….Just got this in this morning. From what I understand, the occupation only lasted a few hours before police dropped tear gas into the building, arrested the students, as well as supporters and demonstrators on the outside. A report from a comrade in NYC said that red and black anarchist banners flew outside the building and one participant said “We demand everything! We demand communism!”…Brave souls and let’s hope this trend spreads to other universities and workplaces. We can run our own lives without the need for bosses–whether capitalist bosses or political bosses! Smash capitalism and the state!

THE NEW SCHOOL HAS BEEN REOCCUPIED!
SUPPORT NEEDED IMMEDIATELY!
PLEASE COME TO 65 5TH AVE, BETWEEN 13TH AND 14TH STWE NEED YOU!!!
RALLY AT 9AM!!!!!

New School students have just reoccupied the entire graduate faculty building at 65 5th Ave, in NYC, fully barricading themselves inside until President Kerrey and Vice-President Murtha resign. This is the same building that was occupied from December 17-19th of last year in protest of President Bob Kerrey’s mismanagement of the university. On February 10th, students announced they would “shut down the university” if President Kerrey and Vice-President Murtha did not resign by April 1st. With their demand still unmet as of this date, students have once again reclaimed this neglected, symbolic building which housed the New School for Social Research. This time, however, the entire building has been occupied. On the 75th anniversary of the University in Exile, New School students are reclaiming the tradition of protest and political action that birthed the university and gave it meaning for generations to come.

This was fwd’d to me on the listserv What Queer. Good Read- Thanks Graham!!

http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node/6297

“Queer(y)ing Anarchism”

Of course an Anarchist Conference is said to be what the people attending make it; yes this is fundamental to Anarchism. And while no conference, convention, meeting, discussion, book, or bachelor and spinsters ball that the Anarchist movement produces can cover everything, it must in principle be open and respectful of all the differing complex aspects of the people dedicated and caring enough to come (despite the well-founded warnings of their friends too fed up these days to attend.) It must reflect those peoples lives and the struggles for justice, freedom, fun, and fruit loops (organic and homemade though they be!) that they bring with them to inform why it is they seek a vision of freedom that Anarchism might almost provide. BUT people are people and certain people are the same people making the same nauseating noises wherever you go, and so this Anarchist conference has finally turned this writer into an Anasarcasticist of Anarcaustic proportions and thus {having been} asked most earnestly over and over to put pen to paper I instead snuck into someone’s office and stole the following which I now reproduce in the interests of `free thought’:
OFFICE COPY
VISIONS OF FREEDOM CONFERENCE 95
REQUIREMENTS FOR ATTENDANCE
Appendix: page 307 , Category Z : QUEERS. BEFORE PROCEEDING: [Read more →]

From Molly’s blog

The Israeli anarchist Schachaf Pokplow will soon be touring the USA and Canada to raise public awareness about the Israeli/Palestinian struggle for peace and to raise funds for the continued work of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall group. Here’s the schedule of his tour so far. More details later as they emerge. [Read more →]

PROVIDENCE, RI

Show your solidarity with the uprisings in Athens, and the people of Gaza.
We are planning a funeral procession in solidarity with all victims of war
and state violence on Saturday, January 10th, through the streets of
Providence. We will speak at various sites of state violence throughout
the city. Anyone interested in planning or speaking please come to a
planning meeting Monday January 5th at 6pm. Email whatqueer@gmail.com for
info, even if you can’t make it on the 5th.

Called for by What Queer?! a radical queer collective in Providence.
Please forward widely.

On Tuesday, December 16th, there was a rally held in Boston in solidarity with the uprisings all over Greece. We protested outside the Greek consulate in a show of solidarity with all vicitims of state violence. This is the speech that I gave. (If you’ve been reading my posts you might notice that some of it was lifted from my speech at the Transgender Day of Remembrance.)

Dear comrades, it’s incredible to be here today! My name is Saffo, and I am a radical queer tranny from Providence, Rhode Island. I am part of the upcoming What Queer? radical queer collective in Providence. As I’m sure you all know, on Saturday, December 6th, 2008, the cops in Athens shot and killed a 15-year-old boy named Alexandros Grigoropoulos. I want to start by offering a moment of silence for the memory of Alexandros. (Thank you). To many of us, the violence of the Greek police is something that rings true to our own lives and experiences with the police in the United States and elsewhere. It is, in part, this commonality that brings us here today. This solidarity that we feel for those who are brutalized by the state, by any state, anywhere. We know that this kind of violence happens every day. But this time, the people struck back! These are incredible times we are living in. For instance, if you had asked me 2 years ago if I thought that today we’d see a union successfully occupying a factory in the United States, I would have said no way. I would have said, things like that happened in Argentina, but they would never happen here. But they did it! If you had asked me a year ago, would a group of queers ever dare to take direct action against a right-wing churhch, I would have said no. But they did! So here’s to the workers in Chicago. Here’s to Queers Bash Back! And here’s to the masses of anarchists, university students, high school students, and youth who have taken to the streets in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Crete, and all over Greece. It’s looking more and more every day that a revolution may really be just around the corner. [Read more →]

 Last night, a 16-year old student was shot and injured in the area of Peristeri, Athens, close to his school. The 16-year old was sitting with about ten more students, discussing future mobilizations. The shot came from an unknown person, altho it is near certain that this would be either an undercover cop or a facist. The police only issued a statement hours later. When the 16-year old’s co-students returned to the point of the assault to collect the bullet’s shell, another bullet was shot at them.

A demonstration in Athens is set to start.

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2008/12/18/26-1150-student-shot-in-peristeri-athens-student-demo-set-to-start/

This info just in from Friends of the RNC 8. QWB is proud to be standing with our comrades.

This Saturday, Ramsey County amended their complaint against the 8 to include 4 felony counts of conspiracy:

1. Count 1-conspiracy to riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism. (original charge)

2. Count 2-conspiracy to riot in the second degree (without terrorism)

3. Count 3-conspiracy to damage property in furtherance of terrorism

4. Count 4-conspiracy to damage property (without terrorism enhancement)

If convicted they are facing over 2 decades in prison. The RNC 8 have their next court date all together on Wednesday, December 17th at 1:00 pm. During this time, the 8 will sit down with their lawyers, the prosecution and the judge to begin scheduling the future dates of their trial. In solidarity with the 8 and other RNC arrestees facing felony cases, please take time to call or e-mail Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner’s office on Tuesday and Wednesday December 16th and 17th. We are demanding that all CHARGES BE DROPPED.

Be sure to read a full report by clicking HERE. on QWB.

To our fabulous anarchist-comrades and fellow radicals alike.

As you are well aware, bash Back! Has been fucking shit up fierce-and looking damn sexy in the process. Queer and Trans insurrection is hot right now; we’ve been infecting this country with something a lot more meaningful and glittery than obama fever. New chapters are springing up all over the country. As expected, the reaction has begun hitting back. Harassment, intimidation, and other forms of persecution are intensifying on behalf of both agents of the state and citizen fuckheads. Know houses are frequented by marked and unmarked cars. We are receiving a constant stream of threats. Police have contacted three different individual’s parents in Milwaukee as well as others in Lansing; unable to in any charges on us, their questions instead focused on gathering information pertaining to our organizational structure, personal relationships, as well as other things. Since the situation is as such, we are making a call for solidarity. We hope your unending support will manifest itself thru attacks even more sparkly than ours. We wish to say to you and our oppressors that any and all forms of repression only work to intensify our efforts. We will not stop until all capitalist, statists, and hetero-normative institutions are destroyed, and the ruins bedazzled.

Until sodomites are squatting the white house;

Yours from the wettest wildest dreams you’ve ever had.

Bash Back!

www.bashbacknews.wordpress.com

With their motto “Food is a right, not a privilege”, Food Not Bombs collectives all over the world provide a challenge to states being the guarantors of “rights”. Through anarchist approaches to social change using direct action and mutual aid, Food Not Bombs collectives attempt to demonstrate that in order to build a participatory future we must do so circumventing rather than augmenting state power. Thus, Food Not Bombs provides a “street definition” of rights that shifts the discourse from state intervention to direct action, attempting to build a new world in the shell of the old, in other words: not asking our political rulers to kindly grant us what collective members believe already belongs to everyone–the necessities for living a decent and dignified life.

The Hartford chapter has been sharing meals every Sunday for over twelve years in Bushnell Park. Since March of 2005, we have been preparing the meals in the kitchen of the Charter Oak Cultural Center. In the past three years, Hartford Food Not Bombs has really taken off. Thanks to donations of perfectly edible food (that would have been thrown away) from grocery stores in West Hartford and Glastonbury and from a farm stand in New Britain, FNB has added a sharing on Saturdays. Also, with help from the community we have set-up a free “produce stand” outside of the Charter Oak Center. All of these positive changes could not have come at a better time. With the YMCA closed, shelters losing their funding, and the current economic crisis, we have seen a huge increase in the number of folks we share meals with. So far, we have been able to meet the increased demand successfully, but we are always on the lookout for more sources to recover food from.

For more information or to get involved, visit www.myspace.com/hartfordfnb or call
abbey- 860.338.3153 or dave- 860.978.3562

In the evening hours of Saturday, November 22nd, anonymous
BB! Memphis operatives called in to request that a hearse,
a casket, and a dozen pink daisies be delivered to Officer
Bridges McRae, Duanna Johnson's attacker, as he dressed for
church on Sunday.

A note attached to the flowers read;

"See you soon...
-Duanna
BB!"
---
Officer Bridges McRae is responsible for beating Duanna
Johnson with handcuffs and fists just months prior to her
"mysterious" death. It is clear that McRae and others in
the notoriously anti-trans/queer Memphis Police Department
had it out for Duanna. Bash Back! News, clandestine queers,
and above ground activists know that the MPD murdered Duanna.
Anyone who denies this fact is living the bubbble that Bash
Back! is dedicated to bursting.

a Workers Solidarity Movement position paper

Queer Oppression

The WSM is an Irish anarchist-communist organization which is closely aligned with my own organization, the Northeastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC). See WSM.ie for more on our Irish comrades, and NEFAC.net for more on us.

---

1. The WSM opposes all oppression of, and discrimination against lesbians, bisexual people, gay men and transgendered people (i.e., homophobia and transphobia).Homophobia and Transphobia divide the working class against itself and also serve the ruling class as an instrument for enforcing rigid gender roles on people of all sexualities. If anyone steps outside a proscribed gender role, especially as a child, the first weapon used against them is to label them queer. It is used against heterosexual as well as queer people. [Read more →]

It has become very clear to me over the years that a key tenet to Trans Liberation lies within the liberation of ones self from the tyranny of the State, Religion and Society; and equally important from our own self-imposed tyranny.  And with that said, viewing Trans Liberation within an anarchist lens has proven an invaluable vehicle for my analysis.  As Emma Goldman so eloquently states in her 1911 essay “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For”

Anarchism is the only philosophy that brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man’s subordination. Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely in nature, but in man.

The essence of this point was reinforced at a recent demo protesting the hypocrisy of HRC, where one of the chants included the words Fuck You to HRC.  Several people, though one in particular asked with all seriousness “Are we allowed to say that?”  Then when the first police car came, they were convinced that the police were called because of our using the words Fuck You.  And in reality the cops didn’t really give a damn what we were chanting about.  Clearly on the surface this is all kinda silly and a nit; except for the fact that the reaction and fear of this trans person typifies the implicit warnings of Emma Goldman; that the tyranny, or fear of such tyranny, by the State has such a profound impact on our actions and our behaviors.  And this clearly ties in very closely with our goal of achieving true and complete Trans Liberation.

We who defy societies precepts of gender identity and expression challenge, [Read more →]