True Left

OLD CONTENT

I said we were going to cover this sooner or later, and this encouraging article prompted me to start now:

nypost.com/2019/12/25/city-lawmakers-want-to-impose-gentrification-tax/

Introduction:

www.huffpost.com/entry/a-new-generation-of-anti-gentrification-radicals-are-on-the-march-in-los-angeles-and-around-the-country_n_5a9d6c45e4b0479c0255adec

Defend Boyle Heights, a coalition of scorched-earth young activists from the surrounding neighborhood — the heart of Mexican-American L.A. — who have rejected the old, peaceful forms of resistance (discussion, dialogue, policy proposals) and decided that the only sensible response is to attack and hopefully frighten off the sorts of art galleries, craft breweries and single-origin coffee shops that tend to pave the way for more powerful invaders: the real estate agents, developers and bankers whose arrival typically mark a neighborhood’s point of no return.
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As a result, like-minded groups in other cities — Chicago, Austin, New York — have adopted the same hard-line tactics. Their ranks are small and their methods are controversial, even within the communities they purport to defend. But their members are drawn from the most politically radical, economically anxious generational cohort in recent memory — young millennials of color — and their cause has the makings of a national movement: a new, more militant war on gentrification.

haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/anti-gentrification-activists-in-the-u-s/

Within anti-gentrification circles it is common to hear people say outsiders, especially white outsiders, carrying out gentrifying behavior in ‘the hood’ are “Columbusing” and, in general, gentrification is commonly referred to as ‘a new iteration of settler-colonialism’.

Activism:

bangentrification.org/

www.communitymovementbuilders.org/anti-gentrification.html

www.congressofcommunities.com/anti-gentrification

www.equalityforflatbush.org/anti-gentrification/

www.facebook.com/events/starr-bar/anti-gentrification-listening-party/460515057843657/

and many more sites easily found on a search engine.

As I have mentioned in the past, on aesthetic grounds alone, I can't stand gentrification and utterly despise all gentrifiers for their self-evidently inferior blood (that gives them such poor taste). Here are some pictures of the same streets before and after gentrification; I hope everyone here can agree that gentrification always makes streets uglier:







(Side note:

www.eurthisnthat.com/2017/12/18/reports-claim-gentrifying-whites-in-oakland-call-cops-on-black-residents-regularly/ )

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The Second Avenue Deli has my attention. That aside, there was once this Indian restaurant in my neighborhood ~ paintings of Hindu stuff on the walls, Indian music, the staff spoke Indian in the kitchen, the whole deal ~ but then they shutdown, and presumably reopened under a new owner... And it's now all Westernized as all ****, despite it supposedly still being an "Indian" restaurant. And now the ruddy color scheme and the warm atmosphere it used to have has now been shat on by a coat of blue and white paint surrounded by cold air and intricate glasses. I swear, the place looks more French than it does Indian...

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I've always loved the smell of old damp concrete for some reason. That stoney smell you get when you're in an old cellar, building, or bunker. All the images on the left remind me of smells like that. I think most would agree that the images on the left have so much more character than the clean sterile and boring images on the right, no?

Moms squatting in home to protest Bay Area housing crisis are kicked out by deputies
www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-14/oakland-moms-fighting-for-bay-area-housing-evicted

I think for myself personally if I were in charge of the "wealthiest nation the world has ever known" I would be embarrassed and ashamed of myself if there was one homeless person, or any person without work. I guess that's just me though....

I mean seriously though, how fucken stupid, and how far up your own ass does your head need to be jammed in order to come up with the ridiculous nonsense a large majority of western politicians come up with on a daily basis? Even if it's all just about you and you really don't care about anyone else, don't you realize that with the internet all humans from now until the end of humanity are going to know what an absolute piece of **** you were? I just don't get it at all?? I would think that even that is important to a narcissist who functions off of ego alone....?

Why are so many people content with being absolute pieces of ****, especially before the eye of God?

I can already hear the whines and cries from them begging for forgiveness once we take power. Then they'll care, but it will be to late for them at that point. Shoot, it probably already is too late for most of them already....

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Glenn Greenwald (Jew) thinks Russia is "rich in history and culture":

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In the eyes of Westerners, such as noted Duginist Richard Spencer (Gentile), this is considered "beautiful" such, which makes me wonder; are so called "Jewish Leftists" deliberately trying to appeal to the right?

Oh wait, here he is Greenwald (Jew) on the Tucker Carlson (Gentile) show denying Russiagate:

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I have thought about a post dedicated to criticizing Russian architecture, but most criticisms I find online are from rightists whose criticism is mainly directed towards modern Soviet architecture (which they consider ugly) and not toward traditional Russian architecture (which they consider "beautiful").

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Karl Sharro is also a Jew BTW.

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Lockdown leadership in Brazil:

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/brazil-rio-gangs-coronavirus

In recent days, as Brazil’s coronavirus death toll has climbed to 46, gang members have been circulating in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) favela in western Rio ordering residents to remain indoors after 8pm.

Last weekend the low-income community – made famous by Fernando Meirelles’ 2002 blockbuster of the same name – became the first such area to record a case of coronavirus.

And in an apparent attempt to prevent further infections the Red Command gang leaders who control the favela have ordered residents to stay at home.

A video apparently recorded in the City of God circulated on social media this week showing a loudspeaker broadcasting the alert: “Anyone found messing or walking around outside will be punished.”

“The traffickers are doing this because the government is absent. The authorities are blind to us,” one resident told the Guardian.

A report in the Rio newspaper Extra said gang members with loudhailers were moving around City of God telling its 40,000 residents: “We are imposing a curfew because nobody is taking [coronavirus] seriously. It’s best to stay at home and chill. The message has been given.”

City of God’s gangsters are not the only outlaws attacking coronavirus in Rio’s densely populated favelas, which are home to about 2 of the city’s 7 million residents.

In the Morro dos Prazeres, gang members have told residents only circulate in groups of two while in Rocinha, one of Latin America’s biggest favelas, traffickers have also decreed a curfew.

“The gangsters have said that after 8.30pm everybody must stay indoors and if they don’t there will be reprisals,” said a street hawker who lives there. “I’m staying at home – filled with fear and smothered in hand sanitizer,” the man joked.

In Santa Marta, a favela that sits in the shadow of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue, traffickers have been handing out soap and have placed signs near a public water fountain at the community’s entrance that say: “Please wash your hands before entering the favela.”
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Meanwhile, in some sections of the Complexo da Maré, a sprawling favela near Rio’s international airport, traffickers have told shops and churches to reduce their operating hours.

“Only the bakery stays open until later – until 11pm,” said one mother who lives in Parque União, one of 16 communities that make up the Complexo. “Nobody wants to go outside – first of all for fear of coronavirus and now because of this order.”
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Other favelas in which curfews have been imposed include Pavão-Pavãozinho in Copacabana, Cantagalo in Ipanema, and Vidigal, further along the beach past the upper-class neighbourhood of Leblon.
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“Favela activists have been scrambling very effectively” to respond to the impending coronavirus crisis with donation and awareness campaigns across Brazil, Ruge said, pointing to projects such as #COVID19NasFavelas.

“It has been really impressive. The question is whether or not it is going to be enough.”

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We need this in the US:

www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-07/el-salvador-coronavirus-homicides-bukele

The street gangs that have long terrorized El Salvador have now turned their attention from extortion and killing to a more pressing matter: enforcing social distancing restrictions, often with threats and baseball bats.
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In many parts of the country, the gangs are more effective than government authorities, with tactics that include circulating recordings on messaging applications threatening people who break the rules.

“We don’t want to see anyone in the street,” says one recording. “If you go out, it better be only to the store, and you better be wearing a mask.”

The gangs have also produced videos showing masked members hitting people for not adhering to the quarantine.
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“The gangs have retained their territorial control, and in many areas surpass the power of the state,” said Celia Medrano, the director of programs at human rights group Cristosal.

The fact that gangs appear to be enforcing the quarantine “just confirms that they are in control,” she said.

In San Salvador, the nation’s capital, the streets are eerily empty.

On the day the national lockdown began, gang members in one Mara Salvatrucha-controlled neighborhood warned residents to obey the rules. “They said, ‘We don’t want the virus here,’” said a 25-year-old delivery driver from the neighborhood who out of fear asked to be identified only by his first name, Miguel.

“People are not afraid of the police, but of the gang,” he said.
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Gangs in Tamaulipas and Michoacan states were reported to be dispensing food and other supplies to local residents this week.

In Guerrero state, which is controlled by a patchwork of armed gangs and self-proclaimed self-defense groups, some have set up checkpoints around their communities to keep the virus out, said Falko Ernst, senior analyst for Mexico at the International Crisis Group.

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The favela aesthetic needs to spread around the world.

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We are taking back NYC from Jews: