an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. The alliance includes 28 members in North America and Europe, with the most recent being Albania and Croatia who joined in April 2009. An additional 22 countries participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the world’s defence spending… …NATO has added new members seven times since first forming in 1949 (the last two in 2009). NATO comprises 28 members: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

My summary: NATO is a tool used by the world’s governing body of elites used to justify and perpetuate wars that serve their best interest (war profiteering, controlling natural resources like oil and strategic locations for future imperialistic endeavors, etc.) with little concern for the needs, wishes and demands of the people from their respective countries. Whenever shit goes down in the world, NATO is there.

And entering into this exploration, I didn’t know that a NATO summit was anything more than a regularly scheduled meeting for these wankers to meet behind closed doors and figure out how to spin their next war agenda to the public. Which it still is.  But it’s more than that:

NATO summits are not regular meetings like the more frequent NATO ministerial meetings, but rather are important junctures in the alliance’s decision-making process on the highest level. Summits are often used to introduce new policy, invite new members into the alliance, launch major new initiatives, and build partnerships with non-NATO countries.

And this year is the second time that a NATO summit is being held in conjunction with the G8 summit (The first time was when it was G7, London summit 1977). So let’s take it back a step again, right? What is G8? Is it fly like a G6?

The Group of Eight (G8, and formerly the G6 or Group of Six then G7) is a forum, created by France in 1975,^[1] for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8. In addition, the European Union is represented within the G8, but cannot host or chair….Collectively, the G8 nations comprise 53.0% of global nominal GDP and 42.5% of global GDP (PPP). [...]

The ministerial meetings bring together ministers responsible for various portfolios to discuss issues of mutual or global concern. The range of topics include health, law enforcement, labor, economic and social development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice and interior, terrorism, and trade. There are also a separate set of meetings known as the G8+5, created during the 2005 Gleneagles, Scotland summit, that is attended by finance and energy ministers from all eight member countries in addition to the five “outreach countries” which are also known as the Group of Five — Brazil, People’s Republic of China, India, Mexico, and South Africa.^[11] [...] All eight of the G8 countries are amongst the thirteen top-ranked leading export countries.^[44] The USA, Germany, Italy, France, Russia and Japan are among the top 10 countries with the largest gold reserves. Some of the world’s 18 largest major stock exchanges by traded value and market capitalization are in G8 countries (U.S., Japan, UK, Canada, Germany, Russia.) G8 countries are represented in the top eleven economies (by nominal GDP) of the world, according to latest (2010 data) International Monetary Fund’s statistics. Also, five countries of the G8 have nominal GDP per capita above US$40,000. (USA, Canada, Japan, France, Germany), from the same 2010 IMF data. The G8 nations also have some of the world’s largest, most technologically advanced, and most powerful militaries. Four of the eight nations are armed with nuclear weapons (France, Russia, UK, USA), three others have the capability to rapidly produce nuclear warheads (Canada, Germany, Japan), and some have nuclear weapons sharing programs (Canada, Germany, Italy).^[45][46][47] A few of the world’s 10 largest oil producers (Russia, USA, and Canada) and the countries with the third and eighth largest oil reserves (Canada and Russia respectively) are in the G8. Seven of the nine largest nuclear energy producers are in the G8 (USA, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, UK), even though Germany will wean itself from nuclear power by 2022.^[48] The 7 largest donors to the UN budget for the 2011 annual fiscal year are in the G8 (U.S., Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada.) The G8 and the BRIC countries makes up almost all of the 15-nation “trillion dollar club of nations.” All of the G8 and G8+5 countries (minus South Africa) are in the top twenty nations that are ranked by the amount of voting power and Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in the IMF organization.

So.. a coalition of the most influential/power wielding people in the world – the people who run shit, the people who own the most, who produce the most, who consume the most, exploit the most, gathering to figure out how to move forward (i assume) in a way that furthers their economic success domination.

The overlap between NATO AND G8 is clear.  However, the fact that they’re holding a joint summit says (to me) that they aren’t even trying  to hide the simultaneity of their agendas.

Essentially, to use “occupy” language – these fuckers are the 1%.  They are the powers that be, or at least are representatives for those  who ultimately control the puppet strings (depending on which theory you’re into).  They are gathering to discuss the future of our lives.  The future of the globe.  And they don’t care what citizens of the world have to say. They really don’t. So in my mind it is imperative that we show up and refuse to let them go on their business as usual without at least acknowledging our presence.

If you cannot make it to Chicago for the summits (may 15-22), participate in the may first general strike, which was called for by Occupy LA:

“In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes, and a penalization of all those who do not own the “1%” of the world’s resources, and in solidarity with the im/migrant movements of May 1st, OLA [Occupy Los Angeles] decided to declare May 1st, 2012 a People’s GEneral Strike…OLA is calling upon the people of Los Angeles and the United States of America to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known…

“…This is a day when we take a stand against the way the system has enslaved us and burdened us with unmanageable debt, incredibly long working weeks, unfeasibly expensive healthcare – by taking a day for ourselves, being human again, spending time with our families and friends”  -occupymay1st.org

In over 80 countries around the world, May 1st is celebrated as a “Workers” day, to express solidarity with the Labor movement, to celebrate im/migrant rights, and is recognized as a holiday.

Occupy Los Angeles has called for a massive general strike on May 1, 2012

Fundamentally, the Occupy Movement has its roots in class struggle.  it is about the wealth gap, failed trickle-down economics, the fact that most people are slaves to their occupations to pay off mortgages, credit card debt, student loans, or basic survival necessities like food and shelter. We have been manipulated into believing that we should trust those at the top to be “job creators” without questioning who those jobs ultimately benefit.  Without causing a disruption to business as usual, those in power cannot get a clear message that the people are fed up, that we will no longer passively watch them benefit from our labor.  It is about realizing the vast amount of power and control in the hands of a few. It is about recognizing our common struggle, acknowledging and deepening our understanding of the intersections of our various oppressions.  And it’s about celebrating solidarity and the potential of creating the kind of world we would like to live in.

And we’re running out of time.  Our rights are slipping away and their control is growing.  The time for action is now, ya’ll.

The race debate.  “Does racism exist anymore?” has been a popular question in the media since Barack Obama ran for president.  While many people claim that we are currently in a “post-racial” America, effigies of the then-candidate for office turned up and accusations of fake birth certificates and “radical” religious beliefs (among various other things) flew.  Many other people claim that racism is pervasive and something they encounter everyday, yet people of color hold many job positions and we finally have a black president.  There is obviously a large gap between the two sides.  As a white person I grew up believing that people could do whatever they wanted in life as long as they worked hard for it.  The older I got the more I realized that women seemed to be excluded from this ideal.  Once I came to terms with my sexuality I began to realize that individuals who refuse to abide by the gender dichotomy and members of the LGBTQIA community also were excluded from this ideal.  Being a marginalized person I found myself drawn to others who felt marginalized or outside of the mainstream, and most of them were people of color.  Traveling in their circles and walking in their shoes I began to see the ways in which their various skin colors negatively impacted them on a daily basis, yet nobody from the world I was from (upper-middle class white and incredibly privileged) could admit any of this.  They didn’t see it the same way.

Earlier this year I saw author Tim Wise speak about white privilege and racism.  He highlighted numerous accounts of racism that occur.  He said a study had been done on job applications, and that an individual is fifty percent more likely to be hired for a job if their name sounds white.  He told us about discrimination in our justice system.  One example he gave is that a person of color is two to three times more likely to be searched for drugs while a white person is four times more likely to be guilty; about three fourths of drug users are white and only 10% of them are put in jail for it, while about one fourth of drug users are people of color and they make up ninety percent of people in jail for drug charges.  He explained how the idea that we expect people of color to “transcend” race is in itself a racist idea, and a lot more.  Finally I saw that there needed to be a way to bridge the gap, or at least explain the way in which racism has pervaded our country since it’s beginning yet nobody will admit it.  In this paper I will discuss why racism/white supremacy are a nothing new but are a huge problem, what the root cause of this problem is, and the way in which we can begin to solve it.

This country (present-day society) was born out of a drive for greed and consumption that led to setting up a society based on inequality.  I was taught that Christopher Columbus discovered this land and claimed it.  I was also taught that the Puritans came here seeking religious freedom and oppression, and that the Pilgrims and Indians got along and ate food together.  I know far too many people who have had this similar educational experience.  First, you cannot “discover” a land that already has inhabitants.  Europe had different ideas, the Europeans had a predatory ethic:

This predatory ethic encompassed the view that the land and labor of non-European peoples were fully available for european colonists to steal and to exploit economically…They built their new society with strategies of overt savagery and genocide directed at Native American peoples and a strategy of enslavement for the Native American peoples (for a short time) and for African peoples (for long centuries. (Feagin, 10).

European peoples came here and had no problem killing off hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples and building a society by enslaving people of color, most notably African peoples.  We are taught about slavery in school, but not very much.  For instance, we are not told how the federal government withheld wealth-generating resources from people of color even after segregation was ended, and that they gave out for free wealth-generating resources to white people alone to stimulate the economy: “The federal government distributed hundreds of millions of acres of land, billions of dollars in mineral and oil rights, major airline routes, major radio and television frequencies, and many other government controlled resources almost exclusively to white Americans” (Feagin, 3). Now, while this is basic knowledge, it is not what we are taught in our society.  We are not given an accurate historical representation of race relations in our country and thus we grow up with a distorted image: that all people start out on equal footing. But when everyone except for white people were severely limited from wealth generating resources for such a long period of time (and arguably still are), the people kept in control will inevitably be more white people with the same ideologies as those before them, including deeply imbedded ideas that white people are better equipped to be in power.  This is why Feagin argues that “from a systemic racism perspective, U.S. society is an organized racist whole with complex, interconnected, and interdependent social networks, organizations, and institutions that routinely imbed racial oppression” (16).  From the beginning white people have been in control of all forms of communication, media, politics, education – everything; and from the beginning they have held beliefs of superiority which they have instilled in all people: “Part of the comprehensive system of racism today as in the past, is an intense cultural imperialism that entails the imposition of many white values and vies on the those who are oppressed.  Whites have imposed the Eurocentric culture they inherited from their ancestors over many generations onto the everyday worlds of this society” (Feagin, 25). This is where we get to the bottom of racism today.  Racism is a manifestation of white supremacist ideologies, therefore talking about racism alone does not get to the bottom of the issues we face.

Racism does not accurately describe the way oppression operates.  Many people think of racism merely as overt acts by individual misguided people.  What we as a society fail to realize is the way in which what we have established as “normal” is actually oppressive.  The created norm is white supremacist ideology, and therefore it permeates our lives every day, even when we do not believe we are being racist.  White supremacy can explain: “When liberal whites fail to understand how they can and or do embody white-supremacist values and beliefs even though they may not embrace racism and prejudice or recognize the ways their actions support and affirm the very structure of racist domination and oppression that they profess to wish to see eradicated” (hooks, “Overcoming White Supremacy”, 69-70). White supremacy also can explain the way in which people of color are made to assimilate in order to survive in our society.  Pride in one’s heritage is seen as detrimental to the overall good of the society, and thus to get ahead in our capitalistic society people of color must adopt behaviors, ways of dressing and communicating, and ways of relating to others that are in line with the white supremacist ideology. Hooks says: “Assimilation is…a strategy deeply rooted in the ideology of white supremacy and its advocates urge black people to negate blackness, to imitate racist white people so as to better absorb their values, their way of life” (“Overcoming White Supremacy, 70).  This is a powerful tool in a world where white people for the most part determine who gets which jobs, and thus who can support their family and thrive.  Sure, society will accept you if you have brown skin as you look, act, think, and behave like the top-dogs of society do.  White supremacy also explains the way in which people of color have internalized white supremacist values and perpetuate them and enforce them onto other people of color: “The term ‘white supremacy’ enables us to recognize not only that black people are socialized to embody the values and attitudes of white supremacy, but that we can exercise ‘white-supremacist control’ over other black people” (hooks, “Overcoming White Supremacy”, 70).  In this way racism falls short in describing the oppression people of color face. Many people in our society say they want to see racism ended; with heartfelt words they describe how acts of racial intolerance deeply hurt them.  I believe them.  I have been around these people for my entire life.  The truth of the matter is that they do not see the ways in which the “norm”, that which encompasses everything Universal, is actually white: “The assumption that ‘Whiteness’ encompasses that which is universal, and therefore for everybody, while ‘Blackness’ is specific and therefore ‘for colored only’ is white supremacist thought.  And yet many liberal people, along with their more conservative peers, think this way not because they are ‘bad’ people or are consciously choosing to be racist but because they have unconsciously learned to think in this manner” (hooks, “Talking Race and Racism”, 39).  In general I don’t believe that people are “bad” or are (for the most part) consciously choosing to be racist; I agree with hooks that this is the way we are taught to think.  It begins with inaccurate histories of people of color, continues by the absence of multi-cultural authors or material in our curriculums, is more reinforced by what we watch on television, and is solidified as normal and perpetuated day in and day out, throughout the generations by the fact that it goes unnamed.

Not only does discrimination go unnamed, but the privilege that goes with it does as well.   Millions of people in America alone are benefiting from having white skin, and instead of realizing that, it is taken as the standard mode of being. Peggy McIntosh breaks the silence on white privilege.  She gives a list of things she once took for granted as being normal, but through examination came to learn they were benefits of having white skin.  One of the main themes I saw was visibility in our society: “Whether through the curriculum or in the newspaper, the television, the economic system, or the general look of people in the streets, i received daily signals and indications that my people counted and that others either didn’t exist or must be trying, not very successfully, to be like people of my race” (McIntosh, 323).  Being a white person in our society her identity was constantly reaffirmed through visual representation of positive images she could identify with.  After realizing the privileges she received on a daily basis, she took it a step further and realized that if her racial group was dominant, others must be subordinate: “ In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated” (McIntosh, 323).  This is the other side of oppression stemming from racism/white supremacy: not only are certain people being kept down, others are being unnecessarily elevated.   Wildman and Davis say:

In spite of the pervasiveness of privilege, anti-discrimination practice and theory have generally not examined it and its role in perpetuating discrimination.  Anti-discrimination advocates focus only on one half of the power system dyad, the subordinate characteristics, rather than seeing the essential companionship between domination that accompanies subordination and privilege that accompanies discrimination. (661).

Examining oppression is merely one half of the equation.  People don’t oppress others just because it is ingrained into every system in our society; people have been trying to bring injustices to the forefront of people’s minds for a long time.  The majority doesn’t listen because of what is at stake if they do.  The perpetuation of oppression happens because of the silence and denial by white people around both racism/white supremacist ideals and white privilege.

Time Wise told us in his presentation that just as racism has a longstanding historical tradition in our society, so does white denial.  He told us that in every generation the white majority did not see a problem with the way their fellow citizens (people of color) were being treated: In the mid 1800s, right smack in the middle of slavery, white people did not understand why slaves were running away, so one doctor (Dr. Samuel Cartwright) came up with a medical diagnosis for such “psychotic” behavior; In 1962, when polled, eighty-seven percent of white people claimed that black children had equal educational opportunities – now we know they definitely did not back then and they still don’t; In 1963, when polled, about two thirds of white people proclaimed there was equality in their communities – now we know this is ridiculous.  In every generation we fail to see the ways in which people are being oppressed, what are we missing now? Nothing significant has ever changed as far as the way we deal with multiculturalism, so why do we assume racism has ended? The dominant discourse on racial issues has always been carried out by those in power, the dominant group, those inflicting oppression on others, and “privilege is rarely seen by the holder of privilege” (Wildman and Davis, (658). Yet we do not give credit to anyone else who discusses race.  Hooks explains, “Black folks/people of color who talk too much about race are often represented as ‘playing the race card’ (note how this very expression trivialized discussions of racism, implying it’s all just a game), or as simply insane.  White folks who talk about race, however, are often represented as patrons, as superior civilized beings” (“Talking Race and Racism).  We hear this phrase “playing the race card” a lot nowadays, especially since Obama began his presidential campaign.  Some people said they loved Obama because he “transcends race” and he “didn’t carry the baggage of the civil right’s movement”; basically he rarely brought up the issue of race, which keeps white people comfortable (Wise).  Any time race was brought up news pundits would cry out the question “Is he playing the race card?” This is the go-to question any time race is brought up in the political sphere.  It is an easy way for white people to get out of the accusations of oppression.  Once when bell hooks was giving a speech about racism and white supremacy she was accused of playing the race card: “By evaluating me (i.e., suggesting I was being false and ‘playing the race card’) he avoided having to present the fact-based and or experiential reasons he thought differently from me” (“Talking Race and Racism”, 31).  By saying someone is playing the race card you are delegitimizing what they have to say, thus assuming you don’t have to respond.  I believe the thought behind this is that their (people of color) claims are invalid because they’re just trying to pull a fast one on to get a leg up.  This is just one form of avoidance used to escape dealing with racial issues.  In general though white people don’t have to listen to people of color as truth-bearers: “I was given cultural permission not to hear voices of people of other races or a tepid cultural tolerance for hearing or acting on such voices.  I was also   raised not to suffer seriously from anything that darker-skinned people might say about my group” (McIntosh, 323).  This is one way which systemic racism/white supremacy works: “One of the manifestations of daily life in an imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy is that the vast majority of white folks have little intimacy with b lack people and are rarely in situations where they must listen to a black person (particularly black women)” (Hooks, “Talking Race and Racism”, 30-31).  The only people in a true position to talk about oppression and inequality are those who are given the least authority to talk about such things, and those with the authority don’t.  In fact, those who exercise the most privilege and oppress others are often those who deny it the most: “One of the bitter ironies anti-racists face when working to end white-supremacist thinking and action is that the folks who most perpetuate it are the individuals who are usually the least willing to acknowledge that race matters” (hooks, “Talking Race and Racism”, 28).  Those who need to talk about it the most are often those who are the most hostile and unable to hear differing points of view.  Peggy McIntosh states, “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage… I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (McIntosh, 317). We are raised in a system described earlier, where the norm perpetuated oppresses many individuals in our society, where we are indoctrinated into a system, molded to fit into a structure that perpetuates hegemonic ideas.  As a white person, I went through school not questioning what I was being taught; I figured I was in school to learn, and they knew best.  Little did I know that I was being taught not to recognize racial differences or the ways in which white people are heavily favored.  My schooling was similar to what McIntosh describes: “My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture.  I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will” (319).  Thus we are taught the myth of meritocracy: that if you work hard you will be rewarded; that we all start out on equal footing and our failures and successes in life depend on our individual drive for success. This is one of the key tools in white denial: “White privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject.  The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it, I must give up the myth of meritocracy.  If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtue of their own” (McIntosh, 322).  This is one struggle I can relate to very well.  In coming to terms with oppression, I had to realize that many people were being treated unfairly while I was still living a secure life.  In coming to terms with white privilege I had to realize that one of the main reasons my family was able to be as successful as they are is because they are white.  Many job opportunities presented themselves to my father, through social capital or being at the right place at the right time.  He probably would not have been afforded such opportunities if he hadn’t been a well-groomed, friendly, “average” white man.  Another example that comes to mind is my own admission to Saint Mary’s College.  I was not the best student in high school, and SMC did not accept me right away; they waited to see my grades senior year to make sure I was SMC material, and I was worried I might be denied.  As it turns out my neighbors’ son went to Saint Mary’s some years ago, and a friend he graduated with still had close ties to the college (her parents donate to the school regularly). My neighbor encouraged me to talk to this woman, who taught at my high school.  She told me that if I were to be denied she would see what she could do to get me into the college anyways.  Luckily I got in on my own, but it brings up a valid point: a door was opened for me that would not have been opened for someone equally or more qualified because of my social location.  “Obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all” (McIntosh, 327).

I’m going to continue appreciating this tiny computer in the form of reading about the rising tension with Iran.

In love and solidarity,
J

now solve

So the other day while i was at revolution books i bought a sticker that says “visualize insurrection”. to me, the blending of visualization (some form of spirituality or at the very least higher consciousness/the recognition that intent shapes reality) and revolt is the exact combination that’s needed to win this fight.   This war.

Insurrection:

Noun:	A violent uprising against an authority or government: “opposition to the new regime led to armed insurrection”.
Synonyms:	rebellion – revolt – uprising – insurgency – rising

not to get all… militant on ya’ll. By no means am I advocating we take to the streets with guns.  but let’s be real, the powers that be won’t relinquish power and control w/o a struggle.  We’re already at war, it’s just hard to see because the resistance has been peaceful for the most part, because the media’s job is to pacify the masses and feed misinformation and propaganda which doesn’t leave room for.. you know.. reality and facts about things that are happening here and globally, and because we live in a culture that values meaningless consumption. Of everything.  Of TV, Music, Information, relationships, etc. that does nothing to stimulate our creativity or intelligence or inspire critical or logical thinking skills.  So I want to try and frame what’s happening in the world to make me feel the need for people to resist, to be ready to at some point, at the very least, defend themselves against violence.

Resistance to the current regime government/system/standard operation of society on all levels is being criminalized – has always been criminalized in one way or another. Look at what went down in Seattle during the WTO (if you don’t know what I mean, watch this video ). Or at the shut downs of Occupy Wall Street, Portland, Oakland. What happened at UC DavisOr any other number of protests over the last… forever.  Watching the livestream of Occupy Oakland getting raided I couldn’t believe (and at the same time fully could believe) this was happening in the United States.  It looked like a war zone.  Not to mention the fact that the United States government has a rich history of suppressing dissent in the forms of infiltrating “progressive” or “radical” groups, collecting intelligence on activists, and even holding people in prison as political prisoners

Prior to September 11, 2011, there were nearly 100 political prisoners and prisoners of war incarcerated in the United States.

[...]

Many of today’s political prisoners were victims of an FBI counter-intelligence program called COINTELPRO.  COINTELPRO consisted of a series of covert actions directed against domestic dissident groups, targeting five perceived threats to “domestic tranquility.”…People viewed as dissidents, Communists, or anti-establishment were at risk of prosecution, persecution or both:

The scare word used to strip rights away used to be “communist”; at one point and another it was “anarchist”; today it’s “terrorist”.  Add in the Patriot Act, which Obama extended for no legitimate reason, the fact that FEMA camps are being activated, and the National Defense Authorization Act:

The White House signaled that President Barack Obama has dropped his veto threat against a bill allowing the military to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens without trial, and letting the military jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial.
After passing the House on Wednesday night, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 could come to Obama’s desk after a Senate vote today (Thursday), the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights.
The bill writes a $662 billion check to the Department of Defense.
Civil libertarians fear the law threatens 4th Amendment protections from unreasonable searches and seizures; 5th Amendment guarantees of due process; and 6th Amendment provisions for speedy trial.
“President Obama made a choice with chilling consequences today when he announced he would not veto the NDAA despite the lack of change to provisions of the bill that make it even more difficult to shut down the prison at Guantanamo and make indefinite military detention without trial a permanent feature of the U.S. legal system,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement.

But what will we say to future generations if the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) becomes law? That legislation contains a provision that authorizes the president to indefinitely imprison, without a criminal charge or court hearing, any suspected terrorist who is captured within the United States — including American citizens.

and the kind of government we’re living under in the United States becomes crystal clear. Before I was fully aware of the state of affairs – read: facist police state:

a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology.^[1][2] Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry,culture, and blood…Fascists advocate the creation of a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through indoctrination, physical education, discipline and family policy (such as eugenics)….

Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition.^[7]

Fascism promotes political violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality.^[4][8] It views violence as a fact of life that is a necessary means to achieve human progress.^[9] It exalts militarism as providing positive transformation in society and providing spiritual renovation, education, instilling of a will to dominate in people’s character and creating national comradeship through military service.

and before they further and rapidly got worse I began reading The Coming Insurrection.  I never got to finish it.  I was inspired, concerned. because an “invisible committee” of french anarchists seemed, at the time, dangerous and somewhat outlandish and I still harbored culturally programmed notions of what “anarchy” was. Now, with the Occupy movement happening worldwide and a more holistic and historically accurate understanding of the “A” word, I feel myself drawn to the text once again. I found it online, in it’s full format, which you can read here.  Here is an excerpt:

First Circle – “I AM WHAT I AM”
“I AM WHAT I AM.” That’s marketing’s final offering to the world, the final stage of
advertising’s evolution, beyond, far beyond, all the exhortations to be different, to be
yourself, and drink Pepsi.

It took decades of concepts to get there, to that pure
tautology, to “I = I.” He’s running on a treadmill in front of the mirror in his gym…
she’s coming back from work, flying down the road in her Smart car. Will they
meet?
“I AM WHAT I AM.” My body belongs to me. I am me, you are you, and it’s not
going too well. Mass personalization. Individualization of all conditions – of life,
work, misery. Diffuse schizophrenia. Rampant depression. Atomization into fine
paranoiac particles. Hysterics upon contact. The more I want to be Me, the more I
feel an emptiness. The more I express myself the more I dry up. The more I run
after it, the more tired out I get. I hang onto it, you hang onto it; we cling to our “I”
like a tedious bureaucratic window-job. We’ve become our own representatives in a
strange commerce, guarantors of a personalization that in the end looks a lot like an
amputation. We insure ourselves all the way to bankruptcy, with a more or less
disguised clumsiness.
While I wait, I manage. The quest for a self; my blog, my apartment, the latest
fashionable idiocy, couples’ stories, getting ass… all kinds of prosthetic limbs to
hang onto an “I” with! And if “society” hadn’t become such a definitive abstraction,
then it would just be all these existential crutches offered me to let me drag myself
along a little more, the ensemble of dependencies that I’ve contracted, for the price
of my identity. The handicapped person is the model citizen of tomorrow. It’s not
without foresight that the associations that exploit them today demand a
“subsistence income” for them.
The injunction everywhere to “be someone” maintains the pathological state that
makes this society necessary. The injunction to be strong produces the very
weakness it maintains itself on, to such a point that everything seems to take on a
therapeutic aspect, even working or love. All the times we ask “how’s it going?” all
day long – like a society full of patients, taking each other’s temperature. Sociability
is now made up of a thousand little niches, a thousand little refuges where you can
come in to keep warm. And it’s always better there than in the bitter cold outside.
Where everything’s false, since it’s all just a pretext for getting heated up. Where
nothing can happen since we’re all too busy deafly shivering together. This society
will soon only be held together by the mere tension of all the social atoms straining
towards an illusory healing. It’s a power station that drives its turbines on a gigantic
reservoir of dammed up tears that is always about to spill over.

Here is Glenn Beck’s review of the book (which of course, makes me realize even more how awesome it must be, for it to be described by those whose goal it is to uphold the current system and realistically, further the inequalities and power and control of the many by the few, as something so dangerous):

Make no mistake, I’m not calling for violence.  I’m not advocating a call to violence be made.  If anything I am making a call to action, to agency, to autonomy in the face of increasing repression.  I believe that without love and respect nothing worthwhile can be achieved.  The means are the ends.  As we move forward I think it’s incredibly important that we don’t lose sight of that fact.

“Marxism has tended to be a theoretical or analytical discourse about revolutionary strategy. Anarchism has tended to be an ethical discourse about revolutionary practice… It insists, before anything else, that one’s means must be consistent with one’s ends; one cannot create freedom through authoritarian means; in fact, as much as possible, one must… embody the society one wishes to create” -David Graeber

If anything I hope we can break free of this false dichotomy of a totally peaceful revolution or a totally violent one.  well, honestly, the bottom line is I hope we can, as a people, realize the repression we are facing – the direction we are heading, and realize there is a choice. We can choose to resist. And I use that term loosely. Resistance to me is a nebulous concept and can take many forms. But it’s important to do.  I think there’s a lot at stake. I think it’s interesting to ponder if/when the Defense Bill passes, how long until criticizing the government is considered an act worthy of detainment?  By expecting a better world for ourselves and future generations and advocating for such a future, as is our right – not merely as citizens of the United States, but as human beings on the earth, will we be considered terrorists? I visualize resistance.

When I left the Bay Area I was coming out of intense burn out from a year of madness and 6 months of brutally intense work – both schoolwork and activism. The last two times I have visited home I came as a “working professional” in a sense… somehow more plugged into the system and surviving it.  Now I’m coming back a rebel anarchist. Realistically I always was.  I had these ideologies and tendencies the entire time, especially when organizing at SMC. Now they have become fully realized, are more thoroughly formulated and I am taking ownership over them without reservation.  I have fully embraced my rejection of the system and my dedication to consistent, direct resistance of it.  When interacting with individuals in the “real world” aka not Occupiers, I realize how out of touch I am with society.  My friend S said it best – once you’re away from Occupy you realize you’re surrounded by capitalists. Or “spineless liberals” at the very least.  I have anxiety over returning home and not being able to connect with the people I love and/or having them see me as crazy.  I’ve already had one of my best friends say they were worried about me because of my lack of ability (and desire) to connect to the mainstream.  I’m worried that they would want to connect to the very structures that are keeping people repressed, oppressed, and controlled.  I haven’t spoken to another one of my best friends in a few days because of an argument about perpetuating a system we know is broken vs. actively seeking to change it.  These are two of the most conscious people I know.

To many of my loved ones at home, Anarchy is still a bad word in many ways.  I definitely didn’t have any overtly anarchist friends before I left, but then again I didn’t realize that my own values and ideologies were in line with Anarchist principles.  So who knows.

In some ways I’m dreading the conversation about why I am doing what I’m doing here with the Occupy Movement.  Why I am living on a street corner, in a tent.  The short answer is because the entire system is broken. The subsequent question is always “so what do you want to do about it?” or some other request-demand for a solution (because it has been made clear by mainstream media outlets that complaints and criticisms are only valid if you have a feasible solution… insert snark here), which i’ll have to respond with an explanation of OH (occupy honolulu), the GA (general assembly) , how this movement simultaneously represents and creates a dialogue which needs to take place (because really who can deny the world is fucked?) explain diversity of tactics, and depending on the company I’m in at the moment these conversations take place, expressing how I think the entire system needs to be torn down.  At the meeting with Mayor Carlisle yesterday, when I said “the system is broken” they asked me what i meant with really confused faces.  I asked where I should start – the government, education, social services, military, and the list goes on and on.  The better question is “what system does work?” Even that concept seems like a difficult one for some people to grasp.  How can I explain that the problems go so much deeper than that – it goes to the core, to the very fundamental framework upon which our society and “western” civilization (and due to imperialism and colonization the majority of the globe) is built.  From interpersonal relationships and communications which are based on domination/subordination, power struggles and various inequalities, to governance, and thus all subsequent structures of society, and especially and ultimately capitalism, which drives it all.  And because we can see how it’s been created and perpetuated, we can see how existence can be re-framed.  This state of being, this society, everything we take as normal is absolutely not natural and we don’t need to feel trapped by the frameworks we see around us.  A different world is possible.  No, this is not utopian.  Whatever new system is created will come with it’s own unique set of problems that will arise.  But what is the harm in trying when the path we’re currently headed down can only end in a very destructive way.  But the only way we can even begin to create a change is by individual and collective actions of resistance and outright disobedience.

one way, one very uncomfortable and even painful way is to reach out to friends and family.  To start the process of unplugging from the matrix.  This will probably be the most important way to grow the resistance and build something that actually functions to benefit the majority.  Many of my homies and myself here at OH are outcasts, weird kids, stereotypically odd, used to existing in some sort of fringe space.  But we come from more or less “normal” families and communities of friends.  If we can share what we know, what we’ve learned, what we’ve come to understand (or understood all along but never felt comfortable saying aloud/acting on) with our loved ones, and then they go and share with their networks of loved ones, emancipation from our automated enslavement could, potentially, spread like wildfire.  But this task challenges us to speak a different language in many ways, it challenges us to speak empathetically with those who will challenge and outright disrespect our “radical” ideas. It will challenge us to hear the concerns (economic, political, whatever) of our loved ones and show how relevant it is to the larger picture I described above.  And I have no doubt that it is all connected.  And it will challenge us to use language and examples that can convey exactly why any and all forms of resistance are necessary.  The fun part will be brainstorming new and innovative ways to resist.

So I’m nervous about the response I’m going to get from my ‘ohana back home, but hopeful as well. We are the change we’ve been waiting for, and in the end I truly believe that if we move forward with love in our hearts things will be okay.

I feel better now.

part one: 

part two: 

also, check out this resolution passed by OWS and supported by various organizations nationwide (and as of tonight passed by Occupy Honolulu’s general assembly:

http://occupywallst.org/article/everyone-has-right-occupy-space-safely/

oh and check out this song: 

People criticize you for your numerous goals and messages. What is the main message in this movement?

What this protest is about is an opposition against the fundamental inequality in society — social, economic, ecological — and we want to change the ways that our society is structured and run so that way, the vast majority of people — the 99% — have their interests accounted for, their voices heard, their needs represented. And that’s just simply not the way we feel our society works now. It’s a society run for and by the 1%.

Are you thinking about eventually getting involved in politics?

Right now, we don’t have any plans to endorse any specific political candidates or political parties. A huge reason as to why we’re here is because we view the political process to be corrupt and broken. Both political parties are bought and owned by the 1%. So we don’t really have the desire to cooperate with either of them. I don’t think we would turn away anyone who has political aspirations and really want to work for the 99%, but at the moment we have no plans to run candidates in the 2012 elections or anything like that.

The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation’s history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.

then there are nice graphs that explain unemployment, corporate profits, banks – the bailout and lending.  One thing that isn’t discussed in this article is how this wealth gap relates to our political processes, but i’m sure language and facts will be forthcoming in the future.