Re: [Marxism] Oregon Public Broadcasting: Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets

2020-07-17 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Alan Ginsberg wrote

Very scary

https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/



I just sent this to a long-time friend in Manhattan, who had told me 
that his Black grandson, who has been at U of Oregon in Eugene and is 
now at home in Portland, was hit by a rubber bullet at a protest this 
week. That's all that my friend knows. He has told me that his two 
grandchildren of a "mixed marriage" have said they are now afraid to 
drive across country to visit him. I had just sent him the article by 
Hedges.


This may seem a little off topic, maybe not. I also just finished, this 
morning, Hazan's book A Peoples History of the French Revolution. There 
too there was confusion, hysteria around protection of property and 
seigniorial privilege against popular protest amidst starvation and 
hoarding and speculation, "public safety" commissions, guillotining 
unrestrained, extremism run rampant, at any cost. And worldwide 
reaction. Coincidentally, federal officers were first reported seen on 
the Portland streets on July 14.


Think I'm paranoid? So be it. Beats heedless. Unless we see effective, 
massive protest around this too, going over to permanent revolution. The 
fire this time.




Case in point. This is really frightening.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/

I have to say that there's every reason to be afraid for your grandson 
if he's involved in this. Homeland Security, or its equivalents in the 
government, has been operating kind of in the shadows for at least the 
past 20 years and must have a sizeable dossier. It's chilling but it's 
what we can expect, and get out the way. Trump may even be planning a 
coup or its equivalent (even possibly with Democrats' collusion) if, 
despite current confusion and division, he and his cohorts think they 
can get enough middle class Americans to conclude in this fluid period 
that law and order are essential to prevent chaos.


The men in this video 
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/17/after-trump-deploys-secret-police-portland-imagine-what-happens-if-he-gets-four-more?cd-origin=rss_term=AO_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter_content=email_source=Daily%20Newsletter_medium=Email 
are wearing combat garb, drab-type masks concealing identity, the only 
identifying information is "police" on chests, no identifying names or 
badge numbers visible or readable, nothing showing that they are even 
federal marshals, could be private goons employed by Eric Prince (Trump 
would like that), in hired, unmarked private vans. We don't know. A shot 
across the bow?


I no longer think that this is hyperbole, although part of me would 
surely like to believe so. I think it's part and parcel of the 
developing breakdown of capitalist legitimacy worldwide.


I remember how cointelpro has operated to provoke incidents and 
demoralize protesters, from the Black Panthers, blackmailing Martin 
Luther King, forged documents, their liaison with local police 
department surveillance, you name it, I'm sure it's ongoing, and there's 
no limit to what they can do. Today we learn that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's 
liver cancer has recurred, prospect of a 6-3 rightwing Court; and we no 
longer have a Bill of Rights. The justification in Portland, of course, 
is protection of federal property and the inability of local authorities 
to contend with it. Federal property is everywhere; so is cointelpro.


Why should Americans think that we are somehow insulated from the most 
draconian measures to ensure capitalist "domestic tranquility," just 
because historically we have had a vibrant consensus on the part of a 
relatively prosperous middle class around "democratic values?" Why 
should we think that rabid US transnational corporate reaction only 
applies beyond our borders? Think "special forces," think Guantanamo, 
satellite surveillance, drones and destruction and the erosion of 
so-called national sovereignty among nation-states, when they can 
assassinate or permanently detain without charge or even acknowledgment 
anyone they please at will, anywhere.


The Corona virus pandemic, its follow-ons and unknown fortuitous 
happenings may give further impetus to the upending of our economy, as 
we can well imagine, and accelerate both protest and repression.

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 

[Marxism] Oregon Public Broadcasting: Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets

2020-07-17 Thread Alan Ginsberg via Marxism
  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Very scary

https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com