Stay ConnectedIn search of new forms of life amidst a civilization in collapse. Hard-hitting analysis, discussion, and interviews on grassroots revolt and autonomous social movements across so-called North America from an anarchist perspective.
Looking to come on the show? Contact us here.
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:
Last night, the young ethnic nationalists of Nouvelle Alliance tried another nightly [propaganda] outing, this time in the multicultural and working-class neighbourhoods of Centre-Sud and Hochelaga. They have gone so far as to display on the window of the People’s Organization for Social Rights and the SITT – IWW Montreal.
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
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, IGD contributor Scott Campbell speaks with Flor, a compa in so-called Mexico actively involved in supporting anarchist political prisoner Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel. They speak about Okupa Che, an autonomous, self-managed space on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a project where Yorch has been a long-term participant. They then talk about the various charges and legal battles Yorch has faced since 2016, his ongoing imprisonment since December 8, 2022, and his recent sentence of seven years and six months. Flor also provides information on how folks can act in solidarity with Yorch and discusses the cases of other political prisoners in Mexico.
For more information about Yorch and Okupa Che, check out the following resources:
Welcome, to This Is America, July 29th, 2024.
In this episode first we present an interview on the case of the Boeing 5 in Ohio, anti-war activists who are facing charges for an action which shut down a Boeing facility for its role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. We then speak with organizers about the upcoming Health Autonomy Convergence happening in Vermont in October. We then launch into a deep dive into Project 2025.
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
Resistance in solidarity with those in occupied Palestine continues. In Arizona:
…clandestine saboteurs struck the Caterpillar facility near…I-10 in Tucson, AZ, in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against ongoing genocide by the Israeli state. The tires of multiple mobile generators were slashed and a message vandalized the facility wall [reading]: “Bulldoze your butts, not Gaza.” Caterpillar has been a supplier of military equipment used by the Israeli state in their campaign of terror and mass death. Saboteurs have targeted Caterpillar at least twice in Tucson this year. More broadly, clandestine sabotage has been one strategy taken by autonomous actors against the global corporations who produce and supply the material means for the unfolding atrocity.
In Montreal:
On the night of July 19th, a demo of pro Palestine militants took the streets of downtown Montreal, targeting the Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund (CDPQ), Scotiabank, and the Google offices. The media has remained completely silent and has not reported on the demo. So as long as the ruling elites fail to deliver justice, they will never get peace.
Meanwhile in Washington DC, thousands mobilized to block streets during far-Right Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s speech in front of Congress, while over the course of three nights, protesters rallied outside of the hotel where Netanyahu was staying. Maggots and other bugs were also released inside the banquet hall where Netanyahu was reportedly dining, video of which quickly went viral online. Police responded with pepper-spray and chemical weapons against crowds of protesters, who “vandalized [a] Christopher Columbus statue…near Union Station” with slogans in support of Palestine and pulled down and burned an American flag. During his speech in front of Congress, which responded with a standing ovation, Netanyahu called for a continuation of the genocide in Gaza and attacked pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the US as terrorists and pushed conspiracy theories that the growing protests were simply the result of Iranian influence and funding.
Across the US, people hit the streets to protest the brutal police murder of Sonya Massey, a 36 year-old mother who was shot and killed in her home while standing next to her stove by a sheriff after calling 911 about a possible prowler.
In Houston, Texas, groups like West Street Recovery, Space City Anarchists and Houston Food Not Bombs have been hard at work providing autonomous disaster relief in the face of hurricane Beryl, which has killed at least 36 people as millions were left without power and air conditioning amidst a record heat wave.
In New York, hundreds gathered to discuss ways to mobilize against a proposed Cop City project in Queens.
Really Free Market in Redlands, CA
In Redlands, CA antifascist parents with Safe Redlands Schools organized a ‘back to school’ Really Really Free Market.
Tree-sit in Lincoln, MA against Enbridge pipeline that threatens a forest.
A tree-sit has been launched in Lincoln, MA against an Enbridge pipeline that threatens a forest. A statement from a tree-siter posted to social media read:
All fossil fuel fights must be anti-militarist. We are not only against these individual projects, but the entire fossil fuel industry and the largest polluter on the planet: the US military. Solidarity to the protesters in Cambridge shutting down Elbit Systems, the Zionest weapons company profiting from the genocide of Palestinians. From the black birch trees of the Lincoln Forest to the Palestinian Olive Groves, glory to all struggling for a free and breathable world.
Police have made several arrests as the tree-sit and other protests remain ongoing.
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizer and historian Steve Ongerth, author of Redwood Uprising: From One Big Union to Earth First! and the Bombing of Judi Bari, about the Earth First! and IWW organizer Judi Bari, who in May of 1990, was almost assassinated in Oakland, CA. Many believe that Bari and another Earth First! organizer, Darryl Cherney, were directly targeted for their organizing in defense of redwood forests in northern California, work that included building alliances with timber workers.
As the website for Redwood Uprising wrote:
Just before 11:55 AM a bomb in Bari’s car exploded, nearly killing her and injuring Cherney. Within minutes the FBI and Oakland Police arrived on the scene and arrested both of them as they were being transported to Highland Hospital. The authorities called them dangerous terrorists and accused the pair of knowingly transporting the bomb for use in some undetermined act of environmental sabotage when it had accidentally detonated. The media spun the event as the arrest of two potentially violent terrorists.
Bari and Cherney were not only Earth First!ers, they were dues paying members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)…Indeed, even some of the timber workers whom the media claimed were the sworn enemies of Earth First! were also members of the IWW and covertly working with Bari and Cherney. There were even a handful of timber workers who had openly declared their alliance with Earth First! and their support of Redwood Summer.
Following the bombing, the FBI and Oakland Police went to desperate lengths to try and “prove” the bombing victims were guilty, even to the point of providing false leads and manufacturing evidence.
During our discussion we speak with Steve about who Judi Bari was, how the IWW and Earth First! began to interact and influence each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Redwood Summer campaign that Bari was deeply involved in, the bombing of Bari and Cherney, and Bari’s organizing work that fought to bring together both timber workers and environmentalists.
More Info: Redwood Uprising website and Who Bombed Judi Bari? on YouTube
Welcome, to This Is America, July 8th, 2024.
On today’s episode, we speak first with Josh Fernandez, author of the new book, The Hands That Crafted the Bomb: The Making of a Lifelong Antifascist, out now on PM Press.
We then speak with anarchist author and organizer Peter Gelderloos, about the recent debacle and fallout following the so-called Presidential debate, and the draconian rulings from the Supreme Court.
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
On June 29th, angry crowds rallied and occupied a city hall building in Utica, New York, after police shot and killed Nyah Mway, a 13 year-old boy and refugee originally born in Myanmar and a member of the Karen ethnic community. In a horrific scene reminiscent of Oscar Grant’s grisly execution in Oakland, California in 2009, which kicked off a wave of riots, police could be seen on video stopping Mway in a residential neighborhood, leading to a foot chase. In a video recorded by a community member, three white police officers can be seen chasing Mway down and punching him after which, he collapses. As Mway lied on the ground, one of the police officers chasing him fired a shot into Mway, as horrified community members looked on. In a later press conference, police claimed that the murder was justified due to Mway being found with a “replica GLOCK pellet gun.”
In Hamilton, Ontario, abolitionists held a rally outside of the Barton jail in response to ongoing deaths in custody and horrific conditions inside.
Workers at CounterPulse in the bay area, an art and community space organized a march on the boss announcing their union drive with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Members of the union in the Pacific Northwest also honored the “Wobblies who were lynched or imprisoned following the American Legion’s attack on the IWW hall in…Centralia,” Washington on November 11th, 1919. The Tacoma IWW wrote, “Finally, after two years of effort, the IWW Centralia Monument Committee won the fight to have our 2.5-ton granite and bronze monument in the city park in the heart of Centralia.”
Back in the bay area, the fight against a proposed Cop Campus police training facility continues, with several sabotage actions being claimed on Indybay. One communique which took credit for carrying out targeted vandalism against the office of the contractor involved in the project wrote:
We committed this act as a simple reminder that you will be met with resistance at every step along the path to fullfill the contract to build Cop Campus. You have assests spread throughout the Bay Area, if you value them, you’ll drop the contract. This can be the end, or just the beginning. The choice is yours.
For more updates on the campaign, check out Stop Cop Campus here.
Pride events took place across the so-called US and the world, with antifascist and community defense groups in some areas on hand for security. Many Pride events also saw pro-Palestinian protests and parade disruptions, demanding divestment from corporations involved in Israeli apartheid and genocide.
Actions in solidarity with Palestine continue across so-called North America. In Atlanta, people took to the streets outside of the Presidential debates to denounce the spectacle of two right-wing parties jostling over who was the most draconian monster.
In Florida, solidarity activists wrapped up a week of action against weapons supplier Elbit systems, after organizing protests and home demonstrations. In Boston, a demonstration outside of the home of one CEO also called for divestment from Elibt.
In Eugene, OR, several sabotage actions in solidarity with Palestine took place “during the Olympic Track and Field trials.”
In Brooklyn, New York, according to a post on Palestine Action:
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, four Brooklyn museum executives and board members’ residences were targeted by artists and cultural workers in retaliation against their brutal attack on Palestinians and pro-Palestine protesters on Friday May 31, and their shameless complicity in genocide. Red paint obstructed their doorways, banners and messages were left to remind them that: BLOOD IS ON THEIR HANDS.
Consulates in New York were also targeted with vandalism and graffiti. as was a weapons manufacturer in Novi, Michigan.
Students at California State University Los Angeles, “…occupied, barricaded, and looted the admin building to protest the administration ignoring them. They [used] flipped vehicles…as barricades outside of the admin building where students were occupying. They dispersed before the pigs could arrest anyone…”
Meanwhile in so-called Canada, solidarity protest encampments, building occupations, and riots have popped off in Toronto and Montreal. In Montreal, people organized a solidarity encampment for several months and on June 6th, a campus administration building was also occupied, leading to clashes between riot police and defenders of the occupation.
As a report on Montreal Counter-Info wrote:
Hundreds of police officers were then mobilized to secure the area around the building and allow the police officers inside to intervene and arrest the 13 students trapped inside.
The aggressiveness of the police and their ridiculous effort to arrest a handful of students quickly heated things up. The students on the ground began to prepare for a police dispersal operation. While a small line held the west of the area, the forces converged to the east to hold a line against the massing riot police. Aided by more experienced activists, the students then began to stand in collective defense formations. Shortly afterwards, the police attempted a first charge into the lines. Surprisingly, despite pepper spray, gas, shields and truncheons, the lines held firm. While the bulk of the force seemed to be made up of activists new to street confrontations, the lines withstood a police charge and managed to push back the riot line…Whatever prompted the people gathered there to stand firm, their actions were more than commendable.
As night fell and tension began to mount again, the students abandoned the campus and took to the surrounding streets. The forces of the student intifada learned the language of the riot, bank windows were smashed…every available object to form barricades was used to block access to police vehicles as the students took control of the streets for a few hours.
For more updates, check out Clash MTL on Mastodon.
Activists have occupied the Cambridge Democracy Center in order to combat and resist the unilateral decision made by its NGO owners to shutter the space, implicitly in response to community opposition to their permitting Zionist organizations to use it as an organizing space. The DC has been a fixture of movement and political organizing in the city and its loss would be a crucial blow to the progressive ecosystem.
Yesterday morning, courageous militants did just that. They escalated the struggle, seizing control of the building and declaring it the People’s Democracy Center, calling on all of us to stand with them and keep the space alive for future generations of organizers and artists who might call it home. It is our responsibility to answer their call and stand with our comrades.
Finally in Iowa, a fur farm was raided by animal liberationists. According to a communique:
June 20th All cages were opened, all breeding cards were scattered or destroyed, and perimeter fences were leveled at Schmuecker Fox Farm in Luzerne, Iowa. Anyone can do this, and the summer has just begun…
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we again speak with antifascist researchers Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, authors of the new book, Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Anti-Semitism. We discuss how the established order has attacked both the the current anti-war movement in solidarity with Palestine, which includes many anti-Zionist Jews, as anti-Semitic, while continuing to push anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, as the Republican party makes concrete alliances with actual neo-Nazis.
Finally, we touch on the need for continued antifascist mobilization and education, pushing back against conspiracy theories, and the current terrain of rising authoritarianism. With a growing number of anti-Zionist Jews coming under attack by both the State and pro-Zionist forces, as white nationalists continue to make inroads into the MAGA movement and Republican party, having a clear understanding and analysis of anti-Semitism is needed now more than ever.
More Info: Shane Burley on the It’s Going Down podcast here, here, here, here, and here. Ben Lorber on the It’s Going Down podcast here.
photo: Dave Id via Indybay, Cindy Milstein and Out Live Them NYC
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with folks across the so-called United States about the ongoing movement in solidarity with Palestine continuing to expand across college campuses.
First, we speak with someone in Austin, Texas, who discusses the explosive protests at UT Austin which were repressed by a phalanx of police. We talk about how anti-authoritarians intervened in the struggle, pushed back against repression and counter-insurgency, and are continuing their organizing in solidarity with Palestine.
Next, we talk with someone on the picket lines at University of California Santa Cruz, one of the campuses hit by a recent strike by tens of thousands of student-workers in solidarity with students facing police repression. We talk about the strike, its role in the growing struggle, and how it spread across various campuses. Since this interview took place, a California judge has ruled in favor of UC bureaucrats, granting a restraining order against the strike as “threats of wildcat strikes by rank-and-file workers forced the UAW to expand the strike.”
Lastly we speak with Mohamed Abdou, author of Anarchism and Islam, and until recently, a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Abdou speaks at length about the role of faculty in the struggle and being targeted under recent hearings aimed at snuffing out pro-Palestinian organizing on campus and being labeled “anti-Semitic” and “pro-Hamas” by right-wing outlets and pro-war grifters.
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Andrew Lee, an organizer and author of the new book out from AK Press, Defying Displacement: Urban Recomposition and Social War.
During our discussion, we speak with Lee about how elites, capitalists, and city bureaucrats are banking on gentrification and how people are pushing back against displacement. We also discuss the crisis of rising rents, how gentrification is tied to a push to better police the poor and communities of color, growing attacks on the houseless, and the tenant union movement.
From the AK Press website:
Cities around the world are in the midst of a profound transformation as the wealthy price out the remnants of the urban working class, especially people of color. Displacement is neither accidental or inevitable. It happens because a whole range of people and institutions profit handsomely. Defying Displacement, focused on the US but informed by global examples, investigates gentrification from the perspective of the people fighting it, members of communities whose survival is threatened by some of the most powerful institutions on the planet. Andrew Lee names the names and identifies the actual state and corporate forces that work together to enrich a very specific group of people: property developers and real estate investors who make a killing, politicians who watch their tax bases grow, banks that write profitable loans for new businesses and mortgages for new homeowners. Meanwhile, business districts are planned, tax abatements unveiled, redevelopment schemes dreamed up, corporate and university campuses expanded, and ordinary people are driven from their homes.
The city has long served as the stage for political life and popular revolt. As mass displacement alters the composition of gentrifying cities, the avenues available for social change become unsettled as well, forcing us to reimagine our strategies for building a better world. Around the world communities are pushing the struggle against forced displacement in new directions, shutting down developments and evictions and bringing cities to a halt, fighting militarized police and the most powerful companies in the world. Activists and residents in struggle—dozens of whom are interviewed by Lee to inform his work—are charting the way forward to affordable and sustainable cities run by the people who inhabit them.
For more writings from Lee, go here. Music from The Last Gang.
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we are joined with a guest who discusses the mass mobilization to defend the Palestine Solidarity Encampment at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA, which was attacked by far-Right Zionists on April 30th and then by hundreds of riot police on May 1st, who made over 200 violent arrests.
During our discussion, our guest breaks down how the UCLA encampment grew in the face on continued harassment and attacks from far-Right pro-Israel counter-protesters. These attacks escalated on April 30th, when a group of Zionists attacked barricades erected around the outside of the encampment, in full view of security and police, who left the area and watched the attack. As people defended themselves from violent counter-demonstrators, clashes escalated, lasting into the early morning. The next day, police then used the attack as a context for carrying out a violent raid of the encampment, shooting and injuring students and community members with projectile weapons.
As the New York Times wrote:
[An] examination of more than 100 videos from clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that violence ebbed and flowed for nearly five hours, mostly with little or no police intervention. The violence had been instigated by dozens of [far-Right Zionists] who are seen in videos counterprotesting the encampment.
The videos showed counterprotesters attacking students in the pro-Palestinian encampment for several hours, including beating them with sticks, using chemical sprays and launching fireworks as weapons. As of Friday, no arrests had been made in connection with the attack.
The melee began when a group of counterprotesters started tearing away metal barriers that had been in place to cordon off pro-Palestinian protesters. Hours earlier, U.C.L.A. officials had declared the encampment illegal.
Security personnel hired by the university are seen in yellow vests standing to the side throughout the incident. A university spokesperson declined to comment on the security staff’s response.
Police shoot off riot shotguns at UCLA encampment.
TruthOut reported:
Los Angeles Times higher education journalist Teresa Watanabe reported that members of the pro-Israel mob used explicitly genocidal language as they ripped down encampment barriers, yelling, “Second Nakba!” — a reference to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948.
“For over seven hours, Zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, and threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment,” organizers said. “They broke our barriers repeatedly, clearly in an attempt to kill our community.”
“Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help,” the statement continued. “The only means of protection we had was each other. We keep each other safe.”
The Daily Bruin, which had student reporters on the scene, reported that “security and UCPD both retreated as pro-Israel counter-protesters and other groups attacked protesters in the encampment.”
As we cover on the podcast, the far-Right Zionist and police violence on full display at UCLA exposes the false claims by the Biden administration and campus leaders across the country; growing police repression of campus demonstrations is aimed at crushing the anti-war movement which threatens US military interests, not to “protect students” or ensure their “safety.”
The successful mass defense of the UCLA encampment from the far-Right is a turning point for the movement. As one person posted on social media following the clashes, “Everyone at UCLA should feel incredibly proud of themselves. Fighting the cops is where all our movements will have to go, and they’re correct to do it and brave to face it.” Another account added, “There were thousands of people at UCLA who didn’t back down and battled to defend the camp. We will never forget what that night was like. So many people came out in solidarity.” Throughout our discussion, we talk about the dynamics on the ground, the various forces at play, and where the movement might go next.
Music: No$hu, “The Bonk Song”
On this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with folks across the country that are taking part in the exploding movement of anti-war encampments and occupations sweeping across US campuses in solidarity with Palestine.
First, we speak with someone at Columbia University in New York. We discuss how the Right and the campus administration is attempting to attack protesters as ‘anti-Semitic,’ even as anti-Zionist Jewish students are playing a key role in the organizing alongside many other students from a variety of backgrounds.
Next, we speak with grassroots journalist Vishal P. Singh, who reports on the violent police attack on protesters at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. We also discuss how the far-Right is responding to the growing movement.
Finally, we speak with someone involved in the ongoing occupation of an administration building at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. We talk about attempts by the administration to break the demonstrations and how people are coming together to keep themselves safe in the face of police violence.
More Info: Roundup of campus encampments and occupations on IGD here. Reports on CrimethInc. here, here and here. First We Take Columbia on Ill Will. Escalate Network on Twitter.
Welcome, to This Is America, April 18th, 2024.
In this episode, first we present an interview with a member of Houston Food Not Bombs, who speaks about how the group has been pushing back on attempts by the city to shut down their mutual aid program through ongoing ticketing and police harassment.
We then turn towards New York City, and discuss how Democrats have greased the wheels through fear campaigns over crime and migrants, to bring in the National Guard onto the city’s subway system.
Via @slam.matu
We then speak to members of the Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union, who discuss their organizing efforts and fighting back against landlords, rising rents, and gentrification. Note, this interview is quite old, be sure to check out and follow the group on Instagram here for current updates.
Finally, we discuss the unfolding legal circus around Trump and why we shouldn’t be surprised when rich and powerful people – don’t go to jail.
But first, here’s some upcoming events!
On today’s episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we sit down with labor historian Peter Cole, who speaks on how the state in the midst of World War I, used a variety of tactics, which came to be known as the ‘Red Scare,’ to attack and smash the ascendant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an anti-capitalist labor union organized around syndicalist lines.
Cole maps out the variety of forces which attacked the union, ranging from coordinated government raids on IWW union halls, attacks from far-Right vigilantes in the the Ku-Klux-Klan and the American Legion, and the assassination of organizers by local police. We look at how the American state utilized the courts against the IWW through things like the the Espionage Act, the Sedition Act and the Criminal Syndicalism laws, which criminalized membership within the union. Finally, we unpack the role of early nationalist disinformation, which attempted to paint the IWW as agents of the German state in the midst of the the war, especially at a time when the IWW was organizing heavily in industries which were crucial to the war effort.
In closing, we compare this history of the Red Scare with the ongoing wave of repression happening in Atlanta today, as the state attempts to break the movement against Cop City. We also look at recent attempts by the US government to demonize membership in the IWW, such as in the J20 trials and the assassination of forest defender Tortuguita in Atlanta.
The history of the Red Scare is a dire warning about the ability of the democratic State to smash by any means necessary radical working-class organizing from below, utilizing a wide range of repressive tactics. Just as today, the state is ready to criminalize ideology and participation in social movements in an effort to safeguard its interests.
More Info: Peter Cole interview on IWW.org. Check out Peter Cole on the IGD podcast here, here, and here.
Welcome, to This Is America, March 21st, 2024.
In this episode, first we speak with several anarchists and mutual aid organizers in so-called San Antonio, Texas about their late friend, Aaron Bushnell. On February 25th of this year, Bushnell, an anarchist originally from the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. engaged in what he described as an “extreme act of protest,” when he set him self on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, in protest of the US government’s ongoing support of the state of Israel and its campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. We speak about their friend and how they came to know Bushnell as he lived and worked in the area alongside them. We talk about Aaron’s upbringing in a Christian sect and how it influenced him later in life and how he came to embrace anarchism. We also speak about how his friends have dealt with the aftermath of his death and attacks on Aaron from neoliberal and far-Right media.
We then speak with an anarchist currently living in Montreal on the situation in Haiti and about the recent wave of resistance in the region. We also unpack the long history of rebellion, colonialism, and US intervention on the island, and how these realities continue to influence political and social life in the territory in the 21st century.
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, March 8th, 2024.
On today’s episode, we feature an interview first with Jeremy White, a long-time community organizer in Southern California who is currently facing felony charges stemming from a counter-protest against violent far-Right gangs in San Diego in 2017. We talk about how Jeremy and other activists were selectively targeted by the State and law enforcement, while fascist groups like the Proud Boys and American Guard were allowed to run wild and openly attack members of the public.
We then talk to folks in Austin, Texas about the upcoming Smash By Smash West counter-summit. Finally, we speak with long-time anarchist media maker Franklin Lopez, who has now completed a new book for kids. We speak about anarchist media and the need for more engaging content geared at young people and parents alike.
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news.
Photos from vigils in memory of Aaron Bushnell across the US. SOURCE: Facebook / Various
Across the world, people held vigils in memory of anarchist Aaron Bushnell, the 25 year-old active duty member of the Air Force who in late February, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC in what he called “an extreme protest” against the US’s continued support of the war and ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In Portland, as Alissa Azar reported, in “a moving act of solidarity…Veterans [burned] their uniforms at a vigil for Aaron Bushnell, hosted by Veterans Against War.”
Protests, mass marches, and blockades against the US backed war in Gaza continue. In New York, a militant marches took the streets, in San Francisco, thousands marched on the Israeli consulate and were attacked by police, in Chicago, street blockades shut down intersections, several defense contractors in New Hampshire were recently hit with vandalism, in Ontario, over 400 pro-Palestinian protesters mobilized to shut down a speaking event featuring “prime minister Justin Trudeau in honor of [the] Italian prime minister,” a protest encampment sprang up outside of the home of US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and in Oakland, middle school students organized a walkout.
In Berkeley, California, hundreds shut down a speaking event featuring the deputy director of a far-Right Israeli think-tank, heavily involved in the state’s current trajectory. Protesters rallied outside of the event, windows were broken, and the speaker was evacuated out of the building.
Blockades of weapons manufactures also continued. In Plymouth, Minnesota, demonstrators blockaded Northrop Grumman, which “manufactures weapons that Israel uses against Palestinians.” Meanwhile, pickets and blockades also took place outside of Lockheed Martin offices in “Vancouver, Quebec City, Calgary and Toronto.”
A call in the Pacific Northwest has also been made for a mobilization against the upcoming “Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit at the Seattle Convention Center.” According to the call posted to Puget Sound Anarchists:
On March 12th to 14th Seattle will host the 2024 Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit at the Seattle Convention Center. This conference will bring together suppliers and subcontractors from around the world, including Boeing, to network and show off products that will be used to build weapons that will murder people in wars of colonial expansion in Palestine and around the world.
Read the full call here.
Vigils were also held across the US in memory of Nex Benedict, an Indigenous non-binary student who died after being attacked in a bathroom at a school in a district that had been targeted by gender fascists. In Los Angeles, California, people took to the streets to mourn the violent murder of Nex and also call for an end to attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.
Crowd rallies outside of St. Cloud prison in Springvalle, Alabama. SOURCE: Instagram
As we reported on in our recent In Contempt column, various groups have been rallying in solidarity with the call from the Free Alabama Movement for strike and protest action. One person wrote on Instagram, stating:
Today, we protested again for the fourth week in a row in solidarity with the Free Alabama Movement’s 90-day prison shutdown. In honor of the international day of action for Rafah, the Young Palestinians of Birmingham (@yp.bham) joined us in solidarity where we united in chants about Palestine, Alabama, Congo, and more.
Incarcerated people in America are forced to produce a wide range of products and services, including the bombs and weapons that are killing Palestinians and other innocent people all over the world. When incarcerated people refuse the forced labor, they are subjected to beatings and solitary confinement.
Currently, incarcerated people in the U.S. do all the work to maintain the jails and are forced to work to make profits for the state and for companies like Raytheon. The same companies profiting from the occupation and genocide in Palestine are the same companies profiting from the exploitation and genocide of incarcerated people here.
As long as the ADOC and companies like Raytheon can use prison labor they will and as long as they can profit from genocide they will. Prison work stoppages shut down the entire economic system and get directly into companies’ pockets.
Cargill Tenants Union rallies in support of rent strike in Putnam, CT. SOURCE: Cargill Tenants Union Instagram
A rent strike organized by the Cargill Tenants Union in Putnam, Connecticut has continued into February and March, as tenants face threats of eviction as they continue to demand that landlord address health and safety concerns over lead, mold and beyond. Most recently, the rent strike has pushed the attorney general of Connecticut to launch an official inquiry. From a recent statement from the CTU:
Our rent strike and tenant union organizing has been building pressure to remediate this mill for our members. This is a major development directly resulting from attention on our rent strike. We still face retaliatory evictions, but the tide is turning in our favor. Organizing gets the goods.
Resistance to Cop City in so-called Atlanta and beyond continued across the so-called US. According to communiques recently posted to Scenes from the Atlanta Forest, an office in Santa Cruz, California of a subsidiary of Nationwide, an insurance provider to the Cop City project, was vandalized with graffiti slogans and had their locks glued. In Brooklyn, New York, police cars and buses had their tires punctured and the slogan, “For Tort,” was left behind. On Lenapehoking territory, three Nationwide offices were covered in anti-Cop City slogans and posters. A video of the communique was released:
Supporters of Jack, who was recently arrested in raids against the movement in Atlanta, rallied at a recent court hearing, complete with a hardcore band who played outside of the court house. A rally was also recently organized outside of the home of the Atlanta Mayor in protest of the Cop City project.
Rally with hardcore band playing in support of Jack in so-called Atlanta, Georgia. SOURCE: Unicorn Riot
In the Pacific Northwest, action continued against a proposed Cop City in Lacey, WA. A communique posted to Puget Sound Anarchists wrote:
In the earliest hours of Saturday morning, a small crew spiked various trees in the woods that are currently being logged, a well-known eco-defense practice to prevent or at least delay the logging of these precious trees. We need forests, not cops. Hours later, a separate crew dropped a banner that read Stop Lacey Cop Complex #stopallcopcities at the Olympia/Lacey pedestrian bridge over Pacific Avenue that will hopefully bring more awareness to the project…
In Houston, Texas, a judge has ruled that police must “temporarily” stop the ticketing of the local Food Not Bombs chapter. According to one report:
Food Not Bombs have been operating in Houston, Texas since 1994 and after nearly three decades in 2023, they started getting tickets for serving free meals outside of the city’s Central Library. So far they’ve received 96 tickets which made them file a lawsuit against the city authorities who claim that their meal service was a constitutionally protected protest.
Graffiti and broken windows at Army recruiting station in Chicago, IL. SOURCE: Chicago Anti-Report.
In Chicago, a communique posted to Chicago Anti-Report claimed credit for breaking out windows and covering an army recruitment center in paint and anti-war graffiti slogans. According to the communique:
One week ago, Aaron Bushnell self-immolated outside the zionist embassy in so-called Washington DC. He follows an unnamed self-immolation outside the zionist embassy in so-called Atlanta. In addition, in 2023, a man self-immolated in Kinshasa, DRC in protest of the genocide in Congo over capitalist green and resource extraction of cobalt and copper for the world’s technology.
As such, comrades took the following actions against the recruitment center for the 33,000+ Palestinian martyrs since October 7, for Aaron Bushnell, and for all those struggling against the US imperialist machine:
- Painted Avenge Aaron, Gaza will Haunt You, and Free Gaza across the military machine recruitment center windows
- Smashed windows of the main army recruitment office
- Covered surveillance cameras with spray paint
- Poured red paint on windows of the Marines recruitment office
Finally, following a successful week of action against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), direct actions and protests continue in Appalachia, with various lock-downs and disruptions of pipeline construction shutting down work sites for hours. Be sure to check out Appalachians Against Pipelines for updates on ongoing resistance.
Forest defenders shut down construction for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. SOURCE: Appalachians Against Pipelines
If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with members of Safe Redlands Schools (SRS), a group of antifascist moms who have come together to push back against far-Right and fascist groups attempting to advance an authoritarian agenda in the Southern California area, specifically in local school districts.
During our discussion, we talk about how these groups, which include far-Right street gangs like the Proud Boys, grew out of far-Right conspiracy theories and reaction to COVID-19 lockdowns, pivoting quickly to opposing “Critical Race Theory” and embracing a politics of gender fascism. As far-Right militants set their sites on the schools boards as a new terrain of confrontation, violence erupted at various meetings, with parents and their children often caught in the middle between politicians, out of town grifters, and their followers in violent far-Right organizations.
Members of SRS map out how they have built a network of concerned parents across their region, the wide variety of organizing that they engage in within their communities against the far-Right, and why they made the important decision to openly label themselves as “anti-fascist.”
More Info: Safe Redlands Schools (SRS) on Instagram, homepage, and beyond.
Welcome, to This Is America, February 17th, 2024.
On this episode, first we speak with independent journalist Alissa Azar about their recent trip to the border, the unfolding crisis between Republican governors and president Biden, the far-Right convoy who came out to support the GOP, and the refugees and asylum seekers caught in the middle. Support Azar on Patreon here.
We also speak with an organizer in so-called Tucson, Arizona about an upcoming Stop Cop City convergence later this month and dive into a discussion of the news.
photo: Screenshot via Rebel HQ
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with someone involved in Nor Cal Resist, a group based out of Sacramento, California organizing around mutual aid, community solidarity, and building movement infrastructure. During our discussion, we talk about how the group has begun to organize and work with asylum seekers, mainly from Venezuela, Afghanistan, and the Ukraine, and the struggles that they have faced along way and the economic and imperial forces which pushed them to carry out such dangerous journeys. We talk about how Republican governors have shipped asylum seekers into “blue cities” including Sacramento, and how mutual aid groups like Nor Cal Resist has mobilized to provide support and direct aid in the face of increasing racist conspiracy theories and State repression.
As Truthout reported:
The recent rise in refugees attempting to enter the U.S. — reaching a high point of 2.5 million by 2023 — is a result of displacing factors in which U.S. government policy has played a role.
For instance, the largest percentage (53 percent) of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. since 2020 have come from Venezuela — where the U.S. government has maintained a suffocating regime of economic sanctions since 2014.
There has also been an increase in state repression and restrictive changes in policy that have reduced how many migrants attain refugee status after entering the country. For instance, while there is a recent increase in people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border — a process rooted in long-standing U.S. policy — Trump largely dismantled the practice, instead automatically expelling migrants at the border. Biden continued Trump’s policy until May 2023, deporting even more than Trump.
While 2.3 million migrants and refugees have been temporarily “paroled” into the U.S. under Biden, nearly 4 million have been denied entry or deported. Most paroled individuals are in active removal proceedings, and only a small percentage are likely to attain refugee status as Biden has capped asylum cases at 125,000 per year. So no, migrants are not “the problem.” And the U.S. has sufficient resources to settle migrants and refugees — if that were a priority.
The real threat at the border is the far right, which has fueled a civil war-like showdown between the federal government and the Texas state government by weaponizing anti-immigration politics.
As both corporate political parties push to manufacture a crisis at the border over asylum seekers and refugees, social movements must work to show that the capitalist system which is attacking workers and the poor across the world is our common enemy, along with the racists and white supremacists attempting to divide us.
More Info: Nor Cal Resist on Instagram and Link Tree.
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we host a discussion on lessons learned from the support campaign to defend J20 defendants, who faced up to 80 years in prison due to conspiracy charges steaming from a march that took place during Trump’s inauguration in 2017. Our guests include one person who was arrested in DC that day and another who was involved in the support campaign to defend the over 200 arrestees.
During our discussion, we talk about the case, how the prosecution utilized and weaponized far-Right media, the attempt by the State to demonize anarchism, and the way that people mobilized to stand in solidarity with defendants.
We end by mapping out the lessons learned from the work that went into supporting those targeted on J20 and especially the ways this can inform the struggle against RICO charges and beyond in Atlanta, Georgia.
More Info: #DefendJ20 podcast series on It’s Going Down
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we present an interview with former anarchist political prisoner Eric King along with Josh from the Certain Days calendar collective. During our interview, we speak with Eric about the impact and importance of prisoner support during his nearly 10 years of incarceration and his thoughts about building large-scale prisoner support and a robust abolitionist movement.
We also touch upon the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it spread inside the prison walls, and the racial dynamics that played out between prisoners and guards during the rise of Trumpism.
Eric and Josh argue that anti-repression organizing and support for political prisoners cannot remain sidelined within social movements, but must be something that we center within the wider abolitionist struggle.
More Info: Eric King interview on the Final Straw, Rosenberg Fund for Children, Eric King on Instagram, Certain Days calendar collective, Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners
Welcome, to This Is America, January 13th, 2024.
In this episode, as we get back into the grove of a new year, we bring you a variety of voices from across the so-called United States.
From Seattle, we speak with one person about the recent destruction of the Black Lives Matter memorial garden by the police. We discuss how the garden and various mutual aid programs grew out of the 2020 rebellion, and how its destruction is linked with increasing calls by city officials to attack the houseless and poor.
We then speak with two folks involved in Appalachians Against Pipelines, about how the campaign has maintained momentum since 2018, while also facing down SLAPP suits and increasing repression. We then talk about their call for an upcoming week of action against the MVP and how people can get involved.
Finally, we present an interview with Eleanor Goldfield about their new film, To the Trees, about ongoing forest defense in so-called Northern California. We talk about making the film, various forest defense campaigns, and creating radical content in an age of corporate social media.
We then switch to our discussion, where we talk the misinformation around retail crime, the attack on People’s Park in Berkeley, and how the city of Seattle weaponized “activist” language to attack the Black Lives Matter memorial garden.
We will be back soon with more news, interviews and events next time!
MUSIC: Ash Bricky, No$hu, and GLOSS.
Listen and Download HERE
On this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we feature an audio recording from a presentation in the bay area this summer on July 18th by the Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation’s Bay Area local and AK Press hosted historian Troy Araiza Kokinis to discuss his new book Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay, 1956-76.
Anarchist Popular Power is the first-ever full-length English-language history of the Anarchist Federation of Uruguay. As Araiza Kokinis explains, the FAU organized students and workers to directly confront international and domestic capitalists, far-Right violence, and state repression amidst rising IMF-mandated austerity and declining living standards during the 1960s and 1970s. Pushed underground and into exile by governmental ban and a decade of US-backed military dictatorship, the organization has spread its model for revolutionary change around the world since it resurfaced in the mid-1980s.
The FAU‘s innovative engagement with, disciplined commitment to, and steadfast confidence in everyday people’s capacities to control their shop floors, classrooms, neighborhoods, and lives offers important lessons for revolutionaries today. If you are inspired to adapt these and other lessons for the so-called United States, reach out to Black Rose / Rosa Negra at blackrosefed.org.
Due to some technical issues during the event, the following combines portions of live audio with recreations of the author’s talk. We hope you enjoy the conversation!
Produced and edited by Kenny Donovan.
Welcome, to This Is America, December 9th, 2023.
On this episode, first we speak with antifascist journalist, author, and researcher Shane Burley along with Xeno, an anarchist and anti-Zionist Jew about the weaponization of anti-Semitism by groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the far-Right, amidst the growing movement to end apartheid in occupied Palestine.
We then switch to our discussion where we tackle the political implications for a growing break between those rejecting Washington’s war plans and the Democratic Party and beyond.
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
In mid-November, hundreds converged in so-called Atlanta, Georgia to participate in actions to “Block Cop City,” leading to clashes with the police and causing construction at the counter-insurgency training facility to come to a halt. Check out a report back on IGD here.
Actions in solidarity with the movement against Cop City have also continued across the so-called US. At the construction site where Cop City is being built, persons unknown set fire to several cement trucks. The same concrete company was also targeted in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a communique claiming credit for breaking windows and sabotaging tires at one facility. In the bay area of California, two offices for Nationwide, the insurance provider for the Cop City project, were also vandalized, in Savannah, Georgia, several businesses funding the Cop City project were targeted with graffiti slogans and sabotage, and finally in Atlanta, people claimed credit for pouring 25 pounds of stinking fish guts into the air ducts of a theater hosting a fundraiser for the Atlanta Police Foundation, which is spearheading the project.
From the communique:
As two of us hauled buckets full of rotting fish-vicera and compost-sludge, another quickly undid the two hex screws holding the access panels in place. We then dumped the 25 pounds of reeking slurry into both of the theater’s air handling units, in the compartments where clean air usually reenters the building; bypassing the layers of filtration and purification. Nearby, three police cars sat idle, completely useless and oblivious.
According to a post to the counter-info site Scenes from the Atlanta Forest, at the time of this writing, at least 5 different contractors have backed out of the project to build the Cop City complex since the campaign began several years ago.
Trials for those facing RICO charges in the unfolding struggle against the Cop City project are scheduled to begin soon. Be sure to follow the Atlanta Community Press Collective and Defend the Atlanta Forest on social media for updates.
As Israel expands and increases its bombing campaign across Gaza, mass actions, protests, targeted blockades, and shut-downs across North America have continued in solidarity with occupied Palestine and to demand an end to the ongoing genocide and war being carried out by the Israeli state and its imperial backers in the US.
According to a communique posted to Indybay, anarchists carried out railroad stoppages in “Pittsburgh, Oakland, Niles, Bahia, and Lodi” California. From the communique:
We did this in solidarity with the ongoing resistance to genocide being waged against Palestinians by the so called state of Israel…As anarchists we refuse to beg the masters of war for a ceasefire. We took it upon ourselves to sabotage the ability of so-called Israel to commit genocide, by sabotaging the flow of capital in the US, and thus the machinery for war abroad.
Blockades of railroads, roads, and bridges also took place across Montreal along with a blockade in front of Lockheed Martin.
At Columbia university, pro-Palestine students disrupted a class being taught by Hillary Clinton, in Tucson, people blockade the entrance to a Raytheon facility, in Ithaca, New York, students at Cornell University occupied buildings for two days, demanding the university divest from the Israeli state, and at George Washington University, students held a sit-in to demand that the University divest from Israel,
Banners were dropped in Portland and across so-called Florida and sabotage actions also took place in so-called Minneapolis, where a bank was vandalized with anti-colonial slogans.
Finally in a big win for direct action, Palestine Action reports that, “After two months of sustained pressure, Elbit’s main recruiters dropped the Israeli weapons makers as a client!”
In Davis, California, antifascists organized a rally on campus of over 100 people, which disrupted a far-Right, anti-LGBTQ+ event organized by Turning Point USA.
In the San Francisco, California, during a day in memory of trans people killed, anarchists busted out the windows of a WalGreens, the corporate chain store responsible for the recent murder of Banko Brown, a 24-year old transgender Black man who was shot and killed by a security guard after being accused of shoplifting.
In Florida, the #Tampa5, students facing charges stemming from police attacks on protesters denouncing Ron DeSantis’ attacks on education, recently had their charges dropped.
Finally, dozens of foxes were liberated from a fur farm in so-called Ohio. According to a communique:
Every fox that now has a chance for life in Ohio would have been brutally killed for their fur in the next 30 days. The Animal Liberation Front and other anonymous activists utilize economic sabotage in addition to the direct liberation of animals from conditions of abuse and imprisonment in order to halt needless animal suffering. By making it more expensive to trade in the lives of innocent, sentient beings, they maintain the atrocities against our brothers and sisters are likely to occur in smaller numbers; their goal is to abolish the exploitation, imprisonment, torture and killing of all innocent, non-human animals.
Last year, approximately 25,000 to 40,000 mink were released from other fur farms in Ohio and the perpetrators left spray-painted graffiti saying, “ALF” and “We’ll be back.” The total number of fur farms in America has dwindled from more than 300 in the 1990s to less than 60 today, as the fur industry continues its steady decline into oblivion.
If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Adi Callai of the Rev and Reve channel about the unfolding genocide playing out in the occupied Palestinian territories. Callai speaks about the context of the uprising that exploded on October 7th, the Israeli state’s use of technology, drones, and beyond, the combating visions of counter-insurgency between states, and the role of Western governments in backing the ongoing bloodshed.
This interview is the third in a series about the unfolding war in occupied Palestine that has raged in the aftermath of October 7th. The first featured an interview with Scott Campbell on the history of the state of Israel and its settler colonial project and the second featured an interview with a Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank.
More Info: Rev and Reve on YouTube
Image by hosny salah from Pixabay
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, IGD contributor Scott Campbell speaks with a Palestinian comrade based in Ramallah, which is located in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. The West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. For a deeper dive on the history of the occupation of Palestine by the state of Israel and how it is propped up by the US government, go here.
The interview covers the current unfolding situation on the ground in the various parts of Palestine, the role of the Palestinian Authority during Israel’s current war on Gaza, the place (or lack thereof) of anarchism in the struggle for Palestinian liberation, how international solidarity can best manifest itself, and much more.
photo: Miami Antifascist Newsletter
Welcome, to This Is America, November 1st, 2023.
On this episode, we speak with Sam about the recent Block Cop City speaking tour across the US and the upcoming mass actions in Atlanta against the Cop City project from November 10th – 13th.
We also speak with hosts of the Final Straw podcast about the recent Asheville Anarchist Bookfair, organizing anarchist and autonomous events in the current terrain with COVID-19 still a looming threat, how to make gatherings accessible and engaging to as many people as possible, and much more.
Finally, millions of people across the world are taking to the streets in solidarity with Palestine. If you missed our recent podcast interview with IGD contributor Scott Campbell on the history of the settler-colonial project of the state of Israel, the role of the US in propping up apartheid, and what’s happening on the ground now, check it out here. If you’re looking for printable outreach materials to hand out at upcoming events and demonstrations, go here and here.
If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we host a discussion with IGD contributor Scott Campbell, as we cover the current situation on the ground in Palestine, the Netanyahu government in Israel and its links to the global far-Right, the role of the US in the conflict, and what possible avenues social movements could take in the fight against apartheid and occupation.
During our discussion, Scott gives us a short history of the occupation of Palestine by the state of Israel, the political players on the ground, the role of the United States, and how Israel has worked to export its brand of ethno-nationalism and counter-insurgency around the world.
Over the course of our talk, we touch on the connections between settler-colonial regimes around the world, how we can use history as a tool to inform our struggles, and how we might go about building our capacity to act in solidarity.
More Info: Scott Campbell on Mastodon, Decolonization is Not a Metaphor, Movement Memos podcast, and Behind the 21st Century Intifada
photo: Ahmed Abu Hameeda via Unsplash
music: “Real Gaza Me Seh!” by Hanouneh ft. Promoe
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we again speak with anarchist historian, YouTuber, and libertarian socialist philosopher Zoe Baker about her new book, Means and Ends: The Revolutionary Practice of Anarchism in Europe and the United States, published by AK Press.
In many ways, the book takes off from our previous discussion on anarchist history, and talks about how anarchism became a mass movement in the late 1800s, faced repression from the State, and worked to participate in social movements and struggles that reflected its anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist principles.
During our discussion we talk about how the historical anarchist movement approached questions of organization, action, reform, movement building, distributing ideas, State socialism, trade unions, and beyond. Note, the scope of this historical overview is limited, and we encourage readers to check out Non-Western Anarchisms: Rethinking the Global Context.
More Info: Zoe Baker on Youtube, Means and Ends on AK Press, “Lessons from Anarchist History” podcast with IGD.
Music: Lee Brickley, Anna’s Song
On today’s episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Leif, a trans activist in Northern Ohio who is currently facing assault charges after defending children and their parents from violent neo-Nazis and Proud Boys in Wadsworth, Ohio in March of this year.
Neo-Nazis with Blood Tribe rally in Wadsworth, OH
From Leif’s support campaign:
In March of 2023 a family-friendly drag show in Wadsworth OH was threatened by anti-LGBT protesters including Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and Neo-Nazis. Show organizers asked for volunteers to help protect the show and its attendees. Leif was one of many people from Central Ohio who answered this call for volunteers. On the day of the show, attendees and supporters were outnumbered nearly 2-1 by anti-LBGT demonstrators from all over Ohio. While escorting families out of the event, Leif was assaulted by anti-LGBT protesters who hit him in the head with a megaphone. Police stood by and allowed this to happen. Leif feared for his life and the lives of the people he escorted – including children and a person with a service animal – and he took swift action to end the attack. FOR THIS JUSTIFIED ACT OF DEFENSE HE IS BEING CHARGED WITH THREE COUNTS OF ASSAULT!
Do trans people have the same self-defense rights as everyone else? The law throughout the whole US allows a person to use force in defense of human life. Ohio is a ‘stand your ground’ state. This means a person has no “duty to retreat” and may use force in self-defense or defense of others, if they feel their life is in danger. The police and the state of Ohio have chosen to prosecute a trans man with criminal charges instead of the transphobes who assaulted him. We are going to fight back using any and all legal means necessary.
Leif currently has a trial date on October 24th and needs support. Donate to Leif’s support fund here and get more info here.
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with journalist and investigator Amanda Moore, about spending over a year undercover within the broader MAGA movement and the outright fascist and white supremacist currents and activists she found firmly embedded within it. During our discussion we speak on the role of conspiracy theories within the movement, the lead up to January 6th in Washington DC, entryism into the GOP by white nationalists, and the inability of the neoliberal media to hold the Republican party to account for its lurch towards outright fascism.
From Amanda’s recent expose in The Nation:
I attended more than a dozen extremist and conspiracy events and went to ostensibly mainstream Republican conferences, including the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, the annual gathering of Republican activists, politicians, and hopefuls, and Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, and witnessed a radical youth movement trying to take over the GOP. Like a parasitic pilot fish, a robust fascist community follows the big Republican events into every town. They host shadow parties, receptions, and speeches as they work to recruit new members. The conservative establishment benefits from the presence of these farther-right gatherings; the extremists are often younger, well-dressed, and social-media savvy. While the more mainstream GOP organizations occasionally ban the most overt racists from a featured event, their attempts often feel half-hearted, and there are always other extremists who step up and fill the role as intermediaries between the white nationalists and normie conservatives.
Some of the neo-Nazis and fascists I met undercover in 2020 are working as congressional campaign staffers and helping to form congressional caucuses. They are meeting with leaders of far-right political parties in Italy and Hungary. They are leaders in their local Young Republican organizations. They have access to elected GOP officials at the national and local level.
Despite this growing influence, few of them or their true beliefs are known to the public. Some have worked hard to scrub themselves from the Internet or to curate their online personas; others operate in the shadows, so that people do not even know to look for them. But they network with each other, calling in favors and introductions. They’ve created a social maze that’s almost impossible to trace—unless you are invited to become one of them.
As segments of the far-Right reposition themselves in a post-J6 world, we discuss how these forces will continue to evolve as the 2024 election looms and Trump’s future role in the movement remains in doubt.
More Info: Amanda More on Link Tree and selected works at The Nation.
In this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we present an audio recording from the recent Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, North Carolina in August, 2023. The recording features a conversation with author and activist, William C Anderson and JoNina and Lorenzo Ervin, two longtime anarchist organizers who have been directly involved in the historic civil rights movement and proceeding Black liberation struggles.
From the bookfair’s website:
A discussion of using dual power to engage in widespread sabotage against the corporate state in order to fight fascism. JoNina and Lorenzo are two anarchist ex-Black Panthers. Between them they have 70 years of political activity spanning lives that have included everything from teaching at a revolutionary community school to hijacking a plane and taking it to Cuba. Both are now involved in the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers.
Be sure to check out the Black Autonomy Podcast and our interview with William C Anderson here.
photo: Koshu Kunii via Unsplash
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with two members of the General Defense Committee (GDC) in Michigan, about their recent conference, organizing in the midwest in the post-George Floyd landscape, and pushing back against recuperation from non-profits.
Check out some video from the Midwest Anti-Capitalist Conference here, which set out to ask:
In the shadow of the George Floyd Rebellion, the pandemic, and the rise of the far right, we ask: What does anti-capitalist resistance look like today? What is the current terrain we are organizing on? What are our strategic priorities and challenges?
Photos from the Midwest Anti-Capitalist Conference via Michigan GDC
Check out the Michigan GDC on Facebook here and on Instagram here.
Welcome, to This Is America, August 15th, 2023.
In this episode, we speak with two organizers of the Midwest Dual Power Gathering, taking place in Chicago next week. We then speak with Candice King, a resident of Eugene, Oregon who is currently on rent strike, along with a local anarchist who is helping organize eviction defense. We talk about how the rent strike is growing and the community that has been fostered around the defense of Candice’s home in the face of a recent failed police eviction.
A struggle between a property management company and tenants who have stopped paying rent to try to get the landlord to sell the property heated up Friday morning as protestors held a demonstration inside the company’s office. https://t.co/4MN15nawof
— KEZI 9 NEWS (@KEZI9) August 4, 2023
We then turn towards are discussion, where we unpack the most recent Trump indictment, what it means, and what is says about the lengths in which the Republican party pushed for an authoritarian takeover of the State in 2020.
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
The struggle against Cop City in so-called Atlanta, Georgia continues, with the city government attempting to throw a wrench into attempts by voters to get a referendum on the facility on an upcoming ballot. In court, the city of Atlanta has attempted to claim the “referendum [is] “invalid” and a “futile” effort,” but a recent ruling has allowed the collection of signatures to go forward, as activists now boast to having collective over 80,000.
Struggles against other similar projects are also spreading. In Michigan people wrapped up a week of action and educational events against the expansion of the Camp Grayling military base. In the bay area, people also mobilized to demand the halt to the construction of “a $42,000,000 mega complex and gun range in the heart of the City of San Pablo, directly behind a children’s library. The Mega complex “Cop Campus” will train officers in urban warfare, repression and murder. We are in a economical crisis and before community needs are even being met, an immense amount of money is being wasted into a completely unnecessary cop playground.”
Doom to the pipeline!! Footage from yesterday's walk ons, which stopped Mountain Valley Pipeline construction in Montgomery County, Virginia for multiple hours. 👏👏👏 #NoMVP #NoPipelines pic.twitter.com/6sKmtxSgtV
— Appalachians Against Pipelines (@stopthemvp) August 10, 2023
Actions also continued against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, with protesters continuing to disrupt work on the project.
In Portland, fast food workers with the Burgerville Workers Union, part of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), walked out on strike at one store in late July after contract talks with the company broke down. In response to the strike, corporate attempted to send in scab workers as strike actions and protests continue. Meanwhile in Berkeley, wobblies are rallying at a recently unionized store by the IWW against the firing of one union member. For more info and how to participate in a call-in campaign in support, go here.
Workers and union supporters are out here turning around replacement workers and talking to the community!
Show support to our defense fund! We're just getting started. Corporate went after our members? We're not taking this laying down. HR wants a fight, you got one. pic.twitter.com/XY8zgBCvUj
— Burgerville Workers Union 🍔 (@BVWU_IWW) July 29, 2023
Far-Right troll Andy Ngo has again lost in court, according to the Civil Liberties Defense Center:
After seven days of trial, a 12-person Multnomah County (Portland) jury found no fault against [tw0] activists…in a lawsuit that was filed three years ago by conservative provocateur Andy Ngo. Ngo sought over $300,000 for a variety of alleged incidents involving many people between 2019 and 2021.
The lawsuit was filed in 2020 by Ngo, in an attempt to weaponize the legal system against the right-wing boogeyman of what he has labeled “antifa” (short for “anti-fascist”). Ngo lumps together into his version of “antifa,” a wide range of social justice advocates, even including people from the moderate “Wall of Moms” – in an apparent attempt to gain access to personal information about those he perceives to be leftist activists and to make personal profit from patreon and other social media platforms. To use a term he often uses, he committed “lawfare.” His original complaint named individual people for “assault,” “battery,” and “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” as well as alleging an Oregon civil racketeering (RICO) claim against Rose City Antifa.
Two weeks before the trial, a Multnomah County Circuit Judge ruled that Rose City Antifa could not be sued because it is not a discrete legal entity, and dismissed the state RICO claims.
In Alabama, prisons across the state went into lockdown as national guard troops, SWAT teams, and a host of law enforcement descended upon William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility “after an incarcerated individual took a guard hostage in the middle of the night.” According to the Alabama Political Reporter:
The individual suspected of taking the correctional officer hostage is Derrol Shaw. According to a source, Shaw got into an altercation with the guard and took a gun and the officer’s vest. However, it is against ADOC policy for officers to have guns at the facility, but it is unclear at the moment how or why the officer had the weapon…Shaw posted two videos on Facebook Live of himself while wearing the officer’s vest…
Shaw expressed in his Facebook Live videos that he is just “fed up” with the conditions inside the prison citing the constant chaos, violence and deaths, even of his own friends. Shaw also said that ADOC is upholding white supremacy and that the prison system is just “modern-day slavery.”
As highlighted in our recent In Contempt column, several new political prisoners need support! Long time community activists in Pittsburgh Peppy and Krystal are facing federal charges over alleged participation in a demonstration against transphobia. Donate to help out with legal fees here. You can also write to Peppy at:
Butler County Prison
c/o Brian DiPippa
#42322 PO Box 9156
Seminole, FL 33775-9156
Indigenous land defender Victor is in need of support after being arrested in Atlanta during a music festival in support of the Stop Cop City movement. Victor, has now been transferred to ICE custody, and a support site has been set up for him here. Write to Victor at:
Victor Puertas
095610252
6B 215B
P.O. Box 248
Lumpkin, GA 31815
South Chicago ABC and Chicago IWOC are organizing support for Hybachi Lemar, an anarchist organizer who is currently held in the Cook County Jail. To support Hybachi, go here.
The support crew for antifascist prisoner Alex Stokes have now set up an online store selling fundraising merch. Write to Alex at:
Alexander Stokes Contompasis
DIN: 22B5028
Upstate Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 2001
Malone, NY, 12953
Also, antifascist prisoner Ben Varela has been moved, and his new address is now:
Benjamin Varela #434577
Cedar Creek Corrections Center
CC18U
Post Office Box 37
Littlerock, Washington 98556-0037
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, July 21th, 2023.
On today’s episode we present an interview with antifascist journalist and researcher Vishal Singh about the bloody brawls erupting outside of school board meetings in Southern California and how the fight against the far-Right is evolving as gender fascists double down against LGBTQ+ communities.
We then feature an interview with members of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation about tenant and workplace organizing and their new position document.
Finally, we discuss the unfolding ecological situation and its implications in the ongoing fight against repression and Cop City in Atlanta, Georgia. All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
Y'all, if you weren't already convinced of the effectiveness of direct action yet, then check it out straight from the horse's mouth!
Atlas Consulting has dropped out of Cop City because protesters "broke all their fucking windows".@defendATLforest #StopCopCity pic.twitter.com/xzuLWPf20e
— @seanmc99@mastodon.social #StopCopCity (@seanmc_eth) July 5, 2023
Protesters in NYC marched from Union Square to Delancey-Essex today in solidarity with Atlanta's #StopCopCity movement & to demand freedom for the #CopCity protesters & justice for Tortuguita. NYPD cops on foot, on scooters, & in NYPD vehicles surveilled & repressed the march. pic.twitter.com/APyDlX6n8D
— Ash J (@AshAgony) July 1, 2023
Last Saturday, multiple Peet’s workers took a stand at our first rally to share our personal experiences of mistreatment in the workplace and why we are united in this fight for safety, livable wages, accessible benefits & more. PLU is proud to make space for stories like these. pic.twitter.com/9uD6z4e3vW
— Peet’s Labor Union (@peetslaborunion) June 25, 2023
Protests broke out during a panel discussion featuring US Senator Joe Manchin over his involvement in fast-tracking the Mountain Valley pipeline project.pic.twitter.com/BsfkXoJ0fb
— Ground News (@Ground_app) June 6, 2023
On the fourth of july, 20 machines across 6 sites of the construction of the mountain valley pipeline were sabotaged, using a variety of means to render them inoperable. Machines are often left unguarded, and when they’re not, the security are just prats. It was easy and fun. We gave a big cheer when these machines were seen being hauled off the mountains back to the industrial hellscapes they come from.
I have loved these mountains my whole life, and truly am a part of the forests. Mountain Valley Pipeline has been fought ferociously by locals every step of the last 5 years, but we need help. People have locked themselves to equipment and had their bodies maimed by police. People have precariously lived in treetops for years (literally, 2 and a half years at yellow finch). But MVP, supported by Joe Manchin and the full power of the US government does not care about the trees, the deer, the woodducks, the candy darters, or any one of us. Lockdowns and treesits are not enough anymore. I am inviting the full power and creativity of the movement to do whatever it takes to stop these fuckers from killing us all. Doom to the pipeline!
If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!
photo: @protest_nyc
Welcome, to This Is America, June 5th, 2023.
On today’s episode, we start off with a discussion on recent protests in New York City, following the vigilante murder of Jordan Neely on a subway train last month. We talk about how the murder of Neely comes amidst growing calls to attack poor and houseless people, especially from Democratic leaders of large cities, like Eric Adams in New York. We then offer up an anarchist analysis of the unfolding electoral terrain as more Republicans enter into the 2024 race and Democrats embrace a right-ward shift around immigration and “crime.”
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
In the lead up to an upcoming week of action against the Cop City project in Atlanta, police carried out a raid against the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a non-profit which provides bail for demonstrators arrested by the police and connects them with lawyers. The raid also comes before a major vote on the project’s funding, and amid news that the counter-insurgency training center will cost millions more in public funds that originally reported by local politicians. Leaked scanner conversations between police officers following the raid also show officers stating that the repression was carried out to suppress protest organizing in the lead up to the vote. Following the raid, over 150 rallied outside of the DeKalb County jail to demand the three volunteers be released and charges be dropped.
#StopCopCity Week of Action has been announced for June 24-July 1, 2023 in Atlanta, GA. pic.twitter.com/UmD9bXCvHy
— Defend the Atlanta Forest (@defendATLforest) April 20, 2023
In the wake of the raid, on June 5th, over a thousand people rallied at Atlanta city hall, calling for the city council to vote against funding the project. As this episode was being recorded, over 100 people had already spoken out against the project, many calling on the public to continue to resist regardless of how the council votes, as protesters rallied outside with banners and food, chanting, “If you build it, we will burn it.”
Only ~50 of the 357 people signed up for public comment have spoken so far w/ the promise that more can sign up at the end of that 357.
We are prepared to stay all night & be here tomorrow.
Join us at the #citycouncilsleepover whenever you can#StopCopCity https://t.co/oYr2txbghK
— Defend the Atlanta Forest (@defendATLforest) June 5, 2023
Our first audio presentation includes a selection of several public statements from speakers opposed to the project, including a statement from those targeted in the recent raid against the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. At the time of this recording, it remains unclear as to what will happen with regards to the vote around Cop City or how long the comments against it will continue (activists are currently calling on people to stay overnight), but be sure to check back on IGD for more updates.
If you value IGD as a revolutionary autonomous media resource in times of crisis, please help us grow the platform!
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we present a recording from a recent speaking tour of the Pacific Northwest featuring authors Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti, who discuss their new book, States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System. From the book’s description:
Inspired by the George Floyd Rebellion, States of Incarceration examines the ongoing reconfiguration of mass incarceration as crucial for understanding how race, class, and punishment shape America today. The rise of mass incarceration has coincided with massive disinvestment in working-class communities, particularly communities of color, and a commitment to criminalize poverty, addiction, and interpersonal violence. As Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti argue, the present is a moment of transition and potential reform of incarceration and, by extension, the American justice system. States of Incarceration provides insights into the rise of mass incarceration and its recent history while focusing on the needs of campaigners struggling with the issues of police and prison abolition, as well as the challenges that lie ahead. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with these questions.
During the discussion, Kurti and Shanahan talk about cycles of revolt and struggle and the questions that they pose: what forms or organization should rebels push to create? Should we struggle for reforms? How do we continue the spirit of revolt after the tear-gas fades? Hopefully this discussion will begin to address these questions and beyond.
More Info: States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System
Photo Credit: Flikr – Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) via Prachatai
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
