INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

MORE NEWS FROM GREECE:

Neither escalating nor de-escalating the anti-government protests in Greece continue to simmer against a backdrop of fiscal crisis and the need of the ruling 'socialist' party PASAC to renege on their promises to Greek workers, the better to serve their international financial masters. Here's an update from the LibCom site about what happened yesterday.

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Marches against repression in Greece:
Marches against the hideous police repression unleashed in the days commemorating the assassination of A. Grigoropoulos took place in Greece after two days of clashes.

Marches against state terror unleashed in the last few days against the movement took place in Athens and Salonica on Tuesday 8/12 amidst government lies and bragging of its ability to detain more than 800 citizens out of which 13 have been charged during the marches in memory of Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

In Athens the protest march called at Propylea at 19:00 found the university asylum grounds once again blocked by long triple chains of riot cops in utter breach of the 16th article of the constitution. Faced with intensifying challenge by the gathered protesters police officers in charged claimed this was done under the demands of the rectorial authorities, leading the crowd to chant "cops, TV and rectors all the scum work together". Despite the overwhelming police forces and the tiredness of two days of continuous confrontation, the 2,000 strong march took to the streets of Athens in high spirits towards the Parliament and then to Omonoia chanting anti-police slogans all the way. There were no clashes during the march. At the same time the administration headquarters of the Technical Schools of Athens (TEI) have been occupied by protesters against police brutality and the breach of the asylum. Student organisations have called a new protest march against police brutality and breach of the asylum for Friday.

Earlier the same day pupils marches took place in many Athens' neighborhood against state terror. In Chaidari pupils clashes with police forces which were piled with oranges and other projectiles; 3 pupils were detained during the clashes. Tension also built up during a pupil protest march in Kamatero with pupils throwing projectiles to cops and during a pupil march towards the central prisons of the country in Koridalos with children lighting fires around the penal premises. Finally pupils of the Grava complex once again marched to the Agias Lavras police station that had come under attack in the previous days.

In Salonica, the protest march took to the streets of the city a 18:00 fueled by the recent breaches of the university asylum by delta-team thugs. A similar protest march took place in Rethymnon, Crete where the police was supported in its work of intimidation by local fascists.

On the legal front all 22 comrades of Resalto have been released with extortionate monetary guarantees (amounting to around 40,000 euros in total). The trial will be held in March.

The recent days of unrest have led to a head-on confrontation of left wing parties with the government. In a hideous gesture of propaganda, the attacker of Ms Koutsoumbou - the elderly woman who was hit by a delta-team motorbiker who then proceeded to beat her up causing brain injuries and internal bleeding - visited her at hospital claiming that it was all an accident. EEK, the Workers' Revolutionary Party whose member is Ms Koutsoumbou held a press conference today denouncing the visit as hypocritical and stressing that not only the policeman targeted and then hit the veteran anti-junta struggler, but after dismounting and beating her on the head with a glob, he also attacked a doctor who tried to give first aid to the woman. The police even refused to call an ambulance to her assistance claiming its a trick so that the protesters can burn it. EEK claims this amounts to an assassination attempt by the policeman. The government insists it was all an accident, infuriating other parts of the left which have come out openly against the government they were flirting with only a month ago. The Radical Left Coalition has accused the Minister of Public Order of being a right wing-fascist hybrid. The typically delirious Mr Chrisochoidis has retorted attacking both the local council of Keratsini for its support of Resalto and the occupiers of the local city hall, and the radical left as covering "nazis" and "vandals". The notoriously FBI decorated minister claimed he will abolish use of tear gas and replace it with Operation Motorman type water cannon-barricade breaking street tanks which were abolished by the first Socialist government in 1981.

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And here, also from Libcom, is an addendum as to what has been happening today.

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Update:

On the morning of 9/12 pupils attacked the police department of Alexandria in Amathia with molotov cocktails. Meanwhile street cleaners and garbage collectors have renewed their strike for another 48h. Athens is currently plunged in piles of rotting garbage half blocking the streets.

On the legal front 3 of the people arrested in Salonica have been imprisoned pending their trial. Legal processes of the other people arrested during the last days unrest continue in various Greek cities. In Mytelene, Lesbos island, 4 radio stations were occupied by protesters who broadcasted communiques demanding the immediate release of all the arrested. Manolis Glezos the Resistance veteran known for lowering the Nazi flag from the Acropolis during the Occupation has denounced the detentions as state terror against the people and the movement, while the Lawyers Association of Keratsini has joined in denouncing the Resalto arrests are political repression. In an audacious incident characteristic of the ethics of the Greek state, a boy was released in Salonica after the police admitted to the interrogator that it had "planted him" with a bag filled with molotov cocktails. The officers have not been suspended or charged.

On the other hand, in a move of collaborationism unheard of since the junta, the rectorial authorities of the Athens Law School have announced measures ousting and disallowing entrance on non-students in its premises. In Chania an investigation has started on the collaboration of the police with fascist groups during the latest unrest after the publication of photos of the police commander of the operations openly coordinating the thugs. Fascists have attacked immigrants in Chania twice since the end of the troubles.

The latest developments come in a climate of extreme economic tension as Greece's Fitch borrowing status was downgraded yesterday amidst international estimations that the country cannot pay off its debts. The downgrading has led to a collapse of the stock market to a 10 year low. The PM has announced that the country is for the first time in a "crisis of national sovereignty since 1974" adding most dramatically that "the motherland is in intensive care". The government fears that structural reforms demanded for the upgrading of the country's borrowing status would lead to a social upheaval that will make the December Uprising look like a Saturday night riot.

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Meanwhile a debate rages, fueled, of course, by the government, about the right of "university asylum" in Greece. Since the overthrow of the military dictatorship in 1973 universities have been "no-go zones" for the police, in recognition of the leading role that students played in that revolution. The Greek government is doing its best to promulgate as much bad publicity as it can in preparation for an eventual move against this safe base from which the anarchists and others can sally forth to do battle. The 'University asylum' has, as the above article pointed out, already been violated in some minor ways. The government, trying to out-conservative the conservatives no doubt plans further, much more serious, breaches of this right. Here's an article from the New York Times about certain incidents that are being played up as part of this campaign. With more or less approval on the part of the NYT.

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Debate Rages in Greece About Right of Police to Enter University Campuses:
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
Published: December 9, 2009
A new wave of violent attacks against academics is sweeping campuses in Athens and Thessaloniki, leading Greek professors ( or at least a few of them-Molly ) to question a law that bans police officers from entering university grounds.

The law exists nowhere else in Europe, but it has been sacrosanct in Greece since the fall of a military dictatorship that bloodily suppressed a student rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973 in which at least 23 people were killed.

Last weekend saw a peak in the violence, which has spiraled in recent months along with general social unrest, a spike in crime and a resurgence of domestic terrorism.

Hundreds of anti-establishment protesters stormed university buildings during demonstrations being held in memory of a teenager who was shot and killed by a police officer a year ago, an event that sparked some of the worst riots ever in the capital.

The rector of the University of Athens, Christos Kittas, was sent to intensive care Sunday, after being beaten by assailants using iron bars and then thrown out of his office. Mr. Kittas, who was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday after recovering from a heart attack, called on fellow academics and politicians to tackle the problem on campuses. He said he “felt dead inside watching young people who could be my grandchildren or students commit crimes and vandalize the shrine to free thought.”

Last week, a professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Gerasimos Sapountzoglou, was targeted by extremists who beat and throttled him when he refused to stop a lecture. Several other academics have suffered similar attacks in Athens and Thessaloniki in recent months.

Anastassios Manthos, rector of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University, who was knocked unconscious in a similar campus raid last year, said things had gotten worse. “The violence in universities, and in Greek society in general, is explosive and unprecedented,” he said.
He cited the worsening economy and an inadequate education sector as key reasons for the discontent that has also fueled crime, terrorism and assaults on authors at parties for book signings in Athens cafes.

Mr. Manthos blamed the violence at universities on “members of anti-establishment and anarchist groups and a tiny portion of the student population.”

“It’s a type of terrorism,” he said.

The gangs behind the attacks range in size from 10 to 50 people with the assailants usually vandalizing university property. The ensuing occupations on campuses last for a few hours. During the attacks, which occur every couple of weeks, slogans are usually spray-painted on walls or banners hung on buildings condemning “state oppression.”

A self-proclaimed anarchist who participated in protests over the weekend said the unrest was the only way disaffected young people can make their point. “What’s a poor kid with no prospects supposed to do? He’ll pick up a stone and throw it at police or he’ll force his way into the spotlight,” said Yiannis Anagnostou, 37, an agronomist who calls himself a Communist and anarchist sympathizer. ( Quite the mixture-Molly )

As for the violence against academics, he was unmoved. “They should know better than to play the role of guard. When you see a crowd of angry people, you get out of the way,” he said.
Rectors agree that the so-called university asylum law, introduced in 1982 to protect the freedom of expression that had been championed by the fallen students, is being exploited by extremists to suppress the views of others. “It is not just about organized attacks — there is a general climate of fear in universities,” said Yiannis Panousis, a prominent criminologist at the University of Athens who was hospitalized in February after being set upon during a lecture by extremists with iron bars and sledgehammers.

After the attack on Mr. Panousis, academics avoided publicly condemning assaults because they feared reprisals. Now they are speaking out.

“This can’t go on,” said Konstantinos Moutzouris, rector of the National Technical University of Athens, as the Athens Polytechnic is officially called. “We have to reconsider who we are, where we stand, what we believe in,” Mr. Moutzouris said Monday, noting that “the time has come” to reassess, but not abolish, the asylum law.

Last month the rector of the National Technical University and two other university officials faced criminal charges for “violation of duty” over the institution’s failure to stop its computer terminals being used to update the Web site of the Athens branch of the anti-capitalist, pro-anarchist news network Indymedia. Responding to the charges, the university said it would not engage in any kind of censorship “regardless of the ideological or political gap that might separate it from the opinions expressed.” ( Ah...finally the real target of the state is shown-Molly )

Comments by academics, and the Indymedia affair, have propelled the debate over whether the asylum law should change. Television talk shows have been dominated by the subject, with left-leaning politicians and students mostly objecting to such a move while most with centrist and right-wing allegiances support it.

The new Socialist government appears to be holding back. Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou condemned the attack on Mr. Kittas as “brute and unprovoked fascism” but ruled out changes to the law. She noted, however, that the government was “ready to back the decisions of university authorities,” who have the right to invite the police onto campus but rarely do so because the move is considered provocative.

Although the government is keeping its distance, the Athens Law School on Tuesday took a bold step toward restricting access to its campus, approving a program to issue identity cards for students and to place guards at its gates.

Successive governments have balked at reforming the asylum law for fear of a backlash. Most Greeks are still sensitive to the sight of police officers near universities, too reminiscent of the tanks that rolled onto the campus of the Athens Polytechnic in 1973.

Some say that a full review of the law is not necessary. According to Mr. Manthos, the rector in Thessaloniki, the legislation does not need to be reformed but implemented. “The law plainly states that when crimes are being committed on campus, like the manufacture of firebombs for use in riots, the police can enter without seeking approval,” he said. But he noted that “prevention is better than suppression.”

Mr. Panousis, the criminologist, stressed that the problem cannot be solved by force. “It is not just an issue of policing, it is a social problem,” he said. “We have to start speaking out.”

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Finally, here's another item from tghe Occupied London Blog that disputes the story about the attack on the rector of the University of Athens. Now, I have lived long enough to know that "atrocity stories" should generally be given credence, including -and perhaps especially- those that are alleged to have been commited by "our side". One will probably never know the full details of what transpired in the office of the Rector of the University of Athens. I, however, have little doubt that he was assaulted, though obviously nowhere near to the extent that the mainstream press alleges (see NYT article above). If you are "assaulted with iron bars" you obviously and plainly go down for the count, if you are not killed. I also find it incredible that the rector could manage to stagger his way to escape through a large and hostile crowd, particularily if he was beaten by "iron bars". I do, however, think that he was probably the recipient of a few punches and shoves. This, in itself, is bad enough, and it should never have been done. It disgraces the movement, and the perpetrators should be called to account. I am not amongst those who think that there should be a "get out of jail free" card for those on "my side" who engage in foolish, counterproductive and vicious acts just because of their "feelings". Politics is one thing and psychotherapy is another, and the two should never be mixed. OK, enough of my preaching. Here's the story.

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Anti-repression demonstration in Athens ends; cops still surrounding the Propylea buildings; attempts to close down the Law school radio station; Resalto arrestees’ bails run into tens of thousands of euros :
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The anti-repression demo that had been called for in Athens ended a few hours ago. Called by far-leftist groups (EEK, Network for Social and Political Rights, and others – sorry if forgetting someone and please add!) the demo was also joined by many anarchists. The cops, for a second concecutive night, were provokatedly standing in front of the courtyard of the Athens University buildings on Panepistimiou Street, blocking the demonstrators’ access to the academic asylum. This, after the fabricated “lethal” attack against the Director of the University of Athens: As we have said already, two Occupied London contributors witnessed the director leaving the area holding his head – but with no sight of any blood, let alone the “heart attack” he supposedly suffered. And yet this “lethal” attack has been used as a perfect pretext for a full-on attack on the academic asylum: Other university directors have openly announced their willingless to reconsider the asylum; already, the Law School’s administration has decided to force-evict the student radio hosted on its premises and to ban the use of its facilities for any “non-academic” purposes.

Meanwhile, the bail for the released comrades from Resalto is running into tens of thousands of euros (18-20,000) and there is an urgent need to raise funds for their support. More info will be published here very soon.

AMERICAN LABOUR:

FACTORY OCCUPATION IN CHICAGO:

As the world economy spirals faster and faster towards a situation not seen since the 1930s American labour is rediscovering a tactic from that era as well, the sit down strike and factory occupations. Last Tuesday workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago were given layoff notices without the standard proper notice. On Friday they protested this by occupying the factory, vowing not to leave until they were paid appropriate severance pay. Here's the story as seen by the New York Times.

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In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide:
Published: December 7, 2008
CHICAGO — The scene inside a long, low-slung factory on this city’s North Side this weekend offered a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs in a year of recession is boiling over.

The company, which was founded in 1965 and once employed more than 700 people, had struggled in recent months as home construction dipped, workers said.

Workers laid off Friday from Republic Windows and Doors, who for years assembled vinyl windows and sliding doors here, said they would not leave, even after company officials announced that the factory was closing.

Some of the plant’s 250 workers stayed all night, all weekend, in what they were calling an occupation of the factory. Their sharpest criticisms were aimed at their former bosses, who they said gave them only three days’ notice of the closing, and the company’s creditors. But their anger stretched broadly to the government’s costly corporate bailout plans, which, they argued, had forgotten about regular workers.

“They want the poor person to stay down,” said Silvia Mazon, 47, a mother of two who worked as an assembler here for 13 years and said she had never before been the sort to march in protests or make a fuss. “We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere until we get what’s fair and what’s ours. They thought they would get rid of us easily, but if we have to be here for Christmas, it doesn’t matter.”

The workers, members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, said they were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law when companies make layoffs. Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois, said her office was investigating, and representatives from her office interviewed workers at the plant on Sunday.

At a news conference Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said the company should follow through on its commitments to its workers.

“The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned,” Mr. Obama said, “I think they’re absolutely right and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.”

Company officials, who were no longer at the factory, did not return telephone or e-mail messages. A meeting between the owners and workers is scheduled for Monday. The company, which was founded in 1965 and once employed more than 700 people, had struggled in recent months as home construction dipped, workers said.

Still, as they milled around the factory’s entrance this weekend, some workers said they doubted that the company was really in financial straits, and they suggested that it would reopen elsewhere with cheaper costs and lower pay. Others said managers had kept their struggles secret, at one point before Thanksgiving removing heavy equipment in the middle of the night but claiming, when asked about it, that all was well.

Workers also pointedly blamed Bank of America, a lender to Republic Windows, saying the bank had prevented the company from paying them what they were owed, particularly for vacation time accrued.

“Here the banks like Bank of America get a bailout, but workers cannot be paid?” said Leah Fried, an organizer with the union workers. “The taxpayers would like to see that bailout go toward saving jobs, not saving C.E.O.’s.”

In a statement issued Saturday, Bank of America officials said they could not comment on an individual client’s situation because of confidentiality obligations. Still, a spokeswoman also said, “Neither Bank of America nor any other third party lender to the company has the right to control whether the company complies with applicable laws or honors its commitments to its employees.”

Inside the factory, the “occupation” was relatively quiet. The Chicago police said that they were monitoring the situation but that they had had no reports of a criminal matter to investigate.

About 30 workers sat in folding chairs on the factory floor. (Reporters and supporters were not allowed to enter, but the workers could be observed through an open door.) They came in shifts around the clock. They tidied things. They shoveled snow. They met with visiting leaders, including Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky, both Democrats from Illinois, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Throughout the weekend, people came by with donations of food, water and other supplies.
The workers said they were determined to keep their action — reminiscent, union leaders said, of autoworkers’ efforts in Michigan in the 1930s — peaceful and to preserve the factory.

“The fact is that workers really feel like they have nothing to lose at this point,” Ms. Fried said. “It shows something about our economic times, and it says something about how people feel about the bailout.”

Until last Tuesday, many workers here said, they had no sense that there was any problem. Shortly before 1 p.m. that day, workers were told in a meeting that the plant would close Friday, they said. Some people wept, others expressed fury.

Many employees said they had worked in the factory for decades. Lalo Muñoz, who was among those sleeping over in the building, said he arrived 34 years ago. The workers — about 80 percent of them Hispanic, with the rest black or of other ethnic and national backgrounds — made $14 an hour on average and received health care and retirement benefits, Ms. Fried said.
“This never happens — to take a company from the inside,” Ms. Mazon said. “But I’m fighting for my family, and we’re not going anywhere.”

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The story is being covered locally in Chicago by the Pilsen Prole Blog. Go there for continued updates. Here's a report from inside the occupation by the Pilsen Prole Blog.

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Updates on the situation at Republic Windows... :

Hi All,

I am reporting at this moment from the worker occupied Republic Windows factory in Chicago.

I don't have any new audio for you yet but I do have some new news items...

1. Unofficial word is that there seems to be a strong likelihood the company had planned to close and move operations out of state. The workers had feared this since the equipment was removed from the factory a few weeks ago. UE staff have been investigating the situation and may have turned up evidence that this was the company's plan. This is a tried and true tactic of many manufacturers - closing a facility with decent wages and benefits and re-incorporating, sometimes under a new name, where they can pay substantial less.

2. There is more and more talk amongst the workers and UE staff that the company should remain in operation in some capacity. Many of the supporters who have been showing up have been encouraging the workers to take over the factory. Up until now, the workers seemed to think that closure of Republic could not be prevented. But I think this situation maybe changing.

3. There will be a press conference at City Hall tomorrow at noon. It seems as if some important announcements will be made than. But UE staff are saying that nothing will be resolved before 4 PM tomorrow when the company, the bank and the union meet.

4. The rally planned for 12 noon Tuesday outside the LaSalle Bank building at 231 S. LaSalle has been re-schedueled to Wednesday.

5. There is a rally planned outside the Bank of America facility in La Vilita (26th & Trumbull) by the March 10th Committee for 2 PM tomorrow. Their message is that the Latino community wants Bank of America to give their workers their due or Latinos will pull the money out of Bank of America.
You can see more pictures here...
http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb5/kronstadt2/Republic%20Factory%20Occupation%202/

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MOLLY NOTES: It's always quite heartening when workers decide to fight back rather than meekly accepting whatever crumbs management tosses to them. One can only hope that factory occupations become even more common as the economy worsens. At a certain point when they are common enough actual takeovers of the facilities become more and more likely and acceptable to public opinion. Such takeovers are the only way in which many jobs have even the ghost of a chance of being preserved. the politicians will hurry to play catch up and support such actions, just as they have supported this present occupation. It's all a matter of public opinion, and public opinion changes as the actions are done over and over and become normal. Molly has covered other factory occupations here in Canada, as well as the 'Strike Bike' situation in Germany where workers actually did resume production under workers' control. The factory occupations in Argentina during the worst of the economic crisis in that country are an even larger example. May there be many more of such events.

AMERICAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

THE ICEMAN COMETH:

Looking south towards the USA from the comfort my cold little igloo up here in the frozen north I am all too often filled with despair at the flagrant stupidity, held in the most rigid ideological way possible, of the way that that country seems capable of degrading anything, even anarchism, into self-referential cults. But then I often get surprised, delightfully surprised. The USA is, after all, the third most populous in the world. Its anarchist movement,though chronically disorganized, goes far beyond the bizarre ("abolish civilization") and the petty thuggishness. It is the land of creativity, can-do and gadgets, and in true American tradition the vast majority of American anarchists are going about their business in a way less likely to serve the interests of the media and the police by giving out spectacles and reasons to increase budgets. Not as flashy and well reported, but much more effective in the end.

Here's an item from the New York Times about the "anarchist ice cream man". It brings a smile to my and a song to my heart.

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Selling Ice Cream, With Sprinkles of Anarchism:
By Corey Kilgannon
The Anarchist Ice Cream Truck’s menu is divided into “Treats for the Streets” and “Food for Thought.” (Photos: Corey Kilgannon/The New York Times)

There was something odd about the ice cream truck that pulled up to the curb on Park Avenue near 67th Street on Friday, with its proletarian color scheme and its overdressed driver with the subversive grin.

He was offering free ice cream in the middle of a rainstorm. The ice cream flavors were fudge, cherry, grape and tropical. But the right side of the menu offered flavors like Know Your Rights, Anarchy, Protest Tips, Black Panthers and Graffiti Liberation. There were also fact sheets on Halliburton and the Patriot Act.

Inside, the ice cream shared freezer space with emergency gas masks, and the condiment shelves held equipment for protesters at demonstrations to use when confronted by the police. The ice cream inventory is limited, because cabinets are used to store rolls of film for documenting police action, Ibuprofen for billy-club headaches and rain ponchos in case of fire hoses and water cannons. There were pepper spray treatment kits and the counter-weapon of choice: water balloons. There is an ample supply of work gloves.

“These are for throwing tear-gas canisters back at police so you don’t burn your hands,” explained the driver, Aaron Gach, 34, who wore a skinny bow tie and black-and-white saddle shoes, and a uniform with “Art” on the name tag and the words “Tactical Ice Cream Unit” on his white captain’s hat. He was not wearing his usual big fake mustache.

Mr. Gach calls the Anarchist Ice Cream Truck “the alter ego of a police mobile command unit.” Mr. Gach is a co-founder of the Center for Tactical Magic, an arts group based in Oakland, Calif., that advocates “positive social transformation” and “actively addressing power on individual, communal and transnational fronts.” The group says it uses tactics taken from “the ways of the artist, the magician, the ninja, and the private investigator.”

The truck is part of a weeklong exhibition organized by the arts group Creative Time.

The truck distributes literature developed by neighborhood progressive groups and works to “confront the rhetoric of ‘Big Brother’” and “provoke thought about political engagement,” according to Mr. Gach. It is appearing this week around New York City and will be on display next week at the Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, as part of a weeklong exhibition called Democracy in America: The National Campaign, featuring dozens of artists’ works. It is produced by the arts group Creative Time and the armory.

The truck is the perfect tool for monitoring police action at a demonstration, and protecting and replenishing protesters, Mr. Gach said. The ice cream attracts protesters and even some police. Often the police wave them through blockades, fooled by the truck.

There is a police scanner on the dashboard, and there is a GPS unit, and the cameras are digitally recorded and can broadcast the video to media outlets, in case of a newsworthy demonstration, or police action, Mr. Gach said.

Since it first took to the streets in 2005, the truck has been across the country (never before to New York), stopping a various events. Sometimes it is on the perimeter of demonstrations, and sometimes helping conduct them. Mr. Gach said he has never been arrested, but has had many standoffs with the police. Customs officials have searched the freezers at borders, and at one demonstration, undercover officers asked him if he was distributing weapons and explosives to demonstrators.

In Vancouver, he said, he was pulled over by Canadian Mounties who wanted to search the vehicle but finally relented after Mr. Gach insisted on his rights to privacy.

“They got no ice cream,” he said, smiling.

In Riverside, Calif., he said, the police threw a man to the ground, but stopped roughing him up after a member of the Tactical Ice Cream Unit ran out with a video camera and informed the officers that he and the truck were filming them.

Mr. Gach said, “At a demonstration in Chicago, the police told us, ‘You can’t sell ice cream here — it’s a protest.’”

Inside, the truck is done in sleek red upholstery, and there is a repeating loop of dance tunes and musical samples with ice cream themes. There is a poster on the truck condemning war. The freezer bears the socialist-looking insignia showing a fist thrust in front of a red star, holding an ice cream cone with a cherry and a lighted fuse. Tacked above it was a flier — “Free the San Francisco 8” and “Resist the police state” — and a lyric sheet for protesters. Mr. Gach sat in front of a bank of screens and a laptop showing a radar sweep of the area. The truck has 16 surveillance cameras and ultrasensitive microphones monitoring the exterior.

Somehow, all of these surveillance tools managed to miss the parking agent that slapped a ticket on the truck almost as soon as it arrived. Another blow in the fight against “The Man” — a $115 penalty for parking in a No Standing zone.

Elizabeth Winn, 31, a counselor at a neighborhood homeless shelter, walked up to the truck seeking ice cream, but became interested in the literature. Asked about her political activism, she said she was interested in sweat shop conditions and keeping “Wal-Mart out of New York.” She suggested to Mr. Gach that he would get more interest in places like Williamsburg, Brooklyn, than the Upper East Side.

Then Gregory Belton, 26, a construction worker from East New York, Brooklyn, ordered a tropical-flavored ice pop and three pieces of propaganda: Know Your Rights, the Patriot Act, and Black Panthers.

“I want to learn about this stuff because I hate being stopped by cops,” he said. “I got a ticket for being in the park late one night playing chess. I get stopped and searched by cops just walking down the street.”

Two electricians walked up and ordered ice cream. The men, Ralph Camoia, 35, and Matt Schulz, 32, were unaware of the truck’s political function, and ordered Protest Tips from the propaganda menu, thinking they were some exotic type of sprinkles. Mr. Shulz laughed and said, “Ah, give me the stuff on Halliburton.”

Mr. Gach said: “My first customer was a little old lady who got an ice cream, and I asked if she wanted a piece of propaganda. She said: ‘Only one? I’ll take Anarchy, Black Panthers and Earth First.’ I was like, ‘Right on.’”

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The whole is actually awe inspiring. If there ever was an example of "taking the word to the people" this is it, and while a I may disagree with some of the items on the ideological side of the menu I have to give Aaron Gach a 125% rating for dedication, creativity and intelligence.

One wonders what anarchist songs could be fitted into the music of an approaching ice cream truck. The mind boggles. "Ba,ba,ba,ba baba baba baba kunin"