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Dec 13, 18

TIA #46: Oakland Wildcat Strike, Hurricane Victims Evicted

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Cover Photo from Knoxville Radical Alliance

Welcome, to This Is America, December 13th, 2018.

In this episode, we speak with a teacher that was part of a recent wildcat strike in Oakland, California, and ask them what led to the action and where they see things heading in the near future.

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Eviction at tent city. Panama City, FL. People drove hundreds of miles to donate blankets, Christmas presents and other items to people in need and Panama City government officials and UMCOR bulldozed everything.

A post shared by Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (@mutualaiddisasterrelief) on

Then talk to a volunteer with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief about the situation in Panama City, Florida where months after Hurricane Michael hit, hundreds of poor and working people are still living on the streets after being displaced and evicted from their homes and apartments. We talk about yet another eviction, this time of a tent city of remaining survivors of the hurricane, who were pushed out, again, with literally no where else to go.

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

Living and Fighting

  • Teachers in Oakland, California staged a sick-out and wildcat strike against low pay and high class room sizes. Teachers and supporters from various sites refused to go into work and then marched to the center of the city to hold a rally. Check out our interview with a striking teacher later in the show.

At the bargaining table, Burgerville Corporate is dragging their feet and not responding to economic proposals. Enough is enough! It’s time for Corporate to listen to workers demands!

JOIN THE PICKET at the Hawthorne Burgerville (1122 SE Hawthorne Blvd) on Monday, December 17th at 6pm! Stay tuned for the exact meet up spot.

  • In the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, anti-gentrification protesters physically blockaded an “Emerging Neighborhoods” event…where major developers intended to discuss where to gentrify and displace next.”

  • There must be something in the water, because people in Chicago also launched another blockade, this time against an Amazon logistics center. The blockade was to call attention to Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
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A group of people blocked an Amazon logistics center in Chicago today, calling attention to the company’s role in the expansion of the deportation machine #amazon #deportations @jeffbezos

A post shared by Blood Fruit Library (@bloodfruitlib) on

  • In so-called Canada, RCMP officers arrested Native demonstrators in British Columbia who were protesting against closed door meetings regarding resource extraction and pipeline projects. As the Tiny House Warriors stated in a statement: “Just because the government talks to a few bands recognized by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, that doesn’t amount to meaningful consultation.”
  • Across so-called Canada, blockades and pickets continue in solidarity with the postal strike and members of the IWW are on the front lines of street blockades and pickets that are keeping job actions going as the State has pushed for postal workers to go back to work or face massive fines.

  • Speaking of Canada, the Ottawa General Defense Committee (GDC) is launching a fundraiser for comrades arrested at the recent antifascist mobilization against La Meute, a far-Right, neo-fascist, and anti-Muslim organization. Help them out here. Their report from the action read:

Though we were outnumbered about 3 to 1, our forces were able to achieve great actions and proved our fighting spirit. Unfortunately, our task of shutting down the fascists’ rally was not achieved. The presence of riot police and the numbers that the fascists bussed in was too large for us to mobilize against with only one week’s notice. Yet great lessons can be taken from this struggle and will lead to greater action and understanding of out conditions in Ottawa for the revolutionary and anti-fascist movement.

  • In Minneapolis, people held a banner in solidarity a group of people in the UK who attempted to stop deportations being carried out by plane. The group wrote: “To our friends across the pond facing a lifetime prison sentence, we send you our love, our rage, and our unyielding solidarity. Their jails and their borders will never contain us.”

  • People held a march and loud rally outside of the home of Steven Miller in Washington DC to again protest his hand in anti-immigration legislation.

  • Trolls on 4chan are pushing to attempt to hold ‘solidarity’ demonstrations with the Yellow Vest riots in France. Check out the locations they have posted, do your own research, and be prepared to push the fascists firmly out of this movement, just as our French comrades have.

  • Back in so-called Canada, people are marching and mobilizing in solidarity with the Unis’to’ten camp.

  • In Casa Grande, Arizona, Anti-colonial Land Defense did a banner action reading “Divest from genocide, No line 3, No KXL” outside of a Wells Fargo branch bank.

  • Pushed by a Black Lives Matter activist, Tennessee’s so-called Governor has recentlly stated that he is considering pardoning “Cyntoia Brown, a sex trafficking victim currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder” against her would be rapist. For more background on the case check out the latest episode of The Guillotine and to put pressure on the State, go here for more info.
  • Members of “RAM-Elm City are fundraising for legal support! Two young people, who witnessed the police execute their friends, are being held on trumped up charges and exorbitant bail to silence them. Help them fight back!” Please donate here:
  • Lastly, as lame duck Republican officials get ready to leave the capitol in Michigan, they are attempting to “stomp on measures to raise the minimum wage and guarantee paid sick leave.” In response, hundreds of people have flooded the capitol in protest, banding on banisters and chanting, while many more protest outside.

Until next time, see you soon!

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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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