With the debut of Beer and Revolution "Season Two" last night, featuring Anarchy Magazine contributor and editor Lawrence Jarach, it seemed like a good time to get off our asses and put up some more audio from last year's sudsy symposiums. A couple weeks ago I posted the audio to John Zerzan's presentation at last January's Beer & Rev and this week I finally got around to adding the presentation on the Greek insurrection by Sissy, Tasos and Peter (which was a big hit). Below I've embedded the first part of what was a wide-ranging and very entertaining discussion below.
The more I reflect on the Greek tour, especially having spent some time with them (and quaffed more than a few beers together here and in the Bay) and seeing their presentation twice, I think it is very likely that their visit will be remembered as one of the more remarkable and influential events in recent American anarchist history. Already I have heard the "Cops, pigs, murderers!" chant ring out at more than one anarchist action across the country. In a time where police murder seems more and more the norm, I expect to hear it a lot more. I certainly feel lucky to have had the chance to learn from our Greek comrades about their struggle.
Follow the link back to our youtube page for the rest of it (it's almost two hours total). As usual, to get the full experience, you really need to come to the event. Since it takes place in a very social atmosphere, the sound quality on the recording is not always the best, especially during the q and a. All the more reason to come out and join in the conversation yourself! While you're at our youtube page, check out the favorites section, because there's some interesting talks there that we think are worth checking out. We add to it periodically, so check back from time to time.
Last night's B&R with Lawrence drew a little more than forty people and was a raucous affair. I hope to have that online for your enjoyment in a few days if all goes well. As usual, if you're coming to town or if you're already here and have something that you think may fit in the Beer & Rev format, hit us up. Maybe we can work something out. These are irregular affairs, in that rather than stick to an arbitrary calendar, we do them when we think there's something worth talking about. As of right now, we do have another tentatively planned for March or April. We'd love to do another one (or more) before that, so hit us up if you're interested.
One of the things we want to do with Beer & Rev is to encourage the discussion of anarchist ideas and the development of critical anarchist thinking here in Phoenix, and to do it in a social way that breaks out of the stale lecture model that so often dominates the genre, as well as to challenge ourselves and our ideas. Suggestions, tips, criticisms and comments are always welcome.
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Beer & Rev Archives: John Zerzan audio
With the soon-to-be-announced re-launching of Beer & Revolution season two, we've been going back through our audio archives and posting up more from season one. The more attentive of you may have noticed that we recently re-purposed the old, underutilized "What we're into right now" tab for Beer & Rev. You can now hit that tab for any updates on what's going on. Anything posted relating to that will show up there, including this first new audio from last year.
We're not technical experts and we're working on improving the audio quality for future recordings, but we get enough interest in this series that we think it's worth posting up what we have even if the quality isn't always the best. Of course, there are limits to how good we can get the sound to be (and help is always appreciated). After all, we don't do these things in a library, we do them in a bar/restaurant, so if you want to get the full experience you should come out, get yourself a pint and a pizza (all you can eat) and settle in for a good time listening to and debating with what we think are always interesting and provocative speakers and topics. Last years' attendance varied from 25 to 75, so you won't find yourself drinking alone at these things. Under 21 welcome.
And, as I hinted above, the new season is about to drop. Look for the new flyer in a day or so but in the meantime, mark you calendar for October 10th at 8:30. More details to follow. And, while I have your attention, we're always looking for presenters. Beer & Rev is a loose, open event, so it's not for everyone, but if you're heading our way and have something that you think you can add to the discussion, hit us up. Maybe we can work something out.
We're not technical experts and we're working on improving the audio quality for future recordings, but we get enough interest in this series that we think it's worth posting up what we have even if the quality isn't always the best. Of course, there are limits to how good we can get the sound to be (and help is always appreciated). After all, we don't do these things in a library, we do them in a bar/restaurant, so if you want to get the full experience you should come out, get yourself a pint and a pizza (all you can eat) and settle in for a good time listening to and debating with what we think are always interesting and provocative speakers and topics. Last years' attendance varied from 25 to 75, so you won't find yourself drinking alone at these things. Under 21 welcome.
And, as I hinted above, the new season is about to drop. Look for the new flyer in a day or so but in the meantime, mark you calendar for October 10th at 8:30. More details to follow. And, while I have your attention, we're always looking for presenters. Beer & Rev is a loose, open event, so it's not for everyone, but if you're heading our way and have something that you think you can add to the discussion, hit us up. Maybe we can work something out.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Nazis patrol Pinal County, a history of the resistance so far, and the always looming question of why the Right suffers no hang up about non-violence.
Today I want to highlight three things that I see as related and I think some readers will, too. As the situation gets worse and worse here in Arizona, even as we chalk up some successes here and there, it's worth taking a moment to consider the circumstances of our revolt and ways to consider the ideas and movements that manifest around us and in which we participate.
As leftist organizers, movement hacks, non-profiteers, wannabe politicos, student dreamers and all the other assorted movement professionals pour into Arizona to celebrate their "Freedom Summer" at our expense, I find the need to reflect particularly pressing. And, believe me, I can feel these movement types pressing in from all sides these days. I wonder, do they know what they are in for? Not that ignorance would stop them from telling me what I ought to do while they're on vacation in the state I've lived in my entire life.
If I said in an earlier article that those people who move here bring their biases with them, for which we are collectively blamed, the same is true for activists from out of state. In an era of "Freedom Summer (redux)" and SDS (respawned), how could it be otherwise?
Force for liberation or recuperation? Or attack on radicals and those who have already made up their minds not to compromise? "Freedom summer" certainly begs the question. One thing for sure, those of us who live here almost certainly will be left to clean up the mess when the Fall semester comes and the boys and girls of Summer have gone back to their leftist ghettos to update their resumes.
THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST MOVEMENT PATROLS PINAL COUNTY
Check out, for instance, the always amusing (if still sometimes wrong) Feathered Bastard column over at the Phoenix New Times, where Stephen Lemons writes about the local NSM chapter (who we confronted last year). Lemons points out perennial tubby bear Nazi JT Ready's call out to his racist comrades to conduct armed patrols in Southern Arizona for migrants.
The article is interesting for a several reasons, but one of the things I picked up on was Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's failure to denounce the Nazi composition of the patrols. Sure, he says that he doesn't think the patrols would be helpful, but it seems as if Babeu, like the local media (with the exception of Lemons), has opted to treat Ready's little Nazi crew as legitimate, giving him a pass on his white supremacist beliefs and his many violent threats. Consider the fact the two media headlines about the event identify the NSM in the title only as a "militia", not as Nazis or even a "Nazi militia". A more honest characterization would surely change the way people view the action.
Indeed, when asked by Lemons about what he thought about the patrols, Babeu said, "Local law enforcement can't handle this on our own, yet it will only complicate our concerns to have untrained and armed citizens, who are not from Pinal County - patrolling our desert areas." Well, sure, I suppose it might. But is there anything particularly remarkable about those armed patrols being conducted by the National Socialist Movement, Babeu? Not worthy of comment? This reflects the general climate here in Arizona these days.
For me it's particularly noteworthy because I pointed out in my analysis of the anti-speed camera movement last summer the inherent problems of the leaders of main anti-camera group allying with Sheriff Babeu precisely because it opened the door to the reinforcement of white supremacy, rather than taking the opportunity to challenge it that rejecting his support (and, later, that of Sheriff Joe) would have provided. Instead, ideologically unable to articulate a strictly "no-cameras" position, they chose an argument that offered more police as a substitute for cameras, which naturally brings with it the well-known racist enforcement Arizona police are known for. This weak-kneed comment from Babeu, either because he sympathizes or because the radicalism of the fascist NSM has mainstreamed enough that he worries about challenging it, seems to go towards further proving that point.
One last point before I move on. The boldness of the NSM lately in carrying their firearms to rallies, to interviews, in displaying them to the media, in carrying them on patrols and in sporting them at counter-protests, ought to give everyone pause, not least of all any anarchists who are not currently able to defend themselves. Self-defense ought to be on everyone's mind these days. Never forget that Nazis like these aren't just the voice of white reaction against people of color and for the defense of the privileges of whiteness, they are also the sword tip of Capital's attack on those who would truly challenge the capitalist order, such as anarchists.
THE MONSOON STORM LOOMS IN ARIZONA
Next, I want to point out to readers the excellent article posted up yesterday by our comrades at Survival Solidarity out of Tucson. Just in time for the monsoons that alternately scorch and then drench Arizona day after day this time of year, they have provided for us a map of where we have been and where we may be going, at the same time they cleverly reveal the way the border imposes itself in relations far beyond those at la linea.
I like this analysis because it fits very well into the (not strictly) insurrectionist view of Capital reproducing itself everywhere at all times not just in our social relations but likewise even within the contradiction between Capital's demand for cheap, precarious labor and it's concomitant fear of the need to self-organize in defense of its every day and never-ending attacks. Of course, perhaps outside that, or at least parallel to it, lies the demand of American capitalism for a reactionary white working class that will lead the way in attacking its most exploited elements.
The piece does a really good job of making clear the violence, generally unspoken, that underlies and pervades the enforcement of these social relations and, naturally, which must at the same time be reflected in the fight to define ourselves against these illegitimate impositions. As Derek Jensen has, I think, quite usefully pointed out, violence that goes down the social hierarchy generally goes unremarked on while violence that with an upward trajectory, aimed at the exploiter, always elicits condemnation from the system and its defenders. Perhaps there's more than a little of this in the media's hysteria over the largely non-existent problem of migrant-caused violence versus the normalization afforded unmistakable violent threats to people of color represented by the NSM.
NON-VIOLENCE PROTECTS THE STATE AND THE COLONIAL MASTER
Lastly, I want to share an audio interview with Peter Gelderloos and Gord Hill. Gelderloos will be known to folks familiar with PCWC's "Beer & Revolution" social night. Traveling with the Greek anarchists, Gelderloos is perhaps best known for his book "How Non-Violence Protects the State" (PDF here) which, I'm happy to say, quotes a little pamphlet I wrote many years ago a couple times.
Hill, perhaps less familiar to people, is most recently the author of "500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, the Comic Book", in which Hill sets out to accomplish the admirable goal of demolishing the myth of the conquest of Indigenous peoples of North America: that on one hand they were felled by disease or that on the other defeated by the violence of an inherently superior settler state. In fact, he asserts, there was plenty of resistance, taking a variety of forms, and that that resistance often succeeded in dealing severe blows to the colonizer.
In the interview, with features both of them, the two do a wonderful job of breaking down the ideological underpinnings of non-violence/pacifism, in particular the class relations that infuse them. Hill takes a swipe at the non-profit industrial complex as a key element in maintaining the domination of the often a-historical assertions of the effectiveness of the strategies. It also tackles head on the tendency of the enforcers of non-violence/pacifism to act as the vanguard of state repression while claiming to be protecting the movement. This is accomplished by singling out those militants who deviate from the orthodoxy. I know we've seen this here in Arizona many times.
As the professional managers of revolt race to take their well-paid positions here in Arizona, these points are worth paying attention to. I think Gelderloos and Hill also successfully demolish some of the key mythologies that the defenders of non-violence/pacifism uphold, including exposing the false idea of the "public" as a construct of the media itself. The inherent authoritarianism of non-violence/pacifism likewise get a good working over.
WELCOMING THE CRISIS BY NAME
Overall, I think that regular readers of this blog will find the three pieces cited above to be quite complementary and well-worth your investigations. The fact is, as Survival Solidarity points out (and perhaps even the boneheads in the NSM understand), we stand today on the verge of social explosion. Perhaps we can feel the winds sucking in as the spark even now demands more and more oxygen. Or maybe that's us holding our breath in this blazing heat. It's hard to tell these days.
Who knows what's coming? The white supremacist system continues to descend into crisis, driven by the demands of its white working and middle class base for the respect of their petty privileges in an age of economic collapse. It's the bastard class politics of whiteness. We at PCWC continue organizing in our neighborhood, intervening in movements and working in close solidarity with our comrades in struggle both to defend against the attack but also to turn the crisis in another direction, one in which whiteness is not the means of capital's assault, but instead the collapse of which opens the door for a broad and much-needed house cleaning.
Still, the rising strength and boldness of the reactionary right combined with the complete and utterly predictable impotency of the liberal left give pause for careful thought. In a year that has already seen several small outbreaks of violence from the right, I would be surprised if there wasn't a violent and remarkable -- even by media standards -- explosion from them or those they inspire at some point before the summer's flame is finally extinguished. Clearly that is their goal.
I'm thinking today of a line from the song "This Gun Is Not a Gun" by the British songwriter, Chris T-T: "This cowardice is not cowardice/ We're just taking a breath before we do this."
Inhale and then into the fight!
As leftist organizers, movement hacks, non-profiteers, wannabe politicos, student dreamers and all the other assorted movement professionals pour into Arizona to celebrate their "Freedom Summer" at our expense, I find the need to reflect particularly pressing. And, believe me, I can feel these movement types pressing in from all sides these days. I wonder, do they know what they are in for? Not that ignorance would stop them from telling me what I ought to do while they're on vacation in the state I've lived in my entire life.
If I said in an earlier article that those people who move here bring their biases with them, for which we are collectively blamed, the same is true for activists from out of state. In an era of "Freedom Summer (redux)" and SDS (respawned), how could it be otherwise?
Force for liberation or recuperation? Or attack on radicals and those who have already made up their minds not to compromise? "Freedom summer" certainly begs the question. One thing for sure, those of us who live here almost certainly will be left to clean up the mess when the Fall semester comes and the boys and girls of Summer have gone back to their leftist ghettos to update their resumes.
THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST MOVEMENT PATROLS PINAL COUNTY
Check out, for instance, the always amusing (if still sometimes wrong) Feathered Bastard column over at the Phoenix New Times, where Stephen Lemons writes about the local NSM chapter (who we confronted last year). Lemons points out perennial tubby bear Nazi JT Ready's call out to his racist comrades to conduct armed patrols in Southern Arizona for migrants.
The article is interesting for a several reasons, but one of the things I picked up on was Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's failure to denounce the Nazi composition of the patrols. Sure, he says that he doesn't think the patrols would be helpful, but it seems as if Babeu, like the local media (with the exception of Lemons), has opted to treat Ready's little Nazi crew as legitimate, giving him a pass on his white supremacist beliefs and his many violent threats. Consider the fact the two media headlines about the event identify the NSM in the title only as a "militia", not as Nazis or even a "Nazi militia". A more honest characterization would surely change the way people view the action.
Indeed, when asked by Lemons about what he thought about the patrols, Babeu said, "Local law enforcement can't handle this on our own, yet it will only complicate our concerns to have untrained and armed citizens, who are not from Pinal County - patrolling our desert areas." Well, sure, I suppose it might. But is there anything particularly remarkable about those armed patrols being conducted by the National Socialist Movement, Babeu? Not worthy of comment? This reflects the general climate here in Arizona these days.
For me it's particularly noteworthy because I pointed out in my analysis of the anti-speed camera movement last summer the inherent problems of the leaders of main anti-camera group allying with Sheriff Babeu precisely because it opened the door to the reinforcement of white supremacy, rather than taking the opportunity to challenge it that rejecting his support (and, later, that of Sheriff Joe) would have provided. Instead, ideologically unable to articulate a strictly "no-cameras" position, they chose an argument that offered more police as a substitute for cameras, which naturally brings with it the well-known racist enforcement Arizona police are known for. This weak-kneed comment from Babeu, either because he sympathizes or because the radicalism of the fascist NSM has mainstreamed enough that he worries about challenging it, seems to go towards further proving that point.
One last point before I move on. The boldness of the NSM lately in carrying their firearms to rallies, to interviews, in displaying them to the media, in carrying them on patrols and in sporting them at counter-protests, ought to give everyone pause, not least of all any anarchists who are not currently able to defend themselves. Self-defense ought to be on everyone's mind these days. Never forget that Nazis like these aren't just the voice of white reaction against people of color and for the defense of the privileges of whiteness, they are also the sword tip of Capital's attack on those who would truly challenge the capitalist order, such as anarchists.
THE MONSOON STORM LOOMS IN ARIZONA
Next, I want to point out to readers the excellent article posted up yesterday by our comrades at Survival Solidarity out of Tucson. Just in time for the monsoons that alternately scorch and then drench Arizona day after day this time of year, they have provided for us a map of where we have been and where we may be going, at the same time they cleverly reveal the way the border imposes itself in relations far beyond those at la linea.
I like this analysis because it fits very well into the (not strictly) insurrectionist view of Capital reproducing itself everywhere at all times not just in our social relations but likewise even within the contradiction between Capital's demand for cheap, precarious labor and it's concomitant fear of the need to self-organize in defense of its every day and never-ending attacks. Of course, perhaps outside that, or at least parallel to it, lies the demand of American capitalism for a reactionary white working class that will lead the way in attacking its most exploited elements.
The piece does a really good job of making clear the violence, generally unspoken, that underlies and pervades the enforcement of these social relations and, naturally, which must at the same time be reflected in the fight to define ourselves against these illegitimate impositions. As Derek Jensen has, I think, quite usefully pointed out, violence that goes down the social hierarchy generally goes unremarked on while violence that with an upward trajectory, aimed at the exploiter, always elicits condemnation from the system and its defenders. Perhaps there's more than a little of this in the media's hysteria over the largely non-existent problem of migrant-caused violence versus the normalization afforded unmistakable violent threats to people of color represented by the NSM.
NON-VIOLENCE PROTECTS THE STATE AND THE COLONIAL MASTER
Lastly, I want to share an audio interview with Peter Gelderloos and Gord Hill. Gelderloos will be known to folks familiar with PCWC's "Beer & Revolution" social night. Traveling with the Greek anarchists, Gelderloos is perhaps best known for his book "How Non-Violence Protects the State" (PDF here) which, I'm happy to say, quotes a little pamphlet I wrote many years ago a couple times.
Hill, perhaps less familiar to people, is most recently the author of "500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, the Comic Book", in which Hill sets out to accomplish the admirable goal of demolishing the myth of the conquest of Indigenous peoples of North America: that on one hand they were felled by disease or that on the other defeated by the violence of an inherently superior settler state. In fact, he asserts, there was plenty of resistance, taking a variety of forms, and that that resistance often succeeded in dealing severe blows to the colonizer.
In the interview, with features both of them, the two do a wonderful job of breaking down the ideological underpinnings of non-violence/pacifism, in particular the class relations that infuse them. Hill takes a swipe at the non-profit industrial complex as a key element in maintaining the domination of the often a-historical assertions of the effectiveness of the strategies. It also tackles head on the tendency of the enforcers of non-violence/pacifism to act as the vanguard of state repression while claiming to be protecting the movement. This is accomplished by singling out those militants who deviate from the orthodoxy. I know we've seen this here in Arizona many times.
As the professional managers of revolt race to take their well-paid positions here in Arizona, these points are worth paying attention to. I think Gelderloos and Hill also successfully demolish some of the key mythologies that the defenders of non-violence/pacifism uphold, including exposing the false idea of the "public" as a construct of the media itself. The inherent authoritarianism of non-violence/pacifism likewise get a good working over.
WELCOMING THE CRISIS BY NAME
Overall, I think that regular readers of this blog will find the three pieces cited above to be quite complementary and well-worth your investigations. The fact is, as Survival Solidarity points out (and perhaps even the boneheads in the NSM understand), we stand today on the verge of social explosion. Perhaps we can feel the winds sucking in as the spark even now demands more and more oxygen. Or maybe that's us holding our breath in this blazing heat. It's hard to tell these days.
Who knows what's coming? The white supremacist system continues to descend into crisis, driven by the demands of its white working and middle class base for the respect of their petty privileges in an age of economic collapse. It's the bastard class politics of whiteness. We at PCWC continue organizing in our neighborhood, intervening in movements and working in close solidarity with our comrades in struggle both to defend against the attack but also to turn the crisis in another direction, one in which whiteness is not the means of capital's assault, but instead the collapse of which opens the door for a broad and much-needed house cleaning.
Still, the rising strength and boldness of the reactionary right combined with the complete and utterly predictable impotency of the liberal left give pause for careful thought. In a year that has already seen several small outbreaks of violence from the right, I would be surprised if there wasn't a violent and remarkable -- even by media standards -- explosion from them or those they inspire at some point before the summer's flame is finally extinguished. Clearly that is their goal.
I'm thinking today of a line from the song "This Gun Is Not a Gun" by the British songwriter, Chris T-T: "This cowardice is not cowardice/ We're just taking a breath before we do this."
Inhale and then into the fight!
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