Students, Workers, the Unemployed: One Direction, Insurrection

Broke Rage in Post-Election California

PART 2

Hundreds of Modesto residents line up for Thanksgiving food donations. 

Everything that we read and hear about in the mainstream media leads us to believe that the economy is in dire straights. That the excesses of our "socialist" government have pushed us into the red, and that immigrants, unions, and environmentalism are to blame. However, the truth is far from these myths being spun by right-wingers. The economy isn't failing, in fact it's doing quite well! You probably didn't get the memo, but this quarter, Wall Street reported record profits. Meanwhile, many people fight just to get by. Lines for food donations this Thanksgiving stretched around the block in Modesto. Unemployed workers also must wait and see if the government will extend unemployment benefits in the next two days - the deadline being November 30th. As we speak, according to the newspaper Internationalism, "The official unemployment rate in the United States for March was already 10.2%, but if we count those who have given up looking for non-existent jobs, this number is raised to 11.5%, and if we add workers who are employed part-time because they can't find full-time work, the number is 17.5% of the civilian population." Meanwhile, prices continues to rise, homes continue to be foreclosed on, and millions are out of work as California has become a leader in unemployment. As Tom Eley wrote:

If any more proof were needed, the third quarter profit record exposes the lie promoted by Democrats and Republicans alike that only the “free market” and private businesses can reverse the nation’s 9.6 percent unemployment rate. The corporations and banks are sitting on a cash horde in the trillions of dollars. This money is not being used to hire workers, but to line the pockets of the executives and top shareholders.

Fat cat bastards.

As we suffer, the corporations and the fat cats are generating record profits. According to the Pensito Review, "U.S. corporations have reported the highest profits recorded since the Commerce Department began tracking corporate income growth 60 years ago: $1.659 Trillion. That renders as $1,659,000,000,000 in numerical values." As our standards of living continues to go down the drain, the ruling class swims in their filthy loot like a bunch of Scrooge McDucks.

Several weeks ago in the world of higher education, leaders of both the UC's and the CSU's decided yet again to raise fees. At CSU's, which Modesto students attend at CSU Stanislaus in Turlock, fees have risen a disgusting 242% since 2002.

But as Wall Street and education fat cats collect record earnings, the average income of workers continues to fall, millions more Americans are now in poverty, up 11% from 2009 to 49 million Americans, 1 in 4 US adults is without some type of health coverage, and 50 million Americans in the US in 2009, (that's 15% of all US households), do not have enough food in their homes during the year. Meanwhile, the net worth of the 400 richest Americans increased by 8 percent in 2010, to $1.37 trillion. An October survey by the Wall Street Journal found that employees at 35 of the biggest banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money management firms, and securities exchanges will be paid a record $144 billion in 2010. We, the working class have created their wealth - all through our labors. It's we who face the burdens of cuts and layoffs, furloughs, pollution, fee hikes, and police brutality. The rich are rich because we are poor, and we are forced to work for them because they own all the property and control the political system, the media, and the police forces.


Towards a Fresh Attack on the Ruling Class

Voting just encourages them!

With the election of Jerry Brown, who came into power masquerading as a 'friend of the workers,' or at least, 'not Whitman,' we can see (along with the horror that Obama has brought) the dead end of electoralism. Electoralism is the idea that we can better our lot through elections, and that we can progress towards a better society by electing 'good' people to run the government. However, the state exists to keep the economy intact, and to keep the various forces opposed to each other in society; the haves and have nots, from destroying this class divided system. Therefore, electoralism is always a dead end, and only fools us into thinking that we can better our conditions by supporting a new set of leaders from the upper class. As our comrades from the paper Internationalism wrote: 

Therefore, we must insist that workers resist the siren calls of the various bourgeois parties and their media mouthpieces to take sides in this or any other election. Clearly, the working class must reject the calls of the bourgeois right in this election. It is easy for us to denounce the Tea Party –now almost indistinguishable from the right-wing of the Republican Party...

However, as much as we must reject the right’s blatantly anti-working class program; workers must also not fall for the propaganda of the bourgeois left, which seeks to use the nasty extremism emanating from an increasingly belligerent and paranoid right-wing to scare us into a defensive strategy of protecting the state against the anti-solidarity rhetoric of the right. We must condemn all factions of the bourgeoisie regardless of their ideological stripe and political rhetoric. It is true that the Republican Party and their Tea Party allies are currently pushing a particularly nasty tone and without a doubt the politicians on the right increasingly actually believe the rhetoric they spew, but this must not blind the working class into taking up the calls of the Democrats to defend the bourgeois state. Once we fall into this trap, we find ourselves on the enemy class terrain and are quite simply lost.  

Leaving the dead end of the ballot behind, we can begin to look to where we can attack capitalism. As we look back at the last two years of struggle, the working class in the United States has taken a lot of shit, but we've also dished out our share of it as well. Let us learn and take stock of the strikes, riots, and occupations of the past years, and see where we can come together, against our enemies, and towards a new future.

Strike!

Another set of bosses.

Capitalism is always weakest at the point of production. When workers go on strike, they refuse their labor to capitalists. Since the Great Depression however, unions have more and more used strikes less and less tactically. And, as we wrote in the last part of this essay, large unions like SEIU, despite all their rhetoric, have sold out their bases entirely, helping to bring into power politicians that will attack their workers' pensions and cut their hours and wages. While the unions represent large bodies of workers that could all enter into strike action - forcing the bosses back, instead, the unions are more interested in policing the workers. They want to make sure that not only do our struggles on the job don't get out of hand - but that we don't struggle at all.

Longshore workers refuse to cross picket lines.

However, many workers are not interested in taking orders or waiting around for union bosses to tell them when to fight. While in recent months we have seen a growth in strike activity in the US, the most inspiring strike action in the past year has come from the Longshoremen workers in Camdem NJ and Philly. There workers, again according to Internationalism: 

Engaged in an unofficial two-day strike against Del Monte who had moved 200 jobs to a non-union port in Gloucester, NJ which was joined by dockworkers all the way up New Jersey into Brooklyn refusing to cross the informal picket line. Right at the start of the strike, the New York Shipping Association got an injunction from a federal judge in Newark declaring the strike illegal and on the second day of the action, the International Longshoreman’s Association disavowed any association with the strikers, calling on union stewards to send the pickets back to work, and promising that they had convinced shipping associations and industry heads to meet with them a week later to “discuss” the eliminated positions.

What makes this action important is that workers decided to go on strike out of solidarity with others workers being cut, and also because they saw that the same thing could happen to them. They also did not wait for the union to take action for them, and as we saw, the union came down quickly against them, declaring their action as "illegal." The power of these workers to shut down an economy that threatens us all is clear, as one of them stated, "We ain’t gonna eat," [the worker] said, conceding that he and his brethren stood to lose pay. "But you ain’t gonna eat either. K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Sears. You name it, it comes through us."

While the workers went back to work after several weeks, and union officials are now meeting with industry leaders in regards to hiring back workers who have lost their jobs, we can only hope that these sort of actions grow larger and spread. This strike helps show a way forward; as workers themselves self-organize and take power into their own hands, deciding how, when, and where to fight - not taking orders from anyone but themselves, and showing solidarity with others.

Occupy!

Workers at the Republic Windows and Doors occupation.

"Chicago's a working class town! We're going to stand together until we win this battle!"

Another action that began without being called by the union directly, was the occupation of Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago in late 2008. Workers began the occupation, which lasted a total of six days, when they found out that they would be laid off, right before the holiday season. Instead of retreating into the cold, snowy gloom of the city, the over 200 plus group of multi-racial workers decided to occupy their factory until Bank of America, the bank in control of the businesses funds, paid them in wages and severance pay, as well as health coverage. The bank claimed it wouldn't pay, even though Bank of America - Republic's main creditor - was in line to receive $25 billion in taxpayer money, through the recent bailouts. The action became a rallying cry for working class resistance to the recession. The Republic Workers after six days won their demands and got their money back - while inspiring a whole new generation of working class militants to take action. The working class of Chicago and around the country also sent messages of solidarity, food, and much need funds to the workers - generating massive support for the occupation.

In September of 2009, less than a year after the occupation of Republic, students and staff at UC Santa Cruz launched another occupation that would also take the world by surprise. Students at the school took control over the graduate commons building, holding it for close to a week. In a statement released, the students declared:

We must face the fact that the time for pointless negotiations is over. Appeals to the UC administration and Sacramento are futile; instead, we appeal to each other, to the people with whom we are struggling, and not to those whom we struggle against. A single day of action at the university is not enough because we cannot afford to return to business as usual. We seek to form a unified movement with the people of California. Time and again, factional demands are turned against us by our leaders and used to divide social workers against teachers, nurses against students, librarians against park rangers, in a competition for resources they tell us are increasingly scarce. This crisis is general, and the revolt must be generalized. Escalation is absolutely necessary. We have no other option.


Occupation is a tactic for escalating struggles, a tactic recently used at the Chicago Windows and Doors factory and at the New School in New York City. It can happen throughout California too. As undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff, we call on everyone at the UC to support this occupation by continuing the walkouts and strikes into tomorrow, the next day, and for the indefinite future. We call on the people of California to occupy and escalate.

Occupy everything!

In the months that followed, schools across California erupted against the budget cuts and fee hikes. As student fees climbed 32% at both the UC's and CSU's, students walked out, occupied buildings, and fought with police on the barricades. Students fought not only against cut classes and higher fees, but also against cuts to staff hours and against faculty being laid off. More than anything, the occupations radicalized many young people, as it woke them up not only to the realities of modern capitalism, but also to the liberatory nature of resistance to it. Many non-students entered into the movement, stating that the occupation of the universities could become a staging ground where the working class could build counter power and attack capitalism. As one essay read:

Renew the strikes and extend their reach. Occupy the student stores and loot them. Sell off the computers in the lab to raise funds. Set up social spaces for students and non-students alike to come in and use freely. Appropriate the copy machines and make news of the revolt. Takeover the cafeterias and bars and begin preparing the communal feast. Burn the debt records and the construction plans. Chisel away the statues and vandalize the pictures of the old order. In short, create not an ‘alternative’ that can easily make its fit within the existent, but rather a commune in which power is built to destroy capitalist society. When faced with a university building, the choices are limited; either convert it to ashes or begin the immediate materialization of the international soviet.  

A UK protester walks atop a police car at an anti-Fee hike riot.

The fires lit from the occupation of the Chicago Windows and Doors in 2008 had spread to the schools and universities of the West Coast. As fee hikes and budget cuts continue in 2010, we hope to see a growth and continuance of the occupations and riots that happened in 2009. As the UK and Europe in general erupts in rebellion over the rising the student fees and the privatization of the public university system - bonds need to be made across the pond so we can feed on each others' energy and ideas. 

Foreclosure occupation in Stockton.

Another occupation that showed the strength of collective action, was the occupation of the foreclosed office/home of the Central Valley Miwok Tribe in Stockton California. Stockton, like Modesto, is a city that is in the center of the foreclosure housing crisis. When the home became foreclosed on when the tribe was denied monies owed to them by the state through Indian gambling, tribal members decide to occupy their residence in order to force the bank to call off the eviction. While the tribe was able to hold off the eviction for several months, the bank again decided to proceed with the eviction in early 2010. The tribe issued a call for support, and close to 40 people helped to occupy the building. The gates in front of the home were welded shut and people got ready for anything. Within a day, the bank had called off the eviction. Groups such as Take Back the Land and Homes Not Jails have also used occupations of land and housing to house the homeless, resist foreclosure, and take over unused space owned by the government.

While it may seem that occupations at work, at schools, and of foreclosed homes are isolated and separate from each other, they are all done to combat the attack of the capitalist class against the working class. These occupations were important, because they help people to gain confidence and win victories, and also show people that success can come to those that were willing to get organized and stand in solidarity with each other. Furthermore, occupations provide spaces where people in various areas can see what creative and combative resistance against capitalism, can, and does, look like.

Takeover! 

The mob brings justice in Seattle.

In the past two years, class struggle has not been limited just to strikes on the job, and occupations of homes, workplaces, and schools. There have also been inspiring struggles taking place in our communities as well. The three that we would like to focus on here however, is the working class self-defense organizations that have developed out of the efforts of the Seattle Solidarity Network, the movement that has grown in and around the rebellions against the police murder of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California in 2009, and also the struggle against racist anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona.

Money returned from a landlord after a SCS action.

The Seattle Solidarity Network (SeaSol), is based on basic principles of working class solidarity. The idea is, when someone is swindled out of money at work, when their landlord refuses repairs or takes their deposit, or when someone is fired unjustly, SeaSol goes into action. The action happens when a large group of people comes together and pickets, demonstrates, and raises hell at bosses and landlords workplaces, property, or their homes. As more and more people come into the group and are involved in victories and struggles, they also become part of the group, showing solidarity with other working people when they are attacked. The group then grows bigger, and the network more powerful. Such groups are taking off across the West Coast, and in Santa Cruz, the recently formed Santa Cruz Solidarity Network recently won it's first battle! These kinds of networks are inspiring, because they show the power that an organized and united working class can have in any city, when we start to direct our rage against the bosses and the rich.

Free shoes for all during Oscar Grant riot. 

The riots and rebellions by the Oakland (and wider bay area) working class also show the strength of a combative people, unwilling to sit by while the police continue to slaughter us in the streets. When Oscar Grant, a young father and union grocery store worker was shot at the Fruitvalle Bart on New Years Day in 2009, his murder kicked off a movement against police brutality that caused the first major uprising in the Obama era. In July of 2010, after Grant's killer was found guilty only of involuntary manslaughter, people rampaged through downtown Oakland. Rioters, of all colors, fought with police, looted stores, and destroyed the property of banks and other large corporations. The intensity of the riots flew in the face of ongoing calls by the Left for "non-violence" that placed blame on "white anarchists" for the rage, even though the crowd featured white, black, yellow, and brown youth all coming together to fight the police and loot the property of the rich. Beyond rioting, the uprisings also created forums and new organizations for people to come together to tackle police brutality in new and better organized ways. People across the globe and the country were inspired to get organized and fight the police due to the Grant case; further radicalizing a new generation of working class militants.

Anti-Nazi and pro-immigrant riot in Phoenix.

Lastly, in Phoenix, the working class there was attacked by a set of laws called SB 1070, which would give police the ability to stop people and demand that they provide proof that they are American citizens. This law in effect would give the police extreme powers in racially profiling people and would mean the deportation and incarceration of many millions. According to a recent study, up to 100,000 Latino people have already left Arizona, in fear of the passing of SB 1070. The bill itself is driven in part by white supremacist politics and prison economics that stand to make millions off of the incarceration of millions of working class families - locked up, and soon to be deported. The law eventually had much of the legislation taken out of it, in part due to disruptive protests, lockdowns, street blockades, student walkouts, and massive marches. The movement against attacks on immigrants and the entire working class in Arizona is ongoing - but is important because it represents a struggle against the racialization of capitalist oppression within the working class. Recently in Arizona, anarchists, youths, and pro-immigrant forces rioted for over and hour against police and Neo-Nazis, who were attempting to hold a rally in support of SB 1070 in Phoenix. The intensity of the street fighting shows an escalation of tactics within the proletariat in Arizona, and shows how people within the struggles there are coming together, gaining confidence, and getting stronger. The recent DO@ bloc, or revolutionary group of indigenous and anarchist forces within the immigrant movement, is hopefully a sign of things to come, as working class people across the racial divide come together to struggle against capitalism.

We're All In this Together

Since 2008, and the start of the Obama regime, poor and working people have faced battle after battle, and attack after attack. The Left continues to tell us to 'stay the course,' and simply 'pressure the President to do his job right!' However, he's been serving his real masters far too well. Millions are now homeless. Millions more unemployed and without income. Services and benefits have been cut, and many are now faced with being taken off unemployment. Meanwhile, Wall Street is making trillions. The system isn't broke. It's working, far, far, too well.  

Class struggle - our struggle.

Still, we have made steps forward. Starting with the heroic actions of the Chicago Windows and Doors workers, to wildcat strikers in NJ, from student occupations in Santa Cruz, to occupied foreclosed homes in Stockton. From anti-police riots in Oakland, to anti-Nazi and pro-immigrant riots in Phoenix - we are growing stronger as a class. We are coming to see ourselves as a we, again. It really is us vs them. Let us look over these events and start to feel good about at least some of our actions. We can get organized. We can fight back against capitalism and it's governments. We can organize in our neighborhoods and better our conditions day in and day out, fighting bosses, landlords, and brutal police. We can also engage in struggles that transform space and create a way for people to come together and relate to one another in new and revolutionary ways. We can burn banks, loot stores, fight police, occupy buildings, all while being denounced by every union bureaucrat, middle class activist leader, and head of a non-profit that is paid to tell us what we are doing is hurting "the movement" - and grow more powerful while doing it. We've seen decades of sign waving and asking those in power to stop killing and exploiting us. It's done nothing. Now it's time to fight back on our terms. On our conditions. And fight for our lives. It is important that we feel good about so much of what has happened in the last two years - that we draw some confidence from our actions and our ability to organize and fight back. We'll need this confidence, and to take away from it some lessons learned so in the coming years we can start to win. And keep on winning.   

This is our world, not theirs.

These actions need to be just the start. What if more workers facing layoffs occupied their buildings? What if high school kids threated with school closures and bigger classroom sizes occupied their schools along with the college kids? What if unemployed workers started organizing mass lootings of Wal-Marts and Save-Marts when the checks stopped coming? What if field workers occupied their fields and declared them free communes? What if doctors and nurses occupied the hospitals and declared free health care for all? What if workers saw through the empty rhetoric of all the unions and launched general strikes across all industries? What if every neighborhood refused to let the police evict anyone and simply stopped paying rent? What if everyone feed up with the police simply drove them out and dealt with problems themselves? We aren't in this alone. There are millions of working people across the world already involved in the fight. Students in the UK call to us from the tops of smashed up police cars. Campesinos in Chiapas cry out to us with guns in hand. Immigrants in Greece salute us while throwing molotovs during running battles with the police. Factory workers in South Korea give us raised fist salutes while in the middle of an occupation. It is time for us to create the world that fits our needs and desires - and not continue one second further one that exploits and makes us miserable. We are the crisis now. For we are the ones that can destroy capitalism once and for all. Let the world know...

THE PROLETARIAT IS SOMETHING THAT THE RICH CAN ONLY KNOW THROUGH FEAR.

THE MIDDLE CLASS CAN ONLY SEEK TO MANAGE. 

AND THE WORKING CLASS CAN ONLY BECOME THROUGH LOVE AND REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 

Make Sure to Check Out the New Fire to the Prisons!

If you like Modesto Anarcho but are looking for stories relating to ongoing social struggles across the country and the world, make sure to check out Fire to the Prisons! It covers class, community, and Native struggles in the US and all over. It also features in depth information on political prisoners and how to support them, as well as ongoing prisoner revolts on the side of prison walls. Check out the website here, and download and read the full magazine here. You can also pick up free copies of the magazine whenever you see Modesto Anarcho tabling or at our events at Firehouse 51.

Murder of Craig Prescott in County Jail Shows Rampant Brutality of Sheriff's Department

In 2009, Craig Prescott was tasered and shot with pepper balls by guards in the Downtown Stanislaus County. Prescott was in fact a former guard of the institution, until he came under investigation after being charged with providing tobacco to an inmate. Later, Prescott's wife had Prescott incarcerated after he suffered a nervous breakdown. After two days of being in the jail, Prescott was still in mental distress; and that's when guards came in and began to taser him.

Prescott in one of six people in the last year to die within the Stanislaus County Jail. He is among one of half of those six's families who are launching lawsuits against the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department in wrongful death suits.

This week, Prescott's family released a video from inside Prescott's cell. It was shot by the guards after Prescott was tasered. Sheriff's claim that there was no video taken showing Prescott being tasered and shot with pepper balls...yeah right! Of course this is bullshit, the police are simply deciding what evidence they are going to release. After Prescott was attacked, he was moved into another cell. When his condition did not change, he was moved again to a hospital, where he died two days later.

Prescott's family claims that Craig in fact was killed not by the tasers, but instead by police suffocating him to death while in his cell. According to the cops lawyers, Prescott died from a heart condition, while an autopsy conducted by Prescott's family showed that he was in fact suffocated to death. Either way, the Stanislaus County DA's Office was quick to find the Sheriff's Department completely without fault.  So much for blind justice. 

A civil suit is set for 2012 in Fresno. The family of Sammy Galvan squared off against the Modesto Police in Court here several years ago, after police brutally shot and killed their son in 2004, only to lose in court thanks to police lies and corruption.

Prescott's case helps to expose the rampant brutality and murder that continues to this day within the walls of the jail. We have to break through the silence enforced by the violence of the state and stop these atrocities from happening again. Revolt on the inside - revolt on the outside!

View the video released by Prescott's family below. Here they claim (after Craig was shot with tasers) he is actually dying and being suffocated by the guards) then, only to be moved to another cell.

The FBI Couldn't Fix a Toaster: On the Recent Push to Investigate the Modesto Police

In September of 2010, the Modesto Police shot and killed Francisco Moran, a family man who was in the middle of a heated argument at his home. In his waistband, Moran had a wooden spoon, which police claimed at first was a knife that he used to try and attack them with. Police shot and killed Moran in cold blood, and later admitted that the knife was in fact just a "spatula," although family members contend it was only in fact a wooden spoon. Then in later September, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department killed Rita Elias, a mother, in West Side Modesto. Rita was shot by Kari Abbey, an off duty Sheriff who was helping her landlord parents evict Rita. An argument ensued (wouldn't you be pissed?) and Rita was shot to death by the off duty Abbey. Days later, police then claimed that Rita just happened to have a realistic looking bb gun on hand, and had pointed it at Abbey. Abbey shot and killed Rita in self-defense. Of course, we've heard this story a million times. Alberto in 2000. Sammy in 2004. Moran and Rita in 2010. How many more must die?

At the same time, 6 people died in the County Jail in the past year, half admittedly due to police tasers, and half of the victims families are suing the Sheriffs. Couple this with explosive protests in Modesto, including large scale mobilizations in West Side, roving marches in the downtown, and the distribution of large amounts of anti-police brutality literature - and the pigs in this city were starting to feel the pressure. The dam really started to break however, when a retiring police officer sent out an email talking about the "good ol' days" when police would do "B and Rs," or "Beat and Releases." This was followed by another email that was anonymous, but also stated that the brutality detailed in the first letter was still happening - and everyone in the police hierarchy knew it was going on, despite internal protests. Read that email in full here.

The email also specifically calls out certain officers for brutality by name, and one in particular in connection to the shooting death of Francisco Moran. As the letter reads:

Veteran employees Kelly Rae and Dave Brown, to name only a few, have directly reported police brutality and mistreatment of Modesto Citizens to upper management. These two officers have also confronted Lt. Cloward. Cloward has directed sergeants to leave these guys alone. Lt. Cloward,Captain Balentine and Chief Harden are all K-9 buddies and will protect each other. The officers committing these acts are James Murphy, Orrin Nelson, Florencio Costales, and Joe Lamantia. All work together and pick on ganger types and helpless citizens. Lamantia just killed a man armed with a spatula.

A media storm followed, as television and print media ran to the police (notice, not those impacted by police brutality) to hear their side of the story. The police, and their head pig, Mike Harden, were quick to dismiss the charges. Stating that they had never heard of "Beat and Release" and that the charges were bogus. According to the Voice of Modesto blog, "The Mayor and City Council have all taken money from the MPOA (Modesto Police Officers Association) and pressure is already being applied on the named Officers to deny the claims."

However, with state agencies strapped for cash due to budget cuts, many are calling for an outside law firm to investigate the police. Others, such as the Voice of Modesto blog, call for an investigation from the FBI. The VOM blog is run in part by former Modesto Mayor, Carmen Sabatino, who presided over the City in part during Chief Wasden's reign, and during the brutal police murder of Alberto Sepulveda, 11. Where were the calls for a large investigation then? Where were the firings of officers? None. Wasden went on to win fame by handling the Levy murder case, and later secure a 200K a year job as Turlock's city manager, (while he cut young workers all the while!), as his cops were engaged in case after case of rampant brutality and murder.

And while blog sites like the Voice of Modesto blog provide great "muckraking" articles on things happening in the city, we strongly disagree with their calls for the FBI to investigate the Modesto Police. What will the investigation by the FBI tell us that we don't already know? Do we really believe that the FBI, who works closely with police all the time, is going to discipline it's cops? It is also important to keep in mind that the FBI is responsible for the violent destruction of many social movements for liberation and freedom in poor and working class communities throughout this country. It helped to break apart the labor movement. Go after civil rights organizers. It even launched a program in the 1960's and onward that was called, "COINTELPRO," or Counter Intelligence Program, which was designed to disrupt and destroy various social movements that were aimed at changing American society. The FBI doesn't care about stopping brutality. That's its business just as much as the cops.

Furthermore, by removing the burden of confronting the police from ourselves and our own communities, and instead, giving it to some outside government agency, that may or may not rule in our favor, and will probably never act totally in our favor, we simply are waiting around for more police murders and assaults. It is time for US, we who feel the brunt of police violence, to stand up and do something for ourselves! To put the power back in our hands, on our streets, and in our total control. Calls for FBI investigation in other Central Valley cities have also gotten people no where. Police in Woodland, who shot and killed Luis Gutierrez as he came out of the DMV (police were dressed as gang members and ran after Luis, only to shoot him in the back), faced protests and ongoing calls for investigation. Nothing ever happened. Power, does really, not care about poor people dying.

So what if the FBI investigates the police? What is the worse that they could do to them? Fire certain officers? Have Harden step down as police chief? Investigate what goes on in the jail? Bring charges against certain officers? Even if these things could be done by the FBI - they still would not change the relationship between the police and everyone on the street. Police will still have the power to kill, beat and rape who they want - they will keep doing it because they know they can get away with it. It is only when people start to fight back, that we show the police that we are powerful, and that we are not afraid to resist, that they will back down.

If we are looking for an end to the police brutalizing and killing us on our streets then we have to begin to confront the police where we are - and where we are brutalized. Just as workers strike on the job, at the point of where the exploitation is taking place, so must we strike back against the police, and confront them where our exploitation is taking place day in, and day out.

One of the tactics that we have promoted over the years and engaged in is Copwatching. Copwatch is the simple idea that people can organize themselves and monitor and document police interactions on their own streets. By documenting and confronting the police, we can build community solidarity between ourselves and also make the police more and more afraid to brutalize us. We can also come together when we can - exploding against the police. In Oakland, riots have broken out several times in the wake of the Oscar Grant, attacking the police, looting corporate stores, and holding the streets. These actions forced the city government to try Grant's killer in court, and although he was let off with an extremely light sentence, the movement that was started because of the ongoing rebellions brought many people together who started to talk and organize.

The system needs the police. It needs to keep the inequalities that exist within this system between those that work and those that own, those that take orders and those who give them, firmly in place. It might make examples of certain officers, but it isn't going to change the very nature of the police at all - and that is one of brutality. It is up to us to build a counter power against the police. To find ourselves in the streets together.

Thanks Lawrence!

Thanks to the large crowd that came out to hear Lawrence Jarach of Anarchy Magazine speak this Friday! His insights on the Spanish Revolution as well his critiques of the political Left hit the nail on the head. Over 25 people packed the Firehouse to hear him talk and also ask questions.

Lawrence discussed the successes and failures of not only the Spanish Revolution, but also drew some conclusions on the problems in entering into "Popular Fronts" against common enemies with those on the Left that do not share our desire for a world without capitalism and government. Such compromises with our enemies lead us into situations where we often find ourselves working with our future gravediggers.

In an effort to provide more information on the success and failures of anarchism in the Spanish Revolution in 1936, we are providing the start of an important documentary with Spanish anarchists on their experiences called "Living Utopia." Enjoy!

For further reading on the subject, one can start by checking out these various publications on Spanish anarchist revolutionary history. See you at the next event!

Students Vs Police at Millbank, London as Fees Rise in California

Today in the UK, students fought police, and stormed a school building while chanting "TORY SCUM" (in reference to the Conservative Party), and wrote graffiti slogans on the walls. The riot came as around 50,000 students marched through London protesting the tuition increases, a protest organized by the National Union of Students. Thousands of students have since broken off from the main march and raided Millbank Tower, where the Conservative Party is headquartered. Students broke the windows on the main floor, and hundreds filled the lobby of the building. Police beat back the students, but as of this writing, students are still in the courtyard of the building. So far, 5 police have been reportedly injured; a total of 10 police and students have been taken to the hospital. Protesters have thrown bottles and other items, some on fire, at the police line. A bonfire has been lit in the courtyard. Picket signs have been lit on fire. Demonstrators have thrown fire extinguishers and other items at the police from the roof of the Millbank Tower.

As expected, student government bureaucrats and left-wing activists have condemned the violence as being the work of a small minority and as 'disgusting,' while many students claim that being confrontational and using direct action is the only thing at this point that has the possibility of creating change.


Meanwhile, back in California, students at CSUs (California State Universities) face even more fee hikes, as on Wednesday, the Board of Trustees voted to raise the fees again by 15%. When will students in California begin to rise up with the same ferociousness?

Friday, November 19th: Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War @ the Firehouse

On Friday, November 19th, Lawrence Jarach from Anarchy, A Journal of Desire Armed will speak on Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War. We will discuss and explore the Spanish Revolution of 1936. Anarchism in Spain grew from a small group of militants into a mass working class movement that rose up against a fascist coup and launched a social revolution. Workplaces were taken over, buildings were occupied, and in the country side, money was even abolished in some communities. Drawing from a wealth of knowledge, Lawrence will discuss how anarchists in Spain struggled, lived, and related to other people. Refreshments will be on hand, as well as free literature and good times!


Friday, November 19th @ 7:00 Pm
Firehouse 51: 410 James St, down the street from the DMV, north of Roundabout. For more info, email: mac@modestoanarcho.org

Losing Our Fear When There is Nothing Left to Lose: Broke Rage in Post-Election California

PART 1

"I am Governor Jerry Brown. My aura smiles and never frowns. Soon I will be president..." -
California Uber Alles, Dead Kennedys

You can feel it in your chest. It's that anxiety that stays with you from the moment that you wake up and go to work to when you finally pass out and start the day again. It's walking all the way to the library to work on your resume, only to get to the doors and read the sign that says, "CLOSED DUE TO FURLOUGHS." It's wondering where the children on the street have gone and then remembering that most of the houses on your street are boarded up. Their signs declare: "BANK OWNED." It's reading in the newspaper that the day care program your daughter goes to is being shut down, seeing the guards at the unemployment office, and the fear you feel when you slip that can of beans into your bag and hope that this time you won't get caught. It's getting your paycheck at work and staring in sadness at the pitiful amount. It's the taste of the tap water that you feel bad about even giving to your dog. It's standing in line at Revenue Recovery on 10th and J Street, as the woman next to you screams at the clerk behind the window, "I lived in that house my entire life! You motherfuckers!"

It's the feeling deep in your stomach, the taste of bile in the back of your throat, and the burning rage that runs down from your face to your balled up fists when you see them, hear them, brush past them at that new, expensive Raley's you run into during your lunch hour to use the bathroom. The politicians, the developers, the businessmen, the upper class; talking through their crooked teeth, in their silken clothes, in all their decadence and superiority that only a Harvard degree, rich parents, and a job ordering other people around brings. Another law is passed, another park closed, more services cut, and those smug bastards slink back to their mansions in La Loma to prepare for their next campaign race. But these upper middle class managers are only the pencil pushers for those that really control this world. Those that own and control wealth, who rake in massive profits from our labors in the Central Valley, who direct and control politics and its police; although they seem so far away in Sacramento. Yet, we still feel the violence and poverty of their politics directed against us day in and day out. At night, the sirens wine and our hearts pound. There's got to be more to life than this...

Across the Central Valley, the United States, and across the world - things are getting worse for most people. In the Central Valley, unemployment continues to climb. Foreclosures continue unabated. Cuts to basic social services raise co-pays, shut down day care centers and clinics, and close library doors. Schools are shut down forever as classrooms grow larger, and in higher education, fees and tuition increases leave many students locked out of universities. Factories are closed, production is outsourced, and many businesses undergo massive layoffs. Police beat and kill without remorse, protected by a blue code of silence and a supportive city government, as the prison population swells. In the jails, prisoners are killed in droves by guards at the losing end of batons and tasers, while on the streets people whisper how the Sheriff's are running the drug trade inside. Immigrants, already facing an onslaught of low wages, pesticides, and poor living conditions, face an ongoing attack from ICE, as state governments attempt to pass racist laws and divide the working class. Those in control of the city of Modesto: a collection of business leaders, ex-police, and career politicians, form an upper class that secures and fights for it's own interests as they close parks and raise fees at community centers, pass more repressive laws, and protect business interests.

Meanwhile, many turn to drugs to help cope, as our streets are flooded with crime and neighbors become wary of each other. Many do not venture out after dark, as car thefts increase, certain areas become drug dens, and vacant properties become trap houses. At a time when we need to be coming together more than ever, we often couldn't be farther apart. As unemployment rises, the drug economy grows, and gangs and cartels become stronger and fight for control over the drug trade and more territory. For many poor and working class youth, the gangs represent the only viable job option - even as they point only towards open prison gates, death, and the continuous destruction of working class communities and people. Here, it seems only prisons and meth are the growth industries. Everywhere, people are impacted. Everyone is taking a hit. We all know it - but what can we do about it?

The Crisis

The current economic crisis was caused when the speculative housing bubble burst several years ago, sending the economy into a tailspin. As many people began to default on their sub-prime loans (made popular by predatory loan sharks), the house of cards of speculative spending began to crumble. This downturn in the housing market soon began to affect other sectors, as industries related to housing, such as construction, began to be hit as well. Soon, across the board, various industries were laying people off, plants such as Hershey's and NUMMI were shut down, and workers faced cuts to their hours and pay.

Public sector workers such as teachers and government employees faced lay offs and job cuts, as city and state governments received less tax revenue. Construction workers had less things to build as less houses were needed and companies were unable to take out loans for development projects. Manufacturing workers faced plant closures and massive layoffs, as companies had less money coming in and sought labor markets where they could pay workers less. Service industry employees faced cuts to hours and scaled back wages, as consumers tightened their belts and spent less. Meanwhile, unions (where they existed) responded with negotiating the degree in which the capitalists attacked us. Avoiding struggle and confrontation, the unions operated as corporations unto themselves, and mitigated with the bosses which days would be furloughed, how many workers would be laid off, and how much workers pay would be reduced.

Across the board, we watched as we worked harder and were paid less. It was workers however, who took the hit - as corporations celebrated record profits and CEOs gave themselves record bonuses. One thing became clear: we are paying for this crisis, not them. As the New York Times wrote, "Corporate profits are lighting up boardrooms; it is one of the best years for earnings in a decade. Billions of profits, windfalls in the stock market, a stable banking system [thanks to bailouts from Bush and Obama] — but no jobs."

In the meantime, workers became much more likely to lose their homes due to foreclosure, as many people affected by the fallout of the crash found it harder to make their mortgage payments, even if they had not taken out sub-prime loans. A raising of college tuition by 32% in 2009 (which came after multiple years of similar fee increases) at CSUs and UC, (which were followed by more increases in 2010), and smaller increases at JCs, locked many working students out of higher education, or pushed others only further into debt. These increases, coupled with cuts to classes, kept many from being able to advance into higher paying jobs or at the least, complete their degrees. Furthermore, cuts to basic social services such as health and child care, left many working people with increased expenses, again, forcing many out of their homes through foreclosure, or at the very least, taking on 2nd and 3rd jobs.

Two Parties, One Attack on Working People

RAAN, (Red and Anarchist Action Network) claimed responsibility for damaging the windows of the Democratic Campaign HQ in Modesto, causing thousands of dollars in damage, this fall.

Several days ago, most people in Modesto, and Californians in general, weren't doing something - voting.

Maybe that's because they realized that both parities represent the same thing, the upper class and the interests of business. But, even as the head bureaucrats of unions, upper middle class Leftist organizations, celebrities, and academics begged us to go to the polls and support the Democrats, many simply did not heed the call.

Brown, who won the election, got only about 4 million votes, while Whitman, an ex-CEO who spent millions of her own money, got only 3.1 million. This is out of a station population of 37 million with about 22 million eligible to vote, meaning that only a mere third of the state's voting population pulled a level for either of the candidates. Youth voter turnout was extremely low, with only about 1 in ten voters hitting the polls on Tuesday being under 30.

But, as things things get worse, Democrats and Republicans are coming into lock step more and more, taking aim at poor and working people with renewed agency. As Tom Carter wrote on the race between Brown and Whitman, the campaign featured "fierce...competing to [see who could] establish themselves as the best qualified to impose further harsh austerity measures, including mass layoffs and cuts to education, health care, and pensions and other critical social programs." As Patrick Martin wrote, Republicans and Democrats nationally agree all to well that the workers should pay for the crisis, and not the rich:

"The calls for spending restraint and “smaller” government apply only to the programs that provide assistance to working people, the sick and the elderly. No Republican congressional leader favors cuts in spending on the military or the gargantuan tax subsidies to Wall Street...

[Despite public opposition, politicians are] slashing social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, education and unemployment compensation, and further tax breaks for the rich. President Obama made it clear that he was open to the Republican approach, pledging bipartisan cooperation to cut spending and repeatedly suggesting areas of “common ground,” such as energy policy, education and tax cuts for investment. He also touted his embrace of accelerated depreciation rules for business, so companies “get a huge tax break next year,” citing this as “an idea that business groups and Republicans I think have supported for a very long time."

The media creates a myth that the "voters" (who apparently in the millions would in fact rather not vote) have become angry at Obama's "socialism" via big government and big spending. Fed up with the 'Left-Wing' turn in American politics, people are swinging to the right, bucking the Democrats from their seat of power.

However, most people, especially those who turned out in droves for Obama's election several years ago, were hoping to produce tangible results and end of the Bush dynasty; bringing about drastic changes to the American system. These changes many hoped would include universal health care, an end to middle eastern wars, an end to foreclosures, money for jobs, housing, and education, and an end to government surveillance, spying, and attacks on civil liberties. Of course, no major changes occurred.

This is because far from rolling back the changes made by the Bush Administration, the Obama regime has simply continued them. As Carter wrote, "Workers and young people in California and across the US turned out in record numbers to vote for Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008, hoping for a reversal of the policies of the Bush administration. Instead, these policies were only further entrenched under Obama and the Democrats. The result was mass disaffection."

People did not swing to the right - they simply woke up to the fact that the Democrats and Republicans do not exist to "fight" for our interests. Millions of people did not vote on the 2nd because they knew that it was pointless to do so. Neither candidate would make the changes needed to help poor and working people, since both candidates have an anti-working class platform. As Carter wrote:

"The election centered on who was best qualified to impose further austerity measures. Both candidates, backed to the hilt by corporate money, agreed that the cost of the economic crisis must be imposed on the working class. Brown’s campaign exemplifies the dramatic rightward shift of the Democratic Party over the recent period. Brown stressed repeatedly his promise to cut pensions and other “wasteful spending.” “Fixing government is not simply about cutting state employees or expenses,” Brown added, but also includes removing regulations on big business.

In an interesting twist, Brown's biggest backers are the unions of workers that he plans to attack, including the large SEIU, which represents state workers. As Kevin Kearney wrote:

"On pensions, he said he would “raise ages, raise contributions” like Whitman and negotiate with public employee unions to make more desired cuts. Brown has boasted, “When it comes to unions: I’m the only governor who ever vetoed the pay raises for all public employees. I did it once, I did it twice, and I’ll do it again.” He asserted, “No one is tougher with a buck than I am.” Brown’s campaign has the backing of most of the major unions, and his strategy is to work with them in imposing cuts. The latest austerity budget negotiated by current governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic Party-controlled legislature includes a pledge of significant cuts in public employee benefits agreed to by the Service Employees International Union.

Brown, in contrast [to Whitman], has described his method for imposing austerity as “empowering local governments,” by which he means unloading decision-making on education, health care and welfare spending to cash-strapped local governments, which would relieve the state government of direct accountability. In this sense, he’s made much of his connections with politicians and union bureaucrats as proof he’s best qualified to impose the brutal cuts demanded by the financial elite."

And while the union bosses of SEIU are more interested in staying in control of their business (managing the workers in their unions by selling them out to filth like Brown), Brown also states his opposition to public education:

"When asked if he would roll back the fees for university students that have made the cost of education “astronomical” (in Brown’s words) he said “no”. When asked if he would promise to freeze fees where they are, he gave the same response."

While Whitman was known for her support of racist anti-immigrant legislation like that being proposed in Arizona, Brown is no friend to the immigrant worker either:

"On the issue of immigration, Brown boasted of initiating the invasive “Secure
Communities” program, which attempts to collect identifying information(fingerprints) for all immigrants in the country and compile it in a database. He said, “If they are found to be here illegally, they get deported.” He also mentioned that, “Workplace inspections are part of the solution.”

Brown, Obama, and the Democrats offer working people nothing. They offer not a different version of attack on working people that the Republicans propose, but simply a different managed one - one that is in fact more sinister, because it is backed by the major organizations of the Left: the unions and the non-profits which claim to 'fight for us.'

Thus, we have been left with a choice of the bureaucratic capitalism of Brown on one hand, and the fascistic capitalism of Whitman on the other hand. Democracy in capitalism only allows us to point to those that would rule over and destroy us. We must take up the banner of class war; of revolutionary action, if we are to better ourselves. It is now time for every workplace to go on strike. Every school, hospital, unemployment, and food stamps office to be occupied. It is time for every field to be taken over by those that toil under it. It is time to burn the ballot, and leave behind the nightmare that following these leaders has gotten us.

"Oh, we a gettin' boss..."

What's worse? A power that makes you union less, or a union that makes you powerless? Or perhaps a marriage of the two?

In partnership with the ongoing cuts, as well as those proposed by Governor Brown, unions are ensuring that these attacks will go into effect and workers will accept them. Chief among these unions is the SEIU, or the Service Employees International Union, which 'represents' many of the workers that will be hurt by such cuts. Mirroring the wedding of political bureaucrats with union bureaucrats in the SEIU, is the leadership of other major unions for teachers, professors, as well unions in manufacturing. When the bosses say jump, the unions ask, "How high, boss?" The unions have neither the desire or ability to launch counter attacks on the ruling class - this is something that can only come from ourselves, self-organized from bellow.

What we need are ways in which to direct our power, which comes from our solidarity between each other, against our enemies and towards are own interests. What the unions give us is simply another set of cops and politicians, which seek to control and profit from us. Working with those that they rail against, the politicians and bureaucrats now walk hand in hand with each other as workers are left bleeding. Homeowners by the millions still are faced with foreclosure. Health care remains out of reach for millions. Unemployment continues to rise. It is time to starting finding our own power, that we create between ourselves - instead of giving it away to someone else.

Political parities and the unions that work hand in hand with them not only have sold us out and failed us - they are working against us. Now, direct action isn't only, the only way forward, it's the only thing left that's possible for us to change anything. Those that claimed to bring "HOPE" and "CHANGE" to America simply let the nightmare of capitalism continue. Those that claim to fight for us, fight against us.

Free from unions. Free from the elections. We can now start to ask ourselves - what can we do to actually take this monster on?

Sacramento Police Kill As More Information on Modesto Police Brutality Comes Forward

In a situation mimicking police murders in Stockton, Modesto, and Bakersfield, Sacramento police are coming under fire for the shooting death of a 28 year old man on October 28th. Officers stopped a man on parole, and when he "reached into his waist band," officers claim he was reaching for what they perceived as a weapon and shot him three time.

The man was shot by Twin Rivers School Police after he was stopped and then tasered twice. Police harassment is something that is common in the local area, according to residents.

Also, a new public letter from a Modesto Police Officer leaked on the Voice of Modesto blog also details further brutality and covering up of wrong doing on behalf of the MPD. Furthermore, the letter states quite clearly that Modesto Police higher ups are well aware of complaints about brutality - and are doing nothing to stop it or investigate it.

Read the letter here.

Mr. Frank Carson:

I am a longtime MPD employee and just read the Modesto Bee article
regarding Sergeant Plante. Thank you for the courage that you show in
defending the right position. The majority of MPD are happy that you
disclosed this. Fact is, police brutality is still going on and the solid
hardworking police officers have reported this ongoing activity to Captain
Balentine and Chief Harden who have done NOTHING about it. These criminal
allegations about police brutality on graveyard night shift known as “5B” have
gone on for several years. Captain Balentine and Chief Harden have turned
their heads the other way.

Veteran employees Kelly Rae and Dave Brown, to name only a few, have
directly reported police brutality and mistreatment of Modesto Citizens to upper
management. These two officers have also confronted Lt. Cloward.
Cloward has directed sergeants to leave these guys alone. Lt. Cloward,
Captain Balentine and Chief Harden are all K-9 buddies and will protect each
other. The officers committing these acts are James Murphy, Orrin Nelson,
Florencio Costales, and Joe Lamantia. All work together and pick on ganger
types and helpless citizens. Lamantia just killed a man armed with a
spatula.

The veteran officers who will tell the truth about this brutality are Sergeant Dan Sharder, Sergeant Carlos Castro, Officers Kelly Rea, Mike Thomas, Joe Torres and Dave Brown. Officers Rea and Brown have actually been keeping notes because they are so fed up with Captain Balentine and Chief Harden ignoring this ongoing police brutality problem. Brown and Rea have specifics as far as dates, times and case numbers. They will not cover this up.Mr. Carson, I suggest you subpoena all of these people along with K-9 use of force reports (especially Murphy’s dog) and I bet the chief will try and hide behind these use of force reports. Chief Harden has no credibility or integrity and will protect his upper management.You should also subpoena city manager Greg Nyhoff as he has apparently been informed of the mistreatment of citizens and has also failed to deal with Captain Balentine or Chief Harden on these very well known issues.

Copies of this letter have been sent to the Modesto Bee and City Council as well.I would tell you my name, but I am afraid of retaliation.