Abel Paz, the nom de guerre et plume of Diego Camacho, Spanish militant, unionist, anarchist, historian, and elder inspiration, has passed away at the age of 87.
Also the author of the best book on Buenaventura Durruti, translated in its complete edition by Chuck Morse (Institute of Anarchist Studies, among other things), and published by AK Press.
May you rest in peace, comrade.
Thousands of Greek protesters clashed with riot police yet again in Athens today, as police started to run out of tear gas after battling rioters day and night for a whole week.
Police sources said their riot squads had fired 4,600 tear gas canisters this week as rioters torched hundreds of banks and shops and occupied their campuses, where police after forbidden by law from entering.
The police have asked Israel and Germany to send them emergency supplies, while protesters claimed that they had been using old stock from the 1980s in a desperate bid to contain the rioting. They claimed that corroded chemicals were causing some demonstrators to collapse and need medical attention.
“We found tear gas canister dated from 1981,” said one demonstrator, calling himself only GK. “The old chemicals make us sick, people have fainted and have trouble breathing,” he said.
With the running street battles showing no sign of letting up, a march by students, anarchists and youths in masks ran into immediate trouble as rioters hurled rocks, fruit and chairs from street cafes at police trying to contain the latest rally.
Police responded by firing stun grenades and snatching rock-throwers who approached too close, at one point knocking down a Greek journalist with their plastic shields. As the masses approached parliament and challenged the police ranks, officers used remaining supplies of tear gas to drive them from the square before the assembly building.
via Greek police run out of tear gas as rioting continues for a seventh day – Times Online.
Quick draft of something I wrote for another forum; no time to appropriately write about this stuff here, but I’ve included extra links, video, etc.:
Another Starbucks in Minnesota went union this month (see also here), with workers pairing their announcement with an action to improve security at their store. In Chicago, as I write this, workers at Republic Windows and Doors are in the middle of the fifth day of a factory occupation (see also 1, 2, sign a petition of support here) . Greek anarchists are in full-scale revolt against the police, who murdered a teenager in the streets a few days ago. (see also 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Canadians are attempting to defeat a neo-fascist government (go ahead, google Stephen Harper) by rallying in the streets of major cities, including Montreal. Those are just some of the movements that are underfoot and crossing my mind at the moment. It’s on, people.
Yes, Obama won. And immediately started appointing Clinton-era neoliberals to his bloated cabinet. Some are spinning this as a Lincolnesque “team of rivals” cabinet, while others see it as a relatively straightforward expression of the new American empire, in smarter dress and politer speech. Obama made one good move this week, when he announced his support for the workers occupying the Republic Windows factory, a statement which resulted in the immediate announcement by Illinois’ governor that the state would cease doing business with the bank (Bank of America) that refused to issue a line of credit to the company, thereby preventing it (so goes the argument) from being able to continue to do business and pay its employees its legally-obligated severance. Illinois’ state attorney general is looking into the possibility of filing charges against the management of the company, which owes 75 days of severance wages to its employees (60 days under federal law, and an extra fifteen under local law), and is refusing to pay.
Then, in a supposedly separate issue, Illinois Governor Blagojevich, the day after decreeing that all state agencies must cease doing business with Bank of America, was arrested this morning at his home.
But what are the politicians really saying? Obama and the governor are not making the proper claims: that Republic and Bank of America are parasitic criminal enterprises, impoverishing their workers and the citizens of the United States. Instead of identifying the precise mechanisms through which bosses suck the wealth out of their employees, or by describing the bailouts the government engineers for the banking sectors while denying to productive sectors, like Detroit, these politicians are reacting to worker initiatives and expressing their support in fuzzy terms.
When Argentina’s economy began its rapid fall in 2001 (a consequence the neo-liberal economic regimes perpetuated by many members of Obama’s new cabinet), Argentinians from all classes began to withdraw their money from the banks, which responded by refusing to let the citizens have their money. The consequent political crisis toppled multiple governments in a matter of months; Argentinian workers, many of whom were not particularly radical before the crisis, occupied factories and continued to produce after owners abandoned both factories and payrolls. Some of those projects succeeded and continue, in spite of repression and legal shenanigans from the former owners, who, like the owners of Republic, closed down in order to preserve their own wealth by impoverishing their employees.
We cannot rely on the boss, the politicians, or the lawyers, to save us. The workers at Republic know this – without their severance, they will have difficulty feeding their families and keeping the heat on in Chicago’s brutal winter. They aren’t waiting. They are taking the initiative, and forcing the bosses and the politicians to respond. We need to support their brave stand, and we need to replicate it. Organization, like that taking place in the IWW/SWU campaigns in Starbucks all over the world, must take priority. Direct action, like that taking place so dramatically and effectively in Republic Windows and Doors’ Factory right now, must be the tactic of organized workers. And revolt, like that taken by Greek anarchists and communities in Athens and elsewhere in Greece, must follow every assault on our lives and liberties.
Make a donation to Republic Workers Solidarity Fund here.
Independent media has begun releasing longer, more in-depth accounts of what went down here in September, when they – along with tens of thousands of peaceful citizens – suddenly found themselves in a repressive police state that resembled fabled Minnesota Nice not at all. Independent media was specifically targeted, along with folks from the RNC Welcoming Committee.
Sometime today, the good folks from Twin Cities Indymedia and the Glass Bead Collective will release a hi-definition downloadable (and burnable to dvd) version of their documentary, “Terrorizing Dissent.” There will be public showings in various locations [check the web site]. In the meantime, here’s the trailer.
Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago 8 forty years ago, has been a good egg, making the parallels explicit. He was on Macalester’s campus last week, talking up this point, the fact that police adhere to a ’scare the sh*t out of the public’ script in these cases, and that
As long as the pubic is dumb and the politicians cowardly, they won’t have to send out agents. But I don’t see how this pulling the wool over the eyes of people can go on forever.
TWO MONKS ON THE RUN FROM POLICE
Phon Sokum, 21, was seriously injured after two monks, Nuth Sok Phoun, 23, and Nuth Sovanny, 24, along with a number of other men, attacked him with axes and chains in Steng Meanchey commune, Meanchey district, Phnom Penh at 6:30pm on October 15. The police said that the attack was caused by an argument between the monks and the victim’s grandmother, which greatly angered the monks. Phon Sokum is currently recovering in hospital. The two monks are on the run. (Kumpuchea Thmey)
_________________________________YOUNG MAN’S BODY DISCOVERED IN POOL
Chao Meung, 20, and 10 of his house mates were arrested by Banteay Meanchey police when the body of Piseth Sok Heng, 24, was discovered in a pool in their backyard in Village 1, Ponlea commune, Serey Sophorn district, Banteay Meanchey province Friday. The police said that Piseth Sok Heng had been murdered. Chao Meung has been sent to court. Chao Meung’s house mates have been sent home after the police made them promise that they would not get involved in any type of unwholesome activity again.(Rasmey Kampuchea)
This promises to be deeply useful to many of us, whose lives straddle the divide of anti-work and jobs devoted to ‘productivity.’ Lovely. via BB.From our comrades at WSM
See also Hugh Gusterson’s analysis of the bursting of the international security bubble, posted via Open Anthropology. OA, by the way, has a new subsidiary site here. Yaay, Open Anthropology!.
This piece, from Black Star News, is the only halfway decent review of the incipient crash I’ve seen yet. The real problem with most of the analysis is not that it is particularly wrong, but that the perspectives they find themselves mired in are shortsighted, lacking both realism and moral courage.
You may have noticed that many more Democrats than Republicans voted for the bailout deal. They are correct that failing to bail out wall street can/will result in global economic meltdown, the inability of companies (aka ‘bosses’) to pay their employees, etc.
What they fail (or refuse) to see is that this is an opportunity. A serious one. If employers fail to pay their employees, employees can and should demand increasing levels of control over every aspect of the business operation, including stakes in ownership, to be held communally.
If the mortgage industry, and the shadow economy fails, it should not be mortgage payers who lose their homes, but merely mortgage brokers who lose their shirts.
And if government cannot resolve the situation, which has been brewing for decades, if not since the very dawn of the capitalist era, then we should simply dismiss the predatory politricksters as the irrelevant parasites they are, and use our organized power directly against the bosses who predate even more directly on our labor and time than do the politicians.
Here’s a tantalizing snippet from the piece:
So here they come–all the corporate fascists, hat-in-hand, wanting the American taxpayer to bail them out.
These, the very same arrogant, and compassionless social terrorists who demonized as “socialist” anyone who even implied that maybe a crumb should be set aside for the poor or middle class. “Deregulate. Let the market work. Free us from the nuisance of social protectionism, and we’ll make America great.” But now that their greedy excesses have worked against them, all of a sudden socialism doesn’t look all that bad. In fact, it looks better with every day that passes–as long as we remember to privatize the profit, and only socialize loss.
…
When the average American is in a financial pinch, the banks don’t just give us money, they make us pay for it–dearly. So why shouldn’t we? Maybe we should give them an open-ended loan at the prevailing rate. Then allow them to pay off the loan by setting up a trust fund in which the banking community must contribute a percentage (to be determined) of their annual gross profits (That’s right, gross profits–we want ours off the top).
We could then use that money to help subsidize social security, universal healthcare, and other programs that benefit the American people. And the beauty of it is, since it’s a business transaction, we can both benefit the people, while at the same time, avoid the “evils” socialism. After all, we’ll be taking their money in the very best capitalist tradition.
And we must be sure to use our leveraged position to its full advantage. Therefore, as part of the formula that determines how much of their profits must go into this trust fund, we should take into account the minimum wage, the cost of living, and the level of disparity between the average worker and the compensation of top tier corporate executives (after all, if corporations can afford to pay their CEOs exorbitant salaries and benefits, certainly they should be able to contribute more towards their public debt).
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