In the wake of the recent hearings of Leah-Lynn Plante and Matt Duran, Sound+Noise has been working with academics and activists to bring this act of government-sponsored political oppression into the scrutiny of the public arena.
It needs to be said, now, that these two individuals are non-violent political activists who have had their basic human rights and freedoms violated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. They have each been brought before a Grand Jury (a secret judicial body that privately determines the need to apply formal charges, without the aid or presence of a defense attorney) and now face jail time.
In order to better understand the climate around this issue, Sound+Noise Editor Sam Maroney recently spoke with recent MA History graduate at the UofA Rylan Kafara.
Rylan Kafara is the founder of a blog called The Past Is Unwritten, and teaches a class on the history of punk with the Edmonton Free School. His thesis focuses on political crises such as this in the Pacific Northwest region.
For specifics on this story, read more here
Part One
Plante, Duran, and the impact of “heavyhanded” government intervention.
Part Two
Microcultures and the threat of Tribalization: A history of political oppression in North America
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“that these two individuals are non-violent political activists”
again, be careful to not frame this situation with your own ideology. you can find both matt’s and leah’s statements here: http://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com/ and you can learn about the solidarity actions of anarchists everywhere here: http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/
no one has described themselves in terms of where they stand on “violence”. also, we’re talking about actual anarchists, not liberal political activists. if you can’t represent accurately the situation that everyone here in the pacific northwest is going through, without framing it with your own ideological agenda, then don’t at all. anarchists have throughout history been misrepresented and their efforts recuperated; please be more careful about how you describe these people.
You are absolutely right, we cannot place our own ideology upon this or other situations. In our primary article we link to both Leah’s and Matt’s personal statements, and I am aware of pugetsoundanarchists.org, which I don’t think represents or even covers the solidarity actions of anarchists everywhere; for instance, it doesn’t have any information on my solidarity actions as an anarchist, and nor does the sabotage of a New York City rail line in any way represent my anarchist ideologies, which are pacifist in nature.
They are non-violent in that they have committed no violent crimes. they have not been charged with violent crimes, nor have they been accused of violent crimes. being innocent until proven guilty, the base assumption has to be that they are non-violent.
Leah-Lynne an anarchist may be, but her current public stand against the Grand Jury definitely makes her a political activist. I don’t understand the need to separate anarchism from political activism, and if I were you I would hesitate to put such iron definitions on an ideology which theoretically rejects external definitions.
What exactly is an “actual anarchist”, and who is the person who gets to decide?
Actually, Leah-Lynn has stated that she did not condone the May Day actions that involved the violent destruction of property. So she has in fact made a statement on violent vandalism. You may find that here. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury
Also, the link to the individual statements you provided in your comment have always been included in this article (linked at the first two points).
Finally, anarchists fighting against a pre-established government body are absolutely political activists, and I at no point called them “liberal.”
All of your errors here could have been solved by a closer reading of the article. Please take better care when offering criticism in the future, so that a discussion of this issue may not be convoluted by misinformation. Thank you for participating.
I’m not saying that PSA lists every solidarity action, but that the actions they list are international. on another note, labeling oneself as non-violent implies a definition that goes beyond the characteristics of whatever crimes one’s allegedly accused or not accused of – one of a stance against violence or for non-violence as an exclusive filter of acceptable tactics, a distinction that none of the served pacific northwest anarchists have made. This sort of intentionality in terms should be carefully respected by people wishing to accurately journalize these events.
I concede to the point of the labeling them as “political activists”. what’s important to respect is that these people specifically self-identify as anarchists, a term that would be best unignored in attempt to reduce its ‘bogeyman’ association.
to respond to the Slog in the Stranger, to use the phrase “does not condone…” that you have attached to Leah is yet again a reframing by the journalist himself. To quote from the article you posted, her words were, “Just because I’m taking this stand does not mean I endorse anything that happened on May Day”. This is not a statement of rejection, but a statement of neutrality, one that should be reflected in the articles that attempt to describe her position. While “does not condone…” is arguably neutral, again we find a popular implication of rejection is such statements. Her statements are clear that she has nothing to do with any alleged crimes, and that is it. The idea that they assume a position on violence a dangerous journalistic interpretation.
I concede to my errors. Let’s all take a closer look.
I definitely agree, to label oneself non-violent indicates being against violence in general. But we also use the phrase non-violent for other things as well – like non-violent criminals, for instance, who are supposed to be treated with different levels of police force than violent criminals. I think IV/VI means to say that Leah, Matt, and the other resistors are not under suspicion of committing a violent act that might have warranted the violence the FBI task force did to them. (In the first audio clip, the disproportionate use of force is directly discussed.)
Check out my reply to transvalue on the main article re: condone. Thanks for finding that error.
I agree that avoiding the use of the “anarchist” term contributes to the devaluing of it. My initial comment on the psa was a bit petty; I am just wary when someone says “everywhere” or “everyone.” I’m also wary of saying something like “actual anarchists” – it wasn’t long ago at all that people had to wear flag pins and have big flags in order to be “actual Americans.” Anarchists can have wildly different beliefs (and methods) and have had throughout history. Although I suppose something has to differentiate anarchists from what has become the stylized “anarchy” symbol peddled by the likes of Hot Topic and Avril Lavigne.
Reblogged this on The Past is Unwritten and commented:
Here’s a phone interview I did for Sound + Noise over the weekend on dissent and repression in the Pacific Northwest.
I wanted to listen to the interview but I couldn’t get past the gratingly poor audio quality.
Is there a transcript available?
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Reblogged this on Prepper Politics and commented:
More about the previous post’s subject.
When I read and hear things like this, the only thing I can think, is that somebody needs a better lawyer! …. With a good Lawyer, this would have been squashed already.. It honestly sounds like these 2 people are getting some very bad advice as to how to properly make their case.
“without the aid or presence of a defense attorney”
This is incorrect unless they have specifically refused an attorney.
While a lawyer cannot be in the same room as you during a grand jury, you are allowed at any time, and as often as you want, to step outside and confer with your attorney about any questions being asked of you.
Also, according to the reports I’ve seen, the house they were found in was not owned by them, but they did change the locks on the home so they could come and go. Is that consistent with what you’ve heard? (I’m a bit far away from the area and haven’t really seen a straight answer.) Same goes for the drugs, weapons, and body armor I saw mentioned in an interview from the police – any definite proof one way or the other on things like that?
I think it’s important we have the right frame for this one, because from my perspective we’ve got a 50-50 shot of either inappropriate government intervention or people crying foul when they’ve been caught.
Cheers
This is 1984.
taxation w/out representation!
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