Showing posts with label Far-left politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Far-left politics. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

College Professors Begin Direct Support For AntiFa Groups On Campuses

Authored by Jacob Grandstaff via Campus Reform,


  • Two professors, one from Purdue University and the other from Stanford University, are assembling a "Campus Antifascist Network" (CAN) to serve as a “big tent” for “anyone committed to fighting fascism.”

  • Despite the reputation Antifa groups have cultivated for employing violence to shut down opposing speakers, the professors insist that they only support "self-defense" by "those who are being threatened by fascists.”


Two professors are organizing a campus Antifa (Anti-Fascist Action) organization with the goal of confronting groups it considers fascist and “driv[ing] racists off campuses.”


According to Inside Higher Ed, the Campus Antifascist Network (CAN) was organized by Purdue University Professor Bill Mullen and Stanford University Professor David Palumbo-Liu with the intention of serving as a “big tent” for “anyone committed to fighting fascism.”





“Since Trump’s election, fascists, neo-fascists, and their allies have used blatantly Islamophobic, anti-semitic, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist messaging and iconography to recruit to their ranks and intimidate students, faculty, and staff,” Palumbo-Liu wrote in the group’s invitation letter.



“The time to take action is now,” he maintained, saying, “we call on all interested individuals and organizations to support or join the Campus Antifascist Network (CAN).”



In an interview with Campus Reform, Palumbo-Liu reiterated that “the groups that concern [CAN] the most are fascist in the sense they espouse a hateful ideology that targets particular groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, [or] sexuality, and wish to dominate, exclude, drive out, and harm members of those groups with force and violence.”


As part of its efforts, CAN provides a syllabus which labels fascism as a “historical expression of capitalism’s tendency to dominate the poor, working class, and oppressed people.”


Mullen told IHE that the network has grown to 200 members, including students and faculty, in the wake of the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, adding that CAN will “build large, unified demonstrations against fascists on campuses” and protect groups that are vulnerable to attack.


While Mullen and Palumbo-Liu do not advocate direct violence, Antifa has been criticized for engaging in violent protests around the country, including riots against conservative speakers.


When asked about violent elements within Antifa, Palumbo-Liu told IHE that CAN would reject some elements of the movement and would only “advocate self-defense and defense in various forms of those who are being threatened by fascists.”


Palumbo-Liu likewise told Campus Reform that “physically attacking speakers is not [within the law],” and therefore is not something that his organization promotes.





“The issue really is not speech, but rather the kinds of actions a group is known to engage in that precisely impinge upon others’ free speech, academic freedom, and civil liberties,” he said.



“We are organizing to protect members of campus communities from groups that come to campus to provoke physical confrontations, purposefully destroy property, invade individuals’ privacy.”



The professor also pushed back on the view that President Trump is not a fascist, branding it as “literally an academic argument in the worst sense of the word” and declaring that “we need to pay attention to what is happening, not the labels that we feel are most fitting.”


Mullen did not respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment.


*  *  *


As Ron Paul explained earlier, the alt-right and its leftist opponents are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.



The alt-right elevates racial identity over individual identity. The obsession with race leads them to support massive government interference in the economy in order to benefit members of the favored race. They also favor massive welfare and entitlement spending, as long as it functions as a racial spoils system. Some prominent alt-right leaders even support abortion as a way of limiting the minority population. No one who sincerely supports individual liberty, property rights, or the right to life can have any sympathy for this type of racial collectivism.


Antifa, like all Marxists, elevates class identity over individual identity. Antifa supporters believe government must run the economy because otherwise workers will be exploited by greedy capitalists. This faith in central planning ignores economic reality, as well as the reality that in a free market employers and workers voluntarily work together for their mutual benefit. It is only when government intervenes in the economy that crony capitalists have the opportunity to exploit workers, consumers, and taxpayers. Sadly, many on the left confuse the results of the “mixed economy” with free markets.


*  *  *


Oh, and as a reminder, the petition to label AntiFa a terrorist group now has over 250,000 signatures.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Portland Anarchists Begin Fixing Roads & Potholes (Because the Government Won't)

Authored by Derrick Broze via TheAntiMedia.org,


“Who will build the roads?” The question is a common response to the proposition that human beings can coexist peacefully in the absence of a government or even the concept of a State altogether. Anarchists often claim that in the absence of an institutionalized State, people will voluntarily organize and discover solutions to the problems they face, including the construction and maintenance of roads. One such group of anarchists decided to put their beliefs into action by repairing potholes in Portland, Oregon.


A Facebook page called Portland Anarchist Road Care claims PARC is an anarchist organization dedicated to putting “the state of the roads of PDX into the hands of the people.” The group’s page says they “believe in building community solutions to the issues we face, outside of the state.” They say they are working to change the stereotype of anarchists as road blockers and window smashers. PARC also accuses the city of Portland of failing to repair roads in a timely manner and failing to provide adequate preventative care for winter storms.


“Portland Anarchist Road Care aims to mobilize crews throughout our city, in our neighborhoods, to patch our streets, build community, and continue to find solutions to community problems outside of the state,” their Facebook page reads.



Dylan Rivera, a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, told Anti-Media he can empathize with those who are frustrated. We have a backlog of more than 1000 pothole requests,” Rivera said over the phone. “That work has been frustrated by a wet spring, with very few dry days for potholes.”


Rivera says the city has held a “Patch-a-thon” where they quadruple their staff working on potholes. He stated that during a recent “Patch-a-thon,” the city had 29 crews fix more than 900 potholes. In contrast, The Portland Mercury reports that PARC has patched five potholes in Portland. While those differences may seem stark, it is worth mentioning that the anarchists fixed the potholes via voluntary direct action while the city of Portland is using money stolen from the local community via taxation.



Rivera warned that Portlanders who choose to privately maintain the city streets without the approval of the government are doing so at their own risk. “Portlanders maintaining city streets is not safe and it’s not allowed,” Rivera stated. “It’’s not safe for the people doing the fixes because they are working in traffic and they are not trained to have the right procedures, barricades, and that sort of thing, to have a safe work zone.” Rivera also warned that individuals who choose to fix the roads could face potential civil liability if someone’s car is damaged. The irony is that, currently, if an individual’s vehicle is damaged due to government inaction on potholes, the government is rarely held accountable.



Whether Portland Anarchist Road Care will continue to fix potholes and eventually outcompete the City of Portland remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the community is a shining example of what a determined group of individuals can do when working together on a common goal.



Portland Anarchist Road Care’s profile picture on Facebook.


Even more so, they are a powerful example of how the people can accomplish both mundane tasks like building and maintaining roads, and more complex issues like how to organize our lives in the absence of the State. The beauty is that we each have the power to be an example of what a world without theft, institutionalized violence, and force can look like. We can choose to live lives that do not rely on the force of government and instead use our individual power to work towards collective liberation.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Top Neocon, Bill Kristol, Exposes His True Undemocratic Feelings During High Moment on Twitter

Bill Kristol"s father was one of the founders of the neocon movement. Essentially, they were former communists who were loyal to Trotsky who toiled to overthrow Stalin, in an effort to spread communism. After the USSR collapsed, they coopted the GOP and used "democracy" as their call for global revolution, which was essentially code for empire through war.


Naturally, they"ve been part of the government for a long time, via Kissinger and Brzezinski, but they only truly came out in the open under the idiot Bush.


Here"s an excellent piece discussing them.


And now here he is laid bare. Do we need any further proof that these people are a threat to democracy?





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