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Showing posts from February, 2019

Hands Off Venezuela: The Threat of Imperial War in the Américas

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Supporters of Maduro defy interventionist designs on Venezuela represented by interim opposition leader Juan Guaidó. By Alci Rengifo One of the great anarchist anthems from the period of the Spanish Civil War begins with the proclamation, “Black storms agitate the winds, dark clouds won’t allow us to see.” Dark clouds are indeed gathering in the southern hemisphere, over the shattered dreams of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Having already broken families in the southern border, imprisoning children in detention camps, the Trump White House now pretends to spearhead a campaign of liberation aimed at Caracas. The question the current coup attempt and possible march to war poses for progressives and radicals—in particular those of us here in L.A.’s Latinx community—is how to approach the issue of Venezuela soberly, while strongly opposing imperialist designs on our southern neighbors. First it must be made clear that any U.S. intervention in Venezuela, already ongoing, wh

My Love Letter to Cis Gender Movement Men

By Xochi Flores-Castro I was never afforded the luxury of living life as a bystander. I believe, at birth, or perhaps before birth, I was granted the responsibility to search for and tell the truth, the pretty truth, the ugly truth, the honest and lifesaving truth and sometimes the brutal and lethal truth. All of them. Ask me and I will tell you. Don’t ask me, and I still might tell you. Stand too close and my truth can find its way into you. I am full of truths that my tongue has spewed, my eyes have rolled, my fists have pounded and my whole body, shouldered. It is the longevity of this one truth that has led me here, on this V-Day. It is one that I have wrestled with in my own home, with my parents, my brothers by birth, my partners, and mis hermanos en la lucha. In my almost five decades of life, all of which, lived and operated in social justice circles, I have seen harm done to oh so many women and queer folks all in the name  of the movement or of progressive dogma. Here’s t