This is America – It's Going Down

Welcome, to This Is America, February 13th, 2023.

On today’s episode, first we speak with antifascist journalist Vishal Singh, about being kicked off of Twitter, covering the far-Right in Southern California, and how Trump is rushing to double-down on anti-trans hatred.

We then switch to our discussion, where we unpack recent attacks by Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, against the LGBTQ+ community in schools, universities, and beyond.

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

Norfolk Southern company trains carrying toxic chemicals derailed and then exploded into flames outside of the small town of East Palestine, Ohio, leading to an evacuation, as officials “released vinyl chloride, a colorless gas linked to various cancers,” in order to avoid another explosion. The same company behind the derailment has lobbied to oppose new brake rules for trains and regulations on the transportation of hazardous waste materials. Many have pointed out that the rail industry has resisted fixing crumbling infrastructure and updating safety standards, while grinding employees down. Norfolk Southern is also involved in funding the “Cop City” project in Atlanta, Georgia which threatens to destroy the Weelaunee forest.

https://twitter.com/defendATLforest/status/1624437258316128258

New reports show that along with a barrage of anti-LGBTQ bills targeting everything from gender-affirming health-care to drag shows, throughout 2022, there was a rise in attacks against Pride celebrations, drag shows, and LGBTQ events. As Salon wrote, a “number of drag events targeted by threats and protests in person were first targeted by right-wing media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Wire, and social media accounts like LibsOfTikTok.”

And as we discuss in this episode, while Trump doubles-down on attacking trans people by calling for a national ban on gender affirming health-care, in Florida, DeSantis is banning Black History courses, removing books from libraries, and placing loyalists on college school boards. In 2023, already “100 bills targeting LGBTQ rights and queer life — from transgender health care to drag shows — have been filed in 22 states.”

According to Mapping Police Violence, “Police have already killed at least 133 people [From January 1st, to] February 7th, 2023. That’s a 20% increase compared to this period last year.” In late January, protests across the US broke out following the release of footage of the brutal police beating and killing of Tyre Nichols.

In Memphis, the I-55 bridge was shut down by demonstrators as militant marches took place in New York, Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California.

In Oakland, California, according to a communique posted to Indybay.org, a police car was lit on fire in a Oakland police parking lot. It wrote:

One Oakland Police cruiser was sabotaged in the Police Administration building parking lot…Cops in their SUVs watched and waited for the fire department to come. This took roughly 10-15 minutes while cops sat on their asses, afraid to approach the car.

In the name Tyre Nichols and all black people who have lost their lives to the hands of the police, Fuck 12.

Prisoners in Texas remain on hunger-strike against solitary confinement while last week, people rallied in solidarity with detainees on hunger-strike inside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. Detainees are demanding basic improvements and an end to brutality from the guards, who attacked prisoners at the start of the hunger strike. A new report from Reuters writes that, “Nearly 1,000 migrant children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by the administration of former President Donald Trump have yet to be reunited with their parents….”

https://twitter.com/TANC_Bay/status/1623479654186352640

In Montreal, tenants organizing with the Montreal Autonomous Tenant Union (MATU) continue actions to demand a rent freeze, in Houston, members of the Houston Tenants Union marched on a slumlord, while members of Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) in the bay area, recently released their first newsletter of 2023.

Montreal Autonomous Tenant Union (MATU)

Also in the bay area, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) held a rally outside of a Berkeley business, Urban Ore, announcing a union drive campaign.

https://twitter.com/bayareabrrn/status/1622345802344706049

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, New York, tenants in the Crown Heights neighborhood have launched a rent strike against poor living conditions and bad management and the LA Tenants union accounted that tenants in three buildings were also launching a rent strike in the Los Angeles area.

https://twitter.com/LATenantsUnion/status/1621690224207360000

In New York, clinic defenders again faced off against anti-abortion protesters this month, which included several neo-Nazis. Meanwhile in Ottawa, Canada, hundreds mobilized to oppose a small far-Right rally against a drag show at a local library.

https://twitter.com/nycforabortion/status/1621920611147685890

Actions in solidarity with the fight to Stop Cop City in so-called Atlanta, Georgia continue, in the wake of the police assassination of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, who was shot and killed in a barrage of police bullets on January 18th.

https://twitter.com/kamaufranklin/status/1623487650006007808

Since the assassination, several officials have dropped their support of the project, one glass company involved in the development efforts has severed ties with Cop City, and thousands of organizations, publications, and individuals have come out in solidarity with the fight against Cop City, ranging from anarchist groups and collectives to mainstream environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and 350.org.

https://twitter.com/kamaufranklin/status/1621509325310267394

In the last week, an independent autopsy and newly released police body camera footage are continuing to cast doubt on official police narratives that Tortuguita fired on police first, leading to other law enforcement officers to shoot back in self-defense. As the Intercept wrote:

Documentary evidence of the killing was scant: State troopers, who were directly involved in the killing, don’t wear body cameras in general. And while Atlanta police, whose officers were nearby, do, the department said in an initial statement on January 20 that no footage would be released from the operation, pending an ongoing investigation.

On Wednesday night, however, the department reversed course and released body camera video from just after the incident. The footage appears to show officers asking whether the state trooper who had been shot was wounded by one of his own.

“You fucked your own officer up,” one Atlanta Police Department officer is heard saying in the footage released Wednesday. He later walks up to two other officers and asks, “They shoot their own man?”

After stating immediately that no camera footage of the shooting existed, GBI had acknowledged publicly five days later that footage did exist of the shooting’s aftermath.

Pressure against the project is building, as Teen Vogue reported:

On February 2, Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC) student organizers occupied a weekly campus “social justice and leadership” forum at the historically Black college Morehouse, per the university paper, The Maroon Tiger, to lobby the university community over Cop City. The organizers read a list of demands, including that Morehouse “denounce and sever their support in building” Cop City and that the college president follow suit.

On the same day, a group of over 50 Morehouse faculty and visiting professors issued a letter calling to stop Cop City. “There is an undeniable and direct relationship between the fate of Michael Brown and George Floyd as well as Tyre Nichols and the pending plan to build Cop City,” it read in part.

Across the US and the world, solidarity direct actions, vigils, and demonstrations have taken place, while pressure continues to mount against the various contractors working to build Cop City. Much like the broad threats by the State against another potential uprising leading up to the release of the Tyre Nichols footage, some solidarity demonstrations have been met with intense repression. In Columbus, Georgia, more than 120 riot police and under-covers monitored a rally of less than a dozen people.

The Columbus Mayor claimed that police would break up and arrest any crowd of more than 15 people. The protest went on anyway in defiance of threats from the State, as people protested outside of a Brasfield & Gorrie construction site; one of the main companies which is contracted to build Cop City in Atlanta.

While IGD has published several roundups of protests, rallies, and marches in solidarity with the fight to Stop Cop City, here’s a roundup of more recent direct actions since our last update:

https://twitter.com/defendATLforest/status/1621238982192275458

Currently there is a call for solidarity actions across the country from February 19th – 26th with the movement against Cop City. Already, a wide variety of informational events, solidarity protests, and benefit shows are being organized. A post from Defend the Atlanta Forest writes:

Defend the Atlanta Forest Week of Solidarity February 19-26. Find your group or make your own. Weelaunee Defense Society is a loose association of committees, collectives, and organizations outside of Atlanta working to defend the forest and stop cop city. We understand the situation may be taking place in a specific city and a specific forest, but the entities behind the project extend far beyond Atlanta, therefore so must the struggle against the project.

Currently there are support groups set up in Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boise, Tucson, Austin, Charlotte, Savannah, Chicago, Carbondale, Olympia, Minneapolis, NYC, and Eugene. Check them out for upcoming events or organize your own!

https://twitter.com/MNforestsupport/status/1622611479533957120

There is also a call for a mass mobilization in Atlanta from March 4th – 11th. From the call:

Only self-organized resistance can save the South River Forest from destruction. Join us this week in the beautiful Weelaunee Forest to take a stand. Despite overwhelming local and national opposition to the construction of Cop City, the APF and their contractors continue to make plans to destroy the Weelaunee Forest and to build Cop City. The Week of Action is an open format event – You can organize any event during this time, whether it’s a protest, bbq, concert, or yoga class.

Submit your event to [email protected] along with a flyer and description. Together, we can stop Cop City

Finally, long-time anarchist, publisher, and community activist Jen Angel has passed away. Angel was involved in a wide variety of anarchist projects, publications, and events like the Bay Area anarchist bookfair. Currently, family and friends are fundraising here.

If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!

Welcome, to This Is America, January 20th, 2023.

On today’s episode, first we speak with autonomous organizers in the rural Pacific Northwest town of Aberdeen, WA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CIWwnH6M34

We then talk to a supporter of antifascist political prisoner Alex Stokes, who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for standing up to protect his friends from a group of violent Proud Boys who were attacking counter-protesters at the state capitol of New York on January 6th, 2021. We speak on how Alex’s politics were put on trial, how the far-Right was treated as victims, and how people can support Alex while on the inside.

We then switch to our discussion, where we look at a recent story about social media companies in the lead up to J6 and what it means now that the GOP has established control over the House of Representatives.

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

In Texas, prisoners remain on hunger-strike in protest of solitary confinement. As the Guardian reported:

Scores of Texas prisoners have entered the second week of a hunger strike in protest at being kept indefinitely in solitary confinement, a form of incarceration in the US that human rights groups have denounced as torture.

Inmates across the Texas prison system have been refusing food since 10 January in an organized outcry against being held in isolation in some cases for decades. Estimates of the numbers of prisoners involved differ. The Texas department of criminal justice (TDCJ) puts it at 72, but outside advocates liaising with the strikers say it is at least 138.

Across the US, antifascists continued to rally in defense of LGBTQ+ and drag events, as far-Right rallies have only continued into the new year. In recent weeks, antifascists have held large rallies in Dallas, Texas, Vancouver, British Columbia, Fall River, Massachusetts, and New York City. Check out our roundup of recent actions at This Week In Fascism.

Lastly, across the US and beyond, people are organizing rallies and vigils in solidarity with the ongoing struggle in Atlanta to resist the construction of ‘Cop City,’ which threatens to destroy the Weelaunee forest. On Wednesday, January 18th, police carried out a violent raid on the forest, killing one forest defender, a 26 year old anarchist who went by the name Tortuguita. Currently not much is known about the raid and local activists are demanding an independent investigation into the shooting.

On the ground, people are encourage folks to sign on to a solidarity statement, donate to the local bail-fund as many face trumped up “terrorism” charges, put pressure on companies helping to build cop city, and also organize a solidarity vigil and event.

If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!

Welcome, to This Is America, December 20th, 2022.

On this episode, first we speak with someone from the Atlanta Community Press Collective, about the recent arrests of forest defenders in Atlanta, Georgia, the trumped up charges they face, and how the community is responding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMW47tCA1g

We then speak with Dell Cameron, a journalist who published a report on attempts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to manufacture an imaginary ‘antifa’ plot during the 2020 protests in Portland, Oregon.

We then switch to our discussion, as we tackle the ongoing embrace of full on neo-Nazism by Kanye West.

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

Outpouring of Solidarity as Forest Defenders Face Repression in Atlanta

photo via Alissa Azar

Last week, local, state, and federal law enforcement made several arrests of forest defenders resisting the Cop City construction project, which seeks to build a massive counter-insurgency training center, and threats the Weelaunee forest, in so-called Atlanta.

According to on this report on the arrests:

On Dec. 13, the task force raided the training center site. The [Georgia Bearu of Investigation] issued a press release publicizing the arrest of five protesters on charges of domestic terrorism, among other alleged offenses. But the agency has been unable to provide any incident reports or other documents showing exactly what the arrestees are accused of doing.

…a sixth person [was arrest] on a charge of violating Georgia’s “hands-free driving” law, which bans the use or touching of a cell phone while driving – but for a different underlying reason. “We had an individual who was out attempting to film officers,” the Atlanta Assistant Police Chief said. “We were able to get him with the hands-free law as he drove by filming our officers, so we were able to lock him up.”

These latest arrests echo the J20 case, where around 200 protesters were kettled and threatened with almost 80 years in prison after a DC black bloc march broke windows at banks and corporate store fronts during Donald Trump’s inauguration. Claiming that everyone involved in the march were part of a vast conspiracy and even arguing that membership in labor-unions like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was evidence of this conspiracy, the case was, across the board, a total failure for the State, as charges were largely dropped or thrown out. Likewise in Atlanta, the State now is arguing that protesters are part of a “Defend the Atlanta Forest” criminal organization, much like how the Trumpian DHS tried to manufacture a shadowy “ANTIFA” threat during the George Floyd protests.

https://twitter.com/nhuberrhoades/status/1603359313854087169

In the media, police have been attempting to play up the common narrative of “outside agitators,” and are pushing the lie that locals do in fact support the massive, corporate backed counter-insurgency training facility, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Just as this episode goes to air, “the Atlanta Police Foundation has, for the 4th time, been denied their Dekalb County land disturbance permit and will not legally be able to begin tree-clearing for construction of Cop City.”

As The Intercept wrote:

Sean Wolters, a protester who lives near the planned facility, said he thought the police were employing heavy-handed charges to demoralize and break up the protests: “None of it is meant to stand up in court, but simply to suppress opposition to Cop City.”

A statement from Atlanta Antifascists against the arrests reads:

While we do not speak for the Defend the Atlanta Forest (DtAF) movement, as Atlantans we condemn the state’s brutalization and arrest of forest defenders, and the heinous and outlandish charges brought against them. The excessive charges against forest defenders are an attempt by authorities to create fear, and to menace those opposing the unpopular Cop City development.

We hope that our community will do everything possible to support the DtAF arrestees. The state’s attempt to label activists as “terrorists” under flimsy pretexts will, if unchallenged, also threaten other social movements. If there is a verified Defense Committee for those arrested, we will publicize this and urge support. Just as importantly: keep supporting the DtAF campaign against the latest attacks. Continue building the movements we need against racism, repression, and environmental destruction.

Check out our interview with the Atlanta Community Press Collective later in this episode for more information on the arrests and check out recent coverage from Unicorn Riot. For those looking to write to those arrested, check here for ways to write and go here to donate to the bail fund.

Solidarity actions have also been propping us across the country, from banner drops to graffiti, to direct actions in solidarity with the Stop Cop City struggle. In Oakland, California, an office belonging to a company owned by Atlas Technical Consultants, which is contracted to build Cop City, was reportedly sabotaged. A communique posted to Indybay.org read:

We glued the locks and vandalized the front windows of the Oakland CEL office…in solidarity with the forest defense currently happening in so called Atlanta, Georgia. We permanently etched “HANDS OFF ATLANTA FOREST” on the front glass doors and a nice circle-A on the window for good measure.

To those on our side of the barricade: beware of the politicians in our midst, not just those concerned with electoral victory but also those who want to use you as pawns in THEIR revolution. Understand your values and why you choose to take action. Political strategy is not a substitute for genuine connection to yourself, each other, and whats left of the living world.

In San Francisco, windows and an ATM belonging to a Wells Fargo bank, which sets on the board of the Atlanta police foundation, were smashed up. An action report posted to Indybay read:

Mitch Graul, a Lead Business Execution Consultant at Wells Fargo, sits on the Board of Trustees of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Atlanta Police Foundation supports the construction of a massive police training facility in Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest on the land of the Muscogee Creek peoples. The site was a plantation and then a prison farm. The bones in the land demand a reckoning.

March Through Streets of Atlanta, GA

Also in Novi, Michigan, another communique claimed responsibility for smashing windows and pouring paint over the front of an Atlas office. A report posted to Unsalted Counter-Info stated:

If The State Responds To Nonviolent Protest With Violence, What Motivation Do We Have To Remain Peaceful? Over The Past Ten Years And Especially Since The Uprising In Summer ‘20 Protestors Have Been Met With Increasingly Militarized Police Repression. The Explicit Purpose Of Cop City Includes Training For Suppression Of Mass Protests By Physical Violence And Chemical Warfare. Instead Of Funding A Live-Able Social Safety Net, Atlanta Politicians Voted Against Public Interest To Create A Cop Playground. Atlas Technical Consultants Is One Of The Private Companies Propped Up By This Corrupt Scheme.

Last Night We Visited An Atlas Office In Novi Michigan. We Smashed Their Front Windows And Poured Paint At Their Doorstep.

Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, around 200 people took to the streets on Saturday, marching in opposition to the Cop City project and also in solidarity with those facing heavy charges. Speakers from Community Movement Builders and other organizations drew the connection between the demands of millions during the George Floyd rebellion to end mass incarceration and police militarization and the push by the Cop City project to do just the opposite. The march showed once again that there is vast opposition to the counter-insurgency training facility, both across the US and in Atlanta.

UAW Strike Expands Into Liberated Dining Halls and Occupied Buildings

Strikes by both graduate workers across the University of California (UC) system and at the New School in New York continued to play out over recent weeks, with strikers in California carrying out a coordinated wave of dining hall liberations, while in New York, a building at the New School was occupied. Picketers also carried out a variety of sit-in actions and temporary occupations of buildings.

https://twitter.com/AbolishUcr/status/1603158439726747648

At the New School in New York, a communique for a short lived occupation was published, reading:

Part-Time Faculty at the New School, has been on strike for 23 days— this makes the strike the longest strike of adjunct faculty in the nation’s history. Part-time faculty are fighting for a fair contract that truly compensates them for their labor, their care, and their commitment to their students— which the New School administration has refused to offer. Not only has the administration prolonged this strike, showing a complete disregard for its students, staff, and faculty it claims to care for, it offered nothing of substance.

They have retaliated violently. As of yesterday, ALL striking workers at the New School have their wages withheld, no access to healthcare benefits, as well as no added funds to their retirement plans. This decision risks the lives of our faculty— many of whom are caretakers, primary insurance holders, some even pregnant or have upcoming surgeries—and this is all happening while New York City experiences a Covid-19 surge with over 40k cases as of the last two weeks. Students who work at The New School have also been notified that if they don’t cross the picket line they will be without pay as well…We no longer recognize this administration as representative of The New School.

The violent, manipulative, and cruel attacks from the administration upon every part of the New School community have left us with no choice but to escalate student action — We are now occupying the University Center.

We will peacefully occupy the building day and night until the administration resumes pay, full healthcare protection, and retirement benefits to all school employees and until the university reaches a fair contract with part-time faculty. We do not take occupation lightly, this is a necessary response to the administration’s violent escalations…We will win.

Several new texts have also been released on the ongoing struggle, which you can read here, here, here, and here.

Struggle Against Gender Fascism Continues

The fight against gender fascism and ongoing attacks on LGBTQ+ events and drag shows in particular continues across the US and beyond, as anarchists, antifascists, and community defense organizations mobilize in the face of continued far-Right threats and harassment. Here’s a roundup of recent actions and events. Be sure to follow us on Mastodon for more updates.

Over Telegram…Proud Boys…encouraged allies to “have fun” and “curb stomp” those attending the…event. “I heard the [commanding officer] is gonna give you guys some extra wiggle room,” wrote one user on the Proud Boys’s Telegram channel underneath a post advertising the rally. The same user repeatedly identified himself as a member of law enforcement.

https://twitter.com/MIAagainstFash/status/1599083144178995200

https://twitter.com/NYCAntifa/status/1599472656663089153

https://twitter.com/JayUlfelder/status/1599719260930310145

https://twitter.com/Bos_Solidarity/status/1601651166680854528

https://twitter.com/AlexKorenWithAK/status/1601701174142701568

https://twitter.com/chifreemedia/status/1601975628487606273

https://twitter.com/ctjbgc/status/1602077373599465473

Banner in Boise, Idaho

https://twitter.com/elmforkJBGC/status/1604548642823864321

If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!

Welcome, to This Is America, November 25th, 2022.

On today’s episode, first we speak with two members of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation about the ongoing mass United Auto Workers (UAW) strike across the University of California system. We talk about how the strike grew out of a wave of wildcat strikes in early 2020 across the UC system and how workers are fighting to build rank-n-file power and win a cost of living wage increase, in one of the most expensive housing markets in the US.

We then turn towards our discussion, as we offer up an anarchist analysis of the midterms, why the pundit class got it so wrong, and what this means for social movements and struggles going forward.

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

https://twitter.com/pridewasariot_/status/1595505438002450460

In the midst of increasing attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, both from the Republican party and from far-Right actors, people across the US are reeling after a 22 year-old gunman walked into a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, just before the start of Trans Day of Remembrance, and opened fire, killing five people and injuring many more. The gunman was thankfully stopped – not by police – but by people inside the club who disarmed and then beat the shooter.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1594596987369684992

While more information is coming out all the time, we do know that the shooter’s grandfather is a MAGA Republican in California and his own father when interviewed espoused anti-gay views. People who knew the shooter have also reported that he often used anti-gay slurs and a video has also emerged of the shooter and his mother shouting racist slurs at an airport. The wider Right has responded by attacking those who stopped the shooter for attending an LGBTQ+ event in the first place while doubling down on attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1594865723033243648

Across the US, people held vigils and rallies in solidarity, denouncing the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks and threats by groups like the Proud Boys against Pride and beyond.

https://twitter.com/bitebackdc/status/1594884375774208002

Anarchists and militant queers and trans people also dropped banners, held vigils, and in Colorado Springs, vandalized the front entrance to the anti-LGBTQ+ group focus on the family, writing, “Their Blood Is On Your Hands, Five Lives Lost.” Focus on the Family is most well known for raising millions to attack same-sex marriage and promote the horrific practice of “conversion therapy.” A statement from the anonymous group who take credit for the vandalism stated:

It is important to us that you understand why Focus on the Family must be held accountable for the ramifications of their hateful theology. You have likely seen the onslaught of anti-trans legislation, of which Focus on the Family is a huge proponent, both in funding and propaganda. With an alarmingly expansive network, they work closely with powerful entities, such as the DeVos family, to promote and fund this anti-trans legislation. Focus on the Family’s goal is to eradicate queerness. Tactics they use to achieve this include indoctrination, media saturation, falsified research, and conversion therapy. We encourage you to continue to investigate the many examples of their culpability, which can be found front and center on their own website.

Source: Colorado People’s Press

Class War

The White House has now stepped in to try and stop a potential railroad strike right before the holidays, after workers at the largest US railroad union voted down a Biden backed deal. In 1991, then President Bush, later backed by Congress, crushed a national rail strike by ordering over a quarter of a million workers by to work after only a day.

https://twitter.com/payusmoreucsc/status/1595108188516327424

In California, tens of thousands of United Auto Workers remain on strike across the University of California system, demanding a cost of living wage increase. At UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara, after a week of barricades on the campus, dining halls on both campuses were “liberated” and made free to everyone.

Source: Cops off Campus Davis

A statement published online wrote:

This dining commons belongs to you (it’s right in the name: commons, something held in common by a community). This university belongs to you. For as long as it lasts, it belongs to everyone. It runs on the labor, research & study of students, workers, & staff. Bureaucratic administrators have one function: to exploit that labor & research. They exist to underpay workers, treat students as clients & customers, & build a wall between the campus & the community that they also rip off as landlords. This exploitation is such an unpopular idea that they need an armed wing to make it work or everyone would laugh at them. That’s the cops. Today we do this act of common-making in solidarity with everyone who is food insecure, rent-burdened, & everyone whose research & labor is exploited including those striking for a better contract. We are in solidarity with their demand for a COLA & their community safety demands that include the call to defund the university police. Have a meal; it’s yours.

ACAB

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1592612446413680640

In Seattle, thousands of high school students organized a walkout after the shooting death of a student and to denounce calls for more police in schools, instead putting forward the demand for more counselors per student.

In Boise, Idaho, antifascist researchers outed a white supremacist police officer, Matthew Bryngelson, who spoke at the recent white nationalist ‘American Renaissance’ conference and who had contributed to its website in the past under a pseudo-name that referenced a neo-Nazi in the movie, American History X. Bryngelson, who retired from the police force in September of 2022, also hosted the department’s podcast over the course of the year.

Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Struggle for Sovereignty

https://twitter.com/Gidimten/status/1588429559623716864

Responding to a call for action in solidarity with the ongoing fight for sovereignty in Wet’suwet’en territory, several direct actions were claimed. On Puget Sound Anarchists, the following communique was posted:

Over the last several weeks we have spiked large swaths of trees in the so-called “Capitol State Forest” in rural so-called “Thurston County, Washington” (ancestral Nisqually, Squaxin, and Chehalis land), leading up to the November 5th day of action in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en struggle against Coastal Gas Link and the Canadian government’s colonial intrusion into their territory.

This seasonal transition has been sharp and hard on the land. Our forests here experienced an unusually sudden shift from severe heatwaves and drought that lasted late into the fall, to floods and freezes with minimal autumnal gentle rains to steward the earth into the rainy season. These forests which have fed so many for time immemorial show the consequences. As climate change-fueled “natural” disasters become more and more devastating every year, the industrial rate of destruction of everything that sustains the land and the people on it only escalates. Politicians speak out of one side of their mouths about “truth and reconciliation” or “climate action,” while with the other side of their mouths they send the police to clear the way for mining and logging companies. Swaths of land dripping in moss and bubbling with streams, teeming with mushrooms and other life will soon be left as dry mangled fields, mirrors of the hellscapes being created in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. Lifeless, and robbed of all sustenance and culture, useless to anyone but the corporations and people who sold off a forest they had no connection to.

All of these industries are on the side of Coastal Gas Link and they are all our enemies. We feel the rage, creativity, and determination of the people of Wet’suwet’en and Wedzin Kwa, and must all act against every aspect of colonial industry which threatens the sovereignty and lifeblood of lands and waters. We hope this message serves as a warning to deter all upcoming timber sales in the Capitol Forest. If the trees are cut, we hope for maximum damage to the chainsaws and mills.

Up in Wet’suwet’en territory, CGL just blew up Lamprey Creek, an active salmon and eel spawning ground, and home to two elders’ cabins on the Wedzin Kwah river. These waters and forests are lifeblood being stolen and desecrated. Drilling under the crystal clear Wedzin Kwah is active, while salmon actively spawn nearby. Wet’suwet’en protectors have specifically called on anarchists to step up. This comes with huge risk for the Wet’suwet’en. Let that call be heard and felt by our friends and our enemies.

DECOLONIZE THE PLANET

Meanwhile in so-called Philadelphia, a report posted to Philly Anti-Capitalist wrote:

On the night of November 5th, a small group of Anti-colonial Anarchist settlers in Lenapehoking blockaded a chokepoint of a high frequency railway in Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en resisting drilling in the Wedzin Kwa and all those resisting colonial capitalist development and infrastructure all across Turtle Island and the World!

We hope to inspire many more and frequent railway blockades as an effective action to disrupt colonial and ecocidal infrastructure all across Turtle Island and Globally.

Shut down Canada, Colonialism, and Capitalism everywhere!

Finally, a communique posted to Northshore Counter-Info took credit for actions in Ontario, writing:

In the early hours of Nov 5, groups of anarchists acted in solidarity with Sleydo’s call for action to support the ongoing Wet’suwet’en battle to protect the yintah and kill the drill. Rail lines were sabotaged at several points in a disruption of business-as-usual along main arteries of the freight system. They will continue to be sabotaged at random far into the future, at every corner of rail line across the turtle’s back.

The night sky yawns and the stars and moon stare down at us, working in the night. They cast their gaze upon us near and far, as they do also on the shimmering waters of the Wedzin Kwa. The drilling begins, and while we weep for the water, the salmon, and our beloved dead, our rage begins to burn, a lit fuse.

CGL, RBC, Kkkanada – you are not safe and you have ignited something that will never die.

ELF Prisoner Sentenced to Time Served

https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1587503671079628800

Eco-prisoner Joseph Mahmoud Dibee has been sentenced to time served. As Unicorn Riot reported:

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, a 54-year-old environmental activist and former Earth Liberation Front saboteur, was sentenced to time served today after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit arson and one count of arson. Dibee was also ordered to complete 1,000 hours of community service.

Dibee is a former member of an autonomous cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, loose networks of activists who in the late 90s and early 2000s took responsibility for a string of attacks on industries, businesses, and government entities they saw as responsible for the mounting environmental crisis.

In 2005, in the midst of post-911 anti-terrorism fervor, the FBI rolled out Operation Backfire, which ultimately led to the indictment of nearly 20 people on serious felony charges. Although Dibee was not initially charged in the case, he was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury to testify against another activist. When confronted with the choice of whether or not to cooperate, or ‘snitch,’ Dibee chose to flee to Syria, his family’s country of origin. Shortly thereafter, he was indicted in a sweeping conspiracy case.

Antifascists Continue to Mobilize Against Far-Right TERFs

Source: Ash J

Demonstrations continued against a tour put on by “Let Women Speak,” a group of far-Right connected TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists), who attempted to hold anti-trans rallies across the US, often linking up with fascist groups like the Proud Boys. In both Philadelphia and New York City, over 100 people in each city mobilized to shout down the anti-trans activists, effectively shutting down their rallies.

Action in Defense of the Atlanta Forest

https://twitter.com/CommunityMvt/status/1588922558673715200

Action in defense of the Atlanta forest continues. First up in our action roundup, people claimed credit for closing “down the Atlanta Police Department’s shooting range” inside the Atlanta forest. According to a communique posted to Scenes from the Atlanta Forest:

On the evening of Saturday, November 19, chainsaw-wielding militants took action to close down the Atlanta Police Department’s shooting range inside the Weelaunee Forest, where APD trains weekly to kill and maim the people of Atlanta. A few small trees were selectively felled in order to block the access road to the shooting range. One of the felled trees hit a power line which provides electricity to the shooting range, leading to a power surge which blew a transformer and disabled the cameras, which were then destroyed with fire and hammers. The power line only services the shooting range. No residential areas were impacted by the outage.

Since the closing of the shooting range, the Weelaunee forest has not been quiet – even the cold November woods are full of life and noise – but it has been more peaceful without the police filling it with the sounds of war. We hope that all the residents of the forest and the surrounding neighborhood can relax better in the relative silence, but we must be clear that we didn’t do this for their sake.

We took this action for the dead – for Rayshard Brooks and every person killed by the Atlanta Police, for every murdered revolutionary, for the Muskogee who were forced from this land, for every enslaved person who lived and died on the plantation here, for every prisoner killed by guards at the old prison farm and buried in unmarked graves in the forest. This forest is theirs and we will not allow the police to desecrate it with their presence.

We will not allow the police to bulldoze over the history of their own crimes.

The land remembers. We remember. Cop city will never be built.

According to an anonymous report posted to Scenes from the Atlanta Forest, another report claimed credit for torching another work truck:

In the late afternoon hours of Tuesday, November 8 (Election Day), another tow truck entered the parking lot of the Weelaunee People’s Park with the intention of carrying away the charred remains of Ryan Millsap’s tow truck, which was burnt back in July. The latter truck has become a monument to the power of this movement, and had already been defended from extraction at least once before. So when this new truck came–its driver saying that he had already called the cops, and he’d be towing our truck as soon as they arrived–forest defenders were quick to respond. The police, on the other hand, were not. When it became clear to the driver that the cops were too lazy, overextended, and scared to come to his aid, he abandoned the vehicle with the keys inside. When DKPD did finally arrive on the scene, they were too scared to even enter the parking lot, let alone the forest. Forest defenders drove the truck to the RC field in an attempt to block the path where a bulldozer had entered last May. Then they set it ablaze, taking great care to ensure that the surrounding grass didn’t catch.

Meanwhile, those Americans that still believe in the ritual of voting were casting their ballots for the maintenance of one or the other version of the status quo. They think of this as freedom, as though the choice between 100 brands of cereal were the same as choosing how to live. We chose another route. We chose to defend a territory that has been claimed by the people, for the people–where the police do not dare to go because they have seen what happens to enemy vehicles. We elected a raging fire beneath a full moon!

Source: Scenes from the Atlanta Forest

Finally, another report took credit for the burning of an excavator:

NS EXCAVATOR BURNT ADJACENT TO RAILROAD TRACKS, WELAUNEE WOODS, ATL.

Submitted anonymously over email

Fuck FIFA

A communique claiming credit for vandalizing a building belonging to Adidas was posted to various counter-info sites reading:

Early November 20th, several hours before the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup, we smashed up most buildings at the Adidas North American headquarters in Portland, Oregon. We shattered windows, broke doors and covered walls with paint across the corporate campus, including office buildings, the gym and cafe. Adidas is one of FIFA’s primary long-term partners, and a main sponsor of the World Cup in Qatar this year.

The history of the World Cup is one of death and displacement. Every stadium stands upon the dead bodies of workers who built it. In Qatar, over 6,500 migrant workers from South Asia died during the decade of preparations for the 2022 World Cup, forced to work in slave conditions. The World Cup was made possible by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers forced into labor through a combination of physical violence, threats of imprisonment, passport confiscation, debt bondage, and more. Every World Cup involves the violent evictions and displacement of thousands, replacing whole neighborhoods with stadiums and other infrastructure. The entire operation is protected by huge increases of militarized policing and surveillance, with 3,000 riot cops sent from Turkey, 4,500 soldiers from the Pakistan army and forces from the British Royal Navy and Air Force coming to Qatar to enforce control during the World Cup.

All this is enabled by the huge companies that sponsor the World Cup and FIFA in the interest of profit.

We reject the logics of global capitalism and the state, and the endless violence they create together. All that’s left to do is fight back.

Animal Liberation Front (ALF) Releases Thousands of Mink

According to a series of communiques released by cells of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) posted to the Animal Liberation Press office, thousands of mink across fur farms in Ohio and Michigan have been released back into the wild. In early November, 1,000 mink were liberated in Ohio, followed by 800 mink in Michigan. Then on November 15th, at least 10,000 minks were released from another farm in Ohio. According to The Truth About Fur, there are around 120 mink fur farms in the US and 60 in Canada, each generating tens of millions a year in profits.

https://twitter.com/incandesceinto/status/1595958103614246914

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cover image: Pride Was a Riot

Welcome, to This Is America, November 13th, 2022.

First, we speak with someone behind the Fediverse zine about the growth of Mastodon, the dumpster fire currently surrounding Twitter in the wake of billionaire Elon Musk taking over, and how anarchists are building up an alternative to the corporate platforms.

We then switch to our discussion, where we are joined by John Zerzan of Anarchy Radio, where we discuss everything from ocean die-offs to the proliferation of mass shootings.

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

Class War

As price gouging and the explosion in corporate profits continues to drive inflation, rent strikes by tenants and strikes by Starbucks workers and others continue across the so-called US, as education workers in Canada have launched a series of wildcat strikes and graduate student workers across the University of California system are set to strike next week.

Demonstrations in solidarity with houseless encampments and against evictions have also continued as the winter cold has set in. In Sacramento, community members have taken over a vacant lot after attempts by police to remove them, and have put up banners, begun sharing food, and are hosting events. Check out Camp Resolution for more info and come out to protest the scheduled eviction on November 16th.

Stop All Cop Cities

The fight to stop Cop City in Atlanta continues. In New York last month, people marched in solidarity with forest defenders and also protested outside of the home of an executive involved in the construction project which threatens the forest.

https://twitter.com/protest_nyc/status/1582025178451615744

Meanwhile, on the ground, actions in so-called Atlanta and beyond continue. In Central Texas on Halloween, forest defenders paid a visit to Atlas CEO Lonnie Boyer, one of the construction firms central to Cop City’s development:

This Halloween, many creepy crawling trick-or-treaters braved the gated section of Austin’s Lake Pointe model community to plunder the candy coffers of Atlas CEO Lonnie Joe Boyer. Among them, this double creature feature, who left him a treat…There are so many of us in Central Texas and so few Atlas executives to haunt. We noticed a for sale sign. You can’t outrun your demons, Lonnie.

There is currently a call to support the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement, especially as winter approaches.

Meanwhile in so-called Michigan, police cars were vandalized, with a communique reading:

Solidarity from so-called Michigan! We’re facing our own cop city proposal in the form of a proposed expansion of Camp Grayling, the country’s largest national guard base.

We will not allow the police state to destroy forests in the name of expanding their powers of oppression!

No Cop Cities Anywhere!

Speaking of Michigan, there is also currently a tour across the Midwest and beyond about the growing struggle against Camp Grayling. Check out dates throughout November here.

https://twitter.com/GraylingCamp/status/1587458648334536705

Antifascist Action

Over the last two months, antifascist activity has picked up in pace, with people responding to rising attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, an attempts by far-Right figures such as Gavin McIness and Matt Walsh to hold public events and rallies. Folks are also pushing back against far-Right TERF groups, holding anti-trans rallies.

https://twitter.com/1312FAS/status/1584969840879898626

While this is by no means a complete roundup, here’s some highlights over the past few weeks:

https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1590867946553094146

…When the neo-fascist Proud Boys threatened to come out to oppose the event, all that did was galvanize supporters even more. In the end the show featuring bands and artists…went on without any problems with the Proud Boys not even bothering to show up…Many came with their families – some even with pets – while antifascists from the New York/New Jersey area maintained security.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1589506384642838529

https://twitter.com/SocalAntifa/status/1587210001562537985

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1586631608806711296

https://twitter.com/nightrunner321/status/1586458407594209280

https://twitter.com/BetaCuck4Lyfe/status/1585500161685721088

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1585384641640288258

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1585166649413742594

https://twitter.com/KellyMeyerhofer/status/1584652030442106880

https://twitter.com/ribaudo_nick/status/1584696672894214144

https://twitter.com/AlissaAzar/status/1584274313175498752

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1583557575009701888

https://twitter.com/chifreemedia/status/1583581178631983112

https://twitter.com/OaklandAboSol/status/1589372716507090945

https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1572575831637233666

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Welcome, to This Is America, October 31st, 2022.

On this episode, first we speak with two organizers involved in the long-running autonomous space the Omni Commons in Oakland. Growing out of Occupy Oakland about ten years ago, the Omni has grown into a large-scale community mutual aid hub and organizing space in Oakland, California. Sadly however, the space is threatened by foreclosure at the end of the year, and needs help to raise money to hold onto the space. Go here to donate and support.

https://youtu.be/cGeTRymKLw0

We then speak with an organizer from ICE Watch NYC about how mutual aid and abolitionist groups are responding to migrants being bused into New York City.

https://twitter.com/protest_nyc/status/1557329690230136834

We then switch to our discussion, were we cover a new study that found that many police killings are not being reported, the recent crisis that rocked the LA City Council following the leak of racist remarks, and much more. On this episode, we are also once again joined by Marcela who you can support here.

photo: @protest_nyc

Welcome, to This Is America, October 6th, 2022.

On this episode, first we speak with a resident of the Mission District neighborhood in San Francisco, California, about a recent campaign to remove poor and working-class people from a popular plaza and how the neighborhood pushed back. We then speak to Nathan Jun, an anarchist and former professor about how they were targeted in a far-Right smear campaign.

We then turn our discussion towards recent headlines, but first, let’s get to the news!

Autonomous Mutual Aid Efforts and Anger Grow Across Florida, Cuba, and Puerto Rico in Wake of Hurricanes

As the death toll in Florida rises past 100 in the wake of Hurricane Ian, anger is growing at the State’s response to the disaster, as officials “did not issue a mandatory evacuation order for areas which would be affected by coastal flooding until 24 hours before [Ian’s] landfall.” With few options, many poor, disabled, and elderly folks were left to fend for themselves in rapidly flooding homes or in boats. Such a response from the State is nothing new; this is the same government that stood by while thousands died in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria and in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, as climate change fueled super storms become the new normal in a State controlled by a party which denies its existence.

In the wake of Ian, autonomous mutual aid groups have been organizing relief efforts. If you want to contribute, donate to Central Florida Mutual Aid here and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR) here. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief has also set up a real-world distribution hub in Tampa, Florida, where people can donate and get supplies. A recent article that reported on their efforts in Tampa wrote:

As we visited community after community in Englewood, we heard the same thing over and over again:…MADR was the first relief to arrive, we were told. Dominic Dawson said that all of the relief was on the rich side of town, adding, “On the poor side, the hood, I haven’t seen nothing over here.” Marginalized communities are often left to fend for themselves after disasters. And while Ian’s death toll is already estimated to reach into the hundreds, there will be far more deaths if people who need help don’t get it soon.

Even now, wellness check requests are coming in to MADR, especially to pay visits to older people who haven’t been heard from. Volunteers from around the country are now headed to Ft. Myers to visit with those in need and bring supplies from the Tampa hurricane relief hub established last week.

https://twitter.com/midnucas/status/1577455477197197312

The Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network is also organizing folks to gather supplies and build autonomous supply chains which can funnel resources into impacted areas. As one article reported:

The Monday supply drive [in Carrboro, NC] was a collaboration with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief’s hurricane response. The organization sent a box truck from Virginia to pick up hurricane relief supplies in cities and towns on the way to impacted areas in Florida. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief currently has distribution hubs operating in Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Power outages in the wake of hurricanes have also led to a return of protests in Cuba, as people took to the streets to demand electricity be restored. In Puerto Rico, protests have been ongoing over the past three weeks, as anger at the island’s electrical utility, LUMA, exploded in mass protests and has now mixed with growing demands to turn power back on in the wake of Hurricane Fiona. Mutual Aid groups and reclaimed social centers, many set up in the wake of Hurricane Maria, are still going strong, feeding the ongoing protest movement and mobilizing much needed relief in impacted communities.

Mass Protests in Haiti Continue while Fascists Block Solidarity Rally in the Dominican Republic

https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1577672171052072961?s=20&t=jzv4GNXtjnKAi4fo0qZVVQ

Thousands continue to take to the streets of Haiti, calling for the fall of Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government, an end to foreign US interference, and against austerity, especially crippling fuel and food costs. In the Dominican Republic, a local socialist group also reported that fascists with the Old Dominican Order ailed with police, successfully blocked a solidarity demonstration with Haitian protesters.

Defend the Atlanta Forest

The struggle to defend the Atlanta forest continues. Late last month, it was reported that the home and vehicles of M. Miller Gorrie, chairman of Grasfield & Gorrie, which has been contracted to build the ‘Cop City’ project, was vandalized. A communique posted to Scenes from the Atlanta Forest claimed credit for the action.

State Wide Alabama Prison Strike Continues into Second Week

https://twitter.com/SwiftJusticeIn1/status/1576410919084572673

As It’s Going Down reported last week, a historic strike across Alabama prison facilities is now in its second week, as prisoners demand better conditions and fundamental changes in the racist parole and sentencing system. Starting last Monday, prisoners walked off their jobs, of which they are paid nothing for, and are refusing to cook, clean and do laundry, forcing many guards and prison staff to pick up the slack – bringing the system to a screeching halt. According to prisoners and their supporters, prison administrators have responded to the strike with attempts to starve out the strikers, canceling weekend visits, and bringing in other prisoners as scab labor.

Even prison guards have gone public about the repression. According to one local report:

Speaking to WAAY 31, a corrections officer at Limestone Correctional Facility said they believe administrators are intentionally delaying how long inmates have to wait between…meals. The officer, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation, said inmates at times are waiting 14 to 15 hours between meals.

Videos posted by Unheard Voices to social media last Saturday show prisoners at one facility locked arm and arm in a display of solidarity and report that efforts to break the strike have not been successful. AL.com reports that some prisons have managed to break the strike and return prisoners to work, while others continue to experience disruptions.

Nazi Metal Band’s Truck Goes Up in Flames in Los Angeles

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1577114501719019520?s=20&t=jzv4GNXtjnKAi4fo0qZVVQ

In a move that was ironically extremely metal, in Los Angeles, Vishal P. Singh reported on Twitter that a truck belonging to a neo-Nazi metal band was reportedly set on fire outside of a fascist black metal concert entitled, “Rise of the Black Sun,” last weekend. On social media, photos of several bands were posted sporting neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic symbols.

Protest Encampment in Uvalde, Texas Grows

https://twitter.com/BCross052422/status/1577529413918498817

Since early last week, parents of children who were gunned down in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas have set up a protest encampment outside of a school district office to demand that officers involved in the response to the massacre be suspended pending an investigation. Brett Cross, one of the protest organizers stated, “I honestly feel that they don’t care. They want to keep making excuses. All they want to do is sweep it under the rug and act like it didn’t happen and go on with their merry lives, collecting their nice little paychecks and not being held accountable.”

Student Walkouts Against Anti-Trans Guidelines Rock Virginia

https://twitter.com/AnnaBryson18/status/1574822357583028224?s=20&t=jzv4GNXtjnKAi4fo0qZVVQ

Across Virginia, thousands of high-school students carried out walkouts against newly proposed guidelines which attack transgender youth by requiring “students to use school facilities that match their biological sex and make it more difficult for students to change names and gender pronouns by requiring parents to give their approval for students who are minors.”

IWW Continues to Grow in the Pacific Northwest

https://twitter.com/colininportland/status/1574508908701708288

The radical anti-capitalist labor union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) continues to grow in the Pacific Northwest. Last week, workers at Doughnut Workers United won a several year long campaign to unionize Old Town Voodoo Doughnuts. Also last week, another group of workers in the Burgerville chain joined the IWW as part of the Burgerville Workers Union, which began a union campaign against Burgerville over six years ago. The same group of workers earlier this week also walked out on strike, after corporate refused to close the store following the death of a bicyclist in front of the restaurant. In late 2021, union workers ratified a contract with the fast food eatery after years of strikes, job actions, and protests. 

NYC Anarchists Rally in Solidarity with CNT Members in Spain

https://twitter.com/macc_nyc/status/1574529619772035074?s=20&t=jzv4GNXtjnKAi4fo0qZVVQ

Anarchists and wobblies in New York City demonstrated in solidarity in front of the Spanish consulate with anarcho-syndicalists in the CNT labor union who are currently facing repression.

Asylum Seekers in New Mexico Detention Facility Launch Hunger Strike

In New Mexico, over a dozen asylum seekers at a detention prison run by CoreCivic launched a hunger strike, despite ICE and prison officials denying its existence. According to one report:

The 13 detainees announced their hunger strike through an open letter signed by the men. The letter detailed “very poor” conditions, including mold growing in the bathroom, raw food, fungal infections on men’s heads due to unsanitary barber tools and an excessive amount of flies and mosquitoes.

The hunger-strikers also reported abuse from guards, cells without air conditioning, and lack of ability to communicate with families or legal council.

Communique Reports on Attack on Enbridge Machinery in Michigan

A communique posted to Abolition Media claimed responsibility for torching equipment belonging to Enbridge, a Canadian based company behind the construction of massive fossil fuel pipelines and one of the major corporations driving the climate crisis. This act of sabotage comes as a lawsuit, launched by the state of Michigan “to force Enbridge Inc to stop operating the Line 5 oil pipeline underneath the the Great Lakes,” heads to federal court. The aging pipeline, which in 1991 ruptured in Grand Rapids, creating the largest inland oil spill in US history, was ordered shut down in May of 2021, however Enbridge refused. The communique reads:

i write this from occupied anishinabewaki and odawa territory while one third of pakistan is underwater with 33 million people displaced from a monsoon with 600% more rain than usual, while nearly 200,000 around jackson mississippi have no access to drinking water after a flash flood that knocked out the city’s water treatment facility, while flint michigan still doesn’t have clean water.

i write this while the black snakes beneath my feet prepare once again to go under the mackinac straits, a sacred place where all of the great lakes converge. the great lakes which make of nearly 20% of the world’s fresh water. we must not let this happen. we need to cultivate a community of collective resistance and joyful militancy against all that oppresses and depresses us.

breaking into an enbridge facility and torching their heavy machinery may seem daunting, but in reality it is much easier than you’d think. their power relies on our fear of them and doubt in ourselves. find people you share affinity with, organize together, and fight back. if not us then who, if not now then when?

-the first of many

Enbridge also works directly with US law enforcement against environmental activists, and “has reimbursed US police $2.4m for arresting and surveilling hundreds of demonstrators.”

Ongoing Rent Strikes

https://twitter.com/K3Tenants/status/1577761124493103104?s=20&t=jzv4GNXtjnKAi4fo0qZVVQ

Tenants in Syracuse New York have formed a tenant association and launched a rent strike to demand repairs to their apartment complex and in Los Angeles, tenants at one building under the banner of the K3 Tenant Council, are currently in their fifth month of a rent strike.

If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis and have the means, please sign up to support us monthly! Help autonomous revolutionary media grow into 2022!

photo: via Indybay.org

Welcome, to This Is America, September 15th, 2022.

On this episode, first we speak with Daniel, a member of Cooperation Tulsa, out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We discuss the group’s current fundraiser to benefit their community center, the greater historical context of Tulsa, the role of the community center in ongoing organizing efforts, and how it relates to another local land and gardening project.

https://twitter.com/RedbudAid/status/1565757838357577729

We then speak with two folks who report on the defense of recent Pride celebrations in Boise, Idaho. We talk about the attempts by both the fascist far-Right and the local Republican party to encourage protests and the shutting down LGBTQ events, as well as how people mobilized to defend Pride last weekend, in the face of counter-protests.

https://twitter.com/IWAAIT/status/1570075508364148738

We then switch to our discussion, where we analyze and discuss current news stories on climate change, how Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi and anarchists in Pakistan are mobilizing to provide mutual aid, the stupidity of “Dark Brandon,” and much more.

But first, let’s get to the news!

Class War

In Rhode Island, police violently arrested several Teamsters on a picket line who have been on strike for months, demanding better wages and benefits.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1568449386782535680

Railroad companies and the Biden administration intervened to stop a nationwide railroad strike from popping off this week. A “cooling off” period was set to expire midnight on Friday, which would have allowed a mass strike to cripple the economy and disrupt supply chains.

In California, farm-workers are continuing protests to demand that the governor pass legislation which would make it easier for workers to unionize.

https://twitter.com/BTnewsroom/status/1570137800120352768

Amazon workers in Stone Mountain, Georgia also walked out on strike on Wednesday, after one worker passed out the day before, due to heat exhaustion.

https://twitter.com/ParkdaleOrg/status/1568240866564661250

Meanwhile in the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto, the autonomous tenant and neighborhood group Parkdale Organize hosted its second annual back to school block party. Over 400 neighbors turned out to get free back to school items, hair-cuts, eat food, and enjoy bouncy houses.

Running Down the Walls

Anarchists and revolutionary abolitionists held yearly Running Down the Walls events in Chicago and Philadelphia, with more events scheduled over the coming weeks. In Philadelphia, more than 200 rallied and went on a 5K run to raise money and awareness for the Anarchist Black Cross Warchest which provides support to political prisoners as well as the local chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwayLi7KxTA

Meanwhile in Chicago, Running Down the walls attendees held a rally outside of the Cook County Jail, featuring live bands, before going on a run around the facility, exchanging chants with prisoners on the inside.

https://twitter.com/MidwestBooks2P/status/1569713161472811011

Also in political prisoner news, Eric King has been moved to a new facility in Colorado and is in need of letters, write to him at:

Eric King #27090-045

Dan Baker’s birthday takes place this month, so write him a letter here:

Dan Baker – #25765-509

Boise Pride Shuts Down Far-Right

In Boise, Idaho, despite an alliance of far-Right online grifters, white nationalist talking heads, and the local GOP calling on its supporters to protest, attendees at Pride held firm and defended the event, which reportedly was the largest Pride in Boise in over 30 years. In response to calls from far-Right groups like the Idaho Liberty Dogs, local antifascists and supporters of Pride mobilized to blockade what ended up being a small counter-protest. Check out our interview later in this program for a full report.

https://twitter.com/RedoubtAFA/status/1569491014066511872

Clinic Defense Continues in New York

Demonstrations in defense of reproductive health and autonomy continue. In New York, clinic defenders again squared off against far-Right, anti-choice protesters.

https://twitter.com/KarlaCotePhoto/status/1566074917162033152

In Connecticut, anarchists and members of the John Brown Gun Club opposed the Proud Boys and other far-Right groups who came out to protest bodily autonomy.

https://twitter.com/1312FAS/status/1564005703978721280

Mutual Aid in the Face of Disaster

In Jackson, Mississippi, members of Cooperation Jackson have been mobilizing to provide the community at large with drinkable water for the past week. Read more about their mutual aid mobilization and how to support it here.

https://twitter.com/CooperationJXN/status/1567741742740283395

ACAB

Abolitionists in Florida held a rally and hung banners over a freeway to mark the anniversary of the Attica prison uprising.

https://twitter.com/FightXPrisons/status/1568407429389467656

According to a communique posted to Rose City Counter-Info:

Overnight, anarchists visited PPB cop Andrew Hearst at his home in Vancouver Washington. A personal vehicle that belongs to Andrew Hearst was discretely sabotaged. If you thought we would forget Quanice Hayes and Merle Hatch, the victims of Andrew Hearst, you are wrong.

Quanice Hayes was only 17, a child, when he was murdered by Andrew Hearst. He was unarmed and was complying with the conflicting orders the pigs were giving him. Andrew Hearst fired three shots, execution style, from close range.

Merle Hatch was having a mental health crisis and was outside the hospital where he had been a patient. Andrew Hearst and other pigs unloaded 19 rounds on Merle Hatch. He was unarmed and holding a broken phone handle.

To every other killer cop who sleeps peacefully: if you think we would forget the people you killed, or forget our anger over time, you will find out the hard way that we always remember. Hiding in your white suburbian house is not going to make you safe. You will never be safe. See you soon.

Also, according to a post on Scenes from the Atlanta Forest, more machinery has been put to the torch. According to the communique:

Various construction machines were torched on a property owned by the city Atlanta. Just north of Intrenchment Creek Park, at Key & Bouldercrest. All further so-called ‘Development’ and ‘Improvement’ of the South Atlanta Forest will be resisted.

Solidarity with warriors and saboteurs!

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Welcome, to This Is America, September 2nd, 2022.

On today’s episode, we speak with two members of Sacramento IWOC (Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee) about their group, some of their recent campaigns, and how they are building relationships with prisoners on the inside for long-term abolitionist organizing.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1564431154018525184

We then speak to a tenant organizer in Oakland, California, who speaks on a rent-strike which just kicked off and is being supported by Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC). We talk about what led to the strike, how people got organized, and why tenants need to come together and push back against landlords.

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

Housing

https://twitter.com/TANCBay/status/1564776174391140353

Oakland tenants are on rent strike demanding repairs and for management to address rampant rodent infestations and mold. Be sure to check out our interview with a strike organizer on this episode for a deeper dive. On Tuesday, over 50 people rallied in Oakland in support of the rent strike, as journalist Jack Haber reported:

A crowd of over 50 people, including residents living in an 18 floor apartment complex…and their supporters, rallied on Tuesday, August 30, outside the complex to announce a rent strike. Tenants say residents in at least 42 apartments, which make up about 25% of the complexes’ 165 occupied units, are withholding rent starting on September 1 to pressure management and ownership to effectively address their habitability and safety concerns.

In Philadelphia, the struggle to stop the eviction of the UC Townhomes continues. On Monday:

Over 100 protestors interrupted Penn President minutes into her first-ever Convocation speech, bringing the ceremony to an abrupt end. [During a speech on] incoming class’ diversity, a group of protestors — including members of the Class of 2026 — stood up and began chanting “Save UC Townhomes!” and “Stop Penn-trification!” The Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes, a group of residents protesting the sale of 70 units of affordable housing, organized the demonstration in an effort to bring awareness to the local residents who are scheduled to be evicted on Oct. 8.

Land Struggles

https://twitter.com/maksim_ioffe/status/1559960525290631168

In Berkeley, people continue to re-occupy and work the land at People’s Park after fences were torn down, machinery destroyed, and riot police pushed out of the park on August 3rd. Upcoming events are being planned and mutual aid groups are collecting supplies.

https://twitter.com/kayteterry/status/1562134331631493120

In Philadelphia, anger is growing at a new development project that threatens the South Philly Meadows, a former golf course that has been reclaimed by nature. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Philadelphia Police are investigating the vandalism of construction equipment at FDR Park, where crews broke ground this week on a controversial project to create a 33-acre wetland. Police responded to the incident, which involved damage to a Bobcat and digging excavator, Thursday morning. In addition to graffiti and broken wires, police said sugar was poured into a tank. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. The incident comes as some park users are mobilizing to oppose the project…The Philadelphia International Airport is funding the project to offset any wetlands and waterways affected by its air cargo facilities expansion.

Banners went up in solidarity with the fight against Cop City in the Atlanta forest. From Scenes from the Atlanta Forest:

Banners went up in the trees in South Philly’s FDR Meadows, where nearly 200 acres of wetlands and meadows, which serve as habitat for endangered migrating monarch butterflies and many other species of wildlife, are threatened by the city’s plans to bury the earth in astroturf for more sports fields and other capitalist ventures. Public outcry in Philadelphia has already forced the city to compromise on their original plans, but we will accept no compromise in defense of the meadows and monarchs. Solidarity from Philadelphia to Atlanta. We live here.

For more information, check out Save the Meadows.

https://twitter.com/saveparker510/status/1565806169788059648?s=20&t=tUoLI-f6LusJMZO8VsASmw

Students and community members are celebrating over 100 days of taking over and self-managing Parker Elementary in East Oakland, a school which the Oakland Unified School District has scheduled for closure. Curriculum, classes, events and programs have been organized through the occupied school over the past 100 days as parents, former staff, and supporters fight to push the district to reopen.

Tree-sit in Northern California with banner in solidarity with struggle at People’s Park in Berkeley

In Northern California, forest defenders in the Mattole forest are calling for support, writing on Instagram:

A year ago, @pacificgasandelectric sent a small army…into @humboldtredwoodsstatepark. Hundreds of folks showed up to protect the trees, ✨every day for five months✨. Almost all of the late seral and old growth trees they had targeted are still standing!

Cutting was suspended over the spring and summer, but now it’s likely that they’ll return to the park within the next few weeks, and folks in the Mattole are mobilizing to resist another onslaught – they need folks willing to come and stand with the forest!

Follow @treesittersunion.local707 for more info/updates

Email [email protected] to get involved – on the ground support is needed now and likely through the rest of the year.

Struggle for Reproductive Freedom

https://twitter.com/AshAgony/status/1560512222689955843

James Revenge targeted an anti-abortion center in Easthampton, MA, releasing a communique on Abolition Media stating:

In the early morning of August 18th, the Bethlehem House, an anti-abortion center in so-called Easthampton, MA, was paid a visit by community members who condemn its fascistic Christian, patriarchal violence toward pregnant people. The Bethlehem House hides behind a facade of “non-judgemental” and free resources for pregnant people, while working diligently to spread the anti-abortion agenda. They lie to and mislead pregnant people in order to prevent them from accessing abortions. Fuck CPCs and their coercive tactics that threaten medical and bodily autonomy.

The forced pregnancy center was decorated with brilliant red paint splatters. Words spray painted onto the sidewalk and benches nearby read, “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you!” and “Jane’s Revenge.”

https://twitter.com/MichaelSLaufer/status/1565383217846181888

According to the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective:

On the eve of the anniversary of implementation of Texa’s “Heartbeat” Law (SB8), Four Thieves Vinegar Collective has released thousands of free Abortion Cards in 20 states in a follow up to the overturning of Roe v. Wade just over two months ago. Their release of the ‘DIY Abortion Pill’ video last year in response to the SB8 going into effect redoubled their efforts to provide reproductive medicine and autonomy to vulnerable populations across the U.S.

Check out our podcast interview with someone from the group here.

Antifascist Struggle

Last Saturday in Modesto, California, hundreds of antifascists, anti-racists, and counter-protesters converged to shut down a white nationalist organized, “Straight Pride” rally in front of a Planned Parenthood building. Over 250 counter-protesters held the space for hours and pushed out a half dozen Proud Boys who attempted to attack the crowd. In response, riot police attacked the crowed with projectiles after declaring an unlawful assembly. While the far-Right rally was shut down, a small group of less than 30 Proud Boys and Christian Nationalists rallied in front of a different reproductive health clinic where they were pelted with eggs and attempted to attack journalists with Left Coast Right Watch.

https://twitter.com/Off_The_99/status/1563712234127126529

On Sunday in Roanoke, Texas, members of the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club provided armed security outside of a drag brunch event at a restaurant. Journalist Steven Monacelli noted that far-Right counter-protesters, which included self-described “Christian fascists,” were outnumbered and despite attempts at provoking armed antifascists, were not successful in carrying out any acts of violence. Members of the John Brown Gun Club helped to de-escalate conflicts and walked community members back to their cars. The story of armed ‘antifa’ protecting a drag event quickly spread across the far-Right media eco-system, while many applauded those who “defended” the event.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1564457125413208064?s=20&t=KgEnX-QdOYIweYk20HSoMA

In Southern California, antifascists also destroyed and took down a “White Lives Matter” banner from an overpass and confronted one neo-Nazi who took down a “Nazis Not Welcome” banner.

https://twitter.com/CAntifascists/status/1561104082013765638

Over 100 students at Grapevine High School in Texas walked out against ongoing attacks on queer and trans youth, including new homophobic and transphobic rules around bathrooms, books, and sports.

https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1563211539502419968

ACAB

https://twitter.com/GoadGatsby/status/1565097749288259585

On Wednesday, police cars in a parking garage in Richmond, Virginia were vandalized with slogans reading “ACAB” and “bastards.”

https://twitter.com/ComradeOhio/status/1564274573096488961

A banner was dropped in Akron, Ohio reading “Justice for Jayland Walker,” as anger over his killing continues.

https://twitter.com/jbwashing/status/1563726227965259776

In Tucson, Arizona, people hit the streets in protest of ongoing deaths in the Pima County jail, where in the past year, more than a dozen people have died.

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1561248679985459201

In Denver, Colorado, people took to the streets in protest of a mass police shooting, which occurred after police opened fire and injured several pedestrians on a busy city street after shooting at a man they thought was armed.

Puerto Rico Fights Back

Protests and riots broke out against “LUMA Energy, the public-private American-Canadian company that controls the distribution and maintenance of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid,” as people demanded that the company contract be canceled in the face of rising costs and continued blackouts. Protests flooded into Old San Juan, leading to clashes with the police, who violently attacked protesters and journalists with projectiles.

Mutual Aid

https://twitter.com/CooperationJXN/status/1564975648237621249

In Jackson, Mississippi, Cooperation Jackson is mobilizing in the face of massive flooding and the failure of infrastructure. From their website:

Due to climate change and decades of neglect of our cities infrastructure, critical portions of Jackson have flooded and incapacitated our cities water treatment facilities. As a result, the entire city is without drinking water and it is not clear when the system is going to be repaired and water access restored.

The Governor has declared a state of emergency and is deploying the national guard to supply water to the residents of Jackson. However, to ensure that aid is delivered directly to the people of our community in West Jackson, we are engaging in an autonomous relief effort to ensure that the homeless, the elderly, and those with limited transportation in our community get the resources they need.

We are asking all of our friends, comrades, and fellow cooperators to join us in the effort. Please donate generously at https://cooperationjackson.org/donate. Please spread the word to your family and friends and encourage them to donate.

If you or your organization are able to deliver pallets of water, we welcome that as well. Please contact us at [email protected] to coordinate or call 601.355.7224.

If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis and have the means, please sign up to support us monthly! Help autonomous revolutionary media grow into 2021!

photo: TANC

Welcome, to This Is America, August 18th, 2022.

On this episode we continue our discussion with a forest defender on the growing movement and fight to defend the Atlanta forest against the construction of Cop City. We discuss the recent week of action, repression, how the struggle is pulling in a wide range of people, movement infrastructure, and much more.

https://twitter.com/CHIforests/status/1559164283950448640

We then speak with someone about the call to counter the so-called “Straight Pride” rally in Modesto, California, which brings together far-Right street gangs like the Proud Boys and Christian nationalist groups under a white nationalist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-reproductive freedom banner. For more information on how to get involved in the mobilization on August 27th, go here.

https://twitter.com/Off_The_99/status/1554043066654240769

Finally, we switch to our discussion, where we both switch up our format and talk about a variety of news headlines, some funny stories, and then give into an analysis of the recent FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.

If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis and have the means, please sign up to support us monthly! Help autonomous revolutionary media grow into 2021!