My latest commentary is up at Center for a Stateless Society.
When South Sudan became independent, it separated from a genocidal, repressive Sudanese government. But not all is to be celebrated. Political independence is only as valuable as the individual liberty it promotes.
Read the rest: South Sudan and the Sovereignty of the Individual.
In a class I took for my master’s degree in history at the City College of New York, students were assigned to complete a digital history project. I chose to do a project on the Modern School movement in America, using a WordPress platform. The class is finished, but I can always make changes to the site. Suggestions are welcome.
The project website is: TheModernSchools.wordpress.com.
My latest Center for a Stateless Society commentary, Domestic Terrorism and the Lulz, is about a government report on anarchists.
LulzSec hackers have released a government report entitled “Anarchist Movement.” This “strategic report” was marked for official use only and was issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a government organ that has previously drawn criticism for warning cops to be suspicious of things like Ron Paul bumper stickers. MIAC is one of several fusion centers, organizations intended to facilitate the sharing of information gathered about people in America between federal, state, and local government agencies.
I was curious to see what law enforcers would have to say about anarchists. While some of the information in the report is factually correct, the quality of the research is not impressive.
It appears that the report under discussion was actually released a while ago but was put into the spotlight again due to Lulzsec.
I’ve been meaning to share some info about books I’ve read lately, especially after the responses from Thinking Liberty fans to our recent book recommendation contest.
I haven’t read every page of all of these, and obviously my agreement with them varies, but they are all interesting.
Gary Chartier, The Conscience of an Anarchist
I now have a go-to book for introducing anarchism, and this is it.
Jan Tomasz Gross, Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement, 1939-1944
Part history and part sociology, this study of Polish society under German occupation offers a number of insights on occupation, insurgency, and underground society.
Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Excellent description of mass murder under Hitler and Stalin.
Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela, The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, Coexistence
This well-written examination of Hamas includes discussion on how social connections and social power were used to amass political power behind a radical ideology.
Sven Lindqvist, Exterminate All the Brutes: One Man’s Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide
Compelling narrative of the author’s travels and thoughts as he attempts to comprehend genocide by Europeans.
Carol Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African-American Struggle for Human Rights
A critical view of civil rights politics in the US.
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History
Moyn argues that an ideology of Human Rights became in the 1970s the last utopian program as other utopias failed to deliver.
Edward Said, The Question of Palestine
Somewhat dated, but certainly relevant introduction to Palestinian grievances.
Segev, Tom. One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate
Detailed work that conveys the excitement of empire and nation building without glorifying it.
Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
Detailed analysis of how Palestinians became refugees.
Michael Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
Well-written political and military history.
Itamar Rabinovich, The War for Lebanon, 1970-1985
Can be dry, but describes conflicts within Lebanon and how the country became a center of regional conflict.
Jackson Spielvogel, Hitler and Nazi Germany
Good textbook overview of Nazi Germany. New editions are expensive, but they do claim to have integrated recent scholarship in several areas.
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century
Discusses the troubles of Europe in the Twentieth Century (I’ve only read the first two chapters as of this post).
David Crew (editor), Nazism and German Society, 1933-1945
The essays authored by Bartov, Mallman and Paul, Kershaw, and Browning are excellent writings that challenge some common views of the Nazi order. I expect that the essays that I haven’t read are also worthwhile.
Detlev Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life
I’ve as yet only read the chapter “Young people: mobilisation and refusal,” which is a fascinating examination of how the Nazis gained and lost power among German youth.
Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe.
Well-written 600 pages of how Nazi Germany conquered and ruled. Contains a detailed index.
Peter Carlson, Roughneck: The Life and Times of “Big Bill” Haywood.
Exciting biography of the larger-than-life union organizer.
Joseph R. Conlin, Big Bill Haywood and the Radical Union Movement.
Contains less detail on Haywood’s life than Carlson’s book, but more analysis of related labor issues.
Penny A. Weiss and Loretta Kensinger (editors), Feminist interpretations of Emma Goldman.
A number of essays examining Emma Goldman in feminist contexts.
And a couple of books that looked interesting and I intend to read:
Peter Gelderloos, Anarchy Works
John M. Hart, Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class, 1860-1931.
George Woodcock, Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements
If you didn’t catch it when it went up last week, my latest commentary at Center for a Stateless Society addressed remarks made by Massachusetts State Representative Ryan Fattman.
Massachusetts State Representative Ryan Fattman drew criticism for remarks he made regarding the state’s participation in the federal “Secure Communities” program. According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Fattman was asked if he was concerned that the program might make a woman without legal immigration status hesitant to report to the police that she was raped and beaten as she walked down the street. His response? “My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward.”
Read the rest: Putting the Nation Before the Human
“On June 3rd, 2011 Manchester, NH area-activists armed with cameras, two-way radios and police scanners patrolled the streets in four cars and MARV. Their mission – accountability, a trait that seemingly absent among the ranks of those working for the Manchester police department.”
For more:
http://copblock.org/manchcopblock
http://copblock.org/manchpd
http://libertyontour.com/freestatefriendshiptour
My latest commentary is online at Center for a Stateless Society.
A report in the Guardian reveals that Britain’s Ministry of Defense has trained, and continues to train, the Saudi force that helped suppress demonstrations in Bahrain earlier this year… As usual, those who rule are more concerned with maintaining the “stability” of their power than they are with the people on the receiving end of that power.
Read the rest: Exporting Thuggery.
I received the following from a comrade traveling in Spain.
—————————-
May 25, 2011 at 4:16am
With this mail we want to animate others to organize more sit-ins outside of Barcelona, around the world, which will be organized by you. We propose not to target on the Spanish embassies in your countries, also because the Spanish press practically does not cover those actions.
Our proposal is that you join in with your local struggle, to occupy the central places of your city while following the model of organization used during the Arab revolutions (and Spaniards), which means connecting with groups and local organizations and organize a sit-in in the main squares, to work in commissions and to write up your own documents (manifest, calls, proposals, minutes of meetings, etc). To make it public, spread it, use the internet networks to expand your message and to self-manage.
What is happening in different Spanish cities is not accidental nor specific of our society, we fight to recover our dignity, our freedom and our social rights, for direct democracy where we can participate in the course of our lives. We are a spontaneous and independent network, we don’t need leaders thus we offer that you will organize independently, according to what is possible and relevant in your area.
We would like that everywhere people will take the streets, but in each place people will think themselves on the local alternatives to the capitalist and cruel world to which our governments are ‘leading’ us and the whole planet.
For us the borders do not exist, the network is ours and the street also! Another world is possible now!
More concretely, we propose to you that you squat in your city during the next days of THURSDAY AND FRIDAY 26 AND 27 OF MAY to take advantage of the international days of mobilization against the G8 against the world-wide oligarchy, we invite you to take the street and to establish si-ins in sufficiently big places which will receive a consequent infrastructure that allow you to work and to mobilize in the best conditions. These two days and their nights could be the beginning of a long global struggle of the Indignados, please add your sit-in to the world-wide map of: http://www.thetechnoant.info/campmap/
We use the social networks to coordinate and to maintain informed. We encourage you to create an international commission to communicate with us, to share materials and strategies of organization in the Web n-1.cc to look for the group https://n-1.cc/pg/groups/104127/take-the-square-international and open a space with your location. In that link you will find a guide. In the chat (http://ur1.ca/48ogs) you can contact with us and others sit-ins simultaneously or to contact us by e-mail comisiointernacional@gmail.com.
Our content commissions is working on a document which formulate the very elaborated agreements which are agreed on in the general assembly. The document is available on web http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/
Take the street! Real Democracy Now!
Hugs, International Networks of the International Commission of the Barcelona Camp
Barcelona Information:
#acampadabcn
http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/
e-mail general: acampadabcn@yahoo.es
Internacional commission – Barcelona Camp:
https://n-1.cc/pg/groups/103405/akbcn_int/
e-mail international commission: comisiointernacional@gmail.com
Internacional coordination:
Map: http://www.thetechnoant.info/campmap/
e-lists: https://lists.takethesquare.net/mailman/listinfo/cominterm
https://n-1.cc/pg/groups/104127/take-the-square-international/
Chat irc.freenode.net # takethesquare http://ur1.ca/48ogs
I posted my immediate reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death at Center for a Stateless Society:
Osama bin Laden plotted and ordered the killing of innocent people to further his authoritarian political agenda. And finally he was killed. Thus always to tyrants.
But those of us who harbor no sympathy for bin Laden shouldn’t be blinded by patriotic or victory euphoria. The death of bin Laden does not solve the problems that enabled his rise to fame.
Read the rest: Good Riddance to Bin Laden — Now Get Rid of the Blinders.
Had time not been of the essence I might have done a few things differently, but I stand behind the article as it is. I might have expanded on the section examining the evidence that bin Laden had at one point been supported by the US Government. I also would have been more careful to distinguish generic “non-state armed forces” from the military units of a stateless society.
I am sympathetic towards those who question the veracity of reports concerning bin Laden’s death. However, I think the government’s obsession with controlling information and making people disappear is more likely the cause of sketchy details than any intent to deceive. I am more inclined to question whether the timing of the strike had anything to do with the US presidential campaign cycle, but there are numerous other explanations for why it took place at the time it did.
Some other good articles:
Killing of bin Laden: What are the consequences?
What next after bin Laden death?
The death of Osama and the return to reality
[UPDATE: Below are some more good articles.]
JSOC: The Black Ops Force That Took Down Bin Laden
After Osama: Stop feeding the beast
It looks like some will try to insist that torture and secret prisons were necessary to find a globally infamous criminal in a fortified compound in a populous area near a Pakistani military base. If that claim wasn’t absurd enough, here’s some commentary on this: The Osama bin Laden Trail Shows Waterboarding Didn’t Work
