Unhappy New Year

I have often used the tagline "pleasure, revolt, despair" to describe my personal-political disposition. Entering 2009, my heart is filled with the latter. The Israeli invasion of Gaza, the continued occupation of Iraq, the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and the war against immigrants, people of color, women, and queers continues to cost thousands of lives. With all the celebration in the U.S. cities over the past year, we have heard so little frustration, strategy, revolt.

May this empire of greed and destruction collapse. May the oppressed be liberated. May 2009 bring down the violence of the United States of America.

The Dawn of Denver

Happily, I'm back in Denver for awhile--beautiful, dry Denver. Coming back from all these travels, I feel its quite important to find whats beautiful in one's city--the people, the projects, the geography, the architechture, art, etc...So, that's what I'm wanting to do--come up with more ways of celebrating the beauty of what people here are doing--through video, art, etc...

So for starters, I want to brag about a little something we are doing tomorrow at Free Speech TV--We are shooting The Activist Studio episode about Counter-Recruitment and Anti-War activism featuring Jeff Englehart of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Jessi Quizar of American Friends Service Committee's Youth and Militarism Program.

Ashara Ekundayo, the show's host, will be digging into what exactly is going on in our city in terms of anti-war activism, organing soldiers, and students in high schools and beyond. I am particuarly excited because Jessi is my roommate and a badass organizer/activist. Jeff, someone I've know through Anti-DNC/RNC organizing for a few months now, is also qutie an inspiration. When he was a soldier he was an active blogger writing against the occupation of Iraq. So check it out at our website.

In the meantime, if you live in Denver, start thinking of badass projects and lets start finding some wasy to promote that stuff.

How Can We End This War?

9/11 derailed the counter-globalization movement. The morning the planes smashed into the World Trade Center, the Financial Times reported that "the protesters are winning." This referred to the international movement against neoliberal economic policy--that of the Zapatistas, the protesters against the WTO in Seattle, the IMF and World Bank, and the G8 in Genoa. When the anti-war movement began to emerge against the wars in Afghanistan and eventually Iraq, conversations about violence verses non-violence that hardly touched the counter-globalization movement began to sorely disrupt large-scale organizing efforts. Years later, the war continues. The public has grown in its disgust with the war; however, its ferocious opposition has slowly subsided. A violent reaction against the war in Iraq has not shaken the country. Capitalism continues strongly, unabated by mass discontent. The non-violent anti-war activists continue to voice opposition without effect. Militants continue to use violent language and do very little. The police continue their campaigns of violence. The military continues its campaign of violence. The capitalists continue their campaigns of violence and people remain largely quite. Is our silence not a form of violence? Is our refusal to disrupt business as usual not a form of violence? Is our absence in the streets not a form of violence? Are we not complicit in the daily slaughter of Iraqis? How can we remind people that the war continues, that children continue to be murdered? How can we stand by as the United States continues to commit grand acts of murder? How can we gain the strength to march in the streets day after day till the atrocities stop? How can we gain the faith that our actions matter? How can we end this war?