This Movement is Not Ours, it’s Everybody’s! A message to “the activists” about Occupy ICE Philadelphia

  • July 24, 2018 6:05 pm

from Friendly Fire Collective

This text belongs to a new zine that speaks to the current#OccupyICEPHL movement. This was not written by a Friendly Fire member.

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Something incredible is happening at OccupyICE Philadelphia right now.

The encampment, which is in its third week at city hall, is developing in a truly revolutionary direction. Yesterday a crew of unhoused folks militantly and autonomously took to the streets around city hall in an unplanned spontaneous march, shutting down one of the busiest intersections in Philadelphia for almost an hour in support of immigrants. We talk a lot about solidarity and about unifying proletarian struggles: this is the real thing. At this point the encampment is primarily run by unhoused comrades and they are holding down a fully built out, autonomously run and organized immigrant solidarity occupation that is a beautiful eyesore on one of Philly’s most esteemed tourist attractions.

The Kenney administration is livid, although thanks to the beatings they took in the press for the beatings we took from police when they cleared the first encampment at ICE offices at 8th and Cherry, they’re playing friendly and looking to reconcile. Long term immigrant activist groups and people inside the administration expect the declaration of the end of PARS—the police information sharing agreement that has helped Philly’s ICE office become the highest per capita arrest and capture major city in the country—any day now. Ending PARS is the first of the movement’s three demands, the other two being shutting down Berks, a horrifically abusive “family detention center” in PA, and Abolishing ICE.

This would be a huge victory, and the culmination of almost a decade of hard work from the city’s Immigrant movement. But we haven’t won yet, and many in the Philly activist networks, tired from weeks of hard work, infighting, and social agitation, and having heard the news that Kenney is likely to give in, have stepped back and become demobilized (myself included): right as we are on the cusp of winning!!!

We need to keep fighting, keep pushing right now, because if momentum completely slips Kenney can waffle on PARS and we could achieve nothing for all our efforts.

Luckily for all of us, the unhoused community has held it down and kept this movement alive. Over the last two weeks activists of all ideological stripes, anarchist, socialist, Marxist, nihilist, ultra and whatever else, have almost entirely stepped back from living at the camp, and those that do come down rotate in and out for brief periods while the unhoused people keep it going. As one of those organizers, let me just say: this has been an incredibly good thing. Some of the unhoused folks have political experience from Occupy Philadelphia back in 2011, others from their day to day lives in the streets, others still 2 have very rapidly politicized within the OccupyICE encampment. They are maintaining a 24/7 protest and keeping attention focused on ICE, opening up room for people to join the fight on other fronts. They are asking us to take advantage of this opportunity!

In the shadow of the obscene monument to power that is Philly city hall, a majority Black coalition of unhoused folks add their voices in opposition to the mayor and the city and in defense of immigrants. Occupiers stay on the megaphone all day long. Today, Gramma Kim, an unhoused comrade living at the camp, spent three hours making heart-wrenching statements to the people of Philadelphia, soap boxing with the megaphone all afternoon:

“What would you do if your children were in a cage? Wouldn’t you fight? We have to stop this!”

Every morning the camp crew wakes up the marriott hotel across the street with humorous musings on the loudspeaker. By 9am, comrades from the MOVE organization drop off fresh vegetables grown in their garden, and Food not Bombs is dropping food for lunch and dinner while unhoused occupiers are staffing the kitchen to distribute it. Donations have slowed to a trickle, but there are still a whole lot of shared meals, cigs, and experiences.

To give you just one example of what I see down here: There was an unhoused man, I wont name him but folks from the camp will know who I’m talking about, that during the first few days at City Hall would come through camp and just overturn tables, yell and scream, he even shoved someone, and we had to physically remove him from the camp multiple times. We got him to a shelter one night, but when he came back the next night some concerned activists were considering sectioning him. I’m so glad they didn’t, because now he holds down the kitchen and is one of the people most concerned with keeping the camp tidy. He’s part of the movement, more a part of it day to day now than me or the other people who had to chase him out of camp those few times. OccupyICE has become a transformative space for people joining in struggle.

Of course, it’s not at all rainbows and gumdrops. As a comrade said: “…it’s certainly messy down here. There’s no way to keep your hands clean, figuratively speaking. You get pulled into some shit and some drama pretty quickly if you aren’t careful.”

It’s true. A lot of us occupiers have serious addictions, as well as physical and mental health problems. Often times there are moments of anger and conflict that can erupt in camp, which can feel scary to people, especially those of us who don’t come from working class/street/hood backgrounds, but it’s important to understand and know that these moments of conflict often lead to resolution, even if it doesn’t look the same as it would in 3 4 a more middle class or activist space. If for whatever reason people don’t feel they can be down here that’s totally legit: there’s lots of other ways to support the encampment and struggle in solidarity.

OccupyICE is demonstrating that the activist milieu’s tendency toward taking a social worker’s attitude toward unhoused folks —rather than a comradely and restorative one—is a serious political error. The fact is that unhoused people are keeping the movement alive. They are the movement right now.

The well-intentioned but misguided activists (I include myself here) haven’t been able to see this: some even keep insisting that we have to shut down the camp that they rarely go to and have little investment in anymore since it’s problematic and uncontrollable. But word inside the camp is that campers are ready to move after we win and continue the struggle, and even expand it to include police and prison abolition and other issues facing the unhoused.

Comrades, can’t you see, we’ve helped to build something truly uncontrollable?

Something proletarian, communal, autonomous and buck-wild?

From the first march called by the alphabet soup of socialist orgs to this moment, everyone has put their shoulders to the wheel and pushed. It’s been an amazing, inspiring effort. But comrades, victory is so close. We can’t stop now!

While there is a political and tactical advantage to the unhoused people running and keeping the camp, we still need to support it logistically with donations/supplies and politically with marches, actions, and keeping up the pressure on Kenney. We can do the things we’re good at: banner drops, direct actions, street marches, teach-ins. If we don’t, it’s possible the internal pressures of the camp will prove too much for our mostly-new-to-organizing-comrades.

Let’s stop thinking of the unhoused people as anything other than our core comrades in this movement and this struggle. Do you know their names? Have you gone down to camp and talked to them about the political prospects of the situation? If you did you would see they don’t need our help, they need our solidarity! They need us beside them fighting! We started this current wave of struggle, we can’t leave them to finish it alone!

Many of us have become so used to losing that we don’t know how to pull this thing across the finish line right now, right as we’re about to win—but the folks in the camp are planning on winning. As such, they have a firmly established plan— logistically, politically, strategically—to close the camp and relocate it as soon as the PARS demand is won.

This will be a reset for the camp and for the movement, and if the city ends PARS Kenney can have the occupation off his lawn today (you reading this Kenney?!) But it all hangs in the balance right now, material support is visibly receding. People 5 6 are donating less frequently, and most of the original convening organizations are sitting on their hands (and their piles of donated cash) waiting for something to happen.

But comrades, something is happening. Something big, something real. We’re very close to significantly damaging ICE’s ability to round people up in the city, and from there, to building something even bigger.

OccupyICE is creating a working model for how we can open an umbrella organizing space in Philly that breaks through the inaction caused by sectarian turf battles. We can win real victories for the movement while materially and politically supporting Black-led autonomous revolutionary organizing of the unhoused. By its very existence, OccupyICE is realigning the terrain in Philadelphia and pulling activists kicking and screaming into winning demands and sewing the seeds of an insurgent and revolutionary street culture. This is what revolutionary street organizing looks like!

Long live OccupyICE!
End PARS!
Shut down Berks!
Abolish ICE!

-PAJ (Philly Anarchy Jawn), Monday, July 23, 2018

DANGEROUS INDIVIDUAL IN LEFTIST SPACES: ALEX STEIN

  • July 24, 2018 6:02 pm

from Keeping Our Spaces Safe

COMMUNITY ALERT: ALEX STEIN

[CW: SA, misogyny, racism]

(Written content contains brief references to sexual assault, harassment, and predatory behavior.

Images contain examples of misogyny and feature course language; images have been edited for hate-speech and to protect uninvolved individuals.)

It is our hope that this information may serve as a warning to others of the dangers posed by the individual known as Alex Stein; a predator with a history of sexual assault, and a supposed “anarchist” with fascist associations who has repeatedly attempted to organize, infiltrate, and recruit in leftist spaces.

Alex has been known by many names. In the fascist’s circles, where Alex appears to spend much of his time, he may be known as “Brandon Woods” (aka “Brandon W PA”) or “Sam Specter” (aka “Sam Specter PA”). While attempting to purport himself as a “leftist” Alex has operated under numerous aliases, including: “Alex Stone”, “Terry”, “Felix”, “George Bailey”, “Woody”, and “slyalex”.

He is the creator & primary author of the Twitter account “Anticommunist Action Philly” (@AnticomPHL) and the page “WolftrapAF”, which operates on multiple social media platforms under the usernames “WolftrapAF”, and the associated account, “TwolftrapAF”.

Alex is also believed to utilize numerous additional accounts under his various personas -ranging from democratic socialist to insurrectionary anarchist, which may be listed in locations across the country- using multiple social media platforms. Evidence suggests that this is done in order to continue to attempt to cultivate new relationships with leftists; and <b> <i> to avoid accountability for his history of abuse, including multiple accounts of sexual assault and predatory behavior, repeated attempts to incite dangerous and high-risk situations against the consent of others in the area, volunteering information on activists to far-right groups [and the state,] and his wide-spread banishment from spaces.

While living in New York, Alex’s reported history included harassment, abuse, and aggressive behavior which resulted in his expulsion from radical spaces.

After moving to Pennsylvania in late 2016, Alex quickly attempted to insert himself into activist spaces, almost immediately acting with a complete disregard for the safety of others.

In late 2016 Alex began using his social media accounts to repeatedly make public posts calling for people to engage in “antifascist” organizing, tagging unaware individuals across the country, and encouraging others to form local organizations operating under his personal guidance.

Over the holiday season he launched an online fundraiser for an action in Montana using his legal name, along with the name of a legitimate local activist group. As an individual publicly raising money for an antifascist cause he was almost immediately doxed. The funds, which were intended to support local activists on the ground, were never accounted for and numerous reports suggest they were stolen. During this time he participated in media interviews, purporting himself as a ‘representative’ of various local groups and organizations as it suited his cause and as he perceived it would be of interest to each particular news agency.

In early 2017, Alex began to attempt to force his way into radical spaces claiming to offer expertise gained through membership in groups he was never a part of, and taking over control of tasks and events being organized by others against their wishes. Playing off his youthful appearance and lying about his age, he targeted spaces occupied by younger activists and consistently attempted to push others to engage in actions they did not consent to participate in. He employed these forced associations, along with the city-wide success of a MAGA counter-demonstration in the spring of 2017, to further establish his credibility within local activist circles. Over the following months, Alex used this notoriety to commit multiple acts of sexual assault. Using his position in the local community and his strong manipulation skills, he quickly created an environment of fear to silence his victims through threats of danger to themselves and of ostracization from their community.

From March through June of 2017 Alex’s intermittent presence and consistently toxic behavior in various local spaces persisted, as did the demands for him to be accountable for his actions. To avoid expulsion from the community he continuously ‘took accountability’ for smaller indiscretions and offensive behavior- making superficial motions towards responsibility while insisting that his inexperience, heavy alcohol use, and lack of understanding of social cues relieved him of any ‘guilt’. Instead, he repeatedly created ‘roles’ for himself in order to force his way back into spaces, while he continued to intimidate his victims and engage in abusive and predatory behavior. During this time he befriended an individual working at a local crisis center who cited their experience as a victims’ advocate to justify their championing of Alex’s continued presence.

In June an individual confided to fellow community members about a specific instance of Alex’s predatory behavior which had left them feeling extremely unsafe and requested support to eliminate any possible future situations where he may be able to approach them while alone. The public recognition of the need for this safety measure created a space for additional victims of his abuse to come forward. Following an extensive review of all presented accounts of experiences Alex was held accountable by the community for r*ping a local activist along with a series of additional instances of predatory behavior, expelled from the space, and banished from all future events. Warning calls were immediately made to contacts and other local groups Alex had been known to engage with to urge that steps be taken to ensure the safety of community members in any spaces where he may be present. Hours after Alex was informed of his expulsion from the local community a large-scale public campaign of extreme harassment began against an individual acting as an advocate for his victims, and their family, which placed them in personal and legal jeopardy. This resulted in some local groups hesitating to formally ban Alex from their events out of fear of similar retaliation against themselves and their loved ones.

In July it became publicly known that Alex had begun associating with local fascists, as well as with the white nationalist group, Vanguard America, while they engaged in the planning process for “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia. During this period Alex attempted to contact numerous groups and organizations in an effort to build connections and networks by exploiting the promise of information regarding these plans, which was needed to ensure the safety of the local community, in order to create relationships of dependency with activists from around the country.

For the next month Alex leveraged these awaited critical details, and his unique ability to provide them, to avoid further censure for his actions as the word of his history of abuse and the resulting calls for him to be banned from additional communal spaces spread widely. Having failed to ever provide the information as promised, Alex actively participated in the events of “Unite the Right” all the while continuing to subject activists on the ground to rapidly escalating levels of danger in an attempt to maintain the indispensable role he had created for himself with activists and organizers.

Shortly after “Unite the Right”, Alex was arrested in the company of local fascists following a[n alleged] ‘fight’ and charged with possession of a retractable baton. Afterwards, he told local activists that he had been released from custody after [reportedly] telling police that despite appearances, he was in fact “an antifascist infiltrator”, and had information he wished to share regarding the nationalist group, Vanguard America. Following subsequent court dates he once again attempted to enter local spaces, despite repeatedly being told that he was unwelcome due to his history of abusive and predatory behavior.

With his abusive and predatory history now widely known, Alex found himself barred from more and more spaces upon his return to the Philadelphia area. In late August he attempted to contact members of the local community once again, claiming to have been ejected from the group Vanguard America where he had participated in chats under the alias “Brandon Woods” aka “Brandon W PA”, accusing respected local activists of “outing him” to Vanguard America leadership and demanding they be banned from future local events, in an attempt to once again force his way into the community.

Upon finding himself still unwelcome, and his claims quickly and easily disproven, Alex sought to once again create a role for himself and engineer relationships by reaching out and offering information to activists around the country who had not yet learned of his history of assault. Promising that his help would better ensure the continued safety of their local communities, this time he purported to offer information regarding the actions of the newly-formed white nationalist group, Patriot Front, which he had gained entry to through his new alias, “Sam Specter” [aka “Sam Specter PA”].

Throughout the fall Alex strived to find a place for himself in small regional circles, attempting to exploit their decreased access to the larger community and its resources. When he was instead confronted with knowledge of his past actions he offered elaborate falsified accounts of events and circumstances, customizing the details to suit each audience.

When efforts to hold him accountable continued and he was denied acceptance into spaces he attempted to garner sympathy for his exclusion, and when that failed, he resorted to threats, intimidation, and sexually-predatory behavior. -Once again, individuals were forced to go to great lengths in attempts to block his access to their spaces and warn their communities of his danger in an effort to maintain their own personal safety.

In Winter of 2018, it came to light that Alex had been in ongoing contact with an individual who was engaged in gathering personal information on individuals whom they considered to be ‘activists’. This information was later published and used for targeted harassment campaigns against those identified. Additional reports suggested that while Alex had been engaging in outreach to individuals to offer information and build relationships, he may have also used the opportunity to request additional details and contact information during these conversations. The exact purpose of these inquiries, and whom, if anyone, that information may have been shared with, cannot be conclusively confirmed. The majority of these [known] attempts were quickly shut down and rumors began circulating that he had begun spending a significant portion of his time in New Jersey despite retaining his official residence in Philadelphia.

Despite claims in Spring of 2018 of leaving the left in May, Alex once again began reaching out to leftist spaces. After claiming to have participated in May Day actions in NYC, he also attempted to reach out to radical organizations in the Philadelphia area in June, though these efforts were quickly rejected. Recently, it was reported that Alex had begun attempting to build new relationships and connections in an effort to create a role for himself in the response to Unite The Right II events to be held in D.C. this year.

This information is an open warning call; this individual poses a danger to all communities. Due to nature of his tactics, his extraordinary manipulation skills, his enjoyment of “playing a character”, and his use of multiple aliases both in real life and online, protective steps should be implemented across all spaces and platforms. In addition to ‘activist’ spaces, Alex frequents burlesque, film, theater/performance spaces, and sideshow spaces. He particularly enjoys “haunted attractions” and may seek employment in these venues. He appears to spend most of his time in the Northeast and is most frequently in the Philadelphia, South Jersey, and New York City regions.

Over at least the last year, Alex focused the majority of his recruiting energy on engaging with those he perceived as liberal. In doing so he attempts to offer guidance and create dependence on his involvement to access additional resources and educational opportunities. This also allows him to control not only his own narrative, but to ensure new contacts remain isolated from the larger community where they may learn of his history. In reality, Alex uses his new friends not only for access to new spaces and for the creation of networks under his control, but also for his personal entertainment.

Please help to ensure others in your area are alerted to this risk by sharing this information in local activist and performance spaces as able. If Alex has attempted to organize or is involved in burlesque or other community spaces in your area, to report additional accounts/aliases, or for a shareable flyer version of this alert, please contact KeepOurSpacesSafe@protonmail.com. Thank you.

Philly-Area ICE Contractors Locations and Phone Numbers

  • July 23, 2018 4:12 pm
from Scribd
Org. Locations in the Philly region How they enable and profit from Trump’s deportation machine Phone number
  • City of Philadelphia City Hall, 400 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Shares information with ICE via the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS), set to expire on August 31, 2018 (215) 686-2181
  • Geo Group See here for PA facilities Operates immigrant detention centers across the country, including one of the country’s three immigrant family detention centers in Karnes County, Texas (561) 893-0101
  • CoreCivic See here for PA facilities Operates immigrant detention centers across the country, including one of the country’s three immigrant family detention centers in Dilley, Texas (615) 263-3000
  • Wells Fargo See here for your nearest branch locations. Finances private prison companies Geo Group and CoreCivic, making sure they have the cash they need to carry out their day-to-day business including detaining immigrants 1-866-878-5865 or see locator for local branch
  • Vanguard Vanguard Campus 100 Vanguard Blvd, Paoli, PA 19301 Is the largest shareholder in both GeoGroup and CoreCivic (610) 669-1000
  • Comcast Comcast Center 1701 JFK Boulevard Philadelphia, PA 19103 Has at least two active contracts with ICE (215) 496-1810 (front desk)
  • Team Sports Planet 1241 Carpenter St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 Have had contracts with ICE in the past (215) 218-2070
  • Microsoft Corporate Sales Office, 45 Liberty Boulevard, Suite 210 Malvern, PA, USA 19355 Microsoft Retail Location 160 N Gulph Rd, King of Prussia, PA 19406 Has an active, $19.4 million contract with ICE for processing data and artificial intelligence capabilities (610) 240-7000; (484) 754-7600

Further Clarification Regarding Alex Stein

  • July 23, 2018 4:01 pm

from Philly Antifa

Philly Antifa recently issued an alert about a dangerous individual named Alex Stein.
Alex is absolutely, unequivocally a rapist. We refuse to go into detail because:
A. First and foremeost, we believe survivors. Their Words are enough for us.
B. Exposing details poses danger to the numbers of people he has assaulted.
However we will say there are a number of people, in completely separate circles, that have come forward. His behavior is not isolated – it shows a pattern. Patterns repeat.
A stance of “he provides good intel and he never acted a sort of way in my presence” equates to rape apologism. If this has been in anyway part of your commentary you are complicit in silencing survivors and empowering perpetrators. Do some reading and work on yourself.
Next, Alex proclaims openly to cooperating with the police and providing them information. Here is an open admission by Alex (George Bailey is one of his aliases):
In any context, in any scenario, never ever talk to the police. By his own admission, he went to the police alone, without a lawyer and cooperated with them. We reject and dispute his story of the manner in which that interrogation went, but in the end, we don’t care about directly responding to his lies. Never, under any circumstances or for any reasons do you work with the police. You are a state conspirator, your help and submission to them is akin to being a cop yourself.
The last point we will address is the questions and disbelief around his possibly being a fascist. The following screenshots were obtained from a sock account Alex used in far-right discord servers. This was one of several accounts that were discovered after Alex had been blacklisted from organizing spaces in Philly for being a rapist and for repeat instances of sexual misconduct and unnecessarily reckless behavior with no attempt and outright refusal to engage in any accountability process. A notebook of his was acquired in a space that he had been for a few months, and it listed several of his usernames and passwords inside. Sam PA is Alex, and here he is speaking to Jack Corbin, who was too stupid to know who he was talking to. Alex confirms identities to Corbin who would go on to doxx large amount of antifascists. Alex is also setting up phone calls with Corbin, where he is offering to provide more information to be used to harm and expose anti-racists:
 What might be confusing to some is that Alex was doxxed along with us, but Corbin had his name and identity already, Corbin had already identified Alex. In an act of trying to muddy the waters in his complicity and do exactly what is happening, Alex confirmed his own identity to Corbin, and this fact seems to confuse many. That’s by design; that’s the type of creature Alex is. He will do anything to survive and keep doing whatever it is he is up to. We can’t say for certain if he is fascist, and we never did. But he sure is eager to help them try and wipe us out, be it white supremacists or the state, and that sounds pretty fash to us.

Anathema Volume 4 Issue 7

  • July 20, 2018 1:58 pm

from Anathema

Volume 4 Issue 7 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)

Volume 4 Issue 7 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)

In this issue:

  • Two Points About Mass Action
  • Red Belly: Reflections on Squatting an Autonomous Garden
  • Learning Lessons
  • Be Gay, Do Crimes: a Short History of Bash Back!
  • What is A-Space?
  • What Went Down
  • Fuck the Law

Beyond Occupation

  • July 17, 2018 1:07 am

from Friendly Fire Collective

Thoughts on the current #OccupyICEPHL and moving forward to #EndPARS

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We are two weeks into #OccupyICEPHL. We have ceased occupying the ICE offices since July 5 and the current encampment at City Hall has lost a lot of its original momentum. The Left in Philly united on July 2nd for the original occupation, but it has been fractured by burnout and internal conflicts. A lot of us are wondering, how did we get here and how do we move forward?

The encampment at City Hall

After the camp was dismantled on July 5th by homeland security and Philly cops, a meeting took place in the evening. Hundreds gathered, sharing reflections and potential strategies for moving forward so that we could effectively pressure Mayor Kenney to not renew the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) contract, which allows ICE access to the PPD’s database.

Following the meeting, an autonomous group decided that one strategy in continuing the fight was to begin a camp at City Hall in order to be a confrontational presence for city officials, and to educate the public about both PARS and ICE. Within minutes, they set up at City Hall, bringing yoga mats, signs, umbrellas, chairs, and food.

Picking up on the momentum of the previous camp, many came around to provide support. The camp was quickly built up with a medic and food storage tent, as well as a table of leftist literature, including flyers on both #EndPARS and #AbolishICE. Participants were flyering; workshops and teach-ins happened throughout the day; food and water and other supplies were consistently being dropped off; chants were constant; and general assemblies were held twice a day (and they still are).

That being said, within the past week, the energy at the camp has been fizzling out. I was at the camp this morning and counted around 15 present.

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Skepticism of the new camp

A number of leftists in Philadelphia have expressed skepticism of the camp.

This is fair.

More than half of those present at most general assemblies are white, and a majority of the principal organizers are white. Whiteness is a destructive force for all, with material consequences for those that cannot access its privileges. For those who are white or can access whiteness, it hinders empathy and results in moral deterioration to those who reap benefits from whiteness. We need to see and combat the way whiteness operates among us, making it a priority to center the needs and the voices of POC. In my experience, this is a constant struggle in leftist spaces, and in this sense the encampment is not unique.

It seems that a major reason why people have either backed away or have chosen not to support this camp is because they see the occupation as ineffective and believe greater action is needed. What should be noted is that this camp began with this in mind. A diversity of tactics is sorely needed and this camp was never envisioned as THE tactic for all to take. This camp was started to agitate at City Hall as part of a larger project which would include the continuing work of the original #OccupyICEPHL coalition as well as autonomous actions.

There is also skepticism because of the camp’s independence from the original coalition. Those in the camp desire to work alongside the coalition but are intentionally not bound to the coalition, structured so that those on the ground and actively involved decide the direction of the camp.

Some skepticism feels neither political nor strategic, but personal.

Infighting among leftists has been present throughout the whole occupation, even prior to the new camp. The first night of the occupation included coalition organizers squabbling with a few anarchists of a more illegalist, insurrectionist tendency. This was aired out very publicly through a zine that was published online and passed out at the final assembly at the previous occupation.

Tensions between those of a more anarchist orientation and those of a more Marxist orientation were heightened.

Some smaller orgs, especially those with a more autonomous bent, have expressed that they felt unheard and even shut down by the larger coalition.

A skepticism of anarchist organizers continues, leading some to view the new encampment as an anarchist project. Though the organization of the new camp is more horizontal, it is not solely anarchist-organized. Such thinking dismisses those houseless folks who are actively flyering, chanting, and keeping the camp smoothly operating – that do not identify as anarchists – as well as the presence of Marxists.

Again, I think some of this skepticism is a projection of people’s personal issues with specific organizers.

The stress of the original occupation, where participants were constantly surrounded by cops and federal officers, exacerbated disagreements among organizers. I cannot blame individuals for withholding their support because of being made to feel unsafe by certain organizers, but it would be strategically unwise to fully dismiss this camp because of that.

In the past week hundreds have come together to publicly agitate at City Hall. This camp is not meant to last forever, but it would be wise to not let it sputter and die out on such a sour note in such a public space. The forces-that-be want our inactivity and burnout so that the PARS contract can be renewed without a fight.

This occupation ending in such a way will reflect badly on all of us, and even more importantly, could hinder and even sabotage the campaign to #EndPARS.

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Moving forward

Last week, running off the energy of the first encampment, the camp became a base for activity.

Occupiers were constantly talking to those passing by, providing information on the PARS contract and getting folks to sign the petition put out by Juntos. Media and public attention on the camp highlighted the PARS contract. Mayor Kenney and other officials were flooded with phone calls.

This base is limited, as action-planning cannot occur in such a public space. That said, it has been a space for educating, connecting organizers and people of good conscience, and most importantly, a very public way of getting Kenney’s attention.

I don’t think as much energy needs to be put into this project as the first encampment, but I think it is worth actively supporting this camp in order to strengthen our message. If more people were out on the ground, more people could take shifts. The burden of this camp would not remain on the same 20-30 people, many of which have slept in their own beds only a handful of times since the original occupation.

But, again, we need to do more.

We need to continue calling city officials, handing out flyers, flooding social media with information on PARS; but we also need to begin agitating with more creativity. Perhaps also at other strategic locations – maybe not to the point of occupation, but at least picketing. We need to be creative in finding ways to get our message out to the public and to our so-called “leaders” as well as hinder ICE operations. We cannot afford to waste time on infighting. We cannot lose sight of the goal, and therefore we must not lose sight of our current moment. Upset over ICE continues, despite the media trying to move on. The time is ripe. We must act.

Anarchists, Communists, Socialists: Part 1 of Building a Revolutionary Coalition – RED & Comrades

  • July 13, 2018 6:11 pm

from Radical Education Department

“Anarchists, Communists, Socialists: Bridging the Divides in Philly”
Part 1 of RED’s series on “Building a Revolutionary Coalition in Philly”
With Activists from IWW, Philly Socialists, Food Not Bombs Solidarity, RED
Wooden Shoe Books, Philadelphia
July 11, 2018

Event Description:
In Philly, like in many other cities, radical groups often work separately. We come together for certain events, or anniversaries like May Day, but beyond these we can tend to stick to our own projects. How can we create more radical support for, and coordination with, each other? How can we build a radical, durable, and broad-based coalition in Philly?

This summer, the Radical Education Department (RED) is working with other radical groups in the city to coordinate a series of three discussions—building off of our Wooden Shoe discussion this past spring on “Antifascist Education.”

The overall theme for this summer series is “Building a Revolutionary Coalition in Philly.” The first talk, at the Wooden Shoe, will be around the theme “Anarchists, Communists, Socialists: Bridging the Divides in Philly.” One goal is to discuss ways to create more solidarity between groups in the city, exploring the deep history of radical coalitions—among anarchists, communists, and well beyond—along the way.

Download the flyer for the event here.

AN ANARCHIST REPORT BACK AND SOME EMBEDDED CRITIQUES OF #OCCUPYICE PHILADELPHIA

  • July 6, 2018 1:18 am

Submission

“These texts were written in response to our various experience during the first day and night of OccupyICE. While the encampment has changed a lot since, we feel that the power dynamics and social situation still warrant these critiques.”

[Zine Web]

[Zine Collated]

Dispatch from Occupy ICE Philly

  • July 4, 2018 11:25 am

from Radical Education Department

Arthur Burbridge

Intro

On July 2nd, a coalition of groups in Philadelphia occupied the local ICE office.  In what follows  I offer a few quick sketches of the occupation.  I was there at the opening of the march at City Hall at 5PM until I had to leave at 9, and then again the next day (July 3rd) at 9:30, leaving just after noon. Today, July 4th, the occupation enters its third day.  The account and ideas below are therefore cobbled together from my own experiences, from Unicorn Riot’s live feed, and from reports from comrades who were there when I couldn’t be.

These sketches are partial, and they need to be filled out and corrected as the struggle continues.  But I hope they can add to our reflections on the ongoing ICE occupations and help us to continue building and developing radical power.

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A loose timeline

The occupation was a planned escalation out of an anti-ICE rally at City Hall.  After the rally, about 500 of us took to the streets.  The cops were clearly expecting this to some degree—they had shut down a number of roads leading from City Hall to the ICE office—but they were also  unprepared.  We waded through traffic, turning suddenly and sending the police scrambling.  A section of bikers darted ahead to help find a path.  When we reached the ICE office at the corner of 8th and Cherry, we set up a two-part camp.  The first one was in front of ICE’s van garages on Cherry.  The second was on the 8th street side of the building in front of ICE’s main doors.

Tents popped up immediately and people threw down their gear to block the garages.  At the other entrances, a bike loaded with food and water blocked the doors.  Someone brought in a massive red van with a PA system, and parked it to block Cherry and keep out cop cars.  The van started blasting tunes, and  people started dancing.  Somehow a couch made its way in front of the fenced parking lot for ICE vehicles.  Banners swung across the streets

The cop presence was large and growing at this point.  I was with the 8th street crowd guarding the building doors.  I couldn’t see what was going on around the corner at the garage.  But dozens of bike cops were lined up across from us.  Within 15 or 20 minutes they rushed the crowd, swinging their bikes as weapons for maximum effect.  They broke through the occupiers to cut the 8th street crowd in half and secure the building entrances.  But the priority was obviously the van garages (we later learned there is an entrance into the building, shared by a women’s center, that ICE employees are exploiting).  The pigs backed off and left the 8th street doors to us.  Almost immediately the bike brigade stood wheel to wheel and people jumped into the street to cut the road off from the cops.

But police started massing forces to retake 8th.  There was a commotion around the corner (since then, I heard a cop just tripped and fell down).  The cops on our side panicked and tried to break through the bike line to get across.  But the bike crew and the other occupiers around them refused.  The line was two or three bikes deep across the street; bikes collided and people pushed back, forcing the cops to retreat.

By 9, there were over 50 cop cars lined up down the street, and rumors of riot gear being unloaded.  Over the next few hours, a cop or two started appearing wearing some heavy-duty gear (vest, helmet, gas mask, etc.) that was marked “Counterterrorism Unit.”  Around the corner from me—on Cherry—cops apparently tried to bum rush the crowd to break through.  They were forced back again and occupiers locked arms to prevent another attack.  Occupiers threw up barricades to separate the tents and occupiers from police on the north end of 8th and to create a barrier in front of the garages—wooden pallets, trash, other city debris.

As the night dragged on, more whiteshirts.  Ross, the police commissioner, Ross, appeared.  Cops demanded the removal of the barricades, the couch, and the banners stretched across the streets.  Occupiers allowed these to be carted away.  To get rid of the couch, though, the cops had to haul it up into a trash truck.  People were screaming at that the police were scabbing the municipal services.  By 1 the cops backed down and started trickling away.  The threat of an immediate raid lifted.  A number of people—maybe 50, I’m not sure—stayed the night.  The cops turned on the building floodlights to fuck with people trying to sleep.

But by 6 a.m., police forces were regrouping.  By 11, the camp was building its numbers, along with its cop presence.  Dozens of beach umbrellas are popping up. It looked like a beach.  Chants started up again in earnest.  People—many otherwise unconnected to the event—were unloading car after car of food, water, ice, coolers, food.

But the pigs were biding their time for a noon assault to secure the garages.  They marched out the mounted police and dozens of regular officers, along with about a dozen or two whiteshirts. Occupiers closed ranks and linked arms.  Bike cops charged, shoving people aside along the wall and garage.  A dense mass of occupiers refused to move.  There were apparently about two dozen arrests.  The pigs took control of the garages.  They put up and are guarding metal barracades to make sure ICE can keep on working as efficiently as possible.  It’s not clear what the future of the occupation will look like from here, but the site is still occupied without any plans to leave.

The event represents one more episode in the growing militancy and radicalism of hilly, and it offers some important lessons as radical struggles continue to grow.

The developing tactic of occupation in Philly

The actions around ICE are a reminder of the Occupy encampment a few blocks away.  But this action is different.  Occupy was flooded by liberals and libertarians alongside a number of radical individuals and groups.  More militant actions, like confrontations with the police, were infrequent and did not occur on a large, coordinated scale. And in Occupy, the strategic plan was extremely unclear.  In this vacuum, it seemed like the site was being held simply for the sake of occupying it, regardless of its tactical or strategic value.

Little of that applies here.  Militancy is built into the plan.  The bike squad was part of a design to keep cops away from the building and clashes between them were inevitable.  The strategic aims of the occupation are clear: disrupt as far as possible the operation of the ICE office; create official and unofficial refusal to cooperate with ICE.  These goals are paired with broader demands: stop deportations, end family detention in Berks Family Detention Center, and end Philly’s cooperation with ICE.

The militancy here seems to be building off of the growing energy and numbers of radical antiauthoritarian struggles over the past couple of years here, in the Summer of Rage Anarchist Crew, the actions around J20, in Antifa on the national and local level, etc.  I think the militancy of anarchists as well as police abolitionists have laid some of the important groundwork.  In other words, we’re witnessing a kind of accidental but powerful collaboration between groups that is building Philly’s radical power.

Is it possible for this kind of collaboration to be developed, going forward, in a more deliberate way? For anarchists and radical Socialists to deliberately coordinate successive militant actions, or actions that are different but complement each other—creating groundwork for each other, building on each other, even despite major differences?

The Cops

There is no question that the cops are working for and coordinating with ICE.  This isn’t just obvious from their violent protection of the building.  I’ve heard from a reliable source that on Tuesday morning, the cops helped clear occupiers out from in front of the parking lot to let in an employee car.

This opens up more space for developing local radical politics.  The police are very clearly aligning here with white supremacist and fascistic forces in the state.  This isn’t a shock to many of us.  But the radical left has here a chance to emphasize the links between the police, the state, capital, and colonial violence.  In this situation, it can become very clear why calls for police abolition, prison abolition, and radical anti-capitalist politics need to be connected.

To the barricades?

As far as I know, barricades have not been a particularly popular tactic in Philly in recent years.  On the very last night of Occupy Philly, in the face of overwhelming police power, occupiers threw up a hasty barricade without much result.  But barricades have played an important part in the occupation of the ICE office so far.

As police were gathering forces and preparing to invade last night, the barricades signaled a militant defense of the occupation that was unusual for the city.  The dumpster rolling down the street—that was the signal of an even higher level of struggle, it seems, the threat of a pitched battle.  All this seemed to spook the cops.  And so it played another unexpected role, too.  The cops were hesitating to raid the space.  The barricades became a point of negotiation.  It’s like pigs need to save face; all that hyper-masculine bullshit needs to convince itself it’s forced people to obey.  The cops took the couch and the barricades.  The people kept the office.

How do we up the ante and expand our use of barricades in the future?  Can we set them up in advance to fuck with the way police will try to guide marches?  Are there techniques we can learn to build them bigger, higher, stronger, more durable?  How could they tactically help us resist repression—maybe buying us time to stay at a location, or giving us a few minutes to fly to another one while cops are stumbling over trash?

Some tactical possibilities

It’s clear the police are blundering to try to deal with this tactic and its new level of aggression.  Cops were panicked and swarming us during the march, and within an hour or two at the ICE office there were easily 60-75 cop cars gathered up.  But cops made an enormous traffic jam.  We can use this confusing and this overwhelming show of force against cops in a two (or more) stage operation.

If a large crowd is moving towards occupying a key spot, like ICE, cops will swarm.  But if we plan things right, and have the numbers, this could be followed up by getting another, separate crowd mobilized blocks away to take another major target.  With so many of them tangled up at the first spot, the chance for embedding in that second location would be much higher.

And the more that we use two stage actions, the more paranoid the pigs will get.  They’d be extremely hesitant to launch a massive force against an occupation for fear of the next steps—and we could use that to our advantage. Or they’d try greater shows of strength (riot gear etc.).  That could be a problem, but it could be a real opportunity, too, in a city like Philly that claims to be progressive.  It’s clear this city wants to shed its well-earned image of police violence.

Coalition work

The occupation is also an important experiment in radical coalition-building.  The event emerged through the efforts of the following official endorsers (but many other groups were also present at the event and probably helped in various ways): Philly Socialists, Socialist Alternative, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Montgomery County Socialists, Liberation Project, Philly DSA, Reclaim Philadelphia, Green Party of Philadelphia, International Marxist Tendency, POWER, and IWW Philly.

The list shows that the event emerged out of the socialist scene here, connecting more radical groups with more reformist and traditional groups.  This kind of project isn’t unusual in Philly, but the scale and militancy seems to me to be a serious step up.

The occupation acts as a kind of “estuary” where currents from different traditions, especially the more radical anticapitalist kind, are combining, and where a space for new, less ideologically rigid projects and ideas to develop.  Even though the “official” planning of the event was largely socialist, many other far left groups and tendencies appeared, too: a strong police abolitionist presence as well as at least some anarchists.  This kind of combination crucial as the fascistic state in the US grows in power and audacity.  Developing and deepening connections among radical groups are essential today if we’re going to build an effective (and therefore, necessarily, mass) response to fascism in a still deeply fractured radical scene.

But the event also raises an important question for Philly anarchists and the other parts of the radical left beyond the socialist scene.  Is this event worth throwing support behind?  What about the major differences in ideology between anarchists and groups like the PSL or Philly Socialists?  The occupation is mounting a clear challenge to a key local branch of fascistic power in this country.  And it’s helping build radical militancy and connections among anticapitalists here.  For anarchists or other radical anticapitalists to sit this out would be an important missed opportunity.

We can’t just wish away major ideological differences.  They are real and create tensions that can’t be ignored.  But there are also levels of coalition, the lowest being merely tactical unity without strategic or ideological agreement.  This is highly limited.  But it is still important, even as a first step, particularly if we’re going to go on the attack against an increasingly audacious state.

And the occupation shows the importance of different kinds of coalitions.  A single Philly wide coalition right now for all anticapitalists would be too internally divided and weak.  If the differences are just too big between some groups, they are much smaller between others; we see this principle at work in Philly’s current occupation.  What would it look like to create more “nodes,” or sites where closer segments of the revolutionary left experimentally build together?  Philly’s occupation is a coalitional project driven mostly by socialists.  Something similar, maybe, could be developed across different but still close sectors of the radical scene in Philly—the most anarchic wing of socialist groups with sympathetic anarchists and prison abolitionists. 

And finally, the occupation is a reminder that building revolutionary power is a process and an experiment.  Connecting at least some of the revolutionary forces in a city will come step by step, by connecting some individuals across groups that share a liberatory anticapitalism, and building outward from there.  We’re laying the foundation for many more struggles after this one.

Radical Education Department

radicaleducationdepartment.com

radicaleducation@protonmail.com

Building Autonomous Power: Radical Struggle in Philadelphia

  • June 26, 2018 10:26 pm

from It’s Going Down

Both a history, analysis, and a proposal for building autonomous power in the city of Philadelphia, PA.

 “The Summer of Rage has begun! Get your sun screen on because it’s gonna be a hot one!”

Summer of Rage Anarchist Crew

by Art Burbridge

Radical struggle is on the rise in Philadelphia. Since at least 2016, anarchist actions—by the Summer of Rage Anarchist Crew, Antifa, and many others—have been intensifying and broadening in a city that already had a long history of antiauthoritarian struggles.  Other groups have been energized too, like prison and police abolitionists, socialists, and Marxists.  With anarchists, they are challenging gentrification, police brutality, mass incarceration, predatory landlords, and attacks on workers.  These far left forces are starting to converge and overlap—seen in reaction to the killing of a local activist, in the abortive 2016 anti-DNC protests in the city, or in actions against local white supremacy.  But the radical scene remains disconnected.   It is still struggling to develop on the mass scale that would be needed to challenge capital in a revolutionary way.

Anarchists and their allies confront a city in the middle of a profound neoliberal transition.  Since the collapse of much of the local industry, Philly has been undergoing a process of profound transformation by corporations like Comcast and the flood of bourgeois managers, lawyers, and others that corporations bring with them.  Internal colonization, displacement, police brutality, and a savage “gig” economy inevitably follow.  They deepen the already obscene racial and economic inequality here.  But Amazon is threatening to build a new headquarters in the city, a move that would accelerate and intensify Philly’s forces of displacement and domination.

Anarchists play an important role in radical organizing in Philly. They offer a set of ideas, practices, and experiences for building power beyond the state and capital—especially important as capital increasingly relies on an authoritarian, fascistic state to survive.  And they provide some of the most important spaces—the Wooden Shoe, A-Space, etc.—for far left groups to meet, hold events, and spread a revolutionary culture.

But what possibilities and obstacles exist here for building revolutionary, autonomous power?  To ask this question, I place far left struggles in Philly against the backdrop of its material context—neoliberal capital’s crisis-ridden development on the local, national, and international scene.  The point isn’t to give easy answers—there aren’t any—but to help chart some of the potential tasks ahead.  Ultimately, I ask: what would it take to make a revolution here?

This piece is part of a series from the Radical Education Department (RED)—see this and this—exploring possibilities for building a revolutionary mass movement today.  It emerges out of RED’s attempts—alongside many others—to build mass, revolutionary power in Philly.

Anathema Volume 4 Issue 6

  • June 20, 2018 9:10 pm

From Anathema

Volume 4 Issue 6 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)

Volume 4 Issue 6 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)

In this issue:

  • Summer Against Prisons
  • Stop The Raids
  • State Aids Federal ICE Abductions
  • Collateral Violence of Society
  • The Legacy Of The Green Scare
  • Anti-Anarchist Repression in Canada
  • Amazon Watch
  • Poetry
  • What Went Down

Crews, Networks, and Federations: A Conversation

  • June 11, 2018 1:18 pm

from It’s Going Down

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we sat down with two members of the Radical Education Department or RED, based out of Philadelphia. In our discussion we talk exclusively about their new text published on IGD entitled, Insurrectionary Councilism, which proposes the creation of spaces that bring together various groups for the purpose of becoming better organized.

In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground, starting largely with a critique and conversation about Left Unity, as well as a look back on the “movement of movements” approach in the anti-globalization period as well as the horizontal structures of Occupy. We discuss some of the organizational needs of the current age, as well as what groups that exist now are already doing to put these ideas into practice.

While it would be impossible to say that this conversation arrived at any easy answers, this discussion in itself brought up some important tensions and questions. What forms do we need to take to be organized? How do we organize across our various groups? How do we relate, if at all, to Left groups like DSA? Are new organizational structures needed, like Federations, and what exactly would they do that current forms do not? 

We hope that this conversation sparks more, as well as experimentation over how we can better organize ourselves, and make our movement more powerful in the process.

More Info: Insurrectionary Councilism and Radical Education Department

[Listen Here]

As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation

  • June 1, 2018 11:10 am

from Google Calendar

A discussion with authors Zoe Samudzi and William Anderson.

In the United States, both struggles against oppression and the gains made by various movements for equality have often been led by Black people. Still, though progress has regularly been fueled by radical Black efforts, liberal politics are based on ideas and practices that impede the continued progress of Black America. Building on their original essay “The Anarchism of Blackness,” Samudzi and Anderson show the centrality of anti-Blackness to the foundational violence of the United States and to the racial structures upon which it is based as a nation. Racism is not, they say, simply a product of capitalism. Rather, we must understand how anti-Blackness shaped the contours and logics of European colonialism and its many legacies, to the extent that “Blackness” and “citizenship” are exclusive categories.

As Black As Resistance makes the case for a new program of self-defense and transformative politics for Black Americans, one rooted in an anarchistic framework that the authors liken to the Black experience itself. This book argues against compromise and negotiation with intolerance. It is a manifesto for everyone who is ready to continue progressing towards liberation.

When
 Fri Jun 8, 2018 7pm – 9pm Eastern Time
Where
 Wooden Shoe Books, 704 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19147, USA (map)

Anarchism and Revolutionary Strategy: Insurrectionary Councilism

  • May 30, 2018 11:06 am

from It’s Going Down

This piece is a companion to another from the Radical Education Department, “The Insurrectionary Campus: A Strategy Proposal”, which originally ran on It’s Going Down. That article was a specific application of the wider theoretical and strategic framework developed here.

Download and Print Here

Intro

How can anarchists help mobilize mass revolutionary struggle in America?

Socio-political fascism is on the rise again, giving this question fresh urgency.  But that rise is the result of the basic structures of neoliberal capital.  Fascism is the ruling social class’ attempt to tame a basic contradiction.  Capitalism’s ruthless domination of human life and nature drives economic and ecological catastrophes and growing rebellion. To suppress widespread unrest, the establishment mobilizes the white supremacy, patriarchy, xenophobia, and militarism that have always been essential to capital, combining them in a more nakedly and aggressively authoritarian state. Trump is merely the puppet of this dynamic.  America is hardly unique. The dynamic plays itself out in different ways and in various degrees in India, Russia, Turkey, Europe, and beyond.

Anarchists are facing a historic opportunity.  We are witnessing an unprecedented outpouring of resistance in America, building on long-standing radical struggles. And in recent decades, anarchist ideas and practices have played an essential role in organizing radical resistance—from consensus-based decision-making to affinity groups, horizontal assemblies, and emphasis on decentralized direct action.  This influence was obvious in the Global Justice Movement, in Occupy, and in Antifa coalitions today.  Moreover, Trump’s brand of state fascism has sparked a crisis within the ruling class itself; it hasn’t fully established itself inside the state.

All of this means anarchists are poised to play a powerful role in helping organize a radical challenge to fascism’s rise and the oppressive society that requires fascism to function.  But radical struggle is deeply fractured and reactive. How are anarchists to respond? In recent years, anti-authoritarians have debated a number of organizing possibilities to channel radical energy into mass projects: using insurrectionary methods to assert our freedom and provoke the masses into action; building coalitions of multiple leftist groups, like in Antifa; emphasizing  “cadre politics”, entering existing mass movements to push them leftwards; creating and expanding specifically anarchist movements (“especifismo”); organizing workplace, neighborhood, or city councils (as in anarchosyndicalism or, in a different way, in Occupy); and beyond.

“For huge swaths of the radical left, the idea of building a new hierarchical party or group is justly discredited.  This is an important part of the growing appeal of anarchism for the radical left today.”

To this debate—and drawing in various ways on all these traditions and beyond—I propose an “insurrectionary councilism.”  This proposal is rooted in an analysis of the material conditions anarchists face today.  Capital is undergoing an uneven, combined regression into more savage and direct forms of domination.  At the same time, the radical left is beginning to congeal into a more radical form but remains deeply divided.  In this context, insurrectionary councilism does not focus on either entering existing mass struggles (like in cadre politics) or building a specifically anarchist movement (as in especifismo).  Following the lead of Antifa in Michigan and Charlottesville as well as the tradition of anarchosyndicalism, it calls for something else: creating radical, hybrid councils of delegates from the most radical anarchist and non-anarchist groups in a city for the sake of an experimental, federated, direct-action oriented system.

These are the aims of an insurrectionary councilism: to help tap into and share the rich and deep experience of groups too long separated from each other; to use those connections to build revolutionary solidarity and networks of coordinated radical action; and therefore to help congeal the revolutionary power of the radical left—to capitalize on this moment of crisis and danger.  The aim is a more vibrant, intersectional, and coordinated federation of revolutionary groups.

This proposal emerges out of my work with the Radical Education Department.  RED is a “pan-radical left,” rather than a strictly anarchist, organization. But it contains a strong anarchist current, and it is attempting to put many of these ideas into practice in Philadelphia. Ultimately, this proposal is self-consciously provisional. Arising out of RED’s experiments, it means above all to provoke non-dogmatic strategies, tactics, and ideas to help combine radicals and add to the creation of a powerful, broad, and revolutionary mass movement.  It will, of course, need to be challenged, revised, and rethought as these experiments continue.

Technological Progress & The Modern World

  • May 15, 2018 3:56 pm
from Anathema

In an interview about his new book on precision and the modern world, Simon Winchester questioned whether we had gone too far. When making things to withstand such incredible tolerances, the components have to be incredibly precise, otherwise you have the example he gave of an airplane wing becoming irreparably damaged in flight due to a fraction of a millimeter of an error. He elaborated that we might be “in danger of fetishizing precision,” constructing our lives around it, and losing respect for simple skills and hand-made things.

You might notice that we don’t usually advocate half-measures in these pages. The life of an anti-capitalist under capitalism is often a life of compromise, for fear of imprisonment or death at the hands of the state, but we aspire to be so much more – and those times that appear as compromise may only be a disguise to keep us free as we continue to escalate our conflict. The recent spate of communiques surrounding May Day seems to attest to that.

During one of the May Day speeches beside City Hall, a member of the the Radical Education Department suggested that, “we need to go on the offensive” – and they are more right than they know. But with the continuation of absolute atrocities against the earth and its inhabitants (e.g. poisoned water, poisoned air, massive deforestation, indigenous genocide, racist murders by police), we would have a long way to go before we overcame our defensive position – meaning it is only more necessary that we attack, and do so by every means available.

“By insurrectional practice we mean the revolutionary activity that intends to take the initiative in the struggle and does not limit itself to waiting or to simple defensive responses to attacks by the structures of power.” – For an Antiauthoritarian Insurrectionist International

In a recent report by Counterpunch, it was put forth that environmentalists contribute to deforestation due to their consistent compromises with the state, maintaining the course of removing what very little remains of an already decimated landscape. Similarly, marching in the streets over those aforementioned atrocities, and asking the authorities in charge of those that committed them to address that “injustice,” doesn’t even begin to get to the point. Relying on accrued examples of earth-devastating malfeasance by a drilling company, as some residents are doing in “opposition” to the Mariner East 2 pipeline, again, doesn’t halt the problem – and doesn’t really address the the technological advances that allow for horizontal drilling, which has similarly made new advances in further contaminating our groundwater.

And what do they gain for their sacrifices? “Electronics-recycling innovator is going to prison for trying to extend computers’ lives.” On April 29th, it was reported that “Mahwah, NJ is fining Ramapough [Lenape Indians protesting proposed pipeline] up to $42,500 per day for prayer and sacred altar retroactively since March 29, 2018.” Bureaucracy prevails, as Mumia can’t even get a new trial under progressive DA Larry Krasner, despite lying and tampering by cops involved in testimony and evidence gathering, and overt racism by the judge. Whether or not you believe he did it (which really shouldn’t matter anyway), by the state’s own logic he should get a new trial.

The food and water in prisons, among other conditions in those modern slave plantations, have contributed to riots occurring in recent months – months ahead of a proposed prison strike beginning in August.

Meanwhile, the food and water we consume on the outside is also less nutritious than the wild foods that persisted before agriculture, and incredibly tainted. Industrial food production has recently contributed to E. coli outbreaks in Romaine Lettuce and ready-to-eat salads produced in PA, listeria contamination of milk in Lancaster County, staphylococcal enterotoxin and clostridial toxin contamination of beef, the contamination of sausages and beef in two different states with hard pieces of plastic – and that’s only since our last printing.

“Nearly 70% of Chicago’s tap water tested positive for brain damaging lead,” reads a headline, in the continuing tradition of poisonings that still affect Flint, MI; Chester, PA; and Philadelphia, among so many others.

The New York Times reported last month that a Sperm Whale was killed by 64 pounds of trash that clogged its intestines and stomach, further stating that “as the amount of plastic in the ocean grows every year, some scientists believe that debris might kill more animals than the effects of climate change.” Yes, more than climate change: the human-induced mass-extinction event.

“Today’s ecological crises are a warning sign that capitalism itself is not sustainable. The problem is not that we lack reformist legislation; the problem is that our economic system fundamentally disconnects us from the environment.” Additionally, those technologies developed alongside the growth of that economic system contribute to our alienation from the natural world and to the economic system’s control over our lives.

The potential expiration of “Net Neutrality” on June 11th is not the end of freedom on the internet. Being conceptualized as a “right,” provided by the large corporations that provide the necessary infrastructure for that communication, means that legal use of the internet is already mediated and therefore not free. Freedom means having power – not the power to control other people or their means to communicate (consider how internet service providers already slow down your connection over particular downloads), but the power to control the circumstances of one’s own life. You do not have freedom if anyone else has power over you, no matter how benevolently, tolerantly and permissively that power may be exercised.

“Facebook harvested 3.5 billion Instagram images without warning their owners” until much later, as they built an Artificial Intelligence photo recognition system. French police were recently revealed to also be using AI to “predict protests and neutralise them,” and “Facebook terms now ban posting photos of undercover agents infiltrating your political group, protest, etc.” – those very same infiltrators that have entrapped activists leading to long prison sentences when no crime had been committed (e.g. Eric McDavid).

“Compromise continues the trajectory and we can’t afford to stay the course.”

“Five journalists arrested while covering Standing Rock still face charges – more than one year later,” reads a headline from two weeks ago, and 59 J20 defendants are still suffering the stresses and costs of fighting decades in prison for attending a protest. It’s a wonder anyone attends protests at all considering the potential costs incurred for so little return. But I guess a student walkout at Temple University in favor of sanctuary status on May Day in a state that “is a free-for-all” for cops that want to arrest undocumented immigrants is really the least you can do.

The two black men being arrested in a local Starbucks minutes after arriving, as they awaited the arrival of another member of their party, is not a new development, but its sensationalism has contributed to this common trend becoming news-worthy. Recent nationwide reports of white people calling the cops on black people having a cookout, on a black Yale student for napping in a common area, on black teenagers for shopping at a Nordstrom, on black folks for checking out of their Airbnb, on five black women for not golfing fast enough at a country club, popularly exhibit the racial profiling that leads to the higher rates of incarceration and murder by police. Take the example of the black man murdered outside of a California Walmart when cops fired 30 rounds into a vehicle after he was suspected of theft, and also wounded one of the passengers. Or the Democracy Now! report that a “black teen [was] sentenced to 30 years in prison for a murder committed by cop.” Then there were the examples of “Native American brothers pulled from campus tour after nervous parent calls police,” and the “young Santee Sioux man shot by police officer while being dragged on the ground.”

This seems an appropriate time to remember that on May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police dropped a bomb in a residential neighborhood that killed five children.

Those old fall backs of modernity that claim we’re better off now, as life is safer and easier than it once was, seem mostly unfounded by this only partial round-up of recent news reports. Even before mentioning that the World Health Organization is now warning that “common infections and minor injuries which have been possible to treat for decades may once again kill millions” due to the overuse of antibiotics. Those complex surgeries and cancers that the developed world has been so triumphant in treating, even though it has been the creator of many of the causes of those illnesses, are suddenly becoming extremely difficult to treat. And to add insult to injury, Business Insider reports that “the average American worker takes less vacation time than a medieval peasant.”

The so-called popular alternatives presented to us and advocated for in order to reach the masses, defer to the same Bernie Sanders who once advocated for the dissolution of the CIA, but now just appeals to have a less overtly offensive head for the organization that notoriously contributed to assassinations and torture as a matter of course. Socialist mouthpiece Jacobin can write a whole article on Brexit without mentioning its racially motivated anti-immigrant policies. Local “independent” news site, the Philadelphia Citizen, can propagate its founder’s opinion that we need Amazon to build its HQ2 in Philly to keep the college transplants here, despite the consequent gentrification that will continue to force out already marginalized residents. These are continuations of the path that have lead to the deadly-serious, alienated reality that we currently suffer.

Compromise continues the trajectory and we can’t afford to stay the course.