This is an incomplete list of autonomous actions taken in solidarity with the (inter)national prison strike. It is comprised of several anonymous photo submissions and brief report-backs, all of which were sent in to Filler prior to the strike’s start on August 21st.
Abolitionist Yinzers
Today (8/12), an autonomous group of abolitionist yinzers hit the streets of Pittsburgh to promote solidarity with the upcoming national prison strike & call for police abolition.
Graffiti Actions
An Idea
The other night, a friend and I conspired over a sigil to support the prison strike. Later, after catching wind of the counter-repression phone blasts, they remembered a story about an anarchist who faxed thousands of copies of a black piece of paper to several prisons that repressed comrades on the inside. Later that night, after throwing our sigil up around town, we found a working fax machine.
All technology is already weaponized, might as well use it…
Against the prison state. Against a predictable life. Against civilization. Against consensus reality.
Against toner cartridges >:-)
We also wrote Eric King’s name on a bunch of shit. Much love.
Sometime after midnight on Saturday, August 18th, a dozen or so anarchists rolled up on a Skull Fest (it’s a punk fest) show with a sound system, flags, banners, and goodie bags full of road flares, black masks, and pamphlets about the National Prison Strike.
From August 21st (the anniversary of Nat Turner’s revolt and of the assassination of Black Guerrilla George Jackson) through September 9th (the anniversary of the Attica prison uprising), prisoners from all across the so-called united states are rising against the modern plantation system.
“Already, the strike has spread into Canada, and numerous facilities around the US are already seeing hunger strikes pop off as prisoners issue demands. Prison officials are also cracking down on various facilities, shutting them down, and locking up prison rebel leaders as deep in the hole as they can.”
Since we figured Skull Fest punx probably know shit is fucked and might be down (?), we took the opportunity to incite our friends on the outside to act in solidarity with our friends who are locked down on the inside. Even small gestures like ours can subvert the isolation of prison, inviting the unrest that’s too often locked and hidden behind walls into our streets.
Out of the large crowd, a few punx showed interest in joining the march, and some actually did for a bit, which was tight. But tbh most remained indifferent and just kinda stared at us. One jag yelled, “Burn out already!!” If only he knew how many times we have (: …but pamphlets about the strike were distributed to the fest goers, and a few fists were raised. Punk is dead, blah blah. ANYWAYS, the march made its way up on to fucking Butler Street. What’s good, hipsters?
After leaving the show, we marched a short ways through Lawrenceville, distributing literature to some (surprisingly receptive?) folks at a few hipster bars. We dispersed shortly after the cops arrived, but not before getting a few laughs in first—this one pig’s tough-guy “who’s in charge?” routine devolved into him jogging from person to person straight-up pleading for someone, anyone, to talk to him. He had this sorta desperate look on his face, clearly just couldn’t process it. Dude was shook as fuck. The authors of this report would also like to add that we hope he winds up like those two screws who got shanked at Allegheny County Jail the other day.
It’s been a hot summer in Pittsburgh, but as the homies at Torchlightwrite,
“[Pittsburgh’s new protest restrictions] make it obvious that the cops are gaining confidence and worrying less about Pittsburgh going up like Ferguson.”
Spontaneous, unpredictable actions do more than show solidarity and “raise awareness” — they disrupt the state’s ability to use threats of repression to siphon unrest into the professional Left’s array of dead-end “community” dialogues and electoral campaigns. The new protest guidelines threaten to criminalize radical individuals, crews, and organizations who continue to organize beyond the self-appointed leaders and managers of the various movements. Solet’s continue catching the pigs off guard, challenging their newfound confidence, and opening up space for further decentralized, autonomous action — by any means necessary.
Solidarity with everyone that’s still pushing the envelope in Pittsburgh. Solidarity with all prisoners.
Behind Enemy Lines probably said it better than us:
Immersed in political strategies Government policies create endless catastrophes and we all pay the price when our movement becomes stagnant, anchored by apathy We can’t just give up, we can’t just give in There are no wasted attempts when it comes to action The smallest act could cause a chain reaction that could bring this entire system down Light it up Ignite a spark Every single action could be the start It will take all of our efforts to get out of the dark You could be the one that offers hope and inspiration to everyone who feels defeated and moves the depleted towards motivation and helps the flame continue to burn The most important thing that we still need to learn is that we’re in this together, don’t shut out one another Don’t ever forget that we depend on each other
Report from Steel City John Brown Gun Club, who along with other community organizations, organized in the wake of a racist neo-Nazi attack.
Paul Morris, a long time resident of Avalon PA, was attacked on July 7th at the Jackman Inn, a local bar. He was trying to deliver a thank-you note to a friend who worked in the kitchen who had recently catered his son’s birthday. Within minutes of entering the establishment, Paul was attacked by a mob of white power skinheads, all members of Keystone United. KU is a PA wide hate group, originally known as the Keystone State Skinheads. They have been involved in numerous beatings, criminal investigations and murders since their inception, and have ties to the hyper-violent Hammerskin Nation, one of the country’s most blood drenched white hate organizations.
Paul and his friend were able to partially fight off the attack despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, sustaining only minor physical injuries. The Nazis fled when police arrived on scene. They needn’t have bothered, as the KU members were released and not charged until days later and only after considerable public outrage. When Paul initially asked to file charges, he was told by the responding officer that he wouldn’t be allowed because he “didn’t try hard enough to get away”, underlining better than we ever could the default coalition that exists between police and organized white power.
In recent weeks since the attack on Paul, the Steel City JBGC has been working in coordination with BLAQK OPS and Avalon community members to raise awareness within the greater Pittsburgh area that fascists have been flying their colors, committing violence, and recruiting in our communities. We have been distributing flyers and posters publicizing the names and faces of Keystone United members as well as fascist symbols and insignia. Realizing that spreading information alone was an insufficient solution in and of itself, we began planning a more concrete response.
Alongside BLAQK OPS (Black Liberated Army of Queens and Kings) and local residents, we made plans to throw a community picnic in Avalon, as a display of unity and cross-racial solidarity in the middle of territory Keystone United is attempting to claim. The event was aggressively publicized in Avalon as well as over social media, making no attempt to hide our collective contempt for KU or their cowardly tactics.
August 12th, the one year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville VA, was selected as the date of the action. Our intent in this was two fold. First, to connect the struggle against white supremacy across terrain, explicitly tying together the crimes of KU to those of Alex James Fields and the whole of the fascist movement since it’s inception, lest people forget or underestimate the seriousness of the threat we face. And secondly, to honor Heather Heyer and all martyrs for liberty in the truest way available to us: not with ceremony, but in active struggle against tyranny and racial terrorism.
On A12 we met in Avalon Park and spent the first several hours in fellowship with one another, enjoying good food, a bright day with mild weather and the company of neighbors and allies. The picnic was heavily attended by local residents and families, as well as representatives from several political and racial justice organizations. Children ran and played under signs proclaiming “United Against Fascism” and “Keystone United are a bunch of Jaggofs.”
A JBGC fireteam created a perimeter, securing the location in case any KU got up the nerve to make an attempt on the event. None showed up.
Later on, members of BLAQK OPS announced that those who were able and willing would now commence a march through Avalon, in defiance of the fascist threat attempting to gain a foothold in the town.
We gathered ourselves and a group of about 30, bearing a 20 foot banner reading, MOURN THE DEAD. FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING, and set out, marching the length of California Avenue while chanting “Charlottesville to Avalon! Nazi trash get off our lawn!”
The JBGC fireteam flanked the march, armored and open carrying as a defensive formation. Again, no fascists appeared, and the police, though on site, did not approach the march. Towards the end of the demonstration, a moment of silence was held out of respect to the memory of Heather Heyer, killed a year ago that day. As we marched, her name was sung out along side that of Tubman, Shakur, Brown and other heroes who risked or lost their lives in the fight against white supremacy.
We extend our sincere thanks to Paul, BlaQK OPS and the residents of Avalon who came out to live bravely together and made the event a success.
Thelatest guidelinesfor unpermitted street protests issued by the Pittsburgh cops have generated a lot of outrage, but not much in the way of tactical or strategic analysis. We gave the document a quick glance to see what it might reveal about the cops’ plans and thoughts. In no particular order:
It’s tempting to laugh at the list of intersections and colored coded zones for revealing exactly where protesters should set up blockades for maximum disruption, but let’s face it, that wasn’t exactly classified information anyway. More interesting are the locations that were left out. Butler Street in Lawrenceville? Allegheny Center in Northside? Both are perfectly acceptable protest spots under the new rules, and both are virtual parking lots during rush hour even under ideal conditions. Pittsburgh’s, um, idiosyncratic street layout offers many more such choke points. Maybe it’s time to branch out geographically, if only for the hilarity of watching a police liaison wave a copy of the guidelines under the nose of a frustrated cop, screaming “We’re nowhere NEAR the red zone, what are you even complaining about???”
They do give themselves some wiggle room toward the end with “Officers may use their discretion to make other roadways or intersections off limits to protests if judged necessary to ensure public safety”, but still…
This sentence is highly interesting: “Whenever possible, warnings should be given with a bullhorn, a squad car PA system or LRAD.” For those unfamiliar with the term, “LRAD” stands for Long Range Acoustic Device, a crowd dispersal weapon that emits a piercing noise loud enough to cause pain and hearing damage. It can also be used as a loudspeaker. The LRAD made its US debut right here in Pittsburgh during the 2009 G20 protests, where it permanently damaged the hearing of a woman who wasn’t even protesting. She sued the city, won a $72,000 settlement, and Pittsburgh’s LRAD has been in mothballs ever since. The guidelines only mention the LRAD’s loudspeaker function, but the fact that the cops are bringing it up at all is intriguing. However, given their past experience with the thing, and their general hands-off approach to the protests for Antwon Rose II, they’re probably bluffing. Even if they bring it out, chances are they won’t use the crowd dispersal function. Protesters are advised to pack earplugs just in case though.
The guidelines say absolutely nothing about requiring permits. This should be a standing rebuke to all the liberal nonprofit organizations in Pittsburgh that refuse to set foot in the street without getting permission from the people they’re protesting against.
Zooming out a little, the guidelines as a whole make it obvious that the cops are gaining confidence and worrying less about Pittsburgh going up like Ferguson. At the most recent march for Antwon they shadowed the march with the usual phalanx of city cops, but they didn’t feel it necessary to call in the state police, and no more than one undercover was spotted in the crowd. Even after marchers got right up in the face of Chief Schubert and Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich, no further reinforcements were called in. If the cops feel like they’re getting away with the current set of restrictions, more will surely follow.
