from It’s Going Down
[Video]
On this International Worker’s Day, we are inspired by the resistance around the world from the streets of Paris to nearby Philadelphia. Solidarity with workers everywhere on this May Day and here’s to a long (hot) summer of fighting capitalism, colonization and ecocide!
Please check out this video about our front in that struggle, and please consider donating to our fundraiser here: www.fundrazr.com/campwhitepine!
from Philly Antifa
Update 5/2/17: We have received word that Reardon has been evicted from his apartment. As a result, we have removed the address at 44th and Sansom. We have also been informed that someone damaged a car of another resident of Reardon’s building. While we do not know for sure that is related to this we would like to make it clear that no one from Antifa Philadelphia was involved and that sloppy or misdirected actions reflects badly on Anti-Fascists as a whole.
Update 5/1/17: Word has spread fast about Illegal Aryan being exposed. We would like to remind our readers that Reardon lives in an apartment in a building, and there are other tenants there with no ties to him or his Nazi activities. We understand that residents are (understandably) upset about a Nazi living in their midst and spreading propaganda, just please be mindful of that.
We have confirmed that Reardon is no longer employed at the Law Firm he had listed as his Facebook employment. We have removed the contact info and thank both the Firm for being understanding and everyone who called for keeping it civil.
As many of you are aware, last week Nazi flyers were briefly put up on Locust Walk on UPENN campus in West Philly as part of the “Day of the Flyer” initiative started by Alt-Right internet Nazis.
The flyers were taken down almost immediately by numerous crews of Anti-Fascists, students and other people from the area. Responsibility was claimed by the twitter account @Illegal_Aryan.
Illegal_Aryan was also at the Traditionalist Worker’s Party and National Socialist Movement Rally in Pikeville, KY on April 29.
Due to some good investigative work from a supporter and some supplementary research by our Intel team, we have confirmed that “Illegal Aryan” and Mark Daniel Reardon of West Philadelphia, are one and the same.
Reardon is a rather recent convert to Nazism.
If one was to look at Reardon’s facebook, they would find no obvious indicators to his Nazi views. He definitely posts some questionable content, such as videos by notorious right wing charlatan James O’Keefe and of distraught Hillary Clinton supporters upon finding out their candidate lost, but nothing that would lead you to believe he would be moonlighting as a Nazi troll and putting up vile racist flyers in West Philadelphia.
According to Illegal Aryan, he is 32 and lives in West Philly between 2 mosques and within a few blocks of the spot where those 2 cops were ambushed last summer.
Illegal Aryan also was nice enough to describe themselves on the Stormfront dating section. Also mentions that they like to bike.
Illegal Aryan also posted on TDS that they went to Temple University ten years ago.
Mark Daniel Reardon is 32 years old.
Mark Daniel Reardon went to Temple University and graduated 10 years ago.
Mark Daniel Reardon is tall, slim, is European, and likes to bike.
A news report from the TWP and NSM’s private conference portion of their event provided the final piece of proof.
Reardon’s most recent address (removed do to being evicted) close to the area where the flyers were put up and where those cops were ambushed.
Getting the picture?
Reardon recently was working as a Desktop support engineer at a law firm , but we have confirmed that he has not worked there for several months.
It also appears that Reardon was trying to go onto Nazi website The Daily Stormer recently while working and apparently using the Wireless network of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We are working to confirm or dis-confirm whether he is currently working there; an unsettling possibility if there ever was one.
Mark talked a lot of big fucking game about Antifa when he was anonymous. Let’s see how he feels about us now. Nazis are not welcome in Philadelphia, and any attempts by them to organize, recruit or intimidate will be annihilated. If you do attempt any of these things, you have already ruined your life; even if you don’t know it yet.
Solidarity with everyone who stood strong in Pikeville on the 29th despite the threats of violence by the Nazis and law enforcement harassment.
Eternal War on the Hitler Youth,
from Anathema
Volume 3 Issue 3 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
Volume 3 Issue 3 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
In this issue:
from It’s Going Down
Editor’s Note: The Hilton Hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has canceled the Mid-Atlantic Liberty Festival. According to Steve Scheetz, one of the official organizers for both the MALF and the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party 2017 Convention (and Facebook friends with Austin Gillespie), they are currently trying to find another venue.
After IGD released an article about how Libertarian Party of Florida member and former Senatorial candidate Augustus Sol Invictus, real name Austin Gillespie, a fascist and fellow traveler within Alt-Right and neo-Nazi circles, was speaking at an upcoming Libertarian Party event in Pennsylvania, we received a flood of emails. These didn’t come from Libertarian Party officials or from Gillespie; instead they came from people within the Libertarian Party who were glad that we were finally shining a light on fascists making inroads into Libertarian circles. On Facebook however, various people connected to the Libertarian Party downplayed the article or claimed that the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania itself was not officially organizing the Mid-Atlantic Liberty Festival (MALF), or “soiree,” and thus should not be held accountable.
At the same time as this was going on, Gillespie himself issued a statement responding to the article, painting himself as a weak victim. Meanwhile, Will Coley, the former Vice Presidential Candidate for the Libertarian Party who Gillespie is set to debate, also made a statement attacking people who were pushing to shut the event down, claiming it would affect him negatively economically.
Meanwhile, new information has come forward that shows that a second fascist, friend of Gillespie, and another contributor to his website, The Revolutionary Conservative, is also scheduled to speak at the conference. Furthermore, the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania also gave $1,500 to the MALF in order to help fund it.
Lasty, according to Alexandria Brown, a journalist that interviewed Gillespie several times and had developed a friendship with him, now claims in a recent blog post that Gillespie “raped, brutally beat, and threatened his [19 year old] ex-fianceé with a gun.”
Will the Libertarian Party continue to associate with fascist trash like Gillespie or will they draw a line?
from It’s Going Down
“It has been said that I associate with neo-Nazis and skinheads. You’re goddamn right I do. I am a criminal defense lawyer, and I am proud of the work I have done for the American Front.”
Augustus Invictus
On Saturday, April 1st, 2017, the Pennsylvania chapter of the Libertarian Party will host the “Mid-Atlantic Liberty Festival and Soiree,” bringing together Libertarian Party members and activists together from across the region. The event will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Harrisburg, the capitol of Pennsylvania.
Submission
We know we need to help turn Philly into the site of a radical resistance to Trump and the social forces he represents. But there is no clear, widespread sense of what that kind of resistance might look like in this city. Right now, we mostly have a series of disconnected efforts.
One way to deal with this is to think critically about the kinds of resistance we *do* have and about how to radicalize and deepen it. The Solidarity Forum here in Philly is an extremely limited, ineffective response to Trumpism. But it’s valuable for the questions it raises about how to radically resist.
1. Reportback on the Solidarity Forum
The Solidarity Forum has been a monthly event at Arch Street Methodist Church since December that’s attempting to drum up resistance efforts in the city (last meeting: March 11th). It’s organized by many of the same people behind the DNC Action Committee, which organized some very light resistance during the 2016 DNC. The Forum is built on the “speed dating” model: people move from table to table every two minutes to hear a pitch from groups who want them to join. It has had some decent turnout. At its February meeting, I’m estimating about 150 people total showed.
Some of the groups there are, thankfully, more radical: the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice and Philly Antifa come to mind. But a lot of the groups fall into the more liberal variety and avoid any image of conflict at all. For example, one group wants to march to Harrisburg and ask elected officials to change their ways. The idea seems to be the people in office just don’t realize what they’re doing is hurting people.
The forum is somehow a step backwards from the DNC Action Committee. The goal of the Action Committee was largely to coordinate the most local groups possible. This meant rejecting any possibility of confrontation or conflict so as not to offend. Early on, the committee was called the DNC Protest Committee. After an early debate, the leadership decided the goal and language of protest would be dropped completely as too alienating. But
at least (and this is hardly anything) it was an attempt at some kind of solidarity.
The Solidarity Forum, by contrast, has jettisoned the idea of organizing. It’s more like Amazon than anything: it wants to connect people to their favorite baubles, which they can then play with in private.
2. An anarchist response?
What should a radical leftist, anarchist response be to events like this? An obvious answer would be to ignore them. But I think this is a mistake. Events like this are symptoms, not causes; and more than this, they’re fairly popular place for more and less radical groups to gather. Like it or not, this is one of the places organizing in Philly is starting from.
There’s no clear path towards mass, radical politics in Philly. But the forum shows us a clear roadblock: the “common sense” of a lot of the left in Philly that resistance should be totally allergic to disruption and confrontation. How do we start shifting this common sense? Is it possible for the more radical left to engage and work with the Solidarity Forum without itself becoming too reformist and reactionary?
How can we start pushing the political culture in Philly to the more
radical left? How can we avoid, as anti-authoritarians, being a vocal but isolated clique? Can we develop a “polyamorous” and “queer anarchism” that works with different kinds of people and approaches, but keeps pushing ideas and people to the antiauthoritarian left?
from Anathema
Volume 3 Issue 2 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
Volume 3 Issue 2 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
In this issue:
from Crimethinc
“All are welcome as long as they make space for black people at the front of the march. The issues contained in the assaults on LGBT folks, on Muslims and refugees, occupation and militarization abroad are intersectional. Today we center our black women, our black immigrants, black LGBTQ family, and our black Muslims. Dress warm and be vigilant.”
The march kicked off with a line of Bodyhammer-style shields made from large city traffic cones. Each one had a letter painted on it so that together they read “U-N-G-O-V-E-R-N-A-B-L-E.” Even the protest chants had an air of militancy. “Bullets Trump Hate” resonated throughout the streets as the march headed north on Broad Street. One person with a megaphone paid homage to the words that became a rallying cry after police officers murdered Eric Garner. “They say ‘hands up, don’t shoot,’ but we have another one for you… ‘guns up, shoot back.’”
The march made its way north towards the Temple campus. We stopped at the bustling intersection of Broad and Girard, a main artery for traffic and public transit. The crowd blocked the streets and burned American flags while people of color talked about police repression and terrorism through a megaphone. “This is not my flag. It has never been my flag. We’re burning this flag for Emmit Till. Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. This is for Brandon Tate Brown.” There was more talk about the current racist stop-and-frisk policy, and, of course, the MOVE bombing of May 13, 1985. The list went on while the fire grew.
After it began to burn out, the march started to move again. The group wasn’t half as large as some anti-Trump demonstrations that brought out thousands only a few weeks ago. In a fashion typical of Philadelphia Police, the march was followed by dozens of squad cars and at least two police helicopters, and surrounded on either side by bike cops who seemed to outnumber participants by at least two to one. The strategy for policing mass mobilizations in Philadelphia is heavily influenced by former Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey; usually, the police avoid making arrests, while oversaturating the area with officers. This approach is informed by the “Vancouver Model” as outlined in the police manual Managing Major Events: Best Practices from the Field by the Police Executive Research Forum.
As soon as we neared Temple University, the march became confrontational. Those with megaphones tried to rush into the campus dining hall. Uniformed officers tripped over each other as they hurried to block the entrance and exits, using their bikes to shove people who stood in their way. They formed a line in front of the doors with their bikes as blockades.
Someone noticed a Bank of America across the street and everyone rushed in that direction. Only one officer stood guard before all the shielded protestors formed their own line at the entrance. Bike cops rushed over, clumsily tripping over each other again as they scrambled to catch up with the crowd. A scuffle broke out. Someone threw black paint over the bank window and perhaps an officer or two. Cops extended their batons. Shielded protesters stood their ground and moved forward, chanting “Kill the Rich.” Police pepper-sprayed a large portion of the crowd, then began swinging their batons and hitting many people. Four arrests took place. There was an unsuccessful attempt to de-arrest someone. I saw at least one person bleeding from the head after being hit by police. Street medics took care to help flush the pepper spray out of the eyes of those struck.
All the local news media outlets that covered this event reported that protestors pepper-sprayed the police and that police were hospitalized with injuries. No one I spoke with has witnessed anything other than the police pepper-spraying protestors. One person’s account is as follows: “Here’s what happened. We wanted to get inside Bank of America. A bunch of cops started beating people up with bikes and batons because they care more about capitalist institutions than people. One of them started spraying us with pepper spray. I got it in my eyes. The cops started shouting to their own guy, “Who’s spraying? Stop spraying!” Now, in order to cover up their incompetence, the press is implying that we were the ones who injured them.”
Six more people were arrested outside the precinct the next day while doing jail support. It took over 24 hours before everyone was released. The Up Against the Law Legal Collective worked nonstop to find out where everyone was being held and when they would be eligible for bail, while the local Food Not Bombs chapter fed the gathering crowd of people expressing support outside the jail. The charges being filed against the arrestees are outlandish, but we plan to fight the system with solidarity.
The courts and the police want us to feel scared and isolated. As long as we have each other’s backs in the mounting resistance to come, we can win. And we will win.
From Anathema
Volume 3 Issue 1 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
Volume 3 Issue 1 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
In this issue:
from Up Against The Law
On Saturday January 28th Philly Antifa held an event at Wooden Shoe Books featuring anti-fascist researcher Matt Lyons of the blog threewayfight. Some people arriving at the event noticed an unusually large police presence outside and across the street, others noticed a car parked out front that contained plain clothes officers from Civil Affairs, Philly’s protest police. Text messages bounced around to different people expressing concern. Were the cops going to try and come in and mess with people? Were they targeting Philly Antifa? What exactly was happening? Why were the Philadelphia Police staked out in front of public speaking event at a bookstore?
After the event some disturbing details were relayed by Wooden Shoe staffers to Philly Antifa organizers. Plain clothes officers from Civil Affairs had visited the Wooden Shoe the day before to voice concern about the Philly Antifa event. They alleged that Philly Anitfa may have been involved in a protest at which vandalism occurred, misidentified Philly Antifa as a fascist group themselves and speculated that right wing violence might occur at the event. They asked the staffers at the Wooden Shoe if they would consider canceling the event.
That the PPD thinks its acceptable to try to get anti-fascist public speaking event cancelled should be of concern to everybody in this city. For their officers to think they can enter a bookstore and suggest, imply or request that a speaking event should be cancelled is reprehensible.
What should be equally concerning is the ‘divide and conquer’ technique at play. We saw this tactic at play at Occupy Philadelphia in 2011 when the Civil Affairs warned Occupiers new to political movements to ‘watch out of the anarchists and black hate groups like Uhuru’. We saw it at play back in 2000 when civil affairs warned anti-stadium organizers in Chinatown that they had to watch out for the anarchists without knowing that the organizers trusted those same West Philly anarchists and that they were involved in providing security and marshaling for their march the next day. We’ve seen Civil Affairs deploy this tactic time and time again. The PPD has a history of trying to wedge movements and to cultivate suspicion among organizers and groups who may not know each other well or who they suspect may have some initial distrust toward each other.
We can resist by dragging this tactic into the light and letting other people know about it especially those new to organizing. When we let people know in advance that the PPD might spread misinformation about other groups it prepares them psychologically to resist this tactic and to dialogue with each other when the PPD attempts to play the divide and conquer game. It should go without saying that you should exercise your right to remain silent and refuse to answer the cops questions about others in the movements. However, If the cops approach you to speak about an organizer or organization you should absolutely contact that organizer or organization right away to talk about what happened and let them know the cops were asking about them and/or making claims about them. Exercise your right to dialogue with others in the movements and build with them.
That this is a seemingly clumsy use of this tactic should be no less concerning. It’s probable that the Civil Affairs knew their intervention would be rebuffed but knew that through speaking to Wooden Shoe staffers their primary message would be relayed to rebellious movements: we are watching you. This was especially clear the next day with the large police presence outside and around South Street. Cultivating paranoia is an important weapon in the cops arsenal.
While the Matt Lyons event was standing room only the police harassment and presence outside had a chilling effect. Some people received texts from friends warning people to stay away from the Wooden Shoe. In the future we would recommend the opposite. If you hear that a group is being harassed by police go down to stand by them and support them if it as at all possible for you to do so.
In 2014 we wrote this in response about police surveillance and harassment of Black Lives Matter activists at their homes and on their campuses:
“We would argue that surveillance’s primary function is for its targets to know they are being watched. It is used to instill fear; to get people feeling as if they are always being watched, monitored and scrutinized and that, implicitly, the police, like any other predator, might pounce on those they are watching. It is a powerful psychological weapon and one reason is that it’s viral. Once one person gets visited or gets a phone call or is followed home, other organizers are looking over their shoulder. Its goal is to make people feel isolated and targeted….
…Our response should be to resist this psychological war with our solidarity. The movement in Philadelphia will never let individuals be targeted and face the authorities alone. To borrow a phrase: our solidarity is our weapon. We should talk openly more about how we will support each other than how the cops may or may not be watching us or ways to evade their gaze.
They will be watching. But so will we. We, as a movement, will be watching to see if they try to start any shit with anybody and we will have each others’ backs. We, in the big picture are a powerful network that can mobilize people on the streets, support people in the courts and move ‘unlikely allies’ to our side. We, as a movement, will never let people face the authorities alone.
Our best defense is to build meaningful relationships with each other across organizations and sectors of the movement. Trust, clear lines of communication and relationship building are the inoculation to the viral fear and intimidation that surveillance tries to instill.”
This statement is more important than ever. Now is the time to have each others backs, build meaningful relationships across the movements and resist paranoia with public solidarity. Now is the time to draw a hard line and let the authorities know exactly what we will not tolerate and what we will not allow them to do to others in the movements. As the old anti-fascist slogan goes ‘No Pasaran’. They shall not pass. We will not let them harass or menace anybody in the movement unchallenged. We will be there for each other.
See Also:
Philly Antifa’s Statement: https://phillyantifa.org/repression-on-south/
From Philly Antifa
Something was not quite right Saturday afternoon when Philly Antifa arrived at local anarchist bookstore, The Wooden Shoe, to set up for a free community event. Cops had been waiting outside the store as early as 9:00 a.m. But later on, it looked like they were everywhere; blocks deep in either direction, out in large numbers, standing on corners, hanging around in all shapes and sizes of police vehicles, walking up and down the block, circling in packs of bicycle units. Counter terrorism trucks were parked at 7th and Bainbridge and were positioned with more police cars on the same corner.
An attendee left the bookstore and was followed by two police officers into a coffee shop, who monitored their activity and tailed them for blocks. More and more cops showed up, lining the street while filming and photographing everyone who entered or left the shop.
Concerned at the large and hostile police presence, some people who wished to come to the talk, thought it better to leave. The police seemed to be about to do something. In fact, they already had. The day before, two police officers entered the Shoe and asked that they cancel the event. The police made nonsense claims that they feared the presence of antifascists would result in street conflict, and made accusations about Antifa’s involvement with recent protest actions.
We want to reiterate: Philadelphia Police tried to stop this event.
They were trying to shut down a free, open-to-the-public speaking engagement about antifascism with author and political scholar Matthew Lyons. Lyons went on anyway and spoke to a standing room only crowd regarding his most recent work, “Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Antifascist Report on the Alternative Right.” So many people turned up for the talk we ran out of room, and those who could fit inside got to learn about the rising tide of alt-right ideology and fascist activity. We hope that the cops watching and filming us through the windows enjoyed the talk as well; they obviously have an intense interest in fascism.
This behavior should sound the alarm. The state is poised to crack down on communities simply based on political ideology. Radical spaces, groups and associations are being targeted. Philly Antifa and antifascists everywhere are being threatened. We will not accept a world in which it is possible to silence a public talk at a bookstore. We must work together now to resist this blatant repression. We are hosting a fundraiser this coming Saturday at LAVA to support the PHL Autonomous Anti-Repression Fund. This Fund and show are the exact things we need to bring us together and sustain our spirits and resistance. Coming out to shows and fundraisers is not only really fun, but essential if you value radical spaces and groups fighting on the frontlines. We hope to see old friends and make new ones on Saturday.
As Philly Antifa, we exist to combat fascism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all forms of oppression. We must reject the repression and intimidation tactics the police are trying to use to impose on us. We will not stop fighting, we will not be subdued and we will not be silenced.
from Facebook
The alt-right (alternative right) has gotten a lot of attention over the past few months for its ties with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and incoming administration, and for its white nationalist attacks on mainstream conservatism. Alt-rightists present themselves as hip and irreverent, and have skillfully used online memes to repackage supremacist ideology. This event will discuss the alt-right’s main political themes and tactics, major players, internal debates, relationship with the Trump campaign and incoming administration, and strengths and weaknesses.
Matthew Lyons has been studying right-wing politics for over 25 years. He writes for the radical anti-fascist website Three Way Fight and is co-author with Chip Berlet of Right-Wing Populism in America (Guilford Press, 2000).
[January 28 from 2 to 5PM at Wooden Shoe Books 704 South St]
From Anathema
2017 begun with the announcement that Pennsylvania will close two yet-to-be-announced state prisons by June 30 to help offset a projected $600 million revenue shortfall in this year’s budget. The state is also facing a $1.7 billion structural deficit next fiscal year. Governor Tom Wolf, whose efforts to raise taxes have failed since he took office in January 2015, has vowed to close the deficit through cuts and savings. Meanwhile, the originally estimated $400 million SCI Phoenix in nearby Graterford, PA has yet to announce its completion after a couple of years of delays. This is, of course, the same prison that came under scrutiny by the public as its construction was announced concurrently with the closing of 23 Philadelphia public schools and laying off thousands of teachers in 2013. The construction of SCI Phoenix is managed by Hill International, whose world headquarters is located on the 17th floor of 2005 Market here in Philadelphia.
The rest of the country has seen increased discussion on detaining immigrant populations since June 2014, when the Obama Administration announced its detention-as-deterrence plan to send large numbers of families from Central America seeking asylum into immigration detention. Families detained at what used to only be three detention facilities — Dilley, Karnes, and the local Berks Country Family Detention Center — have suffered the detrimental effects on their physical and mental health associated with being detained, lengthy detention stays, and lack of access to legal counsel. Some have suffered further abuse, including a 19-year-old mother who reported being sexually assaulted by a staff member and an eight-year-old girl who witnessed the assault at the Berks facility early in 2015.
After 15 years of operation, the state of Pennsylvania may let the Berks license expire if they continue to hold families, instead of just children, as it has been licensed as a Child Residential Facility. Currently children and adults are imprisoned in these facilities together. Despite relatively low obvious security, those held are threatened with federal charges if they defy the orders of the authorities there as simple as walking off campus, and suffer bed checks every 15 minutes with flashlights shined upon them. Berks is a state-run facility, as opposed to the privately run facilities that have come under fire in Texas for the operational methods and neglectful tendencies that have resulted in a history of questionable deaths and substandard medical care, according to Mother Jones. In fact, these facilities are said to not only be incapable of protecting the lives of the inmates, but also incapable of protecting the lives of the personnel — to say nothing of the multiple new facilities in that region.
Yet business is good for these private facilities, despite last year’s announcement by the state department that private prisons contracts with the federal Bureau of Prisons would be suspended or reduced in this country. This is apparent in the immediate surge in the two biggest private prison firms’ stock prices after the announcement of Trump’s election, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities do not fall under the domain of the BOP.
Resistance is occurring though, from the successful closing of a privately run ICE facility in San Antonio over the needlessly cruel banning of crayons for children to the nationwide prison strike that began on September 9th, last year.
During said strike, prisoners took action in 46 prisons. Of those facilities, 31 experienced a lock-down, suspension, or full strike for at least 24 hours, affecting around 57,000 people. By not showing up for work, prisoners shut down the regular operations of prisons like Kinross in Michigan and Holman in Alabama. By rioting and through other combative tactics, they disrupted normalized routines and operations for even longer. It was the largest action ever taken by prisoners in the United States, and anarchists took part both inside and outside the prison walls.
The strike has primarily been framed as a battle against prison slavery, an institution codified into law “as a punishment for crime” in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Prisoners are often employed for pennies per hour, performing not only the various tasks that keep the prison running, but also sometimes producing commodities such as Starbucks cups or even putting out wildfires in California. Anarchist and prisoner Joshua “Zero” Cartrette has articulated a greater breadth of what prison imposes, in addition to writing about the repression he and his affinities have faced for their strike, which has included months of solitary confinement. Local actions also included targeting the diffuse drop-off points for UPS, which benefits from prison labor. Others, like Michael Kimble and the recently hunger-striking Sean Swain, have also made valuable contributions to this dialogue.
Some of those involved in organizing the prison strike will be moving their attention toward prison contractor Aramark beginning January 14th in DC. The $8.65 billion food services company is one of the country’s largest employers and provides meals for more than 500 correctional facilities across the country. They have been the subject of complaints about maggots and rocks, sexual harassment, drug trafficking and other employee misconduct. If you haven’t noticed their distinct impression on the local skyline, Aramark’s corporate offices are currently located at 1101 Market in Philadelphia, though they have plenty of operations through the city and beyond, easily identifiable by their labeled vehicles parked outside.
Local initiatives against prison society have also included the recurring New Year’s Eve noise demos and the upcoming January 22nd day of solidarity with trans prisoners (that will manifest this year at LAVA with a letter writing night). From the most recent NYE noise demo:
On new year’s eve a crowd of people gathered outside the federal prison at 7th St and Arch St to show love for those kidnapped by the state.
“People brought banners, drums, a speaker, fireworks, whistles, and airhorns to get it going. Everything turned into a drum; signs, trashcans, walls, and bike racks were all kicked and banged to make sound. Fliers explaining the noise demo were passed to passersby and thrown around. Coffee and snacks were shared, as slogans against police and prisons were shouted through the megaphone. The night was fun and prisoners flashed their lights as we made a racket.
“Police arrived toward the end as the energy was dying down, but didn’t intervene. The demo ended with a short march to a nearby park where everyone was able to disperse without incident.
“Prisoners to the streets! Burn down the plantation!”
In 2015, Decarcerate PA estimated that some 80% of jailed persons in Philadelphia are simply awaiting trial, and that policy change would prevent this. But there are never any guarantees from petitioning politicians, not that we could ever rely on reforms for freedom, and legislation can be reversed through the very same system in which it was introduced. If you want to destroy prison society, stronger inspiration can be found in the likes of the previously mentioned prison strike, frequent prison riots, the Attica uprising, groups like Os Cangaceiros, The George Jackson Brigade, the third generation of the Red Army Faction, and even Jacque Mesrine’s famous armed raid on a penitentiary in Quebec.
from Anathema
Volume 2 Issue 12 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
Volume 2 Issue 12 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
In this issue:
from Facebook
A second post-election assembly has been called for this Saturday. This is an opportunity to hear about new and ongoing projects, report back on events, share information and deepen analyses and strategies as we prepare for Trump’s inauguration and move forward into the new year.
Since this is an anti-authoritarian assembly, it will not provide a platform for political parties. Additionally, the assembly will not provide space for discussions of political or economic reform. Displays of oppressive behavior will be confronted and opposed.
This assembly is not a decision-making body. It is a space to increase coordination, communication and discuss what we would like to see in the future.
This is an open assembly, please help maintain a culture of security, as we cannot promise a cop and snitch free environment.
LAVA is a wheelchair-accessible space (with a small ramp to enter) and has an ADA approved, gender-neutral bathroom.
Saturday, January 14
3:30pm
LAVA Space
4134 Lancaster Ave
