From BBC

A bomb blast at the offices of Greece's public order ministry in Athens has killed a close aide to the minister responsible for counter-terrorism.

Police said the victim had opened a parcel bomb.

The explosion happened only metres away from the office of the minister, Michalis Chryssohoidis, who was unhurt.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said the bombing was a terrorist attack. So far no group has said it was beind the bomb.

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On Jun 17, Colorado Indymedia was contacted by Special Agent Adam Kowalski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As part of an "ongoing investigation" by Federal Protective Services, they attempted to seize the Colorado Indymedia server, believing that we kept logs (such as IP address access logs) that could identity users on our site. Our servers are graciously hosted at Denver Open Media who was approached by Kowalski. Kowalski claimed he had a court order but refused to leave a copy at Denver Open Media. He was told to contact the system administrators in order to obtain the logs as Denver Open Media does not have the ability to consent to a seizure or search of our property.

As of this date, we do not have a copy of the court order if it even exists. It's likely that this was just a bluff as it's well-established that cops, the FBI, and other law enforcement can lie in order to illicit consent and lying about court orders is no exception.

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From Miami Autonomy and Solidarity - Thomas

Recently during a discussion on organizing strategy that I was observing, more than participating in, a friend and comrade of mine emphasized the importance of listening in organizing. He wasn’t talking about listening in the sense of listening only to figure out how to market your ideas in more attractive language, or the kind of listening where you pretend to listen so that the other person is more willing to listen to you; he was talking about the kind of listening that attempts to really understand and consider what the person you’re communicating with is saying.

The point he was making wasn’t to submit to someone else’s point of view, instead of trying to impose yours; his point was to recognize that both you and the person you’re dialoguing with are equal human beings with something of value to contribute to a conversation. This doesn’t always mean that we can find common ground in dialogues; but it does mean that we should try to engage in dialogues in ways that open the possibility of finding common ground where it can be found; and where it can’t: clarifying and truly understanding our differences.

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From CBC

A Toronto man has been charged with explosives and weapons offences in what police are calling a G20-related arrest.

Police searched a house at 58 Elderwood Dr., in Toronto's upscale Forest Hill neighbourhood, just after noon on Tuesday.

Byron Sonne, 37, was charged with:

Possession of explosives for an unlawful purpose.
Possession of dangerous weapons.
Intimidation of a justice system participant by threat.
Intimidation of a justice system participant by watch and beset.
Mischief.
Attempted mischief.
Sonne appeared in court Wednesday afternoon, but the details are subject to a publication ban. He is scheduled to appear in court again Saturday afternoon.

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PPA office smashed up the night of June 23rd. Fuck them, from defending murderers, to demanding hidden contract meetings, they deserve worse!

Dear Portland Police Association,

Your office was smashed last night because it fills us with rage that the police exist. You have always worked tirelessly in the interest of white supremacy and the rich at the expense of everyone else.

Now, without even the flimsiest of punative measures for cops who kill, beat, taze, and terrorize the marginalized people of portland, just to spit in the eye of this city you demand closed negotiations for your next contract.

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From Void Network - by Tasos Sagris & Sissy Doutsiou

This is an interview with Occupy California student movement by Tasos Sagris and Sissy Doutsiou from Void Network for the antiauthoritarian Greek newspaper Babylonia. People from the Occupy California / Occupy Everything! student movement visited Greece during May/June 2010 and they talked in BFest and in the Occupied Self-Organized Park of Exarchia about the student struggles in California, New York and all other states of U.S.A.

1. What is the Occupy California movement & when did it start?

The Education Crisis Movement in California emerged in the summer of 2009 when it became clear that the University of California (UC) system, which encompasses 10 campuses across the state, would be introducing massive austerity measures in the upcoming semesters. These massive tuition increases of 32%, layoffs of unionized workers and cuts in classes and services can all be understood as steps towards the privatization of public education in California. Administrators and state politicians have used the current economic crisis as a cover for implementing these plans for structural adjustment and the further financialization of the university. In this supposed 'crisis' they continue to sell bonds to finance massive university construction projects and these bonds are pledged against future tuition increases. This neoliberal scheme of privatization is being implemented on the backs of ever more indebted students and the destruction of organized labor in the education sector.

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From Fire to the Prisons

This message is written for those who are already familiar with Fire to the Prisons Magazine.
If you are not familiar with the publication, free downloads of it in pdf form are available on our website: firetotheprisons.com.

We are also available to answer any questions by contacting firetotheprisons (at) gmail (dot) com.

In issue 9 we briefly mentioned that we have been considering ending the publication.

Since then we have gotten some inspiring messages and new distributors that have brought us to re-consider the decision.

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From Youth Radio

I'm a producer for Youth Radio, a youth produced news organization in downtown Oakland, CA. We'd very much like to interview members of the Black Bloc or anarchist community about the Oscar Grant case. We've been covering the story from day and are analyzing the upcoming decision and the potential for mass demonstrations in Oakland.

We'd like to do an interview as soon as possible.
Thank You,
Brett Myers

Brett Myers|Field Producer|Youth Radio|
P: 510-251-1101 ext. 310
email: brett@youthradio.org

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June 24 has been declared a day of action for Indigenous resistance, for Indigenous sovereignty and to defend the land. we at SOAR echo the calls against policies of assimilation, against the criminalization of land protectors, against policies of dispossession, against the exploitative resource extraction industry which destroys Indigenous communities. we echo the call to confront the invasion, to end the occupations, and to resist.

We call on all settlers to recognize that the colonization of Indigenous lands—of Indigenous nations—continues today. Colonialism is an ongoing process and so are the genocides on which the so-called americas were founded.

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From Ciao Magazine - By Claire Albrecht .

The World Cup is still front-page news around the country,and is being particularly keenly followed in the Inner West. But there’s a group who have a very different take on the event – local anarchists.

It’s the first weekend of the World Cup, it’s freezing cold and I’m in Glebe looking for a bunch of anarchists kicking a football around. They’re holding a People’s World Cup in Jubilee Park and I’ve come along to sit down and have a serious chat with them. I spot dreadlocks, set my target and hone in. There are pots of some kind of vegan stew beside the barbecue so I’m pretty sure I’m in the right place, and I assault a couple of likely candidates with questions. What is the meaning of this? Who are the organisers? Where are they? Can I talk to them?

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From The Anvil

The Criminal Ego and the Struggle in Society

On Isabelle Eberhardt's “Criminal” and Renzo Novatore's “Toward the Creative Nothing”

Quotes refer to the Eberhardt Press edition and the Venomous Butterfly Publications edition, respectively.

Crime

In “Criminal,” Isabelle Eberhardt's memoir of land colonization in Algeria written around the turn of the last century, the farmer Mohammed Achouri cuts an interesting figure. A “tall thin old man with the face of an ascetic, his hard features set in an expression of constant preoccupation”, a quiet character who stands “a bit apart from the others”, he is not a likely hero. Though he stands out, and in fact his inability to fit in singles him out for downfall, his unheroic resistance fits well within the unheroic reality of the story; the French have colonized Algeria, and they force the people of Bou Achour to give their prime land to colonists, a double theft because the collective society of that region had never even had to buy and sell land among themselves or “resort to the system of inheritance.” They get mere pennies for their land, their complaints are rebuffed, and they have no choice but to work under the new landlords. At harvest time they watch the riches of their toil and their earth taken from them, but that night, the new barn burns down, and the harvest with it. Nonetheless, a suspect is arrested, nothing changes, and the power of colonialism continues its cruel exercises, unfazed.

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Doing illegal things makes us look like criminals in the minds of most people. Illegal acts tend to stigmatize the people who do them as criminal. Most people will never do something illegal to achieve a political goal. Not more than 1% of the population will commit illegal acts for the purpose of revolution. That's the way it has been in most places, most of the time. A fraction of 1% percent of the population doing illegal acts for the goal of revolution will change nothing. Small groups and lone individuals doing illegal stuff have never changed the world. Illegalism is unsustainable. We can't keep spending thousands of dollars on bailing each other out of jail. The anarchist movement has spent an astronomical amount of money over the past ten years on court costs, fines, bail money and lawyer fees. We have gotten absolutely nothing in return for this money. We should raise money for anarchists who are being prosecuted but we really need to make it clear that anarchists should not do illegal stuff in the future.

I've been to a lot of protests and I've marched in a lot of anarchist blocs over the past ten years. I've been arrested twice for misdemeanors at unpermitted protests. I'm almost thirty years old and I'm poor, unemployed and I have an arrest record. I need to prepare for life after thirty. If you don't have a permit to march in the street then stay on the sidewalk or disperse. I've seen a lot of unnecessary violence happen between anarchists and police because the anarchists wanted to march in the streets without a permit.

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From Squat Birth Journal

We're super excited to announce that the 1st issue of SQUAT, a radical birth journal, has just been published!

SQUAT Birth Journal is a publication that brings forth the latest talk from radical midwifery. It provides a forum for midwives, doulas and friends of radical midwifery to share opinions, information, and show support. This issue features articles on: Unassisted Homebirth, Breech Homebirth, Childbirth and Social War, Radical Doulas, Due Dates, Artwork by Kate Hansen, and more!

Also, we will be hosting the first annual SQUAT Camp in August, an alternative conference for midwives, doulas, parents, and allies. Registration is filling up fast, so if you'd like to join us, e-mail us for a registration form asap. We've organized some great workshops (topics including abortion, the licensure movement, unassisted birth, gender, EFT, race within the midwifery movement, & more!), and will have the pleasure of being joined by special guests like Christa Bell, Whapio of The Matrona, and others.

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From Anarchy 101

Another offering from our anonymous friends at Anarchy101.

The question of violence doesn't seem to be as big a deal for anarchists these days (or maybe i'm just not hanging out with those people any more), but here is a question that brings us back to it, and an interesting reply to start a conversation...

isn't violence inherently antithetical to anarchy?

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Translated from Non Fides (aka Base de Données Anarchistes):

Coming back from a not very country walk, we went into the Belleville quartier in Paris. Hours earlier, a demonstration had started to denounce, in the words of the organizers: "The chronic abuse suffered by the Chinese community". The reason: Bags snatched, assault, etc. A demonstration with quite reactionary overtones, as evidenced by the slogans shouted and inscribed on the banners and placards: "Safety for Everyone", "Long live citizenship", "stop crime", French flags, Chinese and European anthems. It is not clear what violence they are talking about (having been more accustomed to the phenomena of violence within the community which will be discussed later), but we will understand later what was behind this event.

After the official end of the demonstration, the atmosphere is very hot there, people are flocking, trucks of cops arrive en masse. On all sides we hear the sound of fighting, then a torrent of violence is unleashed on the cops attacked in a melee by hundreds of unarmed people, they throw eggs, stones and glass bottles. Cars are overturned, CRS [anti-riot cops] are charged and are forced to retreat. Faced with this explosion of anti-cop violence, we almost enter the dance, but wait, out of "ethical prudence".

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The forces of capitalism and the state work hard to keep us complacent and in our place in the status quo. This is especially true for issues of gender. Our resistance is not only in how we live our lives, but in how we live in our bodies and identify. We at SOAR have many different visions of the world we want, but agree that issues surrounding Gender Justice must be paramount in any struggle.

The capitalist and statist mega-institutions of our society are built to maintain oppression, domination and hierarchy in the name of social control. This includes the policing and domination of our bodies in order to reinforce power structures with medical doctors deciding when a transman or transwomen qualify for hormones, and turning our bodies into different parts for scrutinizing and evaluating. Currently the resurfacing of the debate surrounding abortion characterizes this domination, as reproductive choice is taken out of the hands of women and transpeople and into the hands of bureaucratic officials. The rights of women, queer, and transpeople are actively under attack by the state. The message is clear: we do not have control over what happens to our bodies.

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During the early morning hours of March 27th, a Portland, Oregon anti-racist activist was shot in what appears to be a well orchestrated attack. It is suspected that the attackers were members of the neo- Nazi movement. The victim is a member of the anti-racist skinhead movement, a son, a friend and has dedicated the past ten years of his life to fighting white supremacist organizing.

The Portland Police Department has suggested that the shooting is “gang related.” Already facing mass protests over numerous recent cases of police brutality and murder, the police treatment of this case is not surprising, and fits into a pattern of downplaying racist violence while targeting anti-racist activists.

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From Rose City Antifa

Rose City Antifa is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the 16th annual Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Network Conference in Portland, Oregon from July 22 to the 25, 2010. The conference will include ARA's annual plenary, caucuses, and discussion on current issues facing antifascists. We are also organizing several workshops and social events that will be open to non-members. We hope all ARA members as well as anti-fascists who agree with our four Points of Unity will join us in July!

Workshops will be on a wide range of subjects including:
-The Far Right and the Ecology Movement
-Anti-Semitism and Holocaust-Denial
-White Supremacy and the Police
-Anti-Racist Organizing in Rural Communities
-Left-wing Anti-Semitism and Left/Right Overlap
-Anti-Fascist History
-And several more…

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Hey there rabble-rousers, hooligans, and miscreants!

This is a special posting from the Friendly Fire Collective, on a field trip to Detroit, MI for the 2010 US Social Forum!

We're really excited for the coming week to be hanging out with thousands of incredible activists and organizers from around the country here in Detroit. We're also really excited about a few things we've been working on especially for the USSF

First of all, we are pleased to present a short collection of writings from selected authors on the subject of capitalist crisis and anti-authoritarian response(s). The collection, Cascades: Conversations in Crisis, features original works from Peter Gelderloos, Erik Forman, Isaac Hawkins, and Ian Paul. This is part of ongoing project Friendly Fire is involved in that will soon produce two larger written works by Ian Paul and David Zlutnick around this same theme for the Institute for Anarchist Studies.

To view the aforementioned works please click on the links below:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR READING

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR PRINTING

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From Institute for Anarchist Studies

Chris Dixon (Intro and presentation) MP3, Cindy Milstein MP3, and Maia Ramnath MP3, Q&A Part 1 MP3, Response MP3, and Q&A Part 2 MP3.

The question of strategy – how we might win in the near and long term as we struggle against domination, exploitation, and oppression – is pressing. As anarchists, however, we frequently face particular barriers to thinking, planning, and acting strategically. This panel will discuss these barriers, and potential ways we can move past them toward developing effective anarchist strategies for the long haul of social transformation.

Panelists include Chris Dixon, Cindy Milstein and Maia Ramnath. Chris is a longtime anarchist organizer and writer who currently lives in Sudbury, Ontario, Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Territory. Cindy is an Institute for Anarchist Studies board member and author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations (AK Press, 2010). Maia is a NYC-based teacher, writer, organizer and Institute for Anarchist Studies board member.

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