D1. Anarchism

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.

La siguiente es una entrevista con un grupo de afinidad feminista-anarquista anónimo de Ciudad de México realizada por Scott Campbell, colaborador de IGD. Una versión editada de este texto aparece en inglés en la antología Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice, editada por Cindy Barukh Milstein y publicada por Pluto Press.

Read this interview in English.

IGD: ¿Cómo les gustaría presentarse?

Tenemos que empezar diciendo que no somos un colectivo o un grupo formal. Nos vemos más como un grupo de mujeres y disidencias a quienes las une el amor, la amistad y la lucha por la libertad, autonomía, apoyo mutuo y por la vida sobre las dinámicas del estado capitalista patriarcal actual.

Llevamos varios años conociéndonos y entre eso, hemos compartido en algunas ocasiones colectivos o trabajos conjuntos, pero no nos hemos visto con el ánimo de conformarnos como tal. Venimos de diferentes posturas del anarquismo y entendemos cosas diferentes en muchos casos, pero nos conformamos para hacer cosas juntas desde la confianza y la necesidad de respaldar nuestro estar. Habitamos distintos puntos de la Ciudad de México en donde desarrollamos la mayor parte de nuestras luchas.

IGD: ¿Pueden explicar cómo llegaron a sus posiciones anarcofeministas, cómo se encontraron y cómo decidieron formar un grupo de afinidad?

No todas nosotras nos concebimos como anarcofeministas. Todas como anarquistas, antiautoritarias y antipatriarcales, entonces nunca hemos llegado a una posición conjunta. Nos hemos reunido por el reconocimiento que nuestros propios pasos han dado, somos un grupo que oscila entre los 20 a los 40 años. Así que no todas tenemos ni los mismos caminos, ni trayectorias ni posiciones.

Todas son historias individuales y cada una tuvo su tiempo. Para algunas fue importante la ruptura con quienes creímos compañeros y nos traicionaron, lastimaron o señalaron. Vimos con ello desmoronar un discurso que sólo era eso, discurso. No se profundizaba en cómo el patriarcado nos atraviesa. Otras siempre tuvimos presente la realidad del ser mujeres y cuerpos feminizados, cómo no éramos escuchadas o éramos invisibilizadas en espacios políticos anarquistas; que sólo las voces masculinas eran respetadas y que aunque sostenemos las actividades y gran parte del movimiento anarquista en la ciudad seguíamos siendo relegadas y poco escuchadas. Entonces asumimos un lugar de defensa y confrontación necesaria a lo interno de dicho movimiento, lo que fue desgastante pero eso ayudó a que hoy, juntas, estemos en este lugar.

De alguna forma, le perdimos el miedo al separatismo aunque nunca dejamos de ver que en este mundo hay hombres. Nos encontramos en esos espacios del movimiento anarquista mixto a partir de ese reconocimiento de la opresión entramada entre el género, la clase, la escolaridad, edad y  demás. En ocasiones ese proceso fue simultáneo a que nuestros “compañeros” varones fueran cayendo como moscas por denuncias, por agresiones sexuales o físicas hacia otras compañeras que, no podíamos negar ni respaldar.

Nos dejaban en un espacio limitado por cuerpos mayoritariamente femeninos donde la hermandad y el reconocimiento se dio entre pares y a través de las propias vivencias. Nos fuimos quedando solas o más bien, fuimos definiendo nuestras afinidades con mayor juicio, y !qué bueno¡recuperamos nuestra afinidad como cuerpos feminizados dentro de la lucha anarquista, nos reconocemos como sobrevivientes.

A partir de ahí, la confluencia en nuestros actuares nos mantiene juntas. Confiamos plenamente entre nosotras respecto a nuestra posición frente al estado y la policía, por ejemplo. También sabemos que cada una de nosotras camina en la autogestión y no de la mano de las ONG’s o derechos humanos. Eso nos ha dado mucha de la confianza que tenemos. Pese a que, repetimos, no todas venimos del mismo sitio del anarquismo. Nos mantiene unidas que creemos inquebrantables nuestros principios como parte esencial de nuestra ética.

IGD: ¿Pueden hacer una breve cronología del resurgimiento del movimiento feminista en el llamado México que comenzó en 2018?

Aunque es en 2018, cuando es mas visible de manera mediatica el boom en el movimiento feminista en todo el mundo con marchas masivas el 8 de marzo, huelgas y paros en las universidades de Chile, Mexico, España, Francia, Italia, EEUU, etcétera. Nosotras consideramos que este auge no puede omitir las luchas previas. Nos guste o no, incluso con las formas que nosotras no adoptamos, por ejemplo,  lo vemos en los movimientos proaborto y en los discursos que impulsan el cambio a legislaciones y constituciones. Creemos que la lucha por la reapropiación de nuestros cuerpos marca un precedente indiscutible, en algunos países se empiezan a escuchar las voces de las mujeres  y otros cuerpos y se fortalece una lucha por el derecho a decidir sobre los mismos. No sólo respecto al aborto sino también respecto a la decisión individual por el placer sexual.

En el caso de México y, específicamente en la Ciudad de México, fue desdibujada porque dicha lucha fue apropiada por el estado y el gobierno de izquierda. La existencia de un oasis tan pequeño en este país que brinda un aborto no penalizado y garantías para las personas homosexuales, restó fuerza respecto a la injerencia del estado en los cuerpos de las mujeres. Para nosotras no basta con que el Estado no penalice el aborto, sino que simple y llanamente, no queremos que sea él quien se encargue de regular nuestra sexualidad y registrar nuestros cuerpos.

Sin embargo, es verdad que en México vivimos una situación bien particular que hace que ese boom sea urgente e inevitable. Estamos hablando de que en nuestro territorio  matan a más de 11 mujeres por día. Un boom que, tenemos que reconocer también, llegó tarde. ¿a qué nos referimos? Los asesinatos en la frontera norte, en Ciudad Juárez, de donde incluso surge el entonces neologismo “feminicidio” comenzaron desde la década de 1990. ¿por qué no es desde esa fecha que el boom feminista explotó? ¿por qué se invisibilizó el asesinato masivo de mujeres trabajadoras de la frontera?. ¿Por qué no nos indignamos ante tantos cuerpos aparecidos y regados por el desierto?

Es verdad que eran otros tiempos, muchas de nosotras éramos unas niñas o no habíamos nacido aún. Pese a ello, creemos que va más allá de eso, que responde a  que aquellas mujeres no “merecían” causar indignación porque fueron social y moralmente desvirtuadas por el discurso hegemónico. Lo fueron por ser moralmente inaceptables,  por salir a altas horas de la noche, por salir solas. Fueron anuladas bajo la construcción de los cuerpos que simplemente no  importan:  pobres, de la periferia y obreras. Corrieron la suerte de no tener el suficiente valor social para que el ṕaís entero se volcara desde esa fecha en la lucha contra la muerte. Claro que en esas fechas hubo colectivos feministas, académicas y alguna que otra perdida política que apuntaron sobre la necesidad de mirar esta problemática. Pero tenemos que reconocer que el Estado nos ganó esa lucha cuando, al día de hoy, no somos siquiera capaces de poder recordar el nombre de alguna de estas personas, cuando nos cuesta nombrar que no vimos ni supimos qué hacer y que el estado impuso su versión de la historia. Lamentablemente el llamado boom feminista también puede leerse dentro de la urgencia de atender cuerpos menos estigmatizados, estudiantes universitarias, profesionistas, madres inmaculadas, etcétera e, igual de lamentable que incluso a esta situación, sean las msmas categorías las que sirven para nombrar y no nombrar a las pobres, putas, obreras y madres solteras.

Nos gusta pensar que el boom feminista no es el 2018 nada más, que las mujeres y los cuerpos feminizados no sólo aparecemos cuando los medios y el gobierno decide “reconocernos”. Nos gusta pensar que podemos honrar a nuestras ancestras dando continuidad a una lucha a la que nos sumamos, que no originamos y que no atiende a agendas externas ni llamadas mediáticas sino a una necesidad inevitable donde luchamos por mantenernos con vida y por no olvidar a ninguna de nuestras muertas.

IGD: ¿Cómo se ha involucrado su grupo en el movimiento feminista más amplio? ¿Qué formas de acción, participación, intervención han tomado? ¿Hay alguna anécdota o momento en particular que les llame la atención?

Como hemos mencionado antes, no somos un grupo formal, mucho menos homogéneo, por tanto, las formas como nos involucramos con el movimiento feminista son igualmente diversas. Algunas de nosotras acompañamos la lucha anticarcelaria donde algunas compañeras han sido procesadas tras las participaciones en acciones o manifestaciones feministas; otras de nosotras nos involucramos desde la producción gráfica que sigue siendo necesaria para la lucha visual y la presencia en las calles y las redes; otras apostamos por la autodefensa física; otras de nosotras aportamos desde el trabajo editorial impreso; otras apostamos por la radio; otras más se involucran en la autogestión de la salud mental y física; otras más echan a andar y sostienen espacios de resistencia como librerías, bibliotecas, cooperativas; unas más apuestan por economías solidarias y; en general, todas estamos en búsqueda de la vida y la sobrevivencia que, básicamente, nos roba muchísimo tiempo y energía.

Algo que hemos visto se ha vuelto necesario hacer juntas refiere a las condiciones de precariedad que atravesamos la mayoría de los cuerpos feminizados. Al respecto, en 2020 en plena pandemia vimos cómo las mujeres por un confinamiento obligado tenian mayor riesgo pues estaban todo el tiempo con sus agresores, fue necesario salir y llamar a las mujeres a la lucha por la vida y okupar las calles, llamamos a conformar las mercaditas, tianguis y bazares de y para mujeres -también hubo amigas trans y queer- con la idea de sobrevivir e intercambiar los productos que hacíamos y dar a conocer nuestros proyectos autogestivos, fue así que nos encontramos en las calles con un movimiento feminista más amplio. Tampoco es sencillo porque hay muchas posturas ahí adentro y muchos entendidos que no necesariamente nos hacen coincidir, pero creemos firmemente que son las diferencias las que nos hacen potentes.

IGD: ¿Cuáles han sido los objetivos o metas de sus intervenciones? ¿Qué desean poner de manifiesto al actuar?

Como nosotras venimos del anarquismo, y hemos ido poco a poco rompiendo con su visión clásica de la lucha, entendemos que ésta se encuentra en todos los espacios, minúsculos y macros. Por ende, no vemos la necesidad de esperar algún momento para intervenir en tal o cual cosa, sino creemos en la necesidad de tensar las relaciones de dominación -entre ellas las de género y sexo- en los espacios que habitamos: familias, colectivos, compañerxs, nosotras mismas. Pero eso no lo podemos hacer sino vamos luchando por hacer presente que existimos, por hacernos un hueco dentro de los entramados ya establecidos de la lucha, la disidencia y la sociedad en general. Ese mismo espacio nos da la oportunidad de dejar claras nuestras posturas, de ir caminando como nos gustaría vivir y acorde a nuestras propuestas, es decir, fuera de las instituciones, lejos del estado, mediante la acción directa, la autogestión y la autonomía.

Contrario a la moda de la “visibilidad”, nosotras apostamos por la acción cotidiana oscura y opaca. Nuestro actuar es nuestro propio manifiesto.

IGD: ¿Cómo ha sido la experiencia de participar en el movimiento, desde el punto de vista somático, emocional e intelectual? ¿Qué ha hecho posible lo que antes parecía imposible?

Un punto de acción callejera que parecía imposible fue la aceptación de la consigna “Fuimos todas”, en un momento en que  el discurso del feminismo blanco parecía  prevalecer y la supuesta idea ciudadanista de la “buena feminista” no dejaba de aparecer casi al grado de convertirse en la “policía” de las manifestaciones que, de hecho lo hizo con un llamado ciudadanista a proteger a las mujeres policías durante las manifestaciones bajo el argumento de que ellas también son “hermanas” y “mujeres”. Actualmente esta consigna ha sido enarbolada por cada vez más compañeras en la calle y eso es motivante, sin embargo, a nosotrxs nos gustaría que trascendiera el slogan y que la criminalización y la corrección política se tomaran con mayor seriedad, aún así, escuchar a unísono: “Fuimos todas” y asumir la rabia de las otras como propia, nos lleva el cuerpo de alegría y nos reafirma en las calles.

A nosotras no nos iluminó el 2018, por decirlo de alguna manera. Muchas de nosotras tenemos un camino recorrido ya en la lucha anticapitalista y autónoma. Fue la anarkia quien nos dio la posibilidad de asumirnos desde la autonomía y en una crítica muy profunda de lo que es la lucha contra el sistema de dominación que impera. Ese camino nos ha brindado posibilidades inmensas, tropiezos necesarios y  rupturas inevitables. Hemos aprendido que de ellas surgen autocríticas, empujes y aperturas. Una de ellas quizá fue el feminismo, que sí nos ha tambaleado respecto a muchas cuestiones, que nos ha llevado a explorar espacios minúsculos e infra políticos.  Nos acercamos a él en mayor o menor medida  y lo distinguimos críticamente porque no nos convence que haya un solo feminismo, ni lo perseguimos.

Poner el cuerpo, es en ese sentido, asumir nuestra lucha desde una misma y hacia afuera. Acuerpar a otra lucha es asumir que una parte de ella nos corresponde en tanto que la padecemos y no nos es indiferente. La experiencia somática, como la llaman ustedes, es indistinta. A veces somos literal, una bomba de relojería, otras veces somos cuerpos vulneralizados. A veces nos colmamos de fuerza en lo colectivo y otras tantas nos sentimos bichas raras y señaladas a tal grado de hacernos minúsculas; a veces reímos a carcajadas y otras tantas, llanamente lloramos a chorros.

IGD: ¿Qué se siente al formar parte de un grupo de afinidad de anarcofeministas que participan en el movimiento, en lugar de ir por cuenta propia? ¿Pueden compartir ejemplos de cómo esto ha marcado una diferencia para ustedes? ¿Cómo se relacionan más allá de su grupo de afinidad?

Nosotras vamos solas y en conjunto. Creemos en la individualidad de cada unx y en la potencia de estar juntas. Pero sabemos que no todas queremos o podemos asumir las mismas cosas o tener las mismas habilidades, por mencionar algunas diferencias. Aun así, saber que existimos como ente raro y amorfo, nos ha dado seguridad para movernos en nuestras ciudades. Sabemos que si una de nosotras cae en las garras de la policía, habrá muchas de nosotras afuera de las comisarías o a la entrada del penal. Sabemos que si alguna de nosotras enferma, tendremos una otra acompañando y brindando cuidados. Y sabemos que cualquier idea que tengamos a realizar, podemos compartirla y encontrar un eco en las demás.

De esa forma, nosotras vemos que la afinidad no puede medirse en términos enteramente políticos, estratégicos y pragmáticos, sino que va de la mano en cómo eso trasciende y atraviesa el amor, la amistad y la lucha por la sobrevivencia. ¿Somos afines? sí, pero también somos cómplices, hermanas, amigas, compañeras. No solo nos vemos o reunimos para ser grupo de afinidad, también lo hacemos porque nos interesan nuestras vidas, porque nos gusta reir juntas, comer juntas, cocinar juntas y creer que esa es la forma como podremos sobrevivir nos alienta mucho.

IGD: ¿Cómo articulan su anarcofeminismo, tanto en la teoría como en la práctica? ¿Cuáles son sus aspiraciones y cómo trabajan para conseguirlas? ¿Cómo ataca el género e incorpora perspectivas y presencias queer, trans y no binarias? ¿Qué lugar ocupan los hombres cis en su visión del anarcofeminismo?

Como mencionamos, tenemos raíces distintas, a nosotras la sexualidad no nos ha atravesado de la misma forma y eso signa muchas cosas. Las más viejas de nuestro grupo crecimos en una escena anarquista bastante heterosexual y por ende, las disidencias eran más opacas o simplemente no aparecían, claro que contamos con seres muy preciosxs abiertamente homosexuales, pero entendemos que, como la escena anarquista es heterosexual, esos cuerpos se fugan de los espacios y construyen otros propios. Reconocemos que muchas críticas en ese sentido nos llegaron tarde y poco a poco hemos aprendido a salir del clóset  nosotras mismas o a deconstruir nuestra propia identidad sexogenérica, aunque precisamente no la vemos como el eje que nos define.

Tenemos una crítica a lo identitario, a veces eso conlleva asumirse como esencia para partir hacia una posición, pero la mayoría de las veces desdibuja una serie de diferencias que nos parecen necesarias para caminar juntas. Quizá antes que señalar nuestra identidad sexual, nosotras partimos de ser “prietas” o descendientes indígenas, una cuestión inevitable que nos sitúa en el escenario de las luchas antagónicas y más en un país esencialmente racista. También somos pobres, venimos de lugares y familias que luchan por la sobrevivencia desde siempre.

Hemos aprendido que no podemos generalizar,  pese a que hay estructuras que nos atraviesan a todxs. Y, en ese sentido, nos vemos distantes de algunos grupos de personas trans y no binarias porque no compartimos una condición de clase ni de raza. Como hemos crecido marcadas por ese racismo, hay muchos espacios de la disidencia donde no nos sentimos cómodas o donde ese sentimiento de ser vista como rara o exótica nos acompaña. Muchos de los espacios queer y disidentes -no todos- son del mundo del arte y los padecemos como lugares blancos y hostiles. Asimismo, algunxs de estas personas también desarrollan su lucha desde lo institucional, académico o ONG’s, espacios negados para nosotras y negados por nosotras. Nuestra realidad a veces no nos alcanza para entender a lxs compas y muchas veces sentimos que no compartimos ciertas preocupaciones. Quizá tiene que ver que nosotrxs aún respondemos a la lucha de forma más amplia y no abandonamos el deseo enorme de destruir al estado y ver caer al capitalismo y a veces, las compas disidentes apuntan mucho sobre la construcción sexo genérica y nuestras posiciones llegan a aburrirles. jajajaja.

A nosotras no nos ha definido la identidad como punto de partida, sino la práctica y la ética de nuestro actuar en lo político; y el  anarquismo en algunas ocasiones  nos ha  dado respuesta  para sentirnos cómodas con nuestras diferencias sexuales y políticas. Al menos nosotras contamos con pocxs  seres que se asumen como parte de la diferencia, pero sí pensamos que sería mucho mejor si el anarquismo se nutre de esos cuestionamientos y desplaza al machismo y la heteronorma que viven en su seno, así como el anarquismo puede llevar cuestionamientos importantes a la lucha queer y no binaria. En nuestro sueño ideal, esa retribución mutua va de la mano.

También sabemos que el lenguaje es patriarcal, por esto asumimos la responsabilidad de pensar nuevas formas de nombrarnos y vamos aprendiendo a hacerlo.

No confiamos en los hombres cis, nuestro espacio no busca vincularse directamente con los compañeros, no por esto negamos los espacios mixtos de trabajo o convivencia,  nuestra principal afinidad es con mujeres y cuerpos feminizados como ya lo hemos mencionado en otras preguntas, la relación en grupos mixtos casi siempre la hemos sentido como una relación utilitaria a partir de supuestas definiciones colectivas y políticas, no nos interesa sentirnos amenazadas ni vulnerables frente a pensamientos patriarcales que para nosotras aún buscan “figurar” a partir de nuestro esfuerzo. Pero también aprendemos a no nutrir o contribuir a engrosar ese tipo de anarquismo un tanto caduco.

Respecto a nuestras aspiraciones, simplemente no las tenemos. Lo mínimo que pretendemos es caminar hacia la vida de manera digna, a la muerte de una forma significativa aunque sea para nosotras mismas. Lo máximo: la revolución social, la destrucción del sistema capital-patriarcal, la creación de otras formas de andar la  vida, aunque no nos casamos con la idea que algún día ésta llegará sino que la vamos construyendo lo más que podamos en el aquí y el ahora.

IGD: Desgraciadamente, hay una gran presencia TERF en el movimiento feminista de México. En algunos casos, las TERF se han apropiado de la estética, la retórica y la imaginería del anarquismo para sus propios fines. ¿Pueden explicar este fenómeno y cómo lxs anarquistas feministas han respondido tanto a la transfobia como a la apropiación por parte del movimiento?

Para nosotras hay una confusión teórica cuando se habla de “radical”. Por un lado, diríamos que la palabra nos hizo sentido cuando se refería a que las feministas radicales iban más allá de la petición de derechos o igualdad para las mujeres; se miraba en el patriarcado un pilar de la dominación en el mundo capitalista y, por ende, tensionaba o profundizaba en una serie de conflictos estructurales dentro de este mundo. Aludía  pues al término mismo, ir a la raíz del problema y por tanto atacar desde ahí no en la mera superficie.

Luego la palabra radical tomó como sinónimos, la apropiación que los propios medios hacían de ella, se igualó a “violenta”. Nosotrxs somos totalmente adscritas a la violencia revolucionaria, no negamos que sea una herramienta necesaria y válida. Sin embargo, sí hemos visto que homologar radical con violenta ha llevado a sumar confusiones a lo que queremos decir y cómo lo queremos decir. Quienes empezaron asumirse como tal, reivindicaron la violencia a secas, sin el respaldo de los fines. No necesariamente lo desaprobamos. Incluso vemos que la ira posee una potencia inaúdita e irracional que no necesita ser vista con la lupa de la lucidez y nos sumamos a la destrucción ludita y gozosa. Aún con ello, se juega con la palabra violenta, radical -y ultimamente reaccionaria- como si fueran sinónimos sin explicarse o preguntarnos por qué deberían serlo. Aplaudimos que se apropien los peyorativos desde el estado para resignificarlos, pero esta homologación la vemos más como la carencia de una base crítica indispesable que como una apropiación.

En ese momento se tomó la estética del black bloc. Ciertamente es la necesidad de diferenciarse visiblemente de quienes están contra la violencia, señalar que tal o cual grupo “actuará” de manera no pasiva, marcarse dentro de la masa como un grupo de acción o de ofensiva. Como años anteriores, la estética fue llevaba a la vanalidad  y la identidad.  Vestirse de negro, portar pasamontañas, cargar objetos para destruir y demás no es para nosotras una cuestión estética sino práctica y estratégica. Apunta por el anonimato y la acción directa, buscar dar golpes y salir libradas. En algún sentido sí, vestir del black bloc para nosotras es reivindicarnos como anarkistas y honrar la estrategia como válida. Antes eso nos ayudaba a identificarnos con otros grupos que no necesariamente conocíamos, al igual que cargar la bandera con la A circulada. Encontrarnos con otro black bloc podría hacer surgir hermosos aconteciemientos y después la retirada, pero con la garantía de ese respaldo incógnito y anónimo de unx compañerx.

Hoy en día, muchas chicas visten al black bloc style porque entienden que esa es la vestimenta de las RADFEM-TERF, quienes por cierto, ahora ya no sólo son las feministas violentas, sino que se relacionan abiertamente con  una corriente del feminismo que viene de Estados Unidos. Una de sus famosas olas. Nosotras no creemos que debemos basarnos para nada en esas olas y muchas veces ni sentido nos hacen porque no es la manera en la que nuestra propia historia del feminismo o de las luchas antagonistas responde en nuestro territorio.

El feminismo hegemónico impone sus propios ritmos, agendas y hasta mediciones de tiempo.  Se habla de olas del feminismo como si fuese uno solo y como si en todas ellas estuvieran quienes nos precedieron, sin matices, sin particularidades. Entonces las RADFEM-TERF de hoy se reconocen con una de las olas del feminismo de Estados Unidos que abiertamente es transfóbica y ubica una discusión sobre la naturalización y biologización de las “mujeres” que nos lleva a décadas de discusión atrás y a la aceptación del binarismo como categoría occidental incuestionable. Cosa que no pasa en territorios como el nuestro donde el binarismo es una consecuencia colonial.

Para nosotras esa relación ha cruzado la delgada línea entre lo radical y lo autoritario. Hemos visto varios ejemplos históricos donde ha pasado lo mismo. Hay un paso muy pequeño entre ser extremo y fascista. Muchas de las mujeres que teorizan y defienden al RADFEM-TERF vienen de las corrientes más fascistas, conservadoras y blancas de algunas élites mexicanas. ¿nos hace sentido lo que dicen?, en algunos casos, cuando eufemizan sus términos como, por ejemplo, “borramiento de mujeres”, parece tener sentido en una sociedad que es multiplicadamente machista. Sin embargo, decir que esa es una consecuencia de la presencia y visibilidad trans, es lo más ahistórico y fascista que hay. Es la forma en cómo un hecho que es real, donde las mujeres no aparecemos en la vida ni en la historia, se descontextualiza para “argumentar” vanamente en contra de la aparición de una “minoría”.

Es verdad que no coincidimos con todo el mundo trans sólo por serlo. En México, tenemos mujeres trans -antes no se asumían como tales, pero eso ha ido cambiando- ocupando curules y luchando del lado del  poder desde hace décadas. De hecho, fue una de las razones por las que el movimiento LGBT se fraccionó en la década de 1980. Nosotras insistimos en mirar las condiciones de clase, etnia y sexo como un entramado. Las trans burguesas pro poder, no son nuestras amigas ni lo serán, al igual que las mujeres policía y las radfem blancas y fascistas. Quizá haya más coincidencia entre ellas de las que piensan, si lo ponemos en esos términos.

En fin, no sabemos si es que el movimiento anarfeminista existe como tal y por ende, no podemos hablar por él. Nos ha tocado encontrarnos con las radfem-TERF en las manifestaciones, actuando casi igual que nosotras. A veces intuitivamente no nos sentimos cómodas y a veces sólo respondemos cuando ellas han enunciado su transfobia. No coincidimos con ellas pero no es nuestro interés tener un panel de discusión con esa tendencia y pelear nuestra estética. Muchas de ellas tienen harta presencia en las redes sociales -cosa que nosotras no-, y viven de estar ahí en la insistencia, regaño y vigilancia de todo lo que no está de acuerdo con ellas. Visten de black bloc style en manifestaciones pero no apuestan por el anonimato: buscan las cámaras, los reflectores y luego lo publican todo en sus redes sociales para conseguir likes. Eso quiere decir que no entienden al black bloc como una estrategia, sino como quien sabe qué. Nos da pereza seguirle sus pasos. Simplemente nosotras llamamos a nuestras actividades y eventos como trans-incluyentes o, lo que podría entenderse como terf-excluyentes.

IGD: ¿Pueden reflexionar sobre la presencia del anarcofeminismo dentro del movimiento feminista más amplio en México? ¿Qué importancia tiene? ¿Qué impacto ha tenido? ¿Cómo ha sido recibido por otrxs feministas (no anarquistas)?

Creemos que aún somos pocas quienes partimos de un entramado entre el anarquismo y el feminismo. O hay mucha confusión entre tanto. No se trata de tener mucha teoría o leer todos los libros que hay, sino de cómo apostamos por llevar a la práctica nuestras ideas y nuestras posiciones.  Creemos que es muy importante mantener esa coherencia porque el feminismo hegemónico apunta a la cooptación extrema, porque el Estado y organizaciones pro estado se están apropiando de todas las luchas y las vuelven amables con el propio sistema.

Al hacerlo, anulan y niegan otras formas de entender los feminismos, las luchas y las acciones. Es por eso que apuntamos siempre a la existencia de muchos feminismos, a honrar la diferencia como parte esencial de las luchas. Apuntar a miradas mucho más amplias, que puedan dilucidar esas complejidades de las que somos parte y que son negadas cada vez que intentamos hacer generalizaciones.

Creemos que mantener una crítica feroz y voraz contra el estado y el capitalismo, nos permite no desperdiciar tiempo en apostar por luchas perdidas, por ejemplo, por la aprobación de leyes que nos garanticen seguridad que, en la mayoría de los casos se aplican en nuestra contra o ayudan a criminalizar lo que ya está criminalizado: a lxs pobres y a lxs racializadxs. Sin embargo, también vemos que principalmente en nuestro contexto es difícil aparecer en ciertas luchas donde esa crítica nos rebasa. Por ejemplo, las luchas que emprenden las madres de desaparecidas o asesinadas, no nos vemos con la capacidad ni con la arrogancia para decirles que no busquen “justicia” dentro de las instituciones o que no entablen diálogos con los representantes del poder, porque hay muchas instancias que son imposible saltar. Todo lo contrario, nos vemos profundamente inspiradas por ellas, por sus pasos, por sus caminos, creemos que son esos colectivos los que nos nutren a nosotrxs y que nos dan harta fuerza para seguir.

Apuntamos por construir acciones que abandonen igualmente la mirada colonial que pretende hegemonizar, regañar  e invalidar. Y nos mantenemos con distancia de posiciones que no compartimos. Hacerlo implica poder empaparnos de muchas otras formas y ser permeables a otras formas sin que ello implique traicionarnos a nosotras mismas.

IGD: Dado que la movilización en México puede entenderse como parte de una ola de acción feminista en las llamadas Américas, ¿cómo ven el anarcofeminismo como internacionalista en su alcance? ¿Qué conexiones se han establecido a través de las fronteras coloniales y los Estados-nación?

Desde la ruptura con los los hombres cis en nuestros espacios hemos visto un avance organizativo conciente desde el anarcofeminismo, la presencia en la calle y asumir demandas desde la perspectiva antipatriarcal ha sido fundamental para mirar y solidarizarnos con otras en diferentes latitudes. Entender que las mujeres alrededor de esta llamada América Latina están siendo asesinadas por ser objetivadas como mercancías nos ha dado la oportunidad de crear espacios de diálogo para entender nuestras realidades. La radicalización de las manifestaciones nos ha convocado para denunciar y actuar contra las desapariciones, los feminicidios y el anti aborto.

Nuestra afinidad no es solo por ser mujeres o disidentes es porque en nuestras acción buscamos la ruptura radical contra las imposiciones patriarcales tradicionales y vemos con gusto que esta rabia se está propagando el inicio de algunas luchas que han trascendido. En algunos países han iniciado por mujeres y se han logrado mantener activas por la insistencia organizativa que desde nuestros grupos o individualidades emana.

También vemos que los estados buscan apropiarse de estas luchas y cuando escuchamos o presenciamos las críticas en otros territorios -con quienes compartimos un proceso de colonización-, vivimos esas resonancias con alegría. Nos sentimos menos solas y menos perdidas al escuchar esos ecos. Aprendemos mucho de ellxs. Principalmente apuntar sobre miradas anti coloniales para poder construir desde nuestros propios parámetros, con nuestros propios pueblos, con nuestros propios tiempos y sin la necesidad de tener como referencia a los estados asesinos ni la imposición colonial en cualquiera de sus formas, incluso como feminismo blanco, hegemónico y occidental.

IGD: ¿Cuál ha sido la respuesta del Estado a las movilizaciones y acciones feministas y anarcofeministas? ¿Cómo ven el trabajo antirrepresivo como parte del trabajo anarcofeminista?

Nosotras vivimos en la Ciudad de México y somos un grupúsculo. Importante recalcarlo porque no pretendemos decir ninguna verdad ni hacer alguna generalización.

En la Ciudad de México tenemos décadas bajo gobiernos de izquierda, lo que en términos legales, se ha traducido en una serie de reformas laxas pro mujeres. Por ejemplo, la despenalización del aborto, los matrimonios y adopciones homosexuales entre otras cosillas. Contrastada, evidentemente con la cantidad de feminicidos que se cometen diariamente en toda la zona metropolitana que no es sólo la Ciudad de México.

Cada gobierno izquierdista ha puesto sus formas de responder a la organización. Especialmente a la autónoma y anarquista. En lo que vamos de este gobierno que, coincide con las escaladas feministas, se han implementado políticas “antirepresivas” pro derechos humanos que, se entrecruzan con dos cosas. Por un lado, con  la construcción de un discurso izquierdista legaloide que, al negar el uso público de la fuerza anula el accionar de quienes la utilizan fuera del monopolio estatal. Es decir, si el gobierno y la policía actúan de forma pasiva, por qué hay grupos e individuxs que deciden realizar acciones directas violentas? Siendo así, se forma un marco discursivo y de legimitidad para actuar dentro de “marcos legales” en la represión. Eso se apoya de las feministas pro estado y derechos quienes también reprueban la violencia y hacen el juego sucio del señalamiento de quienes no lo hacemos. Hemos visto casos, donde incluso, se señalan por redes sociales a las supuestas “artífices” de algunas acciones para desacreditarlas y adornarlas con adjetivos legales de condena como criminales.

Años anteriores el conflicto era un poco más abierto. Los enfrentamientos con la policía eran algo más frecuente que ahora. Hoy en día, todo se lleva bajo las aguas, a puerta cerrada  y con estrategias legales que no dejan de formar ese marco antirepresivo al que nos referimos. Nos enfrentamos a mecanismos más sofisticados de la represión. En los últimos años hemos visto poca respuesta o más bien, respuestas hipócritas ante las manifestaciones. Y eso hace que la violencia -en términos de opinión pública- quede solo señalada y negada hacia una parte: a nosotras. Es decir, cuando el poder construye un marco discursivo anti represión y no da muestras visibles de la misma, la violencia ejercida desde nosotras se invalida y se anula, si no existe un “pretexto” para el enfrentamiento, no es necesario la ira y la violencia irracional de las protestas feministas.

Evidentemente todo eso sólo puede ser aprobado si no entendemos los mecanismos en los que el propio poder se mueve. Sumado a eso, se acusa a quienes optan por la acción violenta de “infiltradas” y parte de grupos pagados por los gobiernos que no están en turno para arremeter contra las políticas pasivas y permisivas de los gobiernos de izquierda y, peor aún, se suman las defensoras del orden que conforman grupos de defensa ciudadana para proteger a las mujeres policía de los ataques irracionales.

Por otro lado, los métodos antirepresivos específicamente en lo que atañe al movimiento feminista, también van de la mano con la institucionalización del feminismo que, igualmente es un fenómeno mundial, rescatado por instituciones, gobiernos, industria televisiva,ONG’s etc. Siendo así, los márgenes de legitimidad se vuelven más endebles y la apariencia engañosa. Es decir, si existe un marco de legalidad donde las supuestas demandas feministas están siendo atendidas por los gobiernos, no existe razón de ser de la protesta. Reformas constitucionales y dentro de los órganos de las instituciones y por supuesto bajo su propio entendimiento se vuelven el maŕgen de acción de los gobiernos frente  a las situaciones que vivimos.

Legalización del aborto, paridad de género en puestos públicos, comisiones para la atención de las mujeres, protocolos de atención al acoso, instituciones específicas para investigar casos de feminicidio, normativas en todas las instituciones de gobierno para adoptar miradas desde la “perspectiva de género” y, a todo eso, le sumamos las muchíismas ONGś e instituciones pro derechos de las mujeres que han surgido en defensa de los derchos humanos, para acompañamiento de feminicidio, y un largo etcétera. Esas iniciativas no sólo han acertado en darle un marco de legitimidad a los gobiernos y las estructuras de poder, sino que también han atinado en coptar muchas buenas intenciones de personas que pasaron de ser “activistas de la calle” a trabajar remuneradamente como feministas, logrando caer en la ya trasnochada forma de “luchar contra el poder desde sus entrañas”.

En los últimos años hemos visto que la estrategia del estado está siendo dirigida a mujeres organizadas, muchas de ellas están en procesos abiertos legales, algunas otras amenazadas con detenciones y creación de delitos fabricados, encarceladas y otras asesinadas. Históricamente hemos visto el abandono de nuestras presas o procesadas, posiblemente porque respondemos de formas patriarcales, dado que incluso los hombres que sufren la prisión reciben más atención y acompañamiento. Nos alegra que en las últimas manifestaciones por la libertad de compañeras, la presencia feminista es visible, pero no ha tenido esa masividad de la que se habla como movimiento feminista. Las campañas mediáticas son ridículas pero han logrado propagar el aislamiento de nuestras compañeras en la cárcel o con procesos. Individualizan los procesos y esconden la represión con sus propias estrategias legales.

Nuestro grupúsculo ve como eje principal el abolicionismo de las prisiones y la lucha anticarcelaria así que en nuestra posibilidad hemos aportado tanto al esfuerzo económico, práctico y teórico.

IGD: ¿Qué ven en el futuro para la organización anarcofeminista y el movimiento feminista en general en México?

Desde nuestra análisis existe un vacío ideológico, por esta razón vemos poco alentador la organización anarcofeminista, tal vez haya presencia callejera pero con poca intención de análisis y estudio. Es preocupante ver cómo un grueso de la perspectiva mundial solo camina a través de la reforma y la beneficencia, sabemos que la necesidad de justicia y economía es grande, pero a su vez la organización que se ha demostrado desde la pandemia ha permitido abrir surcos donde hemos visto florecer la autogestión, la rebeldía y hemos rozado su aliento feroz y tenue de la anarquía.

The following is an interview with an unnamed feminist-anarchist affinity group based in Mexico City conducted and translated by IGD contributor Scott Campbell. An edited version of this text appears in the newly released anthology Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice, edited by Cindy Barukh Milstein and published by Pluto Press.

Lee la entrevista en español.

IGD: How would you like to introduce yourselves?

We should start by saying that we aren’t a collective or formal group. We see ourselves more as a small group of women and nonconforming folks who are united by love, friendship, and the struggle for freedom, autonomy, mutual aid, and life against the dynamics of the current patriarchal state.

We have known each other for several years and, amidst those, we have on several occasions been part of collectives or working groups, but we haven’t seen ourselves as needing to create a group as such. We come from different anarchist positions and we understand things differently in many cases, but we come together to do things jointly based on trust and the need to support our existence. We live in different parts of Mexico City where we carry out most of our struggles.

IGD: Can you elaborate on how you came to your anarcha-feminist positions, how you found one another, and how you decided to form an affinity group?

Not all of us conceive of ourselves as anarcha-feminists. We are all anarchists, anti-authoritarians, and anti-patriarchal, so we have never arrived at having a joint identity. We have come together based on the recognition that our own experiences have provided. We are a group that ranges from 20 to 40 years old. As such, we do not all have the same paths, trajectories, or positions.

All our stories are individual ones and each one took its time. For some, what was important was the break with those men who we believed to be compañeros and who betrayed, hurt, or snitched on us. With that we saw the crumbling of a discourse that was just that, a discourse. It did not delve deeply into how patriarchy runs through us. For others of us, the reality of being women and feminized bodies was always present, how we weren’t listened to or were made invisible in political anarchist spaces; that only masculine voices were respected, and that even when we sustained various activities and a large part of the anarchist movement in the city, we continued to be relegated and unheard. So we assumed a position of defense and necessary confrontation within the movement, which was exhausting, but that helped us to be in this place today, together.

In a way, we lost our fear of separatism [femme-only spaces], although we never stopped seeing that there are men in this world. We found one another in those spaces of the mixed anarchist movement through that recognition of oppressions intertwined between gender, class, schooling, age, and others. Sometimes this process of encounter was simultaneous to our male “compañeros” dropping like flies due to reports of sexual or physical aggression against other compañeras, which we could not deny nor support.

We were left in a space limited to mostly femme bodies where sisterhood and recognition occurred among peers and through our own experiences. We were left alone, or rather, we were defining our affinities with greater judgement – how great! – we recovered our affinity as feminized bodies within the anarchist struggle. We recognize ourselves as survivors.

From there, the confluence of our actions keeps us together. We fully trust each other regarding our position with respect to the state and the police, for example. We also know that each one of us walks the path of self-management and not hand in hand with NGOs or human rights groups. This has given us much of the confidence and trust that we have. Even though, we repeat, we don’t all come from the same anarchist background. We are united in our belief that our unwavering principles are an essential part of our ethics.

IGD: Can you provide a brief chronology of the resurgent feminist movement in so-called Mexico that began in 2018?

Although it is in 2018, when the “boom” in the feminist movement around the world is more visible in the media, with massive marches on March 8, strikes in universities in Chile, Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, the United States, etc., we consider that previous struggles cannot be left out of this upsurge. Whether we like it or not, including approaches that we don’t adopt, as seen, for example, in the pro-abortion movements and in the discourses that push for legislative and constitutional changes. We believe that the struggle for the reappropriation of our bodies marks an indisputable precedent, in some countries the voices of women and other bodies are beginning to be heard and the struggle for the right to decide for ourselves is strengthening. Not just with respect to abortion but also with respect to individual decisions around sexual pleasure.

In the case of Mexico, and specifically Mexico City, the struggle was obscured as it was appropriated by the state and the leftist government. The existence of such a small oasis in this country that provides non-criminalized abortion and guarantees for gay persons loses force due to the state’s interference in women’s bodies. For us, it is not enough for the state to decriminalize abortion, we simply and plainly do not want it to be in charge of regulating our sexuality and of controlling our bodies.

However, it is true that in Mexico we live in a very particular situation that makes this “boom” urgent and inevitable. We are talking about the fact that in our territory more than 11 women are killed every day. A “boom” that, we must also recognize, arrived late. What are we referring to? To the murders on the northern border, in Ciudad Juárez, where even the neologism “femicide” was born during the 1990s. Why didn’t the feminist “boom” explode then? Why was the massive murder of working women on the border made invisible? Why were we not outraged by so many bodies found scattered around the desert?

March against femicide on International Women’s Day erupts, 2020. 

It’s true that those were different times, many of us were children or had not yet been born. Nevertheless, we believe that it goes beyond that, that it has to do with women whose deaths did not “deserve” to cause indignation because they were socially and morally devalued by the hegemonic discourse. They were morally unacceptable for going out late at night, for going out alone. They were invalidated under the construction of bodies that simply do not matter: poor, from the periphery, and workers. The state was lucky that there wasn’t enough social courage for the entire country to erupt at that point in the fight against death. Of course, at that time there were feminist collectives, academics, and some other lost politicians who pointed out the need to look at this problem. But we have to recognize that the state won that fight when, to this day, we are not even able to remember the names of some of these people, when we find it hard to say that we didn’t see or know what to do and that the state imposed its version of history. Unfortunately, the so-called feminist “boom” can also be read within the urgency to attend to less-stigmatized bodies: university students, professionals, immaculate mothers, etc., and, equally regrettable that even in this situation it is the same categories that determine who gets named and who doesn’t: the poor, whores, workers, and single mothers.

We like to think that the feminist “boom” is not 2018 and nothing more, that women and feminized bodies do not only appear when the media and the government decide to “recognize us.” We like to think that we can honor our ancestors by giving continuity to a struggle that we have joined, that we did not originate, and that does not answer to external agendas nor media attention but to an inevitable necessity where we fight to stay alive and to not forget any of our dead.

IGD: How has your group involved itself in the broader feminist movement? What forms of action, participation, intervention have you taken? Are there any particular anecdotes or moments that stand out to you?

As we have mentioned before, we’re not a formal group, much less a homogeneous one, therefore, the ways in which we are involved in the feminist movement are equally diverse. Some of us accompany the anti-carceral struggle, where some compañeras have faced charges after participating in feminist actions or protests; others of us are involved graphic design which continues to be necessary to visualize the struggle in the streets and online; others are committed to physical self-defense; others of us contribute through print publishing; others are committed to radio work; yet others are involved in the self-management of mental and physical health; others have started and sustain spaces of resistance such as book stores, libraries, cooperatives; others are involved in solidarity economies, and; in general, we are all in search of life and survival, which basically robs us of a lot of time and energy.

Something that we have seen that has become necessary to do together has to do with the precarious conditions that most feminized bodies experience. In this regard, in 2020, we saw how women were at greater risk due to forced confinement because they were with their aggressors all the time. It was necessary to go out and call on women to fight for life and to occupy the streets. We called for the creation of small markets, flea markets, and bazaars by and for women – there were also trans and queer friends – with the idea of surviving and exchanging the products we made and to spread awareness about our self-managed projects. That is how we found ourselves in the streets within a broader feminist movement. This is not easy because there are many positions and understandings within the movement that we don’t necessarily coincide with, but we firmly believe that it is the differences that make us powerful.

IGD: What have been the goals or aims of your interventions? What do you wish to make manifest when taking action?

As we come from anarchism, and we have little by little been breaking with its classical vision of struggle, we understand that the struggle is found in all spaces, micro and macro. Therefore, we don’t see the need to wait for some moment to intervene in this or that, rather we believe in the necessity of placing strain on the relations of domination – among them gender and sex – in the spaces that we inhabit: families, collectives, compañerxs, ourselves. But we can’t do that if we don’t struggle to make it clear that we exist, to make a space for ourselves among the already established structures of struggle, dissent, and society in general. That same space gives us the opportunity to make our positions clear, to go forward as we would like to live and according to proposals, that is, outside of the institutions, away from the state, through direct action, self-management, and autonomy.

Contrary to the fashion of “visibility,” we position ourselves through obscure and opaque daily action. Our action is our own manifesto.

IGD: What has the experience in participating in the movement felt like – somatically, emotionally, intellectually? What has it made possible that previously may have seemed foreclosed?

A point of street action that seemed impossible was the acceptance of the slogan, “It was all of us,” in a moment when the white feminist discourse seemed to prevail and the supposedly citizenist idea of the “good feminist” did not stop appearing, almost to the point of them becoming the “police” of the demonstrations, which they actually did with a citizenist call to protect women police officers during the demonstrations under the argument that they were also “sisters” and “women.” Currently, this slogan has been taken up by more and more compañeras in the street and that is motivating, however, we would like to transcend the slogan and see criminalization and political correctness be taken more seriously. Even so, hearing in unison: “It was all of us,” and to take on the rage of others as our own brings the body joy and reaffirms our presence in the streets.

We were not enlightened by 2018, so to speak. Many of us have already traveled a long road in the anti-capitalist and autonomous struggle. It was anarchy that gave us the possibility to position ourselves from a place of autonomy and to have a very deep critique of what it is to struggle against the prevailing system of domination. This path has given us immense possibilities, necessary stumbles, and inevitable ruptures. We have learned that from them emerge self-criticism, pressures, and openings. One of them was perhaps feminism, which has swayed us with respect to many questions, which has led us to explore micro and infra-political spaces. We approach feminism to a greater or lesser extent and make critical distinctions because we are not convinced that there is only one feminism, nor do we try to pursue it.

To place the body is, in this sense, to assume our struggle from within ourselves and towards the outside. To embody another struggle is to realize that part of it corresponds with us, such that we suffer it and are not indifferent to it. The somatic experience, as you call it, is indistinct. Sometimes we are literally a ticking time bomb, sometimes we are bodies that are vulnerable. Sometimes we are filled with collective strength and other times we feel like weirdos and singled out to such a degree that we become tiny; sometimes we laugh out loud and other times we simply weep in torrents.

IGD: How does it feel to be an affinity group of anarcha-feminists participating in the movement as opposed to going it alone? Can you share examples of how that has made a difference to you? How do you engage with each other beyond your affinity group?

We go alone and together. We believe in each other’s individuality and in the power of being together. But we know that not all of us want or can take on the same things or have the same abilities, to mention a few differences. Even so, knowing that we exist as a rare and amorphous entity has given us security in moving about our cities. We know that if one of us falls into the clutches of the police, there will be many of us outside of the police stations or the prison entrance. We know that if one of us is sick, we’ll have another one accompanying and caring for us. And we know that whatever idea we want to carry out, we can share it and find an echo among others.

International Women’s Day in Mexico City, 2020. 

In this way, we see that affinity cannot be measured entirely in political, strategic, and pragmatic terms, but goes hand in hand with how it transcends and traverses love, friendship, and the struggle for survival. Are we in affinity? Yes, but we are also accomplices, sisters, friends, compañeras. We don’t just see ourselves as an affinity group or meet because of that, we also do it because we care about each other’s lives, because we like to laugh together, eat together, cook together, and believe that this is how we will be able to survive. It encourages us a lot.

IGD: How do you articulate your anarcha-feminism, both in theory and practice? What are its aspirations and how do you work towards them? How does it attack gender and incorporate queer, trans, and non-binary perspectives and presences? How do cis men figure within your vision of anarcha-feminism?

As we mentioned, we have different roots, sexuality has not affected each of us in the same way and that means many things. The older members of our group grew up in a fairly heterosexual anarchist scene and therefore, non-conformity was more opaque or simply did not appear. Of course, we have very precious beings who are openly gay, but we understand, as the anarchist scene is heterosexual, those bodies escape from those spaces and construct their own. We recognize that we came late to many criticisms in this sense and little by little we have learned to come out of the closet ourselves or to deconstruct our own sex-gender identity, although we do not see it as the very core that defines us.

We have a critique of identity. Sometimes it means taking on an essence in order to act from a certain positionality, but most of the time it blurs a series of differences that to us seem necessary in order to walk together. Perhaps before indicating our sexual identity, we start from the point of being “dark-skinned” or Indigenous descendants, an inevitable matter that situates us on the stage of antagonistic struggles and more so in an essentially racist country. We are also poor, we come from places and families that have always struggled for survival.

We’ve learned that we can’t generalize, even though there are structures that affect all of us. And, in that sense, we see ourselves as distant from some groups of trans and non-binary people because we do not share conditions of class or race. As we have grown up marked by that racism, there are many non-conforming spaces where we don’t feel comfortable or where that feeling of being seen as strange or exotic accompanies us. Many queer and non-conforming spaces – not all – are part of the art world and we experience them as white and hostile places. Likewise, some of these people take part in the struggle from institutional, academic, or NGO spaces, spaces denied to us and that we reject. Our reality sometimes doesn’t allow us to understand their direction and many times we feel we don’t share the same concerns. Maybe it has to do with us still struggling in a broader sense by not abandoning the enormous desire to destroy the state and to see capitalism fall. Sometimes, the non-conforming compas focus a lot on the construction of sex and gender and our positions begin to bore them. Hahahaha.

We don’t take identity as the starting point, but rather the practice and ethics of our political actions; and anarchism on some occasions has given us the answer to feeling comfortable with our sexual and political differences. At least there are a few of us who are non-conforming, but yes, we think it would be much better if anarchism were nourished by these questions and displaced the machismo and heteronormativity that lives in its core, just as anarchism can bring important questions to the queer and non-binary struggles. In our ideal dream, this mutual reciprocity goes hand in hand.

We also know that language is patriarchal, so we take on the responsibility of thinking of new ways of naming ourselves and we are learning to do so.

We don’t trust in cis men. Our space does not seek to directly link with the compañeros. We don’t reject mixed spaces of work or coexistence, but our primary affinity is with women and feminized bodies, as we have mentioned in other questions. The relationship in mixed groups has almost always felt to us like a utilitarian relationship stemming from supposed collective and political positions. We are not interested in feeling threatened or vulnerable to patriarchal thoughts that for us still seek to “appear” as emerging from our efforts. But we have also learned not to nurture or contribute to enhancing that somewhat outdated type of anarchism.

As for our aspirations, we simply do not have them. The least we try to do is to walk towards life in a dignified way, towards death in a meaningful way, even if it is for ourselves. The maximum: the social revolution, the destruction of the capitalist-patriarchal system, the creation of other forms of living life, although we are not married to the idea that someday this will appear, rather we are building it as much as we can in the here and now.

IGD: There is unfortunately a large TERF presence in Mexico’s feminist movement. In some cases, TERFs have appropriated the aesthetics, rhetoric, and imagery of anarchism for their own ends. Can you explain this phenomenon and how feminist anarchists have responded to both transphobia and appropriation by parts of the movement?

For us, there is a theoretical confusion when one speaks of “radical.” On the one hand, we would say that the word made sense to us when it referred to the fact that radical feminists went beyond the demand for rights or equality for women; when patriarchy was seen as a pillar of domination in the capitalist world and, therefore, it stressed or deepened a series of structural conflicts within this world. It thus alluded to the term itself, going to the root of the problem and attacking it there, not merely on the surface.

Then the word radical, appropriated and transformed by the media, became synonymous and equal to “violent.” We are totally aligned with revolutionary violence, we do not deny that it is a necessary and valid tool. However, we have seen that equating radical with violent has led to confusion to what we want to say and how we want to say it. There were those began to claim violence as such, without consideration of the ends. We don’t necessarily disapprove of this. We even see that rage possesses an audacious and irrational potential that does not need to be examined with the magnifying glass of lucidity and we join in Luddite and joyful destruction. Even so, the words violent, radical – and ultimately reactionary – are used as if they were synonyms without explanation or asking ourselves why this is the case. We applaud the appropriation of the state’s pejoratives in order to resignify them, but we see in this standardization of terms more a lack of a necessary critical foundation rather than as an appropriation.

The black bloc aesthetic was adopted at this time. Certainly, it is necessary to visibly differentiate oneself from those who are against violence, to signal that this or that group will “act” in a non-passive way, to mark oneself among the masses as an action or offensive group. As in previous years, the aesthetic turned into vanity and identity. Dressing in black, wearing a mask, carrying objects for destruction and so on is not for us an aesthetic question, but rather a practical and strategic one. It aims for anonymity and direct action, seeking to strike blows and get away. In a certain sense, yes, for us, dressing in black bloc is to claim ourselves as anarchists and to honor the strategy as valid. Previously, this has helped identify ourselves with other groups we didn’t necessarily know, just like carrying the flag with the circle A. Meeting with another black bloc could lead to beautiful moments and then to retreat, but with that guarantee of the incognito and anonymous support of a compañerx.

Today, many girls dress is black bloc style because they understand that this is the dress of the RADFEM-TERF, who by the way, nowadays are not only the violent feminists, but are openly related to a current of feminism coming from the United States. One of their famous waves. We don’t believe we should base ourselves at all on those waves and many times they don’t even make sense to us because it is not the way in which our own history of feminism or antagonistic struggles plays out in our territory.

International Women’s Day in Mexico City, 2020.

Hegemonic feminism imposes its own rhythms, agendas, and even measurements of time. Waves of feminism are spoken of as if there were only one and as if in all of them were those who preceded us, without nuances, without particularities. Therefore, today’s RADFEM-TERF see themselves as part of one of those waves of feminism from the United States that is openly transphobic and locates the discussion around the naturalization and biologization of “women,” which takes us back decades and to the acceptance of binarism as an unquestionable Western category. This doesn’t happen in territories such as ours, where binarism is a consequence of colonialism.

For us, this relationship has crossed the thin line between radical and authoritarian. We have seen several historical examples where the same thing has happened. There is a very small step between being extreme and being fascist. Many of the women who theorize and defend RADFEM-TERF come from the most fascist, conservative, white currents of some Mexican elites. Does what they say make sense to us? In some cases, when they euphemize their terms, as for example, the “erasure of women,” it seems to make sense in a society that is machista in multiple forms. However, to say that this is a consequence of trans presence and visibility is the most ahistorical and fascist thing there is. It is the way in which a fact that is true, where women don’t appear in life or in history, is decontextualized to vainly “argue” against the appearance of a “minority.”

It is true that we do not agree with the whole trans world just for being trans. In Mexico, we have trans women – they didn’t identify themselves as such before, but that has been changing – occupying political positions and fighting on the side of power for decades. In fact, it was one of the reasons why the LGBT movement splintered in the 1980s. We insist on looking at the conditions of class, ethnicity, and sex as interlocking. The pro-power bourgeois trans are not our friends and never will be, any more than the policewomen and the white, fascist RADFEM. Perhaps there is more in common among them than they think, if we put it in those terms.

In short, we do not know if the anarcha-feminist movement exists as such and therefore we cannot speak for it. It’s happened that we have encountered RADFEM-TERFs at demonstrations, acting almost like us. Sometimes intuitively we don’t feel comfortable and sometimes we only respond when they have stated their transphobia. We don’t agree with them, but it is not in our interest to have a panel discussion with that tendency and fight over our aesthetic. Many of them have a strong presence on social networks – something that we don’t – and live there insisting, scolding, and monitoring everything they don’t agree with. In demonstrations, they dress in black bloc style but not for anonymity: they seek out the cameras, the spotlight, and then publish everything on their social networks to get likes. This means that they don’t understand the black block as a strategy, but rather as who knows what. It’s a bore to follow their actions. We simply identify our activities and events as trans-inclusive or, what could be understood as TERF-exclusionary.

IGD: Can you reflect on the presence of anarcha-feminism within the broader feminist movement in Mexico? How significant is it? What impact has it had? How has it been received by other (non-anarchist) feminists?

We believe that there are still few of us who come from a place of interweaving anarchism and feminism. Or there is a lot of confusion between the two. It is not a matter of having a lot of theory or reading all the books there are, but rather of how we are committed to putting our ideas and positions into practice. We believe that it is very important to maintain this coherence because hegemonic feminism aims at extreme cooptation, because the state and pro-state organizations are appropriating all the struggles and making them friendly to the system itself.

In doing so, they override and negate other forms of understanding feminisms, struggles, and actions. This is why we always point to the existence of many feminisms, to honor the difference as an essential part of the struggle. To aim at holding much broader views, that can elucidate those complexities of which we are a part and that are denied every time we try to make generalizations.

We believe that maintaining a fierce and voracious critique against the state and capitalism permits us to not waste time betting on lost struggles, for example, for the approval of laws that guarantee us security which, in the majority of cases, are applied against us or help to criminalize what is already criminalized: the poor and the racialized. However, we also see that especially in our context it is difficult to be present in certain struggles where that critique is applicable. For example, the struggles undertaken by the mothers of the disappeared or murdered, we don’t see ourselves with the ability nor the arrogance to tell them not to seek “justice” from within institutions or not to engage in dialogue with the representatives of power, because there are many cases where that is impossible to avoid. On the contrary, we see ourselves as deeply inspired by them, by their actions, by their paths, we believe that it is those collectives that nourish us and give us a lot of strength to continue.

We aim to create actions that also abandon the colonial gaze that tries to hegemonize, reprimand, and invalidate. And we keep our distance from positions that we don’t share. Doing so means being able to steep ourselves in other forms of struggle and to be permeable to other forms of struggle without betraying ourselves.

IGD: As mobilizing in Mexico can be understood as part of a wave of feminist action throughout the so-called Americas, how do you see anarcha-feminism as internationalist in scope? What connections have been built across colonial borders and nation-states?

Since the break with cis men in our spaces, we have seen a conscious organizational advance from the perspective of anarcha-feminism. The presence in the streets and taking on demands from an antipatriarchal perspective have been fundamental to seeing and being in solidarity with others in different latitudes. Understanding that women around so-called Latin America are being murdered as a result of being objectified as merchandise has given us the opportunity to create spaces for dialogue to understand our realities. The radicalization of demonstrations has called on us to denounce and act against disappearances, femicides, and anti-abortion.

Our affinity is not only because we are women or nonconforming, it is because in our actions we seek a radical rupture with traditional patriarchal impositions and we see with pleasure that this rage is spreading, beginning transcendent struggles. In some countries, they have been initiated by women and have been able to stay active due to organizational persistence that emanates from our groups or individualities.

We also see that the states seek to appropriate these struggles, and when we hear or witness these critiques from other territories – with whom we share a process of colonization – we experience those resonances with joy. We feel less alone and less lost when we hear those echoes. We have learned a lot from them. Primarily to utilize anti-colonial perspectives to be able to build from our own parameters, with our own peoples, with our own times, and without the need to take as a reference the murderous states nor colonial imposition in any of its forms, including Western, hegemonic, white feminism.

IGD: What has been the State’s response to feminist and anarcha-feminist mobilizing and action? How do you see anti-repression work as being a part of anarcha-feminist work?

We live in Mexico City and we are a small group. It is important to emphasize this because we are not trying to speak any truths nor make any generalization.

In Mexico City, we have been under decades of leftist governments, which in legal terms has translated into a series of lax, pro-women reforms. For example, the decriminalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and adoptions, among other little things. Contrast this with the number of femicides committed daily throughout the metropolitan area, which is not just Mexico City.

Each leftist government has had its own ways of responding to our organizing, especially that which is autonomous and anarchist. So far under the current government, which has utilized feminist rhetoric and implemented “anti-repressive” pro-human rights policies, two things become intertwined. On the one hand, there is the construction of a legalistic leftist discourse that, by denying the public use of force, annuls the action of those who use force outside of the monopoly of the state. That is to say, if the government and police act in a passive manner, why are there groups and individuals who decide to carrying out violent direct actions? As such, a discursive framework is created and legitimacy is given to act within the “legal frameworks” of repression. This is supported by the pro-state and pro-rights feminists who also condemn violence and play the dirty game of pointing fingers at those of us who do not. We have seen cases where even the supposed “architects” of some actions are singled out through social media to discredit them and condemn them as criminals.

In previous years, the conflict was a little more open. Clashes with the police were more frequent than now. Today, everything is carried out in the background, behind closed doors, and with legal strategies that form this anti-repressive framework we mentioned. We are facing a more sophisticated mechanism of repression. In recent years, we have seen little response to, or rather, hypocritical responses to demonstrations. And this means that violence – in terms of public opinion – is only pointed out and denied to one party: to us. That is to say, when power constructs an anti-repression framework and doesn’t give visible signs of violence, the violence exercised by us becomes invalid and annulled. If there doesn’t exist a “pretext” for confrontation, there is no need for the rage and irrational violence of feminist protests.

Attacking police car in Mexico City International Women’s Day march in 2020.

All this can only be allowed if we don’t understand how the mechanisms of power move. Added to this, those who opt for violent action are accused of being “infiltrators” and part of groups paid by political parties who are currently not in power to attack the permissive and passive policies of the leftist government. Even worse, women defenders of order form citizen defense groups to protect policewomen from irrational attacks.

On the other hand, the anti-repressive measures, specifically with regards to the feminist movement, also go hand in hand with the institutionalization of feminism, which is also a worldwide phenomenon, rescued by institutions, governments, the television industry, NGOs, etc. This being the case, the margins of legitimacy become more tenuous and deceptive. That is to say, if there exists a legal framework where supposed feminist demands are being attended to by the governments, there is no reason to protest. Constitutional reforms and institutional bodies, along with their own understanding, become the government’s main course of action against the situations we live under.

Legalization of abortion, gender parity in public positions, commissions for the attending of women, protocols for attention to harassment, specific institutions to investigate cases of femicide, regulations in all government institutions to adopt a “gender perspective,” and to all that we add the many NGOs and women’s rights institutions that have emerged in defense of human rights, to accompany femicides, and a long etc. These initiatives have not only succeeded in giving a framework of legitimacy to the governments and structures of power, but have also coopted many of the good intentions of people who pass from being “street activists” to working as paid feminists, managing to fall into the already outdated form of “fighting against power from the inside.”

In recent years, we have seen that the strategy of the state is being directed at organized women, many of them with ongoing legal cases, others threatened with arrest and the fabrication of crimes, others jailed, and others murdered. Historically, we have seen the abandonment of our persecuted or imprisoned women, possibly because we respond in patriarchal ways, given that men suffering imprisonment receive more attention and accompaniment. We are glad that in the most recent protests for the freedom of our compañeras, a feminist presence has been visible, but it has not had that massiveness of when we talk about the feminist movement. The media campaigns are ridiculous, but they have managed to propagate the isolation of our compañeras in prison or facing charges. They individualize each process and hide the repression with their own legal strategies.

Our group sees the abolition of prisons and the anti-carceral struggle as a main axis, so as we’ve been able to, we have supported this effort economically, practically, and theoretically.

IGD: What do you see in the future for anarcha-feminist organizing and the feminist movement more generally in Mexico?

From our analysis, there is an ideological vacuum. For this reason, we see little uplift in anarcha-feminist organizing. Perhaps there is a street presence, but with little intention for analysis or study. It is worrying to see how the bulk of the world perspective sees the only path as through reform and charity. We know that the need for justice and economic security is great. In turn, the organizing that has occurred since the pandemic has allowed for the opening of furrows where we’ve seen self-management and rebellion flourish and where we have brushed its fierce and faint breath with anarchy.

Statement from the Emory University Gaza Solidarity Encampment originally posted to the Escalate Network.

As the Palestine Solidarity movement rips across college campuses, college administrators and government bureaucrats are rushing to denounce anyone taking action as an “outside agitator.” Those who grease the gears of the war machine think that this rhetoric will erode public support for bold actions at Emory. They are wrong.

45 years after the Camp David Accords – an infamously botched, imperialist plan for peace between Israel and Egypt with no input from Palestinians – was orchestrated by an Emory faculty alum President Carter, we observe that there is nowhere on Earth “outside” of Emory University. We want to say as clearly as possible – we welcome “outside agitators” to our struggle against the ruthless genocide of Palestinians.

Emory University has the highest tuition, the lowest acceptance rate, and by far the highest endowment of any institution in Georgia. Economic barriers, infamously racist standardized testing, and nepotism have barred many from studying at Emory. To students in Atlanta and beyond – we invite you to struggle with us.

Local high school students dream of attending Emory, and many teachers encourage them to study hard and take up extracurriculars to increase their chance acceptance, knowing their chance of admission is slim. To local high school students and teachers, we invite you to struggle with us.

Just down the street from Emory Hospital Midtown is the site of the former Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter. In a bid to gentrify the city and evict its houseless population, the City closed the shelter and did not replace it, displacing hundreds and cutting off a last line of support for thousands of poor people in the city.

Emory University purchased this building, just one example of Emory’s contribution to gentrification in Atlanta. To those without homes, or those displaced by gentrification, we invite you to struggle with us.

Emory’s $11 billion endowment, the 11th highest in the country, is an outsized influence in Atlanta’s economy. While economic inequality widens in the city, Emory remains a bastion of the rich. To the restaurant workers, house cleaners, gig workers, and all proletarians – we invite you to struggle with us.

In 2020, Emory University layed off or furloughed over 1500 employees. To those who are no longer affiliated with the university – we invite you to struggle with us.

4 out of 5 students at Emory are not from Georgia. While the Freedom Riders were heading down to Georgia in the 1960’s to fight for Black people’s right to vote, segregationist governors cast them as “outside agitators”. To those from outside Atlanta and Georgia, we invite you to struggle with us.

1 in 5 students at Emory are from outside of the United States. The Palestinian students murdered by American weapons under Biden will never be one of those students. To those from outside of the country, we invite you to struggle with us.

In April 2023, Emory admin called the police to break up a protest led by students against Cop City on the quad. None of the pigs were Emory students. To all of those who struggle against police brutality, we invite you to struggle with us.

EMORY IS EVERYWHERE.

THE PLACE FOR DIVISION IS NOWHERE. WE INVITE YOU TO STRUGGLE WITH US.

Report on successful blockade and tree-sit in so-called southern Oregon that stopped the logging of old-growth forest. For more background on the campaign, go here.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was pressured by activists to remove an area with ancient trees that was set to be logged as part of the Poor Windy project. This decision comes after three weeks of protest where community members prevented logging in the area by occupying a tree sit in an old growth ponderosa pine. The BLM and Boise Cascade caved to the demands of the activists and last night amended the contract for the Salmon Run timber sale to remove a contested new spur road which would have resulted in the logging of the old growth trees (find the amended contract here).

“When we fight, we win. Just a few weeks ago, saving these ancient trees seemed impossible,” said Salal Golden, one of the sitters occupying the tree. “While the forest that was saved by this decision is only a tiny fraction of the old growth slated to be logged by the BLM, this victory is a testament to the power of community members taking action into their own hands.”

Forest defenders have been camped on a platform over 100 feet high in an old growth Ponderosa Pine since April 1, protesting the agency’s intentional targeting of mature and old growth forest for logging – despite commitments from the agency and the Biden administration to stop logging old growth. The protest has not only opposed the Poor Windy project, but also shone a spotlight on the BLM’s efforts to log hundreds of thousands of acres of public forests across the state.

“Even as rural communities across Oregon experience the devastating impacts of the climate crisis and ceaseless harm from extractive industries, public agencies like the BLM continue to clearcut these invaluable forests which filter our air and water, protect us from out of control wildfire, and fight climate change,” said Rachel Stevens, a community activist supporting the tree sit. “While this fight might be over, we know there are so many more to win. Our community will not stand by as the last remaining old growth is destroyed.”

Yielding to pressure from the tree sit at Poor Windy, the decision by the BLM comes as the agency is increasingly under fire regarding its old growth and mature forest logging practices with protests and pending litigation on the majority of its active sales. In the face of this pressure, the agency unexpectedly cancelled the Baker’s Dozen project earlier this month, another contentious mature and old growth logging proposal in Southern Oregon. The Baker’s Dozen project targeted over one thousand acres for aggressive logging, with stands of trees over 300 years old.

The Biden Administration has committed to ending the practice of old growth logging on public lands, and the BLM just finalized a rulemaking to establish greater protections for intact ecosystems, yet countless projects targeting mature and old growth forests continue to be implemented across the region. Even after today’s win, the Poor Windy project includes plans to log more than 14,000 acres, including over 4,000 acres of mature and old-growth trees that are essential nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for the threatened northern spotted owl and many other species. While the agency agreed to drop one area of old growth in the face of ongoing protests, more remains on the chopping block.

“The single largest threat to the remaining mature and old-growth forests on public land in Oregon are the agencies that are supposed to be protecting them, and the corporations eager to turn them into private profits,” says Sam Shields, a community organizer supporting the tree sit. “This tree sit has exposed the inexcusable malpractice of the BLM and demonstrated the power of community organizing. Direct action is the last line of defense for these priceless forests and we will continue to put our bodies on the line until they are all protected and the societal structures supporting their destruction are dismantled.”

On April 17th, students at Columbia university in New York launched an encampment calling for the private, ivy league university to divest from the state of Israel, taking inspiration from past divestment struggles on campus against the Vietnam war and apartheid in South Africa. The encampment is only the latest in a series of growing campus protests which have denounced the US backed occupation of Palestine and the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide within Gaza. On April 18th, the NYPD moved in and arrested over 100 students and attempted to breakup the encampment, however hundreds of reinforcements reformed the occupation and continued the protest as authorities attempted to lock-down the university, controlling who came in and out. In response to the arrests by police, solidarity encampments, walkouts, and demonstrations began spreading across the United States and beyond.

On April 22nd, hundreds of faculty at Columbia walked out of class in support of the students and to denounce the recent mass arrests. Across the US, police on other campuses also attempted to crush the growing wave of encampments, making arrests at other universities, but having little impact as the demonstrations continued to grow in size. In New York City, police swarmed outside of Columbia and NYU, making arrests and attempting to hold the streets, as more schools launched encampments and a physical building at the New School was occupied. In California, an administrative building was also occupied and barricaded in Arcata at Humboldt State, part of the public California State University system, as the demonstrations spilled outside of the ivy league and onto the west coast, with UC Berkeley soon following suit. Police violently attacked students in Arcata, but failed to stop the occupation, as more students joined the struggle in the face of escalating police brutality.

Current struggle on campus pushing for divestment from Israel are inspired by past movements, such as the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Source: MIT Coalition Against Apartheid, @mit_caa

The spreading of the occupations comes after months of attempts by university officials to attack and squash the growing wave of Palestinian solidarity activism on campus, which has demanded that university officials divest from Israel and the US military. Anti-Zionist Jewish led organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace have been suspended from campuses like Columbia for reportedly “failing to ask for permission well before protesting,” while Students for Justice in Palestine has been banned not only at Columbia, but across the entire state of Florida. Some students have even faced “criminal charges, expulsions, [and] suspensions” while pro-Israel demonstrators have physically attacked pro-Palestinian protesters and in Vermont, Palestinian students were shot in what many believe to be a racist attack. Most recently, the University of Southern California cancelled the commencement speech of valedictorian Asna Tabassum over recent social media posts in support of Palestine, leading to mass demonstrations. So much, as they say, for free speech.

In the face of escalating campus protests, president Biden and many politicians have rushed to brand the demonstrations as “anti-Semitic,” conflating political opposition to Israeli apartheid with racism and hatred of Jews. Republicans such as “senators Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley called on Biden to send the National Guard to quash the protests” as the mainstream media becomes inundated with reactionary voices calling for “anti-Semitic rioters” to be punished and “pro-Hamas anarchists” to be arrested. Leading Democrats such as Senator John Fetterman have even breathlessly compared pro-Palestinian demonstrators to the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, while New York Mayor Eric Adams said he was “disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus.” Government hearings have also been held on reported “antisemitism on campuses,” supposedly emanating from the demonstrations in support of Palestine, despite the fact that anti-Zionist Jews have played a central role in the demonstrations.

Ironically, these same forces have been largely silent as Alt-Right and neo-Nazi groups have littered college campuses across the US with posters, flyers, and stickers for the past eight years, as white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes, Richard Spencer, and Milo Yiannopoulos have been allowed to speak with complete police and campus protection. In Arizona, the ASU campus even recently shelled out over $10,000 for security to protect the white supremacist speaker Jared Taylor, who was invited to speak by a group of college Republicans aligned with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Ironically the same university has banned several pro-Palestinian speakers from speaking on campus.

Meanwhile, Republican bureaucrats such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Paul Gosar, Steve King, Idaho Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, and beyond have all established direct connections to neo-Nazi activists and many have even appeared alongside Nick Fuentes at white supremacist gatherings. Just this week, Paul Gosar’s campaign was found to be “engaging a North Carolina firm whose owner proudly promotes white nationalism and antisemitic tropes, while pushing false narratives surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.” Far-Right billionaire Elon Musk has trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, pro-Trump groups like Turning Point USA have pushed conspiracy theories such as the “Great Replacement,” which promotes anti-Semitic tropes, and Trump has had direct associations with leading anti-Semites such as Nick Fuentes and Kayne West.

Anti-Semitism is rising – but it’s coming from the far-Right, ailed directly with the Republican party. Those fighting on campuses across the US, many of them anti-Zionist Jews, are not “anti-Semitic” for opposing the state of Israel; they are taking part in a long history of resistance to racial apartheid and the US war machine. By using anti-Semitism as a bludgeon against growing resistance to the ongoing war and genocide in Gaza, elites are hoping throw a wet blanket onto the movement as public opinion against the war continues to turn.

Graffiti on building at Humboldt State in Arcata, CA. Source: crimethinc.com

Democrat and Republican officials are also terrified that the student occupations and demonstrations will spill out of the university and become a full blown revolt, not just against the war, but against growing anger over inflation and the rising cost of living in the face of increasing wealth inequality. Just as police, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration mobilized to clampdown and stomp out the Occupy encampments, police across the country are now being marshaled to attack and dismantle the campus occupations as quickly as possible.

Will this repression be met with solidarity and bring more people into the movement? Will the struggle spill out of the campuses and across the social terrain? The spreading of the occupations to public and state schools is one indication of where things might go, and the solidarity shown in the streets by faculty, community members, and workers against the police raids is another.

What follows is our roundup of the current wave of student occupations and encampments across the US.

Pacific

Student with injury from police at Humboldt State (top right), riot police outside of Siemens Hall (bottom right), barricades in front of building (left).

Humboldt State, Arcata, CA

Students at Humboldt State, a part of the public California State University system, occupied Siemens Hall, an administration building. According to a post from Humboldt for Palestine:

Cal Poly Humboldt students have taken Siemens Hall in solidarity with students across the nation occupying campuses for Palestine. Their demands as we understand them are as follows:
1. For CPH to disclose all holdings and collaborations with the zionist entity.
2. Academic Boycott, cut all ties with israeli universities.
3. Divest from all ties to the zionist entity including companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine.
4. To drop all charges and attacks on student organizers.
5. An immediate ceasefire and end to the occupation of Palestine. Students are requesting support as follows: Bodies to join them in the occupation of Siemens hall.

Riot police attempted to evict the occupied administration building, but were held back by students who defended the barricades and were reinforced by supporters outside. A report on social media stated that on Monday night, police were “instructed to stand down and have withdrawn from Siemens Hall.” A post on social media on April 23rd wrote:

Calling on all students and community members! The occupation by Cal Poly Humboldt students is still ongoing and they need your support. Yesterday they and those showing up to be witnesses were met with violence by UPD and APD. This is a peaceful protest and the students would like it to stay that way. Our collective community power demanded the police to leave and they did. Let’s continue to show up to protect these students as they demand that Cal Poly Humboldt divest from “israeli” occupation and the ongoing genocide. Go to the campus as soon as you can!

A report posted to CrimethInc. wrote:

Within an hour, campus police attempted to negotiate with the occupiers, who stood strong and refused to exit the building. Soon after, police from every department in the county showed up—including a helicopter, K-9 units, and off-duty police. Students responded by swarming them.

The cops’ initial plan to carry out a mass arrest was thwarted by a series of clashes both inside and outside the building. The occupiers beat back police advances, despite facing brutality unlike anything we have seen over the last decade of struggle in Humboldt County. It is important to note that the police used both batons and shields as weapons to brutalize protesters; in the hands of police, any tool is a weapon.

Police arrested two people and dragged them out of the building by their hair; they inflicted multiple cranial lacerations on another person, necessitating a trip to the hospital and several staples. Many more people were left with head injuries and at least one with a concussion.

During the clashes, police drove a university truck into the crowd, pushing protestors toward the riot line. Yet despite this brutality, it became increasingly apparent that the police were completely unprepared to face down the ferocity and intelligence of the student occupiers. The police were physically repelled from Siemens Hall and massive barricades were erected out of objects from within the building including chairs, desks, trash cans, and doors that had been removed from their hinges.

The police surrounded the occupied building, and a large crowd of students, faculty, and other community members surrounded them, chanting “De-escalate by leaving!” and “People power! We are stronger!” among other chants.

After a six-hour standoff, the police packed up and went home. Hundreds of students rushed into the building and joyously embraced occupiers. The police-imposed division collapsed and we achieved the upper hand. The university has declared a three day lock down. For us, this is only the beginning.

For ongoing updates, see Humboldt for Palestine.

Encampment at Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley.

UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Students at UC Berkeley held a rally in solidarity with Columbia students and against the occupation of Palestine on April 22nd and began erecting tents at Sproul Plaza at the main entrance of the campus.

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

On April 24th, students launch an encampment at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA.

Southwest

Encampment springs up at the University of New Mexico.

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Protests were organized on Monday, April 22nd and an encampment was held that night. Organizers report on social media, “Police stormed the camp last night and tore down our tents BUT WE’RE STILL HERE! Join Us at the Duckpond! WE NEED YOU.” Follow UMN Palestine Solidarity Camp for more updates.

Midwest

Banner reads, “Liberated Zone” at University of Michigan.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

University of Michigan Students launched an encampment “on the Diag on the UM campus in Ann Arbor!” For updates, go here.

Encampment kicks off at University of Minnesota. Via @UMNSDS

University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN

An encampment was erected in the early morning of April 23rd, with nine people reportedly being arrested on the campus hours later. The local Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter reported that the encampment was quickly issued a dispersal order. A massive walkout was then organized to denounce the police repression of the movement. Follow UMN SDS for more updates.

Southeast

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Students organize a rally in solidarity with repression at Columbia university on Friday, April 19th which grows into a protest encampment.

University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC

Encampment in Charlotte at the University of North Carolina begins on April 22nd. Follow updates here.

Washington University, St. Louis, MO

Solidarity rally at Washington University in St. Louis, MO grows into encampment. On April 21st, university officials call in police to clear it. For more updates, go here.

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

On March 26th, students clashed with police after attempting to enter building and have been holding demonstrations on campus since. According to Yahoo News, “Vanderbilt University’s encampment has been the longest-running. It began more than three weeks ago, alongside a sit-in by the entrance of the chancellor’s office in one of the main administrative buildings.”

Northeast

Tufts University, Cambridge, MA

Encampment launched at Tufts University in Cambridge, MA. For more updates, go here.

MIT, Cambridge, MA

Students at MIT in Cambridge launch the “Scientists Against Apartheid” encampment. For updates, go here.

Tent at encampment at Emerson University. Sign reads, “Self-Loving Jew for Palestine.” Via @EmmaYourFriend

Emerson, Boston, MA

Encampment launched at Emerson college in Boston, MA. For updates, go here.

Yale students rally after dozens of arrests. Via @occupyyale

Yale, New Haven, Connecticut

On April 19th, a large solidarity encampment of hundreds springs up at Yale University in New Have, CT, in solidarity with students at Columbia and to demand that Yale divest from Israel. On April 22nd, according to Occupy Yale on Instagram:

With no warning of when they would come, police ambushed us at 6:40 am while students at the encampment were sleeping. They blocked off entrances to the plaza and arrested 49 students. Yale, you have intimidated us, criminalized us, militarized our campus, and failed to accept our demands. We will not stop, we will not rest until we have disclosure and divestment.

Following the raids, hundreds rallied against the arrests. Follow updates here.

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

On Tuesday, April 23rd, a protest in solidarity with Columbia kicks off start of encampment. For updates, go here.

University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Encampment begins at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. For updates, go here.

Encampment at Columbia university continue to grow in New York. Via @simonerzim

Columbia University, New York

On April 17th, a protest encampment springs up at Columbia University in New York calling for the university to divest from the state of Israel. Under pressure to clamp down on growing dissent against the US backed war and genocide in Gaza, the university sends in the NYPD who arrests over 100 students. This repression inspires others take action, as thousands launch walkouts, protests, and encampments at a variety of other universities. Back at Columbia, hundreds rally against the raids and the encampment is re-launched, as police attempt to control access in and out of the school.

On Monday, April 22nd, faculty organize a walkout and protest rally to denounce the police raids and attacks on the movement by the university. As the encampments spread, the political and pundit class rush to label the demonstrations as ‘anti-Semitic,’ as thousands join the movement in protest against the violent attacks by law enforcement. Columbia also announces that it will move to online classes to finish out the semester as the encampment continues.

Hundreds block NYPD arrest vans in New York following the arrest of students at New York University (NYU). Via @palyouthmvmt

New York University (NYU), New York

On April 22nd, hundreds of students at New York University launched their own encampment in Gould Plaza in solidarity with those at Columbia. Police quickly moved to barricade the area and make 128 arrests of demonstrators, which was followed by hundreds blocking the NYPD jail buses and later rallying in support of those arrested outside of the jail.

On April 23rd, hundreds more rallied in Washington Square Park in support of the movement and to denounce the police repression of students at NYU the night before.

Students hold campus building at the New School in New York. Via @AshAgony

New School, New York City

Starting on April 21st, an encampment begins at the New School in New York City. Students have occupied one of the buildings on campus while pickets in support of the occupation taking place outside.

University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

On April 23rd, an encampment is set up at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.

This roundup will be updated as more information becomes available. Follow us on Mastodon for future updates.

Via @DivestBrown

Brown University, Providence, RI

On April 24th, encampment established at Brown University in Providence, RI.

Via @GoodVibePolitik

Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA

On April 24th, encampment established at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.

Harvard College, Cambridge, MA

On April 24th, rally held and encampment established at on the Harvard Yard in Cambridge, MA.

Report from so-called Eugene on the recent April 15th blockade in solidarity with occupied Palestine. Check out a roundup of April 15th actions here.

Amidst a genocide in occupied Palestine, Eugene, OR joined the people of the world to make their demand clear: we want a free Palestine. Despite months of protesting, contacting officials, and boycotting, the governments of the Western world unsurprisingly refuse to listen to the voices of their people and instead continue to enable the violence that facilitates their imperialistic stronghold in the Middle East. On Monday, April 15th, advocates for Palestinian liberation from around the globe participated in economic blockades to shut it down for Palestine

Locals in Eugene, Oregon and surrounding areas participated in this effort, allowing the call for liberation to stretch from Palestine to Oregon. Standing arm in arm on the I-5, over 60 people stopped traffic to halt the flow of commerce. They chanted, sang, and held signs that proclaimed their alignment with a free Palestine and opposition to the global imperialist regimes that instigate oppressive violence against the people of the world.

In response to this action, 6 state agencies (EPD, OPD, SPD, Lane County Sheriffs, and the SWAT team included) showed up with over 127 officers equipped in riot gear and with chemical weapons. While protesters stood in the road, even sitting cross-legged for some time, officers responded by mass arresting everyone present, even those who attempted to comply with their demands and leave the freeway.

Why does a group of people walking onto a road necessitate such a massive response? The answer is glaring, permeating, and insidious. It lives at the forefront of the mind of every person that has ever found themselves at odds with the US regime, and is buried deep inside the hearts of those who survive by assimilation or domination inside it.

We know.

The State will do anything, sacrifice anyone, to maintain control, and dominate people who demand, by their actions or very existence, an end to white supremacist, colonial rule.

62 arrests were made and the protesters were kept overnight, some for over 30 hours, for this call to end a genocide that has already martyred over 30,000 Palestinians.

Every protester that was arrested has been charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree, further underscoring the desperation of the State to maintain control.

The United States continues to send billions of tax-payer dollars to the Israeli occupation forces for their brutal assault against the indigenous Palestinians; a violence that echos that of the country’s own treatment of the indigenous people of Turtle Island.

While the State remains strong in its support of violence, the people remain strong in their support of liberation. The goal of this global solidarity effort was to shut down the economy that funds the ongoing occupation and genocide in Palestine.

The call for a free Palestine is a call to end the global imperialistic regime that uses violence and repression to control the people, and subsequently their resources. From the bombed and blood-stained streets of Palestine to the swept and surveilled streets of Eugene, an imperialistic state will always use the threat and execution of violence to force complicity in their crimes.

Eugene was not the only city to see this increase in state repression and violence. On the same day, mass arrests were made against protesters at Columbia University; in Philadelphia, Connecticut, and New York; and across the country. The Eugene Police, the New York Police, and the Israeli occupation forces are all arms of the same imperialistic war machine committing genocide and oppressing the very citizens they claim to protect and serve.

Free Them All: Oregon to Palestine Prisoner Solidarity

⁨Palestine is not unique but perhaps exemplary among struggles for liberation. The prisoner movement holds the immediate goal of a united field of struggle, whether clandestine armed struggle or popular mass movement. Situated in the belly of the beast, we in the US recognize the carceral nature of settler-colonial occupation and imperialist state repression, and elevate the crucial call for freedom to all Palestinian prisoners. The importance of this call and this goal cannot be overstated. Imprisonment in occupied Palestine is ubiquitous, affecting everyone: roughly 20% of Palestinians have been imprisoned by the Zionist occupiers and every Palestinian family has a loved one or knows a loved one who has been imprisoned by the occupiers. The object of incarceration is likewise collective, affecting every form of political, social, or community commitment as a way of collectively punishing an entire population for resistance against occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, and using imprisonment to actively further these genocidal aims.

We have all seen the numbers: over 9,500 Palestinians imprisoned since October 7th, including 275 women, 520 children, 66 journalists, and 5,168 orders of administrative detention without charges or trial, and at least 16 Palestinian prisoners tortured to death. Among these are leaders of the Palestinian prisoner movement, and the number of Gazan detainees who are held in military camps and forcibly disappeared is unknown. We have all seen the images of Gazan prisoners run over by tanks alive with their hands cuffed behind their back. We have all seen the images of hundreds of Gazan prisoners stripped naked and cuffed before field executions, including in the yards of besieged and destroyed hospitals.

We who struggle in the belly of the beast for the liberation of Palestine and an end to imperialism, see the aims of imprisonment in occupied Palestine as collective punishment for resistance and as a tool of occupation and displacement. We see those same aims here, too, where members of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army are being killed by the small tortures of prison accumulated over a lifetime. We see those same aims here, too, where where Leonard Peltier is still not free, where Mumia Abu-Jamal is still not free. We see those same aims here, too, where where dozens of our friends and comrades are locked up for standing up against anti-Blackness and the police state during the George Floyd Uprisings. We see those same aims here, too, where where the Zionist-collaborating terrorist police in Georgia are still imprisoning our friends and comrades for fighting for their lives against Cop City.

Lastly, we know that despite the universality of imprisonment as a weapon of warfare and occupation, it is also –– since wherever there is repression there is rebellion –– a school of resistance, even amidst the most severe forms of brutality and technology of death. In occupied Palestine –– like in the H-Blocks in occupied Ireland, the F-type prisons in Turkey, and everywhere from Attica to San Quentin, from Guantánamo to Pelican Bay –– prisons are a place of political and militant development and training, where all of the resistance is represented following and in turn leading the outside struggles for liberation.

Our 24-32 hours in jail are nothing in compared to what political prisoners all around the prison world experience, but for those of us for whom this was the first experience in a cage, we re-affirm our commitment to the struggle for freedom for Palestinian prisoners and prisoners everywhere, against the police and prisons, against the occupation, against American imperialism, against capitalism, for a better world the slight chance for which we will not fail to seize.⁩

The people of Eugene unite with the people of the world in this clear demand: We want Palestine to live, and we want Palestine to be free. 

photo: Stop the Sweeps Eugene

Action report from Appalachians Against Pipelines about recent lock down in West Virginia against the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Early Saturday morning, a pipeline fighter using the name Vole locked herself to an excavator on the West Virginia side of Peters Mountain in the Jefferson National Forest, preventing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from finishing construction on both sides of the mountain, next to the Appalachian Trail. Banners at the site of the action read, “DESTROY ALL PIPELINES” and “LAND BACK,” and a rally of supporters gathered nearby in the National Forest.

After blockading pipeline work for 5 hours, Vole was extracted from her blockade and escorted off the mountain by law enforcement. She was charged with 3 misdemeanors, had bail set at $2,000, and has since been bailed out of jail.

“What happens in this region and on this mountain matters,” explained Vole before taking action today. “It matters to the trees MVP has ripped from the earth, to the critters who took shelter here, and to topsoil destroyed for generations. It matters to the people near and far who have loved and fought for this place, and those who have watched MVP destroy it further with each passing day. It matters for the thousands of people who will walk along the Appalachian Trail with explosive gas running below their feet if this pipeline is finished. It matters to me enough to stop them up here for as long as I can.”

The site of Vole’s action is the same site where two tree sits prevented MVP from clearing trees on the pipeline easement for 95 days in 2018. Recently, MVP bored through Peters Mountain, under the Appalachian Trail (AT). Vole’s protest this morning prevented the company from connecting the pipe running under the AT to that running down the mountain.

“People and systems in power have sacrificed this strip of Appalachia for corporate greed,” continued Vole. “Just as they sacrificed its mountaintops for coal, its healthy air and water for profit, and its people to an opioid epidemic and an ever growing jail population. Yet, for just as long as this area has been made a sacrifice zone, people here have been fighting extraction and all the pain and evil it brings- against colonizers, coal barons, and countless corporations. The breadth of struggle in these ancient hills is vast. It began long before the MVP was ever an idea, and will continue beyond this pipeline, well into the future.”

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is over budget by more than $4 billion and nearly 6 years behind schedule. The pipeline, if completed, would transport fracked gas across at least 303 miles of Appalachia. The project has a long record of environmental violations, and MVP’s permits (particularly those to cross the National Forest and waterways) have been revoked numerous times. In June 2023, the pipeline was fast-tracked by Congress, despite local residents voicing their opposition and concerns. Over the last few months, Mountain Valley Pipeline has escalated its legal intimidation of pipeline fighters, filing multiple Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP suits) and collaborating with local law enforcement to charge protesters with erroneous felonies in order to discourage resistance. The legal intimidation has failed to stop protestors.

Full Statement from Vole:

“Six years ago, right around where I am today, people lived in two small treesits to protect a thriving forest atop this mountain for 95 days. Now, because of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, that rich ecosystem is a disaster zone. MVP has cleared trees, buried pipe in the national forest, and drilled through the mountain under the Appalachian Trail. The corporation aims to turn so-called Peters Mountain, and 300 miles more, into a dangerous money-making scheme. We can’t just stand by and let them do this.

“What happens in this region and on this mountain matters. It matters to the trees MVP has ripped from the earth, to the critters who took shelter here, and to topsoil destroyed for generations. It matters to the people near and far who have loved and fought for this place, and those who have watched MVP destroy it further with each passing day. It matters for the thousands of people who will walk along the Appalachian Trail with explosive gas running below their feet if this pipeline is finished. It matters to me enough to stop them up here for as long as I can.

“Backed by hundreds of years of colonization, the weight of the “justice system,” and some of the most powerful people in the world, MVP is struggling to complete their pipeline at all costs. People and systems in power have sacrificed this strip of Appalachia for corporate greed, just as they sacrificed its mountaintops for coal, its healthy air and water for profit, and its people to an opioid epidemic and an ever growing jail population.

“Yet, for just as long as this area has been made a sacrifice zone, people here have been fighting extraction and all the pain and evil it brings- against colonizers, coal barons, and countless corporations. The breadth of struggle in these ancient hills is vast. It began long before the MVP was ever an idea, and will continue beyond this pipeline, well into the future. Just as the fight to end all extraction and for Land Back stretches between mountain ranges and across oceans.

“From Appalachia to Gaza no one is free until all are free.”

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!

Upcoming Events

• April 19th – 21st: Chicago Anarchist Skillshare. More info here.
• April 20th: Free Em All Ball. Benefit for political prisoners. Huntington Park, CA. More info here.
• April 26th – 29th: Northeast Bash Back Convergence. Philly, PA. More info here.
• April 27th: Rattling the Cages: Political Prisoners, Mass Incarceration and Abolition. Virtual event. More info here.
• May 4th: First Ever Kitsap Anarchist Bookfair. Bremerton, WA. More info here.
• May 4th: First Annual Upstate Anarchist Bookfair, Binghamton, NY. More info here.
• May 18th: Free Tall Can. Benefit for antifascist political prisoners. San Bernadino, CA. More info here.
• May 23rd – 29th: Lost Sierra Action Camp. Plumas National Forest, California. More info here.
• May 24th – 26th: Constellation: An Anarchist Festival in Montreal. More info here.
• June 28th – 30th: Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair. Asheville, NC. More info here.
• July 2nd – 9th: Hudson Valley, Earth First! Gathering. More info here.
• July 12th – 14th: Dual Power Gathering. Pacific Northwest. More info here.
• November 26th – 28th: Indigenous anarchist convergence. Occupied so-called Phoenix, AZ. More info here.

Report from Carbondale, Illinois on recent march and demonstration during the eclipse.

On August 21dy, 2017 a total solar eclipse crossed across the continent of North America with the peak of its totality in Makanda, IL 15 mins south of Carbondale, IL. On April 8th, 2024 another total solar eclipse crossed through southern Illinois with the paths of both eclipses intersecting right in Makanda, IL. On the eve of the first eclipse a joyous march happened in Carbondale with a banner that read, “This Empire too will be Eclipsed.” After the first eclipse a small group of earthlings took on a very serious mission to build autonomy between the Eclipses right in Southern Illinois. To not see the eclipses as the dumb movements of balls of rock and gas, but a deep invitation to build and fight for their dying region. This vision can be read more in depth here. But after seven long years The Next Eclipse did in fact come.

On April 7th, 2024 on the eve of the Next Eclipse a hundred or so marched out of the punk neighborhood in Carbondale, IL and took the strip. As they marched they banged on drums, played guitars, and made joyous music over chants of “We are the Next Eclipse”, “The End of the World; the Beginning of the Next”, “Free Palestine”, “Fuck Joe Biden”, and “America is over!” As the march proceeded around the strip it grew to close to 300 gathering students, tourists, preps, punks, and more off the strip that was full of life for the first time in years. On the first lap the march stopped in front of PKs where a punk musical festival was taking place and the participants sang an old folk song of resistance with modified lyrics, “The end of one world, the beginning of many. Which president? We don’t want any! We will build each other’s freedom. Carry it on, carry it on.”

The march made another lap around the strip and ended by dispensing back into the punk neighborhood. While the march was a joyous celebration of the eclipse and the coming end of America, the march must also be understood as taking up a historical tradition that the police in Carbondale have tried their hardest to kill over the last four decades. For decades the people of Carbondale joyously would close down the strip and make its use free to party goers. Halloween was the grandest of these street takeover parties stretching all the way from the late 70s to the year 2000. In the year 2000 as the police lost control of the party and streets once again the pigs and the city finally banned Halloween for 18 long years which coincided with the decline of the city and university.

This march on April 7th was the first massive taking of the strip for a festive party since the early 2000s and the largest march to take the strip unpermitted since the first night of the George Floyd Rebellion in 2020. The march proved the power of ordinary people to take the strip back and force the police to close highways for our joyous right to party and play there. Going forward we hope the lesson has been learned that the strip belongs to us Carbondaliens and not the pigs or the crooks in City hall. May the two glorious eclipses that have passed through our region be a reminder that the pigs and this empire one day too will be eclipsed!

Announcing upcoming forest defense gathering in so-called California. Go to Lost Sierra Forest for more information.

Calling All Forest Defenders! Join us for a Forest Defense-Climate Action Camp May 23-29. We’ll be setting up just outside the Plumas National Forest (not far from the town of Paradise, which burned down in 2018 after widespread logging) where the U.S. Forest Service hopes to log 274,000 acres under the phony guise of “wildfire fuel reduction,” spewing 6 million tons of carbon dioxide and $30 million in toxic pesticides, including in ancient rainforest, while fueling 2 polluting “biomass” pellet factories!

This is just one part of U.S. Forest Service unscientific “emergency action” logging, putting almost 1 million acres of carbon-storing, wildlife-sheltering public forests on the chopping block over the last year alone.

Tentative Workshop Schedule Includes:

• Tree Climbing
• Medicinal and rare Plant Walk
• Wildland Survival Skills
• Debunking “Wildfire Fuel Reduction” Logging
• Forest Orienteering
• Everything Wrong with the “Central and West Slope Project” (274,000 acres of logging in Plumas National Forest)
• Tree Identification
• Forest Biomass Energy is not Clean, Green nor Renewable
• Wilderness First Aid
• Legal Strategies for Forest Protection

Check https://lostsierraforest.wordpress.com for updates email us at lostsierra_forest [at] proton.me to RSVP or if you’d like to lead a workshop.

There is an unresolvable tension present in the valleys, mountains, deserts, jungles, and highlands of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, between the communal forms of social organization, and the forms and subjects of the State and capital. This tension dates back to the so-called conquest, and has remained permanent, although with different intensities, over the past 500 years.

It’s been often said that Oaxaca is communal, and it’s worth repeating. Different structures and expressions of community life—communal land, community assemblies, collective work, and communal festivities—are present in different forms, and at different scales, in the communities, agencies, and municipalities that make up the state of Oaxaca.

Of the 570 municipalities in the state, 418 of them organize and elect their authorities with the assembly as the maximum decision-making power in the municipality. Within municipalities, at more local levels, there are community and neighborhood level assemblies. There are also a multiplicity of other community and neighborhood collective structures, like councils of elders and women, neighborhood water, festival, and electricity committees, religious committees, and others, which depending on the specifics of the particular location, are organized around assemblies.

These different expressions of collective decision-making and collective management of basic necessities are complemented and strengthened by, and directly connected with other forms of collectivity: collective work in benefit of the community (tequios or faenas as they are called in Oaxaca), community festivities, extended family mutual aid and support, etc.

Perhaps most importantly is the ongoing existence of common lands. In Oaxaca around 80% of the land is collectively managed. Directly linked to the collectively managed lands are collective decision-making structures; communal lands are organized and managed by assemblies of comuneros, and ejidal lands are organized and managed by assemblies of ejido members.

It’s important to stress that these different forms of organization aren’t without their difficulties, and assemblies aren’t anywhere near perfect, nor are they the answer to everything. These different processes on the ground are riddled with complexities, local power struggles, pressure from governments to control, regulate, and co-opt. Yet, they represent the power of collective and communal organization in Oaxaca, and they have shown to be a powerful force in defense of autonomy and territory.

It goes without saying, these different communal and collective forms of organization often clash with the interests of the State to individualize, map, regulate, register, and control, and the interests of capital to dispossess, exploit, privatize, and plunder. The tactics of the State and capital to dis-articulate these communal forms of organization have taken a variety of different forms from assassinations and imprisonment of community organizers, to community division and co-optation. Collectively managed lands have continually been in the State and capital’s crosshairs.

In 1992, the Mexican president passed an agrarian reform setting the stage for the signing of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This agrarian reform opened up communal and ejidal lands to the possibility of privatization, something that was previously impossible.

This process was followed by a series of government programs including the Program for the Certification of Agrarian Rights (PROCEDE) and the Program of Regularization and Record of Agrarian Juridical Acts (RRAJA) to map and certify community and ejidal lands. Linked to these programs, the government has offered incentives—social programs, fertilizers, money, tax benefits, etc.—to those with individual titles, pressuring communities to privatize their lands.

Most recently, the Salomón Jara government in Oaxaca passed a tax revenue law for the fiscal year of 2024 in the state of Oaxaca seeking again to push community and ejido members to privatize their lands. Through the revenue law, the State was offering discounts and fiscal benefits to those who would take the necessary steps toward registering and titling their lands under the regimen of private property, arguing that the privatization of land would lead to more state and municipal revenue. The Indigenous and campesino communities of Oaxaca quickly organized, denouncing the bill, and forced the Oaxacan government to repeal it.

The ongoing attempts to privatize communal land in Oaxaca by the State are connected to its desire to do away with communal decision-making, and the collective forms of neighborhood, community, and municipal self-management that are linked to them. It’s part of the incessant drive to squeeze out the autonomy of the communities and municipalities. It’s part of the project to impose authorities and megaprojects, to convert Indigenous peoples and campesinos into subjects that reproduce the forms of capital and the State.

And Oaxaca is currently ground zero of an aggressive territorial reorganization taking place in southern Mexico, which includes the imposition of the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject. And of course, the lands on which they seek to build the pipelines and industrial parks, the train lines and wind farms, that are associated with this project are overwhelmingly communal or ejidal, and the communities overwhelmingly organize in community assemblies. The communal lands, and the collective management of that land, is a major obstacle to the imposition of the megaproject.

Amidst ongoing attacks on communal and collective life in Oaxaca, from the State, organized crime, and private companies, these expressions of communal and collective organization continue existing, sometimes in the subtlest of ways embedded in everyday life, and other times in tremendous explosions of popular protest. The strengthening and expanding of these collective forms of organization will undoubtedly be central to the ongoing resistance in the state of Oaxaca and beyond.

Thousands took part in mass direct actions and blockades on Monday, in protest of the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing within the occupied Palestinian territories by the state of Israel and supported directly by the United States. The demonstrations take place against a backdrop of rising public support for a ceasefire and also represented a dramatic turn toward direct action and more autonomous, horizontal organizing efforts and away from simply symbolic mass marches and demonstrations.

As the A15 Actions account wrote:

Over 65 cities, 19 countries and six continents took collective risk for a liberated Palestine. This is just the beginning. Activists across the globe carried out large-scale actions Monday as part of A15, a coordinated economic blockade in solidarity with Palestine.

U.S. organizers blockaded factories and corporate offices of weapons manufacturers, including the Boeing plant in St. Charles, Missouri; Pratt & Whitney in Middletown, Connecticut; and the Lockheed Martin building in Arlington, Virginia.

Protesters took over major roads in Philadelphia and Oakland, while others rallied in front of government buildings and cultural sites. In San Francisco, activists shut down both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge in a major disruption to traffic in the Bay Area.

Activists in New York marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and rallied on both the Brooklyn and Manhattan sides of the iconic bridge. Dozens of people were arrested in the peaceful action, including reporters covering the protest.

Across multiple cities, police made hundreds of arrests and in Fremont, shot off projectile weapons in an attempt to stop demonstrators from blockading a Telsa factory, while in Montreal, protesters were attacked by teargas and batons. Just as they did under Trump, Republican bureaucrats like Tom Cotton called for far-Right vigilante violence against demonstrators stating, “I would encourage most people anywhere that gets stuck behind criminals like this who are trying to block traffic to take matters into their own hands [and] put an end to this nonsense.” In the face of the success of the A15 actions, many pundits on the Right and neo-liberal Center have also started a fear mongering campaign about the movement using “escalated tactics,” while student organizers continue to face expulsions, evictions, and repression.

Via @ColumbiaSJP

But the movement in solidarity with Palestine has been defined by elite forces attempting to falsely brand it as “pro-Hamas” or “anti-Semitic.” But far from the movement getting smaller, it has instead grown in size and popularity. Speaking to this reality, on April 17th, an encampment of “hundreds of students” at Columbia university was erected, with the organizers writing on social media:

As of 4 AM this morning, Columbia University students have occupied the center of campus, launching our Gaza Solidarity Encampment. We demand divestment and an end to Columbia’s complicity in genocide.

As of this writing the occupation remains ongoing, with students marching in a solidarity picket around the encampment in the face of the marshaling of the NYPD. Workers at Google have also launched sit-ins against their company’s involvement in Israeli apartheid. and students at Georgia State University protested the GILEE program, which networks US based law enforcement with IDF forces and trains them in counter-insurgency techniques.

Via @NoTechApartheid

Check out our roundup of actions on April 15th below and follow A15 Actions here. To contribute to the A15 bail fund, go here.

Pacific Northwest

Via @stopthesweeps_eugene

Eugene, OR: “In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.” A noise demo followed in support of those who were arrested by police. According to a post on Instagram:

Today Eugene shut down I5 for over an hour in solidarity with the international A15 day of action for a free Palestine!

We know that the US government is complicit in this genocide. We know the US will not stop this genocide, and so we have to stop it ourselves. We are done being passive agents and know that it is time to escalate our actions to participate in a global resistance movement for a free Palestine! Israel is the right arm of the United States imperialist war machine. What we are seeing in Palestine now is the same violent, genocidal land theft that has been carried out on indigenous people all over the world since the dawn of colonization. We will no longer be complicit.

Over 50 people were arrested and 8 cars impounded. Please donate to our car impound fund:

@freethecars
@eugenebailfund

Via @a15actions

Hillsboro, OR: According to a post on Instagram:

Today with the organization of Portland DSA and the national @a15actions, comrades blocked two entrances to Intel’s Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Oregon. We denounce our representatives and local businesses support of Zionist connections to Israel that continue to provide technology that assists in the genocide, destruction, displacement, starvation and ecocide of Palestinians. Intel has blood on their hands and we’re here to remind Intel, their employees, the community, our elected officials and the world that we refuse to accept Intels continued profiting from mass murder.

Zionists showed up burning Quran. Another drove into protestors with his truck. The Hillsboro police department let him drive off after 7+squad cars arrived within moments of the incident. The police told is to come into the station if we wanted to file a complaint. A reminder that cops support corporations and capitalism, not tax paying citizens.

Via @treesittersunion

Wolf Creek, OR: A tree-sit resisting the logging of old-growth forest posted a statement in solidarity with the A15 blockades, writing:

State agencies such as the BLM selling corporations permission to extract profits from this land is a form of colonial violence. We view the actions we’re taking here to stop extractive industry and challenge the political and economic structures that enable it as one very small piece of a broader struggle against colonization and state violence. We won’t stand aside while corporations render our planet inhabitable and are here to prevent industrial logging of this forest, but we aren’t here to dictate what the forest “should be” or advocate for more “nature reserves” – we’re after something much more liberatory. We’re here in solidarity with resistance against the genocidal dystopia those in power have been creating over the last 500 years – from the movement to stop cop city to Palestinian resistance fighters defending their right to be in their lands.

Traffic backs up at SeaTac Airport in Seattle. Source: @A15Actions

Seattle, WA: Almost 50 people were arrested after protesters blocked the road into SeaTac airport for several hours. According to a post on Instagram about the action:

Seattle protestors have blocked the roadway to Seattle Tacoma International Airport to demand the US stops arming Israel.

For months, representatives have ignored the overwhelming calls for a permanent ceasefire made by Americans across the political spectrum, instead continuing to approve aid packages that use billions of taxpayer dollars to arm Israel. They have ignored international law and court rulings, instead offering complete impunity to Israel as it blocks humanitarian aid from entering Gaza while targetting hospitals, journalists, and thousands of innocent civilians. All while American people are deprived of housing, healthcare, and other basic needs that could be met with these U.S. resources.

Alaska Airlines flights represents over half of passenger flights into and out of SeaTac – in addition to contracting with Boeing, who manufactures weapons used in Israel’s deplorable and unlawful attacks on Palestinian civilians, Alaska Airlines supports Israel through partnership with EL AL Israel Airlines.

Seattle will not be complicit in genocide!

Pacific

San Francisco, CA: Protesters blockaded and shut down the ironic Golden Gate Bridge. As the SF Chronicle reported, “On the Golden Gate Bridge, protesters chained themselves to parked cars to block vehicles from traveling across the famous span and held a banner that read: “Stop the world for Gaza.”’

Via @a15actions

Oakland, CA: On the other side of the bay, protesters marched and also shut down the I-880 in both directions. As the SF Chronicle reported, “The protests broke out early in the morning, Interstate 880 was blocked in Oakland in both directions and some protesters chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels.” The disruptions on the freeway also included blockades into the Port of Oakland, where a representative from an association of tuckers at the port reported to a local Fox News affiliate that workers were honoring the pickets and that all port terminals had been shut down for the day.

A report posted to Instagram stated:

Thousands of people across Oakland, California blocked the flow of capital along the regions largest commercial interstate (I-880) in solidarity with the people of Palestine. On northbound 880, beginning at 6am, seven protestor locked themselves into six barrels of concrete weighing 280 Ibs each, welded at the top. Because of the difficulty for law enforcement to drill through, it is expected northbound will by shut for several hours.

I-880 serves as the region’s primary corridor for commercial freight, seeing millions of dollars in goods moved everyday. The highway connects the Port of Oakland, the Oakland Airport, and the West Oakland railyards, and is a choke point at which protesters blockaded a part of the US economy for its complicity in genocide.

Interstate 880, running from San Jose to the Macarthur Maze in Oakland serves as the Bay Area’s major corridor for freight traffic, with trucks weighing more than 9,000 pounds prohibited from accessing I-580 through Oakland. This funneling of commercial traffic through historically working class, Black and Latinx neighborhoods creates an uneven environmental hazard for those along its route, but it also provides a unique target for a strategic economic blockade.

In halting traffic along this route we seek to stop the movement of millions of dollars in daily capital flow, much of which, headed to and from the Port of Oakland, the Oakland Airport, and the nearby rail yards directly and indirectly supports the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Global capital is complicit in the war crimes occurring daily against Palestinians, and it also hurts us here at home. Increased cases of respiratory ailments and cancer are but some of the signs of this uneven devastation at home in Oakland. The genocide in Gaza is the horrible cost visited upon our comrades and brothers and sisters abroad. We are shutting down 880 to disrupt the global flow of capital that causes so much destruction across the world. We are shutting down 880 in support of a liberated Palestine.

Photo of sabotaged parking meters in Oakland. Source: @A15Actions

Oakland, CA: A communique also posted to social media also claimed responsibility for sabotaging “60 parking meters…in Downtown Oakland…” The report read:

Submitted anonymously: Autonomous #A15 activists made about 60 parking meters unusable in Downtown Oakland and around Lake Merritt, drawing connections of state violence from the Bay to Palestine.

Along with jamming up the card readers and coin slots, they posted stickers saying, “Parking tickets are a war tactic the state uses to attack the working class. From Oakland to Palestine: WE WILL FIGHT BACK!”

Parking fees and tickets put poor and working class people in a choke hold and restrict our right to mobility. In some cases, if parking tickets aren’t paid within two months, the price increases to nearly $200. If you want to get on a payment plan in Oakland, you have to PAY to get on the payment plan. If you have unpaid parking tickets, there is NO WAY to register your car without paying them, which then puts you at risk of getting more tickets and your car impounded.

The state deploys and funds endless, violent control tactics using our tax dollars. Some seemingly small and unassuming like endless fees & tickets, and some bigger, more visibly evil like building bombs. Regardless of their tactics, we will no longer tolerate the state stealing money from working class people to fund war here and abroad!!

From Oakland to Palestine to Congo to Sudan to Ethiopia to all oppressed people everywhere: WE WILL FIGHT BACK!

Rally for Palestinian liberation in Fremont, California. Source: @A15Actions

Fremont, CA: Hundreds marched in the South Bay city of Fremont, shutting down a Telsa plant. According to KTVU, “Police have deployed pepper balls on Pro-Palestinian demonstrators participating in a ‘Blockade the Bay’ Day of Action outside the Fremont Tesla plant, on Monday evening.” Despite the police violence, demonstrators claimed victory in shutting down the facility for the day.

A report on social media reported:

South Bay officially concludes “BLOCKADE THE BAY” on April 15th with the action at Tesla today which followed the successful blockades in SF and Oakland! Why Tesla? Tesla is complicit in the genocide in Palestine and the genocide in Congo. While Israel blocks aid from entering Gaza, Zionist Elon Musk pledges funds to Israel, we stood in solidarity today with Gazans and blocked his shipments trucks. Last night around midnight, Tesla laid of 10% of their workforce. Some workers showed up to work today not knowing that they were laid off. Tesla’s labor abuses have no end. Today’s action caused management to send workers home EARLY. WE SHUT DOWN THE FACTORY!

200+ people came out, zero arrests were made and hundreds of injuries including both physical and chemical from the tear gas! After protestors dispersed, got tear gassed, and shot at with tear gas canisters and pepper balls – the road was STILL BLOCKED! The blockade kept going even though we weren’t there anymore! Police incompetence led to the freeway remaining shut down even after we left. 6+ hours of delays to shipping and receiving partial and then full blockade, concluding a loss of estimates for Tesla were in the million$! We consider today to be a win – s/o to the Bay! Power to the people!

Long Beach, CA: Demonstrators shut down the 710 freeway in Long Beach. A report posted to social media stated:

On April 15, activists in Long Beach took bold action, participating in a worldwide movement to disrupt the flow of global capital in solidarity with Palestine. The action joined protests in 56 cities across 6 continents, with people everywhere demanding liberation now. 🇵🇸✊🔻

This stretch of the 710 Freeway in Long Beach is a primary artery for the 1st and 3rd largest shipping ports in the country. They handle 40 percent of all imports and 20 percent of all exports for the entire United States.

Activists stopped traffic and flew flags and banners at a major exit going in and out of the ports, making it known there will be no business as usual during a genocide. Later, they marched to City Hall to amplify the message: End the siege! End the occupation! Free Palestine!

The action coincided with Tax Day and signaled to the imperialist warlords in Washington that we won’t sit quiet while they misuse our incomes to fund Zionist bombs at the expense of education, healthcare, safety, and infrastructure.

People of conscience around the world will continue to stand up and shut it down for Palestine until Palestine is free—once and for all.

From the river to the sea, free Palestine!

Central

San Antonio, TX: As Al Jazeera reported, “In San Antonio, protesters holding Palestinian flags obstructed both sides of the Valero Energy Company headquarters, causing traffic congestion on the city’s northwest side.” A report posted to social media wrote:

For almost 6 months we have watched a genocide being enacted upon upon our Indigenous Palestinian siblings. We have witnessed unfathomable acts of cruelty and the martyrdom of children through our phones daily. We have sobbed alongside our siblings as they have cried out with soul tearing screams at the loss of their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, at the occupation of their land, at the destruction of their sacred spaces. It is within our power collectively to stop this genocide. And more importantly, collectively, it’s our responsibility to do so.

Why we chose target: A15 is a coordinated strike against the economy. Valero was chosen for it’s significant economic contributions to San Antonio, TX. However Valero has blood soaked hands and is deeply entagled with Israel making them an additional reason we chose them as target.

Valero Energy Corporation has been chosen locally because it is the main supplier of military-grade jet fuel (JP-8) to the Israeli military. Between 2020-2024, the company has sent a JP-8 tanker every other month from its Bill Greehey refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Israel. Its kerosene-based jet propulsion fuel called JP-8 powers Israel’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, its F-15 and F-16 fighter/bombers, as well as its Merkava tanks.

Midwest

Chicago, IL: According to CBS News, “In Chicago, protesters blocked a main access road to O’Hare International Airport for more than an hour…” A report posted to social media wrote:

​​​​On MONDAY 40 Chicagoans were arrested after blocking the entrance to O’Hare International Airport for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Most individuals were detained for at least 12 hours, and some up 18 hours. The significance of the site of action cannot be ignored, for the role that both Boeing and the U.S. government play in the genocide of Palestinians.

Via @stopweaponsmn

Maple Grove, MN: Outside of Minneapolis, demonstrators blockaded a Amazon facility. A report posted to social media wrote:

Early Monday morning several coordinated actions convened to stop operations at the Amazon shipping facility in Maple Grove, Minnesota as part of the international #a15actions coordinated economic blockade for a Free Palestine.

One autonomous group erected a blockade of the semi-truck exit, while a car caravan and picketers stopped all sprinter vans from leaving the facility with shipments. In the lot a group rallied and danced dabkeh, a traditional Palestinian dance. Outside of the facility another group gathered to chant and sing for the liberation of Palestine. More than one hundred shipping vehicles were delayed during this two hour blockade.

Amazon is deeply complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Last year, Amazon Web Services launched AWS Israel, committing to invest $7.2B in data and computing technology in Israel, much of which will support state and military operations. In a recent op-ed Amazon workers condemned the company’s support for Israel saying, “this technology allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.”

As photos roll in from around the world of people shutting it down for Palestine, Minnesota is more convinced than ever that From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!

Via @stopweaponsmn

St. Paul, MN: An anonymous claim of responsibility, first reported on by the Instagram account @stopweaponsmn, claimed credit for:

In the early hours of April 16th, a number of activists decided to remind Forward Edge ASIC to ‘Get a real job.’ They ask, ‘How many people did you murder at work today?’ ‘Why do your children matter more than theirs?’ And added ‘We think it’s really shitty you make microchips for bombs.’ Forward Edge ASIC, on Energy Park Drive in St Paul, is a research and development firm owned by Lockheed Martin that employs high-paid engineers and other white collar workers.

Via Abolition Media

Minneapolis, MN: A communique posted to Abolition Media claimed responsibility for smashing out windows to a Wells Fargo bank in Minneapolis and writing multiple graffiti slogans. From the communique:

In response to the A15 call for economic disruption, Anti-Colonial Action Brigade (ACAB) attacked a Wells Fargo branch in so-called ‘minneapolis’ (occupied Dakota lands) early morning Monday April 15.

We spraypainted “INTIFADA,” “FUCK 12,” “STOP COP CITY,” “DESTROY ZIONISM,” “Al-AQSA FLOOD,” “DEATH TO ‘israel,’” “DEATH TO amerika,” “AVENGE THE MARTYRS,” “FREE PALESTINE,” “FUCK COP CITY,” and smashed out six windows including the glass door.

Wells Fargo funds the genocide & colonization of Palestine through a $500 million loan to Elbit Systems, the zionist entity’s top drone manufacturer. In addition, a Wells Fargo executive sits on the board of the Atlanta Police Foundation, the parasites behind Cop City. We act in total solidarity with the movements resisting the carceral-colonial pig power structure in its various manifestations—whether a cop city in the Weelaunee Forest, or a euro-settler regime in Palestine.

Kansas City, MO: In Kansas City, a report posted to social media read:

Kansas City protestors disrupt construction of expanding Honeywell Nuclear Weapons facility! Dozens of citizens from @peaceworkskc , Midwest Catholic Workers, and @freepalestinekc took action in solidarity with the #A15 global call for Palestine.

Via @a15actions

St. Charles, MO: Right outside of St. Louis, demonstrators held a blockade outside of a Boeing facility. A post on social media reported:

Organizers in St. Louis today joined the global call of A15 Action to disrupt the portions of our economy and production that facilitate colonialism and genocide. Protesters returned to Boeing Manufacturing Plant 598 in St. Charles, Missouri for the third time, blocking 3 of the facility’s gates. Early Monday morning, 8 protesters locked themselves to several of the gates, preventing workers and shipments from entering for several hours. All were later arrested. The Boeing St. Charles facility is home of the Weapons Programs, producing Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and GBU-39 Small Diabeter bombs, which were reportedly put on rush delivery to Israel in early October.

Detroit, MI: WXYZ reports that police clamped down on a car caravan protest, writing:

Detroit police quickly moved into position to stop a convoy of pro-Palestinian supporters who were headed to the Ambassador Bridge in their vehicles Monday in what may have been an attempt to shut down traffic at the bridge to Canada.

Southeast

Charlotte, NC: Activists in Charlotte, NC held a protest and blockade of Northrop Grumman. According to a report on Unicorn Riot:

Early Monday morning, activists put paint and screws in the driveway to the Northrop Grumman parking lot in South Charlotte and attached bike locks to the gate to prevent personnel from entering the property.

Northrop Grumman is the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world. Synoptics, a subsidiary, is located at the South Charlotte facility. It manufactures laser materials and components. Investigate, a website from the American Friends Service Committee, reports that Northrop Grumman manufactures weapons used by the Israeli military against Palestinians.

Around 8 a.m., activists gathered outside of Northrup Grumman to protest the facility, holding a large banner reading “Northrop Grumman has blood on their hands,” and other pro-Palestine slogans. The local collective Charlotte Uprising posted video and photos on their Instagram page.

Northrup Grumman has not been alone in facing pro-Palestine protests. Activists in Philadelphia blocked weapons manufacturer Day & Zimmermann on March 28, where 120mm tank rounds for Merkava tanks employed by Israel’s occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as 155mm artillery rounds are manufactured. They also protested near the Philadelphia headquarters office in a morning march on April 15.

Miami, FL: In Miami, demonstrators faced arrests while attempting to blockade the entrance to the Port of Miami. According to the Miami Herald: 

Police on Monday arrested seven people who they say were blocking the entrance to PortMiami while participating in a pro-Palestine protest in Downtown Miami. In Florida, however, obstructing the roadway is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine up to $1,000. Officials across the state have stressed the tactic is not an acceptable for of protest in Florida. The coalition said in a statement that the people arrested were “aggressively dragged and arrested by the police.”

Tampa, FL: Demonstrators in Tampa, FL organized street blockades. A report on social media wrote:

Tampa SHUT IT DOWN for Palestine yesterday! We were able to stop traffic, all the way down a major interstate. We will continue showing this city that we are sick and tired of funding this injustice. We are done being “too” nice. Disruption and revolting is our only answer. Don’t expect peace UNTIL we have peace. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.

Orlando, FL: Demonstrators gathered in Orlando, FL. According to Luke From DC on social media:

Orlando did not sit out this wave of protests. Answering the call from the A15 global organizers, protesters gathered at the Post Office, calling for a refusal to pay taxes that fund this war and a total blockade of the US economy. One of the chants asked taxpayers “how many kids did you kill today.” A speaker explicitly called on people to refuse to pay taxes that fund US bomb deliveries to Israel and to refuse to participate in the economy funding the genocide.

Arlington, VA: According to posts on social media, “On the 15th of April, DC area activists descended on a Northern Virginia office of Lockheed-Martin and shut it down with a hard lockdown including lockboxes.”

Northeast

Philadelphia, PA: Demonstrators in Philadelphia organized blockades and marches across the city. According to Unicorn Riot, “The crowd marched to the offices of arms manufacturers Day & Zimmerman, who provides components for weapons being used by Israel against Gaza.” A report on social media wrote:

The demonstrations began at 8:15 a.m., when dozens of protesters disrupted rush hour traffic as they waved Palestinian flags during a teach-in. Simultaneously, another group led a funeral procession of cars up I-95, while a third marched near City Hall, stopping at various locations to call attention to connections between Philadelphia’s economy and Israel’s occupation in Gaza.

The Philadelphia Police Department confirmed that 67 people were arrested for obstruction of highway during the morning protests. Officers issued civil citations to 41 demonstrators, who were then released from custody, said Sgt. Eric Gripp, a department spokesperson.” Philly Inquierer: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/protests-gaza-palestine-irs-building-university-city-20240415.html

“In Philadelphia, people across the city took part in #PhillyA15 coordinated actions aimed at disrupting the local economy and blockading major traffic routes on the East Coast to demand an end to the genocide and occupation in Palestine being carried out by the apartheid government of Israel. Key weapons manufacturer, Day & Zimmerman, and Philadelphia City Hall both went on lockdown as a result of these actions.

Over 50 people blockaded the major intersection at 30th Street and Schuylkill Avenue, effectively stopping traffic on 76 in both directions. Across town a coordinated funeral procession mourning the slaughter of more than 38,000 Palestinians—including over 14,000 children—slowed traffic on both 95 north and south bound to a near stop, while Philly Palestine Coalition took to the streets in center city with 200 people who walked out of work in solidarity with the worldwide, coordinated economic blockade #A15. Sixty-nine people were arrested.

The Philadelphia economy is complicit in this ongoing genocide. In 2023, $23,657,015 of Philadelphia’s tax dollars were sent to Israel. Philadelphia is also home to weapons manufacturers Day & Zimmerman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, L3Harris, and Ghost Robotics who manufacture weapons of war that have been used by Israel.

It is within our collective power to stop this genocide. More importantly, it is our collective responsibility to do so. Find your humanity in the struggle! #PhillyA15 is everywhere, every day, until Palestine is Free! #a15forpalestine

Middletown, CT: Blockades to the entrance of the Pratt & Whitney factory in Middletown, CT took place. A report on social media stated:

Organizers from CT & NY have shut down the entrances to Pratt & Whitney factory in Middletown

This is in an effort to call out the companies complicity in arming the Israeli military during its assault on Gaza. This action is in solidarity with the A15 Action, a coordinated economic blockade in over 30 cities around the world.  Protestors are demanding that Pratt and Whitney end the company’s contract with Israel early, and begin the transition to a peace-based economy where the engines will not enable war and genocide.

Police have arrested 10 protestors so far. They can arrest us but they can’t arrest the movement, we will continue to #shutitdown for Palestine no matter what.

Elizabeth, NJ: Demonstrators organized a caravan was organized through the Port of New Jersey. A report posted to social media read:

As part of the @a15actions, early this morning in Elizabeth, NJ Port Workers For Peace with @nyclaborforpalestine and @palawda led a caravan of vehicles through the Port of New Jersey to denounce the Zim shipping company’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Zim CEO Eli Glickman has pledged that his ships will assist Israel’s campaign, even as it leads to mass starvation and the killing of over 17,000 children.

“Many port workers are horrified at what’s happening in Gaza,” said Chino May, one of the caravan organizers. “Our labor is being exploited to enrich corporations that uphold mass murder. But we make these companies go, so we can make them listen to us. The killing has to stop.”

The caravan received mostly honks of support and a few agitated truck drivers. Police flanked the lead car and the group, and at some points attempted to break the line of cars up by merging in between them. At one point the port authority police asked how long they would be there and if there were more coming, to which the police received one word answers and vague responses.

As we see global action taking place today across thousands of cities and economic choke points, the news will be flooded with Trump and Iran…don’t take your eye off the ball. This is focal point. All eyes on Gaza.

Brooklyn, NY: Protesters swarmed the Brooklyn bridge and faced arrests. According to CBS News: 

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters rushed onto the Brooklyn Bridge Monday afternoon. Police said 44 people were issued summonses for disorderly conduct, and four people face criminal charges for things like assault and resisting arrest.

Via @hv4freepalestine

Newburgh, NY: Demonstrators shut down the westbound entrance to the Hamilton Fish Newburgh Beacon Bridge. Organizers posted to social media, writing:

Tax Day is a reminder that the Biden administration has made over 100 transfers of taxpayer dollars in military assistance to Israel since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. We refuse to allow business as usual to continue while Palestinians are murdered by Israel using American weaponry and tax dollars. Those committed to Palestinian freedom in the Hudson Valley have tried many tactics—we’ve demonstrated, we’ve lobbied our representatives, Pat Ryan and Marc Molinaro, for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, we’ve visited their offices, we’ve educated the public. Those on the highway today are done waiting on congressional representatives. We are committed to keeping up the pressure until the genocide ends and Palestine is free.

Manhattan, NY: A communique took credit for sabotaging the offices of BNY Mellon, which “invests heavily in the weapons manufacturer Elbit…” From the anonymous report:

In the latest hours of Monday, April 15th, an autonomous group of actionists painted BNY Mellon as part of a worldwide day of action in solidarity with Palestine. BNY Mellon invests heavily in the weapons manufacturer Elbit, as well as allows their employees to directly donate to Friends of the IDF.

In the presence of security, the artists sprayed their message and disappeared into the night. The glass building at 240 Greenwich street appears cold, impermeable, and more solid than our best efforts could ever hope to disrupt. As the spirit of autonomous organizing continues to escalate around the world, many friend groups are pleasantly surprised to find that denting the machine of capitalism and the brutality of imperialism are both feasible and necessary.

Via @mxtaliajane

New York City, NY: A communique posted online to social media claimed responsibility for breaking out windows on “multiple Chase Bank locations.” From the communique:

Initiating the global call for an economic blockade on April 15, early in the morning of Sunday, April 14, an autonomous group of anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist anarchists targeted multiple Chase Bank locations for its investments in Elbit Systems and the zionist entity in large – Chase Bank is the 6th largest stockholder in the weapons manufacturer creating the tools of mass destruction for the genocide in Gaza.

Through concentrating efforts around Wall St., which WOL is marching on this Monday, we target those with the most blood money invested in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Actionists sprayed red blood paint on the front facade of the bank, spray-painted messages reading “FUNDS GENOCIDE”, “DROP ELBIT” and “FREE GAZA,” chained up the front doors to the bank and sealed them shut with spray foam.

Heeding the call for an economic blockade, actionists locked up the bank to block the money invested in death. Chase Bank is closed on Sundays, and by locking up the doors, actionists were able to close down the sole entrance to the bank. NYPD scrambled to take down the chains and foam to make the storefront palatable to its money hungry Wall Street patrons, but Chase Bank is still stained blood red.

Chase accumulates wealth from stealing from the oppressed, and uses that money to fund the killing of the colonized. NO TO WALL ST! and We say NO to stock exchange market, where people invest in genocide of Palestinians by investing their money in weapon manufacturers.

Canada

Vancouver, BC: In Vancouver, demonstrators rallied and blockaded the Deltaport. According to a report on social media:

We have blockaded Deltaport as a part of #A15ForPalestine #A15Action #A15ShutitDown and calling on dock workers to respect our picket line and join us in solidarity with Palestinian people.

Ottawa, ON: In Ottawa, a blockade was organized. According to a report on social media:

Local activists and community members united to completely block the building where the EDC (Export Development Canada), is housed. EDC is one of the Canadian institutions which plays a direct role in the genocide in Gaza through policies of trade and export of arms and military technology to the Zionist entity. EDC facilitates trade with Zionist companies responsible for the bombing and killing of our people.

Community members gathered to send a clear message: not on our watch! People of conscience refuse to stand by and allow institutions like EDC to promote Canada’s arms trade with the Zionist entity, including the trade of military and illegal settlement goods, and profit off the blood of our families in Gaza and all around the world.

This is only the start. We will continue to target these institutions guilty of genocide, and will not stop until our demands are met: an immediate two-way arms embargo, an end to all diplomatic and economic relations between Canada and the Zionist entity, and the release of all Palestinian political prisoners.

Hands off Gaza! Hands off Palestine!

Via @a15montreal

Montreal, QC: Demonstrators in Montreal faced state repression as a blockade attempted to shut down the Port of Montreal. From one report, “Protesters in Montreal were met with intense state suppression while supporting their comrades in the Port of Montreal today. Police attempted to block the streets as protesters tried to push past. At least one officer pointed a firearm loaded with less than lethal projectiles (likely teargas), which are not supposed to be aimed at people, at marchers on two occasions. At a different location, other protesters were violently met with teargas and baton beatings. Though injuries are reported, no arrests have been noted at the time.” A report on social media went on to state:

Early this morning, hundreds of protesters answered the A15 call to action by convening a large rally near the Port of Montreal at its Rue Viau entrance. The Montreal action was just one part of an autonomous coordinated effort across over 50 cities and 6 continents that began April 15. When protestors arrived at the Port, they were met by violent state repression. Over fifty police met the crowd with pepper spray and batons, resulting in several injuries. A second group of protestors successfully entered the Port to shut down its internal rail network by raising a Palestinian flag on the tracks. The Port was shut down for over an hour, backing up morning traffic on Rue Notre-Dame. All protestors left the action safely, with no arrests reported. Protestors say they are calling for an end to Canadian complicity in genocide, and that they will continue to take action and disrupt the economy until Palestine is free.

Via @a15actions

Rouyn-Noranda, QC: A lockdown was organized against “Glencore [which] profits from Israeli colonization and contributes to the violation of human rights in Palestine. This is why supply to the Horne Foundry is targeted today. Glencore is one of the world’s largest powers. It is a commodities trading company that controls a significant portion of the natural resources market: metals, minerals, oil and grains. The company is involved in the Israeli extraction and trading of metals and minerals… Additionally, the historical ties between Glencore and the State of Israel are rich and long-standing. Founder of Glencore, Marc Rich was crucial to Israel’s oil supply after the 1973 war. His oil trade with Israel became a lifeline for the young.

Halifax, NS: Demonstrators faced arrests by police after carrying out various blockades. From a report on social media:

This morning comrades blockaded Hollis Street and Terminal to block traffic to the port where ZIM International has an office. 19 comrades were violently arrested by Halifax Regional Police and taken to the station on Gottingen St.

The Canadian economy is complicit in this genocide. As a port city, weapons and components leave the Halifax harbour for Israel regularly. Today Nova Scotians answered the call to block the arteries of capitalism, colonialism and #SHUTITDOWN

Report on ongoing Poor Windy tree-sit in Southern Oregon. For more updates, follow the Tree Sitter’s Union Media Collective.

In a sign that the agency is feeling growing pressure as a tree sit on a proposed timber sale enters its second week, the BLM unexpectedly cancelled the Baker’s Dozen project, another contentious mature and old growth logging proposal in Southern Oregon. The Baker’s Dozen project targeted over one thousand acres for aggressive logging, with stands of trees over 300 years old.

“The BLM can no longer ignore the widespread opposition to the agency’s mature and old growth logging projects. The cancellation of the Baker’s Dozen timber sale is a direct response to the countless community members and conservation organizations that have organized, commented, litigated and protested against these destructive projects,” said Rachel Stevens, a community activist with the tree sit. “And, of course, the threat that tree sitters like us might decide to set up more blockades.”

The tree sitters hung a banner in solidarity with the economic blockades of A15, reading “Los Pueblos Unidos Jamás Serán Vencidos – Palestina Libre”.

In a statement, the tree sitters tied the ongoing blockade of old growth logging to the genocide in Palestine: “State agencies such as the BLM selling corporations permission to extract profits from this land is a form of colonial violence. We view the actions we’re taking here to stop extractive industry and challenge the political and economic structures that enable it as one very small piece of a broader struggle against colonization and state violence.

The Biden Administration has committed to ending the practice of old growth logging on public lands, and the BLM is currently considering a rulemaking to establish greater protections for intact ecosystems, yet projects targeting mature and old growth forests continue to be implemented across the region. The Poor Windy project would log more than 15,000 acres, including 4,573 acres of mature and old-growth trees that are essential nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for the threatened northern spotted owl and many other species.

Concerned about the impacts of logging, which increases wildfire risk, impacts clean water, and drives climate change, community members started their occupation of old growth forests in the Poor Windy project on April 1 and have no plans to leave.

“The single largest threat to the remaining mature and old-growth forests on public land in Oregon are the agencies that are supposed to be protecting them” says Sam Shields, a community organizer supporting the tree sit. “This tree sit is exposing the inexcusable malpractice of the BLM. While politicians in Washington D.C. wax poetic about the importance of fighting climate change and protecting the environment, the chainsaws continue to run and these priceless ecosystems are being leveled faster than ever. We are the last line of defense for these priceless forests.”

Research has shown that industrial logging also increases wildfire severity and frequency by replacing fire resilient mature and old growth forests with mono-crop timber plantations, increasing threats to rural communities like the one around this sale. The project specifically targets old growth forests with proposed road construction, an increasingly common tactic used by the BLM to avoid regulatory oversight.

Poor Windy has been approved and there is active logging already taking place in some areas. The contentious project is one of countless sales being moved forward by the BLM despite legal challenges and criticisms about the impacts that they will have on habitat, wildfire, fresh water, and the climate. Studies have shown that Oregon’s forests are some of the most carbon-rich in the world, and that logging is the State’s single largest source of carbon emissions.

“Public forests are needed for public benefits, like carbon storage and wildfire resilience,” said Francis Eatherington, a long-time forest activist and Douglas County resident. “Instead they are being logging for private profit, lining the pockets of the timber millionaires at the expense of rural Oregonians.”

The logging will impact freshwater sources in the area, with streams and the fish that depend on them already being compromised by severe sedimentation from more than 320 miles of logging roads in the area. Additionally, studies have shown significant long-term decreased summer stream flows in areas converted from mature and old-growth forests into plantations.

Announcing the Montreal Anarchist Zine Fair in May of 2024. For more information, see the MTL Anarchist Zine Fair website.

Our weapons are courage and beautiful ideas.

Every year in May, the blossoming of spring invites anarchists to reflect upon subversive ideas and practices, from throughout history to present day. Total destruction of all authority is the project that sets our hearts on fire. We are wary of political strategies, and instead propose an anarchy wherein the means and ends are coherent, without waiting for the ‘right moment’, without compromise.

The fight for freedom is infinite, a constant which spans numerous lifetimes, and with endless possiblities. Only through permanent conflict will we create spaces where we can breathe (together) for short while, dreaming of and planning for total freedom.

This Fair is a moment to sharpen the analyses and critiques necessary for the project of insurrection. It’s goal is to nourish your imagination. We’re seeking out those who dream of unlimited freedom, and who are fighting for a complete upheaval of society, not simply it’s re-organization. Books, zines, meet-ups and discussions are indispensible for this project of liberation–they give meaning to our actions, and vice-versa.

We encourage (self)published texts created by comrades who aren’t trapped in the industry of book publishing. We want to free the pen from censorship, and the book from commercialization. We want texts to be distributed through autonomous organization, with the goal of sharing ideas with those who feel inspired by them. This can only occur in a free space, through rejecting copyrights and ‘alternative’ markets. This Fair is organized autonomously, through voluntary association and participation, and without any institutional support.

Join us on the 11 and 12 of May, 2024, under the Van Horne viaduct (North of the tracks). Come for two days of discussions, reading, music, and complicity. There will be several tables with zines and books under the viaduct, and with a few presentations followed by discussions in the little park nearby. There will be shows in the evening, as well as food and coffee onsite.

* We strongly suggest you leave your phones, cameras, and all other technological snitches far away from the event.

* The Fair will take place outside and regardless of weather conditions–come dressed appropriately.

* Details on the discussions topics and schedule to come.

LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

Long-running anarchist radio and podcast show The Final Straw speaks with Jeremy White about the repression of antifascists in San Diego.

A recent chat with Jeremy White, film-maker, activist, and street medic who’s facing prison time in what has been dubbed the “San Diego Antifa” case. You’ll hear Jeremy talk about what happened on January 9th, 2021 at the Stop The Steal rally, how the police interacted with members of American Guard and Proud Boys as they assaulted passers by, the conspiracy-theory driven DA Sommers Stephan and where the case was before it resumed on March 18th, after we recorded this chat. Jeremy also worked on a horror-comedy film called “Bitch Ass.”

• Transcription
• PDF (Unimposed)
• Zine (Imposed PDF)

Fundraising on the case:

• Give Butter to benefit two defendants in the case: http://givebutter.com/protest-defense-sandiego
• Instagram: @SuperPowerToThePeople

Fundraising for Tallcan, former defendant:

• Benefit concert Saturday, May 18th 2024 @Birdcage Comics
  165 W Hospitality Lane,
  Suite 17
  San Bernadino, CA 92408
  Doors @ 6pm / ALLAGES
  $8 Suggested donation / (no one will be turned away for lack of funds)
  The proceeds from this show will go to legal funds and family support.
  FEATURING LIVE PERFORMANCES BY:
  SEXETTE / GLORBO / THE HAIL MARIAS / DOVE / LOW SWEEP
• Venmo: @PUSHINGDOWNTHEWALLS
  Cashapp: $PUSHINGDOWNTHEWALLS
  Please put “TC” in the notes.

photo: Radical Graffiti

Statement from the International Antifascist Defense Fund on the ongoing repression of community organizers in Texas.

You might recall a certain degree of hysteria and pearl-clutching among right-wing media pundits when they found out that their cherished 2nd Amendment rights also applied to anti-fascists. This became abundantly clear to them when pistol-packing transphobes intent on disrupting a drag show in Texas and possibly making good on their threats to murder the attendees were stopped in their tracks by the presence of the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club.

Of course, transphobes and their police pals couldn’t allow for such a thing. Attack #1 against the EFJBGC came in the form of bullshit arrests by the cops of three EFJBGC members (of course, the Defence Fund helped pay for their legal defense costs). Now, attack #2 has come in the form of a lawsuit filed by the “New Columbia Movement” (a self-described “Christian fascist fraternity” that seeks to forcibly convert everyone to Christianity, among other things), against two of the arrestees on the basis that their rights were violated when they were unable to physically attack attendees at the drag show! So now our friends have to deal with the costs and hassle of unjustified criminal charges and a vexatious lawsuit.

Our friends have set up crowdfunders to help them with this expenses here and also here. They also reached out to us directly for support, which we were more than happy to provide, because we believe that drag shows are a form of free expression that shouldn’t be shut down by death threats from bigots, just as we believe that the believe we need to have the backs of those who put themselves on the line to prevent those threats from being carried out. If you believe the same, hit those crowdfunding links! If you believe there’s a need for a standing fund to provide emergency support to anti-fascists in situations like what’s been described here, make a contribution to the Defence Fund today!

Analysis of growing far-Right movements centered around attacking trans people in so-called Canada.

There is a growing fascist movement in so-called Canada, it first appeared from the shadows as the Freedom Convoy which led directly to Hands Off Our Kids. While fascism has been a long time problem in Canada, and there were underground sects that morphed into this current movement, the point of this article isn’t a historical analysis on how it came to be, its to show the dangers of this specific movement that is largely being ignored or downplayed by anti-capitalists and anti-fascists, probably because it doesn’t fit the traditional definition of fascism, its closer to the third position. The third position isn’t the same as the commonly accepted kind of fascism, mostly differentiated by its relationship to capitalism and the ruling class. According to Don Hamerquist, traditional fascism is “a policy of capitalist reaction intended to counter the possibility of a serious working class challenge to capital.” Or as explained by anarchist Durruti, “When the bourgeoisie sees power slipping from its grasp, it has recourse to fascism to maintain itself.” This article seeks to point out the similarities between the fascist far-Right and Third Position writings from Don Hamerquist, a militant communist and anti-fascist. Unfortunately this article doesn’t have a lot citation for the present day far-Right as it is largely based on first hand experience in Southern Ontario, an area rife with these people. The far-Right in this area is growing and recruiting alarmingly fast and the so-called left isn’t stepping up to counter them. This isn’t to say that the growing transphobic far-Right in so-called Canada is theoretically identical to the historical third position fascism, however there are a lot of parallels in Don Hamerquists writings on the third position comparable to today’s far-Right in so-called Canada. It’s unclear if the current far-Right is intentionally trying to copy the third position, these parallels may not be intentional. The danger of this movement needs to be acknowledged if we have any hope of defeating the current far-Right and their bigotry.

In “Third Position” published May 2001 Hamerquist wrote about this brand of fascism being overtly pro-working class which is a rhetoric espoused by the Freedom Convoy. He also writes about it in Fascism & Anti-Fascism, “It [Third Position] makes a direct appeal to a working class audience with a warped, but militant, socialist racialist-nationalist program of decentralized direct action.” The Freedom Convoy appealed to the working class, is decentralized as well as extremely nationalist in character. The convoy was always rife with the far-Right and anti-trans rhetoric they just hid it from their mainstream discourse. They built a base with a seemingly innocent stance of “protect kids” and “freedom from the government” but protecting children from the trans agenda is a guise they use to hide the beginning stages of an outright trans genocide. Hitler wasn’t a third positionist, he was a traditional fascist, but this is similar to how he claimed to be protecting children from Jewish people.

Far-Right ideology is insidious, fascists look for vulnerable people, warping facts and using logical fallacies to recruit to their cause. The far-Right also uses the culture wars to recruit to their cause and so-called leftists (especially those online) can be absolutely useless when it comes to countering said phenomena. Examples of far-Right recruitment tactics include going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and recruiting vulnerable people from said meetings. Also finding vulnerable women who have survived medical trauma and winning them to the far-Right with pseudo science. This has a large overlap with trad wives (for more information read Sister’s in Hate by Seyawrd Darby). Some people in the far-Right movement are useful idiots who are gullible, and desperate for community because of the isolation from capitalist individualism. Community, compassion and patient explanation can work in the beginning phases of bringing people back from this kind of ideology. But there comes a point where they are too far gone and sadly lost to the world of the far-Right. They have become fascists; enemies of the class struggle and the oppressed.

Hands Off Our Kids is not a white supremacist movement. However it is a fascist, religious fundamentalist movement composed of various Abrahamic religions and far-Right, transphobic ideology. The “left” in so-called Canada is largely being white saviors about this, preferring to see trans people murdered in cold blood than cast aside their postmodern, romanticization of BIPOC communities. This has serious “noble savage” racist vibes. Just because someone is a member of one oppressed demographic that doesn’t mean they get to be oppressive towards other groups. The trans community does not need this bastardization of the oppression olympics from white cis saviours, we need to abolish oppression in every form. Black Lives Matter correctly pointed out that white LGBTQ+ people can be racist, so we need to apply that logic to other forms of oppression. The far-Right is gaining traction fast, while we do need to be careful this doesn’t turn into racism and islomophobia, there is presently a growing violent movement against trans people and that movement needs to be eliminated.

This rising far-Right movement isn’t identical to textbook third position but if we look at another Hamerquist quote from Fascism & Anti-Fascism “the so-called “third position” – a fascist variant that present itself as “national revolutionary” with politics that are “beyond left and right”.” One paragraph down in the same text he cites their support for liberation movements such as Ireland and Palestine. It needs to be stressed what’s going on in Palestine is a genocide and Palestine should be free, Zionism is fascism. However the white far-Right supports the Palestine liberation movement because they equate Zionism with Judaism, and are extremely anti-Semitic. While there are white supremacist elements in the far-Right movement, the movement as a whole is not traditional white supremacy. They are a kind of fascism akin to the third position.

Hamerquist says it best in his essay Fascism & Anti-Fascism, “Two points: First, there is a real potential for working relationships and alliances between white fascist movements and various nationalist and religious tendencies among oppressed peoples. In no way does this potential involve the denial of the reality of white supremacy and racial and national oppression. It only means that the left cannot count on the responses to this pattern of oppression, privilege and domination fitting into its neat and comfortable categories. Second, there is no reason to view fascism as necessarily white just because there are white supremacist fascists. To the contrary there is every reason to believe that fascist potentials exist throughout the global capitalist system. African, Asian, and Latin American fascist organizations can develop that are independent of, and to some extent competitive with Euro-American “white” fascism.” A few paragraphs later he writes “In this country and around the world some of these fascist blocs will be, and, in fact, already are, Black and Brown.” While he is talking about America, Canada has enough similarities one can apply the same lesson to our own home grown fascist movement.

On a similar note, Trans Exclusive Radical Feminists (TERFs) are pouring into anti-capitalist and working class spaces in so-called Canada. This again ties to Hamerquist’s position about the third position guising itself as working class. They guise their beliefs as working class feminism, use white women tears and the women are nice effect to vilify trans people, and men all too often revert to misogyny and protecting women who are perceived as the weaker sex, siding with the TERFs to further platform their bigotry. Plenty of feminists and BIPOC women have written very astute pieces about white woman tears regarding racism. For those unfamiliar with white woman tears, in a nutshell what happens is a white woman cries about how mean a BIPOC person was to them (often this BIPOC person was trying to address racism and discrimination). The white men in the room see the woman crying and immediately rush to her defense, because of conscious or unconscious misogyny they perceive women as the weaker sex and in need of protection. This is linked to the women are nice effect, which is the form of sexism that perceives women as more compassionate and delicate than men. Ironically women being the weaker sex who need a man to protect them is a pillar of trad wife ideology. Again this logic and type of oppressive behavior needs to be applied to transphobia if we want to end oppression in the fight against capitalism and fascism. Cis women do this to perpetuate transphobic and trans exclusive ideology. This forces trans people out of anti-capitalist and working class spaces. It’s also worth noting that not every person who does this is far-Right, some are just liberals, but regardless of their intentions liberals always end up helping the far-Right perpetuate their bigotry, they never actually help those being targeted. Racism is also a very real problem. This is not intended to take away from discussions about racism, but rather amplify BIPOC and women’s voices regarding this type of oppression and apply it to transphobia.

Far-Right bigotry has real word consequences. Doctors are hesitant to treat trans patients, especially youth. Some medical centers are even stopping their programs for trans youth because of far-Right intimidation. This is going to cause a rise in trans kids being traumatized and dying by suicide. Surgery, puberty blockers and hormone therapy saves lives. Puberty blockers are a temporary pause button that can eliminate the need for some surgeries and also stop irreversible changes caused by puberty. Puberty for trans people living with dysphoria is awful and traumatic. Trans people in Canada are being violently attacked but no official statistics are available because the trans community learned long ago not to trust police. Even if trans violence is reported cops don’t give a shit, which skews the potential for accurate statics even further. There have been at least two trans masculine youth murdered this year, Nex Benedict and Alex Franco. There are probably more who have gone unreported because of transphobia and the denial of our existence. There are also first hand reports on social media of the far-Right opening fire on trans women, queer bashings, and even attempts to run trans people over with cars/trucks. The last two happening in Southern Ontario. Hitler also targeted the trans community, Night of Long Knives and the infamous Nazi book burning destroyed the records Magnus Hirschfeld, a doctor who was medically treating dysphoria in trans people. Targeting the medical establishment was an early step of trans genocide in Nazi Germany, and its being targeted today by the far-Right in Canada.

So what can be done? Trans people need to do everything they can to defend ourselves. Enough of this “tender queer” bullshit, recognize we are fighting for our lives and start fighting back. If you aren’t trans, educate yourself on what transphobia and trans exclusive radical feminism looks like and actually stand up for us, not online, in the real world. If you care about anti-fascism it needs to be recognized that this isn’t a “culture war” its the beginning phases of a genocide. Treat it accordingly. Stop playing into the neo-liberal culture wars, this includes performative language/actions, safer spaces policies, clout chasing and diversity quotas. Fine tuning the terms and language we use to talk about transphobia won’t stop fascism. This kind of rhetoric can be pretty common in anarchist spaces in Southern Ontario, what we need is more propaganda by the deed. Reading more theory about direct action, anti-fascism and anarchism is complimentary to direct actions. Direct actions with no education is running around in circles but theory with no direct action is an academic circle jerk. As queer revolutionaries we need to start balancing these things. Deplatform assholes spewing TERF and anti-trans rhetoric, treat it the same you would any other form of fascism and bigotry.

Start taking this seriously, trans people are fighting for our lives and we can’t do it alone.

photo: Indybay.org

Molotov Now! speaks with members of PDX Jail support about their organizing efforts, mutual aid, and building widespread jail support.

A member of PDX Jail Support joins Molotov Now! to discuss their efforts creating a culture of mutual aid based around the idea of widespread community jail support. They have spent the last four years building a network of volunteers to stand outside local jails and connect with people coming out of jail. This is done with all arrestees, not simply when there is a need for increased jail support following a protest event.

We will also be debuting the audiozine we collaborated on with them detailing how to build a jail support network where you live. We hope you find this episode as inspiring as we did. It really lit a fire in us to get something similar going here where we live. The potential for radicalization is immense in these highly vulnerable and personal connections.

Check out more of Molotov Now! on Sabot Media.

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Announcement from Amplifier Films about their recent videos covering ongoing blockades by Nehirowisiw land defenders in so-called Quebec.

Amplifier Films has recently launched English versions of their critical video reports on the ongoing blockades by the Nehirowisiw Land Defenders in Quebec, aiming to bring international attention to these significant Indigenous and environmental issues. The first video, capturing a tense yet crucial confrontation near Wemotaci on March 18th, and the second, detailing a day of action and determination by the Land Guardians of Nehirowisiw Aski, were initially released in French to engage a Quebec audience directly. Now, with their English counterparts, the outreach is expanded, inviting global support for the defenders’ cause against the clearcutting of Nitaskinan.

A new development has been the erection of another blockade in Opiticiwan on April 9, 2024. This action signifies the continuous effort of the Nehirowisiw people to safeguard their ancestral lands and protest against ongoing exploitation and environmental abuses. These blockades, part of a larger movement including actions in Manawan and across Nehirowisiw territory, underscore the community’s fight against deforestation, the disruption of wildlife habitats, and the erosion of their traditional ways of life.

Context of the Ongoing Blockades

The ongoing blockades by the Nehirowisiw (Atikamekw) community in Wemotaci, Quebec, are part of a broader effort to protect their ancestral territories from deforestation and logging activities that they say have gone beyond agreed boundaries and have not included meaningful consultation or respect for their traditional way of life. These blockades, part of actions across Nehirowisiw territory including Manawan, have been set up in response to logging operations that community members say disrupt wildlife habitats, affecting traditional activities and the environmental health of their land.

In one instance, a family in the Nehirowisiw community reported that a logging company ventured into a maple grove beyond the area that was agreed upon for logging, despite a standing agreement aimed at protecting the grove. This has led to members of the community, including those from Manawan, camping out and protesting to assert their rights and to demand that their voices be heard in the management of their territories​ (APTN News)​.

Additionally, Wemotaci officials served a legal notice to the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Fauna, and Parks in mid-February, accusing them of not consulting the community or including them in decision-making processes about logging on their territory. Chief Francois Neatshit of Wemotaci highlighted the negative impacts on wildlife habitat and traditional ways of life, signaling a broader concern about environmental degradation and loss of culture​ (APTN News)​.

A blockade was set up in May after conflict between land defenders and Nehirowisiw forestry employees, showing a direct action response to these concerns. The blockade was dismantled, but reports suggest that blockading actions might resume, especially with environmental factors like forest fires temporarily halting logging operations​ (PBI Canada)​.

The struggle also saw legal dimensions, with a Quebec Superior Court injunction against an Nehirowisiw blockade in Wemotaci, providing a 10-day window for the demonstrators to remove their blockade. This legal action underscores the tensions between the community’s efforts to protect their land and the governmental and corporate interests in forestry​ (APTN News)​.

It’s important to note that the blockades and protests are not just about stopping logging but are a part of a larger demand for respect, consultation, and co-management of the lands that are central to the Nehirowisiw way of life. Community leaders have expressed a willingness to negotiate and to be part of the decision-making processes that affect their lands, indicating a path forward that includes respect for Indigenous rights and environmental stewardship​ (Newswire)​.

About Amplifier Films

Amplifier Films is an initiative by Franklin López, the founder and former member of subMedia, aimed at amplifying underreported struggles for liberation. This new project seeks to bring crucial attention to the voices and battles of those fighting for environmental protection, Indigenous rights, and social justice around the globe.

You can follow Amplifier Films and support their mission on various platforms:

• YouTube: AmplifierFilmsMTL
• Facebook: AmplifierFilmsMTL
• Instagram: @amplifierfilmsmtl
• Mastodon: https://kolektiva.social/@AmplifierFilms