Thursday, March 31, 2022

Fuck NATO, CSTO, and every Nation-State: For A Consistent Anarchist Internationalism and Response to World Conflicts

The following was anonymously submitted via email.
 We welcome submissions to igdworldwide @ protonmail.com

I want to speak as simply as possible about something incredibly complicated. First of all, I should introduce myself as someone who isn’t facing the possibility of imminent death due to a military invasion. I humbly express my solidarity with those around the world who are facing the violence of nation-states, which includes people in Ukraine.

I am in solidarity with those suffering the military invasion of Ukraine by Russia: the poor who bear the brunt of this war, those fleeing into the unknown, and those falling victim to the war games of the powerful.

However, unlike many of the Polish citizens suddenly rushing to help Ukrainian refugees at their borders, my solidarity with those fleeing war, famine, and general struggle is consistent and without double standards. I support people seeking help across borders regardless of the color of their skin ; obviously many in Western media and Western nations do not share this ethic.

I also extend my solidarity to those dying in Brazil and India due to Bolsanaro and Modi’s wars on indigenous peoples. I extend my solidarity to those suffering the wars inflicted on the populations of Sudan and Myanmar by their juntas. I feel ashamed of this world I exist in when I think of those in Yemen undergoing a combined misery of famine and war. I am against all wars that consolidate or impose power rather then eradicating it. I reject wars of power consistently, and do not only concern myself with war if it threatens the stability of the first world.

Ukraine is an incredibly conservative and religious country. Zelensky being Jewish does not change these facts. Ukraine’s behavior in World War 2 continues to affect generations today. Ukrainian Nationalists primarily in western Ukraine collaborated with the Nazi occupation with hopes of regaining independence from Russia, a collaboration that included Nazi pogroms. These tensions can be passed down through generations, not unlike the civil wars of Greece and Spain.

The right-sector fascist group that demonstrated huge strength in the Maidan in 2014 remains very real. The neo-nazi Azov battalion is also very real, and is formally integrated into Ukraine’s national guard. Just like in the United States, neo-nazis and fascists have very much normalized themselves in Ukraine’s law enforcement and the military.

This is also true of Russia, however. Honestly from videos I’ve watched, the scariest nazis I’ve seen are hooligans from Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. The Ukranian and Russian nationalism that has fueled this war has been raging since 2014 in Eastern Ukraine. It’s something I reject and find disgusting on both sides.

Now, however, the dynamic has changed, and we see an authoritarian invasion as well as an anti-imperial response across various political and social demographics.

As I watch Ukraine now I root for the people of Ukraine as they confront imperial aggression. I root for people defending their livelihoods against a war intent on nothing more then expansion of power. I root for this alone. As an anarchist, it is always easy to know who to root for: those resisting the violence of power.

There are non-fascist and even in some cases anarchist volunteer battalions who are fighting what they see as an authoritarian invasion in Ukraine. There are also millions of people courageously standing up to the invasion who are concerned for their families and communities, not some “white homeland” vision.

There are also many Russian soldiers who come from poverty and are simply pawns in a broader power game. Some Russians recently killed their commander by running over him with a tank; they’d clearly had enough . There is also grassroots resistance against the war in Russia and Belarus, where the consequences for any act of solidarity are immense.

We all know China is observing Ukraine with an eye towards its own plans for Taiwan. Taiwan has some fascistic roots, and if an invasion was to take place, these elements would undoubtedly arise along with nationalistic resistance. Still, I would support Taiwanese fighting back against an invasion by China, and do so while rejecting all elements of nationalism or historical fascism.

I take this approach because I am an anarchist: I can demonstrate and determine my solidarity based on my analysis of the world, not the polarization intended by nationalism and capitalist media. I can root for a population’s survival against a military oppressor while also recognizing some of that population possesses perspectives I oppose. In the case of full-scale invasion, it is no longer about solely focusing on this or that group which fought in previous conflicts; you are considering a military onslaught against an entire population.

Let me speak simply: the Western coverage of the conflict in Ukraine is deeply racist. The border policies regarding Ukranian refugees are racist. Leftist defenses of Russia due to this or that battalion being full of Nazis are ridiculous as well, however. Russia is not a liberator; it is a powerful nation-state hell-bent on expanding its power. It is a ruthlessly capitalistic country, and no anarchist should be defending Russia. The same goes for China, another capitalist country.

I am concerned about anarchists falling into the same inconsistencies as the Western media when it comes to Ukraine. We should support struggling refugees and people defending their livelihoods, but how have our resources and voices been used so intensely for this specific conflict while there are wars raging across the world?

Anarchists or anti-fascists are a very very small minority in the fight in Ukraine. They deserve our complete support, but are we reasserting the notion that anarchism is a purely Western idea by fixating on this specific war while ignoring others? There are so many conflicts where the oppressed are not receiving huge amounts of aid from heinous forces such as the United States– West Papua, Chile, Haiti, and Brazil to name a few.

Of course we should be supporting refugee solidarity efforts on the borders in Eastern Europe. We must support as a movement the anarchist battalions engaged in fighting an imperial power. We need to be clear, however, in recognizing that this is another tragic war on the earth, and there is not an anarchist element to the resistance itself. This is not the Spanish Civil War.

Many from anarchist movements around the world joined the YPG and SDF. Is there a fetishization within our movements that leads our solidarity efforts and attention to only fixate on armed conflicts that match a certain aesthetic? If so, this must be challenged.

It is terrifyingly risky to go to a warzone, whether it’s to join the YPG and SDF or to go to Ukraine and join the anarchist affiliated territorial defence forces now. Would someone considering flying to Ukraine right now also consider joining anarchists in Sudan or Myanmar ? Or weighing the risks, might it hypothetically be equally or more beneficial to rob a bank in one’s home country and donate those funds to benefit such struggles?

Of those international volunteers lucky enough to leave the YPG alive, some felt what they had joined turned out to be in some ways an authoritarian group. This did not mean they regretted helping to defend those facing terror from ISIS and the Turkish state, or that they weren’t grateful for the opportunity to witness massive anti-hierarchial organizing by a significant population experimenting with the prospect of a new, more free society.

Some felt inspired, some felt disappointed, and some felt confused by the coincidence of American military cooperation and various other elements within a very complicated situation. That same willingness to take on the risks of a war zone could also be helpful to your everyday life resistance, as an anarchist revolutionary wherever you are in this world. If you are willing to die to demonstrate solidarity, what are some possibilities you could engage with at home?

Obviously if calls for international support are made, I humbly respect someone willing to go, but with so many struggles happening around the world, should our small anarchist voice and presence follow the trends of Western media? Is the contribution we can make worth it for our broader struggle? Are we consistent with our ethics in prioritizing conflicts elsewhere in the world and encouraging solidarity for all groups fighting exploitation and domination?

Back in 2014 when I first learned of the Maidan in Ukraine, I was confused who to root for. It appeared one side wanted to join the neoliberal style capitalism of the west and the other wanted to continue being a puppet state of more autocratic-style capitalism of Russia. To further muddy the waters, the strength of the Maidan uprising in the streets seemed to come primarily from fascist hooligans .

Similarly, in Thailand in 2013 , I remember the battles of the Yellow Shirts vs. Red Shirts. I had a hard time understanding exactly what was fueling this conflict in Thai society, though I tried. One side, the Yellow Shirts, appeared to unconditionally support the Monarchy and the preservation of how Thai society had been structured historically, with the rich located in certain regions and the poor in others. The Yellow Shirts were also closely aligned with the military, who essentially run Thailand as a shadow junta that the Western world doesn’t seem concerned with. The other side, the Red Shirts, seemed to want a more neoliberal style capitalist society, with a more Western-style state democracy. The Red Shirts were closely aligned with Thailand’s police.

As an anarchist, it was quite hard to pick who to support, but I chose the Red Shirts since they seemed to be more working class friendly . However, I still only observed and sympathized, and never could have fully supported either side.

I do not support any nation-state, including Ukraine. When I watch the World Cup, I just root for the poorer of the two countries playing.

I reject billionaires in America, called entrepreneurs, and I reject billionaires in Russia called oligarchs. I reject every nation-state and I do my best to remain consistent. I note America and Europe’s heinous hypocrisy as it collaborates with Israel, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia while espousing its almost comical rhetoric about “the free world.” Fuck all these countries, because they all are the same thing: nation-states looking to control and exploit their populations in the furtherance of a status quo that benefits only a few.

We need to apply a globally consistent approach when it comes to our support and solidarity with those in Ukraine fighting against this tragic invasion by Russia. We do not vote for the lesser evil and we do not fall into the traps of division the world’s elite set for us.

The war in Ukraine is fueling rationalizations for further post-pandemic inflation across the world. The war is fueling famine across the world. The war is exacerbating climate change. The war is furthering the global refugee crisis and horrific human trafficking industry that prevail in the capitalist world. The war is leading to the deaths of many poor people both in Ukraine and around the world.

The institutions and individuals with power in this world are willing to push us off a cliff before compromising their own preservation and those few the systems of domination benefit. Let us support the anarchist battalions and the people in Ukriane, but let us expand our voice and apply this internationalism consistently.

“Death to Imperialism! Fight every Dictator!”

The following information here helps to provide direct solidarity to anarchist initiatives in the resistance to the Russian invasion, as well as anti-fascist/anarchist efforts in mutual aid:

Official Resistance Committee Links Bunch

Operation Solidarity


by IGD Worldwide via It's Going Down
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Passaic, NJ: Queer Youth Walk Out, Direct Action Gets the Goods

Report on recent walkouts in Passaic County in so-called New Jersey against anti-LGBTQ measures.

Queer youth in Passaic County took to the streets this week as a direct response to the Passaic County School Board’s recent policy change which now only allows nationalist flags to be flown on school property. The change in school policy came as a shock to local queer students, as several schools in the district flew pride flags throughout last year.

While it is currently unclear who was the driving force behind the decision, it’s clear that the action taken is a direct attack on queer students, staff, and their families. Instead of accepting the School Board’s authority and queerphobic agenda, almost 100 students across the district walked out of class to collectively challenge the new policy. Queer youth also applied more pressure at the following School Board meeting to demand an end to the policy and for School Board members to be thrown out of office.

To fully eradicate the pride flag ban and push toward the queerest insurrection in this region, the youth need to be able to build their power into something codified and self sustaining. In recent years, young anarchists across the country have formed a decentralized network of autonomous youth crews known as the Youth Liberation Front (YLF). Members of the Florida YLF have participated in the walk outs in response to the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” that was passed weeks ago. Applying these principles to the already organized queer youth movement in Passaic County and the rest of NJ, would only further accelerate their momentum and goals.

Let’s also not forget about Bash Back! from 2007-2010 whose inspiring actions included confronting Neo-Nazis, attacking homophobic churches to even squatting social centers for queer youth. An anthology of writings and materials from Bash Back! can be found here.

As groups like the YLF are showing us, when radical energy is no longer funneled back into electoral politics, the non profit industrial complex, or other neoliberal institutions the state and authority can be brought to its knees.


by Jersey Counter-Info via It's Going Down
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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Boston Shows Why We Can’t Allow the Far-Right to Take the Initiative or Hold Public Space

photo: @mgarcia6206

Last weekend in South Boston, around 50 people mobilized to counter a possible appearance by the neo-Nazi group the Nationalist Social Club-131 (a nod to both the ‘National Socialism’ of the Nazi Party and ‘Anti-Communist Action’), after public outcry grew following the group’s appearance at the yearly St. Patrick’s Day parade. At the parade, around a dozen neo-Nazis, all wearing masks and flying a flag with a white nationalist symbol, held a banner reading, “Keep Boston Irish,” and handed out flyers promoting the group and attacking non-whites. This incursion is only the latest in a string of unannounced actions and flash demonstrations which have targeted anarchist and left-wing bookstores, hospitals, and have attempted to stay one foot ahead of antifascists.

At the parade, some members of the public posed for photos with the group and seemed receptive to their message, however after people began heckling the fascists and one person held up a sign outing them as neo-Nazis, the group eventually left. Like Patriot Front and other similar organizations, NSC-131 later promoted their action in a video posted to social media that included a song by Boston Celtic-punk band, the Dropkick Murphys.

The band, who in the past has denounced neo-Nazis at their concerts and has a long history of supporting labor unions, responded to use of their song by denouncing the neo-Nazi group on social media and also sending them a “cease and desist” letter. What followed was a back and forth between members of the group and the band, with the singer of the Dropkick Murphys finally stating that he would be at a park in South Boston the next weekend walking his dogs, if the group wanted to make good on its threats to mobilize.

The story of a punk band potentially squaring off against a group of neo-Nazis drew the attention of the press and by Saturday, both antifascist groups and Dropkick Murphys supporters were ready to roll out to the park to confront the NSC; who despite threats of violence, never materialized. And aside from one far-Right supporter calling the police on a group of antifascists claiming they were armed – they were not and were soon released – the day was largely uneventful, but marked a turning point in public opposition to the group.

Rise of the “Unannounced” Model

Since the collapse of the Alt-Right following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the white nationalist wing of the far-Right has vacated the streets in favor of either Groyper style entryism into the Republican party or fly-by night agitation as exemplified by groups like Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement and Patriot Front. But while Patriot Front has put a lot of energy into dropping banners and putting up stickers, they have also been experimenting with a new model of action that relied on pre-planned demonstrations and marches, often carried out for the purpose of producing propaganda that would entice potential members, (largely from the existing white nationalist movement), to join. For Patriot Front, this has meant marshaling their membership to hold marches through empty city streets in Chicago at midnight, or in the case of Philadelphia, being openly attacked by locals following a disastrous unannounced romp through the city.

Despite catching hands from Philly locals, having their vehicles destroyed by antifascists in DC parking lots, and online infiltrators doxxing them left and right, unannounced rallies in DC and marching in support of the ‘March for Life’ mobilization in late 2021 and in early 2022, convinced many white nationalists and neo-Nazis outside of Patriot Front that this new model was the way forward. And while these flash demonstrations ended quickly, like heavy police protected rallies that marked the MO of groups like the KKK or the National Socialist Movement (NSM), they generated highly coveted mass media attention, which in turn, brought in donations and potential recruits. These events also resulted in no arrests, and projected a manufactured image of strength and order, as fascists in matching outfits and masks paraded behind walls of riot police, before orderly being bused back to their vehicles for the long ride home.

Building on this model were groups like the Goyim Defense League, known for livestreaming acts of anti-Semitic vandalism and harassment during long road trips, the so-called “Active Clubs” promoted by neo-Nazis in the Rise Above Movement (RAM), White Lives Matter, a collection of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Proud Boys who organized through Telegram, who have been holding monthly banner drops and flash demonstrations in various states, and the Nationalist Social Club-131, which has been active in the Boston and surrounding area. This activity and street action has encouraged other groups to come out in the open as well – such as members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) holding rallies in Florida, which led to swastika armband wearing neo-Nazis attacking members of the public.

By utilizing unannounced rallies, banner drops, and other actions, these groups have been able to hold actions that project a sense of strength, while also largely avoiding direct confrontation with antifascists and the public at large. Moreover, by mobilizing ahead of time, fascist groups are able to bring out supporters who normally might fear direct confrontation and doxxing, yet whose numbers make impromptu antifascist opposition potentially dangerous.

In countering this new strategy, antifascists and broad anti-racist coalitions are going to have to think about how to adapt to this change in tactics.

NSC-131 Seeks to Build a Street Based Action Network

Speaking on a neo-Nazi livestream directly following their no-show in Boston, Chris Hood, the founder and leader of NSC-131, discussed the group’s push to build a street based politics that in many ways, mimics both the network and affinity group style of organizing common among anarchist and antifascist groups. Moreover, Hood argued that groups like the NSC are more concerned with developing a culture of street action centered around projecting force and strength, rather than “optics” or branding.

Hood commented that the goal of NSC and other like minded fascist formations is to essentially build networks of “white gangs” that are able to carry out actions, distribute propaganda, and attack their enemies. This strategy is in contrast, but not ultimately competing with or opposed to, the entryism of the Groyper movement or the organizationalism of groups like Patriot Front, which have a set brand and at least publicly, shy away from utilizing symbols such as the swastika.

Autonomous anti-capitalists and antifascists will find these organizational debates familiar, as they are questions our movements have been grappling with for centuries. The challenge they represent however, is the same threat that fascist groups have been inching towards ever since the Alt-Right began putting up stickers: control of the streets and influence within working-class communities.

Don’t Let the Fascists Have the Initiative or Hold Public Space

As last weekend in Boston showed: when the broader community mobilizes, backed up by established antifascist formations, groups like the NSC-131 are nowhere to be found. While their no-show after a week of beating their chests and threatening violence on social media is predictable, if they had shown up only to be pushed off the streets, this would have been an even bigger failure for them. Still, the decision by local anti-racists and antifascists to hold a demonstration and call on the wider community to come out in support; capitalizing on growing anger and resentment, is an example of our side seizing the initiative away from the fascists.

Seizing the initiative must also mean mapping out where fascists drop banners and put up stickers and covering these areas with our own material, not just simply waiting to take down their garbage. It means making connections in workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods were far-Right groups are active: building up networks and coalitions that can respond. It means taking the time to speak with our wider community; to get offline and educate, spreading clear information about these groups, the threat that they pose, the symbols that they use, and who their members are. It means putting pressure on those who have been doxxed and exposing their leaders through flyering, phone zaps, and online postings. It also means doing these things not just in the wake of white supremacist activity, but as part of a broader anti-racist initiative. Let’s stop reacting to them and instead work to drive them out of our areas once and for all by creating communities hostile to fascism on every level.

Lastly, we must work to build our capacity to expand and grow our networks so that we can increasingly respond to situations where we can more easily mobilize against such groups; both within a short amount of time and in increasingly greater numbers.


by It's Going Down via It's Going Down
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Boston Shows Why We Can’t Allow the Far-Right to Take the Initiative or Hold Public Space

photo: @mgarcia6206

Last weekend in South Boston, around 50 people mobilized to counter a possible appearance by the neo-Nazi group the Nationalist Social Club-131 (a nod to both the ‘National Socialism’ of the Nazi Party and ‘Anti-Communist Action’), after public outcry grew following the group’s appearance at the yearly St. Patrick’s Day parade. At the parade, around a dozen neo-Nazis, all wearing masks and flying a flag with a white nationalist symbol, held a banner reading, “Keep Boston Irish,” and handed out flyers promoting the group and attacking non-whites. This incursion is only the latest in a string of unannounced actions and flash demonstrations which have targeted anarchist and left-wing bookstores, hospitals, and have attempted to stay one foot ahead of antifascists.

At the parade, some members of the public posed for photos with the group and seemed receptive to their message, however after people began heckling the fascists and one person held up a sign outing them as neo-Nazis, the group eventually left. Like Patriot Front and other similar organizations, NSC-131 later promoted their action in a video posted to social media that included a song by Boston Celtic-punk band, the Dropkick Murphys.

The band, who in the past has denounced neo-Nazis at their concerts and has a long history of supporting labor unions, responded to use of their song by denouncing the neo-Nazi group on social media and also sending them a “cease and desist” letter. What followed was a back and forth between members of the group and the band, with the singer of the Dropkick Murphys finally stating that he would be at a park in South Boston the next weekend walking his dogs, if the group wanted to make good on its threats to mobilize.

The story of a punk band potentially squaring off against a group of neo-Nazis drew the attention of the press and by Saturday, both antifascist groups and Dropkick Murphys supporters were ready to roll out to the park to confront the NSC; who despite threats of violence, never materialized. And aside from one far-Right supporter calling the police on a group of antifascists claiming they were armed – they were not and were soon released – the day was largely uneventful, but marked a turning point in public opposition to the group.

Rise of the “Unannounced” Model

Since the collapse of the Alt-Right following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the white nationalist wing of the far-Right has vacated the streets in favor of either Groyper style entryism into the Republican party or fly-by night agitation as exemplified by groups like Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement and Patriot Front. But while Patriot Front has put a lot of energy into dropping banners and putting up stickers, they have also been experimenting with a new model of action that relied on pre-planned demonstrations and marches, often carried out for the purpose of producing propaganda that would entice potential members, (largely from the existing white nationalist movement), to join. For Patriot Front, this has meant marshaling their membership to hold marches through empty city streets in Chicago at midnight, or in the case of Philadelphia, being openly attacked by locals following a disastrous unannounced romp through the city.

Despite catching hands from Philly locals, having their vehicles destroyed by antifascists in DC parking lots, and online infiltrators doxxing them left and right, unannounced rallies in DC and marching in support of the ‘March for Life’ mobilization in late 2021 and in early 2022, convinced many white nationalists and neo-Nazis outside of Patriot Front that this new model was the way forward. And while these flash demonstrations ended quickly, like heavy police protected rallies that marked the MO of groups like the KKK or the National Socialist Movement (NSM), they generated highly coveted mass media attention, which in turn, brought in donations and potential recruits. These events also resulted in no arrests, and projected a manufactured image of strength and order, as fascists in matching outfits and masks paraded behind walls of riot police, before orderly being bused back to their vehicles for the long ride home.

Building on this model were groups like the Goyim Defense League, known for livestreaming acts of anti-Semitic vandalism and harassment during long road trips, the so-called “Active Clubs” promoted by neo-Nazis in the Rise Above Movement (RAM), White Lives Matter, a collection of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Proud Boys who organized through Telegram, who have been holding monthly banner drops and flash demonstrations in various states, and the Nationalist Social Club-131, which has been active in the Boston and surrounding area. This activity and street action has encouraged other groups to come out in the open as well – such as members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) holding rallies in Florida, which led to swastika armband wearing neo-Nazis attacking members of the public.

By utilizing unannounced rallies, banner drops, and other actions, these groups have been able to hold actions that project a sense of strength, while also largely avoiding direct confrontation with antifascists and the public at large. Moreover, by mobilizing ahead of time, fascist groups are able to bring out supporters who normally might fear direct confrontation and doxxing, yet whose numbers make impromptu antifascist opposition potentially dangerous.

In countering this new strategy, antifascists and broad anti-racist coalitions are going to have to think about how to adapt to this change in tactics.

NSC-131 Seeks to Build a Street Based Action Network

Speaking on a neo-Nazi livestream directly following their no-show in Boston, Chris Hood, the founder and leader of NSC-131, discussed the group’s push to build a street based politics that in many ways, mimics both the network and affinity group style of organizing common among anarchist and antifascist groups. Moreover, Hood argued that groups like the NSC are more concerned with developing a culture of street action centered around projecting force and strength, rather than “optics” or branding.

Hood commented that the goal of NSC and other like minded fascist formations is to essentially build networks of “white gangs” that are able to carry out actions, distribute propaganda, and attack their enemies. This strategy is in contrast, but not ultimately competing with or opposed to, the entryism of the Groyper movement or the organizationalism of groups like Patriot Front, which have a set brand and at least publicly, shy away from utilizing symbols such as the swastika.

Autonomous anti-capitalists and antifascists will find these organizational debates familiar, as they are questions our movements have been grappling with for centuries. The challenge they represent however, is the same threat that fascist groups have been inching towards ever since the Alt-Right began putting up stickers: control of the streets and influence within working-class communities.

Don’t Let the Fascists Have the Initiative or Hold Public Space

As last weekend in Boston showed: when the broader community mobilizes, backed up by established antifascist formations, groups like the NSC-131 are nowhere to be found. While their no-show after a week of beating their chests and threatening violence on social media is predictable, if they had shown up only to be pushed off the streets, this would have been an even bigger failure for them. Still, the decision by local anti-racists and antifascists to hold a demonstration and call on the wider community to come out in support; capitalizing on growing anger and resentment, is an example of our side seizing the initiative away from the fascists.

Seizing the initiative must also mean mapping out where fascists drop banners and put up stickers and covering these areas with our own material, not just simply waiting to take down their garbage. It means making connections in workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods were far-Right groups are active: building up networks and coalitions that can respond. It means taking the time to speak with our wider community; to get offline and educate, spreading clear information about these groups, the threat that they pose, the symbols that they use, and who their members are. It means putting pressure on those who have been doxxed and exposing their leaders through flyering, phone zaps, and online postings. It also means doing these things not just in the wake of white supremacist activity, but as part of a broader anti-racist initiative. Let’s stop reacting to them and instead work to drive them out of our areas once and for all by creating communities hostile to fascism on every level.

Lastly, we must work to build our capacity to expand and grow our networks so that we can increasingly respond to situations where we can more easily mobilize against such groups; both within a short amount of time and in increasingly greater numbers.


by It's Going Down via It's Going Down
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The US Empire’s Ultimate Target Is Not Russia But China

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

The Pentagon has produced its latest National Defense Strategy (NDS), a report made every four years to provide the public and the government with a broad overview of the US war machine’s planning, posturing, developments and areas of focus.

You might assume with all the aggressive brinkmanship between Moscow and the US power alliance this year that Russia would feature as Enemy Number One in the 2022 NDS, but you would be assuming incorrectly. The US “Defense” Department reserves that slot for the same nation that’s occupied it for many years now: China.

Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp writes the following:

The full NDS is still classified, but the Pentagon released a fact sheet on the document that says it “will act urgently to sustain and strengthen deterrence, with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as our most consequential strategic competitor and the pacing challenge for the Department.”

The fact sheet outlines four priorities for the Pentagon:

  1. Defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC
  2. Deterring strategic attacks against the United States, Allies, and partners
  3. Deterring aggression, while being prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary, prioritizing the PRC challenge in the Indo-Pacific, then the Russia challenge in Europe
  4. Building a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem

“The Pentagon says that while China is the focus, Russia poses ‘acute threats’ because of its invasion of Ukraine,” DeCamp writes, showing the empire’s view of Moscow as a second-tier enemy.

Ahead of a meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has made some comments which clearly illustrate the US-centralized empire’s actual problem with Moscow.

“We, together with you, and with our sympathisers will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order,” Lavrov said to the Chinese government on Wednesday.

And that right there ladies and gentlemen is the real reason we’ve been hearing so much hysterical shrieking about Russia these last five or six years. It’s never been about Russian hackers. Nor about a Kremlin pee pee tape. Nor about Trump Tower. Nor about GRU bounties in Afghanistan. Nor about Manafort, Flynn, Bannon, Papadopoulos or any other Russiagate Surname of the Week. It’s not even actually about Ukraine. Those have all been narrative-shaping constructs manipulated by the US intelligence cartel to manufacture support for a final showdown against Russia and China to prevent the emergence of a multipolar world.

The US government has had a policy in place since the fall of the Soviet Union to prevent the rise of any powers which could challenge its imperial agendas for the world. During the (first) Cold War the strategy promoted by empire managers like Henry Kissinger was to court China out of necessity to pull it away from the USSR, which was when we saw business ties between China and the US lead to immense profits for certain individuals in both nations and the influx of wealth which now has China on track to surpass the US as an economic superpower.

Once the USSR ended, so too did the need to remain on friendly terms with China, and subsequent decades saw a sharp pivot into a much more adversarial relationship with Beijing.

In what history may one day view as the US empire’s greatest strategic blunder, empire managers forecasted the acquisition of post-soviet Russia as an imperial lackey state which could be weaponized against the new Enemy Number One in China. Instead, the exact opposite happened.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Bloomberg New Economy Forum last year that she’d “heard for years that Russia would become more willing to move toward the west, more willing to engage in a positive way with Europe, the UK, the US, because of problems on its border, because of the rise of China.” But that’s not what occurred.

“We haven’t seen that,” Clinton said. “Instead what we’ve seen is a concerted effort by Putin maybe to hug China more.”

The empire’s expectation that Moscow would come grovelling to the imperial throne on its own meant that no real effort was expended trying to establish goodwill and win over its friendship. NATO just kept on expanding and the empire got increasingly aggressive and belligerent in its games of global conquest. This error has led to the strategist’s ultimate nightmare of having to fight for global domination against two separate powers at once. Because empire architects incorrectly predicted that Moscow would end up fearing Beijing more than it fears Washington, the tandem between China’s economic power and Russia’s military power that experts have been pointing to for years has only gotten more and more intimate.

And now here we are with Russian and Chinese officials openly discussing their plans to create a multipolar world while Chinese pundits crack jokes about the US empire’s transparent ploys to turn Beijing against Moscow over the Ukraine invasion:

On the empire’s grand chessboard, Russia is the queen piece, but China is the king. Just as with chess it helps to take out your opponent’s strongest piece to more easily pursue checkmate, the US empire would be well advised to try and topple China’s nuclear superpower friend and, as Consortium News editor-in-chief Joe Lauria recently put it, “ultimately restore a Yeltsin-like puppet to Moscow.”

Basically all we’re looking at in the major international news stories of our time is the rise of a multipolar world crashing headlong into an empire which has espoused the belief that unipolar domination must be retained at all cost, even if it means flirting with the possibility of a very fast and radioactive third world war.

This is the Hail Mary pass of the US hegemon. Its last-ditch effort to secure control before forever losing any chance at it. Many anti-imperialist pundits I read regularly seem quite confident that this effort will fail, while I personally think those forecasts may be a bit premature. The way the chess pieces are moving it definitely does look like there’s a plan in place, and I don’t think they’d be orchestrating that plan if they didn’t believe it had a chance to succeed.

One thing that does seem clear is that the only way the empire has any chance of stopping the rise of China is by maneuvers that will be both highly disruptive and existentially dangerous for the entire world. If you think things are crazy now, just you wait until the imperial crosshairs move to Beijing.

________________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/31/the-us-empires-ultimate-target-is-not-russia-but-china/
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International Day Of Solidarity with Political Prisoner Libre Flot (FR)

Syndicated from the ‘December 8th Case’.

April 4th, 2022: call out for international solidarity with political prisoner Libre Flot, currently on hunger strike in a French prison.

On Dec 8, 2020 a group of seven people were arrested by the French state for alleged terrorist association. All but one of them have been released with no specific charges beyond ‘criminal conspiracy,’ a charge that can be used to enhance sentences and strip away rights. Libre Flot was transferred to solitary confinement days after his arrest and is the only one of those arrested still behind bars.

Throughout his incarceration, the French state has attempted to say that Flot’s actions of joining the liberatory struggle against the Islamic State is the same as those who traveled to Syria to join ISIS.

As of Feb 27, Flot began a hunger strike in protest of the 14-plus months of pretrial detention, the allegation that seven people who did not even know one another committed a conspiracy, and the attempts of the French state to assert that those who fought the Islamic State are no different than the ISIS members they opposed.

On the 24th of March, after having lost a lot of weight and presenting health problems, Libre Flot was hospitalized.

The 4th of April will be his 36th day of hunger strike.

The 4th of April is also his birthday.

On this day, we call for an international day of solidarity. We call upon all comrades and every decent human being with a sense of justice to protest outside French embassies, consulates or institutes, or to find any other way to voice their objection to this blatant injustice.

DESTROY ALL PRISONS.

FREEDOM FOR INCARCERATED COMRADES.

 

 


by IGD Worldwide via It's Going Down
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New video by Unicorn Riot on YouTube - go check it out ;-)


Watch on YouTube here: Hate Crimes Investigation Called for After Fatal Stabbing of AJ Stewart
Via Christian Gasper
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Canadian Tire Fire #33: Student Occupations, Delivery Drivers Strike, and Coast-to-Coast Migrant Justice Demonstrations

This week we look at a student organizing in Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario, a labour action in Subdury, a housing justice rally in Toronto, and migrant rights actions across the country.

Settler colonial violence continues from one end of the country to another, while Indigenous nations and supporters resist. On the west coast, Gidimt’en checkpoint continues to receive near daily visits from RCMP. Just last week, cops cut chains to break through gates into the camp.

Meanwhile, a date has been set for an Ontario Superior Court hearing to determine whether developer Foxgate will be granted another injunction against 1492 Land Back Lane.

This week also marked the beginning of a 10-day pre-trial hearing for four animal rights activists charged with break and enter and mischief for filming animal cruelty at the Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, BC. On the first day of the hearing, supporters rallied at the court house, holding up images of pigs from the farm.

In Montreal, anarchists organized a small demonstration to the Russian consulate in solidarity with war resisters in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. Banners were hung on the gates of the consulate, and the building was egged. An account on twitter concludes: “Solidarity with people resisting war and occupation, not with states, not with any fascists, and not with NATO.”

Finally, earlier this month, the Fairy Creek Blockade re-opened their calls for people to join them on the frontlines in the fight to defend old growth forest.

From Fairy Creek Blockade

Occupations and Student Strikes in Montreal, Toronto, and Alberta

After pausing for a few days due to a possible COVID outbreak, the student occupation at McGill University in Montreal has started up again.

But McGill wasn’t alone last week. For several days, an occupation of nearby anglophone Concordia University took place as well, though it is now over. A social media post from student group SEIZE Concordia explains some of the motivations for the action:

The Concordia hall building has been occupied! Among the demands of student organizers are for Concordia University to follow through on its promise to divest from fossil fuels, improve COVID-19 procedures for vulnerable students, citizenship and permanent residency status for international students who want it, and free tuition for all.

Last week also marked the 10 year anniversary of the massive March 22nd demonstration during the 2012 Quebec Student strikes. In Montreal, multiple events took place including daytime and nighttime demos, a walkout at McGill, and several day occupation at the Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM).

Also at UQAM, the Association facultaire étudiante des sciences humaines de l’UQÀM (AFESH-UQÀM) held a week long strike demanding the remuneration of internships and an end to student precarity. Starting April 1st, another strike will begin, this one a Climate Strike.

In Ontario, students walked out on March 21st as part of a coordinated response to the provincial government’s gradual removal of public health measures, while COVID cases begin to tick up again. “We just want PCR testing, we want to be notified about the amount of cases that are in our schools for our own safety, and for our health to above our academics,” one grade 11 student told media. While we don’t think the path through the pandemic lies in government measures like mask mandates and vaccine passes, we think the students are correct in their assessment that the provincial government’s removal of the measures is driven by economic imperatives that put education over health. When the students grow frustrated with appeals to the provincial government, we hope they will take things into their own hands and organize with their peers to keep each other safe in schools.

In Alberta, drama students at the University of Calgary were on strike on March 28th calling for a reversal of $700 million of post-secondary funding cuts and a tuition freeze. This strike is the first student strike in the history of Alberta.

Sudbury Food Delivery Drivers Stage One-Day Strike

Almost 300 Skip The Dishes delivery drivers took collective action on Friday, March 18. The drivers stopped working to raise issues about fair compensation for their work. Workers said that Skip The Dishes has ignored them when they have raised issues about their rate of pay compared to the distances they are expected to travel for orders. They say that they are not paid enough to cover gas costs, especially with current prices. Other drivers have raised concerns about not receiving the money they are tipped through the app.

Skip the Dishes workers aren’t currently unionized – food delivery drivers are considered independent contractors, a designation that denies them many of the protections that other workers employed by large corporations benefit from. In 2020, delivery drivers with Foodora won a court case that would grant them the opportunity to unionize, shortly after which Foodora shut down their Canadian operation. Exploitation of workers appears to be a staple of the food delivery industry’s business model. However, Sudbury Skip the Dishes drivers have put the company on alert that they are willing to strike again as long as their mistreatment continues.

Stop Criminalizing Homelessness Rally in Toronto

Housing justice organizers in Toronto staged erected tents and rallied outside of city hall to demand an end to encampment bans on public property. Like many other cities, Toronto bylaws prevent people from “lodging” and erecting tents and other structures in public parks. The same day as the rally, Toronto City Councillors were meeting to discuss closing temporary shelters that had opened in the city as part of pandemic response.

Last summer, the City spent over $2 million evicting residents from City parks. With firsthand knowledge of the violence and force that the City is willing to use to enforce park bylaws, and an expectation that park encampments will only grow with shelter closures, activists are pushing hard for policy change.

Status for All Actions Across Canada

On March 21st, the international day for the elimination of racism, people across the country rallied for Status for All. Their campaign calls for all migrants, refugees, students, workers, and undocumented people to be given full and permanent immigration status. Migrant-led marches, rallies, and actions at politician’s offices took place in over 20 cities in Canada, including Ottawa, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Leamington, Sault-Ste-Marie,Quebec, Ottawa, Guelph, Edmonton, Calgary, St. John’s, Burnaby and Toronto. Actions in Canada were also coordinated with actions in other countries, including Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Vincent, and the Cayman Islands.

Without full immigration status, migrant workers, undocumented people and others with precarious immigration status lack the protections and services afforded to many others living in so-called Canada. Workers are forced into precarious jobs where they have few labour rights, and can face deportation for leaving an abusive employer. As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, those without status face great risks when accessing government services like health care. In a country built on stolen land, it is unacceptable for the state to regulate who is worthy of full “status.” However, even in the absence of any change in state policy, this day of action demonstrated the strength of solidarity between migrants and all those willing to gather and demand an end to racist immigration policies.

Follow Canadian Tire Fire on Twitter.


by Canadian Tire Fire via It's Going Down
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Sure, Ukraine Is The First War The US Hasn’t Lied About: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Listen to a reading of this article:

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If, hypothetically speaking, the US wanted to rule the world, it likely would have begun planning years ago to subvert the rise of China. Step One would have involved a plan to cripple the powers who support it, like Russia. They’d have begun propagandizing us for this years ago. Hypothetically speaking.

It’s a good thing this is a hypothetical scenario and the US has no plans of global domination, because otherwise by now we’d probably have been marinating in a virulent anti-Russia propaganda campaign for five or six years and would be brainwashed into cheerleading for Russia to be choked off from the global economy with the goal of toppling Moscow.

This hypothetical scenario could never happen in real life, because such a propaganda campaign would require western intelligence agencies to plant stories demonizing Russia in the western press for years, and our free press would never uncritically publish claims by spy agencies. That would be flat-out propaganda. The free press are full of hard-nosed muckraking journalists who shine the bold light of truth on government agencies to hold the powerful to account. They’d never act as willing proxies for government agencies working to manufacture consent for unipolarist geostrategic agendas.

And it’s a good thing, too. Can you imagine if the US and its allies and the entire western press were working together, wittingly or unwittingly, toward toppling powerful nuclear-armed nations in the way the USSR was toppled? Things would be getting very crazy and confrontational by now.

Thank God we live in a free society where government agencies are transparent and accountable, where military geostrategic objectives are rigorously checked by democratically elected officials, and journalists never face any consequences for telling the truth about these things.

Because we might be staring down the barrel of nuclear armageddon just to fulfill the unipolarist fantasies of a few powerful psychopaths if the situation I just laid out were anything but purely hypothetical.

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Fucking ridiculous that it’s 2022 and it’s still a shocking and controversial position to say your government and media are lying to you about a fucking war.

You know you’re living under an empire with the most sophisticated propaganda machine that’s ever existed when it can lie about literally every war it’s ever been involved in and then when you say they’re lying about the latest war people still act like you’re a paranoid lunatic.

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Someone who acts like it’s absurd to think the US may have played an underhanded role in starting a war is someone you can just ignore.

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Putin is responsible for Putin’s decisions, the US empire is responsible for the US empire’s decisions. Putin is responsible for choosing to launch an invasion of Ukraine, the US empire is responsible for deliberately provoking that invasion with the goal of removing Putin.

It’s just amazing the mental gymnastics people will do to avoid confronting the basic, commonsense fact that the US could very easily have prevented this war with a little diplomacy and instead chose not to because the war advances its own goals.

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My take on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock is that we’re the closest we’ve been to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis and it’s only continuing to escalate.

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Never forget that the real reason they hate John Mearsheimer is for being objectively, indisputably correct about how wrong they are.

Shitlibs can forgive a lot of things. They can forgive you for being a Bushite warmonger. They can forgive you for having been a racist or homophobe. They can even forgive you for being an active Nazi. But the one thing they can never forgive is being right about their wrongness.

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Still blows my mind that the last president spent his term pouring weapons into Ukraine, shredding treaties with Russia and escalating cold war tensions with Moscow which helped lead us to where we’re at now, and yet liberals spent that whole time calling him a Putin puppet.

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This war has outed a lot of closet empire supporters who got excited about Putin’s invasion because at long last now the US power alliance is The Good Guy, and now they’re spending their time screaming at those of us who’ve declined to play along with that infantile framing.

“Haha, now surely these disobedient lefties will fall in line and support our beneficent imperial leaders- Hey! What the hell do you all think you’re doing??”

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I keep getting people telling me I “just hate America,” which is silly in so many ways it’s hard to even know where to start. If they’re referring to the nation’s land and people, then no of course I don’t hate them. If they’re referring to its government or the oligarchic imperial power structure that runs it, then of course I do. It’s the single most murderous and destructive power structure on earth. Everyone should hate it.

It says so much about how propagandized people are that they think “You hate America!” is some kind of scathing accusation. The US empire has spent the 21st century killing people by the millions and shows no signs of stopping. It is normal and good to hate such things.

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The warning signs that our competition-based systems are unsustainable will get less and less subtle until we either move to collaboration-based systems or receive our final warning in the form of climate collapse or nuclear armageddon.

_______________________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

 



source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/29/sure-ukraine-is-the-first-war-the-us-hasnt-lied-about-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
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