Beautiful Trouble is a constantly evolving web toolbox, and an international network of artist-activist trainers whose mission is to help grassroots movements be more creative and more effective.
However it has been criticized by anarchists as being ‘a handbook for western middle class pacifist ONG’s looking for grants’.
The project has been ongoing since 2012, successfully sharing the accumulated wisdom of decades of creative protest with today’s generation of change-makers’ experiences on the frontlines.
Beautiful Trouble lays out the core tactics, principles and theoretical concepts that drive creative activism, offering an array of tools to help activists learn from recent successes and failures, and from the broad, rich history of our struggle(s).
There are currently five modules; Tactics, Principles, Theories, Case Studies and Practitioners, all excellently researched, brilliantly written and painstakingly cross referenced, full of insights for cynical old artist-activists and fresh faced noobs alike.
The materials are being updated and added to constantly, if you’ve got something you want to share or add, you can get involved, here.
“We encourage readers to explore our website, beautifultrouble.org, which is more than simply an appendage to the book, but in fact stands as perhaps the fullest expression of the project. In an easily navigable form, the website includes all the book’s content as well as material that, due to constraints of both space and time, we were unable to include in this print edition.
“¿Qué contestarás cuando te pregunten qué hiciste durante el genocidio?”. Es la pregunta que hace las veces de lema en la jornada de lucha y huelga general para apoyar al pueblo de Palestina, que han convocado –para el viernes 27 de septiembre de 2024– la Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) y la Confederación Sindical Solidaridad Obrera.
Más de 200 colectivos y organizaciones ciudadanas se han adherido a la convocatoria, que ha programado centenares de acciones de denuncia para ese día en diversas ciudades de España. En Madrid, habrá una concentración a las 13.00 horas, frente al Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, y una manifestación que partirá desde Atocha a las 19.00 horas y finalizará en la plaza de Callao.
“Costará 80 años volver a construir la Franja”
41.467 personas asesiandas en Gaza y más de 95.000 heridos, según los últimos datos proporcionados por las autoridades palestinas. Para los convocantes, es el momento de “redoblar el grito de rabia e indignación”.
En la rueda de prensa de presentación de esta jornada de lucha, Nadwa A., de BDS Movement, explicó que “la destrucción que se está llevando a cabo en Palestina no tiene precedentes: se ha acabado con todo el avance humano de los últimos 40 años y costará otros 80 volver a construir la Franja”.
Para ella, “sólo la unidad de la sociedad civil podrá hacer verdadera fuerza para acabar con este genocidio”.
El secretario general de la CGT, Miguel Fadrique, se mostró muy crítico con los grandes sindicatos de este país. Afirmó que, “con la gran capacidad que tienen para movilizar a más trabajadores y trabajadoras, se han puesto de perfil al conocer la petición de paro por parte de colectivos obreros de Palestina”.
Desde el sindicato dejan claro que están viendo cada día “cómo el Estado sionista de Israel continúa, con el beneplácito de la comunidad internacional, condenando a la miseria y matando de hambre a quienes no mueren bajo sus bombas”.
Más de 160 organizaciones piden la suspensión del Acuerdo Asociación UE-Israel
164 asociaciones han pedido conjuntamente la suspensión del Acuerdo de Asociación UE-Israel “a la luz de las violaciones de los derechos humanos por parte del Estado de Israel en el Territorio Palestino Ocupado (TPO)”, tal y como se apunta en la carta que han enviado a la Unión Europea (UE).
Las firmantes de la misiva indican que “estas violaciones de los derechos humanos constituyen una clara violación del artículo 2, que condiciona el Acuerdo al respeto de los derechos humanos y los principios democráticos de las partes, que constituyen un elemento esencial del mismo”
El 26 de enero de 2024, recuerdan las organizaciones, “la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) dictaminó que la conducta actual de Israel en Gaza constituía un riesgo de genocidio y ordenó a Israel que tomara medidas para evitarlo”.
El 28 de marzo, la CIJ ordenó nuevamente a Israel que implementara estas medidas provisionales. El 24 de mayo, la CIJ ordenó a Israel que detuviera inmediatamente su ofensiva militar en Rafah y abriera el cruce de Rafah para la prestación sin trabas de servicios y ayuda. “Todas estas órdenes, que son obligatorias, han sido ignoradas por Israel”, subrayan en el comunicado oficial.
“Los abusos contra los derechos humanos no comenzaron en 2023”
“Los abusos contra los derechos humanos por parte del Gobierno israelí no comenzaron en 2023 y no se limitan a la Franja de Gaza”, comentan los firmantes. Para estos, “las violaciones sistemáticas y generalizadas de los derechos humanos, como la confiscación de tierras y recursos y la discriminación racial, se han documentado durante los 57 años de ocupación del territorio palestino por Israel y los 17 años de bloqueo de Gaza”.
Y añaden: “Las pruebas de tortura y trato inhumano de los detenidos de Palestina, incluidos los abusos sexuales, están bien documentadas. La situación de los presos no ha hecho más que empeorar desde octubre de 2023, sobre todo en el caso de los detenidos en Palestina por el ejército israelí”.
La inacción de la comunidad internacional
Las “graves violaciones del derecho internacional y del derecho humanitario”, resaltan las organizaciones, “nunca habrían sido posibles si la comunidad internacional, incluida la Unión Europea, hubiera hecho que Israel rindiera cuentas de sus actos y hubiera adoptado las medidas apropiadas en respuesta”.
En la carta enviada a la UE se manifiesta que “el respeto a los derechos humanos es un elemento esencial de los Acuerdos de Asociación de la UE con los países socios”.
Las disposiciones del Acuerdo de Asociación UE-Israel señalan que las partes establecen la asociación “teniendo en cuenta la importancia que las Partes atribuyen (…) a los principios de la Carta de las Naciones Unidas, en particular la observancia de los derechos humanos y la democracia, que constituyen la base misma de la Asociación”.
El artículo 2 establece que “las relaciones entre las Partes, así como todas las disposiciones del propio Acuerdo, se basarán en el respeto de los derechos humanos y los principios democráticos, que orientan su política interna e internacional y constituyen un elemento esencial del presente Acuerdo”.
La violación de las denominadas cláusulas de “elementos esenciales”, sostienen los firmantes, “permite a la UE poner fin o suspender total o parcialmente un Acuerdo de Asociación, de conformidad con el artículo 60 de la Convención de Viena sobre el Derecho de los Tratados”.
En la Parte I, vimos cómo los pastores de los Pirineos están derribando fronteras y recuperando viejas prácticas de pastoreo para restablecer la práctica sostenible de la migración estacional con sus rebaños. Ahora, exploremos la historia reciente de las guerrillas anarquistas que cruzaron repetidamente estas montañas en la lucha contra el fascismo, que era también […]
...The Lebanese know Netanyahu is lying. Like the Palestinians, they know Israel’s leadership is unscrupulous and eager to expand its genocidal violence to the region…
Tens of thousands of people flee southern Lebanon with little idea where to find safety as intense Israeli bombardment across Lebanon kills at least 569 people, including 50 children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
CORRECTS LOCATION Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in the southern village of Sejoud, seen from Marjayoun, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Pregnant woman and her 4 children killed in Deir el-Balah An Israeli air strike in Deir el-Balah killed a pregnant woman and her four children, according to Palestinian medical officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital. Today’s strike hit a house in the Bureij refugee camp, the hospital said.
Gaza hospitals halt reception of 88 unnamed bodies from Israel Hospitals say they have suspended the procedures for receiving 88 bodies that were brought back to the besieged and bombarded territory, given the Israeli forces’ refusal to provide the necessary information to identify them
Airstrikes pounded Kfar Kila, Khiam, and Qabrikha early evening on Monday, as well as several other towns in south Lebanon.
We had around 30 people come through – about half of which participated in the run and raised $604 that we are splitting between the Anarchist Black Cross Federation War Chest Program and regional prisoners. There were supplies for writing letters to prisoners which people used and people had fun hand screen printing shirts for the event on site.
Before running, someone spoke a little bit about the warchest and the anarchist black cross and someone else shared snippets of writing from a zine a formerly incarcerated friend had written during incarceration. A few people came up during and at the after party grilling at Yauger Park and asked what was going on and we had really refreshing and receptive conversations about the destruction of prisons.
On Running Down The Walls & The ABCF Warchest
For those unfamiliar, the ABCF Warchest is a program(https://www.abcf.net/warchest-program/) started in 1994 “to send monthly donations to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War who have been receiving insufficient, little, or no financial support during their imprisonment.
Its purpose is to collect funds from groups and individual supporters and send that money directly to commissary accounts of vetted Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War (PP/POW) monthly.”
Running Down the Walls is a non-competitive 5K started in 1999(https://www.abcf.net/rdtw/) to raise money for the Warchest and to raise awareness about political prisoners and prisoners of war, as a way to constantly affirm that we have not forgotten our comrades and fighters captured by our enemies.
These runs happen both inside and outside prisons, and this year saw runs in Chicago, Eugene, Portland, LA, Lowell MA, Mexico City, NYC, Philadelphia, and Bristol.
“Revolutionary solidarity that doesn’t see the prisoner as an inactive individual with whom you should unquestioningly show solidarity, but rather as a comrade who continues being part of the struggle and who, therefore, is active in exchanging visions of the different initiatives that are carried out.
I send an embrace charged with complicity to all the groups and individuals who carry revolutionary solidarity embedded in their daily struggles.
Those who, each and every moment, persistently and obstinately confront this society that needs prisons, control, degradation and exploitation to perpetuate itself.
Prisoner solidarity cannot be the specialized role of particular crews or organizations, it’s a project we must all take up. If anarchism isn’t just a social scene, if we are true to our revolutionary ideals we must understand that at some point we are probably going to do some time.
Beyond that even, the degree to which our collective practice of prisoner support is strong is the degree to which people will feel empowered to take the risks that need to be taken and know that if something goes wrong, people will have their back.
It goes beyond this even, because to be an anarchist is to be at war with all forms of domination, and prison is the most direct form of domination – a core site of reproduction of hierarchies and the projection of state power ;
– behind the power of the boss, the power of the landlord, behind the hoarding of the necessities of life and self actualization by the few, behind the impunity of racist and anti-queer vigilantes stands concrete walls, armed guards and locked doors for those of us who strike back.–
Prison is the shock absorber for changes in social and economic domination, a continual site of capital accumulation via prison slavery.
The United States is the largest incarcerator in the history of humanity and large swaths of the population – particular black and indigenous people – in one way or another are swept up into the machine as the raw materials for the ever expanding policing, corrections and border enforcement industries.
The prison industry and all its connected forms are a bi-partisan project of white supremacist terror on a scale the most extreme and well organized of fascist cadres could only dream of. Look at the bringing back of drug war era policies in Seattle via the SODA/SOAP ordinances, the broad criminalization of homelessness, the expansion of police training facilities all over the country.
Looking clearly at all of this, if we are true to our revolutionary ideals each and every one of us will take on the responsibility of attacking prison in some way – for some this may be of a more social nature of breaking the isolation between inside and out by writing letters and connecting to prisoners, getting their voices to the outside world, raising the issue of prison so it cannot be ignored, connecting the struggle against prisons to all other struggles.
For others, this may be more combative by physically freeing captives, attacking jails and prisons, bringing the fight directly to the homes of the jailers and those who profit off it, preparing the groundwork and networks to support people on the run and escapees, preparing the tools and networks to help turn prison riots into full blown insurrection that opens the gates and reduces those human warehouses to rubble.
Don’t wait for someone else to tell you to write a letter, don’t wait for someone else to go physically look at the jails in prisons in your areas, don’t wait for someone else to study and analyze the process, flow and economy if the justice and corrections industries in your area to find where to best attack, don’t wait until it’s too late to factor the possibility of capture and jail/prison into everything you do, don’t wait to take up the project of the destruction of prisons.
See you next year, FIRE TO THE PRISONS LONG LIVE ANARCHY
By Lucia LACURCIA The Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades, fueling drought and record wildfires across South America, experts said Monday. The world’s biggest jungle, spanning nine countries, is crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb […]
Tuesday dawned with Israel continuing its massive insane bombardment of Gaza, with at least nine Palestinians killed in overnight attacks across the besieged enclave.
Nearly 100 children and women are among the 495 people killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon as Israel escalates its war against Hezbollah yesterday.
The UN humanitarian agency called on the Israeli military “to stop attacking schools that provide the last shelter to Palestinians”. The call came after Israeli forces killed 32 Palestinians in three attacks on Gaza schools in as many days.
Washington declared it is “trying hard” to “de-escalate” but it could stop Israel’s fascist killing spree today by cutting arms supplies. The US regime is adrift with President Biden crippled by dementia. Yesterday the first White House cabinet meeting in a year was held, but Biden’s wife Jill had to lead it.
“Israel attacked Lebanon Monday, killing over 500 people and injuring more than 1000 others as fears grow of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military also ordered residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes if they live near any site used by the militant group. “At the heart of this is an attempt to manufacture consent and try to portray most southern Lebanese as Hezbolloh operatives,” says Sintia Issa, editor-at-large at the Beirut-based media organization The Public Source. We also speak with Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon volunteering at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where he has been treating victims of last week’s device explosions that injured thousands of people. He describes the disfiguring injuries from Israel’s booby-trapping of pagers and walkie-talkies, calling it “an act of mass mutilation.” Democracy Now
Iran condemns ‘insane’ Israeli air strikes in Lebanon but government is reluctant to join in the war which would pull in the US.. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has warned Israel of the “dangerous consequences” following ongoing deadly air strikes in various parts of Lebanon . Yet Iran still refrains from joining in.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani called the Israeli strikes “insane”, and warned of “the dangerous consequences of the Zionists’ new adventure”.Thousands of Iranis Will Rally Outside United Nations in New York today .14 hours ago — Iranian-Americans will hold rally outside the UN in New York on Tuesday 09/24/2024 t
The Free 