Northbay Uprising - Information for the liberated zones of the San Pablo Bay

2012-02-09 Northbay Uprising radio showcase

2012-02-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

3 to 4pm: Misdemeanor Music hosted by Mis Demeanor and Dr.G.
Local and Alternative hip-hop!
2012-02-09 playlist
1 Mr blue sky ** D Boi (Vallejo)
2 Game from the suburbs** el negro (Vallejo)
3 Kerosene** 4rAx of the mekanix (Oakland)

4 Right now ** Peezy (Matinez /Concord)
5 Crazy** Spookie Sicc (San Francisco)
6 Bottle a day** johnnyG (Watsonville)

7 V town back** RichB4Rich 9 (Vallejo)
8 Taco Truck** El Negro & pyro da banga (Vallejo)
9 Drippin wet ** D Boi (Vallejo)

10 BS and B-Sides **Age Scott (Vallejo)
11 Ghetto Manitesto** TheCoup (Oakland)
12) Time not Wasted **Ras Ceylon (Oakland)

4 to 4:30pm: Gathering of the Tribes
San Pablo Bay culture, calender listings and more!
2012-02-03 interview schedule:
1) Joshua Umoja, Vallejo hip-hop artist and documentary maker. We will be talking about music, his projects and his brother Guy Jarreau, jr.
2) Sari Friedman, a ladies' poet out in Napa, laying out a luscious Love poetry for Valentines Day from the triple award-winning anthology TOUCHING: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire (Vol. Two of the Fearless Poetry Series).

4:30 to 5pm: Fèmme Brûlée with DJ Jessica Ryan
A radio showcase of women in music, with a focus on independent musicians across the Bay.
Send your recordings or play your music LIVE on the FM: jessicaryan.ozcatradio@gmail.com

5 to 6pm: Northbay Uprising radio news
Interview at 5pm with Sean Gillis, a Paramedic instructor and supervisor at the Oakland Fire Department (OFD), who filed suit on June 17th, 2011 against OFD. In his complaint, Gillis alleges OFD mistreated Oscar Grant in its response to Grant 9-1-1 calls on January 1st, 2009, destroyed evidence related to the mistreatment, ordered Gillis to stop his investigation of the call response, and is currently retaliating against Gillis for exposing same. More information at [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/06/20/18682479.php]
Today we will be discussing:

1) Observations about how the evidence related to the Grant response and the computer archive of Grant’s Patient Care Report was mishandled.

2) Legacy of racism (and perhaps hatred of lower classes?) and cronyism at OFD, and examples of other types of corruption in Oakland.

3) Privatization of Merritt College’s EMT program and how it affected the prospects of minorities and people in the lower classes.

Interview at 5:30pm with Jane Bogner, who works with the Solano group of the Sierra Club to advocate for protection of the ecology, and all the benefits to life that go along with this:
1) How has the Solano Group of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter been an advocate for the local ecology?
2) What are the benefits to having a cleaner ecology, locally?
3) What sort of political attitudes have you encountered in Solano County which run against the morality of preserving life? Are there any examples you'd like to bring up which show how local governments or business's are trying to destroy the local ecology?
4) Agriculture depends on the birds, butterflies and the bees. With the disappearance of the bees and butterflies, how dire is the situation for the birds? And how will this affect local agriculture?
5) Name some of your favorite ecological hot spots in Solano County.
7) Tell us a little bit about the Flyway Festival...

News digest headlines are collected from the following online newswires and aggregators:
Indybay newswire [www.indybay.org]
San Pablo Bay Sovereignty [sovereignsanpablobay.blogspot.com]
San Pablo Bay Ecological Preservation Association [sanpablobayepa.blogspot.com]
San Francisco Bay View [www.sfbayview.com]

Culture Calender

2012-02-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

Northbay Uprising Calender of
Conscious and Psychedelic events

from around the San Pablo bay area

Ongoing Culture such as local open mics, arts, local events lists alongside other calenders from outside the San Pablo bay:

[http://northbayuprising.blogspot.com/2009/08/links_09.html]
updated 2012-02

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Fresh and Fly Productions Presents:
2012-03-03 "Sactown Underground"

Sacramento's dance scene has produced many great dancers and crews such as Flex Flav, Underground Flow, Devious, Airsteps, Fallen Kings, Jabbawockeez, Quest Crew, and so many more. It's time to see who's holding down the scene and representing for our city now. This is your time to get your crew name among the list of SacTown''s illest. Its time to take it back to the underground y'all.
Hosted by: Phatso Fresh
* Bboy Crew Battle (Minimum 3, Maximum 6). Bboy Battle Prize $600 + gear and trophy.
* All Styles Battle 1 on 1. All Styles Prize $150 + gear and trophy. (Open to all different styles of dance- Popping, Locking, Turfing, Jerking, Waacking, House, Tutting, Bboying, and so on)
* 10 on 10 Next Generation Battle featuring: Bay Area vs The Valley
When: Saturday March 3rd 2012. Time: Doors open @4pm. Battles will start @5pm.
Price: $10 @ the door, $7 Pre sale. Tickets will be available on FreshandFlyProductions.com starting in January.
Location: 45 Quinta Ct. Suite D, Sacramento, Ca 95823, On the corner of Mack Rd. and Stockton Blvd. (near Burger King)
Music by -
* Dj Quantum (Head Hunters)
* Joemega Weapon the Soul Juggler (Flow Fanatics/Dragon Diggers)
Supported by -
* The Bboy Federation (BboyFed.com)
* Universal Bboy Clothing (ProtectorsofHiphop.com)
For vending and sponsorship info please contact Phatso Fresh [phatsofresh@freshandflyproductions.com]
Fresh and Fly Productions [http://freshandflyproductions.com]

Action Calender

2012-02-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Ongoing Action, information about sovereignty groups and what's really happening are on the Solidarity page: [http://northbayuprising.blogspot.com/2009/08/solidarity.html]

The Uprising! from PuppetGov on Vimeo.

FREE FLY BENZO, No Jail for Copwatching!!!
The initial stages of DeBray Carpenter's trial (Fly Benzo) has begun.
The Trial is in Department 27, Judge Benson
Jury selection begins Feb. 7 at 9 am.
Opening statements Feb. 8 at 9 am
Prosecution witnesses begin Feb. 9 at 9am
Continue prosecution witnesses on Feb. 10 at 9 am
DEFENSE WITNESSES COULD START ON February 10
850 Bryant Street, Department 27 9:00 a.m.
Please attend this trial and stand in solidarity with Fly Benzo

On 2012 Valentine's Day:
"We Love Our Children, Our Teachers and Our Schools"
Chevron Pay UP! TAX OIL TO FUND EDUCATION Initiative Proposition 1522
February 14, 2012 3:30 PM Press Conference
Chevron Richmond Refinery, 100 Chevron Way, Richmond, California
Speakers From:* Rescue Education
* West Bay Toxics Coalition
* United Teachers Of Richmond UTR
* United Public Workers For Action UPWA
On Valentine Day, we will be showing our love for our children and for our schools by calling for Chevron to start paying more for education. Teachers and students will be having wish lists on Valentine's day of what they need in the schools from pencils and paper to books.
Last year, Chevron made $26.9 billion in profits and if Proposition 1522 passes passes they will be paying $1 billion in additional taxes to fund education in California. If this passes it would bring $42,442,876 in additional revenue for public schools in the Contra Costa School district and raise $3.5 billion more for education throughout California.
California schools have had tens of thousands of layoffs and cutbacks as billions have been eliminated from education from K-12 to Community Colleges, CSU and the UC system. At the same time the profits of the oil companies in California have been skyrocketing. The public education system is under dire threat and yet the oil companies in California pay no oil extraction tax unlike Texas and even Alaska. This money is desperately needed to protect and defend education in California. We also support the millionaires tax.
Initiated by Rescue Education In California
www.rescueeducationcalifornia.org
For information contact (415) 867-0628 or (415) 505-2246
Endorsed by United Teachers Of Richmond UTR
-labor donated-

Sat. - Sun. Feb. 18-19
Southern CA Library for Social Studies
6120 S.Vermont Ave., LA
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Political-Culture Event
Sat. Feb. 18. 7-9:00pm
Danza Cuauhtemoc, Theater by ex-PP Jihad Abdulmumit, Son Real (jarocho music), Hip-Hop/Spoken Word
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Regional Gathering
Sun. Feb. 19 12-4:00 pm
Come meet national & local leaders in the struggle to free political prisoners and help shape campaigns in CA and on the West Coast for Romaine 'Chip' Fitzgerald, Ruchell Magee, Dr. Mulutu Shaker, General T.A.C.O. of the Black Riders, Patrice Lumumba Ford and other political prisoners in this region.
Donation requested for program and meals.
Jericho Amnesty Movement, L.A. chapter [323-901-4269] [jerichoamnestylosangeles@gmail.com] [www.thejerichomovement.com]

Note: The Northbay Uprising upholds freedom and life. By posting for a cause against a war with Iran, we declare we do not support the fascist policies of Iran, but that we support the People of Iran against a murderous war which, if Iraq is any example, will kill MILLIONS of innocent lives, and may end up with another Holocaust of the Jewish People in Israel.
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2012-02-04 "EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TO STOP U.S. WAR AGAINST IRAN"
NO WAR! NO SANCTIONS! NO INTERVENTION! NO ASSASSINATIONS!
No War On Iran: National Day of Action Feb 4 [http://www.facebook.com/events/214341975322807]
[StopWarOnIran.org]
A broad spectrum of U.S.-based anti-imperialist and anti-war organizations, including the International Action Center, agreed on a Jan. 17 conference call to hold coordinated protests across the country on Saturday, Feb. 4.
The demands will be: “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations against Iran.”
The ad-hoc group that took part in the call decided that although there are only two weeks to organize, it will invite anti-war forces around the world to join in to make this emergency protest a global day of action.
All agreed on the need to stop U.S. imperialism and/or Israel from launching a military attack on Iran. There was also a consensus that the new sanctions President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec. 31 -- with the goal of breaking the Iranian central bank -- were themselves an act of war aimed at the Iranian people. The political activists on the call raised the danger of a wider war should fighting break out in or around Iran.
While the organizations involved had varied assessments of the Iranian government, they all saw any intervention from U.S. imperialism in the Southwest Asian country as a threat to the entire region and to peace. Some of the people on the call who are originally from Iran and who were in touch with family and friends there conveyed the Iranian people’s anger at the recent assassination of a young scientist.
There was agreement to make “no assassinations” one of the demands to show solidarity with the Iranian population as well as to condemn the U.S. and its allies for criminal activities against Iran and its people.
As of Jan. 19, the organizations that called the actions or endorsed later included the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC), the International Action Center (IAC), SI! Solidarity with Iran, Refugee Apostolic Catholic Church, Workers World Party, World Can’t Wait, American Iranian Friendship Committee, ANSWER Coalition, Antiwar.com, Peace of the Action, ComeHomeAmerica.us, St. Pete for Peace, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality-Virginia, WESPAC Foundation, Peace Action Maine, Occupy Myrtle Beach, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, Twin Cities Peace Campaign and Bail Out the People Movement (BOPM).
Individual endorsers include authors David Swanson, “When the World Outlawed War,” and Phil Wilayto, “In Defense of Iran: Notes from a U.S. Peace Delegation’s Journey through the Islamic Republic”; and U.N. Human Rights Award winner Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general.

Services, Announcements and Ongoing events

2012-02-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

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Food Sovereignty class

The Body Temple Institute [www.thebodytemple.ning.com] and we have partnered up to challenge the RBG community [www.RBGNation.ning.com] to make self preservation a priority. The Goal is to get as many people as we can to join the teleclass and learn the basics of growing their own food. Eventually for each one to teach one reaching a total of 500 bucket or back yard gardens growing Sovereign Foods!
JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR SELF PRESERVATION GET READY TO PLANT YOURS
LETS MAKE SELF PRESERVATION GO VIRAL!!
JOIN US FOR A FREE CLASSES ON GROWING YOUR OWN SOVEREIGN FOODS. FOR REAL FOOD SECURITY REGISTER BEFORE FEBRUARY 6 BY EMAILING US AT: THEBODYTEMPLE999@GMAIL.COM
CAN U DIGG IT!!!

Lafayette Garden Club
The Lafayette Garden Club meets at 9:30am on the seconf Thursday of each month at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church located at 1035 Carol Lane in Lafayette. For more information, email [annward@annward.com]

Lamorinda Peace and Justice
The Lamorinda Peace and Justice Group meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 7 to 9pm in the fireside room of Lafayette Methodist Church, 955 Moraga Road, Lafayette. Our group is committed to working to support a healthy planet, a thriving local community, and a safe, equitable world for all. For more information, call 925-946-0563


Faith Food Fridays
Free Groceries / Food
Every Friday – 4pm until 6pm
826 Solano ave. @ Curtola parkway
For more information, visit www.faithfoodfridays.com, or call Benjamin Buggs [510-978-2396]
This is a ministry of Faith Bible Church of Vallejo, located at 901 Solano ave.
2011-12-23: Please join us as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ at this week's Faith Food Fridays grocery and children's toy distribution. Contributions can be dropped off Thursday between 5pm-7pm or Friday between 2pm and 6pm. May God bless you and surround you with His gifts of peace, joy and love!
Photograph showing Benjamin Buggs doing the work of a higher order for the community!

Boss or Landlord problems?
We are a mutual support organization of workers and tenants. Together we stand up to unjust bosses and landlords. We win through strategy, struggle, support and solidarity.
Eastbay Solidarity Network [510-629-6561] [eastbaysol@gmail.com]

Model Railroad Society Train Show
Come and see the largest HO scale layout on permanent display in the Bay Area and one of the largest in the USA. Last Friday of the month, 8 to 10pm, $2
Walnut Creek Model Railraod Society [2751 Buena Vista Avenue] [925-937-1888]

Moschetti's coffee roasting company is inviting the public to try out free samples of the coffee and tea products available from the company, which roasts & sells coffee beans directly from the source to the coffee lover.
Every Saturday, from 9am until 12 noon, you can come and enjoy a warm conversation with friends while sipping certified organic, fairtrade artisan coffees from around the world, many of which are available in the Bay Area only from Moschetti's coffee roasting company!
11 Sixth st., Vallejo, where Curtola Blvd. crosses Solano Avenue.
For more information, you can contact Moschetti's at [707-556-9000] [Fabrice@moschetti.com]

Northbay Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS)


Gathering Of The Tribes
Every 1st and 3rd Thursday, beginning at 6:30pm
at the Ozcat Liberated Zone, 1104 Georgia st. in Vallejo.
[gott.productions@gmail.com]

Occupy Vallejo! General Assembly of the 99%
Every 2nd and 4th Thursday, 7pm
at the Ozcat Liberated Zone, 1104 Georgia st.,Vallejo

Vallejo Inter-Tribal Council
[www.vallejointertribal.org]
Working to keep alive the Native American culture
"We recognize our relationship to the past and to the future because they are the same thing" Winona Laduke

Legal Help: Free or low-cost services
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"Lawyer in the Library" Program
Benicia Public Library
150 E. L St., Benicia
First Thursday of month at 6 p.m. (sign-ups start 5 p.m.)
Brief legal advice and referrals
Translators welcome
746-4343
www.benicialibrary.org
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"Lawyer in the Library" Program
John F. Kennedy Library 505 Santa Clara St., Vallejo
First and third Wednesdays of month at 4 p.m. (arrive early)
1-866-57-ASKUS (1-866-572-7587)
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Legal Services of Northern California
1810 Capitol St., Vallejo
(707) 643-0054 or 1-800-270-7252
www.lsnc.net
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Referral Service
Solano County Bar Association
744 Empire St., Suite 201, Fairfield
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to noon.
$45 for matching client with attorney plus 1/2 hour consultation
(707) 422-0127
www.solanobar.org
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Solano County Small Claims Advisor
General Information: (707) 207-7335
Direct consultation line: (707) 422-7433
Accessible Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to noon.
www.solanocourts.com/Courts/SmallClaims.html
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Dispute Resolution Service
Solano County Bar Association
744 Empire St. Suite 201, Fairfield
(707) 422-5087

SafeQuest Solano
Services for sexual assault and domestic violence victims
(707) 421-6881 or (866) 487-7233
www.safequest.org

Equal Rights Advocate Advice and Counseling Hotline
1-800-839-4ERA
www.equalrights.org

Workers Rights Clinic
(415) 864-8208
Wednesdays, 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Women's Employment Rights Clinic
(415) 442-6647

Senior Legal Hotline
(800) 222-1753
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.; Thursday until 7 p.m.

Samsons Unit
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FvF3HfEGbYc]
Shawn Polly explains the making of Samsons Unit Mens Sober Living Home.

History in the Making: May 1st General Strike for Freedom!

2012-02-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

Michael Novick, General Strike Preparation Committee of Occupy LA
[323-250-6291] [www.occupymay1st.org] [occupymay1st@gmail.com] [generalstrike2012@gmail.com]

Following is from "Turning the Tide" newspaper published by "Anti-Racist Action - Los Angeles"

Lafayette Crosses

2012-02-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

Join the cause for Peace and memorialize the people who died in fascist war...

See you Saturday at the Crosses work party between 10am and 12:30pm.
Crosses of Lafayette work party schedule for 2012:
* Saturday February 11th, 10am-12:30pm
* Sunday March 11th, 10am-12:30pm
* Saturday April 14th, 10am-12:30pm
* Sunday May 13th, 10am-12:30pm,
* Memorial Day Vigil, May 28th, at 7:00pm
* Saturday June 9th, 10am-12:30pm
* Sunday July 8th, 10am-12:30pm
* Saturday August 11th, 10am-12:30pm
* Sunday Sept 9th, 10am-12:30pm
* Saturday October `13th, 10am-12:30pm
* Sunday November 11th, 10am-12:30pm
* Veterans Day Vigil, November 11th, at 5:00pm
* Saturday December 8th, 10am-12:30pm

2012-02-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

2012-02-11

Kenneth Harding Lives!

2012-02-10T15:52:00.000-08:00

2012-02-09 "Star-studded Kenneth Harding Benefit Concert, HipHop Film Fest, great Bay View stories & more" from "San Francisco Bay View"
Not long ago a man who’d just been released from the state prison called the California Men’s Colony (I’ve always wondered how it got that name) called to say that officials there dread the day the Bay View hits the mail room because, he reported them as saying, “The Bay View can change the nation.”
I’m not relaying that to toot our own horn but to encourage you to visit www.sfbayview.com often to read some truly great stories – and to consider volunteering to help post the stories. Our last volunteers, who were wonderful, moved on to put more time into labor organizing, and we sure could use a few more. No need to come here; I can email you the instructions and a story to get you started. Thanks for considering it.

UPCOMING EVENTS -
Friday, Feb. 10, 9 p.m.: Kenneth Harding Benefit Concert hosted by Chuy Gomez, with music by DJ JR, the Minister of Information, and special club performances by The Jacka, MacMall, Cellski, Turf Talk, Matt Blaque, Beeda Weeda, Laroo, J Diggs, plus The Doe Gang, Undagod and Fly Benzo. Kenneth Harding is the 19-year-old murdered by SFPD last July 16 a block from us over a $2 transit fare. City Hall will judge how serious we are about justice by the size of the crowd. Be there! It’s happening at 330 Ritch in San Francisco. Get your tickets – only $12 – at http://justice4kennethhardingjr.eventbrite.com/. Hurry before it sells out.
Friday-Saturday, Feb. 10-11: Second Annual Civil Rights and HipHop Film Festival. Come by at 5 p.m. before the concert Friday for political hiphop and soul music video shorts and a slideshow and lecture by former Black Panther Party Minister of Culture Emory Douglas on his art work that educates and inspires the world. On Saturday, 6:30-10 p.m., for a Marvin Gaye documentary; “Planet Rock,” narrated by Ice T on the relationship between hiphop and crack cocaine; and “Life Is,” a documentary with Too Short. The location is Twinspace Continuum, 2111 Mission St. at 17th, third floor Suite 3, San Francisco.
Ongoing every weekday morning at 9:30 a.m.: Trial of DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter, the Bayview Hunters Point hero who SFPD is trying to bury under a four-year prison term for using his First Amendment rights to protest the police murder of Kenneth Harding and all the evil committed by the SFPD, the out-of-control militarized gang occupying our hood. Read Fly’s own words at The First Amendment right to record the police and his latest, ‘We don’t work, nobody works’ about his economic justice organizing. The trial is in Department 27 at the Hall of “Justice,” 850 Bryant, San Francisco. For the latest trial schedule and more info, check http://www.facebook.com/FlyBenzo.
Monday, Feb. 20, 12-3 p.m.: National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners. In the Bay Area, we’ll Occupy San Quentin outside the main gate. Huge crowds in California – LA and Fresno have big rallies planned outside their county jails – could prevent the need for more hunger strikes, and huge crowds around the country could abolish solitary confinement. Get a ride or give a ride at 10 a.m. at either Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th and Broadway, Oakland, or 1540 Market St., San Francisco.
Check the Bay View Calendar of Events often. More Saturday, Feb. 11, events to choose from include the HipHop Chess Federation’s anniversary, Bikes 4 Life’s grand re-opening – they’re giving away 20 bikes – and a bold new work by Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Spend Sunday, Feb. 12, deliberating “The State of Black San Francisco 2012.” Have a ball celebrating Valentine’s Day Feb. 14 with the POOR Magazine crew at their Fifth Annual Poetry Battle of ALL the Sexes. And come to the Fillmore, called Harlem of the West before the Redevelopment bulldozers destroyed it, for the Sixth Annual Mardi Gras Feb. 18-21.
LATEST STORIES AT SFBAYVIEW.COM
Behind Enemy Lines – Many more excellent stories are almost ready to post, so please check back often.

Occupy Eureka

2012-02-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

2012-02-10 "EPD Steals MORE from Occupy Eureka, around noon TODAY (Fri, Feb 10th)"
Today, EPD (Eureka Police Department) Officer Goodale ("Robocop") and unidentified officer(s) came to Occupy Eureka and took new signs that were leaning against our literature tables, clothes that are there for people to stay warm, and one or more of our chairs. I'm not sure whether the cops took any of the tables or not...
Please come down and support Occupy Eureka!

2012-02-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

2012-02-09 "Concerning the Violent Peace-Police" by David Graeber
[http://nplusonemag.com/concerning-the-violent-peace-police]
In response to “The Cancer in Occupy,” by Chris Hedges [http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_cancer_of_occupy_20120206/].
2011-11-02 photograph showing Black Bloc at Occupy Oakland

I am writing this on the premise that you are a well-meaning person who wishes Occupy Wall Street to succeed. I am also writing as someone who was deeply involved in the early stages of planning Occupy in New York.
I am also an anarchist who has participated in many Black Blocs. While I have never personally engaged in acts of property destruction, I have on more than one occasion taken part in Blocs where property damage has occurred. (I have taken part in even more Blocs that did not engage in such tactics. It is a common fallacy that this is what Black Blocs are all about. It isn’t.)
I was hardly the only Black Bloc veteran who took part in planning the initial strategy for Occupy Wall Street. In fact, anarchists like myself were the real core of the group that came up with the idea of occupying Zuccotti Park, the “99%” slogan, the General Assembly process, and, in fact, who collectively decided that we would adopt a strategy of Gandhian non-violence and eschew acts of property damage. Many of us had taken part in Black Blocs. We just didn’t feel that was an appropriate tactic for the situation we were in.
This is why I feel compelled to respond to your statement “The Cancer in Occupy.” This statement is not only factually inaccurate, it is quite literally dangerous. This is the sort of misinformation that really can get people killed. In fact, it is far more likely to do so, in my estimation, than anything done by any black-clad teenager throwing rocks.
Let me just lay out a few initial facts:
1. Black Bloc is a tactic, not a group. It is a tactic where activists don masks and black clothing (originally leather jackets in Germany, later, hoodies in America), as a gesture of anonymity, solidarity, and to indicate to others that they are prepared, if the situation calls for it, for militant action. The very nature of the tactic belies the accusation that they are trying to hijack a movement and endanger others. One of the ideas of having a Black Bloc is that everyone who comes to a protest should know where the people likely to engage in militant action are, and thus easily be able to avoid it if that’s what they wish to do.
2. Black Blocs do not represent any specific ideological, or for that matter anti-ideological position. Black Blocs have tended in the past to be made up primarily of anarchists but most contain participants whose politics vary from Maoism to Social Democracy. They are not united by ideology, or lack of ideology, but merely a common feeling that creating a bloc of people with explicitly revolutionary politics and ready to confront the forces of the order through more militant tactics if required, is, on the particular occasion when they assemble, a useful thing to do. It follows one can no more speak of “Black Bloc Anarchists,” as a group with an identifiable ideology, than one can speak of “Sign-Carrying Anarchists” or “Mic-Checking Anarchists.”
3. Even if you must select a tiny, ultra-radical minority within the Black Bloc and pretend their views are representative of anyone who ever put on a hoodie, you could at least be up-to-date about it. It was back in 1999 that people used to pretend “the Black Bloc” was made up of nihilistic primitivist followers of John Zerzan opposed to all forms of organization. Nowadays, the preferred approach is to pretend “the Black Bloc” is made up of nihilistic insurrectionary followers of The Invisible Committee, opposed to all forms of organization. Both are absurd slurs. Yours is also 12 years out of date.
4. Your comment about Black Bloc’ers hating the Zapatistas is one of the weirdest I’ve ever seen. Sure, if you dig around, you can find someone saying almost anything. But I’m guessing that, despite the ideological diversity, if you took a poll of participants in the average Black Bloc and asked what political movement in the world inspired them the most, the EZLN would get about 80% of the vote. In fact I’d be willing to wager that at least a third of participants in the average Black Bloc are wearing or carrying at least one item of Zapatista paraphernalia. (Have you ever actually talked to someone who has taken part in a Black Bloc? Or just to people who dislike them?)
5. “Diversity of tactics” is not a “Black Bloc” idea. The original GA in Tompkins Square Park that planned the original occupation, if I remember, adopted the principle of diversity of tactics (at least it was discussed in a very approving fashion), at the same time as we all also concurred that a Gandhian approach would be the best way to go. This is not a contradiction: “diversity of tactics” means leaving such matters up to individual conscience, rather than imposing a code on anyone. Partly,this is because imposing such a code invariably backfires. In practice, it means some groups break off in indignation and do even more militant things than they would have otherwise, without coordinating with anyone else—as happened, for instance, in Seattle. The results are usually disastrous. After the fiasco of Seattle, of watching some activists actively turning others over to the police—we quickly decided we needed to ensure this never happened again. What we found that if we declared “we shall all be in solidarity with one another. We will not turn in fellow protesters to the police. We will treat you as brothers and sisters. But we expect you to do the same to us”—then, those who might be disposed to more militant tactics will act in solidarity as well, either by not engaging in militant actions at all for fear they will endanger others (as in many later Global Justice Actions, where Black Blocs merely helped protect the lockdowns, or in Zuccotti Park, where mostly people didn’t bloc up at all) or doing so in ways that run the least risk of endangering fellow activists.
+ + +
All this is secondary. Mainly I am writing as an appeal to conscience. Your conscience, since clearly you are a sincere and well-meaning person who wishes this movement to succeed. I beg you: Please consider what I am saying. Please bear in mind as I say this that I am not a crazy nihilist, but a reasonable person who is one (if just one) of the original authors of the Gandhian strategy OWS adopted—as well as a student of social movements, who has spent many years both participating in such movements, and trying to understand their history and dynamics.
I am appealing to you because I really do believe the kind of statement you made is profoundly dangerous.
The reason I say this is because, whatever your intentions, it is very hard to read your statement as anything but an appeal to violence. After all, what are you basically saying about what you call “Black Bloc anarchists”?
1) they are not part of us
2) they are consciously malevolent in their intentions
3) they are violent
4) they cannot be reasoned with
5) they are all the same
6) they wish to destroy us
7) they are a cancer that must be excised
Surely you must recognize, when it’s laid out in this fashion, that this is precisely the sort of language and argument that, historically, has been invoked by those encouraging one group of people to physically attack, ethnically cleanse, or exterminate another—in fact, the sort of language and argument that is almost never invoked in any other circumstance. After all, if a group is made up exclusively of violent fanatics who cannot be reasoned with, intent on our destruction, what else can we really do? This is the language of violence in its purest form. Far more than “fuck the police.” To see this kind of language employed by someone who claims to be speaking in the name of non-violence is genuinely extraordinary. I recognize that you’ve managed to find certain peculiar fringe elements in anarchism saying some pretty extreme things, it’s not hard to do, especially since such people are much easier to find on the internet than in real life, but it would be difficult to come up with any “Black Bloc anarchist” making a statement as extreme as this.
Even if you did not intend this statement as a call to violence, which I suspect you did not, how can you honestly believe that many will not read it as such?
In my experience, when I point this sort of thing out, the first reaction I normally get from pacifists is along the lines of “what are you talking about? Of course I’m not in favor of attacking anyone! I am non-violent! I am merely calling for non-violently confronting such elements and excluding them from the group!” The problem is that in practice this is almost never what actually happens. Time after time, what it has actually meant in practice is either a) turning fellow activists over to the police, i.e., turning them over to people with weapons who will physically assault, shackle, and imprison them, or b) actual physical activist-on-activist assault. Such things have happened. There have been physical assaults by activists on other activists, and, to my knowledge, they have never been perpetrated by anyone in Black Bloc, but invariably by purported pacifists against those who dare to pull a hood over their heads or a bandana over their faces, or, simply, against anarchists who adopt tactics someone else thinks are going too far. (Not I should note even potentially violent tactics. During one 15-minute period in Occupy Austin, I was threatened first with arrest, then with assault, by fellow campers because I was expressing verbal solidarity with, and then standing in passive resistance beside, a small group of anarchists who were raising what was considered to be an unauthorized tent.)
This situation often produces extraordinary ironies. In Seattle, the only incidents of actual physical assault by protesters on other individuals were not attacks on the police, since these did not occur at all, but attacks by “pacifists” on Black Bloc’ers engaged in acts of property damage. Since the Black Bloc’ers had collectively agreed on a strict policy of non-violence (which they defined as never doing anything to harm another living being), they uniformly refused to strike back. In many recent occupations, self-appointed “Peace Police” have manhandled activists who showed up to marches in black clothing and hoodies, ripped their masks off, shoved and kicked them: always, without the victims themselves having engaged in any act of violence, always, with the victims refusing, on moral grounds, to shove or kick back.
The kind of rhetoric you are engaging in, if it disseminates widely, will ensure this kind of violence becomes much, much more severe.
+ + +
Perhaps you do not believe me, or do not believe these events to be particularly significant. If so, let me put the matter in a larger historical context.
If I understand your argument, it seems to come down to this:
1. OWS has been successful because it has followed a Gandhian strategy of showing how, even in the face of strictly non-violent opposition, the state will respond with illegal violence
2. Black Bloc elements who do not act according to principles of Gandhian non-violence are destroying the movement because they provide retroactive justification for state repression, especially in the eyes of the media
3. Therefore, the Black Bloc elements must be somehow rooted out.
As one of the authors of the original Gandhian strategy, I can recall how well aware we were, when we framed this strategy, that we were taking an enormous risk. Gandhian strategies have not historically worked in the US; in fact, they haven’t really worked on a mass scale since the civil rights movement. This is because the US media is simply constitutionally incapable of reporting acts of police repression as “violence.” (One reason the civil rights movement was an exception is so many Americans at the time didn’t view the Deep South as part of the same country.) Many of the young men and women who formed the famous Black Bloc in Seattle were in fact eco-activists who had been involved in tree-sits and forest defense lock-downs that operated on purely Gandhian principles—only to find that in the US of the 1990s, non-violent protesters could be brutalized, tortured (have pepper spray directly rubbed in their eyes), or even killed, without serious objection from the national media. So they turned to other tactics. We knew all this. We decided it was worth the risk.
However, we are also aware that when the repression begins, some will break ranks and respond with greater militancy. Even if this doesn’t happen in a systematic and organized fashion, some violent acts will take place. You write that Black Bloc’ers smashed up a “locally owned coffee shop”; I doubted this when I read it, since most Black Blocs agree on a strict policy of not damaging owner-operated enterprises, and I now find in Susie Cagle’s response to your article that, in fact, it was a chain coffee shop, and the property destruction was carried out by someone not in black. But still, you’re right: A few such incidents will inevitably occur.
The question is how one responds.
If the police decide to attack a group of protesters, they will claim to have been provoked, and the media will repeat whatever the police say, no matter how implausible, as the basic initial facts of what happened. This will happen whether or not anyone at the protest does anything that can be remotely described as violence. Many police claims will be obviously ridiculous – as at the recent Oakland march where police accused participants of throwing “improvised explosive devices”—but no matter how many times the police lie about such matters, the national media will still report their claims as true, and it will be up to protesters to provide evidence to the contrary. Sometimes, with the help of social media, we can demonstrate that particular police attacks were absolutely unjustified, as with the famous Tony Bologna pepper-spray incident. But we cannot by definition prove all police attacks were unjustified, even all attacks at one particular march; it’s simply physically impossible to film every thing that happens from every possible angle all the time. Therefore we can expect that whatever we do, the media will dutifully report “protesters engaged in clashes with police” rather than “police attacked non-violent protesters.” What’s more, when someone does throw back a tear-gas canister, or toss a bottle, or even spray-paint something, we can assume that act will be employed as retroactive justification for whatever police violence occurred before the act took place.
All this will be true whether or not a Black Bloc is present.
If the moral question is “is it defensible to threaten physical harm against those who do no direct harm to others,” one might say the pragmatic, tactical question is, “even if it were somehow possible to create a Peace Police capable of preventing any act that could even be interpreted as ‘violent’ by the corporate media, by anyone at or near a protest, no matter what the provocation, would it have any meaningful effect?” That is, would it create a situation where the police would feel they couldn’t use arbitrary force against non-violent protesters? The example of Zuccotti Park, where we achieved pretty consistent non-violence, suggests this is profoundly unlikely. And perhaps most importantly at all, even if it were somehow possible to create some kind of Peace Police that would prevent anyone under gas attack from so much as tossing a bottle, so that we could justly claim that no one had done anything to warrant the sort of attack that police have routinely brought, would the marginally better media coverage we would thus obtain really be worth the cost in freedom and democracy that would inevitably follow from creating such an internal police force to begin with?
+ + +
These are not hypothetical questions. Every major movement of mass non-violent civil disobedience has had to grapple with them in one form or another. How inclusive should you be with those who have different ideas about what tactics are appropriate? What do you do about those who go beyond what most people consider acceptable limits? What do you do when the government and its media allies hold up their actions as justification—even retroactive justification—for violent and repressive acts?
Successful movements have understood that it’s absolutely essential not to fall into the trap set out by the authorities and spend one’s time condemning and attempting to police other activists. One makes one’s own principles clear. One expresses what solidarity one can with others who share the same struggle, and if one cannot, tries one’s best to ignore or avoid them, but above all, one keeps the focus on the actual source of violence, without doing or saying anything that might seem to justify that violence because of tactical disagreements you have with fellow activists.
I remember my surprise and amusement, the first time I met activists from the April 6 Youth Movement from Egypt, when the issue of non-violence came up. “Of course we were non-violent,” said one of the original organizers, a young man of liberal politics who actually worked at a bank. “No one ever used firearms, or anything like that. We never did anything more militant than throwing rocks!”
Here was a man who understood what it takes to win a non-violent revolution! He knew that if the police start aiming tear-gas canisters directly at people’s heads, beating them with truncheons, arresting and torturing people, and you have thousands of protesters, then some of them will fight back. There’s no way to absolutely prevent this. The appropriate response is to keep reminding everyone of the violence of the state authorities, and never, ever, start writing long denunciations of fellow activists, claiming they are part of an insane fanatic malevolent cabal. (Even though I am quite sure that if a hypothetical Egyptian activist had wanted to make a case that, say, violent Salafis, or even Trotskyists, were trying to subvert the revolution, and adopted standards of evidence as broad as yours, looking around for inflammatory statements wherever they could find them and pretending they were typical of everyone who threw a rock, they could easily have made a case.) This is why most of us are aware that Mubarak’s regime attacked non-violent protesters, and are not aware that many responded by throwing rocks.
Egyptian activists, in other words, understood what playing into the hands of the police really means.
Actually, why limit ourselves to Egypt? Since we are talking about Gandhian tactics here, why not consider the case of Gandhi himself? He had to deal with what to say about people who went much further than rock-throwing (even though Egyptians throwing rocks at police were already going much further than any US Black Bloc has). Gandhi was part of a very broad anti-colonial movement that included elements that actually were using firearms, in fact, elements engaged in outright terrorism. He first began to frame his own strategy of mass non-violent civil resistance in response to a debate over the act of an Indian nationalist who walked into the office of a British official and shot him five times in the face, killing him instantly. Gandhi made it clear that while he was opposed to murder under any circumstances, he also refused to denounce the murderer. This was a man who was trying to do the right thing, to act against an historical injustice, but did it in the wrong way because he was “drunk with a mad idea.”
Over the course of the next 40 years, Gandhi and his movement were regularly denounced in the media, just as non-violent anarchists are also always denounced in the media (and I might remark here that while not an anarchist himself, Gandhi was strongly influenced by anarchists like Kropotkin and Tolstoy), as a mere front for more violent, terroristic elements, with whom he was said to be secretly collaborating. He was regularly challenged to prove his non-violent credentials by assisting the authorities in suppressing such elements. Here Gandhi remained resolute. It is always morally superior, he insisted, to oppose injustice through non-violent means than through violent means. However, to oppose injustice through violent means is still morally superior to not doing anything to oppose injustice at all.
And Gandhi was talking about people who were blowing up trains, or assassinating government officials. Not damaging windows or spray-painting rude things about the police. +

2012-02-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

2012-02-09 FORUM ON POLICE RESPONSE TO OCCUPY OAKLAND
A symposium sponsored by the Oakland Citizens' Police Review Board
The forum will focus on issues of planning and strategy, OPD's response to issues of misconduct, OPD's policies on mutual aid, and changes in department practice going forward.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 AT 6:15 P.M.
Oakland City Hall, City Council Chambers, 1 Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza
Update:
Last week on January 26th we sent you notice that the Oakland Citizen's Police Review Board (CPRB) was holding a public forum on the Oakland Police Response to Occupy Oakland scheduled for February 9th.
We are informed that the Forum is postponed for a couple of reasons. Since the police riot on Saturday, January 28th there are concerns about security issues as well as concerns about people who are given stay away orders not being permitted admittance to City Hall to testify.
CPRB is working on the logistics and will reschedule the Forum and we will, of course, let you know as soon as possible.