repression

 If Occupy Philly is raided by the police, come to city hall ASAP; bring friends, signs, & support; spread the word. Then meet the following day at 4 p.m. at Rittenhouse Park (19th & Walnut in center city Philadelphia)

While building solidarity between activists in the U.S. and Iran can be a powerful way of supporting social justice movements in Iran, progressives and leftists who want to express solidarity with Iranians are challenged by a complicated geopolitical terrain. The U.S. government shrilly decries Iran’s nuclear power program and expands a long-standing sanctions regime on the one hand, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes inflammatory proclamations and harshly suppresses Iranian protesters and dissidents on the other. Solidarity activists are often caught between a rock and a hard place, and many choose what they believe are the “lesser evil” politics. In the case of Iran, this has meant aligning with a repressive state leader under the guise of “anti-imperialism” and “populism,” or supporting “targeted” sanctions.

On September 3rd police approached Askia Sabur in the doorway of a Chinese Restaurant at 55th and Landsdown where he was waiting for food. Police threw Askia to the ground and subjected him to a storm of violence. For nearly 3 minutes, 6 cops swung down on him with clubs, cracking his skull and breaking his arm in the process. A video recorded from a cell phone shows Askia on the ground, handcuffed by one hand, blows raining down with no indication he was even physically resisting the abuse, let alone attempting to fight off the cops. One cop in an apparent frenzy of rage and violence pulled his gun and pointed it at individuals in the crowd including the person filming. Police then did what they always do after sending someone to the hospital: they pressed charges. For being a victim of the beatdown, Askia was charged with assault on an officer as well as attempted robbery (of the cops baton).

Tell me if you’ve heard this one: An FBI agent infiltrates an actual, figurative or virtual mosque, finds the most gullible and angry dork around, encourages him to get even, plots out some dubious plan, gives him bombs that don’t quite work, then arrests this dupe to much fanfare.

A review of Defying The Tomb:  Selected Prison Writings and Art of Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Featuring Exchanges with an Outlaw

(Kerspledebeb 2010)

“Like the scene at my emergence from the womb, I fought like hell, defying the tomb.”

This work collects correspondence and articles by two politicized inmates incarcerated at the time in the Virginia state system, one of whom (Kevin “Rashid” Johnson), remains in Red Onion State Prison under extremely repressive conditions.

Eleven people arrested in Asheville, NC on May 1 still face outrageous felony conspiracy and rioting charges simply for being in a neighborhood in which some windows were broken. Although support for the defendants has been growing steadily, the District Attorney is stubbornly clinging to this opportunity to defame and demonize anarchists.

In July, a judge changed Lynne Stewart's prison sentence from 28 months to 10 years, effectively giving the 70 year old lawyer who suffers from health issues a death sentence.

In 2005, Stewart was convicted of providing support to a terrorist organization. While defending a known terrorist, she released a statement from her client to the press. In doing so, she violated an agreement with the US government to not pass information between her client and the outside world. Many lawyers view Stewart's conviction as a government attack on defense lawyers that severely restricts their ability to properly represent their clients.

Greetings from California, Comrades!

As many have heard, a relentless anti-police movement has grown from the tragedy of Oscar Grant's murder on January 1, 2009 by former officer Johannes Mehserle.* Recently, Mehserle was convicted of the deplorable charge of involuntary manslaughter, a weak charge which carries a sentence of probation to four years in prison.?

On the night of July 10th, a few of us from defenestrator hung out at Tattooed Mom's, tossing back beers and making plans for insurrection, like we usually do. It was a good time. When we left the bar around midnight, however, we stumbled onto a  chaotic scene on South Street that dissolved our good spirits. Groups of black youth were walking very quickly westward. There was a lot of shouting. There was almost no car traffic. We saw the rows of cops marching toward us. They were shutting down South Street.

Prisoners refused food, called 'cave monkeys' and 'terrorists' by racist guards