Ⓐnarcho Queer

"I felt terrible. What can one feel to see so many bodies? People under the rubble and we can’t do..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:57:54 -0400

“I felt terrible. What can one feel to see so many bodies? People under the rubble and we can’t do anything about it. No one is supporting us and no one will. They’re just waiting for Bashar al-Assad to kill us all and for us to wear out his army, his tanks and his air-crafts in the process. That’s what the Western and Arab countries want. Their heart isn’t with the Syrian people. They don’t care about all this, about these people that are bombed to pieces.”

- FRONTLINE: Syria Behind the Lines (via kileyrae)

Watching such heartbreaking lamentation pour out of Syria can really tear you up.

(via mohandasgandhi)

Police Harass And Brutalizes San Francisco Squatters And...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:31:20 -0400

Police Harass And Brutalizes San Francisco Squatters And Activists

Seven San Francisco activists from the squatted social center called the SF Commune, were brutally attacked by police and arrested Thursday evening after being invited into the SF State University dorms by students there. One individual was tazed and another was reportedly shoved into a paddy wagon where police continued to viciously beat him. There is video of the incident circulating on the internet, but much of the brutality wasn’t captured on tape. This happened less than 36 hours after the campus visitors were violently evicted from the SF Commune by riot-clad SWAT police on Wednesday morning. Students and activists held a demonstration to denounce the campus police brutality and harassment of students and visitors on the SF State campus at Malcolm X plaza on Friday.

The mainstream media is spreading misinformation about the incident. They are claiming that the individuals were “unauthorized” in the dorms, even though they were invited to there by students and SFSU housing guidelines clearly permit guests. The media also highlights the fact that an officer was injured. From the information we gathered after speaking to the police, the officer suffered from heart palpitations and didn’t receive any direct physical injuries from the individuals involved.

The activists were residents of the SF Commune, an abandoned building that protesters occupied and transformed into a social center and housing for the neighborhood since April of last year. The activists, who cleaned the dilapidated building, made it habitable for the first time in years and planted a blooming garden in the backyard, were welcomed by much of the community for their efforts. The building, on 200 Broad St in the Ocean View neighborhood, was raided by dozens of riot-clad SFPD Wednesday morning, about 36 hours before the incident at SF State; 28 residents were forcibly removed and briefly detained, while three were arrested.

Police Raid CNT Centre in Spain, Arrests 5 “Black...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:18:05 -0400

Police Raid CNT Centre in Spain, Arrests 5 “Black Flag” Anarchists

From comrades in Barcelona we have been informed that five members of ‘Black Flag’ have been detained in dawn raids on the anarchist-syndicalist CNT centre in Sabadell near Barcelona, Spain. They are accused of belonging to a terrorist group. The Police broke into and searched the Anarchist Workers Centre (Ateneo Libertari) in Sabadell. The operations included another raid and search in Sabadell and two more in other municipalities in Catalonia, one of them in Avignon (Bages County). On the same day police evicted the Can Piella ‘Land and Liberty’ squat. International solidarity is requested.

Thirty Mossos police have now taken over the anarchist centre in Sabadell, after smashing down the door down before 9.00 a.m. according to a member of the CNT union that occupies part of the premises with Bandera Negra (‘Black Flag’). The ‘Mossos’ – whose origins are military – have a long history of carrying out beatings in police stations and it is hoped comrades will not be harmed.

The Ateneo de Sabadell, which is owned by the CNT, is a space open to all working people of Sabadell, which many groups and people from Sabadell and elsewhere have used for recreational, cultural and social events over many years. Other citizens of the city, including the 15M Take The Streets movement and Occupy, make use of the building and have begun demonstrations in support of the five arrested. The premises at Sabadell have now been sealed off.

The five arrested people are scheduled to appear before the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid on Friday. In addition to Sabadell, sources close to the anarchist movement say that Catalonian regional police are launching further raids at the behest of the Audiencia Nacional in other towns in Catalonia.

Help Support Egyptt! Please Signal Boost

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:30:23 -0400

tranqualizer:

thespiritwas:

(click here to donate)

Dear Friends & Community,

We are writing to let you know of a community member who needs support after going through a major health crisis. Many of you know Egyptt, a long time activist and advocate for low income, trans communities of color.

Egyptt was formerly co-coordinator of Trans Justice at the Audre Lorde Project. Prior to her work at ALP she was a crucial member of the Queers for Economic Justice Welfare Warriors group where she lead the way fighting transphobia within New York City’s welfare agency: the Human Resources Administration. Because of Egyptt’s work NYC’s Human Resources Administration has adopted its first ever transgender non discrimination policy, which Egyptt helped implement through many trainings of New York City employees.

Additionally Egyptt has been a long time advocate at Housing Works advocating to have New York State pass the Gender Employment Non Discrimination Act (GENDA). She is also a brilliant performer, frequently showcasing her talent at the Housing Works fashion shows and many Trans Day of Remembrance events. Egyptt is now unemployed and has lost her apartment in Harlem. She’s currently living with her partner in a family homeless shelter in NYC.

We are turning to you, our community, to support Egyptt as she navigates this challenging moment. We want to raise 10,000 for Egyptt to get back some of what she has lost in the last few months. She needs resources to get back into housing, to replace lost possessions, and to cover outstanding healthcare costs.

With deep appreciation,
Reina Gossett, Pooja Gehi, & Dean Spade

(click here to donate)

mama-panther: historicporn: Man uses American flag to assault...

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:30:37 -0400

mama-panther:

historicporn:

Man uses American flag to assault civil rights activist.

1976.

American politics in one image.

mochente: “Untitled” by Nick Knight [x] Popular depictions on...

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:41:37 -0400

mochente:

“Untitled” by Nick Knight [x]

Popular depictions on what constitutes “beauty” are important, no matter what white people tell you.

iloveriotporn: After an anticapitalist demonstration 10th of...

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:33:52 -0400

iloveriotporn:

After an anticapitalist demonstration 10th of May 2013 in Copenhagen, Denmark - called Reclaim The Streets (A part of the anticapitalist projekt Actionweek 19), things got out of hands for the danish police. Demonstrants started building barricares and there where some fights with the police. 22 was arrested, and one of them is being held in custody - charged for throwing bottles at the police.

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:30:42 -0400

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:27:24 -0400

fuckyeahanarchistbanners: Free all mothers - against prisons...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:12:29 -0400

fuckyeahanarchistbanners:

Free all mothers - against prisons and the world that creates them (A) && ACAB - Cops: protectors of the rich, hunters of the poor // Raleigh, NC, USA // May 12, 2013

http://anarchistnews.org/content/free-all-mothers-anarchists-and-catholic-workers-join-raleigh-prison-noise-demo

kemetically-afrolatino: California Deputies Seize Phones from...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:07:47 -0400

kemetically-afrolatino:

California Deputies Seize Phones from Witnesses After Beating Man to Death (5/10/13)

David Sal Silva, a 33-year-old father of four, died begging for his life, fighting up to nine law enforcement officers.

People who say they witnessed the incident as well as Silva’s family members described a scene in which deputies essentially were beating a helpless man to death. They were indignant that cellphone video had been taken away by deputies.

“My brother spent the last eight minutes of his life pleading, begging for his life,” said Christopher Silva, 31, brother of the dead man. He said he’s talked to witnesses but did not see the incident himself.

At about midnight, Ruben Ceballos, 19,was awakened by screams and loud banging noises outside his home. He said he ran to the left side of his house to find out who was causing the ruckus.

“When I got outside I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head,” Ceballos said.

Silva was on the ground screaming for help, but officers continued to beat him, Ceballos said.

After several minutes, Ceballos said, Silva stopped screaming and was no longer responsive.

filmin the police is NOT A CRIME!

US Justice Department acknowledges wide-ranging surveillance of AP journalists

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:02:56 -0400

thepeoplesrecord:

May 14, 2013

The president of the Associated Press has sent a letter of protest to US Attorney General Eric Holder over the Department of Justice’s broad surveillance of individual reporters’ phone conversations.

In a letter received by the AP on Friday, the Justice Department acknowledged but offered no explanation for the seizure of two months’ worth of telephone records of reporters and editors. AP’s president, Gary Pruitt, called the ongoing monitoring a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.”

The AP believes that more than 100 journalists are involved in the DOJ’s phone surveillance, which would have involved a wide variety of stories regarding government and other topics. Pruitt has called for the return of obtained phone records, as well as the destruction of all copies.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” said Pruitt.

According to the AP’s own reporting of the alleged phone taps, Justice Department rules require that subpoenas of such records from news organizations must be approved by the attorney general. Notification to the AP was made by a letter sent by Ronald Machen, US attorney in Washington, but did not clarify if such rules had been followed.

It is believed that phone records were obtained as part of a criminal investigation into leaked information about a CIA operation in Yemen that unraveled an Al-Qaeda plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate an explosive on a US-bound jet airliner.

Speculation on a link to that particular story was made by the AP based on the fact that phone numbers were obtained by the DoJ for five reporters and an editor involved in the May 7, 2012 story.

According to the AP, CIA Director John Brennan was questioned by the FBI as to whether he had been the source of the leak. In testimony regarding the story in February, Brennan called the leak an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.”

Records obtained by the Justice Department detailed incoming and outgoing calls, as well as the duration of calls, for work and private numbers of AP reporters and offices in New York, Washington, and Hartford, Connecticut, as well as the main number for reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery.

In its statement regarding the phone taps, the Department of Justice cited an exception to notifying a news organization in advance if it would hamper its own investigation:

“We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations. Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before even considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the media. We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws,” the statement reads.

The rights of the US citizens are increasingly under attack, acknowledged Caleb Maupin from International Action Center.

“All the things that the Democratic Party lambasted George W. Bush for doing – they are now continuing. It is a trend in repression,” he said.

“This is an act of intimidation against the Associated Press. It was a real fear in the House of Power, which includes both the Democrats and the Republicans, that the press might start doing its job and actually speaking truth to power, actually exposing some of the crimes that has been committed,” Maupin said.

“They are going to threaten and intimidate journalists and keep that from happening – that is what’s behind this,” he concluded.

“The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information and has actually brought six cases of people actually suspected of leaking classified information to trial – and that is more than all previous administrations combined,” RT America correspondent Meghan Lopez said, specifying that Bradley manning is only one of them.

Eric Draitser, an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City who spoke to RT on Monday says that news of the DoJ’s monitoring of the AP has wider implications:

“This kind of surveillance is used for the purpose of persecution, it is the persecution of whistle blowers primarily. So what you see are that the records sought were records of various journalists, in an attempt not to so much surveil the journalists but to track down who their sources are,” says Draitser.

“And much of this emerges out of this case in Yemen, with regard to CIA Director Brennan, and the idea of this leaked information. The Obama administration, perhaps more so than any other administration before it, has been vehemently persecuting whistleblowers of all kinds,” added Draitser.

Source

“It is not unprecedented for the Justice Department to secretly get the numbers of reporters. What’s remarkable is the sweeping nature of this, the dragnet approach … and that’s why you have some press watchdog groups tonight, and freedom of the press groups saying this is positively Nixonian. They have not seen a precedent for this in decades.” - Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein.

The Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers & information continues.

thepeoplesrecord: Greek workers walk out to protest ban on...

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:57:57 -0400

thepeoplesrecord:

Greek workers walk out to protest ban on teachers’ strike
May 14, 2013

Greek public sector workers walked off the job on Tuesday to protest against a government decision to ban a strike by high-school teachers, shutting down several schools and reducing staff at hospitals to a minimum. Invoking emergency legislation, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has threatened teachers with arrest and dismissal if they go ahead with a planned walkout on Friday that would disrupt university entrance exams, as he tries to show Greece’s foreign lenders that Athens is sticking to unpopular reforms.

The action on Tuesday was the latest in a string of anti-austerity strikes since 2010, when Greece adopted severe budget and wage cut measures as part of its international bailout. The turnout was not near someone of the movement’s larger demonstrations; turnout in demonstrations last year topped 100,000 at times. But activists insist that they are committed to fighting for humanity.

“Our message, that we fully condemn these policies, was sent, despite the low turnout,” ADEDY’s general secretary Ilias Iliopoulos told Reuters. “The government must make up its mind and show that it does care about students and teachers.

The conservative-led coalition wants teachers to put in two more hours of work each week to reach the average levels of high school teachers’ working hours in Europe, and transfer 4,000 of them to remote parts of Greece to plug staffing gaps.

These measures would allow the government to dismiss about 10,000 part-time teachers when their temporary contracts expire, causing outraged unions & citizens alike to call for the 24-hour strike on Friday and rolling strikes next week.

The government responded by invoking a law that allows it to mobilize workers in the case of civil disorder or natural disasters.

ADEDY had disagreed with the high school teachers’ decision to hold a strike on the first day of exams because it would inconvenience students. However, it opposed the government using emergency laws to pre-emptively ban the action, saying this was undemocratic and violated workers’ constitutional rights. ADEDY and GSEE, Greece’s largest private sector union, are also planning a four-hour work stoppage on Thursday.

More than 1,000 high-school teachers marched to parliament late on Monday, holding banners reading: “No to the civil mobilization and this terror!” and “It won’t pass”.

GSEE and ADEDY represent more than half of Greece’s workforce, which has been shrinking rapidly during the crippling recession after years of austerity. As unemployment grows, unions may not yield as strong of turn outs as they have when they had higher membership, but the increasingly impoverished people of Greece will not tolerate limitless government oppression.

Source

"I am tired of living in fear of having my family separated at any moment. Why are we losing 1,100..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:45:23 -0400

“I am tired of living in fear of having my family separated at any moment. Why are we losing 1,100 people every day while legislators talk about immigration reform, when the President has the power to suspend deportations of our parents now, just as he did with students”

- Xanat Sobrevilla, an undocumented immigrant who is part of a group of seven immigrants who are taking a stance today by blocking doors to Broadview Detention Facility in Illinois.

The protesters also urged the public to support 3 cases of people facing deportation in Illinois by calling the Chicago immigration office in their support. Wilmar Guzman (A# 097-745-437), Lourdes Moreno Carrero (A# 200-837-411) and Octavio Nava Cabrera (A# 075-785-334) are all Illinois residents facing deportation, whose cases supporters and family argue should be closed as low priority according to the prosecutorial discretion guidelines.

Seven Undocumented Illinois Immigrants Block Broadview Detention Center Road with Locks and Chains Calling for Suspension of Deportations

(via tortillachronicles)

OMGOMGOMG my fraaaaaans <3

(via lahoops)

theonion: Sasha Obama Suspicious After Doing A Little Digging...

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:34:53 -0400

theonion:

Sasha Obama Suspicious After Doing A Little Digging Around On Benghazi: Full Report

"If were gonna talk about Assata and say she’s a ‘cop killer’, let’s be completely honest and put..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:30:20 -0400

“If were gonna talk about Assata and say she’s a ‘cop killer’, let’s be completely honest and put such accusations into perspective. Everyone wants to forget that in the 60s and 70s the FBI and police declared War on the Black community and organizations that formed in the community to end oppression. The police and FBI went all out to destroy Black leaders and these organizations with undaunted impunity. The reason why you had BPP (Black Panther Party), SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and BLA (Black Liberation Army) was because they responded to police terrorism. They were tired of seeing the police come into our communities and take them over like an ‘occupying army’, if I may quote Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale. These groups formed because they were tired of seeing police and FBI with white supremacist attitudes, assassinating, brutalizing or jailing Panthers and members of other Black Power organizations left and right for little or no reason..They were tired of seeing government forces foster the killing of Black leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. So if we’re gonna talk about Assata, let’s talk the police and FBI murders of unarmed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark? Let’s talk about the murder of Lil Bobby Hutton. Can we say COINTEL-PRO?”

- Assata Ain’t No Terrorist. She’s the One Who Fought Terrorists (via blackcyborgs)

Radical Trans-women Confront Transphobic DGR Members At the...

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:14:51 -0400

Radical Trans-women Confront Transphobic DGR Members

At the annual Law and Disorder Conference, radical ecology group Deep Green Resistance (DGR) was confronted by trans-women. In the aftermath, books were destroyed, verbal assaults were exchanged, organizers declared regret about inviting DGR in the first place, and a DGR lawyer accused the trans-women of the Class A Misdemeanor offense of “Menacing.”

Tensions at Law and Disorder escalated to a head when, on the final day of the conference, a confrontation between two trans-women and two cis-women tabling for DGR turned to vandalism. As the cis-women denied the trans-women’s identity, the trans-women took out a black marker and proceeded to draw on DGR’s text books. One of the cis-women stretched her hand out to protect the valuable words of their leaders, and the marker grazed her hand.

After reporting the “assault” to the organizers of the conference, the Law and Disorder organizers resolved to post a public response on their Facebook page. Insisting that the conference appreciates safer spaces policies and listens to everyone who makes claims about disruptions, the organizers declared that DGR does not fit their safer space policy, and will not be asked back in the future. The thread was immediately packed with more than 80 comments, which became so blatantly trans-phobic that the organizers finally removed it from Facebook.

DGR’s relationship to the radical community was put to the test during the three days of events. In one tense moment, a grand jury resister, who is also a trans-person, was present as a conversation about gender disintegrated into an argument wherein the DGR table expressed total opposition to a critical analysis of cis-gender identity.

Burritos flew when, on a totally different occasion, a similar argument blew up between an anarchist and a DGRer.

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:40:48 -0400

maxlibertarios: anarcho-queer: Environmental activists Holly...

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:33:42 -0400

maxlibertarios:

anarcho-queer:

Environmental activists Holly and Bailey have been detained by police in Holdenville, Oklahoma while resisting the Keystone XL.

The Fire Department is on scene and wielding axes and shielding their activities by holding up a tarp to block the view. The second photo shows a deputy from the Hughes Co Sheriffs department swinging a sledgehammer at one of Holly and Bailey’s lockdown devices at full-force. Moments later they use a jack hammer to extract the activists who are now in police custody.

Show Holly and Bailey some love by donating to the bail fund.

What is these people’s reasoning for fighting the keystone pipeline? Private property?

Environmental destruction, pollution, oil spills…

Environmental activists Holly and Bailey have been detained by...

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:21:00 -0400

Environmental activists Holly and Bailey have been detained by police in Holdenville, Oklahoma while resisting the Keystone XL.

The Fire Department is on scene and wielding axes and shielding their activities by holding up a tarp to block the view. The second photo shows a deputy from the Hughes Co Sheriffs department swinging a sledgehammer at one of Holly and Bailey’s lockdown devices at full-force. Moments later they use a jack hammer to extract the activists who are now in police custody.

Show Holly and Bailey some love by donating to the bail fund.