EDITOR’S NOTE: Before we get to our article for the day, we wanted to encourage our readers to KEEP UP THE CALLS to Gertrude Hawk Chocolates (1 800-822-2032) regarding them employing Steve Smith of Keystone State Skinheads at their Dunmore, PA warehouse as a forklift operator. Without revealing too many details, we have reason to believe the calls are having an effect. Keep calling to follow up, and demanding that they fire Smith for his leadership roles in KU/KSS, as well as his nazi activism, and his history of racist violence.
AJ Olsen of Keystone State Skinheads at their Leif Erikson Day event in Fairmount Park in 2011.
Anthony James “AJ” Olsen is a neo nazi and member of Keystone State Skinheads and Keystone United living in Philadelphia. Olsen has been involved in organizing the Leif Erikson Day Celebration here in Philly for the past 7 or so years.
AJ Olsen of Keystone State Skinheads at 2017 Leif Erikson Day event in Fairmount Park. Olsen is wearing a hoodie of notorious British nazi band Skrewdriver.
Olsen was involved in the violent assault of 2 Anti-Racists in FDR park following KSS’ rally in Fairmount earlier in the day last October. FDR was the location for their after-party, and as Anti-Racists began trickling in to protest, a dozen or so KSS members brutally assaulted 2 of them before canceling the party and fleeing.
Olsen (2nd from left) with fellow members of Keystone State SkinheadsOlsen (l) with KSS members participating in an anti-refugee “Overpasses Across America” demonstration.
Olsen is a longtime and committed National Socialist, starting off in South Jersey as one of a 2 man “crew” called South Jersey Skinheads that functioned as a satellite crew of KSS briefly before Olsen moved to Philly and joined KSS.
AJ Olsen in a really bad Halloween costume?AJ Olsen (2nd from right) with fellow KSS members.Olsen marching at Leif Erikson Day 2017 in Philly with Keystone United
Olsen lives at 2913 Knor Street in the Mayfair neighborhood of Philly. He is a very active member and present at almost all KU and KSS events. Olsen fancies himself a “romantic” with an interest in more obscure fascist philosophers like Julius Evola.
Olsen (r) with fellow neo-nazis at Tacony library countering our demo there a few years ago.
Olsen lives with his partner, Sabrina Long, and his mother, brother, and his mother’s partner. Long is a nazi and KU supporter as well, and his family are all aware and supportive of his activities within KSS.
AJ Olsen and KSS members alongside polish neo-nazis in Jersey City, NJ in 2013AJ Olsen at Leif Erikson Day 2013 listening to Matthew Heimbach try to make a speech while being drowned out by protesters.Olsen (l) with fellow KSS members.
Olsen drives a Ford F-150 (PA ZGZ 0574). He can often be found buying beer after work at the beer store on Tyson and Roosevelt Boulevard. He may be working at the navy yard in south Philly, possibly either as maintenance or security. We are asking our readers to send us any more information they find on Olsen.
AJ Olsen of KSS’ truck.
Olsen is prone to violence (he once pulled a knife on people at a show at Philly venue The Electric Factory when questioned about his associations) and usually carries a gun, so those in the area should be aware of the danger he represents.
Name: Anthony James Olsen
Last known address: 2913 Knor Street, Philadelphia
Relationship: Married to Sabrina Long
Affiliations: Keystone State Skinheads, Keystone United, Traditionalist Youth Network, Be Active Front USA, South Jersey Skinheads
Melissa and Robert Gaus, Keystone United members and neo-nazis.
Bob Gaus is a longtime neo-nazi and co-founder of Keystone State Skinheads. He is heavily involved in a leadership role with Keystone United and KSS. Less is known about his activities before being in KSS, but it is known that Gaus aspired to joined a 1%er Motorcycle Club but was rebuffed. Gaus has attempted to recreate that environment with KSS, even as their Keystone United brand offered them much greater success than being a bonehead crew ever did.
Keystone State Skinheads at Leif Erikson Day 2017 on Lemon Hill. Bob Gaus is front and center in sunglasses.
Gaus pled guilty alongside fellow nazis Doug Sonier and Joseph Hoesch for assault for a 2002 assault in a diner in Feasterville, PA after a man asked them to stop throwing food at his table. He also has been arrested at least 3 times for DUI.
Keystone State Skinheads Yule Party. Gaus is center rear.
Gaus lives in Harrisburg and runs the Harrisburg unit of KSS, which, is in reality, a revolving door of his drinking buddies. Gaus is 47 and has a linkedin profile claiming to be an “Independent Sports Professional.” That is probably a reference to “Brutal Force Athletics,” a clothing label Gaus runs, the website of which has not been updated in several years. That said, many members and associates of KSS can be seen wearing Brutal Force Athletics gear, so it is good to be aware as a potential way to ID KU/KSS nazis.
Gaus (2nd from left with Keystone State Skinheads and Blood and Honour nazis.Traditionalist Youth mid-Atlantic gathering in Philly in 2016. Gaus is on the right with goatee and KSS shirt.Keystone State Skinheads members. Gaus front center-right with KSS t-shirt.
Bob Gaus was married in 2015 to his wife, Melissa Gaus (Regl). Melissa is also a nazi and vocal member of KU/KSS. She is 39 and works as a model and actress. She is from Baltimore, MD.
Melissa Gaus, Keystone United member from one of her modeling photos.
Gaus wearing a shirt bearing the number 88, a commonly used white supremacist symbol for the 8th letter twice, HH for Heil Hitler. The odin runes on the banner reading “get some” are also a favorite of white supremacists.Melissa and Bob Gaus at the Keystone United yule party.Melissa and Bob Gaus protesting against refugees in Harrisburg
Just this summer they put a pre-assembled home on a parcel of land Gaus owns at 10 Small Valley Road in Halifax, PA. They are either moved in there or still living at their old place at 7112 Union Deposit Road, Hummelstown, PA. We are asking our readers to help us find info on what else they’re currently doing for work, if anything.
Names: Robert and Melissa Gaus
Last known address: 10 Small Valley Road, Halifax, PA
Employment: Robert- Owner, Brutal Force Athletics. Melissa works as a model and actress.
Affiliations: Robert is co-Founder Keystone State Skinheads and Keystone United and de-facto leader of KSS. Melissa is a Keystone United member and KSS supporter.
Steven Scott Smith of Keystone State Skinheads and Keystone United
Steven Scott Smith is a neo-nazi and founding member of the Keystone State Skinheads, as well as Keystone United, and has remained heavily involved in the leadership and activities of both groups. Smith is also leadership in the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a vile hate group with an innocuous name that originated with the White Citizens Councils of the Jim Crow south. Smith is a longtime National Socialist and Bonehead. Smith lives in Pittston, PA.
We have written extensively on Smith over the years, and his history as a racist and neo-nazi is a matter of public record. Smith was in the Army, then joined David Duke’s KKK, following Duke to the “Natonal Association for the Advancement of White People,” and again to the organization EURO. Smith also was involved in the Aryan Nations for a time with his longtime friend going back to the Klan days, Charles Juba. Smith wrote fondly on the nazi message board Stormfront of “going way back” with Juba, as well as convicted child molester August Kreis, and their “proven track records.” Locally, Smith founded and/or took on leadership roles in KSS, KU, CCC, and several other “white civil rights” organizations.
Steve Smith in the army.Smith posing in front of a campaign poster of Hitler.Steve Smith (center, back) with members of Keystone State Skinheads and Blood and Honour.Steve Smith partying with convicted murderer and nazi Charles Marovskis, who pled guilty to killing 2 homeless men in FL in 1998, along with Kenneth Hoover. Both would later join KSS before being arrested in 2007.
In 2012, Smith was elected as a Luzerne County, PA Republican Party Committeeman as a write-in candidate. He campaigned for re-election in 2016 and won handily with over 70 votes. While this is a party position, and not a coveted one at that, it is still alarming. Keystone United has since gotten another member, Ryan Wojtowicz, elected to another Committeeman post. Smith encourages KU members to run for local office where the positions are often open to whoever is willing to campaign for them.
KU members Ryan Wojtowicz, Jason Honeywell, and Steve Smith.
Smith was involved in a racist attack on a black man in Scranton, PA in 2003 when he and 2 other KSS members “attempted to assault a black man who was simply walking down a street in Scranton, PA. The three approached him while holding bricks in their hands and asked him if he had ever been “beat up by a skinhead.” As the man ran away and called police with his cellular phone, the three drove by and threw a brick at him while yelling racial slurs.”
Smith has attended almost every Leif Erikson Day, and can be found at almost every action or social event related to KU/KSS, or any other far right event in Pennsylvania, as well as Luzerne County and other Pennsylvania republican party events.
Smith with KSS at Leif Erikson Day 2012 after-party. Smith is in back in the center.
Smith works as a Forklift operator for Gertrude Hawk chocolates at their warehouse in Dunmore, PA. We are asking our readers to contact Gertrude Hawk chocolates and demand they fire Smith immediately. Gertrude Hawk chocolates are in malls all over Eastern PA, and we doubt many of those malls want to associate with a company that employs a leader in Pennsylvania white power political organizations with a history of violence. You can call them at (800) 822-2032 . If you are unable to call or they stop answering the phone, leave a review for them on Facebook or Google, tag them on Twitter or Instagram, or get creative in ways to be heard.
Traditionalist Youth mid-Atlantic gathering in Philly in 2016. Smith is in the rear center behind TWP leader Matthew Heimbach, his hand on Heimbach’s shoulder.KSS members participate in an anti-refugee protest as The “European American Action Coalition,” one of many front groups. Smith is 2nd from right.
Name: Steven Scott Smith
Age: 47
Location: Pittston, PA
Car: Grey Hundai PA KDN9134
Steve Smith of KSS’ car parked for work at Gertrude Hawk Chocolates factory in Dunmore, PA.
Employment: Forklift operator, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates warehouse, Dunmore, PA
Affiliations: Klan, Keystone United, Keystone State Skinheads, EURO, CCC, just about every far right racist organization in Pennsylvania in the past 25 years.
This has been a long time coming. For the next 30 days, every day, we will be profiling/exposing a member or supporter of Keystone United (KU) and Keystone State Skinheads (KSS). We will be largely concentrating on Pennsylvania fascists, with a few exceptions.
Every fall, KU/KSS comes to our city in secret and attempts to hold a march, rally and party to varying levels of success. They hold this event under the auspices of a “Leif Erikson Day Celebration.” Their logic being that Leif Erikson was (allegedly) the first “white” man (even though whiteness as a label was not a thing at the time, and Erikson would have considered himself Norse with no allegiance to Whiteness) to form a settlement in this hemisphere, and therefore began what they see as the rightful domination of these lands by the settler-colonial empires of Europe.
This year’s Leif Erikson day is October 9th, a month from today. The actual holiday, not the KSS rally, which they refuse to announce publicly anymore due to fear or mass opposition. Starting tomorrow, we will release a new article each day. We will be exposing KU/KSS members, former members, associates and supporters. We will reveal their homes, workplaces, criminal histories and other personal information.
Many of those we are exposing have gone to great lengths to hide their associations and cultivate a personable image, and the truth will likely be a shock to those around them. Many of them appear to be normal parents or friends, co-workers or neighbors, but moonlight in one of the most notorious neo-nazi organizations in the U.S. Keysone Untied especially loves to infiltrate general conservative circles and subtly move people more into the racist extreme or just normalize those ideas in the dialogues there.
We realize this is a controversial practice for some, so here is a brief summary of this group’s history and current activities to put it in perspective…
Keystone State Skinheads was founded in late 2001 at a Waffle House in Harrisburg, PA. KSS was part of a push to form state-based White Nationalist Skinhead crews in all 50 states that began in Indiana with the Hoosier State Skinheads, previously known as the Outlaw Hammerskins, who would later also go by the name Vinlanders Social Club and spread that brand around the country. Arizona (Canyon State Skinheads), Maryland (Maryland Skinheads aka MDS), and Ohio (Ohio State Skinheads) were just some of the other states where the idea found root.
An early pic of Keystone United.
KSS was one of the more successful iterations of the statewide skinhead crew idea. Though they suffered an early defeat in York, PA in 2002, when Antifa and local residents teamed up to chase the nazis out of town, KSS persisted and picked up steam into the late 2000’s, when they engaged in several large rallies around Pennsylvania, including the 2008 Leif Erikson Day, which drew 70+ hardcore Neo-nazis from all over the country (at a time when rallies of that size were extremely rare), including members of the Vinlanders Social Club and Volksfront, groups that had previously been hostile to each other. During this period, KSS ramped up attacks around the state, including in Philly. Assaults, harassment and vandalism against left wing community spaces were common. Many pitched battles occurred in the Punk and Hardcore to keep KSS from gaining a foothold in Philly, as they had in many other cities in PA.
Also around this time, the KSS label was avoided in favor of “Keystone United,” which allowed KSS to organize with White Nationalists and Neo-nazis who did not meet the male skinhead criteria that KSS was founded under. Basically, all members of KSS can be considered members of KU, but only male bonehead members of KU can be “patched in” members of KSS. Outright Neo-nazi activities, such as the White Power show being organized for September 15th somewhere in PA, are organized as Keystone State Skinheads.
White power concert being organizing by KSS this month.
Political advocacy and demonstrations are organized as Keystone United. It is also a common strategy to “remove” anyone accused of a crime from KU, embracing them as KSS instead, allowing them to keep the image of KU sanitized for the media. For the forthcoming profiles, we will at different times refer to people as members of KSS and/or KU, but for all intents and purposes, the difference is a matter of public image, and the groups are essentially the same.
KU/KSS members rally against refugees in Harrisburg.
During this period, KU/KSS began to do things like bring dozens of neo-nazis to an NAACP organized community meeting in response to the vandalism of a synagogue in Wilkes Barre by nazi teens who were friends with members of KU, in order to intimidate opposition and dominate the discussion with the fruitless act of debating nazis. Keystone United also brought out a large contingent to support an Anti-Immigration rally in Harrisburg, and its members attended the National Policy Institute conference, for at least one year.
KU/KSS has strong ties with Matthew Heimbach, formerly of the Traditionalist Worker’s Party, and hosted a secret conference for Trad Worker’s “Traditionalist Youth Network” in Philly in 2016. Heimbach attended with Paddy Tartleton and several TWP members, but the bulk of the attendees were KSS/KU members.
Traditionalist Youth mid-Atlantic gathering in Philly in 2016
The threat represented by KSS/KU is a dual one. Firstly, they engage in White Nationalist activism and political work. Steve Smith, a co-founder of KSS, is in his 2nd term as Republican Committeeman in Luzerne County. He was elected the first time as a write-in candidate, but campaigned for his 2nd term and gathered over 70 votes. He has been joined this term by KU member Ryan Wojitowicz, who was also elected to the same position. Keystone United actively campaigned for both candidates.
Not only has Luzerne County’s GOP neglected to try and campaign anyone against this nazi incursion, but both Keystone United members have become regular attendees at GOP party functions in Luzerne County. They are often joined by “Joe Mulligan,” a Pennsylvania KKK leader who is friendly with Smith, a former klansman.
Keystone United will also engage in political activism around issues of immigration, refugees, gun rights, and support for President Trump. They regularly participate in “Overpasses Across America” rallies on highway overpasses to protest against immigration and accepting refugees.
KSS members participate in an anti-refugee protest as The “European American Action Coalition,” one of many front groups
KSS is under the Blood and Honour USA umbrella, and have alliances with those crews as well as The Traditionalist Workers Party (until that groups implosion earlier this year) and the Pennsylvania State Militia (whom they have rallied with at Overpasses Across America events).
In late 2016 in Harrisburg, KSS members were in the area during a National Socialist Movement rally to provide security for the event since one of the speakers was Matthew Heimbach of the TWP. At the time both the NSM and TWP were members of “The Nationalist Front,” which, along with League of the South, Vanguard America (the group James Fields was marching with in Charlottesville 2017 before he plowed his car into a crowd of protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others) and other smaller nazi orgs.
Nationalist Front marching Charlottesville at Unite the Right 1.
The Nationalist Front made up the single largest Fascist bloc at Charlotesville, and were heavily involved in the fighting that occurred. In the fallout of UTR1, The Nationalist front has been largely reduced to an NSM front, with the dissolution of TWP, the re-branding of Vanguard America to Patriot Front, and the recent departure of League of the South.
The second threat is that, behind the veneer of “gentle” white nationalism, KSS/KU is still a bonehead crew. In their over 15 years of existence, their members and supporters have been involved in countless acts of violence.
Here is a timeline of just some of the known attacks by KSS:
In June 2002, KSS members Robert Gaus, Douglas and Joseph Hoesch were arrested by police outside the Suburban Diner in Feasterville, near Philadelphia, for assaulting a man who asked them to stop throwing food at his table. The victim was struck several times and left on the diner’s floor. All three pleaded guilty to a charge of simple assault and were given suspended sentences
In September 2002, KSS members Todd Sager, Jason Hayden, and Christopher Keough, beat a former member, Christopher Morosko, who refused to return his KSS “colors”. The three pleaded guilty to assault on March 3, 2003, and were all released for time served.
On March 23, 2003, KSS members Keith Carney (Carney has since left KSS), Steve Smith and Steve Monteforte were arrested on ethnic intimidation charges in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for assaulting an African-American man who, according to police, was walking home in the early morning
In April 2003, two associates of the Lancaster Keystone State Skinheads were arrested and charged with ethnic intimidation and terroristic threats for making racist and threatening comments to three black patrons in a Lancaster-area bar.
In January 2006, KSS members Edward Robert Locke and Todd Clair Sager were charged with multiple counts in connection with a violent bar fight in March 2005 in New Stanton. Police claim Locke stabbed two men. Locke was charged with attempted homicide and four counts of aggravated assault while Sager was charged with criminal solicitation to commit homicide and criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault.
Also in 2006, KSS members attacked several Anti-Racists outside a show at Mojo 13 (bar name later changed) in Delaware.
In January 2007, KSS members Kenneth Hoover and Charles Marovskis were arrested for beating two homeless men to death in Tampa, Florida in 1998. Hoover pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and racketeering. Charles Marovskis, of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, but originally from Tampa, Florida, pleaded guilty to two federal charges of second-degree murder.
In October, 2007, KSS members attacked Anti-Fascists down the street from a Floorpunch Show at first Unitarian Church in Philly, injuring 3 before fleeing.
On September 7, 2008, Philadelphia police officers arrested KSS member Andrew Boyle at a Philadelphia bar for being in possession of a knife. At the time of his arrest, Boyle was out on bail, awaiting trial on another matter. Boyle, along with co-defendants and fellow KSS members Carney and Doug Caffarella, and Atlantic City Skinhead Vincent DeFelice, were charged with assault and conspiracy in the alleged attack of another skinhead outside a Philadelphia bar in 2007.
In May 2014, KSS associate Vincent Pellegrino, brother of KSS member Nunzio Pellegrino, sexually assaulted a woman and stole her car, crashing it into a wall while being persued by police. Pellegrino died at the scene.
In October 2017 following their disrupted attempt to rally in Philly’s boathouse row, 10 KSS members attacked 2 Anti-Fascists in FDR park, injuring them both before aborting their party and fleeing the scene. KSS went on to celebrate the event with their event t-shirt.
In July 2018, 6 members of KSS were charged for attacking a Black man at a bar in Avalon, PA. According to the victim, KU members told him they were going to exterminate Black People “one by one” and called him the N-Word. They also injured an employee who tried to intervene. Others were involved, but the 6 charged were Natasha Dawn Bowers, 33, of Roaring Spring; Terrence Raymon Stockey, 40, of Beaver; Jeremy L. Ingram, 35, of Hollidaysburg; Travis Lee Cornell, 43, of Marianna; Crystal Lynn Shields, 23, of Tarentum; and James Edward Kryl, 45, of Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Just a few weeks ago, KSS associate and KU member Christopher Croumbley attacked an Anti-Racist outside the chameleon club in Lancaster for wearing clothing identifying themselves as Anti-Fascist.
It is worth considering that there is a pattern of high profile violent incidents, (which we assume to occur at times when non-reported acts of violence are at a peak) occurring at times when Keystone United’s “respectable white advocacy” is also more active. After the departure of a major organizer in the late 2000’s, Keystone United went relatively dormant for a few years and so did reports of violent attacks by it’s members. This flies in the face of the claim that allowing nazis in the public space for debate will redirect their energies and minimize violent assaults and murders. As nice as it would be to just let them “talk it out of their system,” when nazis and Fascists feel legitimized in the public sphere, they are emboldened, and attacks increase.
In addition to outward violence and their attempts to gain state power to enact large scale violence, KSS/KU is involved in fostering a Neo-nazi subculture in Pennsylvania that is larger than the group itself. They have organized Neo-nazi music festivals, usually in conjunction with Label 56, run by Rick Haught of Maryland Skinheads, including the “Uprise Festival,” which ran for several years, and shows by The Blue Eyed Devils, Aggravated Assault, and other popular Neo-nazi bands. They are hosting another Blue Eyed Devils show somewhere in PA on September 15th. The Blue Eyed Devils’ song titles include:
Bomb the Cities
Beating and Kicking
Hate Filled Mind
We Will Fight
Final Solution
Holocaust 2000
White Violence
Which feature lyrics such as :
During German nights and days
Adolf Eichman would lead the way
For the cause of White salvation
Victory, for our race and nation
The plan has started, no turning back
From the entire world, you’re under attack
A New Worlds Order for the Aryan man
Regain control of the European lands
Too many problems, too many lies
Too much of what you despise
Implement the only plan
Eradicate the so-called chosen man
The final solution!
White revolution!
This is a group with 2 Pennsylvania GOP politicians as members, promoting the show on their blog, alongside long articles claiming to be “white advocates” who “are like the NAACP for white people.” Who do these nazis think they are fooling… you?!
KSS makes it policy to show up at European heritage celebrations, St. Patrick’s day parades, and similar events. They do this both to recruit, and to normalize their presence in those spaces, making it harder to dislodge them later.
Each forthcoming article will come with a call to do some small action to make that KSS member’s life as a nazi a little bit harder. When it’s hard to be a nazi, some of them find a reason to quit. Others can’t do it as well as they had been. It creates divisions. Victories make them grow, defeats make them shrink.
Take the time to call their employer and demand they be fired. KSS has largely survived based on the ability for their members to travel around the state to swell numbers as needed. Gas is expensive. If the call is to help us get more info, ask your friend who is good at research but isn’t necessarily plugged into this world. If we mention that they hang out in certain places or areas, and you feel like you can do it safely, make up some flyers and post them around so that they have no anonymity. Someone should not be able to attack someone for their race on Saturday, then walk their dog to the park Sunday with no repercussions. We may feel better being ignorant of the nazi down the street, but it doesn’t actually make as any safer. Quite the opposite.
So remember to check back on the site every day. We are striving to put out each article first thing each morning, but it may be later some days. While standing our ground, defending ourselves, and physically shutting down Fascists in the street is an indispensable and crucial part of this work, the next 30 days is about showcasing how much we can do to disrupt neo-nazi organizing using research and communication.
Building on their idea of ‘insurrectionary councilism,’ the Radical Education Department lays out an analysis about how to build and gain ground out of social struggles, rather than having it dissipate.
How do we turn revolt into revolution today?
Anticapitalist resistance is surging in the face of a stagnating capitalism and the ruling class’s desperate turn to fascism. But from Occupy and Ferguson to the anti-ICE movement, uprisings are dissipating rather than escalating into fundamental, widespread challenges to ruling class power. Radical movements have struggled to develop the mass organizations and shared revolutionary strategy needed to create such challenges. How can revolutionary anarchists help transform revolt into a crisis of class rule?
A central task for revolutionary anarchists today, I argue, is multiplying and connecting spaces for (a) combining disconnected but sympathetic radical struggles, and above all (b) hammering out shared ideas of mass organizing and planning.
Finally, I ask: how would we create a shared revolutionary program for organization and strategy? What kinds of questions would we need to answer? What specifically could revolutionary anarchism bring to such a program? I end by sketching some of those questions.
The time to build revolutionary power is now.
Why a revolutionary program?
We have the chance to strike a powerful blow against a stumbling enemy.
Capitalism has been stagnating since the financial crisis 11 years ago. It is lurching towards another crisis.[1] Segments of the ruling class are turning to fascism in desperation to crush working-class resistance and restore its profit margins.
Crisis, stagnation, and repression—these are sparking a massive upsurge of revolts like the anti-ICE movement, anti-racist struggles, and militant antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and communist organizing.
But the recent explosions are more widespread and more powerful than we know what to do with. We don’t have the tools we need to connect uprisings into a revolutionary challenge to ruling class power. For instance, the important “Occupy ICE” movement is being swept away without a clear, mass, coordinated plan to build on its gains. The prison strike now faces this danger. “Occupy Wall Street” confronted the same problem. We remain largely reactive to the latest outrage. We struggle to channel radical power in durable ways for definite, large-scale, revolutionary strategic goals.
Too often, radical struggles focus on tactics. We hope that a revolution will come eventually, the accumulation of small-scale victories. Ending capitalism requires more. A systemic problem calls for a systemic solution.
But we also seem to be overwhelmed with revolutionary plans. Many anarchist, socialist, and communist groups have ready-made ideas about tactics, strategy, and organization. Their answers are often disconnected from the concrete mass revolts we are witnessing. Revolutionary programs tend to stay in the activist “silos” that have characterized radical organizing since the 1970s.
And to create a revolution, struggle must be on a mass scale. Capitalist firms exist only by extracting as much surplus as possible from the working class. At the same time, the ruling class pits groups of workers against each other—nation against nation, white workers against workers of color, men against women, cis-gendered people against non-binary people, the employed against the unemployed. White supremacy, patriarchy, transphobia, ableism—these help cement the racist, patriarchal bourgeoisie’s power. When workers fight each other, the ruling class can continue exploiting, dominating, colonizing, and waging imperial war. Radically challenging capitalism means widespread, intersectional class power that refuses to play capital’s games of domination.
The task ahead is combination, not isolation, of revolutionary efforts to help build the intersectional organizations we need. Combination here doesn’t mean an insipid “left unity.” It means connecting the various antiauthoritarian (even if not explicitly anarchist) currents that often lie at the heart of the most powerful struggles against capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy today. More broadly, it means coordinating, across far left ideological and community divides, the radical struggles that can work effectively together without endless bickering—and that often informally overlap anyway.
All of this means the most pressing questions for radicals today are about strategy and organization. One of the most important things revolutionary anarchists can do, I suggest, is help create, multiply, and federate experimental spaces to hammer out collaborative answers to those questions. (Some of us in RED have begun experimenting with such spaces; see this and this).
I don’t offer my own revolutionary program here. Members of RED have a few contributions on this front—see this, this, and this. And for an interesting response and critique, see this.
My goal here is only to help spur the kind of shared, widespread discussions we need for building mass revolutionary plans.
We want to claim responsibility for the following actions:
-Slashing 16 tires on 8 Comcast trucks.
-Sabotaging 6 card readers of Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, and Bank of America.
-Slashing 2 tires on a prison guard’s personal car.
These actions were done over the course of about a week in solidarity with the national prison strike and international week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners.
We chose these targets because they profit off of people being locked up and we wanted to strike those who directly or indirectly hold the prisons together.
-Comcast has a contract with ICE.
-Wells Fargo has a contract with ICE and also invests in prisons.
-Bank of America profits off of prison labor.
-We don’t know what’s up with Citizens Bank but fuck them too.
-Attacking a prison guard’s car needs no explanation.
A few notes on our methods:
-For the ATMs we used the tried and true method of super glue and half sized ATM cards or their cardboard equivalent.
-For the tires at first we tried using ball bearings in the valves but found it to be too loud, too slow, and too difficult to do with gloves on. Luckily we had a awl on hand that we had been meaning to try and were ecstatic to discover how quiet, discreet, and easy it was to puncture tires with. After we realized this we couldn’t stop noticing the vehicles of our enemies and went on a modest rampage with the awl. (An awl is like an oversized needle attached to a wooden handle used to pierce thick tough surfaces and they can be found at most arts and craft stores.)
We were able to make these actions happen by honing our observational skills, paying attention to our surroundings, and spontaneously making moves quickly when the opportunities arose.
We feel strongly that having confidence makes an attack easier but dressing like criminals made us feel insecure in that we were drawing too much attention to ourselves. Because of this we decided to get creative with our disguises. As much as we love the uniform* we felt too hot and too suspicious looking to justify wearing it for these types of actions, so we tried out some different styles.
Some of the ways we did this were by simply wearing more color, experimenting with alternatives to long sleeves and pants, and dressing to fit unassuming roles, for example: sporty, going out, stumbling to the store in pajamas etc etc.
Besides that we made sure that gloves and masks were still easy to take on and off. We think different disguises can be interesting and fun, and we want to continue to experiment and expand on theses tactics.
Reflections
Just as much as anyone else, we’re tired, our bodies hurt, and we sometimes find ourselves slipping into the abyss of self care and prioritizing survival over life. But for this prison strike we wanted to challenge ourselves, to ensure that the prisoners were not alone in their struggle, in their fear and in their discomfort. Despite challenging circumstances we felt it was important to deal with them and not back away because of them. Although we are in no rush to die or find ourselves in a cell we do feel the need to prioritize struggle over comfort. This priority is not from a place of duty or sacrifice but stems from our personal desires. It has been interesting to see how much we can push ourselves. Acting in solidarity and struggle is a constant choice we must make in every moment of everyday. Solidarity is more than something we save for a day on our calendars. It needs to be more than empty words. To us it is a personal choice to not shrink away from discomfort and to make the struggles of others a part of our own path, to face the challenge and upon recognizing how steep and heavy it is, deciding to walk toward it anyway.
Opportunities surround us at all times. Why is there always the need to wait for the next demo? We really appreciate all the different styles of action surrounding the strike, however, we still want to push against the trend that demos are the be-all-end-all, and that they are enough. For us the quality of an action is not dependent on the number of participants or the attention it gets from the media. Plus autonomous attack forces us to face our own individual creativity and initiative. If no one were around to organize with what would you find yourself doing? Would you engage in struggle?
Solidarity with Philly rebels recently brutalized and arrested by cowards
Solidarity with prisoners on lockdown and all those on strike
Fuck money
Fuck technology
Fuck 12
Fuck prisons
For the spread of revolt and sabotage
Toward the destruction of all restrictive realities
*Black gloves, black pants, black hoodie, black mask, black shoes.
from Philly ABC
Our monthly letter-writing event is this coming Monday due to the holiday and local actions in support of the 2018 Nationwide Prison Strike. Philly ABC stands in solidarity with all of those striking to demand humane living conditions, access to rehabilitation, sentencing reform and the end of modern day slavery. Join us at 6:30pm at LAVA where we will be writing letters to the Vaughn 17, the individuals charged with involvement in the February 2017 uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Delaware.
Last night’s noise demonstration was fun and exciting! It went pretty well for most of its duration, though there were some moments of confusion and miscommunication that I think could be avoided in the future. I want to go over how things went and then address some successes, and problems I’d like to see us overcome as we continue to take to the streets together.
I met with some companions at a nearby location and around 8PM we marched together to the Federal Detention Center at 6th and Arch. Most of us were dressed in black with our faces covered. As we walked over, graffiti was painted and fliers about the strike were thrown into the air, the quiet streets were ours. Once we arrived at the prison people began shouting, shooting fireworks, throwing firecrackers, and making a bunch of noise together. Over the next fifteen minutes more people arrived and joined in, sharing water, whistles, and adding chants to the ruckus with a megaphone. Some people stood in the street blocking all traffic going past the prison, others gave fliers to this captive audience. People locked inside the prison shone lights and waved at us through the windows.
The police arrived after some time, but initially could do very little. There were only a couple cops and they protested that people were lighting fireworks and blocking the street but couldn’t so much about it. They were able to open one lane of traffic as more police arrived to back them up. By this time it was clear that the prisoners had seen us and that the police presense was growing, some police on bikes appeared. A decent time to make a dignified exit; we had broken the isolation of the prison walls, made clear our solidarity, and expressed a disgust for the police and their prisons.
We took to the street and went south to Market street with police moving alongside and behind us. We went around the block, against traffic, and circled back past the prison going west on Arch street. Here some of the march slowed down to make some more noise, while many of the masked comrades began to leave. It seemed to me that the feeling of the march then was a general leaning toward dispersal, though I cannot be sure. The cowardly police took advantage of the fact that many of the masked marchers were further away to attack those who had not yet left. They used their bikes and metal clubs to beat demonstrators and made two arrests, including a thirteen year old. After this it seemed like the demonstration was pretty much over. People went home or kept track of the arrested (both of whom are out – one with a citation, one with charges – at the time of this writing).
In many ways this demonstration was a success. The isolation of the prison was broken temporarily, news of the strike was communicated, the police were not able to control the rowdy energy of the crowd, and rebellion and freedom were celebrated with a festive enthusiasm. We were able to gather and move together under the police’s radar, it’s clear they were not prepared for a demonstration. A practice of sharing was present within the demonstration to a degree. In the longer term; tactics and ideas that during the 2016 strike seemed unusual and limited to a small amount of people have spread! The use of masks, fireworks, moving against the direction of traffic, and the creation of temporary barricades to slow police advances have become more common. Though these never spread as fast or wide as we would like, we can take a moment to appreciate the contrast between this strike and the 2016 one.
The arrests from last night might not have been preventable, we can’t know such things. What we do know is we can always strive to learn and to improve. We can open channels of communication before an action, especially one that hasn’t caught the police’s attention yet. Imagine if we had all met up in a quiet place to have a quick discussion on dispersal, legal support, and sharing supplies, before walking to the prison together. We could have some idea of what to expect of each other and the security of all masking off camera and arriving together. It might not have prevented the police from doing their job, some people would have shown up late and missed it, but it certainly wouldn’t have set us back by much. The same can be said to a lesser degree for communication once a demonstration has started moving, more easily within the bloc and probably with more difficulty beyond the bloc. To me these kinds of communications feel like they can increase our capacity, make more things possible, and keep us safer from the police. I know there are reasons we’re shy and secretive, that there is a lot of distrust, and that speaking to each other can be difficult, but let’s challenge ourselves!
How can we better communicate and look out for each other without compromising our security? How can we intensify our struggle? How can we spread it? What do we imagine is im/possible and how can we make it our reality?
Solidarity with the comrades beaten and arrested!
Fuck the police!
Strength and solidarity to the striking prisoners!
Fire to the prisons!
Tonight in #Philadelphia, a noise demonstration was held outside the Federal Detention Center at 8th & Arch in solidarity with the national #PrisonStrike. As protesters marched away from the facility, @PhillyPolice made two arrests & hit protesters & journalists with metal batons
RED was founded approximately one year ago, and it has developed in myriad unforeseeable and exciting ways, while also confronting obstacles and limitations along the way. By providing an overview of what I consider to be our successes, as well as an outline of goals for the coming year, it is my hope that I can contribute to the autonomous process of collective education that is crucially important to the revolutionary Left. Just as we have learned and continue to learn from so many of the radical groups at work around the world, I hope that others can take inspiration from our model, and also help us reach our goals for RED Year II!
Doing Something with Nothing
The basis for RED’s success to date is the recognition that you can make a significant political impact with limited resources and no monetary support. We have, since the very beginning, been a small group, and each person has contributed according the their abilities and what their time commitments allow. Everything has been extremely shoestring, but there is a common egalitarian energy and anti-capitalist drive that invigorates us to pick up the RED torch whenever we can find time. This means—and it was an important lesson for all of us to learn experientially—that any tiny group of a few people can dive in and get things moving. There is no need to wait around until the time is ripe, the revolution is on our doorstep or the Establishment pushes things too far. The time is now!
In the coming year, it would be great if we could find a few more dedicated torchbearers. At times, we have been spread too thin, and it is important for our group to maintain a stable core, as well as concentric circles of dedicated, as well as more or less intermittent, collaborators. Some of our early members have had to step back for numerous reasons, but others are also stepping up. We look forward to integrating them into RED and building up our concentric circles of collaboration in the coming year!
A Focused Organization Not a Political Party
We knew from the very beginning that we did not want to develop a mass organization, and we conceive of our role more as a radical groupuscule that can push the envelope, work more flexibly and intervene incisively, while simultaneously working with and across other groups. Our mode of organization is neither strictly hierarchical, nor is it purely horizontal, as we discussed here. In order to maximize the autonomy of our members, we decided that RED activities would be those supported by at least two members, which does not require group consensus or a single leader.
As we develop, we would like to shore up and clarify our modes of organization based on our experiences thus far, and also in order to fine-tune our decision-making process. It is a delicate operation to move beyond the extremes of verticalism and horizontalism, and many of us are convinced that this is an extremely important tactical shift that needs to be further theorized and put into practice. Given our past experiences in various political groups and in Occupy, we recognize the enormous strengths of this transversal mode of organization and would like to be able, through experiential knowledge, to be able to model it for other groups, while also continuing to learn more about all of the interesting organizational models that are already in practice.
A Thinking Tank
As a revolutionary leftist organization, one of our projects has been to function as a research collaborative that collectively produces informative and insightful articles on contemporary politics and organizing. We have successfully forged collaborations with some of the most important venues for the radical intelligentsia and general public (such as CounterPunch and Truthout) as well as for activist communities (such as It’s Going Down and Enough Is Enough), which has allowed our articles to circulate in much broader circles. The content that we have collectively produced has arguably had an impact in at least two ways. On the one hand, we have diagnosed and conceptually dismantled the standard liberal framework used to make sense of contemporary media debates on such things as violence, antifa, direct action and free speech. On the other hand, we have increasingly been invested in asking and providing responses to timely tactical questions of organizing, encouraging our readership to always be thinking about how we can move our actions to the next level (see our work on anti-ICE mobilization, radical struggle in Philadelphia, insurrectionary councilism, the insurrectionary campus, antifa on a conservative campus and popular-front antifa). It is very difficult to know how much of an impact these interventions have had, but they have at the very least been extremely helpful for our own political education, and they have led to a series of productive discussions and interviews (like this discussion of revolutionary strategy on IGD, or this one on violence and antifa on KPFA).
In the coming year, we would like to continue doing this kind of writing, while also adding additional fronts of struggle and connecting to new publication venues and audiences across the hard Left. Our recent launching of a zine project has successfully brought together significant voices on timely issues, and we would like to continue to develop our zines, which will include printing and distributing them free of charge. We have also begun discussing the possibility of launching RED press with short booklets, and many of us are invested in the long-term project of seizing the means of intellectual and cultural production. In this regard, we would also like to develop the aesthetic contributions to RED by collaborating more with artists and creative cultural producers, which will also allow us to reach different types of audiences
Revolutionary Coalition Building
RED is not committed to a single party line, and most of us would identify—or be identified—as anarchists, communists or revolutionary socialists (or some combination thereof). This has allowed us to work broadly with numerous other groups in order to avoid the siloing that has sometimes plagued the revolutionary Left. Some of our most successful public events—like this one on revolutionary coalitions or this one on antifascist education—have brought together people who work with various different groups in order to share their experiences and brainstorm about the most productive models for future collective work. We have also enjoyed the opportunity to serve as a platform for activists around the world, and we have developed ties over time with like-minded groups with which we have begun collaborating, such as Cutting Class.
In RED Year II, we would like to see our project of revolutionary coalition building deepen and expand. Taking inspiration from Fred Hampton and other radical organizers, we would like to establish innovative but workable frameworks for coordinating between different radical groups in such a way that they can maintain their autonomy but maximize their impact by working with others. Much of this work will be local to the Philadelphia area, as we explore the options for creating umbrella structures, but it will also involve greater coordination with other groups around the country and the world for more expansive modes of solidarity and support.
Direct Action
RED emerged out of direct action and the joy of working together for a common cause when you have to put something on the line. It has continued to be important as an intermittent reference point for our struggles, but we have been less successful on this front largely due to time constraints and a concern for avoiding undue penalization.
Direct action is an area where we really need to develop our strengths by tapping back into some of our earlier work and finding the time to make incisive and important interventions that nonetheless keep our members safe. In the coming year, we would like to develop our abilities to immediately be present on the scene for important issues in our area, following the lead of our friends at the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice and others. We would also like to be more proactive in planning ahead for important moments and organizing significant contributions on the part of RED. This can range from participating in major marches or events like May Day to making contributions to the latest flashpoints of struggle, such as anti-ICE organizing or the prison strike. Finally, we plan on launching a guerilla education series that will bring radical education to the streets and corporate universities in and around the Philadelphia area. We are looking forward to blowing some minds!
Internationalism
RED has always recognized that the struggle against global capitalism needs to be international, and many of our group members work across various geographic regions. We have drawn on these experiences in myriad ways and made some important connections to groups abroad. However, this is also an area where this is ample room for growth.
In developing our international connections, we would like to collaborate and coordinate more with other radical groups around the globe. We would also like to forge connections to some of the most important reference points for radical Left organizing in our conjuncture, such as the ZAD in France and the Zapatistas in Chiapas. This will allow us to learn more from their experiences and also help us spread their major work to even larger audiences.
En avant!
It is remarkable for us to be able to celebrate so many accomplishments by such a small organization with no financial resources, which speaks to the radical anti-capitalist spirit that animates us. There is, however, much work to be done, and RED Year II will require energy, commitment and creativity. We are excited to move forward!
Submission
As a contribution to the international week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners and to the nationwide prison strike a banner was hung on Market Street near 46th Street train station.
Solidarity with anarchist and rebel prisoners! Fire to the Prisons!
The Friendly Fire Collective, a community of radical and abolitionist Christians in Philadelphia, meet weekly for prayer and fellowship. This past Tuesday (8/28) we had our meeting right in front of the Philadelphia Police Department Headquarters, also known as the Roundhouse.
With our small group of 10 or so people, we prayed for those striking in prison, the abolition of the police and all prisons, as well as our own incarcerated friends and family. As we wrapped up our time of prayer, we held up our banners (“All cops are apostates” and “It is our duty to fight for our freedom”) and got on the megaphone. While on the megaphone, we stared right at the police and those employed at the Roundhouse through the windows. We read out the demands of the prison strike and then two comrades led us through a prayer of rebuke and exorcism, and plead with the officers to repent of their sins – namely being fascist tools – and quit their jobs. We wrapped up by chanting “Quit your jobs!” and “God hates cops!”
As things concluded, some bike cops came around asking questions and then followed some comrades on their way back home. As much as we do not enjoy the presence of cops, it felt good to know that this small prayer meeting was able to annoy these officers. It was also awesome that other abolitionists who aren’t affiliated with Friendly Fire or don’t identify as Christian came out in solidarity. We very much appreciated the support.
The Roundhouse has been a place of trauma for many of those present at this last prayer meeting and, of course, it is a place of trauma for many, every day. We are thankful that we had the opportunity to call down God’s judgment on this building and the Philadelphia Police Department, as well as reclaim this space for healing, prayer, and camaraderie.
All favor, honor, and blessings to those currently striking in prison!
May God’s most severe judgment rain down on all cops!
The kin-dom of God is near!
