Morning Comrades, the entire new Riot drop is now online and available for your consideration. Hit the above picture to be taken directly to the online store. As always, thank you for your support and should you have any question, please drop me a line.
There is a wad of great material I will write about and share with you, hence the usual selection of rage posts falling a little short but I figure this material is more important and can take you through the entire weekend.
Crimethinc recently put out a great account of the Québec City Protests in April 2001, often called the great Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Offensive. At the time it certainly was the biggest gathering of anti-capitalists and anarchists in North America and this account makes for not only riveting reading, but is packed with valuable insights in regards to both what did and did not work. Hugely important for any and all future get togethers.
This story has truly left me incredibly confused, but even at the time of writing this I cannot find any source that refutes this. Apparently, the US Postal Service has a law enforcement arm, what for I am hugely unsure about, especially considering the wide and unnecessary plethora of 3 letter “security” agencies already in existence. Even wilder, this USPS law enforcement arm
has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.
The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public. The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies.
By all means, click the above link to read more, but I am still confused or even unsure if this is real or not. In a slightly paranoid sense this feels like a red herring considering the effort to discredit and sell the USPS by the Trump administration but on the other hand I have entire books on the serious wild und unstable shit the majority of the US government got up to since WW2 so you never can be too sure.
In another effort to keep you dear Comrades away from mind numbing propaganda on offer from your friendly streaming services, here are 4 recommendations for your weekend.
Seeing that the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising just passed a few days ago, I wanted to share this extremely good documentary on said uprising. It is beyond important to keep the crimes committed by Germany in memory. I grew up in Warsaw, and this is extremely close to home. Not easy to watch, but just that important.
This next documentary is a few years old but still very accurate about what is going on in Argentina, why, the insidious role of the IMF and the global north west. “From Ecuador to Chile, Haiti to Argentina ordinary people have had enough of rising inequality, hunger, and poverty. redfish went to Argentina to look at how IMF-imposed austerity and President Mauricio Macri's neoliberal policies have brought thousands onto the streets. We also uncovered how a U.S. backed resurgence of Latin America's right-wing is destroying the environment and threatening the continent's natural resources.”
Late one evening in the summer of 1976, a Howard University student named Melvin Lindsey was tapped to fill in as a host at WHUR, the university-owned Black radio station. He chose a lineup of his favorite R&B ballads to soundtrack Washington, DC, that evening. The show was an accidental success. Shortly thereafter he was hired, and his show had a name: The Quiet Storm. Quiet Storm radio shows have since become a staple of Black communities across the United States. In the video above Estelle Caswell, along with ethnomusicologist Fredara Hadley, break down exactly what makes Quiet Storm such a beloved black radio tradition. Also featured in the episode are radio hosts, Angela Stribling, Al Wood, and John Monds.
This is another documentary that is connected to a significant personal history and most definitely worth anyone’s time. Exarchia is Athens' popular neighbourhood known for being a rebellious stronghold of anarchist collectives, anti-fascist movements and home to many refugees. But Greece's government is on a mission to take control of the community by raiding squats and pushing gentrification that is threatening the soul of this district.
There is a good chance that you’ll see a return of Sunday’s Fuckening Dump considering the sheer amount I haven’t been able to share with you this week, so keep an eye out for that.