from Insurrection News
On Sunday in Philly a banner was hung from the Reading Viaduct and pamphlets were thrown into the street in solidarity with the anti-fascists who fought in Charlottesville.
Philadelphia, USA: Banner Action in Solidarity with #DefendCville
Vigil for Protester Murdered in Charlottesville Today
from Facebook
[August 12 7PM to 9PM at City Hall]
Tell Taylor Hospital to Fire PA Alt-Knights Leader Ellsworth George Lewis III
From Philly Antifa
We’ve written about Ellsworth George Lewis on the site before, but we’ve learned he was recently appointed as the leader of the Pennsylvania Alt-Knights.
In response, Anti-Fascists around the state and region are launching a push to get Lewis fired from his job at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, PA.
Take a few minutes and call the hospital at (610) 595-6000 and let them know what you think about them employing racist misogynists like Ellsworth George Lewis.
Here’s a good example of what might want to say when you call.
Hello,
You are currently employing Ellsworth George Lewis III, who was recently appointed to be the Pennsylvania Commander and State Point of Contact of the Pennsylvania Alt-Knights. Alt-Knights are a group of alt-right fighting squads and has been featured in Hate Watch by The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Lewis has been in the news several times in the last few months for his involvement with the “Kekistani Movement,” which has involved Lewis carrying a modified version of a Nazi battle flag around the country and participating in various far right and fascist rallies while looking for confrontation with protesters. The “Kek” flag also has added elements from 3%er militia groups and Ku Klax Klan imagery. Lewis intends to be in Charlottesville this coming weekend to participate in the “Unite the Right” rally being organized by Neo-Nazi and other far right groups including the National Socialist Movement and American Vanguard. Lewis’ activities should be cause of grave concern for you and represent a threat to your staff and patients, and do to his recent move to a leadership position within the Alt-Knights I would like to see him terminated immediately.
Holding Together In the Face Of State Repression
from Facebook
A Conversation With Tilted Scales Collective, Human Rights Coalition and Philly J20 Defendants On How To Beat The Authorities When They Drag Us Into Court
In April of 2010 six prisoners at SCI-Dallas were charged with riot after a coordinated protest against abusive conditions in solitary cofinement durng which they covered their cell doors with sheets and bedding material. On January 20 2017 over two hundred protestors who attended a spirited ‘anti-fascist, anti-capitalist’ march were chased by police, assaulted with chemical weapons and mass arrested. They were initially charged with riot and conspiracy. Several months later those charges were expanded to include numerous other felonies and the 211 remaining defendants face up to 75 years in prison. The case against most defendants is not that they specifically commited a crime, but that they entered into a criminal conspiracy by covering their faces and wearing black. How do we defend our movements when the authoriteis attack? How do we work together to win in court and protect each other?
Join Human Rights Coalition (a group of prisoners families and supporters), Philly J20 defendants and The Titled Scales Collective (a Los Angeles based legal support collective) for a conversation about how we act together to keep each other safe. Tilted Scales will be in town discussing their ‘Tilted Guide To Being A Defendant’, a comprehensive guide to facing charges in the criminal legal system to help defendants not only figure out how to handle their legal cases, but also how to think about their cases personally, politically and legaly. People who have faced cases or who are currently caught up are encouraged to attend and participate in the discussion. Of course we will not talk about specifics about any case (what someone did or did not do that led to charges) in a way that could jeaporadize anyones legal defense. However, we will talk about ways we can act in solidarity in the courts and through the legal process and how we can build resilient movements that can withstand state repression. Come and be a part of the conversation!
Sponsored By Up Against The Law Legal Collecitve, Philly J20 Solidarity, Tilted Scales Collective, Human Rights Coalition, Irish Against Oppression and Decarcerate PA
[August 8 from 6:30PM to 8:30PM a Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N Broad St]
Billboard Graffiti for David Jones
Submission
Seen this in South West Philly
Philly Stands With J20
from Instagram
Philly Stands with J20. #defendj20
Judge Orders Halt To Horizontal Drilling For Mariner East 2 Pipeline
from Unicorn Riot
Harrisburg, PA – On Tuesday, July 25, a judge on Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board ordered a temporary stop to all horizontal drilling operations underway to construct the Mariner East 2 pipeline. The ruling against Sunoco Logistics (which recently merged with Energy Transfer Partners) was issued as part of an ongoing lawsuit by Clean Air Council and other environmental groups. It requires the pipeline company to cease all horizontal drilling activities, but permits other construction activities, including non-horizontal drilling, to continue.
One day earlier, on July 24, a Public Utilities Commission judge had also ruled to grant an emergency order sought by West Goshen Township to “cease and desist all current construction” in their area. West Goshen alleges Sunoco violated the terms of a Settlement Agreement made with the township in 2015 by building on township property without permission, ignoring local regulations, and parking in front of the local fire department’s driveway.
Pipeline contractors employed by Sunoco Logistics have had a series of “inadvertent returns“ (drilling slurry spills into groundwater) along the pipeline route, including but not limited to; spills in Chester County, Blair County, Delaware County, Westmoreland County, Washington County, Allegheny County, Indiana County, and Huntingdon County.
According to Clean Air Council, court filings made last week “disclosed 61 drilling fluid spills and water contamination in multiple Pennsylvania regions.”
Earlier this month, we visited neighborhoods in Chester County where drilling leaks in West Whiteland Township had ruined local sources of drinking water.
The $2.5 billion dollar pipeline would carry natural gas liquids such as propane, ethane, and butane from frack fields in Scio, Ohio, across West Virginia and Pennsylvania to export terminals at Marcus Hook, near Philadelphia, where they would be shipped across the sea for use by the European plastics industry.
In Huntingdon, in central Pennsylvania, tree-sits at Camp White Pine have blocked the Mariner East 2 right-of-way for many months. Sunoco work crews began preemptively clearing trees on the Gerhart family’s property in 2015, bringing sheriffs’ deputies who arrested several people. Many trees of a conserved forest plot were cut down but some trees were occupied, and remain to this day as part of a tree-sit village. Sunoco is active in areas near Camp White Pine, but despite a recent court injunction giving police more authority to make arrests on the family’s private property, they have not yet tried to retake their eminent domain easement on the Gerhart’s land.
[Video]
The order to halt horizontal directional drilling lasts until the next Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board hearing on August 7. Sunoco reportedly expects to be able to resume drilling after the hearing, promising to “demonstrate that we have expended every effort to meet the strict conditions of our environmental permits.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2015 by Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association, Inc., and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network seeks to stop Mariner East 2 entirely, asserts that permits from the Department of Environmental Protection “failed to adequately address the severe negative impacts of the pipeline project on Pennsylvania’s streams, wetlands and forests.” The case heads to trial at Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court later this year.
USA: Anti-Gentrification Attack in South Philly
from Insurrection News
In the dark hours between July 24th and 25th two vacant residential construction sites and a back hoe had their windows smashed in Greys Ferry in South Philly.
Solidarity and complicity with grand jury resistance in North Carolina!
Solidarity and complicity with J20 rebels facing repression!
Solidarity and complicity with imprisoned anti-fascists!
Fuck gentrification!
The Fire Inside: Reportbacks and Speaking Tours from September 9 and looking ahead
from The Fire Inside
There is a fire seething in US prisons. September 9th of 2016 saw some of the largest prisoner rebellions in history. This August, prisoners are calling to fan the flames up again.
Participants in last year’s mass mobilization and nationally coordinated prisoner protest are calling for another wave of actions starting on August 19th of this year. In order to succeed and combat the brutal repression prison rebels face there must be robust, visible, and widespread support on the outside. To that end, we’re putting out a reportback zine and organizing speaking tours to distribute it.
Read our tour announcement for more info.
Mon July 31- Philadelphia, PA
6PM at A-Space
4722 Baltimore Ave
Philly IWW Certification Meeting
from Facebook
A Meeting to discuss the IWW cetification as an actual General Membership Branch. I Please come especially if you are a singed up member to sing a petition to have our brnach chartred . Even id you are not a singed up member please come and discuss things.
[July 30 from 6PM to 9PM at Wooden Shoe Books 704 South St]
Sunoco Faces Backlash After Repeated Pipeline Drilling Spills
from Unicorn Riot
West Whiteland Township, PA – Construction of the Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline faces several new obstacles as local authorities and the public respond to a series of drilling accidents.
Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners recently voluntarily stopped construction in certain areas where horizontal directional drilling for the pipeline had contaminated local water sources. After a meeting with township officials on Friday, July 14, the company announced that it was halting drilling operations in Chester County “indefinitely.” The horizontal directional drill (HDD) has been withdrawn from the site at Whiteland West Apartments where it had been active until last week, and has been sitting unused in the parking lot at St Peter and Paul Catholic Church and School.
It is unclear how long drilling in the area will stop, and if construction activities other than drilling are still taking place. Sunoco Logistics reportedly intends to blame Union Pipeline contractors, who had been operating the drill in Chester County, and replace them with workers from Michels Corporation, a pipeline contractor known for its work on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.
Sunoco admitted puncturing an aquifer in Exton while drilling on June 22, and has offered bottled water and hotel vouchers to over a dozen residents whose water supply either disappeared or was tainted. The incident has been described as an “inadvertent return” – an accidental process in which a chemical slurry of underground drilling lubricants ends up flowing back towards the surface, contaminating any local waterways in its path.
Contaminated water from a tainted well in West Whiteland Township
Sunoco has paid to attach several homes to the public water system after their private wells were tainted with drilling slurry containing chemicals. However, problems with the aquifer feeding the public water system have also been reported since drilling began last month. Before residents started reporting contaminated water, the company had ignored requirements to notify downstream residents 72 hours before starting to drill.
Permitting paperwork from February of this year shows both Sunoco and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection were aware that drilling was likely to damage the local aquifer. Despite this knowledge, Sunoco was given regulators’ blessing to drill anyway.
Earlier this month we heard from affected residents in Chester County about how pipeline drilling accidents are impacting their neighborhoods and their lives:
Water contamination from drilling has also been reported in other counties along the route of Mariner East 2. Blair County reported an ‘inadvertent return’ earlier this month. On Monday, July 17, another drilling spill was reported at a Mariner East 2 HDD site in Middletown, PA, in Delaware County:
On Monday July 17th, Middletown Township reported to residents that the township had been made aware of a bentonite spill at Sunoco’s HDD drilling site behind Tunbridge apartments. Middletown Township reported that they had been notified around 4:30pm, and that PADEP had also been notified and was responding to the event. It is reported that the spill reached Chester Creek. – Middletown Coalition for Community Safety
On Tuesday July 18, a Middletown resident posted a video of the drilling spill site to Facebook and noted how contractors’ efforts to contain the spill seemed inadequate.
Sunoco had previously spilled drilling slurry into Chester Creek in Delaware County earlier this year while drilling in Brookhaven on May 10. The Middletown Coalition for Community Safety is demanding that Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoke “prematurely issued water obstruction and encroachment permits” for Mariner East 2 as well as calling for a moratorium on all pipeline construction. State Senator Andy Dinniman, of West Whiteland Township, also alleges that Sunoco used loopholes in DEP regulations to ignore potential impacts private wells when applying for permits.
Additionally, Sunoco is facing legal action from the Chester County township of West Goshen, which seeks an injunction to immediately and indefinitely halt construction on Mariner East 2. West Goshen Township supervisors, who voted unanimously to petition Pennsylvania’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for an emergency order, allege that Sunoco began pipeline construction at an unapproved location without notifying them or asking for their permission. Township officials also say Sunoco pipeline crews ignored local construction and safety regulations, and have repeatedly blocked the driveway to the local fire department with their vehicles.
Several hundred miles west in the Susquehanna Valley in central Pennsylvania, tree-sits at Camp White Pine still block Mariner East 2’s route through Huntingdon County. The property is owned by the Gerhart family, who have refused to allow pipeline work crews onto their property despite repeated rulings against them by local courts on behalf on Sunoco. Huntingdon County judge Georce Zanic recently approved an injunction sought by Sunoco to allow police to arrest the Gerharts (and/or their supporters) on their own property at the pipeline company’s request.
One of several tree-sit pods at Camp White Pine, on the route of Mariner East 2 in Huntingdon, PA
With drilling paused in Chester County, the blockades at Camp White Pine still in place, and neighborhoods along the route self-organizing to respond to pipeline safety issues, hundreds of miles of Mariner East 2 are still incomplete. Nonetheless, Sunoco Logistics (‘an Energy Transfer company’) claims the pipeline will be operational sometime this year. The line would carry liquified gases such as ethane, butane, and propane from frack fields in Scio, Ohio across Pennsylvania to export terminals at Marcus Hook, where it would then be shipped across the Atlantic to a plastics company in Scotland.
Stay tuned to Unicorn Riot for more updates as we continue to report on this unfolding story.
Philadelphia, PA: Six Months On, We Will Still #DefendJ20
from It’s Going Down
Six months ago, on January 20th, the spectacle of a peaceful transition of power was smashed by hundreds of brave souls who descended on the streets of Washington D.C. and numerous other cities in these so-called United States. Their defiant rejection of the newest authoritarian regime set the stage for continued resistance against Trump and all those who keep us in chains.
On that day in D.C. an anti-capitalist / anti-fascist march was violently suppressed by the Metropolitan Police Department in conjunction with the US Parks Police. Chemical weapons were deployed indiscriminately, while storm trooper riot cops attacked demonstrators, bystanders, and supporters with a volley of flashbangs, stinger grenades, and rubber bullets.
After the smoke settled that afternoon, over 230 people were kettled for hours in a cold January rain without access to food, water, or restrooms, and were then hit with a felony rioting charge. Since then, over 200 of the #J20 defendants were re-indicted on 7 or more new felony charges and are now facing over 75 years in prison. The #J20 defendants are working collectively to fight back against a state that seeks to criminalize dissent by locking them in cages for the rest of their lives.
Their bold resistance will not be forgotten.
Their sacrifices will not be in vain.
These trumped up charges will be fought and defeated.
We call on our comrades in this week of solidarity to #DefendJ20!
Solidarity with all #J20 defendants! Solidarity with all those who oppose fascism and capitalism! Solidarity with all those fighting for autonomy and dignity!
Love and rage,
Philly
Alt-Right Tries and Fails – Again – In Philly
from Philly Antifa
On Saturday July 15th Refuse Fascism (an anti-Trump/Pence coalition with no affiliation to our crew) held several “Drive our the Trump/Pence Regime” demonstrations around the country.
Having been thoroughly embarrassed over and over in the past few months, one might think that the racist right might have taken the hint and left these nice communists alone. And for the most part, you would be right. Gone were the throngs of suburban MAGAts, Bikers for Trump, and crews of White Nationalists we saw back in May during the failed “Make America Great Again” march. Even the pathetic turnout on July 2nd could not be repeated. (See links if you are not a regular reader)
No, what turned out this past Saturday with some vague notion of disrupting or trolling the Refuse Fascism march represented the dregs of the Pennsylvania Alt-Right. Less than a dozen individuals brought together through social media and shared stories of catching beat downs for having bad situational awareness and worse politics, “rallied” on the corner of 15th and JFK.
We say “rallied” because they were basically silent the entire time, preferring to talk among themselves or occasionally argue with the Anti-Racists and Anti-Fascists that walked by on their way to the Refuse rally, which went off without a hitch across the plaza. They handed out two different fliers. The first was as vague as it was pathetic, listing a bunch of “posi” slogans about how “We can be great again” though refraining from using Trump’s name, and a bunch of masked pleading about how the alt-right are poor victims of Leftist violence. The 2nd flyer was largely a cut and paste job of that idiotic article put out by the NJ DHS claiming the Antifa are an “extremist group.” The article, riddled with inaccuracies and bias, was followed by an article detailing the far right’s acts of violence, including ACTUAL murders, but these lovers of informed discourse declined to distribute any information about THAT article. Instead, they preferred to (incorrectly) assert that an article online means that all Antifa are now “classified as terrorists,” when in reality none are.
After the Refuse march departed from their rally, barely even noting the MAGAts, they (along with their police escort and a handful of Anti-Fascists and media) walked over the the Fox and Hound on 15th street. The right wingers ordered food and drank for several hours.
Undercover police and surveillance made for a calm scene, but Antifa did inform the management of the identities of the alt-rightists, including the fact that one of them was non other than Mark Daniel Reardon, aka “Illegal Aryan,” the Neo-Nazi troll who has been putting up Neo-Nazi flyers in West Philly (more on that below). Reardon hopped into an Uber not long after. A few more of them would make similar exits until a core group headed back towards city hall to distribute more of their Anti-Antifa fliers. It did not take long for them to realize their folly and they were soon calling the cops for protection again.
So who were this patchwork crew of Alt-Knights, “Classical (racist) Liberals,” MAGAts and outright Neo-Nazis who struggled to even exist in Philadelphia while under constant police protection? Here’s some of what we know about them:
Jeff Thomas
Jeff Thomas is a member of Greater Philadelphia Alt-Knights. He is “not a Nazi or White Supremacist.” He tries (repeatedly) to make that clear to Anti-Racists that object to his organizing events for Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists to attend. Thomas claims that he is an anarcho-capitalist or right libertarian, both nonsense terms invented to hijack leftist language about individual liberty to serve the rich. When confronted with the fact that everything he organizes (including this past Saturday) is at least 50% comprised of Neo-Nazis, Fascists or other White Supremacists, Thomas only shrugs his shoulders and mutters some absolution of responsibility based on his inability to control others. When you’re full of shit you’re gonna attract flies, Jeff.
Jeff claims on social media to be living in Collegeville but has a partner who lives in Philly and he’s still listed at his parents’ house on S. Mountain Drive in Reading. He loves to debate, which we caution against as a waste of time, but if the mood strikes you he can be reached at 610-207-2223.
Thomas is working on a book on right and left politics. We imagine that when he wants to call it quits, he will claim this was all just research. Anyone remember Jacques Pluss? Anyway, time will tell. It’s irrelevant because when you help organize and protect Neo-Nazis, your own personal politics are moot.
There’s no shortage of con-men or short-sighted demagogues on the right who may not consider themselves racist (again, completely irrelevant and laughable considering the circumstances). This is true for Jeff Thomas, and this is true for Gaving McInness, Donald Trump, or any other not-textbook-fascist who associates with, enables and emboldens Neo-Nazis and other racists and/or Fascists.
Mark Reardon
Regular readers of this site will remember Mark Daniel Reardon, aka “Illegal Aryan,” a The Daily Stormer poster who we exposed after he anonymously claimed responsibility for putting up Neo-Nazi flyers along Locust Walk a few months ago. According to a man who was at the rally Saturday and lives in West Philly, Reardon has been spotted putting up more flyers, including one at 36th and Chestnut. Reardon is a Neo-Nazi who attended the Traditionalist Worker’s Party rally in Pikevilly, KY in May and returned to find out he was no longer anonymous.
Since then he was kicked out of his apartment but is still staying somewhere in Philadelphia and recently stopped by a Food Not Bombs serving at an anarchist space then took to twitter to gloat about how he had visited our “headquarters” (lol) and escaped detection.
However this past Saturday he was just a shook one who feebly refused to answer an elder’s question as to whether the Holocaust happened (though he stuck out his tongue and smiled when Jeff Thomas and others acknowledged the Holocaust happened).
Reardon pretty much refrained from talking with anyone other than the other Alt-Rightists, and was generally about as craven as we all expected. He did post a boasting report back afterwards about his ability to survive a day out in Philadelphia with police and sympathizer protection, in which Reardon also speaks highly of just how sympathetic the others there were to his politics and activities.
Ellsworth Lewis
Ellsworth George Lewis III is a far-right wing racist troll who is a member of Greater Philadelphia Alt-Knights. He is 31 and lives on Lincoln Ave in Prospect Park, PA. He works at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park PA.
Deborah Nemeth
Deborah Nemeth lives in center city. She works as a paralegal and business manager for Piscitello Law as well as Project Manager for Diamond Contractors. Her bigotry of choice seems to be Islamophobia. This is only her second appearance with this crowd by our count, and is another one of this crew that claimed to not be a Nazi or White Supremacist. For our feelings on that argument, see Jeff Thomas.
Howard Caplan
Howard Caplan, also known as “Pizzagate Howie” or by his (now suspended) twitter handle @pghowie1, is a local wingnut and the seemingly the last man on earth (or at least in Philadelphia) willing to publicly claim that the endlessly debunked Pizzagate conspiracy is a real thing. Caplan also burst into Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul during midnight mass on Christmas eve to deliver a tirade alleging a link between Pizzagate and The Catholic Church’s (very real) scandals regarding sexual abuse. Before he was on Pizzagate, Caplan was the “Hillary 4 Prison sign guy” for flying said sign along Roosevelt Boulevard near where he lives in NE Philly.
Kevin Nally
Kevin Nally Jr. is fucking gross. He is otherwise known as “pill eater” and he runs a website asianaryanism(dot)com (NSFW. Disgusting misogynist and racist content), the crux of which is advocate for a home for racist alt-right white men who fetishize east Asian women as submissive sex objects. When we say home we are being literal; the site claims to advocate for “a new ideology called ‘Asian Aryanism’ where a new white male-asian female ethnostate is established right next to the white ethnostate that Richard Spencer proposes…” Nally’s website features his writings and music, including an album called “Rape is Love” with a disgusting cover featuring battered women.
Nally lives at 606 Nantucket Court in King of Prussia. He was with a woman, who people were calling “Molly”.
So so far we got an Ancap who is either playing dumb or is just really dumb, a far-right LARPer, an Islamophobic nazi sympathizer, an actual Neo-Nazi, a racist misogynist, and fucking “Pizzagate Howie.” This is a wonderfully diverse collection of unique fashy snowflakes.
Also spotted with the Alt-Right contingent included:
There was also a 15 year old boy who expressed sympathy for the Traditionalist Worker’s Party and claimed “Hitler did nothing wrong,” though they quickly backtracked and said “some things.” His (hopefully ashamed) mother was literally waiting a few yards away behind a row of police. Daniel Reardon beamed about the little Nazi in his report back, claiming he had a “bright future.” Sounds like wishful thinking coming from a guy with a lot of hard times on the horizon .
And that was pretty much all of them, except for one or two who kept more or less silent.
Oh and there were some total P.O.S. Anti-Gay preachers there with their kids. Something about everyone going to hell. It was stupid. Later they went to Clark Park during a Dead Milkmen show and some of the attendees confronted them. Maybe there’s room for them with Jeff and Howie and Deb’s crew of people who are safe nowhere in Philadelphia.
Takeaways from this rather uneventful event are some classics (cops protect Fashies/the alt right is a bunch of rich kids and wingnuts getting duped by White Supremacists) as well as some disturbing new ones (Reardons report back, which we won’t link for obvious reasons, makes it very clear there is no limit to who this crowd associates with) as well as the always worthwhile goal of taking some time to let racists, sexists, homophobes and other assorted fascists know they are (still) not welcome in Philadelphia.
Eternal War on the Hitler Youth,
Anathema Volume 3 Issue 5
from Anathema
Volume 3 Issue 5 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)
Volume 3 Issue 5 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)
In this issue:
- Call for Week of Solidarity with J20 Arrestees
- Assassination Attempted in Alexandria
- Antifa v. 4Chan: A Perspective on the July 2nd March to Impeach Trump
- What Went Down
- News
- Letter to the Editor
- PA Pipeline Updates
- Factory Death
- NYPD Officer Assassinated
- Watching Police
- July 25 Day of Solidarity with Antifa Prisoners
- Zoo Abuse, Collective Liberation
- How to Buy a Gun
- Poem, Pictures, & Comics
BBQ and Self-Defense Skill-Share
from Facebook
Come out for some free food and for a free self-defense skill-share. During the skill-share, we will learn various techniques for defending ourselves from attackers: how to break grabs and holds, how to block punches and kicks, how to disarm weapons, and how to defend youself from the ground. There will also be a Q&A for questions and scenarios.
[July 23 from 3 to 8PM at FDR Park 1500 Pattison Ave]
