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Jul 29, 21

This Is America #145: Eviction Moratorium Set to End; Pipeline Company Paying Cops to Police Line 3 Protests

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photo via: @KanahusFreedom

Welcome, to This Is America, July 29th, 2021.

On this episode, we speak with someone from the Puget Sound Tenants Union, which is also apart of the Autonomous Tenant Union Network, We discuss what we can potentially expect with the possible end to the eviction moratorium happening at the end of the month and how tenants can get organized to resist evictions now.

We then switch to our discussion, where we talk about the doubling-down of the GOP around fascist and conspiracy laden politics and how this relates to the ramping up of an attack on voting rights.

All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!

Living and Fighting

Fight Against Line 3

So far Enbridge has reimbursed more than $1 million in expenses, for things like crowd control training, overtime pay, and so-called personal protective equipment, like riot suits and tear gas masks.

With promises of reimbursement on the table, police and Enbridge officials were communicating regularly in the year leading up to the final construction permit’s approval. Meanwhile, the interagency Northern Lights Task Force was pouring “countless hours” into building an elaborate infrastructure for quelling pipeline opposition. More than a dozen Northern Lights subcommittees met monthly or weekly. An agenda for a January 2020 task force meeting included a discussion of “Phone/car tracking possibilities to consider.” The group also planned to discuss potentially back-grounding organizers for links to terrorism and whether to launch a “public information campaign on who they are and what they have done in the past.” Multiple planning documents described law enforcement drone assets.

[Pro-pipeline groups] spent around $20,000 on Facebook ads in March and April alone, circulating testimony from motel, restaurant, and construction supply store owners about how friendly pipeline workers are and how much they’ve boosted business.

Minnesotans for Line 3 describes itself as a “grassroots organization of people who understand how important it is to have reliable energy to power our economy,” but a disclosure form unearthed by DeSmog lists Enbridge as a sponsor of a Minnesotans for Line 3 TV ad. Pipeline opponents say that the group is an astroturf organization, a grassroots group hiding the fact that it is sponsored by a corporation to advance the corporation’s agenda.

For continuous action updates, see the Resist Line 3 pipeline page on Instagram and the Giniw Collective.

Class War

  • The bottom floor of an empty building was occupied in Brooklyn by a mutual aid network called the ‘The Gym’ for the second time in two two weeks, leading to a brutal eviction by NYPD.

  • In so-called Atlanta, residents at Edgewood apartments protested and rallied against an abusive manager who has been sexually exploiting tenants.

  • Members of the Crescent Town Tenants Union in so-called Toronto, successfully won a fight against a wave of harassment and evictions that landlords had been attempting to carry out in retaliation for organizing.

  • In Brampton, Ontario, a self-organized group of workers “protested in front of a wage thief’s home…to demand that he pay his former truck driver” thousands in unpaid wages.

Struggle for Abolition

  • In Denver, Colorado, people held a counter-demonstration against a pro-police rally at the state capitol.

  • Demonstrations continue in Minneapolis, however a new private security force recently hired by the city has cleared an area that until recently, was held by protesters.

  • Members of Florida Prisoner Solidarity had all their charges dropped last week, after three people were slapped with trumped up charges steaming from a noise demonstration outside a prison earlier this year.

  • In Elizabeth City, people gathered in protest to mark the three month anniversary of police murdering Andrew Brown.

Solidarity with LA Antifascist and Anarchists

  • Banners were dropped across the US and beyond in solidarity with anarchists and antifascists in the streets of LA who faced down the Proud Boys and the LAPD in recent demonstrations.

Fight Against Mountain Valley Pipeline

  • Construction for the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil, has ramped up in so-called British Columbia. Workers have entered into the area where the Tiny House Warriors have been blockading construction only to be met with resistance. This struggle is playing out on unceded Secwepemc Territory. Follow Tiny House Warriors and Kanahus Manuel for updates.

International Day of Solidarity with Antifascist Prisoners

  • People gathered in cities across the US and beyond to write letters in support of antifascist prisoners and to mark July 25th, an international day of solidarity with antifascist prisoners. In Atlanta supporters of St. Pauli football club also held banners in solidarity, while in New York, people confronted a rally organized in part by the Proud Boys.

Mutual Aid

  • Mutual aid projects continue in many cities. In the Pacific Northwest, groups likes the Willamette Action Collective and Symbiosis continue to gather food and water to take to tribal communities in need.

Upcoming Events

  • August 14th: Rock Against Fascism community music festival in Portland. More info here.
  • August 18th: Day of Action to Defend the Atlanta Forest. More info here.
  • August 21st – September 9th: Call for abolitionist actions in support of prisoner struggles. More info here.
  • September 11th –  12th: Running Down the Walls events in support of political prisoners. More info here.
  • November 12th – 14th: Protest against white nationalist ‘American Renaissance’ conference in Burns, Tennessee. More info 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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