May 1, decomposition and the coming antagonisms

Occupy Oakland is Dead. Long Live the Oakland Commune

reposted from Bay of Rage (May 16, 2012)

THE COMMUNE

For those of us in Oakland, “Occupy Wall Street” was always a strange fit. While much of the country sat eerily quiet in the years before the Hot Fall of 2011, a unique rebelliousness that regularly erupted in militant antagonisms with the police was already taking root in the streets of the Bay. From numerous anti-police riots triggered by the execution of Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, to the wave of anti-austerity student occupations in late 2009 and early 2010, to the native protest encampment at Glen Cove in 2011, to the the sequence of Anonymous BART disruptions in the month before Occupy Wall Street kicked off, our greater metropolitan area re-emerged in recent years as a primary hub of struggle in this country. The intersection at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland was, more often than not, “ground zero” for these conflicts.

The Rose of Fire Has Returned: The Struggle for the Streets of Barcelona

In May 2011, tens of thousands occupied plazas throughout Spain in a protest movement that prefigured similar occupations around the world, including the Occupy movement in the United States. On March 29, 2012, a nationwide general strike erupted into massive street-fighting in Barcelona, as participants wrested control of the streets from riot police. How did this come to pass, and what can it tell us about what will follow the occupation movements outside Spain?

Here, our Barcelona correspondent provides extensive background on the riots of March 29, tracing the trajectory from the plaza occupations to the general strike, and explores the questions that have arisen as anarchists face new opportunities and challenges.

Caravan to Longview to Support Port Workers against EGT/Bunge

* Note: This is the first in a series of releases over the next two weeks explaining the role of the Occupy Movement in the struggle against EGT Development and their parent company Bunge Ltd that is developing into a large-scale action in Longview, Washington. All releases will be posted at www.OccupyTheEGT.org  *

For immediate release – Jan 18, 2012

Contact: Kari Koch or Jess Kincaid – (503) 567-8694;

West Coast Occupiers will travel to Longview to stop grain shipment

Caravan and protest planned in response to the labor struggle, food justice issues, and environmentally destructive practices of EGT and Bunge corporations

Portland, OR – Occupations from across the West Coast are planning to converge in Longview, Washington when the first ship to be loaded for export arrives at the new EGT grain terminal later this month.  Occupy Portland, Occupy Oakland, and Occupy Longview all passed a resolution calling for the Occupy Movement to come together in Longview to stop “EGT’s attacks on our communities, our food supply and the jurisdiction of West Coast Longshore workers.”

Anti-Capitalist Smackdown: A Debate among Radical Tendencies in the Occupy Movement

Saturday, February 4, 3-8 PM

@ The Wildcat (Seattle)

 

Several different anti-capitalist tendencies have come together in the Occupy movement. Now is a chance for us to meet publicly and clarify where we agree and disagree on a few key points.

This event is free & open to the public. It will be audio-recorded, and selections will be published online for the benefit of anti-capitalists everywhere.

Against the bosses, against the unions, for occupations with teeth: thoughts on West Coast Port Shutdown

http://nothingiseverlost.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/against-the-bosses-against-the-unions-for-occupations-with-teeth-thoughts-on-west-coast-port-shutdown/

Yesterday saw a major escalation in the tactics of the Occupy movement, as a concentrated effort was made to shut down ports across the West Coast. This kind of direct economic action is a very welcome development, made even more interesting by the movement’s reluctance to name specific reforms that would allow it to be bought off. These actions aren’t about a clear-cut attack on capitalism itself, but they certainly have elements that point in that direction, and they’re a lot less limited than many other protests in recent memory. Another interesting development is that the actions took place against the explicit opposition of the International Longshore Workers’ Union. As the very different example of the electricians’ struggle in the UK also shows, the unions will only support action that stays within the rules written by the bosses and their politicians, so it’s necessary to break out of their control in order to win.

Reports from Seattle on D12

In this post, two somewhat different perspectives on the Seattle port shutdown by participants:

(1) “Occupy Seattle: A New Phase for the Workers’ Movement”

(2) “Seattle Port Shutdown – Success!”

Japan action in solidarity with Occupy the Ports!

http://westcoastportshutdown.org/content/japan-action-solidarity-occupy-ports

Dear friends in the West Coast,

We’ve carried out the 2nd protest action against ITOCHU, representing the attached protest letter. Security guards handed in glove each other and inhibited us from entering the office. However ONODERA Makoto, a representative of Societal Management Dept. came out from the office at the end. He received our protest letter and confirmed to forward the letter to a representative of the Food Company of ITOCHU and ask its prompt reply. ITOCHU has been and is still persisting booster of privatization, outsourcing and casualization agenda of neoliberalism, and now makes a big push to join in TPP. Let’s fight together!

International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba

Blockade – Strike – Communize?

We’re making history today: we’re attempting to shut down all the major ports of the West Coast from the outside, following the example of Oakland on November 2. Port workers have shut down the West Coast before, not just for a day but for months at a time, cutting into the profit of the “1%” and increasing the power of their unions – especially the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, born from the three-month coastwide shutdown and four-day general strike of 1934. Today will be the first time a movement based outside the ports (including some port workers as active participants or passive sympathizers) will attempt such an action. The ILWU’s official statements against the action make this more novel and complicated, but do not invalidate this as a working-class action against capital.

In Defense of the Shutdown of West Coast Ports

In this post:

(1) A Reply to Cal Winslow on the West Coast Port Shut Down

(2) Interview With ILWU Members About D12

The crisis, Occupy, and other oddities in the autumn of capital

http://www.kosmoprolet.org/node/70

Translation of the editorial of Kosmoprolet #3

All over the world, events are keeping up with the pace of a crisis, the end of which was just recently cheerfully proclaimed by people who thought ludicrous amounts of sovereign debt to be the recipe for an economic miracle. By racking up debt to their ears, governments worldwide were able to contain the so-called financial crisis; but then, the rating agencies presented them a bill that they promptly passed on to wage workers. The whole maneuver did not lead to recovery but to an even more menacing state budget crisis, the handling of which through uncompromising austerity measures has aroused anger. Resistance is mounting. We are at the threshold of a social crisis. Those who feel the effects of the governments’ austerity programs in their everyday life are starting to realize ever more clearly that these are not temporarily painful, yet necessary sacrifices. They are becoming aware of the fact that the drastic cuts will not only last for years or even decades, but that their own future is becoming ever bleaker. We are probably at the start of a new era: Ever since society was brought back down to the earth of cold hard economic facts, the culturalist carnival of differences has come to an end. Society’s colorful superstructure has scaled off to reveal, in Orthodox Marxist terms, the drab, universal base. And the crisis has achieved what activists striving to link struggles have been incapable of for decades: millions have taken to the streets simultaneously with the same purpose. All they’re left with is an ever more precarious survival under the reigning conditions. For them, it’s all or nothing.