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Mar 9, 19

This Is America #63: Like a House of Cards

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Welcome, to This Is America, March 9th, 2019.

We have an amazing show for you this week. First, we talk with someone from PopMob about a recent event in Portland that brought together close to 600 people in response to a series of anti-queer and anti-trans attacks.

We then talk with two people involved in the newspaper project, Salvo, out of Los Angeles, who is currently fundraising to expand their project. We talk about the importance of having counter-information projects, the recent LA teacher’s strike, and more.

But first, let’s get to the news!

Living and Fighting

The Oakland teacher’s strike is over, with many reporting that the teacher’s union gave in to major concessions. Many are now mobilizing to fight a series of proposed school closures. Check out a series of critical articles on the strike on LibCom and Commune Magazine. 

Meanwhile, the teacher’s rebellion continues, with:

A week after Kentucky teachers conducted a job action to protest legislation attacking pensions and public schools, teachers in the state’s largest school district in the Louisville area have staged two days of sickouts in defiance of the unions. On Thursday, Jefferson County Public School teachers were joined by school workers in Meade, Oldham, and Bullitt counties, resulting in the closure of hundreds of schools.

In Louisville, the teacher actions are organized by a group completely autonomous of the teacher’s unions.

https://twitter.com/ResistsThis/status/1104133946156220416

Supporters of Chelsea Manning rallied in DC recently in support of the whistle-blower who “provided archives of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, [and] was taken into custody on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating the anti-secrecy group.” A support fund has been set up here. In a statement Chelsea said:

“In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available. My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal.”

Demonstrations continue in Sacramento, California, with students taking a led, launching school walkouts and strikes, which have marched across the city building as more students walk out of school and join in them.

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, two Silent Sam protesters had their charges dropped, while another one still faces some charges. Check out a statement from Take Action Chapel Hill here.

In major anti-pipeline news, the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline, known as the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which for the last two years has been resisted by the L’eau Est La Vie Camp, is now being delayed in construction “indefinitely.” According to Last Real Indians:

Energy Transfer Partners may have lied to its shareholders when it told investors the Bayou Bridge pipeline will be fully functional this month.

According to reports from Louisiana residents who frequent the Atchafalaya Basin, work on the project – which was first projected to be complete in 2017 – has been halted indefinitely due to high water levels.

Included in this program is a recent update from the Bayou Bridge resistance camp, which will also give an update. Not to be outdone, two other massive energy projects, the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, two projects have have written about and covered on this podcast, are also in jeopardy and are far behind schedule.

As Forbes wrote:

Two proposed long-haul natural gas transportation projects—the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)—are now in peril. That’s the result of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia in late February.

The future of both projects remains up in the air, while resistance in the forms of tree-sits and continued resistance on the ground shows no signs of stopping.

In some not so good news however, in South Dakota in preparation for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline:

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s [introduced a bill] to curb violent pipeline protests [and it] has flown through both chambers of the Legislature. Noem dropped Senate Bills 189 and 190 on Monday. On Wednesday, a joint hearing was held on the bills. By Thursday, the Legislature suspended rules in order to pass both bills out of both chambers on the same day. SB 189 establishes civil penalties for “riot boosting,” or contributing money to or encouraging protesters who engage in violence.

Of the bill, journalist Will Parish wrote on Twitter:

If you “encourage” someone to protest (“riot”) against the KXL pipeline, SD now wants to fine you. “The governor’s office coordinated with representatives of TransCanada, law enforcement, local governments and state agencies to draft the bills.”

In New York, the DA has decided to drop charges against several police officers that raped and attacked Anna Chambers. Anarchists have been a continuous part of the struggle and shown solidarity for months. In a statement Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council wrote:

We are infuriated and outraged at the Brklyn DA’s decision to drop all rape and sexual assault charges at today’s hearing, but we are unsurprised by a system that continues to protect its rapist agents. Solidarity with and all victims of sexual violence by police.

Finally, the Alt-Right white nationalist group, Identity Evropa is having a bad week. Media collective Unicorn Riot released a series of Discord chat lots giving antifascists across the country access to a treasure trove of information, which kicked off a new round of doxxing, job firings, and more. The leaks show many connections between local GOP and College Republican circles and show a desire by members of IE to infiltrate the political establishment as much as possible.

This weekend is Identity Evropa’s yearly conference, which is supposed to be held in secret, yet the information was also released. The group is currently meeting at a lake resort in Kentucky, and then is supposed to hold some sort of action later in the weekend. Soon after, the leader of Identity Evropa, Patrick “McLovin” Casey announced that the group would reform under the banner of American Identity Movement, or AIM, which of course is the same initials as the American Indian Movement, which still exists to this day. Whether this rebranding will result in a split within the organization or just a reboot, remains unclear.

Upcoming Events:

  • Saturday, March 9th: Little Rock, Arkansas, State Capitol. Anti-racist mobilization against militia, neo-Nazi, and KKK rally. More info here.
  • Friday, March 15th: Vancouver, British Columbia. Mobilize against Alt-Right trolls Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. More info here.
  • Saturday, March 16th: March Against Racism and Fascism with UARF. New York. More info here.
  • March 16th – 20th: Mattole Forest Skillshare Camp in Northern California.
  • April 19th-21st: In Prescott, Arizona there is a three-day antifascist gathering called the Cliffrose Convergence at the Frantz Fanon Community Strategy Center being organized.
  • Thursday, March 14th at the Social Justice Action Center at 400 SE 12th Ave. PDX Rad Movie is back for our first installment of 2019, one year and one day after our first showing last March.
  • March 30th, East Portland Housing Assembly. More info here.
  • August 16th – 18th: Indigenous anarchist convergence, so-called Flagstaff, Arizona. 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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