Monday February 20th has been designated as a “National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners” by the Occupy Oakland general assembly. In solidarity with the call from Oakland, the Denver Anarchist Black Cross and members of Occupy Denver are calling for a night time of action in Denver on February 20th.
Monday February 20th, 6:30pm
Meet at 30th and Peoria, outside the GEO ICE Detention Center
Bring noisemakers, drums, banners, signs, candles, your friends and families
A spirit of liberatory struggle has taken hold of the hearts of people from all walks of life. However, the struggle of the “99%” has up until now excluded a major portion of the most marginalized and oppressed, the over 2.5 million people languishing in prison, jail, and ICE detention centers across the country.
From LBC Books Anarchists in the Occupation Movement 2009-2011
Since the first day that Zuccotti Park was occupied there has been a shadowy figure haunting Occupy Wall Street. The anarchist. Who is this anarchist? What role has she played in the Occupy Movement? What would Occupy be without him?
This is a book where anarchists, in their own words, express how and why they engaged in Occupy, what methods they used, and evaluates the success of Occupy on anarchist terms. It also expresses the flexibilty, energy, and experience that anarchists brought to The Occupy Movement as it moved beyond lower Manhattan onto the docks and streets of Oakland, the town square of Philadelphia, and abandoned buildings around the country.
The anarchists’ way of operating was changing our very idea of what politics could be in the first place. This was exhilarating. Some occupiers told me they wanted to take it home with them, to organize assemblies in their own communities. It’s no accident, therefore, that when occupations spread around the country, the horizontal assemblies spread too.
-From Nathan Schneider in The Nation
Contributors: Antistate STL, Anon, Ben Webster, Cindy Milstein, Crescencia Desafio, Crimethinc, David Graeber, Denver ABC, Dot Matrix, Ignite! Collective, ingirum, John Jacobsen, Phoenix Insurgent, R.R, Serf City Revolt, TEOAN, Tides of Flame, TriAnarchy
Activists more accustomed to campaigning against the debts of countries like Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ecuador and Indonesia were instead outside the Irish embassy this morning. Dressed as zombies, we hoped to shed some light on the so-called “zombie banks” whose debts continue to drain resources from an Irish public sector that is being slashed to the bone.
But in Iceland They REFUSED TO PAY
Iceland was ripe for change, having effectively gone bust thanks to the cronyism of a cluster of politicians and bankers who thought that they could turn an island of fishermen with a population of 318,000 into a financial superpower.In less than four years, the most rapid expansion of a banking system in history saw three privatised banks develop assets 10 times the size of the country’s GDP. It was the Icarus economy. Property prices tripled, the stock market multiplied nine times, and people borrowed heavily – often in foreign currencies – to cash in on the boom. The crash was fast, hard and painful, worsened by the collapse of the krona as the state, unable to bail out the banks, refused to pay foreign creditors. The strategy looks smart now, compared with events in Greece and Ireland
Ireland’s financial crisis has much in common with scores of countries across the developing world. The country has been brought to its knees by an enormous debt, which originated not with excessive public spending, but a footloose financial sector that gambled with the future of the country. Without so much as a vote, Ireland’s people found themselves on the hook for tens of billions of euros of reckless investments.
The ultimate symbol of this form of crony capitalism in Ireland is Anglo Irish, the bank that started Ireland’s slide into the abyss. Anglo Irish lent vast sums of money to fuel Ireland’s property bubble, in the process making fortunes for rich speculators. Anglo is believed to have 15 customers who owe the bank more than €500m each.
When the bubble burst, the Irish government stepped in to underwrite the bank – ultimately being forced to nationalise it. This disastrous decision was not based on any assessment of the use of Anglo to the economy. Economics professor Morgan Kelly said at the time that Anglo – as well as Irish Nationwide, which was also brought into public ownership – “were purely conduits for property speculation. They fulfil no role in the Irish economy.” He said it would be “better to incinerate €1.5bn than squander it on Anglo Irish Bank”.
A £963,000 bonus in shares awarded to Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester is strongly criticised by politicians and unions.
Today Anglo Irish, rebranded as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, is a zombie bank – a bankrupt institution that exists to channel government money to a group of bondholders who the Irish people can’t know anything about, and who themselves were fuelling Ireland’s increasingly speculative economy.
”Occupy Everything! Call-Out to Occupy Buildings on January 28th, 2012 January 12, 2012 at 9:53 pm
We call on people to reclaim space in their areas on January 28th in the spirit of the occupy movement, but first and foremost to move past the idea of private property and build communities of resistance.
Groups in multiple cities have already announced plans for building takeovers on this date. We urge people to partake in actions that match their capacity. Momentum is on our side; resistance is building.
The natural next step of the occupy movement is to create a political squatting movement that will be a base of power for the continued struggle against the state and capitalism.”
In Spain also squatting is a criminal offence. Yet in Catalunya alone there are dozens of thriving ‘ Occupied Self managed Social Centers of every description.’ How is this possible? any movement to grab a bit of free space in the US could learnlots from our ideas and tactics.
Occupied self managed social center.. barcelona 2012
Here ae some tips from an ancient squatter.
1. Pick a building that’s long disused or forgotten or that it’s a disgrace to be abandoned.
2.Invite the neighbours to open house type participation from the start.
3. Immediately start all kinds of daily activities, from yoga to dance to ‘freegan’ cafes etc
4. Decide things by assembly, seeking consensus, this short circuits the ‘politicos’ and power obsessed men
5. People living there have first choice, maybe we can ‘adopt’ one person with problems, but we
can’t invite in all the drug and mental casualties of the brutal capitalism-
6.Good Squat Centers are often begun by an already strong group of friends.
7. The local economy is often based on recycling and benefit parties.
8. A great tactic is to have a backup place in case you don’t survive the first crucial days
9. A theme is a good idea, from Circus Squats, Womens centers, Prisoners Aid, rural permaculture, etc.
10. Above all look out for each other, beyond personal irritations, and enjoy the adventure!
17 Jan 2012: China Sets First-Ever Cap
On Greenhouse Gas Emissions
”The Chinese government has ordered five cities and two provinces to set caps on greenhouse gas emissions in preparation for a series of regional carbon markets. Last week, China’s National Development and Reform Commission urged Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, as well as the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong, to set “overall emissions control targets” and submit strategy proposals on how to achieve them. A plan developed by Guangdong — which commits the province to achieving 20 percent of its total energy consumption from non-fossil fuels by 2015 — has already been approved by the central government. The province must also cut its “carbon intensity,” or the CO2 emissions per unit of economic growth, by 19.5 percent. China as a whole, which has already passed the U.S. as the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has committed to reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020. According to a new government report, China’s urban population surpassed its rural population for the first time ever in 2011.”
Ironically a centralised authoritarian government is more able to respond to the imminent scientifically proven climate disaster.
Environmental activists have been repressed again, just like unions an all ‘wage slaves’. It’s also ironic that to help stop climate chaos (and supply a plus 12% p.a. energy demand) the state is pressing ahead with the biggest and most destructive mega dam projects in history. Green Activists Feel Sting of Chinese Government Crackdown
Meanwhile back in the USA, the other great CO2 producer, politicians who ”believe” in climate change can’t survive, and reports of Climate disasters are disappearing from the media. The climate deniers are having a field day, with false or manipulated evidence spread by right wing and oil company funded media and white male bloggers.
The latest this week, featured again by the BBC, says CO2 emissions have averted an Ice Age.. perfect propaganda to keep on destroying the planet, while even they admit levels would have to be below 240ppm for icing to even begin, way below even pre industrial levels.. no matter, damage done, and a name made for some happy researchers.Carbon emissions ‘will defer Ice Age’
(en) The world of environmental direct action has remained a secretive one, until now. Emily James spent over a year embedded in activist groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid to document their clandestine activities. With unprecedented access, Just do It takes you on an astonishing journey behind the scenes of a community of people who refuse to sit back and allow the destruction of their world. Torpedoing the tired clichés of the environmental movement, Just Do It introduces you to a powerful cast of mischievous and inspiring characters who put their bodies in the way; they super-glue themselves to bank trading floors, blockade factories and attack coal power stations en-masse, despite the very real threat of arrest. Their adventures will entertain, illuminate and inspire.
‘A nice Jewish boy from suburban Boston—hell, an Eagle Scout!—David Gilbert arrived at Columbia University just in time for the explosive Sixties. From the early anti-Vietnam War protests to the founding of SDS, from the Columbia Strike to the tragedy of the Townhouse, Gilbert was on the scene: as organizer, theoretician, and above all, activist.
He was among the first militants who went underground to build the clandestine resistance to war and racism known as “Weatherman.” And he was among the last to emerge, in captivity, after the disaster of the 1981 Brinks robbery, an attempted expropriation that resulted in four deaths and long prison terms.
In this extraordinary memoir, written from the maximum-security prison where he has lived for almost thirty years, David Gilbert tells the intensely personal story of his own Long March from liberal to radical to revolutionary.
Today a beloved and admired mentor to a new generation of activists, he assesses with rare humor, with an understanding stripped of illusions, and with uncommon candor the errors and advances, terrors and triumphs of the Sixties and beyond. It’s a battle that was far from won, but is still not lost: the struggle to build a new world, and the love that drives that effort. A cautionary tale and a how-to as well, Love and Struggle is a book as candid, as uncompromising, and as humane as its author.
The book is from PM Press, 22$. David’s prison address is :David Gilbert, 83-A-6158, P.O. Box 618, Auburn Correctional Facility, Auburn, NY 13024.
Saturday, January 14th 7pm 27 Social Centre (2727 W 27th ave)
Build Up Books and the Denver Anarchist Black Cross will be celebrating the release of Love and Struggle, the memiors of white anti-imperialist political prisoner David Gilbert.
The event will include a screening of an interview with David Gilbert, readings of selected passages, and a brief presentation and discussion on his life. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
THEY’LL NEVETR EVICT OUR DREAMS”
The Free 