[midwestdissent-blog]

“On February 14, 2011, citizens from the U.S. state of Wisconsin rose up, eventually peaking at around 100,000 people, to protect the collective bargaining rights of union workers and against Governor Scott Walker.”

[sproutdistro]

New Digital Anarchist Poster Archive

From Sprout Distro:

The Joseph A. Labadie Collection—one of the foremost archives of anarchist materials in the world and located right here in Michigan—has just completed a project aimed at digitizing posters obtained over the past 100 years.

The posters cover topics including “Anarchism, Civil Liberties, Colonialism, Communism, Ecology, Labor, Pacifism, Sexual Freedom, Socialism, Women, and Youth/Student Protest.” There are a lot of interesting things in the archive, from posters against gentrification in San Francisco to anarchist gatherings in the 1980s. The collection is a great representation of anarchism’s rich visual culture and is interesting both as a source for historical curiosity and as an inspiration for those creating contemporary anarchist posters.

Unfortunately, while the site doesn’t allow us to download higher resolution versions, here’s a few posters that were interesting to us:

The post New Digital Anarchist Poster Archive appeared first on Sprout Distro.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Today in history: February 18, 1970 – Seven defendants in the Chicago Seven case (originally the Chicago Eight, or Conspiracy Seven/Eight) were found not guilty of conspiracy after an outrageous politically-charged trial that was often a circus-like atmosphere and included incidents of crude racism by the court. 

Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner were charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to the historic protests in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Footage of the Chicago police brutally beating protesters outside the convention was broadcast live around the world, causing deep embarrassment for the establishment. 

Black Panther Party leader Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, was treated even more outrageously than the others by the court, including being bound and gagged in the courtroom. While originally part of the conspiracy trial, the judge severed his case from the others’ during the proceedings, which is why they’re alternately referred to as seven or eight. 

Following the DNC on September 9, 1968 a Federal grand jury was empaneled to consider criminal charges. Over the course of more than six months the grand jury met 30 times and heard some 200 witnesses. The eight defendants were charged under the anti-riot provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. During the trial Judge Hoffman cited all the defendants—-plus their lawyers Kunstler and Weinglass—-for numerous contempts of court and imposed sentences ranging from 2½ months to four years. 

(image: poster supporting the Conspiracy Eight)

Via Freedom Road Socialist Organization (Fight Back!)

[wurst-kommunismus]

Utah Phillips (via laborglitch)

[ragemovement]

Labor organizer, anarchist, and folk artist Utah Phillips gives a speech during the ceremonies of the 100th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair in May, 1986.

[conversationswithbianca]

Can’t believe I haven’t seen this doco before now!

“Martin Sorrondeguy, former vocalist for Los Crudos, is the producer of this powerful and uplifting documentary about the U.S. Latino punk scene and the DIY movement.”

[radicalarchive]

’Wounded Knee Legal Defense / Offense Committee’, Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1975.

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

Radical agriculture - Murray Bookchin 

[midwestdissent-blog]

“One neighborhood in Chicago – Pilsen, on the lower west side – contains the potential for this kind of utopian ethical practice. The neighborhood was named during the late nineteenth century, when its principal inhabitants were German and Bohemian factory workers, but since the 1950s it has evolved into a community of mostly first- and second-generation Mexican immigrants. Español is by far the most common language, and the streets are lined with locally-owned shops, taquerías, pool halls, and hundreds of working-class households. Most non-Mexican residents of the neighborhood are young, low-income families, some with immigrant backgrounds, along with a mix of artists, outsiders, radicals, and non-conforming layabouts. A large number of Mexican youths are involved in the local punk and underground music scenes. Independent bi-lingual media collectives broadcast through the local airwaves. Guerilla painters enliven the crumbling neighborhood landscape with colorful murals, graffiti, and street art. Cafés (many with live music and urban Zapatismo spirit) are abundant, as are public parks and schools, and the sidewalk atmosphere is a blend of village solidarity, workaday drudgery, and anarcha-feminist counterculture.” “In some instances, neighborhood initiatives to oppose gentrification and build local economies have been infiltrated by city departments, political sects, and corporations seeking to advance their own agendas. Community development programs and housing alliances sometimes find themselves collaborating with corporate lenders in order to satisfy the immediate material needs of neighborhood residents. Powerful Chicago-based companies like Boeing, ComEd, and Sara Lee have insinuated themselves into local projects (art exhibits, music festivals, media events) by offering money in exchange for status as official sponsors. Many Pilsen organizations are chronically short on funding, so the temptation to rely on wealthy corporate donors is strong. And yet this reliance solidifies the control that corporations already exert over life in the neighborhood, introducing new barriers to democracy and economic self-management”

[midwestdissent-blog]

“The water protectors arrived at a construction site in Wisconsin around 6 a.m. Enbridge has secured necessary permits there, in North Dakota, and in Canada—but not in Minnesota, where Camp Makwa is based. Until then, pipeline opponents are focused on disrupting construction in Wisconsin to delay the pipeline’s completion.”

“At this point, it really does boil down to civil disobedience,” said Anna Leopold, a 22-year-old water protector with the camp, to Earther. “And it is what helps us build the most power and mobilize as many people as possible against the pipeline.” Read more about Enbridge and Line 3 here: https://earther.gizmodo.com/tribes-across-the-midwest-are-gearing-up-for-a-big-new-1820338774

[paranoidalive]

'Sorry To Bother You' crucially legitimizes "violence" as a response to violent oppression

Boots Riley ruptures the idea the violence must rest within the dichotomy of avoidance or fetishization, and instead uses the final scenes to reclaim and transform it into a tool of emancipation.

I almost forgot to share my Sorry To Bother You review here.

These bodies are otherly, strangely sexualized, and must be seen in the context of the most oppressed in his fantastical fictive society. Their organized violence progresses the scenes as not just a ‘saving the day’ moment, but as a discourse on violence both as a weapon of the rich and as an inevitable emancipatory tool of the most oppressed.

What we have in this film is meditation on and critique of many things: racism, capitalism, violence, and the future. Sorry To Bother You illustrates the anxiousness of our dispossessed future, painting with vivid colors an absurd, afro-surrealist, and sporadically sci-fi picture of that vampiric falling empire Bob Marley sung about. For fans of political comedy, sci-fi, and surrealism, as well as those like me who spent years listening to and appreciating The Coup, I recommend you go see this film.

Read the full review. 

[lesbianherstorian]

a logo of the detroit gay liberation front, 1970

[teamvocalo-deactivated20200629]

Boots Riley is the legendary MC of The Coup but he’s also a writer and director of the new movie “Sorry To Bother You” - a scathing critique on race relations, workers’ rights and the Capitalist system. It also happens to be highly imaginative and hilarious. Boots Riley spoke with Jill Hopkins about the themes and concepts of the new film which is out in theaters now.

[midwestdissent-blog]

“The story of the creation of the Anti-Racist Action Network is a hard and bloody one. Many of the people involved in the organizing at the time came from poor and working class backgrounds; many were shot, stabbed, did prison time, and a few even paid the ultimate price, such as Lin Newborn and Daniel Shersty, both of whom were murdered by neo-Nazis in 1998, outside Las Vegas, Nevada.”

“The following is a recording of a presentation which features two founding members of the group, Anti-Racist Action (ARA), both of whom came up in Cincinnati, Ohio”: https://itsgoingdown.org/midwest-won-bloody-rise-ara/

[midwestdissent-blog]

“By the time the Chinese began migrating to Deadwood, most had learned to negotiate the Wild West’s fierce rivalries and racism. White miners held deep prejudices against the Chinese, and many Chinese chose to avoid the highly contested world of gold digging in favor of heavy labor or service work. During the 1860s, at least one out of every six Chinese immigrants living in the United States worked on railroad construction; others became cooks, farmers, merchants, blacksmiths and innkeepers. In the early days of the Black Hills gold rush, more than 100 labored as laundrymen in and around Deadwood—a monopoly that earned them the title ‘knights of the washtub’ from one contemporary newspaper.” Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-east-met-wild-west-83383742/#w2s0XiKeGzRjKBHP.99

“The history of Deadwood’s Chinese, and the tragic loss of an important landmark”: https://truewestmagazine.com/deadwoods-lost-chinatown/

[midwestdissent-blog]

A submission about Bash Back! formed in the midwest. July 2018 issue of Anathema.

[radicalarchive]

‘Passionate And Dangerous: Conversations with Midwestern Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists’, Institute for Anarchist Studies, New York, 1998.