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Tag: Racism

10 Punk isn’t Spectacle. Spectacle is Capitalist Shit.

October 2, 2013
by Wingnut Anarchist Collective
· Columns

by Mo Karnage

I’ve been avoiding 2 things recently- beginning to write for Profane Existence and addressing the Miley Cyrus debacle in any serious manner. This morning a houseguest who writes for Afropunk.com pointed out the Vice Magazine article about Miley Cyrus being punk, and I decided that was the last straw. So this is my wading into the intersectional cluster fuck. Apologies. Not sorry.

I live at the Wingnut Anarchist Collective in Richmond, VA and I listen to a lot of pop country, but my background and politics are punk. In August my Aunt bought me tickets to see Ke$ha in DC, cause I like Ke$ha, cause I have bad taste. I’d never been to any mainstream show in my life, and had no idea what to expect. What blew me away was the sheer spectacle of mainstream pop music. There were stripper poles, drag queens, blow up animals, soft porn videos, mini cars, angle grinders shooting sparks, and more. I was convinced by seeing the spectacle in person along with a couple thousand 14 year olds that nothing is shocking anymore. It is with this experience that I address the Vice article on Miley Cyrus.

The concept of punk as spectacle or just fashion rebellion is something that was probably never accurate, and if it was, it is hella outdated. Being raunchy or pushing boundaries has been for some time now completely accepted by consumer capitalism and the pop industry. Spectacle sells. Capitalist scum have at this point completely stopped caring about morals or promoting WASP values, and only care about making money and distracting people from reality. See the Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord for more on this concept.

Shock isn’t punk. Punk has always been about more than shock. The politics of punk are shocking because they undermine mainstream values, not because our clothes are covered in safety pins. Punk is shocking because we want to overthrow the patriarchy and smash the government and free all the prisoners and stop racism. Drugs and excess aren’t punk either. Those have always been privileges of the rich.

If Miley Cyrus’ racist performances are punk, the the KKK is punk. And the KKK isn’t punk. Mainstream society is all about the white supremacy. Ain’t nothing punk about that. If Miley Cyrus not giving a fuck about what people think is punk, then Monsanto and the U.S. Military Industrial Complex are punk. I think its pretty obvious why not giving a fuck doesn’t make you punk.

Miley Cyrus can’t conceivably be working towards her own liberation while contributing to the oppression of others. Shit doesn’t work like that. No issue is one dimensional. Of course slut shaming is unacceptable. But we have to go beyond the white/liberal feminist stance to address the racism and classism and other shit coming from Miley’s corner. And we also have to address the systemic nature of these things. It’s not just Miley and it never has been.

Dan Ozzi (author of the Vice article) writes like a person with a lot of privilege. He thinks not giving a fuck is punk. How original. Sounds like every other white male with unexamined privilege. He can get in line with the manarchists. Punk isn’t for him. And we don’t need people like him to try to define a genre for us. Not giving a fuck about racism or sexism or transphobia or classism is about as fucking normal as you can get.

Capitalism is about what sells. And capitalism is rapidly appropriating aspects of punk that it can turn into consumer products. Those products have never been punk. True punk rebellion includes fighting capitalism, fighting oppression, and promoting a DIY ethic and solidarity and community. Punk isn’t about rebellion for rebellions sake. That’s what capitalists would like for us to think. There are specific values to punk. Punk is queers and people of color and womyn and everyone who refuses to assimilate or perpetuate oppression. Listen to some Crass, Bikini Kill, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, etc. Check out Punks Unite Across Turtle Island – www.nativepunxunite.tumblr.com . Check out radical punk zines like Shotgun Seamstress www.shotgunseamstress.wordpress.com . Punk isn’t dead and shitheads like Dan Ozzi and Miley Cyrus will never kill it. Punk isn’t dead and the capitalists won’t ever be able to market the parts that really matter.

0 One Down – Racist Lawyer Doug Christie Dies of Cancer

March 12, 2013
by Comrade Black
· Columns · News · PE Web Zine

By Comrade Black

Hate speech proponent Doug Christie has passed away. Finally.

Most of the mainstream media articles refer to Christie as a ‘controversial lawyer‘ and some even refer to him as a ‘defender of free speech,’ saying he defended holocaust deniers and anti-semites. I find this toned down revision as sickening as the historical revisionists he defended; so I want to say this loud and clear -no bullshit- for those who appear to be tone deaf. Doug Christie was one of this colonial nation state’s most well notorious racists; known as the lawyer who has defended numerous well known neo-nazi organizers, as well as holocaust deniers, homophobes, and other anti-semites. It only seems fitting that Christie died of terminal cancer, since he himself was a cancerous creep, and an important player in an even more sick movement.

For years Christie has tried to ‘white-wash’ himself as being a ‘defender of free speech.’ Of course like most nazis who try to veil their racism to create a more socially acceptable image the only speech Christie has ever concerned himself with is that of racist who have been charged with hate speech. Christie’s dance card was full of big names in the wild wild world of white power – oh sorry I mean white pride, see that’s the term racists prefer to use when speaking to ‘the public’ so they won’t

look like racists. But as I was saying, Christie has defended such prominent hatemongers as Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front, Terry Long, former leader of the Aryan Nations, John Ross Taylor of the Western Guard Party and Aryan Nations, three leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Manitoba, and Rudy Stanko of the World Church of the Creator. Christie tries to hide his hatred behind the rhetoric of ‘free speech,’ yet maintained an ad on Stormfront, the most notorious white supremacist neo-nazi website and main recruiting vehicle for vulnerable 12 year olds.

Christie also founded the so called Canadian Free Speech League, which every year would give out an award to people charged with spreading racial hatred, holocaust denial, and homophobia; dubbed the George Orwell Award. The appropriation of Orwell’s name and image for the celebration of racism is mind numbing. Orwell, an anarchist well known for his books such as 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia; having gone to Spain to fight the fascists during the Spanish civil war and was about as opposite of Christie’s ideology as humanly possible. Vancouver Lawyer Gary Botting worked for Christie for many years, and developed a close personal relationship to him; Botting has since severed ties with Christie and went to great lengths to distance himself from the well known racist. “it is clear to me that your Canadian Free Speech League is merely a front for an anti-semitic, Pro-Nazi agenda.” Botting wrote in a publi c letter to Christie, continuing “In the Canadian Free Speech League, the only opinions truly allowed are those which conform to your own. And those opinions, as you well know, are antisemitic and almost blatantly pro-Nazi. It is no coincidence that both you and Ernst Zundel usually celebrate your birthdays on April 20, Hitler’s Birthday. It is no coincidence that most of the Canadian Free Speech League annual awards ceremonies have been held as close to that date as possible.”

In a recent CBC radio interview, Christie claims he only defended white supremacists cause they were the only people facing government repression for what they believed. This is a sad attempt to cast himself the hero, the defender of the people; and is also simply and utterly confusing. The only people? Really? Is he that stupid and unaware of what’s going on in the world around us, or dose he just think everyone else is? When the Canadian chapter of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty was dealing with intense police harassment and repeated arrests, as well as private security hired by corporations, I did not hear Mr Christie offering to help. How do I know? well when SHAC was in Victoria I was volunteering with them. They instead retained the services of Vancouver lawyer Peter Edelmann. If that’s not close enough to home, where was Dougie Boy when the Victoria Tent City was fighting for the Right To Sleep; as homeless activists were challenging the constitutionality of anti-camping laws in the Supreme court after a 31 day camp at Cridge Park, only about 5 blocks away from his law office. How do I know he didn’t offer to help? Again, I was one of the campers, and my legal name is on the court docs. Nor did he speak a word against the massive police/state repression of activists at the Toronto G20, many of which were arrested before the G20 even occurred! Same with the repression of activists in Vancouver at the Anti-Olympics Convergence. When the Joint Terrorism task Force showed up at my door, and I was interviewed on CBC, Christie again didn’t say a word. We could even go further back to the legendary struggles between feminist bookstore Little Sisters in vancouver and the state who was confiscating their shipments of lesbian erotica books, once again Christie didn’t offer to help. But when holocaust denier Jim Keegstra was fired for teaching his high school students that the holocaust was just a Jewish Conspiracy, Christie phoned him up to say “Hey, don’t be down-hearted.” and became his lawyer. And when George Burdi, vocalist of the white power band RaHoWa (Racial Holy War), and founder of Resistance Records – The largest white power record company in the world – was arrested, Christie “was ready to give up three months of his time away from home, and do it pro bono,” urging Burdi to let the charges go to court rather than plead guilty. So it seems clear that he was only interested in helping other racists.

Christie was also the head of the Western Canadian Concept party and later founded the Western Bloc Party, 2 far right political parties with anti-immigrant and homophobic stances as well as colonial assimilation views. The WCC website described it’s mission in part as the development of a “genuine national culture true to our existing European heritage and values.” And of course English speaking only. Another prominent nazi and former client of Christie’s Paul Fromm, ran along side him for the Western Block Party. Fromm was a one time member of the Conservative Party, until he was kicked out after comments about racial purity and immigration. Fromm who hosts a radio show on Stormfront, is a self described “Nazi Sympathizer” and “anti-immigration activist.”

Since his diagnosis with terminal cancer, Doug Christie has tried to convince the world even more that he did not share the views of his clients, but only wanted to defend free speech. I want to ensure that Christie is remembered for the racist he truly was. No ‘white’-washing.

Good bye Doug Christie, you will not be forgotten. And you will not be missed.

One less racist.

0 Connecting the dots – Cops, Racists, Rapists, Guns, and Pedophiles in the Government

March 4, 2013
by Comrade Black
· Columns · PE Web Zine

by Comrade Black

Is it just me, or has the news been far more interesting lately than it usually is? I seem to be noticing a lot of interesting patterns. Follow me for a minute.

January 19, 5 people were shot on Gun Appreciation Day at various gun shows across the USA this year. Right around the same time, one of the top trained snipers in the world was shot and killed, point blank, while at a Texas gun range by a former soldier. All of this followed only a few weeks after the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado. And all of this was followed by the most sensationalized story of the year, when ex-cop and former Navy marksman Chris Dorner began killing cops after releasing his manifesto over facebook!

Dorner had begun his war on cops after a number of issues of racism he experienced in the LAPD, capped off by his firing which followed after he turned in another cop for violently assaulting a schizophrenic homeless man who was not resisting. Other cops lied protecting their own, and thus Dorner was seen to be lying. Most of us already know the cops are corrupt violent thugs, but Dorner was one of those liberals who honestly believed he could be the one good cop. He was deadly wrong.

Meanwhile, in BC, just north of the imaginary colonial line, a report was released by Human Rights Watch documenting RCMP sexually assaulting various women and girls, mostly native women. The right wing government of Stephen Harper dismissed the report, and claimed they wanted to see proof, saying the women making the claims needed to come to the police and file reports. This is of course the same area where many Indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered over the last couple decades, with nearly no investigation by cops. The same area where serial killer Robert Pickton was praying on Indigeno

Stephen Harper Canadian Prime Minister and registered asshole

us women, then after raping them, feeding them to his pigs… And there have been many accusations of police involvement in those murders. Also the same area where Vancouver’s Martin Tremblay prayed on underage Indigenous girls for years; getting them drunk or drugging them, then videotaping himself raping them. For that he got 11 months. He returns to court to be sentenced March 6 for murder, after 2 of the girls he drugged and raped died.
Yet Harper insists the women being raped by cops should come forward to the cops and file reports. Cause we all know you can trust the cops. Around the same time another report was released, documenting internal abuses in the RCMP, including sexual abuses experienced by female cops being harassed by male cops, and even a greater number of cases of male cops bullying other male cops.

It just doesn’t seem to end. Last week while the Pope was stepping down — first pope to retire in 600 years –after the Vatican has been rocked by repeated lawsuits over priests raping children, Harper right hand man Tom Flanagan was caught on video saying pedophiles shouldn’t go to jail for viewing child sexual abuse images. “I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures,” Flanagan said, before going on to tell the audience he had been on the NAMBLA mailing list for years. Flanagan is not just some right wing nobody though – he pretty much created the current conservative party and ran their election campaign, re-imaging Stephen Harper. He then went on to craft the image and campaign for the Wild Rose Party – a far right offshoot of the Alberta Conservative Party. Flanagan is also a professor at the University of Calgary where he has taught political science for decades. He was the author of the racist anti-Indian hate literature book First Nations Second Thoughts; which argues that Native people were too inferior to have understood the European concept of Nationhood, and thus should not be given the rights of sovereignty, and that before the colonizers came the natives (who were recent imigrants) were just trying to kill each other off in wars over the land, we just happened to be superior so we won. This is also the same man who publicly called for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on live tv.

nazi harper — Stephen Harper, appears to be sieg heiling

All of this was taking place as Indigenous activists and settler allies were taking part in nation wide protests as part of the Idle No More movement. Meanwhile Harper tied to keep media focus on allegations that Chief Teresa Spence had misspent money, going as far as to refer to her as Chief Teresa Spends. This was a valuable distraction, it kept attention away from the concerns the grassroots movement was trying to highlight by instead focusing on the figure head. Harper introduced another racist bill, the Fist Nations Accountability Bill which requires First Nations chiefs and councilors to publish their salaries and expenses. The hypocrisy was astounding as Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau was caught for using other peoples addresses to get a housing allowance that he did not qualify for. He had a long history of making racist and sexist comments, and on Feb 7 2013, Brazeau was arrested for sexual assault and domestic violence. He still gets his Senate paycheck though, even though he has also been found to attend less than 35% of the days he is paid to.

Racist lawyer Dough Christie only has 6 months to live

Also announced this week, one of this nation state’s most notorious racists, Victoria’s Doug Christie was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than 6 months to live. Christie is most famous for defending white supremacists such as Ernst Zündel, and Malcolm Ross a school teacher famous for holocaust denial; as well as leaders of the Aryan nations, Klu Klux Klan, The church of the Creator, and the Heritage Front. Christie also ran for political office as the head of the Western Canadian Concept Party, and later started the Western Block Party, 2 separatist political parties with far right politics.

Notice any patterns yet?

0 On the murder of Trayvon Martin

March 27, 2012
by stinkbot
· News

Rallies are being held nation wide demanding justice for Trayvon Martin, the young man shot by a a neighborhood watch captain late last month. This horrible incident has sparked debate on issues of race, gun control, justice (or lack thereof) not only within activist circles but within families who have found a way to keep the peace in the house by keeping silent about these issues. Here are two pieces posted on activist websites, for more information type Trayvon’s name into a search engine and read everything that pops up.

On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin went out to buy some snacks at the nearby 7-Eleven. George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain in a small gated community in Sanford, Florida, was driving around in his SUV. Zimmerman called 911, saying Martin looked “real suspicious”—i.e., he was a young Black male, walking around in a hoodie. After the 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman not to pursue the youth, Zimmerman followed Trayvon Martin, got out of his car and then confronted Martin. Zimmerman was carrying a 9-millimeter handgun. Trayvon Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. There was yelling, then a gunshot. Trayvon Martin lay face down in the grass with a fatal bullet wound to the chest. Zimmerman was taken into custody, questioned and released. To this day, he has not been arrested and charged with any crime.

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