Activism

I've been a Detroiter for 60 years and this is the first time in my experience that so many different organizations with different ideologies and personalities have recognized that the time has come when we must join together to resist and defeat the growing counter-revolution.

Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman were arrogant, self-righteous kids who thought that their heroics could unlock the revolution and change the world. In other words: typical anarchists. And as typical anarchists, they were thoughtful, generous, creative idealists, whose devotion to their cause was only rivaled by their devotion to their friends.

On Monday, January 7th the Tar Sands Blockade participated in a national day of action against the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline in which they occupied space in the lobbies of both the Keystone headquarters and TransCanada headquarters in Houston, Texas.

Who might have imagined, when 2012 was dawning, that the failures of capitalism – especially as seen through inequality which is crescendoing like a bottle rocket -would become standard dinner-table conversation in the US? Motley Occupiers around the country achieved that.

As this wild year comes to an end, we return to the season of gifts. Here’s the gift you’re not going to get soon: any conventional version of Paradise. You know, the place where nothing much happens and nothing is demanded of you.

An interview with Sofia Gallisa Muriente on Occupy Sandy, the specter of disaster capitalism, the grassroots organizing behind the recovery and more.