the riots

Posted on January 31, 2009

a poem by charles bukowski

the riots

I’ve watched this city burn twice
in my lifetime
and the most notable thing
was the arrival of the
politicians in the
aftermath
proclaiming the wrongs of
the system
and demanding new
policies toward and for the
poor.

nothing was corrected last
time.
nothing will be corrected this
time.

the poor will remain poor.
the unemployed will remain
so.
the homeless will remain
homeless

and the politicians,
fat upon the land, will live
very well.

5/5/1992

A letter from a social class struggle anarchist.

Posted on January 29, 2009

Another article off the A-infos newswire, this one from a very frustrated comrade in Greece. I’ve written a fair amount about the same kinds of feelings and I think a lot of what he’s saying is just as true about the movement in North America – there are far too few real revolutionaries and far too many angry kids who just want to smash things.

Not that smashing things can’t be a good thing in the right circumstances (think Boston Tea Party), but destruction for its own sake is a problem because it alienates the majority and marginalizes radicals. Renouncing the Vanguardism of Marxism and taking an Anarchist approach to Class Struggle means we need to be able to mobilize the working class en masse in order to win. Our strength – and our only hope for victory – is in numbers.

So yes to protests! yes to mass actions! yes to self-defense against police violence! yes to occupying space and standing up to reclaim the commons! but please, let’s be smart and not reinforce the negative stereotypes about anarchists that the mass media here, in greece, and worldwide works so hard to perpetuate..

(en) Greece, Athens, A letter from a social class struggle anarchist.

Date Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:58:57 +0200

---

Dear Comrades, I don’t have to go to work until Monday so I am in a position to say a few things about the majority of the Greek anarchists. —- This majority supports a vague kind of anarchism; for these persons the very big differences between Proudhon, Bakunin, Malatesta, Cafiero, Kropotkin, Camillo Berneri, Bookchin and so on, are simply details. Why so? Because after reading a
few anarchist pamphlets they think that there is no need to read any more and examine more carefully the thinking of each of the above-mentioned theoreticians. Moreover they think they “know” – after reading only a few pamphlets! And who are those that don’t know? The entire Greek population (minus these two hundred people)!! —- These anarchists think that we need no theories – we need violent actions to radicalise any social upheaval. For them, the only activity which has any importance is violent action – the only true action!!

What do we really have? Uneducated anarchists (they don’t think before acting, they don’t think after acting and they don’t think of the consequences of their actions), they are the supporters of an anarchism which has never existed (they are not individualists, not syndicalists, nor communists – they are simply “anarchists”) believers in the one and only solution for all the “problems”
(violence) and they are elitist (they “know”, and all the others don’t “know”).

In fact given the mindless action of these anarchists the Greek state has no need of provocateurs. Their participation in a demonstration always leads to their direct confrontation with the police and dispersal of the demonstrators. Of course they don’t give a damn about the purpose(s) of the demonstrations.

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Come Meet the New Boss – Obama to defend Telco Spy Immunity

Posted on January 22, 2009

Yes We Can … continue George Bush’s well established precedent of violating citizens privacy rights, protecting big corporations, and trading our freedoms for the false security of a Police State. Come meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Obama to Defend Telco Spy Immunity
By David Kravets, Wired Magazine

The incoming Obama administration will vigorously defend congressional legislation immunizing U.S. telecommunication companies from lawsuits about their participation in the Bush administration’s domestic spy program.

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