This is huge news. The commune continues to exist, and Minneapolis continues to be radical over a year in. I think that there is real left wing experience emerging from Minneapolis, and it will allow us to become more powerful.
Minnesota has a large activist scene since the cops and oil companies are allowed to run wild up there. It's the birthplace of the modern version of Antifa with the baldies.
How is it that I haven't even heard of this until now?
Was there an "American Spring" of CHAZ-style neighborhood takeovers all across the US that got censored or something?
Even the local paper, the Star Tribune, has only reported on George Floyd Square to say that the Mayor is planning to clear it out, always with quotes from the poor little local small business owners who are losing customers because no one walks.
The Star Tribune is owned by Glen Taylor, billionaire ghoul who owns the local sports teams (except the Vikings for now, must be out of his price range). Right wing paper only covering things like this if they have to. I remember the struggle to get them to cover anything related to Line 3.
There totally was, and it got censored and destroyed for obvious reasons. Remember, the capitalist establishment wants you to think that better things aren't possible. There was one in my community that never got press, too.
Mine was only in my neighborhood, but never got any press at all. (I'm also not doxxing myself). There were several around the country, including Richmond, VA, Philly, NYC, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Olympia, and Bellingham. These varied from full autonomous zones to occupied areas with demands. They all got press, but I'm certain there were many, many more.
also atlanta: https://crimethinc.com/2021/05/19/we-are-now-the-story-of-an-armed-no-cop-zone-in-atlanta-a-documentary-film
there is a new 20 minute documentary about the one that happened in Atlanta: https://crimethinc.com/2021/05/19/we-are-now-the-story-of-an-armed-no-cop-zone-in-atlanta-a-documentary-film
Do they talk about the 8 year old getting shot up and killed there on July 4?
I knew people who backed off of RBPC as soon as that happened.
only reason i knew about it was bc unicorn riot reported from there during the trial
Lol not in the least. Business owners have been complaining about it, and suburbanites have been complaining about it. Also city proxies like the Agape "Movement." In general those actually living there and those living nearby support it.
These squares must be upheld, cringe as they are. We need to improve them and build them up. It's like imperfect ML states but in smaller forms. DO NOT LET THEM BE DESTROYED. Criticize them, sure, but don't give up our territory.
I get it. They probably suck ass to live next to. They are chaotic and often very poorly organized. They might even be filled with trash. They are almost certainly filled with CIA ops and spying cops and reactionaries and liberals. The point is that we must not let these rebellions, as shitty and as cringey as they can be, be crushed by police. We NEED to build experience. Where's your solidarity? Go out and help pick up some trash in one.
I drive by it regularly. Half the time the barricades don't even have anyone there, day or night, which is wild considering the city is actively trying to remove them. All I'm seeing in that article is the focus on violent crime typical of local papers, but justified because it's on a "progressive" site. It's not "ancap hellworld" whatever your experience in some other city was.
I had similar experiences near my local zone. Doesn't make it ok to let the pigs crush it.
gangs usually take over as “security” in zones
liberals are returning to their traditional political economy
Living near the zone seems like you are being forced out of liberal hellworld and into Ancap hellworld.
neofeudalism
It's not your "territory" if you don't have some kind of military or police that can actually enforce sovereignty. If someone harmed aperson trying to assault someone in the area, they would obviously be arrested by the MPD. The only reason they exist is because they are allowed to. At best, taking them down would make the city look bad so its somewhat of a propaganda victory. At worst, they let them exist so they can pump out delegitimizing propaganda to your average rube. At least that's my 10-second thoughts on it.
It is probably:
- Unstable. It is a commune, and that will bring in violence from everywhere. Reactionaries are drawn in to the square to cause chaos.
- Not particularly well organized. It's obviously the best organized one because it's still here, but these communes can be very chaotic and because of outside influence make the leaders very paranoid (see point #1)
Thus, leading to backlash from the local community. I think we should look and see how this managed to still stay so organized a year later. Remember Parentimix? Well, these communes are a smaller version of this.
The Non-Profit Industrial Complex effectively lures people, including BIPOC folks who are potential rebels, into salaried jobs that offer individual material security at the expense of the risks of pursuing collective liberation.
This one has been here for a year. If it fails now, it's because of the city.
