Witness: Children of the Riots. (Words, Images & Moments from the streets of Athens)

As the financial crisis weighs heavily on Greece, 
the country seems trapped in a dead end. 

But discontent over the misuse of power has 
long been simmering. 

Greek youths reflect on how the killing 
of a teenager by police and the global spreading 
of economic, political and social crisis changed 
their lives for ever.

This is a short documentary about 
children of the streets, children from

the streets of Athens, 
same children like these children  in the streets
of Egypt, Tunisia, Barcelona, 
New York or Oakland...

Same dreams, same desires, same rage...

These are short fragments 
from the History of 21st century

Film directed by Christos Georgiou for AlZajeera

Chile student rising 2011 ( a short Documentary)

During the education protests in Chile, the students took over schools and streets, demanding free education, and an end to the privatisation of their institutions. 

Almost four decades after the dictator Augusto Pinochet implemented this free-market based management of education, the protests are causing a political crisis for the country’s president, Sebastian Pinera. What are the underlying causes that drive the anger?

This short documentary portrays the Chilean student movement during their fight in a country plagued by economic inequality, as the demonstrations in Chile coincide with protests erupting worldwide.

source: http://eagainst.com/articles/chile-rising/

Occupy Nigeria!: Moments of Insurrection from Revolted Nigeria

short introduction by "Moment of Insurrection" group:

Nigeria is known to many antagonists for the on-going indigenous insurgency against ecological destruction. Over the last week the country has ruptured into massive upheavals triggered by the states removal of fuel subsidy. Given that Nigeria is exploited for a massive quantity of the worlds oil supply, and that the state is recognized for little more then the fuel subsidy- the initial strikes called for by the unions have been transvered by the multitude and now across Nigeria insurrection bellows.

Below is a chronological montage of twitter feeds from numerous people and various sites, including #OccupyNigeria. Although social media remains problematic for antagonists in many struggles-, the recent ‘Arab Spring’ and Occupy movements have found a social detonator in the medium. The reproduction of these messages here creates for me a (cyber)space in which to view the belligerent pluralism of a community-in-motion’s assembly.

In From Riot to Insurrection, Alfredo M Bonanno believes we must be ‘capable of understanding the communications of the future, because it is this that will make it possible to construct the insurrectionist instruments of the future to be put alongside the knife our predecessors carried between their teeth’. And it is in this way ‘we can build an air bridge between the tools of the past and the dimensions of the future’.

Messages from revolted Nigeria:

JAN 5

ANYONE IN KANO LIBERATION SQ PLEASE DM ME A NUMBER

The #Kano protesters are scampering for their lives as Police fire live ammunition and tear-gas into the crowd

The Nigerian Police are still following the #Kano Protesters to Sabuwar Kofa firing tear gas and shooting randomly.

The latest terrorist group in #Nigeria is called “Nigerian Police Force”

“some of my friends were injured but there’s no one to take them to hospital. #Kano” Police block injured protesters

Medical attention needed in #Kano as some of the peaceful protesters are injured, following the police midnight attack.

Medical attention needed in #Kano as some of the peaceful protesters are injured, following the police midnight attack.

Sometime after midnight, #Kano police used teargas to disperse the peaceful crowd at Silver Jubilee Square

Friends Please as we #occupynigeria pls check the Hashtag #TearGas for info on how to prevent&deal with it. PLEASE RT

#occupynigeria has now besieged the Edo house of assembly in Benin city. If you’re in Edo state pls join them asap!

So, let’s prepare for medical teams/mobile units to go along with our protest. Unlike the FG, every life is important to us.

For tear gas, use gas mask, or soak bandana in lemon juice or vinegar&cover ur nose till u reach high ground. Wear Goggles

Lawyers protest at Ikeja,

<><><><>

JAN 6

time is 8am and start-up point is Olaiya Junction

Lugard Hall needs you RIGHT NOW!!! You should be there if you want CHANGE!!!

The Police in Ekiti have agreed to protect the #occupynigeria protesters to ensure the demonstration is not hijacked

Meanwhile, Ogun kickstarted demonstrations this morning. Protesters now at Oke Ilewo.

Volunteer medic personnel needed in Abeokuta, Abuja, Kaduna today.

Veteran Musician Eedris Abdulkareem releases Nigeria Jaga jaga part 2.

BIS services on @MTNNG is shut down in #Kaduna

Crack down started in Kano where an amazing thing happened. Xtians & Muslims protected each other.

The Nigeria Medical Association has said it will join millions of Nigerians to protest government’s subsidy removal policy.

Some ex-militants in the Niger Delta have threatened to regroup if there is excessive use of force on #occupynigeria protesters.

Soldiers beating and molesting protesters around UI and Poly area, Ibadan.

Sokoto is tomorrow. Pls join and retweet.

Lawyers in Lagos have begun a protest against the fuel subsidy removal

STRATEGIC BRIEFING 1! Remove your phone contact details from social media network. DM Your number ONLY to Trusted organizers!

Leaders of Nigerian labour unions and the Federal Government holding secret talks in Abuja right now

I must confess I never expected the protest to be dis massive, a lot of people are out here…goin strong!

Police crack him gun carry am face up, a protester shouted “u shoot one, we shoot five” other policemen begin laff

Benin City protesters block Lagos highway. Students and lecturers join in.

Word is its crazy up at Ugbowo/Lagos road as well, benin/lagos road blocked!!!

just got word dat d emir of bauchi is marching with the masses…..Sanu Sir!!!

Protesters in Benin carried jonathan’s coffin

A building has been burnt down in ilorin belonging to the minister of youth and development

Flash! The police dat killed a protester in ilorin has been stoned to death

Another Nigerian Killed during #occupynigeria protest! Nigerian TV AIT Report says 1 protestor killed in Gusau, Zamfara

#OccupyNigeria Inspires #Kenya as Kenyan activists cite Nigerian Movement as Inspiration as they start mobilisation. Now We INSPIRE others

We’ll occupy dr minds, dr thots, dr meetings, dr plans… Until Lambs become lions and the timid become bold…

Any connections to printers in #Abuja that can work magic & print flyers for tomorrow’s protest?

Join #OccupyEnugu peaceful march this Monday by 8am @ Okpara Square, Enugu.

Im so ready for the protest…however long it takes, you should be too. This madness must end, and the time is now!

murtala mohammed international airport will be occupied retweet

OccupyNigeria protest to hold in #London, #Abuja, #Ekiti, Ile-#Ife, #Oshogbo, #Ibadan, #Ijebu-Ode, others today.

A group of newspaper readers, Thursday in Yenagoa, mobbed a man who tried to support GEJ’s-led FG removal of #fuelsubsidy.

Protester killed in Kano

<><><><>

JAN 7

Security Operatives have reportedly blocked all the routes to the Eagles Square, Abuja, in bid to stall the planned #occupynigeria protest.

The nbc is blacking #occupynigeria protests out pls send your videos to occupynaija@gmail.com..

If I Die Durin D Struggle,PLS DNT LET MY BLOOD FLOW IN VAIN. C DIS BATTLE2D END.. I REST MY CASE

Go and #occupynigeria don’t be violent, don’t give the government or policemen opportunity to say we are violent….

Our comrades are gathered at Transcorp junction, Merit House. Please tell those on your TL, FB Wall, and BB contact

NANS south west have taken over Ibadan protest. As things are, it may soon turn violent

We are flooding all the senators private phones with 1 million SMS each. What do you want the message to be? Pls reply.

Support the protesters! We need handkerchiefs, mats, first aid kits, water, snacks, recharge cards for Monday!

#BenueState is on at Woodland Park, #Makurdi. Join Now!!! Please retweet, broadcast, post on facebook. Inform everybody!!!

Donations keep coming in! We just got 8 cartons of biscuits&wafers for Monday! If you can’t march, u can and should support!

Even hackers have started their onslaught. The federal looters are in trouble

All web programmers, and developers with advanced knowledge in SQL injections, proxy by pass should contact me…

London protest Live! #OCCUPYNIGERIA photo! more arrive as Nigerians students protest in london http://t.co/7tqJ27ig

Now approaching Police barricade at Secretariat, Abuja

Across Nigeria, Christians provide protection for Muslims as they observe Jumat prayers. United Nigeria.

occupynigeria‘s getting interesting. Government people should just start hiding in their offices….before una chop slap outside

UPDATE: PENGASSAN announces indefinite strike and will NOT call off even if NLC directs, until price is reversed

Market women, today, occupied the streets in Ile Ife.

SSS, today in #Minna, arrested a protester, Fatihu Aminu, a graduate of the IBB University. He’s still in SSS custody.

Attention! #OccupyNigeria #Abuja Cover your faces with kerosene dabbed hankys… That’s the fastest antidote to TEARGAS. Pls retweet!

BREAKING: #Nigeria‘s National Industrial Court rules that NLC must not embark on Strike on Monday 9 Jan

BREAKING NEWS! THE KANGAROO INJUNCTION obtained by GEJ from National Industrial Court is NOT APPLICABLE TO #OCCUPYNIGERIA NO TURNING BACK!

The criminal Judges think they carry any weight. They’ll only help upgrade this from protests to full-blown revolution.

Subsidy removal : Reps to convene emergency session on Sunday

We’ve gotten loads of water but we need First Aid Kits. Please donate towards the Monday protest

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – nitda.gov.ng HACKED in solidarity with the #occupynigeria protests.

We will disobey all kangaroo court rulings. That’s why its called civil disobedience, idiota! The prostests will hold.

Okada men just troop out in Benin blocking all road junctions and roundabouts. E don dey red o.

Opposition politician supporting the #occupynigeria movement, you’re also chopping our money so you don’t fool me.

Some #OccupyNigeria protesters are still at the Eagle square Abuja after passing the night there.

Every 24hrs, we @NaijaCyberHack will bring down a Nigerian Government Website until they respond to our cause!

Nigerian transport ministry website hacked by activists

#occupynigeria protests at World Bank on Monday, January 9th at 11am to 1pm & at IMF on Friday, January 13th at 10am to 2pm in Washington DC

Dear Nigerians in South Africa, ball in your court! Please welcome GEJ tomorrow. Reconfirm his attendance and go say hello.

OccupyNigeria-US washingtonDC/NewYork,Otawa-Canada,Kiev-Ukraine in top gear..international movment’s spreads.. #London a success already!

<><><><>

JAN 8

The Nigerian Medical Association and Nigerian Bar Association to offer free services to Nigerians in the struggle.

What You Should Know if Arrested While Protesting in Nigeria. http://is.gd/JAF0NP

Four staff unions of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria have planned to join the mass protest called by the NLC tomorrow.

House of Representatives vote against the removal of #fuelsubsidy.

Do you know what these Honorables have done? They are trying to stop you from occupying them.

Protest kicks off at 9AM tomorrow @ Gani fawehinmi Park, Ojota bus stop, Ikorodu road, Lagos. Pls be there!

Nigeria Labour Congress commends House Motion But Says, “The Strikes and Protests Must Go On” Tomorrow

Lagos – the take-off point for the Island crowd in Lagos tomorrow is under the Falomo Bridge at 8am

FGN is offering to buy airtime on all TV & radio stations in Nigeria tomorrow to prevent #occupyNigeria broadcasts. Watch out between 12-5pm

People of Meiran, Abule Egba, Sango, Agbado & their environs converge @ Mr Biggs, Abule Egba Bus Stop, 7:30am, then to Ojota.

Redeemed University of Nigeria forbids students from joining the #occupyNigeria protest, students threatened with expulsion.

PDP vigilantes in 30 buses NOW at Hotoro to attack #occupyNigeria protesters in the morning on the instructions of Kano State Government!

President Jonathan to disregard House of Rep order on Fuel subsidy, says Reuben Abati, his media assistant.

This just got personal! 40+ innocents #occupynigeria protesters just attacked camping outside eagle square

The Nigerian police used this steel iron to beat the young man while he slept. #occupynigeria http://t.co/XlNRxPz2

I just called 911 when I reported my emergency, the operator switched off my call

Police Attacks Law Abiding Protesters, Ordered to Shoot and Kill

It’s abt 2hrs to d grand #OccupyNigeria rally, so get d words out to everyone by SMS, BBM, FB, eMail. Rally starts @ 9am all across d land.

Streets of Lagos has been empty this morning, devoid of usual Monday morning traffic. #OccupyNigeria seem to have folks away from work

Conference of Islamic Organisations, CIO, has insisted that the NLC/TUC strike should go ahead, supports #occupynigeria protests.

BREAKING NEWS! CABAL MBR Dangote website hacked by NaijaCyberHactivists4Violating workers righ

<><><><>

JAN 9

In Ojota, protesters already marching

About 40 protesters coming to Ojota, saying “We must fight, amen.”

Flash! #OCCUPYNIGERIA Ibadan-Nigeria Protesters set up bonfire to prevent police from firing live rounds

Protesters already smacking cars, shouting at motorists at Ojota.

More than a thousand at Ojota, Lagos for demonstration

Hundreds protesting outside wuse market Abuja. Banners say ‘subsidy removal is a crime against Nigeria’

Police at Ring Road firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately.

The number of innocent Nigerians murdered by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s dogs is growing. Two added today in Lagos alone!

With a bunch of concerned Nigerians, trekking through a deserted Ikorodu road, to join the Ojota-bound crowd

Network going a bit screwy in Ojotoa _ likely as there are thousands here now

Mob action reported to be gathering for a showdown with Area G police command over the shootings of 3 boys.

The crowd is overwhelming.. Its hot but we are together

Kano protesters burn down police vehicle for attacking peaceful #occupynigeria protesters

TVC station owned by Bola Tinubu switches off broadcast

Protesters shut down Warri, Effurun, Udu

Jonathan’s police has killed 3 protesters in Lagos and 6 in Maiduguri today

It is a peaceful protest in Birnin Kebbi capital of Kebbi State

At least 1 dead as security forces open fire on #OccupyNigeria protestors in Kano city,

Thousands of protesters burn down police vehicle for as security forces keep attacking #OccupyNigeria in Kano.

Another 7year old crushed to death in a stampede at the protests in #Kano

Nigerian Police, no more Nigerians MUST lose their lives in d course of dis Protest if y’all don’t wanna risk an OPEN WAR !!

A chopper (registration no 5N L50) is flying over the #OccupyNigeria protest venue in circles. The crowd is chanting “ole” (thief).

The NLC chairman, Abdulwaheed Omar, abruptly stops Abuja protest, without explanation. People disperse

Protesters set vans ablaze, sought to set fire on CBN gov’s home

OccupyNigeria Lagos protest called off for Day 1. Everyone returns to Gani Fawehinmi Park tomorrow at 9am. Thank you, Nigeria!!!

There’s false information on both sides. Please be careful about the information you share so we don’t cause more harm.

We will be on TVC tomorrow. We must be heard by force by fire

S/O to everyone that took part in 2day’s protests. Tommorow is another day. We won’t STOP until Nigeria is Liberated

My friend Taiye Fatoki was run over by ex gov Oyinlola’s car in #osogbo while protesting

GTB Segun Agbaje summoned 7 branches to resume duty 2day, All in VI…AjoseAdeogun, plaza and others. Letz shut them down.

<><><><>

Jan 10

Todays set up is much better. Looks more organized. The crowd is also plenty

crowd heading to Governor’s house in Marina after stopping at otedola & tinunbu’s house to sing OLE!!!

Do you want to call President Goodluck Jonathan? This is his no 08022477777

How can you deploy Special Anti robbery squad to stop Protesters in Abuja?

Policemen reported to be shooting at protesters at Onipan #Lagos

A lot of stranded passengers waiting at Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

5 dead, 10,000 displaced after clashes in Benin

Anti-terrorism squad here at Ojota. How did they miss the road to Maidiguri?

Nigerians in Ghana have just decided – they will be occupying the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana tomorrow.

Due to threats of violence and heightened tension, #OccupyNigeria in Kaduna suspends protests till further notice

P lease remember as we #OCCUPYNIGERIA it is our duty to protect D aged, young children, women & physically challenged if we are able to

lease remember as we #OCCUPYNIGERIA it is our duty to protect D aged, young children, women & physically challenged if we are able to

<><><><>

JAN 11

Day 10 of Protests. Day 3 of National Strike. #Abuja: 8am – Berger. Same route as yesterday.

Protests-Day 10. National Strike-Day 3. #Lagos-9 am: Ojota; 8am: Falomo; 7:30am: Anthony Grds; 7:30am: Mr Biggs, Abule Egba

Abuja protesters were attacked again overnight.

Nigerian Army involved in Tuesday midnight attack on #OCCUPYNIGERIA protesters who are camping in Abuja.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement will, today, make a solidarity march at Nigeria House in New York, to support the #OccupyNigeria protesters.

At about 1.30am this morning about 15 vehicles full of plain clothes men beat up #occupyNigeria youths at Ascon Oil, Wuse. Many were wounded

Ironically, d crime rate in Lagos has fallen to an all-time low sinx d beginning of #OccupyNigeria movt, crimes recorded committed by police

Ironically, d crime rate in Lagos has fallen to an all-time low sinx d beginning of #OccupyNigeria movt, crimes recorded committed by police

As you’re occupying here in Ojota, we’re occupying Nigeria’s entire airspace. No one can fly!” – Labour Union (Aviation) Rep

This is not a Nigerian spring…it is a Nigerian awakening. After the awakening comes the spring

Update: The strike still continues tomorrow Thursday, RT and Broadcast

We no longer want the round table..we r tabling the issues on d floor

There was a casket making the rounds today, at the #occupynigeria rally. And several attempts to bring down a police helicopter with curses

<><><><>

List ends in mid-morning…

Global Insurrection is our only possible FUTURE

"Anarcha-Indigenism", an edited excerpt of a conference paper presented by Richard J.F. Day

Short Description:

(The following is an edited excerpt of a conference paper presented by Richard J.F. Day)

Anarcha-Indigenism is an emerging body of academic and activist theory and practice that works across and in between traditions of anarchist and indigenous political theory. The anarcha (as opposed to anarcho) part of the term refers to affinities with both Western and indigenous feminisms. If anarcha-indigenism 'is' anything, then, it is a meeting place, a site of possibilities, a potential for mutual aid in common projects within, outside, and against the dominant order. It is not an ideology or party, but part of an emergent and ever-changing network of autonomous subjects, organizations, and institutions.

Indigenous author Taiaiake Alfred writes:

[t]he basic substance of the problem of colonialism is the belief in the superiority and universality of Euroamerican culture, especially the concepts of individual rights as the highest expression of human freedom, representative democracy as the being the best guarantor of peace and order, and capitalism as the only means to achieve the satisfaction of human material needs (Alfred 2005: 109)

What Alfred sees as the heart of Canadian colonialism is immediately recognizable as what has long driven anarchist critiques of mainstream western institutions and practices, i.e. the rejection of capitalism, self-interested individualism, and the state form. Andrea Smith argues, in a similar vein, for the necessity of "creating those structures within our organizations, movements, and communities that model the world we are to trying to create... an alternative system not based on domination, coercion and control" (Smith 2005: 130).

Federation

These alternatives were understood by the classical anarchist Petr Kropotkin as examples of federation, distributed networks that rely upon shared protocols rather than top-down command, leading to the free linking of localized structures and processes into larger and more complex systems. Of course, in the nation-state system, federation is a top-down affair, with clear lines of control. In non-statist anarchist and indigenous paradigms, however, in involves dense, shifting, multi-dimensional networks that defy a simplistic hierarchical analysis, and are therefore much more difficult to manipulate.

Stateless anarchist and indigenous federations generally involve three elements: consensus decision making at all levels; the ability to remove or recall representatives; and the ability of the community to decline, in certain circumstances, participation in decisions or actions undertaken by the larger structure. (Barsh 1986: 185, 195; Burnicki 2005).

Hierarchy

Related to the problem of hierarchy is that of authority. Both capitalism and the state are deeply dependent upon structures of arbitrary authority, which can be wielded as a weapon over others. Anarchists have long been critical of this kind of authority (bosses, priests, cops, scientists, etc.). As Marie Smallfalce Marule has noted, "in traditional Indian societies, whether band or clan, authority was a collective right that could be temporarily delegated to a leader, under restrictive conditions to carry out essential activities. But the responsibility and authority always remained with the people." (1984: 36).



Direct Action

The rejection of arbitrary authority in both of these traditions is linked to "a belief in bringing about change through direct action" (Alfred 2005: 46). Direct action helps us train ourselves to look after ourselves, rather than relying on state or corporate institutions to do it for us. For many indigenous peoples, it is becoming increasingly clear that direct action in sustainable consensus-based communities and federations both depends upon, and contributes to, a process of cultural revitalization. Taiaiake Alfred emphasizes that this process is not about somehow 'going back in time,' but requires a critical relation to a living tradition (Alfred 1999: 5). It is about values and practices, and how we embody these values in our daily practices.



Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Colonial

The western world has not always been capitalist, just as it has not always been burdened by parasitic state forms. Nor have its practices always been as environmentally unsustainable as they are today. These are relatively new developments, related to modernity and industrialization. Before the white man could colonize anyone else, he had to colonize himself. This points to a need for both structural and social reorganization as processes of decolonization. A mere change in structure cannot overcome the power of structure, as Bakunin pointed out, but neither can a mere change in structure overcome the power of socialization. Evidence of this lies in the endless list of insurrections that failed to lead to the Big One, such as the recent rise and subsequent decline of autonomous institutions and practices in Argentina. Cultural revitalization has been recognized as a much-needed element to any resistance and reconstruction; the existence of autonomous women's movements within each of these traditions tells us that there is still work to be done in dealing with issues of gender and sexual oppression.

Feminisms

Anarchist feminism, which has existed as long as anarchism itself, seeks not only to dismantle patriarchy, but to abolish all arbitrary authority and hierarchy and replace them with spontaneous and decentralized organizations. Of course, if anarchism as a discourse opposes all forms of oppression, then the term 'anarchist feminism' becomes redundant: all anarchists must be feminists, not just some of the women. Despite the indisputable logic of this argument, anarchist men and women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often differed in the relative importance they gave to fighting patriarchy vs. fighting the so-called 'big three' of capitalism, the church, and the state. Patriarchy also permeated interpersonal relationships among anarchists (as it still does, to varying degrees).

Anarchist feminists have a long history of dialogue with non-anarchist women, pointing to the 'here-and-now' changes feminist movements have been able to accomplish for women. Radical feminism and anarchist feminism have a close affinity; they diverge, however, from those streams of radical feminism that advocate for matriarchy as an alternative to patriarchy. Anarchist feminists seek not to 'seize power,' but to 'abolish' it (Ehrlich 2002: 44). The attempts by anarchist feminists to radicalize feminism seem not to have been successful. There seems to have been more success, however, in feminizing anarchism.

Indigenous feminists tend to see patriarchy as an imposition from the outside (patriarchal colonialism); while some indigenous women reject the label of 'feminist' outright, others have constructed hybrid approaches. What ends up being called 'matriarchy' when talking about socio-historical organizations of indigenous communities is better seen as a complex system in which men and women share power through complementary roles. There is no simple relationship, then, between western and indigenous feminisms. As Andrea Smith points out, "these theories are not monolithic and cannot be simply reduced to [a] dichotomy" (2005: 118). However, Smith and other indigenous women do argue for a certain specificity to an indigenous feminism, in that it necessarily understands that "attacks on Native women's status are themselves attacks on Native sovereignty" (Smith 2005: 123).

Anarcha-Indigenism

Theoretically, an anarcha-indigenist perspective is based on an interlocking analysis of oppression, without privileging one over another. How might anarchists, feminists, and indigenous peoples work together, as individuals, communities, and nations, in ways that protect our autonomy and promote mutual aid and decentralization? It seems that the two-row wampum model is a very good one, especially once it is generalized into an 'n-row' system. Each of us must repsect the desire of the others to steer their own vessels, as we all travel down the same river together. This model could be implemented as a non-statist federation, which would include communities and nations that share the principles just discussed and are committed to acting upon them. Non-statist federation represents a turn away from "the assimilative lure of the politics of recognition," towards "direct[ing] our own struggles, ... our own on-the-ground strategies of freedom" (Coulthard 2006: 12). In the context of settler states, it would mean inverting and undermining the whole 'land claims' process, so as to recognize the historical fact that we, as settlers, are present on indigenous lands, to which we have no 'claim' at all, in the sense of ownership. Rather, we must return to our original agreements and work out sustainable modes of peaceful co-existence.

Communities and nations in a non-statist federation would have to pay close attention to diplomacy, that is, to creating and maintaining good relations between all of its constituencies. This requires protocols, which could emerge out of an explicit project to 'indigenize' and 'anarchize' dominant western understandings of 'international relations.' Indigenizing such relations requires, I think, working at a number of different levels - political and social, structural and interpersonal. Politically, settlers must stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples reclaiming land and fighting for self-determination, by taking action within and against the dominant order in their own societies. This action can and must be both symbolic and direct, including such tasks as media work, jail and court support, blockades, protests, information sessions on the history of colonialism, and so on. This kind of work is ongoing, but it tends to be sporadic and take on a crisis-response modality. Once the barricades come down, the settlers go home and don't come back until they go up again. We need to build more, better, and stronger social and personal relationships across the colonial divide. By learning about each other's traditions and practices, we can begin to address existing tensions marked with centuries of colonialism, genocide, and oppression.


Related Groups and Practices:


Wasase Movement
Indigenous Governance Program
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement
Friends of Grassy Narrows
Barriere Lake Solidarity
Kingston Indigenous Solidarity Network
Warrior Societies
(un)Settler Network



Related Theorists and Traditions:

Taiaiake Alfred
Ward Churchill
Chiinuuks Ogilvie
Glen Coulthard
Richard Day
Jackie Lasky
Andrea Smith
Daniel Morley-Johnson


Related Interviews:

Anarchist-Indigenous Solidarity in Ontario (Anonymous)

Anti-Colonial Resistance on Turtle Island (Anonymous)


External Links:

Wasase Movement Statement of Principles
iGov
New Socialist Indigenous Resurgence Issue
No 2010 
Solidarity for Grassy Narrows
Taiaiake Alfred



source of article:
http://affinityproject.org/traditions/anarchaindigenism.html

Raoul Vaneigem: What's Free is the Absolute Weapon / An interview with the former situationist by one of his old buddies

A member of the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970, Raoul Vaneigem is the author of Traité de savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations (Gallimard, 1967),[1] from which the most forceful slogans of May 68 were drawn, and around thirty other books. The most recent to appear is L’État n’est plus rien, soyons tout (Rue des Cascades, 2011).[2]

Siné Mensuel: Can you give a brief definition of the situationists?

Raoul Vaneigem: No. The living is irreducible to definitions. The vitality and radicality of the situationists continues to develop behind the scenes of a spectacle that has every reason to keep quiet and conceal itself. On the other hand, the ideological recuperation that this radicality has been subjected to has experienced a superficial surge, but its interests have nothing in common with mine.

Siné Mensuel: What did the situs mean when they said that situationism doesn't exist?

Raoul Vaneigem: The situationists were always hostile to ideologies, and to speak of situationism would be to place an ideology where there isn't one.

Siné Mensuel: Why did you break with the Situationist International in 1970? In hindsight, what do you think of Guy Debord?

Raoul Vaneigem: I broke [off] because the radicality that had been the priority in May 1968 was in the process of dissolving into bureaucratic behavior. Each member had chosen to pursue his route alone or to abandon the project of a self-managed society. Perhaps Debord and I felt more complicity than affection, but the split doesn't matter! What is sincerely lived is never lost. The rest is only the dregs of futility.

Siné Mensuel: What's your take on the Movement of the Indignant?[3]

Raoul Vaneigem: It is a public-safety reaction against the resignation and fear that provide the tyranny of capitalism with its best supports. But indignation isn't enough. It is less a matter of struggling against a system that is collapsing than in favor of new social structures founded upon direct democracy. While the State is destroying public services, only a self-managing movement can take charge of the well-being of everyone.

Siné Mensuel: Is utopianism still on the agenda?

Raoul Vaneigem: Utopianism? From now on, that's the hell of the past. We have always been constrained to live in a place that is everywhere but, in that place, we are nowhere. That's the reality of our exile. It has been imposed on us for thousands of years by an economy founded on the exploitation of man by man. Humanist ideology has made us believe that we are human while we remain, for the most part, reduced to the state of beasts whose predatory instincts are satisfied by the will to power and appropriation. Our "veil of tears" was considered the best possible world. Could we have invented a way of living that is more phantasmagorical and absurd than the all-powerful cruelty of the gods, the caste of priests and princes ruling enslaved peoples, the obligation to work that is supposed to guarantee joy and substantiate the Stalinist paradise, the millenarianist Third Reich, the Maoist Cultural Revolution, the society of well-being (the Welfare state[4]), the totalitarianism of money beyond which there is neither individual nor social safety, [and] finally the idea that survival is everything and life is nothing? Against that utopia, which passes for reality, is opposed the only reality that matters: what we try to live by assuring our happiness and that of everyone else. Thenceforth, we no longer are in a utopia, but at the heart of a mutation, a change of civilization that takes shape under our eyes and that many people, blinded by the dominant obscurantism, are incapable of discerning. Because the quest for profit makes men into predatory, insensitive and stupid brutes.

Siné Mensuel: Explain to us how what's free [la gratuité] is, according to you, the first decisive step towards the end of money.

Raoul Vaneigem: Money isn't simply becoming devalued ([diminished] buying-power proves it); it invests itself so savagely in the bubble of stock-market speculation that it is doomed to implode. The tornado of short-term profit destroys everything in its path; it sterilizes the earth and hardens life so as to extract useless benefits. Humanely conceived, life is incompatible with the economy that exploits man and the earth for lucrative ends. Unlike survival, life gives and gives itself. What's free is the absolute weapon against the dictatorship of profit. In Greece, a "Don't Pay" movement is developing. At its beginning, the car-drivers refused tolls; they had the support of a collective of lawyers who sued the State, which was accused of selling the highways to private firms. Today it is a question of refusing to pay for public transportation, of demanding free health care and education, of no longer paying taxes and duties that serve to bail out the embezzled banks and enrich the stockholders. The fight for pleasure in oneself and in the world doesn't pass through money, but, on the contrary, its absolute exclusion.

It is absurd that a strike obstructs the free circulation of people while it could decree free public transportation, health care, and education. It is necessary that we understand -- before the financial crash that is coming takes place -- that what's free is the absolute weapon of life against the economy. It is not a question of breaking men but breaking the system that exploits them and the machines that make them pay.

Siné Mensuel: You advocate civil disobedience. What does it mean to you?

Raoul Vaneigem: It is what's going on in Greece, Spain, Tunisia and Portugal. It is what summarizes the title of the pamphlet I wrote for our libertarian friends in Thessaloniki: The State is Nothing; We Are Everything. Civil disobedience is not an end in itself. It is the road towards direct democracy and generalized self-management, that is to say, the creation of conditions that are propitious for individual and collective happiness.

The project of self-management begins its realization when an assembly decides to ignore the State and, on its own initiative, puts in place the structures that are capable of responding to individual and collective needs. From 1936 to 1939, the libertarian collectives of Andalusia, Aragon and Catalonia successfully experimented with self-managing systems. The Spanish Communist Party and Lister's army crushed them, opening the way for Franco's troops.

To me, nothing seems more important today than the implementation of self-managing collectives capable of developing themselves when the monetary collapse makes money disappear and, along with it, a way of thinking implanted in our behavior for thousands of years.

Siné Mensuel: You disapprove of the carceral system, but in 1996, following the Dutroux Affair,[5] you participated in the "White March" in Brussels that, according to the French press, demanded greater prosecution of pedophiliac acts. Isn't this contradictory?

Raoul Vaneigem: This is a good example of an obvious journalistic counter-truth. If the parents of the victims of Dutroux had demanded the death penalty for the assassin, the crowd would have agreed. Thus, the opposite took place. I admire the courage and humanity of Gino and Carine Russo [parents of one of the victims], who are resolutely opposed to the death penalty (they have even warned that they wouldn't accept it if the murderer was eliminated by the other prisoners, as is the custom). The "White March" was an extremely rare example of a popular emotion that [directly] refused pedophilia and predators in the name of humanity, and not indirectly through penal repression. There was a dignity there, in contrast to the populist ignominy that consists in using emotion to promote brutish repression, vengeance. Today, where does one see a collective reaction that denounces the strategy of the scapegoat, which, in order to prevent the anger of the citizens from focusing on the ruinous racketeering mafias, sounds the alarm bell of fear and security so as to designate the other, the foreigner, the “different” – Jew, Arab, Gypsy, homosexual or, if need be, simple neighbor – as a potential threat and enemy?

Siné Mensuel: You have several children. Do you not find it cruel to deliberately give birth to new beings in this world?

Raoul Vaneigem: I loathe the pro-birth politics that, by mechanically multiplying children, condemns them to poverty, to sickness, to disaffection, and to military, sexual and work-related exploitation. Only religious, ideological and criminal [affairiste] obscurantism finds those politics to their advantage. But I refuse to allow a State or an authority of any kind to impose its ukases on me. Each person has the right to have children or to not have them. The important thing is that they are wanted and engendered with the consciousness that everything will be done to make them happy. There are new generations – completely different from the generations that were the fruits of familial authoritarianism, the cult of predation, and religious hypocrisy – that today are in the process of opposing the liberty of living according to their desires against market totalitarianism and its political yes-men.

Siné Mensuel: Tell us about animal rights [la cause animale], which revolutionary thinkers have not taken into account for a long time.

Raoul Vaneigem: It is less a question of animal rights than a reconciliation of man with a terrestrial nature that he has exploited for lucrative purposes until today. What has hindered the evolution of man towards a veritable humanity has been the alienation of the body put to work, the exploitation of the life force transformed into a productive force. Our residual animality has been repressed in the name of a spirit that is only the emanation of a heavenly and temporal power charged with taming terrestrial and corporal matter. Today, the alliance with natural energies is preparing to supplant the plundering of vital, planetary resources. To rediscover our relationship with the animal kingdom is to reconcile with the animal inside us; it is to refine it instead of oppressing it, repressing it, and condemning it to the cruelties of blowing-off steam. Our humanization implies recognizing the animal’s right to be respected, in its specificity.

Siné Mensuel: In Belgium, voting is obligatory, in principle at least. Have you ever voted? Do you pay the fines?

Raoul Vaneigem: I never vote. I have never received a fine.

Siné Mensuel: What lessons can be drawn from this long year, in which Belgium has had no government?[6]

Raoul Vaneigem: None. During the lucrative sleep of the politicians – those 55 government ministers don’t have problems making ends meet – the financial mafias have continued to make laws and do very well with the yes-men at their command.

Siné Mensuel: How do you see the on-going “revolutions” in the Arab countries? Does it seem to you that Islam is a threat to them?

Raoul Vaneigem: Where the social carries the day, religious preoccupations fade. The liberty that is currently getting rid of secular tyranny isn’t disposed to accommodate itself to religious tyranny. Islam will try to democratize itself and will experience the same decline as Christianity. I appreciate the Tunisian slogan “Freedom to pray, freedom to drink!”

Siné Mensuel: Finally, you remain an irreducible optimist, don’t you?

Raoul Vaneigem: I can content myself with Scutenaire’s formula:[7] “Pessimists! What did you expect?” But I am not an optimist or a pessimist. I don’t give a fuck about definitions. I want to live by beginning again each day. It will be necessary that the denunciation and refusal of our insupportable conditions yield their place to the working out of a human society that is an absolute break from market society.

(Remarks collected by Jean-Pierre Bouyxou. Published on 24 November 2011 by Siné Mensuel. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! 23 December 2011. Footnotes by the translator, except where noted.)

[1] Translated as The Revolution of Everyday Life (1983) by Donald Nicholson-Smith.

[2] The State is no longer anything, we are everything. Not yet translated into English.

[3] A series of spontaneous demonstrations in Spain, involving tens of thousands of people, starting on 15 May 2011.

[4] English in original.

[5] Marc Dutroux is a currently imprisoned child molester and child killer. It took the Belgian police and judicial system an extraordinarily long time to apprehend and prosecute him for crimes he committed in 1995 and 1996.

[6] Split in two geographically and politically – Flanders (Flemish Nationalist) and Wallonia (Socialist) – Belgium hasn’t had an official government since the parliamentary elections of 13 June 2010.

[7] Note by Siné Mensuel: the Belgian writer Louis Scutenaire (1905-1987) is the author of Mes inscriptions. Raoul Vaneigem devoted a book to him in the “Poets Today” Collection (Seghers, 1991).

published at  http://www.notbored.org/sine-mensuel.html