The question of what we’re actually going to DO when the cops fuck off has been almost completely ignored by street revolutionaries, but it’s one of the most important problems we face. There is no way that people are going to be grateful to see the back of the filth if they think that muggers, rapists, smack-dealers, wife beaters, and other anti-social bastards are going to have a free hand.
But it needn’t be like that. Someone once told me of an incident he witnessed in occupied Ireland. Rioting on the Falls Road had carried on ‘til early morning and vehicles were needed for a road block, when along whirred a milk float. Quick as a flash it was commandeered, however it wasn’t torched until the crates had been taken off and every local household had been delivered two pints of milk!
COMMUNITY RESISTANCE
This sort of interaction between street-fighters and the rest of the community is essential. When looting takes place, we must make sure that goods are distributed to those in need, not as an abstract matter of principle, but because we need to show that we care more for our fellow prisoners in the slum streets and rat-hole estates than any number of incompetent, grassing social workers. And of course, in a state of insurrection those who look after our kids, carry messages and weapons, lie for us in court, and give first aid are as vital to the struggle as the able-bodied, young, and largely male (though less so every time!) street-fighters. But it’s not just a question of handing out a few tins of beans to the old folk. If we cannot deliver safe streets and secure homes for everyone, ordinary people will be begging for the return of the law. Obviously informers must be dealt with, but the best way to stop them creeping out of the woodwork is to prove that the community can do a better job of preventing anti-social behavior than the filth.
STREET JUSTICE
Street justice is an ugly phrase. It carries visions of Clint Eastwood crazed vigilantes shooting black kids for being assertive; the IRA kidnapping kids for smoking dope; the Ayatollah’s “Party of God” beating women for daring to dress the way they want. But somewhere along the line, as individuals, as communities and as a class, we are going to have to learn how to dispense our own justice. Otherwise, people terrified to walk their own streets and estates will continue to fall for all that law ‘n’ order bullshit.
IT STARTS NOW
It starts now. With thinking what you’d do if you saw next-door getting broken into. There’s got to be a better answer than calling the cops or letting it happen, and we need to find it before every street has a neighbourhood-watch snoop snivelling back to the smiling community bobby with his plastic bullets and computer files.
It starts now. With making sure that in this summer’s riots, the muggers are challenged and the rapists eliminated. With making sure that clumsiness or drunken stupidity don’t result in ordinary people getting their homes burnt out.
It starts now. With discussions on the streets and estates about what we are going to do when the cops fuck off. Street justice is justice for ALL by ALL. Anything else is just a new set of cops. We need the answers quickly, and we haven’t begun to ask the right questions.
Since the main organizer of the previous festivities has migrated to Mastodon pretty much exclusively, ya’girl is gonna go ahead and get started on the Tumblr side of 2020′s Solarpunk Action Week. Mark your calendars for March 8th thru 14th!
“But Lyudmila,” you say, “why in the entire hell are you talking about March in November?” – Well, it’s never too early start learning and planning.
What is Solarpunk?
Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?” The aesthetics of solarpunk merge the practical with the beautiful, the well-designed with the green and wild, the bright and colorful with the earthy and solid. Solarpunk can be utopian, just optimistic, or concerned with the struggles en route to a better world — but never dystopian. As our world roils with calamity, we need solutions, not warnings. Solutions to live comfortably without fossil fuels, to equitably manage scarcity and share abundance, to be kinder to each other and to the planet we share. At once a vision of the future, a thoughtful provocation, and an achievable lifestyle.”
And what is Solarpunk Action Week?
Solarpunk Action Week is a week dedicated to taking and spreading actions–complex or simple, big or small–to build our communities, practice our skills, and make the world just a little bit better. Make a Tumblr post about whatever action(s) you take and tag me in or use the #SolarpunkActionWeek tag, and I’ll reblog them here and archive them over on @the-last-girl-scout. No doubt many other blogs will be doing likewise!
What can I do?
Oh, so many things! No, really, one of the reasons I’m making this post so far in advance is that the sheer number of possibilities can be pretty overwhelming. What you do is up to you! but for instructions and inspiration, you should check out the Sunbeam City wiki, and I’ve spent the past year archiving how-to and educational posts over on @the-last-girl-scout (check out the #solarpunk [obvs], #gardening, #diy, #organizing, and #afa tags specifically), and you should also go ahead and follow the laundry list of blogs I’m gonna @ at the bottom of this post b/c they are all very good, and make sure and check the notes for anyone/anything I may have forgotten!
You could start a garden, flyer/sticker your neighborhood, share food w/ your pals and the neighborhood, do some self-education, learn how to make something instead of buying it, overthrow capitalism … the possibilities are endless!
Get out there and invent the future, space cadets.
Tucked inside a must-pass defense bill expected to make its way through the Republican-controlled Senate next week is a sweeping policy change: 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all 2.1 million federal employees.
It’s not a surprise that Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic congresswoman from New York, would be celebrating the move. She’s been working to get it passed for two decades, after her own experience in the workplace.
“When I was expecting my first child, I went to the personnel office and asked them what their leave policies were. They said, ‘Leave policies? We just expect you to leave,’” Maloney said at a press conference with House Democrats and labor leaders after a deal was reached to include paid parental leave for federal workers in the National Defense Authorization Act.
But President Trump has declared victory too. “With this important step, we are delivering,” Trump said on Thursday at a White House summit on childcare and paid family leave.
The summit, led by his daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump, landed on a day when Trump was working to finalize a detente in his trade war with China — and as Democrats in the House moved toward impeaching him.
The federal government is the largest employer in the country. But in the private sector many companies don’t offer paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, and many of those that do don’t give a full 12 weeks paid.
In an interview with NPR, Ivanka Trump said she sees paid leave for federal workers as a first big step.
“It’s very hard for people to say, ‘Well, employers should provide this benefit,’ if we are unwilling to provide it ourselves. So you have to lead by example,” Ivanka Trump said.
This man, an antisemite who called for forced labour camps, is now a member of the british parliament along with dozens more brazen racists and bigots, the UK is headed in an awful direction
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
