Imminent ‘Cleanups’ Scheduled Under Philadelphia ‘State of Emergency’ Kensington Operations

  • April 18, 2024 1:53 am

from Unicorn Riot

A schedule obtained by Unicorn Riot shows an imminent government plan to “cleanup” specific locations in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood — but who benefits from altering a “billion dollar” drug shadow economy?

Philadelphia, PA — Unicorn Riot has obtained a schedule for “cleanup” operations due in the next 72 hours in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, one element in new Mayor Cherelle Parker’s plan to dramatically change local conditions through state action. Some parts of Kensington have become well-known for open-air drug use and homelessness, which has become a subject of international attention, national political sniping and Internet clickbait. Days after Parker toured the area, “Kensington Cleanup Days” are slated to happen at certain locations. The “clearing” of encampments has been publicized in recent days.

Some local groups are concerned that Mayor Parker’s heavy-handed approach could increase incarceration or lay groundwork for wealthy developers to move in. Other parts of Kensington have seen rapid construction recently, just blocks away from the targeted area.

The Parker administration declared a State of Emergency just after swearing in (PDF of Executive Order 1-24 here). The previous mayor, Jim Kenney, refused to declare a State of Emergency. Now, a “Kensington Community Revival” “five-phase initiative” has been launched as well, but we hear that information on important plan features like specific treatment centers for people facing addiction in the area is hard to come by. (The police department also released a 100-day report (53 page PDF) last week as directed by the emergency order.)

We have learned imminent clearings are scheduled at the following locations under “Scheduled Kensington Cleanup Days” on Wednesday April 17th, 2024, and Friday April 19th, 2024, “at or after 8 AM.”

  • 1800 East Somerset Street (both sides)
  • 2700 Emerald
  • 2000 Silver
  • 1800 Cambria
  • 100 W. Gurney
  • 2900 Ruth Street
  • 3100 Kensington Avenue (both sides)
  • 3108-3114 Kensington Ave
  • 3142 Kensington Avenue (Rainbow storefront)
  • Ruth & Hart Lane
  • 2800 Kensington Avenue
Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street, underneath the Somerset Market-Frankford Line SEPTA stop, faces an imminent “Kensington Cleanup Day” on April 17 and 19, according to documents seen by Unicorn Riot.
“Kensington Community Revival” (KCR) plan area, via City of Philadelphia / Kensington Voice.

For many years, Kensington ‘revitalization’ plans have come and gone. According to local urban anthropologist Bill McKinney, the previous plans included:

  • “All efforts have run through the city’s Managing Director’s Office or the often centralized efforts of the Philadelphia Police Department, which lack the expertise and resources to implement strategies to address poverty, addiction, violence, and helping the unsheltered.
  • No authentic, participatory, community engagement processes that lead to sharing of power and co-creation of solutions with the community.
  • Each effort has treated Kensington and its residents as the problem, thereby ignoring the actual causes of the core issues, vilifying residents, and encouraging additional exploitation of the community.
  • After 20 years of interventions, racial disparities in areas ranging from housing to health outcomes have increased, and while every effort has claimed success at some point, none have had any form of measurable sustainable accomplishment for residents, only for those leading the efforts.”

“History is repeating in Kensington. It doesn’t have to be this way.” Bill McKinney, WHYY, May 2021

McKinney acknowledged the giant scale of the area’s shadow economy, which was a result of decades of disinvestment: “We’re trying to turn off a billion-dollar industry […] There was intentional disinvestment in this community — and so that economy was replaced with another economy. That other economy needs to be addressed. It’s not addressed just by picking up a few people and locking them up.”

From the perspective of people like former Kensington Neighborhood Association President Eduardo Esquivel, the government’s existing strategy has been to “keep a billion-dollar open-air drug market contained in Kensington.”

Not much is going on at the 2700 block of Emerald Street, but it’s named as an imminent cleanup site.
The corner of Kensington Ave., Somerset Street and D Street is named as an imminent cleanup site.
The 2900 block of Ruth Street is named as an imminent cleanup site (right side of image).

Other planning frameworks previously developed include the “North of Lehigh Neighborhood Revitalization Plan” (Dec. 2013 PDF) and the Heart of Kensington plan. KensingtonPlan.org has more information about these plans and the use of opioid settlement funds.

Questions over Krasner & DEA Roles in Kensington

Apart from the Kensington Caucus at Philadelphia City Council, which has been openly hostile to well-known harm reduction programs like needle exchanges, there are other players to consider. (Council member Quetcy Lozada “asked the real estate developer who owns the building where Savage Sisters is located to terminate the organization’s lease,” CBS Philadelphia reported in February. Harm reduction nonprofit Savage Sisters provides services like wound care, caused by ‘tranq’ (xylazine) – a tranquilizer commonly found in the area drug supply.)

With Mayor Parker’s new pressure to remove people, any plan to force people into “treatment or jail” decisions hinges on District Attorney Larry Krasner’s discretion. The de facto policy right now doesn’t push jail time for simple drug possession. Therefore, the DA office would need a policy shift to impose this choice on detained people. (Paraphernalia or public intoxication charges could also be leveled.)

A source with close knowledge told Unicorn Riot that they heard the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is also taking an interest in the situation. Federal agents have been photographed in the area in recent months. The source relayed that the DEA was concerned about violence around the clearing operations so they may want to reshape the marketplace by coercing dealers into leaving, hoping that would disperse open-air drug consumers to other areas of Philadelphia. (The DEA Philadelphia Field Division office conducts “Operation Engage Philadelphia” in the city.)

Unicorn Riot was also told that the Philadelphia Police Department has intentionally been dropping off intoxicated people at dispersed locations around the city.

This police operations pattern reminded us of multiple instances during the 2011-2012 Occupy Movement where police would drop off intoxicated people at the protest camps, as well as the 2012 Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) scandal in Minneapolis, where the Minnesota State Patrol was running a program to give unhoused people drugs at a shed by the MSP International Airport before dropping them off at the protest encampment at Peavey Plaza.

Locations identified for “Scheduled Kensington Cleanup Days” based on documents seen by Unicorn Riot.

Cover image composition and photos by Dan Feidt.

Bulldoze SCI Rockview: Abolition, Prisoner Support, and Resistance to Genocide in PA-DOC

  • April 10, 2024 1:43 am

from The Final Straw Radio Podcast

Black and white cartoon of a grill with prison bars at bent and torn
Download This Episode

SCI Rockview is a prison in central Pennsylvania where incarcerated comrades have been facing repression for demanding justice in the face of impunity by racist COs and following a year of prisoner deaths due to institutional toxicity and guard violence. We speak to an outside supporter about the situation at Rockview, the reactions of administration, inside / outside relationships and solidarity that have flared up. We hope that this conversation contributes to increased and thickened ties between folks on both sides of the walls.

You can read some recent posts about this situation at AbolitionistStudy.com and PHLAntiCap.NoBlogs.org and you can find audio from the wives of prisoners at SCI Rockview on In The Mix Prisoner Podcast. A few other sites of interest include StudyAndStruggle.com, DC IWOC on instagram, and In The Belly Journal.

This conversation was conducted via encrypted messages and recorded by a comrade Golem and Ash from the the MolotovNow! Podcast, so a big thanks is due to them.

Announcement

Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel

Jorge has now been held in prison for over a year without a trial, and urgently needs funds to cover legal fees and prison costs (food, water, phone calls, visits, administration fees, service costs, etc).

Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel is a beloved compañero of the punk community, and a long-time participant of the Okupa Che. He was arrested on December 8, 2022 by plainclothes police as he was leaving the campus of the Ciudad Universitaria (of the UNAM university) in Mexico City as part of a campaign of criminalization against the Okupa  or squat.

BACKGROUND

On February 24, 2016, an operative was carried out in which plainclothes policemen detained him, “planting” drugs on him in order to fabricate crimes, and accusing him of drug trafficking, as part of a campaign of repression on the squatted auditorium Okupa Che in UNAM (still existing). The whole case was plagued with irregularities. He was transferred to Oaxaca and then to a maximum-security prison in Hermosillo as a strategy to hinder his legal defense by taking him far away from his support networks. Thanks to the solidarity and legal work, he was reclassified from the crime of drug dealing to simple possession of narcotics, and was released on bail in March 2016.

Even though he was no longer in prison, he was not out of danger. Constant threats and journalistic reports did not cease; the press even reported his death and accused him of participating in organized crime. Meanwhile, steps were being taken to frame him once again and re-arrest him for the same fabricated crime.

On December 8, 2022 he was arrested in exactly the same place – a few steps outside Ciudad Universitaria, where the Okupa is located, once again by plainclothes police – with the grounds for this illegal
detention being that the Attorney General’s Office appealed the decision to reclassify the crime.

The compañero’s health is fragile due to an extended hospitalization a couple years back and the toll the prison conditions have taken on him.

CURRENT SITUATION

Jorge is currently incarcerated in the Reclusorio Oriente prison in Mexico City. The legal process is still in the evidence stage. Several hearings have been postponed and Jorge’s process is being delayed and prolonged to keep him in what is called “preventative imprisonment” with no sentence, which is common for cases of political prisoners in Mexico.

Despite the fact that there is no evidence to keep him in prison, the strategy of the State is clearly to drag it out as long as possible, which is a tortuous level of uncertainty for all of us close to Jorge.

Thanks to the solidarity of individuals, collectives and networks, it has been possible to cover Jorge’s expenses inside the prison, which have been very high due to the corruption that reigns in Mexican prisons. We are raising funds to support his legal costs and basic needs to be able to survive in this unjust incarceration, and to re-join the community on the outside as soon as possible. We call upon the solidarity of our friends and compañerxs around the world to help us in supporting our compañero Yorch.

For updates and news:

. … . ..

Featured Track:

  • Ba Teaches Yoga by Four Tet from Beautiful Rewind

 

. … . ..

Impunity and Cover-up: Correctional Officers Hang Nooses in SCI Rockview, Prisoners Speak Out!

  • March 27, 2024 1:49 am

from Dreaming Freedom, Practicing Abolition

March 26, 2024

For Immediate Release

Benner Township, PA.- On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke. By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates” and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance over two months later by February 5, 2024 under the guise that it was “being investigated.” However, the sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions for this racist act.

As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison. Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility’s virulent institutional racism.

In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent’s assistant and “grievance coordinator” informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong. When family and friends of prisoners in the facility called en mass between March 18th and 25th to voice their concern, Paul was flippant, dishonest, and dismissive to nearly every caller. Several family members of prisoners felt incredibly disrespected by the behavior of Paul and other staff who answered their calls. In the process of calling in, it also became known that Paul holds several other titles within the prison, including “staff officer,” “lieutenant’s assistant,” and “community liaison.” Samuel Condo, a PA-DOC official responsible for overseeing SCI Rockview, was called over a dozen of times to no avail. When contact was finally made with Condo, he simply would redirect calls back to Nicki Paul whose multiple roles on the prison staff create severe conflicts of interest.

Paul admits that SCI Rockview does indeed have video footage, yet the reasons why they refuse to make this footage public has not been given any reasonable justification. As of the week of March 18th, SCI Rockview has closed the internal investigation, choosing to protect the guards who did this hateful and racist act over the safety and well-being of the prisoners. In the meantime, the administration removed two prisoners from general population who brought the situation to public light. One was transferred out of the prison, and the other one is still in administrative custody, aka “the hole” under  accusations of “encouraging group activity.”

This incident is coming after a year that saw 11 prisoners die in custody. Seven people died amidst an outbreak of legionnaires disease, and four people died while in administrative custody (punitive solitary units with very little public oversight and severely limited communication access). Unfortunately, there is a well-known pattern of premature death and racist discriminatory practices (including beatings and verbal harassment) at SCI Rockview.

There is a resistance campaign that has emerged from the persistent actions of prisoners and outside supporters, who together are demanding an external investigation of the facility & its staff for the cover-up of hanging the nooses. The severity of retaliation for speaking out must also be considered a central object of investigation. We believe the inaction of officials at this facility is symptomatic of a deeper condition of antiBlackness, white supremacy, and class warfare that PA-DOC legally sanctions and politically condones. On both sides of the wall, people most impacted by the racism of SCI Rockview continue to uplift the demands of prisoners to investigate the noose incident as a hate crime, to terminate Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard, and to require mandatory therapy for CO Kirchner. While a grassroots campaign is indeed growing, and as PA-DOC slides further into dissonant inaction, the call for popular resistance to SCI Rockview’s lethal conditions rings louder by the day.

Contact: abolitionist-study@protonmail.com

SCI Rockview Autonomous Campaign

  • March 27, 2024 1:24 am

Submission

What is happening right now at SCI Rockview is an autonomous campaign to get two guards fired and for one to received mandated therapy as an act of “mercy.” An autonomous campaign means that it is open to all for participation, using tactics according to their own abilities and needs. It means it is decentralized and not led by a single party, non-profit, or institutionalized entity. It is a type of campaign that anyone who is impacted by the violence of PA-DOC  can join in, anonymously or as their full legal selves. It means a diversity of tactics and direct action are on the table always. It is a type of campaign that has no registration form or membership fees. It simply means that if you are moved by or can relate to the unfolding struggle of prisoners at Rockview, then you are qualified to participate. The situation is becoming more dire by the day in this facility, with the staff initiating a backlash that has put multiple people in the hole (solitary) and even transferred one prisoner out of state.

Press release:

Impunity and Cover-up: Correctional Officers Hang Nooses in SCI Rockview, Prisoners Speak Out!

Phone zap:

PA-DOC Phone Zap (2nd Week – updates + New Script)

One specific need that potentially can be fulfilled is further research into specific highly responsible prison officials, which is information available in the phone zap scripts and press releases. This information can be circulated somewhere where people familiar with this kind of research can encounter it, like Scenes from the Atlanta Forest or Philadelphia Anti-Capitalist.

Scenes:

https://scenes.noblogs.org/submissions/

Philly Anti-Capitalist:

Contact & Submissions

Here is an example of this type of call for research, offered by imprisoned anarchist Sean Swain back in 2018:

On Slavery, Nat Turner, John Brown, and Drones: A Statement from Sean Swain

1312/ FTP

Notes on abolitionist insurgency & prisoner support in Pennsylvania

  • March 22, 2024 1:34 am

Submission

[PDF]

There are some dire questions that non-imprisoned abolitionists keep asking, of what solidarity with collective action inside entails. Central among them is: How do we embolden our comrades in prison or jail to feel protected enough, seen enough, and empowered enough to take action when they desire to?

Yet what is less discussed is the question posed in self-reflection: How can we embolden our comrades on the outside (who are willing to take physical risks) to provide forms solidarity that actually give inside demands a little more teeth?

  • What does autonomous direct action in solidarity with collective action inside look like for abolitionists on the outside, and where are the targets that would be most decisive for attack?
  • How can we better develop collective capacity for decisive attacks on PA-DOC from the outside, in conjunction with demands on the inside?
  • What targets can we choose on the outside that do not exacerbate repression for the comrades situated on the inside? Or is this simply part of the equation that we must equip and be prepared for?
  • How, then, can inside and outside move at once? And in this context, how do aboveground formations move horizontally with an underground to fill in the gaps in work that one another is unable to do?

These are questions that shift conversations about strategy from mere activism toward insurgency. As a comrade who was at SCI Rockview last summer writes:

“As prisoners, we can riot & take control of the prison at any time, but that won’t relieve us of this living death. We need our comrades in the world to take the fight out of the halls of legislation & to the prison walls themselves. Only then can we actually end this war. An assault on both fronts would make the difference between us banging on the walls & us breaking them down. When the world sees this, it will show that the facade of invincibility that the system has cultivated over generations of slavery is just that: an illusion.”

To compliment this ask from the inside, we believe it is equally important to attack & disrupt the everyday operations of structures and relations that compose PA-DOC’s instiutional form in ways that strategically compliment inside collective action.

For autonomous attack as abolitionist prisoner support to be decisive and effective, it first means decentering (not ignoring but thinking beyond) the “reified” site/scene of the prison facility itself in our ideas of the terrain of struggle and attack.  A prison facility, such as SCI Rockview, is one among many other sites and nodes in a web of structures and social relations that make up PA-DOC’s institutional form. The targets of insurgent outside solidarity through sabotage therefore consist of everything and anything that upholds the reproduction of the prison facility itself or a DOC system from without.

Some questions we may want to ask ourselves in outside support circles include:

  • What are the institutions, contractors, buildings, and other structures that enable PA-DOC to function in the first place?
  • If it is a prison “industrial complex” what is the constellation of sites that allow it to function, that give it coherence and life?

One way abolitionists can support people on the inside during a strike is to initiate (and sustain) conflict w/ the state & capital. To either disrupt its logistical operations and/or weaken the regime’s resolve.

One example that comes to mind is during the 2016 nationwide prison strike, which saw sporadic instances solidarity actions that did not abide by codes of non-conflictual demonstration.

For example, ABC Chicago in 2017 writes:

“In the context of prison struggle, a recent example of solid praxis that comes to mind was in Pittsburgh at Allegheny County Jail. About eighty prisoners began a work refusal and released a list of demands that included more case workers, better medical services, and a legitimate grievance procedure. After those on the outside heard of this sit-in, they took to the jail in masks, smashed windows of the jail, a security camera, and several police vehicles. Similar models of solidarity occurred around the September 9th prison strike where people all over the US and even other continents took action in solidarity with those on the inside rising up. This took the form of noise demos and marches, as well as direct attacks on prisons and those who profit off prison… This is a type of solidarity that can produce results.”

Some more questions to consider are as follows:

  • If the prison regime is upheld by numerous institutional connections & centers of gravity — that exist far beyond the “reified” site/scene of “the prison” itself — then where are the most impactful targets to attack in solidarity w/ prisoners taking collective action?
  • For abolitionists who are not inside the prison itself, what does disruption in solidarity with collective prisoner action look like beyond (only) non-conflictual protest?
  • Are people within prisons/jail/detention the only ones who are expected to engage in material disruption? To take risks? Are we just vessels of emotional solidarity?
  • Where then, would the targets be, for outside abolitionists to exert greater pressure? How might this change perspectives of strategy? How might thinking more expansively about the terrain of engagement illumine new tactical horizons?
  • Or maybe the objective of pressuring the state to meet a specific demand from inside is the wrong way to practice attack and direct action altogether?
  • Yet strikes typically have demands. So what then do we do with our bodies, our (relative) mobility and access to information/resources/tools that are foreclosed to people who take collection action for particular goals while locked up?
  • Where are the logistical chokepoints? What are targets of attack and sites of disruption that don’t result in severe backlash to comrades struggling on the inside?   Where are the vulnerabilities to prison management’s morale and how does one remove the will of guards to endure?
  • What is the relationship between a local-to-state government, the internal fiefdoms of prisons & jails, & the contractors whose fate is tethered to the regime’s institutional reproduction?  How can tensions or antagonisms between such entities be exacerbated by outside sabotage?

To bring this strategy to life we not only need comrades who are up for the task of directly attacking in solidarity with inside collective action, but we also need a range of people to take up this cause at the level of research, propagation, and expanding capacity for regional anti-repression work and community care.

We need people who can map the institutional form of PA-DOC. We need people to map the digital communications infrastructure. We need people that understand how the nodes of institutions that make up PA-DOC within Pennsylvania branch out to every corner of the US settler colonial territory, with offices, remote workers, contractors, etc… all within reach of someone who is willing to take action, yet simply needs a map to take part. We also need a more focused effort of people who are not involved in combative actions directly to participate in defending the fire of revolt as it spreads.  This can be done by simply organizing letter writing nights to support people in the case that they catch charges for the risks they take. This can also be done by focusing in on building or strengthening networks that provide care and mutual aid within your local spheres of movement and community.

An Introduction to the Ghost Robotics Corporation

  • March 6, 2024 1:57 am

Submission

Ghost Robotics Corporation is a Philadelphia-based robotics company. They are located in the Pennovation Works compound in the Grays Ferry neighborhood in South Philly. They specifically cater to the military and “defense” markets. This article will go over some basic information about the company that readers opposed to colonialism, militarism, technological advancement, or gentrification may find interesting. Others are encouraged to verify this research and supplement it with their own.

Ghost Robotics is best known for their robot dogs. The robot dog, officially known as the VISION 60 Q-UGV, is billed as a “mid-sized high-endurance, agile and durable all-weather ground drone.” It is being used by US and foreign militaries, border security, and commercial companies. The robot is able to operate autonomously to some degree or accept real time instruction from a human operator via remote control. The dog has the capability of accepting add-ons, the most controversial of which have been weapons such as SWORD’s SPUR (basically an unmanned sniper rifle). Researchers have also put together a “guide to combat robot war dogs” that addresses dealing with Spot, a very similar robot dog developed by Boston Dynamics, which is linked below.

Those opposed to the war on Gaza, and Israeli colonization generally, may be interested to know that Ghost Robotics Corporation partners with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Rafael is Israel’s national R&D defense laboratory, developing and producing weapons for the Israeli Occupation Forces. The Ghost Robotics website touts its “cutting edge solutions addressing defense, homeland, and enterprise customer needs.” In an article on The National Interest a journalist covers a demonstration of Rafael using a robot dog from Ghost Robotics alongside a Raven drone to “clear nine rooms and identify the threats there.” An archived version of the article is linked at the end.

In addition to the roboticization of war and policing, and assistance in the genocide of Palestinians, Ghost Robotics Corporation is also part of the Lower Schuylkill Master Plan. The master plan is a scheme concocted by University of Pennsylvania, the City of Philadelphia, and corporate interests to develop the lower Schuylkill River into an “Innovation District,” a “Logistics Hub,” and an “Energy Corridor.” The Pennovation Works compound that Ghost Robotics is located in is an early step in creation of the “Innovation District” along the Schuylkill in South and South West Philly. This same district threatens the Bartram’s Garden area with a bio-technology campus. Also of note is that the master plan’s “Logistics Hub” is responsible in part for the destruction of South Philly’s FDR meadows, building an artificial wetland in FDR Park to offset having destroyed wetlands by the Philadelphia Airport. The Lower Schuylkill Master Plan and the zine Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” are linked below.

Links and Information

Ghost Robotics Corporation

Address
Ghost Robotics Corporation
3401 Grays Ferry Ave, Bldg 200, 2nd Fl
Philadelphia, PA 1914

Website
ghostrobotics.io

Contact
sales@ghostrobotics.io
vendors@ghostrobotics.io
careers@ghostrobotics.io
press@ghostrobotics.io

Social Media
instagram.com/ghostrobotics
linkedin.com/company/ghostrobotics
twitter.com/ghost_robotics

Staff
CEO and co-founder Gavin Kenneally
CTO and co-founder Avik De
President and chief executive Jiren Parikh (died March 2022)

Guide to combat against robot war dogs
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/02/guide-to-combat-against-robot-war-dogs/

Archived News Article Regarding Relation With Israeli defense company Rafael
https://web.archive.org/web/20230206160050/https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-israel-brings-together-robots-and-ai-lethal-combo-175518

More Information About Rafael
https://web.archive.org/web/20130514133537/http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ts.cgi?tsscript=comp_eng&duns=600024863
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Advanced_Defense_Systems
http://www.rafael.co.il/

Pennovation Works
https://pennovation.upenn.edu

Lower Schuylkill River Master Plan
https://www.design.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/LSMP_Exec.pdf

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” zine

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” Zine

Developing Action Capacity: A Path

  • March 6, 2024 1:50 am

from Scenes from the Atlanta Forest

“We are not special. Our skills are not overly technical or advanced, and our tools are simple to acquire. If you are reading this, you are capable of doing what we do.”

– APD Patrol Car Torched in Lakewood

While I agree with this sentiment, the reader is left with many questions about how to develop such a capacity for action, even if they are motivated. What exactly does it take to not get caught carrying out heavy actions like arson? This is especially important in the long run; not getting caught for a single arson is one thing, but being able to continue carrying out attacks in the face of heightened repressive attention is quite another.

For anyone who wants to carry out actions like this, but isn’t doing so yet, I’ve sketched an outline of the steps I think are necessary to sustain hard-hitting attacks on domination (limited to the topic of “operational” considerations, i.e., acquiring skills). This brief outline is intended to orient you and provide a “learning path” — each step has recommended reading that actually goes into the appropriate amount of depth on the subject. Use the Tails operating system to visit these links, which runs from a USB drive and leaves no trace on your computer. What I’ve written here is by no means definitive, and I hope to spark a dialogue about any operational aspects I may have neglected, as well as anything outside this scope that is important for sustaining and intensifying the capacity for action.

Deepening bonds

For anyone who doesn’t already have an action group, deciding who to act with is the first obstacle to overcome. I prefer to act in groups of two or three; it’s easier to maintain a high level of trust and agility with just a small handful of people. Most actions don’t require more than three participants, and when they do, action groups can collaborate. I prefer not to act alone because some aspects of actions are less risky when there are at least two people (for example, having a lookout).

In deciding who to act with, there is a tension between flexibility and consistency. Acting in several different configurations allows you to develop trust and experience with more people, which makes you more resilient in the face of arrests, burnout, or interpersonal splits. On the other hand, acting in a more consistent configuration can make it easier to develop a higher capacity for action in a shorter period of time.

Action groups only form because someone takes the initiative to propose them to a comrade with whom they want to deepen affinity and trust.

Affinity

Deciding who to approach in your network should be based on a sense of affinity between you, as this will determine what the action group decides to focus on. Affinity means sharing analysis, discovered through getting to know each other, that leads to prospects for action. It means knowing that you share goals and want to act in similar ways to pursue them.

The long-term exploration and deepening of affinity across a network, beyond a specific action group, opens up many more possibilities for the configuration of action groups to adapt over time, as well as for collaboration between them. I’ve chosen to use the term “action group” rather than “affinity group” to emphasize that affinity exists in many different constellations, each with its own potential.

Recommended reading:

Trust

Trust is contextual — you may trust someone to be a good friend, but that is different from trusting them with your freedom. Deciding who to approach in your network should be based on trust that they can live with the possible consequences of their actions without betraying their comrades, even if it means a long prison sentence. Trust is qualitative in a way that can’t be reduced to a simplistic formula. It’s based on an intimate knowledge that can only come from singular experiences within a relationship. However, there are established practices for deepening trust that are still worthwhile.

Recommended reading:

Laying the groundwork

Once there are two or three people who want to experiment with acting together, I recommend starting with actions that do not have particularly serious consequences if you get caught, such as breaking windows. This allows you to assess whether the configuration is a good fit, practice any skills that are new to anyone, establish operational approaches and a good “workflow” for the tasks involved, and develop an interpersonal dynamic that meets everyone’s needs, all in a relatively low-stakes environment. Progressively increasing the intensity of the action also gives you the opportunity to practice moving through fear so that decision-making, communication, and execution in high-stress situations can remain unimpeded.

Operational security

“Operational security” means the practices that allow you to get away with crimes. I recommend that your action group first discuss each of the highlighted resources at the No Trace Project before taking action, in an outdoor and device-free location. Many of these discussions are well suited for larger affinity constellations than your action group. This will take a considerable amount of time, but an in-depth discussion of these topics will provide a necessary foundation. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that everyone is already on the same page. These conversations will also be an opportunity to discuss how you will prepare for any repression that may result from your actions.

Action planning

With this foundation in place, you are now in a strong position to begin action planning. As you gain experience, organizing and executing actions will become much more natural. What was initially a lot to keep track of will eventually become second nature. This is another reason why it’s a good idea to start with actions that aren’t particularly risky.

Recommended reading:

  • How To Have A Fun Night To Forget: This will give you a quick overview of the steps involved in taking action.
  • Threat Library: This will give you a framework for planning the operational security measures for a specific action (for example, what surveillance detection measures you will take before going to a meeting).

Materializing your dreams

Before your action group engages in actions that will be more intensively investigated, it is especially important that you become competent in two operational security practices:

DNA minimization protocols

DNA minimization protocols are necessary to avoid leaving evidence at a crime scene. However, these precautions are not perfect, so the action should be conducted in such a way as to leave nothing behind that could have DNA traces on it. I recommend learning and practicing this skill long before you actually need to use it for high-risk actions.

Recommended reading:

Surveillance detection

If there is no evidence left at crime scenes, and you have established practices that prevent targeted digital surveillance from providing leads, investigators will be forced to use physical surveillance to try to incriminate you. The main goal of physical surveillance is to surveil the suspect during an action (as they did for Jeff Luers), and if that doesn’t work, to surveil the suspect while they are preparing for an action (buying materials, doing reconnaissance, etc.), all the while mapping the suspect’s network to find more suspects.

Detecting physical surveillance is a skill that takes a lot of practice, so I recommend that you start learning it long before you actually need to use it for high-risk actions. If you are ever the target of an investigation, this is the only thing that will prevent the police from following you to an action or preparation for an action.

Recommended reading:

Action techniques

Of course, skills related to action techniques are also important. For example, there are many ways to start a fire. Some are better than others in terms of reliability and effectiveness, but your approach should always be adapted to the specific scenario (target, exit plan, expected response times, etc.). Whatever techniques you end up using, it’s important to stay open to innovation rather than limiting yourself to following a guide.

Action technique is also related to operational security: for example, if you decide that the incendiary device(s) need a delay, it’s critical to be very confident that the delay won’t fail, as this would leave evidence for investigators to take samples from. Thoroughly test its reliability under the same conditions, and build in redundancy by using multiple delays on each device. Depending on the circumstances and terrain, you may even want to make a plan for noticing if any fires don’t start, such as choosing an exit route that provides a line of sight and pausing along it until you see the light of the flames.

Recommended reading:

Connecting constellations

The next step in developing capacity for action requires going beyond one’s own group. This is where things get really interesting: coordination between autonomous groups allows them to accomplish far more than they could on their own, while their autonomy wards off hierarchy and centralization. Of course, conspiring with more people involves risk and must be balanced with the need for compartmentalization — the need-to-know principle can help here.

Affinity is the strongest foundation for a common project among these groups — while affinity within an action group is based on interpersonal experience, affinity between action groups is based more on affinity with the project than with each other. The long-term search for affinity beyond your action group is what makes this foundation possible. Informal organization can then grow between action groups, which is a model that has been experimented with since the ’70s. Informal organization is born and shaped by the pursuit of specific goals, such as preventing the construction of Cop City through diffuse sabotage. “It doesn’t have a name to defend or assert, only a project to bring about”.

This outline touches on what I think are the minimal steps necessary to develop a capacity for hard-hitting action, limited to the topic of acquiring skills. Much more is needed — learning other skills beyond this baseline, experimenting with informal organization while navigating its challenges, developing analyses to understand the changing terrain, studying the vulnerabilities of domination, and focusing on all the other aspects that contribute to sustaining and intensifying action.

[READ]           [PRINT]

Found On No Trace Project

A short eassy/plea for ANYTHING but peace:

  • March 1, 2024 1:40 am

Submission

   Comrades, on Thursday February 29th there was a vigil for a fallen comrade named Aaron Bushnell. A person whom much like the lot of us has been highly affected by late stage capitalism and unlike many of us have seen the devastation is creates first hand. We cannot imagine the pain one person’s soul must have carried and for how long before he took direct action. They say that self immolation is the most extreme form of protest and a most devastating plea and that might very well be the case as it most certainly was for this young person.        

    Comrades, it is with a heavy heart that that we even have to say that we feel this plea will be met with inaction and with martyr sentiments. While our comrades are giving us all clear messages about what they want to see happen, their desires fall on deaf ears. Even as this person like others before him have given a most extreme example of direct action, so called anarchists, communists, socialists and activists alike continue to fall short of direct action. In fact, the policing of peace seems to increase with each new found wave of protest.

       These peace police will always have you scared of the unknown and will drown out any suspected forms of escalation with a simple or convoluted speech of “Think of the vulnerable.” These individual people, these fucking orgs will tell us not to engage with our enemies, to not “stoop to their level” so to speak. But last time we checked, our anger, and the way we and others choose to express it is NOT up to them. They would have you march in a fucking circle, yelling at buildings, begging and voting for politicians who don’t fucking care about us or the vulnerable rather than stand beside to be on the attack. They bolster stupid fucking statistics and “analysis” on when the material conditions will be in favour and somehow that day never fucking comes. Because it fucking won’t.

     Dear comrades, we need not keep waiting. That was the message behind this desperate act. Our comrade Aaron has seen that the Israeli government will never stop until their genocide is complete. A while back, our comrade Tort had also seen that that the police would never stop until they devastated a forest, an natural ecosystem, and a whole population of people just play their fucked up games and become more deadly and oppressive than they already are. In a diary found, Tort had called for bigger action and most if not all response was peaceful in nature. We would say that we can’t fucking believe it, but when we look at the bullshit that is these orgs and institutions, we unfortunately do.

     The link that we and others here in so called philly to Aaron and Tort is in our political viewpoint as anarchists. Both of these brave souls identified with anarchist tendencies and showed our shared interest in self determination in various ways. A facebook post from Arron which had also called the inaction, was ended with the picture of a circle A. That may mean nothing to some of you out here; but it means something to us. It tells us that very much like us; Aaron desired action. And we stand beside him in his call for that action.

   And so dear comrades, we would just hope that you do not turn our comrade into a martyr or as a justification for peace when the message is simple: These states, all states, are institutions of death and violence. It should not have been Aaron that was burning, but that very building behind him. It should not have been Tort dying at the hands of the state but the state dying at the hands of all of us. We’re not begging politicians for fucking crumbs but we are begging you to stop being peaceful and start doing what we know needs to be done. It is time to meet their violence with violence. How can see babies dying everyday and not be attacking? To the peace police we have this to say: Think of our vulnerable, huh? Right now the “vulnerable” are doing more than you fucking are in response to genocide.

   Fuck the peace police, fuck yelling at buildings and begging politicians, let’s take our anger and rage and put it out there in these streets. Comrade Aaron, may we never forget what you did or your name. May we not see you as a martyr but as a brave human being capable of extraordinary courage and the most direct type of action.  – Anonymous 

Crypto nazi in Philly

  • February 8, 2024 1:18 am

Submission

Hi I’m emailing you about a crypto nazi I’ve come across in the Philly area posing as a leftist.  He supports the Chinese / Russian government, goes on completely unhinged rants about Jews, and engages in Holocaust revisionism.

I am a Jew in Philly and while I do not support “zionism” I see far too many leftists being groomed into the far right by these people without even realizing it because they can’t distinguish when someone is right wing and using zionist as a dog whistle.  I’ve felt very alienated from the left because of things like this.
This man’s name is “Chris Riley” going by “Pr0letarorist” on Instagram or “Proletarorist” on Twitter.   He’s relatively popular too while posting all this stuff.
Downplaying the holocaust on holocaust remembrance day was the first one I saw:
Defending killing random civilians and supporting fascist governments such as Russia and iran:
Some more mask off moments:
I hope this is something that concerns you as well, this guy is a scumbag.   This is a time when Jews are facing unprecedented hate crimes.  Have a good day

Philadelphia Area Weapons Manufactures and Facilities

  • January 27, 2024 1:22 am

Submission

The United States is the single largest manufacturer and distributor of armaments in the world.  This means weapons producing facilities are all around us, yet seldom do anti-war/anti-colonial movements identify and target the private companies that profit and enable these wars to be fought.

In this particular historical moment, with a years-long land war in Ukraine depleting the global stockpile of munitions and armaments, any disruption to the supply chain related to the production and distribution of armaments and ammunition in the United States has an immediate and real world impact on the ability of forces to drop bombs, fire rockets, deploy mines or bombard with artillery.

Movements attempting to disrupt the live-streamed genocide by Israeli forces in Gaza for over the last hundred days have periodically managed to identify and disrupt the flow of arms from the United States to Israel by targeting facilities or blockading infrastructure such as ports.

In the spirit of free people’s taking matters into their own hands, of autonomous direct action and a refusal to wait for permission, salvation or the intervention of a higher power, we offer the following list of local area arms manufacturers.

As with anything you come across on the internet, we urge groups and individuals to do their own research and reconnaissance prior to engaging in any action.

Day and Zimmermann (D&Z)

  • 87th largest defense company
    • Headquartered at 1500 Spring Garden St, Philadelphia PA, 19130
  • Family owned company that operates several major US Army ammunition plants, producing 155mm artillery rounds, 120mm tank rounds, mines, hand grenades and more.  Does private security for US Embassy in Jerusalem.
  • Parent company of American Ordinance LLC, Kansas LLC, SOC, Mason & Hanger

L3 Harris

  • L3 Harris is the ninth largest defense corporation
  • Philadelphia location:
    • 13500 Roosevelt Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19116

Leonardo

  • 11th-largest defense company
  • Philadelphia location: 
    • 3076 Red Lion Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19114

Boeing

 

  • Fifth largest defense company in the world by revenue.
  • Philadelphia location: 
    • 300 Industrial Highway, Ridley Park, PA.

Ghost Robotics

  • Maker of weaponized robotic dogs
    • 3401 Grays Ferry Ave Bldg 200 (2nd floor), Philadelphia, PA 19146
    • 150 Rouse Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19112

Action Manufacturing Co.

  • Bristol Facility (Production and Testing)
    • 190 Rittenhouse Circle, Bristol, PA 19007 (20.5 miles from Philadelphia)
  • Atglen Facility (Loading Facility)
    • 500 Bailey Crossroads Rd, Atglen, PA 19310

 

Elbit Systems of America (Aydin Displays, Birdsboro, PA)

  • Aydin Displays (https://www.aydindisplays.com/), an Elbit Systems of America company
  • 1 Riga Ln, Birdsboro, PA 19508
  • Makes ruggedized displays for military application
  • Elbit systems is an Israeli arms manufacturer with operations in the US and contracts with Homeland Security for US Border security.  It is the target of an international campaign by Palestine Action

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems

 

Lockheed Martin

  • World’s top defense company by revenue
  • Philadelphia-area locations:
    • 459 Kennedy Drive, Archbald, PA 18403
    • 199 Borton Landing Rd, Moorestown, NJ 08057
    • 6000 Midlantic Dr, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054 (
    • 230 Mall Blvd, King of Prussia, PA 19406
    • 1021 W 8th Ave, King of Prussia, PA 19406
    • 11 Federal St, Camden, NJ
    • 3 Executive Campus, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

BAE Systems

  • Seventh-largest military contractor.
  • Philadelphia-area location:
    • 8000 Midlantic Dr # 700N, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054

Raytheon/RTX

  • Second-top defense company in the world by revenue
  • Philadelphia-area location
    • 8000 Midlantic Dr # 201N, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054

Black Out. Controversy about meaning and efficiency of sabotage

  • January 20, 2024 1:41 am

Submission
Between February and March 2020, all over the world, heads of state made
solemn and grave announcements in order to prepare
their populations for what appeared to be a new era : one of war against
the virus. Within a couple months, the sabotage of telecommunication
infrastructures had almost become a daily event in France, as well as in
other European countries. Simultaneously, a debate sprang up within
anarchist and radical ecological publications, in particular about the
meaning and efficiency of these acts. How could we undermine
technological control ? Could we provoke a tipping point within this
situation? What scenarios did these sabotages open up ? How could we
consider efficiency, organization and ethics altogether?
Nowadays, the situation has evolved, but the problems brought up by the
following texts remain unresolved, maybe even more
so now, and without obvious answers : what are the links between direct
action and social or ecological movements? What strategies emerge when
we separate or combine anarchist, ecologist and techno-critical
perspectives? How do these strategies integrate a now-decisive element :
the war in Europe, which will guide and harden the grip of states on
their populations.

[PDF]

NJ Hate Watch: White Lives Matter PA Leader and Unidentified J6 Rioter “Insider #140”, Evan Plumlee

  • January 12, 2024 1:13 am

from Jersey Counte-Info

Antifascists have positively identified 54 year old Evan Wendell Plumlee of Feasterville-Trevose (Bucks County), PA as a neo-nazi, unidentified J6 rioter “insider ”, and leader of White Lives Matter (WLM) PA.

Evan Wendell Plumlee

Plumlee is also a member of NJEHA and an associate of S14 and the Atlantic Nationalist Club, among other local nazi crews. Plumlee has long-standing connections both in-person and online to the far right scene in the tri-state (NY, NJ, PA) area. Over the past few years he has been occupying himself with joint actions between NJEHA, WLM PA, WLM NJ, Embrace Struggle AC, S14, and Atlantic Nationalist Club, while running the WLM PA Telegram channel with, the recently deceased, Jackson Bradley.

Plumlee’s Gab and Telegram account. They both have the same screen name and dog picture.

Plumlee first came to the attention of antifascists through a routine check of active fascist accounts in the tri-state area. A Telegram and Gab account by the handle AndailChanter was flagged due to its activity. After running some basic checks it was discovered that the account name, AndailChanter, was not unique to Telegram and Gab but existed across several other platforms, some of which were connected directly to Evan Plumlee.

One of Plumlee’s accounts, in this case bitbucket, was attached to his AndailChanter username.

Plumlee made an amateur mistake by linking his legal name to his online neo-nazi persona, which is reminiscent of other S14 member blunders such as Mark Kauffman, Sara Sheaffer, Jackson Bradley, Mathew Bair, Erin Gurel, Paul Minton, and Daisy McGowen. Additionally, Plumlee confirmed on his Telegram account that he lived in Bucks County, PA, further removing any plausible deniability over his identity.

With Plumlee positively identified, antifascists were able to trace his in-person and online activity and connect him to the earlier referenced local groups. Over the past few years Plumlee has forged a strong connection with NJEHA leader Dan D’ambly, S14 leadership, and has regularly attended actions in NJ, PA, and NY.

Plumlee circled in red attending a Embrace Struggle and WLM NJ and PA chapter rally.

 

Plumlee is on the left, standing next to Paul Minton, during the ill fated Tom’s River Irish Festival rally. This is the same rally that Nicholas Mucci attended prior to his arrest.

 

A close up picture of Plumlee attending the Tom’s River Irish Festival rally.

Plumlee has also maintained WLM PA’s online presence, using in-person actions to bolster their content to try and recruit new membership.

 

These two pictures from the S14 chat are referencing a 2023 rally that Plumlee attended. He specifically grabbed footage from that day’s event for WLM PA’s 2023 Day of Action, which is a part of a larger nationwide push by WLM National where individual chapters are encouraged to do simultaneous racist actions.

Outside of his regular online and physical presence in the tri-state area neo-nazi scene, Plumlee is active in moderate right-wing politics on a national level, having connections to more palatable pro-Trump groups. Of note, his involvement in these circles and his connections to other neo-nazis enabled him to join a caravan to Washington D.C. in 2021 for the January 6 Trump rally that devolved into a violent convergence and occupation of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Plumlee traveling to D.C. with Vincent Deluca, pictured on the left.

Plumlee can be seen throughout footage from the J6 riots being an active participant in storming the building and working with others to occupy the building.

Plumlee is circled in red, shortly before the Capitol building was stormed.

 

Plumlee gathering with other rally goers right before the building is invaded.

 

Plumlee entering the Capitol building.

 

Plumlee and others are at one point confronted by a Capitol police officer while inside the building.

At the time of publishing, while over 1,000 people have been identified and faced criminal sentencing for their involvement in the January 6 riots, hundreds of people have not, including Plumlee. It is time to expose Plumlee for his actions on J6 and membership in neo-nazi organizations.

A note from NJ Hate Watch: this is not done in cooperation with the state, any of its agents, or those who cooperate with the state on any level. If Plumlee finds himself on the other end of a state investigation it is because of his own stupidity and arrogance. Any past, present, or future charges/state repression levied against those who participated in the J6 riots is a poor attempt by the state to show that it is against fascism. The U.S. state is by far the largest purveyor of fascism, and stands to benefit from sacrificial arrests and prison terms of J6 defendants.

Send tips and information: njhatewatch@protonmail.com

Anathema Volume 10 Issue 1

  • January 12, 2024 1:01 am

from Anathema

Volume 10 Issue 1 (PDF for reading 8.5×11)

Volume 10 Issue 1 (PDF for printing 11×17)

In This Issue:

  • What Went Down
  • Fashion
  • Things Are Getting Weirder
  • Shifts In The Philadelphia Anarchist Space
  • World War III?
  • What The Fuck Does Reconstruction Even Mean To Y’all?

Protests and Blockades in Solidarity with Palestine Continue as Deadly Attacks on Gaza Escalate

  • November 2, 2023 1:38 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.]

Massive protests in support of Palestinians in the occupied territories under attack by Israeli forces have continued, with militant street marches taking place in Philadelphia, direct actions shutting down an arms supplier in Boston, freeways being blocked by mass marches in the bay area, an enormous sit-in by anti-Zionist Jews grinding the main terminal to Grand Central Station in New York City to a halt, and pickets of a defense contractor taking place in so-called Toronto.

These actions come hot on the heels of comments from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre comparing demonstrators opposing the occupation of Palestine by the state of Israel, which in recently leaked documents called for the ethnic-cleansing of the occupied territories, to the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville in 2017. The Anti-Defamation League has also called for pro-Palestinian groups on campus to be investigated for allegedly providing “material support” to groups like Hamas. Biden has also attempted to claim that the number of deaths reported by Palestinian health officials, upwards of 8,000 just so far, are false, a statement discredited by fact-checkers.

Conditions within Gaza continue to rapidly turn into a hellscape, with hospitals shutting down due to lack of fuel and water and millions running out of a basic necessities. James Elder, spokesperson at UNICEF stated recently, “The numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day. Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” Currently Israeli forces have entered Gaza as bombings continue, such as the recent attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.

As this horror plays out, thousands continue to take to the streets across the so-called United States, Canada, and around the world. Here’s a roundup of recent mass demonstrations and direct actions.

A report back posted to Philly Anti-Capitalist read:

Saturday night, October 28th, in light of the communication blackout in and increased bombing of Gaza, approximately a thousand people assembled in Center City Philadelphia for an emergency call to action in support of Palestinians.

The crowd included people responding to an additional call for anarchists and anti-colonial radical presence at the demonstration. We were among them. The call suggested attendees wear black clothes and keffiyahs or ski masks. We chose to wear both, layering keffiyahs over ski masks because the clear show of solidarity was important to us. A hot fashion tip: we were able to remove a layer and still be covered and anonymous.

Soon after the rally became a march, we and others began covering the walls with decolonial slogans. Some favorites: FREE GAZA, FUCK ISRAEL, DECOLONIZE, VIVA PALESTINA, FAUDA, FAGGOTS AGAINST EMPIRE, BLOOD$ (on banks along the way), and FUCK BIDEN WHOLE LIFE. Those in bloc were particularly good at looking out for each other as painting took place, and it felt thrilling to write on a wall, fuck up a bank, inhale the smell of fresh paint. Even more thrilling was the response from other demonstrators! Everyone had each other’s backs, whether they were in the black bloc or not. Other demonstrators pushed out snitches, shielded writers from cops and security guards, warned us vandals when the cops were looking for us, and also joined in, borrowing paint cans and markers to write their own slogans. There were some close calls with law enforcement but at the end of the night no one was arrested. We love to see it!

After a while things got hot (girl, it was 80º out) and the cops were on the lookout. People transitioned 😉 into new looks, and mixed into the crowd. Passing privilege, baby!

In Rittenhouse Square, the crowd paused, blocking the intersection and surrounding a sound truck. Activists gave speeches from the truck bed. It was cute until these two boys showed up, oh my god! They tried to put up Zionist propaganda (those “missing person” posters, you’ve seen them) in the middle of the crowd, but that wasn’t going to happen, obviously. People ripped down the only poster they got up, and then confiscated the rest. A very patient and generous activist escorted them away and down the block. This is a good place to remind you that these tactics are often a ploy to film, dox, and harass. If you’re going to interfere, go off, but like, be unidentifiable (no face, no tatts, no case).

The march had great energy and a lot of the chants were inspiring and like, literally revolutionary or insurrectionary so… Anyway, we had some fantasies after being in such an exciting environment. If this was the energy here, just imagine what could happen if this demo passed by as ugly as a military recruitment center or a weapons manufacturer’s office?

In all earnestness, people are angry, grieving, and fucking fed up with inaction in response to peaceful protest. While yes, we could have seen that last one coming, the warm reception to criminality and confrontation that night has us wondering what horizon we can reach for next. What could a more directed march be like? What can we do now, within the belly of this fucking empire? After all, the things around us are not disconnected from the genocide in Palestine – the politicians, the arms dealers, the funders, the surveillance technologists, many of them have offices, warehouses, or some physical presence here. They are real people doing things in real places, we can go to them and touch them, and it will effect their ability to collaborate on genocide.

Xoxo
Faggots for intifada

As the war continues to intensify with the complete backing of the United States government, resistance in solidarity with Palestine shows no signs of stopping, as the need for an end to the bombardment only becomes more dire for those living in the occupied territories.

Social Insurrectionary Methods: Some Brief Excited Thoughts from a Philly Anarchist

  • October 28, 2023 1:38 am

Submission

Recently, there’s been a lot more motion in terms of Philly anarchy stuff (attacks, events, and actions). I think it can be attributed to a variety of phenomenon. But I think a big part of it is a phrase that a comrade and I recently discussed that I’m gonna call “social insurrectionary methods”.

I think that the social insurrectionary methods have been a tendency in Philly in the past as I understand it but we’re seeing a major return of those methods. Fundamentally, social insurrectionary methods rely upon efforts by anarchists to orient in a more social way while maintaining our insurrectionary anarchist politics. This differentiates us from “civil anarchists” who compromise their own politics in the name of unity or liberalism or leftist politics or deference. The social insurrectionary methods come with some risks obviously in terms of security. I think that is why some people are less interested in those methods due to the risks. However, I think those risk can be counteracted by the fact that every insurrectionary actor does not need to be involved in every direct action. We can practice security culture and have different spheres of activation for different people. We don’t need to be friends with everyone. We just gotta keep social spaces alive.

I think a forward facing or at least a more open anarchist space can provide more opportunities for new comrades (especially those who might not normally be exposed to anarchist politics due to racial and class segregation) to take part in struggle. Some of these things have been visible and others have been less visible. I think efforts like the work parties that took part at Bartrams, the organizing meetings and mob vandalism against Moms for Liberty, the martial arts training space (which is very Black and queer), intervention around ideas at political spaces such as the Block Cop City talk or the George Floyd Uprising Book talk, film screenings, Black anarchist meetups, discussion groups on Palestine solidarity, Philly contingents going to anarchist convergences (we brag about how great Philly anarchy is), friend hangouts in the park, Black anarchists working alongside Black nationalists to do self defense training and study, anarchists fighting in the Eddie Izirarry riots, and various other types of social activities tied to a politics of revolt are good examples of social insurrectionary activity. Or maybe that’s just being a serious anarchist. We build with each other as well as bringing in new people. I just want it to keep happening. I haven’t been this excited about anarchism in Philly in a while. This trend is only continuing with more discussion groups, meet-ups, and an upcoming Anarchist skill share in November. It’s all so exciting. Just keep planning stuff, please!

I think this social tendency of anarchists makes us strong and brings new people to our movement. I think the thing I’ve had conversations with people about a lot over the course of the past 12 months about is basically that anarchists must organize interventions and events on our own. And that’s the important thing for us to do rather than downplaying or diminishing our politics while at the same moment being open to people that might not share our politics. That’s the social insurrectionary method. In some ways, the social insurrectionary method by being uncompromising in our politics forces other political people to either adapt or at least respect the anarchist perspective. By organizing our own spaces and making our position clear we operate from a position of strength that we can communicate our ideas while not downplaying them.

I honestly think this is where affinity comes in to be honest. It’s easier to stand solid on your shit if comrades got your back. Whether it’s going to a work party with some friends, arguing with liberals at a Block Cop City event, moving in the streets as people spray paint, talking shit about how leftists in the city are cowards, anarchist fight training events, attending actions together that end up being wack but having fun being together, drinking cider on the porch, acrobatic exercises to do bad shit, or discussing a new zine that just dropped…social insurrectionary methods are great and fun and it doesn’t have to be FUCKING liberal or sub-cultural. Social insurrectionary methods for the win. Bring your comrades. Have their back. Even if it’s a small thing. Social means we move together and broaden our capacity as we move. We don’t all have to agree, we just gotta have respect, be anarchists and be in conversation. That’s a thing I really like about the anarchist space in Philly right now. Let’s keep up the energy. I love going to things where I see people I don’t know!

PS: Also, for comrades who aren’t in Philly. You can do all of this too. Just begin. We’re able to do it in Philly cause people just wanted cool shit to happen. The secret is to really begin!

Some Suggestions for social insurrectionaries

-More anarchist work parties
-Anarchist meetups/potlucks of every variety (for queer anarchists, black anarchists, disabled anarchists, anarchists who DJ, etc)
-Anarchist reading groups or film screenings
-Anarchist crew up and go to a wack event and critique it (a personal preference)
-More anarchist fight meetups (maybe with a debate interlude)
-Anarchist jogging meetups
-More Anarchist bike rides
-More Black bloc please
-More anarchist rave
-Anarchist hip hop show (no white race traitors allowed)
-More anarchist meetups at wack actions for activities
-No phone hangouts
-More Philly anarchist road trips to other cities (I hear harrisburg and pittsburgh are pretty cool)
-More anarchist skill shares that are not fight training
-More mob vandalism
-attack level 1 communist enemies with your level 25 anarchist crew