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.
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