“They Still Cower When you Throw a Rock”: Report from the Streets of Richmond, VA

• Prohibitions on posting flyers, bulletins, handbills, and other materials anywhere except for designated community bulletin boards, and restrictions on the dimensions and quantity of material that may be posted. 

• Significant restrictions on the locations in which water-soluble chalk can be used, effectively limiting chalking from occuring in any high traffic areas, or spaces visible to the broader community. 

The call was also put out online, over social media, and through many large signal loops. The flyer simply stated “Rally against VIAB” and “Invest in our communities, not genocide,” with a time, date, and location. No information about the march following appeared to be advertised prior.

At 7pm, a crowd of about 100 people gathered in the center of Monroe Park, just as the sun started to set. As the crowd grew, waiting for the rally to begin, attendees  discussed their desires for what should follow. After two short speeches and a collectively sung liberation song, it became clear that the crowd wanted more and people organized themselves to march.

One attendee reported:

My focus was razor sharp that day. My only intention to push forward, to do the thing that needs doing, and disappear. Masked comrades had a stretching circle in the park. Speeches that amplified the need for clandestine activities, and praise for the souls who shut down Elbit factories and glued Citibank atms shut set the tone for the night, and towards our future potentials.

Participants formed a column, carrying several reinforced banners at the front bearing statements of Palestinian liberation – “Globalize the Intifada,” and “Abolish VIAB.” Departing from Monroe Park, the march lurched forward across Belvidere onto Franklin Street. Hitting Franklin Street, participants cheered and chanted from the front as the rear grabbed traffic barricades and construction materials from nearby sidewalks and alleyways. Makeshift barricades were built all along the road as protesters rapidly moved eastward. Participants remained steady, moving forward with vigor and persistence, as police cruisers began tailing the march. This began with five marked cars and several more surrounding the perimeter and adjacent side streets. As the first car approached the march’s rear, a preliminary firework was launched, separating the space between protesters and police and breaking the complacent whistle of sirens in the night air. 

Another participant reported afterwards:

We marched a solid couple blocks. A screeching sound, like metal on metal, roared from the backline. I thought someone got hit by a car at first, but I turned and saw comrades with metal park chairs, dragging them into the street. Those cuties were barricading with whatever they could grab. Then fireworks went off, keeping the piggie cruisers at bay. Somehow I’ve never felt safer at an action. No, I know how. It’s intentional militancy. The best defense being offense… [the police] can have as much militarized weapons and gear as they want, but they still cower when you throw a rock. Out of three police cruisers [immediately tailing the march], two reversed each time a firework went off.

From here, the situation developed rapidly. Fireworks were lit one after another, booms barely seconds apart, then layered. The police, unfamiliar here with such firm defensive strategies, were forced to remain at a distance.

It became clear to protesters around a quarter mile in that continuing along their projected path would not be feasible without substantial arrest and brutalization. Protesters choose to cut early, onto North Adams Street, and disperse into Jackson Ward, a historically unpoliceable neighborhood, rather than position themselves within deeply unfavorable terrain as police numbers grew. Here, the march picked up speed, targeting police infrastructure and cruisers, and massing up to cut across Broad Street which serves as downtown’s main thruway. Fireworks, projectiles, and improvised barriers continued to color the night. Along this cut, one cruiser’s window was smashed while it was occupied, preventing the officers from continuing forward the rest of the evening. Another cruiser fled after a firework landed on its hood. We can see in these methods the efficacy of active defense, one which does not wait to fight longer-term legal ramifications resulting from arrests, but rather prevents arrest and brutalization in the first place.

Piercing into Jackson Ward, the march found a favorable dispersal point at Marshall Street, with many side roads and alleys shooting off for ingenious participants to run, hide, and blend in with the night’s populous:

Our people were smart. They came with the right tools and left hesitation at home. They also knew when to get out. Although the numbers were low and the march never reached its destination, every tactical decision was timely and correct. I’m a new kid in this world, but I’ve learned more from running with this crowd than any theory pamphlet could give me.

We celebrate the brave actions of protesters, friends, and comrades who not only joined but created the combative nature of Friday the 13th’s march. A demonstration of this kind – engaging street materials, proletariat combative joy – has not been sparked in Richmond since the revolutionary uprisings of 2020. While the march on the 13th never reached its destination, we can only hope that future action may find further success. The crowd’s vigor makes clear that if the target had been reached, it would not have been left unmarked. We hope the same can be said for future demonstrations here.

This rally-turned-march was called for through a local info-sharing thread on signal and telegram, which posts local events relevant to the struggle for Palestinian liberation, global anti-imperialism, and general revolutionary activity. In addition to disseminating submitted events, it shares and proliferates partisan and revolutionary news and analysis. It is of note that this communications infrastructure was modeled after those used in other cities, such as Austin, TX and Tucson, AZ. This thread remains active as a means to coordinate interested parties towards further action and we hope that other cities will experiment with adopting and adapting this model to their locals.

This action hoped to break the spell of disenchantment and complicity, which has blanketed Richmond’s movement for Gaza since the spring semester’s end and largely follows a similar trend around generalized revolutionary action here in the wake of the 2020 uprisings. In late April, as a part of the student uprisings, an encampment for Palestine was launched at VCU. It began as an early morning occupation of the lawn beside the library and did not escalate into an encampment with tents and the desire to last the evening until around 5pm that day. The police moved in to clear the encampment within hours and were met with community defense, as partisans formed their own riot lines, constructed moving barricades, and, as the police line began advancing, lobbed projectiles at police. The crowd was teargassed but did not initially retreat, instead coming to one another’s aid, washing eyes and jumping back into the action. The dispersal took several hours and over a hundred Virginia State Police and VCU campus police to be effective, while still more Richmond Police stood by as backup. This combativity has not been seen in Richmond since the 2020 uprisings. We find this militancy possible through effective social preparedness and radicalization, across lines of social and political division.

The efforts towards the Palestine encampment organization and infrastructure-building brought together a wide aray of groups and individuals, immediately blurring the line between student and community member. For those unfamiliar with the city, VCU is a university without a campus, which is only able to persist and expand through encroaching upon downtown Richmond, displacing the city’s Black and Latino majorities, and raising rents to a height which only DC-based tech workers can afford.

The line between students and community has been drawn by the university as a form of self protection. We reject this — and reject the general delineation of “student” as an oppressed class, or as the “rightful” and “justified” deliverers of social change, a myth perpetuated by the state and the liberal activist classes alike. The student struggle is not separate from ours. Through building hubs of communication and action across movement milieus, the militancy and complexity of the movement may be grown.

We must also speak to the tactical efficacy of this march. Forty people would not have been able to make it even as far as they did, clashing with an overwhelming number of police in cruisers along the way, without significant pre-planning, the dictation of roles, and in-march tactical direction and calls. The individual quoted above to the power of this, in creating an environment which is self-protective and persistent.

It is of note that attendance was far lower than projected. While around 100 gathered in the park, only around 80 persisted to the onset of the march and by its end, the mass composed no more than 40 people. Some of this may be attributed to the vagueness of the flyer and pre-rally advertising. Though the Virginia Israeli Advisory Board is the most direct connection to the Israeli war machine within Richmond city, it is unlikely that locals would have recognized this government entity, or the acronym used to denote it, without significant further context. This turnout shows the inefficacy of appealing primarily to the student and activist populous, rather than building broad appeal and dialing in targets and messaging through action.

The intentional lack of endorsement by the mainstream Palestine liberation organizations in Richmond may have also quelled attendance. Anonymous calls for action have been seen as unfavorable here in the wake of 2020. This has been a significant limiting factor in moving past the red tape of non-profit and public facing organizations, who seem adamant to manage the actions of others in public demonstrations.

This control seeks to create an artificial safety, but then limits the crowd’s ability to self defend, and to act in full expression. No arrests were made during the September 13th demonstration. After the march’s dispersal, one arrest was made of an unaffiliated bystander over a quarter mile from the dispersal point. This stands in contrast to earlier marches for Palestine in Richmond, in which an organizer was arrested at a peaceful march for “unlawful assembly” and to the Palestine encampment at VCU, in which 13 arrests were made, largely bystanders, while those on the front line kept one another safe. 

Even as the war escalates with the ground invasion in Lebanon, turnout to actions and events for Palestinian liberation seems to decrease beyond just our city. We have not seen the larger mass Palestine organizations, most notably here American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and VCU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), act with any urgency. National fervor has been in a lull since the early summer, with the most recent mass action in D.C. on October 5th drawing a crowd which numbered 2,500, a quarter of their turnout just months ago. Optimistically, this lull could be seen to speak to the inefficacy of “marches to nowhere” to action which is purely symbolic, wearing out the partisan rather than compelling one forward. Those who do emerge do so with a combative tone, necessary for the movement’s persistence against increasing repression but difficult to pair with building a mass movement, so often aligned with the media’s perception of non-violence.

We, revolutionaries vested in anti-imperial, anti-colonial struggles for peace everywhere, are responsible for merging this divide. While we find targeting of institutions such VIAB and corporations like Elbit which directly fuel the genocide to be an ethically sound approach, it is no substitute for mass struggle. Zionism and the United State’s alliance with Israel, is an essential component of modern statecraft. To accurately fight it, mass unrest will be required. Building mass combative movements remains a task of critical importance for the maturing of this struggle within the imperial core.

Image by Phil-Pavarini-Jr from Pixabay and not associated with actual event.