Oct 29
20130
"In his speech, Mr. Mujica highlighted the power of the financial systems and the economic fallout which has the greatest impact on ordinary people. He urged a return to simplicity, with lives founded on human relationships, love, friendship, adventure, solidarity and family, instead of ones with people shackled to the economy and the markets."
"The consumer culture that plagues America today was no less apparent at the Keystone XL rally than it has been on any street corner. The true enemy of growth and the wealth that it has brought were both present in full force, mostly unbeknownst to the crowd. So will a whole lot of shouting, dancing and screaming effectively change oil companies into alternative energy companies? Is the mainstream environmental community truly willing to sacrifice what it would take to combat climate change? Can symbolic gestures such as protests overturn the market maxim of supply and demand?"
"In the society of the spectacle protest is a form of leisure and the tragic pathos of the class struggle must recede before hilarity, relaxation and festival, genuine forms of the neo-contestatory spirit which has found in pot and pan-banging, whistles, and costume parades its most suitable means of expression and in software, blogs and cell-phones its best weapons."
Mar 05
20130
Humanitarian Agencies, Imperialist Wars/Occupations, Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Culture Destabilization Intervention Iraq Miltarism Pacifism Princeton Colloquium on Public and International Affairs R2P Social Engineering Soft Power Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
"On one side we have US Military personnel parading in certain times in civilian clothes, driving white 4x4's and even driving civilian vehicles. We have civilian "aid workers" wearing Department of Defense ID's surrounded by armed security guards. The media meanwhile refer to soldiers and armed security personnel killed in action as humanitarians, and NGOs themselves in some cases request and accept military escorts or contracts from the Department of Defense."
Jan 13
20130
The International Campaign to Destabilize Venezuela
ALBA Culture Development José Mujica Latin America Sustainability United Nations Uruguay
"ALONG a dirt road on the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, stands a ramshackle house with chipped walls and a 26-year-old car parked outside. This is the home of the man who runs the country. Jose Mujica, a 77-year-old former left-wing guerrilla, is earning an international reputation as a pauper president who steadfastly refuses to accept any trappings of power."
"Given the degree of disconnection today from our cultural and geographic roots, indeed from historical awareness, the voluntary and coerced identities we assume are largely superficial. But this doesn’t mean they are unimportant, only that they are more tenuous and vulnerable to subversion by dominant social ideologies. With few opportunities to find genuinely supportive social structures and organizations, most of us are left to fend for ourselves in creating an identity that both suits our needs and our understanding."
Nov 22
20120
Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Whiteness & Aversive Racism
ALF | Animal Liberation Front Biotechnology Capitalism Corporate Media Culture Ecological Crisis neoliberalism Pacifism Pacifism as Pathology Resistance Speciesism
Dr/Prof. Steve Best is a writer, speaker, public intellectual, and activist. Steven Best engages animal rights, species extinction, ecological crisis, biotechnology, liberation politics, terrorism, mass media and culture, globalization, and capitalist domination. He is Associate Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso."The Paralysis of Pacifism: In Defense of Militant Direct Action and "Violence" for Animal Liberation" lecture by Prof. Steve Best was delivered in an ex slaughterhouse of Aprilia - Italy - 06 September 2012.
Aug 17
20120
Earth First!, Pacifism as Pathology, Whiteness & Aversive Racism
Black Panthers CIA Culture Ethnic Leftists FBI Media MI6 Mumia Abu-Jamal Tupac Shakur Whiteness & Aversive Racism
"The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders contains a wealth of names, dates and events detailing the use of COINTELPRO style tactics by the FBI against two generations of leftist activists and political rap artists. Based on 12 years of research; sources include over 100 interviews, FOIA-released CIA and FBI documents, court transcripts, and many mainstream media outlets. The FBI War on Tupac Shakurpresents evidence that U.S. Intelligence employed similar tactics to assassinate Tupac Shakur, Robert F. Kennedy, environmentalist Judi Bari, and Filberto Ojeda Rios. Plus additional material including how the FBI deputized 23,000 corporate executives, the Intelligence targeting of author Richard Wright and evidence of police intelligence cover-up around Jam Master Jay's murder. The author quotes CIA and FBI whistleblowers who describe the agencies' continued COINTELPRO activity, particularly against the black left. Of special interest in the author's analysis of the control of US Intelligence over media and culture." - AK PRESS
Jul 16
20120
Foundations, Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Capitalism Culture Denialism Ethics Exploitation Ford Foundation
"Assimilationists and pious poseurs are not our brothers; they are capitalist activists furthering the mission of domination.... Competing for philanthropic political payoffs from the Ford Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- both of which undermine Indigenous liberation worldwide -- or catering to crass commercial interests by stabbing others in the back, not only undermines solidarity, but also consolidates the criminalization of human relationships."