For Black August we’re screening Eyes of the Rainbow and giving out copies of the new edition of Freeing Assata during open hours. O.R.C.A. is open from 5pm to 9:30pm for open hours and we’ll start the film at 7:15pm.
Eyes of the Rainbow is a documentary that features an interview with Black revolutionary Assata Shakur in Cuba following her escape from prison. Assata discusses her experiences as a prisoner, her life in Cuba, and being part of the African diaspora.
Freeing Assata is a zine that tells the story of Assata Shakur’s liberation from prison by members of the Black Liberation Army. A new second edition includes a second account and is available online as a PDF here.
We Are Not Afraid of Ruins is a film by Greek filmmaker Yannis Youlountas recently translated into English that follows the squatters’ movement from 2019-2024 in the anarchist stronghold of Exarcheia in Athens as they support refugees, resist incursions by organized fascists and the state, and try to live their day to day lives in free from domination and exploitation.
Run time ~90 minutes, in Greek with English subtitles.
Announcing the second edition of Freeing Assata! This edition includes another account of Assata’s liberation as recounted by Abdash Shakur that sheds light on more details of how the escape went down and what made it possible for Assata to remain free and leave the country. I’m releasing this edition right before Black August so that anyone observing may read it as part of their study.
A couple weeks ago an anti-gentrification work party occurred at Bartrams North. For years Bartrams North has been a contested site of development, the end goal of which is to create an “innovation district” on the lower Schuylkill River. The development would further devastate the cultures of Southwest Philadelphia.
Different crews came together to paint graffiti, cut the fence, sabotage a bulldozer with bleach, paint over cameras on light posts with a fire extinguisher, and disable the electrical box to cut the lights. This work party is an example of coordination between individuals and affinity groups, and an example of how action can look beyond demonstrations.
Cara and Celeste were arrested last year and accused of liberating mink from a fur farm. On July the 21st, they had a hearing where some positive developmets were shared. read it directly from their support team:
“On July 21, Judge Paige Rosini heard arguments on an omnibus motion for Cara and Celeste. This motion detailed the state’s lack of evidence for the charges and petitioned the court to dismiss them. We anticipate the judge will hand down a decision in the coming months. In the meantime though…
The RICO charges against Cara & Celeste were dropped! The DA withdrew them before the hearing even started. The judge also asserted that the DA, by way of pretrial services, cannot restrict C&C’s travel. Moving forward, travel requests will be decided by the judge directly.
The defense and prosecution will have 30 days following receipt of the July 21 hearing transcript to submit briefs outlining their legal arguments. Based on these motions, Judge Rosini will decide if any of the charges will proceed to trial.
Trial comes with many financial costs including added lawyer fees, expert witness testimony, travel and accommodations, and possible fees or fines. Please continue to donate if you are able so these defendants are supported through the remainder of their case!”
Credit/debit: Phillyabc.org/nu2
Venmo @phillyantirepression with note “for cc”
Their support website: https://wesupportcc.wordpress.com
Sunbury, PA – Two women from Massachusetts and several dozen supporters from around the country traveled to a small central Pennsylvania town for the first major hearing in a felony case stemming from their arrest last November. The ‘Northumberland 2’ – Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano – face a litany of PA state charges after being accused of an October 18-19, 2024 break-in at the Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. fur farm in which 683 mink were released from their pens and breeding records were destroyed.
Monday’s hearing saw prosecutors drop the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charge leveled against both activists from Massachusetts. While each still face over a dozen counts and possibly decades in prison, their attorneys and supporters appeared cautiously optimistic as the state appeared to be holding a very weak hand when forced to show its cards.
“We hope the court sees through the prosecution’s gross overcharging of defendants accused of releasing animals who, with absolute certainty, would have suffered extreme torture and unconscionable death,” said Chris Carraway, a staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, which represents defendant Cara Mitrano. Mitrano is also being represented by Harrisburg attorney Natalie Burston; Celeste Legere is represented by Sunbury criminal defense lawyer Jim Best.
Pennsylvania State Police and Northumberland County District Attorney Mike O’Donnell initially charged Legere and Mitrano with RICO, Ecoterrorism, Agricultural Vandalism, Criminal Mischief, Theft, Burglary, Loitering and Prowling at Nighttime, Accidents Involving Damage to Attended Vehicle or Property, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Cruelty to Animals, Agricultural Trespassing on Posted Land, and Depositing Waste on a Highway — as well as Conspiracy counts related to the Ecoterrorism, Agricultural Vandalism and Burglary charges.
Released on bond in November after their October 19 arrest, Monday was the first chance Legere and Mitrano had to challenge the allegations against them in court.
In February, defense attorneys filed an omnibus motion for habeas corpus (‘show me the body’ in Latin) – arguing that the prosecution didn’t have enough evidence to go to trial. This meant District Attorney O’Donnell had to call several witnesses and present evidence to show how much substance there was to the case against the alleged mink liberators.
“There was very little that was clarified today,” defense attorney Carraway told Unicorn Riot. “And that’s because there’s just very little there.”
Before calling any witnesses, DA O’Donnell quietly moved to dismiss the RICO charge, one of the more serious elements in the case. At the same time O’Donnell’s office added a new count of Aggravated Animal Cruelty, arguing that the defendants were responsible for the deaths of some mink the Stahls say died after release — mink raised in fur farms are usually killed for their pelts before they turn one year old.)
Legere and Mitrano each still face one criminal count of Ecoterrorism — under the Pennsylvania state law, not the similar federal statute.) A line of questioning by defense attorneys Jim Best and Natalie Burston seemed to poke holes in this charge, as the subsection charged in this case requires that an “intent to intimidate” be proven on top of the underlying crime. The prosecution was unable to show any communication between the defendants and the victims in this case, and no graffiti, leaflets or manifestos were found at the fur farm.
[Note: ‘Ecoterrorism‘ is a relatively new concept pushed into law shortly after 9/11 by industries that harm animals and/or the environment, eager to criminalize effective anti-corporate activism after the mass protests of the 1990s. Read ‘Green Is the New Red‘ by journalist Will Potter to learn more.]
Witness Testimony: Mark and John Stahl
The first two witnesses in the case were Mark and John Stahl of the Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. fur farm, which is located on PA State Route 890 just a few miles from the courthouse. The Stahl ranch is the last mink fur facility in Pennsylvania (the fur industry has seen a dramatic decline in recent years, due to lower demand, COVID-19 and opposition from animal rights and animal liberation activists.) It was founded in 1955 and currently has 7 employees with an annual revenue of $298,790, according to business directory information.
Mark Stahl (top), April Stahl (middle) and John Stahl (bottom) leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
The Stahl fur farm is estimated to have 21,000 mink on site at any given time, according to testimony by Mark Stahl, and kills some thousands of mink to “harvest” their pelts every year. As per industry norms, mink are killed either by gas, electrocution, being beaten to death or having their necks snapped. Banned in 22 countries but not in the USA, fur farms confine mink — semi-solitary aquatic predators who roam miles in a day in the wild — to crowded rows of small, often unhygienic cages not much larger than the size of their body. Caged mink routinely injure themselves by fighting with each other or biting and scratching on their cages until they bleed and their teeth and claws break.
The Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
The Stahl mink ranch was listed online for sale onlinein December, less than two months after the break-in that set 683 mink free which Legere and Mitrano are accused of. A spokesperson for the Stahl business insisted that “the decision to list the property was not influenced by these attacks“; another animal liberation direct action successfully targeted the facility in September 2023, setting free between 6,000 and 8,000 mink; no charges have been filed in that incident. A security camera system was only installed after the 2023 raid, according to 2024 reporting by PennLive.
The Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
Footage from the fur farm’s security cameras was supposed to be shown at the evidentiary hearing on Monday, but DA O’Donnell couldn’t get the file to play. Judge Paige Rosini instead agreed to watch the video before ruling on the motion by the defense. Based on court proceedings referring to the video, it is understood to show, but not identify, two individuals entering the Stahl & Sons property, opening hundreds of mink cages and destroying breeding cards attached to most or all of the cages in the facility.
According to Mark Stahl, the destruction of “90 percent” of the fur farm’s genetic cards caused a financial loss at a scale beyond the 683 released mink, because the business relies on these records to cultivate a “herd” with more profitable pelt traits, and because a live mink has less sale value without its breeding information. He repeatedly said “the set is broken” when asked about the destroyed records – “the most value is when a whole ‘set’ – mink, cage, and card – is intact. It’s just salvage value without that.”
Mark Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
Mark Stahl testified that he rushed to the fur farm in the early hours of October 19 after being alerted by “our IT security guy” that an alert had gone off. Upon arriving he looked for holes in the fence, anticipating that the ranch had been breached in a similar fashion to the 2023 raid. He explained that the night of the September 2023 mink release, there had been a concert at a nearby winery with lots of cars parking on the road, and that he believed the mink liberators from that incident parked amongst concertgoers to cover their tracks.
No fence holes were found, but Stahl said he quickly noticed the ranch’s east gate was “swung wide open” and that no lock was on the gate. No lock was ever recovered from the scene. Pressed by the defense if he remembered that the gate was definitely locked before the incident, Mark Stahl admitted he didn’t remember for certain.
Mark Stahl claims that his family’s business suffered $146,000 in total damages from the direct action on October 18-19, 2024: a “primary loss” of “around $47,000” from the missing mink and destroyed genetic cards and hiring people to catch loose mink, a “secondary loss” of “$2,100” in reduced profits from “fur quality of mink that were recovered alive and harvested later” and “tertiary expenses” of “around $111,000 calculated over about 8 years” from “disruption to herd value” due to the destruction of so many genetic cards and from some minks’ medical/breeding status being contaminated while roaming free. Asked by Cara Mitrano’s attorney Natalie Burston how he arrived at this figure, he said “from experience.”
Mark Stahl told Celeste Legere’s attorney Jim Best that he made an insurance claim to Farmers Mutual but hadn’t yet collected — “we’re still in negotiations” — and said the Stahls were demanding an insurance payout of “$160,000 for both instances” — the other being the September 2023 mink release, which Legere and Mitrano are not charged in.
Mark Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
“There is quite a bit of legal protection [for animal industry businesses targeted by activists] but enforcement of those laws and correct prosecution has not seemed to have happened lately.”
Mark Stahl towards the end of his testimony at the July 21, 2025 evidentiary hearing
John and April Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
Mark Stahl’s younger brother John Stahl is the official owner of the family business. John Stahl testified that after he got a security alert on his phone around 12:45 a.m. on October 19, he and his wife April Stahl quickly drove towards the farm, but stopped on a property bordering the fur farm where they saw a Subaru parked by the road. He said he parked immediately behind the Subaru and got out to confront the driver to see why there were there, but then had to run to get back in his car because he forgot to put it in park and it was rolling away.
The Subaru then made a three-point turn in order to leave. John Stahl had testified that he parked in such a way that the Subaru would have had to either hit his car to leave or drive into a ditch. He later contradicted himself, claiming he wasn’t actually blocking the Subaru from leaving–“they could have gone around me” — before later admitting that he had deliberately maneuvered his vehicle so that the Subaru couldn’t leave the area without striking him.
Burston asked John Stahl about the collision with the Subaru, which is the basis for some of the charges in the case — Accidents Involving Damage to Attended Vehicle or Property and Recklessly Endangering Another Person. Under cross-examination he conceded that when he moved to trap the Subaru it wasn’t parked on his property and that he himself didn’t have the property owner’s permission to be there.
The Stahl couple then pursued the Subaru down surrounding roads before stopping to pick up clothes and other items they claimed were thrown out the fleeing vehicle’s windows. The Subaru was later pulled over by a local cop who arrested Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano before handing them over to Pennsylvania State Police.
John Stahl said his F took some damage from being hit by the Subaru but remained operable afterwards. He testified under cross-examination that neither he nor his wife April were injured or sought medical treatment and that he wasn’t wearing a seat belt that night. He no longer drives the vehicle after selling or trading it at a $1,500 value, and reported the damage to authorities but never submitted an insurance claim, the court heard.
Pictures taken by April Stahl during her husband’s vigilante confrontation with the Subaru were entered into evidence. They show the driver’s side of the Subaru and a side profile of the driver, which the defense did not disagree was Celeste Legere. April Stahl was called to testify as a witness at Monday’s evidentiary hearing but ended up not taking the stand at the last minute for reasons unclear.
April Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
Mark and John Stahl also mentioned that both the October 2024 incident Legere and Mitrano are accused of and a September 2023 release of 6-8,000 mink from their farm were claimed in Animal Liberation Front (ALF) press releases. The Stahls admitted under cross-examination that they couldn’t tie the ALF or any of its websites or publications to either of the defendants, and said they only knew about the ALF after reading about it in the news.
Witness Testimony: State Troopers Cody Fischer and Jacob Hook
Two Pennsylvania State Troopers testified about evidence they collected after Legere and Mitrano’s arrest. Notably, neither mentioned or knew of any fingerprints, shoe prints, DNA or other forensic evidence collected at the Stahl’s fur farm after the incident.
State Trooper Cody Fischer briefly testified to arresting Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano after they were pulled over by Ralpho Township Police. Fischer said that the defendants had a backpack, a purse and a map with “directions in and out of the fur farm” with them at time of arrest.
The rest of the testimony came from State Trooper Jacob Hook of the PSP Criminal Investigations Unit, who offered an ample serving of speculative opinion with a few actual hard facts mixed in. An initial affidavit by Hook — the foundation for the case — made lurid mention of so-called “anarchist propaganda” found in the Subaru, indicating a desire to criminalize the defendants’ political associations. Hook’s affidavit also made sure to mention stickers with anti-police messages on them as among the evidence collected.
When asked by defense counsel to clarify what counted as “anarchist propaganda,” Hook said he used that term to describe 4 items – 3 “online privacy… manuals” — one about using a burner phone, one about Virtual Private Networks and one about the Tor Browser).
The 4th evidence item Hook cited as “anarchist propaganda” was as a notebook with handwritten notes that seemed to be from a ‘Know Your Rights’ seminar encouraging radical activists to avoid speaking with police. Hook conceded upon cross-examination that the privacy literature was not “anarchist-specific” and that he didn’t know whose handwriting was on the notebook.
Natalie Burston: “Regarding anarchist propaganda, what’s your history of investigating anarchist groups?”
PA State Trooper Jacob Hook: “This would be my first.”
Despite DA O’Donnell dismissing the RICO charge, Hook continued to insist that an unknown criminal organization was tied to the defendants, because Legere and Mitrano had a support network that they accessed upon arrest.
Hook’s testimony repeated claims from his affidavit that jail phone calls in which the defendants were “promised” bail money actually meant that they had been paid in advance to commit the alleged acts. A portion of a recording of one of Legere’s calls from jail – that Hook referred to as proving this theory – was played in court. On the clip, Legere was heard asking friends for bail money.
Jim Best [Attorney for Celeste Legere]: “None of the [jail phone] recordings of Legere reveal any discussion of crimes or conspiracy to commit crimes?”
State Trooper Jacob Hook: “Legere said bail ‘was $150,000’ and that [she] ‘was already promised $50,000, which means that [she] was promised $50,000 bail before the crime.”
Best: “Would you agree that if someone would have promised to assist Legere in making bail, that’s not a crime?”
Hook: “Someone’s not promised bail money if they’re not gonna commit a crime.”
Trooper Hook also cited the defendants contacting people offering jail support while they were in jail – a routine part of many protest movements – as itself proof of a larger criminal enterprise because “they were talking to people who referred to themselves as jail support and in all my years in law enforcement I’ve never heard anyone described as jail support.” — Hook told the court that he’s been a State Trooper for 5 years.
Northumberland County District Attorney Mike O’Donnell: “Anything of significance that you remember from the phone calls, anything that would make you think this was an organized activity?”
Hook: “they were talking to people who referred to themselves as jail support and in my years in law enforcement I’ve never heard anyone described as jail support.
Natalie Burston [Attorney for Cara Mitrano]: “Listening to the calls, you said you believed there could have been an organization or larger group, could you identify who leads it?”
Hook: “No.”
Burston: “Could you tell if this organization or larger group was part of the jail support calls?”
Hook: “For somebody to be answering the phone as jail support, it has to be part of some larger group.”
Burston: “Did Mitrano reference any crime [on the calls]?”
Hook: “No.”
Burston: “Did she mention bail?”
Hook: “It was brought up.”
Jim Best [Attorney for Celeste Legere]: “None of the recordings of Legere reveal any discussion of crimes or conspiracy to commit crimes?”
Hook: “The clip that the DA referred to… Legere said bail ‘was $150,000’ and that [she] ‘was already promised $50,000’ which means that [she] was promised $50,000 bail before the crime.”
Best: “Would you agree that if someone would have promised to assist Legere in making bail, that’s not a crime?”
Hook: “Someone’s not promised bail money if they’re not gonna commit a crime.”
Hook also described physical evidence that he collected the day after Legere and Mitrano’s arrest. Items found in the Subaru reportedly included headlamps, plastic crowbars, walkie talkies, and a Massachusetts E-ZPass. One smart phone was recovered and analyzed – Hook told the DA “nothing came back from it, I believe their primary phones were not with them.”
The fact that the defendants were driving a borrowed car was also cited by Hook as evidence of a criminal organization – “clearly there’s some kind of network.” Hook said he did contact the owner of the Subaru but did not try to ascertain whether items found in the vehicle belonged to the vehicle’s owner or the defendants.
Hook also testified that accessing the car’s navigation computer turned up an “address of interest” – one of the collective houses in Massachusetts where the defendants have lived. Legere and Mitrano’s bond hearing in November featured DA O’Donnell demanding to know the names and political affiliations of people living at collective houses the defendants resided at, and insisted on sensationally referring to the homes with several roommates as “anarchist compounds.”
What’s Next?
After hearing from the four prosecution witnesses, the hearing quickly wrapped up after some exhibits were officially entered into evidence. The defense didn’t call any witnesses. Both sides have 30 days to file briefs and a ruling by Judge Paige Rosini on the defense’s motion is expected, roughly, sometime in the next two months. Judge Rosini’s ruling could in theory throw out the case entirely, or allow it to continue with the same list of charges or with some of the charges thrown out for lack of evidence.
“Be scared – that’s the message the prosecution wants to send,” attorney Carraway told Unicorn Riot. “They’re going to call someone who’s accused of a nonviolent act a terrorist to scare people away from activism in general. The message people should take away from this is to have tenacity and know that there is support for people going through the criminal process, and to not be scared.”
Coasting off our excitement about autonomous self-organization, on the night of July 22nd we painted over all four cameras at Malcolm X Park. We want the park to stay the kind of place where people can meet and hang out without being surveilled, that’s why we took the game of Camover there. We’re holding in our hearts two people who have been accused of attacking ICE and policing and who were recently captured after being on the run, Jahki and Benjamin Song.
Solidarity with everyone fighting ICE and police!
Strike Captain Interview: Philly’s DC 33 Union to Vote on Agreement to End Historic Work Stoppage
By R. Martin, Contributor July 19, 2025
Philadelphia, PA — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 33 (DC 33), the city’s largest blue-collar union, launched a historic strike earlier this month, halting sanitation services on a scale not seen since 1986. Despite the pro-union image Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker wishes to project, legal injunctions were used to force many city employees back to work – creating pressure to end the strike.
After reports of alleged sabotage and confrontations with scabs (non-union workers hired to replace strikers), another court order demanded a stop to “unlawful activity” at picket lines, but included additional stipulations such as limiting pickets to 8 workers and requiring pickets to stay 10 feet away from entrances. With weaponized judicial pressure mounting, on the early morning of July 9, DC 33 reached a tentative three-year agreement with the city of Philadelphia that ended the eight-day strike.
“You can’t claim to be pro-labor, pro-union, pro-worker and then not make steps to do things that would change the economic status to do things,” said Boulware.
“The Mayor also tried to connect the housing initiative [a public benefit designed for ‘low-wage workers, under-employed or unemployed, municipal and union workers…’] to our membership, which had nothing to do with it at all. If you have a program in place try to get poor folks into housing, once they’re in that housing they have to afford to live in that housing…”
DC 33 President Greg Boulware
Sanitation workers in Philadelphia earn the lowest salary of any major city in the US. According to the MIT living wage calculator, the current average salary of a DC 33 member is more than $2,000 below the wage needed for a single adult without children to live in the city. For a family with one child, the living wage gap nearly doubles. One worker on the picket line said she couldn’t afford to buy diapers on her current salary. Depending on family size, the average city worker may be eligible for public assistance.
As garbage collection returns to its regular schedule this week, DC 33 members have until Sunday, July 20, to vote to accept the new agreement, or reject it – which may lead to a second strike authorization process. Many striking workers demanded no less than a 5% increase in their current pay, down from the 8% annual increase DC 33 initially proposed in negotiations. The tentative agreement only offers a 3% increase year-over-year, not far from the city’s original offer that led to the strike in the first place. The union vote will be announced on Monday, July 21.
Despite the anti-union tactics and lawfare by the city, many strikers stood true to their purpose of trying to win better economic treatment on the picket line. Unicorn Riot was able to speak with one DC 33 ‘Strike Captain,’ an unofficial point person informally designated by the union, about where things are potentially headed and how the strike went down. This interview was conducted on the condition of anonymity and represents their individual perspective and experience.
Unicorn Riot: How did DC 33 union members react to the announcement of the tentative agreement reached with Mayor Parker’s administration to end the strike, considering the terms were far below many of the strikers’ demands?
Anonymous DC 33 Worker: A lot of people are like, “What happened in there?” Because from a lot of picket lines it looked like we were doing OK. People could see the rotting trash getting worse and the understanding was that with more time, we had more leverage.
Even though people were missing paychecks, what I’ve heard from coworkers across the board is that if we were already striking, we should’ve waited longer. They don’t really understand what happened.
I don’t hear a lot of talk that [DC 33 President] Greg Boulware sold us out or anything. I have heard people say it’s suspicious that the AFSCME national President [Lee Saunders] sat down at the table with them the day that we folded.
I’ve heard that we should’ve struck for longer. People just don’t really understand how we went from guns blazing to folding immediately.
There’s a lot of questions about what a ‘No’ vote would look like. It’s hard, because the issue is that things are not really structurally coordinated, so even the idea that we would purposely try to track like, “OK, here’s our membership and let’s try to talk to everybody about whether they’re asking to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or just to get out the vote” is not intuitive, I’m finding, even though it’s like, to me, kind of what labor organizing is.
At this point, enough [DC 33 members] are individually pissed that the majority of the people who show up might vote ‘No.’ The majority of the people who show up probably won’t be a majority of the union. So if the issue is that people weren’t showing up to strike, having a majority of a minority vote ‘No’ doesn’t solve that problem. The way I’m talking about it with people is, you certainly should vote to show that people are engaged in the union on this.
I’m personally not in support of any kind of coordinated “Vote No” campaign unless it has an ask associated with it. If we wanna do a coordinated “vote ‘No’ until we see this very specific possibly winnable clause added,” then that would be one thing. But I’m wary of the idea of “just vote no,” because I think our leadership tried to get the best they could. Like, I do kind of believe that Greg Boulware got the best he could under the circumstances from where he was sitting and could see everything. So I hesitate to be like, yeah, vote no and that will suddenly mean we have all this leverage. If it wasn’t there, it wasn’t there.
There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what things trigger what actions. A lot of people saw the letter saying that the [DC 33] local Presidents, the executive board, had voted to send this Tentative Agreement to the membership. And they were like, “oh, do we not get to vote then?” And it’s like no, that’s who voted to end the strike, that’s not the vote [to ratify the tentative agreement].
UR: The tentative agreement (TA) isn’t ratified until you all vote, right?
DC 33 Worker: Yeah, but a lot of folks just saw that and thought, “oh, every local voted and so that’s done now.” So there’s a lot of talking to people about that. I’m not saying they don’t understand, but they are not receiving any information about how this stuff works.
UR: One thing that was somewhat unique about this strike was the amount of intersectional movement support that we don’t always see with Philly unions. For instance, the Sunrise Movement staging a sit-in at City Hall supporting the workers’ demands is not something we typically see in other municipal services or other strikes in Philadelphia. Why do you think that is?
DC 33 Worker: Municipal strikes, and public sector strikes in general, depend upon public opinion. We could’ve done more with public opinion. Ideally there would’ve been more flyering, more encouraging people to co-worker-organize themselves by talking to their own social networks and getting their churches and community groups on board with the strike.
DC 33 Worker: I appreciate that community groups with less organic connections to us stepped up to do tactics that the union technically could not do. I can’t do certain behaviors without risking getting my own picket line and all the picket lines further injunctioned. But if the people of Philadelphia feel so inclined, then that’s their business.
UR: How do you see the DC 33 strike within the larger context of racial injustice, extreme poverty, and economic inequality in Philadelphia?
DC 33 Worker: One of the reasons we were able to come out with the force that we did – even while some chunks of the union did not have the same level of organization as others – is that historically DC 33 workers don’t make enough money to send their kids to college, and so the best jobs they can get are in DC 33, so there are these tight inter-generational networks within DC 33.
DC 33 Worker: It’s hard to live in Philly for more than a few years and not know somebody in DC 33, or be related to someone in DC 33 in some way. That’s one of the reasons there was such a staunch “we do not cross picket lines” feeling inside the union and in the city going into this.
I see a lot of people online saying, “oh, they folded because people are running out of money.” But people in a tough financial situation are often still sharp enough in their political development to understand when something is worth their while even if it’s going to cost something in the short term. I didn’t hear of anybody crossing [a picket line] because they were running out of money and thought that they financially needed to scab.
UR: Other than the injunctions and the city bringing in scabs (non-union workers) to do strikers’ jobs, what challenges did you see facing the strike?
DC 33 Worker: The biggest thing would be the chunk of [union] people who decided to stay home instead of show up and picket, we’re more concerned about that than people who potentially crossed [a picket line]. But that’s a question of, like, how do you build power in unions in between strikes? That was never gonna just come together.
UR: Moving forward, what you said about, if people decide to vote ‘No’ there should be a specific demand, what do you see happening? Does it sound like people would overwhelmingly vote ‘No,’ or does it sound mixed?
DC 33 Worker: I haven’t talked to anybody who is thrilled about this and wants to vote ‘Yes.’ I hear people who are not convinced a ‘No’ vote would do anything and so may not show up or may show up and vote ‘Yes’. I’m not hearing people who feel good about this or are excited about this.
DC 33 Worker: I don’t think – short of having a second historic strike – that we’re gonna come out with a drastically different contract than we have now, even with a ‘No’ vote. If there’s any internal organizing that happens, I would hope that it would be responsible about inoculating people about what is and isn’t possible from here, so that people don’t get even more disappointed with things. More than anything, we don’t want people to swear off union politics for good. That’s not going to get us the contract that we want next time.
So I’m concerned about that when people talk about ‘No’ campaigns. But when it comes to individuals voting, I’m gonna vote ‘No’ because I was very specific with myself and my coworkers about what our red lines were, what contract am I out here fighting for? I personally really wanted to see the lower wage classes abolished. Out of the things in our original proposal, that was something that was financially not that expensive to do and would have raised the bottom, which is what I was out there for.
DC 33 Worker: But I do think that long-term, that kind of “every individual decide to show up and vote if you want to” attitude is not gonna be sufficient for building rank-and-file power that can win a strike like this. I’m not confident that the number of people who show up and vote at all – ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ – will be any kind of majority of the union. If you get a minority of the union to show up and vote ‘No’ and that ‘No’ vote wins, that doesn’t mean that the power is there to execute a second strike.
There’s a good chance that the people who decide to show up in person to the union hall and vote at all will be the kind of people who want to vote ‘No.’ But I’m not sure what that will mean for the negotiation table that Greg Boulware and the [DC 33 Executive Board] will be returning to.
UR: Does a ‘No’ vote automatically mean the strike is back on?
DC 33 Worker: No. Just because there’s a ‘No’ vote, it doesn’t mean we go back on strike. Our strike vote that authorized the strike we just had is still in play. We wouldn’t have to re-authorize a strike. But just because we say no to this contract doesn’t automatically mean we will be on strike, in the same way that anytime they’re in the negotiating room, it doesn’t mean we are automatically on strike.
The union [leadership] would still have to authorize the second strike. [If they did], that forces everyone back to the negotiating table. And maybe the threat of striking again is something that’s in play. Certainly the membership would have a couple more paychecks to get us through – I’m at work right now getting paid – and by then I don’t think the entire backlog of problems on the streets, with all the streetlights out, will be cleaned up.
DC 33 Worker: So it’s not like we’ll be starting from scratch. It really depends on who shows up to vote, but if a low enough percentage of people show up to vote, that goes to show that people are probably not gonna be ready to strike a second time.
That’s all hypothetical. I personally think what will happen is a smaller percentage of the union will show up to vote, and those folks will be close to a ‘No’ if not definitely a ‘No.’ And that’ll be that and they’ll have to go back [to the table], but the leverage in that situation is a little unclear compared to the last time, other than the Mayor having the option to say, “OK, I have to give DC 33 something that the membership will ratify.” It’s not clear what those concessions would look like.
We might have gotten all that we can get. I personally think we could’ve struck longer and it would be a different situation.
UR: You said that DC 33 President Greg Boulware probably got the best deal possible given the circumstances. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker used the judiciary to essentially nullify workers’ right to strike by asking judges to order the water department and the 911 dispatchers back to work really quickly. And then after 8 days, bringing the sanitation workers back with an injunction, or the threat of it, seemed to act as leverage for the city to use to stop the strike, which is a pretty stark contrast to the last strike in 1986 where it took 20 days for the city to bring that injunction.
UR: Can the union use the law to defend the right to strike? It seemed like they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, overpowered by the local judiciary. Do you have any insight into all that?
DC 33 Worker:
I don’t think that there is a legal framework to have rebuffed those [injunctions] in the course they ended up in, but I don’t understand why they didn’t have more of a plan for preempting and responding to those injunctions when they happened.
It’s true that once we strike, the injunctions are coming. It’s also true that, well, it’s not like I show up to work having been injunctioned ready to pick up maggots off the street doing my best job with a historically gigantic backlog, you know. Even injunctioned workers can do work slowdowns. There’s still all these levers that are available. Even if certain people get injunctioned, there’s still plenty of ways to continue to strike. Most unions that strike at this point are not doing true work stoppage strikes the way that we did, so there is a whole playbook there.
I think the fact that they were not prepared with a game plan for those injunctions speaks to how ill-prepared they were to strike.
Given the circumstances, they maybe did get the best contract they could. But the circumstances were that they started planning for that strike a week before it happened. I know this as a rank-and-file member who was ready to step up and strike. I had been asking for six months, “can we please start making a plan for these pickets in case we need them?” and I did not get the go-ahead or the assignment that I even would be a strike captain, or where my location would be, until the Thursday before the Tuesday that we struck.
So if there’s a criticism of the union, I hesitate to locate it in the negotiation room. A lot of newer folks have found it really difficult to get any information or to participate at all. I’ve been really blocked in a lot of ways in my local.
I think it means something that the Presidents on the [DC 33 Executive Board] who did try to vote ‘No’ on this contract are the Presidents of the locals that have larger participation and have been planning for this for months and were ready to go last year when we almost struck. It’s not a coincidence that the [DC 33 local] Presidents who voted to stop the strike were the ones who didn’t prep for it in any meaningful way.
That’s why I feel that under the circumstances, it was an excellent strike for having been kinda seat of the pants. I’m not sure that they could’ve gotten more given the circumstances.
UR: I did see in an interview with DC 33 President Greg Boulware that he said the Water Department injunction came out like 30 seconds after the call to strike. It seemed that the Mayor’s administration was already prepared and aligned, coordinated with the local judiciary to get that out right away?
DC 33 Worker: Yeah, and [DC 33] should’ve internally had a contingency plan for that. When we started talking about striking a year ago, there should’ve been a plan for “OK, when the injunction happens, how do we behave?” If you had a base of strikers trying to strike, who understood how to respond to those situations that were basically inevitable (even in ’86 they did get an injunction eventually), you have to have a plan for what to do when that happens. It’s obvious that there’s gonna be some injunction at some point. The plan couldn’t have been to just fold as soon as it happened and let the Mayor dictate the timeline for that.
UR: Another union member shared an image from the city that seemed to say shouting at scabs wasn’t allowed, as part of the injunction?
DC 33 Worker: Yeah, I saw that image too. They sent it out, but I simply disagree, and luckily I am in a union. So if they try any kind of disciplinary action towards the strikers, I mean, I know a girl who threw a hot bowl of soup at her boss and she didn’t get fired. Obviously striking is different and there’s political reasons to come after us, but I’m pretty confident I’ll be OK.
DC 33 is really good at this 1980s to early 2000s union mindset of “holding onto what we’ve got.” That includes not letting anybody get fired – we will not let ANYONE get fired. They’re very good at holding onto shops that are organized, but they’re not necessarily noticing when things get contracted out to nonprofits or whatever.
That post-Reagan defensive mindset was necessary to survive the general dismantling of organized labor in this country. One new thing we’ve learned in the last months is that now there is energy for a more offensive approach.
UR: It seemed that, at least in the beginning, there were a lot of things outside the scope of what would be legally tolerated in a strike, people kind of pushing the envelope on their own, not under union guidance, working to hold the line at pickets in whatever way they could.
DC 33 Worker: Totally. And I think that’s a really beautiful thing about this strike. Even though it has gone the way it has gone, what we need in the labor movement is these big swings for the fences. And even if it means that when we threaten to strike next contract, both sides have a clear idea of what kind of power was available this time, there is something nice about knowing just what that looks like when we make decisions going forward. I hope that it doesn’t cause us to be more conservative in the future towards striking.
UR: There’s a lot of militancy in the origin story of the AFSCME chapter in Philadelphia starting with 222 and then eventually, after the huge garbage riots in 1938, DC 33 later became formalized. Do you see any parallels between past and present Philly garbage strikes?
DC 33 Worker: It’s complex. I wish it was a little bit simpler. I also wish that [union leadership] would’ve communicated to us that it was hitting the fan [in negotiations with the city] the night before it did.
There are plenty of escalations that members would’ve been willing to take on as it was hitting the fan, had they communicated that to us in any way. Not that we wanted them to come out and say “hey, it’s going really badly” and demoralize everybody. But there’s a way to say, “hey, here’s how it’s going in there, let’s ramp up a little.”
DC 33 Worker: This is my last thought about all this: when we had our strike captains meeting a couple weeks before the strike, they brought in a guy and they said this guy was working for DC 33 last time that we struck, in ’86, and he’s been holding out on retiring because he knows we’re due for a strike again.
He was so cool to hear from. It really did ground the whole room in what we were about to do. And if in the next 10 years they wanna strike again, they now have thousands and thousands of people who can play the role that that man played. The fact that people know what it’s like and know how to do it and know what brand of megaphone they wanna have and how to set up a tent in two minutes flat, that’s the kind of stuff that you only learn by doing it. That’s why I hope that this doesn’t cause a pendulum to swing where they’re much less likely to strike for another 50 years, because it’s so rare to have a union that has this many people with eight days’ strike experience.
He said something along the lines of, “I didn’t retire until this moment because I wanted to strike again” and that he had a positive experience of it. This meant we were all going into it not feeling like, “aw man, now we have to strike…” but rather, “hey, now is this moment that you get to exert power that you hold every day, but you very rarely get to make visible.” It amped people up that he had struck and had a positive attitude towards the idea of doing it again. I feel excited that there are now thousands of people who have that same experience.
Come watch two surreal compilations of media footage from revolts that
have occurred inside and outside of two jails in St. Louis, Missouri
since 2017. Front and center, they show the agency of prisoners inside
as well as the subversive potential of unmediated communication with
their supporters outside.
WE’RE TOO HOT follows a demonstration in 2017 at the city’s former
holdover facility: the Workhouse. It was sparked by a heatwave that sent
temperatures inside the A/C-less jail into the 110s. In 2021, the
Workhouse was closed after a long campaign against it, but this has left
the equally notorious second jail, the Justice Center, to pick up the
slack. 6 mins
Breaking the Fourth Wall (or A Justice Center Recruitment Video) is a
slog that seeks to keep up with the comical and particularly appalling
management of the Justice Center, which has seen a scandalous amount of
“disturbances,” riots, hostage takings and full-on uprisings over the
since 2020. As well as, 18 prisoner deaths in that time. 26 minutes
Please arrive 15 minutes early to register for the event and browse books. Buying a book before or after the event is a great way to support the Making Worlds project!
In today’s political climate, it’s more important than ever that rebels develop tighter security practices. How can we protect each other from state repression and make our activities less visible to the state? This presentation will go over the basics of security culture, tech security, and operational security. We’ll provide an introduction to security considerations for people who are newer to being politically active, while also touching on current debates around how to become harder targets for the state.
Facilitated by Philly Anti-Repression, a resource for people in the Philadelphia area dealing with state repression.
Friday, July 18, 2025
5:30 PM 7:30 PM
Making Worlds Bookstore & Social Center210 South 45th StreetPhiladelphia, PA, 19104United States(map)
Philadelphia, PA — A working class uprising continued through Fourth of July celebration week in the “poorest big city” in the United States. Jammed locks at health centers, opened fire hydrants, slashed tires, blocked trucks, and blocked access to work sites were just a few allegations brought by City Solicitor Renee Garcia in a recent press conference. Three injunctions have been filed that require a limited number of essential workers to return to work and a third aims to stop “unlawful activity” by union members who are striking for better pay and benefits. Despite court orders, the city had received numerous reports of noncompliance, according to Garcia, “and they have not stopped.”
“At one location where we had employees locked inside, [striking workers] shut off the water from the outside and then parked their car over the valve [to prevent it being turned back on]. It’s not legal activity… Just two hours ago, they breached the fence, they came in and started taking trash from dumpsters and compactors and throwing it on the floor.”
Philadelphia City Solicitor Renee Garcia, July 2, 2025
Meanwhile, trash continues to pile up around the city.
Failed contract negotiations have led nearly 10,000 members of AFSCME District Council 33 (DC33), the union representing blue-collar Philadelphia city workers, to walk off the job.
DC33 represents an array of city service workers including librarians, sanitation, the water department, 911 emergency dispatch, school crossing guards, airport maintenance, and street maintenance.
Heaps of uncollected garbage (recently christened as “Parker Piles”) seen along South Street included flyers of Philly sports mascots Gritty (L) and the Philly Phanatic (R) encouraging residents to call the Mayor’s office
The historic strike by the largest working-class municipal union in Philly is the first of its kind in nearly 40 years. Trash pick-ups, street repairs, and other city services ground to a halt overnight.
Picket lines have been active throughout the city since July 1. Sanitation sites and public libraries have reportedly been chained and locked to prevent scabs – non-union workers brought in to replace strikers – from breaking union picket lines. The official Free Library of Philadelphia website listed over forty locations closed with “work stoppage” as the reason.
Striking DC33 workers rally outside the Philadelphia Free Library’s flagship Parkway branch on July 2, 2025.
Video from NBC10 shows a tense moment from Tuesday, July 1 when management at the Department of Sanitation in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood tried to enter the Sanitation Convenience Center while union members confront the person. “We’re on strike, man, you know the rules. We not moving nothing… and that’s what it is. Respectfully…” The clash lasted a few moments before management was turned away and picketers locked the gate shut. “Tell that to the Mayor. It’s the Mayor’s fault, not ours. We’re on strike… and that’s what we’re gonna do until we get a fair contract.”
In a conjuring of C.L.R James’ notion of “proletarian self-activity,” workers throughout the city have taken matters into their own hands, leading to at least two arrests.
On the 3900 block of Ford Road, union worker Carnell Wilder, 59, was arrested in connection to an incident involving a Philadelphia Gas Works employee. Wilder allegedly approached the PGW worker, who was operating a digger loader and asked “why aren’t you striking?” before proceeding to deflate one of the tires with a knife, according to unverified police claims reported in corporate media. Wilder was arrested and transported to a medical center for hand injuries.
The following day, July 2, Jeanette Coppinger, a librarian assistant and union member, was arrested after allegedly blocking the entrance to the Northeast Regional Library on Cottman Avenue. Local news reported that a sheriff’s deputy read the injunction against blocking entry during the picket, but Coppinger refused to move. In court, Coppinger affirmed that she willfully violated the order “to make a statement.”
Even the city medical examiners have walked out. City attorneys complained “cooled storage for dead bodies is getting crowded, and there is a ‘backlog’ of cadavers that need to be examined in Philadelphia’s morgue that has increased due to the strike.”
A judge agreed, “[it] creates a clear and present danger or threat to the health, safety or welfare of the public,” and ordered some staff to “cross any picket lines established by Defendants or any other person if necessary to complete the full, faithful, and proper performance of their duties of employment for the City.”
Union City Workers’ Wages Well Below Local “Living Wage”
DC33 is the lowest paid of Philly’s four municipal unions and the only municipal union with majority-Black membership, the Philadelphia Inquirer previously reported. According to a recent report by NBC10, sanitation workers in Philadelphia earn the lowest salary of any major city in the US; they typically earn between $18-20 an hour. A living wage in Philadelphia County for a family with one child stands closer to $38.60, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator.
DC33 is currently asking for a 5% increases over each of the next four years; the city offered 2.75%, 3% and again 3% over three years, according to a July 3 Billy Penn report.
On day one of the strike in front of the Parkway Central Library at 1901 Vine Street, one union member carried her child while admonishing the current pay rate as “not enough to even pay for diapers.”
This isn’t the first time Mayor Cherelle Parker, the first Black woman elected mayor of Philadelphia, has faced organized community resistance.
Last year, Parker’s unpopular push to gentrify Chinatown with a 76ers stadium proposal was a disaster for the city, as she spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars trying to convince her constituents that selling out Chinatown with a new stadium was a good idea. Chinatown residents and their allies rose to “Save Chinatown,” clashing with the mayor at press conferences, city council hearings and outside of City Hall. Despite heroic efforts from the Chinatown community, the stadium deal was approved last December. However, 76ers management reversed their decision with the city, humiliating the Parker administration.
Mayor Parker is again facing backlash after claiming that the city cannot afford the union’s proposal. Video is circulating on social media from 2021, where Parker is seen giving an impassioned speech in support of fair wages for DC33 and even quotes James Baldwin, “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do!”
Meanwhile, Parker created 16 new positions within her administration that offer six figure salaries. Parker, herself, enjoys a 9% salary increase that was carried through during the last month of the previous administration. Last year, she received an additional 3.1% Cost of Living Adjustment bringing her salary to $269,708.
In Philly, the average sanitation worker makes between $39,000-42,000/year. A 5% increase, the union’s current demand, would bring that number up by about $2,100/year, on average. As negotiations continue, the Mayor demanded that “we must restore order before bargaining.” DC33 responded: “Order isn’t the issue—poverty pay is.”
No deal was on the table by the time July 4 approached, where the Wawa convenience store chain hosts its annual music festival celebration called Made in America.
In solidarity with the workers, LL Cool J announced that he would no longer be headlining the Fourth of July event. “I understand there’s a lot going on in Philadelphia right now, and you know, I never, ever, ever want to disappoint my fans, and especially in Philadelphia,” he said in a video on social media. “Y’all mean too much to me, but there’s absolutely no way that I could perform, cross a picket line and pick up money when I know that people are out there fighting for a living wage. I’m not doing that, you know?”
At 2 p.m., the union organized a picket line directly outside of the festival’s entrance, near the Free Library on 1901 Parkway. Scabby – a cartoonish inflatable rat used to shame union-busting employers – made an appearance while hundreds of picketers and their supporters gathered. Union members, a labor historian and even a small band playing old union hymns shared time on the mic.
By around 3:20 p.m., another performer and Philly native, Jazmine Sullivan, expressed her solidarity with the workers and refused to cross the picket line to perform. Her Instagram story read, “In this life we are only measured by how we uphold our morals and standards, by what we choose to fight for through participation or protest. Today I choose not to perform at the Wawa Welcome America concert and stand with Philly’s DC33 until the city and union find a way to bring fair living wages to our working class. I love my city and I believe in you. Hopefully we will get to celebrate when things are better.”
As uncollected trash keeps piling up, strikers with @afscme33 are encouraging supporters to keep contacting Cherelle Parker’s office to help apply pressure to agree to an 8 percent raise for garbage collectors & other essential workers who often struggle to make ends meet. pic.twitter.com/TL3KHdcA0U
The historical significance of a sanitation worker strike in the U.S. cannot be overstated. The 1,300-strong sanitation strike in Memphis, Tennessee, inspired Martin Luther King to give his 1968, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. “Don’t let anybody tell you to go back on the job and paternalistically say, ‘Now, you are my men and I’m going to do the right thing for you. Just come on back on the job.’ Don’t go back on the job until the demands are met. Never forget that freedom is not something that is voluntarily given by the oppressor. It is something that must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“The person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant. All labor has dignity.”
Martin Luther King Jr., March 18, 1968
Standing with members of the sanitation unit on July 6, Greg Boulware, president of AFSCME DC33, strengthened the resolve of the strikers.
“We see scales, charts and graphs all over the country that are highlighting how far below the men and women who work in the City of Philadelphia are living below the living wage scale. That has to change … I don’t care how many SCABS they get to try to do our work, they can’t do the work that District Council 33 does.”
Greg Boulware, President, AFSCME District Council 33
On Monday, July 7 – the seventh day of the strike – three activists from the environmentalist Sunrise Movement had a “Special Delivery” for Mayor Parker. Inside City Hall, overflowing trash bags were dragged in front of room 185. The bags carried a written message, “MEET DC33 DEMANDS.” A sit-in had begun.
According to a Sunrise Movement Instagram post, “we picked up garbage from Piccoli Playground in North Philly, one of the mayor’s temporary dumpsites where trash continues to pile up and put us at risk.” The three were quickly arrested. One yelled, “Workers deserve dignity! Cherelle, pay your workers!” All three were released later that evening.
The same morning, in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia, striking workers reported a large police presence outside of Queens Memorial Library. One union member said that no scabs had been able to cross the picket. “SCAB LINE” was written in chalk at the library’s entrance. “WE SEE YOU SCABS – WE REMEMBER” was chalked in large letters on an adjacent wall. As of July 7th, the Philadelphia Free Library website listed 48 library locations closed due to “union work stoppage.”
Whispers of a city-wide general strike loom as other work sectors experience labor disputes. ASFCME DC47 plans for a strike authorization vote on Thursday, which would add 3,000 more strike-ready workers.
Penn Museum Workers United AFSCME Local 397, who voted to strike this Wednesday, went to social media to express solidarity with DC33: “The working people of Philadelphia deserve more than the crumbs Mayor Parker and Penn are putting on the table.”
As the workers maintain their resolve with “One day longer, one day stronger,” Philadelphians continue to defy the Mayor’s orders to not put trash on the curb. Block by block, signs and notes are shared between neighbors expressing support for the striking sanitation workers. In the City of Brotherly Love, solidarity remains a love language for strike summer 2025.
Limited amount of physical copies available, come to ORCA Open Hours 7/9, 5-9:30pm for free pamphlets or email reekingthickets@proton.me to check availability and get copies at another time (free locally before 7/23, $3 after, plus shipping if not local)
Join us for two reading group discussions at ORCA (orcaphilly.noblogs.org/events/event/reading-group-bonanno-on-insurrectionary-organization/ – email ORCA at orca.philly@protonmail.com for address and accessibility info) where we’ll discuss the ideas in this newly compiled collection of writings by Alfredo Maria Bonanno in pamphlet form! Pick up a free physical copy of the reading at ORCA Open Hours on July 9th, 5-9:30pm (you can also print/read the pdf file included in this post), and come to a casual first discussion (covering pages 1-43), at ORCA Open Hours at 7:45pm July 16th, and a second discussion (pages 43-96) at ORCA Open Hours at 7:45pm July 23rd. Please do the reading beforehand (though you don’t have to participate in the reading group to come to open hours these days, and cross-talk is welcome), and if you’d like, feel free to bring any jotted-down questions or thoughts that come up.
This 96pg. collection of writings by Alfredo Bonanno (including some crude, new, provisional machine-translations with cursory manual corrections and added explanatory footnotes) aims to bring together some of his most concise, yet in-depth explanations of many of the core concepts of the specific strain of contemporary insurrectionary anarchism that he helped develop, which are often misunderstood or glossed over in jargon: projectuality, autonomous base nuclei (which include non-anarchists), affinity, informal organization, active/specific minorities (and their tools of counter-information, theory, intermediate struggles, and armed struggle), limited/specific struggles, the methodological trio of permanent conflictuality, self-management, and attack, and how these all relate to the mass process of insurrection. The particular value of this approach in the context of the real domination of post-industrial, technological society is also explored, as well as the relation between riot and insurrection, ideas of propaganda, linguistic and cultural alienation/estrangement/appropriation, destructive revolutionary consciousness oriented towards the unknown, and the significance of democratic, nationalist, authoritarian communist, synthesis or platform anarchist, shallowly spontaneist or individualist, unionist, and movementist tendencies.
We hope to evade some of the frequent snags that arise around current interpretations of Bonanno and contemporary insurrectionary anarchist theory, and feel that the material in this collection is far from another stale debate of the organizational question, and holds real, critical relevance from multiple angles for some contemporary impasses, transmitting, still, a powerfully fresh and possibilizing potential. Much will hopefully be at least somewhat new here for even those well-versed in current discussions, and, read alongside the anonymous classic At Daggers Drawn With the Existent, Its Defenders, and Its False Critics, and Armed Joy – also by Bonanno, we feel this collection can offer a very solid, well-rounded overview for readers unfamiliar with insurrectionary anarchist positions.
We do not intend to frame Alfredo Bonanno as some sort of mythical, revolutionary immortal with this collection, nor ourselves as any kind of privileged interpreter. It is not some detached intellectual fondness for decades-old European theoretical tracts passed through language barriers that leads us to feel these texts are relevant (though these ones do also please us to read). In fact, Bonanno’s rigorous criticism of this kind of ideological abstraction goes far further than many of his loyal, straight-talking critics who profess this angle. Both positive and negative appraisals of the insurrectionary anarchist proposals often suffer from a lack of genuine engagement with some of its primary theoretical elaborations, including with Bonanno’s work (though not only; our focus on him here doesn’t mean to repeat the frequent misconception that the many other, even less examined thinkers and currents historically involved are somehow irrelevant to the genesis of contemporary libertarian insurrectionary approaches). Part of this is a relative lack of translations, the tendency Bonanno had to sometimes present his complicated, often ambivalent (we mean this in a positive sense) ideas in simplified or indirect ways when not specifically explicating each referenced idea, the way that concise yet in-depth explanations of these core concepts are found somewhat scattered throughout his very prolific output (throughout which he wrote in numerous, divergent styles and tones), and his use of terms with specific contextual meanings. The over-reliance on secondary sources about his thought helps determine a situation where his positions are often presented in shallow terms, more relevant to the popular representation of his theoretical body of work than its actual content (all the more elusive for his fierce hostility to pre-determined dogma). Sometimes the criticism, largely baseless to us, alleges it’s too movementist and cautious, others find a concealed vanguardism, organizationalism, yet others that it’s too spontaneist, or spectacular, massified, isolated from the masses, militarist, classically socialist, insufficiently anti-civ, obsessively anti-acronym, etc.. Bonanno was himself drawn into polemics with critics or mistaken supporters revolving around these phantom positions, sometimes seeming to anticipate misreadings and frame his wording with these in mind (which an `opposite’ misunderstanding could find apparent confirmation in). The acknowledgement of this confusion, coupled with the implicit assertions of the contemporary invalidity of any conflictual premises shaped in the Italian Years of Lead, is itself a frequent excuse for watered-down, movementist readings, or to dismiss his positions a priori. In fact, we also live, in a different way, in bloody times, and the lack of a current Western analog for the Red Brigades (besides the vicarious would-be models of Palestinian authoritarian formations) could just as well argue for a reading less weighted towards emphasis of the pitfalls of armed struggle. In this situation and more generally, relevant insurrectionary analysis often appears split between very introductory treatments and highly elaborated, niche levels, subject to layers and layers of strongly diverging interpretation.
I disabled three cameras. The first one I cut the wire using wire cutters, another I painted over the dome with spray paint, and the third I cut the wires and pulled down the solar panel.
Here are two zines to help get started:
https://www.notrace.how/resources/read/how-to-submit-an-anonymous-communique.html
https://crimethinc.com/zines/blinding-the-cyclops
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
In this column, we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news, happenings, announcements, action and analysis. Packed in as always are updates, fundraisers, and birthdays.
There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!
Stop Cop City, Uprising Defendants, and Other Ongoing Cases
Right now, over 300 people are trapped in the W Building at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center – no air conditioning, no ventilation, no relief – in 100°+ heat.
Many are sick. The building is overcrowded. There’s black mold on the walls. And DOC is leaving them to suffer during a deadly heat wave.
This is a life-or-death crisis.
There’s an air-conditioned gym on site. They could be moved today. But Delaware DOC hasn’t done a thing.
CALL DOC NOW
Delaware Department of Correction
(302) 739‑5601
️Say this:
“I’m calling about the W Building at Vaughn. Over 300 people are trapped with no AC in extreme heat. There’s an air-conditioned gym – they need to be moved immediately. This is inhumane and unacceptable.”
You can also listen to accounts from the Vaughn SHU here and here.
Uprising Defendants
See Uprising Support for more info, and check outthe Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. You can also check With Whatever Weapons for regularly-updated zines listing current prisoners. To the best of our knowledge they currently include:
David Elmakayes 77782-066
FCI McKean
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 8000
Bradford, PA 16701
Issuing a challenge to regional anarchist networks across turtle Island! ! Camover has hit Montreal, Philly, and now New Jersey.
Grab your crew, spread propaganda, make a call specific to your local counter info site/spread thru signal networks if not applicable and get in on the smashy fun! Don’t let your city be left behind or unnecessarily surveilled. Philly has its first confirmed kill, and the heat only is making people go harder.
If you don’t know the game or the rules, it’s about disabling CCTV cameras, in the name of community defense against police incursion into our daily lives. Between facial recognition and high powered cameras with zoom and pan features, masking up, good bloc, and getting rid of those goddamn things is all the more important. Not to mention ALPRs like Flock (ride your bike or walk while camera hunting)
the rules are simple: use any tools at your disposal, make sure it doesn’t work, and don’t get caught ! The level to which you make it not work is obviously time location and method dependent, but get creative and have fun. Let us soon gather anywhere we like, confident we aren’t being watched by our enemies, unless they get off their ass and come see us
With so much love and equal rage ~some East Coast transsexual anarchists
Move like our dead are still beside us. They are our greatest strength and wisdom
