Tips for Radicals

Aiming to be a "blog of the gaps" to cover things that other radical blogs oftem miss — what we want, our journey there, and issues along the way.

To help you searching the blog, I use the following tags to categorise posts:

  • theory - ways of structuring the world
  • strategy - plans to achieve the theories
  • tools - specific ways to (help) achieve the strategy
  • tips - advice that could help you in your life and action
  • examples and analysis of existing campaigns

For more info, see the about this blog page.

Please send in your own blog posts, links, comments, or article ideas either as a submission or an ask - always welcome.
"if you don't have a strategy, you're part of someone else's strategy."
– a. toffler

"What can we do today, so that tomorrow we can do what we are unable to do today?"
– Paulo Freire


I also run a more scatter-shot blog full of incoherent rants and tumblr arguments. Sorry about that.

Posts tagged "detention"
I think a world without prisons is a one that we should strive for, but I think that this is definitely better than most the shit you see in prisons - something genuinely focused on reducing violent crime (e.g. murder and rape) rather than just decades of puritanical punishment then release with no money and shit-all chance to stay out of prison (if that’s what they want to do). Equally, state-run disciplinary institutions that happen to be helpful are like benevolent dictatorships. I assume the state is doing this because it’s cheaper, not because there’s necessarily any institutional care for the humans in the system. Anarchists need to get better at addressing issues of transformative justice, prisons, and healthy communities. Anyone got any good places to start?

I think a world without prisons is a one that we should strive for, but I think that this is definitely better than most the shit you see in prisons - something genuinely focused on reducing violent crime (e.g. murder and rape) rather than just decades of puritanical punishment then release with no money and shit-all chance to stay out of prison (if that’s what they want to do).

Equally, state-run disciplinary institutions that happen to be helpful are like benevolent dictatorships. I assume the state is doing this because it’s cheaper, not because there’s necessarily any institutional care for the humans in the system.

Anarchists need to get better at addressing issues of transformative justice, prisons, and healthy communities. Anyone got any good places to start?

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As to the third - the chief - objection, which maintains the necessity of a government for punishing those who break the law of society, there is so much to say about it that it hardly can be touched incidentally. The more we study the question, the more we are brought to the conclusion that society itself is responsible for the anti-social deeds perpetrated in its midst, and that no punishment, no prisons, and no hangmen can diminish the numbers of such deeds; nothing short of a reorganization of society itself.

Peter Kropotkin (via thetruebookoflies)

Reminder: prisons aren’t designed to stop bad things happening in our society. There are better ways of doing that!

(via amodernmanifesto)

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Anti-prison but pro-prisons
  • AMY GOODMAN: Selma, do you think there’s a place for prisons at all in society?
  • SELMA JAMES: No, I’m with Eugene Debs, who said, "If there’s any one prisoner in prison, then I’m in prison, too."
  • AMY GOODMAN: And he ran for president from prison.
  • SELMA JAMES: He did indeed. He didn’t win, but he won a lot of votes.
  • AMY GOODMAN: And yet, what about all those who are calling for corporate executives, who have stolen so much money from people, to be imprisoned?
  • SELMA JAMES: Well, I’m definitely in favor of that, and I’m definitely in favor of rapists going to prison, and I’m definitely in favor of, sometimes, of men who beat their wives to go to prison. I am not saying that the prisons have to stop today. The first thing we have to do is to get the people out who are innocent and put the people in who are guilty. And as the society generally can handle that and as the society generally comes together more, because we’re so divided that we perpetrate crimes against each other. And prison is useful in doing something about that, or at least preventing some of that. But most of the time, prison is used against us, not to—not to help those who are being pushed around, but to put people in prison who are fighting for liberation and against exploitation.
Chat
Prisoners can be turned into factory workers, says justice secretary →

Well this is depressing.

My friend said it well:

“They are determined to get slaves working for the millionaires aren’t they? First it was the unemployed forced to work for free, now the incarcerated. I like the idea of jobs and training being available in prisons, but ffs, this is just slavery. The idea that their exemption from the minimum wage is because they are “paying upkeep” is total BS! They don’t want to be in prison why should they pay for it? You want them in prison, you pay for it.”

fuckin’ right

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thepeoplesrecord: Three female punk rockers who mocked Vladimir Putin in a surprise protest inside Russia’s main Orthodox church will be kept in jail, a Moscow court ruled Thursday. Five members of the feminist band Pussy Riot — clad in brightly colored homemade ski masks and miniskirts — briefly seized the pulpit of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February and chanted “Mother Mary, drive Putin away.” Three band members have been in police custody since March and face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism. Their cause — and the harsh response of the Russian Orthodox Church — has provoked a public outcry and criticism of Russia’s largest religious institution. Source There’s Pussy Riot solidarity stuff going on in a lot of countries over the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled in your area!

thepeoplesrecord:

Three female punk rockers who mocked Vladimir Putin in a surprise protest inside Russia’s main Orthodox church will be kept in jail, a Moscow court ruled Thursday.

Five members of the feminist band Pussy Riot — clad in brightly colored homemade ski masks and miniskirts — briefly seized the pulpit of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February and chanted “Mother Mary, drive Putin away.”

Three band members have been in police custody since March and face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism. Their cause — and the harsh response of the Russian Orthodox Church — has provoked a public outcry and criticism of Russia’s largest religious institution.

Source

There’s Pussy Riot solidarity stuff going on in a lot of countries over the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled in your area!

(via sinidentidades)

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silpol: Pussy Riot: Musical Political Prisoners of Putin’s Regime Pussy Riot is a controversial punk rock group in Russia, who’s members are accused of misdemeanour and are kept in prison illegally for their contemporary art performances. © 802.11 If you’re London-based, there’s a fundraiser next Sunday and a solidarity demo next Monday.

silpol:

Pussy Riot: Musical Political Prisoners of Putin’s Regime

Pussy Riot is a controversial punk rock group in Russia, who’s members are accused of misdemeanour and are kept in prison illegally for their contemporary art performances. © 802.11

If you’re London-based, there’s a fundraiser next Sunday and a solidarity demo next Monday.

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Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War →

supportjordan:

Take a moment to write them a letter and let them know you support them, it’ll make their day better!

If you live in the USA, write one of these people a letter?

Worrying, but not surprising, how many Black Panther Party/Nation of Islam people are still in jail.

(via burningheartsmedia)

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