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May 24, 19

This Is America #74: DeKalb Arrestees & Anarres Infoshop

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Cover Photo via @plussone

Welcome, to This Is America, May 24th 2019.

In today’s episode, first we talk with several people in the Atlanta, Georgia area who recently were arrested for protesting the conditions within the DeKalb County Jail, which It’s Going Down has covered in the past. After arrest, they soon found themselves inside the very institution they were protesting. We discuss their experiences and the broader campaign.

We then talk to several people involved in the re-launching of the Anarres Infoshop in Portland, Oregon, and talk about the role of space and infrastructure within the wider movement. Please support them on Patreon here.

During our discussion segment, we talk about recent attacks by the Trump administration on immigrants, trans people, public housing, and beyond, discuss the history of neoliberalism, and current headlines.

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

Living and Fighting

  • McDonald’s workers in cities across the US went out on strike this week over demands of $15 an hour, the right to form unions, and against sexual harassment, with 25 women in 20 different cities filing suits against the burger giant. The strikes and walkouts caused 10 stores to close in St. Louis while workers in many other cities picketed and walked off the job, according to the Wall Street Journal, which described the strike as one of the largest disruptions to the fast food chain in 10 years.

  • In St. Paul, hundreds of students walk out of class in response to two teachers use of the “N-word,” prompting one of the teachers to resign, and the other, a substitute, to be sent home.
  • Across the US, mass protests have been organized against a wave of new attempted abortion bans.

  • In Salt Lake City, Utah people rallied and camped outside of the police station, in response to the police killing of Cody Belgard. Ultimately, the DA decided to not charge the police officer behind the killing.

  • Officials in Dayton, Ohio, as was the case of so-called leaders in Charlottesville in the build up to Unite the Right, are telling residents to “stay away” from the downtown area, in the lead-up to a planned rally by the KKK. Members of the Klan negotiated with the city in order to secure a permit, but agreed only to allow registered members of their official organization at the event, which numbers around 20. Over 1,000 counter-demonstrators are expected to mobilize.

  • Roman Shankaras, one of the Vaughn 17 has been found not guilty for the charge of murdering a guard, making him the most recent inmate to be found not guilty.

  • Finally, the viral craze of “milkshaking,” or the pouring of a tasty, lactose beverage over someone in an attempt to shame them – which has been used against members of the far-Right party in the UK promoting Brexit, has now reached US soil. In what is guessed to be Kentucky, someone delivered up a creamy malt to a member of the neo-Confederate Hiwaymen, a group of paramilitaries that attended Unite the Right, and who was protesting outside of Planned Parenthood. The Hiwaymen were one of the groups who attacked a rally of trans youth several weeks ago at the Kentucky state capitol. As they say, revenge is a dish best served cold!

Upcoming Events

  • May 25th: Mobilize against the KKK in Downtown Dayton, OH. More info here.
  • May 30th – June 3rd: Earth First! regional rendezvous in Hudson Valley. More info here.
  • May 31st – June 2nd: North American Anarchist Studies Network presents Emergent Horizons in Atlanta, Georgia. More info here.
  • In June be on the lookout for ‘Running Down the Walls’ events happening across the world to benefit Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) chapters.
  • June 12th – 19th: Save the Mattole Direct Action Convergence in Northern California. More info here.
  • June 14th-17th: Fight Toxic Prisons conference. Gainesville, Florida. More info here.
  • June 15th – 23rd: Wild Roots, Feral Futures in Southwest Colorado. More info here.
  • June 19th: Mobilize against Nationalist Solutions conference. More info here.
  • June 29th – 30th: Southern Regional Organizing Assembly of the IWW in Richmond, VA. More info here.
  • August 3rd-11th: Institute for Advanced Trouble Making in Worcester, MA. More info here.
  • August 16th-18th: Indigenous Anarchist Convergence in 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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