fragglerock!

ah, nothing warms the cockles of my heart more than a soldier (or sailor in this case) shooting his superiors.

unfortunately, the gunman (who as of this time remains unnamed) shot himself after inflicting non-life-threatening injuries on his chief and officer-in-charge. he remains in critical care.

fragging: fuck yeah! i'd just like to remind potential fraggers out there...shoot and kill. shoot and kill.

prisoner solidarity night for mehmet tarhan!

Come learn about the history and current status of Mehmet's case, and on the current state of radical, queer and anti-militarist activity in Turkey as it moves closer to European Union membership and the war against the Kurds heats up again in Eastern Anatolia!

There will also be letter-writing in support of Mehmet, both to him (though his English is limited) and to Prime Minister Erdogan, with copies to the European Union officials curently negotiating an accession agreement with Turkey; as well as information about other urgent political prisoner cases (here in the U.S., in Palestine, and elsewhere), and letter-writing in support of their current needs as well as their immediate release;

Information will also be available about other upcoming political prisoner related events, including the December 3rd round-table at Columbia Law School and the international day of solidarity with Mehmet Tarhan on December 9th.

@ Bluestockings
172 Allen Street (Between Stanton and Rivington)
Lower East Side, NYC
December 1st, 2005
7pm

Mehmet Tarhan is a queer anarchist total/conscientious objector who has been imprisoned in Turkey since April 2005 because of his rejection of military service in a country with mandatory conscription. He was sentanced to 4 years in prison in August for "insubordination...with the intent of evading military service" and has repeatedly suffered torture and brutality at the hands of guards as well as fellow prisoners.

For more information about this event or for the upcoming day of action for Mehmet Tarhan on December 9th, please contat the Mehmet Tarhan Defense Network at freemehmetnow@yahoo.com

http://www.wri-irg.org/co/turkcampaign-en.htm (in English)

http://www.savaskarsitlari.org (in Turkish)

http://www.mehmettarhan.com (in English, German, French, Spanish)

http://www.myspace.com/freemehmet (in English)

fallujah was burning

the story of the united states using chemical weapons (in this case, white phosphorus, also known as 'willy pete') on the city of fallujah has only recently come to the attention of the public-at-large, and even then, not so many.

after watching a video documentary by italian journalists, i feel terrible. i feel terrible because the united states is burning people with some hideous napalm-like substance, is occupying people's fucking homes, is torturing them, killing them, exploiting and oppressing them, and i haven't done enough.

oh no, don't worry, this isn't going to be a post of self-flagellation. yes, i feel terrible. no, i don't feel as terrible as those poor people must have felt as their skin literally burned inside and out. what this means, and illustrates starkly, is how ineffective the anti-war movement is, and how we must do so much more. the people of this country are as guilty of murdering and burning the woman in this graphic photograph as surely as the soldiers in iraq who physically dropped the bombs. screaming 'not in our name' does not absolve anyone from having blood on their hands.

are we serious about stopping the war? because if we are, than we must not stop until the war is over.

and then, the war isn't really over is it? treating the symptom of one state's war to enrich capitalists and perpetuate the fucked-up system that creates these wars, isn't good enough. until we are free from all that dominates and exploits and destroys us, we are at war.

see you on the streets.

paris is burning with boredom now!

i think we have all heard about the crazy riots in paris --thousands of cars burned, hundreds arrested, dozens of police officers hurt, some critically. it is clear that the riots are growing--over 200 hundred cities in france, and now incidents in belgium and germany as well.

my fear is not that the rioting won't continue, but the fear is that, as usual, the rioters will accept the state's empty promises, or the sacking of the interior minister sarcozy, as good enough. clearly the pressure from the boiling pots of poverty and racism, the state and the capitalists had uneasily kept a lid on, have just blown up. what those in power want more than anything is to maintain power, and so they will do everything they can to ensure that when all the fires have been put out, the people have once again allowed the government to use the pressure valve of reform and concession to do just that-- put out the fires of rebellion.

i have hope that the insurrection keeps growing, in hundreds of cities in france, past national borders into the rest of europe. what makes me pessimistic is the assertion from a rioter, who had just driven a car into a housing project and set it on fire, that "We'll stop when Sarkozy steps down."

the revolving door of state bureaucrats will not solve the points of racism, poverty, and injustice. only the dismantling of the institutions that amplify and help create racism, poverty, and injustice will do it. i hope that where may 1968 failed (they took the state's concessions and were later disappointed to find out the state would not honor them!) november 2005 will succeed.

i might also add, that it would seem --to me-- that violence should not be targeted on other poor people, but should be taken to the streets and neighborhoods of the rich. drive cars into the lobbies of luxury apartments! not that of your neighbor who is in the same boat as you!

when in doubt, frag!

things are not looking good for alberto b. martinez, the second soldier in the iraq war to frag his superior officers. he has been recommended for a court-martial, and it seems likely that he will face the death penalty, as did hasan akbar, the first soldier convicted of fragging in the current war in iraq.

the only way for soldiers to redeem themselves is to refuse to serve, or better yet, to take out some commanding officers. serving in the military is absolutely inexcusable, and there is no justification for murdering the poor and occupying someone's home, for the sole benefit of the rich and to maintain a culture and way of life that is inherently unsustainable. no tears for the dead soldiers. you think the poverty draft is unjust? so do i. but supporting the state's footsoldiers is not the answer. if you really want to thwart the war, and want to stick it to the man, starve him of fresh recruits. counter recruitment is the achilles heel of the military.

but wouldn't it be nice if more soliders followed in the footsteps of alberto and hasan? we need more grenades in the beds of officers! pronto!

squat da world! (or at least the hamptons!)

a really funny article from the ny post, of all papers.

October 31, 2005 -- Yet another Hamptons homeowner learned she had an uninvited houseguest when a woman peeked into her summer home Saturday night and was shocked to find someone lounging inside.

Both squatter and owner fled after spotting one another. East Hampton Town cops unsuccessfully fanned out with K-9 units and said they had no idea how long the suspect had been in the house, whose owner was not identified.

The trespass was but the latest in an increasingly popular practice — waiting for the summer hordes to the Hamptons to leave, then sliding unnoticed into their empty nests.

In September, a man arrived at his Amagansett property to find what he called a "Bohemian" couple having sex in his backyard. The lusty twosome ran off, and the homeowner went inside — to a welcome of uneaten supper, cigarette butts and discarded underwear.

The couple even used his bath towels and hair dryer while staying gratis in a place that rents for $2,000 a week in summer and $30,000 for the season. Cops declined to say whether they considered it the handiwork of a serial or a beginner squatter.

The off-season East End is a logical target for the rent averse, with its large swaths of pricey homes empty for months. The low-profile streets of Amagansett have proved a particularly popular target. And the scope may be wider than assumed.

This much is known: Squatters prefer smaller homes, since the many mansions that dot the East End are guarded by year-round caretakers and fancy security systems.

**interestingly enough, i just learned that the squat symbol, in physics, means "static free system."**

worldwide anarchy day

i saw an events listing for "worldwide anarchy day" on infoshop for november 11th, and since there was no explanation, i honestly had no idea what the fuck it was supposed to mean. why is november 11th "worldwide anarchy day"? why not any day?

so i looked it up, and i found out the following:

worldwide anarchy day, is mainly the commemeration of the anniversary of the execution of the haymarket "martyrs" in 1887. i really hate the term "martyr". they were revolutionaries, not victims. but just in case you aren't familiar with 'em, the haymarket revolutionaries executed by the state were: august spies, albert parsons, george engel, and adolph fischer. louis lingg, one crazy-ass motherfucker, killed himself in his cell by exploding a fucking bomb in his mouth! for more info on the whole haymarket "massacre" check out the wikipedia site on haymarket.

but interestingly enough, november 11th, 1918, is also the day that world war one officially ended. "At 11:01am the Great War ended as Germany, bereft of manpower, supplies & food, signed an armistice agreement. The war's toll were 10 million dead (6 million of them civilians), 21 million wounded & 7 1/2 million taken prisoner or missing in action. Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France & Great Britain each lost a million or more lives, & U.S. forces counted 115,000 dead. The estimated cost of the war was 232 trillion dollars..."*

armistice day was declared in 1932, and children across america learn shit like "Armistice Day. November the 11th is Armistice Day. It was then the cruel war was over. We keep this day in honor of our soldiers. They went over sea to fight for our country. We must remember what they did for us. We must be good & brave girls & boys. We must learn all we can & grow up to be brave & good women & men. Then we too can guard our country well." — School primer, written by Mack Dickey*

a lot of other stuff happened of radical note, but i think the combination of murdered anarchists and the ending of a nasty capitalist war between nation-states, more than creates particularly topical and timely ways to celebrate!

[*taken from the daily bleed]

the really really free market

yesterday was the second annual halloween really really free market in new york city, and it was a fucking success! we had a good turnout, even for the cold weather, and the event wasn't just a 'market' where people could get free crap; it was a community event, with food, music, dancing, pinata-breaking, stencil-making, propaganda, and massage!

the really really free market is a great action because it is something useful to people in their everyday lives and creates a space where people can begin to challenge the pervading ideas of consumerism, capitalism, and our interactions with each other mediated by both. i'm sure there are some out there who think that really really free markets are reformist leftist bullshit, but those are the people who sit in their armchairs talking anarchy, waxing all brave about armed struggles they have no real intention of participating in. we can't go from a to z in a heartbeat, no matter how much you or i wish for it. the end of the ideas behind civilization won't happen overnight, even if civilization itself is nothing but a house of cards. demonstrating mutual aid, showing that consumer culture and production are not necessarily the Way Things Have To Be, sharing with each other and crossing class and color lines is necessary however. if we are serious about revolution, we need others to be sympathetic towards revolution. we need support, we need more people who understand the failure of this world and who want to help create a new one. that said, i recognize that one really really free market isn't going to accomplish such lofty ambitions, but is simply one small step in the right direction.

one thing the free market was lacking in was skillshares. showing people how to do things DIY is the ultimate rejection of production (in the current industrial sense) as well as specialization. i think it would be very valuable for people to increase their body of knowledge, not only because it can help prepare people to live outside of a capitalist model, but because when civilization does finally crumble, people can be more prepared.

please check nyc indymedia for more pictures from the day.