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No To Homophobe Ron Paul, How We Can Really End the War

steveargue2 — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:38:14 GMT

"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it." Socialist Anti-war Candidate Eugene Debs (who garnered nearly a million votes while he sat in prison for opposition to U.S. involvement in World War One).

"Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty and the end of welfare and affirmative action" wrote Ron Paul, who voted against the renewal of the Voting Rights Act in Congress, the act that gave Blacks the right to vote, quote from his “Ron Paul Newsletter”.

No to NYC Indymedia Censorship, How We Can Really End the War

By STEVEN ARGUE

Claiming that only an alliance with Ron Paul conservatives can end the war, New York City Indymedia volunteers have allowed blatant slander against Liberation News and have censored attempts to respond to those lies. Among the slanders posted were accusations that Liberation News is opposed to Ron Paul because we support Hillary Clinton and her healthcare program. I tried posting the following response, but it was censored on the site:

Ron Paul supporter: “it's pointed out that yes Ron Paul is a racist but Stevies candidate Hillary is even worse.”

Steven Argue: “I don’t support Hillary Clinton. Never have, but you don’t listen. This is pure slander.”

They then repeat their slander that I support Hillary Clinton for her healthcare plan saying, “It's pointed out that Stevie is willing to sacrifice liberty for a bogus health care plan”

Steven Argue: “Hillary Clinton opposes both socialized medicine and single payer healthcare. She supports insurance company healthcare, the kind that is killing untold millions in the United States. This is one of many reasons I oppose her.”

“And no, I don't see Clinton as a first step towards socialized medicine. Her promise to force people to buy insurance has nothing in common with socialized medicine, nor partially socialized medicine (i.e. single payer). I’m clear about this in my article:

The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States, and the Struggle to Achieve It, By STEVEN ARGUE
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/02/18469739.php

“As for Ron Paul, he wants to privatize everything, including public education, Social Security, and Medicare, eliminate the Voting Rights Act and Roe V Wade in the name of "states rights", signed on to the "Marriage Protection Act", would eliminate every environmental and labor protection, etc. etc. etc. This is a prescription for the slavery of the majority to protect the “liberty” of a tiny handful of capitalists to exploit.

“I oppose both Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul. But I’ve already made that clear as being my position. These accusations are slanderous.”

Ron Paul supporter: “Then Stevie moves the goal posts again. Waaa. He's being censored.”

Steven Argue: “I repeatedly posted a response to the slander that I support Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan, and the response is censored every time. I have no motive to make that up. I mentioned it because I wanted people to see my response. Frankly, I’m quite surprised it is happening. Let’s see if this one goes up.”

That response, as I feared, was also censored. Revealing the reasons behind the Ron Paul censorship at the site, the Ron Paul backers posted the following:

“Get off your sectarianism.

“What you don’t get is that there are only two ways we're going to end the occupation of Iraq:

“1.) A recession, and a bad one.

“2.) Convincing the vast majority of conservative Americans it's wrong. Ron Paul reaches these people. The guy with the Free Mumia shirt selling the "Socialist Worker" doesn't.

“To get anything done in a democracy you're going to have to work with people you don't agree with and people you might not even like. People in grown up countries do this all the time. They're called "coalitions".

“The Labor Party in Israel, for example, makes alliances with the ultra orthodox. The Liberal Democrats have made common cause with the Tories in the UK. The left made common cause with Vicente Fox to get the PRI out of power in Mexico.

“It's only in the puritan USA where everybody thinks you have to like all your political allies and agree with them on everything.”

Besides the fact that the majority of Americans already oppose the war; and besides the fact that these points show a total lack of understanding of the bourgeois nature of the coalitions in the countries mentioned; and besides showing a total lack of understanding of what it will take to end the war (I discuss this at the end of the article); New York City Indymedia’s lack of confidence in the ability of people to change has caused them to build a coalition with a capitalist politician who is a racist, homophobic, anti-worker, anti-environmental, bible thumping, sexist, anti-labor, anti-poor, free-market privatization fanatic. On top of that, they censor the left in order to achieve that coalition.

While a Ron Paul presidency would likely end the war, at what price would this come?

Ron Paul uses the term liberty a lot, so let’s take a look at what he means by liberty.

The liberty Ron Paul demands is:

The liberty of the capitalists to exploit without labor laws and environmental protections;

The "state’s right” to prevent Blacks from voting without the interference of the Voting Rights Act (voted against its renewal in Congress);

The "states right" to ban abortions without the interference of Roe v Wade;

The freedom of the government to deny same-sex rights (was an original sponsor of the "Marriage Protection Act");

The freedom of children not to attend schools (would abolish public education);

The freedom of the elderly and disabled to starve (would abolish Social Security);

The freedom of the sick to die (would abolish Medicare);

The freedom of the U.S. to destroy the planet without even the most basic limits on carbon emissions (opposes signing on to Kyoto and all other carbon limitations);

This is, in short, the liberty of a wealthy minority to make their money from the exploitation of labor and the environment with zero interference from labor laws, environmental laws, and the IRS. While his program is liberty for a minority of rich white heterosexual males, it is slavery for the majority.

Simply put, Ron Paul’s promises to end the war are not enough when one looks at the fact that he would eliminate two centuries of hard fought social progress in the United States.

Some of the anti-war backers of Ron Paul argue that we don’t have to worry about these things because Ron Paul will never be elected. They think that backing his campaign is a way to win over his supporters. What is clear is that such arguments could only come from people who are utterly lost and rudderless, which leaves unclear the question of what they are winning Ron Paul supporters over to. They are supporting a candidate whose program is George Wallace on crack cocaine! Yet, the ultimate absurdity is the fact that they are backing a candidate whose most reassuring feature is that he won’t get elected! Is this point lost on these people? And is the chance that their support may help him get elected a chance they really want to take? Nobody thought that third party candidate Jesse (the body) Ventura would get elected in Minnesota either, but he was, and as soon as he was elected he discarded his libertarian values on drug legalization and prostitution and instead proceeded to carrying out attacks on labor and carrying out disastrous cuts in education and other social spending.

Others argue that if Ron Paul is elected, he will easily be able to pull the troops out of Iraq, but congress will block him on the other issues. There is no doubt that they would block parts of Ron Paul’s program in order to prevent the social unrest such measures would cause, but with the ruling class’s desire to step up the exploitation of labor and the environment through eliminating regulation and through privatization, there can be little doubt that if he is able to maintain his presidency without being shot, aspects of Ron Paul’s domestic program would be implemented.

Today, in the United States we have two rightwing capitalist parties that rule. The activists who run New York Indymedia are floating around utterly lost and rudderless. On the one hand, their anarchist philosophy prohibits them from putting forward their own leadership or supporting socialist candidates; and on the other hand, they are stuck in the “real politic” of supporting “lesser evil” capitalist politicians. It is these characteristics that made them susceptible to being swept up on the Ron Paul band wagon. Despite their “libertarian” values of “freedom”, they have now taken this to the point where they are even willing to censor critics of Ron Paul on their website.

While Ron Paul, the only Republican candidate opposed to the war, is not worth supporting, the front running Democrats are also very bad. Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, are all pro-war. Both Edwards and Clinton voted for the war. Obama supporters claim that Obama never supported the war. While Obama was not yet in the Senate at the time of the Iraq war vote, Obama, Edwards, and Clinton have all voted for war appropriations. This puts them all in the position of having supported the war. Over a million Iraqis are dead due to the U.S. invasion and occupation, and billions of dollars have been squandered. Obama, by helping pay for the war, has his hands in this mass murder just as Clinton and Edwards do.

Obama’s Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007 supposedly would have begun troop withdrawal in May 2007. Yet, it didn't call for full nor immediate withdrawal. In addition, under the bill, the withdrawal could be halted if the Iraqi government met a number of criteria laid out by the Bush administration. These included a broad number of things such as changes in the use of oil revenue, government reforms, an end to sectarian violence, and other economic and reconstruction criteria. In Obama’s bill we have a crystal ball into the future. The excuses laid out in the bill will be heard once again as Obama, Clinton, or Edwards explain why they are keeping the troops in Iraq for their entire presidency; that is unless other actions are taken by the people to stop the war.

This brings us to the fundamental question of how to stop the war. If we are to listen to the Ron Paul censors / supporters at NYC Indymedia the only thing we can do to stop the war is support Ron Paul or hope for (pray for?) economic collapse. Yet, this ignores other less damaging possibilities. These include the troops refusing to fight, a general strike, strikes against the movement of war materials, or socialist revolution.

1. The troops refusing to fight. This worked in the struggle to end the U.S. aggression against Vietnam. It was the socialist movement who were the primary organizers of the anti-Vietnam War movement. That movement, immediately after the government’s murders at Kent State in May 1970 had 8 million students out on strike, and some Universities, such a Berkley, were taken over by students and faculty as anti-war universities. After May 1970, the majority of those drafted were already opposed to the war before they got to Vietnam. Refusal to fight was widespread, and the fragging of pro-war officers was common. Nixon could not continue to wage a war with soldiers who refused to fight. This, along with the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese, brought an end to the war in Vietnam.

Troops refusing to fight also helped bring an end to Russian involvement in the First World War, and helped bring down two pro-war governments in 1917.

2. A general strike or strikes against the movement of war materials. Strikes with such political demands have a long history of success. France has many good social programs because the workers there were willing to shut down their country to achieve them; and they are still willing to do the same to protect those hard fought gains.

3. Socialist revolution. The October Russian Revolution achieved an end to Russian involvement in the First World War. This was a good thing, despite the undemocratic nature of the revolution. Learning from those lessons, Liberation News opposes the dictatorial system of one party rule and raises the banner of revolutionary democratic socialism, while at the same time learning from many of the revolutionary strategies of Lenin and Trotsky.

Protests, pickets, information distribution, building a socialist movement, and answering pro-Ron Paul and pro-Obama-Clinton-Edwards propaganda all help towards building the momentum needed in achieving the kinds of actions that can end the war. Putting support behind Ron Paul only helps an extreme rightwing movement achieve the mantel of leadership for an anti-war sentiment that already represents majority public opinion. In addition, backing a guy like Ron Paul who just crossed a picket line to appear on Jay Lenno’s “Tonight Show” destroys the anti-war strategy of reaching out to the working class, as does backing a racist candidate like Ron Paul hurt the ability to reach out to the multi-racial working class.

No to the Democrats and Republicans!

U.S. Out of Iraq Now!

No to Insurance Company Healthcare, For Socialized Medicine!

Save the Planet, Curb Carbon Emissions Now!

Vote Socialist, Build the Labor Movement, Build the Anti-War Movement, Build the Socialist Movement.

[Note, small changes were made to the response that was censored at NYC Indymedia to make it more readable within the format of this article. Those wishing to see the original version will be given it upon request. Likewise, anyone wishing further sources will be provided them upon request]

This is an article of Liberation News, a low volume newsletter, Subscribe free!
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

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The Ron Paul “Revolution”, an Extreme Rightwing Threat

steveargue2 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:39:30 GMT

The Ron Paul “Revolution”, an Extreme Rightwing Threat

By STEVEN ARGUE

For the most part the Iowa caucuses were business as usual for the Democrat and Republican Parties. Among the Democrats, “Anti-war” and “pro-single payer health care” Democrat Dennis Kucinich put his support behind pro-war anti--single payer health care, Barrack Obama. Yet on the far right, anti-war Libertarian and Republican Ron Paul gained a stunning 10% of the vote.

Seeing the failure of the Democrats to deliver a candidate worth supporting; some left leaning individuals have been suggesting support to Ron Paul. One is anti-war Vietnam veteran Stan Goff, who suggested in his January 4, 2008 article ”Monkey Wrenching the System, Ron Paul’s Revolution” that people vote in the primaries for Ron Paul, switching party registration right away if they live in a state where such a move is necessary to vote in the Republican primaries.

At the root of the Ron Paul "revolution" is the dismantling of Social Security and the Department of Education as well as other basic social programs, and the elimination of worker and environmental protections. Advances like single payer health care? No way. Ron Paul's message is that you need to take care of yourself, and that there shouldn't be such government programs, nor such interference with private profit. While he puts forward reasons for not supporting going to war abroad, his domestic policies would ignite civil war at home.

In addition to pretending he's against all government, he's for outlawing abortion and supports the continued ban on same-sex marriage. He was one of the original co-sponsors of the "Marriage Protection Act".

He's also a religious extremist who thinks that creationism should be taught in the schools.

On race, Ron Paul was one of 33 Congress members to vote against the renewal of the Voting Rights Act, an act that was first passed to give Blacks in the south the right to vote. On a similar note, he says the Civil Rights Act violates the Constitution and impedes on individual liberties. Speaking of Blacks in Washington DC he states in campaign literature, "95 percent of African Americans in are semi-criminal or entirely criminal".

No wonder the American Nazi Party has close relations with him (see letter from Nazi Commander Bill White below). In addition, Ron Paul has the support of other white supremacists such as David Duke, and has knowingly taken donations from former KKK Grand Wizard Don Black.

Hell would freeze over before I'd support Ron Paul. And being an atheist; that will be a long time.

There are plenty of candidates to the left of the Democrats worth considering supporting who oppose the war, would preserve public education and Social Security, who would provide single payer or socialized medicine, and who aren’t raving racist, homophobic, and sexist “Libertarian” fanatics. Why not look at them rather than someone from the loony right?

I discuss some of the campaigns that may be worth supporting in the following article:

The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States,
And the Struggle to Achieve It
By STEVEN ARGUE
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/02/18469739.php

Or here is a different version of the same article:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/01/93820.html

*****************
American Nazi Party Chief says Ron Paul is one of us

Bill White, commander of the American National Socialist Worker’s Party, aka The American Nazi Party, wrote the following on the Nazi Vanguard News Network:

Comrades:

I have kept quiet about the Ron Paul campaign for a while, because I didn’t see any need to say anything that would cause any trouble. However, reading the latest release from his campaign spokesman, I am compelled to tell the truth about Ron Paul’s extensive involvement in white nationalism.

Both Congressman Paul and his aides regularly meet with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review, and others at the Tara Thai restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, usually on Wednesdays. This is part of a dinner that was originally organized by Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis and Joe Sobran, and has since been mostly taken over by the Council of Conservative Citizens.

I have attended these dinners, seen Paul and his aides there, and been invited to his offices in Washington to discuss policy.

For his spokesman to call white racialism a “small ideology” and claim white activists are “wasting their money” trying to influence Paul is ridiculous. Paul is a white nationalist of the Stormfront type who has always kept his racial views and his views about world Judaism quiet because of his political position.

I don’t know that it is necessarily good for Paul to “expose” this. However, he really is someone with extensive ties to white nationalism and for him to deny that in the belief he will be more respectable by denying it is outrageous — and I hate seeing people in the press who denounce racialism merely because they think it is not fashionable.

Bill White, Commander
American National Socialist Workers Party

*********
Poor Bill White. He’s having trouble with his brand of racism, anti-Semitism, mass extermination, and genocide not being "in fashion". But hey, you've got to thank the knuckleheaded Nazi for confirming our suspicions on Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan! -Steven Argue

Liberation News
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

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Lesbians sentenced for self-defense. FREE THEM NOW!

steveargue2 — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 04:27:51 GMT

FREE THEM NOW!
Lesbians sentenced for self-defense
All-white jury convicts Black women

By Imani Henry
New York

Published Jun 21, 2007 2:58 AM
On June 14, four African-American women—Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20) and Renata Hill (24)—received sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years in prison. None of them had previous criminal records. Two of them are parents of small children.

Their crime? Defending themselves from a physical attack by a man who held them down and choked them, ripped hair from their scalps, spat on them, and threatened to sexually assault them—all because they are lesbians.

The mere fact that any victim of a bigoted attack would be arrested, jailed and then convicted for self-defense is an outrage. But the length of prison time given further demonstrates the highly political nature of this case and just how racist, misogynistic, anti-gay, anti-youth and anti-worker the so-called U.S. justice system truly is.

The description of the events, reported below, is based on written statements by a community organization (FIERCE) that has made a call to action to defend the four women, verbal accounts from court observers and evidence from a surveillance camera.

The attack

On Aug. 16, 2006, seven young, African-American, lesbian-identified friends were walking in the West Village. The Village is a historic center for lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) communities, and is seen as a safe haven for working-class LGBT youth, especially youth of color.

As they passed the Independent Film Cinema, 29-year-old Dwayne Buckle, an African-American vendor selling DVDs, sexually propositioned one of the women. They rebuffed his advances and kept walking.

“I’ll f— you straight, sweetheart!” Buckle shouted. A video camera from a nearby store shows the women walking away. He followed them, all the while hurling anti-lesbian slurs, grabbing his genitals and making explicitly obscene remarks. The women finally stopped and confronted him. A heated argument ensued. Buckle spat in the face of one of the women and threw his lit cigarette at them, escalating the verbal attack into a physical one.

Buckle is seen on the video grabbing and pulling out large patches of hair from one of the young women. When Buckle ended up on top of one of the women, choking her, Johnson pulled a small steak knife out of her purse. She aimed for his arm to stop him from killing her friend.

The video captures two men finally running over to help the women and beating Buckle. At some point he was stabbed in the abdomen. The women were already walking away across the street by the time the police arrived.

Buckle was hospitalized for five days after surgery for a lacerated liver and stomach. When asked at the hospital, he responded at least twice that men had attacked him.

There was no evidence that Johnson’s kitchen knife was the weapon that penetrated his abdomen, nor was there any blood visible on it. In fact, there was never any forensics testing done on her knife. On the night they were arrested, the police told the women that there would be a search by the New York Police Department for the two men—which to date has not happened.

After almost a year of trial, four of the seven were convicted in April. Johnson was sentenced to 11 years on June 14.

Even with Buckle’s admission and the video footage proving that he instigated this anti-gay attack, the women were relentlessly demonized in the press, had trumped-up felony charges levied against them, and were subsequently given long sentences in order to send a clear resounding message—that self-defense is a crime and no one should dare to fight back.

Political backdrop of the case

Why were these young women used as an example? At stake are the billions of dollars in tourism and real estate development involved in the continued gentrification of the West Village. This particular incident happened near the Washington Square area—home of New York University, one of most expensive private colleges in the country and one of the biggest employers and landlords in New York City. The New York Times reported that Justice Edward J. McLaughlin used his sentencing speech to comment on “how New York welcomes tourists.” (June 17)

The Village is also the home of the Stonewall Rebellion, the three-day street battle against the NYPD that, along with the Compton Cafeteria “Riots” in California, helped launch the modern-day LGBT liberation movement in 1969. The Manhattan LGBT Pride march, one of the biggest demonstrations of LGBT peoples in the world, ends near the Christopher Street Piers in the Village, which have been the historical “hangout” and home for working-class trans and LGBT youth in New York City for decades.

Because of growing gentrification in recent years, young people of color, homeless and transgender communities, LGBT and straight, have faced curfews and brutality by police sanctioned by the West Village community board and politicians. On Oct. 31, 2006, police officers from the NYPD’s 6th Precinct indiscriminately beat and arrested several people of color in sweeps on Christopher Street after the Halloween parade.

Since the 1980s there has been a steady increase in anti-LGBT violence in the area, with bashers going there with that purpose in mind.

For trans people and LGBT youth of color, who statistically experience higher amounts of bigoted violence, the impact of the gentrification has been severe. As their once-safe haven is encroached on by real estate developers, the new white and majority heterosexual residents of the West Village then call in the state to brutalize them.

For the last six years the political LGBT youth group FIERCE has been at the forefront of mobilizing young people “to counter the displacement and criminalization of LGBTSTQ [lesbian, gay, bi, two spirit, trans, and queer] youth of color and homeless youth at the Christopher Street Pier and in Manhattan’s West Village.” (www.fiercenyc.org) FIERCE has also been the lead organization supporting the Jersey Seven and their families.

The trial and the media

Deemed a so-called “hate crime” against a straight man, every possible racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT and anti-youth tactic was used by the entire state apparatus and media. Everything from the fact that they lived outside of New York, in the working-class majority Black city of Newark, N.J., to their gender expressions and body structures were twisted and dehumanized in the public eye and to the jury.

According to court observers, McLaughlin stated throughout the trial that he had no sympathy for these women. The jury, although they were all women, were all white. All witnesses for the district attorney were white men, except for one Black male who had several felony charges.

Court observers report that the defense attorneys had to put enormous effort into simply convincing the jury that they were “average women” who had planned to just hang out together that night. Some jurists asked why they were in the Village if they were from New Jersey. The DA brought up whether they could afford to hang out there—raising the issue of who has the right to be there in the first place.

The Daily News reporting was relentless in its racist anti-lesbian misogyny, portraying Buckle as a “filmmaker” and “sound engineer” preyed upon by a “lesbian wolf pack” (April 19) and a “gang of angry lesbians.” (April 13)

Everyone has been socialized by cultural archetypes of what it means to be a “man” or “masculine” and “woman” or “feminine.” Gender identity/expression is the way each indivdual chooses or not to express gender in their everyday lives, including how they dress, walk, talk, etc. Transgender people and other gender non-conforming people face oppression based on their gender expression/identity.

The only pictures shown in the Daily News were of the more masculine-appearing women. One of the most despiciable headlines in the Daily News, “‘I’m a man!’ lesbian growled during fight,” (April 13) was targeted against Renata Hill, who was taunted by Buckle because of her masculinity.

Ironically, Johnson, who was singled out by the judge as the “ringleader,” is the more feminine of the four. According to the New York Times, in his sentencing remarks, “Justice McLaughlin scoffed at the assertion made by ... Johnson, that she carried a knife because she was just 4-foot-11 and 95 pounds, worked nights and lived in a dangerous neighborhood.” He quoted the nursery rhyme, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” (June 15)

All of the seven women knew and went to school with Sakia Gunn, a 19-year-old butch lesbian who was stabbed to death in Newark, N.J., in May 2003. Paralleling the present case, Gunn was out with three of her friends when a man made sexual advances to one of the women. When she replied that she was a lesbian and not interested, he attacked them. Gunn fought back and was stabbed to death.

“You can’t help but wonder that if Sakia Gunn had a weapon, would she be in jail right now?” Bran Fenner, a founding member and co-executive director of FIERCE, told Workers World. “If we don’t have the right to self-defense, how are we supposed to survive?”

National call to action

While racist killer cops continue to go without indictment and anti-immigrant paramilitary groups like the Minutemen are on the rise in the U.S., The Jersey Four sit behind bars for simply defending themselves against a bigot who attacked them in the Village.

Capitalism at its very core is a racist, sexist, anti-LGBT system, sanctioning state violence through cops, courts and its so-called laws. The case of the Jersey Four gives more legal precedence for bigoted violence to go unchallenged. The ruling class saw this case as a political one; FIERCE and other groups believe the entire progressive movement should as well.

Fenner said, “We are organizing in the hope that this wakes up all oppressed people and sparks a huge, broad campaign to demand freedom for the Jersey Four.”

FIERCE is asking for assistance for these young women, including pro-bono legal support, media contacts and writers, pen pals, financial support, and diverse organizational support. For details, visit www.fiercenyc.org.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Distributed by Steven Argue of Liberation News (not affiliated with Workers World):
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

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Linda Simpson for President!

Mike — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:10:30 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D-L7ec-Kfs

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Pink & Black Block not Stephen Locke!! Let's see all the Radical Queers in Calgary!

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:16:17 GMT

All Anti-Capitalist Queers, Sluts Against Capitalism in Calgary Alberta!!: Dress Up, Cum out! and Let's Get Together As A Radical Pink & Black Block to Represent at the Gay Pride Parade!

...tired of the rainbow feeling like a sea of white? feel like you don't have a community because you don't have a salary? don't size up to the gay buff bod ideal? get the feeling like the gay community is an old boys club? sick of feeling unsafe in the streets? feel like the 'gay' community represents the rich, the white, the male? ...

Get Dressed Up in Pink & Black and Join Us, so we can march together!

Sunday June 11th, 2006. Calgary Gay Pride Parade
Meeting Before the Parade: 11:00 am, the Cllock Tower @ Millenium Skate Park
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so, a few of us met and worked on banners, signs, scarves, etc.... we also worked on a call-out. it seems that our intention is to have a presence at the parade, the emphasis being on representation, not confrontation. i think our presence in itself will be somewhat 'confrontational', but the intention isn't to disrupt anything, just shake 'em up a bit. it just doesn't seem like there is the time, enery, comfort levels, etc., to attempt anything very intense besides just being there and trying to be visible. mostly, this will hopefully just be a fun, safe action where we can join the parade with our own radical/ non-assimilationist voices.....i'd like to work that out in the call-out, but wasn't quite sure how.. would any one else care to contribute and help work on this call-out (please!!)? we are running out of time!

so, we have scarves, a banner and some posters- we need to get together to work on stuff some more, collect costumes and noisemakers, and it would help to try and get as much support as possible.. the more the merrier -- and safer feeling... so call and email whomever you can think of.

If you have any questions please email me with them ASAP. thanks.

The Sluts Agianst Capitialism

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ZOMBIES LIVE! oct.15/05 calgary

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 04:24:55 GMT

The First Annual Calgary Zombie Walk!

Saturday, October 15th - starts at 3pm from Olympic Plaza and/or 4pm from the park at 17th Ave and 8th St.

The walk will start in two stages, as follows:

1. All "super zombies" are invited to gather at Olympic Plaza no later than 3pm. From Olympic Plaza the horde will head down Stephen Avenue to 8th Street SW, then head south to 17th Ave where we will meet:

2. The lazy zombies. A second group of zombies will gather at the above mentioned park at or around 4pm. Remember - zombies tend to move slowly and occasionally have problems with limbs falling off, body stiffness and possibly police officers. And, despite being animated corpses in search of human brains, pedestrian zombies must obey traffic signals. If you do not see any of your brethren exactly at 5pm, be patient. Mill about and look scary.

Once all zombie factions have massed at the park it will be time to head onward to the Union Cemetery on McLeod Trail & 25th Ave. For reference, the walk will proceed along 17th Ave to McLeod Trail should any zombie stragglers be left behind and/or spontaneous zombies wish to join the braaiiins procession.

Once at the cemetery, please be on good zombie behaviour - respect your brethren.

We will linger a short while in the cemetery before moving onwards to nearby Reader Rock Gardens for some games, brains, fun, prizes, brains and a pinata or two.

Yes, you do have to dress like a zombie. Those who do not do so are welcome, but risk having their brains eaten by confused zombies. You have to admit - they're not all that smart, but they know a good living brain when they smell it.

Potentially useful things to keep in mind:

Causes of zombie-ness:

As everyone knows - or should know - zombies are usually attributable to one or more of the following:

1. voodoo
2. science gone astray - chemical or biological accidents, experiments, viruses and the like
3. the apocalypse

Of course, there are many more possibilties. Be creative. Corpses in all stages of decay are encouraged.

For the low-budget zombie:

1. Oatmeal and liquid latex works wonders.
2. Food colouring and corn syrup makes convincing blood, but sticky. However, also tasty.
3. Bloody entrails can be easily made by stuffing pantyhose with old sweatsocks, then soaking the whole thing in a bowl of fake blood.
4. Value Village - but I'm sure it's hardly necessary to mention that. I’ve heard that burying your clothes in the backyard for a week or two can help them look (and smell) extra zombie filthy.

Finally: zombies are only really effective when travelling together in large groups. Bring your friends, foes, family and other loved ones.

Nothing says you love someone quite like caking yourself in make-up, limping down the street together and eating them in the park!

Pass this info on to anyone who might be interested - it has a bit of a 'viral' feel to it, but see zombie cause number 2. It all makes perfect sense.

___________________

Can someone say queer zombie?

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies

Allen Ginsberg tribe

BobMaster — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:22:16 GMT

Hi, check out the new tribe dedicated to Allen

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies

call our for performers

tysun_c — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 18:00:03 GMT

theTeknoCollective and Shake it
are hosting RED
an Aids Calgary fundraiser on FEB 20 2005

looking for Performers

We still have a few spots.
We are looking for dancers, flaggers, spinners, circus freaks for all natures.
we are planning to make red a multi dimentional circus like affair.
the more layers the better!

if you feel like you have something to offer pm
me.

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies

Hey Gey, wanna feck me in my arse in front of the FTD florist?

mikikiandguest — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 20:05:58 GMT

Militianeers!!!
is this a call to arms?
ur right to bare arms?
a one bio-woman (and others) army?

anyone else tired of feeling like there's nothing doing these days?
wanna fuck shit up but feeling unmotivated or concerned that it might tip the balance of the Gay marriage debate (like poor dead ohio)
Equal Marriage campaigning making us committed ANTI-MARRIAGE queers feeling left out of the circus ruckus?

For those who didn't know, I'm going down on san francisco (though not fr at least another two days as my favorite secretagentloverman needs cash for sperm donation and you gotta abstain for two days ahead of time to do it... UGH) and hanging with the GayShamers, some of whom have heard of our sisters in the AntiCapAssPirouettes and even these skids down here are moving kinda slowly on actions (aside from regular stencilling which seems to get regularly sprayed over by Gays and Lesbians in the castro)...

ANYWAY, this static state (and my fast beating heart of hearts, oh what lust can do...) got me thinking about PINK TRIANGLE DAY.

I mean it's less than a month away (February 14th!!!) and *I* always thought it to be a significant day in our history "as a people"... am I wrong?

for those who might not know about it (will and gracers of the Gay Militia...) it's a day to remember the over 150'000 queers who were exterminated in the concentration camps of WW2- the pink triangle was the symbol faggots were made to wear (like the yellow star of david the jews were made to wear) and lesbos were lumped in with other "socially undesireable" women like sex workers and wore a black triangle. Of course some BOY musta decided to name the day so it's pink triangle day but with the pink and black triangles together and knowing this his/her/hirstory I think it sets us up for a great opportunity to play on a lot of archetypes within/misconceptions surrounding/commodification/new formulations of our identities...

SO MY SUGGESTION IS:

PINK TRIANGLE DAY ACTION BRAINSTORM
(and media sharing)

Let's post what we'd like to have happen and ask for feedback and suggestions and volunteers and fun!

ok I'll start!

I'm interested in making a large format (prolly blueprint) poster that's talking about our current lack of interest (as a "community") in queer his/her/hirstories and looking at the internet "community" (admittedly a pretty boy-centric project here) as perpetuating a dangerously hyper-sexualized (without any contextualization of:
the AIDS crisis,
ACT-UP,
Radical Faeries,
Comprehensive Sexuality Education,
Trade,
The Daddy/Son Dynamic v. Mentorship,
Tricking,
Mediated Identities v. Best Foot Fwd,
Transphobia - SissyBoys
Literacy (media and the regular type),
Marsha P Johnson & The First Brick at Stonewall Theory,
Gym Clones-Tom of Finland-The Role of Fantasy (in the Age of a Pandemic),
Porn - Phantom Limb Theory - Self-Reflexivity - D.I.Y.,
Barebacking,
Pulling Out v. Precum,
Living POZ,
Loving POZ,
Power in Transformation v. Telling Your Truth,
Women In Our Lives v. Women Of Our Lives,
Sexual Racism,
How We Programme (and De/Reprogramme) Our Desire,
Anatomy and Physiology,
Mental Health and Making Choices that Fit With Your Values,
Class and Access to Information,
The Down Low,
Our MSM Community,
Bathhouse Culture,
Bashing and Bait.
Etc, Etc, Etc...

Aside from this project - which I'm totally willing to share if people wanna print them themselves, or edit, or make comments on - could save them for you in whatever format you'd like - I'm like to maybe to a performance of some kind?
anyone have any ideas about what they might like to do?

I DARE YOU to make something happen.
yer all a bunch of fucking wikkidly brilliant souls, show me ur still thinking about our community, and to totally play the asshole, we all know that this issue still matters because the last two times I got trashed I couldn't help but cry about those two kids who killed themselves at that catholic school last year because of homophobic bullshit. OUR HER/HIR/HISTORY MATTERS and THIS IS WRITING MORE OF IT.

let's fucking make some of our own goddamned space and time.

please.
xoxox
mikiki

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies

Hey Queers

mikikiandguest — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 17:01:20 GMT

Just an FYI,
Mikiki (me)
is moving this sunday (as in two days from now)
to SanFranFuckingCisco and I don't know any of their rowdy radical punk rawk hose queers (well i know two, but one lives in PaloAlto 25 min away and the other just moved to LA for skool)
so I'm trying to get hooked up with some friends.
I'll be staying at the Savoy Hotel while I'm there (yay family friends with connections!) and basically just bumming around.
hit me wit da hook-up, bruvas.
and hope to see all my radical gay militia types back on the streets to protest same sex marriage!
hey wait...
no really...
um...
*hrm*

posted in Gay Militia - 1 reply

disgrotesque: a graver extraordinaire

christopher franklin — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:49:22 GMT

a friday the 13th party. (august).
me and owyn are throwing our second party together. (!) this one a fundraiser for a dear friend of ours who got somethings dear to him taken away.
spooky and scary, zombie style.
maybe even bob for brains in the pool of blood? whos to say? i can promise you organs, to say the least. some great music too. more details to come later, just wanted to catch your attention. lure you in maybe. you know like when they throw blood of fish into the lake for sharks to come swimming? well, not *really* like that, but sorta.

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies

alleged gay militia members house raided and arrests made today

christopher franklin — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 04:54:09 GMT

y.'s house got raided by the cops and he got arrested in regards to the gay militia. im not sure how the police made the link to his house or that he was involved in the action or where he lives but y. is relativly high profile so maybe it was a matter of assumption or targetting.
we should probably do something...

posted in Gay Militia - 1 reply

letter by gay militia member

rayann — Sun, 16 May 2004 01:57:31 GMT

does anyone have a copy of the letter to the editor written recently by a gay militia member? I am dying to read it!
thanks

posted in Gay Militia - 3 replies

information on logo

skiddysmith — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:44:20 GMT

i just created this logo for the tribe, if anyone has any reason they dislike or would not like to use this, please let me know. i did some reading on the internet and the Lambda was a symbol that i thought worked well for us. there is a description of it below that i got from Q2ALLY http://q2.concordia.ca/handbook/section6.shtml

Lambda
The lambda symbol seems to be one of the most controversial of symbols in regards to its meaning. There are several differing opinions as to why the lambda was chosen as a gay symbol and what it really means. However, most sources agree on a few things: The lambda was first chosen as a gay symbol when it was adopted in 1970 by the New York Gay Activists Alliance. It became the symbol of their growing movement of gay liberation. In 1974, the lambda was subsequently adopted by the International Gay Rights Congress held in Edinburgh, Scotland. As their symbol for lesbian and gay rights, the lambda became internationally popular.

But where history ends, speculation begins. No one seems to have a definitive answer why the lambda was originally chosen as a gay symbol. Some suggest that it is simply the Greek lower-case letter “L” for liberation. Others disagree, citing the use of lambda in physics to denote energy (the energy we have when we work in concert) or wavelength (are gays and lesbians on a different wavelength?). Lambda may also denote the synergy of the gay movement, the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The lambda also may represent scales and balance, and the constant force that keeps opposing sides from overcoming each other -- the hook at the bottom of the right leg signifies the action needed to reach and maintain balance. The ancient Greek Spartans regarded the lambda to mean unity, while the Romans considered it “the light of knowledge shed into the darkness of ignorance.” Reportedly, Ancient Greeks placed the lambda on shields of Spartan warriors, who were often paired off with younger men in battle. (There was a theory that warriors would fight more fiercely knowing that their lovers were both watching and fighting alongside them.)

Whatever the exact meaning and origin, the lambda originally embodied a fairly militant connotation. Today, the symbol generally denotes lesbians’ and gay men’s concerns together. Although the lambda was never intended to be linked to any specific gender or orientation such as other symbols may be, historically this is not so: In the early 1970’s the Los Angeles gay community created a flag with a lavender lambda on a simple white background. They hoped the flag would catch on to other cities, but their hopes were not realized because some saw the lambda as a male symbol only.

if anyone doesn't want this tribe to exist, thinks any of the things on here are a bad idea please let your feelings known and we can discuss it further.

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies

Police probe gay raid on Christians

skiddysmith — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:31:44 GMT

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/04/21/430404.html

Police probe gay raid on Christians
By MIKE D'AMOUR, CALGARY SUN
Police are reviewing several videotapes of a Christian meeting that was stormed by gay protesters. "An investigation is ongoing," confirmed Calgary police Const. Doug Jones, the hate-bias crime co-ordinator for the police cultural resource unit.

"What we are looking at, if we can identify (the protesters) is mischief charges, disturbing a peaceful assembly kind of stuff."

The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. held its national convention at Calgary's Coast Plaza Hotel in the city's northeast on Saturday when about seven females and a male wearing bandannas over their faces came into the room.

On a videotape viewed by the Sun, the protesters were heard chanting: "Right wing bigots go away, Gay Militia is here to stay."

As about 25 members of the convention held hands and prayed aloud, the women unfurled a banner that read: Liberation: Queer Invasion.

"I was dumbfounded at the fact that the Gay Militia would storm into a private meeting where we were praying and discussing Bill C-250, a bill that will affect our freedom as Christians to discuss certain beliefs," said Jim Blake of the CCC.

Bill C-250 is one that would add protection of homosexuals and homosexual lifestyles to the "hate" section of the Criminal Code.

"The CCC feels that all groups have a right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the freedom to assemble and protect their deeply held personal and moral beliefs," Blake said.

There was no comment from the Gay Militia.

posted in Gay Militia - 0 replies