Morning Comrades.
We are snowed in here in Hamburg and after a rough-ish past week at work my brain is a little jumbled this morning, but bear with me. There have been some uncalled for thoughts in regards to getting old(er?) these past few months that I am still trying to make sense of and I’d be lying if those aren’t occupying a lot RAM space up there. More on those later.
Secondly, I am very happy to say that I will be spending a good portion of the day working on a collaborative piece with Alex - whom I am have recommended to you on here before and shall do so again
This piece will be heading to your inbox this week, snow or no snow, there is plenty of coffee, cigarettes and scotch in this humble home. But then returning to today’s very jumbled reality- obviously, and how could it be otherwise, Israel’s ongoing genocidal rampage in Gaza, as well as the West Bank, continues to impossible to ignore, and it shouldn’t. Over the past few decades of protesting, organizing and generally being fucked off with our respective ruling classes I have noticed, one, how very little any of this wrk achieves and secondly, how, after said decades, I am now 2-3 generations deep in witnessing the destructive effect it has on non-parliamentary opposition, no matter where. The key in understanding this has always been the same. If they let you, they aren’t threatened and the needed change will never happen. Reform, as Luxemburg put it, is delusional disease of the white western world that still believes that if they only obey hard enough they can and will benefit. As important as any and all protest is, one always has to remember that, marches, online petitions and sharing stupid bullshit on socials that exist solely for aggrandizement of its creator, are allowed vents from the ruling classes. As long as we argue within the pre-set confines of their existence, nothing will change for the better. With that, and aside from the work that is happening with Alex I will set aside some time to look at tactics that can and have worked, specifically as it relates to this current genocide.
For now, a few more thoughts on the above.
“What presents itself to us as bourgeois legality is nothing but the violence of the ruling class, a violence raised to an obligatory norm from the outset.”
Rosa Luxemburg
I have long since argued that any level of legality, the idea of rights and protections even against an overarching state here in the West, is nothing but an illusion. An illusion created by the property owning classes to give an appearance of moral righteousness that argues their case, that argues for the reality that we are being ruled by people whose interests are directly opposed to ours. Anyone that has ever taken up against the interest of this class in whatever shape or form will at some point in their activities have been confronted with the reality that “law and order” only applies to people that follow these rules, no matter how immoral they are. Up until 9/11, across the West, dissent against the interests of the ruling classes was accepted to a point, but all masks went off after that fateful date. We have witnessed the greatest erosion of privacy, “rights” and “freedoms” since then. Granted this process has also not been linear but the end goal has always been clear:
Growth and the continuous increase of profits will be protected by ANY MEANS POSSIBLE.
Make no mistake, any culture war and actual war distraction is irrelevant in their subjective story, ultimately, it all boils down to profit and the security of said profit. The state, our elected officials, the entire concept that they have sold us called democracy is nothing but a smoke screen to hide this ugly fact, that we, who create this profit, exist solely to produce and consume for them. Any dissent up until a few years ago was met with the intensity of the the state’s power, from defamation through their press ( oh some rich famous person did x - nah, they didn’t ) to disappearance and torture ( Guantanamo Bay is still open for business ) but at this point, with ever increasing pressures to maintain perpetual growth, the capital protecting operation, aka, our democracy, is deciding that all pretence of social liberal democracies are pointless and with that we are at the point where we not only need to draw a proverbial line in the sand, but acknowledge the fact that the infamous day x is here and we need to act accordingly.
When the German government decides to jail a young person and labelling them a terrorist, without any real substantial evidence for 5 years for allegedly using potential deadly force against known violent neo-nazis all masks are off.
When, in the US, three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund are arrested by Atlanta Police officers and stand accused of money laundering and charity fraud, when in reality they were collecting money for Bail Funds, all Masks are off.
When, in the UK, the secret police can arrest and disappear you for merely planning a protest, all masks are off.
Obviously, I could name thousands of additional examples right across every damn country in the so called free West but these three are closest to my own personal home.
We absolutely have to face the fact that the ruling class is in a deeply entrenched intersectional class war against all of us, especially those of us who dare speak up against them. I specifically use the term intersectional because they are fighting a multi-dimensional war on all fronts. Economically, Culturally and Politically. They know they are losing and shit is only going to get real, real soon. If anything it is my duty to say so, I know enough of you to not only care, but know what you are potentially affiliated with. To be absolutely clear, (Capitalist) democracy is a brilliant scheme for the ruling class because it gives off the appearance of freedom via constitutional documents, legal systems, voting, and a variety of supposed civil/human rights. However, beneath the facade is an extremely strict power dynamic represented primarily by class distinctions. We are repressed and controlled in nearly every way possible within this arrangement. Injustice is a daily part of our lives that we learn to accept in an attempt to survive the drudgery. In some instances, where gross injustices occur, we are awarded the "right" to appeal to the systems that exist on the surface, but this "right" always places the burden of proof on us.
It is incredibly rare for any sort of justice to materialize against a powerful state/class that has seemingly unlimited amounts of time, money, energy, and resources to oppose us. In this never ending, losing scenario, the ruling class and all of their institutions that including schools and media can simply say: "we gave you inalienable rights and encourage you to use them if you feel wronged," knowing very well these rights, and the systems put in place to exercise them, are nothing but manufactured deadends hidden behind virtual freeways.
It is an Intersectional Class War and we need to get our shit together now to oppose their insanity. I say, if they want a fight, and clearly they do, they can have one.
Yours, dusting off the knuckle dusters once again,
V.