Submission
Palestine Supporters Rally Outside Biden/Shapiro Fundraiser in Philly
from Unicorn Riot
Philadelphia, PA — Several hundred supporters of Palestinian rights gathered at Washington Square Park and marched through the historic Society Hill district, arriving at the war memorial parks built above I-95 next to the waterfront Hilton at Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River for an early afternoon protest on Monday, December 11. Unicorn Riot interviewed several participants and heard from the organizers who called upon the Biden Administration to support a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Biden, on his ninth visit to the city this year, was at the Hilton for a political fundraiser with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a fellow Democrat. Earlier in the day he touted federal funding to reopen fire stations.
Protest organizer Sam Rise mentioned how student organizations have been suspended on college campuses, and “institutions and academics have been shamefully bullying and silencing” Palestine supporters. She added that members of the Working Families Party (WFP) have been introducing ceasefire resolutions in local governments. (Two WFP candidates won at-large seats last month in Philadelphia, ejecting the GOP from slots the party held for decades.) “Come November, we’ll remember” was a common chant at the event, as attendees vowed to hold the Biden Administration accountable for his support for Israel at the ballot box in 2024.
Anissa Weinraub from Jewish Voice for Peace talked about the “death and destruction at a rate that is unprecedented in recent human history” in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population is now displaced, with “so many on the brink of starvation”, referring to a “merciless military and their AI-programmed death machine“:
In a throwback to the Vietnam era chant “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” another organizer called out, “Biden, Biden, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today? Biden, Biden you can’t hide, you are funding genocide. Biden, Biden, you will see, Palestine will be free.”
One participant wearing a keffiyeh told Unicorn Riot,
“We are here to fight for human rights, we are here to fight for the people of Gaza, the innocent children that are being bombed day-in day-out. Our cousins, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, our fathers, we are all humans at the end of the day. We are here to fight for their human rights to live just like we get to live here in America. We should all have the right to live, to live in peace, and the innocent children did nothing wrong, they are just being bombed, for being alive, for being Palestinian.”
Regarding Biden’s recent actions and presence in Philadelphia he added, “It’s sickening honestly. Philadelphia does not stand for this, Philadelphia stands for freedom, Philadelphia stands for human rights, and Biden does not stand for any of that. … Palestinians are people just like us. I have friends that are Palestinian, I am Palestinian. We just want to live, that’s all we want. We just want to live like everyone else, and we are not given that option.”
We also found an innovative protest use of a DeWalt drill — this gizmo is known as an “impact train horn” and can make a 130 decibel racket with a squeeze of the drill trigger.
Palestine Solidarity Graffiti Spotted In South Jersey
from Jersey Counter-Info
Recently on state “owned” land in so-called Southern NJ, Palestinian solidarity graffiti was spotted.
The struggle for Palestinian liberation is one that is connected to settler states everywhere, especially the so-called united states. Palestine, Lenapehoking, and the rest of Turtle Island will be free.
Report on Dec 3 Flood Philly for Gaza Demonstration
Submission
The Philly Palestine Coalition called for another emergency action December 3rd, two days after the ceasefire. Over the past two—now going on three—months, the mobilization around Palestinian liberation has been a lesson to a lot of us: trust people’s rage. Trust the enormity of their grief. Trust that watching colonial genocide live-streamed has fractured some of the complacency of neoliberalism. If the demo intended to “Flood Philly for Gaza,” the chants were gushing through the cracks.
It was dreary out. PPC changed their demo location the day before (and then promptly got their IG deleted). Will the crowd be big enough? Trains were all out of wack. Will everyone be late? (Yes). While we initially felt discouraged and apprehensive, we underestimated each other and the crowd. We may have missed each other at the meet-up point (a lesson here about carrying a watch, or better yet, being punctual), but once we got dressed in black bloc we found each other easily. The larger crowd was tense, energized, and grew as we moved, swelling behind two pickup trucks hauling a PA system and speakers who addressed the crowd. The march snaked north from Rittenhouse Square, then west down side streets, where the vandals among us got bolder. Darting out in pairs and trios, people began writing decolonial and Palestinian solidarity graffiti, building momentum up to and across the Chestnut Street bridge.
Throughout the demo, people in bloc distributed fliers linking Israeli bombardment in Gaza to police violence in Philly, handing these to marchers and passersby, and ticketing them to the windshields of parked cars. A Philadelphia Parking Authority vehicle got itself vandalized along the way, too.
Graffitti at demos isn’t anything new — what feels remarkable was the support and complicity of more well-behaved marchers not in bloc. People looked out for graffiti writers, blocking the view of photographers, slowing foot traffic with bikes, and using Palestinian flags to shield writers from cops’ sight.
At a Starbucks on Penn’s campus, the march paused for speeches about the franchise’s support for Israel. Meanwhile, protestors crowded around the entrance, leaving room for people in bloc to write slogans on the walls and windows. One notable example: a writer painted “FREE GAZA” on a window while the students behind the glass bent over their laptops and pretended not to notice. Teens present in the march seemed particularly pumped here, surprised (and hopefully inspired) by vandals’ audacity. Continuing further west, the march ended at 40th St and Market, where a vigil for the UC Townhomes was already gathered. Speakers linked the displacement taking place in West Philly to the ethnic cleansing taking place in Palestine.
The demonstration ended with no arrests.
are you anarcho-curious?
from Instagram
We’re back on our bullshit! If you’re newly acquainted with anarchist thought or if you’re one of THOSE people, come on by and chat! Masks required!
Activists Speak Out After Philly Thanksgiving Parade Banner Drops
from Unicorn Riot
Philadelphia, PA — On November 23, around 11 a.m., Black and Indigenous and anti-Zionist Jewish activists hung banners along Interstate 676, just blocks away from the Thanksgiving Day Parade on occupied Lenapehoking land, otherwise known as Philadelphia. They collaborated to highlight the ongoing injustice and struggles of Indigenous people in the U.S. while also displaying solidarity with those against occupation in Palestine.
Parade floats accompanied by police escorts on all sides sped below the 10th Street overpass just moments before the first banner was hung. It served as a timely punctuation as east bound traffic watched the banner unfurl to read, “The Pequot Remember the Massacre.”
The Pequot Massacre occurred on May 26, 1637. Settler-colonial Puritan soldiers, organized as the Massachusetts Bay Colony Militia, aimed to steal the tribe’s traditional land in a surprise ambush that murdered 700 Pequot adults and children. During the massacre, settlers set fire to the village burning any remaining people alive. Governor John Winthrop declared a celebration of this massacre later that year that some consider to be the first Thanksgiving. The following year, white settlers outlawed the Pequot language and name, seized tribal lands, and forced some surviving Pequot people into slavery. This further galvanized the massacre into a genocide.
The second banner to be dropped from the overpass faced west bound traffic and revealed the words “End Genocide from Turtle Island to Palestine.”
The following day, Black Friday, other autonomous groups got to work hanging banners along this same interstate which runs like a river through the city center. However, on that morning, similar anti-colonial and anti-Zionist messages could now be read throughout this corridor of the city in defiance of erasure.
These banner drops follow acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, direct actions, and marches that have been happening all over Philadelphia on a near-daily basis since Israel began bombing Gaza after October 7.
They also occur within a broader movement framework of autonomous actions across the country that commemorated November 23 as the Indigenous National Day of Mourning — a day that serves to highlight centuries of atrocities committed against Indigenous people and to correct present myths in history texts taught in American schools.
For the last 53 years on the fourth Thursday of November, the Indigenous National Day of Mourning has taken place to “honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide.”
Since its first treaty, the U.S. government has continually broken each and every written agreement signed with Indigenous Nations as more white settlers wanted their land. Starting with the Treaty With the Delawares/Treaty of Fort Pitt in 1778 with the Lenni Lenape peoples.
In Pennsylvania in 1782, an American Revolutionary War officer and his militia slaughtered nearly 100 Lenape (mostly women and children) at the village of Gnadenhutten after wrongly believing they were responsible for attacks against white settlers. This led to more settler-colonialists moving onto Lenape territory, before the Treaty of Greeneville in 1795 forced the Lenape and other nearby tribes to surrender most of their lands.
All of this erasure, murder, and forced relocation continued to shrink and control the spaces where Indigenous people could inhabit. Thirty-five years later, in 1830, U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which codified the violent removal of Indigenous people from their ancestral lands en masse, in what’s known as the Trail of Tears. Today, data shows that Indigenous people in the United States have lost nearly 99% of the land they historically occupied.
Unicorn Riot heard about the aspirations of some of those involved in bringing the anti-colonial and anti-Zionist messaging into Philly’s downtown corporate Thanksgiving space.
UR: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Why do you think it’s important for this action to take place on Thanksgiving in the US?
“As an Indigenous activist it’s important to keep reminding people of the brutal history of ongoing displacement and genocide. My heart breaks for people all over the world who are actively displaced for the nation state war machine.
To have traditional food and practices whitewashed and fed back to us as if we should be grateful for the nod to our history while ignoring the part the capitalist U.S. state has played in killing us and our traditional practices is frankly disgusting.”
– K
“Much like we are seeing genocides in Palestine, Congo, Armenia, and Sudan be denied and erased in real time, colonizers have erased the continued and active genocide of Indigenous peoples in the so-called United States. They have taken our feasts and our foods, and have created a celebration from our suffering. They throw parades to commemorate their military victories while our people go hungry on our reservations and in our cities, homeless and in need in our own homelands. But we are here to remind them that we have not forgotten and we will not be silently erased.“
– F
UR: How did you bridge the gap between occupation in the U.S. and occupation in Palestine? What about the Pequot massacre did you want to invoke in this moment?
“To see the defense of Palestine is beautiful, but to condemn one genocide while celebrating another is not justice. Over 700 Pequot women, children, and elders were murdered in a surprise raid while many of their warriors were away. That is the true history of Thanksgiving. That is what is being celebrated today. Regardless of whether you can call it Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or your fall feast, if you are not telling the true history & feeling it’s full weight then you are commemorating our genocide. “
– F
UR: What did you want people to take away most from this action?
“I hope that the banners incite conversations that question colonialism here and in Israel. For non-Native people like myself who are gathering with family or friends today, I hope they talk about how to be part of initiating repair and reparations for Indigenous people in the US. Similarly, as an anti-Zionist Jewish person, I hope Jewish families talk about the way our identities and trauma are being manipulated for colonial purposes, and how we can resist that to stand with Palestinians.”
– R
“We should stand against occupation and genocide around the globe, and that begins with the land beneath our feet. We must examine our own role in continued genocide and settler colonialism, and we must take responsibility for ending all States at war with the People, including our own. We are not free until we are all free, and we are not all free until every oppressive force has fallen to the ground. Start where you are, start today, and don’t stop til we free them all.”
– F
In Contempt #35: Repression Strikes Toronto Palestinian Solidarity Activists, Community Rallies for Victor Puertas
from It’s Going Down
There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!
Political Prisoner News
Philadelphia ABC have shared a reportback from their recent Running Down the Walls event.
Cop City, Uprising Defendants, and Other Ongoing Cases
Ant Smith, a George Floyd uprising defendant, was sentenced recently in Philadelphia to 1 year and 1 day. He has been out on bail so will probably have to go back in for about another 9 months.
Uprising Defendants
See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. 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
Upcoming Birthdays
Fred “Muhammad” Burton
Fred Burton is one of the Philly 5, a group of men accused of an alleged attack on a police station that left one officer killed. He was sentenced to a life term for murder. Burton has maintained his innocence since his arrest. His preferred name is Muhammad, but envelopes should be addressed to Fred Burton.
Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility,” choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “AF3896”.
Birthday: December 15
Address:
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Fred Burton
AF3896
SCI Somerset
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida
33733
Alejandro Rodriguez-Ortiz
A former Vaughn 17 defendant. While the state has now dropped its attempts to criminalize Alejandro in relation to the uprising, all Vaughn-related prisoners continue to be targets for retaliation. Years later, these prisoners are still being abused for staying in solidarity with one another against the state.
Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “NW2883”.
Birthday: December 17
Address:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Alejandro Rodriguez-Ortiz, NW2883
SCI Rockview
PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, FL 33733
Jonathan Rodriguez
A former Vaughn 17 defendant. While the state has now dropped its attempts to criminalize Jonathan in relation to the uprising, all Vaughn-related prisoners continue to be targets for retaliation. Years later, these prisoners are still being abused for staying in solidarity with one another against the state.
Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “NU0434”.
Birthday: December 31
Address:
Smart Communications / PA DOC
Jonathan Rodriguez – NU0434
SCI Rockview
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL, 33733
Monday December 4th: Reportback Mailing and Card-writing
from Philly ABC
In lieu of our usual monthly letter-writing event, we will be mailing printed copies of our 2023 Running Down The Walls reportback to the political prisoners and prison rebels who participated from behind the walls, and to the 15 political prisoners supported by the ABCF Warchest.
Join us this Monday at 6:30pm, at Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St. #2I) as we package and mail the reportbacks. Snacks and supplies are provided. We encourage people who want to discuss ideas on how to support political prisoners and prisoners of war to come hang out, and sign cards for political prisoners with birthdays in December: Fred “Muhammad” Burton (December 15th) and Casey Brezik (December 30th).
