Cultural Synergy: April 2015

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Black lives matter: the Baltimore uprising

Photograph by Patrick Semansky/AP [NBC News]

Why Baltimore rebelled | Shawn Gude, Jacobin

Baltimore [...] is like so many other cities with their own Freddie Grays: a place in which private capital has left enormous sections of the city to rot, where a chasm separates the life chances of black and white residents — and where cops brutally patrol a “disposable” population.

Yesterday’s uprising occurred the same day Gray, the twenty-five-year-old whose spine was almost completely severed while in police custody, was laid to rest. Protests haven’t ceased since his April 19 death.

Nonviolence as compliance | Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

What specifically was the crime here? What particular threat did Freddie Gray pose? Why is mere eye contact and then running worthy of detention at the hands of the state? Why is Freddie Gray dead?

The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray's death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray's death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.")

When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself.

Patrick Semansky/AP [TIME]

Friday 24 April 2015

Migrant lives matter: protest in London

The body of a drowned migrant as holidaymakers walk along the El Mattorral beach
Fuerteventura, Spain, 1.1.2003, Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters [IBTImes]

Migrant lives matter

The death of 950 African migrants in the latest loss of a ship crossing from Libya to Europe has exposed the appalling human cost of the 'Fortress Europe' immigration policy imposed by European Union and the British government.

Anti-migrant rhetoric of the establishment politicians, UKIP and the Katie Hopkins obsessed media has lead to thousands of people, many of whom are fleeing nations torn apart by Western intervention, drowning in the sea.

In the first quarter of 2015, approximately 1,700 migrants have already drowned, 30 times as many as in the same period of 2014, leading to fears of a record death rate this year. Last year nearly four thousand bodies were recovered from the Med, and that figure is just those that were found. The EU needs to change it's policy to stop this and restart the rescue.

Saturday 25th April, 1 pm @ European Commission

32 Smith Square, Westminster London, SW1P 3EU

Protest called by the Movement Against Xenophobia, supported by:

Stop the War Coalition, BARAC UK (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts),

Global Justice Now, Stand Up To Racism and Fascism

Don't let them drown - restore rescue operations to the Mediterranean now!

Stand Up to Racism and Fascism

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Once upon a time in Athens, #9

Mikalis St., 05.04.2015 (Stencil by Lotek)

Feeling the city out, breathing it in – my city, or more accurately what once was my fertile ground: the beloved city of Athens. Being away was never easy, but as the months now pass silently, and the years begin to fly away with them, the gaps inevitably widen and darken. Which is why during the few times I am able to return, the best thing one can do for me is take me for a walk.

Many thanks to Vassiliki for understanding this and guiding me around.

Saturday 18 April 2015

No room for fascism in Greece and everywhere: London rally, 19.04.2015

Pere Català i Pic, Let Us Smash Fascism [The Volunteer]

Jail Golden Dawn!

Call to rally outside the National Gallery, London,

3pm Sunday 19th April, in support of Greek antifascists

Antifascist Action for Greece

Thursday 16 April 2015

The road is made by walking: Antonio Machado

Photograph by Martin Stranka [121 Clicks]

Antonio Machado

Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing else;
wanderer, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
Walking makes the road,
and on glancing behind
one sees the path
that he will never trod again.
Wanderer, there is no road—
Just foam in the sea.

Proverbs and Songs 29 (1912), trans. Betty Jean Craige | Wikiquote