[OMG WTF] APOC ~versus~ CrimethInc [TL;DR]

Posted on August 4, 2009 by @ndy

From the Department of More Compelling Arguments for the Enslavement of All White Liberals & Why Isn’t The Left Talking About This?…

APOC is an acronym. APOC is Asia-Pacific Optical and Wireless Communications Conference Association of Postal Officials of Canada Anarchist / Anti-authoritarian / Autonomous People of Color (see also : APOC, the roof restoration experts provide… products and information for contractors, building owners, facility managers, consultants, and specifiers.)

‘Anarchist People of Color’ has its origins in late 2000, when a ‘People of Color Caucus’ formed within the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. (Note that the ABCF continues to produce an excellent quarterly, available for download from their site.) Then in early 2001 a bloke called Ernesto Aguilar established a site (illegalvoices.org) and email list specifically for the use of anarchist people of colo(u)r, and later that year (October 2001) the Houston ABCF resigned from the ABCF and the ABCF ‘People of Color Caucus’ dissolved itself into APOC. The APOC site died several years later (2006), but before it sailed off into the ether, APOC also organised a coupla conferences in Detroit, Michigan in October 2003 and in Houston, Texas in March 2006. During this period, APOC also organised a number of other, regional conferences, events and projects, published agitprop, and done all the other stuff what forms a routine part of political activism.

APOC had its first shit-storm at its first conference, which pitted the ‘Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers’ (BANCCO) against another mob. (BANCO still exists, apparently.) BANC(C)O was also preceded by a very similar mob known as AANCO — the ‘Anti-Authoritarian Network of Community Organizers’ (see : ‘Poor People’s Survival Movement: Community Organizers Call For A Real War On Poverty’, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Black Fist, No.9, 1995). I dunno if there’s been any reconciliation since then, but to the extent that the issues raised were important, and unresolved, they will no doubt arise again at some point in the future.

Following the departure of Ernesto and (it seems) a range of others, APOC was resurrected in June 2007 as illvox. “Illvox.org does not replace illegalvoices.org and is not affiliated with APOC. It is intended to provide access to documents for/by/of this important anti-authoritarian tendency, and to support discussion.” Despite this disavowal, illvox, in re-publishing the contents of illegalvoices — including two ace books, African Anarchism: The History of A Movement by Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey (See Sharp Press, 1997) and Cuban Anarchism: The History of A Movement by Frank Fernández (See Sharp, 2001), as well as scores of useful essays — and re-branding itself ‘Anarchist People of Color (APOC)’ suggests that it — the site, those who maintain it and those associated with it — retains a strong, if informal, relationship to APOC in its original iteration.

Of course, the term ‘APOC’ may be applied to a variety of ventures and, insofar as ‘APOC’ consists of or refers to a network of groups and individuals spanning a country the size of the US, is is impossible to attribute any one action or event to ‘APOC’ as a whole. Further, any action by ‘APOC’ (or claimed on its behalf) raises questions of re-presentation and accountability: questions not peculiar to ‘APOC’ as a political project, but of relevance to any mode of political organisation and social movement, of whatever flavour.

Democracy, even.

Two recent, controversial actions that a number of APOC participated in were the cheekily-titled ‘Smack A White Boy I’ and ‘Smack A White Boy II: The Sequel’. The first took place in Washington in March 2009, and the sequel played in Pittsburgh last week — to (more) mixed receptions.

Identity Politics and The Politics of Identity

The impromptu screening of SAWB: The Sequel @ the CrimethInc convergence has been described as a skirmish in an ongoing ‘War of Representation’ (see the last of four accounts at About the Controversy at the CrimethInc. Convergence, Twin Cities Indymedia, August 3, 2009). Which comment brings to mind — naturally — the writings of Nancy Fraser, in particular those on the politics of representation and redistribution (see : Rethinking Recognition, New Left Review, No.3, May/June 2000).

…Once the hegemonic grammar of political contestation, the language of distribution is less salient today. The movements that not long ago boldly demanded an equitable share of resources and wealth have not, to be sure, wholly disappeared. But thanks to the sustained neoliberal rhetorical assault on egalitarianism, to the absence of any credible model of ‘feasible socialism’ and to widespread doubts about the viability of state-Keynesian social democracy in the face of globalization, their role has been greatly reduced.

We are facing, then, a new constellation in the grammar of political claims-making—and one that is disturbing on two counts. First, this move from redistribution to recognition is occurring despite—or because of—an acceleration of economic globalization, at a time when an aggressively expanding capitalism is radically exacerbating economic inequality. In this context, questions of recognition are serving less to supplement, complicate and enrich redistributive struggles than to marginalize, eclipse and displace them. I shall call this the problem of displacement. Second, today’s recognition struggles are occurring at a moment of hugely increasing transcultural interaction and communication, when accelerated migration and global media flows are hybridizing and pluralizing cultural forms. Yet the routes such struggles take often serve not to promote respectful interaction within increasingly multicultural contexts, but to drastically simplify and reify group identities. They tend, rather, to encourage separatism, intolerance and chauvinism, patriarchalism and authoritarianism. I shall call this the problem of reification…

Fraser’s arguments have been taken up and responded to at length, but in the present context are germane given that, first, while lamenting the absence of social movements which place questions of the (radical, egalitarian re-)distribution of wealth and power at their centre, Fraser was writing at the time of the birth of a global movement to contest neo-liberalism;* secondly, APOC was born at approximately the same time. Fraser’s essay (and subsequent writings and the general discussion of her ideas which her writing provoked) can also be used to inform discussions of notions of ‘cultural’ — as opposed to ‘economic’ or ‘political’ — ‘appropriation’, another of the crimes for which CrimethInc, the (white) anarchist movement and whites in general come in for criticism/condemnation (hence references to “dread locked white punks”, “traveling college bros” and so on).

    *Or rather, previously, largely subterranean movements in the West began to become more vocal and their activities more frequent and widespread — resistance to ‘neoliberalism’ may also, and more accurately perhaps, be located in those movements in the ‘Third World’ which fought the imposition of ‘Structural Adjustment Programs’ upon their governments and societies during the 1970s and 1980s; the evolution of this resistance is detailed in scores of books not written by me.

Beyond this, it is also useful to view ‘identity’ as something more- or other-than self-proclamation. Rather, ‘identity’ may be understood as having a ‘social’ composition, of arising from complex interactions, both ‘personal’ and ‘political’, involving processes of ‘interpellation’ (Althusser), of ‘performance’ (Butler) and of ‘discourse’ (of course). Secondly, as Uncle Noam noted in his ‘Notes on Anarchism’, ‘A French writer, sympathetic to anarchism, wrote in the 1890s that “anarchism has a broad back, like paper it endures anything” — including, he noted those whose acts are such that “a mortal enemy of anarchism could not have done better”.’ The point is not that the use of Smack by some APOC amounts to much more than a storm in a teacup full of chai; rather, that ‘anarchism’ endures all kindsa crazy stunts, including those which emanate, seemingly, from a misplaced vanguardism. For example…

At the 1985 London Anarchist Bookfair, the very dangerous Ian Bone (Bash the Rich, Tangent Books, 2006, p.178) writes:

Having sold shitloads of Class War with Martin I took the stage at the end of the day. Well, actually, there was already someone on the stage so I had to push them off it first. Unfortunately, that person was Donald Rooum — a veteran comrade I have a lot of respect for going back to his framing by the police for intending to throw a brick at the Queen of Greece in the 1960s. However, it wasn’t really Donald I was shoving off the stage but the old anarchist movement. Drunk as fuck I declared:

You liberals and pacifists have had our movement for too long, now it’s our turn. If we haven’t reduced the place to ruins in five years you can have it back!

Quite why I wanted to reduce the venerable Conway Hall to ruins was unclear. But what the fuck. I might have paraphrased [Durruti], but the point was clear. We were on a fucking roll.

On Class War — which still ekes out an existence, despite being formally ‘dissolved’ in 1997 — see : Intakes: Death of a Paper Tiger… Reflections on Class War, Aufheben, No.6, 1998; Revolution – An Unfinished Business, Organise!, No.47, Winter 1997/1998; Smash Hits, No.2, Spring 1998; Class War is dead.. Long live the Class War (contents of and responses to the ‘final’ issue (No.73) of Class War — the CWF is currently residing at No.96).

Most of the online commentary generated by The Pittsburgh Experiment has in turn generated more heat than light, and given that the issue concerns ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘whiteness’, ‘white supremacy’ and so on, has naturally attracted trolls like flies to shit (see : BANANAS). It also is no doubt of interest to city officials and the US police/state, especially given the fact that Pittsburgh is soon to host a gathering of the G20. Some references have been made to that phase in the history of US state counter-insurgency known as ‘COINTELPRO’ (1956–1971), and speculation regarding the involvement or encouragement of agents provocateur. There is no evidence of any such government plot, but COINTELPRO is of relevance to the extent that one of its principal aims was to destroy ‘progressive’ social movements, and one of its tactics — reasonably successful, in my view — was to engender animosity among different groups, especially where there was scope for a common/communal articulation of ‘progressive’ politics.

Gentrification (The Flava of the Month)

One of the principal justifications offered by at least one (or possibly more) of the six (seven, eight or more) individuals who participated in the performance piece in Pittsburgh was that the CrimethInc convergence assisted the gentrification of that area of the city in which it took place. This is asserted rather than demonstrated, and appears to rest on a somewhat bizarre understanding of ‘gentrification’, as well as the forces responsible for it. Another rationale for the action refers to the fact that attendance at the CrimethInc convergence was majority white, and took place in a part of Pittsburgh that isn’t. This is further extended into a critique of the political perspectives of CrimethInc as a whole, in particular “CrimethInc has been/is the breeding ground for white anarchists”. This is a problem for APOC, because white anarchists embody white supremacy.

CrimethInc has itself been subjected to various critiques (see, for example, Ken Knabb’s reflections), but one important point to remember is that, like ‘APOC’, CrimethInc resists re-presentation, at least in the sense that CrimethInc may be understood as being an ongoing project involving sometimes disparate elements; further, that the Pittsburgh convergence was open to all. CrimethInc (or rather, those responsible for maintaining a CrimethInc website) have produced a brief statement on The Pittsburgh Experiment here.

‘Anyway’, ‘whatever’ and ‘fuck this shit’ — my apathy has returned, and in conclusion: in April 2008, Harjit Singh Gill wrote In Support of APOC; in May 2008, Aragorn!, battling the torpor that comes from (over-)work, wrote down some of their thoughts on “the new-APOC tendency” in Context. It always comes down to context.

See also :

Our Culture, Our Resistance: People of Color Speak Out on Anarchism, Race, Class and Gender, First edition, published September 11, 2004, edited by Ernesto Aguilar [PDF] | Building a Non-Eurocentric Anarchism in Our Communities: Dialogue with Ashanti Alston | Camillo Berneri – Against the Racist Delirium (Originally published as El Delirio Racista, Ediciones Iman, Buenos Aires, February 1935), Robert Graham’s Anarchism Weblog, September 14, 2008 | Chapter 13: ‘Beyond The Borders’, Volume Three of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, Robert Graham [Forthcoming] | Chapter 10: ‘Anarchist Internationalism and Race, Imperialism, and Gender’, Michael Schmidt and Lucien van der Walt, Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (AK Press, 2009) | Non-Western Anarchisms: Rethinking the Global Context, Jason Adams, 2003 [PDF]…

Anarchism : an ideology for fuckwits, bums & lowlifes : Part the 2nd (June 21, 2009) | White With Fear : Flagging A New Hate (June 11, 2009) | The assault on American Indian tribal relationships… (May 31, 2009) | The Invention of the White Race (May 29, 2009) | Anarchism and Aboriginal sovereignty (June 16, 2008) | Anarchy 102 : Race (April 10, 2007)…

Bonus!


Use Of ‘N-Word’ May End Porn Star’s Career

Added Bonus!

Extra Added Bonus!


Posted in Anarchism, History, State / Politics, Student movement | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Grods.com

Posted on August 2, 2009 by @ndy

Huh.

That was unexpected.

Scott Bridges has decided to close GrodsCorp, a group blog originally established in 2003. Moreover, Scott has deleted the site.

Ah well… Dunno, but maybe an APOC Commando evicted them? Andrew Bolt is, as usual, callous. Other mixed (grill) reactions:

Posted in Media | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Anarchy is a dead Israeli fag!

Posted on August 2, 2009 by @ndy
    “Anyway… anarchy is a fag… that’s all I have to say to you Mr Moran…” ~ CHUNGA, September 24, 2007
    “As I stated on the Bombshell forum Andy, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.” ~ Dion, December, 2007
    “No offence but honestly who gives a shit about some [gay] in [Israel].” Nowave, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008
    “If [Israelis] are so interesting to you, move to [Tel Aviv].” ~ Fruitsalad, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008

Gunman kills 3, injures 11 at gay club in Tel Aviv
Ian Deitch (AP)

JERUSALEM — Israeli police say a gunman entered a youth club for gay teens in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it was “most likely a criminal attack and not a terror attack.” Tel Aviv has been a target for Palestinian militants in the past.

He said the gunman burst into the basement of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association and opened fire on a support group for gay teenagers.

Police are searching the area for the gunman, who fled the scene, he said. Roadblocks were set up.

Rescue services said six of the wounded were badly hurt.

“This was a hate crime, a premeditated attack,” witness Yaniv Weisman told Channel 10 TV. He said Cafe Noir, the basement club, was popular with youth.

“Those hurt were very young,” he said.

Openly gay Knesset lawmaker Nitzan Horowitz said it was “without a doubt the biggest ever attack on the Israeli gay community, we are all in shock.”

Witnesses told Israeli media that the gunman was dressed all in black, and described the scene as a “bloodbath.”

See also : Return of the Son of Anarchy is a Fag! (September 26, 2007) | anarchy is a (Venezuelan) fag! (October 2, 2007) | DOA : Smash the State, “anarchy is a fag”, and neo-Nazis armed with pipes and bottles (October 19, 2007) | Anarchy is a dead Greek fag! (December 7, 2008)

Posted in Death, Sex & Sexuality, Student movement | Leave a comment

Defamation!

Posted on August 2, 2009 by @ndy

Synopsis

What is anti-Semitism today, two generations after the Holocaust? In his continuing exploration of modern Israeli life, director Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint, 5 Days, Flipping Out) travels the world in search of the most modern manifestations of the “oldest hatred”, and comes up with some startling answers.

In this irreverent quest, he follows American Jewish leaders to the capitals of Europe, as they warn government officials of the growing threat of anti-Semitism, and he tacks on to a class of Israeli high school students on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz.

On his way, Shamir meets controversial historian, Norman Finkelstein, who offers his unpopular views on the manner that anti-Semitism is being used by the Jewish community and especially Israel for political gain. He also joins scholars, Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer, while they give a lecture in Israel following the release of their book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy [2007], about the un-proportional influence the Israel lobby in Washington enjoys. Yoav visits Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, the must stop for all world leaders on their visits to Israel. While in Jerusalem, he drops by the house of his grandmother that offers her insight on the issue and declares that she is the “real Jew”.

The film questions our perceptions and terminology when an event proclaimed by some as anti-Semitic is described by others as legitimate criticism of Israel’s government policies. The film walks along the boundary between anti-Zionism, rejecting the notion of a Jewish State, and anti-Semitism, rejecting Jews. Is the former being used to excuse the latter? And is there a difference between today’s anti-Semitism and plain old racism that is affecting all minorities?

Opinions often differ and tempers sometimes flare, but in Defamation we find that one thing is certain – only by understanding their response to anti-Semitism can we really appreciate how Jews today, and especially modern Israelis, respond to the world around them, in New York and in Moscow, in Gaza and Tel Aviv.

DEFAMATION (93 min) | Thu 6 Aug 2:30 PM | Forum Theatre

Posted in Anti-fascism, Film, History, State / Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

APOC ~versus~ CrimethInc

Posted on August 2, 2009 by @ndy

Ding ding!

It’s on!

The tubes go wild!

Anarchist news dot org | infoshop | plus!

In an unscheduled bout at the Pittsburgh CrimethInc convergence, two of the North American anarchist movement’s promising up-and-comers: in the blue corner, CrimethInc; and in the red corner, Anarchist (Autonomous) People of Color.

APOC comes out swinging:

Smack a White Boy Round Two: CrimethInc. Eviction, APOC Philly, July 31, 2009:

Dread locked white punks, crusties with their scabies friends, and traveling college bros swarmed a space on the dividing line of gentrification in the Bloomfield/Garfield/Friendship area late July 09 in Pittsburgh for the annual CrimethInc convergence. Whereas previous CrimethInc convergences had been located deep in wooded areas, this particular one took place in a poor, black neighborhood that is being pushed to the borders by entering white progressive forces.

There were those that had experienced CrimethInc’s oppressive culture and people for years and others who had experienced enough oppression after just a few days. Our goals were to stop CrimethInc, their gentrifying force, and to end the convergence right then and there for all that they had done…

Let’s box!

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Student movement | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Collingwood smash “Bears” / “Lions” // Silly nutzis // Hot Wheels

Posted on August 2, 2009 by @ndy

Collingwood

Turn that frown upside-down Jonathan Brown — you and your idiot fans. After a very poor first half:

Magpies smash the Brisbane Lions!

COLLINGWOOD 12.23 (95)

BrisbaneFitzroy BearLions 8.7 (55)

nutzi

In other, highly-amusing news, Very Ill Bill White has been denied bail by ZOG in the person of Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow.

Denlow based his ruling, in part, on a post White made to his Web site in which he described waking up every morning with the urge to “kill, kill, kill.”

White will remain in custody while awaiting transfer to Roanoke, where he faces additional charges of making threats by telephone and e-mail and through his now-defunct Web site, overthrow.com.

~ Federal judge denies bond for neo-Nazi White, Laurence Hammack and Tim Taliaferro, The Roanoke Times, August 1, 2009.

I suppose if Hal Turner the nutzi FBI informant weren’t also behind bars, he could call for Morton’s murder.

In other nutzi news, White Supremacist Accused, With a Minuteman Leader, of Killing a Mexican and His Little Girl Allegedly Murdered Two Others Earlier (Rick Barrs, Phoenix New Times, July 31, 2009).

White supremacists are such brave individuals.

Kameraden in Germany are also facing an uphill battle to cleanse the country of subhuman elements, as Squabbling neo-Nazis set for election drubbing — or so reckons The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s (BfV / Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) Brandenburg and Saxony Anhalt branches anyways. Apparently:

…the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) and the German People’s Union (DVU) have squandered support they built up at previous elections… Under the electoral pact, the parties had agreed not to run candidates against one another. Its dissolution means the parties are likely to split the far-right vote…

The trend within the scene is moving towards more isolated and regional right-wing extremist groups, [Winfriede Schreiber, head of the Brandenburg branch] said. The NPD has been relying on using loosely organised neo-nazi gangs to build local support, he said…

The NPD and, in particular, its youth wing, the Junge Nationaldemokraten are increasingly dominated by neo-nazis, [Volker Limburg, head of the Saxony-Anhalt office] said. Senior party officials move freely between the party structure and the neo-nazi scene.

Furthermore, the Organisation of Neo-Nazis in Comradeship, which represented autonomous nationalists, seems largely to have broken up.

In its place, loosely connected organisations have cropped up, mostly on the internet, Schreiber said. Cross-state cooperation was “rare if it happened at all.”

Hot Wheels

Finally, my favourite Australian Europe correspondent, Paola Totaro, reports that German radicals turn to arson (The Age, August 1, 2009); something Brett Neely of Bloomberg reported over five months ago (Arsonists Torch Berlin Porsches, BMWs on Economic Woe) but which is still evidently (Good) News. Writes Totaro: “In a city haunted more by its extreme right-wing past, Berlin is in the throes of a renaissance of extremist, left-wing political activism. And torching cars, particularly expensive ones, has become the crime de rigueur.”

If only.

In reality, Berlin has long been a centre of left-wing political dissent, entartete Kunst and entartete Muzik. From the late 1960s, through to the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Berlin — and in particular the Kreuzberg neighbourhood — has been a centre of German anarchist and autonomist politics. One of the city’s principal attractions for yoof during this period (that is, prior to the collapse of Communism and German re-unification) was West Berlin’s legal and political status as a territory under the control of the Allies, not the West German government. Yoof living in the city were thus exempt from military conscription, and able to spend their time making trouble for the authorities, rather than enforcing their rule.

For more fun maps of burning luxury cars, see : Brennende Autos Berlin, eine Chronologie der Brandanschläge. Also: http://www.erstermai.nostate.net/ | http://strassenauszucker.blogsport.de/ | http://wba.blogsport.de/ | http://actiondays.blogsport.de/ — all are in some crazy foreign language, possibly a Greek dialect, dunno.

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, Collingwood | 10 Comments

Jeff ‘The Snowman’ Monson ~versus~ The War On Terror™

Posted on August 1, 2009 by @ndy

Huh. US authorities are obviously very pissed with Comrade Jeff ‘The Snowman’ Monson. After pleading ‘guilty’ to rape murder theft graffiti (‘malicious mischief’), Jeff has been forced to surrender his passport. As a result, he is no longer able to appear at a scheduled fight in Japan, and may spend 90 days behind bars — which is approximately 90 days more than the war criminals in Washington will ever have to serve. Monson will also have to pay a fine of $21,894 for his dastardly act — which, according to my calculations, is considerably less than the $42,637,920 Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar has pocketed for his role in The War On Terror.™

MMA fighter pleads guilty on graffiti charges
AP
July 29, 2009

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A mixed martial arts fighter accused of spray-painting an anarchist symbol on the Washington state Capitol has pleaded guilty to malicious mischief.

Jeff Monson, 38, pleaded guilty Tuesday in the Capitol case, and entered an Alford plea for graffiti at the Lacey armed services recruitment center.

Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but concedes there would be enough evidence to convict if the case went to trial.

Monson, who fights under the nickname The Snowman, was charged after a picture of him and the graffiti was published in ESPN The Magazine.

Prosecutors say they will recommend that Monson serve a 90-day jail sentence. He also must pay $21,894 in restitution as part of the plea deal.

Monson’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 1.

According to one source, Monson will still be able to travel to St. Petersburg in order to fight Ibragim Magomedov on February 28, 2010 (Judge allows MMA fighter’s trip to Russia, Jeremy Pawloski, The Olympian, July 29, 2009).

Iraq for Sale : The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

See also : Fighter Monson faces another charge, Jeremy Pawloski, The Olympian, July 29, 2009 | Monson wins with a KO for anarchism, The Leveller, No.1, 2009 | Monson: ‘I’d Do It Again’ (January 18, 2009).

Posted in Anarchism, War on Terror | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hal Turner : An (American) hero

Posted on July 30, 2009 by @ndy

Update (August 2) : Tragedy struck after judge put off security system, Mike Robinson (AP): ‘…Before [Bart] Ross’ suicide, the most publicized focus of the investigation into the killings [of Michael Lefkow, 64, and, Donna Humphrey, 89, on February 28, 2005], was white supremacist leader Matthew Hale. He is now serving a 40-year sentence for soliciting Lefkow’s murder after she ruled against him in a trademark dispute. More recently, a New Jersey blogger was charged with threatening to assault or murder Lefkow and two other Chicago-based federal judges who refused to overturn handgun bans. According to a federal complaint, Harold “Hal” Turner’s blog entry referenced the Lefkow slayings. “Apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit court didn’t get the hint after those killings. It appears another lesson is needed,” Turner wrote, according to prosecutors.’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 30, 2009

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Orozco, Attorney at law
973-735-2683
ARREST OF RADIO HOST HAL TURNER
Chicago, IL –

On June 2, 2009, Hal Turner, sitting in his home in New Jersey, opined on his web site that the recent opinion of three judges in the Seventh Circuit was unconstitutional. That opinion was legally protected free speech pursuant to numerous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Three weeks later, the FBI executed a search warrant on his home in North Bergen. Nothing illegal was found, yet Mr. Turner was arrested and charged with violating a federal statute which makes it a crime to threaten to assault or injury a judge in retaliation of the performance of their official duties. Mr. Turner never, under any circumstances, meant this communication to be seen as a true threat to these judges.

Since his incarceration Mr. Turner has been subjected to de-humanizing conditions at jail. This is not justice; this is the persecution and mistreatment of Mr. Turner through administrative means. He has been denied medical treatment; he has been denied access to a means to contact his family for weeks, as well as his attorneys; he has been declared a high level threat despite the fact that he has never committed an act of violence, and; had caps on his teeth removed as he was told they could be used as a weapon. Currently Mr. Turner’s blood pressure has reached an alarming number, yet he has received no medical attention. The pleas from his family to the jail have gone unanswered.

At the July 28th, 2009 bond hearing, Magistrate Judge Ashman gave Mr. Turner’s attorneys more time to produce evidence of his prior acts while working as an FBI informant and immediately after which resulted in numerous lives being saved and sophisticated military hardware from being placed into the black market.

Update : White supremacist radio host Hal Turner was an FBI informant, as hackers claimed a year ago, The Raw Story, July 28, 2009.

Update : I stumbledupon the blog of Hal’s family — family-of-hal-turner.blogspot.com. The Family of Hal Turner the Self-confessed FBI Informant request that money be donated to help Hal stay outta jail. Their appeal was launched on July 11, and thus far 44 nutzis have donated a grand total of $1,370 according to The Family. This is 3% of the $45,000 nominated by them as their target… LOL.

    “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed. Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty. A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions.” ~ Hal Turner

    See : UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. HAL TURNER, June 24, 2009 [PDF].

Derrick MacThomas (to be confused with Dennis McCormack) — aka Carl D Thompson — recently made a heartfelt plea on neo-Nazi radio on behalf of fascist meathead and fellow DJ Hal Turner. Hal was identified as an FBI ‘confidential informant’ (CI) in January 2008 after crossing swords with 7chan/4chan/YTMND/eBaum’s World/whatever. Now Hal has admitted in court that he spied for the FBI, and is seeking a helping hand from state authorities in return for his services.

lulz!

Radio host denies threatening federal judges
Jeff Coen
Chicago Breaking News Centre
July 28, 2009

An Internet radio host pleaded not guilty today to threatening to kill three federal appellate judges in Chicago and then sought his release from custody, saying he has been an informant for the FBI.

Hal Turner, who was arrested last month at his home in New Jersey, shook his head after being handed a copy of the indictment.

Turner is charged with calling for appellate judges Frank Easterbrook, William Bauer and Richard Posner to be killed after they affirmed a lower court decision June 2 to dismiss challenges to Chicago’s handgun ban.

Turner allegedly used his web site to put out the message that all three were “cunning, ruthless, untrustworthy, disloyal, unpatriotic, deceitful scum.”

“Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed,” he allegedly said.

A federal judge from Louisiana will be brought in to preside over the case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Ashman gave Turner 10 days to subpoena an FBI agent who Turner contends acted as his handler as he supplied the government with information. Turner’s lawyer, Michael Orozco, said Turner prevented military equipment from being sold on the Internet and even tipped off the U.S. Marshal Service to a threat against President Barack Obama.

“So you’re saying he’s an American hero,” Ashman said somewhat sarcastically.

As for the charges, Orozco said Turner was only giving his opinion on the judges’ ruling and that he has a Constitutional right to free speech.

Assistant U.S. Atty. William Hogan said a magistrate judge in New Jersey had already ordered Turner detained before he was sent to Chicago, finding that he was a threat to the community. He has continued to air threatening radio messages on the Internet since his arrest, including a call placed from custody in New Jersey, Hogan said.

Hogan said Turner may have had some contact with the FBI as an informant but that it was quite some time ago. He said he had no idea about any action Turner supposedly took to thwart an attack on the president.

The Good News for Hal is that fellow nutzi (Very Ill) Bill White recently had similar charges against him thrown out of court. The charges were laid after Bill wrote about how a juror in a Federal case against another nutzi named Matt Hale — former Grand Poobah of the White supremacist cult Church of the Creator — should be killed:

“The fact that defendant knew that white supremacists sometimes viewed his Web site and sometimes harmed people they perceived as enemies is insufficient to transform his lawful statements about Juror A into criminal advocacy,” he said.

“Knowledge or belief that one’s speech, even speech advocating law breaking, may cause others to act, does not remove the speech from the protection of the First Amendment unless the speech is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action.”

White’s Web site regularly attacked non-whites, Jews and homosexuals and expressed approval of acts of violence. The foreman’s name had not previously been public; the juror had been identified only as “Juror A” in court documents.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media, State / Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Ooh Aah : Kyle Sandilands is ace!

Posted on July 30, 2009 by @ndy
    Update : NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Kyle sacked as Idol judge, Michael Idato, The Age, August 3, 2009: “The Ten Network has sacked Kyle Sandilands as a judge on Australian Idol…”

    Update : NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Kyle and Jackie O suspended indefinitely, The Age (AAP), August 3, 2009: “The Kyle and Jackie O radio show has been suspended indefinitely after last week’s lie detector stunt, with host Kyle Sandilands declaring he is unable to go on air…”

    Update : Pointyheads complain. Call to axe radio show over stunt, Carolyn Webb, The Age, July 31, 2009: “A GROUP of 15 high-profile psychologists, academics and child advocates have called for the axing of an FM radio show that interviewed a 14-year-old about her sex life. In a scathing letter to The Age, the group, including a former Family Court chief justice, say the Kyle and Jackie O Show committed ‘‘child abuse’’ and a ‘‘gross violation of human rights’’. They called for a national strategy for the prevention of child abuse and exploitation, including in the media…

It’s Scandal’Us!

Girl, 14: ‘‘I’ve already told you the story about this … and don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny.’’ After a pause, she shouted: ‘‘Oh OK … I got raped when I was 12.’’

Kyle Sandilands: ‘‘Right. And is that the only experience you’ve had?’’

Over fine wine everything from car spaces and life coaches to catsitters and wardrobe budgets are being discussed. The networks will do whatever it takes to get the likes of Kyle Sandilands (who conveniently let it slip in the press he had signed with the Hollywood superagency William Morris and was pursuing US opportunities during his contract renegotiation), Jackie O and Ray Hadley to sign on the dotted line.

Sandilands and Jackie O command salaries north of $1 million each. However, their successful show generates many tens of millions of dollars more in advertising revenue for their employer, Austereo. Reports of Sandilands, who has already been given a gold microphone at the station, missing in action in Hollywood are the sort of thing to get Austereo’s execs sweating – a lot. ~ Knives are out at contract time, Andrew Hornery, The Age, July 4, 2009

An Australian social media expert who accused Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O of artificially pumping up their popularity on Twitter says the outspoken radio presenter threatened to sue him.

Leon Hill, chief executive of social media marketing company uSocial, was quoted in news reports calling the radio duo “Twitter wankers” after their following on the site increased by 30,000 in 18 hours. They now have over 220,000 followers.

Hill claimed most of the people following the 2Day FM presenters’ Twitter account were fake and that they were using a script or computer program to “create accounts and then follow their own”.

Sandilands and Jackie O both strenuously denied the claims on their show yesterday morning but Sandilands followed up with a phone call to Hill, who claims he was threatened with “legal action due to slander”. ~ Kyle and Jackie O accused of faking followers on Twitter, Asher Moses, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 7, 2009

Posted in !nataS, Media, Sex & Sexuality | Tagged | Leave a comment

G20 : Sunil & Tim (& Co.)

Posted on July 30, 2009 by @ndy
    The anarchist crazies involved in the ultra-violence were in no serious sense part of the demo. Just like their black bloc mates in Europe they simply exploited the demo for their own purposes… The left should offer no comfort to these crazies. We should do whatever we can to isolate them. They are wreckers. If they grow in Australia it will simply make it harder to build future protests and movements. ~ Mick Armstrong, Socialist Alternative, November 19, 2006

    …By the time it was all over, police had about 10,000 photographs and 3500 hours of footage to scan for malefactors.

    The white paper overalls worn by so many “persons of interest” presented a challenge. Police had to rely on glimpses of shoes, bandanas, glasses, earrings, moles, teeth and T-shirts to identify suspects. When the raids began around Melbourne and later in Sydney, police headed straight for clothes cupboards. The 109-page official Summary of Offences reads like a rag-trade inventory.

    Arrests began even before the G20 flew out of Melbourne. Drasko Boljevic, who was out of town on the Saturday, was picked up in the CBD on Sunday and thrown into a police van. The Age quoted Boljevic saying he was tied up and driven round the city with a policeman sitting on his head. He was then handcuffed, arrested and released. Later, the police commissioner, Christine Nixon, confirmed a man had been mistakenly arrested.

    Arrests continued for a year. One accused was brought down [December 10, 2007] from Queensland. Another was arrested at Mascot [November 15, 2007] as he flew from New Zealand to Spain on holiday. One was arrested quite by chance [sic] after an off-duty policeman out shopping saw a hardware store employee showing his mates his face in a newspaper photograph of the demonstration. Police reckon luck has been running their way throughout the G20 clean-up.

    They are naturally reluctant to say how many demonstrators they’d hoped to arrest. They emphasise the case is not closed. Fresh arrests could be made at any time if they identify more faces in their picture files. But, as of now, the total number arrested is 28… ~ David Marr, A crowded hour, an endless pursuit, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 22, 2008

Melbourne

Two-and-a-half years after protests in Melbourne against the G20 Summit (November 18–19, 2006), the final cases police subsequently brought against the approximately two-dozen or so individuals arrested as a result of ‘Operation Salver’ are concluding.

Following Sina’s verdict (July 9), more verdicts today for Sunil and Tim: “not guilty or no agreement could be made by the jury on all charges, except for one charge of unlawful assembly in the case of Sunil, or so I’m told. Lou or someone will probably give a better summation once the dust settles.”

The verdicts in full:

Sunil

Count 1 Aggravated Burglary at Tenix – Not Guilty
Count 2 Unlawful Assembly .. .. – *Guilty*
Count 3 Criminal Damage .. .. – Not Guilty
Count 4 Aggravated Burglary at Defence – Not Guilty
Count 5 Unlawful Assembly .. .. – *No Verdict*
Count 6 Criminal Damage .. .. – Not Guilty

Tim

Count 1 Aggravated Burglary at Tenix – Not Guilty
Count 2 Unlawful Assembly .. .. – Not Guilty
Count 3 Criminal Damage .. .. – Not Guilty
Count 4 Aggravated Burglary at Defence – Not Guilty
Count 5 Unlawful Assembly .. .. – *No Verdict*
Count 6 Criminal Damage .. .. – Not Guilty

The Crown has announced its intention to proceed to a new trial on the two counts where the jury was unable to reach either a unanimous or a majority verdict, and a mentions hearing is set for 14 August.

Sunil and Tim were one of a number of people arrested in Sydney in March 2007, following dawn raids jointly conducted by Victoria Police and the NSW anti-terrorism unit (Anti-terror police swoop on activists’ homes, Mark Buttler and Paul Anderson, Herald Sun, March 15, 2007). Word on the virtual street is that the suspected terrorists were able to swallow their atom bombs shortly before police arrived. (They have not been to the toilet since, and police warn that the pair are armed and dangerous.)

Over 3000 2000 1000 100 10 people 1 person nobody was killed at the G20 protest in Melbourne in November 2006, but thousands hundreds scores dozens several at least one police officer exacerbated a pre-existing injury (‘tennis elbow’) as a result. In addition, a police van window was broken.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is the next pit-stop for the G20 traveling circus, at a meeting to be held @ the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Segments of the transnational ruling class drawn from 20 states (along with a small army of technocrats and men with guns) are set to occupy the city of Pittsburgh from September 24–25, 2009. Some of the natives are restless:

Oddly enough, just two weeks prior to the G20 meeting, the AFL-CIO — the United States’ peak union body — will be holding its annual convention @ Mister Lawrence’s house:

This Convention will be historic. It comes as working families struggle with the greatest economic crisis in a generation, but also at a time of unprecedented opportunity – for labor law reform, health care reform, economic revitalization and bold progress toward social and economic justice. For the fourth time since the AFL-CIO’s founding, we will elect new leadership; while honoring the values and legacy that have brought us this far and charting the course for the future of America’s union movement.

Blah blah blah. See also : Activists plan for G-20 with march, demonstrations, Dan Nephin, AP, July 15, 2009.

London

Protests against the G20 meeting took place in London in April, 2009. “The great majority of the police, seemingly ever-patient and self-controlled, stood for hours as kids baited and yelled, shoved and provoked. A handful of officers used well-placed elbows while batons were raised only in response to the vandalism” — or so wrote Paola Totaro, The Age‘s Europe correspondent. Timmeh! Blair, on the other hand, celebrated the police giving the scum a ‘BIT OF STICK’, as he and his followers phantasised about the extra-judicial punishments they would like to dish out to the criminals protesters criminals — if only they had legal immunity (and the courage of their convictions).

In reality, one man, Ian Tomlinson, was killed by police, and numerous others subjected to police assault. Both were in large measure victims of the police tactic known as ‘kettling’ — a tactic employed for many years, one well-known to and commented upon by activists, but strangely escaping the eagle-eye of (most) reporters (See : Guide To Public Order Situations, Schnews). This tactic is now being challenged in the European Court: Metropolitan police’s ‘kettling’ tactic challenged in European court, Paul Lewis, The Guardian, July 19, 2009.

In early July, Freddy Patel, the police pathologist who initially declared Tomlinson to have died of ‘natural causes’ (and who had form) was suspended from his job; the police officer allegedly responsible for assaulting Tomlinson (see : Riot policeman’s hands viciously assaulted by Ian Tomlinson’s back) “had been wrongly re-employed by the Metropolitan Police after leaving while facing a serious disciplinary charge”.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has released a report into policing @ G20, titled ‘Adapting to Protest’ and dated July 2009 [PDF]; its contents are reminiscent of those contained in the whitewash conducted by Victorian Ombudsman Bruce Perry following the S11 protests in September 2000.

Ian Tomlinson’s murder — like that of Blair Peach 30 years earlier, and that of hundreds of others over the same period — is highly unlikely to result in any convictions; and as Janet Street-Porter pointed out he was, after all, just a drunk. (See also : Report on Kiwi’s death ‘must be released’, NZPA, July 29, 2009 | Reggae Fi Peach.)

Everywhere

State authorities have developed and continue to implement (and to revise) a fairly standard repertoire of repressive tactics inre (anti-)summit protests. In addition to reinforcing otherwise routine forms of infiltration and surveillance of protest movements, authorities:

    i) conduct propaganda campaigns — in conjunction with state/corporate media, selected public figures and media and political commentators — aimed at transforming the image of the ‘good’ protester into that of the ‘bad’ terrorist, raising expectations of ‘protester violence’, and thus justifying and providing a pretext for paramilitary-style policing;
    ii) introduce new or augment existing laws in order to provide for a wider range of offences and greatly increased penalties inre protest activities;
    iii) ensure police are able to perform their duties either with virtual legal immunity for their actions or in the reasonable expectation of having the responsibility for any unfavourable legal outcomes assumed by the state;
    iv) identify and target for arrest presumed ‘leaders’ (either before, during or after protest activity);
    v) construct (temporary) walls and establish perimeters around summit locations, often including the designation of particular areas as being under special laws;
    vi) conduct pre-emptive strikes upon convergence spaces, frequently involving mass arrests, and invariably the identification of those present and the collation of (other) materials leading to the identification of (other) participants;
    vii) sever, on the basis of tactical differences, links between groups operating in coalition;
    viii) destroy and/or seriously damage and/or confiscate materials intended to be used in the course of protest or during its organisation;
    ix) obstruct the activities of independent media, legal monitoring and medical aid in particular.

Much more could be said on this subject, and even may be. In the meantime, the Glass Bead Collective and Twin Cities Indymedia have recently produced a superb documentary, Terrorizing Dissent, Part 3 of which (‘And Then They Came For The Anarchists…’) documents state repression of the RNC8 Welcoming Committee.

See also : RNC ’08 Report | Reining in the Parade, Mark Davis, Dateline, September 5, 2007: “With the APEC summit virtually closing off Sydney’s CBD, Mark Davis tracks a band of young protesters planning what may well be one of the biggest anti APEC demonstrations…” | Genoa Red Zone (2002 documentary inre anti-G8 protests in July, 2001 in Genoa, Italy) | Numerous other links on similar subjects which I would include if I thought anyone gave a flying fuck.

NB. anarchy is a fag! anarchy is a (Venezuelan) fag! Return of the Son of Anarchy is a Fag! Anarchy is a dead Greek fag! Anarchist? Queer? XY not?

Bonus!

Posted in Broken Windows, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged | 4 Comments