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On January 14th, a massive, militarized eviction by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department ended a nearly two month long takeover of a formerly vacant property by the collective, Moms 4 Housing, in West Oakland.
Despite the raid, the movement surrounding it shows no signs of letting up, as grassroots anger grows at law enforcement and the deepening housing crisis.
This is what showed up to evict black mothers from their home in Oakland last night. This is the weaponized arm of speculative real estate investment capital. #Moms4Housingpic.twitter.com/xoRUnhaSgC
On Monday, January 13th at around 6:30 PM, word went out that a locksmith had been seen outside the occupied West Oakland home which had been re-appropriated by a collective of formally houseless African-American mothers and their children.
The lock smith explained that they were waiting for the police and that an eviction was going to be carried out that night. Within minutes, through text and social media, people mobilized and surround the house in solidarity.
#Moms4Housing ACSO brought inciident command center vehicle, Swat truck full of gear, ambulance at the ready,
Soon, the crowd swelled to between 200-300 people, with a line of supporters locking arms in front of the house in defense. Supporters also dropped off piles of food and supplies, while both the mothers inside and supporters outside gave short speeches and statements of solidarity.
As the evening wore on, word came down that the Sheriffs were claiming that the eviction would not be carried out that night and the crowd largely dissipated. Over all, the mobilization of hundreds of supporters in a matter of minutes was seen as a key victory and a sign of the movement’s growing strength.
U.S. tanks, trucks and other military equipment, which arrived by ship, are unloaded in the harbour of Bremerhaven, Germany January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer – RTX2XZ77
Eric Zuesse (This updated version is first published at The Saker.)
This article from 21 July 2017 is here updated and expanded to the present; and the dead links in it have been replaced by functional (this time, archived — and thus more permanent) links:
Before documenting that many trillions of dollars in U.S. Government military spending have been and are unaccounted-for, and that by far the most corrupt U.S. federal Department is the ‘Defense’ Department, it is important to document here, by means of the links that will be provided in this article, that, at least after the 9/11 event, the most respected institution in America has been and is the military, and so there exists in the United States a profoundly…
International Week of Solidarity with the prisoners of the revolt in Chile: January 13th to 19th 2020
After more than 80 days since the popular revolt started in Chile, the struggle and social organising persists, with an unyielding conviction to confront and break with this economic and power model which has perpetuated inequalities, injustices and abuses for decades.
Without a doubt, the revolt that is still in the air in Chile has meant an inflection point, a point of no return in a long road of struggles, but it has also brought heavy costs with it: Hundreds and hundreds of prisoners of this territory. Every week this number increases. In a clear phenomenon of massive arrests, the state looks to scare and criminalise social protests.
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Semana de agitación internacional pro-presxs de la revuelta en Chile -13 a 19 de enero- (audio)
Coordinadora por la libertad de lxs presxs políticxs 18 de octubre
A mas de 80 días del estallido social en Chile la lucha y organización social persiste en la inquebrantable convicción de confrontar y romper con el modelo económico y de poder que ha perpetuado desigualdades, injusticias y abusos durante décadas. Sin duda la revuelta que aún se respira en Chile a significado un punto de inflexión y de no retorno en un largo recorrido de lucha pero también ha traído consigo un duro costo: cientxs y cientxs de presxs de la revuelta que hoy se encuentran en las distintas prisiones de este territorio. Cada semana este número aumenta y en un evidente fenómeno de encarcelamiento masivo el Estado busca amedrentar y criminalizar la protesta social. Hablamos de presxs políticxs de la revuelta porque el hecho de encarcelar masivamente a lxs luchadorxs sociales tras el estallido del 18 responde a una decisión política de Estado y no a criterios técnicos/jurídicos dando cuenta de las complicidades de los distintos poderes del Estado con el fin de perpetuar el modelo de control existente. Es por eso que hacemos este llamado de solidaridad internacional con lxs presxs de la revuelta para así develar la condición política de su encarcelamiento y exigir su inmediata libertad. Extendemos esta convocatoria apelando a las múltiples iniciativas y acciones solidarias que surgan en cada territorio. QUIEN OLVIDA A LXS PRESXS POLITICXS OLVIDA LA LUCHA¡¡
We talk about political prisoners of the revolt because the massive arrests of those fighting after the explosion of the revolt on the 18th of October responds to a political decision of the state and not to technical or judiciary criteria, putting in evidence the complicities of the different powers of the state, all with the purpose of perpetuating the existing control model.
Russia: prosecutor demands prison sentences of 6 to 18 years for anarchist defendants in “Network” case
World, Dec 28th
The prosecutor in charge of the so-called “Network” aka Penza/St Petersburgh case demanded on 26th December prison time between 6 and 18 years for seven defendants. If convicted, all but two will serve their sentences in a high-security prison colony.
The Network case had begun in October 2017, when the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested six people in Penza, western Russia, accusing them of participation in a terrorist organisation “The Network”.
Two other Penza residents disappeared and were put on the wanted list by the FSB. They were subsequently detained in Moscow. In January 2018, two more people were arrested in the same case, and, in April that year, charges were brought against one more person… continues below
Caroline Norma reviews the bestselling “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982,” a radical gift to #MeToo activists in the West, who are likely unfamiliar with the foundational Korean women’s liberation movement.January 7, 2020 by Caroline Norma … Shared with thanks from Feminist Current
Jamie Chang’s English translation of the best-selling Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982will soon be available to Western readers, and its film adaptation is already screening throughout Asia. The novel, originally published in 2016, describes the sexism faced by a young South Korean woman from childhood to early motherhood, when it eventually breaks her.
Fictional accounts of sexism’s impact on women are quickly genre-ed part of the #MeToo literary cannon these days, but Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published in Korean before the country’s feminist uprising in late 2016. In fact, the novel’s narrative is underpinned not by the #MeToo movement, but the politics of the women’s liberation movement that came before it. Its upcoming English-language release in March 2020, therefore, is an opportunity for Western #MeToo activists to learn the politics of the movement that preceded it, and catch up to Korean sisters.
#MeToo is fuelled by indignation at the misogynistic excesses and sexual abuses of overly powerful men. Extraordinary practices of woman-hating, like assaults on women in the American entertainment industry and fatal gang rapes of girls in India, drove the global feminist outrage that launched #MeToo. The movement responds to sexual excess, so is focused on rampant, long-standing perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump, who represent everything #MeToo stands against.
But the earlier women’s liberation movement was the inverse. Consciousness-raising groups stoked women’s indignation at everyday, routine practices of sexism that drove them to examine even mundane aspects of their lives, from housework, to feminine beauty practices, to penetrative, heterosexual sex. Outrage at unremarkable practices of household and labour inequality, including male segregationist pursuits of work and leisure, led to feminist actions like “pub liberations,” wherein groups of women took over men-only bars.
The MAY DAY self-run occupied social center is a huge council owned block in the old Raval area of central Barcelona. An ex adult school, it was closed for repairs, abandoned and occupied in 2016 as a Self Managed Student Hostel (the REA). Despite strong resistance it was violently evicted on the second attempt in December 2017, and abandoned again and bricked up, (see Autonomous Students Residences (REA).. Ongoing Eviction in Barcelona/) Next it was occupied during a demonstration on May 1st 2018 as a self-run Social Center.. .. and named CSO MayDay. It continues with all kinds of activities and has become a symbol of resistance to gentrification, mass evictions, vulture funds, etc..
Libertarian solidarity against the eviction of the CSO May Day! by CNT-AIT Catalunya
by CNT-AIT Catalunya .. translation TheFree
Once again we find that another space freed from the clutches of capitalist speculation, owned by those who claim to be representatives of ordinary citizens and who govern us through repression and lies, is threatened with eviction by of this City Council of the so-called “Commons” (totally fake), led by Ada Colau, the activist recycled into the system…..
Thats how things stand, to the point that Colau’s party shamefully abstained to allow the vote on the evictions of municipally owned buildings, recently raised by the PP .
In this way, they have opened the way to the offensive of the most reactionary sectors and defenders of the sacrosanct private property such as the PP or JuntsxCat itself.
The “Commons” of Ada try to destroy all initiatives that they cannot control through their clientelist political networks. Anything that questions, in one way or another, the “Barcelona Brand”, of which these hypocritical “friendly face” managers of our daily misery are defenders, they try to destroy through the violence of their police hitmen.
This unbridled repression not only acts against dissident groups, but extends to all those people and families without resources who are forced to squat to survive on the margins of the system.
All this is related to the low wages and the high cost of living that, together with real estate speculation, ends up throwing people out of their homes to turn those neighborhoods into commercial shopfronts for tourism.
El Raval, where the CSO May Day companions are located, is a clear example of this. In this Social Center, as in others in the city where self-management is practiced, different solidarity activities have been carried out with the struggle of social and anarchist prisoners, the dissemination of anti-specism, against evictions and gentrification, against police violence, anti-fascism, international solidarity, insumission …
Actions which are oriented to the self-organization of struggles and disseminating and debating ideas to build a culture at the service of social struggles.
Not so to the bourgeois and alienating crap represented by “cultural” elitism such as the MACBA (municipal art exhibition center) or other City Council subsidized civic centers, with which they seek to instill in people the “One Single Belief” in civil obedience, subjecting us to their unjust laws.
The CNT-AIT of Catalonia sees these occupied spaces as a way of building a counterculture that can challenge the dominant discourse and weave libertarian and anti-capitalist networks, challenging private property and the speculative system that generates the misery of broad layers of the population.
That’s why we stand in solidarity and we will be on the streets, when necessary, to defend these revolutionary cracks in a world of conformity dominated by repression and fear.
We call on you to participate actively in the mobilizations that the CSO May Day organise in defense of the social center.
¡Solidaridad libertaria ante el desalojo del CSO May Day!
CNT-AIT Catalunya Correu-e: catalunya@hotmail.com(no verificat!)30 des 2019 Una vez más nos encontramos que otro espacio liberado de las garras de la especulación capitalista, para más inri en manos de aquellos que dicen ser representantes del ciudadano de a pie y que nos gobiernan mediante la represión y la mentira, está amenazado de desalojo por parte de este Ayuntamiento de los farsantes “comunes” (que de eso no tienen nada) de la activista reciclada en botones del sistema Ada Colau.
Esto es así, hasta el punto que hemos podido conocer su abstención vergonzante, pero por otra parte lógica dado su papel de traidores a sus ya remotos orígenes, ante la votación sobre los desalojos de edificios de titularidad municipal, planteada recientemente por el PP.
De esta manera, participan y le tienden la alfombra a la ofensiva de los sectores más reaccionarios y defensores de la sacrosanta propiedad privada como el mismo PP o JuntsxCat.
Los “comunes” de la Ada se ensañan e intentan destruir toda aquella iniciativa que no puedan controlar mediante sus redes políticas clientelares. Todo aquello que cuestione, de una u otra forma, la “Marca Barcelona” de la que son defensores a ultranza estos hipócritas gestores de “rostro amable” de nuestra miseria cotidiana, lo intentan destruir mediante la violencia de sus sicarios policiales.
Esta represión desenfrenada no solo actúa contra aquellos colectivos disidentes, sino que se extiende a todas aquellas personas y familias sin recursos que se ven obligadas a okupar o a sobrevivir en los márgenes del sistema.
Todo esto se relaciona con los bajos salarios y la carestía de la vida que junto a la especulación inmobiliaria acaba por echar a la gente de sus casas para convertir esos barrios en aparadores comerciales para el turismo.
El Raval, donde se encuentran lxs compañerxs del CSO May Day, es un claro ejemplo de ello. En este centro social, como en otros de la ciudad donde se práctica la autogestión, se vienen realizando diferentes actividades solidarias con la lucha de los presos sociales y anarquistas, de difusión del antiespecismo, contra los deshaucios y la gentrificación , contra la violencia policial, antifascismo, solidaridad internacional, insumisión…
Actos orientados a la autoorganización de las luchas y a difundir y debatir ideas para construir una cultura al servicio de las luchas sociales.
No así a la mierda burguesa y alienante que representan adefesios elitistas “culturales” como el MACBA u otros centros cívicos, que sí subvenciona el Ayuntamiento, para inculcar a la gente el “pensamiento único” del civismo, sometiéndonos a sus injustas leyes.
La CNT-AIT de Catalunya ve imprescindibles estos espacios como forma de ir construyendo una contracultura que pueda desafiar el discurso dominante e ir tejiendo redes libertarias y anticapitalistas desafiando, así mismo, la propiedad privada y el sistema especulativo que genera la miseria de amplias capas de la población.
Y eso es por lo que nos solidarizamos y estaremos en las calles, cuando sea necesario, para defender estas grietas revolucionarias en un mundo de conformismo dominado por la represión y el miedo.
Y eso es por lo que nos solidarizamos y estaremos en las calles, cuando sea necesario, para defender estas grietas revolucionarias en un mundo de conformismo dominado por la represión y el miedo.
Hacemos un llamamiento a participar de forma activa en las movilizaciones que el CSO May Day convoque en defensa del centro social.
El día que desalojen a las 19:30 horas en la Rambla del Raval (donde está el Gato).
¡Abajo el capitalismo y sus lacayos del Ayuntamiento!
Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the United States on Saturday took to the streets to condemn the Trump administration’s “reckless acts of war” against Iran and demand that the U.S. withdraw its troops from the Middle East.
On Twitter people demanded Trump be banned for openly threatening War Crimes and the destruction of Iran’s cultural Holy Sites.
2019: Hey @jack can you ban Trump from Twitter because he’s being super shitty and bullying people
2020: Hey @jack can you ban Trump from Twitter because he’s threatening Iran with the destruction of their holy sites and instigating World War 3 and we’re all gonna die pic.twitter.com/WUhpLDbafe
From New York City to Chicago to Arkansas and more than 70 other locations around the U.S., demonstrators rallied against the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, a move that sparked widespread fears of another catastrophic Middle East war..
U.S. tanks, trucks and other military equipment, which arrived by ship, are unloaded in the harbour of Bremerhaven, Germany January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer – RTX2XZ77 
The Free 