In today’s political climate one cannot predict much, but we are still going to say not to expect the neo-fascist Proud Boys running around trying to play their games over the next year or so as much as they are now. Afterthe fight at the Republican Clubrecently, they became the crew that everyone wants a piece of, and everyone will have their piece, you can bank on that. Even the right-wing New York Post – which is owned by News Corp, which also owns Fox News, who once employed Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes – called them out as a “far-right hate group” in an articleabout right wing activists harassing Nancy Pelosi during a visit to Florida because someone in the crowd of activists beating on the windows repped the group.
Well, Philly is going to get their shot at them. AFacebook event pageis up for something called the “We the People Rally” which is being organized by two groups, Patriot Events and Sports Beer and Politics, whose own Facebook page has two Proud Boys as administrators. As of now, the page is particularly benign with a disclamer saying the following:
We at Patriot Events and Sports Beer and Politics do not condone the use of violence by any party at this event. This event is to allow the people to make their voices heard. Any violence, racism, or display of hate by any group or individual is extremely prohibited. Any group or party violating these conditions will be removed from this event immediately.
The hosts, planners, security, speakers or their affiliates, members or family will not be held liable for bodily injury or personal damages to anyone in attendance. All civil claims, attorneys costs for the aforementioned will be paid by the claimant.
There is a reason for that. Just before the Proud Boys made asses of themselves in NYC, they were boasting on this page that they were going to come to this event with the purpose of fighting people:
After NYC, these postings were scrubbed from the event page, but too late. Somebody already saw them. This is what people will be mobilizing against, despite the usual tapdancing from the organizers that they don’t condone violence and be vigilant against it. Folks are used to that tapdancing and are not buying into it. The Proud Boys also are good for the “I’m not racist” routine and their supporters point to their members of color. Well, they repped at both Unite the Right rallies in Charlottesville last year and Washington, DC this year, the DC outing featuring a Hispanic Proud Boy. So folks stopped giving them quarter, and are going to do something about them before they really cause innocents to be hurt.
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.
The following reports cover several of the latest autonomous actions taken during the ongoing mobilization demanding justice for Antwon Rose Jr, including two demonstrations held outside the homes of killer cop michael rosfeld and judge/collaborator jeffrey manning.
All reports were submitted anonymously to Filler PGH or It’s Going Down.
Rally & Vigil Held Outside East Pittsburgh Officer michael rosfeld’s Home
June 27
Pittsburgh residents and organizers held a vigil and rally to remember Antwon Rose Jr. at the home of killer cop michael rosfeld.
Rosfeld had been released on a $250,000 unsecured bond (on a criminal homicide charge…) just a few hours prior, and so some folks coordinating as part of the steel city autonomous movement (SCAM) thought we’d welcome him home; the charging of michael rosfeld is a small victory, but justice demands that we take direct action towards the abolition of white supremacy.
We are outraged, saddened, yet unsurprised by the actions of the police. State-sponsored violence is how those in power uphold white supremacist capitalism. With this in mind, we also called attention to the history of local police brutality, commemoratingMark Daniels and Bruce Kelley Jr. among others recently murdered by the state. Successfully convicting rosfeld of homicide does not prove he is only ‘one bad apple’; there is a larger culture of police and city authorities who are complicit in state violence, and that must be accounted for.
It’s important that the community of Verona — the officer’s current neighborhood of residence — be made aware that they are living in close proximity to someone who did not hesitate to kill an unarmed black teen by shooting him three times: in the back, arm, and face.
During the demonstration, some neighbors shouted in support, while others made sure demonstrators did not go on their private property. There is a community divide, but there is necessity in confronting that divide. The demonstration served as a way to show where neighbors stand, and to elicit responses from residents. Police are public officials, and rosfeld’s address was publicly available. Rallying outside the jagoff’s residence is the necessary social consequence to murders committed by police.
After the action, dozens of folks decided to go back with more numbers and held their ground until around 11pm / midnight.
As an excerpt from a flyer that was distributed to neighbors reads,
[…] systemic racism is woven deeply into the greater Pittsburgh area. Because one of the most deeply segregated urban regions in the country is patrolled by cops that belong to a powerful right-wing union—the FOP. Because in this reality, the police are only harbingers of violence to communities of color; killing or incarcerating, creating trauma, breaking apart families. It was only 4 months ago that the Pittsburgh Police shot and killed Mark Daniels here, an unarmed 39-year-old grandfather, another black man killed by another white cop. This is the same policing system that, in 2010, jumped 18 year old Jordan Miles, beating him beyond recognition while he was walking to his grandmother’s house, drinking a soda the cops claimed was a gun.
To close, here is a quote from areport-backthat was released after another autonomous home demonstration in Pittsburgh—this one from last October, taking place outside the home of the brutally violent officer andrew jacobs.
Cops aren’t afraid of their fellow cops, of their bosses, of courts or prosecutors or legislatures. But they’re afraid of us. A little research and some word of mouth is all it takes for us to bring the fight from our neighborhoods to theirs.
Organizing against police violence challenges the separation of people from political power, the social logic of the badge made material by the physical force of the baton. Power insulates individuals from the consequences of their actions. This power must be seized through collective action and abolished, disorienting the powerful by rejecting the justification for their every misdeed.
We have a message for every cop, every ICE agent, every judge, every politician—for all the agents of white supremacy who continue to separate families through “legal” violence:
You have names and numbers, just like us. Just like us, you have homes that can be surveilled, neighbors that can be turned against you, communities that will reject you if the alternative becomes too costly. Just like us, your actions have consequences.
Activists accept targeted retaliation as a basic fact of their work. It’s time the police reckon with something similar.
“I’m very comfortable with what I did. If either side doesn’t like it they know what to do.” – Judge Jeffrey Manning.
The judge got one thing right: we know what to do.
(This quote is often erroneously attributed to rosfeld when in fact it was another white supremacist collaborator, the judge).
Pittsburgh House Demo & Suburban Intersection Shut Down for Antwon
July 4th
Demonstrations continue in Pittsburgh following the murder of seventeen year old Antwon Rose Jr., and as patriots in Judge Jeffrey Manning’s quiet suburban neighborhood were celebrating another year on stolen land, the peace was disturbed as rows of angry people chanted enroute to the judge’s house. Judge Jeffrey Manning of 535 Kingsberry Circle Mt. Lebanon PA, gave killer cop Michael Rosfeld a $250,000 unsecured bond on a criminal homicide charge. Never before in the state of PA has anyone charged with homicide been released on these terms, and released he was on the dime of the FOP the fucking day of his arrest.
This while seventeen year old Zaijuan Hester, who was charged with criminal attempted homicide, and was allegedly running from the traffic stop with Antwon, sits in jail without bond. We know the judges are not and will never be our allies, so of course shit is going down this way, but a little public shaming and intimidation to highlight just how much of a piece of shit Manning is is both empowering to those putting his shit on blast, and informative to the community he lurks in.
Everyone met up outside dude’s cul de sac in the grass listening to Jimmy Wopo and just kicking it, sharing water and perspectives about why they were there. This group was a lot smaller than the bigger street marches – about 35 people – and was made up of Antwon’s community members, medics, legal observers, anarchists and antifascists, and black liberation activists. The mood was pretty posi with undertones of grief and anger about the situation, but in general people were feeling empowered and ready to storm this ding dong’s neighborhood. Folks silently marched single file in lines of two, some masked, some not; everyone with fists raised.
The chanting didn’t begin until the group arrived at Manning’s manor, where people began to shout, “What was his name? Antwon Rose Jr! How old was he? 17! Who did this? The police did this!” Speakers talked about the murder and the judge’s role in it all, songs were sung, and then the group reformed the two lines and marched through the neighborhood saying, “Three shots in the back, how you justify that?”
The pigs showed up late to the party and everyone was pretty much on to the next thing by the time several squad cars arrived. Everyone got out just fine. The second part of the day’s actions was to shut down the intersection at Connor and Gilkeson Road, a pretty big intersection for the amount of people who came out. This was right in front of a mall and a main route to various suburbanite July 4th parties, so that was tight. The small group shut shit down successfully with the help of a down ass semi driver who saw what was up and parked his rig in front of the exit route many cars were attempting to take. The cops were frazzled, a lot of fancy cars got fucked up hopping the median, and the intersection was held successfully for a good chunk of time in the 95 degree heat and direct sun.
One woman tried to drive her car through a group of about five, but that didn’t work out and she mostly got made fun of for like a half hour. Cops tried to pull at the heart strings of protesters by pleading for the ‘scared children’ in the blocked cars, met with the response, “Antwon was a scared kid.”
When the last car was turned around and bottomed out, the crew marched down the street with fists in the air singing, “Antwon Rose was a freedom fighter and he taught us how to fight; we gonna fight all day and night until we get it right. Which side are you on, my people? Which side are you on?” The semi driver honked and threw up a fist before trucking off.
Sixteen days ago, people came out into the streets in mass to protest Antwon’s murder, many for the first time. The first intersection shut down in front of the EPGH Police Dept was chaotic, powerful, sad, and confusing. On that first night, a cop tried to drive his cruiser through the crowd, and some intense in-fighting errupted when some folks decided to put their bodies in the way of the vehicle. There were arguments about weather white people should even be there, who the fuck are these people in masks, etc. Sixteen days later, at this demonstration, crews of all identities and backgrounds were tight and working together with understanding and respect for each other. Way more people were masked up, kids were helping each other figure out the best ways to tie t-shirts over their faces, road flares were embraced by everyone there, and everyone was reminding each other to use Signal. More crews are being formed, and they’re not planning on going away any time soon. The July 4 demo was def one of the smaller groups in the scope of things, but that tightness in the small number was super powerful. Friendships and comradery are being built in a way that will strengthen as we continue on in this fight, and forward.
All Cops Are Michael Rosfeld
Fuck All Judges Forever
The slideshow below is a compilation of graffiti actions that were claimed in solidarity with the movement, including one from comrades in Philly.
Related counter-information:
*the image below should read: East Pittsburgh police officer…
Over the next few days, we’ll be publishing pieces to highlight the work of some of the groups participating in the Cutting Class counterinfo network. We hope this will provide some clarity on where our crews are coming from and how that affects the way we have organized this project.
We also hope that these interview questions can provide a template for other autonomous groups to distill a collective understanding of their context and projects. If your crew finds these questions useful, write up a summary of your conversations and send them our way as a form of introduction! Cutting Class can be your platform, and we’d love to publish an interview with your crew and start collaborating—not just around CC but also with any other projects that these introductions might incite!
Today’s featured crew is the Filler collective from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Introduce your crew: what are some projects you working on, how long have you been around, where are you based, etc etc.
FillerPGH is a zine distro and counterinfo crew currently based in Pittsburgh.We’re basically just an informal collective of punks and writers who run a distro and claim the name Filler whenever it’s convenient.
Filler started in 2012 as a punk/hardcore fanzine, but has since grown into a platform for local anarchist scenes to share news, analysis, and other counterinfo. We write, design, and distro our own zines, and we usually table with cool zines from other projects too. You can visit our pdf archive and read or print our zines here. Our three most widely-distributed zines are The Relevance of Max Stirner to Anarcho-Communists, Destroy Gender, and For a University Against Itself.
Most of us currently go to / have graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, and so a lot of the content we get is affiliated with the autonomous student network and other youth crews. That being said, we’ve been actively trying to make the project relevant/useful for anarchists outside of the campus bubble.
The Big Idea is an anarchist collective that provides space for exploring radical ideas and putting them into action. The collective aims to foster a culture of resistance and mutual aid that celebrates individual and collective autonomy. Plus we have coffee and free wifi.
SCAM is a relatively new project that grew out of conversations between individuals from the Big Idea collective and the (now-defunct) Pittsburgh Student Solidarity Coalition. SCAM is not an organization, it’s just the name for a specific (1) autonomous forum, (2) social media platform, and (3) anarchist network – meaning that anyone who participates can use the SCAM “brand” to suit their own project’s purposes. The forum uses a spokescouncil model that’s meant to be a space of encounter to encourage mutual aid and coordination, and is in no way a decision-making body.
Nightshade is a two–year–old anarcha-feminist collective dedicated to providing physical, digital, and written safer spaces for women and queer people, as well as engaging in direct action against the heteropatriarchy. Nightshade collective members hold monthly meetings and at least one community event per month. This month, Nightshade is hosting a benefit partyto raise money for Survived and Punished—a collective that supports people wrongfully incarcerated for protecting themselves against domestic abuse. Not all community events are parties. Last month, Nightshade hosted two events—a reading of “The Secret Joy of Accountability” by Shannon Perez-Darby from the zine-turned-book, “The Revolution Starts at Home” and a facilitated discussion called ’Let’s Talk About Sex…Work’ to initiate conversations about sex work from a feminist perspective.
What are some challenges you’ve faced (internal or external)?
Pittsburgh anarchyland is currently recovering from some serious repression and burnout. Over a year of consistent militant actions resulted in ~30 felony arrests. Two comrades served several months in prison (hit us up if you want to throw some $$$olidarity their way) and a few more are still tied up in legal battles. By the summer of 2017, state repression dovetailed with existing internal tensions, and the subsequent burnout was real.
In the coming weeks, Filler will be publishing a longer piece(s) about this through several projects, including Cutting Class. Here’s an *ahem* exclusive sneak peak:
“2018 marks five years since the resurgence of an autonomous radical youth movement at Pitt, three years since the Pittsburgh Student Solidarity Coalition officially began flying black flags, two years since the organizations and crews affiliated with the autonomous student scene posed a real collective challenge to the populist-left’s monopoly on dissent, and over one year since the first coordinated Disorientation Week.
That first Disorientation Week sparked the brief and brilliant dumpster fire we refer to as “the” autonomous youth scene: a transient (yet genuine) expression of a collective “we.” At times, it felt like it was our first real glimpse of community, militancy, trust, repression, betrayal, and (attempted) accountability. It’s a declaration of “we” that weighs a bit heavy on the tongue these days.
Ten black blocs, 30-something arrests, and over a hundred felony charges later, it’s difficult to remove ourselves from the collective identity that “we” have developed over the past years’ struggles. The “we” used here is shorthand for the web of chance encounters that deepened as the autonomous youth scene grew. Filler most definitely cannot speak to the experiences of everyone in Pittsburgh’s autonomous youth scene. Consider this our contribution to a growing mythology of closure, a burial ritual for our own lingering nostalgia, a call for multiplicity.”
This resurgence in the local anarchist scene has broken down both social bubbles and social scenes.We’ve learned that we need more than the usual cycle of escalation and repression if we wanna rep the yinzurrection. We’d like to think that projects like SCAM and Nightshade (especially the second issue of their zine) reflect a broader learning curve in the Pittsburgh youth scene. To quote “PSSC is a SCAM,”
“[PSSC] originally began collaborating because we were sick of wasting our time seeking legitimacy through the dead-end channels provided by the Pitt administration and their police. But as much as we liked to position ourselves as inhabiting a space somewhere outside of Campus Life and its toxic social institutions and useless reformist activism, we now realize that we were merely carving out niche spaces within it […] Despite our best intentions, PSSC became an umbrella organization that assimilated (and sapped energy away from) the independent formations that comprised it. And so rather than continue to work together as a student coalition, we decided to re-prioritize our individual projects, crews, and organizations. ”
Photo: autonomous youth bloc turning up on election night on Pitt’s campus.
Read the report-back HERE.
What are some short and long-term objectives your crew has been working towards?
Counterinformation is communication, and communication is an end in itself. We’re not going to save the world (not that there’s anything about this civilization worth “saving”), but we might be able teach each other how to survive through the love and rage that grows in resisting it.
What do you think some of the major limits / major untapped possibilities for radical campus organizing are today?
Over the years, Filler has provided a platform for a variety of student voices. The only way to honestly discuss that question is to include them in the convo. We’ve compiled a selection of quotes from some of our personal favorite pieces below, which are divided into three broader themes:
Seizing and Repurposing University Space
The “Marketplace of Ideas” and Social War
Solidarity is a Weapon
TL;DR = There’s no unified “lesson” to take away, but one recurring thread is that students who work through the University framework end up compromising their politics. We have seen one too many radical organizations get recuperated after becoming / affiliating with University-sanctioned organizations. While organizing through the University can provide material benefits (beyond just funding and space), we think student crews should dedicate most of their organizing efforts to autonomous projects that operate outside the established University channels.
Not surprised at the administration’s routine disregard for student voices, we decided to continue our occupation of University space. Excited, scared and pissed, we brought flags, posters, zines, coloring supplies, books and snacks to a student study area on the second floor of the Cathedral of Learning. We sat down with confidence and declared that we were occupying the space. With comrades new and old, we plastered the walls with fliers, flags and art. We used the space for everything our teachers scolded us for doing in school: we shared food, played games, held political discussions and worked through interpersonal conflicts. After writing space agreements for our self-governance, we felt more at peace than we ever have walking the halls of our University.
An occupation is the realization of the threats we make through disruption. To occupy is to strike, to remove a material place from capitalist time and space, to derail alienated activity and ride its inertia off the tracks, to rip open latent contradictions in the fabric of consensus reality. When we occupy, we create a base from which to launch new negations, but more importantly a subjectivity that is actively experimenting with new forms of life.
Disruption, negation, experimentation, occupation — the suspension of routine and rhythm, the conversion of a thousand plagiarized, angst-ridden zines into something terrifying and new: the insurrectional desire to experience unmediated forms of life here and now, to live communism and spread anarchy. […] Elaborating insurrectionary potential requires more than blockading the flow of relations conducive to capital; it is a process of reorienting relationships and shared spaces towards the creation of new and transient collective realities. In other words, we must constantly recreate a “we” that isn’t a lie. […] Seriously, though. I sure as hell wasn’t radicalized after hitting up some student group’s meeting. I’m here because I’m still chasing the high from that first punk show in a squat house basement, that first queer potluck, that first renegade warehouse party, that first unpermitted protest, that first smashed Starbucks window.
Incite, Conspire, Diversify
Photo: Our generation’s first autonomous student bloc at Pitt Click HERE for the first report-back.
In the past two weeks at Pitt, we’ve shared ghost stories around campfires that we sparked with stolen electoral campaign signs from all political parties. We’ve cried in front of strangers and cheered each other on as we took turns shouting down the Pitt College Republicans outside of the library. We’ve kicked racists, sexists, and queer-phobes out of Halloween parties with both intelligent arguments and the occasional fist. We’ve graffiti-bombed racist propaganda and flipped over the tables of pro-Trump canvassers. We’ve seen glimpses of the future that’s offered to us, and then stumbled into an alleyway to piss all over it.
“We” don’t necessarily remember all of these stories, share a political disposition, or even know each others’ names. “We” is just a name for this sudden, transient inclination towards defiance, or some shit like that. Filler has heard a lot of inspiring anecdotes over the past few weeks, but we’ve also noticed that the far-right students at Pitt have monopolized the narrative over what is happening. On Halloween, we heard about yet another entirely spontaneous action and decided we’d try our hand at unpacking the situation. “We” don’t speak on behalf of anyone except those that resonate with our interpretation of their actions. To our friends we don’t yet know: keep turning shit up!
It hasn’t been until now that we can put names and faces to some of the sources of hate at the University of Pittsburgh. In the past few weeks our collective of anti-racist, anti-fascist friends and organizers have been compiling various screen shots and other evidence that ties members of the Pitt College Republicans and alt-right publication Polis Media to disturbing memes, jokes, and genocide apologia as well as r*pe joke including ones targeting some of the most vulnerable members of society – children and incarcerated persons.
We are queer and trans. Our existence clashes against the gender binary, and its crushing grip which polices our bodies and threatens our safety. The ways that we live—relate to one another, dress, gesture, and dream—are all in inherent subversion to that binary, which seeks to classify, erase, separate, and homogenize us. In turn, we fight for spaces free from gendered expectations, places where we can function and thrive in peace. […]
We will not be fooled – Pitt is a blatant and knowing enemy in our fight for trans-liberation. […]
Nightshade beckons the University to respond: Why are you, University officials, holding this basic need of your trans*queer students hostage?
What a shit show it would become if you were denied safe access to bathrooms…
Nightshade supports the autonomous actors taking matters of trans-liberation into their own hands. We should not need to assimilate to normative gender presentations in order to use the bathroom, and we stand against anyone who forces that upon us.
In the neoliberal university, the valorization of free speech norms and student choice allows students to feel political as long as they don’t step out of bounds. Note the ever multiplying number of politically oriented student groups, each centered on a specific set of goals that are not meant to overlap and instead provide a safe outlet for the desire to be political. These organizations can be housed in student government organizations, and you can be as radical as you as want as long as you don’t act in such a way that would significantly disturb the status quo, which is a strange shift when put in contrast with previous student agitation centered on questions of radical political change in the university structure.
[As soon as the disruption of the transphobe Reverend Scott Stiegemeyer began], self-appointed “peace police” within the body of “protesters” sprang into action, demanding that we sit down and continue to take Stiegemeyer’s bullshit while our trans siblings die every day through murder and suicide.
Those who stood up to oppose us played directly into the hands of the Reverend’s ilk. By presenting themselves as the “respectable” LGBT community, they took the side of the Reverend and the cops against those who were not willing to be silent in the face of the war against our trans bodies. They forget the war cry of ACT UP’s fight against AIDS during the 80’s and 90’s: Silence Equals Death. Only those “allies” who are not directly threatened by hate speech against trans people and the violence against us it engenders have the option to remain silent without potential deadly consequences. […]
Instead of joining our mutual enemies in attempting to snuff out our rage, we’d prefer you to accept our methods as equally valid to other forms of struggle so we can all take on our adversary in our own ways. We see you as potential accomplices in our liberatory project, and would much rather fight beside you than against you.
And I’d do it again. […] I would be astonished if either [cop] believed “disrupting a meeting” was an actual crime. The intention with which they bandied the phrase about was likely an attempt to make us fearful enough for our individual futures that we would comply with the questions they asked us about each other. Upon arriving at the station, my friend and I were led into an interrogation room. In an hour-plus conversation, the officers offered up such gems as “the Constitution is dead” and a lecture about my disrespect for the men and women who died defending my right to speech, the latter of which rang as hollow as the former did true while I sat handcuffed to a wooden bench for talking at the wrong time.
Photo: Trump visits Pittsburgh Click HERE or HERE to check out two report-backs from this action.
The line goes through the door as the rush peaks. I walk over to the cooler, put my back to it, and slide down. The AM sees me and immediately gets red in the face screaming at me.
“What is this? A fucking strike?!”
“I guess so!”
Five minutes of back and forth screaming and the area manager agrees to rehire the mother she fired an two hours ago. Unfortunately, none of my coworkers joined in. Some thought I was absolutely out there to risk my job, some later thanked me and started talks of something bigger…
We are deeply saddened and angered by the murder of comrade Scout Schultz by Georgia Tech campus police. As a small crew of radical queer youth and accomplices, we recognize that Scout could have been any one of us. We too struggle daily with and against our mental health; we take these actions as part of that struggle. We will continue to answer the calls to fight in Scout’s memory, one of which reads:
To anyone who is enraged, grieving, or who stands against the police and the murderous system they protect, we call for actions in solidarity with our fight here in Atlanta. To anyone who is fighting for liberation: in the coming days, fight with Scout’s name on your lips, on your banners, and in your hearts.
The University of Pittsburgh is full of snitches, from the tough-guy RA who takes his job too seriously, to the bigots who knowingly out queer folks and put them at risk. We’re sick of seeing good kids get expelled, arrested, or otherwise screwed over because some holier-than-thou bootlicker decided to fuck up someone’s life; because some snitch reported a graffiti artist, or tipped off a Pitt employee about a darknet mail order, or called the cops on students for flyering and promoting events without a permit, or chose to be an asshole of an RA and actually conduct a random dorm search, or ratted out a student who stole the textbooks they couldn’t afford…
Want help dealing with a rat? Send the Didn’t See Shit Crew an email detailing the nature of the incident (no incriminating details, please!), the informant’s motive, and your desired course of action. We will work with you to figure out how to best discourage this sort of toxic behavior, support any folks who are facing legal or school repercussions, and, if necessary or requested, facilitate retaliatory dialogue.
How can folks support your work?
Submit content, distro our zines, critique our zines, talk shit on/with us, email us your juicy intel, give us money – fillercollective [at] riseup [dot] net
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Any closing thoughts / reflections from your crew’s conversation?
When we first came to Pitt, we had to reinvent the wheel when it came to spreading anarchy, and we made a fuckton of mistakes along the way. We’re stoked to be connecting with other youth projects, and honestly should have tried to sooner. We’re also stoked to hash out some ideas around intergenerational infrastructure and communication, because there’s always the possibility that Oryx and Crake accurately depicts the whole “no global future” collapse: the University is both a gatekeeper to the means of survival and an enemy as formidable as the state, and will be for the rest of the forseeable futures / protracted collapse.
And never forget that cringing is an affective bond, because maybe the real insurrection was the friends we made along the way 😉
Photo: Our generation’s first autonomous student bloc at Pitt
