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

Originally published by Torchlight PGH — Anarchist News from Pittsburgh

Torchlight received the following reportback from an anarchist who attended the first rally for Antwon Rose on Wednesday evening. There was also a larger rally and march Thursday night that blocked Parkway East for over five hours. The reportback has been lightly edited for spelling and grammar, but is otherwise unchanged.

It’s Going Down has posted another reportback from the same rally.

I got there late, about a half hour after the 6 PM start time. There were about 300 people there, most of them young and Black, rallying at an intersection. I recognized some people I knew, but not as many as I would have hoped ordinarily. East Pittsburgh is a pretty long way from where most of the anarchists live, and the protest was called with only a few hours notice.

The rally split up into a couple of groups, one in the intersection and another further up Electric Avenue (yup, Electric Avenue). The second group seemed louder so I gravitated in their direction. A bunch of people were screaming at the cops, especially this one pig in a white shirt. There were cops there from a bunch of different towns, including a few I hadn’t even heard of. None from Pittsburgh though, and I didn’t see any state cops either. The cops who were being screamed at backed off slowly and made a line across the road, but eventually pulled back to the sidewalks.

The other group was bigger but less confrontational. At one point a white unmarked cop SUV tried to drive through the big group and people started screaming and lined up to block it in. All the cops from Electric Avenue came over and surrounded the thing while it did a slow three point turn and finally left. That was as intense as anything got while I was there. After the SUV left some people started yelling at a few kids in black bloc about violence, which seemed kind of ridiculous when you think about what we were protesting.

Pretty soon after that people mad a giant circle in the intersection of Electric and Braddock and seemed prepared to stay for a while. Then the clouds started gathering, the news helicopter dippe out, and it began to rain hard. People clustered under a railroad bridge that runs over Electric and a few people sat down in the middle of the road. It seemed ilke the rain was thinning out the crowd though, and I eventually headed out because my ride was leaving.

Nobody seemed very well prepared, including the cops, but I guess that’s not surprising. I saw a couple of green legal observer hats, but no marked medics. A few people were there in black bloc, but in my opinion that wasn’t a great place for a bloc. They stood out more than if they had just worn regular clothes. The cops were mostly hands off. The Allegheny County pigs showed up, but they didn’t bring their horses. Nobody was in riot gear. The only crowd control weapons I saw were these assault-looking rifles that I think fire rubber bullets. Some cops from Monroeville had those, but they put them away pretty early. Except for the SUV incident they didn’t seem to be doing anything to provoke people.

The rain definitely took a lot of the fight out of the crowd but even before that people seemed more about grieving and venting their anger at the cops than throwing down. There’s going to be another protest downtown tomorrow at noon at the county courthouse, so we’ll see what happens there.

***

Related counter-information:

*the image below should read East Pittsburgh police officer…

Anonymous submission received 6.12.18

I AM NOT WHAT YOU THINK;
fighting for the memory and life of Antwon Rose Jr.

I AM NOT WHAT YOU THINK!
A Poem by Antwon Rose – 5/16/2016

I am confused and afraid
I wonder what path I will take
I hear that there’s only two ways out
I see mothers bury their sons
I want my mom to never feel that pain
I am confused and afraid

I pretend all is fine
I feel like I’m suffocating
I touch nothing so I believe all is fine
I worry that it isn’t though
I cry no more
I am confused and afraid

I understand people believe I’m just a statistic
I say to them I’m different
I dream of life getting easier
I try my best to make my dreams true
I hope that it does
I am confused and afraid

Antwon Rose Jr. was murdered by the East Pittsburgh Police Tuesday night, June 19th. Officer Michael Rosfeld pulled over the jitney (An unregistered cab in Pittsburgh) Antwon was riding in, alleging that it matched a car involved in a drive-by shooting 15 minutes prior. Reports say that Rosfeld ordered the occupants to the ground, guns drawn. When Antwon and one other individual fled, Rosfeld starting firing. With three shots in the back, unarmed 17 year old Antwon Rose Jr. lay dying. The officer who pulled the trigger, Michael Rosfeld, was sworn in merely 90 minutes prior to the shooting. A cellphone video shot from an apartment window spread quickly, showing Antwon running then being shot down video here, the women in the video asking “why are they shooting at him, he was running?”

Why? Since the shooting, the Pittsburgh FOP has been quick to back their 90 minutes in the force trigger happy buddy. The mainstream news has gone wild trying to link Antwon with this drive-by that as of yet, has no evidence to link him to. Why would the cops release the jitney driver without charge if that was the case? Why would the police shoot someone unarmed in the back without provocation?

Why? Because of systemic racism of the greater Pittsburgh area police. Because the police are only harbingers of violence to communities of color; killing or incarcerating, creating trauma and 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, a black man killed by a 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. The 90-minute cop, Michael Rosfeld , and all his buddies see Antwon, Mark, Jordon, and all people of color in Pittsburgh as threatening.

Today we stand three days since Antwon was shot, and the anger in the streets is not letting up. Day and night in Pittsburgh and the surrounding boroughs, there have been rallys, vigils, and marches. There has been major traffic stoppage, and in these spaces real grieving is being worked through as people yell at police, and demand their anger to be heard. The usual false-promise politicians have stolen the megaphones, trying score some votes, but others refuse to let their anger be quelled.

As we move forward as a city, balancing anger with grief, we search for new ways to support each other, new ways to know each other, and new ways to tear this modern day plantation disguised as a liberal, “green” tech mecca the fuck down.

Rest in Power Antwon Rose Jr.

We will keep fighting.

Action report from the Fight Toxic Prisons convergence.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — On the heels of the 3rd Annual Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence, dozens of organizers, community members, and friends and family of currently- and formerly-incarcerated peoples marched through downtown Pittsburgh, making stops at the headquarters of EQT and ending at a power plant belonging to coal utility NRG Energy on the North Side. The demonstration concludes a weekend of lectures, workshops, and discussion about mass incarceration and its links to environmental health.

EQT Corporation, a major oil and gas company notorious for poisoning drinking water supplies across rural Appalachia, is one of the largest companies involved in fracking, with 793 active wells in Pennsylvania alone. They’re also one of the top ten worst polluters in the industry, according to a 2015 report published by the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2012, EQT received several charges for water pollution and disturbance of waterways, and a $1.1 million fine for poisoning drinking water supply sources through a shale pit leak at Rock Run in Tioga County, PA, and has received several other fines, violations, and complaints as well.

The march culminated in a rally at the NRG Energy Center calling attention to the health and human rights atrocities occurring at SCI Fayette, a state-run prison that currently houses 2,176 inmates. SCI Fayette was built in 2003, directly on top of a toxic coal ash dump that has been in operation for decades, receiving millions of tons of waste from coal processing companies, including NRG.

The inmate population of SCI Fayette, and the surrounding community of Labelle, PA, have reported alarmingly high rates of health issues linked to the ash that blows off the dumping site and into the surrounding air.

Richard Mosley, a member of Fayette Health Justice and Put People First PA and a former prisoner at Fayette, spoke to the crowd via telephone about his experiences there, including respiratory ailments and medical neglect. “I was admitted into the infirmary well over 10 times and at medical at least 40 times during my four years at SCI Fayette. My weight dropped down from 225lbs to 170lbs. I got so sick at one point that I kept a letter with me to send to my family in case I died.”

Other speakers at the rally highlighted campaigns and organizations working alongside and on behalf of prisoners everywhere, including Shandre Delaney of Human Rights Coalition (HRC), a prisoner-led human rights organization based in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA. HRC was a local host of the Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence.

Speaking to the crowd, Ms. Delaney said “HRC believes that it is critically important that prisoners are treated with humanity in every aspect of their incarceration. A prison sentence should not become a death sentence because of the lack of healthcare or the access to legal remedy or complaint of their treatment.”

HRC is involved in drafting legislation to end solitary confinement in Pennsylvania, as well as highlighting ongoing cases of abuse behind prison walls. They were also involved in co-producing a report on the toxic conditions at SCI Fayette with the Abolitionist Law Center, a legal advocacy nonprofit based in Pittsburgh.

More information about the Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence can be found at: FightToxicPrisons.org

Originally published by It’s Going Down

The following is an announcement for third annual Fight Toxic Prisons convergence.

The third annual Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence will take place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania from June 8-11th. The convergence will include speakers, panels, workshops, protests and cultural activities exploring the intersections of anti-prison and environmental struggles. We are currently confirming speakers for the conference and are excited to share updates with you in the coming months. We maintain a commitment to creating a space in which those most directly impacted are centered.

You can register at https://bit.ly/2uEVXlq

To get a sense of what to expect, check out the panels and rabble-rousers from our 2017 Convergence to get a sense of what to expect.

Cost:

While the conference is free and open to all, paying the sliding-scale registration fee of $25 – $50 will help cover the cost of food, housing and travel assistance to those who request it.

Travel:

The closest airport is the Pittsburgh International Airport, and there are also Megabus and Greyhound bus routes, as well as train routes.

Housing:

There will be some housing assistance offered. Please make sure to check that in the registration form.

Help Us Fundraise?:

Your donation will help us ensure that grassroots organizers, former political prisoners, family members and supporters of current prisoners are able to attend this convergence.

Donate through our fiscal sponsors at the Abolitionist Law Center by clicking here.

PLEASE NOTE, you must click “Is this for a specific case or project?” and type “FTP 2018 Convergence” to ensure the funds are available to us directly.

You can also donate via our 2018 fundraising site here.

By bringing together hundreds of grassroots activists from across the country the annual Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence seeks to build momentum across, bridges between, and solidarity among the movements for ecological justice, environmental justice, and prison reform/abolition. Through our annual convergences we seek to create space at the intersections of our various movements and across prison walls (at our 2017 convergence 9 prisoners called in to speak on panels and breakout groups), a space in which we can collectively explore how we might achieve liberation and justice. A space where we can directly share and learn from tactics, strategies, and experiences beyond the scope of our particular movements and campaigns that might play decisive roles in our local victories.

Check out more of our work and campaigns www.FightToxicPrisons.org.

Please share the event and invite people on Facebook.

Statement received from NightShade PGH on 03.08.18

Today, March 8, 2018, marks International Women’s Day, and across the globe millions of women and gender non-conforming people are showing up in solidarity with one another—many folks taking part in an international strike, rejecting capitalism as a means of liberation from the patriarchy. Actions ranging from strikes and protests to rallies and meetings have been reported in Spain, Kenya, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, and countless other locations around the United States and world. Nightshade is keeping an active eye on these various movements, and stands in solidarity and excitement with them as those involved continue to fight for their demands, big and small.

Particularly, it is important to remember the roots of International Women’s Day, which originated in 1909 as International Working Women’s Day, and its direct relationship with labor movements. While massive attention was drawn to the Women’s Day march last year in DC, marked by a sea of stunningly-gendered pink pussy hats, along with it came critiques of white-feminism and other organizing strategies which neglected to honor the voices of women of color and trans-women, and neglected to address the position of incarcerated women, poor women, and other women marginalized on multiple axes, in relation to capitalism and white supremacy. This year, however, Women’s Day falls right amidst the Teacher’s Strike in West Virginia, where, like in many states, 75% of teachers are women. According to Tithi Bhattacharya, an organizer involved with the International Women’s Strike,

“the core strength of [the teacher’s strike] lies in the fact that it is vast majority women, and because women play a very significant role bridging the gap between the workplace, the home and the community, when the teachers went on strike, a vast portion of the community was immediately galvanized in support of the teachers. So churches came out, community members came out, because women are not just teachers, they’re mothers, they’re church members, they’re breadwinners in their family. So they sort of form this astonishing bridge between the workplace and the home, making visible both kinds of labor.”

Compensation for unpaid or underpaid labor, whether in community organizing, emotional/care work, teaching, or elsewhere, is demanded on this day by women worldwide. The failure of current structures, whether on an institutional scale or in the household, to provide due credit, compensation, and support to women and gnc folks is a direct result of the interplay between capitalism and the heteronormative patriarchy. As demonstrated by a recent crackdown on sex-work and strip clubs in New Orleans, neoliberal privatization and gentrification, also known as “(re)development,” goes hand-in-hand with violence against women and trans- people, particularly those already in close proximity to gendered and sexual violence.

It is true, and has been shown by all of the recent strikes and acts of feminist resistance, that capitalism cannot function without the exploitation of women and gnc folks. And until that exploitation ends, we will not be free. Beyond this, Nightshade also stands in solidarity with those demanding an end to all violence against women and gnc people–the physical and sexual assault, the policing and gendering of our bodies, the repression of our minds and spirits. Every year when this day comes around, we are as sick and tired of being oppressed as any other day. We recognize that our fight against capitalism is a feminist fight, it is an intersectional fight, it is a queer fight. And we also understand that the worlds we build together, here and now, are crucial to the then and there of our imaginations, to our liberated futures which connect us to so many feminists past, present, and to come. We realize that the end to violence does not come without ceaseless practice of healing, defense, accountability, and learning new ways to be with one another. This requires ongoing work, where we hold each other with care and bravery, and move towards a world beyond patriarchy and all other forms of dominance.

As March 8th comes to a close, we encourage you to show love to the women and gnc folks in your life, not just today but every day. We mourn those who have been stolen from us so far this year by acts of gendered violence, and will continue to fight like hell for the living. Remember that this fight does not end when the spotlight disappears: this month Nightshade is holding a queer dance fundraiser where all proceeds will go to Survived and Punished, a collective which supports survivors of domestic violence criminalized for defending themselves, and we hope to see you there!

With queer love and rage, today and every day,

–The Nightshade Collective

Filler PGH — Counterinfo for the Steel City

On March 7th, the Pittsburgh City Paper ran a cover story featuring Lettia Suchevich, a local fascist and tattoo artist.

“Women Ink” profiles 16 women who are challenging the male-dominated tattoo art scene in Pittsburgh. It could ostensibly be a pretty cool article… if it weren’t for the fact the author knowingly and deliberately dedicated a significant portion of the piece to a fucking Nazi. 

City Paper is a free, widely-available publication that often caters to the anti-capitalist politics of the subcultures it draws its content from. After anti-fascists contacted the paper’s staff to demand an explanation, they did the right thing and removed the article from their website. This morning they even published a “sorry yinz, we goofed” statement, which admirably details more than the editor’s own failure to identify a prominent fascist symbol and individual.

The City Paper statement outlines how writer Kat Rutt doctored photos to remove a swastika tattoo, but did not conceal less-overt symbols like the Celtic cross. In “Women Ink,” Rutt presents Suchevich and her tattoo shop Painted Lady Tattoo Parlor (please feel free to leave a review on the facebook page) as if they symbolize women’s empowerment. Suchevich’s inclusion in the piece cannot be written off as an innocent oversight, especially when even a quick glance at personal facebook page reveals her involvement with the fascist movement.

Rutt remains unapologetic, as demonstrated in CP‘s statement:

“My article, “Women Ink”, published by Pittsburgh City Paper, is about women in the tattoo business. I did not talk to any of the subjects about their personal politics. The story is about women’s success in a historically male-dominated industry. […] I stand behind this article 100 percent, went to great lengths to put it out in the world, and am forever grateful to all the women who shared their stories with me.”

This is Nazi sympathy. Rutt hides behind white feminist discourse to justify her deliberate glorification of a Nazi, using one form of oppression, patriarchy, to legitimize another.

This is the same sentiment that the Democrats mobilized in their latest attempt to siphon  widespread anger into the pacified, dead-end political channels offered by capitalist democracy. If fascists act as oppression’s right hand in the streets, then white liberals like Kat Rutt act as the left hand.

We, the Filler collective, hope that CP will take further action to undo the harm they caused in printing the March 7th issue; that CP will prove to the city that they will not let their paper be an advertising service for fascists, nor a platform for nazi-sympathizers.

City Paper, it’s time to recall the March 7th issue.
Get that Nazi shit off our streets.

We’re already throwing your papers in the trash anyway.

Please contact us if you have any intel, articles, etc that you want to submit to Filler.

Names, addresses, phone numbers, and other potentially interesting, publicly-available information:

***

Pittsburgh punx, don’t forget where we come from!

Don’t respect something that has no respect / don’t sympathize with something
that has no sympathy / don’t understand something that has no understanding /
Don’t give them their freedom, because they’re not going to give you yours /
FUCK NAZI SYMPATHY

Anonymous submission, received 2.14.18

Early Sunday morning, February 11th, Mark Daniels, a black man of the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, was killed by police. This is the same city that had to be taken over by the U.S. Justice Department to stem a pattern of civil rights abuses; the same city that paralyzed Leon Ford, that killed Bruce Kelley Jr. The same police department that is facing its second corruption investigation in five years.

The police started stalking Mark after he left a convenience store—why, exactly, the police have yet to say. Then, somebody shot a gun, police allege it was Mark shooting at them, while multiple witnesses in the neighborhood say it was unrelated fire away from the police. Regardless, the police shot Mark in the shoulder and he ran, likely fearing for his life. Mark arrived at the backdoor of a nearby house asking for a glass of water. Police followed him to the backdoor, threw him to the ground, and took him away. A half hour later he was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

How could this happen? Mark was shot in the shoulder, a serious, but often survivable injury. After running down the block to ask for water, the woman who answered described him as alert and lucid. As the police were dragging Mark away, multiple witnesses say they saw officers beating him relentlessly. Officers contend that they were preforming CPR, but somehow no one seems to have seen this.

No gun was found at the scene, but after two days of putting the neighborhood on lock down and searching it with dogs, police did eventually turn up a .40 caliber hand gun. However, the coroner reports that there was no gun powder residue on Marks hands at the time of his death. And it’s unclear what caliber of gun was fired that night. So what does the discovered gun have to do with Mark?

As of this writing, Mark’s mother has yet to be allowed to view his body.

Mark was a father, a grandfather, a son, a brother, and a friend to many. His absence has left a hole in his community. His family has requested that as many people as possible attend a police accountability meeting to hold the police’s feet to the fire and raise questions.

Thursday, February 15th
Kingsley Center @ 6PM
6435 Frankstown Ave, Pittsburgh

Corporate media coverage:

http://www.wtae.com/article/suspect-shot-killed-by-police-after-chase-in-homewood-south/17011066

http://www.wtae.com/article/witness-speaks-after-fatal-police-involved-shooting/17236928

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2018/02/12/Pittsburgh-police-officer-involved-shooting-fatal-Homewood-gun-Mark-Daniels/stories/201802120114

Update: Benefit event this Saturday!

To celebrate the release of their new book, From Democracy to Freedom, folks from the CrimethInc. ex-workers collective are on tour. Come out to see them talk when they visit the Steel City. The talk will take place at 7pm at The Mr. Roboto Project, Wednesday March 7th, and is co-hosted by The Big Idea Bookstore collective and the Steel City Autonomous Movement.

Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1992793380993669/

A brief description of the new work:

Democracy is the most universal political ideal of our day. George Bush invoked it to justify invading Iraq; Obama congratulated the rebels of Tahrir Square for bringing it to Egypt; Occupy Wall Street claimed to have distilled its pure form. From the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the autonomous region of Rojava, practically every government and popular movement calls itself democratic.

And yet it was democracy that brought Donald Trump to power, not to mention Adolf Hitler.

What is democracy, precisely?
How can we defend ourselves against democratically-elected tyrants?
What is the difference between government and self-determination?

Drawing on the latest book from the CrimethInc. collective, the presenters will explore these questions and more.

Join us for a lively discussion!