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Category: Gonzo Notes

Masked Up For Your Protection: In Praise Of Black Bloc Heroes (#GonzoNotes)

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and Journalism

What do you feel when you see the black bloc?

I feel pride, solidarity, and hope.

Though their faces are masked, I see a group of beautiful humans willing to get injured or imprisoned in order to keep all of us safer.

What the mainstream media wants you to feel is fear. Strangely, they want you to feel the opposite around the police, who come out to the protest dressed for war, driving military vehicles and with a sniper team ready on the roof tops. In addition to bullets, they’ve got bean bag guns, pepper bombs, noise cannons, the whole array of nightmarish “less lethal” weaponry that late stage capitalism can bring to bear.

Meanwhile, the black bloc have just their bare hands and their bodies, or if they’re lucky, a handful of flags on sticks and some homemade shields.

On Punching Nazis & Forbidden Knowledge In 2017 (#GonzoNotes)

Posted in Gonzo Notes, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

Almost a month ago, in broad daylight in a busy urban neighborhood in Houston, nazis tried to shut down a book fair.

If you follow me online, you’ve heard about this incident: a group of about two dozen nazis targeted the Houston Anarchist Bookfair while I taught a class on antifascism (called “Punching Nazis”) inside. The volunteer security team prevented them from entering the building, and they left after throwing a temper tantrum for their livestream viewers. The book fair, and my class, continued after a brief but terrifying interruption.

Master gaslighters, as always, the nazis began their livestream by declaring themselves to be “peaceful,” then stood outside a community center armed with tactical gloves demanding that I — they called for me by name — come out and fight them. The bookfair’s organizers pointed out the likely results if we’d been drawn into a fight:

Industrial Hemp Farming Act, CBD Oil, & Who Are The Antifa? (Black Tower Radio)

Posted in Audio, Gonzo Notes, Journalism, and Ministry of Hemp

The Industrial Hemp Farming Act, is a bipartisan effort before congress to legalize agricultural hemp. However, it’s deeply flawed in its current form. And a recent study on CBD oil shows many people are giving up prescription pharmaceutical or over-the-counter drugs in favor of CBD.

Finally, who are the antifascists? What is black bloc? Why do activists wear masks? And how are antifa getting involved in Harvey relief efforts?

Pushing Back Against The Demonization Of Antifa

Posted in Audio, Gonzo Notes, and Journalism

Kit O’Connell talks with Scott Harris of Counterpoint Radio about Antifa’s philosophy and views on the danger posed by the Trump presidency and the rise of white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, KKK and “Alt-Right” groups nationwide. He also examines the media coverage Antifa has received, much of it demonizing the movement’s activists as committing indiscriminate violence equivalent to that of extreme right wing groups.

Antifa Are On The Ground In Texas Helping Harvey Relief Efforts (UK Independent)

Posted in Gonzo Notes, and Journalism

My Gonzo Notes essay on “Antifa & Hurricane Harvey” was quoted in the UK Paper, The Independent.

What Are The Antifa Doing After Harvey? (#GonzoNotes)

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

Recently I heard from a reporter writing an article for a major mainstream newspaper who wanted to talk with antifascists. After checking out his Twitter, I decided to give him a shot. 

We spent about an hour talking about my work with Oh Shit! What Now? an antifascist anticapitalist educational collective that’s hosted everything from computer security classes to discussions of education reform. I stressed the everyday nature of real antifascist organizing, and emphasized that all of us are involved in other social justice causes. 

When the article came out — actually an opinion piece, it turned out — it was a horrorshow of predictable hot takes about antifa that ignored nearly everything I told him, and most of the other constructive work being done by antifascists around the country.