FUCKYEAH ANARCH@PUNK

ANARCHY

/Riot/Art/Antiart/Situationist International/Dada/Punk/Neoism/Music/Zines/Class War/King Mob/Hooligans/Black Mask/Motherfuckers/Angry Brigade/Propaganda/Provos/Riot Grrrls/Spanish Revolution/DIY/Counterculture/

  • Home
  • RSS
  • Archive
  • Random
  • My Likes
  • Ask me anything
  • Submit
  • 23 Aug
    05:15 am
      Shock Doctrine in Practice: The Connection Between Nighttime Robbery In the Streets and Daytime Robbery By Elites. When you rob people of what little they have, in order to protect the interests of those who have more than anyone deserves, you should expect resistance.   I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities—window smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten. But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we should talk about them too. There was Baghdad in the aftermath of the US invasion—a frenzy of arson and looting that emptied libraries and museums. The factories got hit too. In 2004 I visited one that used to make refrigerators. Its workers had stripped it of everything valuable, then torched it so thoroughly that the warehouse was a sculpture of buckled sheet metal. Back then the people on cable news thought looting was highly political. They said this is what happens when a regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people. After watching for so long as Saddam and his sons helped themselves to whatever and whomever they wanted, many regular Iraqis felt they had earned the right to take a few things for themselves. But London isn’t Baghdad, and British Prime Minister David Cameron is hardly Saddam, so surely there is nothing to learn there. How about a democratic example then? Argentina, circa 2001. The economy was in freefall and thousands of people living in rough neighborhoods (which had been thriving manufacturing zones before the neoliberal era) stormed foreign-owned superstores. They came out pushing shopping carts overflowing with the goods they could no longer afford—clothes, electronics, meat. The government called a “state of siege” to restore order; the people didn’t like that and overthrew the government. Argentina’s mass looting was called El Saqueo—the sacking. That was politically significant because it was the very same word used to describe what that country’s elites had done by selling off the country’s national assets in flagrantly corrupt privatization deals, hiding their money offshore, then passing on the bill to the people with a brutal austerity package. Argentines understood that thesaqueo of the shopping centers would not have happened without the biggersaqueo of the country, and that the real gangsters were the ones in charge. But England is not Latin America, and its riots are not political, or so we keep hearing. They are just about lawless kids taking advantage of a situation to take what isn’t theirs. And British society, Cameron tells us, abhors that kind of behavior. This is said in all seriousness. As if the massive bank bailouts never happened, followed by the defiant record bonuses. Followed by the emergency G-8 and G-20 meetings, when the leaders decided, collectively, not to do anything to punish the bankers for any of this, nor to do anything serious to prevent a similar crisis from happening again. Instead they would all go home to their respective countries and force sacrifices on the most vulnerable. They would do this by firing public sector workers, scapegoating teachers, closing libraries, upping tuitions, rolling back union contracts, creating rush privatizations of public assets and decreasing pensions—mix the cocktail for where you live. And who is on television lecturing about the need to give up these “entitlements”? The bankers and hedge-fund managers, of course. This is the global Saqueo, a time of great taking. Fueled by a pathological sense of entitlement, this looting has all been done with the lights left on, as if there was nothing at all to hide. There are some nagging fears, however. In early July, the Wall Street Journal, citing a new poll, reported that 94 percent of millionaires were afraid of “violence in the streets.” This, it turns out, was a reasonable fear. NAOMI KLEIN

     

    Shock Doctrine in Practice: The Connection Between Nighttime Robbery In the Streets and Daytime Robbery By Elites.

    When you rob people of what little they have, in order to protect the interests of those who have more than anyone deserves, you should expect resistance.

     

    I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities—window smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten.

    But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we should talk about them too. There was Baghdad in the aftermath of the US invasion—a frenzy of arson and looting that emptied libraries and museums. The factories got hit too. In 2004 I visited one that used to make refrigerators. Its workers had stripped it of everything valuable, then torched it so thoroughly that the warehouse was a sculpture of buckled sheet metal.

    Back then the people on cable news thought looting was highly political. They said this is what happens when a regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people. After watching for so long as Saddam and his sons helped themselves to whatever and whomever they wanted, many regular Iraqis felt they had earned the right to take a few things for themselves. But London isn’t Baghdad, and British Prime Minister David Cameron is hardly Saddam, so surely there is nothing to learn there.

    How about a democratic example then? Argentina, circa 2001. The economy was in freefall and thousands of people living in rough neighborhoods (which had been thriving manufacturing zones before the neoliberal era) stormed foreign-owned superstores. They came out pushing shopping carts overflowing with the goods they could no longer afford—clothes, electronics, meat. The government called a “state of siege” to restore order; the people didn’t like that and overthrew the government.

    Argentina’s mass looting was called El Saqueo—the sacking. That was politically significant because it was the very same word used to describe what that country’s elites had done by selling off the country’s national assets in flagrantly corrupt privatization deals, hiding their money offshore, then passing on the bill to the people with a brutal austerity package. Argentines understood that thesaqueo of the shopping centers would not have happened without the biggersaqueo of the country, and that the real gangsters were the ones in charge.

    But England is not Latin America, and its riots are not political, or so we keep hearing. They are just about lawless kids taking advantage of a situation to take what isn’t theirs. And British society, Cameron tells us, abhors that kind of behavior.

    This is said in all seriousness. As if the massive bank bailouts never happened, followed by the defiant record bonuses. Followed by the emergency G-8 and G-20 meetings, when the leaders decided, collectively, not to do anything to punish the bankers for any of this, nor to do anything serious to prevent a similar crisis from happening again. Instead they would all go home to their respective countries and force sacrifices on the most vulnerable. They would do this by firing public sector workers, scapegoating teachers, closing libraries, upping tuitions, rolling back union contracts, creating rush privatizations of public assets and decreasing pensions—mix the cocktail for where you live. And who is on television lecturing about the need to give up these “entitlements”? The bankers and hedge-fund managers, of course.

    This is the global Saqueo, a time of great taking. Fueled by a pathological sense of entitlement, this looting has all been done with the lights left on, as if there was nothing at all to hide. There are some nagging fears, however. In early July, the Wall Street Journal, citing a new poll, reported that 94 percent of millionaires were afraid of “violence in the streets.” This, it turns out, was a reasonable fear.

    NAOMI KLEIN

    • #riot
    ← Previous post […] Next post →
    1. mingemerde reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    2. thep0int liked this
    3. veganparty reblogged this from slowdancexvx
    4. slowdancexvx reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    5. jealous-of-my reblogged this from californiabb
    6. neverthesun reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    7. crippledwizard reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    8. cosmicrubric liked this
    9. viva-zapata reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    10. mermaidcomplex liked this
    11. nadia-neptura reblogged this from clintirwin
    12. clintirwin reblogged this from speakmnemosyne
    13. thedailyeli liked this
    14. speakmnemosyne reblogged this from melkytuesday
    15. sprinklerthief liked this
    16. thelootingofreason reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    17. courageuse reblogged this from gladandyoung
    18. localyolk reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    19. stonecoldsiren reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk and added:
      fuckyeahanarchopunk
    20. speakmnemosyne liked this
    21. electrostasy liked this
    22. scheisse reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    23. odetoaparadox liked this
    24. mommaloup liked this
    25. fratellolupo liked this
    26. californiabb reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    27. mamitah reblogged this from ghost-of-algren
    28. melkytuesday liked this
    29. melkytuesday reblogged this from sincoscossincoscossinsin
    30. sincoscossincoscossinsin reblogged this from ghost-of-algren and added:
      The full essay is here: http://www.thenation.com/article/162809/daylight-robbery-meet-nighttime-robbery
    31. saturnshome reblogged this from ghost-of-algren
    32. sohcahtoa liked this
    33. ghost-of-algren reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    34. paradigmtheplanet liked this
    35. amordepunk reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    36. shakeitupbebe liked this
    37. pron4all liked this
    38. pron4all reblogged this from treesspeakinlatin
    39. treesspeakinlatin reblogged this from optimoprime
    40. optimoprime reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    41. elli-mae liked this
    42. ocdelightful liked this
    43. starmichael reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    44. morestitches reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk and added:
      constant frustration..
    45. safetymeeting liked this
    46. lostbetweendreamsandfears liked this
    47. puelladeartemis reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    48. strikeattheroot liked this
    49. gruesomecraft reblogged this from gladandyoung
    50. gladandyoung reblogged this from fuckyeahanarchopunk
    51. Show more notesLoading...
Indecision | powered by tumblr