From Void Network

In order to liberate ourselves from debt we must destroy the economy

The political and financial spectacle has now lost its confidence. Its acts are entirely convulsive. The government of “emergency” that has taken over the maintenance of social cohesion is failing in conserving the labour, and at the same time the consumption power of the population. The new measures, with which the state aims to secure the survival of the greek nation in the international financial world, lead to a complete suspension of payments in the world of work. The lowering of the minimum wage, now also in paper, comes in harmony with the full suspension of every form of direct or social wage.

Every cost of our reproduction vanishes. The health structures, the educational spaces, the “welfare” benefits and anything making us productive in the dominant system are now a thing of the past. After squeezing everything out of us, they now throw us straight into hunger and impoverishment.

The securing of the abolition of any form of wage, on a legal level, takes place via the creation of a “special, closed off account”. In this way, the greek state ensures that the monetary stock will be used exclusively for the survival of capital, at the expense of our own lives, even. The weight of the debt (not of the state, but of that which is inextricably contained in the relationship of capital) is swinging over our heads, threatening to fall on them and to extinguish us.

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I don't really know how to write this. All i can do is attempt to recount my experiences, my feelings and be clear in saying that these are my personal recollections on J28 and do not reflect the experiences, ideas or reasonings of my comrades. My actions are my own. It's pretty long...

Upon visiting Occupy Oakland we learned that they were planning on taking a building the following weekend. Many of us came together in a caravan and drove up to Oakland. Personally, after my previous trip to Occupy UCR, Occupy San Francisco and #oo i felt that going to other occupations and participating in other regional actions are extremely valuable learning experiences. As well as bridge building opportunities, which I can say in reference to #oo that we are one and the same movement. We are all occupiers. I wanted to learn- how they mobilize, how they defend and how they move en masse. I wanted to learn what it was like to take a building, perhaps, so we could create our own community space one day.

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From Act for Freedom Now!

Starting with September 2009 and the arrests in Halandri, now 9 members of the R.O. CCF are locked up in prisons around Greece while other comrades are dragged by the anti-terrorist force and the judges, from dungeon to dungeon convicted or detained for the same case.

The attitude of the 9 members of the R.O. CCF from the first moment of their arrest, their claim of political responsibility, their decent attitude inside the prisons and their attempt to leave empty cells behind them feeds our need to stand in solidarity with our imprisoned comrades more than ever.

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We recently recieved word, and have confirmed from several sources in different facilities, that all the close custody prisons in North Carolina (including Bertie, Polk, and several others) were recently placed on lockdown for an extended period of time. According to one source, this lockdown began (at least at Lanesboro CI in Polkton) on January 20th. Prison administrators called for the lockdown after several (apparently) coordinated attacks by gang members across North and South Carolina.

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From Crimethinc

Over the winter, the social momentum that picked up with the occupation of Zuccotti Park has predictably cooled. We can be sure that conflict will intensify again soon, whether with the coming of spring or later; if overseas examples are any indication, we should anticipate new waves of unrest, each sweeping in new sectors of the population. In hopes of helping to prepare for the next phase, we present an eight-point program distilled from the experiences of the last several months.

Once again, please forward this and print out copies to distribute in your community!

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From KSBW

As many as 36 people who Santa Cruz police said stormed a former bank building in downtown Santa Cruz at the height of the Occupy Santa Cruz movement will be charged with vandalism and trespassing.

On Nov. 30, a group called Anonymous Autonomous took over a former bank building at 75 River Street and occupied it for three days.

Living up to their name, no one ever came forward as Anonymous Autonomous' leader.

Santa Cruz District Attorney Bob Lee and Santa Cruz police said they identified many of the building occupiers.

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This node is to discuss the commentary and response to Chris Hedge's The Cancer of Occupy article.

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From Capitol Hill Seattle

An Occupy Seattle rally at Seattle Central degraded into an anarchist "Black Bloc" parade of minor havoc across Capitol Hill Wednesday night. Reports of tagging and worries of similar actions to Monday night's bank window damage had East Precinct on edge and on patrol at the area's financial institutions.

We have not confirmed any arrests, yet, from Wednesday night's activities and damage appears limited to more paint on the Broadway American Apparel and a few other minor acts of vandalism. UPDATE: SPD says no arrests. More information from SPD, below.

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From Truth Out - by Susie Cagle
Compared to the rest of the country, Occupy Oakland is still on fire.

January 28 was not supposed to turn out the way it did. After Occupy Oakland failed to occupy its first two targeted buildings and had a short-lived street battle in front of the Oakland Museum, police in riot gear contained the march of nearly 1,000 in a public park. There was a dispersal order, but no means of escape. Protesters with shields attempted to push the police line, which responded with several volleys of tear gas into the crowd, still trapped. Instead of enduring the gas, the crowd pulled down chain-link fencing that separated them from the street and safety.

As marchers, both masked and bare faced, continued north, taking the street, they chanted powerfully, suddenly and without reservation:

"When Oakland is under attack, what do we do?"

"Stand up, fight back!"

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All anarchists, whatever tendency they belong to, are individualists in some way or other. But the opposite is not true; not by any means. The individualists are thus divided into two distinct categories: one which claims the right to full development for all human individuality, their own and that of others; the other which only thinks about its own individuality and has absolutely no hesitation in sacrificing the individuality of others. The Tsar of all the Russias belongs to the latter category of individualists. We belong to the former.
Errico Malatesta "Anarchism, Individualism and Organization"

In my exploration of anarchist theory and writers I have found texts by Individualist Anarchists such as Renzo Novatore, Emile Armand, Miguel Gimenez Igualada, Albert Libertad and others like them a refreshing read which affirmed in me a view of the main points of the anarchist idea. In this way it made me think about some good points to take into account when dealing about marxist influenced anarchist positions such as platformism and of a big part of marxist positions as far as their clear distance from basic englightenment and humanist libertarian positions.

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From NOLA Anarcha

Monday night a group of about 40 marched through the French Quarter to show solidarity with the 400+ arrested in Oakland on January 28, and to protest the continued existence of police in New Orleans. Beginning on the neutral ground with a friendly Food Not Bombs canteen, participants ate and talked about the situation in Oakland as well as local police brutality. Then, with signs showing the faces of Henry Glover, Adolph Grimes III, and Ronald Madison and James Brissette (of the Danziger Bridge massacre) the march took to the streets, serenading the Quarter with anti-police chants.

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From Facing Reality - By Don Gato

It was a little weird to wake up today to an article by Chris Hedges on a website called “Truth-Out” when “truth” is in such short supply in the piece. Hedges was trained as a journalist and worked for years at such luminaries of lies like the New York Times, so it shouldn’t be a secret where he’s gotten his sensationalism, his tendency to lie, his hyperbole, and, most of all, his seeming inability to do rudimentary research. Nonetheless, when activist celebrities like Hedges (and his friend here, Derrick Jensen) write even complete nonsense like this, it tends to have a certain conceptual currency with people. And though I’d much rather be visiting with friends today (who promised me peanut butter cookies, no less!), I figured I’d take a few minutes to point out some of the more egregious distortions in Hedges’ terrible piece.

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On Monday, February 6 around 7 P.M. The windows of three banks on capital hill had their windows busted out. Flyers were strewn explaining to passerby's why they were targeted. The banks Chase, Key bank and an U.S. Bank were hit. We did this in response to the police actions against occupy oakland on January 28th in their attempt to occupy an empty building for use by the occupy movement. We choose banks because they are concrete symbols of the exploitative capitalist system we all live under and the poverty of everyday life within it.

Its easy to attack!

--Anarchists

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From Anok Chan

Health is a baseless ideal. The idea of what health is varies massively from era to era, place to place and person to person. No one claiming to know what counts as healthy can provide a logical explanation for why one way a body can be is inherently healthier than another. Even the World Health Organisation, which currently maintains the most respected, widely used definition of health, can do nothing but offer the pathetic evasion of 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being', which does nothing but substitute the vague ideal of health with the vague ideal of well-being.

It's no surprise then that attempts at reaching an objective definition of health have to fall back on the authority of medical institutions, with the predictable result that as capitalism continues its growth through medicine 'healthy' increasingly just means 'well-adjusted to capitalism'. The objections that radicals raise to the increasing corruption of the definition of illness to cover any ways of being not in the interests of capitalism generally and the most powerful members of the medical industry specifically therefore miss the point. Health never had an objective definition, and hilarious new diseases like Oppositional Defiant Disorder, which borders on directly pathologising rebellion itself, can only be expected as long as medicine remains intact.

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Things Were Smashed, and Rightfully So!

Several things went wrong on Monday’s march to protest police brutality in Portland, Oregon. These issues primarily stemmed from the liberal Occupy movement’s attempted co-option of a radical anti-police march, which was neither initiated nor organized by local Occupiers. Unfortunately, since the march was called for in solidarity with the Oakland Occupy movement’s recent arrests and police conflict, local Occupiers showed up en masse and with a particularly strong sense of entitlement. I remain disillusioned by anything conducted locally under the ‘Occupy’ moniker, which has taken on a decidedly soft, liberal stance on goals and tactics.

And why not?

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This Statement In No Way Represents The Views or Opinions of any of the offical Trash Bullies.

The Trash Bullies are free! A not so ridiculous end to what the police report details as an allegedly ridiculous experience. They had all of their charges dropped yesterday, although if the city really wants to, they could bring up these charges again, but that rarely rarely happens, so this should be celebrated as a victory. Although the cops and the city clearly viewed this alleged prole stroll as a serious threat to the community, due to one of the alleged victims suffering brain damage from an unrelated longboarding accident(I guess mom always said everything happens for a reason right?), they were forced to drop all charges because the alleged victim could no longer testify. It has been a very ridiculous experience from the start to the end but I heard that the bullies want to thank everyone who helped in anyway with supporting them throughout the case. Special shout-out to all the people who donated legal money for the case. Now that this bullshit is over in their lives, the bullies can now go on to worrying about things that actually matter. Remember kids, The bullies that stroll together lol together.
With Love,
People for the Proliferation of Litter.

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Last night there was a march in Portland in solidarity with Occupy Oakland's call for action against police brutality and arrests. The announcement for Portland's event specifically called for a diversity of tactics including a black bloc, and used language such as "Tired of police brutality? Fight back now!". Unfortunately, many attendees of this march had a different idea - people utilizing black bloc tactics were physically assaulted by other marchers on multiple occasions, and scapegoated for the 10 arrests the police made.

The march started in southeast Portland at Colonel Summers Park. Two banners led the way: "Police Violence Is Business As Usual" and "Capitalism Is Cannibalism." We chanted "All cops are bastards, ACAB," "Portland to Oakland, we ain't jokin'! Cairo to Greece, fuck the police!" and "No justice, no peace, fuck the police!" The march wound its way through a residential neighborhood for a while before breaking out onto Belmont Street. A passing car with an iron cross decal on the back window was tagged with a circle-a, and several marchers were quick to decry this minor vandalism. The window of a bourgie-ass 5-star restaurant on Belmont was smashed in two places. A few luxury cars received broken windows. Many marchers, recognizable from various Occupy events, contended that Occupy was a nonviolent movement and that these minor acts of property destruction were counter-productive and out of step with appropriate modes of action. This despite the fact that Occupy Portland had nothing to do with planning or executing the march.

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From Tides of Flame

On Friday, January 27th, about 150 people converged on Westlake Plaza for a rally in support of workers at Ruby Ridge dairy farm in Pasco, southeastern Washington. This dairy farm is one of many suppliers to Darigold Inc., head-quartered here in Seattle. Ruby Ridge workers, many of whom are undocumented economic refugees, have been engaged in a long struggle against their bosses for better wages and working conditions. The rally and march was intended to put pressure on Darigold to in turn pressure Ruby Ridge to make the improvements the workers are seeking, namely access to drinking water, lunch breaks, and shorter working days.

The rally at Westlake began with speeches from dairy workers themselves, in both Spanish and English, about their experiences at the farm, as well as comments from local activists about undocumented workers’ issues. Speakers stressed that the conditions at Ruby Ridge are in no way unique and that economic refugees experience abuses and super-exploitation in most workplaces. The dairy workers present at the march had already been fired for attempting to organize and are now black-listed and unable to find work in the Pasco area.

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At 10pm on January 28th an empty condominium was seized in Brooklyn to contest the hegemony of private property and power-relations, to live and celebrate, communally, anarchically. By 10:45 the cops arrived, assaulted partygoers and emptied the building, provoking a march in the street. By 11:15 four were in police custody, charged with inciting a riot, assaulting a police officer, and an arbitrary amalgam of other misdemeanors. The event was widely, and uniformly covered by local media, none of whom contested the PD's account, none of whom comprehended the action, including the media apparatus at Occupy Wall Street. As a result these comrades were left without legal or monetary support, on pathetic accusations of 'violence' and 'apoliticality', the same rhetoric we saw in London last August; that is, at the rare moments politics emerge, directly, outside of representation.

The following texts were written in support of the four arrestees, as well as the spread of autonomous and clandestine occupations all over.

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Good Morning po-po,
We left you some love notes. Likely you saw them on your morning commute from your neighborhood to ours. We don't want you here.

We know that you have PTSD from the Iraq War, but we were thinking that rather than beating Occupiers and paraplegics, racking up rape charges, and guarding dumpsters, you could take a leave and get some therapy. Or, better yet, quit. We're speaking to you, officer zirpolo, officer koerber, and the rest of SDPD. Also, stop fucking with the homeless.

Much love to people holding it down in cities occupied by pigs.

U.S. out of Oakland,

-Some @s

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