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

Welcome, to This Is America, December 31st, 2024.

Order and Download Here

In this episode, first we speak with Mutt a contributor to Muntjac Magazine, Organize!, and also the editor of A Black Autonomy Reader. From Seditionist Distro:

Black Autonomism developed in American prisons within the conversations, letters and zines shared between imprisoned militants of the 70s Black power movement and their comrades on the outside. Dissatisfied with the lack of support they were offered by their waning organisations under the thumb of a brutal counter insurgency. Influenced by prisoner support organisations such as the Anarchist Black Cross and the tradition of stateless resistance in the colonial era such as the maroon societies in the americans and the Caribbean.

This reader is just one attempt to stitch together the ideas, individuals & organisations that both influenced and sprung fourth from these realisations and realities. This was put together explicitly using texts that are already available in print and online just to illustrate how much knowledge has already been made available once you scratch the surface.

Ranging from Black anarchic radicals within the British squatter movement, witnesses to the anti-police rebellion in Ferguson to critical analysis of the failures of State Socialism in continental Africa written by black anarchists who’ve experienced it first hand.

The reader also features an appendix of Black led anti state organisations and the biographies of several black anarchists. At the same time, not everyone in this reader is an anarchist but the relevance of these experiences have much to offer anarchists and anti-authoritarians of all stripes.

We speak with Mutt about the Black Autonomy Reader, as well as anarchist print culture in the UK, the status of the antifascist movement following far-Right riots earlier this year, the state of squatting currently, and much more.

We then turn towards our discussion, where we unpack the recent election cycle in the US and look at the shape of the incoming Trump presidency.

Music: Nabath

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

Welcome, to This Is America, September 17th, 2024.

On this episode, first we present an interview with a community member and participant in the local Really Really Free Market in Carrboro, North Carolina. We speak about the event’s history, and how people have pushed back against attempts by the city to shut it down.

Next, we present a brief discussion with someone on the recent violent arrests following a “die-in” for Palestine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, with one of the people arrested at the scene. We talk about the significance of these arrests in the broader context of the student movement for Palestine in Michigan, and the myth of the “outside agitator.” For a full report back on the event, go here.

Carrboro Really Really Free Market

We then speak with long-time anarchist organizer Matt Hart, a member of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation in Los Angeles, about Running Down the Walls events happening across so-called North America and beyond, and the importance of the ABC’s warchest program, which you can donate to here.

Finally, during our discussion we talk about the recent white supremacist attacks on the Haitian community and beyond in Springfield, OH, which have been spurred by a collection of neo-Nazi groups and viral misinformation campaigns, leading to a wave of bomb threats a month after a similar operation kicked off far-Right pogroms in the UK.

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

Vigils and protests took place across the world after the murder of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Ayşenur Eygi (Eye-sha-nore Ey-gi) by Israeli forces in the West Bank of occupied Palestine. Ayşenur was reportedly involved in the wave of student protests this summer in solidarity with Palestine and also took part in resistance to DAPL at Standing Rock.

From a press release from the ISM:

During the weekly demonstration in Beita, Palestine, on the morning of September 6th, 2024, the Israeli army intentionally shot and killed an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) human rights activist named Ayşenur Eygi.

The demonstration, which primarily involved men and children praying, was met with force from the Israeli army stationed on a hill. Initially, the army fired a large amount of tear gas and then began using live ammunition. Ayşenur, who we consider a martyr in the struggle, was the 18th demonstrator to be killed in Beita since 2020. She was an American citizen of Turkish descent.

The Israeli forces fired two rounds. One hit a Palestinian man in the leg, injuring him. The other round was fired at international human rights activists who were observing the demonstration, striking a human rights activist in the head. Eygi died shortly after being transported to a local hospital in Nablus.

In recent months, international activists have experienced a sharp increase in violence from Israeli forces and the occupation must be held accountable for this. The woman martyred today was an activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led organization that provides protective presence and solidarity in the West Bank. The ISM was founded in 2002, and has maintained a steady presence in Palestine ever since, supporting the Palestinian popular struggle against the occupation.

Read the full statement here.

In Richmond, Virginia, according to a press release published by the Escalate Network, over 100 demonstrators clashed with police as protesters attempted to march on the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. As a post on social media reported, “Police cruiser windows [were] broken, fireworks thrown, [and] barricades burned, as over 100 Palestine solidarity protesters defend one another from police attacks…”

In Manhattan, NY, a communique posted online read, “An autonomous group…hit six Manhattan [Citibank locations] on Sunday night to remind corporate ONCE AGAIN that there is NO BUSINESS AS USUAL DURING A GENOCIDE. We epoxied card readers and door locks and covered them with cement-glued stickers.”

Also in New York, the Escalate Network reported that, “Dozens of black-clad protesters erect[ed] barricades, vandalize[d] israeli-linked targets while chanting slogans against the US-Israel war in Palestine and the “Cop City” campus NYC Mayor Eric Adams wants to build in Queens.” Independent movement journalist Ash J reported, “Protesters redecorated corporate property at places like T-Mobile & Google with anti-colonial artwork. NYPD later showed up & brutally arrested people regardless of whether they actually did anything.”

A communique from the action read:

Aysenur Eygi did not deserve to die, while not the first, we know she won’t be the last. Even though her death was at the hands of the IOF, the rifle and bullet they fired were made and supplied under the orders of Biden And YOU.

Meanwhile, corrupt mayor Eric Adams and his allies cut community funding, line their pockets, and starve New Yorkers. We, this NYC black bloc, made up of revolutionary New Yorkers, will feed them.

In this city corporate greed reigns, and the interests of landlords, hedge funds, and the rich elites fuels every crisis. They’ve spent decades militarizing the NYPD, building cop cities, sending them abroad to train with the IOF, investing and donating mass surveillance tech, pushing budget cuts, and funding every other piece of their police state. All on the dime of poor working class New Yorkers, and all of it to keep your fellow New Yorkers brutalized, isolated, starved, and exploitable. Manipulating us to blame migrants, and to bring back the militarized ICE into our neighborhoods, all while turning our precious city into a personal playground for the rich and powerful, inevitably ending with the destruction of our communities, the dispossession of its people, and their displacement. Leaving cheap pockets of labor to exploit and cater to their every need.

But no more! We call on all New Yorkers to join us in the streets, to take action like we have, and put an end to this police state, this corrupt administration, the corporate greed, and the suffering so many of us have endured by their hands. To Eric Adams, his admin, the NYPD, and their financial and political allies, the Feds are encircling, they smell the rats nest, and so do we. Even if they don’t stop you, the people are waking up, we’re rising, and we’ll be prepared to drive the final nail.

In San Francisco, CA, NBC reported that:

San Francisco State University has pulled investments from three companies the university claims do not meet its human rights standards following demonstrations from pro-Palestinian activists and groups.

In the agreement reached with students, the university will sell its corporate bond position in aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin, stock positions in Italian defense company Leonardo, and U.S.-based data analysis enterprise Palantir Technologies.

In Boston, MA, a third person, Matt Nelson, died after engaging in an act of self-immolation, in an effort to bring attention to the ongoing genocide and war in Gaza.

In Newton, MA, a pro-Israel demonstrator shot and seriously injured a supporter of Palestine after the man ran across the street and engaged in an altercation with the armed individual. The Twitter account of the shooter, Scott Hayes, shows that he self-identified as a non-Jewish Zionist and called for “hot lead” to be used against pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

In Indiana, resistance continues at the university in Bloomington, as students, faculty, and Palestinian solidarity activists continue to push back against draconian attempts to stifle action and speech on campus.

In so-called Canada, a demonstration took place in Montreal outside of the home of the McGill university president to demand they cut ties with Israel and in Toronto, students clashed with authorities during a raucous divestment protest.

Clashes with police also broke out in Philadelphia, outside of the recent Presidential debate, as protesters pushed back against police attempts to repress demonstrators as graffiti slogans in solidarity with Palestine hit the walls. For a full report, see Unicorn Riot.

In several neighborhoods in Washington DC, angry residents took to the streets following the release of video of the police murder of Justin Robinson, who was shot and killed by police while passed out in his vehicle following a crash. According to the Washington Post:

Incidents of looting and vandalism broke out in the District late Monday and early Tuesday, according to the D.C. police, in what appeared to be a possible response to the release of video of a recent fatal shooting by officers.

The [rebellion] occurred in Georgetown, City Center and other parts of the city, according to a statement issued by the police. Incidents occurred in at least three other neighborhoods, the statement indicated.

Police brutality and killings in the US have remained constant, and in 2023, “Police in the US killed at least 1,232 people last year, making 2023 the deadliest year for homicides committed by law enforcement in more than a decade,” as the State rushes to build ‘Cop City’ facilities across the country, in an effort to beef up the ability of police to better suppress future uprisings, in the wake of the George Floyd rebellion.

As this podcast was being finished, protests have been called for later this week in New York, after the NYPD opened fire on a subway car after attempting to arrest a rider for non-payment of a $2.90 fare. In the process, police shot two other people, one police officer, and killed the person accused of fare evasion. This mass shooting takes place against the backdrop of a growing corruption scandal which has already led to the police commissioner stepping down.

In Queens, New York, massive banners were dropped against a proposed “Cop City” project. According to a communique posted online:

As of July 31 2024, there are 80 cop city projects in the works in 49 of 50 states, all of this against the backdrop of a for-profit penal system….In New York City, the concept of a cop city extends far beyond official training grounds, bleeding into all aspects of civilian life. Even before the greenlighting of Queens’ $225 million dollar pigsty, New Yorkers have been facing unprecedented levels of state repression, and relentless surveillance by a police force large and powerful enough to be considered a standing army.

The purported goal of Queens’ cop city—set to break ground in 2026, in College Point—is to consolidate training for 18 city agencies, including the department of sanitation, homeless services, the administration for children’s services, parks enforcement, and the department of corrections, among others; essentially, it aims to militarize city government workers. Meanwhile, eric adams is slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from homeless services, children’s services and other programs that New Yorkers depend on—SNAP, medicaid, libraries, and rental vouchers, for example—in order to pad the nypd’s already-bloated budget to a record-breaking $12 billion in 2025. We’ve all seen the increase of pigs in our communities, the national guard at subway stations, private security firms such as Allied partnering with the MTA. We’ve seen the blueprints for a 300-ft. high jail in Chinatown. We’ve seen an increase in violent sweeps of both street vendors and our homeless neighbors.

New Yorkers are already subject to unrelenting surveillance via private and state-sponsored security cameras, the use of police drones, the implementation of OMNY technology, which has the ability to track one’s movements through public transit, AI-powered surveillance and facial recognition software in our subway systems. Similar surveillance technology, known as “Red Wolf,” is used in the apartheid zionist state at military checkpoints to keep Palestinians under constant observation, and to restrict their freedom of movement. Every day, Palestinians are subjected to algorithmic tracking, often barred from entering their own neighborhoods based on information stored in discriminatory surveillance databases.

Read the full communique here.

In antifascist news, the second annual “Fash Free” festival was recently held in Portland, OR, celebrating the mass antifascist mobilization against the last large showing of the Proud Boys in August of 2021 – and the fact that the far-Right has not rallied in large numbers in the city since.

In Montreal, an attempt by neo-Nazi to put up fascist posters in a working-class neighborhood didn’t quite go according to plan. According to a post by Montreal Antifascists:

To their great dismay, the popular response was swift. Indeed, the community mobilized, passers-by began to shout at them and the budding fascists felt threatened enough to call the police. The latter, always strangely prompt when it came to protecting Nouvelle Alliance, escorted the little soldiers of the French-Canadian race to their car and then out of the neighbourhood.

Let’s remind this backward-looking group that the street is not Instagram, and that they cannot walk in working-class neighborhoods with impunity. We encourage our supporters to keep an eye out and report and tear down their propaganda. Organize locally to make Montreal anti-fascist.

Antifascists in Montreal have also issued a call to oppose far-Right, anti-LGBTQ+ rallies on September 20th. See the call here.

Meanwhile in Millvale, PA, antifascists organized an outreach campaign and march against the home of neo-Nazi Brandon Cahall. PGH Fash Watch reported:

This evening, everyday antifascists distributed hundreds of flyers and stickers in Millvale to educate neighbors about Brandon Cahall, a neo-Nazi who lives in their neighborhood. A march moved through the borough and to Brandon’s house before dispersing.

The march was loud, in good spirits, and had many good conversations with neighbors and borough residents. We will continue to take action against WLM members and neo-Nazis in the city. Nazis out of Pittsburgh!

Community members are posting photos of flyers outing Brandon around the region, check out the campaign here.

In prisoner resistance news, a hunger-strike has kicked off at a federal facility in Montgomery, AL. Rallies also continue in solidarity with ongoing hunger-strikes and other actions at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. In Brooklyn, as Ash J reported, “Protesters…[held a noise demo] outside of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) to celebrate the birthday of #JamelFloyd, who was killed by the guards at MDC in November 2020…”

Finally, Running Down the Walls events took place in a dozen cities across North America. Check IGD for a roundup soon, and support the Anarchist Black Cross warchest here. In Portland, former anarchist political prisoner Eric King spoke and read several messages of solidarity from prisoners facing repression, including local journalist Alissa Azar, who is currently imprisoned for defending herself while covering a Proud Boys rally. You can support Alissa by getting a shirt here.

cover photo: Off the 99

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.

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.

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

Welcome, to This Is America, August 21st, 2024.

In today’s episode, first we speak with the host of 12 Rules for What?, an antifascist podcast on the Channel Zero Network, about the wave of antifascist mobilizations against the far-Right following a series of anti-immigrant riots in the so-called United Kingdom, after the spread of viral misinformation on social media.

We then present the audio version of a new text, The Election Cycle as Counter-Insurgency, and speak with Vicky, author of In Defense of Looting, about their thoughts on the recent election spectacle as the US continues to send billions in weapons and military aid to Israel.

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

Source: Triangle Mutual Aid

The Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network has been busy organizing in the face of flooding and wildfires across the US. Triangle Mutual Aid is also reporting live from South Carolina as the group is organizing on the ground with locals following massive flooding. From a recent update:

…[T]he network of people associated with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR) has been activated. The network of mutual aid groups has a Carolinas group chat populated with people from Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Asheville as well as a couple people in eastern NC closer to the impact zone, several supportive network members from Virginia and others from as far away as Florida. MADR people do an amazing job of coming together and coordinating activities in response to disasters. People collect supplies and organize transport to impacted areas. The national MADR organization has the ability to reimburse expenses and has teams of people knowledgeable in areas like radio communications, 3D printing medical supplies, solar power, and such. Supply drop-off locations have been identified in Greensboro and Raleigh and more are being worked on.

In the bay area, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) held a picket at a bookstore where members of the union are fighting for a raise. In Lansing, several demonstrations were held outside of the homes of executives demanding that they cut ties with the Cop City project. Unicorn Riot also has a new report up about the recent Earth First! gathering in Pennsylvania which brought out around 400 people.

Targeted direct actions continue against the US supported war and genocide in Gaza. In the DC area, the office of AIPAC, one of the largest pro-Israel lobbies, was hit was extensive vandalism and graffiti. More actions took place in Los Angeles, CA, Romulus and Ann Arbor in Michigan, and New York City.

Source: Never Sleep

According to a communique posted to Never Sleep:

More than 15 CitiBankkk locations were sabotaged…across so-called New York City. We jammed the locks and card access readers, sprayed the windows and buildings, and issued warnings in red paint underscoring the company’s investments in genocide: “ABOLISH ISRAEL, FREE PALESTINE” and “THIS IS A WARNING: DEFUND NOW.”

CitiBank facilitates billions in bonds sales for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which manufacture missiles and fighter jets used by the IOF to kill hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. CitiBank is also the largest U.S. bank operating in the zionist entity and heavily invests in the technology sector there, contributing to the “tech-washing” of apartheid, occupation, and ongoing genocide. From its shameful history in Haiti and apartheid South Africa to financing IOF arms and settlements, CitiBank has long profited from settler colonialism.

According to a report in Cambridge Day, pro-Palestine protests seem to have shut down an office of KMC Systems, “a subsidiary of [the] Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems” which has been made “virtually empty…and there are other signs that the company is leaving the city. The building…that houses KMC has been targeted by pro-Palestinian demonstrations for months.”

As this podcast was being finished, thousands mobilized to march on the DNC and call for a ceasefire and an arms embargo against Israel, as the city was flooded with thousands of riot police. On the first day of the DNC, protesters were able to push through one fence, but were quickly shut down by protest marshals and law enforcement, according to a report from Unicorn Riot. Demonstrators also attempted to set up an encampment at a local park, but were ultimately shut down by police. The next night, police clashed with demonstrators outside of the Israeli embassy, as journalists and protesters were arrested. For more coverage, check out It Could Happen Here and live coverage from Unicorn Riot.

Natasha Lennard at the Intercept noted that several “progressive” politicians such as AOC helped to white-wash the Biden administration’s ongoing support for the continued genocide in Gaza, as the Democrats have pushed a platform which calls for greater police and border militarization and Harris has signaled that her administration will not deviate from supporting Israeli apartheid. The Intercept also reported that demonstrators arrested at the DNC “reported injuries from police violence that required hospitalization and a lack of access to attorneys or medication while in custody.”

photo: Unicorn Riot on Mastodon