In this episode, recorded mid-2024, we speak with Ted Rutland about the evolution of policing from the mid-20th century's professional model to the counterinsurgency urbanism that emerged in the 1970s and 80s in Canada. Rutland discusses how community policing, initially intended to bring police closer to communities through multicultural training and social services, became a strategy to win over parts of the community while waging a larger war against the rest. We delve into some of the historical shifts in policing largely as a response to radical movements and urban rebellions. We also examine the role of progressive urban governments in maintaining counterinsurgency policing, the impact of neoliberal policies, and the influence of white nationalism in shaping urban governance. Ted and I further explore the concept of counterinsurgency urbanism, showing how it has become central to not just policing but city-making processes in its entirety where supportive and punitive measures are blended in order to maintain control over urban populations. Ted Rutland is an associate professor of geography and urban studies at Concordia University in Montreal. His research explores how capitalism and white supremacy intersect in contemporary urban politics, planning, and policing. He is the author of Displacing Blackness: Planning, Power, and Race in Twentieth-Century Halifax and the co-author (with Maxime Aurélien) of Out to Defend Ourselves: A History of Montreal's First Haitian Street Gang. This episode was produced and edited by Aidan Elias & Jared Ware. Music by Televangel. To support our work contribute to our patreon at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism! COUNTER-INSURGENCY URBANISM (Draft chapter from in-progress book) Frank Kitson's Low Intensity Operations with Orisanmi Burton Pacification with Mark Neocleous
Om Podcasten
We created this podcast in recognition that there are a number of podcasts for the American “left,” but many of them focus heavily on the organizing of social democrats, progressives, and liberal democrats. Aside from that, on the left we are always fighting a war of ideas and if we do not continue to build platforms to share those ideas and the stories of their implementation from a leftist perspective, they will continue to be ignored, misrepresented, and dismissed by the capitalist media and as a result by the general public.
Our goal is to provide a platform for communists, anti-imperialists, Black Liberation movements, ancoms, left libertarians, LBGTQ activists, feminists, immigration activists, and abolitionists to discuss radical politics, radical organizing and share their visions for a better world. Our goal is to center organizers who represent and work with marginalized communities building survival programs, defense programs, political education, and counterpower.
We also plan to bring in perspectives on and from the global south to highlight anti-capitalist struggles outside the imperial core. We view solidarity with decolonization, indigenous, anti-imperialist, environmentalist, socialist, and anarchist movements across the world as necessary steps toward meaningful liberation for all people.
Too often within the imperial core we focus on our own struggles without taking the time to understand those fighting for freedom from beneath the empire’s thumb. It is important to highlight these struggles, learn what we can from them, offer solidarity, and support with action when we can. It is not enough to Fight For $15 an hour and Single-Payer within the core, while the US actively fights against the self-determination of the people of the global economically and militarily.
We recognize that except for the extremely wealthy and privileged, our fates and struggles are intrinsically connected. We hope that our podcast becomes a meaningful platform for organizers and activists fighting for social change to connect their local movements to broader movements centered around the fight to end imperialism, capitalism, racism, discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality, sexism, and ableism.
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