Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Of sowing and harvests: Subcomandante Marcos' speech on Gaza

Two days ago, the same day we discussed violence, the ineffable Condoleezza Rice, a US official, declared that what was happening in Gaza was the Palestinians' fault, due to their violent nature.

The underground rivers that crisscross the world can change their geography, but they sing the same song.

And the one we hear now is one of war and pain.

Not far from here, in a place called Gaza, in Palestine, in the Middle East, right here next to us, the Israeli government's heavily trained and armed military continues its march of death and destruction.

The steps it has taken are those of a classic military war of conquest: first an intense mass bombing in order to destroy "strategic" military points (that's how the military manuals put it) and to "soften" the resistance's reinforcements; next a fierce control over information: everything that is heard and seen "in the outside world," that is, outside the theater of operations, must be selected with military criteria; now intense artillery fire against the enemy infantry to protect the advance of troop to new positions; then there will be a siege to weaken the enemy garrison; then the assault that conquers the position and annihilates the enemy, then the "cleaning out" of the probable "nests of resistance."

by Kolya Abramsky, from Zapagringo

Up there, they intend to repeat their history.

They once again want to impose on us their calendar of death, their geography of destruction.

Down here we are being left with nothing.

Except rage.

And dignity.

There is no ear for our pain, except that of the people like us.

We are no one.

We are alone, and just with our dignity and our rage.

Rage and dignity are our bridges, our languages.

Let us listen to each other then, let us know each other.

Let our rage grow and become hope.

Let our dignity take root again and breed another world.

If this world doesn’t have a place for us, then another world must be made.

With no other tool than our rage, no other material than our dignity

- Communique announcing the World’s First Festival for Dignified Rage, 15th/16th September 2008

From New York City:

We have occupied New School University.

We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us,
for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit
solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece,
Italy, France and Spain.

This occupation begins as a response to specific conditions at the New
School, the corporatization of the university and the impoverishment of
education in general. However, it is not just this university but also
New York City that is in crisis: in the next several months, thousands
of us will be losing our jobs, while housing remains unaffordable and
unavailable to many and the cost of living skyrockets.

So we stress that the general nature of these intolerable conditions
exists across the spectrum of capitalist existence, in our universities
and our cities, in all of our social relations. For this reason, what
begins tonight at the New School cannot, and should not, be contained here.

Thus: with this occupation, we inaugurate a sequence of revolt in New
York City and the United States, a coming wave of occupations,
blockades, and strikes in this time of crisis.

Be assured, this is only the beginning,

With solidarity and love from New York to Greece,
To Italy, France and Spain,
To the coming insurrection.

- New School Occupation Committee

Tadzio Mueller and Alexis Passadakis, from Interactivist

1. The current world economic crisis marks the end of the neoliberal phase of capitalism. ‘Business as usual’ (financialisation, deregulation, privatisation…) is thus no longer an option: new spaces of accumulation and types of political regulation will need to be found by governments and corporations to keep capitalism going

2. Alongside the economic and political as well as energy crises, there is another crisis rocking the world: the biocrisis, the result of a suicidal mismatch between the ecological life support system that guarantees our collective human survival and capital’s need for constant growth

3. This biocrisis is an immense danger to our collective survival, but like all crises it also presents us, social movements, with a historic opportunity: to really go for capitalism's exposed jugular, its need for unceasing, destructive, insane growth

4. Of the proposals that have emerged from global elites, the only one that promises to address all these crises is the ‘Green New Deal’. This is not the cuddly green capitalism 1.0 of organic agriculture and D.I.Y. windmills, but a proposal for a new ’green’ phase of capitalism that seeks to generate profits from the piecemeal ecological modernisation of certain key areas of production (cars, energy, etc.)

COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE INDIGENOUS REVOLUTIONARY CLANDESTINE COMMITTEE—GENERAL COMMAND OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION MEXICO.
Sixth Commission and Intergalactic Commission of the EZLN
26th of November 2008.

To the adherents to the Sixth Declaration from the Lacandona Jungle in Mexico and in the world:
To the guests of the First World Festival of the "Digna Rabia":
To the people of Mexico:
To the peoples of the world:

COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS:
BROTHERS AND SISTERS:

ON THIS OCASSION WE TELL YOU OUR WORD ON THE ADVANCES FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST WORLD FESTIVAL OF THE DIGNA RABIA.

FIRST. - UP UNTIL TODAY, WE HAVE THE CONFIRMATION OF ATTENDANCE FROM PEOPLE, GROUPS, COLLECTIVES AND ORGANIZATIONS, ASIDE FROM MEXICO, FROM THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES:

IRAN.
ARGENTINA.
ITALY.
FRANCE.
UNITED STATES.
BRAZIL.
SWEDEN.
COSTA RICA.
SPANISH STATE.
SWITZERLAND.
BASQUE COUNTRY.
CUBA.
CHILE.
ENGLAND.
AUSTRIA.
VENEZUELA.
BELGIUM.
GERMANY.
NORWAY.
GREECE.

From Zapagringo-- http://zapagringo.blogspot.com/2008/11/revolution-evolution-in-21st-century.html

I really hope that you find some way to to read the piece below, Grace Lee Boggs' new introduction to "Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century" penned by her and the late James Boggs in the late 1970s. Sit here and read it, or cut and paste and print it out... whichever you choose, please consider ordering the 2008 re-print, which has been re-titled "Revolution and Evolution in the Twenty First Century", at the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership's on-line bookstore here. That might be the most convenient way to read this intro - and certainly the one that most supports those whose labor has created this powerful work :-)

Celebrate People's History and Build Popular Power on January 20, 2009

We call on all anarchists, horizontalists, autonomists, anti-capitalists, anti-authoritarians, and others organizing a world from below to bring our best creative spirits to the project of a "Celebrate People's History and Build Popular Power" bloc on January 20, 2009, in Washington, DC -- or in your hometown, if you can't make it.

As people striving toward a nonhierarchical society, yes, we can -- and should -- be rigorously critical of Barack Obama. It goes without saying that we want a world without presidents; we want worlds of our own constituting via directly democratic structures, not states. But not all heads of state are alike, and if we fail to recognize both the historical meaning and power of this particular moment, we will ensure our own irrelevance.

We can -- and should -- also be in critical solidarity with people who have been violently marginalized, who see in the Obama campaign the possibility of their own agency. The inauguration affords a unique space for us to stand with a diverse group of activists inspired by Obama, many new to political organizing, even as we maintain our views on the limits of change from above.