With Global Capitalism Exposed as a Sham, All the Global Elite Have Left Is Pure Force

[futureage1]

The rage of the disposed is fracturing the country, dividing it into camps that are unmoored from the political mainstream. Movements are building on the ends of the political spectrum that have lost faith in the mechanisms of democratic change. You can't blame them. But unless we on the left move quickly this rage will be captured by a virulent and racist right wing, one that seeks a disturbing proto-fascism.

 

Every day counts. Every deferral of protest hurts. We should, if we have the time and the ability, make our way to Pittsburgh for the meeting of the G-20 this week rather than do what the power elite is hoping we will do-stay home. Complacency comes at a horrible price.

 

"The leaders of the G-20 are meeting to try and salvage their power and money after everything that has gone wrong," said Benedicto Martinez Orozco, co-president of the Mexican Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), who is in Pittsburgh for the protests. "This is what this meeting is about."

 

The draconian security measures put in place to silence dissent in Pittsburgh are disproportionate to any actual security concern. They are a response not to a real threat, but to the fear gripping the established centers of power. The power elite grasps, even if we do not, the massive fraud and theft being undertaken to save a criminal class on Wall Street and international speculators of the kinds who were executed in other periods of human history. They know the awful cost this plundering of state treasuries will impose on workers, who will become a permanent underclass. And they also know that once this is clear to the rest of us, rebellion will no longer be a foreign concept.

 

The delegates to the G-20, the gathering of the world's wealthiest nations, will consequently be protected by a National Guard combat battalion, recently returned from Iraq. The battalion will shut down the area around the city center, man checkpoints and patrol the streets in combat gear. Pittsburgh has augmented the city's police force of 1,000 with an additional 3,000 officers. Helicopters have begun to buzz gatherings in city parks, buses driven to Pittsburgh to provide food to protesters have been impounded, activists have been detained, and permits to camp in the city parks have been denied. Web sites belonging to resistance groups have been hacked and trashed, and many groups suspect that they have been infiltrated and that their phones and e-mail accounts are being monitored.

 

Larry Holmes, an organizer from New York City, stood outside a tent encampment on land owned by the Monumental Baptist Church in the city's Hill District. He is one of the leaders of the Bail Out the People Movement. Holmes, a longtime labor activist, on Sunday led a march on the convention center by unemployed people calling for jobs. He will coordinate more protests during the week.

 

"It is de facto martial law," he said, "and the real effort to subvert the work of those protesting has yet to begin. But voting only gets you so far. There are often not many choices in an election. When you build democratic movements around the war or unemployment you get a more authentic expression of democracy. It is more organic. It makes a difference. History has taught us this."

Our global economy, like our political system, has been hijacked by a tiny oligarchy, composed mostly of wealthy white men who serve corporations. They have pledged or raised a staggering $18 trillion, looted largely from state treasuries, to prop up banks and other financial institutions that engaged in suicidal acts of speculation and ruined the world economy. They have formulated trade deals so corporations can speculate across borders with currency, food and natural resources even as, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, 1.02 billion people on the planet struggle with hunger. Globalization has obliterated the ability of many poor countries to protect food staples such as corn, rice, beans and wheat with subsidies or taxes on imported staples. The abolishment of these protections has permitted the giant mechanized farms to wipe out tens of millions of small farmers-2 million in Mexico alone-bankrupting many and driving them off their land. Those who could once feed themselves can no longer find enough food, and the wealthiest governments use institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization like pit bulls to establish economic supremacy. There is little that most governments seem able to do to fight back.

 

But the game is up. The utopian dreams of globalization have been exposed as a sham. Force is all the elite have left. We are living through one of civilization's great seismic reversals. The ideology of globalization, like all utopias that are sold as inevitable and irreversible, has become a farce. The power elite, perplexed and confused, cling to the disastrous principles of globalization and its outdated language to mask the political and economic vacuum before us. The absurd idea that the marketplace alone should determine economic and political constructs caused the crisis. It led the G-20 to sacrifice other areas of human importance-from working conditions, to taxation, to child labor, to hunger, to health and pollution-on the altar of free trade. It left the world's poor worse off and the United States with the largest deficits in human history. Globalization has become an excuse to ignore the mess. It has left a mediocre elite desperately trying to save a system that cannot be saved and, more important, trying to save itself. "Speculation," then-President Jacques Chirac of France once warned, "is the AIDS of our economies." We have reached the terminal stage.

 

"Each of Globalization's strengths has somehow turned out to have an opposing meaning," John Ralston Saul wrote in "The Collapse of Globalism." "The lowering of national residency requirements for corporations has morphed into a tool for massive tax evasion. The idea of a global economic system mysteriously made local poverty seem unreal, even normal. The decline of the middle class-the very basis of democracy-seemed to be just one of those things that happen, unfortunate but inevitable. That the working class and the lower middle class, even parts of the middle class, could only survive with more than one job per person seemed to be expected punishment for not keeping up. The contrast between unprecedented bonuses for mere managers at the top and the four-job families below them seemed inevitable in a globalized world. For two decades an elite consensus insisted that unsustainable third-world debts could not be put aside in a sort of bad debt reserve without betraying Globalism's essential principles and moral obligations, which included an unwavering respect for the sanctity of international contracts. It took the same people about two weeks to abandon sanctity and propose bad debt banks for their own far larger debts in 2009."

 

The institutions that once provided alternative sources of power, including the press, government, agencies of religion, universities and labor unions, have proved morally bankrupt. They no longer provide a space for voices of moral autonomy. No one will save us now but ourselves.

 

"The best thing that happened to the Establishment is the election of a black president," Holmes said. "It will contain people for a given period of time, but time is running out. Suppose something else happens? Suppose another straw breaks? What happens when there is a credit card crisis or a collapse in commercial real estate? The financial system is very, very fragile. The legs are being kicked out from underneath it."

 

"Obama is in trouble," Holmes went on. "The economic crisis is a structural crisis. The recovery is only a recovery for Wall Street. It can't be sustained, and Obama will be blamed for it. He is doing everything Wall Street demands. But this will be a dead end. It is a prescription for disaster, not only for Obama but the Democratic Party. It is only groups like ours that provide hope. If labor unions will get off their ass and stop focusing on narrow legislation for their members, if they will go back to being social unions that embrace broad causes, we have a chance of effecting change. If this does not happen it will be a right-wing disaster."

 

I am going to be in Pittsburgh protesting the G-20 tomorrow and the rest of the week. Anyone in PA. should also go to the protests if they have a free day. I have gone to these protests before but this one and the security is different. I am hoping for the best and the safety of all protesters. I will post some updates as I have time this week. I also don't agree with Hedges assessment of the conservative protesters. It's not about left and right. It's about right and wrong. I hope I don't get arrested but if you don't see me posting anymore this week chances are I will be in jail. I just wanted this board in particular to know that none of this is a joke and a lot of people are putting a lot on the line for their fellow countrymen. The only people still laughing are the shills on tv getting paid to betray and sell out their country.

[Good Old Neon]

I have a fair degree of sympathy for some causes within the anti-globalization movement, but one thing that has always bothered me, is that they are great when it comes to pointing out problems, but woefully short on solutions. Rightly or wrongly, I’ve come to the depressing conclusion that trying to change our current trajectory is, for all intents and purposes, futile. On the “local”, societal level, things can improve for the better, human rights, gay rights (I’m being redundant here), workers rights (to a greater, but mostly lesser degree) etc. But on a global scale, the juggernaut that is globalization is an unstoppable force, and as we do not represent an immovable object, all attempted roadblocks will simply be bowled over.

 

Edit:

 

This is what keeps me up at night (well, not really, I sleep pretty well). And if we don’t transition quickly, and peacefully, the problems associated with globalization will look like a stroll through a Disney theme park by comparison.

 

From today’s Salon:

Brace yourselves for life after oil

Before we enter the age of renewable energy, get ready for the very bumpy era of extreme energy

 

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/24/oil/index.html

[Guest Speed Racer]

I'm with GON. There are so few facts in that article - facts about why the summit is bad, facts about horrible things that have happened since the inception of the summit, facts about anything - that my head just aches reading that. Not to mention, of course, zero solutions.

 

Pittsburgh has augmented the city's police force of 1,000 with an additional 3,000 officers. Helicopters have begun to buzz gatherings in city parks, buses driven to Pittsburgh to provide food to protesters have been impounded, activists have been detained, and permits to camp in the city parks have been denied..."It is de facto martial law,"

 

I live in a university neighborhood, and you can bet your ass that on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights there is an increased police presence. On game nights, I probably see a police car every twenty seconds patrolling. It's not because the city likes to nanny students, it's because history has shown that, left unsupervised, asshats in my neighborhood drive drunk and light shit on fire.

 

I don't blame Pittsburgh for expecting trouble - especially from a bunch of protesters seemingly without solutions.

[Good Old Neon]

I'm with GON. There are so few facts in that article - facts about why the summit is bad, facts about horrible things that have happened since the inception of the summit, facts about anything - that my head just aches reading that. Not to mention, of course, zero solutions.

 

 

 

I live in a university neighborhood, and you can bet your ass that on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights there is an increased police presence. On game nights, I probably see a police car every twenty seconds patrolling. It's not because the city likes to nanny students, it's because history has shown that, left unsupervised, asshats in my neighborhood drive drunk and light shit on fire.

 

I don't blame Pittsburgh for expecting trouble - especially from a bunch of protesters seemingly without solutions.

 

 

Yep – the author of the article neglects to mention that anti-globalization protests often turn violent and destructive – police and government security forces often exacerbate and/or outright start the ball rolling – but that does not negate the fact that property gets destroyed and people get hurt. So, to suggest security measures represent “de facto martial law” to me, sounds inflammatory and disingenuous – at odds with reality.

 

Our global economy, like our political system, has been hijacked by a tiny oligarchy, composed mostly of wealthy white men who serve corporations.

 

As stated, the author makes it sound as though this is some sort of new phenomena, when in fact, this arrangement has been the norm throughout our history. At what point in our past have things not been largely controlled by “a tiny oligarchy”? Primate societies arrange themselves in much the same way, with a “king” or “matriarch” at the top, followed by a few high ranking subordinates, and then everyone else (a gross oversimplification). Our society is immeasurably more complicated and sophisticated (well, sometimes), but still strikingly similar at its core. The same could be said for ant colonies. So, it should come as no great surprise that humans (unconsciously) model their society in much the same way. It does not make it right, and we should act to improve the lives of everyone, but to suggest that what we are now witnessing is somehow new or unique strikes me as naïve or intentionally misleading. Even if we were to shake things up entirely, and share power more evenly and justly throughout society, given enough time, the new society would arrange itself into something very similar to the way it is now, it’s in our DNA.

[futureage1]

Some pics. It's not Hedges problem if you don't know what the G-20 is. So every article must contain the whole history of the G-20 to be acceptable? Go look it up if you want to know what it is about. It was a freaking blog entry. Your justifications are laughable. But I guess the most powerful nations in the world meeting to decide policy in secret should not be any big deal. I guess it would be better if everyone just stayed home and watched tv instead. Don't worry about the G-20 discussing devaluing the dollar and the US deficit, it is no big deal at all.In the meantime, go ahead and support state violence and violations of people's rights because none of you have the guts to struggle for something. And the "anarchists" they are so fond of showing on tv are FBI agents. They are the ones who break windows. The anarchists I have met in real life are a bunch of skinny meth heads, most of whom don't even know what they are protesting against. Ironic this is the same board that was encouraging the Iranians to overthrow their government just a few months ago, but won't support protests in the US. I guess our stolen elections don't count. Talk about a strange double standard. But just sit back and you will get the country and world that you deserve.

[futureage1]

Don't insult good Americans who are exercising their right to protest and assembly, just because you lack the convictions yourself. People were tear gassed all day and people are complaining about their own lack of knowledge and pathetic justifications for the indefensible. And I am concerned about peak oil. But maybe you should ask why the Govts. of the G-20 has suppressed every viable alternative for the last 30 years.

[Good Old Neon]

Don't insult good Americans who are exercising their right to protest and assembly, just because you lack the convictions yourself. People were tear gassed all day and people are complaining about their own lack of knowledge and pathetic justifications for the indefensible. And I am concerned about peak oil. But maybe you should ask why the Govts. of the G-20 has suppressed every viable alternative for the last 30 years.

 

Just because I don’t think a bunch of sign holding college kids (the same kids, who when they graduate and have a family, will inevitably end up working for the same corporations and/or the same government that just a few years prior, they were all up in arms about, just as their 60’s free loving hippy, “antiestablishment” parents did) meth heads and Trustfarians are going to play a serious role in shaping the global economy, doesn’t mean I’m not familiar with the issues being discussed at the G20 - I just don’t think there’s a damn thing that can be done about it. Well, perhaps there is, rather than walk down the street carrying a Pabst Blue Ribbon box on which there is scrawled some cliché’ about this or that, educate yourself, get involved with your community, maybe even run for local office, hell, or higher office, try your damnest to hold onto your idealism, and maybe then you can affect some sort of meaningful change. But I can pretty much guaran-fucking-tee you that marching down the streets of Pittsburg is going to amount to little more than blisters.

 

It sucks, it really really sucks, but the bottom line is, with the exception of the police, pissed off motorists, and terrified shop owners, you’re being ignored.

[Good Old Neon]

 

But I guess the most powerful nations in the world meeting to decide policy in secret should not be any big deal.

 

In secret?

 

go ahead and support state violence and violations of people's rights because none of you have the guts to struggle for something.

 

Can you point out where I advocate or support state violence? Guts? Really, walking down the street requires guts? Gutsy, to me, would involve joining the peace corpse or some similar aid organization and relocating to some godforsaken country to help the people affected by globalization, hands on, that takes guts, walking down the street, on the other hand, requires little more than a comfortable pair of shoes – and no, those stupid fucking Crocs don't count.

 

Ironic this is the same board that was encouraging the Iranians to overthrow their government just a few months ago, but won't support protests in the US.

 

Please, do not compare what the Iranian protests with what you're doing in Pittsburgh, because what they're doing really does require guts. At the very least, you live in a country that allows such protests.

[Winston Legthigh]

none of you have the guts to struggle for something.

 

I struggled through little league baseball, law school, and several Dylan concerts.

 

I also participated in the march at the NYC RNC in 2004. Where were you? Guess you must not have had the guts to go...

[Atticus]

And the "anarchists" they are so fond of showing on tv are FBI agents. They are the ones who break windows.

 

I did not know that. this changes everything.

[Guest Speed Racer]

So every article must contain the whole history of the G-20 to be acceptable? Go look it up if you want to know what it is about. It was a freaking blog entry. Your justifications are laughable.

 

People usually back up their editorials with facts; that article doesn't have any facts we can have a rational discussion about, it has an angry person's opinion that is laughable as a discussion piece. I'd love to discuss this if you presented some facts, but as it is you quoted someone complaining and then complained some more. I am seriously, seriously asking you for some fact-based information to back up your assertions.

 

Don't insult good Americans who are exercising their right to protest and assembly, just because you lack the convictions yourself. People were tear gassed all day and people are complaining about their own lack of knowledge and pathetic justifications for the indefensible. And I am concerned about peak oil.

 

Aren't I also exercising my own right to free speech by posting on the internet my opinions about these people? Don't insult me, either, for my beliefs. People were tear gassed all day because they provoked police, sir, not because the government enjoys denying people the right to assembly and protest. Peaceful protest almost never elicits tear gas. And don't tell me the FBI plants the violent protesters that cause the gassing; that excuse is childish, amateurish and worn. People who have the balls to protest ought to have the balls to take ownership for their actions.

 

But maybe you should ask why the Govts. of the G-20 has suppressed every viable alternative for the last 30 years.

 

Maybe you could present some facts that would actually lead me to believe this statement was anything more than unsubstantiated assertions, or even a question worth asking?

[Panther]

Just because I don’t think a bunch of sign holding college kids (the same kids, who when they graduate and have a family, will inevitably end up working for the same corporations and/or the same government that just a few years prior, they were all up in arms about, just as their 60’s free loving hippy, “antiestablishment” parents did) meth heads and Trustfarians are going to play a serious role in shaping the global economy, doesn’t mean I’m not familiar with the issues being discussed at the G20 - I just don’t think there’s a damn thing that can be done about it. Well, perhaps there is, rather than walk down the street carrying a Pabst Blue Ribbon box on which there is scrawled some cliché’ about this or that, educate yourself, get involved with your community, maybe even run for local office, hell, or higher office, try your damnest to hold onto your idealism, and maybe then you can affect some sort of meaningful change. But I can pretty much guaran-fucking-tee you that marching down the streets of Pittsburg is going to amount to little more than blisters.

 

It sucks, it really really sucks, but the bottom line is, with the exception of the police, pissed off motorists, and terrified shop owners, you’re being ignored.

 

 

I think viloent protest are exactly what the elite prefer for many reasons, one being they can control violence they do have the upper hand you know, two privledged progressives the people who apparently want the world to change would never associate their thoughts with such scoundrals.

 

 

what if all the citzens of the world walked out onto the streets and said enough of this corript system would that affect change,now thats laughable I knwo.

But aren't public demonstrations worth something if the numbers were big enough and the majority of it was peacefull would that not cause a stir and at least get some recognigtion . I dont disagree with you infact Im the one in all arrguments throughout my life saying you cant change the world but man how can we just live with that.

[Panther]

People usually back up their editorials with facts; that article doesn't have any facts we can have a rational discussion about, it has an angry person's opinion that is laughable as a discussion piece. I'd love to discuss this if you presented some facts, but as it is you quoted someone complaining and then complained some more. I am seriously, seriously asking you for some fact-based information to back up your assertions.

 

 

 

Aren't I also exercising my own right to free speech by posting on the internet my opinions about these people? Don't insult me, either, for my beliefs. People were tear gassed all day because they provoked police, sir, not because the government enjoys denying people the right to assembly and protest. Peaceful protest almost never elicits tear gas. And don't tell me the FBI plants the violent protesters that cause the gassing; that excuse is childish, amateurish and worn. People who have the balls to protest ought to have the balls to take ownership for their actions.

 

 

 

Maybe you could present some facts that would actually lead me to believe this statement was anything more than unsubstantiated assertions, or even a question worth asking?

 

 

Take the situation in think and make your personal assesment, I dont understand where your anamosity comes from , i think the g20 meetings are very critical to the state of the world and the dessent of the masses is also important, we should at least let them now we dont agree if in fact we dont.

 

What if nobody showed up to protest? Personaly its not gonna be me breaking windows but it dose put a smile on my face when i see it.

What if nobody was hard on the elite, truly it wouldnt make much of a diffrence as most of are chatter dosent matter to them but when all is silent and no oine shows up to protest its a royal thumbs up from the peaseants to the kingdom, good job lads!!

 

The one Claim that truly needs FACTS is that its FBI ggents causing dammage if it was true which i suppose is possible how could you futureage know this, i dont doubt just curious?

[Panther]

As stated, the author makes it sound as though this is some sort of new phenomena, when in fact, this arrangement has been the norm throughout our history. At what point in our past have things not been largely controlled by “a tiny oligarchy”? Primate societies arrange themselves in much the same way, with a “king” or “matriarch” at the top, followed by a few high ranking subordinates, and then everyone else (a gross oversimplification). Our society is immeasurably more complicated and sophisticated (well, sometimes), but still strikingly similar at its core. The same could be said for ant colonies. So, it should come as no great surprise that humans (unconsciously) model their society in much the same way. It does not make it right, and we should act to improve the lives of everyone, but to suggest that what we are now witnessing is somehow new or unique strikes me as naïve or intentionally misleading. Even if we were to shake things up entirely, and share power more evenly and justly throughout society, given enough time, the new society would arrange itself into something very similar to the way it is now, it’s in our DNA.

 

Well stated and very true, at what point in history has anything changed , we are living in the roman empire with computers, what has changed?

Well thats all true and depressing and no i dont have any politcal solutions but the basic moral solutions you know like do onto others like youd have them do onto you etc. At the same time this is a vital time for change not because its a good opportunity but because soon it will be too late , in truth i dont know if that is true but it seems that way. Myabe this utopian global society will come crashing on its knees and change will be the only option.

[Guest Speed Racer]

What if nobody showed up to protest? Personaly its not gonna be me breaking windows but it dose put a smile on my face when i see it.

 

My animosity was with FutureAge1, not the summit or the protests. I actually think that it's great these people come out and protest, but I strongly disagree with how they incite and insult police, get gassed, and pull the "Who, me?" stunt. Every time.

 

Another thing that annoys me is that most of the protestors, it seems, come from democratic nations. They either took part in electing whomever is representing their nation, or chose to abstain from that election. The whole, "They're making decisions without us!" is a foolish point to be arguing in that case; the point of electing a leader is, in part, electing someone to represent your nation on the global scale. If they're protesting because some of the respresentatives are NOT democracies, that is certainly a fair point, but it is also unreasonable to have a summit about the global economy without all of the big-hitters in the global economy, democracies or not.

 

So there's that.

[futureage1]

Take the situation in think and make your personal assesment, I dont understand where your anamosity comes from , i think the g20 meetings are very critical to the state of the world and the dessent of the masses is also important, we should at least let them now we dont agree if in fact we dont.

 

What if nobody showed up to protest? Personaly its not gonna be me breaking windows but it dose put a smile on my face when i see it.

What if nobody was hard on the elite, truly it wouldnt make much of a diffrence as most of are chatter dosent matter to them but when all is silent and no oine shows up to protest its a royal thumbs up from the peaseants to the kingdom, good job lads!!

 

The one Claim that truly needs FACTS is that its FBI ggents causing dammage if it was true which i suppose is possible how could you futureage know this, i dont doubt just curious?

 

Since I know you are sincere here are some links that are only the tip of the iceberg on this subject.

 

 

Agent Provocateur Definition

 

http://www.ehow.com/about_5046207_agent-provocateur-definition.html

 

The term "agent provocateur" is French and means someone who instigates. In European history, agents provocateur have been used frequently during numerous political revolutions. At its most effective, the work of the agent provocateur is essentially an act of false flag terrorism, a frame up that makes other parties look responsible for a terrorist act they didn't commit.

 

An agent provocateur is someone who infiltrates a group with the express purpose of instigating behavior or activities that will tend to discredit the organization or make it subject to forceful police action. Usually, the agent provocateur is directed by a law enforcement agency and, like an undercover agent, gets on the inside of a group that is on the fringe of the law. The difference between an undercover agent and an agent provocateur is that an undercover agent will gain evidence of ongoing illegal activity to make an arrest, while an agent provocateur attempts to incite illegal activity.

FBI Provocateur Sets-Up Anti-RNC Activists on Trumped-Up “Terrorism” Charges

 

http://rnc08report.org/archive/647.shtml

 

An FBI provocateur and undercover informant, Brandon Michael Darby, unmasked himself December 30 in a bizarre letter to the Independent Media Center (IMC), an activist website and alternative news clearinghouse.

 

Darby's admission came after government documents were provided to defense attorneys representing Bradley Crowder and David McKay. The activists were arrested in early September during the Republican National Convention and charged with one count of possession of firearms. They remain in jail awaiting trial.

 

According to an Associated Press report, the pair allegedly bought supplies for "constructing explosive devices" at a St. Paul Wal-Mart. However, it cannot be ruled out that Darby set these activists up in connivance with his Bureau handlers. It wouldn't be the first time the FBI has sought to instigate violent confrontations in order to roll-up entire organizations.

 

With a history of traveling around the country and no visible means of support, by his own admission Darby is a mercenary who wormed his way into left-wing and anarchist groups while proclaiming bogus allegiance to "social justice." But with the cat out of the bag he candidly stated, "the simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

According to a statement by the Austin Informant Working Group,

 

"Darby has been characterized by many people who have known and worked with him as both persuasive and manipulative, with a history of provocation, instigation, and incitement. According to Lisa Fithian, who worked with Darby for years, "Brandon was always provoking discord and aggression, in the anti-war movement in Austin in 2003, in protests in Houston against Halliburton, and in disaster relief at Common Ground in New Orleans. I worked with Darby in all of those places and saw the disruption he caused."

 

The FBI documents make it clear that Darby did not restrict his informing to people he alleges were planning illegal activities. He also gathered information on numerous people who were engaged in lawful activism; including some who had no plans to attend the Republican Convention. "The wider net cast by Darby in his information gathering shows that he was part of an FBI campaign to suppress political dissent and activism," said Will Potter, an award-winning independent journalist. "By gathering information on law abiding activists and then defending his actions as stopping violence, Darby contributes to the public perception that political dissent is criminal, which has a chilling effect on free speech."

 

Repression As State Strategy

 

(I can't stand and don't agree with Anarchists but this article is relevant to the discussion)

 

http://www.geocities.com/amurderofcrows1/issue2/repression.htm

 

Repression is a topic that is often discussed in the revolutionary milieu, but unfortunately it is a subject that is not well understood. Because of democratic baggage, repression is often understood as simply an anomalous and outrageous violation of rights. What people fail to comprehend is that repression is part of the standard operating procedure of any class society. There are those that rule and those who are ruled, and to maintain this divide, a combination of coercion and accommodation is necessary. To preserve the social structure of our society then, it is necessary to recuperate parts of social movements, and to repress the other parts. Essentially, repression is a strategy for maintaining power by capitalist ruling classes within nation-states. Thus, since it is a long-term strategy, it is always in motion and not some occasional occurrence.

 

A well-known example of state repression within the anarchist milieu is the infiltration of various conferences, protests and even affinity groups by one particular state agent: Anna Davies. Following the arrests of Lauren Weiner, Zachary Jenson and Eric McDavid in January 2006 for conspiracy to commit several acts of sabotage, the government revealed that one of the three's comrades was in fact in the employ of the state. What's more is that the government funneled money to Anna to rent a house where planning allegedly took place and to pay for supplies to commit these alleged acts. When this information was revealed, comrades across the country quickly posted photographs of Anna to popular anarchist and activist sites, and within days a picture of Anna's activity was pieced together.

 

Rather than simply being involved with the three people arrested in California, Davies had been actively working for the FBI as far back as 2003. She has taken part in major protests such as the Democratic National Convention in 2004, the 2004 anti-G8 Protest in Georgia, the June 2005 Organization of American States protest in Florida, and the Bio-Democracy protest in Philadelphia, also in June of 2005. Along with major convergences, Davies attended anarchist conferences and gatherings in 2005 such as Feral Visions in the Appalachian Mountains and the CrimethInc Convergence in Indiana. On various Indymedia sites she also solicited photographs and video of protests under the guise of publicity, but it should be presumed that any information sent to her was added to the FBI's intelligence base.

 

So the intention behind her infiltration was not to help solve a particular case, or to investigate one specific crime. Instead, she was employed as an infiltrator to gather information about the anarchist scene in general. It should also not be surprising that the case that she is currently involved in focuses on alleged acts that were planned to occur in the future, not ones that had already occurred. Based solely on the evidence made available to the public, it is not hard to see that the FBI was facilitating these alleged crimes by renting a house for Davies and the three arrested people and funneling money via Davies for supplies. In effect, the state was justifying their existence through aiding and abetting. In the US government's latest terror war, arrests and examples need to be made; Weiner, Jenson, and McDavid have served this purpose quite well .

 

David Swanson: Lynching of Cynthia McKinney urged by ‘journalist’ trained and paid by FBI

 

http://karmalised.com/?p=10529&cpage=1

 

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney sent an email around on Sunday in which she wrote:

 

“It has just now come to my attention that a ‘journalist’ who suggested that I be lynched was actually being paid by our own government to say that. Now, when I reported it to the FBI, how in the world was I to know that he was at that time on the FBI’s payroll?”

 

“Hate blogger” Hal Turner’s lawyer said last week, and prosecutors agreed, that Turner was “trained by the FBI on how to be deliberately provocative” and “worked for the FBI from 2002 to 2007 as an ‘agent provocateur’ and was taught by the agency ‘what he could say that wouldn’t be crossing the line.’”

 

Hal Turner called her ‘a violent, black, racist, bitch’ whose lynching would teach other Blacks that ‘white people are tired of your bullshit, behave or die’

 

Lawyer: FBI Trained Hal Turner As An "Agent Provocateur"

 

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-web-hal-turner-0819aug19,0,1700724.story

 

HARTFORD — - Internet blogger Harold "Hal" Turner's attorney said today that Turner's background as an FBI informant will be a key part of his defense to charges that he incited violence against two state legislators and a state ethics official.

 

Superior Court Judge David P. Gold on Tuesday authorized Michael A. Orozco, a New Jersey attorney, to represent Turner. Turner did not appear again in court Tuesday because he remains in federal custody without bail in Chicago, where he is accused of threatening three federal judges.

 

In asking Gold to allow Orozco to represent Turner, Turner's Connecticut lawyer, Matthew R. Potter, said Orozco has a long-term legal relationship with Turner, plans to bring a complicated First Amendment defense and is familiar with Turner's background as an FBI informant.

 

That role as an informant for the FBI is a key part of the defense, Orozco said outside court.

 

Orozco said Turner was trained by the FBI as "an agent provocateur."

 

"Mr. Turner was trained by the FBI," Orozco said. "He was told where the line was — what he could say."

 

In his comments on his blog that brought the state and federal charges, Turner did not cross that line, Orozco said.

 

Orozco said Turner worked for the FBI from roughly 2002 to 2007.

 

"His job was basically to publish information which would cause other parties to act in a manner that would cause their arrest," Orozco said.

 

Cops framed anti-globalization movement in Genoa

 

http://www.mail-archive.com/wwnews@wwpublish.com/msg01907.html

 

Cointelpro Italian style

 

The Italian cops are proving that when it comes to repression, they can act just like the FBI did with its

Cointelpro program.

 

In the 1960s and 1970s the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program targeted progressive movements in the United States

and led to the deaths and unjust imprisonment of many Black,Latino and Native liberation organizers, while disrupting

the work of anti-war and pro-socialist organizations.

 

At the time the notorious rightist J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI. Local police and the FBI used wiretaps with little

restraint, even on acknowledged civil-rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. They planted informers and

provocateurs. They planted "evidence" of crimes and conspiracies.

 

The U.S. government is not the only capitalist state that uses these tactics.

 

Indeed, some cops in Italy have just admitted that Cointelpro-type tactics were exactly what they used in July

2001 to try to justify the brutal, murderous police riot against 250,000 anti-globalization demonstrators at the G8

summit.

 

Besides the outright murder of anti-capitalist youth Carlo Giuliani, the most vicious assault of the cops in Genoa last

year was a raid on the Diaz school. There, hundreds of activists--most of them militant and anti-capitalist but

ideologically pacifist--were staying.

 

In an attempt to break the growing movement, police raided the school. They beat the mostly young demonstrators,

severely injuring over 60 and arresting 93. Cops held the protesters for days, depriving them of sleep, sexually

harassing them, even beating some unconscious.

 

Many of the cops involved were pro-fascist, even forcing the youth to sing phrases from songs that celebrated Mussolini's

fascist rule that led Italy to ruin in World War II.

ACLU Georgia Uncovers Pentagon Spying Files

 

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/5237

 

APN) ATLANTA–The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia released new documents on Pentagon spying on peaceful protesters, in a downtown press conference today at the Martin Luther King Federal Building. The documents are respondent to their Freedom of Information Act requests to several federal, state, and local agencies, regarding the Pentagon spying which occurred against local peace activists here in Georgia.

 

And just in case you think this only happens in America, here are some videos of Canadian police as well.

Canadian Media Covers Police Attempting to Stage Riots

 

http://noworldsystem.com/2007/08/27/canadian-media-covers-police-attempting-to-stage-riots/

 

Noam Chomsky on COINTELPRO - "COINTELPRO was a program of subversion carried out not by a couple of petty crooks but by the national political police, the FBI, under four administrations...by the time it got through, I won't run through the whole story, it was aimed at the entire new left, at the women's movement, at the whole black movement, it was extremely broad. Its actions went as far as political assassination."

 

Here's the interview it is from (COINTELPRO stuff starts at 6:56)

 

COINTELPRO Revisited Spying and Disruption

 

http://www.dickshovel.com/coin.html

 

COINTELPRO Sources

 

Bibliography to www.cointel.org with links to online resources.

 

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointelsources.htm

 

And here is a news report from yesterday that I thought you would interesting.

 

BBC covers Pittsburgh G20

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBDxGaSZytE

[futureage1]

My animosity was with FutureAge1, not the summit or the protests. I actually think that it's great these people come out and protest, but I strongly disagree with how they incite and insult police, get gassed, and pull the "Who, me?" stunt. Every time.

 

Another thing that annoys me is that most of the protestors, it seems, come from democratic nations. They either took part in electing whomever is representing their nation, or chose to abstain from that election. The whole, "They're making decisions without us!" is a foolish point to be arguing in that case; the point of electing a leader is, in part, electing someone to represent your nation on the global scale. If they're protesting because some of the respresentatives are NOT democracies, that is certainly a fair point, but it is also unreasonable to have a summit about the global economy without all of the big-hitters in the global economy, democracies or not.

 

So there's that.

 

 

Well how do you explain this? These were not even protesters, just students.

 

G20 2009: Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh

 

G20 PROTESTS: Men In Military Fatigues Snatch Protester (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

 

 

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/g20-protest-photos-vote-o_n_298692.html

 

The only people hurt were protesters by means of policeman's club. Why not respond with a denunciation of the WTO/World Bank/G-20 for overthrowing democratic governments and withholding water from the poor, then demanding the repayment of forced debts and then controlling the governments when the impoverished nations can't repay billions? The WTO/World Bank/G-20 kills innocents with a suit and a smile and you attack the protesters.

Privileged enough to know better, and yet you don't.

 

If you are going to criticize a protest and not even know anything about the organization being protested then don't expect to be taken seriously. This is where the revocation of HABEUS CORPUS leads. I saw the military using the sound cannons on residential streets with old people and kids on them and NO protesters. The same sound cannons used against the Iraqi and Afghan insurgents. Incredible cowardice and tyranny displayed. This level of response is not good and has to be addressed. If protest gets met this way we have a problem. Keep your animosity or direct it on those who actually deserve it. And the organizers applied for permits and were denied, but I wouldn't expect you to know that before running off on a tangent that you are completely uninformed and wrong about.

[Analogman]

Well how do you explain this? These were not even protesters, just students.

 

G20 2009: Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh

 

G20 PROTESTS: Men In Military Fatigues Snatch Protester (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

 

 

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/g20-protest-photos-vote-o_n_298692.html

 

The only people hurt were protesters by means of policeman's club. Why not respond with a denunciation of the WTO/World Bank/G-20 for overthrowing democratic governments and withholding water from the poor, then demanding the repayment of forced debts and then controlling the governments when the impoverished nations can't repay billions? The WTO/World Bank/G-20 kills innocents with a suit and a smile and you attack the protesters.

Privileged enough to know better, and yet you don't.

 

If you are going to criticize a protest and not even know anything about the organization being protested then don't expect to be taken seriously. This is where the revocation of HABEUS CORPUS leads. I saw the military using the sound cannons on residential streets with old people and kids on them and NO protesters. The same sound cannons used against the Iraqi and Afghan insurgents. Incredible cowardice and tyranny displayed. This level of response is not good and has to be addressed. If protest gets met this way we have a problem. Keep your animosity or direct it on those who actually deserve it. And the organizers applied for permits and were denied, but I wouldn't expect you to know that before running off on a tangent that you are completely uninformed and wrong about.

 

 

It seems to me they are sweeping up everyone, regardless of what they are doing. I have seen that sort of thing go down in another country I was in once, only the troops were not carrying pepper spray, but rather machine guns. I hope no one is killed this weekend.

[aricandover]

 

if this was happening on my street, I would've kicked that little fucker's head in.

[bjorn_skurj]

And then caught a case for assaulting a federal agent!

As a journalist, I really resent anyone putting that word anywhere near Hal Turner, who came to our fair city once. That dude is a bucket of shit, and it takes more than a blog to get called a journalist.

[Vacant Horizon]

I struggled through little league baseball, law school, and several Dylan concerts.

 

I also participated in the march at the NYC RNC in 2004. Where were you? Guess you must not have had the guts to go...

 

 

dylan concerts are rough.

[tugmoose]

"Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being

!!"

[bjorn_skurj]

"Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being

!!"

Heh.

[bobbob1313]

 

if this was happening on my street, I would've kicked that little fucker's head in.

 

OSU won this weekend?