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Tagged ‘Co-optation‘

Speaking Fees, Selfies, Sucking Up to Power: How BLM Lost its Mojo

"In a stinging rebuke of Black Lives Matter, the organization’s local affiliate here last month announced that it was severing all ties to a movement it characterized as opportunistic, too invested in liberal, electoral politics and the Democratic party, and ultimately ineffective in fighting state-sanctioned violence against African-Americans."

WATCH: Direct Action: Ann Hansen and the Squamish Five

"Direct Action, or the Squamish Five as dubbed by the media, was a group of self-proclaimed 'urban guerillas,' active in the 1980s. These activists were not motivated by any political ideology but rather had become frustrated with traditional methods of activism which they saw as inefficient and futile."

Standing Rock: Profusion, Collusion & Big Money Profits [Part 4]

"They examine in detail how this work has been funded for decades and how the “big green” NGOs and non-violent trainers utilize the power of the people and the “youth-led” paradigm and photo ops to win our hearts… and our donations."

The Continued Branding and Co-optation of MLK

"Martin Luther King Jr. stood for revolutionary transformation; he is used today to support policies that he fought against." #BLM

WATCH: Recognition Politics | A Lecture on Resurgence by Taiaiake Alfred

"The essence of being part of a resurgence movement comes out of that kind of feeling; it's rooted, it's accountable, and it's transformative. Those are the three things that I think define the difference between resurgence and the other alternatives out there for what decolonization and colonization ; basically recognition politics, and, hate to say it, reconciliation...."

350 Sacrilege

"350’s shameless usurping of Civil Rights icons in their propaganda is ripe for ridicule. Comparing the Rockefeller-sponsored Blue Team to the Freedom Riders, or the police-escorted People’s Climate March to the marches from Selma to Montgomery, or college campus divestment to BDS in South Africa is a sacrilege."

Peter Gelderloos Author of “The Failure of Non-Violence” Schools Cornell West & Tavis Smiley

Published on September 11, 2014

Shuswap Chief’s Salary Highest in Country

"Martin said the high salaries are justified because the family has brought considerable economic development to the community, with assets that include a golf course and resort, a new supermarket, a Tim Hortons, a hardware store, and real estate development for non-Aboriginal residents."

FLASHBACK | Untimely Meditations for Silencing the Drum Circles

"How can a movement be energized by off-the-rack hedonism, fanatical non-violence, spirited gestures, crippling consensus, the playful banging of pots and pans, and communication by means of Twitter? This kind of behavior is presented as the innovative practice of freedom, despite the fact that this kind of freedom is abundant in slave societies and is hardly of any use for assaulting the Winter Palace. But who wants, and worse yet, who is capable of assaulting a center of power today? The only thing these protests are asking for is dialogue and participation."

Moolah Boodle Lucre Simoleons

"Wall Street’s vertical integration of controlling consciousness is based on five components: ownership of media, fabrication of news, integration of advertising with state propaganda, financing of foundations and brokerages, and co-option of NGOs. While many well-meaning people are channeled into the latter by the concerted collaboration of all the former, the corporate agenda that determines the policies, practices and projects of these NGOs is anything but benign."