Detroit cop violence and STRESS

Two of us chatted yesterday about the chapter on STRESS -- the murderous police unit in Detroit that was a symptom of the decline and fall of that city -- while meanwhile coincidentally on the very same day a news report about a Detroit police assault on an innocent family and murder of a little girl was published as part of a larger picture today.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.   See:

Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force

http://www.alternet.org/story/151528/why_do_the_police_have_tanks_the_strange_and_dangerous_militarization_of_the_us_police_force?akid=7211.304388.Sw6NRd&rd=1&t=2

Watson visited Italy

During our last meeting, when we noted that John Watson had traveled from Detroit to Italy to meet with unionists there, I wondered that he might have, indeed must have, met with the Autonomist movement leaders who were active there in the same year, and namely with Antonio Negri -- who soon became notorious in Italy after he was falsely accused of being a terrorist "mastermind".  Today Negri is more famous as the author of Empire.  Here's a link to an hour-long documentary film about Negri.  It shows a lot of background about the Italian revolutionary union movement, coincidently also often in automobile factories. 


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-635735684063417950

I haven't found any direct reference to Watson meeting Negri, but I'd be very interested in seeing any documents referring to their meeting! 

Collection of essays on the League

Here's a collection of essays online by various people (including Marty Glaberman) on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
http://libcom.org/tags/league-revolutionary-black-workers