“I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday...If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had on Friday, I’m just telling you, I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday. Our university has to be better than it is, and it needs all of the community to come together to do that. We need to work together."
-UC Davis Chancellor Katehi, Refusing To Quit, Nov 2011
“We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret, and we apologize." [Goldman Sachs is committed] “to working constructively with regulators and policymakers to address systemic weaknesses and gaps that may have contributed to the financial crisis.”
-Lloyd Blankfein, Refusing to Lower Goldman Sachs Bonuses, Nov 2009
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The First Shot of Occupied Cinema
The naked dialectics (riot police bisected by the graffitti that they can't see: "This is ours"), the earnest statement of legitimacy ("is this ok?"), the malicious systemic anonymity of police violence (You can see the rubber bullet's chem trail for fucks sake!).
The long, shaky single-shot that feels genuine but also visually purposed, well prepared and placed, the almost perfect conclusion of the shot's implicit (but mounting, because we've all seen the title of the video, and let's not pretend we didn't click through and don't know what the ending is gonna be) tension in the explosion of pain and the implosion of visual experience into empathetic anger and cursing.
The desire it creates to get out there and stop those fucking pigs.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what an Occupied Cinema would look like. I'm pretty sure this is the first we've seen of it.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
To Jeremy Kessler, Cop Loving Sycophant and Classist Coward
Dear Jeremy,
I'm writing in response to your latest piece of drivel on Occupy Wall Street's relationship to the police, this time at LA Review of Books. I had hoped that Bernes, Clover, and McClanahan's completely excellent takedown of your bull shit meant we wouldn't have to hear from you for a while while you licked your wounds. Alas, we are not so lucky.
Your explanation of Washington Square Park reveals just how little you understand the relationship between protesters and the police. The protesters in the park (more like 1000, btw) were shown the spectacle of total force by police gathered at the North and South entrances. There were easily 300 cops, with horses, police buses, vans and cruisers massing around Washington Square Park from 11 pm onward. There was no media to film the arrests that were about to occur. The cops had their batons out. In other words, they were ready to beat the shit out of us and arrest us all. It was gonna be a massacre.
So what did protesters do? We made a decision. We took four snake marches out of the park, right past the piggies all in a row. The cops, prepared for a showdown in the park and wanting to evict us, let us march out, and then were stuck at the park, unable to catch up with our marches. We outmaneuvered them, and for an hour marchers took the streets of the Lower East Side, Chinatown and the Financial District with barely any police presence.
This is what resisting arrest means. Not waiting for the cops to come at you. Not 'resisting police violence' as you put it, but flanking it, escaping the possibility of it, outwitting the police and leaving them alone with nothing but their batons in their hands.
As for your disdainful, classist assumption that the people aren't ready for more serious action, and they just want to march on the sidewalk and hold hands with cops and sing about the 99%, well, who were all those hundreds on those marches? Why do actions like the Brooklyn Bridge or Tony-Baloney's pepper spray marathon increase numbers and coverage, while huge numbered but peaceful, sidewalk bound, sit-in style actions like the march to 1 Police Plaza do not?
Most notably absent (from both articles, actually) is the role of police violence in the lives of minorities, the poor, and women. The 'middle-class' that would be alienated by anti-police action is much smaller numerically and much less diverse than the group of people who see the cops (correctly) as a force of oppression and routinized daily violence in their lives.
There has been a lot of hand-wringing over the absence of genuine proletariat at OWS, and much of this has been ascribed to the lack of a coherent message. But that's goofy. One of the major reasons, if not the major reason, you don't have the poor and minorities at Zuccotti Park in high numbers is because it is completely ringed by police, because people dont stop cops from coming into the square and arresting protesters, because it is, in fact, an unsafe place if you feel even remotely unsafe around the police. Which, if you have lived the kind of life experienced by the vast majority of this city, you do.
Cops, the only people in society who walk around with a utility belt of lethal weapons, produce violence. They make marches unsafe: so far no one has been hurt because they marched too fast into a wall. It is the police who make OWS unsafe, not the actions of the people, and to pretend otherwise is to collaborate.
That's how it works, Jeremy. The cops are not just the boys in blue. There's a little cop inside all of us, and we have to kill him. In your case, he seems to be at the controls. You might want to do something about that. If not, please spare us your belabored sincerity that amounts to little more than apologizing to the powers that be for protesting.
Love,
WHO Was Here
I'm writing in response to your latest piece of drivel on Occupy Wall Street's relationship to the police, this time at LA Review of Books. I had hoped that Bernes, Clover, and McClanahan's completely excellent takedown of your bull shit meant we wouldn't have to hear from you for a while while you licked your wounds. Alas, we are not so lucky.
Your explanation of Washington Square Park reveals just how little you understand the relationship between protesters and the police. The protesters in the park (more like 1000, btw) were shown the spectacle of total force by police gathered at the North and South entrances. There were easily 300 cops, with horses, police buses, vans and cruisers massing around Washington Square Park from 11 pm onward. There was no media to film the arrests that were about to occur. The cops had their batons out. In other words, they were ready to beat the shit out of us and arrest us all. It was gonna be a massacre.
So what did protesters do? We made a decision. We took four snake marches out of the park, right past the piggies all in a row. The cops, prepared for a showdown in the park and wanting to evict us, let us march out, and then were stuck at the park, unable to catch up with our marches. We outmaneuvered them, and for an hour marchers took the streets of the Lower East Side, Chinatown and the Financial District with barely any police presence.
This is what resisting arrest means. Not waiting for the cops to come at you. Not 'resisting police violence' as you put it, but flanking it, escaping the possibility of it, outwitting the police and leaving them alone with nothing but their batons in their hands.
As for your disdainful, classist assumption that the people aren't ready for more serious action, and they just want to march on the sidewalk and hold hands with cops and sing about the 99%, well, who were all those hundreds on those marches? Why do actions like the Brooklyn Bridge or Tony-Baloney's pepper spray marathon increase numbers and coverage, while huge numbered but peaceful, sidewalk bound, sit-in style actions like the march to 1 Police Plaza do not?
Most notably absent (from both articles, actually) is the role of police violence in the lives of minorities, the poor, and women. The 'middle-class' that would be alienated by anti-police action is much smaller numerically and much less diverse than the group of people who see the cops (correctly) as a force of oppression and routinized daily violence in their lives.
There has been a lot of hand-wringing over the absence of genuine proletariat at OWS, and much of this has been ascribed to the lack of a coherent message. But that's goofy. One of the major reasons, if not the major reason, you don't have the poor and minorities at Zuccotti Park in high numbers is because it is completely ringed by police, because people dont stop cops from coming into the square and arresting protesters, because it is, in fact, an unsafe place if you feel even remotely unsafe around the police. Which, if you have lived the kind of life experienced by the vast majority of this city, you do.
Cops, the only people in society who walk around with a utility belt of lethal weapons, produce violence. They make marches unsafe: so far no one has been hurt because they marched too fast into a wall. It is the police who make OWS unsafe, not the actions of the people, and to pretend otherwise is to collaborate.
That's how it works, Jeremy. The cops are not just the boys in blue. There's a little cop inside all of us, and we have to kill him. In your case, he seems to be at the controls. You might want to do something about that. If not, please spare us your belabored sincerity that amounts to little more than apologizing to the powers that be for protesting.
Love,
WHO Was Here
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Things are Getting Very Interesting Indeed
Wednesday, October 5th. 20,000 people gather for a Union rally in support of Occupy Wall Street, fed by a steady stream of students walking out of their colleges and high schools, who took the streets on their own marches to Foley Square. Permitted, the 20,000 were kept off the streets by police barricades, and shuffled slowly down sidewalks crammed with people towards Zuccotti Park. The numbers were incredible, but the march was boring, kind of wack.
A two hour general assembly.
Two snake marches take off from Zuccotti headed into the financial district. One stopped at Wall St. and Broadway, about 400 people milling around Broadway, sitting briefly, yelling at Wall St, then standing up again, working up the courage to try and take it. Someone tried to Mic Check (clearly now a tool of de-escalation, control) but they were drowned out by someone starting a countdown. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. CHARGE!!!!" People surged forward, and knocked down one barricade. They were immediately met with a cloud of pepper spray. A white shirt, as fat as all of them are, started swinging his baton in a 180° arc, slamming anyone around him, including two reporters who got hit in the gut.
Police helicopters buzzed constantly, the chop chop chop echoing through the canyons of the financial district, making it feel like a war zone.
A pair of kids in goggles clambered on top of a police car and jumped up and down.
A line of about 10 police on vespas drove into a crowd of 70 protesters. Rather than flee, the protesters held their ground, and the police panicked, stepping off their bikes. Protesters began knocking over the bikes, kicking them, fucking up their shit.
Five breakaway marches, six breakaway marches, lines of protesters snaked nervously through the financial district in every direction. I peeled out of one, waited at a corner for friends, only to find another coming from the other direction.
The people's mic is failing in Zuccotti, so people set up projectors displaying 30 foot tall messages on the walls of Men's Warehouse. "Great job guys! These marches look great!"
A cop is caught on camera saying "my little nightstick is gonna get a workout tonight."
The cops beat a man with nightsticks so badly that major hematomas form on his forehead and cheek. As he's being lead into a cop car, he cant focus his eyes.
A group of kids sprint through the streets, followed half a block behind by wheezing fat cops.
The last march, heading back to Zuccotti up Broadway, is about 50 protesters and 60 police.
Back at Zuccotti, the night is relatively peaceful. People eat food, and snuggle up against the cold.
Something is happening in the Financial District, something more than just a General Assembly based sit-in calling itself an occupation. You should be there.
A two hour general assembly.
Two snake marches take off from Zuccotti headed into the financial district. One stopped at Wall St. and Broadway, about 400 people milling around Broadway, sitting briefly, yelling at Wall St, then standing up again, working up the courage to try and take it. Someone tried to Mic Check (clearly now a tool of de-escalation, control) but they were drowned out by someone starting a countdown. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. CHARGE!!!!" People surged forward, and knocked down one barricade. They were immediately met with a cloud of pepper spray. A white shirt, as fat as all of them are, started swinging his baton in a 180° arc, slamming anyone around him, including two reporters who got hit in the gut.
Police helicopters buzzed constantly, the chop chop chop echoing through the canyons of the financial district, making it feel like a war zone.
A pair of kids in goggles clambered on top of a police car and jumped up and down.
A line of about 10 police on vespas drove into a crowd of 70 protesters. Rather than flee, the protesters held their ground, and the police panicked, stepping off their bikes. Protesters began knocking over the bikes, kicking them, fucking up their shit.
Five breakaway marches, six breakaway marches, lines of protesters snaked nervously through the financial district in every direction. I peeled out of one, waited at a corner for friends, only to find another coming from the other direction.
The people's mic is failing in Zuccotti, so people set up projectors displaying 30 foot tall messages on the walls of Men's Warehouse. "Great job guys! These marches look great!"
A cop is caught on camera saying "my little nightstick is gonna get a workout tonight."
The cops beat a man with nightsticks so badly that major hematomas form on his forehead and cheek. As he's being lead into a cop car, he cant focus his eyes.
A group of kids sprint through the streets, followed half a block behind by wheezing fat cops.
The last march, heading back to Zuccotti up Broadway, is about 50 protesters and 60 police.
Back at Zuccotti, the night is relatively peaceful. People eat food, and snuggle up against the cold.
Something is happening in the Financial District, something more than just a General Assembly based sit-in calling itself an occupation. You should be there.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
2012 Elections: The Candidates
Mitt Romney
Rick Santorum
Rick Perry
Michelle Bachman
Newt Gingrich
Ron Paul
Barack Obama
Rick Santorum
Rick Perry
Michelle Bachman
Newt Gingrich
Ron Paul
Barack Obama
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Fuck 9/11
Never Forget is a mass neurotic project, a prolonging of libidinal despair. Remember when we felt something, together, as a nation? Remember when those people died for us? Remember how fucking good it felt to feel so bad? So real? Never let that go.
Never Forget really means Always Be Ready to Re-Remember, be prepared to reactivate the fear, anger, and sexual anguish (what were the Twin Towers but two giant cocks?) of that day. 'Let's be who we were on September 12, 2001'.
Never Forget is a political project, the only successful justification for the War in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Bradley Manning, etc. 'Never Forget' we are reminded cyclically, annually, and in between anniversaries we forget, forget even about 'Never Forget', because we don't have jobs or futures or any goddamn money.
But then, right around the start of football season, we are reminded of our national impotence, we are asked to feel guilty about our failure to feel sad all the time, to be ashamed of our inability to be constantly, habitually enthralled to the erotics of national mourning. Never Forget is a sexual project. How dare you be aroused when New York was so violently, doubly castrated? You monster!
Our nation had its boner destroyed, and you need to be able to recall that on a moment's notice, so that when we strip a brown man nude put his head in a bag and put a leash around his neck, you'll understand that that's the only possible revenge, we need to retake erotic empowerment, we need to fuck our way through the globe, but we wont even cum, we can't anymore, we can just dress them up like Osama Bin-Laden and fuck them till their assholes bleed.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Incredibly Important Talk From Evan Calder Williams and China Mieville
Salvage Punk from Mute Publishing on Vimeo.
Theorist Evan Calder Williams who blogs at Socialism and/or Barbarism and novelist China Mieville who writes at Rejectamentalist Manifesto (among many other excellent books and articles) present the birthgrave of Salvage Punk- a study they have built over the last couple of years and have come to reject, even as their book on the subject is being launched. In explaining their move away from Salvage Punk, they provide an incredible overview of the problems faced by and consuming leftist study, and provide tantalizing hints at left thought moving forward: swagger and sabotage.
Watch it. Watch all of it.
I won't address what they say, because they say it much better than I ever could, and you really need to watch this, but I will say that the Q + A section that makes up the last half of this video shows exactly why there's no reason left to talk to the academy. Imagine how much more productive this discussion would've been if they'd been talking to writers and artists involved in SalvagePunk rather than defensive, idiotic professors.
It's not Evan and China's fault, and I think they respond with more respect and serious consideration then their questioners earn--although I hope the next time they speak like this they're talking to intelligent people--but look how useless these academics are: they basically force Mieville and Williams to repeat themselves over and over again, unwilling to believe that limited cultural study is of limited use-value.
It's incredible to watch these two theorize us towards revolutionary action. In a year, these two will be calling us to the ramparts.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Introducing the New Leftist Essay Generator Service!
Want to write an essay for the left, but not sure how to go about doing it? Don't worry, we're scientific materialists, and as such, we've got screed writing down to a science. Take five minutes to choose one option from each of the following pull down menus:
Introductory Dead Theorist: This will frame your argument in your particular strand of ideology. Choosing two is always encouraged!
(Marx, Hegel, Freud, Kant, Nietszche, Engels [separate from Marx FTW], Spinoza)
Straw Man: These people are clearly idiots! Choose one of each for maximum effect.
(Anarchist [Debord, Bakunin, Stirner, Proudhon], Capitalist [Fukuyama, Reagan, Clinton, Thatcher] Communist [Mao, Stalin, Che])
Cultural Analogy: This will make you cool with the kids.
(Punk Rock lyric, Godard film, Brecht reference, five year old Hollywood movie)
Pull Through 'Current' Theorist: This person ideally modifies and improves upon your introductory theorist. Bonus points if you can make an oblique connection between the two!
(Foucault, Althusser, Badiou, Lenin, Zizek, Lacan, Trotsky, Mcluhan, Hardt + Negri)
Historical Leftist Event: This will show your historical knowledge, your sympathy with the cause, and give you an area in which to critique events and explain how you would do better!
(Paris Commune, 1848, French Revolution, May '68, Battle of Seattle, Russian Revolution, Cuban Revolution, The New Deal, 1905, Haitian Revolution)
Current Medium of Alienation: Which one really best reflects capitalist control, do you think? It doesn't matter, they all do! But focus on one so people know you're serious.
(Social Media, Cell Phones, 'The Internet', Television, Advertisement, News Media)
Buzzword: This is what, ultimately, it's really ALL ABOUT, summed up in a single word.
(Alienation, Globalization, Exploitation, Class War, Empire, Revolution)
Current Event that Instigated This Serious and Timely Essay: _____________________________
Once you've filled out these forms, click submit, give your credit card information (for a one-time charge of fifteen dollars) and in ten-fifteen minutes our staff of highly educated unemployable leftists will provide you with an essay to your exact specifications, which is yours to publish anywhere people aren't paid for writing.
Solidarity,
The Leftist Essay Internationale
Introductory Dead Theorist: This will frame your argument in your particular strand of ideology. Choosing two is always encouraged!
(Marx, Hegel, Freud, Kant, Nietszche, Engels [separate from Marx FTW], Spinoza)
Straw Man: These people are clearly idiots! Choose one of each for maximum effect.
(Anarchist [Debord, Bakunin, Stirner, Proudhon], Capitalist [Fukuyama, Reagan, Clinton, Thatcher] Communist [Mao, Stalin, Che])
Cultural Analogy: This will make you cool with the kids.
(Punk Rock lyric, Godard film, Brecht reference, five year old Hollywood movie)
Pull Through 'Current' Theorist: This person ideally modifies and improves upon your introductory theorist. Bonus points if you can make an oblique connection between the two!
(Foucault, Althusser, Badiou, Lenin, Zizek, Lacan, Trotsky, Mcluhan, Hardt + Negri)
Historical Leftist Event: This will show your historical knowledge, your sympathy with the cause, and give you an area in which to critique events and explain how you would do better!
(Paris Commune, 1848, French Revolution, May '68, Battle of Seattle, Russian Revolution, Cuban Revolution, The New Deal, 1905, Haitian Revolution)
Current Medium of Alienation: Which one really best reflects capitalist control, do you think? It doesn't matter, they all do! But focus on one so people know you're serious.
(Social Media, Cell Phones, 'The Internet', Television, Advertisement, News Media)
Buzzword: This is what, ultimately, it's really ALL ABOUT, summed up in a single word.
(Alienation, Globalization, Exploitation, Class War, Empire, Revolution)
Current Event that Instigated This Serious and Timely Essay: _____________________________
Once you've filled out these forms, click submit, give your credit card information (for a one-time charge of fifteen dollars) and in ten-fifteen minutes our staff of highly educated unemployable leftists will provide you with an essay to your exact specifications, which is yours to publish anywhere people aren't paid for writing.
Solidarity,
The Leftist Essay Internationale
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