Anarchists Win the Day

Protestors from New York to San Francisco are hailing this afternoon’s actions at Funk the War and Reclaim the Streets an inspirational success. After marching through the streets in an un-permitted breakaway snake march, Anarchists and Anti-Authoritarians have revitalized feelings of pride and possibility in protest in the streets.

The breakaway snake march lasted approximately two-and-a-half hours. Demonstrators and police had three tense stand-offs. After police demanded protesters disperse, they did. And then they reconvened and continued the occupation of public space, several times.

Approximately 20 demonstrators surrounded by police escaped into a multi-story parking lot, ran up the building, and chanted enthusiastically from the roof to the delight of the crowds below.

The classic Whose Streets Our Streets chant gained real meaning for the protesters as they reclaimed the parking lot, the streets, and a sense of possibility that hints at the transforming power of a public in rage at the war and fueled with a tremendous sense of joy and liberation.

Reports indicate that the police acted violently, shooting some sort of weaponry into the crowd and arresting a protesting youth. Police used horses to attack demonstrators.

Despite police violence, the victory in the streets was had by these non-permitted demonstrators who proved that public explosions of joy and liberation are still possible indeed.

Politics Beyond Self-Consumption

Unable to legitimately attack the people destroying the world, various stripes of Leftists devour each other regularly. Metaphoric bloodlust haunts people from various parts of the political spectrum. Pacifists consume militants. Militants consume each other. The ruling class maintains its power.

Most frustrating to me is the inability of ideologues to accept a political strategy of addition. The word and is the only word I'm aware of that can keep us moving forward. Pacifism and militant struggle and lifestyle shifts and organizing and direct action and rhetorical strategy, and etc... and etc... and etc...

Sadly, people prefer to take the either or, the dialectical, the contradictory and play it out on the irrelevant level of Left-bickering. Either pacifism or nothing. Either radicalism or nothing. Either direct action or nothing.

These binding either-or attitudes destroy possibility, create fissures and feed into strategies of capitalism, state-ism, and oppression.

Impossibly irrelevant, the contemporary Left must stop nibbling on its own flesh and focus its rage towards the targets that deserve it. Our common hatred of oppression and our common love of liberation can help us rise above auto-cannibalism and direct our energy towards building the world we want to see and destroying the people and tools of oppression. Let's eat the fruits of revolution, not our own guts.

"I'm a Lover Not a Fighter."

Yes. I actually uttered this cliche in an interview for Colorado Matters about the work of Unconventional Denver.

Otto; Or, Up With Dead People

It's been a dreamy Denver weekend filled with lots of love, pleasure, and beautiful people behaving beautifully. My heart thumps warmly. Just what I needed before Democrats invade D-town, the police state bashes pretty people protesting, and pundits pontificate on the possibilities and failures of the 2 party system. Just what I needed before old friends come to town to protest, celebrate anarchic possibilities, joy, and liberation and strike out at the violence of dominant U.S. Politics.

All this being said, tonight, I went with Bart and Stephen to watch Bruce LaBruce's new melancholic gay zombie flick. Otto; Or, Up With Dead People My friend Keith Garcia at the Denver Film Society programmed the picture in his larger Zombie movie series. While I love LaBruce's other films, I think Otto may very well be the sweetest, most painful, and most compelling. Ah, the beauty of a good flick!

Udall Enthusiasts Outside My Window

I'm looking out my window at work and see a number of white folks in white tee-shirts screaming and holding signs that say "Udall. They are pumping the swaggering signs like enthusiastic masturbaters. Presumably they think they represent something politically intriguing. Unfortunately, their signs fail to indicate what they stand for other than "UDALL."

Udall.

This is precisely what's wrong with U.S. politics. Its grounded in enthusiastic representation without content.

"Fire Fighters for Udall" just rode up. Their shirts are yellow. They appear, from my vantage point, to be all white. In Five Points, Denver's historic black neighborhood, dozens of white enthusiasts with white signs and a big white truck with no messaging other than "Udall" seems no more meaningful than a white piece of paper with nothing on it other than Udall.

Another white man appears with another sign with another name. U.S. political process is an embarrassing farce. For me, I prefer content to screaming enthusiasts with words like Udall.

All we have in the U.S. is empty branding, corporate candidates, and a zombie like public that occasionally gets involved