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Tagged ‘Pacifism‘

Learning From Ferguson: The Nature of Police, the Role of the Left [Part I]

"In this debate, the Right claim that the police are working just fine, while the Left claim that changes are needed to get them working better. Both of them are united in preserving the role of police and keeping real people—neighborhoods, communities, and all the individuals affected by police—from becoming the protagonists in the conflicts that affect us. Similarly, we frequently hear leftists claim that “the prisons aren’t working,” exhibiting a willful ignorance as to the actual purpose of prisons. Sadly, for all their distortions and manipulations, the Right is being more honest. The police and the prisons both are working just fine. As per their design, they are working against us."

The Point of Protest

"When protest is hijacked by covert agent provocateurs (i.e. Avaaz and 350), it becomes counterproductive, dissipating the energy of social networks, that should be applied to political organizing that leads to effective action. Protests that do nothing but make participants feel good are self-indulgent exercises; when these exercises become habitual, protest as self-expression becomes a form of psychological self-therapy, which should not be confused with political engagement."

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."

Reaction to the World Social Forum in Tunis

"Rather than being a dia­logue between the people of the world, the WSF has appeared as a huge trans­fer of notion and know­ledge from the North to the South, or from the expert to the North to the rest of the pop­u­la­tion, a pro­cess which does not dif­fer from the tech­nique util­ized by the big global act­ors, which respect­fully repro­duces the sub­or­din­a­tion and silen­cing of the dam­nés, if we were to use the term coined by Franz Fanon."

Never Idle: Gord Hill on Indigenous Resistance in Canada

"What happened with Idle No More is that as it progressed, they also revealed very, very reformist politics. They started out wanting to stop Bill C-45. They began imposing all kinds of codes of conduct on people people who were attending Idle No More rallies. They’re imposing a pacifist ideology on this grassroots movement and strict legalism."

WATCH: SOFT POWER | The Partnering of Western NGOS and the US Military

"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."

Chief Spence Calls for Indian Act Chiefs to “Take Control” of Grassroots Movement

"The very idea that any one group of people can dictate the methods, tactics, strategies and objectives is itself contrary to the nature of genuine grassroots movements. They are comprised of diverse individuals and groups, self-organized in an autonomous and decentralized manner. Just like many of our peoples were, prior to colonization and the imposing of the Indian Act."

People Currently Without Power

"At the same time it is surprisingly controversial — certainly among the non-political and liberal who have illusions about this system. But also among leftists for another reasons: because some people confuse relative privilege with actual power."

MUST WATCH: Dr Steve Best – The Paralysis of Pacifism

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.

Words Without Action Are Meaningless

"We have no revolution. We have no movement. We have welfarists and pacifists — equally complicit in the holocaust by virtue of their unconscionable tolerance, timidity, and tacit approval; “abolitionists” who have co-opted a term, eradicated the spirit of revolution, and armed themselves with spatulas and aprons. And here I am, as culpable as the weakest activist, but naked with no rationalizations to defend myself."