Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill - Anything New?

BP is just another oil company, a capitalist corporation with its capital as oil production/refinery. What is the cause of this oil spill? It is the lack of safety precautions and disregard for regulations that caused the leak. If BP had bought and installed the precautions that would have costed next to nothing for them, we would not have an ecological disaster such as this.
Obama says he is angry at BP for the oil spill. Then why did he not drive for enforcing the safety protocol and regulations that would have prevented this tragedy? The aggression and avarice coupl;ed with the indiffreence towards the survival of the planet as long as their mansion remains uneffected, being allowed to run amok is also the fault of our failed attempt at a Welfare State.
Resolutions from the most collaborationist to Revolutionary:
1-Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up call to the State to remind them of how Privatized Tyranny running amok leads to discontents in the populace, particularly that most affected. Which will lead to a few more safety regulations and restrictions on how said tyrannies will play a role in oil production and extraction.
2-Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up call to the populace to put stresses on the State and the Oil Bourgeoisie to do the functions mentioned above.
3-Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call to people that States and Corporations are never to be trusted, and that any good is done by the will of democracy, real authentic democracy. And this wake-up call will lead to a bit more of authentic democracy.
4- Maybe this will help point out that Capitalism is a dangerous system, and when looked at from the point of view of the decent human being, a flawed system, as it gaurantees an extreme imbalance of wealth and power, and will culminate towards the desctruction of the Neoliberal-Capitalist regime and the creation of the democratic and egalitarian society everyone longs for.
Who knows? Maybe nothing will happen.

(Legitimate) Authority in anarchy: for dummies

Anarchy in the very make-up of the word maintains that coercion, hierarchy, and authority are destructive, harmful, wrong, against Liberty, completely adverse to Equality, and dismissive of Fraternity (solidarity).  However, this staunch conviction on the part of Anarchists everywhere has created a few myths that misinform people and bring them to ridiculous and completely unrealistic ideas as to what an Anarchist would like to see in the world.  Some people seem to believe that Anarchists are against all forms of authority, such as a parent's authority over its child (usually justified), or even someone facilitating discussions (Anarchist panel discussions exists BTW).  This is an angering and infantile myth.  A myth so apparently strong, I am forced to explain it away by an examination into pseudo-abstract Anarchist philosophic thought regarding Authority and Legitimate Authority.

First I will write about destructive evil Authority and the need to challenge all forms of authority, including a parent's, a facilitator's, and (especially) every police officer's authority.  Challenging authority is obviously necessary and important, as well as a tenant of Anarchism.  If there was no one to challenge authority life would be a slave-like misery (worse than today, I mean).  For some, challenging authority means keeping those in power in check and assuring he rule of law (this includes challenging written law and refers to the ethical humanistic law that resides within us  and our culture).  For an Anarchist, or at least me, challenging authority also means finding out which institutions of authority can legitimate their existence and determines whether they should be altered or destroyed.

If an authority can make a case for its legitimacy, such as a parent (or any member of society) preventing a child (or any member of society) from using heroine, or a facilitator needed for any discussion to provide any sense of clarity (facilitators really don't have that much power), or a patrol of common folk to make the neighborhood secure against pigs.

Anarchists don't try to hijack events (depending on whether the anarchist is one of those closet commie assholes that wants to control everything...) when another has already organized everything (asking if they could help is nice though).  Organizers are given an authority ver creating the unfolding events, but they are legitimate because they fulfill a function necessary to the movement (transparency when possible is moral though).  just as a parent or a facilitator performs a function necessary to society.

Then there are people with authority from subjects like knowledge/expertise over mechanics, philosophy, current events, even cooking.  These people who hold these skills have a predominant authority when a situation demanding these skills arises.  It is pressured that these people explain and share these skills (teach them/distribute knowledge) to others.  see: Ithaca Free Skool and Skill Shares

For example, should a group discover a fresh carcass, the cook and the hide-tanner (let's pretend they're meat freegans) would thus become the leaders of the following actions, cooking he eat and tanning the hide.  This an Anarchist takes a somewhat tribalistic approach.  However, the rest of the group would be involved in the actions, giving them insight into those skills, making the entire group cooks and hide-tanners, eliminating any division of labor.  In this way, the "tribe" becomes informed of the variety of skills needed (excluding particular situations where the specifics are important, like medicine, some science, and engineering), limiting the need for authority.

Anarchists, from challenging authority, find most forms of authority coercive, power-hungry, evil, illegitimate.  Therefore Anarchists seek to destroy the institution of authority and replace it (or not) with a better institution.  Some authorities, such as full-time representatives are not legitimate and therefore should not exists.  Police definitely fall into this category.

To quickly sum up and dispel them easily, Noam Chomsky says that should your child run into the street with oncoming traffic, should you not use forceful coercion, grabbing them (authority) to stop them?

Albany

Going to Albany has changed my aspect on a few things. For one, the Shaleshock movement is incredibly important and any sort of action is crucial to the defense of NYS. The movement must be a politically secular movement, where political ideologies are kept out of the way so that a resident of NYS doesn't feel obligated to be an x to join. That doesn't mean that a political culture won't be evolved with the movement. The oil bourgeoisie unregulated by the state rampaging and destroying the environment and livelihood is bound to clear up a few superstitions about capitalism. It's like the International of the 19th century, or the IWW of early 20th century and today. Workers are accepted regardless of backgrounds/identity and shown the sources of their disparity and some solutions to the problem, reformist to revolutionary.

Whispers to myself on the "facts" of social uprising

Certainly everyday I think of the supposedly inevitable revolution. I have abandoned the idea that the Social Revolution is inevitable. The Social Revolution needs mass propaganda, mass awakening, and perhaps most importantly, practical stimulation.
This is happening in Greece, the revolution is in Greece. That is the model for all peoples. Commemorating the anniversary of Alexandros Grigoropoulos' murder by the police, riots have broken out to combat the police. It's not just about anarchists. workers and students on all fronts are stepping up against the police. Every occupied building guarantees the freedom of detained demonstrators.
I think that the expanse of the revolutionary spirit says something about the situations of the world movements. In one instance we have the United States. The IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) has under 2000 members. We have a growing anarchist movement, albeit a bit uncomfortably slow (compared to European movements), successful organizing skills when we look at the RNC and DNC (08), and confrontation with the police in some locales. The Shaleshock Coalition is beginning to rise awareness to the incompetence of the state and the insatiable greed of the capitalist (being a human being in an undesirable position of power). This is appreciable but sadly, as said, a bit unprecedented to the European movements.
Next, we have the Netherlands. They are personally one my favorite countries when in comes to anarchism. They and Iceland have a successful squatting movement. They also usually have a successful Food Not Bombs movement (not to say that the US doesn't, Silent City Distro is putting out free food, and Boston FNB is highly successful). The European movement surges of citizen movements (citizen movements is something that the US largely has nothing of), facilitated by anarchists, having the most experience with the tasks. What the northern European anarchists have that the US anarchists don't have is in my humble opinion, a bolder movement, particularly in squatting. what's different about organizing successful events and a squatting movement is that, although important and incredibly helpful, the organizing of events is temporary. The squatters movement creates a stability for the anarchists ensuring a determination to keep and defend the squat and the mode of life, and confrontation with the police. The Netherlands, in Amsterdam, has had a few events to express solidarity towards the anarchists in Greece, something I may be missing in the US.
The situation in Greece gives credence to networks and collectives. Before the tragedy of Alexis' murder, Greece had a network of collectives all in communication with each other. When the murder made news, the word passed through the entire network reaching all the collectives reaching all the anarchists. Thus, when all the anarchists were given the news they immediately organized demonstrations which turned into riots, and the rest is history. Now, on the anniversery of the tragedy, the anarchists, and most of the organizations of Greece are demonstrating and occupying to gain political and economic rights and advantages. It has learned of the mistakes made in last December's insurrection, and has become much more efficient than last time.The state of the country uprising is inspiring to those who wish for the social revolution or people's rights. It is inspiring to all anarchists and all people that we should form an organization and temperament like those of the Greeks.
The question of Greece now is sustainability, and progress. How long with the offensive last, and how far will they have gone?

for info on Greece '09: Riots and Police Brutality on first day, libcom
second day, libcom
consistent in anarchist events on Greek struggle, witness to last December uprising
some revleft threads: one, two

Silent City Distro and Anarchist Economics

Silent City Distro is pretty amazing. I talked to a guy on the phone who was busy organizing the North East Anarchist Network General Assembly in Ithaca. It makes me feel all fuzzy and prideful to see the anarchist movement actually moving. Happy to have a collective in the city. If we could get one in every city and establish a free economy then we would have basically realized Anarchy.
I want to start a free agricultural economy in Ithaca at least. The production of vegetables would consist in numerous gardens throughout the countryside. I should hope to produce a surplus, and that should be possible with the ways these freegans get their shit. And the distribution would be through Food Not Bombs. They'd have to have more workers though for it to be realized. They'd distribute every day at most, and thrice a week at least. This could be at the squat, a rented or bought place, or at a park. I think that this would bring a lot of people into the practice and politics of anarchism, especially with the economy today. I also want to start a FREE STORE which I might describe later.
To all the people who say that no one will want to start a garden to feed people, I say to that, FUCK YOU!
A FREE STORE will have to be monitored frequently to minimize shoplifting. It would get it's crap from whatever freegans get and don't need, "shoplifting" "maybe", :), and a drop off box for stuff people would like to sell to the FREE STORE. It's gonna have to have a place so it can exist, and I think that in with a squat, a place rented or bought, it would do perfect. A squat qould go great with the Food Not Bombs, but a rented space might be too small. Though we'd need so much more, it's still a good start.