ITE_MAR_1_2016

This episode of It's the end of the world

as we know it and I feel fine

was made possible by contributions

from slaves like you.

Spank you very much!

Bill Clinton had become president

with the vision of using political power

to transform America.

But he had been persuaded

to give away that power

to the financial markets

with the promise that this time

they would create a new kind of stability.

A new kind of democracy

free of the corruption of elite politics.

But it was now becoming clear

that in reality, America's political power

had just been transferred to another elite

-- the financiers on Wall Street.

And when faced by a crisis,

they had simply used that power

to rescue themselves.

In the process,

far from creating stability,

their actions were leading to a chaotic

and far more unstable world.

Gooooooooooooooood 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

you don’t have to be a monk to discover

the sound of one hand clapping

Motherfucker!

That hit me in the ear!

I am your host the Stimulator,

and if you’re a Gen-Xer like me

y’all probably remember the early 90s

as a magical fucking time.

NAS had just dropped Ill-matic...

all over the world peeps were

getting fucked up and going to raves...

and we all got our first taste of

surfing the world wide web.

The first thing that you need to know

is that the Internet is amazing

and it's changing every day.

Once you've learned how to get

online yourselves, you'll start seeing

web pages everywhere.

TV shows have them, schools,

Disney World... even the White House.

What's a web page...

something ducks walk on?

And then, to top it off

in 1993, the United Snake’s smooth

sax-playing President, Billy Clint

told us all about a great new trade deal

called NAFTA

that was going to make the world a better

more prosperous fucking place.

We have made a decision now,

that will permit us to create

an economic order in the world

that will promote more growth,

more equality,

better preservation of the environment,

and a greater possibility of world peace.

Buuuuuuuuut like all politicians,

Slick Willy was full of shit.

Blue collar workers in the United Snakes

and Klanada got totally fucked by NAFTA,

with millions losing their jobs

to corporate outsourcing,

while millions of independent

Mexican farmers lost their livelihood,

leading to a crisis of mass migration

that has continued, unabated,

to this fucking day.

Fast-forward more than twenty years

and politicians are still

up to the same fucking tricks.

They confuse the BAD trade deals

in the past, with this one,

which is the first time when

we've been able to get one

that's even steven.

Understandably, folks in labour

and some progressives

are suspicious generally,

because of the experiences they saw

in the past.

But, my point is, don't fight

the last war, wait and see

what we actually have in THIS deal.

The latest incarnation of NAFTA - the TPP,

or Totalitarian Proletarian Pulverizer,

has been expanded to include

an additional nine countries,

and has been dubbed by its critics

as NAFTA on steroids.

After years of top-secret negotiations

these Taco Pinching Pandejos

finally released the text of the agreement

back in November, and since then,

high-priced corporate trade lawyers

from the United Snakes have added their

own special brand of legalese shit-varnish

granting corporations even more protection

for intellectual property rights.

I hereby inform you under powers

entrusted to me under section 47

paragraph 7 of council order #438476,

that Mr. Buttle Archibald, residing at

412 North Tower, Shangrila Towers

has been invited to assist the Ministry

of Information with certain inquiries,

and that he is liable to certain

financial obligations as specified in

council order RB/CZ/907/X.

Sign here please.

This subtle re-write will have grave

implications on the costs of medicine

in poorer countries in South America

and Southeast Asia, and will

force governments in all twelve countries

to criminalize even small

instances of copyright infringement.

Uhh.... Stim.

Yeah, I know... Agitator.

We’re going to motherfuckin jail!

Downloading films is stealing!

If you do it....

you WILL face the consequences.

The Throbbing Purple-headed Peoplefucker

was signed on February 4th,

in Auckland, New Zealand,

as thousands of peeps hit the streets

to denounce their government

as the puppets of the international

corporate elite that they are.

Massive protests have also rocked the

streets of Chile and Lima, Peru

where 5,000 militants threw down

on Thursday February 25th,

lobbing molotovs at the pigs,

who responded with live fucking rounds.

We reject the TPP because it's

another step, another attempt by

the government that bends its knees

before capitalists and global corporations

Buuuuuut by far the most militant protests

have taken place in Japan.

Check this shit out!

Fucking intense!

The Transnational Power Project

now only needs to be ratified by the

governments of each participating country

before it officially becomes law.

Here in Klanada...

while Justin Trudeau has yet to officially

make up his mind,

it’s pretty fucking obvious that he's

going to use his Parliamentary majority

to pass it.

Because, let’s be fucking real...

as Trudeau’s International Trade Minister

Chrystia Freeland explains, when

it comes to fucking people over...

That is my job... and the job

great Canadian companies.

And in other news, on Saturday

February 27th in Anaheim California,

anti-racist militants confronted

several members of the KKK

on their way to a racist fucking rally,

beating the living shit out of them.

During the fracas, several comrades

were stabbed -- one with the

sharpened business end of a flagpole --

and seven were arrested.

Copwatch Santa Ana,

and the LA Anarchist Black Cross are

currently accepting donations to help

cover these comrades

medical and legal bills.

For more info on how you can help,

check out my fucking website:

Last October, so-called South Africa

was rocked by a powerful student movement,

which paralyzed the country with

three weeks of intense protests

sparked by a proposed tuition increase.

Under the banner of #FeesMustFall,

thousands of pissed off students

stormed a parliamentary precinct

in Cape Town,

and marched on the headquarters of

the African National Congress, or ANC,

in Durban and Johannesburg.

This wave of struggle culminated

on October 23rd, when tens of thousands

of protestors rallied outside the office

of the country's corrupt,

neoliberal strongman, Jacob Zuma,

throwing down with the pigs

and torching several porta-potties.

Faced with the protestors'

unwavering determination,

and the sheer fucking size of the crowds,

Zuma backed down.

There will be a zero increase

of university fees.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut rather than settling

for this minor concession,

student organizers have kept their eye

on the motherfuckin prize....

namely, free universal education

and an end to the deep structural racism

that continues to divide the nation

into haves and have-nots.

Despite the fall of Apartheid in 1994,

South Africa remains one of the most

economically polarized countries on earth.

In fact, under the ANC, inequality has

only gotten worse.

Almost 80% of its population

are indigenous Africans, yet

thanks to the nation's colonial history

whites still own over 70%

of the fucking land.

And despite being the second largest

economy in Africa,

millions of its inhabitants live

in sprawling rural slums, struggling to

survive on less than a dollar per day.

Life is very rough.

There are more than 40 of us

sharing one toilet and a tap.

Zuma has been on the ropes since 2013,

after it was discovered that he spent

shit-tons of public skrilla

on opulent renovations to his casa.

In recent months, a growing movement

has been calling for him to be impeached,

and for an end to the ANC's

twenty-two year rule.

So... within this context

of political crisis, the student movement

exploded back on the scene

in mid-February to remind peeps

that shit is still fucking on.

On February 15th,

students at the University of Cape Town

erected a corrugated tin shack on campus

to highlight the lack of

affordable housing available for students.

Pigs responded with flash bang grenades,

which kicked things off.

Militants soon torched two vehicles,

including a university shuttle bus,

then proceeded to engage the po-po

in pitched street battles

late into the night.

On February 22nd,

students and campus workers

at the University of Free State

disrupted a school rugby match,

to demonstrate their opposition to

staff outsourcing, and to show solidarity

with striking workers.

Soon after the disruption, a mob

of white spectators swarmed the field

and began attacking the protestors,

in a gross display of racist violence.

Two days later

at North West University in Mafiking,

the school administrator appointed a new

Student Representative Council,

after dissolving the previous one

for being too fucking radical.

In the protests that followed,

a private security guard opened fire

with live ammunition,

with some reports suggesting that

a student was killed.

In response, militants torched

several campus buildings,

leading to a total suspension of classes.

At the time of this writing,

protests are continuing in

numerous universities across the country,

and show no signs of stopping

anytime soon.

To learn more about this situation

I recently caught up with Alex Hotz,

a member of #RhodesMustFall,

a grassroots student group

that came together in March of 2015

and which has been a major force in the

student movement ever since.

Hey Alex... how the fuck are you?

Ummm... it's a very loaded question.

I'm surviving.

For viewers who might not know,

who was Cecil Rhodes?

And why do people want his statue removed

from the University of Cape Town campus?

Cecil John Rhodes is a symbol of

white supremacy. He was a colonizer...

he was one of the first British governors

in colonized South Africa, and he

plundered the resources of this country,

genocided millions of Black people

and enslaved them, if not killed them.

But also was the founder of racialized

capitalism in this country, because he

started the first huge mining companies

which used and exploited the cheap labour

of Black people.

In recent years, university and

high school students from

so-called Quebec to Chile have

shown that when students get organized,

they can be a serious fucking force

to be reckoned with.

Can you tell us a bit about how

the current student movement

has spread throughout South Africa

and how it is organized?

We've seen the South African government

become a very repressive government that

almost kind of mimics the Apartheid state.

So there's a lot of repression...

police brutality, a clampdown on activity.

So it's been a bit difficult

to be coordinated in the same way in which

it seems the Chilean students,

the students of India, Montreal etc.

So what you find now, is a country that is

deeply polarized and students who are

entering institutions that have had

no change.. they're almost the exact same

institutions. They exist in the same way

they did under Apartheid.

And now Black students having to go into

these institutions and experience

incredible psychological and epistemic

violence, but also physical violence...

as we've seen recently from white students

management of the university, and police.

So... it's been amazing to see how

these protests have spread.

They started... at first it moved to us,

and we had a national shutdown, which we

coordinated through WhatsApp and, y'know...

facebook, etc, etc. And obviously that's

getting a little bit more difficult to do

because we know that the state, through

the National Intelligence Agency,

is trying to infiltrate our movements,

and to spy on many of us.

Last year saw an incredible level of

student mobilization for the

#FeesMustFall movement,

which ultimately succeeded in rolling back

planned tuition increases.

How were peeps involved in this movement

able to keep momentum going after

achieving its initial aims?

So I think for us, and for many of us,

it was never just about the 0% increase.

We were calling for free education,

and still call for free education, and an

ending of outsourcing at all of these

institutions.

And so while, that has been a victory

and it's been used to de-mobilize,

you know, masses of students who supported

and were active in #FeesMustFall, it was

interesting to see the masses of students

who joined #FeesMustFall, and I think

that was because it never necessarily

articulated a radical politic, in the way

in which we do in #RhodesMustFall,

where we have ideological pillars like

Black consciousness, Pan-Africanism,

Black radical feminism...

so it was able to galvanize masses of

students who not necessarily - who had

never been politicized before, and where

this was like, their first kind of

entering of marches, or protest actions.

And I think it was useful to start in that

kind of mobilization for the world,

and for South Africans to see

the police brutality and management

brutality that students faced for such

simple, nonviolent demands, and how that

was met with the violence of the state

and the violence of the institution.

So it's been very difficult, but I think

it is clear in a country with such high

inequality and poverty, and racism

where Black students are completely

alienated and marginalized from the

institutions, that free education

must happen in 2016 in order for the

Black majority in this country to be able

to enter these institutions and not be

excluded.

Because of its historic role

in the struggle against Apartheid,

the African National Congress or ANC

is seen by many people around the world

as a torch-bearer for anti-colonial struggles

more broadly.

Yet many people, including members of the

#RhodesMustFall movement, feel the ANC

has betrayed their original mission.

Why is that?

We went through a negotiated settlement

with the Apartheid regime,

which means that many of the

oppressive instruments that existed

in this country to repress, alienate,

exploit and marginalize Black people,

and oppress Black people, were left intact

--especially the economy of the country.

So, mining stayed intact.... agriculture

a bit of people retained the wealth,

white people retained the wealth.

White people retained the land...

and you never saw--Black people

to this day have not seen any kind of

redistribution, or even compensation

or reparation for what has happened to us

in this country.

So I think, for me the ANC continues

and has always been, like a buffer

and a gate-keeper for white supremacy

--white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

And their position now

as Fanon would speak of, is they are

the comprador class, the middle-man

between those who still retain power

and the Black majority.

The ANC is currently facing a challenge

from the left, coming from a new party

called the Economic Freedom Fighters,

or EFF.

What is the relationship between

the student movement and the EFF?

And do you feel that the betrayal of

the ANC has soured many South Africans'

opinions on traditional electoral politics

So the EFF, the rise of the EFF, I think

is incredibly important in this country

to challenge this notion that this

generation is apathetic, or apolitical.

And you can see the EFF, over a very short

period of time gained huge support.

And I suppose the EFF, just like the ANC

has an incredible amount of contradictions

... so many of them come from the ANC

and have grown up in the ANC, and in

other movements that are very close to

the ANC, like [inaudible], and the Young

Communist League, and the ANC League

which are all kind of linked to the ANC.

And, you know they talk about economic

freedom, etc, and nationalizing

the economy, but there's the challenge

of how within that organization

materialism through its leadership is

kind of accepted, and it goes unchallenged

South Africa has a variety of other powerful

social movements, such as the country's

trade unions, and the shack dwellers

movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo or AbM,

which I understand has a large section

in Cape Town.

Has there been much overlap and solidarity

between students and some of these

other social movements?

I think for us, to see the rise

in social movements like

Abahali baseMjondolo, and the way in which

they raised and put the issue of housing

and land to the fore of political

discussion and debates has been

incredibly important.

But I think what's also been really

interesting in our engagements as young

people with these political organizations

and social movements, to say that as young

people... from one generation to another,

you know, "We are forging our own struggle

and we are fighting our own battles...

and we would like your support.

But in a way that is not patronizing,

is not telling us what to do, but really

being able to learn together and

unlearn together and build a bigger

broader movement. Because we know that

we cannot do this by ourselves."

Anything else you'd like to add?

Maybe just to say that I think

it's critical that we build genuine

trans-national solidarity as young people

and as students across the world.

So to support the students of India,

to support the students of Chile, Brazil,

South Africa, Canada, Kenya...

who are struggling for the same things

we are... in countries where we are

repressed, brutalized, etc.

I think we can learn a lot from each other,

and support each other.

Thanks Alex!

And that about does it for this sedition

of It's the End of the World as we Know it

And I feel Fine.

If you'd like to find out the names of the

songs we played, the movies we sampled,

or to subscribe to our podcast,

or email list.... just visit my

fuckin website:

In case you didn't know, this show is

funded by micro-donations from wage slaves

who'd rather get their news from this

floating composite.

So... my undying love this week goes out

to the following slaves: Marisol, Joseph,

Kirk, Willie, Gerrard, Justina, Jeremy,

Reto, Renzo, Yvanne, Sebastien,

Christopher, Alexandra, Ricky, Andrew,

Jason, Dylan, Mason, Massiege, Sara,

Gregory, Jennifer, Martin, Jonathan, Max,

Gomo, Jonathan, Kyle, Stephen, Miguel

and... Shannon.

Teguino!

I would also like to welcome the newest

members of the taconspiracy...

Christopher, Stinsky and Daniel.

Chermole!

Stay tuned next time, for more news

from the global motherfuckin resistance!

Que la passen chingon camaradas!