The Office of Scholarly Communications at the Berkman School of Anarchy is pleased to announce the launch of our new counter-info project! We will be accepting all Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh specific submissions that are hostile to authority. Analyses, reportbacks, communiques, public flyers, and other relevant anti-authoritarian stuff are welcome. Submissions will be published right here, on this site, so check back often! Instructions for submission can be found on the Contact & Submissions page. We are excited to see what you have to send us đ
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]In this column, we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news, happenings, announcements, action and analysis. Packed in as always are updates, fundraisers, and birthdays.
Thereâs a lot happening, so letâs dive right in!
Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going toconnectnetwork.com, selecting âAdd a facilityâ, choosing âState: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Correctionsâ, going into the âmessagingâ service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or âNT0000â.
Birthday: November 10
Address:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Dwayne Staats, NT0000
SCI Camp Hill
PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, FL 33733
Conditions within Gaza continue to rapidly turn into a hellscape, with hospitals shutting down due to lack of fuel and water and millions running out of a basic necessities. James Elder, spokesperson at UNICEF stated recently, âThe numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day. Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. Itâs a living hell for everyone else.â Currently Israeli forces have entered Gaza as bombings continue, such as the recent attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.
As this horror plays out, thousands continue to take to the streets across the so-called United States, Canada, and around the world. Hereâs a roundup of recent mass demonstrations and direct actions.
Saturday night, October 28th, in light of the communication blackout in and increased bombing of Gaza, approximately a thousand people assembled in Center City Philadelphia for an emergency call to action in support of Palestinians.
The crowd included people responding to an additional call for anarchists and anti-colonial radical presence at the demonstration. We were among them. The call suggested attendees wear black clothes and keffiyahs or ski masks. We chose to wear both, layering keffiyahs over ski masks because the clear show of solidarity was important to us. A hot fashion tip: we were able to remove a layer and still be covered and anonymous.
Soon after the rally became a march, we and others began covering the walls with decolonial slogans. Some favorites: FREE GAZA, FUCK ISRAEL, DECOLONIZE, VIVA PALESTINA, FAUDA, FAGGOTS AGAINST EMPIRE, BLOOD$ (on banks along the way), and FUCK BIDEN WHOLE LIFE. Those in bloc were particularly good at looking out for each other as painting took place, and it felt thrilling to write on a wall, fuck up a bank, inhale the smell of fresh paint. Even more thrilling was the response from other demonstrators! Everyone had each otherâs backs, whether they were in the black bloc or not. Other demonstrators pushed out snitches, shielded writers from cops and security guards, warned us vandals when the cops were looking for us, and also joined in, borrowing paint cans and markers to write their own slogans. There were some close calls with law enforcement but at the end of the night no one was arrested. We love to see it!
After a while things got hot (girl, it was 80Âș out) and the cops were on the lookout. People transitioned đ into new looks, and mixed into the crowd. Passing privilege, baby!
In Rittenhouse Square, the crowd paused, blocking the intersection and surrounding a sound truck. Activists gave speeches from the truck bed. It was cute until these two boys showed up, oh my god! They tried to put up Zionist propaganda (those âmissing personâ posters, youâve seen them) in the middle of the crowd, but that wasnât going to happen, obviously. People ripped down the only poster they got up, and then confiscated the rest. A very patient and generous activist escorted them away and down the block. This is a good place to remind you that these tactics are often a ploy to film, dox, and harass. If youâre going to interfere, go off, but like, be unidentifiable (no face, no tatts, no case).
The march had great energy and a lot of the chants were inspiring and like, literally revolutionary or insurrectionary so⊠Anyway, we had some fantasies after being in such an exciting environment. If this was the energy here, just imagine what could happen if this demo passed by as ugly as a military recruitment center or a weapons manufacturerâs office?
In all earnestness, people are angry, grieving, and fucking fed up with inaction in response to peaceful protest. While yes, we could have seen that last one coming, the warm reception to criminality and confrontation that night has us wondering what horizon we can reach for next. What could a more directed march be like? What can we do now, within the belly of this fucking empire? After all, the things around us are not disconnected from the genocide in Palestine â the politicians, the arms dealers, the funders, the surveillance technologists, many of them have offices, warehouses, or some physical presence here. They are real people doing things in real places, we can go to them and touch them, and it will effect their ability to collaborate on genocide.
Xoxo
Faggots for intifada
As the war continues to intensify with the complete backing of the United States government, resistance in solidarity with Palestine shows no signs of stopping, as the need for an end to the bombardment only becomes more dire for those living in the occupied territories.
Wooden Shoe Books is partnering with Books Behind Bars @booksbehindbarsnj for a book drive in honor of @penamerica Prison Banned Books Week: October 25-31. Books Behind Bars is a prison abolition project that mails free books to incarcerated people. To participate, come down in person to the Wooden Shoe and purchase a book to be donated to Books Behind Bars. The deadline is November 24th. Every book you buy/donate before November 24th will be matched by a generous foundation. This means your donation has double the impact!We know that more books are banned in prisons than anywhere else in the country, and censorship efforts everywhere are increasing at an alarming rate. From an anarchist and abolitionist standpoint, sending free books to our incarcerated community members is a radical act of solidarity, mutual aid, and love. Please join us in this effort. Come down (until 11/24) and pick out any book of your choosing to be donated to our friends on the inside.
Several pro-Palestine graffiti messages were tagged around Center City Philadelphia during last night’s mass protest demanding an end to mass killings of civilians in Gaza:
Other graffiti messages that went up around Philly’s downtown shopping district last night: “Free Gaza” “Decolonize” “Fuck Biden Whole Life” “Fags Against Empire”
Large protests have unfolded in many cities worldwide this week. In recent days Gaza has been extensively bombed and shelled by Israeli forces, while regular rocket and mortar barrages have been directed outwards at Israeli towns and bases. Around 7700 Palestinians have been killed according to reports; communications from the Strip were largely cut off in the last 36 hours. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz 1300 Israelis, both civilian and military, have been killed so far.
TV Host, professor and activist Marc Lamont Hill spoke during the rally and demanded a ceasefire and end to the âoccupationâ and âan end to apartheid.â See his full speech below.
âTonight, we demand a ceasefire! Tonight, we demand that no more Palestinian children are killed! ⊠We demand decolonization. We demand an end to the occupation. We demand an end to apartheid.
I canât get free until you [Palestine] get free! As long as our police are training Israeli officers and as long as Israeli officers are training our officers, we will live in a hyper security state that treats every brown person, every Black person as an outsider, as a threat, as somebody worthy of death.â
For more Unicorn Riot coverage on Palestine see our reports below:
Saturday night, October 28th, in light of the communication blackout in and increased bombing of Gaza, approximately a thousand people assembled in Center City Philadelphia for an emergency call to action in support of Palestinians.
The crowd included people responding to an additional call for anarchists and anti-colonial radical presence at the demonstration. We were among them. The call suggested attendees wear black clothes and keffiyahs or ski masks. We chose to wear both, layering keffiyahs over ski masks because the clear show of solidarity was important to us. A hot fashion tip: we were able to remove a layer and still be covered and anonymous.
Soon after the rally became a march, we and others began covering the walls with decolonial slogans. Some favorites: FREE GAZA, FUCK ISRAEL, DECOLONIZE, VIVA PALESTINA, FAUDA, FAGGOTS AGAINST EMPIRE, BLOOD$ (on banks along the way), and FUCK BIDEN WHOLE LIFE. Those in bloc were particularly good at looking out for each other as painting took place, and it felt thrilling to write on a wall, fuck up a bank, inhale the smell of fresh paint. Even more thrilling was the response from other demonstrators! Everyone had each otherâs backs, whether they were in the black bloc or not. Other demonstrators pushed out snitches, shielded writers from cops and security guards, warned us vandals when the cops were looking for us, and also joined in, borrowing paint cans and markers to write their own slogans. There were some close calls with law enforcement but at the end of the night no one was arrested. We love to see it!
After a while things got hot (girl, it was 80Âș out) and the cops were on the lookout. People transitioned đ into new looks, and mixed into the crowd. Passing privilege, baby!
In Rittenhouse Square, the crowd paused, blocking the intersection and surrounding a sound truck. Activists gave speeches from the truck bed. It was cute until these two boys showed up, oh my god! They tried to put up Zionist propaganda (those âmissing personâ posters, youâve seen them) in the middle of the crowd, but that wasnât going to happen, obviously. People ripped down the only poster they got up, and then confiscated the rest. A very patient and generous activist escorted them away and down the block. This is a good place to remind you that these tactics are often a ploy to film, dox, and harass. If youâre going to interfere, go off, but like, be unidentifiable (no face, no tatts, no case).
The march had great energy and a lot of the chants were inspiring and like, literally revolutionary or insurrectionary so⊠Anyway, we had some fantasies after being in such an exciting environment. If this was the energy here, just imagine what could happen if this demo passed by as ugly as a military recruitment center or a weapons manufacturerâs office?
In all earnestness, people are angry, grieving, and fucking fed up with inaction in response to peaceful protest. While yes, we could have seen that last one coming, the warm reception to criminality and confrontation that night has us wondering what horizon we can reach for next. What could a more directed march be like? What can we do now, within the belly of this fucking empire? After all, the things around us are not disconnected from the genocide in Palestine â the politicians, the arms dealers, the funders, the surveillance technologists, many of them have offices, warehouses, or some physical presence here. They are real people doing things in real places, we can go to them and touch them, and it will effect their ability to collaborate on genocide.
Xoxo
Faggots for intifada
P.S. Going to the demo? Hereâs some cute ideas to try with your friends: bring extra gloves, masks, t-shirts for people who might be under-dressed for the occasion. Bring extra art supplies to share! Many people around us are becoming disillusioned with the democratic avenues on offer right now, people are finding their way. If people are curious about anarchists, a little encouragement and support can go a long way.
Recently, there’s been a lot more motion in terms of Philly anarchy stuff (attacks, events, and actions). I think it can be attributed to a variety of phenomenon. But I think a big part of it is a phrase that a comrade and I recently discussed that I’m gonna call âsocial insurrectionary methodsâ.
I think that the social insurrectionary methods have been a tendency in Philly in the past as I understand it but we’re seeing a major return of those methods. Fundamentally, social insurrectionary methods rely upon efforts by anarchists to orient in a more social way while maintaining our insurrectionary anarchist politics. This differentiates us from âcivil anarchistsâ who compromise their own politics in the name of unity or liberalism or leftist politics or deference. The social insurrectionary methods come with some risks obviously in terms of security. I think that is why some people are less interested in those methods due to the risks. However, I think those risk can be counteracted by the fact that every insurrectionary actor does not need to be involved in every direct action. We can practice security culture and have different spheres of activation for different people. We don’t need to be friends with everyone. We just gotta keep social spaces alive.
I think a forward facing or at least a more open anarchist space can provide more opportunities for new comrades (especially those who might not normally be exposed to anarchist politics due to racial and class segregation) to take part in struggle. Some of these things have been visible and others have been less visible. I think efforts like the work parties that took part at Bartrams, the organizing meetings and mob vandalism against Moms for Liberty, the martial arts training space (which is very Black and queer), intervention around ideas at political spaces such as the Block Cop City talk or the George Floyd Uprising Book talk, film screenings, Black anarchist meetups, discussion groups on Palestine solidarity, Philly contingents going to anarchist convergences (we brag about how great Philly anarchy is), friend hangouts in the park, Black anarchists working alongside Black nationalists to do self defense training and study, anarchists fighting in the Eddie Izirarry riots, and various other types of social activities tied to a politics of revolt are good examples of social insurrectionary activity. Or maybe that’s just being a serious anarchist. We build with each other as well as bringing in new people. I just want it to keep happening. I haven’t been this excited about anarchism in Philly in a while. This trend is only continuing with more discussion groups, meet-ups, and an upcoming Anarchist skill share in November. It’s all so exciting. Just keep planning stuff, please!
I think this social tendency of anarchists makes us strong and brings new people to our movement. I think the thing I’ve had conversations with people about a lot over the course of the past 12 months about is basically that anarchists must organize interventions and events on our own. And that’s the important thing for us to do rather than downplaying or diminishing our politics while at the same moment being open to people that might not share our politics. That’s the social insurrectionary method. In some ways, the social insurrectionary method by being uncompromising in our politics forces other political people to either adapt or at least respect the anarchist perspective. By organizing our own spaces and making our position clear we operate from a position of strength that we can communicate our ideas while not downplaying them.
I honestly think this is where affinity comes in to be honest. It’s easier to stand solid on your shit if comrades got your back. Whether it’s going to a work party with some friends, arguing with liberals at a Block Cop City event, moving in the streets as people spray paint, talking shit about how leftists in the city are cowards, anarchist fight training events, attending actions together that end up being wack but having fun being together, drinking cider on the porch, acrobatic exercises to do bad shit, or discussing a new zine that just dropped…social insurrectionary methods are great and fun and it doesn’t have to be FUCKING liberal or sub-cultural. Social insurrectionary methods for the win. Bring your comrades. Have their back. Even if it’s a small thing. Social means we move together and broaden our capacity as we move. We don’t all have to agree, we just gotta have respect, be anarchists and be in conversation. That’s a thing I really like about the anarchist space in Philly right now. Let’s keep up the energy. I love going to things where I see people I don’t know!
PS: Also, for comrades who aren’t in Philly. You can do all of this too. Just begin. We’re able to do it in Philly cause people just wanted cool shit to happen. The secret is to really begin!
Some Suggestions for social insurrectionaries
-More anarchist work parties
-Anarchist meetups/potlucks of every variety (for queer anarchists, black anarchists, disabled anarchists, anarchists who DJ, etc)
-Anarchist reading groups or film screenings
-Anarchist crew up and go to a wack event and critique it (a personal preference)
-More anarchist fight meetups (maybe with a debate interlude)
-Anarchist jogging meetups
-More Anarchist bike rides
-More Black bloc please
-More anarchist rave
-Anarchist hip hop show (no white race traitors allowed)
-More anarchist meetups at wack actions for activities
-No phone hangouts
-More Philly anarchist road trips to other cities (I hear harrisburg and pittsburgh are pretty cool)
-More anarchist skill shares that are not fight training
-More mob vandalism
-attack level 1 communist enemies with your level 25 anarchist crew
We attacked two excavators that were demolishing the street dept warehouse in north bartrams. When we arrived we were delighted to realize that someone had already damaged the machines! In addition to smashing the machines, we poured quick-setting concrete into the exhaust pipe of a machine. We choose this method because of its simplicity and ease. The other machine we used various techniques that can be found in warriorup.noblogs.org. Good luck finding what we did!
The All Out For Gaza demo tonight was a genuine expression of love, solidarity, and rage for Palestinians experiencing genocide at the hands of the occupying forces of the state of Israel. While the spirit of this demo was more inspiring in some ways than most demos in Philly, there was a general vibe that the space was not open to more combative expressions of solidarity. This was due both to the crowd generally not taking part in that, but also the march route being relatively devoid of potential targets. However small though, we take victories where we can get them. During the march I punctured the tires of 2 Septa Transit Police vehicles that the marched passed by. Police are an occupying force in any form and are the enforcers of settler-colonialism. In expressing solidarity with those fighting for their freedom and lives in Palestine, functionaries of a colonial project in support of the state of Israel, such as the U.S, can and should be attacked. Destabilizing individual colonial powers can make the larger project of settler colonialism more and more vulnerable.
Love to and Solidarity with Palestinian people. Fuck the state of Israel and the entirety of the settler-colonial project.
