20 THESIS ON THE SUBVERSION OF THE METROPOLIS

Theoretical weekends at Scissions continues with 20 thesis on the subversion of the metropolis from Generation On Line.  I would mention that the little numbered sections is some of the Thesis are, I believe, just notes.  Feel free to skip them.  








20 thesis on the subversion of the metropolis




Translator's notes

Translating these 20 thesis presents difficulties not only linguistically, where there are many neologisms and lexical challenges, but above culturally mediating from a continental European political context into a distant anglophone reality. Here, and in the footnotes, are a few indications for better understanding this text.

In general, the relatively short nature of each thesis and the provocative, almost prophetic tone in which they are written lends itself to thoughtful interpretation, similar to reading the combination of a declaration of war and Buddhist meditation haikus. This should not in any way be understood as a definitive political doctrine. Placing this document in the current political context, it is intended to interact with the reader in such a way as to encourage discussion and debate.

Where possible, the original terminology has been maintained, even to the extent of creating neologisms, as well as adding a few short notes to aid in it's comprehension. Likewise, we have also included a handful citations for some of the more continentally specific events that an anglophone reader might not be aware of.

There are a few terms and concepts that run throughout the entire piece but that are never fully explained. Again, this is probably due to a different assumption of the (European) reader's prior knowledge.

First and foremost are the numerous references to an Empire and the subsequent lexicon are strongly connected to Michael Hardt and Antoni Negri's work of the same title, Empire. It is strongly suggested further reading.

Another important concept, one that is continually developed throughout the text, is that of the Common, which can be understood as a re-proposal of the English 16th century Commons: communal land worked and maintained protecting it from privatization. Historically, commons were eventually expropriated from the peasant population by the state. Today this idea is gaining ground in European circles as a possible form of resistance in the contemporary globalized sociopolitical context.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, there is the idea of the biopolitical and, consequently, biopower. The biopolitical is based on the understanding that all of life, all actions and choices, are inherently political. There is no distinction between public and personal whereas social structures are constructed first and foremost by interpersonal relations. This doesn't not imply, however, that these personal interactions are not constituted and governed by deeper common structures; inversely, the biopolitical is the very sense of these more complex structures acting through our single choices. Hence biopower is the accumulation of biopolitical energy into a hegemonic system, or what we identify as that which governs, over and from within, in the Imperial order.

In the hopes that the reader can find some critical stimulus in this text, we humbly extend our contribution to the global collective resistance.

See you on the barricades.

Thesis 1

We define the metropolis as the compact group of territories and heterogeneous devices crossed in every point by a disjunctive synthesis; there is not any point of the metropolis, in fact, where command and resistance, dominion and sabotage are not present at the same time. An antagonistic process between two parts, whose relation consists in enmity, totally innervates the metropolis. On one side, it consists, true to it's etymology, in the exercising of a command that is irradiated on all the other territories – so everywhere is of the metropolis.1 It is the space in which and from which the intensity and the concentration of devices of oppression, exploitation and dominion express themselves in their maximum degree and extension. In the metropolis, the city and the country, modernity and second natures collapse and end. In the metropolis where industry, communication and spectacle make a productive whole, the government's required job consists in connecting and controlling the social cooperation which is at the base to then be able to extract surplus value using biopolitical instruments. On the other side, it is a whole of the territories in which a heterogeneous mix of subversive forces – singular, Common, collective – are able to express the tendentiously more organized and horizontal level of antagonism against command. There are not places and non- places in the metropolis: there are territories occupied militarily by the imperial forces, territories controlled by biopower and territories that enter into resistance. Sometimes, very often, these three types of territories cross one another, other times the latter separates itself from the other two and, in yet other occasions, the last enters into war against the first two. The Banlieue is emblematic of this “third” territory: but if everywhere is of the metropolis, then its also true that everywhere is of the Banlieue.2

In the metropolitan extension of Common life, the intensity of the revolutionary imagination of communism-to-come lives.

Thesis 2

In the metropolitan struggles, the biopolitical strike defines the principle articulation of the attack strategy that the irreconciliated forms-of-life take against the metropolis of command. Today, the refusal of work cannot be other than the refusal to concede pieces of life, fragments of affections and shreds of knowledge to cybernetic capitalism. Today, struggle against capitalism is the direct removal of bodies from exploitation and attacking revenue, guerrilla warfare against gentrification and violent appropriation of the Common, sabotage of the control devices and destabilization of political and social representation. Likewise, and just as direct, is the wild experimentation in the forms-of-life, liberation of affections, construction of communities, inoculation of happiness and dynamic expansion of desires. Just as bodies – in as much singularity as in population – are the target of the biopolitical police and exploitation, it is only starting from the singularity of bodies that every human, biopolitical, general strike against the metropolis starts: it is in the singularity as form-of-life that holds the Ungovernability that resists biopower.

1 In the original Italian text “della metropoli” here plays on what would usually be “nella metropoli” or literally “in the metropolis”. Taking an alternate approach, the sense could also be rendered in English using “belongs to the metropolis”.

2 In reference to the minority dense suburbs of Paris, where over the last few years numerous volatile situations have systematically erupted.

Capitalist initiative can be anticipated, at least if diffused singular refusal is accompanied by the decision to build a metropolitan organization of autonomous groups able to bring the rebel forms- of-life to become an insurgent multitude. When singularities rise up as a Common body, the Ungovernable can become revolutionary process.

Thesis 3

The blocking tactic is essential to the effectiveness of the biopolitical strike when it is seriously done in the metropolis, which is to say when it exceeds specificity and extends everywhere as a paralysis of control, a circulation block, a counterbehavioral virus, a suspension of production and reproduction, an interruption of the communication factory. In other words: impeding the normal course of capitalist valorization. Through blocks it is possible to recognize the generalized nature of the biopolitical strike. The piqueteros of Buenos Aires3 and the insurgence against the CPE in France4 highlighted the force and the capacity of organization. Blocks are material signs of the secession of capital and biopower. Every metropolitan block opens other roads, other passages, other lives: the metropolitan block is necessary for the construction and the defense of the exodus.

Thesis 4

Sabotage responds to the necessity of unifying government destabilization to command deconstruction and thus reinforces the metropolitan blocks. It intervenes on different levels in metropolitan life: from the anonymous singularity that slows the rhythm of value production- circulation to the punctual and devastating intervention of a declared conflict. In the first case, it is a spontaneous, diffused, anti-work behavior, in the second it is subversive intelligence that diagonally interrupts conflict mediation in the governmentability. The subversive science of the metropolis is therefore also defined as the science of sabotage.

Thesis 5

When the biopolitical strike, sabotage and blocking converge the presuppositions for metropolitan revolt are created between them. Metropolitan insurrection becomes possible when the chaining together of specific struggles and the accumulation of revolts make a comprehensive strategy that hits (or overtakes) territories, existences, machines and devices.

Thesis 6

Social centers,5 liberated spaces, houses and communized territories, should be to the political critique of the multitudes and transformed into new Mutual Aid Societies. Just as between the 18th and 19th centuries, these territorial aggregations could provide not only solidarity between individuals, mutuality between forms-of-life and organization for both specific and general struggles, but also to the singularity's and the community's texture of conscience in that they are both oppressed and exploited. The Common, as a political act, is therefore born as a process in which the friendship and mutuality between those who are deprived transforms itself into a

3 The piquiteros movement was an important factor in the post-economic collapse of Argentina in 2001. The english picket line was adopted but with an additional emphasis on the impermeability of the block.

4 idem 5 In Italian, “centro sociale” specifically refers to type of squat, or occupied abandoned spaces that are converted into

self-run collective projects. There are as many variations as there are examples throughout Italian territory, including concert halls, libraries, restaurants, pubs, etc..

resistance commune. Today, every socialized space can become that place in which an autonomous organization in and against the metropolis is condensed from their rebellious intensity. Temps, workers, gays, students, women, lesbians, teachers, immigrants, queers, children – everyday singularities must be able to refer to these spaces to create revolutionary forms-of-life and organize themselves in so that they are unassailable by the biopolitical police. Common elements – like mutual aid funds, minor knowledges, shared housing, community gardens and parks, autonomous production and reproduction tools, passions and affections – should be salvaged, invented, built, and be available to all those who decide to enter into resistance, on strike, or in revolt. The sum of all of these elements will compose, territory by territory, the Commons of the 21st century.

Thesis 7

The only security to which non submissive forms-of-life aspire is the end of oppression and exploitation. The material and ethical poverty that the biopower constrains millions of men and women to is the source of the insecurity that reigns in the metropolis and governs over the population. Against this, we can't fall into the loophole of asking for rights, which means more government and therefore non-liberty: the only Common law is created and determined through its revolutionary exercise. Every desire, every need that the forms-of-life of the multitudes are able to express are in their right. In doing so, they lay the law.6

Thesis 8

Without rupture there is no possibility of bringing the escape routes beyond command. Every rupture corresponds to a declaration of war by the rebel forms-of-life against the metropolitan Empire: remember Genoa 2001.7 In the metropolis, an asymmetry between biopower and forms-of- life rules, but it is exactly this asymmetry that can become a fundamental weapon in metropolitan guerrilla warfare: the impact between forms-of-life and command creates an excess and, when it is expressed with force and strength, can become revolutionary organization of Common life.

Thesis 9

In the metropolis, the articulation and the linking of different forces and not mediation is what pushes their intensity to drive the game of subversive alliances. The construction and the effectuation of the Rostock revolt, against 2007's G8, showed the potency of this “game.”8 Autonomy, as a strategic indication for the succession from biopower, means the political metropolitan composition of all of the becoming-minor into a becoming-Common, a horizontal proliferation of counter-behaviors dislocated on a single plane of consistence without ever producing a transcendent unit. In the metropolis there is no revolutionary Subject: there is a plane of consistence of subversion that brings each singularity to choose it's part .

Thesis 10

The important part of every social metropolitan movement is found in the excess which it produces.

6 The Italian “diritto” has the double meaning of both “right” (as in a civil right) and “law”. Obviously, law here is not intended to mean some legal procedure but what could be called a Common right.

7 The mobilizations against the G8 summit of 2001 in Genoa. 8 The Rostock demonstrations were characterized by a veritable mixing of the plurality of variated groups, and the

adopting a much more fluid form in respect the usual “bloc” formations. The result was a colorful mass of different tactical expressions that was extremely difficult for the law enforcement bodies to counter.

Excess, in all of its forms, is the expression a struggle's truth. What remains after every struggle is always a Common truth.

(Note: uh, where is Thesis 11)

Thesis 12

One of biggest dangers for the autonomous forms-of-life is indulgence in the technical separation between life and politics, between managing the existent and subversion, between goods and Common use, between enunciation and material truth, between ethics and blind activism for its own sake. The confusion between what is Common and what is held in property, in individualism and in cynicism, should be defeated in practice, which is to say through an ethic of the Common forged in conflict.

The personal is biopolitical, politics are impersonal.

Thesis 13

The metropolitan architectures of autonomy are all horizontal. As such, they adhere to the form-of- organization in all of their constitutive political stances and vice versa. Those of power, in every form and everywhere it is present, are all vertical and that is how they separate individuals from the Common. These architectures are to be deserted, surrounded, neutralized and, when it is possible, attacked and destroyed.

The only possible hierarchy in metropolitan autonomy is in the clash with dominion.

Thesis 14

The form-of-organization, in the present historical conditions, cannot be other than the form-of-life. It is non-normative regulation of the Common for the Common. Here discipline does not mean other than the Common organization of indiscipline. The form-of-organization is the plane of consistency on which individuals and multitudes, affections and perceptions, reproduction tools and desires, gangs of friends and indocile artists, arms and knowledge, loves and sadnesses circulate: a multitude of fluxes that enter in a political composition that permits everyone's power to grow while, at the same time, diminishes that of the adversary.

Thesis 15

In the metropolis, individuals are only the bodily reflection of biopower, whereas singularities are the only living presences capable of becoming. Singularities love and hate while individuals are unable to live these passions if not through the mediation of the spectacle in such a way that they are governed an neutralized even before being able to arrive to the presence. The individual is the base unit for biopower whereas the singularity is the minimum unit from which every practice of liberty can begin. The individual is the enemy of the singularity. The singularity is the most Common we can be.

Thesis 16

The moment has come to put the category of “citizenship”, the heredity of an urban modernity that doesn't exist in anywhere, into discussion. In the metropolis, being a citizen means simply reentering in the biopolitical job of governmentability, seconding the “legality” of a State, of a

Nation and of a Republic that doesn't exist if not only as ganglion of the Empire's organized repression.

The singularity exceeds citizenship. Vindicating one's own singularity against citizenship is the slogan that, for example, migrants write daily with their blood on the Mediterranean coasts, in the CPT in revolt,9 on the wall of steel that divides Tijuana from San Diego or on the membrane of flesh and cement that separates the Rom bidonvilles10 from the shamefully sparkling City Center. Citizenship has become the award for faithful allegiance to the imperial order. The singularity, as soon as it can, happily does without it. Only the singularity can destroy the walls, borders, membranes and limits constructed as the infrastructure of dominion by biopower.

Thesis 17

Just as capitalist revenue parasitically exploits metropolitan social cooperation, politics coincides with the parasitic revenue of the government on the multitude's forms-of-life: violent or “democratic” extortion of consensus, the privately public use of the Common, and the abusive exercise of an empty sovereignty over society are the ways that political revenue fattens itself in the shade of the global capital skyscrapers. In the metropolis, only the political remains as a possibility of exercising the Common and multitudinarian deadline for its appropriation. One should never do some politics, if to reach the “point of no return.” Politics are always a form of government. The political is, sometimes, revolutionary.

Thesis 18

The biopolitical metropolis is administrated exclusively using governance. Social movements, autonomous forces and all those who truly have the desire to subvert the status quo understand that when a struggle begins one should never commit the fatal error of going straight to negotiate with governace, sit at it's “tables”, accept it's forms of corruption and thus become it's hostage. On the contrary, it is necessary right from the beginning to impose the battleground, the deadlines and even the modality of struggle on governance. Only when the balance of power is overturned in favor of the metropolitan autonomy will it be possible to negotiate governance's surrender while standing up, on solid legs. The extraordinary insurgence of Copenhagen11 demonstrates that which is possible, if only one has the courage to take the initiative and persevere as oneself.

Thesis 19

In the metropolis, just as work has become superfluous, paradoxically, everyone has to work all the time, intensively, from the cradle to the grave and maybe beyond; evidently the compulsion to work is evermore obviously a political obligation inflicted upon the population so they will be docile and obedient, serially productive of goods and individually occupied in the production in and of itself as imperial subjects. We vindicate the refusal of work and the creation of other forms of production and reproduction of life that are not burdened under salary's yoke, that are not even linguistically definable by capital, that start and finish with and in the Common. Guaranteed metropolitan income can become a Common fact only when the practices of appropriation and the extension of

9 “Centro di Permanenza Temporanea” litteraly translated would be “Temporary stay center” which is quite misleading: CPT are prison structures used to hold people caught without stay permits usually destined for deportation.

10 A bidonville is a small area, usually in abandoned areas of a city, where a migrant Rom population lives, quite similar to migrant camps found in the US.

11 A reference to the campaign of resistance to the eviction of the Ungerdomscoukdfj collective house in Copenhagen.

autonomy over the territory massively impose a new balance of power. Until that moment, it's probable that it will instead be – as, for example, what happens in the local and regional proposals of a so called “citizenship income” – another passage in the fragmentation of the Common and in the hierarchy of the forms-of-life. Moreover, as the autonomous experiences of the '60s and '70s have taught us, it is only when we are effectively capable of putting our very lives in Common, of risking them in the struggle, that a any egalitarian vindication has sense. In our history, there has never been an economic vindication that wasn't immediately political: if factory workers said “more salary for all” to mean “more power to all”, today “income for all” means “power shared by all”.

As singularities that have chosen to be on the subversive side, we have to have the courage to construct and share the Common above all among ourselves. This is what will make us strong.

Thesis 20

A new sentimental education is in course in the rebel communities, it's invention and it's microphysical experimentation is on the agenda of every true revolutionary experience that fights against the Empire today. One cannot speak of friendship, of love, of brotherhood and sisterhood, if not as a part inside the strategic advancement of the insurrection against biopower and for the Common. In the same moment in which a friendship comes to exist, that a love becomes a force of the Common, or a gang constitutes itself to fight dominion, their enemy appears on the horizon. The destruction of the capitalist metropolis can only be the fruit of an irreducible love, of the Common effort of all the singularities that will rise up with joy against the priests of suffering and the hired thugs posted to defend the Towers of command.

The communism-that-comes will be generated by the forms-of-life of the multitudes that will have chosen the party of the Common against biopower.

“Make plans. Be ready.”

Plan b Bureau

JUNE 11TH: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH LONG TERM ANARCHIST PRISONERS

It is Friday and that means I try to bring you something about political prisoners.  Why do I do this?  Any number of reasons come to mind, but I will give you three.


One, I once was a political prisoner and I know how important support from the outside is to a person locked up.


Two, anyone who is a serious leftist activist of any kind always must understand that there are risks involved.  When the State decides you are a threat, it acts in its interest.  The Empire doesn't like to be challenged.  Consequently, there but for the grace of god, as they say, go you.  It doesn't matter if you are guilty or innocent of this or that law, it doesn't matter if what is said about you is true or a lie  It doesn't matter if someone is offering testimony in exchange for their own skin or for money.  None of that matters.  If they want you, they'll come for you.


Three, these people, these prisoners, even the one's whose ideology we may not hold dear, or whose actions we may have disagreements with, the ones I post about here, are on our side, have acted on behalf of the exploited and oppressed in a desire to create a new world free of injustice and servitude.  We can't just leave these fallen soldiers of our behind.


That said, the following comes from June 11th.org.

June 11: International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners (USA, Worldwide)

CALL OUT FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS WITH OUR PRISONERS OF WAR!

Everywhere that there exists dynamic struggle against the state and capitalism, there is some degree of repression. Capitalism knows well how to protect its interests, and it entails targeting and eradicating those who challenge it’s dominance. While we continue our daily struggle against this monster, we also fight to make sure our friends and comrades who have been imprisoned by the state aren’t forgotten, that their material and emotional needs are taken care of, and that they remain connected to the movements that they have been forcibly yanked away from.

Last year, as one small gesture to address this, June 11th was called as a yearly day of solidarity with two of our longest-imprisoned anarchist comrades, Marie Mason and Eric McDavid. While we realize that many of us don’t have spare time or resources to put toward organizing for prisoners who primarily exist in a U.S. context, we hope that their names and stories, as well as the lessons learned from their cases, can become well known everywhere. In our actions and solidarity, we wish to draw connections between Marie’s and Eric’s cases and those of imprisoned anarchist comrades all over the world who are experiencing firsthand these alarming trends of lengthy sentences and increased repression. This is a preliminary call addressed to all those who fight against this prison society to take action on June 11th, in solidarity with Eric, Marie and all long-term anarchist prisoners.

The cases of Marie and Eric appear fundamentally different at first glance. We choose to connect them in the context of June 11th, not only because of their similar sentences and the fact that they both remained incredibly strong in the face of intense harassment, but also to highlight and analyze the U.S. government’s multi-faceted strategy of repression.

Marie Mason was arrested in 2008 after more than 30 years of both above ground and clandestine organizing and action. She has been involved in both environmental and labor struggles, edited many radical publications, and was involved in water rights, anti-infrastructure and anti-logging and development projects in the Midwestern United States. She had already been subjected to years of FBI harassment when she was indicted for a string of Earth Liberation Front (E.L.F.) arsons that had occurred in 1999 and 2000. Her indictment was only possible due to the collaboration her ex-husband, Frank Ambrose, with the FBI. Due to continuing expenses, pressure and threats of a life sentence in prison, she took a non-cooperating plea deal that recommended her for 15-20 years. Citing her actions and her unwillingness to collaborate, the State turned on its word and sentenced her to nearly 23 years. Since being incarcerated, she has suffered health problems and has had many difficulties accessing vegan food, has been harassed and threatened constantly and has been re-located to a prison in Texas, nearly 2000 km away from her family, or, approximately the distance between Barcelona and Berlin. In the special “medical” unit she is currently held captive in, correspondence with the outside world is extremely controlled; her conditions can be likened to a Communications Management Unit in the U.S. or the FIES units in Spain. Some of her supporters and her family are still attempting to pursue legal means of reducing her sentence, but judicial avenues seem to be thoroughly exhausted at this point.

Eric McDavid, on the other hand, is a young anarchist who was arrested for committing no action except thoughtcrime. In 2005 he was befriended by a young girl named Anna who apparently shared his passion for taking action in defense of the environment. However, “Anna” was actually a government informant, paid over $65,000 to infiltrate the anarchist and radical environmentalist scenes to entrap people.

Anna heavily pressured Eric and two friends, Lauren and Zachary, to take action, and even went as far as to pay for renting a remote cabin in the woods where they could practice making bombs. The cabin was filled with hidden recording devices and cameras, and was funded by the FBI, who also paid for the transportation, bomb materials and provided bomb recipes. When the government felt that they had gathered enough information, they swooped in and arrested Eric, Lauren and Zach. At this point, no actions had been carried out. Lauren and Zach, under pressure from both the state and their families, collaborated with the government, while Eric remained strong and did not. His case went to trial and he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Although jurors in the trial later stated that they didn’t understand the case and didn’t think the trial was fair, all of Eric’s appeals have failed.

These two arrests are just a small part of a broader plan of repression by the U.S. government known by anarchists as “the Green Scare”, an allusion to the Red Scare of the 1950′s in which communists in the United States were harassed, blacklisted and deported. Eco-anarchists and animal rights activists in the U.S. have faced a similar brand of coordinated harassment since 2001, being named the #1 domestic terrorism threat in the United States even though their action, through careful planning and consideration, have never harmed humans or animals. In 2005, the government’s “operation backfire” plan completely ripped apart the underground E.L.F. movement in the northwest United States, and subsequently Eric, Marie and others have been targeted for two apparent purposes: the first being to completely wipe out the E.L.F. in the United States, and the second being to foster a culture of fear and obedience. The state has unfortunately been quite successful in this task, thanks to tactics such as extensive surveillance, infiltration, and clever uses of laws such as the AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that makes it an act of terrorism to cause financial impact on businesses that profit from animal exploitation), as well as laws against organized crime and conspiracy charges.

We don’t encourage solidarity on the basis of long-term sentences because we believe in a possibility for a reasonable or fair sentence for any prisoner (though both Marie’s and Eric’s 20+ year sentences are well in excess of the sentencing guidelines for their so-called crimes.) We focus on the longevity of their sentences because, whatever the circumstances of their arrest, the government is using these lengthy sentences to send a message, and to scare broadening circles of people into compliance and fear. By locking Eric and Marie up for decades, the state wishes to erase them. If, minimally, once a year, our comrades names are shouted from the rooftops and written on the walls, our enemies will have not fully succeeded in this sinister task. Of course we’re reminded of the absence of our comrades daily, but we hope that this yearly day of solidarity can be a starting point for keeping them the minds of a greater number of people more regularly.

Last year, events and actions occurred in over 30 cities across the U.S. and internationally. We were impressed by the expressions of solidarity, from a public noise demonstrations and events across the US to fundraiser dinner shows in Israel, and actions of sabotage from as far away as Russia and Peru. (A dossier of actions from last year, as well as information and material for this year are available at http://june11.org).

The heyday of the E.L.F. in the United States is over. We’re moving into a dynamic period of growing social antagonism, and need to make sure that prisoners such as Marie and Eric aren’t left behind or forgotten. Solidarity for them should not be relegated to prisoner support specialists or those who knew them personally – their absence is of importance to all of us, and support for them should be generalized.
The struggle to free Marie, Eric and others is the struggle against the society that not only creates and maintains prisons, but also commits the environmental devastation that Marie and Eric raged against.

To other comrades facing or serving long term imprisonment: we send warm greetings to Eat and Billy, undergoing trial in Indonesia for acts of sabotage; imprisoned members ofConspiracy Cells of Fire and Revolutionary Struggle in Greece; Billy, Costas and Silvia in Swizerland; Tortuga, Freddy, Marcelo and Juan in Chile and all those implicated in the Caso Bombas; All other non-cooperating Green Scare defendants in the U.S., some of whom are about to be released: Daniel McGowan, Sadie, Exile, Jonathan Paul and the recently re-captured Justin Solondz. These are just a small sampling of cases, but unfortunately we could go on and on. We have no definition for what “long term” imprisonment could mean – every moment the state steals our loved ones away from us is too long.



Organize an event or action on June 11th, this year and every year. Let’s fight together, for the destruction of this prison society and to help remind our comrades they’re never alone!

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June 11th began as an international day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoner Jeff "Free" Luers in 2004. At the time, Jeff was serving 22+ years. Infuriated by the environmental devastation he saw occurring on a global scale, Jeff torched three SUVs at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. The sentence imposed on him was meant to send a clear message to others who were angered by capitalism's continued war on the Earth's ecosystems – and to those who were willing to take action to put a stop to it. Jeff is, after all, not alone in his concerns about climate change, fossil fuels, pollution and genetically modified organisms.


After years of struggle, Jeff and his legal team won a reduction in his sentence and he was released from prison in December 2009. But in the years intervening Jeff's arrest and release, the FBI had carried out a series of indictments and arrests in an attempt to devastate the radical environmental and anarchist communities. Two of the people caught up in this maelstrom of repression were Eric McDavid and Marie Mason.


Eric McDavid was arrested in January 2006 after being entrapped by a paid government informant - "Anna" - and was charged with a single count of conspiracy. Eric – who never carried out any actions and was accused of what amounts to “thought crime” - refused to cooperate with the state and took his case to trial. After a trial fraught with errors, the jury convicted Eric. He was subsequently sentenced to almost 20 years in prison. More information on Eric's case can be found at www.supporteric.org


Marie Mason was arrested in March 2008 after her former partner - Frank Ambrose - turned informant for the FBI. Facing a life sentence if she went to trial, Marie accepted a plea bargain in September 2008, admitting her involvement in the burning of an office connected to GMO research and the destruction of a piece of logging equipment. At her sentencing in February the following year, she received a sentence of almost 22 years. More information on Marie's case can be found at www.supportmariemason.org


Marie Mason and Eric McDavid share the unfortunate distinction of having the longest standing sentences of any environmental prisoners in the United States. Please join us in an international day of solidarity with Marie Mason, Eric McDavid, and other long-term anarchist prisoners on every June 11th. This is a time to remember our friends who are in prison – who are continuing their struggles on the inside. This is a time to continue and strengthen the very work for which Eric and Marie are now serving so much time - to struggle against capitalism, ecological devastation, and the ever more diffuse forms of control in this prison society.


Free Marie and Eric! Free all prisoners!




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If you're planning an event for June 11th and would like it to appear on this website, please send us the info you'd like posted at june11 @riseup.net. If you raise money at your event, you can find donation instructions here for Eric or here for Marie.

confirmed events for 2012

(more info about each event will appear as it's sent in)

Memphis, TN--a showing of "Attica", a talk by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, letter-writing, and refreshments. Donations will be split between Sundiata Acoli and Marie Mason. Facebook event here

            Louisville, KY--a showing of "If A Tree Falls" and a chili dinner.

.

Evansville, IN--a community picnic and info session.

Minneapolis, MN--a microphone demo!

St Louis, MO-- a benefit show, dance party, dinner and discussion on June 9th at the Boulder space. All money collected going to prisoner support.

New York City, NY-- punk rock kareoke benefiting Marie and Eric. Facebook event here. " Along with the NYC Anarchist Black Cross, Punk Rock Karaoke Chicago will be hosting their first ever night in NYC! We'll be throwing down for Marie Mason, Eric McDavid, and other long-term anarchist prisoners in honor of the annual June 11th International Day of Solidarity. Every penny raised will go directly towards support efforts for Marie, Eric and others. Come out and support our prisoners by shelling out some cash and singing your heart out to one-of-a-kind punk rock karaoke tracks! Seriously, it is a win/win. Monday, June 11th 8pm - midnight (8pm sharp! Not punk time.) Fontana's Bar (105 Eldridge Street, Manhattan) $7 donation 21+ (SORRY!)"

Guelph, Ontario--public information and letterwriting night on June 4th.

Portland, OR--all stores in the vegan mini mall are donating 10% of their profits to Marie and Eric on June 11th. Facebook event here, awesome video to promote the event here.

Salt Lake City, Utah--Afternoon: a family friendly activity in the park featuring a mini carnival (game booths, face painting, three-legged 'Mutual Aid' race, etc.) with vegan food and refreshments for donations. Evening: punk rock show with performances by local political bands. Possible fire juggling display.

Philadelphia, PA--on Saturday, June 9th, 50% of all sales from the Wooden Shoe (704 South St) 50% of all sales will go to Marie and Eric. That evening at 6pm, there's a benefit show at the LAVA Space, located at 4134 Lancaster. Peregrine, Cop Problem, Dying, and one band TBA are playing.

Washington, DC-- an ice cream social on June 11th, from 6pm to 9pm at 1213 Delafield Pl NW. $10-20 suggested donation, all proceeds to Marie and Eric. "There will be homemade ice cream, cookies, and caramel sauce as well as a variety of other toppings. We're talking sundaes, milkshakes, and ice cream sandwiches! There will even be sandwiches from Sticky Fingers." Facebook eventhere.

Houston, TX

Grand Rapids, MI

Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Jogjakarta, Java, Indonesia

Asheville, NC

Bloomington, IN

Sacramento, CA

Olympia, WA

Lawrence, KS

Eugene, OR

CHICAGO, NATO, OBAMA, PROTEST OR SIMPLY PUT: "STAY OFF THE GRASS OR GO TO FEDERAL PRISON"

Chicago bound last week

They said, "trust us."  They said it didn't have anything to do with rights and protests and all that jazz..  They said not to worry.


Yeah, right.


Last weekend when thousands were marching around Chicago during the NATO summits, they used the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act, signed in March by Obama, exactly as we knew they would.


In some ways, it was more like a test run.  There weren't hoards, at least yet, of felony arrests, but still the act was used in an attempt to thwart the right to protest.  They'll get it done better for next time, for next year.  They've got their little conventions coming up after all, and the campaign.  Good times for all.


I am not chicken little saying the sky is falling.  The country is not on the verge of fascism, all of our civil liberties are not gone, yet.  But make no mistake about, THEY know what they know, and, in the end, THEY believe they know what is best for THEIR security and for THEIR way of life.


The truth is, I don't care what Act they pass, they are not going to stop people from protesting or from resisting the Empire's militarization and the policing of all our lives.  They may make it tough, but they are the ones taking on the direction of history.


Venceramous.


The following is from Indian Country Today.

New Bill Restricts Speech and Assembly Rights; Peaceful Political Protest at Risk of Criminalization

By Gale Courey Toensing May 7, 2012

            

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AP Images

Environmental activists gather outside the White House in Washington, Monday, August 22, 2011

One might think from the name – the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act – that this legislation is meant to spruce up federal buildings and beautify their grounds with landscaping.

But the bill does none of that. Instead, H.R. 347, which President Barack Obama quietly signed into law on March 8, has the potential to criminalize protests and clamp down on the First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom to assemble. With recent and possible future indigenous protests against tar sands pipelines, with the Occupy movement springing back with the season, with demonstrations expected at the NATO Conference in Chicago this month and at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September, the new bill gives the government the power to bring charges against Americans engaged in peaceful political protest.

The new law amends the federal criminal code to expand an existing statute that criminalizes certain activity in and around areas that are restricted by the Secret Service. It defines “restricted buildings or grounds” as the White House or its grounds or the vice president’s official residence or its grounds; a building or grounds where the president or someone else protected by the Secret Service is or will be visiting; and a building or grounds at which a National Special Security Event is taking place.

Under the new law, that means the Indigenous Peoples arrested for civil disobedience in front of the White House last fall in a protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline, and later released, could be charged with a felony. “Simply standing with a bullhorn, holding up a sign, promoting a contentious message or even being on the grounds of a Secret Service secured event will now make it possible for the government to detain, arrest and charge those involved in these ‘disruptions’ (even if you just happen to be passing through) with a felonious criminal act,” according to InfoWars.

Under the old law those kinds of activities were deemed illegal within the restricted zones: “willfully and knowingly” entering a restricted zone without authorization, engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct, blocking an entrance or exit to a restricted zone, or engaging in violent acts against people or property.

These four activities are still illegal under H.R. 347, but the “willingly” part of the provision has been dropped. “This is one of the two major changes to existing law (the other is the extension of the statute to the White House and VP’s residence),” according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website. “Previously, the law required someone to act ‘willfully and knowingly.’ This is the state of mind the government has to prove you had to establish your guilt (the ‘intent standard’). ‘Willfully and knowingly’ means that you need to know you’re committing a crime. ‘Knowingly’ just means you need to be aware you’re in a restricted zone, but not necessarily that it’s unlawful.”

The punishment for violating the new Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act is harsh, the ACLU said. If a weapon is used or injury is caused, which is a felony, a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 can be imposed. Otherwise, the maximum is one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

ACLU was cautious in defining the impact of H.R. 347 means for peaceful protesters. “The honest answer is we simply don’t know yet. These zones will hopefully occupy (no pun intended) a very small footprint at the three types of locations covered by the law. Also, these areas must be clearly identified to prevent protesters from inadvertently violating the law (or else they can’t form the required intent). That said, the provision covering disruptions in or near the secure zones is of concern and could be misused to stifle lawful protest; same with the entrance/exit provision. These were already in the law, but the “knowingly” change could make them easier to abuse,” the ACLU said.

Others believe there’s solid reason to worry about the amended law. “H.R. 347 makes protest of any type potentially a federal offense with anywhere from a year to 10 years in federal prison, providing it occurs in the presence of elites brandishing Secret Service protection, or during an officially defined National Special Security Event (NSSEs),” Huffington Post columnist Jeanne Moloff said. NSSEs, which were created by Bill Clinton in Presidential Decision Directive 62 in 1998, are events that come under Secret Service protection. Past NSSE events included the funerals of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and Superbowl XXXVI, Moloff noted. “Other NSSE protected events include the Academy Awards and the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. I suppose presidential candidates, no matter how insane they may be are deserving as much security protection as Brad and Angelina’s sex life,” she wrote. “The dangerous part of this ‘executive order’ lies not in the triviality of a Super Bowl receiving taxpayer funded Secret Service protection – but in the convenience manufactured for any President desperate to hide deliberations of groups like the G-8, the G-20 and the World Trade Organization. The classification of such events as NSSE – insures the rich and powerful against any pesky accountability or transparency to the unwashed minions – namely the U.S. public. HR 347 & S. 1794 insulates such events as the G-8, WTO and presidential conventions against tough questions and politically justified protests.”

H.R. 347 follows other recent controversial government actions that restrict Americans’ civil rights. In March, the president signed Executive Order 13602 – the National Defense Resources Preparedness Order – which gives the federal government extraordinary rights to seize all manner of property or take virtually any actions it deems necessary in the interests of national security “in peacetime and in times of national emergency”—without defining either of these terms. Under the new directive, Obama may delegate broad authority to agency secretaries to commandeer all manner of material, including food, construction materials, livestock, fertilizer, farm equipment, energy, water resources, transportation (including private cars, boats and airplanes) and anything else considered necessary for “national defense.”

The Executive Order came on the heels of the $622 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Obama signed on New Year’s Eve. The NDAA annually funds the United States’ ongoing wars and the 900 military bases it maintains in 130 countries. This year’s version also provides for the U.S. president to have draconian worldwide authority to order the military to seize anyone suspected of “terrorism” or “providing aid to terrorists” or their “associated forces” anywhere in the world, including U.S. citizens on American soil, and detain them without charge or trial indefinitely. Indigenous Peoples worry that it could be used against them for asserting their rights to self-determination and sovereignty, or for protecting their lands and resources against exploitation by governments or corporations. Other opponents argue that the bill violates the U.S. Constitution, and protests against it have spread across the country as states, civil liberty and justice organizations join a rapidly growing nationwide movement.