Anarcho-Terrosism?

Steven Kurlander's "A Lesson of the Boston Bombings: Stop Classifying Criminal Anarchist Violence as Acts of War" is a real exercise in ignorance. According to Kurlander, "The Tsarnaev brothers were nothing more than immigrant anarchists carrying on a tradition of political violence, this time framed in religious fervor." To be fair, Kurlander believes "anarchist" is just another word for "terrorist":

Back in the early 20th century, "terrorists" were referred to as "anarchists" (basically the same thing) and carried out what would be termed these days as "acts of war."

Absent from Kurlander's spurious attempt to conflate anarchism with terrorism is the fact that anarchism gave rise to one of the nation's most peaceful social movements ever: Occupy Wall Street. Other anarchist groups like Food Not Bombs have been feeding people for decades. What is typically and falsely regarded as violence by anarchists is nearly always some form of destruction of property: smashing a window, sabotaging an animal trap, or destroying machines used to destroy our forests. Perhaps the most thoughtful reflection on the use of violence by anarchists can be found in Alexander Berkman's autobiographical "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist" where Berkman highlights the folly of his attempted assasination of the manager of Carnegie Steel. The act was largely repudiated by anarchists at the time and was a major source of growth for both Berkman and the iconic Emma Goldman.

More recently we have "You Can't Blow Up a Social Relationship" which was written over 30 years ago and yet remains as relevant as ever: "A clear explanation of why anarchists oppose terrorism, and why terrorism or propaganda by deed can be of no benefit to the working class, as capitalism is a social relationship, not a group of bad individuals."

In short Kurlander's nonsense is easily refuted by the long history of anarchism and anarchists working to create a better world through direct action, mutual aid, and solidarity. Thankfully many of the commenters pointed this out. One commentator pointed out the salient fact that Kurlander never mentions any of the numerous examples of state sponsored terrorism:

...yet never offers up examples of terrorism committed by the State and reactionary forces against its own population, most notably, the raids on IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) halls by federal and local authorities, as well as reactionary groups often hired by mill or factory owners; the assassination of prominent members of the Black Panther Party in the late 60s by local police forces; the bombing of the MOVE compound, in 1984, by the Philidelphia Police Dept.; the assassination of Martin Luther King, by a member of the KKK; the attack by local, state and federal forces of the Branch Dividians in Waco, TX in 1993; the atempted murder of Judi Bari by planting a bomb in her car for doing both environment and labor work, and lets not for get the killings of young, mostly, black males by police that have been so prominent over the last year its equating to one person dying every 28 hours.

We can't blow up a social relationship. No bomb or act of violence is going to destroy capitalism and the state. The men who bombed the Boston Marathon were not anarchists. And Steven Kurlander should be ashamed of himself.

 

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Links & Stuff

Just enjoying a lazy Sunday morning and thought I would share some links that grabbed my eye.

I love my iPhone for photography. I use to make videos (see above), time lapse photography and it constantly amazes me what I can do with it. If you're a budding iphonographer check out this link for some great accessories for your phone.

Here's more fuel for the fire of the nutty conspiracy theorists who think the bombing of the Boston Marathon was the work of our government. According to the story the first suspect was taken alive. They even have video evidence!

At the other end of the crazy spectrum we have Steven Kurlander conflating terrorists with anarchists over at the Huffington Post. I'll be posting more about this tomorrow, but the comment section does a great job of refuting Kurlander's nonsense. You might also want to take a look at "You Can't Blow Up a Social Relationship," for a great read on why anarchists reject terrorism and violence as a means of social change. It's over 30 years old and just as relevant today.

Perhaps the day's saddest story was reading about how the San Francisco Pride festival rescinded its offer to name Bradley Manning the Grand Marshal. Common Dreams has a great article on this hypocrisy. Apparently corproate criminals are great while heroes like Bradley Manning are questionable.

Hope you're having a great Sunday wherever you are.

 

 

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Look for the Helpers

The bombings at the Boston Marathon revealed just how good most people are. Despite what we are constantly told about human nature, it's events like this that reveal our inherent goodness, our natural inclinations towards mutual aid. As the bombs went off many people ran towards the blast to help people. As Fred Rogers famously said, "Look for the helpers." And the helpers were everywhere to be found.

There was the story of the " young surgical intern who had just finished a 14-hour hospital shift pushed his way through the police lines to treat victims at the end of a marathon route." Or the story of peace activist Carlos Arredondo who kept a complete strangers arteries shut with his bare hand. And who coudl forget the amazing tales of marathon runners continuing on past the finish line another 2 plus miles to donate blood at the hospital! Story after story of everyday courage and compassion emerged through the fog of terror to reveal just how much good there is in the world. No doubt most of them will never get printed, but for anyone paying attention people doing good far outnumbered the two cowards who sought to kill and maim.

As usual, Americans had to turn to comedians like Stephen Colbert to here the real news. As Colbert put it, "These people tried to make life bad for the people of Boston, but all they can ever do is show just how good those people are." As my friend Nick pointed out in his wonderful Boston Recap:

This was the sort of reporting we should have seen more of on Monday and Tuesday. Reporting that honored the strength and power of the people of Boston, that made people in Boston, and around the country, feel strong and uplifted; rather than giving in to the fear and mourning that any terrorist would have wanted us to embrace. It seems trite to say it, but the point of terrorism is to inspire fear. Every moment we stand up straight and saying, "No, fuck you, we're going to keep living our lives and helping each other," is a moment where we prevail and keep our dignity against the monsters of the world that try to steal it from us.

So don't fret. Don't let the fear mongers win. We're just as likely to be killed by our own furniture as by terrorism. Remember the helpers. Share their stories. And the next time chaos descends upon us, look for the helpers; be a helper! Spread the love. Stop the hate.

 

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Reflections on the Boston Bombing

We're not a very reflective society. Immediately after the bombings in Boston people were calling for the heads of the perpetrators. Our instinctive response to violence is always more violence. In response to the attacks on 9/11 we've launched wars across the globe killing at least a million people, creating millions of refugees, and destroying entire nations in the process. Our leaders have codified torture and systemically rolled back our civil liberties. No doubt this attack will be used to roll back even more liberties. Here in New York City we have to show ID to purchase a utility knife. I imagine we will see similar efforts when one purchases a pressure cooker.

What's happening to us a society? It's not just Muslims from far off lands intent on killing us. Our own citizens have again and again went on killing sprees, intent on killing as many of us as possible. While we wage wars in dozens of countries across the globe the number one killer of our soldiers is suicide. And suicides are up across the board. Basically when someones not trying to kill us, we're killing ourselvesat unprecedented rates. Violence begets violence; and our systemic attack on the inherent value of life seems to come home to roost. We don't value life "over there" and we don't value it over here.

Much of the current focus is on regulating gun sales. Gun advocates point to the Boston Bombing as proof that curbing gun sales won't stop the crazies. All of this misses the much larger point that our collective actions at home and abroad are driving people to want to kill as many of us as possible. Calling it terrorism doesn't change this fact.

This isn't to justify any of this violence. But in a nation that routinely uses violence to settle disputes, is it any wonder that citizens and non-citizens choose that same route? When our President doesn't like what's going on in North Korea he doesn't reach out to discuss the issue, he flies nuclear capable bombers over the peninsula.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said so eloquently in 1967, "My government is the largest purvayor of violence in the world." We were then in the process of murdering millions in Indochina. Dr. King's sentiments are still true today in a world where the US nearly outspends the rest of the world on death and destruction. Over the last 30 years our police forces have become highly militirized, routinely murdering citizens with impunity, and acting more like an occupying army than a civilized police force.

Our problem is not Islam. It's not East vs West. It's not a problem of regulating gun sales or enhancing the security state. We can't regulate this problem. We cannot legislate it away. There are no easy fixes, but as Noam Chomsky has said again and again there's an easy way to stop terrorism: stop participating in it. Stop looking for violent means to address our problems.

 

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NYPD Terrorists

 

Every once in a while we get a gem from our rulers; sometimes they actually have the audacity to state their motivations. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly did just that when he informed New York State Senator Eric Adams that the Stop and Frisk program was aimed at instilling fear in young black and latino men. Senator Adams testified:

Kelly “stated that he targeted and focused on that group because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time they left their homes they could be targeted by police,” Adams said.

Of course, Ray Kelly is denying he ever said such a thing. In fact, city attorney Heidi Grossman claims that was Ray Kelly actually said was that officers should "instill belief" in young men of minority backgrounds. Surprisingly Grossman didn't elaborate on what that belief might be; perhaps the belief that if you are a person of color in New York City you can expect to be terrorized by the NYPD.

Is this really surprising? What other motivation could there be? Roughly 94% of the stops result in no charges. While the super majority of stops target youth of color, whites are twice as likely to be carrying a weapon. Nine out of ten stopped in 2011 were neither arrested nor given summonses. Statistic after statistic proves that this has nothing to do with crime or gun control and everything to do with terrorizing people of color.

 

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