Anarchy

I too once believed, reflexively, that there was something fishy about the charges against Assange; that they were part of an international campaign to defame him and ruin his organization, perhaps. But then I actually started looking at the case. And then I started wondering why Wikileaks was always going on about how sex-hating Swedish feminists had “redefined rape” to mean something crazy like “non-consensual sex.” And then I came to the conclusion that it’s actually Assange and the remnants of Wikileaks that are engaged in a serious disinformation campaign.

Bradley Manning is the real hero. Let’s talk about Bradley Manning.

Abahlali baseMjondolo (Zulu: [aɓaˈɬaːli ɓasɛmdʒɔnˈdɔːlo], Shack Dwellers), also known as AbM or the red shirts^[1][2][3] is a shack-dwellers’ movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing.^[4][5] The movement grew out of a road blockade^[6] organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005^[7][8] and now also operates in the cities ofPietermaritzburg^[9] and in Cape Town.^[10][11][12] It is the largest shack dweller’s organization in South Africa^[13][14][15] and campaigns to improve the living conditions of poor people^[16] and to democratize society from below.^[17] The movement refusesparty politics, boycotts elections^[18][19] and has a history of conflict with both the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance.^[20] Its key demand is that the social value of urban land should take priority over its commercial value^[21] and it campaigns for the public expropriation of large privately owned landholdings.^[22] The key organising strategy is to try “to recreate Commons” from below by trying to create a series of linked communes.^[23] According to The Times, the movement “has shaken the political landscape of South Africa.”^[24] According to Professor Peter Vale, Abahlali baseMjondolo is “along with theTreatment Action Campaign the most effective grouping in South African civil society.”^[25] However the movement has faced considerable repression.^[26]

A possible interpretation of this is that these requests (which the police obviously ignored as they were going “full Jack Bauer”) motivated the police to torture this sad fucker… and then to cover it up. I imagine though that it would be very tough to bust up the thin blue line here. However they might tell all- the public will just love them for it after all right? So it could come out, and if a judge does the right thing (his version of right, not mine: complying with the law to the letter), you could see this kid out on the street, getting his book deal.

But judges don’t do that kind of stuff in America, do they? Maybe it is the prevalence of guns- I think they fear a right winger plugging them in the head on their way to the steakhouse. So they create fictions.

The larger point is, why can’t the police just properly arrest a guy? We have, in high profile cases now, police operating in an essentially lawless fashion.

You can’t tell me the LAPD didn’t execute Doehner. But while obviously unethical, there can be little doubt the man deserved his fate. Did they create him? Yes. Equally as much, did he have to be destroyed? Yes. The truth is repressive systems can take your soul away, forever.

What do these new repressive measures mean psychologically for these men in uniform who implement them? Guys whose lives revolve around codes of conduct. They’ll rarely accept that the government was simply wrong. In WW2, GIs blamed the generals, but I guess that hasn’t caught on.

Ahhh fuck it. It’s a weekend.

Oscar Wilde’s anarchism is examined here. Be sure to read his fantastic essay, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.”

michaelmlekoday:

Drawing Blood: Being a Poor Person in America

Last night, I met my classmate’s significant other, let’s call him L, at a Ghostface concert. Waiting for the opening act to finish, four of us (my classmate, L, and another friend of mine—all grad students) sat in a booth and did the…