Where the Sidewalk Cracks, Part 2: Interstitial Insurrection

There are cracks in the capitalist hegemony. And the life that grows there is both fragile and resilient, like a dandelion, both common and mysterious. It is irreducible to mathematical formulae or objectifying language. It is uncontrollable, wild. It is ubiquitous, and yet practically invisible to capitalist eyes. These cracks are the spaces which emerges when two or more people connect and form a relationship free from exploitation and domination.

Capitalism, Protests, RadicalismJohn HalsteadJune 8, 2021power, protest, resistance, John Holloway, Vera BradovaComment

Where the Sidewalk Cracks, Part 1: Ricochet Resistance

"I was amazed how a BLM protest could end up creating the conditions for a counter-protest and possibly even politicizing a group of people who may have never engaged in a political demonstration otherwise. While everyone was congratulating me on a great event, I was privately wondering if the most significant impact we had was to energize and mobilize people on the opposite side who might otherwise have stayed home. That was the last demonstration I organized. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to make sense of what happened."

Capitalism, Protests, RadicalismJohn HalsteadJune 7, 2021resistance, power, John Holloway, Vera Bradova, protestComment

Anti-Maskers and the Tragedy of Private Property

The anti-maskers pitching fits at grocery stores are experiencing, first hand, the tragedy of the private.

Capitalism, Commons, Community, Enclosure, Industrialisation, Protests, LandJohn HalsteadFebruary 23, 2021private property, enclosure, commons, COVID, anti-maskersComment

To Hell or Utopia: The Minneapolis Uprising

“Rather than running off as the police intended, the protesters stood their ground. When they were forced back by tear gas, they advanced again as soon as it cleared. They reclaimed ground repeatedly, and it took the police more than an hour to drive them back. This was only the beginning...”

Why I Stopped Protesting and Started a Garden

Certain gardens are not retreats, but attacks—attacks on the kind of world that says it is meaningless to do something so small, so local, so specific.

The Police Aren't Here For You

The police are an increasingly militarized arm of an increasingly fascist state, hired thugs for capitalist oligarchs, the modern-day version of slave catchers, a terrorist organization. When I came to see this, then abolishing the police didn't seem so crazy anymore.

Anarchism, Community, ProtestsJohn HalsteadMay 31, 2018abolition, Capitalism, Police, racism, statism Comments

A Standing Rock Story Part 2

"We [White people] have no sense of shared identity with our neighbors, and no sense of shared purpose. We have no notion that our wellbeing is tied up with that of the people we live next to or share a building with. It is the ultimate in alienation. So much else flows from that." (From Eli Sterling)