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Apr 18, 16

All the News You Didn’t Even Know Was Going Down

Originally posted to It’s Going Down

It was one of those weeks.

Riots, strikes, and occupations broke out across North America. In Chicago, a freeway was blocked as protests and marches popped off in the wake of another police killing. Indigenous youth in Winnipeg Canada began an occupation of the Indigenous and Northern Affairs office (INAC) in the face of a suicide crisis that has gripped Native communities. As of this writing, the occupations have now spread to Vancouver. Meanwhile in Quebec, riots raged in the face of pig murders as police stations were attacked, molotovs were thrown, and indigenous and anarchist militants attacked property and burned cars. In the US, several occupation continued at University campuses and in Mexico, police invaded the town of Xochicuautla outside of Mexico City to clear resistance to logging while in Oaxaca, teachers fought police and burned cars.

Back in the US, for several hours, fierce brawls broke out in Pittsburgh, as anti-fascists clashed with Trump supporters. We won’t mince words, what happened in Pittsburgh raised the bar. It was violent, it was militant, it was confrontational, and it was clearly carried out by many opposed to the entire social and political order, not simply those looking for a Democrat in office.

Not to be outdone, protests against Trump also took place in New York City, where anarchists marched through the streets carrying banners and flying red and black and anti-fascist flags.

In various US prisons, prisoners continued to carry out hunger strikes and work stoppages, leading to lock-downs and attempts at intimidation by prison management. Various groups such as the Free Alabama Movement and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee continue to call for strikes and actions, including on May Day and in September.

There also seems to be no signs that going into summer things will be slowing down. In Atlanta, Georgia next week large scale protests are set to take place between anti-fascists and KKK, Neo-Nazi, and Neo-Confederate forces. Check our Antifa section for more info. Also, anti-Trump demonstrations are scheduled to take place in the Bay Area on April 29th as people elsewhere also prepare for showdowns at the DNC and RNC conventions. All of this is also taking place against a world-wide backdrop of financial, political, and ecological crisis and collapse as France stands on the brink of large scale insurrection.

With things happening in prisons, workplaces, neighborhoods, campuses, and elsewhere, there is much to do, much to think about, and much to get organized around. We hope that this project continues to play a role in this as best we can.

In that spirit, let’s get to the news. 

Indigenous Resistance

Occupations of INAC (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) buildings across Canada are now underway. These occupations are being carried out by youth in response to a spiraling suicide crisis in some of the hardest hit Native communities by poverty, lack of housing, and ecological concerns. As one report wrote:

“We have not lifted that state of emergency to this day, because of the fact the [living] conditions still remain the same,” Moonias said, adding that a 14-year-old girl from Neskantaga died by suicide in January.

Those conditions include overcrowded and crumbling homes, where up to five families live in a single bungalow. As well, Neskantaga is home to Canada’s longest standing boil water advisory. People in the community have been without safe tap water for 22 years.

As the protests spread, another report wrote:

Demonstrators calling themselves #OccupyINAC have taken over two Indigenous and Northern Affairs offices and forced the department to close six more buildings to the public.

The protests began in Toronto, where around 30 people took over part of the Indigenous Affairs office on April 13. One day later, a similar occupation began in the department’s downtown Winnipeg office.

Demonstrations have since been held outside offices in Regina and Gatineau, Que.

In an email to CBC News, a department spokesperson said offices across the country have been affected by the protests.

“In order to ensure the well-being of the public and security of the buildings, INAC regional offices in Toronto and Winnipeg are currently closed. Other INAC regional offices, including Gatineau, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Quebec are currently operating but closed to the public,” the email states.

In Vancouver, Warrior Publications reported:

Indigenous children, mothers and families and allies are occupying the offices of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada in Vancouver, Coast Salish territories. In solidarity with the youth of Attawapiskat and their demands and needs. Drop by, we are here at 1138 Melville street, 6th floor.

Meanwhile, in the US, Native peoples continue to block the Dakota Access Pipeline:

Class War

In the US, tens of thousands of Verizon workers went out on strike. One report read:

Verizon is prepared to proceed ruthlessly against the strikers. On the eve of the walkout, the president of the company’s wireline network division noted that management had trained thousands of non-union workers as strikebreakers and moved staff to other locations to maintain operations. “Let’s make it clear,” he said, “we are ready for a strike.”

Earlier this week, Verizon sent a threatening email to all employees saying, “It is important that everyone understand what conduct the Company and the unions agreed would constitute just cause for discharge.” In the four-month strike in 1989 against Verizon’s predecessor company, NYNEX, striker Gerry Horgan was killed when a scab truck driver ran him over on the picket line.

Workers can place no confidence in the Communications Workers of America (CWA) or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to counter the attacks of management and carry through a serious struggle. They have collaborated with the company for decades in imposing job cuts and concessions, including the establishment of a two-tier system in which newly hired workers receive no pension and have no job protection. Since their betrayal of the strike in 2000, in which the unions sent the majority of strikers back to work while the walkout was still in progress, the workforce has been slashed by 40 percent.

In 2011, the unions called off a strike after only two weeks without obtaining a new contract or any agreement by the company to withdraw its $1 billion in concessions demands or any amnesty for workers victimized by management in the course of the walkout. More than a year later, they pushed through a sellout deal that imposed most of the take-aways demanded by Verizon.

Across the US, actions continued to be organized by low-wage workers in support of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. As you can see in some of these actions, there is a growing tendency for the participants to get out of the control of union bosses and protest managers. Hopefully all types of workers can join these actions and continue this trajectory of confrontational and autonomous action:

https://twitter.com/WesKnuckle/status/720686077472858112

Meanwhile, in Oaxaca, teachers clashed with police:

Education

The occupation at Duke University continued, as right-wing students left reactionary and racist messages. In Ohio, students conducting a sit-in were evicted, all under the guise of protecting a “safer space.” Meanwhile, on other campuses actions were carried out:

https://twitter.com/DenimAssemblage/status/720366300267208704

https://twitter.com/JonCanaTV/status/721430609403338752

Anti-Fascist

As we have already reported, large scale brawls took place in Pittsburgh this week involving anarchists and anti-fascists outside of a Trump rally. Actions also took place in New York City. Check this shit out:

Actions from anti-capitalists and anti-racists are also spreading against Clinton. Let’s see this only continue:

https://twitter.com/ciccmaher/status/721422041895858180

In Atlanta, people involved with All Out ATL have really pulled out all the stops to their upcoming mobilization to shut down the Ku-Klux-Klan, Neo-Nazis, and pro-Confederacy groups which are rallying at Stone Mountain on April 23rd. So far they have announced a convergence space which will host workshops and speakers and have a growing list of endorsements from groups as varied as anarchist formations, anti-racist Motorcycle Clubs, to Black Lives Matter organizations. They have also announced more information in relation to meet up times and locations. If you haven’t already, go to their website and see just what is happening. As always, if you are going to the mobilization, be sure to write a report afterwards and let us know how it goes down.

Lastly, Antifa in Atlanta have reported that both the KKK mobilization at Stone Mountain and the nearby National Socialist Movement (NSM) event in Rome, Georgia (less than an hour away) will both be meeting up that evening for a joint get together. Location and details here.

We here at IGD are hoping to put together a page that will update in real time with social media, videos, and photos of the event as it goes down, much as we did for the anti-KKK rally in South Carolina. So if you can’t make it but still want to be plugged into the action, be sure to check us out on Saturday. While you’ve got your friends together, kick down some cash for the anti-repression fund for any comrades that may be arrested in the Atlanta showdown.

ACAB

Did shit go down this week in Montreal! According to Montreal Counter-Info:

A demonstration of around 30 masked people took the streets of Hochelaga on the night of Thursday, April 14. Police were attacked with fireworks and molotovs. There were no arrests.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BET-fRzkS2F/

Meanwhile, in Chicago people took to the streets in response to the shooting death of Pierre Loury, 16. People are also furious over continued deaths in custody at Homan Square, a secretive police building where pigs violently interrogated people in an “off the books” site.

Prisoner Resistance

With so much going on in US prisons its hard to keep up and know where to put support. We encourage everyone to read both the IWOC and Support Prisoner Resistance website which has the most up to date info. But in short, here’s a quick roundup:

Mexico On Fire

Be sure to check out Scott Cambell’s column, Insumision this week for an in depth look at social struggle and state repression in Mexico, but we wanted to give a quick shout out to those in Oaxaca organizing around defending autonomous spaces. Here are some collected tweets:

Also, Tijuana has a squatted social center that will be opening up soon in May. If you can make it down to help them out or bring materials for this space, please do so.

Shout-Outs

We wanna thank our good friends at the Base in Brooklyn for tabling with copies of the IGD magazine at the NYC bookfair; we heard it went fast!

We’d like to encourage people to check out the new issues of the Earth First! Journal and Black and Green Review, out now. In the near future we hope to be running several articles from both publications so stay tuned!

It’s Going Down!

Be sure to check us out this Saturday for updated reports as they come in from the All Out ATL mobilization. In the meantime, stay up with us here.

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In search of new forms of life. It's Going Down is a digital community center and media platform featuring news, opinion, podcasts, and reporting on autonomous social movements and revolt across so-called North America from an anarchist perspective.

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