[W]e have a conscious opponent, but one subject to a range of contradictions and resulting political limits—although not absolute ones. – Don Hamerquist, “Three Tendencies on Repression” After decades of defeat, the revolutionary left’s ability to provide prompt assessments of ruling-class composition and strategy has atrophied. The reader can be forgiven for being impressed that […]
YOUNG AMERICANS On August 25th, 2020, during the George Floyd Uprising’s Hot Summer, rebels in Kenosha set a used car dealership ablaze. And as those Civics, Camrys, and Altimas bathed in flame, white teenagers nationwide felt a stinging in their brains, as a feeling of immense moral sentiment activated at the sight of charred F-150s. […]
RANSOM AND RETRIBUTION Mahmoud Khalil, a participant in Columbia’s path-breaking Palestine solidarity encampment, has been abducted from his home, labeled a “national security threat,” detained and shipped to Louisiana pending deportation. This abduction and its justification distill four years of state responses to the movements to defend the Weelaunee forest and to end the genocide […]
Cops enter an occupied university building to arrest students: “You’re under arrest for trespassing.” “We’re not trespassing, we’re overthrowing the government.” “I don’t care what you’re doing. You’re under arrest for trespassing.” It’s hard to see yourself as Che Guevara when society tells you that you’re “trespassing.” Amerika tries to take the symbolic meaning […]
A COLLECTION OF REPORTBACKS FROM THE PALESTINE MOVEMENT by the LAKE EFFECT COLLECTIVE With the season of encampments unsteadily behind us and a great deal of mass struggle to come, getting clear on last year’s events feels more and more important. In the last year, two failures occurred simultaneously: first, the Democratic Party’s flagrant complicity […]
AUTHOR’S NOTE As a collective, our involvement in social struggles has not been indiscriminate. We recognize that in a deeply and consistently evil world, there are many, many opportunities to act—and that there aren’t enough of us to respond to every one of them. We direct our limited resources strategically, understanding that the task of […]
Foreword This reportback was submitted to us by comrades involved in the Northwestern Gaza solidarity encampment. Their encampment was the first in the Chicago area to go up and to come down, and its disappointing end informed the initial approach of many of us at UChicago; we felt that including this reportback alongside our own […]
REFLECTIONS ON THE DNC by the LAKE EFFECT COLLECTIVE The Democratic National Convention descended on Chicago during the last week of August, bringing with it swarms of police and politicians who quickly rendered the city uninhabitable. In response, Chicago’s major Palestine-sympathetic organizations coordinated marches and demonstrations, and seemingly thousands of out-of-town activists came to visit, […]
by the LAKE EFFECT COLLECTIVE The final Gaza solidarity encampment to fall in the city of Chicago was pitched on June 8th at Buckingham Fountain, directly adjacent to Lake Shore Drive and within sight of the expanse of Lake Michigan. An hour and forty minutes into a small rally, a group of participants hurriedly set […]
