In the following report-back, participants in a march against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Philadelphia reflect on how to move from symbolic protests and top-down organizational models to effective autonomous action. As the conflict between federal mercenaries and the people of the Twin Cities intensifies, others around the country are looking for concrete ways to act in solidarity in order to divide the attention and resources of federal forces. We encourage everyone who participates in demonstrations to show up in affinity groups with concrete plans as to what they hope to accomplish and bold proposals to share with others.
The more agency and initiative each of us brings to our collective activity, the more powerful our movements will be.
On the night of January 23, the day of the general strike in the Twin Cities, a rowdy march against ICE took place in downtown Philadelphia, involving about 300 people. At the conclusion of the march, a couple dozen militants decided to break off and head in the direction of the nearby ICE office. The march organizers—Socialist Alternative—had told the entire crowd at the beginning of the march that they planned to circle City Hall once and then march together to the ICE building.
We had heard about the march just the day before. A small group of us quickly prepared a banner reading “FUCK ICE.” During the march, we carved out a spot for ourselves at the front, despite commands from self-appointed protest marshals to “move to the side” and make more space for their party-branded content.
The march proceeded down a major thoroughfare of the city, the simple “Fuck ICE” banner attracting enthusiastic support from onlookers. Then, strangely, when the crowd was just one block away from the ICE headquarters, the marshals directed everyone to the Federal Detention Center two blocks away. There, the organizers set up a weak sound system and began making speeches to the confused crowd.
At the same time, a member of a competing state socialist faction, the Revolutionary Communists of America, pulled out their own megaphone and started soapboxing to the people around them about the working class in a bid to one-up their competitors. The energy, which had been lively throughout the march, dissipated rapidly.
Someone asked one of the protest marshals why we weren’t converging on the ICE building. “There’s no shortage of targets,” they answered.
This rally was was explicitly organized in solidarity with the general strike in Minneapolis, which itself was a response to the invasion of the city by ICE and the recent murder of Renee Nicole Good. On January 24, the day following the general strike, ICE agents murdered another person in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti.
The usual alphabet soup of state socialists were there. Aside from Socialist Alternative (the main organizers), there were also the Revolutionary Communists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and others, each faction vying for their spot in the limelight with recruitment tables, proselytizing overtures, and promotional literature. They made many speeches about how we need to go beyond symbolic protest and take the next step into direct action against ICE.
But when protesters broke away to engage the nearby ICE office, most of the crowd simply looked on or away. Some jeered, made snide comments, or expressed disdain. Nonetheless, a few were curious or supportive. It is worth noting that, in a march that was probably 95% white, many of those who joined the breakaway march were not white, and specifically young and Black.
As we marched towards the throng of police outside the ICE office, encouraged by one enthusiastic snare drummer’s beats, some in the crowd began to chant “Migra, policia, la misma porqueria!” Someone made some quick remarks about how the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the Philadelphia police were protecting ICE. When someone in the crowd yelled “Fuck 12” in response, we all began chanting “Fuck ICE! Fuck 12!”
It was clear that there were too many police and too few people in the crowd to breach the office, which had been barricaded in anticipation with metal crowd barriers. So after a short while, the group took their exit, flipping off the bike cops.
If nothing else, some of those who were confused about the location of the ICE headquarters now know exactly where it is. Experimenting with the breakaway march as a protest tactic was also a useful exercise in that it demonstrated what a small number of frontliners can do as part of a larger crowd, showing the potential of autonomous direct action within a broader ecology of tactics.
Not all of the state socialists took a paternalistic attitude toward the militants who engaged the ICE headquarters. One of the protest marshals joined us at the end and made a genuine effort to show support and have our backs as we approached the building and the police stationed outside of it. The problem is not the intentions of specific individuals, but rather that the organizational structures of these groups are not oriented towards practical direct action. They remain stuck in the mire of representational, spectacle-based politics.
The class struggle, which necessarily involves a dynamic ecology of different kinds of action, is not the driving motor of organizational development and innovation for these groups. Instead, they filter class struggle through the sieve of each group’s particular brand of state-directed revolution, which the movement managers and wanna-be politicians of each respective faction are trying to sell us. When organizational fetishism is the driving force of a struggle, revolutionists appear as nothing but snake-oil sellers.
As a consequence, the burning need for decisive action is put off indefinitely. Rather than presenting opportunities to disrupt the operation of ruling class infrastructure, militant demonstrations instead become opportunities for selling newspapers, photo-ops, recruitment drives, and ideological competition between various bullhorn-wielding aspiring leaders.
It was heartening to see the federal inmates waving at us and flickering their lights from the inside. It was good to pay them a visit. But there is something very wrong with a march against ICE in which protest marshals direct the crowd away from a building ICE uses as its headquarters. At a certain point, revolutionaries need to make a choice: are you organizing for revolution, or building a political clique?
For those who want to make a revolution against class society, the spectacle of symbolic protest and organizational fetishism is a dead end. The 2020 George Floyd uprising, the Eddie Irizarry rebellion in 2023, and the anti-ICE rebellion in Los Angeles last year show us that there is another way: the path of militant solidarity, mutual aid, and autonomous self-activity and self-organization. The revolt against ICE that is unfolding in Minneapolis is currently the most advanced iteration of this mass historical dynamic within the United States. Rather than looking to the fantasies of the past, we should take our cue from the frontline in Minneapolis and follow their example. We have to fight with strategy, organization, and vision—but nonetheless, we have to make the leap.
Now is the time to get together with those you trust, to call more demonstrations, to organize rapid response networks with your neighbors, to facilitate assemblies, devise plans, experiment with bold tactics, take the initiative, build momentum, stretch the limits of whats possible, and most importantly, embrace every strategy at our disposal for tearing this motherfucker down and building a new, better world, including direct intervention against ICE and all agents of state repression.
See you in the streets!
– Your autonomous comrades across the partisan divide
this is by no means a complete picture of the aftermath of a mid summer call for a Philadelphia game of CAMOVER. This is only what I can verify from seeing and from hearing firsthand from those I trust.
Disabled by paint: 20
Disabled by smash: 8
Pulled down by rope: 6
Etch bath mop: 2
Disabled by climbing up with an impact driver, socket set, and orange vest: 1
Let’s hear it for the rowdies, the rebels, creatives, party kids, criminals, insurrectos, and faggots!! Men aren’t allowed to look at us bitch! Especially not thru a lens fuck that !
Separate from results, we are taking the opportunity to formalize a call for a Winter Games 2026!!!! Starting as the first snow falls on Sunday, and ending mid April, we are inviting anyone reading to renew and sharpen an anti-tech, anti surveillance tendency thru attack, study and experimentation. Camover is the main event, but what else can be done in the resultant terrain of weakened surveillance? We invite you to think long, to eat well, and to do good works this winter.
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
According to organizers, there were 2,700 No Kings rallies across the country on Saturday, with over 7 million coming out showing their opposition to Donald Trump and the actions since he returned to the White House. The protests were organized by a coalition of progressive and labor groups, including the 50501 Movement and Indivisible. The “No Kings” reference is in regards to the Trump administration’s authoritarian policies and executive overreach that is akin to that of a monarch. While most of the rallies were uneventful, there were some that saw opposition coming from Trump supporters, either lone antagonists or organized MAGA groups coming out to counter protest.
No Kings rallies in Colorado, Ohio, Kentucky, California, South Carolina, Oregon, Florida, Virginia, and Texas saw confrontations by individuals and groups associated with MAGA that resulted in approximately 22 arrests. There have not been any reports of arrests of anyone that participated in the rallies themselves.
In Wilkes-Barre, PA, a driver driving a red Jeep decorated with Trump flags allegedly flashed a gun at protesters. Police promptly arrested 52 year-old Michael Paul Kolarik from Scranton and charged him with counts of terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault and disorderly conduct. He bonded out on $50,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 5. No one was hurt and no shots were fired.
For his part, Donald Trump responded to the anti-Trump rallies with a 19-second AI-generated video posted on his Truth Social account, depicting him wearing a crown in a fighter jet labeled “King Trump” and dropping what appears to be feces on protesters. The video featured the song “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins playing in the background, which prompted Loggins to demand his recording be removed from the video. “I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us,” Loggins said in a statement. “Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together. We’re all Americans, and we’re all patriotic. There is no ‘us and them’ – that’s not who we are, nor is it what we should be. It’s all of us. We’re in this together, and it is my hope that we can embrace music as a way of celebrating and uniting each and every one of us.”
Philly ABC held our 25th Anniversary Running Down the Walls (RDTW) on Sunday, September 15th 2024 in solidarity with political prisoners everywhere and Palestinians resisting genocide in Gaza, the biggest prison on earth. This was, to our knowledge, the largest RDTW ever, with 398 comrades on sneakers, rollerblades, and weelchairs, multiple dogs, and a kitten joining us at FDR Park. More comrades participated from within prison walls, including Toby Shone and other prisoners at HMP Garth in the UK, Marius Mason and other prisoners at FMC Fort Worth, Jesse (Tall Can) Cannon at the Sierra Conservation Center, and Jerome Coffey at SCI Pine Grove. We’re thrilled to announce that in addition to being the most well-attended, this RDTW was also the most financially successful: we raised $41,243! All of the proceeds have now been disbursed to the Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF) Warchest and Palestinian mutual aid projects.
The morning began with scholar, facilitator, and yoga teacher Sheena Sood leading us in a warm-up in the grassy area in front of the Boathouse Pavilion. Emceeing the rest of the event was YahNé Ndgo of Homegrown Maroons, the Annual Maroon Legacy Prisoners’ Families Brunch, the Care Space Project, and the Black Alliance for Peace. YahNé got the 5k going in three waves―fast, medium, and leisurely―while supporters lined the path to cheer and hand out water. After reaching the finish line, participants visited tables representing Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Philly chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,Solidarity Food Not Bombs, the Philly Socialist Rifle Association, and others. Black Liberation Army militant and ABCF co-founder Ojore Lutalo was also present to share his most recent art.
Once everyone returned, we gathered to listen to Abu Ali from Samidoun speak movingly about the importance of supporting prisoners and the connections between resistance at home and in the tunnels. Other speakers followed, including Indigo from Philly Queers for Palestine and a representative from Casey Goonan’s support group. We also read solidarity statements sent by imprisoned comrades Xinachtli, Marius Mason, Oso Blanco, Toby Shone, and Jesse Cannon.
All participants received the official event t-shirt. This year we also printed two limited edition shirts in solidarity with Gaza and commemorating the 25th anniversary of RDTW. The remaining stock of all the designs are still for sale on our website.
Ordinarily, we split profits evenly between the ABCF Warchest and a different political prisoner or organization each year. This year, for the first time, we did not designate a specific co-recipient before the event. Early in our planning, we corresponded with people in Cairo who facilitated evacuations from Gaza, but then Israel seized and closed the Rafah Crossing, making this work impossible. Acknowledging that the situation would likely continue to be fluid and unpredictable, we decided to rally simply for “mutual aid in Gaza” and choose specific co-recipients based on the emerging reality on the ground. Given the strength of our fundraising and the urgency of the situation in Palestine, we ultimately decided to send equal amounts to the ABCF Warchest and four carefully selected Palestinian mutual aid organizations: Thamra, the Sameer Project, the Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment, and the Sanabel Team.
Thamra promotes food sovereignty in Northern Gaza through restoring water access, building urban food gardens, and providing fresh produce. It was created by farmer Yousef Abu Ra- bea, whose family has cultivated straw- berries in Beit Lahia for generations, and photographer Leena Almadhoun. Early in the escalation of the genocide, Yousef managed to hastily collect seeds and seedlings from his family farm before evacuating amidst heavy IDF shelling. Upon his return, he scavenged dried-out peppers and eggplants from the ruins. He and his brothers began planting anew in rooftop containers, and in the land between their home and a destroyed kindergarten. Once they could provide fresh produce for their family and surrounding community, they began traveling across Northern Gaza, sharing food, seeds, and water, and creating new gardens. On Octo- ber 22nd ― shortly after Philly ABC learned of Yousef and Leena’s work but before we were able to make contact with them ― we learned that Yousef was martyred alongside another team member, Zakaria Abu Sultan, by a targeted IDF airstrike. Their work is now being continued by the organization Yousef created. We extend our support and solidarity to Thamra in Yousef and Zakaria’s memory.
The Sameer Project is a grassroots aid organization led by four Palestinians in the diaspora. Originating as an informal mutual aid network within an extended Palestinian family, it expanded to coordinate shelter and medical aid in central and South Gaza, and food, water, diapers, and medical aid in north Gaza. We are supporting their recent initiative, the Refaat Alareer Camp, which provides shelter and medical care in central Gaza for perinatal and neonatal people, children with disabilities, and adults with special needs and mobility issues, war injuries, and chronic diseases. The Refaat Alareer Camp is named after the professor, writer, and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers, whose last prophetic poem written to his daughter Shaimaa, “If I Must Die,” has become a touchstone of Palestinian resilience both in Gaza and internationally. In December 2023, after months of death threats, Refaat was martyred in a targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, sister, and four of his nephews. In April 2024, after being displaced from their home in Shujayya, Shaimaa was martyred alongside her husband and two month-old son in an Israeli airstrike. In September 2025, the Refaat Alareer Camp was targeted by the IDF and had to be relocated. On April 6th 2025, the IDF assigned a “red zone” to the area surrounding the new camp, and it was displaced a second time. In June 2025, camp manager Mosab was martyred. We extend our support and solidarity to the Sameer Team in the memory of Refaat Alareer, Shaimaa, and Mosab, and in the spirit of Alareer’s final printed words: “If I must die, / you must live.”
Since July 2024, the Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment has faced evacuation orders and the closure of humanitarian corridors to provide food, water, medical care, and other necessities to 300 residents requiring urgent perinatal care in Gaza. It is expanding to provide the same level of support to 1000 residents with disabilities and urgent medical needs. OOB is an international organization that links on-the-ground mutual aid projects with international support. The Family Encampment is coordinated by PAL Humanity, two Palestinian doctors and sisters who provide field visits and distribute medical aid; Palestinian dentist Dr. Zayn Eldeen, who distributes infant formula and hot meals; and Palestinian cook Amani Alkahlout, who cooks for hundreds of families in Rafah and runs supply deliveries.
The Sanabel Team is a Palestinian-led mutual aid initiative launched in 2018 to help families in need in Khan Yunis. It has since expanded to provide food, clean water, and basic needs to families displaced internally in Gaza and externally to Egypt. The Gaza team continues to provide daily hot meals despite constant threat of violence and repeated displacement. On at least one occasion (October 7th 2024), the team has been forced to flee their mobile kitchen under Israeli bombardment. On May 27th 2024, Sanabel worker and video editor Muhammad was martyred during the Israeli bombing of a refugee camp that killed 44 other people and wounded more than 200, most of them women and children. Muhammad was 27. We extend our support and solidarity to Sanabel in Muhammad’s memory.
The Anarchist Black Cross Federation Warchest was established in 1994 through coordination between the ABCF and political prisoners Ojore Lutalo, Sundiata Acoli and Sekou Odinga. It covers monthly stipends to political prisoners and prisoners of war with insufficient other sources of support. It also provides one-time grants in emergency situations and when prisoners are released. Many of its recipients are movement elders facing lengthy sentences for significant work in support of Black liberation, decolonial, ecological, and anarchist movements. Longer-term prisoners tend to be forgotten over time―indeed, this is one of the primary goals of their incarceration. By staying in dialogue with these comrades and making sure they remain materially supported, the ABCF not only ensures we don’t leave behind those who’ve given the most for our struggles, it also ensures that their voices are at the center of how we evolve our movements into the future. Please read more about the current Warchest recipients―14 friends and comrades most of whom have spent decades in prison for their beliefs or actions for freedom, autonomy and justice―using the link above. Get involved in our work keeping connections with those locked up by sending them mail or signing up for our announcement list.
Disbursing funds took longer than usual this year due both to the extreme complexity of making sure people on the ground in Gaza would actually receive the funds — including the martyring of intended recipients by the IDF before we could get funds to them — and also the sudden stroke that afflicted our fiscal sponsor, Daryle Lamont Jenkins. A full accounting of money in and out is listed in the tables below.
Proceeds
Event registrations and day of shirt sales
$16,418
Matching donations
$23,250
Post-event shirt sales
$1,575
Total
$41,243
Costs
Wholesale participant t-shirts
$2,440
Benevity (matching program) fee
$779.76
Fiscal sponsorship fee
$400
Total Costs
$3,619.76
Subtotal to disburse
$37,623.24
Beneficiary disbursements
Thamra
$7,575
Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment
$7,575
The Sameer Project
$7,575
The Sanabel Team (+$221 Givebutter fees)
$7,343.24
ABCF Warchest
$7,555
Total
$37,623.24
We send you this reportback with thanks for your support for Philly’s 2024 RDTW and celebration of its success, but also with ongoing concern. The struggle continues both for Gazans facing an ever-intensifying genocide, and for our longtime comrades behind bars, some of whom have now been imprisoned for over 50 years. Let’s stay committed to these interlinked struggles, and continue supporting our comrades everywhere.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
On the night of July 22 autonomous actors gathered in Center City to express their rage against borders. They took the streets. They marched for many blocks. Then they dispersed. Propaganda was distributed, trash got thrown onto the floor, some walls got themselves painted, and a police cruiser got itself vandalized. No arrests were made.
This demonstration was partly a response to the protests that have taken place over the last two years. We hope it showed that a protest may be called in the middle of the city in a way where the police cannot respond adequately. All that needs to be done is for the invitation to be shared in channels that are not being actively monitored by the police.
Borders will always be a way of controlling an inequitable distribution of capital, labor, and commodities. Borders will always be cruel and inhumane regardless of whether there’s a white or black president in charge. Peace under a state that is snatching people out of their homes and streets and sending them to concentration camps is another way of saying “collaboration”. Peaceful “resistance” in these conditions is little more than moral posturing.
No one is coming to save us. The time to act is now.
Sunbury, PA – Two women from Massachusetts and several dozen supporters from around the country traveled to a small central Pennsylvania town for the first major hearing in a felony case stemming from their arrest last November. The ‘Northumberland 2’ – Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano – face a litany of PA state charges after being accused of an October 18-19, 2024 break-in at the Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. fur farm in which 683 mink were released from their pens and breeding records were destroyed.
Monday’s hearing saw prosecutors drop the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charge leveled against both activists from Massachusetts. While each still face over a dozen counts and possibly decades in prison, their attorneys and supporters appeared cautiously optimistic as the state appeared to be holding a very weak hand when forced to show its cards.
“We hope the court sees through the prosecution’s gross overcharging of defendants accused of releasing animals who, with absolute certainty, would have suffered extreme torture and unconscionable death,” said Chris Carraway, a staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, which represents defendant Cara Mitrano. Mitrano is also being represented by Harrisburg attorney Natalie Burston; Celeste Legere is represented by Sunbury criminal defense lawyer Jim Best.
Pennsylvania State Police and Northumberland County District Attorney Mike O’Donnell initially charged Legere and Mitrano with RICO, Ecoterrorism, Agricultural Vandalism, Criminal Mischief, Theft, Burglary, Loitering and Prowling at Nighttime, Accidents Involving Damage to Attended Vehicle or Property, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Cruelty to Animals, Agricultural Trespassing on Posted Land, and Depositing Waste on a Highway — as well as Conspiracy counts related to the Ecoterrorism, Agricultural Vandalism and Burglary charges.
Released on bond in November after their October 19 arrest, Monday was the first chance Legere and Mitrano had to challenge the allegations against them in court.
In February, defense attorneys filed an omnibus motion for habeas corpus (‘show me the body’ in Latin) – arguing that the prosecution didn’t have enough evidence to go to trial. This meant District Attorney O’Donnell had to call several witnesses and present evidence to show how much substance there was to the case against the alleged mink liberators.
“There was very little that was clarified today,” defense attorney Carraway told Unicorn Riot. “And that’s because there’s just very little there.”
Before calling any witnesses, DA O’Donnell quietly moved to dismiss the RICO charge, one of the more serious elements in the case. At the same time O’Donnell’s office added a new count of Aggravated Animal Cruelty, arguing that the defendants were responsible for the deaths of some mink the Stahls say died after release — mink raised in fur farms are usually killed for their pelts before they turn one year old.)
Legere and Mitrano each still face one criminal count of Ecoterrorism — under the Pennsylvania state law, not the similar federal statute.) A line of questioning by defense attorneys Jim Best and Natalie Burston seemed to poke holes in this charge, as the subsection charged in this case requires that an “intent to intimidate” be proven on top of the underlying crime. The prosecution was unable to show any communication between the defendants and the victims in this case, and no graffiti, leaflets or manifestos were found at the fur farm.
[Note: ‘Ecoterrorism‘ is a relatively new concept pushed into law shortly after 9/11 by industries that harm animals and/or the environment, eager to criminalize effective anti-corporate activism after the mass protests of the 1990s. Read ‘Green Is the New Red‘ by journalist Will Potter to learn more.]
Witness Testimony: Mark and John Stahl
The first two witnesses in the case were Mark and John Stahl of the Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. fur farm, which is located on PA State Route 890 just a few miles from the courthouse. The Stahl ranch is the last mink fur facility in Pennsylvania (the fur industry has seen a dramatic decline in recent years, due to lower demand, COVID-19 and opposition from animal rights and animal liberation activists.) It was founded in 1955 and currently has 7 employees with an annual revenue of $298,790, according to business directory information.
Mark Stahl (top), April Stahl (middle) and John Stahl (bottom) leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
The Stahl fur farm is estimated to have 21,000 mink on site at any given time, according to testimony by Mark Stahl, and kills some thousands of mink to “harvest” their pelts every year. As per industry norms, mink are killed either by gas, electrocution, being beaten to death or having their necks snapped. Banned in 22 countries but not in the USA, fur farms confine mink — semi-solitary aquatic predators who roam miles in a day in the wild — to crowded rows of small, often unhygienic cages not much larger than the size of their body. Caged mink routinely injure themselves by fighting with each other or biting and scratching on their cages until they bleed and their teeth and claws break.
The Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
The Stahl mink ranch was listed online for sale onlinein December, less than two months after the break-in that set 683 mink free which Legere and Mitrano are accused of. A spokesperson for the Stahl business insisted that “the decision to list the property was not influenced by these attacks“; another animal liberation direct action successfully targeted the facility in September 2023, setting free between 6,000 and 8,000 mink; no charges have been filed in that incident. A security camera system was only installed after the 2023 raid, according to 2024 reporting by PennLive.
The Richard H. Stahl & Sons, Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
Footage from the fur farm’s security cameras was supposed to be shown at the evidentiary hearing on Monday, but DA O’Donnell couldn’t get the file to play. Judge Paige Rosini instead agreed to watch the video before ruling on the motion by the defense. Based on court proceedings referring to the video, it is understood to show, but not identify, two individuals entering the Stahl & Sons property, opening hundreds of mink cages and destroying breeding cards attached to most or all of the cages in the facility.
According to Mark Stahl, the destruction of “90 percent” of the fur farm’s genetic cards caused a financial loss at a scale beyond the 683 released mink, because the business relies on these records to cultivate a “herd” with more profitable pelt traits, and because a live mink has less sale value without its breeding information. He repeatedly said “the set is broken” when asked about the destroyed records – “the most value is when a whole ‘set’ – mink, cage, and card – is intact. It’s just salvage value without that.”
Mark Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
Mark Stahl testified that he rushed to the fur farm in the early hours of October 19 after being alerted by “our IT security guy” that an alert had gone off. Upon arriving he looked for holes in the fence, anticipating that the ranch had been breached in a similar fashion to the 2023 raid. He explained that the night of the September 2023 mink release, there had been a concert at a nearby winery with lots of cars parking on the road, and that he believed the mink liberators from that incident parked amongst concertgoers to cover their tracks.
No fence holes were found, but Stahl said he quickly noticed the ranch’s east gate was “swung wide open” and that no lock was on the gate. No lock was ever recovered from the scene. Pressed by the defense if he remembered that the gate was definitely locked before the incident, Mark Stahl admitted he didn’t remember for certain.
Mark Stahl claims that his family’s business suffered $146,000 in total damages from the direct action on October 18-19, 2024: a “primary loss” of “around $47,000” from the missing mink and destroyed genetic cards and hiring people to catch loose mink, a “secondary loss” of “$2,100” in reduced profits from “fur quality of mink that were recovered alive and harvested later” and “tertiary expenses” of “around $111,000 calculated over about 8 years” from “disruption to herd value” due to the destruction of so many genetic cards and from some minks’ medical/breeding status being contaminated while roaming free. Asked by Cara Mitrano’s attorney Natalie Burston how he arrived at this figure, he said “from experience.”
Mark Stahl told Celeste Legere’s attorney Jim Best that he made an insurance claim to Farmers Mutual but hadn’t yet collected — “we’re still in negotiations” — and said the Stahls were demanding an insurance payout of “$160,000 for both instances” — the other being the September 2023 mink release, which Legere and Mitrano are not charged in.
Mark Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
“There is quite a bit of legal protection [for animal industry businesses targeted by activists] but enforcement of those laws and correct prosecution has not seemed to have happened lately.”
Mark Stahl towards the end of his testimony at the July 21, 2025 evidentiary hearing
John and April Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
Mark Stahl’s younger brother John Stahl is the official owner of the family business. John Stahl testified that after he got a security alert on his phone around 12:45 a.m. on October 19, he and his wife April Stahl quickly drove towards the farm, but stopped on a property bordering the fur farm where they saw a Subaru parked by the road. He said he parked immediately behind the Subaru and got out to confront the driver to see why there were there, but then had to run to get back in his car because he forgot to put it in park and it was rolling away.
The Subaru then made a three-point turn in order to leave. John Stahl had testified that he parked in such a way that the Subaru would have had to either hit his car to leave or drive into a ditch. He later contradicted himself, claiming he wasn’t actually blocking the Subaru from leaving–“they could have gone around me” — before later admitting that he had deliberately maneuvered his vehicle so that the Subaru couldn’t leave the area without striking him.
Burston asked John Stahl about the collision with the Subaru, which is the basis for some of the charges in the case — Accidents Involving Damage to Attended Vehicle or Property and Recklessly Endangering Another Person. Under cross-examination he conceded that when he moved to trap the Subaru it wasn’t parked on his property and that he himself didn’t have the property owner’s permission to be there.
The Stahl couple then pursued the Subaru down surrounding roads before stopping to pick up clothes and other items they claimed were thrown out the fleeing vehicle’s windows. The Subaru was later pulled over by a local cop who arrested Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano before handing them over to Pennsylvania State Police.
John Stahl said his F took some damage from being hit by the Subaru but remained operable afterwards. He testified under cross-examination that neither he nor his wife April were injured or sought medical treatment and that he wasn’t wearing a seat belt that night. He no longer drives the vehicle after selling or trading it at a $1,500 value, and reported the damage to authorities but never submitted an insurance claim, the court heard.
Pictures taken by April Stahl during her husband’s vigilante confrontation with the Subaru were entered into evidence. They show the driver’s side of the Subaru and a side profile of the driver, which the defense did not disagree was Celeste Legere. April Stahl was called to testify as a witness at Monday’s evidentiary hearing but ended up not taking the stand at the last minute for reasons unclear.
April Stahl leaving Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano’s bail hearing on November 4, 2024.
Mark and John Stahl also mentioned that both the October 2024 incident Legere and Mitrano are accused of and a September 2023 release of 6-8,000 mink from their farm were claimed in Animal Liberation Front (ALF) press releases. The Stahls admitted under cross-examination that they couldn’t tie the ALF or any of its websites or publications to either of the defendants, and said they only knew about the ALF after reading about it in the news.
Witness Testimony: State Troopers Cody Fischer and Jacob Hook
Two Pennsylvania State Troopers testified about evidence they collected after Legere and Mitrano’s arrest. Notably, neither mentioned or knew of any fingerprints, shoe prints, DNA or other forensic evidence collected at the Stahl’s fur farm after the incident.
State Trooper Cody Fischer briefly testified to arresting Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano after they were pulled over by Ralpho Township Police. Fischer said that the defendants had a backpack, a purse and a map with “directions in and out of the fur farm” with them at time of arrest.
The rest of the testimony came from State Trooper Jacob Hook of the PSP Criminal Investigations Unit, who offered an ample serving of speculative opinion with a few actual hard facts mixed in. An initial affidavit by Hook — the foundation for the case — made lurid mention of so-called “anarchist propaganda” found in the Subaru, indicating a desire to criminalize the defendants’ political associations. Hook’s affidavit also made sure to mention stickers with anti-police messages on them as among the evidence collected.
When asked by defense counsel to clarify what counted as “anarchist propaganda,” Hook said he used that term to describe 4 items – 3 “online privacy… manuals” — one about using a burner phone, one about Virtual Private Networks and one about the Tor Browser).
The 4th evidence item Hook cited as “anarchist propaganda” was as a notebook with handwritten notes that seemed to be from a ‘Know Your Rights’ seminar encouraging radical activists to avoid speaking with police. Hook conceded upon cross-examination that the privacy literature was not “anarchist-specific” and that he didn’t know whose handwriting was on the notebook.
Natalie Burston: “Regarding anarchist propaganda, what’s your history of investigating anarchist groups?”
PA State Trooper Jacob Hook: “This would be my first.”
Despite DA O’Donnell dismissing the RICO charge, Hook continued to insist that an unknown criminal organization was tied to the defendants, because Legere and Mitrano had a support network that they accessed upon arrest.
Hook’s testimony repeated claims from his affidavit that jail phone calls in which the defendants were “promised” bail money actually meant that they had been paid in advance to commit the alleged acts. A portion of a recording of one of Legere’s calls from jail – that Hook referred to as proving this theory – was played in court. On the clip, Legere was heard asking friends for bail money.
Jim Best [Attorney for Celeste Legere]: “None of the [jail phone] recordings of Legere reveal any discussion of crimes or conspiracy to commit crimes?”
State Trooper Jacob Hook: “Legere said bail ‘was $150,000’ and that [she] ‘was already promised $50,000, which means that [she] was promised $50,000 bail before the crime.”
Best: “Would you agree that if someone would have promised to assist Legere in making bail, that’s not a crime?”
Hook: “Someone’s not promised bail money if they’re not gonna commit a crime.”
Trooper Hook also cited the defendants contacting people offering jail support while they were in jail – a routine part of many protest movements – as itself proof of a larger criminal enterprise because “they were talking to people who referred to themselves as jail support and in all my years in law enforcement I’ve never heard anyone described as jail support.” — Hook told the court that he’s been a State Trooper for 5 years.
Northumberland County District Attorney Mike O’Donnell: “Anything of significance that you remember from the phone calls, anything that would make you think this was an organized activity?”
Hook: “they were talking to people who referred to themselves as jail support and in my years in law enforcement I’ve never heard anyone described as jail support.
Natalie Burston [Attorney for Cara Mitrano]: “Listening to the calls, you said you believed there could have been an organization or larger group, could you identify who leads it?”
Hook: “No.”
Burston: “Could you tell if this organization or larger group was part of the jail support calls?”
Hook: “For somebody to be answering the phone as jail support, it has to be part of some larger group.”
Burston: “Did Mitrano reference any crime [on the calls]?”
Hook: “No.”
Burston: “Did she mention bail?”
Hook: “It was brought up.”
Jim Best [Attorney for Celeste Legere]: “None of the recordings of Legere reveal any discussion of crimes or conspiracy to commit crimes?”
Hook: “The clip that the DA referred to… Legere said bail ‘was $150,000’ and that [she] ‘was already promised $50,000’ which means that [she] was promised $50,000 bail before the crime.”
Best: “Would you agree that if someone would have promised to assist Legere in making bail, that’s not a crime?”
Hook: “Someone’s not promised bail money if they’re not gonna commit a crime.”
Hook also described physical evidence that he collected the day after Legere and Mitrano’s arrest. Items found in the Subaru reportedly included headlamps, plastic crowbars, walkie talkies, and a Massachusetts E-ZPass. One smart phone was recovered and analyzed – Hook told the DA “nothing came back from it, I believe their primary phones were not with them.”
The fact that the defendants were driving a borrowed car was also cited by Hook as evidence of a criminal organization – “clearly there’s some kind of network.” Hook said he did contact the owner of the Subaru but did not try to ascertain whether items found in the vehicle belonged to the vehicle’s owner or the defendants.
Hook also testified that accessing the car’s navigation computer turned up an “address of interest” – one of the collective houses in Massachusetts where the defendants have lived. Legere and Mitrano’s bond hearing in November featured DA O’Donnell demanding to know the names and political affiliations of people living at collective houses the defendants resided at, and insisted on sensationally referring to the homes with several roommates as “anarchist compounds.”
What’s Next?
After hearing from the four prosecution witnesses, the hearing quickly wrapped up after some exhibits were officially entered into evidence. The defense didn’t call any witnesses. Both sides have 30 days to file briefs and a ruling by Judge Paige Rosini on the defense’s motion is expected, roughly, sometime in the next two months. Judge Rosini’s ruling could in theory throw out the case entirely, or allow it to continue with the same list of charges or with some of the charges thrown out for lack of evidence.
“Be scared – that’s the message the prosecution wants to send,” attorney Carraway told Unicorn Riot. “They’re going to call someone who’s accused of a nonviolent act a terrorist to scare people away from activism in general. The message people should take away from this is to have tenacity and know that there is support for people going through the criminal process, and to not be scared.”
Philadelphia, PA — A working class uprising continued through Fourth of July celebration week in the “poorest big city” in the United States. Jammed locks at health centers, opened fire hydrants, slashed tires, blocked trucks, and blocked access to work sites were just a few allegations brought by City Solicitor Renee Garcia in a recent press conference. Three injunctions have been filed that require a limited number of essential workers to return to work and a third aims to stop “unlawful activity” by union members who are striking for better pay and benefits. Despite court orders, the city had received numerous reports of noncompliance, according to Garcia, “and they have not stopped.”
“At one location where we had employees locked inside, [striking workers] shut off the water from the outside and then parked their car over the valve [to prevent it being turned back on]. It’s not legal activity… Just two hours ago, they breached the fence, they came in and started taking trash from dumpsters and compactors and throwing it on the floor.”
Philadelphia City Solicitor Renee Garcia, July 2, 2025
Meanwhile, trash continues to pile up around the city.
Failed contract negotiations have led nearly 10,000 members of AFSCME District Council 33 (DC33), the union representing blue-collar Philadelphia city workers, to walk off the job.
DC33 represents an array of city service workers including librarians, sanitation, the water department, 911 emergency dispatch, school crossing guards, airport maintenance, and street maintenance.
Heaps of uncollected garbage (recently christened as “Parker Piles”) seen along South Street included flyers of Philly sports mascots Gritty (L) and the Philly Phanatic (R) encouraging residents to call the Mayor’s office
The historic strike by the largest working-class municipal union in Philly is the first of its kind in nearly 40 years. Trash pick-ups, street repairs, and other city services ground to a halt overnight.
Picket lines have been active throughout the city since July 1. Sanitation sites and public libraries have reportedly been chained and locked to prevent scabs – non-union workers brought in to replace strikers – from breaking union picket lines. The official Free Library of Philadelphia website listed over forty locations closed with “work stoppage” as the reason.
Striking DC33 workers rally outside the Philadelphia Free Library’s flagship Parkway branch on July 2, 2025.
Video from NBC10 shows a tense moment from Tuesday, July 1 when management at the Department of Sanitation in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood tried to enter the Sanitation Convenience Center while union members confront the person. “We’re on strike, man, you know the rules. We not moving nothing… and that’s what it is. Respectfully…” The clash lasted a few moments before management was turned away and picketers locked the gate shut. “Tell that to the Mayor. It’s the Mayor’s fault, not ours. We’re on strike… and that’s what we’re gonna do until we get a fair contract.”
In a conjuring of C.L.R James’ notion of “proletarian self-activity,” workers throughout the city have taken matters into their own hands, leading to at least two arrests.
On the 3900 block of Ford Road, union worker Carnell Wilder, 59, was arrested in connection to an incident involving a Philadelphia Gas Works employee. Wilder allegedly approached the PGW worker, who was operating a digger loader and asked “why aren’t you striking?” before proceeding to deflate one of the tires with a knife, according to unverified police claims reported in corporate media. Wilder was arrested and transported to a medical center for hand injuries.
The following day, July 2, Jeanette Coppinger, a librarian assistant and union member, was arrested after allegedly blocking the entrance to the Northeast Regional Library on Cottman Avenue. Local news reported that a sheriff’s deputy read the injunction against blocking entry during the picket, but Coppinger refused to move. In court, Coppinger affirmed that she willfully violated the order “to make a statement.”
Even the city medical examiners have walked out. City attorneys complained “cooled storage for dead bodies is getting crowded, and there is a ‘backlog’ of cadavers that need to be examined in Philadelphia’s morgue that has increased due to the strike.”
A judge agreed, “[it] creates a clear and present danger or threat to the health, safety or welfare of the public,” and ordered some staff to “cross any picket lines established by Defendants or any other person if necessary to complete the full, faithful, and proper performance of their duties of employment for the City.”
Union City Workers’ Wages Well Below Local “Living Wage”
DC33 is the lowest paid of Philly’s four municipal unions and the only municipal union with majority-Black membership, the Philadelphia Inquirer previously reported. According to a recent report by NBC10, sanitation workers in Philadelphia earn the lowest salary of any major city in the US; they typically earn between $18-20 an hour. A living wage in Philadelphia County for a family with one child stands closer to $38.60, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator.
DC33 is currently asking for a 5% increases over each of the next four years; the city offered 2.75%, 3% and again 3% over three years, according to a July 3 Billy Penn report.
On day one of the strike in front of the Parkway Central Library at 1901 Vine Street, one union member carried her child while admonishing the current pay rate as “not enough to even pay for diapers.”
This isn’t the first time Mayor Cherelle Parker, the first Black woman elected mayor of Philadelphia, has faced organized community resistance.
Last year, Parker’s unpopular push to gentrify Chinatown with a 76ers stadium proposal was a disaster for the city, as she spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars trying to convince her constituents that selling out Chinatown with a new stadium was a good idea. Chinatown residents and their allies rose to “Save Chinatown,” clashing with the mayor at press conferences, city council hearings and outside of City Hall. Despite heroic efforts from the Chinatown community, the stadium deal was approved last December. However, 76ers management reversed their decision with the city, humiliating the Parker administration.
Mayor Parker is again facing backlash after claiming that the city cannot afford the union’s proposal. Video is circulating on social media from 2021, where Parker is seen giving an impassioned speech in support of fair wages for DC33 and even quotes James Baldwin, “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do!”
Meanwhile, Parker created 16 new positions within her administration that offer six figure salaries. Parker, herself, enjoys a 9% salary increase that was carried through during the last month of the previous administration. Last year, she received an additional 3.1% Cost of Living Adjustment bringing her salary to $269,708.
In Philly, the average sanitation worker makes between $39,000-42,000/year. A 5% increase, the union’s current demand, would bring that number up by about $2,100/year, on average. As negotiations continue, the Mayor demanded that “we must restore order before bargaining.” DC33 responded: “Order isn’t the issue—poverty pay is.”
No deal was on the table by the time July 4 approached, where the Wawa convenience store chain hosts its annual music festival celebration called Made in America.
In solidarity with the workers, LL Cool J announced that he would no longer be headlining the Fourth of July event. “I understand there’s a lot going on in Philadelphia right now, and you know, I never, ever, ever want to disappoint my fans, and especially in Philadelphia,” he said in a video on social media. “Y’all mean too much to me, but there’s absolutely no way that I could perform, cross a picket line and pick up money when I know that people are out there fighting for a living wage. I’m not doing that, you know?”
At 2 p.m., the union organized a picket line directly outside of the festival’s entrance, near the Free Library on 1901 Parkway. Scabby – a cartoonish inflatable rat used to shame union-busting employers – made an appearance while hundreds of picketers and their supporters gathered. Union members, a labor historian and even a small band playing old union hymns shared time on the mic.
By around 3:20 p.m., another performer and Philly native, Jazmine Sullivan, expressed her solidarity with the workers and refused to cross the picket line to perform. Her Instagram story read, “In this life we are only measured by how we uphold our morals and standards, by what we choose to fight for through participation or protest. Today I choose not to perform at the Wawa Welcome America concert and stand with Philly’s DC33 until the city and union find a way to bring fair living wages to our working class. I love my city and I believe in you. Hopefully we will get to celebrate when things are better.”
As uncollected trash keeps piling up, strikers with @afscme33 are encouraging supporters to keep contacting Cherelle Parker’s office to help apply pressure to agree to an 8 percent raise for garbage collectors & other essential workers who often struggle to make ends meet. pic.twitter.com/TL3KHdcA0U
The historical significance of a sanitation worker strike in the U.S. cannot be overstated. The 1,300-strong sanitation strike in Memphis, Tennessee, inspired Martin Luther King to give his 1968, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. “Don’t let anybody tell you to go back on the job and paternalistically say, ‘Now, you are my men and I’m going to do the right thing for you. Just come on back on the job.’ Don’t go back on the job until the demands are met. Never forget that freedom is not something that is voluntarily given by the oppressor. It is something that must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“The person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant. All labor has dignity.”
Martin Luther King Jr., March 18, 1968
Standing with members of the sanitation unit on July 6, Greg Boulware, president of AFSCME DC33, strengthened the resolve of the strikers.
“We see scales, charts and graphs all over the country that are highlighting how far below the men and women who work in the City of Philadelphia are living below the living wage scale. That has to change … I don’t care how many SCABS they get to try to do our work, they can’t do the work that District Council 33 does.”
Greg Boulware, President, AFSCME District Council 33
On Monday, July 7 – the seventh day of the strike – three activists from the environmentalist Sunrise Movement had a “Special Delivery” for Mayor Parker. Inside City Hall, overflowing trash bags were dragged in front of room 185. The bags carried a written message, “MEET DC33 DEMANDS.” A sit-in had begun.
According to a Sunrise Movement Instagram post, “we picked up garbage from Piccoli Playground in North Philly, one of the mayor’s temporary dumpsites where trash continues to pile up and put us at risk.” The three were quickly arrested. One yelled, “Workers deserve dignity! Cherelle, pay your workers!” All three were released later that evening.
The same morning, in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia, striking workers reported a large police presence outside of Queens Memorial Library. One union member said that no scabs had been able to cross the picket. “SCAB LINE” was written in chalk at the library’s entrance. “WE SEE YOU SCABS – WE REMEMBER” was chalked in large letters on an adjacent wall. As of July 7th, the Philadelphia Free Library website listed 48 library locations closed due to “union work stoppage.”
Whispers of a city-wide general strike loom as other work sectors experience labor disputes. ASFCME DC47 plans for a strike authorization vote on Thursday, which would add 3,000 more strike-ready workers.
Penn Museum Workers United AFSCME Local 397, who voted to strike this Wednesday, went to social media to express solidarity with DC33: “The working people of Philadelphia deserve more than the crumbs Mayor Parker and Penn are putting on the table.”
As the workers maintain their resolve with “One day longer, one day stronger,” Philadelphians continue to defy the Mayor’s orders to not put trash on the curb. Block by block, signs and notes are shared between neighbors expressing support for the striking sanitation workers. In the City of Brotherly Love, solidarity remains a love language for strike summer 2025.
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.
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.)
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.
Philadelphia, PA — “Before long the entire city will know what this company does!” These were some of the last words spoken Tuesday morning by a protester with a megaphone and a kaffiyeh scarf after a few dozen people had gathered for two hours outside a well-appointed office building in Center City Philadelphia. Their target was Day & Zimmermann, a “construction, engineering, staffing and ammunition manufacture” company that makes shells and machine gun rounds used by Israel to kill Palestinians.
Employees arriving for work at the weapons manufacturer’s headquarters on June 3 found themselves greeted with banners reading “Day & Zimmermann Out Of Philly! – No Genocide Profiteers In Our Neighborhood” and “Day and Zimmermann Profits From Genocide in Gaza.“
Day & Zimmermann was previously visited by protesters in March and April 2024 who oppose its lucrative role in arming the ongoing Israeli genocide in occupied Palestine.
A new protest campaign just launched by the Philly chapter of Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP) has vowed to bring shame and attention to Day & Zimmermann every Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning’s visit to Day & Zimmermann’s offices highlighted the role of the “genocide profiteer” in the January 29, 2024 massacre in which Israeli soldiers killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, six of her family members, and two paramedics. An exploded shell found at the scene of Rajab’s murder was traced via serial number to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, which is owned and operated by Day & Zimmermann. (More info on this below.)
A Philly SJP spokesperson told Unicorn Riot,
“We’re committed to getting Day & Zimmermann the fuck out of Philly… they’re one of the country and the world’s leading weapons manufacturers… We are hoping to mobilize people against the murderers of Hind Rajab and countless other Palestinians… and kick them the fuck out.”
Philadelphia Students for Justice in Palestine Coalition
Activists chanted and distributed leaflets educating passers-by and employees in nearby businesses about their neighbor’s role in facilitating genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Several people working near the Day & Zimmermann HQ expressed shock and concern, with one woman telling protesters “y’all are doing God’s work, for real,” and remarking that she was aware of issues around the University of Pennsylvania’s investments in Israel but not of such a direct connection to her daily routine.
Clusters of protesters gathered outside the two front entrances on 1500 Spring Garden St. as well as Day & Zimmermann’s back entrance and employee parking gate by the intersection of 15th & Hamilton, where several prepared statements were read outlining recent Israeli massacres of Palestinians as employees walked by to clock in to work.
No arriving employees arriving interacted with any demonstrators; a building security employee briefly explained that they would not be permitted to block any entrances. Approximately a dozen Philadelphia Police, occasionally speaking with building security staff who would walk up to their cruisers, were deployed in vehicles scattered around the immediate area; a couple plainclothes officers sporting Civil Affairs Unit armbands stood closer to the building entrances monitoring the protest.
CBS Philadelphia (KYW-TV), whose headquarters is in the same building at 1500 Spring Garden, did not send a reporter to cover the protest despite their proximity. A CBS employee who spoke to Unicorn Riot on their way into work insisted that management was aware of the demonstration.
Day & Zimmermann bills itself as “a leading provider of munitions” and reportedly has over 43,000 employees in the US. The company has not responded to a request for comment as of publication time.
According to a research summary by the American Friends Service Committee, shells fired by Israeli Merkava tanks at the site of Hind Rajab’s murder and a November 2023 attack on a U.N. school had serial numbers that trace back to Mason & Hanger, a subsidiary of Day & Zimmermann for the last 25 years:
Day & Zimmermann, based in Pennsylvania, is a private munitions manufacturer. It operates the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP), which has been the source of many of the artillery munitions used by the Israeli military, including 155mm rounds, fired by Israel’s M109 howitzer guns, and 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) round, fired by Israel’s Merkava battle tanks.
Mason & Hanger has operated the IAAP since 1951. Between 1998 and 2007, the factory was operated by American Ordnance, a joint venture of Mason & Hanger and General Dynamics. Day & Zimmermann acquired Mason & Hanger in 1999, and in 2007 it acquired General Dyanmics’ stake in American Ordnance.
In November 2023, Israeli tanks fired M830A1 rounds while attacking a U.N. school in Gaza. The serial number on one of the rounds recovered from the scene of the attack suggests that it was manufactured at the IAAP by Mason & Hanger in December 1990.
On January 19, 2024, Israeli tanks fired M830A1 rounds in an attack that killed six-year-old Hind Rajab, her six family members, and the medics who attempted to rescue her, in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. The serial number on an exploded round found inside the ambulance sent to rescue Rajab suggests that it was manufactured at the IAAP by Mason & Hanger in November 1996.
In December 2023, the U.S. government used emergency measures to approve the transfer of 14,000 M830A1 tank rounds to Israel without Congressional review. The transfer—from the existing inventory of the U.S. Army–was worth $106.5 million and funded by U.S. taxpayers’ money.
Day & Zimmermann’s factory in Texarkana, Texas, is the current supplier of M830A1 rounds for the U.S. Army. Between 2017 and 2021, the U.S. Army’s supplier of these munitions was a Northrop Grumman factory in Plymouth, Minn.
Philadelphia, PA — After a brutal stock market correction and new anti-trade tariff policies, more than 120,000 layoffs of federal workers, dozens of executive orders, and hundreds of immigrant arrests led by ICE, many Americans are reeling from political and financial upheaval caused by the Trump administration. Around 150 liberal groups, including unions, climate and advocacy groups like MoveOn, called for a wide set of #HandsOff rallies around the country on Saturday, April 5. The Philadelphia rally, one of several in the region, gathered at City Hall in Center City and marched down Market Street to the lawn near the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall for a series of speeches from politicians and people who’ve worked at institutions under threat like the Environmental Protection Agency and US Postal Service.
While the crowds in many locations leaned towards an older demographic, it was a strikingly large mobilization and the largest one since Donald Trump was inaugurated in January; it’s the clearest indicator yet that the Baby Boomer generation hasn’t checked out of political activity in retirement, especially as the systems of the Social Security Administration threaten to unravel. The turnout at the Philly event was both older and more white than the city’s demographics.
On 2-7-25, I sat before the PA Parole Board. Correction: I sat before one member of the Board and a hearing examiner. In PA, imprisoned people don’t see the entire Board which consists of nine members. We see only one member. From the start, the interview was contentious. I didn’t expect it to be. I had done everything the Board asked me to do: successfully completed all programs, remain misconduct free, and obtain the PA DOC’s recommendation for parole. I wasn’t asked about any of these matters.***
Instead, the interviewer began by stated that I am part of a security threat group. When I asked what gang I belong to, he said: “The Abolitionists.” Seriously. I had never heard this before. I was baffled. How are abolitionists a gang? He asked me to explain my gang affiliation. I continued to tell him abolition is not and has never been a gang. I asked if he wanted me to explain why I am anti-racist, anticapitalist, and anti-imperialist. This went over his head. We continued in this fashioned for almost five minutes. I knew my chances of parole were doomed.***
The remainder of the interview went the same way: his insisting upon some falsehood and my refuting his notion. A few days later, I was called to the parole department for the inevitable: parole denied. That was the last time I will ever sit before the Board. I max out on 2-9-26. My sentence will be completed. Sixteen years. They cannot deny or delay my release on that date. I never thought I would max this sentence out. I was required to do half of it incarcerated. I have been parole eligible for eight years. Being a prison (dis)organizer, I know full well the oppressive and retaliatory actions of the DOC and the Board. My organizing and educational work stymies the goals of the PIC: isolating and alienating imprisoned people to render them powerless in the face of oppression. I have no regrets. I work and continue to work to dismantle oppressive systems everywhere. I work and continue to work to build life-affirming and life-enhancing relationships and institutions. Like Martin Sostre, I am being maxed out in retaliation for dreaming freedom and striving to actualize it. And like him, I remain undaunted.***
I am so grateful for the unstinting support I have received over the years. Without you, I could not have made it. I couldn’t have done the work. Thank you. There are so many people, organizations and collectives that have supported the work, in whatever prison I was caged in, and I want to thank you all. But the list would be many emails long. I do want to especially thank some folx who have stood in solidarity with me for numerous years. Your love and friendship have sustained me, helped me grow and kept my head up. I cannot wait until 2-9-26 when I can be out there and return the love in person: Mom, Lois, Sarah, Ian, Casey, Eli, Danielle, Molly, Minali, Jacqueline, Safear, Mariame, Ruthie, Kelly, Eliza, Dylan R, Dana, Tyler, Rehana, Dylan B, Joy James, Roberto, Eric Stanley, Miriam, Moira, Katy, Tricka, Nora, A Ram, eae, Andrea, Ann Russo, Maya, Brian S, Rinaldo Walcott, Alex, Caren, Dan B, Amanda, Woods, Mari, Critical Resistance, Haymarket, Love & Protect, Survived and Punished, Hearts On A Wire, Massive Bookstore, Black Agenda Report, Inquest, Verso, the Pinko Collective, Empowerment Avenue, and imprisoned folx at every prison I have been caged during this bid. The list could go on and on. But I wanted to especially thank certain folx. As this year winds down, I am preparing to transition the work to other imprisoned people and look forward to working from the other side of the walls. I hope to continue to be blessed with your support and love during this time.***
You know it was a bust if you have to search for anyone talking about this thing they laughingly called “The Power of Unity”!
NEWTOWN, PA – It seemed to be more of an effort to build momentum for supporters of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Mises Caucus, the so-called “paleolibertarian” arm of the Libertarian Party currently running it, than it was an effort to get Donald Trump reelected President. Nevertheless, Trump was a means to an end for the moderately-sized crowd who attended an underreported rally they called “The Power of Unity” at a local athletic center organized by neo-fascist activists Scott Presler, Tim Pool and Jack Posobiec to get out the Republican vote.
While there was some media attention given to the event as the date neared, there were few reports on the event after it took place nor was there much discussion about it from even the promoters or the attendees.
The Mises Caucus was formed within the Libertarian Party in the wake of the tragic 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Va after the then-leadership of the Party was critical of the White nationalist statements and advocacy expressed in the weeks prior to the rally by the leaders of the Mises Institute think tank. Within five years, the Caucus was able to take over the Libertarian Party and since then further advanced the neo-fascism they had been advocating, prompting splits and departures within the Party.
Sunday’s event was held at the Newtown Sports & Events Center which is owned by GOP Delegate Jim Worthington and where Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance made a campaign stop Sept. 29. It was organized by Ellen Cox, a member of the Doylestown (PA) Republicans who was at the rally on Jan. 6, but it is not known if she participated in the riot that ensued that day. Another organizer was the Mises Caucus Board member and Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle, who was not present and is currently facing a lawsuit filed on Oct. 3 that seeks to remove her from her position on the grounds of having a disloyalty to the party with the support of Trump, the Republican Party presidential candidate, over that of Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party candidate. At this rally there was support heard from speakers and attendees of Trump but virtually none for Oliver. The Mises Caucus had a table for their effort to prevent National Guard members from being deployed overseas. It was being overseen by Mises Caucus Chair Michael Heise.
After a number of music tracks played – including the seemingly ironic 1982 club song “Murphy’s Law” by Cheri – attendees stood for “Justice for All,” a rendition of the National Anthem with Donald Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance spliced in various parts of the song.
Sunday’s event most well-known faces were Presler, Pool and Posobiec, all known for their associations with neo-fascist activity. Presler was an associate of the anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America, Posobiec has worked with known White Supremacists such as Richard Spencer, Kevin DeAnna and onetime Identity Evropa leader Nathan Damingo and Pool passes himself off as a moderate that has frequently used his podcast to promote the Proud Boys as well as neo-fascist positions, once attempting to hold a conference of such individuals along with sympathizing liberals in New Jersey before it was shut down and sent to a casino in Philadelphia, the afterparty being held at a venue a block away from the original location.
At the rally Presler attempted to energize the crowd by suggesting that they can take over long-held Democratic strongholds in voter drives and encouraged them to find votes in conservative circles. “Could hunters save Western Civilization by literally voting in this year’s election?” he asked to cheers, using a term that is often employed by White Supremacists as a code phrase for European culture. He ended his presentation by addressing Democrats with a bizarre declaration: “I want you to know that we are coming peacefully, not with bullets, but with ballots!” Pool, meanwhile, said that is wasn’t until 2020 that he was active in politics, even though he has been a well-known figure among political far right circles for over a decade, but said Trump inspired him to get involved enough to push his candidacy. “This time around, I’m here out of the studio back outside because we all have to do something,” he said. Posobiec aired out a number of grievances, from his family having to leave his hometown of Norristown, PA because “they made it a sanctuary city” to lamenting how America is a country of political prisoners, citing right wing figures such as those convicted for their roles on January 6, Trump advisor Steve Bannon, currently in prison on a contempt of congress conviction and someone that Posobiec he says he speaks to regularly, 2020 Election Conspiracy theorist Peter Navarro and White Supremacist troll Doug Mackey, who under the Twitter handle “Ricky Vaughn” attempted to diminish turnout in the 2016 election. He then said that he is going to encourage a future Trump administration to respond in kind and go after those that have gone against the things he supports. “When they took Steve Bannon away, when they took him away and put him in jail and they put him in chains, I said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to rest until I do it to you too. I’m going to do the same exact thing that you did.’”
Many of the other, lesser known speakers came from the abandoned campaign of Robert F. Kennedy who were now expressing support for Donald Trump. A number of speakers, including Posobiec noted how the different camps came together for that event hoping that it will mean a win for Trump. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris was in Washington Crossing, PA also in Bucks County for a rally before her interview on Fox News where she met with Republicans expressing support for her. In her remarks, she noted that divisive politics should not be supported by anyone who wants to lead the nation. Bob and Kristina Lange, two Republicans who hosted the campaign stop on their farm, had been receiving death threats for supporting Harris.
from Anarchist Black Cross Federation[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]What follows are recaps from many of the runs that took place on September 15, 2024. This was the 25th anniversary of Running Down the Walls. Since 1999, prisoners and supporters throughout North America have participated in this annual event, often running or walking simultaneously in many cities and prisons at once. As reportbacks come in, they will be posted here. Read more about Running Down the Walls and the ABCF Warchest.
Philly ABC held 2024 RDTW on Sunday, September 15th in solidarity with Palestinians resisting genocide. Philly ABC’s RDTW cleared 400 participants: 2 from inside prison and 398 outside plus multiple dogs and a kitten. People rolled in wheelchairs, bikes, and roller skates aswell as participating on foot. A Samidoun member joined us to speak about their important work supporting political prisoners in Palestine.
In addition to our very popular main shirt design by Sugarbombing, wemade two limited edition shirts in solidarity with Gaza and commemorating 25 years of RDTW. We are selling the last of the stock on our website at phillyabc.org/merch/, with the proceeds going towardsthe ABCF Warchest/Gaza mutual aid split.
Due to ongoing shirt sales, our total funds raised is still growing. Wealso are working with two matching donors to maximize the impact, which should help us clear over $40,000 in total. We will post the full reportback with details to phillyabc.org in November.
Unicorn Riot heard from organizers and participants this year to offer a deep dive into the event and the movement behind it
By Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot August 15, 2024
Walking up the path to the Kirkridge Retreat Center outside Bangor, Pennsylvania in early July, you may have sensed something was afoot. Cars with license plates from far-flung states lined the driveway and wild-haired twenty-somethings mingled with kids, tweens and adults in their 30s, 40s and beyond.
A hand painted cardboard sign reading simply “EF!” would have directed you, with an arrow pointing to the activity. A blend of laughter, music, and fragments of conversations about climate catastrophe quickly sets the tone before you reach a folding table strewn with literature, hand sanitizer, masks and snacks.
“Welcome,” a smiling volunteer would greet you. “Are you here for Earth First?”
This summer, around 400 people found their way to a rural plot of land in eastern Pennsylvania to participate in the national Earth First! Gathering. Over the course of seven days, anarchists, abolitionists, environmentalists and more converged on Lenapehoking, the original name for the traditional homelands of the Lenape, the region’s Indigenous people.
For over 40 years, people have gathered under the banner of Earth First!, a no-compromise, direct action movement launched to confront ecologically catastrophic industries and policies. In opposition to “big green” nonprofits, Earth First! takes a more hands-on approach to climate activism. For decades, the movement has centered direct action – the tactic of physically blocking destructive projects.
Through protests, occupations, work stoppages, locking on to equipment, and sometimes property destruction and sabotage, Earth First! seeks to do what many other organizations don’t – directly intervene and confront the companies and policies that harm ecosystems.
While the movement is focused on environmental protection as its main cause, participants see intersecting struggles as equally important. Today’s Earth First! shares heavy overlap with antifascism, Indigenous sovereignty, queer struggles and autonomous movements.
Earth First!ers don’t claim to be members of a formal structure, but rather a network of people who share, and act on, a set of principles.
“It is not an organization, but a movement,” a website representing Earth First! reads. “There are no ‘members’ of EF!, only Earth First!ers. We believe in using all of the tools in the toolbox, from grassroots and legal organizing to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching.”
Though not a formal organization, Earth First! is organized. Each year for more than four decades, Earth First!ers have hosted a national gathering where movement participants, alongside people across a wide range of social movements, meet up to share info about the struggles they’re engaged in, host workshops and trainings, and build relationships. This year was the 44th time the meetup had happened since 1979.
Throughout the week, people hosted dozens of workshops and skill shares ranging from foraging wild foods to self-defense classes. Between teaching hard skills, organizers and participants hosted conversations about fostering solidarity with Indigenous communities, movement history, mentoring future activists, and more.
To kick off a week of workshops and education, Keshia Talking Waters and her mother Maria Lawrence shared the Lenape creation story and introduced attendees to the concept of Sovereign Science.
Talking Waters, founder of Sovereign Science, and Lawrence, a professor of science education at Rhode Island College, broke down to Unicorn Riot what Sovereign Science is, how it can help in our current context, and why they thought it was important to share Indigenous perspectives at the 2024 Earth First! gathering.
More than accruing skills and learning about theory, participants who spoke with Unicorn Riot were drawn to the event for the sense of community it offers. For some, this year’s event was their introduction to Earth First! as a movement, but others had been coming to gatherings for decades.
Regardless of how many times they had been to events or organized with Earth First!, though, community was a common theme that drew participants to the woods this year.
Organizing a national gathering for a decades-old movement is no small feat. Each year a different, autonomously organized group of volunteers find a location, set up logistics, arrange programming, and promote the event that draws hundreds of people for about a week in early July.
This year, organizers from New York took on the task and hosted the event. Unicorn Riot spoke to organizers to hear about the challenges and motivations behind putting in the effort to create the gathering this year.
Though the gathering acts as a focal point for the movement, Earth First! is active all year, organizing across the continent. Part of that activity includes the Earth First! Journal.
For as long as Earth First! has existed as a movement, the Earth First! Journal has served as its voice. An independent, collectively run print magazine and website, the Earth First! Journal acts as the public face of the movement, representing Earth First!ers through movement updates, discourse, debates, poetry, art, tactical discussions and more. Unicorn Riot spoke with two people involved with the Earth First! Journal collective – one who’s currently a member, the other a former editor – to learn about what the journal is and why they think it’s important to the movement as a whole.
After seven days of education, shared meals, and community building, participants broke down camp and headed home or, in some cases, continued traveling. Next year’s event will pop up somewhere else, continuing the long running tradition of the Earth First! Gathering.
Wednesday, May first, at 8 30 pm EDT, workers from around the country and Canada gathered for our third annual May Day online event.
The recent passing of our beloved Clarissa, who was pivotal in the first two years of our evening May Day, was frequently mentioned through the gathering.
The opening song, by Martin Traphagen, ‘Arrival,’ was inspired by Clarissa.
The third annual May Day Speech, this year delivered by Rebecca Croog, vividly described the impact that Clarissa had on her work: “As I find my way into this work, I am visited multiple times a day by the memory and spirit of our Comrade Clarissa, who we recently lost to long covid. I can hear her encouraging us:
‘Don’t mourn, organize!’ I can feel her galvanizing us: ‘Let’s build coalitions! Let’s make this moment bigger and bigger!’ Gathered together as an anarcha-syndicalist community, let’s invite her in to remind us: ‘ALL BUILDS TO THE GENERAL STRIKE’
Rest in power, Clarissa! Free Palestine!”
As attendance increased, speakers reported on recent health care labor struggles, and one of the founding members of WSA, Steve Rabinowitz, read from the history of the Haymarket Martyrs, specifically the words of August Spies.
After the formal program, attendees shared news of May Day events and Gaza actions in their areas, from Philadelphia, Asheville, Greater Chicago WSA and other cities.
Comrade Greg McGee shared breaking news of attacks on the Ceasefire Gaza encampment at Columbia University.
Rebecca shared news of her work with Jewish Voice for Peace, recent union drives, and workers standing up for Gaza.
At one point everyone joined in singing happy birthday to our comrade Alexandra, who is a May Day baby!!
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As the meeting wound further down, comrades stayed for more informal discussion. Comrade Mitchell, (WSA zone 2 delegate in Oregon), asked what anarchist-syndicalists make of Rosa Luxembourg. This led to an energetic discussion on how anarchists can build relationships with anti-authoritarian Marxists, such as council communists and anti-state Marxists, outlining how Luxembourg’s work prefigured councilism, lamenting how Trotskyist groups have claimed her. Like later councilists, her criticism of anarchists seemed to be more that, at that moment, they were disorganized and had little capacity, different from criticism of organized libertarian communism itself.
By this point there were a few brave and sleepy comrades engaging in this conversion, and there were warm goodbyes. And for annual attendees not part of WSA, there were hopes to see everyone on May Day 2025!
Below is Martin’s opening song ‘Arrival’, in honor of Clarissa –
