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Goooooooooooood morning slaves
and welcome to another sedition of
It's the End of the World as we Know it
and I Feel Fine - the show where
the future looks fucking bleak!
Donald Trump is likely going to be
the Republican nominee for president.
It's Trump all the way!
I think he may be the next president
of the United States.
♫ Cowardice... are you serious?
Apologies for freedom?
I can't handle this! ♫
I am your host the Stimulator
and for weeks now, Paris, the so-called
city of love, has been transformed into
the city of mothafuckin rage!
Ever since the terrorist attacks
that rocked France's capital last November
the whole fucking country has been
under a state of emergency - after
its chinless President, Francois Hollande
dredged up an old law drafted in
19 fucking 55, as part of France's
dirty counterinsurgency war in Algeria.
This emergency law, which places limits
on protests, and grants additional powers
to the state security forces,
was extended for a second time
on February 16th, and will now
be in place until at least May 26th
It's a real challenge to see when
we will come out of this stage
of emergency.
When do we stop it, and how?
So far, the French state has mainly used
its expanded powers to harass
and further alienate the nation’s large
Muslim population.
Mosques and Halal restaurants have been
targeted, thousands of warrantless raids
have been carried out,
and hundreds of peeps have been placed
under strict house arrest without trial.
I was woken up by a noisy pounding
and shootings at the door.
My daughter was hit in the neck.
Probably by some shotgun pellets.
Tension against this atmosphere
of generalized repression has been
steadily building for months and
multiple flashpoints across the country
have since begun to converge into
a generalized movement of anti-capitalist
and anti-state resistance.
Not surprisingly,
one of these flashpoints is La ZAD
- the sprawling land defense occupation
that for years now has been
actively opposing the construction of
the planned Notre Dame Des Landes airport.
Back in January a court handed down
a ruling upholding the state seizure of
several farm houses on the occupation site
and the eviction of their residents.
Unmoved by the court’s decision,
residents of La ZAD have vowed to defend
their encampment from any future attacks
and have called on their allies for
solidarity and support.
On February 20th, militants in the
nearby city of Nantes answered this call,
taking to the streets to denounce
the extension of the state of emergency
and to express their solidarity with
the intransigent residents of La ZAD.
During the demonstration, paint bombs
and other projectiles were lobbed at
police lines
and peeps took the opportunity to
redecorate a number of banks
and high-end shops.
Another flashpoint has been
the Calais Jungle
the infamous refugee camp
home to thousands of migrants trapped
in France on their way to the UK.
The demolition and forced eviction
of the southern section of camp began
on February 29th, sparking resistance
from camp residents, including
a hunger strike launched on March 2nd
by a dozen Iranian refugees,
several of whom sewed their mouths shut.
This hunger strike concluded on March 25th
after the French government backed off
from plans to demolish the
northern section of the Jungle,
but suffice to say...
tensions are still fucking high.
So…. within this context
of simmering social unrest
on March 9th
in an amazing display of chutzpah
the French government decided to
introduce a harsh labour reform bill,
the so-called El Khomri law,
which seeks to eliminate the country's
sacrosanct 35-hour workweek cap,
which most French workers view
as a hard-won achievement
earned through decades of
militant class struggle.
For many peeps in France
this was the last fucking straw
and the response has been a resounding
FUCK YOU!
Unions have launched a series of
coordinated strikes and
taken to the streets across the country,
where they have been joined by
tens of thousands of striking high school
and university students.
At a massive demonstration on March 17th
crowds of pissed off youth clashed with
the French po-po in the streets of Paris
lobbing rocks and flares
and attacking police vans.
One week later, the country was rocked by
an even rowdier series of protests
as the piss-licking capitalists
of the so-called Partie Socialiste
met again to try to introduce
a slightly-revised version of the law.
In Paris, black clad hooligans
rained a hail of bottles down
on the militarized swine
of the French po-po,
several undercovers were unceremoniously
ejected from the crowd
and several cars were burnt to a
crispy crisp.
Later that day, after footage of the pigs
assaulting a high school student
went viral, youth responded by
smashing up two fucking cop shops
and looting two grocery stores
seizing food and redistributing it to
peeps on the street.
Taco. Free Taco?
This latest wave of protests culminated,
on Thursday March 31st, in a nationwide
general mothafuckin strike.
266 different protests took place
with a reported 1.3 million peeps
participating nationwide.
Marches were held in every major city
in the country
many of which led to street-fighting
with the police.
In Paris over 30,000 peeps participated
in a demonstration that quickly descended
into violent attacks on the mothafuckin pigs.
Check this shit out!
Real change requires real action.
I am no hero... just a citizen
who decided to get up and do something.
I've done my part.
Now it's your turn.
At the time of writing, shit in Paris
is still popping the fuck off,
and given the intractable nature of
the multiple issues fueling
the current wave of unrest,
it’s a fair guess that things won’t be
calming down anytime soon.
Bravo France. Bra-fucking-vo.
Some of y’all might remember that
a couple of months ago,
me and my subMedia slaves put out
a brief report on the masturbatory
spectacle that’s been
dominating the headlines for much
of the past year in the United Snakes.
This is a red high chair.
I wanna have a baby
so I can bop it with a sharp
peanut shell.
That's friggen weird.
As we explained at the time,
we did so because as anarchists,
we're sick and motherfuckin tired
of having to explain to peeps
that revolutionary change doesn’t come
through the ballot box.
And since the main proponents of this
brainwashed fucking delusion
tend to be leftists of the
liberal-progressive variety,
that’s who we took to task.
We gonna bring the neoliberal era
to a close, my sister.
We gonna fight the neo-fascism of Trump
in the name of neo-populism.
And we're gonna invite you to get on
the Bernie Sanders love train.
Oh. My. God.
Buuuuuuuuuuut while we were
not altogether surprised by
the temper tantrum this provoked from
die-hard supporters of Bernie’s
so-called “political revolution”….
I gotta say I was honestly
pretty fucking shocked to see
some peeps misinterpret our attack on
electoral politics as a tacit endorsement
of Republican front-runner
and human fucking sphincter,
Donald Trump.
Well she does have a very nice figure.
I've said that if Ivanka weren't
my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her.
Oh. My. God.
So... although I’m amazed
I even have to say it,
just so there’s no misunderstanding.
FUCK DONALD TRUMP!
Now… while Trump’s liberal detractors
often view his supporters as
an unidentified mass of wife-beating
truck-nut aficionados,
disillusioned Christian fundamentalists
and a garden variety of
white supremacists of all stripes,
the uncomfortable truth is that Trump
speaks to the injured pride of a broad
cross-section of working-class Americans
who despite growing up being told that
they lived in the greatest country
on earth, have nonetheless
seen their livelihoods gutted by decades
of neoliberal restructuring
and corporate trade deals
pushed through by Washington elites
like Hillary Clinton.
It’s also no fucking secret that
the United Snakes is teeming with masses
of peeps who are generally pissed off
because shit’s fucked
I don't want lunch. I want breakfast.
Yeah well hey. I'm really sorry.
Yeah? Hey, I'm really sorry too.
HE'S GOT A GUN!
yet lack a nuanced understanding of the
intricate workings of global capitalism
and its influence on geopolitics.
Hence the huge following for
populist bullshit artists like Alex Jones.
It is an alien force, not of this world.
This is not human intelligence, okay?
IT'S NOT HUMAN INTELLIGENCE!
Oh. My. God.
And to all those who’d prefer to blame
their very real everyday problems
on the colour of Obama’s skin
or the fact that he’s a shape-shifting
reptilian from another dimension,
Trump might seem like a rational choice.
Plus... the muthafucker was on TV!
The United Snakes has a storied history
of electing celebrities from the
entertainment industry into office
whether the Governator
Arnold Schwarzenegger
I'll be back.
Jesse “the Body” Ventura
The Body will get to the bottom of this.
or even the ol’ Gipper himself…
Ronnie fuckin Reagan!
I like what you're doing with the car.
Just stick with that.
Trump is just the latest embodiment
of this phenomenon - a reality TV star,
failed real estate tycoon
and professional Gordon Gecko impersonator
with a hilarious spray tan
and a goofy fucking hairdo
that closely resembles a toupee
crafted out of the carcass of
an albino squirrel.
Buuuuuuut what’s novel about Trump
is that his whole celebrity persona
is crafted around him being
a total fucking prick
or as it’s known in the professional
wrestling circuit, a heel.
Get in the ring Vince. Get in the ring!
Yup…. the current front-runner
for the Republican party is a straight-up
mothafuckin villain.
And he’s still getting votes!
From his call for the construction of
a literal fucking wall
on the Mexican border
to his balls-out fascist promise to bar
Muslim visitors to the United Snakes,
the fact that this openly bigoted
They're bringing drugs.
They're bringing crime.
They're rapists.
sexist figure
Must be a pretty picture
you dropping to your knees.
is resonating with millions of Americans
is fucking terrifying.
I don't know what it is,
I just like the guy.
Let me tell ya, I'm a really smart guy.
IT'S NOT HUMAN INTELLIGENCE!
So… to learn more just about what the fuck
is going on south of the border,
we recently caught up with B Traven,
an operative with the CrimethInc.
ex-Workers’ Collective,
a US-based anarchist network producing
analysis and tools for revolution.
Hey B... how the fuck are you?
Oh, I'm doing alright.
Trump's election bid has unleashed some
pretty ugly displays of
reactionary politics in the United Snakes.
His campaign has managed to draw
the vocal support of leading members
of the KKK... but despite that,
it has simultaneously resonated with
millions of American voters.
What do you think that this says about
the current state of American society?
Basically I think that Trump's success
tells us about where we are
in the crisis of capitalism.
When things polarize, some people
go looking for a better boss.
They look for a better authority figure
to usher them through the crisis.
This means blaming down the hierarchy.
Blaming the people who have less power
than you.
Which is less intimidating than blaming
the people who have more power than you,
because if you blame the people who have
more power than you, you have to go to war
with people who are stronger than you.
Who have more money, who have more guns.
But of course the real problem is that
these structures of power exist that could
put a person like Trump in the position
of power that he's already in.
Let alone, enable him to take more power
by becoming president.
Trump's campaign has also been targeted
by protestors who have shut down rallies
in Chicago and Kansas City
and have taken to the streets
in New York and Arizona.
What do you think of these tactics?
Well, I appreciate the courage
that it takes for someone to
put themselves in that dangerous situation
to interrupt the spectacle of everybody
worshiping Donald Trump.
That kind of spectacle has always been
important to authoritarians,
to dictators... to show the sort of image
of everybody celebrating the great hero.
The protagonist. The great man.
I think it's important to show that Trump
doesn't have everyone behind him.
And to show that what he's doing
can be interrupted.
To show that he can't control us, y'know?
I really appreciate the things that
people are doing.
Of course the most important thing
in the long run, is not to be able
to make symbolic gestures, but actually
to interrupt the functioning of those
institutions themselves.
Many commentators,
including Noam Chomsky, have likened
Trump's candidacy to the rise of
the Nazi Party in the 1930s in Germany.
What do you make of this comparison?
I think it is significant that Hitler
came to power by a democratic election
as well.
I mean, democracy itself is just
a set of procedures that can put
anyone in power, really.
Trump recently came out warning
that there will be riots if
the GOP deny him the party's nomination.
Republican and Democratic
National Conventions have historically
been sites of protests,
from the 1968 DNC in Chicago,
to the RNC and DNC counter-demonstrations
of the anti-globalization era....
buuuuuuut the spectre of a mass of pissed
off Trump supporters thrown into the
mix would change this dynamic totally,
possibly leading to a three-way clash
between his supporters, his opponents,
and the mothafuckin pigs.
What are your thoughts on this...
or is it even worth speculating about?
Since the Ukrainian Revolution a couple
of years ago, we've seen right-wing
or nationalist groups appropriating
the tactics that we develop...
like the Occupy model.
In not just Ukraine, but Brazil
and Venezuela.
In Romania, and Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Y'know... in the US, this means that
the right-wingers now want to...
y'know... they wanna have, like,
right-wing occupations or something.
They want to develop, like a street-level
grassroots activity.
And that's what makes the Klan
really dangerous in this situation.
Because they're an example of a group
that can channel this.
As for the three way clash that you're
talking about... that's also contemporary
of our era, where the state breaks down
y'know...rival groups compete to be the
alternative to the ruling order.
And this situation makes it really
important for us to demonstrate
that we are the ones who have
a liberating vision for how we can
take on the government and win,
so when people are trying to decide
what they're going to do with their rage
about the oppression that
they're experiencing... that we will
be the ones to make contact with them.
Not the Klan.
So... what the fuck do anarchists have
against democracy?
Well, we're anxious about Trump
coming to power, right?
But the real problem is that any person
could wield so much power through
those institutions.
Let's look at the institutions
of government itself.
Think about... ministries
the military
the police, the court system.
Now, all of these institutions are older
than democracy.
They are the same institutions that
served kings.
They were invented under kings
during the monarchy, for ruling people.
For wielding power over people.
And now we're supposed to identify with
these authoritarian institutions...
just because every four years, or every
two years we can have a little bit
of a say on who pilots them.
But the institutions themselves
are fundamentally authoritarian.
Government itself is a means of rule.
A means of imposing control over people.
And any system that functions through
majority rule is going to need
lines of exclusion and means of coercion.
Lines of exclusion could be borders,
it could be citizenship... but it means
that there are people who are included
and people who are excluded.
In a racist society, you know who
that's going to be.
As for means of coercion...
if you have majority rule, you have to
have a way of imposing those decisions
on people, right?.
That's going to mean the police.
That's going to mean the court system.
But it means that in the end,
you're not the one who has power
over your life, right?
The institutions have power
over your life.
Anarchists are often criticized
by liberals and so-called "progressives"
for sitting on the sideline
during elections, and failing to take
a pragmatic approach to social change.
Are there ways that you think
anarchists can or should engage
with elections outside of voting?
Well the most pragmatic thing that we can
do, of course, is to develop our own
capacity to act directly to implement
the changes that we want
so that we're not dependent on politicians.
Historically, whenever we come up with
a narrative or a set of tactics
that actually could work to do this,
we see politicians run along behind us
promising to give us all the things we've
finally become capable of doing
for ourselves.
So if you want to have an influence
on the political system,
rather than canvassing or, you know,
trying to promote some politician,
the best thing is to develop your own
autonomous power.
And then you'll see them trying to
appropriate your narratives.
And that about does it for this sedition
of It’s the End of the World as We Know it
and I Feel Fine.
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So, this week the following peeps deserve
big gratitude for keeping the tacos
rolling: Marten, Remy, Max, Jonathan,
Nicholas, Michal, Artist, Christopher,
Steven, Dylan, Kyle, Shannon, Maciej,
Francois, John, Jennifer, Benjamin, Yania,
Claire, Daniel, Samuel, Justin, Anton,
Robin, Ranko, Guillaume, Hansen,
Deda, Rogier, Raul, Stephen, Jay,
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Jonathan, Joshua, John, Jan, Jane,
Andrew, Scott, Per, Flyn, Bear, Michael,
Faloba, William, Sebastian, Daniel,
Samantha, Michael, Lauren and Andrew.
Bolillos!
I would also like to welcome the newest
members of the taconspiracy: Coby,
Gabriel, Jamie, Rogier, Anton and Booda
Churipo!
Stay tuned next time for more news
from the globlal muthafuckin resistance.
Hasta la pasta companeras!