Denying chemical massacres is a form of cognitive violence against us Syrians who strive for freedom, justice, and democracy. It hinges on a complete disregard for the truth and the lived experiences of communities subjected to political oppression.
Capitalism and its imperialisms in crisis are nothing other than nihilistic death cults. We are living in an increasingly violent and dangerous arena as they flail and expire. We must bring an end to them before they bring us down with them.
The same energy is there today in Russia. There’s a pride in imperialistic, genocidal ambitions, and there is casual, proud use of genocidal language, cheering on the Russian bombs killing civilians and leveling towns.
The violence is there, it’s in the news: here are the numbers dead, here are the potential war crimes, the hospitals bombed, the markets bombed. We’ve become desensitized to this, globally. And yet there is so much that people are doing on the ground, and a lot of creative actions.
Today, near my building, I saw that my neighbors had painted the “Z” symbol on their cars, this new swastika that marks the Russian military equipment going to attack Ukraine. They’re all in favor of the hellishness, the blood and death, the war. It’s so scary.
The default anti-military position is that when two imperial powers fight each other, you don’t take a side. This position is convenient but it’s not the situation that’s happening. There aren’t two imperialisms here, there’s just one imperialism against the people.
The decline is real. The fall is real. But what’s remarkable is that the idea of Roman decline is always there, even when Rome is expanding, even when its society is getting stronger.
We had a political dissident in Winston Smith. He was an influencer on social media, getting the message out about different tactics than nonviolent protest. You can’t have millions of people getting ideas like that, you know what I’m saying?
Detailed inside this pamphlet are some of the most visible collaborators carrying out the state’s strategy of recuperation against abolitionists, rebels, and revolutionaries, one year since the Minneapolis Uprising.
Police and prisons are not the end-all and be-all of white supremacist power. Before the prison was established, before the official uniformed constables were in existence, there was still totalitarian control over blackness. Abolition must encompass critique of the entire settler colony.
