cunt sauce

And then there's this one from puget sound anarchists: [note: I would reccommend that you visit the site for flicks, they have awesome fuckin' flicks of the @team with torches lined up against the police line] On Saturday, January 14th, approximately one hundred people gathered at 23rd Avenue and Union in Seattle's Central District. This corner was once the site of a police substation that was attacked numerous times until it ceased operation in mid 2011. We fondly remembered the last anarchist demonstration that had left from this point in 2010, on the night of the verdict against Oscar Grant's murderer. This march, however, was called for by members of Occupy Seattle demanding the resignation of SPD Chief John Diaz. Another call-out asked for anarchists to attend the march offering up a critique of police reform. The anarchist presence was small at this demonstration, but the frustration caused by standing in the square and listening to people talk on the bullhorns of justice and reform for over an hour in the cold had our small group riled up. As the sun started to set and the temperature dropped into the 30s, we were elated to see the rally finally teeter from a platform calling for better-trained cops into shouts of 'get into the fucking A banner was seen with the words: "Solidarity with Oakland (A) Fuck the Cops," and fliers were handed out calling attention to our friends who had participated in the January 7th 'Fuck OPD' march in Oakland. After Oakland cops were paint-bombed, cruiser windows mashed, a news van attacked and several small fires lit, one person was hit in the head by cops and booked on a number of charges. The arrestee's bail was initially set at $595,000, based on the claim that he had a quarter-stick of dynamite, and then lowered to $250,000 at arraignment. Much like Amelia Nicol’s case in Denver, this move smacks of an attempt by the courts and the cops to neutralize the embers that have spewn from the Oakland Commune. But instead of relinquishing Oscar Grant Plaza and the momentum that has been building, weekly Saturday demonstrations are now taking place in Oakland against the OPD. The same forces have tried to quell anti-police sentiment in Seattle, but an eerie memory of the Winter of 2011 was stirred. Days before the march, federal prosecutors announced that they would not charge Ian Birk, the former SPD cop who murdered John T. Williams on August 30, 2010. Four other people were murdered that same week by Washington cops -- many by ‘less lethal’ weapons like tasers -- and anarchists in the Puget Sound came with a scathing critique of police accountability and the justice system that maintains their social control. Though the mainstream media will never be an ally, this Seattle Times article departs from the rhetoric of last winter which sought to prop up the police story of probable cause in Birk's shooting: "Williams’ shooting resulted in a public outrage and was pivotal in uniting community groups to demand accountability from the department. There had been earlier videotaped incidents — an officer slugging a teenage jaywalker, for instance — but none reverberated in the community like the patrol-car dash-cam video of Williams ambling across the intersection in front of Birk’s car, a pocket knife and board in his hands. Birk was seen crossing in front of the car toward Williams, his weapon drawn, and then a series of shots a few seconds later. Native American and civil rights groups protested the shooting. The department’s credibility was further damaged when it had to withdraw a statement made at the scene that Williams had 'advanced on the officer.'" Now that the Department of Justice's investigation has concluded and found several cases of excessive force, the media wastes no time in chastising the SPD. In response, the city and police have already organized a community forum to discuss officer training and the City's Race and Social Justice initiative. It is important that this be revealed for exactly what it is: a public relations attempt to assuage the liberal public that frets over the myth of 'racial and social justice'. In 2011, we burnt many bridges but also found many friends. ---- Despite the rumor that cops would force us onto the sidewalk, agitated individuals pushed past those waiting for the cross signal and into the streets. The shivering mass of people followed and marched north up 23rd avenue chanting 'The revolution has begun / They say more cops! We say none!' and 'Cops and bankers, we don’t need em! / All we want is total freedom!'. Bikes and graffiti writers flanked the crowd and media scurried ahead of the banners, trying to take sensational photos of the lit flares and black masks. At a major intersection, a banner reading 'ACAB' backed with 'All your base are belong to no one! (A)' was hoisted above the street. The crowd cheered as it flapped in the cold and surged forward once more. The march turned southwest onto Madison and trash cans, construction signs and dumpsters were rolled into the street. Unlike the anti-police demos of early 2011, many of the marchers around joined in, kicking over signs and carrying a couch into on-coming traffic lanes. Uniformed police were nowhere to be seen amongst the merriment, but Peace and Safety vultures from Occupy Seattle tried to push dumpsters back into the alleys, decrying the redecoration as 'distracting' from the issue of the police. Others threw fliers into the doors of the co-op and toppled potted trees outside a yuppie furniture store, and yes, even a newspaper box or two was thrown. A shout rippled through the crowd as one person skateboarded past with a torch; several more were handed out in remembrance of those murdered by the police. While some torchbearers chanted 'Justice for Sean Bell, Justice for John T, Justice for Oscar' others yelled for 'vengeance.' The glow of fire hovered overhead as the march turned down Pine and finally to the police barricades surrounding the East Precinct. Traffic had been diverted for several blocks since 4 p.m., and firetrucks were stationed nearby. Many people scattered off into the night, while others stayed and argued with the cops lining the barricades. No arrests or injuries were reported but perhaps more important is the giddy feeling that lingers. The first signs of snow in Seattle dominate the news today, but another demonstration has already been called for on Monday, January 16th, leaving the recently evicted Turritopsis Nutricula squat and joining the Seattle MLK march. To the friends we have made in Seattle and our comrades in the Oakland Commune, let's warm by the hearth of another fiery year.

Yo Shai, did you go to this? From Bay of Rage: An enormous banner reading “Occupy Oakland — Fuck the Police” was unfurled at the corner of 14th and Broadway, in preparation for the first of a weekly series of marches against the police and their repression against the Oakland Commune. From the hours of 7 to 9 pm on Saturday, January 7th, the crowd kept growing – notably different than many of the largely white, activist groups that have become so predominant in the Occupy movement. This had a completely different character: a rowdy, largely young group of people pissed off about the recent police repression. The police were taking this night more seriously than other demos – whether it was because the night was the 3rd anniversary of the Oscar Grant Rebellion or simply because they knew that the pigs’ current campaign of harassment and arrests was fostering a culture of resistance and anger against them. All evening there were unmarked SUVs full of Oakland police cruising around the downtown area, as well as sheriffs and motorcycle pigs hanging around the periphery of 14th and Broadway. The energy built up with chants, heckling of the cops standing in lines across the street, and a ferocious freestyle session. Soon after 9, the group flooded into the street, heading south on Broadway. Banners declared “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees”, “Not gay as in happy, but queer as in fuck OPD” and “Police nowhere, liberation everywhere”. People donned masks as we neared the OPD headquarters, Wiley Manuel Courthouse and Glenn Dyer detention center on 7th St. Upon arrival, it was clear the pigs weren’t going to allow a fireworks show like the New Year’s Eve noise demo. Up to 50 pigs were stationed in one-deep lines, directly in front of their headquarters, with more pigs down Washington Street defending their vehicle lot, and others near Clay St. Judging by their arrangement, they were ready to surround and arrest us, to kettle the confrontational crowd. The mood was strange, quiet as we stood before the OPD’s fortress. The gap between the rage we wanted to unleash on the police and the reality of our suddenly indecisive crowd facing off a line of armed cops was unsettling. Our lack of confidence, of memory of overt collective resistance weighed heavy on us that moment. We milled in the street, someone shoved a shopping cart towards the cops. A few bottles were thrown. The hostility towards the police was too diffuse and they were too prepared in their defensive position for the immediate situation to escalate in a way that could benefit us. Soon the decision was made to stay mobile, and we headed back to Broadway. The crowd took a left, and as we headed up the street several black-clad hooligans attacked two police cars that were stopped on the street, slashing their tires, and bottles were thrown at the pigs once more. At this point the divide in the crowd became evident — with OakFoSho who livestreams many Occupy Oakland demonstrations shouting “I wish I could catch the motherfuckers who are throwing shit on film”, and a few others decrying the bottle throwers. While militant tactics are not above critique (and there’s definitely much tactical learning and evolution to be done), threatening or filming people fighting back against the police is doing the pigs’ work for them. Despite the unclear intentions of the group as a whole, some agitated for the march to turn towards the cop shop again, and ultimately it took a left on 9th Street and headed back to Washington. Strolling among the holiday-light bedazzled trees of the Oldtown commercial district, the chants of “Kill Pigs” and “A.C.A.B — all cops are bastards” lent a dissonant affect to the moment. Yuppies gawked from the upscale bars and restaurants as the active minority of a discontent populace streamed past them. We can only hope they enjoyed the sound of the Starbucks plate glass window shattering as much as we did. A few blocks down a Wells Fargo received an equally warm embrace. Shortly after that we passed a KTVU news van. It was swarmed by several people, some puncturing the tires, some scrawling a circle-A on the façade and others tearing the cables from the exposed switch board. This gesture should illuminate our relationship towards the media – they will never be our allies, we are not interested in pandering to them. This is war, and they are on the wrong side. On this second approach, riot cops had formed a line blocking the way down Washington to the court. This was their technique in the early days of Occupy Oakland, when there was often almost no police presence at marches, until they approached 7th and Washington. But at this point we had more momentum than before, there was no way we would simply turn back. The “Fuck the Police” banner-carriers stepped up directly to the line, behind them a small bonfire was lit, and people let fly more bottles. But even though the energy had been high, there was no solid black bloc and those who were more confrontational were vulnerable to identification. Soon, the cops advanced, pushing the banner back and stomping out the fire. After they advanced, they began clearly pointing out and shining lights at those they wanted to target for arrest. Whether because of the fire or having sensed the tactical weakness of the group, the pigs suddenly charged. It was a flurry of huge men moving faster than one would think possible. They clearly went after specific individuals, as well as those who were trampled or fell behind. They beat a few people badly with batons, and shot others with rubber bullets and bean bags that left a colored mark on clothing. The crowd was generally pushed north, and many escaped, but a group was kettled on 9th Street between Washington and Broadway. This kettle was eventually given a dispersal order and allowed to leave, although there was another police charge as people were walking north on Broadway. After this, the night ended uneventfully, though there were still cops posted up en masse at the North end of the plaza for some time. 6 people were arrested, 3 of whom were released without charges, and one of whom who is facing five felonies and one misdemeanor. Saturday night was a change of tactics for the OPD. In keeping with the intensifying direct repression of the Oakland Commune, this was the first time they had relied on snatching and kettling. Their sudden charges also seemed out of character, as though our stubborn resistance enraged or unnerved them. The OPD also tailed one person as they were leaving the march, and pulled them over to harass and search them. The apparatus of the police is what holds us back from so many of our dreams. It is only logical that occupiers and other rebels have made a habit of marching between the plaza and the bastion of law and order: the former a hotbed of subversive conversation and anti-capitalist scheming, the latter the organizational center of a reactionary, murderous force and a node in the network of confinement and criminalization. By establishing a circulation between the radical social center of our city and the compound where the attack on that dangerous sociality is staged, the occupation has expanded on territorial battles that were already present in Oakland. In dead urban space, Occupy Oakland created a flourishing social space that was — is — antagonistic to the city’s control. While OPD asserts their sovereignty in East Oakland by murdering and beating people of color, in downtown they do it with tear gas and rubber bullets. But while it is useful to encroach on the pigs’ territory as much as we can, there’s a danger of falling into an unthinking pattern. 7th and Washington isn’t the only place that crystallizes the relationship of power between us and the state — what we’re up against not only goes far beyond those buildings, it’s more than the police. It remains to be seen if these weekly marches will become something else entirely or fizzle out, but either way we need to think through our tactics and strategies. We cannot take on a fully armed counter-insurgency force directly. If we want to keep our commune alive in the streets and foster rebellion in the metropolis of the Bay Area, it will take some serious discipline and creativity. Our demonstrations must shift in form and content, and be able to adapt to contemporary circumstances. The time has already come to attack what represses us, seize what we need, and strike in unexpected ways. If we cannot provide for ourselves and create new forms of living in Oscar Grant Plaza, we will do it elsewhere. Now that we have tasted the joy of gathering defiantly in the open air and molding our own worlds, we can’t go back. In the words of some Spanish comrades, “the greatest violence would be returning to normality”. The police intend to enforce that normality. We, however, refuse to accept it, and wager instead on the rebels of Oakland. Long live the Oakland Commune, freedom to our comrades and all prisoners! Here is some footage of the January 7th demonstration

Stop bickering. Everyone knows the government maintains class divisions in society, duh. People who own tons of capital created the government to protect their property from jealous leeches (like the 99%). Haven't you fuckers ever read Adam Smith? He stated, "as the necessity of civil government gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally introduce subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property ... Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions ... The appropriation of herds and flocks which introduced an inequality of fortune was that which first gave rise to regular government. Till there be property there can be no government, the very end of which is to secure wealth, and to defend the rich from the poor." In related news, Occupy protesters take a symbolic swipe at the bourgeoisie in San Francisco. An abandoned hotel gets occupied and a Bentley/Lamborghini dealership gets trashed! The anonymous communique reads:

BURNER!!!!!!

STAY EVAL MILWAUKEEE.

Anyone see the awesome apocalyptic footage of Occupy Denver? FIRE, FLAMES!!!!!!!!!

Shut the fuck up. All Cops Are Bastards. Don't you know that?

AWESOME SHOW (dogmatic pacifists might not like it) Is this the Revolution? http://submedia.tv/stimulator/2011/11/09/is-this-a-revolution/ Occupy the Machine! http://submedia.tv/stimulator/2011/11/21/occupy-the-machine/

Workplace Democracy, yo. Shai, go check out the AK Press in the Bay Area. They are a direct democracy workers collective that print anarcho-books.. Bay Area IWW is coo too. Anyway, that NDAA shit is bonkers. I saw guy speak named Scott Crow and he was on the FBI watchlist for a grip.. An informant by the name of Brandon Darby even tried to get him blow some shit up with dynamite. Because of 9/11 our tax dollars are being spent on the Patriot Act and the DHS trying to entrap anti-war/environmental/peace activists. Even one's like Scott Crow who took care of poor starving peeps in post-Katrina New Orleans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Ground_Collective) when the government didn't are getting spied on and fucked with. And now this NDAA shit.

I saw Rothbards name, so I was expecting a bunch of anarcho-capitalist (an oxymoron) hogwash, but actually center for a stateless society ain't so bad. I'm more of an collectivist rather than an individualist, but at least they're against bosses, capitalism, etc..

news be dropping spots. Look like the place is getting demolished anyways.

Fuck Yes. Positive analysis of Anarchism in the MSM. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/15/occupy-anarchism-gift-democracy?newsfeed=true As the history of past movements all make clear, nothing terrifies those running America more than the danger of true democracy breaking out. As we see in Chicago, Portland, Oakland, and right now in New York City, the immediate response to even a modest spark of democratically organised civil disobedience is a panicked combination of concessions and brutality. Our rulers, anyway, seem to labor under a lingering fear that if any significant number of Americans do find out what anarchism really is, they may well decide that rulers of any sort are unnecessary. Almost every time I'm interviewed by a mainstream journalist about OWS, I get some variation of the same lecture: "How are you going to get anywhere if you refuse to create a leadership structure or make a practical list of demands? And what's with all this anarchist nonsense – the consensus, the sparkly fingers … ? You're never going to be able to reach regular, mainstream Americans with this sort of thing!" It is hard to imagine worse advice. After all, since 2007, just about every previous attempt to kick off a nationwide movement against Wall Street took exactly the course such people would have recommended – and failed miserably. It is only when a small group of anarchists in New York decided to adopt the opposite approach – refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the existing political authorities by making demands of them; refusing to accept the legitimacy of the existing legal order by occupying a public space without asking for permission, refusing to elect leaders that could then be bribed or co-opted; declaring, however non-violently, that the entire system was corrupt and they rejected it; being willing to stand firm against the state's inevitable violent response – that hundreds of thousands of Americans from Portland to Tuscaloosa began rallying in support, and a majority declared their sympathies. This is not the first time a movement based on fundamentally anarchist principles – direct action, direct democracy, a rejection of existing political institutions and attempt to create alternative ones – has cropped up in the US. The civil rights movement (at least, its more radical branches), the anti-nuclear movement, the global justice movement … all took similar directions. Never, however, has one grown so startlingly quickly. To understand why, we have to understand that there's always been an enormous gap between what those ruling America mean by "democracy", and what that word means to almost anyone else. According to the official version, of course, "democracy" is a system created by the founding fathers, based on checks and balances between president, Congress and judiciary. In fact, nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution does it say anything about the US being a "democracy". Most defined democracy as collective self-governance by popular assemblies, and as such, they were dead set against it, arguing it would be prejudicial against the interests of minorities (the particular minority that was had in mind here being the rich). They only came to redefine their own republic – modeled not on Athens, but on Rome – as a "democracy" because ordinary Americans seemed to like the word so much. But what did, and what do, ordinary Americans mean by the word? A system where they get to weigh in on which politicians will run the government? This is what we're always told, but it seems implausible. After all, most Americans loathe politicians, and tend to be skeptical about the very idea of government. If they universally hold it out as a political ideal, it can only be because the American people still sees it, however vaguely, as self-governance – as what the founding fathers tended to denounce as either "democracy" or, as they sometimes also put it, "anarchy". If nothing else, this would help explain the enthusiasm with which Americans have embraced a movement based on directly democratic principles, despite the uniformly contemptuous dismissal of America's media and political class. Most Americans are, politically, deeply conflicted. They tend to combine a deep reverence for freedom with a carefully inculcated, but nonetheless real identification with the army and police. Few are actual anarchists; few even know what "anarchism" means. It is not clear how many would ultimately wish to discard the state and capitalism entirely. But one thing overwhelming numbers of Americans do feel is that something is terribly wrong with their country, that its key institutions are controlled by an arrogant elite, that radical change of some kind is long since overdue. They're right. It's hard to imagine a political system so systematically corrupt – one where bribery, on every level, has been made completely legal. The outrage is appropriate. The problem was, up until 17 September, the only side of the spectrum willing to propose radical solutions of any sort was the right. But Occupy Wall Street has changed that: democracy has broken out.

"Support and solidarity! We’re inspired by the occupations on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country. Finally, people are taking to the streets again! The momentum around these actions has the potential to reinvigorate protest and resistance in this country. We hope these occupations will increase both in numbers and in substance, and we’ll do our best to contribute to that. Why should you listen to us? In short, because we’ve been at this a long time already. We’ve spent decades struggling against capitalism, organizing occupations, and making decisions by consensus. If this new movement doesn’t learn from the mistakes of previous ones, we run the risk of repeating them. We’ve summarized some of our hard-won lessons here. Occupation is nothing new. The land we stand on is already occupied territory. The United States was founded upon the extermination of indigenous peoples and the colonization of their land, not to mention centuries of slavery and exploitation. For a counter-occupation to be meaningful, it has to begin from this history. Better yet, it should embrace the history of resistance extending from indigenous self-defense and slave revolts through the various workers’ and anti-war movements right up to the recent anti-globalization movement. The “99%” is not one social body, but many. Some occupiers have presented a narrative in which the “99%” is characterized as a homogenous mass. The faces intended to represent “ordinary people” often look suspiciously like the predominantly white, law-abiding middle-class citizens we’re used to seeing on television programs, even though such people make up a minority of the general population. It’s a mistake to whitewash over our diversity. Not everyone is waking up to the injustices of capitalism for the first time now; some populations have been targeted by the power structure for years or generations. Middle-class workers who are just now losing their social standing can learn a lot from those who have been on the receiving end of injustice for much longer. The problem isn’t just a few “bad apples.” The crisis is not the result of the selfishness of a few investment bankers; it is the inevitable consequence of an economic system that rewards cutthroat competition at every level of society. Capitalism is not a static way of life but a dynamic process that consumes everything, transforming the world into profit and wreckage. Now that everything has been fed into the fire, the system is collapsing, leaving even its former beneficiaries out in the cold. The answer is not to revert to some earlier stage of capitalism—to go back to the gold standard, for example; not only is that impossible, those earlier stages didn’t benefit the “99%” either. To get out of this mess, we’ll have to rediscover other ways of relating to each other and the world around us. Police can’t be trusted. They may be “ordinary workers,” but their job is to protect the interests of the ruling class. As long as they remain employed as police, we can’t count on them, however friendly they might act. Occupiers who don’t know this already will learn it firsthand as soon as they threaten the imbalances of wealth and power our society is based on. Anyone who insists that the police exist to protect and serve the common people has probably lived a privileged life, and an obedient one. Don’t fetishize obedience to the law. Laws serve to protect the privileges of the wealthy and powerful; obeying them is not necessarily morally right—it may even be immoral. Slavery was legal. The Nazis had laws too. We have to develop the strength of conscience to do what we know is best, regardless of the laws. To have a diversity of participants, a movement must make space for a diversity of tactics. It’s controlling and self-important to think you know how everyone should act in pursuit of a better world. Denouncing others only equips the authorities to delegitimize, divide, and destroy the movement as a whole. Criticism and debate propel a movement forward, but power grabs cripple it. The goal should not be to compel everyone to adopt one set of tactics, but to discover how different approaches can be mutually beneficial. Don’t assume those who break the law or confront police are agents provocateurs. A lot of people have good reason to be angry. Not everyone is resigned to legalistic pacifism; some people still remember how to stand up for themselves. Police violence isn’t just meant to provoke us, it’s meant to hurt and scare us into inaction. In this context, self-defense is essential. Assuming that those at the front of clashes with the authorities are somehow in league with the authorities is not only illogical—it delegitimizes the spirit it takes to challenge the status quo, and dismisses the courage of those who are prepared to do so. This allegation is typical of privileged people who have been taught to trust the authorities and fear everyone who disobeys them. No government—that is to say, no centralized power—will ever willingly put the needs of common people before the needs of the powerful. It’s naïve to hope for this. The center of gravity in this movement has to be our freedom and autonomy, and the mutual aid that can sustain those—not the desire for an “accountable” centralized power. No such thing has ever existed; even in 1789, the revolutionaries presided over a “democracy” with slaves, not to mention rich and poor. That means the important thing is not just to make demands upon our rulers, but to build up the power to realize our demands ourselves. If we do this effectively, the powerful will have to take our demands seriously, if only in order to try to keep our attention and allegiance. We attain leverage by developing our own strength. Likewise, countless past movements learned the hard way that establishing their own bureaucracy, however “democratic,” only undermined their original goals. We shouldn’t invest new leaders with authority, nor even new decision-making structures; we should find ways to defend and extend our freedom, while abolishing the inequalities that have been forced on us. The occupations will thrive on the actions we take. We’re not just here to “speak truth to power”—when we only speak, the powerful turn a deaf ear to us. Let’s make space for autonomous initiatives and organize direct action that confronts the source of social inequalities and injustices. Thanks for reading and scheming and acting. May your every dream come true." http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2011/10/07/dear-occupiers-a-letter-from-anarchists/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ome_ANt-o

Pretty insightful video, although the guy's voice and way he talks is a little annoying. He says "ideology" and "status" in that weird way that I can't stand. Anyways, he argues that the media generally lumps communism into one, specific category, while capitalism is generally portrayed as being full of diversity. Lumping Council Communists, Libertarian Socialists, Anarcho-socialists, Syndicalists, Communist Anarchists, Primitive Communists, Anarcho-syndicalists, State Communists, Troskyists, Stalinists, Maoists, Marxist-Leninists etc into the same category implies that Communism isn't a diverse ideology even though there seems to be more diversity than in Capitalism. We have Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, Progressive and Fascist to choose from. I'm glad he mentioned the Spanish Civil War, I'm reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell right now. I'm not really a Communist with a capital C. I'm more of an anarchist that would prefer a socialist economic model facilitated by the workers themselves rather an owner or ruling class of government organizing everyone else's labor. So that makes me an anarcho-syndicalist.

Correction, the nature of Western Civilization won't let that exist. There have been plenty of beautiful cultures, they have just been dissolved by globalization, imperialism, genocide etc.. The Mbuti (central Africa), Canela (Brazil), Inuit aka Eskimos (Canada), Kawelka (Papua New Guinea) and Maori (New Zealand) are just a few I can name off the top of my head that still exist.

I don't have weekends off, paid holidays and sick time, or affordable health insurance, so why should anyone else? Fuck their union and their ability to organize themselves to bargain for higher wages. If I don't have that ability, No one should! No, I never read anything about the Labor movement of the early 1900's, I hated the book The Jungle, and I can pretty much say Unions haven't done a damn bit of good for the American working class. The only way to run our economy is by vesting all of the power into the hands of a few individuals. We have to cater to their needs by slashing their taxes, otherwise they won't operate in our state and give us jobs. This is the only way! Get rid of federal regulation and laws and leave it up to the states to decide. That way states can compete against each other, rolling back on minimum wage increases, environmental protection etc so they can create a "healthy climate for business". Again, this is the only way! Now to turn off the sarcasm button: Contemporary American Libertarianism is a crock of shit. Libertarianism originally sprung out of the enlightenment and it is supposed to be about liberty and freedom, but it fails to recognize the domination inherent in the owner/worker business model. The terms of a worker's labor are dictated by his owner, and if he doesn't like it, he can "leave and find a new job". Good luck finding any job where you actually have a say in the terms of your labor. The only solution AOD has ever offered me in this little predicament is that workers need to "invest and buy tools, land or businesses", but that just isn't plausible for most of the working poor. I would love to see him go to poor communities in Flint, MI or Camden, NJ and tell them if they want to succeed they need to invest with each other to buy property. If he said that to me, I'd punch him in the fucking face.

Call of Duty Legend Status.... 3000 kills, 1 death. Not to shabby.

Don't mean to derail this, but... Calling the USSR a communist state is like calling the USA a free-market capitalist state. "Stalinist USSR was not socialist (and not communist), but a bureaucratised degenerated workers' state — that is, a non-capitalist state in which the exploitation of labor is controlled by a ruling caste which, although not owning the means of production and not constituting a social class in its own right, accrued benefits and privileges at the expense of the working class." Communism and Socialism really can work as long as the state doesn't get its hands on it. For Example, look at Argentina's recovered factory movement where workplaces are self managed by the workers without any help from the government. Instead of working for a wage handed out by the boss, they actually own an equal share of the product of labor. No need for management to "organize" the labor force. There's a coffee roaster in my town for example that was organized by the I.W.W. (or Industrial Workers of the World), a radical anarcho-syndicalist workers union. It runs itself from within. There is direct democracy in the workplace, where everyone gets 1 vote in every fiscal and non-monetary aspect of the work, rather than electing a union official to make all decisions (and hope they act in your best interest) or even WORSE having an owner or manager making all of the decisions. An owner's interests are always directly opposed to the workers, because the more work he can squeeze out of the least amount of workers the more he gets paid. The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. Primitive hippie communes would be another example of a form of communism that works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA

DOPE where's the rest of the wall?

If we close the borders to people, we should also close the borders to the importation of resources.