Weekly Links 05/01/09

Gaza
Lots of coverage of the situation in Gaza and the demonstrations against the continuing Israeli assault from my regularly linked bloggers this week including Derek, Jim (who has a helpful selection of links), Dave Osler and Matt S.
There is another demonstration arranged for this Saturday in London.


The latest eco-catastrophe
The latest eco-catastrophe in the US has not had much coverage on this side of the Atlantic - a huge coal slurry retention pond has broken its banks in Tennessee and flooded some 400 acres of 6' deep slurry (over 1.1 billion gallons) into the Tennessee Valley. It's meant evacuating people, warning others to boil water, and is dumping a huge amount of toxins into the Tennessee River, used as a drinking water source by many communities downstream. A number of people are reporting vomiting after drinking water.
Reports here and here from the regional media.
More info from United Mountain Defense

Activism and Repression
Hot on the heels of their recent attempts to spread security services propaganda about the threat of "ecoterrorism" in the UK (a story based on exaggeration, guilt by association and innuendo and very quickly demolished so that they had to issue a sheepish apology through their "readers editor") the Guardian/Observer and other sections of the media are now busy retailing the exaggerated fairy tales of the French and other security services about the threat of a new wave of "home grown leftist terror" about to sweep Europe.

The Guardian/Observer group, (in addition to continuing a stream of biased knocking copy on the South and Central American left) are fast becoming the conduit of choice for psy-ops and disinformation aimed at radical activists in the UK and Europe. This is nothing new really, some of us remember some "freelance" journalists from the 80's who were very keen to fit up parts of the British anarchist movement on behalf of elements of the secret state.

The texts that seem to have got the French state machine in a tizzy (and it seems to be these that are more the target than the small acts of sabotage that were the pretext for the paramilitary police action) are rather disappointing really, for an old leftist like myself - rehashed Situationist and Autonomist theses with an anti-globalisation flavour and some unpalatable (for me, but it takes all sorts) elements of nihilism and primitivism. Nevertheless, I am never one to avoid an opportunity to offend the powers that be, so here are some links to English Translations of two of the offending documents and you can judge for yourself -

The Coming Insurrection

20 Theses On The Subversion Of the Metropolis

For me, Kovel's analysis and programme in the last chapter of The Enemy of Nature is nearer the spot - I will post some more on this in the near future.

Nevertheless, the fact that states in Europe are "upping the ante" against even potential opposition is interesting, as is their apparent concern that the current crisis will grow so severe that currently marginalised and tiny groups and ideas might gain a larger and more effective following.