Post-May Day gripe + photos

[sabotabby]

Things sabotabby is already sick of hearing:

"Violence!"
Which is very seldom the actual violence of the cops cracking in heads or Barrick Gold literally and figuratively raping the Third World. No, it's always, "some Black Bloc moron smashed a Starbucks, boo-hoo, violence is WRONG." I don't have a high opinion of the Black Bloc, but it's slightly higher than my opinion of people who go on about the Black Bloc as if they're the only non-electoral political force worth mentioning.

"Anarchists did/plotted/thought [insert bad thing here]"
One of these days it's actually going to be anarchists doing it. I'm pretty sure this time it was meth heads, though.

"Occupy is unfocused and has no leaders or demands."
Stop trying to make me be an anarchist again.

"Occupy is the most important political movement in the history of ever."
STFU hippie.

"Cops are people too!"
Yes, they are. Some people are assholes.

Drum circles.
Can we stop with the drum circles? I swear to God yesterday I saw a drum circle entirely composed of 18-year-old girls dressed like they were from the 60s, and I couldn't suppress a rant about how they probably were not in any way politically active before six months ago and did they go out and buy all that stuff, or was it in their closets already? And if so, how did it get there? Anyway, if the Left really wants to get anywhere it must abandon drum circles. Damn kids get off my lawn.

"911 was an inside job/Obama is a Nazi Illuminati Muslim Communist NWO dupe/whatever conspiracy theory is in these days"
Thanks to Jon Ronson, I'm now more affectionately amused than irrationally irritated by conspiracy nuts. We still need to purge them though.

"Street protests don't do anything!"
Yeah, you're right. You know what's a lot more effective? Sitting on your ass, eating Cheetos, and posting to Facebook about how street protests don't do anything.

Okay, that's it for the rant. Here's how Toronto's May Day looked.






Why do we have a scowling sculpture of Winston Churchill in front of City Hall?




I hope this went up in flames after.


NOII remain Kings and Queens of the Badass Banner Drop.


There was an impressive Wob contingent and a fun Wob after-party.

Shorter sabotabby: May Day was awesome but haters gonna hate.

Comments

[culpster.livejournal.com]

I catch myself having fun at drum circles sometimes, though I've never mistaken one for a revolution (well, not lately).

Aside from that, I am nodding my head even more furiously than usual.

[sabotabby]

I have had fun at drum circles but now I'm old and get migraines. Of course, if they went away, I wouldn't get to complain about drum circles anymore.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a drum circle!

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

The whole "anarchists are scary" thing is bullshit. Only spoiled white people under the age of 30 believe in anarchy, and nobodys fucking scared of them.

The real anarchists are people who would never call themselves anarchists.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Like that guy i know who beat up a hooker and used to throw cinderblocks at moving cars? THATS a real anarchist. No politics involved. He just didnt give a fuck.

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Who was that—GG Allin?

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

This guy was a monster, he'd use GG as a toothpick.

[sabotabby]

Grand Theft Auto?

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

No, real guy. He was just an animal. Nobody famous. Everybody knows that one crazy guy from the neighborhood.

[sabotabby]

That is horrific. I clearly run with the wrong crowds. Or the right ones.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a fucked up neighborhood. It wasnt park slope. Lots of fucked up people.

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

Why do we have a scowling sculpture of Winston Churchill in front of City Hall?

So you Torontonians can have something to tear down when the revolution comes. (And because a non-scowling depiction would not have been true to life.)

[sabotabby]

I like that the pigeons shit on his head though.

[heksenhaus.livejournal.com]

<3.

[sabotabby]

<3 <3

[heksenhaus.livejournal.com]

<3 <3 <3

[sabotabby]

<3 pyramid <3

[heksenhaus.livejournal.com]

<3 pentangle <3

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

Ha! Ha ha ha.. I LITERALLY just finished the Ruby Ridge episode of Jon Ronson's series on the NWO thingy... and stopped about halfway through the Icke episode, and here we are, serendipity!

I entertained the idea of joining IWW on my drive home tonight. Dunno what got me all worked up about it, but for some reason the idea popped into my head.

*raises fist*

[sabotabby]

The Icke one is my favourite. I ended up just feeling really bad for Icke!

Join the IWW.

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

And now the past few hours I've been down the rabbithole of radicalism links again...

And of course, I found this which I presume is right up your alley ;P

[baroncognito.livejournal.com]

What about Sousaphone circles? I think every gathering needs one.

[ironed_orchid]

The local unions organized a May Day march on Sunday April 29th, so it wouldn't interfere with work. I protested their lack of spine by staying home.

Well, actually, I was too hungover.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know about the may day strike thing until after.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Why do we have a scowling sculpture of Winston Churchill in front of City Hall?

Because I'm pretty sure it's against the laws of physics to have a smiling sculpture of Winston Churchill anywhere?

(I know, I know...)


Thanks for the pictures and updates.

[the_axel]

Having read this post - I love you!

Stop trying to make me be an anarchist again.
Why did you stop (if you don't mind me asking)?


Why do we have a scowling sculpture of Winston Churchill in front of City Hall?

We don't sell whisky_[1] in front of City Hall.
I believe the actual reason is on a plaque at the front of the statue.

[1] Although I'm sure he would scowl less if any form of booze was sold in front of City Hall.

[sabotabby]

I would scowl less if any form of booze was sold in front of City Hall.

Ah, my slow drift from anarchism. I guess working in anarchist groups mostly did it. If you can't get a group of likeminded individuals to run an infoshop in an egalitarian manner and clean the goddamn dishes in a collective house, how do you organize an entire world like that? Not to mention that I think there are some things, like health care and transit, best handled by a large overarching structure, and when I start to list all the functions that need to be handled on a level bigger than a community, it starts to look a lot like a state.

I agree with a lot of anarchist critiques, mind you. One of my Maoist friends put it best—anarchists are necessary to keep the communists honest.

[the_axel]

I find, in general, activists want me to not be an activist.

And, yeah, scaling responsibility is a problem.

[rinue.livejournal.com]

I am here via treehavn's lj and thoroughly enamored by 1. sadistic bees and 2. proactive insistence that the left must abandon drum circles, and therefore I have put you on my friends list. I have understanding from your banner that your journal is somewhat on lockdown, and I don't necessarily expect to be friended back, particularly since I do my writing over on dreamwidth these days. In any case, loving your work.

[sabotabby]

You seem rad so I'm friending you back.