Renewing the Anti-War Coalition?

Could be.

Given the ridiculous disparities in casualties in the current round of bloodletting in Israel-Palestine, the ludicrous propaganda from the hasbaraniks, the truly vile and disgusting support of the Gazan slaughter by nearly every western power, and the grotesque arc of suffering and bloodletting throughout the Middle East these days, it's as close as it's been in more than a decade for the many domestic and global anti-war outfits to coalesce once again and say "No more" to war.

Our governments have long behaved as if the People and the public interest don't matter. They certainly seem to get a thrill at governing contrary to the public interest and will, quite openly and actively supporting the interests and will of an oligarchy that simply cares nothing for anything that is not immediately profitable to their bottom lines. The multitudinous wars and police actions they engage in to force neo-liberal policies on resistant local populations, whether in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Africa or southeastern Europe, merely serve to reinforce the notion that "there is no alternative," and all must fall into the orbit and follow the directives of the international bankers and financiers and the governments they sponsor -- or else. Misery, death and destruction are guaranteed.

Can a revival of the anti-war coalition of the past reverse this trend?

Not immediately, no. But if people see their common interest is to be found in thwarting the warring mentality of their Betters, refusing to go along with it, countering it with peace, dignity, justice and community, we can see a time in the not too distant future (probably after my lifetime, though) when war will once more be seen as the abomination it is.

I've noticed that in Albuquerque, the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition is far and away the most active and reliable community group organizing against police abuse. A.N.S.W.E.R. was also the in the lead of the anti-Iraq War protests more than a decade ago, and at the time, no one really knew who they were. Many people still have no idea. It didn't matter at the time, because they were organized and they were the energy behind protest marches that involved hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people domestically, millions overseas. Those protests did not stop the Iraq War of course.

What may have had a more profound effect was the simple shaming action taken by Cindy Sheehan and others on the roadside near the entrance to the Bush's Crawford ranch (known as the "Pig Farm.") Though Cindy has since been denounced and dismissed as a Communist and a crank -- oh my! -- her efforts brought enormous shame to the Bush - Cheney regime, and it has had a cumulative effect over time.

By combining the efforts of a highly organized outfit like A.N.S.W.E.R. with the individual shaming efforts of those who have suffered irreparable loss, it's conceivable that a new global Anti-War Coalition can be generated.

Bloodshed and destruction seem boundless at the moment. It's past time to reverse the trend.

The AntiFascist Rebels of Asturias and Leon

Ordinarily, I wouldn't put up anything from the AP because they have behaved like complete dicks for many years and are reactionary tools serving the corporatists who own them.

But this is pretty good.



The miners of Asturias and Leon in Spain have been fighting back against the imposition of greater and greater levels of suffering and suppression sent against them from Madrid for some time. This video essay gives some idea of what is at stake and what the miners are doing.

Just as in 1938, the Spanish are some of the only people to physically fight back against the Neo-Fascists.

¡Viva! los mineros!

[Note: picked up the link to the video over at Naked Capitalism in a post by Matt Stoller.] 

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I'd also like to know more about those rockets and rocket launchers they're using. They appear to be homemade bazooka-like launchers, made out of welded and painted pipe. The rockets appear to be fireworks. The miners seem to have figured out how to manage aim and range pretty well, and the rockets do explode when they reach their intended destination (or before, or afterwards.)

Of course, if any rebels tried such stunts in the USofA they'd be droned to oblivion in a twinkling.

From the AntiFa Trenches, c.1938

Spainish Anti-Fascist Poster, CNT Malaga Archives.

Excerpt from "The Peril of Fascism," Magil and Stevens, International Publishers, 1938:

...when capitalism enters the stage of decay, the most reactionary sections of the ruling class turn to fascism in an effort to perpetuate by open force their rule over a rebellious people. But even fascism, with all its terror, cannot exist without some mass support. The financial oligarchs could not long maintain themselves in power if they had no popular base whatever. Nor are the megalomaniacs, the adventurers, the criminals and the pimps who constitute fascism's praetorian guard, sufficient. Fascism needs a wider popular base to carry through its task. This it finds to a limited to a limited extent among small pauperized and demoralized sections of the working class misled by reactionary demagogy; and to a far greater extent in the ranks of the middle class -- that vast mass which stands between the working class and the capitalist class.

 These middle strata of the population, ground down by finance capital, their businesses ruined, their savings robbed, their small homes taken away, desperately seek some avenue of escape from their misery and insecurity. They hate the monopolies that oppress them, but for the most part, hesitate to ally themselves with the workers in a struggle against their common oppressors. Instead they tend to formulate "independent" programs, to embark on "independent" actions. But because their economic position does not give them sufficient economic power and cohesion, these attempts at "independence" are doomed to frustration and only lead to an aimless floundering course between the two great forces in society, the working class and the financial oligarchs. In its vain efforts to follow an "independent" course, the middle class, or a large section of it, becomes prey to fascist demagogues who glibly promise liberty from the tyranny of monopolies. 

Yes. Well...

Still the Most Dangerous Object In Amercia

I was watching a bit of Nate's coverage of the Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia yesterday, and sure enough, there were a series of extraordinarily ridiculous confrontations -- violent on the part of the police --over the erection of pup tents in the park being used for assembly by what looked like a couple of thousand Occupy enthusiasts and participants.

This was proof, if any was needed, that the Occupy tent remains the most dangerous object in America. You would think, after all the violent police raids on tents and tent encampments last year and into this one, all the tens of thousands of arrests, all the police violence against dissent, all the violation of basic rights, the authorities would be a little more circumspect in Philadelphia during Independence Week. But no.

Here we go again. The sight of a tent -- even if only symbolic -- enrages the authorities still, and scrums between clearly befuddled police and Occupy  National Gathering people occurred again and again, resulting in a few violent arrests (the universal tactic seems to be to throw the target to the ground, pile several officers on top of the nonresisting suspect -- who quite likely is a random member of the crowd -- wrench his or her arms, while screaming at the suspect to "stop resisting!", and truss him/her up like a roasting chicken).

This is not to say that the Occupy participants were filled with grace, or that their assembly in the park was particularly well organized or that Nate's live stream connection was adequate to the scenes before him.  It was quite a mess, really. But the point -- so far as I could tell -- was that there was no harm being done by the Occupy participants, and the tents were erected as symbols of The Resistance, perhaps provocative to be sure, but hardly threats to the Republic. Maybe threats to the nascent Empire, but that's another topic altogether.

How Authority responds to such things is an indication of how seriously the Powers That Be regard the "threat" before them. The violent response in Philadelphia, against unarmed, rather disorganized, and clearly nonviolent resistance, tents, and protest tells us pretty much all we need to know. Given that there are calls for violent insurrection by armed and demonstrably dangerous rightists (some assembling at the Independence Mall under the TeaBag banner) over the ACA (and the nigra in the White House)  which apparently the police pay no attention to, the confrontations in Philadelphia yesterday take on quite a sinister aspect.

Fascist in a word.

(And can someone teach the "Anticapitalista" chant, please? When I heard the pathetic rendering of it at the Philadelphia gathering, I was initially convinced it was the work of a provocateur. Oh wait. Maybe it was...)

In between all the other things I'm trying to get done while in New Mexico this trip, I'm reading "The Peril of Fascism," by A. B. Magil and Henry Stevens, International Publishers, 1938. It is horrifyingly evocative, regardless of the fact that it is straightforward AntiFa agitprop from the CPUSA. The insights of the authors are spot on, something the mainstream media at the time -- much of which was openly enamoured of fascism and even Nazi-ism -- simply couldn't accept. Fascism was on the march, it had nearly complete control of Europe, and it was coming to America. Truthfully, it was already here.

Occupy is not strictly speaking ideological, unlike CPUSA or the 'Baggers for that matter. But it is forthrightly and often quite eloquently anti-fascist. It is not necessarily anti-capitalist, despite the mangled chants. But it is very definitely anti-fascist. (At one of the Occupy meetings I attended in the spring, a debate arose over whether "fascists" should be allowed to participate; many, of course, said "NO!" but there was a large contingent who insisted that Occupy's open door accommodated everyone, even "fascists", and it was a simple enough thing to counter their ideas, so why not let them participate if they wanted to? Maybe they'd be convinced to change their evil ways. The matter was tabled for lack of consensus. But I thought it was interesting...)

Magil and Stevens argue that among all its other faults, fascism is forthrightly anti-democratic, and it is that aspect, perhaps most of all, that constituted the "peril" of which they spoke. Fascists act to silence the People's democratic voice. This has nothing to do with CPUSA practice and policy; it has to do with what the fascists do, and why they do it.

Silencing the democratic voice of the People -- or rather, making it irrelevant -- has been the priority of both Government and its witting and unwitting handmaidens in this country at least since the 2000 Judicial Coup. Sometimes it's done with finesse, by pretending that some obnoxious policy is the "real" voice of the People, but often it is done brutally and violently with the intention of frightening and intimidating open dissent against obnoxious policies.

Fascism, though, isn't exactly the correct description for the radical global reorganization, destruction and reconstruction that's been going on since the demise of the Soviet Union and the International Communist Conspiracy. The Neo-Liberal economics, the Neo-Conservative ideology, and the Neo-Colonial foreign policy all resemble classic fascism, especially in the union of Government and Corporate interests and the dismissal of the public interest. But it's something else, something in some ways worse, as if we could wrap our minds around something worse than fascism.

The fight is engaged. The Revolution is under way. But in fact, there are two Revolutions occurring simultaneously, and the Neo-Fascist Revolution is winning easily at this point (much as the fascists were rolling roughshod over Europe prior to WWII and initially after starting the War.)

There's no Communist counterweight this time. There is only the People themselves.

And their tents.

A-Anti-Anticapitalista! A-Anti-Anticapitalista!

[Don't get out as much as I used to!]
I heard this chant for the first time in New York while watching the videos of the conga line snaking through the crowd at Zuccotti/Liberty Park before the police went on their riotous rampage on Saturday night.

The video above shows what may be the first time it was used in New York, on Wall Street, on December 13, 2011. It's great. A report from Chapel Hill from last November:

When the police crossed the street towards the building, about fifty of us gathered in front of it, chanting “A—Anti—Anticapitalista!” The officers hesitated—what was this strange incantation?—and withdrew. That chant cast an enchantment, magically protecting the occupation.

Sure seemed like it! And note well, the New Yorkers are far more enthusiastic when using this chant than are their European comrades.
Also check out The Story of Stuff if you haven't seen it.