Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1152
August 26, 2017
Can anarchism work?.. Mesopotamia and Tiwanaku ‘thrived for Centuries With No Ruling Elite’
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The great Tiwanaku Empire of South America flourished for six centuries with no need for, or evidence of, a ruling hierarchy with weapons, soldiers, and armies of conquest.
Ancestral Tiwanaku Society celebrated
In the Mesopotamia rooms at the British Museum there are no depictions of warriors or warfare, chariots or combat, clubs or swords – for nearly four thousand years.
By Gregory Sams .. shared with thanks … There is a remarkable discovery that has not yet emerged from our renewed interest in ancient civilization. Yet few remark upon this glaring omission from the relics and records we dig up and discover.
I first recognized its absence at a visit to the British Museum, and made a point of going back a few years later for another check. Their Mesopotamian rooms begin at 6500 BC, and as you wander through the exhibits and look at the artifacts and
As for kings and rulers, there was a single image thought to be a king because it looks like he’s wearing a crown. And what is this king doing?…
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The 1936 Spanish Revolution – A Pro-Capitalist View
The Spanish Civil War
BBC (1983)
This is the first of two posts concerning the 1936 Spanish Revolution – which the US and its western allies refer to as the Spanish Civil War. This BBC documentary offers a more or less conventional pro-capitalist interpretation of events. Tomorrow I will post an alternative view by Spanish anarchists who actively participated in the revolution.
Ironically, although Spain was the birthplace of guerilla warfare,* Stalin (the only foreign leader willing to sell them arms) forced the Spanish Republic to engage in a conventional war against overwhelmingly superior forces.
Owing to the massive grassroots mobilization behind the Republic, guerilla warfare would have had a far greater chance of success (as it ultimately did in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan).
When Franco ultimately crushed Spain’s first republic in 1939, it would result in a brutal fascist dictatorship lasting 36 years.
Part 1 describes
the non-violent fall of the Spanish monarchy in 1931, resulting in the establishment of Spain’s second Republic
land reform of a semi-feudal system in which landless peasants lived in virtual slavery
the creation of 10,000 non-church schools in a country with 50% illiteracy
declaration of emancipation of women and home rule for Catalonia and the Basque region
Part 2 describes
the 1934 takeover of the Republic’s governing coalition by fascists, who repealed most land and other reforms
the success of socialists, communists and anarchists in winning back the government in 1936 as the United Front
the move by 60,000 landless peasants to retake 3,000 farms they lost between 1934-36
the coup launched by Franco and thousands of Arab troops and Spanish legionaries from Spanish Morocco
how the grassroots resistance led by Spain’s one million anarchists became a revolution, in which they formed revolutionary committees to organize and arm the resistance and seized factories, which they turned into workers cooperatives, and to redistribute food and other necessities which they distribute to the poor.
how effective civilian resistance held back Franco’s forces, confining them to regions to the north and west of Madrid for nearly three years.
Part 3 describes
how Mussolini and Hitler supported Franco with arms, funding and troops, while western Europe and the US signed a pact of “non-intervention” – allowing Roosevelt to sell Texas oil to Franco but prohibiting any western country to supply fuel or arms to the Republic.
how only the Soviets came to the Republic’s assistance by selling them weapons (for Spanish gold), providing air cover and coordinating the International Brigades – 40,000 international volunteers from more than a dozen countries (including most of Europe, Australia and the US).
Part 4 examines Franco’s background and that of the right wing groups that supported his coup.
Part 5 examines life inside the revolution and how Stalin’s agents and supporters in the Republican government systematically crushed it – by murdering anarchist leaders and launching a formal battle (lasting five days and leaving 500 dead) against anarchist forces in Barcelona.
Part 6 covers Franco’s final defeat of Republican forces after Stalin withdrew his support for the Republic (to pacify Hitler). It also examines the irony of Stalin and the communists forcing the Republic to wage a conventional war they couldn’t possibly win – in the country that invented guerilla warfare.
*The term was first used in 1808, when Spanish guerillas repelled Napoleon’s invasion of Spain. It refers to the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, more unwieldy one.
August 25, 2017
Slumping College Enrollment Signals Americans Are No Longer Buying The College Lie
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Nowadays potential college students are looking for ways outside the college system to make themselves desirable to employers.
Authored by Keli’i Akina via TheHill.com,
For decades, teachers and parents around the country have been repeating the same message to children: ?To have a bright future, you need to go to college.?
But now, in Hawaii at least, it?s starting to look like the younger generation isn?t buying it.
Across the state, University of Hawaii college enrollment has plummeted by 15 percent in just six years, from a high of 60,300 students in 2012 to 51,300 as of 2017.
Trying to explain this decline, university President David Lassner pointed to the fact that college enrollment has been declining around the country. Some have blamed demographics, citing the decline in birthrates. Others blame economic factors such as an improving economy, which may entice high school graduates into the workforce instead.
In response, the state is attempting to bolster enrollment by (what else?) throwing money at the problem. There…
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Marijuana Money May Push California into Public Banking
photo credit (Reuters/Rick WIlking)
Written by Ephrat Livni
Marijuana-related businesses face a funny problem: they make lots of money yet can’t securely put it in banks. The US banking system is nationally regulated and weed’s illegal under federal law, a Schedule I substance with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
So cannabis-related deposits cannot be federally insured, and money is subject to seizure by the feds, making bankers and weed-related companies rightly dubious of doing business. Transactions are mostly in cash, which is stashed in pillowcases and floorboards. Now California is considering whether a state public bank could be a solution for a potentially very lucrative industry; marijuana is projected to bring the state over $6.5 billion in revenue by 2020.
State treasurer John Chiang on Aug. 10 met in Los Angeles with members of the Cannabis Banking Working Group he created in December 2016, after Californians voted to legalize recreational marijuana next year, to explore banking access for related businesses. In the state’s estimation, 70% of marijuana-related businesses don’t have bank accounts.
Chiang said a state bank would serve more than just marijuana businesses. Public banking is an increasingly popular idea since the Great Recession of 2008 among those dissatisfied by the private finance system in the US, he noted. A public institution would be beholden to state taxpayers and run by local treasury officials, able to issue low-interest loans for affordable housing or education, say.
The only public bank in the US now is the Bank of North Dakota, established in 1919 because farmers had difficulty getting loans through private banks under the federal system and the state’s main industry was agriculture. Deposits are insured by North Dakota, not the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and not subject to federal regulations.
Others, like Colorado and Massachusetts, have mulled similar moves. . .
via Marijuana money may push California into public banking — Quartz
Venezuela Brings Regional Elections Forward to October. Greedy Capitalists Still Fuming
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Yesterday the BBC dedicated its top world headline to the fact that an ex Venezuelan judge accused the president of corruption. .. Sorry? What? Who cares?
Yesterday the BBC dedicated its top world headline to the fact that an ex Venezuelan judge accused the president of corruption. .. Sorry? What? Who cares?
After 18 years of subversion, infiltration, coercion, bribery and a constant blitz of fake news the US is pushing Venezuela into a horrific civil war in order to take control of its oil.
Venezuelan commune movements march in support of the new Constituent Assembly (photo by AVN)
Trump cries for lost democracy in Venezuela and threatens to send in the Marines to take the oilfields. Yet Venezuela has had elections almost every year and the latest Constitutional Assembly system is clearly more democratic than before. We support the popular revolution and force Maduro and the repressive State not to sell out!
See Also.. US Pushing Civil War on Venezuela for Oil Control
Anything goes in he western media to throw mud at Venezuela …
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August 24, 2017
Nebraskans Building Solar Panels to Block Keystone XL Pipeline
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“They’ll have to go under it, around it, or tear it down to get their dirty oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.”
From Greenpeace.org:
“Nebraskans Are Building Solar Panels to Block the Keystone XL Pipeline
by Mike Hudema, August 15, 2017
“They’ll have to go under it, around it, or tear it down to get their dirty oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.”
Right in the path of the KeystoneXL Nebraskan landowners are putting up #solar arrays to block its path.
#cdnpoli… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…—
Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) August 08, 2017
Environmentalists are sometimes criticized for not talking about solutions enough. The media often portrays people who oppose pipelines as ‘anti-development,’ for instance. The reality, however, is that we can both fight against dangerous pipelines and fight for solutions like renewable energy at the same time — and those fighting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline just made that point more clear than ever.
Landowners and Indigenous groups are joining together to build solar projects directly in the path…
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30MW battery to create renewables-based mini grid in South Australia
[image error]
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency says it is providing $12 million towards the $30 million cost of a major battery storage installation to be located on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia and create a renewables-based mini-grid with the nearby Wattle Point wind farm.
The 30MW/8MWh large scale battery will deliver both network services and market services, and is the result of a lengthy study begun in 2014 called ESCRI (Energy Storage for Commercial Renewable Integration) by local grid operator ElectraNet, Worley Parsons and AGL.
It is designed principally to provide fast frequency response and help balance the local network, but it will also help reduce congestion on the Heywood interconnector with Victoria, because its placement means more power can be transported over the line. This should relieve constraints imposed by the market operator.
It will also have the ability to “island” the local network – pairing with the local 90MW Wattle Point wind farm and local rooftop solar PV as a local micro-grid to ensure grid security and so keep the lights on in case the network failures elsewhere in the state.
The battery is due to be in operation by February, 2018, adding to the Tesla big battery which is due to be in place by December 1, along with up to 100MW of demand response, and emergency back-up generators.
ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht says having a series of mini-grids across the state would help ensure grid security. If more were added, “it means over the longer term that state wide blackouts will be a thing of the past,” he told Reneweconomy.
Indeed, AGL – which will operate the battery – said last year after the state-wide blackout that renewable-based micro-grids were the best way to ensure grid security. . .
Source: 30MW battery to create renewables-based mini grid in South Australia
Spyware: the Latest Growth Industry
The Spy Merchants
Al Jazeera (2017)
Film Review
The Spy Merchants is about the spyware private contractors develop for the US and other western governments and the devious tactics they use to illegally sell various surveillance systems to professional hackers, repressive dictators, corporate spies and terrorist groups.
In this investigation, an undercover Al Jazeera reporters approaches various surveillance manufacturers seeking to buy and IMSI catcher and an IT intercept system on behalf of Iran and the repressive government of South Sudan. An IMSI catcher is a software program that can intercept and control (ie send fake messages on their behalf) all the electronic communications of an individual. An IT intercept system is designed to monitor a nation’s entire Internet traffic. Both technologies can sell for as much as 20 million Euros.*
Surveillance exports are supposedly tightly controlled by US and EU regulations. However, as shown in this film, manufacturers of surveillance software routinely circumvent these regulations by falsifying documents or by shipping their products via a third country or a shell company.
* Except in China – Chinese vendors will sell you an IMSI catcher for $300,000
August 23, 2017
Know Your Rights: When the FBI Knocks
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The Washington DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is advising activists to exercise caution, to fully understand their rights, and to refuse to speak with agents without a lawyer present.
Despite the FBI’s grotesque history of racial profiling and targeting, harassing, and criminalizing the civil rights movement, the agency is charged with upholding civil rights laws. The FBI is now investigating the car attack against anti-racist activists in Charlottesville, VA, and has been reaching out to counterprotesters who were in Cville to conduct interviews.
These activists are rightly concerned. An interview with the FBI or any law enforcement is always a risky business. In this situation especially, one cannot assume that what you say won’t be held against you, or someone else. You can never know what information agents have, or what their true agenda is. For example, some activists are being led to believe that the interviews are not optional. They are.
The DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is advising activists to exercise caution, to fully understand their rights, and to refuse to speak with agents without a…
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US Occupation of Syria Now Official
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The US has declared a no fly zone and threatened to target and shoot down Syrian and Russian planes within Syrian airspace [over the Kurdish autonomous region – ed].
“This is a historic and dangerous development which only increases the chances of total war.”
Over the last 24 hours, the United States has made clear its status as a hostile occupational force in Syria. Yesterday, the US issued a communique to the legitimate Syrian government and the Russian anti-terrorist coalition assisting the Syrians. The United States has indicated that it has carved out a swath of Syria with boots on the ground fulfilling the roles of active duty personnel, such as special ops forces, advisors, trainers, mechanics, and supporting units. The US has declared a no fly zone and threatened to target and shoot down Syrian and Russian planes within Syrian airspace [over the Kurdish autonomous region – ed].
As RT reports, US Commander of American forces in Iraq and Syria Lt. General Stephen Townshend : ““We’ve informed the Russians where we’re at … (they) tell us they’ve informed…
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