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Bring back the feminists of W.I.T.C.H. (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell)!


1969 WITCH protest in front of Chicago Federal Building.
 
Of all the second wave feminists who exploded into action over the 1960s and 70s, no group seems to have had quite as much fun as WITCH—the fabulous acronym for Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell. Like so many other groups, WITCH was formed from a split, this one from New York Radical Women. Their counterpart, Redstockings, became the more famous “intellectual” feminist group, producing such visionary minds as Ellen Willis and Shulamith Firestone (who, among many other far out things, argued for the option of robotic wombs to liberate women from childbirth). WITCH on the other hand was the wild and wooly protest group, easily identifiable by their Halloween get-ups.
 

Protesting beauty pageant circa 1969.
 
The group specialized in disruption of the sensational bent, shrieking and chanting in black clothing and white face paint, and “throwing hexes” at enemies of the people. Among their many targets were beauty pageants, Wall Street, bridal fairs, Chase Bank, the presidential inauguration, and even sexists in the politically left anti-war movement. Some of the more famous work was actually quite modest in its goals (hey, all politics are local politics), including protesting public transportation fare hikes with this little hex:

Witches round the circle go
to hex the causes of our woe,
We the witches now conspire
To burn CTA in freedoms’ fire.

Bankers gall, politicians guile,
Daley’s jowl, lackey’s smile,
Trustee’s toe, bondholder’s liar
These we cast into our fire.

Meetings held, messages sealed
When the fare hike is revealed
We, the people, are the prey
Of the demon, CTA….

 
WITCH were one of many radical feminist groups of the second wave (1960s and 70s), and one of many that is sadly understudied and overlooked. Luckily women like director Mary Dore work on projects like She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, a new documentary that chronicles the feminist lay of the land in the days of the counterculture revolution. It’s baffling to think that explicitly socialist groups like WITCH and the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union started out on the same footing as Hillary Clinton boosters like the National Organization for Women, but we all know that even in the feminist movement, the game is rigged towards Wellesley girls.
 

 
You can find a screening of She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry here, and I say it should be mandatory viewing for all girls under the age of eightteen. Where else are we going to get the next chapter of WITCH from?
 

 
Via Mother Jones

Posted by Amber Frost
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02.06.2015
10:16 am
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OWS: NYPD arrest retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis

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Retired Philadelphia Police Captain, Raymond Lewis was arrested today by NYPD officers for taking part in OWS.

Lewis, who has cut a figure at OWS in his police uniform, has criticized NYPD’s behavior towards the protesters as “disgusting” and “totally uncalled for”. He has also asked NY cops to stop being “Wall Street Mercenaries”, and to go watch the film Inside Job.

“All the cops are, they’re just workers for the one percent and they don’t even realize they’re being exploited”.

Lewis has also stated police negotiation would have been a better response to the tactics employed by the NYPD:

“You should, by law, only use force to protect someone’s life or to protect them from being bodily injured. If you’re not protecting somebody’s life or protecting them from bodily injury, there’s no need to use force. And the number one thing that they always have in their favor that they seldom use is negotiation–continue to talk, and talk and talk to people. You have nothing to lose by that. This bullrush–what happened last night is totally uncalled for when they did not use negotiation long enough.”

I don’t know who this Retired Captain Lewis is, but by his presence at OWS and his arrest, he has set an example for other police men and women to follow.

Above photograph of Captain Leiws taken by Adam Gabbatt
 

 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Huge pro-capitalism counter protest shows up at Shut Down Wall Street


 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.17.2011
04:18 pm
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Wall Street crimes in perspective
10.17.2011
07:33 pm
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(via reddit)

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.17.2011
07:33 pm
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Appetite for Destruction: Stock brokers vs psychopaths


 
According to a new study from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, apparently stock brokers are more manipulative and reckless than psychopaths! Researchers compared the egotism and the propensity for cooperation of 28 professional stock traders with the behavior of psychopaths. Clearly to embark on such a study, the authors, Pascal Scherrer, and Thomas Noll, a prison administrator in Zürich, must have had an inkling that there would be some correlation between the behaviors of their two control groups, but the results were striking. Via Der Spiegel:

“Naturally one can’t characterize the traders as deranged,” Noll told SPIEGEL. “But for example, they behaved more egotistically and were more willing to take risks than a group of psychopaths who took the same test.”

So I suppose one actually could characterize their behavior as “deranged,” right? I mean, he just did that, didn’t he?

Particularly shocking for Noll was the fact that the bankers weren’t aiming for higher winnings than their comparison group. Instead they were more interested in achieving a competitive advantage. Instead of taking a sober and businesslike approach to reaching the highest profit, “it was most important to the traders to get more than their opponents,” Noll explained. “And they spent a lot of energy trying to damage their opponents.”

Using a metaphor to describe the behavior, Noll said the stockbrokers behaved as though their neighbor had the same car, “and they took after it with a baseball bat so they could look better themselves.”

The researchers were unable to explain this penchant for destruction, they said.

 
I think I can be of help here: Wall Street attracts rapacious, greedy psychopaths! You’re welcome!

Aren’t you glad to have psychopaths looking after your retirement pension? Let’s give them some more control over our lives, why don’t we?

Below, “We appreciate your candor…”
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.26.2011
05:09 pm
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The First Wall Street bombing, 1920
09.16.2011
03:53 pm
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Today is the anniversary of 1920’s Wall Street bombing. On September 16th a horse-drawn wagon stopped in front of the J.P. Morgan building. At noon, the driver disappeared into the street and a powerful explosive killed thirty-nine people and injuring hundreds more, in what Dorian Cope describes as “the first symbolic terrorist attack on American capitalism and power” in today’s entry at On This Deity:

The Washington Post at once declared the incident an “act of war.” Impervious to the lack of any suspects, or even any credible claim for responsibility, the newspaper nevertheless did not hesitate to name the enemy: “The bomb outrage in New York emphasizes the extent to which the alien scum from the cesspools and sewers of the Old World has polluted the clear spring of American democracy.” Without any supportive evidence, this was a dicey statement which only served to further fuel the zeitgeist of post-World War One America in the grip of its Red Scare and ongoing labour disputes. Thus it was, with an amnesiatic shamelessness, that A Nation of Immigrants proceeded to blame the attack firmly and indiscriminately on its most recent arrivals. Fear of further violence intensified the so-called Palmer Raids – the gigantic Government-backed human dragnet, targeting Italians, Russians, Germans and Jews suspected of harbouring radical ideas. In the ensuing hysteria, thousands of ethnic-minority citizens were detained – 10,000 would ultimately be deported – in the name of “national security”, even though there was no evidence to link most of them to the terror plot.

Meanwhile, Wall Street – which, before the attack, had been suspiciously viewed by many for its unchecked growth of power – emerged as a new symbol of patriotism. Stock trading resumed the next day, and the continuing financial boom came to represent an act of defiance against terrorism. Anyone who dared to voice concerns about capitalism or the investigation into the bombing was denounced as unpatriotic, effectively smothering any public debate on the matter (is this beginning to sound familiar?). The attack also served to consolidate the position of the Bureau of Investigation (which, in 1933, was re-named the Federal Bureau of Investigation). Previous public concerns and criticism for a federal secret police evaporated as the fear of radicalism spread.

As one of Dorian’s readers points out:

“Given the current state of the Western economies, I’m surprised Wall Street is still in one piece.”

I’ll “me, too” that sentiment…
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.16.2011
03:53 pm
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Carl Icahn’s hedge-fund to return investor’s $$$: What does he know that the rest of us don’t?
03.08.2011
06:01 pm
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Billionaire capitalist Carl Icahn, one of the most successful investment managers this nation has ever seen—Icahn’s hedge-fund has had returns averaging over 100% for investors since it began—sent his clients a letter stating his intention to return their money by April.  Icahn cites concern for potential losses as the reason he intends to return 95% of his fund’s outside capital.

Icahn wrote:

“While we are not forecasting renewed market dislocation, this possibility cannot be dismissed. Given the rapid market run-up over the past two years and our ongoing concerns about economic outlook, and recent political tensions in the Middle East, I do not wish to be responsible to limited partners through another possible market crisis.”

Read Icahn’s full letter at the NY Times DealB%k blog.

As Nitasha Tiku quipped at New York magazine: “Take note investors: If Icahn, who was known for picking winners, doesn’t want anything to do with your vast piles of money anymore, maybe there’s something the people that do want it aren’t telling you.”

Seems that way, right?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.08.2011
06:01 pm
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Well, when you put it THAT way: The Republican Strategy
03.04.2011
05:05 pm
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Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich’s latest book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future can, more or less, be summed up in a single sentence: Until we deal with the preposterous wealth disparity in this country, America’s fucked and it’s going to stay that way. (I couldn’t agree more, btw and loved the book). The following excerpt from his February 17th blog post, “The Republican Strategy,” lays the issue pretty nakedly on the table, I think you’ll agree:

Republicans would rather go after teachers and other public employees than have us look at the pay of Wall Street traders, private-equity managers, and heads of hedge funds – many of whom wouldn’t have their jobs today were it not for the giant taxpayer-supported bailout, and most of whose lending and investing practices were the proximate cause of the Great Depression to begin with.

Last year, America’s top thirteen hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion each. One of them took home $5 billion. Much of their income is taxed as capital gains – at 15 percent – due to a tax loophole that Republican members of Congress have steadfastly guarded.

If the earnings of those thirteen hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers. Who is more valuable to our society – thirteen hedge-fund managers or 300,000 teachers? Let’s make the question even simpler. Who is more valuable: One hedge fund manager or one teacher?

Suck on that logic, Teabaggers and rightwing dickheads… take a good long toke!
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.04.2011
05:05 pm
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Antony Sutton on Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler
09.15.2009
02:57 pm
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The late Prof. Sutton discusses the role of American corporations in providing the critical financing and expertise needed for the Third Reich. Inglorious bastards indeed!

(Wiki on Antony C. Sutton)

Posted by Jason Louv
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09.15.2009
02:57 pm
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