from Philly ABC
Philly ABC held our 25th Anniversary Running Down the Walls (RDTW) on Sunday, September 15th 2024 in solidarity with political prisoners everywhere and Palestinians resisting genocide in Gaza, the biggest prison on earth. This was, to our knowledge, the largest RDTW ever, with 398 comrades on sneakers, rollerblades, and weelchairs, multiple dogs, and a kitten joining us at FDR Park. More comrades participated from within prison walls, including Toby Shone and other prisoners at HMP Garth in the UK, Marius Mason and other prisoners at FMC Fort Worth, Jesse (Tall Can) Cannon at the Sierra Conservation Center, and Jerome Coffey at SCI Pine Grove. We’re thrilled to announce that in addition to being the most well-attended, this RDTW was also the most financially successful: we raised $41,243! All of the proceeds have now been disbursed to the Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF) Warchest and Palestinian mutual aid projects.
The morning began with scholar, facilitator, and yoga teacher Sheena Sood leading us in a warm-up in the grassy area in front of the Boathouse Pavilion. Emceeing the rest of the event was YahNé Ndgo of Homegrown Maroons, the Annual Maroon Legacy Prisoners’ Families Brunch, the Care Space Project, and the Black Alliance for Peace. YahNé got the 5k going in three waves―fast, medium, and leisurely―while supporters lined the path to cheer and hand out water. After reaching the finish line, participants visited tables representing Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Philly chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Solidarity Food Not Bombs, the Philly Socialist Rifle Association, and others. Black Liberation Army militant and ABCF co-founder Ojore Lutalo was also present to share his most recent art.
Once everyone returned, we gathered to listen to Abu Ali from Samidoun speak movingly about the importance of supporting prisoners and the connections between resistance at home and in the tunnels. Other speakers followed, including Indigo from Philly Queers for Palestine and a representative from Casey Goonan’s support group. We also read solidarity statements sent by imprisoned comrades Xinachtli, Marius Mason, Oso Blanco, Toby Shone, and Jesse Cannon.
All participants received the official event t-shirt. This year we also printed two limited edition shirts in solidarity with Gaza and commemorating the 25th anniversary of RDTW. The remaining stock of all the designs are still for sale on our website.
Ordinarily, we split profits evenly between the ABCF Warchest and a different political prisoner or organization each year. This year, for the first time, we did not designate a specific co-recipient before the event. Early in our planning, we corresponded with people in Cairo who facilitated evacuations from Gaza, but then Israel seized and closed the Rafah Crossing, making this work impossible. Acknowledging that the situation would likely continue to be fluid and unpredictable, we decided to rally simply for “mutual aid in Gaza” and choose specific co-recipients based on the emerging reality on the ground. Given the strength of our fundraising and the urgency of the situation in Palestine, we ultimately decided to send equal amounts to the ABCF Warchest and four carefully selected Palestinian mutual aid organizations: Thamra, the Sameer Project, the Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment, and the Sanabel Team.
Thamra promotes food sovereignty in Northern Gaza through restoring water access, building urban food gardens, and providing fresh produce. It was created by farmer Yousef Abu Ra- bea, whose family has cultivated straw- berries in Beit Lahia for generations, and photographer Leena Almadhoun. Early in the escalation of the genocide, Yousef managed to hastily collect seeds and seedlings from his family farm before evacuating amidst heavy IDF shelling. Upon his return, he scavenged dried-out peppers and eggplants from the ruins. He and his brothers began planting anew in rooftop containers, and in the land between their home and a destroyed kindergarten. Once they could provide fresh produce for their family and surrounding community, they began traveling across Northern Gaza, sharing food, seeds, and water, and creating new gardens. On Octo- ber 22nd ― shortly after Philly ABC learned of Yousef and Leena’s work but before we were able to make contact with them ― we learned that Yousef was martyred alongside another team member, Zakaria Abu Sultan, by a targeted IDF airstrike. Their work is now being continued by the organization Yousef created. We extend our support and solidarity to Thamra in Yousef and Zakaria’s memory.
The Sameer Project is a grassroots aid organization led by four Palestinians in the diaspora. Originating as an informal mutual aid network within an extended Palestinian family, it expanded to coordinate shelter and medical aid in central and South Gaza, and food, water, diapers, and medical aid in north Gaza. We are supporting their recent initiative, the Refaat Alareer Camp, which provides shelter and medical care in central Gaza for perinatal and neonatal people, children with disabilities, and adults with special needs and mobility issues, war injuries, and chronic diseases. The Refaat Alareer Camp is named after the professor, writer, and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers, whose last prophetic poem written to his daughter Shaimaa, “If I Must Die,” has become a touchstone of Palestinian resilience both in Gaza and internationally. In December 2023, after months of death threats, Refaat was martyred in a targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, sister, and four of his nephews. In April 2024, after being displaced from their home in Shujayya, Shaimaa was martyred alongside her husband and two month-old son in an Israeli airstrike. In September 2025, the Refaat Alareer Camp was targeted by the IDF and had to be relocated. On April 6th 2025, the IDF assigned a “red zone” to the area surrounding the new camp, and it was displaced a second time. In June 2025, camp manager Mosab was martyred. We extend our support and solidarity to the Sameer Team in the memory of Refaat Alareer, Shaimaa, and Mosab, and in the spirit of Alareer’s final printed words: “If I must die, / you must live.”
Since July 2024, the Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment has faced evacuation orders and the closure of humanitarian corridors to provide food, water, medical care, and other necessities to 300 residents requiring urgent perinatal care in Gaza. It is expanding to provide the same level of support to 1000 residents with disabilities and urgent medical needs. OOB is an international organization that links on-the-ground mutual aid projects with international support. The Family Encampment is coordinated by PAL Humanity, two Palestinian doctors and sisters who provide field visits and distribute medical aid; Palestinian dentist Dr. Zayn Eldeen, who distributes infant formula and hot meals; and Palestinian cook Amani Alkahlout, who cooks for hundreds of families in Rafah and runs supply deliveries.
The Sanabel Team is a Palestinian-led mutual aid initiative launched in 2018 to help families in need in Khan Yunis. It has since expanded to provide food, clean water, and basic needs to families displaced internally in Gaza and externally to Egypt. The Gaza team continues to provide daily hot meals despite constant threat of violence and repeated displacement. On at least one occasion (October 7th 2024), the team has been forced to flee their mobile kitchen under Israeli bombardment. On May 27th 2024, Sanabel worker and video editor Muhammad was martyred during the Israeli bombing of a refugee camp that killed 44 other people and wounded more than 200, most of them women and children. Muhammad was 27. We extend our support and solidarity to Sanabel in Muhammad’s memory.
The Anarchist Black Cross Federation Warchest was established in 1994 through coordination between the ABCF and political prisoners Ojore Lutalo, Sundiata Acoli and Sekou Odinga. It covers monthly stipends to political prisoners and prisoners of war with insufficient other sources of support. It also provides one-time grants in emergency situations and when prisoners are released. Many of its recipients are movement elders facing lengthy sentences for significant work in support of Black liberation, decolonial, ecological, and anarchist movements. Longer-term prisoners tend to be forgotten over time―indeed, this is one of the primary goals of their incarceration. By staying in dialogue with these comrades and making sure they remain materially supported, the ABCF not only ensures we don’t leave behind those who’ve given the most for our struggles, it also ensures that their voices are at the center of how we evolve our movements into the future. Please read more about the current Warchest recipients―14 friends and comrades most of whom have spent decades in prison for their beliefs or actions for freedom, autonomy and justice―using the link above. Get involved in our work keeping connections with those locked up by sending them mail or signing up for our announcement list.
Disbursing funds took longer than usual this year due both to the extreme complexity of making sure people on the ground in Gaza would actually receive the funds — including the martyring of intended recipients by the IDF before we could get funds to them — and also the sudden stroke that afflicted our fiscal sponsor, Daryle Lamont Jenkins. A full accounting of money in and out is listed in the tables below.
| Proceeds | |
|---|---|
| Event registrations and day of shirt sales | $16,418 |
| Matching donations | $23,250 |
| Post-event shirt sales | $1,575 |
| Total | $41,243 |
| Costs | |
|---|---|
| Wholesale participant t-shirts | $2,440 |
| Benevity (matching program) fee | $779.76 |
| Fiscal sponsorship fee | $400 |
| Total Costs | $3,619.76 |
| Subtotal to disburse | $37,623.24 |
| Beneficiary disbursements | |
|---|---|
| Thamra | $7,575 |
| Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment | $7,575 |
| The Sameer Project | $7,575 |
| The Sanabel Team (+$221 Givebutter fees) | $7,343.24 |
| ABCF Warchest | $7,555 |
| Total | $37,623.24 |
We send you this reportback with thanks for your support for Philly’s 2024 RDTW and celebration of its success, but also with ongoing concern. The struggle continues both for Gazans facing an ever-intensifying genocide, and for our longtime comrades behind bars, some of whom have now been imprisoned for over 50 years. Let’s stay committed to these interlinked struggles, and continue supporting our comrades everywhere.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Free them all.
