Pictures From Berkeley Mayday

Bravo B-town. We must never forget to honor our Haymarket brothers. Long live the revolution!

ARP

to commenter above: that's not entirely true that indymedia will censor criticism of Cuba or of mayday participants. Why I made a newswire story about the leftist petition signed by Noam Chomsky etc. calling for end of oppression in Cuba (because Castro won't live forever, and a democratic Cuba will be most resistant to awful people taking over the island when he dies) a week ago and it was left up. Maybe it's you that the editor today doesn't like. It's nice that someone volunteers their time.
http://home.igc.org/~jlandy/cpd/antiwar/cuba_stmt.html

Anyway, here's a picture of some young republicans who ran out of a bar when the mayday walkers went by a few blocks away, and they quickly assembled some flags and signs and formed a blockade at Bancroft and Telegraph to be a barrier to any anarchists who made moves towards fraternity row. The man on the right is Cal Patriot editor Steve Sexton:

I was cutting through town at dawn (well, after 6 AM actually, it was light out) the next morning and saw that there were workers and cones sectioning off a large portion of oxford at bancroft and there was a big pile of burnt torches swept into a pile, I was going too fast to stop and check out what was going on but it almost seemed like they were the clean-up crew still working from the night before. Couldn't be tho, right?

Probably cleaning up stray torches for some work project but nice to think the demo had gone all night! :)

the following text was handed out to passers-by during the Berkeley MayDay celebration.

MAYDAY!

May 1st is International Workers' Day--a day to celebrate our resistance to capitalism and strengthen the struggle for a world that is alive and free of wage-slavery, exploitation, and classes.

MayDay was declared in 1889 by the First International (before the tragic split between the marxists and anarchists) in commemoration of anti-capitalist rebels killed in the fight for the eight-hour work-day in the United States. Because of its explicitly radical heritage, Mayday in America has been suppressed and replaced by Labor Day, a politically vacuous (and for most wage-slaves, unpaid) “holiday” celebrating work under capitalism instead of collective revolt against capitalism.

Today--one hundred and fourteen years since MayDay's inception--we confront a capitalist system that is increasingly totalitarian and global in scope, armed to the teeth, and ridden with crisis. For all the vaunted prosperity and freedom that capitalism is said to afford, the overwhelming majority of humanity work constantly (most at stupid, soul-destroying, socially harmful jobs) and stay a step or two ahead of the bill collector--if they’re “lucky.” Tens of millions of others are consigned to lives of abject poverty, hunger, and misery. Capital degrades not only human life: increasingly the ecological balance upon which all life-forms depend is threatened by its insatiable need to turn the world into money. Forests are clear-cut, toxins spewed into the water and air, vast stretches of land is rendered uninhabitable--all in the service of capital‘s “bottom line.”

Profits are the life-blood of this system; like a vampire, capital must constantly replenish itself with surplus value sucked from living labor or else it will die. Capital organizes society, and our lives, to maximize profits and all considerations--social, cultural, environmental etc.--take a back-seat to this quest. Physical space, and in particular urban space, under capitalism is colonized by the imperatives of commodity production and circulation. With the exception of a few under-funded public facilities such as parks and libraries, little of life in the city isn’t designed and ordered to facilitate exchange. Buildings that can’t realize sufficient value in the market stand empty while people sleep in the streets. Vacant lots that can’t find a buyer are caged-off, “no trespassing“ signs prominently displayed, and neglected. That which can’t be justified in market terms must be fought for tooth-and-nail. Truly public spaces that encourage free human interaction outside the logic of business are invariably declared illegal. Under capitalism, life is little more than buying and selling commodities--not the least of which is labor power.

In America this estrangement and privatization of life is more advanced than anywhere else in the world. This is both the cause and effect of the deteriorating conditions that working class people--waged and unwaged--face here.

Propagandists would have us believe that the relative affluence obtained by white workers in 1950s and 60s America represents capitalism’s true nature, but it was merely a brief moment in the history of a global system of exploitation. The US post-World War boom, which was said to have vindicated capitalism, lasted from 1945 to 1973 and came to end as declining rates of profit compelled US elites to tear-up the social compact between capital and labor that held sway for (only) thirty years. Since the early 70s, union-busting, massive social cutbacks, capital flight, de-regulation, and increased police powers have been the order of the day; so, too, have been declining real wages, huge increases in extreme poverty, homelessness, and an explosion in the numbers in prison and under penal control.

The “booming” economy of the mid to late-90s was supposed to prove that US capitalism was still strong and able to deliver the goods, but most working class and poor people in the Bay Area (and elsewhere) never experienced the prosperity as it was glowingly depicted on TV. For most of us, the “boom,” instead of being a respite from declining living conditions, meant astronomical rents, long work-weeks, indebtedness, and endless “new economy” hype. And now they say the good days are over!

In the face of the current crisis of profitability afflicting the US (and global) economy, the American ruling class is pulling out the stops to preserve its dominance, at home and abroad. Its strategy operates on two fronts simultaneously. On one front, they seek to expand US capital's footing abroad through "endless" war. These invasions and massacres, dressed up in the language of “human rights,” it is hoped will ratchet up its position vis a vis other capitalist powers, secure increased power over the flow of oil, and lay the basis for a new expansion. The other front is directly waged against the working class in the US, through mass lay-offs, reduced wage-bills, increased productivity, and draconian social cut-backs.

This moment in history places in sharp relief what was always the essential character of capitalist social relations: that the fulfillment of our needs are incidental, at best, to the demands of the profit system. Capitalist logic has always reduced the inhabitants of the planet to raw materials, and as the screws tighten even more on our lives, it becomes clear that our demands for a better world must transcend the entire profit system. Anything less will be absorbed back into the present setup, only to strengthen it. A return to the “New Deal” style of capitalism is now as much an impossibility as the bosses “handing over the keys to the factory.” The stakes are as high for those in power to remain as they are for us to dismantle their reign.

INSANE DIALECTICAL POSSE
Noclass2003 [at] hotmail.com

whoa - that's totally insane that the latest 24-7 spammer went to the russian site to bash sf.indymedia with this concept they can't drop that the editors of the site are antijewish, with a focus on 'nessie', even though a number of the editors are jewish or live with jewish people and also have no pattern of writing antijewish articles. Apparently the spammer doesn't understand 'open publishing'.

In terms of the letters written to sf.indymedia, there is an equal or greater number of people who accuse them of being zionist - here is an example. About the most prominent antijewish person at protests lately is Joe Webb, the guy who dresses up as uncle Sam with a sign with a 6 pointed star with a nazi symbol in it, and he wrote this on a public list about coverage:

Subject: Re: [iraq-meet] Wolfowitz Protest Photos
To: iraq-meet


--Komrades,

more censorship on the left, particularly indy media's
coverage of the Wolfoblitz demo at SF, friday.

My comments are included on one of the indy media
sites referenced by Jeff G.

basically, my Uncle Sam bit which features a sign with
two messages: I want you to die for Israel, israel
sings, Onward Christian Soldiers. other side of sign:
I want you to die for Oil, I am the WMD, was literally
covered up by one of indy media's photographers.
otherwise, no other images of Sam but several of the
wolf man( a useless, to me, bit of street theater.)
this is interesting because normally Sam attracts a
great deal of attention as he did on friday with tv
stations 2, 4, and 5 giving Sam and his sign or spoken
words some air time.

too hard on zionism/israel does not make the cut with
the zionized left and indy media, or its
photographer, just continue the suppression. thank
god for the corporate media.

Hmm. The above comments sound out of order - apparently spam comments were deleted?

Anyway, following up on the Berkeley southside geographic thread, it seems that while the area where the fraternities and sororities are situated was never in any danger from the may-day revelers with their music and torches, the next day an incident occurred where some high school students sent several UC greeks to the hospital. Some younger students wearing Cal football t-shirts all tried to run into 'Pi Kappa Phi', which was holding a private party, and severely beat up some residents there: http://calwatch.blogspot.com/

There was NO PARTY at Pi Kappa Phi, they had just heard that there was. There was some dinner-ish event but that was long done with by the time these interlopers rolled around.

SF-INDY NAZIS LIES ABOUT THEIR "FREE PUBLISHING" WHILE THEY DELETE MY ANTI-RACIS



I'm not surprizing that SF-Indy nazi wankers delete my anti-racist post, but I'm surprizing that they still SPREAD LIES about their "free publishing" !!

My anti-racist post adressed to far-rightist "io",
is censored by sf-indy nazi wankers.
That's why I post it separately.

My answer to "io"

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/05/1606510_comment.php#1608503

u wrote
""the zionized left and indy media, .."

You sounding as far right racist..
No wonder, that sf-indy censors didn't delete yer spam, because themself are far rightists.

SF-INDY LIVING IN BLACK-WHITE WORLD

<<bash sf-indymedia<< ??

Since sf-indy so fanatically bash the jews - You wondering, when somebody bash them back ?

If u don't respect other people - how u can expecting them to respect u ?

it was me, who post on indy-russia report about
fascist censorship on sf-indy.
U are illiterate imbecile.
Since you can't read russian, how can u know contents in that post. ?

Firstly, - my issue on russian indy was about
fascist censorship. on sf-indy.

Secondly, I wrote, that on sf-indy "free publishing" is only for jew-demonizing post, but not for anti-racist as myself.

Yes, i got a good response. from russian anarchists because they not living in white-black world as you do.

Even good response i've get from some british anarchists..and from indy-volunteers in other countries.
Actually, my best .friend is british anarchist , (and) he don't give a flying fuck about yer nazi-antiZionism. (He calls u middle-class-white-shirts-nike-wankers.)

But it doesn't mean, that he's a "fanatic zionist".
U're miserable people, living in black-white world, as all fascist do..

If u should realize, how extremely stupid u are with yer ""ziozio-zioshmazi"" paranoia - you would make a suicide immediately..

<<Apparently the sf-indy staff doesn't understand 'open publishing'.<<

You perfectly RIGHT, that's what i'm talking about. !!
They completely didn't understand, that "open publishing" must be for BOTH sides, not only for
judeo-phobes, as they and u.

SF Indy does censor. Period. Whenever and however they choose.

http://www.aol.com wants to discriminate against all red-headed left-handed circus midgets!!!!!!!

Hey people. I am looking for anyone who attended this protest. I was shoved off my bicycle and brutalized by police officer Meredith. If you were there PLEASE contact me. Any info helpful for my complaint to the citizen run Berkeley Police Review Commission.

fuck the popo¡¡