Readers of The Right Stuff long knew that founder “Mike Enoch” had two main interests: technology and white supremacy. Posts on the neo-Nazi site have included discussion of “a new blogging platform built on node.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Meet Silicon Valley’s Secretive Alt-Right Followers
UNDERSTANDING ALT-RIGHT ANTISEMITISM: what the new white supremacy means for American Jews, and why it matters (Note- This article references many alt-right/white supremacist websites. All hyperlinks to these web pages go to ‘cached’ replicas of the pages, not the website itself.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Understanding Alt-Right Antisemitism
Have you heard the one about the boy who cried Fake News? This is a story about truth and consequences. It’s a story about who gets to be young and dumb, and who gets held accountable.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at On the Milo Bus With the Lost Boys of America’s New Right
Have you heard the one about the boy who cried Fake News? This is a story about truth and consequences. It’s a story about who gets to be young and dumb, and who gets held accountable.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at On the Milo Bus With the Lost Boys of America’s New Right
photo by Jessica Lee O
Since the November election, many liberals—and a fair number of leftists—are beating their breasts about the overlooked white working class that was “lost” to Trump and has to be brought back into the fold. This new solicitude for white workers usually comes bundled with an attack on “identity politics,” which, we are warned, splinters and weakens the resistance. These two fraudulent arguments pander to white supremacy. They should be rooted out of our struggle against Trump.
The tens of millions of white workers who voted for Trump committed a racist act. They didn’t do it because they’re stupid, but because they like what Trump stands for. They pledged their fealty to an aspiring white nationalist strongman who promised impunity to gangster cops and torturers; who welcomed open white supremacists into his movement; who swore he’d deport millions of Muslim and Latin American immigrants, all in an effort to Make America White Again.
White people without college degrees (a category including most white workers) chose Trump over Clinton by 39 percentage points. Those voters don’t really believe that he’s going to magically transform the Rust Belt into a workers’ paradise. It’s enough that he dog-whistles his intent to reestablish a clear-cut racial hierarchy.
Many white workers confront deteriorating economic conditions. But that’s no excuse for racism. White workers are, by any statistic, much better off than non-white workers. And as we know, workers of color face additional burdens of discrimination, police violence, mass incarceration and dehumanization in US culture. Nevertheless, when white workers have grievances, they normally scapegoat and attack oppressed nationalities. This is a recurrent feature of US history.
I’m not arguing that white workers can’t be part of the resistance, or that they should be written off. White workers didn’t all vote for Trump. Some are staunch anti-racists. But relying on white workers as a class to start acting like a reliable bulwark of progressive change is delusional at best, utterly reactionary at worst.
This is a perennial issue for US Left. A widespread, false narrative holds that white workers—because they are workers—must be inherently progressive. Whenever white workers commit racist acts, it’s claimed that they do so out of ignorance, acting against their own best interests. J. Sakai’s classic book, Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat, demolished this opportunist narrative decades ago. But it keeps spontaneously regenerating within the US Left, like a vampire rising from the crypt.
The white working class isn’t part of the world proletariat. It’s a systematically privileged worker elite. It was created and cultivated by the US ruling class to serve as a population of overseers, wardens, shock troops and labor fakers. Originally deployed to contain and control rebellious workers of color, the white working class later became a willing social base for the US’s rise as a predatory world empire. Like the white working class in apartheid South Africa, or the Zionist working class in Israel today, the white working class in the US is essentially parasitic. In return for its special privileged status, which is enshrined in a system of institutional racism, this class consistently opposes and undermines the struggles of oppressed peoples both in the US and around the world. Over the course of generation after generation, the white working class has embraced the atrocities of US capitalism: land theft, genocide, slavery, imperialist war, segregation, mass incarceration. And now, Trump.
Fighting racism among white workers is possible and necessary. But catering to the politics of the white working class is poison to the struggle against racism and capitalism. It’s disloyal to the freedom struggles of oppressed nationalities and nations, which have always spearheaded meaningful social change in the U.S., often while being forced to battle white workers. Out of pure necessity, those national movements are autonomous struggles, struggles for survival, self-defense and self-determination.
That’s one reason it’s so damaging when activists attack “identity politics.” Oppressed peoples have national cultures, institutions and histories: nationalities. These nationalities aren’t just a matter of individual choice or personal style; they’re social collectivities, communities. National identities are inherently political for those subjected to colonialism, and they’re absolutely integral to oppressed peoples’ resistance and survival. Trivializing or subordinating them merely reinforces whiteness—the “default” identity.
Bernie Sanders recently trumpeted that “we have to get beyond identity politics.” He later tried to walk that statement back a bit, but everybody knew what he meant. Oppressed people shouldn’t be so “divisive” with their demands. What Sanders wants us to concentrate on are “universal” needs, like single payer health care and free college tuition. He argues that this will unite progressives, appeal to white workers, and gain votes. Isn’t that classic white settler “leftism”? The oppressed get to compromise on their life-or-death issues; Bernie gets…elected.
Sanders’ view is standard liberal fare these days. The New York Times recently published an opinion piece by Columbia professor Mark Lilla. His take: “Amerian liberalism has slipped into a kind of moral panic about racial, gender and sexual identity that has distorted liberalism’s message and prevented it from becoming a unifying force capable of governing.” Well, that puts it right out there.
But isn’t it true that radicals have their own versions of this discourse? Some activists use “identity politics” as an epithet because they dislike any form of nationalism, including revolutionary nationalism. They imagine that it’s a diversion from class struggle, or think it constitutes an unacceptable form of “essentialism.” Others accuse activists of color of engaging in “identity politics” if they act pushy or egotistical. The internet is full of radicals, belonging to a variety of political trends, bemoaning the damage “identity politics” is doing to their organizing efforts; complaining that “identity” divisiveness or “identity” bullying are hurting the cause of socialism or anarchism. Are we supposed to believe that they mean something completely different from what Sanders and Lilla mean?
Let’s not forget that it was sellout ex-radicals who helped create the “identity politics” trope, back in the 1990s. Marxist-turned-conservative David Horowitz was a key figure in getting the ball rolling. He started out by arguing that “identity politics” was terrible for the Left, but he soon stopped pretending he cared about that. Now he just says flat out that “identity politics are anti-American.” (One elaboration of this is that “Black Lives Matter is a racist group.”) Todd Gitlin, a former leader of SDS, became another anti-“identity politics” warrior. He’s been blaming the Left’s problems on “divisive” Black people and women for 25 years. That isn’t a trajectory any radical should want to emulate, although it’s been good for his academic career.
Unfortunately, a lot of Left activists, along with their liberal counterparts, assume that the fundmental goal of people of color should be to assimilate into white-led movements and integrate into some version—liberal or “radical”—of white society. People of color who reject that option, deciding instead to rely on strengthening their own peoples and on finding solutions independent of white people, are often viewed as selfish and unrealistic—hung up on “identity.”
Yet if there’s anything that the last few decades demonstrate with utter clarity, it’s that when oppressed nationalities do try to assimilate in the US, they’re usually rewarded with violent white backlash, without achieving much (if any) justice or equality. Meanwhile, under the rubric of integration and assimilation, oppressed peoples’ communities and institutions are hollowed out, gentrified, privatized and bulldozed over.
During the last few decades, a seductive dream of multiculturalism arose in the US. It advocated peaceful respect among nationalities and genders—and who could argue with that? But from the start it was a shallow and compromised mix; a combination of honest idealism and corrupt neoliberalism that, among other things, sought to paper over deep and intractable national fault lines.
It must be said quite plainly that this surge of multiculturalism—which was protected and even sponsored by the biggest globalist capitalists—was fully compatible with continuous genocide against Black, Native, Puerto Rican and other oppressed peoples. And, more to our specific point, multiculturalism in the US relied for its viability on the good intentions of white people, many of whom actually hated it with a deep passion. Today the multicultural dream has turned into a nightmare: another sudden reawakening of violent populist white supremacy. So much for good intentions.
Radicals need to regroup around some basic truths about US society and “identity.” We live in a deeply reactionary settler state that relies on white nationalism for its survival. It’s a prison-house of colonized nations and oppressed nationalities. Its white population is completely unreliable as a force for justice or freedom. Based on its long and ugly history, most of that population will cling to white supremacy until the settler state is finally uprooted. The liberation struggles of Black/New Afrikan, Mexican, Native, Puerto Rican and other oppressed peoples are central to overthrowing US imperialism. These are struggles for self-determination; they’re not subordinate to white definition, priorities or leadership.
White activists should support and defend the freedom struggles of oppressed nations and nationalities politically and culturally. We should engage in a deeper and more principled practice of internationalism that’s firmly anchored in that support. We should also attack white supremacy in all its forms where we work and live, including inside the white working class. In that specific regard, our task isn’t to unite white workers but to divide them: to split as many white workers as possible away from the deep-seated racist, anti-proletarian politics of the majority.
In the 1960’s and 70’s, the most advanced parts of the Left recognized these truths. That Left—repressed by the state and undermined by white and male opportunism—is mostly gone now. It’s up to new activists to lead. But a new Left shouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel. Catering to the white working class while denigrating “identity politics” will do nothing whatsoever to stop Trump, defeat white supremacy, or overthrow capitalism. Instead, it will strengthen all three.
Friday March 17, 6pm / Vendredi 17 mars, 18h00
1455 de Maisonneuve Ouest, #H-110 auditorium
facebook: http://ift.tt/2lCbInw
***français suivra***
As part of the Week Against Police Brutality (https://cobp.resist.ca/), a discussion on incarceration and political repression with Albert Woodfox et Robert H. King will take place Friday March 17th at 6:00 pm at the Alumni Auditorium, room H-110 of the Henry F. Hall Building (1455 de Maisonneuve West) at Concordia University.
Albert Woodfox is a Black Panther activist and ex-political prisoner who was released in February 2016 at the age of 69 after having been incarcerated and tortured for 45 years at Angola Penitentiary (in Louisiana), 43 years of which having been spent in solitary confinement. No American prisoner has ever been held in solitary confinement for so long. This cruel and unusual punishment was inflicted upon him for a crime he did not commit, because of his political beliefs and the colour of his skin.
Along with Herman Wallace and Robert King, Albert Woodfox was part of a group known as the Angola 3 (http://angola3.org/), three African-American men sent to prison in 1971 in one of the most violent detention facilities in the United States. Members of the Black Panther Party, they fought to defend prisoners’ rights while inside.
Robert King was held in Angola for 32 years, of which 29 years were spent in solitary. From the time of his release in 2001, he was active working to free his two friends. Herman Wallace was released in 2013, but died shortly thereafter. Since Woodfox was freed in February 2016, he has been travelling Europe and the United States with King, to advocate for the abolition of solitary confinement and the liberation of political prisoners in the USA.
***Admission is FREE***
***Wheelchair accessible***
***Translation into French and Spanish***
———————————————————————————————————–
Dans le cadre de la semaine contre la Brutalité Policière (https://cobp.resist.ca/) se tiendra une discussion sur l’incarcération et la répression politique avec Albert Woodfox et Robert H. King le vendredi 17 mars, à 18h (ouverture des portes) à l’auditorium H-110 du 1455, de Maisonneuve Ouest (édifice Henry F. Hall de l’université Concordia) à Montréal.
Albert Woodfox est un militant Black Panther et ex-prisonnier politique qui fut libéré en février 2016, à l’âge de 69 ans, après avoir été détenu et torturé pendant 45 ans, dont 43 ans en isolement, dans la prison d’Angola, en Louisiane. Il s’agit d’une durée record de temps passé en isolement pour un prisonnier américain. Cette punition cruelle et inhumaine lui fut infligée pour un crime qu’il n’avait pas commis, en raison de ses positions politiques et de la couleur de sa peau.
Albert Woodfox forme avec Herman Wallace et Robert King un groupe connu sous le nom des Angola 3 (http://angola3.org/), trois hommes afro-américains qui furent emprisonnés en 1971 dans un des pénitenciers les plus violents des États-Unis. Membres des Black Panthers, ils militèrent activement en prison en faveur des droits des détenus.
Robert King fut détenu à Angola pendant 32 ans, dont 29 furent passés en isolement. Dès sa sortie en 2001, il milita pour la libération de ses deux amis. Herman Wallace fut libéré en 2013, mais mourra peu de temps après. Depuis que Woodfox a recouvré sa liberté en février 2016, King et lui parcourent l’Europe et les États-Unis pour revendiquer l’abolition de l’isolement carcéral et la libération des prisonniers politiques aux États-Unis.
*Entrée gratuite*
*Accessible aux fauteuils roulants*
*Traduction vers le français et l’espagnol*
Anti-fascist groups, often called “antifa,” are popping up all around the United States, and a number of people have asked us for advice on forming a group.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Forming An Antifa Group: A Manual
Anti-fascist groups, often called “antifa,” are popping up all around the United States, and a number of people have asked us for advice on forming a group.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Forming An Antifa Group: A Manual
A new edition of Confronting Fascism, containing exactly the same material as in the first edition (though redesigned to look nicer) is now at the printers!
Confronting Fascism: Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement is a series of texts that came out of conversations revolutionaries in and around Anti-Racist Action were having at the highpoint of the previous wave of antifascist organizing in North America.
First published in 2002 as a collaboration between Kersplebedeb, ARA Chicago, and the anarchist magazine Arsenal, Confronting Fascism is structured around a text by Don Hamerquist, “Fascism & Antifascism.” Hamerquist takes a wrecking ball to the mythology around fascism that had been traditionally peddled by the reformist left; against objections that fascists are just a distraction, or are simple-minded agents of the state and capital, he shows how fascism contains a revolutionary and even anticapitalist impulse thoroughly enmeshed with its own deeply oppressive and anti-liberatory politics. Unraveling what this means for antifascists and our strategies is the task at hand, and Hamerquist proceeds to lay down some important preliminary realities that we need to deal with. Almost twenty years later, what is most striking is how prescient so many of Hamerquist’s observations were, not only about the ambiguously dynamic appeal of fascism, but also about the specific characteristics of antifascist work and the advantages and disadvantages they confer.
J. Sakai follows Hamerquist, interrogating his analysis as he pushes it forward. Sakai argues against the idea that fascism comes primarily from the working class, just as he extends the point that fascism is not an inherently or essentially “white” ideology. A discussion of different forms of capitalist rule, the class structure of global imperialism, and the history of anticapitalist critique within both Italian and German “classical” fascism, flows into a contemporary contextualization of fascism within the neocolonial context; throughout, Sakai shows that support for fascism comes primarily from middle class men who are losing or being denied their traditional privileges, what many consider their birthrght, as a result of capitalist and imperialist “progress.” As such, a thread of parasitism and social revanchism is traced, connecting the tax resister from the American midwest to the racist bonehead in neoliberal Britain to the Taliban fighter in Afghanistan.
Shorter texts from the ARA Research Bulletin, Mark Salotte and Xtn of ARA Chicago, place these theoretical insights in the concrete context of the political and physical fight against the far right, while also recovering the connections between this fight and the broader rise of anticapitalist struggle at the time. Militant antifascist activism constituted an important factor in hemming in and ultimately thwarting the attempts at advance being made by several leading fascist groups at the time — it was a form of struggle that worked. Without providing any kind of blueprint for the current resurgent antifa movement, they nonetheless provide insights and frameworks that should be examined and integrated, so that those taking up the work today can draw upon what was done before.
Breaking with established Left practice, Confronting Fascism attempts to deal with the questions of fascism and antifascism in a serious and non-dogmatic manner. Attention is paid to to the class appeal of fascism, its continuities and breaks with the “regular” far-right and also even with the Left, the ways in which the fascist movement is flexible and the ways in which it isn’t. Left failures, both in opposing fascism head-on, and also in providing a viable alternative to right-wing revolt, are also dealt with at length.The lived experiences of anti-fascist activists inform this work, and more attention is paid to actual historical developments and facts than to neat theories that explain everything but only coincidentally intersect with reality. Understanding the relationship of fascism, the State, left reformism and what it means to be revolutionary are priorities in a world where it seems increasingly true that those who do not advance will have to retreat.
First published in 2017, Confronting Fascism was downloaded and purchased by thousands following the Trump election in 2016, making it suddenly “out of print”. This new edition consists of the same material as in the 2002 edition.
The Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens is an Islamophobic organization that held a “pop up” protest outside of a mosque in Toronto last week, and which is trying to instigate a number of racist marches across Canada on March 4th. In their callout, the racists explain that they are “calling on all Canadian Patriots that believe in Freedom, Liberty & Justice, that stand against Sharia Law & Globalization” to join these rallies.
This national far right gambit — coming just weeks after a young man with ties to the far right entered a mosque and opened fire, killing 6 people and wounding many more — is being responded to by a variety of different forces on the ground, which have organized several different antifascist actions the day in question. What follows is a partial list of the antifascist actions, which it would be really good for people to show up at:
Hotel De Ville De Montreal, 275 Rue Notre-Dame E from 11:30am to 2pm
Bloquons l’extrême droite islamophobe!: http://ift.tt/2loFdrX
Hotel De Ville De Quebec, 2 rue Desjardins, de 11h30 à 14h00
Contre-manifestation pour s’opposer à l’islamophobie: http://ift.tt/2kQLz4t
three different marches/rallies, all at Toronto City Hall (Nathan Phillips Square),
100 Queen Street West from 11am to 2pm
Counterprotest to Fight Islamophobia: http://ift.tt/2loJfR0
Fight Islamophobia!: Counter-protest against white supremacy: http://ift.tt/2kR1lfR
Stand against Islamophobia: http://ift.tt/2l3TIy4
Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West from 12 to 2pm
Counter Rally Against Ottawa Islamophobes: http://ift.tt/2kR4Vqf
Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main Street West, from 12pm to 2pm
Counter Rally Against Hamilton Islamophobes: http://ift.tt/2l44TGQ
Winnipeg City Hall, 510 Main Street, from 11:30 to 2pm
Counter Rally against Winnipeg ISLAMOPHOBES: http://ift.tt/2kZs7ho
When first joining the u.s. left in the late 1950s, we had our local social-democratic group’s small May Day celebration in a room at the cheap edge of downtown. Memorably, there was a strip-tease joint downstairs, giving the building a kind of lumpen/proletarian air. At the speaker’s side of the room there was an older Jewish worker from one of the garment unions, with an elderly woman garment worker representing the inactive social-democratic “Italian chapter”. The audience was less than thirty persons, almost all whites The meeting was a remnant, of an old u.s. left from the 1930s industrial labor battles.
If you could skip ahead in time only a few years to the start of the 1960s, There would be many more people, but the old white trade unionists would be gone. The white side of the left was mostly young, university students or drop-outs. The many workers and poor street people in the struggle would be Black, and had their own movement. Almost everyone in the young left mixed in the civil rights movement or the student anti-war movement—or often both. It was easy for the u.s. white left to become dominantly middle-class, and the full future implications of that were never faced. This New Left would constantly attract a small stream of white working class kids, but almost as migrants from across a national border.
Once the u.s. left became allies and activists with the Black freedom movement in the 1960s-1970s, white areas even working class ones became enemy territory for us—those were places where you worried about physical attacks and violent mobs. Remember that America was always divided into oppressor territories and oppressed colonial territories—called the rez, barrios, and ghettos—and the white settler population were constantly engaged in daily social policing. Informally, a low-level war by whites of beatings and terrorism and killings happened every day to keep the angry colonies inside their social prisons.
But there was a real division in the white working class communities in the 1960s-70s. The white labor aristocracy, like hard-hat construction workers and over the road truckers, were used as patriotic shock troops by the government, politically and in attacking anti-war protests. On the other hand, we worked with many white working class youth who were being drafted to fight in Vietnam, and were anti-government and sharing a rebel youth culture. Many white working class GIs became antiwar in Vietnam, and some joined us in the resistance.
After Washington’s Vietnam pull-out in 1973, though, this contact with white working class rebels sharply dropped off. Recall, for a while was working in a major parts factory in the far South Side. A crew of young white guys there, who were mostly ’Nam vets and dope smokers, invited me to join their clique and come party at the Indianapolis 500 auto race with them. They even supported me for being night-shift union shop steward. The only thing they warned me about—is that i had to stop hanging with the young Black workers or else they wouldn’t even say hello. The euro-settler/Black divide was and is everything here, really.
Q. In the 1980s, you wrote the book Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat. A new edition has been published recently. How is settlerism different from racism? It seems that some folks use the terms interchangeably.
A. Yes, often young anarchists or socialists here do use the words in an uncertain way, as though they mean the same. Settlerism, as we know, is a very specific type of capitalist colonialism. It is the most complete colonialism. A conquest society, where a loyal national population was brought in to both economically populate and be the permanent garrison for capitalism over the conquered territory.
Settlerism has within it the broader phenomena of racism, but is importantly different. The culture is capitalist but twisted further. Sometimes you can see the cultural mark of being a garrison population, like the American white “gun mania.” The ruling class has always supported a heavily armed white citizenry to keep colonized people under the boot. This is their neurotically guilty culture of would-be conquerors and genocidists. Settlerism means that we are always fighting “Americanism” itself, not just some extreme nationalistic form.
What the real deal is: Between 1963 and 1968, as violent and massive Black ghetto “riots” spread, the u.s. ruling class made two critical decisions. That Civil Rights would be made national law as an “airbag” to cushion the crash of repressing Black revolution, and that the real costs of any “integration” would be shifted completely onto the euro-settler working class.
People who weren’t around then can’t realize how bitter and explosive this was. Before, euro-settler workers may have gotten their hands dirty, but they had all the good paying jobs, it was that simple. Suddenly it was the same but different. About that time was graduating from the u.s. government mechanics school, trying to find a job. The state employment office sent me to the mechanics department at the big railway freight yards. In the office, the supervisor leaned back in his chair and said unhappily: “We heard that the government was going to pass this law, so we figured it was better you than a nigger!” That was still in the old days, when we always knew what white men were thinking, because they felt free to say out loud whatever crossed their minds. Of course, the white mechanics had gathered nearby in the garage to see the “new hire”, and together serenaded me with the then popular toothpaste commercial: “You’ll wonder where the YELLOW went/When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.” ( Starting the daily harassment on the job. )
The point was, the white working class never had any “democratic” vote or say over this social tax on their communities. For two generations the u.s. ruling class solidified government, political parties, media and elections into an iron wall, enforcing this unpopular strategic concession. For the euro-settler working class communities shifting from being very privileged to less privileged. There never was any plebiscite or national popular vote on civil rights—which wouldn’t have passed. When the rare candidate to major office appeared who dead-on opposed civil rights, the establishment united to shoot him down. Famously, when Ku Klux Klan and neo-nazi leader David Duke ran for governor of the state of Louisiana in 1991, both parties united behind the Democratic candidate to block Duke, who still won 55% of the white vote. That was a signal flare of shipwreck sent up by settler communities, including but no means limited to their working class.
Donald Trump was today’s more respectable version of Duke. Marketing smarts told him that running on a platform of settler nationalism, of restoring the white nation to power and having a state publically dedicated to only their racial interests, would be the path to his elevation. The key to that would be his “dog whistle”, silently giving the piercing signal to euro-settlers that his was a united front of all whites in their common racial interests. He wouldn’t sell them out. What better way to silently do that than by conspicuously including the neo-nazis and klan haters in his campaign. Promoting the Confederate flag at his campaign rallies. Every Trump sexist vulgarity, every hate message and bullying threat, was only further proof to his enraptured followers that he wasn’t “politically correct” against them. That he would restore the white nation because at long last through him they could vote “civil rights” and the whole establishment agenda down.
The metropolitan elite, university-educated, residing in major urban areas, dominates the computer industry and global corporate sectors like finance and media. While backing Hillary and LGBT human rights for public politics and all that, in their own worlds they live in apartheid racial/gender discipline. In the futuristic Silicon Valley, computer firms like Twitter and Pinterest are each coincidentally 92% white and Asian for tech employees. Google is right there, too, with tech employees being 94% white and Asian. Same at other computer corporations. It isn’t hard to guess that there are ethnic quotas or near-blanket exclusions secretly agreed upon between these outspokenly liberal corporate leaders. It’s ironic that conservative white factory workers and small industrial employers in the Midwest may be for Trump, but have much more integrated workplaces. Incidentally, the liberal icon New York Times, where Paul Krugman’s columns appear, has 6 White House reporters, but none of them are Black. It has 21 sports reporters, but none of them are Black ( although basketball and American football, for instance, are heavily Black ). Their lifestyles section has no Black writers, although Black people do have real lives. So who is more racist and backward?
Right now we are at intermission. As the previous left from the 1960s-70s has finally faded away, and exited the stage. In this transition, protest and struggle is starting all over again from ground zero. A new kind of radical movement with its own politics and startling ideas is still to come. But it had better have a real power hook-up for working class heroes and outcasts.
An earlier version of this story appeared in Das Magazin in December. On November 9 at around 8.30 AM., Michal Kosinski woke up in the Hotel Sunnehus in Zurich.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at The Data That Turned the World Upside Down
An earlier version of this story appeared in Das Magazin in December. On November 9 at around 8.30 AM., Michal Kosinski woke up in the Hotel Sunnehus in Zurich.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at The Data That Turned the World Upside Down
Police said that between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. an employee at the Khadijah Masjid Islamic Centre in Montreal’s Pointe-Sainte-Charles neighbourhood discovered a window had been smashed with a heavy object. The building had also been egged.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Mosque vandalized in Montreal’s Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood
Police said that between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. an employee at the Khadijah Masjid Islamic Centre in Montreal's Pointe-Sainte-Charles neighbourhood discovered a window had been smashed with a heavy object. The building had also been egged.
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Mosque vandalized in Montreal's Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood
Words fail me… i spent much of yesterday and the night before trying to write, but nothing measured up to the horror of the Quebec City massacre, where a young far-rightist shot up a mosque, killing six and wounding many more
i will come back to this, but as things are right now, all i could do was the following; these images can be downloaded from facebook, or here. The text on each image translated as “It wasn’t me who fired — My hands are clean.”
These are politicians and journalists, most but not all from Quebec, who have worked hard to spread Islamophobia here over the past decade or so. This was not an “organic” development, it was nurtured and encouraged, part of several people’s personal agenda, something they did for votes, for money, and occasionally of course out of plain old racist principle.
More will be added, i am sure
Bernard Drainville
Pauline Marois
Richard Martineau
Jacques Brassard
André Arthur
Pierre-Karl Péladeau
Kellie Leitch
Ezra Levant
Jean-François Lisée
André Drouin
Stephen Harper
Eric Duhaime
Mathieu Bock-Côté
Mario Dumont
Janette Bertrand
Lise Payette
Jeff Fillion
Jean Tremblay
(le française suivra)
WHEN: Monday January 30 at 12 PM noon
WHERE: 1155 Rue St-Alexandre, Montréal (metro Place-des-arts) in Montreal
FACEBOOK: http://ift.tt/2jH1xMH
Remember sitting in school learning about history, thinking “If I was alive then, I would have…”
You are alive now. What you do now is what you would have done then.
We live in horrific times. The United States, the most powerful country in the world, has embarked on a path of naked racism, celebrating cruelty and contempt for the world’s poor and oppressed.
With his Muslim ban, his renewed aggression against the sovereign Indigenous nations resisting ecocide at Standing Rock, the global abortion gag order signed on his first day in office which condemns women and others to death throughout the Global South, and his proposed Great Wall of Hate, Donald Trump has made himself the champion of everything that is wrong in this world.
To many, it’s a brand new nightmare. And that’s a big part of why we are here today, outside the U.S. consulate, to make it clear that around the world, we’re watching and we don’t intend to accept these atrocities.
Justin Trudeau is using the Trump horror-show to make a lot of nice sounding statements. Around the world, Canada is positioning itself as the “good guy” yet again. But being “better than Trump” is a pathetically low goal to aim for, and all the noise about Canadian generosity is really just that: empty noise.
As people who live within Canada’s borders, we are here to denounce Trudeau’s sugar-coated lies, just as we are here to denounce Trump’s shameless white supremacism.
We need to remember that:
– Under the Safe Third Country agreement, asylum seekers travelling through or within the USA are denied claims in Canada. At one point, estimates were that over 40% of refugees trying to come to Canada were unable to make a claim as a result of the Safe Third Country Agreement.
– On the same day as Trump’s executive order, Trudeau issued a notice ending the policy to sponsor Syrian and Iraqi refugees by Groups of Five and Community Sponsors, stating that the “quota” was full —a more “polite Canadian” way of spewing a similar racist exclusionary agenda.
– The Designated Countries of Origin (DCO) list means that those seeking refuge from the US and 40+ other countries are deemed to be “safe” – making it essentially impossible to seek asylum in Canada regardless of one’s individual circumstances.
– Canadian immigration policies are themselves racist, sexist, ableist, and anti-poor. Hundreds of people languish in Canada’s immigration detention centers. Every day dozens of people are deported from here. People with disabilities or illnesses, without money, or with criminal records are all routinely turned away at Canada’s borders.
We demand:
– An immediate opening of the Canadian-USA border to everyone seeking to flee the catastrophe unfolding;
– An immediate cancellation of the Safe 3rd Country Agreement with the USA and the Designated Countries of Origin list;
– The implementation of an ongoing, comprehensive and inclusive regularization program for the more than 500,000 undocumented people already living in Canada;
– Establishing Montreal as a Solidarity/Sanctuary City, open to all migrants, with funding for access to services including health care, housing and education.
War, super-exploitation, climate chaos, and genocide are forcing millions to leave their homes, to flee for their lives. Countries like Canada and the United States are responsible for this global misery. This is where the drones are sent from. This is where the mining companies bring their stolen profits back to. This is where the bombs get made. This is where the warlords get their orders from and store their cash.
That’s why we’re going to be organizing to shut them down wherever we can, including here in Canada. We will support those fleeing and those who stay. We will do what we can against the nightmares of racism, xenophobia, and jingoism.
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Lundi le 30 janvier, 2017 à 12h
1155 Rue St-Alexandre, Montréal (métro Place-des-arts)
FACEBOOK: http://ift.tt/2jH1xMH
Quand tu étais à l’école dans tes cours d’histoires, tu te rappelles t’être dit : « Si j’avais vécu à cette époque, j’aurais fait…. ». Tu vis aujourd’hui et ce que tu fais maintenant, c’est ce que tu aurais fait avant.
Nous vivons à une époque horrible. Les États-Unis, le pays le plus puissant au monde, a pris le chemin du racisme mis à nu, en célébrant la cruauté et le mépris envers les pauvres et les opprimé.es de ce monde.
Avec le décret contre les musulman.es, l’agression renouvelée contre les peuples autochtones souverains qui résistent l’écocide à Standing Rock, la mesure anti-avortement condamnant à mort les femmes des pays du Sud adoptée dans les premiers jours de son mandat ainsi que son Mur de la haine, Donald Trump est devenu l’emblème de tout ce qui va mal sur la planète.
Justin Trudeau utilise le film d’horreur joué par Trump pour faire des déclarations empathiques. À travers le monde, le Canada est en train de se positionner comme « le bon gars » encore une autre fois. Mais être « mieux que Trump » est un objectif pathétiquement bas à viser et les discours vides de Trudeau sur la générosité canadienne ne sont que du bruit à nos oreilles.
En tant que personnes vivant à l’intérieur des frontières canadiennes, nous sommes ici pour dénoncer les mensonges déguisés de Trudeau, tout comme nous sommes ici pour dénoncer l’utilisation éhontée de l’idéologie suprématiste blanche de Trump.
Rappelons que :
– D’après l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs, les demandeurs d’asile voyageant par ou à l’intérieur des États-Unis se voient refuser leurs demandes au Canada. Des estimations évaluent que plus de 40% des refugié.es cherchant à venir au Canada ont été incapables de faire leur demande à cause de l’Entente sur les pays tiers.
– La même journée que le décret de Trump, Trudeau émettait un avis sur la fin de la politique de parrainage des réfugié.es de Syrie et d’Iraq par groupes de 5 ou des répondants communautaires, arguant que les quotas avaient été remplis – une façon plus polie à la Canadienne pour justifier un agenda d’exclusion raciale similaire à celui de Trump.
– La Liste des pays d’origine désignés, qui sous-entend que les personnes demandant refuge qui proviennent des États-Unis ou d’un de la quarantaine de pays identifiés comme « sûrs », signifie dans les faits qu’il est pratiquement impossible de demander l’asile au Canada peu importe les circonstances individuelles de la personne.
– Les politiques d’immigration canadiennes sont en elles-mêmes racistes, sexistes, capacitistes et anti-pauvres. Des centaines de personnes languissent dans les centres de détention pour immigrant.es du Canada. Chaque jour, des douzaines de personnes sont déportées d’ici. Des gens avec des handicaps ou des maladies, sans argent ou encore avec un dossier criminel sont régulièrement reflués aux frontières canadiennes.
Nous demandons :
– L’ouverture immédiate de la frontière Canada-États-Unis à toute personne cherchant à fuir la catastrophe qui voit le jour en ce moment;
– L’annulation immédiate de l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs et la Liste des pays d’origine désignés;
– L’établissement d’un programme de régularisation continu, complet et inclusif pour les 500 000 et + de personnes sans documents vivant déjà au Canada;
– La déclaration de Montréal comme une ville solidaire et sanctuaire, ouverte à toutes les personnes migrantes et fournissant un financement pour accéder aux services tels que les soins de santé, le logement et l’éducation.
La guerre, la surexploitation, le chaos climatique, l’écocide et le génocide forcent des millions de personnes à quitter leur maison et à fuir pour sauver leur vie. Des pays comme le Canada et les États-Unis sont responsables de cette misère globale. C’est d’ici que les drones partent. C’est ici que les compagnies minières rapatrient leurs profits volés des ressources du Sud. C’est ici que les bombes sont faites. C’est ici que les seigneurs de guerre reçoivent leurs directives et entreposent leurs richesses.
C’est pourquoi nous allons nous organiser pour les perturber et les faire fermer partout où nous pouvons, incluant ici au Canada. En appui à ceux et celles qui fuient et qui restent. Pour faire ce que nous pouvons contre ces cauchemars racistes, xénophobes et chauvinistes.
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A guest column by PG How should we understand the impending presidency of Donald Trump? What should we be prepared for? While some have framed Trump’s victory as a sign of resurgent fascism, our guest contributor argues that we should see it as the latest development in a much older phenomenon, w
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Does Trump Represent Fascism or White Supremacy?
A guest column by PG How should we understand the impending presidency of Donald Trump? What should we be prepared for? While some have framed Trump’s victory as a sign of resurgent fascism, our guest contributor argues that we should see it as the latest development in a much older phenomenon, w
Read the rest of this post on the original site at Does Trump Represent Fascism or White Supremacy?
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