We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Do you have the right to remain silent? The plight of Leah-Lynn Plante

Click here to access article from the National Lawyers Guild via Climate Connections

Anarchists has always been viewed by ruling classes as the greatest ideological threat to their rule--for quite obvious reasons. Class structured societies are organized to serve the interests of the ruling class. For the last 300 plus years the ruling class has been the capitalist class whose interests are the exploitation of workers and the environment to provide them with wealth and power. Thus, anarchists, who believe in a radical equality, consensus, and power based at the grass-roots of society, have always been hounded and persecuted to the fullest extent possible by capitalist agencies of enforcement and their legal system. 

Like most Americans, I know little about the legal institution of grand juries. It was never covered in my rather extensive education. The subject is never delved into by mainstream media. This article reveals that they function in secret. Whenever secrecy is maintained to such a considerable extent, you can be sure that it serves an illegitimate purpose on behalf of the ruling class. Here is one source where you can discover much more about how this institution functions, its sordid history of political intimidation, and many other aspects.

This article reports on anarchists who, in my area of the northwestern US, are facing a grand jury and resisting. This is how it all started:
On July 25, the FBI raided Plante’s home which was one of several raids in Seattle, Olympia, and Portland in the last few months. Plante said that FBI agents smashed through her front door with a battering ram with assault rifles drawn, “looking paramilitary.” According to a copy of the warrant, agents were looking for black clothing, paint, sticks, flags, computers and cell phones, and anti-government or anarchist literature.