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In the Streets

February 7, 2003 - 1:48pm -- hydrarchist
News
In the Streets

Anonymous Comrade writes "The following article appeared in the Feb. 4, 2003, issue of the Mid-Hudson Activist Newsletter, published by the Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign/IAC in New Paltz, N.Y., and was sent via jacdon@earthlink.net

U.S. CITIES AND UNIONS OPPOSE A NEW WAR

Peace movement veterans and historians have never seen anything like it
-- a huge U.S. antiwar movement to stop a war before it starts. The big
demonstrations, of course, constitute the most obvious example of this
unprecedented phenomenon. But there are many other evidences as well.

January 29, 2003 - 2:54pm -- hydrarchist
News
In the Streets

Anonymous Comrade writes "" 'Black Bloc' Protesters Make Their Mark in San Francisco: Anarchists in Masks Responsible for Peace March Vandalism, Police Say"

Tom Abate, [San Francisco] Chronicle Staff Writer, Monday, January 27, 2003

San Francisco -- The band that broke away from the Jan. 18
peace march along San Francisco's Market Street and spent 35
minutes vandalizing the Financial District marked the Bay
Area's introduction to "black bloc" protests, police say.

January 29, 2003 - 12:41pm -- hydrarchist
News
In the Streets

ludd.net writes:


"Stop the Madness of King George:

A Dispatch from San Francisco"

Iain A. Boal


Saturday January 18th dawned clear and cloudless in San Francisco. The news coming to us from the East Coast over the Pacifica airwaves, the independent radio network founded half a century ago on the eve of the Korean War, was of a bitterly cold day in Washington, DC. Despite the weather, half a million people, according to a later estimate of the Washington Post, were filling the streets of the capital with one message in a thousand versions -- "No war on Iraq".

January 24, 2003 - 12:17pm -- Uncle Fluffy
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

hydrarchist writes:

This essay was first presented at the Dark Markets conference at Public Netbase in October 2002. You can watch the full presentation on video in real player here.


"The Dark Side of the Multitude"

Arianna Bove & Erik Empson


New Left politics began to see capital itself as
the subject of history, we only react to capital as an alien power and construe
the political defensively, organisation amounts to havens and enclaves of
resistance against this totalisation - this is a fundamentally negative
conception of politics which takes place through the adoption of the existing
paradigms of Power. Hence in addressing our needs and desires the reaction
is: we need more democracy, more rights, more freedoms, more juridical/
legalistic defences against the corporate face of this Subject who sticks
his nose into an otherwise uncomplicated terrain of liberal freedoms.



In this view of capital as Leviathan
resistance is limitation, the preservation of the public or its reconstitution.
Within this framework and within the institutions of the public some powerful
struggles of re-appropriation do take place. Yet these spaces are no longer
the real basis of power; they allow for only a symbolic resistance. Clearly
this is what has become of the street (but the same goes for parliament
or the mediatic figurehead of a state). The general dissatisfaction with
this situation pushes for a re-territorialisation of the 'public' from the
real to the virtual.

January 22, 2003 - 8:03pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

hydrarchist writes: This essay was published recently in the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.


"Absurd Responses vs. Earnest Politics:

Global Justice vs. Anti-War Movements; Guerrilla Theater and
Aesthetic Solutions"

by Ben Shepard


“Start the bombing now!!!!!” “Start the bombing
now!!!! “Two four six eight, we are people who hate, hate,
hate!!!!” A cacophonous block of church ladies in drag
calling themselves ‘Perms for Perma-War” screamed
with the formally earnest crowds throughout the anti-war march
in Washington DC on October 27th. What was going on? Different
people had different explanations. But for most involved, the
feeling was the world was witnessing an absurd situation – a “war on terrorism” a sitting vice president predicted
could last 50 years – which required an absurd response.
1984 slogans, “war is peace” and “freedom
is slavery,” had skipped from civics lessons to the front
and center of a national political consciousness. The notion
that ‘ignorance is strength’ had ceased to be seen
as a cautionary tale but was now considered an asset. “When
I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly
who they were… it was us vs. them and it was clear who
them was,” the future president explained on the campaign
trail back in 2000, continuing, “Today, we are not sure
who they are, but we know they are there.”

January 20, 2003 - 12:12pm -- hydrarchist
Events
In the Streets

Anonymous Comrade writes

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Madrid Aguascalientes keeps on walking, that is walking with all and everyone.

The Aguascalientes is a bridge and an ear and that is how we have learnt that the EZLN has breached the silence they have maintained in the last months of their honourable struggle for freedom, justice and democracy.

January 11, 2003 - 11:38am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

"Lefty" Hooligan writes "

TOWARD A MAXIMUM

ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT


Are you outraged with the US government's arrogant practice of policing the rest of the world, yet are you leery of having your outrage exploited b y obsolete Leftists for their own bankrupt agendas? Are you pissed off that the US military is once again bullying tiny Third World countries and preparing to slaughter innocent civilians, yet are you hesitant to give any credibility to the Paleolithic Left's claims to leading a mass anti-war movement? Are you disgusted with America's imperial business-as-usual, yet are you also bored to tears with the Left's protest-politics-as-usual? There's a simple, do-it-yourself alternative that effectively challenges the US government's military adventurism while denying the fossilized Left its organizing and leadership pretensions. This strategy is based on the idea that thousands of grains of sand can cause even the largest, most powerful machine to grind to a halt by becoming wedged in the gears and stuck between sensitive parts to gum up the works. The goal of this alternative strategy is to put our anti-war activism and movement to maximum effect.

January 9, 2003 - 10:44am -- Uncle Fluffy
News
In the Streets

hydrarchist writes "

Zapatistas Renew Struggle with Anger and Fire.

9th Anniversary of Armed Uprising Marked by Biggest
Mobilization So Far.

by Ramor Ryan

San Cristobal de las Casas, January 1 2003.

Defying their critics who charge they are divided and disintegrating,
the Zapatistas mobilised their forces today, mustering the largest
and most militant demonstration seen in San Cristobal since the armed
uprising 9 years ago. As many as 20,000 masked militants of the EZLN
descended on the town from all corners of Chiapas armed with machetes
and lighting huge bonfires around the central plaza and surrounding
streets. There were no injuries, and little damage to property, but
the feisty rebels demonstrated in no uncertain terms that, on the 9th
anniversary of the uprising they are still organised, still militant
and still enraged.

January 2, 2003 - 4:16am -- hydrarchist
News
In the Streets

A-Platform writes

"On the 31st of December, in Marmara University campus, Goztepe - Kadikoy, Anarchist, Islamic, Socialist and Kurdish groups protested together US war on Iraq. App. 500 people participated in the demonstration chanting slogans “No War in Iraq”, “Don’t Kill, Don’t Let Kill, Don’t Corrupt Your Conscience”, “Murderer Sharon, Murderer Bush”, “Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechenia, Halepçe, Iraq, No War”, “Resisting People Will Gain Victory”. The demonstrators rallied around the university with banners in Arabic, Kurdish, English and Turkish against war, they came to the main entrance of the university and read the release against war. During the demonstration, Ozgur Hayat photographer was detained and police captured the photos.
Anarchists’ participation in the demo was crowded and enthusiastic. Especially many slogans enchanted by all groups were the ones anarchists use in their own demos.

December 26, 2002 - 1:19pm -- hydrarchist
Events
In the Streets

Anonymous Comrade writes "Come join the largest peace convergence in Pittsburgh in over 30 years! This event will have thousands taking part in a variety of ways and we need you to make it amazing. The events are organized around the need for direct action against the war and with respect for a diversity of tactics. The events are endorsed by a ton of groups. for complete info see www.organizepittsburgh.org/war.htm

This should be the largest local peace mobilization in 30 years and we need your help to make it happen. The majority of convergence events are being organized by the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, The Thomas Merton Center, and the TMC's Anti-War Committee.

Tactics: Since September the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, the Thomas Merton Center and organizations/affinity groups from throughout the region have been working on different elements of a regional convergence against war to take place January 24-26th, 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This includes pog's organizing of a framework for large scale direct action against war as part of a larger mobilization that weekend. Groups are working together to put on a comprehensive weekend of actions and events. The events include: a large permitted rally, numerous teach-ins, forums, and other educational events, marches of all kinds, direct action, street threatre, 15+ hours of concerts, a vigil, a parade procession, radical cheering and signing, dancing, various bloc's, and many other to be determined activities. If you are opposed to the Government’s militaristic policies at home and abroad there is a place for you at these events. Not everyone will want to attend every event and that's ok. Each of us can take part as we see fit. Effectiveness is in diversity. We support a diversity of non-violent tactics from flyering, vigils, holding signs on the corner, pre-announced (to the police) symbolic arrests, and active blockades. We also welcome coordinated autonomous actions. There are MANY opinions within the peace movement on what an effective direct action entails and it's likely that Jan 24-26th will reflect a multitude of these. We encourage all groups and individuals opposed to the ongoing war to open the lines of communication so that we can come together and figure out ways to have our actions work in tandem.

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