White Bloc?

Instead of rioting and causing property destruction that is rarely interpreted properly, here's a thought.


Position yourself between the police  and the peaceful protesters. Act as a barrier between the police and those who want to have their peaceful say so they may actually do so. Link arms, sit down, but do not antagonize. Perhaps use that time to engage the officers in dialoge but don't be an ass about it.

Force the police to strike the first blow. For this to work it must be clear that they acted first, unprovoked and our response is measured. The key is to not antagonize. Allow them to increase the tension and and respond  in kind. Tactics will be met with equal tactics.

Love will be met with love. Fists will be met with fists. Tasers and tear gas will be met with equivalent tactics. But that is not that goal. The goal is to protect the peaceful protesters from the repressive forces that would shut us all up permanatly.

(The whole efficacy of marching is up for debate in my mind but that's another post.)

garfield without the star

World Burns To Death - Death Is Psychosomatic

We discussed the lyrics to this song in class today :D

Tomorow I'm going to play it...

Lizards Have Personalities

For some reason I only recently started listening to screamo. One of the first bands I discovered is a three piece from Kansas called Lizards Have Personalities. They've put out two eps now, In All Honesty and Snows Of Kilimanjaro.

In All Honesty doesn't really sound like screamo to me. Andrew's voice isn't quite in that unintelligible scream, more of a post-hardcore raspy style vocal. A a slightly tuneful Cedric Bixler-Zavala perhaps. It was the guitar that drew me in though. I was expecting the same thing every other band does, alternating raging power chords with softer picking parts. And there were definitely some bits that worked that, The Heart's Descent is really only half a good song, but on the whole it sounds like a really solid post-hardcore album.

They've put their music out for free so buy a t-shirt or something. These guys hopefully have the chops to go the distance.

"But nothing is set in stone/The center can not hold./By now you've come to know,/We're floating lifeless and alone."

Garfield without you know you who

Exposing the inner schizophrenia of one Jon Arbuckle

ThisIsPossible

There's a difference between the army and the police. The first is intended as a defensive force, guns pointed out towards the enemy. The other is an offensive force with their guns pointed at us, forcing us to obey their laws.

If we are to have nations then we must have borders. If we must have borders then we must at the very least have a force to defend said borders. I speak from a Canadian perspective, it is imperative we have an armed force at our border to prevent American aggression and to limit the flow of guns and hard drugs into Canada. That force, designed to protect the population and aim their guns outward, is never used by a legitimate government to attack their own people. I believe that most reasonable people would see that as an act of aggression by their government and rise up in some fashion. But as long as the army is protecting the population and not engaging civilians they are loved and venerated.

The police are completely different. They are an armed force with their guns pointed at those within their own society. They are group of selected individuals, trained to attack civilians. They carry weapons designed to instil compliance and fear and have the authority to ruin lives on a whim.

If you are wrongfully arrested, as millions are every year, you will probably lose your job. You can say goodbye to any chance at a governmental scholarship if you are young. Even if the charges are dropped against you the arrest will show up on any background checks required for future employment.

We have a multitude of gangs in our world. Depending on your definition everything from a Warrior Society to the Hell's Angels to the 16 year olds hanging out down the block constitute a gang. But only one hides behind a shield. Only one has the governments backing to shoot you dead on a whim. Only one wears a uniform and claims to be protecting us.

They protect us by shooting us. Or by locking us up in prison. Prison does nothing except turn petty thieves into career criminals. Prisons are universities of crime with free tuition, room and board provided by your government. Doesn't sound like much protection to me.

So where do we go from here? Certainly not by shooting at or ambushing police officers. For whatever reason they have decided to put their lives on the line to defend our democracy, or at least they believe that I hope. And that, at the very least, is worthy of a modicum of respect. To truly fuck the police we must get rid of them. We must show them that another world is possible. One where they are not needed.

A world where a lady doesn't need to steal a can of meat so she can feed her child. A world where a father of three doesn't have to rob a liquor store to feed his kids because he got fired from the plant. And that my friends, is up you.

kronstadt

I am an anarchist because I scorn and detest all authority, since all authority is founded on injustice, exploitation, and compulsion over the human personality. Authority dehumanizes the individual and makes him a slave.
I am opponent of private property when it is held by individual capitalists for private property is theft.
I am an anarchist because I am subject to unstinting criticism and censure mainstream morality as well as religion which shrouds the human personality in darkness and prevents its independent development.
I am an anarchist because I a can not remain silent while the propertied class oppresses and humiliates the property less workers and peasants. In such circumstances only corpses can remains silent, not live human beings.
I am an anarchist because I believe in the truth of the anarchist ideal, which seeks to liberate mankind from the authority of capitalism and the deception of religion.
I am an anarchist because I believe only in the creative powers and independence of a united working class not in the leaders of the parties or government.


- A Russian Soldier