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Tag: Activism

Security Culture And Punching Nazis In Texas (Kit O’Connell On Radical Underground Podcast)

Posted in Act Out!, Audio, Austin, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

I really enjoyed talking with the Radical Underground podcast and the episode turned out great, full of lively conversation and fab music.

In our conversation, we talked about security culture and the ways our smartphones turn us into snitches against ourselves — but also touched on the human element, which is just as vital as technology when it comes to staying secure.

We also talked at length about the Oh Shit What Now collective, the recent incident at my “Punching Nazis” class in Houston, and other fascist and antifascist activity in Austin, Texas (including copwatching).

Activists Beat Texas GOP With Social Media & Old-School Resistance Tactics

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Yes! Magazine

Who could resist images of smiling children gathered under an ancient oak tree on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, transfixed by Democrat and Republican lawmakers doing a tag-team recitation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax?

Apparently not the good folks of Texas.

A broad coalition of environmental activists employed just such a strategy during a special session of the Texas Legislature this summer as a way of stealing the spotlight and defeating a bill meant to strip municipalities of their power to protect historic trees.

Intersectional Left Collaboration In Texas, Nazis Attack A Book Fair (Black Tower Radio)

Posted in Audio, Austin, and Journalism

In Kit’s latest appearance on Black Tower Radio, a discussion of a recent nazi attack on the Houston Anarchist Bookfair, where Kit was teaching a class on antifascism. Kit and Jake talk about diversity of tactics including antifa clowning.

Next, they pivot to a discussion of activists successful opposition to the Republican agenda during a recent special session of the Texas Legislature. Kit O’Connell also discusses the general ineffectiveness of the Texas government, which only meets for a few months every two years.

White Nationalists Terrorize Houston Anarchist Book Fair (Alternet)

Posted in Journalism

Alex Reid Ross wrote up a detailed account of the nazi attack on the Houston Anarchist Bookfairfor Alternet (it’s also been picked up by Raw Story). 

I appreciate that Ross got so many quotes from others at the fair, including organizers, and that he highlighted the involvement of some well known white supremacists like William Fears and Robert Warren Ray, a.k.a. Azzmador:

See Kit O’Connell On Sunday At The Houston Anarchist Bookfair

Posted in Archive, and Journalism

I’m appearing this Sunday at the Houston Anarchist Bookfair along with my educational collective, Oh Shit! What Now? I’ll teach a revised version of our class, “Punching Nazis” from 11:15am to 12:15pm at MECA Houston (1900 Kane St) on September 24, 2017. The event is free and open to the public.

A Message From Texas: When The Left Fights Together, We Win!

Posted in Act Out!, Austin, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Video

With all the leftist bickering, in-fighting, both-siding, my anti-war prayers are bigger than yours bullshit, it seemed like a good time to highlight a leftist success story — particularly as it takes place in a bastion of right wingdom and frequent contributor and gonzo journalist Kit O’Connell was there to document it.

So yes — the Lone Star State is perhaps the last place where many of us would expect to see a broad coalition of left leaning groups successfully fight off the hateful Republican agenda. But that’s what just happened during a recent “special session” of the Texas legislature.

Special sessions are a loophole written into the Texas Constitution to allow the state government to conduct emergency business, but in this case the only emergency was that Gov. Greg Abbott had failed to oppress transgender people by passing a version of the so-called “bathroom bill” during the first part of the year. The Governor drew up a 20-point plan of hate for his month-long session, ranging from an attack on public workers’ unions, a pile of new restrictions on abortion, the bathroom bill, and even a bill that undermined the ability of cities to collect taxes to fund social services.

Then, to the surprise of even the people involved in the organizing to resist Abbott, activists working together across issues managed to fight off all but a handful of Abbott’s proposals, in an extraordinary display of the effectiveness of intersectional activism against seemingly insurmountable odds. At a time when some of our fundamental rights are under attack, the success of activists in one of the most politically conservative of states should give us all renewed faith in the power of movement building.