Vancouver: In Defence of the Diversity of Tactics

By Alex Hundert, Infoshop News

Judy Rebick, from her office in downtown Toronto, complained that “when a spontaneous anger against the Black Bloc emerged on social media, people berated us for ‘dividing the movement.'” She says that, in fact, “it is the Black Bloc that is dividing the movement.” She is wrong.

I have been involved in a wide array of coalitions on various issues over the past half decade, and never have I witnessed cross-movement solidarity like I have in the anti-Olympics campaign. In southern Ontario, as in Vancouver, radical groups from a variety of locations in the broader movement have come together to start to develop a shared anti-colonial analysis. This solidarity and unity, on the anti-colonial front, is deeper and stronger now than it has been at any point in the last 10 years.

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Reflections on the 2010 Olympic Resistance

The purpose of demonstrations & transcending the police

From Liberty Unchained, Friday, February 26, 2010

So, this weekend the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver will come to an end. This is, no doubt, the only certain ending for a variety matters that have coalesced around this year’s games. Future iterations of the olympic games will continue to serve as a spectacle to celebrate the state and an occasion to expand global capital. And, perhaps equally depressing, is the prospect that the next sizable mass protest will inevitably touch off another round of the circular firing squad that seems to accompany any radical demonstration nowadays.

The Courage to Speak Truth to Power

The more we challenge the status quo, the more the entrenched powers resist and attack us. Fortunately, social justice is not a popularity contest.

Activism is healing, spiritual growth, self-defense, and it’s protecting our future.

I gave the following speech as the homily for the Capital Unitarian congregation. January 10, 2009, Victoria, BC

Thank you for the opportunity to launch my speaking career. Some of you may know me as a writer and an advocate for social and environmental justice. I’m also available for workshops, interviews, conferences, writing and editing, cat-sitting, domestic help, and other odd jobs. (Laughter) I knew when I started out in this line that I would never be a millionaire and I was right. But I have a certain freedom and flexibility that your average millionaire might envy.

The market demand for social justice advocates is huge right now. It’s a growth industry. And the job security is fantastic – there is no shortage of urgent issues demanding our attention. Experience is not necessary, people come to activism at every age and stage in their lives. It’s that easy!

Love letters and hate mail from the Wild Coast

I get love letters. I get death threats. Out here on Coast Salish territory — Vancouver Island, British Columbia — land barons and developers are rushing to carve up the last of the Wild West frontier. Cold cash and brute force have always worked to subdue the land and anyone in their way … until now. The bullies have met their match! It’s a fascinating time for environmental activists on Canada’s west coast.

Here’s a few highlights from the blog archives:

I’m No Action Hero

Great Bear Rainforest: The Clearcut Truth

Direct Action is the Antidote to Despair

Interview with the Earth Liberation Front

Killing Spotted Owls with Chainsaws

Derrick Jensen: This Abusive Civilization

Kwakiutl: We are Going to Start Fighting

First Nations Activist Dies After Release from Jail

Squat or Die

Enjoy!

Zoe Blunt is a contributor to Guerrilla News. Read more at her blog, Wild Coast…

GreenPeace/GreenPolice: Communique of Copenhagen Black Bloc

This communique was given out by a portion of the Black Bloc during the march to the Bella Centre on Saturday at the protests against the U.N. COP-15. Shortly after releasing this communique, windows of the Danish stock exchange and Foreign Ministry were broken. When the police attempted arrests, the Black Bloc was physically prevented by some members of Climate Justice Action from joining the “System Change Not Climate Change” bloc. While the COP15 is over, the debate over the role of internal policing and the “non-violence” code of Climate Justice Action has just begun in the European autonomous movements.

Amongst thousands of people who want to save the world, we are getting together to march to the Bella Centre, but something feels wrong. The slogans just seem too familiar. “Traditional wisdom and new technology must go hand in hand.” Haven’t we been reading them on the ads all over town?

A Crucial Message from Rising Tide North America

A crucial year end message from Rising Tide North America

Greetings friends and supporters of Rising Tide North America!

Would you like to see RTNA continue to grow and build its network of groups and individuals striking directly at the root causes of climate change? RTNA is humbly asking you, your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to support our grassroots efforts by putting your money where your heart is.

RTNA fills a niche in the fight for Climate Justice that is very hard to raise money for the traditional way since we advocate non-violent direct action and loudly oppose corporate power: as such your involvement in our work is essential to our success.

Denver anarchist held without bail in Copenhagen: Call for Solidarity!

From our comrades at the Denver Anarchist Black Cross:

Today we learned that an anarchist comrade and dear friend of ours has been arrested on two charges at the ongoing Cop15 actions in Copenhagen, Denmark and will be held without possibility of bail for at least three weeks. Solidarity in the form of letters of support (free to send), as well as legal donations, is urgently needed.

Noah “Rockslide” of Denver, Colorado moved to Copenhagen several months ago and has been active in the organizing of resistance to the Cop 15 Summit. He has been arrested and charged with two counts (one is the Danish equivalent of a felony, the other a misdemeanor): Violence Towards Police and Disturbing the Public Peace. He is being held on remand at a jail outside Copenhagen awaiting a preliminary hearing on Jan 4th 2009, when he will be able make a petition for his release. It is possible that this preliminary hearing could be his trial, though this is unexpected because they normally take longer to prepare and the courts will be on holiday because of Christmas.

Direct Action, Liberation and the Need to Persist

Miller (left) poses with “Bambi,” one of the props that he and activists Anthony Marr (right)–the most hated anti-hunting activist in North America–and Anthony Damiano used in a campaign Miller spear-headed against a deer cull as they gathered in Kansas City to found the Global Ant-Hunting Coalition, of which all three are board members.

An interview with Jason Miller exploring radical dissent and animal liberation

By Frank Joseph Smecker, 11/3/09

Jason Miller, Senior Editor and Founder of the radical blog, Thomas Paine’s Corner, is a tenacious forty-something vegan straight edge activist who lives in Kansas and who has a boundless passion for animal liberation and anti-capitalism. Addicted to reading and learning, he is mostly an autodidact, but he has also studied liberal arts and philosophy at the University of Missouri Kansas City.

An accomplished and prolific essayist on social and political issues, his writings have appeared on hundreds of alternative media websites over the last few years. He is also a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office and the founder of Bite Club of KC, a grassroots animal rights activist group.

CrimethInc. – The Climate Is Changing

In the past few years, scientific consensus has finally emerged that global warming is taking place as a result of industrial capitalism and with dire consequences for life on earth. Corporate efforts to bribe scientists to argue otherwise are attracting fewer and fewer takers; this is especially telling in view of how many researchers depend on industry backing. But rather than engaging with the fact that capitalism itself is destructive, governments and liberal environmentalists are promoting corporate responses to the problems posed by climate change.

This week, representatives of governments around the world are meeting in Copenhagen for the COP15, ostensibly to make decisions on how to respond to the climate crisis. The results are bound to cater to the agenda of corporate interests hoping to legitimize carbon trading and other false solutions. Fortunately, anarchists and other opponents of self-inflicted extinction will be there to crash the party.

Comrades have published a full-length critique of the prevailing narratives around climate change, Introduction to the Apocalypse [PDF, 1 MB]. Likewise, we’ve added new material to our online reading library addressing the issues:

The Climate Is Changing & A Field Guide to False Solutions

COP15: Be part of the party!

Copenhagen – COP15 – World Climate Summit

On December 12th 2009 a mass demonstration against the COP15 Climate Summit will take place in Copenhagen. A mixture of very different people, groups and organizations are going to participate.

Unfortunately, the official route of the demonstration will directly lead out of the city centre into a barren part of town around the conference building, where it is going to end. It will also not be possible for us to change our mind on the way and turn around in order to bring our protest to public places, as after 30 minutes the demonstration will cross a draw-bridge, which can prevent us from returning to the inner city in the blink of an eye. This is why we think it is important to make up our minds beforehand, which way we want to go.

All information about travel, sleeping places, legal rights, actions, maps, food, medics, etc. can be found at www.climate-justice-action.org.