Activism

MLK as plaster saint

Activism, history, Israel/Palestine
Published on 1 Comment on MLK as plaster saint

Nicky Kristol has some decent advice for the Palestinians:

“On Martin Luther King Day, I wish more Palestinians would absorb the lessons of King and Gandhi and use non-violent but confrontational approaches in challenging settlements, etc. Non-violence is not only morally superior to terrorism, it’s also more effective in challenging a democracy.”

I’m not sure which is worse, Kristol’s cluelessness on how MLK’s activism was recieved back in the day (not well) or his cluelessness about the Palestinian struggle (non-violence has been tried).

But don’t be fooled in thinking this cluelessness is anything but deliberate. MLK, like Gandhi before him, has long since been turned into a plaster saint, the perfect liberal idea of what a civil rights activist or freedom fighter has to be like, with all the more …controversial… parts filed off. It’s an old tactic, also used by people like Christopher Hitches to explain why they did support the Vietcong in their struggle against an US occupation, but not the Iraqi resistance. completely ahistorical of course, and the same people glorifying MLK today would’ve been the first to denounce him had they been there at the time, but in a media climate in which ignorance is king, it’s a tactic that works well. Just look at some of the comments at the post linked above.

Your Happening World (8)

Activism, Your Happening World
Published on 1 Comment on Your Happening World (8)

Twenty years ago, yesterday: École Polytechnique massacre: 14 women murdered for being women…

He may have magickally given me an ear infection over the intertubes (the day after he blogged over his ear aches my ears were blocked), but I’m still chuffed to see Michel Vuijlsteke get his share of the glory. His picture of the “bathroom fly” (Clogmia albipunctata) from august 2004 was the first documented sighting of this species in Belgium.

Unexamined priviledges on display at Crooked Timber: is it racist to make fun of Cornel West’s new autobiography or are those who see racism in this thread the real racists? Either way it came across as a bit bullying at first as everybody piled on to make fun of West. Not that his writing didn’t “deserve” it perhaps, but in the context of who West is and how he was designated an officially condoned target back in 2001 when Larry summers tried to kick him out of Harvard it looked like a group of school yard bullies picking on the weird kid whom the teacher had already humiliated in front of the class. It may be fun, but it’s too easy and it ignores targets which need mocking much more.

It may be a few years old, but LarryE’s post on not giving in to rightwing pressure to be “serious” and “respectable” should be required reading to all leftwing activists:

The Red Scare years are hard to grasp at this distance. The level of distrust, of paranoia, of fanaticism, certainly and clearly outstrips what we are living with today – which is not to say it could not become that bad, only that it hasn’t yet. But the one lesson that activists should have drawn from that nightmare is that acquiescence is not an answer. Adopting the terminology, the (dare I say it) frame of the enemy – I use the word deliberately – does not protect you against attack. Most of all, slicing away your friends and supporters will not help you. Spending time and energy going “oh, no, no, no, I’m not one of them” only narrows your base, reduces your potential support, and will not satisfy your attackers.

Casual gaming for the lolcat generation.

Do my homework for me

Activism, Unions
Published on 1 Comment on Do my homework for me

Reading Margaret Morris’ The General Strike started a train of thought about union militancy, strike action and preparedness for confrontations with the government. Because even halfway through it became clear that a big part of why the strike failed has to due both with the unwillingness of the unions to properly prepare for a fight and then to see it through. The union leadership especially seemed unwilling to go to far in their fight, torn between respectability and militancy. Therefore they didn’t make the necessary preparations for the fight, which could be seen coming at least nine months beforehand so as to not antagonise the government unduly, while the government itself felt no such qualms and they bottled out at the first opportune moment.

Which reminded me of a recent strike action that was succesful, that did force a government to back down: the fuel protests of 2000, in which a combination of farmers and lorry drivers blockaded oil facilities, took the government by surprise and forcing them to freeze further tax increases on fuel, for at least some time. It was presented and percieved as somewhat of a reactionary protests, by the kind of people who in the UK at least are not thought of as being natural unionists, let alone socialists. But what I’m wondering about is if anybody did make the effort to analyse these protests, their tactics and their successes from a leftwing perspective. Compared to union action in the last decade or so it does seem to have been much more succesful than most strikes, especially in the way a relatively small group of protestors could have a national impact.

So, anybody want to give me some pointers? Anyone? Anyone? Ferris?

Playing the race card: not actually fun

Activism, Racism
Published on

Nora explains that, no, she actually doesn’t like to become angry and outraged at casual racism in science fiction:

But I don’t understand why anyone would think I want to do this. Why anyone would think I like watching my blood pressure numbers inch up week by week. Why anyone would think I happily, eagerly “play the race card”, whatever that means — or that doing so would actually benefit me in any way. Why anyone would think I’m glad to spend hours of each week reading up about the latest imbroglios, writing responses to them, posting clandestine reviews of problematic books (and worrying about how those reviews will come back to bite me on the ass), preparing for difficult panels at cons, and bracing myself for uncomfortable interactions at every single networking event I attend. Why anyone would think I gleefully await the next instance of a stranger feeling up my hair, or a favorite author showing his ass on race and gender issues, or an established pro shouting at me that this field is a meritocracy dammit, or an even more established pro using the n-word on a woman just like me. I’m boggled by the idea that some people think I find this work desirable, much less fun, when it hurts me every damn day.

Quoted largely because I can lose sight of this too easily myself, as you can see from looking at that handsome picture on the top right, I don’t need to deal with this unless I want to. Others do not have that luxury.

Bugger the e-mail scandal

Activism, Policing
Published on

This is much more important:

Police have carried out what is thought to be the biggest pre-emptive raid on environmental campaigners in UK history, arresting 114 people believed to be planning direct action at a coal-fired power station.

The arrests – for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass – come amid growing concern among campaigners about increased police surveillance and groups being infiltrated by informers.

Nottinghamshire police said the raid on a school in Nottingham was made just after midnight this morning. The force said it seized “specialist equipment” thought to be linked to a planned protest at nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, a coal plant owned by the utility company E.On.

No group has claimed responsibility for the alleged demonstration.

Experienced campaigners said no group had claimed responsibility for the alleged demonstration because they could face charges of conspiracy and a possible jail sentence.

Activists said emails setting out planned action could be used by police to prove conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage, as could any equipment or documentation found during the arrests, or other evidence of coordinated preparations.

This is yet another politically motivated police action aimed at undermining dissent and delegitimising protest. It looks and smells like similar arrests of activists in the past, like that of the supposed anarchists in Plymouth just before the G-20 protests, or that of high profile anti-terrorist raids like those in Forest Gate a few years back, none of which amounted to much in the end but each of which sent a clear message. Keeping in mind the context in which these arrests happened, just after the police got embarassed by the killing of Ian Tomlinson and while one senior police official already having warned about “a summer of rage”. The police fears and is prepared for a year of increasing social unrest as the economic crisis begins to bite and they are attempting to head it off at the pass through actions like this mass arrest.

Yet this story’s buried under the avalanche of manufactured outrage about e-mail gate.