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

Anonymous submission received on 07.14.20

Fred Hampton said that we fight racism with solidarity, and it is in the spirit of solidarity that I write this message. I write this as a person who has been doing organizing and activism for racial and economic justice for nearly 20 years. I write this as someone who will continue to do that work, to fight for marginalized communities against the forces trying to keep us marginalized. I write this as someone who wants to see our movements continue to grow, for struggle to spread, for the racist systems controlling us to fall. I hope that, in this spirit of solidarity and struggle, this message will be taken constructively, as that is how it is meant.

At the various protests happening in Pittsburgh over the past months, I have seen powerful testaments to the anger felt by many in the Black community. This anger is clearly justified, and I am glad there is finally a consistent, public outlet for it. Audre Lorde said, in her brilliant piece The Uses of Anger, “anger between peers births change.” “Between peers,” I will repeat.

In my past years of organizing, one thing that has become clear to me is that, if we want a movement to grow, it can only do so by empowering its participants. It does this by making space for autonomy and solidarity, solidarity between peers, as it is only between peers that solidarity can truly be built.

But too often I have seen a relationship between organizers and participants of these actions that is not one of peerhood. I have seen, rather than the spreading of empowerment, the spreading of shame, of guilt, of people talking down to each other, not as peers at all. I have seen fellow people in the streets talked to as though they are incompetent and ill-meaning, from being corrected on the proper way to raise their fist in solidarity, to a white person being told they are racist simply for wanting to speak, to show their solidarity.

White supremacy is a system which ultimately benefits the powerful by maintaining divides among the powerless, divides based on false narratives and superstitions. Some of us are manipulated with the carrot of privilege, and others with the stick of the police baton. If we do not overcome these manipulations, we will only ever be fighting for table scraps. It is for this reason that when the powerless organize we need to walk the tightrope of neither pretending that differential treatment doesn’t exist (through some “colorblind” approach), or by reproducing those same divisions within our own movements. If we want this to be about more than changing the way corporate PR campaigns are run for a few years, we need to empower people by overcoming the very divisions that keep all of us too weak to be a threat. Being made to feel guilty simply for existing is not a recipe for solidarity. Audre Lorde said in that same essay “All too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness, destructive of communication.” Only empowered people are willing and able to stand up to the police, to take the actions necessary to combat racism, to go on the offensive and to communicate with each other constructively.

People who are ashamed of themselves, who feel guilt and condescension, will not be willing to continue this struggle for the long term, and it is a long struggle we face, and have been facing. Despite my years of doing this, I am well aware that there are people who have been fighting this fight for far longer. I have continued in this fight for this long only because of the empowerment it makes me feel, and the empowerment that has been spread to the communities I care about.

But guilt-tripping participants is anything but empowering. “I have no creative use for guilt, yours or my own,” Lorde continued, “Guilt is only another way of avoiding informed action, of buying time out of the pressing need to make clear choices, out of the approaching storm that can feed the earth as well as bend the trees.”

Clear choices do indeed need to be made, and I choose to feed the earth and bend the trees together with all of you. My hope is that I will find many other empowered people in the streets with us. Not people cowed by shame and guilt, but ready and willing to lift each other up, as peers, to continue this struggle for as long as necessary.

In solidarity,
a friend

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

Filler_PGH@protonmail.com

We’ll try to promote your content // reply in a reasonable amount of punk time.

Send reports in email form, as an attachment, or better yet, on an easy to use (and free) Riseup Pad or CryptPad.

Originally published on 05.13.20 by TORCHLIGHT,
an anarchist news website based here in Pittsburgh
Photos stolen from City Paper

Yesterday [05.12.20] a caravan of almost 30 vehicles circulated downtown, demanding that Allegheny County Jail release prisoners, especially Black mothers, in light of the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. The action was organized by Dignity Act of PA. Protesters hung signs from their cars and honked as they circled the City-County Building beside the county courthouse. After about a half hour there, the caravan headed over to Allegheny County Jail, where they stopped in front until the cops ordered them to move and started handing out tickets. Organizers then held a press conference.

Corporate media coverage was typically sparse, again, in comparison to the flood of coverage given to the right-wing astroturfed “reopen” protests last month. Only City Paper and KDKA Radio reported on the caravan.

Inside the jail, little has changed. The jail’s oversight board recently voted not to do universal testing for coronavirus. Last week Chelsa Wagner, the county controller, wrote a blistering op-ed in the Post-Gazette calling out county executive Rich Fitzgerald for lack of transparency, and questioning the testing priorities of UPMC and county officials.

Currently, jail testing data indicates 28 out of 59 prisoners have tested positive, a 45% rate. This is actually lower than the 56% from a couple of weeks ago, raising the suspicion that the jail is manipulating the numbers downward somehow. Given the crowded conditions and the number of symptomatic individuals reported to be inside, it is very unlikely that the true positive rate is going down.

Zine submitted to Filler by Fog Grinnlau in December of 2019

Click HERE for the print-ready, imposed PDF document.

Click HERE for online reading.

There’s nothing to fret over. Do not worry.
The lines that connect all things will be there whether or not they’re observed.
The old axiom goes on. Stare into the abyss long enough and the abyss stares back.
Don’t blink. Stand your ground and the abyss nervously averts its gaze.

It’s no secret that Pittsburgh’s (thriving) DIY music scene is fractured by genre, geography, and age. We’ve got the South Oakland indie/emo kids, the Hazelwood folk-punk/hippie types, the Polish Hill crust punx, the (fill in your own neighborhood / stereotype combo here), etc. But every so often there’s a band that comes along and draws in folks from just about every corner of this big small town. Shin Guard is one of those bands.

Shin Guard is a hardcore act whose blasts and breakdowns are just as heavy as their most atmospheric interludes. In 2019 alone they’ve self-recorded and produced two albums: a full-length, “2020,” and a 12″ split with For Your Health (Ohio), titled “Death of Spring.”  Emotional, conscious, talented, and young, Shin Guard remains rooted in the local DIY community, even now as they’re starting to blow up. 

With their 2020 tour only a few weeks away, Shin Guard guitarist, lyricist, and vocalist Owen Traynor was cool enough to find some time between booking shows and attending class to answer some questions for an upcoming issue of Filler.

We talk about the DIY ethic and community(ies), the band’s radical shift in sound and style, their recording process and upcoming tour, and a whole bunch of other shit. Check it out!

Filler: Who is Shin Guard? How’d yinz meet?

Owen: We’re 4 people playing heavy and intricate music. We’ve had some lineup changes but we met through high school and going to shows.

F: Where was your first show? What was it like?

O: It was in Jake’s parents’ basement, we invited all of our friends from high school so there were about 50 people there. It was very hype, some stuff got broken but that’s the way it goes.

F: In an interview on No Static At All, you mention that I Hate Myself was a big influence on Shin Guard circa “Five Songs,” the four song EP (2017). Since then, your band’s sound and lyrics have ventured into some far darker, heavier, and oftentimes pretty chaotic territory. What’s behind this shift in your sound? What are some newer influences on the band?

O: We wrote all of Five Songs and Cerebral while we were still in high school. It was a weird time in my life, as it is for a lot of people, and I felt the only way I could convey my emotions was through this music. After recording Cerebral, our original guitarist quit the band. Alex asked to join and everything became better instantly. They enabled us to be more technical, therefore opening us to so many more possibilities. Another facet of our shift in sound is our dissatisfaction with the state of the world. I think a lot of our musical peers have their lyrical content and ethics as separate entities. I use Shin Guard to voice my feelings on many matters, whether it be oppression, depression, death, love, etc. Regardless of the topic, the passion behind the lyrics is consistent.

F: If you had to distill all the musical and emotional intensity of Shin Guard into a single slogan or sentence, what would it be?

O: Bangers only.

F: Did Epstein kill himself?

O: Nope.

F: So there’s a lot of hype around your band these days, and its definitely well-deserved. But I’ve noticed there’s something about the hype around you guys that doesn’t really come up when talking about other local bands — your age. Even though DIY is (or at least should be) an all-ages movement, do you feel like your age ever impacts your experience in the scene? Is there any generational tension? Have you ran into any ageist bullshit?

O: Being zoomers has been a double-edged sword. We get a lot of admiration for being young and proficient, but a lot of bands we love don’t take us seriously sometimes. Most people our age don’t make the type of music that we do, so it can get kind of lonely, but also it is a great feeling to be different.

F: As a band that has produced and released much of its own music, what does DIY mean to you?

O: DIY has been everything to us. Everything we have done has been on our own terms so far. We know the way that we want things done better than anyone else would. That being said though, we would not be opposed to breaking that if our creative intent remains intact.

F: What do you love about Pittsburgh DIY? What do you want to see more of? Is there anything that you think the scene/community needs to seriously work on?

O: It’s a very warm scene. It has gotten a lot better over the years and people have been more vocal about problematic things. Though I love Pittsburgh DIY, I feel that the scene is very white and not as charitable as it could be. I wish that DIY folks and punks would get along better. I think it would go a long way if there was a meaningful goal that both scenes wanted to accomplish. In Boston, I went to Sheer Queer Fest where the fest of LGBTQ+ bands raised money for UAINE (United American Indians of New England). There was no scene beef with the DIY kids and punks, it was all love and communal greatness. I don’t book shows very often but I feel that I should start doing it again and create local showcase charity shows. As a white person, I think it’s more and more important that I should use my platform to do something that has an impact and inspire others to do the same. I worked with an experimental band called Not Your Friends and we agreed to donate all of the money from Bandcamp to PAAR (Pittsburgh Action Against Rape). I know it isn’t much but I am still doing anything I can to be helpful. I think we should also give media like Filler and S.C.A.M. a platform at DIY shows. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to set up another table with their media. Education should always be an ongoing process and this would go a long way if this were to happen.

F: A lot of your lyrics are situated at the intersections of personal turmoil and social war. On the bandcamp page for your 2018 album, Cerebral, there’s a quote from the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, “Hate does not produce love, and by hate one cannot remake the world.” Is Shin Guard also a political project? If so, what does that mean to you? What does that look like for your fans?

O: I don’t consider Shin Guard a political project. I am emotionally invested in the corruption of the world around us. The circumstances we live in are emotionally disturbing to me. I feel complicit if I don’t say anything about it.

F: Hey uh… so this one time a while ago a few Filler kids broke into Cafe Verona because a friend of ours forgot their wallet… will you forgive us?

O: Never.

F: I first caught you guys play back in March at Cafe Verona with For Your Health (Ohio), Plague Walker (Indiana) and Give Me Back (Pittsburgh, demo coming soon!)—an entire bill stacked with politically-charged emotional hardcore, and everyone absolutely killed it. Later that spring, Shin Guard and For Your Health dropped one of my all-time favorite splits, “Death of Spring.” Is this the beginning of new wave of skramz / hardcore? Is this the prelude to the RAWRing 20s???

O: I guess so! I think there’s been a resurgence of this type of music. With revivals like this, I think the genre improves. I feel like I would be making this type of music even without the newfound hype surrounding the genre.

F: What’s the relationship between you and FYH? What do you think the Pittsburgh and Columbus DIY scenes have to offer each other?

O: We are best friends. We were all in one van together for a whole month and survived somehow. We’ve only played in Columbus a few times so I don’t have the insight on their scene as well as I should have. Hayden from FYH told me that they have more Pittsburgh fans than Columbus fans. Every time we play Columbus now, it’s a great time. It can feel more intimate sometimes. The people are very welcoming and it goes off!

F: Sup with tour? Where you going, who you playing with? What are you excited/nervous about?

O: If everything falls into the right place, 2020 is going to be a tour heavy year for us. We
plan to go all over the country and even out of it. We’ve made a lot of friends this year
and we’ll be touring with some of them! I have nothing but excitement for this. I’m only
nervous about potential vehicle troubles and bad weather, but that’s the way it goes.

F: How did you get into recording music?

O: I love making music but the biggest obstacle was figuring out how to record it. It ended up being my biggest passion.

F: What DAW do you use, and are there any plug-ins you’d recommend?

O: I use Ableton, Logic, and Pro Tools. I recommend iZotope, Fabfilter, and Waves plugins.


F: What gear do you use to record?

O: It’s been different every time depending on the resources I have at the time, but I use a lot of different mics (Shure, Audio-Technica, Audix, etc.) that I’ve bought and I’ve borrowed a lot of my friends’ equipment as well. I’ve record into Scarlett, Zoom, and Behringer interfaces.

F: What do you wish you had known when you first starting recording / mixing?

O: How compression works, the effect of mastering, etc. There’s always something to learn and recording/mixing techniques are contextual. There’s no right way to do one particular thing.

F: Do you master your own mixes, and if so what’s that process like for you?

O: I usually do, it can get very intense and time-consuming because it’s very intricate and you can lose your mind while doing it. Your ears get so used to the frequencies that you have to step back at some point and revisit it.

F: Anything you want to add?

O: Support your friends, give hugs, be the change you wanna see, riffs, etc.

F: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us! And double thanx for bringing some Filler zines on your upcoming tour!!!

Photos of Shin Guard were taken by Emery Myer and Cody Walsh, we just ripped them from the band’s website.

You can support Shin Guard by catching a show, picking up some merch, or by following them on social media:

Bandcamp // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

Filler is an informal DIY collective that runs a zine distro, recording studio, record label (sorta) & anarchist news website in so-called Pittsburgh, PA (occupied Shawnee territory).

You can support us by…

• submitting your writing, photos, zines, etc
  
• vandalizing gentrifying realtors and businesses
• printing / distributing zines from our archive
• checking us out on bandcamp // twitter // instagram // fedbook
  
• buying a zine when you see us tabling, or by dropping in The Big Idea Cooperative Bookstore & Café and picking one up from there.

Zine submission from PGH DSA, received on 10.17.19

This publication was created by members of the Housing Committee of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), with contributions from housing experts and organizations from around the Greater City of Pittsburgh. We are a group of people trying to arm ourselves with the knowledge to control our housing in our communities. As such, we would like to clarify that while this publication was researched and fact-checked to the best of the writers’ abilities, we are not lawyers.

This publication, or any publication that follows it, does not constitute or substitute for legal counsel. We do hope that this zine serves as an educational resource to all who need or read it.

CLICK HERE for a pdf of the zine

[an excerpt from the introduction to the zine]

To our community, comrades, and the people of Pittsburgh:

Shelter from the elements allows humans to carry out our lives. These sheltering structures facilitate our social relationships
and build our communities. Housing 
is among the most immediate human needs and is the foundational element
to free, healthy communities and people. It is universal to humans, and therefore housing must be a human right for all those in our global community.

We believe it is morally corrupt and grossly exploitative that humans must toil just to hold 
on to their living space. Americans have little
control of their housing as renters, while landlords control and profit from housing for so many. As a result of this unilateral desire for profit, speculation and gentrification continue to ravage and displace marginalized communities and communities of color. We see and reject this immoral, even violent, process.

We know it is possible to have beautiful, quality, affordable housing that is controlled by the people who live in it. We not only believe that housing is a human right, but  that we all have the right to quality housing. Too often, people are too financially or logistically strained to find safe, secure, affordable, and quality housing – and all too often end up with a slumlord. Slum property is not legal, and city law says it may be dealt with by repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal. We want to provide resources to renters with exploitative landlords – as well as making others aware of slumlords who take advantage of renters, so that all renters understand their rights, as well as the actions they can take. We hope this zine gives voice to this knowledge and adds the Pittsburgh DSA Housing committee’s voice to those in the Pittsburgh community demanding and fighting for affordable, just housing.

For more about the Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), check out:

https://pghdsa.org/

For more zines written by radicals in Pittsburgh, check out the Filler pdf archive.

Anonymous submission, received on 03.23.19
Photos ripped from twitter, @notthreefifths & @jacobcbpaul

Please send funds to the Rose family through CashApp:

$AntwonsMother

No one is surprised.

Michelle Kenney, Antwon’s mother, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “It isn’t what I hoped for, but it’s what I expected.”

A white cop can shoot a black kid three times in the back and get away with it. Of course the “justice” system would never incarcerate officer Michael Rosfeld of 1519 Hudson Street, Verona PA 15147.*
[*house recently went up for sale]

“I hope that man never sleeps at night,” Michelle Kenney said of Mr. Rosfeld. “I hope he gets as much sleep as I do, which is none.”

The following is a short list of what I saw in the streets of Pittsburgh last night, which only includes the later action in East Liberty. I did not include powerful moments of collective mourning and outrage—if you wanted to read about those, just show up next time and live it instead.

1. On the way there, I encountered several groups of people who seemed liked they were looking for the action but couldn’t find it (looking confused, scrolling furiously through social media, etc). My friends and I just told them to follow the helicopters or the police caravans speeding by—a reminder that this isn’t as obvious to others as it may be to “us.”

2. The action began by shutting down intersections near the Target on Penn. This allowed time for the protest to grow in size before beginning to march and getting harder to people to track down.

3. Many crews, medics, and organizers brought free food, drinks, handwarmers, etc, but I noticed two separate street corners where a few boxes of supplies were left behind. Shopping carts or bike carts are probably a good look for next time.

4. People stormed yuppie restaurants, which was cool… except most of the yuppies used it as a selfie opportunity and even pretended to join the protest for a few minutes before returning to their meals.

5. Out of several hundred people, I noticed maybe 20-30 masked-up folks dispersed throughout the crowd. However, there was never an actual “black bloc” to speak of—for whatever reason, we were unable to stay tight and form a visible presence. Without a bloc, there’s no focal point in the march for potential accomplices to cohere around. Instead, militants remained isolated and easy to police. We should make every effort to find each other and roll together. Side note: I usually remember to bring extra masks but forgot this time, which sucked ‘cos several folks actually asked me for some.  Don’t forget to bring goodie bags.

7. In my experience, a trashcan only gets knocked over once somebody realizes that the bloc has formed and they want to start hyping shit up. Wasn’t the case this time, but shout out to that kid anyway.

8. A lot of people seemed to get really pissed as soon it became clear that nothing was going to pop off. How many more kids are we going to let the pigs murder before we actually shut this shit down? This is not the time to be another jaded critic commenting from the sidelines. It’s better to at least show up, even if you’re pessimistic about what can be achieved.

It should go without saying that I don’t speak for anyone but myself. I hope other people write better report-backs than this.

– some kid

[Submission from Unity Division received on 02.05.19, published on 02.11.19 because we don’t check our email.]

Burner Cell Phone For District Attorney

Hello. My Name Is Burner and I am running for the District Attorney of Allegheny County. I am a disposable cell phone who has spent all of the past two years of my existence living in the city of Pittsburgh knowing that at any moment, I could be charged with a crime I did not commit: I could be used as evidence to prosecute low-income youth and people of color, either myself or someone I love could be destroyed or searched by a police officer without probable cause. Right now these are all possibilities under the current District Attorney Stephen Zappala, and that is why I am running for District Attorney of Allegheny County.

• If elected I will not prosecute one drug possession case, no matter the weight. The war on drugs must be abolished.
• If elected I will also prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any police officer accused of committing a violent act toward an unarmed person. It will not take public demonstration and the blocking of highways to convince me to seek justice for the least fortunate, I will do it on my own accord.
• If elected I will prosecute any political official involved in political bribery, misconduct, or abuse of power. Furthermore, Allegheny County officials responsible for the crimes committed against inmates at the Allegheny County Jail will be held accountable.
• Any person alleged to commit acts of animal cruelty, such as researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, will be prosecuted for their crimes against the dignity of animals.

While I intend to hold accountable any criminal that I come accross, my administration will adhere to the principles of restorative justice in order to help undue the harm done to our most vulnerable populations by mass incarceration.

People accused of violent crimes who suffer from mental illnesses will be treated with mercy and given treatment over punishment and brutality. All individuals accused of crimes will be given actual due process under the law. This means adequate council and appropriate criminal charges for the crime alleged. If these conditions are not met, the District Attorney will not take the case.

Victims of domestic abuse and other crimes will be shielded from harm by their abusers. The District Attorneys office will prioritize protecting human and animal life over case clearance and political reputation.

In closing, I will dedicate my administration to abolishing prisons as we know it and replacing them with educational and rehabilitative institutions whose goals are not to punish but to make whole the broken people who have been spit out by this system. Justice should not be about the brutalization of people who do the wrong thing, it should be about protecting the righteous from the unjust and making our community a better place.

My name is Burner, and I pledge to make Allegheny County a safe community.

WILL YOU ANSWER THE CALL?

VOTE BURNER

Originally published by It’s Going Down

On Tuesday, October 30th, thousands of people took to the streets of Pittsburgh to mourn the passing of 11 people at the hands of an Alt-Right white nationalist, who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue several days ago for their work in supporting refugees and immigrants. The gunman, 46 year old, Robert Bowers, stated his intent to attack the synagogue to not only “kill Jews,” but also to make a murderous statement about the caravan of Honduran refugees that he, along with Donald Trump, refers to as “an invasion.’

According to Raw Story, due to the size and scale of the protests, Trump’s motorcade had to be redirected as to avoid the protests. As various news outlets reported, there were two massive marches organized, and these two demonstrations came together in the streets and then marched on the Tree of Life synagogue where Trump visited for several hours after touching down in Pittsburgh. Police kept protesters away from the President, as thousands chanted against Trump and white nationalism.

The demonstrations showed both an outpouring of anger at President Trump, but also in a way that drew a direct political line between Trump’s political ideology and policies and the neo-Nazi attack on the Tree of Life synagogue. At a time when people across the US are pushing back against Trumpism, such resistance shows that we are united in resisting the regime despite the color of our skin, our religious beliefs, our sexuality, or our gender.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BplCoKdgy7p/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=12&wp=1316&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fitsgoingdown.org&rp=%2Figd-pittsburgh-thousands-confront-trump-fascism%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1071%7D

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpkMfbbliIg/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=12&wp=1316&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fitsgoingdown.org&rp=%2Figd-pittsburgh-thousands-confront-trump-fascism%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A1083%7D