History Is A Weapon (and a blog)

Women, If you are in the NYC area on Thursday. EDIT:...

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:30:00 -0400

Women, If you are in the NYC area on Thursday.

EDIT: Here’s a link to the website at the bottom.

Defeat the Terror

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:55:04 -0400

As part of our upcoming awesome Latin American Project, we came across this short tidbit.

“In 1976, in response to censorship imposed by the military dictatorship in Argentina, Rodolfo Walsh created ANCLA, (Clandestine News Agency), and the “Information Chain”, a system of hand-to-hand information distribution whose leaflets stated in the heading:
‘Reproduce this information, circulate it by any means at your disposal: by hand, by machine, my mimeograph, orally. Send copies to your friends: nine out of ten are waiting for them. Millions want to be informed. Terror is based on lack of communication. Break the isolation. Feel again the moral satisfaction of an act of freedom. Defeat the terror. Circulate this information.’”

um, that’s like what History Is A Weapon is.

PLEASE SHARE: Henry Kissinger is the American Pol Pot

Sun, 13 May 2012 16:16:58 -0400

PLEASE SHARE: Henry Kissinger is the American Pol Pot

Interesting Website: Slave Rebellion dot org

Sun, 06 May 2012 09:41:46 -0400

Interesting Website: Slave Rebellion dot org:

Looks like it was put up by Joseph E. Holloway to promote the book “A History of Slave Rebellion in the United States: From Earliest times to the Civil War,” there is some good material on there.

Photo

Sat, 05 May 2012 12:02:01 -0400

If you want to know why we post an RIP to Adam (MCA) Yauch of...

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:26:00 -0400

If you want to know why we post an RIP to Adam (MCA) Yauch of the Beastie Boys, check the video. Like a lot of people, we listened to the Beastie Boys for years, but there was one moment when we realized why we really liked them. Their first album had the original title of Don’t Be A Faggot (it became Licensed to Ill), which no one mentioned for a long time until it got mentioned in a review in Time Out. The band responded:

“I would like to … formally apologize to the entire gay and lesbian community for the sh—-y and ignorant things we said on our first record, 1986’s Licensed to Ill,“ Ad-Rock(born Adam Horovitz) wrote in the Dec. 16 issue of the magazine. “There are no excuses. But time has healed our stupidity. … We hope that you’ll accept this long overdue apology.”

That might sound minor and years and years late, but thirteen years ago, it was still a decent thing to do. And a total Bummer that Yauch has passed.

The Outside Agitator: 3 ways New York City OWS should assess May Day

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:01:48 -0400

The Outside Agitator: 3 ways New York City OWS should assess May Day:

Interesting analysis of NYC’s May Day from Sabokitty:

The big day is done and the energy spent. How do we look back on a single day that was the culmination of hundreds of other days of collective efforts to promote, build and create an experience that can move us forward? Here are the three ways that I think it is useful to honestly review New York…

Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:30:15 -0400

Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art:

Stumbled across this and thought it was worth sharing.

“It should be clear by now that in defending freedom of thought we have no intention of justifying political indifference, and that it is far from our wish to revive a so-called pure art which generally serves the extremely impure ends of reaction. No, our conception of the role of art is too high to refuse it an influence on the fate of society. We believe that the supreme task of art in our epoch is to take part actively and consciously in the preparation of the revolution. But the artist cannot serve the struggle for freedom unless he subjectively assimilates its social content, unless he feels in his very nerves its meaning and drama and freely seeks to give his own inner world incarnation in his art.”

Sharif Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have a blog, Egypt Reports, which you should follow.

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:13:09 -0400

Sharif Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have a blog, Egypt Reports, which you should follow.

In Praise of Learning

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:16:45 -0400

It’s sort of hard to believe that it took this long for us to stumble across Brecht’s poem “In Praise of Learning”

In Praise Of Learning

Learn the elementary things!
For those whose time has come
It is never too late!
Learn the ABC. It won’t be enough,
But learn it! Don’t be dismayed by it?
Begin! You must know everything.
You must lake over the leadership.

Learn, man in the asylum!
Learn, man in the prison!
Learn, woman in the kitchen!
Learn sixty year olds!
You must take over the leadership.
Seek out the school, you who are homeless!
Acquire knowledge, you who shiver!
You who are hungry, reach for the book:
it is a weapon.
You must take over the leadership.

Don’t be afraid to ask, comrade!
Don’t be talked into anything.
Check for yourself!
What you do not know yourself
you don’t know.
Scrutinize the bill,
it is you who must pay it.
Put your finger on each item,
ask: how did this get there ?
You must take over the leadership.

- Bertolt Brecht

(we added the bold.)

Added The Redstocking Manifesto

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:48:23 -0400

Added The Redstocking Manifesto:

While we’re still plugging away at our big project, we thought we’d give you something awesome to tide you over. Enjoy and share.

Adrienne Rich rip

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:32:53 -0400

‎”The most notable fact our culture imprints on women is the sense of our limits. The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate and expand her sense of actual possibilities.”

Adrienne Rich, poet and author (among other things, of “Of Woman Born” which has been on History is a Weapon for years), has passed. She will be missed.

Students of Latin American History Wanted

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:11:55 -0400

We’re making a project that involves some solid research skills and knowledge of Latin American history. If you want to help, please let us know. And please pass this message along. Thanks.

Classism?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:34:17 -0400

There’s no such thing as “classism,” folks. Racism and sexism exist because certain populations discriminate against others because of their own prejudices and pathologies. But I don’t want a world where rich people don’t discriminate against poor people; I’m fighting for a world without rich people.

Photo

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:23:39 -0400

Por Demanda Popular

Ingles

Please share/tweet/re-tumblr/facebook etc, this image and link...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:24:25 -0400

Please share/tweet/re-tumblr/facebook etc, this image and link to spread the call for Justice for Trayvon Martin.

ADDED: Affinity Groups

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:42:06 -0400

ADDED: Affinity Groups:

This is in our very small The Future Is All We Have Appendix, dedicated to much needed activist resources that we wish people would pay more attention to. This one was put out by ACT-UP, who were so awesome for such a long time that they should be studied and admired everywhere.

ADDED: The S.C.U.M. Manifesto by Valerie Solanas (1967)

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:18:05 -0400

ADDED: The S.C.U.M. Manifesto by Valerie Solanas (1967):

We’re just adding new reading after new reading. This is Valerie Solanas’s classic manifesto for the Society of Cutting Up Men. Read it, tweet it, post it on your facebook wall, let’s start some trouble.

ADDED: I Wor Kuen's 12 Point Program and Platform

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:00:05 -0400

ADDED: I Wor Kuen's 12 Point Program and Platform:

I Wor Kuen was a revolutionary organization that emerged in from the New Left among Asian nationalities in the U.S.; it began in 1969 and ended in September, 1978 when it merged with the August 29th Movement, another revolutionary organization with roots in the Chicano liberation struggle. Read it, Think about it, Share it, History Is A Weapon.

ADDED: A Bicentennial Without a Puerto Rican Colony by Piri Thomas (1975)

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:00:05 -0400

ADDED: A Bicentennial Without a Puerto Rican Colony by Piri Thomas (1975):

“But the United States inherited something it perhaps hadn’t anticipated: the indomitable will of the people of Borinquen to be free and independent.” Read this timely piece, post in on your facebook, tweet it, give us some love.