(A)narchists argue pacifist ‘liberals’ are the enemy inasmuch as their non-action, their criticism of violent means or the polemics of violence, emasculates the power of the people to take back what is rightfully theirs from the state and dominant corporations. The interviewee reminds listeners Gandhi and King did not operate in isolation from other groups employing a variety of not so passive tactics. Yet other (A)narchists chillingly assert ‘morality’ is immaterial/a fiction which interferes with weighing the efficacy of any given tactic–that being the only legitimate revolutionary litmus test. All else, they say, is a ‘liberal’ sop and Gandhi was a collaborator.
Perhaps, living in the U.S. and being born after Gandhi’s success makes it difficult to argue authoritatively on the point with respect to India. Not so, however, when it comes to the U.S. and the Civil Rights movement. If memory serves, many white ‘liberals’ (at the time) opined Blacks indeed did deserve the inalienable rights they demanded just as Dr. King had so eloquently championed. But, they continued, Blacks should be *patient* and allow a ‘natural’ transition over TIME, not so demanding for change NOW!
This crisis continued on low boil for many years…more than a decade…while ‘liberals’ wrung their hands in intellectual angst, the Black community suffered and Congress dithered–UNTIL Watts, Detroit, and Newark erupted. After that, during the Johnson administration, civil rights legislation proceeded apace as Congress quickly passed remedial federal laws making racial discrimination illegal heralding a new era in the legal landscape of America ultimately leading to the 2008 election of the first Black U.S. President.
The following video clip perhaps makes the best argument for this kind of violence, given who the proponents are. Unfortunately, comparisons with such (A)irheads may be damning it with faint praise. e.g. The clip never alludes to other successful non-violent revolutions or how powerful any number of creative but devastating non-violent tactics can be. Still, it’s worth watching and considering, if for no other reason than to be aware of the arguments being advanced today among impressionable youthful idealistic activists.
What Price Freedom?
mol n labé
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
–Samuel Adams–
Parodying Pacifist ‘Liberals’
Canadians Debate Black Bloc Ethics
ELF Makes Its Case
(A)LF Makes Its Case
**WARNING: The video included in the following article contains shocking graphic cruelty and violence. Viewer discretion is advised and parents may want to prevent their children from viewing it.
ALF is the accepted acronym for Animal Liberation Front, a radical underground movement opposed to animal cruelty, slaughter, and exploitation. The illegal actions against the industry responsible for these abuses has been controversial and given rise to laws in a few state jurisdictions criminalizing the covert filming of animal cruelty as documented in the video below.
ELF (Earth Liberation Front), ALF, and (A)narchists consider themselves ‘affinity’ groups–meaning they tend to like each other or the cause each represents. Ironically, the Pacific NW (A)narchists spearheading the protests against the federal Grand Jury inquiries/subpoenas into the Seattle May Day street violence have issued ‘fatwas’ against photojournalists who video record/photograph these events (including rallies/vigils) in public venues. Yet, the same elements would be the first to applaud the publishing of police/state violence/abuse or cruelty to animals. In the same breath, they’ll argue (sometimes violently) they’re entitled to prevent their photos from being taken. It’s a given the police and abattoirs don’t either. Each conveniently ignores those guarantees enshrined in the 1st Amendment.
The following video displays ample reason why investigatory photojournalists must be protected:
ALL CREATURES, GREAT & SMALL
“Journalism is the printing of what someone doesn’t want published. Everything else is Public Relations.” -George Orwell-
Gary Yourofsky Argues Animal Rights
Civilization’s End: Resist/Die
Or, maybe BOTH? There’s no guarantee anything we do now can retrace where we’ve been…almost certainly not. In a world disappearing before our eyes, limited rapidly depleted resources, and a global climate collapse underway, There isn’t GOING to be some bright tomorrow or promising future. Existence is going to be violent, brutish, and short. For many, that’s the case now–quiet desperation and suffering. Our privileges (for those who have them) are built on that foundation. Frankly, I’m grateful I wasn’t born any later than I was. There were slightly more than 2 billion souls alive at that time. Now…there are over 7 billion–a tripling in my lifetime…and I’m still here! Global collapse of the climate isn’t a future specter, it’s here NOW–we’re living/seeing it today! Predictions of a ‘population bomb’ when I was young were naive. We’d already passed the threshold of what the Earth can sustain indefinitely. Since then, the rush into the abyss has only accelerated and shows no sign of slowing. I wish I had better news…if this is ‘news’. The only hope left is for a humane death–for us and our animal cousins…to die mercifully in our sleep.
The End of Civilization
END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”
The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As this is written, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don’t have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.
But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.
Backed by Jensen’s narrative, this film calls on us to act as if we truly love the land. The film trips along at a brisk pace, using music, archival footage, motion graphics, animation, slapstick and satire to deconstruct the global economic system, even as it implodes around us. END:CIV illustrates first-person stories of sacrifice and heroism with intense, emotionally-charged images that match Jensen’s poetic and intuitive approach. Scenes shot in the back country provide interludes of breathtaking natural beauty alongside astoundingly clear cut evidence of horrific, but commonplace, destruction.
END:CIV features interviews with Paul Watson, Waziyatawin, Gord Hill, Michael Becker, Peter Gelderloos, Lierre Keith, James Howard Kunstler, Stephanie McMillan, Qwatsinas, Rod Coronado, John Zerzan, et ux.
“In the face of collapsing ecosystems, mass-extinctions, and global genocide, END:CIV is undoubtedly one of the most important films of the 21st century. López unapologetically burns all indoctrinated illusions and exposes critical truths and realities carefully kept from the public. López has crafted a brilliant and courageous exposé which fully exposes the mainstream environmental movement’s self-inflicted paralysis, stemming from a false sense of moral superiority, deep denial, delusion and, in many cases, unparalleled greed on behalf of those in positions of power in the champagne circuit. This is the film the corporate- colluded state hopes you never watch. This is the film the non-profit industrial complex hopes you never watch. Watch this film. ”
-Cory Morningstar- (theartofannihilation.com)
“In END:CIV, Franklin López does a refreshingly thorough and well packaged job of laying out the inherently self-destructive nature of westernized civilization and the ineptitude of peaceful reform. Using Derrick Jensen’s Endgame as a lose framework, López not only identifies root causes of systemic oppression and exploitation, but also exposes the deceptive nature of reformism and green-washing, instead spotlighting examples of indigenous resistance and the Earth Liberation Front. By the end of the film, passionate viewers will no longer just be questioning not whether western civilization is justified, but what they themselves can do to help bring it down.”
-Leslie James Pickering- (Former spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front)
“A fierce critique of systematic violence and industrial civilization, End:Civ is not intended for garden-variety environmentalists. If you are anywhere below, say, an 8 on that sliding scale of pissed off, then this film is going to scare you — which means you should watch it.”
-Eugene Weekly-
”A tour de force film from Franklin López which does more than justice to Derrick Jensen’s thesis that industrial civilization is destroying life on the planet. Employing all the contemporary audio visual techniques our digital world makes possible for a single brilliant penurious filmmaker, López harvests sounds and images from our demented world to relentlessly show the rape of the mind and the earth. To those outside the small choir who see the message of resistance as obvious, this powerful film makes them deal with it either by denial or acknowledging, yes I see it is obvious.”
-James Becket= (Director of The Best Revenge)
“Franklin Lopez is a fantastically talented filmmaker, who has created a powerful and important film about the most important topic ever: how to stop this culture from killing the planet.”
-Derrick Jensen- (Author of Endgame)
“By far the most routinely praised contemporary media activist is Franklin López. His shows and films not only possess a distinctive look and feel, but they also contain a wicked sense of humor that is often sorely lacking among alter-globalization activists. López’s work engages in constructing a new vision where popular culture serves the interests of the poor and dispossessed, where humor is reignited within activism, and the D.I.Y. ethics of punk and hip-hop allow those with talent and gumption to be the media, once again.”
-Chris Robé- (Pop Matters)
“Franklin Lopez’ END:CIV is a labour of love, a stunning 75 minutes film…”
-John Zerzan- (author of Future Primitive)
“It brought me to tears…” “I recommend it to people”
-Alex Smith- (Host of Radio Ecoshock)
“Franklin Lopez’s END:CIV project is awesome.”
-Shannon Walsh- (Director of H2Oil)
**END:CIV by subMedia.TV is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
“Both the quantity and the quality of this movement’s filmmaking is increasing. This is the big battlefield on which we fight right now.”
-Michael Rupert- (CollapseNet.com)
Our Forefathers’ Case
Ask a neighbor shocked by the vandalism our youth have brought to city streets and corporate infrastructure how they feel about the Boston Tea Party, they’ll light up with patriotic pride. Our Declaration Of Independence is, perhaps, the most radical document in our national historical archives. It describes not only a right to overthrow a tyrannical government, but a DUTY to do so. The words are deliberate, measured, thoughtful, and profound. They lay out the proposition for natural/inalienable rights with which we are endowed by our Creator, not government largess.
NEW WORLD ORDER
Can I Have Some More Torture, Please?
mol n labé
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
–Samuel Adams–
F(*)CK PATIENCE!
Pacifying Resist(a)nce
“None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-
