Resistance

How Indigenous Kayactivists Protest Against Shell

May 19, 2015 Sydney Brownstone, www.thestranger.com Resist! indigenous, Oil & Gas, Resistance, Seattle, Transportation

It was hard to miss. Draped over the boardwalk at Jack Block Park on Saturday, a 300-square-foot cutout of a solemn face looked out over the water-based protest against the Polar Pioneer, the Arctic drilling rig floating in Elliott Bay. "Chief Seattle is watching," it read. Looking at the sign probably made some people uncomfortable. Seattle is named after the Duwamish-Suquamish Chief Seattle, and his profile is plastered all over official letterheads and various pieces of Northwest kitsch. Still, sloganizing the face of a man who helped "Seattle" exist—in that he signed a treaty in 1855 giving over 54,000 acres of land to the federal government in exchange for an unfulfilled promise of treaty rights and a reservation for his descendants—can feel like a grotesque kind of tokenism when, often, there are no native people present to explain what it means.

Civil Resistance & The Geopolitics Of Impunity

May 11, 2015 Baltasar Garzón, www.opendemocracy.net Educate! Chile, Corruption, Fascism, Impunity, Latin America, Resistance, Spain

The first of these cases is probably the most unsavoury, and we have more than enough examples worldwide, especially in Latin America (Chile, Argentina, Perú, El Salvador, etc.). Here, the perpetrators employ relevant institutional powers to forge a renewed ‘democratic’ structure, in which they receive a guarantee of legal impunity for previous criminal activities justified by a misguided concept of national security and stability. Such is the case of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Despite the gradual democratisation signalled by the 1988 national referendum to remove him from power, he clung to his position as head of state for a further two years, and his subsequent appointment as a senator for life took place and was previously sanctioned under the terms of decree no. 2191 in 1978.

The Tiny Italian Town Killing The U.S. Navy’s Surveillance Plans

May 1, 2015 Barbie Latza Nadeau, www.thedailybeast.com Resist! Imperialism, Italy, Resistance, Wars and Militarism

Ever since the Italian government under Silvio Berlusconi signed off on the U.S. Navy’s use of the land six years ago, the No MUOS activists of Niscemi have been doing everything they can to stop work at the site—with an astonishing level of success. Twice, they have won injunctions against the United States. At the moment, work at the site is at a standstill as a court in Palermo weighs the legality of the facility’s existence, based on a challenge stemming from the Region of Sicily’s decision to withdraw its authorization in 2013. On April 27, a Sicilian court rejected the United States’ appeal to release the sequestered site. There are still legal avenues for the U.S. military to pursue, including another court date July 8, and they could always ask for intervention from the Italian government. Meanwhile, the activists were able to notch one more victory in their David vs. Goliath battle: Two weeks ago, the activists went to the European Commission in Brussels to launch an appeal to stop MUOS at a European level as well.

Baltimore And The Human Right To Resistance

April 29, 2015 Ajamu Baraka, www.ajamubaraka.com Educate! Baltimore, Human Rights, Resistance

Race and oppressive violence has always been at the center of the racist colonial project that is the U.S. It is only when the oppressed resist — when we decide, like Malcolm X said, that we must fight for our human rights — that we are counseled to be like Dr. King, including by war mongers like Barack Obama. However, resistance to oppression is a right that the oppressed claim for themselves. It does not matter if it is sanctioned by the oppressor state, because that state has no legitimacy. No rational person exalts violence and the loss of life. But violence is structured into the everyday institutional practices of all oppressive societies. It is the deliberate de-humanization of the person in order to turn them into a ‘thing’ — a process Dr. King called “thing-afication.” It is a necessary process for the oppressor in order to more effectively control and exploit.

Walter Scott, Million Moms March & Stop Mass Incarceration

April 16, 2015 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Organize! Mass Incarceration, police brutality, Racial Justice, Resistance

The killing of black men in America appears to have reached epidemic proportions. The fact of the matter is that murder of black men has remained a closely held prerogative of white supremacy exercised by agents of the state since the arrival of Africans in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. These agents, purveyors of state-sponsored violence in African communities, discharge their lethal weapons with effectiveness and efficiency under the cover of law. These agents have been known by various titles throughout US history: slave patrols, Klu Klux Klan, plantation owners, White Citizens’ Council or police officers. Last week, National Coast Guard veteran Walter Scott, 50 joined the thousands of black boys, men and women whose blood has soaked the soil of America and who die alone, frightened and terrorized while their assassins laugh at their handiwork.

Journalism As Subversion

March 25, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Journalism, Resistance

As the mass media, now uniformly in the hands of large corporations, turn news into the ridiculous chronicling of pseudo-events and pseudo-controversy we become ever more invisible as individuals. Any reporting of the truth—the truth about what the powerful are doing to us and how we are struggling to endure and retain our dignity and self-respect—would fracture and divide a global population that must be molded into compliant consumers and obedient corporate subjects. This has made journalism, real journalism, subversive. And it has made P. Sainath—who has spent more than two decades making his way from rural Indian village to rural Indian village to make sure the voices of the country’s poor are heard, recorded and honored—one of the most subversive journalists on the subcontinent.

Detroit Resistance To Neo-Liberal Assault

March 24, 2015 Margaret Flowers, www.clearingthefogradio.org Educate! Detroit, Education, Neo-Liberalism, Resistance, Water

In March, 2013, Detroit was placed under the control of an appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, despite protests from local residents. Facing a severe financial crisis, the city later filed Chapter 9 Bankruptcy. Several years prior to the emergency manager for the city, the Governor replaced the school board with an appointed manager, Robert Bob, who made cuts to the budget and closed schools. The Detroit public school board members continue to meet ‘in exile’ and protest these school cuts. We’ll speak with Lamar Lemmons, a past president and current member of the school board in exile. We’ll also speak with Miss Beulah Walker, an amazing volunteer who works with the Detroit Water Brigade bringing water to those who have had their water turned off and helping to pay their bills. Miss Beulah also volunteers helping homeless people in Detroit.

If Mass Surveillance Is A Permanent State — We Resist

March 9, 2015 Hendrik Alexandersson, www.hax.5july.org Resist! Mass Surveillance, Privacy, Resistance, Technology

From the Snowden files, people know for sure. There is mass surveillance. It is conducted on a global scale by various NSA schemes. In most countries there are national surveillance programmes. And in the EU, data retention means logging all our phone calls, text messages, e-mails, net connections and mobile positions. (This is done in most EU countries, despite the European Court of Justice having invalidated the EU data retention directive for breaching human rights.) Then we have the things we do not know. Obviously the Russians and the Chinese have their own global mass surveillance systems. And in the western world there are many surveillance programmes still unknown for the public. (Sometimes outsourced to private contractors.)

Popular Resistance Needs Your Support

March 8, 2015 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Organize! Media, Nonviolence, Popular Resistance, Resistance

The point is that the Popular Resistance team is deeply committed to human rights and protection of the planet. We will do all that we can nonviolently to bring justice and build a stronger movement of movements. The problem is that by stepping out of the realm of traditional political tools, we are not able to receive funding from traditional foundations. We won't compromise our work for funding, but we still need funds to do the work we do. Some of our readers have made donations recently and we greatly appreciate that. We try not to be aggressive about seeking donations, but we currently find ourselves in a situation that makes it necessary to ask. Some of our staff are going without pay and some have reduced their pay in order to keep Popular Resistance going, but this isn't sustainable. We know that the economy is hard for everyone, but we are asking you to make a donation if you can.

From Chiapas To Rojava: Seas Divide Us, Autonomy Binds Us

February 18, 2015 Petar Stanchev, www.roarmag.org Resist! Autonomy, Fascism, Resistance

As the battle for every street and corner of the city intensified, Kobani managed to capture the imagination of the global left — and of left-libertarian groups in particular — as a symbol of resistance. It was not without reason that the Turkish Marxist-Leninist group MLKP, which joined the YPG/YPJ on the battlefield, raised the flag of the Spanish Republic over the ruins of the city on the day of its liberation while calling for the formation of International Brigades, following the example of the Spanish Revolution. It was not necessarily the battle for Kobani itself, but the libertarian essence of the cantons of Rojava, the implementation of direct democracy at the grassroots, and the participation of women in the autonomous government that gave grounds to such historical comparisons.

Until The Pipeline Is No More

December 9, 2014 Kevin Woster, www.westcoastnativenews.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Resistance

A small group of Native Americans opposing the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline continue to occupy a protest camp northwest of Winner. A handful of protesters have been at the Spirit Camp every day since March, although the camp population increases for events and gatherings. The camp is on tribal land along the route of the proposed pipeline, near the Rosebud Reservation. Campers have persevered through blizzards, heat waves and rain storms, as well as what they call the theft of large bales from the camp wind breaks. But camp spokesman Gary Dorr says they won’t leave.

Gaza’s Resistance Paradigm

August 8, 2014 Ramzy Baroud, www.atimes.com Strategize! Israel, Palestine, Resistance

"Where is the Palestinian Gandhi? In Israeli prison, of course!," was the title of an article by Jo Ehrlich published in Modoweiss.net on December 21, 2009. That was almost exactly one year after Israel's concluded a major war against Gaza. The so-called Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008 - January 18, 2009) was, till then, the deadliest Israeli attack against the impoverished strip for many years. Ehrlich was not in the least being belittling by raising the question about the "Palestinian Gandhi" but responding to the patronization of others. Right from the onset, he remarked: "Not that I'm in any way playing into the Palestinian Gandhi dialogue, I think it's actually pretty diversionary/racist. But sometimes you have to laugh in order not to cry." Indeed, the question was and remains condescending, ignorant, patronizing and utterly racist. But the question was also pervasive, including among people who classify themselves as "pro-Palestinian activists".

Sonoma County Says ‘No’ To Walmart

July 19, 2014 Martin J. Bennett, www.beyondchron.org Resist! Inequality, Resistance, Walmart

Wal-Mart has again submitted a proposal to expand its existing discount store in Rohnert Park into a supercenter, selling both general merchandise and groceries. In 2010, widespread organized opposition across Sonoma County and a successful lawsuit derailed the project. Much has changed since Wal-Mart first proposed a supercenter five years ago in Rohnert Park–and the ongoing campaign by a broad coalition of labor, faith, environmental, and community-based organizations to oppose the project has implications for the entire state, if not the nation. For the past five quarters Wal-Mart has experienced falling sales. The retail giant is desperate to expand its market share in large metropolitan regions like the greater San Francisco Bay area. To penetrate metro regions Wal-Mart seeks to increase both the number of supercenters with groceries and to construct 40,000-square-foot ‘Neighborhood’ grocery stores—as Wal-Mart’s grocery sales climbed from 7 percent nationwide in 2002 to 18 percent in 2011. Hence, in addition to proposing the first supercenter in the North Bay (i.e. Marin and Sonoma counties), Wal-Mart is building a ‘small mart’ grocery store in Rohnert Park, also the first in the two counties.

World Bankers Expect Protests Are Coming

July 19, 2014 Andrew Gavin Marshall, www.occupy.com Resist! Bank, Mass Movement, Resistance

These two groups – financial institutions and the consultants that advise them – play key roles in the spread of institutionalized corporate and financial power, and as such, warnings from these groups about the threat posed by “social unrest” carry particular weight as they are geared toward a particular audience: the global oligarchy itself. Organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank were responsible for forcing neoliberal economic “restructuring” on much of the developing world from the 1980s onwards, as the IMF and E.U. are currently imposing on Greece and large parts of Europe. The results have been and continue to be devastating for populations, while corporations and banks accumulate unprecedented wealth and power. As IMF austerity programs spread across the globe, poverty followed, and so too did protests and rebellion. Between 1976 and 1992, there were 146 protests against IMF-sponsored programs in 39 different countries around the world, often resulting in violent state repression of the domestic populations (cited explicitly by Firoze Manji and Carl O’Coill in “The Missionary Position: NGOs and Development in Africa,” International Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 3, 2002).

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