#53: “Anti-Globalization” Walking Tour of Washington, D.C.
:Stories and Lessons from the 1999-2003 Wave of Mass Actions Against Global Capitalism
Listen to the Episode — 106 min
Summary
Our first walking tour! Protesters descending on Washington, D.C. to #DisruptJ20 are stepping into a long history of resistance in the belly of the beast. One of the most innovative and powerful cycles of protest in the nation’s capital was the movement against corporate globalization in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most tours of D.C. take you around the monuments and museums downtown, but we want to show you another side of the city—the neighborhoods and DIY spaces from which anarchists launched attacks on capital and where seeds were planted for a new world to take its place. Through historic sites, interviews, and a scrapbook of anti-capitalist mementos, we hope to pass on some of the lessons and inspiration that the anti-globalization movement can offer, especially as a new wave of struggle begins under Trump. {January 9, 2017}
Notes and Links
- Table of Contents:
- Introduction {0:01}
- Ben’s Chili Bowl {1:35}
- Walking to the A16 convergence center {11:10}
- A16 convergence center {24:09}
- Walking to Malcolm X Park {33:59}
- Lower Malcolm X Park {40:08}
- Upper Malcolm X Park {46:14}
- Walking to Casa del Pueblo {55:04}
- Casa del Pueblo {1:07:06}
- Walking to the Wilson Center {1:10:12}
- The Wilson Center {1:13:25}
- Walking to the Potter’s House {1:17:26}
- The Potter’s House {1:26:54}
- Walking to the DC Indymedia Center {1:28:00}
- The DC Indymedia Center {1:36:01}
- Lessons from the anti-globalization movement {1:40:36}
We’ve put together a YouTube version of the walking tour with the photos included at our YouTube channel
Anarchist history is not for books you can close and set away on a shelf. Use the lessons and inspiration from this episode to get active. You can start next week with the #DisruptJ20 anti-inaugural activities in DC on January 20th.
We discuss and sample multiple documentaries about the mass anti-corporate globalization protests that took place during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Many of these can be found online, like This Is What Democracy Looks Like, Breaking the Spell, Breaking the Bank, The Miami Model, and the highly recommended Crowd Bites Wolf.
The excerpt from the A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc statement came from The Black Bloc Papers, which is a great resource for understanding that part of early 2000s anarchism.
We discuss a bunch of different groups in this episode, including the DC Anti-Capitalist Convergence, Positive Force, APOC, Profane Existence, and Indymedia.
-
Upcoming prisoner birthdays:
Sundiata Acoli 39794–066
FCI Cumberland
Post Office Box 1000
Cumberland, MD 21501
{January 14th}Herman Bell 79-C–0262
Great Meadow Correctional Facility
11739 State Route 22
Post Office Box 51
Comstock, NY 12821–0051
{January 14th}Joseph “Joe Joe” Bowen AM–4272
1 Kelley Drive
Coal Township, PA 17866–1021
{January 15th}Marius Mason #04672–061
FMC Carswell
Federal Medical Center
Post Office Box 27137
Forth Worth, TX 76127
{January 26th} January 24th is the International Day of Solidarity with Trans Prisoners. Do something in your community