direct action – The Hungover Pundit

Doxxed Again & A Reportback

Writing has always helped me process stuff, so taking advantage of the unexpected bump in popularity on my Twitter feed that I’ve recently gotten, let’s try and reboot this blog.

First off, we’ve been doxxed. After my spouse and I joined in the community defence of an all-ages Drag Brunch in our hometown, far-right bad actors identified us (not actually hard, since I was live-tweeting from an account which links to this blog and I’ve never hidden my real name) the chuds quickly posted our home address, our workplaces, our phone numbers and so forth. Our personal information is out there, we’ve both been receiving death threats both at home and at work, various far-right scum are gleefully spreading hate and outright lies about us online, the whole works.

In short, this does not a very merry Christmas make.

On Hospital Protests

If someone tells you who they are, believe them.

This statement goes around on the internet occasionally, and despite being a bit trite and cliché I’ve come to recognize it as fundamentally sound.

So when anti-vaxxers rally outside hospitals, screaming abuse at workers and slowing ambulances, then they’re telling us exactly who they are… even when they’re claiming to be someone they aren’t.

Today and though in the week, the anti-vaxxers have planned another series of protests outside hospitals right across Canada. The first round, of course, included infamous scenes of anti-vaxxers spitting and coughing on counter-protesters; of ambulances being blocked and delayed; of cancer patients forced to run a gauntlet of unmasked and agitated protesters; and worst of all of front line health care workers being targeted by the mob.

Keeping up with Current Events

Another Niagara morning, sitting on my back deck with a cup of coffee… and I’m not sure what to write about. I wanted to write about activism, socialist theory and how direct action works, but once again I’m being overwhelmed by current events in Hamilton.

It’s been a rough week, truth be told — I woke up yesterday to find my Twitter feed showing two different accounts of homo- and transphobic harassment (later in the day a third incident was added to that total), an extended thread on neo-nazi postering and stickering across the lower city, another friend talking about the best self-defence knife to carry for when (not if, but when) they get jumped by neo-Nazis, and another friend sending me direct messages looking for emotional support because the thought of leaving their house and walking down a Hamilton street triggered a severe anxiety attack.

As I tweeted yesterday… this is what a crisis looks like.

On the Grave of Old John Brown

On Saturday, July 13th my partner and I woke up at seven in the morning, dressed carefully for the heat, packed sunscreen and filled our water bottles, and headed out on a drive to Hamilton’s City Hall to participate in the “Hamilton For Who?” rally in support of the city’s embattled LGBTQ+ community.

My partner and I went to the rally, met up with friends, listened to music, bought t-shirts, drank water, danced and generally had a good time, as protests go. We also flipped off the violently islamo- and homophobic “Yellow Vest” hate-group which was forced out of the City Hall courtyard by the presence of both the rally and the weekend-long “Camp Chaos Gayz” occupation; making it the first Saturday in months that the Yellow-Vesters haven’t had a city-sanctioned presence at City Hall… which was one of the things the rally had been intended to achieve. We followed up the demonstration with a visit to the Art Gallery of Hamilton with some friends, then an early breakfast-for-dinner date at a diner and drove home in the long summer evening, footsore and sunburnt and feeling very good about the day.

At roughly the same moment I had gotten out bed that morning, Willem Van Spronsen was shot to death by police officers during his attack on the privately-owned and -operated prison for migrants called the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma Washington.

Why I’m Anti-Fascist

I had planned on getting this blog started slowly — a couple of weeks of “core concepts” posts just to get my feet under me, and then moving into the chunkier stuff, political theory, social critiques and current events.

Instead, current events got ahead of me: On Saturday, June 1st, “Yellow Vest” alt-right protesters in Hamilton attacked a smaller group of anti-fascist counter-protesters in full view of the Hamilton police. The police did nothing. A number of anti-fascists were injured and one woman was hospitalized. The press, either local or national, has not bothered to report on this incident.