It Could Happen Here Weekly 152

boosted by Trump and Fox News. Many of these focus on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, with some of them connecting to like decades old conspiracy theories about

the agency. Yeah, so this episode, we're going to go over some of the conspiracy theories and misinformation circulating about these hurricanes, but not necessarily to like debunk them, because like, I know who's listening to this, but I think it's actually more helpful to place them into the larger tapestry of conspiracy thinking leading into the election and discuss how modern misinformation has presented a whole new problem that simple fact checks aren't equipped to handle.

immediate needs. There's also been claims that FEMA only issues loans and any relief money received has to be paid back. This isn't true. Only in rare cases when someone receives duplicate funds from FEMA and insurance does money have to be returned to FEMA. There's also been claims that if victims fail to pay back FEMA, they will then seize your property. This is also falls more on this later now. A TikTok video with over a million views claimed that

FEMA is raiding people's homes to seize supplies. This isn't true. FEMA doesn't raid people's healths. On a more racist note, it's claimed that FEMA has run out of money for hurricane victims because Kamala spent billions of FEMA dollars on housing for illegal immigrants. At a campaign rally, Donald Trump said, and I'm not going to do the voice the Harris Biden administration says they don't have money because they spent

it all on illegal immigrants. They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank so that they could give it to their illegal immigrants, unquote. This lie was also shared by Sean Hannity on Fox News, and even when confronted with facts that discredit this claim, commentators on Fox still insist that even though it's not technically true, it still feels true.

in Republican areas unquote. This is also completely false that there were more isolated areas in North Carolina that were harder to reach, but people are trying to get there, and in fact, some of the hardest reach areas were actually immigrant communities who were too scared to like actually ask for federal help out of fear they would be deported. So like, yes, there actually is people really struggling to get a relief, but it's not by and large your

Trump voters. Like again, certainly the relief efforts managed by the government have had their fair share of problems. People are not getting all the help they need. But this is not a conspiracy by the Democratic governor to deprive

Republicans of hurricane relief. Like, that's not true. Now, Trump's falsehoods about the hurricane and the disaster response in service of his reelection campaign have signaled that it's aok for Republicans to spread all manner of hurricane conspiracy theories targeting the federal government. Oh boy, and this is where we're gonna get into the newest conspiracy theory sweeping the nation, that the government controls the weather, all of the weather,

especially hurricanes. Now, this is not a new conspiracy theory.

poison gas from like trenches. That's chemtrails, Garrison, it's chemtrails. It's absurd. All of these things are like are like ancient patents and like weather modification is a real thing technically, like we have been trying to alter the weather. One of the pointed to like real technologies is cloud seating. Cloud seating is a small scale technology to alter clouds precipitation, usually to increase the cloud's ability to produce localized rain.

By adding ice or condensation nuclei into the forming clouds. This helps areas suffering from drought and low Reall cloud seating has been jumped upon by Republican conspiracy theorists as proof that the government is actually engaging in a massive weather control operation, including to produce hurricanes. Now, hurricanes are famously quite large, and it is impossible to determine the path or cause one to happen. This just simply isn't true.

time and lowering the air pollution levels. They barely managed to pull that off, so they they sort of kind of made the weather better in one city for like two weeks. And that took a a level of resource coordination like fucking unfathomable, like most human history like that.

According to Reuters, no atmospheric monitoring equipment do not alter the weather. Conspiracy theorists have also targeted Doppler radios and next rad basically like radar control systems and radio control systems as being used to change weather patterns and cause hurricanes. This, this isn't true. You can't change the weather with a

radio or with radar. Again, like we're not debunking this because this is so No, this is so ludicrous, But these are the conspiracy theories that they're invoking, and like and like Harp, conspiracy theories do go back quite a while. I've seen a few other things talking about like direct energy weapons and lasers from space or lasers from the ground pointed out the atmosphere which caused hurricanes to form. This also isn't real. We cannot cause a hurricane deform. It's it's too big.

harp idiots out of the room. Yeah, it was a conspiracy scene by other conspiracy theorists as like too obviously bullshit, Like do you.

be seized by the federal government. All this kind of stuff. Now, like some of them also point to like geo engineering, right, they say that although geoengineering is said to conduct climate change, it actually causes climate change. Geoengineering there's technically a few forms, but the one that we're talking about basically like injects aricized chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect some light. Obviously reflecting some lights, not gonna make a hurricane worse, but whatever.

So this has gotten really bad. This has taken over a significant portion of the online right to the point that even people like Dysantis are having to come out and say, hey, guys, no, this that this isn't real. In a press conference, Dysantis claimed that there are in fact weather conspiracies quote on both sides.

to a surge of climate change conspiracy theories. While this is nothing new, the way people are getting information is changing with the increased use of AI chat bought personal assistance and image generation. There was this TikTok trend ahead of Hurricane Milton where you ask in Amazon Alexa what the result of the hurricane was going to be before it hit landfall. I'm gonna play this video that has over two million views on Twitter.

hurricane Milton. Thinking it the second time this name has been used for an Atlantic hurricane.

Chat GPT said, yes, there was a Hurricane Milton in two thousand. It formed in the Eastern Pacific in late December. You know, another person replied, saying, Grock states a two thousand hurricane named Milton struck struck Nicaragua in two thousand, but it doesn't show up on the National Weather Services hurricane tracking charts for two thousand unquote. Very curious. It's insane.

It's insane. These people are using chat, GPT, and grock ai as search engines, and when they hallucinate to take data, they're alleging some kind of conspiracy theory to suppress data on a previous hurricane Milton, I mean, and it's also just worse, like having like this person condescend, being like, please before you post, try to fact check with grok. You're like, what the fuck are you talking about? Groc is a comedy AI chatbot that's going to generate you

like a nonsense response. It's not a fact checking tool, it's not even a search engine. They're just hallucinating data that people are then passing off as real information.

with a little bit of searching. So all this is creating a quite volatile scenario where misinformation is spreading at a faster pace than it really ever has before. Now, just like in the Springfield pet eating hoax, people on the right are also spreading AI images as evidence of how the Biden Harris government failed their disaster relief response after Hurricane Helene. The most circulated image is of a crying little girl wearing a life vest holding a wet puppy.

Oh no, she is sitting in a boat surrounded by floodwater. This is this is pure boomer.

the picture, our government has failed us again. Amy Kamier, RNC, national committeewoman for the Georgia GOP and the co founder of Women for Trump, tweeted on Thursday that the image has been quote seared into my mind unquote. Informed that she was not looking at an authentic photo. Kermer doubled down, y'all, I don't know where this photo came from, and honestly it doesn't matter. There are people going through much worse

than what is shown in this pic. So I'm leaving it up because it's the emblematic of the trauma and the pain people are living through right now. Unquote. Oh my god. So I get like at this point, people know they're spreading fake information, but they're doing it anyway because it helps them, like they are willing participants in

the complete removal of reality from their constituent's brains. A mega Twitter account posted this AI photo with the girl in the puppy and wrote, quote, Kamala doesn't have enough money for this child. I can't hate this administration enough unquote, Oh my god. So do you know what I can't hate enough?

twenty two. Quote, the weather can and is being manipulated. Wake up, Stop being ignorant or plain stupid. There's no such thing as coincidence. The most important election in the history of America is thirty days away. Pray Georgia. Voting has been compromised, and I don't know if we will be able to get all of our early voting days in. Now a hurricane is coming straight for Florida. These two

states are necessary for our Trump victory. No coincidence, So, of course this is all a conspiracy to send hurricane specifically at red states to compromise Trump's ability to win the election. A woman at a Trump rally explained that that the government is using cloud seating to make the hurricanes worse, and that this was pre planned because Amazon Alexas already knew the information about the hurricanes ahead of time.

Her reasoning was that the hurricane damaged land could be seized for lithium mining by Kamala Harris's husband, and that the weather was controlled to rig the election against Trump. Now, this little tidbit about Kamala's husband that a nice little anti semitic jab in there. Of course, the Jews are

controlling the weather to do lithium mining. Why not? And I'm not going to play a short clip from this interview, not the whole thing, so it's way too long, and she rambles about cloud seating for longer than I want to include, but I will include this one short clip.

rule Appalachian areas that have been affected. They're looking at it like this, this election is three weeks from now. We've just wiped out the complete and total infrastructure for all these towns and cities. That's great, because guess which way these towns leaned. They leaned red. These were largely Republican leading towns. As far as they're concerned, they could all die and they don't care because that's just one

less vote for Trump. Unquote yes, Asheville, North Carolina, famously famously a Republican town, famously the conservative paradise of Asheville. Now a lot of these conspiracies also link up to very old like FEMA conspiracies. Right, there's been conspiracies about FEMA since like the nineteen eighties. They've been heavily tied

in with the militia movement. The formation of the Oath Keepers was in response to FEMA concentration conspiracy theories basically that they'll use natural disasters and FEMA to like round up patriots to do some kind of new World order, or that they're gonna use FEMA to seize your land so then you're gonna be put in a FEMA concentration camp. Very old conspiracies. Now these have kind of fed into the current conspiracy matrix regarding the hurricanes. I'm gonna quote

from this one guy on Twitter called the health Ranger. No, not the health Ranger.

and keep them out. Reportedly, delta force personnel advising FEMA at the top devising denial of area enforcement plans which will be enforced at gunpoint if required. I'm told FEMA is practically panicked to get enough armed personnel on site, anticipating a tremendous amount of resistance from displaced people who

want to return home to salvage whatever they can. This is the next step up the escalation ladder as the federal government wages war against the American people, as we saw FEMA care bring out in North Carolina, actively hindering rescue efforts to maximize starvation and death to the people. Do not escalate. Hold your ground peacefully and firmly. This looks a lot like a J six style trap to provoke an insurrection and declare martial law to cancel the election.

Don't play into their hands. Unquote. This unhinged diatribe got over ten thousand likes and was spread wildly around Twitter. A few days ago, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue posted an article documenting this current conspiracy ecosystem, and they included one TikTok video that stated, quote to my North Carolina families, please, I know it's hard, but please do not take that seven hundred and fifty dollars. It's alone, and if you

don't pay it back, they will seize your property. In response to this, FEMA clearly stated that FEMA cannot seize your property or land. Applying for disaster assistance does not grant FEMA or the federal government authority or ownership over your property your land. So now we have these conspiracy theorists which are being boosted by Republican officials basically encouraging people to resist help from FEMA, to not evacuate, and

like all of this puts themselves and others in great danger. Right, you might say, well, if conspiracy theorists don't want help from from FEMA, like what's the harm, right, Well, these people have like kids, like these these people have families. It's not just them that are going to be affected. If they're refusing to evacuate their family from from the path of a hurricane and like their kids die, that's

super fucked up. If they're refusing like help from FEMA to like feed themselves in their family, that's that's not a good sign of the current state of this country. Yeah, yeah, like it's it's bad. Rondasantis's press secretary had to come out against the the unhinged ramble from health ranger on Twitter. She quote tweeted his post saying spreading lives like this

could have serious consequences. If people in evacuation zones see this and decide not to evacuate despite warnings from state and local emergency management, they are unnecessarily putting their own lives and the lives of first responders at grave risk.

needed help from the agency. I'm going to include this one clip from this guy who was interviewed on MSNBC talking about how his family has been refusing help in North Carolina.

And I guarantee you I'm not the only one. I guarantee you I'm not the only one.

part of the conspiracy and for controlling the weather. I'm going to read a quote from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Quote falsehoods around hurricane response have spawned credible threats and incitement to violence directed at the federal government. This includes calls to send militias to face down FEMA for the perceived denial of aid, and that individuals should quote unquote

shoot FEMA officials and the agency's emergency responders. Unverified claims abou attacks on FEMA representatives have been used to glorify and encourage violence unquote. Media matters archived at TikTok video threatening a FEMA employees, which received over two hundred thousand views, saying, quote deer FEDS and FEMA if you're trying to deny people access to help in the affected area. Be advised,

we're still under the War on Terror emergency declaration. If you violate your constitutional oath to protect and assist, the charge will be treason. Punishment can mean being unalived immediately by the citizens you are withholding aid from unquote on TikTok. They're threatening to unalive governmentations.

be arrested or shot or hung on site. Christ Now, a lot of these conspiracy theories are also heavily antisemitic, talking about like the religion of local officials, like I think like the mayor of Asheville, and just in general, combining these weather control conspiracy theories with FEMA conspiracy theories, saying that like the Jews are somehow controlling all of this, and like that's just a recurring aspect of these conspiracies

that I feel like it is. It is worth mentioning, especially because like the right is like trying to weaponize claims anti Semitism to attack the Democrats on Israel right now, which is absurd because the Democrats are extremely pro Israel, but still their constituents are going to be spreading all these like very unhinge any Smitic conspiracy theories abou Jews controlling weather and using FEMA to hurt Christians in the Appalachians, all that kind of stuff. Now, it's not just threats

against FEMA officials. Death threats have also been targeted against meteorologists, as Rolling Stone documented in an article last week. Quote I've been doing this for forty six years, and it's never been like this, says Alabama meteorologist James span He says he's been inundated with misinformation and threatening messages like stop lying about the government controlling the weather or else

unquote great. A Washington, D C. Based meteorologist named Matthew Capussi said, quote for me to post a hurricane forecast and for people to accuse me of creating the hurricane by working for some secret Illuminati entity is disappointing and distressing and it's resulting in a decrease in public trust unquote,

So like again, like, why is this all happening? A part of it is because the election is upcoming and people are trying to find reasons to think why Trump might lose, and they're saying that the hurricanes are actually a plot by the illuminati to make Trump lose the election via having these storms controlled by Jews and Democrats to target Republican areas. But like, what has changed in the actual ecosystem to allow this to feel like it's

so much worse than what it usually has been. And I've kind of decided that everyone is now Alex Jones, Like everyone has become their own little mini Alex Jones. Platforms have changed in the past eight years to create massive social and financial incentives to go viral, So now everyone is just doing what Alex Jones did, right, Like Alex Jones learned that he could make a profit saying all kinds of crazy shit on air, and now other people have also learned this lesson. This is a part

of I think what's going on now? How does everyone has the capacity to go viral by saying whatever crazy shit they can during a moment of crisis. A few days ago, there was a really good article in the Atlantic by Charles Rozel titled I'm running out of ways to explain how bad this is. This is going to be linked in the sources below. I recommend you give it a read, but I'm going to read a paragraphic from it here. Quote. This is more than just a

misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories at public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts. First that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes,

but willing participants. This reality dinfracturing is the result of an information ecosystem that is dominated by platforms that offer financial and intentional incentives to lie and enrage, and to turn every tragedy and every large event into a shameless content creation opportunity. This collides with a swath of people who would rather live in an alternate reality built on distrust and grievance than change their fundamental beliefs about the world. Unquote.

I know, Mia, We've been talking about this misinformation problem in the chat and I know you had some comments you want to you wanted to share.

have to confront what your beliefs are. So people actively sort of construct this this reality around themselves so they don't have to do anything that ever sort of challenges their own views. And this is something that you can see, I mean you see it happening all over the place. And this is one of the things that where sale it it's like gets right. That is important is that like people are active participants in the construction of their

own universes. And now there's a financial incentive, there's a social incentive, and there's also a cognitive incentive, which is that like having to deal with the fact you might be wrong. Aboustling fucking sucks, yes, and is hard, and sometimes you just don't want to know totally.

to like actually change minds or persuade people. It's just a mechanism to construct and reinforce false realities, like in the In the recent Meme of Politics episode, I talked about how AI images of trans athletes or of immigrants stealing pets like these aren't meant to convince anyone of their authenticity, but they exist in lieu of evidence to

help people maintain their reality tunnel. An information researcher at the University of Washington named Michael Kawfield wrote an article earlier this year about how a whole bunch of mega people started to deny the authenticity of those videos of Kamala Harris's rally in that Detroit hangar showing like a massive, massive, huge crowd with Air Force one or Air Force two landing and her getting off with these meg people saying

that this was like ais is fake. There was no way the crowd would be this big, And they invented a whole bunch of reasons for why that this photo must be fake. And this this wasn't fake. This was a real photo. This was easily verified. There's like video evidence from multiple sources showing that this is a real thing that happened. But Cawfield wrote, quote, the primary use of miss information is not to change the beliefs of

other people at all. Instead, the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Unquote, and yeah, I don't believe in giving this people a degree of passivity, right like, this is an active choice that they are doubling down and reinforcing and creating their

own reality tunnels to live in. And I think the other aspect of this, this is something that Robert was talking with me last night, is like the people also propagating this, the people creating the environments to make this happen, are also willing participants, right like this, this is a big reason why Musk bought Twitter is so that it purposely could turn into the current conspiracy like shit show

that it currently is. Facebook used to be where conspiracy theorists gathered to post their weird boomer opinions, and now it's Twitter alongside just actual, like useful, verifiable information. And now because these two platforms have kind of combined, how we have so much cons piercy content on Twitter, it also just damages the use of Twitter as a platform

to look for real information. And I think you can see the same thing with TikTok, with its very loose content moderation policy regarding factual information and the fact that people use TikTok as its own search engine, creating its own ecosystem of misinformation, fully isolated away from the rest of the Internet. And this project to like wear down collective reality is a long term project by the right.

You could look at the John Birch Society and other anti communist groups from the fifties who used to deliberately put out fake articles about communists infiltrating Fox News and a whole bunch of conservative mass media like talk radio was created at least in part as a reaction to Nixon being forced of office and a lot of the same people funding right wing media are also pushing for

charter schools and attempts to destroy public education. Like it's all an intentional effort to make people's media literacy go completely down the toilet and propagate entire false versions of reality in so of a few rich people. And that's what our current situation is right now. And I don't know if it's a way to stop it. As you heard in that clip from MSNBC, like fact checks don't work anymore, because that's not like the point of any

of this. It's not meant to actually persuade people. It's only meant to reinforce what they already want to believe. So what do you do in a world post fact checking? I don't know, and we're going to have to find out.

it's effectively the abandonments of politics as politics. It's arguably just a complete retreat into fascism. But you know, if you take the sort of undersetting of one of the elements of it as fascism is reducing all politics to aesthetics.

like you know, we're in this position where the people who had built the guardrails blew it up in order to make money and push your political jendas, and now a bunch of other people who want to just destroy everything inside of those rails are just like detonating bombs inside of all of our like psychological conscies.

Some people might just choose to completely cut the person off because they find it too dangerous, and that's fine, but I think there should be others that remain as a lifeline to the person, right if they ever one day realize, oh no, I'm in a cult, and I need help. There needs to be a way for them to get out. There needs to be a lifeline for them to escape. And this is the only way that

like quote unquote cult deprogramming has worked. You can point to like people who've gotten out of the QAnon conspiracy theory, like this is the only tactic that actually works. It's reliant on the courtesy of others, right It's it's reliant that you have to put yourself in a degree of danger by maintaining contact with this person that is kind of dangerous because they are in this like very volatile cult.

There needs to be some lifeline for them. And I think that's really the only way that I know of right now that shows a degree of success in getting people out of this like fucked up conspiracy matrix. And it sucks, and it's not easy, and most people promoting like cult deprogramming are hacks with pseudoscience. And it turns out like this is just a very emotional problem and it requires unfortunately emotional solutions that a simple Reuter's fact

check will not suffice. So anyway, that is my rundown on what's currently going on with the her misinformation. It's really bad. Yep, it could happen here.

become active participants in their own sort of propagandizement. And I think we kind of we left on our kind of note of of what you can do for sort of individual people, right, which is the same mechanisms you usually get someone out of a cult, which is you stay with them, you maintain enough personal connection that you can pull them out if they ever want to come out. But that's also not a large scale solution to this problem.

And in order to talk about a large scale solution to both our present social crisis and the ecological crisis that this social crisis is being aimed to sort of cover up. Right now, I'm talking to Rosewater, who's the hub coordinator for the Sunrise Movement's DC Hub and delegate to Sunrise's Delicate Body and also a solar punk organized at Rosewater.

not reported on nearly as much. One was they eroded their labor peace clause and they made it possible to go on strike if any of their facilities were closed, which labor peace has in my opinion, been sort of strangling the US left for eighty years.

peace like peace from disruptions. And this essentially was established between the beginning of World War Two and the end of the Red Scare, when all of the socialists and markets and communists were expelled from labor movement.

American unions. But like you know, but this is also struck as being watched really, really heavily in China, which is interesting because like Chinese state unions are a fucking joke.

They're basically not real unions at all. And the extent to which you know, the China's version of the labor piece was also the deal was less like you get rights and we get like labor piece, and more like we're going to just stamp out while working class organization completely and in a way that like was more even more thorough than what happened here where most of it

got wiped out. I think like the breaking of the labor piece and the demonstration that there is another way is something that has reverberated massively across a lot of different places that I don't think both the people organizing the strike or the sort of like press coverage of it has really gotten into sort of how wide the reverberations of this have been.

strike since nineteen forty eight.

solid already strikes. People are not allowed to coordinate the entire power of their action, and this is a pretty promising way around that.

pushing politicians and things like that. In a lot of ways, the Inflation Production Act was a result of Sunrises organizing and our work to try and force through the Build Back Better program, but it aligned us with Biden, and from the point of view of a lot of our organizers, like even if it was a victory, it didn't feel like one, and it's certainly not nearly large enough to

actually handle the scale of the crisis. And so essentially the more radical wing of the movement has been winning that fight over the last year two fights, a strong word, has been winning that debate over the last year or two, and specifically this last summer when the American Federation of Teachers joined the general strike, which almost no one has

heard about. But the AFT and their one point seven million members have already decided that they're going to try and joined the twenty twenty eight general strike.

moments like this. Actually, but when we talked about victory, when we talked about and we're going to have like mass mobilization against the climate crisis, where the whole of our society like pitches in to do this, the federal government like does a World War two style mobilization against this destruction, and stuff like that, you could tell that people didn't see a path.

but like, the students must go on strike. And that was sort of the moment that really got our movement from yes, we would like to figure out some sort of different way to get to the mass disruption needed in order to like win serious action on the climate crisis, to like, oh there's a path.

been pushed the teachers, right. And the moment that childcare collapses, right, a bunch of people suddenly also who are not normally on strikes suddenly are not able to do the drugs because they have they have to find some way to

take care of their kids. And so this is this is sort of a massive leverage point and in the same way that like sort of dock worker strikes, or I mean not in the same way, but like in a sense that a strike by these people can shut down way way more labor than just theirs directly, right, this is something that's very important.

strike support and student strikes. So can you talk, I guess about the sort of politics of student strikes and how you see this fitting into the broader thing that's happening.

all across Europe and America. But I would use the word strike in quotes because sometimes you had full walkouts, sometimes you had like those sorts of huge things, but most of the time it was students asking permission from authority figures to participate in a rally and things like that, Whereas in a class struggle context, like a strike is people going to the authority figure and saying this is not occurring because we're not going to be here, you know.

Like this has been a critique that's existed inside of Sunrise like from that period for years now, which was one of the reasons why we haven't focused on those sort of tactics as much. But with this sort of moment, especially if we can bring the teachers along, right, being able to have students see their authority figures doing this sort of thing, especially in more conservative areas, while also teaching them how to do it, because in really meaningful ways,

schools are practice work yep. Like they were directly modeled after factories in the eighteen hundreds, so schools are modeled after work. So if schools are practice work, then student strikes can be practice labor organizing.

in the immediate term and in the longer term. Yeah, we've talked a bit about this on other episodes, but like there hasn't been the kind of like generational passed down of organizing skills that we've seen in sort of preview generations and the way honestly, we've talked this, we talked about the center sort of UAW staff episode, right that the way that a lot of these unions are running their staff systems also aren't designed to build up

like continuous momentum for people who learn how to organizing and keep doing it. And this is a way, because it restart that treadbill to create a generation of organizers both in this moment and for the future.

that holds back our ability to create a strongly organized working class. But in the context of schools, right, there is no labor law. There is no labor piece in a high school. Right, So as a place to practice the sort of radical class struggle organizing that we're talking about, it's sort of the perfect place because it's a simplified

version of the workplace of like adult reality. There are obviously many other blockages, like students and young people miners have far far less power and far fewer rights than you do once you become an adult, and their family has far more power over them.

whether or not they actually manage the strike. Right at the end of it, you have an eighteen year old entering the workforce who is a skilled, trained, class struggle organizer who has gained their politics completely outside of the context of labor peace.

about it on Cooleeple this cool stuff. But I mean one of the most famous sigence people tried to do this is a iww dow organized it named Jody Berry and she so legally speaking, we don't know who killed her. What I will say is that she was killed by a car bomb that was virtually identical to a car bomb that was built by the FBI that wasedated by the FBI in their bomb like training things like a couple of weeks before. So right, we Jennie widely don't

know who killed her. However, Kamba someone built a car bomb and blew her up in order to stop this from happening. So it is something that is very very obviously seen by the powers that be is extremely dangerous.

that sort of republican co option is happening. So it's another thing that we can use a simultaneous tactic for our side and helps defeat a co option attempt.

radical demands. This is one of the reasons that I really love Sunrise and ecological like ecosocialist movements in general, because if you ask someone to seriously consider how do we address the climate crisis, and you're not paying them to have a specific answer, which is nonprofit industrial complex things like, if you ask someone to seriously consider what do we need to do in order to address the climate crisis in six months, you have a radical no matter what.

that we've seen. I think this is a good place to wrap up something that we've also seen in the way that immediate short term disaster response is happening, where you know, all of these sort of you have like millions of people who are like would not show up to a mutual aid thing are suddenly like out there doing mutual aid and have at least temporarily completely restructured the way the society works because they're confronted with the sort of

immediacy of crisis and also the immediacy of the fact that the way that we have been doing things simply is not actually a functional way to for example, respond to a hurricane.

And so if we're prepared to take that temporary mutual aid structures and jump on them in order to create systems like what they have in Rosheva and create build our labor movements, build our neighborhood power, build our direct democracy capabilities, and be able to be like, no, we want to keep these whenever the police come back, whenever.

it's going to be destruction. But again, fundamentally like we are the people who built this world and we can build it again. We're going to have to build it again and we're going to build it better.

and sort of its role here. As Israel begins attacking Lebanon as it did Gaza, right and as it has continued to attack the West Bank as well.

it hasn't done so in like a complete way. I guess we'll talk a little bit now about some of the things which have happened, because I think we should probably start there, and then what'd explain who UNIFIL are, what they do.

it has shot artillery rounds that peacekeepers injured peacekeepers in Lebanon. Right, anyone who can provide any form of independent oversight, who can provide any form of accountability for what they're doing, is in danger.

He's taken a Trump approach to democracy. Let's say, Israel seemingly murdering journalists as part of his policy as a goal of its invasion of Gaza is pretty unique, even by the standards of like other Western militaries who have done some pretty terrible things in the Middle East in the last twenty years. So some of the things they've done in recent days. It's fired smoke grounds about one hundred meters from their compounds, causing uniform peacekeepers to have

to done their gas masks. Fifteen of them were injured. They have like skin irritation for whatever the munition was. I don't quite know what it was. I guess I think expired smokes can do that, and tear gases old tear gas can do that. You're not supposed to use tear gas. Yeah, that's a war crime. Yeah, that's a war crime. It's a warkind that lots of people do. To be fair, like, they wouldn't be the first one I'd seen. But then again, right, like these are people,

are they signature's to a genet of convention? Actually, I don't know that's a good they are. They don't give a fuck. Does it really matter that? Yeah, have a look, I'm interested to know.

The hundreds of times, right, like, for instance, stepping across the border, which the border is not entirely agreed upon by its Lebanon, but the United Nations has imposed something called a blue line, which is what it considers to be the border. It's Raeli troops will go across that to trim trees a lot so they can like spy more effectively. Right, they literally have towers and cameras and stuff. But in two thousand and six, people who are old

like myself were members. Last time it did a sort of full scale evasion of Lebanon and on its withdrawal. I'll just go through the history of uniform now and we can talk about the attack later, I guess. So they're supposed to keep the IDF and Husbulla in theory out of an area between the Latani River and the blue line. The blue line is where the UN through the border in two thousand and The idea is that the border was drawn there by the UN to determine

if israel hood withdrawn from Lebanon. That doesn't necessarily mean that all parties are accepted as the border.

of bypassed uniful position to that point. And it doesn't mean that people didn't die in these invasions uniform troops of peacekeepers, because they did, right, Like it's a dangerous place to.

the IDF that was operating in the area. You also had the South Lebanese Army. I don't like the division of groups in this part of the world exclusively along religious lines, because I think that doesn't entirely explain things always and I think it's like a very analyst brain way of seeing things, like to be like, oh, these are the sites and they do this, the sort of

sunnies and they do this. But the SLA is a majority Christian organization and like it began as its own independent thing in the Civil War Lebanon, but it became more or lesson it's really proxy, right, it's certainly in this area and the UN caused them. It's really different fact forces, which is kind of a bold move from the UN. Actually, like yeah, to just say it. Of course,

saying it and doing it is another thing. But like during the time from eighty two to two thousand, it's relevated multiple times, right, including in nineteen ninety six, when just in the year of nineteen ninety six it's rail fired on uniform peacekeepers two hundred and seventy times. So like, I think that's like every weekday for the entire year.

To put things in perspective, you know, like if they took weekends off, they fired on them every weekday, including shelling a uniform compound after the withdrawal in two thousand withdrawal, uniform stasks of peacekeeping, monitoring the withdrawal and assisting the Lebanese government in restoring it for authority in the area, and a UN mandate seventeen oh one two thousand and six, it's relevated again and eventually it's sort of ground to a stand still that time, ground to stand on top

of a massive pile of civilian bodies, as it tends to do. Right, they bombay route in. I remember that I was I was traveling in the Middle East in.

The peacekeepers were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. Later the UN sent like a quick reaction for US and a rescue team, which the IDF also shelled.

hose of money and weapons. Right, There's still been no actual accountability, and I think that will actually start them from doing what they're doing. That's not like the fault of the people on the ground in JUNI fill for the most part. Yeah, but nonetheless it's the case. It was also in that incident in two thousand and six, and I was talking about UNIFIL called the IDF ten

times to ask them to stop shelling. And this bunker, by the way, I'm not talking about like concealed position, right, Like I've been in bunkers and I'm away for work that you might not be able to see very easily. This bad boy is painted bright white with the letters U N on it. Like it's incredibly well marked, it's impossible to miss, you know, it stands out like a sauta. That's where they drop their precision guide ammunition. There was

also an instant in twenty ten. This might be one people remember, and this is one of the tree trimming incidents. So the IDF was trying to trim trees along the blue line and the Levelese military perceived them to have vented Lebanon. I'm sure the IDEAF perceived themselves to be inside Israel. The Idea's understanding of borders, as I said, is somewhat unique, and so Indonesian UNIFIL troops were there. This is a particularly interesting incident. The Indonesian troops seem

to be pretty popular in Lebanon. From what I can tell, there are forty one nations that take part in UNIFIL right, but there are large contingents of Spanish, French, German, Italian, Irish peacekeepers and Indonesian and nepoally peacekeepers as well. The Indonesians are interesting because the government doesn't recognize Israel and so they have no diplomacy like I don't quite know how they manage that.

You have these people there who are positioned to do something really important right now, which is to stop the IDF doing in Lebanon what he's done in Gaza, but they've managed to engineer themselves into a situation where they the IDF also has a veto on pretty much anything

they can do. Yeah, which, like I was told, I spoke to someone who was very familiar with the operations of UNIFIL and they were trying to me for instance, so the IDF had been able to control what munitions they were able to bring into the country Jesus, which matters because, as we'll get into, one of the things that IDF likes to do is like literally knock on their front door with main battle tanks. Right that they actually knocked down the front gate of the uniform compound

with a macarver tank. Certainly like knocking the front gate down with a mccarvery is one way of going about asking yeah, which is insane.

in the history of uniful deployments. Dozens from other countries too, right, Nor does this mean there's annet Yahu has called them quote hostages of Husbolla, which is kind of a ridiculous claim as many of the things that come out of his mouth are like they're also categorically not that they're hostages of the United Nations. And there's this system that it's backed itself into whereby two Beligerian parties can stop them doing anything they do. So I'll give you an

example about twenty ten. K's right, these Indonesian uniform troops are trying to prevent the IDF from the Lebanese Army firing at each other. The IDEF is entering into Lebanon to cut down some trees, and in the perspective of the Lebanese army, I guess, they started throwing insults on one another, and soon enough they start shooting each other. So two Indonesian peacekeepers. There was a video of this that went around for a while. So the Indonesians decide that basically there's nothing.

in a pretty shitty they were having a bad yeah. Yeah, And to quote Major General A. Lam Pelgamne, who is a French officer who's uniform commander from two thousand and four to two thousand and seven, quite the problem is in such cases as this, if you intervene to protect the IDF, for instance, you know it will be accused by Husbulla or the people of protecting the Israelis and collaborating with the enemy.

urban areas and disturbing people's homes. That's I'm sure other folks have vomorable though this too. Just the IDF is kind of well known for using these things. They shot down an observation tower last week which had two peace keepers in it, and obviously those people were injured because that tower got shot down. But like they're not fully attacking them enough that those peacekeepers would like defend themselves

or their their positions. And I think if people are like hoping that somehow like an engagement between peacekeepers and the IDF will be what causes accountability, I don't think that's going to happen.

natural gas to Israel to do anything. China is not going to do it because there is real second largest trading partner and they don't give a shit. Like no, no, no, one's actually going to like send troops to like back some kind of like UN mandate to like stop the Disraelis from doing this. Like that's just like not even if the Israelis were to just start killing peace keepers, like it's not going to happen. It's never happened any other time. The Israelis have killed peacekeepers.

it really blows. Oh yeah, and what the IDEAF has done now is advanced past their like forward positions and the positions where people are being injured by shelling are the headquarters positions, So like if you imagine a triangle with a broad base of it at the front, they're shelling and sort of fighting around the headquarters positions. I'm sure if you've been spending that much of your life as a soldier, you know, like and you're watching something

terrible happen you'd want to fight that. Yeah, you're just sitting around Like that doesn't mean that it's bad that they're there, No, Yeah, Like any form of accountability will make it more accountable than what happened in Gaza, right, Yeah, or at least it will make whatever.

civilians have largely left because there's intense combat going on there. Right, there's Balla present there and obviously the IDEF now present there and they're fighting, so like people can leave, they've left. So having not that civil millions have really slowly is raised down in Gaza. It been a Certainian casualties don't seem to be something they care about. But yeah, having these folks there has stopped them just just carpet bombing the area, which is a good thing. Yeah, something that's

not a good thing. It's our obligation to pivot adverts again, oh, which.

So not not always no great yeah, but you know the record like look one out of like twenty of the people you trained, going Haywires not great, but like you know, it's limited nineteen other ones, like it did pretty good.

the cores of the Israeli economy, and it is one of the cores of the Israeli occupation is almost entirely fueled by like semiconductors and stuff that they buy from China. Right, that's where all the physical technical infrastructure of this stuff

comes from. I talked about it before about like Russian natural gas, Right, all of these countries, who will you know, talk all of this shit like and the un about Israel, like people's real political stances and what they're willing to send it to your really to the Israelis are not the same thing at all. And if you want to actually gauge how the occupation functions, it's because a lot of countries that nominally will be like, oh, we oppose

it's really occupation. Well, didn't just send them all the fucking resources that they need to do the occupation.

like any day, we could wipe you off the map. Right, And some of the uniform assets seem to have anti aircraft some of them don't, but even still like they you know, a determined attack by the idea of they've

been in big trouble of course. So right now, I guess the situation we're in, according to the person who spoke to is that these positions Israel has advanced passed, like the peacekeepers there are still in their positions, right they have using their own funds, which I presume means like funds from the states of which they are part, fortified their positions and improve their positions like.

for like. Also, I think it is better that there are African peacekeepers in Africa than like white European peace like I think for historical and very obvious reasons.

and water. It's what that means in like non nerdy terms. So they're pretty well stocked up, right, Like they're bunked up.

to resupply. Right now on I'm just going to check the date very quickly, And UNIFIL is on Twitter by the way, if you want to do you want to follow them there they kind of give a daily update on what's going on. On the thirteenth of October, UNIFIL said that the IDF sold just stopped a critical uniform logistical movement, which could well be like an attempt to resupply of one of these places. Right, at some point they're going to have to resupply them, either by air

or by land. And I think that is when we will most likely see like exactly how hard the IDF wants to go against like in this case trucks full of MRIs right, Like, yeah, previously they've got in standoffs, like a few years ago the French. The French have done some interesting stuff as part of the UNIFILM mission, Like in twenty ten they kind of went on a unilateral operation without approval to look for her body. Yeah, not a great move.

to see people address their concerns. But was not interesting, I guess, but people address their concerns specifically with the French element of uniform rather than other elements of uniform, like for instance, Indonesia and seem to be pretty popular. The Indian element of unifil teaches weekly yoga classes, which are apparently becoming more and more popular.

individual nations. I think like in that case, it wasn't so much the UN as a whole. It's like the specific chain of command of those peacekeepers.

they've buildozed these places. But now and they're but they've set it up like barred wire like down the new territory, which seems like they're just actually a time we can do annexation. Yeah, and that's really alarming because I mean, like the Syrian government isn't going to do shit about this, right, like you know, Israel has bombed Syria a few times already.

set like Colone list logic, I guess. But I do think that like the continuation of this like full scale war generates consent for the government as it exists in the moment that it stops, and that the government's legis will collapse there. Yeah, but yeah, pushing into Syria opens up a whole other world of shit, shit, yeah, the

worst stuff. Yeah, there's a nation on earth who really doesn't need anyone else trying to fucking And it's not that Israel has not been killing Syrians for a long time as well, has been lobbing munitions into Syria for a long time, and it's increased.

Russia must stop and nothing would happen like this. This is where we're at with like the Democrats and being like, ah, Israel must stop doing whatever the fuck's no, they're not going to do anything, like they don't give a ship.

news episode. I hope people who have family I have friends who are in Lebanon, like, I hope people who have family there were doing.

long and largely unknown history of indigenous co existence and conflicts. Short, people continue to live and the earth continue to spin for the next few millennia until a few ships on the horizon spell doom for all to see. These are, of course, the Europeans who first arrived in the region with the fifteen oh two voyage of Amerigo Vespucci, with the Spanish navigators Juan Dias de Solis and Sebastian Cabo in particular visiting the territory in fifteen sixteen and fifteen

twenty six, respectively. Then in fifteen thirty six Pedro de Mendoza founded this small settlement.

official declaration of independence for a republic on the ninth of July eighteen sixteen. Just to go back a bit to be clear, there is an alternate history scenario in which Argentina was briefly or continuously under an InCor monarchy that would have ripped literally. I believe it was a cousin of Tupa Kamaru. The third incredible was being considered for the position incredible, incredible, incredible. Indeed, see, people tend to see South America as just like you know, it's

just the extra continent. I mean, I don't think people think about how much has gone on down there, or rather it's not really present in the English speaking world's imagination.

had an alliance with the Spanish Philippines. Yeah yeah, so, I mean civil war go per, as they say, between the centralists and the Federalists, and that will continue for a while after the Declaration of the Republic in eighteen sixteen, and it was only resolved in eighteen thirty one with

a Federalist victory. Basically, it was a division over how they should organize the state, whether it should be in a federal manner or more centralist unitary manner, so the Federalists, one which would lead to the war the Confederation between eighteen thirty sixty eighteen thirty nine, the establishment of the Constitution in eighteen fifty three, and a temporary secession of Buenos Aires which was forced back into Argentina by eighteen

sixty one. And as in much of that in America, anarchism would establish itself fairly early on thanks to the waves of migration from Europe, and particularly from France, Italy and Spain.

by Catalan carpenter Juan Villa. As with the splits internationally, the First International's local section in Buenos Airis, which was founded in eighteen seventy two, would split between the supporters of Marx and the supporters of a Cunan. The former

were predominantly French, the latter predominantly Spaniard an Italian. Three decades of substantial migration started in the eighteen eighties, which sparked significant growth in the anarchist movement as the migrants found Crussian economic deprivation and repressive governance where they'd hoped they'd find prosperity and liberty. Over three million people arrived, leading to the country having a foreign born population of

thirty three percent by nineteen fourteen. Nowadays, as in much of the world, unfortunately that once foreign born population some percentage of them, and now unfortunately anti I migration, yeah, and violently. So it's a cruel irony that we find ourselves with just mere decades ago. Their own ancestors were migrants.

Among the migration wave came the likes of Hector Matte, an Italian anarchist who helped publish a Socialista, which is a weekly people and of course believe it's or not, the one and only Era Kamana Testa, who keeps making guest appearances in these last American anarchism. He's just like all over the places, traveling everywhere. If I recall correctly, he made an appearance in Cuba. He made an appearance in the Egypt episode as well. Yep, she just keeps showing up.

you know, helping them set up. But in my head, I'd like to imagine that he was pretty good at bacon, bread and making cookies.

of anarchist communism in Argentina. Despite ongoing repression and government censorship, the anarchist press continued to expand during this period, with publications like La Vois de la Mochere and Anarchist Feminist People emerging in Rosario. The eighteen eighties and early eighteen nineties also involved significant internal debates, particularly around the role

of workers unions and revolutionary tactics. Some groups embraced anarchist cynicalism, while others believed smaller affinity groups as catalysts of social revolution with a way to go. While in the midst of a massive rapid industrial growth and deal with the worst than economics that for the working class, such a society was ripe for transformation of the anarchist variety. Initially, the anarchists have been focused on countercultural concerns, particularly in

the field of education. Where As their ranks swelled in number, the stage was set for the debut of a mass anarchist movement among Argentine workers. In eighteen ninety seven, the anarchist workers were found lab protester Humana, later shortened to Lap Protester, which would become an enduring anarchist paper throughout Latin America. But the anarchists didn't just stick to papers though.

In nineteen oh one, anarchists were instrumental in the founding of the Argentine Workers Federation of the FOA, which is Argentina's first labor federation. Federation was founded in a congress that assembled some fifty delegates representing thirty to thirty five workers organizations from both capital and interior. The aim of the federation was an entity that included all workers without regard to their races or beliefs, based on a solid

foundation of direct action and economic struggle. Though initially including Marxists, those would later depart to found the General Workers Union or the UGT, which was more meanable to party interests, of course, which left the FAA in anarchist hands. The FAA stood at the forefront of the struggles, advocating for higher wages and better working conditions. At the time, the typical workday was ten hours or more, with wages barely

covering essential needs. Strikes broke out across industries with notable successes. Painters and Marder Platter secured an eight hour workday and dark workers in minos aires one and nine hour workday, along with a wage increase. But despite the oppression, the workers movement continued to grow stronger. The FOA's membership surged, with forty two unions and over fifteen thousand members in nineteen o three, rise into sixty six unions and nearly

thirty three thousand members a year later. In nineteen o four, at its fourth congress, the group was re named the Regional Workers Federation of Argentina or the FARE or FORA. The reasoning was ideological. By adding the adjective regional, it made plain that Argentina was not considered a state or political unit, but a region of the world which workers

struggled for their liberation. This fourth congress also approved of solidarity pacts that proclaimed the establishment of a class less society with neither state nor private property as the ultimate aim of their struggle. The anarchist influence was clear, but it gets even more explicit in the following year. The UGIT had been subordinated to the Marxist Socialist Party, but even their third congress in nineteen oh five had a

syndicalist emergence to preferred workers associations to political parties. Basically, even the non anarchist workers organizations would be an influenced by the anarchist wave, so much so that the UGIT wanted to form a solidarity pact with Fura. The anarchist and four didn't quite trust the parliamentary socialism of the UGT. Still, they did work with them to call a general strike in nineteen oh seven and saw a diarity with cart drivers in Rosario, joined by some one hundred and fifty

eight thousand workers from around the republic. That strike ended in victory for the workers. In nineteen oh five, two years before and as fifth Congress, Foura made its commitments to revolutionary anarchist communism explicitly known quote the advice and recommend to all our followers the broadest possible study and propaganda with the aim of insterning workers economic and philosophical

principles of anarchist communism. This education, not content with achieve in the eight hour workday, would bring total emancipation and consequently the social evolution we pursue end quote four. I was among the largest federations of workers organizations and it

was officially anarchist communists. The nineteen oh sixth ninety o seven general and tenant strikes gone a greater favor, and in response, Whenasyrius police head Colonel Falcones sware to finish or off the anarchists nineteen oh seven saw for Her and Ugit attempt a merger, but since the majority sought adherence to anarchist communism, the merger could not be achieved. For Her was militant and effective in achieving many of its schools, including wage increases, reductions in the length of

the work day, and various rights of association. Port workers, Crown transport workers, seamen's unions, bakers, metal workers, construction workers, and ship workers were all prominent in the federation and were well positioned to paralyze the Argentine economy and win

their demands. In the first decade of the twentieth century, these unions led six general strikes and many more partial strikes, and women were more involved than in any other radical movement of the time, taking part in consumer boycotts and rent strikes as well. But the anarchists knew the ruptures in the capitalist economy wouldn't be enough. It could never be enough to merely confront the system and refuse to

corporate the system as it is. The social revolutionals demands consciousness, solidarity, and the prefiguration of an enlightened progressive society in social organizations. Thus, anarchists engaged in counter culture, multiple papers in multiple languages, theater and poetry, may day marches, social centers, popular education centers, popular libraries, and discussion circles. All of these efforts were ceded throughout the cities and linked to various unions to

create a veritable and dynamic network of revolutionary causes. And since the government understood the anarchist threat, they tried their best to raise the cost of revolutionary activism. The actions included petty police harassment, the humiliated and inconvenient searches and protuitors demands identification, which were a familiar experience for the

anarchist militants. There was also without law and of radical publications, the suppression of the right to public assembly, mass arrests, martial law declared for a total of eighteen months between nineteen oh two and nineteen ten, and of course outright violence to the police, the army and other formal forces. In addition to thugs acting on their behalf. The governor also attempted to undermine the anarchist movement through legislative means.

The Resident's Law in nineteen oh two granted the government the right to deport foreigners that are deemed undesirable without trial. After the law had been in effect for a few years, four are called a general strike.

and the declaration of a state of emergency. The government also introduced the Social Defense Law, which levied a series of penalties against anarchist activities, specifically as a centennial celebrations unfolded, Argentina had transformed into a heavily militarized state, with more than two thousand anarchists arrested or deported. So much for a grand celebration of their free democracy. Despite the repression,

the workers move once continued to grow. Forest general strikes forced the government to make concessions and release jailed workers, but divisions began to appear within the movement after deal with so much repression for their erratical ideas. A split occurred in nineteen oh nine with the formation of the syndicalist group CORA, which adopted much of for US structure and retained some anarchist ideas, but leaned awards a less

radical approach, hoping to be less of a target. The anarchist took yet another hit when in nineteen twelve the Science Penier Law made voting secret and obligatory, thus making anarchists abstentionism as a tactic illegal. The range of possible actions was being intentionally closed. While they were these external pressures, anarchists also had to deal with the pressures from within the workers' movement by even more folks who wanted to

compromise the revolutionary goals. Another split between the synicalist anarchists occurred to the for US ninth Congress in nineteen fifteen.

Unions were increasingly led by reformists, social democrats, and uncommitted anarchists, which led to the thesis of a neutral cyndicalism focused on winning workers' rights becoming the dominant position within fur Her, the synicalists dropped their commitment to anarchist communism and claimed the name the Fora of the Ninth Congress, while the minority of anarchists that maintained their commitments anarchist communism took

the name the Fura of the Fifth Congress. The timing of the split was impeccable, though you see, as has been a recurring theme in this series, the Russian Revolution of nineteen seventeen had a significant impact in Argentinian anarchism. In a sense, it reignited the revolutionary fever within the movement and led to the reformist and cynicalist four or nine losing influence, but revolutionary ideas once again gained momentum. For a brief moment, there was hope, but the Bolsheviks

will waste little time in crushing that hope. By nineteen twenty, Argentinian anarchists, like their European counterparts, began to distance themselves from Leninism. They began to recognize the authority and nature of the Bolsheviks, took note of Kropotkin and Lenin's correspondences and soon came to reject the idea of the dictatorship of the proletaria. On his part, alongside his mass slats

of the anarchists in Constat. Then in all So ordered the confiscation of anarchist texts, but he saw us influencing the conflict within the Bolshevik ranks. Tale as old as time. Anyway, next time we'll see if and how the anarchist Argentina managed to navigate the tumultuous twenties, thirties and beyond to leave a lasting mark on Argentine history. But things are looking too good for them right now. Until then, we'll power to all the people. This has been It could

happen here. Hello, and welcome back to it could happen here, Amandrew Sage. F'm me on YouTube at Andrew's I'm here once again with.

you know the answer. Nineteen nineteen marked the year of La Simana Tragica or the Tragic Week, when several metal workers were killed by strike breakers. This led to a general strike that shut down the entire country and pushed Buenos Aires into a state of chaos for several days. The anarchist paper A Protester, noted the complete shutdown and praised workers solidarity.

anarchist move one persisted as they always do. That protester continued publishing, alongside the launch of new papers like Mandera Roja and Tribuna Proletaria, even after the government banned anarchist press in March nineteen nineteen. They move on contained you to organize, culminating an extraordinary Congress of two hundred unions

in September nineteen twenty. Throughout the nineteen twenties, four or five remained a powerful force in Argentina's labor movement, pushing for causes like the six hour weekday and resistant rise in nationalists and military sentiments, but throughout came more repression. In nineteen twenty one, Argentinian workers there Are for A style in the Chaco region were brutally killed for demanding

better wages and conditions. The anarchist FOURR proposed solidarity actions, but the more reformist FORA the Ninth Congress, distanced itself,

leaving the movement unsupported. This indifference, unfortunately also extended to other violent incidents, such as the murder of workers were the fascist Legal Patriotica in gualle Kuaiaju, and worse still, with the largely unreported massacres of striking rural workers in Patagonia by the army sending fifteen hundred to death by firing squad, an event ignored by most media except for

anarchist outlets like Leberate Esther. In this case, at least the anarchists got their get back somewhat later, when German anarchists could Wilkins assassinated, couldn't Hector Valera, the military leader responsible for the killers.

pull that string another time. There was anarchist who took the protests in a different direction, though known to be prolific in his acts of violence. Italian anarchists Severino the Giovanni, carried out bombin's against the American embassy to protest the trial, bombings against the Italian consulate to protest Italian fascism, and robberies throughout the country. The Giovanni's actions sparked debate among

anarchists about the issue of quote unquote anarcho banditry. Some papers, like Landtorchia, defended the Giovanni, others like That Protester, attacked him.

the continuation of systematic persecution against workers and anarchists. Many were imprisoned, deported, or killed, including prominent figures like Juan Antonio Moran and Joaquin Penina. Anarchist groups and unions were oppressed under Uriburu's martial law, whither more moderate Confederacio and General del Trabajo or SGT, dominated by reformers. Socialists survived and became the main representative of workers in the country thanks to Uriburu's corporatist stats. Martial law was peeled back

slightly by nineteen thirty two. With such heavy blows the movement, anarchists had to pull back to the more countercultural efforts to define their movement. In the eighteen eighties, for Our resumed publishing activities with that protester returning as a daily but government pressure, including action against his editors and restrictions and postal services, made it difficult to maintain this daily schedule. Eventuallyla Protest transition to a weekly, then bi weekly, and

family monthly publication. Despite these challenges, a group of anarchist militants and via Devoto Prison, conceived the idea of a national Anarchist Congress. This congress first met in September nineteen thirty two in the Rosario, which that it gets from across the country, and one key outcome of this congress was the creation of the Committee Rijonal de re Laciones

Anarquistas or the CRIRA. This later foundation for became the Argentine Anacho Communist Federation or FACER in nineteen thirty five, although the organization never really gained a mass following in nineteen thirty five, anarchists also established to be able to take er Popular Jose in h niros a library and social center. While initially founded the support of socialists, the

anarchist took full control after the socialists left. Around this time, anarchist groups campaign faiercely to free Voto Maini and the Diago comrades, who had been tortured and imprisoned for over a decade. The newspaper just this year was created solely to advocate for their release, who was finally granted in nineteen forty two. Throughout this period, the anarchist press remained active,

the number of publications diminished. Several publishing houses like not Review, Iman, Tupac and Reconstrier kept anarchist literature alive, publishing key works and essays. In nineteen thirty three, Accion Libertaria emerged and eventually became the voice of FACA, later owners the Federacion Libertaria Argentina or FLA until nineteen seventy one. But the most significant international event for Argentine anarchists during the nineteen

thirties was the Spanish Civil War. The rise of fascist among the resistance, led by the CNT and Federacio Anarchista Iberica or FAI, inspired Argentine anarchists to provide solidarity and support. Many traveled to Spain to join the fight, with Jose Grenfeld become and the secretary of the FAI. Campaigns to support anti fascists in the Spanish Civil War were also launched,

with FACA publishing books and pamphlets in the struggle. FACA launched Saladari dad Operera in nineteen forty one, edited by Juan Corral and Loreano Rieira, though it was later shut down by the first Justici Aalista government under Peron. FURA also began publishing a series of booklets, including Toros condre la Guerra in nineteen thirty five and Lucca Constructiva Pola

Lebordad e Justicia in nineteen forty four. One notable libertarian cultural journal, Ombre de America, ran from January nineteen forty until the end of nineteen forty five, covering nearly the entire duration of the Second World War. FACA was clear about its position on the global conflicts of the time. In nineteen forty two General Plennary, the group denounced both Western democracies, which they saw as vlain capitalist exploitation, and

the Soviet Union, which they deemed bureaucratic. However, they saw the greatest threat in national socialism the Nazis and the rise of the Third Reich one in the total tyrrianism was the worst danger of their era. Faker's statement of solidarity with the oppressed under the Nazi barbarity also recognized the threat posed by Soviet expansionism and the force promises of post war democracies. Domestically, FAKA and FA faced a

new challenge with the rise of Juan Domingo Perun. His populist approach, while beneficial somewhat to workers, was paradoxical for anarchists. Prone's government promoted a state centered jingoistic project that co opted labor movements through control networks, undermining genuine proletarian democracy. Anarchists rejected Peranism, seen its as a threat to the

revolutionary ethos of worker's solidarity. Despite this, fora retained some influence, especially among agricultural workers, who were caught between the identities of peasants and workers. In June nineteen forty six, anarchist launched a new newspaper, Reconstruire, with Louista Luci as editor. The first issue featured Jaccobo Prince's critique of Peranism in an article titled El totali tarismo falsea il Principio de Justicia social, calling out the regime's distortion of social justice.

By the late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties, FA's influence had waned and anacosynicalism was reduced to a smaller role in Argentina's labor movement. However, the Sociya Dad there Resistencia del p del Puerto, aligned with FA, demonstrated their commitment to anarchosynicalism in nineteen fifty two by rejecting a compulsory wage tax to fund a monument to Eva Peron Jesus Christ.

in nineteen fifty five. Facker rebranded as the Federacion Libertaria Argentina or the FLA, and the FLA held its sixth congress in nineteen sixty one, and his journal records career, published regularly from nineteen fifty nine until nineteen seventy six, coincided with the onset of Argentina's most brutal dictatorship. But before we fast forward in nineteen seventy six, we need to explore took place in the sixties. The sixties are known as the New Left era in many parts of

the world thanks to the rise of student radicalism. The New Left is marked by a notable libertarian and democratic impulse, an emphasis on cultural as well as political transformation, an extension of traditional lefts focus in class struggle to achnowledge multiple forms and basis of oppression, including race and gender, an emphasis and anti imperialism and anti clonalism, and a rejection of bureaucracy and traditional forms of political organization in

favor of direct action and participatory democracy. Many youth were searching for a third way outside of Soviet and Western models, so during the nineteen sixties and seventies, a new generation of Argentine youth turned to anarchism, though they struggled to collaborate with the older anarchist movements. Cultural and political differences were the heart of this divide, with younger militantligning themselves more to global anti imperureless movements at the time than

with the anarchist legacy already within Argentina. In some ways, this generational riff left a scar in the anarchist struggle. In other ways helped younger anarchists to develop a clearer ideological stance compared to their counterparts in countries where such internal conflicts were less prevalent. One of the most significant anarchist groups to emerge during this period was Resistancia Libertaria.

Operating condestantly and with a cellular structure, RL aimed to ignite mass resistance and ultimately spark a prolonged popular war. The group was active in neighborhoods, labor movements, and student circles, and it had a small armed wing for defense and expropriation purposes. Although it was formerly a national organization, RL's main operations were in La Plata, Cordoba and purosiris A. Argentina grew increasingly polarized in the mid nineteen seventies, arial

activists became targets. Many were disappeared even before the military coup of nineteen seventy six, but then it hit Henry Kissinger at the United States Machinations or fruit.

The aim was allegedly to maintain stability in the region that America considers its backyard, and US officials, including Kissinger, was shorten meet with Argentine military leaders after the coup encouraged them to wipe out the opposition quickly and brutally before any winy human rights concerned started to be raised internationally. The junta remained in power until December nineteen eighty three, during which time some thirty thousand people were disappeared or executed.

RL militants were particularly targeted by the regime. One particularly horrible story I have to share. The military men responsible for the killings often spared pregnant women, kept them in custody until they gave birth, then killed the mothers and gave their influence to childless military families.

In the final years of the tatorship and follow on their re establishment of civil government in nineteen eighty three, new and relatively anti authoritarian social movements emerged in Argentina, among the most prominent, with the Madres te la Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers advocating for justice for those who had been disappeared on the military regime. Alongside them, they are psychologists, feminists, and other grassroots activists began to

make their voices heard. This shift marked a significant departure from traditional state centric leftist politics, with a growing inclination towards more decentralized approaches. While this climate sparked renewed interest in anarchism, it didn't lead to a substantial increase in the membership of older anarchist organizations. Instead, it highlighted the transformation and how social movements approached to activism and sought to address issues of justice and accountability, and then we come

into the twenty first century. In the early two thousand, Argentina, which was once a poster child for neoliberalism thanks to the actions of the didataship, found itself in the throwers of a devastating economic crisis. This meltdown didn't just affect the economy, ignited a wave of social movements that were far more confrontational, radical, and anarchistic than before, which of the rise of militant neighborhood assemblies, factory takeovers, and intense

street protests. What was happened in Argentina was a direct result of more than two decades of so called free market reforms and structural adjustment programs. These policies had left the economy in ruins, with poverty and unemployment levels soaring. By the time the crisis hit, poverty had shot up from thirty one percent to fifty three percent, and unemployment had jumped to twenty one point four percent, nearly a

quarter of the country's population. Out of this chaos came the Pictaros, a new movement of unemployed workers who turned their anger.

they wanted us say in how society was run. One of the voices from this movement, a woman from the Solano neighborhood in Buenos Aires, captured the spirit when she said, I dream of my children finding a way of life here away from the despair the system gives us. We're building something new. Politics without political parties, end code. The Pictaro's didn't just demand employment, they wanted meaningful work.

All across the country. People took to the streets, unemployed workers, middle class families, and whole neighborhoods They were united in their demands an end to the government's economic policies and the resignation of the deeply unpopular President, Fernando de la Rua. After two days of street battles with police, government collapsed. In the wake of this upheaval. Neighborhood assemblies popped up everywhere, and the pictaros intensified their efforts. Millions of workers across

Argentina joined a general strike. In Protasius alone, over a million people defied a government imposed state of emergency flood in the streets in protest. It wasn't just about events and frustration with what reclaiming their power. In a way, the ideas of anarchism, self management, the centralization, and direct action were be input into practice on a truly massive scale, even though anarchist groups themselves didn't necessarily lead the charge.

The fight wasn't just on the streets, though, It had to happen in the factories, the fields, across all the sectors of society. They couldn't just remove politicians. They had to dismantle the entire system of exploitation and replace it with something radically different. A key piece of this puzzle was the rise of the fabricas, recuperatas, or reclaim factories. These takeovers didn't start with the two thousand one uprising, though.

The first occupation happened back in nineteen ninety six, when workers in a cool storage plant to control after the bosses abandoned it. More factories followed suit, with workers stepping in with an owner's fled But they weren't even trying to launch an offensive against capitalism. They were simply trying to survive, to hold onto their livelihoods and an economy

that had pushed them to the edge. By the time of the Argentine Uprising in December two thousand and one, over one hundred and seventy factories had been reclaimed, with some ten thousand workers taking part in this new form of collective labor. The message was clear, when the bosses leave, the workers are more than capable of keeping things running. In these reclaimed factories, they got rid of the traditional management hierarchies and made collective decisions and shared income equally.

It was a living example of one potential way society could function without the capitalist class. In the midst of the Argentine economic collaps these workers didn't just resist, they were also producing, hence their banner of occupy resistar prosir, Occupy Resist, produce the newest possible, to not just fight, but to build something new from the ground up, not just to survive, but to lay the foundations for a

new society. The cries of kissevayan totros or basically out with all of them called the widespread dissolution with the entire political class. But the sentiment needed to be transformed into something more substantial, a proper political framework to drive the momentum forward. But it's also into this framework, this potentially anarchist framework wasn't fully developed among the population at

the time. There were some comrades who were working towards bill in such a framework, but much of the movement, particularly of the left, were focused on elections as a way forward. The logic was simple. A left leading government could introduce policies to a leeviy the situation and prevent the open repression of popular movements. What does this really achieve.

It risked the transfer and of the struggle from the streets, from the workplaces, from the hands of the people into the hands of a new set of politicians, shifting the focus from the masses to a few leaders operating within clearly capitalist institutions. The elections were not important. The fight was about winning seats in the government, and that needed to be understood. The fighter was about building a true

popular power. Kiss if I am totos out with all of them rejected not just individuals, but the entire political, social and economic power structures. Even though the Argentine people will not identify and as anarchists, they will apply on anarchist principles in many aspects of their struggles, just like the Appatistas and Chiappas who ruse up in nineteen twenty fourth Rally and cry yabasta or enough already. The Argentine uprising was a clear rejection of state power and capitalism.

Votes can't last forever, but they could plant the seat of a new society, one built from below. But the movement was torn between the two approaches of whether factory should be managed by workers under state ownership or they should be completely worker owned. Some argue the demanding expropriation why the state wasn't a real solution within a capitalist framework, because the state itself was responsible for the conditions they

found themselves in. But even though they argue the true because power came from the workers controlling their own production. On the flip side, cooperatives don't really address the deeper issues of capitalism. Cooperativism does an inherently challenge capitalist relations of production, just tinkers with the surface issues like monopolies, internal structures, and competition. Building a network of cooperatives can be valuable, but it's not going to create a subsystem

capable of top len capitalism. Anarchism, and specifically anarchist communist ideas propose something far more transformative. Abortion all forms of farwer exercised by minority, whether the bourgeoisie or the state, assuming control of not just factories and fields, but all of society. It's not a choice between cooperatives or state

managed workplaces. It's about creating conditions for all workers and all people to self organize, and such reforms such as reforms for workers to have control of their workplaces merely steps. It's what a much larger goal should be kept in in that struggle. These experiences in this history in Argentina shows us that anarchist ideas are not just lofty dreams.

foundation of a new society. And to the people of Argentina who now face the rule of a new right way menace employees, to stand up and say, once again, kisevan Toros out with all of them, all power to all the people.