from It’s Going Down
There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!
Repression Continues Against the Palestine Solidarity Movement
As Scott Campbell wrote:
According to The New York Times, just last semester more than 3,100 people were arrested on 73 campuses across the U.S. While the state attempts to frame the Palestine solidarity movement as violent (despite evidence to the contrary), the real violence has emerged from law enforcement and the far-Right. Harkening back to the police-facilitated far-Right street violence against antifascists several years ago, there has also been violence by Zionists, most notably at UCLA, where a far-Right mob attacked the Gaza solidarity encampment for hours as police watched. And the state and its allies in the universities have only ramped up for more repression this fall.
Whether it be through the purchase of drones and less-lethal weaponry, the creation of new policies designed to stifle student expression, firing tenured professors, or deeming Zionists a “protected class,” the overall pattern, as summarized by Palestine Legal, is that “these policies have ultimately consolidated administrative and state power while undermining freedom of expression, the right to assembly and protest, academic freedom, and safety for students and faculty on campuses across the country.” As this article was being put together, pro-Palestine organizers in Philadelphia at Penn State had their home raided by armed police who made no arrests. This follows the university banning Penn Students Against the Occupation back in April. Combined with statements from Donald Trump that he’ll deport radicals and protesting students, or attention seekers like Republican Senator Tom Cotton calling for protesters to be thrown off bridges, there is a perfect storm of hate, fear, ignorance, repression, fascism, and genocide.
This moment has also seen the ongoing weaponization of anti-Semitism. Rather than deal with the very real threat and severity of anti-Semitism in the United States, what can be seen is a continuation of Trump-era policies, where as president he embraced the anti-Semitic far-Right while deploying his administration, notably under the tenure of Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kenneth Marcus, to crack down on speech critical of Israel in the name of fighting anti-Semitism. Recently, the Heritage Foundation, author of Project 2025, released “Project Esther,” which calls for the government to go after anti-Zionists in the name of combating anti-Semitism. The report claims groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine form an elaborate “Hamas Support Network” and should be targeted using counter-terrorism, immigration, and RICO laws. On Palestine, the state, the university “liberal elite,” and the reactionary far-Right all speak in one voice: Question the genocidal settler-colonial status quo, and we’ll come for you.
Uprising Defendants and Ongoing Cases
You can continue to write Hybachi using this form or by sending a single sided letter to this forwarding address:
Hybachi LeMar
c/o Midwest Books to Prisoners
1321 N Milwaukee Avenue PMB 460
Chicago, IL 60622
Hybachi’s support crew have also recently posted a series of audio messages from him, covering subjects including zines as resistance, reading while squatting, what it means to be different and the life of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Maria Nikoforova.
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office is organizing to support two people who have been arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with an alleged action at a mink farm.
The Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross has a post up with info and ways to donate and there is a crowd-funding campaign set-up here.
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
Khalif Miller #70042-066
USP Big Sandy
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 2068
Inez, KY 41224
Upcoming Birthdays
Dwayne Staats
One of the two Vaughn 17 defendants to be convicted for taking part in the Vaughn prison uprising of early 2017. Dwayne and his co-defendant Jarreau “Ruk” Ayers bravely admitted to their own parts in the uprising, and then, free to testify openly without fear of incriminating themselves any further, tore holes in the prosecution’s attempts to convict anyone else – as he put it, “we’d accept being stabbed in the chest to present others from getting stabbed in the back”. To learn more about Dwayne in his own words, you can follow his instagram, read his letter to the Kentucky Attorney General, or his contribution to the Vaughn zine, “Live from the Trenches”.
Birthday: November 10
Address:
Dwayne Staats 467005
Delaware DOC – 1101
P.O. Box 777
Las Vegas NV 89193
