March discussion: Aaron Bushnell

from Viscera

Join us on Sunday, March 24th from 1-3 in Clark Park to discuss a few recent pieces about Aaron Bushnell, an anarchist who recently immolated himself in protest against the ongoing horror in Gaza.

Crimethinc. – “This Is What Our Ruling Class Has Decided Will Be Normal” On Aaron Bushnell’s Action in Solidarity with Gaza

anonymous – Or Just Say Nothing: A Response to CrimethInc.’s Initial Statement on Aaron Bushnell

Masha Gessen – Aaron Bushnell’s Act of Political Despair

See you there!

An Introduction to the Ghost Robotics Corporation

Submission

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

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

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 An archived version of the article is linked at the end.

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

Links and Information

Ghost Robotics Corporation

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

Website
ghostrobotics.io

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pennovation Works
https://pennovation.upenn.edu

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

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” zine

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” Zine

Philadelphia Area Military Contractor AgustaWestland

Submission

AgustaWestland Philadelphia Corp is a part of a $29,238,432 contract to provide AW119Kx Koala helicopters for the state of Israel and its military. The contract was announced on April 1, 2022 and the work associated with this contract is estimated to be completed by June 2024.

Find more information about this contract at https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/2986932/

3050 Red Lion Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19114

Taken from these resources on major producers of weapons for the zionist entity on US dominated Turtle Island:
Map http://u.osmfr.org/m/1019524/
Spreadsheet https://cryptpad.fr/sheet/#/2/sheet/view/UFC48Halqnl+Vb5DGGx-NqWu-vupKNfgL251iWDOxE4/embed/

A short eassy/plea for ANYTHING but peace:

Submission

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free Palestine Freight Graffiti

from Mastodon

Free Palestine freight graffiti spotted in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Life & Rebellion Reading Group

from Twitter

This Sunday at 5pm, is the first in a series of Life & Rebellion reading groups! you can find the reading here theanarchistlibrary.org/libr…

Beehive Design Collective Presents MesoAmerica Resiste! and The True Cost of Coal

from Making Worlds Books

Join Beehive Design Collective as they present their newly released 10 Year Anniversary edition of “MesoAmerica Resiste!”, their new book, “The True Cost of Coal”, and even a peek into their work-in-progress about California: “The Callegory”.

Advance registration strong recommended.

The Bees use their massive, collaboratively produced, and intricately detailed fabric murals to tell complex global stories of stories of resistance, resilience, and solidarity. Packed with nature metaphors, peoples histories, and teeming with biodiversity, these images offer the foundation for an event of participatory discussion, poetic storytelling, and popular education. “MesoAmerica Resiste!’ focuses on stories from Mexico to Colombia. A map drawn in old colonial style depicts the modern invasion of megaprojects planned for the region… and opens to reveal the view from below, where communities are organizing locally and across borders to defend land and traditions, protect cultural and ecological diversity, and build alternative economies.

“The True Cost of Coal” tells many stories from the frontlines of Southern Appallachia who fought mountaintop removal for coal extraction for decades. This graphics campaign reflects the complexity of the struggles for land, livelihood, and self-determination playing out in Appalachia, and was made with the intention of honoring the tremendous history of organized resistance and the courage of communities living in the shadow of Big Coal.

  • Sunday, February 11, 2024
  • 5:00 PM 6:00 PM
  • Making Worlds Bookstore & Social Center 210 South 45th Street Philadelphia, PA, 19104 United States (map)

No pipelines. No borders. No genocide.

Submission

We hung up banners over the Schuylkill Expressway condemning BlackRock for their investment in both the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Elbit Systems.



Free Palestine wheatpaste in West Philly

Submission

We put up wheatpaste posters around West Philly. Original art can be found here:

https://justseeds.org/graphic/settlers-fuck-off-stop-the-annexation-of-palestine/

https://justseeds.org/graphic/palestine-will-be-free-graphic-care-package-2/


Philadelphia Area Weapons Manufactures and Facilities

Submission

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

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

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

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

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

Day and Zimmermann (D&Z)

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

L3 Harris

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

Leonardo

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

Boeing

 

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

Ghost Robotics

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

Action Manufacturing Co.

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

 

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

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

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems

 

Lockheed Martin

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

BAE Systems

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

Raytheon/RTX

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

Graffiti Photos from Dec 3 Demonstration

Submission






Palestine Supporters Rally Outside Biden/Shapiro Fundraiser in Philly

from Unicorn Riot

Philadelphia, PA — Several hundred supporters of Palestinian rights gathered at Washington Square Park and marched through the historic Society Hill district, arriving at the war memorial parks built above I-95 next to the waterfront Hilton at Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River for an early afternoon protest on Monday, December 11. Unicorn Riot interviewed several participants and heard from the organizers who called upon the Biden Administration to support a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Biden, on his ninth visit to the city this year, was at the Hilton for a political fundraiser with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a fellow Democrat. Earlier in the day he touted federal funding to reopen fire stations.

Protest organizer Sam Rise mentioned how student organizations have been suspended on college campuses, and “institutions and academics have been shamefully bullying and silencing” Palestine supporters. She added that members of the Working Families Party (WFP) have been introducing ceasefire resolutions in local governments. (Two WFP candidates won at-large seats last month in Philadelphia, ejecting the GOP from slots the party held for decades.) “Come November, we’ll remember” was a common chant at the event, as attendees vowed to hold the Biden Administration accountable for his support for Israel at the ballot box in 2024.

Anissa Weinraub from Jewish Voice for Peace talked about the “death and destruction at a rate that is unprecedented in recent human history” in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population is now displaced, with “so many on the brink of starvation”, referring to a “merciless military and their AI-programmed death machine“:

In a throwback to the Vietnam era chant “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” another organizer called out, “Biden, Biden, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today? Biden, Biden you can’t hide, you are funding genocide. Biden, Biden, you will see, Palestine will be free.”

One participant wearing a keffiyeh told Unicorn Riot,

“We are here to fight for human rights, we are here to fight for the people of Gaza, the innocent children that are being bombed day-in day-out. Our cousins, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, our fathers, we are all humans at the end of the day. We are here to fight for their human rights to live just like we get to live here in America. We should all have the right to live, to live in peace, and the innocent children did nothing wrong, they are just being bombed, for being alive, for being Palestinian.”

Regarding Biden’s recent actions and presence in Philadelphia he added, “It’s sickening honestly. Philadelphia does not stand for this, Philadelphia stands for freedom, Philadelphia stands for human rights, and Biden does not stand for any of that. … Palestinians are people just like us. I have friends that are Palestinian, I am Palestinian. We just want to live, that’s all we want. We just want to live like everyone else, and we are not given that option.”

Protesters gather in Washington Square Park around 1:15 p.m. on December 11.
March on Pine Street in Society Hill.
A man on Pine Street in Society Hill flips off demonstrators marching for Palestine on December 11, 2023.
The waterfront Hilton at Penn’s Landing looms over Palestine protesters. A large obelisk-like monument to Christopher Columbus built in 1992 is at right.
A protest sign lampoons President Biden’s well-known love of ice cream cones on December 11, 2023.

We also found an innovative protest use of a DeWalt drill — this gizmo is known as an “impact train horn” and can make a 130 decibel racket with a squeeze of the drill trigger.

The cordless drill-powered “Impact Train Horn” easily generated noise in Philadelphia on December 11.

Palestine Solidarity Graffiti Spotted In South Jersey

from Jersey Counter-Info

Recently on state “owned” land in so-called Southern NJ, Palestinian solidarity graffiti was spotted.

This piece reads ” Free Palestine Free Lenapehoking, Death to Amerika and Israhell”.

The struggle for Palestinian liberation is one that is connected to settler states everywhere, especially the so-called united states. Palestine, Lenapehoking, and the rest of Turtle Island will be free.

Report on Dec 3 Flood Philly for Gaza Demonstration

Submission

The Philly Palestine Coalition called for another emergency action December 3rd, two days after the ceasefire. Over the past two—now going on three—months, the mobilization around Palestinian liberation has been a lesson to a lot of us: trust people’s rage. Trust the enormity of their grief. Trust that watching colonial genocide live-streamed has fractured some of the complacency of neoliberalism. If the demo intended to “Flood Philly for Gaza,” the chants were gushing through the cracks.

It was dreary out. PPC changed their demo location the day before (and then promptly got their IG deleted). Will the crowd be big enough? Trains were all out of wack. Will everyone be late? (Yes). While we initially felt discouraged and apprehensive, we underestimated each other and the crowd. We may have missed each other at the meet-up point (a lesson here about carrying a watch, or better yet, being punctual), but once we got dressed in black bloc we found each other easily. The larger crowd was tense, energized, and grew as we moved, swelling behind two pickup trucks hauling a PA system and speakers who addressed the crowd. The march snaked north from Rittenhouse Square, then west down side streets, where the vandals among us got bolder. Darting out in pairs and trios, people began writing decolonial and Palestinian solidarity graffiti, building momentum up to and across the Chestnut Street bridge.

Throughout the demo, people in bloc distributed fliers linking Israeli bombardment in Gaza to police violence in Philly, handing these to marchers and passersby, and ticketing them to the windshields of parked cars. A Philadelphia Parking Authority vehicle got itself vandalized along the way, too.

Graffitti at demos isn’t anything new — what feels remarkable was the support and complicity of more well-behaved marchers not in bloc. People looked out for graffiti writers, blocking the view of photographers, slowing foot traffic with bikes, and using Palestinian flags to shield writers from cops’ sight.

At a Starbucks on Penn’s campus, the march paused for speeches about the franchise’s support for Israel. Meanwhile, protestors crowded around the entrance, leaving room for people in bloc to write slogans on the walls and windows. One notable example: a writer painted “FREE GAZA” on a window while the students behind the glass bent over their laptops and pretended not to notice. Teens present in the march seemed particularly pumped here, surprised (and hopefully inspired) by vandals’ audacity. Continuing further west, the march ended at 40th St and Market, where a vigil for the UC Townhomes was already gathered. Speakers linked the displacement taking place in West Philly to the ethnic cleansing taking place in Palestine.

The demonstration ended with no arrests.

Activists Speak Out After Philly Thanksgiving Parade Banner Drops

from Unicorn Riot

Philadelphia, PA — On November 23, around 11 a.m., Black and Indigenous and anti-Zionist Jewish activists hung banners along Interstate 676, just blocks away from the Thanksgiving Day Parade on occupied Lenapehoking land, otherwise known as Philadelphia. They collaborated to highlight the ongoing injustice and struggles of Indigenous people in the U.S. while also displaying solidarity with those against occupation in Palestine.

Parade floats accompanied by police escorts on all sides sped below the 10th Street overpass just moments before the first banner was hung. It served as a timely punctuation as east bound traffic watched the banner unfurl to read, “The Pequot Remember the Massacre.”

The Pequot Massacre occurred on May 26, 1637. Settler-colonial Puritan soldiers, organized as the Massachusetts Bay Colony Militia, aimed to steal the tribe’s traditional land in a surprise ambush that murdered 700 Pequot adults and children. During the massacre, settlers set fire to the village burning any remaining people alive. Governor John Winthrop declared a celebration of this massacre later that year that some consider to be the first Thanksgiving. The following year, white settlers outlawed the Pequot language and name, seized tribal lands, and forced some surviving Pequot people into slavery. This further galvanized the massacre into a genocide.

The second banner to be dropped from the overpass faced west bound traffic and revealed the words “End Genocide from Turtle Island to Palestine.” 

The following day, Black Friday, other autonomous groups got to work hanging banners along this same interstate which runs like a river through the city center. However, on that morning, similar anti-colonial and anti-Zionist messages could now be read throughout this corridor of the city in defiance of erasure.

These banner drops follow acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, direct actions, and marches that have been happening all over Philadelphia on a near-daily basis since Israel began bombing Gaza after October 7.

They also occur within a broader movement framework of autonomous actions across the country that commemorated November 23 as the Indigenous National Day of Mourning — a day that serves to highlight centuries of atrocities committed against Indigenous people and to correct present myths in history texts taught in American schools.

For the last 53 years on the fourth Thursday of November, the Indigenous National Day of Mourning has taken place to “honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide.”

Since its first treaty, the U.S. government has continually broken each and every written agreement signed with Indigenous Nations as more white settlers wanted their land. Starting with the Treaty With the Delawares/Treaty of Fort Pitt in 1778 with the Lenni Lenape peoples.

In Pennsylvania in 1782, an American Revolutionary War officer and his militia slaughtered nearly 100 Lenape (mostly women and children) at the village of Gnadenhutten after wrongly believing they were responsible for attacks against white settlers. This led to more settler-colonialists moving onto Lenape territory, before the Treaty of Greeneville in 1795 forced the Lenape and other nearby tribes to surrender most of their lands.

All of this erasure, murder, and forced relocation continued to shrink and control the spaces where Indigenous people could inhabit. Thirty-five years later, in 1830, U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which codified the violent removal of Indigenous people from their ancestral lands en masse, in what’s known as the Trail of Tears. Today, data shows that Indigenous people in the United States have lost nearly 99% of the land they historically occupied.


Unicorn Riot heard about the aspirations of some of those involved in bringing the anti-colonial and anti-Zionist messaging into Philly’s downtown corporate Thanksgiving space.

UR: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Why do you think it’s important for this action to take place on Thanksgiving in the US?

“As an Indigenous activist it’s important to keep reminding people of the brutal history of ongoing displacement and genocide. My heart breaks for people all over the world who are actively displaced for the nation state war machine.

To have traditional food and practices whitewashed and fed back to us as if we should be grateful for the nod to our history while ignoring the part the capitalist U.S. state has played in killing us and our traditional practices is frankly disgusting.”

– K

“Much like we are seeing genocides in Palestine, Congo, Armenia, and Sudan be denied and erased in real time, colonizers have erased the continued and active genocide of Indigenous peoples in the so-called United States. They have taken our feasts and our foods, and have created a celebration from our suffering. They throw parades to commemorate their military victories while our people go hungry on our reservations and in our cities, homeless and in need in our own homelands. But we are here to remind them that we have not forgotten and we will not be silently erased.“

– F

UR: How did you bridge the gap between occupation in the U.S. and occupation in Palestine? What about the Pequot massacre did you want to invoke in this moment?

“To see the defense of Palestine is beautiful, but to condemn one genocide while celebrating another is not justice. Over 700 Pequot women, children, and elders were murdered in a surprise raid while many of their warriors were away. That is the true history of Thanksgiving. That is what is being celebrated today. Regardless of whether you can call it Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or your fall feast, if you are not telling the true history & feeling it’s full weight then you are commemorating our genocide. “

– F

UR: What did you want people to take away most from this action?

“I hope that the banners incite conversations that question colonialism here and in Israel. For non-Native people like myself who are gathering with family or friends today, I hope they talk about how to be part of initiating repair and reparations for Indigenous people in the US. Similarly, as an anti-Zionist Jewish person, I hope Jewish families talk about the way our identities and trauma are being manipulated for colonial purposes, and how we can resist that to stand with Palestinians.”

– R

“We should stand against occupation and genocide around the globe, and that begins with the land beneath our feet. We must examine our own role in continued genocide and settler colonialism, and we must take responsibility for ending all States at war with the People, including our own. We are not free until we are all free, and we are not all free until every oppressive force has fallen to the ground. Start where you are, start today, and don’t stop til we free them all.”

– F