Monday, November 20, 2006

All the world but bosses were communists in 1920s

After the 1917 Russian Revolution the cold war rewrote North American history and the colour of the word communist was changed by the bosses and later by those in charge of the media. The colour of communism was blackened and the knowledge of young people today is held hostage: History is only what you remember.

Below find a Robinhood email thread about some Ontario anarchists who must not have listened to people that were around in the 1920s, 1930s.
....................................................................................................................................
( Anyone with an email message that has been pasted in below and contains an error can have the text changed by contacting godha4legs@gmail.com )

Each letter sent to godhas4legsAtgmail.com will be treated in accordance with the major maxim from godhas4legs "transparency leads to trust" so as not to subvert the communication process of the Internet's networking potential.
This is in keeping with the wisdom of the ethicalpublicdomain ...as in -
these people say:
"Each letter sent to XXX@YYY enters the PUBLIC DOMAIN whenever it does not state otherwise. http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org
Please be kind to our authors!
Have a look at our wiki where we are creating an online learning environment for community currency: http://www.findbetterways.info/wiki.cgi?FindBetterWays/CommunityCurrency "

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 5:50 AM
Subject: Fw: #1-- Are commies bad ... or just dead. __&__ #2-- AnarchistU meeting Wed. Nov. 8

Sean and Richard,
Maybe if you are not subscribe to robinhood ( robinhood@lists.riseup.net ), you missed some good debate from Common Front guys and shows where they are coming from - transparency leads to trust.
It started with the trashing of a vanguard (trot?) group's sectarian message about their next meeting, then Julian of KY got pissed with the remarks by ROAD ottawa (ahertani@riseup.net) and Sudbury's Alex. I couldn't resist pushing my view in my message (and theirs) which I've pasted in below.
Thanks Sean for your update post a few months ago about people, groups and happenings in Kingston in the past year. I look forward to your next one, and hope that you post it at both - http://roadnetwork.org/forums/phpBB-2.0.21/phpBB2/ (relaced former ROAD forum on 28/09/2006); and to robinhood@lists.riseup.net.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: [robinhood] RCP(OC) Public Meeting in Toronto

Apparently someone needs to brush up on their history. Your e-mail was
sent to a list used by anti-authoritarians and anti-statists.
-ROAD Ottawa
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: [robinhood] RCP(OC) Public Meeting in Toronto

What the fuck is it with all your sectarianism? Fuck the Comiies? how fucken childish!!!
Julian Ichim
From: "Alex Paterson" <revolution_reversal@riseup.net>
Reply-To: mailto:robinhood@lists.riseup.net, Paterson" <revolution_reversal@riseup.net>
To: robinhood@lists.riseup.net, ahertani@riseup.net
Subject: Re: [robinhood] RCP(OC) Public Meeting in Toronto
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:47:57 -0400 (EDT)
>I will let the commies continue posting for the fact it will let them know
>that we don't really like them.
>
>
> > 2!,4!,6!,8!
> > Fuck the Commies!
> > Fuck the State!
> >
> > Hah!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: [robinhood] RCP(OC) Public Meeting in Toronto

I will let the commies continue posting for the fact it will let them know
that we don't really like them.

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: [robinhood] RCP(OC) Public Meeting in Toronto

2!,4!,6!,8!
Fuck the Commies!
Fuck the State!

 Hah!

 > Public meeting in Toronto
> -------------------------
> THE CHALLENGES TO COME - THE PARTY WE NEED
>
> Take part in a lively discussion about the struggle for socialism in
> Canada and the urgent need for a revolutionary communist party to carry up
> this fight.
>
> The meeting will be introduced by a spokesperson from the Revolutionary
> Communist Party (Organizing Committees) -- a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
> organization which is leading the fight to create the vanguard party of
> the Canadian working class.
>
> The RCP(OC) recently called for holding the "Canadian Revolutionary
> Congress" in November. This unprecedented event will unite proletarian
> revolutionaries and activists from different parts of the country to
> support the founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Canada. More
> information is available on the Congress website at
> http://www.pcr-rcpcanada.org/crc.
>
> ********************************************
> * Saturday, October 28, at 7:30 pm
> * York University, Student Center, room 321
> * Welcome to all!
> ********************************************
>
> For more information:
> http://www.pcr-rcpcanada.org/
> mailto:toronto@pcr-rcpcanada.org
>

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 12:24 AM
Subject: [robinhood] against sectarianism

I'd agree with Julian - this sectarianism is ridiculous.

 I read somewhere once, "I'm a communist today so that I can be an
anarchist tomorrow". So for those of us who are communists and
anarchists, if we'd disagree on what tactics are necessary today, we
all ultimately seek the abolition statism.

 I don't see how the resistance of the ANARCHO-COMMUNIST CIPO community
network at OAXACA is at odds with the MAOIST guerrilla movements in
Nepal or Phillipines; or how the Socialist government of Cuba, the
popular democratic government of Aristide, or the (as of yet) social
democratic government of Chavez negatively affect the anti-imperialist
struggles of Iraq, Palestine, or Afghanistan, as admittedly theocratic
those may, more or less, be. The point is that these struggles do not
work against one another, but rather work together to strain the back
of the imperialist beast we all fight. ... So while people from
Baghdad to Oaxaca stare down the barrels of Washington's guns, we are
here sitting pretty with our privilege in the belly of the beast
making jibes at one another's choice of tactics.

 Rather, we should be learning from one another's tactics. Not to say
that our respective positions are reconcilable; though, I think we
should all learn to see how the tactics we support are, at least to a
certain extent, context specific. Perhaps anarchism is more
appropriate for the indigenous nations of the Americas as they defend
themselves against their racist statist oppressors. On the other hand,
I've always found it difficult to conceive of large-scale nuclear
disarmament without the force of progressive/radical powers at the
helm of the state.

 just my thoughts,
-SD
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:18 PM
Subject: #1-- Are commies bad ... or just dead. __&__ #2-- AnarchistU meeting Wed. Nov. 8

JK Galbraith said it is the bureaucrats the people hate, not the isms. Citizens don't act, they react to capitalism and communism because they hate the regulators and regulations, so want to throw the (system) baby out with the bathwater (collective punishment for isms). The world wants social democracy not corporate democracy so the world wants updated Marxism not materialist Oligarchy power. The corporatist EMPIRE plays on the reactionaries
Andropov and Gorbachov didn't see that the unleashed hatred by Ivan 6-pak for bureaucratic regulators would enable corporatist EMPIRE to eventually conquer socialism in Eastern Europe. Mao, Stalin, Paul Pot and Sadam took extreme horrific measures of self defence before their own reactionary citizens got the chance to sell out to corporatism and materialism. But killing and war is unfortunately a numbers game so lets remember the comparison - the monster EMPIRE has killed many million more than the monsters of State Socialism. Also remember that Hugo Chavez has been trying parliamentry democracy but Bush wants to force Chavez into state authoratarianism.
The EMPIRES's *non-violent* template to sandpaper a billion people to death by converting all countries to corporatism by rigging elections is concisely described here: http://www.anarchistu.org/twiki/view/Anarchistu/ExtremistUS.

Personally, I ignore corporatism, communism and politicians. I admire communal-ism, the "variety of tactics" and accomplishments from the neo-primitive Green Zerzan students of Eugene, Oregon - their 'Seattle Battle' blossomed resulting in all the world's small countries adoption of anti-globalization.
Greenanarchy sidesteps ideology with it's turnoff word communism. Mass demos cannot happen without including the poorly informed public, so why use unpopular turnoff words ? I want to organize around issues not ideologies, then my comrades in mass demos can be any idealists, humanitarian trots and good communists.
Public perception is paramount. The valid Corporatism VS Socialism struggle of today is perceived by old cold-war memories of the public from yesterday as the Capitalism VS Communism, so anarchists are expected to fit the dumb George Bush bi-polar expression "You are either for us or agin us". Are some Ontario Anarchists surprised to find themselves being accused of trashing Cuba or Veneszuela when they gleefully trash Cuba's STATISM ?
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
Post-left anarchy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-left_anarchy.
Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that seeks to distance itself from the traditional left and to escape the confines of ideology in general. It has rapidly developed since the fall of the Soviet Union, which many view as the death of authoritarian leftism.
    • 1 Arguments
    • 2 Conflicts with Authoritarian Leftism
    • 3 Proponents and Detractors
    • 4 See also: Left anarchism, Nihilism, Post-structuralism, Situationists
    • 5 External links: Anarchy After Leftism (Infoshop.org), Primitivist and post-left 'anarchism' (Anarchism.ws)

AnarchistU meeting Wed. Nov.8, 2006 - 6-8pm. Toronto, 519 Church St. Community Centre, First Floor, new section
John - (godhas4legs)

posted by godhas4legs at 7:48 AM 3 comments

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Analysis: Bill targets animal activists

Analysis: Bill targets animal activists

By STEVE MITCHELL
UPI Senior Medical Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Congress passed an update to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and President Bush is expected to sign it into law, but animal rights activists say the new legislation will do little to inhibit their actions against pharmaceutical companies and other animal research firms and may even spur increased extremist activities.

The biomedical research industry was pushing for the bill because they wanted laws in place to thwart new tactics employed by activists, including harassing and intimidating individual researchers and companies that do businesses with animal research firms.

"Hopefully, this will give law enforcement the tools they need to address more quickly and swiftly that kind of campaign," Frankie Trull, president of Foundation for Biomedical Research, a group supported by industry, told United Press International.

In recent years, animal activists have begun targeting homes of individual researchers and executives of pharmaceutical companies, including threats to take further action if they do not cease their business with animal research firms, such as Huntingdon Life Sciences. Activists have also sent threatening letters to shareholders of pharmaceutical companies and waged a successful campaign to prevent Huntingdon from being listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

"Right now, a researcher who's under attack really has no where to go and this will help them get law enforcement attention," Trull added. "We're hoping this new law will help make the climate more friendly and those that seek to end all animal research will do so through legitimate means as opposed to this kind of intimidation and harassment."

Animal rights advocates, however, think the legislation may provoke the very kind of activities it intends to prevent.

"They could've taken a step that will create their worst nightmare," Camille Hankins, who represents Win Animal Rights, told UPI. "The thing they were afraid of was destruction, damage to labs and vandalism, but this could be the catalyst for a lot of that."

Hankins said the threat of penalties of up to 20 years or life in prison that the legislation carries may drive more people underground because there will be little incentive to remain "above ground" with one's identity revealed.

"Why be above ground, why not go below ground?" she said.

The legislation carries various penalties, ranging from a fine or 1 year imprisonment for violations that do not instill a sense of fear of bodily injury or death or economic damages less than $10,000 to more severe fines or prison terms for actions resulting in injury or larger economic loss. The stiffest penalty is life imprisonment for violations that result in the death of a person.

Hankins thought the pharmaceutical industry used its influence to get the legislation passed and noted that several large drug manufacturers were cited as members of the Animal Enterprise Protection Coalition, which was a list of groups established by National Association for Biomedical Research that supported the bill.

"I think this legislation was bought and paid for, by the pharmaceutical industry primarily," she said.

Pharmaceutical companies listed as members of the Coalition included Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Roche and Wyeth. The Biotechnology Industry Organization was also on the list.

Hankins asserted that the legislation infringed upon rights of free speech and assembly granted by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

"It's overly broad, overly vague and restricts freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, so no doubt someone will have to be a test case that will go all the way up to the Supreme Court," she said.

However, Trull said the law specifically states that it does not restrict any rights protected by the First Amendment.

"Lawful boycotting, protesting and demonstrating is all protected," she said. The law is aimed more at preventing threats and intimidation of researchers and firms that conduct business with animal research enterprises, she added.

To make a charge stick, businesses will have to prove that the actions caused them financial damage.

"This is a very responsible piece of legislation, meaning everybody can't just prosecute for no reason," Trull said.

Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, told UPI he thought the bill would have little impact on animal rights activists.

"As far as the underground liberation movement, it won't have any impact at all because they don't really care about those laws," Vlasak said. "Their activities -- sabotaging, liberating animals -- are already illegal so just adding one more law won't make much difference."

The legislation's effect on the above ground movement would also be muted, Vlasak said. "I don't think it's going to make a huge difference in the above ground movement because they've (law enforcement) already gone after people who were conducting effective protest campaigns," he said.

The net effect on the above ground movement is that it could "make people more seriously consider going underground," he said.

Vlasak may be one example of an activist targeted by law enforcement authorities. His house along with the homes of five other animal rights activists in California were raided by the FBI and the Santa Monica Police Department October 31.

Thousands of dollars worth of items, including his computer, were seized, but Vlasak said he was never charged with a crime or informed of the reasons for the raid. His attorney has been trying to obtain a copy of the affidavit but so far the authorities have not complied.

Del.icio.us | Digg it | RSS

posted by godhas4legs at 11:48 PM 0 comments