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Dec 26, 17

New Year’s Eve Noise Demonstrations Across North America

On Sunday, December 31st, across so-called North America and beyond anarchists, autonomists, abolitionists, and anti-authoritarians will hold noise demonstrations outside of jails, prisons, and detention facilities. In some of the cities participating, these actions have been taking place on New Year’s Eve for almost a decade and are part of building both a revolutionary culture as well as a bridge with those most impacted by mass incarceration and policing.

If you are planning an event and want it to be added to the list, email us at: info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org. Here’s a list of events so far. 

Portland, OR: 

Join us for a noise demonstration against the prison industrial complex, in solidarity with the incarcerated, and for the liberation of us all. Bring your banners, signs, noisemakers, drums, and voices and let’s make a ruckus. Here’s to a 2018 of escalating resistance to jails and prisons and the world that creates them!

Multnomah County Justice Center, 1120 SW 3rd. 8:30 PM. Event listed here.

Phoenix, AZ: 

From Antifascist Action Phoenix:

TEAR DOWN ALL THE PRISON WALLS!!! Let’s get out to remind the peeps on the inside that they’re not alone on the holidays… Meet on the corner of 29th Ave and Durango and bring any and all noise makers, pots and pans, musical instruments you can find. We’ll march down to the jail and make noise and remind them that they’re not alone.

Estrella Jail, 2939 West Durango Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85009. 7 PM. Facebook event here.

Omaha, NB: 

From Omaha Anarchist Black Cross:

We are loud for those behind heavy walls. Solidarity for our brothers and sisters and others detained for all reasons. We will make a ruckus to let them know we are here and to let the powers that be know there is no reform or policy we are advocating for. When we say, “break the bars” or “burn the prisons” we mean there is no alternative except for the total destruction of prison in all its forms. 

We also recognize the efforts by those behind the walls to push back against the authoritarian and lock jawed judicial system. Specifically the recent prison uprising at the Tecumseh State Prison this year and the nationwide prison strike of 2016. 

Prisons are designed to break people’s will to resist, and exist. The weapons we wield in response are meak, but are also a powerful form of solidarity. Letters, fireworks, courtroom support, ABC chapters, family support groups all help remind those locked up that people are fighting for them outside the razor wire and cell bars.

We will meet in front of the downtown library and take our noise through the streets to the Douglas county jail at 710 S. 17th st. Boomboxes, instruments, voices, noisemakers of all kinds welcomed and encouraged. 6 PM. Facebook event here.

Cincinnati, OH: 

From Facebook event:

Join us for a noise demonstration against the prison industrial complex, in solidarity with the incarcerated, for the liberation of political prisoners and prisoners of war.

Outside the Hamilton County Justice Center, 900 Sycamore St, 45202. 10 PM. Facebook event here.

Austin, TX: 

From Austin Anarchist Black Cross:

A new year is fast approaching, and many of us are celebrating the possibility of new beginnings, building stronger communities and steadfast resistance against the trump administration. Today (12/21) we received news that the first trial block for the J20 defendants were acquitted of all charges! This is incredible news, but as over 180 more defendants await trial, we can’t lose sight of our long-term goals of abolition, or the fact that incarcerated folks need to be included in our movements! 

This long standing tradition is a way of showing folks inside that they have not been forgotten. Join us for an evening of festive resistance as we celebrate the possibility of a world without institutions of confinement!

Meet @ Republic Square Park, 11:30pm. We will all gather and walk together to the jail. More info and Facebook event here.

Dallas, TX: 

From Trinity River Lookout:

Join us with an autonomous noise demonstration at Lew Sterrett Justice Center (111 West Commerce St. Dallas, Texas 75202) in solidarity with those caged within the confines of the prison industrial complex.

Stand with us as we ring in the new year for those comrades on the other side of the wall and remind them that they are not alone and that ALL PRISONERS ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS.

Gather in the parking lot near the North Tower Detention Facility around 8:30 P.M. to meet new accomplices and test out your noise makers. We will march together to the sidewalk across the street at 9 P.M.to commence the loudest and best New Year’s Eve party in town!

111 Commerce Street, Dallas, 8:30 PM.

Milwaukee, WI: 

From CLOSEmsdf:

Come out to make some noise and show solidarity and celebrate the New Year with the community members held in terrible conditions inside the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. 

Bring noise-makers, bullhorns, flashlights, whatever spectacle-making stuff you can. MSDF is a building within a building, so it’s going to take a lot for people inside to see or hear us, but we’ll do our best and they’ll at least hear about us. 

We will gather on the southwest corner of state and 10th, and march down the block, around the building as well as to the county jail across the street.

6pm Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, 1015 N 10th St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53205. Facebook event here.

Minneapolis, MN: 

From No More Jails:

Prisons are fucking awful. Everything about them is designed to suffocate any semblance of life, of hope, of rebellion in order to shield and protect the catastrophe that is the world as we know it. Though the isolation they impose is not impenetrable.

Every New Year’s Eve around the world friends gather opposite the prison walls to send love to those inside, reminding them that they are not forgotten. Each year we designate this night to the living memory of those held captive.

Come to Elliot Park on December 31st, 2017 at 6pm!

Bring a friend, bring noisemaker, and bundle up!

Durham, NC:

From Inside-Outside Alliance:

For seven years now, we have come together on New Years Eve at the jail to bring in the new year. 2017 will be remembered. We mourned the deaths of Neicey Fennell and James Staton inside the Durham jail, and of Heather Heyer on the streets of Charlottesville. Our friends and comrades have been targeted by the cops and courts from Alamance to the Grand Jury in Greensboro, the August arrests in Durham and J20 in DC. And the US’s onslaught of murder, deprivation, and imprisonment against people of color, the poor, and the undocumented continues with as much hateful vigor as ever under Trump.

2017 was a year of resistance. The endless resistance of Durham jail rebels, relentlessly writing and drawing against their confinement and organizing themselves inside. From the battle to protect in-person visitation to the toppling of the confederate monument. We showed the Klan they can’t come to Durham anymore and the Sheriff that he can’t kill detainees and deport our friends and family unopposed.

Come out and set your intentions for the year. Bring your friends! Bring anything that makes noise and light to bring in the new year. Andrews is calling for a crackdown to restore “civil order”. Those inside will never surrender their fight for liberation. Come out on New Years Eve, show those inside we will not surrender either. Show that we will make 2018 a year of even greater resistance!

Durham Jail, 7 PM. Facebook event here.

Asheville, NC: 

From Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross:

On Sunday, 12/31/17 at the downtown Buncombe County jail and courthouse complex in Asheville, a noise demonstration will happen at 7pm to bring outside attention to the jail and let the folks on the inside know that we’re thinking of them. Bring noisemakers, pots, pans, horns, whatever. Here’s a link to the jpg of the flyer.  Not in Asheville? Organize your own damn thing.  Or check itsgoingdown.org to join with an existing event!

Norfolk, VA: 

From Tidewater IWW:

This New Year’s Eve, put on your dancing shoes and join us as we celebrate resistance to the prison-industrial complex with a massive bloc party! Local organizations involved in the struggle against jails, prisons and the world that creates them, will be present to provide information about their ongoing work. This will include Humanities Behind Bars, the Tidewater IWW, Black Lives Matter Hampton Roads and more! Local artists will perform music and hard hitting poetry to help ground us in love and solidarity. And the 7 Cities Medic Collective will be keeping everyone safe! To wrap up the night, we will have a dance party and make as much noise as possible for the people behind bars at Norfolk City Jail, just a couple blocks away. Attendees are encouraged to bring noisemakers of all kinds! After a long, hard year, it’s time to come together and celebrate our victories; past, present and future!

MacArthur Square Outdoor Pavilion. 301 East City Hall Ave, Norfolk, VA 23510. 6:30 PM.

Gainesville, FL: 

From Fight Toxic Prisons:

Minutes from downtown Gainesville, almost 300 prison slaves are held captive at a “work camp” site, where they are sent out daily to do work that city and county workers would be paid a fair wage for. Instead, these prisoners work as literal slaves (as the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows.)

You have seen them, maybe you have even spoken to them in passing on the Hawthorne Trail. Now is the time to stand with them. Tell the DOC, the City and the County that these workers should be compensated fairly. 

While slavery continues for anyone of us, none of us are truly free.

Please join us, and also show your support for FL prisoners who have called for a statewide strike to begin Jan 15, MLK Day (called “Operation PUSH”)

Corrections Department Work Camp, 700 NE 55th Blvd, Gainesville, Florida 32641. 6 PM.

Chicago, IL: 

From Chicago Anarchist Black Cross:

New Years Eve noise demos have become something of a global anarchist tradition. While there is no real significance to this day, noise demos are a super fun and easy way to show solidarity with incarcerated folks. With prison uprisings and organizing on the rise, it is important that we show those on the inside that we have their backs. Bring pots, pans, whistles, and any other noise makers and lets show these prisoners some love!

MCC at Clark and Van Buren, 7pm. Facebook event here.

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New York, NY: 

From New York Anarchist Black Cross:

On the noisiest night of the year in New York City, come help us remind folks locked up that they are not alone. NYC Anarchist Black Cross, in response to an international call for noise demonstrations outside of prisons, is asking folks to join us outside of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in lower Manhattan. Come, not to appeal to authority, speak truth to power, or any other contrivance, but rather to stand arm in arm with comrades and show direct solidarity to those on the other side of the wall.

The state, writ large, is targeting anarchists all across the United States and abroad. This will be both protest and celebration. To keep the cold at bay, comrades from Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council – MACC will again be on hand with hot cocoa to keep the vocal cords nice and warm.

Metropolitan Correction Center (MCC, the federal prison in downtown Manhattan); Pearl Street, between Cardinal Hayes Place and Park Row (J to Chambers Street or 4/5/6/ to City Hall). 9 PM.

Montreal: 

From Against the Prisons:

Join us this New Year’s Eve to send loud messages of solidarity to those spending the holidays behind bars, as we celebrate ongoing prisoner resistance and renew our commitment to fighting for a world without prisons!

✘ Come join us on December 31, 2017 at 4:30pm at Metro Henri-Bourassa on the corner of Lajeunesse and boulevard Henri-Bourassa.
✘ We will be taking a bus out to the prisons in Laval.
✘ Dress warm; bring something to make some noise, whistles, pots and pans, drums, banners, fireworks.

There will be a support vehicle for those who would like a ride during the demo. We will have extra warm clothes, snacks, and folks to walk with you to a bus station if you have to leave early. For questions regarding accessibility or anything really, email: [email protected]

We fight against prisons and for prisoner liberation because prisons are a cornerstone of the systems that oppress us and threaten those we love and care about. Prisons destroy communities, they lock up our loved ones. Prisons are a crucial part of the everyday functioning of colonial canadian society. The threat of prison is used to confine people within the layers of oppression that structure their lives. Indigenous people, people of colour and poor people are consistent targets of the systems that lead to and include imprisonment. Indigenous women are still being sent to prison at higher and higher rates.

We fight against immigration detention and borders as well! This year, we fight in a context where the Canadian Border Services Agency has awarded a contract to two companies- Lemay and Groupe A- to build a new immigration detention centre in Laval. Slated for construction in 2020, the new centre will expand the CBSA’s capacity for imprisoning and deporting migrants.

We fight in a context where the far right and fascists are organizing more and more broadly in Quebec; a context where those resisting the efforts of the far right are arrested and criminalized.

We fight in a context where political prisoners south of the border face increasing repression in prison. In the past year, three former Black Panthers all imprisoned in New York State have faced extended periods in solitary confinement, beatings and have been deprived of access to necessary medical care. Solidarity with Jalil Muntaqim, Robert Seth Hayes, and Herman Bell.

While we get enraged about the existence of prisons, let’s also celebrate prisoner resistance that’s taken place this past year.

In May, there was a work strike inside a provincial prison in Saskachewan. 60 prisoners refused to work after their daily wages were slashed from 3$ a day to 1$ a day. In April, 1500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons went on hunger strike, demanding a range of better conditions and more access to their communities on the outside. In December 2016, there was a massive 24-hour riot at a federal prison in Saskachewan that completely destroyed the medium security wing of the prison.

Prisons were created to isolate people from their communities. Noise demonstrations at prisons are a concrete way to fight against repression and isolation. We want to extend a message of solidarity to folks inside and wish them a happy new year- although a truly happy new year would be one without prisons and the world that needs them!

Facebook event here.

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