New York City

Inner Asia

Tibetans march on Washington to oppose Xi

As Trump prepares to meet with Xi Jinping at the White House, a small group of exiled Tibetans has departed from New York City for a cross-country march on Washington, to join a demonstration planned there against the Chinese dictator. The group departed from the gates of the United Nations, where Lobga Rangzen, a longtime New York Tibetan activist, self-immolated on July 2. After a stop at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall—clearly chosen for its symbolic value—the “Independence Walk” will arrive in DC Sept. 24, the date of both the rally against Xi and the dinner honoring him at the White House (also to be attended by giants of the tech industry). (Photo: Ella Krivova)

New York City

Podcast: politics of the NYC synagogue attack

Following the attack on Manhattan’s historic Central Synagogue, Jewish establishment voices are calling for stepped up surveillance and policing. But the threat, alas, is real. The assailant spewing the “fake Jews” epithet indicates either that he has been indoctrinated by the Neturei Karta cult, which holds all Jews outside their micro-schism to be apostate, or the “Khazar thesis“—just barely laundered anti-Semitism, inevitably linked to ugly stereotyped images of evil Jews and wacky conspiracy theories. Cynical attempts to blame Mayor Mamdani for the attack are predictable. Alas, some figures on the political left really have traded in denialismabout the reality that the attack was, in fact, an anti-Semitic attack. This is linked to a more general denialism on much of the “left” about the very existence of Jewish ethnicity. Efforts to weaponize anti-Semitism to silence pro-Palestinian voices are to be opposed, but do not mean anti-Semitism doesn’t exist—or change the reality that any legitimate anti-Zionism must be committed to fighting anti-Semitism in the diaspora. In Episode 342 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again breaks it down. (Image: Wikipedia)

CounterVortex · Politics of the NYC synagogue attack

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Resist digital hegemony! II

Digital technology continues to colonize every sphere of human activity with terrifying rapidity, and Artificial Intelligence portends the actual abolition of humanity. Even the United Nations’ belated and insufficient efforts to put a regulatory regime in place for AI acknowledge that humans face imminent “loss of control” over the technology. There are glimmers of hope, however: teachers engaged in practical resistance to the rollout of AI in school classrooms, and the nationwide protests against the proliferation of data centers. In New York City, the local Luddite Club just held a Summer of Ludd festival—aimed at getting people to disconnect from the digital pseudo-reality that recuperates our very alienation from itself, and to reclaim real life in the public parks and streets. In Episode 335 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a report from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. (Photo: CounterVortex at the Summer of Ludd, Tompkins Square Park, NYC)

Watching the Shadows

Resist cellular hegemony! II

In Episode 319 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg resumes his rant against the hegemony of digital and cellular technology—and takes heart from the local New York chapter of the Luddite Club: smart, free-thinking youth who are eschewing cellphones and social media in favor of “real life.” Despite the cynical predictions of some, the chapter is true to its values and refreshingly doesn’t even have a website—although a documentary film about them is in the works. In other glimmers of hope, the New York City nurses’ strike that just ended in victory had as one of the key demands safeguards against workers being replaced by artificial intelligence. And the recent Inida AI Impact Summit in Delhi was disrupted by a protest action. (Image: Wikipedia, modified by CounterVortex)

New York City

NYC: did socialism really beat fascism?

Zohran Mamdani‘s Oval Office lovefest with Donald Trump was a dangerous legitimization of fascism, and has won New York no respite—as the city was targeted for ICE raids mere days later. These were happily met with a strong street response by progressive New Yorkers, and Zohran has reiterated his stance of non-cooperation with the federal police state. Meanwhile, the massacre of Jews one week ago in Sydney increases the pressure on Mamdani to walk the fine line between remaining true to his anti-Zionist principles on one hand, and acquiescing in anti-Semitism on the other. And his support for bulldozing the Elizabeth Street Garden (even after a deal to save it has been accepted by the incumbent administration), while failing to protest displacement of tenants from public housing projects slated for privatization, points to an accommodation with the pro-“development” consensus of the city’s permanent government. On the final countdown to Mamdani’s inauguration, the contradictions he faces are sharpening. In Episode 309 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. (Photo: DSA)

New York City

Podcast: NYC turns up the volume! II

Zohran Mamdani hasn’t even taken office, and already there has been a physical skirmish between ICE agents and NYPD cops in Washington Heights. This portends a full-on confrontation between federal and municipal power in the months to come—with the potential (yes, really) for civil war. In Episode 303 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that despite the danger, Mamdani’s election heightens the contradictions in American society in a salubrious way, and may even open revolutionary possibilities. However, his pledge to destroy Lower Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden points to the contradictions in Mamdani’s own politics that activists will have to press him on. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Wyatt Souers/Peoples Dispatch)

New York City

Podcast: NYC turns up the volume!

The anarchist critique of Zohran Mamdani‘s election in the New York City mayoral race reminds us that “socialist faces in high places” do not bring fundamental change, and Gotham has seen mayors before elected on populist platforms only to capitulate to the permanent government dominated by the real estate industry once in office. However, the MAGA backlash to Mamdani’s rise may help keep him true to his populist program, as it is the working people of New York who will have his back when Trump strikes back against the city—not the real estate barons. This crisis could provide the impetus for the needed rupture between progressive-run localities and a federal apparatus controlled by the illegitimateTrump regime—vindicating Murray Bookchin’s theories of radical municipalism. (Photo: DSA)

New York City

Podcast: fascism, socialism and the NYC mayoral race

In Episode 301 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers his anarchist annotation of the New York City mayoral candidates’ debate. He makes the case that the promise of “socialism” represented by Zohran Mamdani is (alas) not as real as the threat of fascism represented by Curtis Sliwa—or acquiescence to fascism represented Andrew Cuomo. Both Cuomo and Sliwa invoked the too real possibility of Trump attempting to abrogate New York’s municipal powers if Mamdani becomes mayor. However, this contingency could heighten the contradictions in a politically salubrious way—prompting the needed rupture between progressive-run localities and the illegitimate Trump regime. (Photo: Jim Naureckas/Flickr)

New York City

Zohran Mamdani and municipal resistance II

As a dictatorship consolidates in Turkey, aspiring strongman Recep Tayip Erdogan is launching a special attack on municipalities, arresting the mayor of Istanbul and removing elected governments in hundreds of cities and towns across the country—mostly in the restive Kurdish east. In the United States, aspiring strongman Donald Trump is now threatening to similarly remove Zohran Mamdani if he becomes mayor of New York, and order a federal take-over of the city government. Border czar Tom Homan says he will “flood the zone” with ICE agents in “sanctuary cities” such as New York and Los Angeles. In Episode 287 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump forcing the issue could accelerate the breaking point in which localities coast-to-coast assert their autonomous powers in repudiation of the fascist-coopted federal leviathan—vindicating Murray Bookchin’s theories of radical municipalism. (Photo: Wyatt Souers/Peoples Dispatch)

New York City

Zohran Mamdani and municipal resistance

Amid an amusingly paranoid reaction from the MAGA right, Donald Trump is threatening to have Zohran Mamdani denaturalized and deported under the archaic Cold War-era Communist Control Act if he continues with New York’s “sanctuary city” policy as mayor. A Justice Department memo has already set the machinery for “denaturalization” of citizens in motion. But the Islamophobic, xenophobic and old-school Red Scare backlash to Mamdani’s political rise could provide the breaking point in which localities coast-to-coast refuse to cooperate with Trump’s fascist agenda—vindicating Murray Bookchin’s theories of radical municipalism. In Episode 285 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Mamdani’s ascendance, whatever the limitations of his personal politics, heightens the contradictions in American society in a salubrious way, and may even open revolutionary possibilities. (Photo: Jim Naureckas/Flickr via The Jewish Angle)

New York City

Podcast: Zohran Mamdani and the weaponization of anti-Semitism

New York City’s mayoral race has become embroiled in the national and global dilemmas, with progressive candidate Brad Lander getting arrested by ICE and progressive frontrunner Zohran Mamdani being aggressively baited as an anti-Semite by the campaign of the overall frontrunner, disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. Joining Cuomo in this propaganda offensive, not surprisingly, is the pro-Israel doxxing operation Canary Mission. In the current fraught atmosphere, this is a serious matter; Mamdani has received death threats and his campaign is boosting security measures. In Episode 283 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the accusations against Mamdani that have been hyped by the New York Post and even the supposedly more objective Politico, and weighs them against Mamdani’s own responses. (Photo: CounterVortex)

Planet Watch

Podcast: yet further thoughts on the common toad

The digitization and literal disembodiment of every sphere of human reality advances with terrifying rapidity—from the Social Security system to the New York subway system. Rather than dropping swipe-cards and bringing back tokens, returning to what was a manifestly superior and more rational system, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority moves to a still more dystopian “contactless” credit system. Similarly, rather than phasing out automobiles, our corporate overlords are now imposing driverless cars, a further step toward making the human race redundant altogether and portending the ultimate abolition of humanity. In Episode 270 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues his Spring ritual of reading the George Orwell essay “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad“—which brilliantly critiqued technological hypertrophy and articulated an imperative for humanistic revolution and scaleback of the mega-machine way back in April 1946. (Photo: Partonez via Wikimedia Commons)