Beyond Passions & Survival: 2 presentations by Matt Dineen

from Beyond Passions & Survival

2 presentations!

Wednesday Nov. 12th at 7:00 pm
Wooden Shoe Books and Records

Thursday Nov. 13th at 7:00 pm
A-Space Anarchist Community Center

A presentation on the dilemma of artists and activists in (and beyond) capitalist society by Wooden Shoe staffer Matt Dineen. It will be based on his recent masters thesis through Goddard College on the prospects for meaningful work, livelihood, and radical social transformation in the cracks of capitalism.

West Philly Interests Meeting/Soldarity Network Strategy Session

reposted from West Philly Interests Meeting/Solidarity Network Strategy Session

The West Philly branch of Philly Socialists will meet this Friday, 6pm at A-Space to introduce the group to interested newcomers and to relaunch our solidarity network.

We’ve got two promising fights on our hands. In the first, we’d be fighting with an active supporter to help him recover $800 of his security deposit wrongfully denied him. In the second, we’d be fighting with a senior citizen who has been without adequate heat for several years, has a deteriorating ceiling, and has been discriminated against for their gender identity, all while living in subsidized housing.

We can win both these fights so long as we can build a core group of committed volunteers. This meeting will help determine our capacity to do it.

Come on out and help make these campaigns the capstone of a year of great work on the part of our branch.

October 22nd: Stop Silencing of Mumia and all Prisoners

from OCT 22: Stop Silencing of Mumia and all Prisoners:

From Ferguson to Philly: Speak Out Against Police Terror and police brutality

Oct. 22 in Philadelphia

• 12pm (noon)
Press conference opposing the bill and announcing preventive actions to be taken. Exact location TBA.

• 4-5pm
Oct.22 is also a national day against police brutality and mass incarceration. Join in a Honk on these issues at City Hall (15th & Market).

• 5:30-7:30pm
In the evening there will be a Town Hall gathering to discuss the potential impact of the RRA, its connection to youth struggles against police brutality, incarceration and for education rights, and actions we can take. Location: Rm 24, Gladfelter Hall, 11th & Berks, Philadelphia.
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Last week the Pennsylvania Legislature fast-tracked
the “Revictimization Relief Act” to give virtually
unlimited discretion to District Attorneys and the
PA Attorney General to silence prisoner speech by
claiming such speech causes victims’ families
“mental anguish.” The RRA targets both prisoners’
speech and supporters who distribute the speech.

PA Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery) called this law “the most extreme violation of the First Amendment imaginable.” In seeking to silence the legally protected speech of prisoners the state also damages the public’s right and freedom to know at a time when more attention is being focused on mass incarceration and police
brutality. It is an attack on a freedom that must be guarded — especially when and if officials do not agree with the content of speech they hear.

This legislation emerged as a politically-charged response, on the part of the Fraternal Order of Police and its political allies, when they were unable to stop PA prisoner and radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal from delivering his October 5 commencement address at Goddard College in Vermont, where Abu-Jamal earned his BA in 1996 while on death row. Students at Goddard collectively chose Abu-Jamal as their commencement speaker and the college administration supported the invitation. In this case, this law would deny the school the right to hear from its alumnus, Abu-Jamal.

With the growing number of executions by the police and vigilantes across the U.S. and the passage of flagrantly unconstitutional laws as seen in Pennsylvania, we the people have to organize collectively in our neighborhoods and in the streets to oppose the increasingly ominous display of rogue state power in Pennsylvania.

For the full statement issued in response to this law and to sign on as endorsers to the call visit: http://www.emajonline.com/2014/10/call-to-action-against-pa-laws-to-silence-prisoners/
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For more information
In Philly: 215-724-1618; phillyIAC@gmail.com
In NY: 917-930-0804 bringMumiahome.com

Happy House Brainstorming Session

Happy House is hosting a brainstorming session Friday October 17th 8:30p at 4103 Chestnut.
Come discuss agitprop and street guerrilla theatre over potluck dinner at the Happy House this Friday. Bring a dish to share.