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From Chicago Tribune

They must have been in it for the sheer thrill. Dressing up in black costumes and breaking expensive windows with sticks must be a rush. Nothing announces your hatred of capitalism so clearly as the sound of breaking glass. Nothing shows off your revolutionary chic better than a bandana, a black hood and a raised fist with a closet rod from Lowe's. There's nothing better than putting a hole in a Seattle bank on television and having the cops show up late to pepper-spray the camera crew. The joys of organized anarchy go all over YouTube.

From Bay of Rage

May 1, decomposition and the coming antagonisms

THE COMMUNE

For those of us in Oakland, "Occupy Wall Street" was always a strange fit. While much of the country sat eerily quiet in the years before the Hot Fall of 2011, a unique rebelliousness that regularly erupted in militant antagonisms with the police was already taking root in the streets of the Bay. From numerous anti-police riots triggered by the execution of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009, to the wave of anti-austerity student occupations in late 2009 and early 2010, to the native protest encampment at Glen Cove in 2011, to the the sequence of Anonymous BART disruptions in the month before Occupy Wall Street kicked off, our greater metropolitan area re-emerged in recent years as a primary hub of struggle in this country. The intersection at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland was, more often than not, "ground zero" for these conflicts.

Tags:
After eviction, Occupy camp of Moscow is reborn in Kudrinskaya square

For photos, check original

In morning of 16th of August Occupy camp of Moscow ("Occupy Abai") was evicted from Chistie Prudy after a court order, but it was re-established the same day at Kudrinskaya square (also known as Revolution square). Lectures, infocenter and field kitchen (both omnivorous and vegan) were relaunched. 20 PM several hundreds of people gathered in the square. During the evening, a police officer approached several times Food Not Bombs activists, distributing vegan food, and demanded them to quit distribution, as they allegedly did not had necessary permissions to distribute food. Activists answered, that they just distribute food and offer it to their friends. Around 21:30 OMON riot police showed up at the vegan kitchen. Five activists were arrested, and police also confiscated food, part of the food, some journals which were around, and most importantly a box with donations.

Protesters were enraged, and with shouts "thieves" they blocked police vans, demanding release of the comrades. People formed chains, which were attacked by OMON, people were pulled over and arrested, some comrades were dearrested.

From Crimethinc

On May Day 2012, anarchists around the US succeeded in precipitating clashes on a larger scale than in previous years. But it’s important to strategize ahead of our immediate problems, in order to be prepared for the subsequent challenges we will face when we succeed. This report from the May Day 2012 mobilization in Berlin offers a cautionary tale, showing how the commodification of rebellion, the influence of accommodating movement leaders, and the rhetoric of creating safe spaces have been used to neutralize a popular tradition of resistance. If revolt continues to gain momentum in the United States, we can expect to see some of these strategies employed here as well.

By Natasha Lennard via truth-out.org

The West Side Highway in New York, which traces Manhattan's westerly edge, is dotted with luxury condo buildings and office blocks with views onto the Hudson River. Around 20th Street, an eleven-story modernist mural of geometric shapes, "Venus," decorates the south face of a vast concrete block, but the famous painting by Knox Martin is now almost entirely obscured by a recently completed condo complex.

Just as "Venus" now goes largely unnoticed by the cars whizzing up and down the highway, so, too, does the building it decorates: Bayview Correctional Facility, a medium-security women's prison and rare example of a state penitentiary in the middle of a major metropolis. I had never noticed Bayview myself, having passed that stretch of Manhattan hundreds of times. On Saturday evening, however, to mark the eve of Mother's Day, I stood outside the prison with around 50 people making as much noise as possible.

From Vancouver Media Co-op - by Ron Sakolsky

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. On May 12, 2012, the book launch event that was scheduled at Camas Books in Victoria, BC to celebrate the publication of the latest collection of my anarcho-surrealist writings, Scratching The Tiger’s Belly (Eberhardt, 2012), opened on a decidedly sour note. Upon my arrival at the bookstore, I was met by a member of the Camas collective. Without blinking an eyelash, he informed me that while they were still willing to make good on their promise to hold the Scratching The Tiger’s Belly booklaunch at the store that night and stock it thereafter; my previous book, Swift Winds (Eberhardt 2009) was no longer welcome on the store’s shelves. And so unfolds the saga of how Swift Winds was banned in Victoria by the Camas bookstore collective upon the request of none other than Allan Antliff.

Over the last decade, Antliff has consciously positioned himself as a primary gatekeeper of the academic empire of art and anarchy not only in Canada, but throughout North America, and internationally as well. He is Canada Research Chair in Modern Art at the University of Victoria and Director of its Anarchist Archive, as well as Art Editor of Anarchist Studies (UK) and most recently editor of a special “Art and Anarchy” (2011) issue of the Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies journal, where he is a member of their Advisory Board. In the Victoria anarchist community, which he seems to treat as his personal fiefdom, he is a member of the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective, and a long-time benefactor of that event as well as many other anarchist initiatives in the city, including Camas Books, where he is presently a member of their decision-making collective.

On the 10th of May, our brother, friend and compañero David Lamarte was imprisoned.

David is being processed by the courts, and faces a sentence that ranges from 3 months to 3 years, though this has not yet been determined. They are accusing him of having broken some taxi metres on May 1st, during a working class action that opposed the official union, who are basically on the side of the government. David is a friend and anarchist who has been in struggle with us for over 15 years, from his participation as an adolescent in the old Anarko Punk Resistence, to the picket lines in the Sindicato Unico de Automovil con Taximetros y Telefonistas (Automobile, Taximetres and Telephone Operators Trade Union), and currently, within various anarchist collectives.

The SUATT, formerly the SUA, was the union stronghold for direct action, which maintained the old Federacion Obrera Regional Uruguaya (Regional Uruguayen Labour Federation)throughout the 20th century. Today, it is one of the most combative unions in the country, who must also fight against the arrogance of mafia bosses and constant police harassment. We are asking comrades to pass this information on as far and wide as possible. Any and all expression of solidarity are appropriate.

For more information:
http://periodicoanarquia.wordpress.com
http://a-infosuruguay.blogspot.com.es

From Workers Solidarity #127 (Ireland)

An accusing finger is pointed at anarchists any time the word organisation is mentioned. Many people believe that anarchism is against organisation and just another word for chaos, but is it? The simple answer, of course, is no, but that does not explain the confusion surrounding the question, nor the accusations thrown at anarchists.

Organisation, for anarchists, is one of the most important questions to be settled. Firstly, anarchists recognise that only through organisation can the bosses’ system be smashed. For example, the fact that during the Miners Strike in Britain, massive and co-ordinated police mobilisation was used to break the picketing and isolate the miners makes this point evident. The employers have at their disposal an efficient state apparatus, which will move to crush any opposition to it.

From Cindy Milstein blog

Every since this occupy “movement” began, it has surprised me. Like a package I didn’t order appearing on my doorstep, gifting me some sweet little zines written by a near stranger I met long ago. And just when this occupy thing seems to stall or become tired—or as Take Back the Land’s Max Rameau put it so well recently, begins to feel like the film Groundhog Day—it surprises me yet again. Another package unexpectedly arrives, this time with hand-screened political posters from some anonymous friend.

May Day was one of those surprises.

Truth be told, though, the day itself was underwhelming.


Listen to the 2nd episode of Inconsiderate, the audio show that skips the General Strike to strike everyone in general!

Answer the poll question featured in the episode at the Inconsiderate Audio facebook page, blog linked below, or email (inconsiderateaudio@yahoo.com):

"What do you hate most these days about anarchists/radicals/punks?"

...also, send your pathetic problems to our Inconsiderate Adviser "Sunshine" to be read and addressed on the show.

Listen here!

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