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| scene from the streets of paris. |
We were in Princeton for much of last week after a death in
the family. It was a rough few days, a time to think about the
world spinning around us. Every death
opens all the old wounds for everyone.
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| Scenes from Princeton and our favorite birch tree. |
In
between family business we walked though town.
I spent the time thinking about the former president of the university
here. The students had been holding
rallies and a sit-in. And the New York Times editorialized:
As the historian Eric Yellin shows in “Racism in the Nation’s
Service,” Wilson stocked his government with segregationists who shared his
point of view. The man he chose for the postal department, which had the most
black employees nationally, had campaigned on the promise that the Democratic
Party could be counted on to keep black people out of its own ranks and out of
the government affairs of the Southern states. In this way, the administration
set about segregating the work force, driving out highly placed black employees
and shunting the rest into lower-paying jobs…..None of this mattered in 1948
when Princeton honored Wilson by giving his name to what is now called the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Black Americans were
still viewed as nonpersons in the eyes of the state, and even the most strident
bigots were held up to public adulation. This is certainly not the case today. The overwhelming weight of the evidence
argues for rescinding the honor that the university bestowed decades ago on an
unrepentant racist.
I was good to see their hateful former president get a little
comeuppance from the historical record. He presided over a red scare, admired
the KKK, passed the Sedition Action, and institutionalized racism. The Espionage Act used against Snowden was also
born of his administration. It was an
era when Sacco and Vanzetti were murdered by the
state. The Red Scares of the era exposed
a xenophobia which fueled a war on ways of thinking, asking questions, and
imagining a different America. Eugene Victor Debs was prosecuted under the
Espionage Act. The act effectively rendered certain forms of speech criminal, ushering
in thought police, and policing of subversive thinking, as well as
protest. A century later, the rallies in Paris were coming under a similar security.
Of course, the conversation among many of my friends was
about the COP21 Climate Change conference I will be attending next week in
Paris. I was planning to be there for
the march and street actions. And then the
bombings in Paris and the story line
changed.
John Jordan
posted a few notes and photos on facebook.
The french government has just banned the 29th
March and D12... Welcome to the state of emergency. Welcome to the shadow of
the future .. if we obey it...
John Jordan
7 hrs · Paris, France ·
This might be the situation in France during the cop 21 ... lets put all our creativity into thinking what to do.. how to continue to resist the real state of emergency whose scale is the size of the sea, the sky and the soils... The future will be one of authoritarian governments trying to deal with the front of terror on one hand and social and ecological collapse on the other, we can chose to accept their states of emergencies or show the that this is a time for the opposite of war and crack downs on civil liberties, this is a time to stand for justice and for real democracy to arise...
7 hrs · Paris, France ·
This might be the situation in France during the cop 21 ... lets put all our creativity into thinking what to do.. how to continue to resist the real state of emergency whose scale is the size of the sea, the sky and the soils... The future will be one of authoritarian governments trying to deal with the front of terror on one hand and social and ecological collapse on the other, we can chose to accept their states of emergencies or show the that this is a time for the opposite of war and crack downs on civil liberties, this is a time to stand for justice and for real democracy to arise...
Upon the
news from Paris, I suggested.
I guess we'll have to do something
besides march? With the state taking away my freedoms to protect me, I feel so
much safer? Not.
As Greg Smithsimon in Paris reminds us.
"For those of you were wondering, how long does it take for a government
to use a state of emergency as an excuse to cancel protests that have nothing
to do with emergency, wait no longer. The answer is four days. The government
just announced that they are canceling the big climate protests in Paris
because of the state of emergency."
Jordan posted a note from Naomi Klein:
November 18, 2015
PARIS — The Prefecture of Police of Paris informed the
Coalition Climat 21 this afternoon that due to the heightened security
situation, the government will not allow the Global Climate March planned in
Paris for 29 November and the mobilizations planned for 12 December.
350.org French Campaigner Nicolas Haeringer issued the following response:
“The government can prohibit these demonstrations, but our
voices will not be silenced. While this makes it difficult to go forward
with our original plans, we will still find a way for people in Paris to make
the call for climate justice heard, and we encourage everyone around the world
to join a Global Climate March and raise their voices louder than ever. There’s
never been a greater need.
While our plans in Paris must change, the movement for
climate justice will not slow down. Around the world, marches, demonstrations,
and civil disobedience are all planned for the weeks and months ahead.
Together, we will continue to stand against violence and hatred with our peace
and resolve.
For people around the world, join the Global Climate March
in your community to show your support for climate justice. For those who were
planning to travel to Paris, still come and join us, and together we’ll find a
way to take action together.”
Over 2,173 events, including over 50 major marches, are
planned worldwide as part of the Global Climate March on 28 and 29th of
November. Many of the events already planned in Paris for the two weeks of
COP21 are also going forward, including the Pathway to Paris concert with Thom
Yorke, Patti Smith, Flea and others. Organizers are also encouraging activists
to still plan on coming to Paris for the final days of the conference to make
sure people, not the polluters or politicians, have the final word.
#ClimateGames
posted a similar statement.
We have been contacted by many asking how the
attacks of Friday 13 November in Paris might affect the Climate Games and other
forms of non violent civil disobedience in Paris.
First of all, we want to clearly state our solidarity
with all victims of all forms of terror. Machine guns and explosives hurt the
same whether in Paris or Beirut, Ankara or Yola, Damascus or Kobane, Baghdad or
elsewhere. The hurt feels the same whether it comes from the gun of a jihadist
or a police officer, the missiles of a fighter plane or a drone.
These attacks must not change the conversation but
deepen it. We want to clearly state that our dedication for social and climate
justice remains as strong as ever. We are convinced that the geopolitical and
economic dynamics that underpin climate chaos are the same as those that feed
terrorism. From the oil wars in Iraq to the droughts in Syria caused by
ecological collapse, all feed the same inequalities that lead to cycles of
violent conflict.
We are writing this from a city under a state of
emergency. The government has announced that the COP21 negotiations will go on,
but all public outdoor demonstrations across France, including the Global
Climate March and the day of mass actions on December 12th, have been banned.
We refuse this shadow of the future, we will not bend to the politics of fear
that stifle liberties in the name of security. The biggest threat to security,
to life in all its forms, is the system that drives the climate disaster.
History is never made by those who ask permission.
We believe that COP21 can not take place without
the participation or mobilizations of civil society while governments and
multinationals continue with business as usual. Only the Climate Justice
movements with their disobedient bodies will be able to do the necessary work
of keeping 80% of the fossil fuels in the ground.
We are still and more than ever dedicated to forms
of actions that aim to address the root causes of climate chaos in determined
non-violent ways. Our playing field has been totally transformed in Paris, but
everywhere else in the world we encourage people to continue with their plans
and adventures. We call all teams in Paris to take into account the exceptional
circumstances and to not put anyone in fear or danger.
The decentralised creative nature of the Climate
Games could become the alternative nonviolent response to this state of
emergency. Like the mushrooms that emerge at dawn, the ants that scuttle across
borders at night we will rise out of fear and shock, we will adapt and resist.
We are not fighting for nature, we are nature defending itself.
Looking forward to seeing you in Paris or in your
own habitat.
Love and courage from the Climate Games crew.
People have long suggested that fossil fuel producing
states such as Saudi Arabia could not be happier to see
the COP21 street actions rendered illegal.
Their messy relationship with the US seems to muddy the terrain; terrorism seems to rise along with efforts to combat
it.
The clash between freedom of speech and repression,
between those hoping to speak out about injustice and those hoping to squelch
such conversations, this is not a new one.
We need more dialogue and disobedience, not less.
"Let
us not become the evil that we deplore..." noted Barbara Lee in
the sole vote against the Authorization to Use Military Force in Afghanistan, 3
days after 9/11.
Terrorism seems
everywhere, and so are efforts to suppress speech under the specter of panic. People
have long paraphrased Marx’s famous adage from the 18th Brumaire of Louis
Napoleon: history repeats itself first as tragedy second as farce. The young Napoleon had assumed dictatorial
powers and the Marx called him on it, rejecting the conservative state and its
social controls in favor the left as “the party of anarchy.”
Hegel remarks somewhere that all the
events and personalities of great importance in world history occur, as it
were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.
Caussidiere for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848-51
for the Montagne of 1793-95, the Nephew for the Uncle. And the same caricature
occurs in the circumstances attending the second edition of the eighteenth
Brumaire!
Hopefully, anarchy will find some
of its subversive abandonment in the streets of Paris once again, with love and care, peace and abundant, joy and justice.
Hopefully, the climate games and
rallies and art and marches and stories point to another way of being and
living in this crazy world.
Fortunately, people around the world were on the
streets speaking up and protesting. We saw them in
New Paltz and New York City. They will
be at it all week, I hope, here, in Paris and all around the world.
And they certainly are. As my friend Owen writes
after marching today.
I am glad
that French citizens are defying French police attempts to enforce a ban on
public assembly. I am also grateful for the activists in the US who oppose
fossil fuel pipelines with their bodies, the Black Lives Matter protests,
whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, people who shun the
products of industrial agriculture, and people who encrypt their devices and
messages.
Freedom versus security is a
false choice. We need to defend our liberties by maintaining our autonomy and
rejecting fear.
The weekend was a important time to talk and walk
and reflect, to think about the trees. Two of the 400 year old hemlocks died up here after the climate changed faster than they could handle noted one of the guides on our morning hike yesterday. The world is changing faster than we can imagine. But we have to speak out and reflect and try impact this trend. Thanks to my family for being there as we spent the
time together for this moment in time.
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| A weekend walk at the Mohonk. |
