You may have missed it, but we put out a newsletter a week ago! You can check it out here.
Topics included: Repentance for missions, God’s wrath, Comrade Alyssa, early Quakers – and more!
Anti-Gentrification Direct Actions Zine
Submission
Anti-Gentrification Direct Actions
Philadelphia 2013-2018
Gentrification has been completely changing the city to cater to yuppies, while at the same time erasing the memory and culture of the poor and black and brown people that make up the majority of Philadelphia.
Some might say gentrification is an unstoppable force, a monster that is too far gone and is irreversible in its devastation. Although some of that may be true we don’t want people to forget the struggles of resistance to it or for those struggles to become invisible.
[web zine] [print zine]
The Local Kids – Issue 2
Submission
The Local Kids – Issue 2 – Autumn 2018
A compilation of texts, a contribution to a correspondence between those who desire anarchy and subversion.
It occurs, sometimes, this feeling of being in the right spot. Then someone says or does something that upsets the perceived balance of things, and the moment evaporates. For only a moment it was. And it begs the question; can belonging in a place be part of an anarchist life? Resisting to go with the flow of this society, contradicting hierarchical relationships, refusing to take part in cliches. Not exactly characteristics that go well with the seemingly effortless fitting in that this age of selfies advertises. Feeling estranged, sensing a distance with your surroundings is recurrent. And at times so chronic that leaving becomes a first, necessary step to being present again somewhere (else). But mostly one holds on to a place because besides all that repulses there is still more that attracts. Then the art is to not smother its contradictions in indifference or to smooth them out in illusions of unity, but to turn them in open confrontation based on the proposal for a different, liberated life. And maybe it is in these subversive relationships, that one can find a place.
PDFs on thelocalkids.noblogs.org
Anathema Volume 4 Issue 10
from Anathema
Volume 4 Issue 10 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
Volume 4 Issue 10 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
In this issue:
- Plague Of Western Chauvinism
- Vaughn 17 Trials
- Anti-Colonial October
- What Forest Remains
- What Is Attack?
- What Went Down
- Notice On Police Cars
- Poem Coup Des Lumières
- An Invitation To Desertion
- World News
- What Did You Do Instead Of Voting
Gab Woes Continue: Subpoena from Pennsylvania Attorney General
from Unicorn Riot
Harrisburg, PA – The controversial social network Gab, closely linked with white supremacist and fascist organizers since its launch, has drawn public scrutiny and had hosting difficulties since Robert Bowers, a prolific Gab user, shot and killed 11 people worshipping at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA on October 27. Before the shooting, Bowers also used his account to interact with many prominent figures in the neo-Nazi and “alt-right” hate movements that gravitate to Gab.
Since then, Gab shifted to the domain registrar Epik, LLC, based in Bellevue, Washington, after its previous registrar cancelled services. Gab and its CEO, Andrew Torba, seem to still be dealing with legal troubles regarding the hate speech social media site, which could have implications for the company’s crowdfunding efforts.
Early in the afternoon of Wednesday November 7, Gab’s flagship account inside the service, and @getongab on Twitter, posted a subpoena from Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office. The subpoena, dated Wednesday, was signed by Timothy R. Murphy, Deputy Attorney General at the Bureau of Consumer Protection. It was sent to Epik, which recently announced its relationship with Gab in a November 3 blog post claiming to “Let Freedom Ring,” while claiming “there is a duty to monitor and lightly curate, keeping content within the bounds of the law.” (Internet domain registrars publish records linking IP addresses with domain names. Epik’s CEO, Rob Monster, confirmed in comments below the post his company is only the registrar, and not hosting the site itself, contrary to some media reports.)
The Gab accounts, thought to be managed by proprietor Andrew Torba, boasted that they would defeat the subpoena, an order to collect and preserve all documents and material Epik might have about their Gab account. Torba previously claimed that he was cooperating with federal and state authorities in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh shooting, but a vow to beat the state authorities in court does not portend close cooperation.
Within a few hours both social media accounts quietly deleted the posts, after tagging various right-leaning media like Fox News and the Drudge Report to try to get their attention.
Observers such as Jay McKenzie and Michael E. Hayden archived the social media postings and pointed out that the subpoena directed to Epik, LLC had a “NON-DISCLOSURE STATEMENT“. Epik was “requested to refrain from notifying any person or entity, other than said Respondent, that a subpoena has been issued.”
While this isn’t legally binding, Torba’s choice to post the subpoena likely won’t endear him to the new domain registrar company, which now will have to incur legal expenses to either fight the subpoena or comply with it. Notably, the subpoena also specifies that Pennsylvania should get copies of “all productions already made to other state or federal government bodies concerning Gab.”
Before he deleted his comments, Torba falsely tried to frame the subpoena as a matter pertaining to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which create a “safe harbor” of immunity for Internet publishers. Already well-tested in US courts, Section 230 would likely help Torba defend against possible lawsuits for some types of content posted by Gab users, but this is totally irrelevant to the subpoena itself. The subpoena does not claim any facts about civil liability relevant to Section 230.
By flippantly rejecting the subpoena, Torba may also have damaged his situation with crowdfunding investors, to whom he recently promised he would cooperate with authorities in solicitation materials noted below.
Full text of the Gab subpoena:
Wilmington, DE: Banner Drop for the Vaughn 17
from It’s Going Down
A banner was dropped in Wilmington, DE in solidarity with the Vaughn 17 that read “Prisons don’t keep anyone safe (A) #Vaughn17.” The message was directed to the people of Wilmington, the family and friends of the defendants on trial, the elders of Smyrna 5, supporters, and the staff of the DOJ and DOC who may happen to have looked out the window by the elevators on the 8th floor of the courthouse at 500 N King St during lunch break on the sixth day of trial.
To the defendants, we see you, we love you, and we fight in solidarity with your struggle to overthrow the oppression of the modern day slave plantation that comes in the form of the prison industrial complex.
For more information about the case and ways to support, check out: https://vaughn17support.org
All power to the people!!! Fuck the pigs!!!
-some anarchists
“Out of the Way!” – The movie
Ruby Sanders moved to Philadelphia in the 1960s after escaping loansharks in the plantations of South Carolina with her husband and their first 7 kids. In 2016, after living in her home for 50 years, she was evicted from the house because of gentrification in her neighborhood.
Her, her grandson Speedy, another young man from the neighborhood, Yusuf, and several other neighbors tell us more about how rich white people moving to the neighborhood is transforming their community. They also explain how gentrification is part of all the racist violence their community has been suffering throughout history. From the so called “war on drugs” to police brutality and from mass incarceration to public schools being shut down, this community is being pushed “Out of the Way”.
We have uploaded this video directly to youtube because we want it to be screened and presented anywhere and everywhere people deem appropriate. We want this video to be used as a talking point, but more importantly as an organizational tool.
There are many different factors involved in the gentrification of communities around the world that are all too often not included in discussions around why. This is not an academic or an intellectual perspective on the issue. This is a community based perspective on how communities of color in particular are being criminalized and displaced from their neighborhoods for profit.
Combative Communication along with the community members from Francisville interviewed in the film agreed to put “Out of the Way” online so that people could screen it and use it as a tool to share this experience, motivate communities to organize, and contribute to the fight against gentrification. Please let us know about screenings or organizing efforts in your community. We would love to support how ever we can.
October’s issue of Friendly Fire
from Friendly Fire
Our October issue is out. We’re on time-ish.
O C T O B E R F R I E N D L Y F I R E
SEVERAL INCORRECT THINGS IN THE NEWSLETTER, INCLUDING:
-we’ll continue to meeting at 7 PM (not 7 AM) on Tuesdays
-wrong link for the ordination’s event page! here ya go
Vaughn 17 Court Support
from Twitter
Banner supporting Vaughn Uprising prisoners seen over Christopher Columbus Blvd during morning commute in Philadelphia, PA. Participants in Feb 2017 uprising at Vaughn Correctional Center in Delaware face trials this month thru next yr. Jury selection for 1st trial starts today
On February 1, 2017, prisoners revolted & took over Building C at the maximum security prison in Smyrna, Delaware. 4 prison employees were taken hostage & one died after a police raid retook the facility. Prisoners’ demands included better living conditions & access to educationPrisoners involved in the Vaughn Uprising also cited Trump’s inauguration as one of the reasons for their revolt – they believed the new presidency would inevitably embolden prison officials, whose unions endorsed Trump, to intensify neglect & brutality towards incarcerated ppl
Courthouse doors just opened here in Wilmington, Delaware where jury selection for the first #Vaughn17 trial is scheduled to begin today. Four of the prisoners involved in the uprising – Jarreau Akers, Dwayne Staats, Ramon Shankaras and Deric Forney – make up the 1st trial group
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A Food Not Bombs chapter is providing free breakfast and tea to approximately a dozen supporters of the #Vaughn17 who have gathered outside the courthouse.
Wilmington Police have arrived and are telling Food Not Bombs they can’t serve food on the sidewalk by court without a permit. #Vaughn17 supporters told police a recent federal court ruling means Food Not Bombs is protected First Amendment speech that doesn’t need a permit
Police seem to have backed off ordering the Food Not Bombs table to leave the area by the Wilmington, DE courthouse after reportedly checking with their law department- the officer in charge just apologized to the people that minutes ago he had been ordering to leave.
We have been told that jury selection in the first #Vaughn17 trial is closed to the public, so we are unable to report from inside the courtroom today. The first batch of 4 defendants from the February 1, 2017 prison uprising in Smyrna, Delaware will begin trial on October 22.
Anathema Volume IV Issue IX
from Anathema
Volume 4 Issue 9 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
Volume 4 Issue 9 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
In this issue:
- Hate Crimes at SCI Phoenix
- We All Live Downstream Pt. 2
- What Is Direct Action?
- What Went Down
- “Always Escalate!”
- Against The Cult Of Visibility
- Life’s A Witch And Then You Fly
- Examination: Imagination
- Fireworks Etiquette At Demos
Friendly Fire’s September Newsletter Is (Finally) Out!
from Friendly Fire
The September issue of Friendly Fire is out!
It’s a bit late, and we apologize for that, but perhaps we can use this as a chance to convince you to submit some writing to our blog and/or newsletter?
If you have any piece of writing you’d like to share – whether it be a report-back of a Christian leftist demo, a devotional or theological reflection, or anything related to the vision of Friendly Fire and the Christian Left – feel free to send it in. We want our blog and newsletter to amplify and connect the work of comrades in Christ.
All submissions can be sent to friendlyfireinfo@protonmail.com, as well as any others questions/inquiries.
Banner Drop near Harrisburg: “End Prison Labor, Shut Down Berks”
Comrades in Harrisburg, PA have contacted us and requested that we share this image, with their accompanied text.
We dropped our banner on an overpass near Harrisburg,PA in solidarity with this past month’s prison strike. We want to honor their wishes to keep this issue in the public eye, letting our friends (and enemies) on both sides of the prison walls know that this is struggle will be ongoing,and that it will be at the cutting edge of the radical agenda until the last ashes of the last prison are blown away. We also wanted to make the same connection the striking prisoners did by acknowledging the struggle of the migrant families imprisoned in our own backyard by a proto-fascist regime. One of the three family detention centers in operation, Berks Family Detention Center is a monument to all we find disgusting, so we decided to put up a monument of our own in defiance. We we’re inspired by our comrades in Frederick,MD, and we hope we can inspire even more actions like this.
Fire to the Prisons. Set the Captives Free.
-Concerned Citizens
SCI Chester Prison Strike Banner Drop
Submission
Some anarchists dropped a banner reading “#PRISON STRIKE – FREE ALL PRISONERS” off the parking garage for the casino next to SCI Chester. Timing was good, and there were folks in the yard of the prison when we dropped it. Hopefully people both in the yard and in the dorms facing the banner saw it clearly, and felt some sense of the solidarity we hoped to communicate.
Unfortunately we couldn’t safely get a clear photo of the banner itself after deploying it. But whatever, out target audience was closer.
The PA Dept of Corrections is currently imposing severe restrictions on those it holds captive, including absurd rerouting of all mail through a private corporation in Florida, increased security screening for visitors, and soon, implementing a system where inmates will only have access to e-books after buying devices with which to read them at their own expense.
Considering this, we gotta figure out more creative ways to communicate with people inside while escalating on the outside. Like, actually escalating on the outside.
For rebellion inside and out,
for severe escalation to end prisons,
– some philly anarchists
Anathema Volume 4 Issue 8
from Anathema
Volume 4 Issue 8 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
Volume 4 Issue 8 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
In this issue:
- We All Live Downstream
- The Fight Against Borders Continues
- The Mirage of Economic Prosperity
- What Went Down
- Accident or Attack?
- Companies Profiting from Putting People in Cages
- Knock Down Drag Out Fascists in the Street
- The False Idol of Self Sacrifice
- 7 Theses on Selfies
- A Test of Strength
Prisoner Solidarity Banner
Submission
As a contribution to the international week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners and to the nationwide prison strike a banner was hung on Market Street near 46th Street train station.
Solidarity with anarchist and rebel prisoners! Fire to the Prisons!
