#vicky osterweil

[anarchistin]

White people deploy the idea of looting in a way that implies people of color are greedy and lazy, but it is just the opposite: looting is a hard-won and dangerous act with potentially terrible consequences, and looters are only stealing from the rich owners’ profit margins.

Those owners, meanwhile, especially if they own a chain like QuikTrip, steal forty hours every week from thousands of employees who in return get the privilege of not dying for another seven days.

— Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting

[sharpened--edges]

The tension between liberal declarations of victory over racism and the real lived experience of Black people in America exploded into full contradiction with the [1965] Watts Uprising in LA. […] What followed was six days of “insurrection against all authority,” as the local CBS radio station reported it. “If it had gone much further,” the news report said, “it would have become civil war.” More than 950 buildings were damaged, and 260 were totally destroyed. Looting and property destruction amounted to over $40 million in damages — nearly $330 million today adjusted for inflation. But the destruction was hardly wanton or senseless. Almost no homes, schools, libraries, churches, or public buildings were even partially damaged. The use of arson was strategic and controlled. The majority of Black-owned businesses were not looted, nor were those businesses that were seen as dealing fairly with the community. Signs went up saying “Black-owned” or “soul brother” and the like, which would (usually) protect a shop from rioters. On the other hand, businesses that had traditionally exploited people, in particular pawnshops, check-cashing stores, and department stores that operated aggressively on credit, went up in flames. Credit records were usually destroyed before anything else took place. Brave rioters even made attacks on police stations; one was set alight. The tactics were simple but effective, as Gerald Horne records in his important history of the Watts Uprising, Fire This Time. One common tactic saw a group of rioters, usually young men, drive up to a business, hop out, break out the windows, then drive away. Then cars of looters, a much more mixed group, split between men and women, young and old, would arrive and work to empty the store. The store would only be set alight once credit records had been destroyed and goods had been fully looted. Rioters usually remained nearby to make sure the building burned, attacking firemen with bricks and bottles if they tried to put out the flames before the fire had fully consumed the hated business. Tactics reflected effective communication and mobility among the rebels. Rioters transmitted information over the radio waves, used payphones to spread intel, and listened in to police broadcasts to see where cops would be deployed. False reports were called in to send police scrambling, at which point areas they’d just “pacified” could be re-taken. In areas they didn’t entirely control, rioters focused on hit-and-run strikes, then dispersing quickly to reappear elsewhere. All of these tactics would be adopted and practiced, with local modifications, in other riots throughout the period. The media described these as guerilla tactics, and police and reactionaries compared the situation in Watts to fighting the Viet Cong or the Mau Mau of Kenya. Rioters often appreciated the comparison: many, encouraged by the thought of Malcolm X, Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), Robert F. Williams, and local militants, understood their actions as guerilla warfare, too. Other rioters tied their actions to anticolonial struggle via resistance to imperialist war. Many men of draft age interviewed afterward said something very similar to what one rioter told SNCC newspaper The Movement: “I’d rather die here than in Vietnam.”

Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action (Bold Type, 2020), pp. 196–8.

[nando161mando]

If you're into anarchist podcasts, but haven't checked out the Child and Its Enemies from the Channel Zero Network, do yourself a favour and give the latest episode a listen.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

This is a quite interesting and thoughtful piece that everyone on the left should read.

By Vicky Osterweil

"A divide has quickly emerged between them and people who have not been sucked up in the emotion, activists and radicals who are incredulous at the enthusiasm, trying desperately to remind these Walz-pilled posters that Democrats are currently behind the genocide in Gaza, that Kamala is in fact already in power. The aforementioned enthusiastic supporters are responding with some variation of 'yeah, we know, but stop killing our vibe.'

"The Cassandras, meanwhile, are speaking with hard-won-knowledge and wisdom from decades in the fight, and are trying to stop people from rushing into the same mistake made during Obama's campaign, or indeed Bernie Sanders' (or Corbyn's, or Syriza's, or Podemos' etc. etc.) They're trying to protect these erstwhile friends from throwing themselves behind a campaign that can only ever betray them. But because they're not acknowledging the power of the affect shift, perhaps because they genuinely don't share it, they are left sounding to the memers like they're arguing against feeling good itself."

[transfemmbeatrice]

A divide has quickly emerged between them and people who have not been sucked up in the emotion, activists and radicals who are incredulous at the enthusiasm, trying desperately to remind these Walz-pilled posters that Democrats are currently behind the genocide in Gaza, that Kamala is in fact already in power. Comrades from Minnesota have pointed out that Walz, who was a national guardsman himself, was the one who sent in the National Guard to put down the George Floyd Uprising in Minneapolis, and that Walz, despite getting to the governor's mansion on a campaign focused on climate and ecological justice, crushed an indigenous led water-protector movement to push forward the Line 3 Fracking Pipeline. The aforementioned enthusiastic supporters are responding with some variation of "yeah, we know, but stop killing our vibe".

These two groups are talking past one another. The memers are responding to a structure of feeling, an experience of hope and joy, an affect, one that I sometimes share. On multiple occasions I have been moved by seeing the nominees actually stand up to these creeps and call them what they are, by witty and dismissive press releases or in front of cheering crowds. It's a powerful image, it feels good, at least in the moments where the crowd isn't chanting "USA! USA! USA!" And many of the memes have been really fucking funny.

The Cassandras, meanwhile, are speaking with hard-won-knowledge and wisdom from decades in the fight, and are trying to stop people from rushing into the same mistake made during Obama's campaign, or indeed Bernie Sanders' (or Corbyn's, or Syriza's, or Podemos' etc. etc.) They're trying to protect these erstwhile friends from throwing themselves behind a campaign that can only ever betray them. But because they're not acknowledging the power of the affect shift, perhaps because they genuinely don't share it, they are left sounding to the memers like they're arguing against feeling good itself.

…

But all of that good feeling, that sense of victory, of hope and possibility, do not come from or belong to Harris and Walz. While it is a relief that the Democrats finally brought a knife to the knife fight (instead of their traditional book of etiquette), they could and should have already done this a dozen times before.

Vicky Osterweil

[an-evening-botanist]

y’all… this podcast is so good.. please check it out!!

[kawaiimunism]

the second half of Uri Berliner's takedown of NPR contains some of the most loser shit I've read recently (as expected from someone whose problem with NPR is that it's too progressive lol)

gee, if only there was some way to reference existing research on systemic racism in the so-called u.s.

you're right, uri, grassroots employees shouldn't have a say in editorial standards. if you want diversity of viewpoint, editorial standards should be the sole purview of the editorial board. can't believe SAG-AFTRA would advocate for the interests of workers' groups like that

(/s lol)

this dude trying to play dumb about Don't Say Gay "oh but the law doesn't even have 'gay' anywhere in its text you're misrepresenting it!" as though he doesn't know full-well why everyone called it that (hint: the NPR articles you're mad about explain the nickname)

and speaking for myself, the Latine folks I know are actually pretty divided on "Latinx"—some like it, some hate it, others don't care. and didn't you just say NPR has an internal Latinx advocacy group? do you know their position on the topic?? do you know Latine NPR employees who disagree with Mi Gente that you could discuss this with before going straight to the execs? why do you feel comfortable being the arbiter of this issue? what the hell man

Okay, so this one is variously disgusting:

Dude tips his hand right away by calling it the "Israel-Hamas war."

"jumped from the faculty lounge to newsrooms" lmfao universities have been wildly hostile to Palestinian liberation advocates how are you this out of touch?

When I do a site-search of npr.org for "hamas", the first three articles are all about the October 7 attack. NPR's reporting on rising antisemitism has been kind of lopsided in focusing on accusations of antisemitism while keeping fairly quiet about actual incidents/attitudes thereof, but I suspect accurate reporting on the topic (that is, existing antisemites attempting entryism into Palestinian solidarity movements) wouldn't please this guy.

NPR has tried to be neutral about the Gaza genocide in a way that I think is revolting, but Uri and I obviously disagree about why that's revolting.

The bird names piece is an article about the lack of diversity in bird-watching as a hobby. The bulk of the article talks about how the bird-naming convention of "[discoverer's name] [type of bird]" has led to a lot of birds that are named after horrible racists, and the ensuing conversation within birdwatching about whether/how to change those names. That's it. That's all it says. EDIT: I guess "discoverer" should be in a second set of quotes here, because English-language names for "New World" birds are generally going to be derived from the first settler to decide to name it.

The article "justifying looting" is an interview with Vicky Osterweil, the author of In Defense of Looting. The headline of the article literally calls it "One Author's Controversial View."

Fears about crime are racist and NPR was right to report on it lmao

When he says "suggesting that Asian Americans who oppose affirmative action have been manipulated by white conservatives," the way the story in question "suggests" that is quoting Asian-Americans who feel manipulated by white conservatives.

I haven't read the Beatles story he's talking about. It's kinda long and doesn't really interest me, so I won't comment on it.

I think this bit is the most revealing part of the whole piece. It kinda lays bare the exact ways that Uri is full of shit. He spends most of the latter half of the piece talking about how NPR's push for diversity of identity has coincided with a decrease in diversity of opinion, and that more ideas should be given a seat at the table, but he clearly doesn't actually believe that. Sure, bring in the MAGAs, bring in the Republicans, let the right have a say. But defending looting? Shining a light on racism in hobby spaces? Discussing racism in American attitudes towards crime? Well that's obviously beyond the pale! Obviously those ideas don't get a seat at the table.

Berliner clearly believes that some ideas are dangerous or ridiculous and shouldn't be platformed on that basis, but his main criteria for deciding which ideas shouldn't be platformed seem to be (1) how far outside the mainstream they are (e.g. the Defense of Looting piece) and (2) how ~divisive~ they are (e.g. the stuff about racism). Bringing on Republicans to explain why diversity sucks and trans people should be put in camps? Totally fine, I guess.

This little spiel reveals Berliner for what he is: A status quo warrior burned that the future is leaving him behind. NPR isn't alienating American society, it's embracing the vaguely-progressive left-lib attitudes that are becoming increasingly mainstream across the so-called U.S, paying occasional lip-service to more radical ideas while being very careful to avoid endorsing them.

[alphaman99]

from a friend....

Vicky Osterweil wrote a book titled, 'In Defense of Looting.'

On her copyright page she placed the following legal warning:

"The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book is a theft of the author's intellectual property."

She's no Abby Hoffman, is she?!

[bobthebenevolentpirate]

Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting

[sharpened--edges]

The rioting in Ferguson [in 2014] became national news with the looting and burning of a QuikTrip gas station on the first night after Mike Brown’s death. But the riots went far beyond looting and arson. Shooting back at the police – armed self-defense – and Molotov cocktail attacks on troop carriers were tactics of the movement, though they were barely reported. This lack of reporting has obvious explanations on both sides […]. For the organizers focused on the outward appearance of the movement, already worried about media framing of Black criminality and violence, the fact of shooting at police threatens to completely derail the argument of movement nonviolence and innocence. For the police and the media, widespread, organized retaliatory shooting absolutely cannot be reported on because it represents an utter breakdown of respect for police power and threatens to spread and generalize that disregard, to give rioters in other cities ideas. Shooting at police is only reported (and, in these instances, exaggerated) if and when police or national guardsmen kill rioters, because then it is needed for justification. But it was through the consistent use of guns, along with the creative use of cars to broaden chaos and jam up West Florissant, the main avenue of the uprising, that rioters managed to maintain a mostly cop-free riot and protest zone for two weeks.

Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action (Bold Type, 2020), p. 247.

[sossupummit]

Welcome, to This Is America, August 21st, 2024. In today’s episode, first we speak with the host of 12 Rules for What?, an antifascist podcast on the Channel Zero Network, about the wave of antifascist mobilizations against the far-Right following a series of anti-immigrant riots in the so-called United Kingdom, after the spread of viral... Read Full Article

[mictiansalem]

🖇️

[thelonguepuree]

As a mode of struggle, riots are marked by many characteristics traditionally defined as feminine: not driven by rational argumentation or 'proper' political dialogue, they are instead driven by desire, affect, rage, and pain. They are disordered, emotional, and chaotic. Importantly, too, riots struggle within the sphere of social reproduction: looting makes day-to-day life easier by changing the price of goods to zero, relieves pressure by spreading wealth within the community, and reinforces bonds of solidarity and kinship through mutual struggle and action. It is important to remember that, for the most part, riots are experienced as celebration, as joyous and cathartic releases of emotion: police and politicians who enter riot zones often cite this atmosphere as the thing that terrifies them the most. But riots are also driven by anger and loss. They emerge as an alternative form of care and remembrance for those the state's patriarchal violence has destroyed: rising up in mourning for lost children and in outrage at the domination of daily life. They can be ugly, bloody, and frightening. They are often protective, defensive struggles, but they are always about reproducing a community; as the study of riots in the United States makes clear, one of the main aftereffects of riots is a sense of unity, togetherness, and joy not normally experienced in the urban neighborhood, a unity that leads to the blossoming of dozens of political, social, and economic projects. Riots are communicative, but unlike protest, they do not aim their speech at those in power, at leaders or the state; instead, they are a form of direct communication and knowledge transfer among those outside the tradition avenues of power. As Black Panther Party minister of defense Huey P. Newton put it, 'In Watts the economy and property of the oppressor was destroyed to such an extent that no matter how the oppressor tried in his press to whitewash the activities of the Black brothers, the real nature and cause of the activity was communicated to every Black community.'

Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting

[anarchistin]

As a mode of struggle, riots are marked by many characteristics traditionally defined as feminine: not driven by rational argumentation or “proper” political dialogue, they are instead driven by desire, affect, rage, and pain. They are disordered, emotional, and chaotic.

Importantly, too, riots struggle within the sphere of social reproduction: looting makes day-to-day life easier by changing the price of goods to zero, relieves pressure by spreading wealth within the community, and reinforces bonds of solidarity and kinship through mutual struggle and action. It is important to remember that, for the most part, riots are experienced as celebration, as joyous and cathartic releases of emotion: police and politicians who enter riot zones often cite this atmosphere as the thing that terrifies them the most.

But riots are also driven by anger and loss. They emerge as an alternative form of care and remembrance for those the state’s patriarchal violence has destroyed: rising up in mourning for lost children and in outrage at the domination of daily life. They can be ugly, bloody, and frightening. They are often protective, defensive struggles, but they are always about reproducing a community; as the study of riots in the United States makes clear, one of the main after effects of riots is a sense of unity, togetherness, and joy not normally experienced in the urban neighborhood, a unity that leads to the blossoming of dozens of political, social, and economic projects.

Riots are communicative, but unlike protest, they do not aim their speech at those in power, at leaders or the state; instead, they are a form of direct communication and knowledge transfer among those outside the traditional avenues of power. As Black Panther Party minister of defense Huey P. Newton put it, “In Watts the economy and property of the oppressor was destroyed to such an extent that no matter how the oppressor tried in his press to whitewash the activities of the Black brothers, the real nature and cause of the activity was communicated to every Black community."

Vicky Osterweil, In Defense of Looting, 2020

[bobthebenevolentpirate]

In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil (original article, book x)