Protesters Occupy Philadelphia ICE Office

  • July 3, 2018 11:33 pm

from Unicorn Riot

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

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

[See updates below live feed]

Watch streams from 8th and Cherry below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Local Kids – Issue 1

  • July 3, 2018 11:30 pm

Submission

The Local Kids – A compilation of texts, a contribution to a correspondence between those who desire anarchy and subversion.

Issue 1 – Summer 2018

The year is 2018. Our living environment is increasingly interconnected and transparent. This is obvious for the digital reality but is also true for the physical – if the distinction between the two hasn’t already become too artificial. These tendencies have reinforced the validation of the self through affiliation to a group and subjugation to its norms. Before our eyes identities are being constructed, clashes erupt in the scramble for a space to carve out and claim. A bonus for its members is that the enforcing of the norms now is horizontally distributed. As society becomes more totalitarian, the main feeling becomes anxiety. Will for one more day our imperfections pass unnoticed, or maybe just tolerated? And while we invest everything in this socially acceptable image of ourselves we have created, we become the role we were only playing. Is this life?
No, it is a defeat, and we should refuse it. To acknowledge the richness of our desires, to explore them, to feel the power in developing them.
Nothing will make us repent of the choice for full life, the substance of which is autonomy, individual and collective. So we move towards the subversion of social relations.

PDFs on thelocalkids.noblogs.org

Call for Reportbacks!

  • July 3, 2018 11:28 pm

Submission

Hello friends!

It’s been a few weeks since June 11th and we are looking towards compiling a report-back about all the events and actions that happened around the world this year. If you have already emailed us to tell us about what happened in your part of the world, thanks! But if not then we would love to hear from you within the next couple of weeks. We want to know about what creative ideas you brought forth into the world! If you had an event, how many people showed up? What kind of connections were made, and if any money was raised for our friends? If there was an action of some sort, what beautiful gestures transpired?

We plan on putting out our compilation out in a couple of weeks, so please contact us at june11th (@) riseup (dot) net with your stories!

(Please take whatever security measures that you deem necessary if you choose to contact us!)

-The J11 crew

Block Party at ICE Office

  • July 2, 2018 9:02 pm

from Twitter

[114 N. 8th St.

Bring friends! chairs! food! music!]

Philadelphia, PA: Feminist Vandals Make A Mess

  • June 30, 2018 6:06 pm

Submission

We spruced up a pro-life billboard by throwing a bunch of paintbombs at it. The world hates women, and we’re sick of all the misogyny and patriarchy infused in every aspect of our lives.

We want body autonomy, more than the “rights” of healthcare and reproductive “freedom”, we mean freedom of movement. The freedom to come and go as we please, and as we want to be. The freedom to leave any four walls we happen to have around us. The freedom to live our lives as we choose. To be clear we don’t just mean freedom for women but freedom for anyone constrained by a social role or jailer.

May Day started the season off right, let’s keep it going. Remember when you see something you don’t like don’t wait to trash it. Later this summer is a huge nationwide prison strike, let’s be ready for it. As anarchists we want the destruction of all prisons, let’s put it into motion.

A thought goes out to Eric King, and to everyone fighting against ICE and borders.

Despite borders, gender, and prisons, chaos can always manage to spill through!

-Feminist Anarchist Vandals >:)

*How to fill a glass christmas ornament with paint*

1. Wearing gloves, remove the cap
2. Fill with a mixture of paint and water (using a funnel or squeeze bottle)
3. Replace cap and seal with tape
4. Wipe away any fingerprints and any mess you made
5. Transport carefully (maybe in a double bag)
6. Throw at something ugly

July 2nd Anti-Imperialist Letter-writing

  • June 30, 2018 6:01 pm

from Philly ABC

While many are gathering on July 4th to celebrate the “birthday” of a deadly imperial force, Philly ABC ain’t having none of that. We’ll comfortably ignore this bizarre event and instead do something fun. Like an anti-imperialist letter-writing on July 2nd!!!

We invite you to join us, 6:30pm at LAVA, to show solidarity for anti-imperialist political prisoners! We’ll be writing letters to Jaan Karl Laaman, Tom Manning, and David Gilbert. Additionally we’re making birthday cards for Walter Bond (Animal Liberation), and Michael Foster (Earth Liberation). Good vegan food is provided by North Philly Food Not Bombs. So come on down and start your July with something that’s actually cool!

[4134 Lancaster Ave]

Rizzo Mural Defendant Legal Fund

  • June 28, 2018 2:05 pm

from Go Fund Me

In August of 2017, our friend was arrested and charged with vandalizing the Frank Rizzo mural. Ten months later, the court case is finally nearing an end.

Over the last 10 months, our friend:

– spent 24 sleepless hours shivering in a jail cell where their shirt
was confiscated and the air conditioning put on full blast.

– sat through 8 hearings totaling around 15 hours spent in courtrooms at
the CJC.

– dedicated countless hours and days planning for best and worst case
scenarios with their pro bono lawyer, friends, and community members.

– experienced persistent emotional stress and anxieties caused by the
case.

– faced charges that snowballed into two felonies and a misdemeanor,
which could have led to a judge putting our friend in prison for 7-16
years.

– took the substantial risk of rejecting an offer to drop the felony
charges in exchange for 4 years of probation, and a $9,200 fine paid to
Mural Arts, who sent a representative to take the stand and testify to
the damages.

The new DA has presented a different offer: 50 hours of community
service and a $2,000 fine.

Please help us come together to raise money to cover this fine and stand with our friend.

Any financial contributions are deeply appreciated. Please share with
friends and community members on social media.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

The Frank Rizzo mural and statue still loom over downtown and the Italian Market, as Mural Arts has refused to publicly take a stand on the issue of whether or not they support a giant 40-foot emblem of racism and homophobia. Here are two articles among man documenting his career and legacy:

http://www.broadstreetreview.com/cross-cultural/calls-continue-for-mural-arts-program-to-remove-its-frank-rizzo-mural

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwxp3m/remembering-frank-rizzo-the-most-notorious-cop-in-philadelphia-history-1022

Remember the Anarchist Prisoners

  • June 28, 2018 2:03 pm

from Instagram

Saw this in the street and haven’t seen it shared anywhere, so here ya go. #june11th

ICE Will Not Remain Anonymous

  • June 26, 2018 10:55 pm

from Facebook

ICE agents from Philly.

Calendar Reset

  • June 26, 2018 10:42 pm

We have had our calendar reset because of a software update, this means we lost all the events we had posted. We are doing our best to republish all upcoming events but we might miss some. Please send us your upcoming events and we will add or re-add them to the calendar.

-Philly Anti-Cap

For Antwon

  • June 26, 2018 10:28 pm

Submission

Saw this paint for Antwon Rose, murdered by the fuckin’ cops. It was in South Philly near Catharine st.
FTP forever.

Building Autonomous Power: Radical Struggle in Philadelphia

  • June 26, 2018 10:26 pm

from It’s Going Down

Both a history, analysis, and a proposal for building autonomous power in the city of Philadelphia, PA.

 “The Summer of Rage has begun! Get your sun screen on because it’s gonna be a hot one!”

Summer of Rage Anarchist Crew

by Art Burbridge

Radical struggle is on the rise in Philadelphia. Since at least 2016, anarchist actions—by the Summer of Rage Anarchist Crew, Antifa, and many others—have been intensifying and broadening in a city that already had a long history of antiauthoritarian struggles.  Other groups have been energized too, like prison and police abolitionists, socialists, and Marxists.  With anarchists, they are challenging gentrification, police brutality, mass incarceration, predatory landlords, and attacks on workers.  These far left forces are starting to converge and overlap—seen in reaction to the killing of a local activist, in the abortive 2016 anti-DNC protests in the city, or in actions against local white supremacy.  But the radical scene remains disconnected.   It is still struggling to develop on the mass scale that would be needed to challenge capital in a revolutionary way.

Anarchists and their allies confront a city in the middle of a profound neoliberal transition.  Since the collapse of much of the local industry, Philly has been undergoing a process of profound transformation by corporations like Comcast and the flood of bourgeois managers, lawyers, and others that corporations bring with them.  Internal colonization, displacement, police brutality, and a savage “gig” economy inevitably follow.  They deepen the already obscene racial and economic inequality here.  But Amazon is threatening to build a new headquarters in the city, a move that would accelerate and intensify Philly’s forces of displacement and domination.

Anarchists play an important role in radical organizing in Philly. They offer a set of ideas, practices, and experiences for building power beyond the state and capital—especially important as capital increasingly relies on an authoritarian, fascistic state to survive.  And they provide some of the most important spaces—the Wooden Shoe, A-Space, etc.—for far left groups to meet, hold events, and spread a revolutionary culture.

But what possibilities and obstacles exist here for building revolutionary, autonomous power?  To ask this question, I place far left struggles in Philly against the backdrop of its material context—neoliberal capital’s crisis-ridden development on the local, national, and international scene.  The point isn’t to give easy answers—there aren’t any—but to help chart some of the potential tasks ahead.  Ultimately, I ask: what would it take to make a revolution here?

This piece is part of a series from the Radical Education Department (RED)—see this and this—exploring possibilities for building a revolutionary mass movement today.  It emerges out of RED’s attempts—alongside many others—to build mass, revolutionary power in Philly.

Banner Drop in Delco

  • June 21, 2018 2:25 am

Submission

We dropped a banner over the local “beep beep bridge in glenolden with a torched flag attached to it in solidarity with juneteenth and solidarity with the immigrants that are being locked in cages

Anathema Volume 4 Issue 6

  • June 20, 2018 9:10 pm

From Anathema

Volume 4 Issue 6 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)

Volume 4 Issue 6 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)

In this issue:

  • Summer Against Prisons
  • Stop The Raids
  • State Aids Federal ICE Abductions
  • Collateral Violence of Society
  • The Legacy Of The Green Scare
  • Anti-Anarchist Repression in Canada
  • Amazon Watch
  • Poetry
  • What Went Down

Update on Garden at 4224 Baltimore

  • June 20, 2018 10:36 am

from Instagram

If you’ve been wondering whats up with the guerilla garden at 4224 Baltimore Ave, it’s beginning to face its first pressures from developement (by the the same developers of Clarkville and with the support of Spruce Hill Community Association). We caught this flyer up that states “Real estate developers are trying to build fancy condos on this lot. Right now there is an autonomous gardrn here after years of vacancy. Before it was vacant, it was another community garden that was destroyed by the same developers in their first attempts at construction. This land is not ours. This land is not theirs either. It is the land of the Lenni Lenape and of the birds and worms and sun and rain who live here. We don’t want more condos, or concrete, No more gentrification and sterilization. When the earth is dead, we are all dead too.” We want to spread widely support for this project and of resistence to their developement and so-called “progress”.