Filler Distro || Pittsburgh Anarchist News, Analysis, DIY Publishing & Distribution

Anonymous submission received on 04.18.21

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Take Enthusiastic Walks With Your Friends

Building Capacity Steadily

On a brisk but lovely Saturday afternoon, some friends gathered in a park. We stood chatting and waited for more friends to arrive. Some rode bikes. Many carried backpacks. Of course, we all wore black.

First we gathered and shared among each other stickers, zines, and other printed material. Conversations about topics large and small, the news, the weather, etc. Eventually our group moved east down the park and did a grounding exercise. Immediately following we commenced an enthusiastic walk.

The ways that enthusiasm entered the world are familiar. The state continues to kill at will. At this point, we are literally chanting “I don’t want to say another motherfucking name” because of how many people have been murdered by police.

We walked in the street, even on more trafficked roads like Penn. Our route generally followed a meandering loop that ended back in the park where had started. At that point, people scattered like seeds.

Some takeaways:

We engaged with pedestrians and some of the drivers of the cars we passed. Police abolition remains a topic that people have Strong Opinions about. Bring zines! Literature passed to an onlooker might stay with them longer than your conversation.

Stay mobile! We put the juke shoes on to try to elude a small detachment of motorcycle cops. Getting down alleys, turning off of main streets only to pop out ahead of the cop trying to get in front of us, all frustrated them and disrupted more traffic. We made decisions as a group and more importantly executed on them decisively. There was even a small amount of barricade work followed by a turn to lose motorcycles.

Practice doesn’t make perfect but it will make permanent. Actions like this create camaraderie between the people who show up. These actions slowly sharpen the tactics and practices of people in the streets. There are things that happened today that didn’t happen the last time we were out. We’ll keep honing, testing, tinkering. Opportunities will present themselves to use these lessons.

Do the same. Get out there. Find each other.

In solidarity,
– anonymous

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Anonymous submission received on 04.15.21

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Why Break Away

The Joy Of Doing Something Else

On Tuesday 04.13, Pittsburghers took to the street in solidarity with those protesting the killing of Daunte Wright by police in Brooklyn Center, MN. The details of his case follow an all-too familiar cadence. And regardless of the particulars, it is clear that the police continue to kill at will. Abolition remains the only viable solution.

The action started similarly to many, many actions from last year. After speeches and a move down Penn, the crowd ended up in Mellon Park. While most people gathered to sit around one of the pavilions, a smaller group of people held space at the intersection of 5th and Beechwood. Eventually, they were joined by a few others, mostly black bloc.

Critique has already been written regarding march leadership, and broadly the authors of this piece agree with what has already been written and do not feel the need to elaborate further. We would like to focus on what happened next.

We did something uncommon in Pittsburgh when the march moved on towards Peduto’s house. We didn’t follow. We stayed behind in the intersection. We asked each other what we wanted to do. We were a crowd of 30. We wanted to go somewhere else. We wanted to make sure that people knew why we were marching. We made it known.

And moving through those darkened streets, encouraging residents to join us, raising the name of the latest victim of the state’s bullets, we also found each other more deeply. We navigated as a collective. We took a water break as a group. The voices leading chants changed as those who had the breath to give them voice spoke out in turn.
It was exhilarating. Our little group was in the streets but also in community.

When it came time to scatter ourselves back to our homes, we concocted a plan. We made for a bridge but slid off the sides to the street below and from there into the night.

There was something special about our little breakaway. There was a joy, a purpose different from what many of us had felt for some time. It was simple. It was beautiful.

Find each other. Get out there.

In solidarity,
anonymous

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Anonymous submission received on 04.14.21

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A group of about 15-20 comrades in bloc gathered in solidarity with Minneapolis & the family of Daunte Wright as well as expressing support of police /prison abolition in general. There was a brief chat consenting to the goal of the action & assessing the temp of the evening before taking the streets.

The group marched in Shadyside in a randomly chaotic way down busy streets like Ellsworth, Walnut, Fifth ave & eventually back to the original meeting point for a safe dispersal. Cops followed and blocked streets, often blocking 3 out of 4 routes seemingly forcing the group in one direction but at one point they marched towards the police literally forcing the SUV to back up onto fifth ave. Both hilarious & amazing.

Comrades passed out pamphlets/mini zines about abolition to those encountered during the march . Most if not all bystanders were very supportive// no negative “outside agitators” to report. Cops mostly kept their distance and corked streets unnecessarily.

Action felt super fun, not very stressful, autonomous & no set form of leadership or noticeable hierarchy. A++

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Anonymous submission received on 04.14.21

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The following are three very initial reflections on events in PGH. They developed from discussions between individuals in a small, multiracial group of former area residents.

1. The abolitionist struggle is a struggle towards a free and egalitarian society. Its leadership must be collective, and power must flow from the bottom up. This is the organizational structure of successful anti-authoritarian social movements and anti-colonial struggles in the United States and worldwide for hundreds of years.

2. The singling out of fellow march organizers and affinity groups with verbal abuse and threats mirror the tactics used by evangelical preachers, cult leaders, and other grifters. It enforces an abuser’s power over a group of increasingly docile participants by marking other potential leaders as “out groups” based on lies regarding said group’s racial makeup. In the future this should be met with a harsh response, and that response should come from anti-authoritarians of color and backed up by their white comrades.

3. Bad leadership destroys social movements. Bad leadership puts us all at risk: newcomers, progressives, revolutionaries, bystanders. Leaders worthy of the title do not verbally abuse and threaten those they seek to lead. They don’t scream in their faces, attempt to publicly humiliate them, or force them to sit in the mud to listen to them talk about their own personal experiences. Good leaders do not berate disabled and queer people, nor do they accuse black people who disagree with them of somehow being “white”. That is the behavior of bullies: of abusive parents and cult leaders. And that is the behavior that you unfortunately now are dealing with.

This dangerous behavior, if left unchecked, will (and already has) lead to drastically smaller turnout in the streets. It has made abolitionists in Pittsburgh vulnerable to police and fascist violence.

Good leadership seeks to build coalition with others. It seeks to bring new comrades into the fold and to embrace their unique experiences and worldviews. It is based on solidarity — not a misguided sense of self-importance and shame.

Bad leaders should not be allowed to hold on to the power that they are abusing.

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You can send your report-backs, zine submissions, critiques, graffiti/action photos, demo tapes, hate mail, & memes to…

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