The Return of Autonomous Demonstrations in Philadelphia: Brief Notes on the Recent Anti-ICE Actions and A Response to the Socialists in the Partisan

Submission

The autonomous demonstration has returned to Philadelphia. On June 10th and June 14th respectively, two self organized autonomous demonstrations were called to fight back against ICE and in solidarity with the rebellion in Los Angeles. To read a better understanding of what went down, I recommend you read the Unicorn riot account (https://unicornriot.ninja/2025/philadelphia-police-crack-down-on-anti-ice-marches-twice-in-one-week/) and an article I have deep disagreements with (https://phillypartisan.com/2025/06/15/headless-courage-anti-ice-protests-vs-police-brutality/). Both give brief overviews of what happened at these demos.

As an older anarchist, I was glad to see younger comrades organizing against ICE in a militant fashion. It is a rare thing to see publicly organized autonomous demonstrations in the United States despite the fact that they are common in many other places like Latin America or Europe. Autonomous demonstrations are critical for real combative street movements. For over a decade, the activist/organizer culture has plagued Philadelphia’s street movements with their cowardice and liberalism. The tension between the militant and the activist has played out in the meeting, communique and even in the streets. Organizers have often played a counter insurgent role in various struggles such as anti-gentrification direct actions from 2013 to 2018, OccupyICE in 2018, the George Floyd uprising, the Eddie Irizarry uprising and the Palestine solidarity encampments. In each of these struggles, anarchists and our friends faced conflict with activists. While it seems more hip to talk about “counter-insurgency” these days from some of the very same cowardly leftists, it bears reminding that anarchists in Philadelphia have struggled against those who would want to water down social struggles.

These dynamics are often difficult to grapple with as the dynamics are often highly racialized. Despite the longstanding history of Black anarchists and Black radical militancy in the city of Philly since the 60s, those who take risks and organize autonomously are often accused of being “white adventurists”. While it can be amusing sometimes as there will be white radicals so plagued with white guilt that they cannot imagine that perhaps a Black or Person of of color person may in fact want to fight back against the forces that oppress them, many Black and POC organizers also actively despise militants of every background despite their near constant exhortations about “revolutionary violence” so they can sell copies of their books and admission to workshops.

Either way, I want to congratulate whoever called for the most recent demonstrations. The type of bravery displayed by those who organized and attended these demonstrations is the type that we’ll need to fight back against the worsening conditions in the United States. Unsurprisingly, both of these demonstrations were met with overwhelming police repression. There are probably a number of reasons for this. Both Cherelle Parker and the so-called progressive DA Larry Krasner both made it clear that peaceful protest was acceptable but anything deviating from permitted protest would be treated harshly. I believe that the PPD are afraid of a rerun of 2020. Doubtless the LA rebellion has scared the shit out of them. Either way, it is clear that the autonomous demo frightens the State in a way that the nicely marshaled parades by various activist and socialist groups simply do not. I want to commend the young people for taking the streets regardless of overwhelming police numbers on both days. The rest of the “Left” in the city of Philadelphia has been quiet. It makes me proud to be an anarchist to see that we remain on the front-lines when it comes to organizing to fight back against ICE while much of the Lefts skulks in the shadows (and not in the cool way). Let’s all make sure to support the comrades who faced more serious charges for taking part in these actions.

Some socialists wrote a critique of the first autonomous demo that I feel like I should address. In my view the article takes a myopic view of autonomous struggles and relegates them largely to a reaction to a current moment despite the fact that autonomous demos were popular in Philadelphia way back in 2017.

So the article is titled “Headless Courage”, I thought this was kinda funny because it’s clear whoever wrote it has never engaged with the work of Philly’s own Black revolutionary Russell Maroon Shoatz with his critical essay “The Dragon and the Hydra” where he argues for a multi-headed resistance against the colony and capital rather than a single-headed one. The autonomous demonstration in theory is an example of multi-headed resistance. The idea of an autonomous demonstration is a moment where various different WELL ORGANIZED affinity groups with different goals and intentions (ideally coordinating with each other prior to the action) can converge and act together in a public manner. Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t always work in real life as there are often liberals who show up as individuals, seeking to derail the demonstration or accusing people of being cops. However, well organized affinity groups who can assert themselves solves this problem. Often many anarchists understand affinity to be a one time thing but it’s actually critical to understand that affinity is a long term organizational orientation based on building trust and reciprocal knowledge with your comrades. It seems that whoever wrote the article did not arrive to the demonstration with their own set of goals but instead decided to complain on the internet because no one listened to them! Organize yourself and yourself better. No one owes you allegiance or a rowdy demonstration.

Chiding the demonstration for being “peaceful” when people were de-arresting, throwing barricades in the street and engaging in some light types of vandalism feels like a cheap shot considering the overwhelming police presence. Most demonstrations never even have any of those things happen. It’s sad but true. Furthermore, It’s clear that some people at the demonstration attended with intention and were able to take part in ways they found liberating. The conclusions in the article are unclear as the author acknowledges that non-autonomous demonstrations are weak and ineffective. Yeah, welcome to the club. Anarchists have been saying that for years. Nothing the socialists described at the demo such as police violence or snitchjacketing is particularly new. That’s just par for the course at public demonstrations. The solution isn’t creating some commander militant though but rather building forms of organization that can facilitate un-governability. I would refer the author to the coordinated affinity group as an example. Unfortunately, that form in Philly has largely been eclipsed by whatever the Left is doing these days. The author also argues bizarrely that socialists should do ESL classes and then use the people who do those classes for a militant demonstration.
“but you can recruit people more honestly and form more articulate connections by tabling, going door to door, or mounting programs like free food distributions or free ESL classes that directly serve your community. As described before in the Partisan, we should think of these types of projects as the proper way to build people power, and mass actions as the way to “cash out” on whatever power has been built to make change in the most direct and literal way”

Unfortunately just because someone likes your ESL class or free food doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to be interested in whatever type of demonstration that you want to do. Mass actions are the the product of random people from an ESL fighting the cops but rather the product of affinity groups building amongst themselves and together to build capacity to fight back. I dunno the author’s background but the whole part about “organizing the masses” is always corny to me cause leftists always seem to be confused when the masses are not interested in their political project. Often when white leftists talk about “organizing the masses”, they are talking about Black and brown people in the city. I think it may be hard to imagine for some crackers to understand Black and brown people are already organized just in ways that are often reactionary or liberal. Instead of thinking of people as monolithic subject for your revolutionary desires perhaps realize that individuals regardless of their class background are complicated. The mechanistic way of thinking about human beings on the Left continues to be a weakness.

For the younger people. Don’t stop! Focus on building affinity with one another in the streets. I feel like there has been a lot of chastising from both socialists, so-called legal support collectives and various cowards on the internet. At the end of the day, ya’ll are doing what the Left wishes it was doing. Keep training, making sure your Black bloc is on point, talking with your friends and refusing to follow orders. Whether it’s from cops, progressive politicians, leftists, crackers, organizers, liberal anarchists or whoever. If I had any recommendations, it would be to examine the history of social struggles in Philadelphia prior to this moment. You might learn a few things. I’ll include a reading list. But honestly, I’m just proud of ya’ll.

– ya local anarchist agitator

Some reading reccs:

Anti-Gentrification Actions Philadelphia: 2013 to 2018
The Dragon and the Hydra by Russell Maroon Shoatz
Spontaneity and Organization by Kimathi Mohammed
Activism as Recuperation (From a Movement for No Society)
In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
The Secret is To Really Complain (From Anathema Volume 10 Issue 2)
What the Fuck Does Reconstruction Even Mean to Ya’ll: A Critique of the W.E.B. DuBois School and the Black Left in Philadelphia (From Anathema Volume 10 Issue 1)
Archipelago: Affinity, informal organization and insurrectional projects

Philadelphia Police Crack Down on Anti-ICE Marches Twice in One Week

from Unicorn Riot

Philadelphia, PA — The increasing tempo of pro-immigrant, anti-ICE protests hit Philadelphia last week, and the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) has decided to crack down.

On Tuesday, June 10, and Saturday, June 14, autonomous protests were called outside of the Federal Detention Center (FDC), where up to 125 immigrant detainees can be held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Tuesday protest included 80-100 protesters, while the Saturday demonstration brought an estimated 300. Both marches were met with intense police response which resulted in injuries and arrests.

Unlike other cities, where police shot tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds, the Philadelphia Police Department dispersed marches with tools on hand: battering protesters with batons, corralling the crowd with bicycles and nearly running activists and journalists over with motorized dirt bikes.

In October 2020, following protests against the killings of George Floyd and Walter Wallace Jr., the Philadelphia City Council passed a ban on the use of tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters. Additionally, a 2023 lawsuit resulted in a $9 million settlement awarded to activists, organizers and West Philly residents who were harmed by police use of tear gas.

This report covers how police repressed the June 10 and 14 demonstrations that roamed the northeast side of Center City — video from June 14 below.


June 10 Autonomous Demonstration: Philadelphia Police Arrest 15 Anti-ICE Protesters, Strike with Batons

Nationwide protests had taken off in solidarity against the recent militarized crackdowns and immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, as well as in objection to local ICE detentions. On the morning of June 10, ICE arrested at least one individual in South Philadelphia. Local activists also witnessed three detained in Kensington earlier that week.

In response to these detentions, an autonomous protest was called that morning to mobilize that afternoon. At 4 p.m., approximately 80-100 people congregated near the FDC at 7th and Arch Street and began chanting. A megaphone was passed among the crowd, and participants gave speeches about the Trump administration’s “fascist” immigration policies, as well as the interrelated struggle between domestic colonialism and the genocide in Gaza. (Local protesters also have been rallying weekly against one of Israel’s arms suppliers, Day & Zimmermann, on Spring Garden Street.)

Philadelphia police officers film protesters outside of the Federal Detention Center. Officers with cameras followed the entire march.

A march then began, trekking past the ICE field office and then down Market Street, taking the prominent throughway. At the end of the second lap, police began pressuring the protest and at 6:44 p.m., issued a order to disperse. The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) then flanked the crowd in an attempted kettle, struck several people with batons and arrested 15.

Immigrants rights protesters march in Philadelphia on June 10, 2025.

Activists marched around the block to the ICE field office, looped back to the FDC, and then took another lap onto Market Street.

Several protesters used bikes to define the march’s perimeter, acting in sync during the protest. On the second return to FDC Philadelphia, tensions escalated between Philly PD bike patrol and the bike brigade activists. They faced off closely and argued for some time.

One protester from the bike brigade explained:

“From my perspective, the bikers present maintained control and effectively managed the situation, preventing a rush. This strategic positioning, I believe, was not favored by the police, leading to their attempt to accelerate matters. I also heard from someone that there was communication over the scanner indicating an intent to arrest the bikers, and myself. Our actions were entirely within legal bounds; we were simply employing strategic measures to maintain a safe distance and manage the situation effectively.”

Bike patrol officers stand close to marchers on June 10, 2025.

After the protest returned to the FDC, two bike cops were isolated by the crowd in front of the detention center. While activists and police exchanged verbal insults, at least one person in the crowd advised others to make sure that police could retreat from the cornered situation.

Protesters congregate outside the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia on June 10, 2025.

By this time, tensions were high. While there was no evidence of spray painted graffiti or significant property damage on the facility, a message was written onto one of the windows appearing to say “FUCK ICE.”

The Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia on June 10, 2025, with “FUCK ICE” written on a window.

At approximately 6:44 p.m., the police issued an initial dispersal order, declaring the march “unlawful.”

The PPD then pressured protesters to keep moving, issuing a third dispersal order by 6:51 p.m. However, these declarations were not easily audible — our contributor could not hear them on site. An increased presence of officers, prepared with batons and riot gear, began following the protesters from behind.

Police officers with bicycles follow the march in Philadelphia on June 10, 2025, after it was declared an “unlawful assembly.”
Philadelphia Police officers, including some in riot gear, tail the anti-ICE march behind the bike cops on June 10, 2025.

At around 7 p.m., police announced via their radios that they were planning arrests.

When the march reached Market St., police began to clash with protesters.

A police captain gives commands to protesters while flanked by officers on June 10, 2025.
Officers use batons to shove the crowd, with the Philadelphia Police captain giving commands, on June 10, 2025.

“They held the line when we got to Market Street. And they scared people. And, what do scared people do? They run. But then [the cops] started beating people,” one protester recounts. “There was no way out, so you had to run through or cower and hope they didn’t hurt you. If you ran, they tried to beat you.”

A Philadelphia Police officer chases a protester while brandishing his baton on June 10, 2025.
Philadelphia Police officers clash with, strike and arrest protesters on Market Street on June 10, 2025.
A Philadelphia Police officer uses baton to slam a pro-immigrant activist against a police car on June 10, 2025.
Philadelphia Police officers hold a protester on the ground on June 10, 2025, using batons to push into the protester’s neck.
Philadelphia Police surround a photographer and command him to move on June 10, 2025.
Philadelphia Police officers congregate after arresting protesters on June 10, 2025. Several detainees were lined up along the wall.

Fifteen people were arrested. Fourteen were hit with disorderly conduct, which is a ticketed offense called a CVN in Philadelphia. (There were press reports of another charge of aggravated assault but this has not been confirmed as of press time.)

In at least one documented instance, a Philadelphia officer kneeled on a protester’s neck. Two arrested protesters and two police officers received medical attention after.

As of 10 p.m. on June 11, additional barricades were placed around the FDC and its large window facade was boarded up.


June 14 Autonomous Demonstration: Protesters Flee Attacking Bike Cops via Holiday Inn Express

Liberal groups returned to Philly to host the “No Kings” national flagship rally on June 14 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; messages against ICE policy were a major theme. Facing light rain at 2 p.m., much of the 80,000 person crowd began drifting back towards City Hall from the art museum.

Shortly after, an autonomous demonstration against ICE gathered again near the FDC around 6 p.m. with a message in solidarity with the revolt by ICE detainees in Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, which is operated by the GEO Group. Last Friday, the Department of Homeland Security claimed four people escaped by knocking over an outer wall after an uprising among ICE detainees Thursday evening was spurred by a lack of food.

Philadelphia Police Department officers lined up outside the Federal Detention Center on June 14, 2025, some with riot gear.
Two masked federal police officers near the William Green Federal Building in Philadelphia on June 14, 2025.

Police scanners noted that the Philly PD shadowed some roaming protest groups earlier in the afternoon, as some “No Kings” protest participants joined into the autonomous gathering. Before the 6 p.m. protest began, dozens of cops stationed in groups around the FDC. Dirt bike police staged nearby on Broad Street, and sanitation trucks blocked street traffic around the FDC.

“Ice An Agent” message stitched on a cloth banner.

Shortly after the march began, over 100 Philly Police quickly corralled the protest to stop it from heading down 7th Street towards the highway. The group instead marched into Center City towards the Fashion District as bike cops followed.

Philadelphia bike police navigate around a plastic jersey barrier on the sidewalk.

The anti-ICE march snaked around northeast Center City. At 12th and Walnut there was a scuffle, after protesters repurposed plastic jersey barriers to obstructed bike police following the march. Officers had to push these out of way. Then, officers began to grab march participants with masks and umbrellas. Unicorn Riot saw what appeared to be several successful de-arrests.

A Philadelphia Police officer yells at protesters as he’s held back by his superior on June 14, 2025.

At 13th and Walnut, at about 7 p.m., after the conflict over barricades, police attacked the crowd and kettled it at the intersection. Some protesters then ran through the Holiday Inn Express garage. Police with bicycles lined up to cut off garage access, splitting the crowd. PPD ordered people to leave while they had everyone surrounded, and eventually let some march away while issuing dispersal orders.

This time around, the police had added dirt bike-type motorcycles to their arsenal. Philly Police on motorbikes nearly ran over people’s feet repeatedly, repeatedly zooming across a block to come within an inch or so of striking our reporter as well as a small handful of protesters leaving the area.

Once again there were arrests and injuries — legal observers tell us there were approximately seven arrests. One person was released immediately, two the following evening. By Sunday evening, June 15th, everyone was known to be released by 6 p.m.


Future ICE Activity Expected in Philadelphia

Philadelphia may see more militarized ICE actions soon. Detentions of immigrants have continued regularly around Philadelphia and its suburbs.

“The World is Watching” written with sidewalk chalk on the street in front of the FDC.

A report by NBC News said that Special Response Team (SRT) tactical units are expected in the city, as well as in Chicago, Seattle, Northern Virginia and New York. These may be similar to the SRT deployments that spurred major protests in Los Angeles and Minneapolis last week.

Unicorn Riot leaked the SRT ICE Homeland Security Investigations “team handbook” back in 2019.

ICE Special Response Team (SRT) “MRAP” style vehicle. Source: YouTube
Sidewalk chalk notes “Philly ❤️s immigrants.”

A clash during an anti-ICE protest in Center City led to 15 arrests, 2 injured police officers, and 2 hurt demonstrators

from Mainstream Media

Videos showed a large confrontation at the intersection of 11th and Market Streets around 7 p.m.

Philadelphia police clash with activists at 11th and Markets Streets during a protest over rumors of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests within the city and in solidarity with protesters in Los Angeles.
Philadelphia police clash with activists at 11th and Markets Streets during a protest over rumors of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests within the city and in solidarity with protesters in Los Angeles.

Two Philadelphia police officers suffered minor injuries and 15 protesters were arrested after a physical confrontation erupted during a march denouncing deportations Tuesday evening in Center City, police said.

Two protesters also reported minor injuries and received medical treatment, police said.

Video showed a confrontation at the intersection of 11th and Market Streets with police arresting at least one masked man, who was held down on the ground with the officer’s knee, while other officers used bicycles to push protesters away.

Another video showed at least three officers struggle to pull down another man they apparently were trying to arrest. One officer with a bullhorn struck the man several times in the legs with a baton and the man fell to the ground.

“Several officers employed force while making arrests. Consistent with Philadelphia Police Department policy, every use of force has been documented and will undergo a review to ensure compliance with departmental guidelines,” the department said in a statement late Tuesday night.

“The Philadelphia Police Department supports the public’s right to lawful, peaceful protest. We remain committed to facilitating First Amendment activity while protecting public safety and maintaining order on city streets,” the department said.

Around 4 p.m., about 50 people gathered for an “emergency action” at the Federal Detention Center at Seventh and Arch Streets after rumors about multiple arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city spread online. ICE did not immediately return requests for comment.

Immigrant rights group Juntos confirmed one ICE arrest in South Philadelphia at about 7 a.m. Tuesday, adding the group had connected the person to the Mexican Consulate for legal support.

The crowd drew honks and cheers from evening commuters, and after growing in size began marching.

Police said at some point there were 150 demonstrators.

The group marched to the offices of ICE at Eighth and Cherry Street, then returned to the Federal Detention Center, police said.

Then, according to police, there was a second march that began disrupting traffic and allegedly endangered public safety.

Police said they issued orders to disperse three times. The protesters allegedly ignored the orders and continued blocking traffic while confronting officers.

Around 7 p.m., police attempted to make arrests and the “crowd’s behavior escalated, becoming violent and extremely disorderly.”

Besides the 15 arrests, including one for alleged felony aggravated assault on an officer, police said one of their vehicles was vandalized with spray paint.

One immigration advocate, who declined to give his name, said those arrested were unclear on what they did wrong.

“Police pushed them for six or seven blocks,” he said. “They declared it an illegal assembly.”

President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown led to violent clashes in the Los Angeles area after large numbers of heavily geared officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on several locations to detain people.

In response to the protests around Los Angeles, Trump sent the National Guard and Marines despite the objections of Democratic leaders in California.

Protester Marie Conti, 80, right, talks with another protester at Seventh and Arch Streets, in Philadelphia, June 10, 2025.
Protester Marie Conti, 80, right, talks with another protester at Seventh and Arch Streets, in Philadelphia, June 10, 2025.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

“It was a peaceful protest and then they started throwing people to the ground,” said Dresden Diaz, of Center City. “The attacks were vicious.”

One woman, who declined to give her name citing fear of police reprisal, said she joined the protesters after work because she thinks the immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and the Trump administration’s subsequent use of the National Guard to quell peaceful protests is “disgusting.”

“Immigrants make up this country, our families are immigrants,” said another woman.

Around 8:30 p.m., a small group of protesters returned to the Federal Detention Center. No other incidents were reported.

Around Pennsylvania, immigration advocates and ICE reported increased enforcement sweeps.

More than 20 people in Norristown have been taken into custody by ICE since the start of the month.

Cherry Hill, NJ Police Collaborating With ICE at Home Depot Location

from Jersey Counter Info

As of the week of June 2, 2025, Cherry Hill police remote camera centers have been spotted at the Cherry Hill Home Depot located at 2160 Route 70 West.

The police camera set up is positioned in the middle of the parking lot in front of the store.

 

The Cherry Hill Police remote camera center.

So far there have been no reports from the Cherry Hill Police, Home Depot, or mainstream media about the supposed purpose of the remote camera center. This new development however comes directly after talk from the federal government for ICE and local police departments to begin crack downs on suspected undocumented immigrants at Home Depot and 7 Eleven locations.

Any explanation from the police, state, corporate entities, or the mainstream media about the camera system should be assessed with extreme caution as it is likely dubious. Community members in the area have expressed concern about the camera’s purpose as it doesn’t match the store or police’s response for “loss prevention”. Home Depot store policy dictates they do not actively pursue potential shoplifters and instead utilize their own in-store cameras and the police to catch people after the fact.

The Cherry Hill police have a long history of collaboration with ICE, with ICE even having a former field office located in Cherry Hill, NJ. Currently ICE operates 25 official field offices across the United States, two of which are in driving distance located in Newark, NJ and Philadelphia, PA. ICE also operates several sub-field offices across the state of NJ including one in Mt. Laurel which is located near Cherry Hill.

Any police camera centers, especially around places the federal government has deemed as heavily trafficked by undocumented immigrants, should be treated with caution and reported to area antifascists.

Philly’s forgotten history as a hub of anarchism with a thriving radical Yiddish press

from The Conversation

On a late summer day in 1906, a small group of newly arrived Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia took a streetcar across town to Fairmount Park. Several miles from the cramped row houses and oppressive sweatshops of the immigrant quarter of South Philly, the neighborhood now known as Queen Village, they enjoyed a sunny picnic.

They weren’t there to make small talk, though.

Instead, they wanted to write “revolutionary articles” that would spark the “struggle against all that degrades and oppresses humanity,” as one of the leaders of the group, Joseph Cohen, later wrote in his 1945 memoir.

More specifically, the picnicgoers wanted to start a newspaper. It would be titled Broyt un Frayheyt – Yiddish for Bread and Freedom – the anarchist reminder that to live the good life, one needs both.

I’m a professor of media and politics at Temple University in Philadelphia. For the past year I’ve been tracking the life and times of my great-grandfather Max, a radical Yiddish journalist in the early years of the 20th century.

To my surprise, I found he had lived here in Philadelphia, and his story is part of a largely forgotten moment in U.S. history: when Philly was an epicenter of the national anarchist movement, heartily supported by the city’s burgeoning Jewish immigrant community.

Beyond the Russian pale

By 1906, thousands of people like Max had made their way to Philadelphia from the Russian “pale” – the only part of the Russian Empire where they could legally reside. They fled economic isolation and state-sanctioned persecution in search of a more stable life.

South Philly was better than where they had come from, but immigrant life then, as now, was by no means easy. They had escaped a legal regime of oppression and the perpetual threat of antisemitic mob violence. But in turn they found a world of dark alleys and dead ends. Their labor was exploited, their living conditions meager.

For some, the American promise of freedom and prosperity seemed to ring hollow.

They did, however, find one freedom they had not experienced before. They were able to speak, write and publish their ideas no matter how outlandish or against the grain.

And they could do so in Yiddish, the vernacular of daily life but a language of exile – one that in the old world had often been outlawed in print.

The Yiddish press in the United States was experiencing extraordinary growth at the time. In New York, Philadelphia and other cities, newspapers quickly emerged – and often disappeared – month over month.

Two girls stand among group of people. One on left has sign in Yiddish. One on right has sign that says: Abolish slavery
A young protester holds a sign in Yiddish at a May Day protest against child labor in New York in 1909. George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons

Jewish anarchists in America

Max moved to Philadelphia in 1906 to work with another immigrant named Joseph Cohen. Cohen had arrived in Philadelphia three years earlier. He earned a scant living making cigars, but his real work was advocating anarchism.

At the dawn of the 20th century, anarchism was not the nihilistic chaos the term may bring to mind today. It was a heartfelt dream of a free and egalitarian society.

The anarchists believed that man-made hierarchies – political, economic and religious – were illegitimate and limited the full expression of humanity. They rejected the authority of the state. That particularly appealed to many Jewish immigrants, for whom laws in the old country had long served as vehicles of oppression.

Cohen had studied this philosophy of local autonomy and communal life with the Philadelphia activist Voltairine de Cleyre.

History may remember Emma Goldman, a Lithuanian-born New Yorker and perhaps the leading voice of American anarchism from that era. But de Cleyre was the heart and soul of Philadelphia’s anarchist scene.

Goldman once described de Cleyre as a “poet-rebel,” a “liberty-loving artist” and “the greatest woman anarchist of America.”

Black and white potrait of woman shown in profile
Voltairine de Cleyre in Philadelphia circa 1901. Wikimedia Commons

A tireless critic of the inequities of the industrial age, de Cleyre had taught herself Yiddish to better serve as “the apostle of anarchism” in the Jewish ghetto.

While de Cleyre could often be found speaking in front of city hall, Max, Cohen and their colleagues were more likely to gather at the corner of Fifth and South streets, the hub of Philadelphia’s Yiddish press and its culture of rambunctious street debate.

By 1906, Cohen had co-founded the anarchist Radical Library in the upstairs rooms at 229 Pine St. This provided the Philadelphia anarchists a meeting space and reading room.

But “the Jewish newspaper men, the radicals and the tireless talkers,” as the Philadelphia historian Harry Boonin wrote, still congregated in the ramshackle cafes lining the 600 block of South Fifth, where they would argue over anarchism and atheism deep into the night.

Competition with NYC comrades

Cohen’s goal was to publish a nationally influential anarchist paper that would give voice to the “comrades from Philadelphia.”

That meant direct competition with the New York Yiddish press and the influential weekly newspaper Freie Arbeiter Stimme, or The Free Voice of Labor. Edited by Saul Yanovksy on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, FAS was the center of the Jewish anarchist movement and of the Yiddish intelligentsia more broadly.

“To be able to say ‘I have written for Yanovsky,’” wrote the sociologist Robert Park in 1922, “is a literary passport for a Yiddish writer.”

Front page of newspaper titled Freie Arbeiter Stimme and dated Feb. 21, 1903
Freie Arbeiter Stimme (The Free Voice of Labor) was the intellectual center of the Jewish anarchist movement at the turn of the 20th century. From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of Freie Arbeiter Stimme (The Free Voice of Labor)

Although the FAS masthead said the paper was located in New York and Philadelphia, Yanovksy controlled the operation from New York, much to Cohen’s dismay.

The Philadelphia anarchists were also routinely disappointed in Yanovsky’s politics. He was too moderate for their tastes. Yanovsky favored organizing labor and voting in elections, while the Bread and Freedom group, according to Cohen, wanted to cultivate “the militancy and fighting spirit which our young comrades brought with them from cold Russia.” They advocated for more aggressive measures to counter “the submissive indifference of the bourgeoisie and the slavish patience of the workers.”

Cohen had partnered with Yanovsky earlier in 1906 to publish a daily anarchist newspaper. He maintained a small office in the back of Finkler’s cigar store at Fifth and Bainbridge streets. But the paper was printed in New York and delivered back to Philadelphia each morning by courier train.

Cohen wrote in his memoir that he suspected Yanovsky intentionally sabotaged the effort by insisting that he personally write the daily editorial, but then turning in his copy too late for the paper to make the train. After two months the partnership, and the paper, fell apart.

For Cohen, the lesson was that to be the genuine voice of the anarchist movement, he had to print the paper locally in Philadelphia.

A digest of anarchist argument

Crop of newspaper that lists publishing company and address of the Bread and Freedom newspaper
Editions of the Bread and Freedom anarchist weekly list the Radical Library at 229 Pine St. as its headquarters. From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of Bread and Freedom

Bread and Freedom published its first issue on Nov. 11, 1906. The date was symbolic. It was the anniversary of the execution of the “Chicago martyrs” – the four men wrongly sentenced to death for the 1886 bombing at a labor rally at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The Haymarket affair galvanized the anarchist movement among immigrants, even as it accelerated the wider fear of foreign-born radicalism.

Over the next three months, the newspaper offered a weekly digest of anarchist arguments. It translated into Yiddish Voltairine de Cleyre’s critique of capitalism and what she called its “moral bankruptcy” – its hunger for wealth, power and material possessions. It attacked what de Cleyre called the “dominant idea” of the times – “the shameless, merciless” exploitation of the worker, “only to produce heaps and heaps of things – things ugly, things harmful, things useless, and at the best largely unnecessary.”

In the strongest of terms – “bombastic,” in the words of one local historian – the paper echoed de Cleyre’s call for the “restless, active, rebel souls” of immigrant Philadelphia to rise up to oppose the “great and lamentable error” of industrial capitalism.

Almost as soon as it began, however, Bread and Freedom ran out of money. Its rhetoric was exciting but ineffective. The paper offered no real solutions beyond an impossible demand to dismantle the capitalist state.

Although two members of the group were briefly detained by the police in Baltimore for selling a radical newspaper, their fiery propaganda lit no revolutionary spark.

Instead, it disappeared quietly, folding in January 1907.

Shifting tactics

Even then, a different kind of immigrant was arriving in the U.S. from Russia. Their radical politics were coupled with organizational acumen.

Many of the older anarchists would join forces with these newcomers, and the effort morphed into something more pragmatic. They helped build the foundations of the 20th-century labor movement, which successfully fought for once-radical ideals such as the eight-hour workday and paid sick leave.

Cohen moved to New York and took over as editor of FAS in 1923. That was a tense period for the Jewish left, following the Russian revolution of 1917 and the Communist rise to power. In response, the U.S. government suppressed domestic radicalism, arresting and at times deporting foreign-born leftists, and anarchism fell out of favor.

A few years earlier, though, the streets of South Philly had been home to a vibrant space of free speech and boundless political imagination. It would not last long, but it is a moment I believe is worth remembering.

Zine: The Struggle Against Ghost Robotics

Submission
🤖🐶
It is unclear what the struggle for Palestinian liberation will look like in the coming days. At the time of this writing a ceasefire has just been reached between Hamas and the Zionist entity, at the same time the Zionist entity continues to devastate Gaza and the West Bank. Last year a specific struggle against a local technology company connected the dots between Palestinian liberation, local gentrification, education, militarism, and borders. The company in question, Ghost Robotics, has come under fire for creating robot dogs used by the Israeli Defense Forces. That struggle may well be ongoing and this zine is not meant to push struggles into the safety of history, its aim is to inspire revolt, specifically against Ghost Robotics and generally against all aspects of domination. The struggle against Ghost Robotics has taken many forms, from spreading information and popular education, to organizing demonstrations, to destroying property. By reflecting on the past struggles we can better imagine and carry out our struggles today. This zine brings together writings about Ghost Robotics, a timeline of publicly documented action against Ghost Robotics, communiques from anonymous actions, a few photos. All information is taken from sources listed in the Resources section at the end.
Philadelphia, Occupied Lenapehoking,
Winter 2025
[PDF] [PDF For Printing]

Philly All Out To Free Mahmoud Khalil

from Instagram

Send from trusted comrades. FREE MAHMOUD KHALIL!! ❤️‍🔥🇵🇸❤️‍🔥🇵🇸❤️‍🔥 See ya’ll tomorrow!!!
Send from trusted comrades. FREE MAHMOUD KHALIL!! ❤️‍🔥🇵🇸❤️‍🔥🇵🇸❤️‍🔥 See ya’ll tomorrow!!!
[EMERGENCY RALLYFriday March 14
5pm
City Hall

Bring signs and posters and remember to mask up!

Rallly coordinate by autonomous individuals not affiliate with any organization
FREE MAHMOUD, FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS]

“Abolish ICE” Pasteup

from Mastodon

“Abolish ICE”
Pasteup spotted in Philadelphia

Earliest Days of This Trump Attack

from Philly Metro Area WSA

By Philly Metro and Greater Chicago WSA

Among many reports and conversations at our November 40th Anniversary Congress, two that stand out are a  renewed excitement about working-class journalism, and how our WSA Branches are trying to orient our work to our worksites and co-workers.

What this has meant in these early days of the Trump-Musk Attacks?

We can’t speak for all WSA members, but many of us have felt depressed and in shock, aware that our families are directly vulnerable.

In contrast to 2016, where the resistance to Trump was immediately galvanizing, there has been a cultural sea-change. We certainly feel part of this ‘just-getting-on-our-feet-now’ period.

Speaking for only some in our branches, these early months have felt like a tornado watch. We keep looking out our window to see how close the danger is. There has been a noticeable pause on our public national level projects as this Trump-Musk attack is unfolding, but  as we write this, we are getting back to our work!

As regards our worksites, one of the immediate responses has been to the scapegoating ICE raids some of our most at-risk families have been living in terror at the haphazard nature of these assaults.

We’ve been actively working on connecting our coworkers with community organizations, putting out flyers with contact info for immigrant rights hotlines, helping with outreach for multilingual trainings.

Locally, we’ve also been helping to organize an upcoming protest in coalition with local activists. While we are not reformists, we bring our workforce concerns and syndicalist analysis as best we can, trying to build momentum for any public opportunity to say “NO!” to this time of crisis.

As anarcha-syndicalists we are clear as daylight that we use the word ‘democracy’ to mean not bourgeois democracy where the competing elites vie for our votes to get power. We will resist Trump and Musk, but this does not mean we were signed up to support what would have been a Biden-Harris regime of business as usual and genocide.  We are clear that by standing up for democracy we mean a worker’s democracy, and the classless, non-hierarchical society which alone can make the word ‘democracy’ meaningful.  But right now we are focusing on our commonality with at-risk co-workers and others, with Trump voters who suddenly realize their jobs & benefits are now in jeopardy.

While we are few and our branches are small, it feels the best way for us to cope is to stay engaged. While we’ve been slow to get back to journalism, it’s time to do just that. Members are saying it’s time for us to have our WSA National Labor Committee soon, and we will!

As a way back to working-class journalism, today during work hours we did what we meant to do, which was to talk with WSA members and comrades, and try to get their thoughts into print.

As a start today, at 10 am, while on the clock, we talked on the phone with our comrade Greg Mcgee:

“What we should do is have a dialogue with our fellow workers, but make sure we use facts. Use radical websites talking about Russian deserters and Ukrainian deserters refusing to fight. Imagine together if they called the soldiers and no one showed up! The wars would stop.”

“With all this rampant fascist nationalism happening now, the bigotry, anti-semitism, racism, right now, imagine replacing the word “immigrant” with “Jew”, and discuss the fascist past. We know that Mussolini and General Franco were fascists, we really don’t know what Trump and Musk are. LThey may just be narcissists, but I think we need to draw our fellow workers’ attention to the historical past of fascism, how this is looking worse and worse. Again, the scapegoat is immigrants right now; remember what happened in Nazi Germany: Right now it is much much less far-fetched thinking it could happen here. We have to remember what happened to Japanese people in the U.S. in WWII, where people were rounded up and put in concentration camps.”

“This is the time for meetings with our fellow workers at our places of employment; this is the time to work on our common ground, the threat that’s facing us now.”

From Lana –  by phone during work hours, an hour later:

“It’s so multi-faceted, this outright chainsaw to any social safety nets, and we absolutely know as the economy goes south, we in the working class are first in line for the economic consequences.  Isn’t this what we’ve been saying all along? That capitalism is evil because it uses us as fodder in so-called good times, and uses us as frontline fodder in any disaster?

“I think this is the time for us as syndicalists to get on our feet and organize, to get our fellow workers involved as a group from our workplace in community resistance – it’s a wake-up call. Five-alarm fire, let’s get to it !”

###

Ghost Robotics CEO Townhome Vandalized

Submission

In the early morning hours of July 9th, while Ghost Robotics CEO Gavin Kenneally was out of town at the Military Robotics and Autonomous Systems USA conference, several of his neighbors paid his Fairmount townhome a visit.

We threw paint and tagged the messages Ghost Robotics Kills and Murderer on the garage door and front entrance. We refuse to live in a world where Palestinians and migrants crossing the border must fear for their lives at the hands of killer robots, while the makers and war profiteers sleep peacefully in our city. We know where they live.

Freedom of Movement

Submission

Seeing the crowded conditions in the concentration camps in Texas reminds me of Inauguration Day two months ago. That night we rose like lions striking at slumbering poachers.

We found a Customs and Border Protection SUV and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement SUV in a parking garage in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia. They were redecorated with paint, flattened tires, and shattered windows. Wouldn’t you know it? That advice that an awl can more quietly deflate a tire when pushed through its sidewall was right. And in a pinch, the awl can also be used to break the same vehicle’s glass. This tool can be found at most any hardware store.

So much of this settler-colonial empire’s origins can be traced to this very neighborhood. Paternal participants in slavery and genocide negotiating the imaginary lines that would cross so many living beings decreed their authority here, attempting to halt and erase so much life. The continuation of those programs crosses party lines as easy as capital does the border, and Democrats are as deserving of our fury as Republicans. Freedom cannot be attained beneath their thumbs or anyone else’s.

Another predator has settled in to his position as overseer, accompanied by an officer of law and order. Between them they have personally authored and been party to so much gendered and racialized violence, which is inherent to the nation-state. Don’t mistake what appears to be silence for inaction, because we’ve been busy. But this is a reminder that you don’t need to wait for a protest to interfere with the functions of this country, especially as so many return to resting on their heels. It’s imperative that we don’t wait and we support each other with words and actions.

 

For the destruction of this and every other empire.

For anarchy.

Late-night fun

Submission

Recently I gifted one OCF Realty van: four punctured tires…PLUS a bonus of two tires on a Comcast van.

Those spearheading gentrification make our lives increasingly unliveable, and will always be an enemy. Comcast has a contract with ICE; and they contribute to technological infrastructure and its web of surveillance, policing, ecological destruction and alienation. All things that continue to shape our daily lives into a suffocating prison of a world.

NOT being masked is suspicious these days, and I maintained 6ft of distance from another human the whole time! As what is ‘normal’ is changing rapidly, it’s important to think about how power will use our fear to keep us subdued. Shelter-in-place or not, are our lives really that free?

Philadelphia, PA: Anti-ICE Protesters Disrupt Devereux Gala Against Detention of Migrant Children

from It’s Going Down

Report from recent action in Philadelphia against Devereux which has accepted a contract  to open several migrant youth detention facilities.

On Saturday night, over 100 Jews, immigrants, and allies marched in the streets as others from the group infiltrated the annual fundraising gala of Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health. The demonstration was part of a larger campaign highlighting the $14 million contract Devereux accepted from the federal government to open several migrant youth detention centers. This action is the latest escalation from the national Jewish movement Never Again working in collaboration with local immigrant justice organization Juntos to demand that Devereux stop detaining migrant children.

On the streets outside of the event, protesters marched from 8th and Cherry to the National Constitution Center where the gala was held. Protestors chanted slogans like “It’s Not a Shelter, It’s a Jail” and blocked the Constitution Center parking garage where Devereux was offering free parking to its guests.

On October 17th, several dozen protestors from this campaign blocked the main exit to Devereux National Headquarters while protesting the nonprofit’s plans to hold migrant children in a detention center in Devon, PA. Devereux plans to use its $14 million contract from the Office of Refugee Resettlement to operate multiple youth detention centers nationwide, including one in Devon, PA, where they plan to house 42 migrant children who crossed the border without an adult.

Although Devereux calls them “shelters,” their facilities for migrant children are in fact detention centers since the children held there will be forbidden from leaving. “These young people need to be immediately reunited with their families or sponsors, not detained,” said Juntos Executive Director Erika Almirón, adding that agencies like Devereux “aren’t trying to help these children, they’re trying to make money.”

Devereux claims to be “apolitical” and “neutral” on immigration policy, but its participation in the terrifying status quo is cowardly. The number of kids in cages is higher than it’s ever been, and only growing under this administration. In 2019 alone, 70,000 migrant children were detained, including infants and toddlers — more than ever before in the US and more than any other country in the world.

The detention center in Devon recently had its zoning permit revoked and organizers demand that Devereux accept this decision. They further demand an end to corporations profiting off of immigrant detention, the complete defunding of ICE and CBP as overall agencies, and permanent protection for all undocumented immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Campaign Targeting Devereux’s Youth Detention Centers Escalates as Protestors Plan to March

from It’s Going Down

Call for mass march on November 16th in Philadelphia against an immigrant youth detention center.

Philadelphia – On Saturday night, Jews, immigrants, and allies will march through downtown Philadelphia to protest the creation of privately-held immigrant youth detention centers by Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health. Devereux recently received a $14 million contract from the federal government to detain migrant children in facilities across the country, including in Devon, PA.

This action is the latest escalation from the national Jewish movement Never Again working in collaboration with local immigrant justice organization Juntos to demand that Devereux stop detaining migrant children. On October 17th, several dozen protestors from this campaign blocked the main exit to Devereux National Headquarters.

We demand that Devereux cancel its plans to hold 42 migrant children in a detention center in Devon, PA. We further demand an end to corporations profiting off of immigrant detention, the complete defunding of ICE and CBP as overall agencies, and permanent protection for all undocumented immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Devereux claims to be apolitical while it is catering to the political ends of the U.S. government. This was made clear when Devereux’s Leah Yaw told the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), “Should ORR needs dictate, Devereux is ready to grow capacity well beyond the 182 beds [initially opened] during this project’s three-year award cycle.” Devereux cannot remain apolitical when it makes covert promises to the Trump government that it will supply more and more child detention centers should the white nationalists in charge of our immigration policy deem it necessary.

There is no reason that unaccompanied children should be detained. In applying for asylum, they have committed no crime, and for decades, the US did not incarcerate them. Yet in 2019, nearly 70,000 migrant children have been detained so far, including infants and toddlers. While Devereux claims to be offering vital services to traumatized children with “specialized needs,” they are merely perpetuating trauma through a system of violence that has taken these children from their families and holds them indefinitely.

While the guests at Devereux’s 20th-anniversary gala enjoy appetizers and wine, the money they donate enriches an organization that seeks not only to prop up, but expand the current detention-and-deportation regime.  As Jews, we know that people are isolated in secure facilities so the rest of the population can look the other way. Never Again stands with Juntos against private detention and the entire immigration deportation machine. We know that when a government targets one group of people, it is only a matter of time before everyone’s freedom is under attack.

Join us, 6 PM, Saturday 11/16/19, N 8th and Cherry St Philadelphia, PA.

paint attack for willem van spronsen

Submission

The night of July 17 we paintbombed the facade of the Immigration and Citizenship Services building. We aimed for the big logo on the side of the building. We came up with and carried out this action quickly and spontaneously because we felt the urgency of attacking those who enforce borders. We especially felt this in the wake of Willem Van Spronsen’s death while fighting those maintaining concentration camps in the U$A. Acting in remembrance of our dead keeps the fire burning within us. We hope that this action and others add to the struggle against borders, until all borders are destroyed.

RIP Willem Van Spronsen