Economic Aspects of "Love"

[American Dream]

[American Dream]

http://kloncke.com/2011/03/17/revolutionary-and-pre-figurative-politics/

Revolutionary and Pre-Figurative Politics

Katie Loncke MARCH 17, 2011


How do the two fit together?

This question’s been yelling itself in my face for the past couple of days. (Weeks?) Not only in theoretical terms, but in practical ways. Touched on by elders, peers, friends, strangers.

Roughly (and this is my own attempt, for which I’ll accept blame but not credit):

Some groups are great at building and exemplifying models of anti-oppressive ways of being. (Pre-figurative politics, as I understand it, means practicing now the kind of society you want to build in the future.) Enacting horizontal group dynamics, confronting white supremacist and racist behavior, challenging and transforming sexism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, ableism, etc. in myriad ways, and continually developing sophisticated, intersectional analyses of these lived oppressions. Honoring and valuing healing; promoting literacy around dealing with trauma and mental wellness. Developing healthy sex-positive cultures grounded in consent. Practicing conscientious methods for dealing with intimate violence and abuse. Giving and receiving criticism with humility, generosity, bravery, and kindness. Doing very practical things like organizing childcare collectives, artmaking groups, and food distribution programs; infusing them with liberatory values. Transforming estranged relationship with our bodies, the earth, and nature. Theorizing these and more practices, and sharing them.

At the same time, some groups are great at developing people’s revolutionary class consciousness. Examining the material processes of history with an eye toward figuring out the best ways to intervene in those historical processes, and change things for the better. Get rid of classes altogether. Put an end to imperialism. Employ practice and theory, in current conditions, to avoid the pitfall of reformism and move militantly and decisively toward a world of “freely associating producers” — a world where violent compulsion is no longer ambient, as it is under capitalism and has been under all forms of class society (to stake a claim against what I learned about Foucault, in college). I’m impressed and inspired by groups that maintain a keen focus on this goal, and whose work reflects the urgency of building the class power necessary for exploited people to liberate themselves/ourselves from the yoke (and rod) of capital.

Now. Is there overlap between these ‘types’ of groups?

Yes.

A lot?

In the Bay Area? In the US?

IIIIIIII dunno. What do you think? What are you finding?

That’s all for now; more questions than answers.

[American Dream]

The ability to labor resides only in a human being, whose life is consumed in the process of producing. First it must be nine months in the womb; must be fed, clothed, and trained; then when it works its bed must be made; its floor is swept, its lunchbox prepared; its sexuality not gratified but quietened; its dinner ready when it gets home, even if this is eight in the morning from the night shift. This is how labor power is produced and reproduced when it is daily consumed in the factory or office. To describe its basic production and reproduction is to describe women’s Work.

--Selma James, "The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community"

[American Dream]

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Teflon President? Noose Tightens Around Uribe as Former Death Squad Leaders Spill the Beans



Last month's capture of Colombian drug lord Daniel "El Loco" Barrera by Venezuelan police was hailed as a "victory" in the "War on Drugs."

Barrera, accused of smuggling some 900 tons of cocaine into Europe and the U.S. throughout his infamous career, was described by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who announced the arrest on national television, as "the last of the great capos."

But what of the "capo" who enjoyed high office, is wined and dined by U.S. corporations and conservative think-tanks, owns vast tracks of land, is a "visiting scholar" at a prominent American university (Georgetown) and now sits on the Board of Directors of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation?

When will they be brought to ground?

Continues: http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com ... round.html

[American Dream]

[American Dream]

People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.

—assata shakur

[American Dream]

[American Dream]

http://propelledbyfire.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/i-am/

i am…




i am the seven-year old girl wrapped tightly in her covers as she hears the drunken stumble of her father’s footsteps just before he opens the door to her room

i am the mother of four standing all day in the seemingly endless welfare line just so her babies can eat

i am the recently laid off sister waiting nine hours in the hospital for a five-minute doctor visit

i am the seventeen year old girl crying alone, bracing herself for the makeshift abortion in the dingy apartments behind the McDonald’s

i am the seventy year old womyn daydreaming of how retirement would feel as her arthritic hands fold the rich kids laundry

i am the sex worker walking the street in order to survive

i am the warrior raising her fist and organizing against the system

i am the wife in prison for poisoning her husband because that night was the last time he was ever going to touch her

i am the girlfriend infected with HIV because she didn’t know her man was creepin or closeted

i am the fourteen year old who tried to hang herself because she couldn’t stand the pain of remembering

i am the tranny constantly having to validate herself as a “real” womyn

i am the little girl who died from a cold because her mother didn’t have insurance and couldn’t afford medicine

i am the two womyn whose love is either fetishized or condemned

i am the zoned-out junky in the alleyway, pookie-pipe in hand, because life threw her too many curve balls

i am the raped whom no one believes because he was a “friend” so she must have wanted it

i am

i am

i am

sister, i am you…just as you are me

womyn sharing the same beat

soulfully connected

hit by the same struggle

and yearning for the same liberation

[American Dream]

[it’s like: my thoughts on militancy in revolutionary organizing]

it’s like when you wake up and realize your whole life has been a lie. that the only reason i have this is because you do not. or the only reason we can do this is because they can not. it’s like when you know the history they teach and you memorize and recite is not history at all. it’s like being pinned down in bed and raped but instead of laying silently in tears you grab the knife under your pillow and penetrate his side. it’s like realizing band-aids only cover and do not heal. it’s like taking over the streets and going toe-to-toe with the pigs. it’s like fearlessly facing the violence of our repression. it’s like never asking again but always demanding. it’s like knowing where the real power lies. it’s like discovering agency. it’s like being shot and instead of learning to live with the bullet, forcibly removing it with your own hands. it’s like never again being ashamed of who you are or who you love. it’s like going to the people. it’s like all power to all the people. it’s like being beaten as a child and finally fighting back. it’s like a shaking that rips apart the earth. it’s like courage.it’s like strength. it’s like fucking in public when it’s only ever been done in the shadows. it’s like never being more proud to be a womyn. it’s like knowing you need others to live. it’s like righteously raising your fist for the first time. it’s like art. it’s like creation. it’s like beauty. it’s like discovering where you can connect and where you must just listen and learn. it’s like kissing in the grass. it’s like a fresh breeze over rolling waves. it’s like reading that first piece of real people’s history. it’s like smoking the biggest blunt of your life. it’s like no longer idealizing the icons of past movements. it’s like revolution. it’s like liberation. it’s like love.

this is what the meaning militant is like for me…

-moon ♀


http://thatenergyfromthemoon.tumblr.com ... litancy-in

[American Dream]

[American Dream]

[American Dream]

“Art can bring change, I am sure.
If people see an artwork,
it will perhaps only cause a small shock to their mind,
but that can grow and grow.”

Shamsia Hassani, Art in the streets of Kabul


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/fe ... -art-kabul

[American Dream]

Self Portrait: Azaadi II July 2012
by Khushboo Gulati

The revolution will be illustrated
We will paint our stories
document our struggles
Art is my weapon of choice


http://kalisherni.tumblr.com/post/34131 ... y-khushboo

[American Dream]

“I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence.”

— Coretta Scott King

[American Dream]

Digging in the crates and found this portrait of my homegirl Desiree and her pops.

http://sophiawallace.tumblr.com/image/2319345013