Noise Demo Reportback

  • August 23, 2018 4:23 pm

from Friendly Fire Collective

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As the local Friendly Fire group, we decided that we would cancel our prayer meeting in order to attend an action instead. As endorsers of the National Prison Strike, and as followers of Jesus, a revolutionary abolitionist, we felt that participating in this noise demo in solidarity with striking prisoners was important.

The action as a whole turned out great. Dozens of folks showed up in front of the Juvenile Justice Services Center in West Philly with drums, pots, pans, whistles, even a saxophone – anything to make noise with.

This energy of this action was bright and joyful and yet felt a bit more militant than other recent actions, with a spontaneous blockade erected and chants such as “Burn the banks, burn the prisons, just make sure the cops are in ’em” and – a Friendly Fire favorite – “God Hates Cops.”

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There seemed to be a lot of support from those in the surrounding community, who raised their fists, honked in support, and for the most part, happily learned about the Prison Strike. A number of folks, even families, joined the protest.

We concluded by reading the demands publicly and then marched down Market Street.

We are thankful for everybody who came out and the IWW comrades who organized this action. May God be with those striking prisoners, may their demands be heard and met, and may all those opposing their work and livelihood face God’s most severe judgment.

For more information on the Prison Strike: https://incarceratedworkers.org/campaigns/prison-strike-2018

Occupation, Revolt, Power: The 1st Month of #OccupyICEPHL

  • August 14, 2018 9:20 am

from It’s Going Down

In the heat of struggle—and with the demands of security and safety—it’s very common that we don’t stop and record the actions, marches and political events occurring around us. Social movement historians often interview activists years after the fact, after nostalgia, popular sentiment and sectarian interpretations of the movement have hardened. As a result, we rarely get day by day accounts of movements until they can be reconstructed through official records, and thus have difficulty assessing the ebb and flow of tactics, escalations and direct actions that shape campaigns as they are ongoing.

It is with that in mind that we present this timeline of actions in and around OccupyICE Philadelphia that led to a major victory: the end of official data-sharing between ICE and the Philadelphia Police Department.

Timeline

July 2nd: After weeks of planning, a coalition of radical groups in Philadelphia hold a rally outside City Hall. Hundreds show up, and march to ICE offices at 8th and Cherry, where an occupation is spontaneously set up. At first the streets around the building are barricaded, but organizers negotiate with police to take down barricades and remain on the sidewalk, blocking the doors and driveways. This moment, in which activists in high-visibility vests are seen taking down the barricades at police demand—and an altercation between organizers afterwards—will be the source of ongoing tensions in the activist scenes of Philadelphia. Nevertheless, the space is bravely held and an occupation with tents and umbrellas is set up blocking ICE.

July 3rd: Police attack the encampment, arresting 29 protestors who link arms and stay in formation as they are arrested. PPD clears the main driveway and takes down all the structures. In defiance, protestors immediately rebuild, setting up umbrellas, tents and chairs in the intersection of 8th and Cherry Street. Jail support mobilizes. All arrested are released with citations.

July 4th: A vacation atmosphere pervades in camp as numbers swell with people off for the fourth. A small contingent marches down to Market Street to interrupt a July 4th parade. A banner reading “No one is illegal. Abolish ICE” is dropped from between two trees over 8th street. A GA is held.

July 5th: At around 12:00 PM, a hundred PPD attack and clear the rest of the camp, beating everyone, destroying materials, and arresting seven. A press conference arranged by the coalition for later that afternoon means there is a tremendous amount of local coverage of the attack. A GA held at 7PM draws more than 150 people, but core coalition organizers, burnt out from the last few days, announce their intention to decamp, and the GA ends in inaction. Meanwhile, however, a small contingent of protestors have set up a new encampment at City Hall to put pressure on the city to meet the movement’s first demand: end PARS, the data sharing agreement between PPD and ICE. A pamphlet critiquing camp organizers, “An Anarchist Report Back and Some Embedded Critiques of #OccupyICE Philadelphia”, is published.

July 6th: Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney¬who campaigned on anti-Trump rhetoric and making Philadelphia a sanctuary city, takes a terrible beating in the press—thanks in large part to the publicity work of the coalition—for the attack on ICE protestors. This political pressure forces him to play nice, and he says publicly that the new encampment can stay. Where the first camp was surrounded at all times by police, PPD takes a hands off approach to the City Hall encampment.

July 7th: The new encampment begins building out infrastructure. Banners and tarps go up. Posters are wheatpasted around downtown. A queer dance party is held at camp, pirating power from city hall.

July 8th: A newlywed immigrant couple comes down to camp in their wedding attire to demand Kenney end PARS and express solidarity and support. A number of unhoused folks who live in and around city hall join the movement and begin to call the camp home.

July 9th: Kenney meets with campers and immigrant rights activists, in particular organizers from Juntos, who have been waging the fight against PARS for almost a decade and who set the entire stage for this struggle, to discuss demands. The meeting is inconclusive, but rumors start to circulate that PARS’ days are numbered. A camp kitchen and first aid tent are established to help organize donations and activity.

July 10th: A mass meeting at the Friends center sees more than a hundred folks debating the way forward. At that meeting a mass march is called for August 4th. Twice daily General Assemblies are established at the camp.

July 11th: Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner calls for an end for ICE access to PARS, increasing the political pressure. A workshop at anarchist bookshop The Wooden Shoe, led and attended by camp organizers of different ideological stripes, calls for unity of action between socialist, communist and anarchist communities. Nevertheless, sectarian tension continues unabated within the activist scene. Meanwhile, tension increases between middle-class and unhoused organizers, as facts of life on the streets—fighting, drug use, serious mental illness—have to be dealt with at camp.

July 12th: The city requests a meeting with ICE officials on the future of PARS data sharing. A banner reading “End PARS /End Family Detention/Abolish ICE” is dropped out of a city hall window above the camp.

July 13th: City Council is called in for a closed special session to be briefed by the city’s legal team on PARS. Confidence grows inside camp and in the larger activist community that PARS will soon come to an end. Camp participates in #OneMillionFlames, a nationwide solidarity vigil for detained and deported families.

July 14th: DHS Director Kirstjen Nielsen gives a speech at the Loews Hotel and is heckled by occupiers. Protestors demonstrate and pass out literature outside the event.

July 15th: The Shut Down Berks coalition holds a vigil outside the Berks Detention Center. Around 250 people attend. Eleven protestors are arrested sitting in, blocking the road into the center.

July 16th: Over the weekend the makeup of the camp has decidedly swung towards unhoused activists. Many people who have been active in the first two weeks are burnt out and consider the camp too difficult to organize in. Simultaneously, however, the unhoused activists have gotten to know each other and have gotten organized, and the amount of drama and chaos at the camp begins to drop dramatically.

July 17th: Pressure continues to ramp on Kenney in the local press. Activists bring a screen printer to camp and make dozens of “Mayor Kenney end PARS” t-shirts. Friendly Fire Collective publishes “Beyond Occupation.” The West Philly Orchestra comes to camp and gives a concert.

July 18th: The first of a number of “Noise Demos” occurs outside ICE offices during rush hour, as 25 or so activists shut down 8th and Cherry for a few hours and loudly disrupt ICE’s morning operations. The Kenney administration once again meets with ICE. The mayor publicly states that the reason for the meetings is the suspicion that ICE has been violating the PARS contract—a fact activists and immigrants have known for years, but which provides political cover for ending the contract.

July 20th: Another noise demo during rush hour again disrupts ICE operations. A very large tarp is put up covering the entirety of the encampment, and the encampment begins to take its more permanent shape as one giant tent. This is fortunate timing, as it rains incredibly heavily the next three days.

July 22nd: Mike Africa delivers food to camp grown in the MOVE garden, and pledges the support of the MOVE organization. Another noise demo marches from camp to ICE offices and again disrupts their morning.

July 23rd: Refuse Fascism holds a demonstration outside Mike Pence’s visit at the Union League, a few hundred show up to block the street and march. Philly Anarchy Jawn publishes “This Movement is Not Ours, It’s Everybody’s”.

July 24th: In an unplanned, spontaneous demonstration, camp residents shut down the city hall traffic circle for two hours. Comrades chant for Nia Wilson, murdered in a racist attack in Oakland. The camp holds an open mic night.

July 25th: Escalation continues at the camp, as demonstrators attempt to deliver a letter to the mayor at 11:30. In an unforced error, the city shuts down the public offices, creating scenes of chaos in City Hall as security attacks protestors. Demonstrators come out and shut down the traffic circle with comrades who remained in the camp. In the afternoon, campers once again shut down the traffic circle. In the evening, Puerto Rican Independentistas come down to camp, and in solidarity the camp shuts down the traffic circle for the third time that day, marching under the slogan: “Free Puerto Rico / End PARS.”

July 26th: ADAPT activists lock down city hall demanding housing for disabled people in Philadelphia. They are supported by a chain of folks from camp, who keep attention on their protest and escort them out of city hall. The camp again shuts down the traffic circle during rush hour. Pam Africa, who has been scheduled to give a talk, gives her speech through a megaphone at the police line, as occupiers hold an impromptu teach-in in the traffic circle.

July 27th: Mayor Kenney announces that the city will let PARS expire! The camp shuts down the traffic circle yet again in a victory lap. Coalition organizers come to camp to hold a press conference celebrating the victory. Kenney announces that the camp, with its extensive infrastructure and materials, will be evicted by 2PM the next day. A previously called mass meeting at William Way spends two and a half hours debating procedure, and many activists who attended leave the meeting and go home rather than return to camp. Celebrations are muted as eviction looms. Plans to decamp are debated but not solidified.

July 28th: In an amazing feat of organization, the camp—three weeks of structures, donations, materials and personal possessions—is struck and removed by the 2PM deadline. A third camp is established next to Municipal Services Plaza, with a new demand: end Stop and Frisk. Comrades point out that stop and frisk punishes the poor and non-white communities in much the same way PARS attacks immigrants: using minor infractions and racial profiling to criminalize entire communities. Camp residents form the new organization Homeless Against Stop and Frisk.

July 29th: The new camp expands with a big tarp, and is quickly almost as solid and well-established physically as the previous one. However, exhaustion from weeks of escalation coupled with confusion around the move leads to lower numbers. The space is largely dominated by organizers from Homeless Against Stop and Frisk. A core organizer is interviewed on the It’s Going Down Podcast.

July 30th: Camp builds out a kitchen. The Department of Homeless Services issues a pro-forma eviction notice to the new camp-it even has the wrong date on it-as they claim is not a protest but a non-political homeless camp. Camp makes banners and signs, and discusses what to do.

July 31st: Declaring a “Service Day”, police destroy, “clean,” and evict the new encampment, arresting four. Campers shut down traffic and march on Broad street. Occupiers move across the street and reestablish camp in front of the Arch St United Methodist Church, but no structures are allowed. A direct action takes place at Comcast headquarters against their collaboration with ICE, as part of a national day of action called by Cosecha. Seven are arrested. A vigil is held at the DAs office for Michael White, a Black caviar worker who stabbed and killed a white developer in self-defense.

August 1st: A contentious mass meeting sees frustrations aired between campers and coalition members. A clear divide is forming in the movement between those who support continued occupation and activists who would rather focus on other efforts.

August 2nd: Philly REAL Justice rally to take down the Rizzo statue turns into an impromptu march to end stop and frisk, which takes the streets around city hall. Despite these actions, without shelter, and with collapsing support from the activist community, numbers at camp begin to dwindle.

August 3rd: Another rowdy march of about twenty activists takes the streets, shutting down traffic and intersections for almost two hours to end stop and frisk. Philadelphia Weekly publishes “Redemption, Camaraderie, Drugs and Fights Inside Occupy City Hall.” A “No More PARS” victory party is held in West Philadelphia, however, invitations only go out via Facebook and no transportation is provided from camp.

August 4th: The Mass March for a Sanctuary City—called three weeks previously—sees more than 150 people take the streets through downtown Philadelphia, including blocking the ICE building, and ends with a victory rally at City Hall. Organizers talk about the movement and what the future holds. A banner drop over the highway reads “End Stop & Frisk”

August 6th: An attempted re-occupation of the ICE building fails as masked protestors build barricades but lack the numbers to hold off police. A noise demo shuts down traffic at ICE headquarters for about an hour. Reports that fascists Charlie Kirk and Candance Owens are eating breakfast in center city see the demo turn and march down, disrupting their breakfast and giving Kirk an ice water bath that makes national news. The Philadelphia Partisan publishes “We Need People Here To Be Fighting”

August 7th: Weekly REAL Justice rally against the Rizzo statue again turns into an end stop and frisk march, as protestors take the streets for an hour.

August 9th: A mass meeting establishes a weekly Sunday GA at the camp to continue strategizing for next steps. The camp releases “Statement from the Camp to the Coalition.”

August 11th: The city’s “Philly Free Streets” program sees Broad Street, site of the current encampment, turned into a pedestrian zone for the morning. Mayor Kenney, inaugurating the event with a power walk, is heckled by activists from Homeless Against Stop and Frisk, who chase him with a megaphone.

August 12th: Shut Down Berks Coalition holds another vigil outside the facility. Homeless Against Stop and Frisk sends campers in support and solidarity.

Conclusion

That brings us to today. In many ways the camp feels isolated and weak, but the fact that we’re still out here at all is a major achievement. It’s not yet clear how (or whether) the energy captured and organized in the last month in this city will turn into a broader campaign against ICE, or whether the turn toward police abolition and homeless advocacy work initiated by Homeless Against Stop and Frisk will prove decisive.

Whatever the future holds, we have won something significant here in Philadelphia with the end of PARS, and perhaps more importantly we have found each other in the streets. Strong and serious bonds have formed between a wide array of activists, organizers and troublemakers. We hope this account of the process proves useful to proliferating such struggles around the world.

With love, rage and solidarity
-Philly Anarchy Jawn

Running Down the Walls 2018 Reportback

  • August 8, 2018 3:54 am

from Philly ABC

On August 5, 2018, around 90 people ran, jogged or walked 5K to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the incarceration of the Move 9. The route chosen for this event started in Fairmount Park and went past the zoo that members of the Move organization protested in 1973 and 1974 in support of animal rights. The route continued down 33rd street to the intersection of 33rd and Pearl, where the former Move headquarters was before it was bulldozed by the city within 24 hours of the arrest of the Move 9.

Photographs of the Move 9, flowers, and candles as well as a board to write messages was available for supporters to stop and pay their respects at the halfway point. People passing by who knew members of the Move 9 also stopped to pay their respects.

While the national Running Down the Walls event was held in June this year, the Philadelphia event was set in August in order to coincide with the Move 40th anniversary. For this reason, all of the incarcerated people who ran on August 5th are in Pennsylvania or surrounding regions. Many runners on the outside ran with signs displaying the names of either recipients of the Warchest or other US held political prisoners. Including both runners on the inside and outside, the event totaled around 90 participants.

Yoga began promptly at 9:30 am “to warm up our breath, mind and bodies” as yoga instructor Sheena Sood put it. The group then took off in three sections: walkers followed by joggers and finally by runners. This enabled a lot of interaction along the route as people encountered each other frequently. The route was shady to set of the warmth of the day, and refreshments were provided by Solidarity Food Not Bombs.

Together we raised almost $2000 that will be split between Move 9 legal defense and the ABCF Warchest. To close, we squeezed together for a group photo chanting “Free the Move 9, Free All Political Prisoners!”

 

Philadelphia, PA: #OccupyICE Gives Trust-Fund Troll Charlie Kirk First Bath Without Maid Present

  • August 8, 2018 3:45 am
from It’s Going Down

This morning, August 6th 2018 at 7:20 am, members of met at the corner of 8th and Cherry in front of the regional ICE office and Governor Wolf’s Philadelphia office in order to shut shit down and distribute information about the Berk’s Detention Center to people on their way to work. Berk’s County Residential Center is one of 3 family detention centers in America. They are a prison that has a history of assault from their “caretakers” towards the imprisoned children, medical neglect of infants and verbal abuse, not to mention they are operating without a license! Governor Wolf has the ability to order an emergency closure, and has proven to us and many other organizers, his bark is worse than his bite, considering he hasn’t done a damn thing. You’d think in an election year he’d at least try, right?

Once we shut down the road in front of the offices and distributed literature to everyone there, we moved further up the road to a busy intersection at 8th and Vine and blocked traffic for roughly 45 minutes. We reminded people in their cars that if they felt inconvenienced being stopping in traffic, imagine what life is like as a detained child in the Berks detention center for years? One guy left his car and joined in the protest, chiding people cursing us out that Black Lives Matter and we need to ! We are planning on seeing him again at an action tomorrow.

We received word from a comrade in center city that Charlie Kirk was having a pleasant meal with Candace Owens at a local brunch spot in the gayborhood and decided we were going to give them our best Philly welcome we could muster so early! We took the streets and marched there chanting “ABOLISH ICE” “SHUT DOWN BERKS” “WHOSE STREETS, OUR STREETS” and more. Once we got to where Charlie and Candace of Turning Point USA fame, also known as Coded Rascists USA, were eating we gave em a lil wave and immediately started chanting “1,2,3, Fuck the Bourgeois 4,5,6 Fuck the Bourgeois” until they came outside. We let them know just how much we appreciated their visit to Philly with a nice cold drink of water down Charlie’s head and an over easy egg to boot. Hope y’all had a great brunch! Police escorted Charlie and Candace away while we chanted, “NO GOOD COPS IN A RACIST SYSTEM” until they were gone.

We then took to the streets again and marched up Broad Street back to our camp, reminding everyone we passed Berks must be shut down and we must put an end to stop and frisk!

This Movement is Not Ours, it’s Everybody’s! A message to “the activists” about Occupy ICE Philadelphia

  • July 24, 2018 6:05 pm

from Friendly Fire Collective

This text belongs to a new zine that speaks to the current#OccupyICEPHL movement. This was not written by a Friendly Fire member.

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Something incredible is happening at OccupyICE Philadelphia right now.

The encampment, which is in its third week at city hall, is developing in a truly revolutionary direction. Yesterday a crew of unhoused folks militantly and autonomously took to the streets around city hall in an unplanned spontaneous march, shutting down one of the busiest intersections in Philadelphia for almost an hour in support of immigrants. We talk a lot about solidarity and about unifying proletarian struggles: this is the real thing. At this point the encampment is primarily run by unhoused comrades and they are holding down a fully built out, autonomously run and organized immigrant solidarity occupation that is a beautiful eyesore on one of Philly’s most esteemed tourist attractions.

The Kenney administration is livid, although thanks to the beatings they took in the press for the beatings we took from police when they cleared the first encampment at ICE offices at 8th and Cherry, they’re playing friendly and looking to reconcile. Long term immigrant activist groups and people inside the administration expect the declaration of the end of PARS—the police information sharing agreement that has helped Philly’s ICE office become the highest per capita arrest and capture major city in the country—any day now. Ending PARS is the first of the movement’s three demands, the other two being shutting down Berks, a horrifically abusive “family detention center” in PA, and Abolishing ICE.

This would be a huge victory, and the culmination of almost a decade of hard work from the city’s Immigrant movement. But we haven’t won yet, and many in the Philly activist networks, tired from weeks of hard work, infighting, and social agitation, and having heard the news that Kenney is likely to give in, have stepped back and become demobilized (myself included): right as we are on the cusp of winning!!!

We need to keep fighting, keep pushing right now, because if momentum completely slips Kenney can waffle on PARS and we could achieve nothing for all our efforts.

Luckily for all of us, the unhoused community has held it down and kept this movement alive. Over the last two weeks activists of all ideological stripes, anarchist, socialist, Marxist, nihilist, ultra and whatever else, have almost entirely stepped back from living at the camp, and those that do come down rotate in and out for brief periods while the unhoused people keep it going. As one of those organizers, let me just say: this has been an incredibly good thing. Some of the unhoused folks have political experience from Occupy Philadelphia back in 2011, others from their day to day lives in the streets, others still 2 have very rapidly politicized within the OccupyICE encampment. They are maintaining a 24/7 protest and keeping attention focused on ICE, opening up room for people to join the fight on other fronts. They are asking us to take advantage of this opportunity!

In the shadow of the obscene monument to power that is Philly city hall, a majority Black coalition of unhoused folks add their voices in opposition to the mayor and the city and in defense of immigrants. Occupiers stay on the megaphone all day long. Today, Gramma Kim, an unhoused comrade living at the camp, spent three hours making heart-wrenching statements to the people of Philadelphia, soap boxing with the megaphone all afternoon:

“What would you do if your children were in a cage? Wouldn’t you fight? We have to stop this!”

Every morning the camp crew wakes up the marriott hotel across the street with humorous musings on the loudspeaker. By 9am, comrades from the MOVE organization drop off fresh vegetables grown in their garden, and Food not Bombs is dropping food for lunch and dinner while unhoused occupiers are staffing the kitchen to distribute it. Donations have slowed to a trickle, but there are still a whole lot of shared meals, cigs, and experiences.

To give you just one example of what I see down here: There was an unhoused man, I wont name him but folks from the camp will know who I’m talking about, that during the first few days at City Hall would come through camp and just overturn tables, yell and scream, he even shoved someone, and we had to physically remove him from the camp multiple times. We got him to a shelter one night, but when he came back the next night some concerned activists were considering sectioning him. I’m so glad they didn’t, because now he holds down the kitchen and is one of the people most concerned with keeping the camp tidy. He’s part of the movement, more a part of it day to day now than me or the other people who had to chase him out of camp those few times. OccupyICE has become a transformative space for people joining in struggle.

Of course, it’s not at all rainbows and gumdrops. As a comrade said: “…it’s certainly messy down here. There’s no way to keep your hands clean, figuratively speaking. You get pulled into some shit and some drama pretty quickly if you aren’t careful.”

It’s true. A lot of us occupiers have serious addictions, as well as physical and mental health problems. Often times there are moments of anger and conflict that can erupt in camp, which can feel scary to people, especially those of us who don’t come from working class/street/hood backgrounds, but it’s important to understand and know that these moments of conflict often lead to resolution, even if it doesn’t look the same as it would in 3 4 a more middle class or activist space. If for whatever reason people don’t feel they can be down here that’s totally legit: there’s lots of other ways to support the encampment and struggle in solidarity.

OccupyICE is demonstrating that the activist milieu’s tendency toward taking a social worker’s attitude toward unhoused folks —rather than a comradely and restorative one—is a serious political error. The fact is that unhoused people are keeping the movement alive. They are the movement right now.

The well-intentioned but misguided activists (I include myself here) haven’t been able to see this: some even keep insisting that we have to shut down the camp that they rarely go to and have little investment in anymore since it’s problematic and uncontrollable. But word inside the camp is that campers are ready to move after we win and continue the struggle, and even expand it to include police and prison abolition and other issues facing the unhoused.

Comrades, can’t you see, we’ve helped to build something truly uncontrollable?

Something proletarian, communal, autonomous and buck-wild?

From the first march called by the alphabet soup of socialist orgs to this moment, everyone has put their shoulders to the wheel and pushed. It’s been an amazing, inspiring effort. But comrades, victory is so close. We can’t stop now!

While there is a political and tactical advantage to the unhoused people running and keeping the camp, we still need to support it logistically with donations/supplies and politically with marches, actions, and keeping up the pressure on Kenney. We can do the things we’re good at: banner drops, direct actions, street marches, teach-ins. If we don’t, it’s possible the internal pressures of the camp will prove too much for our mostly-new-to-organizing-comrades.

Let’s stop thinking of the unhoused people as anything other than our core comrades in this movement and this struggle. Do you know their names? Have you gone down to camp and talked to them about the political prospects of the situation? If you did you would see they don’t need our help, they need our solidarity! They need us beside them fighting! We started this current wave of struggle, we can’t leave them to finish it alone!

Many of us have become so used to losing that we don’t know how to pull this thing across the finish line right now, right as we’re about to win—but the folks in the camp are planning on winning. As such, they have a firmly established plan— logistically, politically, strategically—to close the camp and relocate it as soon as the PARS demand is won.

This will be a reset for the camp and for the movement, and if the city ends PARS Kenney can have the occupation off his lawn today (you reading this Kenney?!) But it all hangs in the balance right now, material support is visibly receding. People 5 6 are donating less frequently, and most of the original convening organizations are sitting on their hands (and their piles of donated cash) waiting for something to happen.

But comrades, something is happening. Something big, something real. We’re very close to significantly damaging ICE’s ability to round people up in the city, and from there, to building something even bigger.

OccupyICE is creating a working model for how we can open an umbrella organizing space in Philly that breaks through the inaction caused by sectarian turf battles. We can win real victories for the movement while materially and politically supporting Black-led autonomous revolutionary organizing of the unhoused. By its very existence, OccupyICE is realigning the terrain in Philadelphia and pulling activists kicking and screaming into winning demands and sewing the seeds of an insurgent and revolutionary street culture. This is what revolutionary street organizing looks like!

Long live OccupyICE!
End PARS!
Shut down Berks!
Abolish ICE!

-PAJ (Philly Anarchy Jawn), Monday, July 23, 2018

Beyond Occupation

  • July 17, 2018 1:07 am

from Friendly Fire Collective

Thoughts on the current #OccupyICEPHL and moving forward to #EndPARS

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We are two weeks into #OccupyICEPHL. We have ceased occupying the ICE offices since July 5 and the current encampment at City Hall has lost a lot of its original momentum. The Left in Philly united on July 2nd for the original occupation, but it has been fractured by burnout and internal conflicts. A lot of us are wondering, how did we get here and how do we move forward?

The encampment at City Hall

After the camp was dismantled on July 5th by homeland security and Philly cops, a meeting took place in the evening. Hundreds gathered, sharing reflections and potential strategies for moving forward so that we could effectively pressure Mayor Kenney to not renew the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) contract, which allows ICE access to the PPD’s database.

Following the meeting, an autonomous group decided that one strategy in continuing the fight was to begin a camp at City Hall in order to be a confrontational presence for city officials, and to educate the public about both PARS and ICE. Within minutes, they set up at City Hall, bringing yoga mats, signs, umbrellas, chairs, and food.

Picking up on the momentum of the previous camp, many came around to provide support. The camp was quickly built up with a medic and food storage tent, as well as a table of leftist literature, including flyers on both #EndPARS and #AbolishICE. Participants were flyering; workshops and teach-ins happened throughout the day; food and water and other supplies were consistently being dropped off; chants were constant; and general assemblies were held twice a day (and they still are).

That being said, within the past week, the energy at the camp has been fizzling out. I was at the camp this morning and counted around 15 present.

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Skepticism of the new camp

A number of leftists in Philadelphia have expressed skepticism of the camp.

This is fair.

More than half of those present at most general assemblies are white, and a majority of the principal organizers are white. Whiteness is a destructive force for all, with material consequences for those that cannot access its privileges. For those who are white or can access whiteness, it hinders empathy and results in moral deterioration to those who reap benefits from whiteness. We need to see and combat the way whiteness operates among us, making it a priority to center the needs and the voices of POC. In my experience, this is a constant struggle in leftist spaces, and in this sense the encampment is not unique.

It seems that a major reason why people have either backed away or have chosen not to support this camp is because they see the occupation as ineffective and believe greater action is needed. What should be noted is that this camp began with this in mind. A diversity of tactics is sorely needed and this camp was never envisioned as THE tactic for all to take. This camp was started to agitate at City Hall as part of a larger project which would include the continuing work of the original #OccupyICEPHL coalition as well as autonomous actions.

There is also skepticism because of the camp’s independence from the original coalition. Those in the camp desire to work alongside the coalition but are intentionally not bound to the coalition, structured so that those on the ground and actively involved decide the direction of the camp.

Some skepticism feels neither political nor strategic, but personal.

Infighting among leftists has been present throughout the whole occupation, even prior to the new camp. The first night of the occupation included coalition organizers squabbling with a few anarchists of a more illegalist, insurrectionist tendency. This was aired out very publicly through a zine that was published online and passed out at the final assembly at the previous occupation.

Tensions between those of a more anarchist orientation and those of a more Marxist orientation were heightened.

Some smaller orgs, especially those with a more autonomous bent, have expressed that they felt unheard and even shut down by the larger coalition.

A skepticism of anarchist organizers continues, leading some to view the new encampment as an anarchist project. Though the organization of the new camp is more horizontal, it is not solely anarchist-organized. Such thinking dismisses those houseless folks who are actively flyering, chanting, and keeping the camp smoothly operating – that do not identify as anarchists – as well as the presence of Marxists.

Again, I think some of this skepticism is a projection of people’s personal issues with specific organizers.

The stress of the original occupation, where participants were constantly surrounded by cops and federal officers, exacerbated disagreements among organizers. I cannot blame individuals for withholding their support because of being made to feel unsafe by certain organizers, but it would be strategically unwise to fully dismiss this camp because of that.

In the past week hundreds have come together to publicly agitate at City Hall. This camp is not meant to last forever, but it would be wise to not let it sputter and die out on such a sour note in such a public space. The forces-that-be want our inactivity and burnout so that the PARS contract can be renewed without a fight.

This occupation ending in such a way will reflect badly on all of us, and even more importantly, could hinder and even sabotage the campaign to #EndPARS.

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Moving forward

Last week, running off the energy of the first encampment, the camp became a base for activity.

Occupiers were constantly talking to those passing by, providing information on the PARS contract and getting folks to sign the petition put out by Juntos. Media and public attention on the camp highlighted the PARS contract. Mayor Kenney and other officials were flooded with phone calls.

This base is limited, as action-planning cannot occur in such a public space. That said, it has been a space for educating, connecting organizers and people of good conscience, and most importantly, a very public way of getting Kenney’s attention.

I don’t think as much energy needs to be put into this project as the first encampment, but I think it is worth actively supporting this camp in order to strengthen our message. If more people were out on the ground, more people could take shifts. The burden of this camp would not remain on the same 20-30 people, many of which have slept in their own beds only a handful of times since the original occupation.

But, again, we need to do more.

We need to continue calling city officials, handing out flyers, flooding social media with information on PARS; but we also need to begin agitating with more creativity. Perhaps also at other strategic locations – maybe not to the point of occupation, but at least picketing. We need to be creative in finding ways to get our message out to the public and to our so-called “leaders” as well as hinder ICE operations. We cannot afford to waste time on infighting. We cannot lose sight of the goal, and therefore we must not lose sight of our current moment. Upset over ICE continues, despite the media trying to move on. The time is ripe. We must act.

#OccupyICEPHL camp destroyed, a new one begins at City Hall, & other updates from Friendly Fire

  • July 7, 2018 12:02 pm

From Friendly Fire Collective

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Yesterday the ICE encampment was aggressively and abruptly dismantled by counter-terrorism/DHS and PPD officers. Several were arrested. The experience for many was traumatic, seeing their hard work destroyed in a matter of minutes. That evening, on the ruins of the camp, a general assembly was gathered, giving voice to various orgs and participants. Many spoke about the victory of making it as long as we did, as well as the need for a diversity of tactics. Most decided it was not tactically wise to stay at that location, and the space was given up within hours.

Two dozen or so, independent of the original coalition, decided to trek out to City Hall after the assembly and focus their energies on confronting the mayor and city officials with the original occupation’s demands, as well as educating the public about Philadelphia’s Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS).

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The PARS contract allows ICE to access Philadelphia’s database of arrests with the intention of ridding our city of “criminal aliens” – though the Mayor’s office’s definition of criminal aliens includes those with minor offenses such as loitering and traffic violations. That being said, Philly’s police are cooperating and working with ICE and yet Mayor Kenney claims that this is a sanctuary city. This a lie.

The contract is up for review in August, and now is the time for there to be pressure on Kenney to not renew this contract.

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The new camp continues with 70 or so on the ground, who remain chanting, picketing, actively feeding all who pass by the very centrally-located camp, hosting discussions and communal meals.

Today the Mayor addressed this new camp, expressing concern that the camp may become “unsanitary and unhealthy and unsafe environment” but that it can remain as long as it does not become a “permanent encampment” with things like tents and generators. He said he has not come to the decision yet on whether or not he will renew the PARS contract.

It has been a long week for occupiers. Flash floods, police brutality, and a heat wave. The total number of arrests were around 40 or so, which included Friendly Fire comrades, both of which clung onto their rosaries in prayer as it occurred. The police responded by bashing one comrade’s head into the van, tearing the rosary out of her hand, and then stomping on it in front of her. This was after an already brutal beating. After being released within a few hours with a citation, she returned to camp, ready to continue holding ground.

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Friendly Fire has held small prayer meetings throughout the week at the occupation, including a tent meeting and an exorcism of the ICE building. We are all committed to the efforts at the new camp.

We have been blown away by how the Left came together for #OccupyICEPHL and we are hopeful that we will continue building coalitions, working alongside together, even with our various tendencies and tactics. To tackle the monster that is ICE, and dare I say the police, we have no choice but a diversity of tactics.

AN ANARCHIST REPORT BACK AND SOME EMBEDDED CRITIQUES OF #OCCUPYICE PHILADELPHIA

  • July 6, 2018 1:18 am

Submission

“These texts were written in response to our various experience during the first day and night of OccupyICE. While the encampment has changed a lot since, we feel that the power dynamics and social situation still warrant these critiques.”

[Zine Web]

[Zine Collated]

Dispatch from Occupy ICE Philly

  • July 4, 2018 11:25 am

from Radical Education Department

Arthur Burbridge

Intro

On July 2nd, a coalition of groups in Philadelphia occupied the local ICE office.  In what follows  I offer a few quick sketches of the occupation.  I was there at the opening of the march at City Hall at 5PM until I had to leave at 9, and then again the next day (July 3rd) at 9:30, leaving just after noon. Today, July 4th, the occupation enters its third day.  The account and ideas below are therefore cobbled together from my own experiences, from Unicorn Riot’s live feed, and from reports from comrades who were there when I couldn’t be.

These sketches are partial, and they need to be filled out and corrected as the struggle continues.  But I hope they can add to our reflections on the ongoing ICE occupations and help us to continue building and developing radical power.

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A loose timeline

The occupation was a planned escalation out of an anti-ICE rally at City Hall.  After the rally, about 500 of us took to the streets.  The cops were clearly expecting this to some degree—they had shut down a number of roads leading from City Hall to the ICE office—but they were also  unprepared.  We waded through traffic, turning suddenly and sending the police scrambling.  A section of bikers darted ahead to help find a path.  When we reached the ICE office at the corner of 8th and Cherry, we set up a two-part camp.  The first one was in front of ICE’s van garages on Cherry.  The second was on the 8th street side of the building in front of ICE’s main doors.

Tents popped up immediately and people threw down their gear to block the garages.  At the other entrances, a bike loaded with food and water blocked the doors.  Someone brought in a massive red van with a PA system, and parked it to block Cherry and keep out cop cars.  The van started blasting tunes, and  people started dancing.  Somehow a couch made its way in front of the fenced parking lot for ICE vehicles.  Banners swung across the streets

The cop presence was large and growing at this point.  I was with the 8th street crowd guarding the building doors.  I couldn’t see what was going on around the corner at the garage.  But dozens of bike cops were lined up across from us.  Within 15 or 20 minutes they rushed the crowd, swinging their bikes as weapons for maximum effect.  They broke through the occupiers to cut the 8th street crowd in half and secure the building entrances.  But the priority was obviously the van garages (we later learned there is an entrance into the building, shared by a women’s center, that ICE employees are exploiting).  The pigs backed off and left the 8th street doors to us.  Almost immediately the bike brigade stood wheel to wheel and people jumped into the street to cut the road off from the cops.

But police started massing forces to retake 8th.  There was a commotion around the corner (since then, I heard a cop just tripped and fell down).  The cops on our side panicked and tried to break through the bike line to get across.  But the bike crew and the other occupiers around them refused.  The line was two or three bikes deep across the street; bikes collided and people pushed back, forcing the cops to retreat.

By 9, there were over 50 cop cars lined up down the street, and rumors of riot gear being unloaded.  Over the next few hours, a cop or two started appearing wearing some heavy-duty gear (vest, helmet, gas mask, etc.) that was marked “Counterterrorism Unit.”  Around the corner from me—on Cherry—cops apparently tried to bum rush the crowd to break through.  They were forced back again and occupiers locked arms to prevent another attack.  Occupiers threw up barricades to separate the tents and occupiers from police on the north end of 8th and to create a barrier in front of the garages—wooden pallets, trash, other city debris.

As the night dragged on, more whiteshirts.  Ross, the police commissioner, Ross, appeared.  Cops demanded the removal of the barricades, the couch, and the banners stretched across the streets.  Occupiers allowed these to be carted away.  To get rid of the couch, though, the cops had to haul it up into a trash truck.  People were screaming at that the police were scabbing the municipal services.  By 1 the cops backed down and started trickling away.  The threat of an immediate raid lifted.  A number of people—maybe 50, I’m not sure—stayed the night.  The cops turned on the building floodlights to fuck with people trying to sleep.

But by 6 a.m., police forces were regrouping.  By 11, the camp was building its numbers, along with its cop presence.  Dozens of beach umbrellas are popping up. It looked like a beach.  Chants started up again in earnest.  People—many otherwise unconnected to the event—were unloading car after car of food, water, ice, coolers, food.

But the pigs were biding their time for a noon assault to secure the garages.  They marched out the mounted police and dozens of regular officers, along with about a dozen or two whiteshirts. Occupiers closed ranks and linked arms.  Bike cops charged, shoving people aside along the wall and garage.  A dense mass of occupiers refused to move.  There were apparently about two dozen arrests.  The pigs took control of the garages.  They put up and are guarding metal barracades to make sure ICE can keep on working as efficiently as possible.  It’s not clear what the future of the occupation will look like from here, but the site is still occupied without any plans to leave.

The event represents one more episode in the growing militancy and radicalism of hilly, and it offers some important lessons as radical struggles continue to grow.

The developing tactic of occupation in Philly

The actions around ICE are a reminder of the Occupy encampment a few blocks away.  But this action is different.  Occupy was flooded by liberals and libertarians alongside a number of radical individuals and groups.  More militant actions, like confrontations with the police, were infrequent and did not occur on a large, coordinated scale. And in Occupy, the strategic plan was extremely unclear.  In this vacuum, it seemed like the site was being held simply for the sake of occupying it, regardless of its tactical or strategic value.

Little of that applies here.  Militancy is built into the plan.  The bike squad was part of a design to keep cops away from the building and clashes between them were inevitable.  The strategic aims of the occupation are clear: disrupt as far as possible the operation of the ICE office; create official and unofficial refusal to cooperate with ICE.  These goals are paired with broader demands: stop deportations, end family detention in Berks Family Detention Center, and end Philly’s cooperation with ICE.

The militancy here seems to be building off of the growing energy and numbers of radical antiauthoritarian struggles over the past couple of years here, in the Summer of Rage Anarchist Crew, the actions around J20, in Antifa on the national and local level, etc.  I think the militancy of anarchists as well as police abolitionists have laid some of the important groundwork.  In other words, we’re witnessing a kind of accidental but powerful collaboration between groups that is building Philly’s radical power.

Is it possible for this kind of collaboration to be developed, going forward, in a more deliberate way? For anarchists and radical Socialists to deliberately coordinate successive militant actions, or actions that are different but complement each other—creating groundwork for each other, building on each other, even despite major differences?

The Cops

There is no question that the cops are working for and coordinating with ICE.  This isn’t just obvious from their violent protection of the building.  I’ve heard from a reliable source that on Tuesday morning, the cops helped clear occupiers out from in front of the parking lot to let in an employee car.

This opens up more space for developing local radical politics.  The police are very clearly aligning here with white supremacist and fascistic forces in the state.  This isn’t a shock to many of us.  But the radical left has here a chance to emphasize the links between the police, the state, capital, and colonial violence.  In this situation, it can become very clear why calls for police abolition, prison abolition, and radical anti-capitalist politics need to be connected.

To the barricades?

As far as I know, barricades have not been a particularly popular tactic in Philly in recent years.  On the very last night of Occupy Philly, in the face of overwhelming police power, occupiers threw up a hasty barricade without much result.  But barricades have played an important part in the occupation of the ICE office so far.

As police were gathering forces and preparing to invade last night, the barricades signaled a militant defense of the occupation that was unusual for the city.  The dumpster rolling down the street—that was the signal of an even higher level of struggle, it seems, the threat of a pitched battle.  All this seemed to spook the cops.  And so it played another unexpected role, too.  The cops were hesitating to raid the space.  The barricades became a point of negotiation.  It’s like pigs need to save face; all that hyper-masculine bullshit needs to convince itself it’s forced people to obey.  The cops took the couch and the barricades.  The people kept the office.

How do we up the ante and expand our use of barricades in the future?  Can we set them up in advance to fuck with the way police will try to guide marches?  Are there techniques we can learn to build them bigger, higher, stronger, more durable?  How could they tactically help us resist repression—maybe buying us time to stay at a location, or giving us a few minutes to fly to another one while cops are stumbling over trash?

Some tactical possibilities

It’s clear the police are blundering to try to deal with this tactic and its new level of aggression.  Cops were panicked and swarming us during the march, and within an hour or two at the ICE office there were easily 60-75 cop cars gathered up.  But cops made an enormous traffic jam.  We can use this confusing and this overwhelming show of force against cops in a two (or more) stage operation.

If a large crowd is moving towards occupying a key spot, like ICE, cops will swarm.  But if we plan things right, and have the numbers, this could be followed up by getting another, separate crowd mobilized blocks away to take another major target.  With so many of them tangled up at the first spot, the chance for embedding in that second location would be much higher.

And the more that we use two stage actions, the more paranoid the pigs will get.  They’d be extremely hesitant to launch a massive force against an occupation for fear of the next steps—and we could use that to our advantage. Or they’d try greater shows of strength (riot gear etc.).  That could be a problem, but it could be a real opportunity, too, in a city like Philly that claims to be progressive.  It’s clear this city wants to shed its well-earned image of police violence.

Coalition work

The occupation is also an important experiment in radical coalition-building.  The event emerged through the efforts of the following official endorsers (but many other groups were also present at the event and probably helped in various ways): Philly Socialists, Socialist Alternative, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Montgomery County Socialists, Liberation Project, Philly DSA, Reclaim Philadelphia, Green Party of Philadelphia, International Marxist Tendency, POWER, and IWW Philly.

The list shows that the event emerged out of the socialist scene here, connecting more radical groups with more reformist and traditional groups.  This kind of project isn’t unusual in Philly, but the scale and militancy seems to me to be a serious step up.

The occupation acts as a kind of “estuary” where currents from different traditions, especially the more radical anticapitalist kind, are combining, and where a space for new, less ideologically rigid projects and ideas to develop.  Even though the “official” planning of the event was largely socialist, many other far left groups and tendencies appeared, too: a strong police abolitionist presence as well as at least some anarchists.  This kind of combination crucial as the fascistic state in the US grows in power and audacity.  Developing and deepening connections among radical groups are essential today if we’re going to build an effective (and therefore, necessarily, mass) response to fascism in a still deeply fractured radical scene.

But the event also raises an important question for Philly anarchists and the other parts of the radical left beyond the socialist scene.  Is this event worth throwing support behind?  What about the major differences in ideology between anarchists and groups like the PSL or Philly Socialists?  The occupation is mounting a clear challenge to a key local branch of fascistic power in this country.  And it’s helping build radical militancy and connections among anticapitalists here.  For anarchists or other radical anticapitalists to sit this out would be an important missed opportunity.

We can’t just wish away major ideological differences.  They are real and create tensions that can’t be ignored.  But there are also levels of coalition, the lowest being merely tactical unity without strategic or ideological agreement.  This is highly limited.  But it is still important, even as a first step, particularly if we’re going to go on the attack against an increasingly audacious state.

And the occupation shows the importance of different kinds of coalitions.  A single Philly wide coalition right now for all anticapitalists would be too internally divided and weak.  If the differences are just too big between some groups, they are much smaller between others; we see this principle at work in Philly’s current occupation.  What would it look like to create more “nodes,” or sites where closer segments of the revolutionary left experimentally build together?  Philly’s occupation is a coalitional project driven mostly by socialists.  Something similar, maybe, could be developed across different but still close sectors of the radical scene in Philly—the most anarchic wing of socialist groups with sympathetic anarchists and prison abolitionists. 

And finally, the occupation is a reminder that building revolutionary power is a process and an experiment.  Connecting at least some of the revolutionary forces in a city will come step by step, by connecting some individuals across groups that share a liberatory anticapitalism, and building outward from there.  We’re laying the foundation for many more struggles after this one.

Radical Education Department

radicaleducationdepartment.com

radicaleducation@protonmail.com

Protesters Occupy Philadelphia ICE Office

  • July 3, 2018 11:33 pm

from Unicorn Riot

Philadelphia, PA – In the latest development in the “Occupy ICE” protest encampments spreading across America, protesters have set up a new encampment outside an ICE building at 8th & Cherry Street in Philadelphia (a “sanctuary city“). Unicorn Riot has been providing live coverage into the night.

7/5/18 – 10:57 PM EDT UPDATE: The encampment outside the ICE office at 8th and Cherry has mostly disbanded at this point; a new occupation is being set up at Philadelphia City Hall to demand Philadelphia’s Mayor end the information sharing relationship with the Philadelphia Police and ICE via the PARS system.

[See updates below live feed]

Watch streams from 8th and Cherry below.

7/5/18 – 12:15 PM EDT UPDATE: Philadelphia police have just swept through the #OccupyICEPHL camp outside the Philadelphia ICE office, making seven arrests for “failure to disperse”. Counter-Terrorism Unit, SWAT, DHS federal police, and Philly bike police have formed a crowd control line on the street facing #AbolishICE protesters.

7/3/18 – 2:15 PM EDT UPDATE: Philadelphia Police say 29 #AbolishICE protesters were “issued citations for Failure to Disperse” outside the ICE offices. Two protesters were injured, one person was transported to an area hospital for treatment.

7/3/18 – 12:30 PM EDT UPDATE: Philadelphia Counter-Terrorism Unit & DHS federal police have cleared #AbolishICE protesters from two garage entrances used to move ICE detainees. Activist legal support estimates ~20+ arrests & likely injuries – officers seen punching & pulling people from crowd, throwing them to the ground as police clear the street.

7/3/18 – 12:00 PM EDT UPDATE: Philadelphia Counter-Terrorism Unit and DHS are using pain compliance to break up protesters and make arrests that are blocking the ICE garage entrances. Counter-terrorism unit is making arrests.

CTU & DHS officers stand guard at ICE office after clearing street

7/2/18 – 11:00 PM EDT UPDATE: Philadelphia police have issued a “final warning”. Tents are blocking the ICE building garage entrances while protesters and vehicles are blocking the roads. Department of Homeland Security federal police and Counter Terrorism units are on scene with gas masks, along with Philadelphia police. Philadelphia police have requested a “mass arrest” team. Militarized police aka Mobile Field Force units (MFF)* are on the scene with zip ties and “less-lethal” weapons ready to make arrests. Police A/V units are gathering intelligence. Unicorn Riot will provide more live updates as the situation unfolds throughout the night.

* National Mobile Field Force doctrine training is provided via the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a 135-page guide found by Unicorn Riot in a data request revealed in November 2016.

The occupation was set up during a ‘STOP ICE’ rally held Monday afternoon at City Hall. The rally, endorsed by over 10 local Philly activist groups, presented three key demands: an end to deportations, the closure of the Berks County Family Detention Center outside of Philadelphia, and an end to Philly Police’s information-sharing relationship with ICE.

ICE’s Philadelphia office made headlines earlier this year when a ProPublica investigation found that the Philly branch of ICE, which covers a 3-state area, makes more arrests of immigrants without no criminal history than any other branch.

Other ‘#OccupyICE’ encampments have sprung up recently in several cities including Portland, New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Detroit.

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Philly Socialist Statement Regarding a Comrade’s Arrest

  • June 13, 2018 12:37 am

from Facebook

Press contact: press@phillysocialists.org

Our statement regarding our comrade’s arrest:

On Sunday June 10, a comrade, ReeAnna Segin, was arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights by allegedly attempting to burn a “Blue Lives Matter” flag at the Philly Pride March. She was charged with arson, causing/risking a catastrophe, and other misdemeanors, and released from CFCF (a men’s prison) at approximately 5pm on Monday.

Several groups, including Philly Socialists and Philly for REAL Justice, helped to raise bail funds and legal support for her. We’re going to give ReeAnna some space, but we’ll let you know if she decides to make a public statement to the media. We cannot release much information at this time, but this incident highlights why cops should not be allowed at any pride parades.

As an institution, the police have no place at Pride. Police presence at Pride represents an affront to LGBTQ people and people of color, who daily face threat of unjustified, brutal violence and death at the hands of the police state. We must not forget the courageous work of trans women of color activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, whose actions at Stonewall against the dehumanizing systems of police oppression laid the groundwork for Pride and for the LGBT movement as a whole.

While there have been social and legal improvements for LGBT people since Stonewall, these improvements have disproportionately gone to cis white people. Trans people and queer people of color still face tremendous threats of violence from the state. Though Pride has become a celebration of all that the LGBT movement has accomplished, we cannot forget that the struggle against state oppression is far from over.

Philly Socialists stands in solidarity with all queer and trans comrades, and against the capitalist police state!

Philadelphia, PA (USA): BBQ for anarchist prisoners

  • June 13, 2018 12:08 am

from June 11th


On June 11th in Philly we had a vegan barbecue in an autonomous garden. We raised money for anarchist prisoners and had a nice time hanging in the sun. We had anti-prison and anti-police literature on hand.

Up with autonomous spaces!
Down with prisons!
Anarchist prisoners we are with you!

All Out for Pablo

  • May 24, 2018 11:22 am

Submission

There was a call put out for a bike bloc to go” All Out for Pablo” and go all out we did. In response to our comrade Pablo Avendano being murdered by the gig economy relegating millenials to a precariat class, we set out on this bike bloc armed with bricks and ceramics. A car that was in a bike lane will need a new paint job after it met the force of our anger through a projectile brick. Pablo was murdered even though he was riding in a bike lane, it seems like drivers need to be reminded to stay the fuck out of our way. Pieces of brick were thrown at the windows of yuppie luxury condos, however the windows did not shatter :(. After the ghost bike memorial to Pablo, a fuck the police chant was started and a bank was attacked with bricks, unfortunately again the windows did not shatter. A mercedes benz was attacked with a piece of ceramic. Those scratches are probably costly $$$$, sorry not sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. A lock was thrown at the windows of the Law Enforcement Benefits office because fuck every LEO who has ever breathed (except Chris Dorner), unfortunately we missed the tiny windows. Some light barricades were built of tires and wooden police barricades, to stop traffic in commemoration of Pablo. This is a fun and interesting tactic to play with, a bunch of angry cyclists attacking capital and anything that gets in their way, moving swiftly in all black attire. It can also be said that many people who did not participate in the attacks did participate in the barricade building, showing that a few folx demonstrating the possibility of conflictuality can spread to others who may want to express their emotions in a more confrontational manner. Some set backs were our aim and force, it is difficult to throw things effectively and hit targets at a distance from the back of a bike, but this situation was more a test of the waters for this kind of action in broad daylight in Philly. Hopefully more rowdy black clad bike rides happen in Philly for less somber occasions.

We claim these actions with hate in our hearts for the bourgiosie and the cops who protect their dying world, and in commemoration of Pablo. May you rest in power comrade. We also act in solidarity with All prisoners in commemoration of June 11th. Until all prisons are ash we will never stop fighting.

May this dying society tremble at our anger, in it’s destruction may we find joy. Every time their society kills one of us, we will attack them with furious revenge in our hearts and a wild fire in our eyes. Our future is already dead, but in the rubble of modernity may we be able to live in the now.

-N0 0N3

Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Locals Take Over Pipeline Office, Then Occupy Drill Rig

  • March 14, 2018 3:00 pm

from Earth First Journal

from Lancaster Against Pipelines

A bus full of pipeline protesters. From Lancaster Against Pipelines facebook

Something extraordinary happened in Lancaster County yesterday.

A busload of fifty local residents took over the field offices of Williams/Transco at 805 Estelle Drive, Suite 101, in Lancaster. We dropped a 12 foot stretch of pipeline in Williams’s meeting room, sang songs through the hallways, and slapped a Condemnation Notice on the door before leaving. When a Williams employee complained about our visit, one of our residents deadpanned: “Sucks to be invaded, doesn’t it?”

Our message was simple and direct: we the people, whose lives and land are under assault by this toxic piepline, openly defy the “right” of dirty energy giants to profit at the expense of our health, safety, water, and land.

From there, the bus headed down to southern Lancaster County where Williams is drilling under the Conestoga River and desecrating federally recognized indigenous graves. The HDD process they’re using is the same one now contaminating drinking water along the Mariner East 2 pipeline.

We walked off the bus and sang our way straight onto the worksite, right past the workers, and up onto the drill rig itself. After police arrived, five bold residents locked arms and stood atop that monstrous machinery for another three hours, shutting down operations for the rest of the day.

By day’s end, the Drill Rig Five were arrested while defending our community. It’s a perversion of justice that law enforcement are sued to protect the financial interests of energy giants in Oklahoma over the health and safety of local residents. We look forward to the day when fossil fuel billionaires are stuffed into police cruisers for sabotaging our children’s future, rather than those of us peacefully working to protect that future.

Yesterday made one thing crystal clear: local communities are done waiting around for regulators, legislators, judges, and law enforcement to protect our most basic rights–pure water, healthy soil, clean air, and safe communities.

Until it’s illegal for dirty energy giants like Williams to seize farmland and force explosive pipelines next to our children’s schools, we’ll keep walking onto their destruction sites, dropping pipes into their corporate offices, and singing songs of defiance right onto their deathly drill rigs.

Momentum is shifting, and the industry knows it. That’s why they’re so desperate–and why we need to be more resolved than ever. And the march goes on!

PHL 2017

  • February 26, 2018 8:45 pm

Submission

It’s been a year since Donald Trump took office, and Philly has been stepping it up. Let’s take a minute to celebrate all the determination, courage, and endurance of all the rebels who’ve poured sand in the gears of the system that makes his presidency possible. This is a timeline of some of the anarchic activity that’s happened  over the last year. Let’s look back to learn from our mistakes, and continue to build our strength against everything that brings oppression into the world.

Against Trump and the world that makes him possible.