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Reclaim the Streets Surprise Party in Berkeley
Reclaim the Streets holds second annual holiday surprise party in Berkeley
Reclaim the Streets, the militantly festive direct action group, held its second annual "holiday surprise party" today near telegraph ave. in berkeley.
The party lasted for several hours through the afternoon, and included live heavy metal, techno/breaks, hip hop, and ant-FBI xmas carrols. Food was served, couches were lounged upon, and people danced and chalked the streets. Colorful ribbons and orange cones blocked car access to the party. Reclaim the Streets describes the action as taking back public space - the streets - from cars, corporations and the police state, and making them a place for community and creative resistance.
The party was advertised by word of mouth (hence the surprise!) but once the street was transformed from auto thoroughfare to party space, all were invited to join in. Many people from the nearby telegraph crafts fair attended.
Some partiers wore signs reading "The FBI says i'm a terrorist", referring to a speech earlier this year by the departing FBI director which described Reclaim the Streets, along with animal rights activists and "carnival against capitalism" as a potential threat to the united states. They also handed out information about the USA PATRIOT act and current assaults on civil liberties.
Partiers also asked people to think about their consumption habits - whether they were supporting chain stores, etc., and also to think about how they could give something of themselves back to their community and toward creating a society that's not based on money and greed.
The party/action was also a statement against the war, as banners proclaimed "Drop Bass Not Bombs!" and flyers decried the war in Afghansistan, as well as the wars at home against the poor, people of color, drugs, and the earth.
Reclaim the Streets is a decentralized direct action network which uses street parties to take back public space - the street - from cars, corporations and the police state, and to return it to the public for socializing, art, food, dancing, music, dissent, creativity and community. Reclaim the Streets first started in London in 1991 and has since spread to the U.S., Australia and other parts of Europe. Reclaim the Streets has been active in the Bay Area since 1998.
The party lasted for several hours through the afternoon, and included live heavy metal, techno/breaks, hip hop, and ant-FBI xmas carrols. Food was served, couches were lounged upon, and people danced and chalked the streets. Colorful ribbons and orange cones blocked car access to the party. Reclaim the Streets describes the action as taking back public space - the streets - from cars, corporations and the police state, and making them a place for community and creative resistance.
The party was advertised by word of mouth (hence the surprise!) but once the street was transformed from auto thoroughfare to party space, all were invited to join in. Many people from the nearby telegraph crafts fair attended.
Some partiers wore signs reading "The FBI says i'm a terrorist", referring to a speech earlier this year by the departing FBI director which described Reclaim the Streets, along with animal rights activists and "carnival against capitalism" as a potential threat to the united states. They also handed out information about the USA PATRIOT act and current assaults on civil liberties.
Partiers also asked people to think about their consumption habits - whether they were supporting chain stores, etc., and also to think about how they could give something of themselves back to their community and toward creating a society that's not based on money and greed.
The party/action was also a statement against the war, as banners proclaimed "Drop Bass Not Bombs!" and flyers decried the war in Afghansistan, as well as the wars at home against the poor, people of color, drugs, and the earth.
Reclaim the Streets is a decentralized direct action network which uses street parties to take back public space - the street - from cars, corporations and the police state, and to return it to the public for socializing, art, food, dancing, music, dissent, creativity and community. Reclaim the Streets first started in London in 1991 and has since spread to the U.S., Australia and other parts of Europe. Reclaim the Streets has been active in the Bay Area since 1998.
For more information:
http://www.recalimthestreets.net
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It went quite well, with a diversity of good music, and everyone was happy. The people on telegraph seemed like they considered it a sanctioned event almost, so hooray for Berkeley. Seattle was much more ridiculous a few months ago. They don't like parties or jaywalking there I guess.
http://davidgrenier.weblogger.com/2001/08/27
http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6357
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/36579_protest25ww.shtml
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/jamieson/36792_robert28.shtml
my one complaint is that almost every one of them features the "STEAL" flag which someone made for Buy Nothing Day last year. A bunch of people involved in RTS really didn't like the flag -- as in, if we are saying another world is possible, we are proposing a world where people aren't stealing from each other. capitalism is a form of pyramid stealing scheme. global capitalism is that pyramid taken to an extreme, where the pyramid starts to look more like flatland with a helicopter overhead.
i love the rts flags but that one i don't like. if it said "take back what was stolen" it'd be a lot more clear.
There has always been this subtext to politix and different community things, this subtext of criticism, or denouncing the "lifestyle" nature of things. But meow more than ever, what ever it is that keeps people going, that gives us power, it is about survival. Our mental and physical survival depends on us creating something worth fighting for.
I felt that action was effective for what it was (a street party for the underground, for the kids on the street, for us, and for the fuck of it), but i heard a ton of fascinating criticism, which speaks so deeply to me. Which says, don't do anything, you are bound to do it wrong, tread lightly cause you wouldn't want make enemies. As if our lives are some calculated power grap, as if we have to be forever doing things for the lowest common denominator, always careful to never offend or demand.
Meow more than ever, it shows incredible restraint that we aren't tearing this mother fucker up. With the global patriarchy/corpporate/police state engaging and setting in motion a time of extreme violence and soul starving terror, with global temperature changes of 18 degrees potentially happening at random, with a national fascist coup, and with the continued war on all of us intensifying. We have got to assert our survival, any way we can.
Sometimes, i wish there was a word that would trigger transformation of thought, that would help people to see beyond their lives, see a global vision of themselves as part of a larger community. Something so gutteral that it would shake people to the core, peel away the layers of control and domination. Taking back what their laws and morals have taken from us, giving people a sense of self and a openness to being dependent on each other. I don't know what that word is.
fuck me.
Oh yeah, it\'s a hellhole inhabited by dealers and psychotic homeless people.
Never mind.
PS Why is a hellhole? Because it\'s been operating under Reclaim the Streets Surprise Party type rules for 30+ years.
Sheesh
http://www.samsloan.com/peoplesp.htm
feel welcome.
GOOD POINT!
People's park is the only place where a lot of people
can feel comfortable and welcome, and yet they can't because the police patrol there to keep them down.
This is cultural discrimination, added to the fact that the poor are essentially illegal.
It's a crime to be poor in amerikka
It's a crime to be black in amerikka
the drug war did a lot
but now you want to take the park
and make it back into a parking lot
don't you know the reason it became a parking lot
was to steal the beatnik and hippie housing
crush the poetic minds and the renaissance there
eminent domain and bulldozers
don't tell us about feeling comfortable until you
take back all the violence and discrimination and
class warfare waged by your privileged white ass
and all your imperialist ancestors
this is ohlone land
learn about it
love it
live it
there is just dooo.
is there a really big glut of anarchist-influenced slackers living up their imperial lifestyle no matter how "organic" they are?
it is said that every revolutionary action should be chosen for revolutionary effect ...
evidently this poster feels otherwise???
yes strength in unity would be nice but will we really get there without dialogue and some sensitivity and respect?
we are all wading in so much muck, let's not burn any bridges finding our way through even if we have to dog paddle or tie plastic bottles together or lay on scraps of drift wood or wear big-ass stilt boots or focus a huge magnifying glass to dry it out or tie a rope to a cloud to get some perspective
just doo it
not a corporate control mantra.