#radical midwest

[midwestdissent-blog]

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

[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.”

[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”