I unfortunately expect I won’t be able to make this. But it looks cool.

`THE OTHER TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL… The Fifth Annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival`

The Fifth Annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival will be held in Honor of Brad Will, an anarchist journalist activist who was murdered by a Mexican paramilitary sniper in 2007 while filming a protest in Oaxaca Mexico.

This film festival will take place FRIDAY APRIL 8, 2011 from 3:00PM -7:00 at the 6th Street Community Center 638 East 6th St. Between Ave B & C and from 8:00PM-MIDNIGHT at 56 Walker St. between Church St. & Broadway.

This film festival is a community forum that will celebrate domestic and international resistance to State repression & terror from Egypt to Wisconsin. It shows people around the world resisting economic exploitation, police state terrorism, war, corporate destruction of our planet as people fight for dignity, freedom of speech, collective bargaining, ecological sanity, and the survival of the human imagination at a time of increasing State repression, as `civilization` collapses around us.

This film festival was not previously publicized due to security considerations such as FBI intimidation and use of informants and infiltrators to disrupt activism & anarchist organizing in NYC.

Our featured speaker this year is Pam Africa, Minister of Confrontation for the MOVE Organization and the Coordinator of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Supporting collectives include: the Insurrectionary Anarchist Media Collective (IAMC), the Tribeca Collective, INN World Report, the Women`s Press Collective & various brave, committed, generous filmmakers, journalists & artists in our fair city and around the world.

For program details, check Friday for final selection: see: www.nycanarchistfilmfestival.com

Interesting commentary at the Industrial Workers of the World site: Mr. Block lives!

How about this, all public workers stop working for one week and then the next week all politicians stop what ever it is they do for a week. In the first day of public workers not working people would be complaining and demanding that they go back to work. As for the politicians taking a week off, next to no one would even notice it. So who is the most important in all of this? Those that do the work that people depend upon or politicians just passing gas?

My latest commentary, Tipping My Hat to Disobedience, is up at Center for a Stateless Society.

The pettiest tyranny enables and emboldens the deadliest tyranny. Every day, individuals who were not hurting anybody are assaulted by heavily-armed agents of the state and hauled away in chains to confinement centers of violent domination. For any violence that victims suffer along the way, the default is to blame them, not their assailants who carry badges that command respect. And this is the system that supports war crimes and corporate looting. The court, an obscene theater of power relations that intentionally uses language incomprehensible to the average person, is an integral part of this system. Government’s pretensions of rank and legitimacy support power relations that encourage some people to victimize others, and respecting court rituals supports the system’s pretensions.

In February I will begin a much more rigorous academic schedule, so I am scaling back my Center for a Stateless Society commitment to two commentaries per month.

The most petty tyranny enables the deadliest tyranny.

[email from BradleyManning.org]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA:
Kevin Zeese
Bradley Manning Support Network
press@bradleymanning.org
+1-202-640-4388

Military steps up retaliation against accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower with arbitrary “suicide watch”, followed by detainment of approved visitor

QUANTICO, VA, 23 January 2011 — Military officials at Marine Corps Base Quantico today increased the isolation of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning by detaining Manning’s friend and regular visitor David House at the base entrance until visiting hours were over. House was accompanied by Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com, a website that has collected 42,000 signatures on a petition calling for improvements to the conditions of Manning’s detention, which constitute extreme and illegal pre-trial punishment.

“The Bradley Manning Support Network is dismayed that Brad was denied contact with his only regular visitor besides his attorney,” founder Mike Gogulski stated. “Immediately following a rally by more than 150 supporters at Quantico last week, Brad was put on suicide watch for two days for reasons his counsel could only conclude were punitive. He was stripped of all of his clothing except his boxer shorts and his glasses were taken away. It seems to me that the Marine command is now reacting in the worst possible way to rising pressure on them.”

David House has been making regular trips from his home in the Boston area to visit Manning at the Marine Corps brig since he was transferred there from Kuwait last summer. While detained at the base gate, House posted to Twitter that “one of the many MPs around the car says his orders to stop us come from on high.” House and Hamsher were held on entry to the base for nearly the entire period of visiting hours, repeatedly demanded to provide information and documents the MPs already had, and threatened with arrest. Hamsher’s car was towed away under the pretext that she lacked proof of insurance, despite having presented a digital copy.

At Firedoglake.com, founder Jane Hamsher wrote: “There is no doubt in my mind that the primary objective of everything that happened today was to keep Bradley Manning from having the company of his only remaining visitor.”

“This is a bizarre action by the Marines. I think they see the growing support for Bradley Manning, they see more and more people realizing that he is being treated unfairly, and that as the facts of the case come out more and more people see that he is a patriot and not a traitor,” said Kevin Zeese, Director of Voters for Peace and member of the Bradley Manning Support Network’s steering committee.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week, Amnesty International stated that “the restrictions imposed in PFC Manning’s case appear to be unnecessarily harsh and punitive.” The letter also suggests that Manning’s confinement is in contravention of international law, and calls upon the military to conduct a review.

House intends to return to Quantico next weekend to once again attempt to visit Manning and to deliver the petition.

In addition to petitions and public protests across the nation, the Bradley Manning Support Network has asked supporters to speak out against Manning’s inhumane treatment by contacting officials at Quantico. The Support Network encourages concerned individuals to phone Quantico public affairs at +1-703-432-0289, to write to base commander Colonel Choike at 3250 Catlin Avenue, Quantico, VA 22134, and to write to brig commander CWO4 Averhart at 3247 Elrod Avenue, Quantico, VA 22134. We are asking that Bradley Manning’s human rights be respected while he remains in custody; specifically, that he be allowed social interaction with other inmates, that he be allowed meaningful physical exercise, that approved visitors be allowed to see him without interrogation and harassment, and that the “Prevention of Injury” order (the military’s basis for the extreme pre-trial punishment regime) be lifted.

# # #

References:

Firedoglake.com, “Sign Our Letter: Stop the Inhumane Treatment of Bradley Manning”, http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/bradleymanning?source=fdl

Mike Gogulski, Bradley Manning Support Network, “Manning removed from two-day suicide watch; attorney files complaint, calls action punitive”, http://www.bradleymanning.org/16023/manning-removed-from-two-day-suicide-watch-attorney-files-complaint-calls-action-punitive/

David House, Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidmhouse

Jane Hamsher, Twitter: http://twitter.com/janehamsher

Jane Hamsher, “Goal of Quantico Incident Was To Abuse Bradley Manning and Intimidating David House”, http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/01/23/goal-of-quantico-incident-was-to-abuse-bradley-manning-and-intimidating-david-house/

Nadim Kobeissi, interviewing Kevin Zeese, CHOMP.FM, “EMERGENCY BROADCAST: Denying Bradley Manning Basic Civility”, http://chomp.fm/003/

Amnesty International, “USA: Open letter to Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense”, http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/006/2011/en

I’ve published a commentary on the Tunisian revolt at Center for a Stateless Society.

A Dire Warning to Tyrants:

Arab politicians fear that the revolution still working itself out in Tunisia is inspiring their own subjects to revolt. The escalating protests that managed to unseat the 23-year rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali were immediately sparked by the self-immolation of a fruit peddler after police seized his vending cart, an event that people chafing under political repression and economic marginalization could not ignore. As an anarchist — an advocate of maximizing individual liberty by eliminating authority — I recognize the Tunisian revolution is unlikely to immediately establish my ideal, but I celebrate it nonetheless.

The title is inspired by an Associated Press article, Arab League chief says Tunisia is dire warning. A friend shared an interesting LA Times article on Facebook. There are also a lot of reports at Al Jazeera.

I haven’t missed out on the exciting news from Tunisia. I unfortunately don’t know enough about the specifics to comment in anything but generalities.

I did see an interesting article today: The First Middle Eastern Revolution Since 1979.

I’d appreciate if interested readers shared other news and views on the event.

Via Cop Block comes another story of police killing an innocent person.

The 12 grandchildren of Eurie Stamps Sr. will begin 2011 by burying their beloved grandfather. On January 5th Mr Stamps was murdered by the Framingham, MA Swat Team during a botched drug raid. Mr. Stamps was not the target of the drug raid and he was not armed when he was killed.

According to the police chief, the victim was “tragically and fatally struck by a bullet which was discharged from a SWAT officer’s rifle.” Not “shot by a police officer,” but “struck” by an inanimate object that was “discharged” from another inanimate object. The language used is intentionally worded to evade responsibility.

Will this, or any other incident of police violence that takes place in 2011 be considered a national tragedy that merits a moment of silence from the president? Not unless an Important Person, like one who “serves the country” by administering the system that enables outrages of this caliber, happens to be the one attacked.

[The below was sent to Amazon.com using the customer feedback form.]

Dear Amazon,

I am greatly disappointed in the recent decision to terminate services to WikiLeaks. I intend to take my business elsewhere unless this issue is resolved.

The work of WikiLeaks is critical to the pursuit of liberty and justice in the face of massive opaque power structures. It is widely known that the US government repeatedly mislead the public to start wars, covered up the killing of civilians, escalated traveler search procedures following intense lobbying by the makers of security equipment, and took money from those small enough to fail in order to cement current economic and social inequality. Access to information intended for privileged rulers is too important for compromise.

In your public statement, you state that “It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content.” What right does a lawless state have to secrecy? You say that data stored by WikiLeaks “isn’t rightfully theirs,” as if government had the right to keep its works secret from the people who will suffer under them.

You also say “it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren’t putting innocent people in jeopardy. Human rights organizations have in fact written to WikiLeaks asking them to exercise caution and not release the names or identities of human rights defenders who might be persecuted by their governments.”

If human rights organizations have asked WikiLeaks to “exercise caution,” that is not evidence that the specifically-named document release will harm anyone, and “human rights organizations” are only mentioned for emotional effect. Further, it is believed that Bradley Manning, who has been in prison since May, is responsible for providing the diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. It is entirely plausible that WikiLeaks staff could have time to review the documents and redact information that could put individuals at risk.

Amazon companies could face economic consequences for doing the wrong thing. The over 500,000 people on the WikiLeaks Facebook page show that standing for truth and justice is popular. As a graduate student who has relied on Amazon.com almost exclusively for books, I am willing to undertake great inconvenience to patronize companies who have not taken a stand against freedom. I am also a self-published author considering not renewing my Amazon Advantage account.

I will be sure to explain my actions to my friends and to followers of my syndicated podcast and blog. I consider this very unfortunate, as Amazon has been an excellent company to do business with until now. I would be very likely to use Amazon services in the future if this issue was resolved.

Regards,

Darian Worden

PS: This letter can be viewed at http://darianworden.com/blog/2010/12/letter-to-amazon. I will be sure to post any response I receive from you.

See my Center for a Stateless Society feature The News About Leaked Cables for my initial response to Sunday evening’s Wikileaks release.

Note that only a fraction of the cables have been released and there are more on the way. For continuing coverage, The Guardian and Antiwar.com seem to be good sources.

There is also an interesting interview with Assange at Forbes.