Archive for the Resistance Category

Richard Stallman: The Danger of E-books

Posted in Anarchism, Freedom, Internet, Resistance on 12/04/2011 by guerillamonk

In an age where business dominates our governments and writes our laws, every technological advance offers business an opportunity to impose new restrictions on the public. Technologies that could have empowered us are used to chain us instead.

With printed books,

• You can buy one with cash, anonymously.
• Then you own it.
• You are not required to sign a license that restricts your use of it.
• The format is known, and no proprietary technology is needed to read the book.
• You can give, lend or sell the book to another.
• You can, physically, scan and copy the book, and it’s sometimes lawful under copyright.
• Nobody has the power to destroy your book.

Contrast that with Amazon ebooks (fairly typical):

• Amazon requires users to identify themselves to get an ebook.
• In some countries, Amazon says the user does not own the ebook.
• Amazon requires the user to accept a restrictive license on use of the ebook.
• The format is secret, and only proprietary user-restricting software can read it at all.
• An ersatz “lending” is allowed for some books, for a limited time, but only by
specifying by name another user of the same system. No giving or selling.
• To copy the ebook is impossible due to Digital Restrictions Management in the player.
and prohibited by the license, which is more restrictive than copyright law.
• Amazon can remotely delete the ebook using a back door. It used this back door in 2009
to delete thousands of copies of George Orwell’s 1984.

Even one of these infringements makes these ebooks a step backward from printed books. We
must reject ebooks that deny our freedom.

The ebook companies say denying our traditional freedoms is necessary to continue to pay
authors. The current copyright system does a lousy job of that; it is much better suited to
supporting those companies. We can support authors better in other ways that don’t require
curtailing our freedom, and even legalize sharing. Two methods I’ve suggested are:

• To distribute tax funds to authors based on the cube root of each author’s popularity.
(See http://stallman.org/articles/internet-sharing-license.en.html.)

• To design players so users can send authors anonymous voluntary payments.

Ebooks don’t have to attack our freedom (Project Gutenberg’s ebooks don’t), but they will if
companies get to decide. It’s up to us to stop them. The fight has already started.

Copyright 2011 Richard Stallman
Released under Creative Commons Attribution Noderivs 3.0.

Here are 4 reasons why Philly needs the Defenestrator and 5 ways you can help:

Posted in Anarchism, Philadelphia, Resistance with tags , , on 09/29/2011 by guerillamonk

Here are 4 reasons why Philly needs this newspaper:

1. A publication that’s been around for 14 years builds a huge readership of people who would not be reached otherwise. This paper makes its way to barbershops and bookstores, cafes and health centers all over town — and it’s not easy for a mainly anarchist paper to develop those relationships. Hundreds of prisoners rely on it, and some write for it. If someone starts a new paper tomorrow, many of those old loyal readers will not get the new paper and will probably move gradually to the right as they turn to the corporate media, which leaves out the stories and perspectives that matter.

2. There is a resurgence of libertarianism in the US now, and anti-authoritarians who are not exposed to anarchism are often drawn to it. The myth that Jews run the world through the federal reserve, or that it’s your own fault if you’re poor, are starting to swim dangerously close to our end of the political pool. The defenestrator helps keep that kind of crap at bay and offers a vision of interdependent humanity.

3. The defenestrator is one of the longstanding institutions in Philly that keeps our anarchist movement strong and smart. Many other cities leave young people to re-invent the wheel without support from longtime anarchists. Valuable skills and insight get lost, and groups or spaces last only a short time.

4. It’s not just an anarchist paper — it reflects a wider range of radical and revolutionary tendencies. This works against sectarianism (hostility toward other types of radicals) and closed-minded thinking. It trusts people to think for themselves without a label.

Here are five ways you can support the defenestrator:

1. Write an article! I will forward the info about their next deadline after this message.

2. Ask friends to write, suggest story ideas to them, and follow up with them! Many great activists, new and experienced, need some encouragement and positive feedback in order to write something. But the time spent reflecting on their organizing work can only benefit that work.

3. Join members of the defcollective on Thursday, September 29 @ 7pm at Wooden Shoe Books and Records, 704 South St, for a discussion/workshop on
getting involved with the paper. Bring your ideas, energy, and support!

4. Attend collective meetings on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. 7pm at LAVA, 4134 Lancaster Ave. All types of skills are welcome – artists, computer geeks, writers, editors, designers/layout people, photographers, supporters, fundraisers. (Because of other changes, etc. – meeting times
are not as set in stone as they once were – check in wt rosa@defenestrator.org and on the defenestrator website for updates)

5. Donate money at http://www.defenestrator.org/ or in person, or send a check to defenestrator, PO Box 30922, Phila PA 19104.

In solidarity,
Suzy Subways

Memorial Day

Posted in Resistance with tags , , on 05/30/2011 by guerillamonk

“War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics.” ~Chris Hedges

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” ~Albert Einstein

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” ~ Albert Einstein

“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” ~Howard Zinn

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.” ~Charles Evans Hughes

“The aim of military training is not just to prepare men for battle, but to make them long for it.” ~Louis Simpson

“Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.” ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

“It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passions, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.” ~André Gide

“War is fear cloaked in courage.” ~William Westmoreland

“War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.” ~Thomas Mann

“War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.” ~Alexander Berkman

“Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out… and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel…. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for “the universal brotherhood of man” – with his mouth.” ~Mark Twain

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” ~Albert Einstein

“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today.” ~JFK

Here’s to the crazy ones.

Posted in Resistance on 03/12/2011 by guerillamonk

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify them, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” ~Kerouac Jack

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