Globalized Resistance
By Nathan Coe
Capitalism is global, so our resistance must be as well
A follow-up article to “Revolt Spreads Across the Globe as ‘Crisis’ Continues to Unfold”
It’s hard to keep up with the dizzying array of events unfolding around us on the international, global scale. As the global economy feels the first jolts of its inevitable systemic collapse, the people of the world are rising up against their masters, and the ruling-class elite are responding in kind, with increased repression at home and abroad.
Globalist madman Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter’s national security advisor, personal advisor to Barack Obama, and the man described as having “articulated the PNAC platform a decade in advance”) has warned of civil unrest and riots within the United States. Joshua Holland of AlterNet writes that “worldwide, industrial production has ground to a halt. Goods are stacking up, but nobody’s buying.” Recently, around 100,000 people hit the streets in Dublin, Ireland “to vent their anger at the Irish government’s handling of the country’s recession.” The Guardian recently reported that in the UK, “the British government is criminalizing legitimate dissent under the guise of fighting ‘extremism’, a word for which it has no definition.”
Michael Klare writes that “the global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, bankruptcies, plant closings, and foreclosures and will, in the coming year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the planet. But another perilous consequence of the crash of 2008 has only recently made its appearance: increased civil unrest and ethnic strife.” He continues:
Indeed, if you want to be grimly impressed, hang a world map on your wall and start inserting red pins where violent episodes have already occurred. Athens (Greece), Longnan (China), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Riga (Latvia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania), and Vladivostok (Russia) would be a start. Many other cities from Reykjavik, Paris, Rome, and Zaragoza to Moscow and Dublin have witnessed huge protests over rising unemployment and falling wages that remained orderly thanks in part to the presence of vast numbers of riot police.
In the United States, anarchists and others are mobilizing for massive protests against the IMF & World Bank meetings, April 24th through 26th, and against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan on March 19th and 21st, both in Washington, DC. Another coalition, under the banner of a general strike, is organizing “massive civil disobedience” from March 13th through 19th.
This coming Monday, March 2nd, in Washington, DC, we will see the largest climate action in U.S. history. This peaceful demonstration will be a historic event, but unfortunately, there is only so much that passive, symbolic protest can accomplish. The strength of this action has yet to be seen, but some day, and some day soon, the people are going to have to join the thousands of people around the world who are already putting their bodies and lives on the line, literally and physically, and into the gears of the machine, so that it may be prevented from working at all.
Summer of Dignified Rage
Police in London are warning of a “summer of rage,” as Michael Holden reports for Reuters, “with mass protests over the economic crisis that could mar Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s G20 summit in London in April.” James Slack reports for The Daily Mail that “one of Britain’s most senior police officers with responsibility for public order raises the spectre of a ‘summer of rage’, with victims of the increasingly bitter recession taking to the streets in possibly violent protest. Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police’s public order branch, warned that law-abiding middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.” He continues:
Violent protests take place in Europe – in recent weeks Greek farmers have blocked roads over falling agricultural prices, a million workers in France took to the streets to demand greater protection for their jobs and wages and Icelandic demonstrators have clashed with police in Reykjavik – but not here. But can we really be so sure? The public’s rage with the banks and the Government is growing by the day.
Thousands are losing their jobs through no fault of their own because bankers who made millions during the good times are calling in the loans which their employers need to stay afloat. Homes are being repossessed across the country, but not the penthouse flats and country piles of bank bosses who thought nothing of taking home vast seven-figure bonuses, and consider £1 million a year a modest income. Economic protests. Protesters expressed anger at being made to pay for the folly of those who caused the financial collapse. The innocent are being punished while the guilty continue to lead affluent lives.
Anarchists and anti-authoritarians are indeed busy organizing for London’s G20 summit. Robert Mendick and Nigel Rosser report for The Evening Standard:
Police are on full alert ahead of the protest, planned for 1 April – the day world leaders arrive in London for the G20 summit. Thousands of demonstrators, including anarchists and anti-aviation activists, are planning a series of protests, aiming to capitalise on disenchantment with City financiers blamed for dragging the economy into recession. The event, dubbed ‘Financial Fools Day’, is likely to cause mass disruption as demonstrators try to block traffic and buildings by lying in tents and sleeping bags across the road. The April protest has captured the imagination of anarchists. Some are plotting further demonstrations against the G20 on the day of the summit on 2 April. One protester said the example of Athens, where young Greeks have been rioting for several months since police shot dead a teenager, could provide further inspiration.
The echoes of December’s insurrection in Greece continue to reverberate throughout the country, as the popular revolt continues with ongoing occupations, strikes, riots, and the re-emergence of urban guerrillas.
Occupations have also re-emerged in the U.S., beginning most notably with the occupation of Republic Windows & Doors and the occupations of New School and NYU in New York.
But in America, in police state news, the agents of State repression are so desperate to manufacture a bogeyman to justify their unprecedented increase in police state powers that they have resorted to arresting four animal rights activists on “terrorism” charges, under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, for chalking, leafleting, and wearing masks while protesting. It seems the AETA basically makes it illegal, and an act of “terrorism,” to bother or attempt to disrupt those who profit from the exploitation and torture of animals. Eight defendants from the RNC protests have also been charged with “terrorism,” in this case for actions committed by other individuals.
Meanwhile, in an act that will undoubtedly become increasingly more common, particularly in America, as the global economic crisis continues to unfold, one or more angry citizens reportedly spray painted a Congressman’s car and home. And as ABC Eyewitness News 5 reports, this wasn’t the first incident of the sort.
At the same time, industry mouthpieces are reporting an increase in ELF and ALF style attacks against the ecocidal and exploitative industrial economy, noting a particular rise in Mexico.
Autonomous communities of resistance are also working to counter the effects of the economic crisis in working class neighborhoods, resisting foreclosure and eviction, and even moving the homeless in to vacant homes. In Modest, California, a group calling itself the “Robin Hoods” appropriated and redistributed food to a working class community.
In their communique, the Robin Hoods write:
To make our intentions for the action clear, we left behind a banner at the scene which read, “Resist the Recession! – ROB THE RICH!” The food was appropriated from various capitalists – and was thus free (and very easy) to obtain.
Taken all together, this confluence of increased resistance and increased State repression, both on an international, globalized scale represents a new era of history that does away with the post-modern notion that we live in a time after history has somehow ended (an absurd notion, I always thought). Historical events are unfolding that will have a tremendous effect on the future, and our actions are extremely powerful (as are our moments of inaction, unfortunately).
In his most recent prison dispatch, eco-prisoner Jeffrey Free Luers called for a general strike in December to coincide with the Copenhagen climate talks. He writes:
We need massive action on an international scale never before seen in human history. We have the ability to create such a massive mobilization. In the past we have achieved international days of action that have rocked the world. We must go beyond those past days of international solidarity however. We must reach for something never before achieved. We must shut the system down in its entirety and force our governments and multinationals to listen and change.
We need an international global strike. For one day we must stop all work and labor. We must shut down the factories, the ship yards, shut down transportation. We must bring everything to a grinding halt. And demand immediate action on climate change. Demand an immediate shift frNathan Coe is a guerrilla journalist and rebel insurgent residing in the mountains of Southwest Colorado, who also works with SW(A)RM, subMedia, and Indymedia. He can be contacted at autonomousresistance@riseup.net or via his blog at ShiftShapers.gnn.tv.om fossil fuels to alternative energies. Demand accountability from wealthy nations and help for poorer ones. It is an ambitious goal and a necessary one. We have to act ourselves.
In December 2009 world powers will again meet to discuss climate change and global warming in Copenhagen, Denmark. The likely outcome will be yet another unfair toothless agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions, much like Kyoto in which, after much hype, actually led to increased worldwide emissions.
In December we must show the world governments that they are not in power except by the grace of their citizens. We must remind world governments that they exist solely at our discretion and to serve us, not line the pocketbooks of the rich.
In December we must mobilize to shut the system down with a massive worldwide general strike. Global warming is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. We must address the threat decisively and immediately. We must confront those that would obstruct such actions overwhelmingly.
In December 2009 it is time for more than just international solidarity, more than just pleading for change. It is time for a united front; it’s time to reclaim our power. It is time for a general strike.
How we choose to face the events that are unfolding before us today will have an unimaginable impact on the lives of future generations, human and non-human alike. How we approach the dismantling of the old order of industrial ecocide and the creation of a viable and sustainable mode of existence is our paramount concern.
Nathan Coe is a guerrilla journalist and rebel insurgent residing in the mountains of Southwest Colorado, who also works with SW(A)RM, subMedia, and Indymedia. He can be contacted at autonomousresistance@riseup.net or via his blog at ShiftShapers.gnn.tv.
Source & Via: gnn.tv
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