Justice for Walter Wallace

  • October 27, 2020 1:41 pm

from Twitter

from Instagram

from Instagram

[10/27, 7pm, Malcolm X Park]

Did We Hit a Nerve? Philly Proud Boys Interrupt Teach-In About Them – Then Left Antifa to Continue

  • October 10, 2020 1:20 am

from Idavox

This all stems from them being clowned for not showing up at a rally they announced. It’s ironic that the Philadelphia is in the Keystone State because the Philly Proud Boys are the Keystone Cops of that entire crew!

PHILADELPHIA, PA – “One thing you can guarantee (is) we will show up, motherfucker!”

That was a declaration from one of the handful of Proud Boys that attempted to disrupt a teach-in organized by the antifascist group Refuse Fascism to address them in the wake of Donald Trump’s call to arms in last week’s Presidential Debate. It was a declaration that came with irony as they did not show up to a rally the Philadelphia Proud Boy chapter called for in a park in West Philadelphia that ended up teeming with residents coming out to oppose neo-Fascist outfit, as well as another announced rally during a anti-mask car caravan in May that the group Refuse Fascism overwhelmed.

Over the past three weeks, that chapter has been attempting to recover from those embarrassments, first with a flash mob rally on Sept. 26 that was a date they once had for a rally but canceled and then with last night’s antics outside Independence Hall as the teach-in was going on.

One People’s Project’s Executive Director Daryle Lamont Jenkins was invited by Refuse Fascism to speak about the Proud Boys. Ironically, it was the fourth anniversary of a pseudo art show in New York City sponsored by neo-Fascist Milo Yiannopoulos that featured supposed art from right wing figures, where one of the Proud Boys’ first appearance was providing security for the event. Jenkins recorded video of them attacking one person they threw out, with Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes breaking the person’s phone on the ground and chasing him off.

[Video Here]

It was while Jenkins was speaking that about 20 persons, most of them men, approached the teach-in, some carrying weapons, and began berating Jenkins and the group of ten participants that were there. The teach-in then became a real-time lesson as those participants began to berate and record the Proud Boys in return. “We chanted, we circled up to keep each other safe, and three of our leaders spoke to our crowd,” a post on the Refuse Fascism Facebook page read. “We spoke about what these fascists represent with their misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, American chauvinism and their connection to and worship of power. We spoke about the fact that they exist to intimidate, threaten, and cause pain and that they are already doing this at polling sites in Black, Latinx and Indigenous neighborhoods; protests; and through the media.”

[Instagram Post]

The Proud Boys notably attempted to dissuade the idea that they were not White Supremacists, a charge that has been leveled at them repeatedly particularly since the Presidential Debate. While Proud Boys are indeed a multiracial organization, they have regardless have been condemned in the past for having associations with neo-Nazis and White Supremacists. When the Philly chapter held their flash mob-styled march on Sept. 26, many took notice of who looked to be American Guard’s Brien James amongst them. James has a history spanning three decades as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the Outlaw Hammerskins, and the organization he founded, the Vinlanders Social Club which boasts its history of assaults and murder. Despite this, some of the Proud Boys attempted to defend him as a friend who has since renounced such beliefs, even though he was a participant in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on August 12 2017 and two months later participated in a Vinlander annual meeting and two months after that paid tribute to Robert Jay Matthews, the leader of the neo-Nazi terrorist group the Order that was responsible for robberies and murders in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s.

In 2013, James was in Philadelphia with over fifty neo-Nazis including Matthew Heimbach of the Traditional Workers Party for Keystone United’s annual “Leif Erickson Day Celebration” at a Viking Statue near Fairmount Park that had since been pulled down by unknown persons. That rally was countered by over 200 protesters and since then neo-Fascists have attempted to avoid such confrontations by not announcing the event and holding them at night. It is not known if they will have an event this year.

Of the group that came out Thursday, only one person, an Asian man, seemed to be the only one that wasn’t White.

[Instagram Post]

After about 20 minutes of the exchange that never reached beyond a shouting match, the group retreated toward Market St. and the teach-in continued.

Last year, the Philly Proud Boys were doxed by antifa via a blog titled Doxx Your Local Proud Boy that detailed a number of persons associated with the Proud Boys at the time. Of those profiled was Bruce McClay who at the time was a Lieutenant for the fire department in nearby Havertown, PA. Upon learning of his associations, residents called for his removal, and when the department refused to do so, the town shut down that department which was one of five. McClay resigned within 24 hours. Despite a flyer they attempted to distribute yesterday saying they reject racial division, many of those profiled were shown to harbor racist and bigoted beliefs.

At the time of this posting, the Philadelphia Proud Boys have barely commented on the events of last night.

Philly Proud Boys Rally With North Carolina Proud Boys, American Guard

  • September 30, 2020 1:11 am

from It’s Going Down

[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]

One week after being humiliated at their own rally in Clark Park, where hundreds of counter-protesters gathered to face the fewer than five Proud Boys who managed to turn up for the rally. The Proud Boys who did show up were immediately identified by antifascist researchers, though they attempted to intimidate anti-racist protesters, threatening to dox them and stalking researcher Gwen Snyder’s house, where antifascists had posted guards.

The Philadelphia Proud Boys, led by President Zach Rehl, were joined by members of the North Carolina Proud Boys, as well as Brien James, founder of the Vinlanders Social Club, Outlaw Hammerskins, and the American Guard. James is also a former member of the Ku-Klux-Klan.

This represents an escalation for the Philadelphia Proud Boys. Prior to the summer of 2020, Rehl refused to publicly identify himself as a Proud Boy, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2018 that a Proud Boys rally he organized was simply the members of a Facebook group, “Sports, Beer, and Politics.”

In the Spring of 2019, Rehl was among a group of Proud Boys, American Guard, and militia members who attempted to organize a string of violent rallies across the northeast, trading pictures of the weapons they planned to bring and the specific leftist activists they wished to assault at the rallies. However, the group was stymied when their chats were leaked and the members were doxxed, and the rallies were cancelled.

History of the Proud Boys in Light of Their Upcoming Rally

  • September 18, 2020 1:35 am

from Twitter

On Saturday, September 19, 2020, the Philadelphia Proud Boys are holding a rally at 1:00 in Clark Park, in West Philadelphia. They timed it to disrupt the Uhuru Flea Market, a 20-year institution in West Philly. If you can, come out to counter it. tockify.com/idavox/detail/97…

Quick history lesson so we know what to expect– the last time the Philadelphia Proud Boys had a rally, in November 2018, their “Security” featured a collection of violent hate group members. See this screenshot from their leaked security chats featuring Alan Swinney.

Swinney’s in Portland at the moment, where he’s been rolling with Haley Adams’ crew of Proud Boy rejects. On August 22, after spraying protesters with mace and shooting them with a paintball gun, Swinney pulled a gun on the crowd. [Video Here]

Their head of security in November 2018 was Jerry Smith, an antisemite with militia ties. See this thread for more information. [Thread Here]

Zach Rehl, the President of the Philadelphia Proud Boys, told the papers at the time that no hate groups would be present. Zach was the President of the Philly Proud Boys at the time, and the papers credulously swallowed his lie.

The 2018 rally also brought out NYC Proud Boy David Kuriakose, who was fresh off of attacking protesters in Manhattan on 10/6/18. manhattanda.org/d-a-vance-an…

The rally was a failure, but Philadelphia Proud Boys President Zach Rehl continued to organized with Alan Swinney, attempting to plan string of violent rallies across the northeast for the summer of 2019. huffpost.com/entry/proud-boy…

Their planning chats were leaked to the @HuffPost, showing them trading pictures of the weapons they wanted to bring, and photos of the leftist activists they planned to assault, dubbing them “HVTs”– “High Value Targets.”


After the chats were leaked and the members were exposed, the rallies were cancelled, so the Philly Proud Boys decided to just start showing up at the homes of leftist activists, threatening @gwensnyderPHL in June 2019. [Thread Here]

You can read more about that incident here. thedailybeast.com/far-right-…

Since the outbreak of anti-police protests across the country, the Philadelphia Proud Boys have attempted to insert themselves into white reactionary vigilante patrols. [Thread Here]

The Philadelphia Proud Boys also have deep ties with the Philly police, as revealed by @KELLYWEILL in July. thedailybeast.com/the-distur…

The Proud Boys revel in misogyny and police violence. After I posted about police using sexual violence as a weapon against protesters, noting that I’d been punched by a cop after interrupting him, Zach Rehl posted “Couldn’t have happened to a bigger scumbag. #FuckAntifa”

In June, a mob of armed reactionaries showed up to attack protesters and journalists at the Columbus statue in Marconi Plaza, in South Philadelphia. Instead of intervening, a police captain threatened a journalist with arrest. [Thread Here]

The Philadelphia Proud Boys immediately rallied to support the police, and forge ties with the new Italian-American vigilante gang, who dubbed themselves the “Gravy Seals.” [Thread Here]

Those same vigilantes are holding an event at 11:00 a.m. in Marconi Plaza, home of the Columbus statue, on September 19th. My sources expect that the Proud Boys will be there to recruit, and try to bring them to Clark Park at 1:00.

So if you can, come out to help us say no to hate in West Philadelphia at Clark Park on Saturday, September 19th. There will be families present, so we’re going to keep things as peaceful as we can, but the Proud Boys are a known violent hate group. tockify.com/idavox/detail/97…

If you can’t come join us on the ground, there’s still ways you can help! @raveneyes77 will be there live-streaming the event, so be sure to follow and share that stream and tell the world who the Proud Boys are– a violent, bootlicking hate group.

Who protects us? We protect us. And on Saturday, September 19th, we’ll be protecting our community in West Philadelphia from a violent hate group. Come join us. ❤️????✊ tockify.com/idavox/detail/97…

Quick Correction: The Uhuru Flea Market has been postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, the Proud Boys event has interrupted the Farmers Market normally held on Saturdays in Clark Park. Statement from the organizers here. facebook.com/thefoodtrust/po…

ALERT! Proud Boys to Rally in Clark Park on Saturday 9/19/2020

  • September 16, 2020 1:47 am

from Philly Antifa

 

Wear a mask. Bring your friends. Defend your city.

We are not the organizers of the event (though some reporters and nazi bloggers will insist otherwise regardless) but stand in solidarity with the organizers and everyone coming out to let the Proud Boys know their “Klan 3.0” bullshit is not welcome.

Original Flyer that prompted the above Vigil being called:

 

This move by the Proud Boys (should they show up) is not only an escalation, but a transparent provocation. Remember that these groups are coordinating directly with Philly PD. Their collective goal is to assault, doxx, entrap, and falsify charges against anyone who stands against Fascism.

Forever Liberty, Solidarity, and Equality,

Defend West Philly!

  • September 15, 2020 1:37 pm

Submission

[Proud Boy fascists are coming
Defend West Philly

Proud Boys are a fraternal order of neo-fascists who glorify white supremacy, patriarchy, and authoritarian leaders like Trump. They are a violent far-right organization and they are targeting our neighborhood for a Saturday rally in “the belly of the beast”. Stand together with your neighbors to drown them out, shut them down, and kick them out!

This Saturday: September 19
Clark Park
12:00 PM
Bring noisemakers, shields, signs and all of your friends & comrades]

ALERTA! Proud Boys to Rally in Clark Park, West Philly same day as a Pro-Columbus Rally in Marconi Park, South Philly!

  • September 15, 2020 1:43 am

from It’s Going Down

[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]

When: Saturday, September 19th, 2020 @ 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Where: Clark Park, 4300-4398 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

When a hate rally is pending, people like to tell folks to stay home and ignore it. But what if a violent hate group whose rallies are pretty much geared to be violent comes directly to you?

That’s what it looks like the Proud Boys are planning for the 19th. Originally they announced that they were going to hold a rally on the 26th in South Philadelphia in conjunction with the one Proud Boys are holding in Portland, Oregon, but now comes word that because of conflicts with the Portland rally (they want to be there) they are doing a rally the Saturday before in Clark Park in West Philadelphia. The timing and location of this rally is telling as hell – not to mention that they are calling it “Belly of the Beast 2020” and they “and other patriots” are going there “to demand an end to antifa terrorism.”

Normally this is the date and location of the Uhuru Flea Market, a regular thing that has been taking place for 20+ years in the park every third Saturday from April to October. The pandemic shutdown has caused such events to be canceled until at least Feb. 2021, but this is where a lot of West Philly locals who made it clear that they do not care for Proud Boys, in particular recently by causing a neighborhood bar and venue a lot of grief for supporting them, like to come regardless and take in the day, so Proud Boys want to have a go at them. The group is basically trying to pick fights all over the country, and the police chief that was giving them leeway in Portland for three years is now the Philadelphia Police Commissioner. That doesn’t mean that people will not be able to keep them from using their neighborhood as a playground for far-Right, pro-Trump violence. They are working to oppose them now.

 

Photo from the originally Uhuru Flea Market SOURCE: Twitter

And here’s where it gets interesting: Philadelphia Proud Boys have a rough go of it, pretty much being regulated to trash talk online, sneaking around IRL and latching onto other people’s events so they can do something worth a damn. But they think they have a little juice via the knuckleheads that were trying – in vain – to save the Columbus statue by physically attacking anyone that comes near it – which is actually the catalyst which has resulted in plans to take it down. So we expect them to show up two hours before this rally at another one in Marconi Park in South Philly. That’s a rally organized by an outfit calling itself “Italian American Patriots” that is still trying to save the now-boarded up Columbus statue. The 26th rally was touted as protecting Italian Heritage, but now that this event was announced, they might have decided to use this as cover – which means Philly has a full day.

This is just one of a few rallies the Proud Boys have planned over the next few months. In addition to the one in Portland, there will be one in Columbus, Ohio as well.

Proud Boys Coming to West Philly Sept 19

  • September 14, 2020 1:20 am

Submission

Proud Boys are coming to West Philly on Saturday, September 19th, to hold a rally in “the belly of the beast.” A far-right neo-fascist organization, the Proud Boys are racist, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, explicitly colonialist, anti-Muslim, misogynist, and generally authoritarian, using street violence across the U.S. to impose their politics on the rest of us.

We intend to drive them out of our neighborhood.
We keep us safe.

Saturday 9/19
12PM
Clark Park

Showing up for Lore

  • September 9, 2020 1:14 am

from We Love Lore

banner.png

The Trump regime hasn’t allowed incarcerated people to see their loved ones for five months and we’re sick of it. This weekend we showed up for Lore Elisabeth, the beloved community care worker and unconvicted political prisoner whom the government hides at Philadelphia’s Federal Detention Center.

[Video Here]

It was a joyous opportunity us to show our love and support for Lore (and for each other!). We will never stop fighting the cruel and violent intimidation tactics that are being used against Lore to chop down all of our rights, including free speech and the presumption of innocence. And we’ll do it dancing ???? Join us ????????

LORE.png

How you can help Lore right now:

⭐ Donate here (or Venmo @WeLoveLore) to Lore’s support fund. Every penny supports Lore’s health, well-being, and legal defense.

⭐ Write or send books. Your love, solidarity, and support is critical.

⭐ Share this message, the website, our Instagram, and Twitter, with your communities. Help us spread the word and strengthen Lore’s safety net.

Anticapitalist group claims responsibility for West Philly unrest that left windows smashed, buildings vandalized near Penn

  • August 27, 2020 1:37 am

from Mainstream Media

An anticapitalist group taking part in what it called the “Summer of Rage” has claimed responsibility for unrest that erupted near the University of Pennsylvania campus Tuesday night, leaving windows smashed and prompting campus police to warn students and staff to remain indoors.

Roughly 60 people in black clothes and donning black masks gathered at Clark Park, near the intersection of 43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue, and began marching just before 9:30 p.m., campus police said. They quickly cut a swath of damage along 40th Street — building barricades, vandalizing several buildings and a marked Penn police car — before dispersing about 40 minutes later.

In their wake, several businesses were left damaged along 40th Street, including a PNC bank, a coffee shop, a pizza parlor, a bar, the Free Library branch at 40th and Walnut Streets, and a university residence hall that was spray-painted with the phrase “Nerds Call 911.”

A post that appeared Wednesday morning on Philly Anti-Capitalist, a clearinghouse for local antiauthoritarian and anarchist groups, and submitted by a person claiming to be an organizer of the demonstration, declared the event a success.

“Over 45 people marched through the streets chanting and smashing windows of banks, business and developments,” the post read. “There was a surprising amount of destruction.”

It went on to describe demonstrators using barricades to elude police intervention and covering identifying tattoos and facial features to avoid detection by authorities.

Philadelphia police declined to comment on whether their investigation of the vandalism was focused on the “Summer of Rage” group, saying only that the probe continues. Penn police didn’t respond to requests for details.

But as business owners and university staff boarded up windows, cleared broken glass from sidewalks, and power-washed antipolice and anarchist graffiti off building walls Wednesday morning, many were still trying to figure out exactly what had happened. Most of the businesses along the corridor were closed when the destruction began.

The shattered windows at a PNC Bank branch on 40th Street near Walnut. The windows were destroyed by a group of protesters marching in response to the Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin.

Security footage at Allegro Pizza & Grill near 40th and Spruce Streets showed a crowd of people walking north on 40th just before 9:30 p.m., flanked by people walking their bicycles and halting traffic. People in the front carried a banner that read: “F— the police.”

Louie K., a part owner of Allegro who asked that his last name be withheld over safety concerns, said members of the group spray-painted on the wall of his business and a man took a baseball bat to its ATM, causing more than $10,000 in damage.

Another local business owner, who asked to remain anonymous because he didn’t “want [his] windows broken, too,” said he saw a crowd of about 25 people in black clothing ransacking a construction site near 40th and Sansom Streets.

The group threw traffic cones and toppled trash cans, he said while noting he didn’t see any violent behavior. At one point, he said, police approached the crowd near Chestnut Street and the group shouted profanities at officers but kept on walking.

A worker power washes graffiti off of a construction barrier outside of a University of Pennsylvania residence hall Wednesday morning after a night of unrest saw demonstrators vandalizing buildings and breaking windows along 40th Street in West Philadelphia.

The gathering that led to the unrest came together quickly through mostly private messages and social media posts. A graphic shared on Instagram directed attendees — “in solidarity with Kenosha” — to meet at Clark Park at 9 p.m. and wear black. “Screenshot & share on IG story only,” the graphic read. (Instagram’s “stories” function is not easily searchable.)

The post early Wednesday morning on the anticapitalist blog said the group was marching in solidarity with Philadelphia sanitation workers, Black Lives Matter, and protests in Kenosha, Wis., over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old man seriously injured by officers Sunday as he leaned into his car in front of his children.

Organizers involved in previous protests on behalf of those causes have disavowed property destruction in their pursuit of social justice goals.

But a group donning similar dark clothing and masks and also claiming to be associated with the “Summer of Rage” drew attention in 2017 after causing more than $100,000 in damage to new buildings and high-end cars in North Philadelphia.

Those demonstrators said they were marching against gentrification in the neighborhood.

Neighbors at the time described the masked demonstrators smashing windows, spray-painting messages like “Leave!” on new buildings, and throwing Christmas ornaments filled with paint. Two protesters were arrested after area residents surrounded the group and kept them penned in until police arrived.

No arrests have been reported in connection with Tuesday’s unrest.

Garbage cans thrown in the street by a group of protesters marching in response to the Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin. Numerous windows were shattered at the University of Pennsylvania.

Solidarity from Philly to Kenosha

  • August 26, 2020 2:53 am

Submission

The Solidarity with Kenosha, WI demo was more impressive than usual. People met up, discussed the plan, and started promptly. Escalation started right away and continued as a group of over 45 people marched through the streets chanting and smashing windows of banks, business and developments. There was a surprising amount of destruction. One of the most impressive things though, was the strong collective intelligence. There was good communication, barricading, and improvisation. People were decisive about both sticking to the plan and being flexible. Folks caught and lost a police tail and dispersed smoothly due to barricades and quick decision making all the while staying level headed and tight in stressful moments.
We really appreciate everyone who showed up and their energy! The more we do this, the better we get!
Also here’s two things we think we could get better at: Staying in the streets, not on the sidewalks and covering up better (this includes eyebrows, bangs, tattoos etc.) 🙂

Solidarity with trash workers and the recent storm leaving us ample debris.
Solidarity with anarchist prisoners, Kenosh Wisconsin, and everyone consistently turning up and inspiring us.
Black Lives Matter
RIP George Floyd
Get better Jacob Blake

The only way to end police brutality is to end police

“We will destroy, laughing
We will commune, laughing
We will get free, laughing”

– The 3rd Annual Summer of Rage

From Juneteenth in Minneapolis to Jawnteenth in Philadelphia

  • August 14, 2020 1:25 am

from Unicorn Riot

[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]

Meanwhile in West Philadelphia, thousands gathered at Malcolm X Park for their annual ‘Jawnteenth’ celebration. Philly’s Jawnteenth is a “Juneteenth celebration of Black joy, freedom, and resistance.” The terminology of “Jawn” is a Philly slang descriptor for nouns.

The festivities in Philly included food, community resources, DJs, horses, and the Positive Movement drumline.

After a celebratory march, Krystal Strong from the Black Radical Organizing Collective read demands from the community, some of which included freedom for political prisoners, an abolition of the carceral system, the firing of ‘killer cops,’ the dismantling of police, and more funding for schools and communities.

As the United States starts to wrestle with its historical ills, Juneteenth celebrations in Minneapolis and Philadelphia showed the resilience and self-determination of a community which has endured more than 400 years of systemic oppression by the colonialist settler regime that still reigns today.

Disclaimer: The author is a former employee of WE WIN Institute.

Report from August 8th: Protest Against Police Terror & Tribute to Delbert Africa

  • August 12, 2020 1:14 am

from Philly ABC

delbert-tribute.jpg

Rest in Power, Del!

Reporting back from the August 8, 2020 tribute to Delbert Africa, we wanted to share some images and video from the event as well as what Del meant to members of Philly ABC.

We corresponded and visited with Del and all remaining Move 9 prisoners (#RIP Merle Africa – 1998) from 2013 to after their release from prison. They maintained the great physical shape that the group was known for, to the best of their ability, inside prison for 4 decades. Delbert’s normal workout for most of his time in SCI Dallas included running on a treadmill that other prisoners respectfully called “Delbert’s Treadmill” and reserved for his use. He laughed when telling us ‘I never told them to save it for me.’

Over the years, Del and other Move prisoners witnessed PA DOC conditions get progressively worse. While funding for basic necessities and important programs were getting cut, there was corrupt spending and overcrowding. Del commented on how he saw an article about the laws regarding the minimum cage size for dogs in overnight boarding kennels in PA – the dimensions of which were LARGER than the size of a cell they put two people in! Prisoners used to be able to work/farm food locally, but around 2010, PA DOC instituted what they call a “heart healthy diet” with the main distinction being smaller portions of the poorer quality food. Therefore, it seems to be a euphemism to couch another way to slim down the budget.

At the same time these cuts were taking place, Del had seen an extravagant amount of money spent on new fencing, new camera systems, nonworking and disabled ion testers, a nonworking fire alarm system, big screen TVs that never made their way out to the unit floor, etc.

delbert-tribute-1.jpg

Del and Phil Africa (#RIP – 2015), cellmates for many years, organized for the benefit of other prisoners, such as dietary improvements, yard privileges in cold weather, movies in the SHU, and lighting in “the dungeon” (the hole). Despite being eligible and meeting all requirements for parole during the last 10 years of his incarceration, Delbert was denied parole time after time. He was diagnosed with cancer, yet was held in prison until January of 2020. The only purpose of continued incarceration of aging prisoners, particularly political prisoners like Mumia, is continued persecution.

Over 40 years of state repression, and none of the Move 9 could be broken of their compassion and struggle. The organization exists to dismantle injustice, protect the earth and life. The struggle will live on in tribute to Delbert. #RestInPower friend and comrade, we’ll miss you.

– Philly ABC

[Photos and video here]

Defend the Camp! Stop the Eviction!

  • July 16, 2020 1:04 am

from Facebook

Why don’t you live for the people!
Why don’t you struggle for the people!
Why don’t you die for the people!

Learn more about the struggle for housing at https://philadelphiahousingaction.info/2020/

[Friday July 17, 7:00am

The city is moving ahead with plans for a Friday eviction. It’s time for all of us to join together to defend the camp. All hands on ceck, please spread the word!]

Report on Attempted Occupation of Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia

  • June 30, 2020 1:11 am

from It’s Going Down

On Saturday, June 27th, health-care workers and community members in Philadelphia put up barricades and attempted to occupy the entrance to the shuttered Hahnemann hospital.

by an autonomous jawn

For a brief moment on Saturday, nurses, patients and community members seized a shuttered hospital in Philadelphia and turned it over to the people to use as a clinic. Following a rally at the City Hall, a crowd of around 100 people marched north to the empty hospital tower, erected canopies, tables, and chairs, and began to attend to patients who had joined the march and were eager to receive care. They were the first people to be treated at the hospital since the pandemic began, during which the absentee owner kept its doors shut to the city in the hopes of forcing the city to pay a ransom.

Hahnemann Hospital stands in the center of the city, two blocks north of City Hall. Before it was closed in the summer of 2019 it predominantly treated Black poor and working class people of Philadelphia, with social service providers housed in the same tower as doctors and specialists. Its most recent owner, the banker turned heathcare investor Joel Freedman, had bought it only a year before, and when he determined it wasn’t profitable enough he filed for bankruptcy, laid off around 800 unionized nurses, and deprived the underserved population of Philadelphia of their primary source of care.

The occupation began with a rally that took place on the north face of city hall, across from the spot where one of the PPD cruisers famously burned during the riots weeks before — famous because a Philadelphia resident, Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal, was arrested by the FBI supposedly on the basis of a photo posted to Instagram depicting her delivering a Molotov cocktail to the windshield. The burnt structures and gutted cruisers were quickly removed but the asphalt below the car is still scorched.

The rally was called by the Care Not Cops coalition of health workers, patients and community members which had formed a few weeks prior, moved by the examples set by the occupied Hilton in Minneapolis after the burning of the 3rd Precinct and by the James Talib Dean houseless people’s encampment up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia established two weeks before as well. They also took inspiration from the Black Panther Party and Young Lords’s moves toward community self-defense through direct provision of health care coupled with militant street activity. These models showed it is possible for the people to seize the means of care for ourselves back from capital and the State. And the quickly shifting character of the uprising, moving from riots to contacting city council members within a month, meant that it was time to act.

The George Floyd rebellion of late May and early June arrived in Philadelphia in the form of burning cop cars, widespread looting, skirmishes with police, stolen weapons, and mass mobilization. Unorganized Black teens were the protagonists. Its repressive turn was marked by tear gas, white vigilantism, FBI investigations and the transformation of riots into demands. Left organizations, Black-led or not, were the main actors here. The descent of the rebellion from exhilarating, liberatory action into the familiar street choreography of different left groupings was a barrier to taking creative advantage of the strategic situation, and appeared to have sapped much of the initiative the first weekends of revolt had produced. This action was an attempt to demonstrate that acting outside of organizational patterns allowed more incisive and bold movement, to resist the pacification and demobilization effect these protests often have, and to help drive imaginations toward bigger and better possibilities.

Speeches by members of ACT-UP Philly and the Black and Brown Workers Collective as well as local hospital workers drew connections between the anti-Black violence of the Philadelphia Police Department and the pathogenic society it upholds. The hospital had closed before the uprising or even the pandemic, after all, because all social existence is subordinate to profit. But even if it had still been in operation, it would have been part of a system which dispossesses Black power, destroys Black families through the family court system, harms Black disabled people, refuses care to Black trans people, and sequesters industrial toxins in Black neighborhoods. Sterling Brown from the BBWC sharpened this systemic critique by naming the individual city actors who carry it out: city manager Brian Abernathy, Mayor Jim Kenney, head of the office of homeless services Liz Hersh.

The crowd, now energized, took the streets. “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Fuck 12!,” and “What do we want? Care not cops! When do we want it? Now!,” joined chants of George Floyd, Remmie Falls and Breonna Taylor’s names. Marching against traffic up a side street, the people advanced up the loading ramp to the rear of the hospital while an organizer announced the plan was now to occupy the base of the building and set up a clinic for the people. While nurses busied themselves unfolding tables and laying out equipment, a rear contingent quickly set up barricades with wood pallets across the narrow street for protection against the few cops which had trailed the march.

Heavier equipment rolled in on a van which had been waiting for word around the corner. But as the nurses began to take out their blood pressure monitors and PPE, occupiers noticed the Philly SWAT team assembling on the street opposite the building. The advantage of using the base of the hospital was that it was accessible to the crowd for quick occupation without having to breach any doors or walls, but this also made it vulnerable to police attack. A debate broke out regarding the desirability of mounting a defense if the barricades didn’t keep the cops out. Some patients were determined to stay, while some nurses felt they couldn’t risk their license by getting arrested. The split in sentiment itself determined the outcome. Lacking the numbers and will to defend against police violence, the occupation packed itself up and moved on together, but not before treating the first patients at the Hahnemann site for months. There were, crucially, no arrests and no injuries from police violence, despite the intense escalation of barricaded streets and captured property. When we act together, we can care for each other and keep one another safe.

Though the occupation itself was extremely short-lived, the response it drew was indelible. Observers online and in the city immediately recognized the significance of taking over a hospital, and of the cops’ role as enforcers of a hated regime of property and social death. “[N]urses took over a shuttered hospital and open a free clinic. the police proceeded to threaten them with violence until they left in order to make sure the building stayed empty and unused,” summarized a Twitter user. The cops moved to protect the villainous hospital owner’s squatted property, guarding it against any use for the health of the people. And organizers were disappointed but not deterred. The first bold attempt at liberating the means for self-organizing community care was a strong start. It will certainly not be the last.