Bloc Party: Black December

Originally posted to It’s Going Down

Hi friends. Sometimes writing this column feels a lot like sitting on our porch with good friends, smoking too many cigarettes and plotting the demise of our many enemies. There are times when it’s jokes and burns. There are other times when it is a dark and angry lament against everything awful that is aimed at destroying us. Thanks for coming to the porch and fucking around with us. We’re glad you’re here. It is those plotting moments with friends that keep us from tumbling into a deep pit of immobilizing despair during what are sometimes shockingly sad times.

The reality is that we can’t stay on the porch forever. We have to take those plots and realize them. We’re trying. Our friends are trying. We’re fucking proud of every last banner drop, letter to someone on the inside, long meeting, graffiti scrawled on that overpass, cop memorial vandalized, nazi punched and penny scrounged for bail or legal funds. With that in mind, let’s take a look at Black December across the world:

A little pre-gaming occurred in Mexico, when ATMs were sabotaged, and in Sao Paulo, when four banks were firebombed. In Santiago, Chile, the locks and doors of an “Exotic” pet shop were sabotaged on December 1st. Also on December 1st, comrades in Tijuana, Mexico left insurgent messages on the walls along Diaz Ordaz Blvd. The graffiti sent greetings to Carlos Lopez “El Chivo”. Elsewhere in Mexico, the Non Terrae Plus Ultra Destructive Cell left an incendiary device in the parking lot of the Xochimilco Borough Building. Claimed in response to the call for a Black December and in solidarity with all those kidnapped by the State. An impressive action worth mentioning specifically in Greece, on December 4th an incendiary attack was carried out against the house of the former Minister of the PASOK party. Even more than targeting the residence of a formal politician, the communique delivered by this cell is particularly interesting, and outlines further their reasoning behind such a target. You can read it in full, with pictures of the damage, here. On December 6th comrades claimed responsibility for an attack on a Suzuki dealership in Berlin. Also on December 6th, a spontaneous demo in memory of Alexandros and in solidarity with anarchist prisoners took the streets in Madrid. In Barcelona, several actions were claimed throughout the week, including fire set to security company vehicles, attacks on ATMs and bank windows, and fire and other destruction of urban structures.

To finish out this section and move us on to prisoner updates, please read the responses to the call for a Black December by U.S. anarchist prisoners Sean Swain and Michael Kimble.

Black December is coming, and none too soon. We’ve hashed out our theories and we’ve analyzed our reality, we know what kind of future we want and what we are going to have to tear apart in order to get it. The time for philosophizing and talking it out has ended and we face the inevitable moment of conflict with the forces of control and conformity and subjugation.

December really is the perfect starting point, here in the U.S. anyway. It’s the darkest month of the year, the most non-daylight hours to carry our acts of resistance and rebellion. Also, in the cold, everyone wears ski masks. So, a rebel about to strike a Walmart or a police car or some fascist administrator’s house doesn’t look quite as conspicuous as he or she might look in, say, July or August in the same gear.

Having read the Black December proposals, I would like to speak to those who are, so far, paralyzed by fear and skepticism, who still don’t believe that we can undertake radical, militant actions against the common enemy, that political violence even of the clandestine variety is doomed, and that it’s okay to “play” at being anarchists, but it’s foolhardy for us to put our proverbial money where our mouths are. I want to speak to that fatalism, but I currently have no way to communicate with the outside world because the FBI, likely the NSA, and a sprawling prison industrial complex have all devoted huge amounts of resources and effort to cut off my every word. So, clearly, you’re not reading this, and I’m unable to speak to your fatalism.

…

Despite its projection of invulnerability, the larger control program we have to take down is really a constantly-unraveling mess too dependent on too many sprawling systems that are left unguarded for miles (a truckload of shoes dumped from an overpass can stop a workforce from entering a city for hours) and power is too concentrated in the hands of the few (who must be protected from the many), but there are not enough guards to put guards on the guards, or to put guards on the guards’ guards, and even if there were, they all must drive home.

We’re talking about vulnerabilities here. Very serious ones. So, let’s break that paralysis and start living our resistance, even if on a small scale, baby steps, and we build, all through those dark December nights, until we find ourselves in the midst of a Black January or a Black February, and by then the police will be patrolling in those military vehicles like we saw in Ferguson.

Good thing. By Black May, we’ll need those. We’ll have to defend the armed convergences that the Invisible Committee predicts, and we’ll evolve Occupy into Shockupy.

It begins with one proverbial fire alarm. Just six pounds of pressure to pull the lever.

We own the future.

It starts now.

If you’re participating in Black December, you ARE the resistance…

Sean Swain

Today, Josh Williams was sentenced to eight years on the charges of arson, burglary and stealing in relation to protests after the death of Antonio Martin, 18, who was fatally shot Dec. 23, 2014 by a Berkeley, Missouri cop. We foolishly dared to read the comments in the above linked article from St. Louis Post Dispatch. Nothing good comes from comment sections. Amongst the obvious racist garbage from those who reside in the white suburbs of St. Louis there was something far more disturbing to us. “Supporters,” of Josh’s who referred to his “crime,” and how it was all just a terrible “mistake.” Nope. Let’s back up “supporters.” Can we stop using the state’s fucking narratives and appealing to liberal do-gooders who don’t give a fuck about Josh, Antonio Martin or fill-in-the-blank with the name of every Black youth who is murdered by the pigs or imprisoned by them? It’s gross.

Angry rant aside, keep an eye out here for updates as to how folks can show Josh further support through the course of his time in prison. Folks got your back, Josh. Fuck the cops and fuck the state.

Ever wonder if all this anti-repression work and prisoner support work is fucking adding up and making any impact? Ever feel like we’re fucking losing all of the time and you’re beyond exhausted? Read this letter from Support for Daniel McGowan immediately. Prep before hand with a handkerchief or two, because you’re probably going to cry a little bit. Then when you finish reading it and blowing your nose, write a couple letters to Daniel’s co-defendants Rebecca Rubin and Justin Solondz:

Rebecca Rubin #98290-011
FCI Dublin
5701 8th Street – Camp Parks
Dublin, California 94568
Birthday: April 18

Rebecca Rubin is serving a 5 year sentence for her role in a series of Earth Liberation Front (ELF) actions including the arson of the Vail Ski Resort Expansion and US Forest Industries. She also participated in the liberation of horses and the arson of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse Facilities in Litchfield, California and Burns, Oregon. Rebecca is expected to be released in September, 2017.

You can buy Rebecca a book (or 5!) at http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2EEY8SICPOC9D

Justin Solondz #98291-011
FCI Oakdale I
Post Office Box 5000
Oakdale, Louisiana 71463
Birthday: October 3

Justin Solondz pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson for his
involvement in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) arson of the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001 and the Romania Chevrolet dealership in Eugene, Oregon. Justin was imprisoned in China for three years prior to extradition. His anticipated release date is 9/23/2017.

Speaking of prisoner support and anti-repression work. Looks like The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has been up to some dope support work in their first six months! These folks have raised over $1700 thus far and are looking to garner some monthly supporters. Throwing in a few bucks to support antifa across the globe sounds like a dope New Year’s resolution for you and your buddies:

HELP US HELP OUR BROTHERS & SISTERS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HATE!  If you agree that fighting hate is not a crime; if you believe that anti-fascism is self-defence; and if you want to show real solidarity with your fellow antifa, please make a donation to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund and encourage people you know to join you in donating.

You can make a monthly recurring donation to the Fund here.

You can make a one-time donation via paypal here.

A donation of at least $20U.S./€20/£15 gives you a voice in the funding decisions.

Please help us help our friends in the antifa movement!  Donate to the Fund and spread the word!

The bullshit “welfare checks,” that have been happening in Pelican Bay SHU and other solitary units for months on end continue. Folks on the inside are being sleep deprived and tortured in attempts for retribution and intimidation.

On Nov 30th, the 119th day of interrupted sleep 48 times a day, about 20 people took part  in an EMERGENCY PROTEST at CDCr headquarters in Sacramento to stop these so-called “security/welfare checks” being done every 30 minutes in the Pelican Bay SHU and other solitary units in CA prisons.

There are specific calls for support from the prisoners and those who are organizing alongside them from the outside. Calling a prison can feel weird, intimidating or just enraging. We get that. Following provided scripts during campaigns like this can help with those feelings. You can also wing it and harness some of those awkward feelings to make for a very uncomfortable phone conversation with the asshole at the prison who answers the phone. That being a personal favorite here at Bloc Party. Here are all the details on the email and call in campaign:

SEND EMAILS to
STOP the 30 minute ‘checks’

This link will help you easily send an email to Gov. Brown and the Assembly and Senate Public Safety Committees to stop the so-called security and welfare checks! http://bit.ly/1keDTUG

MAKE CALLS to STOP 30 minute ‘checks’ in Pelican Bay SHU

Governor Brown: 916.445.2841

CDCR Secretary Jeffrey Beard: 916-323-6001

Pelican Bay State Prison: 707.465.1000

CDCR Ombudsman 916.445-1773
CDCR: 916.445.7688

Suggested script for calls:
Your name, what city/state you live in

Tell all of them:

Stop the 30 minutes welfare checks in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison. Sleep Deprivation is Torture.