Travel Advisory: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México

Oh the things you learn after the fact. Anybody who has ever spent time in San Cristóbal, Chiapas will no doubt be familiar with the children who approach western tourists under the guise of raising money for their school. They ask you to write down your name and home country in a little notebook. Some will even recite the capitals of each nation, I suppose to make it appear as they are actually representing the school. I pretty quickly figured out that it was probably a scam to beg change off of naive tourists like myself. One group of children knew the capitals of all the Western countries, but were stumped when I asked them for the capital of Honduras. Recently, a lass that I went to school with revealed that these children are actually working for the police, collecting names of foreigners who may be passing through on their way to visit Zapatista controlled communities in the mountains of Chiapas. My friend said that it was a rather large operation; who knows to which agencies this list is forwarded to. It is in fact illegal for foreigners to engage in political activities while in México So if you ever find yourself in San Cristóbal, be on the look out for these little snitches and be aware that counter-insurgents are everywhere, so speak and act accordingly.

The Punisher Armory: A Comic for the Revolution

Among my readers, I imagine that there are at least a handful of them are comic book/graphic novel/sequential graphic narrative fans. And I sure that they are wondering what comics I would recommend to the aspiring revolutionary. Besides my name sake I would also recommend hunting down, on the internet or in person a mini-series called The Punisher Armory. In each of the ten issues, the Punisher exhibits the contents of his armory, including his multitude of guns and other weapons. Saheim agreed that, for the most part the comic is factually sound. At the very least it will provide the reader with entertainment and they just might learn something about weapon systems in the process.



Here is what ol' Frank Castle has to say about the USAS-12 automatic shotgun, pictured above:

The Universal Sporting Automatic Shotgun-12, or USAS-12, looks just like a big M-16, but with the right load, can throw up a virtual wall of lead.

For example, the USAS-12 has a 10 round magazine (shown) and when loaded with #00 buckshot, using a short magnum load of 12 pellets instead of the usual 9 (the USAS-12 only takes the shorter 2 3/4" shells to begin with), this gun rocks 'n' rolls at 360 shots per minute -- 6 shots per secong! That's a lot of lead flyin' around

This is a heavy gun– 12 punds will get to you after a while, and the loaded 20 round drum weighs 4 pounds. But there's nothing quite like this gun, either. When loaded with 12 gauge rifled slugs, at almost .70 caliber and weighing an ounce each, you could practically bring a semi-tractor trailer rig to a halt!

The final touch is that this is a smooth shooting gun. Between the weight and the clever design of the internal mechanism, there is very little recoil. Is this finally too much gun? Naaaaah.

Below is a video demonstration of the gun, with both the box and drum magazine.

Training Report: Bushwhacking in Vermont and Shooting in Sandpits

Perhaps one of the best things about Vermont summers is a abundance of outdoor shooting and other training opportunities made possible by the lack of snow and/or mud. This Training Report relates lessons learned from two recent summer training expeditions.

Mostly Saheim and I shoot at a public but little known and used range somewhere in Vermont, if we told you were it was it wouldn't be such a well-kept secret. Other than that we often shoot on our land or that of a comrade. Recently I organized an afternoon of shooting with boss and co-workers in a previously unvisited sand pit. As we drove in we saw two kids with an SKS about to shoot in a different area of the pit. I brought out two shotguns, my WASR, a comrade's Colt 6920 AR-15, a Ruger Mark II pistol, and a handful of exploding targets. We were having a grand old time, (those exploding targets were satisfying to shoot) and I can just loaded up another mag for my AK and had just started to shoot when I heard a loud horn blast. I looked and a police cruiser with two officers had just pulled out. I threw the safety on and put it down. The cops got out of the car and told me to "Step away from the guns!" After explaining that we were just having a good ol' dumpfest, they seemed to relax, with one of them complementing my comrade on his taste in assault rifles. After running our IDs they let us go, but the situation could have gone much worse. And that is the lesson here; shooting guns attracts lots of attention and for certain individuals engaged in clandestine activities this is not good. So make sure that you will not be bothered where ever you decide to shoot because nobody needs a visit from the police.

More recently, Saheim and I went out on what we thought was to be short patrol through the woods. We both had our assault rifles and no other supplies other than one cigarette and whatever berries we could pick en route. Once up in the woods we decided to continue to the ridge at the top of the hill. Being out in the woods, bushwhacking up the mountain on that particular summer day was a cathartic experience. Saheim and I had talked about running a bunch of patrols over the summer and once at the top of the hill we decided to keep walking. Three hours later we had made it out of the wood by a comrade's house, thirsty, bug-bitten and soaked in sweat.

During the patrol I learned some important lesson about running patrols and was able to apply what I had read in guerrilla manuals to the situation at hand. For example, logging roads and trails can be tempting to use as they allow you to move much more quickly and easily, but should only be used in friendly territory or when absolutely necessary. The reason for this is that marching troops on roads makes their movement extremely predictable, greatly increasing the possibility of ambush. Also, staying hydrated is crucial to moving efficiently and being battle ready. That lesson is pretty obvious.

Additionally I was able to think more deeply about how the terrain of Vermont can be used in guerrilla warfare. The woods of Vermont are littered with old stone walls, foundations, fallen trees, dry stream beds, natural foxholes and other sources of impromptu cover/temporary fortification. Although roads make ambushes likely, deer trails can be used to move small units quickly through the forest or fields. However, because they are too skinny to march in any formation other than single file, the use of deer trails should be avoided when moving large detachments of troops.

As always I invite my readers to contribute any ideas they might have on guerrilla warfare operations in Vermont or the North East as a whole in the comment section. Also if you disagree with my ideas, let me know.

Hasta Siempre

Songs of Rebellion: Pete Seeger- Which side are you on?

I recently had the honor of seeing Pete Seeger, the American folk and protest music legend in concert. He is 89 but the revolutionary spirit still shines when he sings.

The True Meaning of "9-11 Changed Everything"

Has it really been seven years already? I would be a lot more sad, upset, or whatever about 9/ll if a) I was %100 percent sure that our government didn't orchestrate it and b) if the memory of the 9/11 attacks had not been used to justify a great number of unjustifiable things. Bush and the other talking heads are always talking about how on 9/11 thing changed and America would never be the same. So what exactly changed, how has the world been effected by the deaths of a mere three thousand people?

The constitution as now effectively null and void in the United States. There is no longer freedom of assembly as protesters are corralled into "free speech zones." Major protests are always met with brutal repression by police, with protesters being subject to heavy surveillance and harassment. The first and fifth amendments are particularly at risk of slowly being eroded by laws such as the USA PATRIOT act.

Power has become increasingly consolidated in the Executive branch, eliminating the system of check and balances between branches of government. Congress's approval is no longer need to go to war. Executive privilege allow to the executive branch pick and choice which parts of which laws to follow and which treaties that we have signed to abide by. This even extends to choosing to ignore Congressional subpoenas.

Muslims and Arabs are now not welcome or viewed as suspect by many Americans. Anything relating to Islam or the Arab world is not American and most likely some how related to terrorism (see the %12 of American who think Obama is a secret Muslim).

"National defense" or more accurately "global offense" has become a corner stone of the American political system. Of course this is nothing new but now it seems like fighting the global war on terror is something that every politician supports; being "weak on defense" is now political suicide. The military-industrial complex continues to grow as private armies such as Black Water become more and more powerful.

The United States now has a permanent military presence in the Middle East, as an occupational force for at least the next five to ten years and more covertly after that. Remember that we still have troops in Germany and Japan from the end of WWII.

There has been a surge in jingoistic nationalism in the country since 9/11. A large portion of the American population support the United States imperialist mission of spreading "freedom and democracy" throughout the world and the promotion of American interests abroad. The idea of the American homeland and of the need to defend the homeland are now prevalent ideas in American society. For example, Mossberg markets their Mossberg 500 JIC as tool for defending against terrorists and protecting the American homeland.

Thousands of American soldiers and civilian contractors have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis are now dead. The two countries will bleed through the wounds left by our invasion for generations.

Hundreds of thousands of American weapons have been captured by insurgents and will circulate among insurgents, guerrillas and warlords for decades.

The global war on terror has provided the perfect cause celebre for terrorists; we have ensured a steady supply of recruits for irregular insurgent forces around the world for years to come.

So yes the events of September the 11th, 2001 really have changed everything, but only because the American people have let our government co-opt them in order to justify tyranny and imperialism.

Worker Solidarity Alliance Statement on RNC Protests

Via Power to the People

Just a little follow up to my earlier post on the RNC protests. I wasn't going to post more on the protests but this statement really stood out in my eyes and deserved to be spread far and wide.

WSA Statement on the RNC Protest

In the opening days of September 2008 people from all over the country came together in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to protest the agenda of the Republican National Convention. And in response, police cracked down, hard. And even before the events had begun police responded to mere calls for protest through strong-arm tactics reminiscent of a police state, including infiltration and spying by state agents against protest organizations and preemptive raids with guns drawn against private protest centers. During the event police responded with the indiscriminate arrest of hundreds of protesters, and even journalists recording the event where arrested.

Decked out in full military garb masses of police indiscriminately assaulted numerous protesters with batons, pepper spray and other weapons, that though listed under the term "less then lethal" nevertheless inflict great pain and suffering, and have been implicated in serious medical complications and even death. Fortunately no one was killed in the Twin Cities, but the use of tactics befitting a police state should be a cause of grave concern for all people of good conscience.

In response we at the Worker Solidarity Alliance (WSA) call upon all poor and working people everywhere to reach out in support of the 284 protesters that have been jailed by the cops.

Please make a donation to help cover the legal fees of our jailed comrades, and to cover any medical fees that may arise among protesters due to the brutal tactics utilized by police on behalf of the Republican Party. One place you can donate is the web site of the Coldsnap Legal Collective

Although the Workers Solidarity Alliance extends unconditional solidarity and support to the victims of state repression during the RNC, we also call for a critical evaluation of the approach taken by anti-authoritarians and anarchists. The repression of RNC activism demonstrates that new organizing models will be needed if anticapitalists are to mount a genuine challenge to the power of capital and the state. Specifically, we must avoid playing into the hands of the state by using rhetoric, rituals, and tactics that isolate us from the majority of the world's population that suffers under capitalism. We call for a resistance based not exclusively on the advanced tactics of a jail-ready minority, but the solidarity and militancy of a revolutionary social bloc, organized in workplaces and neighborhoods, fighting for self-determination. As the raids on activists spaces have already shown, anything less is political suicide.

The reasons people protested were varied, as was the political background of the protesters. Some of the protesters came seeking to end the U.S. military occupation of Iraq, some economic justice, others out of criticism of the current Republican administration in Washington. Some protesters came to voice their dissent and in support of Obama. Some came to protest the havoc that the endless pursuit for capitalist profits has wrecked upon the environment. And yet others still came to protest the political rule of the U.S. government, whether under the leadership of Republicans or Democrats, or other would be contenders for the throne.

The "Red & Black Anti-Capitalist" contingent came to protest the war, for economic justice, for a healthy environment, and against white supremacy, nationalism, sexism and homophobia --- and to promote the idea that simply changing office holders does not do away with capitalism and the political state. This contingent called for a new world, a world without bosses, states and bureaucrats.

The Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) seeks the self-empowerment of ordinary poor and working class people through democratic self-management of their workplaces and their communities without mediation by elite's from above. Those of the "Red & Black Anti-Capitalist" contingent, and their supporters in the WSA and elsewhere, are sick and tired of living in a society that is dominated by the special interests of wealthy men and the political system that these elites have set in motion to protect their interests at the expense of the genuine interests, the aspirations and collective well being of the vast majority of the population, the working class. As supporters of the "Red & Black Anti-Capitalist" contingent we of the WSA denounce both the Republican and Democratic parties, as we understand that the true motivating cause of all political parties, in every part of the globe, is that of keeping a small elite entrenched firmly in political and economic power over, and to the detriment, of the working class across the earth.

The WSA also denounces the Patriot Act, under which the state has charged eight (RNC 8) prominent protest organizers with "Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism," this despite the fact that the RNC 8 were arrested days prior to the beginning of both the convention and the actual protests and had not carried out any actual protest actions whatsoever. The provisions of the Patriot Act grants the state power to charge people with "conspiracy" for simply planning a nonviolent protest, and in turn to saddle them with a felony for making calls for dissent to state policy. Thus the true purpose of the Patriot Act is to criminalize exercises of the right to free speech, peaceful assembly and protest. In light of the true intentions of the Patriot Act the WSA calls for the working class to get together in solidarity to put pressure upon the state to rescind and abolish the Patriot Act.

Yet despite all of the terror and mayhem unleashed by the police the fact that ordinary people maintained their presence, their solidarity and their dissent against the unjust policies of the political elite for the duration of the convention is in the last analysis a demonstration of the courage of the working class. The protesters that made up the "Red & Black Anti-Capitalist" contingent, and others as well, have a positive vision of a better society. A society in which ordinary folks come together in brotherly solidarity to create a new system based upon the moral value of "Mutual aid" and free from the rule of a lying, scheming and predatory elite. For a society in which "freedom and liberty for all" are not mere sentiments regulated to paper, or simply buzz words to throw about by self-interested politicians looking for your votes, but are instead the overwhelming living reality of society, and not just in the United States but throughout the entire earth.


Workers Solidarity Alliance
339 Lafayette Street - Room 202
New York, NY 10012 USA
www.workersolidarity.org

Better Living Through Dumpster Diving and Freeganism

In this ultra-consumerist world in which we live, it can sometimes be hard to be radical leftist without being complicit with the exploitive and wasteful economic system which we are told we have to participate in order to survive. Many people, including myself believe that one of the best ways to resist capitalism is by removing yourself from it as much as possible. In previous posts I have talked about the sickening amounts of waste generated by capitalism and consumerism, and forgive me if this article is a partial regurgitation of other posts. Food, consumer goods, recyclable materials, items which could be put to a better use fill garbage dumps and landfills. All of this while people across the globe are starving and the working class struggles to get by despite a rapidly rising cost of living and stagnated wages. Freeganism is the lifestyle of removing oneself from the system of capitalism, of living as free as possible by reclaiming waste in world of want.

Waste is generated inherently by capitalism in a number of ways. To begin with consumerism encourages wasteful behavior in consumers such as compelling them to buy things they don't need, even if it means incurring crippling debt and to throw out broken items rather than repairing them. Additionally, health regulations force super markets and restaurants to dispose of clean, safe food. Food items are thrown out even before their expirations to make room for new products and are often good far beyond their expiration date. If the packaging of a food item is damaged or if the food is deemed too unsightly for the demanding consumer, they will be thrown out. If an item is not selling, stores will make space for new inventory by throwing the old stock in the dumpster. Buffet restaurants throw entire trays of unserved food out at the end of the day, rather that donating it to a soup kitchen or food pantry. Additionally, large corporations destroy crops to artificially inflate the cost of a particular commodities. Star Bucks and other coffee companies buy and then burn tons of coffee beans to avoid glutting the market, thus a lower cost to the consumer. These are just a few examples of how much is wasted in a world full of hunger and poverty.

Through their imperial domination of the world, the U.S. has been able to provide low gas and oil prices in the past. Because of this, owning a car was an easy and affordable thing for many Americans, in spite of its environmentally impact. Now this is becoming less true as oil prices continue to break record prices. There are many free/cheap alternatives to owning a car or being overly reliant on the use of your car. Walking, biking, hitch-hiking, train hopping are all free and a great way to take cars off the road. Many areas have free local mass transportation. Grease Cars, or diesel vehicles converted to run on filtered vegetable oil are a great way to drive for much more cheaply while using waste for constructive purposes.

If you can, grow as much of your own food as space and time provide. If you are not above it, search out other free food opportunities such as food banks, soup kitchen, brown bag lunches, AA meetings, etc. I am sure many of my readers have eaten food gleaned/saved from a dumpster. Food Not Bombs is an amazing grass-roots organization that serves meals and distributes food gleaned entirely from dumpsters. Find them and they will take your far. You can obviously go dumpstering on your own. Trader Joe's is widely considered to one of the better supermarket to raid. Many merchants will gladly give away food that they would otherwise throw away; bakeries always have day-old bread that they discard and bakers are usually very generous, kind people. If you are in college or have friend in college, help them clean out their fridges and food shelves at the end of the year. Use common sense about what to eat and what to compost; meat, fish and dairy will not spoil in the winter, but in warmer weather it is probably better just to leave them. One last tip: rather than opening up bags in the dumpster, just take the entire bags of food and sort threw them safely at home.

Besides food, I have found that you can get almost any household item for free. If you need blank CDs or DVDs, a new lamp or office chair, check the dumpster of Staples or Office Max. Also raid the campus dumpsters at the end of the year for old TVs, iPods, food, booze and other useful items. Also look on craigslist and Freecycle. If you can't find it free, by used and second hand items from thrift stores and flea markets.

Squatting is a subject on which I am not terrible well versed in, other than working on a Okupa in Oaxaca City. It is a dirty shame that people have to become victims of slum lords or live on the street when their are thousands of perfectly good abandoned or otherwise unused buildings going to waste. Squatting is a tricky thing as it is illegal. But seriously why pay for housing?


Sometimes you just plain can get what you want for free and you need cash. Fear not as you can still make money in freegan-esque way. Some ways to make money while eliminating waste include collecting scrap metal such as bullet casings and construction debris or redeemable bottles and cans (crushed aluminum cans are worth seven cents at a scrap yard) and selling found text books (colleges), software from dumpsters (Staples), or batteries and other parts for electronics online.

The establishment does not look too kindly upon people attempting to live outside of the exploitive and wasteful system of capitalism and thus find way to criminalize this lifestyle. I was shocked to find out that many members of Food Not Bombs have been arrested for distributing food to the needy. Squatting and dumpster diving are both forms of trespassing. Grease car owners can be charged with fuel tax evasion. So be advised that you may get harassed by cops, security guards and store owners but most of the time you can talk your way out of it.

For more information on Freeganism check out:
•Freegan.info
•One act of a recent episode of This American Life
•Why Freegan? (zine)
•Cracking the System (zine)
•Not Buying It- an interesting and well written NYT article that gives insight into freeganism and dumpster diving in the big city.

Police Brutally Strip RNC Protesters and Journalists of Constitutional Rights

Police and other agents of repression have been running rampant in St. Paul, wasting no time and arresting hundreds of protesters and Amy Goodman and another journalists from progressive radio and television show, Democracy Now! the first day of the convention. Besides arresting alleged "anarchists"(the label given to anybody with dressed in black and breaking stuff at protests), the police also raided a building rented by several groups of protesters SWAT-style, arresting, interrogating and then releasing those inside. This type of martial law-esque behavior by police at protests has gone on for t0o long. How long will the American people and indeed the people of the world allow themselves to stripped of their rights? Around the world societies are giving us their freedom in order to protect, um... their freedom.

Decry the oppression of the free press and of political actors! Support the preservation of the constitution and defend basic human rights such as free speech and free assembly!

Check out more commentary on:

•Power 2 the People

•Blackstone's account of "anarchists" running amok

•Soob Du Jour

•Rusty Node's look at the increasing use of designated protest zones around the world