from Viscera
Join us on Friday, October 30th for our next anarchist bazaar and reading discussion. We’ll be celebrating the beginning of Halloween weekend with a discussion of the essay Political Naivete by Aragorn! We’ll be meeting in Rittenhouse Square from 6 pm – 7:30 pm to enjoy each others’ company at the beginning of Halloween weekend and in anticipation of the excitement of the next month(s).
Below is the essay in full. Read some of the related texts, if you dare!
from Unicorn Riot
Philadelphia, PA – An employee of the Starbucks at 1900 Market St. delivered a National Labor Relations Board form stating she’d been retaliated against for ‘Protected Concerted Activity’. The worker filing the complaint alleges she was punished via a reduction in hours for organizing a strike and told not to discuss working conditions with her coworkers.
The worker filing the NLRB paperwork told Unicorn Riot she “filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the [NLRB] regarding retaliation for union activity and protected concerted activity… I organized a sick-in strike with some coworkers – following that I was punished and told not to talk about workplace conditions w my coworkers on the floor” and experienced a serious reduction in working hours, threatening her income and access to healthcare.
The strike was also brought on in part by baristas’ concerns for coworkers living with weakened immune systems due to conditions like asthma, the worker told Unicorn Riot. Starbucks management’s insistence on reopening indoor cafe seating was reportedly “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, with the location’s staff becoming frustrated enough to agree to strike together by calling in sick.
“We’ve had hour cuts, we’ve lost our hazard pay even though the [COVID] numbers in Pennsylvania have still been going up… When i brought my concerns up with my manager, I was told that this was going to happen eventually, we knew this at the beginning that Starbucks was eventually going to reopen the indoor seating, and that they’re a company and they need to make money…It just doesn’t feel like they care about us at all and it’s all security theater type stuff.”
She also mentioned added job stresses due to the COVID-19 pandemic such as more intensive cleaning and dealing with customers who don’t want to wear masks.
See Unicorn Riot’s full livestream of the delivery of the NLRB complaint and the short protest outside this Starbucks location (14 mins):
Earlier this year, baristas at a different Philly Starbucks at Broad and Washington successfully demanded a manager’s resignation over “discriminatory practices” and issues involving “schedules and paid sick leave”, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In 2019, another local Starbucks location (at 18th and Spruce) because embroiled in national controversy after a manager called the police two Black men were sitting and waiting for a colleague for a business meeting, leading to their arrests.
from Idavox
This all stems from them being clowned for not showing up at a rally they announced. It’s ironic that the Philadelphia is in the Keystone State because the Philly Proud Boys are the Keystone Cops of that entire crew!
PHILADELPHIA, PA – “One thing you can guarantee (is) we will show up, motherfucker!”
That was a declaration from one of the handful of Proud Boys that attempted to disrupt a teach-in organized by the antifascist group Refuse Fascism to address them in the wake of Donald Trump’s call to arms in last week’s Presidential Debate. It was a declaration that came with irony as they did not show up to a rally the Philadelphia Proud Boy chapter called for in a park in West Philadelphia that ended up teeming with residents coming out to oppose neo-Fascist outfit, as well as another announced rally during a anti-mask car caravan in May that the group Refuse Fascism overwhelmed.
Over the past three weeks, that chapter has been attempting to recover from those embarrassments, first with a flash mob rally on Sept. 26 that was a date they once had for a rally but canceled and then with last night’s antics outside Independence Hall as the teach-in was going on.
One People’s Project’s Executive Director Daryle Lamont Jenkins was invited by Refuse Fascism to speak about the Proud Boys. Ironically, it was the fourth anniversary of a pseudo art show in New York City sponsored by neo-Fascist Milo Yiannopoulos that featured supposed art from right wing figures, where one of the Proud Boys’ first appearance was providing security for the event. Jenkins recorded video of them attacking one person they threw out, with Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes breaking the person’s phone on the ground and chasing him off.
It was while Jenkins was speaking that about 20 persons, most of them men, approached the teach-in, some carrying weapons, and began berating Jenkins and the group of ten participants that were there. The teach-in then became a real-time lesson as those participants began to berate and record the Proud Boys in return. “We chanted, we circled up to keep each other safe, and three of our leaders spoke to our crowd,” a post on the Refuse Fascism Facebook page read. “We spoke about what these fascists represent with their misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, American chauvinism and their connection to and worship of power. We spoke about the fact that they exist to intimidate, threaten, and cause pain and that they are already doing this at polling sites in Black, Latinx and Indigenous neighborhoods; protests; and through the media.”
The Proud Boys notably attempted to dissuade the idea that they were not White Supremacists, a charge that has been leveled at them repeatedly particularly since the Presidential Debate. While Proud Boys are indeed a multiracial organization, they have regardless have been condemned in the past for having associations with neo-Nazis and White Supremacists. When the Philly chapter held their flash mob-styled march on Sept. 26, many took notice of who looked to be American Guard’s Brien James amongst them. James has a history spanning three decades as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the Outlaw Hammerskins, and the organization he founded, the Vinlanders Social Club which boasts its history of assaults and murder. Despite this, some of the Proud Boys attempted to defend him as a friend who has since renounced such beliefs, even though he was a participant in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on August 12 2017 and two months later participated in a Vinlander annual meeting and two months after that paid tribute to Robert Jay Matthews, the leader of the neo-Nazi terrorist group the Order that was responsible for robberies and murders in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s.
In 2013, James was in Philadelphia with over fifty neo-Nazis including Matthew Heimbach of the Traditional Workers Party for Keystone United’s annual “Leif Erickson Day Celebration” at a Viking Statue near Fairmount Park that had since been pulled down by unknown persons. That rally was countered by over 200 protesters and since then neo-Fascists have attempted to avoid such confrontations by not announcing the event and holding them at night. It is not known if they will have an event this year.
Of the group that came out Thursday, only one person, an Asian man, seemed to be the only one that wasn’t White.
After about 20 minutes of the exchange that never reached beyond a shouting match, the group retreated toward Market St. and the teach-in continued.
Last year, the Philly Proud Boys were doxed by antifa via a blog titled Doxx Your Local Proud Boy that detailed a number of persons associated with the Proud Boys at the time. Of those profiled was Bruce McClay who at the time was a Lieutenant for the fire department in nearby Havertown, PA. Upon learning of his associations, residents called for his removal, and when the department refused to do so, the town shut down that department which was one of five. McClay resigned within 24 hours. Despite a flyer they attempted to distribute yesterday saying they reject racial division, many of those profiled were shown to harbor racist and bigoted beliefs.
At the time of this posting, the Philadelphia Proud Boys have barely commented on the events of last night.
from Dreaming Freedom Practicing Abolition
***PDF is at bottom of this post***
Hello comrades! We have just learned that everyone locked up in a US prison is eligible for the $1200 stimulus check. Remember that check? The one we are all supposed to be living on months later? Anyway, it’s a lot of money for our friends, family and comrades inside… But they only have until October 15 to send in a form (1040) to the IRS.
We have to spread the news, spread the form, and help people get it out ASAP. If you know anyone inside, you can send them this PDF. We are mailing it to everyone in our network, so we’re sharing it with you all here.
What’s in this document:
-Instructions.
-Addresses by region for the completed form.
-2 copies of the 1040, so that your contact can hand a form to someone else or make copies.
-1 copy of the 1040-SR, for anyone over 65.
If you print this front and back, you can send it with one stamp.
We are also running a phone zap this week to try and pressure PA-DOC to let everyone know that they are eligible for this check, and to provide the 1040 with postage-paid envelopes themselves. We know that they went on the prison media channels to tell everyone they were NOT eligible before this decision, and even threatened to punish people for filing.
Here are some graphics you can post on social media to help us with this zap.
Submission
Join Incite Seminars for a two-part workshop to explore counter-mapping as a tool for what Anishinaabe scholar Jean-Paul Restoule calls the twin goals of “decolonization” and “reinhabitation.” In Part I (October 10), we will introduce the practice of counter-mapping and explore an example of a decolonial map of Lower Manhattan in a manner that engages the past as present. In Part II (October 17), we will dig into histories of resistance in our own local communities in an embodied way. This portion of the workshop will invite you to unearth your lived experiences of displacement and rooting and to incorporate them into the mapping process. We will co-create a map that traces the ways some of our predecessors not only managed to inhabit uninhabitable times and places, but actually transformed them into spaces of liberation.
Facilitator: Rebecca Manski is an independent educator, curriculum designer and researcher. She writes and teaches about the fortresses, walls and detention centers in one of this country’s first borderzones, New York’s financial district. You can find her at Unsettling Wall Street/Borderless Walks and Social Justice Tours.
from It’s Going Down
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
If you correspond with longtime political prisoner Maroon Shoatz, know that he has been moved. His new address is as follows:
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Russell Maroon Shoatz #AF3855
SCI Dallas
PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, FL 33733
The 2020 Running Down the Walls (RDTW) events that took place in early September seem to have been successful, raising awareness and lots of money to support those locked away. A really well-done video of the Philly run captures the revolutionary spirit and solidarity involved in RDTW, in case you missed it. Find out more about how funds are used and how to get involved.
Unrest in Lancaster, Pennsylvania following the police murder of a local man has culminated in 12 protesters facing riot charges, with each being held on an astronomical $1 million bail.
Support sites for Urooj Rahman, Colinford Mattis, and Lore Elisabeth Blumenthal are still active, with each facing heavy charges from protests in response to the police murder of George Floyd.
from It’s Going Down
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
Everyone should support the defendants facing charges related to their alleged participation in the George Floyd uprising – this list of our imprisoned comrades needs to be getting shorter, not longer. The status of pre-trial defendants changes frequently, but to the best of my knowledge they currently include:
Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal #70002-066
FDC Philadelphia
P.O. Box 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105
David Elmakayes #77782-066
FDC Philadelphia,
PO Box 562,
Philadelphia, PA 19105
Shawn Collins #69989-066
FDC Philadelphia,
PO Box 562,
Philadelphia, PA 19105
Steven Pennycooke #69988-066
FDC Philadelphia,
PO Box 562,
Philadelphia, PA 19105
Please do not write anything to pre-trial defendants that could in any way have a negative impact on their trial, and keep an eye out for changes in their status.
Much as I hate to see even more of our lives and communications being enclosed by tech companies, it seems inescapable at the moment, so for anyone who doesn’t want to leave their house to buy stamps/cards/envelopes or to send mail, a reminder that many prisoners can be contacted electronically, via Jpay or similar services.
from It’s Going Down
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
One week after being humiliated at their own rally in Clark Park, where hundreds of counter-protesters gathered to face the fewer than five Proud Boys who managed to turn up for the rally. The Proud Boys who did show up were immediately identified by antifascist researchers, though they attempted to intimidate anti-racist protesters, threatening to dox them and stalking researcher Gwen Snyder’s house, where antifascists had posted guards.
The Philadelphia Proud Boys, led by President Zach Rehl, were joined by members of the North Carolina Proud Boys, as well as Brien James, founder of the Vinlanders Social Club, Outlaw Hammerskins, and the American Guard. James is also a former member of the Ku-Klux-Klan.
This represents an escalation for the Philadelphia Proud Boys. Prior to the summer of 2020, Rehl refused to publicly identify himself as a Proud Boy, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2018 that a Proud Boys rally he organized was simply the members of a Facebook group, “Sports, Beer, and Politics.”
In the Spring of 2019, Rehl was among a group of Proud Boys, American Guard, and militia members who attempted to organize a string of violent rallies across the northeast, trading pictures of the weapons they planned to bring and the specific leftist activists they wished to assault at the rallies. However, the group was stymied when their chats were leaked and the members were doxxed, and the rallies were cancelled.
Submission
This week I set fire to an Amazon delivery van on Broad and Ellsworth. Reports of sabotage against Amazon are not reported by local news sources.
From GoFundMe
The ongoing pandemic has greatly reduced our ability to raise money through events so we are beginning a monthly video series to help get the building together. Currently the roof, windows and walls leaking and it’ll take several thousand dollars to get it all sealed up.
Your donations will make sure that the space continues to host food and clothing distros as well as several radical community organizations that use office space at LAVA.
Check out the LAVA Broken Roof Sessions here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkqveabKmLv_JpVIiO_Pfpw
from Mainstream Media
The alt-right Proud Boys conducted a march through Center City Saturday with nearly 60 participants, many wearing body armor and helmets, some waving American flags, and occasionally engaging in sharp verbal exchanges with onlookers.
They stopped in front of Independence Hall to sing The Star-Spangled Banner and then proceeded to City Hall, where they posed for a group photo, some displaying a white power sign with their fingers.
On the way there, they crossed paths without incident with the March to End Rape Culture, a protest to raise awareness about rape and express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Later, the Proud Boys chanted “Back the blue” as they made their way to a parking garage at Penn’s Landing, where police closed off access until members of the group drove off.
The action came a week after the Proud Boys were expected to rally in Clark Park, when instead about 500 counterprotesters showed up to the popular West Philadelphia site in a progressive, racially diverse neighborhood.
Social media posts claimed Proud Boys were present, but were disguised as journalists to gather information about leftist activists.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified the Proud Boys as a “general hate group.”
from Viscera
Enjoy some much-needed and rarely gotten face-to-face time with other anarchists on Saturday, October 3rd as we gather for a discussion of the essay Social War, Antisocial Tension by Josep Gardenyes.
When an old lady marches in a protest and imagines the street free of cars and full of gardens; when a young boy lights fire to a shopping center that he and his friends have filled with gas cans and imagines a forest growing out of the ruins; when a mother entertains the fantasy of conducting her own birthing with friends in a free community where her daughter will never know of prison, of marriage, of advertising that assaults her self-esteem, of pollution, of institutional education; when all those worlds flourish parallel to our own, we will be stronger than ever.
We’ll be meeting in Clark Park again, this time at the dog bowl – discussion starts at 1:15, come around 1 for social time. As usual, we’ll have some books and pamphlets for viewing and purchase.
from Philly ABC
Join us this Monday, September 28th, at the north side of the dog bowl in Clark Park as we package and mail the Philly RDTW 2020 reportback to US-held political prisoners. Snacks and card-writing supplies are provided. We encourage people who want to discuss ideas on how to support political prisoners and prisoners of war to come hang out, and send some quick notes of solidarity to political prisoners with birthdays in September and October:
from Ida Vox
It’s pretty much a joke at this point to say that if you put together a rally that brings out more opposition than you expected that you were not really coming out anyway. #ProudBoysLie
PHILADELPHIA – No one who came out to Clark Park Saturday could be sure that the neo-Fascist Proud Boys would actually come out for the rally they announced just a few weeks ago. The group has never shown a large degree of strength or support in the city, and they were attempting to hold an event in a park that many of those they say they hate regularly frequent. Indeed, a flyer announcing one group’s counter-protest against them indicated what they will do either if they came or if they did not.
In the end there was no Proud Boy rally, and the 500 residents of West Philadelphia who came out took the opportunity to enjoy each others’ company. This neighborhood is regarded as one of the most progressive, racially diverse neighborhoods in the city.
In addition, another rally organized by a group calling itself Italian American Patriots that was to be held at Marconi Park in South Philadelphia at the site of the Christopher Columbus statue two hours before the Clark Park rally was called off on Friday, organizers saying there was no need to hold the rally since everything regarding the fate of the statue is held up in court.
Where is the big protest ? No one here.. philly police say the order got cancelled..#phillyproudboys #Philly #philadelphiaproudboys pic.twitter.com/8338zvaylc
— Eyekon Productions (@Eyekonprod) September 19, 2020
Originally, the Proud Boys announced a rally for Marconi Park next Saturday to coincide with the rally the group was holding in Portland, but many in the Philadelphia chapter may reportedly travel to Portland for that rally, changing plans. In fact they attempted to make their absence look like a planned thing all along saying that they never intended to rally at the park but wanted to be there to dox everyone that showed up. This account was played up on right wing websites and other media outlets, particularly in an a Gateway Pundit article written by Cassandra Fairbanks, a longtime associate in “alt-right” circles. A post on the Philadelphia Proud Boys Telegram account specifically noted otherwise. however. “Due to conflicts with the Portland Rally the event for the 26th has been moved to the 19th,” the post notes. “We need all available patriots to show up for the rally on the 19th, as we march into the Belly of the Beast to demand an end to them terrorizing our communities.”
Really?? That’s the story they are going with? Because this was them on Telegram last week. pic.twitter.com/wGq5wtApDo
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins (@DLamontJenkins) September 20, 2020
Proud Boy supporters, including one on another telegram account, expressed their anger over the possibility that if this was indeed an attempt to prank people to come out to the park to oppose them, such a move put them at risk in what was expected to be a volatile situation for them. One supporter said he even went to the rally and left after not seeing any Proud Boys present. Indeed, two individuals in the crowd were identified as Proud Boy associates, and they quickly left.
In January 2019, the New Jersey European Heritage Association announced a rally in Princeton, NJ and when they failed to show, they too attempted to explain away their no-show by saying it was a prank of some sort.
Instead of confronting hatemongers, those who came out to the park heard speeches from community leaders and local politicians. “Clark Park remains a place where folks from all walks of life come to recreate and to convene and to just be,” City Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier, who represents the neighborhood, said to the crowd in a speech that addressed racial injustice. “If these Boys come here today, they’re going to go home to their miserable lives, but we will still have work to do.” Some attendees made the event a jovial one, bringing games and musical instruments, while many came out to remember those innocent Black men and women that were murdered by police across the country, with one group led by the Rev. Jeffrey Jordan of the Whomsoever Metropolitan Church presenting and installation called the “Last Word of the Unarmed.” where seven signs bearing the last words of Eric Garner, George Floyd and Elijah McClain. Breonna Taylor’s sign was marked with just quotation marks, noting how she might not have been able to speak before being shot and killed by police. Others simply appreciated the chance to meet people and forge relationships.
Too bad the Proud Boys punked out. They could have jammed to some good tunes! They would have to get over themselves first, but still… pic.twitter.com/kpKP6Um58i
— Idavox (@IdavoxOPP) September 21, 2020
Last Word of the Unarmed, a display of the last words of those murdered by police. pic.twitter.com/vNOmDObGYa
— Idavox (@IdavoxOPP) September 21, 2020
Live from the Philly protests in Clark Park #Philly #PhillyProtest #Philadelphia https://t.co/Q3WKtJVlIO
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) September 19, 2020
There were a few skirmishes, such as one person some said had a gun that was chased out of the park, and another with a right wing YouTuber from California named James Klug who was there carrying a sign declaring Donald Trump to not be a racist which prompted rally attendees to confront him snatch his sign and eventually eject him from the park to a nearby corner where he remained for the rest of the rally. He came with Lisa Reynolds-Barbounis who ran video for him and was also a part of the scuffle that ensued with the crowd. Reynolds-Barbounis was until August 2019, the Director of Communications for the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum (MEF), the Islamophobic organization founded by Daniel Pipes that promotes the idea that Muslims are a threat to Western civilization and is a major source of Islamophobic propaganda and false information about Muslims. In December, the MEF filed a lawsuit that is reportedly still pending against Reynolds-Barbounis alleging breach of contract, computer fraud and abuse charging further that she forwarded their proprietary information, trade secrets, donor lists and business relationships to an email account not associated with the organization.
Reynolds-Barbounis was working with the MEF when they worked to bring Steven Yaxley-Lennon, aka “Tommy Robinson” of the Islamophobic and neo-Fascist English Defence League (EDL), to the US to speak with congressional leaders. Similar to the Proud Boys, many leaders of the EDL has had associations with neo-Nazis including Yaxley-Lennon himself who was a member of British National Party. Reynolds-Barbounis has a link in her Twitter description to a Tommy Robinson-related website.
James Klug and Lisa Reynolds-Barbounis former Communications Director of the Middle East Forum (founded by anti-Muslim hatemonger Daniel Pipes) in Clark Park. She’s getting sued by that org. for proverbialy running off with the Rolodex. pic.twitter.com/K2Gz5ptoz1
— Idavox (@IdavoxOPP) September 21, 2020
In addition to the Portland rally, the Proud Boys say they will rally in Columbus, Ohio on Oct. 3
from Twitter
On Telegram, he claims to be a 4th Degree Proud Boy, which requires that he attacked someone for the hate group.
Ask to speak to Human Resources, and tell them about their employee Richard Schwetz, a member of the violent hate group the Proud Boys.
from Mainstream Media
Two suspects have been charged in the arson of a Philadelphia Police Department patrol car in Southwest Philadelphia early Sunday morning. Police say the vehicle was parked near the 12th Police District on the 2100 block of Simpson Street around 3:30 a.m.
Fire Marshals were called to extinguish the flames.
An investigation led to the arrest of two men who were found hiding on the front porch on the 2100 block of Simpson Street with a strong odor of gasoline coming from their clothing.
There were also clothes inside a crate at the location which matched the description of the video that was recovered from the crime.
The suspects were arrested and taken into custody.
Police say no one was injured during the incident.
