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Jun 22, 18

All The Reasons Why It’s Going Down This Summer

Ready or not – this summer, it’s going down.

Ten years after the financial crisis of 2008 and wealth and power are even more concentrated at the top. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the population of the world has become even more precarious, more impoverished, and even within the US, faces a massive decline in both their collective standard of living and life expectancy. Despite this reality and the increase in State “sacrifice zones” from Flint, Michigan to Puerto Rico, the rhetoric from the regime remains the same: that “our” economy is better than ever; that “we” are winning.

More sinister than the obvious fact that those in government lie, is the reality that globally the far-Right is on the march across the world, presenting itself as an authoritarian and at times, even revolutionary, alternative to neoliberalism, and supplements “the Jews” for the ruling class, and “immigrants and communists” for automation, outsourcing, and corporate globalization. But while tiki torches around the world are lit, the ruling elites squabble, and openly snipe at each other on social media and in each other’s faces at global trade summits like the spoiled celebrities that they are. In the background, they also push to form new alliances in a ever shifting terrain in which US global dominance is not certain, and cracks appear within former manifestations of American hegemony, such as at the UN, the WTO, and G-7.

Through the chaos however, the Trump administration has continued on, as a coalition of various far-Right and corporate forces that includes everyone from members of suit and tie white nationalist anti-immigrant think-tanks, oil energy CEOs, Christian evangelicals and Dominionists, and representatives of the top military and police brass.

But our current age is marked not only by the coming to power of Trump, but also the drastic weakening of the official organs of the so-called Left. Despite a few successful attempts at bringing out a cross section of middle class liberals and the progressive bloc of the Democratic Party to various “viral” marches, such as the Women’s, Science, Climate, and March for Our Lives rallies, gone seems to be the day of large mass protests organized by groups such as ANSWER and United for Peace and Freedom. Attempts by Marxist-Leninist groups to fill these roles, such as the RCP’s various “march in circles until things change” events, across the board have largely been failures in the sense they have not generalized outside of protest and activist circles. Furthermore, the DNC has refused to move to the Left and currently despite the fact that we are approaching the midterms, couldn’t be any more useless – which is why no one is really talking about them.

https://twitter.com/DemandUtopia/status/1009668104798867456

At the same time, a real power has been rising: the autonomous material force of the exploited and excluded within society in a growing network of struggles and movements. This power has been marked by largely two things. First, its ability to shut down, blockade, refuse, strike, and stop society from functioning; this extends from the student walkouts to prison strikes to freeway shut downs to the airport occupations. Second, the ability of struggles to bypass, and often negate, the leadership and control of the official Left, and moreover – sees these forces as problematic, such as activist cadres, union bureaucrats, non-profits, the Democratic Party, and beyond.

This growth of autonomous social struggles has also been marked by a rise in organizing and resistance across broad sections of the population. From rural communities in Appalachia forming autonomous zones to resist pipelines, to teachers across the US defying union leadership in massive walkouts, mass prison labor strikes and uprisings, tenants associations and unions organizing rent strikes, people blockading ICE facilities in Portland and beyond, youth in East Pittsburgh shutting down streets for Antwon Rose, to anarchists in Michigan organizing mass coalitions against the Alt-Right. In short, the new wave of resistance reflects a broad territory and no fixed or set identity, yet finds itself strongly represented in those hit hardest by the continuing crisis.

But moreover, the crisis of our current age is also marked by the fact that no one is coming to save us. There is not enough noise we can make to force the State is get us out of the disaster that we are in, because it simply cannot. From the race to the economic bottom to climate change, the current order is simply not equipped to deal with the problems that it has created. This is why Left attempts at taking power (Syriza, Podemos, etc) have largely failed, and have simply helped pave the way for more austerity and creeping fascism.

This is why beyond the need for present struggles to organize themselves autonomously as a means to further their bread and butter goals, there must be a push by revolutionaries for our struggles to produce an autonomous succession from the existing power structure and for the formation and creation of new worlds that are coupled with the communization of the means of existence to suit our own needs, and not that of this capitalist civilization.

With all that in mind, here’s a list of all the reasons why it’s going down this summer.

Immigration: The State Holds No Solutions

In the past week, growing outrage and anger over the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy of forced separation of children from parents at the border has led to mass marches, the occupation of land around at least one ICE facility in Portland and the spreading of rallies and protests outside of a many more facilities across the US.

The growing struggle, which is calling not just for the end of the Zero Tolerance orders, but also for the abolition of ICE itself, shows no signs of stopping, despite the fact that Trump has stated that he has ended the practice in a new executive order. While some liberals have attempted to use this latest move as a call for people to leave the streets and return to politics, the reality of not only of what Trump is proposing, coupled with news that ICE had drugged children, has done nothing to stem the anger growing across the US.

As Kayla Costa wrote:

On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order paving the way for the detention of immigrant families along the US-Mexico border. The order is in response to overwhelming outrage in the population to the forced separation of thousands of children from their parents.

But last night, Trump administration officials made clear that the order was not retroactive, meaning that more than 2,300 children who have been torn away from their parents since early May would remain separated. Trump was explicit that his order does not limit the ongoing “zero tolerance” policy whereby parents are being criminally prosecuted for illegally crossing the border—an act that was criminalized by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Trump’s order also allows for family detention only “where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources,” and provides for separation if there is “a risk to the child’s welfare,” leaving wide-open loopholes for the continuation of the criminal and inhumane practice of tearing children away from their parents and placing them in separate detention camps.

In the wake of Trump’s decision, stock in private prison companies shot through the roof. Meanwhile in Congress, both parties scrambled to try and pass legislation to get people off the streets. As in keeping with past months where DACA recipients were used as bargaining chips in exchange for border militarization and funding ‘The Wall,’ so too now are children separated at the border.

But despite this, there seems to be no slowing down of protests or occupations happening outside of ICE facilities, as each day brings another story of everything from the doxxing of ICE agents to Stephen Miller being harassed at a Mexican restaurant.

As the #OccupyICE actions have grown in cities like Portland, the more the State risks setting off a larger reaction and thus activation of even more segments of the population if it cracks down on the protests and encampments. At the same time, as we know with the Occupy movement, the occupations themselves must grow and evolve if they are to remain a vehicle for revolutionary change and a space for growing autonomy and resistance.

Whatever happens, it remains clear that a political solution found through government and legislation is far from likely, as large sections of the elites are profiting off of both demonizing immigrants for votes, locking them away in private prisons, and using them as cheap undocumented labor. In our favor, this manifests a situation in which no electoral or political solution can be found, and thus through direct action and the building an autonomous material force must we seek to find liberation.

Wages Aren’t Going Up, But Strikes Are

Since the 1970s and the coming of neoliberalism, real wages (what people make, regardless of inflation) in the US have stagnated or fallen. In today’s age, millennial workers have more debt, earn less, and work more hours than their parents did. At the same time, unionization is down, and where it does exist, acts mainly as a conduit that transfers dues into the hands of the Democratic Party and as a police force against any sort of working class self-activity and strike action.

At the same time, attacks on the standard of living for poor and working class people has only continued, and recent Republican tax cuts also signal an open season on the last remaining safety nets for the poor such as medicare, medicaid, and food stamps. In short, any remaining social contract between the elites and the rest of us after the Great Depression and the Civil Rights movement has been destroyed, but with it, comes the opening up of a new wave of class conflict that cannot be contained by either the union bueacrats or the political parties.

This reality was seen throughout the year in both the teachers’ strike as well as a growing strike wave in different sectors. We also saw the growth of the anti-capitalist union, the Industrial Workers of the World, which successfully won recognition in several stores, becoming the first fast food union in the US.

As more and more workers become aware not only of their collective power, but their ability to tell bureaucrats and politicians to fuck off, not only will the strike wave continue, but it will continue to push beyond the limits of previous struggles, and look toward the great horizon: the general strike.

The Rent is Still Too Damn High

If precarity, the gig economy, and debt mark one major part of millennial life, then so too does another major factor: gentrification. Short of a major collapse in the economy and the housing and or tech bubbles bursting themselves, the process of gentrification shows no signs of slowly down. Even if the bubble does burst, it still is not a guarantee that people will be able to return to their previous homes, and the larger trajectories within the economy towards automation, the gig economy, and the rise of giants like Amazon, will remain on track until capitalism itself is toppled.

In this context, tenants are finding their power en masse through refusal. In cities like LA and Toronto, tenant organizations are forming and people are going on rent strike. In other cities like Chicago and Detriot, groups like the Autonomous Tenants Union and Detriot Eviction Defense are forming to organize people to take collective action and fight back. In other cities, Solidarity Networks have been organized to take on specific fights.

https://twitter.com/MinkuAzad/status/1004862814052388864

As more people come together in these organizations, the more confidence is built as people take collective action, and thus, direct action by tenants is only going to continue.

The Police Just Won’t Stop Killing People

Over the last few years, on average the police have killed over 1,000 people per year, and in 2018, law enforcement hasn’t deviated from that norm. Moreover, Trump has only encouraged law enforcement to come down harder on those they arrest, and piece meal reforms put in place by the Obama administration have largely been stripped away. Currently, police are killing upwards of 3.5 people per day.

While every police killing does not lead to protests, much less riots, there is still a continuation of anti-police struggle in the United States that has helped normalize and transmit tactics such as freeway shut downs – across a vast territory.

We must continue to not only organize and support families fighting and organizing in the wake of police murdering their loved ones, but also prepare for the inevitable outbreak of riots and their spreading, such as those which occurred in late 2014 in the wake of the police killings of Mike Brown and Eric Garner.

We Can Win Against Political Repression

This summer marks over a year and a half since the J20 defendants faced over 80 years in prison. In that time, the case has gone from relative obscurity to becoming something discussed in Newsweek, and seen as an example by much of the Left as an attempt by the Trump administration to stifle free speech and protest.

But we should remember that it took work to get to where we are; we had to fight to have our story picked up in the media, and also to build support among other political formations and movements. We arrived at this place due to months and months of call-in campaigns, fundraisers, demonstrations, and weeks of action.

https://twitter.com/defendj20/status/1006245949000355840

While we are no where near the end of the J20 saga, the fact remains that many others are facing repression for their involvement in social movements and struggles, from those facing charges stemming from the anti-police rebellions in Charlotte and Ferguson, to all those that are being sentenced for their involvement at Standing Rock. We need to take our skills and resources and apply them in the fight to free these comrades and get their charges dropped.

And there are still plenty of opportunities to take part in actions of solidarity. On June 25th, there is a call from the IWW to take pat in pickets of DOJ offices across the US to demand that the charges be dropped.

The Alt-Right Is Dead – If We Want It

In the wake of the successful mass antifascist mobilization in East Lansing and the self-destruction of the TWP, many journalists rushed to declare the Alt-Right to be dead. Reports of its demise were premature, both in the fact that the Alt-Right and neo-Nazi groups like Identity Evropa and Patriot Front have continued to organize heavily, white nationalist talking points have only spread via Fox News talking heads like Tucker Carlson, but moreover, Alt-Lite groups such as Patriot Prayer are still attempting to build big tent far-Right coalitions.

Throughout the summer, we will continue to see clashes on the streets between antifascists and antiracists and the Alt-Right. The first large showdown will take place in Portland on June 30th, when Joey Gibson will bring out Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys along with the regular collection of neo-Nazis and Alt-Right trolls. The second will be in Charlottesville and Washington DC on August 11th and 12th, when Jason Kessler will organize the second ‘Unite the Right’ rally, of which he already has a permit for in DC.

Many questions remain: will largely disgraced figures like Joey Gibson and Jason Kessler be able to draw in people outside of their inner circles? Will the current climate within the country push those on the far-Right into the arms of the Alt-Right? Will anarchists and antifascists be able to mobilize mass numbers to shut them down again? We of course hope that people are able to do just that, but moreover, we need to prepare for the fall of 2018 as well, when neo-Nazi and Alt-Right groups will begin to attempt to recruit on campus.

People Are Still Standing Up to the Pipelines

Across the US and Canada, resistance is exploding to pipelines. From indigenous led blockades and battles in Unist’ot’en territory and at Camp Cloud in so-called British Columbia, to the Hellbender Autonomous Zone in Appalachia, people from a wide variety of geographies an backgrounds are coming together and breaking the law en masse to save their land, their homes, their livelihoods, and their water.

In the face of this, the pipeline companies have time and time again ignored court rulings to stop construction and continued to build regardless – even in the face of fines. Working hand and hand with local police and private security, they have targeted Water Protectors and attempted to squash any growing resistance struggles.

What is needed this summer is more bodies on the front-lines. Those fighting the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline in Louisiana, known as the Bayou Bridge pipeline have asked numerous times for reinforcements. Those in Virginia and West Virginia in the Hellbender Autonomous Zone have been pushed out of the trees in the last few weeks and are in the process of regrouping – but still are in need of people on the ground.

A successful wave of pipeline battles would help turn the tide against the fossil fuel industry and also be a huge boost for our movement, but in order to get there, we need people to commit to taking action.

The Prisons Are Set to Explode

Several months ago in South Carolina, police locked the doors on prisoners as a fight broke out, and waited until hours later to make any attempt to offer any sort of medical attention to those that lay dead and dying. In response to the slaughter, prison organizers on the inside put out the call for a national prison strike to begin August 21st until September 9th, the anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. The strike has a list of demands, but like the prison strike that took pace in 2016, is centered on a rejection of prison slavery under the 13th Amendment.

In 2016, the previous prison strike involved tens of thousands of prisons across the US while over 50 cities took place in organizing solidarity demonstrations, blockades, noise demonstrations, and solidarity events. The prison strike also spread, growing to include anarchist prisoners in Greece and Mexico, who joined the strike in solidarity.

https://twitter.com/SlaveryPrison/status/992790660376940545

This year, it appears that even more people on the inside are going to be taking part. Already, current prisoner uprisings and riots and taking place that are both warming up for August 21st, or making reference to it. For instance, in Missouri, inmates across racial lines stole a forklift and launched a short lived uprising at their facility, and wrote “AUGUST 21” on the walls. This Juneteenth, strikes also took place in Florida and Texas, in what many saw was a warm-up exercise.

While the prison strike in 2016 happened under an almost total media black out, this strike is already getting mainstream attention. With more eyes on the prisons this summer, the question is, will we be there when it explodes in August?

Get Ready for A Hot Summer

Decades of neoliberalism, endless wars, and almost two years of Trump have created a generation primed to reject not only the current landscape of establishment politics, but its loyal defenders within the so-called Left institutions which work so hard to give it legitimacy.

With so much popping off, it’s important that we all get organized and start to expand our capacities. Even if we aren’t on the front lines, we can still travel to them. We can still fundraise and establish lines of support. We can expand struggles and bring new people into our movements.

But moreover, that task at hand remains the most difficult. To imagine ourselves not as part of a “protest” movement which is asking for this or that to be reformed, but instead people that are fighting a specific way of life and who are in turn, creating a brand new one.

There is no one coming to save us, but if we are up to the task, we might be able to save ourselves. This summer, it’s going down, one way or another.

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In search of new forms of life. It's Going Down is a digital community center and media platform featuring news, opinion, podcasts, and reporting on autonomous social movements and revolt across so-called North America from an anarchist perspective.

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