Rebel Girl: March 28, 2018: Tenants win their rent strike in Toronto, an interview with an anarchist sex worker about the new FOSTA-SESTA law, Sacramento rises up after the police murder of Stephon Clark, a roundup of actions to #DefendAfrin, and our reflections on the March For Our Lives on this episode of…

The Hotwire.

A weekly anarchist news show brought to you by The Ex-Worker.

With me, the Rebel Girl.

A full transcript of this episode with shownotes and useful links can be found at our website, CrimethInc.com/podcast. You can subscribe to The Hotwire on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, just search for The Ex-Worker. You can listen to us through the anarchist podcast network Channel Zero, or on your radio’s dial in… Eugene, Oregon every Sunday at noon on KEPW 97.3, Fairbanks, Alaska Saturday mornings at 9 on KWRK 90.9 and in Tacoma, Washington every Friday at 9 AM on KUPS 90.1. Believe it or not, every Hotwire is radio ready, and in our shownotes you can download a twenty-nine and a half minute version of this episode for standard radio timeslots. If there’s a story or upcoming event you’d like us to include in a future Hotwire, just hit us up at podcast[AT]crimethinc[DOT]com.

And now for the headlines…

HEADLINES

After a three-month long rent strike, the tenants at 1251 King in Parkdale, Toronto have declared victory. Their landlord has withdrawn the rent increase they were striking over. This victory comes half a year after another successful rent strike ended in Toronto, also with significant support across the neighborhood of Parkdale. For more background on tenant organizing up there, check out the Sub.Media documentary, “This is Parkdale.”

Anti-fascists in Knoxville, Tennessee successfully repelled a crew of neo-nazi trolls who attempted to disrupt a university panel about anti-racism in the age of Trump. One crew worked on covering up white supremacist graffiti that the fash left, while another crew prevented the Nazis from approaching the panel or any of its attendees. 

On Sunday, anti-fascists in Hamilton, Ontario showed up to confront a far-right event dubbed “Patriots Walk on Locke.” The march was an attempt to recruit from the blowback to an anti-gentrification black bloc in Hamilton earlier in March, which we reported on in Hotwire 22. In attendance with the patriots were anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups, whose march the police protected as anti-fascists pursued. 

A few days earlier, about an hour away in Waterloo, Ontario, a festive anti-fascist rally with queer, indigenous, and people of color voices made noise outside a white supremacist speaking event at Wilfrid Laurier University. Anti-fascists also entered the event to disrupt it, which eventually happened when someone pulled the fire alarm.

Last week in Olympia, Washington, some anarchist Jews confronted Christian supremacists who were harassing a fundraiser at a local synagogue. The anarchists snatched one of the fundamentalists’ signs, which led to some small skirmishes at first, but eventually sent the Christian supremacists packing. In their report on It’s Going Down, the anarchists state, “Stealing an anti-Semite’s sign is a small and easily reproducible action, and it caused the fundamentalists to discontinue harassing a largely Jewish crowd. Ignoring fascists and right-wing bigots doesn’t make them go away. Tepid think-pieces don’t make them go away. Petitions and voting don’t make them go away. Hitler did not come to power for lack of liberal hand-wringing. It’s time for Jews everywhere to step it up and go to war against capitalism, the State, and all forms of hierarchy and domination.”

Last Wednesday in Athens, Greece, anti-foreclosure protesters clashed with police while attempting to disrupt the auctioneering of foreclosed homes at a notary office. 

Meanwhile, on Saturday, squatters and squatting solidarity activists in Athens demonstrated against the recent evictions and fascist attacks on squats in the Koukaki neighborhood. The call for the demonstration reads, “Our capacity to occupy buildings is a result of a struggle which is going on years now by a large and combative squatting movement where we also belong. For this reason the police operation was a coordinate attack. Alongside with Matrozou 45, the squats of Gare and Zaimi 11 were also evacuated. In this repression plan, fascists are playing a crucial, with their constant attacks to places of struggle, and at its summits the burning down of Libertatia. The list of attacks from the state and the fascists’ para-state is big. Even though, they remain unable to block the liberation.  We are a part a social base that reflects its radical and anti-state characteristic. The uncompromisable struggles and libertarian cultures. We are creating another world, we will transfer it, defend it and claim it until the time it will be a reality.”

FOSTA-SESTA

Last Wednesday, in a nearly unanimous vote, the Senate passed the Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act, SESTA, an update of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, FOSTA, which would make posting or hosting online prostitution ads a federal crime.

On one side, FOSTA-SESTA has been criticized by civil libertarians like the ACLU for criminalizing websites that facilitate the speech of others, but we caught up with an anarchist sex worker to discuss how this new law will endanger sex workers themselves, and how law itself falls short of self-directed worker organizing in terms of safety for sex-workers. 

LX: Hey my name is LX I am an anarchist and sex worker in the Midwest. I’m here to talk about FOSTA & SESTA. Thank you so much for having me. 

I am going to give you the quick and dirty version of both of these bills. There’s SESTA the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act which was just recently passed in the house and the senate and what this bill does is it holds online platforms liable, criminally and civilly for the content that their users post. Then we got FOSTA which is Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act which basically conflates sex trafficking with sex work, and it makes hosting online prostitution a federal crime. So what these bills do is work in tandem to go after websites that “knowingly assist, facilitate, or support sex trafficking.” Even though both of these bill haven’t been signed into law yet, we are already seeing their effects spread through our communities. What this has looked like is websites that host ads for sex workers, websites that allow sex workers to screen their clients, websites that provide forums for sex workers to communicate with one another about ways to stay safe and alive, and to allow them to build community with one another which is already so precarious and challenging have either been shut down entirely or selectively deleted. 

These two bills claim to stop sex trafficking, but what they actually do is just conflate sex trafficking with sex work.  Which again are two very different things and deserve two very different conversations. These bills are a huge threat to the sex worker community because they threaten websites that allow us to work safely and independently. Let’s be honest two bills, two thousand bills… are not going to stop sex trafficking or sex work. Pushing both of these things off of the internet are also not going to stop them. All it’s going to do is make this extremely more dangerous for everyone who is using the internet to work safely and independently. Period. That’s it. 

The state and police will not protect us, they are not our friends. Especially as sex workers, we are often seeing violence from the state and police. How often are there cases of police hiring an escort, robbing them, raping them, and then arresting them? I mean the numbers are outrageous. Sex workers already know this, marginalized people in this country already know this about both the state and the police. Even though this legislation is a huge hit to the sex worker community… we are organizing, we are resisting, we are coming together, and we are not going to stop what we are doing because of this legislation.

Sex workers have always resisted and have always struggled and this has just taken a different form currently because of the legislation at play. Thus far what this has looked like is taking anything that’s hosted online like “bad date list,” “black list,” etc. and moving them onto an analog format and compiling this information in case websites get shut down. There is also a redistribution of wealth and resources within the sex worker community, by sex workers for sex workers, which is amazing to see. So people who are hurting right now the most in our communities, people are showing up for right now, either individually or through organizations that have been created. There are groups like Saint James Infirmary, Red Light Legal, and a new group called New Whore-izons which are all focusing in different ways on redistributing both and wealth and resources by sex workers and for sex workers.

In the past month in general there has been huge resistance and struggle within the sex work community, we can look at the stripper strikes happening in New Orleans, in Richmond, Virginia, in New York City, which I highly encourage you to look up.  It’s beautiful to see sex workers to come together to fight with one another, to be in solidarity with one another, and to ultimately fight against the state.  I want to really emphasize that this is not just a sex worker issue… this is a labor rights issue, this is a gender issue, this is a trans issue, this is a race issue. If you care at all about police violence, if you care at all about state violence, if you care at all about prison issues, this is that!

If you are a sex worker and you are listening, I love you. If you are not a sex worker, please listen to sex workers.  Please show up for them.  Please stand in solidarity with me and my community.  What we need the most right now is financial support. So please donate to either the organizations that I mentioned previously or individual sex workers you know in your life who are struggling. We also seriously need someone who is in tech to help us advertise and take control of these platforms, so if that is you please contact some sex worker in your life and let them know that you can make this happen for us. 

I just want to end with fuck the state, and fuck police.  They have never been on our side and never will be. Whether you know it or not, someone you love is a sex worker. 

Thank you so much. 

SACRAMENTO AGAINST KILLER COPS

Rebel Girl: On March 18, Sacramento police who never even identified themselves as cops shot dead Stephon Clark, a black 22-year-old father of two, in his grandmother’s yard. The officers justified the 20 shots they fired by claiming Clark had a gun.

On March 22, the police bodycam footage was released, and showed that Clark was holding nothing more than a white cellphone. The video also showed the cops deliberately turning their bodycam microphones off to discuss the murder they just committed. As It’s Going Down reports, “In response, people in Sacramento hit the streets and eventually the I–5 freeway, shutting it down in both directions.

“After leaving the freeway in the hundreds, protesters surrounded and blocked the entrances of a local sports stadium, partially shutting down a Sacramento Kings basketball game.

“The murder of Clark is sadly only one of 278 people who have been killed by US law enforcement since the start of 2018, according to KilledByPolice.net.” Rest in power Stephon Clark. Demonstrations are ongoing in Sacramento as we go to press, and in Next Week’s News we have a list of solidarity actions across the country that you can partake in.

MARCH FOR OUR LIVES

Rae: There was something about the anti-war movement that changed things. Authoritarian communist front groups dominated the organizing. The protests were bigger, but more homogenizing. The attendance was massive—in fact the anti-war protests of February 15, 2003 are the largest day of protest in history, like human history—yet it didn’t seem to amount to much more than marching in circles… …despite hundreds of thousands showing up to permitted, top-down organized anti-war marches, our capacity to organize autonomously and horizontally had dwindled.

Rebel Girl: That’s an excerpt from The Ex-Worker’s episode about anarchists in the anti-globalization movement, but we offer it as a cautionary tale about what could happen after the enormous March For Our Lives on Saturday. Two weeks ago, spontaneously organized, decentralized student walkouts shut down thousands of schools, while the students themselves addressed issues far beyond gun control, including police violence, the school to prison pipeline, and the way adults as a whole have let down young people. On Saturday, that momentum and diversity of voices were channeled into passive, permitted, homogenizing rallies focused on achieving change by putting power back into adult hands, namely, by voting for politicians. 

We could get into anarchist critiques of how racist the legal system is and how gun laws will disproportionately affect poor people of color already targeted by the cops, or the hypocrisy of allowing the police to continue to carry weapons when they kill more people than mass shootings do every year, but this is a youth-led movement and we don’t expect all the kids to be full-fledged anarchists from jump. What IS hard for us to watch is the way youth power is being channeled back into voting for politicians. Kids, you are powerful not in spite of the fact that you don’t have electoral power, but because of it. The largest setback the NRA has faced in decades—when companies dropped their discount partnerships—wasn’t because of democratic politicians, it was because of actions that students took themselves. It’s a result of marching, walking out, demanding to be heard—not from voting.

Don’t give that power back to politicians, who haven’t done anything except implement thousands of cops into schools since Columbine. Those cops, we might add, haven’t prevented a single school shooting, although they have criminalized countless youth and put them on a track to prison. Don’t narrow your demands down or away from other movements you could be in solidarity with—DREAM BIG!

And let’s be clear, while anarchists have a lot of different opinions on guns, those of us at the Hotwire are tired of gun violence. We’re tired of the gun violence in our neighborhoods, we’re tired of the police murdering people with impunity, and some of us even have kids in school and worry about their safety from mass shooters like Nikolas Cruz. But we don’t think laws that suggest the police and the military are the only legitimate holders of weapons will help—hell, many of the mass shooters of the last decades either were ex-military themselves or glorified police and military violence. Big problems take big solutions—we need to dismantle the militarism mass shooters glorify, the capitalist logic that rewards gun manufacturers for pushing deadly propaganda, the toxic masculinity and white supremacy that sets so many mass shooters up for resentment and hatred, the state for perpetrating murder through its police and prisons. 

School walkouts have been called for on April 20, the anniversary of Columbine. This could be an opportunity to put in place a way to keep organizing with your classmates, so that you don’t have to wait for a national call to action to respond to BS that happens locally in your own school or area.

For some ideas, check out the new CrimethInc zine, “We don’t need gun control, we need to take control,” available on our website.

WORLD AFRIN DAY ACTION ROUNDUP

Although the March For Our Lives drowned it out, another widespread day of protests took place Saturday, which was #WorldAfrinDay, a day of international action to call attention to the Turkish military occupation of Afrin, the western-most canton of the democratic confederalist region of Rojava in Northern Syria.

Folks marched against Turkey’s invasion of Afrin in Toronto; Portland, Oregon; Dallas; Richmond, Virginia; and Vienna, Austria. 

Anarchists dropped banners expressing solidarity with Afrin in Montreal, New York City, New Orleans, Asheville, Minneapolis, and Worcester, Massachusetts.  

People also rallied in Vancouver, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Auburn, Alabama, and Mexico City. 

The Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement both turned out to rally outside the Turkish consulate in New York City. 

Demonstrators in Washington DC marched to the Turkish ambassador’s residence chanting “Turkey out of Afrin,” and “Long live Kurdistan.” This march was particularly bold considering that almost a year ago Kurdish human rights demonstrators rallying in the same spot were attacked not by police, but by security goons from the Turkish embassy itself. 

In Iceland, anarchists tarred and feathered a NATO memorial and covered Turkey’s name on the memorial in red paint. Turkey has the second largest army in NATO. The symbolic action was also taken in memory of Haukur Hilmarsson, an anarchist from Iceland who died fighting in the battle to defend Afrin. Rest in power Haukur.

A Deutsche Bank in Leipzig, Germany was attacked and tagged with “For Afrin.”

A week before World Afrin Day, Kurdish political refugees began a hunger strike in Syntagma Square, across from the Greek parliament in Athens.

March 21, just three days before Saturday’s #DefendAfrin actions, was Newroz, the Kurdish New Year which celebrates the beginning of Spring. In Dortmund, Germany, hundreds celebrated Newroz with a bonfire and a rally for Afrin. In Frankfurt, about 50 activists occupied the Social Democratic Party’s offices to protest Germany’s arms sales to Turkey. 

On the 23rd, Protesters in Bristol, England blocked the entrance to BAE Systems, a weapons manufacturer that supplies Turkey’s army. The demonstrators held banners that read, “stop arming genocide,” “murderers,” and signs in remembrance of Anna Campbell, a queer feminist internationalist who was killed by one of Turkey’s missile strikes on Afrin. Anna was a key organizer in Bristol’s anarchist black cross, the IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, and the Empty Cages Collective. Rest in power Anna.

In Anna’s memory, we’d like to share an excerpt of her reading a statement from the Internationalist Commune of Rojava.

Anna Campbell: The crisis of the hegemonic system produces monsters. The chaos it creates is a chaos that makes the reorganization of the ruling conditions possible. How this reorganization is going to look will be decided by the question of which force is best able to organize: us, whose revolutionary search for a way out, or those who give a reactionary, racist, chauvinistic answer to the crisis? If we want to be victorious we have to admit that our fight today is a fight for all or nothing. Today we wage a global struggle that will end either in liberation or total oppression, and has reached the level of a third world war. We cannot take ourselves out of this and expect or hope that others will do what we are too lazy or too afraid to do. It is a time of bravery and of decisions, a time of coordination and organization. It is a time of action. We send you all our bravery and ill power, all our hatred for those who want to create a world of darkness and hopelessness, we send you all our love, those who fight with us and light the fires of resistance.

Rebel Girl: The day after World Afrin Day, the Internationalist Commune of Rojava issued an open letter that we will quote from at length, “We, who are working here in Rojava as internationals, are part of the worldwide fight of the oppressed against the reign of state, capital and patriarchy.

“For two months, the bombs of the Turkish army have been falling and killing people in Afrin.

“Afrin is now under the occupation of the Turkish army. After these months of resistance, to see the occupation forces entering the city may seem like the utopia is going away once again; but no one said the revolution would come around easily. It was something we had only imagined before coming to Rojava, and witnessing with our own eyes what’s going on here. Today, here, we are taking on several centuries of the capitalist system and nation-state model. We are challenging thousands of years of patriarchal oppression and male rule power. We are challenging the essence of how society itself is perceived and organized.

“When the next attack of the ruling powers strikes once again, we will be wiser and more experienced, and more capable of defending ourselves and the people around us. We know that this can happen at any time, maybe tomorrow, and we know we cannot do it alone. We need all the hope and the international solidarity that this revolution is raising in people’s hearts. And that’s why we call on you to come here.  

“Come and see with your own eyes what is happening here. Come with an open mind and heart, ready to challenge what you believe humanity is able to accomplish. Come to learn, to support and to organize this revolution. Come and help us to create the international movement that will be able to change the capitalist drift that humanity is suffering.

“But if you can’t come, there are still a thousand ways you can contribute to this resistance. We need to think how we can make this revolution successful, and what can be done in every place to achieve this aim. As internationalists, we need to be able to act and interact with the society we are in. We need to learn from the past movements and analyze what are the best ways to face oppression. From mass mobilization, to civil disobedience. From solidarity demonstrations, to direct actions. Yesterday, we showed the world that together we are strong. But the situation in Afrin today showed us that this is not enough. So now, we need to open a global debate about what should be the next step.”

The full statement is available at InternationalistCommune.com, where you can find out more about how to support and work with revolutionary efforts in Rojava. 

REPRESSION ROUNDUP

Rebel Girl: In this week’s repression roundup…

Moscow anarchist black cross has issued a call of support for Crimean anarchist political prisoner Evgeny Karakashev, who has been active in anti-luxury resort campaigns and anti-police activism. You can donate by PayPaling money to abc-msk@riseup.net, and please mention “for Evgeny Karakashev.”

Evgeny’s arrest is part of a concentrated repression campaign against Russian anarchists in the last year and a half, in which police have utilized torture to force confessions out of political prisoners. For an in-depth report on this wave of repression in Russia, as well as posters that you can print out to show your solidarity, check out the text, “Why the Torture Cases in Russia Matter: How the Tactics that the Russian State Uses against Anarchists Could Spread,” available at CrimethInc.com.    Last week we incorrectly reported some details about Herman Bell’s parole process, so this week we thought we’d leave it up to the political prisoner experts over at New York City Anarchist Black cross to clear up what exactly is going on:

NYCABC: Hey all. So, last week on the Hotwire, the Rebel Girl reported that Herman Bell was released, which is not true. He was just granted release, meaning that the New York State Parole Board approved him to be able to leave prison on April 17 after serving four and a half decades. But since then, the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, which is the police union, a.k.a. PBA, the mayor of New York City, Bill De Blasio, and New York state governor Andrew Cuomo, are all trying to reverse the decision. If you go to the PBA’s website on their homepage they have this “safety alert” with a mugshot of Herman, his inmate ID number, and other statistics including his anticipated release date, clearly attempting to send the message that his release is a threat.

All three parties—the PBA, the mayor of New York City, and the governor of New York—are demanding that Herman be held indefinitely, that the parole commissioners that voted for his release be fired, and that people convicted of killing police be left to die in prison. Herman is 70 years old, and it’s been a long journey to get him parole. This was his eighth time appearing before the parole board, and he needs support now more than ever to make sure he can come home. To help him get home, please call Governor Cuomo at 518 474 8390 and express support for the parole board’s decision. Or, you can tweet him @NYGovCuomo on Twitter.

Also, while we’re here, we wanted to mention the upcoming Running Down The Walls event, scheduled for June 3 of this year, and encourage folks to organize one in their city or town. For those unfamiliar, it is a fundraising 5K run that is organized both inside and outside prisons. The event raises money for the War Chest, which I’ll explain in a minute, and brings attention to our political prisoners. The idea is that all the runs take place on the same day, this year it’s June 3, in conjunction and solidarity with runs all over the country both inside and outside prison walls. The event is called a 5K, but it’s truly an anything-you-want-K. You can walk it, run it, bike it, skateboard it, watch it, or any combination.

Here in New York City we provide a free vegan barbecue for anyone who provides a donation of $10 or more. In addition to being super fun, Running Down The Walls raises money for the War Chest, which is a program initiated by the Anarchist Black Cross Federation that is designed to send monthly checks to those political prisoners and prisoners of war who have been receiving insufficient, little, or no financial support during their imprisonment. To see a list of the folks who are beneficiaries of the War Chest, you can check out our website NYCABC.wordpress.com, and while you’re there you can check out the promotional and organizing materials for putting together a Running Down The Walls in your own community.

Rebel Girl: There is a call to support Mason Neck, a Water Protector in South Dakota who was imprisoned after being profiled. He is asking for letters, songs, and books on animals, drawing, or Lakota language and history. You can also donate to his Commissary. We have his address in our shownotes at Crimethinc.com/podcast.

The next J20 trials are scheduled to start in less than a month, with one beginning on April 17 and the other on April 23. Consider coming to DC during this time to pack the courthouse and show support. You can also reach out to Defend J20 Resistance to see how you can provide support during the trials.

We’ll end this week’s repression roundup with beautifully penned words by Connor Stevens, one of the Cleveland Four who is set to be released from prison in May 2019:

“The tyranny of distance”

A crowded desert is still a desert

And out of touch with you is impossibly distant

My blood runs wild and loose and still i cannot reach you.

i would trade every drop to overcome this tyranny of distance.

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS

We’ll close out our episode with political prisoner birthdays and next week’s news. 

April 2 is the birthday of both Chuck Sims Africa and Delbert Africa, members of the black liberation group MOVE and part of the MOVE 9, all falsely accused for the 1978 murder of a police officer who was shot by friendly fire when the Philadelphia police raided their house. Seven years later, the police dropped a bomb on their house.

Writing to Chuck and Delbert will only take you a few minutes, but it could be the highlight of their week. We have their mailing addresses in this episode’s shownotes at Crimethinc.com/podcast, as well as a link to a beginner’s guide to writing prisoners from New York City Anarchist Black Cross.

And now, next week’s news, our list of events that you can plug into in real life.

In Sacramento, protests over the police murder of Stephon Clark continue at the DA’s office today and tomorrow afternoon from 3 PM to 5:30.

Then there are solidarity demonstrations planned elsewhere throughout the country. Tonight, Wednesday, March 28, there is a demonstration for Stephon Clark in New York City at 7 PM at Columbus Circle. Folks in Phoenix are also gathering tonight at 6 PM at Eastlake Park. In Charlotte, North Carolina, folks are gathering at 7:20 PM tomorrow, March 29; in Boston on April 4 at 6 PM; and in Seattle on April 7 at 6 PM.

Mark Bray continues his book tour for Antifa this week, speaking on Thursday, March 29 at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief continue their speaking tour on Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism and Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness.

This week, you can find their tour in… Storrs, Connecticut TODAY on March 28 at 1 PM at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, in Elmira, New York on March 30 at 6 PM and March 31 at 10 AM, both at The Park Church on West Gray Street, and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 6:30 PM on April 2 at the Pittsburgh Public Library, and then on April 3 and 4, both at 7 PM at the Glitter Box Theater.

Go to MutualAidDisasterRelief.org to find details on all the tour dates from now through May.    We’re excited to announce that listeners in South Bend, Indiana can join up with an Ursula K. Le Guin reading group beginning in April. To find out more, just e-mail ndgradworkers@riseup.net or collective@rtmichiana.org.

From April 6 to April 8, the fourteenth Zagreb Anarchist Bookfair will take place in Croatia. For more info in Croatian and English, go to ask-zagreb.org.

There’s another Anarchist Bookfair that weekend on April 7 in Liverpool, England. You can find out more at Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair on Facebook.

And there’s an anarchist bookfair in Porto, Portugal from May 4 to the 6.

The Southeast Trans and/or Women Action Camp will take place from April 26 to 29 in the smoky mountains of western North Carolina. The action camp is open to all trans and/or woman identified folks. Workshops will be offered on earth skills, conflict resolution, botany, tree climbing, direct action, anti-racist organizing, black leadership training, prisoner support, security culture, herbalism and much, much more! Organizers hope to receive attendees from rural Appalachia to southern cities. You can find out more by e-mailing setwac@protonmail.com.  

Also, their donation page has been shut down twice, so if you have some bucks to spare you can donate at PayPal.me/setwac2018.

The Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism Conference (ROAR) returns to Ohlone land, the so-called Bay Area, California on April 28 and 29, and will take place in both Oakland and San Francisco. ROAR is a free two-day conference focused on revolutionary anti-racism, solidarity, and strategy, rooted in the legacy of anti-colonial, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, feminist, and queer movements and fighters who have come before us. To find out more, go to roarconference.net.

Anarchists in Seattle have already issued a call for a “decentralized, anti-capitalist May Day” there. In their call they state, “Whether it is a block party at the juvie, a march against gentrification in a neighborhood facing mass-displacement, or a less public form of direct action, we want to see it all. By spreading our actions across the city and region, we will circumvent the massive police mobilizations that accompany each May Day, giving each action-group a broader spectrum of tactics to choose what best suits the participants’ needs and goals. The trick to pulling this off is that we need to get organizations, affinity groups, and individuals on board as soon as possible to begin planning their own actions.” The call ends by inviting those interested in coordinating May Day actions to contact TIOLEO@protonmail.com.

We are thrilled to announce the return of the Chaos Days to Germany! The Chaos Days, or Chaos Tage, were wild summer days of revolt and subculture in Germany in the 1990s. This year Chaos and Discussion Days have been announced from May 10 to the 13 in Berlin. The announcement reads, “Our call goes out to all active groups and individuals, neighborhood-initiatives, those involved in struggles in other regions, Punks and kids of the bourgeois, gangster and autonomous—all those that want to fill the streets and their hearts with life, organize resistance, cause decentralized chaos on those days and nights. We want to discuss, test and intensify revolutionary and rebellious perspectives, goals and strategies for more intensive and far-reaching struggles. You can send your input and ideas to rigaerstrasse@riseup.net. More Infos can be found at: engegenstadt.blackblogs.org.”

It’s going to be a summer of anarchy in Quebec this year, with the grand finale being the protests against the G7 summit taking place outside Quebec City on June 8 and 9.

We have an announcement about the mobilization and other anarchist gatherings leading up to it from a comrade in Quebec.

Comrade in Quebec: Hi! So far what is planned for the G7: we started out with a wide coalition last September to try to get as much people on board with the PGA block principles, which are anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, feminist perspectives. And we’ve been focusing on getting as much info out as possible. We got really good responses from the student movement, the anti-colonial movement, and the community organizations and folks in Quebec city started organizing logistics for building and whatnot. And we have been raising funds to get buses from Montréal to Quebec City, as Montreal is a way bigger city.

G7 activity will be happening in Quebec City as they reserved all of the hotel rooms that were available in La Malbaie, which is a 5,000 people resort town, but they reserved also 12,0000 rooms in Québec City which is a whole lot more. There is a media center that will happen in downtown Quebec City so more than half of the summit will happen in Quebec City.

There is a fence and a freedom of speech zone like that kind of bullshit in La Malbaie. It’s been clear from the get-go that La Malbaie is not a safe place to protest and we decided to converge in Quebec City from the 7th to the 9th of June.

So there are currently three protests in the works. The first one is a festive grassroots protest on the theme of imperialism and borders on the night of the 7th. Then there is an early morning disruption protest in the works for the morning of the 8th, which will be the first and main day of the G7 discussion. Finally there is a large union protest that will happen on the 9th. What we are helping so far to organize is the building in Quebec City.

However in Montreal there is the North American Studies Network Conference that is happening from June 1st to 3rd that will most likely will have building organized. Prior to that there is the month of anarchy which has usual things, such as the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair (May 26–27), the anarchist theatre festival (May 22–23), anarchist film festival (May 17–20). So yeah there will be a lot of stuff to do in Montreal for quite a while before that, for which there isn’t any official building organized but we’ll give talks basically everywhere in Quebec with quite large turnouts and folks from different cities are trying to organize things so we are really expecting something pretty large will happen. These kinds of large scale convergences only happen so far in North America so I think it’s really worth the trip!    

OUTRO

Rebel Girl: And that’s it for this episode of The Hotwire. As always thanks to Underground Reverie for the music, and thanks to LX and New York City Anarchist Black Cross. Don’t forget to check out all the links, mailing addresses, and useful shownotes we customized for this episode at CrimethInc.com. Every Hotwire is radio-ready, so if you want to replay part or all of this show, just go for it! We can edit episodes down to specific time constraints if you e-mail us at podcast[AT]CrimethInc[DOT]com. You can also send us news or announcements to include in the future. 

Stay informed. Stay rebel. Plug into The Hotwire.