The new bad guys - Wildcat
Submitted by daniel on Jun 7 2007 21:49
A critical look at the various theories surrounding the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured. While we disagree with some of the article we reproduce here for reference.
Pirate utopias: Under the banner of death, 1640-1820
Submitted by ftony on Jun 1 2007 09:57
An interesting look at the life and times of pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries. This article explores the somewhat libertarian and communalist values which guided the life of a pirate during those years.
"In an honest Service, there is thin Commons, low Wages, and hard Labour; in this, Plenty and Satiety, Pleasure and Ease, Liberty and Power; and who would not ballance Creditor on this Side, when all the Hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower Look or two at choaking. No, a merry Life and a short one shall be my Motto" - Pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts.(1)
Mutinies in the American army, 2004-2005 - Echanges #111
Submitted by daniel on May 29 2007 22:34
A brief discussion of incidences of dissatisfaction in the US Army during the Iraq War.
Mutinies, the word can seem excessive because Iraq is not (yet) Vietnam. However, a refusal to obey in the army, whatever the reason, is a mutiny and quite often such acts of insubordination have started with minor acts. Even isolated, such acts are indicative of "troop morale", an essential element for continuing war.
An Introduction to The Angry Brigade - Jean Weir
Submitted by daniel on May 29 2007 03:03
An article about controversial UK urban guerrilla group, the Angry Brigade looking particularly at anarchist criticism of them at the time. While we disagree with much of the article we reproduce here for reference.
The eight libertarian militants on trial in the Old Bailey in 1972 who were chosen by the British State to be the `conspirators' of the Angry Brigade, found themselves facing not only the class enemy with all its instruments of repression, but also the obtusity and incomprehension -- when not condemnation -- of the organised left.
The story of the Irish Citizen Army, 1913-1916 - Sean O'Casey
Submitted by Red Marriott on May 25 2007 17:42
An important document of Irish labour history, freely available online for the first time here, O'Casey's book tells the history of the formation of the Irish Citizen Army in 1913.
The workers' militia was formed by the Transport and General Workers Union in Dublin in 1913, shortly after the great Dublin lockout and strike of that year. Originally formed to defend workers' demonstrations from attacks by police, O'Casey charts developments as they conclude with the Citizen Army participating in the nationalist Dublin Easter Uprising of 1916.
Detroit bus drivers on wildcat strike
Submitted by Steven. on May 24 2007 11:36
All of Detroit's bus drivers walked out yesterday over concerns about safety and crime.
About 800 bus drivers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26 were involved in the stoppage.
Union president Henry Gaffney said that the strike grew from his members' frustration with the growing dangers on the unpatrolled buses - two drivers were assaulted in the last two days.
Fiji: minister attacks bloggers
Submitted by jef costello on May 22 2007 21:49
Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, the interim attorney-general appointed after last year's coup, has criticised bloggers.
A local businessman, Ulaiasi Taoi, has been detained twice over the past month in relation to a blog and Mr Sayed-Khaiyum has warned of the dangers of bloggers using their anonymity to attack the government. A wave of blogs sprang up after the coup, with many bloggers publishing uncensored accounts of the coup and of the actions of its instigators once in power.
Spatial deconcentration in D.C. - Yulanda Ward
Submitted by Red Marriott on May 16 2007 23:13
1981 article about a US Government housing policy - conceived in the aftermath of the 1960s ghetto riots - arguing that the policy was aimed at removing concentrations of potentially rebellious blacks and other poor people from the inner city and disperse them in small groups to the suburbs. Serious issues have been raised about some of the facts of this article, which are discussed here, but we reproduce it for reference.
Published in 'Midnight Notes', Vol. II, #2, July 1981, MA, USA
Original article first published by the Yulanda Ward Memorial Fund, Washington, 1981(?).
========
Spatial Deconcentration in D.C.
[Introduction By Midnight Notes]
War is the health of the state - Randolph Bourne
Submitted by daniel on May 16 2007 14:50
This classic first part of an essay entitled "The State," left unfinished at Bourne's untimely death in 1918, it explores the connection between patriotism, war, and the State.
To most Americans of the classes which consider themselves significant the war [World War I] brought a sense of the sanctity of the State which, if they had had time to think about it, would have seemed a sudden and surprising alteration in their habits of thought.
Operation Northwoods: Justification for US military intervention in Cuba documents
Submitted by daniel on May 13 2007 22:25
Below is the complete text from the Freedom of Information Act-released US government document detailing the Pentagon plan to murder innocent civilians and blame the Cuban government as a pretext to invade Cuba.
[b]Code-named Operation Northwoods, US Navy members were also to be killed as part of a "terror campaign" This plan, which President John F. Kennedy refused to implement, had the written approval of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, and every other member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Can comment on articles and discussions