Category: Articles

For Artistic purposes only – do not try this at home!

Come to the Long Haul’s Second annual Anarchist Crush Night on Valentine’s Day 2003! There will be sexy party games, music, and food plus our exclusive matching service which allows you to anonymously see if that certain crusty someone might like you too. The first Crush Night last year took a few days to recover from, after horny party-goers smeared all our free lube on each other in an outrageous display of . . . what was that all about again? At least one couple who hooked up last year is still together, and they both even work in the Slingshot Collective!!! Please keep in mind that you must work out your polyamory issues before Crush Night. Better get to work on that right now! The party will start at Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley right after Critical Mass (about 8 p.m.).

A Scene Critique

The anarchist Do-It-Yourself ethic has succeeded in creating a flourishing counterculture. The scene excels at developing low-tech solutions to the consumerist, petroleum-based mainstream, simple designs based on recycled materials that aim at being user-friendly.

However, I think this success comes at a price: passionate activists put so much time into specific projects that little thought is devoted to critiquing how the entrenched countercultural lifestyle actually meets – or doesn’t meet-people’s needs. This scene is, undoubtedly, a scene, and it is not particularly open or inviting to new people. The scene takes on mythological proportions, and people feel they have to live up to certain standards in order to participate. Everybody is different, but people censor and mold what they show to a scene in order to fit in. This perpetuates the myth of homogeneity, and turns off people who can’t or don’t feel like doing the work to fit in.

Many people don’t want to take on the emotional trip of feeling like the odd one out. It is a struggle to attend events where you feel like you’re the only person representing, where you are perceived as ‘different’ and either fetishized or considered dangerous, scary, complicated, and thus ignored. It hurts to feel like you have to put on an act, to go into the closet, in order to be comfortable in a group. A scene where people feel bad for not fitting in is little more than a mimicry of the mainstream, one subculture out of many. The folks closing people out of the scene are the same folks who are shut out of some aspect of mainstream culture. At some point, everybody puts on an act in order to fit in.

In reality, all kinds of people are doing all kinds of different things, whether they are underground or out about their actions. People are much more complex than this model of homogenous subcultures. People do take risks, make decisions and go places they’re not ‘supposed’ to. Unless you talk to somebody and they choose to tell you, you can’t always see that ‘white’ boy’s Mexican dad, that ‘straight’ girl’s lesbian parents, that able-bodied person’s disability, that suburban punk’s welfare childhood. Perhaps you have not ‘seen’ that person of color within ‘the activist scene’, even though they have been at every major protest for 20 years.

The energy and time required to (re)build organizations and physical infrastructure from the ground up means that this type of revolutionary actions comes most easily to certain people, who are able bodied, young, frequently white and from middle class backgrounds, and with few commitments other than this radical lifestyle. Many do-it-yourself activists do recognize the limited potential of a homogenous scene-but people seem to be forgetting that homogeneity is the very nature of a countercultural lifestyle!

Sharing a lifestyle, particularly one based on political convictions, is a way of finding support in the midst of a callous world. What is a lifestyle, but simply a set of actions folks take to meet their living needs; a radical, political lifestyle gives political purpose to fulfilling this particular set of actions. However, everybody has different needs. Placing too much importance on living a lifestyle as a political act means that folks are judged as ‘less revolutionary’ when they make decisions that aren’t in line with the political rhetoric– or simply that there is no room for them within the scene.

Overt judgments come down hard when people are open about making decisions not in line with prescribed do-it-yourself anarchist rhetoric. People are judged for the kind of healthcare they use, the kind of job they get, the projects they take on, where they choose to live. Few decisions are easy when you’re trying to balance political connotations and personal needs. To me, it’s important that people question the models they’re given-whether within the mainstream or within the counterculture-and make decisions that truly reflect their needs, rather than struggling to fit their life into a box. Talking about motives behind a decision may lead to positive, even revolutionary personal change (for everybody involved), while dissing a decision will more likely piss somebody off and make them feel unwelcome.

Other folks struggle within the DIY scene, or are simply not there, because the entrenched DIY lifestyle doesn’t meet their needs. People running the scene engines are too self-focused, too passionate about the current state of things, or to politically rigid to think about changing course. For example, flier-makers rarely think about noting whether an event is wheelchair accessible-and resource-poor DIY organizations end up holding events in inaccessible back rooms or fixer-upper houses, rather than prioritizing accessibility. In a culture where few own cars, many ride bikes, and parties often happen up rickety stairs or in the middle of an abandoned factory, people with different mobility situations going on have to put more effort into getting to a DIY event. If events are not accessible, some folks might not even want to go to them.

Even with lipservice supporting the working class, families, and immigrants, the culture is not set up to meet their needs. People are often surprised to hear that somebody is working long hours to support their family or because they don’t have the financial cushion to take on major financial investments (transsexual surgery, overseas travel, equipment costs, etc.) while still “living for free”.

Events are not always child-friendly in the traditional sense, and coordinating getting a sleeping child home on bike is difficult! With creativity, energy, and good humor, so many things are possible. But people have only so much energy to devote to ‘creative struggles’ like getting themselves or their kid to some far away place in a rickety bike cart.

People who do have options should carefully consider their actions. Folks have certain backgrounds, certain abilities, etc., that make some things come easily to them, in the counterculture and without. In other words, people have privileges that go hand in hand with the mainstream hierarchical social system. These privileges give options and choices-the option to be sexist, the option to shop at Walmart, the option to fit in and be ‘cool’. Not exercising your option is only half the process of breaking down the institution. The pressure to fit in, the option to be sexist, is still there-you’re just not participating. Privilege and social hierarchy will exist as long as the system that perpetuates them exists, and attacking the root of the privilege, the system, is necessary to eradicate the privilege.

Everyone fits into both mainstream and the DIY counterculture differently. People change, and lives include contradictions. There are no perfect anarkoids. When we are open to hearing about what other people are doing, we see that the ‘scene’ is actually a lot less homogenous than we perhaps thought, and we are more relaxed about hanging out with people who we thought were different than us. At this point the scene changes into a movement.

Sonik resistance at the Nevada Test Site

Underground dance parties often take place in unusual locations – underneath highway overpasses, inside boxcars, under bridges – anywhere we can get away with it. However, until now, none had been held at the gates of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) where the United State tests its nuclear weapons of mass destruction. On October 11, DJs and musicians from S.P.A.Z., 5lowershop, R.A.T.S.T.A.R., Havoc, Katabatik, and Subversive Soundz gathered for Unchained Reaction!, an elektronik, anti-nuclear resist.dance party at the Nevada Test Site to resist nuclear weapons testing and nuclear dumping on native lands. The dance party was part of the Action for Nuclear Abolition, a larger gathering which included the Family Spirit Walk, an 800 mile walk from Los Alamos (the birth place of the atom bomb) to the NTS; an anti-nuclear weapons conference in Las Vegas; and a six day gathering at the Test Site that included trainings, ceremonies, and direct actions.

The 500 people who went to the Nevada Test Site for the Action for Nuclear Abolition (ANA) were there to oppose testing of nuclear weapons and the dumping of high-level nuclear waste, as is proposed at nearby Yucca Mountain. Indeed the proposed shipping and dumping of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, a sacred site for the Western Shoshone, instigated Unchained Reaction!

Many who participated in the ANA view these anti-nuclear protests as part of the struggle for the rights of indigenous people in the United States. Author/activist Ward Churchill has challenged “the Left” to work with indigenous peoples in the United States to resolve the Native American land question. The colonization of indigenous peoples must be addressed in order avoid the duplication of the colonialist/settler mentality in social relations between Native Americans and white radicals. This land question, which can be understood in terms of a colonial relationship between a subjugated nation and a colonial power, is at the heart of the struggle over reclaiming the Nevada Test Site as part of Newe Sogobia, the traditional land of the Western Shoshone.

The conflict over land began with the discovery of gold in California in 1849, which prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans to head for the west coast. In 1849 alone, over 60,000 Americans traveled through Newe Sogobia, depleting food sources and instigating conflicts with the Shoshone. The Shoshones retaliated against the invaders by raiding the wagon trains to take weapons and horses.

In order to facilitate the appropriation of natural resources by settler society the United States government negotiated the Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed on October 1, 1863 which affirmed the Newe’s title to their ancestral land, Newe Sogobia (‘the peoples’ earth mother’), which extends from the Snake River in Idaho, across most of Nevada, and into Southern California. This title legally remains in place; however, the combination of a phenomenon called “gradual encroachment” and presidential orders have pushed the Shoshone off their land. The establishment of the Nevada Test Site provides an excellent example of this process.

President Franklin Roosevelt originally set aside part of Newe Sogobia as an artillery and gunnery range through executive order 8578 in 1940. Of course, nobody bothered to ask the Newe (Western Shoshone) people, within whose treaty-guaranteed territory the entire facility was established, whether they felt this was an acceptable use of their land, or whether they were even willing to have it designated as part of the U.S. “public domain” for any purpose.

Instead, in 1952, having designated 435,000 acres in the Yucca Flats area of Nellis as a “Nevada Test Site” – another 318,000 acres were added in 1961, bringing the total to 735,000 – the Atomic Energy Commission and its military partners undertook what by now add up to nearly a thousand atmospheric and underground nuclear test detonations. In 1973 the United States government offered the Western Shoshone $26 million for the land that includes Yucca Mountain and the NTS. The Western Shoshone national council has refused this payment, and the money has sat in an Interior Department trust account since.

The Western Shoshone have fought against this encroachment in many ways, including lawsuits in U.S. courts, by sending a delegation to Geneva, Switzerland, to speak with members of the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and, when necessary, through armed resistance. The annual Action for Nuclear Abolition is another example of Shoshone resistance.

UNCHAINED REACTION!

But the question remains: was it a great party? Well it was great for us. Everybody turned in great sets of inspiring music, even if much of the audience had never heard electronic music before, let alone breakcore. Katherine Blossom, a native elder said of us, “I don’t pray like anybody else I know, it is good to see that these people pray in their own way as well.” Music is our alchemy, and after we heard the extremely banal new age earthdance prayer for peace on Saturday we knew for certain that we can only be a part of prayer for peace that we make on our own terms. Our prayers shake the earth with bass.

We heard many stories and attended a sunrise ceremony as part of the direct action trespass on the NTS. Listening to Shoshone cultural stories, we were inspired to think of the stories that guide our lives and history that we share within our subculture. They prayed for the simple things every sunrise: the air, water, earth, fire, and all the animals that once walked the land, both thanking and honoring their energies in our lives. This is one of the things that they wanted us to take from them, a consciousness about the life energies that our dominator culture takes for granted.

The two nights of music were not without problems, some of which arose well before it ever happened. Getting out 10,000 flyers and trying to reach out beyond our normal spheres of influence was really hard and made us wonder at times if it was worth it. But maybe if the ideas touched some people, or challenged people to do some self education about the issues on the flyer (whether they came out or not), then that is something that you cannot place a value on. Almost every time we were out flyering, someone thanked us for doing this and seemed to be deeply touched by our intentions. Although not many people came to attend the dance party itself (it was in the Navada desert, after all), the soundsystems brought between 75 and 100 people to the event, which was close to twenty percent of the total number at the peace camp.

In terms of conflict with our hosts and with other Peace Camp protestors we happily report that it was minimal. After the Friday night concert, the native elders (who we were afraid we were keeping awake) sent someone down to tell us that they loved what we were doing and to turn it up, to let the NTS know that we are there and that we are not going away. There is an open invitation for us to return next year, and even discussion about an occupation party on Yucca Mountain. Start building bassbins now!

Que No Quede Ni Uno Solo

The city of Buenos Aires, Argentina was ablaze with protest December 19th and 20th of 2001. The demonstrators were enraged with the falling economy and called for the resignation of the economic minister and the president, expressing themselves through marches to the capital, the traditional Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, grocery store looting, and outright street fighting. Overwhelmingly the chant heard on the streets those days and one that continues among popular assemblies and street demonstrations is, “Que se vayan todos, que no quede ni uno solo,” which roughly translates to “They all must go. Don’t leave even one there”.

This cry calls for the resignation of all politicians and an end to the political corruption. To Argentines this was not an empty demand — they wanted every single politician to step down, but they did not plan to let their country fall into chaos. They hoped to form a very organized anarchy, facilitated through popular assemblies, resembling other historical examples such as the Paris communes, the Juntas in Spain, Popular Assemblies in Bolivia, and the Popular Parliament in Ecuador.

The protests in December were successful enough to cause both the economic minister, Domingo Cavallo, and the president, Fernando de la Rua, to step down, as well as three more successive presidents. This popular coup was one of the very first in Latin American history to be enacted by the people, as opposed to militaries or foreign governments. The movement that exploded on the 19th and 20th, which left up to thirty demonstrators dead, did not begin or end on those days. What have Argentine political organizers been doing since December? What is the significance of the situation in Argentina for organizers in the United States?

Many different elements of the Argentine society have been involved in social and political organizing. (See Sidebar.) Demonstrators continue to mobilize daily, criticizing the economic situation, the intervention of the International Monetary Fund, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and to work for real democracy, jobs, living wages, and simple electricity.

Popular Assembly Movement

Argentine communities have converged to help solve their problems together through self-organized popular assemblies. In every neighborhood, community members, students, workers, unemployed, middle class, and older folks, get together once a week. The meetings are held in the streets at night in order to be accessible to as many as possible. They shut down the road, put up a banner, and bring out a sound system with a microphone so that everyone has a chance to talk. People from other assemblies come to give updates and announcements and to discuss how to work together. The assemblea plans community events, solidarity marches, and discussions on the movement. The police, of course, make their presence known, but more importantly, so do the unemployed, the homeless, and the otherwise struggling. The assemblea has also become a soap box for the voices of those suffering the most at this moment of crisis.

There are several stories about the origins of the assemblea. By all accounts, the community meetings were inspired by the demonstrations of December 19th and 20th and started spontaneously, not by any specific organization or group. There are anywhere from 60 to 80 assemblies in Buenos Aires, in each of the five boroughs of the city, with more starting every day in and out of town. They function by having one weekly meeting and creating working groups such as women’s issues, health, education, solidarity, and protection. The interbarrio, where different assemblies get together and meet weekly, usually hosts three assemblies at a time, where each assemblea has the option to bring up their own proposals, and decisions are voted upon by a simple majoritarian basis.

The assemblies are an important and refreshingly new part of a long term effort, waged by many social groups including Poder Cuidadano (Citizen Power), to curb the profound corruption of Argentine politicians like Carlos Menem. The widespread lack of faith in politicians was demonstrated in June when over half of the Argentine population, in a poll by the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin X, agreed that all Argentine politicians are thieves.

The assemblies are demanding an end to such corruption, but they are also consciously excluding any leftist party influence from the neighborhood meetings, so that the assemblies will not be co-opted by the similarly notoriously corrupt left. Many of the regular members of the assemblies are not long-term political actors, although some members do come from communist, Marxist, and even anarchist traditions. The critique of representative democracy coming from the assemblies does not come solely from an academic perspective, party line, or even an intellectual critique. The move towards direct democracy comes from an honest and urgent need for change that cannot and will not be met by representative democracy. They find no possibility for change within the current system, and see self community organizing as their last option.

Argentina and the Global Economy

Argentina is not the site of one small resistance movement. Argentines are fully aware of a long term worldwide movement against neoliberalism and their participation and connection to that movement. Demonstrators confront International Monetary Fund (IMF) representatives every time they come to Buenos Aires, such as during the first week in August when IMF reps were met by 10,000 people in the streets telling them to go home. An enormous demonstration on the border between Argentina and Brazil in July visualized a joint resistance to the impending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) treaty.

Argentines blame their desperate economic situation on the IMF — and increasingly blame the United States as well, for their complicity and support of IMF regulations, neoliberal policies, and US corporations. Recent demonstrations against the IMF have brought out Argentines burning the American flag, and many demonstrators carry signs that read “Out Yankees!”

Despite the fact that the collective voice in Argentina is against the IMF, IMF-required free-market regulations and austerity measures continue to be pushed right through the Argentine Congress. The resistance movement is strong and visible, yet everyone in Argentina knows that the IMF has the real power. The IMF forces Argentina to enact laws — against its people’s will — as a condition for obtaining further IMF loans, many of which are only required to pay interest on existing international debts.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis is expanding across South America through Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay. Argentina, once the model for IMF free market reforms, now suffers from 25% unemployment, a 75% devaluation of the peso, and hyperinflation, with no relief in sight. In Brazil, South America’s largest economy, the value of its currency the real has dropped more than 20% and government bonds have fallen to half their face value because of fears of government default. Paraguay and Uruguay fear a banking collapse and deepening recession, trying to hold off on debt by getting more loans from the IMF. These countries fear the collapse of their economies, but are already drowning in debt. Ecuador’s debt amounts to 16 billion dollars, which is equivalent to 95% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

US activists must even more urgently denounce IMF intervention abroad. South Americans have made the connections obvious, by very clearly condemning U.S. support of IMF backed structural adjustments and free market reforms which have only further strangled South American economies. These policies transfer vast amounts of South American money and resources north in the form of debt payments, with nothing for the regular people in return. They are our era’s form
of colonialism.

In the United States, we must make it clear that we deplore our government’s interventionalist push for neoliberal reforms. Demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC and around the world must denounce the IMF involvement in Argentina. Perhaps we should burn tires in the streets, learn Argentine union songs and bring hammers and tin sheets to demonstrations. In every way possible, we must use our access to international attention to support the demands of the Argentines. We must all insist, “IMF out of Argentina!”.

Social Movements

Who are the organizations and social groups that have made this kind of success possible?

Piqueteros

The piqueteros are working class demonstrators who come from the poorer sections and outskirts of the city. They have been using street blocking tactics for over a decade to call attention to their lack of jobs, food, and access to water and electricity. They are most well known for blocking streets through the burning of tires. In addition to the recent demands for food and housing, they have long been involved in take-overs of oil refineries, factories, and businesses such as real estate and construction that have refused to pay their workers. Perhaps the most militant and strongest of the piqueteros are the Corriente Classista Combativa (CCC), the Bloque Nacional Piquetero, and Anibel Veron. An increase in state repression has undermined the successes of these groups. In July, two piqueteros, Maximiliano Kosteki and Dario Santillan, from Anibel Veron, were murdered by Argentine police.

Ahorristas/ Cacerolistas

This middle class movement is fueled by the loss of money in their savings accounts, and a monthly limit on how much money can be taken out. Most of the middle class has lost more than a third of their savings, because the value of the peso has fallen in reference to the US dollar. The ahorristas, or those who have their savings in the banks, began demonstrating this December by taking to the banking district with ferocity, smashing sticks and hammers against the walls of the banks. They are also called cacerolistas (well known for banging pots and pans together) and have turned the banking district from a commercial zone into a political forum. Thousands of flyers about protests litter the streets and wheatpastes cover the walls of former banks announcing their demands. Tin protects all of the foreign banks and the ones that are still functioning must be accessed through a tiny door with a guard.

The actors in this movement include mothers clanking their pots, grandfathers smashing glass bottles together, bank workers, men in suits, and middle aged women in overcoats who bring hammers to smash the walls of their targets: Bank of Boston, Citibank, Banelco, and Banco Frances. The middle class uniquely suffers from the devaluation of the peso, because the rich have most of their money safely hidden in foreign banks, and the poor have never had enough money to store in savings. There is working class resentment towards the ahorrista movement because they are merely demanding their money back, and are not calling for a revolutionary change in politics. After all, it is the working class who truly suffers when middle class business owners cannot take enough money out of the banks to pay their employees.

Unionists (Gremialistas)

The two largest union organizations are the CGT (General Workers Center) and the CTA (Center of Argentine Workers). The unions had little to no input in the demonstrations that took place in December, but have since been mobilizing steadily, calling strikes monthly. Both organizations are a mixture of thousands of different unions and tend to represent the voice of the workers, albeit often a coerced and even unrealistic voice. Hugo Moyano, who presides over the CGT, originally came out against the IMF, but he has since changed his opinion. Most consider Moyano a politician, well known in Argentina to be exceedingly corrupt, and it seems likely that his hands are very deep within the politician’s pockets.

Movements such as the Mothers of the May Plaza and the MTD (Unemployed Workers Movement) have also played a crucial role in mobilizing Argentine society since December. The MTD had been organizing workers for at least the five years preceding 2002. The mothers who have continued to march weekly since the 70’s, call for the return of their dissappeared children.

Once again, in an attempt to protect Western control over Middle East oil supplies, the titular head of US corporate capitalism, George W Bush, has presented the world with the vision of well-known bogey-man Saddam Hussein building up weapons of mass destruction.

No doubt, in this world where “might is right”, the Iraq regime would like to arm itself, just like any other state, with the most destructive weapons it can afford, and it would not be at all surprising that it was trying to develop them. In Iraq’s case this would be so as to be able to throw its weight around more in the Middle East. But this is precisely America’s aim too. Hence the clash of interests. Bush and Blair want the Saddam regime out of the way because they see it as a threat to Western capitalism’s continued domination of the Middle East and its oil fields. It’s as simple as that. For them too, might is right, as they are itching to prove.

Some of America’s allies are not convinced that a war with Iraq won’t endanger rather than protect their oil supplies or political stability. Aware of this, Bush is now pursuing his campaign via the UN, clearly hoping that Iraq’s failure to comply with requests from UN weapons inspectors will provide the pretext he needs to justify an attack upon Iraq. He cites Iraq’s refusal to comply with UN resolutions as evidence of Saddam’s contempt for the world. Yet US ally Israel is in breach of as many UN resolutions as the errant Iraq. And the US itself has refused to accept a ruling from the International Court of Justice condemning its “unlawful use of force” during its terrorist war against Nicaragua, and for which it was also ordered to pay substantial reparations. Dismissing that particular ruling and refusing to pay, the US went on to intensify that assault.

That the US is concerned with the chemical facilities Iraq might have is understandable. Saddam certainly has the technological know-how. It came courtesy of the US when they sponsored Saddam in his war with Iran. Back in 1994, the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs produced a report entitled U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Persian Gulf War. It concluded:

“The United States provided the Government of Iraq with ‘dual use’ licensed materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological, and missile-system programs, including: chemical warfare agent precursors; chemical warfare agent production facility plans and technical drawings…chemical warhead filling equipment; biological warfare related materials; missile fabrication equipment; and, missile-system guidance equipment”.

We can further observe that the country with the biggest nuclear arsenal on Earth and the biggest stockpile of chemical weapons, and which has a proven track record of having used them, is the United States. Clearly, America doesn’t object to the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction as such. It just wants it and its allies to have a monopoly of them, not in the interests of world peace but in the interests of its world domination.

There can be no other reason for the US obsession with Iraq than continuing control of Middle East oils supplies. What remains imprecise is the US game plan: to use Iraq as a springboard to capture Iran and thus secure a shorter and cheaper route to Gulf ports for Caspian oil, or maybe to get a tighter grip on Saudi oil lest there be an Islamic fundamentalist blowback resulting from the “war on terror”? You don’t think so? Then ask yourself if there’d be so much US concern if the Middle East just supplied dates.

Someone who has seen through the current charade is Mo Mowlam, once a member of Blair’s cabinet, who has written:

“This whole affair has nothing to do with a threat from Iraq — there isn’t one. It has nothing to do with the war against terrorism or with morality. Saddam Hussein is obviously an evil man, but when we were selling arms to him to keep the Iranians in check he was the same evil man he is today. He was a pawn then and he is a pawn now. In the same way he served Western interests then, he is now the distraction for the sleight of hand to protect the West’s supply of oil.”

A capitalist society is a war-prone society, in that built-in to it is perpetual conflict between rival states over markets, raw material sources, trade routes and investment outlets. You can’t have capitalism without wars, the threat of war and preparations for war.

So if you’re only demonstrating against war, then take my advice and invest in a sturdy anti-war banner, for if you are prepared to oppose war without opposing the very system that gives rise to it, then you’ll be demonstrating for quite some time to come. Alternatively you can join the movement which believes that to end wars we must put an end to capitalism. An uphill struggle? Less than campaigning to end war against the backdrop of the profit system.

We must unite to establish a world community without frontiers where all the resources of the planet would be at the disposal of all the people of the planet. Then we could use them to end world poverty, hunger and preventable disease once and for all and rapidly move towards applying the principle “from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs”, ensuring that no man, woman or child anywhere on Earth goes without adequate food, clothing, shelter or other amenities. A world where wars and weapons of mass destruction would be things of the past. This can be done. So let’s do it.

Originally an anti-war flyer in England

December 15-21

It has long been clear that those at the helm of global capital are intent on steering us further into endless war. On the horizon, another mass murder, where the poor and powerless of different nations are ordered to kill each other for the benefit of the elite.

Despite the propagandist long knives of the Bush/Blair administrations and their standing armies in the mass media, there is a remarkable degree of worldwide recalcitrance to these “leaders” and their schemes. In addition to numerous massive demonstrations around the world — which are under-reported by the media — military recruiting centers have been attacked and military-industrial corporations blockaded. And these are just two examples of many actions taken by people who’ve enlisted their arms and legs into the battle against unlimited war that so many of us are already fighting with our hearts and minds.

This is a call for a week of action against the war apparatus during December 15-21, 2002. It is necessary, for the sake of those who governments long to slaughter, that we take this and every possible opportunity to strike at the executioners’ hearts. Further, a deafening void of resistance to recent warmongering could result in endless war as we careen closer and closer to a probable cataclysmic conclusion. The lives we save may very well be our own.

THE WAR APPARATUS

While a complete and detailed periodic table of the elements of war would cover several volumes, a simple sketch of the war apparatus shall suffice for providing the general shape of our principal targets.

Clearly money is the oil on which the war machine runs. Who stands to profit directly from war? Big-name defense contractors (Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, etc.) are first in line of private organizations to reap their financial rewards from the battlefields. These companies provide an obvious target. Their buildings are often remote and heavily guarded; nonetheless, that didn’t stop a recent sit-in at the Boeing offices from putting a damper, albeit temporary, on business as usual.

Of course, the war machine literally does run on oil, and unlimited access to the oil fields of Iraq is a large priority of this war-to-be. For this reason, the headquarters and assets of oil companies should be considered legitimate targets as well.

The editorial wings of the major media outlets certainly have much to gain from war. In their official capacity as the mouthpiece of government and business, mass media outlets are a natural enemy of all of us in opposition to war. The history of radical action against the media is storied and diverse. Resistors of every stripe have sanitized newspaper boxes and made additions to them; jammed or hijacked radio and television signals; and attacked broadcast towers and damaged equipment. The sheer number of media outlets provides myriad opportunities for action against the war.

Of course, there is the military itself as a target. Who could forget the Air Force billboard altered to read “Aim High: Bomb the Pentagon,” or the Vietnam-era ROTC building attacks? The military uses several mediums to garner recruits, most of which are highly susceptible to some type of action. They know the way in San Jose: recently saboteurs there torched some military vehicles, trashed a recruiting center, and left the words “Pre-emptive Strike” as their only explanation.

ACT, AND DON’T GET CAUGHT

This is a call for an explicit and direct attack upon the war machine. This is a call for resistance, not merely demonstration or advocacy, or scripted acts of “civil disobedience” where all the participants politely go to jail.

December 21st is the date of winter solstice, the day of the most darkness, a legendary time of revolution and change. This is a call for actions that will begin on Dec 15th and culminate on the 21st — under cover of full darkness and with the full force of our spirits.

If we can stop these limitless wars, then we will have accomplished a number of things. We will have halted the mass killing of civilians. We will have shown the world that not all of us are goose-stepping mindlessly behind “President” George W. Bush, Blair & Co. Best of all, we will have proven that creative individuals, dynamic affinity cells, and flexible grassroots groups can still make a difference and redefine what is possible for us to achieve — with an eye towards the kind of world we really want.

Want to endorse the call? circle_day_cell@ziplip.com