https://rant.li/alks/zine-no-more-colonial-states
Imposed zine pdfs for printing:
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New Zine: No More Colonial States
Zionist Rally Countered by Anti-Zionist Jews
Word was spreading about a pro-zionist rally planned for the University of Michigan campus for November 3rd, and a crew of about 20 anti-zionist Jews and supporters decided to counter the shit-show.
The diag on UM campus is a popular spot for rallies and protests, but this was the most well-resourced event I’ve ever seen there, and with the largest police presence. Uniformed officers were spread throughout the crowd, and there were many plainclothes cops as well. The speakers not only had a large professional sound system, but two big-screen displays that I’d never seen used at a diag event before. There was a crowd of about 300-500 rallygoers, many with Israeli flags. It also seemed that a large number of attendees were older, probably due to the rally being planned for parent’s weekend when parents of students visit town to spend money at the M Den.
The rally’s speakers showed how close to power the rally was. We suffered overly-long speeches from right-wing former UM regent and Trump fundraiser Ron Weiser, as well as AIPAC president Betsy Berns Korn, and a separate speaker whose name I didn’t catch, but was introduced as affiliated with the “FIDF”.
The genocide denial and nationalism was coming from the halls of power. There were standard IDF talking points and conspiracy theories about Hamas command centers in hospitals and fake photos of palestinian victims. No tears were spared for the dead and captured from October 7th, and none were shed for the victims of IDF retaliation in Gaza, let alone victims of settler violence in the occupied West Bank. It seemed that the most compassionate the speakers or rally-goers got was to shrug their shoulders at how unfortunate it was that they had to retaliate by killing Palestinian children by the hundreds, as if their hands were forced. NOT killing these children however was unthinkable.
Speakers claimed to defend “Free Speech” while calling for the banning of all criticism of Israel, on campus and beyond. The existence of voices speaking against the genocide of Palestinians were blamed essentially on “the woke mob”. Intersectionality was specifically called out as dangerous for the Israeli state. Accurate descriptions of life in Gaza under occupation were claimed to be conspiracy theories. The standard lie that anti-zionism and criticism of Israel is anti-semitic was a regular feature. The crowd seemed to follow the speakers the entire way, letting out loud cheers to a speaker’s call for everyone to be “proud zionists”, and following in other pro-Israel chants. It felt almost like an Israeli MAGA rally.
Thankfully we were there to make sure this shit couldn’t be spewed in public without opposition. We held cardboard signs with simple messages like “Never Again for Anyone” or “Genocide is not a Jewish Value”. Zionists tried to cover us with Israeli flags, get close-up photos of us, heckled us calling us “nazis” and even saying one of us should be beheaded. More than once we had to physically block an angry rallygoer from approaching one of our group. Police would also intervene if it looked like a confrontation was going to become physical and not just verbal. This was almost entirely coming from the older people in the crowd, not the younger student-aged attendees who seemed to at least consider the signs as if they were totally unaware of anti-zionist Jews. It was one of the rare times I felt like physical violence was a possibility at a Diag event, but the rallygoers didn’t end up trying anything foolish. Some did try lecturing us about how Israel wasn’t apartheid, or how things “really were over there”, but quickly left when one of us who spoke Hebrew challenged them.
As the rally died down, we left as a group chanting “Free Palestine”! No physical altercations happened, and nobody was arrested or detained by police. Overall I’d call it a success. The point of the zionist rally was to conflate pro-palestinian and anti-genocide organizing with anti-semitism, which as anti-zionist Jews we visibly disrupted. Zionists were also clearly uncomfortable that there was even some resistance they had to confront.
Some lessons learned and other thoughts:
- The positionality of being Jewish and anti-zionist in solidarity with Palestinians is very powerful right now. Use it if you have it, boost it if you don’t.
- Having someone to film confrontations is very useful for these kind of counter-demo situations, you may want to prepare to do this while handling footage securely.
- It can feel very empowering to have friends to protect you so you can shout down genocidal
rhetoric. - Stick together, it makes managing interactions with a potentially hostile crowd easier.
- Put messages on both sides of your signs so they can be read from the back.
- Be prepared for media presence. If someone is willing to be public, and is good with
media, it can help possible coverage not be one-sided (though there’s no guarantee).
Shutting down zionist rhetoric in mainstream spaces is important right now, as well as interfering in the material support for the state of Israel. This may take some nuance since in the wider world there are actual anti-semitic actors trying to take advantage of the situation, as covered in It’s Going Down. But, you can still act. Find each other! Do something!
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New Zine: How To Have A Fun Night To Forget
White Flag: Giving consent only when it feels freely given; Black Flag: Acting so that others do not feel coerced.
mhtac just had a skillshare—and we have to say, this was pretty cool for our first offical event, because we created trans community in downtown middleton for the first time. we taught each other how to make zines, compared notes on the heteronormativity of the suburbs, distroed resources, and generally were queer in a place that attempts to stamp out everything other than nuclear families with 2.5 children, small dogs, and houseplants they will inevitably kill. we know that we dream of more than suburban assimilation, and we’ve finally found others in middleton who share our anarchy. and we need reliable community, a network, a scene, a family. we need to queer public space while reveling in the collective realization that, even in the suburbs, we can still find the queerest of insurrections. (and yes, we are shamelessly imitating queer ultraviolence in this communiqué. sorry not sorry.)
So we are hosting a reading group, at the Prairie Cafe on November 18 from 10 AM to noon CT. To send the shivers of releasing power–the White Flag, surrender–through the profoundly closeted onlookers who will inevitably be horrified, and to awaken the warmth of autonomy–the Black Flag, transgression–in those who would dominate us and erase themselves. Our text is “White Flag / Black Flag: A Spiritual Anarchism Workbook,” a work that explores the individualist anarchist values of self-liberation without the domination of others fused with classical Chinese literary structures of chance and choice. The text is not easily Googleable, so here is a link: https://shakespearefordogs.files.wordpress.com/2018/0https://shakespearefordogs.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/wfbf-zine.pdf5/wfbf-zine.pdf. We invite you to explore the inherent unresolved tensions within its values, and to discover what repressed gyrations they awaken within you.
check out this event: https://isthmus.com/events/mhtac-reading-group-white-flag/?occ_dtstart=2023-11-18T10:00
look at our big gay website: https://linktr.ee/tranarchymiddletonhills
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In response to a comrade requesting information about potential targets
“This section includes companies involved in state violence and human rights violations as a part of occupations through:
· The Settlement Industry – companies that support and maintain illegal settlements in occupied lands.
· Exploitation of Natural Resources – companies involved in the exploitation and plundering of natural resources in occupied lands.
· Wall and Checkpoints – companies that support the system of severe travel restrictions Israel imposes on Palestinians.
· Weapons and Military Equipment – companies that provide militant groups in Palestine/Israel with weapons and militarized equipment specifically designed for and consistently used in war crimes or attacks on civilians.
· Discrimination – companies that discriminate against Palestinians in their services or goods, in the workplace, or by exploiting the unequal and discriminatory legal situation for their commercial benefit.”
https://investigate.afsc.org/occupations
Solidarity Means Attack!
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Solidarity with Gaza, Palestinian Anarchists
I have no idea what the fuck to do or how to organize right now, but some of us need to push past these performative liberal rallies. Please, if anyone has info to share on potential targets for action ranging from NVDA to spicier stuff, please share them here. I have found a number of names, companies, and state orgs who partook in a horrendous trade ‘mission’ with ‘Israeli’ military occupation entities in 2018.
Beth S. Gotthelf, 100 Bloomfield Hills Pkwy
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304 (unconfirmed), is the scum who organized the conference under her firm, Butzel Long, which has offices all over Michigan. Cignys in Saginaw, Challenger Communications in Albion, and RAMI in Grand Haven are some of the criminal corporations who went to network with settler military occupation companies. There’s more names in this article: https://www.butzel.com/news-Butzel-Long-attorney-Beth-Gotthelfs-passion-for-Defense-Industry-trade-missions-with-Israel. And anyone who knows how to dig could probably find more info to help blow these shitfucks and the Macomb County Economic Development pigs up with propaganda and uhhh… just propaganda, yeah.
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Middleton Hills Trans Anarchist Collective Forms, Distros Zines, Announces Trans Skillshare
“many blame queers for the decline of this society— we take pride in this. some believe that we intend to shred-to-bits this civilization and its moral fabric—they couldn’t be more accurate. we’re often described as depraved, decadent, and revolting—but oh, they ain’t seen nothing yet.” – be gay do crime
about ten minutes from middleton—a suburb of the vaguely neoliberal madison, wi– there is an even more heterosexual suburb of middleton called middleton hills. and two suburbs deep, surrounded by old white people and their dogs, these small-town queers, tranarchists, butches, femmes, riot grrls, edgy middle-schoolers, gender dreamers, theory nerds, outside agitators, and even a few accomplices have had enough. in middleton hills, there are absolutely no queer spaces, and indeed no spaces at all besides suburban homes, largely unused public parks, and a few hierarchically managed local businesses. instead of building queered networks of care, we read emma goldman in the darkness of our suburban homes, wondering if we’re the only soul in this suburb who’s ever dreamed of anything more than hoa violations and manicured lawns. but for all its isolating, perfect, orderly normalcy, middleton hills didn’t feel actively hostile until the terf propaganda showed up. a bigot had been putting up stickers for the hateful and transphobic women’s liberation radio network outside local businesses outside apartment buildings—and that was when we all decided to fight back.
it started with a distro targeting the terf; one otherwise unremarkable night, moonlight blanketing the endless sidewalks and alleyways of the suburbs, five or six of us anarchist queers covered the wlrn propaganda and put up messages of insurgent transness. spaces that had once looked unused, abandoned, and utterly sterile were, at least in our queer souls, no longer property but canvasses for trans and (actually) feminist art—because what is a suburb until you beautify it together, rendering it less idyllic and more riotously queer? and two weeks later, we distroed trans zines in a public park, blasting Against Me! and reveling in each other’s anarchy. the cis men who crossed the street to avoid us must have been at least a little envious, wishing they too could give themselves to beautiful, anarchic queerness.
after these moments of queer joy admidst the pain of suburban life, as annoying as the terf may be, this is not about the terf. this is not simply negation of a bigot but creation of a tranarchist subculture in middleton hills and the broader middleton/westside area. to that end, the newly formed middleton hills trans anarchist collective (https://linktr.ee/tranarchymiddletonhills) is hosting a trans skillshare at middleton library from 2:30 to 5 pm on saturday, october 28th! any tranarchist or accomplice is welcome to come teach about your skills and learn something new. some ideals: calling legislators about trans rights, how to get into community organizing, trans history 101, mutual aid + peer support, security culture, queer art, how to get involved with mhtac—and, you know, anything else your queer heart desires. feel free to bring resources, zines/stickers, and any trans-related or anarchist-organizing-related skill you’d like to teach others about. and above all, remember that suburbs are only heteronormative if we let them be. and that, even if you live in middleton hills, you’re not alone
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Chicago, IL: Military Recruiters’ Office Attacked in Memory of Jennifer Laude
Originally published on https://bbnews.noblogs.org/post/2023/10/14/chicago-il-military-recruiters-office-attacked-in-memory-of-jennifer-laude/
We smashed out windows and knocked over furniture at a military recruiters’ office in a suburb of Chicago last night.
In solidarity with Filipino/a/x anarchists’ calls to commemorate Ganda, we swarmed on a miserable little strip mall where black and brown youth are targeted for induction into the imperial machine. Our intention was to slow down this violent routine, even if just for a couple of hours.
We swung our hammers invoking Jennifer Laude’s life, remembering the deeds of Michele Angiolillo and Leon Czolgosz, and channeling our rage against the transmisogyny and white impunity of neo-colonial occupation (A).
Submitted Anonymously
Beyond the Razor Wire, the Streets
October 9, 2023
“Gaza just broke out of prison.” – مريم البرغوثي (Mariam Barghouti)
“A massive jailbreak this morning” – Radical Haifa
Many people are unaware that the u.s. government holds hundreds of political prisoners & prisoners of war captive for their participation in liberation struggles. Even fewer realize that among them are people caged for supporting Palestinians: the “Holy Land 5” are a group of people who the u.s. imprisoned for running a Palestinian charity after they were targeted by the zionist anti-defamation league & surveilled by the FBI.
In addition, many current u.s.-held political prisoners have made their support for the Palestinian cause clear. They include Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oso Blanco, Marius Mason, Malik Muhammad, Victor Puertas, Jessica Reznicek, & others.
Rather than get caught up in arguments about legitimate violence (or anything, really) with radlibs & zionists, we propose that opponents of colonial captivity worldwide seize this opportunity to support the antagonists of prison regimes, concentration camps, & police states. We can draw attention to their struggles through militant education, vocal public support, & attacks on the systems & structures that keep them prisoner.
If you’d like to share information or coordinate around anti-oppression prisoners held by nation-states other than the u.s., consider reaching out:
email username – dowwnas
email domain – proton.me
Posted On https://paper.wf/downas/
Shared from https://unravel.noblogs.org/beyond-the-razor-wire-the-streets/
Re-Highlighting Zines on Grand Rapids Police Department
These resources may not be new, but are still relevant and worth distributing.
“The Monsters We Know” pamphlet on the GRPD https://wmaf.noblogs.org/post/2020/06/04/the-monsters-we-know-grpd-pamphlet/
Miscellaneous graphics on the GRPD https://wmaf.noblogs.org/post/2020/06/04/anti-grpd-resources/
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