#network sovereignty

[indigenousandnativewaysofbeing]

Synthesis Report

Technology, simply defined, is information with a goal and a way to be reproduced. Writing is technology. So are telephone polls, hammers, knives, and AI. Technology has often been cited as the driving force of the United States empire. And for Western ways of living, technology has been seen as a gift to foreign regions. For the purposes of this essay, I will connect concepts of racism that have led to what we consider today as objective technology– that is, tech that is unbiased and bears science-backed ideas of truth. And thus, we will discover how the intersection of tribal sovereignty, (un)naturalized algorithms, and colorblind ideology all help us understand how technology has historically been used as a tool to boost colonial motives. Let’s first look at tribal sovereignty, what it means, and how it works in our modern world.

Tribal sovereignty, as defined by Marisa Elena Duarte, is the right for Indigenous and Native tribes to self-govern. But because white leaders have a penchant for manifest destiny, the Indigenous peoples of what is now known as “America” are forced into difficult situations like losing land and access to the internet. To understand how to move forward, Duarte asks us in her book “Network Sovereignty” to look at Indigenous spiritual practices and appreciation of the land in contrast to how colonial technology is developed under racist guidelines. She lists these considerations for the digital generation: colonial technologies have historically been weaponized against Native and Indigenous peoples, digital technology can support Native youth, and awareness of digital technology’s ability to limit traditional Native notions of grace and peace.

On that note, the “Natives in Tech” conference, which was held in 2020, has provided that there are big movements created by Indigenous and Native tribes to cut out third-party vendors and big tech companies and is moving forward with creating a network of Native software engineers. These software engineers move within the parameters of the sacred land connection integral to Indigenous ways of living. These movements teach us that it is possible to create systems of technology that fully encapsulate non-white and non-western existences and that doing so actually makes the spread of information found in the complexities of globalization.

Ever since the birth of search engines and the internet at large, we've been told that algorithms tell us more about ourselves than they do about the people who make them. What our screens show us is a product of what we’ve searched previously and what we’ve clicked on the most. The reality is algorithms are not naturalized. Algorithms are, actually, highly simplified systems based on the coder’s bias. Safiya Umoja Noble, author of “Algorithms of Oppression,” contends they currently “[do] not provide appropriate social, historical, and contextual meaning to already overracialized and hypersexualized people who materially suffer along multiple axes” (36). A big hint for why this is such an issue comes from the lack of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color employed in Silicon Valley. In “Silicon Valley Pretends That Algorithmic Bias Is Accidental,” Amber Hamilton discusses the tech culture, which has a history of racist and sexist hiring discrimination.

What’s more, Hamilton continues, is that tech companies, like Google, have a habit of dissuading employees from holding political discussions in the workplace. Yet again, we see an example of how easy it is for white tech to reflect white interests. We return, again, to the overarching idea that white tech seeks white power. Even if these instances seem unintentional, they tell us a story. The colorblind ideology that ensues, as Ruha Benjamin says in “Race After Technology,” “are sold as morally superior because they purport to rise above human bias” (38). It is almost impossible to challenge tech as we are brought to believe it's an entity all of its own, totally void of its creator's morality. MIT's data scientists work hard to construct robots without gender, class, or race. While the robots indeed were “servants” and “workers,” MIT scientists referred to them as “friends and children, addressing them in “class-avoidant” terms (Benjamin 42). Programmers felt so uncomfortable inputting the varying histories of racism, transphobia, and misogyny that they just let them out altogether. Unfortunately, acting as if these things didn’t exist doesn’t make technology better. It only makes it worse. So how do tribal sovereignty, naturalized algorithms, and colorblind ideology all tie together?

Colonial tech is so focused on reaching the biggest audience it can that there really is no space for them to care about the repercussions of their product. And if they are legitimately concerned, it's generally in favor of discriminating against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Decolonizing tech looks like creating tech according to accurate histories and with values that empower people. It doesn’t look like plowing through sacred land. It doesn’t look like perpetuating racism or claiming racism doesn’t exist. Tech has the power to be something more. Tech has the power to create better lives not just for white people but for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

[geeknik]

What will you do if the Internet goes down?

The prospect of a widespread internet disruption is a genuine concern in our increasingly digital world. Our reliance on the internet for communication, commerce, and information access makes us vulnerable to the consequences of a prolonged outage. The centralization of our digital infrastructure, with a few tech giants controlling a significant portion of the cloud, exacerbates this vulnerability. A disruption to these services would have a ripple effect, impacting businesses, supply chains, and individuals alike.

However, crises often breed opportunities. Could an internet outage catalyze the rise of decentralized, community-driven networks? We've seen glimpses of this resilience in mesh networks used during protests and the proliferation of open-source tools promoting digital freedom. Could such initiatives not only survive but flourish in a landscape devoid of the traditional internet? Personal resilience starts with individual preparedness. Backing up data, utilizing offline knowledge repositories, and adopting secure communication protocols are not just good practices; they're essential for digital sovereignty. Preparing for an internet outage isn't about fear; it's about empowering ourselves with self-sufficiency.

Financial autonomy is equally crucial. Recognizing that banks are susceptible to disruption, exploring alternatives like cryptocurrency (in cold storage) and localized trade becomes prudent. In essence, while we prepare for potential digital turbulence, let's ground ourselves with analog foundations. Community networks, contingency plans, and an adaptable mindset are our anchors. Our goal shouldn't be merely to endure a digital blackout; it should be to cultivate a resilient lifestyle that thrives regardless of our online connectivity.

Counter-cultures are not just about opposing the status quo; they're about resilience and adaptability. Our responses to restrictions can foster the emergence of more robust, diverse systems that align with our inherent need for freedom and privacy. As we navigate the delicate balance between convenience and sovereignty, let's remember to look beyond our screens. Our neighbors, local communities, and the independence of thought are pillars that cannot be gated or switched off.

[ivygorgon]

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Out with Incest Laws: Reconsider Blood Quantum Laws in Native Reparations

An open letter to State Governors & Legislatures

1 so far! Help us get to 5 signers!

I am writing to express profound concerns about the continued reliance on Blood Quantum Laws, or Indian Blood Laws, in Native Reparations Programs. These laws, established by federal and state governments as far back as 1705, define Native American status based on fractions of Native American ancestry, perpetuating harmful consequences for tribal communities and some, alarmingly, terminating before just 5 generations.

The use of Blood Quantum Laws has led to detrimental effects on Native American families and communities. It has incentivized harmful family planning practices, compelling individuals to marry within close kin networks to maintain "pure bloodlines." This practice not only violates individual autonomy but also jeopardizes genetic diversity and the long-term viability of tribal populations.

Of utmost concern is the declining population within many tribal communities, with some nearing critical thresholds of fewer than 1000 individuals. This situation is further exacerbated by the principles of population biology, particularly the 50/500 rule, which underscores the need for a minimum population of 500 individuals to reduce genetic drift and ensure sustained viability. It is troubling to note that these laws inadvertently encourage cousin marriages, posing additional risks to community health and resilience.

Moreover, Blood Quantum Laws impose an arbitrary expiration date on government-funded reparations and jeopardize the cultural continuity of these communities. By tethering Native American status to ancestry thresholds, these laws undermine the diversity and autonomy of tribal enrollment criteria.

I urge policymakers to urgently reconsider the use of Blood Quantum Laws in Native Reparations Programs and advocate for a more inclusive and sustainable approach to reparations. This approach should prioritize the cultural and social integrity of Native American communities, safeguarding their continued existence and resilience for future generations.

Our villages were razed by colonizers, our ancestors were genocide survivors, and, as ever, our children bear the enduring impacts of historical injustices.

Thank you for considering these critical issues and taking decisive action to address them.

Source:

📱 Text SIGN PBDXGL to 50409

🤯 Liked it? Text FOLLOW IVYPETITIONS to 50409

[medicaldoctordana]

wanted a little writing practice on something short and sweet and ended up with a commentary on post-9/11 politics in the x-files universe why am I like this

[freehawaii]

FREE HAWAI`I TV THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK   "WILL THIS DESTROY FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IN HAWAI`I?"

Think The Poisoning Of Drinking Water At Red Hill Is Bad? You Ainʻt Seen Anything Yet. What If Those Same Poisons Contaminated Hawai`iʻs Agricultural Lands?

Watch This To See Where Itʻs Already Happening & Poisoning Food.

[itsfarmerphil]

W17D4: Do you realize how important people are? Don't isolate!

Here we go into another day. Do you realize the importance of investing in others? You realize how important people are right? Beyond faith, hope, and love which will last forever the only other thing that will remain are the souls of people. Don’t isolate and leave yourself out of the opportunity to speak truth, life, and love into the lives of others. Be the light, shining for the glory of God…

[zvaigzdelasas]

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Friday said he would set up a dialogue to discuss the removal of the U.S. military presence in his country after an American strike killed an Iraqi militia leader in Baghdad on Thursday. In an address, al-Sudani said the agreement under which American troops are based in Iraq states the equal sovereignty of both countries, which was violated by the U.S. strike.

“We have repeatedly emphasized that in the event of a violation or transgression by any Iraqi party, or if Iraqi law is violated, the Iraqi government is the only party that has the right to follow up on the merits of these violations,” al-Sudani said in remarks shared by his office. “We affirm our firm and principled position in ending the existence of the international coalition after the justifications for its existence have ended,” he added. The prime minister said he was in the process of setting up a bilateral dialogue with the U.S. to discuss the removal of some 2,500 American troops in his country.

“It is a commitment that the government will not back down from, and will not neglect anything that would complete national sovereignty over the land, sky, and waters of Iraq,” he said.[...]

The U.S. strike on Thursday killed Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, the leader of an Iranian-backed militia group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (HHN), after landing near a security headquarters in Baghdad. HHN is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a network of [primarily Shi'ite] militias in Iraq.[...]

Al-Sudani, [...] Friday condemned the U.S. for the strike and said the Popular Mobilization Forces are “an official presence affiliated with the state.”

5 Jan 24

[bfpnola]

Updated version! ID written by @swosheep (it won't let me tag you oof)

ID 1: All images are of an Instagram post by letstalkpalestine2. The first one is titled "Lets Talk. What is Hamas? Answering the basic questions".

ID 2: the second image is titled "What Are Its Origins?". the body text reads: "Hamas is a Palestinian political party and armed resistance movement based in the besieged Gaza Strip. It emerged in 1987, at the start of the First Intifada, as a reaction to intensifying israeli violence and as a religious alternative to the secular Palestinian parties that dominated the scene at the time. Hamas was originally a branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood but later cut ties with it and became an independent group. In 1992, Hamas formed a military wing called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades to resist the israeli occupation. The Brigades carried out several significant operations against Israel during the Second Intifada, which established Hamas as a leading force in the Palestinian resistance."

ID 3: the third image is titled "Who Are Its Leaders?". The body text reads: "Hamas is composed of a political wing and a military wing. They each perform different functions but operate under the same leadership structure." There is a grid with four sections. The first section is titled "Political Bureau", and reads: "- Headed by Ismail Haniyeh from exile - Sets general policy". The second section is titled: "Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades" and reads: "- Commanded by Marwan Issa and Mohammed Deif - Conducts military operations". The third section is titled: "Shura Council" and reads: "- Led by Saleh al-Arouri in the West Bank and Yahya Sinwar in Gaza - Handles affairs in Gaza, the West Bank, diaspora, and israeli prisons". The fourth section is titled: "Gaza Government" and reads: "- Headed by Prime Minister Issam al-Da'alis - Enacts policies and provides social services to people in Gaza".

ID 4: The fourth image is titled: "What Does Hamas Want?" The body text reads: "Its 2017 charter states that its current political program is to: - Implement the right of return for all Palestinian refugees; - Establish a temporary Palestinian state along the 1967 borders (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip) and arrange a long-term truce with israel. Hamas considers the establishment of a Palestinian state on the '67 borders as a temporary step. It refuses to recognize israel's legitimacy and advocates for the 'full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.' Hamas's 2017 charter states that its struggle is against the israeli state and the Zionist movement due to their occupation of Palestine, not Jewish people, and criticizes israel for associating its actions with Jewish values. Hamas's stated goals for its current operation are to - Free the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by israel, - End the Gaza blockade, - End the status quo where Israel continues its occupation without cost".

ID 5: the fifth image is titled: "Does Hamas Control Gaza?". The body text reads: "Not really. Hamas administers local affairs, while israel controls much of Gaza from the outside through its blockade. israel forcibly controls: - Airspace, - Sea access, - Movement of all goods and people in and out, - Telecoms networks, - Electromagnetic sphere, - Tax distribution, - Population registry, - Water, - Electricity and fuel. Hamas began governing Gaza in 2007, and has since managed: - Healthcare, - Education, - Infrastructure, - Social welfare, - Law enforcement, - Public employment. Hamas is not a sovereign government. israel's blockade prevents Palestinians from independently exercising sovereignty over Gaza's population, development, and economy."

ID 6: The sixth image is titled "Does Hamas Represent Palestine?" The body text reads: "Hamas is one of many Palestinian political parties. On the one hand, Hamas was democratically elected by voters in 2006, garnering a plurality of West Bank and Gaza votes (44%) for its social services and resistance efforts. Today. Fatah and Hamas, the two largest parties, are roughly tied, each enjoying the support of a third of the public. On the other hand, many Palestinians strongly criticize Hamas's political wing due to its corruption and repressive policies, and the last elections were in 2006. 43% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza believe that no party represents Palestine. The other polled Palestinians were split between parties, with no clear winner. We have no statistics for Palestinians in the heartland ("israel") or diaspora. However, Hamas is currently the only major group that pursues armed resistance, which is widely supported. So while most Palestinians might not support Hamas as a party, the overwhelming majority support acts of resistance in general, whether by Hamas or others."

ID 7: the seventh image is titled "Is Hamas a Proxy of Iran?". The body text reads: "No. Hamas is an independent group with a political program and military strategy distinct from Iran. Hamas and Iran are strategic allies, meaning that while Iran provides Hamas with significant financial, military, and political support, Hamas does not act or operate on behalf of Iran. It makes decisions based on its own interests, and independently manages relations with countries like Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt. For example: In 2012, Hamas cut ties with Syria because it opposed the Assad regime's violent crackdown on protesters. It took this decision despite angering Iran, a close ally of Assad. Regarding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, even israeli officials admit there is no evidence that Iran was in any way involved. Iran was actually surprised by it. Hamas independently coordinated and launched the operation to achieve its own goals."

ID 8: The eighth image is titled "Does Hamas Negotiate with Israel?". The body text reads: "Hamas views armed struggle as only one of several tools to end apartheid & occupation, such as diplomacy. In 2006, in an op-ed for The Guardian, Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh revealed that israel refused Hamas's proposal for a truce. In 2008, former Hamas chief Khaled Meshal offered a 10-year truce in exchange for a sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital." israel rejected the proposal. In 2016, Hamas offered a long-term truce in exchange for simply ending the Gaza Blockade. israel rejected it. In 2018, Haniyeh revived this offer by sending a handwritten letter in Hebrew to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. But israel rejected it again. israel repeatedly rejected Hamas's diplomatic initiatives because israel saw no reason to end the oppressive status quo, which it believed gave it power & privileges over Palestinians with minimal downsides. israel's benefits outweighed the costs. Hamas is trying to change that."

ID 9: the ninth image is titled "Is Hamas Risking Palestinian Lives?". The body text reads: "Westerners often accuse Hamas of risking Palestinian lives by fighting apartheid and thus inviting a deadly israeli crackdown. But the reality is that israel's blockade is slowly killing everyone in Gaza. [quote] 'We have paid a high cost in lives in this conflict. But if that's the price for long-term changes - breaking the siege and obtaining freedom - it's one many of us feel we have no choice but to swallow.' [unquote] -Haytham Besalso, civil engineer from Gaza, 2014. [quote] 'We are bleeding here, anyway [..] The Gaza Blockade crushes any opportunity for peace.' [unquote] -Ismail, anonymous journalist from Gaza, 2021. The argument that Hamas is responsible for israel's killing of Palestinians is malicious. It blames the victims for resisting apartheid and absolves the oppressors of responsibility, treating the mass killing of children as a 'normal' israeli response."

ID 10: the tenth image says: "You don't need to support Hamas as a political party to support Palestine. Most Palestinians don't support it as a party. But Hamas is an effective political player in the struggle against apartheid, oppression, and colonization. It has achieved remarkable success in preventing israeli violence in Jerusalem and freeing Palestinian hostages abducted by israel. Hamas has institutions, ministries, student movements, and women's movements, and employs thousands of doctors, teachers, judges, and aid workers. It is part of the fabric of Palestinian society. So while you don't need to support Hamas to support Palestine, you cannot oppose oppression without supporting the resistance to it. You cannot support freedom while supporting israeli efforts to wipe out those who fight for that freedom, including Hamas, to leave Palestinians defenc Pales". End ID.

the original caption states that @/LetsTalkPalestine2 does not endorse any specific party, including Hamas, and that the last word on the last slide should be *defenseless.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The main effort in a process of planetary degrowth must be made by the countries of the industrialized North (North America, Europe, and Japan) responsible for the historical accumulation of carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution. They are also the areas of the world where the level of consumption, particularly among the privileged classes, is clearly unsustainable and wasteful. The “underdeveloped” countries of the Global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America) where basic needs are very far from being satisfied will need a process of “development,” including building railroads, water and sewage systems, public transport, and other infrastructures. But there is no reason why this cannot be accomplished through a productive system that is environmentally friendly and based on renewable energies. These countries will need to grow great amounts of food to nourish their hungry populations, but this can be much better achieved—as the peasant movements organized worldwide in the Vía Campesina network have been arguing for years—by a peasant biological agriculture based on family units, cooperatives, or collectivist farms. This would replace the destructive and antisocial methods of industrialized agribusiness, based on the intensive use of pesticides, chemicals, and genetically modified organisms. Presently, the capitalist economy of countries in the Global South is rooted in the production of goods for their privileged classes—cars, airplanes, and luxury goods—and commodities exported to the world market: soya beans, meat, and oil. A process of ecological transition in the South, as argued by ecosocialists, would reduce or suppress this kind of production, and aim instead at food sovereignty and the development of basic services such as health care and education, which need, above all, human labor, rather than more commodities.

Michael Löwy, Nine Theses on Ecosocialist Degrowth

[ausetkmt]

After 14 years of tireless work and community support, Detroit is celebrating a major victory! The city’s first Black-led and community-owned grocery store, the Detroit People’s Food Co-op (DPFC), is opening its doors on May 1st, 2024. This marks a historic moment in Detroit’s fight for food justice and economic empowerment.

“This is the result of a diverse community coming together to create a solution for everyone in Detroit,” said Lanay Gilbert-Williams, president of the DPFC board. “There’s no other business in the city with over 2,500 owners from across the city and state.”

More Than Just a Grocery Store

The DPFC is more than just a place to buy groceries. It’s a beacon of hope and a symbol of Detroit’s resilience. Built on cooperative principles, the store offers affordable, locally sourced, and culturally relevant food options to residents. It also aims to stimulate economic growth within the North End neighborhood and beyond.

The DPFC is located inside the Detroit Food Commons, which will officially open its doors on May 18th. This new center is a testament to the collective power of community and taking control of the food system. Anyone 21 or older living in Michigan can become a member-owner, although membership isn’t required to shop.

Fresh, Local, and Inclusive

Situated in Detroit’s North End, the DPFC offers a wide selection of products, including fresh produce sourced directly from local farmers whenever possible.

“We’re excited to welcome our community into a welcoming and inclusive environment centered on fresh, locally grown produce from Detroit’s own farmers,” said Akil Talley, DPFC’s general manager. “We’re confident we have the best prepared foods department in Michigan, and we can’t wait to open our doors!”

A Hub for Education and Empowerment

The second floor of the Detroit Food Commons, managed by the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network, will serve as a center for educational workshops, community events, and health and wellness initiatives. It will also feature four commercial kitchens and a rentable hall.

The DPFC is part of a larger movement for Black food sovereignty and economic empowerment in Detroit. They partner with local businesses, urban farms, and community organizations to build a more resilient and sustainable food system that benefits everyone in the city.

Join the Celebration!

“On opening day, I want everyone in Detroit to walk through our doors and feel like this is their store,” said Talley.

The DPFC opens for business on May 1st, 2024, at 11:00 AM. Regular hours are 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM daily.

The grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting for the Detroit Food Commons will be held on Saturday, May 18th, 2024, starting at 11:00 AM. The entire community is invited to celebrate this new era for Black food sovereignty in Detroit

[indigenousandnativewaysofbeing]

Image: Andrew Melrose -- Westward the Star of Empire Takes Its Way-- Near Council Bluffs Iowa, 1867

When recounting the 2009 Bresnan Communications, Inc.'s effort to secure federal funds for effective broadband connectivity across Montana’s country and tribal lands, she reveals that the 70 million dollar bid needed to cover the vast rural areas of Montana was denied (118). Such a setback, Duarte writes, is due to disunity on the part of stakeholders, resulting in “resounding effects around future access” (118). “It can take years to rebuild trust among potential partners. Tribes partnering with regional infrastructure teams must be clear about sovereign rights to taxation of infrastructure and services, obtaining rights-of-way, tribal environmental standards, conduct of non-tribal personnel, expectations around investment in workforce training, and other practices for solidifying sound business practices” (Duarte 118). All of this becomes exceptionally clear when one recounts the history of telecommunications on the stolen land, which is now globally recognized as “America.” In chapter 6, Duarte analyzes the famous John Gast painting titled “American Progress,” noting that the otherworldly and angelic imagery of a giant woman caped in white carrying a book in one hand and stretching “the slender wires of the telegraph,” in the other signifies Manifest Destiny as settlers leisurely enjoy the fruits of their labor (111). “Depicted in the lower left corner, Indians flee westward under a dark cloud, trailed by the telegraph and railroad” (Duarte 112). Insofar as assumptions about Native and Indigenous ways of thinking and being and analysis involving zero-sum agonism concerning the techno-scientific world, Duarte says it best in chapter 7 “On the one hand, it is important to accommodate the skills and aptitudes of the digital generation of Native youth. On the other hand, it is likewise important to keep teaching future generations about the limitations of digital devices and methods and remind them of the grace and peace that can be achieved through traditional non-digital practices” (127).

Duarte ME. Network Sovereignty : Building the Internet Across Indian Country. University of Washington; 2017.

[brightlotusmoon]

X missed a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to name a legal representative in Brazil, triggering the suspension. It marks an escalation in the monthslong feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday at midnight local time, major operators began doing so.

De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn’t had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday.

The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it.

In a later ruling, he backtracked on his initial decision to establish a 5-day deadline for internet service providers themselves — and not just the telecommunications regulator — to block access to X, as well as his directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.

The dispute also led to the freezing this week of the bank accounts in Brazil of Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink.

[cognitivejustice]

Pictured is Dragonfly Farm on the Navajo Nation, where IndigeHub is working with Crescive Soil to provide soil health and slide training to create compost for organic input. Photograph: Courtesy Bleu Adams

Given adequate funding, she hopes IndigeHub can build a network of food hubs across the Navajo Nation.

The hubs seek to produce, store and distribute food to the one-quarter of Native Americans experiencing food insecurity

In addition to the Navajo Nation, grassroots food hubs are also emerging in places like Arizona. The Star School, serving primarily Native American students near Flagstaff, is developing a food hub with a local food store and growing produce in a greenhouse and garden. Further to the south-west, the Nalwoodi Denzhone Community nonprofit operates a food pantry, a local food store, a community kitchen, and a regenerative farm and mobile chicken tractor on the San Carlos Apache Reservation.

“If we can build these hubs, we can fill those gaps in the food system,” said Adams.

Hill agreed, saying the food hub model is a step toward food security and food sovereignty long denied to Hopi people. “If we don’t have access to and control over the food system, our seeds, and food production,” she said, “we become extremely vulnerable”.

[canidaery]

. . . Foucault’s analysis of power might just as easily be understood as offering an analysis of freedom, insofar as entire social worlds exist as subjugating fields that are reliant upon our freedom to acquiesce to them. This, as Andrew Johnson puts it, is to foreground the question of how and why “society colludes, effectively policing itself.” Why, if power can only be exercised over free subjects, do we freely allow ourselves to be judged according to norms, to have our actions channelled toward certain behaviors?

This problem, of “why people freely bind themselves to power,” looks analogous to the thorny problem of voluntary slavery that so vexed modern philosophical and theological articulations of freedom. In suggesting that “the relationship between power and freedom’s refusal to submit cannot, therefore, be separated,” Foucault argues that the “problem of power is not that of voluntary servitude (how could we seek to be slaves?).” This seemingly easy dismissal of the problem belies the indeterminacy of being always already thrown into an agonistic interaction between “the recalcitrance of the will and the intransigence of freedom.” This is to say, our capacity for freedom is always already a renunciation of freedom insofar as we freely bind ourselves to power. But in so binding ourselves we are never truly enslaved since power is itself productive of freedoms since power never fully determines. In part due to this, voluntary servitude animates Foucault’s account even in its dismissal, since power effectively forms the complex web through which freedoms are articulated.

For example, in the context of “mechanisms of power” that subjugate individuals, Foucault states that critique is the “art of voluntary inservitude.” In the context of a heterodox account of the Kantian Enlightenment, Foucault argues that the order of things is constituted by man, rather than God or a sovereign state; second, and relatedly, that there is a limit to knowledge that is imposed by us. Taken together, Foucault demonstrates that humanity comes into being through this analytic of finitude. With man taking the place of God, Foucault follows Kant’s position against the rationalist tradition that articulates a relationship between man and the laws of the world, knowledge of which is limited by our position within “the great table of beings,” since those limits are also understood to be “decreed or imposed by man.” However, as far as Foucault is concerned, whilst Kant’s project of finitude is the condition of possibility for man taking the place of God, that project requires completion such that all forms of sovereignty are abandoned, including the epistemic and normative sovereignty at work in Kant’s claims to universal validity. In Society Must Be Defended, he further describes the move towards normalization against “a juridical rule derived from sovereignty but a discourse about a natural rule, or in other words a norm.” Law as the expression of sovereign power is thus submerged and internalized within modernity’s “code of normalization.”

It is in this context that critique becomes the art of voluntary inservitude precisely because the possibility of challenging mechanisms of power cannot call upon an external sovereign. Kant has already shown us that critique must be self-justifying. Here, Foucault tells us that we cannot appeal to that which lies outside of us because we are immersed in networks of power that provide the conditions of our subjectivation and in turn the conditions of critique—so in effect, there must be nothing outside to which we can appeal. The question of freedom that is exercised through its renunciation is found in the suturing of the domain of power:

[The] carceral network does not cast the unassimilable into a confused hell; there is no outside . . . . In this panoptic society of which incarceration is the omnipresent armature, the delinquent is not outside the law; he is, from the very outset, in the law, at the very heart of the law.

The subject is embedded within this interplay of critique and subjugation. But as such, the racial slave “marks-off” the domain of the social even where the slave cannot be exteriorized either spatially or temporally. For example, in The Subject and Power, Foucault states that

Where the determining factors are exhaustive, there is no relationship of power: slavery is not a power relationship when a man is in chains, only when he has some possible mobility, even a chance of escape.

Foucault expands on this point in an interview “The Ethics of the Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom”: 

power relations are possible only insofar as the subjects are free. If one of them were completely at the other’s disposal and became his thing, an object on which he could wreak boundless and limitless violence, there wouldn’t be any relations of power. Even . . . when it can truly be claimed that one side has “total power” over the other, a power can be exercised over the other only insofar as the other still has the option of killing himself, of leaping out the window, or of killing the other person . . . if there were no possibility of resistance (of violent resistance, flight, deception, strategies capable of reversing the situation), there would be no power relations at all.

Here slavery is articulated as the nexus of total incapacity and a totalized power that necessarily exists outside of the domain of power itself. Slavery is here moved outside both death and even suicide (which is to say that the slave’s suicide cannot recuperate the biopolitical). This articulation of slavery as total incapacity appears close, then, to Saidiya Hartman’s articulation of slavery in terms of the “fungibility of the commodity [that] makes the captive body an abstract and empty vessel.” It is in defining slavery as complete domination that must have been surpassed for entry into the domain of power that both servitude and inservitude cannot collapse into slavery. Since “slavery is not a power relationship,” for Foucault, we are subjugated insofar as we are not slaves. Servitude cannot also be slavery since our insertion into civil society—even where we are subjugated—requires us to always possibly operate against mechanisms of power in its critique. So, racial slavery is the conduit through which Foucault’s carceral world becomes possible through its necessary voiding. In order to be a subject, one cannot be or have possibly been, a slave. 

Thus racial slavery becomes the unthinkable conceptual armature that Foucault depends upon for the coherence of freedom across the board, marking out both the domain of freedom and subjectivity through the slave’s fungibility. Civil society—even where this is articulated through complex networks of policing and normalization—relies on the spectral presence of racial slavery as impossibility for the subject of power. In the process of emptying-out the world of slavery, Foucault therefore not only buries the mass of Atlantic systems of contracts, trade, and people, but draws upon that buried slavery to enact the limits of the possible domain of the human world. It is the marked evasion of racial slavery that comes to be constitutive insofar as racial slaves necessarily exceed the world they are called upon to demarcate.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users. "Brazil blocks Musk’s X after company refuses to name local representative amid feud with judge"

"The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it."

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote.

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

The looming shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil.

Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 due to the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online.

X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the "Twitter revolution," but it has since been restored.

A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.

By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA, BARBARA ORTUTAY and DAVID BILLERAugust 30, 2024

SAO PAULO — (AP) — Brazil started blocking Elon Musk's social media platform X early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country.

The move escalates a monthslong feud between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension on Friday.

To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday after midnight local time, major operators had begun doing so.

De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn’t had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday.

The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it.

In a later ruling, he backtracked on his initial decision to establish a 5-day deadline for internet service providers themselves — and not just the telecommunications regulator — to block access to X, as well as his directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.

“This is a sad day for X users around the world, especially those in Brazil, who are being denied access to our platform. I wish it did not have to come to this – it breaks my heart,” X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said Friday night, adding that Brazil is failing to uphold its constitution’s pledge to forbid censorship.

X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote.

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. X’s lawyers in April sent a document to the Supreme Court in April, saying that since 2019 it had suspended or blocked 226 users.

In his decision Friday, de Moraes' cited Musk's statements as evidence that X's conduct “clearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control.”

In April, de Moraes included Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news and opened a separate investigation into the executive for alleged obstruction.

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist," has repeatedly claimed the justice’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, characterizing him as a dictator and tyrant.

De Moraes’ defenders have said his actions aimed at X have been lawful, supported by most of the court’s full bench and have served to protect democracy at a time it is imperiled. He wrote Friday that his ruling is based on Brazilian law requiring internet services companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified when there are relevant court decisions and take requisite action — specifying the takedown of illicit content posted by users, and an anticipated churn of misinformation during October municipal elections.

The looming shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil.

Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 due to the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online.

X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the "Twitter revolution," but it has since been restored.

A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.

“This is an unusual measure, but its main objective is to ensure that the court order to suspend the platform's operation is, in fact, effective," Filipe Medon, a specialist in digital law and professor at the law school of Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro, told The Associated Press.

Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her handle MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X where she intends to go, posting a screenshot of rival social network BlueSky.

On Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service provider, said on X that de Moraes this week froze its finances, preventing it from doing any transactions in the country where it has more than 250,000 customers.

“This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X. It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil. We intend to address the matter legally,” Starlink said in its statement. The law firm representing Starlink told the AP that the company appealed, but wouldn’t make further comment.

Musk replied to people sharing the reports of the freeze, adding insults directed at de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge,” he wrote.

Musk later posted on X that SpaceX, which runs Starlink, will provide free internet service in Brazil “until the matter is resolved” since “we cannot receive payment, but don’t want to cut anyone off.”

In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the freezing of Starlink’s assets, as X didn't have enough money in its accounts to cover mounting fines, and reasoning that the two companies are part of the same economic group.

While ordering X’s suspension followed warnings and fines and so was appropriate, taking action against Starlink seems “highly questionable,” said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Technology and Society Center.

“Yes, of course, they have the same owner, Elon Musk, but it is discretionary to consider Starlink as part of the same economic group as Twitter (X). They have no connection, they have no integration,” Belli said.

___

Ortutay reported from San Francisco and Biller from Rio. AP writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Sao Paulo.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others. When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him. We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that. In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency. Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders. To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech. ------------------- Em breve, esperamos que o Ministro Alexandre de Moraes ordene o bloqueio do X no Brasil – simplesmente porque não cumprimos suas ordens ilegais para censurar seus opositores políticos. Dentre esses opositores estão um Senador devidamente eleito e uma jovem de 16 anos, entre outros. Quando tentamos nos defender no tribunal, o Ministro ameaçou prender nossa representante legal no Brasil. Mesmo após sua renúncia, ele congelou todas as suas contas bancárias. Nossas contestações contra suas ações manifestamente ilegais foram rejeitadas ou ignoradas. Os colegas do Ministro Alexandre de Moraes no Supremo Tribunal Federal estão ou impossibilitados de ou não querem enfrentá-lo. Não estamos absolutamente insistindo que outros países tenham as mesmas leis de liberdade de expressão dos Estados Unidos. A questão fundamental em jogo aqui é que o Ministro Alexandre de Moraes exige que violemos as próprias leis do Brasil. Simplesmente não faremos isso. Nos próximos dias, publicaremos todas as exigências ilegais do Ministro e todos os documentos judiciais relacionados, para fins de transparência. Ao contrário de outras plataformas de mídia social e tecnologia, não cumpriremos ordens ilegais em segredo. Aos nossos usuários no Brasil e ao redor do mundo, o X continua comprometido em proteger sua liberdade de expressão.