MAY 18 GLOBAL #LAUGHRIOT

Tactical Briefing #27.

From Adbusters Blog

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Alright you wild cats, nimble dreamers and jammer tacticians,

In a sudden about-face, the United States has conceded a victory to Occupy and moved May’s G8 summit to Camp David, an impenetrable military base in rural Maryland. Wow! Looks like the specter of 50,000 occupiers ready to swarm with a list of demands has turned the climactic Showdown in Chicago into a humiliating G8 Backdown. Bravo! Splitting the G8 and NATO summits was a deft move… but now we’ve got a major tactical rethink on our hands.

The big question is do we follow Mao’s advice (“when the enemy retreats, we pursue”) or Sun Tzu’s (“Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight”)? We’ve heard persuasive arguments on all sides. Some occupiers say the movement should lay chase and go for #OCCUPYCAMPDAVID against all odds … a month of tree-sits, lockdowns and nomadic encampments in the woods and nearby Thurmont. Others believe it’s best to up the ante with #OCCUPYCHICAGO: an even bigger mobilization beginning with the May Day General Strike. Still others advocate an unpredictable everywhere-at-once global insurgency of anarchic swarms throughout the month of May.

When Ben Ali first attacked then tried to hide from his people, he was toppled. When Mubarak refused to negotiate and tried to beat his people back into line, he was deposed. Now the White House and the G8 are repeating the mistakes of last year’s autocrats … first they try to scare us with tough talk of repressive anti-Occupy ordinances, crowd suppression technologies and paramilitary policing, then they make a hasty retreat to the safety of Camp David.

The world’s leaders flee from us … so what do we do? Maybe we just laugh at them?

On May 18, the day the G8 leaders meet in Camp David, why don’t we, the people of the world have a #LAUGHRIOT. Let roars of laughter rise up from towns and cities everywhere at the spectacle of the world’s leaders trying to crisis manage the economy from behind closed doors and razor wire fences.

Laughter is one of the most powerful tactical weapons of memewar … it signals supremacy and loss of fear. So let’s pull off the greatest comedy of howling flash mobs, riotous street parties and hysterical pranks the world has ever seen. May 18 could be a monumental tipping point… an ahahaha! moment when the people of the world have a collective epiphany, and from that point on start thinking differently about how the world should be governed.

Jammers, whatever we do this Spring, let’s float like butterflies and sting like bees! Let’s bend the G8 and NATO to our will with shock tactics and audacious culture jams that capture the imagination of the world. We may be far closer to a Global Spring than any of us has so far dared to imagine …

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

OccupyWallStreet.org /
Tactical Briefing #25 and #26 / OccupyWallst.org / G8Protest.org / OccupyChi.org / CANG8.org / Takethesquare.net / OccupyMay1st.org / MayDayNYC.org / Facebook / Twitter / Reddit

David and Goliath in the Tar Sands

Communities prepare to rise up, but they can’t do it alone.

From Adbusters Blog

For every barrel of bitumen that comes out of the ground in Northern Alberta, Canada, another 1.5 barrels of toxic waste is created and dumped into tailings ponds that are carved out of the once pristine wilderness. That waste may now be leaking into the Athabasca river Delta, poisoning indigenous communities for hundreds of kilometers downstream and causing rare cancers once unheard of. The Alberta government and its industry-funded studies say every thing is okay with the water. Independent observers say otherwise. Watch as Al Jazeera uncovers how industry and government are working to silence dissent and how communities are beginning to fight back.

Witness: To the Last Drop – Part 1

Witness: To the Last Drop – Part 2

URL: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2011/06/20116227153978324.html

America’s Authoritarian Turn

Speaking truth to power becomes a crime.

From Adbusters Blog

Ever since the rise of Occupy, corporatist authorities have been trying to figure how to squash our emerging social movement. First they tried a media blackout, but when over 700 nonviolent meme warriors were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge our Gandhian ferocity catalyzed a thousand encampments and the 1% could ignore us no more. Next elites tried the Bloomberg model of midnight paramilitary raids backed up by excessive force and sometimes-lethal munitions. That worked well to evict encampments in New York City, Oakland and nationwide … but it backfired when occupiers became diffuse, appearing at scripted events and interrupting the spectacle of corporate-funded politics with mic checks of truth. Now they are trying the new tactic of “lawfare” – using draconian laws to squash free speech in a last ditch effort to put an end to people power.

A week before the G8 Backdown, the US House of Representatives voted in near unanimous consensus in favor of an authoritarian law, H.R. 347, that makes it a federal crime to disrupt “Government business or official functions” or to enter any building where a “person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting.” In other words, to mic check Obama is now a federal crime punishable by a year in prison. And so too is the banner drop if it takes place in any building that a “protected” person might be visiting in the future, even if jammers don’t know it. And so is the anti-globalization tactic of blocking road access to a meeting of world elites, there is a special clause about that too. Obama signed the bill into law on March 9.

History shows that using authoritarian laws to silence the authentic, legitimate concerns of the people always boomerangs into a fatal loss of legitimacy. Governments derive their authority and right to exist from the people and when the people are ignored and beaten back regimes fall.

Read more about H.R. 347 at the dailyagenda.org and the lawfareblog.com and then brainstorm below on how Occupy can outmaneuver this new tactic of repression.

#OCCUPYCAMPDAVID

Or shall we move into uncharted territory?

From Adbusters Blog

The G8 retreat from Chicago to Camp David brings a new tactical dilemma to Occupy. Do we carry on with the old model, locating contested space and establishing a physical encampment? Or do we sojourn into an uncharted vector of resistance where symbolic space is transient, fluid and less-significant? Here’s the view of Occupier Sean Nolan. Have a read and weigh in.

After months of gestation, confusion, internal conflict, regrouping and rethinking, the Occupy movement has come through the winter, in my mind at least, for the better. Those of us who are focused on changing the way that this country’s “elected” (or shall I say, bought and paid for) officials do business are more focused than a diamond cutting laser. Those of us who are focused on making a true American Spring are prepared.

As many of you now may very well know, the G8 meeting in Chicago that was scheduled for the 18th of May, has been moved to Camp David, a secure military compound guarded by US Marines that houses the President for private formal or informal occasions. Now let me be clear, the G8 is a meeting between the eight most powerful leaders in the world to discuss “key issues” facing the geopolitical sphere. There is a G12 meeting, a G20, and so on.

URL: http://bornoutofbinary.blogspot.com/2012/03/occupycampdavid-and-occupyna…

SURPRISE G8 BACKDOWN

Occupy Claims Victory as Obama Relocates G8 Summit.

From Adbusters Blog

The Showdown in Chicago has turned into a G8 Backdown. In a stunning about-face, the Obama administration has moved the Chicago G8 summit to Camp David, an ultra-secure military base in rural Maryland. Despite the tough talk of anti-Occupy technology, ordinances and paramilitary preparations, this is perhaps the first time that a major world summit has been relocated due to anticipated protests. And with only two months left before the summit was to begin, the change of venues is clearly a humiliating decision and a surprising victory of the Occupy movement. The specter of 50,000 nonviolent occupiers flooding the windy city with a list of demands for the world’s political elites was apparently too powerful. The NATO summit will still be meeting in Chicago… for now at least.

Check out this take by Occupywallst.org on what could be the movement’s next steps and weigh in below on how you think Occupy should react to the G8 backdown.

The Group of 8 Summit, a meeting of the governments of the world’s eight largest economies, was supposed to convene in Chicago this May. For months, Occupy Chicago, international anti-war groups, Anonymous, and hundreds of allies have publicly planned to shut it down. Now, only two months before the meeting is scheduled to begin, U.S. President Barack Obama is moving the assembly of over 7,000 leaders from the world’s wealthiest governments to the Camp David presidential compound, located in rural Maryland near Washington, DC, one of the most secure facilities in the world. The Chicago Tribune reports that summit organizers are “stunned” by the news.

URL: http://occupywallst.org/article/facing-mass-protest-obama-hides-g8-camp-…

¡Un Oriente Medio libre de Armas Nucleares!

¿Por qué callan sobre eso?

From Adbusters Blog

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He aquí los intentos de los movimientos Occupy de aportar algo de cordura en la cuestión de Oriente Medio. Lee las últimas reflexiones de Chris Hedges sobre #occupyAIPAC y más.

La lucha por la justicia en Oriente Medio es nuestra lucha. Es parte de la lucha contra el vasto 1 por ciento global. Es una lucha de la vida contra la muerte. Por comunicar en vez de matar. Una lucha por el amor en lugar del odio. Es parte de la gran batalla contra las fuerzas corporativas de la muerte que reinan sobre nosotros – la industria de los combistibles fósiles, la industria armamentística, el Estado de seguridad y vigilancia, los especuladores de Wall Street, las élites oligárquicas que asaltan a los pobres, a nuestros hombres y mujeres trabajadoras, a nuestros niños, uno de cada cuatro de los cuales depende de cupones de alimentos para comer, son las élites que están destruyendo los árboles, el aire y las aguas de nuestro ecosistema y poniendo en solfa nuestra existencia como especie.

Lo que están haciendo en Gaza, la mayor prisión al aire libre del mundo, es un pálido reflejo de lo que nos está ocurriendo poco a poco a todos los demás. Es un anticipo del Estado de seguridad global en ascenso, nuestro nuevo sistema de gobierno que el filósofo Sheldon Wolin denomina “totalitarismo invertido”. Es un reflejo de un mundo en el cual los poderosos no están sometidos a la ley, tanto en Wall Street como en los destrozados restos de los países que invadimos y ocupamos, incluyendo Iraq con sus cientos de miles de muertos. Y uno de los mayores exponentes de esta demente ideología de la violencia por la violencia, de este flagrante desprecio hacia las leyes nacionales y el derecho internacional, es el Comité Israeloamericano de Asuntos Públicos, o AIPAC.

URL: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/aipac_works_for_the_1_percent_20120304/

Traducido por translatorbrigades@gmail.com – Join us in translating Adbusters!

Raoul Vaneigem

Wo als nächstes zuschlagen?

From Adbusters Blog

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Situationistisches Denken bestimmte den Pariser Frühling von 1968; ein spontaner Aufstand der beinahe die französische Regierung stürzte und drohte in einen globalen Aufstand von Innen gegen den Kapitalismus auszubrechen. Im Protest gegen Entfremdung, Ungleichheit und Zuschauergesellschaft, füllten Slogans wie „Langeweile ist Konterrevolution“ und „Lauf, Genosse, die alte Welt ist hinter dir her!“ die Münder und die Lieder von Millionen die in ihrem Kern in offener Revolte gegen die Forderungen der Konsumgesellschaft standen. Raoul Vaneigem war ein Mitglied der Situationistischen Internationale von 1961 bis 1970 und der Autor von mehr als 30 Büchern und ein Schlüsseldenker der Bewegung. Er war 1968 auf den Strassen und gibt Interviewer Siné Mensuel seine Gedanken preis zum Hier und Jetzt.

Siné Mensuel: Können Sie eine kurze Definition der Situationisten geben?

Raoul Vaneigem: Nein. Das Lebendige ist nicht reduzierbar auf Definitionen. Die Vitalität und Radikalität der Situationisten entwickelt sich weiter hinter den Kulissen eines Schauspiels das allen Grund hat sich ruhig zu verhalten und sich zu verbergen. Andererseits wurde diese Radikalität in einer oberflächlichen Aufwallung einer ideologischen Rückeroberung unterworfen, aber ihre Interessen haben nichts mit meinen gemein.

Siné Mensuel: Was meinte “der Situs” als sie davon sprachen, dass Situationismus nicht existiert?

Raoul Vaneigem: Die Situationisten sind Ideologien gegenüber immer feindlich gewesen, und von Situationismus zu sprechen, hieße, dort eine Ideologie zu platzieren, wo es keine gibt.

Siné Mensuel: Warum brachen Sie 1970 mit der Situationistischen Internationale? Im Nachhinein, was denken Sie über Guy Debord?

Raoul Vaneigem: Ich brach damit weil die Radikalität die im Mai 1968 Priorität gewesen war, dabei war sich in bürokratischen Verhaltensweisen aufzulösen. Jedes Mitglied hatte entschieden diesen Weg allein zu verfolgen oder das Projekt einer selbstregulierten Gesellschaft aufzugeben. Vielleicht spürten Debord und ich eher Komplizität als Zuneigung, aber diese Spaltung spielt keine Rolle! Was aufrichtig gelebt wird, geht nie verloren! Der Rest sind nur die Überreste von Vergeblichkeit.

Siné Mensuel: Wie sehen Sie die Bewegung der Empörten (Indignados)?[1]

Raoul Vaneigem: Es ist eine öffentliche Schutzreaktion gegen die Resignation und die Angst, die die Tyrannei des Kapitalismus am besten unterstützt. Aber Empörung ist nicht genug. Es geht weniger darum gegen ein System zu kämpfen, das dabei ist zusammen zu brechen, als für neue soziale Strukturen, die auf direkter Demokratie beruhen. Während der Staat öffentliche Dienste zerstört, kann nur eine sich selbst regulierende Bewegung die Sorge für das Wohlbefinden von allen übernehmen.

Siné Mensuel: Steht Utopismus noch auf der Tagesordnung?

Raoul Vaneigem: Utopismus? Von jetzt an ist das die Hölle der Vergangenheit. Wir sind immer genötigt gewesen an einem Ort zu leben, der überall ist, aber an diesem Ort, wo wir nirgendwo sind. Das ist die Realität unseres Exils. Es ist uns aufgezwungen worden für tausende von Jahren durch eine Wirtschaft, die auf der Ausbeutung des Menschen durch den Menschen beruht. Die Humanistische Ideologie hat uns glauben lassen, dass wir Menschen sind, während wir größtenteils auf den Status von Tieren reduziert bleiben, dessen räuberische Instinkte durch den Willen nach Macht und Aneignung befriedigt werden. Unser Schleier von Tränen wurde als beste aller möglichen Welten angesehen. Hätten wir eine Art zu leben erfinden können, die phantasmagorischer und absurder ist als die allmächtige Grausamkeit der Götter, die Kaste von Priestern und Prinzen, die über versklavte Völker herrschen, die Verpflichtung zu arbeiten, die angeblich Freude garantiert und das stalinistische Paradies begründet, das tausendjährige Dritte Reich, die Maoistische Kulturrevolution, die Gesellschaft der Wohlfahrt (den Wohlfahrtsstaat[2]), den Totalitarismus des Geldes jenseits dessen es weder Individuum noch soziale Sicherheit gibt, [und] schließlich die Idee dass Überleben alles ist und Leben nichts? Gegen diese Utopie, welche als Realität gilt, steht nur die einzige Realität die zählt: Was versuchen zu leben indem wir uns unseres Glücks versichern und dessen von allen anderen. Von jetzt an sind wir nicht mehr in einer Utopie, sondern im Herzen einer Mutation, einer Veränderung der Zivilisation die Form annimmt vor unseren Augen und die viele Menschen, geblendet durch den vorherrschenden Obskurantismus, nicht wahrnehmen können. Weil das Profitstreben Menschen zu räuberischen, unempfindlichen und dummen Rohlingen macht.

Siné Mensuel: Erklären Sie uns, wie das Kostenlose, in Ihrem Sinne, der erste entschiedene Schritt zum Ende des Geldes ist.

Raoul Vaneigem: Geld wird nicht einfach entwertet ([vermindert] die Kaufkraft beweist es); es investiert sich so ungehemmt in die Blase der Aktienmarkt Spekulation, sodass es dazu verdammt ist zu implodieren. Der Tornado des kurzfristigen Profits zerstört alles auf seinem Weg; Er sterilisiert die Erde und erschwert das Leben, um nutzlose Profite zu extrahieren. Menschlich wahrgenommen, ist das Leben inkompatibel mit der Wirtschaft, die den Menschen und die Erde ausbeutet zum Zwecke der Bereicherung. Anders als das überleben, schenkt das Leben und es schenkt sich selbst. Was kostenlos ist, ist die absolute Waffe gegen die Diktatur des Profits. In Griechenland entwickelt sich eine “Zahl nicht” Bewegung. Am Anfang weigerten sich die Autofahrer Maut zu bezahlen; sie hatten die Unterstützung eines Kollektivs von Rechtsanwälten, die den Staat verklagten, der beschuldigt wurde, die Autobahnen an private Firmen zu verkauft haben. Heute ist es eine Frage der Weigerung für öffentliche Transportmittel zu zahlen, der Forderung nach kostenloser Gesundheitsversorgung und Bildung, Der Verweigerung von Steuer- und Abgabenzahlungen, die dazu benutzt werden, die betrügerischen Banken zu retten und die Aktienbesitzer zu bereichern. Der Kampf um Spaß in einem selbst und in der Welt wird nicht mit Geld durchgeführt, sondern im Gegenteil, durch seinen absoluten Ausschluss.

Es ist absurd, dass ein Streik die Freizügigkeit von Menschen behindert, wenn er freien öffentlichen Verkehr, Gesundheitsdienst und freie Bildung beschliessen könnte. Es ist nötig, dass wir verstehen “ bevor der finanzielle Zusammenbruch kommt, stattfindet“ dass das, was kostenlos ist, die absolute Waffe des Lebens gegen die Wirtschaft ist. Es geht nicht darum, Menschen zu brechen, sondern das System zu brechen das sie ausbeutet und die Maschinen, die sie zum Bezahlen bringen.

Siné Mensuel: Sie befürworten zivilen Ungehorsam. Was heißt das für Sie?

Raoul Vaneigem: Es ist das, was in Griechenland, Spanien, Tunesien und Portugal geschieht. Es ist das, was die Überschrift eines Flugblattes das ich für unsere libertären Freunde in Thessaloniki schrieb: Der Staat ist Nichts; Wir sind Alles. Ziviler Ungehorsam ist kein Selbstzweck. Es ist die Straße zur direkten Demokratie und allgemeiner Selbstverwaltung, soll heißen, die Schaffung von Bedingungen die günstig für individelles und kollektives Glück sind.

Das Projekt der Selbstverwaltung beginnt seine Verwirklichung wenn eine Versammlung sich entschließt, den Staat zu ignorieren und, aus eigener Initiative heraus, die Strukturen errichtet die in der Lage sind individuelle und kollektive Bedürfnisse zu erfüllen. Von 1936 bis 1939, experimentierten die libertären Kollektive von Andalusien, Aragon und Katalonien erfolgreich mit Selbstverwaltungssystemen. Die kommunistische Partei und Listers Armee zerschlugen sie, und machten so den Weg frei für Francos Truppen.

Mir scheint heute nichts wichtiger zu sein als die Implementierung von selbstverwaltenden Kollektiven, die in der Lage sind, sich zu entwickeln, wenn der Finanzkollaps das Geld verschwinden lässt und, gleichzeitig eine Art zu denken, die seit tausenden von Jahren in unser Verhalten eingepflanzt war.

Siné Mensuel: Erzählen Sie uns über Tierrechte [la cause animale], die revolutionäre Denker lange nicht berücksichtigt habe.

Raoul Vaneigem: Es ist weniger eine Frage von Tierrechten als eine Versöhnung des Menschen mit seiner irdischen Natur, die er bis heute ausgebeutet hat zum Zwecke des Gewinns. Was die Evolution des Menschen zu einer wirklichen Menschheit verhindert hat, war die Entfremdung des Körpers, der zum Arbeiten gebracht wurde, die Ausbeutung des Lebens, das in eine Produktivkraft umgewandelt wurde. Unsere übriggebliebene Animalität ist unterdrückt worden im Namen eines Geistes, der nur die Emanation einer himmlischen und zeitlichen Macht ist, die beauftragt ist, die irdische und köperliche Materie zu zähmen. Heute ist die Allianz mit natürlichen Energien dabei, die Plünderung der vitalen planetarischen Ressourcen zu ersetzen. Die Verbindung mit dem Tierreich wieder zu entdecken, heißt, sich mit dem Tier in uns zu versöhnen; es heißt es zu kultivieren anstatt es zu unterdrücken, es weg zu drücken, und seine Grausamkeiten des Dampf Ablassens zu verdammen. Unsere Menschwerdung beinhaltet das Recht des Tieres auf Respektierung seines So-Seins anzuerkennen.

Siné Mensuel: In Belgium ist Wählen obligatorisch, grundsätzlich jedenfalls. Haben Sie jemals gewählt? Zahlen sie Ordnungsstrafe?

Raoul Vaneigem: Ich wähle nie. Ich habe nie einen Bußgeldbescheid bekommen.

Siné Mensuel: Welche Lehren können gezogen werden aus diesem langen Jahr, in welchem Belgien keine Regierung gehabt hat?[3]

Raoul Vaneigem: None. Während des profitablen Schlafes der Politiker (diese 55 Regierungsminister haben keine Probleme mit ihrem Auskommen) haben die Finanzmafias weiterhin Gesetze gemacht und es geht ihnen sehr gut mit den Yes-Men unter ihrem Kommando.

Siné Mensuel: Wie sehen Sie die anhaltenden “Revolutionen” in den arabischen Ländern? scheint Ihnen der Islam eine Gefahr für sie zu sein?

Raoul Vaneigem: Wo das Soziale den Tag beherrscht, verblassen die religiösen Vorurteile. Die Freiheit, sich gegenwärtig der säkularen Tyrannei entledigt, ist nicht dazu geneigt, sich mit religiöser Tyrannei abzufinden. Der Islam wird versuchen sich zu demokratisieren und wird den gleichen Niedergang erleben wie das Christentum. Ich wertschätze den tunisischen Slogan “Freiheit zu beten, Freiheit zu trinken!”

Siné Mensuel: Am Ende bleiben Sie doch ein unverminderter Optimist, nicht wahr?

Raoul Vaneigem: Ich kann mich begnügen mit Scutenaires Formel:[4] “Pessimisten! Was habt ihr denn erwartet?” Aber ich bin kein Optimist oder Pessimist. Ich schere mich einen Dreck um Definitionen. Ich will leben indem jeden Tag neu beginnen. Es wird nötig sein, dass die Denunziation und die Zurückweisung unserer untragbaren Bedingungen Platz machen für die Ausarbeitung einer menschlichen Gesellschaft, die einen kompletten Bruch mit der Marktwirschaft vollzieht.

Ursprünglich auf Infoshop.org gepostet.

(Bemerkungen gesammelt von Jean-Pierre Bouyxou. Veröffentlicht am 24. November 2011 von Siné Mensuel. übersetzt aus dem Französischen von NOT BORED! 23. Dezember 2011. Fußnoten vom Übersetzer, außer wo angemerkt.[Aus dem Englischen von Translator Brigades])

[1] Eine Serie von spontanen Demonstrationen in Spanien, mit zehntausenden von Menschen, ab 15. Mai 2011.

[2] im Original Englisch.

[3] politisch und geographisch zweigeteilt”Flandern (Flämische Nationalisten) und Wallonien (Sozialisten)”Belgien hat keine offizielle Regierung mehr seit den Parlamentwahlen am 13. Juni 2010.

[4] Anmerkung von Siné Mensuel: der Belgische Schriftsteller Louis Scutenaire (1905-1987) ist der Autor von “Mes inscriptions”. Raoul Vaneigem widmete ihm ein Buch in der „Poets Today“ Kollektion (Seghers, 1991).

A Nuclear Free Middle East!

Why aren’t they talking about it?

From Adbusters Blog

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Here’s the Occupy movements attempt to get some sanity into the Middle East. Read Chris Hedges’ most recent thoughts on #occupyAIPAC and beyond.

The battle for justice in the Middle East is our battle. It is part of the vast, global battle against the 1 percent. It is about living rather than dying. It is about communicating rather than killing. It is about love rather than hate. It is part of the great battle against the corporate forces of death that reign over us—the fossil fuel industry, the weapons manufacturers, the security and surveillance state, the speculators on Wall Street, the oligarchic elites who assault our poor, our working men and women, our children, one in four of whom depend on food stamps to eat, the elites who are destroying our ecosystem with its trees, its air and its water and throwing into doubt our survival as a species.

What is being done in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, is a pale reflection of what is slowly happening to the rest of us. It is a window into the rise of the global security state, our new governing system that the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism.” It is a reflection of a world where the powerful are not bound by law, either on Wall Street or in the shattered remains of the countries we invade and occupy, including Iraq with its hundreds of thousands of dead. And one of the greatest purveyors of this demented ideology of violence for the sake of violence, this flagrant disregard for the rule of domestic and international law, is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

URL: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/aipac_works_for_the_1_percent_20120304/

#OCCUPYAIPAC

Time to stop the bully.

From Adbusters Blog

This week marks a new geopolitical direction for the Occupy movement. As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference unfolds until March 6, AIPACers will be greeted by the ongoing scores of occupiers who have descended on Capitol Hill. AIPAC is the 1% of American foreign policy; they’re the eyes, ears, nose and mouth of America’s generals, politicians and economic elite. At #OccupyAIPAC they come face to face with the 99%. Read about it here:

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has contributed to a disastrous American course in the Middle East and will be back at it this week in Washington, D.C. Self-described as a “pro-Israel lobby” whose goal is to “enact public policy that enhances the U.S.-Israel relationship,” the organization has enhanced this relationship while simultaneously making the region far more dangerous. More than ever in this election year with Republicans calling for the bombing of Iran and candidate Newt Gingrich claiming Palestinians are an “invented” people, AIPAC has the US Congress and presidential candidates in its thrall. Yet this year’s AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C. is more controversial than ever as Occupy activists seek to highlight the role of big-money lobbyists in elections while standing in solidarity with the global 99% opposed to Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.

Each year at AIPAC’s policy conference in Washington, D.C., the president, powerful senators and members of Congress parade across the stage in order to prove their loyalty to the Israeli government. AIPAC’s outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy can be linked to the disastrous war in Iraq, as well as to the current push for an attack on Iran. AIPAC is also known for drafting extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-human rights legislation that it then funnels into Congress. AIPAC Director Howard Kohr will likely appear on stage this March at the 2012 AIPAC conference to make the annual roll call, rattling off the names of congressional representatives, diplomats and dignitaries present in the room as if he is the auctioneer at an estate sale. And in a way, he is.

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rae-abileah/occupy-aipac-saying-no-to_b_13…


#OccupyHonduras


See video

Before Barcelona, before Tahrir, before New York, thousands of landless farmers in Honduras began to occupy vast stretches of ill-gotten plantations in the Aguan River Valley. The government has torched their settlements, evicted their encampments and allowed wealthy landowners to murder them at will. But against all odds, the resistance grows. Help get the message out!

URL: http://www.indiegogo.com/Resistencia-1

Will Donor Money Destroy Occupy Wall Street?

An emerging existential debate in the movement.

From Adbusters Blog

In recent weeks, a series of existential debates have erupted within the Occupy movement. Soul-searching discussions on violence vs. non-violence and leaders vs. leaderless and autonomy vs. consensus are happening everywhere… welcome signs that the core principles of phase two of Occupy are being hashed out organically. Now, a conversation is beginning in New York City with profound implications for the entire movement. Jeff Smith, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press team, explains the situation:

A crowd of about 100 gathered at the West Park Church on the Upper West Side Sunday for an open meeting dedicated to the unveiling of the newly re-named Movement Resource Group. The 501c3 is the latest incarnation of a group of wealthy donors who have been trying to plug into OWS for months…. Six months after OWS began and three months after the NYPD violently “cleaned” Zuccotti Park, there are a lot of occupiers struggling to make ends meet—especially those who are new to activism and are relying on the money coming through the New York City General Assembly, which has nearly run through its remaining funds. The protesters are hungry. And when these latest money men moved in, it felt like a two-way con. The rich people were trying to buy a piece of OWS on the cheap. Desperate protesters were there to see if they could get one over on the rich guys by taking their money without sacrificing anything of value, namely their values.

Read the entire article at The Daily Beast and weigh in below. Do you think Marisa Holmes, a founding Zuccotti, is right that accepting Ben & Jerry’s money will “destroy the very foundation of the movement”?

TACTICAL BRIEFING #26

Anarchic Swarms – The Emerging Model.

From Adbusters Blog

Hey you wild cats, dreamers, redeemers, horizontals,

The stage is set for a climactic showdown in Chicago.

The crisis of capitalism is deepening. Youth unemployment has reached 50% in Spain and Greece… 30% in Portugal and Italy… 22% in the UK… almost 20% in the US. Hundreds of millions of people around the world are waking up to the fact that their future does not compute… that their lives will be a never ending series of ecological, financial, political and personal crises… and that if we don’t rise up and start fighting for a different kind of future, we won’t have a future.

That struggle ignites again May 1.

#OCCUPYCHICAGO will be the focal point of this global spiritual insurrection… 50,000 of us will converge on the windy city and confront the G8 and NATO leaders with an ultimatum. We will set up impromptu encampments throughout the city and wage a full-spectrum memewar backed up by new tactics of anarchic swarming. Our militant in-your-face nonviolence will inspire thousands of towns, cities and campuses around the world to rise up in solidarity just like they did last October.

This is a worldwide, multi-front mutiny against the way our economic and military leaders are running the world.

On the CULTURAL FRONT we confront the corpo-commercial lie machine – we shift the way information flows and meaning is produced. We train a new breed of livestreamers, citizen journos and p2p visionaries and unleash them in the streets to be the eyes of the world during the month of May.

On the ENVIRONMENTAL FRONT we demand the G8 reach consensus on drastically reducing their carbon footprints and immediately ratifying a binding international accord on climate change.

On the ECONOMIC FRONT we throw our movement’s weight behind one simple demand: the implementation of a 1% Robin Hood Tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.

On the GEOPOLITICAL FRONT we tell Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy, Putin, Merkel, Noda, Monti, Harper and the NATO military leaders to stop the warmongering and start fighting for peace. We block the looming Iran war with a preemptive global initiative that just about everyone in the world can get behind: a nuclear-free world starting with a nuclear-free Middle East that includes both Israel and Iran.

On the PERSONAL FRONT, hundreds of millions of us vow to live the month of May without dead time… to experience joyous camaraderie… to open ourselves to an imminent life changing epiphany. We follow Miles Davis’ advice on how to play jazz: be spontaneously alive and “play what’s not there.”

Occupy has taught us all. It innovates, fractures, grows resilient and more diverse. In this spirit we celebrate the Gandhian ferocity of the Zuccottis who launched this movement with their magical assemblies and nonviolent ways … we extol the growing crop of working groups with their desire for a positive program of social and political change. And on the wild side we honor those in Oakland who have lost their fear against all odds. With this rainbow coalition, we hold our heads high and embrace the heady days of Spring.

Jammers pack your tents, phone your friends, get your affinity groups together and prepare to put your ass on the line for a worldwide people’s uprising starting May 1.

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

OccupyWallStreet.org / Tactical Briefing #25 / OccupyWallst.org / G8Protest.org / OccupyChi.org / CANG8.org / Takethesquare.net / OccupyMay1st.org / NYCGA / Facebook / Twitter / Reddit

A Shift in Consciousness

It’s not that hard.

From Adbusters Blog

The status quo has us at each other’s throats. Mainstream economics sees this as the social ideal. More for you is less for me. Antagonism keeps the cash flowing. Maximize each moment lest someone else gain the market advantage on you. This sounds miserable, and it is, and yet it remains the system that most of us live every day. It’s time for a new model. Occupy economics reaches to a much more historical and spiritual precept. An idea rooted in the concept of love and cooperation: that more for you is more for me. Author of Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein, explains Occupy’s new logic of the heart.

Stream Sacred Economics short film in its entirety on March 1.

I Don’t Pay

The European culture jam spreads.

From Adbusters Blog

Instead of begging their governments for non-existent mercy, activists in major centres across Europe are taking their public services into their own hands. They are engaging in creative resistance, one that initiates instead of making demands. Transit, healthcare, utilities, you name it, nothing is out of reach. Watch and be inspired by this growing culture jam. See people living what Franco Berardi Bifo calls our new cultural task:

“To live the inevitable with a relaxed soul. To call forth a big wave of withdrawal, of massive dissociation, of desertion from the scene of the economy, of non-participation in the fake show of politics. The crucial focus of social transformation is creative singularity. The existence of singularities is not to be conceived as a personal way to salvation, they may become a contagious force.”

Climate Whistle Blower Outed

Peter Gleick: the politics of deceiving the deceiver.

From Adbusters Blog

The leaked Heartland Institute documents proved what most people know to be true anyway – that mainstream climate deniers are secretly funded by industry and will stoop to any level to fight science with spin – even brainwashing children through the k-12 curriculum. As one of the world’s leading climate denial thinktanks, the expose is a serious blow to the objective credibility Heartland claims to have. The whistleblower, environmental analyst Peter Gleick, identified himself a few days ago serving both to confirm the authenticity of the documents and to shift the narrative of the controversy.

But instead of being lauded as a public hero for uncovering the coordinated plot to undermine scientific truth with ideology, he’s being publically shamed by colleagues and critics alike for the deceptive methods he used to obtain the confidential sources – a fake name. He’s been lambasted in the press, threatened with legal action and has even penned a personal apology saying “I deeply regret my own actions in this case. I offer my personal apologies to all those affected.”

Gleick also added that his actions reflected “a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics,” in case the recantation above isn’t enough for those looking to carve him up.

New York Times author Andrew C. Revkin editorialized that Gleick’s “reputation is in ruins.” The Guardian’s Bob Ward wrote: “acts of deception cannot be condoned” – not those of Heartland, but Gleick.

Is everyone so afraid of climate change deniers, so inundated with the neo-classical even-playing-field ethos between the billionaires who support climate denial and the plebes who write the science, that they’ll turn on a whistleblower to avoid their wrath?

Those who condemn Gleick have drunk too much of the mainstream paradigm. Take a deep breath. Exhale the program and call it what it is. A deceiver was deceived – Heartland was beat at their own game. We should applaud the whistleblower, not hang him out to dry. If we had a hundred more like Gleick we might not be facing the current climate catastrophe we now face.

Résumé Adbusters N°25

French translation of “Showdown in Chicago.”

From Adbusters Blog

This article is available in:

A tous les rédempteurs, rebelles et radicaux :

Alors que le soulèvement global frémit au sein de milliers de villes et de douzaines de pays, un sommet rare aura lieu simultanément entre les G8 et NATO ce Mai ci. Les forces militaires et les élites politiques du monde, des chefs d’états, 7.500 officiaux provenant de 80 nations et plus de 2.500 journalistes seront présents.

Et nous y serons aussi.

Ce 1er mai, 50.000 personnes venant de tous les coins du monde se rassembleront à Chicago, dresseront des tentes, des cuisines, des barricades pacifiques et #OCCUPYCHICAGO pendant un mois. Avec un peu de chance, nous réaliserons la plus grande occupation multinationale d’une réunion au sommet que le monde ait connu.

Et cette fois nous n’allons pas tolérer le genre de répression policière qui eut lieu aux manifestations de la Convention Démocrate Nationale à Chicago en 1968 … pas plus que nous respecterons les fausses restrictions que la ville de Chicago puisse tenter d’imposer sur nos premiers droits d’amendement. Nous y irons la tête haute et nous nous assemblerons pendant un sommet d’un mois … nous marcherons et chanterons et crierons et nous exercerons notre droit de communiquer a nos représentants ce que nous désirons … la constitution sera notre guide.

Et lorsque les G8 et NATO se rencontreront derrière portes fermées le 19 mai, nos demandes seront prêtes : une taxe « Robin des Bois » … une interdiction du commerce « flash » a haute fréquence … un engagement sur le changement climatique … une loi « retrait sur trois prises » pour les criminels d’entreprises … une initiative tous azimuts pour un Moyen Orient sans activité nucléaire … quelles que soient les décisions prises dans nos assemblées générales et notre remue-méninges global sur internet — nous, le peuple, décideront de l’agenda pour les prochaines années, et nous exigeront que nos dirigeants l’exécute.

Et s’ils ne nous écoutent pas … s’ils ignorent nos demandes comme ils ont pu le faire tant de fois auparavant … alors, avec une férocité Gandhienne, nous irons dans les rues, fermerons les bourses, les campus, les quartiers généraux d’entreprises et les villes autour du globe … nous rendrons le prix de continuer à faire du business comme d’habitude trop élevé pour être supporté.

Rédempteurs, amenez vos tentes et votre courage, et préparez-vous au big bang à Chicago ce printemps. Si nous ne levons pas maintenant pour lutter pour un futur différent, nous n’en aurons peut-être pas un. Alors vivons sans temps-mort pendant un moi ce mai-ci, et nous verrons ce qui se passera.

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

CANG8.org / ChicagoMassAction.org / Occupy Chicago
Adbusters / Facebook / Twitter / Reddit

Traduit par Julie Cornu

Paramilitary Policing Begins

Get ready for #OccupyChicago.

From Adbusters Blog

Fearing the rebellious peaceful hordes of Occupy, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has granted the city’s police force emergency purchasing power to suit-up for NATO and G8 meetings this May. Top of the list: 3000 new riot face shields worth $200,000. These face shields are said to be better than existing ones because they fit easier over top of gas masks and seal directly to the forehead of the helmet, preventing liquids from passing through.

“Rioters known to attend NATO and G8 meetings have been known to throw bags of urine and bags of feces at police. Chicago Police officers need a shield that can adapt to what is being thrown at them, ” Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields told the Chicago Sun Times.

In a city already strapped for cash for social programs, the move comes as a surprise to citizens and protestors alike.

Aaron Cynic of Chicagoist.com writes:

To our knowledge, no protesters plan on bringing any kind of scatological materials to the demonstrations in May. Furthermore, while cursory searching found plenty of speculation, rumor and hyperbole about such instances, we have yet to find any actual hard evidence outside of commentary. To the contrary, a civil liberties advocate told an independent news website in December: “This is part of a spectrum of information war strategies that the state uses to repress dissent.”

#OCCUPYCHICAGO Tactical Briefing / Facebook Event Page / Twitter / Reddit

Chris Hedges On Nonviolence

Why truth, not fear, is Occupy’s greatest weapon.

From Adbusters Blog

Part of an ongoing debate within the Occupy community, author Chris Hedges says that our lessons should be drawn from the visionary philosophy of Czech revolutionary Vaclav Havel, not the “diversity of tactics” of the Black Bloc. “Living in Truth,” Havel’s ideal of refusal to fear, begins when we create alternative means of existence and deny the impulse to expected responses. States are well equipped to deal with the loss of order and violence but are inept at dealing with loss of faith and mass non-violence, Hedges argues. That is why government agitators and provocateurs are actively involved in the movement – to divide it and conquer its 99% appeal.

There is a recipe for breaking popular movements. I watched it play out over five years in the war in El Salvador. I now see these familiar patterns in the assault against the Occupy movement. It goes like this. Physically eradicate the insurgents’ logistical base of operations to disrupt communication and organization. Dry up financial and material support. Create rival organizations—the group Stand for Oakland seems to be one of these attempts—to discredit and purge the rebel leadership. Infiltrate the movement to foster internal divisions and rivalries, a tactic carried out consciously, or perhaps unconsciously, by an anonymous West Coast group known as OLAASM—Occupy Los Angeles Anti Social Media. Provoke the movement—or front groups acting in the name of the movement—to carry out actions such as vandalism and physical confrontations with the police that alienate the wider populace from the insurgency. Invent atrocities and repugnant acts supposedly carried out by the movement and plant these stories in the media. Finally, offer up a political alternative. In the war in El Salvador it was Jose Napoleon Duarte. For the Occupy movement it is someone like Van Jones. And use this “reformist” to co-opt the language of the movement and promise to promote the movement’s core aims through the electoral process.

Read the entire piece on Truthdig.com.

A Question Of Tactics

David Graeber responds to Chris Hedges.

From Adbusters Blog

David Graeber has been involved with Occupy Wall Street since the early days of September, when he partook in the first ad hoc general assemblies in New York City and helped articulate the movements’ nonviolent ethos. He is also a self-professed anarchist and Black Bloc supporter.

In response to Chris Hedges Feb 6 article on Truthdig.com, The Cancer in Occupy, Graeber drafted the following open letter challenging the Pulitzer Prize winning authors’ characterization of the Black Bloc and the movement itself.

I am writing this on the premise that you are a well-meaning person who wishes Occupy Wall Street to succeed. I am also writing as someone who was deeply involved in the early stages of planning Occupy in New York.

I am also an anarchist who has participated in many Black Blocs. While I have never personally engaged in acts of property destruction, I have on more than one occasion taken part in Blocs where property damage has occurred. (I have taken part in even more Blocs that did not engage in such tactics. It is a common fallacy that this is what Black Blocs are all about. It isn’t.)

I was hardly the only Black Bloc veteran who took part in planning the initial strategy for Occupy Wall Street. In fact, anarchists like myself were the real core of the group that came up with the idea of occupying Zuccotti Park, the “99%” slogan, the General Assembly process, and, in fact, who collectively decided that we would adopt a strategy of Gandhian non-violence and eschew acts of property damage. Many of us had taken part in Black Blocs. We just didn’t feel that was an appropriate tactic for the situation we were in.

URL: http://nplusonemag.com/concerning-the-violent-peace-police

Mirrors: http://pastebin.com/XK9Ucvu7 | http://bit.ly/xG0NWD

Black Bloc

Violence or nonviolence: where do you draw the line?

From Adbusters Blog

On Feb 6, America author and Occupy activist Chris Hedges wrote a piece for Truthdig.com titled “The Cancer in Occupy.” In it he criticized the violent actions of Black Bloc operatives within the movement, saying they are the greatest threat to the future of Occupy. The article has generated a heated debate online about non-violence, political strategy and protest in America, and has garnered a response by Anarchist thinker Dr. Zakk Flash.

Read both articles and weigh-in.

The Cancer in Occupy by Chris Hedges

The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement. The presence of Black Bloc anarchists—so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass, seek physical confrontations with police and destroy property—is a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state. The Occupy encampments in various cities were shut down precisely because they were nonviolent. They were shut down because the state realized the potential of their broad appeal even to those within the systems of power. They were shut down because they articulated a truth about our economic and political system that cut across political and cultural lines. And they were shut down because they were places mothers and fathers with strollers felt safe.

URL: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_cancer_of_occupy_20120206

Hedging Our Bets on the Black Bloc by Dr. Zakk Flash

Chris Hedges has written some of the most insightful analysis of the U.S. war machine in recent years. His 2009 book “The Empire of Illusion” was an exploration of how exhibition has eclipsed truth and meaningful connection in American society. His acknowledgment of the ease in which one can buy into such spectacles is a small part of why it was so odd to read his article on Truthdig attacking both anarchists and black bloc tactics entitled “The Cancer in Occupy.”

URL: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20120207100008741