Monday April 29th is the 10th Anniversary of the 1992 LA Uprising, (aka the LA Riots).

The LA riots were a good sign. Despite the systematic oppression engendered by a system which engenders economic inequality, it's no surprise we saw riots. Especially in Los Angeles. The riots showed us that the community is still alive. Despite the overwhelming concentration, and centralization of counter-production and mass marketing, the community is still capable of responding to the repressive dynamics of the capitalist agenda. We are still capable of taking to the streets when that spark of anger is lit... No matter how complicated, manipulative and deceptive the system may seem, we as people still have the fire of rebellion within us. And we can unleash it at any time.

Los Angeles is a pool of kerosene just waiting for that one spark to come along, and blow it up into flames. The riots were a direct consequence of the economic inequality engendered by the capitalist system. The riots were a direct consequence of the destabability and manipulative social breakdown engendered by the capitalist system. The riots were a direct consequence of the systematic war waged by the state against the people - mostly predominately colored working class - who rose up in the streets in effort to wage their own war against the suppression of freedom and equality. And when it came down to it, that was the root of the situation. Why were people were looting? Why were people burning police cars? It was the feeling of freedom. A feeling never experienced. It was the feeling of anger. One that was kept locked within an individual, just waiting to be unleashed. All this began to violently break out of the chains of society which suppressed such feelings. We saw people take to the streets with riots and fire. Anger and the blood for revenge. It was the expression of that which had been suppressed for too long until something finally happened. It was the human response to repression. And it was completely natural.

The riots were a good sign. Not only did they show us an anger we've always been thought to hide, an emotion we've always been tought to forbid expression of, not only did they display the expression of a freedom never experienced, but also explained to us that we are ALL the victims of this system. We are all the victims of capitalism. And as long as we remain the victims, we as people can still unleash the fire of rebellion at any given time.

Though I am not a big fan of John Zerzan, he has some interesting things to say in Elements of

Refusal about "riots." In particular, he talks about the looting that took place in NYC during the power

outages and the way that people took advantage of the situation to get what they wanted from the

system, and if I remember correctly, he waxes poetic on the burning yearning of breaking glass in

storefronts and the underlying pulse for change (?). You can see by my (?) that I dont remember the

crux of the argument so well, but what is memorable is the way in which he managed to talk about

the looting as a spontaneous element of refusal to go along with the repressive social order.

Much in a way like how certain writers talked about the wildcat gas-tax strikes last year in Europe by

truckers and such that almost paralyzed the continent. coming from my eco-background, I was

thinking- "you selfish fucks just want your money." But I think I was reading some situationist folks,

they said along the same lines of that post who said "there are good things that came out of the

rebelion, it showed that the community can respond to oppression." And though the gas tax thing

may or may not be "progressive" it is grounds to build upon. And I think many situationists would say

that these times of "unorganized" uprisings where people rise up chaotically without leaders are the

true times of revolutionary potential.

And while I agree with calling the LA Riots as an uprising (If you havent guessed by my tone, I was

living in Maine at the time) it also seems like a riot- a riot in the best and worst sense of the word.

Also, uprising here seems at best little more then a poetic sense unless community groups were

organizing to actually work for change on an institutional level. Community groups with grassroots

cred that actually meant things to people, or that were spontaneously organized to create change.

I, in truth think that uprisings and "revolutions" in the way that they have been romanticized are based

on left over paris commune ideas of the 19th century that though very exciting are a. highly

unrealistic b. incredibly undemocratic.

Not that I am not a fan of temporary autonomous zones, but long-term uprisings made of violence

have as much the ability to empower those with guns as they do to empower those who are

interested in creating fair and equitable society.

Long term lowlevel cultural and political resistance tied with long term cultural creation and

grassroots neighborhood building seems to be the real revolution.

Interesting discussion about insurrection goin on here lately. I see insurrection as the means of the excluded to take back their lives. In most insurrections, people take back their active power. With proletarians, we occupy factories, with peasants we squat plantations, with distribution-oriented workers like the LA excluded of 92, we loot and destroy. Has something to do with the division of labor and distribution of capital. Let's succeed on our own rules.

-Sk!

I had been run out of Michigan State University in 1986 with a nervous breakdown which was caused by what I thought was CIA psychological harassment. When I had discovered I had the illness in 1989 I went to a lawyer in Toledo to try to sue the University and the government for damages. My lawyer's reply was simply that I had no videotaped evidence of harassment by the government. I was a shortwave radio hobbyist at the time, so I had shared what the lawyer told me to Radio Havana Cuba. Then I started noticing how in TIME that activists in Watts were videotaping the police shaking down motorists who were black. This of course, led to the videotaping of the Rodney King beating and the subsequent riots.

I don't know if my input to Radio Havana contributed to those riots, but I sure would have been proud if it had. Maybe it was just God's way of getting POETIC JUSTICE on the US! Also as my shortwave Radio pointed out-the riots had happened on International Socialism Day. Ain't that neat?!

I complained about the persecution or psychological torture inflicted on me informally at Michigan State University in 1986. And how I did not have collaborating evidence of my bieng harassed as I walked to class from my .apartment. And I did not have tape recordings of Bufffy Baittinger abusing me over the phone. She did say she had a brother named Mike who was a psychiatrist.

They wished to continue their little test of wills down here in Toledo, and in the Polish North End where I grew up. I really dug those North Toledo Riots of two years ago. Like in the Bible THEY SOW THE WIND, THEY REAP THE WHIRLWIND! So, I saw justice in those riots as well.

I complained about the persecution or psychological torture inflicted on me informally at Michigan State University in 1986. And how I did not have collaborating evidence of my bieng harassed as I walked to class from my .apartment. And I did not have tape recordings of Bufffy Baittinger abusing me over the phone. She did say she had a brother named Mike who was a psychiatrist.

They wished to continue their little test of wills down here in Toledo, and in the Polish North End where I grew up. I really dug those North Toledo Riots of two years ago. Like in the Bible THEY SOW THE WIND, THEY REAP THE WHIRLWIND! So, I saw justice in those riots as well.