Posts by Philly Anti-Cap

In Contempt #49: Interview with IWOC Prisoner Organizer Comrade Z

  • February 5, 2025 1:32 am

from It’s Going Down

[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!

Political Prisoner News

Long-term Black Liberation prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal recently recorded a special message in support of the “Merrimack 4,” who were convicted for an action against a company supplying weapons to Israel.

General Prison News and Abolitionist Media Updates

The ACLU of Delaware has filed a lawsuit against the Delaware prison system and Vaughn Correctional Center after a brutal raid in late 2024. Vaughn, the prison at the centre of the lawsuit, saw a historic uprising at the start of Trump’s first term in 2017.

Uprising Defendants

See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the 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

Khalif Miller #70042-066
USP Big Sandy
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 2068
Inez, KY 41224

Upcoming Birthdays

Luis Sierra (Abdul-Haqq El-Qadeer)

A former Vaughn 17 defendant. While the state has now dropped its attempts to criminalize Luis in relation to the uprising, Vaughn defendants continue to face retaliation. Luis is also a contributor to “Live from the Trenches,” the Vaughn 17 zine.

Delaware appears not to have an inmate email system.

Birthday: February 19

Address:

Luis Sierra
Delaware DOC – 1101
PO Box 96777
Las Vegas, NV 89193

 

Sports Riot and Unrest Chronicle – Philadelphia, PA

  • February 2, 2025 1:09 am

from Unravel

January 26, 2025

With the Eagles headed to their second Super Bowl in three years, crowds of fans swarmed across the city, many marching up Broad Street, blasting music, waving flags, and — as part of tradition — climbing light poles. And in some cases, the crowd’s enthusiasm took a dangerous turn.

Earlier Sunday, at 6:20 p.m., an officer working the NFC championship detail at 700 Pattison Ave. was attacked by 32-year-old [name], of Soquel, Calif. [name] was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and related crimes.

Less than two hours earlier, at 4:40 p.m., another officer also working the football championship detail at 1100 Pattison Ave. was assaulted during a disturbance, police said. The assailant, [name], 44, of Media, was also charged with aggravated assault and related crimes, police said.

The incident was among at least four reports of assaults on police officers, authorities said.

The violence and vandalism reverberated throughout the city, even as celebrations wound down.

As officers tried to disperse a large crowd at 100 South Broad St., the crowd became verbally hostile and an officer was hit in the head by a full water bottle, police said. No arrests were made.

And around 4:10 a.m. Monday, police responded to a report of vandalism at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where the glass front door was shattered and two large windows were cracked. Police continue to investigate.

Police are also investigating a video circulating on social media of a man firing his gun multiple times into the air in the middle of a crowd gathered at Frankford and Cottman Avenues.

Police said they issued 31 citations for disorderly conduct or failure to disperse to 30 adults and one juvenile across the city as they tried to manage the large crowds that traveled after the Eagles’ victory on Sunday night.

Found on Mainstream Media

Mark Kauffman’s Bad Behavior While Sara And Baby Were Dying

  • February 1, 2025 1:03 am

from Philly Fash Watch

We’ve long since established that Mark Kauffman is a piece of shit. From his early days on our radar attempting to create a national socialist youth group called NSYA and S14, we’ve meticulously documented his actions. Because of our effective work, neither group exists anymore. Eat shit Mark. Here is where Mark was originally documented and doxxed, via a collaboration between Jersey Counter-Info and SunlightAFA NJ Hate Watch: S14’s Neo Nazi Leaders Mark Kauffman and Sara Sheaffer – Jersey Counter-Info.

As first noted on a gofundme, Mark’s wife Sara had a massive heart attack while pregnant. Sara had been Mark’s ride or die, from their days homeless in Massachusetts while abusing meth. In June of 2024 the two were supposed to be married but the event was raided by US Marshal’s the night before, as Mark had been a fugitive from Massachusetts for years on weapons and drug charges. No, not simple possession. 200+ grams of meth. 

Due to Sara and the baby’s complications from birth, Mark’s trial has been delayed. The previous status hearing January 24, 2025 was delayed again until March 26, 2025. We suspect there will be no further delays and that his trial will finally begin. Co-Leader of Philly Area Nazi group, S14, Dies: Her Newborn Struggling On Life Support – Idavox

Mark and Sara lived in Kensington. If you’re familiar with the area, you know that nazis are not welcome. We made certain that their neighbors knew exactly what these two were about. After extensive flyering and community outreach, they fled their home and moved into Mark’s grandfathers home in Delaware. It should be noted that Mark does not have a valid driver’s license. This is about to become important to this terrible story.

There’s a wonderful program called The Ronald McDonald House, where families of sick patients at Penn Hospital and CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) are given free rooms to stay in while their loved ones are very ill. Family Rooms – RMHC Philadelphia Region. As I’m sure comes to no surprise to you, our dear reader, Mark Kauffman took advantage of this generous gift he was given. While his wife and baby were dying, Mark would go out drinking at night with his nazi buddies at bars in the area. This includes a nazi security guard at the hospital who we aren’t naming…yet (your time is limited). This article is strictly about Mark and how horrible of a human he is.

While going out drinking isn’t against the law, there’s something to be said about a man’s morals who chats up ladies while his wife and infant are dying. Eyewitness accounts flagged this behavior not just as the bars, but also when he brought them to his room at the Ronald McDonald House. He also brought his nazi buddies up there, where blowing lines of cocaine became his passion. Since Mark is unemployed (his nazi buddy Alex Chubbuck whom we wrote our first article as PhillyFashWatch about Nazi Alex Chubbuck of Boyertown, PA | Philly Fash Watch fired him because Alex is more concerned about his business than anything in the world) we can only assume that he was using money from the gofundme fundraiser to feed his nose candy addiction.

On the day of Sara’s death, Mark unsurprisingly went out to the bars again. Upon returning Mark was met at his room at the Ronald McDonald House, room 902, by security. Maintenance workers had responded to a plumbing issue in his room and found cocaine and white power crap. Mark was immediately kicked out of this charitable place for being a piece of shit (remind us if this sounds familiar). Forced to move back to his grandfather’s home in another state since he couldn’t return to Kensington and without a license we don’t know how he could visit his infant in the NICU unit.

Our hearts break for the baby. They didn’t deserve to be born to two wannabe fuhrers. Now that Mark Kauffman is alone, we need to discuss the arsenal of weapons that he has in Delaware at his grandfather’s home. Mark is a trained killer by the US military. He’s facing a long jail sentence for the drug and gun charges the US Marshal’s picked him up for in June. With that hearing no longer facing delays, all of us are fearful that Mark could be a mass shooter before that March 26th date. As always, fuck nazis. They will never feel peace as long as we’re around.

Co-Leader of Philly Area Nazi group, S14, Dies: Her Newborn Struggling On Life Support

  • January 28, 2025 1:52 am

from Idavox

Normally, “Sara Sheaffer-Kauffman, Rot In Hell” would be the headline greeting you. But we weren’t feeling it this time because—and ONLY because—of her baby Elle. Let’s not get this twisted. The only innocent in this disturbing neo-Nazi saga is the infant currently fighting for her life. Her drug-addled Nazi parents, who were founders and members of at least three fascist organizations in PA, are not getting sympathy from us.

In June, neo-Nazi Storm Division (S14) founders Mark Kauffman and Sara Sheaffer tried to get married. Their wedding celebrations were interrupted because Mark, 32, was picked up at the venue by law enforcement. He had an outstanding warrant in Massachusetts for drug trafficking and weapons charges from six years ago. Kauffman managed to post bail and the couple  wed, though in a much smaller ceremony. Six months later, Sara, 29, was dead.

Sara Kauffman’s death was  announced on Jan. 12 on a GoFundMe campaign set up for her and her baby. She was 32 weeks pregnant Sept. 12 when she suffered a heart attack while driving Mark to work in South Philadelphia. After Mark flagged down a Black police officer, who immediately began CPR, Sara was transported to the University of Pennsylvania hospital. She then had a second massive heart attack, while the doctors performed an emergency c-section. Sara suffered massive brain damage, never woke up, and died on Jan. 6. Their baby has been in the hospital since the birth and intubated as doctors are working to save her life.

According to a July article, Sara and Mark were co-leaders of S14. This group is active on the social platform Telegram, encouraging pop-up style protests – surprise rallies –  to avoid opposition, and vandalizing neighborhoods with Nazi stickers, spray paint and flyers. Sara can be seen in many photos participating in these events. S14 works closely and shares members with White Lives Matter PA, New Jersey European Heritage Association and the now defunct Embrace Struggle Active Club. Sara and Mark attended flash mob style demonstrations with all of these groups. They promoted their groups’ hate activities alongside these other groups. They recruited members such as convicted sex offender Ben Ryder, for demonstrations.

S14 with the NJEHA
Sheaffer and Kauffman holding a new S14 flag at an action in Easton PA with S14, NJEHA, Embrace Struggle Active Club, and other fascists. Sara is in the foreground.

Both Mark, an Army veteran, and Sara were using hard drugs in 2018 and living in Massachusetts when there was an arrest warrant issued for him, after a shotgun, rocket launcher and methamphetamine were found in a storage unit in Hadley, Mass., that was connected to him. The couple fled to Philadelphia before he was arrested, after evading his legal troubles for years. In June 2024, wedding announcements and websites led authorities to finally catch up with him. Mark was arrested on the night before their wedding in the Airbnb they had rented for the occasion. The couple married in July 2024, after Mark posted bail.

Mark Kauffman is still out on bail. No further information about his case has been released.

Children’s Liberation: The Liberation of Us All

  • January 20, 2025 1:47 am

from O.R.C.A.

  • Date: 2025/02/09 13:00

No matter who you are or where you come from, in one way or another, the boot of adult supremacy is unavoidable.

This conversation is one for all ages, as we all struggle to remove the boot from all our necks. Let’s imagine a world where the inner child doesn’t need to be healed, but can flourish from the beginning.

Discussion will include the universality of adult supremacy, the history of the movement, and how we can start to give the youth their autonomy back.

The Responsibility of Criminals

  • January 13, 2025 1:59 am

Submission

A new short zine (The Responsibility of Criminals) questioning how one acts under political persecution and certain risks of being a political criminal.

[Screen Reading PDF]
[Printing PDF]

Safety Under Surveillance: A Discussion For Organizers

  • January 13, 2025 1:39 am

from Instagram

Join us next Thursday, January 16, at @thewoodenshoebooks for a discussion on security culture, or how to protect yourself and your organization under a surveillance state! There will be a brief presentation followed by an open discussion. Hosted by Food Not Bombs South Philly and The Wooden Shoe. All are welcome & masks required.

Safety Under Surveillance: A discussion for organizers
January 16, 2025 | 6 pm
The Wooden Shoe
704 South St

Of COURSE Nazi Rally Against One People’s Project, Did Not Go Exactly As Planned!

  • December 23, 2024 1:21 am

from Idavox

Claudino G. Petruccelli when DLJ showed up.

Any time you try to sneak around to do anything, it only takes catching you to ruining everything.

The neo-Nazi organization in New Jersey run by a Uber Eats worker name Claudino G. Petruccelli, who is known for getting caught flat footed in his Nazi capers, could only get ten people to protest outside One People’s Project on Saturday night. But, that was not their only fail. Their plan to meet up at a diner in the next town over was learned about by antifascists, including One People’s Project Executive Director Daryle Lamont Jenkins, and when they were confronted by antifascists at the diner, left without even paying their tab according to workers.

<MEDIA>@https://idavox.com

Petruccelli, who grew up in a affluent community whose family owns a construction company. In recent years was the one-time leader of the New Jersey chapter of White Lives Matters, but after arrests, including his own in 2021, another group was created out of the ashes call the Atlantic Nationalist Club (AnaC).

AnaC’s original plan was to protest a church that Petruccelli believed connected to One People’s Project. Most of the ten who joined the protest came from other states. Two came from Pennsylvania, including Quintynn Stark from Lancaster, who has dreams of being a professional skateboarder. He removed his Instagram page then simply made it private, but he is still see on the his sponsors PAIN! Skateboards’ page. He reportedly told his parents he was going to drive to a concert in York, Penn., and they didn’t know he was going to New Jersey to participate in a Neo-Nazi rally. A group was from Staten Island and four came from Connecticut. Only three were from New Jersey, Petruccelli and two others.

Quintynn Stark
Quintynn Stark

The Nazis gathered at the Edison Diner to wait for the Connecticut group to join. When antifascists arrived at the diner, Petruccelli grabbed an empty beer bottle and made threatening remarks to Jenkins and others. Within five minutes of antifascists’ arrival, the Nazis quickly left.

Antifascists waited for them to resurface until they learned that the AnaC members had retreated to a safe space. Petruccelli threw a temper tantrum and demanded to see everyone’s phone to see who had revealed their meetup location. It was almost 11 p.m. when they came to the One People’s Project office and by this time everyone was leaving. Jenkins ridiculed the group and the Nazis chanted for five minutes before leaving with the police following them as they walked to nearby Boyd Park where they have staged many photo ops.

<MEDIA>@https://idavox.com

No one was hurt or arrested Saturday night, and AnaC’s actions reflected a fad among hate groups in recent years—having flashmob style rallies to avoid having anyone opposing them. Trying to be clandestine hasn’t always worked for Petruccelli’s and other groups in New Jersey.

Petruccelli first met Jenkins in November 2021 in Princeton, New Jersey, when Petruccelli attempted to affix a White Live Matter sticker in one of the city’s busiest areas and was chased off. Two weeks later, Petruccelli was arrested along with two others when they again tried to post White Lives Matters stickers on sign posts in Somerville, NJ.

One of the two left soon after and reportedly joined another Nazi group called Blood Tribe. The other one, Steve V. Koshlyak is currently being held on charges that have not been made public since his arrest in July, just a few days after Andrew Takhistov was arrested on charges he was part of a plot to destroy a New Jersey energy facility. Takhistov is also an associate of Petruccelli. His friend Nick Mucci is also in jail for trying to attack a benefit show for One People’s Project in Asbury Park, N.J. He was sentenced in September to eight years after pleading out over the summer.

Friday banner drop: 76 Place Will Never Be Built

  • December 22, 2024 1:28 am

Submission

On Thursday, Philadelphia city council approved 76 Place, the downtown basketball arena threatening Chinatown. Are we surprised? Philadelphia government has been auctioning off neighborhoods of color to the highest bidder for generations.

Less than 24 hours after the vote, while billionaire developers and their lackeys were still congratulating themselves on the buying off local government yet again, some autonomous artists dropped a multi-story banner off of a Center City parking garage with a reminder that the fight is just beginning. “76 Place Will Never Be Built,” it read. “From Philly to Palestine, stop land grabs.” The three billionaire housing moguls salivating at the destruction of Chinatown are the architects of gentrification and settler colonialism from the Black Bottom to Palestine. We’re just getting started. They will fail. Solidarity means attack.

How can one live freely in the shadow of a prison?

  • December 19, 2024 1:15 am

Submission

flyer .png: https://upload.disroot.org/r/hUBqVExC#PhuSmVKBegubTa6qLs72At5lyIHGsK3aX6at31YXjIU=

flyer PDF: https://upload.disroot.org/r/DfteY0Wu#BVshmlG7jvVnbolWTfoSUAylk+Dm7KAf4m97jB1/HEg=

How can one live freely in the shadow of a prison?

There are moments, like today in Syria, when we can only rejoice. See the statues of Bashar and his relatives looted, the crowds in the streets, the open prison doors. These moments that remind us that all regimes, including the most authoritarian ones, can fall.

If there is a constant in the revolutions, it is that of freeing prisoners. Symbol of power, of who can decide the freedom of its subjects, prison is one of the nodes on which rests submission to the State and acceptance of social norms.

One of the worst prisons in the world, Sednaya, has apparently been completely emptied of its prisoners, allowing people to see their relatives whom they had not heard from for many years or even meet them for the first time. But let’s not be mistaken, while the «rebels» are emptying the prisons of the fallen regime, those under their control are already filled with opponents.

Revolutionaries have already fallen in the trap of supporting pro-State organisations, by third-worldism, against imperialism, seduced by kurdish communalism or the romanticism of the guerrilla. Unfortunately it is more a religious alliance, wishing to give direction to “the will of the people” than the insurgents in Syria who managed to overthrow the regime. Such structures using military practices will never be desirable. We want to carry an anti-authoritarian and without borders solidarity with the revolted in Syria, because our hopes in the Syrian revolution go beyond the perpetuation of a society held by arms, subjected to a celestial power as earthly, which requires prisons to exist.

While we welcome the liberation of syrians from the shackles of Assad’s clan, we can only hope that what was in seed during the 2011 insurrections can go even further, towards a self-organisation of all spheres of daily life, attack and the total questioning of power and property.

Here as there, so much remains to be destroyed. Prisons, Religions, States.

Happiness to the reunion of the freed, force to the ones locked up all over the world!

Anarchists, confident as wary,
France, December 9th 2024

Leila Khaled: Hijacker Screening

  • December 10, 2024 1:32 am

from O.R.C.A.

  • Date: 2024/12/17 19:00

A screening of documentary film Leila Khaled: Hijacker. The film profiles the first woman to hijack a plane, Palestinian fighter Leila Khaled. After the film we’ll have a discussion.

2006
58 Minutes
Directed by Lina Makboul
Leila Khaled was the first woman in the world to hijack an aircraft. As a member of the Popular front for the liberation of Palestine, PFLP, she hijacked an American Boeing 707 in 1969. This is the story told by a young Palestinian who grew up in Sweden about what made Leila Khaled become one of the world’s most famous terrorists and the most famous Palestinian Woman of all.

LAST FEW DAYS TO ORDER A TSHIRT OR ARTWORK FOR CARA&CELESTE’S FUNDRAISER!!!!

  • December 9, 2024 1:53 am

from Unoffensive Animal

Hey folks just a quick shout out to our fundraiser. We are selling t-shirts and art prints designed by super radical artists from across the globe to raise funds for Cara and Celeste. The pre-order only fundraiser will close down in 72 hours, so it is now or never!

Cara and Celeste were arrested in the vicinity of a fur farm that had been raided, where over 600 mink were released to freedom. They spent a few weeks until they managed to post bail and now they are preparing for a legal battle in court contesting many charges including felony eco terrorism.

Philly ABC has a fundraiser going and we would like to send as much money as we possible can to it, so if you can afford it please grab a tee or some prints to contribute! If you grab a print collection and a t-shirt in the same order we will add a few stickers for free as a thank you. 

Please note that this is a preorder item only, which means they will only be sent once they are printed (likely next week), so if you’re ordering other bits from the website which are not marked as pre-order items they will ship together once the tees are ready!

Grab the tees and prints here:
https://unoffensiveanimal.is/product-category/mink-trial-solidarity/

Please donate generously if you can, and even if you can’t afford it please just share this far and wide so others see it before we close the preorders!

SOLIDARITY ALWAYS!

Sunday December 8th: Letter-writing for the Merrimack Four

  • December 8, 2024 1:32 am

from Philly ABC

merrimack-4-letter-writing.jpg

Join us on Sunday, December 8th at 6:30pm at Wooden Shoe Books for the next session of our letter-writing series illuminating facets of resistance movements for a free Palestine. This month, we’ll be writing to the Merrimack Four, a group of young women currently serving a 60-day sentence for a direct action that temporarily halted operations at an Elbit Systems facility in Merrimack NH. Elbit is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, targeted with direct action for several years now by Palestine Action . We’ll also sign cards for political prisoners with birthdays in December: Fred “Muhammad” Burton (December 15th) and Casey Brezik (December 30th).

On November 20 2023, activists working under the banner of Palestine Action US blocked the driveway to Merrimack NH’s Elbit Systems facility, spraypainted the front of the building, smashed its windows, locked its front doors with bicycle locks, doused its logo with fake blood, scaled its roofed, smashed its skylights and HVAC equipment, and released smoke flares in green, white, and red: Palestine’s national colors. Prosecutors originally charged the arrested activists with five trumped up felonies that could have amounted to sentences of 37 years. Unsurprisingly, none of these felony charges held up in court, and the Merrimack Four were eventually sentenced to 60 days in jail and a 24-month suspended sentence.

Elbit Systems develops and builds the infrastructure of apartheid and genocide in Palestine, including military electronics, training simulators, surveillance systems, drones, and security systems. It then markets this “field-tested” equipment to repress people all over the world. Calculating the scale of suffering caused by these systems in Palestine is difficult due to Israel’s blockade of journalists, but researchers estimate that in the first year of the genocide (October 2023-October 2024), 53,887 people were directly murdered by Israeli munitions, and another 67,413 died of starvation caused by Israeli destruction of civilian infrastructure and blockade of food aid. In May, Elbit CEO Bezhalel Machlis told Reuters that the company’s sales goal of $7 billion by 2026 would be reached “much earlier” because of intensified demand.

Snacks and letter-writing supplies will be provided. We’ll tune in to a related podcast while we’re writing. If you are unable to join us, you can write to the Merrimack Four at:

Bridget Shergalis , 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103
Calla Walsh , 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103
Paige Belanger , 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103
Sophie Ross , 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103

Include a name and return address on both the envelope and the letter because the envelopes will not be given to them. For general prisoner letter-writing suggestions, see this how to.

Deny Defend Depose

  • December 8, 2024 1:14 am

Submission

Simple flier for solemn remembrance

[Poster Link]

Festivals of Resistance

  • December 4, 2024 1:47 am

Submission

A Call for Gatherings the Weekend Before Trump Takes Office

Along with others around the country, we invite you to join us in organizing festivals of resistance on the weekend of January 18, immediately before Donald Trump takes office. This is a crucial opportunity to engage in outreach, education, and action ahead of what it is sure to be a tumultuous time.

Once Trump takes power, it will only become more challenging to make connections with our neighbors, create the networks that we will need to face down his assaults, and share the skills we will need to survive his reign. Right now, we have a precious window of time in which to prepare. Let’s make the most of it.

When Donald Trump enters office on January 20, he will order mass deportations, escalate the repression of protesters, dismantle the few judicial and legislative provisions that still protect ordinary people, and consolidate a propaganda ecosystem intended to stupefy us all into obedience. The Democratic Party is willingly handing power to an autocrat they say will bring democracy to an end; the Democrats show every intention of continuing to ratchet their own politics to the right. Authoritarian leftist groups are simply treating this as a recruitment opportunity.

But from Texas to the West Bank, millions of people’s lives are about to get even harder. We owe it to each other to meet the second Trump era side by side in solidarity.

The chaos that will accompany the return of the Trump administration represents an opportunity as well as a challenge. This is a chance to assert an autonomous pole of organizing, carrying forward the lessons of 2020 and the movement against Cop City while continuing the fight against patriarchal violence, white supremacy, and colonialism.

By organizing ahead of Trump’s inauguration, we can seize the initiative and set our own timeline rather than being caught flat-footed and forced to react. We need to welcome new participants into these struggles and foster a revolutionary perspective that can orient us through the challenges ahead. No amount of internet activity could substitute for gathering face to face. The most important battles ahead will not be fought online, but in the streets of our communities.

January 18 is observed as the Day of the Forest Defender. It will be the two-year anniversary of the murder of Tortuguita in Weelaunee Forest. It is an important date to gather, honor the memory of the fallen, and pledge ourselves to resistance and to one another.

How to Participate

You could start by calling for an assembly bringing together everyone who wants to participate in organizing. It could be a public gathering—if you think you can facilitate something on that scale—or an invitation-based conversation bringing together people who have already worked together or at least have cause to trust each other.

For the event proper, you could host workshops and distribute literature teaching security culture, digital security, protest safety and first aid, direct action, reproductive autonomy, forms of organization including affinity groups, and other skills that may be relevant in the years to come.

Local organizers could share stories and lessons from the history of resistance in your area during the first Trump era. You could facilitate discussions to identify what people need to do to prepare for the years ahead—both for their own safety and to ensure the safety of their communities—or to strategize about how to prepare to confront the Trump agenda in your region. You could do an art build for future demonstrations and an organizing fair to connect people to local projects. This will be a chance to expand rapid response networks for community defense and mutual aid.

In some places, the gatherings could conclude with public actions—a first salvo in the resistance to Trump’s plan for mass deportations. Elsewhere, there will be open assemblies, spaces for people to encounter each other and learn new ways of working together and sharing ideas. Small towns can screen documentaries or invite speakers to share their expertise.

It’s up to you and your community to decide what best fits your local context. The important thing is to create a space that can serve as a point of entry for everyone who needs to get connected ahead of the next round of struggles—a space where people can hone their skills and begin to think of themselves as a collective force.

No matter who Trump’s administration targets—whether immigrants, Palestine solidarity organizers, sex workers, schoolteachers, trans people, environmentalists, or people seeking abortions—we must show that we will love and protect one another. If we all pull together, showing everyone who wants to resist that there are movements that they can join, we can begin to build the strength that we will need to overcome the challenges ahead.

Events like this are already being planned in dozens of cities and towns. But time is tight. If we want to be ready, we have to get started now.