Some Thoughts and Reflections on Today’s Militancy

A cop car in Oakland after being lit on fire, graffitied, and smashed after police violence cleared Oscar Grant Plaza. May 1st, 2012.

I have been very critical of street-militancy in the recent past, in various contexts, and I have also been very supportive of it in others. A few years ago I wrote Are We Addicted to Rioting?, a piece that generated an intense online debate and won we a lot of new enemies (some people called for me to be physically attacked, other stooped to name-calling and, of course, making fun of my music). Others emailed me to thank me strongly for “finally saying something about this” issue, and for having the guts to state publicly what many had been thinking for a long time.

Many others, I should note, disagreed with my critique strongly but expressed no personal animosity towards me, which I respect. Debate is critical, and the way in which I was attacked for simply disagreeing with folks I identify with was a bit of a shock.

I have been meaning to write a more lengthy piece re-visiting that article, but haven’t yet. Obviously, I wouldn’t write this piece the same way if I wrote it again (because I don’t agree with everything I said in it, because I could re-word many things to make my case better, and because three years of conversations spurred by the article have evolved my thoughts on the subjects discussed in it). That said, I stand by the fact that I wrote it and that I made my case publicly, as I support open debate and criticism. Below is some thoughts spurred by my experience with May Day in Oakland, and conversations around recent demonstrations within and surrounding the Occupy movement.

I think that ground that has shifted as of the birth of Occupy and the Arab Spring have created new contexts from which both militant and peaceful protest have enjoyed a newfound popularity.

Recent attacks against banks (a Wells Fargo, for instance, was hit with Molotov Cocktails in Seattle on May 1)  and, in some areas, police cars/facilities (2 police cars were lit on fire in Oakland on May 1), have, in my experience from both conversations and from internet chatter, have been fairly popular amongst not just militant anarchist friends, but from many people in general. Attacks against banks right now make a lot of sense to a lot of people, since the banks have destroyed so many lives and enjoy almost no reprisals (when done in ways that don’t endanger allies).

In Egypt, dozens of police stations were burned down, as well as countless military and police vehicles and equipment, after the police killed demonstrators in Tahrir Square. This was a key part of the revolution, this escalation and willingness to fight back emboldened people to take further actions that were required to achieved the otherthrow of Mubarak. That said, the emphasis on mass non-violent struggle (as opposed to the all out militancy that has led to civil wars in the past) was avoided, leaving violence and militancy as a tool to use when needed but not abused or obsessed over.

Context is critical, and keeping popular views in mind is key to movements growing. Seeing Oakland’s militant contingent operate yesterday was pretty cool: it’s very diverse compared to any I’ve seen, pretty on-target/focused, and folks in Oakland (like the janitor who had to clean up the glass from one of the banks that got smashed who I talked to) hate the police for their actions especially in the past few years (Oscar Grant, etc). Almost everyone I talked to in Oakland blamed the police for the violence, and were not confused as to why, for instance, cop cars would be lit on fire. But If folks in a city like Baltimore, which is very similar in many ways to Oakland, tried to mimic their tactics, it would probably fail completely to mobilize people. Oakland has a specific context from which the current anger is emerging, as do all areas. Importantly, anarchists really came out in solidarity with Oakland youth after the Oscar Grant assassination, which forged ties that have carried into the present. This context is really key to understand the militancy of Oakland.

Attacks against small business (even Gentrifiers), such as in San Francisco two nights ago when a militant protest smashed shop windows and car windows that they perceived to be “upper-class”, pissed a lot of people off, including fellow anarchists and Latino radicals. A lot of those within militant circles come from these same class backgrounds, and in San Francisco they attacked the property of individuals from the 99%. A lot of poor folks have nice cars too, folks, and actions like this hurt this movement, and they say to me that some people just wanted to smash car windows cuz it looks cool.

I saw Latino organizers from the 4,000 person march from East Oakland get up in the faces of Black Bloc folks who they thought were going to endanger their march earlier in the afternoon and quite militantly tell them to not fuck up their march. And before that there was a near fist fight between communists and anarchists in the middle of Oscar Grant Plaza, after both groups had taken the streets together to push the police off the block. The argument/fight, while I’m sure I’d side with the anarchists in it when it comes down to it, had some classic mob-mentality type bravado in it that lends itself to a general self-righteous internal culture that has emerged time and time again within militant anarchist (and other) circles. Such self-righteousness (which of course also exists within fundamentalist pacifist circles), breeds that type of culture that auto-justifies any actions taken by a group and encourages a closed-minded mentality and even hostility towards outside and even insider-criticism.

Something obvious to most people I spoke with is that Occupy Oakland has been unable to mobilize the numbers it did during the first port shutdown, which was in many ways also a response to the police violence that left Scott Olsen with a broken skull. Some I spoke with point to the escalation of property destruction and the responding to of police violence with force as key factors, while others say the militancy is fine and exciting, and point to the general energy-level nationally of Occupy and the psychology of movement waves as the main factors. Often large events are followed by years or smaller events, that grow steadily and pace themselves for longer-term transformations. I saw this in Barcelona’s Indignados movements recently, when their encampments disbanded and their movement shifted to new tactics/strategies, the outside perception is that they lost power. But they haven’t, they are just being grounded by the reality of their situation, as the mass days of June gave birth to a new movement.

Critical questions need to be asked about tactics as they relate to movement participants (the same questions need to be asked about all tactics, pacifistic ones and militant ones), and about the when/where/whys of such tactics: are our numbers growing or shrinking? Is this related to tactics or the ways in which they have been utilized? Are folks communicating with allies? Are there forums/ways to discuss such things that will help bring folks together around understandings? Is militancy being used because it is catalyzing popular anger or meeting goals, or is it being used because it feels good/look cool? Is “non-violence” being used because it is affective, or because those with idealogical attachments to it are calling for it?

These questions are very important to ask to spur conversations around the effects of how we carry out protest (and it should be noted that both non-strategic militancy and boring, go-nowhere peaceful protests tend to drive many people away when they consistently fail to achieve substantial changes, and that violence/non-violence are less a factor than popular understanding of the direct/successes of methods used.). In my experience, people care less about moral considerations than about the usefulness/effectiveness of actions.

Occupy Brings Foreclosure Defense Movement To Baltimore

Deutsch Bank Proceeds With Eviction

Originally published by the Independent Reader. Casey McKeel and Spencer Compton contributed to this article.

The movement to physically stop evictions and foreclosures made its debut in Baltimore on Tuesday, January 10^th outside of the West Baltimore home of Lila Kara. Nearly 100 people associated with Occupy Baltimore assembled early in the morning to stop a Deutsch Bank foreclosure order against her house.

Those assembled included neighbors, some facing foreclosure themselves, and participants from Occupy Our Homes, a working group of Occupy Baltimore. They were joined by representatives from various labor unions and community organizations including the National Nurses Union, Unite HERE, Good Jobs Better Baltimore, and Occupy DC. The crowd had been anticipating the arrival of the Sheriff’s office, upon which participants would link arms and attempt to block the eviction.

Though initially proclaiming victory after a no-show, Sheriff’s officers and a representative assumed to be with Deutsch Bank who refused to identify herself proceeded with the eviction process on Wednesday morning, arriving unannounced. Workers changed the locks on the property and took inventory of Kara’s belongings, while about 20 people assembled in protest.

Kara’s home had been foreclosed after GMAC Mortgage advised her to refinance by defaulting on her payments so that she would qualify for modifications. After the papers were signed, Kara defaulted on her payments and GMAC moved to foreclose her home, which was subsequently auctioned to Deutsch Bank.

Kara’s paperwork was “robo-signed” by GMAC, a practice that the notorious mortgage company has come under fire for before. In January 2011, GMAC was forced to drop over 250 foreclosures in Baltimore alone when it surfaced that they had used similar methods on homeowners throughout the city.

Knowing that action was needed, Kara got in touch with Occupy Wall Street organizers in New York, who directed her to the Occupy Baltimore encampment at McKeldin Square. “I saw something on McKeldin Square but because I’m always in a hurry going to work when I pass by, I never paid any attention,” Kara said about finally coming to talk to organizers at Occupy Baltimore’s encampment at McKeldin Square.

At McKeldin, conversations led to organizing, and organizing led to action. “Lila came to us, and she asked for help,” says Occupy Baltimore organizer Athena Tsakos. “We did a lot of research and asked her a lot of questions, and we decided to fight alongside her. The banks railroaded her into this illegally.”

“It took almost every day making phone calls, talking to community leaders,” Tsakos says of the organizing for Tuesday’s action. Occupy Baltimore participants knocked on doors throughout the neighborhood and had conversations with residents.

“We have a nice turnout here from the community,” says Saba Nazeer, who helped knock on doors in the areas around Kara’s Union Square house.  “There are other people in this neighborhood who are in this situation, and some of them are here today.”

With the help of Occupy Baltimore and others, Kara has been able to rally her community to support her struggle, opening avenues to support the struggles of other neighbors in the future. “I feel like I have support,” she says, “I’m not scared.”

Kara’s next door neighbor Ebony was among those who stood with her throughout the day. “I’m excited that so many people are coming out to support her. I believe that citizens should stand up when there’s injustice,” she says. “A lot of elderly residents are going through the same things. The mortgage companies are telling them to stop making their payments in order to qualify for these modified loans, and then they foreclose on them. It should be illegal.”

“Everybody needs to stick together and come out for things like this,” said another neighbor of Kara’s. “If you put somebody on the street, you’re just opening up more problems,” he said. “If people ain’t got no home, that’s leading to trouble.

“It has hit Baltimore pretty badly,” Ebony continued. “You walk around and see homes that are abandoned that have been foreclosed on… I think it’s an issue of values. I don’t think [the mortgage companies] value people enough to keep them in their homes.”

The Baltimore action comes amid a wave of anti-foreclosure demonstrations around the country, most notably in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Rochester, and New York City. Though recent Occupy movement groups have taken center stage in the media for their participation, a number of community organizations have been crafting the tactic for a number of years, long before the Occupy movement emerged.

Boston-based CityLife/Vida Urbana has done everything from legal battles to locking themselves to properties facing foreclosure. The group claims a very high success rate in keeping people in their homes, and their organizing methods and tactics have been influential across the country.

Take Back The Land, which started in Miami but soon spread to other cities, specializes in “reclaiming” abandoned homes for people experiencing homelessness. They have recently sent organizers to various locations throughout the country to do trainings and talks with organizers working on launching similar campaigns, and were working with the group in Baltimore last week.

Occupy Baltimore has stressed that this is only the first action in what they hope will become a broader movement of physically defending homes from eviction and foreclosure.

“Don’t give up. Fight!” Kara says to those hearing her story. “This is the only way to make them open their eyes and ears.”

Photos, video, and more context to this story can be found at http://www.occupybaltimore.org

Can’t Find The Protest Songs? Check Inside The Movement

On October 18, The New York Times published the article, “At the Protests, the Message Lacks a Melody.”[i] In the piece, author James C. McKinley Jr. asks us, “Where have all the protest songs gone?” Citing Occupy Wall Street and the movement it has inspired, McKinley suggests that we “have yet to find an anthem”.

“So far, musicians living through the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression have filled the airwaves with songs about dancing, not the worries of working people,” McKinley writes. He goes on to describe a handful of mainstream artists who have one or two notable songs that fit his definition, then he closes his investigation.

As an underground folk musician who regularly performs with other similar musicians, this simplification of what protest music is and where it is found brings me a bitter frustration. McKinley and other journalists covering this issue have consistently ignored the massive underground of contemporary “protest music” that has been thriving for years.

Myself and the other eight members of the Riot-Folk Collective, which I co-founded in 2004, have been singing songs of political analysis and social commentary within various social and economic justice movements for almost a decade, and we are far from alone.

A quick glance at the shirts and patches of people at any of the Wall Street-inspired occupations around the country will surely turn up popular band logos that have inspired those participating in the protests, whether they are punk outfits like Rise Against, Propagandi, and Strike Anywhere, or hip-hop artists like Lupe Fiasco, The Coup, and Talib Kweli.

If you asked any of these participants what music they are motivated or educated by, you will likely be exposed to a vibrant, hard-working underground of artists that have for years enjoyed much popularity within social movements in the U.S. and around the world. This underground includes poets, MCs, folk-singers, DJs, electronic producers, Son Jarocho bands, drag troupes, choirs, punk and pop bands, and more.

Artists like us at Riot-Folk and our musical allies like Rebel Diaz, Broadcast Live, Taina Asili, The Coup, Majesty, Son del Centro, David Rovics, Emma’s Revolution, Invincible, The Foundation, Born In A Cent, Son of Nun, Emcee Lynx, Las Krudas, Final Outlaw, The Wild, Climbing Poetry, Jim Page, The Readnex Poetry Squad, Blackfire, Intikana, Hot Mess, Mischief Brew, Olmeca, Head-Roc, Spiritchild, Defiance Ohio, Here’s To The Long Haul, From The Depths, and Riders Against the Storm -just to name a few- have all been influential forces in social circles that have participated in the recent occupations.

These artists have spent the last few years performing and recording critical songs about the economy, the wars, racism, immigrant rights, queer liberation, and much more.

While McKinley states that “in recent years the songwriters taking on political issues have tended to be older musicians” and that there is a “scarcity of songs about the economic disaster”, young song-writers like most of those mentioned above have been on the front lines writing powerful indictments of the financial barons and their political allies, and they didn’t just start writing them now.

In her 2008 video “Locusts”, which boats over 30,000 views on YouTube, Detroit MC Invincible lays out the politics of the housing crisis caused by the sub-prime loan bubble. “They been red-lining the dark skinned owners of homes where they loan with a shark’s fin, arson the property probably for the insurance policy, it’s a prophecy that’s self fulfilling.”

It is worth pointing out that the mass movement against the financial system did not start in Zuccotti Park on September 17^th. It has manifested in several mass movements in recent years, from the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999 to the “Day Without an Immigrant” strikes and protests in California, Illinois, and elsewhere in 2006.

Baltimore-based hip-hop activist Son of Nun broke down the economics of Latin American immigration and displacement in his song “Pastures of Plenty”, a name referencing Woody Guthrie’s classic song. “And we ain’t leaving, til your debt-breeding, World Bank and IMF loans stop thieving. Your helping hands left Latin American lands bleeding, now on the money-trail our families are stampeding.”

Taking a domestic look, Appalachian bluegrass band Here’s to the Long Haul, in their song “Wood Flooring Plant”, sing of racism and misplaced anger towards immigrant workers at a factory in Kentucky: “I’ve seen it work before my eyes as many of my friends, resent not the bosses but instead blame the Mexicans.”

Some of us responded immediately to the 2008 bailout with songs, including me; my 2008 song “Roulette Wheel” questioned neoliberal economics while painting a grim picture of the United States. “Give the rich banker the bail out funds, it’ll trickle down like sewage does.”

Rebel Diaz also responded to the bail out with their song “A Trillion”, which received over 20,000 views on YouTube. Other YouTube videos by the trio, whose Rebel Diaz Arts Collective also runs a hip-hop community center in the South Bronx, have received hundreds of thousands of views.

On October 16, Final Outlaw of the Bronx and a dozen other MCs and poets performed at the Occupy Wall Street encampment to a crowd of about 100 people. “I grew up among the poor, I know the pain of what it means to have to sleep on the floor,” Final Outlaw said. “I only live now just to settle the score.”

Before performing, Final Outlaw explained that he had been down at the park participating in the cleaning crew and was one of the many who came at 5:00 am to defend it from police eviction on October 14^th.

These artists don’t just write about politics or show up at political events and demonstrations to perform; we are often involved in organizing the events themselves, and we are often writing songs from a place situated within the context of what we are singing about.

Boots Riley of The Coup has been on the front lines of the Occupy Oakland marches this week, and has been very active in the assemblies that have consistently refused to back down in light of massive police violence. On all of my trips up to Occupy Wall Street I have run into several of those artists mentioned above, and several of us are active in the occupations in Baltimore, DC, Atlanta, San Francisco, and elsewhere.

McKinley does correctly mention artists like Tom Morello and Anti-Flag, who have been among a crew of dedicated, mostly mainstream artists that have also spent time within movements for social justice. That crew also includes people like Dead Prez, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Immortal Technique, Eddie Vedder, The Flobots, State Radio, and others.

Contrary to what McKinley suggests, there are perhaps far more songs being written, recorded, and distributed today that would fit in the “protest” category than at any other time period in history. But unlike the 1960s, as he hints at in his article, there is no major label today that is hungry for radical political music.

Perhaps, however, we don’t need such labels. Perhaps we have moved beyond them. The availability of cheap recording equipment and open-source software has allowed artists to rapidly produce songs, while free or cheap downloads of our MP3s and tools like YouTube allow us easy access to millions of people in relatively short periods of time. “Don’t be afraid, we’ve come full circle, the medium is ours again,” New York-based hip-hop trio Broadcast Live says on their track, “Hell Hot.”

What is most problematic about McKinley’s article, however, is that this is not the 1960s, it’s 2011, and we are not searching for a Bob Dylan. The movement against the financial system that has arisen with Occupy Wall Street is largely based around participatory, direct democracy. It’s about recognizing the power of many, not of a few. So it doesn’t need a hero or a theme song that journalists can use to synthesize the dynamism of these times into simplified categories.

“Every successful movement has a soundtrack,” Morello is quoted as saying in the beginning of McKinley’s article. He’s right, we need a soundtrack and we have one, an ever-expanding one comprised of more songs and artists than one could possibly name.

If you want to hear our soundtrack, you have to look beyond the mainstream media and beyond the acoustic guitar. In fact, don’t just look, go join the thousands at Occupy Wall Street or one of the many occupations that have sprung up around the country and participate with the people.

There you will find artists making some of the most powerful protest music you will ever hear, and you will find that none of us will ever define “the voice of our generation,” because we are many generations with many voices.

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[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/arts/music/occupy-wall-street-protest-lacks-an-anthem.html