Unconditional Anti-Oppression: The Rise of Anti-Speciesism in the Anarchist Movement

Shared from http://veganwarfare.com/unconditional-anti-oppression-rise-anti-speciesism-anarchist-movement/


Negotiation is over. Moving beyond liberal veganism.

About 40 years ago animal rights was a concept promoted and activated by determined individuals, passionate about expanding their sphere of compassion. Not only did many of these animal rights activists go vegan but they also took action in the streets. Big colorful signs, petition signing, banner drops, and other tactics were deployed to disrupt the normalcy of routine non-human animal exploitation. Many of these tactics served to spread awareness of slaughterhouse atrocities in hopes of generating sympathy and agricultural reform. Overtime as more and more people began to acknowledge and speak out against non-human animal exploitation, tactics, ideas, and even other movements began to evolve.

Today there is less sign holding and petition signing as these previous attempts for change have left many disappointed. As the treatment of non-human animals continued despite votes and petitions, activists went underground giving birth to many radical groups like the Animal Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Brigade, Animal Rights Militia, Revolutionary Cells, and so on. Many vegan liberals, disappointed by politicians and the state, had begun to re-examine their own political ideologies.

As tactical diversity grows beyond the state’s control with the intent of yielding self-initiated results, the animal rights movement is now commonly referred to as the “animal liberation movement”. This form of self-determination by individuals working in cells or affinity groups has become appealing for its effectiveness. Online petition signing has seen less activity as prisoner support through fund raising and letter-writing becomes more popular. Single-issue oriented activists have begun to diversify their activism in light of acknowledging the connection with social struggles, eco-defense, and decolonization. This expanding solidarity and mutual-aid has created new alliances, collective efforts, and new methods of resource sharing in many activist communities. The wave of increasingly radicalized vegans poses a threat to capitalism and the state. Today many once willing-to-negotiate activists have adopted new approaches that defy the lawfulness of peaceful protest and political reform. With an increase in property damage, liberated non-humans and appreciation for direct action, it was no surprise when the state constructed AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act ) in an effort to sway public opinion and discourage the growth of radicalized vegans.

Anti-speciesist anarchism. None are free until all are free.
Anthropocentrism and Speciesism

Anthropocentrism is the belief that humans are superior and therefore entitled to dominate other animals and the earth. This form of discrimination and privilege exists in the anarchist movement, and has played a key role in the perceiving of non-human animal and earth liberation as secondary movements. As any other supremacist ideology, anthropocentrism perpetuates discrimination, enslavement, and murder in general, and towards non-human animals in particular. It embodies an interlocking combination of oppressions which manifest in the dominating social relationship humans have towards each other, the earth and other animals. Similar to white supremacy with the discrimination of non-white people, and male supremacy with the discrimination of non-male identifying people, human supremacy refuses equal consideration and opportunity for non-human animals to pursue a life free of human control.

Like racism and sexism, speciesism is irrational discrimination towards non-human animals based on species. Anti-speciesist anarchism is an anti-authoritarian challenge to anthropocentrism. Biocentrism or Deep Ecology is the re-distribution of power and autonomy equally to all sentient beings through the destruction of human moral elitism. Humans have generally justified their exploitation of non-humans through the catagorization of “animals” as inferior therefore rightfully subjugated. Today many vegan anarchists have replaced “animals” with “non-human animals” or simply “other animals”.This serves to distinguish non-human animals from human animals, while also recognizing the shared animality of both. The word “rights” regarding non-human animals is less often used. Since “rights” in the political context imply permissions or privileges granted by the state, anti-speciesists generally feel this term is inconsistent with autonomous freedom. Anti-speciesism as a significant element and concept in the struggle for freedom is expanding as the intersectionality of all oppressions gains recognition.

Intersecting oppressions

Intersectionality is an examination of how all forms of oppression including but not limited to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, species or disability do not act independently of one another but instead, are interrelated creating a system of oppression that reflects the “intersection” of multiple forms of discrimination. For example, capitalism utilizes speciesism to commodify non-human animals, reducing them to units of production and capital. The legal property status of non-human animals can be compared to that of the enslaved Africans prior to the Civil War. Reproductive control over women reflects the reproductive exploitation of non-human animals. Anti-capitalists who have acknowledged the relationship between non-human animals and capitalism have seen that such a relationship is the antithesis of freedom and must be abolished. Consuming non-human animals perpetuates the capitalist and human supremacist notion that they are sources of food rather than sentient beings deserving of their natural born right to freedom as humans expect for themselves.

Communication, language and imagery contribute to the mutual reinforcement of all oppressions. Since non-human animals are viewed as inferior, their imagery and identity is used as a derogatory way of describing disliked, oppressed or uncivilized humans. For example some of the most commonly known slurs towards women attack their physical appearance and involve non-human animals. In addition to degrading individual women these insults marginalize entire species of non-human animals as well. The hatred and speciesism towards pigs is encouraged when they are used to reference officers of colonial law. In various contexts, pigs, cows, and dogs are considered dirty, unclean, ugly, unlovable beings. These serve as stereotypes that excuse and encourage their exploitation. In the eyes of a speciesist, non-human animals serve to metaphorically reference oppressed humans. Some non-human animals are used to describe people of color (monkey, ape, coon etc) other non-humans are used in the same way for women (bitch, chick, cow etc). People of color who break laws or act out their emotions are often referred to as animals, and a women who acts out her frustration or anger is often referred to as a “bitch”. The marginalization of non-human animals  is intimately intertwined with the oppression upon them. When examined, the mechanisms of domination, violence, and control are the same.

Beyond “veganarchism”; anarchism means total liberation for all

The term “veganarchism” has played an important part in distinguishing the growing wave of anti-speciesist anarchy from traditional anarchism. But as earth and non-human animal liberation gain recognition for their place in the anarchist struggle, the continued usage of “veganarchism” becomes problematic. The term “veganarchism” preserves the same false division currently withering away. It also draws more attention towards veganism as an action without a preexisting cause. This leads to more dialogue and attention on veganism as merely dietary rather than enough dialogue on the oppression of non-veganism. Speciesism, anthropocentrism, and the authoritarianism in consuming other sentient beings for food receives less exposure to criticism than veganism. This imbalance usually results in drawn out debates about veganism being classist or racist. While it is a common mistake for speciesist anarchists to impose white imperialism upon veganism (which marginalizes vegans of color by assuming that whites are the only ones concerned with deep ecology, health, and non-human animal liberation, this mistake is almost inevitable when the scope of veganism is reduced to Western culture rather than global anti-colonialism. Anti-speciesism is increasingly viewed as consistent with anti-oppression, and biocentrism consistent with anti-authoritarianism. This combination of earth, non-human and human animal liberation presents an anarchist struggle for total liberation.

Speciesism is still widely tolerated in many anarchist communities. Despite the growing number of anarchist vegans, speciesism and anthropocentrism are still viewed as secondary problems. Some blame the language barrier between human and non-human animals for this lack of consideration. Intelligence, physical limitations and sometimes even the question of sentience all play a role in speciesist apologism. But as more anarchists acknowledge the intersectionalism and interdependence of all oppressions, veganism is viewed as the logical process of being anti-speciesist. Anarchism without anti-speciesism allows space for irrational discrimination, domination, and oppression. Furthermore, anarchism without veganism allows space for patriarchy and rape culture. The consumption of milk from cows or eggs from chickens enables the coercive and sexual exploitation of vagina-bearing individuals. Without total freedom for all, authority and oppression remain over some to benefit those in a position of power and privilege.

More anarchist collectives have extended solidarity to non-human animals through promoting veganism, opening up anti-speciesist spaces, and being vocal against non-human animal oppression. Guerrilla gardening, community gardening and polyculture are on the rise in many anti-oppression communities in an effort to combat monoculture and Genetically Modified foods which colonize other lands with industrialization and environmental destruction. Despite ever-increasing state repression, a gradual increase of property destruction attributed to non-human animal liberation continues. In online forums and in the streets, speciesism within the anarchist community is receiving more constructive criticism.  Anti-speciesism means critically examining social interactions and communication between all animals, human and non-human alike. In the process of eliminating oppressive language and practices, solidarity is extended with power, respect, and equality to all who are oppressed. Many anarchists across the globe have embraced veganism not only as a practice of healthy survival but also as an extention of solidarity beyond the speciesist limits of human struggle. Today one can see the merging of the anarchist anti-capitalist/anti-fascist struggle with the eco-defense, animal and earth liberation movements. These struggles in combination present an uncompromising war against capitalism, the state, civilization and the myriad of colonial oppression.

-Blitz Molotov XVX

Anti-colonization/anti-capitalism/anti-imperialism event Nov. 26th

We will be hosting a film screening/discussion event open to the Elgin community Nov. 26th at 7pm. This event will be focused on examining colonialism, capitalism, Native American genocide and a holiday that remains celebrated despite opposition from Indigenous peoples. There will be vegan snacks available and like all events hosted by The Feral Space, this is a free and sober event. Come check it out yall!

Our first event since we moved! (Finally!) Letter writing/prisoner support night Friday 11/14

After finally gettin all our shit unpacked we are ready to host our first event. We will be writing prisoners Friday (tomorrow) including Eric G. King and many others. If anyone would like to join us, send us an email. Vegan snacks provided!

Three Arrested at Everglades EF! Briger Forest Blockade, Jail Support Needed!

from Earth First! Newswire
According to most recent reports from Everglades Earth First!,”The three arrested during the Briger Forest blockade are in custody at Palm Beach County Jail. Each are facing multiple misdemeanor charges. Bail has yet to be set. The blockade reportedly stopped workers from entering the site for over four hours.”
At least 22 cop cars, an emergency field force vehicle, and a mobile command unit were on site, and both people participating in the lockdown were arrested, along with the support person.

Support direct action, and help us continue to defend the Briger Forest before it’s too late! Donate to these brave individuals’ legal funds here: https://www.everribbon.com/ribbon/view/16764

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Groups like Everglades Earth First! and the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition (PBCEC) have been fighting to protect the Briger Forest since 2010. Last winter a justice department lawyer admitted to PBCEC’s lawyer Bill Eubanks that there were no practical alternatives to site layout designs that could both benefit continued snake use of the site and also satisfy the project’s purpose and need, effectively sentencing to death any Eastern Indigo Snake on the property. The Eastern Indigo Snake is one of 13 state and federally listed animal and plant species whom the Briger is suitable to support. A member of PBCEC is also appealing permits for construction needed from the South Florida Water Management District. Beyond the legal challenges the groups have gathered hundreds of petition signatures, held demonstrations and even staged a six-week tree-sit in the forest to protest the development.

“Kolter and Palm Beach County have had a corrupt deal from the beginning. It is a crime against nature for developers to keep bulldozing over wild South Florida in order to perpetuate an animal torturing biotech expansion agenda,” said Ashley Lyons, an organizer with Everglades Earth First!

Since the early 2000’s, Jeb Bush has tried to lure the Biotech industry to Florida with heavy state and local subsidies including this project and the construction of a campus for biotech company Scripps Florida. In the past few years Scripps has received about half a billion dollars in state subsidies for new facilities and has an agreement to lease the county owned portion of the property for $1 dollar a year ensuring their corporate welfare for years to come.

With the construction of a massive primate breeding facility in Hendry County, the “progressive” biotech industry is solidifying it’s future of inhumane animal testing and Scripps will be no exception. Scripps in Lajolla, California, has a history of testing on primates and Scripps Phase II will more than likely vivisect primates if constructed.

Everglades Earth First! promises to continue fighting the development every step of the way.

“We’re going to fight this project until it’s stopped because this forest is worth fighting for,” said Rachel Kijewski.

For more info on the blockade and its reasons, click here.

Vegans of Color: Veganism and The Class War

This writing was shared from https://vegansofcolor.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/veganism-and-the-class-war/

What follows is a thought exercise.

My own definition of a vegan is a human who eats fruits and vegetables [as well as whatever nuts, seeds or legumes he or she may desire], and never eats or uses animal products. For starts. For my purposes and for the purposes of this post, this vegan is not so heavily involved in extremely elaborate recipes, in highly-processed ingredients and additives, in soy and grains, etc. That can come later. I’m simplifying and scaling down for the purpose of understanding what this post wants to address, which is the skeletal basics (though in full disclosure I’m pretty much a fruitarian). A vegan, firstly, is someone anywhere in the world where fruits and vegetables are affordable and accessible who eats those items, eats produce. That sort of vegan, who isn’t strictly dependent on special products, mock meats, packaged goods, and so on, who could be just at home eating the fruits and veggies available in Kinshasa or Kisangani as are available in Karachi or Kansas City, might be said, for the purposes of this thought experiment, to be a universal vegan, or even a vehicular vegan, and I will use either term interchangebly going forward.

As for the class war, I define it as the conflict between workers and bosses, between capitalists and proletariats, between landlords and tenants, between elites and all us riff-raff, even between humans and animals, over access and claims of ownership over land, infrastructure, the means of production, the structure of our economy, the production of culture, and so on. It is the imperative of oppressors to oppress, to exploit, to profit, maintain ignorance, maintain illiteracy and food scarcity, maintain the divisions amongst working people, maintain ideological, religious, and political zeitgeists of constant histeria, and yet eat well and live comfortably all the while. It is the imperative of workers, of women, of ethnic or sexual minorities, of those rendered landless, to maintain unity in struggle, to vie for and claim power, land and freedom, to achieve self-determination and societies of fairness and justice, to collectivize resources, to build and practice pro-human cultures, and to, at a spiritual maximum as it were, prefer death to slavery. The class war is very real and it is everywhere and, whether or not we acknowledge it, we are all class warriors of some stripe, all over the world. If we find ourselves hating our banks and landlords and tiring of our bosses, that much makes us class warriors, just as a Naxalite Adivasi struggling against planned and perpetrated genocides and land thefts and who actually engages in armed struggle is a class warrior. The bosses that like exploiting and polluting and dominating – whether at Goldman Sachs or British Petroleum or Tyson Chicken or General Motors or Lockheed Martin or Uncle Sam himself – they’re all class warriors for their side.

So how can we mix veganism – as practiced by the universal vegan – with the class war? We start with the manner in which prestige is applied to certain objects to make them desirable, even when they aren’t healthy or necessary. Possession or consumption of these articles of prestige is then used to define who is of what class, or at least who aspires to more elevated social rankings. Yes, commodity fetishism includes propagating the meat prestige – look at the most extreme sorts of hamburgers the fast-food industry invents, or at the Heart Attack Grill.

So, all over the third world, even where meat is scarce or pastoralism is irrevocably destroying land, meat is a prestige. Automobile usage is another. The wealthiest eat the most meat and drive the most, and are often the most gorged and overweight, hence the typical gut of rich and powerful elites in Africa and elsewhere in the third world. (And thanks to the zombifying power of marketing and mass media, a million other useless, wasteful and dangerous products are rendered prestigious, and we must use our own voices and propaganda to fight this, but that is another topic.)

But if a society hedges closer to veganism, that means more calories will generally be available to its individual constituents, since growing plants is far more sustainable and efficient than growing animals which eat plants. So that society would naturally enable an environment of greater equity and less classism. On the other hand, if a society hankers hard after meat, that means fewer people will eat of the greater resultant scarcity in overall available calories. The meat-centric society will inevitably breed the conditions for less equality and for harsher stratification, just because of how much meat production usurps of limited environmental resources.

That’s macro-level. What about individual vehicular vegan class warriors?
Conscious vegan workers remove themselves partly from an equation of exploitation by striking animals from a hierarchy of exploitation and brutality from their own lives. They help keep the class war between humans and from involving non-humans, who have enough of their own struggles and class wars in the wild without having to worry about human consumption.

Conscientious vegan workers keep from supporting aspects of the elite apparatus and cash machine by non-participation in the meat-industrial complex and, should veganism keep them healthy, the medical-industrial complex. The industries of violence and slavery are among the largest which support class and caste structures worldwide. Not endorsing the meat prestige and engaging in veganism means one is using one’s own labor and consumer powers to directly disempower the most odious aspects of the system.

It could be observed that much of veganism, as it is known particularly in North America, is associated with upper classes and privileged populations, but veganism at the grassroots is actually potentially most revolutionary. In the US, poor communities of color are often bereft of access to fresh healthy foods, and disproportionately find themselves afflicted with the diseases of Western diets and lifestyles. This is part of class war, as I see it, keeping the most chronically impoverished from being able to be healthy, long-lived and highly functioning, and from excelling as human beings. The elites don’t really care to ameliorate this problem.

Thus it is up to grassroots universal vegan workers of color, aware that existence in a human society configured such as ours means lifelong class war, to promote healthy lifestyles, to strive and struggle to increase access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in our communities, and to speak loudly and widely on the benefits of non-meat consumption and the fallacies of the meat prestige and meat addiction.

Thoughtful vegans should make natural class warriors. Their veganism empowers them to escape relationships of oppression and violence with both humans and non-humans, while granting them the vitality and awareness to struggle for just power and representation for as long as necessary. The vehicular vegan revolutionary can be a revolutionary of stamina and substance, of vision and actualization, actually practicing diplomacy (with non-humans) and militancy (against industries and economies of subjugation).

And that is how, and why, veganism can relate to the class war, and why vegans, especially working-class vegans of color, should consider themselves class warriors. But it’s just one small open-source theory that still needs help (or refutation) from y’all.

Veganism can indeed be revolutionary, and we must make it so if we are serious about social change, food sovereignty, Earth and non-human justice, and human freedom and equity.

Hip Hop & Food Justice by Kevin Tillman (Vegan Hip Hop Movement) & Keith Tucker (Pursuit of a Green Planet)

Check it out! http://veganhiphopmovement.blogspot.com/2014/07/hip-hop-food-justice-from-burning.html

Is Filming a Police Officer a “Domestic Threat”? Austin Activist on Trial for Videotaping an

Shared from http://veganwarfare.com/filming-police-officer-domestic-threat-austin-activist-trial-videotaping-arrest/

A jury in Austin, Texas, is set to issue its decision today in a case that centers on a person’s right to film police officers. Antonio Buehler says he was at a gas station in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in 2012 when he used his phone to take pictures of a woman being arrested and crying out for help. Ultimately, Buehler’s attempt to document what he felt was apparent police abuse ended with his own arrest when the officer said he felt Buehler spit on him. He faced a felony charge of “harassment of a public servant,” and two to 10 years in prison. Last year, a grand jury cleared Buehler of the felony, but in an usual twist, it came back with a charge of “failure to obey a lawful order,” a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine. The order was for Buehler to put his hands behind his back as he tried to take pictures. Since then Buehler has co-founded the group Peaceful Streets Project, whose members record police and post the videos online, and train others to do the same. He has been arrested several more times while videotaping officers and has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Austin Police Department. Buehler is an an Iraq War veteran and graduate of West Point and Stanford University with no prior arrests. Just moments before a jury is set to issue a verdict, he joins us from Austin.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We go now to Austin, Texas, where a jury is set to issue a decision today in a case that centers on an activist’s right to film police. Antonio Buehler says he was at a gas station in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in 2012 when he used his phone to take pictures of a woman being arrested and crying out for help. In this video clip from the dashboard camera of a police car at the scene, Officer Patrick Oborski pulls the female passenger out of a car that had been stopped for having its lights off. As she cries for help, you can hear Antonio Buehler call out to the officer.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Don’t touch me. You’re on video.

POLICE OFFICER: That’s good. Come on. You’re done.

FEMALE PASSENGER: I’m on video.

POLICE OFFICER: That’s it. Get out of the car.

ANTONIO BUEHLER: Why are you pulling her out of the car?

POLICE OFFICER: Hey, don’t worry about it.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Help me, please!

POLICE OFFICER: Worry about yourself. Worry about yourself!

FEMALE PASSENGER: They’re pulling me out of the car!

ANTONIO BUEHLER: What are you doing that to a female for? What is she doing to you? She’s not a risk to you.

FEMALE PASSENGER: I haven’t done nothing for it.

POLICE OFFICER: Sit up.

ANTONIO BUEHLER: She’s not doing [bleep] to you guys.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Take video of this, please.

ANTONIO BUEHLER: What’s wrong with you guys?

FEMALE PASSENGER: Please, take video of this.

POLICE OFFICER: Stand up!

ANTONIO BUEHLER: [inaudible] taking video of this.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Take video of this. Yeah, seriously, take video of this [bleep]. [inaudible]

POLICE OFFICER: Stand up.

ANTONIO BUEHLER: There was absolutely no reason to pull her out of the car like that. That’s [bleep] up!

POLICE OFFICER: How many times do we got to tell you not to interrupt [bleep]?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: This is the first time that footage has been broadcast. Ultimately, Antonio Buehler’s attempt to document apparent police abuse ended with his own arrest, when the officer said he felt Buehler was spitting on him. He faced a felony charge of harassment of a public servant and possible sentence of two to 10 years in prison. Last year, a grand jury cleared Buehler of the felony, but in an usual twist, it came back with a charge of “failure to obey a lawful order,” a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine. The order was for Buehler to put his hands behind his back as he tried to take pictures.

AMY GOODMAN: Since then, Antonio Buehler co-founded the group Peaceful Streets Project, whose members record police and post the videos online, train others to do the same thing. He has been arrested several more times while videotaping officers and has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Austin Police Department. And nearly three years after his first arrest, Antonio Buehler returned to court last Thursday to challenge his misdemeanor charge. Such minor cases often take about half a day, but this one is about to enter its fourth day and has featured a large police presence in the courtroom. Antonio Buehler is an an Iraq War vet, graduate of West Point and Stanford. He had no prior arrest record. Just about an hour before a jury is set to issue their decision, he joins us now from Austin.

Antonio, welcome to Democracy Now! The significance of this trial and why you are on trial? This is a misdemeanor that faces a $500 fine, and yet you have been in court now for days.

ANTONIO BUEHLER: Yeah, and I think that it all revolves around the fact that police officers don’t like to be held accountable, and prosecutors tend to cover for corrupt police officers.

AMY GOODMAN: Who said that you were a domestic terrorist threat?

ANTONIO BUEHLER: That came from the Austin Police Department, one of the officers who arrested me for filming. His name is Justin Berry. He created a PowerPoint presentation, presented it to the regional fusion center. And in it, they said that I was a domestic terrorist threat, as was the Peaceful Streets Project, because we go out and film cops. They said that we were a threat to all police officers and we’ve encouraged violence against police officers, which is just not true.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Antonio Buehler, the response to your Peaceful Streets Project in Austin? As a West Point grad and as a war veteran, what has been the marshaling of support for you?

ANTONIO BUEHLER: The people tend to really support us. The problem is, is that the city doesn’t support us. And so, the police officers have documented us, they’ve followed us, they’ve surveilled us, they’ve arrested us numerous times. And the prosecutors have been colluding with them to drum up charges against us. They’ve tried to bring four felony charges against me since that day three years ago.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain exactly what happened on that day? We saw this exclusive video just now. What happened on the morning of New Year’s when this woman was taken out of her car?

ANTONIO BUEHLER: Nothing. I was just a designated driver, pulled over to the gas station to fill up with gas, and we watched what we thought was a pretty benign DWI stop. The woman in the passenger seat of a car, she didn’t commit any crimes. She wasn’t aggressive. She was just on her phone trying to organize a ride in case her driver got arrested. And then, as we were leaving, the police officer just didn’t like the way that she wasn’t bowing down to him, and he ripped her out of the car. And as you saw in the video, I started calling out, asking why they were doing it. She begged for help. And then when I started filming, that just enraged the one police officer, and he ended up coming over to me, getting in my face, pushing and shoving me. And then, I guess, in the aftermath of it, they needed to find a way to cover up the assault of the police officer, so they charged me with the felony of spitting in the cop’s face.

AMY GOODMAN: In a statement, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said, quote, “The Austin Police Department wants to once again reiterate the fact that simply filming police actions are generally lawful. However, interfering or obstructing a lawful police action, failure to obey a lawful order, and/or resisting arrest is a violation of the law.” And this is Austin Police Association President Wayne Vincent speaking to Fox 7.

WAYNE VINCENT: We fully are afraid that this thing is going to turn violent before it’s over, because Buehler keeps escalating the harassment. So, our officers are out there with absolutely no relief from this kind of harassment, and it’s not going to end well.

AMY GOODMAN: Antonio Buehler, the police have packed the courtroom of your misdemeanor trial, but one police officer has crossed the line to testify for you. Can you talk about both situations and what the police are saying here that we’ve just quoted?

ANTONIO BUEHLER: Right. There’s been at least six police officers in the courtroom, uniform and in plainclothes. We think that they’re there to intimidate the jury. There is one that crossed the thin blue line. He said that he stepped forward out of concern for my civil rights. And when he notified his supervisor that he was subpoenaed and that he was going to testify, they then notified him the very next day that he was being terminated as of October 31st. So, this case has been a lot about threats and bullying and intimidation and retaliation from the Austin Police Department and the city prosecutors.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Antonio Buehler, this kind of videotaping and community patrols, taping police activities, have been spreading across the country. We’re seeing videos almost on a daily basis of police interactions with citizens that call real—into question the kinds of brutality that is occurring. Your sense of the importance of these kinds of projects spreading even more throughout the country?

ANTONIO BUEHLER: Well, I think it’s vitally important. One is, police officers, even when they do record, we don’t get the videos. So, that dashcam that you showed, it took two years and nine months for us to get that video. And we’re defending ourselves in a criminal trial. When we have a dashcam of a cop killing someone, it typically malfunctions or disappears. So, we can’t trust the police officers to monitor those videos for us, so we need to do it ourselves. But secondly, as we’ve seen in Ferguson and in other places, when people come together to record the police, they build community, and they start to understand their responsibility to look after and take care of one another. And I think that that’s the most important part, building communities and realizing that we don’t have to defer to people who tend to violate our civil rights to keep the peace. We can do it ourselves.

AMY GOODMAN: Antonio, what do you hope comes out of your case right now? You’ve got this trial today, a verdict expected, and then you’ve got your own civil rights suit.

ANTONIO BUEHLER: Yeah, I actually hope that—I’m a very lucky person. I’m a West Point, Stanford and Harvard grad. I have a lot of privilege. I have a lot of friends with money, and I’ve had a lot of people rally behind me. But what I hope that people see is if the Austin Police Department and the prosecutors are willing to expend such tremendous resources—they had eight prosecutors in the courtroom over the past couple days—if they’re willing to expend this much to try to ruin my life and to try to get me for a petty misdemeanor, I just imagine what they’re doing to people of color, to the homeless, to the mentally ill, and what they’re doing to cover up when cops really do bad things, such as killing or raping. I think that this can be a way hopefully to get a lot of people sort of from my world—you know, Harvard, West Point, Stanford—to sort of recognize what millions of Americans face every day.

AMY GOODMAN: Antonio Buehler, we want to thank you for being with us, founder of Peaceful Streets Project. Trial over whether he disobeyed a lawful order when he refused to stop filming police, it’s set to wrap up shortly after our show. Go to our website, and we’ll let you know the latest in his case. And thank you so much for being with us.

We apologize for the lack of updates. Just finished the painful task of moving without a Uhaul. We currently have no internet at our new space but we will make do with getting wifi from hotspots, cafes etc for the time being. SO...we are officially moved into our new place. It is bigger and we have a few more people with us now. We plan on getting events up and ready by the 10th. For now we will post some news updates from comrades abroad.

FLA - Frente de Libertação Animal Brasil: Two cells A.L.F joined that afternoon of Sunday 19/10, and invaded a NURSERY of Chinchillas in ITAPECERICA DA SERRA-SP.

Two cells A.L.F joined that afternoon of Sunday 19/10, and invaded a NURSERY of Chinchillas in ITAPECERICA DA SERRA-SP.

Were rescued about 100 CHINCHILLAS, where the vast majority of them were already dying because they are suffering the consequences of the immense heat. Us activists reported the following phrase "when we opened the door we feel an unbearable heat inside the room, for chinchillas that are more sensitive the warm temperatures, was the true hell", "we knew of complaints via the internet, and we went out with our own eyes, getting there we decided that just saiíriamos from there, after shaking off all Chinchillas!".

According to reports, the site was completely sprayed with messages of animal liberation and animal Liberation Front (ALF) symbols.

All chinchillas possessed a kind of hoop around the neck, SINKER so that ACE hanged much!!!

The rescued animals have received all the care needed, pass well, and were taken by TWO CELLS A.L.F in safety, under the responsibility of their own activists.

GO ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT ON ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT LIVE! A.L.F!!

Source: Eco-Resistance (Translated by Bing)

From Within a Mexican Prison: “That which stagnates rots”, by the compa Carlos López “Chivo”

For anyone who has decided to pass from words to insurrectionary action,
and carry this in every scope of life, it is necessary to prioritize
engagement by continual reflection; and in this way reconsider again and
again your thoughts, tools, and strategies of fighting. This is in order
to not fall into the passive dynamics which are sterile and
counterproductive when it is time to attack.

From here comes our necessity to revisit important themes that because we do not consider them something fixed, should always put up for debate and discussion.


In a manner of personal capacity and humility I take the work of re-positing what is understood by informality and insurrectionary anarchism-in a brief manner- with the intention that those who can identify can contribute and from their place, give it more depth and debate. At the same time I will make a small critique towards those anarchist currents who have been determined to treat us as “pyromaniacs without ideas”.

Around the world conflicts and tensions continue to be generated by anarchist compañerxs against the complex apparatus of domination, those whose struggle coincides with us do not stop filling us with inspiration, seeking in this way to extend and generalize the conflict in a manner of decided and destructive attack. The efforts of the compas who decide to start their projects based in the coherency of theory-practice and practice-theory (understanding that each complement the other) should be taken into account, not leaving them to be forgotten and putting them up for debate and discussion in a critical-constructive manner seeking in this way to learn from mistakes and successes to later take to the battlefield: social war.

This makes clear that the confrontation against all power and authority is not an idea of lunatics and stooges, but a real and palpable form of seeking in an incisive manner our total and definitive freedom.

We speak of an Anarchy that for us is not an ideology (a struggle which is based in fixed ideas which dictate to us how to act), but a form of shaping life and living it in accordance with our theses, analysis, and criticisms arising in reflection of the struggles that reflect our reality which are always in search of new methods, strategies, and forms of attack; this is why we claim ourselves as insurrectionary anarchists and organize in an informal logic.

We understand insurrectionary anarchy as an action born from individuality, like the rupture that everyone carries with themselves, transforming the entirety of what surrounds them, from the nuclear family, social and political, which much of the time we maintain in this prison/society from which it is not so easy to escape. In this way we transcend the conflict. If something identifies with the insurrectionary struggle it is precisely that which carries it farther away from illusion and words, of taking the initiative in the conflict of classes and breaking with the passive attitude of resistance to go into action, without limiting oneself to waiting to be repressed, to therefore have justification to attack; but rather doing it already, here and now. Permanent conflict, we carry it in our daily life, in our heads and hearts, always seeking to generalize it in the neighborhoods, colonies, towns, and beyond; to come to organize ourselves -through base nuclei- along with people who are not anarchists who wage heavy battles, for example, to stop government projects which put their well being and /or lives at risk. It is important to not situate the insurrectionary struggle in a minimal structure of “specific organization”, as it goes beyond clandestinity, as I previously explained.
Even though this struggle is nothing new, it has been rekindled, we can cite old struggles of peasants and indigenous people who revolted with dignity against rich landowners and landlords, but in another historical context, thus, we see past struggles as reference points not as methods to follow.

It is necessary to stop only remembering past combat forgetting that it is in the here and now that we should actualize them.

Understanding informality as the organizing structure of insurrectionary anarchists as the more or less stable relation of people, groups, or movements which are maintained in a constant approach seeking to deepen the knowledge gained in struggles, without bureaucratic structures nor delegation of responsibility and rejecting possible hierarchies which give way to relations of power. Here within -we say- the part that we “insus (insurrectos)” talk so much about and defend which is the constant reassessment and rearrangement of the forms and methods used to bring the destructive attack to the battlefield.
Informality is not something static and is in constant restructuring (we never forget that “that which stagnates rots”), on the contrary it would not be informal.

The affinity groups who are inspired by this organizational form meet in general in small groups, connected by a mutual personal knowledge. Study and critique of social problems are also important to generate affinity, not only of partial struggles, but as debates taken to the most profound in order to understand from the roots that which is confronted; and above all it is the same destructive urge towards all of the existent which makes us feel affinity. In this way we reach complicity. Affinity is not the same as friendship, although they can go hand in hand or separately,that it is to say, to be in affinity without being in friendship and vice versa. This way these groups build and learn with those they can count on when it is time to take action. These small groups are intended to disappear after completing the objective for which they were formed and from this new ones will arise, retaking the aforementioned “that which stagnates rots”. The union of diverse affinity groups is also part of this informal form of organization.

It is from here, this small contribution, trying as I said, to see that it is deepened.
Now it is time for me to deal with a small critique of some groups, platforms, federations, and some “insus” compas, about a behavior I consider worthy of attention that I do not share. Although anarchism is antagonistic towards every form of structure and relation of power- that which we commonly know as “the system of domination”, – there also exists within the same movement different currents that discredit with a serpentine tone the action of some which go beyond simply words and decide to leave the monotonous passivity that they themselves bear. Currents which extol “preaching” that things should be this or that way like grand cafe theories, just like that, without more. For some time I have felt certain refusal to accept said anarchist doctrine where passionately talking of “searching for” freeing oneself of every imposition, to form fraternity and love horizontal amongst equals almost departing to christian idealism which prays the phrase “eradicating the sins of the world”, but… without doing anything more that getting together to talk, talk, and continue idolizing their perspective of a life in freedom!!, but forgetting themselves or leaving to the side that said life is in the hands of a powerful enemy which is necessary to attack in a permanent and destructive manner.

By themselves rabid and ingenious ideas- theories don’t do much. I consider propaganda and contra-information as something important, but not when they are only use to move the masses; especially if this “moving” carries implicitly waiting for the ideal moment” to launch the offensive, like someone who waits for their messiah, and in this waiting they will dedicate themselves to proselytizing to swell their ranks and fall into quantitative positions.
Therefore, while not agreeing with those who decide to put into praxis direct action, without waiting for the mediation of the State and Capital, they decide to act without solidarity to silence their struggles and consequences, acting like “nothing is happening here” and continuing with their talks and populist indoctrinations -like one who gathers sheep for their flock-.
I think that through the means of marches, meetings, and, talks of anarchism, congresses, great and pompous recitals of liberty -by themselves- will not change much less will they destroy the enemy they say they fight.

Finishing this writing, if its true its only a ton of things I have already said, they are also things that I have lived and reflected on closely, leaving it to the criticism and debate of whoever sees fit.

Lastly, I do not want to miss the opportunity to send a warm and friendly embrace and all of my solidarity to the compas: Nikos Maziotis in greek prison and Pola Roupa on the run, Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar in Spain, Felicity Ryder on the run, Fredy, Juan and Marcelo in $hile, strength to compañera Tamara Sol; Mario “Tripa” on the run, Gianluca Lacovaca and Adriano Antonacci in Italiy; Gabriel Pombo da Silva, and in México Mario González, Abraham, Fernando, Fallon y Amelie.

To all of them and those I am unaware of, my love, rage, and solidarity.
Always irreducible and unyielding, because the struggle is not about winning privileges nor a comfortable future, but is a condition-act seeking to destroy every form of domination; to therefore rise from the ruins and then be free.

Carlos López “Chivo”
Eastern Penitentiary, México D.F.

Interview with the Kurdistan Anarchists Forum (KAF) about the situation in Iraq/Kurdistan

Shared from http://veganwarfare.com/interview-kurdistan-anarchists-forum-kaf-situation-iraqkurdistan/

Interview with the Kurdistan Anarchists Forum (KAF) about the situation in Iraq/Kurdistan

October 26th, 2014 //author:comradetreehugger

From anarkismo
The experiences of many of us have proved or at least shown that it is very, very hard for a libertarian/anarchist idea and direction to grow and develop inside a hierarchal organization. Not only this, it is impossible for such ideas and directions to remain or stay and continue in an ideological nationalist organization. We can always separate or distinguish between the social movement and the leftist political movement whatever form they have because the leftists and politicians are always authoritarian and corrupt. We can see in reality the leftists are always trying to tame and control struggles and the movement of the mass people and use them to achieve their own political aims, making political capital out of it.

---

This interview was carried out by www.alasbarricadas.org on 3rd September 2014. The English translation has been edited for readability by Anarkismo.net.

ALB: How are you now ?

We are fine but like many of you extremely concerned about the current situation in Iraq in general and the Iraqi part of Kurdistan in particular. We are very active in the social media with respect to writing, making comments and discussing the current crisis that exists with different people and groups.
Are you afraid that the ISIS attack will defeat the Peshmerga?

Actually, the attack by ISIS is not just an attack on the Regional Kurdistan Government (KRG) forces or military (recognised as Peshmerga), it is attack on everybody. As you know ISIS is the darkest of forces and is far more brutal than any of the other terrorist groups. They do not distinguish between an armed people and the ordinary people. Wherever ISIS has entered, it has given the residents a very hard time by controlling them, subduing them by implementing Sharia Law. We are sure you have heard what happened already to he Yazidis, who are a peaceful people and did not fight with them at all. ISIS is no less brutal to Christians and Shias than the Yazidis, because they believe these people, all, are devils or evil.

We are more concerned about the actual war that the people in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdish are facing now, more than a defeat of the Peshmarga at the hands of ISIS. The KRG forces (Peshmerga) are the corrupt forces of the current political parties who are in power, mainly the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), whose leader is Massoud Barzany who is the president of Iraqi Kurdistan as well, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), still led by Jalal Talabany, the former Iraqi president. There are also other forces from Islamic organisations and other small political parties. However, we know that these forces (Peshmerga) are a tool in the hands of the political parties and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but as you know we have nothing in common with them and always consider them to be a suppressing force. However, while Iraq and Kurdistan at the moment face the darkest forces in their current history, we should be worried about the Peshmerga being defeated.

There is another important point that we would like to bring to your attention. The Peshmerga at first were not just defeated: they actually fled without shooting a single bullet. If it were not because of the People’s Defence Units (PDU) and Women’s Defence Units (WDU) (the Syrian Kurdish forces) and later PKK, ISIS could easily have invaded the capital of Kurdistan, Irbil. If they had occupied Irbil then the rest of the Kurdistani towns would fall into their hands with no resistance or very little resistance.

Are your people working in self-defence against ISIS?

As we, KAF, previously stated, we are only a Virtual Forum, not a physical organization in that we have no people from the top to the bottom. The majority of us who write in our Forum (Seko) live abroad; we therefore can do nothing physically for the self-defence of Kurdistan. If you mean people in Kurdistan who agree with our ideas or are close to KAF, of course, they try to organize themselves to fight back. However, because there is no anarchist movement in Kurdistan, we are sorry to say that yes, there are no self-defence groups or movements as we see in Turkey and (Rojava) Syrian Kurdistan. We do believe the only force or power can defeat ISIS is independent self-defence from the mass of the people. Unfortunately this force or movement at the moment does not exist.

What do you think of the US bombings?

Before the US decided to bombard and hit the ISIS bases, there were a lot of rumours and news that ISIS was created by the US, UK and Israel. The more reliable evidence that we can refer to was from Edward Snowden about this. Now when they (UK and US) decide to attack ISIS and sell weapons to the KRG, it is to undermine Edward Snowden’s information and the rumours that spread widely.

We are against intervention from the US and Western countries and also selling weapons to the KRG. We know this is big business for them, that can make a lot of profits through this trade. We also do not want Kurdistan to become a battlefield for all the Jihadist groups in the world against the US, Western countries and the Kurdish, in which so many innocent people would be killed and many places would be destroyed. In addition, the war situation creates more haters between Kurds and Arabs, between Kurds and Sunnis. In the meantime it caused the emergence of many racist and fascist groups.

The only winners in the wars are the big companies who sell weapons and war equipment, and the losers – as always – are the poor people.

Do you work with PYD/PKK/PÇDK?

No we do not. Because we reject any support or co-operation with any hierarchal, political and authoritarian groups and organizations. We only line up ourselves and are interested in any resistance from the mass of people and the social movements wherever they are in this world and we are ready to support them by whatever means we can.

As for your answers, in Iraq there is now a self-defence group called the Sinjar Protection Units (YPS). I think this is a creation of the YPG. Also the PÇDK is creating its own militia. I imagine that some rank-and-file peshmerga might now be looking at self-defence militias with sympathy. Do you think it is possible to have over the next few months an autonomous canton in Iraq, similar to those in Rojava? (I mean autonomous with respect to the KRG, the US and everything else.)

We unfortunately do not think something like what you mentioned can happen easily and quickly because:

Firstly, the nature of the parliamentary system and the role of centralism in Iraq like elsewhere does not allow it. Secondly, thirteen years of sanctions by western countries and the US against Iraq, including Kurdistan, as well as the invasion and occupation, then the imposition of a free-market policy and globalization on Iraq, forcing it to be dependent on conditions that have been laid down by the big powers in Europe and the financial institutions (the IMF, WB, ECB). Thirdly, there are internal reasons as well. The Kurdistan Regional Government, (KRG) has dominated every aspect of people’s life in Kurdistan for the last 22 years. They have worked on changing the mentality of the citizens to be corrupt, to be materialistic, to lose their own self-confidence and independence, to be dependent on them mentally and financially. The KRG has created such an atmosphere in Kurdistan that the majority of the people just think about how to get rich and compete with one another in becoming richer and in getting to better positions. In a very rich country like Kurdistan, its people are dependent on everything imported from abroad, there is no independent economy as the policies of the parties in power have destroyed the independent economy of Kurdistan.

We believe that what happened in Syrian Kurdistan in terms of setting up the military Units and also self-rule in its three cantons, that the PKK and PYD are behind them and the DSAs under their influences. This means that if something like that happened in Sinjar, neither the KRG nor the Iraqi central government and the countries in the region and US would allow this pair of forces (the PKK and PYD) to stay in Sinjar for a long time, supporting people there to announce their own self-rule.

We recognize that setting up people’s defence units as a people’s army and also democratic self-administration (DSA) on the basis of people’s cooperatives, communes and emerging federalism, needs a very long social process of mass struggle, independently, to involve people in all social and economic questions, which becomes something very urgent and necessary. These are the grounds of setting up a true people’s defence unit and the direct-democratic administration, otherwise the units will be a militia like any other militia in the world and the so called DSA will be a real dictatorial government.

It is a fact that there was a big conspiracy in withdrawing the KRG forces (Peshmerga) and this created a gap or gave an opportunity for mass resistance to emerge and set up Protection Units among Yazidis themselves, who had bee the victims of genocide and displacement. However, there is another important point perhaps you are not aware of which is among the Yazidis themselves there are elites, especially the religion’s Prince and the powerful rich people who are always supportive of the KRG’s policies, having an impact on many people in the Yazidi community by using their religious influences. This can be a big threat and divide the Yazidi community.

In short, neither the self-consciousness of people under the KRG nor the economic and the social grounds are likely – at least at present – to allow what we see in Syrian Kurdistan happening in Sinjar. In addition when comes to that, there is the possibility for both – the KRG and the Iraqi central government – to unite against the people’s resistance in Sinjar using any means in suppressing and oppressing them. We also believe the regional, western countries and US who for almost two decades have been investing politically and economically there (Iraqi Kurdistan) and making very huge profits, are not just sitting and watching the situation. They are therefore intervening, first by using their network of spies, logistical support, then providing anything else to the KRG and Iraqi central government that is needed to protect their interests. It is worth reminding you that at the same time both Iran and Turkey’s governments have been continuously attempting to eliminate the PKK’s forces and are using this as an excuse to penetrate the Kurdistan border with their military forces and bombard the region, killing so many innocent people.

In addition to what we said, we must admit that there is no anarchist social movement there (Iraqi Kurdistan) at all. What we have there is more the idea and thought of anarchism.

In fact the leftist and communist parties are trying to create their own Units under the name of “people’s guards” or “Units of the People’s resistance” but they are not in a enough strong position to do so; even if they do manage to do it in the future, it won’t be anything different from the hierarchal units or at best they will be militias of the sort we have so many of (militias and state militias) in Kurdistan. Their real intention is to make political capital out of this and, like any other political group or military Unit, try to get wages and salary from the bourgeois government.

Some Kurdish women from the PKK came to Barcelona last month. One of them recognized herself as an anarchist. She was from Germany and she wanted to learn more about anarchist history here in Spain. Do you think there are anarchists in the ranks of PKK? Do you have contacts with them? Would it be possible to have a left libertarian current inside this hierarchical movement?

Yes. Inside the PKK and PYD there are men and women with anarchist ideas and thought. Some of these people have reached that through their own struggles and experiences; the others have become anarchist and libertarian under the influence of Abdullah Öcalan. They have realized that anarchism is the most radical answer to the capitalist system. We believe that those who have embraced the anarchist idea under the influence of Öcalan may not be as solid as the people who reached the same ideas through their own struggles and experiences. Obviously the reason for that is while Öcalan is still at the top of a hierarchal organization like the PKK, and has every power, if for some reason he orders the people inside the PKK or PYD to change their direction, we are sure many of them are happy to do it. If that happens there is a possibility for this group to change its principles and direction. We think differently about those especially guerilla women who have become anarchist through their own experiences as they are members of the groups and committees in the villages and towns in society; we believe they are more stable and solid. We have seen a few interviews that they have given and also seen a few films that show how they live together and how do they manage their work and daily life together, like living in communes. All these give us more hope, yet again because we do not live with them, therefore we do not know how much of this is true. We must also say that among their sister parties in Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan, we unfortunately do not see these positive changes and directions. These people almost look like the PKK of the early 1990s; they are still nationalist and most of their leaders are very authoritarian. We think they do not embrace the current ideas and thought of Öcalan, like economic cooperatives, communes in the towns and villages, people’s self-rule, direct democracy, the system of federalism and free confederation. We believe the parties’ policies in Iranian/Iraqi Kurdistan are very much in contradiction with the current policies the PKK and PYD: they are still insisting on political changes rather than social changes, they are still competing with the other bourgeois parties in gaining money, power and position.

The experiences of many of us have proved or at least shown that it is very, very hard for a libertarian/anarchist idea and direction to grow and develop inside a hierarchal organization. Not only this, it is impossible for such ideas and directions to remain or stay and continue in an ideological nationalist organization. We can always separate or distinguish between the social movement and the leftist political movement whatever form they have because the leftists and politicians are always authoritarian and corrupt. We can see in reality the leftists are always trying to tame and control struggles and the movement of the mass people and use them to achieve their own political aims, making political capital out of it. We are the witness of all the attempts that have been made by leftists during the uprising which took place in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 and up to present, how they have tried to change the direction of the mass movements, deceiving them, disappointing them, compromising with the State and trying to plant the seeds of naivety among people to believe in political parties, centralism, “the workers state”, “communist state” and “socialist state”. This is all the propaganda that they have produced since then.

Unfortunately, so far we have been unable to make a direct link or connection with the anarchist people in the PKK and PYD. We have tried before to do so but we were not successful. However, we are hoping to make that connection in the near future.

And the last question: what do you think about Democratic Confederalism? Is it true that the PKK is in favour of this or is it propaganda held by the Western countries? (If they pass as, for example, similar to the Zapatistas, they might be seen as “cool” in the leftist milieu.)

Actually, answering this question is difficult firstly because the PKK controls a region and is completely different from what the Zapatistas in their country controlled, and also because the PKK is a hierarchal force as a party and as a military force. We cannot be sure of the details of their daily life and their actions as we do not have evidence to prove whether it is true or false. The only things that we can talk about are Democratic Self-Administration (DSA) of Syrian Kurdistan, and Tev-Dem, which one of our comrades visited a while ago for a couple of weeks. Certainly there is no comparison between there and the KRG in Iraqi Kurdistan. At the moment there is power sharing between whole political parties within DSA so there is a good balance. The PYD as a main party in there took advantage of being in a very strong position, because on one side the KRG cannot use its proxy party (Alparty) to control DSA and the situation; on the other side the Islamist organization cannot have any influence in Syrian Kurdistan. However, while the PYD is the main party and in the next DSA election no doubt will win the majority of votes there, we do not know if the PYD will control the DSA or simply use another method to balance the power sharing. This worries us obviously and we will have to wait and see. What we can say is that the PYD is also a hierarchal party with authoritarian people leading it, and because of this there is a possibility of change either ways. We certainly cannot compare DSA with the KRG, as the KRG is an excellent protector of free-market capitalism. The experiments of DSA and Tev-Dem are very attractive and have produced more hope by transferring the position of women in the religious and patriarchal society of the Middle East, improving and developing it. They have created a feeling of liberation and the tendency for self-liberation among women. The dignity, personality, self-confidence and freedom of women have all returned. All this cannot be achieved by every force or party. This has created an atmosphere for the anarchist movement especially while women already have a major role in the communes and the rest of the local groups and committees. They can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with men, leading them into the future to a social revolution. In the meantime we are hoping this experiment is setting a good example for the women in Iraqi Kurdistan – who are currently under the strong influence of the capitalist free market, consumer culture and political parties including the religious parties – for them to leave this stage and get involved in a social revolution.

The women in Syrian Kurdistan do not just play a big role in the areas/fields we mentioned above: in fact by setting up the Women’s Defence Units (WDU) the position of women in Middle Eastern society, as weak creatures having only certain duties which are inside the house, has changed. It has raised the question that they cannot be dominated by men, clans and religions. They can change society and it has proved again that any movement in society which does not include them cannot get anywhere. Women have reaffirmed that the desire and feeling of liberating themselves from slavery or from being a second-class citizen in a patriarchal society only comes from their own efforts and struggles. That being said, a long time ago there was no force who could liberate a slave unless that slave had the self-consciousness of liberation and this has become a strong demand and desire.

Finally we thank you very much and recognize your concerns about other anarchists in different parts of the world. In this interview you have given us a good opportunity to talk briefly about the Iraqi, Kurdish and Middle East societies. This opportunity perhaps opens a small window to English speakers and those anarchists who can speak English to see the situation that explained above from our view. We think not many anarchists in the world are aware or know a lot about the situation in this part of the world. This may encourage them to make the effort to get to know a bit about the Middle East and the anarchist movement there. We have noted that the self-centrist views of European comrades in general has been one of the diseases of the anarchist movement since the Second World War because we think many of the anarchists comrades, who normally focus on Europe, the US and Latin America, do not have much interest in the same movement in elsewhere.

www.anarchistan.tk
www.facebook.com/Kurdistan.anarchists.Forum
www.twitter.com/anarkistan
anarkistan at activist dot com

Carpentersville won't release post-traffic stop death details

We wanted to share this because it is pretty close to home and shit like this could turn Carpentersville, Illinois into the next Ferguson.

Kane County

updated: 10/23/2014 5:03 AM

Carpentersville officials are refusing to abide by a ruling from Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office compelling them to release details about the arrest of a man who died at a hospital hours after an encounter with police.

Madigan's office determined a week ago that reports and video of the Aug. 17 arrest of 31-year-old Joshua Paul would not "obstruct an ongoing investigation" and should be released.

PDF File
Atty General's FOIA response

PDF File
AG video FOIA determination

 

But village officials remain steadfast in their refusal to turn over the information, citing an ongoing investigation by the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit into the circumstances surrounding Paul's death.

"We'll release it when we make sure we have this the way we want it," said Carpentersville Village President Ed Ritter. "This is not a story."

Paul's family's attorney, Brian Perkins, believes his clients are owed an explanation about what happened between the time Paul was pulled over for an unknown traffic violation at 5:26 p.m. Aug. 17 and his death the next day at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin.

"We respect the law enforcement process, but we would expect any law enforcement agency to comply with an order from the attorney general's office, the highest law enforcement office in the state," Perkins said. "It's all still very mysterious what happened."

In an Aug. 25 open records request, the Daily Herald asked for the arrest reports and any video footage captured by the two arresting officers. The village denied the request three days later, citing a number of privacy and bureaucratic exemptions.

The newspaper filed a request for review with the attorney general's public access counselor's office later that day. Madigan's office ruled Oct. 15 that the village failed to meet "its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that the requested records are exempt" from the state's open records laws.

Assistant Attorney General Dushyanth Reddivari wrote that the newspaper's interest "in disclosure of the records to disseminate information to (the) public is aligned with the public's interest in obtaining information regarding the manner in which law enforcement officials perform their public duties; specifically, in monitoring the use of force by police officers. There is a strong public interest in information that sheds light on the manner in which law enforcement officials perform their public duties."

Reddivari also disputed that releasing the information would jeopardize the investigation.

"Although the village claims that it was instructed by ISP to withhold the records requested, it has not provided any explanation or information from which this office could conclude that disclosure of the records ... would obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation by the village," Reddivari wrote

There is no mechanism for the state to sanction public agencies that fail to abide by the public records rulings from Madigan's office. The only recourse to attempt to obtain public records when they are refused is to file a lawsuit, which would not yield a quick remedy, legal experts said.

Meanwhile, village spokesman Dave Bayless said the village intends to release the records once the state police investigation has concluded.

But state police officials could not say when the investigation was expected to conclude. Spokeswoman Monique Bond said the state police would prefer the village wait to release the public records until after the investigation is concluded, but "it's Carpentersville's decision." Bond also said state police investigators were waiting for a coroner's report.

But Kane County Coroner Rob Russell said his office is waiting for the state police investigation to conclude before a death certificate could be issued.

"We are waiting for the state police to finish their investigation," he said. "There's still a lot of information that's pertinent for us to determine a manner of death. As soon as we can provide a cause and manner of death, we will do that."

Meanwhile, Paul's family and friends are left wondering why the village won't comply with the ruling from Madigan's office.

"Typically if you've got something to hide, that's when you refuse to cooperate," said Stephanie Jaramillo, a friend of Paul and his fiance, Jeff Bolek. "If they had nothing to hide, they'd be able to provide that information."

Jaramillo organized an online fundraiser at gofundme.com to help cover Paul's funeral expenses. To date, $2,035 has been raised toward the $4,700 goal.

Imprisoned anarchist hacker Jeremy Hammond moved to solitary, likely as retaliatory punishment for filing complaints

Shared from
https://freejeremy.net/2014/10/20/jeremy-in-solitary-here-is-what-we-know/

Jeremy in solitary: here is what we know

We received word last night that Jeremy had been placed in the Segregated Housing Unit (SHU), also known as solitary confinement. He had previously been placed in solitary confinement during pretrial detention. Details are spotty, but this is what we know so far:

• He was placed in the SHU on 10 October.
• The prison, FCI Manchester, claims that Jeremy stole clothing, but we don’t know whether they allege that he stole from a guard or another inmate. Jeremy denies this accusation unequivocally, and it goes against his character.
• We have been in contact with Jeremy’s lawyers, who are in contact with the prison to see if anything can be done to appeal his placement in the SHU.

Make no mistake: We firmly believe Jeremy has been placed in solitary confinement as retaliatory punishment for filing complaints against the prison for withholding his mail. The prison had begun rejecting books and even legal material related to Jeremy’s own case. Jeremy had written that he was willing to take his grievances to the highest possible level in order to see them resolved.
Because we feel this is a retaliatory measure, calling the jail or jail officials may be seen as aggression and may provoke the prison to further retaliate against Jeremy. Please, we beseech you, do not call the jail or jail officials at this time.
Solitary confinement is often described as psychological and physical torture. It’s often used to break down a prisoner’s will and spirit. As the CCR writes,

The devastating psychological and physical effects of prolonged solitary confinement are well documented by social scientists: prolonged solitary confinement causes prisoners significant mental harm and places them at grave risk of even more devastating future psychological harm.

Right now, the best thing everyone can do is write a note of encouragement, buy Jeremy a book, or donate to his commissary. All relevant information is here. If a book is rejected, Jeremy is notified and the book is returned to the distributor. Please contact us if this happens to you.

We will post updates both here, on Twitter and on Facebook as soon as we know anything. Please keep checking back, and thank you for your support.

“7 Ways to Eat Good on a Hood Budget” by Stic of Dead Prez

We at The Feral Space have been livin the vegan hood diet this way since we started and wanted to share this with everyone. Health is wealth ya'll!

“7 Ways to Eat Good While on a Hood Budget“ by Stic of Dead Prez founder of www.rbgfitclub.com
In the work I do in promoting holistic health and fitness through the RBG FIT CLUB, I have run into the following sentiment more than a few times: “I want to eat healthier but it’s too expensive!”. Many people are interested in ways to upgrade their diet without breaking their bank. Well, I can dig it. And since I been striving to sustain the healthy grind in my life personally since way back in the food stamp days, I think I may have a few tips to share.

The following are 7 Ways to Eat Good While on a Hood Budget. But bottom line always remember, we can pay now or pay later (in suffering and doctor bills etc) when it comes to our dietary discipline and choices.

1. Choose Produce not Packages: People think eating healthy is about buying a lot of expensive boxes and packages of processed foods, but that isn’t the case at all.

The cheapest most nutrient dense food in a grocery store in the produce isle. Fresh vegetables and fresh fruits. Trying to buy costly packaged goods, potato chips and sugary juices and all kinds of over processed items, even at a health food store is when the budget starts to soar. When we feel we don’t have time to cook we often go for a lot of “quick fix” items like pizzas and pre-cut bags of French fries and stuff like that. That’s where the money adds up. But if you fill your basket with fresh greens and fruits and some basic staples like rice, noodles, beans you will not only have an optimal basket of nutritious foods … you will have saved a great deal of money of the food bill and subsequent doctor bills. Eat real foods and save real money. If you worried the fruits and veggies will spoil before you eat them, read on to number 2!

2. Cook Big and Save Some for Later: Cooking meals in large batches and freezing the leftovers for later in the week or month can save you a lot of time and money.

Instead of buying fast food or eating out at restaurants, or even cooking a full meal every time you get hungry, it’s way more cost effective and time saving and healthy for you to pull something out of the freezer and warm it up than it is to wash/chop/slice/boil/bake/wait in line/wait to be served etc.

Pre-preparing and freezing weekly sized portions of rice or salad choppings or beans etc will simplify your meal duties. Even if you have to do a little cooking you will still save money and time seven days a week. Spend an hour or so over the weekend like on a Sunday evening preparing food for the week. Then, during the week, all you have to do is pull something out of the freezer and heat it up. Them big Ziploc bags ain’t just for the D-boys! Lol

3. Soup Up your Options: Large vegetable soups over brown rice or whole grain noodles pack in vitamins and nutrients, fill you up and are easy to make and delicious. Also Bean burritos, chili, and bean soup can be easy to prepare, cheap and good for you. Going totally meatless a couple of times a week (or for good) also helps your budget and gives your palate a variety to enjoy. Frozen veggies, which are inexpensive, work great in Soups. Nothing compares to that good and filling, good feeling of a hot and hearty bowl of Soup. Cheap, packed with nutrients, easy to prepare. Its the new “Soup-er” food! Lol!

4. Make A Plan and See Where Ya Values Are:. In the hood, in all honesty, We spend a gang of money on cable, hair dos, sneakers, weed, parties expensive bottles of alcohol,video games, big screen tvs, rims, jewelry, strip club tricking, trendy name brand clothes, car accessories, headphones, cigarettes all kinds of overpriced things. But when it comes to our health, we often skimp and look for the cheapest food we can find.

But in our best interest, We have to value our health above all these other things, and make eating healthy a priority in terms of how we spend the resources we have. Makes no sense to be fronting like a rich person on the outside ,but in reality, in poor health on the inside, right? But it’s easy for any of us to make excuses without looking at at a budget, so that’s where budgeting comes in handy.

Budgets help us see where our money is really going not where we feel like its going. Budgeting is also a master ingredient to financial stability in general, so not only will it help identify funds that can be used toward more healthful food choices; its an essential tool to manage our financial responsibilities better in general. Usually when we make a budget we can see plenty of stuff we can do without to make room for healthier eating choices. You may say “shoot, I dont make enough money to budget it!” lol, but you don’t have to make a lot of money to benefit from budgeting. Budgeting helps what ever we make stretch farther and get more of what we truly value out of what we have. When we values ourselves more than our things we make healthier choices. Budget, prioritize and prosper.

5. Season your Food: Eat fruits and vegetables that are in season, that is! Otherwise you’ll be paying a much higher price. For example, if you live in the north east United States and you want some watermelon in the middle of the Winter of December, it’s gonna have to be shipped from where ever it is in season to your local market and you pay that extra cost. Also, eating foods that are current in their natural growing season helps strengthen your immune system for that season. Seasonal Fruits can be frozen and blended to smoothies. Frozen vegetables also can be used to make a stir fry. They’re convenient and they don’t spoil quickly like fresh fruits and veggies.

6. Join a Co-op or Local Community Garden: You get discounts on your groceries by being a member of grocery store co-ops. In exchange for your minimal volunteer work hours per month, you get your groceries at Co-op member’s only price. Same thing goes for community gardens. And not only that you get to learn a WHOLE lot about nutrition and health being in that kind of environment.

There are many urban farm movements popping up all over the place where folks are going back to the land, utilizing whatever small plots there are right in the hood, to grow food. Participating with these farms are awesome ways to educate ourselves on growing food. Also, there are usually harvest markets where the food is sold for really affordable prices and you can get first dibs by being a community member. Places like DTown Farms and Freedom Freedom in Detroit and Truly Living Well Farms and Habesha Gardens in Atlanta are great examples of gardens in the hood that you can google and “dig” into! If you have even the smallest plot of land in your yard growing your own food from heirloom seeds (non-gmo varieties) is also another way to save on the grocery bills while mastering a very useful and fun survival skill.

My wife Afya, has been a great source of inspiration in this area in our household. You can Follow her instagram (@AfyaIbomu) blog to see our latest harvests. And last but certainly not least….

7. Drink more water. Many times we think we are hungry, it may be actually a sign of thirst.

The fact that it is recommended by holistic healers and medical experts alike that we drink half our body weight in ounces of water each day, it’s safe to say many of us are chronically dehydrated and as Rocko’s song lyric says “we don’t even know it”. When we are drinking enough water it curbs our appetite so we don’t over eat. Drinking water also says us money on all the sugary drinks on the market that are often what we choose to wet our whistles due to the drug effect of the high sugar, high fructose corn syrup content of most beverages sold in the hood. We can save our money and our internal organs by saying no to the liquid sugar caffiene crack juice aka sodas and artificial energy drinks and just sip on nature’s good old original elixir -H20!

oh…Bottle water getting too expensive? Get a basic filter for your tap, some for as low as $20 bucks and like Kendrick Lamar’s song says “pour up, drank!”


In summary, the main thing to remember for eating good on a hood budget is that it is doable! People often say things are not possible that they haven’t truly dedicated themselves to figuring out. Many of us say it’s too expensive to eat healthy but we spend and waste a lot of money that could have been spent in a wiser manner. The reason that many of us think health food is expensive is because we are not clear on what health food is. Health food is not going to Whole Foods and stocking your pantry with fancy processed boxes and packages of this and that. Health food is simple and is the least expensive most nutrient dense food in the grocery store, basically fruits and vegetables, beans and simple whole grains. Those are affordable staple foods and even on a food stamp budget (I know from experience) have been scientifically applauded for their health benefits.

It’s important that we not be intimidated by all the health information nor swayed by all the different opposing views on what health is. A lot of it is simple common sense, if you will. We know a bag of chips isn’t a health food. We know that McDonald’s isn’t exactly a health food restaurant either. We can begin to take ownership and be ever vigilant in studying and learning all we can to educate ourselves on how to make healthier choices. Do your own research and take ownership for your health. To live a healthy life its not about always depending on the doctors and medications. One has to in essence become a lifelong student of your own holistic health so you can make wise choices for yourself and your families. Most graduating Doctors spend very little class time studying nutrition when getting their degrees. So they may have a lot of knowledge on surgery and medicine but few mainstream minded doctors are trained in Nutrition. They are trained to diagnose symptoms and prescribe medication, for the most part. However, a holistic nutritionist (as opposed to even a conventional nutritionist) is trained to help us understand the ways in which our food choices can help us heal and keep us healthy without the use of medicines and surgeries.

As mentioned, its important to plan ahead and have a weekly goal and vision on the meals and needs your family has so that we are making less impulsive decision when hunger strikes and more pre-planned long term health affirming choices based on wise consideration and preparation before hand. When we cook in bulk for the week it’s one of the biggest helpers in saving money and eating less fast food and junk food. With realistic budgeting we can see what we really have to work with and choose consciously to value our health over things. Each season nature gives us plenty of fresh foods to nourish us in harmony with our environment and these foods are plentiful in there natural seasons so they are less expensive.

And lastly, but not leastly, we need to realize that our taste buds are conditioned and can be re-conditioned. When we only eat for taste we become slaves to taste alone. And as we learn from seeing far to many of our relatives sick and miserable and overweight and diseased, eating for taste without regard to health leads to self destruction. We can eat healthy on a hood budget. We deserve the best and we can start living like we understand our value by choosing to adopt healthier habits. When the hood is strong, we are truly unstoppable. Salute!