Greece:”anarchists hijack the state television station!”

More news from the Pittsburgh anarchists in Greece:

Fri 12/19/08 9:08 AM

Today is a beautiful day here in athens. It is sunny and warm and already the day kicked off with a solidarity action: The french cultural center was burned down. In solidarity with their struggle for education. I finally got around to uploading my pictures… enjoy

they can be viewed here

Editors note: After some facial redacting, the pictures will be posted. There’s been a pox on our house for the past few days and I’m preoccupied with being loving and nurturing and unable to get into character.

Thu 12/18/08 4:35 PM

was the most intense day of my life. I was at the law school.
It was kinda traumatic honestly.

(We)… are alive though, back in relative safety at the occupied economic university

Wed 12/17/08 11:42 AM

Tomorrow huge solidarity actions planned.

so those who haven’t been reading: http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/ should read it. best english news site for the events…

There was banners hung from the acropolis, that read solidarity in a variety of languages….
and declaration from workers who occupied union building:

We will either determine our history ourselves
or let it be determined without us..
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=948395

Things are going awesome once again, I am safe, having fun, and extremely tired! So much exercise!

Wed 12/17/08 9:20 AM

Today we travelled into the suburbs for a demo against the prisons, people here are trying to abolish them, but there wasn’t many people, about 40 kids 12-17 years old. so we disbanded and headed for a demo near the occupied universities against the courts and the police. again, there was only 150-200 people. mostly kids 12-17 years old, they had fun throwing eggs, flour, and silly objects at the police. the police got somewhat agressive, and so we reacted. which turned into a small riot, dumpsters burned, bank smashed, advertisements smashed. mind you these are high school kids… everybody hates the police here! they chase us back almost all the way to the universities ~2 miles. we stay here until we hear that down the street a bit an occupied trade union building (by anarchists/squatters) is under threat of eviction by the union bosses. we hurry over with pipes, poles, rocks, and you know, all the usual prolitariet street fighting gear. The bosses leave, the occupation remains. in a few more hours there will be another demo against the police… I am safe, a bit tired, but the rebellion continues

Tue 12/16/08 4:17 PM

we also made transit free in the city for today, but wrecking the ticket machines and spray painting the cameras, mad graf everywhere today.

no riots though

Tue 12/16/08 10:00 AM

So much is happening today!
The prime minister makes a speech on tv, but anarchists hijack the state television station!

The banner reads “free all political prisioners” the signs read “stop watching, turn off your tv, everyone to the streets!”

(Greek news story in Greek)

Tue 12/16/08 9:38 AM

The situation has turned for the better, yet again. Around 1pm Today (Athens Time)  Anarchists firebombed the Police Barracks and burned them to the ground. Also the Soldiers in the Greek Military formed a union and made a pact that states “they will not take up arms, or fight against civilians”.

More actions are planed for today that will unify the country against capitalism and the state.

Greek Solidarity Banner Drop On Liberty Avenue (from Pittsburgh IMC)

From Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

A banner in solidarity with greek anarchists and in memory of 15 year old alexandros grigoropoulos, who was recently killed by police in athens greece, was spotted hanging from a building on liberty ave. this morning. the banner hung for approximately 4 hours from the roof which is located between ella and taylor sts.

the banner reads:

in memory of
a. grigoropoulos
humanity’s struggle
against authority
continues

Labor Rising?

I tend to be pretty skeptical of the business unions leadership, although some of them are nice folks. But as organizations they are top-heavy, top-down, conveyor-belt for the ruling class, safety-valve against revolt, jingoist war profiteers, democratic patsies, historically racist and sexist, textbook example of recuperation, those “Don’t Bite The War That Feeds You Buttons,etc. blah blah blah. I had to get that out of my system, since the unraveling of capitalism may be forcing them to change their ways.

Big Labor tends to unconditionally support the democrats both morally and financially, and has gotten little in return, since Reagan was president. The recent corporate reparations and the success of the Republic Window occupation in Chicago may have reminded organized labor how they were originally able to force the capitalists into giving union members lower-middle class lifestyles, in the first place. I want to believe the that anarchists who work as organizers and bureaucrats played a role, and that their brutally hard work has not been in vain. I mean that sincerely.

The diffuse nature of consumer capitalism means that more workers than just those in Michigan will be affected by the collapse of the US auto industry and more unions than just the UAW will be losing members. The US senate voting against granting reparations to the US automakers has backed the unions, already weakened by years of ‘right to work’, so called “free-trade”, and the transition from an industrial to a consumer economy, into a corner. They appear to be ready to fight for their very existence when United Steelworkers International president, Leo Gerard, on a conference call for labor PAC, Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) says,

If we have Republicans who oppose us, we are going to take to the streets, we are going to occupy places. We are not going to allow any more of our members’ lives to be destroyed.

Then he shouts down a market-fundamentalist pundit who questions the USW solidarity with Colombian workers, saying

We should not do deals with countries that allow the shooting of people who represent the workers!

Not only do Leo Gerard and the Kaiser Chiefs predict a riot.  Gerald Celente, relatively accurate trend predictor, sees food riots, revolutions, and squatter uprisings in the US by 2012.  He also addressed our capacity for denial.

America’s going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for,” said Celente, noting that people’s refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, said, while referring to the auto bailout,

We’re going to have riots. There are already people rioting because they’re losing their jobs when everybody else is being bailed out. The fairness of it becomes more and more evident as we go along. The auto companies may be hurting,” he said, but “there are very few companies that aren’t hurting and they’re going to hurt. We don’t have enough money to bail everyone out.

Too bad that wasn’t a campaign promise.

Glad to see the unions are trying to tap into the old fighting spirit. Hopefully we’ll see them on the barricades. Gerard’s a big dude.

“This is social war!” Boots on the Ground in Greece

Two comrades of the Yinsurrectionary Times arrived in Greece over the weekend. We’ll be posting updates as they become available. Check back.

Mon 12/15/08 7:01 PM

Greece is fucking dope.  School children fight better than the most seasoned militants.  Rocks line the air and dumpsters burn, shit is mad fucking real.  I hope all is well with you there.  I miss you!

Mon 12/15/08 4:56 AM

So what really hyped people here in Athens was the Milwaukee banner drop

Also there were some under cover cops on motor bikes circling the university… yeah it’s amazing how quickly people organize, suit up, and get ready for attack. the cops left.

Over 700 schools, dozens of industries and hundreds of buildings are now occupied. This is social war! There are thousands of school children (who have occupied their schools) that are going to march today. Tomorrow will bring back the some of the flavor that we saw last week 😉

love yinz,
staying wild…
*****

Sun 12/14/08 9:37 AM

***** it is amazing… there are no more banks, atms, or police stations.

Sun 12/14/08 6:34 AM

I have arrived with **** in Athens. We had no problem with customs/immigration. I am staying in the School of Economics (right up the street from the Polytechnic) which is occupied by students/anarchists. It is undescribeable how amazing everything is. There is Anarchist graffiti everywhere, music playing, stockpiled molotov cocktails, free food, huge banners, amazingly friendly and welcoming people, and people working on a voluntary co-operative basis. I am taking some pictures and will be putting them online shortly. People are resting now from a hard week, but the sentiment here is that it is far from over!

From within liberated space,

*****

Can It Happen Here?

No, I don’t mean that kind of open mutiny, as is occurring in Greece, but the State running out of tear gas. Road salt, or anything else, yes, but never weapons, lethal or otherwise. Occasionally, they will cry like spoiled debutantes and pretend their gear is falling apart, but funding is first priority, survival for bureaucracies, even the ones entrusted with dispensing legal violence. The physical militarization of US police forces, (as opposed to the granting of law enforcement powers and duties to other government agencies, businesses and citizens)  the kind that’s easy to see, with carbines in every radio car, mechanized infantry patrols, and this little drug war machine, helped keep defense contractors in the red, between the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks.

The US Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act, in 1981 which allowed for the sharing of information, facilities and equipment and training by active-duty military personnel in 1981. The policies of the “liberal”  Clinton administration facilitated a massive increase in paramilitary raids and the issue of absurd amounts of military hardware to civilian police departments:

Between 1995 and 1997 the Department of Defense gave police departments 1.2 million pieces of military hardware, including 73 grenade launchers and 112 armored personnel carriers. TheLos Angeles Police Department has acquired 600 Army surplus M-16s. Even small-town police departments are getting into the act. The seven-officer department in Jasper, Florida, is now equipped with fully automatic M-16s

Greece

The Greek police look almost naked and empty-handed compared to the toys that police in the US are issued. I literally own more riot gear than the average, individual, paid terrorist in Greece, from what I’ve seen. Contrast that with the kinds of equipment deployed for even the smallest demo in the US. A stark contrast to the Ninja turtle suits, APCs, grenade launchers and tons of other shit that this jealous little boy wishes he had. Even a minor traffic stop quickly turns into an unpermitted FOP convention with traffic jams for the rest of us.

USA

It’s also been the better part of 40 years since shit has actually gotten out of hand, in any kind of big way, so it’s not easy to predict how contemporary, widespread civil unrest would be dealt with.  Would you see the National Guard machine-gunning apartment buildings ala Newark, ’67 or state bombings not unlike they did to MOVE?  We know that the less lethals are reserved for white folks, as it stands, but there’s no way of knowing if they’d go to live ordinance for anyone who can’t pass for white, as they have clearly done in the past. The violence directed towards Katrina victims by State and mercenary forces in New Orleans, not to mention the media , may be a preview of the kinds of treatment that will accompany the acceleration of the crumbling empire.

Race is obviously a factor in the US equation and the Alexis’ assassin was a member of an organized neo-fascist group called the Golden Dawn. There is obviously no kind of reasonable evidence to begin to quantify how many US police are members of neo-fascist groups, but given the level of institutional racism in the US, from the 3/5 compromise to racial profiling, there is really no reason to bother with such wannabees or their little clubs, except to protect them from the rest of us. The heavy reliance on informants and illegal combatants plainclothes infiltrators further blurs the line between official and unoffical hate groups. The situation with the Love Park 4 is a good example of this kind of symbiotic relationship. This is to say nothing of the role of liberals who confuse “free speech” with hate speech.

There have been some grumblings regarding the deployment of regular US troops for domestic purposes, but this is nothing new. Despite the alleged protections of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, the rarest of birds, a one sentence law enacted by southern democrats after the US civil war, Federal troops have been used to break dozens of strikes, before Big Labor was successfully recuperated. The State must not trust the local cops at the end of the day, and maybe their loyalties will lie with the people in the end. In more recent years, super-secret Delta Force commandos were on the ground at the 1984 summer olympics in California, the 1993 State murders of religious kooks and their children at Waco and  the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle.

Whoever, except in cases and under such circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or by Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined no more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Aside from the cop-toy shortage in Greece it also seems bizarre that the terrorist who murdered Alexis would be charged with any miscounduct, a rare occurrence in the US. Of my two cop relatives who have murdered civilians, neither of them did any time for killing, but one of them was briefly detained and released without charges for allegedly stealing from the victim. The police didn’t make this system and they are a relatively new development. If the US ran out tear gas, I imagine law enforcement types might begin to protect and serve the people. The local medical examiner, who by all accounts is something of a megalomaniac, has spent a good deal of time in federal court over machine politics as usual, and the only thing that makes him any different than the rest of the region’s bottom-feeders, was his suggestion that State violence was unjustified in several incidents.

It was also strange to read that this was the first teenager murdered by the state in Greece since 1985, but apparently there are consequences for such behaviors. Here, it happens so often that no one seems to notice and the media loves to blame a victim,  and brandishing a firearm (or old-timey cell phone) at members of a specialized warrior class with a license to kill is a high risk behaviors, and the outcome of these incidents is not very surprising.

This another example of the multi-tiered US justice system, where the privileged classes (the wealthy, the famous, politicians, informants, security forces) are exempt from the both the spirit and letter of the law. A clear, simple example of this is the removal of civilians and media to make room for off-duty police to intimidate witnesses and jurors in cases where civilians defend themselves from State violence.

Another tier is for those who appear repentant (and/or attractive) enough to be willing to retain an attorney, with punishments well below the level stated by the law. At the bottom is everyone else, (the poor, the mentally ill, the illiterate) who are subject to the brunt of the law. The “impeach Bush” wingnuts refuse to acknowledge this as sure as the right-wing constitution worshippers who too act surprised, when ‘the rule of law’ is ignored by privileged groups and indviduals.

I must admit to being ignorant to the nature of the Greek legal system, as well as other objective realities (I have personal comrades on the ground there, as of 12/14) but the notion of a constitutionally mandated “no-go” zone such as is the case with Greek universities seems like a parallel universe to someone as ignorant and provincial as me, who has never left North America. The only “no-go” zones that have existed in the US, that I can recall firsthand in my lifetime were created with firearms, during the upsurge in entry-level capitalism in the early 90’s.

Maybe the sheer numbers of personal firearms in the US, as opposed to Olde Europe, provides the justification for the supression of dissenters? Obviously media complicity is a factor, as is institutional racism, and the US epidemic of Stockholm syndrome, which results in a lack of sympathy for freedom lovers and fighter, but I’m sure I must be missing something. I guess that’s why the urban guerilla-type groups in Europe fared so much better than their US counterparts. Who knows, maybe the police will get tired and quit? Part of the job is creating the appearance of being superhuman and that’s not easy to keep up. We don’t often get to see these types of things out, normally the unions sell it out pretty quick, and I’ve read something to that effect. This appears to be more youth than labor oriented so maybe ther is no central command to accept concessions.

Protest to Express Solidarity with Greek Uprising (from Pittsburgh IMC)

A reportback from this event, with photos, can be seen at infoshop.org

Protest to Express Solidarity with Greek Uprising
by Anarchists in Pittsburgh Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 at 10:58 PM
yinzersolidarity@gmail.com

This Saturday, December 13 11:30am In front of the Pittsburgh Police Zone 2 Headquarters: Because the role of the police as agents of state control and repression is universal, and our resistance must be just as global. Bring: Signs, banners, flags, noisemakers, and other symbols and expressions of resistance and support for our Greek comrades.

add your comments

On December 6, Greek police shot and killed 15-year-old anarchist Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Exarchia, an anarchist area in Athens. This act came days after police killed a Pakistani immigrant and attacked textile workers protesting for unpaid wages. These specific acts of state violence are within the context of the right-wing government’s program of privatization, deregulation, repression against social movements, and escalating attacks on pensions, labor rights, education, immigrants, and anarchists.

The murder has sparked a general uprising by tens of thousands of anarchists, students, immigrants, and workers who, for almost a week, have been occupying schools and universities, confronting police, and attacking government symbols of authority and corporate power. While diverse tendencies are engaging in these decentralized actions, they point towards a number of reformist and revolutionary views worthy of support: a desire to remove the current right-wing government from power; dissatisfaction with capitalism and corporate globalization; the desire for autonomy and freedom from coercive hierarchies; and rejection of the state repression being directed against immigrants, anarchists, and other groups.

The cost of holding the streets has been heavy, with dozens of protesters injured and hundreds arrested. It is the largest outbreak of social discontent since the fall of Greece’s military dictatorship and may yet topple the current government.

In these decisive days of heroic resistance within Greece it is the responsibility of anarchists, students, and workers around the world to show our support. This is critical in light of the media coverage that seems only to show WHAT people are doing while distorting or ignoring the reasons WHY.

Greece is an inspiration to all of us who believe in human solidarity, who desire to live free and to shake off government and corporate control of our lives, workplaces, and communities.

Hundreds of solidarity actions are occurring around the world. Protesters blockaded the Greek Embassy in London, and the Berlin and Paris embassies have been occupied. Within the United States solidarity protests are happening in San Francisco, New York City, Olympia, and elsewhere. In Pittsburgh we are organizing a public, visible gathering at the Zone 2 Police Headquarters. The role of the police as an agent of state control and repression is universal, and it is a fitting location to connect our resistance locally to that occurring globally.

We encourage people not just to attend, but to continue manifesting their solidarity in other direct, creative, and relevant ways throughout the city.

This solidarity gathering is organized by individuals affiliated with various radical projects and initiatives in Pittsburgh. Due to the time sensitive nature of the event, we are unable to seek endorsement by specific groups. Instead, we are simply calling for the local radical community to put aside any personal or organizational gripes to come together in a unified gathering in support of the uprising in Greece.

Organizers can be contacted at: yinzersolidarity@gmail.com

**Resources on the Greek Struggle**

Rioting Explodes Across Greece: http://libcom.org/news/rioting-explodes-across-greece-08122008

Communiqué from those occupying the Athens Polytechnic University: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=936215

Police Shooting at protesters as clashes rage: http://libcom.org/news/shots-ring-out-athens-riots-continue-09122008

Blog about Greece Riots: http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/

Solidarity Means “Attack”

In the days surrounding the 2008 US elections, it was distressful enough to hear about the attempts to redefine anarchists as “the left wing of the democratic party”, a charge made by right-wing pundits for years, which really used to raise my blood pressure. They knew something I didn’t, I suppose?

What made things worse was another watering down of the word “solidarity”, which, like most of the language used to express resistance, was taken to mean “campaign/vote for the democrat”. Fortunately, US presidential elections only occur every four years and a definition that is much more acceptable to me is being expressed by anarchists here in the belly of the beast and throughout the world.

Although it’s not easy to keep up with these faith-restoring actions that have already occurred, are happening as I type, and have been called for, in the next few days.  Here’s my best attempt:

Regular updates in English, courtesy of Occupied London infoshop news (photos & video)  Balkan Decentralized Network libcom (photos) anarkismo 325 collective bombs & shields center for strategic anarchy

Resources from Greece: diy music, Athens IMC, Patras IMC, Direct Action News From Greece RSS Portal From Greece Thessaloniki Free Radio (in Greek)

• Global Independent Media Center Feature
• Corporate Media Recognizes Solidarity Throughout Europe
• Germany Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Bremen, Cologne
  
• France
• Turkey (1) (2) Izmir, Istanbul
  
• Spain Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Zaragoza,Grenoble
  
• Bulgaria Sofia
  
• Italy Rome, Bologna, Venice
  
• Holland
• Belgium Brussels
• Poland Warsaw
• Aotearoa
• Austria
• U.K. London, New Castle, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow
• Ireland Dublin
• Denmark Copenhagen
• Australia
• USA New York City (1) (corporate tabloid silliness ), Bay Area (1), Olympia, WA, Tacoma, WA

I apologize if I’ve overlooked your action.  Please send links to yinsurrectionarytimes at hotmail dot com

More to follow…

Review: Steel City Revolt #1

Steel City Revolt #1 (Fall 2008)

48 pages, quarterly

(POG, c/o The Thomas Merton Center, 5125 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224)

(Full Disclosure: I was affiliated for a couple years with the group who put out this publication. )

I was unsure what to expect from this project, since I hadn’t been keeping up with POG’s recent activities, membership, or orientation. I recalled some members of the group had wanted to publish some kind of ongoing anarchist periodical for years, but election years can dilute the character of resistance (and make it hard to find reefer). It’s good that this finally came together.

The first issue of Steel City Revolt manages to walk a fine line. The covers and printing are professional enough to be taken seriously outside of radical ghettos, without being so slick that you wonder where that money came from. Good layout and graphics. The content is militant, without being too threatening or scary. A sizable portion of the magazine is composed of personal accounts which are much more readable than the kind of manifesto rhetoric that can only ever hope to preach to the choir, at best. The internal group documents and donation/membership forms are less obtrusive than your average subscription card. Overall, it adheres to a pretty orthodox left/activist anarchism, but pays some lip service to the insurrectionary project with a quote and illustration from the Harper’s stuff on the 1877 uprisings, a Bonanno quote, pretty cool centerfold world map listing various international ruptures occuring between July and September.

Fortunately there are no attempts to redefine anarchism and it’s relationship to presidential elections. The firsthand accounts of  the RNC actions did an especially good job of  capturing the mood of these kinds of events and the interview-style article on US elections was solid, all told, there’s a bare minimum of the kind of diplomatic mollifying that is required to keep liberals from spitting on you, because you disagree with them.

The sadly, largely neglected struggle against I-69, a time-line of anarchist hunger strike from Spain, the RNC 8, and a tribute to two recently slain activists make up some of the outside content. There’s also some features/cultural stuff including movie (which is also a personal account of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle) and book reviews, gift ideas, crafting, the mandatory ascetic recipes, and poetry (although an excerpt from P. Shelly’s “Mask of Anarchy” is erroneously labeled as “The Call to Freedom”, as it is in many places on ‘teh interwebs’. It seems like the sparts objected to the rest of the poem and cut their own favorite piece off and gave it their own title)

One of the things that I found less than thrilling was the “indivdualism” vs “collectivism” false-dichotomy that popped up in the “Get to Know an Anarchist from the Past” feature. An anarchist collective must by definition be composed of anarchist individuals, although some days I have to wonder.  Devoting four pages to business union boilerplate wasn’t entirely unexpected or entirely negative, especially the plain talk on the PAT/ATU situation. The unconditional cheerleading for big labor isn’t limited to POG, but is a shortcoming of left/activist anarchism in general, and won’t likely be solved in a periodical review.

All told, POG has put together a entertaining and informative magazine.While I have my doubts about formal anarchist groups, left activism, and their capacity to attack State and Capital, during periods of low revolutionary actvity, a project like Steel City Revolt proves they can publish a worthwhile periodical. I’m glad to see more time devoted to radically-oriented media as opposed to the futility of trying to get honest treatment from corporate media. I look forward to the next issue.

Greece, Patras, URGENT!! fascists cooperate with the police now‏

There have been confirmed informations about groups of fascists in action with 
police forces at the city of Patras. This is happening now it is not a joke! The 
media speak of  'civilians' who attack anarchists. ---- We know very well the 
concept of 'angry civilians'. Already know faces of fascists from other cities 
(including athens) are seen in patras, walking down the streets accompanied by 
policemen in civilian clothing, attacking and arresting anyone who looks 
suspicious. At least one student is at the hospital stubbed because of them. 
People are reported to hide protesters from these fascist groups who already 
have spotted such houses with protesters hidden in there. They stand outside 
throwing rocks, yelling "come out or we will come in", threatening the owners.
Since the police forces cannot handle the riot situations along greece,
their right hand is being unleashed, the fascists and neonazis.
Please repost this whenever you can!
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
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The “special relationship” between fascist/neo-nazi groups and the State is the same the world over.

Rage Into The Machine

An overlooked irony in the 2008 US presidential race was that armed-struggler turned professor, Bill Ayers, was now a cog in the same Chicago political machine that empowered his former arch-nemesis (and friend of his father), Richard M.Daley with goons to chase and beat Ayers and the other dissenters outside of the 1968 DNC. This fact was not relevant to the McCain campaign, and would likely been unhealthy for the red-baiting of Obama which was pretty much all the GOP had to run on, after eight years of sloppy, sloppy power.

I’m writing from Pittsburgh and the Chicago machine is scary to me and that should tell you something. Didn’t the governor try to sell a congressional seat on ebay or something?

I hadn’t considered it at the time but all the criticisms of a “reasonable”, corporate friendly, Chicago power politician as a “socialist”, “radical black-liberation theologian” ,”Marxist”  who wanted to “redistribute wealth” etc. weren’t just amusing, but dangerous, as they caused oppressed people and leftists to rally around him yet, gave Obama many opportunities to prove that he could keep the “rabble in check,” and that his loyalty to power was greater than to the masses.

I’ve never been too impressed with 1960s US student radicals, partly because I saw where many of them ended up, and partly because the shit happening in the rest of the world was so much more awesome. I’m sure it also has something to do with the anti-intellectualism that was so prevalent in working-class neighborhoods and families. Higher education was a “waste of time” when steel jobs paid more than many jobs which required a degree.

It’s often remarked that half of the Weatherman Underground are in prison and the other half are college professors. An exception is another “Days of Rage” participant turned registered lobbyist and Obama fundraiser, Marylin Katz, who is also a flack-catcher for various Chicago agencies, including their storied police department‘s community policing initiative as well as about a dozen other agencies.

I’m not sure what role Ms. Katz had in managing the rest of the irrelevant aging new lefties, who spun Obama’s candidacy to legitimacy amongst those who profess to have radical politics. Long-time sycophant Tom Hayden continues to enrich himself promoting the progressive personality du jour. I guess the Democrats finally noticed the successful GOP strategy of the past 25 years that involves appealing to the ideological base to win the center. What remains to be seen is whether the Dems will continue their policy of screwing their base or will they actually make some concessions? The business unions have continued to unconditionally support the Dems despite their horrible track record on labor issues.

What lesson can modern radicals take from all of this? If you’re selling out, make sure you’re compensated for it and a system that can recuperate (sub)urban guerrillas can find a place for anyone who is interested. Still, I wonder what Shortshanks would think of his former opponents’ places at his table?