May Day is a global holiday to celebrate left-wing and labor movements. It takes place on May 1st, the anniversary of the Haymarket riot in 1886 in Chicago. A bomb was thrown by an unknown person, which killed a police officer. Seven anarchists were rounded up, framed, and executed, and their sacrifices became a rallying cry. May 1st has been an international leftist holiday ever since. Workers are encouraged every year on this day to strike work, school, and any other obligations they may have towards the state/system/man/whatever.
I went into work today because, you know, gotta get paid. And it's not like I do much anyway, it's an internship. My boss, however, "worked from home" today because of "family issues." She's also fairly young, and cool as shit. So who knows what her real reasons were, right? Right?
Anyway, today's Democracy Now was dedicated to May Day. Amy Goodman may report the news professionally in an unbiased manner, but she's actually a very adamant leftist in her personal opinions, and always covers stories that leftists care about. Occupy Wall Street used today to kick off their movement again after the winter lull, and Goodman had a great panel on to discuss it, which included Chris Hedges. They mainly talked about where the movement was going, and on what strategies should actually be used. Hedges reiterated his disgust for the black bloc (Which he writes about here. The article sparked a huge rift in OWS, which, as Amin Husain says here, "almost derailed us." I wrote my opinion about it here, and I'm not sure if I agree with all of what I said anymore. This was a big thing.) This is an extremely interesting discussion, and you should watch it. Happy May Day.
Anyone who regularly follows this blog will know how much I love Chris Hedges. He's not always right though. He wrote a book a few years back called "I Don't Believe in Atheists," where he compares the "new atheists" to the religious fundamentalists they claim to oppose. Because being annoying and disrespectful on the internet is no different from driving homosexuals to suicide and flying planes into buildings. (Hedges himself is the son of a minister and graduated from a seminary. Nothing wrong with that, just giving his perspective a little context.)
He wrote an article this week called "The Cancer in Occupy," and it's sort of gone viral. I think he's wrong about much of it. Go ahead and read it if you want, because I'm going to deconstruct it. It's an attack on the black bloc anarchists. The black bloc has been showing up to Occupy movements and generally annoying the hell out of the peaceful hippies that make up most of the movement. They don't want to be associated with each other.
Hedges didn't seem to do a lot research on this.
"The real enemies, they argue, are not the corporate capitalists, but their collaborators among the unions, workers’ movements, radical intellectuals, environmental activists and populist movements such as the Zapatistas."
This confused the hell out of me, because most anarchists and marxists seem to do nothing but fetishize and romanticize the Zapatistas. I sure as hell do. Hedges then claims that anarchists call Noam Chomsky a "sellout," which doesn't make a lot of sense either, since Chomsky himself is an anarchist.
Hedges took the time to interview activists who oppose the black bloc, which is fair, but then he doesn't bother to interview anyone who supports it.
"I don’t have a problem with escalating tactics to some sort of militant resistance if it is appropriate morally, strategically and tactically,” Jensen continued. “This is true if one is going to pick up a sign, a rock or a gun. But you need to have thought it through. The Black Bloc spends more time attempting to destroy movements than they do attacking those in power. They hate the left more than they hate capitalists."
You're god damn right. First of all, the mainstream left are still capitalists. They are part of the problem. And second of all, appropriate Chomsky quote:
"I don’t bother writing about Fox News. It is too easy. What I talk about are the liberal intellectuals, the ones who portray themselves and perceive themselves as challenging power, as courageous, as standing up for truth and justice. They are basically the guardians of the faith. They set the limits. They tell us how far we can go. They say, ‘Look how courageous I am.’ But do not go one millimeter beyond that. At least for the educated sectors, they are the most dangerous in supporting power."
The mainstream left need to be criticized because they still have faith in America's state-capitalist system. This system does not work, and any attempts to work within it to achieve change, at best, will accomplish extremely little, and at worst, will absorb and indoctrinate you, like what happened to the current president. Apologizing for this system is a very convenient position to take for the privileged liberals who are supported by it, but it doesn't do a whole lot for the minorities we confine to the hell of America's prisons and ghettos in our version of apartheid; or for the innocent people we torture in secret blacksites; or for the 8 million people we have slaughtered in the third world since the end of the second world war. That's about on par with the Nazi holocaust. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why the American left is not filled with boiling rage. Because, you know, peace and love and nonviolence worked great for the Jews.
And I can't understand why Chris Hedges isn't at least sympathetic to what the black bloc does. In "Death of the Liberal Class," he writes about how America is run by a system called "participatory fascism." In "Empire of Illusion," he writes extensively about how if things don't change drastically, and soon, we're going to see a collapse that makes the Great Depression look like peanuts. He's not a dumb person, he knows what's going on, and he knows what's at stake. You'd think he might be little more open to tactics that go beyond pleading with our oppressors for mercy.
"The Black Bloc movement is infected with a deeply disturbing hypermasculinity. This hypermasculinity, I expect, is its primary appeal."
Anger is not solely a "masculine" trait. The black bloc has many women and homosexual members, not to mention it's fiercely feminist. Hedges goes on though:
"[Hypermasculinity] taps into the lust that lurks within us to destroy, not only things but human beings. It offers the godlike power that comes with mob violence. Marching as a uniformed mass, all dressed in black to become part of an anonymous bloc, faces covered, temporarily overcomes alienation, feelings of inadequacy, powerlessness and loneliness. It imparts to those in the mob a sense of comradeship. It permits an inchoate rage to be unleashed on any target. Pity, compassion and tenderness are banished for the intoxication of power. It is the same sickness that fuels the swarms of police who pepper-spray and beat peaceful demonstrators. It is the sickness of soldiers in war. It turns human beings into beasts."
Whatever he meant by "hypermasculinity," I really do think he has a point here. Extreme leftists (like extremists of any ideology) tend to be absolutists. They have to constantly beat the hell out of "no true Scotsman." A friend of mine who's in a socialist club at her school complains to me sometimes about that culture. If you're not "pure," if you don't agree with everything Marx ever said, you're a godamm capitalist pig. The thought never occurs to them that Karl Marx was only a man, and we're allowed to disagree with him when we want to.
I could go on about this piece, but I'm sure I'd just be repeating myself. He makes a few more points, you can read it yourself and disagree with me if you want, I could be wrong, who knows. But his lack of research really pisses me off. He just generalizes and points fingers -- a stark contrast to this piece from the Nation, of all places, called "Thank You, Anarchists." Shame on Hedges for not trying to get any other side of the story. Here's an actual interview with a black bloc anarchist from London. How "hypermasculine."
Just when you think the Occupy movement has died down, it comes and pops back up again. Here's some protesters in Oakland yesterday burning a symbol of what is destroying our civil rights. Once you say one form of speech is off limits, you don't believe in free speech at all.
That guy with the lighter whose face was photographed is fucked.
January 29, 2011 – Oakland, CA – Yesterday, the Oakland Police deployed hundreds of officers in riot gear so as to prevent Occupy Oakland from putting a vacant building to better use. This is a building which has sat vacant for 6 years, and the city has no current plans for it. The Occupy Oakland GA passed a proposal calling for the space to be turned into a social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement.
The police actions tonight cost the city of Oakland hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they repeatedly violated their own crowd control guidelines and protester’s civil rights.
With all the problems in our city, should preventing activists from putting a vacant building to better use be their highest priority? Was it worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent?
The OPD is facing receivership based on actions by police in the past, and they have apparently learned nothing since October. On October 25, Occupiers rushed to the aid of Scott Olsen who was shot in the head by police, and the good Samaritans who rushed to his aid had a grenade thrown at them by police. At 3:30pm this afternoon, OO medics yet again ran to the aid of injured protesters lying on the ground. Other occupiers ran forward and used shields to protect the medic and injured man. The police then repeatedly fired less lethal rounds at these people trying to protect and help an injured man.
Around the same time, officers #419, #327, and others were swinging batons at protesters in a violation of OPD crowd control policy, which allows for pushing or jabbing with batons, but not the swinging of them.
In the evening, police illegally kettled and arrested hundreds of protesters. Police can give notices to disperse, if a group is engaged in illegal activity. However, if the group disperses and reassembles somewhere else, they are required to give another notice to disperse. Tonight, they kettled a march in progress, and arrested hundreds for refusing to disperse. Contrary to their own policy, the OPD gave no option of leaving or instruction on how to depart. These arrests are completely illegal, and this will probably result in another class action lawsuit against the OPD, who have already cost Oakland $58 million in lawsuits over the past 10 years.
[...]
At least 4 journalists were arrested in this kettling. They include Susie Cagle, Kristen Hanes, Vivian Ho who were arrested and then released, and Gavin Aronsen who was taken to jail.
[...]
Numerous protesters were injured: some shot with “less lethal” rounds, some affected by tear gas, and some beaten by police batons. There are no totals yet for the numbers of protesters injured. One 19 year old woman was taken to the hospital with internal bleeding after she was beaten by Officer #119.
Cathy Jones, an attorney with the NLG gave the following statement to Occupy Oakland’s media team: “Through everything that has happened since September, from Occupy to the acceleration of “Bills” — NDAA, SOPA, PIPA, ACTA — never have I felt so helpless and enraged as I do tonight. These kids are heroes, and the rest of the country needs to open its collective eyes and grab what remains of its civil rights, because they are evaporating, quickly. Do you want to know what a police state looks like? Well, you sure as hell still do not know unless you were watching our citizen journalists.”
[...]
Once again, Oakland shows the country how it's done. From the picture and videos I've seen, most, if not all, of these demonstrators look like anarchists. Anarchism and socialism essentially call for the exact same things, so I'm typically very sympathetic towards them. The west coast has a pretty big anarchist movement, and I'm sure the reason why Oakland has become so feisty is because they're all descending there.
More video:
See that sign? What they were wanting to set up in that vacant building is a commune. Originally, I thought communes were what this Occupy movement was going to be all about (it's called "occupy" for crying out loud). This is what we need to see.
History lesson. The Paris Commune of 1871 was the first major socialist experiment in the history of the world. France had just suffered a defeat by Germany, and it left the agitated, politically aware citizenry in Paris extremely bitter. They were dragged into a war they didn't even want, and then their city was fucking bombarded. They were pissed. The newly elected National Assembly (which had a large royalist majority) decided that Paris was too turbulent for them to meet there. They moved several miles southwest of Paris. What this created for the Parisians was a power vacuum.
The Paris National Guard (basically a citizen militia) was getting increasingly radical. The French government decided that they should not be allowed to have cannons. But when regular troops arrived to seize them, they began to fraternize with the National Guard and Paris residents. When a general ordered them to open fire on the Guard and civilians, he was dragged from his horse by his own troops and later shot, along with a hated former National Guard commander. The rebellion was now in full swing.
The Central Committee for the National Guard was now the only thing in Paris resembling a government. It arranged elections for a Commune. The Commune was not allowed to exist for very long before it was crushed, but here's some of the things they were able to implement in that short time:
Complete separation of church and state
Abolition of night work
The granting of pensions to the widows and children of National Guards killed on active service
The right of employees to take over and run an enterprise if it were deserted by its owner
Education for women
Free clothing, food, and school materials for children
This is what socialism is: extremely weak central government; a culture based around caring for your fellow man; workers in control of their own lives; democracy in its purest, most beautiful form. The Commune was accepting of everyone, regardless of their political alignment. Reformist royalists were allowed to participate with open arms, and the socialists looked back to the left wing Jacobins of the Revolution of 1789. This is the blueprint we should strive to emulate.
It only last for a week before clashes with regular troops began. Fighting would take place over the course of about a month, and the Commune was finally crushed for good on May 28. Regular troops began slaughtering and executing Guardsmen and civilians almost at random.
These are exactly the kinds of tactics we need to be implementing. With things like the NDAA, Citizens United, the Patriot Act, SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, the American people are no longer in control of their government (if they ever were at all). Voting is so strongly emphasized in our country, because it brings about the smallest amount of change. Activists, meanwhile, are equated to terrorists. This kind of rhetoric is going to become a standard talking point very soon.
Here's Howard Zinn talking briefly about the Paris Commune, and why Marxists and Anarchists should ally with each other.
2011 was one of the greatest years of my life, but not for anything I actually did, or what happened to me directly. I got to witness international revolution. It was also fairly torturous for me, because more than anything else, I wanted to actually be at these places. I got to protest in Madison before Occupying was cool, which was pretty fucking rad, but labor struggles in first world countries just don't seem as important when people elsewhere are being shot in the streets.
I've been told before that I should major in history, and others have told me I should major in political science. But to be perfectly honest, I'm starting to feel like my hidden calling might be journalism. The greatest political writers -- Paine, Orwell, Hitchens -- were all journalists (not that I'm even hinting at comparing myself to those giants, I just admire them). Every one of them saw revolution firsthand. Paine personally travelled with the continental army during the New Jersey campaign. Orwell travelled to Spain amidst civil war as a BBC correspondent; but once he got there, he knew he couldn't just stand by and let the fascists win, so he picked up a gun. And Hitchens, the former socialist, travelled to Cuba and covered Castro's revolution. Even Matt Taibbi spent time in Russia, not to mention Chris Hedge's career as a journalist in the most dangerous parts of the planet, on the edges of the American empire.
I feel like such a dweeb sometimes just giving my criticisms behind a computer about things I've never actually seen. I mean, I do like graphic design. I can do it. It's a job. And besides, journalism is a for-profit industry, I highly doubt I would be able to deal with those hacks. Taibbi is stuck writing politics for the illustrious Rolling Stone Magazine because no one else can deal with the fact that he isn't a partisan, and Hedges had to leave the New York Times after he started reporting facts; he hasn't been in journalism for years, he just writes books now. The media has been purged of dissenting thought, it's only real role anymore is to manufacture consent. Maybe I'll just save up and travel around someday.
I digress. This is a year of revolution in review. Meet Mohamed Bouazizi. Mohamed Bouazizi was not only the greatest person of 2011. So far, he was the greatest person of the 21st century.
On December 17, 2010, Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest of the Tunisian government. He died 18 days later, on January 4. Here's the former president of Tunisia visiting him in the hospital.
Inspired by Bouazizi's selfless sacrifice in their name, the people of Tunisia rose up.
It didn't take long for the cowardly fascists holding that nation hostage to flee in terror. They just held their first democratic elections. Egyptians soon poured into their own streets chanting "We are next!" They organized, and occupied Tahrir Square. Another regime fell.
Then Libya rose up. A third dictator is gone.
People have been protesting in many other countries throughout the Middle East. We shouldn't forget that Iran rose up with its Green Movement an entire year before the Arab Spring. The people of Iraq have been protesting against their oppressive government, and in many cases have been shot, but you likely didn't hear about that since Iraq is a U.S. ally. Tunisia and Egypt were U.S. allies too, not to mention Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which the U.S. is still supporting (Saudi Arabia's oil exports through the gulf are why war drums are currently thumping against Iran). The Chinese government unfortunately is doing an excellent job at putting a lid on the protests arising there. In Europe, people have risen in countries like Spain, England, Italy and Greece. A friend of mine just got back from studying abroad in Italy, she saw some of the protests firsthand. Iceland had itself an entirely peaceful revolution, where communities elected their own representatives to write their new constitution, and the country got to read it and make suggestions over the internet as it was being formed (read more about that here, it's pretty incredible).
Greece's protests have been particularly intense. Europe is basically blaming them for the entire continent's crisis, and the Greek people don't want to put up with foreign debts being pushed on them. Some protesters simply want their government to default so they can start all over, and possibly even leave the European Union, and others want the entire government to collapse so they can institute a more socialist government. Greece went through a civil war after WW2 that resulted in three decades of bitter political rivalry between leftists and rightists. It finally climaxed into the brutal military junta of the 60s and 70s, in which thousands of leftists were systematically rounded up and tortured (the junta was backed by the U.S. for the whole seven years, they were anti-communist after all!). So yeah, needless to say, Greece has had a rough 20th century. The leftists are finally able to come out of hiding, I remember hearing a poll somewhere saying over 90% of Greeks are supporting these protests. It's good to see the inventors of democracy showing the world how it's done.
Up to 50,000 Russians went to the streets to contest their stolen elections last month, making them the largest demonstrations since the fall of the Soviet Union.
South America hasn't been left out either. Protests have erupted in Venezeula and Chile. The Chilean protests are mostly led by students demanding a restructuring of their education system (in addition to the obligatory concerns about income inequality). If only Americans cared so much about learning.
Are you noticing a pattern? Most of these countries, particularly in the Middle East, are U.S. allies. That's why these protests are making the American government so nervous. It's why the CIA won't disclose their involvement in the Occupy crackdowns. British police just labeled Occupy London protesters as "terrorists." If you haven't been concerned about the impact that the Patriot Act and the NDAA could have on American protests in the future, you haven't been thinking hard enough. They're scared shitless, and there is nothing they won't do to put a lid on this.
Which is exactly why I don't understand why the Occupy movement is still the only part of these global protests that have a cult-like devotion for nonviolence. We know how evil our government is. We know it opposes democratic movements. We know it overthrows democratic countries and installs dictators (this isn't limited to the Cold War, they are still doing this). We know it is supporting and supplying totalitarian regimes that are shooting protesters in the streets. These things are in the public record. So why are these hippies acting like their government is something to be tolerated? Shouldn't we try to be a little more aggressive, if not for ourselves, then at least to support those who our government are murdering and torturing overseas? Even the Egyptians sent Occupy a letter warning them against "fetishizing nonviolence." And I'm not even talking about violence against police officers, that's detestable and should be avoided. I'm talking about violence against property, if breaking non-sentient objects can be considered "violence." Destroying property was one of the most effective tactics the American colonists had. Jesus Christ destroyed property.
But I guess if these hippies aren't willing to use methods beyond nonviolence against a fascist government that installs and supports fascist dictators, I suppose it's a bit too much to ask them to raise their fists against class warfare and wage slavery. As far as I know, Oakland has been the only city that has shown the slightest bit of courage to resist. They defended themselves when the police attacked them. They're also the ones who successfully implemented a city-wide strike for an entire day. And shut down one of the largest ports in the most powerful nation on the planet. That's how you fucking protest. These heroes showed the world who Oakland really belongs to.
I think I'm being a bit too hard on Occupy. They've done a lot to change the conversation in this country, and no one likes violence. But nonviolence is simply not an effective means of changing this system. The problem with nonviolence is that it only works if you're appealing to people who have a conscience. Many police officers still have those things, so this tactic is not entirely useless, but the people who the police defend - the 1% - most certainly do not. We are not dealing with individuals here. We are dealing with enormous, abstract organizations and corporations which are made up of many, many people. When groups of like-minded people get together, and they are given a sense of unlimited power, without fear of repercussion, the entity they form will be sociopathic. This is practically a scientific law by now. I'm sure you've heard of the Stanford prison experiment. Look at Abu Ghraib. Look at the history of the Catholic Church. Human beings are fucked up. Questions of morality do not effect these people because they're conveniently able to deflect their own responsibility onto the system as a whole. The system can't be reasoned with.
I follow a blog on tumblr called cultureofresistance, and someone asked a wonderful question earlier. A vague form of this idea has sort of been floating around in my head for a while, but I'm glad someone else thought of it before me so they could put it into better words than I could.
This might be a stupid question, but what is the difference between an underground and aboveground movement? Why is DGR so vehemently against association with an underground?
Deep Green Resistance’s strategy involves two separate parts of the movement - an aboveground and an underground. The aboveground works for sustainable, just, and participatory institutions, and assists the aboveground frontline activists with loyalty and material support. And in any resistance scenario, the underground dismantles the strategic infrastructure of power. This is a basic tactic of both militaries and insurgents the world over for the simple reason that it works. But such actions alone are never a sufficient strategy for achieving a just outcome. This means that any strategy aiming for a just future must include a call to build direct democracies based on human rights and sustainable material cultures. Which means that the different branches of resistance movements must work in tandem: the aboveground and underground, the militants and the nonviolent, the aboveground frontline activists and the cultural workers. We need it all.
We are strictly an aboveground movement and will not answer questions regarding anyone’s personal desire to be in or form an underground. We do this for the security of all involved with Deep Green Resistance.
One of the main roles of the Aboveground is to be the public face of the movement. We stand publicly and say “I support this strategy and I advocate for DGR,” for example.
Time Magazine chose 2011's person of the year to be "the protester." I'm not sure how I feel about it.
By all rights, that title belongs to Mohamed Bouazizi, who single-handedly sparked this worldwide revolution. But this is also coming from a magazine whose 2010 Person of the Year was the facebook movie, so I don't put much weight on what they think. Seriously, what the fuck did Mark Zuckerberg even do last year?
And then there's this too. This is 100% real.
That friend who lived in Italy I mentioned earlier? She picked up one with the real cover when she was over there, and showed me when I visited Chicago last weekend. I am super jealous.
It's incredibly sad to me that I'm forced to do all my own research on these protests. I shouldn't have to. But American media is just so unbelievably incompetent. As I watched these protests happening over the course of the year, I was just fucking stunned at how little our media was covering it, and how little they understood it. In the closed off circles of American right wing politics, the protesters in Egypt are "radicals" and "Islamists," as made clear by Rick Santorum on Meet the Press this week. I don't even know what the fuck an "Islamist" is. Doesn't he mean Muslims? "Islamist" isn't a word.
"The Muslim Brotherhood is not--is not about democracy. The Muslim Brotherhood are Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood are going to impose Sharia law."
And it's not like David Gregory actually corrected him about any of this. Because he doesn't know what the fuck is going on either: "They were popularly elected, I think."
He thinks. The people on Sunday talk, the best American journalism has to offer, think Egypt's protests are democratic. Unbelievable.
Democracy Now, undoubtedly the best news source in the country, dedicated Monday's show to reairing their coverage of the global protests throughout the year. Watch it. Good luck not getting teary.
For the fourth day now, Egyptian protesters in Tahrir Square are demanding an end to military rule, and a transition to civilian government. In the protests over the last few days, at least 33 people have been killed, many with live gunfire, and at least 1,500 people have been injured. Here's some footage.
But they held on. You want to know why the protesters are still able to remain in Tahrir Square after the military and police tried to evict them? Because they refused to be stepped on, and fought back. What a concept. Here's an excerpt from a letter that a group of Egyptian activists sent to the Occupy movement:
It is not our desire to participate in violence, but it is even less our desire to lose. If we do not resist, actively, when they come to take what we have won back, then we will surely lose. Do not confuse the tactics that we used when we shouted “peaceful” with fetishizing nonviolence; if the state had given up immediately we would have been overjoyed, but as they sought to abuse us, beat us, kill us, we knew that there was no other option than to fight back. Had we laid down and allowed ourselves to be arrested, tortured, and martyred to “make a point”, we would be no less bloodied, beaten and dead. Be prepared to defend these things you have occupied, that you are building, because, after everything else has been taken from us, these reclaimed spaces are so very precious.
They're absolutely right, and it's a shame we're not listening. Here's a bunch of protesters at UC Davis sitting on their asses allowing themselves to be maced.
As Orwell said, "Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense." The result of this nonviolence? Everyone was arrested and the protest ended. Good job guys. I'm all for using nonviolence to win over the public, but my patience is really running thin. Police have no more right to hurt you than any other man in the street. If someone attacks you, then you defend yourself. This isn't hard.
Ward Churchill, in "Pacifism as Pathology," writes:
Pacifism, the ideology of nonviolent political action, has become axiomatic and all but universal among the more progressive elements of contemporary mainstream North America. With a jargon ranging from a peculiar mishmash of borrowed or fabricated pseudospiritualism to "Gramscian" notions of prefigurative socialization, pacifism appears as the common denominator linking otherwise disparate "white dissident" groupings. Always, it promises that the harsh realities of state power can be transcended via good feelings and purity of purpose rather than by self-defense and resort to combat.
Pacifists, with seemingly endless repetition, pronounce that the negativity of the modern corporate-fascist state will atrophy through defection and neglect once there is a sufficiently positive social vision to take its place ("What if there was a war and nobody came?"). Known in the Middle Ages as alchemy, such insistence on the repetition of insubstantial themes and failed experiments to obtain a desired result has long been consigned to the realm of fantasy, discarded by all but the most wishful or cynical (who use it to manipulate people).
If these protesters want change, then pacifism is extremely ineffective in accomplishing it. You know what Egypt accomplished by fighting back? Their interim government offered to resign yesterday. That's change. The military finalizes this, so it's unlikely to happen, but it's still an extremely significant step. Three days of real protests: Egyptian government resigns. Two months of peaceful protests in America: nothing. Absolutely nothing.
This photograph, which has become famous at this point, shows Jennifer Fox, 19, being carried off at Occupy Seattle after being maced in the face by police.
When Jennifer tried explaining to the police that she was pregnant and she wanted to leave, the police responded by kicking her in the stomach, hitting her with a bike, and spraying mace in her eyes with two separate spray cans simultaneously. Her baby miscarried. Here's video of Jennifer immediately after her chemical attack. Don't look away.
I don't know what the hell it's going to take for people to start taking this seriously. If "fetishizing nonviolence," as the Egyptians put it, is what this movement is about, then we've already lost. Dancing around in drum circles and allowing women to be assaulted seems to be the fun thing to do, but it will never give us our freedom. Ever.
Can't find any embed code, but here's the video. These are two of the best minds in politics right now, and I'm pretty ecstatic about both of them being in the same room at once. Guess who has a signed Amy Goodman book (sunglasses.gif)
Early yesterday morning, police in full riot gear descended on the occupiers in Oakland, tossing smoke canisters and flashbang grenades, and shooting at them with rubber bullets. The protesters were peaceful and did nothing to instigate this. Here's some footage. At about a minute in, you'll see a protester being carried off who was shot in the face with a rubber bullet.
In this video, when protesters attempt to help a man lying injured in front of a police line, the police toss a flashbang grenade right in the middle of them. The injured man is a Marine who served two tours in Iraq.Edit: The man on the ground here is the same guy being carried away in the last video. It wasn't a rubber bullet, a tear gas canister hit him in the head. He's in the hospital with a fractured skull in critical condition. Doctors aren't sure whether he'll suffer permanent brain damage.
And here are cops tearing down the camp.
The crackdown is understandable. Protesters shut down Chase Bank a few days before (the black flags suggest anarchists). You got tens of thousands of people being forced out of their homes, but the moment you step into the home of the people doing the foreclosing, you get a tear gas canister shoved up your ass.
Edit: Democracy Now covered Occupy Oakland today. If you don't watch this show regularly, there's never been a better time to start, they upload the show to their website and onto their podcast every day. Turn off the cable.
Occupy Wall Street also received a statement today from Cairo, making it clear that Egypt is with us. This is so beautiful, new york is calling me I'd give anything to be there right now holy fuck with the freedom
If you haven't seen this yet, you should watch it.
Olbermann interviewed him tonight, here are parts of it:EDIT: The whole thing's up on youtube:
Also, when I went to Current's website to get that video, I saw this
YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
We're finally getting a television station with a liberal voice. MSNBC's okay, but they're too dependent on the two-party system, and they never criticize the Democrats for being a moderate conservative party. Current now has two of the three liberal media figures I truly love. Come on over, Rachel. You know you want to.
Thomas Ryan is a self-described "security expert." He's a conservative. He's an American. He showed up to Occupy Wall Street meetings, got on their mailing list, and forwarded their emails to the NYPD, NBC, his buddy at the FBI, and yellow journalist Andrew Breitbart. Of course, nobody asked for them except for Breitbart, he just sort of did it. You're exposed, Occupy Wall Street. More like OCCUPY COMMUNISM.
Ryan is such an expert with security, that he accidentally exposed himself as the “snitch” when he forgot to delete his own forwarded emails, upon releasing everything. Hey Thomas Ryan, great job infiltrating an organization that welcomes everybody and has nothing to hide. Kudos.
Of course, nobody gives a shit about this because there’s nothing incriminating. OR IS THERE? One email:
"We’re in this for the long haul. There are no “solutions” that can be presented quickly to make us go away. And so there will be moments where our presence is no longer an uncomfortable and unknown variable, but rather is normalized and integrated. It’s in those moments that we have to push the envelop [sic], pry open the space of possibility even farther. We go as far as we can to destabalize [sic], but maintain momentum. And when that’s the new “normal” then we go farther. That’s how change happens, how we shift the terrain and the terms of the game."
Andrew Breitbart sees this for what it really is — Communism. Occupy Wall Street is actually trying to “destabilize global markets.” It doesn’t matter that the words “global markets” are not included in this email. Andrew Breitbart can read between the lines. But that’s not all. Thomas Ryan himself goes on to say that Occupy Wall Street is in league with Al-Qaeda. It's funny because conservatives say these protesters are the ones who have nothing better to do, and live in their parents' basements.
Ryan:
My respect for FDNY & NYPD stems from them risking their lives to save mine when my house was on fire in sunset park when I was 8 yrs old. Also, for them risking their lives and saving many family and friends during 9/11.
Don’t you find it Ironic that out of all the NYPD involved with the protest, [protesters] have only targeted the ones with Black Ribbons, given to them for their bravery during 9/11?
I am sorry if we see things differently, I try to look at everything as a whole and in patterns. Everything we do in life and happens in life, there is a pattern behind it.
So the protest in New York dodged a bullet. The mayor backed off and the park wasn't stormed. Which is a good thing, because they weren't moving, and it would've been a bloodbath. I can't believe how easy it was though. The unity and decisiveness of the people there is really inspiring, they just drew a line and said "no." A quote from Gene Sharp comes to mind: "Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are — and the people are never as weak as they think they are."
Tomorrow is where it's happening though. Protesters all around the world are taking to the streets in solidarity with the Occupy movement. Italy couldn't wait. Here's protesters in Milan today tossing fruit at riot police, and storming the offices of Goldman Sachs.
FUCK YEAH!
There's one going on in downtown Springfield tomorrow. But they're only wanting about 200 people, and actual numbers usually go well below estimates, so you know... meh. Springfield's sort of a moderate conservative town, so I doubt this will really do anything, aside from mental masturbation, and getting my Republican parents pissed off at seeing my face on the nightly news. I'd rather watch the bigger protests over the internet, where things matter. The real action's in New York and D.C. Here's a photo from the one in D.C., where protesters have been signing this huge banner.
John Adams, reflecting on his life in his old age, once estimated how much of the American population supported the revolution. He guessed that about a third of Americans supported it, a third opposed it, and a third remained neutral. That seems sort of similar to the Occupy movement. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (WSJ is conservative) shows that 37% of Americans support the movement. But hey, only 18% oppose it! That's much better than Tea Party numbers, where only 28% support it, and 41% oppose it! Why the hell doesn't this "I don't know" 50% get off their damn fence, are they damn idiots or something?
A few organizations are throwing in their support, and I'm putting up their statements. You should take the time to read them. Here's one from a group of intellectuals, activists, and leftists in China, who oppose China's oppressive capitalist government:
The eruption of the “Wall Street Revolution” is an historical indicator that the popular democratic revolution that will soon sweep the world is set to begin. It is an especially significant and important event for this movement. Before this most recent action, street protests had virtually been exclusively used as a tool by US elite groups to subvert other countries. Now, however, the “Wall Street Revolution” – with its goals of shared prosperity and popular democracy – has launched protests in the country that is the self-proclaimed defender of democracy. This will inevitably strike a hard blow against the US elite group, itself responsible for the plunder and oppression of people all over the world, and the group that pushed the world into crisis and instability. The protests ring the death knell of the rule of capital. Popular democracy will replace elite democracy in the 21st Century, and the curtain has lifted on the movement from elite politics to popular politics. Using the language of the “Wall Street Revolution,” this is a struggle of the popular 99% against the corrupt 1%, a struggle of the popular 99% against the elite 1%,and is the final struggle of the popular forces against elite capitalist rule.
The world belongs to all of the people of the world. Countries belong to the entire people of those countries. Even moreso, wealth is produced by the entire people, and therefore should be shared by the entire people, it cannot be monopolized by the 1% – or even less than 1% – that is made up of an extremely small number of elites. The demand for common prosperity in economics, and popular democracy in politics has become an unstoppable historical trend! The rapid expansion of a fictitious economy and the massive flow of social wealth has created an amply reliable material foundation for the realization of the common wealth of all people. The development of internet technology and political civilization has created the conditions for human society to make the transition from capitalist democracy to popular democracy. Human society is fully capable of transforming, on the foundation of the past democracy of slaveholders, the democracy of feudal lords, and the democracy of the capitalist class, to make the fundamental shift from the democracy of the elites to real popular democracy. Common prosperity and popular democracy will become the main content of the historical transformation of the 21stCentury. No matter how brutally the American riot police will attempt to suppress the participants in the Wall Street revolution, no matter how much the global elites – especially those in the U.S. and China –try to suppress news of the Wall Street revolution, they cannot stop the vigorous growth and ultimate victory of the democratic revolution of the people of the world.
The violent repression and virtual blockade of news about the “Wall Street Revolution” by elite groups led by the US proves that the fate of oppressed people around the world is the same, regardless of whether they are from developed or developing countries, whether they are from so-called democracies or authoritarian countries. The international elite was the first class to link-up internationally via globalization. Their plunder of public wealth and repression of popular democratic movements is cruel and far-reaching, and utterly lacking in freedom and democracy. So-called freedom and democracy in modern society is nothing more than democracy for capitalism, an elite democracy. Freedom is another word for the elite to plunder, oppress and violently suppress others. Popular forces have been completely excluded from the freedoms and democracy of modern society, and the extent of democratic rights is to choose between presidential candidates that have already been vetted by capital. You can vote once every four years, but you have no way of affecting the people above you who directly determine your fate: your boss or superior. And there is no way of constraining the capitalist oligarchs who can take away the wealth of the majority of the population with the slight of hand of fictitious capital. Freedom and democracy have become a virtual game, nothing more than a tool to subvert other countries. Now the popular and democratic world revolution – symbolized by the “Wall Street Revolution”- demands an end to this political game, and that freedom and democracy be returned to the people. Democracy is not just a check on the president, but a check on government officials; democracy is not just a check on power, but a check on capital. If the rights and privileges of feudal and absolute rulers are understood to be a sin and abomination, then giving those rights to capital is also a travesty.
Securities and computer networks should have been two crucial elements of our shift from an industrial society to an information society, from a material economy to a virtual economy, from capitalism to a human-centered economic system, and from elite politics to popular politics. But the elite class has turned securities into a tool of appropriation akin to the ‘indulgences’ issued by middle-age church functionaries in Europe. In the new securitized economy, all the public’s wealth can easily melt into thin air – including their houses, wages, labor power and even their hope for the future. All these things have become the targets of appropriation by a tiny elite minority. Both the white-collar middle classes in developed countries – owners of fictitious property, and the blue-collar workers in developing countries who cannot afford housing or health care, belong in point of fact to the same class: modern proletariat. When the people protest the unprecedented plunder and vast income gap perpetrated by fictitious capital, they are met with violent repression – both in so-called democracy countries that claim to be defenders of human rights such as the US, and in authoritarian countries that are said to lack freedom and democracy. Faced with street protests erupting from the Balkans to North Africa, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have repeated over and over, “The rights of peaceful protest and the occupation of public space should be respected at all times.” Yet when US citizens attempt to exercise this right they immediately are faced with violent repression by armed police, and a blockade by the news media. If this is reaction of the US – the self-proclaimed leader in human rights – then we can imagine what the reaction will be in other capitalist countries. Rule by the capitalist elite is just as described by the “Wall Street Revolution” – everywhere. There is nowhere left were we can live and die as people.
The eruption of the “Wall Street Revolution” in the heart of the world’s financial empire shows that 99% of the world’s people remain exploited and oppressed – regardless of whether they are from developed or developing countries. People throughout the world see their wealth being plundered, and their rights being taken away. Economic polarization is now a common threat to all of us. The conflict between popular and elite rule is also found in all countries. Now, however, the popular democratic revolution meets repression not just from its own ruling class, but also from the world elite that has formed through globalization. The “Wall Street Revolution” has met with repression from US police, but also suffers from a media blackout organized by the Chinese elite.
The same fate, the same pain, the same problems, the same conflict. Faced with a common enemy in an elite global class that has already linked-up, the people of the world have only one option: to unite and in a unified and shared struggle overturn the rule of the capitalist elite, to ensure that everyone enjoys the basic human rights of work, housing, health care, education, and a secure old-age. But we must go further if we are to realize shared prosperity and popular democracy in a new socialist world historical framework, If we are to fully escape and neutralize the crises and disasters that capitalism has brought the human race, and realize harmonious social development.
The great “Wall Street Revolution” and the great popular “Chilean Winter” that preceded it signal that the day when we realize shared prosperity and popular democracy is approaching. It signals that worldwide popular and democratic socialist movement – dormant since the 1970s – is waking up again. But this time, it will be the final battle to put capitalism in its grave. The victory of popular democracy and death of elite rule are inevitable! The embers of revolt are scattered amongst us all, waiting to burn with the slightest breeze. The great era of popular democracy, set to change history, has arrived again!
Resolutely support the American people in the “Wall Street Revolution”!
Resolutely support all street protests pushing for shared prosperity and popular democracy!
Long live the “Wall Street Revolution”!
Long live the global movement for popular democracy!
The Occupy Wall Street protest started small. But it has now become a global movement, with occupy events planned in about 1500 cities worldwide.
It’s born out of the recognition that, in country after country, ordinary people are being made to pay for an economic crisis caused by the super-rich. The 99% are being told they must surrender their livelihoods, their future, their security and their dignity to keep a broken system afloat.
In contrast, the 1% are having a wonderful crisis. The world’s biggest corporations have emerged stronger, more profitable and more powerful than ever before.
To add insult to injury, the 1% want to convince us that we, the 99%, are to blame for the crisis. They say our wages are too high and that we don’t work hard enough. They say our social security systems are not affordable and that our rights at work are should be done away with. They say our public education and health systems are not efficient and that our public services must be privatised.
The occupy movement is raising a challenge to the power of the 1%. Its strength lies in its diversity, breadth, unity and grassroots democracy.
In New York, after two weeks of discussion, the protesters agreed on a declaration that said none of our big problems can be overcome unless the 99% can unite in a movement for real democracy.
The occupy movement has spread to Australia, with protests planned to start here from October 15.
It’s true the economic situation here is not yet as dire as in the US, where the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the poorest 150 million.
But Australia is headed in the same direction. We should not wait to protest until things get as bad as the US, Spain or Greece, where inequality reigns supreme.
Inequality in Australia is large and growing. Already, the richest 20% of Australians have 61% of the wealth. The poorest 20% have just 1% of the wealth. Australia’s richest 11 individuals have more than the poorest 800,000 households combined.
Further, there are many reasons why we should take this opportunity to start to bring Australia’s own 1% to account.
We should occupy because White Australia has occupied stolen Aboriginal land for more than two centuries. The dispossession of Aboriginal land and culture continues today with the infamous Northern Territory intervention, which is forcing Aboriginal people from their traditional homelands. Today, Aboriginal Australians are the most imprisoned people in the world. To Australia’s eternal shame, their life expectancy is still 19 years lower than other Australians.
We should occupy cities in Australia because the richest mining and energy corporations already occupy our atmosphere, pumping it full of greenhouse gases and ignoring the warnings from scientists that climate change threatens to destroy life as we know it.
We should occupy because coal seam gas and other fossil fuel companies already occupy our farmlands, our forests, our drinking water catchments and our communities. With government support, the fossil fuel industry has free reign across the country, regardless of the serious health and pollution risks.
We should occupy because the Australian military already occupies other countries, and is bringing endless war and countless civilian deaths to Afghanistan.
We should occupy because Australian governments, Liberal and Labor, have occupied Australia with refugee detention centres — modern-day concentration camps that bring immense suffering to desperate asylum seekers that deserve our help.
We should occupy because government laws already occupy our relationships, denying the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people to marry if they choose and making queers second-class citizens without equal rights.
We should occupy because restrictive anti-union laws already occupy our workplaces, denying the right of working people to organise to defend their rights at work.
We should occupy because governments have helped corporations occupy our public assets, turning services for the public good into profit machines for the 1%.
And we should occupy because Australia’s richest corporations already occupy our parliaments, state and federal.
The best democracy capitalism can deliver today is the right to tick a box once every few years. Between elections, corporations have open access to politicians while the rest of us are shut out, expected to bear the consequences in silence.
The 1% give millions to the big political parties each year and they demand a return on their investment. They skew the mainstream media debate in their interests because they are the mainstream media. They pour millions into cynical public relations and advertising campaigns. Corporate power over the political process is growing relentlessly.
The global 1% will not change their ways on their own account. Profit and greed are their only gods. Only the 99%, acting together, can put an end to the system of corporate rule and build something new in its place, a system that puts human need before corporate greed.
We won’t be silenced. Our power lies in our numbers. United as communities, with our unions and with each other, we can raise a challenge to corporate power.
FUCK. YEAH.
And this last one isn't from a group, but it's a great article about tomorrow's events. It sort of borders on propaganda, but hey, it gets the blood pumping.
It is five minutes to dawn and the wind smells like freedom
It is no longer five minutes to midnight. After Arab Spring leaps to Spain, and Greece, and on to New York’s Wall Street, it suddenly feels like five minutes to dawn.
We no longer need assume that there is no time to stop the world going to shit. There is an opening and we are flooding into it.
We are suddenly in a moment that is not marked by exhausted routine protests that speak for no one and speak to no one.
The oppressors (our common enemies) are no longer unchallenged — or more no longer unchallengeable. They are instead rocked backward, confused, bewildered, furious. The billionaire mayor of New York can’t clear a tiny park — and suddenly the question is not how to force the occupiers out, but whether he may be forced out of power if he pursues that course.
For so long, all of the things that leave people crying at night: the numbing global poverty itself, the painful loneliness of atomized non-community, the discarding of the old and the young, endless war for dominance, global structures of empire, the ravaging of nature, the manufacture of ignorance, intolerance and bigotry, the rape and casual daily brutality toward women — all of these things have seemed untouchable and permanent.
Now suddenly….a different day is approaching — where we can increasingly see and act in in startling ways, with rippling new impact. Ears perk up. Sights are raised. The pulse quickens. Suddenly we recognize the faces of others — once unknown to us — animated and awake with a common spirit. The powerful look discredited and vulnerable.
Morning is coming…. Go and wake the sleeping ones.
The hope of a radically new society, of abolishing capitalism, reveals it is far from exhausted. No, it suddenly springs from every pore. These occupations of dozens of city squares are a wind that heralds a coming storm.
This is a mood that produces actual revolutionary movements and dedicated militants of a new truth process.
Advanced, radical and discontented people who felt alone and isolated — suddenly realize they are millions. Allies emerge out of shadows, attracted by each early flame.
Networks congeal almost overnight. New thought jumps from human to human, morphing in each passage, adapting and refining. The forms of expression shake off the old and exhausted…A new generation invents its language from the messaging in the air.
Let’s understand what this is. Let’s recognize where we stand. Let’s embrace the possibilities within the new.
This break in the norm reveals what has already moved into place, and had long been building. And that revelation transforms everything — especially because we all see it together, in common, and recognize ourselves in that picture.
Be relentlessly impatient with this criminal system.
Be lovingly patient with each other — as we find the common language to act and transform.
Listen for the new. And grasp firmly to the truths that has so long been hidden and denied — but that we are now speaking from center stage.
Let’s seize the high moral ground (a precious position to hold), and never give it up. And be aware that thugs with suits and video cameras will be coming to snatch that ground away and portray us as fools, or dupes, or barbarians at the gate.
Above all: Let’s consciously go for the whole thing!
The change we want is about taking the accumulated wealth, technology, hard work, science, and connections of a complex global civilization — and finally (finally!) putting it into the service of us all, including the very least and previously powerless among us. It is about the voiceless suddenly speaking, and the wealthy suddenly becoming silent.
This is not about “budget financing” (!) but about power in the most fundamental sense. We don’t want to tax the zillionaires of finance capital — we need to rip their zombie hands from the throats of us all…. so we can breathe, perhaps for the first time in our lives. And so we can change the whole direction of the world.
The “freedom” we want is not the individual license promoted by smug Republican ideologues (the freedom of “up with me, you suck”). Instead, we need to seek the freedom of people, together, to shape their common world — an ethos of mutual caring and solidarity That is the freedom (the ability and possibility) that comes when new power of the people wrenches everything from the very few.
A revolution starts in ideas and mutual recognition. It then moves to the terrain of power.
At this moment: we can get a glimmer of how empires break, and how armies start to unravel. They don’t die on the battlefields, at least not at first — but in sudden re-allegiances of the young and awakening.
We cannot “take America back” — we never had it. But we can take over our own lives, our own planet and our common future — wrenching them away from sinister and hostile forces.
This moment of occupations is not about some concept of “America” anyway. It is global — because our society, our future and our biosphere are all global. This wave of contagious occupations and manifestations is about who will shape this beautiful blue orb as a whole. And we cannot allow that to be diminished and corrupted by slogans of America First.
The old “American dream” promised each one the ability to climb up upon the others. This new coming dream can be about a global community of mutual flourishing among human beings — about substituting community for the sale of humanity.
Let’s go for the whole thing. Let’s go for the future itself. Let’s save the only earth we have. Let’s aim to wipe out together the poverty of the many and the suffering of the abused.
Here at dawn, let’s envision the day we want, and make that revolutionary vision the center of debate, for once, and perhaps from now on.
FUCK. YEAH.
In closing, I think I'll just post this amazing video again from the other day
"But things can change—and sometimes they change very fast. Take the Civil Rights Movement in the United States: over a ten-year period, it was just a sea-change. Or take the feminist movement, which a lot of you are involved in: the changes came very fast. It went from being virtually nothing, a little nitpicking about activist groups having the women licking the stamps, and within a couple years it was a major movement, swept the country. When the time is right, things happen fast. They don’t happen without any basis—things have to have been happening for a long period. But then they can crystallize at the right time, and often become very significant." Noam Chomsky
A couple weeks ago, Sean Hannity told an OccupyWallStreet protester on his radio show “you don’t believe in liberty, you don’t believe in freedom.” When the woman explains that her father would've died from lack of medical attention under Hannity's utopia, Hannity ignores everything she says and calls her a Marxist. Here's the exchange if you can bear it.
This video was uploaded on the internet a couple days ago. Here's a couple Marines giving their thoughts about Sean Hannity calling them anti-freedom and anti-liberty.
The woman he interviewed said that "you can merge socialism together with capitalism" (a pretty courageous thing to say on Hannity's show, if you ask me). Hannity, without bothering to inquire what this system would entail, goes on to spew that she's calling for "an elite class, like under Marx." I've heard people like Taibbi and Chomsky say that they don't go after right wing idiots because it's just too easy. I respect them more for that, but this is therapeutic for me okay?
First of all, there wasn't anything "under Marx." Karl Marx was never the leader of a country. Marx was a philosopher who lived in Germany. He never called for an "elite class." He called for the destruction of the elite class (the bourgeoisie) which develops naturally under the capitalist system. In an attempt to bash Marxism, Sean Hannity uses the exact argument that Marxists use against capitalism. Welcome to the club, comrade.
Hannity tells this woman she doesn't believe in freedom or liberty. The definition of freedom is "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint." The definition of liberty is "the state of being free within a society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views."
People have much more freedom and liberty under socialism. Capitalism depends on a system called wage slavery. Many abolitionists and freed slaves felt that this was just as oppressive as actual slavery, and in fact, it's exactly what former slaveowners used to drive blacks back onto the plantations after the Civil War. In its most oppressive form, capitalism is literally slavery. All too often, this system gives you no choice but to endure backbreaking work for the bare essentials of survival. 77% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.
Under true socialism (not the totalitarian regimes that people claim are "socialist"), people decide for themselves how many hours they work. The amount of money you earn fluctuates depending on how many hours you choose to put in. There are no "bosses" because everyone is equal, as the Declaration of Independence states, and company decisions are made by democratic process through the workers. Workers control the means of production. This frees you from the "oppressive restrictions imposed by authority" and gives you control over your own life. The man who tells you this isn't liberty and freedom is trying to get you back onto the plantation and shut up.
Hannity isn't the only bourgeoisie trying to destroy democracy. Here's a quote from professional drug addict Rush Limbaugh:
Interesting words, coming from a fat fuck parasite whose life doesn't matter.
We all need to pay attention to Wall Street tomorrow. Tomorrow, as early as 6:00 am, Brookfield Properties will be sending in cleaning crews to Zuccotti Park. Zuccotti Park is where the protesters have been sleeping for the past month, and Brookfield Properties owns it. If the protesters aren't gone by the time the cleaning crews arrive, then the police will be sent in to forcibly remove them. Upon "being allowed to return," the protesters will no longer be able to bring equipment into the park, or tents, or water proof tarps, and there will be no lying down of any kind.
The New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild sent Brookfield Properties a letter.
There is no basis in the law for your request for police intervention, nor have you cited any. Such police action without a prior court order would be unconstitutional and unlawful.
The opinions that make up the Occupy movement vary, but how incredibly fitting, that they send in the one entity that everyone there is unified against -- business and government intertwining to limit freedoms.
