Some people in North Philly are standing up for all of us! www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20140303_North_Philadelphia_meeting_addresses_gentrification.html "In the very near future, we are going to ask for accountability from our elected officials," Phile said yesterday. "Questions have to be answered: How did this development occur? And what representatives within the community were contacted or notified?" Good questions! In classical colonialism and our modern neoliberal fascism, the plutocrats always look for warlords and traitors willing to brutalize and enslave their own communities! Internationally, they empower gangsters like Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Suharto, etc, etc. And they attack any pro- democracy aspirations of the people, as well as the institutions and processes of a functioning democracy. The propaganda machine of the empire calls this "American exceptionalism" or American strategic interests. (It's happening in Ukraine and Venezuela now) Here in Philadelphia, it has been the leaders of civic associations, who were chosen to force neoliberal fascism (aka the gentrification) upon the neighborhoods. Because they were identified as the most likely quislings in the Philadelphia neighborhoods, civic association leaders were recruited to engage in secret plots to destroy their communities and dis-empower residents from any meaningful participation in their own neighborhoods. The corporate plutocracy vision is to divide american cities into upscale police districts for the very wealthy, and zones of complete abandonment and sacrifice for the majority of citizens. The civic leaders would insist that they are the elites of the neighborhood, and that anyone questioning their secret back room deal-making was to be brutally attacked. Classical colonial governors used similarly brutal tactics to maintain "stability" so that their masters would gain massive wealth. This was how the conquest of the "city of neighborhoods" became another mission accomplished for the corporate plutocracy. "Organizers had issued fliers calling for an "emergency town hall" to confront a "crisis facing black Philadelphia: the demise of our neighborhoods." The course these folks are taking is the only hope! Those of us, who are subjects of the global empire and targeted to be pushed into sacrifice zones, must re-empower democratic power of the people. Every neighborhood must challenge the treachery of our civic leaders in the grip of their corporate masters. Every neighborhood must develop a town hall mechanism to bring development projects out of the backrooms, and re-empower the residents to take back their communities!!!!! Many years ago, before the UCD police district; this was a dynamic, diverse, multi-cultural community. And we had a few early examples of the collected wisdom and intelligence of the neighborhood as a whole, and the power of the people. When Penn first attempted to redesign Clark Park, the design firm allowed us to have a few public meetings. The people loudly told the gentrifiers to leave the park alone, and for all the correct reasons, in my opinion! So the civic leaders never again allowed any real public discussion of their plot to seize and control Clark Park. And they attacked all the processes of inclusion and transparency, as well as ruthlessly attacking questions or dissent. Now, all of our city parks have been effectively privatized, and readers of this list have a rich 15 year history where they watched the process unfold, including the merciless fallacious attacks from the neocolonial civic associations. Let's join with our brothers and sisters in North Philly and establish a real town hall process in each neighborhood, including this police district!!!!!!! From personal experience, I know that it is completely impossible to reform insular civic gangs, so that they become arbiters of a truly deliberative, inclusive process that forces transparency over all neighborhood issues. They are fundamentally opposed to inclusiveness and were always primarily special interest groups. Once the recolonization of Philadelphia began, civic associations quickly joined this dark backroom process, that is much closer to the workings of criminal cartels, than to a New England style "town hall" If we can't reassert people power here in the belly of the evil empire, I honestly believe all other movements and humanity itself is doomed! If humanity is to survive as a ffew billionaires warring against each other in Antarctica, then humanity may as well go extinct before the evil reaches for the stars. Thank you North Philly activists, Your brother, Glenn Power to the people!!! (Don't be fooled by the late public announcement of a meeting about the tower coming to Baltimore Ave. The civic associations would not invite us to any public meeting, if they hadn't lost their power! Penn and the corporations no longer need the civic association leaders, and we must not continue to live under their treachery either (see zoning and RCO rules). When the civic leaders betrayed all of us, they actually lost the power they so desperately craved. If, we the people, organize and take back our rights; we must never again allow the civic associations to betray us or rule over us. If, we the people, renew a commitment to values and inclusiveness, and take control of neighborhood issues, these civic leaders and their dysfunctional gangs will crawl back into the shadows and whine about their inability to abuse power, the way they always had done!!!) |
