Bristol Antifascists are joining with other radical groups and comrades in Bristol for a demonstration on 16th March to remember our amazing and inspiring comrade Anna Campbell.
We also want to show our shared commitment to all that she stood for and towards the better world she fought so hard for.
Here’s some of the struggles Anna gave so much to and which we carry on:
Anarchism, Anti capitalism, Feminism, Anti Patriarchy, Queer struggle, Antifascism, Animal liberation, Hunt sabotage, Prison abolition, Defendant solidarity, Ecological struggle, Eviction resistance, Direct action…Join us! Meet 2pm near the International Brigades plaque in Castle Park, between the church and the river.
15th March 2019 marks the first anniversary of when we lost Anna Campbell. Anna went out to Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria, to join the Kurdish struggle against fascism.
She was inspired by the revolution because of the politics of direct democracy, feminism and environmentalism and fought with the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), who have been at the forefront in the fight against ISIS.
Anna was killed by a Turkish airstrike whilst defending the city of Afrin.
We have an amazing show/transcript for you this week. First, we talk with someone from PopMob about a recent event in Portland that brought together close to 600 people in response to a series of anti-queer and anti-trans attacks.
Police Rapists Go Free.
In New York, the DA has decided to drop charges against several police officers that raped and attacked Anna Chambers. Anarchists have been a continuous part of the struggle and shown solidarity for months.
In a statement Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council wrote:
We are infuriated and outraged at the Brklyn DA’s decision to drop all rape and sexual assault charges at today’s hearing, but we are unsurprised by a system that continues to protect its rapist agents. Solidarity with @annaaachambers and all victims of sexual violence by police pic.twitter.com/5j7Tz1Yemr
My Remarks at “Our Streets: A Community Safety Day” on resisting the fear we all feel after attacks on the LGBTQ community & the rise of Alt-right violence from Patriot Prayer. https://t.co/FmHt5KDRQN
We then talk with two people involved in the newspaper project, Salvo, out of Los Angeles, who is currently fundraising to expand their project. We talk about the importance of having counter-information projects, the recent LA teacher’s strike, and more.
In 2019, our eyes are set on growth. We plan to double our printing capacity, expand our distribution network, and most importantly, relay thoughtful analysis from people on the ground when things pop off.
The Oakland teacher’s strikeis over, with many reporting that the teacher’s union gave in to major concessions. Many are now mobilizing to fight a series of proposed school closures. Check out a series of critical articles on the strike on LibComand Commune Magazine.
A week after Kentucky teachers conducted a job action to protest legislation attacking pensions and public schools, teachers in the state’s largest school district in the Louisville area have staged two days of sickouts in defiance of the unions. On Thursday, Jefferson County Public School teachers were joined by school workers in Meade, Oldham, and Bullitt counties, resulting in the closure of hundreds of schools.
In Louisville, the teacher actions are organized by a group completely autonomous of the teacher’s unions.
Chelsea jailed
CHELSEA MANNING Two extremely easy ways to support @xychelsea grand jury resistance.
1. Write here a letter at
ID: A081426
William G Truesdale Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Rd, Alexandria, VA 22314
Supporters of Chelsea Manning rallied in DC recently in support of the whistle-blower who “provided archives of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, [and] was taken into custody on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating the anti-secrecy group.” A support fund has been set up here. In a statement Chelsea said:
“In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available. My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal.”
School Strike…
Demonstrations continue in Sacramento, California, with students taking a lead, launching school walkouts and strikes, which have marched across the city building as more students walk out of school and join in them.
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, two Silent Sam protesters had their charges dropped, while another one still faces some charges. Check out a statement from Take Action Chapel Hill here.
Yesterday, two of the UNC Silent Sam anti-racist activists who were facing trial tomorrow had their charges dropped due to insufficient evidence. One, Alexander Joustra, was violently arrested and has been facing charges for over 6 months. Here’s his statement, and ours. pic.twitter.com/LcGMpzWF50
— Take Action Chapel Hill (@takeactionch) March 7, 2019
In major anti-pipeline news, the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline, known as the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which for the last two years has been resisted by the L’eau Est La Vie Camp, is now being delayed in construction “indefinitely.” According to Last Real Indians:
Energy Transfer Partners may have lied to its shareholders when it told investors the Bayou Bridge pipeline will be fully functional this month.
According to reports from Louisiana residents who frequent the Atchafalaya Basin, work on the project – which was first projected to be complete in 2017 – has been halted indefinitely due to high water levels.
Included in this program is a recent update from the Bayou Bridge resistance camp, which will also give an update. Not to be outdone, two other massive energy projects, the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, two projects have have written about and covered on this podcast, are also in jeopardy and are far behind schedule.
Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipeline Resistance
Two proposed long-haul natural gas transportation projects—the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)—are now in peril. That’s the result of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia in late February.
Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s [introduced a bill] to curb violent pipeline protests [and it] has flown through both chambers of the Legislature. Noem dropped Senate Bills 189 and 190 on Monday. On Wednesday, a joint hearing was held on the bills. By Thursday, the Legislature suspended rules in order to pass both bills out of both chambers on the same day. SB 189 establishes civil penalties for “riot boosting,” or contributing money to or encouraging protesters who engage in violence.
Of the bill, journalist Will Parish wrote on Twitter:
If you “encourage” someone to protest (“riot”) against the KXL pipeline, SD now wants to fine you. “The governor’s office coordinated with representatives of TransCanada, law enforcement, local governments and state agencies to draft the bills.”
Alt Right Leaks Victory
Finally, the Alt-Right white nationalist group, Identity Evropa is having a bad week. Media collective Unicorn Riot released a series of Discord chat lots giving antifascists across the country access to a treasure trove of information, which kicked off a new round of doxxing, job firings, and more. The leaks show many connections between local GOP and College Republican circles and show a desire by members of IE to infiltrate the political establishment as much as possible.
IE’s demise is welcomed but we should consider possible implications. a comrade states “they will rebuild and possibly develop a more militant, anti-system politics. The recent decomposition & disorganization of the neo-fascist groups present opportunities for new alignments.”
This weekend is Identity Evropa’s yearly conference, which is supposed to be held in secret, yet the information was also released. The group is currently meeting at a lake resort in Kentucky, and then is supposed to hold some sort of action later in the weekend.
Soon after, the leader of Identity Evropa, Patrick “McLovin” Casey announced that the group would reform under the banner of American Identity Movement, or AIM, which of course is the same initials as the American Indian Movement, which still exists to this day. Whether this rebranding will result in a split within the organization or just a reboot, remains unclear.
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, March 9th: Little Rock, Arkansas, State Capitol. Anti-racist mobilization against militia, neo-Nazi, and KKK rally. More info here.
Friday, March 15th: Vancouver, British Columbia. Mobilize against Alt-Right trolls Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. More info here.
Saturday, March 16th: March Against Racism and Fascism with UARF. New York. More info here.
March 16th – 20th: Mattole Forest Skillshare Camp in Northern California.
April 19th-21st: In Prescott, Arizona there is a three-day antifascist gathering called the Cliffrose Convergence at the Frantz Fanon Community Strategy Center being organized.
Thursday, March 14th at the Social Justice Action Center at 400 SE 12th Ave. PDX Rad Movie is back for our first installment of 2019, one year and one day after our first showing last March.
March 30th, East Portland Housing Assembly. More info here.
August 16th – 18th: Indigenous anarchist convergence, so-called Flagstaff, Arizona. More info here.
An eye-witness report from Act 16 of the ongoing Yellow Vest uprising against neoliberalism, by Paul Cudenec of Shoal Collective.
We had just positioned ourselves downwind from the teargas canisters that had been fired towards us from the ranks of riot police protecting the Sous-Préfecture, the French state’s HQ in Alès, southern France.
Then suddenly we were coming under attack from the opposite direction. A squadron of cops was lurking, unseen, on the other side of the modern pedestrianised square and had started firing tear gas from behind us.
Choking and with streaming eyes, we fled down a little side street which, ironically enough, turned out to be dedicated to the “martyrs of the resistance”.
Map: All the known mass graves of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the fascist uprising and the Franco regime.
Spain has done little to give closure to the atrocities perpetrated during the dictatorship. Instead, as Alex W. Palmer explains in a recent article, Spain implemented a political agreement known as the “Pact of Forgetting.” 200,000 people were executed in the dictatorship—mostly by the fascist forces, still more died during the bombings of cities and towns in Spain, and some 370,000 were held in concentration camps.
Spain has exhumed the remains of only 9,000 victims of the long fascist-catholic regime in the last 19 years. A report urges the government to formalize an urgent plan to recover up to 25,000 more bodies in the next five years. This will depend on whether a far right coalition wins the April 2019 election.
In Paterna, some of the bones of 100 victims found in graveyard 112 are cracked, which could mean that the people executed at the site were tortured. According to the AP’s Parra, archaeologists have asked authorities to launch a criminal investigation into the victims’ violent deaths.
I do have a pretty good excuse for being a little late in writing this month’s column, namely being arrested and remanded for a squatting-related offence (of which I am not guilty for the record, as I will be testifying at trial later in the year).
At least I’m not all talk and no walk huh.
Fraguas Lives Again.. Fraguas Revive
A couple of nights in the cells isn’t so bad though – let’s start this round-up with some hard-hitting news from abroad. The Fraguas case in Spain. For those not aware of the situation, since 2013 a group of squatters calling themselves the Association of Rural Repopulation of Sierra Norte, more commonly Fraguas Revive, occupied an abandoned village in Guadalajara near Madrid.
The intention was to breathe life back into the village that was left empty since the expropriation by the Franco regime, and to provide space for people to imagine and act out utopias of the future through self-organisation and sustainability.
This short vid gives an overview and visuals of the Fraguas project (in Spanish) Unfortunately the municipal government of Guadalajara came down hard on the group, for daring to carve out their own destinies. Back in 2018 the provincial courts sentenced six of the people involved in the project to approximately 3,000 Euros in fines each, and an 18-month jail sentence, for the crime of usurping land from local authorities without permission.
They immediately took this to the appeal courts, but unfortunately last month the court upheld the decision, and they will now have to serve their sentences.
In addition they refuse to pay the costs of demolishing the buildings they have repaired, although this may also result in an extra nine months incarceration for non-payment. An impressive stance to take, and my non-existent hat goes off to them.
An interesting note is that the government utilised these laws on the basis that the village was now part of the Natural Park, so therefore couldn’t be considered a dwelling, and they were able to screw them with the serious charges rather than the more administrative process that tends to take place for squatting in Spain.
Similarly there are regulations here in the UK about “royal” parks, and police are able to simply remove with force anyone they wish. I have seen this abused by the Met Police to break in, beat up, and evict people squatting an abandoned caretaker’s in north London.
There isn’t too much more to this analysis than just to say it’s funny that where parks and natures are supposed to be there for people to participate in and enjoy, and where the regulations are supposedly there to protect those notions, they are abused at the first opportunity to uphold social order.
Grow Heathrow cut back
Further bad news, which is a running theme in this column as well as the squatting world in general, is that the eviction process of Grow Heathrow has finally begun.
Started almost nine years ago in Sipson village on the outskirts of London, it is land that was supposed to be the site of the proposed new runway for Heathrow airport. Political protest, land reclamation, and communal living have been part of the project as it has evolved over the years.
The plan to evict has been long fought in the courts, and has been muddied by the squatting of a second adjacent plot of land that is owned by a different owner, making the enforcing of any Possession Orders logistically very difficult. However the time has come that the owner of the original site, Imran Malik, wants it back.
About 7.30am Tuesday (the evening standard reports 8:30am, but our local squat networks of course were on the blower much earlier about the situation – remember to sign up to the “NELSN” London phone network on 07575013111) the first High Court Enforcement bailiffs from the National Eviction Team arrived on the scene, and not long after they had gained access to the front half of the site.
During the eviction Grow Heathrow got some unexpected support from local school children.
Our hippy friends took to the tunnels and the tree-houses, with one person locking themselves to the turbine tower, and another going underground into the tunnels with food and water to last several days. Dig little mole, dig!
While the squatter up the tower has since been cut away, squatters from across London are making their way to support the Grow Heathrow crew as they remain in the second-half of the site, planning resistance, and of course the ninth birthday party in just few weekends’ time. See you there.
The call is still out for people to join the resistance, the bailiffs are booked for up to two weeks to carry out the eviction, so anyone from London (or further) who has the time and energy feel free to go and get involved: Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, West Drayton, UB7 0JH.
Curent situation: February 28th
Freedom spoke to a Grow Heathrow member today who said: “We want people to know we are still on the back lands! We have lost our kitchen, front garden, bike racks, art space and front guest cabin – and we will be rebuilding those on the back part of site over the coming weeks.
“Most houses are on back lands, as is our music space, toilet, shower, fruit trees, bees and forest area, so the resistance is still strong and bailiffs are letting people through to visit the site.”
Asilo evicted
Sticking with evictions, Asilo (the Asylum), longest-standing squat in Torino, Italy, said farewell on February 7th. For almost 25 years it was a hub of radical and local organising. The premise for the break-in was the arrest of six people purported to be involved in explosive attacks against institutions involved in the detention and deportation of migrants.
Disappointing to say the least that the fire brigade helped the police into the building, and then issued a condemnation notice. It’s always nice to think of the fire brigade as an essential and welcome public service, and there’s no need for them to be complicit in such an action. Boo.
Asilo before the eviction
Eccles upbeat
One bit of good news does exist however, in Eccles, Greater Manchester. In November a group of homeless people took over an abandoned NHS building and have turned it into a homeless centre, helping people to keep a roof over their head while seeking the support they need.
They have since been taken to court by the NHS (see above for institutions that needn’t be complicit in upholding state repression), but were almost immediately after granted a stay on the execution of the Possession Order while they appeal. Your author doesn’t know the current state of the appeal, but as at the time of writing they were still occupying the building.
Beyond the urban
A bit disjointed, this month’s letter is perhaps lacking in a cohesive theme, or particular analysis of things squatirical, but it is interesting to look at some of the squats that exist outside of the cities.
Resistance, and organisation, is often different to that which I and others experience in the cities of abundant ephemeral squats. I certainly have found this to be the case, and found it to be eye-opening and valuable when visiting and participating in more rural resistances.
Then there are many cases of indigenous occupations, that somewhat transcend the conventional understanding of the word squat, even if it indeed describes their legal status.
I won’t offer any attempts at humorous commentary on these situations, they exist in the reality of others’ experiences, but I am seeking to learn more about resistance across the globe, and implore others to do so too.
The world is fucked up, and as capitalism drives people further from feasible housing solutions, squatting, amongst other forms of resistance, becomes more important, if harder to actually live out.
The opportunity to organise ourselves and take charge of our housing, our lives, exists in these spaces. We can’t give them up.
On that note, I’ll be looking to not give up my own squat as we face imminent eviction early next month. Keep your fingers crossed for us all and we’ll see you next time.
Let’s fight against isolation. Let’s put an end to fascism. Let’s liberate Kurdistan.
International Reviews Rojava LAURA GIMENO -CNT TERUEL
During the week of 11 to 16 February a hundred internationalists have been marching from Luxembourg to Strasbourg for the “Long March internationalist”, a march that has been organized for three years and has as its main objective to demand the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan.The long marches are one of the fighting tools that have been applied for many years in the points where there is a large Kurdish population in the diaspora.
For three years, this tool has been internationalized and has become a meeting point for people from different parts of the world who support the Kurdish cause, a meeting point to share experiences and training, a meeting point and confluence between different tendencies and ideologies of the left, united under the slogan “Let’s fight against isolation. Continue reading “Planting Freedom; CNT Backs Rojava Revolution”
”832 people have been charged by Spanish authorities with rebellion, sedition or ‘offences against the Crown’. Most are elected representatives; 712 of those charged are town mayors”.
Ignasi Bernat and David Whyte explain why the political trials this week only reveal the tip of the iceberg.
Photo by Beverly Yuen Thompson (Flickr)
via Z Communications Last week, the trial of the Catalonian political prisoners began in Spain. As the drama unfolds in front of the world, behind the scenes the Guardia Civil and the Spanish National Police will continue to round up less well-known activists for their political ”crimes”.
The criminalization of political opposition is not merely confined to the prisoners currently on trial, but is in danger of becoming a routine response, part of the modus operandi of the Spanish state. We noted how such practices were targeting the anti-capitalist left in an article in Red Pepper last June.
The Free 
