IGDcast – It's Going Down

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

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, with speak with Bill Brown, author of the publication Not Bored, about the history and enduring legacy of the Situationist International (SI). The SI was a small group of autonomous anti-capitalists, based largely in France, who in the 1950s and 1960s, developed a sweeping critique of contemporary consumer society, which they described as “the Spectacle,” which continues to resonate today as the internet has come to dominate much of our lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVSD7R3JAyY

During our discussion, we cover the concept of “the Spectacle,” and also Situationist ideas around recuperation, their critique of the Left, and how they popularized various forms of what has come to be known as “culture jamming.” We also speak with Bill about the history of the SI and its role in the events of May 1968 in France, where protests and university occupations helped to kick off a wave of mass wildcat strikes that almost brought down the French government. We then turn and talk about how Situationist ideas were picked by a new generation of anarcho-punks in the US, and how this influenced currents within the squatting movement in New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Situationists remain a massive cornerstone in anti-capitalist thought and practice in the post-war period, having influenced a wide range of anarchist and autonomist tendencies along with subversive currents within graffiti, art, underground music, and film.

Some of the texts mentioned in the podcast include:

More Info: Not Bored website, interview with Bill on the Antifada podcast, and An Introduction to the Situationists

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with antifascist authors Matthew Lyons and Xtn Alexander of Three Way Fight, who speak about their new book, Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism, published by PM Press. During our interview we cover a lot of ground, from the election cycle, the changing terrain of US empire and hegemony, the limits of neoliberal discourse on “extremism,” the growing movement in solidarity with Palestine, and the state of the US far-Right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJDgXtogM8

From PM Press on the new book:

What’s the relationship between combating the far right and working for systemic change? What does it mean when fascists intensify racial oppression and patriarchy but also call for the downfall of economic elites or even take up arms against the state?

Three way fight politics confront these urgent questions squarely, arguing that the far right grows out of an oppressive capitalist order but is also in conflict with it in real ways, and that radicals need to combat both. The three way fight approach says we need sharper analysis of far-right movements so we can fight them more effectively, and we also need to track ongoing developments within the ruling class, including liberal or centrist efforts to co-opt antifascism as a tool of state repression and system legitimation.

This book offers an introduction to three way fight politics, with more than thirty essays, position statements, and interviews from the Three Way Fight website and elsewhere, spanning from the antifascist struggles of the 1980s and 1990s to the political upheavals of the twenty-first century. Over fifteen authors explore a range of topics, such as fascist politics’ relationship with patriarchy and settler colonialism, Tom Metzger’s “Third Position” (anticapitalist) fascism, conflict within the business community over the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump administration’s shifting relationship with the organized far right. Many of the writings address issues of political strategy, such as tensions between radicals and liberals within the reproductive rights movement and the George Floyd rebellion, video gaming as an arena of political struggle, and the importance (and challenges) of approaching antifascist organizing in ways that are militant, community based, and nonsectarian.

Lyons and Alexander argue that we need an ever evolving analysis of the challenges before us, as neoliberals continue to turn towards the Right, and the GOP’s open embrace of fascism escalates. Three Way Fight is also on tour to promote their new book, check them out in Philadelphia this month:

More Info: Three Way Fight website, Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism, interview with Three Way Fight on It’s Going Down

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, IGD contributor Scott Campbell speaks with Flor, a compa in so-called Mexico actively involved in supporting anarchist political prisoner Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel. They speak about Okupa Che, an autonomous, self-managed space on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a project where Yorch has been a long-term participant. They then talk about the various charges and legal battles Yorch has faced since 2016, his ongoing imprisonment since December 8, 2022, and his recent sentence of seven years and six months. Flor also provides information on how folks can act in solidarity with Yorch and discusses the cases of other political prisoners in Mexico.

For more information about Yorch and Okupa Che, check out the following resources:

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizer and historian Steve Ongerth, author of Redwood Uprising: From One Big Union to Earth First! and the Bombing of Judi Bari, about the Earth First! and IWW organizer Judi Bari, who in May of 1990, was almost assassinated in Oakland, CA. Many believe that Bari and another Earth First! organizer, Darryl Cherney, were directly targeted for their organizing in defense of redwood forests in northern California, work that included building alliances with timber workers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWApxvSjMKY

As the website for Redwood Uprising wrote:

Just before 11:55 AM a bomb in Bari’s car exploded, nearly killing her and injuring Cherney. Within minutes the FBI and Oakland Police arrived on the scene and arrested both of them as they were being transported to Highland Hospital. The authorities called them dangerous terrorists and accused the pair of knowingly transporting the bomb for use in some undetermined act of environmental sabotage when it had accidentally detonated. The media spun the event as the arrest of two potentially violent terrorists.

Bari and Cherney were not only Earth First!ers, they were dues paying members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)…Indeed, even some of the timber workers whom the media claimed were the sworn enemies of Earth First! were also members of the IWW and covertly working with Bari and Cherney. There were even a handful of timber workers who had openly declared their alliance with Earth First! and their support of Redwood Summer.

Following the bombing, the FBI and Oakland Police went to desperate lengths to try and “prove” the bombing victims were guilty, even to the point of providing false leads and manufacturing evidence.

During our discussion we speak with Steve about who Judi Bari was, how the IWW and Earth First! began to interact and influence each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Redwood Summer campaign that Bari was deeply involved in, the bombing of Bari and Cherney, and Bari’s organizing work that fought to bring together both timber workers and environmentalists.

More Info: Redwood Uprising website and Who Bombed Judi Bari? on YouTube

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we again speak with antifascist researchers Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, authors of the new book, Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Anti-Semitism. We discuss how the established order has attacked both the the current anti-war movement in solidarity with Palestine, which includes many anti-Zionist Jews, as anti-Semitic, while continuing to push anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, as the Republican party makes concrete alliances with actual neo-Nazis.

Finally, we touch on the need for continued antifascist mobilization and education, pushing back against conspiracy theories, and the current terrain of rising authoritarianism. With a growing number of anti-Zionist Jews coming under attack by both the State and pro-Zionist forces, as white nationalists continue to make inroads into the MAGA movement and Republican party, having a clear understanding and analysis of anti-Semitism is needed now more than ever.

More Info: Shane Burley on the It’s Going Down podcast here, here, here, here, and here. Ben Lorber on the It’s Going Down podcast here.

photo: Dave Id via Indybay, Cindy Milstein and Out Live Them NYC

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with folks across the so-called United States about the ongoing movement in solidarity with Palestine continuing to expand across college campuses.

First, we speak with someone in Austin, Texas, who discusses the explosive protests at UT Austin which were repressed by a phalanx of police. We talk about how anti-authoritarians intervened in the struggle, pushed back against repression and counter-insurgency, and are continuing their organizing in solidarity with Palestine.

Next, we talk with someone on the picket lines at University of California Santa Cruz, one of the campuses hit by a recent strike by tens of thousands of student-workers in solidarity with students facing police repression. We talk about the strike, its role in the growing struggle, and how it spread across various campuses. Since this interview took place, a California judge has ruled in favor of UC bureaucrats, granting a restraining order against the strike as “threats of wildcat strikes by rank-and-file workers forced the UAW to expand the strike.”

Lastly we speak with Mohamed Abdou, author of Anarchism and Islam, and until recently, a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Abdou speaks at length about the role of faculty in the struggle and being targeted under recent hearings aimed at snuffing out pro-Palestinian organizing on campus and being labeled “anti-Semitic” and “pro-Hamas” by right-wing outlets and pro-war grifters.

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Andrew Lee, an organizer and author of the new book out from AK Press, Defying Displacement: Urban Recomposition and Social War.

During our discussion, we speak with Lee about how elites, capitalists, and city bureaucrats are banking on gentrification and how people are pushing back against displacement. We also discuss the crisis of rising rents, how gentrification is tied to a push to better police the poor and communities of color, growing attacks on the houseless, and the tenant union movement.

From the AK Press website:

Cities around the world are in the midst of a profound transformation as the wealthy price out the remnants of the urban working class, especially people of color. Displacement is neither accidental or inevitable. It happens because a whole range of people and institutions profit handsomely. Defying Displacement, focused on the US but informed by global examples, investigates gentrification from the perspective of the people fighting it, members of communities whose survival is threatened by some of the most powerful institutions on the planet. Andrew Lee names the names and identifies the actual state and corporate forces that work together to enrich a very specific group of people: property developers and real estate investors who make a killing, politicians who watch their tax bases grow, banks that write profitable loans for new businesses and mortgages for new homeowners. Meanwhile, business districts are planned, tax abatements unveiled, redevelopment schemes dreamed up, corporate and university campuses expanded, and ordinary people are driven from their homes.

The city has long served as the stage for political life and popular revolt. As mass displacement alters the composition of gentrifying cities, the avenues available for social change become unsettled as well, forcing us to reimagine our strategies for building a better world. Around the world communities are pushing the struggle against forced displacement in new directions, shutting down developments and evictions and bringing cities to a halt, fighting militarized police and the most powerful companies in the world. Activists and residents in struggle—dozens of whom are interviewed by Lee to inform his work—are charting the way forward to affordable and sustainable cities run by the people who inhabit them.

For more writings from Lee, go here. Music from The Last Gang.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Photo by Shay Horse

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we are joined with a guest who discusses the mass mobilization to defend the Palestine Solidarity Encampment at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA, which was attacked by far-Right Zionists on April 30th and then by hundreds of riot police on May 1st, who made over 200 violent arrests.

During our discussion, our guest breaks down how the UCLA encampment grew in the face on continued harassment and attacks from far-Right pro-Israel counter-protesters. These attacks escalated on April 30th, when a group of Zionists attacked barricades erected around the outside of the encampment, in full view of security and police, who left the area and watched the attack. As people defended themselves from violent counter-demonstrators, clashes escalated, lasting into the early morning. The next day, police then used the attack as a context for carrying out a violent raid of the encampment, shooting and injuring students and community members with projectile weapons.

As the New York Times wrote:

[An] examination of more than 100 videos from clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that violence ebbed and flowed for nearly five hours, mostly with little or no police intervention. The violence had been instigated by dozens of [far-Right Zionists] who are seen in videos counterprotesting the encampment.

The videos showed counterprotesters attacking students in the pro-Palestinian encampment for several hours, including beating them with sticks, using chemical sprays and launching fireworks as weapons. As of Friday, no arrests had been made in connection with the attack.

The melee began when a group of counterprotesters started tearing away metal barriers that had been in place to cordon off pro-Palestinian protesters. Hours earlier, U.C.L.A. officials had declared the encampment illegal.

Security personnel hired by the university are seen in yellow vests standing to the side throughout the incident. A university spokesperson declined to comment on the security staff’s response.

Police shoot off riot shotguns at UCLA encampment.

TruthOut reported:

Los Angeles Times higher education journalist Teresa Watanabe reported that members of the pro-Israel mob used explicitly genocidal language as they ripped down encampment barriers, yelling, “Second Nakba!” — a reference to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948.

“For over seven hours, Zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, and threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment,” organizers said. “They broke our barriers repeatedly, clearly in an attempt to kill our community.”

“Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help,” the statement continued. “The only means of protection we had was each other. We keep each other safe.”

The Daily Bruin, which had student reporters on the scene, reported that “security and UCPD both retreated as pro-Israel counter-protesters and other groups attacked protesters in the encampment.”

As we cover on the podcast, the far-Right Zionist and police violence on full display at UCLA exposes the false claims by the Biden administration and campus leaders across the country; growing police repression of campus demonstrations is aimed at crushing the anti-war movement which threatens US military interests, not to “protect students” or ensure their “safety.”

The successful mass defense of the UCLA encampment from the far-Right is a turning point for the movement. As one person posted on social media following the clashes, “Everyone at UCLA should feel incredibly proud of themselves. Fighting the cops is where all our movements will have to go, and they’re correct to do it and brave to face it.” Another account added, “There were thousands of people at UCLA who didn’t back down and battled to defend the camp. We will never forget what that night was like. So many people came out in solidarity.” Throughout our discussion, we talk about the dynamics on the ground, the various forces at play, and where the movement might go next.

Music: No$hu, “The Bonk Song”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Z41xCFE2U

On this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with folks across the country that are taking part in the exploding movement of anti-war encampments and occupations sweeping across US campuses in solidarity with Palestine.

First, we speak with someone at Columbia University in New York. We discuss how the Right and the campus administration is attempting to attack protesters as ‘anti-Semitic,’ even as anti-Zionist Jewish students are playing a key role in the organizing alongside many other students from a variety of backgrounds.

Next, we speak with grassroots journalist Vishal P. Singh, who reports on the violent police attack on protesters at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. We also discuss how the far-Right is responding to the growing movement.

Finally, we speak with someone involved in the ongoing occupation of an administration building at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. We talk about attempts by the administration to break the demonstrations and how people are coming together to keep themselves safe in the face of police violence.

More Info: Roundup of campus encampments and occupations on IGD here. Reports on CrimethInc. here, here and here. First We Take Columbia on Ill Will. Escalate Network on Twitter.