Kristian Williams

Kristian Williams is the author, most recently, of Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy (Microcosm, 2012). His first book, Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, was initially published in 2004, and has been re-released by South End. His work on policing and torture has also appeared in Counterpunch, New Politics, In These Times, and in the collection Confrontations (Tarantula Publishing, 2007).

In addition to researching state violence, Williams also frequently writes about comics and cartooning. He’s discussed comics in some surprising places, including the L.A. Daily Journal and the Columbia Journalism Review. He is presently at work on a book about Oscar Wilde and anarchism.

Williams is a volunteer with the Committee Against Political Repression, in Portland, Oregon.

Olympia, WA @ TESC (4-10-14) — ‘Brad’ of ‘Abolish Cops And Prisons’ (ACAP), Evergreen’s on campus student organization hosting the event, introduced Mr. Williams, a prolific author who has published a number of works regarding social justice and how the state is structured to inhibit/prevent the realization of it.

As always, Brad warned the group attending the presentation about the presence of the ‘Press’ in their midst including the fact their utterances were likely being recorded.

Kristian Williams’ lecture was relatively short, but intense and well researched. He gave the impression of a man who had made a Herculean effort to gather a mountain of facts all supporting his claim that we live in a virtual police state of total surveillance in America today. This may be old news in the wake of Snowden’s revelations, but Williams outlined the modern history of the problem dating back to the halcyon days of J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO and Senator McCarthy.

Surprisingly, Mr. Williams did not share the paranoia of Northwest area lifestyle (A)narchists regarding the press collaborating with their government nemesis. Williams opined this was old school and possibly no longer necessary given the raft of surveillance technology ubiquitous within our modern communication technology. Snowden, of course, underscored this point. Why hire a stooge to listen to barroom banter when you can assign a machine to listen to and record phone calls? Once it became possible, it became necessary.

President Bush once made this point as he publicly cozied up to and defended torture: “We HAD to know what they were thinking!” In the end, when you’ve got all those knives and forks, we’re finding out, you just HAVE to cut something!

Mr. Williams spent the majority of his allotted 2-hours in TESC’s Lecture Hall 2 fielding and answering questions from his audience.  Even so, the room had mostly emptied by 20 before the hour. He remained to autograph some of the books purchased by listeners. He was articulate, persuasive, and extremely knowledgeable about the subject matter…in short, an intellectual force to be reckoned with.

The adviser to the student run Cooper Point Journal on campus newspaper arrived, greeted this reporter, and sat next to him throughout the lecture. The reporter’s wife was not nearly so loyal and left the presentation early. It was a good lecture, precise, and covering the subject at hand.

Mr. Williams’ books, particularly his recently published HURT are to be recommended. They’re very reasonably priced and a must read for any serious activist interested in becoming knowledgeable about the roots of the current political structure undermining the principles of social justice.

Kristian Williams is a man and critic for our times, a patriot in the old school sense as were our founding fathers when confronted with tyranny and despotism. Take the opportunity to read/hear him before the state decides it can no longer abide him.

The lecture can be heard in the video clips included below along with the extensive Q&A session with the students that followed.

ACAP’s “Brad”

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Lectures/Presentations by/with Kristian Willi@ms:

Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy

Kurt Morris of Razorcake magazine says:

“…It was good to see Williams not reverting to the familiar arguments on everything; tying in torture with police and the U.S. prison system really is quite interesting. However, the apex of Williams’s argument is that getting rid of the apparatuses that allow abuse and torture and working towards an anarchist system is what would solve this despicable practice. I wondered who would be reading this beyond people who already agreed with the premise and conclusions. Don’t get me wrong: it’s still a very worthwhile topic to discuss, but this discussion needs to move from beyond anarchist circles and into some kind of action. How is that done? Beats me. I just review stuff.”

A New Anthology “Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency”

(full of verbal pauses by Mr. Williams, who may need a speech coach, but compelling)

What happens when the techniques of counterinsurgency, developed to squash small skirmishes and guerrilla wars on the border of Empire, blend into the state’s apparatus for domestic policing? In “Life During Wartime,” writers examine the application of domestic counterinsurgency tactics within the United States, and seek to equip the left with a more nuanced understanding of state repression – and how to fight back.

Kristian Williams on Treyvon Martin, Capitalism & the Culture of Fear

Bill Resnick talks with Kristian Williams, Portland-resident and renknown scholar of policing and police history, about the murder of Treyvon Martin. Kristian re-caps the case and those like it, but also comments on the nature of the “stand your ground” laws that have been invoked to shield George Zimmerman. He contends that simply attacking those laws misses deeper problems, namely how these laws arise out of already racialized understandings of crime, law and order. They end on a note about this culture of fear, which Kristian thinks we can overcome if we see that people’s needs are met, so they don’t feel there are “others” out there trying to take them.

Policing Capitalist Society & the Occupy Movement

The function of police in the U.S. has always been to protect the property and status of the ruling elite (aka the 1%), according to Kristian William’s important book Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America. Here he talks with the Old Mole’s Bill Resnick about how his analysis of policing relates to how police have handled the Occupy movement.

Capitalism & Its Discontents, Cops for Labor?

A talk with author Sasha Lilley about her book Capital and Its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult (Spectre), Occupy Oakland, and her activism as a shop steward at KPFA radio station in Oakland, California, where she co-produces and co-hosts the program Against the Grain.

Then a talk with Kristian Williams about police, their unions, and their relationship to the working class.  He is the author of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America and the recent article “Cops for Labor?” in the September/October issue of Dollars and Sense magazine, and a member of the National Writers Union. You can find more of his writings at www.kristianwilliams.com.

“Police Abolition” w/Kristian Williams

“Portland Police Killings” w/Kristian Williams

With new information out about Portland police behavior in the James Chasse case, Bill Resnick talks with Kristian Williams.  Williams is the author of Our Enemies in Blue and the founder of Rose City Copwatch.

“About Police Violence” – part I w/Kristian Williams

Why is violence such a feature of police work?  Kristian Williams is the author of two books on this topic, including Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.  Williams examines the populations most often subjected to police abuse and the forms that abuse takes, delving into the role of police brutality in repressing political dissent and in preserving existing structures of inequality.  Here he talks with the Old Mole’s Bill Resnick.  On next week’s Old Mole (Jan. 4), the conversation will continue, focusing on what police work would be like in a better world.

“Towards Better Policing” – part II w/Kristian Williams

Kristian Williams, Portland writer and author of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, continues his discussion of last week with Bill Resnick about police violence.  In this second part of the interview, Bill and Kristian look at what it would take to make policing non-violent.

“Against The Grain” – U.S. Torture

Kristian Williams discusses the history and use of torture by the U.S. military and police as a tool for crushing dissent, controlling minorities/dissidents, and terrifying the population into compliance with its protocols to indemnify the most wealthy and comfortable.

Williams says, “The talk I gave in Portland about the cops and the Occupy movement was videotaped and is online in a couple different versions. Here’s one.

I’ve been on KBOO radio twice in two months. First, Bill Resnick interviewed me about the Treyvon Martin case, among other things. Then, Jay Thiemeyer‘s interview about my new pamphlet, Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy.

And I’ve recently written reviews of two books examining developments in counterinsurgency and security theory. One looks at David Price’s Weaponizing Anthropology. The other assesses the collection Anti-Security.

“We Started the Riot.”

subMedia.TV’s final report from the G20 rebellions in three parts 1. Who are we? “Justice for our communities” action on June 25th. 2. Go forth o pioneers. the stimulator goes inside the riot that caused much damage to the corporate elites and embarrassed the security establishment on saturday June 26 in Toronto 3. We started the riot. Debunking the “agent provocateur” and “the cops let it happen” conspiracy theories. Kristian Williams an expert on police tactics during mass demonstrations speaks about the state’s monopoly of power. . . . . . .

“What The Po’?”

from www.submedia.tv: 1. G20 Riot Porn 2. L.A.R.D. 3. Go back to sleep America 4. 5 Cocksrings of Chicago 5. Those daring Danish 6. Chase dem crazy ballheads 7. UC Santa Cruz occupation 8. Atari Teenage Riot 9. What the Po’? with special guest Kristian Williams (Here, Williams alleges our modern police evolved from slave patrols…at least in the U.S. Despite this suspicious premise, he makes a good case for the argument today’s police are more about enforcing segregation than about crime prevention. Both activities seem apparent. Which is the dominant one remains open to dispute.)

“The Police and the Occupy Movement”: an interview w/Kristian Williams (Counterpunch)

“Turning of the imperialist screw”

(from www.theportlandalliance.org) Local police reform activist and author Kristian Williams has produced a new work (American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination) looking at how our society uses torture to control us. American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination explores the dynamic created by imperialism in cultivates a society in which torture becomes an acceptable tool of domination abroad and at home. Dave Mazza recently spoke with Kristian about his latest work.

“Our Enemies In Blue” by Kristian Williams

The Author Outlines a Course for Creating a World Without Police.

by Justin Taylor Our Enemies in Blue (Soft Skull 2004) is a sweeping, vitriolic work of scholarship. As studied as it is incendiary (100 pages of footnotes and bibliography make this perfectly clear), Kristian Williams opens with “a call for skepticism.” He urges his readers to critically re-assess the discourse that surrounds the institution of police: their purported role in society, patterns and trends in police brutality, the historical use of police against organized labor, and so on. Our Enemies in Blue is a comprehensive, controversial history of policing; as well it is a theory-meets-practice study of power relations and models of resistance. I went to Portland, Oregon’s economically depressed north side to see Williams speak to a standing-room only crowd of scruffy unwashed punks, older folks from the community, and even some children. A skinny, bookish guy with wire-frame glasses and a set-your-watch haircut, he was the last person in the room I expected to hear speak about active resistance and the importance of Copwatch. He spoke for about an hour, first reading from his book and then taking questions. Always, the focus of the talk was directed toward strategies of survival and a cop-free vision of the future. In no uncertain terms, Williams was arguing not just for an end to police violence, but an end to policing. Later, I had the opportunity to talk to Williams about his book, his philosophy, and how punk was what got him thinking. ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN PUNK PLANET #69 (SEPT/OCT 2005)

Kristian Williams: “These are attacks against the very principle of solidarity.”

“The Black Panthers in Portland”: Kristian Williams

Weaponizing Anthropology: Social Science in Service of the Militarized State

Black Classics Reborn, Graphically

The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks

Batman Vs. Robin

Alan Moore: Conversations

Cops for Labor?

Police support for protesters in Wisconsin was an exception to the historical rule.

Liar’s Kiss

Exclusion Zones

Policing public space—with deadly results—in Portland, Ore.

On June 8, the Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation to see if police officers in Portland, Ore., were engaged in a “pattern or practice” of using excessive force against the mentally ill. The investigation comes after several incidents in which police shot people in psychological crisis.

The problems with the mental health system are real enough, but this focus may obscure other dynamics propelling police violence–specifically, those relating to race and class.

Two high-profile cases in Portland help illustrate the point.

Crash Comics Course in Economics

 The Weird World of Eerie Publications

Counterinsurgency and Community Policing

Documents of a Zombie Apocalypse

Other Lives: The Night Bookmobile

Wedding Bells & Jail Cells

The Soul of Man Under . . .Anarchism?

Red Blood Black Sky -a horror anthology

Lio versus Calvin: Freudian Funnies

Weird War Tales

The Success of Failure

Portland Police Association Contract Negotiations, Day One

Garth Ennis’ Crossed 

‘Why Does Your Lily Droop?’

War is Boring

Gun Rights Are Civil Rights

It Was the War of the Trenches

False Starts

The Great Anti-War Cartoons

Explaining Away The Abuse

2 books on U.S. Counterinsurgency & Anthropology

Palestine Revisited

The Roots of Wilde’s Socialist Soul: Ibsen and Shaw, or Morris and Crane

Police use of force: rethinking how we arm Portland police

30 Days of Night: Juarez

Infestación: The Mythology

THE HIGH SCHOOL COMIC CHRONICLES OF ARIEL SCHRAG

Good Grief

Critical Resistance at 10

 Hidden Torture, False Democracy

Talking About Guns, Fighting About Race

Charlie Brown’s Skull

Counterinsurgency 101

Cops Against Brutality

PRETEND WE’RE DEAD

Undercover Cover-Up

Torturers R’ Us

Nonlinear Narrative and Sequential Art

Caging Race & Gender

The Demand for Order and the Birth of Modern Policing

Batman versus the man

Execution Bingo

Troy Davis

Olympia, WA @ TESC (4-9-14) — The event kicked off with a faculty adviser addressing the audience like they were junior high school developmentally challenged remedial education students, warning them a member of press was there and how they were not required to speak/interview with a reporter. This has been the typical opening (or worse) made at  each ACAP sponsored public event on the Evergreen campus this month. It might be appropriate for a grade school class, but is curiously paternalistic for a group of young adult college students at the much ballyhooed liberal arts campus, The Evergreen State College, home to the Northwest’s very own community of lifestyle (A)narchists.

Nanny Professor warns TESC students of the Press

Growth of the Prison-Industrial Complex

Once Troy’s Sister, Kimberly Davis, and Jen Marlowe began to speak, the event took on a more polished professional nuanced tone. The women were easily able to overcome a forum known for its knee-jerk liberal propensities and present a compelling case for abolishing the death penalty…a commitment Troy sought from them as his last request before his light was snuffed out with the drugs Georgia had purchased on the black market.

ACAP’s “Br@d”

Indoctrination

Kimberly revealed, as a result, it took Troy’s heart 8 hours to stop beating during the execution. At one point, despite having been on the lecture circuit for a while, she began to tear up as she recounted the impact the capital punishment had on her family. She astutely distanced herself from insisting on having the listeners agree on her brother’s innocence, only that her family was convinced of it and most analysts agreed there was reasonable doubt as to his guilt. In fact, others later denied their trial testimony implicating Troy and at least one individual, despite confessing to the crime, was never held accountable for the murder of a police officer (the victim in Troy’s case), nor was it enough to bring Troy a new trial while he waited on Georgia’s death row.

Troy’s family put together a professionally polished documentary calling into question the eye witness testimony identifying the shooter. The video clearly revealed how the distance between the witness and where the witness placed the shooter was too great to be recognizable. Troy’s trial attorney did not adequately investigate the alleged facts surrounding the case and the appellate attorney set back the condemned man’s mother over $200,000, requiring her to mortgage her home a 2nd time–a debt that still has not been discharged. As always, the poor die sooner, both inside court venues and outside hospitals. Troy’s mother had to pay his attorney extortionist amounts to get the lawyer to even visit her son while he was on death row.

Kimberly focused, instead, on the human impact of an archaic barbaric form of retribution and incredible suffering. This suffering is so intense a great many condemned prisoners actually become clinically insane before they are executed. Even so, some find the actual mode of execution (lethal injection) too tame for their taste. All manner of more shocking colorful methods of torture have been proposed as alternatives by these would be merchants of death.

For the actual executioner who pulls the switch or depresses the plunger unleashing the poisons intended to course through the veins of the condemned, they are typically paid all of about $150 per person they send to meet their Maker. Their identities are a closely guarded secret, a paradox in itself for an act the state so vigorously defends as legitimate/just. If the execution is just, why doesn’t the executioner pose for pictures with the condemned? The fact is, people intuitively understand the premeditated taking of human life when the perpetrator can as easily be kept from ever harming anyone again, is morally wrong. Moreover, many grasp the punishment we visit on others is more about us than them.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, while we can release the innocent unjustly sentenced to prison, we cannot free the innocent from the grave after being executed. The numbers of unjustly condemned men released from death row in the U.S. ranges in the hundreds while the numbers of actually innocent defendants sent to prison numbers in the ten’s of thousands.

Troy Davis’ Sister, Kimberly

The following videos lay out a compelling case of a miscarriage of justice all too common in America’s system of jurisprudence. Benjamin Franklin once opined, “The monarchists would hide in the judiciary.” Today, as then, the idea of sovereign immunity (The king can do no wrong) prevails. Those of us not protected under the aegis of divine right continue to suffer the fate of serfs and peasants…we get about as much justice as we can afford.

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(a work in progress)

Olympia, WA @ TESC (4-8-14) — Mr. King had uncommon grace, poise, insight and confidence for a man who has struggled to survive, let alone one who spent decades in solitary confinement being tortured with sensory deprivation and unspeakable conditions by Louisiana, courtesy of the Angola State Prison. He came to accept he was IN prison over the years, but vowed never to let prison IN him! Still, he acknowledged he’d been scarred. As he observed, “You can’t be dipped in a cesspool without smelling after you get out.”

When: Tuesday, April 8 at 5:00pm — 7:00pm

Where: Lecture Hall 1 @ The Evergreen State College

What: Robert H. King is a freed member of the Angola 3. Along with his comrades Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace (who has recently passed away), they were targeted for their activism as members of the Black Panther Party inside Angola prison in the 1970s.

After 31 years in Angola prison in Louisiana, 29 spent years in solitary confinement, Robert King was released on February 2001 after proving his innocence.Since his release, Robert H. King has spoken across the country demanding the release of Albert Woodfox along with the end of solitary confinement.

King will speak about his own experience in Angola Prison as a Black Panther, the case of the Angola 3, and will explain how the prison system refuses to free Albert Woodfox even after his conviction has been overturned three times!

History of the Angola 3:41 years ago, deep in rural Louisiana, three young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000 acre former slave plantation called Angola.

Peaceful, non-violent protest in the form of hunger and work strikes organized by inmates caught the attention of Louisiana’s elected leaders and local media in the early 1970s. They soon called for investigations into a host of unconstitutional and extraordinarily inhumane practices commonplace in what was then the “bloodiest prison in the South.”  Eager to put an end to outside scrutiny, prison officials began punishing inmates they saw as troublemakers.

At the height of this unprecedented institutional chaos, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and thrown into 6×9 foot solitary cells. Albert Woodfox’s murder conviction was overturned for a 3rd time in February of last year, and for a third time, the State of Louisiana appealed. As Woodfox, now 67, prepares to enter his 42nd year in solitary confinement, he continues to maintain his innocence.

The third member of the Angola 3, Herman Wallace, was released last October from 41 years of solitary confinement after his conviction was overturned, but died 3 days later of advanced liver cancer at the age of 72. A group of U.S. Congressmen saw fit to mark his passing by entering a tribute to Wallace into the Congressional record, describing him as a “champion for justice and human rights.”

This event is a part of RETHINKING PRISONS MONTH — APRIL 2014! Robert King spent 29 years in solitary confinement in a maximum security unit, the Supermax of the Angola prison in Louisiana. Now 71, the former Black Panthers activist has come to Paris for the first time to tell his story during a meeting organized by Amnesty International on Tuesday, April 30th. He condemns the private prison system, as well as the racial discriminations and humiliations that happen there. He also speaks about his campaign to free the other two members of the “Angola Three”, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox.

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Pia w/Robert King, a freed prisoner from Angola, founder of its Black Panther Party, and surviving member of the Angola 3

Brad taking photos at event

Olympia, WA @ TESC (4-7-14) — Abolish Cops And Prisons (ACAP) is an Evergreen State College sanctioned student organization on campus. Many of its members, students privileged enough to afford the the liberal arts school’s tuition, have an affinity for lifestyle (A)narchy and are vacuously hostile to the press. They evidence this, in part, by disrupting public meetings on campus (where they’re confident in the company of like minded true believers) to engage in gratuitous confrontational behavior which they’d never tolerate from anyone outside their ‘tribe’.

Immigration Reform Panelists

ACAP hosted a group of panelists advocating immigration reform in the U.S. (http://amicuscuria.com/wordpress/?p=13458)  Monday afternoon on campus. It became a somewhat tumultuous affair largely due to maladroit attempts of badly schooled ACAP spokespersons to stifle press coverage from the outset. The Q&A following the panelists’ presentation had all the emotional earmarks and histrionics of a religious tent revival. If Jesus wouldn’t save us, the god of (A)narchy would at least drive out the money changers and nationalists (not to mention the press) from the sacred halls of academia.

Brad, core organizer of ACAP

Having arrived more than 10 minutes before the scheduled public event, Brad (a core member of ACAP) was observed taking photos of the panelists. When he noticed photojournalists enter the room, he approached and attempted to dissuade them from coverage by alleging photography wasn’t permitted (nor video/audio) during the public meeting. It was pointed out photography was not a crime, especially in public venues, but was a fundamental liberty interest and he had been seen taking photos himself only minutes before.

Communications equipment SNAFU getting resolved

As Brad kicked off the introductions, he again reiterated his earlier misapprehensions, pointedly directing his caveats to the photojournalists present, who just as pointedly ignored him. The tension thus introduced continued to ripple throughout the presentation as the panelists sought to curry public support for immigration reform, not antagonize the press. Unfortunately, they’d accepted the invitation of a clueless group of students lacking any measure of diplomacy or discipline, but a group given to dismantling the very state apparatus from which the immigration reform advocates were seeking relief. The Latinos had some moving arguments to make their case, but gaping holes in their political calculus just the same.

ACAP member bristling under the camera of a photojournalist

As years of empty promises and failed delivery from glib politicians inevitably stirred mounting frustration in Latino communities across America, ramped up deportations ripping apart families mutually dependent for survival on remaining intact, resentment combined with fear boiled over in the barrios. Latino activists sought to pressure the Obama administration into keeping its campaign promises, now seemingly a dead letter. The thrust of their appeal is rooted in pricking the conscience of Americans and threatening political consequences in the upcoming mid-term elections. The President, for his part, lost patience with such overtures and became angry in turn with his erstwhile political allies. He argued the group had not created sufficient political impetus to persuade Congress to budge on the issue. Asking for a 90-day vote of confidence to get immigration reform legislation through, he promised administrative relief if he failed. In the words of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the promissory note to the Latino community had been returned marked “insufficient funds”.

Sick Panelist phones it in from Home through Skype

Leading with their hearts rather than their heads, the panelists failed, even once, to grapple with the question of how to establish common cause with organized labor, the poor, homeless, and hungry American citizens who compete for the jobs immigrants have come to fill other than to say, as one panelist argued, his working conditions and pay would be rejected by American citizens. His description of what he had to endure was, indeed, disturbing. Yet he failed to address the question squarely. How can the Latino community gain acceptance by American citizens in a depressed job market if it is seen to be competing for the same jobs desperate Americans need to feed themselves and families. Forty percent of the homeless have jobs. The level of homelessness among young Americans today is unprecedented. Senior citizens trying to live on fixed incomes once supplemented the money with what they earned picking apples in Washington State’s orchards during the harvest. Recently released convicted criminals along with today’s youth need job opportunities as well–often finding them in these kinds of arduous hard to fill positions.

ACAP member demands photojournalist delete picture

Immigration reform is no easy fix. It’s a very complex issue that attracts strong feelings. Not a few blue collar workers were heard to label the demonstrations by Latinos for immigration reform early in George Bush’s presidency as “rallies for lower wages.” President Bush actually favored immigration reform early in his administration, only to be thwarted by resistance from his own Republic party in Congress. He and Senator McCain abandoned the effort as a result. Today, Obama criticizes advocates for reform as having failed to alter the political calculus surrounding the issue. He argues he is not unsympathetic, but needs a compliant, if not willing, Congress to turn the corner. The presentation by the panelists did not provide such a lever, only appeals to emotion, compelling as that is.

Co-ed takes umbrage at the sight of the press covering the event ignoring instructions not to document/photograph/record it.

Consistent with the emotionalism was the histrionics of one young co-ed who disparaged the photojournalist present for using President Bush’s name in the context of a reference to his public argument to the American people during a press conference. “Americans don’t want these jobs anyway,” asserted Bush. This didn’t stand to reason provided the jobs paid a living wage given Americans take some of the dirtiest most dangerous jobs imaginable, such as in the coal mines of Kentucky, so long as they can feed their families with the proceeds. They often die or are crippled trying to do so…not that Bush would have any direct knowledge of it. Still, the young woman sneered at the press for having invoked the Bush name along with an admission of disrespect for insisting on taking photos, over the objections of ACAP organizers, in order to cover/report on the event. It was a stunning display of ignorance and smug efforts at intimidation. It was also par for the course among @narchist oriented TESC student organizations on campus.

ACAP members present

A long time attorney, Vicki Parker, from Thurston opined the country had a right/need to control its borders and expressed a willingness to see those who entered the U.S. illegally deported. Many blue collar workers greeted the immigration reform demonstrations organized by Latinos by describing them as “Rallies for lower wages”.  Is this ‘racism’ or a territorial imperative driven by a depressed job market?

ACAP woman points at cameraman demanding he delete her photograph

One panelist argued the abysmal conditions he had to endure as a field hand by a pitiless employer. He asserted he doubted Americans would want such work where they had to tolerate such conditions and low wages. He may have been unaware of how many American citizens endure even worse conditions, such as exist in some of the nation’s packing plants and coal mines, logging operations and drilling rigs, construction sites and fishing industry. These are typically very dangerous jobs with working conditions that are often shocking.  Seniors on fixed incomes once routinely supplemented them by working in apple orchards during harvest season. This reporter’s wife worked in the fields as a girl with only the wages she was paid to buy her own clothing, school supplies, and other necessities after her mother died from cancer years earlier. There are no jobs Americans won’t take provided they pay a decent salary with which to feed a family and keep a roof over their head. The unprecedented number of homeless Americans or those with their homes in foreclosure emphasizes this point.

Questions are fielded from the audience.

At the same time, the panelists described how they are forced to pay income taxes and social security/medicare contributions but are ineligible for any benefits from them no matter how many years they paid or even if they later became U.S. citizens. It’s the kind of officially sanctioned theft most Americans find shocking. Stealing from the poor is always reprehensible and it’s ‘legality’ makes it no less so. Unfortunately, it remains quite common. Immigration reform must include requiring the U.S. government to disgorge its ill gotten gains (social security contributions) and return them as restitution to the victims of the theft by making them eligible for the benefits derived from said contributions. The government is not entitled, anymore than any ordinary criminal, to profit from its ‘crimes’. Its actions are cut from the same warp and weave as the unscrupulous employers who steal from their undocumented workers, denying them their earned wages, blackmailing them with deportation threats if the worker reports it.

In the end, sober attention must be paid to such fears, legitimate or not, despite their divisive nature. While emotional appeals regarding the plight of hapless immigrant families being ripped apart are moving, they must be accompanied by practical/political considerations if anything more than hand wringing is to be accomplished. The panelists failed to address these practical questions, opting to politically embarrass the Obama administration and create sympathy based on emotional appeals to the public.

One constructive practical approach is to establish common cause with organized labor. Some progressive unions support the notion of immigration reform. The United Farm Workers union stands as a historical monument from the 20th century. Similarly, tapers and dry wall hangers were organized into a union in southern California–a trade that had become dominated in the region by Hispanics, many undocumented. Seeing them along with women and minorities as their natural allies, they were welcomed to join without proof of citizenship so long as they pledged not to accept wages below an agreed upon minimum threshold. This was incorporated into the bylaws of local 360 in Olympia (a residential trades union) as well for all of the above reasons.

The prospect of conflict between the poor immigrant and organized labor is a serious one when considering the history of strife between the groups. Chinese migrant workers were attacked and burned out of their homes in Seattle, prompting a formal diplomatic protest by China’s ambassador to the U.S. Members of coal miner unions back east attacked and murdered ‘scabs’ imported by the companies from Chicago to break the strike. And who hasn’t seen video images of Ford’s Pinkerton thugs beating union organizers on strike outside the River Rouge plant in the 30’s?

Yet, these competing economic interests need not be a prescription for failure of social justice efforts. If the Latino community is willing to lock arms with their American blue collar counterparts, a united front can be created strengthening each group far beyond what it could achieve standing alone. Truly, the lyrics of an old hymn, “United we stand, divided we fall…”  remain as true today as ever. In unity, there is strength.

While immigration laws exist on the books, they are not sacred. The lessons from the Nuremberg trials tell us there is a higher law, a law that applies to all without deference to ‘following orders’ or simply obeying the law where that law is intrinsically unjust. We are not at liberty to commit crimes against humanity simply because it’s the law. Criminalizing the poor trying to feed their families is a travesty of justice.

The hostile confrontations by members of ACAP and at least one of its supporters can be seen/heard in the video clips capturing the effort by Latino panelists to focus on immigration reform rather than fencing with the press.

In the interest of transparency, readers are invited to draw their own conclusions rather than rely on editorial narrative by viewing the following video clips of the event:

SAFER SPACE POLICY

THE FLAMING EGGPLANT SAFER SPACE POLICY

Approved at Employee meeting Jan. 23^rd 2012

One of the goals of The Flaming Eggplant Cafe is to provide a “safer space” for community participation, engagement, and enjoyment. Our Safer Space Policy exists to, as best we can, prevent or eliminate any oppressive actions, behaviors, and language in our space. These include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, ageism, sizeism, classism, ableism, transphobia, heterosexism, and sexual harassment [including animals?]. As we live in a society where oppression is institutionalized and plays out on interpersonal levels every day, to claim this space as completely “safe” would be impossible. We strive to provide a community space that is safe and welcoming, and prioritize the needs of those who are targets of oppression. We ask all people who enter our space to respect others’ physical and emotional boundaries, to be aware of the effects your actions and presence have on others, and to be responsible for your language, behavior, and actions. Please feel free to approach a collective member in confidence should anyone or anything in the cafe make you feel unsafe, including the actions of collective members.

Whenever possible, we may ask people to change or address unsafe behavior or language. As a last resort, we reserve the right to ask people to leave the cafe.

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

TESC’s S@fer Sp@ce

The following behaviors may result in asking patrons to leave, at the discretion of the worker(s) present:

Sexual harassment

Physical, verbal, or psychological abuse

Inappropriate / unwelcome comments and behaviors

Disruptive or disrespectful behavior

Causing a worker or patron discomfort or distress for any reason (including violating our Safer Space Policy) [Onions prohibited]

Theft of money or property

If you have any questions about our Safer Space Policy or have been asked to leave and want to follow-up with someone from the cafe, please contact us at eggplantoutreach@gmail.com. If you seek to learn more about types of oppression, we encourage you to begin by browsing our zine and book library in the cafe. If you need further support, some resources on campus include:

The Office of Sexual Assault Prevention: 360-867-5221, Sem I 4121

Coalition Against Sexual Violence: tesccasv@gmail.com *Note: Any information shared with CASV cannot be service record requested.

Campus Counseling Center: 360-867-6800, Sem I 4130

Campus Health Center: 360-867-6200, Sem I 2110

Conflict Assistance, Resources & Empowerment (CARE) Network: 360-867-5291, Sem II E2129

First People’s Advising: 360-867-6467, Library 2153

Bias Incident Response Team (http://www.evergreen.edu/diversity/biasincidentteam)

If you can swallow it, that’s ‘good’?

Leave a comment

1. 

   Amicus Curia

   Your policy appears so broad, replete w/’weasel’ words, as to resemble someone’s front (private) room. How do you refrain (or do you) from encroaching on people’s civil rights who frequent your establishment? Is it on campus, thus college property?

   Conceivably, someone could enter wearing a ‘white power’ button. How would you handle that under your ‘policy’? A patron might feel uncomfortable or annoyed if a patch wearing Hell’s Angel showed up for a sandwich. I don’t know that you’re entitled to discriminate in the manner you appear to promote through your ‘safer place’ policy where/when the public has a right to be there. Accordingly, as an investigatory photojournalist, I plan (not certain when) on visiting your ‘establishment’ to discover how oppressive your version of PC feels. I’ll have my camera, my audio recording equipment, a witness, and be wearing my 6″ PRESS button. I believe your policy and how its executed is probably news worthy and of interest to the public if, indeed, it’s on our taxpayer supported public TESC campus.

   I understand you occasionally host public events in your facility. This underscores the importance of the questions I’m posing.

   You may, of course, contact me by e-mail, and I’d be happy to respond to any questions or concerns you may have.

   Regards.

   – amicuscuria.com/wordpress –

   

   “White Supremacist’s” wife w/Robert King

Whether armed self defense remains effective in an era of increased militarization of the cops today is open to question. A guiding light for the Black Panthers from its earliest days, Richard Aoki certainly promoted the idea it was and is credited with training and helping arm the organization.

(from anarchymag.org):

Speaking of the Panthers, some rather embarrassing revelations about the person initially responsible for arming and training them in the use of firearms have recently come to light. Richard Aoki, known to some as the Yellow Panther, was on the FBI payroll as an informant starting in 1961. People invested in keeping his memory and legacy pristine are falling over each other in their efforts to clear Aoki’s name, insisting that his information could only have been superfluous or of minor importance (nobody can tell since the FBI, in a continual strategy of spreading mis- and disinformation, has redacted everything relating to actual information they received from him), or that Aoki actually became a principled radical from his exposure to the ideology and practice of the BPP and then backed away from informing. Faced with declassified FBI documents, however, everyone has to concede that Aoki was indeed recruited soon after he left the Army and continued to supply information to the feds for the next 16 years. He provided them with enough useful information to remain on their payroll until he asked to be retired — a full two years after he had left the Panthers to pursue graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

After these uncomfortable revelations, it’s up to those who hold him in high regard to defend his now-tainted legacy; denial, deflection, diminution, and cries of defamation are all deployed with varying levels of success. But for anarchists, not having any investment in the legacy of the Panthers, or the Third World Liberation Front, or other progressive campaigns he helped organize, it’s much simpler: Aoki was an FBI informant. End of story. But it’s curious that with all the debates around forgery, disinformation, and minimizing the importance of specific information being passed to the cops, the actual issues of informing and spying are rarely, if ever, discussed. This is certainly the result of all the loudest commentators themselves being statists and authoritarians, all of whom take for granted that secrecy, disinformation, and spying are necessary for maintaining control and influence over others, whether they have already attained state power or are merely yearning for it.

The ruinous results of what’s come to be called the Green Scare (the state’s use of provocateurs and holding out promises of more lenient sentences if alleged ELF/ALF militants inform against each other) are unfortunate and devastating. These contemporary cases of entrapment and snitching need to remain fresh in our minds, not in a paranoid invocation of a laughable Security Culture (because it is neither secure, nor much of a culture), but to remind us that — regardless of what we may think our impact could be with this anarchy stuff — the state, if they aren’t already, will start to pay attention at some point. The importance of developing trust and tight friendships based on real affinity cannot be overstated.

Richard Aoki’s FBI file (declassified)

The Narratives of Richard Aoki: Pitch Video from Roldan Lozada on Vimeo.

1st Amendment Principles or Tyranny?

A communique from a very small non-violent group attacked at a San Francisco book fair by some of the same types of violent r@dicals who currently frequent certain TESC events indicates a continuing trend. There’s reason to believe similar miscreants will be attending many of the TESC events scheduled by Abolish Prisons and Cops, a student group putting on a series of presentations/workshops considered news worthy and deserving coverage.

Whether TESC will have at least two campus police officers on duty during these particular events, possibly a plain clothes LEO in attendance as well in an effort at public safety remains to be seen. An incident in the Bay Area resembles the same kind of violence/bullying that has taken place at Portland State and TESC in the recent past. There’s no evidence this intolerance and hostility is disappearing. Rather, it appears to be intensifying. Not so coincidentally, the George Jackson Brigade (there will be presentations by one-time members of the same) bombed 2 branches of the Rainier National Bank in the mid 70’s because, as they stated in a communique where they gave their reasons for doing so, the bank had connections with the owners of the Seattle Time, a newspaper the GJB characterized as bourgeois. The same hostility to 1st Amendment principles remains evident in student @colytes of lifestyle (A)narchy today, as the following reveals:

An Open Letter to Bay Area Anarchists

An ugly precedent has been set by the episode of crude authoritarian behavior at the 2014 SF Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair. The screaming, the threats of harm, the physical intimidation directed at us personally, as well as the vandalizing of the books and magazines on the CAL Press/Anarchy magazine table by a dozen or so people associated with the Quilombo social center was out of line. Such bullying, harassment, and intimidation should not be tolerated at anarchist events or in anarchist spaces merely because other anarchists might have unpopular ideas and use words that may not align with a particular perspective on identity politics.

So far, this bullying has not just been tolerated, in fact it has been rewarded; by choosing the safest path and walking away, we have helped to encourage it. The biggest vindication for those who instigated these antics is that, despite their threats of inflicting physical harm on other anarchists, and despite their refusal to talk about what they found so upsetting about our presence — even with those who, despite their best efforts, were unsuccessful in de-escalating the conflict — they were not asked to leave the bookfair.

Those from Quilombo who menaced us no doubt feel justified in targeting us, but the three of us individually, our project, and our six year old son are not actually their enemies. We have spoken to several people who are their comrades, and have expressed our willingness to engage in a mediated resolution to this conflict. We urge anyone who was frightened, appalled, or annoyed by the disruption at the bookfair to stand in favor of verbal mediation and against physical intimidation.

ITINERARY

When: April 22 – May 1  Starts at 8:00 am · Ends at 11:55 pm

Where: Olympia, WA

What:  EARTH DAY TO MAY DAY!
http://www.powertothepublic.org/2014/03/29/earth-day-to-may-day/

22nd: Tuesday, Earth Day
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (Media Island International, MII)
12-2PM: Seed Bombs and Guerrilla Gardening (MII)
1:30PM: Port Plaza Earth Day Rally!
2-5PM: Bee at the Procession Studio!
5-6:30PM: Oly Community Media Convergence (MII)
6:45-7:15PM: Rally at City Hall for a Carfree City!
7:30PM: Kickoff Earth Day to May Day! (MII)
9PM: KOWA show (MII)

23rd: Wednesday
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
12-5PM: Evergreen Earth Fest 2014
4-6PM: Banner Making (MII)
6:30-8PM: OMJP Spokes Meeting on Global Climate Convergence, POWER Office

24th: Thursday
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
4-6PM: Street Theater Rehearsal (MII)
6-10PM: Grand Strategies (MII)
5-8PM: Climate Solutions Annual Reception

25th: Friday: ARTSWALK
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
3-10PM: Bil Fleming art opening (MII)
5:30PM: Critical Mass, converge West Side Park
7PM: Revolutionary Street Theater & Spoken Word, Rafah Mural

26th: Saturday: ARTSWALK
10:30-12:30PM: Solar Power 101, S. Sound Solar, Lacey Timberland Library
11-4PM: Anti-oppression workshops (MII)
1PM: Food Not Bombs (Library)
4:30PM: Procession of the Species
8PM: Potluck Celebration of the Species! (MII)

27th: Sunday
11-2PM: Global Climate Convergence Benefit Brunch/ Media Island Past, Present and Future (MII)
2-4PM: Green Party presents “Why we can’t have the Congress we want (and do something about climate chaos).” (MII)
4-6PM: Earth Day to May Day Mural Painting (MII)

28th: Monday
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
10AM: Energy healing (MII)
5:30PM: Port Commissioner Meeting, Tumwater
5-7PM: Womyns Tea Circle (MII)
7PM: 6th Extinction potluck, movie and discussion, (Traditions)

29th: Tuesday
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
3-5PM: Good Meetings Training (MII)
5-7PM: Banner Making (MII)
7PM: Reflections and Art on Occupy Olympia & OWS (Sylvester Park)

30th: Wednesday
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
Noon: Free Yoga (MII)
4PM: Chalking Dissent, Bank of America
5-6PM: Anarchist Art Market: Zines, Buttons, Patches and More (MII)
7PM: “Fighting for a Living Wage”, Traditions

May 1st: MAY DAY
9-11AM: Coffee and CommuniTEA (MII)
12-3PM: May Day Festival
3PM: Bus to Seattle May Day (MII)
7PM: IWW Movie, potluck and discussion, Traditions
9PM: KOWA, IWW sing-along (MII)

OFS Environmental Film Fest April 18-20
May 7th: 6:30PM: OMJP, Wrap Up and Reflections, POWER office

The Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet and Peace over Profit is an education and direct action campaign beginning this spring with “10 Days to Change Course” running from Earth Day to May Day.

Sign up now at http://globalclimateconvergence.org/contact/

Together we can harness the transformative power we already possess as a thousand separate movements for justice, rising up against the global assault on our shared economy, ecology, peace and democracy. The accelerating climate disaster, which threatens to unravel civilization as soon as 2050, intensifies all of these struggles and creates new urgency for collaboration.

Clearly the time for unified action is NOW.

The Convergence creates a unifying call for a solution as big as the crisis barreling down on us – an emergency Green Economic Transformation through a Global Green New Deal including universal jobs, health care, education, food and housing security, economic and political democracy, demilitarization, an end to deportations, and 100% clean renewable energy by 2030.

Sign up to begin organizing for the continuum of justice from Earth Day to May Day 2014 Wave of Action in your community, and share this event with your friends.

Find Earth Day to May Day organizing meetings and events in a city near you: http://globalclimateconvergence.org/calendar/

Has your organization endorsed the Convergence yet? Find out here: http://globalclimateconvergence.org/about/whoweare/

When: Monday, April 14 at 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Where: Lecture Hall 3 @ TESC

What:  Following the recent lawsuit administered by previous TESC students and anti-war activists of attempted entrapment by a CIA informant named John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Services at Fort Lewis, questions have arisen around the Evergreen State College Police Service’s involvement of sharing information about radical students and student groups with outside state and county police as well as the FBI.

As students we seek transparency about whether or not this true and if there is a sustained protocol to spy on the student body.

Please join us for a Town Hall to discuss the details of the John Towery case and to create a plan of action!

Groups Involved:
Students for Justice In Palestine
Students for a Democratic Society
Abolish Cops and Prisons
Evergreen Political Information Center (EPIC)
Students United For Reproductive Justice
Geoduck Student Union

For more information please listen to this Democracy Now piece on the lawsuit:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/28/broadcast_exclusive_declassified_docs_reveal_military