TOTW: Solidarity

I’ve been monitoring the news lately, and it is bad. An anarchist and anti-fascist comrade was run down, presumably by fascists, Across the world, Turkish military is invading and decimating the YPG/YPJ held areas of Kurdistan, in Athens, the anarchist neighborhood of Exarchia is under assault by the state. All of these things seem both overwhelming and like things that call for actions in solidarity, and yet, I find myself unsure what would be effective.

Solidarity (at least in North America), in these sorts of reactive moments often is shown by banner drops, a broken window (or several), or flyers and graffiti, all of which make a blip in the anarchist news cycle, sometimes making it to the MSM for a minute, but often does little to affect the situation it attempts to show solidarity with. In other parts of the world, solidarity sometimes looks like something else.

What have been examples of solidarity that have resonated with you? What are ways we can push the concept of solidarity beyond the spectacular, or is the spectacular the best we can hope for from acts of solidarity?

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“In other parts of the world, solidarity sometimes looks like something else.”

Examples would illustrate this point nicely and are of much interest to the topic being discussed. I’m very curious, anyone please post.

“What have been examples of solidarity that have resonated with you?”

Since money is needed for pretty much anything, fund raising, (or alternatively food drives), are usually helpful.
Somehow sending $20 (to whom?) is better than a banner drop.

Sometimes people are busy, or depressed and can’t clean their homes, or need help clearing out the belongings of a diseased loved one, helping cleaning everything and cooking for them or bringing them a hot meal can help.

“What are ways we can push the concept of solidarity beyond the spectacular, or is the spectacular the best we can hope for from acts of solidarity?”

The only way turn something away from the spectacular is to make it a part of your daily life. It has to be relationships of reciprocity that you maintain through time, not one time events or declarations. When thinking of solidarity with people in far away places, some of the difficulties of long distance relationships will apply.

Does it mean attack or is it the anarchist equivalent of thoughts and prayers

1st google dictionary result:
“1.unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group”

it means active mutual support (moral, material) and unity in affinity

attack can helpful or not depending on circumstances. your call.

I think this is the tension, and I'm not sure that there is a hard line. Thoughts, prayers, Food Not Bombs, banner drops, zines all seem like hopeless endeavors, but at the same time, attack (smashing a thing, burning something, newspaper boxes in the street...) feel equally ineffective, even if they feel good (and there is something to feeling good and acting on our emotions), where is that line? What is inspirational and what is merely spectacular?

1. food not bombs is not a hopeless endeavor if your goal is to make food for people to eat it.
if the food is tasty and free for those who need it it's a motherfucking miracle. it can also challenge and help normalize pushing the limit of local laws and ordinance, important in a time when loitering and merely existing in a public space is being increasingly criminalized.
2. also you say hopeless endeavors like it's a bad thing

no hope
no future

BORN TO DIE
WORLD IS A FUCK
鬼神 Kill Em All 1989
I am trash man
410,757,864,530 DEAD COPS.

Does it mean attack or is it the anarchist equivalent of thoughts and prayers

yes

And on the other side of things, recently from Act for Freedom text:

"I want to say clearly that my wish to NOT WANT to politicise this situation is due to the fact that I DID NOT and DO NOT want any violent or radical direct actions to be carried out in my name or for my sake or solidarity:

I am keeping this judicial procedure, as well as the old one, outside the radical anarchist or feminist movement that I want to avoid being related with, since I don’t belong to these movements.

I do not belong nor have I belonged to any radical anarchist group or to ITS and its variants – I do not share their ideas and ask this group, publicly and respectfully, to withdraw such recognition.

If at some point I have mentioned the term « wild nature » it was in the concept of a healthy way of living, but not in the concept of political or radical struggle."

read more: Mexico: Letter of Mario López Hernández (Tripa)
[Oct 13th, 2019]
https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=35152

Words..do they even have that much meaning anymore? Freedom...what the fuck is freedom? I'm interested by Jason McQuinn's critical theory but... in order to communicate utilising this theory, both parties need to understand they are communicating in 'Critical Theory' instead of, let's say English? When we drill down on words, they quickly become slippery...caveats abound. I am finding more and more difficult to follow threads as people are using the same words but with differing definitions so I switch off. People start off assuming (and continue to assume) we mean the same thing when using the same words until someone looks puzzled by what they hear. Seeking clarification leads down the rabbit hole more often than not.

When the anarchist kid in Exarchia got killed by the cops and thousands of people took to the streets to fight back and riot, that was beautiful. That should be the standard response anytime something like happens but, honestly the stuff the radicals do here in the US is a joke and embarrassment.

1. Racism will never end as long as white cars are still using black tyres.
2. Racism Will never end as long we still wash first white clothes, then other colours later.
3. Racism will never end if people still use black to symbolise bad luck and WHITE for peace!
4. Racism will never end if people still wear white clothes to weddings and black clothes to the funerals.
5. Racism will never end as long as those who don't pay their bills are blacklisted not White listed. Even when playing the pool (snooker), you haven't won until you sink the black ball,and the white ball must remain on the field.
BUT I don't CARE,SO LONG AS I'M STILL USING THE WHITE TOILET PAPER TO WIPE MY BLACK ASS,
I 'M STILL FINE!

First things first: you cannot make solidarity without consent: if someone asks for peace and this is met with armed struggle, that is not in solidarity with them no matter why else it needed to be done.

OK, with that out of the way, let's get down to it: ANY act to strengthen your friends that they would want to see done is an act of solidarity. Prison solidarity can be anything from writing letters to breaking them out with an improvised armored vehicle, or anything in between, assuming you are working for someone who wants to escape. If not, they set the boundaries for actions done in their name.

If someone dies in prison or is murdered by fascists without having expressed limits, the sky's the limit: Do anything you can get away with, maybe something you can't too if otherwise you might be next. Very serious solidarity was made with Michael Brown in Ferguson and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, with Black Lives Matter taking the lead and flames rising into the air. Pigs got the message and backed off enough for yuppies to whine about a "Ferguson effect" as they lost control of some streets as demoralized cops backed off for even a short time. Days of fighting, having to beg the National Guard to come and fight the power of the street, and millions lost as payday lenders were looted, a CVS (that ran a Black-owned pharmacy nearly out of business) burned, and Orioles games were played in empty stadiums sent an unmistakable message. It wasn't Northern Syria, but it WAS war fought in the streets of Baltimore to teach the cops that murder doesn't pay. THAT is solidarity.

Now to Kurdistan and Northern Syria: From the start of Turkey's invasion until the cease-fire takes effect (assuming it holds), solidarity with the Syrian Democratic Forces consists of hitting Turkish governmental and business interests any way you can. I do not know what our comrades in the SDF want us to do during the cease-fire, this is their call to make. Prior to the cease-fire, they faced mushrooming international sanctions, an attack inside Turkey(the bomb in that highway tunnel) and that burning embassy car in Germany. This sends a message too: a second Armenian Genocide sets off a second century of the kind of payback surviving Armenian warriors delivered to Turkey ever since and ongoing. If they ask us to stand down during the cease-fire and we don't listen though, their negotiators have a tough time convincing Turkey there is any reason to observe the cease-fire themselves.

They make the decisions, we help them carry them out as our interests are bound up with theirs. That is solidarity.

Just flypost portraits of Öcalan on every street corner and they will be your friend for life.

As of three hours before posting this, Turkey is attacking SDF positions but so far today's attacks have been repelled by YPG fighters and significant cost. Given, this, Turkey would not be wise to count on any global/international ceasefire holding either.

Class War you are sooo naive, don't you know that ceasefires are always broken by the most powerful participant.

From the anti-civ forum.

Addiction to technology, domineering, cheating... yet this guy literally preaches the opposite.

Sun, 28 Jul 2019 08:20:00 +0000, 08:20 AM
Interesting....

Kevin Tucker and I, Yank, are married (soon divorced) and were together for 20 years. We have two beautiful daughters together. I am a private person and Kevin knows this and takes advantage of this fact, but I feel it is time to come out and speak, especially since placed in a difficult situation.

Over the past few years things between Kevin and I have increasingly become strained. I did notice that I was growing distant from him as I was starting to see certain aspects of his personality that I did not care for. He is impatient with our children and him and our daughter, Mica, have moments where their relationship is strained as well––not to say that they don’t love each other, they absolutely do, but his patience is thin. A lot of it is due to his addiction to technology, he constantly has a screen in his face. I tried addressing these issues with him along with other issues but he failed to communicate with me about it, instead he ignored it, said he didn't want to talk about it, and/or got defensive. When I found out that he was cheating, that’s when I ended things. We did remain friends and co-parented while still living together. Of course there were ups and downs during this time but we made it work well enough. At the beginning of this year, 2019, Kevin asked if I would give him another chance, so I agreed but said we needed to work on communication and that we would keep our relationship quiet while we went through a year long trial period. Eventually his behavior began to grow suspicious and I broke it off after 6-7 months. His suspicious behavior turned out to be him cheating on me again.

Which leads us to now. As an anarchist, even though I don’t give myself a title, I don’t believe in the system and want nothing to do with it. I have tried to compromise with Kevin about how to proceed with custody but he isn’t willing to work with me. Kevin is controlling and it is either his way or no way. I've even agreed to move to Pennsylvania where he wants to move, but I do not. Kevin comes from a very wealthy family and they will provide him with a lawyer. I, on the other hand, come from poverty and I’m in limbo with a move, and so don’t have the funds to get a good lawyer without going in debt.

I need a lawyer and that’s the reason for me putting myself out here like this and displaying my private life. I desperately need help, I need to raise $5,000. I will use what is needed for a lawyer to get me through this and if any money is leftover, I will donate it to Survival International.

This isn’t easy for me to do and is greatly upsetting. If it were up to me, I would work this out another way and would leave the system out of it. Unfortunately it is not up to me. There are those who walk their talk, and then there are others who just talk. Sadly Kevin is the latter.

Please, if you can donate, it would be more than appreciated. I just want a fresh start and a peaceful space for me and my daughters. Much love to those who have listened and to those who donated.

And I know there are people out there reading this who know and consider both of us friends, I’m not asking for anyone to take sides, I’m just asking for financial help and catching everyone up on what is happening between us since most people are in the dark. And please, if you have any advice, feel free to contact me.

Forever grateful,
Yank

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