In this episode of The Beautiful Idea, we speak with Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis, two tenant organizers in Los Angeles, CA, involved in the Los Angeles Tenant Union (LATU), and co-authors of the new book, Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis. From the publisher:

“Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too damn high. Written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis, complicit politicians, and real estate greed, Abolish Rent dissects our housing system from the perspective of those it immiserates. Through unsparing analysis and striking stories of resistance, it shows us how tenants can, through organizing and collective action, harness our power and win the housing we deserve.

From two co-founders of the largest tenants union in the country, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. Authors Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis take us to trilingual strategy meetings, raucous marches against gentrification, and daring eviction defenses where immigrants put their lives on the line. These are the seeds of the revolutionary movement we need to make our housing, our cities, and the world our home.”

During our discussion, we cover the growing crisis around rent and housing and how landlords and politicians have attempted to shift the discussion onto attacks on migrants and the houseless. We cover how the Los Angeles Tenants Union and the wider Autonomous Tenant Union Network have grown to build a grassroots, tenant led autonomous movement, aimed at building power on a neighborhood level.

cover photo via Instagram

Welcome back to The Beautiful Idea, a new project from a collective of several anarchist and autonomous media producers scattered around the world. We’re bringing you interviews and stories from the front-lines of autonomous social movements and struggles, as well as original commentary and analysis.

In this episode we sit down with Adam Greenfield, author of the book Lifehouse, out on Verso. In this discussion we talk about technology and the internet, the occurrence of disaster, the long emergency, the concept of lifehouses, prepperism, and the complexities of organizing in communities.

You can find Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves In a World on Fire here.

Photo by Caleb Cook on Unsplash

In our following episode, we speak with folks around the country about this unfolding reality. First, we catch up with Mia Wong, a journalist at It Could Happen Here, a daily podcast on Cool Zone Media about everyday resistance and the current crisis, then we speak with a participant in the publishing collective CrimethInc, about the emerging cracks in the current crisis and what this means about how we can respond, and finally we speak to folks in Olympia, WA and North Carolina about recent “Festival of Resistance” events that were organized in the lead up to Trump’s inauguration.

We are currently in the midst of a constitutional crisis. As we speak, the Trump administration is less than a month into its second term, and already the courts are running into roadblocks in their meager attempts to contain Trump’s blatant calls to disregard basic constitutional guard rails. As this is being recorded, multiple rulings by judges to stop the Trump administration freezing federal funds to basic government programs continue to be ignored. We are in the middle of the Rubicon being crossed: the executive branch is defying the orders of its own courts. What happens now is both determined by what people do and how the state responds to its own internal contradictions. Will the supreme court step in and side with Trump, or will the administration simply ignore any and all rulings, turning the state into a mechanism to carry out any and all of Trump’s dictatorial demands: as the US slips into an all out dictatorship with billionaires at the helm.

"Hundreds of Bakersfield area students walked out of classes Wednesday in protest of the Trump administration's policies on education and immigration, taking their flags, signs and shouts outside Kern County Superior Court on Truxtun Avenue." www.bakersfield.com/news/bakersf…

— It's Going Down (@igd.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T07:37:48.397Z

But resistance is building, and developing at various points of contestation. Across the country, as ICE ramps up deportations and is pushing to begin again deporting entire families and has begun setting up camps at Guantanamo bay, organizers are stepping up their organizing, forming Rapid Response Networks, organizing protests, and educating people about their rights. “Border Czar” Tom Homan even went on CNN recently to complain about people in Chicago being “too educated” about their rights, throwing a wrench into the gears of the deportation machine, as Trump demands increased numbers of removals. Communities in Colorado mobilized when ICE went door to door in an apartment complex at the center of far-Right conspiracies about “Venezuela gangs taking over” Aurora, CO, working to support working-class people targeted and documenting ICE abuses.

Eight Things You Can Do to Stop ICEcrimethinc.com/StopICEWe've produced a guide detailing many different ways you can act to prevent ICE from tearing families apart and terrorizing your community.This is also available as a PDF for printing. Please circulate these widely!

— CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective (@crimethinc.com) 2025-02-11T23:18:51.336Z

Meanwhile, thousands of people are taking to the streets against ICE, demanding an end to the raids, a strengthening of sanctuary city laws, and calling for solidarity with those targeted by the deportation machine. Most impressively, we’ve also seen weeks of student walkouts, most notably in Los Angeles, where hundreds of students across multiple schools have continued to carry out walkouts and rallies, writing anti-ICE slogans throughout the city. Mass protests have also led to clashes with police in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and beyond.

In multiple cities, thousands have also taken to the streets against Trump’s attacks on trans people, in an effort to call on hospitals to protect access to gender affirming care and resist the administrations draconian executive orders. Mass mobilizations have already taken place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlottesville, New York, and beyond.

Students Walk Out in Los Angeles: A Report from the Streetscrimethinc.com/2025LosAngelesAs Trump’s second term begins, some of the fiercest resistance is coming from the communities that Trump is threatening. In Los Angeles, students have engaged in weeks of walkouts against mass deportations.

— CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective (@crimethinc.com) 2025-02-13T09:01:26.705Z

Communities have also been pushing back against attempts by the far-Right to test these new waters. This past week, we saw folks in the historically Black neighborhood in Lincoln Heights, OH, arm themselves and push through a line of police to attack neo-Nazis who were being protected by law enforcement on a freeway overpass, holding automatic weapons and swastika flags. Community members burned one of their flags, wrecked one of their cars, and even left behind bullets spelling out the letters “LH” for Lincoln Heights.

Protests have also been taking place non-stop in Washington DC against Elon Musk and his team of far-Right minions, leading to some early attempts to blockade them from entering buildings and near constant rallies and protests by workers and their supporters.

Finally, demonstrations and acts of vandalism have also broken out against Tesla, with people calling for boycotts following Musk’s Nazi salute and move to dismantle and privatize social safety net programs. Several Tesla dealerships have been hit with graffiti and other forms of sabotage and there is currently a call for continued protests against Tesla on Saturday, February 15th.

With Trump back in power, neo-Nazi groups have been testing the waters, hoping to push communities they want to target into submission – instead people have been fighting back. Check out our roundup here: itsgoingdown.org/this-week-in…

— It's Going Down (@igd.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T10:11:36.105Z

We’re in scary territory, but also fertile grounds to organize in. People everywhere can see how the Democrats helped get us here and how their refusal to respond to demands from social movements and instead doubling down on expanding and militarizing the repressive functions of the state – who is now coming for everyone.

Music: 

Intros: Breakaway and Seaside Tryst

On this episode of The Beautiful Idea, we speak with former political prisoner Eric King and Josh Davidson from the Certain Days political prisoner calendar project. Eric and Josh discuss their recent round of discussions with Firestorm Books around their recent collection, Rattling the Cages, featuring former political prisoners and abolitionist organizers. These discussions have also been recently formatted into a new zine series, found here.

During our discussion we cover the shifting terrain of anti-repression and prison support organizing, how things swill change under Trump, and the need for building a broad abolitionist movement that can win campaigns and shift public perception.

Photo by Taylor Brandon on Unsplash

Welcome back to The Beautiful Idea, a new project from a collective of several anarchist and autonomous media producers scattered around the world. We’re bringing you interviews and stories from the front-lines of autonomous social movements and struggles, as well as original commentary and analysis.

On today’s show we have a conversation with Xander Dunlap, author of the recent book The System Is Killing Us: Land Grabbing, the Green Economy, and Ecological Conflict, out with Pluto Press. In this conversation we discuss the current state of ecological resistance movements, the problems introduced by eco-Leninism, the concept of permanent ecological conflict, and the notion of home and connection to place in land struggles.

You can find Xander on Twitter and Bluesky.

Xander is also involved in a new and exciting publishing project called Rupture Press, check it out here.

photo via Pixabay

Welcome back to The Beautiful Idea, a new project from a collective of several anarchist and autonomous media producers scattered around the world. We’re bringing you interviews and stories from the front-lines of autonomous social movements and struggles, as well as original commentary and analysis.

On today’s show we feature our Behind the Barricades roundup of movement news, events, and updates. We then speak with Autumn from Nor Cal Resist, about the looming threat of mass deportations and then look at the attempt by the incoming Trump administration to consolidate executive power. We then sit down with a member of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation in Los Angeles, to talk about the unfolding ecological disaster in Southern California and how mutual aid groups are mobilizing.

Music: Seaside Tryst, Breakaway, Evolve “Reality Guerilla” and “Nightmares/Dreams,” and David Sandström “1968.”

In Smyrna, GA, “A small but dedicated group of protestors rallied [outside] the headquarters of Brasfield & Gorrie, the general contractor responsible for [building] #CopCity,” demanding that they drop the contract.

The Seattle Solidarity Network continues to hold demonstrations outside of a local restaurant in protest of wage theft and to demand back wages.

The Montreal Autonomous Tenants Union reported on a recent action outside a landlord’s home, reporting “On Friday December 6th, the Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union (SLAM) came together in the north of Montreal to pay a collective visit to a landlord’s extravagant water front property. We gathered in support of a fellow tenant who [became] unhoused after the city condemned her apartment.

The wealth of landlords is built with the wages we are forced to give up to remain housed. This wealth was on full display as SLAM members set up our banners in front of the landlord’s home, and took to singing and chanting.

Picket lines like these are a demonstration of power, tidings to the landlord’s neighbourhood, and a message that this tenant isn’t in this fight alone anymore. Power needs to change hands. Protests at our landlords’ homes – especially if they become common and second nature – go a long way in cementing the beginning of a shift in power.”

In Tacoma, WA, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) joined La Resistencia as part of a “Car brigade action at the Northwest Detention Center…in support of the Abolish Prison Slavery week of Solidarity called on… by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak.” Hunger strike actions remain ongoing inside the facility.

In Montreal, The Anti-Eviction Brigade…carried out a leaflet display in front of [a real estate speculator’s] office…[who is]…famous for his eviction practices…he has made a specialty of targeting homes inhabited by vulnerable people, pushing them to leave through harrassment and threats, then renovating and drastically increasing prices. “The homelessness, the broken lives, the suicides. All these slices of life that are just stories for some. For us, communists, anarchists, inhabitants of the working class neighborhoods, we experience the sufferering of our class, brothers and sisters in our flesh. Anyone capable of the minumum of empathy should do the same. Owners, even the worst of you are covered by the political system that absolves itself of all responsibility. You are protected by the bourgeois justice of the TAL and the cops are your armed wing. We will not beg anymore, we will do everything possible to prevent you from harming ours at 4750 Ontario or elsewhere. War on landlords!”

Also in Montreal, the IWW mobilized to support postal workers on strike. Local Wobblies reported, “IWW members [gathered to] help our striking comrades from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) to blockade [a] sorting plant… The line of stalled trucks was impressive!…inter-union solidarity is one of the best weapons of the workers’ movement.”

Pro-choice activists in Florida are dealing with repression after facing charges for writing graffiti on an anti-choice center.

As the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) wrote:

Florida politicians, federal prosecutors, and anti-choice religious extremists… sought to use the FACE Act for the first time against pro-choice activists for very minor criminal mischief (graffiti).

The FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) was enacted in 1994 to protect doctors and patients from the upwelling of murder, fire-bombings, and violent assaults perpetrated by the violent anti-choice/religious extremist movement during the 80’s and 90’s. The four reproductive rights activists in the Florida case were federally prosecuted for spray-painting the outside of three “crisis pregnancy centers” (fake “clinics”) in Florida in June 2022, following the Dobbs decision and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The Florida Attorney General and one of the fake clinics also filed separate federal civil lawsuits against the four, alleging civil RICO and FACE Act violations; fortunately, we were able to get those two civil lawsuits dismissed.

Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera were both sentenced to 30 days in federal custody and 60 days of house arrest; Caleb Freestone was sentenced to a year and a day in prison; and Gabriela Oropesa was just convicted after going to trial and will be sentenced in March 2025. The four remained steadfast to their political ideologies, non-cooperation, and solidarity with each other and their communities, despite the fact that their extreme prosecutions were unexpected in severity.

Follow South Florida Anarchist Black Cross and Ft. Lauderdale Food not Bombs for more updates and ways to support prisoners.

In New York, on December 12th, “NYU students and professors were arrested after they bound themselves together and blocked the school’s library in Lower Manhattan during a pro-Palestine protest,” demanding divestment from Israel.

In New Jersey, on December 14th, “Protestors [marched] on…City Hall following revelations that the logistics giant Maersk has been shipping thousands of tons of military cargo to the Israeli regime from the Port of Elizabeth, NJ.

Pro-Palestinian protesters wrote, “The people will forever stand against war profiteering, we have the power to take action and enforce a people’s arms embargo against war mongers and weapons companies. Join us in the streets of Jersey City to send a clear message to Maersk that the mask is off, they have been exposed, and we will not stand for it!”

In Emeryville, CA in the bay area of California, a communique claimed responsibility for vandalizing an office belonging to Maersk over it’s role in helping to carry out the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

An anonymous report posted to Indybay stated:

The night of December 8th, we attacked Maersk’s Emeryville office because they are merchants of death…They ship military cargo for the Zionist entity to use in their genocide of Palestinians. This includes parts for the F-35 jets bombing Gaza right now. We did this autonomously, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance…Workers like us have no military to defend our interests or stop this genocide. This is because the merchants of death, like Maersk and United Healthcare, control the state. They grow rich on our taxes and suffering, while we fight to pay for basic needs. Every bomb dropped makes them richer, and us poorer.

If the government will not stop arming Israel, then regular working people will…We call on you to join us. The veins of imperial capitalism are open, fragile, and poorly guarded. Their supply lines of death can be choked.

As Unicorn Riot reported:

The parents of slain forest defender Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Paez Terán [have] filed a civil rights lawsuit against three Georgia law enforcement officers they say are most responsible for the death of their child in January 2023.

Nearly two years after police killed Terán, and a year after the state refused to bring charges against any of the state troopers responsible, Tortuguita’s parents are still seeking answers and accountability for the death of their 26-year-old child.

Tortuguita’s mother and father, are suing Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Ryan Long as well as Georgia State Patrol troopers Mark Lamb and Bryland Myers in federal court claiming that the raid that led to their child’s killing violated Tortuguita’s civil rights.

Tortuguita’s family still hasn’t gotten clarity on the circumstances surrounding their child’s death nearly two years after the fatal shooting.

Lawyers…representing the family, hope that the civil suit will uncover some of the yet unknown details of the raid that ended in police killing the forest defender. Calls for an independent investigation into the shooting rose in the immediate aftermath of the killing. While the family was able to secure an independent autopsy, to date there hasn’t been an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Tort’s killing.

In Pittsburgh, “protesters gathered in front of Mayor Ed Gainey’s home…demonstrating against an increased crackdown on homeless encampments…Over the course of about an hour, protesters chanted “No housing, no peace!” and banged on drums and noisemakers in the street in front of the home. They bore signs that read “Sweeps Solve Nothing” while denouncing Gainey’s “war on the poor.”

Workers at Starbucks and Amazon carried out strikes during the holiday season, facing arrests from police outside of Amazon facilities in New York.

In Chicago, “Organizers outraged by the recent decision to drop charges brought against a…police officer accused of beating…a 17-year-old in 2022 picketed the Cook County state attorney’s office in downtown Chicago…”

On New Year’s Eve, noise demos outside of jails and prisons were held across the US and beyond in several dozen cities. For a full roundup, check out It’s Going Down.

In Knoxville, TN, high school students protested the police killing of their 18 year-old classmate by three sheriff deputies. Protesters demanded the “release of any police videos of the encounter… and demonstrated outside a Knoxville City Council meeting. Councilmembers voted to approve an expansion of police surveillance cameras and monitoring in the city, part of a $27.5 million dollar contract with Axon Enterprises.”

In San Francisco, CA, BDS and queer activists held a demonstration which shut down part of Market Street and held a picket outside of a Chevron gas station. According to Indybay.org, “The rally for Palestine and BDS began at the intersection of Market and Castro Streets. After some speeches and slogans the crowd crossed the street to the Chevron Station. Chevron Oil maintains an oil platform off the Gaza cost and supplies oil to Israel’s military as it perpetrates the Gaza genocide.”

Pittsburgh activists Peppy and Krystal, who faced charges stemming from a protest against a far-Right anti queer speaker on a college campus, have been sentenced, with Peppy receiving 5 years in prison and Krystal three years probation.

When a married couple, Krystal and Brian “Peppy” DiPippa, amongst an estimated 250 community members, protested the transphobes on the Pitt campus, the State alleged that one of them had lit two homemade smoke devices and a commercially available firework…what would normally have been a State misdemeanor charge became a major federal investigation, under the pretense that a “civil disorder” had occurred. The investigation included a raid of the defendants’ home by the ATF, FBI, and state and local police, resulting in a large seizure of computer equipment.

Peppy…has remained incarcerated without bail to this day, and faced a sentence of over a decade in federal custody. Krystal, although not charged with the explosives felony, could have received an equal sentence to Peppy based on the conspiracy…The police had previously executed a warrantless search of the couple’s garbage, where they found printed information discussing the Atlanta “Stop Cop City” campaign, as well as other “anarchist” zines. The seizure of these items as “evidence” points to an overtly politically motivated use of the “civil disorder” statute, in an attempt to not only scare rank and file activists into submission by fear of spending decades in prison, but also to send a clear message that prosecutors and judges are willing to highlight political beliefs to keep activists confined pre-trial without options for bail. The judge in this case cited “sentiments supporting anarchism” as his justification for keeping Mr. DiPippa locked up.

Check out show notes for more info on how to support Peppy and Krystal.

As this episode was being recorded, horrific fires, fueled by climate change, broke-out in Southern California, with tens of thousands of people being forced to evacuate. Please listen to our interview later in the show for more info and check out Mutual Aid Disaster Relief and local groups like the Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network and the LA Tenants Union for ways to plug into local mutual aid responses.

Thanks for listening to today’s episode of The Beautiful Idea, news and analysis from the front-lines of anarchist and autonomous struggles everywhere. Catch you next time.

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Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash

On this episode of The Beautiful Idea, with the second Trump administration only weeks away, we sit down to speak with two anarchist authors and thinkers, Peter Gelderloos and Prince Shakur.

Peter is the author of such classics as How Non-Violence Protects the State and Worshiping Power, and has recently published two new books, They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us and Organization, Continuity, Community. Peter is also currently publishing on substack.

Prince Shakur is an organizer, author, and one of two hosts who run The Dugout, a Black anarchist podcast which you can check out here and follow on Instagram. Shakur is also the author of When They Tell You To Be Good.

During our episode we speak with both Peter and Prince about their thoughts on the coming Trump administration and how people involved in social movements and struggles should ready themselves and their communities. Is it fair to call Trump a fascist and what can we expect from the incoming administration? What cracks can we see forming within the ruling order going forward, and what opportunities and challenges do autonomous rebels face in this new terrain?

Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

Announcing a new anarchist podcast, The Beautiful Idea. Follow them on Mastodon here.

We are happy to announce the first episode of The Beautiful Idea, a new project from a collective of several anarchist and autonomous media producers scattered around the world. We’re bringing you interviews and stories from the front-lines of autonomous social movements and struggles, as well as original commentary and analysis. We plan to put out about two episodes a month; one will be more focused on action news and include shorter interviews with front-line activists and organizers, and the other will feature longer, more deep-dive interviews on specific topics, including theoretical and historical analysis.

On today’s show we feature our Behind the Barricades roundup of movement news, events, and updates, along with a look at the recent explosion following the shooting of a United Healthcare CEO in New York. We then speak with someone involved in a new campaign to support Stop Cop City defendants facing both RICO and domestic terrorism charges. Finally, we speak with a long-time anarchist to look back on the historic mobilization against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.

Music: Seaside Tryst, Gary Lamaar, and Breakaway

Welcome to Behind the Barricades on The Beautiful Idea, a roundup of action news and upcoming events across so-called North America.

In October in Austin, TX, anarchists and pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied and marched against tech giants and their role in facilitating the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Counter-info site Autonomedia reported:

Such an escalation sets the stage for a real confrontation and challenge to the most important local ties to the genocide. This also forces the local movement into a confrontation with the economic forces that dominate the city and its economic interests–themselves aligned with a domestic project of displacement, development, and dispossession.

In Chicago, Unsalted reported on a mobilization against the Mid-Continent Gas Conference. A report-back wrote:

A group of people entered the hotel hosting the conference and crashed the attendee’s welcome reception of the 2024 Mid-Continent Gas Conference. A banner with the words, “Enbridge Out of the Great Lakes, Shut Down Line 5 Now!” on one side and, “Evil Enbridge, Fuck Off!” on the other side was unfurled at the cocktail hour reception. People sang, and chanted with a bullhorn, played instruments, and left messages for Enbridge and other gas companies inside the hotel. After causing a ruckus inside, the group walked outside to the bar’s patio overlooking the Chicago River, and less than one mile from Lake Michigan, to “greet” more LDC conference attendees with noise, banners, and rowdy jeers. One person was arrested by the pigs for allegedly trespassing and released onsite.

In Ypsilanti, MI, on Halloween night, a rowdy crowd held a “spooky” demonstration outside of a slumlord’s home. A report-back posted to Unsalted wrote:

Hark! Let it be known that on this 31st of October – Devil’s Night – we, the peasants of so-called Ypsilanti, have declared that we have HAD ENOUGH of landlords!…You have left us serfs with garbage, so we left you with our garbage. Eggs on your stupid giant windows, rotten tomatoes all over your door and porch, and remnants of our chamber pots in the form of toilet paper all over your trees.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past gave Scrooge a second chance, but the Ghosts of Devil’s Night and Halloween do not. [This slumlord] will know no comfort until he abandons his properties and makes reparations for his crimes…We do not need them. Until they are thrown off and everything they have stolen has been reclaimed… Every night can be Devil’s Night.

In November in Boston, clashes broke out when hundreds of pro-choice counter-demonstrators faced off against riot police and far-Right gender fascists holding a “Men’s March to Abolish Abortion.” Police made several arrests of counter-demonstrators, who attempted to block streets in the face of the far-Right procession. Check out a report back, here.

Clashes broke out today in #Boston, as a large pro-choice counter-demonstration faced off with police and gender fascists at anti-abortion "Men’s March to Abolish Abortion." Police made several arrests of counter-demonstrators.

— It's Going Down (@igd.bsky.social) 2024-11-17T05:29:03.370Z

Anger is rising in so-called British Columbia against the PRGT pipeline. An anonymous report on BC Counter-Info claimed credit for spiking “thousands of trees along the PRGT pipeline [route]…” It went on to state, “Its up to each of us to combat this project, we hope this effort poses one more obstacle.” Indigenous people are also currently fighting the project in a variety of ways.

In Cleveland, OH, around 100 people rallied outside of a jail in support of several people arrested for supposedly writing graffiti slogans in support of Palestine on a college campus. Also in Claremont, CA, over 100 people rallied in support of students being targeted for repression over ongoing actions in support of the anti-war struggle.

Hundreds protested in solidarity with Palestine at UT Austin against an appearance by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. In 2013, Bennett claimed, “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is no problem with that.”

In antifascist news, a small protest was held outside of the yearly white supremacist ‘American Renaissance’ conference in Tennessee.

The community was able to surround and force the people at table to leave, while filling the air with chants of solidarity and love. Drowning out their mic and speaker.We saw many people along the outskirts of this crowd breaking in to tears as they felt the community stand together.

— SpicyCapybara (@spicycapybara.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T18:02:53.304Z

In Albuquerque, NM, hundreds mobilized in support of the LGBTQ+ community and against proposed book bans by gender fascists. Demonstrators also rallied against attempts by MAGA grifters to speak before the local school board. A post to BlueSky reported, “The community was able to surround and force [some of the gender fascists rallying outside] to leave, while filling the air with chants of solidarity and love. Drowning out their mic and speaker. We saw many people along the outskirts of this crowd breaking in to tears as they felt the [power of the] community stand together.”

Hundreds rallied at Penn State against a “Pray the Gay Away” event by washed-up white supremacist Milo Yiannopoulos, best known for promoting white nationalism at Breitbart before being fired for endorsing pedophilia and working with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.

In Columbus, OH, a group of neo-Nazis attempted to hold a small march with swastika flags, but quickly found themselves attacked by members of the community. While stopped by local law enforcement, white supremacists told police that “people pulled guns on them and threw cans and vegetables as they marched…” and they were also covered in pepper-spray by angry locals. The next day, a “…group of Black men organized a counter-march.”

Students at Lafayette, LA, organized a demonstration against gender fascists with Turning Point USA, who held an event attacking trans people on Trans Day of Remembrance.

More than 200 police in riot gear, on bikes, and on horseback were mobilized to defend the metal festival Messe des Morts tonight on Monk Boulevard. Around 150 counter-protesters still made their presence known, and two Nazi bands were struck from the lineup after being blocked at the border. (1/3)

— Clash Montréal (@clashmtl.bsky.social) 2024-11-30T03:28:36.704Z

In Montreal, antifascists held a large march and demonstration against a metal festival scheduled to feature several acts connected to the far-Right and neo-Nazi groups.

Antifascist researchers have also released doxxes and exposes on neo-Nazis in North Carolina, members of the Goyim Defense League, and the now defunct National Justice Party (NJP).

Anarchists reclaimed Montreal last night to resist NATO and the Palestinian genocide#palestine #gaza #freepalestine #escalate4gaza

— Euphoric Autonomy (@euphoricautonomy.bsky.social) 2024-11-23T18:55:25.353Z

Things are still hot on campus, as the student intifada keeps the pressure on university administrators to divest from Israeli apartheid. In Montreal, thousands of students took part in massive coordinated strikes demanding divestment as student strikers marched through the Concordia campus, picketing and briefly occupying buildings. The next day, a mass march took place against a NATO summit, as a large black bloc broke out windows at the event center holding the submit, as demonstrators clashed with authorities. A communique from the black bloc wrote:

The military interventions supported by NATO protect governments aligned with American interests and crush any alternative, keeping the global south under capitalist constraints. NATO’s alliance with the zionist entity is ideologically coherent, as a colonial enterprise, but Israel also provides technologies of control and weapons that NATO states use throughout the world, in their imperialist missions and on their own populations.

Our actions have had a symbolic and material impact: they have imposed costs financially, have disrupted and disturbed, have propagated our ideals and made visible this very legitimate and necessary struggle.

The media will focus on our violence, they will manipulate our messages, our messages confronting the atrocities perpetrated by Israel and NATO – responsible for millions of deaths. So it is crucial to say again that it is the brutality of the oppressive structures governing us that we fight, that the worst violence is the State’s…

Back in New York, students on the CUNY campus took over a floor used by administrators, naming it “Fatima’s Floor,” demanding divestment from the school. Students at the nearby Sarah Lawrence College also engaged in a sit-in and building takeover, dropping banners and demanding divestment. Students then set up an encampment outside the building to continue the protest.

They filled the lobby before marching to every floor, disrupting classes.Behind them, boarded up windows can be seen. These were smashed during a demo in late September that reportedly caused $600,000 in damages to the university, which has refused to divest from Israeli apartheid and genocide.

— Clash Montréal (@clashmtl.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T22:09:45.864Z

The 13th hunger strike this year has kicked off a the NorthWest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, according to La Resistencia. According to the group, 40 people are taking part. Prisoners are demanding an end to solitary confinement, better food and conditions, and for ICE to end its contract with the GEO Group.

In tenant news, a rent strike in Missouri has continued into its third month, with residents vowing to not back down until their demands are met, “including a rent cap among other priorities.”

Meanwhile in Sweetwater, FL, residents of a mobile-home community are taking in the streets in protest against a looming threat of eviction. In this episode, we present an audio report on the struggle from a member of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation.

In mid-November, thousands of residents at the Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park near Miami suddenly received eviction notices.Read about how they're choosing to organize and fight to stay in their homes.🏘️✊

— Black Rose / Rosa Negra (@blackroserosanegra.bsky.social) 2024-12-07T03:52:43.405Z

Since this report was recorded, tension ignited again after police violently arrested one woman who was protesting as homes were being destroyed. Check out a longer report and info on ways to support the struggle, here.

In the bay area, “75 people converged at Travis Air Force Base,” shutting down the entrance to the base with a blockade “…[in an effort to] block the weapons supply chain, from Travis to Israel, of US bombs and military supplies that aid in the ongoing horrors of genocide.” Close to 30 people were arrested.

Lastly, in Philadelphia, a communique claimed credit for flooding a home belonging to the CEO of Ghost Robotics, which “develops robot dogs that are used in occupied Palestine and [along] the US/Mexico border.” Another anonymous report claimed responsibility for writing graffiti slogans on the home of a University of Michigan police officer involved in repressing student protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

A few updates to put on your radar:

Finally, a call has been circulating for “festivals of resistance” the week before Trump takes office. Here’s an audio version of the call.

On Wednesday, December 4th, Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare was shot dead by a masked assassin, as he walked into an investor meeting at a Hilton hotel in Manhattan, NY. While the motive at first remained unclear, writing on the bullet casings left behind at the scene read three words, “Deny, defend, depose,” a reference to the systematic way in which major insurance companies deny coverage to those seeking medical care.

A recent statement released by the press from a person arrested in connection to the shooting makes these sentiments only even more clear:

Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.

It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.

As journalist Taylor Lorenz wrote:

When it comes to denying healthcare coverage, UnitedHealth stands above its competitors. The insurance company denies an average of 32% of claims, double the industry average. UnitedHealth does this through [a] myriad [of] ways. In one instance, according to a recent lawsuit, it has used a deeply flawed AI algorithm that generates wildly inaccurate predictions in order to deny health coverage to severely ill patients by cutting the time they can spend in extended care. The AI system has a 90% error rate, and yet it remained in use. [One investigation] found that UnitedHealth pushed employees to follow an algorithm to cut off Medicare patients… Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare made $8.9 billion in profit through the first three quarters of this year alone.

Matthew Cortland went on to argue:

UnitedHealthcare makes its money by denying necessary care to people who need [it]. Brian Thompson was a mass murderer. He killed adults, he killed children. He murdered them with spreadsheets and contracts. He did it for money. Thompson was…a very well paid killer.

In response to the assassination of Thompson, there has been wide scale dejection and denouncement of the healthcare industry across social media – with many people on various platforms sharing their own horror stories about being denied coverage – along with mass indifference and even outright celebration in the wake of the murder of Thompson through memes, TikTok video, viral original songs, and shitposts.

Tech reporter Matt Novak of Gizmodo mused, “TikTok is pretty wild right now. I don’t think the ruling class is prepared for the cultural shift that’s happening this week. These aren’t edgelords. There’s a real shift in the way the average American is discussing this.”

Meanwhile, a collection of both neoliberal and far-right gatekeepers, pundits, and grifters have attempted to wag their fingers at the working class, who gleefully cheer on the masked killer, correctly pointing out the mass hypocrisy of a system that systematically murders people for massive profit, yet expects us to shed a tear when a CEO gets smoked.

The cultural phenomenon that has erupted following Thompson’s murder; from a recent round of ‘look-alike contests,’ to thirst trap posts about how hot the shooter is, to the long screeds posted against healthcare in this capitalist hell-scape – points to the first collective eruption of working-class self-interest (albeit largely online) which has been able to manifest itself in a real way, in the wake of the election spectacle; which ironically was marked by the near total absence of discussion on health-care, apart from Harris going back on her 2020 call for universal coverage and the Republicans vowing to further slash social programs like medicaid and medicare and destroy the Affordable Care Act.

Like the viral celebrations which erupted after neo-Nazi Richard Spencer was punched in 2017 or the polls which showed that over 54% of Americans supported the burning of the 3rd precinct during the George Floyd uprising in 2020, the gleeful laughter and resignation following Thompson’s death shows the chasm that exists between people’s lived realities and that of the narratives produced by the technocrats in power and the media institutions they control.

But moreover, the elite rush to clutch their pearls over public sentiment following the assassination in Manhattan lays bare not only mass anger at inequality in this society and how violence is unevenly distributed in it, but moreover how it is unevenly mourned over. Millions are sacrificed on the altar of the capitalist economy, a reality that the pandemic made even more clear, yet we are supposed to shed tears for someone who made this slaughter possible and was enriched by it in the process?

To further illustrate this point, look at the reaction to the recent stabbing of two migrant teenagers, one fatally, in New York City literally a night after the shooting in Manhattan. The two teens were attacked in a racist assault by someone who approached them and asked if they “spoke English.” Predictably, this attack and murder did not generate the same police mobilization or manhunt. Clearly, the life of a CEO shot by an angry assassin is worth more than that of a teenage migrant killed by a racist vigilante.

To add insult to injury, on the same day that a suspect was arrested in connection to Thompson’s murder, Daniel Penny, 26, was found not guilty for the strangling to death a Black homeless man who was on a New York subway car. Here’s a clip from Fox News, decrying the outpouring of support for the CEO shooter, while also uplifting those who called Penny, “a hero.”

Meanwhile on the far-Right, interestingly enough, blowhards like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh are being dragged by their own fans, as their recent reaction videos complaining about how the “Revolutionary Left” is cheering on the CEO’s murder, have been panned and mass down-voted on platforms like YouTube.

Thousands of comments are dunking on Shapiro. As one person stated, “Ben you’re a millionaire, you aren’t a “true blue collar conservative” you’re a rich guy that tries to appeal to working class republicans. You don’t understand what poor people go through.” Another wrote, “Ben Shapiro is the CEO of his company so it makes sense that he might see a little of himself in the victim.” These comments have thousands of likes.

This blow-back against the Right is interesting, and points to the reality that many people hold sentiments that run physically counter to whatever fixed partisan identity they might currently adhere to, or party they may vote for.

While I personally think it’s silly, and even dangerous, to imagine the “Left and the Right” coming together around some vague notion of ‘populism,’ this is a moment that shows talking and relating to people on the wavelength of shared material conditions and lived experience is powerful. An anti-capitalist position makes sense. It is popular. We should be thinking about how we can deepen these contradictions and break off working-class people who voted for Trump in the hopes he would improve their lives, along with people who thought that the Democrats would be a bulwark against attacks by the GOP, and bring them into social movements that are in conflict with capitalism.

This moment also gives us an opportunity to ask exactly how and why people end up supporting politicians and billionaires which are pushing through the very policies which allow corporations like United Healthcare to exist with impunity. How anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and transphobia all are weaponized in an attempt to sell white workers (and beyond) the bedtime story that they have more in common with the elites than they do other poor and working people.

As the holidays approach, and Trump continues to stack his cabinet with billionaires intent on looting the country, slashing taxes on the wealthy, deregulating corporations, and gutting basic safety net programs, it will be interesting to see how this “Eat the Rich” sentiment continues to evolve. I hope that people are hungry.

For more information on the struggle against Cop City, go here.

For more history on the mass mobilization against corporate globalization and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, WA in 1999, check out this collection from CrimethInc. here and the film Breaking the Spell.

Thanks for listening to today’s episode of The Beautiful Idea, news and analysis from the front-lines of anarchist and autonomous struggles everywhere. Catch you next time.

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Welcome, to This Is America, September 27th, 2024.

On this episode, we feature an interview with an organizer with Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR) and two collective members at Firestorm Books, both located in Western North Carolina, who speak about organizing autonomous mutual aid relief efforts in the wake of recent hurricanes. We then speak with two hosts of the new anarchist podcast, The Dugout, and finally, we dive into the unfolding election.

All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!

Resistance in solidarity with Palestine and against the continued war and genocide in Gaza continues, as mass protests, student walkouts, building occupations, and direct actions continued across the world.

Militant anti-war march in the streets of Montreal.

In Montreal on September 30th, as Clash MTL reported, a militant march hit the streets, breaking windows in a luxury shopping district, and fighting with police with fireworks and Molotov cocktails. As one report noted “…militants targeted Concordia University because of their refusal to divest from genocide and police brutality unleashed against students…”

Protesters stream into building in Claremont, CA.

In early October, hundreds of students at Pomona University in Southern California walked out in protest of the ongoing war and genocide happening in Gaza, taking over Carnegie Hall for several hours. The occupation and walkout is just the latest mass demonstration organized by students who this spring voted in a campus referendum for the university to disclose and divest from Israel. After the university refused, in April the students stormed and occupied the office of the president, leading to around 20 arrests.

In the bay area, “…[p]rotesters blocked entrances to a Lockheed Martin research facility…”, at Harvard students organized a “study-in” in solidarity with Palestine, at UCLA a demonstration organized by Jewish students in solidarity with Palestine was broken up by police and one person was arrested, and at the University of Minnesota, students in late October occupied a hall on the university campus. Read a statement here on the occupation, which ended in arrests and students being suspended.

In repression news, a heavily armed group of riot police raided the residential home of a students in Philadelphia, under the pretext of investigating minor pro-Palestinian vandalism that had taken place on the Penn State campus. No one was charged and no arrests were made. Read a full report on the incident in The Intercept here.

Autonomous anti-capitalist groups mobilize to block eviction in Montreal.

In tenant news, in Montreal, according to a report from the Anti-Eviction Brigade:

Yesterday morning, a precarious tenant in fragile health was to be evicted by a bailiff, following shenanigans by her landlord. The tenant had managed to pay their rent, but only by going into debt. She paid cash to the janitor, but the owner denied receiving the payments and dragged the tenant to court…[where the judge] ruled in favor of the owner.

After a few other equally dishonest misadventures, an eviction procedure was ordered…In response, more than thirty comrades associated with the brigade and from various anti-capitalist backgrounds through their organizations, came to oppose this eviction and show their support for the tenant.

The brigade managed to keep the bailiff at bay for the day, allowing the tenant to go to an important medical appointment and allowing her to get her first good night’s sleep in days. The landlord had promised that she could stay in her home until the end of October. However, the word of a landlord worth what it is worth, the bailiff evicted the tenant this morning. The brigade takes good note of this. Further details on this case will follow.

Autonomous activists in Montreal also took over a building for a community gathering of workshops and other radical events. See photos and a report here.

The Montreal Autonomous Tenant Union has also been busy organizing pickets demanding a rent freeze at one location, in Boston, MA, the local tenant union organized a block party, and in Sacramento, CA, the Sac Valley Tenants Union took part in a rally at an apartment complex organized by tenants to demand repairs following a fire.

Rally in Sacramento, CA by tenants demanding repairs following a fire at their apartment complex.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, CA, locals of the Los Angeles Tenant Union (LATU):

…organized two back-to-back protests against gentrifying real estate companies who have been harassing elderly tenants in Highland [and…] Echo Park…For the second protest, over 100 tenants marched up a quiet street in La Cañada to confront [a] developer…

Locals with the Los Angeles Tenant Union hold rally against developer.

Service workers continue to organize and join the anti-capitalist labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). In Portland, OR, workers at a Peet’s Coffee location have now joined the union, joining workers in the bay area at several stores who have also been organizing and holding demonstrations. Last week in Oakland, CA, IWW members held a in store protest “supporting a fellow worker in a disciplinary hearing.” Back in Portland, service workers at the Fried Egg also have been fighting and holding pickets against the targeting of IWW organizers.

IWW picket outside of the Fried Egg restaurant in Portland, OR.

Autonomous disaster relief efforts continue across Appalachia and the South in the wake of devastating hurricanes Helene and Milton. A recent “Palestine to Appalachia” caravan was organized, bringing much needed supplies to impacted areas. Check out continuous updates from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief and Triangle Mutual Aid.

Several Cop City protesters who faced years in prison for taking part in a demonstration at a university in Georgia have had their charges dropped. According to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund newly released video from a police bodycam from the arrest shows:

…Atlanta Police higher-ups conspiring to fabricate felony charges against protesters because they were part of a group which opposed Cop City. In the video, GSU police say there’s no basis for felony charges for 8 people who protested at a construction site. An APD Major pressures officers to come up with anything at all to charge them with, to help APD crack down on “this group” – meaning the Stop Cop City movement. The protesters were subsequently charged with felony burglary, jailed for almost a week, and fought the case for 2 years. The prosecutor dropped all charges days before trial. It could not be more clear: APD is manipulating the criminal legal system to silence its critics.

See the footage here.

Welcome, to This Is America, October 4th, 2024.

On this episode, first we have an interview with someone on the frontline of autonomous disaster relief efforts in so-called North Carolina with Triangle Mutual Aid. For support their efforts and read dispatches from TMA, go here. Margaret Killjoy also has a report out, an interview on It Could Happen Here, and Firestorm, the anarchist community center in Asheville, is also publishing updates. Don’t forget to check out our roundup of mutual aid and autonomous disaster relief efforts here.

Next, we speak with IGD contributor Scott Campbell about the expanding war in Palestine that has now escalated into Lebanon. We speak about the recent attacks carried out by the Israeli state, its geopolitical implications, and how resistance movements can continue to push back against the war.

cover photo: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief