our movements, supporting projects that they are comfortable with, and that do not upset their class privilege. Which is not to say that anarchist groups ought to demand access to the money either. It's that the groups with the money, and the donors themselves, serve as goalkeepers, saying this far and no further. After all, a revolutionary movement that expropriated the rich would deny the sons and daughters of the rich (because, who earns that kind of money by the age of 35 and has a revolutionary perspective?) the very money they intend to help us with, not to mention eliminate all those non-profiteering jobs to boot!

I believe that Jon Riley is planning on going into this particular group a lot more in a future essay, so I won't say too much about it. But I wanted to point it out because it doesn't appear in the essay at Chaparral Respects No Borders but still represents yet another facet of the attack on anarchist and radical movements in Arizona. In many ways, the lesson we ought to take from this is that we should be even less compromising with our defiance of the left in the future. The gut feeling we all had last summer was right. It felt like a two front war and it was.

For instance, when we organized that summer's neighborhood actions, it often seemed like we had to beat off the attempts of the out of staters to impose themselves on our actions, scared as they were of autonomous activity, even as they were allying themselves with groups that they knew had attacked, subverted and vilified anarchists in the past. The leadership wanted us out of the movement, and that was facilitated by the liberal-radicals. And then when we turned to our own autonomous projects, along came those same professional managers of struggle to keep an eye on us, and to attempt to disrupt our organizing. The professional activist sees everything as part of her domain and expertise: everyone needs his help.

So, moving forward, a hefty refresher of the friends/enemies fanatical analysis probably wouldn't hurt. While we fought hard for a politics separate and autonomous from the mainstream movement, calling out movement leaders and their strategies several times, we ought to have taken the fight to the liberal-radical white "allies" harder, putting them on the spot, making them choose sides. We did a good job driving the Revolutionary Communist Party out of Phoenix using similar tactics. The liberal-radical identity, and the funding it brings with it, is the mechanism for recuperation and marginalization and needs to be recognized as such the next time it shows its ugly head around here. What side are you on? An old mantra that never loses its power.

Hazy Shade of Criminal: Antisec, Police and the Media, or, "'Fuck the Police' Means 'Fuck the Police'"

2011-07-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

This most recent, third (and, I hope not final) attack on DPS by Antisec has revealed that Arizona cops share racist jokes, endorse torture, cover up stalking in their upper ranks, worship American militarism, make light of lethal violence against migrants and regularly massage their public image through the development of PR campaigns with cutesy names like "Cops, Kids, and Christmas".

In addition, the leaked emails serve as a testament to their pathetically crippled senses of humor. In the errant communications, the traditionally far right police organizations find themselves dumbstruck by the fact that their steadfast and reliable support for the Republicans has been paid back in budget cuts and layoffs. And, though cops are not known for their highly developed sense of irony, at least some of those cops then boasting about securing their emails after the first attack must be appreciating a little bit of it now that their electronic boasts of infallibility are public record thanks to these persevering anarchist hackers. Pride before the fall, as they say.

Antisec replaced the front page of several police organizations with its press release and a video for the Public Enemy song "Hazy Shade of Criminal"

Past releases over the last couple weeks via Antisec and its predecessor, Lulzsec, have revealed similar content, including that state cops and Border Patrol were aware of armed US Marines patrolling the border on private contract for ranchers and that the Minutemen had contemplated shutting down a freeway as part of their anti-immigrant crusade. Likewise, captured internal anti-terrorism newsletters highlighted copwatch events and other clearly not terrorism related organizations and actions in their "upcoming events" section, reflecting the mission creep of policing in Arizona and the US by and large under the logic of the war on terrorism. At her always interesting website Censored News, Brenda Norrell has continued to provide excellent coverage of some of the highlights that have emerged. Because of that, I feel no need to go over the specifics of the emails. My interest in the Antisec attacks goes beyond just the details of piggy internet messaging.

Because, as is obvious from the data revealed, cops are pretty much cops. Despite the slack-jawed and gape-mouthed looks of shock and awe on the faces of the plastic TV news anchors, is anyone really surprised that cops are racist? Or that cops are a miltaristic bunch? That they cover up their crimes? Let's hope not. Least of all us at PCWC. In two past articles, "Officer Down: The Phoenix Media and Cop-Killings", and the follow-up piece, "Exhuming the State's Avenging Angels: Revisiting 'Officer Down' in Light of Recent Revelations About the Phoenix PD", I have previously written about the police as an institution and the way it is portrayed in the media.

The role of the police and the kinds of people that are recruited to do police work are so obvious to almost everyone in society that the entire propaganda apparatus of the state and capital gets enlisted in the hasty cover up work whenever the thin veneer of respectability threatens to wear off in the slightest. "Fuck the cops" remains one of the truly universal sentiments in American society that at the same time is completely unspeakable within mainstream "responsible" dialogue. The Mesa Fraternal Order of Police, its website a target for Antisec, has a facebook page with only 314 friends in a city with 440,000 residents. Surely an institution with deep support within the community could do much better than that! Hell, there are over 750 sworn officers in the department alone! Perhaps people remember the Mesa Fraternal Order of Police's staunch defense of its officers in the police murder of 15 year-old Mario Madrigal.

The lonely Mesa FOP has no internet friends!

It is common to hear the refrain, "People become cops because they were picked on in school", but we know that's not true. Cops become cops because they are bullies. Occasionally a well-meaning one may slip through, but they don't last long, and their road is an extremely difficult one marked by job stagnation and lack of promotion. Policing, like any other job but even moreso because of its relationship with power and its own criminality, demands fealty to the thin blue line. Loyalty over all else.

Now, in expressing what may seem like cynicism about the content released through Antisec's attacks on the cop computers, that is not to say that I oppose them. Quite the opposite. Unlike some in the alternative media, who question whether the right target was chosen, preferring an attack on Sheriff Joe and MCSO instead of DPS, or a hit on the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association over the Fraternal Order of Police, I'm quite content with the idea of hackers targeting the police generally, whatever organization. Though some may find it lacking, an attack on DPS has its own merits beyond their particular flaws as a law enforcement institution, and to understand that you neither have to forget that DPS will be enforcing SB1070 along with all other police in the state nor ignore that DPS was the subject not that long ago of a blistering report by the ACLU which pointed out deep and systematic racial disparities in vehicle stops and searches.

These welcome emails reveal among other things internal rivalries and things said behind others' backs. Careers could very well be in jeopardy. And, yes, as Antisec itself points out, the hacks turn the tables on the cops, making them feel the vulnerability we all suffer daily under their constant watch and often violent enforcement regime. Perhaps some cops will stop being cops. And police computers off line, with information and investigations compromised, means more freedom for those of us that suffer police oppression. Some will wring their hands if "criminals" escape prosecution because of these attacks, but not me, and not anyone who has experienced justice as delivered by the cops. We know the real villains, the ones who do the most damage, are the bosses, politicians, generals and cops of this world. Those interested in justice must first oppose the justice system.

It is precisely in the queries from the media and the responsive demands of DPS for increased spending on militarized information systems that we see the failure to understand the fundamental relationship of policed to police. Beefing up cyber-protections for the cops only makes their attacks on us, on the rest of society, more lethal! Note the rise in deaths at the hands of police that has followed the deployment of "less lethal" technologies as a point of comparison. When governments give the police more power, they do not use it less.

Any demand for security must first appreciate that the security of the cops comes at the expense of the security of the rest of us. Remember, more protections for police computers means we know less about what they are really thinking and doing. It means those racist emails don't come out. Consider for example the fact that the Tempe police had and perhaps still has kept tabs on individual anarchists, making notes about political affiliations on police reports drawn off police databases. This is what police security really means, and arguments for increased police powers to protect their information means at the same time power to protect this particular kind of information. Make no mistake about it, we at PCWC, like Antisoc, are anti-police. Their demand for "a world free from police, prisons and politicians altogether" rings true with us.

DPS: Cut backs in the mustache department.

Indeed, this lack of discrimination between police agencies hearkens back to the analysis issued by the Diné, O'odham, anarchist/anti-authoritarian bloc in January 2010. And the discussion around the Antisec attacks mirrors precisely that dynamic, of good cops and bad cops, which surrounded the events of that time. The Phoenix PD, even though their arrests result in more deportations than Sheriff Joe's MCSO, were held up as the good guys by leaders in the pro-migrant movement, even to the point of permitting police liasons in organizing meetings for the main liberal event, as they had been at marches before that. Taking this line let the sheriffs off the hook, allowing the PPD to do the day's dirty work, and thus the mainstream organizers were able to push for the further isolation of anti-capitalist and anti-state militants when the police attack came down. In framing their opposition to the MCSO in those terms, the leaders of the movement had become the racist PPD's biggest defenders.

As I pointed out before, this flawed view of police and policing echoes in the writings of movement sympathetic journalists who half-heartedly denounce Antisec's choice of targets. Consider Stephen Lemons' recent post on the subject in his New Times Blog, "The Feathered Bastard", practically lamenting what he sees as the so far squandered opportunity to hit what he considers legit targets, while at the same time offering up his own modified target list. Consider his comments on his most recent article: "[T]here are far worse police organizations in state to pick on than AZ DPS or the FOP. I mean, the FOP is no PLEA (Phoenix Law Enforcement Association), for instance. Everyone in this state knows that PLEA is an outright nativist, anti-Hispanic police union. By contrast, the FOP has a pretty good reputation. Similarly, DPS is no Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, with Hispanic-hunter Joe Arpaio as the jefe."

Offering up his correction, however, Lemons is quick to back off. He provides us this weak-kneed, wink and a nod disclaimer: "Of course, I'm not suggesting anyone hack anyone. Nor can I or would I condone such outrageous criminal activity." But will he read the emails? "Natch." He asks us, finally, "What's the point of going after cops who may just be doing their jobs?" Well, it turns out, that is precisely the point. It is the every day functioning of the police that is the problem, not the aberrations. And individual police do not escape this logic. Indeed, to the rare extent that they are not the state and capital's willing accomplices, they remain prisoners of this logic. They cannot be the "good cop". It is impossible.

But, perhaps, as Lemons suggests, Antisec is not familiar with Arizona politics enough to know the slight differences between our various racist police forces. Not knowing who they are, we naturally have little to go on. However, it's entirely possible that, as they say clearly in their own press release, they don't care. Maybe they are not interested in making distinctions between various kinds of racists and degrees of racism in Arizona police departments and organizations. After all, it took only the release of a handful of emails from just a few FOP members and DPS officers to reveal that laundry list I opened the article with, begging the question of what remains to be found. Does anyone really think that's all there is? If that sort of racism and worship of state and vigilante violence is acceptable enough to share via email with one's cop comrades, in broad daylight so to speak, what is too dangerous for it? What is said only behind the safety of the thin blue line?

Antisec is right not to split hairs when it comes to Arizona's myriad racist police. All of them, together and individually, are enemies of freedom, worshipers of authority and an obstacle to the demands of people for dignity and the ability to organize their own lives as they see fit. As we have seen in the past, the elevation of one cop gang over another does not protect from repression and police attack. So that means opposition to those institutions of repression must necessarily be anti-security, just as it is anti-police.

Border Patrol 6 trial resumes this month, trespassing charges dropped

2011-06-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

The six people arrested for locking down at the Tucson sector Border Patrol headquarters last May are going back to court to resume their trial on the remaining disorderly conduct charges. The Border Patrol 6 (BP6) have called for continued action against all levels of government and business participating in the repression of immigrant communities and the ongoing militarization of the border. At their last trial date in February, dozens of people, from various communities across the state, rallied in solidarity with the BP6 and marched against all borders and the ongoing militarization of Tohono O'odham land, which has been colonized by both the US and Mexican governments.

Since February, the judge has thrown out all of the criminal trespassing charges against all six defendants, leaving just the disorderly conduct charges for the resumption of their trial on June 29th in Tucson. Whether or not the remaining charges are also thrown out, the BP6 have maintained that the previous trespassing charges were always bogus since the true trespassers are the border patrol and the state who occupy stolen indigenous land.

Keep your eyes peeled in the coming days for an official update from the BP6 comrades, but in the meanwhile, there's nothing gained in waiting! Take a look back at the previous BP6 calls for support and get organized to take action!

No borders, no controls on movement!

Blood Sport: A Brief Look at the Sometimes Violent Resistance to Public Funding of Sports Stadiums in Arizona

2011-04-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

“I will say I’m sorry I shot you the day you stand before the court and admit what you did was an act of violence.”

Those were the uncompromising words Larry Naman, a 57 year-old homeless man with what up to that point had been a clean criminal history, said to County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox at his sentencing in July 1998. Angered over the political hi-jinx that led the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to approve a sales tax to fund the downtown Diamondbacks stadium on a 3-2 vote (Wilcox was the tie-breaker), Naman had almost a year previously walked into a public meeting and shot Wilcox in the ass with a .357 revolver.

With the return of the public financing debate now that the Phoenix Coyotes are up for sale, it's worth looking back at the contentious and sometimes violent history surrounding local capitalist's drive for publicly-subsidized profit. On more that one occasion Arizonans have taken violent action in response to both the blatant undemocratic process of capitalist development and the obvious hypocrisy of capitalists enriching themselves on the public dime.

Attacking the capitalist dictatorship

Following the shooting, Mary Rose Wilcox said she wasn't surprised it had happened, given the controversy of the vote, which itself had circumvented a previous public referendum, passed by a 2-1 margin, forbidding the raising of sales tax for the express purpose of building public sports facilities valued at over $3 million without a public vote. That law had passed as a result of public outrage following the city of Phoenix's massive subsidy of the Phoenix Suns stadium downtown, a facility the Suns shared with the Coyotes until they moved to Glendale to cohabitate with the Cardinals in what eventually became known as the University of Phoenix Stadium, itself built as another publicly-financed project.

The University of Phoenix project passed by county referendum with a narrow 52% approving. In the case of the Phoenix Suns arena, the city eventually swallowed almost 40 percent of the tab, and Maricopa County residents covered the vast majority of the funds for the Cardinals new West Valley home. The important fact to remember with regard to Naman is that, after the initial public outrage over the Suns stadium, and despite the successful referendum restricting public financing, nevertheless when major league baseball came touting an expansion team in 1994, the legislature deliberately transferred responsibility for the stadium's construction to the county and the city of Phoenix specifically in order to circumvent the law and the popular will.

Facing 21 years in prison at his sentencing, Naman, unrepentant, spoke for 40 minutes, denouncing the move to build the stadium. "I shot Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox to try to put a stop to the political dictatorship of Jerry Colangelo", he said, referring the Phoenix sports big shot and Diamondbacks owner. Colangelo had earned the public's ire by refusing to participate in ownership without a public subsidy. When interviewed by Kevin J. Delaney and Rick Eckstein for their book Public Dollars, Private Stadiums, Colangelo put it this way: "There was a tax on the books, the tax was going to expire, baseball was thinking about an expansion, and there was a window. There wasn't time to build a lot of public support and take it to a vote... Nor was I interested in going through that whole process [emphasis mine]." Speaking to reporters, Naman said he'd have shot Colangelo, too, "if I had seen him."

Twelve years later, this December, Naman walked free from prison, a model prisoner without even a single disciplinary mark against him. Wilcox remains unrepentant, although in 1999 she conceded that perhaps future expenditures ought to go up for a public vote. "I had hooked a very good jobs program to our stadium [proposal] — about 3,000 jobs and about 60 percent for a low-income and minority district like mine is," she said. Colangelo and his rich buddies got to feast at the public trough and we got some jobs hawking popcorn that costs more than the hourly wage of the seller.

Waste not, want not

On April 1st 2011, just a few months after Naman's release, and in the midst of capitalist crisis, police allege that an angry Mesa water treatment worker, 43-year-old Robert Olson, armed with a pistol, walked through the city's otherwise deserted Deerfield Wastewater Treatment Plant shutting down critical operating systems one after the other. If the sewage wasn't properly treated, methane gas could build up, potentially leading to a huge explosion at the massive facility. A few hours into his sabotage, after downing some margaritas and beers that he had brought with him, Olson called 911 and following a couple more hours of negotiations, he surrendered to police. He told the cops that by his actions he wanted to show the city that “employees had power.”

On the phone with the 911 operator, Olson said, “I am an operator at the Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant. I have basically taken the plant hostage." He lamented having to file for bankruptcy and a life where he felt like he had been walked all over without ever standing up for himself: "You've got the angel on one side and devil on one side I feel like the bad side is starting to take over. I have been a doormat most of my life, I've taken people's crap and never said anything." That's certainly a common enough feeling under capitalism's dictatorship, even in "good" times.

Now charged with terrorism, court documents begin to paint a picture of what may have motivated the accused civil servant in his late-night sabotage. Olson had transferred from the Avondale water treatment division on the west side of town three years ago in order to work closer to home and spend more time with his family. But not long after moving jobs, the pain of the economic crisis began to bite in Mesa. Determined to foist the cost of the crisis onto workers and the poor, city officials imposed first a pay cut and then a pay freeze on Mesa workers.

“Omigosh,” said neighbor McCaffery when questioned by the East Valley Tribune. “He’s a heckuva a nice guy. I knew he was struggling with his house that went into foreclosure and moved his family in with his in-laws, but I didn’t realize he was having other problems. He was such an easy-going guy, and didn’t have trouble with any of the neighbors. I can’t picture Rob doing anything like that. I hope he’s not in too much trouble.”

One can't help but notice the "welcome to the new normal" nature of that comment, where a foreclosure and moving in with your wife's family barely merit as serious problems in the current economy. But the tribune reports that health care costs began to take a toll as well. And while the pay cut, foreclosure, life at the in-laws' crowded house and health care premiums may have been problems Olson could deal with, the city's pending deal for a new spring training facility for the Chicago Cubs really stuck in his craw. On the day of Olson's protest against wage cuts, the Arizona Republic reported that the city's cost of the new Cubs training facility could run to $84 million.

A coyote is both a predator and a scavenger

Meanwhile on the other side of the Valley of the Sun, at the time of this writing the city of Glendale struggles to close a deal to keep the local pro hockey team, the Coyotes, in their gleaming, spaceship-like two hundred million dollar desert arena. The deal centers around a secretive 40 year-old investment fund manager, Matthew Hulsizer, who, if the sale goes through, will be outright gifted $100 million directly from the city's coffers (raised through bond sales), and then guaranteed a further $97 million in future revenue for agreeing to take over and operate the venue. Not bad for a sale valued at only $170 million! According to my math, that's a $27 million dollar profit just for existing!

Millionaire Matthew Hulsizer (center) watches a Coyotes game

After graduating from uber-expensive Amherst College (nearly 50 g's a year at current rates!), according to the Chicago Tribune, Hulsizer started off his career in what was once called the "the biggest securities firm no one had ever heard of," O'Connor & Associates. After working there for some years, he moved on to open with his wife their own investment firm called Peak6, which he started with capital provided by others, including the O'Connor brothers and "family". It pays to be where the money is.

And, starting in the 90's, as the economy increasingly financialized, the money likewise moved to firms like Peak6, "one stop shops" that would deal in all sorts of arcane financial instruments, including the infamous derivatives that triggered the financial crisis in 2008. But don't worry, Hulsizer has come through it all right. No foreclosures on his horizon. His lakeside mansion is as comfortable as ever. And with a guaranteed profit out the gate of $27 million on the deal, I think he's going to be very happy with his life going forward either way, even if those pesky conservatives at the Goldwater institute get their way and squash the deal.

For Hulsizer, owning a hockey team would be a dream come true, probably a lot like getting rich is a dream come true, too (assuming he wasn't born rich, as it seems he likely was). Secretive though he may be, Hulsizer has been quoted remarking about his love of the game and how he played hockey a bit himself. "I'm a hockey fan, a hockey coach and a hockey player and I would like to join the club," he told USA Today. The Business Insider writes that "[Hulsizer] actually played hockey at Division III Amherst College and is currently a registered USA Hockey coach in Winnetka, Illinois."

But how surprising is it for the dreams of the rich to come true? Hardly at all, naturally. Hockey is Hulsizer's hobby and his fortune accommodates him. And if not his fortune, then the public largess will take cover it. After all, for him merely having the wealth is good enough -- he need not actually spend it! But what about the rest of us? What about the Naman's and the Olson's out there? Foreclosed on, homeless, cut wages, hiked premiums, dislocated families, all as a result of the machinations and profiteering, often at the public trough, of folks like Hulsizer and Colangelo, and facilitated by politicians like Wilcox.

The sun sets on Arizona

In Arizona over the last several years, the main thrust of general working class resistance has emerged from the migrant/Latino community. It was they who boldly went out on general strike in 2006, long before the crisis began to nip at the picket fences of white suburbia. Most white people's homes were still accruing value month upon month at that point, but with wages still stuck in neutral for more than a decade, the white working and middle class unfortunately increasingly turned towards using the law to restrict the labor market in hopes of extracting wage increases or protection for themselves from capital's ravages.

Just this year, however, the Arizona capitalist class finally balked at further restrictions, indicating a split with its temporary alliance with the white working and middle class, the signs of which we recognize in the slashing of budgets across the board and the imposition of austerity even on the white middle class. Rising up through their political organ the Chamber of Commerce the capitalists vocally shut down a new bevy of anti-immigrant laws.

We can look back now and point to the utter failure of the strategy pursued in the last decade by the organized and mobilized section of the white working class. With what is probably well over a hundred thousand Mexican and other workers who feel similarly threatened by the reaction in Arizona having exited the state with their families since SB1070 passed (double digit decreases in enrollment at public schools are one indicator amongst many), the magic has not returned to the Arizona economy. The employment numbers are not predicted to return to "normal" until mid-decade. Wages, where they are not frozen, are decreasing across the board.

And the housing market remains stuck in the doldrums, not because Mexicans were building houses or taking jobs from whites, but because there were too many houses built in a bubble whose inflation as well as inevitable deflation benefited a small class at the top of the Arizona economy. Builders, developers and bankers received their bailouts and guarantees, but none of it accrued to the working class in any permanent way, as naturally it wouldn't without a militant working class in motion to demand it. So lacking that, millionaires like Hulsizer clean up while folks like us get the shaft.

To think in a time of massive advances for the capitalists and of retreat for the working class, that a strategy of defending white privilege over class solidarity would lead anywhere but to a hardening of already existing divisions that could then be further exploited by the capitalists was worse than naive, it was in fact the sad default class politics of the white working class playing out. This leaves us in a situation where the white working class in Arizona has isolated itself, even organized in opposition to the rest of the working class, believing that its cross-class alliance with the rich would protect it in the long run. Clearly it has not.

And now, as the chickens come home to roost for white working and middle class families in Arizona, as predictably they would, they now have nowhere to go to express their anger but into the arms of further reaction like the Tea Party on one hand or into isolated acts of violence and sabotage on the other. Even the professional mediators, bargainers and recuperators of the left offer nothing. That's a poor excuse indeed for the broad-based resistance that is necessary and might potentially give such acts a broader meaning beyond that which resonates only with the singular atoms, millions though they are, of screwed over Arizonans consuming its message as individuals in isolation. In circumstances of rising class struggle hopeless lone wolves become transformed into militants for their class as their opportunities for meaningful struggle multiply. These conditions not not apply today.

But with the crisis deepening and individuals feeling their backs increasingly against the wall, unless the white working class can wake up and betray its racist instincts by recognizing its common struggle with other people, we can probably expect more of the same isolated lashing out, which even if it can sometimes inspire with its fanatical rejection of compromise or dead-end bourgeois politicking, can never replace a working class movement determined to topple capitalism and the state.

Videos of the day: From Brixton to Bristol, Rebellion against cops and capital in the UK

2011-04-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

Here's some good video out of Bristol, England from last week that I came across over at neurobonkers. This is a crowd sourced collection of video shot on the night that months of community resentment at the opening of a Tesco shop exploded into an open rebellion against the corporate chain and the police. The night began with a heavy police presence entering the St Pauls and Stokes Croft area to remove a protest outside of the Tesco, and to raid Telepathic Heights, a squatted building, occupied across the street from the shop.

From the Bristol Anarchist Federation's write-up on the night's events:

The blocking of road by the police and the news that Telepathic Heights was threatened and that the Tesco protest had been forcibly broken up meant it wasn’t long before a substantial crowd had gathered. The crowd became more and more angry as police refused to give justification for their presence, pushing or hitting anyone who got close to their lines. The increased tension of recent months, which has built up as austerity measures begin to kick in and the community of Stokes Croft and St Pauls feel ever more ignored and marginalised, had found a focal point and personification in the belligerence of the police. All it took was for someone to tip over a glass recycling bin.

While it received a good trashing, it's still business as usual in Bristol, and Tesco, the world's second largest retail profit operation (after Walmart), plans to reopen the shop on the 28th of April. Bristol anarchist Ian Bone also reports that at least two people arrested are facing serious charges from last week's ruckus, and that more arrests of the Tesco resisters are likely.

The anti-police/anti-Tesco battle was the biggest explosion of discontent in riotous form in over 30 years in Bristol, and following on the heals of the 30th anniversary of the massive anti-police riot in Brixton. While last week's riot in Bristol wasn't anywhere near the scale of the anti-police rebellion in Brixton back in '81, both were responses to police provocation, and in Brixton it was Operation Swamp 81 that pushed the community to act. Swamp 81 was a massive stop and search operation, a police tactic in England that relies almost entirely on racial profiling but is justified under an officer's mere "suspicion" that a law has been broken, not all too different from the justification given by Maricopa County sheriff's office deputies during the "crime suppression" immigrant round-ups in Latino neighborhoods across the valley. As intended by police, Swamp 81 made a big impact in a five day span, 950 people were stopped and searched, in the largely black community. As outrage over the police presence peaked, it was the police's treatment of a young man who was mortally wounded, that sparked the massive riots that lasted for two days, seeing 82 arrests, over a hundred buildings damaged, and 279 coppers injured.

I came across the second and third videos at "History is made at Night," an interesting blog focused on the intersection of music, dance, and politics. There was a post dedicated to the different songs dedicated to the Brixton revolt on the 30th anniversary a couple of weeks back. "Insurrection" by Hiatus is a tribute to the UK dub reggae classic "The Great Insurrection" by Linton Kwesi Johnson. I've included both videos because I think they both deserve a viewing.

I'm not posting these to romanticize the riots, clearly Brixton suffered for many more years from grinding poverty and racism from the police. Nor have the police ceased the use of "stop and search" as a tactic, just last year the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission reported that it was still broadly applied to primarily Asian and black residents:

The Commission said its analysis showed that if black people were stopped and searched at the same rate as white people - there would have been around 25,000 searches - instead there were more than 170,000.
Several police forces have increased their use of stop and search against ethnic minorities, with black people being stopped and searched at least six times the rate of white people, the commission said.
Asian people were about twice as likely to be stopped as whites.
London had by far the highest rates of stops with 183 out of 1,000 black people searched.

Similarly, the police have not learned a lesson from the events last week in Bristol, if anything they're likely to increase their presence and patrols. No, the reason I find these ruptures are worth celebrating isn't simply because they are riotous, but rather that those in the streets are acting against the authorities without delegation or representation. This is not always a default position in moments of conflict with the authorities, more often there is a political compromise negotiated by a friendly face, who may come in the form of a "community relations" cop, a professional activist from an organization in the community, or a local politician who allies themselves with the plight of people on the bottom of the ladder.

To look at our situation in the valley, just imagine if, instead of another Circle K opening in a neighborhood, people rallied against the junk food hawking corporate chain by using a number of different tactics to stop it from opening. Or what if the next time Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio calls for another immigrant "crime suppression" sweep, the people take to the streets against the power of the police. For the first time in many of our lives, we would have done more to create the space needed to struggle for a free society than any political hack, from either the Left or the Right, could offer through a compromise with those in power.

BBQ & Revolution is this Sunday, April 17. "From Bonnot to Colton: Illegalism through history"

2011-04-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

Our 10th installment of Beer & Revolution is coming up this Sunday, but we decided to shake up the format from the usual venue of a neighborhood bar to a neighborhood park! It's a beautiful time of the year in the valley, just before the triple digits settle in for the next four months, so we've decided to hold this month's B&R outdoors, at Clark Park in Tempe. We will be making full use of the park grills as well, so we've labeled this month's get together as BBQ & Revolution. Feel free to bring a plate of food to share, or anything you'd like to throw on the barbecue before our guest Aragorn! (The Anvil Review, TCN Radio) gives the presentation on contemporary and historical illegalism.

We'll be grilling from 5-6 this coming Sunday evening (April 17), and we plan to have Aragorn! begin the presentation around 6 PM. Here's the 4-1-1 on Aragorn!'s presentation, remember this event is free, let your friends know, and bring your politics!

From Bonnot to Colton: Illegalism through history

In this presentation I will offer a historical examination of Illegalism. The details of the actions--their successes and failures--and the responses at the time from their supporters and detractors. This will be compared to the illegalist actions taken today. The emphasis will be a historical comparison of the different periods and a discussion about the motivations that led the individuals to the choices they made.

In detail we will discuss the earlier period of so-called propaganda-by-the-deed and, individual and social re-appropriation, and also the newer forms of illegalism such as alienated re-appropriation, break-window-write-manifesto, and modern political violence. We will be discussing the rich tapestry of ideas that bridge the early to current period and whether these phenomena are a passing fad or are the new shape of anarchy.

Navigating history as a blueprint for solidarity in the era of racialized policing, ecological destruction, and militarization

2011-03-12T22:50:00.001-08:00

Four hundred copies of this flier were distributed during this morning's annual St. Patrick's day parade in central Phoenix. The flier was handed out by The Black Shamrock Society, an ad hoc group of 10 anti-authoritarians and anarchists, who marched in the parade with banners in support of migrants and regional indigenous struggles.

What does Irish-American solidarity look like?

“Irish-American Solidarity” is a contingent of Irish-Americans and allies dedicated to solidarity and support for the indigenous people of this region, as well as the Latino immigrant communities in the greater Phoenix area. We march in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day to honor the legacy of the San Patricio Battalion, a group of Irish immigrants who escaped the Irish potato famine to the US, and ultimately became the symbols of Irish-Mexican solidarity after deserting the US army during the Mexican-American war.

Like an all too familiar contemporary immigrant narrative, the conscripted Irish soldiers faced racism from their nativist commanding officers and soldier counter parts, including denying them Sunday mass. When these new immigrant soldiers were then given orders to attack Mexican forces, they refused and deserted, instead fighting alongside the Mexican army against the US invasion. After the end of the war, many of the San Patricio were executed by the US army as traitors, but the legacy of their friendship and sacrifices resonated with so many Mexican people that they were not soon forgotten. 150 years later, it was a group of activists from Ireland who made the English language translations of statements and news from the Zapatista indigenous peasant uprising available on the internet, forcing the Mexican government to stop any repression.

The dual ugliness of the occupation by England, and the Irish potato famine made life unbearable for many poor Irish. In 1847, at the height of the famine, the Irish received a great gesture of support from the Chocktaw people, who raised $710, no small amount of money in the mid 1800s, to help starving Irish men, women, and kids. That this donation was collected after the brutal and deadly forced relocation of the Chocktaw to Oklahoma, known as the Trail of Tears, speaks volumes of the generosity of native peoples who recognized the crisis that Irish people faced.

As Irish-Americans, almost all of us are in the US as the result of England’s (continuing)colonial occupation, and yet we are also standing by as colonial attacks continue on the O’odham people, indigenous to this land we are on. Right now the O’odham face the partial destruction of their holy mountain of this area, many of us call it South Mountain, for the planned 202 freeway extension. This is the desecration of a sacred site. It was just a few years ago that there was a similar campaign in Ireland against the construction of a motorway through the valley of Tara, a world heritage site containing ancient burial grounds. This too was a desecration, and although the highway was eventually constructed, people resisted this development with civil disobedience, protest marches, and sabotage of building equipment.

We don’t need another roadway, our relatives in Ireland knew it, and our O’odham neighbors in Gila River know it too. Once again, it’s the politicians and corporations who want more progress, but what’s progressing other than the destruction of the earth and our health while they look for more profit? Is knocking 25 minutes off of a semi truck’s drive by bypassing Phoenix worth destroying part of south mountain and putting another environmental health hazard in an area where indigenous people will be most effected?

We fully extend our solidarity to the O’odham people further south in Arizona as well, to the effect that we too want an end to the militarization of Tohono O’odham lands that are divided by the US/Mexico border wall and occupied by Border Patrol and US military. We also want an end to all racist anti-immigrant laws aimed at migrants fleeing political and economic hardships. Irish history is a proud history of resistance to colonialism and oppression, and as Irish-Americans we should all be glad to carry on this tradition of solidarity and resistance to oppression.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

NO SOUTH MOUNTAIN FREEWAY
nosouthmountainfreeway.wordpress.com

O’ODHAM SOLIDARITY ACROSS BORDERS
oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com

PHOENIX CLASS WAR COUNCIL
firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com

SURVIVAL SOLIDARITY
survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com

CHAPARRAL RESPECTS NO BORDERS
chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com

Update on the trial of the Border Patrol 6, two arrested at solidarity rally by Tucson PD

2011-02-24T15:24:00.000-08:00

Below are two updates from the Border Patrol 6 (BP6) trial and the corresponding anti-borders solidarity march, both took place on Wednesday down in Tucson. From all accounts the BP6 lawyers were on their game and had the state on their heals through out the day, while at the march two people were arrested after allegedly hanging a banner. Check out the news article on the day's events, along with a new communique from the BP6. Thanks to Ray for the photos.

Border Patrol Headquarters Occupation Protesters Stand Trial to Fight Charges. Two Arrested During March to End Border Militarization and Racist Laws

Tucson, AZ – On February 23, 2011 More than 40 protestors took to the streets – two were arrested – while six people who locked-down and occupied the US Border Patrol (BP) – Tucson Headquarters on May 21, 2010 stood trial fighting charges of "criminal trespassing" and “disorderly conduct.”

Lawyers William G. Walker and Jeffrey J. Rogers represented the six as the city prosecutor called Border Patrol agents and Tucson Police to testify.

The defense argued the trespassing charge was not properly filed and were granted a request to file a memorandum addressing the technicality.

The trial is expected to continue on March 22, 2011. Corresponding rallies and actions are being planned.

At 1:30 pm people gathered in downtown Tucson at Library Park for a rally and then took the streets with banners reading, “Indigenous Resistance, Protect Sacred Places”, “Free Movement for People Not Commerce, Tear Down the Wall” and chanting “No Borders, No Border Patrol.”

Two people were arrested for allegedly hanging a banner that read “Las Paredes Vueltas de su Lado son Puentes (Torn Down Walls Become Bridges)” on a street traffic light. They were arraigned and released at 8pm at Pima County Corrections.

Additional banners were hung at various locations throughout Tucson stating “Egypt, Wisconsin, O’odham Solidarity”, “No raids, No deportations, No colonialism” and “Stop Militarization on Indigenous Lands”

O’odham Elders attended the court proceedings to demonstrate their support.

Donations can be made to support direct action efforts through Border Opposition Action Fund at www.borderopposition.blogspot.com.

END BORDER MILITARTIZATION NOW!

Communiqué from the occupiers of the Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson, AZ

We demand that the Border Patrol (BP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their campaign of terror which rips families apart through increasing numbers of raids and deportations.

The state thrives off of the climate of terror and fear that racist laws like HB2281 and SB1070, and new proposed laws like SB1611, 1308, 1309, 1405, have caused. This terror also manifests with thousands of troops invading indigenous lands, such as the Tohono O’odham, Yaqui, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, to name a few. Since the creation of the current U.S./Mexico border, 45 O’odham villages on or near the border have been completely depopulated. This terror manifests with the bones of thousands – making the southern Arizona desert a grave yard, where the hopes and dreams of migrant families are stomped into the ground by border patrol agents, National Guard, minute men, and profiteering coyotes.

Through the military strategy of terror and fear the state maintains power and control.

We take direct action because we have decided not to be afraid. We are more afraid of not standing up to the state and what other crimes against humanity will be committed if it remains unchallenged.

We are not guilty of criminal trespassing or disorderly conduct.

The state, and by extension the border patrol, is guilty of occupying and destroying indigenous communities and ripping families apart. The development of the border wall has led to desecration of ancestor’s graves, it has divided communities and prevents them from accessing sacred places. When will this end?

These buildings, the court house, are made of brick and mortar and are the same brick and mortar that are the operation streamline immigration court just down the street. It is a direct manifestation of this system’s criminalization, where in the 3 hours that we’re in court today, nearly 100 people will be detained, adjudicated and deported through the streamline process.

Who are these building for? Who do they benefit? These are the same brick and mortar prisons are made of. It’s the same steel and concrete that is ripped from Mother Earth that’s used to build the border wall.

Politicians aren’t going to negotiate away our oppression. They are sitting in the chairs in their offices that are built on it. Our oppressors can only maintain their oppression as long as we are afraid of them.

If they are not going to do it, then we are going to find creative and direct ways to ensure that our communities are safe. We recognize that this is not going to happen within the walls of these institutions, these walls, these borders. It’s only going to happen if we tear them down. What does that look like?

Let’s come together, strategize, and embrace diverse tactics to effectively become the answer.

Today we also shed the term immigrant that has been used to attack our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, and children, many of whom are also indigenous, and to acknowledge and help restore the full human dignity that has been stripped away. To be immigrant should not be considered a crime unless 99 % of the U.S. is going to be ashamed and guilty of their pasts.

Our relatives are attacked on both sides of the border by colonial governments. The migration that the U.S. government is attempting to stop is driven more than anything else by the economic policies of the U.S. Free trade agreements such as NAFTA have severely reduced the ability of Mexicans and others from the global south to sustain themselves by permitting corporations to extract huge amounts of wealth and resources from these countries into the U.S. This has led to millions of people risking the terror and death that so many face to cross into the U.S. looking for ways to better support their families.

If the U.S. really intends on reducing migration it must end its policies of exploitation and wealth extraction targeted at the global south and instead pursue policies of economic, environmental and social justice for all human beings on the planet, thus reducing the drive to immigrate. But are they really going to do that?

Direct Action is about Direct Democracy. Building community is about communication, having respect for each other and doing something.

This is a struggle for freedom of movement and self-determination for all!
No racist laws, No colonial borders, WE WILL NOT STOP!

~NO BORDERS NO BORDER PATROL~

For more info:
http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/
http://survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com/

The Border Patrol 6 prepare for trial and call for resistance, as the Arpaio 5 cases come to an end

2011-02-22T03:04:00.000-08:00

The six people who locked down at the Tucson sector Border Patrol headquarters last May, demanding the end of border militarization amongst many other anti-border demands, are fighting their charges and calling for additional action. While their trial kicks off in Tucson tomorrow, there will be a concert benefiting the Border Patrol 6 (BP6) organized by the comrades from the Border Opposition Action Fund to be held at the Dry River Radical Resource Center tonight featuring bands and speakers.

The BP6 are also asking for people to join them this week at the opening of their trial at 2PM on Wednesday, February 23 at the Tucson City Court, located at 103 E. Alameda St. Tucson, AZ. Their will be a solidarity presence that will be meeting up at the Joel D. Valdez Pima County Public Library (101 North Stone Avenue, Tucson, AZ) at 1:30 PM for a rally and march to the city court. The event organizers are requesting that people interested in attending the rally bring signs and banners, instruments and other noise-makers, and comfortable walking shoes.

In addition to the calls for solidarity at the trial, the BP6 issued a statement earlier this month in which they announced their decision to take their trespassing cases to trial. Along with this information they included a series of demands so vast that they aren't so much demands to be answered by the federal government, but rather giving direction to those struggling against border militarization, as if to say "these are the steps to take for the dissolution of the national territorial boundary along the southwestern United States." Thoroughly anti-colonial, it addresses the necessity of free movement for O'odham people, the original inhabitants of this occupied territory, but it doesn't end there.

Yes, the border wall suffocates the O'odham communities on the other side of the border line, but O'odham people also suffer through the manned checkpoints, the camera eyes of the aerial drones, and the disturbance of cultural practices and sacred sites caused by the Border Patrol and its agents. However, the O'odham do not suffer alone, nor do they resist alone. Hundreds of miles east of the southern Arizona borderlands, there are Lipan Apache grassroots efforts resisting the same imposition of the border wall and subsequent militarization in their own traditional lands.

The authors of the BP6 trial statement didn't have a narrow definition of solidarity in mind when they wrote this document. Instead of calling for a single solidarity rally to correspond with their trial, the BP6 are saying that the best way to show solidarity with them is to take action against the systems of control and domination behind the border apparatus. One of the things I really liked about the call for solidarity is that it links the state's attacks on migrants through legislation and criminalization, the federally granted police powers for cops to terrorize and racially profile communities of color, and the militarization of indigenous lands by the military and federal police agencies as equal parts of the ongoing colonial attack on non-white people in the southwest.

The occupation of the border patrol lobby placed the struggle against borders not as a component of the mainstream immigrant movement and the fight against SB 1070, but rather that the movement in defense of immigrants is situated within the centuries old resistance to colonialism from the indigenous peoples of Arizona. Similarly, as it was pointed out in the DOA statement last year:

We recognize what appears to be an unending historical condition of forced removal here in the Southwestern so-called US. From the murdering of O'odham Peoples and stealing of their lands for the development of what is now known as the metropolitan Phoenix area, to the ongoing forced relocation of more than 14,000 Diné who have been uprooted for the extraction of natural resources just hours north of here, we recognize that this is not a condition that we must accept, it is a system that will continue to attack us unless we act.

Whether we are migrants deported for seeking to organize our own lives (first forced to migrate to a hostile country for work) or working class families foreclosed from our houses, we see the same forces at work. Indeed, in many cases the agents of these injustices are one and the same.

We wish our friends and comrades luck this week as they travel to Tucson to face these charges. Drop all charges against the BP6, free movement for all!

A final update on the Arpaio 5

As another resistance trial begins, the final two cases of the five valley anti-authoritarians and anarchists who were arrested at last year's anti-Arpaio march have finally come to an end. Both Claire and Garyn chose to take their cases to trial, they were tried in a bench trial (no sitting jury, just the judge), and were correct to be confident in their ability to walk away with a "not guilty" decision from the judge. We at PCWC were very happy to hear that our comrades left the courtroom victorious, over a year after their arrests, the state's flimsy case against Claire and Garyn fell apart in under two days of testimony.

As any witness to the police attack at last year's January 16 demonstration can attest, the undercover cops and uniformed snatch squads made arbitrary arrests as they moved through the clouds of pepper spray grabbing who they could. Through the heavy doses of pepper spray it was just as clear that the police had a political motivation in attacking and isolating the militant section of the march, creating a lasting rift between sections of the mainstream movement and those critical of the movement's leadership and strategy.

Perhaps one of the biggest disappointments to come out of the events on January 16 was the manner with which Phoenix New Times columnist Stephen Lemons portrayed the police attack. As I recall, Lemons penned three separate blog entries on the attack, in the first two posts he attempts out the details from a few protesters interviewed and puts some video up, but in the third post he claimed to have seen video footage that conclusively showed an anarchist attack one of the mounted officer who rode into the march. In two of the screen shots posted he specifically noted a demonstrator with a green hoodie who Lemons claimed was attacking the horse. What's interesting is that the video in which Lemons grabbed the screen shot, and claimed to see a person wearing a green hoodie attack the police horse is the very same video that got the person in the green hoodie's case dismissed. It only looks like he's shoving the horse because he was being tackled by a Phoenix cop from behind, something that a single screen shot doesn't show. Where was the screen shot half a second later that showed the Phoenix cop behind him? Why did Lemons want to paint a picture that said anarchists are at fault, whether or not some were acting in self-defense to a coordinated police attack. In addition, where's the follow up article(s) on the not guilty/case dismissal of three of the five arrested?

There's no doubt that Lemons has contributed some valuable reporting on the immigrant movement, and the battles against the rightwing populists of the Phoenix metro area. When the mainstream movement hacks totally ignored the BP6 lockdown and occupation, Lemons wrote glowing praise for those involved, and wrote that he hoped their acts would inspire others. He's written of a number of anarchist actions in solidarity with migrants, or opposing anti-immigrant racists, even though anarchists weren't mentioned by name. We know he likes it when anarchists and anti-racists gave the nazi hell! Hell, he even gave a shoutout on his New Times blog to a fundraising effort we initiated for the BP6.

So rather than enter into a debate with Lemons on the merits of writing an entry on supporting the "good anarchists" whose cases were thrown out, or why the I'd say the "bad anarchists" were never bad, I'd like to draw from an inspiring slogan I was introduced to at the last Beer & Revolution, along with one of my favorite photos from the January 16 DOA contingent. After the years of repression, frame ups, and state attacks from police, our Chilean anarchist comrades have managed to capture in one concise sentence the tension that exists when the actions of a movement in resistance brings imprisonment, and how this resistance is justified to the rest of society. Quite simply:

"We're not innocent, we're not guilty, we're your enemies"

What a way to make a living? Or, 20 percent unemployment is a good start.

2011-02-18T17:36:00.001-08:00

I know I don't usually get all personal on here when I write -- I try to keep it strictly business, as they say -- but it's been a fucking shitty last couple of weeks at work for me. Partly because of that, I haven't really been inspired to start on any of the new writing projects I've got bouncing around in my head right now (I think Jon Riley may have a couple things in the works if we're lucky, though). So when the classic 90's photo series below came across my phone this afternoon as the boss clock ticked down towards quitting time, it couldn't have come at a better time.

I suppose the montage goes without explanation. We recognize it immediately. Both it's form and it's content. No détournement required on this one, Situs, thank you. The series perhaps comes at a relevant time as well, or perhaps emerges as a meek but important counter-point, as we watch the tens of thousands gather in Wisconsin in a rearguard action in defense of their right to organize against capital and to keep the few paltry crumbs that warrant the absurd label "Cadillac" these days, that alone speaking volumes about how far we have fallen since the capitalist counter-attack began in the late 70's, early 80's.

So, three years into economic collapse and now well into the austerity measures that we all knew were coming from the get go, the best we get is a zombified union movement, rising from the crypt to sell us out again, paired with Democratic recuperators so chickenshit over a fight that they flee the state. One keeps hoping for a break in the terrible dance between capital and it's mild-mannered gentle critics on the American Left. We scan the skies for any sign of an emerging fightback that defies the acceptable boundaries.

Of course, lurking behind the scenes is the terrible step-child of the labor movement -- the refusal of work. The human desire to be done with the whole mess that lives in the space between working and unemployment. That terrain denied us in reality for the most part as well as in the popular dialog that delineates the borders of polite discussion. Have you heard any of those party hacks or union negotiators utter one word about it? All out in defense of work!

But we know, we remember, that fleeting feeling, before cold capitalist reality sets in, when you almost cheer for a second after you get that pink slip. The feeling of buying your buddies a round at the bar with your last paycheck. Maybe tossing a brick through the boss's Mercedes window on the way out. You know us, we're the ones who don't apologize for being on unemployment. The ones who love it. When I was on unemployment it was one of the most productive and enjoyable times in my life. This is not to repeat CrimethInc's naive mantra from the last decade about poverty and doing it right. It's just to remember a time of freedom that appeared unexpectedly and to lament it's eventual loss.

I mean, I get it: let's by all means defend ourselves from the capitalist coup de grace. Maybe push them back, snap victory from the jaws of defeat. I'd fight, too, if they tried to cut my pay or take away the benefits I fought hard for. But, still, I can't help but think that the most radical thing that could be asked in the middle of the conflict is, "Do you like your job?" It's certainly never come up that I've heard of. And it's of course precisely the misery of work that is captured so clearly in the Al Bundy series below (Bundy being, along with Homer Simpson, the classic working class hero/foil/numbskull all rolled into one), revealing at the same time, I think, the sheer poverty of the struggle taking place now in Wisconsin. Surely, somewhere, someone camping in that square tonight is thinking, I hope this thing at least goes through Tuesday so I can get an extra day off out of this.

In an age that is increasingly looking like it will be defined by permanent unemployment for so many who thought themselves previously immune (i.e., white, middle class), will the issue finally get forced on the agenda? Or will it further feed the already blazing anti-immigrant mania? I heard today a story on NPR alleging that what migrants remain in Arizona are having an easier time getting work than citizens. True or not, that's the kind of thought that creeps behind the eyeballs of white workers even in good times. One shivers, thinking of it's power now to rally the reactionaries. And how about the government workers? Will endemic unemployment continue to be turned on those few who still manage to hang onto to decent pay and benefits packages, a class eating itself before the lustily leering eyes of the capitalist pornographers. Enter the Tea Party again, stage right.

That said, will ten or twenty percent unemployment ever seem like a good start rather than a social ill to be remedied with stimulus and austerity? Some of us remember Paul LaFargue's "Right to Be Lazy" and Ivan Illich's "Right to Useful Unemployment". And of course that party pooper Bob Black. Or hell, even the Smith's singable "I was looking for a job and then I found a job and heaven knows I'm miserable now"! Or, I suppose, "Take This Job and Shove It" is reaching back just as far, expressing without fear that good ol' American desire not just to shirk work but to be done with the whole mess entirely. To wipe it off on your jeans and drive off in your F150, flippin' the bird. It seems like so much of this has been co-opted by the modern day concept of the entrepreneur, having polluted so much of what might otherwise pass for resistance in times of class struggle's low ebb. Even our musicians and sports heroes are not untouched. Not escapte artists -- entrepreneurs! Venture capitalists. Self-employed. Such a tragedy.

Perhaps I've said this before, but one of the things that Italian immigrants said about America when they came over in the 19th and 20th centuries (most to return home some years later) was that to them this was the land of bosses and clocks. That interminable clock on the factory wall, always ticking. Enforcing capital's narrative one unbearably painful second at a time. Coming from peasant villages and towns, they had no concept of the time card or the regimented work day.

Here's another thing I may have said before: when I worked at the post office the clock was divided into 100 segments per hour. Not sixty. Taking our fifteen minute breaks, we had to think in 36-second increments. We called them clicks. Naturally, you clocked in early, at 41 clicks, because if you hit 42 you were late. Like the laundromat near my house that offers washes at 99 cents but only lets you put money on your "laundry convenience card" in one dollar increments, there was no way to hit 15 minutes on the dot on those clocks. Always over or under. Those seconds were just plain stolen from you right before you eyes. Every day. Sure, you'd get a shop steward there with you when you got written up, defending your rights but doing nothing about the abominable 100 click clock. Looking at that damn timepiece every day, it often struck me how much I would have traded a million shop stewards for just one sturdy baseball bat almost any day. Of course, when the layoffs came, I was convinced. Naturally I had just rented a new apartment.

Of course now, thanks to the satellites hooked into our cell phones, the boss's clock stares at us all day, everywhere, working or not. All the clocks say the same thing now, for everyone. The discipline of capitalism consumes everything eventually, but most of all time, as I think perhaps Marx wrote a bit about once or twice.

So, as you can perhaps guess, after six years of letting us keep track of our own hours, with a decent amount of flexibility, my work started making us log in and out. Not on a time clock, yet, but in a book. Write down the exact time you show up but don't let it be before seven. No work before seven, we are told. Linger around, waiting, if you're early. Here's what actually happens: my co-workers sign in as if it's seven and begin their day at 6:57 or 6:58 anyhow, giving two or three minutes of their lives to the boss for free every day. And, although it seems illogical, ours is work that we'd just as soon have over, and sitting there staring at it, waiting for the clock doesn't help anyone, not even you. You just get done later.

Of course, not me. I'm coming in late. I don't give my time up for free. So, anyway, this little montage has been making its way across the tubes today and I figured since I didn't have anything else, I may as well write a little bit about it and post it up in the hopes that others out there may appreciate it the way that I did, and to maybe give a little context about why I did. It always strikes me that, along with the scratching record and the ticking clock, the sound of the end of day whistle at the factory still sticks with us in this society, even though they have been purged from most people's lives almost entirely. Maybe it harkens back to a certain analog universality, an experience we all shared and still do, even if now it has been digitized and internalized.

Anyhow, quittin' time!

Quote of the Day (1/29/11)

2011-01-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

Police cower before the rage of people who have had enough.

If only for a little while, the people of Alexandria have liberated their city from the police. Despite the American-made (see, we still do make things here!) tear gas that has showered them for the better part of a day, the working class of the city has found themselves in the surprising position of having defeated the police. Oh, to breathe such fresh air!

From the New York Times:

For one day, in this historic Mediterranean city, the protesters won outright.

Alexandria was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the country on Friday as riot police officers fired tear-gas canisters and rubber bullets and protesters hurled paving stones in more than two hours of pitched battle.

In the end, the police capitulated in the face of too many protests around the city with too many determined demonstrators for them to contain. The police retreated, leaving the city in the hands of protesters for several hours, as police cars, the regional party headquarters and the provincial government office burned.

“There is no government in Alexandria now,” said Muhammad Ahmed Ibrahim, 32. “They are all in hiding.”

After darkness fell, soldiers in tanks and armored personnel carriers were welcomed with cheers in downtown Alexandria, perhaps a sign of Alexandrians’ relief that some semblance of order would be retained after the destruction of a day spent venting pent-up anger.

“The people set fire to the police station in Sharq,” said Abdullah Hassan al-Banna, 30, one of the demonstrators, referring to part of eastern Alexandria. “The people set tires on fire and threw them into the governorate” — the government building. “We pulled down all the posters of Hosni Mubarak,” Egypt’s president.

Late Friday, downtown Alexandria was choked with smoke that blotted out the sunset. Flames licked the sides of a downtown tram station.

One man stood on a police troop carrier holding up a giant Egyptian flag as police officers inside the vehicle smiled and waved their fingers through the grates.

“The people wanted to show their resistance to the regime, but I don’t think they had any idea they would overpower it,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, who observed the street fighting in Alexandria on Friday.

“For the first time in the history of the Mubarak regime, the capacity of the police was completely exhausted,” Mr. Bouckaert said. “The police state broke down today.”

Sitting here, thousands of miles away, seeing the police daily enforce the dictatorship of capital in my own city, yet watching leaderless (or maybe, more accurately, 'widely leadered' or projectual), working class movements sweep away various dictators, large and small, one after the other, I can't help but long for the banner "Tunis, Alexandria, Phoenix" to hang from a liberated space somewhere soon. Sounds like war elephants.

Egyptian badasses disable police vehicles by removing batteries.

Here in the US, a twitter spokesman writing an email response to a reporter's inquiry tried to wrap his little iNoggin around the cut off of the internet in Egypt. Speaking in terms reflecting a limited imagination perhaps even surprising for iExecs, he said, "A world without the Internet [sic] is unimaginable." Without an emoticon indicating irony or laughter, what am I to do with that? Like the pre-internet era is paleolithic? Don't we have a memory of this?

And this in the face of a wide-spread, word of mouth insurrection that despite the removal of the asocial media as a means of communication, still found hundreds of thousands of friends and neighbors pouring out on the streets together, doing battle with the cops and liberating their city from the hateful dictatorship's police.

One woman I heard interviewed on BBC in fact cited the lack of communication as the reason she went into the streets in the morning. No cell phone. No facebook. She had to go into the streets to see what was happening there. Twitter revolution? Not right now.

The word is, folks are going door to door tonight in Egypt, even as we speak, planning the next attack. It's blasphemy before the holy meme of the iRevolution, I know. And yet... what about the poor and working class in control of the Suez Canal. Watch the rich sweat...

Beer and Revolution This Sunday: "Solidarity as Active Resistance"

2011-01-24T14:13:00.001-08:00

This Sunday, PCWC is proud to announce the most recent in our ongoing series of presentations and discussions. This week we are fortunate enough to be able to bring you a discussion on the contemporary struggle in Chile. This will include firsthand reports and analysis, as well as multimedia and the usual creative and interesting discussion.

The fun starts at 7pm this Sunday, January 30th. Gather upstairs at Boulders on Broadway (530 W. Broadway Rd in Tempe). If you are coming via light rail and head out a little early, the local neighborhood bus which can be caught on Mill Avenue will drop you off right at the restaurant free of charge as long as you grab it before it shuts down at seven.

Here's the deal:

Solidarity as Active Resistance

In September and October, 2010, a group of anarchists from North America traveled to Chile, Wallmapu (the Mapuche territories, occupied by the Chilean and Argentinean states), and Bolivia to meet with local anti-authoritarians, learn the histories and current situations of their struggles, and make the connections necessary to strengthen real and long-term solidarity between anarchists in North America and people in struggle in these countries.

The trip occurred during an important time- less than a month after a major wave of raids and arrests targeting anarchists in Santiago, during a crucial and highly supported hunger-strike by Mapuche political prisoners against the antiterrorism law and the repression of their struggle, and at a low point in the once colossal social movements in Bolivia, which have now been co-opted by the left-wing government of the indigenous president, Evo Morales. Come hear first hand about these various struggles against state and corporate dominance and learn how you can directly support them.

If you can't make the event please check out the website: chileboliviawalmapu.wordpress.com

To study up before the discussion, check out the pamphlet below:

By the way, Boulders on Broadway has all you can eat pizza on Sunday nights and a huge selection of beers on tap. See ya there!

Anarchists initiate immigrant solidarity march to commemorate the deaths of three youths

2011-01-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

Phoenix area anarchists kicked off the new year by calling for a march in the arts district of downtown Phoenix for the monthly "First Friday" artwalk. The call was in response to the deaths of two immigrant youths who were found in a canal after fleeing from a Maricopa County Sheriff Deputy near Gila Bend, and the murder of a third youth who was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent while climbing the border wall in Nogales. Nearly two dozen anarchists, anti-authoritarians, and O'odham and Dine' indigenous comrades, all assembled for this unpermitted manifestation of outrage. This also being a First Friday (FF) our small group attracted the attention and participation of many in the crowds wandering between galleries and bars, as well as from the youth who often come down to FF to get out of the house, check out some art, and to flirt and meet other kids hanging out.

The march took to the streets with banners and statements against the "poliMigra," prisons, all borders and police. We shouted into the night "Out of the galleries, into the streets!" Naturally we garnered the attention of the police, not a special distinction as on any given FF they maintain a very heavy presence, even though a demonstration like this has probably not occurred in sometime, aside from an organic confrontation with the authorities a couple years back. After a few shoving matches with the Phoenix cops, the march was pushed to the sidewalks, but after losing the police, the march returned to moving in and out of the streets, throwing traffic barricades into street, and making a detour into one of the more notoriously yuppie galleries downtown. We lost some of our numbers when we marched down to the Suns game, but we also shook our police tail and were able to march in the streets unimpeded (aside from the occasional police vehicle that would pull up, use their bullhorn to tell people to get off the streets, and then drive off). We encountered the most reactionary and nationalistic sentiment of the night outside the Suns game, but we shook it off and mobbed onto a light rail train for a free ride back to the arts district.

So, what does this mean for the future? The mainstream movement voices were once again silent during this latest outrage, the "human rights movement" raised a number of eye brows around town after their total absence in any forum when young Danny Rodriguez was murdered by Phoenix cop Richard Chrisman in his mother's trailer last October. The high profile killing of this young man came amid a shit storm of corruption and brutality allegations against the Phoenix police department, specifically the notorious South Mountain precinct, but perhaps the mainstream hacks were too concerned about upsetting their friends in the mayor's office to actually hold one consistent political position. Or maybe someone should have told them there's money to be made from the non-profit industrial complex in organizing against police violence, that seems to get their attention.

What I saw in the streets the night of this march is a sight becoming increasingly common in Phoenix, a gathering of indigenous, latin@, and anarchist people ready to take to the streets and to move beyond the boundaries put forth by the mainstream immigrant movement's leadership, as well as the laws of the authorities. I believe that in these alliances lay the future for a broad based movement of resistance, built upon mutual respect and participation in confronting this system of death, repression, and incarceration until there is total freedom for all.

Below is the text of the flier handed out during the solidarity march, along with a couple more images from this procession.

Where are the voices of disbelief and anger now that SB1070 is law? Where have the crowds gone who were in the streets in the spring and summer? This writing is addressed to you who weep with clenched fists when another immigrant is found dead trekking across the desert, shot dead by a border patrol agent, or drowned in a canal after fleeing the authorities. This is to you, who tires of a political movement that demands your patience for a political solution all the while this O'odham (the indigenous people of this region) land is militarized by the border patrol, building more new checkpoints, and nothing ever gets better.

Why now, why without the responsible, reasonable movement leadership? Because it’s come to this: Three children, presumed immigrants by the state, found dead in a canal on Christmas eve, just one week before that five other immigrant brothers and sisters were discovered by the authorities, forced to conceal themselves in cow manure. Just yesterday a 17 year old Nogales resident was shot dead by a border guard on the U.S. side after climbing the border fence. Where is the outcry from the human rights activists, or even the mainstream immigrant groups?

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2010/12/16/20101216pinal-county-arrests-abrk.html

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/12/24/20101224canal1224.html

http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2011/01/07/news/doc4d272fc9733a6461195366.txt

This is a call to all those who oppose the tyranny of law and order, this cold business of institutions that place freedom and dignity underfoot to preserve power and control for the few. There will be people in the streets tonight, decrying this sick order that places property, law, and the will of a few over the lives, dreams, and freedom of human beings.

Another night of wandering the sidewalks of downtown admiring the art that lampoons Arpaio, or defends immigrants, and then home, content to believe that a moral duty has been exercised, justice against the oppressors has been served in Phoenix this First Friday. Of course we appreciate this art, but to pretend that the representation of a struggle is in fact a struggle is lunacy!

There is active solidarity, or there is complacency! Observers of art, become participants in your own life! Join us tonight as we take the streets to stand with all those murdered by the laws and institutions on this stolen indigenous land.

Quote of the Day (1/21/10) plus special bonus.

2011-01-21T18:57:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already, please join our Reddit feed. It displays here on the sidebar but not terribly reliably thanks to the bugginess of the tool, so the only way to really keep up with what we're posting is to go directly to our feed. If you join it you can engage in discussion. We update the feed many times a day.

Today I'm starting a new feature that derives from the Reddit feed. I'll post from time to time a juicy quote that I think is particularly interesting from one of the articles on the feed. Today we start with a great piece on supermax prisons from the New Humanist UK:

"The regime of relentless solitary confinement and tight prisoner control in a typical supermax is made possible by prison architects. Without their professional knowledge and careful calculation and assessment of every design detail, it would not have been possible to hold hundreds of prisoners in complete isolation from each other within a single, relatively small, building for prolonged periods."

I found that interesting for the obvious reasons, but also because that quote reminds me of an exchange I had on the generally fascinating BLDG BLOG a couple years ago. In response to an article called "Corridors of Power" about the building of a new National Security Agency data center, that pondered how to integrate it better into the community through architecture, I posted the following comment:

"I think it would be refreshing if architects were to draw a strict line here: anyone who works on a project like this (and who does not sabotage it) may as well be working on a concentration camp. Likewise those who work on prisons or who work on police stations. There is no way to make the relationships of the community to these things more mutually beneficial. By definition they are the enemies of human freedom and, last I checked, communities are made up of humans. Whatever poor sap does design them would be doing us all a favor if they designed them to look like mosquitoes, bats or some other similarly-evocative creepy-crawly, because that's exactly what they are. Some truth in design would be great. Or, perhaps for further inspiration, may I suggest to the designer a theme out of 1984 as inspiration: a boot stamping on a human face forever. Architects are fooling themselves if they think they can work on these projects and have a clear conscience."

When the blame is finally apportioned once and for all, how much will fall on the architects? From Haussman's redesign of revolutionary Paris to the architects that pioneered Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, of which the city of Tempe is at the forefront -- or was before the building boom here collapsed under it's own bloated yuppie weigh -- the echoes of design reverberate through our lives whether we know it or not. Certainly they are anything but non-political.

ALSO:

So if you hung in there through the new feature, check the right sidebar for preliminary details about this month's Beer and Revolution. Sunday January 30th at 7:00, upstairs at Boulders on Broadway as usual, PCWC presents a discussion on the anarchist and indigenous struggle in Chile. More details will follow in a day or so. Please check back! This promises to be another great one! Bottomless pizza and, if we're lucky, a beer special this time. We look forward to seeing you there!

Dreams of Power and Flying: Jared Lee Loughner and the Columbinization of Political Assassination

2011-01-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

By now everyone has seen the picture. Smiling -- beaming, even -- and wide-eyed in the first photo taken of him by Pima County Sheriffs Department, Jared Lee Loughner defies what everyone wanted him to be. One hesitates to speak too soon, given that more information surely will come out. But all the evidence so far suggests that, rather than a tea bagger nutcase Nazi, Loughner might just be yet another in an increasingly long line of run of the mill psychopaths that each have taken their fifteen minutes of fame in a blaze of bloody, homicidal glory. The kind of psychopath we're getting increasingly familiar with in the US. Since news of the shooting first broke, the country has struggled to overcome its assumptions about the man alleged to have attempted to assassinate Representative Gabrielle Giffords and to have murdered and wounded nearly twenty others in what surely will mark one of the worst tragedies in recent Arizona history.

Friends said he like to shock with his politics, perhaps explaining his book list which, other than Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto, looked like a typical reading list for high school English. Some people forget, Arizona is a hardcore libertarian state -- anti-government is the default position for a large portion of the population. Going after a politician in that respect doesn't necessarily mean it fits into some grand narrative about immigration or health care. Indeed, there is little indication that Loughner is a racist beyond what is standard for Arizona these days.

During those first few hours, the sense that the left hoped he was a Tea Partier was palpable. Self-righteous speeches were at the ready and fingers were warming up for enthusiastic wagging. Cathartic choruses of "I told you so" seemed about to break out at any moment. When now, as it seems more and more likely, it turns out he was just another madman in a country that seems to have made madness its chief commodity, just more wreckage from a collapsing society, you can feel the disappointment in the air.

There will be political haymaking, as there always is, once things have calmed down a bit, but Loughner's apparent insanity rather than political drive seems to have given most everyone some pause for now. More facts may emerge, but as of now, the shooting appears to be Arizona's Virginia Tech massacre, with Loughner playing the part of Seung-Hui Cho rather than Booth to Lincoln.

An escapist in fact, seeking solace in "lucid dreaming", and having given up on finding any meaning in this world, Loughner kept a dream journal of his late night experiments. Like the electronic palaces conjured in ephemeral online games like Second Life, or the fake farms of Farmville, in dreams Loughner felt like he had the kind of power he could never have in real life. It's reported by one of his friends that in his dreams, Loughner claimed he could take control and fly. He spent more and more time sleeping, they say. And he lost touch with them.

Alienation seems almost an understatement when describing Loughner. Living at home in a working class Tucson suburban neighborhood, rejected by the military, unable to maintain himself at school, slipping further away from friends, raised as an only child by reclusive, private parents, at one point he posted to the abyss of Myspace: "[W]hy doesn't anyone talk to me?"

What we see when we look at Loughner and at the repulsive and bloody massacre he wrought in that Safeway is the Columbinization of political assassination. Fucking shoot everyone, essentially. The politician, the judge, the marshal, the old lady, the nine year-old girl who, in true made for movie fashion, was born on September 11th, 2001 and herself had just been elected to the student council at her school. An extreme expression of total alienation. Like Dennis Klebold and Eric Harris, living in the shadow of a missile factory, everyone asks why but then, quietly, nods in understanding. It's not irony.

And in a way, how can it be a surprise either? Mass murder is more and more a fact of life in post-industrial America, and Arizona, too. Last August a jilted father busted into a birthday party and shot six people, including the mother of his kids and her new boyfriend, before absconding to California with the children. He killed himself in his car. Did Loughner plan a similar self-immolation, had he not been interrupted in his task? The leaving of a note claiming responsibility, if true, certainly suggests it.

Generally lacking class consciousness despite daily enduring Capital's withering, unending attacks, alienated from the traditional, now bankrupt mechanisms of class struggle like unions, with families ripped apart by a capitalism that needs dispersed production, and surrounded by the cheap but high definition facsimile of everyday living that is spectacular life in the 21st century United States, the answer more and more seems to be: explode! It doesn't need politics. Goodbye already to "Yes We Can!", increasingly the slogan of late-era life in the US is less inspirational poster and more Samuel Jackson's "When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room." One remarkable fact about the massacre was the equal opportunity of it. Everyone got it. He didn't seem to single out people by race or gender. The political chattering class was befuddled.

Interviewed in Mother Jones magazine, a friend of Loughner's, Bryce Tierney, had this to say about why Loughner did what he did: "I think the reason he did it was mainly to just promote chaos. He wanted the media to freak out about this whole thing. He wanted exactly what's happening. He wants all of that. He fucks things up to fuck shit up, there's no rhyme or reason, he wants to watch the world burn. He probably wanted to take everyone out of their monotonous lives: 'Another Saturday, going to go get groceries'—to take people out of these norms that he thought society had trapped us in."

But what's interesting about spectacular violence like Loughner's killing spree is how it highlights the lack of outrage expressed by people about the daily violence that exists in Arizona. Like the off white walls in a rented apartment, or elevator music on the way to the office, we don't really notice it most of the time. This despite all the teary-eyed consternation about overheated political rhetoric and polarization. While everyone searched for a hint of Glenn Beck on Loughner's TiVo or an Alex Jones bookmark on his browser, the banal crunch that is, for instance, the police state's bone-breaking weight on the increasingly precarious migrant population fades into the background.

In late December, just about two weeks before the supermarket bloodbath, three young migrants were found dead floating in a canal near Gila Bend. A sheriff had stopped their vehicle and, lacking papers, everyone fled to a nearby canal to hide, where three drowned. Then, earlier in the week of Loughner's rampage, a boy was shot and killed by the border patrol when he climbed over the fence into the US. The border police said he and his friends had been throwing rocks. Border patrol denied the shooting at first, but coroners officials in Nogales said they knew a bullet wound when they saw one.

The spectacular nature of Loughner's spree, as well as it's target, clearly contributed to the great shock it caused to so many people, but the real story is the acclimatization of the people of Arizona to the ongoing violence surrounding them. Especially when considered in the context of 2010's record-breaking 252 known deaths of migrants crossing the Arizona desert. With all this talk of polarization in the state, the truth is most everyone seems quite okay with the yearly death toll. The problem seems not to be schism so much as a broad agreement that low level terrorism aimed at Mexicans is a small price to pay for the contemporary ruins of suburban life. While it's true that there are vocal extremists on the right, like the marginalized National Socialist Movement, polls continue to show overwhelming support for SB1070 in Arizona, and every anti-immigrant measure in the last several years has passed with overwhelming support. This isn't polarization -- it's broad agreement with dissenters at the margins.

Indeed, some real polarization would be a good thing. Instead we have this poor substitute, where Democrats and Republicans turn up the volume and the rhetoric precisely to conceal the fact that there's not much difference between the two at all. Consider the last election in Arizona. While the candidates had some differences over SB1070, they virtually agreed on the question of militarization of the border. Terry Goddard, the liberal in the race, hailed Israel and its "separation barrier" as an example to look to in solving our "immigration problem". One may remember the Minutemen plan to build a fence based on Israeli plans on a mile-long strip of private land down south. In a piece entitled, "Can Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?", Goddard wrote, "any barrier on our border should be effective without being hostile and maintain security without being offensive." A Berlin Wall with a smiley-face. A little real polarization might do everyone some good.

All the calls for the toning down of debate and for the return to the responsible middle, whether from Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik or Jon Stewart, suffer from the same deficiency: moderation has so little to recommend it. Moderation is the soil from which the national unity government springs, for instance. It is the enemy of debate. It is based on the false presumption that good ideas, correct ideas, come from the middle and from compromise. Consider the Abolitionists. What use moderation in the face of the outrage of slavery? The moderate position amounted to advocacy for its containment in the South. Or in other words, the responsible middle was the argument for continued bondage for Blacks in the South.

What is needed, then, is a rejection of false polarization and an advocacy for real polarization, the kind that reflects the seething anger that more and more boils over in supermarkets, workplaces and homes all across the country. We need a polarization equivalent to the righteous rage of a population fed up with being tagged, foreclosed, imprisoned, poisoned, entertained and drugged. One that rejects a life where we cheer the new freeway because it will get us to work ten minutes sooner, as if that time accrues to us in the end anyhow. Or a life where we feel lucky to have a job even if it bores the fuck out of us. Or a life increasingly reduced to the size of the electrons that feed our internet and our televisions. I'm sure it's been said before: atomized lives in an electronic age. We need a schism equal to the open wound that is modern life for sure, but Loughner's spree offers nothing for us. His was an inward, Columbinized attack on everyone and everything. Loughner is yet another warning about what we will keep getting if we continue down this path.

Loughner's cryptic obsession with a "new grammar" strikes me in this context as fitting indeed. Rejecting politics as we know it, he had gone so far that he could no longer express himself in terms that anyone else could understand. "What is government if words have no meaning?" he is said to have asked Giffords at a previous forum. Her lack of response set him off. "She's an idiot," he later told friends. He was not having the same dialog as the responsible political class. He was off the map. Thus he could find no collaborators. And he could find no outlets for his rage, no cooperative struggle in which to engage himself towards the relieving of the conditions that drove him mad. Instead, we get an explosion at a Safeway grocery store. His frustration must have been epic.

Now, this last human detonation over, we are left wondering, when and where will come the next one? Surely we look around at our frayed and tattered society and can take no solace that the forces that set this man off have been tamed. Capital's slash and burn war on our lives rages into a new year of crisis, as hungry for blood as ever. And more people are closer to the edge than ever, precarious if they are lucky, and isolated. The frustrations continue to build and our modern life provides little to hold on to for a lot of people. Until we rise up and burn this empty society to the ground, finding new friends and new relationships in the process, we will continue on, like Loughner in many ways, lucid dreaming from a prison cell. "I am a sleepwalker -- who turns off the alarm clock," wrote Loughner in one of his videos. With everyday life offering so little to so many, in the end even the most determined dreamer can only dream for so long.

Exhuming the State's Avenging Angels: Revisiting 'Officer Down' in Light of Recent Revelations About the Phoenix PD

2011-01-04T23:57:00.000-08:00

The recent very suspicious death of Phoenix police Sgt. Sean Drenth (as yet unsolved) and October's outrageous murder of unarmed Phoenix resident Daniel Rodriguez in his own home by Officer Richard Chrisman provides me an opportunity to revisit some of the points I made in an article I wrote a few years ago called "Officer Down: The Media and Cop-Killings". In that piece, I pointed out how when an officer is killed in the line of duty, in general no investigation into the officer's record or character is permitted, because to do so would put into question the religious nature of this society's attitudes (and especially those of the media institutions) towards the police.

Dead cops are treated like little dead angels -- heroes, pure of heart and motive, who meet their tragic end too soon and in defense of the smallest among us. It's as if every cop dies rescuing an old lady from a house on fire, a box of kittens under one arm and a guilty-faced arsonist firmly gripped by the collar in the other. Justice served!

A common attack lobbed at those who dare criticize the cops and their role in society is that, despite one's lack of faith in the oft-touted immaculateness of the paladin in blue, "They'd protect you, too, even though you hate them." Of course, those of us who have seen their brutality liberally meted out in person know better. For instance, one reason most Americans have never been clubbed by a cop is because they've never been to a protest, not because cops don't beat people at protests. Likewise, middle class white people generalize their at worst mildly annoying experiences with ticket-issuing cops to everyone else, and therefore remain baffled each and every time a black kid is dragged from a car and beaten by one of them.

The coverage given to cops, and the heaps of posthumous praise piled on them, is rivaled but not surpassed, only by the attention given to dead soldiers. Perceived disparagers of the troops or their mission are counseled that they fight for our right to dissent, even if not the rights of those they invade and torture (although their defenders rarely even concede that much). And as with cops, only the most superficial investigations into their mission is countenanced. They do violence in far off villages so that we can be free, the logic goes. Not to protect and advance the interests of the capitalist and political class. No, nothing so crass, to be sure. In the common parlance, all enemies of the military are Hitler or terrorists with ticking time bombs. Of the cop, their targets are child molesters, murderers and rapists. And all critics of the police and ("our") soldiers are appeasers, ingrates or apologists for the above listed menagerie of the foes of honest humanity. Or Reds. Now we start to get to the crux of it, don't we?

When a cop dies, freeways are shut down, like the 101 in the north Valley was for Drenth's corpse and it's accompanying tearful and politically opportunistic entourage. Traffic is diverted, local politicians and police officials are given free reign to praise the officer in the media without suffering the cruel editor's snips and cuts. Sometimes the media covers the funeral procession live. Flags are lowered to half-staff. Again, just like soldiers. Indeed, the willingness of capitalist society to shut down its holy arteries of commerce to venerate its fallen protectors reveals their true purpose. But we already knew that.

Which again brings me to the case of Sgt. Drenth, Officer Chrisman and a host of other officers in the South Mountain Precinct of the Phoenix Police Department. I can't think of another time when the sheer force of scandal has compelled onto the public discourse the question of police sainthood. Or at least it should. In a way we have to count ourselves lucky at the odd convergence of circumstances that now provides us the opportunity to interrogate again the question of police and the way they are held up in society.

Called on a domestic disturbance between Daniel Rodriguez and his mother, which was over by the time he arrived, Officer Chrisman barged into Rodriguez's mobile home, put his service weapon to Rodriguez's head, shot his dog and then, eventually, opened fire on Rodriguez himself as he attempted to leave the trailer with his bike. "I don't need a warrant," he is reported to have said in response to Rodriguez's protestations. The act so outraged his partner, Sergio Virgillo, who was present when it happened (which says a lot, as we'll see later) that he broke the blue code of silence and denounced Chrisman to investigators.

Still, the police union ran to his support, paying his $150,000 bail with union dues. Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) President Mark Spencer, a notorious anti-immigrant activist and right-wing Christian, showed up in the courtroom for Chrisman's initial appearance wearing a "We Support Officer Richard Chrisman" t-shirt. Initially and reluctantly, the state only charged Officer Chrisman with aggravated assault and animal cruelty.

Public outrage and a series of protests, which went on for a week, eventually compelled the outgoing County Attorney Rick Romley to charge Chrisman with second-degree murder. Stating his overall support for the police, and the defense of the bad apple myth of policing, Romley was careful to reassure the cops that his issuing of the new charge wasn't a sign of his straying from the fold. "But we as citizens put our trust and our lives in their hands, and when one violates and abuses that trust, we must hold them accountable to the community for that breach," he told the press.

An interesting side note, last year following the anti-Joe Arpaio march, the Phoenix New Times reacted with a vengeance worthy of a puritanical witchhunt to the Dine', O'odham, Anarchist Bloc's assertion that the Phoenix Police were as bad, if not worse in many ways, than the Sheriff's Department. After all, the PPD is responsible for more deportations than Sheriff Joe, hands down. The immigrant movement here had put a lot of faith in the PPD as the heroes of their anti-Joe campaign and would brook no criticism of their saviors -- even when PPD deliberately and without provocation charged their horses into a mixed age crowd, trampling people and pepper spraying indiscriminately. Interestingly, several of those arrested, including one for throwing a water bottle at heavily armed police during the melee, among other complaints, were charged with the same crime as was Chrisman initially, who is alleged to have murdered an unarmed man.

Indeed, the press, especially the New Times, is directly responsible in no uncertain terms for the charges filed against anarchists following that event and the fact that our comrades continue to face prosecution (with one, Grace, having just been released after serving a month in Joe's jail as a result of the state's blackmail operation). So, it's with some chagrin that I note that, almost a year later, the New Times has come to the startling conclusion that, in fact, the PPD is as rife with abuse and corruption as the MCSO. Better late than never, I suppose, but it would be nice if anarchists got some credit for saying it first and didn't have to suffer alone the consequences of standing up against such nonsense. But I suppose that was a different PPD that attacked the march last January, right?

So, let's get back to Chrisman. A little digging, the result I'm sure of the pure monstrosity of his actions and the fact that he is a living as opposed to dead cop (of whom not a bad word would be permitted), revealed something interesting. Chrisman was on something called the "Brady List". That list, which can be viewed here, is composed of officers who have been singled out for acts of dishonesty while on the job. In Chrisman's case, the black mark came when he was observed by a couple of security guards on camera harassing a homeless woman and planting a crack pipe on her.

What was he doing with a crack pipe, you may wonder? Maybe ask the fine officers of the New Orleans Police Department who, it has been revealed recently, routinely carried with them what they used to refer to as a "ham sandwich" -- i.e., an untraceable pistol to plant in case an officer involved shooting revealed no weapon on the victim. Remarkably in the case of Chrisman we have a case here where security guards, generally power hungry and drooling sycophants to the police that they hope one day themselves to be, were so outraged by his behavior that they turned him in. Quite astounding, really. It makes you wonder what his uncontroversial activity was like, doesn't it?

But that outrage is not a rare exception, it turns out. It has since been revealed that the head of the Phoenix Police Department's internal investigation squad was himself on the Brady List! And do you know what else? Revelations from a three year long investigation into the false billing of overtime by officers in the PPD has revealed a ring of fraud within the department, in which what has been reported to be as many as 25 officers in the South Mountain Precinct, aided by sympathetic bosses, routinely billed for overtime that never happened, padding their already inflated wages. Three officers have been charged with serious felonies as a result, probably just sacrificial lambs to cover up whatever else has been going on.

But something interesting came to light as a result of this investigation that really bears remarking on: according to the reports coming out now, if Sgt. Sean Drenth was still alive, he would have been indicted as well. Which would make the officer over which the city elite so recently poured out it's glycerin tears, the latest fallen hero in a long line of since-beatified saints, just another corrupt cop in a corrupt department.

To make this connection even more clear, Officer Chrisman has been reported to be among those under investigation as well, putting our fallen angel Sgt. Drenth a mere one degree of separation, if not a co-conspirator, with alleged murderer Chrisman in the overtime scam. But, to be fair, one degree is in fact too far, since the accused mastermind of the operation, Officer Contreras (recently retired under "multiple misconduct investigations"), actually played in a band with Drenth. The fact that Contreras comes from a long-time Phoenix police family certainly casts more doubt on the reputation of the department and, of course, any future or past fallen officers from that particular cesspool in South Mountain, mired as it is now in public scandal and accusations of racism. Hero cops indeed!

In this new era of austerity, and despite the overwhelmingly obvious corrupt and violent nature of our co-called "protectors", where we are reminded daily that teachers and other public employees (amongst the last remaining pathways to decent wages in this country) must face the imposed precarity of regular review of their qualifications and suffer the constant threat of dismissal, it's interesting that we have heard no such demands when it comes to the police. As a friend of mine recently remarked to a cop on the light rail, "They'd let children starve before they didn't pay you."

And make no mistake, when those children are starving, and you reach for that loaf of bread to tuck under your now-ill-fitting clothing, it will be one of these officers, not Drenth thankfully, but one of his corrupt, roid-raging and hair-trigger comrades, that intervenes to keep that food from their mouths. These are the saints of our time? Or is it perhaps something else?

I won't go into it in depth again, because I already did that in "Officer Down", but suffice it to say that, if as we've seen above, the cops aren't a bunch of angels protecting us from the thugs and thieves that would otherwise plague good people, then something else must be going on. At the least, as it would be a mark of insanity to defend the mainstream image of the police officer, it also makes no sense to be shocked that jobs that offer largely unaccountable power over others and unsupervised opportunities for theft and bullying in fact attract people interested in acting like a bunch of cowboy jerks that take advantage of people, push them around, plant drugs and steal (just to begin a very long list). In that sense, the image of the police officer is perfect cover for them.

But beyond that, of course, we have the particular role of the police as a system in the US. Born out of the slave patrols in the South, the anti-Mexican militias in the Southwest, and the anti-worker thugs that broke up strikes, the legacy of the police remains with us to this day, defending the wealth and power of the elite first, of the settler second and of everyone (or no one) else third, except perhaps by accident or convenience. Let's not parse words or dance around the issue: the thin blue line in fact defends capitalism and the state from it's victims, ensuring that people like us don't get out of line and that the rich and their bureaucratic buddies in the government stay safe, warm and well-fed in their mansions and downtown penthouses. The cops keep the money rolling in! They reinforce white supremacy, protecting some from the worst excesses of capitalist and bureaucratic power in exchange for their acquiescence in the hyper-domination of the rest of society.

The police, far from the angelic agents of our deliverance from evil, are in fact a hallmark and the bulwark of a deeply unequal class society, in which power is exercised against the will and against the interests of the vast majority of the population. Each time one falls should be a time for celebration, not mourning, for it brings us a little bit closer to a world without cops, a world without inequality.

In Spain during the revolution the workers and peasants, so infuriated at the apologists for the monarchy and feudalism, dug up the rotting corpses of the priests and nuns that had conjured the myths of their age -- the lies that sought to keep the farmer and the factory worker in his or her place, bowing always to the appropriate authority figure. Perhaps we can think of counterparts in our own society, who deserve similar tribute, should the time come. So, please, weep no more over the dead cop than the dead slave patroller, or the dead Pinkerton. No rose on the grave, but who's got a shovel?

One final note for 2010

2010-12-31T21:32:00.000-08:00

In these final hours of this year I'd like to recollect on some of the notable events, the highs and lows we experienced, and to share one last victory before hitting the town tonight.

2010 was defined by the struggle against racist legislative attacks (SB 1070, 287(g) secure communities) and the militarization of the border, so it was fitting that we kicked off this year with the force of the DO@ (Dine', O'odham, Anarchist) bloc. This contingent in the streets at January's anti-Arpaio march was a blueprint for the possibilities of solidarity between anti-authoritarians/anarchists and indigenous people after years of dialogue, action, and building trust through struggle and support. It is both a critique of the limitations of the movement and the marginalization of radical and indigenous voices, and a presence in the streets against the attacks on Latino, immigrant communities, and indigenous people across the state. The only response the state could muster was to attempt to isolate and silence those who resist by mounting a vicious attack on that section of the march.

Anarchists holding a banner at an anti-SB 1070 demo in May. Hacks (organizers) from the mainstream immigrant movement attempted to eject the comrades for bringing the "radical" message against the border.

Much of 2010 was spent in the defense of our comrades who were arrested at that march and faced a variety of penalties, but rather than let the authorities intimidate our movement into silence, we organized and pushed back. Anarchists across the valley continued to be a force at immigrant marches, even if the conservative immigrant leadership made it clear that anarchists and allies were not wanted.

Indigenous comrades and anarchists created a presence at the state capitol through out April, May, and June. Markers, paint, posters, and banners were made available for all who wanted to bring their own statement to the frequent immigrant rallies held at the capitol. This small camp came under frequent threat of removal by mainstream immigrant leaders, occasionally with implied arrest by state capitol police. Although one man tried to cut down the banners, the comrades stayed put, maintaining an anti-authoritarian presence through out the rallies leading up to the passage of SB 1070

Valley anarchists kept things interesting in the lead up to SB 1070 with unpermitted night time marches, a counter-rally with music, food, and free literature at a Phoenix park (that was forced out by dozens of Phoenix cops), hitting the streets with self organized copwatch patrols during the frequent immigrant sweeps carried out by Sheriff Arpaio and the MCSO, and through projects of solidarity supporting indigenous people and communities of color fighting back against repression and controls from the authorities.

We were inspired by the comrades from Tucson who blocked the highway to Mexico; there were those outside the state who dropped banners, locked down, and took to the streets in solidarity with those struggling here; and by those actions of the unknowns and disobedients who spray painted walls, left messages on the capitol, and confronted the wave of racism in their communities with night time actions and spontaneity. I know we at PCWC, were especially inspired by all the Latino and non-white youth from Arizona who walked out of class, attacked the racists and the police at the capitol, and confronted the system over the ethnic studies ban and the criminalization of their communities. These were truly some different days here in Arizona.

Indigenous, latin@, and anarchist allies shut down the lobby to the Tucson Border Patrol HQ in May. The comrades called for an end to the white supremacist and colonial attack on border communities through the laws, IDs, checkpoints, racial profiling, raids, deportations, and border militarization.

This was a banner year for Phoenix anarchists in so many other ways, we were fortunate enough to have a grip of speakers and presentations come through town, I know some of my favorites were having the Greek anarchists, John Zerzan, and Lawrence Jarach for their respective appearances at Beer and Revolution. I also admired all of the writing projects, art projects, and hard working distributors getting their hustle on in town.

The Tempe march against SB 1070. Door to door organizing initiated by anarchists and joined by their neighbors, resulted in community discussions, a march, and attempts at leveraging the city to take a non-enforcement stance on the anti-immigrant law.

Perhaps the finest moment of the year was the response to our call for a second Inglourious Basterds bloc to confront the small number of nazis from the National Socialist Movement who came from across the country to march against immigrants and in support of SB 1070. While the
nazis only made it to the federal court building because of the massive police presence and their liberal use of chemical weapons, it is widely agreed upon to have been a victory for Phoenix anarchists, anti-fa, anti-racists, and haters of nazis. However, it is in these final hours of this year that we claim one more win from these nazi chumps.

From the Feathered Bastard blog:

NSM "captain" Charles Wilson has informed me that the NSM may be back for another round in December.

Well, they didn't come back. They wanted to pretend that they weren't phased by their latest trip to the valley of the sun, and they threatened to march again a month later to prove it, which would have been sometime this December. They didn't. Something to keep this in mind if you're nursing a hangover tomorrow: we won, again.

Happy new year to you and yours!

Riot, Si Se Puede! [by lilprole]

2010-12-09T17:17:00.000-08:00

First, an introduction from the Phoenix Class War Council:

It's been a fucking hell of a year here in Phoenix and I suppose lilprole's article about his anti-Nazi adventures with us (see below) is a good enough time to reflect a bit. It's hard to believe it's been only a year since our first face off with the NSM as the Inglourious Basterds Bloc. Although this year certainly had it's very high highs, it's also had its share of low lows. For me? High: the student wildcat walkout and mini-riot that defied the conservative professional organizers before and on the day that SB1070 was signed into law. Low: sitting at home on the day it went into effect with a freshly cop-caused broken arm, forced to watch the largely symbolic and controlled melodrama downtown play out on television.

Still, in more than a decade of organizing in this town, I can honestly say I've never experienced a more inspiring and more intense year. I really feel invigorated by the broad uprising that Arizona anarchists have incited here. Spanning the whole range from the street militant to the creative theoretician, I am excited by the breadth of our struggle and, this being my hometown, I feel like we've again begun to live up to the fiery moniker of our eponymous city.

Even though this was our second manifestation as the IBB, one thing that should be pointed out is that it was in no way a copy of the first. Despite deep and abiding hatred of the NSM, we in PCWC really debated about whether it was worth calling for a second manifestation for a variety of reasons. For one thing, when it came to IBB2 we knew the cops would have done their homework since last time, so we wanted at all costs not to fall into old habits. And we didn't want to give the NSM what they were looking for, a moral victory in which they look like innocent victim, defender of free speech, and other nonsense. For us, this had nothing to do with free speech. Those who wrung their hands about free speech, I think, never understood the terrain of battle. We had a different narrative in mind. And we like when we win, so we know the key is keeping it fresh and plugging in everyone's diffuse individual and collective creativity. For another thing, we didn't want to wind up in a default oppositional relationship to the NSM, where we are the yin to their yang, or whatever. This isn't about keeping the universe in balance or some hippy shit like that.

Additionally, in no way did we want our organizing to open a door for the left and their sabotages. There were times this summer when we anarchists in Phoenix were fighting off attacks and recuperations from several out of town leftist, liberal and so-called revolutionary organizations at once, each seeking to parasitically latch on to a movement that was on the verge of finally exploding beyond the limits of politics -- borders placed on it by the bourgeois liberal movement leadership. While we did see things pop off a couple times, it was nothing near what would have happened, in my opinion, had those confused radicals and political opportunists dropped their own pre-determined agendas and offered genuine support to the people struggling outside the liberal non-profit complex.

And that's something in which we've gotten a real refresher course this year -- especially over the summer when every leftist hack on the West Coast, whether non-profiteer or Stalinist cultist, parachuted into the depths of the New South to take the anti-racist activist equivalent of the tourist's facebook vacation photo next to a Saguaro. Which wouldn't have been so bad in itself, if they hadn't then spent their time after the camera flash lecturing us about the need for common fronts and lining up to support the very same leftist organizations that had been behind the attack on the DO@ in January and the strangling to death of the movement generally, amongst other offenses too numerous to mention.

Naturally, it hurt the most -- and it was the most disruptive -- when the admonition to moderation and accommodation came from "protest vacationing" so-called anti-authoritarians and anarchists. Any out of town radical who thinks this is a time for moderation and accommodation in Arizona doesn't know their creosote from their tomatillo. Fortunately, some, and they know who they are, out of towners stuck to their anarchist guns, supporting us and our comrades in some of our darkest moments of struggle, and bringing insights, not programs with them. For that I'm definitely thankful.

It's funny, because one thing we in PCWC have tried so hard to do is to help develop a truly regional anarchy. I think anyone who reads our stuff and sees or participates in any of our actions or events knows that. For example, what works (or maybe doesn't work, who am I to say?) in the Bay area won't necessarily work here, or at least has to be adapted to our specific circumstances and history.

Consider for instance that we're a right wing state with a very influential libertarian right. It was they who almost scuttled SB1070 in committee, not liberals or their sad organizations. Nevertheless, so many tried to import their specialized knowledge into Az this summer, to impose on us the conditions from where they live as if it's all the same, and to refuse even to consider real dialog with anarchists born here who have been struggling against these conditions for years and years, and who know these movements. We saw this in the off hand and reactionary rejection with which some received our very fruitful engagements with the libertarian right. Leftists from out of town see only the right wing, and not knowing any better, only know how to line up against the whole monolith. They reify it into one giant thing, rather than engaging its nuances and contradictions. That's telling, I think.

That very leftist tendency towards misunderstanding and arrogance above is why we've always gone so hard at the left. We know what it does. I remember a handful of California RCP hacks showing up to the IBB2 call, toting their papers and stickers. We don't have them here in Arizona, and not because we're lucky, but because we've actively worked to drive them out any time they've decided to show their creepy MLM-asses in these parts. We've seen what they do in other cities and we don't want it here. Anyhow, these folks show up and immediately set about handing our their rags, asking if people know who Bob Avakian is and shit. They were instantly confronted. "We all want the same thing," they said, "We're here to oppose fascism!" Oh yeah? "Well, then why do we see you recruiting for your cult instead of fighting Nazis?" They were hounded for the rest of the day. "We're not a cult," they assert. "Then why are you all wearing the same shirt with John Goodman on it?" came the response. We are not interested in popular fronts against fascism -- we are interested in defeating fascism, capitalism and communism. We want anarchy.

The other day, a hack from one of the leftist, non-profiteer immigrant groups showed up at one of our local haunts around last call. She came by the table, telling us that she was saying to everyone in the Bay while she was out there about our fight with the Nazis and how it represented what we all have to deal with here in Az. Well, for one thing, it was like: What do you mean WE ALL have to deal with, I didn't see you out on those streets; you were safe in the Bay raising money during that fight! But she was quick to retort with that same old, tired by now, "Well we're all fighting for the same thing!" Really? It didn't seem that way on the 16th of January. Or: Oh, I didn't know you were for the destruction of the hierarchy, the state and capitalism and it's replacement with freely federated libertarian and libertine communes! You should've said that from the beginning, it would've saved a lot of trouble!

But, of course, we're not fighting for the same thing. We're fighting for anarchy and they're fighting for capitalism, and the state, and the university, and for more jobs, and for better regulated border traffic, and for 501c3 and for better tv shows, and for nicer cops and on and on. None of which interests me in the least. You know, at one point before the IBB2, I had this vision of a great bit of street theater, where someone in an Obama costume tries to join the NSM, hand waving to get their attention and shouting, "Hey, let me join you, I'm a socialist, too!" That's what I mean.

So here we are, on one of the front lines in the fight against the state, capitalism and, in particular, white supremacy. In this little state across from Mexico, which no one paid much attention to until just very recently. And we're trying to figure out a way to build an anarchist movement here -- not in the Bay, not in NY (how to do that is their business) -- which seeks to understand and define the characteristics of our own struggle and our own conditions rather than just picking up a template from somewhere else.

As I've said many times, we'll take what is worth taking, what is useful, and dump the rest. If we're lucky, maybe we'll innovate something or combine a couple old things in a way that others can use. We're certainly on the lookout for those kinds of things from others. I know there are other anarchists doing the same thing in other places outside of the activist capitols. Places like Modesto, for example, which is probably why PCWC and Modesto anarchists have grown so close over the last several years.

Across North America, our anarchies may look different from each other in various ways, but I know we in PCWC are very interested in having the kinds of conversations that can lead to mutual understanding, mutual aid and the sharing of ideas, tactics and strategies that can finally kick this corpse machine over once and for all.

And, I suppose it goes without saying, but we don't have much time left.

PI
Phoenix Class War Council

Riot, Si Se Puede!

by lilprole
Special to Phoenix Class War Council

"[When] we permit the police, Klan and Nazis to terrorize whatever sector of the population they wish without repaying them back in kind. In short, by not engaging in mass organizing and delivering war to the oppressors, we become anarchists in name only."
-Kuwasi Balagoon

Canisters are hurled into the sky, exploding into smoke as they hit the ground, only to kicked back towards the police. Purple smoke billows into the air, making its way upward, encircling the towering buildings. The sound of shots fills the street, as police fire round after round of pepper balls into the crowd. Your proletarian hero is at it again. I’m in the southwest now, Phoenix to be exact, and I'm standing on what appears to be a completely deserted street in the heart of the desert. Save of course for three groups: the anarchists, the Nazis, and the police. The latter two groups though, seem more of a coalition than two separate entities…One can almost hear the music in the background playing, "Wow-wow-wa-wa-wow...wa-wow-wow," as if I was stepping out onto a street from a dusty old saloon, hand cocked on a pistol. But it's smoke grenades that are rumbling past me - not tumble weeds, dear readers. Still, for the two groups assembled here today, this town is by no means, big enough for the both of us.

Taking a moment out of the riot, I pause to clutch my face, as my eyes and skin burn from a cloud of pepper spray that has made its way right for me. Through my burning eyes however, I notice that people aren't running away. The line is being held. People fall back when the police attack, but only for a bit, just enough to avoid the gas. Then they regroup, aided greatly by medics and friends, cleaning eyes and helping comrades. Together now, they unleash rocks, bottles, and hunks of concrete, which rain down on the police and the group of about 30 Nazis behind their lines who carry American flags and shields with swastikas. I learn later that many within the Nazi’s group had to leave early because of the violence. Several newspaper boxes are quickly appropriated and placed in the middle of the street as a barricade. Together, people beat the boxes, making a primordial rhythm. A banner, one of the ones that the police have not yet taken and destroyed, reads 'WE ARE WAR MACHINES!' The crowd gathers again, some all in black with masks, others wearing only street clothes. They look at the advancing police army surrounding a group of Neo-Nazis and declare, "!No pasaran! They shall not pass!" I stopped to catch my breath as I realized that people have been doing this for close to an hour...

On Saturday, November 13th, several hundred people responded to a call from the Phoenix Class War Council (PCWC, say it again with me, Pee Cee Dub Cee), to face off against 20-40 members and supporters of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), perhaps one of the largest white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups currently in the United States. The NSM, which does about one public event a month according to the white nationalist website Stormfront, came to town in November of 2009. Like this year, in 2009 hundreds of protesters responded to a similar call as the NSM rallied on the steps of the State Capital. While police forced the NSM to shut down the rally ahead of time due to such a large and rowdy counter-protest, (which included a small amount of rocks thrown), the violence was nothing like what occurred on the 13th.

The scene from the street on Jefferson was one that does not usually play itself out for anarchists in the United States. I almost had to ask myself - was I watching a street battle in Europe or Latin America? No, this was Phoenix, not Athens or Santiago. We were in the almost nearly deserted downtown; surrounded by glass buildings and near empty streets, save for several stragglers, cars, police, and those at the protest. The riot against the NSM is perhaps the largest uprising that anarchists have participated in the city of Phoenix in the last 10 years, and its success brings up several points of discussion as anarchists continue to struggle and intervene in Arizona and around the world. Furthermore, the actions of the police only further help drive the nail in the coffin against the liberal notion of “free speech,” and leave only more sinister questions for the revolutionary movement.

“Who’s Streets? O’odham Land!”

Since the NSM made its way to Phoenix in November of last year, only to be escorted by the police back to their cars before their permit even expired – much has happened. Tensions over speed cameras have continued – as anarchists have pushed for a critique of them from an anti-border and anti-white supremacist perspective. Anarchists in the PCWC have continued to push the fractures and tensions with the Patriot/libertarian/constitutionalist movement, and instead support a pro-proletarian and anti-racist line of attack. In early December, anarchists helped shut down a speaking event of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, seen by many to be the figure head of the pro-law enforcement anti-immigrant assault on immigrant workers in the state. In January of 2010, anarchists in Phoenix helped organize for a revolutionary bloc within the massive march against Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arpaio has become a focal point for the immigrant movement, as the Sheriff has made it a point of his administration to use his cops to make sweeps of various towns and deport thousands. But what made the bloc at the anti-Arpaio march different from others was the nature of who it represented. The bloc was called the DO@ bloc, and represented a union of Dine’ (Navajo), O’odham, and anarchists. In the North area of Arizona, Dine’ people claim their indigenous home, and in the area close to Phoenix and Tucson, O’odham people live, on both sides of the US/Mexican border. The indigenous and anarchist organizers of the march made it clear that the purpose of the march was to not only to stand in opposition to Arpaio and the state, but also against the recuperative and bureaucratic organizations that had called the march. As the call for the march read:

“We hope to use this formation on the streets at the January 16th march against deportations in Phoenix to project a vision for a different mode of resistance that breaks with the stilted, uncreative status quo that dominates movement organizing in town. This document is our explanation of the type of force we would like to put out there and why we think it’s necessary.”

The DO@ made a clear connections between the forces that oppress, destroy, and colonize indigenous communities, deport and hinder organizing of Latin American migrants, and attack working class “citizens” throughout the United States. That force is the economic system of capitalism, and the government that exists to make sure that that system stays in place. Again from the call:

“We recognize what appears to be an unending historical condition of forced removal here in the Southwestern so-called US. From the murdering of O'odham Peoples and stealing of their lands for the development of what is now known as the metropolitan Phoenix area, to the ongoing forced relocation of more than 14,000 Diné who have been uprooted for the extraction of natural resources just hours north of here, we recognize that this is not a condition that we must accept, it is a system that will continue to attack us unless we act. Whether we are migrants deported for seeking to organize our own lives (first forced to migrate to a hostile country for work) or working class families foreclosed from our houses, we see the same forces at work. Indeed, in many cases the agents of these injustices are one and the same.”

Flashback: the front of the D.O.A. contingent at the January 16 anti-Arpaio march

The DO@ bloc was historic. It represented a revolutionary coming together of forces from both the anarchist movement and indigenous struggles (not to mention those that do not see a distinction between the two currents). It was anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and anti-statist. It was also clearly against the Leftist and mainstream protest organizations that wanted to work with the system – it instead pushed for direct action. Lastly, it also was strongly in favor of working class resistance to capitalism, linking the struggles of working and poor people with migrants and the indigenous, not separating them, while at the same time, attacking white supremacy as a cross-class relationship that hinders the liberation of all peoples.

In mid-January however, at the end of the massive Arpaio march in which the DO@ bloc participated, the police moved in, attacking, punching, and arresting several people. The attack was un-provoked – with police clearly singling out the DO@ bloc for attack. Five people were attested, and ticketed with trumped up charges of assaulting an officer and rioting. As this article is finished, one young woman enters into jail for 30 days, while others still have charges pending or are facing various fines.

The police made one thing very clear: they were not interested in protecting the “free-speech” of those that were part of the DO@ bloc, which was part of a legal, permitted march. Their very presence was enough for the police to react with violence. The coming together of working class whites, anarchists, migrants, Chican@s, and Native peoples represented too dangerous a force to be allowed to publicly march. Proving to be the all too “loyal” opposition, Puente, a mainstream immigrant organization (the organizers of the march), denounced the DO@ bloc, supporting the police line that the marchers brought the violence on themselves by attacking the police first. Anyone who watches footage from the march can easily see that the police acted first against the marchers, and used the opportunity to make arrests, leaving various militants with hefty jail times and fines. The Puente leadership, which coddles up to the mayor and other city elites, has nothing in common with those in the DO@ bloc, so it’s clear why the lines are drawn between the revolutionary segments and the reformists.

It is also is not surprising that Puente did not make a public call to support resistance to the NSM – a call which could have brought possibly hundreds of supporters out to the event. Knowing that supporting such an event would lead their followers into a situation that they couldn’t control was too much for Puente. Groups like Puente see the management of these events and movements as an opportunity to gain supporters and thus power. We, however, are interested in getting organized against capital. Thus, many people I talked with after the anti-NSM riot were ecstatic about the possibility of many people within Phoenix waking up to the possibilities of action outside of legal, permitted, and tightly controlled protest. The anti-NSM riot showed that there was a new power on the street – one uncontrolled by any bureaucratic non-profit, forging a history and confidence on the street and between comrades in struggle.

As we continue, it is important for the rest of this essay to keep the attack on the DO@ bloc very much in mind as we talk about the resistance to the NSM in November of 2010, because as we will see, the police are willing to beat, arrest, and attack one group while protecting and in some cases, working with, another.

This is How We Do It
“And I can see through the walls now, we need to go to City Hall and try to tear the walls down!” -Willy Northpole

On November 13th, about 40-50 (a size that became smaller) Nazis with the National Socialist Movement were confronted in the streets of Downtown Phoenix by about 200-300 counter protesters. The group was made up a variety of groups, but the largest was made up of anarchists, Native warriors, and small groupings of Leftists, pro-migrant peoples, and religious organizations such as the Unitarians.

The day started with people gathering in front of the federal building, where the Nazis were planning to rally later in the day. A banner was dropped shortly after people began gathering around noon, and at about two, the Nazis were sniffed out by a roving black bloc, as they were marching from their parked cars (which was the same site as last year) to the Federal building.

The larger group waiting outside of the Federal building then started to run around the corner and down the street towards where the NSM was marching in formation with police out in front for protection. A standoff then began between the anarchist led group and the NSM protected by the police from about 2pm to about 2:40. The street was held and as expected, both groups chanted and traded insults. The fascists almost sadly jokingly begged the police to, “Move those Jews out of the way!” A friend that was positioned behind the Nazis videotaping got to here more back and forth interactions between the police and the Nazis, as the NSM became more and more angry that the police were unwilling or unable to move their march forward and get the group towards the capital. As 3pm quickly approached, more and more people within the crowd thought that as soon as the clock struck 3, the police would call off the rally and lead the Nazis back to their cars, being that their permit expired at that time.

The black bloc went into action around this time however, getting into a formation which allowed reinforced banners to hide the group and allow the militants the ability to launch projectiles. After several rounds of attacks launched on the fascists, the police sent in a snatch squad, and one section of the black bloc moved away from the front of the line in order to avoid arrests. However, after that section of the black bloc fell back, the snatch quad simply withdrew into the larger crowd of the police. It was around this time that the police decided to unleash the dogs of war, spraying the front of the crowd with pepper gas. At this time I had my back turned, and was trying to give a young hooligan my pink and black bandanna, when the gas entered the air and everyone started to run.

Far from being skeered, the crowd instinctively looked for the nearest projectiles and quickly returned fire. Medics and those in the crowd not throwing rocks and whatever else was humanly possible, helped those with burning eyes and skin tend to their wounds. The crowd quickly re-massed and again held the line. What then began was a running street battle between the police and the anarchists that lasted to 45 minutes, until the Nazis were finally delivered to the Federal building, which was located down the street. Anarchists during the skirmish acted with the utmost bravery, un-arresting people, taking blast after blast of pepper spray, and not being afraid to physically combat their enemies.

When the Nazis finally made it into the Federal building courtyard, they only stayed for about 45 minutes, as their tired and boring speeches were drowned out by the counter protesters who came to taunt them. Even NSM write ups of the event point out that NSM supporters were not able to hear the speeches or participate in the rally. Afterwards, the NSM members were taken back to their cars by the police. Cops then arrested two protest participants as they were leaving the event. Support work is being done as we speak to help the two young people who were arrested by the police, and charged with a variety of felonies.

According to many organizers that I spoke with, the riot that occurred in Phoenix broke out of the bounds of what normally occurs at anarchist street actions in several ways. Firstly, the anarchists were in a leading role, not simply coming to another event and hoping for the best. They organized good and hard for this outcome, and their organization paid off. Revolutionaries who came to shut down the NSM had clear goals and clear ideas about how to achieve these goals. This allowed others to plug into these actions and see how their energies could be best placed. In a movement wracked by apathy towards getting anything accomplished, it was refreshing to be around others who took their ideas and actions seriously enough to put a fair amount of time and energy into them.

Through the various affinity groups within the cities coming together and plugging in where they could, they helped to create the conditions that aided the larger organic uprising against the police and the NSM. These affinities and level of organization has also not come out of this air, but years of hard and ongoing organizing and various state wide meetings between various groups, collections, and organizations. Furthermore, people simply were not afraid of the police. Instead of running when police brought out the pepper spray, or when the advanced, they simply stepped back, and then again held their ground, all the while using the opportunity to attack with projectiles. As one friend said after being spray, “Your eyes hurt for a minute, but then you realize you’re still alive, and then you’re back in it.” This self-valorization – the process in which we discover new ways of life, relation, and become powerful through struggle - was all part of the spark which drove those fighting on the 13th. Through the pepper spray and hurled stones – you could make out laughter and see smiles, even through the masks.

Take the Knife Off the AK, Cut These…

“You better have you’re gats in hand, cause man…” -Biggie

It has to be said. People were packing, again. It was a thrill to see people in the streets running with us while packing on the side. Also, being in Arizona, who knows how many other people were also carrying concealed, which is legal without a permit. Like last time though, we can assume that the other side was doing the same thing. While a shoot out between the two groups would have been bloody, we should keep in mind that opponents to fascism are still armed and willing to openly show it.

The Lie of Free Speech, and Necessity of Direct Action

“There is free speech only for the rich.” – George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party

During the entire event, police acted and coordinated with those within the march. They were seen using hand signs towards the rest of those marching behind them, giving a clenched fist when they need the group to stop. At one point, police even moved to the right side of the street, allowing the NSM ‘stormtroopers’ to move to the left side of the street. Perhaps this was done in an attempt to move the anarchists out of the way, or simply bait them into attacking the Nazis, which was attempted, so they could then be gassed by the police.

Police also allowed J.T. Ready, a former Republican precinct committeeman and on and off again NSM member, to walk into the crowd to engage with protestors. At one point when the crowd began to hurl spit, insults, and projectiles at J.T. Ready, a large African-American man came up and protected him as he walked back into the Federal building area. He stated, “You have every right to be here.” This is interesting yet sad, considering Ready thinks that he has every right to deport this man ‘back to Africa.’ This man was later heard saying, “If they kids had better education in school, they would know that non-violence works…”

The thoughts and actions of this man represent the poverty of thought behind the “Free Speech” position. Though we’ve all heard it before, the idea of free speech is based upon the concept that the government of the United States allows us all the freedom to say what we want; to express ourselves politically in the peaceful way as long as we do not break the law. Thus, any attempt at limiting the free speech of others is an assault on the free speech of all of us, so the line goes. Furthermore, we should not attack those who which to do us harm, because the government exists to stop any sort of extremists that are attempting to illegally harm citizens of this country. Meaning, even if we don’t like them, Uncle Sam has our back and will take care of them.

The problem with this line of thinking is that the state and its police are not neutral. The state for example, has organized itself numerous times to attack social movements aimed at transforming and liberating society. The government attacking groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense are good examples. Furthermore, the entire COINTELPRO organization, during the 1960’s -70’s, was designed to stop and hinder social movements for liberation in the United States (and even some on the right). Through a campaign of disinformation, murder, and terrorism, the US broke apart, assassinated, and destroyed various organizations and people for the sake of keeping the status quo.

One need only take a trip to Berkeley, and visit the site where logging industry goons, instructed by the FBI, set off a bomb under the car of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, two Earth First! activists involved in protecting wilderness and unionizing loggers in the 1990’s – to see just how committed to “free speech” this government is. In this country, if you challenge capitalism in a meaningful way, you will face repression. This is why the state tries to steer us into legal avenues. Want to protest? Sure, get a permit and make sure the police are there to keep you on the sidewalk. Want to strike? Sure, make sure you go to the union bosses with your problems, they’ll work it out with management. Want to make the world a better place? Sure, get a job with a non-profit, which gets state money to do the work that the state used to do. To the state, you are only free to speak as long as you’re reading from their script.

And, we do not need a government to allow us to say what we want, and organize in public. As the Eugene based anarcho-punk band Axiom growled, dude, that’s a “natural power, not a right.” As we have seen, the government will stop us, with violence when they need to, when our movements become a threat to the established order. Lastly, we can’t rely on the government to protect us from right-wing racists who may simply talk about deporting mass amounts of people and imprisoning many more, when that is exactly what this government is clearly doing, especially in Arizona. The state is not here to protect us at all, and so, the state is not concerned with ‘free speech’ at all. States everywhere are designed to make sure that society does not tear it apart based upon class tensions; between those that own and control the means of existence and those that do the work in this society. It is thus concerned with keeping the social peace, and so sees revolutionary groups very much a threat.

Sure you’re angry! You have a right to be. So, write a letter, hold a sign, even read a socialist newspaper if you want! Just don’t go on wildcat strike, firebomb the police state, or loot a grocery store, or try and stop a Nazi march! We can say things in this society, but it’s important that it stays there. That is why the state is willing to attack anarchists within the immigration march in early 2010 while defending the Nazis in November. Police wanted to send the message that a demonstration legally sanctioned by the state (the NSM rally) was going to be protected with the full power of that state. And all those who were willing to do exactly what Hitler claimed was the only way to stop the rise of fascism, or “fighting them in the streets” – were going to be put down with massive force. The same way it wanted to send a message during the legal march against Arpaio by attacking the anarchists. Its message was to the immigration movement and was as clear as crystal. That message was this: get with the revolutionaries, and you will be arrested and attacked with the power that Unkie Sam can muster. Anyone who supports the idea and line of “free speech” supports the government’s platform. But we anarchists are not here to play by the state’s rules – we are here to destroy the capitalist government.

We must also keep in mind that regardless of whether the Nazis ever get close to power, the state already violently carries out the mass deportations and incarceration of huge segments of our population, often against communities that have been exploited by capital through colonialism and the racialization of the working class. To allow those that would use their actions to usher in yet another form of totalitarian government while we sit by, while another totalitarian government protects them, is sick and sad. People can say whatever they want, but when they call for genocide, violent deportations, fascism, and race war, they can only be met in the streets with force. The mouths that scream “free speech” one minute only to cry “race war” the next can only be argued with bricks, fists, and whatever means necessary. We will not allow the ideology of the bourgeois state to dictate our actions; we organize on our own terms.

Give Up (Aryan) Activism

When I returned from Phoenix, I began reading a lot about fascism, the Holocaust, and one of the ‘pioneers’ of Neo-Nazism in the United States, George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party (ANP). Rockwell is important, because after his assassination in the late 1960’s, former party members would go onto form organizations that would lead to the formation of the National Socialist Movement. Politically, the ANP, and thus the NSM who followed its lead, pursued an activist and electoral mode of organizing. If they were Leftists, they’d be as hard as racist ACLU members, or something. Anyway, for the ANP and the NSM, this means constantly being in the public eye, getting as much media as possible, and being on the streets whenever they can. The more they fly the flag, the more people will come rally to them. They contend that it’s only a matter of time before things get so bad that white people will wake up and realize that the NSM is the only game in town not taking it for the Jews.

Rockwell had standard politics for a ‘National Socialist’ at the time, although he stressed he was not a ‘fascist,’ because he supported free enterprise. More racist lemonade stands, and less racist state owned factories, yay! Rockwell never led an organization of more than 200 active ‘stormtroopers,’ or men that lived in ANP barracks and outfits, although the ANPs influence through supporters and literature reached out far beyond its membership base. What is interesting about the ANP though, unlike the KKK, is the importance that placed on staying inside the law. Rockwell envisioned that he could gain power by being in the public eye, making them aware of his program, and then during a time of economic downturn become more and more popular until he could run for President.

The ANP used the civil rights movement as a ‘point of intervention,’ hoping to gain support among those that opposed desegregation, Leftists, and supported the war in Vietnam. Strangely enough, Rockwell also saw the fact that they were called ‘Nazis’ and publicly displayed the swastika and gave the Hitler salute as a plus for the organization. Without the word “Nazi,” Rockwell commented, the news would not cover the ANP. With few members, police harassment, the threats of violence at all times, and low funds, ANP actions never went beyond simple rallying, passing out flyers, and giving speeches, and failed to awaken many “whites” to an Aryan consciousness. However, such organizing on the part of Rockwell did turn many onto Neo-Nazi politics, and helped to usher in a new generation of racists that today comprises groups like the NSM. While the ANP failed to take power, it did succeed in at least creating the next generation of foot soldiers.

Seeing Rockwell’s ANP as their political forbearers, the NSM holds onto their activist, electoral strategy in order to gain entry into the higher halls of power in the United States, hoping to totally transform it into a fascist empire. Like the ANP, the NSM is using the politics of the day to make a name for itself. In the 1960’s it was Civil Rights, and today it is border issues and the fight over immigration. The NSM is thus hoping to use anti-immigrant sentiment to its advantage and pull more mainstream Americans into its ranks. Like the ANP, it uses the Nazi imagery of the part to gain media publicity, although it helps to soften its image by constantly referring to itself as a “law abiding, white civil rights organization.”

Being legal is important for these groups. Rockwell, for all the venom he aimed at the “Jewish” US government, worked closely with the FBI, giving them information on each and every stormtrooper, letting police know where they would be traveling and where they would protest, and much more. When ANP members left the organization he alerted the FBI, that way, if the ex-ANP members committed any acts of violence, they could not be traced back to Rockwell. This is funny, because the ANP was ripe with infiltrators, as we can be sure the NSM is as well. Some on Stormfront even accuse J.T. Ready of being a fed! Perhaps he was caught stuffing his chipmunk cheeks at Taco Bell…? Anyway, in an interesting note about the ANP, COINTELPRO was even involved in disrupting the organization (and causing infighting with the Klan) and playing off various members of the ANP against each other. Rockwell could wave the flag at the FBI all he liked, they still didn’t like him; but they saved their real guns for the Fred Hamptons of the world.

Despite this, following the state’s rules does bring protection, and allows you to be a Nazi out in the open while the police beat back your detractors. This is a formula that the NSM has followed everywhere it goes. It arrives with swastika flags, counter-protestors attempt to attack, and the cameras go click. And thus, the NSM is quite at a crossroads. It needs the Nazi imagery just to get attention, but it also needs to appeal to main street whites to try and get numbers – which the whole Nazi thing kind of kills. At the same time, while riots against it, whether in Toledo in 2005, or Phoenix in 2010, give it publicity, it also makes the NSM seem weak and under attack.

In many ways, groups like the NSM are a dead horse. Passed over by an era of facebook event invites and grassroots organizing – there seems to be little place for them and their tired and boring brand of simple flag flying and Nazi speechifying. Even when the NSM tried to make entries into the Tea Party they have gotten the cold shoulder. J.T. Ready was welcomed with open arms before he was outed as a Nazi, but when he and some of his racistas showed up to a teabagger shindig with a Hitler portrait, they violently got the boot. But, we should keep in mind that the threat of these groups lies not just in their existence, but in the idea that they will help to raise the next generation of Hitlerites. When are these guys going to get tired of waving the same flag and hearing Jeff give the same speech in his new coke dealer suit before they start getting other ideas? We can deal with the activist NSM, but one that is focused on direct action would be much, much scarier.

For now though, weak and under attack is exactly what the NSM is. Like the ANP before them, without massive police protection the NSM would be beaten down and broken apart at most of the rallies that they help organize. Like the ANP and much of the white power movement, the NSM is often derailed by in fighting between members and splits within the party. As anarchists and other radicals continue to physically confront the NSM, we are making it harder for these groups to organize and meet new people. We are also making it less attractive to join the organization due to the possible violence one might face. While media attention is drawn to the NSM when we physically confronting them, attention also goes to us, and we appear as the only ones willing to stand up and physically fight the Nazis, who are themselves seen as the extreme extension of what the state already is.

So while more people may know about the NSM, more people at the same time know that anarchists kick the shit out of them and have more numbers. We are also seen in the context of popular rebellions against not only the Nazis, but also the state and its police. Furthermore, we must also be wary of whatever the media tries to paint us as, and focus more on what the street has to say. In the aftermath of the riots in Phoenix, many people felt energized and ready for the battles to come – hoping that riot would provide a springboard for more radical actions. Moreover, these actions give credit to the idea that people can self-organize and act outside of the activist groups that seek to manage and control popular protest.

Anarchists however, should be keen to keep in mind several things. They should look at the communities that the NSM and other neo-Nazi groups reach out to: mainly working class and lumpen white communities. We need to be engaging with these communities, expressing that our enemies are not other poor and working people led by a mythical Jewish order, but the ruling class. Likewise, we need to keep in mind that these Nazis are simply reacting and feeding off of what the state is already doing. If we are not also struggling against attacks organized by the government on indigenous communities, the border, deportation of migrants, etc, then we will not be fighting the conditions that give rise to many of these ‘extremists.’ The NSM doesn’t operate detention camps and do sweeps breaking apart families, filling the jails – the state does.

Local neo-nazi Jason ("JT") Ready is consoled by a Phoenix cop after being confronted by the angry anti-nazi crowd

By the Time I Get to Arizona

“Government? Fuck Government, niggas politic they selves…” -Jay Z, Where I’m From

People on the west coast often ask me why I’m excited about Arizona. For one, I’m excited about a place where anarchists actually support each other and play a part in each other’s struggles. Living in a place where anarchists from the two other cities less than two hours away hardly ever come to my town, it is hard to believe the degree in which solidarity does exist. Arizona is inspiring to me, because the bonds that people have made there over the years are staying and growing more powerful.

People on the 13th could have been terrified. “Why should we go out into the streets to confront the NSM?,” they could have asked. The police were willing to attack them during permitted marches. What were they going to do at an unpermitted action? But people didn’t give a fuck. They came out with or without charges from the months before. Some might have held back, but people were not going to be scared of taking to the streets. And they weren’t. Anarchists in Arizona took their vengeance for the Arpaio march; the price was the blood of the fascists and the police who clutched their faces as rocks rained down on them while we cried pepper spray tears of joy.

We should keep in mind that these affinities and relationships that exist in Arizona between anarchists have not come out of nowhere. Anarchists have been holding state-wide meetings to talk about how they are going to respond to what is happening for a while now. In large street actions, they have found each other and tested their abilities. Groups such as the Phoenix Class War Council have also managed to develop a dare I say, oh so American anarchist theory that speaks to the current situation without looting too much from Europe or anywhere else. It is against white supremacy without the pitfalls of identity politics. It is insurrectionary without being idiotic or grad-studentish, (oh, I said that shit). It is class war without asking anyone to become a SEIU organizer. In short, advances have been made in both the world of theory and the world of praxis, all while not separating the two from each other.

Meanwhile, indigenous militants in groups such as the O’Odham Solidarity Across Borders collective and fighters from Flagstaff have also created, maintained, and built a revolutionary indigenous politics that has informed and grown within and alongside Arizonan anarchism. Lastly, the connections being made between all sections of the exploited and oppressed, from workers to indigenous – is inspiring. People are working together against common enemies and towards common visions; re-compositing themselves together despite the divisions that capital places between us. That in itself is inspiring.

So when they ask me why I’m excited about Arizona, I tell ‘em this.

It is the place where the sons of immigrants and the daughters of Natives and the children of settlers don masks and fight together. Where they chant: “Riot! Si se puede!” And indeed, it has been done. And in that moment, we can feel the common humanity that unites us all and reminds us, that together, we are fighting.

For freedom.

Photo of the day: Italian students carry book shields against police during day of action.

2010-12-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

Striking back against the capitalist and state attempt to further privatize education and jack up fees, Italian students took to the streets to chants of "Block Everything". Exercising their power to shut down the functioning of everyday life, they tried to block parliament. They were met by police, who in turn came under attack by tomatoes, eggs and smoke bombs. More successful blockades took place at various other city institutions, like the subway and tourist attractions.

Aside from the blockades, one particular photo caught my eye: students deploying shields marked with the names of famous book titles! Notice those helmets in the background. They're ready to rumble. Bravo, kids! Offense gets all the glory, but defense can win the game (ask the Suns, who could use more of the latter these days, to be sure). One suggestion, though -- I don't see any Bonanno in there! I guess there's still a little homework to do even after school's out. Still, well done!

TSA, Free Movement, and the Art of Not Being Governed

2010-12-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

Watching the reactionary right wing debate the slightly less reactionary right wing in the media last week about the supposed TSA body scanner scandal and the most efficient way to control American's movements has me thinking. I'm not a right wing libertarian, of course, but I have to say it's telling that as far as I've seen the media hasn't had one of them on tv during this whole hooplah. Curious just because you see them in the media all the time when it comes to the economy and other issues (think CATO institute, for instance).

As much as I prefer the anarchist demand for free movement in general over the much more anemic right wing libertarian concerns over rights, searches, paid for tickets and such, it would be interesting to see one of them arguing with these various reactionaries that have been trotted forward in what are supposed to pass for "all things considered". I can just hear them now: "When I buy a ticket from Southwest Airlines, I am entering into a contract with the airline, not with Big Brother, so what right do you have to make me go through the scanner?! It's the airlines job to deal with safety, not the government's!" I probably ought to have written that in all caps to make it a proper tribute.

Instead, what we have seen, it seems to me, amongst everyone in general is this same old familiar kissing cousins argument that, since neither one deviates from the overall agenda of the ruling class for more controls on movement, naturally leads to conclusions with which the elite is quite comfortable. On the reactionary end we have people demanding exemptions for themselves (or, most often, for their poor grandmothers) from controls on movement because, well, they don't think they look like terrorists (i.e, the "Israeli style" being talked about). I call this the racist argument. On the other hand, unfortunately, we have the liberal argument, namely that everyone ought to face an egalitarian exposure to the naked scanners in exchange for desiring to travel. I suppose this is the "pay the devil his due" argument.

Both these arguments seem eerily familiar to me, I suppose, because of the analysis, investigations and interventions that PCWC did into the anti-speed camera movement here in Arizona over the last couple years. Now, sadly, that movement has turned away from what was once a pretty successful, creative and broadly supported direct action and political theater campaign that had the camera companies and polticians on the run. Unable to escape the white supremacist assumptions that underlay its politics (and despite the best efforts of some to prod it in new directions that challenged those contradictions), it mutated into a zombified, dead, boring and failed electoral movement which eventually had the main organizers in the right wing of the movement (avowed libertarians, many of them) lining up with the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and State Senator Russell Pearce in a truly desperate and pathetic plea to whiteness.

As predicted by its critics on this site, the movement, having failed to reconcile those internal contradictions, eventually fully succumbed to the gravity of white supremacy, in effect demanding free movement for whites but regulated movement for "illegals" in a mish mash politics that couldn't be clearly articulated and didn't even make sense to most whites, who were too afraid of Mexican illegal drivers on their streets to see the encroaching police state steadily encircling them as well. So, unable or unwilling to choose the side of liberty on this crucial question of free movement for everyone and rejecting the direct action strategy for electoralism, the movement has gone down to defeat after defeat.

Anyhow, as I was with the speed camera stuff, I have lately been again looking for new ways of considering the question of movement with regard to the TSA debate. So, as you can imagine, I was quite happy when I stumbled upon this video below, in which James C. Scott, Yale University Professor, discusses his book "The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia". The one thing that struck me in particular, in light of the TSA discussion, is his citation within those indigenous peoples that have resisted incorporation into the state a general tendency to block the abiding drive of the state to attempt control movement. As Scott says, "The state is the enemy of people who want to move around".

But Scott goes further, pointing out firstly that the hill peoples he studies not only cultivate an antagonistic relationship to the demands of the state for control of their movement, but that their movement itself is in fact a result of having resisted and escaped slavery in previous or nearby civilizations. In this sense, their demand for mobility is central to their resisting the imposition of slavery. With a right wing libertarian movement always going on and on about slavery and the NWO, you would think this argument would have some purchase and perhaps point at a way out of the TSA dialectic that defies rather than reinforces the arguments for increased state regulation of movement.

Lately I've been reading Alex Butterworth's "The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents" and that has reinforced for me the importance of free movement in our own anarchist history. Echoing a point I've noticed in other recent books I've read, such as "Under Three Flags: Anarchism And The Anti-Colonial Imagination" by Benedict Anderson or even John W F Dulles' "Anarchists and Communists in Brazil , 1900-1935", anarchists and anarchism (and, even national liberation struggles, as Anderson points out) have benefited from the mobility of 19th century anarchists, coerced as it sometimes might have been.

Of course, always caught between the home state's desire to be rid of a problem and the intention of other states, like Britain, to aid their enemies' revolutionaries ("Britain: friend of every revolution but it's own" went the old saying), that movement of anarchist revolutionaries served as a mixing pot of ideas and eventually became quite a threat to the established order of its day. Think Bakunin and Kropotkin in Switzerland, for example, or the Communards in London. Think France for Sabate. And on and on. Often even the state's deportations came back to haunt them, as we learn from Louise Michel's study of the native Kanaks on the prison island of New Caledonia, and the much-storied way she helped them cut the telegraph lines from the island to the home country. We see the same phenomenon on display in Dulles's book, with Italian anarchists, deported after the revolutionary upsurges of the 19th century playing crucial roles in the class war in Brazil. In fact Brazil later reported many Italian anarchists back to Europe, sending the struggle full circle.

Returning to Scott, note as well his highlighting of both settlerism and what he calls "distance demolishing technologies" (roads, communications, etc) as further weapons in the state's attack on free movement and, essentially, human liberty. Settlerism, the usually state-supported invasion of a foreign population into indigenous lands, assaulter of autonomous ways of living and resistant cultures (George Washington, surveyor, imperialist and American hero, was known as "Town Destroyer" by the Iroquois, for instance), remains a problem with which we in the Southwest are quite familiar. But consider that in the case of the TSA, the distance demolishing technology is not in fact the body scanner, but actually the airplane. Is it the airplane itself rather than, or in combination with, the body scanner that serves as the attack on our free movement? Worth thinking about, but I imagine Scott would answer in the affirmative.

So, continuing to move on from right wing libertarians then, I think these arguments that Scott makes are ones that anarchists are quite well-prepared to make and would bring a lot to the discussion raging on cable news channels for the last week (although overshadowed now by Wikileaks and Julian Assange's catch-me-if-you-can race with Interpol, though the similarities are perhaps more than many would like to admit). Certainly, if these instead are our arguments, they bring more to the table than the rightwing libertarians' sad economism, which only seeks to substitute the bean-counting dictatorship of capital for the all-seeing Big Brother state.

After all, why ought any of us have any more confidence in Google to regulate our movement than the state? As if they were ever enemies to be played off each other. Obviously our argument is a rejection of both. A true defense of free movement, then, both as the hallmark of a free people -- as a necessary condition of freedom -- as well as, importantly, a mode of getting free, can threaten to break through the narrow debate now leading us, state and capital hand in hand as usual, towards more regulation, more tabulation and, certainly, more tyranny.

Resistance Rising Tour w/ Holy! Holy! Holy!, Young O'odham United Through Health, & O'odham Solidarity Across Borders this Tuesday in Tempe!

2010-11-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

We're excited for a couple of events coming up next week as Holy! Holy! Holy!'s Resistance Rising tour arrives for a couple of different gatherings in the valley, including one that we're hosting at ASU's main campus on Tuesday. If you read my buddy P.I.'s piece on the tour last week (check it out if you haven't yet), you have a good idea of what the HHH! folks plan to bring to the table, however we're pleased to announce some additions to this Tuesday's line-up. We're excited to have two groups of indigenous people join the line up to speak on the ongoing efforts to resist the colonialism of the occupied O'odham lands we are on.

The first addition comes from some younger people from the Tohono O'odham nation in southern Arizona who are hard at work on restoring strength to the people through food sovereignty. Since 2008 Young O'odham United Through Health (YOUTH) has been active in sharing traditional food and farming practices to empower Tohono O'odham youth, as well as organizing music and cultural events showcasing the talents of O'odham youth. Two of the youth mentors involved in the program will be making the trip up to Tempe to speak on the struggles and success they've experienced in building youth social, mental, and physical well being.

We're pleased to announce that our second addition to the bill comes is our comrades from the O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective (OSABC), a grouping of Phoenix-area based Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham youth who are pushing the struggle against the colonialism of their traditional lands. OSABC will be sharing their experiences with the struggle against colonialism and settler privilege in our movements, and what this means for the broader fight against the systems of exploitation, dispossession, and control.

The YOUTH project and OSABC are truly complementary examples illustrating that the struggle against colonialism is not simply an offensive- but also a mission to nurture, uplift, and prepare the future generations for the tasks ahead.

So once again, we have the night kicking off with a presentation from H!H!H! (along with selections of Franklin Lopez's new film end:civ), is followed by YOUTH's talk on food sovereignty and O'odham youth empowerment, and we'll close out with OSABC speaking on resisting the colonialism in our political movements and from those in power.

The Resistance Rising tour featuring Holy! Holy! Holy!, YOUTH, and OSABC will be held this coming Tuesday, November 23, in room 105 of Armstrong Hall (Sandra Day O'Conner College of Law) , at the ASU main campus in Tempe. Armstrong Hall is located on the southwest corner of McAllister Ave. & Terrace Rd. on the eastside of campus.

For those driving to the presentation there is a visitor parking garage just north of Armstrong hall on McAllister Ave. & Tyler St., all parking is free at this garage if you leave after 7 PM (payment is on exit), so you won't have to pay if you decide to park there for our event. The presentation will begin at 7PM, we have the room open for seating at 6:30, so it's a good idea to stop by with a little time to spare because we will be starting promptly at 7.

This event is free, but we are requesting that people donate money if they can to help cover the travel costs of our speakers.

Finally: Don't forget that Holy! Holy! Holy! is a real live band too, and some friends of ours have organized a live show the next night (8 PM Wednesday, the 24th) at Conspire (5th st. and Garfield) in downtown Phoenix featuring H!H!H! along with Di Nigumim, Travis James, Daryl Sherrer , and DxBx. I'm sure there will be a few other surprises as well, so please support both wonderful events this week in the valley!

No thanks, No giving! No border patrol on O'odham land!

Photo of the Day: Undercover Blues at November 13th Anti-NSM action!

2010-11-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

When myself and JR were in Barcelona a few years ago we happened to find ourselves in a really fun squatter anti-eviction riot in which a bunch of banks were fucked up, buildings were occupied, graffiti was thrown up everywhere, billboards were wheatpasted and a freeway was occupied. It was a blast. There was a really cool rally beforehand with all kinds of theater, fireworks and music. Quite impressive. They really had their shit together.

For the most part, until the freeway was taken over, the cops stayed at the back, kind of lurking back there or lingering on the margins. But once we all hopped the wall and got on the freeway, they finally let loose on us with everything they had, rubber bullets, batons and the usual. Quite exciting. Afterward, I remember being on the train, breathless from running, telling some Spanish guy, himself bleeding from a vicious welt inflicted by the cops, that we'd never seen anything like that in the US, and wasn't that too bad.

One tactic that the squatters used against the police in particular caught our attention. In order to keep plain clothes cops out of their march, they had constructed several stylized, giant fingers that pointed down towards the ground, saying "police" on them. The fingers were attached to poles so that they rose clearly above the crowd, in plain view of everyone. People carrying those signs would follow cops through the crowd, calling them out and driving them out. It seemed to work like a charm.

So, we've kicked around doing something similar here for quite a while but never did it, mostly because it seemed like we never needed to. However, the recent rise of the police tactic of using plain clothes snatch squads to infiltrate and grab people from within our marches and rallies reminded us of what we'd seen in Barcelona. So, before the anti-NSM action a couple of them were constructed and taken to the courthouse on the appointed day. They worked like a charm. In fact, one set of plain clothes cops fled never to be seen again that day. It says a lot that the only people arrested were grabbed after the action, I think. Of course, that means we need to think of ways to stop that from happening next.

So, our photo of the day shows one happy militant putting the tactic into practice. Look at the smile on his face! And the frustration on the officer's! Priceless!

N-S-M and P-P-D, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

2010-11-14T22:43:00.000-08:00

Remember that photo from January 16th? Some may recall some months back, around January, when anarchists and others called out local immigrant organizations for collaborating with the police. The movement's leadership had decided that they would play with the Phoenix PD as part of their PR game with Sheriff Joe (they are each other's willing foil). They invited the cops into their planning meetings for what was then the most recent in a seemingly unending series of funeral procession-like marches to Arpaio's jails that stretched, like the domesticated anti-war marches of years before, into infinity towards both horizons with no end in sight. It was political pragmatism at its worst, since the PPD actually deports more people than the Sheriff Department does. Still, at the January 16th mobilization, the movement leaders worked closely with the Phoenix PD as it marched against Sheriff Arpaio.

This dance with the devil ended that day for most anarchists and anti-authoritarians with the police attack on the DO@ Bloc, a truly historic convergence of anarchists and revolutionary anti-authoritarian indigenous folks from around the state, which was an expedient conclusion for a movement leadership that was increasingly having to deal with anarchist and anti-authoritarian criticisms about the tameness, boringness and ineffectiveness of the struggle against the increasingly worrisome rise of the racist Right here in Arizona. Likewise the marginalization of many indigenous people within the movement and the hostility of the leadership to arguments that brought white people into situations that opposed white supremacy and controls on movement stood out to many of us as more than just problematic given the reactionary political circumstances.

We later found out as a result of the investigation following the Arpaio Five arrests that the police/movement collaboration had resulted in the compilation of a snatch/watch list which cops used to pick out particular people for arrest that day. Our understanding is that this list was in police possession ahead of time, placing more than a little doubt on the mainstream dialog about the police attack that says that cops were forced to attack by anarchist provocations. I myself was shadowed by cops while in the park and a comrade reported overhearing the officers talking about me. This was before the march.

At the time, the soft activist middle, eventually including almost every out of state radical who parachuted into town for the summer's glorious and oh-so-activist-hip fight over SB1070, refused to listen to anarchist criticisms of the cozy relationship between cops and the movement leaders, defending them without listening to local criticisms from people who had interacted with them for years. When we pointed out the obvious problems with working with cops tasked with deporting the base of the movement, not to mention the PPD's increasingly obvious corrupt and violent nature, we were treated like we had broken some taboo.

Denouncing us as sectarian, out of town activists and movement heavies combined to attempt to impose the most watered-down bourgeois popular front framework on a movement that by then was justifiably itching for radical action, regardless of whether it alienated the political middle (or forced them to choose a side). The time for moral appeals to the white center was clearly and at long last over for many people who itched for a fight back.

Well, here we are almost a year since January 16th and the latest clash with the National Socialist Movement offers us a perfect lesson that will be hard to ignore. Below you will find photos and video showing without a doubt the level of police collaboration with the NSM. For movement leaders to maintain their relationships with this racist organization in the face of this kind of evidence will be difficult indeed, although we've seen the kinds of political gymnastics they're capable of, so don't rule it out!

In this first picture you can see the NSM getting ready for a fight, surrounded by cops. Note how they are turning their flags upside down and wrapping them up to make clubs. You don't see any cops stopping them, do you? How many is that? I count at least five, maybe six, flags turned into weapons in this picture. This is not to say that we anti-fascists didn't come planning on disrupting their march -- we did. It's just worth noting the police complicity with their supposed "free speech" march. Notice also JT Ready on the far left in the glasses with the goatee marching with them. I'll come back to the significance of this a little later.

In this second photo, below, you can see an officer of the PPD (note his badge on his belt) giving an order for the NSM to stop marching. Indeed, at one point a cop was seen directing the NSM formation to tighten up.

Need more proof? Check out this video that clearly shows the cooperation between the Phoenix cops and the NSM throughout the entire march. Note how the police clear the sidewalk, moved the NSM into the street and then direct them forward.

Speaking of that, now consider this next photo! Clearly visible here are Phoenix cops with riot gear and shields standing side by side on the skirmish line with NSM shield-bearers while they blast pepper spray in the face of a protester (who is just out of the picture).

Finally, review this footage from the news. Local videographer Dennis Gilman is interviewed about his experience on Saturday. He shows the reporter some footage of everybody's favorite huggy bear Nazi, JT Ready, being allowed to pass through the police line to antagonize protesters. Later he did it again but was attacked with spit, bottles and firecrackers. Again, the cops did nothing to stop him. It seems like Nazis can come and go through the police line at will.

As Dennis points out in this interview, the cops actually extended the Nazi's permit so they could still hold their rally. This after we had held the NSM and the cops at bay in the street for well over an hour, past its expiration time. Escorting Nazis, giving them orders, letting them pass through their lines, sharing the front line with them, extending their permit -- at what point can we finally say out loud what so many of the victims of the police already know: the police are the violent arm of the state, determined to defend the existing order, whether through their own routine violence (rarely remarked upon in the dominant discourse) or, if need be, through collaboration with fascists. Either way, it's a war machine on the working class, intent on attacking and disrupting our attempts at wresting from them control of our own lives.

So what is a movement to do in the face of this obvious collusion between the white fascist street and the white fascist state? Will movement leaders just ignore it like they did on January 16th and continue to work with the murderous bastards of the PPD? Or can the movement finally understand that the cops are as much the enemy as the NSM is? It's not like this is a different Phoenix Police Department. It's the same force as in January. And it's not like they're acting differently. If you need a refresher, scroll back up to the photo introducing this article.

In fact there's actually more reason to worry about the cops, really, because as of now the Nazis don't have detention camps or deportation powers. But the police do. If someone is deported or delivered into state custody, they pass first directly through the hands of the police. Arguments that cops are just doing their jobs hold little water in terms of a defense -- after all, don't these ridiculous assertions just reinforce all the arguments anarchists make for the elimination of police entirely? But seeing the willing and natural alliance between police and Nazis has got to raise doubts in even their most stalwart defenders, I would think. No, the police are part of the problem.

If the mainstream movement leaders continue their relationships with these Nazi-lovers, then one can only presume that they find some utility in keeping them around. It can't be because it advances the struggle against the State, however, because here we are many years into this failed strategy and thousands upon thousands have been deported or, out of fear from the police more than Nazis, have self-deported themselves.

So, did we see that usefulness to the movement leadership on January 16th? Are the police convenient not because they advance the movement's larger goals of stopping deportations, but instead because they push forward the movement leadership's desire to police the radical, militant wing of the movement? As Grace, arrested that day and then blackmailed into taking a plea agreement, heads to jail next week, I know I'll be pondering that question with great interest.