The goal of anarchistnews.org is to provide a non-sectarian source for news about and of concern to anarchists. It is also to provide a location for discussion about such news.
Many have wondered if there is a fundamental contradiction between day to day work demanding services like public housing and heath care, and the anarchist goal of overthrowing government and/or capitalism.

I will posit that no such contradiction exists, as "government" can be bifurcated into the law enforcement/military/corporate support primary component, and the social service components the capitalists have allowed to exist since the last Depression in an effort to buy peace from the lower and working classes. I will posit later in this essay that in supporting these programs we are demanding restitution for capitalism's crimes, so there is no contradiction in supporting any and all social services.

Years ago, GOP scumbags of the Ronald Reagan era proposed to "starve the beast" in an effort to destroy social programs. the plan was to use combined increases in military spending with huge tax cuts to make social spending unaffordable. The plan fell apart at the end of the Cold War-and because at the Federal level the government can literally create money out of thin air with changes in banking "reserve ratios," by borrowing, or just plain printing more.

A roundup of recent FBI visits, subpoenas, and other government assaults on the animal liberation movement in August:

From Voice of the Voiceless

New AETA 4 DNA warrant

This week, Joseph Buddenberg of the AETA 4 was the target of a warrant for his DNA. A quote from the agent who authored the affidavit: 

"I believe probable cause exists that Buddenberg was involved in the February 24, 2008 altercation at the L.H./J.R. residence in Santa Cruz.... The samples from the bullhorn found in Khajavi's vehicle will yield evidence that Buddenberg was involved in force, violence, and threats involving animal enterprises, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 43 & 371"

Yesterday an unusual story arose out of the usual static emanating from the news media. A middle-aged man stormed the Discovery Channel headquarters in Maryland, USA and took hostages. A standoff ensued between the man and police, ending when the police killed the man, Jason J. Lee. Not long after the situation was brought to a head, Lee's manifesto came out. Evidently Lee held some very singular views regarding civilization, and demanded the Discovery Channel air programming elaborating his views.

Lee has already been stuck with the dismissive label of insanity by those who wield unseemly degrees of control over common discourse—the very capitalist media he targeted. Doubtless Lee was possessed of an unstable psychology. In the coming days the capitalist news media will thoroughly flesh out his psychological profile, and use this as an excuse to avoid examining his odd philosophy. Soon the news cycle will move on to some other events and Lee will leave the common consciousness as quickly as he appeared.

Before that happens, I have decided to seize the moment and compare the theory and actions of James Lee to those of Green Anarchism. Though clearly the work of a troubled, desperate and erratic mind, Lee's manifesto raises many important points too often excluded in common discourse. His manifesto bears many similarities to Green Anarchist thought, yet is obviously uninformed by the rich theoretical tradition that has developed within the Green Anarchist milieu in the past few decades. In this essay I will attempt to demonstrate that, though Lee's personal views do not appear to have been coherently processed in his own mind, that they are but one manifestation of a trend which is quickly growing in ranks. I call this trend the anti-civilization movement.

From Occupy LA

Today, several students decided to take back control of their university from big business and little bureaucrats, reclaiming a single building of University of New Orleans’ campus for they, the tuition-payers, themselves.

Despite what benevolent administrators, politicians (student or otherwise), or the police may say, we know that this financial crisis is not ours, and that we will not pay for it. We know that this “depression” effects us disproportionately and we refuse to allow those who are already hurt to be injured any further. If there will be cuts, they will be from the very top.

Welcome to another month. Hope this one brings good tidings to you and yours. One amazing thing that we have noticed this year is that there is a striking uptick in the amount of traffic starting in the middle of August (with a corresponding downtick in the quality of some of the comments). If you are new to the site please note that there are few rules here. You can comment freely and anonymously. We do not track your IP information. We appreciate all the help we can get with submissions of content and lack of submission from the readers of this site.

We publish a monthly digest of the most interesting (aka the best) content from the site. It is called Anarchist News Digest. Here is the issue for September.

From Absurd Times Article - by Kent Shockerminster

Yes, you read the headline correctly! At a Vancouver protest against police brutality this past Saturday, a fairly large group of Black Bloc protesters was able to throw giant fishing nets over police enforcements who showed up to protect the event. As dozens of police scrambled to untangle themselves from the nets, Black Bloc rioters rampaged through the city: fire-bombing banks, hijacking helicopters, and bulldozing down prison walls.

Dannit Eschleton, a local journalist embedded in the trap said, "those criminals are going to pay for this, I was maced, tear gassed, and beaten with batons as the police tried to defend themselves and get out of the net".

Tags:
From south sound indymedia

One bank was attacked and another sabotaged in Tacoma, Washington. One of them being Wells Fargo the main investor in GEO Group and the Northwest Detention Center, an immigrant detention center (prison) that sits comfortably in the Tacoma tide flats. “NO PRISONS (A)” was spray painted on the side of the building and 3 windows where smashed. Bank of America also had an ATM card slot glued. Bank of America is one of the three joint financial advisers (including Merrlin Lynch and Barclays Int.) for GEO Group Corp.

In solidarity with all imprisoned, in all prisons,
And for the destruction of the prison world.

- Anarchists

Hey, I just self-published this ABC's of Anarchy children's book. Some love it, some hate it:
https://www.createspace.com/3467780
or
http://www.amazon.com/ABCs-Anarchy-1-Brian-Heagney/dp/1453687815/

And you can check out the facebook page for a preview of all the inside content too, but I think the facebook page isn't necessarily the final final images:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171127&id=190889547406

hope ya like.

This morning a man stormed the discovery channel headquarters and has a list of demands online. His website is down but the google cached version is below:

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:
1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

From NEFAC - by Deric Shannon

Given the public reaction, there are some rather serious problems with the “Ground Zero Mosque” myth that need to be stated (as often as possible)—some obvious and some not-so-obvious and perhaps even some lessons to be learned from it.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and following the “War on Terror”, “islamophobia” has become an increasingly familiar term in the United States—and with good reason. Crimes committed against Muslims because of their faith rose steadily from 2001 through 2005 according to studies, and they don’t seem to have dropped significantly since [1]. Muslims in the US have reported attacks, racist slurs, police detentions and searches that were unprovoked, employment and housing discrimination, and so on. Since George W. Bush declared his “crusade” against terrorism (a particularly prescient turn of phrase) the xenophobia common in nations at war has amped up here in the United States.