What the hell is wrong with you, bay area?

Don't look to the SF Bay Area for the future of progressive movements. The 60s are over. The fire is gone.

The real revolutionary fire is up here in Seattle now, and Portland. If you want to see the future forming, watch here. It's exciting!

Two decades of high-tech prosperity has spoiled the SF bay - the current generation there has grown up on cafe mochas, SUVs, and dot.com largesse. Most of them don't know what injustice is, and the few that do are too few indeed.

*Sj

Isn't prosperity generally a good thing?

Friends as you may be hearing, seeing or reading the situation in Palestine is desperate. Israeli forces have invaded almost every area of Ramallah and they are under heavy tank shelling and gun fire. An unidentified number of people are dead and scores are injured. Ambulances have been prevented access and soldiers are opening fire on them.There are international civilians in the areas under fire witnessing the carnage of the Israeli soldiers wreaked on the Palestinian people. Other internationals have been beaten down for trying to get into Ramallah to help Palestinians.

This terror must not go on. March against Israeli state terror against Palestine. March for solidarity with Palestinian resistance, and a free Palestine! Me must gather and resist now to tell the imperialists that they either end occupation, or face the music.

When: Saturday, March 30th
Time: 7:00 (After anarchist bookfair)
Place: Meet Outside Kezar Pavillion, Stanyan and Waller Streets, San Francisco, after anarchist bookfair

"isn't prosperity generally a good thing?"

well, sure, if you're the one living prosperously off the sweat and labor of others. in this zero-sum game called capitalism that has been mostly forced upon the world, some people have because others don't have. simple, but true.

so anyway, the bay area it seems is rife with scenesterism, petty personal political infighting, and a *marked* lack of a sense of urgency. prosperity, even the kind that comes from living in a collective house on dumpstered food, has a way of making complacent. there is potential here, but it's not going to magically rise from the ashes of some mythical period of radicalism. the 60's are over. it's 2002 now. let's get on with it. it's going to come about when some hard work is done, when white radicals start allying themselves to the organizations and movements of people of color with no pretensions, and when a bit of reflection takes place on strategies and tactics. and that, in my estimation, is just to get started.

I didn't know capitalism was a zero-sum game. Could you please explain?

I wish I could be an anti-globalization movement member like you. It all seems so simple, you don't even have to think sometimes!

Capitalism = bad.
Israelis = bad.
America = bad.
"Corporations" = bad.
Middle class = bad.

I wish I could have the same reflexive knee-jerk reactions to everything under the sun. It's like being Noam Chomsky.

i've been saying 'fuck the 60s' since the 80s, and 1991 was not 1971, yet for over a week there were hundreds of thousands of people in the bay area who went out to protest the war.

i don't think all of them moved away or became dotcommers. i do think that once clinton was elected, most of them decided that doing something like voting for nader was about as radical as they could manage.

spider al-quds -- i've checked out the seattle and portland scenes, and more power to ya. i want things to be better here at home. i don't share the american propensity to move 'where the action is' -- afterall that is exactly what spoiled the bay area, albeit by less-than-human capitalist scumbags.

to zzyzz -- oh please, won't you go crawl back into your zionist shithole? when "prosperity" comes on the backs of others, it's called theft. but then, being a fucking zionist piece of shit, you would probably refer to theft as "settlement." please do fuck off.

rampage -- THANK YOU. not just a protest, but a protest with anarchos.

rjj -- it's not just the 60s that are over, so are the 70s, 80s, and 90s. the shitstorm of the past 5-6 years has made it so that the young people who move to the bay area aren't the young people who used to move here. a shame, but a reality it is. i think that might have something to do with the (also noticed) "lack of a sense of urgency." (well there's also the egos of various politcal types, from the street to the mayor's office to factor in...) anyways, hope yours is a face at the demo tomorrow!

rjj,

> when white radicals start allying themselves to the
> organizations and movements of people of color
> with no pretensions,

That goes both ways, you know. When black/brown/yellow/red/plaid radicals recognize that white is also a color, and start allying themselves to the organizations of predominantly white people with no pretensions, we will make ever more progress.

You ought to try listening to white radicals sometime. The Constitution, patriotism, militant revolution, self-defense.. you think the Black Panthers invented this stuff? The very US Constitution y'all so regularly claim to support, was created by *white radicals*.

Even the loony white supremists over at World Church of the Creator have some good points. You know what their last radio program was mainly about? Freedom of speech, censorship, public access to public facilities, the cops doing their proper job and defending radical speech from violent assault - DO THESE ISSUES SOUND MAYBE JUST A LITTLE FAMILIAR?

You want white conservatives to join your camp? Try sending an emmisary to theirs. The rules of practical, effective, goal-oriented diplomacy were hammered out centuries ago.

> when a bit of reflection takes place on strategies and tactics.

Amen to that, brother. Time to get goal-oriented.

*Sj

Dear Mr. Me, Dammit:

You alude to my "zionist shithole". I can assure you that it is more than shit, and certainly not a hole. In fact, I have a beautiful view of the bay. This property, which I *own*, was earned by me through the sweat of my own labour. Alas, it is a shame that you will never see such a place.

Additionally, I should tell you that Jerusalem is quite pretty this time of year, though I doubt you will ever see this beauty. Instead, you will wallow in despair for all your days, cursed to an existence of shouting feebly about the injustices that put you where you are.

At least you have the sunshine, and your like-minded comrades-in-arms.

Viva la revolucion!

Prosperity seems to drive people's IQ down to the level of tapeworm. No issue is so important that the latte must be thrust aside, or the cell phone turned off.
Nothing short of the house on fire shakes these prosperous cretins. "Palestine? Where's that again? "

Your own analysis of the situation suggests that because members of the "movement" (ugh) has achieved affluence is the reason why those that haven't continue to protest. Better stated than I ever could have.

Dammit;
Before you blow a gasket - read this - and quite givin' us so much crap - we are doing what we can. You're not going to win any friends with vinegar, remember that - maybe you should read the fairy tale about the North Wind and the guy who wouldn't remove his cloak - but the sun came out and showed the blustery north wind what warmth could do.
Try it sometime! :O)
We are all, every one of us, VERY AWARE of the NEED to get people out in the streets - i'm out there literally every day with my community table - so lay off, ok?
Thanks and peace!

Dear Peoples Bark News Berkeley Readers;
URGENT NEWS!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeoplesBarkNewsBerkeley/message/264

no peace without justice,

john vance, editor/publisher/coordinator
Peoples Bark News Berkeley
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeoplesBarkNewsBerkeley/messages

A First Amendment Center
http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net
Berkeley, Ca

READ BELOW THIS LINE
-----------------------------


From: cop watch <copwatchberkeley [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: SF-IMC: Urgent message from Palestine
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 21:20:29 -0800 (PST)

Urgent message from Palestine: Gather, March, and Protest in the Streets!

There will be two Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in San Francisco on
Saturday March 30th:

Noon - Meet at Montgomery and Market Street 7pm - Meet at Stanyan and Waller
Streets (after the Anarchist Bookfair at Kezar Pavilion

"Friends as you may be hearing, seeing or reading
the situation in Palestine is desperate. Israeli forces have invaded almost
every area of Ramallah and we are under heavy tank shelling and gun fire. An
unidentified number of people are dead and scores are injured. Ambulances
have been prevented access and soldiers are opening fire on them.

There are international civilians in the areas under fire witnessing the
carnage of the Israeli soldiers wreaked on the Palestinian people. Other
internationals have been beaten down for trying to get into Ramallah to help
Palestinians.

We extend a plea from the Palestinians and the international witnesses to
all of our friends abroad to immediately phone and/or fax your
representatives and respective governments to demand urgent and decisive
action to stop Israel's brutal offensive on the Palestinian people. PLEASE
ACT NOW!"

http://Jerusalem.indymedia.org

----------------------------------------------------------------
SF-IMC is a collective of independent media organizations and journalists
offering non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and
political issues in the San Francisco Bay Area and worldwide.

Editorial features:
http://www.indybay.org/features/
Publish your media:
http://www.indybay.org/publish.php
Publicize your events:
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I got c'her north wind right here. Live my cape. POOOT!

>The very US Constitution y'all so regularly claim to support,

Some of us claim to support it and some don't.



>was created by *white radicals*.

Maybe that's why it endorsed slavery.

Endorsing slavery, how radical is that?

"It all seems so simple." You're betraying your own thought process here, John. Yes, it's all as simple as gassing up that SUV, and heading off for a vacation in Carmel, away from the scary headlines, the foreboding reports from Charles Schwab, and those intolerable homeless people. After all, that's what the McSystem has taught you- keep it simple.

Here's why capitalism is a zero-sum game.

http://www.perfecteconomy.com/

By extension, your life is a zero-sum game. Sorry.

The idea of a "mathematically perfect" economy is just outright absurd. In fact the very concept further entrenches the concept of economics as an abstract, mathematical construct rather than activities interwoven with the rest of our lives.

That said, I don't believe capitalism is a zero-sum game because of efficiency gains that come from technology and working practices. However, these gains are merely exploited by capitalism, not intrinsic to capitalism. An anarchist economy could use similar or different techniques to reduce the workload.

Capitalism may be a positive-sum game, but who gets what? If "the economy" (GDP) increases 2% in a year, who gets how much of that? Some people, generally the poorest, will see their real wages decline, while capital increases 10% in value.

The biggest question is: with all these ongoing productivity improvements, why do so many people have to work even 40 hours a week or more? It would seem that with these productivity increases, the 40-hour workweek of a century ago might be a 10-hour workweek now. It's certainly worth thinking about why this is not the case.