Ecology and Revolutionary Thought Audiobook - Murray Bookchin

Audiobook of Murray Bookchin's Ecology and Revolutionary Thought.


Part 1: The Critical Nature of Ecology

 Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) was an anarchist and libertarian socialist political theorist, historian, and author. He is perhaps best remembered as a thinker who fused critical ecology with anarchist thought, but his conceptions of democratic confederalism have influenced numerous social and political movements, including the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also know as Rojava). In part 1 of Ecology and Revolutionary Thought, Bookchin addresses the environmental catastrophes that have been produced by imperialistic capitalism and the widespread disconnect between humanity and the environment caused by hierarchical social relationships.

Youtube





Link https://youtu.be/mfEYye6TNlkPodcast


Link https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-26eag-b1b8af 

Part 2: The Reconstructive Nature of Ecology

In part 2, Bookchin discusses how the increased centralization of society has led to increased environmental damage through energy usage and pollution. The solution, he contends, is to decentralize society through anarchist revolution in order to create a society that is in harmony with nature. For humanity to reach any ecological goal, it must become decentralized and anarchistic, thereby allowing individuals to create diverse social and ecological relationships.

Youtube



Link https://youtu.be/pFzpqTBdHeM Podcast 

Link https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-5a7fg-b27541 

Part 3


In part 3, Bookchin discusses how classical libertarian principles can be combined with ecological thought in order to address the crises inherent to late-stage capitalism. Youtube
Link https://youtu.be/DQ7bpXuadVYPodcast
Link https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-9fgw4-b31816

Resisting Tyranny in Hong Kong

The world should be aware that for the past 10+ weeks there have been very large and militant protests in Hong Kong, sparked by an attempt to legalise extradition to the mainland, which would essentially destroy all of Hong Kongs autonomy.

In many cases of political clashes and social upheaval on the other side of the world its usually hard to come across much information. This is different, Hong Kongs extensive economic ties, its relationship to the Peoples Republic and its large English speaking population means there's a lot of information and footage circulating on the English and Chinese language web and media.

So the issue is really keeping track of all the updates and making sense of the confused and sometimes contradictory reports. The Final Straw podcast has interviewed a Hong Kong anarchist and long time political activist called Ankok. The interview is very long and informative, and although Ankok supports the protests he isn't blind to the problems within it and the wider Hong Kong culture and society.

Speaking of footage, while the interview lasts over 80 minutes (including breaks) I was able to find about 70+ minutes of footage just using twitter. Originally I was going to use more the protest art and graphics like above, but decided to use footage as much as possible. There are times when I use multiple videos of the same protest from different sources and angles, but I don't think there's much repetition.

Video of an interview with a Hong Kong protester about the current clashes and opposition to extradition bill.

Audio is from the Final Straw podcast https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2019/07/28/resisting-tyranny-in-hong-kong/

Footage mostly from the Hong Kong Free Press https://twitter.com/HongKongFP

Additional footage from citizens. 

My YouTube channel is hanging by a thread thanks to claims by activist groups that grew into licensing companies over content made in the 1970s. And since this video uses footage used by media companies there's a good chance this would be hit by a content ID bot. So I've improvised, this is Peertube, its a decentralised open source video sharing platform that while a little trickier to setup a channel on cuts out most of the issues with YouTube, no invasive and repetitive ads, federated networks for archiving, local moderation is possible etc.

There's also the Internet Archive that has downloads https://archive.org/details/resistingtyrannyinhongkong_201908

The Testament of Fighting Poland - Warsaw 44 and Beyond

August is the anniversary of the uprising of Warsaw in 1944, not to be confused with the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto a year earlier. It was the largest military operation carried out by a partisan movement during World War II. The fighting lasted until the 2nd of October, when the German military managed to recapture the city.

Controversially, during the fighting the Soviet army had already penetrated Polish territory and its forward units had managed to push to city limits. But the army offered no assistance and simply held its position and just let the fighting take its course. Well with the exception of Polish soldiers fighting under the Soviet army, they did take part but they had no support from air or land. In the end the only support the Polish partisans fighting as part of the Polish Underground State got was from the British and American air forces which carried out several supply drops.

Despite surrendering, the Polish Underground remained active though in reduced circumstances and found itself in increased conflict with the Soviet occupation, which had been stepping up the pressure on the independent Polish resistance. On the 1st of July 1945 it published a document that contained this programme for a independent Poland.

A friend of mine (https://twitter.com/EnbySasha1312) translated it and provide links and notes.

Parentheses are historical notes, square brackets are translation notes

The Testament of Fighting Poland

by the Council of National Unity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_National_Unity, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_government-in-exile)

Consists of the following postulates:

1. Soviet armies and political police are to leave the territory of Poland.

2. Cessation of political persecution, which will be proved by:

a) release of those tried and jailed during the Moscow Trial (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Sixteen,

b) amnesty to political prisoners and all Home Army soldiers and so-called "forest units"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_resistance_movement_in_World_War_II),

c) return of Poles deported into Russia and cessation of the use of concentration camps, so reminiscent of the sombre memory of German totalism,

d) cessation of the political system, encapsulated in the existence of the so-called Ministry of Safety (reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekism),

3. Unification and self-determination of the Home Army (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Army) via:

a) granting officer positions to Poles [originally “spolszczenie korpusu oficerskiego” – “polonisation of the officer corps”] in general Rola-Żyrmiński's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Rola-%C5%BBymierski) army,

b) honourable return with their guns of Polish forces in exile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Armed_Forces_in_the_West),

c) unifying on equal terms Polish armies abroad and former Home Army with general Rola-Żyrmiński's army,

4. Cessation of economic devastation of the country by the occupying Powers.

5. Allowing all democratic parties to take part in universal, direct, equal, proportional and anonymous [originally “pięcioprzymiotnikowe” – five-adjective, a term in Polish political science] elections.

6. Assurance of independent foreign policy of Poland.

7. Creation of a full local government, as well as socio-economic and cultural-educational government.

8. Socialisation of great capitalist [originally “wielkokapitalistyczne” – refers both to big corporation and individual haute-bourgeoisie] property and socially equal division of common profit.

9. Guaranteeing to the labouring masses control and common ownership over the entire national economy and ensuring material conditions [this, most likely, refers solely to wages and such] safeguarding the existence of families and personal cultural development.

10. The freedom for the working class to fight for their rights as part of an unrestricted labour movement.

11. Just commencement of the agricultural reform and the control of the nation over the settlement processes in the reclaimed Western Lands and Eastern Prussia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovered_Territories).

12. Basing a common, democratic education system on the moral and spiritual achievements of the western civilisation and of our country.

Ensuring the fight for this programme on the open international stage, the democratic associations of the Council of Polish Unity express their hope that the Temporary Government of National Unity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Government_of_National_Unity) will strive to democratise Poland and put an end to differences and quarrels separating the different strands of the Polish society.

As long as this striving does not manifest itself in action, we will not be able to relax in the interior affairs and a lot of the members of the Polish Underground State will be forced to remain in hiding, not from malicious intent towards the Government, but because of the fear for their life.

From their side, the Polish Underground State proclaims it does not want to provoke a war between the Democratic West and the Soviet Union, which - as the (Soviet) government newspapers would have it – “is what the London government (reference to the Polish government-in-exile) bases their political calculations on”

A new war would deeply wound the Polish nation, therefore everyone it is everyone’s desire to seek a Polish-Russian agreement, as well as an agreement between England, America and the Soviets on peaceful terms. If this agreement is to be sustainable, restoring trust in the Polish-Russian relationship won’t be enough. The Polish nation is a member of big family of Central European nations, especially West-Slavic ones, to which it is bound to, because of its geopolitical situation and historical past, and wants to create as close of a political, economic and cultural union with them as possible.

We express our hope that achieving an agreement with Russia on these terms is possible and only this agreement will eliminate for all time the Polish-Russian enmity, that stems from the reactionary politics of the Tsardom and which will be replaced by mutual respect, trust and friendship for the benefit of both nations, Europe and all democratic humanity.

The Council of National Unity

Despite being published in July Sasha believes it had been written up earlier, mainly because the Council of National Unity had already dissolved. 

Thoughts on Imperialism and Monopoly

Years ago when I started to get active in left wing politics I was a very heterodox reader, I subscribed to all kinds of Socialist blogs, YT channels, saw as many documentaries as I could and bought a load of cheap paperbacks of famous socialist books. One of them was Lenin's `Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism` to be honest I wasn't particularly enamoured with it, but since I was aware of my own lack of experience or frames of reference, I decided to ask others.

I quickly learnt to stop asking questions about this book, it wasn't the anonymous hostility of online forums, well it wasn't just the anonymous hostility. I also became disheartened because its seemed to me that most people who were fans of the work hadn't actually read it but were pretending they did. And it wasn't just random forum users either, the clips of videos and audio of supposed Marxist theorist and experts on Lenin's thought also seemed to be at best tangentially aware of the books contents. Now obviously I can't say for sure, nor can I go back and check since this was years ago, but it left a bad impression. I remember specifically someone denying that the Roman Empire was really an Empire because it didn't have monopoly capitalism, even though Lenin brought up Rome to concede that Imperialism did in fact predate the year 1876.


Anyway its been in the back of my mind for a long time, and I have encountered some people who can recite parts of it with confidence, but if anything that just increased my disquiet, since often the bits that were cited seemed to me to be the parts that were most obviously dated if not incorrect.

After reading another blog that criticised the theoretical framework of the book I decided to give it another read. And credit where its due the online version on Marxist Internet Archive is very easy to get back into once you're familiar with certain bits of jargon.

Here's some notes I jotted down while reading it.

Honestly its not great, as a document on monopolisation trends in Europe and the USA from the 1870s-1910s its a good resource with many figures and diverse sources. But as a tract of political analysis and prediction its dated and struggles to prove its main arguments.

Lenin believed this showed that monopoly financial capitalism is key to a new period of imperialism. He's inconsistent, at times he acknowledges that imperialism predates the monopolisations he's describing, but other times he uses his new term exclusively.


He also believed this period of increasing monopoly capitalism and imperialism would pave the way for world revolution, and well we no longer have colonies and haven't for many decades, and monopolies have come and gone, and yet the world capitalist economy endures.


Another strange issue is that Lenin often includes examples that run counter to his arguments.

"Fourthly, monopoly has grown out of colonial policy. To the numerous “old” motives of colonial policy, finance capital has added the struggle for the sources of raw materials, for the export of capital, for spheres of influence, i.e., for spheres for profitable deals, concessions, monopoly profits and so on, economic territory in general. When the colonies of the European powers,for instance, comprised only one-tenth of the territory of Africa(as was the case in 1876), colonial policy was able to develop—by methods other than those of monopoly—by the “free grabbing” of territories, so to speak. But when nine-tenths of Africa had been seized (by 1900), when the whole world had been divided up,there was inevitably ushered in the era of monopoly possession of colonies and, consequently, of particularly intense struggle for the division and the redivision of the world. "

All of these "new" motives aren't new, they've been key features of colonialism since the age of discovery if not earlier. Lenin is correct that the period after 1876 make massive expansion into Africa he's own data shows that a sizeable portion of the world was already under the control of what he calls core Imperial powers, (Britain, Canada, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, most of the Indian subcontinent etc) and Germany a power that Lenin shows quite convincingly is far advanced in this highest stage of monopoly capitalism had very little in the way of territorial colonies. And much of the investments from these major monopolies in the USA, France and Germany according to the statistics used were not in the colonies but in other independent states.


Lenin does sort of account for some of this with his views on semi-colonies, and semi independent nations, but a lot of this investment is within and between other imperial powers, so what exactly is the point attempting to be made? In addition Lenin includes Russia as an imperial power and compares its exploitation of territories like Turkestan to the exploitation of Egypt by the British Empire. But Lenin's own data shows that during this period Russia had few if any large scale monopolies, most of its financial capital was owned by foreign powers, so if it can still operate at this highest stage of imperialism without reaching the supposed highest stage of capitalism, is that stage really that important to the perpetuation of imperialism?


I think what's happened here is that Lenin made a pretty common mistake in economics, he saw an economic trend of greater and greater centralisation of capital, and convinced himself that this was the inevitable development of the economy, and since there's a limit to how much you can centralise the economy, once this was reached there was nowhere to go but to fall.

Instead what we see is that monopoly is ultimately unstable, the number of combinations go up and down.

So it jumps about a bit but I think this covers the main issues, he doesn't explain why 1876-1914 is somehow unique, he shows the number of monopolies jumped up often corresponding to an increase in colonial expansion, but a lot of his data comes from Germany which had very little colonial expansion, and Britain and France, but they already had well established colonial holdings before this period.

And the inclusion of Russia, which in my experiences a lot of people tend to forget, adds more confusion.

The British capitalists are exerting every effort to develop cotton growing in their colony, Egypt (in 1904, out of 2,300,000 hectares of land under cultivation, 600,000, or more than one-fourth, were under cotton); the Russians are doing the same in their colony, Turkestan, because in this way they will be in a better position to defeat their foreign competitors, to monopolise the sources of raw materials and form a more economical and profitable textile trust in which all the processes of cotton production and manufacturing will be “combined” and concentrated in the hands of one set of owners.

By Lenin's own evidence it should economically speaking be at best a semi-independent nation, but in practice despite the dominance of French and German finance within the Empire its still able to establish colonies and develop them in a way that'll enable it to build its own monopolies. But surely this process is backwards now, rather finance capital stimulating Imperial ambitions in Russia it's Imperial ambitions that were stimulating its limited financial capital.

Speaking personally, I 've always viewed it as both options being viable, there are examples of monopolised companies driving military conquest and economic expansion, this goes back to the Tudor period if not further with its merchant companies and the East India Company. But on the other hand it can work the other way, territorial conquest and the labour and resources that come with it can then be used to enrich the dominant power and stimulate the growth of a dominant and eventual monopoly.

And let's address the elephant in the room here, the whole point of the book being written was because Lenin believed it would be the final stage of Capitalism because he thought it and the World War it had largely created and exacerbated was going to lead to world revolution.

Now as we know there was significant revolutionary outbreaks in many parts of the world and the end of the First World War would mark the deaths of several empires, but the world revolution didn't occur, it didn't destroy capitalism, and so it has continued to develop and change, and it has become divorced from the Imperialism of the 19th century.

This isn't a case of criticising a man for failing to predict the future, the argument that underpins Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism simply no longer applies. The structure of the capitalist economy is different, the methods powerful nations use to get what they want from the less powerful has also changed.

Its a highly flawed and dated work. Its not without its merits, but this using of the book as bible and strategy document needs to stop.

One caveat, I think its more accurate to say Lenin's theory was based on his interpretation of Marx's analysis, there's not much of his work in Imperialism, Engels gets more citation, and most of the references are to what Lenin thinks is the correct Marxist view in opposition to rival Marxists

Letters of Insurgents, some thoughts

Recently I worked my way through Fredy Perlman's novel Letters of Insurgents, I had previously read it in pieces before, but this time I read it cover to cover and made use of Audio Anarchy's massive audiobook.

Apologies if you're in a online chat group or forum with me and had to put up with me plugging the book on and of for the past month.

Here's some thoughts on, I typed this up for Goodreads.

Letters of Insurgents is difficult to describe, appropriate given how one of its main themes is the difficult of communicating with other human beings, and the dangers miscommunication can cause.

I've been aware of this book for some time, everyone I've known whose read this book has been glowing in its praise, one even said it drove them to tears. But I was intimidated by the books length, thankfully there's a free audio version that's not hard to find to help.

The format, a series of correspondence between two revolutionaries in different countries can make keeping track of events and people somewhat difficult as the narrative jumps between them and in time, but this does give an excellent demonstration of complexity as events and people keep having layers added to them throughout.

The content is largely concerning humanity, what it means to be free and revolution in its purest sense and all the ways many fall short. Its very critical, but everything it criticises has its chance to have its say and its rare for a character or strategy to have no positive features and attractions.

Political parties, Unions, Communes, underground armies, and urban guerrillas are all scrutinised and appraised from the point of view of human happiness and freedom. 


There's a few things I'd like to add, while the structure of the book is just a very long conversation between two old friends trying to catch up and then later reach out to each other, its not just a long book about people talking to and at each other. Much of the analysis and criticism is woven into the actual events, so we see the effects and achievements of local militia's and "Popular" armies. We see how different groups of the New Left react to the growing militancy and social upheaval of the 1960s. 

I saw one of the few dissenting reviews I've come across of this book complain that it is one encounter with a strawman after another, and I couldn't disagree more. Its true its easy to see where Perlman's sympathies lie, but the characters who come closest to that are by no means perfect, and characters on the other side who aren't total reactionaries do have redeeming features. Ultimately I think what Perlman was getting at is that people are complicated and no one is perfect, and correct politics if such a thing exists does not make for correct behaviour.

Personally I found it very interesting when a character who turned to primitivism showed up. Perlman earned a lot of respect for his early writings but nowadays he's something of an embarrassment because in later life he turned to Camatte's primitivism.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see his primitivist stand in get so much criticism. Thought the book does have a strongly pro edgrowth vibe with the desirability of abolition work and mass industrial consumption. 

In short I highly enjoyed my time with Letters of Insurgents, I can see why its both almost universally praised by readers and never managed to break out into mass readership despite the praise and the abundance of cheap and free versions available. In addition to its length its really, really hard to summarise accurately.

Here's just a few screen caps of bits that stood out to me while reading.

Willem Van Spronsen

Willem Van Spronsen, 69 year old Anarchist and Anti-fascist

Yesterday a man was shot and killed in the Tacoma immigrant detention centre, after attacking its transport hub in an attempt to prevent deportations. That man was Willem Van Spronsen, a 69 year old man, known as an active anti-fascist and anarchist. Last year he was in court for intervening to protect a 17 year old fellow protestor at another protest against the treatment of migrants at that facility.

Conditions there, and in other facilities have only gotten worse, with them quickly becoming concentration camps for the US government to house thousands of people of all ages in deteriorating conditions.

Since this is still breaking news there is some confusion about the events, early reports framed the incident as if Spronsen were trying to set fire to the whole camp, only for it come out that the use of incendiaries was against ICE vehicles.

La Resistencia, a group that has organised several protests against detention centres and immigration raids, including at Tacoma has released a statement.

Tacoma, WA-- Early this morning, a person who appears to have been engaged in protest against the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma was shot and killed by members of the Tacoma Police Department. Today marks yet another death linked to the detention center, and another death at the hands of the police. Based on available information, including the police scanner recording, Willem Van Spronsen, the protestor killed, appears to have been targeting not the detention center itself, as has been widely reported in the media, but the parking lot across the street from the detention center which houses the NWDC’s transportation infrastructure. This infrastructure includes a fleet of buses that transports immigrants to be caged at the detention center, and that transports immigrants from the detention center to the Yakima Airport, from which they are deported.
Mr. Van Spronsen was apparently trying to set the deportation buses on fire when he was shot and killed. His actions sadly reflect the level of desperation people across this country feel about the government’s outrageous violence against immigrants, which includes the use of detention centers to cage migrants both currently living in the U.S. and those seeking asylum. This death results from the federal government’s unresponsiveness to the anger and despair people feel at the horrors unfolding both at the border and in the interior, and from the inability of officers to de-escalate rather than shooting to kill.
But for the City of Tacoma allowing the GEO Group’s facility to be built and expanded in Tacoma, this death, and the death and suffering of those inside the detention center would have been avoided. The NWDC has become a liability not just for the tens of thousands who have been caged there, but for the city of Tacoma itself. It’s past time for the city of Tacoma to cancel GEO’s business license. It’s clear that this “business” is a deadly one, that has only brought pain and suffering to our region.
La Resistencia calls on the City of Tacoma to hold immediate public hearings addressing the Tacoma Police’s actions today that resulted in the loss of life at the Detention Center and why the City continues to allow GEO to operate with a city business license.
#####
La Resistencia (formerly NWDC Resistance) is a grassroots collective led by undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens based in Tacoma, Washington. It is an unincorporated association founded to confront human rights violations at the Northwest Detention Center and dedicated to ending the detention and deportation of immigrants.

And reports from activists in the area who knew Van Spronsen including friends believe that this action was sadly motivated in part as a form of suicide.

Puget Sounds Anarchists, a group of Anarchists from Olympia Washington that Spronson worked with also released a statement/eulogy.

Submitted Anonymously

Early this morning around 4am our friend and comrade Will Van Spronsen was shot and killed by the Tacoma police. All we know about what lead up to this comes from the cops, who are notoriously corrupt and unreliable sources for such a narrative. The story that we do have is that Will attempted to set fire to several vehicles, outbuildings and a propane tank outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma which houses hundreds of immigrants awaiting hearings or deportations. He successfully set one vehicle on fire and then exchanged gunfire with Tacoma police officers who fatally shot him. He was pronounced dead on the scene. We find his actions inspiring. The vehicles outside the detention facility are used to forcibly remove people from their homes and deport them, often to situations where they will face severe danger or death. Those vehicles being destroyed is only a start of what is needed. We wish the fires Will set had freed all the inmates and razed the entire Northwest Detention Center to the ground. And we miss our friend and wish from the bottom of our hearts that his action had not ended in his death.

Will Van Spronsen was a long-time anarchist, anti-fascist and a kind, loving person. Here in Olympia some of us remember him as a skilled tarp structure builder from the Occupy encampment in 2011. Others remember him from the protests outside the NWDC last summer where he was accused of lunging at a cop and wrapping his arms around the officer’s neck and shoulders, as the officer was trying to arrest a 17-year-old protester. The very next day when he was released from jail he came right back to the encampment outside the center to support the other protesters. He is also remembered as a patient and thoughtful listener who was always willing to hear people out.

We are grief stricken, inspired and enraged by what occurred early this morning. ICE imprisons, tortures and deports hundreds of thousands of people and the brutality and scale of their harm is only escalating. We need every form of resistance, solidarity and passion to fight against ICE and the borders that they defend. Will gave his life fighting ICE we may never know what specifically was going through his head in the last hours of his life but we know that the NWDC must be destroyed and the prisoners must be freed. We do not need heroes, only friends and comrades. Will was simply a human being, and we wish that he was still with us. It’s doubtless that the cops and the media will attempt to paint him as some sort of monster, but in reality he was a comrade who fought for many years for what he believed in and this morning he was killed doing what he loved; fighting for a better world.

This evening around 8pm roughly 30 anarchists gathered at Percival landing in Olympia WA to remember Will Van Spronsen and to oppose ICE. We held road flares and banners reading “Rest In Power Will Van Spronsen” “Abolish ICE” “RIP Will” “Fire to the Prisons” and “Stop Deportation End Incarceration.” We shared stories and memories of Will with each other, laughed, and cried. Some people split off and plastered downtown Olympia with “Immigrants Welcome” stickers, while others drove circles around downtown flying the “Rest in Power Will” from the back of a truck.

May his memory be a blessing.

Love to those still fighting.

Fragments of his writing have since started to trickle through.

http://www.vashonbeachcomber.com/letters/rules-on-rainwater-make-no-sense-letter-to-the-editor/

He also typed up a short letter, some are calling a manifesto, that in reality is closer to a suicide note and explanation of his personal frustrations, horrors and dreams.

Its a little hard to read, so for clarity I've typed it up, I tried to keep the punctuation as close to the original as possible but the capitalisation in word processing didn't always comply.


Note: This letter was originally typed up on three pages without capitalisation. Punctuation retained from the original. Italics represent transcription additions.

First page

There’s wrong and there’s right.
it’s time to take action against the forces of evil.

Evil says one life is worth less than another
evil says the flow of commerce is our purpose here.
evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary.
the handmaid of evil says the concentration camps should be more humane.
beware the centrist.

I have a father’s broken heart
I have a broken down body
and I have an unshakeable abhorrence for injustice
that is what brings me here.
this is my clear opportunity to try to make a difference, I’d be an ingrate to be waiting for
a more obvious invitation.

I follow three teachers:
don pritts, my spiritual guide, “love without action is just a word.”
john brown, my moral guide, “what is needed is action!”
emma goldman, my political guide, “if I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution”

I’m a head in the clouds dreamer, I believe in love and redemption.
I believe we’re going to win
I’m joyfully revolutionary. (we all should have been reading emma goldman in school instead of the jingo drivel we were fed. But I digress.) (we should all be looking at the photos of the YPJ heroes should we falter and think our dreams are impossible, but I double digress. Fight me.)

In these days of fascist hooligans preying on vulnerable people on our streets, in the name of the state or supported and defended by the state.

In these days of highly profitable detention/concentration camps and a battle over the semantics,
In these days of hopelessness, empty pursuit and endless yearning.

We are living in visible fascism ascendant. (I say visible, because those paying attention watched it survive and thrive under the protection of the state for decades. [see howard zinn, “a people’s history of the united states.) now it unabashedly follows its agenda with open and full cooperation from the government. From governments around the world.

fascism serves the needs of the state serves the needs of business and at our expense. who benefits? jeff bezos, warren buffett, elon musk, tim cook, bill gates, betsy de vos, george soros, donald trump, and need i go on? let me say it again: rich guys, (who think you’re not really all that good.) really dig government, (every government everywhere, including “communist” governments,) because they make the rules that make the rich guys richer.
simple.
don’t overthink it.

(are you patriots in the back paying attention?)

Second page

when I was a boy, in post war Holland., later france, my head was filled with stories of the rise of fascism in the 30’s. I promised myself that I would not be one of those who stands by as neighbors are torn from their homes and imprisoned for somehow being perceived as lesser.
you don’t have to burn the motherfucker down, but are you just going to stand by?

This is the test of our fundamental belief in real freedom and our responsibility to each other.
this is a call to patriots, too, to stand against this travesty against everything that you hold sacred,
I know you. I know that in your hearts, you see the dishonor in these camps. It’s time for you, too, to stand up to the money pulling the strings of every goddamn puppet pretending to represent us.

I’m a man who loves you all and this spinning ball so much that I’m going to fulfil my childhood promise to myself to be noble.

Here it is, in these corporate for profit concentration camps.
here it is, in brown and non conforming folks afraid to show their faces for the fear of the
police/migra/proud boys/the boss/beckies…
here it is, a planet almost used up by the markets greed.

I’m a black and white thinker.
detention camps are an abomination.
I’m not standing by.
I really shouldn’t have to say any more than this.

I set aside my broken heart and I heal the only way I know how- by being useful.
I efficiently compartmentalize my pain…
and I joyfully go about this work.
(to those burdened with the wreckage from my actions, I hope that you will make the best use of that burden.)

Third page

To my comrades:

I regret that I will miss the rest of the revolution.
thank you for the honor of having been in your midst.

Giving me space to be useful, to feel that I was fulfilling my ideals, has been the spiritual
pinnacle of my life.

Doing what I can to help defend my precious and wondrous people is an experience too
rich to describe.

My trans comrades have transformed me, solidifying my conviction that we will be
guided to a dreamed of future by those most marginalized among us today. I have
dreamed it so clearly that I have no regret for not seeing how it turns out. Thank you for
bringing me so far along.

I am antifa, I stand with comrades around the world who act from the love of life in every
permutation. comrades who understand that freedom means real freedom for all and a
life worth living.
Keep the faith!
all power to the people
bella ciao


Postscript


Audio manifesto: theSuper8.bandcamp.com

Don’t let your silly government agencies spend money “investigating” this one. I was
radicalized in civics class at 13 when we were taught about the electoral college. It was
at that point that I decided that the status quo might be a house of cards. Further reading
confirmed this in the positive. I highly recommend reading!
I am not affiliated with any organization, I have disaffiliated from any organization who
disagree with my choice of tactics.
the semi automatic weapon I used was a cheap, home built unregistered “ghost” ar15, i
had six magazines. I strongly encourage comrades and incoming comrades to arm themselves.
we are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state.
ignore the law in arming yourself if you have the luxury, I did.

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The letter also contained a link to an album called the audio manifesto



Edit: Looks like Bandcamp have deleted the album, fortunately it was saved on Archive.org